Speaker 1: Good morning at seven am here on Monday, January twenty sixth.
Today Ben Rudge, you can expect sunny skies with a
high up thirty nine and hour one of today's show,
we'll talk about LSU landing the top left tackle Jordan
seedon Out of the Transfer Portal. We'll react to the
NFC and AFC Championship games and give you a Super
Bowl preview. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram,
at a TV underscore ESPN and watch us on YouTube
with the one O four to five ESPN channel out
number one of Off the Bench Live for Mobile Alabama
at the Panini Senior Bowl, brought to you by First
American Banking Trust.
Speaker 2: Starts now Off.
Speaker 3: The Bench with Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 4: Let's go.
Speaker 3: Let's go from a championship backfield to your morning drive.
Speaker 2: Hansday, Hester and Hester.
Speaker 3: Got it five A your locked in to Off the
Bench sets back to troll the Live from the Raising
King Studio. Here's Jacob Vesser in Messlin.
Speaker 2: YO, and welcome in to oh TB.
Speaker 5: We are here live from Mobile, Alabama, twenty twenty six
Panini Senior Bowl in Our coverage is brought to you
by First American Bank and Trust, Jake Flynn, Alandra here
boots on the ground in Mobile, Tata and musso yep,
Muso back ye in bad Ruge holding it down inside
the Raising Cane studio. We are very excited going to
be here all week long. Already kind of active here
in the convention center. In years past, sometimes we've been
here and it's been maybe two shows going. I guess
Morning shows decided they wanted to join OTB here at
the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 2: So some activity already.
Speaker 5: You can tell there's a couple of players that are
already up having to do some media here, some sleepy
eyes as they get ready for well the most important
week of their life.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well great early weekend to you, buddy, or week
is a I just I'm excited. I'm a I finally
got invited to the Senior Bowl, so I finally made it.
I excited to get the week started. We are here
at the Convention Center here in Mobile, Alabama, and yeah,
it's an early morning, and let me tell you, it's
a cold morning, and I know we're all feeling and
everybody in the country is feeling it. I think it's
a little bit warmer here than it is back home
and baton rouge. So I think schools are canceled. I
hope everybody has a safe little uh stay safe today,
stays warm and yeah we're feeling it, but we're walking
over this catwalk right here from the parking garage. Who
that wind was whipping through got me feeling like, you know,
football weather a little bit. So I bet these I'm
excited ask these ask these players if they've especially a
lot of these guys from the South. We just saw
saw Robinson walking around quarterback at Baylor from Lubbock, Texas.
So excited to kind of see like, hey, have you
played in like you know, maybe not half the teams
but a decent portion of the teams that could pick
you or you could play for in the NFL are
gonna have games just like this. So how's that gonna it?
Would be excited to see how those guys translate. Excited
to see the practices this week. I'm fired up for it.
Speaker 4: I really am.
Speaker 6: Just see the best of the best compete. Like the
guys that we've that we've seen walking around right now.
We saw a kid from from Iowa. I think he's
about seven foot eight, about five point fifty three percent
body fat.
Speaker 4: So it looked pretty good.
Speaker 2: I'm saying easy, Paul Bunyon.
Speaker 4: Relaxed, save some of the rest of us.
Speaker 6: Man. Jeez, it's a flowing red locks, flowing red mullet too.
Speaker 4: Like this guy is who you want?
Speaker 6: Like I don't even know his name, don't know anything
about him first round.
Speaker 5: He didn't even have to have like his Iowa shorts
on either. It's like, yep, you play for Iowa.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he had shorts on. I think crocs too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is not coold for him. He's one of
the fellas you're talking about his football weather for them?
Speaker 4: Is this football weather for them?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't really know that.
Speaker 5: Yesterday's AFC Championship game was football weather.
Speaker 2: We'll leave that up to lasses.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 6: It's kind of they can't score any points in the snow,
like kind of wimpy.
Speaker 2: That's two cold weather teams.
Speaker 4: Get your stuff together, dude.
Speaker 2: They did not.
Speaker 4: They did not.
Speaker 2: It was the final thirteen seven. Yeah, the Broncos scored
first drive out.
Speaker 6: I think it's ten seven at half right, Yeah, feels right.
Speaker 2: I know the Broncos scored like they went down and drove. Yeah,
he hit the big play drive.
Speaker 4: They got it.
Speaker 6: They scored because both teams went out you know, maybe
not three now, but both teams punted first drive.
Speaker 4: Broncos scored on.
Speaker 5: Their second possession for like a fifty something yarder and then.
Speaker 6: Yeah and Bronco's case stdam gave them, gave them a
possession inside the twenty with a kind of a he
boothed it a little bit, a little lateral. Oh my god,
what was he doing. I don't know, he's trying to
trying to make a play.
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess, just out that guy.
Speaker 2: I get it, but just take the sack.
Speaker 6: He looked good early on, but I was did not
give him the opportunity to watch the second half. I
was enjoying a little father daughter dance yesterday and I
wasn't gonna obviously miss that for anything in the entire world,
and so I didn't didn't care to watch the NFL
game yesterday.
Speaker 2: Didn't geared to it.
Speaker 4: All. I was dancing. I was to the left, to
the left.
Speaker 2: Oh we did the with a cupa shop.
Speaker 6: We did a little oh yeah, we're getting down.
Speaker 5: Look, I heard you did great, Lacey even said O
wife said you did great. You know if you didn't
do good. She would put him on blasts.
Speaker 4: But got together.
Speaker 6: They had a little get ready party all the all
the little girls in lower school got together, painted their faces,
had some drinks, had some They had drinks.
Speaker 4: Oh it was Shirley Timples.
Speaker 6: Okay, said that, Yeah I did.
Speaker 4: I kind of said it. I was like, obviously, what
not me water all days? We had a late night
drive last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah you did.
Speaker 5: You said somebody offered you a cold pop at two
thirty and you said not.
Speaker 6: Today today got to get to the senior ball for
the first time.
Speaker 2: And you have to drive because you have a baby tummy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 6: I'll suffer. I suffer from two things in life. One
is diagnosed squirrels here. The other is camp ride in
a car for five minutes without getting car sick.
Speaker 5: Airplanes were good though, We're good on it. Okay, Yeah, yeah,
fair enough, fair enough, all right. So we are going
to be here all week long, and sometimes players will
come in come out like there's no schedule time. As
far as I really even if it is a schedule time,
I've been here.
Speaker 2: Enough times to know that that might not be how
it plays out.
Speaker 5: But obviously we're gonna get all the LSU players that
are here. I believe the final list has three LSU
players on it.
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 4: We looked at that. That's what I was checking.
Speaker 6: So the kind of the list was fluctuating the last
couple of weeks. By the like into last week, I
think we had five, but currently only three players are
set on the roster. I guess this has to be confirmed, right,
So Garrett Nu'smyer, Barry and Brown, Aaron Anderson are the
three LSU Tigers that are at least on the roster
as of right now, you know, late drops, late additions
probably happening up until today.
Speaker 5: Right, I'm gonna try to see if we can ask
because Molly Middleton, who's in charge like of all the
PR media stuff, Like, I'll ask her because Jack Pibrin
and aj Halsey with the other names and man, and
it's no respect to Jack Pipern, but I will see
a J Hawsey like, right, that was one of the
players I think I was most excited about, Yeah, was
to have him and to see him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And I don't even know what kind of his
stock is right now, what the what the communication is
about him.
Speaker 4: He's played a lot of football, and he's played a
lot of really good football.
Speaker 6: Doesn't really have anything to come out here and prove.
I guess everybody really does. You got something to prove.
But I think he's put a lot of game tape
on film that is going to overshadow probably anything that
he could do here currently.
Speaker 4: So but of course I would love to see him.
Speaker 2: On the phone. Yeah, typically like a guy like aj Halsey,
if you if you get some good news, like some
good grade back, yeah, it's like okay, well you know,
maybe I don't have to go there.
Speaker 5: So again, we'll we'll get confirmation on how many LSU
players are actually going to be here, what that final
number is going to be. But very excited to catch
up with Gary ness Meyer. And you mentioned Barryon Brown
and Aaron Anderson. Obviously you're a big fan of his
and kind of what he brings to the table.
Speaker 6: I found it interesting this morning just kind of got
the draft stuff. You know, a lot more and more
and more drafts that's going to come every week. I
saw the Nel Kuiper on his list of quarterbacks, said Gartnsmyer,
sitting at four. So a little bit of a surprise
there based on the season and everything, but excited for.
Speaker 4: Him and the opportunity.
Speaker 6: What an opportunity, golden opportunity for Garrett that's matter this
week here Mobile Alabama.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I mean he might be one of the
players that I you know, has the biggest opportunity and
can kind of you know, improve his draft stock as
much as anybody.
Speaker 2: And I saw just us as LSU people.
Speaker 5: Saying that that is talking with Drew Fabiani as the
executive director of the Panini Senior Bowl. So look, we
do have a ton to get to. We're gonna break
early here. Luke Altmeyer, Illinois quarterback, is going to join
us when we come back. So like I said, we'll
have some guests kind of popping in and out. So
we'll have our first guests of the week when we
come back here. It is OTB. We are live from
the Panini Senior Bowl, brought to you by First American
Bank and Trust.
Speaker 3: Off the bench.
Speaker 5: All right, there is a new star of downtown Baton Rouge,
and that is Bally's Casino and Hotel Baalis at bat
Rouge Casino in Hotel It is brand new. Sure it
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Speaker 2: So if you're looking for a night.
Speaker 5: Out, if you're local and Baton Rouge, if you're looking
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Speaker 6: That's right, Ballets, Ballets, Ballet Vatanuge. We got an absolute
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Speaker 4: It is beautiful. It is one.
Speaker 6: It is one hundred percent first class, twenty five thousand
square feet game of facility, huge DraftKings sportsbook, a beautiful,
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Speaker 4: Right there, Ballets of Baton Rouge.
Speaker 3: Off the bench with Hester and Flynn, live from the
twenty twenty six Panini Senior ball In Mobile presented by
First American Banking Trust.
Speaker 2: All right, and welcome back in It is OTB again.
Speaker 5: We are live here from the Panini Senior bull tribruck
you by First American Bank and Trust Hester Flynn and
now joined by Luke Altmeyer, quarterback from Illinois.
Speaker 2: Luke, we appreciate your time backs hanging out with us, Man.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I appreciate you'll having me. Man, it's cool.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you said you're training here mobile though, so I'm
just pretty easy commute for you, because we were wondering
like this. It's bad weather all over, certainly like the
southeast portion of the country that doesn't know how to
handle kind of cold, snowy weather.
Speaker 2: But for you, I just drove across the bay.
Speaker 8: Literally, it was a fifteen minutes. I woke up in
my been, you know, I guess Sunday and drove over
fifteen minutes before telling me all their connecting flights and
canceled flights, and it was I was laid up, chilling
and it.
Speaker 7: Just drove over and got a valley park.
Speaker 4: So there you go.
Speaker 6: So how was the So since the season's over, Like,
what's that schedule been like for you?
Speaker 4: Did you go straight into training?
Speaker 6: You take a couple of days, but you've been in mobile, right,
but it's it. You do a lot of bet agility
training or is it mostly man, I'm trained to be
the best quarterback.
Speaker 7: Yeah, a little bit of both.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 8: I finished the bowl game, you know, kind of New
Year's around, then took about five days off and hopped
right into it. So and you kind of hit the
ground run and you go right right into to kind
of all encomassing training speed, you know, strength, obviously quarterback training.
So it's a mixture of everything and even kind of
meeting an interview you know prep too, which is probably
the most challenging part because you know, pretty big questions
that you got to answer, which is which is awesome,
But yeah, it's it's it's everything is really challenging and
uncomfortable at times, but you know.
Speaker 7: Really really cool and uh so it's it's been good.
Speaker 6: Look. I remember when I was training for the combine.
The most random thing we did are the guy that
trainers made us take an improv class, like hacked in
improv class. So we were like ready for any type
of question because because the coaches and scouts are they're
they're a little famous for throwing you oddball questions.
Speaker 2: We've been in this process.
Speaker 5: Though, a team did get in trouble because they did
cross the line I don't know if you remember that
about questions they were asking. So they've kind of they
fixed it a little, but they can't ask you anything
too wild now, it'll try to get you uncomfortable.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'll be ready for whatever, hopefully, probably need some
improv for sure.
Speaker 6: That was a little weird.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's interesting, all right.
Speaker 5: So you transfer from ole Miss to Illinois. You get
to Illinois and y'all had some of the most successful
seasons in really the school history. What was it like
for you though, I mean, being from Starville, Mississippi, you
go to Ole Miss and then you go about like
as far away it feels like as you possibly could.
Speaker 8: Right, Yeah, it was the first time in my life
that I was getting out of my comfort zone, you know,
kind of you know, holistically, you know, kind of the
big picture. So it was very uncomfortable at the time,
but thank god it was you know, so much growth
and development you know, happened in that time through obstacles
I had to climb over and and uh, you know,
hard times and adversities, but it brought out a lot
of great moments at Illinois. You know, it was so
cool for the community to experience some winning seasons and
you know, sold out the stadium a lot, which hadn't happened,
you know, in a whole long time. So it was
just great to see the fans that were you know,
forty of your season ticket holders coming up to you
and just thanking you just for for bringing good wins
to to Illinois. So it was just such an awesome time.
You know, we're the logo of pride and love. Loved
where I played, loved the system that I was in,
loved the head coach that I've played for. But yeah, uncomfortable,
but man like, uh, you know, thank god that it
was so much character was developed and yeah, and a
lot of just fun football, you know, it was you know,
you know, I loved my teammates, loved the way you're prepared,
and a lot of good things happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So you talk about loving your system in college, and
so I'm so interested to watch the quarterbacks of course
this week in practice, because I think there's a there's
a lot of offensive styles that colleges run right now
don't necessarily immediately translate to what the NFL style kind
of is a lot of shotgun clap counts and a
lot if you're not taking a lot of under center snaps.
But we were talking before we jumped on here. You
kind of have the familiarity with that, you have you
do some stuff under center, So like if you if
you have that already in your in your arsenal, that's
a big step up for sure.
Speaker 8: I think that's kind of one thing that separates me
going into the week. You know, a little bit I've
played in the Big Ten and then kind of the
kind of the mentality the Big Ten's kind of run
the football, get under center and more of an old
school type of football certainly has transitioned a little bit
to more of a modern spread in the gun and
with your your clap count stuff, which we experienced and
we played with you know a lot, but a lot
of times I was under center, you know, making checks,
making kills and kind of making you know, mic points
and things like that. So like I'm very comfortable with
it under center football. Like and uh, and I'm using
that to my advantage shortly this week, and and I
think it'll show, so I'm excited about it. But yeah, certainly,
you know Big Ten playing that weather more of an old.
Speaker 7: School type type of football.
Speaker 8: But like, uh, like we were successful with it obviously,
and and it'll translate and I'm very excited for that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's like the probably the MVP of the NFL.
They were leading personnel this year was thirteen personnel for
the Rams.
Speaker 4: So it's a little bit.
Speaker 6: Different game than across the country in college. So I'm
excited that that, you know, you have that experience under center,
so we that that's a like I said, that's a
big Like if you're taking us from under the center
for the first time since like eighth grade. Yeah, it's
a it's tough, man, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 5: So last year, the group of quarterbacks that was here,
like they had not none of those guys had done
it and they could barely get through practice because they
kept fumbling. They had to stay after every day. So like,
you having that experience, obviously, Luke is gonna be big
for you. Like what do you want though, to get
Like what's the main thing this week that you want
to make sure that you get done? And I'll give
you an example, Like for me when I was here,
i played running back at LSU. But I know it's
gonna pay full back in the NFL. So it's like, hey, Bud,
you got to show that you can do it this week.
So I had like a main goal. What is it
for you that you want to show every scout here
this week?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know. Just man, I'm a clean football player.
I'm experienced.
Speaker 8: I've seen a lot of I've seen a lot of ball,
and like, uh, I seen all the looks, seen playing
a lot of playing a lot of different systems with
Kevin and you know Brett viel muntn So uh man,
I'm a fishing player, you know. I do the right
things on the field and take care of the football
and and certainly you want to show how strong you
are and and and kind of you can make those
those shows that they make in the NFL.
Speaker 7: But like you know, I believe I can.
Speaker 8: So I'm not gonna overthink it, man, I'm gonna go
go hack it and play play clean, and play efficient,
you know, and and and say the right things and
do the right things. That's what I've always done how
I've been raised, and so yeah, I'm just gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 7: If I enjoy it, I'll be in a good spot.
Speaker 8: So but yeah, I'm confident just where I came from
and how it prepared me and just kind of bring
that to it and let them kind of have their assessments.
Speaker 7: And I'm gonna compete and.
Speaker 8: Keep compete my tail off, and and that's what I
love to do. I love the game, love to prepare,
and so I think it'll put me in a good
spot overall.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So speaking of competing, and of course there's gonna
be other quarterbacks here, and it's you're gonna get on
the field. There's gonna be one on one, there's gonna
be individuals, there's gonna be team driills, two minute drills,
they're gonna you know.
Speaker 4: The works.
Speaker 6: When it comes to practice, Was there is there something
in practice this week? And I'm sure you've watched Singapore
practices like throughout the years, like on NFL Network or
wherever it is. Is there something that you're looking forward
to the most in practice this week?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 8: I think just the team settings for sure. Like that's
that's football, you know, like eleven and eleven. The rest
of it's great and all fun, but like running a
clean operation and communicating and making the right plays like
that's that's kind of like the goal of the game.
So like if I can operate well in those settings
like that's that's that's a win for sure. But yeah,
like when kind of those individual settings, for sure, you
want to kind of showcase yourself.
Speaker 6: Now, did they did they prep? Did they send a
playbook or anything to you all a weekend advance or
a couple weeks in advance to start at least familiarizing
a little bit with the terminalised since you got a
call to call the.
Speaker 8: Play Yeah, for sure a couple of days before h
coach Scott Tolzan, our coordinator and so he, uh yeah,
we hopped on his zoom Friday and he you know,
he sent over the playbook fairly you know, fairly simple,
you know, with all the rules and stuff like that,
and so yeah, pretty familiar with it, just kind of
with over running and playing under center a little bit.
So I'm excited, all right.
Speaker 6: Well, yes, God, so Scott's crazy. So I was teammates
with Scott and Green Bay for a little while and
he's been on the show multiple times, and so it's, uh, Scott's.
Speaker 4: A great dude. Man, You're gonna love him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, You're gonna enjoy it.
Speaker 5: Uh, Luke, you did mention Lane Kiffing there, you did play.
Start your career at ole Miss where a Louisiana kind
of l s U show. So your thoughts on on
Lane Kiffing and maybe how you think he'll do at LSU.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think overall he'll tear it up. And he's
such a good ball coach.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 8: He's taken Ole Miss to a place they've never been before. Man,
and that's uh, you know, that's all great to him.
You know, I played for him for two years and
just the way he h you know, thinks out of
the box. It's so hard to you know, kind of
pick up a tendency on is like he's he's a
he's as good as he gets from an nexus no
standpoint offensively, you know, the way he plays fast and
kind of like so explosive. So I think he'll tear
it up. Great recruiter obviously, and he'll get good players.
And and thankful for my time there. He taught me
a lot of football, you know, certainly he's a quarterback guy,
and and I was grateful to be able to learn
kind of how to push the ball down the field
a little bit and kind of you know, understand that
side of the game, which was a great, great helpful
tool for me.
Speaker 7: You know, it really was. I learned a lot there
at Old.
Speaker 6: Miss So speaking of talking about Lane and we just
got through like this crazy like portal window, portal season. Right,
you seem like a pretty down deret guy, guy that
could have played like in our day when you got
a four hundred dollars like a scholarship check every mind.
So how was the whole Niol world because it's it
changes so much as a player trying to navigate that
you had you transferred once, but you were at a
decent amount of time, like, so, how was that when
you go into that as a player trying to figure
out if you're going to do this, You're gonna do that?
Are you going to go into poort you cannihilate? What
was that world?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 6: How was those conversations with your family?
Speaker 4: Did you have an agent? Like?
Speaker 6: How did you navigate those waters and just stay focused
on the job at hand.
Speaker 8: It's tricky because it's the first time you're experiencing, right,
making a big ad old decisions like that. You know,
with all the money that's being thrown around these days,
and certainly there is you know, there's a lot of
money being thrown around to these kids that are experiencing
that for the first time and their families experiencing that
for the first time, and really these coaches experience for
the first time. So it's all new and and we're
all figuring out at once, and it happens really fast.
So you got to got to make good long term decisions.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 8: It's easy to make these quick materialistic decisions that you
can grab at, you know, these money that may not
set you set you up long term in the right way.
So I try to do that, you know, in my situation,
setting myself up long term doing the right thing, not
being selfish.
Speaker 7: So it's tricky, yeah, it is.
Speaker 8: It's it's a lot to be desired for out there, man,
and like, but it's been a blessing, I'll say that
for sure, you know, Like, you know, it's I've tried
to use it in the right way and I think
I have with the people helping me.
Speaker 6: So yeah, there's a lot.
Speaker 8: Of people helped me with family and agents and help
me make good character decisions and like, and uh, yeah,
it's it's tricky out there, especially with all the tampering
and that's that's a real thing.
Speaker 7: So it's a.
Speaker 8: It's a crazy world of football and need some probably
some revision, you know. But it's good for US players,
I'll tell you that. Yeah, a lot of blessings, you know,
for sure using them in the right way.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're just a little bitter jealous guyls check. Get
Luke last one before we let you go. You are
from Mississippi. You played in Illinois. Settle a debate between
US football weather. Is it hot human summer days or
is it what we saw in the AFT championship game.
Speaker 8: I mean, anybody can play in those high weather games, man, Like,
it's anybody can it's you know, you see the GAFC
game yesterday, like people started struggling that cold weather, and like, right,
you're gonna play in the league and you're gonna play
successful football. You're gonna play in those games, and those
are the that's the difficult ones, right, anybody can play.
Speaker 4: It created up North people, for sure.
Speaker 2: He played for the Packers. I played for the Chargers.
Speaker 5: You can tell you, hey, Luke man, we appreciate the time.
Speaker 2: Best of luck and look forward to watching this week.
Speaker 6: Yeah, seriously, good luck will be watching. Keep that mindset too,
it'll be it'll press in these meetings of stuff.
Speaker 4: Keep that mindset you're gonna do well.
Speaker 7: Thanks, man, appreciate it all.
Speaker 5: Right, Illinois quarterback Luke Altemyer is good enough to join us.
We know he's got a role. He's probably got four
or five more interviews. He had the early schedule of
interviews here today. We appreciate men. Look forward to watching
you out at practice. And we talked about it. Man,
it's gonna be a good group of quarterbacks out here,
a lot of experienced guys, a lot of guys that
have done it for a long time. And look, he
is somebody that was a part of the Illinois program changing.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: They had their most successful we talk about Indiana and
what they did.
Speaker 2: Illinois also was winning games at a.
Speaker 5: Higher clip than they ever really have before, and Luke
Altmeyer certainly a big part of that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they've finished the season beating Tennessee, Yeah in the
Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl. So obviously a lot of success.
And uh, man, I don't know, did we just get
spoiled on our first interview? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 5: I think we did all right. So I think we're
gonna have one more coming up. So we're gonna head
and take a break here and when we come back,
we'll continue the interviews from the twenty twenty six Panini
Senior Bowl in our coverage brought to you by First
American Banking Truck Off the bench. All right, go to
Boudreauxelectrical dot Com. Once you go to the website top
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Speaker 3: Today Bench with Hester and Flynn live from the twenty
twenty six Panini Senior Ball and mobile presented it by
First American Bank and Trust.
Speaker 5: All right, welcome back in it is OTB. We are
live here from the twenty twenty six Panini Senior Ball
and of course our coverage brought to you by First American.
Speaker 2: Bank and Trust.
Speaker 5: And I think that Matt Flynn might have scheduled our
interviews here today. We've had two and it's the second
quarterback that we've had here on the show. Cole Payton
at North Dakota State quarterback joins us.
Speaker 6: Now there's no reason to talk to any other position.
Speaker 4: It's all about moderation.
Speaker 6: Always does the fullback.
Speaker 4: I want a fullback on the Rosterbud.
Speaker 5: There's not one here, but it's okay. We got quarterbacks here.
Speaker 6: Cole.
Speaker 2: We appreciate your time.
Speaker 5: Thanks for hopping on with us and we were talking
a little bit before the show. You're training in Irvine, California. Uh,
so you had to get here probably a little bit
early to beat this crazy weather, right.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 9: Yeah, we got in Friday night, so been here a
while now, and it's nice to settle in.
Speaker 4: To ease into this week.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you can make fun of us down south for
this being crazy weather if you want to.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Yeah, you're kind of walking into this week with
a big advantage because this is, like you're tell us
before this in cold deal and this is just kind
of normal weather, so you got an advantage.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and Fargo, there's two feet of snow on the
ground right now, so.
Speaker 4: That's raight.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 5: So you're coming from North Dakota State and a lot
of times, like if someone was coming from the FCS,
like we would go through the whole small school blah
blah blah. Like for you in North Dakota State, Like,
y'all don't feel that way because I mean, y'all have
gone against multiple FBS schools, y'all have won those games,
y'all won championships, and that's kind of the standard of
what else football program is.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's there's nothing intimidating about you know, coming in
with and competing versus SEC guys, ACC guys, whatever. It
is like we've always had a chip on our shoulder
and and and we're looking to prove that we're the best.
So that's always kind of been the mindset it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So how is that? So he's your season ends?
And then what's your schedule been like leading up to
this meal? And I know you're you're probably combined training,
speed and all that stuff from a quarterback standpoint, like,
how are you preparing? Uh preparing? Where are you training at?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 9: So down in IRV, I'm working with a guy by
the named Jake Keaps and so he worked with Will
Howard last year. He helps, you know, he's a high
school football coaching Denver. And so the biggest thing for
us is so obviously throwing a little bit, but interview prep,
you know, getting on the board, hammer me with the
tough questions when we're gonna meet with NFL teams and
then uh, and then and watching a bunch of films
and learning the game and so those are kind of
the biggest things.
Speaker 6: Do you have like your plays like kind of prep
because you're gonna get asked like, hey, if you get
cover two, what's your what's your you gotta check, you
gotta cover three.
Speaker 4: You have all those plays in your head. These are
what I'm gonna draw exactly exactly what we're doing. That's perfect. Yep,
all right.
Speaker 5: So you're a guy who obviously is a dual threat quarterback.
I think you had over one hundred and thirty rushes
on the year. So like where you're in a setting
like this where I guess you have to kind of
wait to the game maybe to kind of show exactly
what you can do in the run game. Like how
do you want to make sure teams see you as like, okay,
I can't maybe run practice, so let me make sure
that I show them the armor. Like how do you
go into it knowing that there's a piece of your
game that you can't fully show until the game.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's a good question. I think it the quarterback position.
There's there's so much to it, and so like, you know,
being a commanding presence in the huddle, understanding my assignment,
understanding everyone else's assignments, and then and then just having
fun and ripping it around the yard. I think this
week will be huge Yeah.
Speaker 6: This is something that I'm really curious to talk to
all the quarterbacks this week about. Is there's a there's
a big difference between the style of football in the
NFL from a quarterback position. Then most are a lot
of colleges, there's a lot more under center. There's a
lot we see some of the best NFL offenses are
running thirteen personnel twenty one twelve p like, and most
colleges are, you know, eleven eleven personnel usually and it's not.
So I'm really curious to say, like, how was your
offense in college? Did you do under center? And if not,
if you is that something you're kind of trying to
train right now and doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So at NSU it was very much a pro style.
That's fantastic.
Speaker 2: I have a swear shirt that says fullbacks.
Speaker 9: We say, yeah, okay, fantastic. Well, okay, we don't have
fullbacks here. I can call up a few fullbacks from NDSU,
like let's go.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So yeah, you know, I've been fortunate enough to be
immersed in that kind of system and get under center
and run play action and you know, keeper fakes and
do it all, do it all, really make checks as a
line of scrimmage where where we're huddling, and I know
most teams in college don't even huddle, and so right.
Speaker 4: I definitely have an advantage. Was this your nap count
and it was not?
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, so ironically, that was
our silent cadence if it was super loud, but yeah, yeah,
right right, we used the.
Speaker 5: Verbal ca that's I mean, it's gonna be a big
advantage for you. We're not We're not joking. We joke
about it a little bit, but it's like form, it
should be commanding to be able to point out the mic,
to be able to, you know, get to the second
play if you've got to kill a play, and to
actually feel confident under the center. I mean, we just
had Luke altmeirown and I was telling him the story
last year the quarterbacks that were here, and some of
those were first rounders, they couldn't practice because they kept
fumbling under the under the center and they had to
stay after every single day of practice and try to
get it. So like you coming in with that being
a part of your offense is a big advantage.
Speaker 9: No doubt, no doubt. Yeah, I mean it's a big
reason why. You know, I stayed at NBCU for five
years and and uh and wanted to go there in
the first place because of the not only the success,
but yeah, that pro style effect.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Did you grow up a fan of anybody any NFL team?
Speaker 9: So, being from Omaha, Nebraska, I grew up on scar
fan okay for for college and there, and then when
it comes to the NFL, I'm embarrassed, man, all right,
Just my dad was.
Speaker 4: Going up in the eighties.
Speaker 2: Yeah there, yeah, so there you go.
Speaker 9: You know, big Walter Payton fans and and uh uh
so yeah, there you go.
Speaker 6: You you lose that fandom real quick though. Whenever you
get selected, you hear your name all by somebody else.
Speaker 4: I grew up a cow I grew up and tell
you group of cowboys. Cowboys.
Speaker 6: After I got was with the Green Bed and I
was like, no, it's not a yeah cowboys, aren't it anymore?
But what what are you looking forward to? Most? So
you're doing all this training, you're at the end of
the day, you're competing against these other quarterbacks. Of course
you're gonna be friends on they're great dudes and everything,
but it's it's called everything you do from here on
outs of competition, right, what are you looking forward to
the most. I'm sure you've watched combine practices before, like
on NFL Network or whatever it is. What are you
looking forward to most in these practices that really show
your skill set?
Speaker 9: I think exactly what you said. It's just compete and
eat and show them the best at the end of
the day. Obviously you know, connect with some guys, learn,
learn and grow and improve.
Speaker 4: But but compete for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Did you have any conversations with any of your
former North Dakota State teammates, because there's been a ton
here every year, there's at least one or two that
have come to the game and actually you know, been drafted.
Did you have any conversation with them? Maybe what to
expect this week.
Speaker 4: A little bit?
Speaker 9: Yeah, So, uh, working or being a teammate of Gray's abels.
Speaker 4: You know, Gray was here last year. He's only a
year older than me, and.
Speaker 9: So got pretty close with him and the s U
and then so we actually are each also trained in
Irvine at the same with the same agency, and so
we've got a connection there. And so I've been in
contact with Gray about a lot of different things. Yeah,
and so he's been a great help and and been
rooting for him this season.
Speaker 4: They've been doing well. Yeah, the Seahawks.
Speaker 2: He had a really nice individual seasons.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Gray has been a great resource. So the.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I got distracted by some almost saying coffee
over there.
Speaker 4: We had coffee aet this morning.
Speaker 5: So you mentioned you grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. We
were talking a little bit beforehand. You've gone to the
College World Series a time or two. Do you have
like maybe like a favorite memory, because I was telling you,
like obviously being LSU related here Omaha is something our
fan base certainly appreciates. Ls She was able to win
it last year in Omahall you got any memories that
stick out of your time growing up going to the
College World Series?
Speaker 9: I do, yeah, And this is this is going to
throw it back a little bit. I remember going to
the College World Series before it was at you know,
TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwad Rosenblatz right by the zoo, and
I remember we were sitting in the outfield I think
South Carolina was playing somebody, and we were sitting in
right field and on the first row, and I was
probably ten years old, yeah, and my buddy and I
were messing around. I had a baseball cap on and
it fell onto the field and I remember the right fielder,
I can't remember who it was, came over and like
grabbed my hat and like gave it back to me.
That was the coolest thing ever because I went from
this moment of like total embarrassing. Yeah right, and then
this star right fielder, yeah, you know, grabbing my hat
and so I'll never forget that.
Speaker 4: And that was that Rosenblat.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was, you're kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2: I wonder if that was when South Carolina won back
to back. I bet it was.
Speaker 5: I bet it was doing that run they made, and
I bet it was Jackie Bradley it was.
Speaker 2: Is that who?
Speaker 4: I think it was Jackie Bradley?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it turned out South Carolina big league for
a long time.
Speaker 2: So that's cool. That's cool out.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I feel like I feel like I know. I'm
hoping there's an answer. You're gonna give me this. This
is a question we like to ask. We can't the
old kids now in college we're getting old now. Football movies.
Have you ever seen the movie Varsity Blues?
Speaker 2: I have you have.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm talking about so you're gonna crush this week.
You're gonna slightly crushed. So the first time I saw
that was last year.
Speaker 5: Actually okay, all right, and no matter when you saw what,
you've seen it.
Speaker 9: So Tim Polisk, our head coach at n E SU,
he threw it on the on the TV and the
buses when we bust down to I think we were
playing South Dakota last year in great movie that was awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, how bad you'all beat him? All right, crushed up.
Speaker 5: We've asked that for a year and a half and
you're the first person to get It's unbelievable. It is
unbelievable the guys that have not seen that movie.
Speaker 2: So, uh, you're a okay in our book, we're gonna
be rooting for you. We were before first. Right now,
Hey man, we appreciate your time. Cole, best of luck.
Enjoy this week, man and make you appreciate you luck.
Speaker 4: Go crush, thank you, appreciate you guys.
Speaker 5: All right, we will step away more O t B
when we come back here, almost said live from the
raising Kine studio. We are out of the studio. We
are boots on the ground. Here at the Panini Senior Bowl.
More cabbage coming your way.
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Speaker 3: Now back to Off the Bench with Hester and Flynn
live from the twenty twenty six Panini Senior Bowling Mobile
presented by First American Banking Trust.
Speaker 5: All right, welcome back in It is OTB and again
we are live here Mobile Alabama Panini Senior Bowl, and
shout out to you First American Bank and Trust for
helping us.
Speaker 2: All right, you here here, here we go, hang.
Speaker 5: Out, cover practice and get QB one throwing finger points
at you.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it happened. It's not gonna won't be the last
time I blacked out a little bit.
Speaker 4: I did.
Speaker 6: I thought, so somebody, we have had coffee all morning,
so they don't have coffee. Someone yelled over here. I
don't know what they yelled. I thought they held a
coffee and you know me, it's a medical condition. Okay,
I get distracted. I looked over there and I was like, well,
we're still in an interview. And he got done answering
your question, and I was like, I got nothing for
you over there, Bud.
Speaker 2: The best part was you like you tried come on.
Speaker 4: I was like, come on, improv classes kick in.
Speaker 2: It was smoking and you and you were trying to.
Speaker 4: Go up said nope. I pointed at me.
Speaker 5: I bet that's the first time that Cole has ever
done an interview that the coach said nope and no fingerplis.
Speaker 4: I ain't got nothing for you, kid.
Speaker 6: I'd already asked him, like some of my you know, questions,
I got written down here, so I didn't want to
like reask like, hey, you know, what are you looking
forward to the most? So I had nothing. We saved
it though. He seen varsity blues. That's true. That's true.
Speaker 2: So and then let's see kind of a big did
the research and he.
Speaker 5: Said that they be South Dakota fifty one to thirteen
that day.
Speaker 4: So they beat him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, North Dakota State beat him fifty one thirteen.
Speaker 6: We played it a well, South Dakota State, sorry about it.
I love that dude, the coach putting it on. Do
you think he put like the team made for TV version? No,
so they looked they on those like little tiny yeah,
bus on a bus, greyhound TVs. Hey, it's not the
most ideal way to watch varsity blues, but better than nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's seen it, so good for them.
Speaker 4: He got excited too, he smiled when I asked that question.
Speaker 2: He did, he did.
Speaker 5: So We've asked a lot of quarterbacks through media days.
I bet Luke Altmyer's seen it, though he had a
very I've seen varsity blues filter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well we'll try to catch him. Yeah, when he's walking.
Speaker 2: Back through here, have you seen varsity blues?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, we're good.
Speaker 6: Next we'll report though when we see him, we'll see
him probably running the halls again. We'll get that question answered,
and so I promise you I will not make that
mistake again and forget to ask.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: So we are going to sow our plan here this
week is too obviously, as we mentioned in the first segment,
catch up with every LSU player, but also we wanted
to catch up with every quarterback as well. So we've
got two of those guys that we had a conversation with,
Luke Altmeyer from Illinois and Cole Payton there from NDSU.
But if we go back to Luke Altmeyer, he did
mention Lane Kiffin and gave a pretty good endorsement there
of his time with Lane Kiffin. And just so you're wondering,
we also talked you know, off air, and it was
the same thing.
Speaker 2: So that was a genuine.
Speaker 6: You know, quick did not give him a script, We did.
Speaker 5: Not, but yeah, he said like off airs, like, yeah,
he's going to crush it there. Yeah, it's like that
guy with quarterbacks in his offense. And how he teaches quarterbacks.
And so you know, I don't know that every old
miss player here that we interview, if we end up
talking with him, will you know, just because they probably
you're still heard whatever feel to.
Speaker 2: Burn, that's somebody that's been removed from it.
Speaker 5: And talked about his appreciation for what Lane Kip has
done in his career.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think it's pretty common. Like the what
he thought he talked about Lane was pretty common. It's
like when I asked, anybody we talked to says the
same thing. He's a really great coach. He's a really
great coach. He's you know, you know, off the field,
not like your normal person coach whatever it is, but
like a great coach. And we've seen it everywhere he's been,
the development of quarterbacks that he's seen.
Speaker 4: And you know, we were.
Speaker 6: Talking to a former quarterback of his who obviously went
on to another school and had a lot of success.
And Luc Almer is here at the Senior Bowl. And
I like Luke a lot. I like Cole lot too.
These two guys just from a personality standpoint, different certainly
different personalities. I felt like me and Luc a little
kindred spirits a little bit. Yeah, Cole seemed like a tough,
nasty like he looked like, I'm not here to make friends,
I'm here to.
Speaker 4: Whip your ass. Yeah that's what that's what he looked.
That's how. That's the ore that I got from.
Speaker 6: So excited to see both those guys. And you know,
I've heard the name Luke Altmeyer a little bit more
than Cole Payton like, but I'm excited to see both
of these guys compete.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 6: And shockingly, the first two quarterbacks that we've talked to
said they have a lot of experience under center. Yeah
that is that's that's not normal for college football this day.
Speaker 2: It is no Cole Payton being from nd s U.
Speaker 6: Yep, I wish I.
Speaker 5: Would have done that a little bit more. Oh dude,
they will run multiple fullbacks. In last year or two
years ago, they had to play where they had four
fullbacks in on the goal line.
Speaker 6: Was that person?
Speaker 2: So they're not afraid to run a full back.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I mean, honestly, he's going to have an
advantage Like guys that you really think about, like you
master your craft, you know, you think so being a
college football player, even though you have no idea what's
to come, but you think you're a master of it,
and all of a suddenly like, oh no, see, we don't.
We don't do that here, right, We'll do some of
it a little bit like on you know, sub downs.
We'll do some of that, but for the most part,
you're actually going to completely change.
Speaker 2: Like that draft that you used to take. No, that's out.
That's a little clap that.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you that. He so when I asked
Cole just now.
Speaker 6: If this was clap if this was a snapcount, and
I clapped, and he laughed and like a negative, like
disparaging way towards the clap count. I hope, I hope
he has a fifty year NFL career because of that.
Like I became a fan of his because he laughed
at the clap count. Because Elis, he's gonna do it
next year. I got it. But and this saiden just
about Elis. It's about everybody. The clap count is dumb,
and it's the worst. Then I don't understand the point
of it. Anyway, That's okay. We are on a mission
to make sure everybody knows it.
Speaker 4: We're gonna tell him. Let the people know and.
Speaker 2: Got like Colpayton's gonna do well, I think this week
because of it. While we have some time, want to.
Speaker 5: Remind you that it's gonna be three LSU players here.
I'm trying to look for anybody, see if we can
get any third well that too, aj Halsey and Jack
Pyburn and why they're not here. But we are gonna
catch up with all three LSU players during this week.
And again it's gonna be kind of interview here, interview there,
and you don't really know when you're gonna have one, so.
Speaker 2: From segment to segment, Flynn, Yeah.
Speaker 4: We're just gonna be bouncing around. Ready, dude.
Speaker 6: It's kind of weird when you're when they come up
to the table and clearly they don't know us, we
don't know them, and I'm sitting here googling them right there.
I got like their Wikipedia page up and they're just
staring at it, and I'm like, yeah, that's me trying
to learn who you.
Speaker 4: Are real quick.
Speaker 2: In the next thirty you just pull up.
Speaker 4: Well I started doing it that, I just put it down.
Speaker 6: I just did it on my phone, but then it
looked like I was texting in front of him.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to be rude.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's okay.
Speaker 5: I'd looked, if you're doing a deep dive in the
NDSU football, you're Sico like me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 6: So for forty one personnel, So what you said running backs.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, because it was no running backs. It was
all fullbacks on one tight end. So yeah, forty one
the way the Good Lord intended. H Cole Payton last
year did throw for twenty seven hundred yards, completed seventy
two percent of his passes. Now, he only had sixteen
touchdowns four interceptions, but he also ran for seven hundred
and seventy seven yards thirteen touchdowns on.
Speaker 6: The ground seven hundred yards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's taken sackyard age away as well in college football.
So he took twenty two sacks minus one hundred and
twenty four yards.
Speaker 2: So we're talking.
Speaker 5: About basically a nine hundred yard rusher in college. So
I did like his answer for you know, cause you
can't show the entire skill set here when you're a
dual threat quarterback, Like you're not gonna go out there
and run Q power practice and if you do, it's
tag off and you're not gonna be able to So
he like you realized that, and he's like, hey, I
want to go spin it around. I want to go
show like I think they know I can run the football.
I need to go show that I can do it
with my RM.
Speaker 6: So, yeah, there's always something that these these quarterbacks. That's
why I'm asking, I'm like, what are you looking forward
to most? Because there's if you if you want to
show that you can spend it, then there's times to
do that. There's one on one, there's individual drills, seven
on seven, so there's always different drills that As a quarterback,
I always used to love seven on sevens. All quarterbacks
do one on one. It's fantastic. It's awesome to watch
from a quarterback and corner standpoint. Uh, corner and receiver standpoint.
But it's a huge deal for the quarterback as well.
Throwing guys open, it's a great time to show that
you got like the back shoulder throw in your repertoire,
the low and a way shoulder, the high ball, the throat.
It's only where your guy can get it type guy
because you're gonna get covered off the bench.
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