Speaker 1: Good Morning at seven am here on Friday, June thirteenth.
Today in bed Ridge, you can expect a rainy skies
with a high of eighty five. On today's show, we'll
have Mikey Mottok in the studio during the eight o'clock hour,
JD Pakel have won three sports at nine o'clock and
then at nine thirty Peter Burns. You can follow us
on Twitter or Instagram at a TV underscore ESPN and
watch us on YouTube at the one of four or
five ESPN channel. Our number one of Off the Bench
Live from the Mercedes benz a bet Rouge Studios starts
down All.
Speaker 2: Star Toyota presents Off the Bench with Jacob Hester and
Matt Flynn.
Speaker 3: Let's go over.
Speaker 2: Let's go from a championship backfield to your morning drive. Ham'sday,
Hester and Hester got it five out a five. Your
locks in to Off the Bench. We bright control the
live from the Mercedes so baton Rouge Studio. Here's Jacobsser
and Matt Flynn.
Speaker 4: Yo, Jordan, you gotta yo yo, Hey you go yo.
Here you go, Taylor Gosh, come on, guys, we can't
mess that up. On a Friday, camp Man a weekend.
Vibes already all over this place. Oh TV, Jake, Jordan
and Tate, Alandra and Flynn both out on vacation.
Speaker 5: Hey man, we labor through, We labored through.
Speaker 6: We are here. The question really is going to be,
will Flynn pull a tea?
Speaker 2: Bob?
Speaker 4: Will we on Sunday night at about eight nine o'clock
at night? Guys, you're not gonna believe this. I booked
my flight on the wrong day. I won't be back
until Tuesday.
Speaker 7: I'll say no, I'll give him the benefit of the day. Out.
Speaker 1: Got no reason not to trust him until he gives
me a sou I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 6: I don't even know. I don't know how many times
that happened to Tabob, though I got.
Speaker 7: I got to the point to where I was surprised
if it didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, guys, you're not gonna believe this. Yes, I I
messed the dates up. We planned for this, like, yeah, Bud,
I'm gonna be solo Monday.
Speaker 6: I knew that.
Speaker 5: Got to dig it out the mud man. Be Okay,
I can't get too I can't do too much about Flynn.
He did provide me with some of My High. So
I'm feeling great. You know, the energy is up.
Speaker 4: He's still get some My High drinkmihigh dot com go
check it out. That is Jordan's voice that you hear there.
He is filling in for a Landra Jordan.
Speaker 6: What you know? Wild sports take?
Speaker 4: Have you and Tay Tay been yelling at each other
here at seven or two am?
Speaker 5: Well, really we haven't. Really, We've been talking about My High. Honestly,
we haven't really got to the to the sports takes
because you know, I walked in and I saw the myha,
I'm just like yo, Matt Flinn's the owner of this company.
We don't have My High around his building? What is
going on around here?
Speaker 6: He's cheap?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, and I find out he's cheap, so
very cheap. What he did provide the little uh he.
Speaker 4: Has a box here, Yeah, he does have a box
of My High. Anybody wants to come in and get
a little bit there. So we will all be back together,
I do believe on Monday.
Speaker 5: But Musso' is in on Monday.
Speaker 4: Never mind, never mind, Muse will be in for a lot. Yes,
like we were saying beforehand, nothing like starting a new show,
and then just a week into it, it's like, hey,
by the way, I gotta go on vacation.
Speaker 1: It's only two of the four members too, Like it's
even worse than Flinting.
Speaker 7: I'll be I'll just be an out.
Speaker 6: I let's see what it like. Where are we're June?
What June thirteen?
Speaker 4: For the fourth I am trying to uh to go
to the beach, and so like I'm going to like
I typically do, and I go gonna zoom.
Speaker 6: In, zoom in to the show. Now when I do that, obviously,
like that.
Speaker 4: Was with T Bob, and T Bob brought us, you know,
in from breaks and did all the talking and all that.
I wonder if Flynn knows that he's gonna have to
do that, it's gonna like he's gonna like trying to
put the big boy pants on. He's gonna have to
drive the show while I am at the beach. Now,
you know, a bad teammate would have just left him
hanging by himself. I'm gonna be a good teammate, gonna
you know, still come on the show every morning and
sit here and hang out. But I don't, Taylor, I
don't like the way you're smiling right there.
Speaker 7: I'm just thinking, like what up?
Speaker 1: And if there's like you'll be there because you do
it all the time, but like what if there's an
internet issue? Like I'm just Flynn's gonna be sweating the
whole show. I'm excited, yo.
Speaker 4: Really honestly, because I know he's not listening in Turks
and Caicos right now. We actually do need to play
in like a seven fifteen. I'm just gonna like turn
my computer off, like it just crash, yeah on the screen.
Speaker 6: And lost him and then he's.
Speaker 5: He's gonna lose it.
Speaker 6: He's got to come back.
Speaker 4: I mean he he did say that hosting a show
solo was more nerve wracking than playing in front of
one hundred thousand people.
Speaker 1: Really, I can see that you got a helmet on.
It's tunnel vision, and you're prepared for it.
Speaker 5: What you've done to say, you've been what your whole life,
you know, So I get that. But look, there's nothing's
wrong with a little baptism by fire.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you gotta get thrown in the fire and survive,
like and that's the best way you can learn from
it is by getting thrown in the fire.
Speaker 4: Like, I am trying to think what my first So
I actually kind of did so low before I got here.
You know, not every day, but it would be some
of the time when I was hosting in Shreveport. But
the one that kind of stands out to me, I
was pretty new to serious exem because it like wildly.
I started this in February, and I started series sex
Cement March like of the same year, twenty eighteen probably,
and me and Big Swagu Marcus Spears were doing the
show together, right, and it was a Friday, and I
don't remember what happened, but we were going to have on.
It was maybe Kirby or somebody like the Kirby Smart so,
somebody of that nature, you know, and about an hour
into the show, Spears stuff just crashes. Okay, So I
got two hours left national radio by myself, and you know,
luckily I had Kirby because I know Kirby played for him.
But when you're looking at the clock and you're like,
oh my god, it's eight o'clock. I got to get
to ten o'clock. Actually it was earlier, so it was
like seven o'clock. I gotta get to nine o'clock. I'm
by myself here. This is national radio. It's like, what
are we going? And I didn't have a producer at
that time that was talkative on the mic, very very
good at the technical side of it, but it wasn't
a talker. Oh man, I'm going to talk about And
if you go solo in a show, right, you plan,
you prep, you have everything in front of you, like
you have your talking points.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Hey, at some point I got to give like a
seven minute dialogue on like something right, oh now, when
you're not ready? Now, when you haven't done that? That
was That was probably the most nervous I've ever been
on a microphone, just because brand new to this national
company and this is going.
Speaker 6: Like through North America.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, And I'm sitting here and I you know,
I'm I'm I'm hosting it and I'm leaning on on
spears and then doom out.
Speaker 5: Do you feel like you became better from that point on?
But the nerves has just gone from that point on.
Speaker 6: It wasn't even like gosh, it wasn't even like a nerse.
Speaker 4: It was like a disappointment that I didn't didn't have
it ready to go like I would have. And so
like from that day forward and my my serious ex
symbols always last at me because you know we have
technical issues.
Speaker 6: I mean even though like.
Speaker 4: Because like I'm in Baton rouge EJ's in Miami. When
Bobby does it, he's in Columbus. My producer one's in
l A Ones in DC. So you're gonna have things
pop up every now and again, right, And I always
have like the eleven minute monologue ready to go. Any
any show that I do, I am ready for that
eleven minute go right into a monologue of what I'm
going to talk about and we'll figure it out at
the back end of it. So yes, that that that
taught me that you have to have that ready to go.
Speaker 1: That's that's like my biggest biggest fear when I'm when
I'm solo hosting for you guys, because like.
Speaker 7: Jay Gulla, if you're aware of this, I love me
a monologue. It's kind of my thing.
Speaker 1: But whenever I have like a guest scheduled, I learned
this because it happened to me one time. Just like
you're talking about, I have a segment ready to go.
If they don't answer, if the drops whatever, like I'll
always have something back up.
Speaker 7: Because of that.
Speaker 4: Oh, they never like that's going to happen when you're
doing a solo show and you've got guests lined up
to kind of Okay, if I get to there and
I get there, I can make this point.
Speaker 6: I can make that point.
Speaker 4: Somebody's not answering, Yeah, that's going to happen. I don't
nere's any question about that.
Speaker 6: All right.
Speaker 4: We do have, as Tata laid out a ton to
get to We're gonna have Mikey Matchuk actually sit in
with us for the full eight o'clock hour, somebody that's
been in Omaha, somebody that's played the full distance in Omaha,
won a national championship. So very excited to have Mikey
in studio with us. We are going to have JD
pakel On on three Sports. You've seen JD everywhere does
a fantastic job. Jordan's a little nervous because JD is
pretty high on the LSU Tigers. I've tried to calm
Jordan down because there's a lot of people that are
high on the LSU Tigers. Are got connor O Gera
who joined us yesterday. He's got him winning a national champion.
I understand where you're coming from. But also it is
okay to have that kind of alpha confidence as well.
Speaker 5: You're right, you know, I appreciate that everybody wants to
blow smoke up or you know what. I appreciate that,
but it's like, man, I'm not gonna really be fully
bought into this season just yet until week one, until
I see what happens after that Clemson game, because you
have to show me. I get it. It's not the
it's not the end of the world if they lose
against Clemson week one. But at a certain point you
can't go, oh and six, you know, what's your your
week one matchup like that. As soon a point you
gotta start the season one and oh so if they
do that, then I'm like, okay, I'm ball all mall in.
You know, I'm on a nuts bus, baby, we riding,
but if we all want, hey, the nuts bus needs
some gas. I don't know what to do, Brian Kelly,
he doesn't know how to change the tire. Something is
going wrong, and I just everybody hyped it so much. Yeah,
it's gonna come back.
Speaker 6: I think it is very fair.
Speaker 4: I think it's very fair for LSU fans to say
I think we can be that team, but the opener,
and wildly enough, I mean, you can lose the opener
and you know, you go ten and two, lose one
SEC game and you're in the playoff, but PTSD from
losing that opener, and you're right, how many times you
know have you fought back? You lose the opener and
it's like you're scratching your claw and your fighting and
then you like you fall one game short of what
you know your goal was. Like if you would have
won the opener, just started season one and zero, it'd
be different.
Speaker 5: Did not happen to Jaden Daniels his first year, was
that his first.
Speaker 6: They went to the SEC championship game.
Speaker 1: They would have beaten Georgia because they wound up with
four losses. They had three in the regular season. So
if they would have beaten Georgia, I don't think they
would have gotten it at nine and three for ten
and three whatever they would have been.
Speaker 7: Yeah, Kelly was on that.
Speaker 1: Podcast the other day, I don't I don't remember whose
podcast he was talking about how like hey, this is
the first time, like we're right like Clemson all over
the locker room, this this, this and that, like it's
it says Clemson here and there, and you know, a
lot of people had pushback saying, okay, well, for the
longest time, you put too much stock into the Alabama game.
Speaker 7: I don't want you to do that here.
Speaker 1: I would normally agree, but whatever the hell Kelly did
in the past, do the opposite. He's like, this is
the first time we've done that. I'm like, good, do it.
Change it up, do something different. So I don't know,
we'll see if it works or not. But he's taking
a different approach.
Speaker 4: See, I hadn't seen that yet, but making too much
of the Alabama game. Like, there's one thing that we
all have to understand is Nick Sable's coaching that team
that entire time period. It's not even like a slight
a Dabbo or anybody they've played, but like Nick Saban
and Alabama for a long time was just inevitable.
Speaker 6: That's what it was, right, So I think it's a
different scenario.
Speaker 4: And yeah, like coach Miles and that time period, it
was like all built up around one singular game. I
don't think this is building up around one singular game
like that game was in the middle back end of
the season. This game has just started off. This game
is from the very beginning. Why would you not be
putting up all the logos of the team you're facing
in the first week. I talk about it all the time.
I'm trying to think of the openers that we had
while I was.
Speaker 6: At LSU.
Speaker 4: I think we had Oregon State, Arizona State, and I
know we had Mississippi State my last year.
Speaker 7: It was like a Thursday night game or something.
Speaker 4: Missippi State kicked off the season Thursday in Startville. Yeah,
maybe like six we did have I think ULL or somebody,
but like for the most part, like we had Power
five opponents, right, and Arizona State. We didn't get the
chance to, like, you know, think about it all all
season because it was Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 6: That's why we let off that game.
Speaker 4: But I mean, I definitely remember Mississippi State, like talking
of aut it and that being a off season rallying
cry of hey we got an SEC opponent from week one.
I don't give a damn who it is. It's in
the SEC, it's on the road. And Maffatt talked about
it all the time. We're what one tens you.
Speaker 6: Think it's hot here Starkville Mississippi. It's ten times lotter
than here.
Speaker 5: Right now, they're.
Speaker 6: Out working you.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, the whole streams coach. Yeah, I
gotta get your mind right.
Speaker 6: So I love that. Why would you not? Like you
got a dog right off the top in week number one.
Speaker 4: It's a top five tight matchup, your Heisman Trophy candidate
quarterback versus theirs, your death valley versus their little death valley,
Like all hell, yeah, I want I want that game
talked about every day, every day, every single day.
Speaker 6: I want something talked about in that game.
Speaker 4: So if people don't like that, I don't like that
because I think you need to highlight it. It's not
we nine. That's where you get into trouble with Alabama.
It's Nick Saban's Alabama.
Speaker 6: It's week nine. What about the first eight weeks? But
you don't have that, There's there's.
Speaker 7: Nothing else in front of you.
Speaker 1: And like to your point, it's it's it's the marquee
matchup of quarterbacks, right, But it's more than that. Like
Jordan's talking about everybody hyping up LSU. Everyone is saying
this is the best roster Brian Kelly's ever had at LSU. Yeah,
but you could argue this is the best team Brian
Kelly's played in the opener. I get the twenty twenty
three Florida State team that was a neutral site game
both times. This is a true road game against a
against a cave club. Nikias's top three receivers from a
year ago back. They have a great D line. Your
line is your biggest question mark, Like, you have to
highlight this game because if not, you're going to lose
it again.
Speaker 5: And didn't Clemson actually bring transfers in for the first
time ever.
Speaker 6: A couple a half like two, I think actually two
or three.
Speaker 5: That's like record for Clemson.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they'd never brought one in. The only transfers
Day had brought in. It was someone who had deep
ties to the school was.
Speaker 5: A McCoy, Bruce McCoy or he went to Tennesse. Yeah
now he is Tennessee, Tennessee.
Speaker 4: And then they brought somebody in that had Simon mc
clemson played there, left and came back. So they had
never really gone and got like a true transfer from
somebody else until this year.
Speaker 6: And I think they got two or three. So it
looks a good roster.
Speaker 4: Their front seven on defense might end up being the
best you play all season long. You've got a brand
new offensive line, right, there's going to be things that
give you problems in this game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well look, but you also have some advantages too.
Speaker 5: It's funny we say this and we're talking about this
because one of my biggest gripes, and I think I
told you this off camera when I last time I
was here, and I was like, my biggest gripes is
when you watch week one of an LSU game or
LSU season and then look at the roster, Well, look
at who's starting week one, and it looked who's started
like week six. Yeah, and it's just like, bro, if
y'all didn't play such a Marquee match of week one,
like you're trying to figure it out when to fly.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with the Marquie
matchup week one. I'm not hunt oh man.
Speaker 5: I So I went back and looked at, you know,
your year when y'all played like y'all played, like I said,
Arizona State, you played Missippi.
Speaker 4: State, Oregon State No. Four freshman year oh five?
Speaker 5: Were youre talking about the Katrina year.
Speaker 6: That was Arizona State?
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I'm just like, you know, can we get
a game like that? You know, can we play at
Arizona State was ranked ranked at the time. Really, Yes,
Oregon State game was a battle.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Derek Anderson was a quarterback for Oregon State. Do
you remember that name.
Speaker 4: He was like the one Cleveland quarterback who had some success.
Speaker 6: He made like a Pro Bowl in Cleveland.
Speaker 7: I remember he replaced the Charlie Frye who was awful.
Speaker 5: That's like five Pro Bowls and you get that in Cleveland. Yeah,
there's no question.
Speaker 6: Yeah I am not.
Speaker 4: I don't want to play little sisters of the four
in the week number one, Like, I'm just go win,
just go win. Florida State had to play you and
they beat you twice. USC had to play you, they
beat you. U C l A played you, they beat you.
Mississippi State played you, they beat you.
Speaker 6: They had they had to play LSU and they won.
Speaker 5: So I'll never forget that Missippi State one because go
figure it out. You remember if when after we lost
the Missippi State game, they grittied on the tiger Ie
in the middle of the field like the was it
was like right out the National championship.
Speaker 6: Yes, right after maybe the greatest college football season.
Speaker 5: That was such a slapper.
Speaker 6: They didn't know that that that team wasn't going to
be very good.
Speaker 5: Yea, So when they hit the gritty, I was like,
oh okay, bet okay, okay, all right, no loving war.
Speaker 4: Look, Mississippi State doesn't get to celebrate football victories over
LSU very oftenies really all right, uh, we will step away.
When we come back, we'll certainly get this thing started.
We'll look at Omaha games starting today, kicking off with
Coastal Carolina and Arizona. We all know l s U
set for tomorrow, but we break it all down when
we come back. Here on O TB off the bench
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Speaker 2: St from players to legends, Hester and Flynn breakdown l
s U football like only champions can.
Speaker 4: What Big Voice Lady doesn't know is we're breaking down
something different right now.
Speaker 6: We'll get to LSU football later on.
Speaker 4: They did get a big commitment yesterday, and you know
Tata is all over that.
Speaker 6: But let's talk a little Omaha now.
Speaker 4: But before we do, let's go ahead and get this
show started.
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we get this thing started, obviously, all the talk around
town is Omaha and Omaha, Nebraska as LSU is getting
set to take on Arkansas tomorrow night. But to get
things started there in Omaha, it will be Coastal Carolina
taken on Arizona. That game is going to be at
I believe noon, correct in that a one eastern first pitch,
so it's gonna be at noon and then at five
pm local time. You're going to have Oregon State in Louisville.
And we talked about it yesterday. I got a look excited,
maybe even got ahead of ourselves. As we're talking Coastal
and Oregon State. Do we believe that there's gonna be
any other outcome? Are are we riding with Coastal Carolina
in Oregon State? In these first round matchups.
Speaker 1: Coastal for sure, the organ State one cand get a
little bit dicey, but I mean yeah, everybody's kind of
projecting those two to, you know, be the final two
remaining in that top part of the bracket.
Speaker 4: Jordan, you do Hunt show a lot, so you have
to listen to a lot of baseball takes. You have
ninety seven different Major League Baseball hats that you wear
every other day, so I know.
Speaker 6: You've got to have a baseball take here.
Speaker 5: My baseball take is LSU Championship. Let's go.
Speaker 6: I'll you tune Hunt outs. What you're telling me, Well,
it's just.
Speaker 5: More college baseball wise, is like LSU. Everybody else really
doesn't matter. Like I'm not, I'm not the college baseball guy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I like college football, you know, I like college basketball.
I like the pros. You know, I'm more of a
pros guy when it comes to baseball. But of course
I watch LSU my favorite LSU players though, I'll tell
you that, can you.
Speaker 4: Know, Sorry, Hunt, Sorry, sorry that Jordan doesn't listen to you.
Speaker 6: Oh I do apologize. Oh that's true.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, I got Coastal, I've got Oregon State, and
if they do advance. That game six that we talked
about yesterday could be electric. Coastal's got all the belief
that they can go win this deal and they don't
want to hear about.
Speaker 6: Being a mid major.
Speaker 4: They have won a national championship. Sure it was gosh
was it nine years ago? Now twenty sixteen, I believe
is when that went down, But that doesn't matter. Like,
when you get that done, then everybody that follows behind
that championship believes that they are, that they are champions,
they have the ability to go win a national championship.
And so I do like Coastal there in that matchup
against Arizona, and then for the Beavers for Oregon State,
like blue bloods don't play on the.
Speaker 6: Road, they just don't.
Speaker 4: And Oregon State is that in college baseball, Like think
about non conference games. We're talking Georgia, Ohio State, right,
they don't go on the road and play a non
conference game very often. If they do, it's like a
one off win with some massive, massive brand that's kind
of on the same level as them. But because Oregon
State was independent, right, they played in the PAC two
in football, they played in the West Coast Conference in basketball,
they're independent in baseball. They didn't have a home, they
didn't like, they didn't have the ability to play weekend series.
They're in Corvallis because after they played their non con
they had to find people that had off weekends, and
that just doesn't happen in college baseball. Once you start
conference play, it's like, okay, we're in the nitty gritty
of it. But for Oregon State, they had to reach
out to teams in the Big Ten. They had to
go play like Iowa and like what they were calling
a neutral site but it was like right by Iowa,
and you had to travel across the country and like
a neutral site series, you had to play a bunch
of Big West teams, you know, you're you know cal State,
fulletin UC Irvine, Long Beach, like those teams, Like you
had to do whatever you could to just get games now,
I mean, and they know their schedule actually was pretty good.
Speaker 6: Ended up playing some really good teams, but mostly on
the road.
Speaker 4: So them going to Omaha, Nebraska, that ain't nothe but
a thing for them. They've done that all season long,
and you saw how much they enjoy playing at home
in Corvallis last weekend against Florida State down four to
one with two outs and you win the game. There's
something about Oregon State being battle tested like they are
that I think is going to play really, really well.
Speaker 6: And I started out the process.
Speaker 4: Thinking Coastal, but the more and more I think about it,
dive into it, and the way Oregon State has played
this year, the things they've had to overcome this year,
I think the Beavers actually went Bracket one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I could see it going either way.
But everyone talks about, Hey, Coastal Carolina has over fifty wins,
Oregon State sitting at forty seven. So that's kind of
what and what you talk about playing on the road
a lot. You're battle toested, you're comfortable away from home.
What did we talk about this LSU baseball team a
month and a half ago? Why can they hit the
cover off the ball at home? Can't hit a lick
on the road. Now that's changed a little bit, But
there's a lot of teams like that. Oregon State's one
big games on the road, and we don't know, you
know how many fans of what fan base. I imagine
a lot of Oregon State fans are going to travel
to Omaha because they haven't seen their team play a
lot this year, so they might have a lot of
this little home crowd behind them in Omaha.
Speaker 7: No, I don't I don't hate that pick at all.
Speaker 1: Like everything you need to be successful in Omaha, like
Oregon State has it.
Speaker 6: They also have a tie on the record. I gotta
do something.
Speaker 4: I saw that investigating, But the time is probably because
they were cross country playing a game. They're like, hey,
we got to get home. We gotta give us a weather,
we gotta get back to UH to Oregon. UH and
Bracket too, obviously the one that we're gonna all be
eye hustling a little bit more than Bracket one.
Speaker 6: You've got UCLA and Murray State.
Speaker 4: That is going to be Saturday noon first pitch, and
then of course Arkansas and LSU no surprise, going to
be the prime time game there. Ucla Murray State real
toss up for me. Now, UCLA has not lost in
this postseason. They have not lost a they have not
dropped a game, like and I feel like we hadn't
talked about that zero losses on their resume here in
the postseason. Right now, you know they probably expected to
have to go to Austin, Texas and they got UTSA
at home. But still you can only control what you
can control, and they've controlled all of it because they're undefeated.
And then Murray State has by far had the hardest
path to get to this point. You go through Old Miss,
you go through a Georgia Tech team that won the
ACC regular season that probably should have been one of
the sixteen host sites. And then you go on the
road to Duke and you lose the first game and
have to come back and win the next two, and
you do just that.
Speaker 6: They have been through the fire.
Speaker 4: There's no more like you know, Cinderella win one for
the gifver like they know, they believe that they belong there.
And just like I talked about with Coastal Carolina earlier,
like with them winning a championship in their history. Now
Murray State certainly has not won a championship first time
they're in Ovaha, but you know that they're leaning on
Fresno State in two thousand and eight as a four
seed going playing kind of a similar path that they've
had in going to win a national championship. Murray State's
been a really good team all season long. They were
a four seed but they were forty four and fifteen
on the year. What chances do we give the Racers
against the Bruins.
Speaker 5: I don't. I don't.
Speaker 7: I don't give them much of a chance. I hate
to say that.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people we're picking UTSA against UCLA.
Speaker 7: I was not one of those people.
Speaker 1: I've been very impressed with the UCLA If there's a
team that's won a lot of games, Ral Cholosky for
UCLA might be the best player in this tournament. For
those of you who don't know, the guy hits three
sixty seven and has twenty three home runs on the season.
He can hit a little bit. I mean he's got
seventy three RBIs and really the top out of the
top five guys in their batting order. The lowest batting
average is three thirteen. Yeah, and these guys can hit.
And Murray State they've had good pitching. Their staff's not
going to be that deep. So if UCLA can get
to that starter early on, I think this a batting
lineup could have a lot of success. UCLA's got two
pretty decent starting pitchers. Like I really like the Bruins
their team. I mean, I know we talked about it.
The other day, you were saying, take LSU Arkansas out
of it, who would be your best bet as far
as uh, you know, what their favorite is to win
the title, and Ucla was my pick.
Speaker 7: I'm kind of sticking to that.
Speaker 1: That's kind of maybe the team I like the best
that a lot of people are talking about in Omahall.
Speaker 4: You know, UCLA is a program that I think a
lot of people just assume they've had this long standing
history of success and you know that they've always been
in the thick of it, and I think they just
get that confused with other schools that are located in
southern California through USC and cal State Fullerton and those schools.
For UCLA, now, there was a time period where they
were like, they looked like they were about to be
that team twenty ten, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen they make
it to Omaha, but before then they had only made
it twice nineteen sixty nine and nineteen ninety seven. Now
that twenty thirteen team they did go win a national championship.
It's been twelve years since UCLA has been in the
College World Series. So like the history, and I'll be honestly,
I was surprised by that, Like I just you know,
growing up, it's like Southern California, Southern California, USC all
these other teams, and I thought I remember UCLA being
in there.
Speaker 6: They were not.
Speaker 4: I mean, they had a chance to really parlay that
ten twelve thirteen run into extended success and they didn't
do it. Now they've been closed, So the Brewin is
going to be real hungry to be there and to
go get a victory. And for them, they might not
tell you publicly, but when you look at the field,
no disrespect to Murray State. It's been awesome to watch,
but you would pick Murray State to be the team
that you go against.
Speaker 6: They're a four seed, right and it's Murray State.
Speaker 5: Like you said, it is Murray State.
Speaker 6: Don't disrespect John Morant like that.
Speaker 5: And on my team. So I forget John Moran, well.
Speaker 6: Two years ago, wish he was John Moran.
Speaker 7: Come after your Juordan.
Speaker 5: Hey, hey, hey, I practiced the Second Amendment.
Speaker 4: On that note, let's take a break and we'll preview
l s U and Arkansas in detail when we come
back here on OTB.
Speaker 2: Off the bench.
Speaker 6: So when Flynn left for vacation, he's like hey, we
have my phone.
Speaker 4: May y'all let me know, y'all hit me up, y'all
need anything, like, I'll be right there, Like I'll post
all the show stuff and so.
Speaker 6: We'll get it all out there, whatever. Whatever.
Speaker 4: We've gotten two messages from him, which look, it's fine,
it's okay, you're on vacation, go do you. But we've
gotten two messages from him. One was an ice cold
air port, Do sequis right. The second one was him
on a T shirt because he's turning forty. You know,
you got like a birthday theme going right there, he's
on a golf course with this ridiculous haircut, but in
his hand he's got a nice cold. Do sekis right.
So Flynn goes for dose. We go for dose. You
should go for dose. And it is the best pull beer,
beach beer, lake beer, shower beer, tailgate, beer, stadium beer,
any beer.
Speaker 6: It is always going to be do sekis.
Speaker 4: And so here in this month of June, all these
different activities going on, probably gonna be outside a little bit, man,
Go ahead and have that cold or refreshing do secies,
drink responsibly, and always go for dose.
Speaker 2: From players to legends, Hester and Flynn breakdown on L
s U football.
Speaker 3: Like only champions can.
Speaker 6: And just kept telling me I wouldn't, So I didn't
man a great song. But like I bet you won't, Well, okay,
I won't.
Speaker 2: I won't.
Speaker 5: I won't do it, won't do it.
Speaker 6: Don't have to come back, I bet you I won't
do Whenever I want to come back.
Speaker 4: You're gonna get dad jokes all the time here.
Speaker 6: I am a father of many L.
Speaker 4: S U Arkansas last matchup here to break down in Omaha.
And again we got mikey Matuk joining us for a
full hour to break it all down. But we're not
just going to concentrate on like the one singular game
with Mike. You certainly want to get his experience and
him being in Omaha making the run all the way
to a national championship. But but it is the game
that everybody is talking about. It is the game that
I think everybody wants to see.
Speaker 6: It is blue blood on.
Speaker 4: Do we call Arkansas a blue blood because they haven't
won that national championship?
Speaker 6: And for me, you need to win one of those
to be a blue blood.
Speaker 1: I think it's more of like an Oregon in football, right,
like the last ten to fifteen years, they've been pretty good.
They've never broken through whatever category you put them in.
That's where I'm putting.
Speaker 4: Oregon's pretty good. Pretty good comp there. I'm trying to
think fucking because they haven't won one, Like.
Speaker 5: Well, how many do they have in total? Do you know?
Speaker 6: Arkansas?
Speaker 2: They don't.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, Like if they had one, I'd call them
a blue blood because they've.
Speaker 5: Won a ton of games.
Speaker 4: Cut like a blue blood, you gotta go win the
entire thing. So, okay, it is blue Blood versus Power.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know a recent Powers Bama.
Speaker 6: It is a big marquee matchup. Let's just put it that.
Speaker 4: It is Ace on ace. It is deep lineup on
deep lineup. Who are the X factors going to be
in the matchup? Like that is going to be something
I'm paying attention to for Ella's shoe, Right, You're going
against a lefty, all right, so the lineup could look different. Now,
the first time that you played this same team that
with the same pitcher, you went with kind of what
your normal lineup was at the time. Now, the last
time you went against the lefty against West Virginia, Josh
Pearson was the leadoff hitter right because he hits left
as well.
Speaker 6: Kuriel got moved down in the lineup.
Speaker 4: Do we expect to see the same type of movement
that we saw against West Virginia here in this matchup?
Because remember Derek Uriel went what three for three five
RBIs in that game where they moved him down.
Speaker 6: The next game they moved him back up. But if
you do it against the lefty and he's.
Speaker 4: Super regional, I'm gonna assume you're gonna do the same
thing in Omaha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like Curiel at the top. I'm one of
those weird people that's like, you can move the lineup
all you want, don't move your lead off batter. I
think the fact that he went three for three, maybe
you keep him because he he in the first matchup
against Arkansas, he batted at the top. He went one
for five, but he had two RBIs, he scored a run,
so like he did Derek Curie, all things right, he
got on base. Pierson batted clean up that day and
he actually went.
Speaker 4: Oh for three, hit fifth that day, didn't he I'm.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm completely looking at her went oh for three
that day.
Speaker 7: I think Pierce strike, Yeah, I don't know if he
leads off.
Speaker 4: I just think if you did it in the super
But again, I mean, obviously Jay Johnson, he does like
he's gonna move things around. He's going to come up
with what he feels like in that moment is going
to be the best lineup. So that is one thing
to pay attention to whenever it is rolled out there.
And Jake Brown somebody that probably doesn't start the game,
but when he's in the game, he's your cleanup hitter,
right because the splits between lefties and righties obviously is
going to be ipopping. When you look at it, it's like, oh, okay, well,
I understand why you're.
Speaker 6: Making that move.
Speaker 4: And to have a piece like that on the bench,
knowing as soon as they get a righty out of
the bullpen, you can go, you know, your normal cleanup
hitter against a arriety off the bench against that guy
obviously something that is key for LSU.
Speaker 6: So we'll see how it's formatted.
Speaker 4: We will see how the lineup ends up shaking out,
because again Jay likes to move different pieces around depending.
Speaker 6: On what the matchup is.
Speaker 4: Last time out, Root did go six innings, gave up
five hits, two earned runs, struck out six, did not
walk a batter. Kate Anderson five and two thirds, seven hits,
three runs, all earned, one walk, ten strikeouts. But even
I think to the breakdown here more importantly, Chase Shores
came in, he went an ending in a third. He
only gave up two hits, one run, no walks. That's
a big part there. And then Zach Cowen came in
three innings, only gave up two hits, no runs, walk
to struck out three. I love kind of stacking it
like that, right, And it's like a very elementary thought
process of baseball, of going you know, speed, elite speed
guy with a devastating change up right, You're just you're
changing the speed on them, right, You're changing you know
what they have to pick up out of the pitcher's hand.
So look, if it works out like that again, you
go Anderson, Shore's Cowen, I think you're in a good spot.
Speaker 1: If you'rre Lshoe, I think you just found who's the
key to this game.
Speaker 7: To Jake, I mean, no no secrets.
Speaker 1: Zach Cowen not awful, but not you know what he
was earlier in the year and that Arkansas game. That's
a one run game, Zach Cowen gets the ball the
last three innings, strikes out three, gives up no runs
like you can get that, Zach Cowen again. You don't
have to burn as many bullpen arms if you can
go three innings for you giving up no runs like
that might actually be the key to the Arkansas game again.
Speaker 4: And of course, like we're making a lot of you know,
this game one for LSU, it's gonna be game four
over you know, overall in Omaha. But the thing for
LSU fans, no matter what if you win or if
you unfortunately lose, you are not in a terrible spot.
Right It's not complete doomsday if you lose again the
obvious statement, you want to win the baseball game. Nobody
is going to be able to throw somebody out there
in a game two scenario like LSU and I'm talking about.
Speaker 6: In the entire tournament.
Speaker 4: You have one A and Kate Anderson, and one B
and Anthony Jinsen, and you can flip those rotate them
however you want. It could be one A, Iinsen, one
B Anderson. You have the best one two punch in
the nation. So even if you do d this game,
it is not all over for LSU. You can climb
your way out of the loser's bracket. Not what you
want to do, but this team right now and the
way it's formatted, it is set up to make a
run in Omaha. So game one highly important, no question
about it. You'd rather Anthony Yinton pitch in a game
in the winners bracket, but that is certainly something because
I think we're making so much and just like Arkansas,
I've been on two Arkansas shows this week, so much
about this one single game. That's not what Omaha is.
Omaha is a grind. It is lengthy if you're doing
it correctly. So look, we'll break this game down, but
certainly there's going to be big things to play for
either way, for LSU or Arkansas, depending on who wins
and loses the game. All right, we will step away
here on OTB and when we come back, Taitay is
gonna hit you with a little LSU football recruiting news
here on one oh four five ESPN Baton.
Speaker 2: Rouge off the bench.
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Speaker 2: Three Tigers turn talkers. This is off the bench.
Speaker 6: Had on a stuff Miss.
Speaker 4: Bad Woman, Welcome back in O t B one O
four five ESPN. Matton Rouge and we were actually talking
about it during the break there Certainly, high school football
recruiting has changed.
Speaker 6: We all know that.
Speaker 4: Ten years ago we used to have the old Bayou Bash.
Ten years ago, we used to do a live show
on CST from the Convention Center. As the signees came in,
we would break down every single signee on TV.
Speaker 6: Like, we all know that has changed. It is no
longer the same.
Speaker 4: The portal certainly has affected that as far as you
can get players out of the portal, and you might
only have a guy for a year. Sometimes they'll even
make it to their first fall. They get here in
January and they transfer before that's even over right, So
it's changed. The following every single day recruiting part has changed.
Speaker 6: I mean there used to be times I.
Speaker 4: Would do radio and that would be the lead topic
of a like high school recruiting and who LSU had
gotten and where their class is not the same there,
But still doesn't mean that LSU's not doing big things
in high school recruiting. It is still very important if
you're a football program to build the foundation of your
program through high school recruiting. You look at you know,
Michigan their national championship team, the Buckeyes last year.
Speaker 6: You look at Georgia in the back to back years.
Speaker 4: They have guys out of the portal for sure, but
the foundation of that team was through high school recruiting,
and so LSU's still doing big things in that realm
and Tite.
Speaker 6: They got another big commitment yesterday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, BIG's an understatement. Sixty six two ninety five. Emmanuel Tucker,
offensive tackle. Obviously at that size, four star player. He
was the seventeenth ranked offensive lineman for twenty twenty six.
The way I always look at it, Jake, it is
really hard, for whatever reason, to get guys in Mississippi
to leave the state. Brian Kelly has done a really
good job of that, and then when you look at
this O line class, it's actually coming together pretty good.
So she got Jalen Chapman already on board. He's an
interior player. Briceton Martinez we've talked about before from EA.
He's a tackle and you're still after the Maryland monster.
Emmanuel Ianacho, who not exactly a small guy, six seven,
three point fifty, He's going to be an interior player.
Speaker 7: Like, if you can land all those guys, you.
Speaker 1: Got four or five guys, do you really feel confident
about all in the same recruiting cycle.
Speaker 7: Like credit to Brad Davis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, more and more these elite offensive linemen. We saw
it last year, curious Kerrent, you flipped them from Arkansas
what a month and a half before signing day, and
then on signing day Solomon Thomas who was from Florida,
he had been committed to Florida State for like a year,
you flipped him on signing day. Like as good as
LSU's offensive lines have been, the sum's always been are
the hole has been greater than the sum of its parts.
You're now landing elite guys under Brad Davis.
Speaker 6: Yeah, right now in this upcoming class.
Speaker 4: You are second in the nation on on three dot
com team rankings, only USC right now ahead of you,
and that's because they have eighteen more guys committed than
you do. So that's why they have the number one spot.
Nobody has more five stars committed than you do. Only
Ohio State has the same amounts. So LSU right now
doing great things in this twenty twenty six cycle. We'll
see if it can continue, because, as we also talked
about during the break, you got to get to the
finish line.
Speaker 6: That finish line.
Speaker 4: Sometimes it feels like it is thirty miles away, but
you know here you are. You've got a great transfer
portal class. You've had top ten classes over the last
couple of years. You did finish with a lot of
the things that we talked about last year. We'll see
if they can hold on to all the players that
are here in this class. All right, when we come back,
we are going to be joined by Mikey Matuk. He's
gonna come hang out with us for a full hour
breakdown LSU Baseball Omaha, his experience, what it's like when
you go the full distance, all of that.
Speaker 6: When we come back, hour number two of OTB.
Speaker 2: Off the Bench.
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