Latest / Out of Bounds with Bo Bounds / Mississippi State Mid-Summer Update: Kamario Taylor, Lebby, O’Connor & the Portal || Steve Robertson

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Mississippi State Mid-Summer Update: Kamario Taylor, Lebby, O’Connor & the Portal || Steve Robertson · Out of Bounds with Bo Bounds

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  Speaker 1: We are excited to have Steve Robertson Helstate Insider jeanspage
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  Speaker 1: dot com two four seven sports. He joins us on
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  Speaker 1: the Farm Bureau Insurance guest line, brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: Mississippi's College Town. Direct flights from Atlanta and Delta Airlines
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  Speaker 1: today direct flights from American Airlines Dallas Fort Worth when
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  Speaker 1: you land your less than fifteen minutes from the campus
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  Speaker 1: of Mississippi State University, Duty Noble and the Cotton District
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  Speaker 1: and Davis Wade and so on. MS Mississippi's College Town,
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  Speaker 1: We welcome in Steve Robertson to the show. Steve, good morning.
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  Speaker 2: How you doing man, I'm doing great.
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  Speaker 1: How are you doing good, buddy? Well, I'm doing better
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  Speaker 1: than our listeners that are asking a lot of questions
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  Speaker 1: about Mississippi State football recruiting or the lack thereof. So
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  Speaker 1: my text line has been full of this for a
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  Speaker 1: couple of weeks and we had to address it with you.
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  Speaker 1: How concerned are you with the Mississippi State football high
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  Speaker 1: school recruiting, Steve.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I am concerned, and to suggest otherwise would to
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  Speaker 3: be disingenuous. I mean, because you don't you shouldn't lose
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  Speaker 3: prospects of interest from within thirty forty minutes of your campus.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we've built the program on young men from
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  Speaker 3: Ackerman and Lewis Holle and you know, places like that.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
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  Speaker 3: You know, when you're competing head to head with Old
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  Speaker 3: miss you're gonna split most of the players in the state.
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  Speaker 3: But the guys that kind of grow up in the
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  Speaker 3: shadow of your own goalposts, you'll expect to get those
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  Speaker 3: and to lose those to Old miss A is a
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  Speaker 3: gut punch. I mean, granted, the process it and over,
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  Speaker 3: but what we have seen in recent years with these
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  Speaker 3: summer official visits is the majority of June commitments are sticking.
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  Speaker 2: And that's important to understand.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, Arnett and brought just got there. So Golding
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  Speaker 1: has been in the state, as you know. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: he's been at Alabama recruiting the state of Mississippi, then
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  Speaker 1: at Ole Miss as you know. So it's DC now
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  Speaker 1: he's the head coach, Steve So when you when you
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  Speaker 1: flip out of Coleman Hustler and you're as bad as
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  Speaker 1: you are on the defensive side of the football, it's
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  Speaker 1: a tough sell for our net. And he's just now
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  Speaker 1: cultivating these relationships. I'm Steve, I guess in January and
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  Speaker 1: February leading into the big June commitments that you're talking about.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and not to mention too. I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 3: state's had three consecutive losing seasons. I mean, you look
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  Speaker 3: at what Old Miss has done the last three years.
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  Speaker 3: Ole Miss is the sex of your team within the State,
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  Speaker 3: and anybody denies that as just being dishonest with themselves.
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  Speaker 2: That's the reality of it. Now.
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  Speaker 3: Granted they've made a coaching change, but there is some
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  Speaker 3: continuity there.
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  Speaker 2: As you mentioned, those relationships carry over.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, Pete Golding's been, you know, recruiting some of
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  Speaker 3: these defensive kids and s they were in middle school, right,
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  Speaker 3: they were coming to Old Miss camp. They were going
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  Speaker 3: to Missippi Day Camp. So Zach Arnett is a new
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  Speaker 3: name to many of these players. Well, Pete Golding's the
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  Speaker 3: guy that, hey, I remember we had you in camp
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  Speaker 3: as a seventh grader, right, I mean, you know, those
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  Speaker 3: kinds of things matter. I mean, and for young people,
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  Speaker 3: when you're making the first adult decision of your life,
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  Speaker 3: you want it to be as comfortable as possible. And
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  Speaker 3: that's what continuity breaths.
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  Speaker 1: What are your expectations from here? Is it basically come
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  Speaker 1: down to winning some football games in September and October
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  Speaker 1: and November and getting some kind of juice and buzz
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  Speaker 1: to start to change. Not that they're going to get
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  Speaker 1: some of the players that already committed, like you're talking about,
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  Speaker 1: but to start to make Hay in the in the
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  Speaker 1: next class or even some of the border state prospects.
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  Speaker 3: Steve Well, absolutely, you know, you can always sell a
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  Speaker 3: promise for so long. You've got to have some productivity.
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  Speaker 3: And you go back to the Dan Moullen era. Right
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  Speaker 3: when Dan first got here, Right, all Dan had is like, hey,
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  Speaker 3: I coached Tim Tebow. But people were still giving, you know,
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  Speaker 3: Urban all the credit for that. They're like, oh, well,
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  Speaker 3: Dan couldn't win without Urban. And I think we saw
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  Speaker 3: eventually that, you know, Urban struggle without Dan. But in
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  Speaker 3: the beginning, all Dan Mullin had to shall was a vision.
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  Speaker 3: Well then after twenty ten and you beat Georgia, you
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  Speaker 3: beat Florida, you go crush Michigan, you know in the
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  Speaker 3: in the bowl game, in the Gator Bowl. Well, now
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  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, it's like, hey, well this guy
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  Speaker 3: does know what he's talking about.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's kind of one of.
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  Speaker 3: The things that Jeff Levy has to do this year
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  Speaker 3: is granted, you've had the benefit of the transfer poole,
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  Speaker 3: but you've also had the detriment of the transfer pool.
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  Speaker 2: Right. So you've had a lot of guys leave. Some
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  Speaker 2: of them were your choice, some of them weren't.
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  Speaker 3: But you've got to win some football games to get
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  Speaker 3: kids to buy.
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  Speaker 1: In Steve robertson jeans page dot com. Which one hurt
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  Speaker 1: the most?
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  Speaker 3: When's Jarvis Schuemaker thing from Akerman in Chaktaw County. That hurts,
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  Speaker 3: But the Mitchell Turner thing hurts a lot too. Now
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  Speaker 3: you learn a lot in hindsight, right. I was told
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  Speaker 3: basically two days after Turner committed announce his commitment to
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  Speaker 3: Old Miss that he had told Old Miss before he
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  Speaker 3: visited Mississippi State, like the day before he began his
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  Speaker 3: official and stargled he had already told Old Miss that
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  Speaker 3: he was coming. He just wanted to get through his
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  Speaker 3: visit at Missippi State. And then he gets the state,
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  Speaker 3: has a better time than he expected. He's conflicted for
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  Speaker 3: a little bit, but ultimately picked All Miss.
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  Speaker 2: So in many respects.
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  Speaker 3: While State may have caused a little bit of a
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  Speaker 3: wobble there, things went to script for Old miss because
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  Speaker 3: they were already in a good position heading into the visit.
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  Speaker 1: Ideally, how many players would you like for them to
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  Speaker 1: sign in high school?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think that number one. Can you retain them? Right?
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  Speaker 3: High school recruiting, And we see it in our own readership, right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean used to. You know, recruiting is what drove
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  Speaker 2: the industry.
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  Speaker 3: But what fans are showing us is that, hey, we're
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  Speaker 3: interested in high school recruiting, but it's not like it
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  Speaker 3: once was.
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  Speaker 2: We're more interested in portal recruiting.
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  Speaker 3: And so I think if you're Mississippi State, what I
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  Speaker 3: would do is I would probably sign about twenty a
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  Speaker 3: year and then spend everything else in the portal you
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  Speaker 3: used to, I would say, hey, you gotta get twenty
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  Speaker 3: five guys, and I remember what you know, when you
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  Speaker 3: signed thirty, people are like, oh my gosh, they're over signing.
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  Speaker 2: You know what.
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  Speaker 3: The game has changed so much in the last ten years,
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  Speaker 3: and so you can't go over commit to high school
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  Speaker 3: players because there's no guarantee they're going to be with
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  Speaker 3: you for two or three years. And so you're constantly
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  Speaker 3: having a supplement. That's why it's so important to get
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  Speaker 3: kids that grow up cheering for Mississippi State. Kids that
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  Speaker 3: are you know, can share the experience with their families.
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  Speaker 3: And that's that's what makes all this localized recruiting and
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  Speaker 3: favorable miss so painful for the Mississippi State because kids
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  Speaker 3: from Lewisville and Ackerman. You don't expect those guys to transfer,
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  Speaker 3: and now all of a sudden, that's kind of eroading
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  Speaker 3: what you're hoping to build on your high school recruiting.
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  Speaker 1: Base right, because thirty five portal players a year is
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  Speaker 1: not sustainable.
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  Speaker 2: Is it, Steve? Absolutely not.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I know some people are trying to
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  Speaker 3: build a program on that, and you see so much
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  Speaker 3: up and.
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  Speaker 2: Down with it.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to have a nucleus of high school players
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  Speaker 3: that stick with you just because of the fact if
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  Speaker 3: your portal reliant, I mean.
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  Speaker 2: And we see it to push over to baseball too.
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  Speaker 3: You remember in Michigan State, like everybody's like, oh my gosh,
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  Speaker 3: they're the portal kings.
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  Speaker 2: Look at what they did, and two years later everybody's fired.
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  Speaker 3: Right, you can't be so reliant on the portal because
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  Speaker 3: at some point you're going to land a bad portal class.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, just look at what Jay Johnson had an
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  Speaker 3: LSU this year, right, I mean inform BASEBALLO. Yeah, you
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  Speaker 3: simply cannot continue to bet your livelihood on a portal
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  Speaker 3: class every single year.
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  Speaker 2: At some point, you've got to have a strong nucleus.
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  Speaker 1: Didn't you tell me? O'Connor wants to start the process
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  Speaker 1: of shifting more to hot I mean, he knows he's
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  Speaker 1: got to use and leverage the portal, but he wants
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  Speaker 1: to get it to where he can get some classes
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  Speaker 1: in and retain them and not have to go as
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  Speaker 1: heavy portal in the future. Maybe after this year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think ideally what O'Connor would like to do is
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  Speaker 3: Number one, when you're in Mississippi State, your LSU, your
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  Speaker 3: Ole miss or Arkansas, you've got to go out and
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  Speaker 3: get as much competition as you can for your roster, right,
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  Speaker 3: So you're never going to be in a situation where
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  Speaker 3: you're not working the portal. But I think O'Connor's last
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  Speaker 3: year at Virginia he signed five or six guys out
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  Speaker 3: of the portal.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if you can do that in the SEC.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's probably got to be somewhere around ten,
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  Speaker 3: depending on how things play out, because with the five
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  Speaker 3: or five things may change a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe you're a little less reliant.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, he said before, you've got to have players
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  Speaker 3: that buy into your program and stay with you three years,
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  Speaker 3: and then you supplement each year out of the portal.
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  Speaker 3: He said that last year's class would probably be the
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  Speaker 3: biggest portal class he ever signed, and that makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: Bringing in his own players.
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  Speaker 1: Sure.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this year's class is still.
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  Speaker 3: Going to probably settle somewhere around twelve thirteen, but it's
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  Speaker 3: gonna be smarter than last year.
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  Speaker 2: And I think next year maybe you can go down
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  Speaker 2: even more.
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  Speaker 1: Steve robertson jeans page dot com two four seven Sports
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  Speaker 1: on the out of Bounds show back to football and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: then I'll we'll do some baseball here in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So there's some buzz on Camaro Taylor, right,
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  Speaker 1: and we know he's talented, but you know he goes
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  Speaker 1: down to Manning passing Academy. People get excited. You like
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  Speaker 1: to see that the fans are getting excited about something.
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  Speaker 1: If you take the spring, Steve from your sources, you know,
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  Speaker 1: did he take a couple of steps forward, and do
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  Speaker 1: you believe as a true sophomore he can really be
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  Speaker 1: the leader of the team and the driving force on offense.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think he already is. And again just talking
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  Speaker 3: to people in the a building, even from the first
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  Speaker 3: day that he got here. You know, he's that gregarious personality,
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  Speaker 3: already has some credibility when he walks in the room
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  Speaker 3: and now all of a sudden, you know, you put
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  Speaker 3: him out there, let him start the egg ball, and
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  Speaker 3: he had a pretty good game. I wouldn't say it's
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  Speaker 3: a great game. You have a pretty good game, and
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  Speaker 3: he had a pretty good Bowl game. The step that
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  Speaker 3: we've heard that he's made is decision making, you know,
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  Speaker 3: during the spring is just being more comfortable in the offense,
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  Speaker 3: knowing where the checkdowns are, understanding his progressions, and not
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  Speaker 3: being a one read quarterback. And so that's what you
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  Speaker 3: expect long term when you begin to get some reps,
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  Speaker 3: and that's really what he needs, his reps.
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  Speaker 2: He has all the talent in the world.
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  Speaker 3: And the fun thing for me is, like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've covered this young man as a recruit out of
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  Speaker 3: high school, you know, and we've understood the magnetism that
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  Speaker 3: he has right and then all of a sudden he
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  Speaker 3: goes down to Manny Passion Academy and there's all these
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  Speaker 3: people that have never seen him play on TV or
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  Speaker 3: in person. They're like, holy smokes, seventy yards just with
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  Speaker 3: the flick of the rest. I mean, you know he
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  Speaker 3: has all the physical skills. Now, it's hey, can we
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  Speaker 3: within the frame work this offense utilize him in a
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  Speaker 3: way that gives stated a chance at the winning season
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  Speaker 3: this year? And that's really the question. But if you're
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: a Mississippi State fan you've needed something to get excited about,
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  Speaker 3: Camaro Taylor is absolutely worth your attention.
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  Speaker 1: What if they're just a little bit better or not,
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  Speaker 1: I mean on the offensive line, I'm not sure it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be as drastic or as big a step
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  Speaker 1: as some people are talking about. But if they're a
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  Speaker 1: little bit better and now you've got a mobile dual
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  Speaker 1: threat QB along with fluff, that makes them even better too,
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  Speaker 1: right the unit, and it.
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  Speaker 3: Opens up to ourpo game even more because you have
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  Speaker 3: to respect Camarrio's ability to run the football and a
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  Speaker 3: healthy pluff bothwell is a problem for a lot of people, right,
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  Speaker 3: And the fact that Camarrio can be a plus. Runner
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  Speaker 3: opens up more opportunities for fluff and so I think
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  Speaker 3: that's the aspect of it.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, yeah, I'm with you. I do expect
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  Speaker 2: the offerensive line to be better.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not going to delude myself into thinking three weeks
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  Speaker 3: into the season this is going to be you know,
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  Speaker 3: the ninety five Cowboys or anything like that. Right, but
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  Speaker 3: the left tackle spot is still you know, we'll see
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  Speaker 3: you know.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, Jakiem Shumper.
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  Speaker 3: Perkins is the guy that Jeff Levy says is the
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  Speaker 3: most improved wh I'm in on the team.
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  Speaker 2: He's got an NFL talent.
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  Speaker 3: You get Miles mcday works on one side, Blake Stein's
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  Speaker 3: back on the other.
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  Speaker 1: With when Levy said that about Shumper, so he redshirted
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  Speaker 1: last year. Uh, you know, Levy's one of the most
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  Speaker 1: optimistic people in the world. So were you surprised that
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  Speaker 1: he went that far with somebody who's never had a
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  Speaker 1: rep in college.
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  Speaker 2: Yes?
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  Speaker 3: And I asked him a little bit later in the spring,
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  Speaker 3: you know, because the first time he makes the comment,
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  Speaker 3: You're like, Okay, maybe the kids had a good week
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: of practice, right, We'll get to the end of the
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  Speaker 3: spring and he couldn't have been more positive about Shumper.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, you go out and sign eight out
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  Speaker 3: of the portal and then the guy that you feel
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  Speaker 3: like is the most advanced is a guy that red
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  Speaker 3: shirted within your program last year, you know, and which
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  Speaker 3: I think kind of speaks the point we're making earlier.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to have a balance. You can't just go
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  Speaker 3: out and expect to get the plug and play portal guy.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to have some guys that are willing to
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  Speaker 3: develop and your coaches have got.
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  Speaker 2: To bring the best out of them.
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  Speaker 3: And so I think having Schumfert as a guy that
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  Speaker 3: could play left or right tackle gives you a lot
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  Speaker 3: of flexibility. I think they have three tackles right now.
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  Speaker 3: They can play within this league. And what's so crazy
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: is you talk to everybody in the building, they'll tell
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  Speaker 3: you the interior offensive line is the strength. You know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: you feel like with Chester slotting in their guard and
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: proved them at the other side, these are guys that
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: have sec snaps under their belt.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I feel a lot better.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, this time last year we felt pretty
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  Speaker 3: good because you had so many returning pieces on the
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  Speaker 3: offensive line. Then Stein goes down for the year. Albert
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Reese has hurt much of the year. Luke work has
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: hurt much of the year. And then you got to
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: throw guys out there aren't ready to play, and uh,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: you know, with a quarterback that just didn't have the
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: ability to kind of feel the pressure at times, and uh,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: you saw what we got. But yeah, it should be
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: a better group of out of everybody can stay healthy.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Hight Steve robertson jeans page dot com on the Farm
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Bureau Insurance guest line. Outside of Evans, who's the playmaker
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: for Camrio? We talked about fluff in the backfield. I'm
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: talking about receiver slots, tight ends, whatever you want to
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: call him, Steve, that is we.
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  Speaker 3: Talk about you bringing these receivers in. You know, Marquise
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Johnson's the guy that's got a tremendous amount of ability.
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  Speaker 2: Uh. I didn't think he had a.
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  Speaker 3: Great spring, and I've heard it's one of those things
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  Speaker 3: where he's just trying to pick it up a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, he's a guy that could be interesting.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, I wrote about this yesterday. Everything's well,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: how do we replace Brendon Thompson. Well, you replaced Brenda
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Thompson the same way you replace Kevin Coleman. Right, both
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: of those guys are in the league now. Once Kevin
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Coleman came in here, he had never done anything in college.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: He had the best year of his college career transfer
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: to Missouri, and Regresses had one touchdown catch last year. Now,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: granted he ends up as a fit round pick of
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: the Dolphins. Chad Bumpus and Jeff Levy both have told
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: me it's not the player, it's that position within this
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: offense that is going to be a productive position in
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: this offense because it's designed for that. And so everybody
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: freaked out, well, how in the world that we replaced
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Kevin Coleman. Oh, you signed this kid from Oklahoma, Burnon
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Thomas has never done anything. All he does is go
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: out instead of school record, you know. And so it's
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: not the personality, it's the principal within the offense. And
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: so I think because of the fact that you know,
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: through Jeff Levy's career, they have found a way to
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: get that particular position to football and get them in
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: matchups or advantageous You're going to see a lot of
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: that this year.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Steve Robertson jeans page dot com two four seven. Sports
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: people are frustrated with the the Road Dogs Tour getting
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: canceled and there's just not a lot of buzz and
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: people aren't out, you know, shaking hands and kissing babies
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: with the Mississippi State faithful. What's your reaction to that, Steve?
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Someone that's warranted, you know, And I know a lot
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: of people have said, hey, you know, with all these
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: new expenditures and REAP share and stuff, and things have
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: to get cut.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: But you know, I see a lot of other schools
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: out there doing that.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: And quite frankly, I think in times of distress, that's
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: when you need to be more visible. It's not just
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: when hey, things are going great. You know, we got
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: back Prescott, we got Ben Mullum. You know, we got
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: a chance to go compete for the SEC West. You know,
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: those years are fun, but they're not as needful when
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: you're struggling a little bit. To create some enthusiasm for
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: the program, you've got to go manufacture that. I think
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: you have to go out there and you have to
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: be visible. You have to answer those difficult questions at times.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: But the main thing is people just want to be
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: He can accomplish that and start ball.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: I think you've got to get out and go.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And again, I don't know all the details behind the decision,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: but I know if it were me and my organization
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: and my business and we were in times of crisis,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I would be there.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: I would go.
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: Out there and speak to my benefactors and the shareholders
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: within my own program, and I would provide them some
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: level of assurance of you know what we're doing to
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: get to where we want to be.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more. Let's go to baseball. Give me
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: how would you sum up O'Connor's portal class to date?
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Okay, and I love the offensive pieces and we knew
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: kind of going into this thing. You had to prioritize
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: the bullpen because you weren't going to be able to
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: get bona fide weekend starters to come in here. Know,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: when you're returning your entire week in rotation, you may
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: get a spot starter, and listen, you're never going to
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: go through the full year with the same three guys.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: You need a four starter. You needed to cultivate a
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: younger guy to be your midweek guy. But you can
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: never have enough starters. But it's difficult to get people
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: because their agents are all tell them, even the really,
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: hey you need to go somewhere you.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Can start right right.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: So, but I think offensively, there's no ace rees in
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: this group. Okay, let's just go ahead and settle that.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: But I think it as a collective, it's probably the
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: best offensive class that we've ever signed in the portal.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: And then you go out and you get some bullpen
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: pieces and everybody knows them. How many games last year
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: do we get a great start and then couldn't.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Close the ballgates?
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: I go back and think about Texas, Texas A and
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: m you know, uh, those are games you know Arkansas
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: for that matter. You know, you look at so many
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: of these things when we had bullpen issues. Now, granted,
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: you lose Ryan McPherson for two months, to lose William
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Kirk for the year, guys have to move up.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: But this is Mississippi State. Okay.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: Nobody's ever going to say it's okay to have a
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: lack of depth at Mississippi State.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And I think O'Connor is taking steps to ensure that
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: that's never a convenient excuse for anybody.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, And so the starting rotate, you know, Tomas McPherson
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and Duke are back, and Jack Bauer could compete for
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: one of those spots. Is that fair?
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: And then you know, we'll see what happens with you know,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: William Kirk, you know, I mean you know him and
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: he was a guy too that was you know, if
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: he gets he stays healthy, you know, Billingsley remains a bullpen.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Piece, right and uh, you know, of course.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Bill's and I headed the Coastal Carolina and they're they're
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: going to try to turn him into a weekend starter.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And I think he's got good stuff. I wish him
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: the best.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: And in that league, right, I mean you begin to
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: kind of think about, you know, maybe jumping from JUCO
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: to the SEC and then being forced into these roles
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: which a good off morning can schee. But I tell
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: you what, the kid did not cower down. And uh
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: and and I wish him the best. I mean he's
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: I traded some text with him after he committed to
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Coastal and just wish him the best.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: And uh, they got big plans for him.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: And that's the thing too, if you begin to think
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: about him half after a year with Parker and how
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: much he learned and now you've.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Got the five to five right.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: So yeah, he's a guy that maybe maybe work his
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: way into, you know, a middle round pick within a
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: year or so.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Who knows, right, all right, the one picture you're excited
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: about in the O'Connor Parker landed the portal, I got
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: a minute.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: I really like the shine Flue kid. There's some guys
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: and that obviously has some ability. But what I like
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: about the Shineflut guy, he's a left handed and he's
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: kind of a kind of a he's kind of got.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: A different delivery, but that change up is absolutely incredible.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: And uh, I think that he is a guy that
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: makes you a lot better just because of the fact
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: that he's not just a matchup guy.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: He could you could ride him for three or four innings.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: And you need guys that have some flex like that.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: You don't just need a lefty left the specialist. I mean,
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: you need one of those guys on your roster. But
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: when you've got a guy like him who can start
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: for you, it can be a longer lever or he
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: can be a closer for you. Uh. That gives you
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: a lot of options to work with. And so I
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: really like him as he did, and uh, I think
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: they've done well. And uh, you know, we'll see what
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: this high school class looks like after the.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Weekend with the draft.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Uh and then you know, you may have to recalibrate,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: make some other adjustments. But uh, yeah, I think Missippi
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: State is going to bring an extremely talented group