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 Hellstate 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, you're less than fifteen minutes from the campus
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  Speaker 1: of Mississippi State University, Duty Noble and the Cotton District
• 0:31
  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.
• 0:42
  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 Lewisville 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.
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  Speaker 2: Change.
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  Speaker 1: Not that they're going to get some of the players
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  Speaker 1: that already committed, like you're talking about, but to start
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  Speaker 1: to make Hay in the in the next class or
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  Speaker 1: 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 in 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 Ole 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. And so I think
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  Speaker 2: if you're.
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  Speaker 3: Mississippi State, what I would do is I would probably
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  Speaker 3: sign about twenty a year and then spend everything else
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  Speaker 3: in the portal you used to, I would say, hey,
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  Speaker 3: you gotta get twenty five guys, and I remember what
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  Speaker 3: you know, when you signed thirty, people are like, oh
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  Speaker 3: 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 base.
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  Speaker 1: Right, because thirty five portal players a year is 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 down with it. You've got to have a
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  Speaker 3: nucleus of high school players that stick with you just
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  Speaker 3: because of the fact if 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 baseball point. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you simply cannot continue to bet your livelihood on a
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  Speaker 3: portal 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 3: bringing in his own players.
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this year's class is still going to probably settle
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  Speaker 3: somewhere around twelve thirteen, but it's gonna be smarter than
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  Speaker 3: 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 Jean's page dot com two four seven Sports
• 9:09
  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
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: him out there, let him start the egg ball, and
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: he had a pretty good game.
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it's a great game. You have a
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  Speaker 2: pretty good game, and he had a pretty good Bowl game.
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  Speaker 3: The step that we've heard that he's made is decision making,
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  Speaker 3: you know, during the spring is just being more comfortable
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  Speaker 3: in the offense, knowing where the checkdowns are, understanding his progressions,
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  Speaker 3: and not being a one read quarterback. And so that's
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  Speaker 3: what you expect long term when you begin to get
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  Speaker 3: some reps, 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
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: in person.
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  Speaker 2: They're like, holy.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Smokes, seventy yards just with the flick of the rest.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you know he has all the physical skills. Now,
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  Speaker 3: it's hey, can we within the frame work this offense
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: utilize him in a way that gives stated a chance
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  Speaker 3: at the winning season this year? And that's really the question.
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  Speaker 3: But if you're a Mississippi State fan you've needed something
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  Speaker 3: to get excited about, 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
• 11:22
  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,
• 11:31
  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
• 11:48
  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,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the ninety five Cowboys or anything like that. Right, but
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: the left tackle spot is still you know, we'll see
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  Speaker 3: you know. Of course, Jekiem s Shemper Perkins is the
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  Speaker 3: guy that Jeff Levy says is the most improved while
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  Speaker 3: I'm in on the team, 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
• 12:31
  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 spring,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: and he couldn't have been more positive about Shumper. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, you go out and sign eight out of
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  Speaker 3: the portal, and then the guy that you feel like
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  Speaker 3: is the most advanced is a guy that red shirted
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: within your program last year, you know, and which I
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: think kind of speaks the point we're making earlier. You've
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  Speaker 3: got to have a balance. You can't just go out
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: 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
• 13:34
  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
• 13:51
  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: H right. Steve robertson jeans page dot com on the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Farm Bureau Insurance guest line. Outside of Evans, who's the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: playmaker for Camrio? We talked about fluff in the backfield.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about receiver slots, tight ends, whatever you want
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: to call him, Steve, that is we.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Talk about you bringing these receivers in.
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  Speaker 3: You know, Marquise Johnson's the guy that's got a tremendous
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: amount of ability.
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  Speaker 2: Uh. I didn't think he.
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  Speaker 3: Had a great spring, and I've heard it's one of
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: those things where he's just trying to pick it up
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  Speaker 3: 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.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Right, both of those guys are in the league now.
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  Speaker 3: Once Kevin Coleman came in here, he had never done
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: anything in college. He had the best year of his
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: college career transfer to Missouri, and Regresses had one touchdown
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: catch last year. Now, granted he ends up as a
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: fit round pick of the Dolphins. Chad Bumpus and Jeff
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Levy both have told me it's not the player, it's
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: that position within this offense that is going to be
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: a productive position in this offense because it's designed for that.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: And so everybody freaked out, well, how in the world
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: that we replaced Kevin Coleman. Oh, you signed this kid
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: from Oklahoma, Burnon Thomas has never done anything. All he
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: does is go out instead of school record, you know.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: And so it's not the personality, it's the principal within
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: the offense. And so I think because of the fact
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: that you know, through Jeff Levy's career, they have found
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: a way to get that particular position to football and
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: get them in matchups or advantageous You're going to see
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: a lot of 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. I would go out there and
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: speak to my benefactors and the shareholders within my own program,
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: and I would provide them some level of assurance of
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: you know what we're doing to get to where we
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: 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?
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: And I love the offensive pieces and we knew kind
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: of going into this thing. You had to prioritize the
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: bullpen because you weren't going to be able to get
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: bona fide weekend starters to come in here. Know, when
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: you're returning your entire week in rotation, you may get
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: a spot starter, and listen, you're never going to go
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: through the full year with the same three guys. You
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: need a four starter. You needed to cultivate a younger
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: guy to be your midweek guy. But you can never
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: have enough starters. But it's difficult to get people because
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: their agents are all tell them, even the really, hey
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: you need to go somewhere you can.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: 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, with him
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: and he was a guy too, that was you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: if he gets he stays healthy, you know, Billingsley remains
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: 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.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Good off morning can schee.
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: But I tell you what, the kid did not cower down.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: And uh, and and I wish him the best. I
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: mean he's I traded some text with him after he
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: committed to 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 flu 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 Shine Flot guy, he's a left handed and
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: he's 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.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: That gives you a lot of options to work with.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: And so I really like him as you did. And
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I think they've done well. And you know, we'll see
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: what this high school class looks like after the.
• 21:05
  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 yeah, I think Missipistia is
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: going to bring an extremely talented group of campus.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I got thirty seconds. Give me a percentage on Menuskalka.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: You know, I would lean more towards fifty five percent
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: of him signing, just because you don't reclass to come
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: to college, right if you reclass for the draft on
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: the baseball side of things, and I think the fact
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: that his dad was a minor league baseball player that
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: made a triple A. He's mentally he's prepared for this,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: probably as well as anybody in the country. But I
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: understand the number is significant. You know, he's not gonna
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: you know, he's got a great situation and he's not
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: gonna sign for peanuts. So I can't totally rule it out.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: But I would say, as if today, I would lean
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: a little bit more towards him signing just because of
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: his actions.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Steve robertson jeans page dot com. We'll be back in
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a second.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: M m
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm.