Rippee Writes: Ole Miss takes series from Kentucky

0:00The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Dallow, the Bleacher Report app today, so you never miss a moment. Rippy Rites with Brian Scott-Libby. Transcripts can be obtained by drinking a fifth of bourbon, rammy, or heads, or some drywall, and then writing down everything you have. What is up? I'm Brian Scott-Rippy. Thanks for tuning in to another edition of the Rippy Rites podcast. It is our Sunday SEC baseball conversation with Colin Brister. We talked about the Rebels massive series win over a ranked Kentucky team. The characters who made it happen, and I think is the theme of the podcast, is there was

1:02just more. It was more than two wins. It was the people who made it happen. Where all this goes from here? The Cade Townsend News, which seems to be good by all measures for a miss, and a whole lot more. There was a lot to unpack from this top-sea-turvy series that had a lot of storylines. I think you'll enjoy this conversation before we get to that, though, and take one quick break. This podcast is also brought to you by Watson Turnipsy Attorney Law. Watson Turnipsy, a friend of the show, one of the smartest people I know. Have you been entered in a car accident work? Have the insurance companies denied your storm-related claim? Right now, IStorm, or the insurance companies denying your IStorm-related claim, get more than one call with North Mississippi's premier boutique law firm Watson Turnipsy at law. Watson has offices in the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans and focuses on client-based relationships to ensure the best outcome. For the last four years, Watson has assisted clients in recovering millions of dollars related to anyone, any personal injury, or insurance claims. Get more than one call, get Watson, and beat them all. Visit WatsonTurnipsylaw.com for more details, or call 504-636-8217.

2:10Give them a call today. He's already helped our list some of our listeners out. If you're dealing with some IStorm-related claims, they are having trouble with the insurance companies. This is WatsonTurnipsy at law.com or call them at 504-636-8217. This podcast is brought to you by the Cowboy Country Club. The Cowboy Country Club was founded by two Ole Miss Crads. It is a made-up country club with over 30,000 members. It is a lifestyle brand that celebrates the both rugged and refined sides of life. Cowboy Country Club challenges the nation that exclusivity requires extravagance. Their collections are designed for those who move seamlessly from the country to the club. Cowboy Country Club doesn't have customers. They have members. Unfortunately, they're still taking new members, and their only initiation fee is making a purchase from the online pro shop, cowboycountryclub.com. These are the best hats and shirts in the world. I'm wearing a Cowboy Country Club hat right now. They're awesome. Go check them out today. All you have to become a member is, again, make a purchase on the online pro shop.

3:13Find them on social media at Cowboy Country Club or Cowboy Country Club. Go buy your hat, go buy your shirt, go check out all the awesome merch they have. It's an incredible golf and lifestyle brand. I love all of my Cowboy Country Club merch, and just releasing this podcast will give you a phrase that pays. Use the promo code HottieTotty20 for a nice little discount. Again, just releasing this show. Happy to have Cowboy Country Club onboard this podcast, looking forward to the partnership. And I thank them greatly for the support of the podcast. Go buy some merch. You'll thank me later. It's awesome. Cowboycountryclub.com. Okay. Here's Colin. All right. We now welcome on RippyRite's baseball correspondent, Colin Brister. The Rebels take two or three from 15th ranked Kentucky in a series they are felt like they kind of just had to have with what they have in front of them. They win a wild back and forth game three on Saturday. Certainly wasn't a perfect series by any means, but we talked about it last week. They need to go four and two to find a way to go four and two to feel good about themselves

4:19in this kind of six game week in homestand. I'll call it and going four and two would have been nearly impossible with a series lost this weekend. And just it felt like they pulled one out early on in the season that they kind of had to have. What did you think? Yeah. I thought it was a really beyond, you know, obviously winning two games. I felt the way they won them was encouraging for a multitude of reasons. I mean, you look at Thursday night and you get vintage hunter Elliott that, you know, the guy we all expect him to be, right? And then that raid comes in and does what he does. And then on Saturday, I mean, you look at that, you're down eight to six in the six and show a lot of grit, you know, show a lot of poise, don't panic. Walker Hook has a phenomenal outing, gives up only the home run that taught it in a really tough environment to pitch in yesterday. And so, yes, winning two baseball games is what you needed. That was the goal. Obviously, much preferred to win three, but, you know, with with Cade Townsend, not there,

5:24you pretty much had to be perfect on Friday night and they weren't. And so, yes, winning two baseball games is very good, but I think the story is more of how they won them, because if, how they won them is any indication on how the rest of the season is going to go, this is going to be pretty good. I completely agree. And I think maybe a source of the frustration or maybe the angst going into game three on Saturday, while as much as it was true of how they won the two games or end up winning the two games. But at that point, just winning the one on Friday was also how they, oh, excuse me, on Thursday, how they lost on Friday in game two, where you have a night where you're going against Kentucky's ace, Jelkin, who was really, really good through basically everything in the strike zone, really just kind of mowed all misdown for the entirety of the night. But you don't have Cade Townsend, as you mentioned, and we'll get to that in a second. It sounds like a great, we hadn't talked since last Sunday. It sounds like all things considered a really good prognosis.

6:26There was no way in the world he was going to pitch, no matter what this week. And I didn't think I just felt that to be a long shot. But you don't, so you don't have Cade Townsend. I was curious how they were going to handle the pitching. And they bring Raybin to go behind Elliott on Thursday, whereas Calhoun has normally been the bridge. Well, Calhoun is awesome. Doesn't allow a hit through three innings. And then in typical, that's a typical fashion. The season's still young. I don't know if you can go there yet. But just this team has had defensive lapses at times so far this year. And some of it's kind of like a multi-year thing. They had this last year and definitely the year before, where they just, they're head-scratching ones. It's not just like they're just not good enough in the outfield or I think not the outfield. They drop three flop balls in an inning. One of them, as Mike, I thought accurately mentioned after the game, the first one, Federico missed, just popped out of his glove, would have been a nice play. But the other one from Federico, and then the other one, I believe, was from Bacetta, the two others, they just have to be caught.

7:29And they just didn't catch the baseball. And Kentucky scores all three of its runs in one inning and they win the game. So all things considered as a three-to-one loss to Kentucky, the end of the world on a night where they're throwing their ace and your best pitcher this year is out. No, but it just, to me, felt like one of the more frustrating losses so far this year and just it felt like a gigantic missed opportunity after how well Thursday went. And I think that's what made, I don't know, about you for a mid-mark series in the second weekend of SEC play, yesterday felt like a really big game to going into it. Did you feel the same way? Absolutely, because if you, after two of the kids, if you're two and four, where the bulldogs come to town, they're different, different, different deals and, you know, if you're three and three because it, look, while all of this, obviously, was much prefer to win two and I would, I would much prefer them not to lose the series with Mississippi State. The reality is, even if you're four and five after next weekend, you're still okay.

8:31Yeah, you're okay. So this just kind of puts you in a good spot. And it shows you that you can't be good because I'm thinking that as I, Kentucky is a good baseball team. So, yeah, it's massive, Saturday was absolutely massive. I just, particularly after coming off Friday's loss, it's a frustrating loss that, like that, that we've seen in a lot in college baseball. Sometimes that can coax a bit of a spiral. And this was not a part of the schedule where we're all miscut afford to drop games that, you know, they could, should, whatever phrase you want to use, win. And so, responding in that way, particularly after getting down, you know, they get up five to two in the finale and then immediately give up a six, a six run top of the fourth inning or whatever that was at the fourth or fifth due to a pitching implosion. And it just felt like, man, they're, they're really going to let one slip away here and to battle back to your point about just kind of the makeup of this team and the resiliency

9:33was just a big win all around on Saturday. There's a lot to get through from this series. I, I thought we learned a lot about this team. I thought they were just a lot of really interesting storylines. It was kind of a jam pat weekend, but I want to start on Friday, Hunter Elliott's best outing of the year by far by his own admission. It was the best fastball command. He'd had this year. I saw he said that in his post game press conference. And you could tell, I mean, he goes seven innings, which is the first time he'd gone seven innings since all bird of last year, which was in May 15, I believe. And just looked really, really sharp. But at this point in the year, like after game one, Besetta hits two home runs. And like that cost is possible, basically, with Elliott playing a big part too, I mean, you could almost say, Besetta's, I don't know, takes credit for 80% of each of the two wins that Ole Miss had in college by that point. I'm going to go just quick sidebar season and today he's actually the player of the year, right? I don't see how he's not. He's got, I mean, I had just pulled up a second again.

10:36I mean, if you just look at his raw stat line, it's absurd. Yeah, it's pretty good nature stuff. And I just felt like in that game, Ole Miss is best two players, powered them, or I say two of their best players, powered them to a really good victory and a good start to the weekend, where Kentucky's kind of starting kind of a fill in lefty, who is pretty good, not great. But I don't know much about Kentucky, or I didn't know, I talked about Kentucky coming in this game. And they wanted to keep Jelkin on normal rest, and that's probably why they threw him on Friday. But I'm just looking at the totals here for Besetta, or at least I had it. Yeah, okay, he has eight home runs and 26 RBI and 15 games, I'd say that's pretty damn good. Yeah, that'll play. That'll play. I mean, wait, is that correct? I thought he had more. No, I actually think that is correct.

11:37No, he has more home runs than that. Yeah, I don't think Ole Miss is stat pages, they don't hold on. Let me, anyway, I'm going to screw that up. But point being, he is on an absolutely absurd tear right now. I'm sorry. I don't know what their Ole Miss is season-long stat page has got going on. Besetta has 14 home runs and 38 runs driven in, and they played 25 games. That seems alright. Jesus. Here's a, here's a crazier stat if I'm looking at this, right? He struck out 30 times, which, like, I'd say that to say this. So he's had 64 maps, where the ball has been put in play. 14 of 64 balls that he has hit have gone out of the park. That seems like a pretty good ratio, I would say he'd want to keep that up. I don't know. That's insane. 22% of the balls he puts in play go over the fence.

12:39So what is, I'm trying to find his OPS, I don't know, I'm going, this is what the problem is. I got the page, it's 1376. Is that any good? Yes, very good. That's the other one. I don't know, I was at his individual stats page, which is a while, which I don't know why that hasn't been updated in 10 games. Yeah, that'll play 1376, OPS, he's got, I mean, he's tripping in 38 runs in 25 games. I mean, that's just, that's, that's insane. And what's crazy, too, is Udermark is hitting the ball out of the ballpark in a ridiculous clip, too. He's got 10 home runs in 25 games in 26 RBI's, but it's, I won't say overshadowed, but Bissetta is clearly the story. It's just what he's doing is crazy. It just felt like, again, in another important game one, slash Friday night, even though it was on a Thursday situation, he just kind of put the team on his back. I mean, he drops in the two, three of the five runs that Ole Miss has on the night and in LA, it was really good.

13:40And you got to give Taylor a label out of credit for coming in game one and kind of serving, not kind of serving as the bridge and finishing out the game. He was really awesome for Ole Miss. What did you make of just how they handled filling in for Townsend? I think if I remember correctly, when we were talking last week, we kind of guessed it would probably be Raib starting and they wouldn't really mess with the two-play tandem 2.0, but they decided to go with Calhoun. Not a critique at all. I'm just curious. What did you make of that? Why do you think they did it that way? I genuinely have no idea. I think we both expected it to be Raib and I don't know if I, I mean, coming out of the weekend. The only thing I will say is coming out of preseason Calhoun was the fourth arm and I guess maybe they just thought he was the next best option to start. I don't think it was a matchup deal. I think they just thought he was the next best starter, but I don't know that. It's just kind of what my thinking is. I've got a theory for you. This could be totally wrong, but I read it down just because it popped in my head and

14:42I was at the game on Thursday. Excuse me, I was not at the game on Thursday. I went Friday and Saturday, but I was watching on TV on Thursday. My first thought was this and maybe this could be totally wrong. It was just a, just something I had thought of and I'm going to throw out there. He enters, he being Raib enters with a four-nothing lead after Elliott's seven shutout innings. If that game is like two to one Ole Miss, do you see Calhoun? Is there any merit to that theory at all? Like some of it was situational? Yeah, originally when I see the TBD and I was in the same thought process that I didn't think Kate Townsend was going to pitch was, oh, they're going TBD because they're going to win on Friday. They're going to do whatever they need to win on Thursday and they'll show up to a park on Friday and say, all right, well, you're starting today, buddy. So yes, I think there is a very real world where they would have done whatever they needed to do to win that game. Yeah, and I just wonder if it's a one, I mean, Calhoun's been, I mean Raib's been really good too, but Calhoun's been kind of there, I mean, I joke about the two-play tandem

15:44thing, but they're Mason Morris of last year. Elliott even referenced that at his press conference on after Thursday's win was he actually said it feels very similar to handing the ball off to Mason Morris last year, which if I'd have been in the media scrum, it would have been like, is that because they're both from two-plow, which probably wouldn't have played two-plow, but anyway, I just was curious. I don't know. I just wondered if it was like a one-run game when they've handled it any differently. It worked out, not a critique. I mean, Hudson Calhoun was awesome for Ole Miss, and that's, I think, like I was mentioned earlier, kind of the frustration of losing that game in the manner that they did on Friday, is it felt like you wasted a really good pitching outing from the staff as a whole, but particularly Calhoun in a tough spot. They're in a different spot. And so anyway, I just thought he was really good, but a really good well-played game all around. The irony about the difference between Thursday and Friday is they ran down several balls in the outfield on Thursday, where I was like, damn, they made a few nice plays there. This is not going to be the most athletic or defensively strong outfield by any means,

16:46but on Thursday, they ran down several balls that certainly could have gotten down in gaps. And I was like, okay, they're playing really well. And then on Friday, I guess they were just like, never mind just kidding. We're just not going to squeeze the glove today. That part was kind of funny, but again, just to rebound after Friday, I don't, what do you make of the team? I mean, it feels like the issue sometimes had been infield defense, and then they just dropped three-flop balls. Really, I would call it two. The other one would have been a pretty good play. But why do you think that happens sometimes? It's just, it's fundamental as it can be. Here's what I'm going to, here's my opinion, or here's what I think about the outfield defense for the Ole Miss Rumbles on Friday. I don't care. Like sometimes it should happen. You know what I mean? Like sometimes something bad happens. It's what it is. Like I know what combined it was all in one inning. It's the first time they've dropped flop balls this year. Like it, you know what I mean? It sometimes just crap happens. I, it's a dumb sport with a dumb ball and a brown bat. And sometimes it just happens.

17:47And I don't have a reason for it. I can't, I'm not justifying it, but sometimes just crappy things happen in the sport that kind of produces dumb luck in and of itself, too. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that. It, it, it didn't even feel like, I don't know. To me, there's just something different where like you boot a routine double play ball versus something as even more rudimentary is just like not squeezing the glove and dropping the ball in the outfield. I, I'm kind of with you. I don't think it's nothing by, by any means. It just, I think that was more crap happens rather than they, they throw the, I don't know, sling the ball around the diamond and allow two guys to go move up through your four extra bases in an inning or, or something like that. So I see what you're saying there. I kind of agree. I don't think this is going to be an outfield that continues, continuously just drops routine fly balls out of their gloves. I'm kind of with you that, that just things happen at that point. And then the, the, the other piece of it too is, you had another really good weekend

18:49from Braden Randall at shortstop. This went from, I felt like in the first three weeks of the season. And I'm really speaking more about Randall, but I'll just call it the middle infield defense as a whole. Of like, yeah, they're pretty pedestrian here too. Randall looks really, really good defensively at shortstop. Any starting to hit a little bit more, is there something I'm noticed over the last couple of weeks? He's made some incredible defensive plays last two weekends. There's not a question mark anymore at defense at shortstop. Oh, yeah, that's, that's sticking around. Not a, like, to the point I'm almost like, I think we're actually pretty good at shortstop now. I don't know, I don't know if Braden Randall logged online. And we're like, I'm tired of these people talking about me, but man, he has been spectacular the last two weeks at, at plenty. I know we had the, didn't he have an error on Friday night or something? I can't remember exactly what happened. I don't care. He has been phenomenal defensively so far. Then just start at CC play. Hitting a bit too, which is good. And there's a couple other guys that rounded into form this weekend or at least showed some, some positive signs that I want to get to in a second.

19:51But the Saturday game really was the story of this series. It was really interesting where you get the grand slam from Rooter early on in the game. Ole Miss is down two to one. They missed an opportunity or two. Then all of a sudden, bottom of the fourth. Going into the game, they were once again, I think they were one for ten with runners in scoring position and two for 21 or two for 23. Excuse me with runners on. Somebody might need to double check me on that. But from my, my terrible math. And so it kind of felt like, oh God, is this going to be a here? We go again talking about the same thing this weekend. And then Rooter hits one over the fence. And they, they, they have the grand slam and you're up five to two. And all of a sudden, not only are you really feeling good about, excuse me, not Rooter. I keep getting this backwards at this where you start recording. You get the Pasella home, the grand slam to go up five to two. Then you immediately allow it back where Konig comes in for

20:54Libber to, I want to get him in a minute. He, I thought he actually held things together. We all, almost not making it out of the first. But you immediately give it back. And just for them to respond and win a topsy, turvy game back and forth like that after getting up five to two, immediately just deflating, giving up a six spot. The next half, ending to keep battling back. I just thought, showed a lot of mentors off. I know we hit a little bit of that at the top, but I don't think it can be overstated. So two things with that. Yeah, just on a little tough and shown Saturday, which that's something at this point of the year, you either however you don't. And I think Ole Miss displayed in spades that they have it on Saturday. But you mentioned something I thought I really want to talk about was Will Libbert. Obviously, the first inning goes to how it went. And obviously he is like inches away, by the way, from getting pulled in the first. And that might be the last time we see him as a game three star. Like it was that close. Um, he got a luck he's not the right word. But he was a little fortunate that Ole Miss

21:56had dug so far into the pin over the first two days. And that they really, really, really needed him to throw up zeroes and get out. That's why he didn't just come out of the game. But Owen Kelly was, was loose. And as Mike said, was on green like ready to go. Um, and give that kid a ton of credit. We can talk about, you know, what to do with the rotation, ETC. But if that kid does not go out there and throw up three zeroes and the second, third and fourth inning, Ole Miss does not win that game because they did not have enough fishing to get through that game if he has to come out in the first inning. Or the second inning or the third inning. Ole Miss would have scored, but I don't think they would have been able to hold Kentucky down enough for it to matter. So, you know, we can have that conversation. I don't really want to have it this week. But we can have that conversation about what Ole Miss needs to do on Sunday. But that kid deserves a ton of credit for being able to come in and throw up those three zeroes after the first inning. And because his team absolutely needed him to give him, give them some out.

22:58And he was able to do that even without obviously having his best stuff. Well said, you're 100% right. He throws up three zeroes on a day where neither side outside of those three innings and the second, the third and the fourth that he gets through at three straight zeroes. Neither team put together, we're able to cobble together three straight zeroes. The ball was jumping out of the ballpark. It was just one of those classic, like, very offensive Sunday games. And, excuse me, game three Saturday games. And for him to put that together, I mean, again, I totally agree. And we can talk about it. You know, I don't know. I think he kind of pushed off the conversation for another week. I mean, don't you think he's the game three starter against Mississippi State? Whereas not only was he close to coming out, I was about to shoot back. Well, we're going to have this conversation. But I just think if he goes out in that first inning and like if they do, let's say Kentucky puts up a fourth spot, he doesn't get out of it. It was just the two and Owen Kelly comes in. I don't think we see Will Liberty again in that role. I think I'm just speculating there. But I think it was kind of that big of a swing for him.

24:01No, absolutely. If he has to come out in the first, somebody else is starting on Sunday when the Bulldogs come to town. It's a lot of middle toughness shown on Saturday from a lot of different people. And we hadn't got to Pasella, which was an awesome moment. Yeah, just that was as impressive a regular season win as I've seen in a while. And I know it's, you know, Kentucky doesn't have the name cast day that everybody has. Kentucky's a good baseball team. We're talking about a program that was in Omaha two years ago. I think that name's really good. I think that this is this series win is going to stick toward the end of the year in May and June. I absolutely agree. So just I thought that was obviously what it was like to have gotten three. But the way you got to, to me, feels bigger than just winning two baseball games. I totally agree. I think, I mean, the Pasella piece of it too, what a moment for him. He's just hasn't played regularly the entire year,

25:04hasn't gotten a ton of it at bats. Clearly in the bats that he has gotten, it's not hit the way he wanted to. But I thought it was really interesting. Will Ferness went out of his way in the post game to mention Daniel Pasella and how big that Grand Slam was in the bottom of the fourth inning to put them up five to two. And also just he got me, Pasella's not been here a very long time. Transferred from Illinois State, hit a ton of home runs at that level. But Ferness caught him one of the best teammate he's ever had. Mike mentioned it as well. This is clearly a great locker room guy that I wouldn't say the season has gone the way he probably planned or hoped to this point. And to have that moment for him, hopefully it's the spark of something bigger both for him and for Ole Miss, but just just what an awesome moment. But I guess to partly that into like a question or more so of a discussion, they clearly don't trust anyone in left field. Or they don't really know what they want to do in left field. I just, I'm not second guessing or criticizing them, but you have a moment like that.

26:05What's the downsides letting him play every day and just seeing what you have to have? I think I think you've given enough people enough opportunities. Now the one thing I will push back about, I wish Toe for Jones could give a few more at bat. He's not getting enough at bats for me. But as far as everything else, to me, you've played everybody, you've given everybody opportunities, especially against right handers. Just play the kid with the highest ceiling. Just play him with the highest ceiling. The stats aren't going to look good. It's too far into the season for him to save his average and all of that. But just play the kid that's got the highest ceiling and that's Pustela. I kind of, I said that about two weeks ago and he was so uncompetitive, friday at Texas, and I was like, oh, never runs. I think they probably just need to move on. Man, that bat on Saturday was huge and maybe that gets some confidence.

27:09It's not a secret. They're paying him a lot of money from a relative baseball standpoint. They need that to pay off. The problem is, there's nobody else to justify taking him out of the lineup. I think at this point, you should, especially against right handers, just maybe ride with it for a little while. I think so too, just because I don't know. The other results have been about the same as him. I don't have to go back and look at the numbers a little bit deeper. But when sermons or, I kind of agree with you, I'd like to see a little bit of Tofer Jones and some role getting some at bats. I just don't feel like when it's someone else other than Pustela, you're really getting a ton of results. It's not great. I guess we're still talking about a fairly small sample size as it's early in the year, but a huge moment for him, a huge grand slam at the top that unfortunately almost got immediately wiped away by just an implosion in the top half of the fifth. I just thought it was interesting that his at will furnace and Mike Bianco,

28:11both like this guy is an incredible clubhouse guy, an incredible teammate, and both seem very ecstatic for him. I just, it's puzzling to me, he's just never really gotten the opportunity to play every day. Yeah, but you can see when he hits that home run, how much the kids liked him, and how good of a teammate he is, and yeah, you could, you had to be nothing but happy for that kid. We'll get back to Colin in just one second, but before we do, I just want to take one more quick break to remind you. This podcast is brought to you by Astock. What is Astock? Astock bulk buys products from a variety of retailers, and then takes them and sells them in one of two ways, either on their online bidding platform or at one of their many stores across Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Astock's mission is to enable you the customer to name your price. Here's how it works. The items that Astock buys from these major retailers are often overstocked, returned, or closed out products.

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30:13and you get on there and get to bid and name your price. Go to Astock.com or use the bidding app or visit one of their many locations in Tuplow, Memphis, Nashville, East Tennessee, and Kentucky. Check them out Astock.com. This podcast is brought to you by LB's University Avenue. They're in Oxford, go see Greg. If you're a rippy right subscriber, that's rippyrights.subst.com. You get a free newsletter for me and discounted meats. Right now, it is three baking rat filets for $25. That's an incredible valuation there for $25. Just tell them you're a subscriber and boom, you got that rippy right special. There's all kinds of delicious meats, fresh cuts, and sausages. It is the best butcher shop in the world, a truly local crown jewel of Oxford. Greg's the man, go find your own favorites. The holiday season, go throw something awesome on the grill. Reward yourself for a year's worth of hard work. Well done. It is LB's the best butcher shop in the world. Go see them. They LB's University Avenue. They're in Oxford. Baxter Collin. Yeah, it was a really, really good moment for them. And then this is when their medal was tested.

31:13They come out landed Konegg. They inherit, I think I can't remember if he inherited one or two runners. But then the bases are loaded and then he makes a mistake, elevated in the zone and the kid puts it over the fence. And it's just, I don't know. It's one of these things. I was sitting there thinking at that point as I'm at the game. Like this team just, I don't know if like doesn't complement each other well or what the right term was. But it was just like the one thing that you couldn't have happened in that scenario was the kid hit the ball over the fence. And that's exactly what he did. And then he beyond that one mistake, he just kind of unraveled after that. He just couldn't, couldn't get out of the inning. Kentucky puts up a six spot. And credit to Ole Miss, they just continue to chip away. They really kind of missed an opportunity in the bottom of the fifth. The score more runs. They only get the one run on the sacrifice. And then they just kind of keep going and keep churning. And then they take a nine to eight lead when you get two home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Then the kid for Kentucky immediately hits a solo shot.

32:13And you respond with three more in the bottom of the eighth. I mean, Ole Miss is final three at bat. They scored one run, three runs, and three runs to win a really topsy-turvy game. Will Furnace goes the other way, gets the big hit to put Ole Miss ahead. At that moment after he hit that and drove in the couple of runs there, I was like, okay, I actually felt really confident that Ole Miss was going to win this game. A three for five day for Furnace. Another guy who's had a little bit of a slow start on offense this year, but seems to be rounding into form. He talked a little bit about trying to focus on middle away and felt like he, and I think he even referenced the team getting away from that of late. I'm curious, what do you make of that? What, I mean, I know literally what it means, but what is your breakdown of what that actually means and what that is in his change in approach? So, help me a little bit here because I was listening on the radio, and I don't guess I've seen the highlight. Was it left on left? I think it was. Yes, it was. Okay. So, obviously, that's something, and I don't know if you remember this. Early in the year-life, your Furnace didn't play against left hander.

33:14That was my root at first base. And Furnace would come in when a ride he would pick. It's, they're trying to pound him away with sliders in his back shoulder. At times, early in his career would fly open, and that would result in a roll over, and a roll over that situation. Results in a 4-6-3 double play, and no runs for Ole Miss. And to his everlasting credit, above this time last year, he started to really, really figure out how to go the other way, and can go the other way with some pop now. And he said something in the post-game interview, I believe it was, that old Will Furnace would try to hit a ball to, you know, row a nook. And he said he was going to ground it in a double play if he tried to do that. Yes. And he knew that the Ole Miss rubble needed him to stay inside the baseball and hit the line-drop club field, and didn't get too big, didn't try to hit a ball off the wall,

34:15or over the wall, and just did look. I mean, it's simple, but it's hard to do in that moment. Didn't get too big, just put a ball on play, and good for him, good for that kid. He had not had probably, looking at the stats, aren't going to bear this out, but he's not had probably the year he's wanted to so far, but everybody that follows Ole Miss baseball knows how good of a player Will Furnace is. He's going to, that's to me, and you tell me if you're wrong, I know but status had the year that he's had, but I don't know if there's somebody, anybody else that would rather have up in that moment, just because he's got good bat to ball skills, he's not going to strike out, he's been there, he's the older guy's experience. I think that was the perfect guy to have up in that situation, and Kudos to him for getting that done. Yeah, I mean, just purely speaking, from his hot standpoint, I'd probably go beset him, but your point, I still understand what you're saying. Your point is well stated. He's just not one I've worried about as much.

35:16Folly, we can get to him in a second. He's shown some signs of life. He had a hit in every game this weekend, and it just looked a lot better, particularly since that game three at Texas, but just Furnace is a guy that's played so much SEC baseball and hit at a pretty hot level in this league for two now going on three years. I don't think he's had the season he's wanted to at the plate so far, but I just didn't worry about him as much, because he's just played so much SEC baseball, and it's such a proven commodity. And again, I'll just, I'll kind of, I've mentioned a couple times. We are only in the second weekend of SEC play, like college baseball, such a weird sport, where you can have really important games in March, but also kind of remind yourself it's early. And I guess my point is I just never, never worried about him as much. But to get to that moment, speaking of besetta, it was interesting where you get a lead to start that inning, you get a double from Braiden Randall, who continues to hit better and better. Utermark draws a walk on four pitches. And the reason you got to furnace

36:17is because they're rightfully so scared, shitless of Tristan besetta, they intentionally walk him in the bases or loaded to get to furnace. And then all that, you know, I don't know, furnace is probably, now I was curious if anyone to ask him, like did you feel a little slided by that? I doubt he would say anything about it, but I thought it was interesting. Like they're going to walk besetta to get to furnace, because they feel like that's such a more viable option. And furnace told him to go suck it, I guess, because he had a huge hit that gave Ole Miss lead and helped deliver them the win. We all prefer things a certain way, like groceries.

37:17If you want groceries just how you like them, you got to try Instacart. They have a new preference picker that lets you pick how ripe or unripe you want your bananas. Shoppers can see your preferences up front, helping guide their choices. Because when it comes to groceries, the details matter. Instacart, get groceries just how you like. Yeah, no, and cool moment. And then, hey, what about after that, I believe, was it Dom? Decker that comes up after that and hits the sack, why? Rooter, who was really productive this weekend. We were kind of bad. I was down on him and his ability to hit a get to hit against good pitching. And I think he's another story from this weekend. He had a really, really good week. No, he did. That's what I kept saying. I just kind of think it's bigger than two baseball wins. Obviously you needed those, but man, just you're starting to see some signs. This team might be okay. And if you go digging, and it's a little early for this, but if you go dig in,

38:18mathematically with the schedule and RPI and stuff, I mean, go look at how good Missouri State and Nevada and Austin P and Arkansas State and some of these midweek games are. It's got a chance to be a special deal from our RPI standpoint. So I don't what I'm trying to getting at is it's not going to take a whole heck of a lot of SEC wins. Probably 15 to host a regional and honestly 16 probably gets you in the national seed discussion. So to me, it just shows a lot of mental toughness, mental fortitude that is going to put this team that I think is pretty good in position to maybe win some games that they can steal what you have to do if you're going to have a good season. I agree. And to your point on that, it's I was actually looking at the same thing earlier looking at how Ole Miss is non-conference dependent and done so far. We were talking about it after that week. They played Arkansas State in the midweek and we were both talking about like, this Arkansas team is better

39:19than what people traditionally think of Arkansas State. And they the first week in a Sun Belt play took two or three from Southern Miss in Jonesboro. Granted, they go on the road this week and then lose two or three at Georgia State. I won't pretend to know whether Georgia State is very good or not. But what you were saying, I do think some of this non-conference wins will age well. And I know people were frustrated with how the back end of the two back end games in the series played on Austin. But Texas is pretty good. And I think Kentucky is really good too. There's some years where you have some teams that are ranked in the top 25 in the SEC and when you think like comparatively to the rest of the league, how good are they actually. I think this is going to hold up really well. Kentucky had swept Alabama last week and they just have a really big physical lineup. And I was impressed with a lot of their arms. I know I mentioned earlier. I just I think this win is going to hold or this series win is going to hold up pretty well for them. I would not be surprised at all if you look up in Kentucky is a host and in the national seed discussion at the end of the year. I was impressed with them as an audience as their dugout is.

40:20I think they're really good. Yeah, no, that's the little league crap get some people's nerves. Oh my god, that's awful. I was going to bring that up in a second. Well, let's just do it now. It's that dugout stuff is brutal. Oh my can you hear me? I'm sorry. muted my mic. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're good. Yeah, yeah, it's but in that same breath, I get it because some teams that maybe aren't as mentally resilient and can falter to that. And it's a little bit tougher on the road too. Yeah, no, I thought that was a big old man's handle but Ole Miss does the thing from a pitching staff standpoint that can kind of work what Kentucky does is run and bunches. They struck your butt out. Ole Miss will strike you out. Yep. And so that's a that's the thing to keep them off the bases and keep some from doing all that stuff is them not putting the ball in play. And Ole Miss playing clean defense up out of one ending on Friday night. So yeah, it's annoying but actually with you

41:21that I think this team's got a chance to be really, really good. Folly also speaking to him. I want to get to his offense in a minute. He also, I believe through three guys out in game two. He mentioned limiting their running on the base pass. But, you know, Ole Miss has been run on pretty frequently. Folly's, we've talked about this as more. He's a very good pitchframer. He's a very good receiver. The way he handles all of Ole Miss's pictures, they seem to be very comfortable with him. He has a lot of, I don't even know if it intangibles or the right phrase, but just does a lot of stuff that like a good veteran catcher does. And they see the pitching staff in particular like really seems to like having him back there. But throwing guys out had not been his strong suit. And again, I believe he threw three guys out in that game two. But he's also now had a hit in four consecutive SEC games and had better, better at bats. He had the home run in the game two loss. If Folly can come around to any semblance of what he was last year for them. And he had a really, really good year last year. I believe he was a 20 home run.

42:22Well, he had a good weekend. He did. He had a good weekend. He's had a good week ever since that game. Game three, it Texas. But if he can return to like 70% of what he provided Ole Miss at the off from an offensive standpoint and league play last year, this offense is going to be a good shape. I hate to interrupt this, this, this thought. But I need you to see something real quick. It's going to make your heart right with God. Okay. Can you, can you check your cell phone? This is, this is my off a team that wears orange. It, it does wear orange, it does wear orange. I don't think it's not what I thought. Oh, what's wrong with him? He looks like he's dying. I know, I need you to click that video. What's, what's his problem? Is it just that of the music? So this, but I want to send me a video of Kevin Sullivan. Alabama is up 10 to 7 in the bottom of the 7th inning.

43:23Alabama's the base of living them out. And Kevin Sullivan has his hat off. I don't know, he had that much gray hair looking like he wants to go jump off a bridge. What, is it, is there anything more to this? Or he's just pissed they're losing? No, he's just, he's just miserable because they're about to get swept by not bring good Alabama team and they won't not people. I just struggled to feel sorry for Kevin Sullivan on any level about anything. Kevin Sullivan doesn't pull at your heart. He does not. This makes me happy, not sad. And usually when I see people sad, I have empathy and feel sad for them. I actually have the opposite reaction to this. This one in my heart. We're talking about this at school the other day. I think I just like, oh Sullivan, more than I dislike Vatela. Like, as a human being. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, no, that's, that's, I've always said this. We, the Tennessee thing turned into almost a bit. Vatela is a noxious, but Vatela is a really good baseball coach. And by all accounts, or the accounts that I've known

44:23is not like a horrible human being. No, I know that sounds terrible, but not a horrible human being. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to bring some proof that Kevin Sullivan is a horrible human being. Yeah, just Google, Kevin Sullivan, I'm not going there. You could do it again. Yeah, I'm not going there. Yeah, Kevin Sullivan, not a great guy, but anyway, so. Well, you might be Google Kevin Sullivan, not a great guy and see what comes up. Yeah, I wasn't going to go all the way there, but maybe Google Kevin Sullivan, I don't know, I knew he'll come in or solve an issue. See what comes up when she do that. Easy, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to get the courtroom. Yeah, me neither. Well, that wound my heart here on a Sunday afternoon. But anyway, I just, do you have any thoughts on, on Folly? I just, I think there's an element or a ceiling of this offense that can be unlocked. And he's also had a couple extra bass hits. It's not just him hitting the ball over the fence

45:25and boom or bust with a lot of swinging miss and whiff and hitting over the fence. He, he's hit the ball in the gaps pretty well. If, if he can, like I said, turn into, I don't know, 70 or 80% of the guy he was last year in league play for Ole Miss, this offense is going to be really, really tough. There's times when it looks really good. There's times when it looks really bad. And I think the difference is some of what we saw this weekend. It's a lot tougher of an offense and a lineup when furnace is really good. And Randall hits at the bottom of the order. And Austin Folly is good. Like hell, what a difference that makes. Yeah. It's 20, how seven through nine can, uh, you know, make your lineup be a lot deeper. It's 20, how that works. It's almost like it's math. And Reader too. I should include him. I was a bit of a non-believer. There's four game sample size last week against Southern and Texas. He had some okay bats, which he pointed out last week. But I was just like, man, we haven't seen it consistently. I'm not sure I believe in this, but a great week for him too. Reader would be another one they need him. I don't know if he could continue

46:26at the 460 clip or whatever. He was on entering league play. But I got to give him a lot of credit too. He proved me wrong. I was not a believer, but he had a good weekend. Yeah, um, yeah, that. So again, that's an encouraging sign. The guy doesn't have a group week in the Texas. Not almost wonder. And we said this last week, let's calm down because that Texas team might be really good. And it looks like the Texas team is really good. I mean, they lost on Friday because they made a really, really bad error. But that thinks Texas just might be special. And so I wouldn't. I think Ole Miss was honestly lucky to get a game last weekend and that's going to help. And I think we see more of what this team is this weekend against Kentucky. I totally agree. We talk about Ole Miss getting lucky to get a game with the way the weekend played out. If one Tristan Bessetta is not in the line up, they probably don't get a game. And I'm not, I know it's weird to say

47:27because Kentucky didn't score on Thursday, but I don't tell you sure Ole Miss wins that game on Thursday without Tristan Bessetta either, just a remarkably invaluable piece for Ole Miss so far. I got this bit around college baseball a lot. I knew they thought he was, they were pretty high on him. They thought he was going to be pretty good. He had a wrist thing last year and then also, I believe, had a UCL issue. But I, you know, it's amazing what happens when an older veteran guy gets healthy. But there's no way they could possibly thought this was coming. I'm not sure you could expect this from any player in the country what he's doing. No. And in Spunny, I kind of think if they thought before the year one of the kids that they brought in from between Bessetta and Bessella was going to have this type of year was going to be Bessella. I bet they would have wagered on that too if he made him pick one. Yeah. I think they took Bessetta, and correctly if I'm wrong, but I've heard this. They kind of took a flyer on him and kind of just hoping it panned out because he, you know, he has some tough

48:29year injury wads at Clemson last year. It's a weird situation when you have a weird, you have a fielder and a non-pitcher with a UCL issue. Yeah. What? I heard he was throwing a bullpen. Did he pitch it, Clemson? I didn't know that. I think so. Actually, now I'm curious. Let's look. Hell yeah. A little rhino-wetic action. I bet Tristan Bessetta will not go to a press conference to say. I'm betting that I think his pitching days are over. Yes. He pitched it, Clemson. He threw in one game. He threw one inning, gave up one hit and walked one. Did he have a strikeout? He did have a strikeout. He threw one inning at Clemson. Okay. Last year actually. Okay. That's interesting last year where he was really never healthy was the year that he got, he gets the inning in. But just, I don't know, a really, really cool story.

49:32There's a piece of this too, particularly what he's done in the, I'll call it seven games against really good pitching, including the Southern Miss game, the 2 SEC series. Look, to think he's going to keep up on this exact clip is just, I mean, I hope he does, but it's just not. Yeah. That not reasonable. But my point is, there's nothing fluke about this. This does not, there's no piece of his game with the way he ended because he's not just hitting fastballs. He's hitting off-speed stuff. He's using all parts of the field. I guess my point is, this looks pretty, pretty bulletproof in terms of whether they're not, this is going to sustain it like a reasonable level. Would do, I think he's going to remain at 404 with a 1370 OPS all year. No, but my point being is like, this looks like the real deal to me. This looks totally sustainable no matter who they face against anyone on the mound. The good news is he's doing it against lefties too. If it was the thing where he was just bombing a righties, I would be like, oh, I was probably going to come to a regression. But his ability to handle left handers makes me think that, look, is he going to hit 400 for the year?

50:33Probably not. But I do think he's probably a 365, 380 hitter with 28 to 30 homers. Can tell you walked him to load the bases on Saturday? Yeah. So who? That's what he tells you, everything you need to know. Yeah, I think they're going to know part of that man. Yeah, I'd be special. And I'll tell you something, look, and I'm going to get some flat for this. Can you drop the ball? He's pretty good, defensively, too. I know he dropped the ball for us. He did drop the ball, but other than that, he's been pretty good defensively. Yeah. Yeah. So he's fun to watch until that. He's probably played himself into some money, too. I don't know what his draft eligibility wise is. He's just a big dude, too. He looks like he's like swinging like a toothpick or a stick up there. He makes his bat look very small. I don't know if that makes any sense at all. Have you noticed the same thing? Like the way he approaches at the plate, he's such a big dude. I mean, he looks like he's handling like a stick or something. Yeah, I mean, this is the term of endearment.

51:34He looks like a lumberjack. Yeah, he really does. I was like a lumberjack out there. He's been really good. So just a really big series win for Ole Miss. I think it's a definite sigh of relief. And I may be buried the lead in terms of just newswire than this with this team a little bit. But kind of one of the last things I wanted to get to before he bounced on the SEC and get out of here is shoulder inflammation for Kate Townsend. They keep calling him day to day. And Mike Bianca was like, look, we mean that in the truest sense of the word. You know, we're going to wake up tomorrow and kind of see what he can do. There may be toying with the idea of getting him a rehab appearance for the lack of it. I wondered if he started against Memphis and Theranick. So Mike definitely left that open to a possibility. He said he's like, we definitely need like a real bullpen from him. And we definitely need to see him face live hitters. And he said not many. But he, Mike, I thought this was really, and maybe I'm reading too much in between the lines.

52:35But Mike got asked a couple of questions about it. And the last one he got asked, he said something to the effect of like, like we're almost more concerned that he's like prepared to go back after missing some time more so than the injury itself, which I thought was really encouraging news. Like they seem to be more worried about like, let's rehab him properly and get him back comfortable in the rhythm he was more so than like worried about his health. But anyway, all things considered, from what, I didn't think it was very good when he walked off the mound on Saturday in Austin. It seems like Ole Miss does a major, major bullet here. Yeah, it's not elbow. It's shoulder inflammation, which is, I mean, I'm like it says not a big deal, but it certainly beats the off earned it. Yeah, so we're really happy about that. I expect on Saturday at 130, when the Mississippi State Bulldogs are in the third base dugout and Ole Miss Robles are in the first base dugout, the K-Towns will take the ball and run to the mound. That's what I think happened. So that was my thought, too.

53:36When I read Chase's story about what Mike said about him, which I guess would have been after the midweek game, just the way they described it as shoulder information in day to day, my just gut reaction was he's probably missing this weekend, but it sounds like he's probably back for the Mississippi State series. It sounds like you had a similar reaction to hearing the news initially. There was a chance he pitched out wasn't as 100% he wasn't going to pitch this weekend, but has it got closer to Tom and felt that way? And then when they came out with TBA, it was pretty evident that he wasn't. That's what I'm... And somebody was like, what can he pitch on the bullpen? No. Yeah, but there's no reason for that. What do you gain by that? I mean, I don't know. That doesn't make a ton of sense to me. Why would you do that? No, because you're taking him out of, you know, what he's done to get ready for me. Exactly. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So yeah, once they came out with the rotation,

54:37I kind of figured what it was. I didn't think once they announced the rotation, they were waiting to see if thousands could pitch. I thought they were TBA because they didn't want to limit themselves on Thursday from a who could pitch standpoint. Yeah, I thought the exact same thing. When they went TBA, I didn't read that at all as, oh, Townsend might pitch. It's like, okay, they don't know what they're going to do yet and they need to figure it out. You know, like you said, do everything you can to win Thursday. But also, just how does the game play out, right? Like, do you win? None and nothing. And not have to use anyone. And then your options are a little bit different. I'm with you there. I just, you know, maybe not totally unrealistic early in the week that he wasn't going to pitch. I just, I don't know, my dish will read on it after kind of hearing what Mike had to say about it earlier in the week was, this guy's probably missing a weekend. But they dodged a bullet because we're having a much different conversation about this team. Like, if it got announced that K Townsend was, was going to require some kind of reconstructive surgery and be out for the year. Oh boy, it's a good series win. But we're having a much different conversation day

55:38because it's one thing to fill in for him for one weekend. But now you're having to permanently adjust your weekend rotation, your bullpen. Like, things could be much different today despite a series win if he had a series injury. Absolutely. I mean, it just it shrinks your bullpen. Yeah, just totally different. And obviously, I mean, not just shrinks your bullpen. I mean, we're talking about a kid that's been special so far outside of the inning and two-thirds or whatever against Texas, where he was pitching a little bit hard. So yeah, just just massive that he's going to be able to continue to pitch for almost this year. So as we look around there, this is a good, good segue to before we get out of here. As we look around the SEC, I'm not looking at a clip on X. Justin LeBron got hit by a pitch today in this finale between Alabama and Florida and wasn't happy about it. Then the next kid behind him, Brady Neo hits a grand slam and then the third baseman from Florida gets ejected. Is Florida just having a meltdown?

56:38Are they just stored themselves and shit their diaper and Tuscalis? So what's going on here? Oh, I hate that. I hate that for them. He's such a motor of men. Yeah, that is a good point. He makes his players better people. Sure seems like it. Wow. No, I hate that for Florida. Look, I'll say this too. Do you know what Mrs. Schedule pulled up in front of you? Or can you get it pulled up in front of you? I did a second ago. Hold on, give me two seconds. I can have it up. I kind of want to go through an exercise real quick. All right, I got it up now. Here we go. All right, that's a bulldog Saturday. Mississippi or Friday through Sunday. Mississippi State is really good. Like international seed goods. Let's not pretend they're not very good. So that's why for that. Well, they have little rock in a midweek, but then they got a games full. Yeah, yeah, just SEC. Florida's not exactly what we thought they were going to be.

57:39It's a three and three baseball team that hasn't particularly played well at all this weekend. And quite a really bad South Carolina team up new weekend. Who's the player for that? They have LSU and Oxford. LSU is not good right now. At all. We're not in a territory where they're not just in a funk. They're just not. They're not doing very good. Who's the player for that? Tennessee and Knoxville. Another team that's not not overly great. And the big key of those two, three, you just mentioned the two, the two teams, two of those three teams. We just talked about like maybe we not what they thought they were. Those are two roads, two of those three road series from this. They're the five of that. That after that, I believe is Georgia. Georgia. Okay, Georgia. Very, very good. But in Oxford. Yeah. Okay. Georgia is very good. And then who is it? Arkansas and Fayette Wolf. Okay. Arkansas is very good. So you got three series after Mississippi State of, you know, average above average teams than to Georgia.

58:39And Arkansas, they're very good. But you end the year with A&M, who I don't think is that great. In Oxford. Yeah. And Alabama, who I don't think is that great. I guess what I'm saying is we went into this year looking at, oh my god, the schedule is awful. Yeah. And I'm looking at that this year. Right now, I'm like, this schedule is totally manageable. The ones that jump off the, you're totally right. And I think the ones that jump off the page is Georgia in Oxford is going to be tough. Mississippi State in Oxford is going to be very tough. And then Arkansas and Fayette was probably going to be a bitch as well. But the rest of the series with three of the remaining, what is that? Five or six. If you take those three, I just mentioned a way. Just being very winnable and three of those being on the road. Like Tuscaloosa feels very getable. Knoxville feels very, very getable. And Gainesville feels very, very getable. And not that Ole Miss can't take two of three from Georgia

59:41at home or Mississippi State. And I don't mean that at all. It's just, I get what you're saying. It's weird that like the schedule, even just two weeks into the league, now feels like, okay, this is like, this felt way more manageable than it did in February. When we're looking at it. Yeah, absolutely. And we're talking about needs. I think in my opinion, 15 league wins. So to me, this absolutely feels like a team that's going to have sure each and all, now can they go play badly and months and months change? Yeah, but if you made me guess today, I would bet on both season baseball happening in Oxford coming in. Any last last thoughts on this Ole Miss series? I just, I thought it was one they have to have. I've mentioned, I think the win is going to stick. It just felt imperfect, but also just very, very goody. I don't know, like I keep saying, Saturday felt like he just a huge swing win. I feel like this would be a more somber turn to the podcast with what they have ahead of them. Oh, yeah. Had they let that Saturday one get away. Again, I think we could look back at the end of the year and you point back to that Saturday game against Kentucky.

1:00:42And to really just the series as a whole. And not only just the fact that they managed to get a series when the forces that put it in motion, you get the best version of Elliott, you get the Pasella Grand Slam, Bacetta kind of does what he does. They were just got follies looked better. They were just some guys that you're kind of looking to come around. And while it wasn't a perfect series, just you got some contributions from the guys you needed to step up, I guess, is my point. Absolutely. So I think that's, I keep saying, I think it was bigger than two wins, because you had some people that you've got to have play well and pitch well, play well and pitch well. And if you're going to be the team, you think you should be and can be at the end of this year. You're going to need those guys. So I really, really impressed with some guys that stepped up that maybe hadn't had this torch. They wanted so far. I missed one very important note about the Somas team before we get around the SEC out of here. I don't understand what we're doing with the uniforms. They go with the powder blue on Sunday last week, but then they're now back to the pinstripes this week.

1:01:42I'm not a uniform guy. I don't have strong opinions on it. I am slightly superstitious. So I'm just, my intent is raise. I don't really get what we're doing here. Well, if you're superstitious, I play like crap on last Sunday in the powder blue. Is that a stanchor? Okay, that's, that's a fair point. Maybe you're swaying me back in the other direction. Big brain here. Well, don't send me. Oh, that's a good point. It wasn't on Sunday. I just, I don't know. They've worn the powder blues pretty much on in game three situations or on Sunday, since their inception. I just, I'm not, I don't love messing with it. I'm not saying it's an issue yet, but if we, it almost has a tough couple of weeks and I don't have any real analysis, I'm just going to start harping on the uniforms being the problems. I didn't say what if they rolled out on Sunday and wore the grade. Oh, then they should just come walk off the field. Like, I think people would riot. Remember how they changed those grades? It was that one year to the grades that had the blue under the armpit

1:02:44and they screwed up a good uniform. And that quickly became the most like hated uniform of all time. You were all mad, man. It's got about the grade uniforms that you didn't wear at all. They played like shit in them, too. Yeah, it was women up. They didn't look good and they sucked. I, I do, I hope those are gone. If they brought those out, you might have a riot on your hands. It was making me say. If they come out in game three, which I believe Sunday is going to be a national televised game because I think it's basically three o'clock. It's like, yeah, you're going to, you know, you never, you never have a real problem on your answer. You know, you know what I'm supposed to do Saturday when, when state shows up. You know what they should do. They should announce I don't care if it's real or not. Just from the mouth of crowd of 70,000 people. Yeah, we're, there's been a lot of chest pumping about that. Just just say 17,000 are here. You got to go tell them. Yeah, who's going to say anything? Like, there might be four more thousand people in the, the fourth center. And that's technically close enough. Yeah, what do you got to do in the music building?

1:03:47Exactly. Get some people out there on the band thing. Like, I, the tenants thing cracks me up. I mean, I'm glad to say the tennis court still out there. I believe so. We just put some kids on the tennis court. We can, um, or maybe just put like tickets out there. Just scan a bunch of blank tickets. You don't have to get the people. Um, yeah, I'm going to have people support college baseball. I just don't get the attendance just beating like state stadium is bigger. Like, they really care about college baseball. That's great. But like, if you have the biggest stadium, like, no shit, you're going to have the, the, the, the, the, the record crowds would think they now hold all, like, all top 25 and it's a college baseball. Like, no shit, Sherlock. You have the biggest stadium. It's just simple math. Like, like you said, that's awesome. But I would just do it to make the math. Like, I just announced a crowd of 70,000. Oh, I go a step further. I didn't know it's like 50. You just make do something about it. 50,000 people here. It's our studio. Call me a liar.

1:04:48Yeah, I don't, I don't really get that. Speaking of Mississippi state, they sweet Vanderbilt into the really kind of kick their ass. States really good. Ole Miss is going to have its hands full next week. Yeah. I'm not sure Vanderbilt's good. I think, I think as the kids say this week, that Vanderbilt LSU series last week and may have been a mid off. A mid off? Yeah, that may have been too very average to blow average teams in the league. But credit and state, they're, they're really good. Ole Miss is really going to have its hands full next week and they, they look every bit like a Surefire National seed. Yeah, no. X one. It's the top five team for my money. Really good pitching, starting pitching. I think I can really swing it. Yeah, that's a really good team. And you know, we'll see more as Tom goes on. But I watch the game Saturday night when Mississippi State. That's a really, really, really good baseball team. So Ole Miss is able to get two next weekend. That would be really impressive because I think the Bulldogs are definitely a top five team in the sport. Stop traffic, call the president.

1:05:48Missouri took a game from Tennessee and brought out a chance to win the series. Yeah, yeah, Missouri may not stop. No, they may not be terrible. They win the opener of the series. In Knoxville eight to four. We're really competitive in that game too on Saturday. They lost seven to one today. But remember, there was only one weekend where they won SEC games last year. So if they win another game on another weekend now, I guess technically doing better. I got a feeling that they're not going three in 27 this year. I don't think they're going three in 26. Are the game parks home the schedule because as they are, they're not. Well, that might be the story of the weekend. Which is crazy. So South Carolina wins the game today. And they had a ground ball to win the game yesterday and botched it where they could have won the series a day after firing Palminary, which is the real story here. So they is this so early.

1:06:48So South Carolina fires Palminary after getting beat 22 to six against Arkansas on Friday. Is this the earliest performance based firing of all time? We're in the second weekend of SEC play. It's March. You said Andy Kenna zero did not get fire for performance. That's exactly that's literally the first thing that comes to my mind is why I said performance based. Yes, that is that is the Andy Kenna zero clause or caveat. What do you get fired for, brunt? Anyway, I'm not having anyone in the bullpen if you want to put it. He did have a cell phone in the dugout though. He did, but he said go put that guy in there. Like there's no one up. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's the story. He was so distracted by a cell phone. I hope this doesn't get me sued. But I'm pretty sure that was the story. They he looked at his assistant. They're playing it. South Carolina said go get him. And he's like, we don't have anyone up in the pin, dude. I'm pretty sure that happened. Like go get him. Okay, didn't do then what? That's for

1:07:52performance based. What do you make of this? I'm a nary. That whole thing felt weird from the start. He had some really weird quotes this year. I just want to know how it happened. Like, okay, they get drums on Friday night, obviously. Does he like what's going to the coach's office? And they're like, yeah, you're done, Paul. Or does he wake up on Saturday and come in? They're like, coach, we're going to not let you coach today. I just kind of want to know like the sequence of events after the game that led to this. I don't know. And does it happen if they're on the road? I feel like it's easier to do if they're at home. Yeah, he could just, I mean, what's he going to do? Hang around the hotel for a couple of days? Yeah, exactly. I don't think he had any dude on the road. In their defense, they were done 17 to nothing in the fourth inning. In an assay, yeah, I would not be a pleasant human to be around. If the Ole Miss Ruff showed up 17 to nothing in the SEC game in the fourth inning, that would that would not be pleasant. He really, a lot of their, look, college media in general, like local media tends to be definitely more friendly than professional local media. And a lot of their local media really kind of skewered him on the way out, too.

1:08:56I don't think he made very many friends in his very short time there. Not the nicest person, I've ever, is what I've heard about him. And like, you hear, let's talk and you're like, I got things like he'd be super nice. And I have heard the complete opposite from people that have been around him during his time at LSU. Well, Jay Johnson's first year. They'd have him on the TV broadcast every now and again. And he'd make sure to point out. Now, you know, a lot of these were players I recruited. And it's like, is he maybe just evidence these great programs run themselves? Because he wins one national championship. I think he played for another in 17. Yeah. And then he gets fired in Jay Johnson, who's a great elite coach. All he's done is went to national titles in three years. But an area that first year just wanted to point out that a lot of these were boys he recruited. Well, Paul, here's the thing they shut when you were here. They were bad and now they're not bad. So just do some math there. Yeah, riddle me that.

1:09:56Alabama finished it off. They sweep Florida. I hate that for a Sullivan. We hit that a second ago. Texas takes a series out of Auburn. I watched a little bit of this series yesterday. I think both these teams are really good. I think to your point, Texas is just like maybe the best team in the conference. But I think Auburn's up there too. Auburn got to a sluggish start that first weekend. But they're really good. Yeah, no doubt. They went to at Missouri. Are they sweet? They swept Missouri. Oh, they did? Yeah, they won all three. They won three close games. Two or that takes a try. They won two, nothing four, three, and none two. Okay, I thought Missouri got a game. Yeah, well, no, Auburn's good. But she's a really, really good coach. Probably probably another national seed for the Tigers this year. We might set an SEC record for national seeds this year. Yeah, I think we're on to something there. Georgia, Texas 8M. As we record this on a Sunday afternoon,

1:10:57that series is going on. Georgia won the first two games. A&M's up six to one in the bottom of the fourth. So something good changed there, but I'm going to get a game. I'm not sure A&M's any good. I know Georgia's pretty damn good. Now, yeah, Georgia's loaded. Even after West Johnson's weird media thing. Yeah, that was odd. What was it, but odd? Did we ever get an answer for that? Not that I saw. I admittedly did not look too hard for one, but that was none of the next day and said it was not about its players. So I'm guessing it was about me. My guess is, but it was weird. He also didn't like openly rip anyone in the media, right? Yeah, Michael just go at you directly. He was kind of coy about it. Yeah, yeah. Does Mike ever go at you? No, maybe once or twice. You know, that brings up a great point. I'm watching the Friday press conference, excuse me, the Thursday press conference. And one air and fit. Super nice, Scott. I was his intern way back in the day. Works for D1 baseball. I see him in the camera shot of the Ole Miss athletic speed

1:11:58of Mike's press conference. And Mike turns him and says, Hey, Aaron, welcome to Oxford. And I just want to point out, Mike has never once welcomed me to Oxford. Is he welcomed you to anywhere? I saw it from the fact that I live here. He's never welcomed me to anything. Just pointing that out there. I never got a, Hey, man, good to see you. Welcome to Oxford from Mike Bianco. Can you hear me in my headphones or dying? No, I got you. Okay. Yeah, no, hey, I don't, I don't think Mike is going to welcome you anywhere except maybe, it may be he will now now that you've retired from. Remember, I think we're good now. I had him at that speaking event. And he like talked a lot with me. And I was like, what is this guy talking about? That's like, what else are you referring to? I was not any of the twins. Oh, I don't never get old. That always cracks me up. Last series, LSU, we talked about earlier. There's, it might not be good. Nice road series win though.

1:12:58It's hard to go winning Alex Boxer. They're good or not. Good series win for Oklahoma. They're top in the country. Excuse me. I don't think that's going to stay either. I think Oklahoma's really good. It's, uh, wow. The SEC is a bear, huh? The SEC is absolutely a bear. He is Colin Brister. I appreciate the time. It's always my man. Good talking to you. We'll talk to you next week. All right, brother. Be good. All right. That's going to do it for our show today. I'll have another podcast out on Monday or Tuesday with former Ole Miss offensive line and Victor Kern who has one hell of a story. He's ever come to a lot of adversity. Since turning pro. Remember, he was the, uh, he was a starting offensive line man. Ole Miss is 11 and two peach bowl team. And, uh, just in all around good, dude, he's really not gotten a fair shake and professional football. Due to some injury stuff. So I really think you'll enjoy this conversation. I always loved chopping it up with Vic just one of the nicest people ever met. And, uh, really enjoy talking to him. So anyway, that'll be out on Monday or Tuesday.

1:14:00We'll have some more baseball stuff for you. Probably a basketball check-in at some point with that as an Herbert. But, uh, we'll kind of see how the schedule goes. But anyway, thanks listening as always. We'll talk to you again here real soon. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA's heating up, March Bandis is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I could follow the teams I care about, get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.