Sam Hutchens with the Clarion-Ledger reports the latest legal insight on Ole Miss’ lawsuit against LSU players Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper. He details why LSU may not be on the hook for $1 million. The Advocate’s Reed Darcy discusses former LSU WR Kayshon Boutte’s gambling scandal and how he bounced back to a rising NFL career. We wrap up with a surprise storyline out of LSU football fall camp and the not-so-surprising shortcomings of the Protect College Sports Act.
Here is the complete transcript of the show from YouTube. Tiger Rag apologizes for any AI generated mistakes:
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Players are better people than they are players. This is Tiger Rag Radio. Hour two of Tiger Rag Radio is upon us.
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Coming up later on in the hour, Reed Darcy of the Advocate. We’ll talk some LSU football with him. He did a great article on Kan Booty who has overcome
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his uh illness with gambling and we’ll talk uh with Reed about that and we’ll probably throw in a women’s basketball
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question in there as well as the Lady Tiger schedule for 2026 27 has come out.
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We bring in though first Sam Hutchkins from the Clarion Ledger. We had Sam on.
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I guess it was about a month ago. Time flies when you’re having fun. And that happened to be the same day. We didn’t know it when we lined him up, but it
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happened to be the same day when Miss filed suit against Prince Umman Ellen and Devin Harper over the failure in
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Miss’s mind of paying a buyout for a revenue sharing agreement that those two had signed before entering the transfer
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portal and signing with LSU. So, we bring in Sam to get an update on the case because we really haven’t heard much here in Louisiana. Lane Keifin was
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asked about it on Monday. Said, “Hey, that sounds like a legal question or a question about litigation. I’m not going
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to get into that.” Which uh completely understandable from Lane’s point of view, but the question needed to be asked and we basically got what we
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anticipated as far as the answer. But maybe Sam’s got some more answers for us. Sam, how you doing tonight?
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I’m good, guys. Thanks for having me back on. And yeah, I mean, I’m I’m happy to uh inform that I I was able to call up some folks a lot smarter than me with
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with a lot more law degrees than me because uh any any number more than zero would would uh fit that criteria. But
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yeah, I uh I think I can help, you know, explain some things or or try to work through this together with you guys.
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Well, what are some of the things that you have learned since obviously when that happened? It made national news and everybody had some thoughts on it. But
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it also is, you know, one of the points that I’ve made, Sam, is that you don’t it doesn’t happen on a daily basis or
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even on an annual basis maybe where a university is suing college athletes. It just doesn’t happen. So, what have you
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learned since these lawsuits have been filed? And again, these lawsuits are against or target at or the defendants
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in these cases are Princewell, Uman Miellen, and Devon Harper, not LSU. But Sam, what what could you tell us as far as what you’ve learned since then?
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That’s right. Good distinction that yeah, uh, school against players, not not school against school here is how the lawsuits filed. Um but yeah guys,
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what what I can tell you is that it’s it’s not as black and white cut and dried as we first thought. Now there
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there is the the ultimate matter of hey player people you know uh party A owes
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party B money but what what I’ve uh learned and it’s it’s not exactly secret knowledge but buyout contracts in in
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America cannot be punitive and you know that’s they cannot be punishing and so what that means is that the intent of a
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of a buyout contract is to compensate you know party A for lost services,
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right? To compensate the party that was breached. But what it can’t do is overcompensate. So, so it’s illegal to
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like get a windfall because your uh contract was breached. You can only get
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the uh the monetary value that equates to that service. So, what does it mean?
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Well, you melanin and Harper, they can argue something, which is that, hey, we’re not worth, you know, collectively
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it’s it’s about a million dollars. Uh you meen can argue, hey, I’m I’m not worth $550,000 for my services next year. And Harper
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can try to argue, hey, I’m not worth $400,000.
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And uh that that’s what has to be litigated.
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Well, the question is, will this ever end up in a courtroom or have there been active negotiations to try to settle
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this, especially before the start of the college football season and in particular before September 19th rolls around,
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right? So, so probably not. I I think that most people are of the opinion that, you know, just because the vast
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majority of civil lawsuits where money is at stake wind up in a settlement because that’s cheaper um than than
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winding its way all throughout the the process, which I’m told, you know, if this thing were were to go fully litigation, then it would be uh you
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know, a matter of of months or, you know, maybe a year or something. So, I’m not expecting any resolution in court.
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um certainly before September 19th, unless these parties come together and they’re like, “Hey, you know, now that the lawsuit’s out, let’s just get this settled.”
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Have there been any filings at all in response to the lawsuit by Prince Will Manuel or Deon Harper’s attorneys?
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Nothing since I I checked today. Um and and nothing since uh in either of those contracts. I I did ask uh it’s amazing
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who you can call up with with a law degree and they’ll answer you know and uh I I called some people up and yeah
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one guy he’s like uh I read his bio he’s uh was a road scholar who went to study law in Oxford and hit him with the email
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hey I see we both uh spent time in Oxford you know and uh he said he liked my jokes so that’s where we were at but
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yeah so so I I did ask you know my my my sources like hey what what could be next in filing and um you know Old Miss could
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present the actual contracts um would presumably be the next thing that that could come in. Um and here’s the deal
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with that. The the tough part ultimately where this whole thing comes down to is like how do you how do you assign the value of a
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football player? Like what is a $550,000 football player versus a $400,000
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football player? And you know, if if Devin Harper were to to to get hurt, um you know, how much could you assign a
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value to that um as far as next year? So the the easiest way to do that in in a
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court of law would be to to go with what they were about to get paid, right?
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Because those are two parties that kind of set a market value. So that’s one way you could do it. But Old Miss, you know,
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their lawyers could argue, hey, uh the the actual value is what anyone in the country could have afforded. Yeah.
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Or could have wanted to pay these players. And so it is murkiness on top of of murkiness. It’s it’s you know,
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nothing is is super clear in this whole thing. Um but there, you know, it’s uh it’s at least not a total black and white case of oh yep, fork over the money.
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Yeah. Sam Hutchkins from the Cororean Ledger here with us once again on Tiger Rag Radio. Is LSU culpable at all?
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So technically no. Right. Um the because the the revenue sharing agreements were
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signed between Miss Party One and you know player one Prince Will and and player two Devin Harper, right? where
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that starts to get, you know, again, a little murky is it’s like, well, if if you’re LSU, you know, you, as is
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generally standard in college football, you kind of say that, hey, we we’ll, you know, pay the buyout and massage that
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because generally the assumption is a player wouldn’t, you know, just transfer in uh and have to drop $400,000 that they may or may not have already spent.
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We don’t know if LSU did that, though.
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And the reason that LSU wisely isn’t just handing over the money um you know happily wrapped in a basket is because it comes out of the the salary cap.
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Yeah. Right. And so that that’s the the matter of I mean if you can get those two players to pay it then it wouldn’t
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be salary cap money which would be great for the Tigers because it is um oh I don’t have the the figure in my head but it’s it’s a significant percent you know
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of the salary cap is is a million dollars it’s like 120th or something right um so so so that’s significant to where
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if if you’re LSU you definitely want to avoid paying that you know if you’re not liable but then it becomes a matter are
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you willing to not pay that and maybe sour future transfers, future recruits from hey like you know LSU didn’t have
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the backs of these two players and it becomes you know how do you want to play this and it it starts to get again murky. So Sam, one quick question for
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you. Uh, is there any record or any proof that either player received any
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payment from Miss towards that original contract that they had signed that they would maybe have to recompensate miss
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for since they didn’t fulfill the contract?
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So they they’re allowed to to keep all the money that they they signed for under, you know, the the 2025 year
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because both those players played that entire year out. Where this is concerned is both of these players signed new
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revenue share deals re-upping for the 2026 season.
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So the only money that But did they collect any of that new money is what I’m I’m asking.
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Oh, you know, I I haven’t I I guess that would be something that that comes out in in the court documents as well, but I mean there there’s no proof of that. Old
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Miss kind of put out in in their timeline that LSU has not responded to in in any give and take. But um I I
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imagine that because that aspect is black and white of hey, this was deposited into this account, then uh you know, it probably was. But I I don’t
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have any first tempers for that. S Sam, you mentioned I think you’ve used the word murky a few times and I think that is a very good word and you’ve
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talked to some legal experts on this and granted contracts get signed every day across America, all kinds of different contracts. But because this is a new
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realm that we’re in and this is basically we’re we’re a year and a half, I guess, or maybe two years now or yeah, a year plus, right, in revenue share in the in the revenue share world.
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This is the second full season.
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Yeah. So, this is we’re we’re 13 months into this thing.
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Um, because this is so brand new, is it is it even hard for legal scholars to say,
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“Boy, this one is going to be tough because there’s just not a lot of precedent for these type of situations.
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There’s no precedent in in Mississippi for for this kind of So you’re absolutely right and that’s probably the the clearest answer that I got from
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everyone is hey you know it’s it’s hard because this will be the case that sets precedent. So they said that you know
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schools in in in other states um and certainly everyone in Mississippi because the the case is in Lefayet
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County here in in uh in Oxford um that’s where it’ll be litigated. But yeah that that’s what everyone told me is there’s there’s no precedent for this. Um, so it
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it becomes hard to come out with any sort of clarity about what should or or could or probably will happen.
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But I do have a guess what will ultimately happen, guys. And it’s not very dramatic.
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Okay. But before you give us before you give us that, let let me ask this one question. Is Trinidad Chamblas’s judge
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going to be one of the judges that is in Lafayette County settling this?
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Good question. that Judge Judge Whitwell is not uh presiding over either of these cases. So that that’s a good question.
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No, no, he’s not.
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Okay. So, what what how do you think this is going to shake out?
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I think this will shake out. Um not not anywhere nearly as dramatic as a a Judge Witwell, you know, hour-long reading of
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his decision in a courtroom with cameras all and all that.
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Everyone just kind of says that, hey, this is probably going to settle and the amount is is, you know, certainly probably going to be more than zero,
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right? Um but it could be less than than the 1 million if those players are able to argue that number down. Yeah. So, um
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you know, the the thing that the thing that I’m most curious about is is who winds up paying, right? Um because do do
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those players wind up paying or does does LSU wind up paying and you know take the dent in the salary cap and
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that’s where the other tricky thing is is is is LSU’s you know 22 million or whatever the salary cap is is is that already spent you know so that’s the
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other thing to if you’re LSU you may not have the option um and you know it gets really uh fishy
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if you know principal you bought a nice house and taking care of some people and maybe Deon Harper, you know. So, so
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where is the money is the other thing um that gets troublesome. But in in cases
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where only monetary damages are at stake those are have the lowest priority because this is a deal where you know
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you can award money months years into the future and it equates right that’s why this Trinidad Chamblas case to
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contrast it got uh expedited is because it it was a matter you know a timesensitive matter hey this is coming
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up. So that’s what I’ve also learned is that monetary uh you know cases determining monetary damages have the
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kind of the lowest priority of of moving through the courses and that’s why this might not actually get settled until 2027
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door and and then it’s a matter there might not even be a rule for this in the the college sports commission with the salary cap and all that but yeah, you know, would it would it come out of
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next year’s salary cap or this year? I mean, it’s like we’re we’re on the cutting edge and making, you know, things up as we go, which is, you know, a weird place to be.
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Well, that’s college football for you in today’s day and age. So, hey, Sam, thanks a lot, man. Good information. We appreciate it.
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I’m just trying to keep up with Reed and Brett. You guys have a great lineup on, so yeah, happy to hop on.
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All right, man. Next time we get you on, we’ll actually talk about the game. Okay, we’ll get you on for sure.
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Let’s do it. That’s all anyone wants to talk about down here. Yeah. All right, Sam, have a good one, man. Stay cool out there. It’s blazing hot. Sam Hutchkins
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from Clary and Ledger. Let’s take a break. More of Tiger Rag Radio when we come back.
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I’m Richard Fontner, president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. My brother and I grow rice, soybeans, and raised crawfish on our farm in Evangeline Parish. For a fourth
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generation farmer like myself, Louisiana Farm Bureau is as much a part of my life as checking traps or harvesting rice.
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The Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, the voice of Louisiana agriculture. We’re back to Tiger Rag Radio.
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Lur along with Todd Horn joined now by a sweaty Tiger Rag editor Gwen Gilbo. How you doing tonight, Gwen?
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I’m not sweating at all, man. Cool as a cucumber, huh? Feels grace. The sun has made my skin feel so good.
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Like are you looking at the trees right now? Go ahead. Are you looking at the trees on the LSU campus?
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Trees just, you know, me that is LSU is LSU. That’s really all I can tell you.
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Is LSU football practice fake or real?
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Well, it was real. It was real. I just can’t tell you anything about it because you know that’s that’s one of the new things. Yeah. this year walking out of
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practice. They tell you, “Okay, you can’t write anything until this time.” And and tonight it was 8:45. So 8:45.
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Yeah. This kind of stuff is started in the NFL and now it has trickled down to college football. Yeah.
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So is the practice that’s when that practice ends. So you can’t write about until the till the practice ends. Well, is there if if I’m listening to Tiger
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Rag Radio right now, is there going to be a reason that I want to go to tiger.com at about 8:45ish or 9:00ish to see what
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happened at practice or or was it fake?
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Uhoh. I think we lost Glenn. The uh the cut him off kit that he got intercepted. Drone some drone took him out. Something like that.
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uh because they were concerned he was going to provide some sort of insight on what happened during a uh bunch of wide
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receivers running a slant drill. So we can stay here.
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Yeah. So anyways, uh I don’t know. Uh Case, can you see is he still there? You think or No, he’s gone.
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I think he’s I guess he just didn’t like my question. I think that’s what it was.
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The humidity humidity got him. So the olive skin felt like olive. Hey, uh, Case, let’s hear a cut from, uh, Ty
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Benfield. How about that? That guy was a pretty intriguing young man. Let’s hear a little bit from him, uh, from yesterday.
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All right. This, uh, Tai just kind of on what he’s going to do in the Blake Baker defense.
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You could just see me doing doing everything. That’s the beauty of Coach Baker trusting his players and seeing the potential that they have and the
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athletic ability they have. That’s what makes him such a great coach is that he knows guys very well and he knows what they can do. The thing that gets me really going is just making plays for my
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for my team. Whether it be a tackle, whether it be setting an edge, little things like that. But for sure, that ball. I want that ball. I want to go
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pick that ball off, you know, any chance that I get and I will, you know, when that time comes. I’m putting in a lot of work to do that. And you guys will see that.
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What a confident young man. What a wellspoken young man. Has lived quite a life. His dad played in the CFL for what, about a dozen years. Had a cup of
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coffee with the San Francisco 49ers. Uh, another West Coast kid, but also spent probably a lot of time up in Canada.
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Spent time in Boise, and now here he is in uh, Louisiana. What did he say about Louisiana? Case, do you got anything on that?
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Oh, wait.
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Growing up in Canada, I see a lot of ties. There’s a lot of French Canadians and kind of understanding like the French and New Orleans and Louisiana is pretty cool. But, I mean, also being in
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California, kind of getting used to that black culture and having that, you know, this world, this big black culture world out here is just great. But, you know, honestly, just the hospitality and the
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people here, like it’s it’s amazing. And I’m so glad I have these great people around me. Like, the fans are unbelievable. I’ve never been defended in a comment section before on TikTok,
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and like that was the first time. So, um I was just like, great. Like, this is awesome. I love these people. So, everything’s been really good and it’s been a blessing. So, uh I’m right where I need to be and I love it.
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Good stuff from Tai Bennett.
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Yeah. And he really is eloquent sounding, you know. It’s that’s amazing that um that Boise State education must be pretty darn good.
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Well, and he’s well traveled.
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Yeah, he is well a lot of culture. California, Canada, you know, Idaho. All right, I think we got Gwen back on.
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Gwen, uh you back with us? Yeah. Hello.
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Yeah, we’re here. Yeah, it looks like uh yeah, the uh the signals there near Tiger Stadium said figured out you were about ready to spill the beans about
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practice, they cut you off. We only got about a minute though left in this segment, Glenn. So, give me your uh give me your quick take here before we have
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to go to Reed Darcy just on LSU football in general.
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Well, I like how they’re they’re trying young people on defense. You know, Lamar Brown’s been in there a lot. Richard
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Anderson, Jace Thomas, you know, Dominic has not been playing about that early.
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And I think what Lane’s doing is, you know, if a young guy is not older guy is only a little bit better than a young guy, they’re going to play.
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All right. Well, looks like they got to they got to improve that cell reception before September 5th comes around.
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Yeah, that was really choppy. Really choppy. I think they were Did you see the drone fly? whatever you were talking about.
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Hey, man. This this coaching staff’s on top of everything, man. It’s like, geez, they need to be over there in Iran like scoping out drones and stuff like that.
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I would I would encourage everybody to go to tiger.com around 9:00 and see the practice report whenever we’re and be prepared for the flood of videos
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in your social media channels come 8:45, I guess. Yes.
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All right. Uh when we take we’re going to take a break and then when we come back, Reed Darcy from the Advocate, we’ll talk with him. good piece on Kahan
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Booty and we’ll talk a little hoops with him as well. So stay tuned for all that here on Tiger Radio.
21:50
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The East Baton Rouge Parish Library believes that supporting the education of students is good for us all. That’s
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22 minutes, 3 seconds
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22 minutes, 21 seconds
This is Tiger Rag Radio.
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All right, back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Polmo along with the executive editor for Tiger Rag magazine, Todd Horn
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and Case Kishnik. And joining us now, it’s Reed Darcy of The Advocate. He’s with us here on Tiger Rag Radio. Reed,
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how you doing today? Were you out at I know you can’t say anything about football practice, but were you out there tonight?
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Yeah, I was out there. I can’t say anything until 9:00 p.m. So, yeah, 9:00 p.m., right? So, I can I can give you all the the details, but there really wasn’t much,
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so I don’t think I have much for you in that. Well, we were talking to Glenn a minute ago and we weren’t addressing anything specifically that happened, but
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the drones did interfere with the reception when we broached the ponderosa. So, let’s just be careful. We don’t want to lose you.
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No. Yeah. But a great piece on uh Kan Booty and it really is quite a story about this. I mean really from the
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beginning um when you go back and I say the beginning from his days at Westgate High School, one of the top price one of the top prospects as far as wide
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receivers go. The guy just during the co year just puts up huge video game like
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numbers and then in 2021 he gets hurt against Kentucky. Edron loses his job.
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It just kind of I guess Orzron loses his job in 22, right?
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Yeah. But but he struggled with with Kelly at first. There was friction between Yeah. about practice habits and all that kind of stuff. And uh
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so the the thing is Reed when I read the story, it was a great story by the way and I would encourage anybody I think it published on the what the 10th. So today’s the 11th. So it was yesterday.
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Um to check it out. It it was on the advocate.com. I don’t know if you need to be a subscriber or not. I don’t you’ll have to inform on all that.
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read the the broad outlines of the the Boute gambling case that you write about.
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I I knew about and obviously everybody followed, but what what struck me reading your story was the scale of it.
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I mean, just put that scale in perspective for us. How much gambling activity did investigators find?
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Yeah, they they found a lot. You know, it was really all confined according to what FanDuel reported to police and what
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police later discovered was linked back to Kan was was really all confined to I think about a year period, 11, 12, 13 months.
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April 22 to May 23rd. Yeah.
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$600,000 and 9,000 bets.
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9,000 bets over two months or whatever. Well, 13 months. 13 months. Okay. Yeah.
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Yeah. So, so that’s a lot. Um, and overall in total he lost probably 80 to90,000
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um total if if you turn add up to what he netted from that. It was um pretty far in the negative. So, so he he
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acknowledges now that he had a really serious problem as those numbers of course demonstrate. And um this crux of the story, it really started with all
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the Brendan Sorsby stuff um that was uh really taking a whole lot of national attention this summer. And so we were
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trying to figure out ways to localize that story, right? What what better way to do that than to check in with Kan
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Booty since he kind of got caught up in a similar situation. You know, this two situations are not exactly alike. Um,
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but they both they’re both said that they both have gambling problems, gambling addictions, and they both bet
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on their team’s games. In the case of Sorsby, he well did not play in those games that he bet on. At least that’s
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what he’s said publicly. Um, but Kan Booty did and then he the famous example is uh the Florida State game, Brian
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Kelly’s first game in charge at LSU in the Superdome. He he bet on himself to hit his overs and receiving yards and
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receiving touchdowns. At least that’s what police discovered and he ended up playing in that game of course and he only had two catches for 20 yards or something. So that bet didn’t hit.
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Yeah. So that that was an example of how he kind of got swept up in it and how bad it got for him. But um as the story story illustrated, he’s really come a
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long way since then. And he in a sense though he is lucky because Sorsby that what really impacts him is he’s still in
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college athlete where when all this came out regarding booty he’s already in the NFL and granted I guess the NFL could
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have you and we all know the NFL that there’s zero tolerance for this as well.
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There’s been guys that have been um suspended or even kicked out of the league and whatnot, but because he
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didn’t he wasn’t still in college, he was able to he had a second lease on life. Is that the way you look at it
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too, Reed? Because there was no there was the NFL was not going to punish him for what he did as a college football player.
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Correct. He he really benefited a lot from some fortuitous timing here because um if you look back at the timeline, LSU
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said that it was not alerted to any of his gambling activity until July of 2023. So that’s two to three months
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after he was already drafted in the sixth round by the Patriots. So because he was not um still a college football player, because he was not trying to
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play um in the NCAA, then the NCAA kind of just had nothing to do with his case.
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it just it it happened and and he he was moved on to the NFL so he wasn’t eligible to play anyway and the NFL from their perspective like he didn’t bet on
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NFL games. He didn’t violate any of the NFL’s policy. So it really would have been up to the Patriots to decide if they wanted to keep him on and they did
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because he he played well enough to make the roster that year. You know, six round picks not necessarily guaranteed to make the 53man roster, but um in that
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training camp he really did. And that set the stage for um the next couple years of his career where he’s really carved out a pretty important role for the Patriots. You know, played in the
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Super Bowl, was one of their leading receivers last year, and now um even though the Patriots traded for AJ Brown um in the offseason, he’s still got a
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pretty big role on offense and all reports out of training camp this year are saying that he’s um he’s really playing well and he’s really seems to have a pretty big role for one of the
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NFL’s best teams. So, um, he he did benefit quite a bit from timing, of course, but, um, once you get that second chance, I think you have to take advantage of that second chance.
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I was going to say cash it in, but that that’s probably not the right term to use. Um, but before we talk about how he
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has rehabilitated, which is the good side of the story. Um, what did LSU learn from this, if anything, were you
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able to pick up on any of that? Did they learn how that a player could gamble to that extravagant of a level and then not even know about it? Have they been able
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to put anything in place to prevent that from happening future-wise moving forward or currently? Any anything on that?
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Not that I know of. I don’t know if anything has changed on the LSU side of things, but I do know that LSU is beginning some form of partnership with
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the Louisiana Department of Health in terms of getting um resources to the athletes, making sure they know exactly what the rules are and what they can and
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cannot do and and what is ethically okay and what maybe, you know, might be not legally okay. So, I think um and and
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there’s also just resources in general just for when you look at it from a mental health standpoint. That’s one thing the Louisiana Department of Health
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has really stressed is that this is really a public health issue now. It’s it’s same way as you would treat addiction to alcohol or drugs. You know
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that gambling has that kind of way about it and it’s really tough to kick because a lot of this a lot of betting you know nowadays people just bet on their phones
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and the phones are in themselves can be an addiction right so when you combine those two things it can be pretty
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powerful. I think that’s um kind of what Kaan Booty fell into and it’s what a lot of young people nowadays can fall into if they’re not careful.
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Yeah. If I remember, he he did all this too when he was under the age of 21, which obviously isn’t the um the legal age to bet in Louisiana. if I set up a fake account. Yeah.
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Um but the other thing that has happened I guess on a state level, there are no more you can no longer there are no more
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uh college football uh player bet uh prop prop bets for players.
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So there there’s no more of that. So I don’t know if that helps the situation at all, but no longer could you bet on your own individual performance if you
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were a player. Um, hey Reed, before we get we let you go, got to ask you about women’s basketball. The schedule C came
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out today. Uh, interesting non-conference games coming up against North Carolina. Yukon will be a fun game
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in Nashville, Tennessee. Um, what do you think about the end of that regular season schedule where you you’re going
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to be facing the likes of Oklahoma, Texas, obviously South Carolina, I think it’s the 21st of February, Tennessee is
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in there. Uh January looks like a a breeze and then uh February looks much much tougher.
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Yeah, it looks like they’re going to get out of January with maybe one or maybe zero losses. Vanderbilt Vanderbilt’s early on. Vanderbilt will be tough, but
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all of the all of the most if not all of the toughest match matchups um SEC wise, they’re all confined to February. So, it’s going to be a really really
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grueling month for LSU and it’s going to be especially um going to make things even tougher since they got to jump straight into the postseason after that.
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So, that’s going to be um the most the period of time where we find out exactly what they’re made of. But um what I’m excited for this year is that we’re
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going to have a much better idea of how good they are in December. You know, because they’re actually challenging themselves a little bit out of
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conference in a way that they haven’t really done the past couple years under Kim Moy. So I am guys I’m looking forward to not having um to deal with
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the discourse and the narrative around nonigma Charlie is not going to be able to come on Tiger Rag radio
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and say that Kim Moy and LSU is an enigma.
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Yeah I’m doing I I I did jumping jacks you know when I found out the they’d be playing Yukon and a couple teams Houston is Houston any good?
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Houston Houston’s not good.
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They’re not a very good program, but but still overall it’s a much tougher slate.
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And obviously the Yukon matchup is is probably going to be the toughest non-conference game that they’ve played since Moki’s been at LSU, I would assume.
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And and they play ACC challenge. Who who do they play for that? North Carolina. North Carolina.
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And they got is North Carolina State good? I feel like they’re good. Like right, weren’t they a sweet 16 team or elite A team or something a few years back? So
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yes, they um they made the final four a couple years ago. Okay. here. I don’t think they made it past the first weekend, but yeah, real solid program.
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Wes Morris is a good coach.
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Well, do do you think that uh that she’s, you know, built that roster to where she needs to to to make it back to the Elite 8, Final Four or further?
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Yeah, I do. I think it’s a very good roster. I don’t know if it’s better than last year’s roster. It’s tough to say right now, but yeah, they definitely
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definitely have enough talent to be in that mix. I I really think they did a good job, you know, reloading in the transfer portal. The biggest thing was
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pivoting quickly from Jada Reishard to Jada Williams. Uh that was huge. Jada Williams is going to be a really really uh good fit for them. And having that
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extra ball handler, that extra score in the back court is going to really really help them.
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Was that an upgrade? Was that an upgrade?
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Um it’s tough to say because they’re they’re two different players. They do different things. you know, Rishard is probably a better uh scorer and outside
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shooter, while Williams is uh more of a facilitator and a much better distributor of the ball. So, they they bring different things to the table. Um
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but but I think LSU will really benefit from having a point guard who who is kind of like a pass first kind of player. You know, they haven’t really
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34 minutes, 23 seconds
had one of those in a while. And so, that’s going to open up things for Michaela Williams, mileage for WY and the post as well. She’s really good at
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throwing entry passes as she showed last year when she was playing for Iowa State.
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Well, didn’t didn’t Angel Reese start in 2022? Couldn’t she come back? All right.
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Well, wanted to file a lawsuit. I think if she could make it happen.
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Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. So, December 19th, 20th could be a fun weekend. You could have a college football playoff game involving LSU and
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women’s basketball playing Yukon. So, we’ll see if that actually transpires.
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We know LSU is playing Yukon in women’s hoops. Uh Reed, we’ll talk to you again.
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Uh great piece again on Kan and uh good luck with your uh practice report from tonight and and you know making that interesting.
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Awesome. Sounds good. Appreciate you guys.
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All right, there we go. Reed Darcy from the Advocate. Uh good guy. We’ll take a break or unless you got something to add.
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No, I just want to know what happened at football practice.
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We’ll have to wait till 9:00, right? Is that it? 9 at least or 8:45? Something like that. All right, we’ll take a break. More coming up here after this break.
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How you doing? This is Snow Dog. Tiger Rag. Tiger Rag Radio.
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35 minutes, 36 seconds
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you are tuned in.
35:38
35 minutes, 38 seconds
Talk LSU sports interviews, opinions, and new calls around the Tiger Nation.
35:43
35 minutes, 43 seconds
Batt Road was a life for me. Home of LSU Tigers. Now, more Tiger Rag Radio.
35:48
35 minutes, 48 seconds
Love to score and get highlights and championships and play to win. Tiger Rag Radio.
35:53
35 minutes, 53 seconds
We’re back here on Tiger Rag Radio. Jeff Wormo along with the executive editor for Tiger Era magazine, Todd Horn. Uh Gwen Gilbo may be in a holding cell at
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this point after trying to tell us what was going on at football practice. But uh Hey, hey, don’t get us in trouble, man.
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36 minutes, 10 seconds
I’m sure Glenn’s okay. He’s he’s working on that article that will be published at 8:45 tonight. That will give you the recap of LSU football practice. Another
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storyline so far through LSU football practice. I mean, there was we this started actually in the spring when Bo
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36 minutes, 25 seconds
Bordalon was taking reps with uh the starters on the offensive line at left guard and people were saying really I mean what about this Devin Harper kid
36:33
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that’s you brought you know Calvary he was at Calvary Baptist he was at Old Miss he played a handful of games with the Rebels last season. I thought he was
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supposed to be the guy at guard, but Bo Bordalon has uh stuck it out and here he is with an opportunity it looks like to
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be a starter on that offensive line and basically Lane Keifin says he has certainly deserved it.
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He’s earned it. You know, he’s uh practiced really well in the spring, worked out really hard and learned the playbook. It’s all new playbook obviously and done a really good job.
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And so you guys have probably heard me heard me say before, people don’t play here by how many stars they are, what their contract is or where they’re from, what state they’re from, or who their
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dad is. So that’s not how we do it. He’s earned it and done a really good job and we’re excited about that.
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It is a pretty cool story and there’s a lot of speculation that he might actually be awarded the number 18 jersey. Now, of course, since he’s an
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offensive lineman, he would not be able to wear the number 18 jersey, but he would have a patch, but um he would certainly be connects to the Woodside energy patch.
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Yeah, it could. Yes, exactly. Um but that is the kind of guy that you sometimes want representing uh number 18. Someone that has just stuck with it.
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He’s a legacy player. His dad played at LSU and is a guy that’s uh it sounds like really since his time and this is
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his fifth year at LSU. Since his time there, he’s been someone that whatever you’ve asked him to do, he’s done. He’s
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put the work in and now he’s put himself in an opportunity to be a starter on this team. And and I also thought it was really uh
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38 minutes, 10 seconds
interesting that Kein talked about it that way the way he did because he just wanted to lay it out there. You know, Borderline’s dad was not only a former
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player, he’s also a very successful Louisiana businessman, very involved with LSU, and in fact was on the search committee that hired Lane Kein.
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Yeah.
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38 minutes, 28 seconds
So, pretty transparent. All right, let’s take our final break.
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When we come back, uh, we’ll wrap things up here on Tiger Rag Radio. And we’re back with Tiger Rag Radio.
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All right, back here on Tiger Rag Radio.
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38 minutes, 48 seconds
Um, surprise, surprise, Todd, or did you anticipate uh when the clock rang out, the buzzer went off Friday night, early
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Saturday morning that the Protect College Sports Act did not pass the US Senate? I I was not the least bit surprised because Case kept me updated
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on what was going on all day Friday and um he had pretty much told me that the clock was going to run out on it this
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time. I’m not sure that it’s going to run out on in September case. What do you think?
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I think that Congress will try its hardest to make it as difficult as possible for it to get through um just as the nature of how the US Senate is.
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And then when you add in the fact that once it does get through the Senate, it of course has to go to the House where uh Majority Leader Steve Scaliz has
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already been against the bill. Now, his position might have since changed since LSU’s position changed and the SEC’s has and all the revisions they’ve made, but
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it’s still certainly an uphill battle and one that’s not going to happen until September.
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And the Congressional Black Caucus is not for it.
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Yeah. Which is kind of surprising how late they came out against it. Yeah. I thought Yeah. I mean, maybe that’s just me, a weird take.
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To be fair, that’s because it didn’t really become a real tangible issue until the SEC and Big 10 finally made up their minds and decided to support it in
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the final hour and then it was finally kind of filed in those last few days.
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For people not watching it on a minute-by-minute basis like you, Case, why did the SEC finally get behind the bill?
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There were so many revisions that it’s almost a different bill than the one that was originally written this summer.
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But the big things of course were that they they redid the media uh rights pooling to where that’s completely voluntary now and SEC and Big 10 schools
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don’t have to opt into that. They’ve added or changed provisions to uh league expansion and uh realignment where all
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power four schools if they want to change will have to sit out a five-year probationary period. And then the big thing at the at the end that was kind of
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the holdup was they added new language to close loopholes around NIL and third-party uh NIL deals and how schools
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might use that to work around caps and they added another retention pool and there’s just so many changes that seem to all go the SEC and Big 10 and Notre Dame’s way.
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So I was about to say so they basically said what just tell us what you want SEC and Big 10. We’ll make it the language work that way and then it’ll get
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approved. And then that’s when the Black Caucus came in and said, “Yeah, no, not going to happen.” Well, the Black Caucus, their argument was that uh black athletes and coaches
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and people that this is going to disproportionately affect were not consulted enough and their opinions were not uh reflected enough in the final copy of the bill.
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So that cuts to the antitrust really, if you really want to look at it.
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So, we uh just continue with the wild wild west for who knows how long. Well, at least through September.
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I just don’t see any I think you got to wait till a new Congress gets in there and you don’t know what the makeup of the new Congress is going to look like.
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It’s just this was their chance, I think. And I don’t I don’t foresee them, you know, they got the ball across the 50 yard
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line here. I don’t think they can mount another drive going in this way. Well, and the SEC’s and Big 10 are going to continue to complain about how that
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hasn’t happened and it still is the Wild Wild West when they have no one else to blame but themselves for why this didn’t happen. You know, it’s there were uh
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senators talking about how all anyone cared about was college sports, you know, while all these other bills are being heard and it was the Big 10 and SEC that they were waiting on.
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Yeah. The Super League. As you see it.
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Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. case.
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We’ll we’ll wrap up the show on that on that note. Uh for Case Kishnik, Todd Horn, Glenn Gilbo, we hope he’s okay.
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Read his stuff at 8:45 tonight. I’m Jeff Plural. For the latest in LSU sports, check out tiger.com. We’ll talk with you again next week here on Tiger Radio.
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42 minutes, 55 seconds
Tiger Rag is everywhere. Online at tiger.com. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/tigerragmagazine or follow us on Twitter at tiger_rag.

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