We discuss the future of the Protect College Sports Act as it awaits the position of the SEC and Big 10. WAFB’s John Eades joins the show to recap LSU’s SEC Media Days and preview preseason camp. We examine the breaking news that Ole Miss is suing two LSU players for breaking their revenue-share contracts.
Here is the complete transcript of the show from YouTube. Tiger Rag apologizes for any AI generated mistakes:
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Get ready to talk Tigers [music] with producer Case Kishnik and our hosts Todd Horn, Jeff Polalmo, [music] and Glenn Gilbo.
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Players are better people than they are players. This is Tiger Rag Radio and good evening everyone. Welcome to
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another edition of Tiger Rag Radio. As we are getting closer and closer to the start of preseason practice for the LSU
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Tigers, the Tigers will report a week from today on the LSU campus and they will begin preseason practice Wednesday.
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We’ll actually hear one more time from Lane Kein before all day gets started.
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He’ll address the Baton Rouge Rotary Club on Wednesday for the first time and that of course is an annual event for when whoever the LSU football coach is.
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They speak in front of the Rotary Club right before preseason camp gets underway. Good evening everyone. Jeff Polmo, news and sports director of
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Louisiana Radio Network. Todd Horn’s got the night off. Tiger Rager Glenn Gilbo joining me here shortly. Case Kishnik, our producer. We got a good show lined
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up for you. We’ll look back at SEC football media days from last week.
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We’ll also talk about some of the other newsy things that have happened since uh everything wrapped up in Tampa last
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week. John Eids from WFB, he will join us coming up a little bit later on in this hour. Obviously, a lot of talk
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about LSU and Old Miss and the game coming up on September 19th. We’ll talk with Sam Hutchkins with the Clarion
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Ledger. He’ll give us the old miss perspective as Pete Golding did pretty well uh in addressing the media, but of
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course that doesn’t really matter once Saturday comes along and putting together a game plan and making in-game decisions and developing talent. It’s
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great that he was or he excelled during the press conference, but actually running a football program’s a whole
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different matter. We’ll get Sam’s take on that. And then also coming up in hour number two, we’ll hear from Blake Top
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Meer from the USA Today. He’s got a lot of good stuff out. Of course, he’s the national senior national college
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football columnist, and we’ll talk with him about a lot of different issues. The Protect College Sports Act. Tomorrow is
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a big day. 900 a.m. is a deadline that senators are looking for from the
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SEC and the Big 10. I’m going to bring in uh Case. He’s been following this story. Case Kishnik, who also works for
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Tiger Egg and in the Louisiana radio network newsroom. So, give us an idea of what the deadline is tomorrow, Case, when it comes to the Protect College Sports Act.
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Yeah, so that’s 9:00 a.m. Eastern time, 8 a.m. our time. Uh congressmen have pretty much just given the SEC and the
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Big 10 a deadline to either change their position on the bill. They the SEC and Big 10 of course have been very opposed
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to it and have worked with lawmakers to revise the bill. Those revisions kind of wrapped up yesterday and today. They sent out the new language to the
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conferences and gave them that deadline to come out and say either you’re going to support it or you’re against it. And then it will either either be sent to
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the Senate floor next week likely or uh be delayed and then probably die after that.
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Yeah. The recess is August 7th. So any legislation that you want to get approved has to get done before August
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7th because when they come back from August recess, it’s all about the midterms. And really, you’re not going
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to see much as far as significant legislation get approved between Labor Day weekend or that week after Labor Day
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when Congress returns and the November election. So, if it’s going to get done, it’s it’s got to get approved by the
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Senate here to give it a a chance for it to make its way through Congress this year. What are some of the new
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developments or some of the new particulars of the legislation that they’re trying to work out and trying to get the SEC and Big 10 to get on board?
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So, Todd would probably tell you it’s a completely different bill at this point.
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They’ve they’ve changed and altered so much. Uh the big things that stuck out to me, they’ve added this uh revenue share retention pool, which is
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essentially a 20 could be up to $25 million pool that would allow schools to go over that revenue share cap to retain
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their student athletes. So to bring bring players back. Now, that would also include institutional NIL deals. So any
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uh NIL collectives, things like that, that will count towards that revshare cap, but those deals won’t be subject to the same uh college sports commission
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scrutiny about the valid business purpose and things like that. They’ve added in things to um the expansion
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uh provisions about how the SEC and Big 10 would freeze their membership. Those expan uh those limits have been extended to the rest of the power four
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conferences per the SEC and Big 10’s request. And of course the media rights uh have been kept voluntary. Uh this was from the lawmakers to the conferences.
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It says it makes entirely clear that nothing in this act permits an action under federal or state law to challenge a decision by an institution or
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conference to not join or participate in any covered entity. Essentially making that pulled media rights voluntary, if I’m understanding that correctly.
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Um so that of course was the big hangup for the SEC in the Big 10.
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All right. So I don’t know. It’ll be interesting to see. I Something tells me this this thing is going to die on the on the vine though if if I had a guess.
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Yeah, they they have kind of rallied here though in the in the last two minutes. I just I guess I don’t have faith.
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Right. Well, [laughter] I understand that you it’s you really should read what’s on the Tiger Egg website right now. Todd Horn did a story on this. The
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moment of truth. SEC and Big 10 face Wednesday deadline on protect college sports act. Congress blinked first. Um
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but yeah, I’ll be surprised if they get something concrete done tomorrow where it proceeds Yeah. to a vote, but they’re
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making a the old college try, you might say.
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Yeah. And and they should and they a deadline needs to happen. And it really there were some reports when you go back to last week at SEC media days that this
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was not looking very good. Uh but then by the end of the week, it seemed like there had been some positive discussion.
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So yeah, and and I thought Sanki came to his senses, you know, at at first during his address, he was talking about how,
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you know, there’s a possibility that the SEC would break off and then he kind of polished that up as the week went on, particularly Wednesday on Paul Finebomb.
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Yeah. And the big thing here, um the how about the retention? What 25 million to
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to retain players? Obviously, they’re trying to cut down on the all the uh transfer portal moves.
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Yeah, that’s you know because the when you buy in players out of the portal that gets most of the attention during these first few four four or five years
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of this, but people don’t realize and it doesn’t get talked about as much as how much you’re paying to to keep people like I bet you LSU had to pay a pretty
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penny to keep Trade Green, you know, and and they did to keep Garrett Nusmeer last year. So that would be one way to,
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you know, to divide money or to compartmentalize money. This money is to keep what you already have and that
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would make it ser for one thing and it would cut down on players constantly entering the portal.
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Well, what do you think, Case? Uh what what do you think? You think this has got a a chance at uh potential passage?
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I mean, it really just comes down to the SEC in the Big 10. first of all, if they even care about whatever artificial deadline lawmakers set for them, if they
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they want to respond by then. But it’s going to live or die by whether or not they change their position on the bill.
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Well, but I think if they miss the deadline, they’re not going to make it in time for the vote to to enact it.
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Right. So, if they don’t say anything at all, then they’re saying, “We still oppose this. You didn’t change enough of what we wanted, and we’re going to let it go and see if anything else comes in the future.”
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Yeah. And then and if they they could obviously it would be smart for them if they think they can get what they want a year from now to wait a year or two.
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All right. So this is something obviously we’ll monitor and we’ll hopefully we’ll probably get some sort of answer on whether this is moving along or not during the day uh tomorrow.
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Um Glenn just uh you know this is the first time we’ve been on the airwaves since Lane Keifin spoke on Thursday.
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some of your reactions to what he had to say last Thursday.
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Well, you know, the term filibuster comes from uh [laughter] congressmen back in the day, including Huie Long, reading from the phone book.
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At least Lane Keifin’s u filibuster was interesting, you know, and and uh full of uh information and and of course he did go off on a tangent and started
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talking about Hulk Hogan. And then he he broke the news of the whole week when he said, “We’re all going to die.” Yeah. [laughter] Right. But but uh you
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know I thought I thought it was very entertaining. Even his answers were were filibustery, if you will. But but um you know, he’s
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very uh honest. You know, he just casually talked about how uh you know, he he stopped drinking. And I
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thought he made an excellent point about uh as you get older, you you get rid of things instead of adding them, which is
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what he did with alcohol. And it’s also what he did on on social media, which I continue to believe that was totally his
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decision. Um, and you know, it gives him more time and it gives him a better view of things, you know, and it’s it’s really good advice from from the guy.
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But, um, you know, it was it was very interesting. I thought Pete Golding was was great, too. I I I thought it was funny that he got a round of applause,
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but that was from bloggers, I later found out, not necessarily the beat reporters, fanboys.
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Yeah. and Pat S Patal uh John Summer.
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John Summerall, the uh the late great Pat Summerall, but but [laughter] John Summerall also got a round of applause.
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And and I talked to uh Gary Smith, who’s been a guest on our show who covers two lane, and he went to the American South uh media days. He says it happened like
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almost every coach. They were applauding coaches before, during, and after. And he says it’s all bloggers. You know, it’s what is this world [laughter] coming to?
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I don’t know, man. I don’t know. The homers used to be the outliers. Now the guys who who are hardedged and objective are the outliers.
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Yeah. And it is. And uh Yeah. Um it’s it’s especially impressive that impressive Summerroll got an applause after he threatened to throw a podium at
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someone when their phone went [laughter] off. All right. Welcome to the SEC. Right.
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[laughter]
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Yeah. But John Srell was impressive and he’s an impressive.
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He’s an impressive coach. Uh, I mean, anybody that dealt with him at Tulain, the guy just comes across like, “Okay, this guy gets it. He’s got the
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personality. He understands today today’s college football, understands the athletes. Um, still has all that
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passion. There’s a lot of things to like about him. Now, it’s whether he’s able to make Florida a consistent winner. And again, as I was saying at the top of the
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show, just because you’re outstanding in handling the media and answering questions and providing a vision at SEC media days doesn’t that doesn’t
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necessarily make you a coach. You now got to put all that into your program and making sure your program wins at a high level or else you’re out.
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Who is the uh who is the Dallas Cowboys coach? Not not the coach now, the one before. His dad used to be a Saints assistant coach.
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Jason Garrett. Jason Garrett, he he he won the press conference. Remember when he got the job, he was known for winning press conferences [laughter] and not
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winning games. So, it’s not always about the press conference.
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I tell you what what I do like about Lane is that and I know I understand why he does the filibuster. The guy just
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gets attacked left and right. There are just people that are waiting for him to to fall flat on his face. They don’t like how everything transpired with his
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move from Old Miss to LSU. Even though summer all did the same thing, but he got the coach’s new team, his whole team, different situations.
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And Lane’s got a longer history of messy divorces or messy exits. And that’s true.
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He’s fallen flat on his face before. He has failed before at USC or is the head coach at the Raiders or leaving Tennessee after one year and all these
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kind of things. Uh, so there’s just he’s got a it’s easier to attack him because he made a lot of mistakes when he was
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younger as a coach, but it’s just kind of like when you lose a football game early in the season. That doesn’t mean
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you can’t improve. And I maybe I’m falling for it. I think the guy’s improved as a human being. I think he’s
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improved as a coach as the years have gone on. And I think you’re getting LSU is getting the best version of Lane Keifin at the right time.
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Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Whereas Alabama kind of got the best version of Sabin just cuz he was older. He was pretty freaking good when he was shoot.
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But no, I you know I think I think Lane’s filibuster wasn’t all strategic to avoid questions, which is what what Les Miles used to do and what other
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coaches used to do. But I think he just likes to talk. I mean, he he filibustered at some LSU spring press conferences, too. He just kind of gets
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off on tangents. He’s he’s very analytical and sharp, and I think sometimes he likes to talk and explain things where he’s coming from. But part
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of it was probably what you’re you’re saying as well. And, you know, I think the other thing is it it’s funny. I remember some people getting mad at Old
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Miss people, you know, cuz they were ripping lane for months after he came here. And it’s like, well, well, man, you know, if you’re so upset, you should
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be happy that he left. They didn’t like him [laughter] that much. But the truth is, they loved him when he was there, just like they loved Sabin when he was at LSU, even they started ripping them.
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LSU fans did when he went to uh to Miami. But I I think it’s part of the whole Rockstar thing because, you know,
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Florida media, you know, they thought they had them, you know, and and I think I think Alabama media, if they’re not
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already, if Lane wins big and and um uh Kaden Dbor does not, they’re going to be
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mad, too, and they’re going to try to get him back. I I think there’s a lot of jealous hate of of Lane because of he’s at LSU.
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Let’s take our first break. More of Tiger Rag Radio when we come back.
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I’m Richard Fner, president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. My brother and I grow rice, soybeans, and raised crawfish on our farm in Evangelin
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Parish. For a fourth generation [music] farmer like myself, Louisiana Farm Bureau is as much a part of my life as checking traps or harvesting rice.
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15 minutes, 48 seconds
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Visit lafarmbureau.org. at the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, the voice of Louisiana agriculture.
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We now return to Tiger Rag Radio.
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Polmo, news and sports director of Louisiana Radio Network, along with the editor for Tiger Rag magazine, Glenn
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Gilbo. So, we uh got an idea of why Lane Kein quit social media and so forth, but football-wise, what were your big
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takeaways from what um was said at SEC media days? Excuse me. I think the health of Whit Weeks, uh, him diving
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into a little bit more of what happened with him, uh, you know, that broken ankle that he suffered in the bowl game against Baylor. Certainly, well, it did
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linger into last season and he breaks it again against Old Miss. Had surgery in January, feeling much better now. I
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think the word u, and again, it’s just talk. It’s talking season, but what Tradez Green had to say regarding the chemistry that they’re seeing on
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offense, at least through spring ball, and then what they’ve seen in offseason conditioning, he said what you would anticipate someone would say is that the
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chemistry is great. We’ll have to wait and see whether that actually uh transpires during the course of the season. So, those were some of the things that were kind of discussed.
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Glenn, what were um other football related items as far as what’s happening on the field that you could take away from SEC media days?
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Yeah, I thought one thing that was interesting was was Whit Weeks uh was discussing how uh difficult it has been
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uh to watch film of Lane Kein’s offense and practice it against it in the in the
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spring and and also what he remembers from playing Old Miss uh twice in a row.
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uh you know they they they they put the same formation out there, but they run a handful of plays from it instead of just one or two. So, you can’t figure out
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what they’re going to do right off. And that that’s kind of the genius of of Kein and and Charlie Weiss. And it was interesting hearing it from a guy who’s
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gone against it and now he’s on the uh same team on on defense. So, I I thought that was pretty interesting. And and you
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know, Trey Green is uh he’s going to be a star. you know, obviously he’s already a star, but he’s he’s going to be a very
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media friendly player. I can tell if if not at LSU because they they tend to keep him under wraps but but [laughter] once he gets to the NFL. Yeah.
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Um and uh you know and and I think u the way Lane was talk made the point about
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the portal you know everybody’s focused on the guys who are going to play immediately but what he was saying is you know that portal 41 guys there’s a
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lot of them underassman that that’s an investment for the future the long run as well as the short run. and he he really gave a great explanation of his
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roster philosophy with which Case wrote about uh last week. So again, he may have been filibustering, but he was very informative.
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Yeah. And I like the point that he made and I don’t know if we’ll if if they’ll get to it is uh he talked about how in the NFL when he was the head coach of
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the I guess it was the Oakland Raiders at the time when they drafted Jammarcus Russell and at that time rookies got
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these huge contracts even much more so than guys in their prime or other star
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players. And the same situation is occurring now. You have a lot of these high school recruits that are demanding
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these huge dollar figures when it comes to NIL or revenue sharing and it needs to be flipped.
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There should be some sort of some whether it’s a cap on them as far as the incoming uh incoming freshman where
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they’re however you can set up the system so the players coming out of high school going into college are not making more than say a wit weeks.
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Right. Right. And that was an excellent point he made about Russell because Russell’s uh the fact that he bombed
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so so badly in the NFL draft. I mean as a Raider after being the first pick of the NFL draft that had a lot to do with
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that. It it didn’t happen for another couple of years, but that really kind of set it off, you know, and Lane mentioned, you know, you had these
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rookies making $10 million more than than some veterans. And that’s what’s happening with some of the guys coming out of high school. And he also said
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they need u you know each position needs kind of a salary which they also have in the NFL and and Lane said before you
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know he was he he said that when he was talking about Billy Glascock as his GM he says if you want a great model to do anything you you look at the NFL
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and what players are getting. So if you’re going to try to establish a cap then what players are getting needs to be public.
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He also mentioned that as well.
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Exactly. Uh yeah, I don’t know if that’s going to happen. No, I I don’t think so.
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But uh you know it I remember when that happened in the NFL when free agency first started in the early 90s,
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everybody said, “Oh, it’s going to rip the team apart cuz they’re going to know this guy’s making that.” And it did nothing. Did none of that.
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No. No. And uh I I have a feeling that pretty much everybody knows what everyone’s making at this point, right?
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I mean there there’s agents um other teams can contact contact that
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agent that agent can say well so and so is getting this much what are you going to potentially offer I don’t I I think I
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think a lot of these what is what players are receiving I think everybody has a pretty good idea what’s happening so sure
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I I don’t think it’s it’s as secretive as some people would like to make it out to be. All right, we’re going to take another break here on Tiger Rag Radio.
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When we come back, John Eids from WFB, he will join us. So stay tuned. We got a lot more to get to here on Tiger Rag Radio. We’ll be back after this.
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21 minutes, 54 seconds
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21 minutes, 59 seconds
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22 minutes, 6 seconds
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22 minutes, 13 seconds
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Tiger rag radio is back.
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All right, some breaking news coming out of Oxford. it was discussed or we heard reports of it or it was at least miss
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athletic director was talking about a potential lawsuit that would be filed in
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against defensive end Prince Willil Uman Ellen and LSU offensive lineman Devin Harper for breaking out of their or
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because they were seeking almost $1 million between the two in unreceived payments. They were looking for a buyout
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for breaking their contracts on their revenue sharing agreements that they had signed with Old Miss. That lawsuit has
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officially been filed now in old or in Mississippi. And uh someone who has a story on it, Sam Hutchkins with the
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Clarion Ledger, uh he will be one of our guests coming up a little bit later on.
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So, thank you very much. I I knew [laughter] that was going to happen. So that’s why I got sick. Well, I hope the lawsuit watch some Old Miss judge is going to
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call the hearing for the s Saturday, September 19th at 4 p.m. Miss seeking um here we go. Miss seeking um Umain’s
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penalty of $550,000 and Harper’s penalty of $400,000 as well as litigation fees resulting from the
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lawsuit. Uh, according to Sam Hutchkins, it’s been common for universities to pay incoming players buyouts, but the lawsuits must be filed against the
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players because they are the ones who breach the contract. Athletic director Keith Carter told the Clarion Ledger back on July 13th that said Miss has
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paid similar buyouts on behalf of incoming players. So, uh, another level of this rivalry between LSU, Old Miss, it gets ramped up another notch here.
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So, well, maybe Old Miss will will forgive the um monetary charges if both players transfer back to the Rebels just
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[laughter] in time for kickoff September 19th.
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I don’t think that will happen. Let’s get to our first guest of the night, John Eids, who covers LSU for WFB. John,
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thanks a lot. We appreciate it. John was over in Tampa for the SEC media days.
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And uh John, I know uh this is kind of a well, it’s supposed to be a quiet week, but there’s lawsuits being filed and all
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kinds of other stuff going on this week leading up to the start of preseason camp, but uh how you doing and how did you enjoy SEC media days?
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Doing well, guys. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, just when you think you might have two weeks of quiet time before [laughter] camp starts, uh I guess not.
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The legal ease get involved. And interesting, they do this after media days, so that’s something that we can ask and talk about. um in Tampa Bay. But
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no, it was a good experience. I’d never been to Tampa before. I think it was a nice destination. Uh good spot to host it there. Right on the water. Beautiful.
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Pretty easy to get in and out of town and they had a pretty good setup there inside the hotel. So, had a good time and uh obviously had to wait all week
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for LSU to take the podium and stuff, but a lot going on in between there with Deep Golding and Kaylin Dbor and Josh Heel obviously on the first day leading
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it off with some fireworks. So overall, good time. Now let’s play some ball.
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Who would you say uh impressed you the most at media days?
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Well, I thought LSU did a good job of kind of coming in with a strategy and not really letting anything sizzle, you
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know, like Lane didn’t really put a whole lot out there. I think that was clickbaity or catchy. Um and I think Old Miss the same way. you know, I I thought
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this might be a bigger deal. Like the lane and miss, you know, that that that kind of stuff would be a bigger deal than it really was. All the players were
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well trained, I thought, and gave some pretty good answers. Um, so I even thought Kayn Dbor kind of handled it pretty well. Now, you know, there’s
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nothing he can do until they get back out there, play football, and he could try to, you know, continue to follow up Nick Sabin, the impossible task that
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that is. But I think that his answers to those questions and his understanding of the situation was um well well spoken. I
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think and that that doesn’t really mean anything once you flip the calendar to August and September and you actually got to go win football games. But just listening through the transcripts and
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the answers that he had about the inevitable questions he was going to get. To be honest, I thought he answered them pretty well.
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Hey John, this is Glenn. Thanks for for joining us. Um, what did what did you uh since Lane didn’t go until the last day,
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what was the feeling you got from other media that you may have mixed with on their uh, you know, thoughts about Kein
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and, you know, the the hate meter or or or not? You know, what kind of vibe did you get on Kein specifically?
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Hey, Gwen. Um, well, I got a good vibe.
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I had a discussion with somebody that used to work closely with Kein. I’ll say that. And he and I were just chatting
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walking down the hallway and stuff. And um he told me he wouldn’t be surprised if he won three national championships
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if not more in 10 years at LSU. Like he’s he’s really in on him. Just coupling the resources and and what’s
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available here with the kind of coach that he is. Um really complemented a lot of the intangibles that Kein brings. As
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far as the hatred between the two, I didn’t have a ton of discussion about that. I thought again it’d be a bigger deal than it was, you know. Um I thought
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Pete Golden gave some pretty funny answers like the one about the ex-girlfriend. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
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There wasn’t a whole lot there to ignite that rivalry more than it already is. Um I I would say this this legal action
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they just took was a bigger kind of blip on the radar than anything that was said or talked about in Tampa Bay. So, I will
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say this though, a lot of media people told me that they’d been to Death Valley a couple times in recent years and they were underwhelmed with the experience.
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And I told them, “Look, you haven’t been to and I don’t know that there’s been a game at in Death Valley in the past couple years that has
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given the football team and the fans an opportunity to put together like the peak Death Valley experience because
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maybe the most recent one in memory, it’s got to be LSU Alabama probably, right? in um 2022, but like there hasn’t
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been a marquee early season game in Tiger Stadium in the past couple years.
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There will be that opportunity against Clemson. And I say that because by the time the marquee games that you were looking forward to came to the schedule in late October, November, the season
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was pretty much already over because LSU had three or four losses. So I told them that’s going to change. You will not be underwhelmed. I don’t think much going forward. I would think the one game that
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might come close to the LSU Alabama game in 2022 was the LSU Old Miss game in 2024. Yeah, that was pretty loud game. Yeah.
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Um I was thinking off the top of my head.
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Yeah. No, I I I understand where you’re coming from, but you’re right. I I mean, you’re right. It’s been it’s been tough
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and um you know, LSU’s had some during that time they they’ve had some games that have just haven’t been very good. I
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remember there was a lot even though it was an 11 a.m. kickoff. The uh LSU Tennessee game in 2020 was that 2023, right?
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That was uh that was Kelly’s first year.
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22 22 and then LSU’s down like 14 to nothing before you can and it just took the complete, you know, the air out and again it was an 11 a.m. kickoff as well.
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So that that didn’t help. But um yeah, so I I I would imagine uh Saturday night, September 5th, Tiger Stadium will
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be amped up as well as it’s been amped up. Maybe going all the way back to the 2019 season.
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Yeah. And and you know the thing about Tiger Stadium, you never you never hear that it’s a comfortable place to watch a game, you know, unless you’re in the
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suits or something. And if you’re at a day game in Tiger Stadium and you’re facing the sun, I I know people I mean, they couldn’t stand it, you know? It
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it’s it’s kind of it’s not glam camping, you know? It’s it’s rustic camping and and it’s and it’s an all day thing. It’s work, man.
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And look at the UCLA game last year, right? Was it last year? The year before? Yeah. Two years ago that that place there was no way. It was so
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difficult to stick around for two halves of football for that one. But um what are your uh big storylines going into
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preseason camp? John, I think the biggest one Sam Levitt, it was good to hear the players and Lane
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Keifin talk about his health status, what he’s been doing this summer. Thing is though, none of us have seen that like have all been closed playerled
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practices and there’s no guarantee that he’s going to return to the form that he was in before last October when he was
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at Arizona State. you know, like you paid him the money, that’s great. That doesn’t mean he’s going to come here and be successful. Like last year, they
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dumped a ton of money into a lot of skilled players. And I would say most of them didn’t live up to the potential that they got out of the transfer portal, you know, and even a couple
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years before that in 23, they got a guy from Oregon State, Omar States, who is this all everything pack 12 linebacker came here and he’s in the NFL. He’s a
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good player, but I mean, he didn’t make any kind of an impact. Nobody did on that LSU defense in 23. So that’s the biggest thing for me is yes, all the
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stuff in writing and you know in a video game world Sam Levit comes to LSU, balls out, goes to the league and the Tigers win a bunch of games. That’s not
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guaranteed though. And we haven’t seen him do anything except throw footballs and tennis shoes. So we need to see what his health is um and if he can gel with
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these receivers because he hasn’t done any live game stuff that we’ve seen. So then that’s above all the biggest storyline. Another I’d say is the
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defensive line. You’re a little thin at the edge spot because Gabriel Reford went down with the injury um earlier this year. You’re really young and
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inexperienced and unproven at defensive tackle. I like what Blake Baker has in the linebacker and in the secondary, but you win in the trenches. It’s no secret.
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I think they’ll have the upper hand from an offensive line perspective, but how about defensive line? Is a Duce Gerald’s ready to play? Is a Lamar Brown ready to
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play? um does a show in Washington, a Dominic McKinley take the next step. So those are two of the biggest storylines I’m following is how is Sam Levit
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progressing and then that defensive line who’s going to step up there.
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John, we appreciate it, man. It’ll be here before you know it. Uh next Tuesday’s reporting day. Thanks a lot for spending some time with us tonight.
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My pleasure. Thanks for having me, guys. All right, that is John Eids with WFB.
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We’ll be back after this here on Tiger Rag Radio. We’re back to Tiger Rag Radio.
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Polmo, along with the editor for Tiger Rag Magazine, Gwen Gilbo, and our producer tonight, Case Kishnik. So, I
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was trying to get through it quickly there with John because I wanted to get the story out there uh before we got to John Eid’s interview about the breaking
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news out of uh Mississippi. And that is civil complaints have been filed. Miss has filed civil complaints against LSU
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football defensive end Prince Will Uman Ellen and LSU offensive lineman Devin Harper. You may have heard that athletic
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director Keith Carter said earlier this month that they were considering filing a lawsuit against both players because
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both of them in early January signed a revenue sharing agreement with Miss and
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then still entered the transfer portal and then ended up signing with LSU. So
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what Miss is seeking is the buyout money from Umami Ellen and
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from Harper getting out of their contracts. They have not paid that buyout money. And so Miss is seeking
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$550,000 from Uman and then they are seeking $400,000
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from Devin Harper as well as litigation fees resulting from the lawsuit. What?
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And our next guest is going to talk a little bit more about this. Sam Hutchkins with the Clarion Ledger. He has a story right now at the Clarion
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Ledger website, clarionledger.com, if you want to read more about it. And I know Tiger Rag is going to be following
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up with this as well. But uh with some more of the information, but there’s a timeline here in the article, Glenn, of
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of how this of what happened that on January 6, Harper signed his revenue sharing agreement with Old Miss. Um
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Ellen signed his revenue sharing agreement with Miss on January 3rd. And then approximately a little later or more than a week
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later, Harper enters the transfer portal. On the 16th of January, he signs with LSU. And then on the 16th, the day
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that he signed with LSU, when Devin Harper signed, Miss sent him a letter requesting payment. Never got a response. 30-day deadline comes around
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to make a payment. No response from Harper. So then Miss contacted LSU requesting payment on Harper’s behalf.
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LSU denied in middle of March saying that they are not party to the contract.
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And then uh Old Miss files the lawsuit on July 27th. What’s kind of interesting that the lawsuits have been filed in
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circuit court in Lafayette County and uh there are two different judges. You got Judge Kelly Luther is listed as the
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presiding judge in the lawsuit against Uman Miellen and then Judge Kent E.
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Smith is the presiding judge in the lawsuit against Harper. And as Keith Carter says that uh Old Miss has paid
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similar buyouts on behalf of incoming players and that universities usually pay these incoming player buyouts. So
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even though the lawsuits have been filed specifically against Uman Muellan and Harper uh in the end LSU may have to end
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up paying these buyouts or we’ll see. I can’t imagine as we saw with the Trinidad Chamblas situation. I can’t
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imagine an Old Miss judge or a Mississippi judge is going to rule against Miss. [laughter] Yeah. And and you know, it sounds like
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Miss has a strong case because I mean, they signed and then they left. And if you remember, De Man Williams, the Washington quarterback who Lane Kein was recruiting after he entered the portal.
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He had just signed a contract and then and then the wording of the contract, he he backed down and he stayed at Washington. I I’m wondering why Old Miss
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didn’t press harder to uh try to keep those two kids back in January because of the revenue share. Now, it was a lot
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less money than than the Washington quarterback, but it it it’s funny that you didn’t hear about that more at the time. Maybe maybe they just drafted the
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lawsuit later after that. Maybe they didn’t think they had a chance of of getting him back. But, uh it sounds like Miss has a strong case.
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And Miss provided this statement to the Clarion Ledger. I’ll kind of jump to the middle of it. Um, and I think that the
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key part of it, uh, according to the statement, before transferring to another institution, student athletes Devon Harper and Prince Will Uman
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Miellan signed revenue sharing agreements that included a provision requiring them to compensate the university with a predetermined amount
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if they departed before fulfilling their commitment. The University of Mississippi has a responsibility to enforce its contractual terms and this
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position is consistent with the action of other institutions in the current landscape of college athletics. So yeah, I would love to hear the story from
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Prince Will and Devin Harper. There’s always two sides to a story, Gwen. Sure.
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But I would love to hear why they never paid or why they feel like they don’t have to pay.
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I I wonder if the people recruiting them, LSU and others were saying, “We’ll we’ll take care of that if y’all come.” you know, or who knows.
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Yeah. All right, let’s take another break. Uh, and we’ll have one more little segment, then we’ll get to Sam Hutchkins from the Clarion Ledger. So, stay tuned. More from Tiger Rag Radio right after this.
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This is [music] Tiger Rag Radio.
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Polmo along with Tiger Rag editor Glenn Gilbo.
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Looking forward to our next guest Sam Hutchkins from the Clarion Ledger to talk about the lawsuit that has been filed by Old Miss against Prince Will
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Umman Ellen and LSU offensive lineman Devin Harper. We’ll get into that a little bit more with Sam Hutchkins from
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the Clarion Ledger. Um while SEC media days took place last week, this week it’s Big 10 media days. It’s kind of weird these media days are this late
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into July. Like preseason camp starts next week. Usually there’s a little bit of more of a buffer in between media days. and uh but for whatever reason
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it’s all backed up this year. But Big 10 uh Big 10 media days gets underway and of course
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uh Commissioner Tony Patiti advocating for the 2014 playoff. Uh so
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that was uh right now um that’s the big thing. The Big 10 is continuing to push for the 2014 playoff. Uh, of course,
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Tony Patiti feels like the Big 10 has much more of a leg to stand on nowadays because they’ve won their last three national championships.
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Um, and uh, so we’ll see. This debate will just continue to move on here, Glenn, as far as what might happen with that.
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Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see what what happens uh, tomorrow. And it’s it’s wild that the Big 10 media days are going on at at the same time
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that something could well um happen tomorrow with that. I I I I we’re going to talk to Blake Top Meer about that too
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at at 7:30, but I’m I’m going to be s like I’m going to be surprised if something really goes down tomorrow. I think it’s going to be delayed.
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Yeah. Uh Tony Patiti, this is what he says regarding the 2014 playoff. The
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idea is keeping as many teams in contention for as long as possible. Play as many meaningful games for as long as you can. Secondly, the format creates
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all kinds of incentives. If you think about a 2014 playoff, a bunch of teams that are going to be ranked between 16 and 24 that are just trying to make sure
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they’re in. You’re going to have teams playing until the very end to see if they’re in. So, he believes it’s going to lead to a lot more meaningful games, especially in the month of November.
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Yeah, you know, that makes sense. Um, I think the Big 10, you know, they’ve always played more conference games than
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the SEC teams have. Uh, and they, you know, they they also have more teams.
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Uh, they also have bigger television audiences as far as populations to draw from, but yet they they don’t always do
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as well as some of the uh SEC games in in smaller populations. But, you know, and and ESPN and and the SEC, they don’t
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they don’t want to go to 24. The most they’re ever going to go to is 16. So, so these two leagues and and really Fox and and ESPN, there’s still so much to
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be worked out. That’s why I don’t think it’s going to happen this year. And then Patiti also said he is not interested in forcing his schools or the schools in
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the Big 10 to play at least one power four non-conference opponent because they want to get as many team and
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basically amidst it that they want to get as many teams as possible successful football playoff and and and the SEC teams are are
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hurting themselves by insisting on that and then also them going to to nine teams on top of that even though the Big
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10’s already on that It it makes it harder for the SEC.
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Wow. All right. So, Tony Patitini has made his statement regarding that. Not much has changed there and uh that
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debate will just uh continue and it doesn’t seem like either side is going to back down when it comes to that. So, I I don’t know. I think we
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just kind of keep punting on that issue until somebody blinks. Uh maybe another year of how you see the season work out and how the playoff works out. you gain
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a a little bit more information and maybe that um maybe that leads to more discussions as far as how to expand it,
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if to expand it and all those kind of things. Let’s take another break. When we come back, Sam Hutchkins from the Clarion Ledger in Mississippi. Of
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course, we’ll be talking about the lawsuit Old Miss has filed against Princewell Umami Ellen and Devin Harper for breaking their revenue sharing
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