Chris Hart's First Portal Moves + NC State Baseball Offseason Breakdown | Tuffy Talk

Chris Hart didn't wait. In his first week as NC State's head coach, he landed two transfer portal commits from the same program — infielder Hunter Warren and left-handed pitcher Chet Lax, both from Wright State. Layton, Greg, and Ethan break down both additions in full, debate which one is the bigger get, and dig into what their numbers against SEC competition actually tell you about how they'll translate to the ACC.

Warren hit .328 with a .831 OPS across 61 games in 2025, won Horizon League Freshman of the Year, and posted an .856 OPS in 23 plate appearances against Tennessee and Georgia. Lax went seven innings against Tennessee with a 0.82 ERA across 11 innings of SEC competition, showing the kind of stuff that projects as a legitimate weekend starter. Both were First Team All-Horizon League. Both are exactly the profile Hart and Avent have always targeted — proven smaller-school D1 talent that translates up.

Then the full offseason rundown. The Brazil game is cancelled and moved to Charlottesville — NC State nets roughly $1.15 million after travel expenses, but is now a five and a half point underdog in what was supposed to be a neutral site opener. Rett Johnson earns NCBWA 2nd Team Freshman All-American honors. Colt Hauser commits to the 2027 football class — and yes, his dad is Cole Hauser, Rip Wheeler from Yellowstone. Alex Scott commits over Tennessee and Texas A&M. Gunnar Rivers visits Raleigh wearing Philip Rivers' retired number 17 — and the debate about whether he'll actually wear it if he commits is genuinely one of the most interesting conversations of the offseason. LuJames Groover gets called up to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Diana Schneider reaches the French Open semifinals as a top 25 player in the world. Jacob Smith officially drops football for baseball only.

Ethan closes with the Stat Pack — Warren and Lax's numbers against SEC pitching and hitting broken down fully, what a 2.5 WAR Hunter Warren looks like in NC State's 2027 lineup, and the sacrifice bunt debate that may never get resolved.

Tuffy Talk is NC State's home for sports talk, hot takes, and everything Wolfpack. New episodes every Monday at 8:30 PM ET on YouTube. Join the Patreon at patreon.com/cw/ncstatestats for exclusive weekly NC State breakdowns from Ethan — $5/month. 🐺🎙️

Transcript

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We don't need a mic on some big TV stage, just passing the fans and a whole lot of faith. So if you bleed red and you holler all night, then brother, you're exactly right. This is tough talk with a black friend for long. For an arm, for the red and the white. Sing along. We'll bring it all down and we'll call it straight. This is our show. Go back, go straight. Just be talk fired up and loud. The wolf Pack nation. Where a hell of a crowd. From the first pitch to the final play. Tell me, Tom, let's roll today. What is going on, Wolf Pack Nation, we appreciate y'all tuning in here with us as again, we're excited to be here with Toughie Talk 3.0. You got myself, Lane Smith, Greg Legg and as always, our man Ethan too as well. So Ethan doing well. Everything going good. Good week. Uh, it's a. Full game for me later, but I will, uh, yeah, I'll push through and, uh, and and we'll get it done. Hey, anytime. Again, we're talking baseball. Of course I'm ready to go. Well, definitely. Definitely a good part of it here for sure. Greg. Good weekend man. Yeah. My son graduated high school and got my daughter moved out of her storage units and down to South Carolina. So very productive and busy and great weekend. Yeah. How about you? Yeah, man, it was good. Dude just got hot here in North Carolina. Man, it's, uh. Uh, you know, but we got some rain coming through this week. It's going to be nice. Uh, we need it for sure. So, uh, you know, all is well, man. But with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, you've been with us for, you know, the drill. Make sure any questions, comments, uh, requests that you have, put them in the chat and we will we'll be discussing them all today, but we got a lot to get to here. Uh, you know, first of all, wanted to get to some, uh, some all things NC state to here as well. Uh, you know, so I wanted to kind of we'll kind of talk here a little bit about the, um, you know, the latest news here for sure regarding recruits and things like that. But, uh, Ethan, what would you say your biggest shocker was from the, uh, uh, the Omaha eight? You know, would you say there's one team that that surprised you the most? One team that surprised me the most. Well, I mean, Troy as the three seed. Um, that's pretty. Big one, obviously, that's up there. But again, a lot of big upsets. Three of your top four seeds didn't make it especially, I mean, Georgia Tech. And you see I mean UCLA ran the table as the number one team. Georgia Tech's one of the best lineups you've ever seen in college baseball. Auburn obviously we know. So um, biggest yeah I mean Troy is the lowest seed. So they've got to be up there. But um, yeah I think it's a fun field. I mean, I think there's a beat going around that this is now 20 out of the last three years, 23 out of 24 different teams have made it. And of course, USC is the one returner. But still, at least as a baseball guy, it's it's fun to see different teams up there. Yeah. No, definitely. Uh, Greg, was there any one series in particular you tuning in for? You know, in between your your your son's high school graduation? Well, of course, they hate watching of unk. That almost, you know, you almost got them out. To a heartbreaker. Huh? Yeah, yeah. USC kind of literally dropped the ball on that one. Uh, but, uh, it was a. Yeah, good series. Um, you know, the West Virginia I, I like seeing West Virginia, I think I think I'm going to be kind of pulling for them. Uh, I think especially they're going to probably end up playing Carolina in Game two there. Uh, just love seeing Country Roads singing, you know, guys holding up freaking raccoons behind home plate. It's just it's what makes baseball kind of unique and fun at the same time. Yeah. You know, definitely, uh, you know, also to even, uh, Oklahoma seeing Oklahoma at Omaha is definitely, uh, an unusual one. But one stat I saw that was particularly crazy to me. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I saw a stat where it was like like Texas has been to between like a third to a half of. Almost. Half of of of all all College World Series that have ever happened. 39 of 79. Yeah. Because because like, I would have never pegged Texas like this, you know, baseball like super. Have you been living under a rock forever? Seriously, I never I did not know that. Oh, Texas is a hotbed. It's like Texas, Florida and California, like the three states that, you know, invaded baseball practically. I, I let's put it this way, Greg, I, I would have said Texas football. Football is the light years ahead of baseball, but apparently it's not necessarily light years, maybe a light year, uh, you know, behind football maybe. But you know. So which is why that doesn't play baseball. I, I still to this day find it crazy that they don't play baseball. Yeah. Syracuse makes a little more sense. Sure. Yeah. Anyway, we're moving on. That's right, that's right. But, uh. Yeah. Benjamin saying, uh, AA3A3 game series versus West Virginia at the Doak will be fired next year. Uh. Yeah. I think that's kind of what we got at in our, uh, baseball podcast. Uh, Ethan, I would love maybe a home and home with them. Leighton, how did we do? No, he's probably in my gears. Let's see. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, yeah. Don't worry. That's, you know, don't you worry. Don't you worry. Uh, but, Mark. Uh, Amante. You brother as well too, on that man. So. But yes, with that being said, let's jump into, uh, let me make sure I have the right, uh, background cued up to as well, because I need to do better, uh, this, this show here as well, which I'm ready to go here. See? Yeah. Let's jump on over some grind. My. You know, what really grinds Mike is. All right here. Oh, almost. I was almost there. I was, I, I was, I was, I was, I was 67% of the way there, but uh, I didn't have my, my screen full screen. So I couldn't see the segment background in time to get up here. But yeah, you know, you said it, Ethan. Like so. So here a little bit behind the scenes, y'all. So it's time to have a team meeting in front of the entire Tuffy Talk crew here. So just to make. It I didn't have ten days into this getting reprimanded. Right. So basically basically I told Greg and Ethan, I'm like, all right, guys, I'm not gonna be able to make it. But here's I want you to do I want you guys take like 20, 25 minutes and I want y'all to just just review just the overall season. Like, not go crazy. You know, we got a lot of offseason here to talk about the all the different pieces and parts of baseball. I just want you guys to just do a high level overview grading the season 2020 five minutes max. And then I literally go out to dinner because it was my wife's birthday and come back and I expect to jump on StreamYard and just go ahead and download the recording. So that way the next morning I go ahead and get them, you know, and things like that. And there's still recording and I'm like refresh and be like, well, maybe that's old. And then and nope, still recording. And I'm sitting here like, should I jump in and be like, hey, yo. Like, can y'all wrap it up here? Like, what are y'all doing? Speaking of wrap it up, I thought we were keeping grind my gears to two minutes. Sure. Well, hey, listen here. All right? So, hey, this is this is what we call Greg. Full transparency mode here, right? For the fans here. So, um. Yeah. So anyway, so and and then of course, at the end, Greg is like, yeah, don't worry about Ethan late, late, late. We'll clean it up. And I'm like, of course. Yeah, Layton, we'll figure it out. He'll be yeah, he'll be fine. So we gave you everything you needed to put it together. I stand by that. And the key word there. You got. Everything? Everything. What were you saying, Ethan? I said you got two episodes instead of one. Yeah, yeah, so so so. All right, so he got his portion of grabbed my gears. I'm going to go to my portion of Grind my gears because it clearly, clearly comes right into Layton's. Layton. When you ask me for content and you ask Ethan for content, we give you content and then you complain. That grinds my gears. Hey, hey, listen, man, bits and pieces go a long way, okay? So, you know, just just give me a taste, you know? Don't don't give me the whole caboodle. You know, once. We gave you enough for a lifetime of archives. So anytime you wanted to pull a hot take, you can just go find one. That's true. That that's that's that's fair for sure. And there was there was a good bit of it, uh, and, you know, and obviously we're kind of, you know, going to talk a little bit more about it here about, you know, how do some of those hopes and dreams around Chris Hart, how they transfer in terms of, uh, roster makeup, which we'll talk about here in terms of Coach Chris Hart getting his first two, um, uh, commits here in the transfer portal. But, uh, one other thing that really grinds my gears, uh, is, you know, the fact that, you know, we just don't have the same night commitment that Troy University does, because maybe if we did, we would be as successful as Troy in baseball. You know, and just, you know, finally take it to that next level here. You know, what my gears is, is late in sarcasm. Hey, I I I'm that that is that is that that's my middle name. That that's that's one of my middle names is sarcasm here. Uh, but I, I get your, I get your take, which is like, you could even make it a high take, too, if you wanted to. Like, like Troy versus little Rock in a super regional, like, what the heck. Yeah. Like, that's just it's mind blowing. State could have played Milwaukee if they had one. Okay. Played Alabama was cooking this past week. And you know you had you know multiple you had Troy hosting Alabama hosting Auburn Hampton. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. But Ethan you got anything that really grinds your gears. No. You guys were good. I'll I'll come up with something later. You guys were good. That was I can't compete with those. That's fair. Yeah. Well uh yeah. And see look at that. See Benjamin saying there's never enough baseball content from Gregor or Wolfpack staff. See, there we go. Benjamin is right behind y'all. So. All right. Well, with that being said, I mean, I do know there's one thing that really grinds specifically Greg's gears. And in order to do that, we gotta jump on over to tweets of the week. So let's, uh, let's make that happen. Oh, that was the first time we used that. Uh, that. Yeah, I liked it. Yeah. It's amazing when, uh, you know, when the, the fire alarms don't go off so I can actually, you know, do it here. Uh, so. Anyway, straight to my heart, you're going straight for the jugular on this first tweet. It's straight for the jugular here, dude. Uh, so, yeah. So unfortunately, we learned that, uh, um, you know, the NC state football opening game versus Virginia has been moved away from Brazil and to Charlottesville, Virginia. And, uh, but the good thing though, here, Greg, is that NC state football still gets $1.5 million. Now the biggest question what you want to. Well well so I did want to ask that. So like kind of give the fans. So like the fans are saying you're not going to see that money. So like what like is is that actually a thing where NC state football might not see that$1.5 million? Well, if you look at it from this way, they were unable to put on the event, uh, for whatever reason. And I've heard, you know, about 2 or 3 different things that could be somewhat credible from lack of package sales and ticket sales all the way to the company that was supposed to do logistics and moving equipment. Didn't think that they could get it done properly and safely. Safely, safely. Um, so yeah, I, you know, I have concerns, uh, you know, and of course, there's always the legality route. And but at that point, you know, how much are you really going to get back? I, I don't know, um, I, I thought, you know, as a lot of fans from a fan perspective, like it would probably not be the greatest event ever. Uh, me personally, being a quote unquote super fan and going to everything I can possibly go to. I was in for this trip. I thought it would be really cool, really fun. Um, but yeah, um, I don't know, I, I talking to the company. I talked to them at baseball, um, during the uncW series. Didn't come away super impressed by them. And then seeing this, it's not overly shocking. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. And because I know there's been some conversation too as well around uh, you know if this is honestly good news for NC state and the fact that, you know, there's positives and the fact that, okay, now a lot more NC state fans than probably the couple hundred that were scheduled to go, uh, you know, we'll be able to make the short trip up to Charlottesville, Virginia, uh, to go watch, uh, the opening weekend game, but also to the negative, where now it's going from a true neutral game to a true away game. So, you know, kind of give it to me here where, you know, now that you've had some time to to sleep on it, soak it in a little bit, you know. How does this make you change your thoughts on the, the results of this game with the location change? Yeah. Well, the spread moves in Virginia's favor. I think I saw it. Let me check on this. I think I saw that four and a half or maybe even five. It was originally, uh, three and a half. Three. Um, if I'm not mistaken. And so, you know, again, how much stock do you put into a couple of points in a, in a game like that? Yeah, I have it at five and a half now. So it was three and a half. So but again that tracks I mean home field advantage is supposed to be worth three points. So you go from a neutral site to a home field like yeah it's going to be a point or two. Um to me it's bigger. Like if it's worse for this game, I think it's better over the course of the season because and this is the thing, I've always gone back to, the teams that have gone overseas and lost have pretty much all gone on to have bad seasons. Maybe that's a coincidence, maybe it's not. To me, I think there is something to that. And again, not that South America is overseas, but it's a haul. I mean, it's definitely overseas. You're you're yeah. You're going over AC yeah. Distance wise it's about the same right. No it's worse it's way worse than Europe. Was it worse. Yeah okay. It's double it's almost it's double the flight time. Yeah. It was going to be almost 13 hour flight time. And it's only about 6 to 7 hours to Europe. Yeah. There you go. So you know again like, could this season have steamrolled as, uh, snowballed, I should say, for the loser. Yeah. Like absolutely. And so from that perspective, I think you feel better about the rest of the year. But yeah, for that game, I think you're probably in a worse spot. But you know. Yeah. Will there be more state fans there now? Seems like it. And I do want to plug our Patreon real quick. We dropped a little scoop there on what we had heard, um, about that cancellation. So, uh, that's that's in there too. But, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's it's tough. I mean, I was I don't know if I was going to make it, but I definitely wanted to, you know, and so now to not even have it as an option. Uh, is sucks. Yeah, yeah. And a couple things. One, we're assuming it's still going to be the same weekend. Uh, I know that's what they're pushing for, but there's no no guarantee that that happens. I would think that ESPN and the powers that be that control TV would fit the same. Um, though you could move it to I don't know if UVA has an open slot in true week one, but I know we do as of right now. Uh, again, not knowing if that's the the long term plan to keep it on, um, August 29th, I think it was uh, the other thing to keep in mind as well. Yes, we are in line for a $1.5 million payday. Here's something that people may or may not be tracking. That 1.5 would have been profit. Like everything that was leading up to going down to Brazil was going to be entirely covered by either like the country of Brazil and or this company that was putting on the event. We now actually have to pay approximately $350,000 to travel to Charlottesville in order to play this game. So we're not clearing the 1.5 that people think we're clearing, because now we have to pay for our own expenses to get to Charlottesville. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. Uh, you know, it definitely. I think, uh, again, it's positives and negatives here for sure. I mean, I think one big negative that that hasn't been mentioned is kind of like you were saying, uh, you know, Ethan, where, you know, when you lose a game, especially a game that you're building up for, uh, I mean, like I always say that the the first game of the season is one of the hardest games of the year, just because of the fact that you're preparing for months ahead of time. On this opponent, all you're thinking about this game is, is this game months ahead of time. And so, you know, it really builds up and you want to start off with on the right foot with a big W, right. You know you'd rather start off season one and zero and build off strong momentum than, than having to bounce back from a negative momentum drive. And so you add on to that by the fact that now you're in a country, you know, or even in this case, a whole nother continent. Like Greg said, 13 hours away. So now you have to pack up, you have to take the full flight back and, you know, finally get back home. And so now you're just having to soak in that loss. You know, it's not like, uh, you know, a home game where you can just, you know, shower, undress and then head out and be able to start working on and, you know, thinking about the next game, like you're kind of forced, unfortunately, to to sit in that to, to think about it, you know, as you're taking that long flight back home. So, you know, it's, uh. I don't know, a little bit of psyche there for sure. Uh. Um, you know, so it's it's a positive negative. But it would have been cool, obviously, to see, uh, NC state play in Brazil. Like, you know, I think that. I mean, could we like, there's a possibility we never see NC state play, you know, a game like that ever again. There'll be there'll be more trips to Charlottesville. And if there aren't, we'll survive. Right. Yeah. With something like that, though. State with. The opportunity. Yeah. And state would never take away one of their home games. Um, I have it on good authority that they would never give up a home game to do one of these type of trips, so it would have to be, you know, on, on someone else's home schedule loss, you know, loss date, home date. Um, so that does limit your, your opportunities to do this. Now, let me ask you this. There is an open date in true week one fashion for both teams. Would you rather than start on week one instead of burning. Well, I guess you wouldn't get the by week at another time since the schedule was already made. So I guess it probably at this point does make the most sense to play at August 29th. What do you guys think? You go first, Ethan. Yeah, yeah, that would be my preference. Yeah. Do you want an extra week of rest? Yeah. Because everyone everybody truly gets chewed by weeks now in college football. And if you moved it, you would lose that by week. Yeah. Yeah. No, I would say I mean what's really the difference. You know, in having an extra week of preparation during an off season? I mean, honestly, even if the game happened three weeks earlier, then the day, I mean, well, I mean, besides, besides adding in the I say that I know obviously you can't start football practice until, um, you know, August 1st, things like that. I completely get that. But like, if, if that wasn't a factor, like, you know, okay. Then they like I said, you still have months of, of of time to prepare for that game here. So yeah, I think, you know, adding an extra week doesn't really make a difference. It would have made a big difference if they had to travel and then come back and then, you know, get back, you know, settled first before, you know, having to play any other game. But yeah. No, I think that keeping it week zero would be good. We'll take the bye week. So yeah. Well especially two as well. I mean the fact that I mean it's it's just like Ethan said, I mean we're going to a game of five and a half point underdog. So, uh, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's going to be a tough game. It's going to be a tough game. It'd be a huge win if any state can come out of it. Uh, it's going to be a slobber fest here. So, uh, uh, with that being said here, uh, I want to move on here to give a huge shout out to Mr. Johnson, named second team freshman All-American here. Uh, I mean, Greg, I know we talked a lot about this guy all season. Uh, you obviously you all obviously mentioned his name a couple of times in our baseball, uh, recap autopsy, uh, parts one and two here. But, uh, you know, just would you were you surprised at all that seeing him second team freshman All-American, would you expect them to be higher for our first team? Yeah. I'll be honest here. I didn't have a chance to look and see who was, you know, first team on this. Um, so maybe Ethan has a better angle on this. Uh, you know, you could probably make some arguments for first team America or All-American, but, uh, the mere fact that he was acknowledged, uh, on this team is is awesome in and of itself. Yeah. We'll agree. Ethan, you got anything you add to that? Yeah. No, I, I think it just kind of tells you that the year he had, um, and he, he was excellent. He was excellent. Um, slowed down a little bit down the stretch, which I think probably, um, you know, maybe cost him first team, um, All-American, but, uh, yeah, I mean, I think. If he finishes at 400. Ethan, are you putting him in first team? I mean, I I think that would be easier. So the first team all Americans were. Um. Teddy took him at Stanford. That's the name we talked about. Yeah. Jacob Parker at Mississippi State and Anthony PAC at Texas. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know how you're getting above those. Yeah, those three guys. The guy from Texas is, like, projected first round draft pick next year, so. Well, I'm sure they both I mean, I would imagine they both are. Yeah. Especially Parker. Yeah. Um, so I think it's tough again, if he ends the season stronger, maybe. But, uh. Yeah. I mean, either way, like being one of the six best freshman outfielders in the country, I think tells you a ton about the year he had. Yeah, completely agree there. Uh, sorry. I've been fixing in the chat here. The the comment promoting our Patreon wasn't coming through properly, but I think I finally got it fixed here. So, uh, moving into it now, uh, in terms of the two big moves that have been made, uh, over the last 24 hours, I think, you know, if we were to time it up properly here for, uh, Chris heart, here for, uh, you know, his first two transfer portal comments here, both from Wright State. One infielder, uh, Hunter. Hunter Warren, uh, hit a 328 uh, average in 2025. I think that he bumped that up to three, almost 365. Uh, this season, uh, reigning Horizon League freshman of the year. Um, and then his teammate, uh, and how do we how do we say his name properly? I want to make sure I get it right. I don't even want to try and butcher it. Is it? I would say. Relax. Relax. Yeah, I like that. Where's my where's my kids would say chillax, but not the same. Yeah, but but but you know, coming into, uh, you know, coming off of a of a strong 2026 season, uh, having a 9 to 1 record named, uh, Horizon League All-Tournament team in 2025. Uh, so, Ethan, which of these two would you say was, would you say is the bigger get. Oh, that's a good question. I thought this was gonna be easy. What's a little easy for you? Yeah, because I'm leaning one. Okay, well, um, I guess I would go check lax because I. I think you need. Really? I think you need arms that badly. I really do. Um, yeah. And, yeah, like, I, I, I think a guy with Chet lacks track record and, and consistency and stability that he brings. It's important. And to me, state needs at least one more starter. Like, it's not easy to go out and find starters in the portal. Like starting caliber pitchers who you know. All right, I can come in and plug this guy into my weekend rotation. And so Chet lacks. Being able to do that to me is crucial. I like Hunter Warren. I like him a lot. And you know, you can make a very strong case for him. State also already has two starting infielders already on the team. I just view it as less of a need. Um, for me right now. So. So, uh, Greg, make your case for for Hunter Warren. Why? He's decision all the way. Yeah, that's just where I thought Ethan would go. Especially as much time as he spent on him. Today in our Patreon. I will plug that again. Uh, that was a really good segment that you that you did on him. I just think the impact is more for Warren than it is lacks, um, you know, starting pitching, you're only going once every week, whereas, you know, Hunter Warren's going to make, you know, if he stays healthy, 54 to 55 game appearances. Um, just, you know, just more, more value added. Um, I do agree with with Ethan about LAX, though, like you do need more starting pitching. Um, in college baseball especially, you can never have too much pitching. Um. I learned the hard way this year. Yeah, we we have certainly learned that the hard way. Ethan. Um, yeah. And at this point, LAX is only probably projecting as high as your number two starter. Uh, assuming that, you know you plug in nance as your as your number one guy for for the rotation next year. So that's the reason I'm going with Warren. Um again I you can legitimately make an argument either way. And you really wouldn't make me mad because guess what. They're both on the pack. Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. Uh but yeah. No. Again so excited to see what, what we build off of this here. Uh you know Greg what would you say is, is your biggest priority for, for in the transfer portal right now. Well, you know, we I'm gonna have a fun moment for a second, but I think I think the 2027 NC State Raiders are shaping up nicely. Uh, I know there's a couple of other guys that we are looking at from Wright State, actually. Um, and if I can just take one more minute. Uh, Ethan, question for you. Does this give you more smoke? And I know you know what I'm talking about. We'll do. The listeners know what we're talking about. Well, I want you to explain it to the listeners what you and I are talking about. Like we're talking about Alex Hoggart, um, who, you know, there's been some rumors, some scuttlebutt, even dating back before Chris Hart was formally hired, that I think there was a tweet up about it that, uh, Alex Hoggard could come and be the pitching coach at NC state. Um. I guess my question would be, is Clinton Chrysler still employed at this point if he's not coming back next year? I mean, wouldn't you have already made that move? You're still you're still landing pitchers at this point. You're landing a pitcher. Clearly a big piece. Yeah. I mean, they. Want to know who their coach is, right? Right. Like, is Clint Chrysler doing that? Maybe. And again, maybe it's in motion. And LAX knows that. So guard is coming. To me I just feel like that's a little bit more farfetched. And yeah I think it's more likely that Chrysler is sticking around at this point. Yeah, well, and, you know, rumors are that he might move to a, you know, Chrysler could move to a bench role. And, you know, you could bring in a pitching coach. Uh, again, it just depends on what your plan is for the coaching staff and who's got a coach basis. Because, you know, from all, all, all sounds sound like that JT Jarrett and Bo Robinson will be retained and that maybe maybe they can move. You know you keep Jared at either first or third and you put Bo Rob there. Uh Bo Rob's coached first from the from time to time. So then that does, uh, you know, open up a spot on the bench. Um, yeah. All kinds of names floating around. I am, you know, just genuinely curious when that when the coaching staff gets, um, filled out. To me, there's a lot of names floating around for only one spot. Yeah. You know, and so is there. Is there again, is JT Jarrett moving up or is he, you know, is there a better opportunity somewhere else. But Robinson, again, you would think. Will Robinson just slides right into Chris Hart's role. But we don't know. And so, you know, again, a lot of names being thrown around for theoretically only one spot being open. Yeah, yeah. All right. So I'll get back to your original question. Layton. Um, for me, the biggest and these don't grow on trees is I'm looking for a power hitter. I think state needs to do a better job at hitting home runs. Um, you know, if you listen to our baseball breakdown, state was not good in that department. Uh, second to last in the ACC. Um, you gotta go get it. You gotta go get some power bats, because stringing together 3 to 4 hits is a lot harder than hitting just one bomb. Correct. So that would be that would be my my biggest go get. I agree there. All right. Now one other baseball tweet which I want to shout out I gotta give a shout out. We're we're going to have its own special segment for NC. For NC state Pac Pro of the week here. But one one Pro we want to give a special shout out to. Is Michelle Lou James Groover. Uh, Gino, the man himself getting called up to the show, uh, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, uh, was hitting 327 batting average in Triple-A of the season and was listed as a top ten Diamondbacks prospect. And, uh, there was an awesome there's actually two awesome videos of, uh, of this moment, first of all, the moment where he received the news and then the moment of him running out onto, uh, the baseball pitch for the first time and, uh, you know, so, Ethan, you know, does, you know, just talk a little bit in terms of, uh, you know, what was it three years ago? He was at NC state. Uh, a guy that transferred in from Charlotte, uh, was a huge part in, uh, that, uh, regional, uh, South Carolina regional made some really big plays for NC state, showed off a lot of power, like like Greg was mentioning here. Uh, so, you know, did it shock you at all? Uh, seeing the news that that Geno got called up as a, as the next rendition of, uh, NC state baseball players to play in the show. To be honest, the surprising part was that it took so long. Um. Good answer. Like that. You know, I, I always thought that Geno Gruver had a big league bat. Um, and, uh, you know, pulling his stats up here. You know, his freshman year, excuse me? His sophomore year, first year at NC state at three 6436, 564 a thousand Ops, ten home runs. Um, and then the leap he took in year two, where he had more walks than strikeouts. Tapped into his power a little bit more. Um, I always thought he had a big league bat. Uh, and I think the question with him was dating back to his days at NC state was what would it look like defensively. And look, there's a lot of good hitters or. Where he was going to be positioned at. Right Ethan. Like he played all over the field. He did. And where is his bat going to play? It's a lot. You know the bats at first base are a lot better than the bats at third base, which are a lot better than the bats, you know, in the middle infield, in the outfield, you know. So. And maybe that's why it took so long, right? Like, maybe that's why it took you don't. You don't usually see guys who play two years in the ACC who are. And he was the top prospect not a top top prospect. But he was top 50. Yeah. He he was. Yeah. He was a definitely a big time prospect. And usually you don't see it take long. I'm guessing that's why it did. You know to kind of figure out where he's going to fit. And you know you don't love having to D.H. guys because that knocks some of their value. But um, at that level, um, you know, so yeah, not surprised at all. Um, and obviously happy for him. Um, what a great representative of NC state. The two years he had. It was such a shame that state led one and two and didn't miss the regional. And the other year that he had. And the same thing with with Chris McHugh this year. Obviously Chris McHugh didn't have the same type of year. But yeah, he was such a fun hitter to watch. Well-rounded, did everything well. Um, great kid. And and obviously it feels like state's always hasn't had as many pros as you think they should, but, uh, so you add him to the list now with Ronan Turner Patrick Bailey I think Kisner is still in Triple-A right now. So yeah, maybe you don't count him, but you know, um, yeah. For for for big leaguers now. Yeah that's a huge stat Greg. Anything you'd add to that. No I think you you mentioned the three the two videos and I would add the third where his parents are getting interviewed from the stands right after Geno's hit. And, uh, just a really great family. Just really cool folks. Anyone that doesn't know his dad, you know, the second, um, actually played for the Harlem Globetrotters back in the day. Uh, so, you know, he was a he was a pro athlete. And I shared a story, um, on next the other day that, um, in 24, the year after he got drafted, his parents still came to Athens to support the pack. Even though he wasn't playing. So I thought that was really cool. That's huge. Well, Greg. Well, uh. Well, Ethan's, uh, popping away here for a minute. Uh, let's give a shout out here to the other Pac pro of the week here, uh, Diana Schneider, uh, who, uh, uh, played in her first Grand Slam, uh, semifinals, uh, uh, defeating top ranked, uh, arena. Uh, Sable. Sable. A Sabalenka, Sabalenka. Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open. Uh, that that was a European if I've ever heard one right there. But, uh. Yeah. So anyway, so so former NC state women's tennis star Dana Schneider again, again getting upset. Grand Slam semifinals. Just another tip of the cap here. Already a top 50, uh, women's tennis player in the world, if not even higher. I didn't even check the latest rankings. But you would imagine she's probably even close to a top 30 or top 20. And she was 25 in the world when she played in the French Open. So she's probably top 20 at this point. Yeah, which is crazy. I don't know how often those rankings come out, but she she's definitely probably touching that. But um, yeah, she was actually leading in the match, um, you know, and just barely I think she did lose in straight sets, if I'm not mistaken. But, you know, it was close. Um, and again, you know, she's only a couple of years removed from, uh, being a member of the women's tennis team. And I think, again, you can see here probably the next year or so, right around the top ten in the world. I mean, she came in with that kind of pedigree, um, and she projected, you know, as that, uh, while she was at state. Oh, I still remember former, uh, NC state men's tennis player and, uh, tennis, uh, men's tennis and women's tennis analyst Brian Rosenthal, who's come on the show a couple of times and he told me before she even came to campus, he said, Leighton, if Diana comes to NC state, she will go down as the greatest women's tennis player to ever play on an NC state court. I said, yeah, are you serious? And he's like, no, it's not even close. And I was like, okay. And yep, nope. No doubt about it. She was absolutely unbeatable. Uh, and and and and is showing. So I mean, she's in her early 20s and she's already, you know, easily top 20, top 15, top ten women's tennis player in the world. I mean, that that says I think all you need to know, uh, you know, in terms of where she is from a talent perspective and where her career is going. And so it's awesome that she will always be tied to NC state. Uh, the NC state fans will know the name. Uh, honestly, I, I, I, I haven't done a poll of how many NC state fans probably know the name Diana Schneider, but whatever it is, it should be higher. Simple as that. So, um, so huge shout out there. Um, but moving into here. A little bit of football, baby. We already talked a little bit of scheduling, but it's time to talk some recruiting here as, uh, NC state football guys. Uh, 12th and 13th commitment over the last a week starting off with uh, Colt Hauser, uh, three star interior offensive lineman 20 2027 class uh, based on West Palm Beach, Florida. 632 80 uh had, uh, chose NC state over West Virginia. Duke and USC actually canceled the visits to Duke and UNC after committing and after his visit, uh, this past weekend in Raleigh. Uh, it's a huge, huge get here for, uh, coach, uh, Garrett TJ, who is uh, I think has has easily over the years proved he's one of the best, uh, recruiters that we have for sure. You know, and, uh, I think he's proven that and an ability to sniff out talent here. So, uh, Ethan, what was your initial reaction to, uh, Cole Hauser? Uh, uh, hidden that in that red siren? Well, I, didn't know this, but his dad is a famous actor. Yeah, yeah. Uh. Call me. Yeah. He is. Whip. We rip Wheeler from the tombstone franchise. Mhm. Yeah. He's named Cole Hauser. Right? His name is Cole Hauser. His sons Colt. But yeah, in the show he's Rip Wheeler. He's like got a main role. He's been he's been on he was on Yellowstone for six years and now he's on the new spinoff Dutton Ranch. That's sick. Okay. Uh, and he and his mom. Yeah. And his mom was in, uh. So you guys are too young to remember this book series? Uh, it was very popular amongst the girls when I was, uh, early teens, but, uh, sweet Valley high. Have you ever, ever heard of that book series by chance? Yeah. You guys are too young. Uh, anyway, Sweet Valley High was the source. Greg. What's that? Uh, it was, uh, it was right around the dinosaurs. Yeah, yeah, right around them. Jerk. Excuse me? Um, but, um. Yeah. So that was a very popular book series, and his mom was in the the TV version of that show in the early 90s. So. Yeah. Famous, famous family. There you go. Yeah. That's fun. I think anytime you can get a guy like that, it's fun. Um, you know, get get somebody. Uh, we need to do a poll. Like famous. Like son. Famous son. Like, obviously, we had Randy Moss kid for a couple of years, and now this, uh, we got we got to go back and see if we can come up with maybe 3 or 4 names and, you know, see who's the most popular, you know, offspring of some of these famous people. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's fun. I mean, you mentioned, um. Uh, you mentioned TJ's pedigree on the recruiting trail, and I mean, to me, like, he's he's such a grinder, right? And it really stands out. It feels like every year they're bringing in 4 or 5 kids which are out of high school, but you don't necessarily have to do. And then he goes out there and lands 2 or 3 in the portal every year. And so. Mhm. Um, to me he's a guy who's just always getting after it. And you know, landing those portal guys makes it harder for the, for the guys who signed his freshman to uh to get into the starting lineup. But you know it obviously creates competition. And so you know how is there's not a very highly ranked guy. Um, not at all. But you mentioned the offers and I don't know, like, I, I watch film of all the commits and stuff. I'm certainly not a, a football film, uh, junkie or, or, um, you know, that's not something I know that well, but I think interior offensive lineman is probably one of the hardest to judge. And so I think from that perspective, you're looking for a lot of different things, a lot of things you can see in person, um, a lot of things that you can see in full games that you wouldn't necessarily see on a four minute highlight reel. So, um, Look again. Interior offensive linemen there. They're rarely going to be sexy. They're rarely going to be, um, huge names or anything like that. So, um, I think you feel good about what T.J. is doing and and knowing that, uh, you know, he's going to, uh, to put a ton of work in on the, in the, in on the recruiting trail to to put state in the best position to succeed. Yeah, yeah. Uh, preacher man here in the chat, reminding of a couple of big names. Trot Nixon, obviously Luke Nixon's dad, and then, uh, Rafael Palmeiro. Uh, Preston Palmeiro. Dad. Uh, so, two other big names. Yeah. No, I mean, I still think that probably Randy Moss will probably be pretty tough to beat, I feel like, but, you know. Well, it's different that those are like, those are kids who played their dad's sport. I mean, Hauser's just his dad's a famous actor, so it's almost, you know. Yeah. Famous dad, but like of a completely different category. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. That's true point. All right. And then, uh, Greg, uh, I'll let you, uh, here, jump in here on the other big commit here. Uh, but NC state landing, uh, three star safety. Alex Scott uh, from uh, uh, let's see, uh, lions. Uh, Georgia. Uh, uh, chosen state over Tennessee, Texas A&M. Uh, we're part of his, uh, uh, offer sheet and, uh, said that the coaching staff, uh, he feels like, made him a priority. And so with that commitment, uh, now his state stands at 13 total commitments. Uh, stands at a top 30, uh, class nationally right now. So, uh, you know, I you know what kind of screams out to you, Greg, about this commit here with Alex Scott? Because I think maybe again, I think that still alive NC state fans say, hey, Greg, it'd be nice if we got a four star, you know, commit. I feel like more then than we have. It seems like a lot of them re three stars, but what's your thoughts? I've I've made my thoughts before on the stars crap. Like like if, if Alabama or Georgia were to offer this kid, he automatically becomes a four star. Um, it's it's so subjective. It's random. We've talked about guys that have come in here with low stars and become first round draft picks. I'm looking at UK or Bradbury. I don't get hung up. I get hung up. I get hung up on the development of these kids and see what kind of, you know, players that they can be turned into. Um, I, I leave all the eye tests and all that to the professionals I like. Ethan don't really get caught up in the, you know, I enjoy the game. I don't I'm not a technician of the game, but, uh. Yeah. Guy coming in, you know, top 50 at his at his, uh, at his, uh, position. You know, whether, you know, does he play free safety or strong safety, that kind of, you know, remains to be seen. Um, probably like from some of the things that I've looked at and read, he's maybe more suited as a strong safety. Um, don't know how that looks as far as, like the roster build as it stands today. But yeah, I think a guy that, you know, can come in here and potentially compete and get better and stronger and, you know, see where the chips may lie. Mhm. Yeah. Go ahead Ethan. Well I just want to throw out there. And you know people have listened to me on IPS for years. Know this I am a stars guy. I'm the I might be the biggest believer in the stars uh. System aligned for you. Yeah. They align. Yeah. Um, on on NCAA Twitter, I don't know, like, again, not to say you're wrong, Greg. Like absolutely I have Mrs.. And state to their credit has has been right on a number of those guys. I do think that more and there's absolutely politics involved. No question about that for me. But I do value like am I, am I more excited about K.J. Caldwell than Alex Scott? Because K.J. Caldwell is a top 100 kid? Yeah, I, I absolutely am. Do I know anything about either of these two guys other than their offers and where they're ranked? No, but I like Caldwell more because he's, you know, he's ranked higher. And so, um, I, I definitely think it's it's devalued. It's not a perfect system. But to me I don't completely throw them away and just say, oh, it doesn't matter. I think it does matter. I think the numbers show that again. How much are the politics involved there? A lot, but. Well, I mean, I'll give you Gunnar Rivers as a prime example. Like they dropped him because like he came to state. Yeah. Let me um. Was he was he was. Like he said, that's the politics. That's that's the politics. Yeah. His bottom line four star. And then you drop him because like like how how does someone make a leap in the off season? Like, I don't know who dropped him. Do we know. I think it was rivals. And again like there's the other thing. Like who do you subscribe to. Is it ESPN. Is it rivals? Is it two, four, seven? Um, there's just so many different, you know. You know, it's to me again, like I said, it's so subjective because one man's trash is another man's treasure. Um, right. I yeah. I don't know. It's definitely subjective. I, I don't have a history of, uh. So I have 247247 jumped him actually when when he committed the state. Um, so let's see, he was take that Greg. Well, but again, it just goes more to my point. If he if he gets risen by two, four, seven and drop my rivals, tell me how it make it make sense, right. Yeah. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That's what I just said. Trash is another man's treasure. Yeah, yeah. When did he commit? Um. Uh, he committed crimes. Alex. Scott. No. No. Rivers. No. Rivers. Oh, rivers. Gunner. Rivers. Yeah. I feel like it was like March. February, March. Yeah, it's been a couple of months. So his drop, um, he dropped on two, four, which I assume was two. Uh, excuse me on three. Dropping him or rivals, whatever he dropped on February 24th. Um, and so yeah. So I think it was February 23rd. He committed. February 23rd. He committed. Yeah. So yeah, that's you know, again I, I don't, I don't know like you'd have to get somebody on to explain that. Like that's definitely. It makes no sense why on a random Tuesday does he get dropped a level. Right. And so I don't know you know I again I don't want to sit here and defend those guys. That's not what I'm trying to do. No, no I get you. You know, but uh, yeah, we're like you said two, four, seven jumps him and and rivals drops him. That's, you know, that's how it goes. So, um I don't know. But again we're going to see are we going to look back and say, oh Gunner Rivers was you know, if Gunner Rivers gets drafted in five years, are we going to look back and say, oh, they were right? No, we never say that. We don't give them credit for getting him Hines right. Or Kentavious Street is the one I use, right. Kentavious Street was a four star guy. Didn't really produce that state ever and ended up being a third or fourth round pick you know so. I'll never name out there. They got Kentavious Street right? You know. I mean, I'll throw a name out there. Um, like you guys may or may not remember him. I don't know, but Johnny Frazier. Of course. Greg. Greg, how old do you think we are, bro? I was his position manager last week. Yeah, because remember when I was a football manager, I was the running backs manager? Me and, uh, Dez Kitchens were were buddies, so. So I knew Johnny very well. So. Yeah, I was he there during your time? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Johnny. Yeah. He was the same age as me. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I mean, did you jump him in age? As far as I know. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. No I, I again I some sarcasm here but uh yeah I mean he was a guy that definitely got wrong. Right. But I mean some of that's injury related. And you know, you can't really project those and predict those type of things. Yeah. So we'll just we'll we'll just leave. It. Out there with with with Johnny. Yeah. Unfortunately. But uh, you know, but hey, listen, we we still got Niamh Hynes and Reggie Gillespie all that class. So yeah, I think we turned out pretty okay in the running back, uh, running back quadrant there. But, uh, yeah. So the one point I want to make about this though, um, and then we'll jump to another tweet here. But, uh, one thing that Starz does not take into account character, uh, there is no character grading on the Starz list, uh, and especially in today's day and age, like, because here's the thing. You think, like, if you get a four star guy and especially a five star, if you're not playing him, you're one. He's probably going to transfer after that song more than likely. And so a three star guy, if you get the right three star guy that you say, I see potential in you. And on top of that, too, he's a guy who's willing to develop, who's willing to get in the weight room, who's willing to watch film, who's willing to to go to they he understands, I guess, what that that peewee high school football that you're playing right now is nothing compared to the speed and the level that you'll play at in the college football game. It's just completely different. Understanding that like that's I would rather have it all day long than have a guy who's taking up an ill money, who's taking up a roster spot. One a year from now, he's and he's like at most a special teams guy. But you're, you know, whatever. And then and then after a year he leaves. Uh so like I kind of honestly look at it, I still look at high school recruiting is like the, the, the want guys like I want Alex Scott, I want Cole Hauser because I see potential in them. And then you go get the needs you go get. I'm, I'm, I'm really lacking offensive lime death. You know, I'm really lacking a star wide receiver. I'm going to go get that in the transfer portal. That's how I kind of view at kind of high school. Recruiting versus transfer portal is getting the want guys to build the foundation versus the need guys. But I I'm in desperate need of some help in these areas. I'm going to go get that in the transfer portal to start that right here right now. So just my $0.02 on it, uh, you know, So. No, I. Think that's exactly right. I think it's really hard to build a program consistent year in and year out through the portal. I think that's hard. You know, the high school recruiting has to be the foundation of what you do. That's that's going to be your depth. Those are going to be your cheap players. Those are going to be your stars. It's I don't want to say it's impossible. It is very, very hard for N.C. state to land stars out of the portal, you know, with, with their budget, for lack of a better, you know, if you're not going to pour money into it, you can land stars out of the portal in basketball, because you can land a Darian Williams because you're putting more money into basketball. That's not the case in football. Um, and so that's kind of the way I think baseball is probably the same thing. Women's basketball, probably the same thing. Like, it's so hard to land stars out of the portal because, again, you're not at the top of the food chain in terms of money. And you've you've got to create those guys out of you from your high school ranks. You have to. Um, and could could they end up getting poached from you? Yeah, absolutely. But you know, that's that's the risk that that you kind of have to take. And so, um, yeah, I, I'm with you. Like you, you have to look to supplement out of the portal. Um, but again, to me, you, you find your stars through through high school recruiting. Mhm. Yep. Greg, any final point here before we move forward? Yeah. You again. You just you even if the guys you don't hit you know they go somewhere else and you know they're a three star four star guy that doesn't get playing time. And they enter the portal. Then you can come back and sweep them through, much like you did to Hollywood and, um, even, um. Why am I Rodgers? Uh, those type of guys where you, you know, you can you just build good relationships and if you miss them on, on the first go around, you come back and get them on the cheap. Mhm. Develop them and then someone else take them. You know that's just how the cycle is going to work probably for NC state for the most part. Because the biggest thing to I think in-state fans need to remember is that not every player leaves or transfers out for the same reason. Like, the reason why no Rodgers is left is is not the same reason Hollywood Smothers left. I can guarantee you that, uh, you know, uh, so just wanted to kind of leave that here, but, uh, I do want to jump to. We already mentioned his name here, but Gunner Rivers, uh, uh, visiting, uh, this this past weekend, uh, and got him rocking the NC state jersey and rocking. What's that number, Greg? Is that is that number that number seven was there? No, I think it's 71. Yeah. Oh 1771 I quarterback Grandma Rivers. Yeah. Now number 17 man. And and and because here's the thing that you know Greg, I think that a lot of times like you know especially to with a gunner rivers like you know like it was kind of the same story a little bit like we already mentioned his name, but Randy Moss versus Thaddeus Moss of like when Thaddeus Moskow offered by Marshall, he basically immediately turned that down, saying, no, I'm not about to go to my dad's old school and be like, oh, you're the next Randy Moss, right? You know, but here Gunnar Rivers is coming to his dad's old school where his dad is. Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest quarterback, one of the greatest players to ever play at NC state. And here he is on official visit wearing his number 17. He's not shying away one bit from from the the the light that stats that's being shown on him from you know his dad's legacy here. He's not shying away from it one bit. So do you see that as a as a benefit or do you see that as you know does it make you nervous at all. No, I, I think, you know, if it was an issue, I don't think he ever comes to state to begin with. Uh, if he, you know, if he was worried about quote unquote, following in his dad's footsteps, you know, wearing the number 17, he wears number 17 for his high school team. So that's really not out of the ordinary to wear it here. Uh, my biggest question is is it is officially retired by NC state. Like, would they retire it for Gunnar if he. That's what. If that's what he chose to wear his number like, to me, that's the biggest question out of all this picture right here. Dang, Ethan. I don't know, man. Dude, that would be the craziest thing. And honestly, like I would love it, but I also I, I don't know, man. I'm like, dude, I'd be like, man, go make your own legacy. Like like I, I appreciate to an extent, but I'm also like, I want to retire. I want Gunner Rivers up there in the stands, you know, number. You know. You can if if he comes to become the next rivers, you can still retire rivers. 17 and then just put like an asterisk and a two next to it for two rivers like. All right. Next two times two. Yeah. I mean it was still say rivers. That's true. I'm sorry. You didn't mean to steal your thunder there. But what do you what do you think about all this craziness? Uh, I hadn't thought about it a ton. I, I think you kind of have to do it, um, if he wants it. Yeah. Um. I'm sure Philip will give his permission. Well, because, you know, they've had. This. Yeah. You know, they've had this conversation. Oh. I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. If not, he's not sure. Soon. Yeah. And it's interesting. I mean, Greg, when's the last time somebody wore 17? Clearly, they have it available. It's, you know, it's clearly in the in the set of jerseys that they keep in it. Or is it not. And they custom did this up real quick for the photo shoot. Because it is Philip Rivers kid. Like they you know they they will pull some special some special strings for this kind of stuff. Little favoritism there. Yeah. I mean, maybe so. Yeah. There won't. So I mean, maybe they are going to do it because you're. That's a great point that you just you mentioned like that number is retired. Like it isn't like they had this thing laying around me going, all right. Who's coming in for a photo shoot to wear 17. Like nobody. Right. Yeah. No. Nobody. Yeah. No. Well, yeah. Because with even a lighter recruit, like, like, put that jersey on. No. It's retired. Yes I agree, I completely agree with that. So like I'm now I'm starting to think he is going to wear 17. Mhm. That'd be so sick. That'd be baby. So sick. Yeah. No, uh, you know. And then the preacher man pointing out the biggest, uh, the biggest question is, can he live up to the level of trash talk his dad had? Well, you got to be able to play first before you can go smack talking people. Yeah. True that, true that. So but yeah that that's a that that's that's probably maybe as that's probably as high if not even a higher uh bar than uh than, than play because man, I mean, Philip Rivers is known across the football universe is one of the best trash talkers of all time, of all time. So, uh, yeah, that's quite the quite the bar there. Um, so but yeah. And then, uh, we Jones saying, uh, I didn't think there was any way we were going to get gunner shocked me that he decided to come live in that shadow. But kudos to Dave and crew for that. And, uh, and again, like, it's it's going to be a huge, uh, you know, huge responsibility on, on your shoulders here for sure. Because I mean, obviously how head coaches handle quarterback decisions and things like that are already on such a huge pedestal as it is. But then you add into the fact that it's, you know, Philip Rivers son, too. On top of that, it's who it's, it's it's it's going to be a storyline, to say the least, once it gets here. So, um, the last week of the week we wanted to point out here is, uh, freshman quarterback Jacob Smith, who was committed to baseball, and football is no longer listed on the official football roster, but it's still listed on the baseball roster. And a school official has confirmed that he will only play baseball moving forward. So, uh, Ethan, do you see this as. Because I know he was injured last season? Do you see this as a a rehab focus kind of, uh, move, or do you see this as a, you know, like a necessity kind of kind of deal? Like, you know, you need to choose either one or the other. I think you got to choose. I don't think he's I mean, both, I guess, you know, considering he just had Tommy John. Uh, this season didn't, you know, didn't pitch at all. And was an early enrollee. Right? Like he wasn't. I think he wasn't supposed to join, uh, the university. He's the class of 2026. Um, so wasn't supposed to join really either one? Obviously, you can enroll early in football, but he was not supposed to be on this year's baseball team. Um, and so, you know, he's a kid that's struggled with injuries. I want to say he tore his ACL in high school as well, playing football. Um, and when state landed him a couple of years ago, he, you know, he was a potential big time quarterback guy, like, big, big time. And it just didn't materialize. You know, he you know, guys are young. Stuff happens. He got hurt. Obviously very good baseball player. It's just impossible to do both. You know, like unless you're Russell Wilson. Well but but he played like he got drafted and playing baseball like he was. He did, you know, like he was he was an okay college baseball player. Yeah. It's just that was his actual downfall. Was playing baseball at state as far as his football career at state? True. 100% true. Yeah, but that's independent of, like, his talent. No, but we were talking about playing both sports is what we were kind of talking about, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's very, very difficult. And so a guy who's had a ton of injuries and quite like, so far down the depth chart at quarterback now just I don't think made a ton of sense. Um, and so yeah, switch over to baseball where you're already rehabbing, you know, a major, major injury. Yeah. This this definitely felt inevitable. And, um, you know, I. I, I don't think this was the case because, again, state landed him like, he was a big time guy when state landed him or a potential big time guy. But you also wonder was Dave Doran doing a solid here. And now once you get to campus okay. You know just switch over to baseball. I don't think that was the case, but I do think that that could happen at certain points. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know that the plan was for him to play football this year. Had he not had the Tommy John? Um, he was definitely projecting towards being, you know, as part of the football program. Um, I definitely can confirm that. Um, but to your point, like, at this point, he's not he he probably won't even pitch next season because of his injury. He had his surgery March 3rd. I want to say, and I don't know if he had full Tommy John or the brace full Tommy John's a full year. The brace is probably like nine, ten months, um, maybe 8 to 10 months, depending on, you know, how you rehab it. So that would even, you know, put you, you know, wherever. But coming off that injury, you're definitely like, your program is so prescribed to you like no more than this many pitches. And that includes warm up tosses like it's a very strict program when you're coming back from that. Um, so I would be I would be shocked if he, if he played for the Pac nine next year. Yeah. Fair enough. So that'll wrap up. Here y'all are tweets of the week segment here. So we're going to head on over here to uh Ethan Stack PAC. Big thanks. Here to uh. Oh man I know I'm going to get better at it guys. Don't worry. But big thanks to Alpha Wolf CPR trainings for sponsoring our segment. Ethan Peck, are you looking to get CPR certified for your school business? Uh, church team? Well, uh, make sure to check out our full CPR trainings, which makes it easier by bringing the training directly to you. Our full of CPR trainings is an American Red cross licensed training provider offering adult and pediatric first aid, CPR, and AED certification courses. Whether you prefer hybrid learning or a fully instructor led uh, they customize the training to fit your group's needs, including adult only or pediatric only certifications was successful. Completion. Participants receive an official American Red cross certification, valid for two years and meeting OSHA standards. Convenient, professional, and tailored to your schedule. Appel CPR trainings helped you stay prepared when every second matters. To learn more and to schedule your class visit, visit WW Alpha Wolf's site today. So with that being said, Ethan, uh, let's jump into it. What you what you got here for your stat of the week, man? Yeah, two things that really stood out to me when looking at, uh, Hunter Warren and Chet Lacs. Uh, Wright State played six games against Tennessee and Georgia. They went two and four, uh, in those games, which is solid, you know, um, Hunter Warren, uh, 856 Ops, four walks, four strikeouts, 25 excuse me, 23 plate appearances and 865 Ops. Right. Here's your first stat against that sort of competition. You always kind of wonder, like, okay, you know, this guy played at Wright State. The Horizon League is not good. How is it going to translate against better competition. Well for Hunter Warren again small sample size no question about it. But an 856 Ops. That's really solid. If Hunter Warren were to give you an 856 Ops next year. Greg, are you taking that? I'm taking it twice and then three times on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah, I think that would probably be like the low end of what you would want. But again, against those pitching staffs. Right. How many pitching staffs are you going to see that are the caliber of Georgia. I mean. Caliber of Tennessee? Uh, yeah. I mean, one's going to the College World Series, the other, you know, lost in a regional. Yeah. And Tennessee was one of the, you know, 5 or 10 best pitching staffs in the country this year. Now we flip over to to Chet Lacs who was. Against those guys to. A082 ERA. Yeah, it's pretty good. I definitely take that one. Yeah. Oh. I know you didn't ask, but. You really, really go out on a limb there, Greg, I like that. So, yeah. Uh, 082 ERA. 11 innings. He went seven innings against Tennessee. Excellent, excellent. You know, one walk. Uh, 11. Excuse me? Nine strikeouts. Um, the one run he allowed was a was a solo home run. Excellent. I mean, that's all. That's all you can ask for. And then obviously wasn't as good in Horizon League play. That's why he ends up with AA463 ERA. But again you'll still take that right. Like that's a um A423 I'm sorry. Those are good numbers you know. And so I think those two guys performance um against the SEC, you'll take that, you'll take that. Um, and then last one for you, uh, Warren had a 2.5 war last year. Uh, when I was looking through his numbers. I talked about this on the Patreon this morning. Uh, 2.5. War which is solid, right? Like that's going to be somewhere if your fifth, sixth best player. Somewhere in that range. Uh, very comparable to Sherman Johnson in terms of defensive ability, offensive output. Um, and so yeah, there's you know, we know Sherman, uh, really came on strong at the end of the year. But, um, yeah, 2.5 wins above replacement. I think if you get that out of Hunter Warren you'd be thrilled with that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it just it's it's a great start and it's a great momentum driver for recruiting class. You know, I mean I think that honestly like the people I think don't even necessarily think about the fact that recruiting classes truly do have or they can have momentum behind them. And, uh, you know, so especially to as you're having these, these transfer portal conversations, you can lean on the fact that, hey, guys, look, I mean, you got a pretty darn good, uh, pitcher and infielder here to start off this this transfer portal, transfer portal class here. Uh, like, you know, come out to it, you know. Come at it. Come be another big building block as a part of this class for next year's team. So, uh, you know, excited to see that, you know, Chris heart's definitely not waiting for, for for for for the gun, you know, to to to get this, get this race started here. He's he's ready at the jump. So, uh, you know, but yeah, just like you said though, uh, Alex Hoggard what's to happen with him? We'll see. So, you know. Greg, let me ask you a question real quick. Building an ideal lineup right now. And this is the hard question because you've got three spots filled, maybe four. Where where do you want Hunter Warren to be in the lineup? Ideally. So I'm going to cheat. I did listen to your to your pod here. And I agree with your assessment at six. Seems about right. Again not knowing what else you have to build around him. But just based off of those raw numbers, six looks like a good spot. Um, you take that. I mean, that's kind of, you know, Sherman Johnson as you've used as a comparable kind of bat in there for a little while this year. He moved up and down the lineup. Um, kind of did settle in more towards the top. But yeah, I'm good with six. Um, he doesn't project as a two or a three for me. Definitely not a four. You know. I could see him as a two based on the way state has built their lineups in the past. Yeah, I'm assuming he's already I. I didn't look at that. Is he a righty? I'm assuming as a second baseman. Uh, he's more. Likely already. Yeah. He's actually. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he actually can be a lefty because Luke was in lefty. Um, he he's a righty. Yeah. Um, I, I would love him as a second, to be honest with you. Um, so we can, you know, you know, how I felt about. And you kind of felt the same way of not running Rhett Johnson enough. And, again, I don't know if it was because of the lefty Nixon opening up that hole. To me, it just seems like that's a logical thought process. Um, yeah. Well, Warren runs, he just gets. Yeah. He does. Yeah. You know, like that's. Yeah. But can you state, you know. Yeah. But why was he getting caught? Was he not getting good leads. Not getting good jumps. Like. Is that something something that we could work with on him? Um, yeah. Yeah, I yeah, he can. I can see him anywhere from two. If he's not two, then he's either like 6 or 7. Um, three, four, five I, I don't I don't really want to touch a touch. I mean, to me, the case would be just. Does he slide to second and then you push Mikey. Right. Do you view Mikey Ryan as middle of the order hitter? To me, that would be the case, right? For him hitting second again. If I'm building the lineups based off of what I value in analytics. You're you're two whole as your best hitter, which right now is Mikey Ryan and I assume will be, you know, going into the year. Um, and I'm with you, you know, your biggest, your biggest need is the power bat, which I'd like to plug in fourth so I could absolutely see the scenario. Yeah, I could absolutely see a scenario where you hit him second. I'm with. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned it. Ideally, I would like him to be sixth. One more. Uh, bonus stat for you. Late in career sacrifice bunts. Did I say that on the Patreon? You did it this year? Yeah, it was zero. This year. He did have one last year, so it's one in his career. So yeah. Which is like one way less than Luke Nixon. Please never sack. No more sack thing. Please. None. Not. Not with guys who can hit like not not with Hunter Warrens. Or I'm okay in a tie game. Late innings. Where the situation absolutely calls for it. You're really not even entertaining that. Ethan. I love it, sir. Well, I get Ethan's point where it's like where it's analytics is analytics, you know, and and, you know, the the analytics will say roughly the same thing at any point in the inning here. But go ahead, Ethan. I mean, if he's sitting sixth, like, and you're getting to the bottom of the order, I'm not bunting to set up the bottom of the order. I hate that. I hate that. Maybe that's why you bunt. Because you can't count on the them to get the job done. I would rather just take my chances with Hunter Warren getting the job done. Wow. Wow. Mr. ante. I mean, you're right. I am antibody. You're right. There are there are situations where. Yeah, it's called for. Yeah. I'm with you, though. I'm. I'm with you. But again. So I'm going to throw it right back at you. And I know this wasn't the point of the stat pack, but you're the kind of guy that hates batting average, and you're against stringing 3 to 4 hits together to score a run. So tell me if you're not going to if you're not going to, you know, you know, pull that together or squeeze bunt is the logical reason again in if you're not going to run and steal bases. Right. Again, we talked about this, Ethan. We're going to hash it out again. You got to have an identity and like yeah, you got to be somewhere. Well, yeah, that's what I would want. Like. And I do think Hunter Warren. Like, you know, we didn't talk about it. Uh, I did on a Patreon. Uh, there's possibility like this ends up being a 12 to 15 home run guy. I do think that he's got that type of profile. Like, you wouldn't necessarily expect it, but I do think there's possibility he's in there. You know, he could do that. I you're absolutely right. You've got to find an identity. If you're if your identity is bunting and small ball and all those things. You'll never go to. A game again. No, I, I go to a game to see you, but that's it. Yeah. I'll be booing when they bunt. Um, but yeah, like, at least it's an identity. But yeah, I, I would rather try and hit bombs. Like, it's not that I don't like stringing hits together. That's great. I'll take runs anyway. Yeah. I just have to get sustainable. Yeah. It's it's not a reliable way of of scoring runs. That's kind of the way I approach it. Hitting for power. That's sustainable. You know stealing bases. That's sustainable. Um, so that's kind of the way I view it. Yeah. The one thing, one thing we didn't mention on these two guys coming over from Wright State was they were both, um, first team all Horizon League guys. So you are getting the best of the best. You know, you're not pulling a guy that's, you know, uh, you know, first off the bench or something like that, like you're, you're getting some guys that have the ability to your, to your point to jump up and show what they're made of. And one thing, Leighton, I know, uh, I know you're ready to move on, but like the Horizon League, right? Right. The Horizon League teams like, they're not great. It's not a good baseball conference. But these teams have been very, very competitive in postseason baseball. We talked about Wright State going on the road. They won a game against Tennessee in Georgia. We've seen NC state play them very, very competitive games. Wright state feels like when they're interregional they're very, very competitive. We saw it this year with Milwaukee. Milwaukee starts two zero in the Auburn regional. So and honestly Wright State should have been that team too. Like they got screwed in the championship game. Like there's no doubt about it you Yeah. But the the whole league was under 500. Yeah. But again they've accommodated themselves. The economy is not the right word but they've done very well playing up against better better competition. But and again I promised last point but that that goes to the point of Alex Alex like he he understands it. He gets it. He's a great young mind in college baseball. He knows what his team has to do in order to be competitive. Come postseason play, you got to play those teams. That's kind of the NC state. Oh, wow. Well, a little little whisper behind the scenes action there too. Greg. All right I appreciate that. I just I. Agree with the transcript thing. We'll see if the transcript catches that. Go ahead. Go ahead. Greg. Yeah. No I just agree with I agree with Alex. Like like challenge yourself. Just just go out. And if you you scheduled that the first second weekend of the season, if you don't win him it's not going to really hurt you. But but go see what your team is made of early in the season and see what you need to work on. Like, I'm completely pro on that. You can grab that transcript, too. Well, my my last point here to you, Greg here is, uh, what was Coach Hart's, uh, uh, position title last year? It was, uh, associate head coach and bunting coach. Or was it hitting coach? Which one was it? All right, well, everyone, thanks for joining us this week on Tuffy Live. Uh. Uh. No. Yeah. No. Hey, man. It's it's it's all well and fun here, but yeah, with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, if you haven't already, make sure you hit that subscribe button. If it's lighting up for you, that means you need to hit it here. We have a goal here. We're trying to hit that 10,000 subscriber line here. We'd love to hit it by the end of the year, if not sooner. So do us a big favor. 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