It's time for Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
Now here's Nick Coffee. That's right, Coffee and Company Hour number three.
Don't forget we are fueled by Thornton's. So make sure you sign up
to become a member of the Thornton's Refreshman Awards program if you haven't already.
You'll save money every time you're at the gas pump, and you can take
advantage of all of the delicious food that they offer there. I mean,
I know, to compete in good luck, there's no competing with Thornton's if
we're being honest here. But in order to compete, you're gonna have to
start throwing some new food items out there. But again, you can't compete.
I mean, I was at Thornton's earlier today, got me a couple
of these Prime Prime hydration drinks because I'm hooked on them. And I did
not get a breakfast sandwich today just because I wasn't hungry, but they were
very tempting because they're delicious, and my go to is the sausage e and
cheese Grouson. I think it's the best breakfast sandwich you're gonna find. If
you don't believe me, try for yourself. But they also have the a
French toast version of that sandwich, you know, instead of the croissant,
and it's super delicious. And they'll forget about the new Hot Honey Chicken items.
They've got a Hot Honey Chicken waffle, which you know, it's like
a waffle. The rap is essentially waffle and you know, just delicious stuff.
So again, shout out to our partners over there at at Thornton's.
We appreciate them, all right, Nick Coffee, that's me the company man,
mister John Alden, riding shotgun today on a very busy, busy show.
And I did start the show by mentioning, you know, I'm not
one that is very spontaneous. That's just, you know, I'm more of
a play it's safe. A lot of people took that and just insulted me
on the text line, saying, Nick, that means you're weak. You
know, you're you're you're scared, and you may be right. I fear
change. I'm very much someone who needs routine, structure, a pattern.
I don't like to rock the boat, so I don't make any quick you
know, decisions. You know, it's big decisions like a big expense or
just you know, you know, out of I know where, just decided
to go take a big trip. I like the idea of it, but
I don't usually find myself actually doing it. So that's where my wife comes
in. She's great. She's somebody that makes very quick decisions in our life
and so far, so good. There hasn't been one that, you know,
has ruined our life just yet. The best example is, you know,
we bought our first home. It was a process. You know,
we were in an apartment. This was many, many years ago, and
we probably looked at thirty houses before we ended up finding the one we wanted,
Like, we couldn't come to it was tough. Well then, we've
moved twice since then, and each of the houses that we've purchased, I
mean, we weren't looking to move and I'm pretty sure she found it on
the internet. We were buying the house maybe forty eight hours later. I
mean, that's just kind of how she operates. And she did that today
where we're going on a trip in the end of May and we're going to
take a trip to I'm trying to get her to tell me where we're going
for sure, just so I know. But that's exciting, and you know,
I'm looking forward to it. But it does make me sort of like
question, like, maybe I should be a little more spontaneous. But I
do love a loyal listener that remembers things about, you know, my very
uneventful and you know, rather boring life. I mean, maybe it's not
boring to you, guys, and if that's the case, you know,
maybe you find entertainment from you know, sometimes things just appearing to be a
sin filled episode. But whoever texted this in earlier, you're right, and
I'm glad you brought it up. I tried to be spontaneous in a major
way one time, and my wife shot me down. Put a put a
holt on those plans, John, This actually came up long before you and
I worked together, really, but I think I might have mentioned it on
the show before. But when I turned thirty, I was dead set on
this. I was going to rent a car and drive across the country and
then you know, turn it turn in the rental car at an airport I
don't know, in Utah, Nevada, something like that. Maybe go all
the way to California and fly back, and you know, she talked me
out of doing it. I'm not she you know, she didn't want to
go, not be in the car with you that long. Is this pre
kids as well? No, if you know prean kids, I don't see
the harm in it. Well, I you know, I we had our
wed, our daughter, and she was really I mean, she was probably
I don't know when did I turn thirty. I'm thirty five now about to
be thirty six, so I guess that would be twenty eighteen nineteen ish.
Yeah, So you know, she just didn't want to do it. And
at the time, I didn't have a lot of vacations. So if I
was gonna if I was gonna take that time off, we were gonna do
something together, you know what I mean. And like, I turned thirty
that summer, and I felt like that was some you know, milestone where
I wanted to do something cool to remember when I turned thirty, really to
kind of cap off my twenties. And you know, I told her,
you don't have to go, I'm gonna go, and you know, she
end up talking to me into doing something different and it was one of the
trips we go to like every year. Almost. It was still fun because
we always have a good time together. But that was like the most spontaneous
thing I really you know, was I was putting in emotion and you know,
she said no. So I'm still gonna do that one day. I
don't know when. Maybe maybe it'll be a forty year old thing and not
a thirty maybe ten years later. It sounds like a midlife crisis style of
trip. If you ask me, well, maybe you should do it when
you're forty. Why do you say that, because maybe that's a harsh term
to use, but like because it's just it's a very uncommon thing to do,
to just pack up and say, you know, I'm gonna go across
the country. Well, I think I would say the if somebody's like,
hey, let's plan a trip, You're right, I don't think that comes
to mind. Let's just rent a car and drive. I mean that's you
know, Plus you talk about how much you hate driving in a car anyway,
I hate long drives with kids in the car, That's what I hate.
But what I would do on this trip by the time, you know,
I'm gonna keep mentioning this here and there, and you're gonna want to
go with me when by the time we get there, because you're gonna be
like, Nick, You're so right, that'd be so awesome. They'd be
cool. But maybe when you turn thirty, we'll do it. But I
would know, Okay, this day, I'm gonna be in the car four
or five hours and this is where I'm gonna end up, and I'm gonna
stay the night there somewhere and we'll take in whatever that city is. Next
day, maybe we'd have a longer trip and we end up somewhere else.
Next day we end up on the shorter side again four to five hours,
and you know, there's destinations along the way, and you know, it's
a journey, if you know what I'm saying. Like it's it's like the
constantly moving you're you know, you're look, there's going to the beach and
just hanging out of the beach all week is cool. Going to Disney,
that's cool too. But the journey of a cross country road trip has always
intrigued me just because I've learned, you know, even when I travel by
myself, when I used to be as they call a road warrior, not
really, but the before you know, the world kind of you know,
crashed when COVID happened that basketball season. I didn't drive everywhere. Some of
the trips I took, you know, via airline, but you know,
I was traveling a lot, and you know, on a road trip,
you know, journey type thing, like you know, there's just things that
that you know, come up along the way. You know, I can't
sell it, like, you know, you wouldn't believe what happened to me
at this gas station in North Carolina, But you know, it's just it's
an experience. Again, it's more of a journey than you know, a
vacation, and I think that can be fun. And you know, I've
had some of my best not to say that these are great stories because I'm
just such a funny guy, but I've had some really interesting things to share
that people still occasionally bring up now from when I've travel you know, for
the show. So like if I was going to do that, I wouldn't
do it like on I mean, I would do it and do the show
every day wherever I was, just because I think that could be kind of
cool. So yeah, like if I'm driving thirteen hours somewhere, I mean
I usually wouldn't ever do that. But like I'm stopping like I'm you know,
not just because I don't want to be in the card that long,
but like I this makes it's another you know, added to the list,
John, because you know, I used to give you a hard time about
some of the things that you know are on your list of things that are
just you know, it's it's it's a reach and it's an exaggeration to say
they're psychopathic. But you know, just things that you do as far as
you know, you know, interest, that kind of stuff that others would
think is odd. I've got a list. I think everybody has something that
they really enjoy or you know, something that they do, a preference they
have that they know others would think is weird. I would love to just
randomly not know where I am stopping at town for the night, you know,
get beer, go to the local watering hole, have a night in
like, not know anything about what I'm doing, Like just the spontaneousness of
it, you know, would it be fun? Who knows? Maybe it
would be very uneventful, but just like that kind of like just you know,
and there's something to say about being lost in a place here, unfamiliar
with and you don't have to worry about what's going on around you because you
have no prior tax to where you're at. Yes, and that's it's just
going in completely raw. That sounded sound she said, that sounded bad,
but you know you know what I mean. So like if I said,
hey, we're going to have to do a night in uh Telopa, Tupelo,
Mississippi. I'm Mountain, Michigan. I'm going to thank you out never
heard of it, but you know what, they're going to remember us,
which is all a lie. I would do nothing eventful. I would not
be crazy. I would probably you know, go get a nice meal,
have a beer or two and go home. But just knowing like I could,
they don't know anything about me, I could. I could, really,
I could really give Iron Mountain, Michigan a night of their life because
they've they've got me here, and you know again it's all it's all all
illusion, it's not reality, but it's just you know, I think it
could be fun and one day I'm gonna do it. I promise you,
I'm gonna do it, all right. What I need to do ten minutes
in here is catch you guys up with a very busy afternoon that we've had,
so if you missed it. At four thirty, we talked with Terrence
Edwards Junior aka Fat that's his nickname. I'm not insulting him. Great conversation,
you know, he he really emphasized a few things throughout the conversation.
Pat Kelsey's a winner and Terrence Edwards Junior is somebody that believes in Pat Kelsey
and his message is the same. He knows they're gonna win, and you
know, he talked a little bit about his game, talked a little bit
about the first impression with Pat Kelsey and if you missed, it'll be up
on the podcast a little bit later if you want to check it out.
But also, do we start with football basketball? I think we should start
with with football just because it's it's more fresh, just because the portal,
you know, Spring portal is I mean, hey both, I think both
basketball and football right now now, it's actually pretty equal as far as interest
levels and Louisville fans wanting to make sure that their football team is you know,
in good shape, and the guys that are leaving after just getting here
in December aren't going to be you know, it's not gonna be catastrophic that
they're not around anymore. And then on the basketball side, I think it's
more exciting because you know, you landed Corin Johnson yesterday, a nice addition,
and it certainly looks as if you know, there's there's there's some things
in motion to where they've they've they're in enough with a handful of players that
have visited or going to visit that they'd have to kind of miss out on
like a bunch of dudes to not have this roster you know, not finalized,
but you know, closer to it within the next week or so.
So that's exciting. But if you missed it, you know, with something
we just talked about at the end of the four o'clock hour, but I
know a lot of people are just jumping in their car just being able to
to take in the coffee and company experience right around five o'clock. But Jaden
Quaintance a name we've talked about quite a bit, I mean, in this
earlier somebody last night at my son's baseball game said, I feel like that's
the longest you've talked about a high school recruit on your show in a long
time. And I got to think, and you know what, You're probably
right, and it's because this is a very special player, top ten guy,
but Louisville being so bad lately in the last couple of years, and
then Pat Kelsey being able to get this young man to take his first official
visit after decommitting from Kentucky to Louisville with really no prior connection. You know,
I know it's lame to celebrate getting a guy to visit when he doesn't
commit, but I just think circumstance is considered here. Like, I still
think that's a good look for Pat Kelsey, and I think they've got a
shot to get him. And if you'd have told me yesterday that we would
have an update on his recruitment, I just assumed it would be that he's
going to Arkansas. Well that's not the update. So right before the show
started today we learned that he is he's actually no longer considering Arkansas, and
at that time, the report was this, he just finished up his visit
to Louisville, which I assume means that they're in consideration. He's going to
visit Memphis this weekend and that Kentucky would be in to see him. Mark
Pope was going to have an inn home visit with Jaden Quaint's. Well,
now we know that that visit's not happening anymore, and I don't think Kentucky's
in consideration. So now it's Memphis in Louisville. And I mean, I
am I wrong? Like I know that Memphis wins these battles. I know
they've got in il money. But the majority of what I'm seeing on the
text line and on you know, social media, mostly Twitter, is everybody
just assuming that he's going to go to Memphis and Louisville won't be able to
get him because of money. And what am I missing? Like, I
know Penny does a really good job at landing high school recruits, but I'm
not counting out Pat Kelsey just yet. Now, if it comes down to
an insane amount of money and Penny and Memphis will pay it, in Louisville
is just going to decide to use their money for players differently, you know,
so be it. But if they were able to land this guy,
even though we now know that true freshman, especially this kid he's sixteen years
old, Like their impact when they get to college right away is so much
different now than what it was a few years ago, and maybe that'll change
down the line. But either like it would, it would be the momentum
that you could get from this kind of a pick up would be huge.
And I'm not trying to get anybody's hope, so but I'm also not gonna
act as if well Memphis is involved, we can't get him. So we'll
see, we'll see, We'll see how uh see how it shakes out.
Also another uh, you know, another name that we can add to the
list here on the Louisville side, Great Osibor, who is a Utah State
transfer. One of the best players in the portal, was a really really
good player last year in his one season at Utah State for Danny Sprinkle,
and uh transferred initially from Montana State. Kentucky and Washington I think have always
been believed to be the likely landing spots for this guy. And also,
I mean, I I just Kentucky fans and I'm not saying like they're they're
way off and they're cocky. I just there's been enough noise that he's going
to Kentucky that I think they just assumed that I did too well. They
he may end up going there. But he's also going to visit Louisville too,
So April twenty ninth through May will be the Kentucky visit, and then
he'll visit Louisville. He'll leave Lexington on May first and then come to Louisville
and stay till the third. So he's gonna be here in Louisville unless he
commits to Kentucky on the visit. He'll be in Louisville for Oaks and for
Derby, and and you know that's that's a good thing for Louisville. And
you know it's you know, if if Mark Pope wants to associate the trip
to you know, to Churchill Downs because of what's going on, just to
kind of sell it, you know, like would that be frowned upon?
Like is that him moving in on like Pat Kelsey's turf. Obviously the Kentucky
Derby Churchill Downs is not just a U of L specific thing, but could
get interesting and maybe this ends up being you know, the real, the
real, the first battle where these two go I mean not you know,
maybe not head to head, because he's also considering Washington, as I mentioned,
he's gonna visit there too. Uh. And then Also, he's gonna
visit Texas Tech in between there, so we'll see another name, Wesley Yates.
We talked about him briefly yesterday. He is a teammate of Corn Johnson's
at Washington. He did not play last year because he set out due to
injury, so he red shirted. But he's a former consensus four star,
top forty player in the twenty twenty three class, and he is visiting as
we speak. And you know, everybody seems to think that he's gonna pick
Louisville. And if that's the case, that's another good addition. This is
not somebody that's ever played college basketball, but certainly, you know, a
good prospect that although he didn't play. I'm not really sure the extent of
his injury as far as how much he actually was able to practice. But
when you've got thirteen scholarships to give when you arrive and you know, here
we are on April twenty third, with a handful of them still available.
In fact, you know more than half of them still available. If you
can go get a top forty kid that didn't play last year because of injury,
but you know, you still see the upside. I mean, that's
it's different if that's the guy you get when you have two scholarships to use
in the portal. I mean, it still would be a gooddition because again,
last I checked, turning down top forty players is you know, a
rare thing. But I just I think fans on the Louisville side are starting
to understand that, Like, we don't have to go get a guy that's
average twenty five and eight, because if you get you know, a productive
guy, that's a nice piece. And I don't think all these guys are
just going to be, you know, nice pieces. I think, you
know, Terrence Salwards Junior is going to be a big factor for this team's
success if of course, you know, they have success. But very very
busy, busy day and I have days where I'm like, man, I
can't do this, not the show, like you know, that's not what
I mean, But it's just hard for me to invest, you know,
even if it is a little amount of time, like to really get in
and you know, in the thick of it, in the weeds and you
know, read message boards and you know, follow insider or self proclaimed insiders.
You know, I just feel like when I do it it's really a
waste of time. But then again, I do think there's clearly some you
know, this is an unusual situation for really both fan bases in this area
is because it's it's it's brand new. And again both coaches Mark pot Pat
Kelsey are building brand new teams from start, you know, from scratch.
So each piece that you get added or each piece you hear about that could
be added. I think there's there's there's more excitement there then, you know,
than you would usually have. All Right, we'll get to the football
stuff coming up here on the other side, just because it's it's going to
take longer than what I have here, but we can go to the phone
lines. Five two five seven seventy nine hundred is the number if you want
to give us a call again. Five O two five seven one seventy nine
hundred. Uh, let's go to Let's go to Steve. Steve, you're
on Sports Talk seven ninety. How are you, sir? You know,
I don't know if you saw the article, and I'm not even sure where
I heard this, but you know, up not ups, but FedEx was
founded in Memphis. Yeah, it was Fred Smith and apparently are are they
prepared to dump twenty five million dollars into to push twenty five So Memphis.
What I saw last week, Steve was from I believe somebody that works for
twenty four seven sports. Yeah, here it is. Memphis and FedEx have
partnered on a gigantic nil deal, FedEx investing five million annually for five years.
It will be initially, yeah, it'll be, it says. It'll
initially be focused on football and men's and women's basketball, and then additional women's
sports could be added. So that's that's a big resource within IL, no
doubt about it. It is. And what I think the interesting somebody one
of these days maybe will do a study. Do you think most of these
kids are going after the money and they don't care about you know, the
tradition of the program that recruiting them. Are they facilities or anything else.
It's all about the money right now. I'm wondering how many of these kids
are just focused on those dollars instead of other factors, extrinsing values and stuff
like that. You know what I would guess, Steve, just a guess
here. One. I don't think we'll ever get the honest truth because it's
never a good look for anybody to say it's all about the money when we
all deep down know that money is a motivator for everybody to to a great
extent, I would get I would guess that high school kids, they are
not as much wrapped up in the money because most of these people have never
really had to understand what money is. I mean, they know, they
know, they know dollar amounts, but if you've never really had to pay
your mortgage and all that, like and think about, you know, providing
for yourself, like you know what money is, but you're probably just dreaming
about the NBA. I think college kids who transfer are well aware that they're
transferring because they don't have the option to go to the NBA. So I
think those guys it really is about putting as much money away as they can
before they start that next chapter of their life, which likely won't be the
NBA. And you can go make a good living, uh, playing professionally
in a lot of places. But you know some of these price tags that
are on these transfers from these big name schools, I mean there's guys that'll
make more money in one year of NIL than they would in three seasons.
In Europe, I mean, that's that's just the reality of it. Plus
you don't have to be uh, you know, deplaced and set overseas or
over sure and you live like a rock star, live like a rock star
right here. So all right. I appreciate your thank you, Steve.
I appreciate the phone call man, appreciate the kind word. It's good to
hear from you. Don't be a stranger. Yeah, I think he's right.
It'd be really interesting to know truly what led to some of these decisions,
because I maybe I'm naive. I think there are guys that have taken
like that have gone to a school that was not paying them what they you
know, the highest offer they got just because you know, if you're going
like for example, like there's probably guys that go to Georgia Alabama in football
Ohio State. Maybe that probably got a bigger offer from Texas A and M,
but they know that, like you know, they're probably going to have
more success and probably going to develop better at a place that you know,
those places are essentially NFL factories. So I don't know, like that's he's
got me thinking, just because you know, I find myself at times really
just obsessing over things that will never truly know the answer to because I'm just
you know, my head operates differently than others, I guess. But I
think money will only be more of a factor as this continues to grow unless
something changes, you know. I think it'd be great if they had a
stipend available, and they did that before, but I mean like stipend that's
you know, clearly like a lot of money, not a lot more than
what they were they used to get, and it would just be a known
thing and this is what you get. This is what it is, and
it's a great situation for you. You're not paid based off your performance,
You're not going to be fired, but this is what we can offer you,
and it can be reset after two years or something like that. That
would that would calm things down, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
All Right, we got to get to a break. I apologize here
for going so late, but we'll come back. Keep this thing rolling along
into the text line and we will talk football. Because looks like Petty Boone
is making the rather short trip up to Lexi than to finish his career after
you know, being at Loeuilver for the last three months mentioned it earlier.
I know some of our podcast listeners, you know, feel disconnected when we
talk to the music that John plays when we come back from break because you
know they can't hear it. But this is actually a perfect transfer portal song,
is it not? It is? I don't know I've ever heard it.
I'm I'm familiar with who it is. That's Acon, right, Akon
and flow Rider. Yeah, I'm available, come get me. There's a
lot of players available, and I mean with Louisville, I don't want to
get anybody's hopes up and mislead them like I have any inside information. But
I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if you see Wesley Yates, the kid
who's visiting right now, or maybe even Trey or the Long Beach State transfer
a hybrid big. He's six's seven, but he can kind of do
a little bit of everything, especially you know in the front court. You
know, I wouldn't be shocked if those guys popped in the next forty eight
hours. Last time I said that, which was yesterday, we came back
from break and it happened. So I'm sure that won't happen now. But
exciting times, no doubt. All right, let's talk football. Some would
say not so exciting times, and I get it. So I mentioned this
at the very beginning of the show for those of you that missed it.
Louisville is once again losing players in the portal who arrived after the twenty twenty
three season ended, were on campus for a few months, went through springball
at least some of them, and have now decided to leave. And Penny
Boone was the first, as far as a guy that just got here that
is leaving. And he's really the only one that I know of that there
was real expectation to be a big time factor. He went through spring and
you know Cheney, the Miami transfer rung back, he was ahead of him,
and there's other guys that were probably on certain days ahead of him.
I mean, it was very competitive. He wasn't like he was a bum,
but I think he envisioned himself being the man here and there was competition
and it just didn't work out that way. So he left, and you
know that's his choice. I think it says a little more about him than
anything else, because it's not as if it was told to him, Look,
you're probably going to be a third string, so just letting you know.
I mean, it was the head to compete, and I wouldn't claim
that this guy is afraid of competition, because you know, I don't know
him, but the optics make it look as if he either didn't want to
compete or felt disrespected that there was going to be competition, which just can't
be the approach. I mean, you know, that's just not how it
works really anywhere, to be honest with you. So he left and initially
was going to go visit Washington that didn't happen. Then was going to go
visit Ole Miss that's not happening, and then Kentucky got involved. I think
he visited Kentucky yesterday, and then Georgia appeared. Is an option now they're
not. So the predictions from you know, those that covered college football and
the transfer portal at on three and at twenty four seven sports now expect Penny
Boon to just head up sixty four or is it over to sixty four?
I mean it's east of us, so I guess it's you know, he's
going to head east on sixty four and go play for Mark Stoops, which
I mean, good luck to him. I mean I'm not now bothered that
law. I mean, I'm not here thinking Louisville now is you know,
just gonna have a nightmare season in Kentucky's going to be great because they added
Penny Boon. I mean, Kentucky added an Ohio State transfer at running back
a few months ago that Penny Boon's going to have to compete with. And
you know, if he couldn't surpass Donald Cheney and even you know, Murray's
turner, then you know, we'll see I know he's he actually does kind
of fit. You know, he's a big he's a big back, and
they run the ball really well at Kentucky. But you know, he's probably
just gonna be one of the pieces unless he ends up being like a star,
which maybe he is, and if he goes to Kentucky, he's a
star, and like, let's just say he's like a big factor in the
Governor's Cup and Louisville loses, Yeah, that's gonna be a tough. Look,
it's gonna be a tough That would be a really tough thing to deal
with. But it still wouldn't mean that like somebody messed up here, because
again, guys can do whatever the hell they want now, and it's just
because you know, maybe they just woke up and said, you know what,
I don't want to be here anymore. And they can do that,
and you want to blame somebody because that's the previous world that is no longer
in existence in regards to college sports, like players have all the power.
They can do whatever they want, They can go whenever they want, and
they can transfer as many times they can, you know they can. They
can. They can hold your ransom in a way right like, hey,
I need more money, coach, I can't talk to you about that.
I'm that's not allowed. Uh well you got to figure it out. I'm
leaving and then they leave like that's you know, I'm not saying that that's
what these guys that are leaving did, but that's just that's that. That
is what they can do now. I mean, do you think, you
know, if you're somebody that is bothered about Penny Boon and wish that he
was still at KU or still at Louisville, what do you wish Louisville would
have done? Like what do you wish in il folks the five of two
circle or broad like, what do you think they could have done to prevent
this make him the first string running back when he's clearly in practice, not
you know, far ahead of anybody. I mean again, he was behind.
I don't know if there was a big gap, but Donald Cheney from
Miami was the best running back, was running back number one during spring and
who was behind him? I don't know. Maurice Turner. I know he
had a really good spring and I heard he was, you know, slightly
ahead of Penny Boon and it's not like that. You know, you could
be the third string running back and potentially have a game where you get the
bulk of the carries because it's your day. I mean, it's I don't
want to say everybody does it by committee, but maybe that's what Penny but
didn't realize because you know, I'm pretty sure he was the guy that got
about every carry in the Mac at Toledo, I mean, not all of
them. But you know, last year Louisville they used a trio of backs
at times like Murray's. Turner didn't have a great year. Actually thought he'd
have a better year. I know he was injured early on, but you
know, even when both healthy, which was not up you know, it
didn't happen often. Louisville used a good, a good, healthy dose of
Grindo and Jordan, and I think a lot of schools do that. Now,
clearly there's going to be a guy that, you know, is a
better NFL prospect, a guy that probably is going to end up week in
and week out having more carries. But I just don't think from what I
understand, and I'm sure there could be information out there that I don't know,
but the optics of this are gonna be we lost our running back to
Kentucky. And some will say it's because of the you know, not Louisville
not having the money they claim, which is alive. And some will say
it's because, you know, he realized Louisville's not any good and he wanted
to go to Kentucky. Which again, this kid didn't leave to go to
Kentucky. He has, he has, you know, he put his name
in the portal, and I don't think there's many schools that can give him
what he wants or will give him what he wants. In Kentucky, they
wanted add another running back. They were going to get one of the visitors
in I don't know. I can't remache what it was. But they were
in line to get a visit from one of the better running backs in the
portal post Spring, and that visit got canceled because I think they committed elsewhere.
So again, like I just it's not like I'm, you know,
defending Brom at all costs, as if there's no way anybody could be mad
at him. I just realistically want to know what could be done in this
situation. Is is the way it appears, and what I just laid out
what could be done to change that? On on Brom's side, the collective
side. I mean, I just think this is a guy that you know
had, you know, had some demands that you know weren't going to be
met and shouldn't have been met. Now here is something that is problematic,
and like if you're Jeff Brahm, like you may have the you may have
the anger here to want to pick up the phone and you know, yell
at somebody at the n c OFALA because this kid just went through Spring,
like he knows your entire playbook and now he's going to go play for your
rival. Now that game is not a conference game, it's the last game
of the year, like you can get around it, but like just that's
that's just gross that that's now what they can but out again, like the
players went from having no power, no ability to do anything, and now
they can do whatever they want. It's a new world. So for those
worried that Louisville, you know, may not have enough at running back,
I actually think they do, but you know, it's unproven. Certainly.
Louisville is apparently one of the schools early in on Dylan Edwards, who's transferring
from Colorado, because one of the top running backs at Ohio State decided to
transfer. And now he's actually he's a really good running back, the kid
from Ohio State. But now, you know, I think there's two potential
first round draft picks also on that roster at running backs. So he looked
he left and he's now going to Colorado. So there's a lot of musical
chairs going on with the running backs, and it sounds like Jeff Brohm is
going to, you know, try to get one of those guys, and
if he doesn't, you know, maybe that is a real concern heading in
the next year. But I happen to think they have some pretty capable ball
carriers. I mean, guys that could be pretty damn good, but you
can never have too much talent that that position and depth. So real quick,
a couple of other names I wanted to get to, because if you
haven't heard about it yet, you probably will hear soon if you're a Louisville
fan that tries to stay plugged in on what's going on with the never ending
portal. But two players did the exact same thing that Penny Boon did.
Arrived on campus, went through spring, took in il, and decided to
leave. And I think these are also guys that you really you know,
I mean, I don't know who you want to be mad at, Like
I don't know who's to blame. Wesley Walker transferred from Tennessee and he was
not even on the two deep, so third string guy in the spring,
and he decided to leave. And his stepbrother Tyler Barron also transfer from Tennessee
and he did not participate in spring, I think because of injury. And
he was a big git, trust me, he's a guy that was very
productive in the SEC. Would have been a big time edition. But I
think these two were a package deal and now they're both leaving they're probably going
to Old Miss because they were initially committed Old Miss before they ended up going
to flipping to Louisville. So we'll see, you know, maybe you know,
maybe that'll be one that's you know, especially Baron. Maybe he's a
guy that will wish was still here. But I would imagine guy like Wesley
Walker just just just a guess, wouldn't shock me at all if he left
Tennessee not being able to really you know, make a huge impact, and
thought he would become the Louisville and that you know, I'll be I'll be
first string when I walk in because you know I'm played in the SEC.
This is Louisville. Well, uh, m J. Griffin he he,
he was, you know, for those who don't know m J. Griffin
is, I'm sure you do if you're a Louisville fan. He was supposed
to. He was supposedly the best defensive player on Louisville's team last year in
fall camp, and they loved him. He initially transferred from Temple and he
got hurt, did not play at all, and now he's healthy and he's
really good. But it wasn't just him, I mean again, Wesley Walker
from an understand was the third was third string guy in his position, which
I'm not saying that to like be disrespectful and and you know, talk crap
about him. But if I was him, I may do the same thing,
because I don't want to be third string somewhere. I mean, I'd
like to think I would have the maturity and the belief in myself to want
to compete. But you know, maybe he was quite literally aware that there's
no scenario I would ever get meaningful reps here because of where I stand.
I don't know, We'll never know. And it's just, you know,
it's not a good look at all. But maybe not a good look is
not the right way to describe because me saying not a good look, I
do feel like you're in you're insinuating there's somebody that it's to blame for this,
But you know, optics aren't great. Situation is not positive. But
I don't think you could point fingers at anybody on the Louisville side and claim
that they dropped the ball and mess this up somehow. Guys don't want to
be recruited, and if they don't want to join a program when they're in
the portal to be depth. They want to be the guy, and I
think some guys got here and learned that you know, you'll play, you're
in the mix, but you know your depth. You're not the starter,
and you can maybe go earn it in the fall. But like that's just
you know, And I doubt that they give you like a daily update on
where you stand, because honestly, that wouldn't even be a wise thing to
do because it could just maybe make them think that, Okay, well now
I'm screwed. I thought i'd be here and be a starter, and I'm
not right now, so I'm out. And if they do make that quick
decision, then it's probably best for them to walk away. But one thing
I wanted to mention real quick before we get to our final break. Lane
Kiffin quite the character, right. He did something that was, you know,
against not something you typically see, but actually think it was a wise
thing to do. They didn't even have a spring game like they had an
event, never posted a depth chart. They did like seven on seven tournaments
with skilled players O Line and D Line. I think they had like a
tug of war competition. There was a hot dog any contest where I think
I don't think it was Lane Kiffin, but they brought in Joey Chestnut,
and I'm sure that's Lane Kiffin just being the character that he is. But
I think it's smart. Don't give anybody indication of where they stand in spring
ball because they may up and leave, and again it could help you weed
out. But then again, like I like that these guys have the ability
to make that is, to make their own decision that impacts their future,
because they should be able to do that. But I also understand that it's
an easy out for all of them, and they may be better off as
human beings as players if they did, in fact use this as motivation to
get better and want to compete. That sounds you know, that sounds like
I'm an old man, But like that's just the reality of it, all
right, quick break will come back on the other side. Final segment,
Coffee and Company, Phil Beth Thorton's on SportsTalk seven ninety so. I mentioned
this earlier but never actually got to it. That happens from time to time,
the changes coming to college football. I mean, they'll they'll be noticed.
Usually they'll make it, you know, change here and there and either
get used to it really quickly, or it's something that you really don't notice
unless you're paying like super close attention. But they've they've the NSTAFA has approved
a set of rule changes, uh that'll really make it look a lot more
like the NFL. There's going to be a two minute warning, which that
alone is going to be a lot different. And they're also going to adopt
helmet communication for the FBS level. So the two minute warning is it's not
going to result in a in an additional TV timeout because there's already enough of
those right in the games last forever. So there'll be two minutes and I
guess they'll just, you know, killy, you know, the announcers will
have to fill that time until the two minutes is up. And I didn't
know that that was what they were really pushing for, but uh, you
know, I'm sure it'll be beneficial to a lot of people in late game
situations, uh you know, where they get, you know, to get
a chance to reset. Now, the use of helmet communication is going to
be limited to the FBS levels to begin with, meaning you know, the
higher level, not NCAA, D two, D three that kind of stuff.
But you are going to be able to use sideline tablets at all three
divisions, so you weren't able to do that previously, I suppose. But
the helmet communication was talked about a lot, and it's almost a carbon copy
of how the NFL does it. So one player for each team can be
on the field wearing a helmet with the communication technology at a time. The
helmets with the communication tech in them are going to be marked with a green
sticker on the back of the helmet so they can see who has that,
and I guess that's exactly how the NFL does it. But just like the
NFL, also, the communication from sideline to player is going to cut off
when there's fifteen seconds left on the play clock or when the ball is snapped,
whichever one happens first. So as someone who again you know, have
not played college football competitively, I mean I would know, it sounds like
players, coaches, everybody involved feel like this is like, this is huge,
this is good, especially the technology, which really made no sense that
you could do it everywhere kind of but the college level. How long until
a team tries to utilize this in an illegal way by allowing every helmet to
have this How long until Michigan does it? I should say, well you
can. It's only one you mean, like, how long until they figure
out a way to like get away with everybody? Communicate it all? I
mean, there'll be somebody doing it. What's the guy's name, Connor Stallions.
It's right, mister Stallions. You know he's already putting together a plan
to pitch to somebody to be their guy. Right, I'll help you.
I'll help you cheat like I did Michigan, you know, d green stick
of my ass. Yeah, yeah, drop the bag and we'll make it
work. Right. I mean we'll never know, but like you could make
the case that like Harball literally went from being pretty good but getting dominated about
by Ohio State to flipping the script, winning a national championship, owning Ohio
State for a few years, all because of the man known as Connor Stallions.
All Right, we were at a time, you guys, enjoy your
meaning. We're back at it tomorrow right here on Sports Talk seven ninety m