Welcome to The Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabrielle with you Thursday edition of our
program. We have got a lot tonight football, basketball, even volleyball,
and it's one of those nights where usually Thursday shows are kind of hard to
fill because you don't have stuff going on from the previous weekend. You're looking
ahead to the next weekend, and in the summertime, let's face it,
you know, there's not a whole lot going on locally, but not the
case tonight here on the Big Blue Insider. We have got comments from UK
basketball players. You may have seen bits and pieces of interviews with these guys
on the interweb and on some of the TV stations. Well, they were
made available three players today, made available by UK. So everybody has new
stuff and you'll be hearing and seeing and reading about a lot of the comments
that these kids made today. Also coming up, Jeremy Jarman joins us.
It's tough to get Jeremy because of his busy professional life and family life,
but of course Jeremy part of our pregame coverage of Kentucky football, former UK
All Conference defensive end. We've got him for well the second half hour of
this second half of this hour and the first half of the next hour,
So for about an hour we'll talk football with Jeremy Jarman, and then the
UK volleyball comes up fast starting at the end of August, so we'll talk
to Hunter Mitchell, who has covered UK volleyball for quite some time, going
back to these days with the Kentucky Colonel. So, like I said,
a lot coming up on the BBI, and we'll start with basketball because today
UK released it's non conference men's basketball schedule. Some of us had already gotten
out, but now the dates are there, the times are not as you
know, that'll be settled in by television. But the Cats open up on
November fourth with Wright State. They haven't announced any exhibition games yet. I
got to think there's going to be at least one, maybe two, but
they got right State Monday, November fourth, Buck now the following Saturday,
and then on Tuesday, November twelfth, you know, they play in the
State Farm Champions Classic down in Atlanta against the Duke Blue Devils, and that's
going to be a tremendous matchup. I would think lots of hype, Cooper
Flag and all that. Back home for Lipscomb on November nineteenth, that's a
Tuesday. Then on the Friday following Jackson State in the BBN Invitational Unity Series,
followed on Tuesday by Western Kentucky. That's on November the twenty sixth.
The following Saturday, Georgia State here in Lexingon. Then on Tuesday, December
third, Wildcats head for Clemson. That's the SEC ACC Challenge on Tuesday,
December third. Then the Gonzaga matchup in Seattle on the first Saturday, or
rather the second Saturday in December. Now, that would be the first Saturday
in December again in the Seattle Climate Pledge Arena. With any luck at all,
you'll have to choose between that game and maybe Big maybe Kentucky in the
SEC Football Championship Game. That's a long shot, I know, wouldn't be
fun to have to choose though. The following Wednesday, the Wildcats played Colegate
for the first time ever, and then on Saturday, December fourteenth, that's
when the Louisville Cardinals come to town. So two head coaches matching off in
that game for the first time, Pat Kelsey for Louisville, Mark Pope for
Kentucky. Of course, Pope played against Uel as a Wildcat. A week
after that, Ohio State in Madison Square Garden and the CBS Sports Classic.
So you get that week off there, presumably for exams, and then at
the end of the calendar year, Tuesday, December thirty first, the Wildcats
back home to play the Brown Bears, and that's the first time the Wildcats
have ever played Brown in Kentucky's basketball history. All Right, I mentioned that
we have comments from the players, and we'll start with Ansley Amanpur. He
is one of the many many seniors on this team six seven, two thirty
two, transferring in from Fairleigh Dickinson, and he talked about some of these
high profile non conference games, which is one of the reasons that he was
attracted to a place like Kentucky. It's a great chance to measure yourself.
You can't wait to get out there and play, you know, actually play
against other teams. Obviously excited for some of the bigger games like Duke Louisville
and stuff like that, but just can't wait to get out there and go
compete other guys. Is that kind of why you came here playing those marquee
games. Oh, yeah, it's definitely a reason you don't get to play
on that type of exposure, playing national television games a lot of those big
time teams, big time players. You know, definitely, definitely was the
reason why I came here for sure. Pow are games like that going to
help you, guys gel maybe even quicker than a game against a team that's
not quite up to the same part, because you know, you face adversity.
University brings you closer. So when you play those bigger teams, you're
going to go through a lot of tough stretchers. They're going to go make
runs because there's a lot of talent on those types of teams. So when
you when you face it, for should you end up becoming quicker and jail
quicker and stuff like that. So those games definitely help us. What do
you mean by adversity there? I think I know, But what do you
mean? Just you know, when another team goes on a run, they're
gonna hit shots. They're obviously talented too. You know they're gonna go there,
hit shots, going a little run. How we're gonna respond to that.
The little things like that that helped build us to where we're competing in
March YEP. Obviously the better the competition, the more you're gonna learn about
yourself, and as he said, it will prepare you for postseason play.
And of course we don't know yet what the SEC schedule is, but it
will be grueling. League's going to be tough this year. We also talked
to Andrew Carry's one of the Big Six eleven two twenty seven. He is
listed as a grad student transferred in from Wake Forest and Carr talked a little
bit about why he chose Kentucky, why he wanted to be a Wildcat.
You know, this is a really special place. I think for me,
I knew what I was looking for when I went into the transfer portal and
this is a combination of everything that kind of came together. For me.
First and foremost, it was the basketball fit, and I think, uh,
Coach Pope did a really great job, you know, showing me how
I would fit within the team and in the recruitment and just the way that
I've been able to play. But also, uh, it's been was really
cool for me to say, hey, you need to get better at this
and this, and this is how we can help you do that. And
you know, for someone trying to to continue to get Better obviously has aspirations
to to go play in the NBA. That's that's all you want to hear
when you're in the recruitment process, and so that was really cool to to
understand my fit. And then the second part was just the embracement. Embracement
from the fans. You know, I think, uh, Big Blue Nation
is is just I think you said it before. It's just it's just different,
you know. I think it's a really special place and been my dream
ever since a little kid coming and watching basketball. You always, you know,
you hear about Kentucky, Kentucky basket people. You watch Kentucky basketball,
and you know you want to be a Kentucky basketball player. So Andrew Carr
also talked about the fact that during practice Mark Pope, who played in the
NBA, want to ring with Kentucky as a big, gets into the low
post with him and works with him on drills. So that's got to be
kind of fun to square off with the head coach in practice. We talked
to otega Oway, six to ford junior from Newark, transferred in from Oklahoma,
and he talked to us about his new teammates and he told us he
studied video on these guys before he actually met them. He said, that's
why nobody really surprised him when they started competing against one another. No,
I mean I kind of, like I said, like I did the research
before, so I know what everyone's game is going to be. But just
being able to see all the guys like like just be together and just be
focused on trying to get better and build that chemistry, that's something I've just
been surprised with it because I mean we're all new, Like no one on
the team was here last year. So just being able to see how everyone's
been selling selfish, they opened their building. That relation of the bomb on
the court and off the court, that's been the biggest thing really. That's
just part of the conversations we had earlier today with the three players. We
will have a lot more with them coming up tomorrow night. I can promise
you that. Speaking of Wildcat's former Wildcats, you got to see what five
of them last night as the USA team USA played Canada, tuning up for
the Olympics, eleven to one. Canada took an early lead. The US
team was turning it over taking bad shots, but eventually turned things around and
one going away these are future Hall of famers against some really good players from
Canada, but the US team wanted eighty six to seventy two. In Las
Vegas, Devin Booker started for Team USA and nine points in twenty minutes.
Bam Adebayo came off the bench played twenty one minutes six points, seven rebounds,
although he was two for six from the line. Anthony Davis had a
good one ten points, points, eleven boards, four blocks in only eighteen
minutes of ad coming off the bench with the great effort. Last night for
Canada, Jamal Murray started, but they had only five points, did have
five rebounds, but did not shoot well from the outside. The shay y
Olgis Alexander eight points four rebounds in nineteen minutes, but between the two of
them, the two former Wildcats from the outside did not farewell. Between them
five of eighteen, two of nine from beyond the arc, and Team USA
is expected to roll to the gold medal and they start in Paris on July
twenty eighth against Serbia and Nikola Jokic. At the bottom of the hour,
Jeremy Jerman talking UK Football six thirty wlap welcome back to the Big Blue and
sider Dick Gabriel with you. Coming up in just a few minutes, Jeremy
Jarman will join us and we're gonna go deep with Jeremy. We're gonna finish
up this hour and carry him into hour number two a little bit later on
Hunter Mitchell, our old buddy from the u UK volleyball beat. We'll talk
with us about the upcoming season, which is coming up fast, just like
football, and we're going to talk a little baseball here. But first,
there's a story coming out over the last twenty four hours that may be disturbing
to many of you who just don't like the way college athletics are being handled
or being designed right now because conference affiliations are going away, Geographic affiliations are
going away. And this has been happening now in the ACC for a while,
and this is a big deal in that conference because it's two top moneymakers
when it comes to football. Florida State and Clemson have not been quiet about
the deal they've got. They're unhappy. They've been talking about moving on,
and there's a story out there stating that they tried to make inroads with the
SEC and that the SEC apparently has turned them down. At least for now.
So now the Big Twelve may be involved, and it may not be
just FSU and Clemson. There may be as many as four teams out of
the ACC or four more I should say it's total of six looking to get
into the Big Twelve, which, if they can work it out, would
not be a bad move for the Big Twelve. That would make for a
Power three conference along with the Big Ten and the SEC. There is strengthened
numbers in a situation like this. And once again, a few years ago,
it was me and probably a zillion other people talking about the fact that
all these changes, including the portal and the NIL, would put an end
to college athletics as we know it. They are always going to be around.
But if you have a distaste for the way things are operating now,
come back and see me in a year, and I guarantee you'll like it
even less. So if these moves happen, the Big Twelve will rival the
Big Ten and the SEA when it comes to income and when it comes to
power, because there's a lot of great football out there, and it's not
all in the Big Ten in the SEC. Speaking of great baseball used to
be great in America not anymore for a variety of reasons, cheap among them.
The NFL blew him out of the water a while back, and it's
not going to go back. I mean the NFL from here on in.
College football to a degree is America's pastime. But baseball still has its place
in American sports, obviously, but there are a lot of things that people
who grew up loving the game dislike about it. And Joe Madden, the
former baseball manager, he's out of the game right now, but he led
the Cubs to their World Series title. He's a really smart guy and he
had a pulpit the other day where he talked about all the things that are
ruining the game. He loves. Coaches these days are coming from placesline and
things of that nature. These are today's gurus. I'm here to tell you,
man, if I'm starting a group to when I got, definitely got
Larry Bow in that group. Absolutely. I don't care how old Glary Bow
is. We need people to pass the game down to have a play properly.
Guys have to be told when they're screwing up doing things wrong. I
think you could watch a lot of games today and I keep getting queried about,
did you see I'll slop you The play was no. Listen, you
could have sloppy play with the best instructors in the world. I'm not arguing
that, but the game has evolved into the point where everybody's after their own
brand and to show me kind of a thing as opposed to playing this team
concept that's individualized by the Dodgers or the Cardinals or the Pirates of the past,
which I loved, and I thought the Angels in the nineties and early
two thousands we had an identity. I thought the Rays when we got to
the race, we established an identity. Those are the kind of things that's
never talked about anymore. It's all based on analytical data and the sameness.
Everybody wants the same thiss when it comes out of draft. And furthermore,
there are no minor leagues anymore. That's been so watered down. I'm here
to tell you, man, if I under these circumstance, I never get
an opportunity to eventually do what I did. That's Joe Madden, who's been
out of the game, at least as a manager since the Angels fired him
last June. Since then, there have been five managerial changes in baseball,
and nobody reached out to Madden. He said a team in Japan or two
reached out to him. Wasn't quite ready to make that jump. Maybe he
is now, but it's amazing that a guy who is so well respected and
liked by players and has a proven commodity as a manager isn't in the game
right now now. On the other hand, on the other side of this
argument is KYL. Ravis, who is one of the baseball voices for ESPN,
and if you watch Kentucky in the College World Series, you probably heard
his voice. But Raviits was on with the Awful Announcing podcast and was talking
about the state of baseball, and he said, because of star power,
he believed, and there's a lot of it. He believes major League baseball
right now is fine. I think the game was in trouble, and I
don't mean it was ever going to go away, but it was in trouble
when it took four hours to play a Yankees Red Sox Sunday Night game four
and a half. Like that wasn't good. The product wasn't good. The
product is really good on the field. The players, the young players are
phenomenal, whether it's Bobby Witt or Gunner Henderson, so the focus is not
just on one guy. I don't think Shoeo Tani is responsible for saving baseball,
partly because I don't believe baseball currently needs to be saved. I think
what baseball has to acknowledge is we live in a football society. We live
in a football world. So the grand old pastime is no longer present.
Number one, it's not. It's very easy to see football rules the roost.
Baseball absolutely has a huge place on the Mount Rushmore of sports, but
it is shifted. You know, fifties and sixties baseball was it on all
the sudden football and college football and all that is passed it and how baseball
fits somewhere in between the NBA and the NHL event. That's where it is
right now. But the changes they've made, I think help immensely. And
there's nobody, no individual that is being asked to save the game. The
game is in good hands, The game is in great shape. There are
young players that are superstars who is easy to you know, to look at
and be I want to invest in them, the Orioles, the Mariners,
that there's teams, the Reds, I want to invest like an Eli Dala
Cruz. Sign me up all day long, o'neo Cruz, thanks very much.
The Mariner's pitching, sign me up. I'm watching all that stuff now.
Immediately, you might dismiss what he says by saying, well, yeah,
he has to say that because he works for ESPN and they've got a
big baseball contract. But I think he makes great points. There are some
really good young talented players, and he mentioned the Reds Elie de la Cruz.
I don't know that Reece Hines keeps up the insane pace that he said
in his first two games, but there are a lot of really talented young
players. But they were almost arguing opposite or different points Apples and oranges,
where Madden was talking about the coaching and the metrics and all that, and
Ravis was talking about star power and you can have both. But you've got
to wonder if you can put the two points together. If the coaching were
better, if the preparation were better, if the metrics weren't so heavily leaned
on, maybe there would be even more star power and people wouldn't be so
bored with the game, which has sped up. They've sped up the games
by about a half an hour now and that's a great move. And they've
sped up college baseball as well. I think that was one of the great
threats to the game. But the other threat right now is the strikeout or
home run approach. And I think if anything draws away from baseball, that's
it. Go back and look at the style of baseball Kentucky played. What
if you saw that in the major leagues. That kind of chaos on the
base pass and that kind of pitching and defense can ansistently, you'd have a
much better product. There's a place, obviously for the home run. Tennessee
proved that by winning the National championship. It plays a good brand of aggressive
baseball. But not everybody can have it all as Tennessee did this year.
So baseball will never be the same, but it's not dying on the vine.
One thing that is healthy we know this college football. Jeremy Jarman will
come back and shat with us. He, of course, is part of
our coverage on the UK Sports Network. That's all ahead here on the Big
Blue Sider six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blueing Sider.
Joining us now on our celebrity Hoidline, one of my favorite people and teammate
on the UK Sports Network, former UK All Conference defensive end Jeremy Jarman and
Jeremy it won't be long now, will it? Are you feeling it?
Yeah? Definitely starting to get the emotions again. I was able to get
on the website and download the schedule also my calendar, so that was a
nice little addition that you Can Athletics added to the site the ability to just
kind of plug those games into the personal calendar. So I think doing that
the other day that really brought out, brought everything to the table and brought
those emotions full circle. And the times are slated for the first few games
for the first time in my lifetime, I'm pretty I'm pretty excited. Game.
Well, let's talk about that schedule. And I've been saying all along
that and everybody knows the games are always tough, it's when they happen,
and in terms of early challenges, Jeremy, this has got to be the
toughest that I've seen in a long long time for uk Man. It gets
started fast and you know, you think back some years back when we when
we played Southern miss Uh in Kroger Field and they had us on the ropes.
So to start that game out against Southern Myss. I have a lot
of respect for that program. Really tough, really tough group of kids that
they recruit. I'm looking forward to deep diving in there. But then boom,
you turn around the next week and you're right in the SEC football play.
So I mean, there's there's no margin there, There's no margin for
error, There's no margin for this kind of lackluster start because it comes quick
this season. Yeah, now the ups and downs are you got everybody healthy,
but you're not quite settled in maybe in week two or three that you
will be mid season. Do you have many concerns in that direction? Say
that again, Gave. When you've got a tough game early in the year,
you're relatively healthy, but you're still trying to figure things out with maybe
some of the younger players. Are the rotations? Do you have any strong
feelings either way? You know, when I look at this team and I
look at I look at the offensive line, I look at the defensive line
units, those are those are experienced units for us this year. So you
know, ideally you'd like to think that those are going to be your strong
suits and when those when those units are strong, game you don't have to
get you don't have to be fancy early. You just got to be effective
at what you want to do and what you want to be good at.
And we know markdouts football teams. Offensively, they want to eat the clock
because that's the football. And defensively, Brad White, he just wants to
basically mix it up and muck it up for these teams. So when you're
strong up front, like I'm starting to suspect that we could be on both
sides of the ball, I think that that's going to help some of the
inexperienced players to be able to ease into gameplay, especially at the quarterback position.
You mentioned the D line, and that's got to be an area I
would think of strength. Although losing Josiah Hayes, I really that's that's a
real damaging blow. I think he may be going for the year. We
don't know. They just signed a Juco D tackle, but I still think
they've got quality depth starting with Dan Walker obviously, but he makes everybody around
him better. What do you think of it? D line? You know
a little something about d Lions you know, I like this group. I
look at Ripka just continuing to come into his own I anticipate him having a
big season. Silver's the guy, in my opinion, I think he's the
X factor up there on that defensive lot, keeping him on the field,
keeping him healthy, keeping him in gags. Last year he got off to
a quick start and then he just kind of, I think, just kind
of things and banged up and he just kind of disappeared from the film.
And if they can keep him on the field game, he's a super talented
d lineman. He's shoes, he's massive, long arm, long, big
broad chest and back. He's a guy that can help him Between him and
Walker, if both of those guys are playing at their capabilities, it just
makes life for everybody a little bit easier. Yeah, because they got a
double team Walker. I mean, you know, I've been talking on the
air about the fact on takeover day. I don't know if you had any
time, you're a busy man to just sit and watch any of those those
games that they replayed. They replayed the Florida win and the Louisville win,
and those guys you've been talking about, especially Walker, they kept isolating ESPN
did on how U of L in particular was trying to one on one block
him and it was impossible, wasn't it. Yeah, it's impossible. There's
not a lot of players that you just come across in college football that just
have that physique and that stamina, that skill set. There's nothing you can
do in practice, gay to prepare for Dion Walker if you don't have a
guy that's ultimately sixty six, three hundred and thirty pounds and moves as well
as as as the best defense into your defense linement in the country. I
mean, he's a unicorn. Yeah, and you can't simulate that in practice.
So you got to respect those teams and those programs for allowing their guys
to have the opportunity to try to block these guys, because sometimes it can
be a detriment to a player if you don't give him the ability to see
if he can block a player one on one, and if he can,
that's a confidence booster. If he can't, then that player knows. Okay,
I need to dig in a little bit more. I got some film
and now I can work towards this on the offseason. Now I know what
an all that sec he give us to the lineman looks like, I know
what a potential All Americans, potential lottery pick defensive lineman looks like, so
you got to give your players a chance versus just saying you can't block the
on walker. You know, we're just gonna double We're gonna double teaming today.
So you know there, So there's a couple of different ways to look
at why you see teams attempt to block him in one on one situation.
But I don't expect there to be too many players that are going to be
able to do that consistently this season. I hadn't thought about that that if
you're sitting in in the the meeting room prior to playing Kentucky and you're an
old lineman, you've got to be saying to yourself, well, I think
I can take this guy, but unless you faced him before, you know,
how do you admit give me some help on this? Right? For
sure? And for sure? I mean and there's times, you know,
as a defensive lineman or linebacker, you know, whether it's a back being
able to carry a back out of the backfield and man the man situations where
you're asking your coach, hey, you know why aren't you giving me a
chance I can tackle this guy in space? And I think sometimes as a
player, that competitor nature has to come out and you got to say,
you know, I can block this guy, Coach, don't we don't need
the double team. Let's let's try to work up and you try to do
it until you realize that maybe you just can't. But you know, even
in our practice, you know, with our players on our team, you
know they have to double team Dion Walker to be able to get through practice
segments. And when they don't, he's so disruptive that Mark has to take
him out out of some of the practice sessions. I think I remember Stoop's
talking about that. That that that got my attention as much as anything where
they actually had to take him out of drills because he was throwing people around
to he didn't want to hurt anybody. Yeah, And I thought it was
a little bit of hyperbole at first, and then as I started to get
in and get over there to practice, and then we saw the body of
work on game days, He's absolutely right. I mean, Deon Walker,
it's tough to practice against a guy like that unless the guy that's blocking him
in practice is also a unicorn, are also ultimately a bona fide pro because
he is, he is a he could potentially this season we could be saying
that he's a generational type tight talent at the defensive tackle position. All right,
be honest with me, and then we'll move on talking about Dion Walker
with Jeremy Jarmon. But how surprised are you, Jeremy, that he's still
here? Let's face it, we all know we got a nice nil chunk,
but a lot of schools have nil bucks. Are you pleasantly surprised he's
still a wildcat? I'm not. And the reason why that is is because
I know the type of relationship that he has with the guys in the locker
room and also anwar Stewart, the defensive line coach, and Brad White.
But him and anwar are very close. And you can see the body of
work I got film breakdown on Dion from game one to present and the buy
in the technical He's got natural gifts, but you can see you can see
the tools that are that he's deploying, that he's being taught by anwar Stewart
who was a technician in college, a technician and professional Canadian Football League.
So he's getting better. There's no reason for Dion Walker to leave and go
to another school for a little bit more money, because he's ultimately he's going
to end up where he wants to be, which is the National Football League.
And he's just he's just continued to just grow and develop at UK and
and and and he's going to have an incredible junior campaign. I'm glad you
mentioned Ann War. I was going to ask you about him. You and
so many former players who either know him or played with Anwar have been so
complementary of him and supportive of Anwar there. So you guys are all so
impressed with a job he's doing and obviously the proofs of the putting, But
what is it about Anwar you think that has made him so successful at his
alma mater. He's authentic. He's an authentic person and he truly wants what's
best for his guys. And I just see the relationship when I go out
to practice, I go over and that's where I like to hang out.
I like to see and War and those guys and their interactions and it's always
inspiring for me. And I see the best, the best players on the
team also being amongst the hardest workers on the team, because that from a
cultural standpoint, that's not always the case. Sometimes your best players are average
workers in practice and then they kind of flip a switch on game day.
And Dion's just the guy that he's a grizzly twenty four to seven. I
mean, he's mauling people when it's time to mall people, he's malleling them.
And they're having to ultimately putting, you know, taking out of practice
sessions in order to be as productive as they want to be because they're focusing
on the team. So relationships trump everything. And I think ultimately for these
guys they're going to learn is that you can go out and you can go
shop around and you can find the highest price tag. But when you continue
to look at the high level of recruiting that this staff is getting done,
and you look at the quotes that are coming out from the players and from
their families, they say, the facilities are great, you know, the
bills and whistles there there, But the people. It's the people that I
enjoyed, the people that I met, the people that when I'm coming on
my unofficial business, the true relationship building that's taking place, and that's why
Marcus continuing to have success in recruiting, and that's why he's also been able
to keep some of his top stars, being able to keep them at Kentucky
despite us not having the highest NIL offer. I can assure you, Dion
Walker, the offers that he's gotten have exceeded probably not probably, they have
exceeded what he's getting at UK. Yeah, there's no doubt in min There's
no doubt in my mind. And it's funny you say that because when you're
talking about family, I've heard more recruits talk about that about on their visit.
You know, they just felt a kind of a family vibe at UK
and at facility and from the coaches, the recruiters, the guys who host
them on their visit and it seems to be genuine and it's paying off on
the field. We're talking to Jeremy Jarman or the UK Sports Network. We'll
come back and talk more with Double Jay's in just a minute. Here on
the Big Moon Sider six. Back to the Big Newing Sider. My guest
Jeremy Jarman from the UK Sports Networking and Christy Thomas, part of our pregame
coverage of Kentucky football, and it won't be long now. I've talked to
a lot of people this summer, Jeremy about the fact that, of course
Kentucky is not in the preseason top twenty fives after back to back seven win
seasons, which amazingly have been disappointing to Kentucky fans. But really it is
a mystery at least on offense, isn't it. When you've got a new
OC, a new quarterback, we don't know who's going to carry the mail
in the offensive backfield. We think we know, but the one thing is
you touched on earlier is the offensive line. How confident are you with all
these question marks on the offensive side of the ball. One of those it's
one of those things gave is that the players in the talent is there.
But I'll tell you, changing coordinators, new quarterback, those are recipes for
disaster. Yep. I mean, we just we just have to be honest.
I mean, statistically, I've seen the articles over the years when you
see NFL teams change offensive coordinators, they change quarterbacks. Those are significant and
and there's no different tier in mark he has he has somehow he has been
able to manage these these changes with the coordinators as well as anybody as I've
ever seen, Because for some head coaches, these OC or DC changes they're
they're there. I mean, they ultimately lead to coaches getting fired. GM's
getting fired. But he's been right in picking these coordinators to come in.
He's been right ultimately and finding that that signal caller to come in and run
the offense. So the concern is here is is you know you go and
you got you got a new OCS coming in from an outside conference like the
scheme, still got to watch some more Boise film. Uh, you have
a talented quarterback room. The guy, as you're likely starter, doesn't have
a lot of snaps under his belt. Gavin Wims that is coming in,
he probably he may be one of the more experienced players in the room.
I still think that there's gonna be a true quarterback battle in that room.
I don't care how many stars, I don't care how many starters are there
across some of these players, But I still think that there's gonna be an
honest quarterback battle in Paul Camp. Do you think it's gonna be a two
man battler or three man, we're gonna see. But I'm I'm really intrigued.
I think there's gonna be some storylines that come out, and as they
should. I don't think that this quarterback, this position is gonna be handed
to someone. Yeah, I think everybody knows has an expectation of who they
think QB one is gonna be from the start. But I think that there's
there's gonna be a battle for it. I really do. Are you saying
that because of your concern about the fact that, let's face it, we
all think Brock vandergriff released a lot of us will be the starter, or
are you saying that because you believe Bo Allen has improved that much and that
Gavin Wimson brings a lot to the table. I think Gavin does bring some
things to the table. You know, his experience been one of them we
talked about. Bobo also has experience. You know, whether he's gonna whether
he's going to be able to push to be the push to be a starter
in that room, I can't make that determination. I think that that's I
think that that's more unlikely. But I like the experience that Bo brings.
So we're gonna see Gabe, I just want I want to get out.
I want to watch the guys kind of spin it. I want to watch
the edge rushers come off the edge. I want to watch them push the
quarterbacks up into the pocket. One of the things about Bush with these quarterbacks
quick release. It's quick release football, quick reads football, and and basically
the guy that thinks that that his brain sees it breathes the coverage the quickest.
Yeah. I don't think that you have to have the most talented arm
in the room in order to succeed in Bush's offense. You just got to
have the smarts and the release and the accuracy, don't you. Yeah,
I mean it's it's it's it's a lot of quick game stuff. It's a
lot of stuff off of some misdirection, a lot of quick games and quick
quick game that to me, that benefits that benefits a lot of quarterbacks.
I think that that with good decision making that you can really get into a
rhythm. And I think a guy like Gavin, I think he's I think
that this is a this is a system that he could potentially thrive in.
Uh I sleep rock as well. So I'm just curious to see a little
bit more this fall. You know, obviously we didn't get a chance to
see see a ton uh, you know, see a ton from from this
room. But I'm curious to see what what ultimately what's gonna look like here
in a few weeks follow up on on the quick release brand of offense.
And I'm not trying to pigeon all anything, but I'm just curious from your
side of the football, does that benefit a receiving group more one than the
other or style? Does it mean fewer deep shots? Does that mean fewer
checkdowns to running backs or or more patterns for running backs that kind of thing.
What should we look for? I think what we should look for is
sorry, a little bit of noise in the background. Uh. I think
what we should look for is is just basically when I look at this offseason,
I look at coach Schworts, the new wide receiver coach. I'm curious
to see the level of I think mental toughness, consistency and just route running
and unders and basically comprehension of defensive schemes. I think that our wide receiver
room under coach Shortz has the ability to basically take a take a step forward
in terms of IQ football IQ. So when you look at some of this
quick game stuff, being able to understand the route tree, being able to
read the defender, the corner that's in front of you, especially when you're
talking about option routes being in sequence your quarterback. So when you go back
a few seasons and you look at you look at one Dale Robinson catching one
hundred balls, which is just absolutely just amazing one hundred balls as the smallest
player on the field, it is because of football, Like you, It's
because him and Will Levis were so in sync and they understood coverages. I
mean, those guys just put on they put on the clinic a few years
ago. So I'm curious to see if one or multiple of these guys,
with this new quick with this new offense, if they're gonna take a similar
step where they're gonna be in sync ultimately with our QB one to be able
to start to rack up yards, move the change. I mean, a
lot of this is IQ, and the more those guys can comprehend, then
the more that can be added with the option routes and with the wrinkles that
you can put in place off of these things. Wandale so often was a
catch and run kind of guys, that what you're talking about. Yes,
that's good to me, Jeremy Jarnson. I guess we'll come back and talk
more Kentucky football. Saren just a minute with Double Jays. We'll step out
for the news break and then bring Jeremy back in our number two on six
point thirty wlap every sing Welcome back to the Big bluins Sider. We're talking
with Jeremy jarm and he is in trendsit as he often is, but we
took the opportunity to talk some UK football with him, and it'll be here
before long here Jeremy's coverage along with Christy Thomas on our pregame show here on
the UK Sports Network. And of course the Wildcats again a mystery team according
to many, but that's understandable with all the question marks. But the one
thing we know, Jeremy, I'm fairly confident that the defense will give the
offense the opportunity to win the game. And that's what it's all about him,
all right, it is, And that's that has been Brad White's calling
cards since he's been here. I think I think Brad has just he's done
a phenomenal job, and I'm curious to see how if any new wrinkles that
he puts in that'll be you know, those will be conversations to kind of
talk with him about. But he's just done a good job and had a
chance to sit down with him. And I just always always enjoy, always
enjoy seeing how he develops inexperienced players and how he continues to just kind of
add to their workload as they grow and mature. And Andrew Phillips being one
of those guys who's going to be myssed dearly. But Andrews starting out here
as a guy primarily an inside inside corner, you know, and and basically
being asked lud and and and play outside coverages. And I asked Brad and
he kind of he kind of got a frown on his face when I asked
her the question. I kind of felt like a paracist what I asked it.
But I said, you know, you're losing Andrew. I said,
does it feel like you're losing two players? And he kind of frowned up,
and then he bounced back and he said you and and you know,
he acknowledged just the importance of that role that Andrew played, so, you
know, trying to replace his experience and his nastity and just seeing how he
how he facilitates that and how did players how they handle it. So just
just a lot. I think he's just done a good job. It was
huge getting out and being able to get to Georgia transfer at the linebackers and
to come into the linebacker room that was that was a huge void void filler
there. Jamie is gonna do well right next to right next to our guy
d Eric Jackson, D jack Down. The stretch was money last year,
wasn't he? He was? He really was continuing to grow, continuing to
grow. He's a guy because he's not as fast and twitchy as some of
the other linebacks inside linebackers have been over the years. So for him,
the pre snap, the pre snap reeds, the post snap reeds, being
able to process that a little quicker. I think that that's what what what
was happening for him is being confident in his reads and and basically starting to
anticipate things versus sitting back. He didn't have the he doesn't have the natural
ability sometimes to sit back and let something open up and be able to react
and and and get in there and get that PBu like like a Trevin Wallace,
but but d Jack, he he's a physical player. There a lot
of experience. Looking forward to seeing him down in Dallas. Uh in about
a week or so at the S Days. Yeah, I'm excited he got
You know, he's wasn't He's not as outgoing as Trevin Wallace was, but
he still led the team in tackles the last couple of years. Uh.
And I do believe though, help let me ask you how much will he
miss playing alongside Trevin Walla. They had such a great relationship, you know,
one of those kind of unspoken deals where they just knew each other's moves
on and off the field. But bring it in Pop from Georgia should help
kind of allay that, right for sure. And a lot of that's just
going to be in camp in the film room, talking through things as you
start to see what a player is capable of. And you mentioned Pop,
just another experienced football player, and I really think that they're going to sharpen
each other just in terms of just play and alignment and anticipation of routes and
just down in distance. Just a lot of the pre staff communication that happens
before the snap of the ball. And I think Pop is one of those
guys he's really good at that. You don't rack up and have the kind
of success that he has by not having a good, good understanding of the
game and schemes and what teams are trying to do to you. That's work
that's done in what you guys call the film room. And you're looking at
video right for sure, A lot of Yeah, that's where a lot of
the work's done. Sitting back with some flower seeds and the cowboy remote gay
and and uh and going through and just looking at the film until things just
start to until they just start to click, until you start to see tendencies,
you start to see friends, You start to see little pre staple alignments
that teams and that players do to get subtle advantages. And those are the
kind of things that experience coaches that they that they teach, that they teach
players, and as players get more and more experienced than the coaches just basically
able to just pour it on. I mean it becomes like a master of
graduate level of course of the ball. Where Brad Moulhat I like, uh,
like the d jack that he wouldn't be having with one of the younger
linebackers because he's just not there yet. I've heard guys talk about learning to
watch film. You know. It's not like you could just sit down and
it washes over you, right, I mean, you've got to know what
to look for and that kind of thing, and what to study and what
to let go. Yeah. I think the main thing is is that now
there's so much, there's so much that these offensive coordinators are throwing at you,
and they're self scouting. They're making sure to try to keep their runs
to the left, runs to the right, balance short, intermediate, long
range play action. So there's a lot of self scouting where they try to
keep the defenders from being able to guess. But at the end of the
day the film, ultimately, you just need to have an answer for what
teams do do the best. Yeah, and if they beat you on some
of the ancillary things and you just got to live with that, but you
can't let them beat you at what they do best. Interesting, you know,
and I remember I think it was it was either what he Hayes or
Bow, one of those two legendary coaches, talked about just that about attacking
a team at its strongest point, because if and when you can break that
down, you've broken them mentally and emotionally, haven't you. You know,
there's a lot of psychology behind that. I think some of the old school
guys they do such a good job of saying those kinds of things. And
now you look at a Shun Peyton with some of the more controversial statements.
You know, attack the head and the body will die will symbolically symbolically,
he's absolutely right. I mean, if a team's run dominant and they've had
success running the toss suite, and you're shutting those things down early, now
that team can't get into a rhythm. So now the head of the team,
you're offensive coordinator. Now he's trying to figure out, Okay, how
can I get the team into a rhythm. Now he has abandoned what has
worked best for the team. Now your players know that there's some struggles because
you're talking about it on the sideline, and now you're starting to cast doubt
amongst yourselves and whether this game plan is going to be good today. So
there's a lot of psychological chess play that's going on throughout the game in different
phases. That are you know, that are fascinating and it's fun to sit
back and just kind of talk with guys about what it was, what play
it was, at what point there was a sudden change that really kind of
you know, blew the door in to either allow a team to get back
on track or what it was ultimately that that kind of brought about the defeat.
So, yeah, football is a very complex game. It's simple,
but it's very complex with the different nuances and alignments that you can show what
you know, it's fun, it's fun covering for UK Sports Network Gave and
or we get a chance to sit back and just kind of talk about talk
about some of those things. Yeah, and you know what, if you
can along with what you're saying, take let's say it is the toss sweep.
Take that away from a team that's really good and now they've got to
be wondering, all right, what do we do now? You know,
now you're you're trying to adjust on the fly when you've worked all week on
a game plan that suddenly just melted away right, correct, correct, And
it's and it's frustrating for a coach and it can be demoralizing for a football
team. You know, you can just go you can go back and you
can look at you can look at a game like Florida last year with with
uh, I mean, it was just, it was just it was an
incredible game, an incredible individual effort for Ray Davis, but the offensive line
so many things fell in place. And once you cast that doubt, once
that doubt creeps in and teams and players know, hey, just game plans
not working today, it's over. Yeah. When the players start to doubt
the game plan and they start to you know, doubt the doubt, the
scheme is absolutely over that afternoon, and so it is. It's gonna be
fun to see to see how this camp opens up, Gabe, and I'm
looking forward to the Southern Miss game to see where to see where Mark and
this team are. We will wrap things up with Jeremy Jarman on the other
side of the break. More UK football chatter coming up here on the Big
Blueing Sider six thirty WLA. We're talking with Jeremy Jarman. He is,
of course, the former Kentucky defensive and All Conference and now our teammate on
the UK Sports Network. You mentioned Ray Davis a minute ago and again going
back to watch those sec takeover games, a Florida game, the U of
L game, and you remember them, I know, because you've just been
referring to him, and you filled in for me quite capably on the U
of L game, and I was out with my little medical venture last year.
But those I think were his best two games. Obviously the Florida game
where he said records, but the Louisville game on the road against a higher
ranked team and a team that had clearly yeared its defense to stopping his run
game, and yet he found ways both on the ground and through the air
to help Kentucky pull out that upset. It's a lot to ask one guy
to come in and fill his shoes, though, am I right? Uh,
There's no one coming in the field the shoes that Ray Davis Field.
I mean, he had one of he had one of the best running back
seasons that I've that I've been able to witness in person. And it was
just it was fun to cover him. He was such a versatile running back,
the ability to hit the home run tough first, the season went on
in terms of being able to get some yards some yards after intact as well,
not in the way that obviously his predecessors in Rodriguez Snail had but in
his own way. But his versatility catching the ball out of the backfield.
I mean the seven the seven touchdowns receiving, the compliment is almost fifteen hundred
yards rushing and what an incredible campaign that he had in this last year.
So yeah, I don't have any expectations that that one person is going to
be able to do that to replicate that. So I'm curious to see who's
who is of this group? Will he merge? I'm really high. I'm
really high on Demi Demi Sumo karmbe really high on him. I think he's
a fantastic football player. I think he can help us in the run game
as well as the receiving game. I'd like to see if they're going to
utilize him maybe a little bit more in the slight capacity, give him some
opportunities there and the way NC State did a couple of seasons ago. So
uh so we'll see there. I think he's very versatile. So uh but
we all know that there's a there's a there's an open battle there at the
running back position. I think I think it's a it's a talented room but
we'll see if there's someone that will emerged that that's able to carry the bulk
of the shares. The one thing we know, We've talked a lot about
the mysteries on offense, but the one thing we know is Barrion Brown is
one of the premier home run hitters potentially in the country. And the Dane
Key. Even though he had a couple of drops against Louisville, he made
some absolutely clutch catches for first downs for touchdowns against the Cardinals. Those two
guys compliment each other so well. I think Dane has shown growth and maturity
from maybe the middle of his freshman year on. I think Barrion needs to
take a big step this year. But I keep hearing Jeremy that he is
poised and ready to do that. Have you heard the same thing? I
have heard that. And I think that that room, I think that that's
a very talented room, and and I was I was very appreciative. I
know it's always tough anytime you have to go different directions from a coach,
from a coaching perspective, but I'm really high on the things that I've read
about coach Schortz. I like his background as a player as well, and
I'm just I'm really intrigued to see how his presence will translate to the wide
receiver room. That's interesting because generally coaches come in pick up where somebody else
left off. This guy, I think he's already had a pretty good impression,
left a pretty good impression, a good impact on that room, don't
you. I think so. I think so. And ultimately I think I
think that will know for sure here here in a few weeks game And and
I'm eager to talk with the players as well and just kind of talk about
some of the differences, some of the differences and and how they feel that
they've grown this grown as players and pass catchers. I know at times last
year there seem to there seemed to be just kind of a I don't know,
I don't want to say lack of focus, because you know, when
you're dropping the football, it's hard. You know, I never had to
catch the football for a living, So sometimes with some of those drops,
is it focus? Is it you know? Is it good defense? Was
the ball a little wildly? You know, there's a there's a lot of
reasons, but there were times where it just seemed like we kind of our
receiver room kind of got into a lull. Yeah yeah. Barrian had that
big drop in the back of the end zone wide open against the Gators,
and Dane dropped the first ball thrown to him against Louisville. But they both
bounced back and made huge plays, either catching the ball or on the jet
sweep of Barrion Brown. So, and it's interesting that you mentioned coach Schortz
one of the first answers of our interview, and so he has clearly made
an impression on you. So that's going to be interesting. Jeremy, I
won't take any more of your time. It's always great talking football with you,
looking forward to that first game as you are looking forward to hearing you
and Christy break things down, and I'm sure we'll talk again before kickoff.
I appreciate you joining us. Yeah, game anytime. Man. Love talking
football with Jeremy Jarman. And it won't be long now before we see kickoff
over at Kroger Field. Something came out the other day. I don't know
that we saw a whole lot of play. I know I didn't talk much
about it because we were wrapped up in other things. But the athlon preseason
all America and All Conference teams announced. Used to be, Athlon was the
voice when it came to preseason magazines. Now there are so many it kind
of gets lost in the shuffle, but important to note that Kentucky had three
preseason All Americans on the athlon team. Walker made second team, of course,
Barrion Brown was second team preseason All American as a specialist, and Maxwell
Harriston defensive back, was fourth team of course on defense. So three on
the preseason All America team for athlon, and then of course Dion Walker first
team for a defense, Barrion Brown first team, specialist, Harriston a first
team defender. Dane Key was named second team on offense, Pop Dumas Johnson's
second team on defense on the third team, Derek Jackson linebacker, Marcus Cox
offensive lineman, JJ Weaver defensive end, and Eli Cox made fourth team as
an offensive lineman. So Atlon Man, we could wait to get to you
know, Kroger or whatever and get our copy of the Athlon preseason. He
was on the cover, on the regional cover, and that kind of thing
we already knew about the Phil Steele preseason All of America list. Phil Steele
publishes the magazine that has got so much information crammed into it you really need
a magnifying glass to check everything out. But he named his All America team,
has Walker's second team and Barrion Brown second team as well. Then he's
got the usual suspects on his preseason All Conference team. In fact, it's
pretty much exactly the same names as we just read off on the Athlon magazine.
So you know, Kentucky football has forged a lot of respect. And
we talked with several people already this summer about the fact that Kentucky expectations now
are high and they should be because of the recruiting and the development that Mark
Stoops and his staff have done, and that has landed people on all conference
teams. And there were years in the past and you might remember them where
Kentucky wouldn't have anybody or maybe one person on a preseason or postseason All conference
list. And now you know you've got eight, nine, ten people,
which means the folks doing the voting are expecting more from Kentucky. And coming
up next week we will have the preseason voting by the media at SEC Media
Days to find out where they believe Kentucky will land. Last year it was
second in the East behind Georgia. No more divisions now, but I gotta
think Kentucky will have lower expectations this year. But wildcats like to play with
a chip on their shoulder. Up next, we'll talk Kentucky volleyball with Hunter
Mitchell here on the Big bluon Sider six point thirty wlap. Welcome back to
the Big Bluinsider. Joining us now somebody who's familiar to you if you followed
our show for a while, which we appreciate. Also to the Cameron Mills
Show which went off the air awhile back, but Hunter Mitchell was a regular.
Welcome back to these airwaves. Hunter, do you do you miss the
Cameron Mills Show on Sunday Night seecause he kind of tried to make you a
little bit of a punching bag. I do. I miss Cam. I
missed this show. We had so much fun, especially that last year and
a half two years when we kind of got into the fun stuff of the
show, like the Cameron con and all that kind of stuff. We had
a ball. So yes, I missed Sunday Nights very much, very much.
He tried to shame you into seeing movies that you should know. Yeah,
I don't know if you if he ever told you this, but I
looked up movies that that had been out for quite a while, maybe less
time than the ones that you were supposed to know about, and he knew
nothing of these classic films either. So that's Cameron. I mean, that
fits the then of him. So I know that's true. But the reason
that that Hunter and I see each other quite often at UK volleyball matches,
and there's a lot going on with UK volleyball these days. And I know
you still cover the sport, you cover the team, the program, But
this event that's coming up, they've got a a huge not a preseason it's
a regular season event, but it kind of kicks off the season, doesn't
it, And it's going to be something else, isn't it. It's quite
the way to kick off the twenty twenty four volleyball season for the best teams
in the country over the last several years, Nebraska playing Kentucky at the Young
Centers start of the season, and then following that match, Louisvilleill take on
Wisconsin. So a really really cool event that's happening in general, especially here
in Kentucky as the sport has blown up even more over the last you know,
four or five years. So the fact that we're getting that, the
whole volleyball world across the country is getting to watch that, and it's happening
here in Louisville. Yeah, it's a really really cool, cool event to
start the seasons. The ABC a first serve showcase, as Hunter said,
and it is a doubleheader. Wildcats open up in an exhibition with Dayton a
few days prior to that. But man, for Kentucky to tackle Nebraska right
off the bat, you know, it's something you wouldn't have thought of years
ago, but now that's where this program is, isn't it. Yeah,
it's kind of a norm for Craigskinner now, right. He always seems to
tackle these Texas is Wisconsin's Nebraska's early in the season because he knows if you're
familiar with vollyball, is that a lot of people know now that that's what
you have to do in volleyball to get one of those coveted top four seeds.
You know, hope to hopefully host at home until the final four.
Obviously this year, if that were the case for Kentucky, you get to
host at home to the final four, and then you would go to Louisville
to play in the final four because the final four was played at the em
Center this year. So there's a lot on the line for those Kentucky schools
this year, you know, especially Kentucky and Louisville, because if they could
find a way to get into that top four, you could be looking at
on your way to a national championship, literally never leaving the state of Kentucky,
which would be an incredible advantage for the Cats. Obviously, that's that's
an advantage that usually Nebraska gets right. Usually it's always hosted in Omaha,
so it'd be nice for once if it happened somewhere else. But you know,
Nebraska's kind of been the one team that Craig has not been able to
get the monkey off his back. Obviously, he was an assistant coach with
John cookover in Nebraska before he came to Kentucky. So he has never beaten
Nebraska since he's been here in Lexington. So he is he keeps trying.
It's his credit. He is not giving it up. In one of these
days, he's going to get him. We'll see if this is the year.
So yeah, and you know, obviously it helps with recruiting to play
a schedule like this. And by the way, if that happens, or
if it comes close to happening, Kentucky or Louisville is an eye on getting
to the Final four and winning it without leaving the state. It will come
up, and I'll prepare you for it right now. You may already know
this. Nineteen fifty eight, Kentucky won the national title with a Finland vibe
never left the state of Kentucky. Yeah, so there is precedents when it
comes to basketball. Well, let's talk a little bit about why Craig Skinner
plays the schedule that he does. Now, obviously it's to we mentioned recruiting,
but it's to prep his team for a regular season that sometimes is grueling
through the SEC. Sometimes the league isn't that tough. But as you said,
you know scheduling in Nebraska and later on Penn State for out loud ball,
State comes to town, Louisville comes to election in this year, so
and then Stanford at in Palo Alto. Man, if you can survive that
with some wins, you've toughened your team enormously, haven't you. Yeah,
And especially with the improvement of the SEC. Like used to, you had
to schedule tough in me at a conference because the league was so weak.
So the only way you were going to even get a formidable seed in the
tournament was the schedule tough like that. Now though the league has caught up.
Obviously, last year we saw Arkansas at Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky.
All of these were teams that, if Florida hadn't gotten hurt, they were
a favorite to possibly make a canal four, win a championship. But all
of those were teams that were vying for you know, Sweet sixteen to lad
ate some of them made obviously, Kentucky sell to Arkansas in that Sweet sixteen
last year to make the Elite date. So the league has caught up,
and especially with Texas now joined the league. We'll talk about that, I'm
sure here in a little bit. But now that they've come, you're playing
volleyball perennial powerhouses every year if you're Craig Skinner, So there's already to stop
it, right, You're just preparing your team for what is going to come
in then instably tournament because you're inevitably going to run into a Big ten team
or into one of those well, I guess are on a PAC twelve team
anymore. They were, but you were going to run into one of those
big Pac twelve teams that gave you so much trouble. So that's why he
scheduled early, because if you don't have experience against it, it's it's very
different going up against a big ten block compared to an SEC block, at
least it used to be. Now that that gap has closed pretty substantially just
because of the improvement of the league and the coaching in the league. But
used to that was why you did it, because it was just such a
massive difference. You had to prepare your team for it somehow. And you
know this. But folks, if you have never seen Kentucky play against a
Big ten team, when a big ten team enters the building, you know
it because they're all just huge, aren't they. Yeah? Yep. And
and Craig, to his credit as well, you've begun seeing him recruit that
way right because that he's big. I mean even last year they were big.
They're they're big again this year with Brooke Boltem and Brooklyn Delay. I
mean, they're getting a lot more size than they used to. So you're
seeing again the way Craig has built this program, he's catching up to that
Nebraska stuff where you know you're gonna win with size. So well, you
mentioned the SEC and it's it's getting tougher and tougher. They open up one
weekend, the last weekend in September at Auburn. Then they go to Florida.
Right then they got a midweek match with Oklahoma and there and following Sundays
or Missouri and then Texas and then Tennessee. There's really no no respite,
is there. There's not no there. You again, there used to be
used to. You were seeing Kentucky, you know, at least six years
ago, you were seeing them regularly going eighteen and one. Honestly similar to
what you saw Kentucky basketball doing in the early years of Cal. It was
you were steamrolling through the SBC. There was no competition. And that's just
not the case sing or even Auburn, who I didn't even mention earlier.
You know, Auburn was a team that was undefeated for half the season last
year and got ranked and went into the NTAA Tournament and made some noise beating
I think they beat Creighton last year. So like this league as a whole
is catching up to the rest of the country. And you know last year
the big tap and really didn't do a whole lot early in the tournament.
It was the SEC making the noise and everyone was like, wait a minute,
now, when did this? Where did it come from? And we
saw the Arkansas and even Tennessee last year they took Texas to five. Obviously,
Texas won the national championship in Tennessee too, come to five having lost
their starting Liberro in the second set. So even that you wonder if they
had had their starting Libarro for the rest of the match, what they have
maybe beaten Texas. So all of those are what ifs. Obviously it's just
to show, you know, the league has substantially cut up and this team,
they've got a Gatlin this year, maybe as hard of a schedule as
I've seen Craig have for one of his teams. So he clearly believes that
his team can handle whatever he's going on him. So talking to Hunter Mitchell
covers UK Volleyball for KSR and you mentioned Texas defending two time national champion joining
as we all know with Oklahoma and I talked to Craig Skinner about that,
about the fact that you know, for however many years now, what's seven
straight the SEC title has gone at least in part through Lexington. Now you
got to worry about the Longhorns, And that's nothing to sneeze that. I
don't know much about Oklahoma volleyball. I do know about Texas. Everyone knows
about Texas right especially Kentucky fans. They're going to be familiar with a third
of the starting lineup this year. So Texas is going to be the one
that the whole country is going to be looking at. I mean, it's
they think they think of a heavy favorite for a three peat this year.
I think most people would agree that. You know, at least as of
right now, they're the team to beat. Obviously, you've got to see
him play and see how they gel. But with Maddie Skinner on the left
side and Reagan Rusfer on the right side, you're going to be hard pressed
to find a front line that is as talented offensively and defensively as those two
are, and returning all the talent they had from last year because they were
young last year too, they had you know, a young freshman setter in
Ellis Wendle. So they've got a lot of talent coming back. And then
with Reagan ruzif for joining the crew, that's going to be a team that's
going to be heavily favored to win it all. So that SEC title defense
is going to be really difficult. And when that when when Texas comes to
Lexington on I think it's October thirteenths on a Sunday, that match is going
to be musty television. Obviously, the return of Maddie Skinner for the time
in three years, and Reagan coming back. You know, she left I
was you know, got had a great relations with her parents and they left
on phenomenal turns. Couldn't say enough great things about Craig and the staff.
You know, she just wanted to play her final year close to home for
once and be able to beat her own family. So they are going to
come back with nothing but you know, a warm welcome hopefully, but they're
going to be they want to beat Kentucky. I mean, you know,
Maddie and Reagan, they're going to come in and go, no, we
want the title this time. And it's going to be a fun match,
especially with memorial being brand news. So that's going to be just a really
really cool match to watch for the whole country, but especially if you live
in Lexington. Of course, Maddie and her sister Avery were vital parts of
Kentucky's national championship team, and to this day, Hunter I will contend that
Maddie was the secret sauce on that team, especially she was in the NCAA
tournament, because you can only cover the other side of the that so much,
and that leaves Maddie Skinner alone over there, and she took full advantage,
didn't she, because everybody was looking at it at all at Alli.
Yeah. Yeah, Ali takes the headline because she had twenty six kills in
that match, but Maddy had nineteen as a freshman on the right side.
So Maddie was absolutely kind of a quote unquote secret weapon. But she was
not secret very long after that her sophomore and on. She's won three national
championships at this point, so you know, she has had an incredible career
at Texas and at Kentucky. So she is she's one of the best outsides
that I've seen. She reminds me a lot of Avery Avery obviously, now
going to Paris and playing the Olympics. But the whole Skinner family in general
is incredibly gifted. But Maddie is she has a chance to do something that
I don't know if many athletes have done in college, to possibly win four
national championships. That's unheard of. So she she's gonna be hungry for I
I can trop to you that you know who's done that. The senior class
that plays softball at Oklahoma. Yeah, you think about that. Yeah,
so it's not impossible. It just depends on the sport obviously. But yeah,
as you said, Texas with a great advantage, really talented roster.
Well, so does Kentucky have a talented roster? And you mentioned brook Delay
took advantage. I think it was Reagan Russelber was injured a bit last year
and Brooklyn kind of got some rotations that she might not have gotten earlier in
the year and really made it work for didn't she. Yeah. So I
remember was talking to Leah Edmond on our podcast before the season last year,
and she had obviously practiced with the team over the summer, and she said
to me on the podcast, Brooklyn Delay is the chance to be has a
chance to compete with me for the all times kill record. And I obviously
said, Lee, that's crazy to say that when you watch her freshman campaign,
especially like you said, when Reagan went out, they moved her to
six rotations, and all of a sudden, the flips switched and she felt
like she came into her own. She got comfortable with the offense. She
kind of settled into what Ben Josephson, who was the offensive coordinator so to
speak, with Kentucky, with what he was asking her to do. She
is one of the most intelligent athletes I've seen play at Kentucky. She just
knows how to hit around the block or how to reset a point by hitting
the ball into the block to recover it. Like she's just a really intelligent
player. And I watched her in the under twenty one tournament that she just
got the MVP of actually about a week and a half ago. She's an
unavailable brand new hybrid serve that she was just causing complete chaos with her arms.
Swing looks heavier. I think they're really excited for what Brooklyn Delay in
a sophomore season is going to be for them, and I think that's partly
why we didn't see as much movement with the roster. It's maybe we would
have thought if we would have known that you were losing Jordan Thompson and Addie
or at least get seen her and Johnny Teeler. I mean, you lose
those that kind of offensive production, you'd think you'd see a lot of movement.
We didn't see that, and I think part of that's because they're expecting
a lot from Brooklyn, and I don't think there's any reason to believe she
can't handle it because she's looked phenomenal in what I've seen at Robert the summer.
I've heard great things about how she's been playing, what she's been doing,
so I think they're really high on what she could look like for them.
She's going to be in contention for SEC Player of the Year this year.
The only problem is she's going up against brag and Russell her to Maddie
Skinner, among others, so that's to be a little difficult. But she
has been nominal from everything that I've heard from people that cover the program and
from walking her in that tournament, so I think they're excited on what she
can be this year. We're talking with Hunter Mitchell who covers UK volleyball,
which opens the season August twenty seventh in Louisville at the American Volleyball Coaches Association
event taking on Nebraska. We'll talk more volleyball on the other side of the
break with Hunter. You're in a Big Bullonsider six thirty. Come back to
the Big Bullensider. We're talking Kentucky volleyball with Hunter Mitchell. He covers the
sport for CASAR. He has taken pictures and covered volleyball for many, many
years. And we were talking prior to the break about Brooklyn Delay and some
of the other talented Wildcats. Brooklyn Delay is pre season All Conference and so
are two of her teammates, Emma Grome, the setter one of the best
in the country has been since she set foot on campus, and Eleanor Bevin,
another senior from Louisvill Toe Lie Borough. So it's like most sports,
isn't it, Hunter, If you're strong up the middle, you got a
real shot. Those are pretty good building blocks. Yeah, And I don't
I want to say this, and I want to make sure I'm not making
it clear that I'm not comparing this upcoming team to the national championship do by
any means. But what that national championship team had for Kentucky in twenty twenty
was a senior setter and a senior libero, and I think those are two
things. Obviously, your setter anchors your offense, your libero anchors your defense.
So having seniors that you are really leading those two sides of the court.
Emma Grom has been, like you said, one of the best setters
in the country since she steps up on campus. We've been comparing her in
some ways to what madisonally was do I think most would say it's one of
the best setters that's ever come through Kentucky, if not the best. And
obviously Madison's now coaching her as an assistant coach on the staff. So the
fact that we're getting another year of Emma Grom and she gets another year under
Madison Lily, I think she's going to take it up another level. And
Eleanor Bevin has been honestly undervalued, in my opinion, by the rest of
the league. She's not won I to see Libero of the Year since her
freshman year. Remember before that, Kentucky was winning every year. Now that's
not happening. Anymore. I think it's voter fatigue, yep. But she
has been anchoring the passing, anchoring the defense the way that the Gaby curryes
did before her. So having those two pieces be senior leaders, I think
it's going to be really important for Kentucky this year, especially as they take
on, you know, this harder schedule that has the Nebraska's and the Penn
States and the Stanfords and Texas and all that. Like, that's gonna be
really really important. Yeah, and you and I talked about this before that
Eleanor Berevitt had the stats, but I do I agree. I think it's
probably Kentucky fatigue, at least on that position. By the way, Kentucky
with three in the preseason All Conference, for whatever that's worth. The only
other school to do that, of course, Texas with Maddie's Kinner, Reagan
Rutherford and Ellen Ella Swindle a couple of minutes off. But Hunter Mitchell,
who covers Kentucky volleyball and has been when did you get the bug on volleyball?
Because I did a long time ago. It was the first sport I
ever photographed for the Kentucky Colonel when I was a student at Kentucky. So
twenty fourteen, so actually ten years ago. This year will be my ten
year anniversary covering volleyball. So what was it about volleyball? Did they grabbed
you? It was so fast I didn't know what I was watching, but
the minute I was like, man, this is fun. And when you
get up close in personal and get to watching game in person, which again
this is the year to do it with the new memorial coliseums, you're a
watching game in person. Do it this year. It's beautiful from the plans
that they've you know, posted online, I think it's gonna be great.
But you really see how athletic these women are and how impressive it is.
Again, the men's game, it's a lot more power and so there's no
there aren't rallies. It's just immediately a side out from a serve or just
on a first wing. Yeah, there's not these long rallies that we get
in women's game. And you if you think about last season, the longest
rally of the season that went viral was Kentucky when they played Nebraska, and
I think I counted it was like one hundred and three touches. I mean,
we get these incredible, incredible rallies that last minutes, you know,
in volleyball and the women's game, and it's so much fun. And that
really was what it was. I just couldn't take my eyes off. But
it was just so much fun to watch. No, you're right, You're
right on it. With a long volleys, no question, and broadcast matches
both on the radio and television, I can tell you that's that's just ready
for prime time. Incidentally, as you said, they're coming back to the
Coliseum. I really liked the matches in Rupp Arena because they got great crowds.
You know, I thought, man, if nobody shows up, but
of course the volleyball crowd showed up, and the site lines at rougher so
great. But man, I talked to Craig Skinner about this. With that
lower ceiling, Memorial Coliseum can be such a weapon when it comes to the
home crowd. Right. The loudest sporting event that I've ever been to,
and I've been to I'd photographed Kentucky basketball games, was when Kentucky played Western
and was down two in the All Tournament and they came back. I remember
that building shaking and there were I think fifty five hundred in the building at
that time, but that building because Western was there, it was them as
well, So all of the fans were just screaming and yeah, that lower
ceiling memorial it is. It's something when Chucky gets rolling and you're playing against
a good team. Like I said, that game against Texas is going to
be fun. I think that's going to be one of those games where that
room is gonna shake. It's gonna be a lot of fun to go to.
So well, Texas is the preseason coaches pull favorite with fourteen of fifteen
first places. Well it's Florida got the other one. Kentucky predicted to finish
third. But that's gonna make it fun this year. Hunter Mitchell will make
it fun with this coverage. Thank you so much, great talking to you.
I will see you at the matches. Sound good day, Good to
see you, thanks to Hunter. Thanks to Jeremy Jarman of course, and
tomorrow we will hear more from the basketball Wildcats as they made them available to
us today. It's kind of a get to know you tour, I guess,
but we'll have more of that tomorrow as well when we wrap up the
week. That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington. Everything that
happens now is happening now, what happened then? Just now we're it now
now go back to then? No, no, no I can't what miss
win just fIF