It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine
day. Now here's Nick coffee. I'd like to get the five o'clock hours
started today here on a Monday, with a pat on the back to my
father. He's he's learning. So my dad did the no no in the
last twenty thirty minutes or so, he called me while I was on the
air, which you know, usually makes me think something's wrong. Right if
there's you know, a couple people that might know in fact what I'm doing
from three to six and I'm not reachable, it's because I'm you know,
I'm on the radio. I'm doing doing the show. So whenever they my
parents call or somebody calls that knows me and they know him on the air,
makes me feel like something like they're calling because it's like an emergency.
Well, then you know, go to break call my dad back. He
answer, So then I'm freaking out. But he did text me and say,
hey, sorry, I butt dolled you and didn't mean to scare you.
Well, hey, apology is accepted, because that's that's a worry.
I mean, I'm sure like we can text during commercial breaks and things like
that, and heck, we could take phone call we needed during the break.
I mean it wouldn't be a very long phone call. But like you
know, if your wife called you during the show, would you be worried
or would you just think she's not thinking I always hit the straight end.
Well I'll be I'm always Oh, no, I did, I would do.
I would do the same thing, but it usually doesn't pan. I
never answered, but like as soon as I might be a little early to
go to a break, because if they just call once then there's no answer,
and then they don't call back, then I just assume it was that
it was an accident. It was it was a butt dial. But yeah,
I always get worried if somebody calls me on the ship on the air,
because especially people who clearly know that that I'm not able to talk,
but they're trying to get me. It could be, you know, because
something bat's happened. But just uh, you know, the good old fashioned
pop a dial, which my dad has an iPhone and he does that all
the time and he doesn't have like a pass code set, but you still
have to like lock your phone like locks. You have to slide it to
I don't understand how pocket dialing happens this day and age, with the with
the with the smartphones, because even if you have an Android, like if
your phone is locked or whatever, and I don't mean locked where you have
to put in a password. I just mean where you've got to like it's
not just in your pocket of if you move like I don't know, maybe
I'm wrong, I guess. Can you can you turn off something on a
smartphone that doesn't make it need any kind of like swipe or finger tap or
code. I think you can. It's been ages. It'd be foolish to
do that because if it's in your pocket, you don't mean you could be
doing god knows what on that phone without you know, without any without it
being like you know, locked down. But yeah, there's only one person
that continues to pocket dial man. It's my old man. And what's wild
is that he'll do it four straight times and yet never answered, like eventually
it just hangs up. I guess because I've answered it and hung up and
then like he's calling right back, and then you know, I'll call him
like, hey, what's going on. He's like, I don't know what
you called me? Like four times in the last you know, two minutes,
oh sorry, which you know he doesn't. He's it isn't mean to
do it. It's clearly an accident. But you know, I'm getting to
that point, and it's because as I get older. I'm now thirty six.
Yesterday it was my birthday, you know, like I now, I
worry about my parents more than I ever have, and there's really no need
to. My parents are in good health. They take care of themselves.
And in fact, the older that I get and I see how good they
look for their age and how healthy they seem to be. You know,
it's good, right. I want them to have the longest life possible.
I don't know what I'd do without my parents. But you know, my
dad was telling me about his doctor appointment a couple weeks ago, and here
I am. I feel like I'm the parent lecturing him, Well, have
you've been taking care of yourself? I mean we did. Are you just
gonna You're gonna go back and get it, get it get looked at again.
You're gonna get it checked out? Like what are you doing? I
mean, I feel like I'm I'm nagging. I'm the nagging parent, and
he's the kid because I'm like, well, you need to go back and
get a second opinion, or you need to make sure you're doing this and
that. And I don't know what the hell I'm talking about when it comes
to you know, health and medical stuff and all that. But you know,
wasn't it last year when he did the big walk for one of his
birthdays and you try to convince him not to do Oh yeah, he did
another one this year too on his birthday. It didn't it fell on a
weekend, so we didn't talk about it on the show. But yeah,
that's his new thing. And yes, he did later tell me by the
way he climbed some he wasn't like climbing Mount Everest, but he went on
like a grueling hike that took like all day, like you know, seven
eight hours to get somewhere in back, and you know, I'm thinking,
you should really be doing that. And he knew how worried I was and
how worried my sister was. Where he gave us updates. In fact,
if he could find service, he would like post stuff on Facebook to like
check in. And you know, after the fact, I think, because
you know, he knew how worried I was. He didn't want to,
you know, he didn't want to act like it was that difficult. But
a couple of months went by and he was like, yeah, I probably
should have done that, and I was like, well, you're not doing
it again. So he did something much much more, much less intense this
past birthday he had. So anyways, let's get it started here, ladies
and gents, it's the five o'clock hour Coffee and Company. We are fueled
by Thornton's. Make sure you sign up to become a member of the Refreshing
Awards program at Thorntons. She'll save money every time you hit the gas pump.
I was in Thornton's earlier today, took advantage of the three for seven
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a lot of perks that come of being a member of the Refreshing Awards program
at Thornton's. All right, So, Jeff Brom earlier this afternoon had a
press commence, just a summer update kind of talk about his team. You
know, camp hasn't started just yet, but at this point, you know
who's on the roster, right And I was eager to hear coach brom talk
about this team, and I didn't really have any expectation. And I can't.
I can't take anything from today's press conference other than some updates on some
guys who've been injured. I can't take anything that you know, is like
a big storyline about the upcoming season. Jeff Brahm's press conferences, to be
honest, are pretty boring, which is not a bad thing. You know,
off season news, once the portal has kind of ended, you want
it to be pretty quiet because if you got if you're in the if you're
in the news in college football right now, it's usually not for good reasons.
It's got a player getting in trouble, like for example, the Oklahoma
State running back preseason Big Twelve Player of the Year Ali Gordon I believe is
his name. I mean he got arrested for a DUI. I mean,
that's not the end of the world. Who'll probably still play. But like
usually when you get this close to camp, portal season's over, your staff's
already fully intact, Like big, big headline news in college football in July,
I feel like, is either you know, an unexpected big piece of
news about conference realignment, or it's somebody getting in trouble right like we had
last week. It was the Utah State coach. Who's who got fired?
You know, Ollie Gordon, probably best running back in the country in the
eyes of some got arrested. So like, being quiet is not a good
thing for fans because they want and they want news, they want information,
They're eager for football season to start. I'm one of those fans. But
if it's quiet, it's usually pretty good. But with all that said,
just hearing Jeff Brom talk about the personnel on this year's team, I mean,
it reminded me how much they have coming back. They've got guys that
are healthy now and they did really good once again in the portal, and
I feel like this team is going to be better than they were a year
ago. I think they have better personnel. I think they have more overall
talent. I think they can be more balanced offensively, but I don't know
if it's going to lead to them having a ten win regular season that finds
them in the ACC Championship. Game. The schedule is a lot tougher than
it was a year ago. I feel comfortable saying that now. I also
know we'll never know until you actually see, right, Maybe teams that we
think are going to be good stink. Maybe there's a bomb on the schedule
that ends up being pretty good. You never or no, right. But
when I say the schedule is going to be tougher, it's not me telling
you Louisvill's got a tough schedule in the grand scheme of things. It's just
that last year's schedule was very manageable. Remember when we would go through those
filler words to use to like not call it weak, but call it,
you know, something that doesn't sound as bad as a week schedule politically correct.
Yeah, way to say it. Yeah, So this year it is,
you know, you've got two games where you go on the road.
And even though these two teams are probably not going to be national championship contenders
this year, those are still two really tough places to go win football games.
And that's at Notre Dame and at Clemson. You know, I think
SMU can end up being a pretty solid team this year. Now they're going
to be you know, are they going to be one of the best teams
in the ACC. We'll see. I think that's actually a big storyline,
is this SMU team is going to be preseason top twenty five. Depending on
where you look. They may sneak in the preseason a people, which really
you know, doesn't mean a whole lot, right, It'll change once you
start playing games. But you know they they're coming off a pretty good season
last year, so I don't know what their record's going to be, but
I still think, as I said a few weeks ago, I think ten
and two, although unlikely and hard, it's gonna be harder to do.
It's I think the ceiling. I think eight and four can be the floor.
So if they go eight and four, nine and three, I'm sure
there's gonna be a game in there that you wish he didn't lose. I
mean, you wish he didn't lose any game, but one that maybe you'll
let get away. So again, that's my stance on Lois before all.
Right now, I think they're gonna be better as far as talent and personnel,
I just don't know if it's going to translate into the same level of
success. I mean, before we get into some of these. Actually,
let's just get right into it. So Tyler Shuck, he's finally healthy,
he's he's you know, he's been healthy before, and then he gets injured.
That's the story of his career. He's been in college for a long
time. He's twenty five years old, I believe it is, and Oregon
played there a couple of years, transferre to Texas Tech. At both places
he got injured, and I think both I think he's had three different types
of injuries, I believe. So it's always been about, hey, Candy,
stay healthy, because he's shown flashes when healthy at both schools. He
could be a pretty good player. And I just feel like quarterbacks, if
they, you know, if they don't make a lot of mistakes, and
they you know, have a good arm, which he does, you could
really thrive in a Jeff Brom offense. So the biggest thing about Shuck has
always been his health. That's what comes up any time Louisville fans talk about
this guy. Understandably so, and that's a legitimate concern. However, what
I did not know until Jeff Brom talked about it today, he was asked
to run the ball a lot at both of those schools. I mean,
in twenty two career games, he had two hundred and four carries as a
quarterback. He's not gonna be doing that here. He's not going to be
asked to, you know, carry the ball twenty you know, twenty times
a game as a quarterback. And I'm not even sure if that's what led
to him getting injured. But you know, he's taken a lot of hits
if he's running the ball out that much for a quarterback, I mean he's
six five to twenty five, I believe it is. So they're going to
protect him in the pocket. He is going to be your traditional pocket quarterback.
Now they have a package in place. I'm sure where he could take
off if they want to do that. Brom actually mentioned that today. But
he you know, keeping him healthy and keeping him clean, I don't think
is going to be as big of a task. Whenever, He's going to
be used much differently than he was at the previous two schools he played at
where he happened to get hurt a lot. So Shuck is an upgrade in
my opinion from what we know right now from Jack Plumber. So, like
last year was weird with the quarterback right Plumber was not great. In fact,
that's a nice way of saying times wasn't very good. He was good
enough to help you win. You won ten games, and he was your
starting quarterback during a ten win season. But I think the weakness of your
team was your quarterback, which is just weird to say about a ten win
team and certainly weird to say about a Jeff Browm coach team. So we'll
see. You know, maybe we're way off here, but I think Shuck
is going to be a big upgrade there. And the tight end position last
year was almost non existent for Louisville, and now they've got options there.
Mark Redman, the transfer from San Diego State. He's one of the best
G five tight ends that hit the portal. I imagine he's going to be
involved in a major way this year. Jamari Johnson, a former high four
star kid from California, red shirt freshman this year. They say he's in
good shape. I mean he's talented. Isaiah Cummings who made some place for
Kentucky during his time there. I mean they've got options at tight end,
where I feel like they did not last year. Proven options, I should
say, a proven option with Mark Redman. So again, they didn't have
that last year. So you're not going to be nearly as talented at running
back because that's nearly impossible. I mean, you may actually use more guys
than just the two that you used last year, because you got a bunch
of running backs that could probably that are probably all, you know, going
to be competitive with one another for reps. But last year you had Juwar
Jordan and in gosh, what I kind of think of his name? Goodness,
gracious, Isaac Garendo, excuse me. So those two guys were both
really good and it worked out to where, you know, Garindo was kind
of, you're lightly used back whenever Juar Jordan needed a break or just you
know, mix it up, and then when Jordan was hurt, Grendo took
the reins and was phenomenal. So you know, like this year, they've
got they've got running backs that I feel, you know, confident, and
I think they've got guys that you could see having success. You know,
they're not nearly as proven as those two guys. But let's talk real quickly
before we I'm gonna mention some of the names that brom talked about earlier when
it comes to the running back position. But you know, last year,
I think we knew we were spoiled at running back. But like to really
put it in perspective, the only school that had two running backs drafted in
last year's NFL this past year's NFL draft were Louisville with Grindo and with Jordan.
You know, the only other school that had two running backs invited to
the combine was Georgia, and neither of those guys got drafted. So you're
gonna have a step You're gonna take a step back with not having those two
guys because those guys were special, to be honest with you, And maybe
you find a star here, but I'd say that's unlikely. But I think
Maurice Turner, who's now junior, kind of the veteran here, sounds like
he's in great shape, probably in position to be the starting running back.
Donald Chaney, the transfer from Miami's going to get a lot of carries.
Isaac Brown, the freshman, they may mix him, They may mix it
up and put him in there. He's the fastest running back on the roster.
According to Jeff Brohm, Kewan Brown loved the kid from Atlanta. You
know, he only played I think one game last year and he was effective.
It was against Murray State. But still like he's somebody that I feel
like, if called upon he could he could get the job done. So
you're going to take a step back and running back, but you could arguably
be better everywhere else. I don't know if if you're going to have a
receiver that was kind of the man the way Jamary Thrash was, But I
don't know. You know, Jamari Thrash was super successful at the G five
level and that translated when he got to Louisville. Maybe that same thing happens
with Colin Lacey. The South Alabama transfer Corey Brooks was limited in the spring,
but he's healthy now. He transfer from Alabama and two years prior,
two years ago I think it was twenty twenty two, he was one of
the top receivers for Alabama. So if he can do it there, I'm
assuming he can do it here. Maybe Chris Bell takes a big step forward.
So again I think offensively, you should be better than you were a
year ago. And that really is in sane much because at times we felt
underwhelmed by the offense. But you're going to be able to be more vertical.
Jeff's gonna be able to be much more balanced, and that could be
a dangerous thing. And I mean that in a good way. And on
the defensive side of the ball, you know, they feel good about their
depth on the D line. I think Jeff said, this is as deep
as as he can remember a defensive line he's coached. And they bring back
two really good players. I mean, the first team All American in Ashton
Julyatti Quincy Riley again, I think one of the more underappreciated players in college
football. And then MJ. Griffin is healthy, which by all accounts,
he was the best defensive player last year in camp before he got injured,
didn't play a single snap, missed the entire year, and now he's on
track to be, you know, one hundred percent once camp starts, which
is great. So I feel really good about this team from a personnel standpoint,
and it's just nice to be in this position, right Jeff Brown back
here in his second season and he's coming off ten wins and acc appearance,
and I know, you know, we had some people on the text line
earlier when we were talking about his press conference that were that were you know,
kind of saying, you know, Nick, you got me excited.
Why why isn't there more love for Louisville. You may find Louisville in the
preseason top twenty five, depending on where you look. I mean, I'm
sure I could find some that have them. I could find some that don't
have them, but actually feel like Louisville's always been better whenever they are kind
of you know, I mean, everybody's going to try to play the disrespect
card and try to play the underrated card because that's just you know, used
as added motivation, and some people really have to do some mental gymnastics to
really, you know, believe that they are being doubted. But you know,
I think it's true. If Louisville is not a preseason top twenty five
team coming off of a ten win season where they actually in the portal,
got better and bring back some really good players, I think they can play
the disrespect card and it's not a huge reach. I mean, I don't
think people are out there saying louis Is going to stink this year, But
if they needed to, if they want wanted to use that, I think
they could all right. Last thing here on Jeff Brohm, and then we'll
take a quick time out keep this thing rolling along. He talked earlier about
the quarterback position, and as we have known, Tyler shucks the guy.
I don't think he transfers here unless you know, I doubt he was told,
hey, the job is yours, but you know, for what it's
worth, you know, I would imagine that he felt pretty good about that
being, you know, that being his job, considering the fact that Louisville
clearly was going to go to the portal. But anyways, as far as
the backup quarterbacks, somebody you never usually expect to see until, you know,
until the unexpected happens, right, somebody gets hurt, or maybe you
realize the guy that you thought was going to be your starter all year,
maybe you learn he hadn't any good. But Jeff knows who his backup it's
going to be. And I think this is a really good sign for Louisville
that it's going to be. Pierce Clarkson, Jeff, you talked behind Tyler,
you talked about a lot of the other backup quarterbacks, so to speak.
And I'm sure nothing's completely set in stone, but do you have a
clear cut number two right now at that position, I wouldn't say clear cut
right now. Pierce Clarkson would be the next guy in. Harrison Bailey and
Brady Allen would be right there, and there will always be competition for the
other always be competition for the starting spot. You know, right now,
Tyler Shuck has proved that, you know, he's a really good quarterback with
experience, and we like what we've seen, and the other guys are right
behind him, but we'll always have competition there. Sometimes you kind of e
gauge and see what what are certain strengths of each player and if you need
to develop a certain package for every game to have that ready to go.
We were not scared to do that, So I wouldn't be surprised if we
have those packages ready this year for different quarterbacks. And then unfortunately, if
someone goes down, like your start of the next asked me ready to go
in there and win the game for you? So he didn't say, hey,
the backup quarterback is and he actually did say he didn't have a clear
cut, but like he answered the question by telling us that his backup is
Pierce Clarkson, because if he had to go to somebody that's who he would
go with, and that's a good sign for his growth. I was never
worried about Pierce Clarkson meeting, like I never felt like a lot of things
changed with the portal, and that's highly regarded. Freshman quarterbacks don't see the
field that early anymore. It's just because, again, when you don't have
to be young and inexperienced, coaches are going to choose not to be young
and experienced. So with that said, you know, I think Chris Clarkson
has showed some maturity and understand sort of the things have changed, and that
you know now as a red shirt freshman this year, he'll be the backup.
And I'm sure if there's a big name player in the portal at quarterback,
Louisville may still kick the tires. But I think an ideal situation would
be that Louisville when they play, because last year you didn't get a chance
to really give a lot of guys reps other than the Murray State game.
Was it Murray State they played and they killed him? That was when we're
all ten quarterbacks. Yeah, yeah, So you know, this year,
if you let's say you're taking care of business, and you've got a comfortable,
healthy lead against Jacksonville State and Austin p which you should. Heck,
maybe you end up doing the same thing when you play Virginia or something.
I don't know. Then you can get Pierce Clarkson some reps to where you
can see, you know, he can just get some real experience, even
if he doesn't ball out, Like, just getting him some real live reps
in a game is valuable. And if Brom tells us after that that he,
you know, meaning after the next season, that Pierce is the guy,
then that'd be a good sign. So it sounds like in the spring,
you know, they wanted to see something out of him as far as,
like I guess, confirmation that you know he was progressing the way they
wanted and that he could be a guy to take the reins when called upon.
And who knows, maybe I don't know, maybe Shuck ends up struggling
or something. I mean that happens. I don't think they'd feel as if
they're having a humongous drop off there. What was getting at is during the
spring, I think they wanted to see something and they saw exactly that,
and they feel really good about where he is I won't pretend to know how
a guy can really just you know, take a big step forward at the
quarterback position during spring practice. But it sounds like that happened with Pierce Clarkson,
which again is a good sign. All right, quick break, we'll
go back on the other side, the party rolling along. It's coffee and
company, feel by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I gotta
be honest with you, I'm not sure there's a bigger story in sports across
the planet right now being talked about more than Lebron James and his son playing
on the same NBA team. Like it's a story that I mean, to
me, it's not all that interesting. It's cool to see that that is
a real thing that you're going to see a father and son playing together in
the NBA on the same team. But like we all know, it's not
like legit. I mean, no offense to Bronni, but I mean he
didn't get drafted because of ability, So that has led to, you know,
the coverage of the coverage of this story has been like its own story.
That makes sense. I think it was awful Announcing dot Com that put
it out there over the weekend that ESPN their front page for I think twenty
four hours or longer. The front page of ESPN dot com was Ronnie James
making his summer league debut. That was the first story that you see right
there. He scored four points, was two of nine from the field,
zero of three from three point range, missed both free throws that he played
in, played twenty two minutes in a one oh eight to ninety four loss.
So, I mean, those are the kind of numbers from a guy
that you would expect when you know that he's not somebody that would ever sniff
the NBA, at least at this age, unless his father was Lebron James.
So I would just give people advice like, get used to it.
This is not going anywhere. I mean, it did kind of die down
at USC, But I don't know if that's I mean, I don't know
if we should expect the same thing in the NBA. I mean, if
he spends the majority of this season in the G League, which he should
and probably will, then I guess it probably won't be. But in fact,
I think give a bigger chance of it being a talking point if he's
in the G League, because at that point, he probably is going to
get minutes and may actually, you know, do something. I mean again,
if you're getting frontpaggespn dot com pub for over twenty four hours from a
four point performance in a statistically bad game for you in the NBA Summer League,
if he scores twenty, imagine if he has a good game, what
they're gonna do. I mean, you think the coverage is gonna be unbearable,
meaning where it's all people are going to talk about. Imagine Lebron how
unbearable he will be. Like if Brody ended up being like really good,
Lebron would be the worst. Is if he isn't already the worst and he
has a lot of people. I hope that this is the only year of
this, and I know he got all that guaranteed money, which I still
think is crazy. But if it's a complete flop in year one and you
maybe you'll obviously get the iconic appearance where they're playing together on the court in
an NBA game. Whether that's all he ends up doing, I guess we'll
get to find that out. But I hope this is unless I want him
to be successful. But I also don't want this to be just the Lebron
James Show in an extended format with his son. I think a great story
would have been if he did get drafted by somebody else and he and ed
up being successful, Meaning I think that would make it to where Lebron would
still make it about him, which he's already done, by the way,
saying that his son making it to the NBA is the biggest accomplishment in his
life, meaning in Lebron's life, not even not even giving his son any
credit for it. But maybe that, as I said earlier, kind of
kind of talked myself through that one. Maybe this is actually a sign of
Lebron being a little more self aware because he knows that people would not actually
think that Bronny just earned and deserved to be drafted by the Lakers. But
yeah, I mean that would be best case scenario because then he would be
out there playing and you know, like him having success. Like here's what
could happen. Let's say the Lakers, you know, are the Lakers once
again and they miss out. I mean, let's be real, the Lakers
didn't get better this offseason, Like, I mean, they missed the playoffs
this past year, right, I mean they were let's see pull up their
record a year ago. Are they they were in the were they in the
play in? They did make the playoffs? I thought they lost to the
Warriors in the play in, but they lost to Denver. But Denver wouldn't
have been in the play and so I apologize. I guess they did make
the playoffs. I didn't maybe I have that either way, Like the Lakers
were not a relevant threat to win the NBA Championship this past year, and
and they didn't get better. They get older. I mean, I think
Dalton connect might be a nice piece, but like, you know, they
didn't. They didn't. They didn't get any better. They didn't get anybody
in free agency. So you know, they're probably going to be the same
type of team, maybe a little worse next year. And that could lead
to where maybe Brawny ends up getting an opportunity to play and he scores some
points, like maybe he puts you know, maybe he ends up being a
role player or something in the next couple of years, and they're still irrelevant.
Like that's just going to be the worst, because it's just it's I
mean, it's already bad enough that it's commanded this much attention, but like
I saw it coming, so therefore I guess I'm as annoyed as everybody,
But I'm also not surprised. Therefore, you know, just trying not to
pay much attention to it. You may not know the answer to this,
but like, are Laker fans even excited about this or they think this is
all ridiculous? I don't know. I think Boston winning a champion like true.
Like I feel like Boston winning a championship and having a team that does
not look like they're going to be able to be I mean, who knows
if they win it again next year. But Boston's loaded for a while,
and the Lakers are not getting better. They've taken steps back since that Bubble
championship, and now the priority of the organization seems to be to make Lebron
happy and bring in his kid and not actually, I mean, they did
not get DeMar de Rosen or Klay Thompson in free agency, which would have
helped them. And you cannot tell me that it's that that part of that
is not due to the fact that they don't want to be a part of
the circus that's in La now. I mean, that's that's what this is.
Same with Dan Hurley and the coaching. Yeah, again that I'm sure
he saw the writing on the wall, meaning that they were going to draft
Bronnie James and he wouldn't have any say so in it, and that like,
at the end of the day, you're never really gonna be calling the
shots here, man, this is Lebron's team. I'm sure they don't say
that that directly, that matter of fact, but you don't need to.
We know, and their actions, like we've seen for a long time,
regardless of who he's playing for, Lebron calls the shots for just about every
franchise he's ever played for. The one guy that did not, you know,
I remember the Heat drafted Shabba's Napier because Lebron wanted them to and they
did not want to. And I think when that happened, that was pat
Riley being like I think he felt. Because pat Riley's one of the most
successful people that has ever been involved in basketball as a great player at Kentucky,
a great player in the pros, a great coach in the NBA,
winning titles, and now he's a great GM. I mean, he's done
a phenomenal job managing the Miami heat He's really good at what he does,
so he's somebody that you know, will have the backbone to not just let
Lebron do whatever he wants. Well, I think after that happened and they
ended up wasting a first round pick on a guy that they didn't really want,
but they did what Lebron did, I think it was quite clear that
Lebron knew he couldn't he couldn't call the shots there like he wanted to,
and they wanted Lebron wanted Spolster outs. Bolster stayed and Spot was one of
the best US coaches in the NBA in my lifetime as far as just longevity.
So you know, outside of that that situation in Miami, Lebron has
really called the shots from the beginning, so like they don't you know,
they wouldn't need to if Dan Hurley's there interviewing for the job and they're kind
of selling him on the roll like they could say whatever they want. It's
quite clear Lebron is the one in charge, and this draft situation with his
son makes it even more obvious that, like he's the one in charge.
So that I'm glad you brought up Dan Hurley because I never thought if he
stayed at Yukon it would be about money, because you know, they just
clearly can't compete with I mean, they can't keep with Kentucky for paying coach,
They're not gonna be able to compete with the Lakers. So Dan Hurley
his deal became official today. They announced it. It's a fifty million dollar
contract extension. He'll be paid seven point I think his current salary is still
locked. Oh no, I'm sorry. Next season, he'll be paid seven
point eight million. He'll go up to eight million the year after that,
and then he'll take gradual increases until twenty twenty or sorry, twenty twenty nine
to thirty and that's when he'll be making eight point eight million. Well,
the deal that he had, I believe with the with the Lakers was for
more money than that, so you know, it wasn't about money, and
just kind of seeing like we knew it was happening, but now seeing it
play out to where BRONI was in fact drafted. They had the press conference
acting as if it wasn't he didn't have anything to do with his dad being
Lebron James. It makes it even more clear that like Dan Hurley ain't putting
up with that nonsense, and he can get to the NBA and not be
in LA. Like this is crazy to say. It's one of the best
players of all time, and I mean this Lebron James, but who would
want to coach him, especially this point in his career, like it would
be it mean, you can find worse jobs, right, there's worse things
you could do. Not anybody's gonna be able to sign up to do it.
But like, if you really are a coach that has a bright future
ahead of you, Danny Hurley one of those guys you're killing it in the
college level, you can be selective about the NBA because that I mean again,
saying that being the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is a bad
job in the world of basketball sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, But
I think the Lebron component of it makes it an unattractive gig for somebody who
feels like they're you know, they're not desperate, and Dan Hurley is clearly
not desperate. All right, let's see here, let's go to let's go
to let's go to text line five two six, five three zero seven ninety
it's the L and N Federal Credit Union text line. This text says,
Nick, am I crazy to think that bram and Is scheduling moving forward is
weak compared to other coaches we've had. I expected brom to follow the way
Schnellenberger scheduled and play anybody anywhere. And this person also went on to send
me a went on to send me the schedule for Lilwa Louisville football in the
coming year. So, yeah, if you go to FBS schedules, but
that's what this is a screenshot of. You can go look ahead to schedules
for your program years down the line, and you know, Louisville, let's
be real, they've got they've got some games on the scale. Like,
for example, next year in twenty twenty five, they're gonna play e Ku,
James Madison, and Bowling Green as their three non conference opponents outside of
Kentucky. That's a weak schedule in the non conference. And that's honestly,
if I'm gonna be real with you, that's the kind of schedule that we
would make fun of Kentucky for playing, because they usually play that kind of
schedule. If I'm being honest with you, So I don't know if I
mean, I don't know if that's because Jeff tries to schedule as lightly as
possible. I will say this, at Purdue, I didn't feel like they
were one extreme to the other. I do know they hadn't they have nine
league games in the Big Ten, so I do think they were a little
more mindful about And you're at Purdue. Let's be real, the ceiling of
Purdue is not that high, so you know, but you look at the
next year, you go play Georgia like that, I'll be shocked if that
game ends up happening. But like George is supposed to come to Louisville and
play in September of twenty twenty six. So Kentucky and Georgia, along with
Villanova and Charlotte make up your make up your non conference schedule. So I
don't know. Look last year's schedule, I don't think it had anything to
do with brom It was probably already in place when he got here. And
this year the schedule, you know, you're replacing I don't know if you're
replacing Indiana with Jacksonville State or with Austin p but it's one of them,
and you know, that's not a it's not a great not a great team
to have on your schedule, right, And it was supposed to be James
Madison originally, wasn't it. That was the replacement before Signetti left. Maybe
I'm wrong about that, but I thought James Madison was supposed to come and
play Louisville. Well, they played them two years ago, okay under sat
and then they played them. They're going to play them again next year.
Okay, so it is a part of it in the future. Yeah,
So Signette's already played Louisville and he would have played him again. Of course
they backed out of that game before Signetty was hired. I think. So
then, look, that hurts you because that was supposed to, like you
don't have that was gonna be a game where Indiana comes here and you're not
paying them to come here. Now you're paying Jacksonville State or Austin p a
lot of money, and it keeps you from being able to really have it
a revenue day. That makes sense. I mean, you could still make
money, but again, you're paying probably a million dollars roughly for one of
these teams to come in. And if Indiana was coming in one, it's
a Big ten team that gives you a little more interest than these two teams.
And it's not a pay for play. It's a home and home,
a mutual agreement to where we'll do a neutral site here and then we'll go
there and you come here. That kind of thing. So that's a bummer.
That stuff happens in college football. But here's what you got to keep
in mind. The name of the game, like you're gonna need college football.
Your college football program is gonna need at minimum like seven home games moving
forward because those are big paydays. You open up those gates at your stadium,
that is a one of the biggest revenue days of the of the year
you'll have, especially if you're good and you have good you know people turning
out. So this year, if you remember when we whenever they gave away
the breakdown of the budget meeting they had at the ULA board had a few
weeks ago, if you remember, one of the challenges they listed for the
upcoming year was they only have six games at home, and two of those
games are against Jacksonville State and Austin p The other home games are Georgia Tech,
SMU, Miami, and Pitt I mean, that's a that's a very
very very rough non conference home slate, which I haven't really thought about it
like that. I haven't really looked at you know how kind of underwhelming that
is as far as the caliber opponent's coming. But you know what, it's
because there's excitement for louisvill football that people aren't complaining about it. They might,
you know, once the season happens. But yeah, so moving forward,
you're gonna look, you need twenty two million annually is an athletic department
to pay student athletes, So you may sacrifice a really competitive you know,
like you're gonna do everything you can to make sure you make as much money
as possible. That should always be the goal, right, that's just business,
that's life, that's common sense. But now you need it even more
than ever, so you gotta be money hungry, is an athletic department and
cut costs, trim things because again, once that House Bill settlement is cleared,
which it's going to be, I mean, I think there's gonna be
things happen that like none of us could even envision, but it's gonna make
sense because you have to realize the price just went up to operate college athletics
at a high level. All right, quick break, we'll come back wrap
things up on the other side. Appreciate you hanging out with us right here,
Coffee and Company. Fil Beth Thornton's on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Somebody on the text line said that they're not sure what is the more annoying
talking point right now this summer in sports the WNBA controversy with Angel Angel Reese
and Kaitlin Clark or Ronnie James and Lebron James. It does kind of feel
like a like a TMZ type of you know, summer here with those two
things, because I mean, the WNBA is up in viewership and all that.
In fact, both Angel Reese and Kaitlin Clark are playing well. I
think Kaitlyn Clark had a triple double last night that I dreamed that. I
think I saw that. But you know, I just Lebron. Actually,
I'm not even sure if there are many Lebron fans like defending this as if
like it's indefensible, as far as like anybody claiming that Bronnie James was drafted
for anything any other reason than his dad. But yeah, look, July
is always this kind I mean, it's always pretty boring for me as far
as sports stuff, and the things that are being talked about in the sports
world usually are things I'm not all that interested in because I'm not a big
baseball guy. But we do get basketball in July with the tvt and as
I've said, I hope this's becomes an any thing to where we just had.
We know, every every July we're looking forward to hosting and a group
of former Louisville players you know, are gonna you know, give us that
nostalgia and hopefully when all right. So, I don't know if this was
northbound or southbound. I missed that very important detail. But did you hear
the traffic update there? We've heard some dumpster garbage or garbage dump whatever.
Somebody was hauling a dumpster or like, uh, I don't know if it
was truck. I don't know if it was on a flatbed or what it
is, but it is it has fallen off of whatever was attempting to transport
it somewhere, and I guess it's like in the middle of the interstate,
which would be pretty problematic for an interstate during rush hours. So if you're
impacted by that I apologize. That would suck. Could be a fun ride
home to night, Yeah, that would suck in a major way. All
Right, everybody, have a good night. We're back at it tomorrow.
Appreciate you hanging out and we'll we'll talk to you then. Take care.