Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big blon Sider Dicabrielle with you on
Speaker 1: a Tuesday edition of our program. Coming up tonight, we'll
Speaker 1: talk to John Clay, who is retiring from The Herald
Speaker 1: Leader after nearly five decades. He's in his fifth decade
Speaker 1: as a writer for that newspaper, first as a sports
Speaker 1: writer than sports columnist. So we'll talk to John as
Speaker 1: well as the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach and
Speaker 1: Keith Farmer from LAX eighteen and BBN tonight, and of
Speaker 1: course we'll talk to all three of them about a
Speaker 1: number of things, but chief among those topics Vince Merrow's announcement,
Speaker 1: or really the story breaking on Twitter late yesterday afternoon.
Speaker 1: Pete Thamil of The Athletic at it that Vince is
Speaker 1: finalizing a deal with the University of Louisville and he
Speaker 1: was going to go on a Louisville radio station today
Speaker 1: to talk about it, but had to cancel because U
Speaker 1: OFL has to make it official and at that point
Speaker 1: he'll have a news conference, and I guarantee hope I
Speaker 1: can go, but there are going to be media people
Speaker 1: from both cities who cover that, or if they don't,
Speaker 1: they'll get the video and audio shipped over from their
Speaker 1: sister stations in Louisville. Dear Vince Marrow talk about why
Speaker 1: he's leaving his childhood buddy, Mark Stoops, who built this
Speaker 1: program at Kentucky and Marrow his fingerprints are all over it,
Speaker 1: and now leaving for the arch rival, both in ballgames
Speaker 1: on the field once a year, but in recruiting every day.
Speaker 1: And I hasten to say that, yeah, to Kentucky fans
Speaker 1: and Louisville fans. Game day is probably the most important,
Speaker 1: of course, but recruiting is even more vital. You got
Speaker 1: to win the recruiting battles if you want to win
Speaker 1: those games, not just against your arts rival, but every
Speaker 1: Saturday during the season obviously. And when Brian Brohm, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: when Jeff Brom, Brian works for his brother, got the
Speaker 1: job at Louisville, you could tell Mark Stoops, through a
Speaker 1: big smile, was kind of thinking, oh, because I remember
Speaker 1: his predecessor, Brom's predecessor was struggling, and UK had its
Speaker 1: way with Louisville back then, well not now, and you
Speaker 1: kind of saw that coming. Brom was successful at Purdue,
Speaker 1: not easy and has of course you all know about
Speaker 1: the bron pedigree in the city of Louisville, and he
Speaker 1: got it done last year and they beat Louisville, or
Speaker 1: they beat Kentucky last year. You know, the year before
Speaker 1: they won ten games but lost to Kentucky. Wildcats played
Speaker 1: a great game that day, not so much this past season.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk to John Keith and Tom about Vince
Speaker 1: Merrill and some of the other things coming up. Basketball
Speaker 1: course will take an Oway. Brandon Garrison talked to us
Speaker 1: today and we'll have a chance to share some of
Speaker 1: those comments with Oway today. Garrison will probably hear from tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And we're told we're going to be able to chat
Speaker 1: with some of the players, especially the new players, all
Speaker 1: year long or all summer long, I should say. So
Speaker 1: that's great in this time of year when generally things
Speaker 1: are kind of slow unless your team's in the College
Speaker 1: World Series. Now, Kentucky was one went away from a
Speaker 1: super Regional. It was disappointing, of course, the Wildcats blew
Speaker 1: those games against West Virginia even so, I didn't see
Speaker 1: Kentucky getting out of the Lashoe Regional. Would have been
Speaker 1: nice to see, though. That would have been great experience
Speaker 1: for a guy like Tyler Bell, freshman who has been
Speaker 1: named a Freshman All American, as you might expect, and
Speaker 1: he is the future, the immediate future right now. Baseball
Speaker 1: writers voted him. But as Aaron Gershan pointed out from
Speaker 1: the cast, Boss, we were talking baseball last week, what's
Speaker 1: to stop other teams from raiding the Kentucky roster. That's
Speaker 1: the way business is being done right now. And you know,
Speaker 1: if they have money to spend, they will come after.
Speaker 1: I gotta think first and foremost Tyler Bell, and they'll
Speaker 1: come after Ben Cleaver, who has been voted as second
Speaker 1: team All Regional Player left handed pitcher by the American
Speaker 1: Baseball Coaches Association six and three on the year, ninety
Speaker 1: two strikeouts in eighty three innings opposing hitters, a one
Speaker 1: eighty five average against Ben Cleaver. So maybe he pitches
Speaker 1: in Omaha next year. Maybe Tyler Bell helps his team
Speaker 1: get there. It's going to be a fascinating World Series.
Speaker 1: And I didn't realize this until Murray State finished up
Speaker 1: knocking off Duke and the word got out. Although this
Speaker 1: wouldn't have mattered, but for the first time since nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, none of the eight teams in the Men's
Speaker 1: College World Series were there last year. None Arkansas eliminated Tennessee,
Speaker 1: the defending champion, Kentucky eliminated by West Virginia. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were four SEC teams last year, there were four
Speaker 1: ACC teams. None of them got back to Omaha this year,
Speaker 1: which is actually pretty cool when you think about it.
Speaker 1: You know, new faces, new blood, kind of like that.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of gonna root for I want to root
Speaker 1: for Murray State, of course, but I'm gonna root after
Speaker 1: that for Arkansas because they van are a pretty good dude,
Speaker 1: and they blew on. They dropped a pop up that
Speaker 1: would have given him the World Series championship a few
Speaker 1: years ago. I do root for Murray State, obviously a
Speaker 1: Kentucky team, only the fourth fourth seed ever to make
Speaker 1: Omaha after winning the Missouri Valley Conference championship, then winning
Speaker 1: the Oxford Regional not easy against Ole miss and then
Speaker 1: winning at Durham. By the way, Duke's coach is now
Speaker 1: the new head coach at Virginia, so congrats to him.
Speaker 1: There's a guy, a sports podcaster named Garrett Armbrust who
Speaker 1: deals with college sports based in Knoxville. He tweeted this.
Speaker 1: He said, Murray State, their own players tarped the field
Speaker 1: at home games. Enrollment ninety nine hundred and forty one.
Speaker 1: My nephew went to schooler by the way, four seed
Speaker 1: in the four seed in the regional and this was
Speaker 1: only the fourth NCAA tournament appearance for Murray State and
Speaker 1: now our first trip to Omaha. Very cool. Another Kentucky
Speaker 1: football note and this was I first saw this reported
Speaker 1: by Aaron Gershaan of the Cat's Balls. Wilson Barry is
Speaker 1: coming back for his senior year. He was not with
Speaker 1: the team in the spring, but he has been re
Speaker 1: added to the roster. That's been confirmed by UK to
Speaker 1: the Cats Balls. He of course is Australian. He has
Speaker 1: been here since twenty twenty one after a career with
Speaker 1: Australian rules football. Only pointed four four times as the
Speaker 1: freshman and then started the final four games of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two after remember Colin Goodfellow got hurt in that
Speaker 1: Missouri game and Barry took over. Then he was a
Speaker 1: full time starter in twenty three, started all thirteen games,
Speaker 1: averaged thirty nine points seven yards per kick, ninth in
Speaker 1: the league, burying thirteen punts inside the twenty and had
Speaker 1: nine fifty plus yarders. Started the first five games last
Speaker 1: year after beating Aiden Larros in fall camp, but then
Speaker 1: he fell behind Larros on the depth chart. Remained the holder,
Speaker 1: but was not there in the spring. But we'll be back,
Speaker 1: according to Aaron, in the fall to compete with other
Speaker 1: punters this year in the NFL. The Bengals and this
Speaker 1: is not a surprise, after confirmed that Trey Hendrickson is
Speaker 1: not attending mandatory minutes. He and the team are in
Speaker 1: an impasse about his contract going into the final Gear
Speaker 1: wants to raise from the sixteen million he is scheduled
Speaker 1: to make this season. He will lose some money for
Speaker 1: skipping mini camp. The Bengals will find him a total
Speaker 1: of one hundred and five thousand dollars, but he's hoping
Speaker 1: that it helps the team give him the kind of
Speaker 1: long term deal he's looking for. Thirty years old, one
Speaker 1: of the best in the business, Pro Bowl all four years,
Speaker 1: as seventeen and a half sacks each of the last
Speaker 1: two seasons. They've told out all this money for receivers
Speaker 1: and they're trying to protect Joe Burrow better. How do
Speaker 1: you let this guy get away? I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about their salary structures and all. I just know, if
Speaker 1: you've got the best sack man in the league right now,
Speaker 1: you do what you can to hang on to him.
Speaker 1: But again, if he would rather play elsewhere, let me
Speaker 1: tell you a little bit about Green Bay, Wisconsin, I'll
Speaker 1: be happy to tell you. Coming up next, we will
Speaker 1: revisit one of the greatest performances in sports history, and
Speaker 1: for its particular sport, I think the greatest ever on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big bullon Cider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in just a few minutes, John Clay at
Speaker 1: the Harold Leader. We'll talk about his impending retirement. Also
Speaker 1: Vince Merrill moving on, we'll get John's thoughts about that,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that with Tom Leachs, the voice
Speaker 1: of the Wildcats and our number two, and Keith Farmer
Speaker 1: from BBN. Tonight quite the headline making story. I will
Speaker 1: say that yesterday came and went, and I was so
Speaker 1: busy doing other things that I missed the fact that
Speaker 1: it was the anniversary of Secretariats winning the Belmont. And
Speaker 1: it's not, you know, a ten, fifteen, twenty fifty year,
Speaker 1: but it was. It's always special to me. It's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest performances in all of sport. From my money,
Speaker 1: it's the single greatest performance in thoroughbred racing history because
Speaker 1: for one thing, Secretariat wins the Triple Crown a mile
Speaker 1: and a half distance and breaks the American dirt track
Speaker 1: record by more than two seconds. I mean, a fifth
Speaker 1: of a second is impressive. Anything beyond that is unbelievable,
Speaker 1: and I don't know that that record's ever going to
Speaker 1: be broken. And if you're a fan at all, even
Speaker 1: a casual fan, you know Secretary had won the Triple Crown,
Speaker 1: breaking the track record each time, set the record for
Speaker 1: the Derby one f nine and two fifths. Only a
Speaker 1: couple other horses have come even close to that, and
Speaker 1: then set the record at Preakedness at Pimlico, although they
Speaker 1: screwed up the clock and it was unofficial for many,
Speaker 1: many years, and they finally did what so many of
Speaker 1: us were screaming to do, and that's go back, use
Speaker 1: the video and digitally figure out what the time of
Speaker 1: the race was. And they did, and now the race
Speaker 1: time is official. Secretariat owns the Freakness record and of
Speaker 1: course the Bellmont record when he wins by twenty five lengths,
Speaker 1: and again, even if you're a casual fan, you know
Speaker 1: what that video looks like. You know what the photo
Speaker 1: looks like. It's one of the greatest photos ever because
Speaker 1: it's Ron Turcott nearing the finish line, looking back under
Speaker 1: one of his arms. That's the way riders would would
Speaker 1: peek back and see where the other guys were. And
Speaker 1: I wonder if if he can see the other horses
Speaker 1: because they were so far behind. And I've talked about
Speaker 1: this on the show proudly. I will do it again
Speaker 1: at some point. But when Kentucky in twenty fourteen, the
Speaker 1: fourteen to fifteen season, the team that nearly went undefeated
Speaker 1: in college basketball, do you want remember the UCLA game
Speaker 1: when I think Kentucky was up like forty one to
Speaker 1: seven or nine or something at the half, just completely
Speaker 1: obliterated UCLA up in Chicago. And during the first half
Speaker 1: it was such a route that we were running out
Speaker 1: of things to tweet. And I was sitting next to
Speaker 1: Brian Milin from wdkyt and he and I can get
Speaker 1: silly at times, and we were having a big time
Speaker 1: just talking about how bad this game was for UCLA
Speaker 1: and how good Kentucky looks so at halftime, I pulled
Speaker 1: up a photo, a copy of that photo, and I tweeted,
Speaker 1: now UCLA knows what the rest of the field felt
Speaker 1: like in the nineteen seventy three Belmont and said something
Speaker 1: about secretariat. And I found out later on that ESPN
Speaker 1: used that tweet in its game story coverage of the
Speaker 1: Kentucky win over UCLA and the six o'clock edition of
Speaker 1: Sports Center. I never got to see it. If those
Speaker 1: shows were archived, they couldn't find it, but more than
Speaker 1: one person told me I was very proud about that.
Speaker 1: But again, if you're a racing fan, you can quote
Speaker 1: that particular call was by Chick Anderson. CBS owned the
Speaker 1: rights to the Belmont TV and radio. He was their guy.
Speaker 1: And I've talked before about sports catchers and what we
Speaker 1: want to do on the air. I can't say that
Speaker 1: sports catchers never root for the teams they cover. Yes,
Speaker 1: many of them are big time homers. They say we,
Speaker 1: they say they. I do not. I came up under
Speaker 1: Kable Lefford, he did not. But you just try to
Speaker 1: give an honest account. But what you want going in
Speaker 1: is you want something cool, you want something engaging, you
Speaker 1: want a good game. And win or lose. You want
Speaker 1: a good game, something that either is so incredible or
Speaker 1: goes down to the final seconds or both. Well for
Speaker 1: Chick Anderson, you know, this was not a neck and
Speaker 1: neck finish. And there have been many of those, and
Speaker 1: a lot of racing announcers have done a great job
Speaker 1: of those calls. But this was an absolutely route. This
Speaker 1: was the biggest route when you talk about important the
Speaker 1: race was in the history of thirdbred racing. And nobody
Speaker 1: saw it coming because Sham had run well against Secretariat
Speaker 1: and the Derby and the Preakness, and on this day,
Speaker 1: Sham was hanging with Secretariat through the first half mile.
Speaker 1: Really through the first three quarters there's only a five
Speaker 1: horse field, but at three quarters of a mile, that's
Speaker 1: when Secretariat hit the gas and started to pull away.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how where most race horses are.
Speaker 1: I've got to think because the best horses I think
Speaker 1: are intelligent. Most race horses are not. They're highly strung,
Speaker 1: they're so purely bred. A lot of them are just idiots.
Speaker 1: But Secretariat was really intelligent, and a lot of these
Speaker 1: great horses I believe are, and I believe Sham was.
Speaker 1: Sham was a good race horse. But I firmly believe
Speaker 1: that when Sham saw Secretariats start to make his move,
Speaker 1: He's thought, to hell with this and just quit running.
Speaker 1: I don't believe. Maybe down the stretch the rider put
Speaker 1: him away. But from so I've read somewhere Secretary Hat
Speaker 1: broke Sham's heart. That may be true. But Sham and
Speaker 1: these horses know each other. They really do the smart
Speaker 1: ones do. And I firmly believe that Sham's like, Nope,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing it today. I'm done. It's hot, I'm
Speaker 1: up here in New York in June. I'm simplifying. But
Speaker 1: he shut it down. That's why he was at the
Speaker 1: back of the pack when Secretariat hit the finish line.
Speaker 1: But this is what it sounded like. Go to see
Speaker 1: CBS Radio Sports and CBSTV Chick Anderson's famous call of
Speaker 1: the stretch run for Secretariots Belmont back in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: He's going into the turn, Secretariat holding onto a large lead.
Speaker 1: Sham a second and then it's a long way back
Speaker 1: to my gullon.
Speaker 2: And twice a month they're on the turn that Secretariat
Speaker 2: is blazing alone the first.
Speaker 1: Three quarters of a mile at one O nine and
Speaker 1: four pens. Secretariat is lightening now, he is booming like
Speaker 1: a tremendous machine. Secretariat by cloth, Secretariat by fourteen lengths.
Speaker 3: On the turn.
Speaker 1: Sham is dropping back. It looks like they'll catch him
Speaker 1: today as my ballot and twice the Prince are both coming.
Speaker 4: Up to him now.
Speaker 1: But Secretariat is all alone.
Speaker 3: He's out there almost the sixteenth of a mile away
Speaker 3: from the rest.
Speaker 1: Of the houses. Secretariat is in a precision that's in
Speaker 1: compositive account.
Speaker 4: He's into the steps. Secretariat leads his feel by eighteen
Speaker 4: lengths and now twice a Princes.
Speaker 1: Take him second.
Speaker 4: The black gallop has moved.
Speaker 3: Down the third.
Speaker 4: They're in the steps.
Speaker 1: Secretariat has opened the twenty keen length leaves.
Speaker 4: He is trying to be the triple crown winner.
Speaker 1: Here turn Secretariat from the wire and ibelievable, an amazing performance.
Speaker 1: He hits the face twenty five lengths from black.
Speaker 3: It's going to be quite.
Speaker 1: Third amazing. I wish i'd been there. I've been to
Speaker 1: the Belmont three or four times. I was not at
Speaker 1: that when I was a high school or just graduated
Speaker 1: high school, frankly, and I would love to be sitting
Speaker 1: on one of those tickets, because so many people have
Speaker 1: win tickets from that Belmont that they never cashed. I mean,
Speaker 1: clearly they're priceless. If you cash it, you win ten cents.
Speaker 1: The winter the winning ticket was two dollars and ten cents.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's how big a favorite Secretariat was. But
Speaker 1: I just get so excited whenever I see that, whenever
Speaker 1: I hear that. And it happened in nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: yesterday June ninth, seventy three. And this year's Belmont was
Speaker 1: a great race. It really was. I don't know that
Speaker 1: any race will ever match secretariats, and I'm happy to
Speaker 1: say I got to go see Secretariat after he retired
Speaker 1: more than a year later. Tried to reach out and
Speaker 1: pet him. He was in a stall, like an idiot
Speaker 1: that I am. I mean, a horse right off the racetrack,
Speaker 1: very fractious, and he almost bit me. I kind of
Speaker 1: wish I'd let him. I'm sure it would have hurt,
Speaker 1: might have lost a finger, but what a hell of
Speaker 1: a story I would have had. All right Up next,
Speaker 1: John Clay at the Hair Leader on six thirty wlap,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining now celebrity hoighline,
Speaker 1: he's a celebrity for a little while longer. John Clay
Speaker 1: the Hair Leader, a long time sports writer columnist, announcing
Speaker 1: his retirement. John, Congratulations. I remember when Rob Bromley stepped out.
Speaker 1: I remember when I left KYT, people would tell you you'll
Speaker 1: know when it's time. Was that the case with you?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean I went into this, uh at this season,
Speaker 4: this past football and basketball season, thinking this might be it.
Speaker 4: And then by the end of the end of the year,
Speaker 4: at you know, the end of the season, I'd made
Speaker 4: up my mind that, yeah, that I that it was
Speaker 4: time for me to time for me to go. You know,
Speaker 4: forty four years at the paper, for twenty five years
Speaker 4: of sports columnists. Enjoyed every minute of it, ups and
Speaker 4: downs and whatever. But you know, feel very lucky to
Speaker 4: have the job that I had. But you know, I
Speaker 4: feel like it's time let somebody else have a crack
Speaker 4: at it.
Speaker 1: Was there one element in particular, one one factor that
Speaker 1: pushed you in that direction, No.
Speaker 4: Not necessarily. I have three grandchildren now, so that probably
Speaker 4: played a role in it as well. And you know,
Speaker 4: I'm knock good, I'm in pretty good health, and I'm
Speaker 4: sixty six years old, and I feel like you know
Speaker 4: better to you know better to you know, to do
Speaker 4: what my wife and I want to do, better to
Speaker 4: get out now and you know, and I feel very
Speaker 4: lucky to have survived all the changes that have happened
Speaker 4: over the years, and in the media business and in
Speaker 4: the newspaper business in particular. So I just felt like
Speaker 4: it was a good time for me to call it
Speaker 4: col It's I may keep writing, I may not. I
Speaker 4: don't know. I'm gonna kind of see what happens once
Speaker 4: how I feel once football were uh rolls around, But
Speaker 4: it won't be a job if I do it is,
Speaker 4: if I keep writing, it will be more of a
Speaker 4: hobby instead of a job.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because you have a job that has
Speaker 1: required you, excuse me, to travel so much. People when
Speaker 1: they retire, I want to travel now. I got to
Speaker 1: think just the thought John, of packing and going to
Speaker 1: an airport makes you a little queasy. But when you
Speaker 1: can do it on your own terms.
Speaker 4: Right right, right, Yeah, it's different. You know, maybe go
Speaker 4: go to places that they didn't get to travel to.
Speaker 4: My wife and I, you know, during the during and
Speaker 4: you know, for the most part, I enjoyed the travel.
Speaker 4: But obviously the older you get, the more you know
Speaker 4: taxing it is. I don't recover like I used to.
Speaker 1: I used to.
Speaker 4: You know, you go on a trip, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: a road trip, cover a game. A lot of times
Speaker 4: when my kids were a little I tried to take
Speaker 4: the first flight out the next day, how much asleep
Speaker 4: I get to, you know, come back and see my
Speaker 4: kids and help my wife. But uh, you know, you
Speaker 4: feel okay the next day, but it might take now
Speaker 4: a couple of days before I feel not, you know,
Speaker 4: I get over that travel lag or whatever. So but no,
Speaker 4: I mean, like I said, I enjoyed. I enjoyed all
Speaker 4: of it. I feel very lucky to have gotten a
Speaker 4: job at the hair Leader right out of school and
Speaker 4: to be there all that time, and to write about
Speaker 4: the things that what I said in John Hale's story.
Speaker 4: To be able to write about, you know, the teams
Speaker 4: that I follow growing up, and do it in my
Speaker 4: hometown or close to my home area, you know, it
Speaker 4: has really been a blessing.
Speaker 1: Like a ballplayer who played for just one team, you know,
Speaker 1: y Mantle, and you know, not very many. We talked
Speaker 1: in the past about how you transition from beat writer. Well,
Speaker 1: generally you were an all around writer, you've got the
Speaker 1: UK Beat. Now you're a columnist and that job is different.
Speaker 1: And sadly, so many people who still read the papers
Speaker 1: didn't really understand what a columnist job was. He's so
Speaker 1: by as you know, he's supposed to be objective, but no,
Speaker 1: not a columnist. But how do you approach that job, John?
Speaker 1: And what was? What did you believe your mission to
Speaker 1: be as a columnist?
Speaker 4: Well, I think my mission and commist is to let
Speaker 4: the readers, you know, know, what how I thought about things,
Speaker 4: Not always an opinion, but maybe a point of view
Speaker 4: about something. I mean, that's what a colmist, uh is
Speaker 4: allowed to do. Like you said, a beat writers supposed
Speaker 4: to be more objective and more here are the facts
Speaker 4: where the commists may present his opinion on the facts.
Speaker 4: And the one thing I wanted, you know, I wanted
Speaker 4: to do is that this is how I feel and
Speaker 4: you I may you may agree with me, you may
Speaker 4: disagree with me, but at least I hope that i'm
Speaker 4: you know, understand my point of view, that I'm being fair.
Speaker 4: I was wrong about a lot of things, a lot
Speaker 4: of things, Uh, I was I say this all the time.
Speaker 4: I was wrong about Rich Brooks. I thought he was
Speaker 4: a terrible hire. When Mitch Barnard hired, I thought he'd
Speaker 4: been out of football too long. I thought he'd been
Speaker 4: out of college football too long. He wasn't from the South,
Speaker 4: he had no recruiting ties in the South, and he
Speaker 4: proved me wrong.
Speaker 5: I thought he was.
Speaker 4: He turned out to be a great hire and building
Speaker 4: the foundation of the football program.
Speaker 5: You know that that's one.
Speaker 4: There's you know, Mitch and I did not get along
Speaker 4: at all when he first came here. I was very
Speaker 4: critical of some of the early moves in Mitch. May
Speaker 4: we got to know each other and I got to
Speaker 4: like and respect Mitch, especially the job he's done here.
Speaker 4: So you know, uh, you know, those types of things.
Speaker 4: But hopefully people thought that I was fair and even
Speaker 4: if they disagreed with me, you know, they could see
Speaker 4: the point of view of where I was coming from.
Speaker 4: So that's that to me, that's kind of the main
Speaker 4: job of the columnists when I read a lot of
Speaker 4: comps home, and I know what they think about something,
Speaker 4: and that's kind of what it's kind of what I
Speaker 4: tried to do here.
Speaker 1: Billy Reid used to talk about columnists, and of course
Speaker 1: he wrote a general entertainment column and then he wrote
Speaker 1: sports columns off and on, and he said one of
Speaker 1: the things he said was he believed that a columnist
Speaker 1: isn't good to necessarily be great every day or every
Speaker 1: day that he or she is required to write, whether
Speaker 1: it's three, four or five days a week or more.
Speaker 1: But they need to be there. They need to show
Speaker 1: up with their best effort, which is the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: of a sports columnist. Did you agree with that?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah.
Speaker 4: I always thought the one thing the Billy's best attribute,
Speaker 4: one of his one of his strengths, maybe his strength,
Speaker 4: was he had his finger on the pulse of what
Speaker 4: the fans were talking about. You may not agree with Billy.
Speaker 4: You may go you may have been infuriated by what
Speaker 4: Billy wrote about. I know what Billy and Joby went
Speaker 4: round and round towards the end. Yeah, you know, you
Speaker 4: may not agree with Billy, but Billy knew what the
Speaker 4: fans were talking about, and he could respond to that.
Speaker 4: And I always thought that was a strength of Billy.
Speaker 4: I always thought for year from louisvill I always thought
Speaker 4: I was very fortunate from I had an uncle who
Speaker 4: lived in Paris, who took a great uncle who took
Speaker 4: a He took the Courier Journal. He was a big
Speaker 4: horse racing.
Speaker 1: He took the.
Speaker 4: Courage Ural on Sundays and we used to go I
Speaker 4: used to go up to his house on Sundays and
Speaker 4: read the Courier. Read, Yeah, read Dave Kendred, Yes, Dick Finland, Yes,
Speaker 4: Mike Barry, Rube, Mike Barry, Earl Ruby, you know, Earl Cox,
Speaker 4: Billy Reid, all those people, and that those people had a,
Speaker 4: you know, tremendous influence on me, especially people like Dave Kendred,
Speaker 4: you know, and Billy you know, of what they wrote
Speaker 4: about and how they went about it. And of course
Speaker 4: those were the glory days of the Courier and just
Speaker 4: the newspaper as a whole. And those guys had had
Speaker 4: a big effect on me growing up.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be Dave Kindred when I was growing
Speaker 1: up reading them. That's why I became a sports ride.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's only one. Billy Reid became a very
Speaker 1: good friend and mentor to me, and when I was
Speaker 1: an intern with the Louisville Times, he introduced me to
Speaker 1: the executive sports editor who hired me to be the
Speaker 1: Central Kentucky sports correspondent for the CJ, So I owed
Speaker 1: Billy a lot. Billy did a lot of TV and
Speaker 1: radio with me. And when Billy would do commentaries John
Speaker 1: at Channel twenty seven for a while, he would ride
Speaker 1: over the election and with Mike Barry in the car
Speaker 1: so they could just talk. That's what sports writers do
Speaker 1: a lot. And so Mike would be up in the
Speaker 1: sports office. You'd been upstairs in our office a few
Speaker 1: times and just tell me stories. And instead of going
Speaker 1: down and watching Billy tape stuff, I'd sit up there
Speaker 1: and listen to Mike Barry. You talk about the best
Speaker 1: of all worlds, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I'll bet, Oh yeah, I'll bet and uh
Speaker 4: you know uh and you know Billy Currier and they
Speaker 4: went to Sports Illustrated, came back to the career, and
Speaker 4: then he came to the heir a leader, uh with
Speaker 4: with us for a few years there. You know those guys.
Speaker 4: You know, it doesn't get any better than Day Kindred
Speaker 4: as a writer and a commas and as a person.
Speaker 4: You know, those you know, those were the as.
Speaker 5: I said, those were the.
Speaker 4: Glory days of the career.
Speaker 1: Journal which brings you.
Speaker 4: Good, not not the slight. The people that come behinds
Speaker 4: that Pat forty ye, a lot of a lot of
Speaker 4: great Scott Pallor, a lot of great people have worked
Speaker 4: at the career in the sports department. Rick with a
Speaker 4: lot of great a lot of great people as the
Speaker 4: hero Leaders.
Speaker 1: You know, I had Rick on the show last night.
Speaker 1: You're right. That's how I first met him, was when
Speaker 1: he was at the CJ. And that brings this full
Speaker 1: circle though, because you mentioned Kindred. Of course he retires
Speaker 1: and then he becomes even more famous from going to
Speaker 1: a girls' high school games up in his hometown in
Speaker 1: Illinois and posting stories on Facebook about him. So as
Speaker 1: he said, writers, right, and so yeah, you haven't you
Speaker 1: haven't scribbled your last We're talking to John the HEROLD Leader,
Speaker 1: longtime sports writer sports calmnist who's announced his retirement. When's
Speaker 1: the last day.
Speaker 4: Technically June thirtieth.
Speaker 1: End of the fiscal All right, we'll come back and
Speaker 1: talk sports with John in just a minute here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with John Clay,
Speaker 1: longtime sports writer and columnist for The HEROLD Leader, who's
Speaker 1: announced his retirement effective officially at the end of the
Speaker 1: fiscal year June thirtieth, and it was all over Twitter yesterday,
Speaker 1: the official announcement and then Vince Merrow to use an
Speaker 1: antiquated term, knocked you off the front page. Brother. Uh,
Speaker 1: you said you guys had heard some rumblings about that,
Speaker 1: But were you as surprised as most of us?
Speaker 5: Not?
Speaker 4: If I hadn't heard some rumblings. Uh, Our UK football
Speaker 4: beat writer John Hale had been hearing this the last
Speaker 4: couple of weeks but couldn't get anybody to talk about
Speaker 4: it on the record, and we weren't sure that Vince
Speaker 4: was actually going to go through with it to go
Speaker 4: to Louisville, So so, uh, it had not heard that. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I would have been very surprised by when you know
Speaker 4: about the initial report yesterday, that looks like it's going
Speaker 4: to happen, so you know Vince's Uh, this has happened
Speaker 4: before with Vince. You know, we played futsye with Michigan State,
Speaker 4: I think in Michigan and Michigan other schools and Louisville. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and uh, but then to finally finally for it to
Speaker 4: finally happening for him to leave, and I know it
Speaker 4: looks from a perception standpoint, it looks like a big
Speaker 4: blow to Mark's story in Kentucky. Obviously, Vince's the Mark Story.
Speaker 4: Mark stoops in Kentucky. Mark Story also wrote a column
Speaker 4: about that. You can find that on Kentucky dot com. Uh,
Speaker 4: but you know, you know, we'll I think you can
Speaker 4: have pros and cons on both sides. But the timing
Speaker 4: doesn't look very good from the standpoint. You're coming off
Speaker 4: a four and eight season. It's right before the start
Speaker 4: of the or not, you know, a few months before
Speaker 4: the start of the twenty twenty five seasons. So the
Speaker 4: timing from a perception standpoint, sure does not look good.
Speaker 1: No, and the perception would be that there are real
Speaker 1: problems inside that building well beyond is needing to bounce
Speaker 1: back from a four and eight season.
Speaker 4: Right right, right, absolutely, and you got so many new
Speaker 4: players coming in. You could also make the argument on
Speaker 4: the other side, the Mits did a great job, but
Speaker 4: there were diminishing returns in the last few years. As
Speaker 4: you mentioned, there were four and eight last year. They
Speaker 4: were what seven and sixty two years before that. You know,
Speaker 4: it doesn't seem like they're getting quite as many or
Speaker 4: quite the quality players that they got out of Ohio
Speaker 4: when Vince first got here, and maybe maybe it was
Speaker 4: time for change. I think a lot depends on who
Speaker 4: Mark hires to take Vince's place. You know that maybe
Speaker 4: they didn't need to shake up from an evaluation standpoint,
Speaker 4: and now that there's more at least that's much, if
Speaker 4: not more about the transfer portal than it is from
Speaker 4: high school, and than it is about high school we're
Speaker 4: bringing maybe need somebody else with a different approach. The
Speaker 4: problem is, as you mentioned, they're coming out before and
Speaker 4: eighth season, there's a lot of pressure on Mark to
Speaker 4: produce this year where this might be something where if
Speaker 4: you take a new approach and I are a new person,
Speaker 4: it might take them a couple of years to really
Speaker 4: get it going. Is he going to have time to
Speaker 4: do that?
Speaker 1: And although this is happening as the SEC is just
Speaker 1: growing stronger and stronger like a big blog, and you
Speaker 1: wrote about the conference and the spring meetings when they concluded,
Speaker 1: you wrote a piece about whether or not the growth
Speaker 1: of the SEC the power it's developing great for the league. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a lot. Greg sank works for
Speaker 1: the league. Greg sanki answers to the presidents of the chancellors.
Speaker 1: His job is to make the SEC incredible, which he's doing.
Speaker 1: But is that good for college sports? And you wrote
Speaker 1: about that recently. Is this a trail, John, that you
Speaker 1: think is inevitable?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, it's it's gonna be interesting to see
Speaker 4: how it plays out. I don't think it's good for
Speaker 4: the game overall. That power is con I mean, we've heard,
Speaker 4: you know before that it's going to end up being
Speaker 4: like fifty schools or thirty schools or forty schools controlling
Speaker 4: everybody else, and we look like we're headed in that direction.
Speaker 4: And you're right. I mean I've been critical of great
Speaker 4: thank You's others had well, but you're right, Greg, thank
Speaker 4: you service at the serves at the pleasure of the
Speaker 4: presidents at the school the sixteen now sixteen schools in
Speaker 4: the SEC. So he is doing his job. I would
Speaker 4: question whether you know this is good for college football
Speaker 4: overall as a sport, and that you know, the main
Speaker 4: conflict right now is over the College Football Playoff, which
Speaker 4: is going to expand from twelve the sixteen teams. How
Speaker 4: many automatic bits should they get the SEC and the
Speaker 4: big tenor boat pushing to have four automatic bits, which
Speaker 4: that would be half the field right there, the SEC
Speaker 4: and the Big Ten. We'll see how that plays out,
Speaker 4: but I don't overall, I just don't think it's good
Speaker 4: for good for college football. I think part of the
Speaker 4: charmucks college football is that you know, you have a
Speaker 4: Boise State or you have schools like that who who
Speaker 4: feel like that they can be a contender. It can
Speaker 4: build a program and be a contender where it looks
Speaker 4: like now if you're not in the SEC or not
Speaker 4: not in the Big Ten, those two conferences want to
Speaker 4: keep the other conferences out, or at least they want
Speaker 4: to have more power for themselves.
Speaker 1: SMU and Indiana we're going to play out there. We're
Speaker 1: improperly seeded. I think they've moved to fix that. But
Speaker 1: they were compelling stories. And look at the College World
Speaker 1: Series this year. Last year was half the ACC, half
Speaker 1: the field was acc fully half was the SEC. I
Speaker 1: was thrilled to be there and covered it. We all
Speaker 1: had a great time, but it's it's more compelling this
Speaker 1: year with the Coastal Carolina returning. They've been there multiple times,
Speaker 1: but still and now Murray State. I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 1: get me better than that, right.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely.
Speaker 4: And you know I think you know when you say
Speaker 4: and people are stuff worry about nil and the transfer portal,
Speaker 4: that it's going to be a consolidation of power with
Speaker 4: the big schools because all the players will want to
Speaker 4: go where the money is, which is in the bigger schools.
Speaker 4: And then you look at baseball, baseball, and you said
Speaker 4: the Murray State getting their coastal Carolina's build a power,
Speaker 4: build a really good program. Opposite Louisville down the road
Speaker 4: is build a good program. They hit a little bit
Speaker 4: of a lull there, but now they're back. Kentucky was
Speaker 4: in it for the first time last year. So and
Speaker 4: I do think baseball has a little bit of an
Speaker 4: advantage over the other schools. And the fact, as you know, Dick,
Speaker 4: you you covered a lot close, uh, you know, more
Speaker 4: closely than I do. You know, the transfer portal has
Speaker 4: been around for a long time and baseball it's just
Speaker 4: like you've got you've got almost a new roster every year.
Speaker 4: With baseball teams, I think they know how to handle
Speaker 4: it and they know how to take advantage of it,
Speaker 4: where the other sports are maybe learning, uh learning how
Speaker 4: to do that. But you know, it's hard to go
Speaker 4: against the money, but it's also to me, it's very
Speaker 4: coouraging to see what happened, what's happened with the.
Speaker 5: Culture World Series.
Speaker 4: If you are a fan of college athletics and you
Speaker 4: believe that it shouldn't be just consolidated into a power,
Speaker 4: shouldn't be consolidating just the piece schools.
Speaker 1: Not that long ago, if you transferred in baseball, you
Speaker 1: didn't have to sit when everybody else did. So, you know,
Speaker 1: then they changed that rule. Then things slowed down. Bud,
Speaker 1: You're right. A few minutes up with John Clay, the
Speaker 1: Herald Leader retiring after forty four years with the newspaper,
Speaker 1: I was talking to Jan Weisberg, the new EKU baseball coach,
Speaker 1: who was part of the greatest baseball story. There was
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago when Birmingham Southern made a
Speaker 1: run at the D three World Series, when the school
Speaker 1: itself had shut it down. I mean, the entire school
Speaker 1: had closed. But now Jan, who had coached as an
Speaker 1: assistant and played, as you know at Kentucky, is a
Speaker 1: head coach on the D one level. John, at the
Speaker 1: most challenging time in the history of college sports. You know,
Speaker 1: and he welcomed the challenge. Of course good coaches do.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious, man, you know, you're I can't say
Speaker 1: you're getting out of it a good time. But it's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting five years from now for everybody to
Speaker 1: look back and see where we are compared to what
Speaker 1: we're doing today.
Speaker 4: Right Yeah, And we and you know, as you know
Speaker 4: you and people in the media business, whether it's you
Speaker 4: know you and TV or radio and myself and you know,
Speaker 4: print websites. We don't want we don't really want to
Speaker 4: write about anil. We don't really want to write about
Speaker 4: the money aspect of it. We want to write about
Speaker 4: the games. We are writing about the people playing the games.
Speaker 4: We run a bread you know, the whole thing about
Speaker 4: competition and winning and losing. I want to write about
Speaker 4: Mark Pope and what he's done, you know, what he's
Speaker 4: done at Kentucky and his approach to basketball and that
Speaker 4: sort of thing, which I think is fascinating. I want
Speaker 4: to write about Mark Stoops going into such a pivotal
Speaker 4: season this year. I don't want to write about nil collectives,
Speaker 4: but unfortunately that's part of the game. That's part of
Speaker 4: it right now, and it's a big part of it. So, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, talking about the KAU and the baseball hire.
Speaker 4: And I'm not just saying this because I've done Kyle
Speaker 4: Motes a long time and he is a friend of mine,
Speaker 4: but I think that was a great hire by Eastern.
Speaker 4: I think hiring and the baseball coach looks like a
Speaker 4: really good hire. I'm really interested and excited to see
Speaker 4: what Kyle does at EKAU because I know he's a
Speaker 4: smart guy with a lot of experience, and he's a
Speaker 4: good guy to hire to tackle what's going on right now.
Speaker 4: So I think EKU is in good hands with Kyle Mots.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, and I thought it was a
Speaker 1: great hire of jan I mean, any coach at any
Speaker 1: level who's won more than six hundred games. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I'm with you on that. And you know you mentioned
Speaker 1: in Illinois I flashed just now. When I was a kid,
Speaker 1: and you probably did too. I took the Sporting News
Speaker 1: right and I just love reading about all the baseball teams,
Speaker 1: and even if you didn't read the feature story on
Speaker 1: each team, there were notes on every team. And that's
Speaker 1: how I kept up with the American League, the National League.
Speaker 1: More and more those notes those those thumbnails included dollar signs.
Speaker 1: You know, as the salaries began to grow, and I
Speaker 1: began to skip them, and if a story had a
Speaker 1: dollar soun in it, I would skip it, like I
Speaker 1: don't want to read about this guy's con track. I'm
Speaker 1: going to read about baseball. And that's where we are now, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: isn't it. And you know, interestingly, I thought the Texas
Speaker 1: Tech coach made a great point when he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they they basically bought a pitcher for a
Speaker 1: million dollars. But he said, nobody talks about that when
Speaker 1: you've got a basketball player making three and four million.
Speaker 1: That's not repeated over and over. So the times are changing,
Speaker 1: aren't they?
Speaker 4: Absolutely? And I think if you look at Kansas State
Speaker 4: basketball last year, I think they spent more money in
Speaker 4: the portal than anybody else than they didn't even make
Speaker 4: the NCAA.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 4: So it's not Yeah, So it's not a guarantee that
Speaker 4: you're going to get there. Of course that's another thing
Speaker 4: about then. I on the transfer portal, and none of
Speaker 4: it's transparent. We don't know how much exactly anybody is getting.
Speaker 4: Whether that will change with the new House settlement. And
Speaker 4: the revenue sharing. I don't know, but you know, it's
Speaker 4: not a guarantee that just because you spend all those
Speaker 4: money you're going to get that you're going to get
Speaker 4: the most wins.
Speaker 1: I've only got about a minute left. But do you
Speaker 1: think in the wake of the House settlement, uh, basically
Speaker 1: appointing a commissioner or the CSC and all that it's
Speaker 1: got to be a good at least to try it, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it helps whether it solves the problem
Speaker 4: of having guidelines and keeping everybody in line. I'm a
Speaker 4: I'm a retiring journalist, but I'm still a journalist, and
Speaker 4: we're taught to be skeptical, so I'm skeptical. Put it
Speaker 4: that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, There's always going to be somebody out there
Speaker 1: trying to break rules and cut corners. That's why the
Speaker 1: rulebook's so thick. And I mentioned last night, Buddy my
Speaker 1: years only a couple of years I spent down on
Speaker 1: the Southwest conference. That taught me that time the SEC
Speaker 1: wasn't that far behind.
Speaker 4: Right, right right. What Tail was saying, if you ain't cheating,
Speaker 4: you ain't trying. So I think there's always going to
Speaker 4: be cheating involved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I said, that's charming when you're talking about NASCAR.
Speaker 1: But otherwise than that, John Clay, the hero leader, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Has been a pleasure. We'll talk again,
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 4: But congratulations, Thank you, Dick, Thank you, Dick.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And up next that we number two with Keith Farmer
Speaker 1: and Tom Lee here on six thirty w L anything any.
Speaker 2: Such tack tacking do they anything?
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big One insider joining us down
Speaker 1: our celebrity Eyeline is my good friend and colleague. As
Speaker 1: we used to say in the business, mister Tom Le
Speaker 1: used the voice of the Wildcats. And before we talk
Speaker 1: about anything, Tom, we got to talk about the news
Speaker 1: that kind of I'm sure rock the Big Blue Nation
Speaker 1: late yesterday afternoon, Vince Marrow, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: chief architects in terms of recruiting of UK football in
Speaker 1: their March troops now going to the arch enemy. I
Speaker 1: got to think you were about as surprised as anybody
Speaker 1: or were you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, surprise, not stunned, just because you know the Vince
Speaker 3: and U of L talk had popped up once or
Speaker 3: twice before. So that always when you you know, when
Speaker 3: that happens makes you thinks, well, there's you know, something
Speaker 3: there on one.
Speaker 5: Side or the other.
Speaker 3: And the fact that it happened in Jews kind of
Speaker 3: an odd timing, although you know that as is, we
Speaker 3: always don't think about these things. There's a business element
Speaker 3: to this. Some you know, contracts end at the end
Speaker 3: of Jews contracts, it's the fiscal year, so maybe that's
Speaker 3: you know, why this is happening at this time to
Speaker 3: make the hire for the next you know contract wave
Speaker 3: that would start on July first, so could well be
Speaker 3: related to that. But that's just you know, the business
Speaker 3: part of it. The fact that he's actually leading their
Speaker 3: story obviously, and yeah, it's yeah, definitely a surprise. You know,
Speaker 3: it's on one hand surprising that it's going to the rival.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, I think, Vince, it's gonna put
Speaker 3: down some roots here in Kentucky, Lexington specifically up until
Speaker 3: this point married a girl from here in Lexington, so
Speaker 3: you know, they.
Speaker 5: May well, you know, have if he was ready to
Speaker 5: move on for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: The fact that he could do it and still stay
Speaker 3: in the state may have you know, played a part
Speaker 3: in it too.
Speaker 1: And the fact though that he is, as you said,
Speaker 1: going to the arts rival, and not just on the
Speaker 1: football field, but but you know, seven days a week,
Speaker 1: three sixty five for a recruit field. Yeah, I got
Speaker 1: to wonder about the relationship now with with Mark Stoops,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I don't know if we'll ever
Speaker 3: you know, find out about that to the extent that
Speaker 3: people would be curious, But yeah, I mean they go back,
Speaker 3: they have a lot of history, Yeah, you know, to
Speaker 3: their days. I mean there's teenagers in Youngstown. So and
Speaker 3: Vince has talked often about, you just the respect he
Speaker 3: had for Mark's mom and dad and you know, time
Speaker 3: he spent you know at their house and all of that.
Speaker 3: So and you know, they made a great combination when
Speaker 3: they came on the scene through I'm assuming Vince was
Speaker 3: maybe the first call Mark made when Mark got the
Speaker 3: job here and Vince didn't have this role. I think
Speaker 3: he was at Nebraska at the time. So you know,
Speaker 3: Martin gave him the chance to show what he could
Speaker 3: do on the biggest stage in the SEC taking charge
Speaker 3: of the recruiting, and Vince, you know, did a fantastic
Speaker 3: job when given that opportunity. And so the two of
Speaker 3: them together, particularly in the state of Ohio is what
Speaker 3: kind of built the Kentucky program because you and I
Speaker 3: have know covering Kentucky football for years. You know, coach,
Speaker 3: so many coaches would come in here and talk about
Speaker 3: wanting to get into Ohio and you could convince those
Speaker 3: kids to come down and play in the SEC. It's
Speaker 3: an easy trip for their families, etc. And it all
Speaker 3: made sense, except nobody was ever able to execute the
Speaker 3: plan until Mark Stoops and Vince Marrow did.
Speaker 1: You got to go back to fran Kersey to find
Speaker 1: some guys, you know, Jim Kovas from the Cleveland area,
Speaker 1: other guys, and he got up into Pennsylvania. But yeah, really, oh,
Speaker 1: Adam and I remember having this conversation more than once
Speaker 1: with Jeff Pacoro and he went to Joker Phillips, his
Speaker 1: former teammate, and said, Joker, there are guys up where
Speaker 1: I am in the Cincinnati area that want to be
Speaker 1: in the SEC. And Joker just thought it was a
Speaker 1: waste of energy, both as a head coach and as
Speaker 1: an assistant under Rich Brooks, because you know, Ohio State's
Speaker 1: so prevalent, Cincinnati somewhat, but big ten schools getting in there.
Speaker 1: But now, Tom, I really think with the SEC footprint
Speaker 1: becoming so large in so many ways. I mean, beyond
Speaker 1: the borders of the SEC states. You're a fool if
Speaker 1: you don't go to every state in the Union.
Speaker 3: You know, true, And you know it's now everything's you know,
Speaker 3: everybody's got access to everything now. Yeah, not like it
Speaker 3: was you know back in the day in terms of
Speaker 3: being able to you know, see so few games on TV.
Speaker 5: All of that.
Speaker 3: And you know, Mark Stuce, Vince Merriw were uniquely positioned
Speaker 3: to have success in Ohio because of their roots in Ohio. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not always easy to go into a
Speaker 3: state where you don't have any background and just suddenly start,
Speaker 3: you know, doing well and recruiting. Nobody's ever going to
Speaker 3: be Ohio State in Ohio. But the thing has always
Speaker 3: been is like there's not a natural second choice in Ohio.
Speaker 3: And so if you once you know, Ohio State gets
Speaker 3: the twenty five they want, you know, you could go
Speaker 3: for the next wave of players. Hear these too, is
Speaker 3: the game has changed in terms of you know, building
Speaker 3: teams and it's not so much about recruiting and developing
Speaker 3: as it is. The transfer portal now, yeah, that's a
Speaker 3: bigger part probably.
Speaker 1: Well, that leads you to the next question, you know,
Speaker 1: whether Kentucky what happens now because so much of recruiting
Speaker 1: revolves around the transfer portal now, you know, and talking
Speaker 1: to high school kid in to coming to your school
Speaker 1: is one thing, and Vince Merrow has a gift for it.
Speaker 1: But boy, I tell you, you know, evaluation and contacts
Speaker 1: and things like that, that involving the portal has changed
Speaker 1: the game in so many ways, hasn't it?
Speaker 5: It has?
Speaker 3: And you know, now we've got this this house settlement
Speaker 3: that has come down that's going to change things even more.
Speaker 3: And then with Kentucky, look at Kentucky football has so many,
Speaker 3: uh transfers for this year that remake the roster and
Speaker 3: coach Toops has talked about, you know, getting it back
Speaker 3: to the kind of culture that they had succeeded and
Speaker 3: drived with earlier. And if he's right about that and
Speaker 3: over in this team you know, exceeds expectations, then that will,
Speaker 3: no doubt, uh, you know, impact kind of you know,
Speaker 3: some decisions moving forward in terms of you know, how
Speaker 3: they put the roster together, and if not, then it
Speaker 3: could affect the other direction.
Speaker 1: You know, I know you've read about the House settlement.
Speaker 1: I have to everybody has a spin on it, but
Speaker 1: it's going to be really fascinating to see what the
Speaker 1: reaction is and and how this affects schools everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: I always talk about this.
Speaker 5: You have to.
Speaker 1: I worry for the e k Us and the Murray
Speaker 1: States of the world. And you know, Murray State now
Speaker 1: celebrating a trip to the World Series. You got to
Speaker 1: wonder in ten years are they going to have a
Speaker 1: baseball program? Can they afford that? You know, So this
Speaker 1: is is such a tumultuous time in college sports. Maybe
Speaker 1: we shouldn't have been surprised that Vince Merrill took this
Speaker 1: job because now he's the GM, and every school, either
Speaker 1: by title or just by assignment, has a GM right now,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying true?
Speaker 3: And you know we see them guys like uh uh
Speaker 3: at Saint Bonaventure, WOJ the ESPN reporter is their guy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the uh it was in Oklahoma hired the guy that
Speaker 3: ran the senior ball for years.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah maybe there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I mean it's you know, all kinds of different
Speaker 3: types of people are getting put into that role.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Now, you know, guy's come up through coaching ranks. Now
Speaker 3: we don't know fully what all his role is going
Speaker 3: to be. That'll be explained when it all gets finalized.
Speaker 3: But yeah, everybody's just kind of figuring it out on
Speaker 3: the fly now. And yeah, it's settlement gets approved, but
Speaker 3: there's always in everything, there's how it's going to work
Speaker 3: in theory and how it actually works in real life
Speaker 3: and what will that look like? And you're still trying
Speaker 3: to get you know, Congress to help about and if
Speaker 3: that doesn't happen, does that you know impact you know,
Speaker 3: what they can what they can say.
Speaker 5: Is one thing, and what actually, you know, what they
Speaker 5: can do is another. Sometimes. So there's just so much
Speaker 5: we don't know it.
Speaker 3: It's you know, read a lot about your reaction and
Speaker 3: thoughts on things like that settlement, but nobody knows because
Speaker 3: it's very new, and you know, we get if you
Speaker 3: get legal challenges involved, then who knows, you know, what
Speaker 3: that's gonna would look like, and it's Congress gets involved,
Speaker 3: what does that look like.
Speaker 5: It's just just so much that none of us know that.
Speaker 3: It's all this stuff is a great you know, talk
Speaker 3: show topic because we can talk about it and nobody
Speaker 3: knows for sure. There's no right answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. We're talking to Tom Leach. Tom is a
Speaker 1: voice of the Wildcats. Of course, in hear him every
Speaker 1: morning on this very radio station on the Leech Report
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock Eastern time. We'll come back and talk
Speaker 1: more UK sports with Tom on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're
Speaker 1: talking with a voice, Tom Leach. You hear him on
Speaker 1: the Leach Report every morning. And Tom, we just got
Speaker 1: back earlier today. I did at least from talking with
Speaker 1: Otaga Oway and Brandon Garrison. They had a media available
Speaker 1: those guys and of course we haven't seen them since
Speaker 1: the end of the season, and of course since Oway
Speaker 1: got back from NBA camps. What do you expect to
Speaker 1: see from him this year in the wake of him
Speaker 1: gathering all that information from NBA scouts.
Speaker 5: A really focused guy.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: First thing, you noticed the new hairdoo look.
Speaker 3: He's changed his look, and you know, maybe that's, you know,
Speaker 3: some kind of statement he's making about, you know, changing something.
Speaker 3: Who knows or maybe just wanted to change. But you know,
Speaker 3: he's a guy that I don't think has to It's
Speaker 3: not like he went through this process and heard you know,
Speaker 3: some massive question marks that they had, and everything I've
Speaker 3: read is that as he went through the process, it
Speaker 3: was you know, getting closer to pushing him in the
Speaker 3: NBA direction because of what he was hearing. So that,
Speaker 3: you know, tells you that he's you know, kind of
Speaker 3: close to what they're looking for. So he's a guy
Speaker 3: that it's not like he needs to come back and
Speaker 3: you know make massive changes or suddenly you know, I
Speaker 3: want to come back and be a point guard. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I want to, you know, Uh, he just needs to
Speaker 3: get ten or fifteen percent better maybe in two or
Speaker 3: three different things.
Speaker 5: Uh, three point shooting is probably you know, one of them.
Speaker 3: To be able to be a little more you know,
Speaker 3: comfortable in taking the shot, confident and taking the shot,
Speaker 3: and just you know, I had Matt Norlander from CBS
Speaker 3: Sports on I can't exact numbers, he said, but he said,
Speaker 3: so that can you you know, get your attempts up
Speaker 3: to you know, seven or eight a game and get
Speaker 3: your percentage up to thirty eight to forty percent. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but then that's that seems like it's a realistic thing.
Speaker 3: He shot, you know, in the mid thirties basically has
Speaker 3: been a career mid thirties shooter, so it's not again,
Speaker 3: not like a huge leap he has to make.
Speaker 5: Hope has talked about that. He thinks.
Speaker 3: He said this more than once in interviews we did
Speaker 3: with him, whether it's the coach, a show or a
Speaker 3: pregame or something that Otega he thinks has elite level
Speaker 3: skills as a playmaker. Doesn't mean he's going to become
Speaker 3: the point guard all of a sudden, but you know,
Speaker 3: just in terms of decision making. So he's you know,
Speaker 3: a guy that can get to the the rim to
Speaker 3: create his own shot. But maybe he adds a little
Speaker 3: element of being have a you know, showing some of
Speaker 3: those point guard skills while not playing the position in
Speaker 3: terms of he gets into the lane and doesn't try
Speaker 3: to you know, score every time, takes the opportunity to
Speaker 3: set up you know, kick it out to an open teammate,
Speaker 3: and maybe you know, his assist straight goes up a
Speaker 3: little bit. If you look at kenpom dot com where
Speaker 3: they track all that stuff. Uh, he was pretty deep
Speaker 3: negative assists to turn assist percentages versus turnover percentage into
Speaker 3: two years at Oklahoma. In his one season at Kentucky
Speaker 3: was basically one to one. So let's could he maybe
Speaker 3: you know, get that assist percentage higher and have a
Speaker 3: you know, significant plus assist to turnover ratio in terms
Speaker 3: of those percentages.
Speaker 5: You know, that's that's where the you know.
Speaker 3: Playmakings, last decision making comes in. One of the stories
Speaker 3: I read about him going through the process was somebody
Speaker 3: wrote this at one point. One of the little of
Speaker 3: the feedback he got was like, could get in a
Speaker 3: little better shape. And it certainly doesn't look like any
Speaker 3: of us, he's out of shape. But for that next level,
Speaker 3: you know, they're thinking, Okay, what you're in great shape. Now,
Speaker 3: what if you took that to another little higher level?
Speaker 5: And what would that look like?
Speaker 3: And could you sustain your peak production for a longer period.
Speaker 3: So all of those things, None of that's massive improvement,
Speaker 3: but those kinds of things I would think, you know,
Speaker 3: Will should be powerful motivators for him, because the better
Speaker 3: he gets at making that ten to fifteen percent improvement
Speaker 3: on two or three things, the wealthier he is likely
Speaker 3: to be a year from now.
Speaker 1: And you know what's interesting is that when we talked
Speaker 1: to him today and asked him about what he had
Speaker 1: heard from the scouts of GMS or whatever. He brought
Speaker 1: up three point shooting and he said, you know, they
Speaker 1: told him, we think you're pretty good, but we want
Speaker 1: to see more in which year falls right in line
Speaker 1: with what you know, Pop have been saying about volume shooting.
Speaker 1: And he was not a volume shooter, but you know
Speaker 1: Pope wants those thirty to thirty five.
Speaker 5: Right exactly for the team.
Speaker 3: And and you know there was a time like early
Speaker 3: last year Otegas started out, Uh, he was, you know,
Speaker 3: shooting a healthy percentage there early and then I thought
Speaker 3: there was a stretch where he you would see the
Speaker 3: ball swinging to him and you know, the first reactions
Speaker 3: take that and.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so to get to the point where you know.
Speaker 3: He's you know, he's confident enough in it himself, uh,
Speaker 3: to you know, to look for it and to take
Speaker 3: it when the when the shot presents itself, rather than
Speaker 3: you know, think about it for a second. And part
Speaker 3: of you know, this as far as improvement, something Mark
Speaker 3: Pope has talked about just in general, not just with Otaga,
Speaker 3: but just with all the players that go through his.
Speaker 5: System.
Speaker 3: Into the second year, the decisions, it's easier to make
Speaker 3: the decisions faster and a lot of what he is,
Speaker 3: how he's designed his system has to do with being
Speaker 3: able to, you know, make decisions fast and as the
Speaker 3: ball you know, moves around the perimeter or in and out.
Speaker 3: And with that year under his belt, Otega should be
Speaker 3: able to make those decisions faster and all those things.
Speaker 3: Can you lead him to be just a little bit better.
Speaker 3: It's not anything particularly, you know, massive improvement in numbers,
Speaker 3: it's just you know, making a few tweaks that kind
Speaker 3: of take him from the book.
Speaker 5: A few years ago good to great.
Speaker 1: Interesting, and another guy with a chance to go from
Speaker 1: good to great talk to us today. Brandon Garrison, and
Speaker 1: you know, a returning veteran, talked about the effect that
Speaker 1: he had or that working with the Mariy Williams had
Speaker 1: on him when he said, you know, number one was
Speaker 1: Amari telling him don't take any days off, you know,
Speaker 1: work hard every day. And he said that was the
Speaker 1: biggest lesson he took. So I'm going to be really
Speaker 1: curious to see not just his skill set improving. I
Speaker 1: don't know that we need to see Garrison chucking up
Speaker 1: more threes, but uh, you know, does he stand in
Speaker 1: a foul trouble? Does he play more minutes, what kind
Speaker 1: of minutes? Who does Pope pair him with in terms
Speaker 1: of the other bigs. You know, he's going to be
Speaker 1: I really think, uh, kind of curious this year, you
Speaker 1: know what.
Speaker 5: I mean, He's got a lot of upside. And I
Speaker 5: talked to MIKEL.
Speaker 3: McClain, assistant coaches after he got his new contract, and
Speaker 3: he mentioned, you know, camera of the exact number once
Speaker 3: there's maybe you know, maybe he's taken you know, five
Speaker 3: to seven threes a game or something, so they they
Speaker 3: are looking for him to take more of them, and
Speaker 3: I think that for him, for him, I think back
Speaker 3: to that Oklahoma game where Kentucky won the one out
Speaker 3: in Norman where he it was one of the first
Speaker 3: games where they played a little longer stretch with Brandon
Speaker 3: and Amari together and it worked in that game. Anyway,
Speaker 3: there were times when you know, from it fears the
Speaker 3: Oklahoma guards during my fears being a top ten draft pick,
Speaker 3: and he was having a big game that night, but
Speaker 3: there were times that Beg would switch off on him
Speaker 3: and could guard him and showed the ability to guard
Speaker 3: him for short stretches anyway. You know, as a as
Speaker 3: a five on a one, you know you can if
Speaker 3: he can, you know, build on that that that would
Speaker 3: be a valuable skill for him for you know, his
Speaker 3: overall game at the next level, you know, and with
Speaker 3: Brandon it was a lot of flashes, and I think, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, what the best version of him could look like.
Speaker 3: And I think the challenge is to make those kind
Speaker 3: of periods last longer. One thing Michael talked about was
Speaker 3: they and I think BG had some little physical things,
Speaker 3: nothing major, that kept him from maybe being in peak
Speaker 3: shape at the start of last year.
Speaker 5: So I think one of the big emphasis points of
Speaker 5: emphasis for him is to.
Speaker 3: Get yourself into you know, elite level condition and then
Speaker 3: be able to, you know, because they track all this
Speaker 3: stuff with their analytics, be able to sustain your high
Speaker 3: level of play for longer and the better you know
Speaker 3: he can do because he does. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: different things he could do for them, you know.
Speaker 5: And but.
Speaker 3: You know, the old thing is, you know, from the NFL,
Speaker 3: you can't make the club and the tub. You know,
Speaker 3: it's hard to make an impact on the court when
Speaker 3: you're not on the court. So you know, be able
Speaker 3: to be in that elite level shape to stay out
Speaker 3: there for longer, stretches and the way you do that
Speaker 3: is stay in the productivity, and this is a lot
Speaker 3: of different things he can do for them, And I'm
Speaker 3: kind of excited about what his next year can look
Speaker 3: like because I think, because you know, I'm Aari played
Speaker 3: so well that we didn't see as much of Brandon
Speaker 3: last season that I think people may be sleeping a
Speaker 3: little bit on what he could do. And then all
Speaker 3: the excitement of Quaintin's and Elevitch and the new big
Speaker 3: guys that are coming in that people may be sleeping
Speaker 3: on beg a little bit for what his second year
Speaker 3: in the system could look like.
Speaker 1: I'm also curious about his passing ability. Amari Williams was
Speaker 1: so good at it, and now that Garrison's got that
Speaker 1: year under his belt and is making that year one
Speaker 1: to year two move that Mark Pope's is almost always
Speaker 1: his players and coaches get better. It's going to be
Speaker 1: fascinating And whatever happens, Tom Leach will call the action
Speaker 1: and you can hear him chat about this and other
Speaker 1: topics every morning on The Leach Report Monday through Friday
Speaker 1: on this very radio station, following him on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Tom Leachka. Why I thank you, brother, we'll talk football
Speaker 1: next time because the season's coming up, all right, have
Speaker 1: a good one, you do, and up next. Keith Farmer
Speaker 1: from l EX eighteen and BBN Tonight here on a
Speaker 1: Big Blue and Sider six thirty wlap. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blueing Sider, joining us now a long time
Speaker 1: friend of the shower buddy, Keith Farmer from BBN Tonight,
Speaker 1: l EX eighteen earlier today covering a story putting a
Speaker 1: feature together at the Chris Loft and Darius Miller camp
Speaker 1: over in Maysville. They've been doing this for two or
Speaker 1: three years now, right, came in shoot more than that.
Speaker 6: Man, I feel like they've probably got some guys that
Speaker 6: have played up, even some ladies have played up in
Speaker 6: the high school by now.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 6: I'm interested in, you know, and just finding out so
Speaker 6: much more about him and seeing about this camp because
Speaker 6: they've done it for a long time and obviously well
Speaker 6: known names that are from the Mason County area. So
Speaker 6: it's really cool to see them still doing this.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I'm older than dirt, as you know, but I remember
Speaker 1: being over there for both players, one then the other
Speaker 1: when they committed, and I remember Darius committing to Kentucky.
Speaker 1: And I remember one of the questions somebody put to him,
Speaker 1: because he was a really good you might recall it,
Speaker 1: it's really good football player receiver, and somebody asked him,
Speaker 1: you know, are you going to try to play football now?
Speaker 1: He said, I'm tired of going over the middle. I
Speaker 1: think the right joy yeah, oh yeah, a national title,
Speaker 1: state championship, and a pro title over in Germany. And
Speaker 1: then Chris Lofton was a great high school player, but
Speaker 1: he just didn't have many D one programs interested in him.
Speaker 1: And we had heard you he was looking at Georgetown College,
Speaker 1: and then Tennessee had a kid back out of a
Speaker 1: Scollie and Buzz Peterson had liked Chris a little bit,
Speaker 1: said okay, how about it? And now that's one of
Speaker 1: the greatest success stories in the history of the SEC,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 6: And I think just people thought he couldn't let his
Speaker 6: size get his three pointers off, and he taught everybody,
Speaker 6: no big deal, right, that it was easy to do.
Speaker 5: Man. I think does he.
Speaker 6: Still hold the record for three pointers at Tennessee?
Speaker 5: I'm not sure.
Speaker 6: If not, he's got to still be top three. I
Speaker 6: would think, you know, not but yeah, amazing, And you
Speaker 6: know the great thing that.
Speaker 1: Happened for him. I know a lot of people later
Speaker 1: should have gone to Kentucky, but because he went to Tennessee,
Speaker 1: he got to play. And he wouldn't. He didn't was
Speaker 1: not going to get the minutes at Kentucky. That he
Speaker 1: got to Tennessee right away because Tennessee was struggling. But
Speaker 1: the other thing he did came in this is a
Speaker 1: good lesson for the campers. And I'm sure they'll hear
Speaker 1: about this if they haven't already. He I'm told he
Speaker 1: lived in the weight room and when he wasn't doing that,
Speaker 1: he was getting up five hundred shots today. And look
Speaker 1: look how it served him. Look what he turned into.
Speaker 6: So he is one of the great stories, isn't he
Speaker 6: because of his work ethic and because he wanted to
Speaker 6: prove people wrong and so hated that it was Tennessee.
Speaker 6: But at the same time loved the kid, and you
Speaker 6: know what he became and all of that, and it
Speaker 6: doesn't matter where it was. I mean, you know, he
Speaker 6: he taught people, especially campers. Now, hey, you put in
Speaker 6: the work ethic, you got a chance to make yourself
Speaker 6: special no matter where you go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially as a shooter. I mean, if you're not
Speaker 1: seven feet tall, that's one thing. But yeah, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're he's not the biggest kind of world. But
Speaker 1: his mechanics were great. H he didn't have Darius Miller size,
Speaker 1: but he sure has the dead eye. Anyhow. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: the middle of all this, we get the news about
Speaker 1: Vince Marrow. A lot of chatter about that over the
Speaker 1: last twenty four hours he had flirted with jobs before,
Speaker 1: he had flirted with Louisville before. Uh that said, were
Speaker 1: you not totally stunned when he took the job, because man,
Speaker 1: when you see it on the internet and you know
Speaker 1: what goes now for in black and white, it's pretty sobering,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 6: I think you know, it felt like we had passed
Speaker 6: all that you said, Like you said, there have been
Speaker 6: head coaching jobs, There have been tithed in jobs, you know,
Speaker 6: different conferences, different school and it just felt like one
Speaker 6: of those that we were past that, and that he
Speaker 6: a just gonna ride ride it out with stoops. And
Speaker 6: so I was a little bit shocked this time because
Speaker 6: I didn't I just didn't feel like it was ever
Speaker 6: gonna happen.
Speaker 3: Uh so hard to hear it.
Speaker 6: And hopefully it doesn't have as big an impact as
Speaker 6: we think it could on the Kentucky program, because you know,
Speaker 6: he he really brought a lot of great players in
Speaker 6: and we'll see where Kentucky goes from here.
Speaker 1: But of course, recruiting has changed so much over the
Speaker 1: last few years. I just got done talking to Tom
Speaker 1: each about this. It's maybe more so now the transfer
Speaker 1: portal versus going into a kid's home and asking mom
Speaker 1: and dad to you know, let us have your son
Speaker 1: for four years when in fact it maybe you sure
Speaker 1: won two or three years. Do you think that had
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way of knowing. We're speculating, but basically,
Speaker 1: schools are having to change ways they do business now, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6: And I think at the same time, one of the
Speaker 6: things that he was good at for Kentucky he was, hey, Okay,
Speaker 6: you're going to this school for now, but don't forget us,
Speaker 6: because you know, we're here if you want to come back,
Speaker 6: you know. And I feel like he was always having
Speaker 6: those relationships that you could always count on a kid.
Speaker 6: Maybe you know, hey, three years down the road, I
Speaker 6: want to go back to Kentucky. Because they're they're still
Speaker 6: maybe not in contact trying to recruit me, but hey,
Speaker 6: they've always been so nice and there was never a
Speaker 6: burned bridge, you know, with that, and so I think
Speaker 6: that might be something that I don't think they'll totally
Speaker 6: miss that because I feel like Kentucky has a program
Speaker 6: has been good about that. But certainly Merrill was good
Speaker 6: about building those relationships.
Speaker 1: Well you think Wandale was the best example.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Yeah, I think so, I totally do, because you know, hey,
Speaker 6: you go off to Nebraska, but we're not gonna, you know,
Speaker 6: bad mouth here. We're just gonna, you know, wait on you.
Speaker 6: And if you want to come back here, we're waiting
Speaker 6: on you. And sure enough it happened. He came back,
Speaker 6: and you know the rest of history.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even more. And I'm sure through the years
Speaker 1: coaches have said, well, if you ever change your mind
Speaker 1: or something happens. But now with the portal, that's, uh,
Speaker 1: that's going to be more prevalent than ever. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Keith Farmer of LAA eighteen and BB in tonight.
Speaker 1: We're moving into that period of year came in and
Speaker 1: of course, earlier today, your colleague Maggie Davis was over
Speaker 1: there talking with us at the otega Oway Brandon Garrison gathering.
Speaker 1: And as you know, in the summertime, that is manna
Speaker 1: from heaven, you know, to get something like that in June, July,
Speaker 1: August or whatever. But tell me about the challenges of
Speaker 1: putting that show together bb in tonight. And this isn't
Speaker 1: the first summer you've done it, and you know, again
Speaker 1: just having to fill the time and make it entertaining.
Speaker 6: I feel like, you know, really that first year we
Speaker 6: were like, oh boy, what are we going to do
Speaker 6: in the summer, you know, and it just seemed like
Speaker 6: we always had something pop up. I don't know what
Speaker 6: it would be now, I will say there's occasional times
Speaker 6: when you get into like July, right before the SEC
Speaker 6: football meetings, you know, come up and the coaches and
Speaker 6: the players go there, there's just a little bit of issue.
Speaker 6: They are trying to find something going on. But as
Speaker 6: you know now, I mean, you know, the basketball team
Speaker 6: reported June fifth, I think it was, and you've got
Speaker 6: you know, football players, you know, reporting pretty soon if
Speaker 6: not to come in and just work on their own
Speaker 6: or you know a lot of them don't leave. So
Speaker 6: we always seem to find, you know, things to talk
Speaker 6: about and stories to tell. It just gets a little
Speaker 6: more creative, you know, with it and makes it a
Speaker 6: little more difficult. But we certainly have a couple of
Speaker 6: those days where it is kind of tough, you know,
Speaker 6: finding some things going on.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but there's also I think more cooperation or
Speaker 1: whatever between the schools and the media because with social
Speaker 1: media now, I think universities, not just UK but everywhere
Speaker 1: realize the value of getting their message out, you know,
Speaker 1: every week, every day, every of the entire year, you know,
Speaker 1: because if we don't do it, somebody else is going
Speaker 1: to do it. So let's let's go with stuff out
Speaker 1: on social media. And that can lead to people like
Speaker 1: you and me calling up and saying, hey, let me
Speaker 1: talk to this person of this.
Speaker 6: Coach right yeah, and like even you know, we haven't
Speaker 6: done it yet, but there's a chance we might go
Speaker 6: talk to Tony Neely. Now the Sports Information Directord just
Speaker 6: went into the coast side of Hall Fame, I believe
Speaker 6: it was, and you know we did it when Susan
Speaker 6: Lax went in. So again you get a little more
Speaker 6: creative and you find those stories that maybe we would
Speaker 6: be telling during the regular school year, and obviously we
Speaker 6: have a fondness for those two and so maybe we
Speaker 6: would be telling those two story. But still, I think
Speaker 6: it's so cool to be able to just branch out
Speaker 6: and show a little bit more about what all goes
Speaker 6: into the University of Kentucky athletics department instead of just
Speaker 6: the you know, football, basketball, And that's what's been fun
Speaker 6: about it.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's what's great about being tonight. As you guys,
Speaker 1: I mean, you were all over the track meet. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got the airtime, therefore you need to fill it,
Speaker 1: but that gives you the freedom to go out and
Speaker 1: to cover the other sports, women's sports, you know, softball, everything.
Speaker 1: So again it's a shameless plug for your show, but.
Speaker 5: I do appreciate it so well.
Speaker 6: And I will say this real quick. It's like one
Speaker 6: of those things where before you know, I'm getting three
Speaker 6: minutes and we'd go to a Nottago Away Brandon Garrison
Speaker 6: press conference and you might hear just a few sound
Speaker 6: bites problem about something seconds in. But now we can
Speaker 6: tell so much more. You know, we have that half hour,
Speaker 6: we could we could spend a whole first block talking
Speaker 6: about those two guys and different topics that they want
Speaker 6: to bring up. So that's what makes it fun is
Speaker 6: to hear more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, is Keith Farmer. We'll come back and talk to
Speaker 1: you k football and other stuff on the other side
Speaker 1: of the break here on six thirty w LAP Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Sider. We're talking with Keith Farmer.
Speaker 1: Came in of course with l e X eighteen and
Speaker 1: BBN tonight and thanks to our man Corey Price, eighty
Speaker 1: one days until the start of UK football. It's going
Speaker 1: to be on top of us before we know it.
Speaker 1: And with that we just talked earlier about Vince Merrill leaving.
Speaker 1: But it is so vital for this program, this team
Speaker 1: to get off to a good start this coming season
Speaker 1: with a real challenge Toledo. We have no idea yet
Speaker 1: much about their roster, with the portal and all that,
Speaker 1: but we know they were good last year. They'd beat
Speaker 1: Mississippi State, they'd beat Pittsburgh. They have done damage before.
Speaker 1: MAC teams have come down here and played well and
Speaker 1: then right after that is Old miss So on this
Speaker 1: pivotal Mark Stoops year, Keith, this could not be a
Speaker 1: greater challenge, am I right?
Speaker 6: One? I mean, you know we'd like to believe that
Speaker 6: some of these portal guys they've brought in are the
Speaker 6: ones that are gonna help get it turned around. Kind
Speaker 6: of we saw in the last couple of years where
Speaker 6: they had some portal guys that maybe didn't pan out
Speaker 6: the way we thought. But I think they've addressed the
Speaker 6: situation with certain position groups that well, we'll get that done.
Speaker 6: But we're not going to know until we get into
Speaker 6: training camp, until we get into that first game and
Speaker 6: see how they're gelling together. Especially I'm thinking, you know,
Speaker 6: along the big blue wall, one of the places that
Speaker 6: we want to see, you know, fixed, and I believe
Speaker 6: from what I've seen that they have those guys that
Speaker 6: can get it done. But again, in this day and
Speaker 6: age of the portal, you just don't know how guys
Speaker 6: coming in for one year, or you know, guys that
Speaker 6: come in expecting maybe two years and only give you
Speaker 6: one year, You just don't know how they're going to
Speaker 6: gel right so quickly. So hopefully they're working on that
Speaker 6: right now with themselves. In the summer, a little bit
Speaker 6: of coaching I think is allowed now, is that right
Speaker 6: in the summer. I don't know if I'm seeing that
Speaker 6: correct or not a little I know exactly. I don't
Speaker 6: know if that's just in like a room situation where
Speaker 6: they can go over things or what. But in any case,
Speaker 6: I just want to see some of those situations develop.
Speaker 6: You know, it looks like they've got the pieces, but
Speaker 6: as you said, it's going to have to come a
Speaker 6: lot quicker.
Speaker 5: This year with on this coming week two.
Speaker 1: I think we all stipulated O line play is going
Speaker 1: to be the key, and there are obstacles for the
Speaker 1: defensive line as well. I'm really curious Caman about the
Speaker 1: receiver room because minus being key, minus Bearing Brown, those
Speaker 1: guys who are going to rup for huge plays at
Speaker 1: any moment of different types. I want to see now
Speaker 1: where where they come from. And I'm I'm not convinced
Speaker 1: that it's not going to happen. I really think that
Speaker 1: that might be a pleasant surprise for this team. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm whistling past the graveyard. I don't know, what do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 6: I think having Jimore Acklin come back, I think that
Speaker 6: was huge. I think just to have that voice in there,
Speaker 6: especially in year two of bush Hampton's offense, I believe that's,
Speaker 6: you know, so key and so big for them to
Speaker 6: have a guy that knows what's going on that can
Speaker 6: teach it on the field. And I believe that there's
Speaker 6: a chance, you know, I like the quarterback room, whichever
Speaker 6: one they go with. I really like the different options
Speaker 6: that they brought in at wide receiver that can you know, smaller, bigger, faster,
Speaker 6: you know, different different guys have those different characters. Yeah,
Speaker 6: and can make this a fun offense to watch if
Speaker 6: it again all comes together and they're all ready to
Speaker 6: take on bush Hampden's offense and learn it quickly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, you look back at last year
Speaker 1: when Hamden got here and inherited you know, this player,
Speaker 1: that player, the O line, that struggle guys ad the
Speaker 1: learners terminology, just as Mark Kope talked about year one
Speaker 1: to year two. I'm really curious to see this Bush
Speaker 1: Hampden offense in year two. But some of the guys
Speaker 1: who have the background with it now, A lot of
Speaker 1: guys won't, but including O linemen. But they're mature and
Speaker 1: I have a feeling they'll be able to pick up
Speaker 1: on things fairly quickly.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 6: And and you know a lot of times you hear
Speaker 6: guys say this is a similar offense to something I did.
Speaker 6: It's just the terminology, and so you know, I think
Speaker 6: they can pick up on that pretty quickly.
Speaker 5: I will say this.
Speaker 6: I talked to one guy who has now departed through
Speaker 6: the portal, and I said, what do you think about
Speaker 6: bush Hampton's offense? And he's like, oh, I loved it,
Speaker 6: he said, I really liked it, and I thought it
Speaker 6: could be successful. So I think that there was not
Speaker 6: any of that. Like if anybody's trying to say it
Speaker 6: wasn't a good offense or guys didn't catch on or
Speaker 6: this or that, I think that's wrong. Yeah, And I think,
Speaker 6: you know, again, now he's had a chance. He came
Speaker 6: in so late that I think now he's got a
Speaker 6: chance to really, you know, put his finger on the
Speaker 6: offense and make it what he wants. And they went
Speaker 6: to the portal and he's got the players probably that
Speaker 6: he wanted to get and that he thinks fits that offense.
Speaker 6: And so that's why I have, you know, some beliefs
Speaker 6: that in year two it can be something special.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, we're talking with Keith Farmer,
Speaker 1: or the sports director at l e X eighteen and
Speaker 1: the co anchor co host of BBN Tonight, I must
Speaker 1: ask you, as a fan of the Black and Gold,
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers, I knew this was going I know
Speaker 1: you did, and I talked to Jeff Drummond yesterday. You
Speaker 1: got a new quarterback. Brother. He took my team to
Speaker 1: a championship but failed lost four other conference title game.
Speaker 1: We should have been in more than one super Bowl
Speaker 1: with him. So I will always believe he underachieved as
Speaker 1: a Packer, but I appreciate what he did do. Uh,
Speaker 1: what does this mean? Do you think for your beloved Steelers? Playoffs?
Speaker 1: Deep run?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 6: I think that they can smith playoffs and maybe make
Speaker 6: it in I don't think they're gonna be division winner,
Speaker 6: but I was okay, Like at first, I wasn't excited
Speaker 6: about him even being an option. When they got Mason
Speaker 6: Rudolph back, that gave me hope. That okay, Now I'm
Speaker 6: okay with it, really, you know, because yeah, because Mason's
Speaker 6: been in Pittsburgh, he knows about it. I'm not sure
Speaker 6: he ran the same offense before, but he had that
Speaker 6: year playing down with the Titans where he had more
Speaker 6: experience on the field. So I thought, okay, if it
Speaker 6: comes down to it, and Aaron doesn't pan out, then
Speaker 6: Mason Rudolph's there and can pick up the flack, or
Speaker 6: they can, you know, even just take the option of
Speaker 6: going with the rookie and just kind of bring Will
Speaker 6: Howard along. So I am better with it now with
Speaker 6: the two that they had there. I feel like Rogers
Speaker 6: has still a strong arm, and I think he's probably
Speaker 6: going to read the field better than other guys that
Speaker 6: have even been in there, and so that gives me
Speaker 6: some excitement. And I know he's not going to take
Speaker 6: a hit, so there's probably gonna be some thrown thrown,
Speaker 6: you know, to no man here or there. But I
Speaker 6: still think he's got the arm, and I still think
Speaker 6: he can read the field, so I think it can
Speaker 6: gives them a chance at sniffing playoffs.
Speaker 1: You got rid of a high profile receiver, but you
Speaker 1: go ahead and get DK Metcalf, who at his best
Speaker 1: I just though was phenomenon and I remember him beating
Speaker 1: Kentucky on a catch in the corner of the end
Speaker 1: zone in the last play of a game. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we still have a target or two. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: who is this guy? I mean, which which Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: are we going to see, yeah, and is he going
Speaker 1: to be what kind of presence will he be in
Speaker 1: the locker room? That sort of thing. You got to
Speaker 1: wonder about that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's the big key, Yes, I think so, because
Speaker 6: that that can be the worry. You know, if he's
Speaker 6: not all in on being a good teammate, then that
Speaker 6: can make it more difficult. I'm actually more worried about
Speaker 6: running back right now. So you know, which, you know,
Speaker 6: Warren got some playing time, but he wasn't an everyday back,
Speaker 6: and then you got a rookie after that, so well,
Speaker 6: we'll see how it all pans out. But I'm I'm
Speaker 6: a little more excited about it.
Speaker 1: Then need to go re sign Benny Snow, Yeah, that'd
Speaker 1: be great. Yeah, I mean, and Benny did okay, but
Speaker 1: then the next thing, you know, the draft, Now they
Speaker 1: drafted over him a nag was a Najie Harris, Yeah
Speaker 1: it was, Yeah, and then he's gone. So but running
Speaker 1: backs generally last about three years in the NFL. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm going to root for your boy.
Speaker 1: I really like Mike Tomlins, I mean I do think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've said before that if he left the Steelers eighty
Speaker 1: five percent of the teams in the NFL would look
Speaker 1: it away to hire him. So this is going to
Speaker 1: be an interesting mix, isn't it.
Speaker 6: It is it is Yeah, and you know Tom has
Speaker 6: been a little bit on the hot seat, so we'll
Speaker 6: see how. You know, he's he's kind of sticking his
Speaker 6: neck out there as well, taking this chance. So but
Speaker 6: I agree with you. I think people would definitely take
Speaker 6: him in a heartbeat as the head coach.
Speaker 1: He may be the toughest head coach in the NFL,
Speaker 1: so it's hard not to root for him. He is
Speaker 1: Keith Farmer of la X eighteen, BBN Tonight. Watch for
Speaker 1: him each and every evening and on the both shows
Speaker 1: on the News and on BBN tonight. Came in we
Speaker 1: will see you down the road.
Speaker 5: Thanks, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Keith, to Tom Leach, to John Clay.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 2: Yes, is of making you tuck what your little go card, battery, golf, god.
Speaker 6: Whatever, and would you pick an accent and stick with it.
Speaker 2: At such such tact, taking anything anything on such cana?
Speaker 2: I think then don't
Speaker 5: Do