Speaker 1: Nobody panic we're going to have a better football team.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Big Low Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 2: as we basically finish up this hour following UK women's basketball.
Speaker 2: And I will tell you right upfront this is pre
Speaker 2: recorded as our majority of our shows, so not going
Speaker 2: to talk about tonight's basketball game. And as we speak,
Speaker 2: Kentucky's playing volleyball, So if you want to keep an
Speaker 2: eye on that, literally turn over to ESPN Plus and
Speaker 2: that's where you'll see yours. Truly at least you'll hear
Speaker 2: me working that one as well, So we're all over
Speaker 2: the place. But yeah, we weren't quite sure when you
Speaker 2: and UK women's basketball would end, so we got to
Speaker 2: fill to the top of the hour and here we are.
Speaker 2: So look, why don't we talk some football first, because
Speaker 2: it is the day after signing day and there are
Speaker 2: still some names being tossed around out there locally and nationally.
Speaker 2: But we will tell you that, of course, Mark Stoops
Speaker 2: was in a good mood. I always go back to
Speaker 2: what Rich Brooks said on a signing day. One signing
Speaker 2: day in particular, he was making his opening comment at
Speaker 2: the podium and he stopped himself, and he had this
Speaker 2: rye grin on his face. This is what I liked,
Speaker 2: one of the many things I liked about Rich Brooks.
Speaker 2: He had this dry sense of humor. But he stopped
Speaker 2: and he said he heard himself saying, you know, we're
Speaker 2: really happy with the group we got. You know, we're
Speaker 2: delighted with our recruise. Then he stopped himself and he said,
Speaker 2: have you ever heard a coach stand up and say,
Speaker 2: you know, we didn't have a very good year. We
Speaker 2: didn't get the guys we wanted. Here the guys we've got.
Speaker 2: And that just made me laugh out loud. And to
Speaker 2: this day I think about that every time I hear
Speaker 2: a coach on signing day. I don't care who it
Speaker 2: is talking about how delighted they are they got exactly
Speaker 2: what they wanted, or you know, if they didn't get somebody, well,
Speaker 2: let's worry about the guys we did get. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: but you know what, the guys you didn't get, they
Speaker 2: may come back and kick your butt somedays. So it's
Speaker 2: all the same. But that's all right, that's all part
Speaker 2: of it. And signing day again a new beginning. And
Speaker 2: if ever there were a program and needed one this year.
Speaker 2: It was Kentucky. That's why you heard the comments at
Speaker 2: the top of the show for Mark Stuufs saying, nobody panic,
Speaker 2: We're going to be better, because that's what signing day
Speaker 2: is all about. It's all about hope. And you know,
Speaker 2: if you don't have hope, you don't got nothing. So
Speaker 2: we still have to see how the portal's gonna play out,
Speaker 2: swinging door in both directions, and you need a recall. Now,
Speaker 2: you haven't heard many, at least up until I'm recording
Speaker 2: this comments from Marx Stoops about Dane Key leaving, because
Speaker 2: when he spoke to the media on signing Day, he
Speaker 2: didn't yet know that Dane was leaving. That announcement came
Speaker 2: later in the day. And what's he going to say.
Speaker 2: You know, he wishes him well, he's a great player.
Speaker 2: Wish we still had him, I'm sure he'd say. But
Speaker 2: if Dane Key is going to make a big jump
Speaker 2: next season as a player and make himself more palatable
Speaker 2: for the NFL, got to go someplace within the statablished
Speaker 2: line and established QB and an established offense that will
Speaker 2: feature him. Not that this one didn't feature in Kentucky
Speaker 2: tried to feature him, but really after that Old Miss game,
Speaker 2: and if you recall that Old Miss game, those defenders
Speaker 2: held him, interfered with him as much as they could
Speaker 2: get away with, and that some they didn't get away with.
Speaker 2: And there were some big penalties in that game against
Speaker 2: defenders who tried to hinder or stop Dayane Key. And
Speaker 2: I remember a touchdown pass he caught. He made a motion,
Speaker 2: pointed or whatever to a d back. I see, I
Speaker 2: caught it anyway, So every defense from that point forward, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they worried about Barry and Browny and they guarded him
Speaker 2: over the top with bracket coverage and all that, but
Speaker 2: they made it a point to body up on Dayne
Speaker 2: Key and make sure somebody hit him all the time.
Speaker 2: And that's going to happen even in an established offense.
Speaker 2: But you got a better shot if you're Dane Key
Speaker 2: if you go someplace where they're not rebuilding, and that's
Speaker 2: what Kentucky's going to be doing, absolutely going to be doing,
Speaker 2: but they will do it without a wide receivers coach.
Speaker 2: At least, the guy they've had to kill shore to
Speaker 2: buy all accounts did a nice job and he was
Speaker 2: highly coveted by Stoops to the point where he wrote
Speaker 2: a big buyout into his contract, and he kind of
Speaker 2: grinned Riley yesterday. There was the last question he took
Speaker 2: at the news conference when he talked about the fact
Speaker 2: that he tried to do the best he could when
Speaker 2: it came to locking in shorts with a contract for
Speaker 2: at least a couple of years.
Speaker 1: I was pretty pretty stern with my contract and with
Speaker 1: my discussions a year ago, and that didn't didn't didn't
Speaker 1: hold up. So I got to keep on keep on
Speaker 1: working that. You know. I was pretty demanding that I
Speaker 1: needed at least a two year commitment out of that
Speaker 1: and put a pretty large buyout on it. But some
Speaker 1: schools weren't afraid. Does write a check, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Wish him luck. I do appreciate what he's done.
Speaker 1: I think he's a very talented young coach and I
Speaker 1: wish him the best. Does you know kind of hurt
Speaker 1: for our continuity that I am looking for. The great
Speaker 1: thing is I have some young guys in that room
Speaker 1: and gas and some guys that are pretty impressive that
Speaker 1: can easily handle it for now, and.
Speaker 2: I think that's the key for now. It sounds like
Speaker 2: he's going to go find somebody, maybe not promote from within,
Speaker 2: which is understandable. I think he needs an established experience.
Speaker 2: Wide receivers coach gas generally go away and then come
Speaker 2: back with more experience. Montavan Quizenberry I thought was just
Speaker 2: a great get on this and he's the smallest guy
Speaker 2: in this class five nine one seventy three. But everybody
Speaker 2: I know who has seen this kid play raves about him.
Speaker 2: I always listened to Steve mossmail colleague from w KYT,
Speaker 2: who goes out and shoots a lot of high school
Speaker 2: football games. He loves shooting high school football, and he
Speaker 2: was raving about this kid early. He was raving about
Speaker 2: Boyle County early. But this is a kid who could
Speaker 2: be you never know, could be in the in the
Speaker 2: mold of He won't be Wandale Robinson, but a similar
Speaker 2: player slot receiver who can really make things happen and
Speaker 2: become a best buddy of a quarterback, whether it's Cutter,
Speaker 2: Bully or one of the future guys. They signed two.
Speaker 2: It's always interesting to me when they signed two quarterbacks
Speaker 2: because it means likely someone will either change positions or transfer.
Speaker 2: But you got to recruit competition to the position. Stone
Speaker 2: Saunders QB six one two ten from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I've
Speaker 2: been to Harrisburg more than once. And also Brennan Ward
Speaker 2: from Columbus, Ohio six three to two oh five, and
Speaker 2: the Stoops talked about both, starting with Saunders, who apparently
Speaker 2: has thrown for a lot of yards up in Harrisburg.
Speaker 1: He's thrown for so many yards he should break the record.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he plays Friday or Saturday. Friday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it'll probably break the all time yards in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: I think he already has the touchdowns. And so he's
Speaker 1: just got so much good film out there and just
Speaker 1: just a ballplayer, you know, and so he's just a guy.
Speaker 1: You know, it just doesn't take long to put on
Speaker 1: the film. And just like the way he plays ball
Speaker 1: and obviously throwing for that many yards and that many touchdowns,
Speaker 1: you know, he could distribute to football. And then Brennan
Speaker 1: is a guy that we came in. He came into
Speaker 1: camp and we watched in person, you know, and you know,
Speaker 1: no disrespect that I mean this in a bad well,
Speaker 1: but the probably didn't play on as good as a team,
Speaker 1: you know, and but was impressive with a skill set
Speaker 1: in person.
Speaker 2: Fans always get revved up when quarterbacks signed. They want
Speaker 2: to see him yesterday. They don't want to wait for
Speaker 2: a couple of years or two and a half years
Speaker 2: or whatever. A kids still got to finish his senior season,
Speaker 2: but it takes a while with quarterbacks. Very few of
Speaker 2: them come in as true freshman and get things done.
Speaker 2: So lots to talk about with this class, including the
Speaker 2: defensive side of the football. And the Wildcats got a
Speaker 2: kid out of Frankfurt. This might be the most intriguing
Speaker 2: local pickup. Jvon Campbell played at Western Hill six five
Speaker 2: two seventy that's right, high school senior six ' five
Speaker 2: two seventy and edge rusher. They can plug right in
Speaker 2: and I don't know, he'll probably see some action as
Speaker 2: a freshman. Vince Merriw talked about how much he loved
Speaker 2: getting this kid who can play, obviously, like most of him,
Speaker 2: more than one sport.
Speaker 3: He had legit committable offers to everybody in the country.
Speaker 3: What everybody was offering him. I mean I had to
Speaker 3: even pinch myself, like, man, I must be pretty good.
Speaker 3: He turned down this one. What I really like about
Speaker 3: that kid, And I know Stu and a brand like
Speaker 3: about him. He's very powerful. My nephew John, this is
Speaker 3: a small little story. So my nephew John, who lived
Speaker 3: with me. This about six y nine. They played a
Speaker 3: team in Frankfurt and I was like, y'all lost, and
Speaker 3: they said, yeah, John kind of got you know, he
Speaker 3: kind of got beat up by this forward they had,
Speaker 3: and so I didn't go to the game. I didn't
Speaker 3: realize that that was Campbell until he told me when
Speaker 3: I started critics said, you know I played against sure
Speaker 3: your nephew, And I said, oh, you the dude that
Speaker 3: beat the crap out of him. I said, what you
Speaker 3: do to me? Said, I gave him twenty twenty rebounds
Speaker 3: and twenty five points, and so I was like, well,
Speaker 3: you're pretty good. So I think this kid, he's exactly
Speaker 3: what you look for.
Speaker 2: What sounds to me is though he fits into their
Speaker 2: plans immediately. What are their plans? Well, that depends on
Speaker 2: whose stays and goes. You know about Dame Key, you
Speaker 2: know about Silver leaving some other guys who, really, with
Speaker 2: all due respect, weren't playing that much. Not that they're
Speaker 2: not good players, they just didn't want to wait. And
Speaker 2: Stoops talked about that about the fact that you know,
Speaker 2: back in the day, kids would wait a red shirt
Speaker 2: freshman maybe into their sophomore junior year year to play,
Speaker 2: but not anymore. They don't really have to now, do they,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And sometimes those are the conversations you're having with guys
Speaker 1: that maybe want to leave. It's like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: back in the old days, we really you know, developed,
Speaker 1: and you're on track and you're going to be a
Speaker 1: really good player. But sometimes they just want to go
Speaker 1: play right now, you know, And that's okay. You know,
Speaker 1: guys that you know that are in our developmental phase,
Speaker 1: but they want to go be the guy somewhere. That's
Speaker 1: that is their decision, and that's just the changing landscape.
Speaker 1: And we're totally okay with that. You know, Continuity is
Speaker 1: very important, but in today's world, you know, you've got
Speaker 1: to do the best you can year to year. And
Speaker 1: let's be honest, but we didn't have a very good year.
Speaker 1: So I'm pretty pretty excited about change, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. We need we need some positive change.
Speaker 2: That's why this could be the most important and I
Speaker 2: think it will be. Given the fact that the portal's
Speaker 2: only been around really for a little while. This will
Speaker 2: be the biggest portal class if you will, under Mark
Speaker 2: Stoops and his tenure here at Kentucky. But keep in
Speaker 2: mind there's a lot of money floating around out there.
Speaker 2: It could draw some people away. If you look at
Speaker 2: the national picture, kids flip flopping left and right, and
Speaker 2: of course on signing day, the rich kid Richard Literally
Speaker 2: there's a story out there about Phil Knight and how
Speaker 2: much he helped Oregon earn the status of big winner in
Speaker 2: the early signing period. He helped Oregon flip a four
Speaker 2: star quarterback away from cal helped Oregon hold off of Florida,
Speaker 2: hold off Florida when it came after a five star receiver,
Speaker 2: and money talks, there's no question about that. I thought.
Speaker 2: One of the more interesting stories about a kid flipping
Speaker 2: came with the brother of Nico. I am a Laeva
Speaker 2: Tennessee quarterback. His brother is a big time QB and
Speaker 2: his name is Madden. He flipped from Ucla to Arkansas
Speaker 2: without ever visiting Arkansas. And if you think it's just
Speaker 2: because he likes to play in the SEC and play
Speaker 2: for Bobby Petrino in his offense, come on, there's money
Speaker 2: out there in Arkansas as well. They had a personal
Speaker 2: relationship Eric b Enemy is now the OC at UCLA,
Speaker 2: which I had forgotten about, and they really liked him.
Speaker 2: But he may be leaving UCLA. But the bottom line,
Speaker 2: I gotta think they got a better offer financially, and
Speaker 2: they're from California to flip from UCLA to Arkansas. So
Speaker 2: lots of that going on, no surprise. And I'm sure
Speaker 2: in the time between us recording this and you hearing it,
Speaker 2: some folks have flipped already. So we'll talk more about
Speaker 2: that tomorrow right here on the Big Blue Sider. Up next,
Speaker 2: we'll talk Kentucky basketball. Kat's already on their way to Seattle,
Speaker 2: may already be there. More to come here on six
Speaker 2: point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 2: Dick Gabriel with you're wrapping up this abbreviated edition following
Speaker 2: UK women's basketball, and as I mentioned earlier, we pre record,
Speaker 2: so I have no idea if the Wildcats want or not.
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm busy doing volleyball. You can check it
Speaker 2: out on ESPN Plus. As the Wildcats are playing Cleveland
Speaker 2: State the opening round to the nca Tournament, hoping to
Speaker 2: take on the winner of Minnesota and Western Kentucky in
Speaker 2: the lexingon sub regional Saturday night, Kentucky at Gonzaga technically
Speaker 2: in Seattle, not on the Gonzaga home court, but it
Speaker 2: should be an extremely pro Zag's crowd. It'll be another
Speaker 2: tough one for Mark Pope's Wildcats. They did not handle
Speaker 2: Clemson very well. Let the Tigers push them around a bit.
Speaker 2: You heard him on the Coaches Show last night. You
Speaker 2: might not have heard this comment from him though, on
Speaker 2: the postgame show with Tom Leach. It was in the
Speaker 2: wee hours following that loss to Clemson down there in
Speaker 2: Little John Arena, as Pope talked about the fact that, yeah,
Speaker 2: he was proud of the way his team fought back
Speaker 2: after falling behind, but one of the biggest problems was
Speaker 2: at least defensive and offense as well. They kind of
Speaker 2: abandoned their their core principles.
Speaker 4: Proud of our guys fight, proud of their competitive nature
Speaker 4: and their together So I'm proud of all those things.
Speaker 4: We just we just had to learn to play better
Speaker 4: through that. What things do they need to learn from
Speaker 4: this experience? Yeah, we started out, you know, on the
Speaker 4: defensive end, we had some real breakdowns because we were
Speaker 4: kind of over.
Speaker 2: Playing our hand.
Speaker 4: And be specific with that, there were sometimes where, you know,
Speaker 4: we we completely bailed on some first things, first and downs.
Speaker 4: There's sometimes where we were pushed so far out that
Speaker 4: we gave up easy rifle cuts and it was just
Speaker 4: us almost being overly aggressive, not kind of trusting our
Speaker 4: defensive principles to stay.
Speaker 3: In the game.
Speaker 4: And then and then I felt like offensively we spent
Speaker 4: a lot of time, especially in the second half, but
Speaker 4: also a bunch of moves of the first half we
Speaker 4: were everybody was so eager to try and fix things
Speaker 4: for their team on their own, and we rarely were
Speaker 4: in spaces where we actually looked like us trusting how
Speaker 4: we play and leaning into how we played. Fort guys
Speaker 4: leading to each other to great job leaning into how
Speaker 4: we play.
Speaker 2: It was almost as though they were averted, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're playing a little bit of a different
Speaker 2: style or maybe a lot different compared to where they
Speaker 2: used to be, but they just accorded to Pope, didn't
Speaker 2: really stick to what they should have been doing, what
Speaker 2: they know to be doing. And I think we saw
Speaker 2: that in early when Kentucky had a lead and was
Speaker 2: playing well. You saw the cuts and you saw the
Speaker 2: efficient offense sometimes that Pope used the term again last night,
Speaker 2: the beautiful offense they run. I don't think that's a
Speaker 2: self serving comment either. He didn't invent this offense, but
Speaker 2: he embraced it, and Kentucky did too as a team
Speaker 2: for the first few games, including the win over Duke.
Speaker 2: You know, in the second half, Wildcats got back to
Speaker 2: what was good to them and that's why they were
Speaker 2: able to upend the Blue Devils. But Clemson just kind
Speaker 2: of beat on them and I think frustrated Kentucky and
Speaker 2: kind of took the Wildcats out of what they want
Speaker 2: to do. So now they got to learn to be
Speaker 2: more physical. But I think the other thing too is
Speaker 2: Butler's got to stay in the ballgame. La Mott. Butler
Speaker 2: is such a key and you knew this going in,
Speaker 2: but now if you don't know it distinctly, you know
Speaker 2: it now. They got to have him on the floor
Speaker 2: as much as possible. And of course he had the
Speaker 2: foul trouble and he had the ankle injury. It took
Speaker 2: him out for a little while. And they're just not
Speaker 2: the same, are they. He ended up playing short of
Speaker 2: nineteen minutes. He still was six and nine. He had
Speaker 2: sixteen points, he had five assists, he only had two turnovers,
Speaker 2: a block and a steal. So yeah, they need him
Speaker 2: on the floor for at least two thirds of the
Speaker 2: game at least, So we'll see if that plays out
Speaker 2: Saturday night. Some of the other highlights from the acc
Speaker 2: SEC Challenge. The athletic was calling it a huge upset.
Speaker 2: I don't think it really was because it was at Duke,
Speaker 2: but Duke beat Auburn eighty four to seventy eight. Auburn
Speaker 2: played well, fell behind, came back, took a late lead,
Speaker 2: couldn't hang on to it. Cooper flag went for twenty
Speaker 2: two and eleven. But interestingly they called it the signature
Speaker 2: win for the Blue Devil so far, And yeah, it
Speaker 2: probably was because the Blue Devils lost to Kentucky. To me,
Speaker 2: the bigger upset and this was not part of acc SEC.
Speaker 2: By the way, Alabama destroyed North Carolina, Creighton crushed Kansas
Speaker 2: seventy six, the sixty three first loss for Kansas and
Speaker 2: Creyton's got a good ball club. But who saw that coming?
Speaker 2: Not I no way about that. Central Florida has made
Speaker 2: inquiries back to college football about Lincoln Riley they put
Speaker 2: out a fielder put out of calls. Did something to somebody,
Speaker 2: either an agent or the school about Lincoln Riley at
Speaker 2: Southern col makes about ten million a year. Gus Malzon
Speaker 2: left he was making about four million to go be
Speaker 2: the OC at Florida State. And so now UCF, which
Speaker 2: is flirted, it's respectable, but florted with more relevance in
Speaker 2: college football. They want to go get him, and he's
Speaker 2: under fire. He's catching flak at USC. Do you make
Speaker 2: that move? As the athletic describes that, he's in a
Speaker 2: rut at USC where his teams have regressed since he
Speaker 2: got there. He's expressed no interest in this kind of move,
Speaker 2: and I got to think, especially if he had to
Speaker 2: take a significant pay cut. Keep in mind, you CF
Speaker 2: that's in Orlando. That's one of the biggest schools in America.
Speaker 2: There are more than fifty thousand students. That city is
Speaker 2: growing so fast thanks to Disney, of course, but you've
Speaker 2: got to think it's athletics are going to take a
Speaker 2: step forward fairly significantly whenever it can, because they got
Speaker 2: money to throw around. Yeah, they're right there in the
Speaker 2: middle of Miami and Florida and FSU and a bunch
Speaker 2: of other schools in that state. Would Lincoln Riley come
Speaker 2: back across the country, all the way from the west
Speaker 2: coast to the east. I would say no, at least
Speaker 2: not right now. Unless they can back up the brinks
Speaker 2: truck that's been known to happen. That's going to do it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us. That's it. Good night from the
Speaker 2: garage in lectionon every sea.
Speaker 1: Hey,