Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Oh, guess what day it is?
Speaker 3: Guess what day it is?
Speaker 4: Huh anybody, It's hump day.
Speaker 2: Yes, it is hump Day. Dick Gabrielle with you on
Speaker 2: a Wednesday edition of The Big Bloon Sider. Glad to
Speaker 2: have you along. It is game night Kentucky volleyball tonight
Speaker 2: against Louisville. It's on ESPN. You'll also hear it right
Speaker 2: here on six thirty WLAP at seven o'clock, so we're
Speaker 2: going to be with you for just an hour. And
Speaker 2: then tomorrow night it's game night as well for UK
Speaker 2: women's soccer. Off to a great start eight and oh
Speaker 2: they be an sec play at the bell seven point
Speaker 2: thirty against the Florida Gators who are three one and four.
Speaker 2: It is Ohio you week for the football Wildcats, and
Speaker 2: coming up a little bit later on bush Ham Dan
Speaker 2: will give us a progress report on the offense and
Speaker 2: what he saw after that disappointing loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of good things to like in
Speaker 2: that game, so we'll hear from him coming up a
Speaker 2: little bit later on, and of course at the twelve
Speaker 2: forty five kickoff ten thirty airtime for countdown to kickoff
Speaker 2: with Christy and Jeremy and Logan and then Tom, Jeff
Speaker 2: and I will have the call for the Cats and
Speaker 2: the Bobcats. They have played six times, all of them
Speaker 2: in Lexington, Ohio. You has won twice. First time they
Speaker 2: ever played nineteen seventy one, one of those John Ray
Speaker 2: teams miserable afternoon. Wildcats lost that one, but then one
Speaker 2: the next three before Ohio you came in in twenty
Speaker 2: oh four, spoiled homecoming when Rich Brooks was here and
Speaker 2: upset the Cats. And then most recently Kentucky beat Ohio.
Speaker 2: You think it was ten years ago when the Wildcats
Speaker 2: beat the Bobcats. So Kentucky looking to snap a two
Speaker 2: game losing skid, and you'll hear it right here on
Speaker 2: six thirty WLAP. Biggest game in the conference, if not
Speaker 2: the country. Well, it's the highest profile game simply because
Speaker 2: Tennessee plays at Oklahoma. It is the Sooners opening up
Speaker 2: SEC play. And there's such a great backstory there because
Speaker 2: Josh Hipel the Tennessee head coach and he's done a
Speaker 2: good job. Man, He's got Tennessee back and relevant. He
Speaker 2: of course is part of Oklahoma University football tradition the
Speaker 2: lore of the Sooners because he helped lead them to
Speaker 2: a national championship under Bob Stoops, Mark's brother, but he
Speaker 2: came back as an assistant coach and at one point
Speaker 2: was fired. Hypel came to Norman in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 2: right after Stoops took over at OU. Now, since World
Speaker 2: War Two, Oklahoma won four hundred and forty three games,
Speaker 2: more than any other school. But when Stoops got there
Speaker 2: in ninety nine, they hadn't had winning season since ninety three.
Speaker 2: So one of the first things he did. You remember
Speaker 2: this is hire Mike Leach. Stoops had been to DC
Speaker 2: at Florida. He helped Florida become successful under Steve Spurrier
Speaker 2: because Stoops coached the defense. Florida was always potent offensively,
Speaker 2: but their defense stunk. Well. Stoops made it a championship
Speaker 2: level defense before he got the head coaching job at Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: and he thought, back, you've heard the story who gave
Speaker 2: us the most trouble offensively when I was at Florida.
Speaker 2: Well it was Kentucky, and of course how Mummy called
Speaker 2: the plays. But Mike Leach, who had the title of
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, heavily involved in coaching quarterbacks and drawing up
Speaker 2: the air raid game plan, creating the air Raid along
Speaker 2: with Mummy. So he hires Mike Leach away from Kentucky,
Speaker 2: and that only gives him the offensive coordinator title, lets
Speaker 2: him call the place because Stoops wasn't gonna call offensive plays,
Speaker 2: so Mike Leach did it. So they started looking for
Speaker 2: a quarterback and they're bringing in people. They're bringing in
Speaker 2: Jucos and Brent Venables, now the head coach at Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: admits that they wanted somebody else. They wanted a ki
Speaker 2: Lee Smith, who ended up going to Oregon and became
Speaker 2: the third player, no second player taken in the draft
Speaker 2: behind Tim Couch. He was a bus with the Bengals,
Speaker 2: but a great college quarterback. But that's not who Mike
Speaker 2: Leach wanted. Mike Leach wanted a kid named Josh Hipel,
Speaker 2: a junior college kid from California. And Venables remembers the
Speaker 2: day that they first set eyes on Josh Hipel, who
Speaker 2: was in for a visit with the Sooners.
Speaker 5: We didn't know anything about Josh and but truth serum here,
Speaker 5: we wanted a Kiley Smith. Mike and I we we
Speaker 5: were only here for a couple of days and we
Speaker 5: were at Kansas State and we knew Mike recruited California
Speaker 5: in a A. Keeley was coming out of whatever junior college,
Speaker 5: Mount sacer somewhere, uh. And he was the prototypical dude.
Speaker 5: I can't remember how big he was, but he was
Speaker 5: a big, strong, strapping dude that could spind it. He
Speaker 5: looked the park, could run, could pass. And we didn't
Speaker 5: know anything about Josh. And but he was outside of
Speaker 5: the office windows. There's a quarterback. He's on a visit,
Speaker 5: and there was maybe two guys on a visit and
Speaker 5: he was one of them. And he was outside on
Speaker 5: the We had an old turf field down there and
Speaker 5: he was playing catch. And again I'm saying this with
Speaker 5: incredible appreciation and respect for Josh. Couldn't have been more wrong.
Speaker 5: Don't judge a book by its cover. And he was
Speaker 5: skinny and just frail, and it was in the middle
Speaker 5: of winter, just kind of pasty, and the ball was
Speaker 5: coming on. It was south Paul probably hadn't played and
Speaker 5: you know, a couple of months and the ball was
Speaker 5: wildly you know, Josh could occasionally do that, and we're like.
Speaker 6: That, ain't hit.
Speaker 3: And Leech.
Speaker 6: He didn't want to bring a Keithley Smith in on
Speaker 6: a visit.
Speaker 5: No, not interested, and so a lesson learned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was because all Hypel did was help lead
Speaker 2: the Sooners to a national championship. And you know, wasn't
Speaker 2: a big arm guy, wasn't an NFL prospect, but he
Speaker 2: was accurate. He could put the ball on the money,
Speaker 2: and that's what Leech wanted from somebody who needed to
Speaker 2: trigger the air raid. And it worked, and Josh Hipel
Speaker 2: was obviously a hero, came back as an assistant coach,
Speaker 2: came back as the OC. But and he also you know,
Speaker 2: he mentored Jason White who won the Heisman, Sam Bradford,
Speaker 2: who won the Heisman at Oklahoma. And when he became
Speaker 2: the OC, they averaged four hundred and seventy five yards
Speaker 2: per game, tenth best in college football during that span.
Speaker 2: But the offense went sour, so Stoops had to fire him,
Speaker 2: and he later called it the worst day in his
Speaker 2: eighteen years as the OU head coach. Well, now Hypel
Speaker 2: coming back with those Tennessee volunteers and a chance to
Speaker 2: get a weird kind of I don't know if you
Speaker 2: want to call it revenge. Maybe satisfaction he's done a
Speaker 2: good job at Tennessee. Speaking of Tennessee, big story came
Speaker 2: out Adam Sparks from one of the newspapers, The Knoxville
Speaker 2: News Sentinel broke the story yesterday that Tennessee football tickets
Speaker 2: will be more expensive next year and the cost most
Speaker 2: of the cost will be going to a talent fee
Speaker 2: to pay players. That's right. This is basically building up
Speaker 2: the war chest for nil money. I don't know what
Speaker 2: the rules exactly are on that. I didn't know if
Speaker 2: the schools could actually do this, but that's what's happening
Speaker 2: in Knoxville, and you better believe other schools will follow suit.
Speaker 2: But now the backlash is already starting for obvious reasons.
Speaker 2: We're already paying so much for our tickets. But Dan
Speaker 2: Murphy of ESPN reported to Tennessee last year in revenue
Speaker 2: for twenty twenty three, reported one hundred and thirty four
Speaker 2: million in football, fifty nine million on expenses, seventy five
Speaker 2: million surplus. They've got seventy five million in surplus from
Speaker 2: last year alone, and yet they're adding a ten percent
Speaker 2: talent fee to ticket prices to raise the money. It's
Speaker 2: already giving it's players. So now you've got administrators being overpaid,
Speaker 2: coaches being overpaid, opulent facilities that have cost incredible amounts
Speaker 2: of money, but now the labor force needs more. But
Speaker 2: instead of curbing expenses elsewhere, the fans will pay for it.
Speaker 2: And this has come as no surprise. And like I said,
Speaker 2: they'll make it work because fans really won't have any
Speaker 2: choice if they want to go, and right now they
Speaker 2: are successful. So you'll see other schools following suit before long,
Speaker 2: no doubt about that. There's another big story in the
Speaker 2: news involving college athletics, and of course it's the ACC naturally,
Speaker 2: Florida State and Clemson trying to leave the conference suing
Speaker 2: over there what they think is a right to leave
Speaker 2: the conference. But now the ACC has come up with
Speaker 2: a different plan. They're trying to hang on to the
Speaker 2: Seminoles and the Tigers, And yeah, I know Clemson's football
Speaker 2: programs are wreck right now, but I got to think
Speaker 2: that's temporary. But what the ACC has come up with
Speaker 2: is a plan and this just might work. They're looking
Speaker 2: at shortening the current grant of rights agreement that's on
Speaker 2: the table with the ESPN. It runs through twenty thirty
Speaker 2: six under the new proposal would be set to end
Speaker 2: at twenty thirty. And what they're looking at is a
Speaker 2: plan essentially where the money you make from the conference,
Speaker 2: if you're an ACC member, part of it would hinge
Speaker 2: on television ratings. So really, what they're doing, I think
Speaker 2: in a way they wouldn't characterize it this way. They're
Speaker 2: calling the bluff. Clemson and Florida State have said, look,
Speaker 2: we drive the bus in college football, so we drive
Speaker 2: the bus period in the ACC. And they're probably not wrong.
Speaker 2: But now here's a plan that would allow the conference
Speaker 2: to say, all right, if that's the case, if you're
Speaker 2: making more money for the league and everybody else, you'll
Speaker 2: get a bigger slice of the pie. And if it works,
Speaker 2: it works, And if you're another ACC member, you really
Speaker 2: can't complain because if those two schools are right, if
Speaker 2: they're bringing in more money combined than anybody else, you're benefiting,
Speaker 2: that tide is raising your boat, and so maybe they
Speaker 2: should get a bigger slice of the pie. But you
Speaker 2: know what, Clemson in that part of South Carolina, Spartanburg area,
Speaker 2: that's not the biggest TV market there is, and the
Speaker 2: Florida Panhandle isn't either, So they're going to be looking at,
Speaker 2: of course, the national ratings and maybe it'll work out.
Speaker 2: Maybe they'll be able to say, look, here are the
Speaker 2: numbers that indicate you're not as important as you think
Speaker 2: you are. So stay tuned for that up next. UK
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator bush ham Dan a little bit later on
Speaker 2: Sean Woods here on six thirty WLAP, Welcome back to
Speaker 2: the Big Blue Sider abbreviated program. We're going to make
Speaker 2: way at the top of the hour for Kentucky Volleyball
Speaker 2: Wildcats taking on those Louisville Cardinals, and of course this
Speaker 2: weekend it's the Wildcats and the Ohio Bobcats playing football
Speaker 2: and we'll have it for you right here ten thirty
Speaker 2: pre game twelve forty five kickoff on your number one
Speaker 2: spot for sports. Kentucky needs to bounce back in a
Speaker 2: big way. Needs a win, needs to try to match
Speaker 2: that intensity that the Wildcats had against the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 2: They also need to run the football the way they
Speaker 2: did against Uga, and the biggest reason for that was
Speaker 2: the o line blocking for Demi Sumo. Carnbay and bush
Speaker 2: ham Dan talked about how they're pleasantly surprised a little
Speaker 2: bit by how well Demi has run the ball between
Speaker 2: the tackles.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there's probably a little bit of a surprise, you know.
Speaker 7: I mean, obviously you just well, we certainly think.
Speaker 6: Highly of them. He thought highly of Demi.
Speaker 7: But anytime you go in the SEC, you play against
Speaker 7: two good defenses and do what he did, and the
Speaker 7: toughness he's running with again, it's kind of like that quarterback,
Speaker 7: you know, you just never know what to expect until
Speaker 7: they actually get those opportunities.
Speaker 6: And he's not a really nice shot.
Speaker 2: Of course, the triggerman on the offense, Rock Vandergrift, has
Speaker 2: not yet had that super game. He puts some good
Speaker 2: numbers together in the rain game against USM, and then
Speaker 2: of course ran for his life against South Carolina, played
Speaker 2: solid football against Georgia, made that big mistake that cost
Speaker 2: the Wildcats three incredibly important points when he tossed one up,
Speaker 2: But all things considered, has played solidly, according to ham Dan,
Speaker 2: with more room for improvement. Obviously.
Speaker 6: I think we know we got extremely tough, accurate player.
Speaker 6: We really do.
Speaker 7: And I've just been I've been really impressed with not
Speaker 7: being too high, not too low. I mean, we think
Speaker 7: we all got up, got to rise up, and this
Speaker 7: is a quarterback driven system and making things easier on
Speaker 7: him and all that. But you know, you look at
Speaker 7: you know how he rebounded maybe from that South Carolina
Speaker 7: game to play the school he was at previously, and
Speaker 7: how bad you want to play well in a game
Speaker 7: like that, And he was pretty steady, and I felt
Speaker 7: played well enough to go win that football game.
Speaker 6: So I think, what we know what we have there
Speaker 6: from a from a.
Speaker 7: Toughness standpoint, from a person standpoint, never a finished product.
Speaker 6: Just got to keep walking one day at a time
Speaker 6: and keep taking the next step.
Speaker 2: Mentioned earlier, Kentucky's got to match the effort and match
Speaker 2: if it possibly can, the emotional levels, the focus, all
Speaker 2: of that stuff this week, prepping for all how are
Speaker 2: you It's going to be tough, but him Dame was
Speaker 2: asked about morale coming in off that close loss to
Speaker 2: Georgia and and he pointed out that the Wildcats can
Speaker 2: take away from the prep for that game some incredibly
Speaker 2: important lessons and make it work this week.
Speaker 7: I think the thing we all realized was again the
Speaker 7: attention to detail, getting lined up, playing fast, eliminating penalties.
Speaker 6: All those things made us drastically better.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: Now, did the scoreboard show it? Absolutely not?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 7: And so but I think when you go through a
Speaker 7: week like we did through South Carolina, where the second
Speaker 7: half is just penalties, self inflicted wounds, and then you
Speaker 7: go and play then one team in the country and
Speaker 7: you play relatively clean and have a chance at the
Speaker 7: end to win the football game, I think that is
Speaker 7: that practice executioners.
Speaker 6: Game day reality.
Speaker 7: I think that focus has been turned up and we
Speaker 7: got to keep it there.
Speaker 2: And that's the challenge. They got to keep it there.
Speaker 2: And you know, kids are kids, nineteen year olds or
Speaker 2: nineteen year olds, so it's just tough to match the
Speaker 2: kind of intensity on a week basis that it takes
Speaker 2: to be successful. And you've got a veteran team and
Speaker 2: that's going to help. We heard Zion Childress talk about
Speaker 2: what it took to bring his team back off that
Speaker 2: South Carolina game and give maximum effort against Georgia, and
Speaker 2: it's up to the leaders to do it again this week.
Speaker 2: Before the break, we talked in our last segment about
Speaker 2: Mike Leach, the former Kentucky assistant who of course went
Speaker 2: on the Great Things Greater Things with Oklahoma as an
Speaker 2: assistant and a head coach, an incredibly popular and funny, controversial,
Speaker 2: but it was five years ago yesterday. This got passed
Speaker 2: me yesterday as I was putting a show together. But
Speaker 2: since we talked about Leach in the first segment, you
Speaker 2: might remember this. Somebody at a news conference asked Leach about,
Speaker 2: and I'm paraphrasing the question, but what might be the
Speaker 2: toughest mascot in what was then the PAC twelve to
Speaker 2: do battle against? And at one point, of course, he
Speaker 2: talked about the Washington State he was at WSU. He
Speaker 2: talked about Butch the Cougar, but he kind of went
Speaker 2: through virtually every mascot in the PAC twelve at the time.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say the Wildcats out. Well, first of all,
Speaker 3: what kind of mythical powers does the sun devil have?
Speaker 3: We've got to consider that. I'm going to say the
Speaker 3: Wildcats out. The Trojan is does he have a horse
Speaker 3: or is he on foot? Does he have a bow
Speaker 3: and arrow or just his sword? The brewin definitely formidable.
Speaker 3: Another bear up there, cow the tree. I mengine that
Speaker 3: trees can get chopped down unless we're going to go
Speaker 3: with the bird, and somebody might get picked or something
Speaker 3: I don't know, and then the duck might lose interest
Speaker 3: in just fly away and get out of there, which
Speaker 3: may be good advice under the circumstances. The husky, no chance.
Speaker 3: The beaver, well, we'll see how long that beaver can
Speaker 3: hold his breath. The uh the ute again, we're back
Speaker 3: to is he on horseback? Does he have a bow
Speaker 3: and arrow? Did he trade for a rifle? I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, because the that you's got a rifle, there's
Speaker 3: some definite problems. You know, you'd have to get one
Speaker 3: of those Harry Potter activists to read up on how
Speaker 3: you kill a sun devil, because there's a lot of
Speaker 3: uh outside stuff there. Just as far as a beast alone,
Speaker 3: a buffalo is going to be pretty hard to tangle with.
Speaker 3: I mean, a buffalo is utterly outstanding. Well, but butch,
Speaker 3: Butch is gonna have to be clear minded and crafty.
Speaker 3: I mean, butcher, but you'll find a way, There's no
Speaker 3: question the google find a way, uh, clear minded and crafty.
Speaker 3: A combination of stay out of arms way and and
Speaker 3: uh in attack when you get your your chances or
Speaker 3: your openings.
Speaker 2: That is the late Great Mike Leitch. Hard to believe
Speaker 2: it's been five years since he delivered that monologue to
Speaker 2: the assembled media. I'd love to know who asked the question,
Speaker 2: and I think it's cool that they were relaxed enough
Speaker 2: to be able to ask that question of Leach and
Speaker 2: they just got what they got from him as gold
Speaker 2: and it usually was coming up next Unforgettable Guard Sewn Woods.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk about coaching, not just basketball, but football
Speaker 2: as well. At the top of the hour, UK Louisville Volleyball.
Speaker 2: That's all I had here on The Big Blue Sider
Speaker 2: six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blueing Sider
Speaker 2: and joining us now as he does every Wednesday, is
Speaker 2: the Unforgettable Guard. Sean Woods is Jersey hangs in the
Speaker 2: rafters of RUP. We talked primarily about basketball, but Sean
Speaker 2: being a coach, we also talk about other sports. Sean,
Speaker 2: we talk a lot of football too here on the show.
Speaker 2: You're a football fan, You're a UK fan. You've watched
Speaker 2: the struggles of this Kentucky football team, and Mark Toops
Speaker 2: has really taking a lot of flak right now. People
Speaker 2: have kind of turned on him. What are your thoughts
Speaker 2: when you see that hear your fan base whether it's
Speaker 2: Kentucky brothers. I gotta think as a as a professional coach,
Speaker 2: you must just kind of shake your head and rub
Speaker 2: your chin a little. Fans will be fans, right, no
Speaker 2: doubt about it.
Speaker 4: You know, everybody wants to win, and you know it
Speaker 4: comes to a point to where you know, there's no understanding.
Speaker 4: They just see that whatever is going on in a program,
Speaker 4: no matter if it's good, bad, or different, the coach
Speaker 4: gets all the credit and that goes with the territory.
Speaker 4: That's why coaches make the big bucks. But you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's unfortunate. You know, everybody's on stoof right now,
Speaker 4: but they should be on the people who actually invited
Speaker 4: all these teams to come into the SEC. You know,
Speaker 4: that's what they should be be mad at. You know
Speaker 4: what I mean, because you know you're asking for something.
Speaker 4: You know, Kentucky's never been better than Georgia on a
Speaker 4: regular basis. Kentucky's never been better than Tennessee on a
Speaker 4: regular basis. Kentucky's never been better than a lot of
Speaker 4: these SEC teams. You know, our thing is, you know
Speaker 4: it's unfortunate, but it's just reality. You know, Kentucky football,
Speaker 4: if you get to a Bowl. You know, you've done
Speaker 4: a good job. And Stup's has done that every single year.
Speaker 4: That's just like you know, Mike Tomlin at Pittsburgh. You know,
Speaker 4: he's had some great years, made to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: I actually won a couple, but then he's had some
Speaker 4: some some average, you know years a lie here lately,
Speaker 4: but he's still the coach of Pittsburgh and he still
Speaker 4: has the longest tenure in the in the NFL. I
Speaker 4: think Stupid is in the same position. You know, Are
Speaker 4: we ever gonna win an SEC title?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I don't know. You know that that's a lot. You know,
Speaker 4: Kentucky football, Kentucky basketball from a comparison standpoint in the
Speaker 4: conference is not the same. It's not you know, all
Speaker 4: these other sports. Yeah, we want it to be, no
Speaker 4: doubt about it. But you got to be realistic about
Speaker 4: a lot of things.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 4: You know, you got soccer who's never been a major player,
Speaker 4: who's a major player now, who's having the best season
Speaker 4: in history. You had baseball who went to the World
Speaker 4: Series last year. You know, can we consistently do that?
Speaker 4: I don't know. Yeah, you know, and I know steps
Speaker 4: is kind of you know, because it's hard he's looking
Speaker 4: around the rest of the athletic department. Besides basketball, who's
Speaker 4: underachieved in the last two years. Everybody else is coming up.
Speaker 4: But you know, you got to look at it from
Speaker 4: a comparison standpoint. You know what's important at these schools.
Speaker 4: You know, basketball is important on the North Carolina. Basketball
Speaker 4: is important at Duke. Basketball is important at Kentucky. You
Speaker 4: know how important is Kentucky. But football, you know, we
Speaker 4: get a lot of fans. We get for an average
Speaker 4: SEC team on paper and in history, we still have
Speaker 4: a major fan base for college football. And for that,
Speaker 4: the more people that are in tune, the more unrealistic
Speaker 4: expectations start to take fun because as a coach, when
Speaker 4: you come in and you start doing great, expectations rise
Speaker 4: through the rooms.
Speaker 2: That's right. What you're talking about are standards, and the
Speaker 2: standard for Kentucky basketball, which you were a big part,
Speaker 2: have been high for a long long time. And so, yeah,
Speaker 2: you mentioned underachieving the last couple of years. You know, people,
Speaker 2: I've heard some Kentucky fans say, well, you know what
Speaker 2: other schools we would celebrate, you know, but yeah, but
Speaker 2: you're not another school. You're Kentucky basketball, and it took
Speaker 2: a while for to get that way. Stupis has been
Speaker 2: there for twelve years. Half of his time. The first
Speaker 2: half of his period here, Kentucky struggled below five hundred,
Speaker 2: and like you said, they start going to ball games,
Speaker 2: fans always want more. But I also also think, as
Speaker 2: long as it's realistic, Sean, that's not necessarily a bad thing. No,
Speaker 2: but I know, Okay, I've heard Kentucky fans say, well,
Speaker 2: they wouldn't accept this in basketball. Well, no, but it's
Speaker 2: an entirely different animal, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Oh, no doubt about it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day. You know, Kentucky basketball
Speaker 4: is one of the most consistent programs in America. That's
Speaker 4: why the number one has more wins than any school
Speaker 4: in America, you know, second in national championships. You know,
Speaker 4: so there is an expectation, there is a history there
Speaker 4: with Kentucky football. Their history is not like Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 4: But in this modern day when everybody is becoming good,
Speaker 4: who's becoming good? You know what I'm saying. South Carolina
Speaker 4: is a team a lot like Kentucky, you know, even
Speaker 4: though they beat us this year, But we're along the
Speaker 4: same line. We're not Texas, we're not Oklahoma, and let
Speaker 4: history prevail, you know what I mean. We're not Florida,
Speaker 4: we're not Georgia, We're not LSU not in football, you know,
Speaker 4: so you know, let's be realistic and have realistic expectations.
Speaker 4: You know, LSU gets mad fire coach. Yeah, because the
Speaker 4: Nick Saban came in and you know, set some high
Speaker 4: high standards, Jimbo all those guys. But LSU is known
Speaker 4: for that. You know, I don't think they're gonna get
Speaker 4: rid of my man mcmahond because he didn't win the
Speaker 4: sec tile. In basketball, you know, Kim Molky has come
Speaker 4: in and set the standards as far as women's basketball.
Speaker 4: But that's unique too because LSU women's basketball has been
Speaker 4: that and they've had some major players. But Kentucky football
Speaker 4: and you you know stuoss is in Vincent all those guys.
Speaker 4: They're doing a great job of getting kids that normally
Speaker 4: they don't get. They're getting transfers, you know, big name
Speaker 4: quarterbacks that you know they normally don't get. They're putting
Speaker 4: people in the NFL more so than ever before. You know,
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, you know, it's
Speaker 4: gonna take a lot more to beat the Oklahoma's on
Speaker 4: a regular basis, to beat the Texas on a regular basis,
Speaker 4: who's the number one team in the country, nor the Georgia's,
Speaker 4: who's won the last two national championships. You know it's
Speaker 4: gonna take more than that.
Speaker 2: And the other thing, too, is nobody's backing up right now.
Speaker 2: And you talked about what's important. You've never seen schools
Speaker 2: pour more money, including Kentucky, pour more money into facilities
Speaker 2: and coaching salaries than you do today across the SEC.
Speaker 2: That includes Vanderbilt. If you see the money they're pouring
Speaker 2: into all their athletic facilities. And I bring this up
Speaker 2: because there was a period there Sean where Tennessee backed up,
Speaker 2: Florida is still backing up, and Kentucky has taken advantage.
Speaker 2: South Carolina was backing up, Kentucky didn't take good enough advantage.
Speaker 2: Georgia backed up a little bit. But now these programs,
Speaker 2: like you said, they're full steam ahead, and Kentucky's just
Speaker 2: trying to hang on and and not just past people,
Speaker 2: but even catch catch up with them. And and when
Speaker 2: you when you're you know, on the outside looking in
Speaker 2: at these other programs. It's hard to compare, isn't it.
Speaker 4: I have no doubt about it, you know. And and
Speaker 4: you know, it's like asking, you know, Old miss and
Speaker 4: Mississippi State, which have always been major players on the
Speaker 4: history of SEC. You know, they're they're hitt and miss
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, they're hitting and missing. You
Speaker 4: know all that right now is hitting and missing. Who's
Speaker 4: got major history of football?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: So you know, And and then it's unfortunate for the
Speaker 4: coach because one thing I don't like is when you
Speaker 4: turn on a coach and you start diggling about a coach,
Speaker 4: it's you got to remember you're going after the coach.
Speaker 4: But you know who really takes heed and all this
Speaker 4: and who it affects is the players. So now the
Speaker 4: players see their coach has been vulnerable, and then people
Speaker 4: start getting into players there, So now the coach don't
Speaker 4: have the players. Now you're really underachieve it just because
Speaker 4: of the human being factor. You know that the players
Speaker 4: hear the same bickering, you know, him the same deal.
Speaker 4: And you gonna have some players who's not playing very much.
Speaker 4: You know, who's unhappy even in a winning situation. Who
Speaker 4: jumps on that band wagon. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: The misery left company and then you get it gets
Speaker 4: assessed into the locker room, and then it's pretty much
Speaker 4: downhill from there.
Speaker 2: Stoops talked on his radio show Monday, at his news
Speaker 2: conference Monday about he was alluding to it. Didn't refer directly,
Speaker 2: but in a couple of times he really did the
Speaker 2: criticism that he was too conservative when he punted and
Speaker 2: things and you know, things like that. Clearly he is
Speaker 2: cognizant of the criticism. I don't know how he hears
Speaker 2: about it. But players we know cannot resist social media.
Speaker 2: You know, they see some kids say I turned off
Speaker 2: my Twitter feed and things like that, which is admirable.
Speaker 2: But it's like a car accident. You just can't not
Speaker 2: look at it. And I've got to think that either
Speaker 2: someone's telling stupids or he's checking it out. He knows
Speaker 2: how people and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Well,
Speaker 2: let me get your opinion. Because Rich Brooks used to
Speaker 2: listen to other calling shows down then he said it
Speaker 2: was important to him to know what the fans were saying.
Speaker 2: How did you feel about that?
Speaker 4: Well, Tad was doing that too. Oh, Yeah, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, all.
Speaker 4: Coaches do that. They want to see what people are
Speaker 4: saying about them, you know, because we have feelings too,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. You know we want to
Speaker 4: First of all, you come in brash and selling that
Speaker 4: expectations because you want people to smile at you. You're
Speaker 4: trying to get people to back you, you know what I mean. Sure,
Speaker 4: And the more people back you, you know, the better
Speaker 4: chance you have and the better you feel for yourself,
Speaker 4: which makes you a better coach when people start coming
Speaker 4: at you with negative jazz and things like that. Now
Speaker 4: one of them been in the locker room. Not no,
Speaker 4: not one of them knows what's going on in the
Speaker 4: locker room. He's planned fighting for his life against Georgia. Okay,
Speaker 4: so now you're fighting against one of the premier programs
Speaker 4: in America. He's in a dog fight with him. Okay.
Speaker 4: When everybody before the game thought it was gonna be
Speaker 4: a twenty seven point blowout, thirty point blowout, okay, everybody
Speaker 4: was just there for the tailgate and it really was
Speaker 4: trying to leave at halftime. And guess what, you know,
Speaker 4: we're in a dog fight. Oh, we should win this game.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. You didn't give him a
Speaker 4: chance at first. He went back after having a subpart
Speaker 4: game against South Carolina, which people have, Okay, the season's
Speaker 4: not over, and you come into when you got this
Speaker 4: jurgernaut coming in and no one gives them a chance,
Speaker 4: and our defense steps up. We stopped him from scoring
Speaker 4: a bunch of touchdowns. They couldn't defend our run. You know,
Speaker 4: we controlled the line of scrimis, but we just couldn't
Speaker 4: get over the hump. Yeah, but we were right there.
Speaker 4: Now you're trying to kill him, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: Like that doesn't make any sense. He had no chance
Speaker 4: going into the game. Then he gave himself a chance,
Speaker 4: you know, and okay, well he didn't do this right.
Speaker 4: He didn't do that right. He is playing against Georgia.
Speaker 4: It becomes more strategic, especially when you get into the game.
Speaker 4: So things that you used to seeing him do, you
Speaker 4: can't do that against Georgia. They're that good. So he
Speaker 4: did a great job and his staff did a great
Speaker 4: job of making adjustments to even give themselves a chance
Speaker 4: to win against a juggernaut like that. Unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 4: Georgia became Georgia, and they showed you why they're Georgia,
Speaker 4: and they won at the end of the game. Because
Speaker 4: that's who they are, They're supposed to win the game.
Speaker 4: So now.
Speaker 2: We've seen that from Kentucky basketball through the years. There's
Speaker 2: a reason programs are great. Seawan Woods, my guess we'll
Speaker 2: come back and talk more with the Unforgettable Guard. Just
Speaker 2: a minute here on a big boone sider six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. We're talking with Sean what's he is? The
Speaker 2: unforgettable Guard. We talked to him each and every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Let me shift you over to a little sports, politics
Speaker 2: and sports. I don't know if you've seen that as
Speaker 2: we speak, but you know Florida State and Clemson have
Speaker 2: been belly aching about getting out of the ACC. Well
Speaker 2: they're looking at a new revenue structure trying to keep
Speaker 2: those schools in that conference, which it's it's almost laughable
Speaker 2: now with Florida State the way their football is struggling
Speaker 2: this year. But that's just another part of the craziness
Speaker 2: in college athletics these days, isn't it, Sean, Where you know,
Speaker 2: the SEC is so strong because through the years, for
Speaker 2: all the bickering and backbiting and competition and recruiting the
Speaker 2: same kids. The SEC has pulled together. At the end
Speaker 2: of the day, did you ever think you'd lived to
Speaker 2: see today where ACC schools are dealing with so much infighting?
Speaker 4: You know what I mean, Well, they don't know where
Speaker 4: to go, you know what I'm saying. The ACC was
Speaker 4: normally was traditionally a basketball conference, and now you know,
Speaker 4: all these schools are coming up, but it's all about money,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And Clemson they want to
Speaker 4: be like Texas. You know, they got me tad of
Speaker 4: the Southwest, you know, at the Big twelve. So who's
Speaker 4: a number more football conference SCC So you know, it's
Speaker 4: all about money and it's all about notoriety and bcs
Speaker 4: and things like that. So this thing is changing, you know,
Speaker 4: it's changing, and some of these mid major schools are
Speaker 4: moving up replacing some of these traditional ACC Conference schools
Speaker 4: packed PAC twelve conference schools because they're going to the
Speaker 4: Big ten. You know, some of the stuff from a
Speaker 4: travels standpoint doesn't make any sense, but from a revenue
Speaker 4: standpoint and these ads getting together and things like that,
Speaker 4: that's what's changed, you know, And a lot of these
Speaker 4: ads weren't athletes now, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 4: the mentality of this structure of athletics now has become
Speaker 4: more business like, more so than tradition and and and
Speaker 4: and what I want to say, districts where you're in
Speaker 4: the same area. You know, just because you're in Texas,
Speaker 4: that don't mean that everybody plays in the Big twelve
Speaker 4: of Oklahoma. Those guys are leaving. Just because you're in
Speaker 4: California doesn't mean that you stay in the Fact twelve
Speaker 4: on the West coast. They're coming all the way to
Speaker 4: the Midwest to playing the Big twelve, meaning the big team.
Speaker 4: So it's not making sense from a coaching standpoint. And
Speaker 4: the coaches sadly to say they have no say in
Speaker 4: this for the most part, you know, But then you
Speaker 4: want to judge them on the decisions that you're making,
Speaker 4: you know, and they have no they have no skin
Speaker 4: in the you know, in the decision. So it's interesting,
Speaker 4: you know that this is why coaches are when they
Speaker 4: do get these major jobs, they're looking at years instead
Speaker 4: of money for security, right because decisions.
Speaker 1: That are being made.
Speaker 4: Not on their behalf. So they're starting to protect themselves
Speaker 4: and that's why the money's going up because so many
Speaker 4: decisions are being made without their word and they're just
Speaker 4: protecting themselves from a financial standpoint.
Speaker 2: A couple of minutes left with Sean was we're talking
Speaker 2: about coaching, specifically football coaches, but so much of what
Speaker 2: affects football coaches affects basketball coaches like Sean as well.
Speaker 2: And I remember when Bill Curry was under fire his
Speaker 2: last year here at Kentucky. As it turned out. You
Speaker 2: were here when Curry was here, and he talked about
Speaker 2: it and in hindsight as well, decisions he made because he
Speaker 2: knew financially he was going to be fine because he
Speaker 2: had the most responsibilities and made the most money. But
Speaker 2: he said, I have a dozen assistants on my staff,
Speaker 2: and I've got to worry about them and their families.
Speaker 2: Your head coaches say that very often, but you know
Speaker 2: they think about that, and you have to deal with
Speaker 2: the same thing as a maybe not a staff that big,
Speaker 2: but you're responsible as a head coach for a lot
Speaker 2: of people. I think folks forget about that.
Speaker 4: They do, you know, because it's not just you. There's
Speaker 4: more people behind the scenes that are in this, not
Speaker 4: just the head coach. You know, you got offensive coordinator,
Speaker 4: defensive coordinator, assistant office, go a special team.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people, especially in football that goes
Speaker 1: into this, but basketball too, and people are making a
Speaker 1: sacrifice to come work with you to help not just you,
Speaker 1: but that place where you guys are.
Speaker 4: Coaching that to become champions. And don't think that everybody's
Speaker 4: not giving their heart and soul. You know, but in hindsight,
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, everybody wants to win. Everybody loves Stoops.
Speaker 4: I think Stups is doing a great job. You know,
Speaker 4: he's done a good enough job to where his teams
Speaker 4: are playing on national television every week. Kentucky wasn't like
Speaker 4: that before, you know, so sometimes you got you know,
Speaker 4: we're we're interesting enough program to where people want to
Speaker 4: watch us play, and we're interesting enough to when we
Speaker 4: do play a good team, it is nationally televised. So
Speaker 4: evidently he's made Kentucky football a lot more relevant than
Speaker 4: it has been in years past, which is good. He's
Speaker 4: been a major player, had some good players and things
Speaker 4: like that, which is attractive enough to where you're gett
Speaker 4: an opportunity to play on national television. What else do
Speaker 4: you want? I mean, win in the national championship. What
Speaker 4: do the os Kentucky winning the national championship? What are
Speaker 4: the os Kentucky winning the SEC championship. You know, as
Speaker 4: long as we're competitive and we're doing things and everybody knows,
Speaker 4: you know, you're in for a dog fight. You know,
Speaker 4: It's like Philadelphia the other day in the NFL. You know,
Speaker 4: they had a lot of expectations. They're at home, they're
Speaker 4: they're they're winning, and all of a sudden they give
Speaker 4: up the game. So now want to fire the coach.
Speaker 4: You want to get rid of the quarterback, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, which it was a receiver or the
Speaker 4: running back who actually missed the past yep. Stuss has
Speaker 4: had a great game plan everywhere has been but it
Speaker 4: takes those players to execute.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 4: You know with your don't fire players, you get mad
Speaker 4: when they transfer, you know what I'm saying. But you're
Speaker 4: the first thing you will do is you want to
Speaker 4: fire the coach. Well, they like he's not prepared. It's
Speaker 4: not like, you know, you can have all the exit
Speaker 4: and o's, But guess what if those Jim and Jones
Speaker 4: don't produce the way you would like them to produce.
Speaker 4: That's why coaches don't get sleep at night.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's and that's why they practice. And you know,
Speaker 2: there's such a difference when it comes to the criticism
Speaker 2: of coaches between the college game and the pro game.
Speaker 2: But we'll have to pick that up next week. But
Speaker 2: always fun talking to your coach. I appreciate the time,
Speaker 2: have a good week, you today and how to do it?
Speaker 2: For this abbreviated show, stay tuned for Kentucky Volleyball the
Speaker 2: Cats in the cards coming up next here on the
Speaker 2: six thirty wlap.
Speaker 8: Mats as biggest stish same