Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Thursday edition of our program. Coming up tonight,
Speaker 1: Chris Doring of the SEC Network will join us. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about the transfer portal. We'll talk about college football
Speaker 1: in general. We talked before there was any new info
Speaker 1: about Niko Yam Malieva down at the Tennessee moving on
Speaker 1: probably to UCLA. Some say it's a done deal, but
Speaker 1: some say it's not. We'll come back to that in
Speaker 1: just a minute. But we'll talk with Chris about a
Speaker 1: number of things in our second hour. Coming up at
Speaker 1: the bottom of this hour, Jeff Pikoro is going to
Speaker 1: join us. We'll talk about the portal. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: spring football as well. I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to Jeff yet about spring football. He was not
Speaker 1: here for the Spring Football Showcase, but that's okay. He
Speaker 1: was on vacation actually, But Jeff has gone to practice
Speaker 1: several times, so he's seen a lot more than we
Speaker 1: would have He would have seen and the rest of
Speaker 1: us saw on Saturday. So we'll get caught up with
Speaker 1: Jeff on that and get his thoughts on Nico as well.
Speaker 1: And I can tell you that and I've mentioned this
Speaker 1: many times. Nobody likes beating Tennessee more. Nobody hates Tennessee more.
Speaker 1: And two of my colleagues on the UK Network, jeffiicorro
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons, because they both grew up in Lexington and
Speaker 1: they both played against Tennessee when Tennessee was the art
Speaker 1: rival in both football and basketball. So we'll talk with
Speaker 1: Jeff about that, as well as Chris Doring. You may
Speaker 1: have heard this already. I mentioned this yesterday as a possibility,
Speaker 1: and apparently it's happening. Hartley Gilmore the fourth coming back
Speaker 1: to Kentucky. He was a guy who was kind of
Speaker 1: shown the door when he was here before. You know,
Speaker 1: you might remember a couple of years back, Mark Stoops
Speaker 1: after the season talked about, actually it was last year,
Speaker 1: talked about how some guys needed to move on, and
Speaker 1: Gilmore did. Went to Nebraska, but things didn't work out there.
Speaker 1: He was dismissed from the team, so he's heading back
Speaker 1: to UK. It was according to the Nebraska coach, it
Speaker 1: was nothing outside the program, nothing criminal, but he just
Speaker 1: couldn't keep him on the team. So Gilmore heading back
Speaker 1: to the Gators. And he is a three star prospect
Speaker 1: coming in and it looked like was going to play
Speaker 1: a big role for Kentucky, but broke his collarbone in
Speaker 1: fall camp, had to miss the first five games of
Speaker 1: the year, so you know, at every press conference from
Speaker 1: the middle of the year on, we were asking, hey,
Speaker 1: what about Gilmour and that sort of thing. He started
Speaker 1: against Murray State and finished the year with only six
Speaker 1: catches for one hundred and fifty three He did have,
Speaker 1: remember that fifty two yard touchdown catch and then went
Speaker 1: over Murray State cutter bullies began and forgive me, but
Speaker 1: Murray State, in a total rebuild, was the worst team
Speaker 1: in one Double A football FCS football, not big boy football,
Speaker 1: not full skylly, you know, eighty five Scholarship football, sixty
Speaker 1: five Scholarship Football Division. Murray State again with a new
Speaker 1: head coach, trying like crazy to rebuild back to where
Speaker 1: it was Murray State used to be a real player
Speaker 1: in one Double A. So anyhow, Gilmore transferred out along
Speaker 1: with Dane Key and remember UK's previous wide receivers coach
Speaker 1: to Keill Schwartz, who was very popular with the players
Speaker 1: and very good went to Nebraska after just one year
Speaker 1: in lexingon it really ticked off Mark Stoops really annoyed
Speaker 1: him when he left, So Gilmore goes as well. But
Speaker 1: now he's back. But he joined Key and Barry and
Speaker 1: Brown and Anthony Brown, Stevens and Brandon White. So the
Speaker 1: Wildcats picked up depth they needed in the wide receiver
Speaker 1: room to go along with Jamoory Macklin and Fred Ferrier,
Speaker 1: along with Kendrick Law of Alabama, of the Alabama transfer
Speaker 1: who came in and had a chance to watch him
Speaker 1: in the spring football showcase, along with David Washington and
Speaker 1: Montavian Quisenberry. You're gonna like him. You're gonna like Montavian
Speaker 1: quisenbarr if you haven't seen him play. I don't know
Speaker 1: that they're gonna get True Edwards, the kid from Louisiana Tech.
Speaker 1: Everything I've heard has been it doesn't look good for him.
Speaker 1: But as Chris Fisher pointed out with two four to
Speaker 1: seven Sports, UK last year passing offense fourteenth out of
Speaker 1: sixteen teams. So they got it up their game there.
Speaker 1: So that's the word on that particular transfer. The word
Speaker 1: on Nico is he is going to UCLA, which had
Speaker 1: been reported. Now I heard a guy with Vauquest against
Speaker 1: Brent Hobbs shot that down. I heard him on the
Speaker 1: SEC network. He said that wasn't going to happen. So
Speaker 1: he either had some bad intel and he's a pretty
Speaker 1: good reporter, or there was a change of heart somewhere.
Speaker 1: But it looks like Nico is going to go to UCLA.
Speaker 1: One of the top probably the top listed name in
Speaker 1: the transfer portal, but Yahoo Sports ranked the top ten
Speaker 1: and they included at number nine Kennedy Erlocker, a safety
Speaker 1: leaving Notre Dame Brian Urlacker's son, but he was buried
Speaker 1: on the depth chart, so he's leaving still on the list.
Speaker 1: From what I understand is Blake Steen. He's an old
Speaker 1: tackle from Virginia and his brother is an old lineman
Speaker 1: with the Eagles, the Super Bowl champs, Tyler Stein. And
Speaker 1: this kid apparently played more than seven hundred snaps this
Speaker 1: past year and allowed just two sacks according to Pro
Speaker 1: Football Focus. I don't know how good he is, but
Speaker 1: I gotta think a guy like that, if he's that
Speaker 1: good an old lineman, he's going to go maybe quicker
Speaker 1: than the guys ahead of him. So one of the
Speaker 1: other headlines for OH by the way, speaking of transfers,
Speaker 1: urban Meyer has chimed in on the Nico situation, and
Speaker 1: he announced Tennessee is screwed. Well, yeah, in the short term.
Speaker 1: Right now, Tennessee's in trouble when it comes to quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: He said this on the Triple Option podcast. He said,
Speaker 1: they just don't have a quarterback right now. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: they know this, but that doesn't surprise me that a
Speaker 1: guy like urban Meyer is implying that. And he said,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's saying Tennessee, nice job, Tennessee taking a stand,
Speaker 1: But he said, I got a little comment on that.
Speaker 1: Tennessee plays Florida usually every year in October. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine that game going the other way in Josh Hypel
Speaker 1: grabbing the microphone and stands on the fifty yard line
Speaker 1: in Nalen Stadium and says, it's okay, I made a
Speaker 1: stand way back then. It's okay, I made a stand
Speaker 1: way back when. That's a typical urban Meyer response if
Speaker 1: you ask me, because what he's implying is Tennessee should
Speaker 1: have given in to a kid. He was trying to
Speaker 1: hold his team hostage. Keep in mind, this is a
Speaker 1: guy who when he ran the team in Florida, there
Speaker 1: was no discipline. You had guys in trouble with deeply,
Speaker 1: deeply in trouble with the law, and Erbamier looked the
Speaker 1: other way. Anything it takes to win, no matter what
Speaker 1: his kids were doing off the field, anything it takes
Speaker 1: to win. And urban that is such a tone deaf
Speaker 1: comment by a guy who has spent much of his
Speaker 1: career making tone deaf moves. Yes, he won, and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people say, well, as long as
Speaker 1: they win, but no, that's not the case. And there
Speaker 1: are people who disagree with us as well. But I
Speaker 1: do think Hypel made the right move because how do
Speaker 1: you put that kid back in the locker room? And
Speaker 1: now that you're UCLA, you sign this kid. If I'm
Speaker 1: in that locker room, I'm looking at him thinking, when
Speaker 1: are you going to do this to us? Why did
Speaker 1: you do this to your other teammates? How do I
Speaker 1: know I can trust you? This is a real curious
Speaker 1: move in the UCLA probably obviously believed it needed to make,
Speaker 1: but may end up regretting at some point. A couple
Speaker 1: of other college football notes. One of them involves rules changes,
Speaker 1: and this is significant. One of them involves a modification
Speaker 1: that he injury timeout rule in football beginning with the
Speaker 1: upcoming season. Under the new rule, if medical personnel entered
Speaker 1: the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball
Speaker 1: is spotted by the officiating crew for the next play,
Speaker 1: meaning you've seen it, the umpire puts the ball down
Speaker 1: and the signal lets go. But if that's when medical
Speaker 1: personnel run onto the field because some player just magically
Speaker 1: fell down, that player's team will be charged a timeout.
Speaker 1: It's not a medical stoppage, it's a full timeout. And
Speaker 1: if that team doesn't have any timeouts remaining. In other words,
Speaker 1: if a kid falls down and he's really hurt, but
Speaker 1: he's done it too late, five yard delay of game
Speaker 1: penalty against that team. This was proposed by the nca
Speaker 1: Football Rules Committee. Why, because so many teams were faking
Speaker 1: injuries to stop the opposition's momentum or avoid using an
Speaker 1: allotted time out. They've been talking about this a lot
Speaker 1: in recent years, and back before the twenty twenty one season,
Speaker 1: you might recall this, they came up with a rule
Speaker 1: that allows a school or a conference to request postgame
Speaker 1: video review to question actions involving injuries. Well, what good
Speaker 1: does that do you? You know, it might involve possible
Speaker 1: disciplinary action or a fine or something, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: help you win or lose. The avoid losing the game,
Speaker 1: and so much of this was left to the interpretation
Speaker 1: of the officials. So now it's much more immediate. It's automatic.
Speaker 1: If they spot the ball and your kid go down,
Speaker 1: you're done. It's time out or penalty. That's a good rule.
Speaker 1: Change one other. They have a new rule for overtime timeouts.
Speaker 1: When it goes overtime, game goes overtime, you get a
Speaker 1: timeout for each ot right now after the third ot.
Speaker 1: You don't get bonus overtimes. You gotta take care of
Speaker 1: the overtime you have. That's when they start alternating to
Speaker 1: two point plays. They're trying to keep the action moving.
Speaker 1: So if the game reaches a third overtime, each team
Speaker 1: will have one timeout beginning with the third overtime until
Speaker 1: the winner is determined. It could go seven ots, you
Speaker 1: still have just the one timeout. That's a good rule
Speaker 1: as well. Gotta keep it moving, gotta keep it moving.
Speaker 1: And the final note is the this is melancholy, but
Speaker 1: Lee Corso's hanging it up thirty eight years on television.
Speaker 1: You gotta understand. When I was a kid when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, Leek Corso was the head coach
Speaker 1: at Louisville and I know you hate Loewill, but back
Speaker 1: then the teams didn't play, so we'd have to choose.
Speaker 1: UK was terrible and it was fun rooting for u
Speaker 1: of L. They had a fun team to watch. And
Speaker 1: think about this. His last year at Louisville nine to one,
Speaker 1: ranked sixteenth in the country in no bull bid. That's
Speaker 1: one reason he went up to Indiana. Didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of success, but he needed to make a jump
Speaker 1: after he gets fired from the last job he had.
Speaker 1: He went from Indiana to Northern Illinois for a year.
Speaker 1: Then he coached the Orlando Renegades via the US League
Speaker 1: or the World Football League, one of those. It was
Speaker 1: a USFL five and thirteen and retired. Okay, he logs
Speaker 1: on with ESPN. They put him on the air nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven, hired as an analyst for Saturday's College Game
Speaker 1: Day show. They started to originate it from sites in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. That's when it really caught on. And
Speaker 1: of course he will always be remembered for a catchphrase
Speaker 1: not so fast, and like all great catchphrases, it was
Speaker 1: born organically. He just started saying it to Herb Street
Speaker 1: or whoever was sitting next to him, and it became
Speaker 1: very popular. So now when anybody says that, that's who
Speaker 1: they're quoting. Of course, I had a stroke a few
Speaker 1: years ago and I interviewed him at the UK U
Speaker 1: of L media day they used to have preseason, This
Speaker 1: one was over in Louisville, and he told me he
Speaker 1: admitted he said after the stroke, he said, I can
Speaker 1: still Essentially what he told me was he could read
Speaker 1: scripts and do prepared stuff, but it was the ad
Speaker 1: libbing that he couldn't much do anymore. And that's where
Speaker 1: he was so great because he was so funny. Now
Speaker 1: I will tell you this. He went to Florida State
Speaker 1: and while he was at U of L, he did
Speaker 1: not have a lot of love for UK, of course
Speaker 1: because they got more coverage. And I don't think he
Speaker 1: was a big Frank Cursey fan because he always picked
Speaker 1: against Kentucky. And I do remember one year when UK
Speaker 1: was struggling early in the year with his defense and
Speaker 1: he said it on ESPN, Kentucky might other worst defense
Speaker 1: in all of college football, and that motivated UK so
Speaker 1: he will work one more weekend. He'll work opening weekend
Speaker 1: Week one, the college game day, and that will be
Speaker 1: his last. Their chance to say goodbye to Lee Corso.
Speaker 1: Up next Jeff piicorro the UK Sports Network on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider.
Speaker 1: Coming up in a few minutes, Jefpikor from the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network will join us. We'll talk about the transfer portal,
Speaker 1: the rule changes in college football and more. A few
Speaker 1: days ago, just before the start of the NBA Playing Tournament,
Speaker 1: UK released the names of players former Wildcats who will
Speaker 1: be active in the NBA playoffs. Twenty eight former Wildcats
Speaker 1: involved in postseason play in the NBA, and last night,
Speaker 1: some of those ex Cats had big nights, including Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis for the Dallas Mavericks. Of course, the team well,
Speaker 1: the GM much maligned after trading its best player for
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, but ad healthy can help a team, and
Speaker 1: he did it last night twenty seven points, nine rebounds,
Speaker 1: three blocks. Klay Thompson, of course, came over from Golden
Speaker 1: State kind of revived his career, had sixteen of his
Speaker 1: twenty three points in the second quarter, both of them
Speaker 1: playing their first postseason games as Mavericks as they beat
Speaker 1: the Kings one twenty to one oh six, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty amazing. But you you know, look at the injuries
Speaker 1: those guys have dealt with, and you know, if Davis
Speaker 1: weren't so beset with injuries, that's a big If the
Speaker 1: outcry wouldn't have been quite so bad. With Luca Dons
Speaker 1: that's being traded away, it would have still been bad.
Speaker 1: But you know, Davis could have been a franchise changer
Speaker 1: if he had just been able to stay healthy. He's
Speaker 1: still a heck of a player in the NBA. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Heat beat the Chicago Bulls and it was the
Speaker 1: former Wildcats show with bam Adebaio and Tyler Hero having
Speaker 1: big games for Miami. And now Miami will play Atlanta
Speaker 1: and the winner of that one gets the eighth seed
Speaker 1: in the East. But Miami jumped out to a big
Speaker 1: lead early and then fought off. It was a I mean,
Speaker 1: seventy one to forty seven at one point. Tyler Herro
Speaker 1: twenty three points in the first half alone, was eight
Speaker 1: of eight from the field, including three of three from
Speaker 1: beyond the arc. He finished with thirty eight points, five rebounds,
Speaker 1: and four assists. Bam Adebio chipped in fifteen points and
Speaker 1: twelve rebounds to a double double for bam If you
Speaker 1: follow the NBA, it's kind of fun. Like I said,
Speaker 1: to follow the former Wildcats. Coming up tomorrow night Kentucky Baseball.
Speaker 1: The Wildcats are in Knoxville, and boy, last year I
Speaker 1: mentioned this last night, the Tennessee series at Kentucky Pop
Speaker 1: Park was absolutely phenomenal. There were three really good games
Speaker 1: Tennessee beat Kentucky went on to win the national title,
Speaker 1: but the Wildcats might have won the series with a
Speaker 1: break here or there. And of course Kentucky gets to
Speaker 1: Omaha as well. But the lines outside the stadium an
Speaker 1: hour or two before the games began each day were
Speaker 1: just incredible and marked I think a new chapter in
Speaker 1: the history of Kentucky baseball. I mean, that team was
Speaker 1: so good and so much fun to watch, and it
Speaker 1: was such a vital series with Kentucky racing for an
Speaker 1: SEC championship, which it eventually won but had to share
Speaker 1: with Tennessee. Because of that series, and because there was
Speaker 1: a game against Vanderbilt, the third game of the series
Speaker 1: against Vandy that Kentucky had clinched to share the title
Speaker 1: the night before, kind of had it emotional let down
Speaker 1: the next day. If it had beaten Vandy, it would
Speaker 1: have won it outright, but Vandy won it still though,
Speaker 1: that Tennessee series was something people are still talking about.
Speaker 1: But it's going to be really tough down there in
Speaker 1: Knoxville because that's a ballpark. Let's turn it around. That's
Speaker 1: a team built so well for that ballpark. And talking
Speaker 1: to Nick Minjee in this past week preparing for the
Speaker 1: Texas series, the SEC Network announcers, we had a zoom
Speaker 1: call with men's two of those three games, of course,
Speaker 1: where Dave Neil and Greg Olsen, but Doug and I
Speaker 1: sat in on the zoom calls as well, and Nick
Speaker 1: talked about the fact that Kentucky Proud Park, probably more
Speaker 1: than any other stadium in the league, is a fair ballpark.
Speaker 1: It doesn't favor hitters, it doesn't favor pitchers any more
Speaker 1: than the other depends on what the win's doing, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. You can hit home runs there, whether
Speaker 1: the wind is blowing, you know, extremely well out or not.
Speaker 1: It looks like a pitchers park for some reason, but
Speaker 1: it's not. You can hit on Kentucky hit a lot
Speaker 1: of home runs last year. But it's a good pitchers
Speaker 1: park in one way because if the wind's blowing in
Speaker 1: obviously any stadiums like that. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: foul territory, so pop fouls are eminently more reachable for
Speaker 1: the defense at Kentucky Proud Park. But it's not a
Speaker 1: launching pad, is my point, as is the Georgia Stadium.
Speaker 1: The Tennessee Stadium different. You know, the ballpark down the
Speaker 1: Texas A and M can be, but the Tennessee Ballpark,
Speaker 1: I mean, Kentucky's gone down there and hit home runs.
Speaker 1: But if your team isn't tailored for a ballpark, and
Speaker 1: now you get into VP and you start trying to
Speaker 1: hit home runs the way teams did at Cliff Hagen
Speaker 1: Stadium with a really short right field porch, it's going
Speaker 1: to screw you up. And it did. We saw that
Speaker 1: year after year, team after team would come into the Cliff,
Speaker 1: have all kinds of fun hitting bombs in batting practice,
Speaker 1: and then they try to do the same in the game.
Speaker 1: And the Kentucky pitchers were so good at burying, which
Speaker 1: is in the strike zone, that they won more than
Speaker 1: they lost. And in the meantime, Kentucky hitters took advantage
Speaker 1: of that ballpark, So it's gonna be tough for the Whilkay.
Speaker 1: Plus it's just a really good Tennessee team. But Kentucky's
Speaker 1: going in on a high note after coming back, well
Speaker 1: didn't come back. It kind of felt like it against
Speaker 1: Miami of Ohio. They actually blew a three to nothing
Speaker 1: lead and the momentum belonged to the Red Hawks, and
Speaker 1: it looked like we were heading for extras with two
Speaker 1: out and two on in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Speaker 1: But that's when Ethan Hindle came through and surprised everybody
Speaker 1: by squaring and dropping down a bunt with two outs.
Speaker 1: The Miami third baseman charge looked like he had a shot.
Speaker 1: It was not a good bunt, It's bad he popped
Speaker 1: it up. The Miami kid fortunately had to dive straight ahead,
Speaker 1: and because of his momentum, the ball hit the heel
Speaker 1: of his glove. I've watched it like six times. The
Speaker 1: ball hit the heel of his love. His momentum kind
Speaker 1: of pushed back against the ball and it popped out
Speaker 1: of his mitt and rolled into foul territory. But he
Speaker 1: played up immediately signaled fair runner came home, Kentucky wins it.
Speaker 1: But what struck me immediately was Ethan Hindle was the hero,
Speaker 1: one of them on Saturday and the upset went over
Speaker 1: Texas because his bottom of anne run tied the game
Speaker 1: and sent that game into extras when Kentucky won it.
Speaker 1: So within a span of four days, Hindle has a
Speaker 1: home run and then a bunt. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he went as a single or whatever, but a bunt
Speaker 1: that drove in the winning run. Here's how Darren Hedrick called,
Speaker 1: in case you haven't heard it yet. One one.
Speaker 2: He squares and lays down the bunt to third and it's.
Speaker 3: Best hits a fair ball.
Speaker 1: Kentucky wins the third basement. Kurpinski made a diving attempt
Speaker 1: and came up short.
Speaker 2: The ball hit fair and Kentucky walks it off.
Speaker 1: Ethan Hindle is the hero. That's how it sounded on
Speaker 1: Tuesday night. Kentucky's gonna need and breaks like that to
Speaker 1: win at least one down in Knoxville, but win one
Speaker 1: on the road. Take care of business at home, and
Speaker 1: you're in good shape. Gonna be tough, but we'll have
Speaker 1: it for you right here. Six thirty, first pitch, six
Speaker 1: point fifteen pregame with Darren coming up tomorrow night. Up next,
Speaker 1: Jeff Pikorro of the UK Sports Network on six point
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, as
Speaker 1: promised Jeff Picicorro of the UK Sports Network on our
Speaker 1: Celebrity Hotline. Jeff, as I mentioned earlier, you actually snuck
Speaker 1: in a vacation and good for you when you weren't
Speaker 1: here for the football showcase. But you've seen more of
Speaker 1: the Wildcats than most of us because you've gone to
Speaker 1: a few practices and you've gotten to see it more
Speaker 1: eleven on eleven work. And I know in your job
Speaker 1: at Channel thirty six you can't really report technically on
Speaker 1: what you've seen, but give me your overall impressions, starting
Speaker 1: with Let's start with the offensive line, because you were
Speaker 1: there with me. We were kind of side by side
Speaker 1: interviewing some of these new kids before spring even began.
Speaker 1: We were impressed with the way they presented themselves.
Speaker 2: Look, yeah, you know, I think they look pretty good.
Speaker 2: I still am really shocked at Unamba. To me, that's
Speaker 2: a I don't know what he's looking for, that kid
Speaker 2: who came from New Mexico. And then on what is today, Thursday,
Speaker 2: on Wednesday. I guess he decided that, you know, he
Speaker 2: wanted to go somewhere else. And here's the guy that
Speaker 2: really was running second team and the thing he gives
Speaker 2: Kentucky with him and Malachi, would you get two guys
Speaker 2: that started last year? You know a lot of games.
Speaker 2: He ten games with the Lobos last year, six hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety nine snaps didn't allow a sack at right tackles.
Speaker 2: So that's that's pretty damn good. Yeah, and you know
Speaker 2: he was gonna play a lot because he can he
Speaker 2: can play guard. He was running guard and tackle. And
Speaker 2: then you got Malachi. So now you've got that really
Speaker 2: a seven man and if you include Jagger Burton or
Speaker 2: Wiberly whoever doesn't start at center, you got that eight
Speaker 2: man kind of rotation. Now that that Schlarman made so
Speaker 2: popular here, and I just don't know what he was
Speaker 2: looking for or or what happened. I can't wait to
Speaker 2: talk to uh to coach Wolferton and and also Stoops
Speaker 2: and see what what the problem was. Got about that
Speaker 2: guy was really going to be a lynchpin of this
Speaker 2: offensive line. So I think that was a huge loss
Speaker 2: mother than that Wibberly missed a lot of spring the
Speaker 2: center from Western Kentucky. So Jagger is is running the
Speaker 2: number one at center right now. It's gonna be really
Speaker 2: interesting to see how that plays out before Fall gets
Speaker 2: here as well. That to me is is a huge position.
Speaker 2: And you know, we know what happened last time Jagger
Speaker 2: it was moved to center, and you know he's a
Speaker 2: year older and we'll see what happens. But that, that
Speaker 2: to me, is the biggest question mark right now on
Speaker 2: the whole offense. Is is that center spot?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's going to be a question mark really
Speaker 1: through the first through the first conference game really yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know they looked pretty good last year against
Speaker 1: Sutthern miss and then the conference games came. Although last
Speaker 1: year is going to be a puzzlement to me forever
Speaker 1: because Kentucky goes into Oxford and pulls that upset and
Speaker 1: look terrific, but struggled much of the time. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the guys we talked to, the huge kid
Speaker 1: from New Mexico State, the transfers they brought in look
Speaker 1: the part, but can they pull it together? And that's
Speaker 1: a tall order. Isn't a no pun intended? To act
Speaker 1: as a you know, guys that you know the best
Speaker 1: lines as you know, you played with guys like this,
Speaker 1: were together two and three years. These guys got to
Speaker 1: get it done in a few months.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the biggest thing that you hit the
Speaker 2: nail on the head. Look, they're bigger, they're stronger, they're
Speaker 2: faster than they were last year on the offensive line,
Speaker 2: they're cheaper than they were last year on the offensive line.
Speaker 2: But continuity is huge because you know, it's like it's
Speaker 2: like a ballet up front. You know, if you're pulling,
Speaker 2: you've got to take the exact right steps. You can't
Speaker 2: do it drop step, you can't do crossovers. It's got
Speaker 2: to be this step and to get that down timing
Speaker 2: wise with the guy next you. Simply it takes time. Yes,
Speaker 2: all these guys have played. All these guys are accomplished
Speaker 2: at their position. I mean, you're getting an All SEC performer,
Speaker 2: you're getting an All a AC performer. You're you know,
Speaker 2: these guys are coming in here with a lot of credentials,
Speaker 2: but they haven't played with each other right, and so
Speaker 2: it's going to be imperative that you get those five
Speaker 2: guys out there as many snaps as they can really
Speaker 2: before that what second or third game of the season,
Speaker 2: you know, when you got an SEC game. So it's
Speaker 2: gonna be huge for that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to play the interview that I did. I
Speaker 1: think you were in on the same interview with Dante
Speaker 1: Dowdell from a couple of weeks ago. But he apparently
Speaker 1: right now is the number one running back. But they
Speaker 1: still need help, don't they at the running back spot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've got you really have three proven guys there,
Speaker 2: will Cox and Patterson and and and and then you
Speaker 2: have a question mark and Mazel. He's a guy that's
Speaker 2: coming back from a really bad knee injury. But he's
Speaker 2: strong as an ox. He's he's more of that bull
Speaker 2: runner between the tackle kind of guy. And that's it.
Speaker 2: That's what they have. Four guys. So do you go
Speaker 2: out and get another guy, even if it's just for practice,
Speaker 2: if it's a guy that you know is kind of
Speaker 2: like a bo Allen type player, that's an emergency type
Speaker 2: player there. Although bow Ali got a lot of snaps
Speaker 2: in the spring, he really did. I think they're going
Speaker 2: to be leaning heavily on those three main guys. Kausata
Speaker 2: h Cutter and him. But yes, I really think that
Speaker 2: they're going to try to go about and get themselves
Speaker 2: into the running back. They got themselves a receiver today
Speaker 2: of crazy. There were reports that Hardley Gilmour was in
Speaker 2: town yesterday. Uh, we didn't say anything about it because
Speaker 2: I don't like speculating and things like that. Maybe he
Speaker 2: was just in town to see the coaching.
Speaker 1: You never know.
Speaker 2: And then now today we out that he is coming
Speaker 2: back to UK and it stops has opened his arms
Speaker 2: to him. A great talent, but he's got two strikes
Speaker 2: against him.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: And I applaud coach for for allowing this kid back,
Speaker 2: but I think that they made it extremely clear that look, man,
Speaker 2: this is it. You've got two strikes, you're out.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know. Yeah, Now that's said, let me shift
Speaker 1: you off UK for just a minute. Because we all
Speaker 1: went to launch the other day and talked about this,
Speaker 1: me and you and Tom and our man Mike Dotson.
Speaker 1: Nico apparently is going to land at U c l A.
Speaker 1: Some have denied it, but apparently it is a done deal.
Speaker 1: And urban Meyer I talked about this a minute ago.
Speaker 1: Urban Meyer was critical of Tennessee for letting that kid
Speaker 1: get away. I don't know what they were supposed to do.
Speaker 1: That kid didn't want to stay in Knoxville. But he
Speaker 1: was critical of Josh Heipel. But I mean, I thought
Speaker 1: Hypel had to let him go. And if you're a
Speaker 1: UCLA player, what is your reaction when they bring him in? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're going to be, oh, we got a good quarterback.
Speaker 1: But what else are you thinking.
Speaker 2: When he does? Okay, Thursday night, they the Thursday night
Speaker 2: before the spring game in Tennessee, they have the quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: Coach and his wife hosts the quarterbacks at their house
Speaker 2: and they had Tacko's. This is something they've been doing
Speaker 2: for a long time. And he was there Thursday night
Speaker 2: and left, went back to his apartment and Friday morning
Speaker 2: at practice he didn't show up and no one knew
Speaker 2: where he was. And all day Friday, his position coach,
Speaker 2: the recruiting recordinator and coach Hypel called and called and called.
Speaker 2: He didn't return the calls. Okay, So if I'm the coach,
Speaker 2: what am I supposed to think? Here's a guy that's
Speaker 2: basically ghosting me. He didn't show up for practice, and
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to roll over and you know, have open arms.
Speaker 4: For him the next day.
Speaker 2: No, because what happened on Friday when you get there
Speaker 2: to practice and you're the other players and you're the
Speaker 2: other quarterbacks, and you're like, where's Nico. Yeah, you look,
Speaker 2: he lost the team Nico did At that point, there's
Speaker 2: no coming back from that. You know, you you you
Speaker 2: ran out on us, and now we're supposed to bring
Speaker 2: you back with open arms. No. No, as a player,
Speaker 2: you're like, the heck with you, We're we moved on.
Speaker 2: You know, Joe's our quarterback now. And that's that's the
Speaker 2: way it is. And I think it's ridiculous, but that's
Speaker 2: what happens. That's what happens when parents get involved and
Speaker 2: you're talking money now and it's this is it's the
Speaker 2: first time this is gonna happen. What a parent always thinks.
Speaker 2: And Dick, you know this from doing baseball for so
Speaker 2: many years, how many people have come up to you
Speaker 2: and said, my son throws ninety five miles an hour,
Speaker 2: you know, and you're like, okay, hey, let me let
Speaker 2: me see, and you go watch him. He throws about
Speaker 2: maybe eighty, you know, not ninety five. Kid cans throw
Speaker 2: that football through a tire at sixty yards and he
Speaker 2: can't throw at twenty yards in the backyard. You always
Speaker 2: think your kids better than what he is. Two and
Speaker 2: a half million dollars. Two point two million dollars is
Speaker 2: a heck of a lot of money for a kid
Speaker 2: in college. And for him it was eight million for
Speaker 2: four years, and it ended up being two point two
Speaker 2: a year, and he wanted more. Brock Perry, who started
Speaker 2: in the Super Bowl two years ago, doesn't make that
Speaker 2: yet in the NFL. So I have no compassion whatsoever
Speaker 2: for Nico or his family because they put this upon themselves,
Speaker 2: and now they're going to UCLA, which does not have
Speaker 2: the money that Tennessee has, does not have the fan
Speaker 2: base that Tennessee has, doesn't have the team that Tennessee has,
Speaker 2: and you're getting a okay quarterback. Nico didn't set the
Speaker 2: world on fire. He didn't. He's not, you know, to me,
Speaker 2: he was what fourth or fifth best quarterback maybe six
Speaker 2: best quarterback?
Speaker 1: And he has QBR Jeff in the league?
Speaker 2: Nice there are nine?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Is that is that a guy that is worth four
Speaker 2: million dollars? I don't think the arch Manning's not getting
Speaker 2: four million dollars. Quen Youwers didn't get four million dollars,
Speaker 2: not from the.
Speaker 1: Not from the the nil collective. Now they might have
Speaker 1: in endorsements, but yeah uh and and now you know
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to prove himself all over again with
Speaker 1: all eyes on it. Jeff of Corro's my guess, will
Speaker 1: come back and talk more football with Jeff on the
Speaker 1: other side of the break here on six point thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. We're talking with Jeff of Coro, the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network and Jeff, you are one of a zillion
Speaker 1: sportscasters who when games slow down, when they bogged down,
Speaker 1: you let your audience know how unhappy you are. So
Speaker 1: is mister leash Uh. I got to think you like
Speaker 1: this rule change now where the old rules oversight panel
Speaker 1: says if they spot the ball and say let's go,
Speaker 1: and suddenly a player mystically magically goes down with an injury,
Speaker 1: you're charged a full time out and if you don't
Speaker 1: have one, you're penalized. You're loving that, aren't you?
Speaker 2: Applaud that? Thank you, thank you, thank you. How many
Speaker 2: times have we seen and you know, I think it
Speaker 2: started when Nick Saban Gosh, I don't know what was it,
Speaker 2: maybe ten years ago was complaining about the hurry out,
Speaker 2: no huddle offense. You know, yeah, hey, they've got to
Speaker 2: get in the huddle. They can't snap at every pen sake?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, And.
Speaker 2: So you say, okay, Steve fall down, oh my leg. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the trainers come out, they sit over him for twenty seconds.
Speaker 2: He jumps up and runs off the field. That's not sportsmanship,
Speaker 2: you know, to me. But the same thing happened in
Speaker 2: the NFL when the Bengals, you know, and the Buffalo
Speaker 2: bill started doing that. But you learn, and now you know,
Speaker 2: you're just not doing it. I think that's a I
Speaker 2: think it's a great rule because you relish timeouts and
Speaker 2: if a team's rolling, you're gonna do something to stop them,
Speaker 2: you know. And now if you if you take that
Speaker 2: fake penalty, I mean, you take fake injury, you're gonna
Speaker 2: pay for it with with a timeout. That I think
Speaker 2: it's huge, and it's not the timeouts in five yards.
Speaker 1: They also added the rule about overtimes, timeouts and overtimes,
Speaker 1: but you know, how often is that gonna come up?
Speaker 1: But this one, this one, I mean, we watched it,
Speaker 1: we watched it happen, uh you know, was it was
Speaker 1: it Florida where a kid in the backfield just all
Speaker 1: of a sudden fell down. I mean, uh, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I'm sure UK's pulled that a couple of times as well.
Speaker 1: Uh stoops is not stupid, But yeah, they they've got
Speaker 1: to they've got to keep it moving. And the next
Speaker 1: thing you got to do is come up with something
Speaker 1: to streamline the reviews. And not just football, but really
Speaker 1: I think more more than anything basketball. But that's where
Speaker 1: I think, Jeff, you need to have a panel of
Speaker 1: coaches sit in a room for three days and figure
Speaker 1: that out, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, here's here's the thing that that that
Speaker 2: is interesting to me. If you have the replay official
Speaker 2: officials are already there, they need to have something some
Speaker 2: way of buzzing the officials, you know, if it's a
Speaker 2: good play or bad play, right, yeah, either way, if
Speaker 2: it's if it's a penalty or not a penalty, or
Speaker 2: something like that where they can just buzz down and
Speaker 2: and then the official just has some way of communicating
Speaker 2: with that person they say that's you know, play on
Speaker 2: or uh yeah you might want to look at that
Speaker 2: one again. Uh, Something where you don't have to stop
Speaker 2: the game, because to me, that's that is just becoming.
Speaker 2: You know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: If that nam is the right word, but yeah, it's.
Speaker 2: Meedious and you're like please, and and everybody complains about it.
Speaker 2: I'm and every announcer complains about a TV radio everybody
Speaker 2: and every fan, like I said, if they're already Yeah,
Speaker 2: every play is reviewed. That's the thing that people don't understand.
Speaker 2: They're watching, they're watching every play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, which is fine, but it's just a
Speaker 1: matter of I think football manages and regulation better than basketball,
Speaker 1: does I really do?
Speaker 2: I agree? I agree, and more harder with basketball. But still,
Speaker 2: you got a guy, you have that third official, right
Speaker 2: that's sitting there at the scorer's table. Why not have
Speaker 2: him with the headset on watching the game? Right?
Speaker 1: But my thing too is, look, if you want to
Speaker 1: limit you're not You can't remove it. But if you
Speaker 1: want to limit it, you've got to accept the fact
Speaker 1: that there are times when your team will not be
Speaker 1: able to ask for a review, and if that happens,
Speaker 1: you might lose the game because you want more of
Speaker 1: an expedited process. If you're willing to accept that, are
Speaker 1: coach is willing to accept that Okay, we're not going
Speaker 1: to stop the game as much, but you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: lose a game somewhere. And you know how it is, Jeff,
Speaker 1: And in college sports anymore, you lose the wrong game,
Speaker 1: you're done.
Speaker 2: One game is the difference.
Speaker 1: Can people accept that? I wonder about that.
Speaker 2: You know, we we just talked about that the other
Speaker 2: day too. With baseball, you know, you some of these
Speaker 2: games that you're losing, that Kentucky's losing right now. I
Speaker 2: lost the Xavier, they lost to who was the Miami.
Speaker 2: You can't lose those games because at the end, it's
Speaker 2: that one or two games that keeps you out. Remember
Speaker 2: what was it three years ago? I think Kentucky was
Speaker 2: one game away basically. Yeah, and you're like, gosh, every
Speaker 2: game counts, man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we've got the technology to get it right, right,
Speaker 1: But people, people are before I leave you go, I'll
Speaker 1: let you go. Your Reds were looking good for a
Speaker 1: while lost last night. Are you paying attention at all?
Speaker 2: You know what, They've got one of the best pitchers
Speaker 2: in baseball now and Hunter Green, what he's doing is amazing.
Speaker 2: You've got an Era, Yeah, he's got Era under one.
Speaker 2: He's got a whip that's zero point five eight. He's
Speaker 2: got thirty one strikeouts in four starts. So yeah, am
Speaker 2: I paying attention? Yes. Plus, they have one of the
Speaker 2: most exciting players in baseball and Elliot the Cruz, and
Speaker 2: they've got a great manager in Terry Francoin I said
Speaker 2: when they made the higher he's good for six wins
Speaker 2: a year. Yeah, I mean, so whatever, if they won
Speaker 2: seventy five last year, they're winning eighty one this year
Speaker 2: because of him. That's how good he is as a manager.
Speaker 2: This team didn't look good the first what three or
Speaker 2: four or five games, then they won four in a row.
Speaker 2: They've won seven out of last ten. They're rounding in shape,
Speaker 2: but again they have to stay healthy, especially on the
Speaker 2: pitching staff. Lodolo I said this before this season. Lodolo
Speaker 2: and Green together have to have fifty to sixty starts.
Speaker 2: If they don't, then this team isn't going anywhere. If
Speaker 2: they do get sixty starts out of those two guys,
Speaker 2: then then they've got a chance because they have elected
Speaker 2: and once on the right side, once in the left
Speaker 2: they're electric pitchers and they can carry a team.
Speaker 1: Tito francona three time manager of the year. He knows
Speaker 1: what he's doing. My contention was, if this doesn't work,
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna be on him, It's gonna be on management,
Speaker 1: front office moves they make. You know, guy's got to
Speaker 1: get hits and guy's got to make pitches. You know,
Speaker 1: That's what it comes down to. He is Jeff Pecorrel.
Speaker 1: Watch for his work on WTVQ each night Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: and also listen for him on the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 1: I know I will thank you, sir, Thanks Bud, I'll
Speaker 1: do it for our number one. Coming up in hour
Speaker 1: number two, we're gonna chat with Chris Doring of the
Speaker 1: SEC Network. We'll find out his thoughts on what's going
Speaker 1: on with the transfert choral. A little bit later on
Speaker 1: some of the new football Wildcats are conversations with them
Speaker 1: earlier in the spring. That's a hit on six thirty Lap.
Speaker 5: Then Sat.
Speaker 6: Tact do.
Speaker 5: Anything on.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us
Speaker 1: now as a guy. We haven't talked to Chris Doring
Speaker 1: of the SEC Network since football season and Chris uh
Speaker 1: since then. We're going to talk football. But first of all,
Speaker 1: welcome back, good to have you again.
Speaker 4: Good to be with you too, Dick. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the Florida Gators national championship. Great to be
Speaker 1: a Florida Gator right now, isn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You know it's funny man. As we started this call,
Speaker 4: I was going to say, I'm so rusty on football
Speaker 4: stuff because I've been so entrenched in what's going on
Speaker 4: with this basketball team over the last few months that
Speaker 4: nobody could better understand that than you and the rest
Speaker 4: of my friends there at Big Blue Nation with the
Speaker 4: love of basketball that you guys have. So it was
Speaker 4: a fun season covering the set basketball the way I
Speaker 4: do on Serious tex Sam. Yeah, and getting traveled with
Speaker 4: my team and you know, we all we all love
Speaker 4: this league, but the emotional ties that we have to
Speaker 4: our our schools, our alma maters is uh his next level.
Speaker 4: And getting experience that in San Antonio with my son
Speaker 4: right next to it was a really special appearance occurring.
Speaker 1: I heard you on the air from there, I saw
Speaker 1: some of your posts. I'll come back to that in
Speaker 1: a minute, but people need to understand you here. You
Speaker 1: are as an every day or most of the week
Speaker 1: host and anchor on SEC Radio and on the SEC
Speaker 1: TV network. You got to know it all. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got to know baseball, football, basketball, women's sports. But
Speaker 1: this was obviously a labor of love for you, wasn't it.
Speaker 4: It was I got to go as a fan, which
Speaker 4: doesn't happen often, and certainly over the last decade. I'd
Speaker 4: just finished my tenth year with the SEC Network, and
Speaker 4: the majority of the trips that I've been on have
Speaker 4: involved championships for Georgia or Alabama or last Tennessee playoff
Speaker 4: game like these are all, you know, my childhood nemesis nemesis,
Speaker 4: but getting to cover them is certainly great. But when
Speaker 4: you have your own team and your own fan base
Speaker 4: there and you get to go as a fan and
Speaker 4: experience it with I mean, we had loads of Gator
Speaker 4: fans that just showed up waves upon waves, and I
Speaker 4: think it reflected the first for you know, any sort
Speaker 4: of real success in the major sports. It's been so long,
Speaker 4: and Florida fans celebrated, And I also think it was
Speaker 4: a bit of a cathartic experience getting some of that
Speaker 4: frustration and bad case out of the mouth.
Speaker 1: You know, I heard you talking about that on the
Speaker 1: air the other day, about the fact that you got
Speaker 1: a generation of Florida fans, you know, not a twenty
Speaker 1: five year generation, but Florida fans of late haven't had
Speaker 1: a whole lot to cheer about with football. Baseball got
Speaker 1: to the World Series, but you know, it's not been
Speaker 1: the powerhouse Florida Gators baseball program that it's ordinarily or
Speaker 1: basketball for a while. So this was kind of refreshing
Speaker 1: for you guys, wasn't it. It was?
Speaker 4: You know, and in an interesting you know, all of
Speaker 4: us as sports fans, your perspective is based on the
Speaker 4: era that you grew up, and you know, you're largely
Speaker 4: impacted by those players that were playing when you were
Speaker 4: you know, ten, eleven, twelve years old. Those guys seemed
Speaker 4: larger than life and the success or lack thereof your team.
Speaker 4: You know, I grew up an eighties Gators fan where
Speaker 4: it was always wait till next year. The disappointment of
Speaker 4: Boots you along the way, I think that was, you know,
Speaker 4: we lost the game to Kentucky late in the season
Speaker 4: that prevented some success. I think the you know, the
Speaker 4: Georgia being the thorn in the side of the Gators
Speaker 4: was something that impacted me. So we all have perspectives,
Speaker 4: and it was interesting. I had my son and my
Speaker 4: daughter's boyfriend with me. He finished up school last semester,
Speaker 4: and he said, man, we the whole time he was there,
Speaker 4: from twenty twenty to twenty twenty five or twenty twenty four, like,
Speaker 4: they never had any real success, and so it just
Speaker 4: doesn't seem right to have that perspective. So for those
Speaker 4: folks and the newer Gator fans, I was really happy
Speaker 4: for him.
Speaker 1: I still can't get over the fact that Kentucky beat
Speaker 1: Florida earlier in the year. Although Gators that day, as
Speaker 1: you know, missed a lot of freeze rows. But I
Speaker 1: did have Florida winning the title. Now, that didn't take
Speaker 1: any great amount of insight because I thought they were
Speaker 1: the best team in the country going into the tournament.
Speaker 1: I think you did too, But how concerned were you
Speaker 1: going into the brackets about Duke?
Speaker 4: You know what's funny is is that I believe, off
Speaker 4: the top of my head, I think that score that
Speaker 4: was the first game of the conference schedule early January,
Speaker 4: Florida goes to rough And and Florida loses one oh
Speaker 4: six to one. I believe. I just think, well, it
Speaker 4: seemed like a moral win for Florida. You know, not
Speaker 4: that we celebrate moral victories, but it seemed like a
Speaker 4: win going in there being that competitive with with the
Speaker 4: coach Pope's team, and I think in a way it
Speaker 4: was something that that Florida built on. And then you
Speaker 4: come back soon after and beat Tennessee by thirty and
Speaker 4: I think the conference level grew as you went on,
Speaker 4: obviously down underpead pre conference schedule, but that's that's what
Speaker 4: being on a team is about it and maybe maybe
Speaker 4: not as much as as football, but basketball baseball is about,
Speaker 4: you know, getting better and better and peaking at the
Speaker 4: end of the season. I think this is a team
Speaker 4: that that did that. They were fun to want, even
Speaker 4: if you weren't a Gator fan. They were a fun
Speaker 4: team to watch, full of underdogs and mis bits and
Speaker 4: guys with chips on their shoulders, and so they played
Speaker 4: that way. But as you mentioned the Duke game, we
Speaker 4: were at the semifinals and stayed for a part of
Speaker 4: the Duke Houston game. Duke fields that big twelve, fourteen
Speaker 4: point lead, and we're like, oh, this thing's over here,
Speaker 4: let's get out of here. You know, we would have
Speaker 4: much rather I think seen Houston than Duke with as
Speaker 4: you know what. They seem to be invincible and then
Speaker 4: they choke it at the end of the ball game.
Speaker 4: So it seemed like a win. But man, that's Houston team.
Speaker 4: The way they play defense, their attention to detail, their physicality.
Speaker 4: It was a tough challenge for Florida, But I do
Speaker 4: give the Gator's a lot of credit. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of teams that get a little nervous when they find
Speaker 4: themselves down. I think Florida's actually better when they were
Speaker 4: at second half deficits. They've They've shown all year long
Speaker 4: that they could come back, and they did it throughout
Speaker 4: the tournament, whether they're talking about Yukon or Texas Tech,
Speaker 4: or and Auburn and into the finals to get Uston.
Speaker 1: What do you think makes Golden such an effective coach.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a young guy. I know he's an
Speaker 1: analytics guy, but he's I mean, part of it, I
Speaker 1: know is the ability to put a team together, which he.
Speaker 4: Did think about that though Dick like, yeah, one, he's young.
Speaker 4: I think his relatability. I think I think being able
Speaker 4: to relate to your players now more than ever, it's
Speaker 4: important because of the you know, the the nil and
Speaker 4: the transfer portal and all that stuff. So I do
Speaker 4: think it's it's important to be able to be on
Speaker 4: the same page with those guys. But you know, I
Speaker 4: just talked about it, like Walter Clayton, four star basket,
Speaker 4: four star football recruiting, zero star basketball guy, nobody want
Speaker 4: to knew that. I want to, like a handloged him.
Speaker 4: Was at at Marshall. You know, every one of these
Speaker 4: players were at these small schools. They were under recruited
Speaker 4: and overlooked, and and you know, coach Golden and his
Speaker 4: staff went out there and found guys that were hungry,
Speaker 4: found guys that would fit into the schemes that they
Speaker 4: were running, but most importantly, found guys that would fit
Speaker 4: into the culture. You know, this being around sports as
Speaker 4: long as you have, you see certain teams that you say,
Speaker 4: that's the close knit team right there, that that team
Speaker 4: loves each other, and I think this team genuinely did.
Speaker 4: He was able to bring a bunch of guys together.
Speaker 4: The analytics. I mean, in that Texas Tech game, they
Speaker 4: fouled way earlier than traditionally most coaches would, but it
Speaker 4: was because they knew the free throw percentage of who
Speaker 4: they were fouling. They knew, so he wasn't wasn't, wasn't
Speaker 4: very good at the line and paid off. So I
Speaker 4: just I think they integrate, you know a lot of
Speaker 4: culture stuff with some new age analytics and science and
Speaker 4: and it just it seems to work. And his his
Speaker 4: firing us on the sideline, his willingness to show emotion,
Speaker 4: and you know, slapping dudes on the butt when they're
Speaker 4: hitting the hitting the ground and helping guys up when
Speaker 4: they're taking charges. Man, that that stuff, along with the
Speaker 4: way that he shows emotion with the fans, that resonates
Speaker 4: with Florida folk, and a lot of people want to
Speaker 4: compare him to Billy Donovan. Actually compare more to Coach Burrier,
Speaker 4: a guy that that wasn't his emotions on his sleeve
Speaker 4: as the head coach on the sideline. I think I
Speaker 4: think fans can sense that authenticity, and honestly, you know,
Speaker 4: a lot of water fan has been frustrated with the
Speaker 4: lack of emotion that Billy Naper has shown on the
Speaker 4: football sideline.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Chris Doring of the SEC Network, former
Speaker 1: Florida Gator wide receiver also an NFL veteran back with
Speaker 1: more and just a minute on the Big Blue and
Speaker 1: Side or six thirty WLAP talking to Chris Doring of
Speaker 1: the SEC Network. He is a Florida Gator and celebrating
Speaker 1: the Gators basketball championship. And as I said, you talked
Speaker 1: to every coach in the conference, men, women, whatever the sport.
Speaker 1: What was it like for you? How did you enjoy
Speaker 1: assuming that you did? You guys kind of rotate the
Speaker 1: anchor desk. But did you have much of an opportunity
Speaker 1: to talk to Mark Pope this year?
Speaker 4: I did multiple times we had him on the show.
Speaker 4: I'm a fan, you know this, Dick. I'm a fan
Speaker 4: of playing for guys that played at that level and
Speaker 4: even more so played at that level in that particular school.
Speaker 4: That's what I got the experience and much burrier like
Speaker 4: even at the NFL level, Like I've had receiver coaches
Speaker 4: that played in the NFL at the wide receiver spot
Speaker 4: or were head coaches that played in the NFL. Those
Speaker 4: guys have instant credibility. You can you can believe in
Speaker 4: what they're telling you is because something they've done themselves.
Speaker 4: That's how they read the book, right. I think Mark Pope,
Speaker 4: you know coming back to his alma Monerary won a
Speaker 4: national championship. Nobody can speak from a better perspective as
Speaker 4: to what it takes to be successful and be successful
Speaker 4: at the Big Blue Nation. So I just I think
Speaker 4: it's a perfect fit. I'm excited about the brand of basketball.
Speaker 4: I'm excited about what they can continue to do to recruit.
Speaker 4: But I think he's one of those guys that that
Speaker 4: that injects confidence into a team because he's on the sideline.
Speaker 4: And you know, it was like a it felt I
Speaker 4: didn't make it any games there this year, but it
Speaker 4: felt like a nice reset there in in rough arena
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 1: Oh, it absolutely was, you know. And and to your point,
Speaker 1: it's always interesting when kids are playing for coaches who
Speaker 1: have been where they want to be. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: he played you know, six years and any NBA played
Speaker 1: overseas has a championship ring. That was his message when
Speaker 1: he got there. And then you know, you've played with
Speaker 1: and four guys who played in the league. So yeah,
Speaker 1: when they walk in the room, they've got that instant attention,
Speaker 1: don't they They.
Speaker 4: Do have that instant attention. They have the credibility because
Speaker 4: they've done it before and they leed. You know Cosberger
Speaker 4: Bloodarnge and blue. I know that cause Pope breeds blue
Speaker 4: and white. Like it's not a not a sales pitch.
Speaker 4: You know, You're not some hired mercenary. You're a guy
Speaker 4: that that that came from those ranks, So that matters.
Speaker 4: But also, you know, one of the interviews we did
Speaker 4: with Mark Pope this year, he talked about extending the
Speaker 4: regular season and and how how hard it was when
Speaker 4: he got into the professional ranks because he hits the
Speaker 4: wall in you know, about three quarters into the season,
Speaker 4: and how extending the season in college would help prepare
Speaker 4: guys better for the the next level. And I think,
Speaker 4: you know a lot of times college coaches, whether we're
Speaker 4: talking about basketball or football or whatever, think about how
Speaker 4: they can best be served by the athletes now. But
Speaker 4: when you take that longer term approach and what can
Speaker 4: I do that's gonna benefit us as a team as
Speaker 4: a program now within the college rank, but also get
Speaker 4: my guy ready for the next level the best he
Speaker 4: can and having done it himself, I mean, nobody has
Speaker 4: more authority to speak on that than somebody like Mark Pope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and he wants forty games. He has
Speaker 1: said that unabashedly. My question is that's great for the
Speaker 1: guys going pro, but doesn't that where on the guys
Speaker 1: who are not. It wears on everybody pretty much the same.
Speaker 4: Right it does it doesn't. I'm not saying I necessarily
Speaker 4: agree with it, but I don't know that I have
Speaker 4: the background to speak to it. I could say this, though.
Speaker 4: You remember when I was in school, I think it
Speaker 4: was eleven regular season games and then we'd have the
Speaker 4: SEC championship and everybody was like, Oh, we don't need
Speaker 4: to extend the season longer. You know, you're gonna worry
Speaker 4: about injuries and everything else. All that stuff doesn't matter
Speaker 4: now when you're talking about out the amount of money
Speaker 4: that can be made. And I look at, you know,
Speaker 4: put myself in position to these players. Now, if I
Speaker 4: can have a chance to play in a twelve team
Speaker 4: playoff field, or you know, maybe I have to play
Speaker 4: sixteen or seventeen games when it's all sat and down.
Speaker 4: But man, I love getting to go out there, put
Speaker 4: the uniform on and trap it up with my teammates
Speaker 4: like I would love that.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 4: I don't necessarily have a problem with playing more games.
Speaker 4: You know, I think, you know, the idea that we'll
Speaker 4: worry about player safety brings a little hollow with some
Speaker 4: of the changes that they've actually made.
Speaker 1: It does, especially when they start talking about extending the
Speaker 1: NFL season, you know, and they talk about CTE this
Speaker 1: and that and player health. Oh but let's add let's
Speaker 1: get up to eighteen games, for crying high out. I
Speaker 1: used to play twelve games. So yeah, that's that's a
Speaker 1: tough read. Chris Doring is my guest. He is a
Speaker 1: host and anchor on the SEC Network. Well, let's talk
Speaker 1: Kentucky football disappointing last year. To be sure, I know
Speaker 1: you haven't been up here in a little while, but
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've seen some of the clip with Mark
Speaker 1: Steups talking about his team. It seems like he's got
Speaker 1: a new sort of a new burst of energy. Have
Speaker 1: you gotten that vibe from him?
Speaker 4: I have gotten that vibe from him, and I've talked
Speaker 4: to some people up there. You know, I think there's
Speaker 4: a bit of addition by subtraction to some degree. You know,
Speaker 4: it sounds like a fresh start with a lot of
Speaker 4: the roster has benefitted at him and his team thirty
Speaker 4: one new players. From what I understand, for the spring
Speaker 4: period practice period. I know he's healthier now after some
Speaker 4: surgeries and feeling reinvigorated. And also I understanding they've taken
Speaker 4: some stuff off of his desk as it relates to
Speaker 4: dealing with the peripheral stuff and he's able to go
Speaker 4: back and just coach, which I think. You know, this
Speaker 4: is a guy that loves ball, loves exus and oh so
Speaker 4: I'm excited, Like I think people forget about Kentucky and
Speaker 4: I'm not sure how it plays out this year. I'm
Speaker 4: kind of excited about Zach Calzada and his path and
Speaker 4: maybe the the reinvigoration that that he experienced after being
Speaker 4: out of football for a little bit in the past
Speaker 4: that he's had to travel to get back to the SEC.
Speaker 4: But like, this is a team that I don't think
Speaker 4: people are thinking about a lot. And let's be honest,
Speaker 4: Kentucky operated best under Mark Stups and people weren't talking
Speaker 4: about us, and I think it's when they started talking
Speaker 4: about him that, you know, the expectation level maybe got
Speaker 4: to be a little too much at time.
Speaker 1: No, I fully agree with you, and uh, you know
Speaker 1: it's the old chip on the shoulder kind of you
Speaker 1: can call it a cliche or whatever, but give me
Speaker 1: a better way to explain it.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I always talk about the fact that you and
Speaker 1: then Peter Burns were some of the earliest guys to
Speaker 1: get on that Mark Stuops train several years ago. So
Speaker 1: you know what he's capable of doing. And something I've
Speaker 1: been saying of late Chris. You you referenced, you know,
Speaker 1: nil on the portal and all that. You know, when
Speaker 1: Mark Stups got here, he had a plan, he followed
Speaker 1: it and it was very successful, to the point of
Speaker 1: ten wins and talking about Kentucky in the playoff and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, or at least in getting to Atlanta
Speaker 1: a few years ago. But with all this, all the changes,
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to coach football the way he wanted.
Speaker 1: But I got to tell you, and I'm sure you'll agree,
Speaker 1: most coaches can't right now. That's not what they signed
Speaker 1: up for, is it.
Speaker 4: No, it's not at all. And I you know, I'm
Speaker 4: worried about losing quality coaches due to you know, not
Speaker 4: want to put up with all the stuff that it requires.
Speaker 4: I mean, the calendar and of itself is messed up.
Speaker 2: I mean, think about like.
Speaker 4: The basketball transfer portal was open in the midst of
Speaker 4: the March madness taking place, so we got we got
Speaker 4: the football portal open during the college football playoffs. It
Speaker 4: makes zero sense. And I don't know, you know, I know,
Speaker 4: excuse I know, we're in the midst of like dealing
Speaker 4: with all of this different stuff that that's turning some
Speaker 4: fans off and and that's really knowing where the future headed.
Speaker 4: But like all of this could have been at least
Speaker 4: tempered if you had some sort of leadership. Some I'm
Speaker 4: hoping that void and leadership is being filled. And I
Speaker 4: think changing the schedule first and foremost is what needed
Speaker 4: most even just to help prevent burnout from these coaches
Speaker 4: and what's required of them nowadays.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree, And I know some of that
Speaker 1: has to do with the structure at the schools that
Speaker 1: are semesters or their quarters and things like that. But
Speaker 1: it's like I always say, everybody in charge, they all
Speaker 1: have college degrees, they're smart people. They can figure it out.
Speaker 1: But Stoops was talking about the calendar three years ago.
Speaker 1: They keep saying we've got to change the calendar. Uh,
Speaker 1: And there's no question about that. And you've got I
Speaker 1: understand the need for the spring calendar. But what that's
Speaker 1: done is put an end to spring games because nobody
Speaker 1: wants to show off their their their their personnel for
Speaker 1: fear that someone's gonna come in and poach them. Man,
Speaker 1: the most.
Speaker 4: Encouraging thing that I heard the NCAA. I know they
Speaker 4: turned down Colorado and Syracuse's request to play a spring game.
Speaker 4: You like the language that they use, the language that
Speaker 4: they used in terms of, hey, it would be an
Speaker 4: unfair competitive advantage for you two to do it, but
Speaker 4: it's not the time for everybody else to do it. Right,
Speaker 4: not to meet sounded like I'm in the near future,
Speaker 4: we were going to have that opportunity, and I think,
Speaker 4: you know, it may have. It may have been a
Speaker 4: sucky spring this year with us not being able to
Speaker 4: travel and go see these these games and putting them
Speaker 4: on television. But if it leads to where we're having
Speaker 4: some some inner squad practices and games in the spring,
Speaker 4: going for it, man, I'm all for that.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: And what he's referred to folks, as you have talked
Speaker 1: in the past about teams playing against each other, not
Speaker 1: just yea, you know, good on good right.
Speaker 4: Yep, yep. I can tell you like you're going to
Speaker 4: get way more out of going against somebody else's team
Speaker 4: from a player's perspective or being able to evaluate that
Speaker 4: from a coach's perspective like that, why would we not
Speaker 4: do that?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 4: I don't even I don't even know how you could
Speaker 4: give me an argument of why that wouldn't be good?
Speaker 4: What are you gonna tell me again that you're worried
Speaker 4: about player safety after you've extended the season to sixteen
Speaker 4: or seventeen games, you can't speak out of both sides
Speaker 4: of your mouth, But.
Speaker 1: Do you have the roster you need? You have everybody
Speaker 1: in place the way you need them at that time,
Speaker 1: You've still got transfers coming in, incoming freshmen coming, and
Speaker 1: people still learning where to go on campus. And suddenly
Speaker 1: you're playing what essentially is a real game. You've played
Speaker 1: this exhibition.
Speaker 4: It's an exhibit. I mean we've gone you remember the
Speaker 4: even shooting the fall in the preseason in the NFL,
Speaker 4: Like no bekids to damn about that. It's a great
Speaker 4: it's a great barometer from where your team is. For
Speaker 4: me as a guy that like had to prove myself
Speaker 4: to make teams, it's a great opportunity and I think
Speaker 4: players need to look at it from that perspective. If
Speaker 4: I can go up against somebody else that's not you know,
Speaker 4: doesn't know our our our signals, that doesn't know our teams,
Speaker 4: that I can test myself about against another great player, man,
Speaker 4: that's going to help me not only show the coaches
Speaker 4: that I'm ready, but it's going to help my development considerably.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know, I thought you were talking about playing
Speaker 1: like a real game instead of an exhibition. I'm good,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about it.
Speaker 4: I'm talking about playing a real spring game. I mean
Speaker 4: it's an exhibition. It's'count for it like an I'm going
Speaker 4: to take.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, I'm good for that.
Speaker 1: I'm good with that. My guest is Chris Doring of
Speaker 1: the sec Nelwork. We'll come back with more in just
Speaker 1: a minute. On the Big Blue Sider, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about what's happening or what was happening down in
Speaker 1: Knoxville here on six point thirty WLAP. Before I let
Speaker 1: you go, I got to ask you about what's been
Speaker 1: going on down to Tennessee. Everybody's got an opinion. It
Speaker 1: seemed like people that worked the college side of the
Speaker 1: street are saying Hey, good for Tennessee. I've heard a
Speaker 1: lot of former pro players, either on social media or
Speaker 1: on the air somewhere saying, yeah, this kid had every
Speaker 1: right to do this, and that My contention is, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we're all for the kids getting what they
Speaker 1: can get, but there's a way to do it. And
Speaker 1: he held his team and his teammates hostage, and that
Speaker 1: ain't to me. That ain't the way to go about it.
Speaker 1: What do you say.
Speaker 4: I can't stand listening to some of the former players
Speaker 4: that I've heard talk about, go get your money and
Speaker 4: and forget what the fans think. The only reason that
Speaker 4: there's money there to be gotten is because of the fans,
Speaker 4: and the fans become disenchanted with the sport, and and
Speaker 4: that the players that have no connection to the team,
Speaker 4: that that goose that lays the golden egg is gonna
Speaker 4: it's gonna croak before too long. So you have to
Speaker 4: be sensitive to all of that. And I'm just maybe
Speaker 4: I'm different. I certainly am different as it relates to
Speaker 4: how I grew up and my ties at the University
Speaker 4: of Florida. I know that Nikos is from California and
Speaker 4: doesn't have those tides of Tennessee. But like, hop out
Speaker 4: the ties to your teammates, howbout the ties to your coach?
Speaker 4: How how about the commitment that you made. How about
Speaker 4: the fact that I didn't earn any more money. If anything,
Speaker 4: he should be giving money back based upon the way
Speaker 4: you played last year. So I don't I just I
Speaker 4: don't have a lot of respect. It's not even for
Speaker 4: him as much as it is the adults around him
Speaker 4: that the guidance that he's gotten. You know, it's it's
Speaker 4: unfortunate because I just last week was a great reminder
Speaker 4: to me, and I talked about it earlier, being in
Speaker 4: San Antonio, watching my team win a national championship, coming
Speaker 4: home on Saturday and begin at the spring game and
Speaker 4: watching the next generation of Florida football and watching the
Speaker 4: basketball team get celebrated like Niko's never going to have
Speaker 4: that at Tennessee and it was playing good. Champion's not
Speaker 4: gonna have it anywhere. And let's not forget what it
Speaker 4: means to be a part of one of these alumni
Speaker 4: bases and what you can do to leverage your future.
Speaker 4: Maybe they're maybe they don't need to do it, you
Speaker 4: know anything, because they're gonna make so much money now,
Speaker 4: but just a lot of life to live, and there's
Speaker 4: much too narrow of a vision field at this point
Speaker 4: in time for a lot of these athletes.
Speaker 1: I didn't make this up myself, and I heard some
Speaker 1: analysts on the air saying, you know, let's say, wherever as
Speaker 1: we speak, he hasn't signed with anybody, but wherever he
Speaker 1: goes he will not. Odds are he won't play at
Speaker 1: a program like Tennessee and I'm in Kentucky, but you know,
Speaker 1: my respect to Tennessee football. They could have been a
Speaker 1: contender this year, ideally with him in the SEC best
Speaker 1: conference in the world, which puts him in a position
Speaker 1: to perhaps sign a pretty good pro contract, which he
Speaker 1: may still get. But maybe he's damaged his chances. So
Speaker 1: what has he gained. He hasn't gained anything taking a
Speaker 1: step back.
Speaker 4: It was funny because they were lifting off potential landing
Speaker 4: spots of what he would be looking for and everything
Speaker 4: that they listed with what he had in Knoxville. Like
Speaker 4: you know, it's the old you know, be careful what
Speaker 4: you wish for, and pastors aren't always greeners. So I
Speaker 4: I I'm glad that Tennessee stood their ground, and you know,
Speaker 4: I'm anxious to see. And the thing, I don't know
Speaker 4: if it's true. I assume it's true. But the fact
Speaker 4: that Dan Lanning had something to do with kipping off
Speaker 4: Josh Heipel that this was, you know, some fishing going
Speaker 4: on for a new deal. I love that as well,
Speaker 4: he too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, coach looking out for coach h yep, And Uh,
Speaker 1: were you surprised at the stance, hypel took.
Speaker 4: I'm not surprised at that stance at all, man. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, he verbalized it very well. Nobody's been than
Speaker 4: the Power Team himself included. And if you're gonna build
Speaker 4: like I think, I think that changes the way you
Speaker 4: recruit going forward, Like you have to be aware of,
Speaker 4: you know, what kind of person am I bringing into
Speaker 4: the locker room. Is it about some money solely or
Speaker 4: is it about something more than that? So I think
Speaker 4: coaches are going to be much more sensitive to that
Speaker 4: and vet these guys a little bit more than just
Speaker 4: you know, what they look like on the field and
Speaker 4: taking into consideration the holistic nature of the players are
Speaker 4: the person.
Speaker 1: To Now he's on the move again, we know what
Speaker 1: the portal has been like. Uh, there are guys who
Speaker 1: were playing for their fourth or fifth or sixth college team.
Speaker 1: Kentucky's got a QB. He's playing for his third no
Speaker 1: fourth team now or with his fourth program, and he
Speaker 1: gets to play for Auburn. But as a former player,
Speaker 1: I know you would have loved you. You were just you.
Speaker 1: You just love being a Gator. You grew up in Gainesville. Uh,
Speaker 1: but you can relate the guys who needed to move
Speaker 1: around for their own career. But how would you feel
Speaker 1: about one time only moved through the portal without sitting out?
Speaker 4: Like in terms of you only get one opportunity to.
Speaker 1: Get you get one freebe then after that you got
Speaker 1: a city here.
Speaker 4: I just have a hard time believing that the NCAA
Speaker 4: is going to make any sort of restriction. They're terrified
Speaker 4: of litigation. They they're like, uh, you know who was
Speaker 4: at Prairie View A and M back in the day
Speaker 4: and that every time they showed up they got beat.
Speaker 4: Like the nca is not a terrible losing street. I
Speaker 4: just don't think they want to take their chances, so
Speaker 4: they let anything go for now and restricting a student.
Speaker 4: It's amazing how far the other direction the pendulum has
Speaker 4: swung from all the restrictions in the favor of the collegists,
Speaker 4: so the other way where the players have the ultimate power.
Speaker 4: And you mentioned it, like, yeah, I probably have a
Speaker 4: little bit of that, you know, jealousy, and like I
Speaker 4: would have made a pretty good amount of money at Florida,
Speaker 4: I imagine with what I was able to do in
Speaker 4: my story of the past and board. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, it's still meant something to me to put
Speaker 4: on those colors and out on that field and and
Speaker 4: be a part of that that uh, that tradition.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, and you made the most of it, obviously,
Speaker 1: And I'm glad to hear you use that metaphor. That's
Speaker 1: what I use. A pendulum And it swings so wildly,
Speaker 1: doesn't it.
Speaker 4: It does, It does, And I don't think we've ever
Speaker 4: seen a more drastic shift in the landscape of college
Speaker 4: athletics and wealth experience in the last five years.
Speaker 1: No, and it's not for the best. Uh you do
Speaker 1: you remember what Kyle Zada was able to do at
Speaker 1: A and M. And of course he never get to
Speaker 1: play at Auburn. He was hurt, but uh, although I
Speaker 1: heard he was healthy by the time he was done
Speaker 1: at Auburn. Just didn't get get on the field. But uh,
Speaker 1: do you like what you think he's going to do
Speaker 1: for Kentucky?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I like, I like the position that
Speaker 4: he's in going until we talked about Florida. It's a
Speaker 4: guy that that teams hungary that from what I understand,
Speaker 4: without a football and got a different appreciation and and
Speaker 4: and traveled a path that probably never expected to but
Speaker 4: went through all that to put him in a position
Speaker 4: to get back into the SEC. And I think there's
Speaker 4: something to be said for experience and and and maturity
Speaker 4: and hunger and desire like those things. I just I
Speaker 4: knew last year and talking to folks around the program
Speaker 4: that Rock Vandergriff would not the answer. But I have
Speaker 4: much more hope and optimism about what that caels otican well,
Speaker 4: looking back on it, like this about these guys on offensive,
Speaker 4: finally got an offensive coordinator for the second year in
Speaker 4: a row.
Speaker 1: For the time that helps Well, oh yeah, I was
Speaker 1: about to say, uh, you know, we'll never know about
Speaker 1: Vandergriff because a uh, he just he just was beaten
Speaker 1: to death behind that O line. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think got an all new for the most part O line,
Speaker 1: including a full blooded Navajo offensive tackle who you're you're
Speaker 1: gonna love him when you get a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to him, who's six eight and whatever and doesn't have
Speaker 1: an ounce of body fat. But yeah, and OC for
Speaker 1: the second time, second year in a row, and you
Speaker 1: know what that means.
Speaker 4: And I know Bush Hampton's a good, good offensive mine. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I knew him back in his early days of Florida
Speaker 4: continuity there as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I once had a player after I think it
Speaker 1: was during the Courry era when Bill kept changing his
Speaker 1: offense and a guy who was a player was injured
Speaker 1: and he was sitting on the sidelines pregame and he
Speaker 1: kind of motioned the team out there and he says,
Speaker 1: see those guys warming up. They're on their fourth offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator in four years. I said, yeah, he goes that
Speaker 1: pisses players off, and that's what That's what brought it
Speaker 1: home for me. Uh So, Yeah, they got a chance
Speaker 1: to to play for a guy they already know. We
Speaker 1: already know Chris during. We already know he is a
Speaker 1: great college football analyst with the SEC Network in ESPN.
Speaker 1: Thank you, brother, We'll we'll talk again soon. I hope
Speaker 1: Gounny cool trips lined up you took your son with
Speaker 1: you to the final four? What about I know you
Speaker 1: guys like to travel a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I went on, man, I was on a pretty
Speaker 4: aggressive run.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 4: I went to Vegas home for four hours, to the
Speaker 4: Bahamas for the Lang's wedding, home for about four days
Speaker 4: before I went to San Antonio home for a couple
Speaker 4: of days before doing Charlotte for some spring football show.
Speaker 4: I'm home now for a week, and then I'll head
Speaker 4: back to Charlotte for the first round of the NFL
Speaker 4: Draft in the SEC Network studio, and then heading to Oxford,
Speaker 4: Mississippi for a little double decker down there, which will
Speaker 4: be fun.
Speaker 1: Wow. Sounds good. Hey, we'll be watching and listening. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much as always for the time and to have
Speaker 1: a great summer. We'll talk again soon.
Speaker 4: Sounds goody, Thanks man, take care.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and wrap up this edition of The
Speaker 1: Big Boone Sider in just a minute here on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider,
Speaker 1: final segment of our program. I'm gonna stick with football
Speaker 1: because we got to share with you some of the
Speaker 1: conversations we've had with the football Wildcats during the spring
Speaker 1: starting with Dante Downdel. He is the running back who
Speaker 1: it looks like right now is running number one. If
Speaker 1: you're going by what we saw in the spring football showcase,
Speaker 1: he was out there were the ones. He got the
Speaker 1: most carries, not that many, you know, comparatively speaking, but
Speaker 1: if you try to pick out who's going to be
Speaker 1: the starter, it looks like this is the guy. Multiple schools,
Speaker 1: of course. Started off at Oregon in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: played in six games, seventeen carries, ninety yards, and one touchdown.
Speaker 1: Then he transferred to Nebraska, started seven games, played in twelve,
Speaker 1: led Nebraska in rushing but one hundred and forty three
Speaker 1: carries and six hundred and fourteen rushing yards, scored twelve touchdowns,
Speaker 1: caught seven balls for twenty one yards, and in fact,
Speaker 1: those twelve rushing tds were the most buy in Nebraska
Speaker 1: running back since twenty eighteen. But decided to transfer to
Speaker 1: the Wildcats. And I asked him what brought him to Lexington?
Speaker 1: Why are you here? What brought you to Kentucky?
Speaker 7: His Jared or running backs?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 7: Second a thousand yard rushes in draft picks are running backs,
Speaker 7: you know, cause stops when I was standing they see
Speaker 7: coach after saving left, So I like to you.
Speaker 1: Know, the way teams are spraying the ball all over
Speaker 1: the field these days, it still gets back to running
Speaker 1: the football, doesn't it move in the chains? Yeah? Where
Speaker 1: do you fit into all that?
Speaker 7: I mean, I feel I can run the ball. You know,
Speaker 7: if you can run the ball on the team, you
Speaker 7: can win. If you can run the ball you play
Speaker 7: at defense, you can win the game.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the history of running backs. What are what
Speaker 1: are the names you took note of? Who do you
Speaker 1: know that was here?
Speaker 7: Uh, Benny Sneil Ray, David See he just came here
Speaker 7: one year, but he was good. Yeah, and then uh
Speaker 7: see Rodd Yeah, Christma Mariguez. I watched him play versus
Speaker 7: Ill missed when I was getting recruited. And then Williams,
Speaker 7: will Williams and stuff like that. I watch all of them.
Speaker 1: How confident are you that you can be the next guy?
Speaker 7: I feel like I'm confident, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: I get the opportunity, you feel like I can make
Speaker 7: it happen.
Speaker 1: They've had some issues on the old line. They got
Speaker 1: a brand new old that's going to be in front
Speaker 1: of you. What do you know about them so far?
Speaker 7: Uh, I'm going they brought in some guys, you know,
Speaker 7: new guys. Guy from Arkansas and the guy from another
Speaker 7: school I fly, I fly in mash By together.
Speaker 1: Just looking at him over there, they are pretty athletic looking,
Speaker 1: aren't they.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they look very athletic.
Speaker 1: How do they look on the field? And what's what's
Speaker 1: been your impression of Lexian and and being here at
Speaker 1: the UK so far?
Speaker 7: Uh? The flag is good, I mean I I think
Speaker 7: I think the girls look a little bit better than Nebraska.
Speaker 1: Interesting link between Nebraska and Kentucky. Remember Vince Merrill was
Speaker 1: working at Nebraska when Stoops was hired and brought him here.
Speaker 1: You had Wandale Robinson transferring from Nebraska to Kentucky and
Speaker 1: doing great things. And you had Dane Key who just
Speaker 1: transferred from Kentucky to Nebraska. So uh, maybe more than coincidence,
Speaker 1: who knows, but it's working out apparently for both. Dando's
Speaker 1: gonna have to run behind some good offensive linemen in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Brought in a lot of new faces through the portal,
Speaker 1: and I had a chance to talk to a couple
Speaker 1: of them, including Joshua Braun six six three forty two,
Speaker 1: played at Arkansas, played at Florida. He is a grad
Speaker 1: student who is now a Wildcat. A lot of new
Speaker 1: faces this year on the old line. What's that like?
Speaker 6: Oh, you know, it's just the day and age of
Speaker 6: college football that we live in. I mean, players are
Speaker 6: gonna leave, players a gonna come in. Every year, it's
Speaker 6: gonna be a different group. And I think so far
Speaker 6: these past two months, we've done a good job of
Speaker 6: trying to come together in Jael as an offensive line,
Speaker 6: it definitely helps when we have older guys like Jagger Alex,
Speaker 6: just people who've been around the block who know how
Speaker 6: to essentially form an offensive line once the coaches bring
Speaker 6: the players in, but then it's up to us to
Speaker 6: jail and become an actual offensive line.
Speaker 1: Jelling is the key, though, for this position, more than
Speaker 1: any right, Yes, sir.
Speaker 6: I mean there's five players that make up the offensive line,
Speaker 6: and we got to act as one unit. We have
Speaker 6: to be of one mind.
Speaker 1: And yet you're used to that, you know that. What's
Speaker 1: the challenge in making that happen?
Speaker 6: Yeah, the challenge is just recreating a game scenario before
Speaker 6: we actually get to the season, and so when the
Speaker 6: bullets start flying Week one, Week two. You have to
Speaker 6: know how you're gonna handle it, and you have to
Speaker 6: have gone through it through workouts like we did today.
Speaker 6: Walk throughs. You have to have high energy, high stress
Speaker 6: environments that you can work through as an offensive line
Speaker 6: to really come together and see how each part of
Speaker 6: the offensive line operates under pressure and how each guy
Speaker 6: responds to what we're being asked of.
Speaker 1: So, what are the workouts like today that you just made?
Speaker 6: It was just a bunch of station work, agility, things
Speaker 6: of that nature. But it's really just right now, it's
Speaker 6: more of the mental side of things. They're trying to
Speaker 6: make it hard for us mentally because you can only
Speaker 6: text a body so much. And I mean, they're building
Speaker 6: us into incredible athletes, and so at a certain point,
Speaker 6: no matter what the workout is, they're gonna have us
Speaker 6: prepared and it's not gonna be as hard as it
Speaker 6: was when we were eighteen nineteen freshman sophomores. I was
Speaker 6: talking to Jaalen Farmer today, I'm like, dude, I'm twenty four,
Speaker 6: Like I've been doing this six years. I can go
Speaker 6: through a workout like this and it's just like the
Speaker 6: thousand I've done before it, But for right now, what
Speaker 6: we're trying to do is get the mental side of it.
Speaker 6: How you attack each rep in the workout, how you
Speaker 6: attack you know you have a hard lift coming up.
Speaker 6: Say yesterday we had front squats. We knew we were
Speaker 6: gonna have front squats. We knew it was gonna be hard.
Speaker 6: It's just how you attack the weight. Are you going
Speaker 6: to let it be menacing? Are you gonna let it
Speaker 6: take control of you? Are you going to take control
Speaker 6: of it?
Speaker 1: The foundation of Stoops's success has been the big blue wall.
Speaker 1: It's been the run game, protecting a quarterback, all that,
Speaker 1: because it dictates the entire game. I know you guys
Speaker 1: are aware of that, arenswer?
Speaker 6: Yes, sir? In the SEC games are won in the trenches,
Speaker 6: and if we want to have a successful season, it's
Speaker 6: up to the offensive line to set the standard for
Speaker 6: the team. And that's what we're working on right now.
Speaker 6: We want to be an offensive line that leads and
Speaker 6: we don't want to hold back our team in any way.
Speaker 3: How much different is this works?
Speaker 6: So I've been asked that question a lot because this
Speaker 6: is the second I've transferred to an SEC school in particular,
Speaker 6: and what I always say, is the SEC is the SEC.
Speaker 6: To compete in this league, you have to have a
Speaker 6: certain standard, you have to operate a certain way, and
Speaker 6: so transferring within the SEC is not easy per se,
Speaker 6: but it's definitely familiar. And so each program's gonna do
Speaker 6: basically the same thing. There will be little nuances, and
Speaker 6: in those nuances that's where you get teams that are
Speaker 6: going to excel or the teams that are gonna be
Speaker 6: held back. And I think what we have here is
Speaker 6: gonna set us up to excel in the season.
Speaker 1: So other than money, why why Kentucky? What was it
Speaker 1: that kind of and when I want to go play there?
Speaker 6: Coach Wolford. So, Coach Wolford recruited me out of high
Speaker 6: school to South Carolina. We met. He actually told me
Speaker 6: yesterday that my name and his phone is still Josh Braun,
Speaker 6: twenty seventeen recruit. So we've known each other seven seven years.
Speaker 6: And so when I decided to get in the portal,
Speaker 6: he was interested. And I knew I wanted to play
Speaker 6: for a coach like coach Wolford, one that will demand
Speaker 6: your best every day, and I know he's gonna get
Speaker 6: the best out of me. And if I do what
Speaker 6: he asks of me, I will be successful.
Speaker 1: That's Joshua Lebron and one of his teammates new teammates
Speaker 1: on the old line is Alex Wohlschlager, who came in
Speaker 1: from Bowling Green, and he talked about the difference between
Speaker 1: the Mac and the larger conferences, particularly the SEC.
Speaker 8: I think it comes down to the speed of the game,
Speaker 8: you know. I mean, even Wolf said it when he
Speaker 8: recruited me. We started with Penn State, and then it
Speaker 8: was texting A them and Penn State. It was almost
Speaker 8: like I was lagging behind a little. And then A
Speaker 8: and M since I already played Penn State, I got
Speaker 8: used to the speed more and A and M he said,
Speaker 8: I played better. But you know, you can feel it.
Speaker 8: It's it's definitely just the speed of play. I feel
Speaker 8: like increases. And those are the types of games as
Speaker 8: like a Mac player where you just had to make
Speaker 8: sure you were dialed in because you need to not
Speaker 8: think about the play at all. You just gotta be
Speaker 8: dialed into all right, what's this guy gonna do? What's
Speaker 8: his tell this and that? So, but no, you can
Speaker 8: feel it. I don't think it's terrible though, so I
Speaker 8: gotta get used to it. This year, it's gonna be
Speaker 8: every game.
Speaker 1: So you've talked about being a captain at your last
Speaker 1: stop and basically earning your way here. Is it hard?
Speaker 1: Do you have to bite your tongue sometimes, like, you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to get out there and be more of a leader,
Speaker 1: as much of a leader as you can be.
Speaker 8: Honestly, the one thing I kind of noticed as a
Speaker 8: captain was like everybody receives leadership differently. You know, not
Speaker 8: everybody wants a guy who's just gonna be kind of
Speaker 8: on them the whole time. You see, young, some guys
Speaker 8: just need like pat on the bat back separately, like
Speaker 8: whispering the air like let's go. You got this kind
Speaker 8: of thing. Other guys they want to get in your
Speaker 8: face kind of motivation. And so, you know, I did
Speaker 8: my best because I'm more of an introverted person, you know,
Speaker 8: I'm not that, you know, let's go type of guy.
Speaker 8: I did my best of Yeah, i might not be
Speaker 8: speaking or in your face, young, but I'm gonna make
Speaker 8: sure that if you look at me, you can see
Speaker 8: an example of what's what's to be expected. You know,
Speaker 8: no hands on the knees, but you know, warriors posture,
Speaker 8: running through the line, doing everything, showing up early, all
Speaker 8: that stuff. So but I feel like each person just
Speaker 8: has their own kind of style of leadership that they
Speaker 8: want to follow us.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a lot of question marks, but it's
Speaker 1: all gonna come down to the O line again. And
Speaker 1: by all accounts, it looks like they've done a good
Speaker 1: job the Kentucky staff of bringing in guys who can
Speaker 1: compete in the SEC. Can they pull it all together
Speaker 1: though and build that front? You know, they don't have
Speaker 1: the luxury of playing together all those years and developing,
Speaker 1: so they got a lot of work to do. But
Speaker 1: it's going to be fun to watch, I hope. If
Speaker 1: it's not, it's going to be another long year. All right,
Speaker 1: that's going to do it. Thanks to Jefficole, that Chris Dorn,
Speaker 1: that's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 3: Thompson.
Speaker 5: Yeah, do you know what I'm gonna do?
Speaker 3: No, I don't.
Speaker 5: I'm going to take a path.
Speaker 3: And then left the media such sat out, such status.
Speaker 5: Taging anything on such sat out, such sting thin toast
Speaker 5: from tape, the doting do