Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabrielle with
Speaker 1: you Thursday edition of our program. We are one day
Speaker 1: now into the month of August, and that means we
Speaker 1: are a one day from Media Day, the talking season
Speaker 1: in full force. Tomorrow is UK Football Media Day. Saturday
Speaker 1: is UK Football Fan Day. So the bus is rolling,
Speaker 1: it's coming right at us and it's less than a
Speaker 1: month away Kentucky football and of course you'll hear every
Speaker 1: game right here on six thirty WLAP. We'll talk a
Speaker 1: little bit of football tonight. We're going to talk a
Speaker 1: little more about Lafa Melia, which plays tomorrow. But tomorrow
Speaker 1: is a big day, isn't it up in Philly against
Speaker 1: the team composed primarily of Ohio State alumni trying to
Speaker 1: get to the finals of TBT, the basketball Tournament, million
Speaker 1: dollar winner take All tournament. That's going to be a
Speaker 1: great one. One of the Fox Sports channels will have
Speaker 1: it for you tomorrow night. Lots of Olympic news as well,
Speaker 1: and some NFL for you to get to. Here. Coming
Speaker 1: up tonight, Keith Madison, the Hall of Fame coach and
Speaker 1: sometime radio partner of Darren Hedrick, is going to talk
Speaker 1: with us about the changes in college baseball, specifically some
Speaker 1: of the changes to the UK roster, but in general,
Speaker 1: they're throwing money around now, and they're throwing money all
Speaker 1: over the place, and baseball in some corners is going
Speaker 1: to catch a lot of it. Gone apparently will be
Speaker 1: the restrictive eleven point seven scholarship rule. That's all college
Speaker 1: coaches have in terms of athletic scholarships up until this
Speaker 1: point for college baseball, and it's really been a problem.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that, but now apparently it's going to
Speaker 1: be with some roster limits, all you can afford when
Speaker 1: it comes to scholarships, and that will create some huge
Speaker 1: chasms in the competitive nature of college baseball. So we'll
Speaker 1: talk with Keith Madison about that. Also going to visit
Speaker 1: with Kent Taylor, who is now the sports director at
Speaker 1: WLKYTV over in Louisville, and we'll talk with him about
Speaker 1: what he sees upcoming for the Kentucky football season. Ken's
Speaker 1: been on the beat for quite some time. He was
Speaker 1: at the NBC affiliate, now he's at the CBS affiliate
Speaker 1: over in Louisville. So I mentioned Kentucky football, and of
Speaker 1: course there will be crowds of media around all the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: I've got to think at some point, but especially Brock
Speaker 1: Vandergriff who in the spring was the guy they brought
Speaker 1: to the podium after practices. There were so many requests
Speaker 1: for him, of course when he first got here, then
Speaker 1: during workouts, So if you were going by interview requests
Speaker 1: and the fact that he was the guy who stood
Speaker 1: up in front of the media, you'd think he is
Speaker 1: the incumbent starter, although he's never taken a snap for
Speaker 1: the Wildcats, but he is. I don't know if he's
Speaker 1: the odds on favorite, but definitely the favorite to win
Speaker 1: that job. Bush Hampden I had a comment from him
Speaker 1: the other night here on the show about the entire
Speaker 1: quarterback room with bo Allen much more experienced down, a
Speaker 1: guy who knows what it's like to be a while
Speaker 1: okay quarterback left and came back, and of course Cutter
Speaker 1: bowliedy incoming freshman who Hamden said is his talented as
Speaker 1: freshman as he's ever worked with. And Gavin Wimsit the
Speaker 1: transfer from Rutgers, who is probably the best runner in
Speaker 1: the quarterback room, and they may have a package of
Speaker 1: plays for him. But Hamden started his comments the other
Speaker 1: day by talking about the transfer from Georgia.
Speaker 2: I really feel this about Brock. I mean, he's an
Speaker 2: old school throwback type player and he's a guy that
Speaker 2: this is really important to him from a leadership standpoint.
Speaker 2: I think that was always the starting point anytime you
Speaker 2: have a guy that's coming in as a transfer and
Speaker 2: the expectations how he can mesh with the rest of
Speaker 2: the team. I think he's done a tremendous job. He's
Speaker 2: a player that's got a really nice skill set, can
Speaker 2: run it, can throw it. We're certainly excited about him
Speaker 2: continuing to take the next step.
Speaker 1: That's Bush Hamden at the kickoff lunch. And when I
Speaker 1: think about Brock Vandergriff and I've seen him a tad
Speaker 1: bit and drills, but I always go back to what
Speaker 1: my friend John Klay Harold Leader has said on this program.
Speaker 1: A couple of times. He talked to a friend of
Speaker 1: his who covers Georgia football, and that person told John
Speaker 1: that Rock Vandergriff was very, very close to winning the
Speaker 1: starting job at Georgia but just couldn't beat out Carson Beck.
Speaker 1: And that happens when you're talking about a program in
Speaker 1: a roster that's riddled with five star athletes. Of course,
Speaker 1: only one guy is going to be your starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: The other guys just going to have to sit and
Speaker 1: like it. And Vandergriff was a good teammate, but decided
Speaker 1: I need to go someplace where I'll have a better
Speaker 1: chance at playing, and apparently Kentucky is that space. So
Speaker 1: that's what I think about when I think about the
Speaker 1: quarterback competition. But Jeremy Jarmer has been on our show
Speaker 1: more than one saying he firmly believes it is going
Speaker 1: to be a real competition for quarterback right up until
Speaker 1: I guess game week, because he likes how bo Allen
Speaker 1: has developed. And of course Boldie's got talent, wimsit's got experience.
Speaker 1: He's been hitting the mouth as a starting quarterback. So
Speaker 1: it's going to be really interesting. I've got to think
Speaker 1: Vandergriff will win the starting job. But one thing, Kentucky
Speaker 1: has been caught in the past suffering from a lack
Speaker 1: of depth. That's not going to be the case this year, clearly.
Speaker 1: All Right, let me shift over to Olympics because last
Speaker 1: night they on the Encore presentation, they showed Katie Ledecki
Speaker 1: winning the gold in the fifteen hundred, just phenomenal, goes
Speaker 1: out to the lead almost instantly and blows away the field,
Speaker 1: winning her eighth gold medal. And now she's talking about
Speaker 1: swimming in twenty twenty eight. I cannot imagine. It's just well,
Speaker 1: all of the Olympic events can be grueling, but you know,
Speaker 1: to swim multiple events, and her specialty is that marathon,
Speaker 1: the fifteen hundred meter, and nobody else had a chance
Speaker 1: at beating her. Last night she's got the best twenty
Speaker 1: times ever in that event. Last night was her eighth
Speaker 1: best time. And we've talked before about how it's a
Speaker 1: slow pool because it's not very deep and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of churn and the swimmers have to swim through
Speaker 1: their own churn going back and forth. Of course that
Speaker 1: many times in the fifteen hundred, so she wins it
Speaker 1: and NBC I saw this online. There was the headline
Speaker 1: said needed a special camera angle for Katie Ledeci at
Speaker 1: the Olympics. And kudos to NBC's producers for planning ahead
Speaker 1: because this had to have come up. When she opens up,
Speaker 1: not just if, but when she opens up that big lead,
Speaker 1: how are we going to show this compared to the
Speaker 1: rest of the swimmers. Think about the film you've seen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was film back then, but you've seen since the
Speaker 1: replays hundreds of times about Secretariat beating the field at
Speaker 1: the Belmont. That is still the benchmark for victory in
Speaker 1: at the very least a classic race, if not one
Speaker 1: of the best races of all time. Secretariat wins the
Speaker 1: Belmont by thirty one lengths and they had to go
Speaker 1: so wide. I think CBS had it back then just
Speaker 1: to show where the second horse was. Well, NBC had
Speaker 1: to do that last night was Katie Ledeci. So they
Speaker 1: went to what's called the all twenty two camera. And
Speaker 1: you've seen it before. You've seen it if you watched
Speaker 1: the NFL on any network. They now use that camera angle.
Speaker 1: It's what they call little generally. I'm sure it's a lockdown,
Speaker 1: but even if not, even if it's just somebody manning
Speaker 1: that camera for the whole game, it shows all twenty
Speaker 1: two players at all time, a really super wide shot
Speaker 1: of the field, so you can see it's almost like
Speaker 1: a chalkboard come to life. How a play unfolds. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what NBC went to last night because they needed
Speaker 1: to get so wide to show just how Katie Ladecci
Speaker 1: was crushed the field. And you can't do that with
Speaker 1: what you call your main game camera. You've got multiple
Speaker 1: cameras obviously upstairs, but you've got you know, if you
Speaker 1: want to call a camera one camera, hey whatever, that's
Speaker 1: the lead camera that the director goes to, then there'll
Speaker 1: be another camera virtually right next to them. That's tighter
Speaker 1: on some of the athletes, and they spread them out
Speaker 1: all over the arena, but they had an all twenty
Speaker 1: two ready last night, and that's how they covered Katie
Speaker 1: Ledeci's smashing victory in the fifteen hundred. Last night she
Speaker 1: went her eighth gold, her twelfth medal overall, and and
Speaker 1: o Oopsie, I just patted NBC on the back of
Speaker 1: little Oopsie for NBC. We were watching I was with
Speaker 1: some friends watching it last night, and they put up
Speaker 1: twenty three medals for Michael Phelps and twelve for Katie Ladeci. Oops.
Speaker 1: Phelps has twenty eight medals, twenty three golds. So somebody
Speaker 1: got that wrong. But hey, if that's the only mistake
Speaker 1: they made last night, that's not too bad. The mistake
Speaker 1: came in my opinion here in the States from the ACC.
Speaker 1: That's right. The Atlantic Coast Conference now home to Stanford,
Speaker 1: which is awful. You know, the PAC twelve dying and
Speaker 1: now you've got teams crisscrossing the country. Well, Stanford, which
Speaker 1: was trying to survive financially in college sports, sign's on
Speaker 1: with the ACC. Best opportunity for Stanford. And at some
Speaker 1: point the ACC tweeted or put up on social media
Speaker 1: just how proud it was of a former ACC athlete
Speaker 1: and what she's doing at the Olympics. Huh, Katie Ledecki
Speaker 1: never competed in the ACC. Yeah, I know, Stanford's in
Speaker 1: the ACC. Now, this is what stinks about all this
Speaker 1: conference movement.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: People wanted UK to move to the ACC some years ago,
Speaker 1: which would have meant that all those SEC titles that
Speaker 1: Kentucky's won in basketball would have been worthless, meaningless. But anyhow,
Speaker 1: Katie Ldecki won a pair of PAC twelve and NCA
Speaker 1: team titles with the cardinal fifteen NCA records and did
Speaker 1: that in the PAC twelve, not the ACC, but the
Speaker 1: conference quick to claim her Olympic success in a tweet
Speaker 1: after her victory. Come on, you at least got to
Speaker 1: make some mention some nod to the PAC twelve, but
Speaker 1: now not the ACC. Where are we now in college sports?
Speaker 1: Coming up next, more weirdness from the Olympics in some
Speaker 1: great moments. But also a good buddy of Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: who is likewise famous and from Boston says he won't
Speaker 1: miss the Tom Brady broadcast and that person is a
Speaker 1: celebrated actor. We'll tell you about that on the other
Speaker 1: side of the break. Coming up, Keith Madison, the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame coach, will chat with us as well as
Speaker 1: Kent Taylor from WLKY here on the Big Blue Sider
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome Back. Coming up in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes, Hall of Fame baseball coach Keith Madison. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about a number of things, including a highly drafted
Speaker 1: high school player who has instead said I Am going
Speaker 1: to play for the Kentucky Wildcats. Tyler bell enfielder from Frankfurt, Illinois,
Speaker 1: has said no, thank you to the pros, and we'll
Speaker 1: be a Wildcat and we'll be eligible to be drafted
Speaker 1: again in twenty twenty six. But that's a great get
Speaker 1: for Nick Manjee and we'll talk about him and other
Speaker 1: things with Keith Madison. Coming up in just a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But I mentioned weird things at the Olympics and a
Speaker 1: lot of news involving coverage, but I can't get off
Speaker 1: this triathlon thing. It's just so nasty. The athletes had
Speaker 1: to swim in the polluted Scene River, which was deemed
Speaker 1: safe enough for the event. They measured the water on
Speaker 1: Wednesday and they said, okay, good to go, because there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of rain that had helped kind
Speaker 1: of clean it up a little bit. But one of
Speaker 1: the athletes from Belgium, she came out of the water
Speaker 1: and said, I felt and saw things we shouldn't think
Speaker 1: about too much. She was talking to the TV network
Speaker 1: from her home country. She finished twenty fourth and said
Speaker 1: she had ingested a lot of water during the race
Speaker 1: and concerned about what it would do to her body. Oh,
Speaker 1: she said, well no tomorrow if I'm sick or not.
Speaker 1: It doesn't taste like Coca cola or sprite. Of course,
Speaker 1: that didn't make it on the NBC, but it did
Speaker 1: make the rounds on social media. What has made it
Speaker 1: onto NBC, I think is in pretty good. NBC has
Speaker 1: done a nice job, but so much of this has
Speaker 1: appeared on Peacock, which is a great thing for NBC,
Speaker 1: it's shareholders, its executives. Is it good for us? No,
Speaker 1: not really, because you know it's it's like we mentioned
Speaker 1: more than once. I'm kind of beating this drum to death.
Speaker 1: But and it was really because of Peacock. I mentioned
Speaker 1: three or four years ago, right here on the Big
Speaker 1: Boo in Sider when NBC announced that Notre Dame's home
Speaker 1: opener I think it was with Toledo College football opener
Speaker 1: would be seen only on Peacock. That didn't go over
Speaker 1: very well with Notre Dame fans, as you might expect,
Speaker 1: but I said, quite frankly, that's the beginning, not the
Speaker 1: beginning of the end, but beginning of a new era
Speaker 1: in sports. Pay per view streaming is the way they
Speaker 1: will go. And again, John Skipper, the legendary former head
Speaker 1: of ESPN, once said, one of these days, maybe not
Speaker 1: sometime soon, but at some point the Super Bowl will
Speaker 1: be a pay per view venture. Now comes the news
Speaker 1: that ESPN, Fox, and Warner Brothers have put together a
Speaker 1: venture called Venue Sports Venu. It's a streaming venture. It
Speaker 1: will launch in the fall. It's going to be around
Speaker 1: fifty bucks a month. And they say they're going to
Speaker 1: put thousands of events on this channel. You can get
Speaker 1: a deal on it early in the fall for forty
Speaker 1: two to ninety nine a month. That price will be
Speaker 1: guaranteed for twelve months, with the ability to cancel at
Speaker 1: any time. There's going to be a seven day free
Speaker 1: trial all that stuff. But it's here. It's not just coming,
Speaker 1: it's here, So you know what's going on With Sunday
Speaker 1: ticket prices going up. You can still watch a lot
Speaker 1: of sports on free TV, but more and more we're
Speaker 1: going to have to dig deep and decide what do
Speaker 1: we want to pay to see. You know, there's so
Speaker 1: much out there because everything is televised now thanks to
Speaker 1: technology digital technology. There are hundreds and hundreds of high
Speaker 1: schools that are televising via the internet their games. You
Speaker 1: can get some of these apps that allow you to
Speaker 1: just set up and switch them in your own computer
Speaker 1: and things like that. But it's coming, and there's going
Speaker 1: to come out. You know what it's really going to
Speaker 1: turn is when every NFL game is pay per view.
Speaker 1: Is when you're gonna have to buy some sort of
Speaker 1: subscription to watch a package that right now might be
Speaker 1: on CBS or Fox or whatever technology is going to
Speaker 1: have to keep up as well. But every it seems
Speaker 1: like every month there's a new increment that tells us
Speaker 1: how they're going to get into our pockets. Speaking of technology,
Speaker 1: the NFL is using what's called Hawkeye technology from Sony.
Speaker 1: They're experimenting with the way to do away with a
Speaker 1: chain gang. There have been so many complaints about how
Speaker 1: they've measured for first downs, and it's only been with
Speaker 1: the lay within the last few years, because I mean
Speaker 1: they've complained about it, players, coaches, fans for years, but
Speaker 1: it's been more acute because now we have technology that
Speaker 1: can show us things on replay, show us the line
Speaker 1: to gain and things like that, but they're still dealing
Speaker 1: with guys holding markers and chains and stuff like that
Speaker 1: until they perfect it. Though they're not going to use
Speaker 1: it obviously, but it's on the way. So those of
Speaker 1: you who are frustrated with the way first downs are
Speaker 1: measured or not measured, help is on the way. Relief
Speaker 1: is on the way, and it's called Hawkeye technology and
Speaker 1: it's from Sony. While we're talking about sports and business,
Speaker 1: there's a guy who's been tweeting and covering sports business
Speaker 1: for many many years by the name of Darren Revel.
Speaker 1: I can follow him on Twitter, and he has kind
Speaker 1: of moved into a different line of work. He is
Speaker 1: a collector and Darren Revel recently purchased what is said
Speaker 1: to be the world's oldest sealed Twinkies. You know the
Speaker 1: joke about nuclear fallout the only thing that's going to survive,
Speaker 1: or cockroaches and twinkies. Well, this twinkie and I've seen
Speaker 1: a picture of its in the wrap from the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: He's trying to get it certified by the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of World Records as the oldest sealed twinkie in the world.
Speaker 1: He bought it for what he is being described as
Speaker 1: an undisclosed amount over one thousand dollars. They say it
Speaker 1: likely dates to nineteen seventy six and Revel had to
Speaker 1: have it. This guy used to cover sports business for ESPN, CNBC,
Speaker 1: the Action Network, but earlier this year he founded a
Speaker 1: sports collectibles media platform called CLLLCT and it deals with
Speaker 1: unusual collectibles. And he tweeted out, or actually posted a
Speaker 1: commentary on his website some of the interesting items he's
Speaker 1: picked up through the years, including Shaquille O'Neill's LSU college id,
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods signed lap dance ticket, and Bruce Springsteen's health
Speaker 1: insurance card. But now he's turned his attention to a
Speaker 1: forty eight year old Twinkie and he saw it available
Speaker 1: at a collectible show in Cleveland, and he said, quote,
Speaker 1: I knew I had to have it. I hate twinkies,
Speaker 1: always have, always will. Just the thought of even holding
Speaker 1: one from nineteen seventy six, oh no, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: But if that's your thing, now here's what I wonder.
Speaker 1: How do you make money off this? How do you
Speaker 1: monetize it? Well, you hang on to it, and maybe,
Speaker 1: just maybe, if i'd somebody else might want to buy
Speaker 1: a Twinkie from the seventies, not I Before the break,
Speaker 1: I mentioned a Hollywood actor who's a big Tom Brady Fanily,
Speaker 1: it's Matt Damon from Boston, And of course I grew
Speaker 1: up a Patriots fan, still a huge Patriots fan, but
Speaker 1: a big fan a Tom Brady. They're both huge celebrities,
Speaker 1: their friends. And I've wondered in the past about these
Speaker 1: incredible enormous amounts of money, speaking of sports business, that
Speaker 1: they pay guys like Brady to do TV work a
Speaker 1: deal said to be worth three hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: million dollars from Fox Sports, and you know, they've got
Speaker 1: smart people crunching numbers. Apparently they think they can make
Speaker 1: it work and that they will not just break even
Speaker 1: but make money by paying Tom Brady all that cash
Speaker 1: to or whatever they're paying him in to do their ballgames. Well,
Speaker 1: Matt Damon an unabast fan of what I said. I
Speaker 1: mentioned with the Patriots and Brady said he's not going
Speaker 1: to miss a game. But how many people are going
Speaker 1: to say that, Well, if Brady's calling the game, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna watch it. Yeah, there will be some, but enough
Speaker 1: to make it work? Who knows? How do you measure that?
Speaker 1: But Brady was the topic when Damon appeared on the
Speaker 1: Rich Eisen Show. He's plugging a special or a show
Speaker 1: rather called The Instigators, which is coming up on Apple
Speaker 1: TV starting tomorrow. I'll check it out. But he was talking.
Speaker 1: He's a huge sports fan, of course, and was talking
Speaker 1: to Rich Eisen about Brady and about the fact that
Speaker 1: he mentioned Damon did Tony Romo the expertise that he
Speaker 1: brought to TV, which he did. I mean, he has
Speaker 1: made some deep dives. I'm not a huge Romo fan,
Speaker 1: and it's more than just when it comes to what
Speaker 1: he brings predicting plays that are going to be called,
Speaker 1: but the insights that he brings, And of course Brady
Speaker 1: brings more really than anybody, given the longevity, given the
Speaker 1: ups and downs, given the number of Super Bowl wins,
Speaker 1: the fact that he has played in every stadium before,
Speaker 1: every fan base has beaten every team in the league,
Speaker 1: won multiple Super Bowls with one team went ten years
Speaker 1: without winning one, then won another one went to another
Speaker 1: team and won a Super Bowl. So it's a deep
Speaker 1: dive with Tom Brady. And that's why Matt Damon says,
Speaker 1: among other reasons, he ain't gonna miss a game from a.
Speaker 4: First person perspective, and he can and he knows what
Speaker 4: all of those things feel like.
Speaker 1: And he's just I think for anybody who knows him,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know him off.
Speaker 4: The field, he is the nicest guy. And that's what
Speaker 4: you know. People have been rooting against him. You know,
Speaker 4: the majority of people who are going to be watching him,
Speaker 4: we're rooting against him for years.
Speaker 5: They're going to.
Speaker 4: See that too, and it's impossible not to love that guy.
Speaker 6: Once he once he spent a little time with him.
Speaker 4: He's he's just a great person. But he's so knowledgeable
Speaker 4: that I think I can't wait to I'm going to
Speaker 4: watch whatever games he's broadcasting because because it's going to
Speaker 4: be fun.
Speaker 1: That is Matt Damon appearing on The Rich Eisen Show
Speaker 1: courtesy of the NFL Network. Up next, we'll talk Kentucky baseball.
Speaker 1: Keep coming back to the Big Blueing Cider or our
Speaker 1: previous segment we heard from Matt Damon talking about Tom Brady.
Speaker 1: Will the celebrities just keep right on rolling here on
Speaker 1: the Big Blueing Sider. Keith Madison joined us on the
Speaker 1: celebrity hotline Coach, how are you? I'm great, I'm good, sir.
Speaker 1: You and I and Doug and then Darren talked here
Speaker 1: in the garage right after the World Series we were
Speaker 1: out in all together. But there's been a lot of
Speaker 1: news about Kentucky baseball of late, the portal and scholarship
Speaker 1: limits and signees and guys who have gone pro and
Speaker 1: not gone pro. And that's what I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about first with you because I mentioned in the earlier
Speaker 1: segment Tyler Bell, who was a high school infielder from Frankfurt,
Speaker 1: Illinois didn't even know there was a Frankfort of course,
Speaker 1: says he will sign, is already signed with Kentucky, will
Speaker 1: play at UK despite the fact coach he was selected
Speaker 1: number sixty six overall in the Major League Draft. He'll
Speaker 1: be eligible again after twenty twenty six. But you had
Speaker 1: players come to Kentucky and player for you instead of
Speaker 1: going pro. You had guys commit and then sign and
Speaker 1: kind of leave you hanging. They knew this was a
Speaker 1: possibility with Tyler Bell. But what does it mean big picture?
Speaker 1: Do you think to Nick man Jones ball club gets
Speaker 1: a great infielder, And this is kind of a high
Speaker 1: profile story.
Speaker 3: Isn't it is?
Speaker 7: Because very, very seldom does a young man that's drafted
Speaker 7: that early out of high school not signed. You know
Speaker 7: they it And when you get when you get a
Speaker 7: young man like that, it sends a message in the
Speaker 7: recruiting world that hey, you can come to Kentucky and
Speaker 7: get better and maybe put yourself in a position to
Speaker 7: get drafted even earlier after your junior year or in
Speaker 7: his case, I think after his sophomore year, because I
Speaker 7: think he's nineteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And like we said, everybody in the baseball
Speaker 1: world knows about guys like this, right, Oh yeah, And
Speaker 1: so when this kind of thing happens, it's in ripples,
Speaker 1: doesn't it.
Speaker 7: It does. Plus it sets Kentucky you have to have
Speaker 7: a really good shortstop for a couple of years, and
Speaker 7: they've sort of been shortstop University lately with some of
Speaker 7: the guys they've had out there. They've had some really
Speaker 7: really good shortstops. And as you and other baseball people know,
Speaker 7: you know, strong up the middle, and shortstops one of
Speaker 7: those key up the middle positions. So it's it's critical
Speaker 7: to have a shortstop that's going to make the play.
Speaker 7: And you know how much we all love Grant Smith.
Speaker 7: I mean, he was money out there. Every ground ball
Speaker 7: hit his way, you just ring it up as anouse.
Speaker 7: And so you know, we've got spoiled a little bit.
Speaker 7: So this young man, Tyler Bell, I think he's going
Speaker 7: to be fit right in well.
Speaker 1: Speaking of great shortstops at Kentucky, he played coincidentally enough,
Speaker 1: at the same high school in Illinois at Lincoln Way
Speaker 1: East that produced Ryan Ritter, who, with all due respect
Speaker 1: to Grant and some of the guys you coach and others,
Speaker 1: Ryan ridder Man Ben I think probably was the best
Speaker 1: shortstop Kentucky ever produced, a Gold Glove winner still playing professionally,
Speaker 1: but coming from the same high school. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: kind of falling into place, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and Ryan Rhdder, you know, he was such an
Speaker 7: athletic shortstop. You know, we had some great ones, you know,
Speaker 7: Billy White, a Miller, and then I know Nick's had
Speaker 7: some good ones too, and John Cohen did, but yeah,
Speaker 7: Ryan Ritter was special.
Speaker 1: Talking to Keith Madison, Kentucky Hall of Fame baseball coach
Speaker 1: and a frequent member of the UK Radio network alongside
Speaker 1: Darren Hedrick, Keith worked the College World Series with Darren
Speaker 1: and they did a superb job, of course through the
Speaker 1: playoffs and all year long. And we're talking about the
Speaker 1: fact that Tyler Bell, a high school infielder from Illinois,
Speaker 1: a shortstop who was rated in the top one hundred
Speaker 1: really by everybody in overall prospects, has said no thank
Speaker 1: you to Major League Baseball, was a second round pick
Speaker 1: and we'll play at Kentucky. I hate to bring this
Speaker 1: up because you mentioned guys you signed, and I know
Speaker 1: this was a difficult chapter in your career, but it
Speaker 1: illustrates the challenges of being a high school or rather
Speaker 1: a college baseball coach. Recruited high school kids good enough
Speaker 1: to play perhaps in the pros right away. One year
Speaker 1: you signed I can't remember, but it was you signed
Speaker 1: seven eight guys overall, and most of them at the
Speaker 1: last minute signed professional contracts. Coach, and it sets your
Speaker 1: program back in terms of recruiting, the cycle of recruiting
Speaker 1: about two years. Can you share that with our listeners,
Speaker 1: because that's important. It still happens.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, And you know this was not long after
Speaker 7: Rex Chapman, you know, left early for the NBA and
Speaker 7: people were were saying, oh, we can't believe he's leaving.
Speaker 7: I said, hey, you know, it happens all the time
Speaker 7: in baseball because our guys get drafted out of high
Speaker 7: school and if they're twenty one years old, they could
Speaker 7: leave after you know, their sophomore year, junior year. But yeah,
Speaker 7: one year we lost we lost I think seven guys. Oh,
Speaker 7: and we thought five of those guys were going to
Speaker 7: be coming to school and we were going to have
Speaker 7: the best recruiting class we've ever had, and we lost seven.
Speaker 7: And it took it literally took me two years to
Speaker 7: sort of get over that that gap that we had
Speaker 7: in recruiting that year. It's it's not something you can
Speaker 7: fix overnight, or you couldn't.
Speaker 3: Then.
Speaker 7: Now you have the transfer portal and it's a little
Speaker 7: bit easier fixed, even though that's not really easy because
Speaker 7: you're a competition with so many other schools. But you know,
Speaker 7: you could reach out and grab a guy with you
Speaker 7: want to experience now. But back in those days, you
Speaker 7: just had to wait until next year to get somebody
Speaker 7: to fill that slot.
Speaker 1: Well, you can reach out now, but the calendar is
Speaker 1: still an issue. The windows are only open, and I
Speaker 1: think they're going to restrict them even more for transfers.
Speaker 1: And you know, the best guys probably are gone early,
Speaker 1: so if you wait too long, you'll miss out. So
Speaker 1: it's it's still a challenge for your coaches. But I
Speaker 1: do remember that, and you don't remember this either, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but I bumped into you at the at the election
Speaker 1: an airport one summer and we were just exchanging pleasantry.
Speaker 1: And this was right after I think you guys made
Speaker 1: that run to within a few innings of a College
Speaker 1: World Series and you told me, I think you were
Speaker 1: heading for Portland to recruit a kid because thanks to
Speaker 1: the notoriety, the growing notoriety of Kentucky baseball, you were
Speaker 1: expanding your recruiting reach and that was a conscious decision.
Speaker 1: You had kind of been going regional and you started
Speaker 1: going more national h looking for talent, and it worked
Speaker 1: to a point. But in other ways, it's it's riskier,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 7: It really is risky because when you when you when
Speaker 7: you expand your recruiting uh nationwide like that, and you're
Speaker 7: going after guys that have a chance of getting drafted. Uh,
Speaker 7: you know, you just uh it's like rolling the diet.
Speaker 7: You know, it's and I know John Calperry, you know,
Speaker 7: with the one and done. You know, he he went
Speaker 7: through that all of time too. But you when you
Speaker 7: start recruiting those high caliber athletes, there's such a great
Speaker 7: chance that they're going to get drafted in the first
Speaker 7: three rounds of the major league draft. And normally, if
Speaker 7: a guy got drafted in the first five rounds, he's
Speaker 7: going to go pro because the money's going to be good.
Speaker 7: He's going to be given an opportunity to fulfiller's lifelong
Speaker 7: dream and that's played major league baseball. So you know,
Speaker 7: if there's a ballot there. Do you do you go
Speaker 7: after all high profile athletes or do you do you
Speaker 7: go after some guys that you know you're going to
Speaker 7: have at least for three years. And college coaches are
Speaker 7: constantly trying to juggle those balls, and obviously you want
Speaker 7: to go after the best athletes, but you know, major
Speaker 7: League Baseball, they come with the money, and especially back
Speaker 7: in my area, you couldn't you couldn't do that. You know,
Speaker 7: you couldn't even offer really a full scholarship because you
Speaker 7: just didn't have enough to go around. So recruiting is
Speaker 7: a very, very challenging thing for college baseball coaches. It
Speaker 7: was then and it still is now.
Speaker 1: And you know what's even crazier is you mentioned John Calipari.
Speaker 1: And of course it's easy to see which kid could
Speaker 1: get an offer, and some of it's already been mentioned.
Speaker 8: You know, to go to the NBA, or go to
Speaker 8: the G League, or go.
Speaker 1: Play in Europe. But it's a riskier proposition in baseball,
Speaker 1: as you know, because in general, it's a one to
Speaker 1: ten chance for a college player who is drafted to
Speaker 1: get to the bigs. Now, if you come out of
Speaker 1: high school, there's more invested in you, more money, more time.
Speaker 1: You may have a better chance, but it's still everybody's
Speaker 1: kind of a long shot. There are many Bryce Harper's
Speaker 1: out there. But you know, this kid bell is in
Speaker 1: terms of ratings, is the third highest rated recruit ever
Speaker 1: to sign with Kentucky. The others a Ryan hagen Out,
Speaker 1: who has dealt with injuries, may or may not get
Speaker 1: a chance to play professionally. Alex Meyer who got up
Speaker 1: to the bigs but his career was cut short by injury.
Speaker 1: Ryan Ritter is on the seven day d L right
Speaker 1: now in Double A Baseball. So yeah, you might get
Speaker 1: a bonus, but there's no guarantee. You know, there's no
Speaker 1: guarantee you get to the bigs.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's exactly right. And uh, you know, I think baseball,
Speaker 7: you know, there's so many rounds of the draft. I
Speaker 7: think it's the hardest sport to make it up. And
Speaker 7: you know, I once you signed. Yeah, you know, for basketball,
Speaker 7: you know, if you get drafted in the first round,
Speaker 7: I mean your chancers are pretty good. You're going to
Speaker 7: be playing in the NBA and you'll be rich no
Speaker 7: matter what exactly. But in baseball, you know, if you
Speaker 7: get drafted in those first three rounds. Sure they're going
Speaker 7: to take a serious, very serious look at you, because,
Speaker 7: like you said, Dick, they have money invested in you.
Speaker 7: But there's no guarantee you're still battling for those other
Speaker 7: guys in the organization going through the minor leagues or
Speaker 7: if you guys ever missed the minor league. So a
Speaker 7: lot of things can happen in minor league baseball. You
Speaker 7: have late bloomers that pass you by, you have other
Speaker 7: people just as talented as you, and it's a that's
Speaker 7: why in my opinion, of course, I'm a college coach,
Speaker 7: or was a college coach. You know, it's it's so
Speaker 7: wise for Tyler Bell to come to Kentucky because he's
Speaker 7: going to mature, gets stronger, and his chances of instead
Speaker 7: of being you know, a late first round or early
Speaker 7: second rounder, he's got a chance to be an early
Speaker 7: first rounder because he's a very gifted young man. So
Speaker 7: I think it's a I think it's a good move
Speaker 7: on his part. Of course, there's always a chance of injury.
Speaker 7: You know what if he gets hurt badly at Kentucky
Speaker 7: and then you know, he may regret going to Kentucky
Speaker 7: instead of signing that pro contract. So there's a lot
Speaker 7: of there's a lot of ways to look at it,
Speaker 7: but having been a college coach, I see the advantage
Speaker 7: of coming you know, getting in a in a first
Speaker 7: of all, getting your education. Second of all, you know,
Speaker 7: getting in a in a in an environment where you're
Speaker 7: going to be eating right, working out well, playing with
Speaker 7: other good players, maturing and then going out and playing
Speaker 7: pro ball.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't hurt that he takes a look and
Speaker 1: sees Ryan Waldschmidt go as a supplementary first round pick
Speaker 1: for a multiple million dollar contracts. So yeah, stay healthy
Speaker 1: and it could work out. Keith Madison as my guess.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk more with a Hall of
Speaker 1: fame baseball coach in just a minute here on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Keith Madison,
Speaker 1: the Hall of fame UK baseball coach. You hear him
Speaker 1: on the UK radio now work alongside Darren Hedrick, and
Speaker 1: we just have a few minutes left. Coach. But I
Speaker 1: did want to touch on the new rules and they're
Speaker 1: a little bit confusing. But right now college sports roster
Speaker 1: limits are expanding. We know that there will be only
Speaker 1: one hundred and five scholarship players available, or scholarships available
Speaker 1: to college football coaches. In other words, their rosters are
Speaker 1: limited to one hundred and five, down from one to twenty,
Speaker 1: which means there may be precious few walk ons. And
Speaker 1: in baseball, I think they're going to have thirty four
Speaker 1: scholarships available if they want to spend that much money, Keith,
Speaker 1: But it may also unlikely will mean fewer opportunities for
Speaker 1: walk on So up from eleven point seven scholarships exceedingly up,
Speaker 1: but not as many bodies on the roster, and not
Speaker 1: as many opportunities for kids to maybe earn a scholarship
Speaker 1: as a walk on. So it's a confusing time, isn't
Speaker 1: it really?
Speaker 7: And I really never thought I would see a day
Speaker 7: when that many scholarships would be available for baseball. We
Speaker 7: thought that. I thought that every year of my career
Speaker 7: and then beyond that, and we used to talk about, Hey,
Speaker 7: the guys that play in a college World Series, they're
Speaker 7: paying to play. Yes, you know, there's twenty five thousand
Speaker 7: people watching them, a million watching them on television, but
Speaker 7: they're on partial scholarships. And I thought that was a travesty.
Speaker 7: And I hope that someday college baseball would get sixteen
Speaker 7: or seventeen full scholarships, and now they're going to have
Speaker 7: an opportunity they have thirty thirty four. It's just incredible
Speaker 7: the change. I'm definitely happy for the opportunities that these
Speaker 7: young men are going to have. I'm a little bit
Speaker 7: concerned about how it's going to affect the overall land
Speaker 7: gape of college baseball. When you talk about the mid majors,
Speaker 7: the you know, the Eastern Kentucky's, the Western Kentucky's, uh,
Speaker 7: you know the Indiana States who you know, they've been
Speaker 7: a really good program recently. Can they afford to give
Speaker 7: that many scholarships in their athletic departments? Where the SEC schools,
Speaker 7: ACC schools they get that TV money, they have more
Speaker 7: money to, you know, to offer. It's going to be
Speaker 7: very interesting. It seems like the further we go there's
Speaker 7: a bigger gap between the haves and the have not.
Speaker 1: I agree, and that's not healthy. I don't like that because,
Speaker 1: like you said, I've covered e KU. You are a
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky guy. Murray State's out there has had a
Speaker 1: really fine baseball program. I think we need to worry
Speaker 1: about schools like that.
Speaker 7: Yes, and it concerns me because I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 7: a college baseball guy. I won't see all the all
Speaker 7: the programs flourish, uh you know, from from Murray State
Speaker 7: all the way up to the SEC schools and this
Speaker 7: I think. You know, of course, people are going to
Speaker 7: spend it that it's going to help them because they're
Speaker 7: going to limit the roster sizes in the SEC and
Speaker 7: and and all the programs, which means that the guys
Speaker 7: that that that would have walked on at Kentucky or
Speaker 7: Tennessee are now going to be going to Murray State,
Speaker 7: Western Kentucky wherever. But you know, everybody wants a scholarship,
Speaker 7: and and uh so, I I think it's going to
Speaker 7: hurt the mid majors. Of course, if I was coaching Kentucky,
Speaker 7: I would love to have the opportunity to offer these
Speaker 7: young men a full scholarship. That's what, in my opinion,
Speaker 7: they deserve. As hard as they work and as much
Speaker 7: as they put into the program, they they definitely deserve
Speaker 7: a scholarship. So it is a confusing time and it's different.
Speaker 7: It's changing so quickly with the transfer portal with NIL
Speaker 7: and now with the increased scholarship clim the increased scholarship
Speaker 7: totals and the reduced roster side. It's gonna be another
Speaker 7: challenge for coaches to customize their program for these changes.
Speaker 1: Kaith Madison, Hall of Fame coach and sometime broadcast partner
Speaker 1: Darren Hederick, Thanks coach, talk to you soon.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Dick. Coming up in hour number two Kent Taylor from
Speaker 1: WLK why over in Louisville. We'll talk about the football
Speaker 1: and basketball Wildcats.
Speaker 8: Well, then later on we're.
Speaker 1: Going to hear some of my conversation with Jeremy Jarman.
Speaker 1: We appeared on the Inside UK Football podcast that's coming
Speaker 1: up on six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Bluis Sider joining us now as a guy who's
Speaker 1: been on the show before. It's been a while, mister
Speaker 1: Kent Taylor, now the sports director at w l K Y.
Speaker 1: You were working at another TV station the last time
Speaker 1: we talked, but you have taken over for the great
Speaker 1: Fred Cowgill who retired and now it's all on your shoulders.
Speaker 1: Are you feeling the pressure.
Speaker 3: It's enormous, boy, What big shoes to film, right, I
Speaker 3: mean as big as clowns. Did I know? I'm kidding?
Speaker 3: And Fred actually you know he's about to start school.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: But teaching, it's working out. Yeah, teaching at Jeffersonville High
Speaker 3: School in southern Indiana. So that's worked out great. It's seamless,
Speaker 3: had a year to adjust and learn all the systems
Speaker 3: and stuff, so it's not like I was just thrown
Speaker 3: into the deep end.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was doing the eleven for a year now, it's
Speaker 3: just just a little more work.
Speaker 1: Well, and you started as an intern and then as
Speaker 1: a shooter and a reporter and whatever at okay, why
Speaker 1: before moving around? And by way of background, Kent is
Speaker 1: a Louisville native did not go to the same high
Speaker 1: school as I did. We'll leave it at that, but
Speaker 1: also has worked for the ACC streaming networks similar to
Speaker 1: the SEC streaming network that I do, discovered a lot
Speaker 1: of U of L sports, but also has worked this
Speaker 1: end of the interstate. I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about U of L basketball in a minute, but Media
Speaker 1: Day tomorrow, I don't know if you're going to delegate
Speaker 1: that or coming. You've covered UK Media Day before. What
Speaker 1: from your end of the interstate is the interstate is
Speaker 1: the perception of Kentucky football these days.
Speaker 3: Well it's been to the point where we expect them
Speaker 3: to go to a bowl game, and now it's just
Speaker 3: a matter of and it's hard to you say, can
Speaker 3: they take the next step? You know, I go back
Speaker 3: to the days when you'd look at the schedule at
Speaker 3: the beginning of the year and be like, all right,
Speaker 3: you're not going to be Tennessee, you're not going to
Speaker 3: be Georgia, You're not going to be Florida guaranteed, and
Speaker 3: then you're gonna play a couple of SEC West teams
Speaker 3: and you're probably gonna get blown out. Nowadays, you know,
Speaker 3: any game, no seriously, because I mean it's not that
Speaker 3: long ago when beating Tennessee and Florida were non starters.
Speaker 3: It was not going to happen. And now you look
Speaker 3: at pretty much every game. I mean the only game
Speaker 3: you look at now and say that about is is
Speaker 3: Georgia and you kind of feel like it could be competitive.
Speaker 3: You know, there's belief there are you know, there are
Speaker 3: fans who have belief that it can happen. We're in
Speaker 3: the Pact. That would have not been the case ever,
Speaker 3: so ba's a little different and now there. But now
Speaker 3: it's a completely new SEC. So what do we expect
Speaker 3: with Texas and Oklahoma coming into the league and getting
Speaker 3: rid of the divisions and everything. So we are at
Speaker 3: the point though, where we do expect a bowl game
Speaker 3: and it's a matter of can they take the next
Speaker 3: can they actually make the SEC championship game at some point?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they flirted with it under Mark Stoops, which
Speaker 1: again I'm like you, I had to admit I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I thought I would see that. And as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: you started your career. I'm going to date you when
Speaker 1: you started your career what around thirty years ago? And
Speaker 1: you started in the early nineties, back when the uku
Speaker 1: of L rivalry was coming together. Both programs struggle at times,
Speaker 1: had some great years. But I've asked this of everybody
Speaker 1: I know who has covered this beat for a while.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think you would see the day? And
Speaker 1: you kind of alluded to this where seven wins was like, Eh,
Speaker 1: they should have done more.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 3: That's one of the reasons why people always said Kentucky
Speaker 3: with was such a great job in that if you
Speaker 3: could win six or seven games, you're safe forever. Now
Speaker 3: he's done that, and people want more and that's got
Speaker 3: to be one of the reasons why he at least
Speaker 3: talked to Texas A and M. And because you would
Speaker 3: have thought he's the amount of money he's making, the
Speaker 3: success he's had, the foundation that they built there, you think,
Speaker 3: you know, hey, we've got something pretty good going role
Speaker 3: with this. But nowadays and the money is so crazy
Speaker 3: at some other place. But it's also changing so much
Speaker 3: because the money was crazy, now that money might be
Speaker 3: going in different directions to the paying the players, and
Speaker 3: it's all just such a changing landscape that you never
Speaker 3: know what's going to happen. But no, pants, no, I
Speaker 3: did not. Well, there were times, Dick, when we would
Speaker 3: come up on a Saturday, say, I can remember doing
Speaker 3: this like for an auburnyause he's playing Auburn on a
Speaker 3: Saturday night. A right, I'm going to go shoo the
Speaker 3: first quarter. You know, I'll have money, you know it'll
Speaker 3: be thirty to nothing. I'll have funey come back. But yeah,
Speaker 3: that's not the case anymore.
Speaker 1: I always go back. And I'm an old guy, as
Speaker 1: you know, to when I was in school and Odas Singletary,
Speaker 1: who at the time was the school president, was from
Speaker 1: Texas loved football. He hired and fired Frank Cercy, but
Speaker 1: he adored football and gave basketball it's proper respect. But
Speaker 1: he wants He pulled me aside and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't expect us to win every game. I just
Speaker 1: want to come to the game on Saturday and not
Speaker 1: know ahead of time who's going to win. And that's
Speaker 1: fair in my opinion. And that's where we are now.
Speaker 1: I think was UK football as media and fans, don't
Speaker 1: you think.
Speaker 3: Which we have the gift of perspective, but some of
Speaker 3: these younger fans don't necessarily and they don't realize how
Speaker 3: big of a leap that is. Though from where they
Speaker 3: were to where they are is pretty impressive. And you
Speaker 3: could say the same thing you mentioned back to the
Speaker 3: little I mean, Louis's getting rid of football Hunter, Bob whatever.
Speaker 3: And Tom Jurich was to that guy for Louisville who
Speaker 3: came in and granted he had a new stadium that
Speaker 3: he inherited, but he still was able to get them
Speaker 3: in their different conference moves up from conference at the
Speaker 3: Big East to the Ace. It would have thought at
Speaker 3: that point Louisvill's going to be in the ACC and
Speaker 3: then I mean they played in the a SEC Championship
Speaker 3: game last year.
Speaker 1: In terms of perspective, people, and you know, I know,
Speaker 1: remember you just alluded to the fact that there was
Speaker 1: serious talk of dropping football at u of L until
Speaker 1: Schnellenberger got there and his first season. I covered the
Speaker 1: e k U U of L game when Roy Kid
Speaker 1: called off the Dogs, a one double a team they
Speaker 1: were beating Louisville so badly. But Schnellenberger doesn't get enough credit.
Speaker 1: He and Bill Curry put their heads together and got
Speaker 1: that series done uk U of L. But Schnellenberger agreed,
Speaker 1: people forget about this. I know you don't to play
Speaker 1: the first four games in Lexington in order to light
Speaker 1: a fire under the U of L boosters. And it worked,
Speaker 1: it did.
Speaker 3: And I go back to the people who experienced that game,
Speaker 3: and we'd be talking about it right now. They would
Speaker 3: have had the late July, they would have had the
Speaker 3: Governor's Cup news conference that they had every year. So
Speaker 3: I still I will always say that's that I'll die
Speaker 3: on that hill. I like that game as the first
Speaker 3: game to put the college football taps. Now I understand
Speaker 3: why the coach. I can see their argument. I don't
Speaker 3: agree with it because if you did lose that game then,
Speaker 3: and we saw it a lot of times with the
Speaker 3: team that would lose that game and go on and
Speaker 3: just have a horrible season. But nowadays they have so
Speaker 3: many other big games during the season. I don't know
Speaker 3: that would necessarily be as much of a factor. And
Speaker 3: I don't think we'll ever get back there now because
Speaker 3: TV dictates it all on the rivalry weekend, and who knows,
Speaker 3: it may they may not even play that game in
Speaker 3: the next couple of years, you know, after when they
Speaker 3: started adding more conference games and stuff. But I like
Speaker 3: it as the first game because we did. It gave
Speaker 3: us something to talk about something, Tom. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: not going to be doing, you know, comparisons between the
Speaker 3: offensive line of Louisville and the defensive line of Austin
Speaker 3: p and Kentucky and Southern myths, and you know, we're
Speaker 3: not gonna be talking about that for the next month.
Speaker 3: But when Louisville Kentucky played each other, we did.
Speaker 1: Hey. I always said, I am exactly where you are
Speaker 1: on that heel, and I'll die right alongside of you because,
Speaker 1: as I said, when this all started, I was working,
Speaker 1: as you know, on TV, but also doing talk radio
Speaker 1: from time to time and now full time. And I'm
Speaker 1: in the hype business in terms of talk radio, we're
Speaker 1: in the coverage business and TV. But you just talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that it gives you better stories to
Speaker 1: do leading up to the season, and we would do specials.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you were part of uku of L preseason
Speaker 1: football specials and we did someone you know on the satellite,
Speaker 1: Rob Bromley on one side of the screen and Fred
Speaker 1: Kalgill on the other side. We had a great time
Speaker 1: of those. But yeah, when you're doing sports talk radio,
Speaker 1: you could address the fact that Curry and Schnellenberger said,
Speaker 1: we're tired of people spending the summers talking about basketball recruiting.
Speaker 1: We want them to talk about football. And it worked
Speaker 1: now with one and done in the AAU leagues and
Speaker 1: all that, they'd be still talking about basketball. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're beating a dead horse because it is and
Speaker 1: it's worked out well kent for Kentucky of late that
Speaker 1: it is the last game of the year and it's propelled.
Speaker 1: A win is propelled Kentucky kN a better bowl game,
Speaker 1: and I think it has stoked the flames of this rivalry.
Speaker 3: You know, well, certainly come in here and beat Lamar Jackson,
Speaker 3: you know, and he has that late fumble and wins
Speaker 3: like that. But and last year and also but those
Speaker 3: kind of stories get lost in the height. That's right,
Speaker 3: because I mean lost because you know, we don't have
Speaker 3: a month, it's a week, and it's basically like a
Speaker 3: day or two. I mean nowadays in football season, Loull
Speaker 3: only talks one day. They talked on Monday, and that did.
Speaker 3: We have no access to the remainder of the week,
Speaker 3: and so you know, a lot of those stories don't
Speaker 3: ever get told, which we're fun, we're fun to do.
Speaker 1: It's also lost in the hype of other big games
Speaker 1: that week, which was my initial fear. But as I said,
Speaker 1: we must move on. We'll step out. We'll come back
Speaker 1: and talk more with Ken Taylor w ok Y here
Speaker 1: on the Big Bloom Sider six months come back. We're
Speaker 1: talking with Kent Taylor, sports director w ok Y TV.
Speaker 1: He has covered UK and u L for many, many
Speaker 1: years as a sportscaster in Louisville. And we mentioned Kentucky's
Speaker 1: media day coming up tomorrow. Everybody's gonna want to talk
Speaker 1: quarterbacks with Rock Vandergriff. From where you sit, from what
Speaker 1: you know, what you've done on Kentucky football other than QB,
Speaker 1: what do you think is maybe the lead or the
Speaker 1: lead couple of storylines for UK football this year.
Speaker 3: I like that defensive line. Yeah, I mean, Dion Walker
Speaker 3: is a problem and I feel like this is a
Speaker 3: could be one of those years where he gets a
Speaker 3: ton of attention and maybe he has like a Josh
Speaker 3: Allen type season, because he seems to be that kind
Speaker 3: of talent and you don't see it that. I go
Speaker 3: back to that the Louisville game last year, when you know,
Speaker 3: it's not that often where you get a sound bite
Speaker 3: where you're like, I don't know if I would have
Speaker 3: said that, but I love it because that's that's so
Speaker 3: easy figure out. I want that sound bite and then
Speaker 3: to back it up. It's phenomenal. And so it's just
Speaker 3: it's different than what we normally see, and he seems
Speaker 3: to be different than what we normally see, and so
Speaker 3: I'm excited to see him.
Speaker 1: He was really good in the score that we did
Speaker 1: down in Dallas. When you get him in a breakout
Speaker 1: room with a couple other players and the coach and
Speaker 1: when the local media get him. He was really himself.
Speaker 1: I felt like on the podium he was trying to
Speaker 1: be very professional, and he gave good comments and all that.
Speaker 1: I was kind of hoping he'd be a little bit
Speaker 1: show a little bit more of his personality. But that'll
Speaker 1: come out with us. But I don't. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been here forever, kent and it's hard to recall a
Speaker 1: D lineman with more impact literally and figuratively than Dion Walker.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, there haven't been. I mean, who would
Speaker 3: it be. Yeah, I mean Jeremy Jarman was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Josh Allen, but he was a D N rushing
Speaker 1: kind of outside linebacker type. This is a guy who
Speaker 1: clogs the middle. That huge hit he put on a
Speaker 1: Florida running back a couple of years ago when he
Speaker 1: basically introduced himself to college football. You just don't see
Speaker 1: that off in a Kentucky No.
Speaker 3: You don't. They don't traditionally get those guys. No, they
Speaker 3: might develop them, you know, somewhat, but not from the
Speaker 3: beginning where right from the get go, it comes in
Speaker 3: with some hype and then lives up to it. So
Speaker 3: it's been it's been impressive to watch it. I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a big story this season.
Speaker 1: Anything else that sticks out And.
Speaker 3: Barrian Brown, how fun is anytime you have a guy
Speaker 3: who you know that anytime the ball gets in his hands,
Speaker 3: he could be gone. That's fun to watch, Yeah, because
Speaker 3: not not you know a lot of most teams don't
Speaker 3: have that guy, and so yeah, he'll be exciting. Vander
Speaker 3: Griff I haven't seen him that much. I didn't. I
Speaker 3: wasn't at the spring game. There's a little video I
Speaker 3: really the little video I've watched is him in the
Speaker 3: playing against Kentucky last year and he looks like, you know,
Speaker 3: it looks like he can do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3: So so we'll see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was right in front of me down there
Speaker 1: on the sidelines watching this guy, but it was mop
Speaker 1: up duty and by then I was kind of numb
Speaker 1: to it and trying to figure out what am I
Speaker 1: going to interview somebody after the game? What are we
Speaker 1: going to talk about? But uh yeah, with Ken Taylor
Speaker 1: w l K one, as I mention, kent has covered
Speaker 1: both ends of the interstate, but at one point was
Speaker 1: doing play by play for U of L basketball in
Speaker 1: the ACC streaming channel. And by the way, Were you
Speaker 1: at the TBT game the other night that that got
Speaker 1: really interesting, Dane? Were you back in the station?
Speaker 3: Well, I would have gone to it had it been
Speaker 3: at seven, like you thought it was. But at nine,
Speaker 3: you know how that is with the eleven o'clock just
Speaker 3: too tight a turn. And so I was back watching
Speaker 3: it at the station and was not in the middle
Speaker 3: of the of the scrum and the spit gate.
Speaker 1: And all that, which a sense apologized. But well, let
Speaker 1: me ask you real quickly, what can Kentucky fans expect
Speaker 1: when they send their high flying, three point shooting Kentucky
Speaker 1: Wildcats against Pat Kelsey's first team. They had a scrimmage
Speaker 1: the other day, didn't they?
Speaker 3: Okay, so they're they're in the Bahamas. Yeah, they they
Speaker 3: played this afternoon. Their second game was at noon today
Speaker 3: against the team from Calgary. And I'll say, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously you in Kentucky's done plenty of these trips, you know.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 3: What I can tell you is they said what I
Speaker 3: saw the other night in their first game. They seem
Speaker 3: to play with the purpose, They play with pace. They
Speaker 3: they just didn't seem to have that under Kenny Payne.
Speaker 3: They didn't. I don't want to call it effort, because
Speaker 3: that's kind of that. That's not fair to the kids
Speaker 3: because they played and they played hard, but they didn't
Speaker 3: have any direction or know what they were doing what
Speaker 3: they were supposed to be doing, and that is certainly
Speaker 3: not the case. Now he's got a deep team. They did,
Speaker 3: you know, like just like Mark propat Kentucky. They have
Speaker 3: a completely revamped roster and the only player from the
Speaker 3: roster last year is the is one walk on. That's it.
Speaker 3: Everybody else is completely new. But they had guys who
Speaker 3: had something that they haven't had for years and years.
Speaker 3: This just blows me away every time I say it.
Speaker 3: But Louisville has not won an NCAA Tournament game since
Speaker 3: two thousand and seventeen. Think about that, It's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Donovan Mitchell was playing. Rick Patino was the coach when
Speaker 3: they won that first round game over Dray Harper and
Speaker 3: Jacksonville State in Indianapolis that year, and then blew a
Speaker 3: halftime lead in lost in Michigan in the second round.
Speaker 7: And that's been it.
Speaker 3: So the NCAA Tournament and they only have one game
Speaker 3: since then, right the Richard Patino lost in Minnesota. So
Speaker 3: that's just crazy. But what he's done is he's putting
Speaker 3: guys who do have NCAA tournament experience and have won
Speaker 3: some games in the tournament, and our older guys Chuckie
Speaker 3: Hepburn from Wisconsin started every game I think at Wisconsin,
Speaker 3: Terrence Edwards was the player of the year in the
Speaker 3: Sun Belt, and Javon Hadley I think probably was the
Speaker 3: most impressive player in their first game of transfer from Colorado.
Speaker 3: They won a couple games to the tournament as well,
Speaker 3: so they have some depth, some experience. They'll they'll at
Speaker 3: least be somewhat competitive, which is not something that we've
Speaker 3: seen it. They've won twelve games in two years. Yeah,
Speaker 3: others it's been tough to watch.
Speaker 1: Other than the competitive part. Everything you just said to
Speaker 1: describe the U OFFL process is what we've been saying
Speaker 1: about Kentucky. You know, the brand new roster, new coach exactly,
Speaker 1: but experience age. This is the oldest team I'm sure
Speaker 1: in the history of UK basketball, at least dating back
Speaker 1: to post World War Two when guys came back from
Speaker 1: the service and we're playing at age twenty five or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it should be interesting when these teams knock heads.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, well, and they play they seem to want
Speaker 3: to play similar styles. They want to run and they're
Speaker 3: going to shoot a bunch of threes. That's fun for
Speaker 3: the fans to watch. The competition is obviously questionable, and
Speaker 3: you don't know which. I mean, they played at Bahama
Speaker 3: selecting the other night, but they had thirty eight assists
Speaker 3: and hit twenty three. I don't care who they would
Speaker 3: have not the last two years. They couldn't have done
Speaker 3: that against me and four guys that m yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: So it's it's an improvement. It'll be definitely an improvement.
Speaker 3: And and you know, unlike it's a little I mean,
Speaker 3: both both schools, you know, obviously didn't get there. I
Speaker 3: guess they're both probably really, you'd say, their third choices
Speaker 3: according to you know, all the speculations, and with one
Speaker 3: of them, the Scott Drew being one of the guys
Speaker 3: who turned them both down. Now, Mark Pope is is
Speaker 3: a little more well compensated. Pat Kelsey comes in here.
Speaker 3: He's just making a little over two billion dollars a year,
Speaker 3: which is not you know, I mean, obviously you know
Speaker 3: we could live on that. But in the world of
Speaker 3: college basketball, when you think that Rick Betino was making
Speaker 3: what seven eight million, you know, seven years ago at
Speaker 3: the same job. But he you know, he's still got
Speaker 3: a million dollar rais from Charleston. He's had plenty of
Speaker 3: success at every stop he's been at. And I just
Speaker 3: feel like they're going to there. I don't know how
Speaker 3: big they'll win, but they're going to be competitive and
Speaker 3: it's going to be fun to watch, which has not
Speaker 3: been the case. Just the crowd. I look at the
Speaker 3: crowd for the I tweeted this out there, and the
Speaker 3: crowd to that TBT game that Freedom All was what
Speaker 3: thirteen and six I think, right, Okay. The only crowd
Speaker 3: they had bigger than that last year for a game
Speaker 3: in the KFC I'm center was the Cadecktive. Every other
Speaker 3: game they they're announced attendance, which isn't even you know,
Speaker 3: the actual attendance, but it was way lower than that,
Speaker 3: even which is crazy because for both programs, you know,
Speaker 3: again with the perspective thing, but we go back to
Speaker 3: win every game was a sell out or at least
Speaker 3: they're going to have over twenty one twenty two thousand
Speaker 3: people for every game, and it's it's just been a
Speaker 3: different animal over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, sadly, but maybe it gets back to
Speaker 1: the to the period where when you're in there, either
Speaker 1: as a fan or a media person, and it's so
Speaker 1: loud you can't hear the guy next to you. That
Speaker 1: would be fun. And you know, one more thing, Ken,
Speaker 1: as we wrap this up, Uh, the other parallel is
Speaker 1: I think the personalities of the two respective new head coaches.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't. I'm not dealt with Pat Kelsey.
Speaker 1: I'd love to get him on the show some night,
Speaker 1: but he seems to be bouncy and energetic, just like
Speaker 1: the guy over here in Lexingon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not. I don't think it'll be unusual to
Speaker 3: see both of them like in practice. Not we we
Speaker 3: I would, I didn't get the chance to go. I
Speaker 3: was out of town, but I was. I was actually
Speaker 3: playing in the golf tournament last friday. They'd let us.
Speaker 3: They let us go to u of L practice the
Speaker 3: first time we've got a chance to see these guys
Speaker 3: at all. And you look at the video. He's in
Speaker 3: the middle of the drills, out there guarding people running
Speaker 3: around like crazy, and you can see the same thing
Speaker 3: we see the same stuff with the videos that UK
Speaker 3: has posted of Mark Pope, Mike's out the practice where
Speaker 3: you know, these guys are out there, they're active the
Speaker 3: one but I think I only went to one practice
Speaker 3: under Kenny Payne and it wasn't the same as the
Speaker 3: practices I had seen under Rich you know, and even
Speaker 3: Chris Mack pretty impressive practices at u of L. So uh, yeah,
Speaker 3: getting back to that for both And the thing is
Speaker 3: it's better for everybody when they're both Oh yeah, you know.
Speaker 3: And he said that to make it a rivalry, you know,
Speaker 3: both sides have to win.
Speaker 1: That's right, That's right, and we'll see if we will
Speaker 1: get back there. The exhibit a to that is Kentucky
Speaker 1: Tennessee football for the longest time. So yeah, that was
Speaker 1: not a rivalry. It is now, but not then Kent Taylor,
Speaker 1: who unselfishly chose not to go to the Bahamas to
Speaker 1: cover the U of L game. I sayed, out of
Speaker 1: the wing, I did that once.
Speaker 3: I did that once, and it was a lot of work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. It's not as much fun as
Speaker 1: people think. I've not done that, but I've made a
Speaker 1: lot of trips and yeah, you see the inside of
Speaker 1: the arena, in the satellite truck or wherever you're editing.
Speaker 1: So that's about it. So anyway, kent thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Are you coming up tomorrow?
Speaker 3: Are you delegating I'm gonna have to go to uo
Speaker 3: L because they're both the same.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, well that's the way it works.
Speaker 3: Has not happened as many times as you think. You
Speaker 3: have it both the same day at the same time.
Speaker 1: No, it's not. Well, we'll be keeping an eye on
Speaker 1: you from here. Thank you, brother, good talking to you.
Speaker 3: Thanks Jake, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Up next we'll hear more Kentucky football chatter from Jeremy Jarman,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to Kentucky basketball with the Cats men
Speaker 1: and women here on six thirty. Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. Thanks again to Ken Taylor for joining us.
Speaker 1: Before I go any further, Happy birthday, if you'll indulge
Speaker 1: me to my son Jack, who has been alongside a
Speaker 1: few times with me several times frankly in some of
Speaker 1: my professional endeavors. So is my daughter Kate. They both
Speaker 1: at one point were pulling cable for camera operators at
Speaker 1: UK football and basketball games. Kate was smart, she got
Speaker 1: away from the cable pulling and immediately put herself in
Speaker 1: charge of the crew lighting and carrying things, and pretty
Speaker 1: soon you were just telling people what to do. Maybe
Speaker 1: very proud, but Jack has traveled with me back when
Speaker 1: I was working for the SEC Football and basketball radio
Speaker 1: networks and has driven us the UK Football Network to
Speaker 1: some of the away games in fact, but most memorably,
Speaker 1: he was with me working for the SEC network down
Speaker 1: in Atlanta on tornado night. So yeah, he knew to
Speaker 1: get under the table when things began to fall from
Speaker 1: the ceiling, but I'll never forget. Once the danger had passed,
Speaker 1: he and I walked from the arena because we thought
Speaker 1: the last shuttle had just left. There may have been others,
Speaker 1: but we didn't get upstairs in time to get this one,
Speaker 1: so we decided to walk back to the hotel I
Speaker 1: was less than a mile and walk through the wreckage
Speaker 1: that the tornado had left through Atlanta. So anyway, a
Speaker 1: happy birthday to Jack and all the best to anybody
Speaker 1: having a birthday today, including my stepson in law. So yeah,
Speaker 1: good day for birthdays anyway. Kentucky football coming up fast,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, Media day tomorrow and if you want
Speaker 1: more on UK football. Right now, we'll go to Behind
Speaker 1: Kentucky Football via Apple podcast produced by the UK Sports Network.
Speaker 1: I had some fun being on that podcast, hosted by
Speaker 1: Jeremy Jarman, my broadcast partner. He's alongside Christy Thomas and
Speaker 1: works of course with Tom Leech Yepcoro, all of us
Speaker 1: on the UK network. And Jeremy was down in Dallas
Speaker 1: and I talked to him a little bit down there
Speaker 1: if you were listening when we were down there. But
Speaker 1: recently we got together and talked on the podcast. Here's
Speaker 1: an excerpt from the moments when we were talking about
Speaker 1: the fact that Kentucky football, while it's been consistently better
Speaker 1: and better under Mark Stoops, has had its ups and downs,
Speaker 1: and now Kentucky fans are expecting more really than they
Speaker 1: ever have in recent memory from UK football and Mark Stoops.
Speaker 9: When you look at anything in life, there's nothing, nothing
Speaker 9: comes and it's just a straight vertical line. You don't
Speaker 9: get anywhere, you know, whether it's buying a stock, that
Speaker 9: stock never just goes vertical. I mean, you know there's
Speaker 9: terms I see people using bar coding up down, up, down, uptown,
Speaker 9: and then you let these things kind of settle and
Speaker 9: then boom, And I think that we're at a point
Speaker 9: now where over the last few years gave where we've
Speaker 9: kind of had the highs and we've had we've kind
Speaker 9: of dropped back down, been a little flat high flat.
Speaker 9: Now I think this is going to be a year
Speaker 9: where you have eight home games. Can you get this
Speaker 9: line going back, you know, get it going back vertical
Speaker 9: and try to get back to, you know, a year
Speaker 9: like eighteen twenty one where you're knocking on the door
Speaker 9: for a possibility to play, you know, playing in one
Speaker 9: of the late Bowl games.
Speaker 1: Not only that, dare we dream yes about the playoffs?
Speaker 9: Yeah, let's just go ahead, And you know I kind
Speaker 9: of played around with that. No, absolutely well.
Speaker 1: Twenty eighteen, I think they would have been in the playoff,
Speaker 1: don't you I do? I do.
Speaker 9: I think that that team was good enough. And then
Speaker 9: ultimately the eighteen year, I mean, Georgia comes into town
Speaker 9: very very very conservative game plan. I thought Georgia came
Speaker 9: with and that's that's respect to Brad White and that
Speaker 9: defensive unit. We had pros on three levels. So you're
Speaker 9: not gonna put your quarterback in a position if you're
Speaker 9: Georgia on the road to uh, you know, to let
Speaker 9: that game get away from you because you're trying to
Speaker 9: take shots down the field.
Speaker 1: There were a couple of different years where Georgia came
Speaker 1: in and a win by Kentucky would have opened that gate.
Speaker 1: But when you looked at that eighteen team, like you said,
Speaker 1: the difference is there was talent. You know, you could
Speaker 1: call Josh heinz Allen generational talent. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: pros at all three levels. But also the O line
Speaker 1: which set the tone. That's I think the biggest question
Speaker 1: mark this year, and Marcus Cox talked about that here
Speaker 1: in Dallas. You know, can they set the tone and
Speaker 1: be more consistent? A friend of mine, a media person,
Speaker 1: said that he believes they maybe need to let go
Speaker 1: of the big Blue Wall logo or slowly or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, you know, and I could I can
Speaker 1: understand what he's saying, but I really believe, and you
Speaker 1: can speak better to this, that I could see them
Speaker 1: embracing the values that that original Big Blue Wall embraced.
Speaker 1: And you know, and and yes, we realized John Schlarman
Speaker 1: has gone rest his soul, but what he stood for
Speaker 1: I think still needs to be here, don't you.
Speaker 9: I agree, And I think that was just it was
Speaker 9: a different age. As crazy as that sounds, I think
Speaker 9: when you when you you know, that was what two
Speaker 9: two offensive coordinators ago. Yes, So with that, you know
Speaker 9: that Eddie grand style offense, it was you know, he
Speaker 9: was aggressive, they were aggressive running the ball. They had
Speaker 9: pros up front, they had pros in the backfield. I mean,
Speaker 9: just absolute bruisers.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 9: And that's just that's not college football in the SEC
Speaker 9: the way that it used to be. Now with the
Speaker 9: new offensive coordinators, it's a little bit more spread out.
Speaker 9: You're getting your backs out in space, but you still
Speaker 9: want to be able to tap into that mentality when
Speaker 9: you need it, and in this league you need it,
Speaker 9: especially in the fourth quarter. You know what you do
Speaker 9: through the first three quarters, run past, mix, whatever. When
Speaker 9: you get into the fourth quarter and you have a
Speaker 9: lead or you're trying to take a lead, you need
Speaker 9: some kind of moniker, some kind of rallying cry that
Speaker 9: is at the base, that's part of your identity. So
Speaker 9: when you say so, i'd be careful, like you said,
Speaker 9: trying to shed the big blue, trying to shed that
Speaker 9: and trying to create a you know, a new slogan
Speaker 9: because you want guys to be able to tap into that.
Speaker 1: That's when they need to Well. As you know, I've
Speaker 1: been here forever. I covered my first game in seventy five.
Speaker 1: But what I'm trying to tell you is I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of teams since then at Kentucky who took
Speaker 1: teams opponents into the fourth quarter and lost heartbreakers. And
Speaker 1: you would hear fans, you know I've done talk radio forever.
Speaker 1: You hear fans they didn't want it enough. They were
Speaker 1: out coached, Bob, But no, they got tired and ran
Speaker 1: out of depth as often as not out of ten times,
Speaker 1: that was the problem. And now this staff from day
Speaker 1: one has worked their tails off and a lot of
Speaker 1: assistants slash recruiters have come and gone, but thanks to
Speaker 1: Vince maryland Mark Stoop still being here, they've done the
Speaker 1: same thing. They have tried to recruit to need and
Speaker 1: build that depth, and I think they've done that fairly successfully.
Speaker 1: And that's why Kentucky now is winning more games than
Speaker 1: it has in the past, and it's winning games in
Speaker 1: that fourth quarter that you just talked about. And when
Speaker 1: it comes to me in physical I'll never forget working
Speaker 1: on a TV piece for when I produced the Football
Speaker 1: Coaches Show, we would go into the video room, Jeff
Speaker 1: Pikoro and I did, and they had just come off
Speaker 1: the first win at Florida and Big George Georgiasapho a
Speaker 1: Jay takes Jeff and me into the video room and
Speaker 1: uses what you guys called the clicker. You know, the
Speaker 1: remote doesn't really click, but that's what everybody calls it.
Speaker 1: And the as your pointer, right, And we were looking
Speaker 1: Jeremy in nothing but end zone video and there were
Speaker 1: some key plays, but he wanted to do that to
Speaker 1: show me the skill and execution by the offensive line
Speaker 1: in the swamp obviously against Florida, and he just said
Speaker 1: things like, yeah, we pushed those guys around and you
Speaker 1: could see it right there in front of you, the
Speaker 1: old line opening, you know how the end zone that
Speaker 1: video that the holes look a lot bigger, dominating, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget that, and I would love to see
Speaker 1: this team get back to that and see what this
Speaker 1: team can do if the old line can regain that
Speaker 1: consistent physicality.
Speaker 9: No, I agree with you, and I just got chills
Speaker 9: just just listening to that.
Speaker 1: And thank you.
Speaker 9: Big George was now Big George. He was he was
Speaker 9: a good one. And you know, you talk about Florida
Speaker 9: and pushing them around, I'll tell your offensive line they
Speaker 9: have you know, they've been They've been up and down,
Speaker 9: you know, over the past, over the past few seasons.
Speaker 9: But you see, you saw some big improvement against with
Speaker 9: some guys last year individually and just collectively, and that
Speaker 9: Florida game obviously being one of them. But a lot
Speaker 9: of good blocks over the course of the season, but
Speaker 9: then you just kind of have some of those those misses,
Speaker 9: some of the inconsistencies where you're just not able to
Speaker 9: just to keep that momentum going. So now with coach
Speaker 9: Woolford back at the helm, with that offensive line group,
Speaker 9: I'm really curious to see where they start this camp
Speaker 9: and ultimately how this running back room evolves and to
Speaker 9: see if someone is going to emerge out of that
Speaker 9: running back group to really establish this all help us
Speaker 9: up to the old line entity.
Speaker 1: It is up to the old line.
Speaker 9: And when you look at Marcus Cox, a guy that
Speaker 9: we spoke with today, he seems like he's very confident
Speaker 9: and we had the chance we asked him questions and
Speaker 9: he's one of the most experienced offensive linemen in.
Speaker 1: All of college football, and this is seventh year.
Speaker 9: I don't know how many years then he is, but
Speaker 9: I mean, just a guy of his caliber, how intelligent
Speaker 9: he is. When you look at his stats to I
Speaker 9: think he's at knocking on the door. I think it
Speaker 9: maybe like forty eight consecutive starts as an offensive lineman.
Speaker 9: NFL and college coaches, they just love to see a
Speaker 9: guy figure out how to stay healthy, you know, and
Speaker 9: oftentimes that's part of the process of just taking care
Speaker 9: of your body. But that's also just always being the
Speaker 9: physically dominant person as well, not being knocked down, not
Speaker 9: being pushed into a power. There's a lot of whammies
Speaker 9: out there on the football field, a lot of grenades
Speaker 9: you can step on. But Marcus Colex, I'm excited to
Speaker 9: see the step he's gonna take because he's so intelligent.
Speaker 9: And now when we spoke with him, he's talking about, uh,
Speaker 9: you know, pilates. He's talking about doing these extra things
Speaker 9: to help with his hip, help with his flexibility and
Speaker 9: his explosion. If he's able to pick up where he
Speaker 9: left off last year, but showed that he's a more
Speaker 9: versatile athlete and really growing to that left tackle position.
Speaker 9: It's going to be a fun year watching him grow
Speaker 9: and develop and ultimately propel this offensive line forward.
Speaker 1: That's Jeremy Jarman of the UK Sports Network speaking on
Speaker 1: the Behind Kentucky Football podcast. Go to Apple Podcasts. Just
Speaker 1: google Apple and Behind Kentucky Football and you'll get a
Speaker 1: lot of good stuff to listen to from Behind Kentucky Football.
Speaker 1: Up next, Kentucky basketball. We'll hear from Nate Sestina talking
Speaker 1: about those big Blue fans, and we'll meet another Wildcat
Speaker 1: from the women's squad here on the Big Moon Sider
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider.
Speaker 1: Final segment of our programs that we will shift to
Speaker 1: Kentucky basketball, more specifically LAFA Media, which plays tomorrow night
Speaker 1: the UK Infused basically an all star team part of
Speaker 1: the basketball tournament. They've made the semi finals. They're playing
Speaker 1: in Philly. My question will Blue get in how many
Speaker 1: Kentucky fans will show up, Will either make the trip
Speaker 1: or from surrounding areas come to watch that game. I
Speaker 1: think we'll probably all be pleasantly surprised or is surprise
Speaker 1: when Kentucky fans show up everywhere? Now, this is not
Speaker 1: you know the UK Wildcats, but for all intent purposes,
Speaker 1: according to the crowds both in Lexington and over in Louisville,
Speaker 1: it really is. It has that feel, of course, and
Speaker 1: after the Wildcats beat the vill worked their way to
Speaker 1: the Semis with an eye on that million dollar prize.
Speaker 1: Prior to the U of L game, though Nate Cestina,
Speaker 1: who keep in mind, only played one season here. It
Speaker 1: was the COVID year and so you know what that
Speaker 1: meant for crowds and knowing say tournament and all that.
Speaker 1: But he's still got the full dose the taste of
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Nation, and he's back living here now.
Speaker 1: While he's not playing overseas, he plays in Spain professionally.
Speaker 1: That's why he looks like he's in just great shape
Speaker 1: and is shooting so well because Biggs in Europe shoot
Speaker 1: the ball a lot and shoot it well. Otherwise the Americans,
Speaker 1: they're not on the team. And Cistina went wild in
Speaker 1: the third quarter against the Villain, hit five to three pointers,
Speaker 1: basically State Kentucky to a big lead and left of
Speaker 1: media hung on. But prior to that game, since Tina
Speaker 1: talked about BBN.
Speaker 6: I mean, Kentucky basketball fans are I'm sure you guys
Speaker 6: are well aware. If crazy is the right word, well
Speaker 6: maybe just you know, enthusiastic. They're i think the best
Speaker 6: college basketball fans in the world and some of the
Speaker 6: best basketball fans in the world even as a pro.
Speaker 6: I mean, this is a tournament that's been put together
Speaker 6: for how many years and they're packing gyms out. There
Speaker 6: was eleven thousand tickets or something sold out, So first
Speaker 6: summer basketball in Kentucky to have, you know, eleven twelve
Speaker 6: thousand people.
Speaker 1: This big time. That's Nay Sistina. He and his teammates
Speaker 1: will play Carmen's Crew tomorrow night around nine o'clock. They're
Speaker 1: doing the same thing on Fox that you know ESPN does.
Speaker 1: They slam them in like two hours per game, and
Speaker 1: these games don't last as long as some of the
Speaker 1: college games because of the elam rule. But they start
Speaker 1: with Forever Koogs a two seed against the Happy Valley
Speaker 1: Hoopers at seven pm on FS one, and then listed
Speaker 1: at nine pm La Familia against Carmen's Crew, the group
Speaker 1: from Parentland, primarily Ohio State. That's around nine pm. So
Speaker 1: that's the TBT schedule for tomorrow. In the finals are
Speaker 1: the next day so keep an eye on that. Shifting
Speaker 1: over to women's basketball, we got a chance to interview
Speaker 1: almost every player. I ran out of time. I missed
Speaker 1: a couple, but the brand new roster from Kenny Brooks's team,
Speaker 1: including five international players from Australia, Portugal, the Czech Republic.
Speaker 1: Tanna Becker is from Canada and committed really when Kyra
Speaker 1: Elsey was here, but wants to play for Kenny Brooks
Speaker 1: at Kentucky.
Speaker 8: You're kind of far from home. Yeah, tell me why Kentucky.
Speaker 10: It was honestly, the culture here and the coaches like
Speaker 10: the environment here and the winning culture something every one
Speaker 10: to be part of.
Speaker 5: So coming here was a no brainer.
Speaker 8: I've heard so many good things a coach of Brooks.
Speaker 8: Could they all be true?
Speaker 5: Yes? Yes, he's a great coach.
Speaker 10: He's really paying attention to detail and really trying to
Speaker 10: bring the best out of each in one of us.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, tell me about that culture you mentioned, because
Speaker 1: that doesn't come easily.
Speaker 10: I mean, it's just us putting an effort in every
Speaker 10: day and becoming the best versions of ourselfs and we
Speaker 10: know we're capable of being a really great team.
Speaker 5: So yeah, how do.
Speaker 1: You create culture in such a short amount of time
Speaker 1: with kids, you're just you're still getting to know.
Speaker 10: I mean we honestly, we're going through summer training together daily,
Speaker 10: so that really bonds us together. All the hard training
Speaker 10: and we're doing, and yeah, being on the court together,
Speaker 10: it's really helping us.
Speaker 1: You know what you're getting into? Well, you think you
Speaker 1: know what SEC basketball? What is SEC basketball?
Speaker 7: To you?
Speaker 5: The highest level of basketball?
Speaker 10: Honestly, a very competitive, very strong and tough league that
Speaker 10: I'm very excited to be part of.
Speaker 5: And I know my team is going to do really
Speaker 5: great in the SEC.
Speaker 8: Did I see you listed as a guard?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 8: Six ' one, Yes, you're a guard. You know, back
Speaker 8: in the day they played under the bucket, you wouldn't
Speaker 8: get the lead. Yeah, So what is that going to be.
Speaker 1: Like for you?
Speaker 5: Great?
Speaker 10: I mean as a lot of versatile, versatile play and a
Speaker 10: lot of our guards are pretty duller guards. So it's
Speaker 10: gonna be great to play with one another and really
Speaker 10: show off on the court.
Speaker 1: How about that? A six to one guard? And as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, this is a big Kentucky team. Gabby Brooks
Speaker 1: is a transfer from Virginia Tech. She is from Harrisonburg, Virginia,
Speaker 1: home of Ralph Sampson and I have been there. I
Speaker 1: was there when Sampson didn't say Kentucky and said Virginia
Speaker 1: many many years ago, but Brooks transferred in. She wants
Speaker 1: to keep playing for Kenny Brooks, and why not. She's
Speaker 1: his youngest daughter. Red shirted last year at Virginia Tech,
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to play there, but now she's
Speaker 1: a wildcat.
Speaker 11: He goes in depth with his players, and like he
Speaker 11: truly does care about you, and I feel like he
Speaker 11: always will work hard, like what you give him is
Speaker 11: what he can give you, and so like he always
Speaker 11: wants the best for you, and he's just always like
Speaker 11: going to be there, like on and off the.
Speaker 8: Court, so he knows how to push you the right way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, coming from the ACC, good conference.
Speaker 8: What do you know about the SEC.
Speaker 11: I know it's hard, it's a bit tougher, a little
Speaker 11: bit more aggressive, but I think that with everyone that
Speaker 11: we have here that we can still be a good competitor.
Speaker 8: What do you know about the physicality of the SEC.
Speaker 11: I know, yeah, I know that it's more aggressive, a
Speaker 11: little bit bigger, like bigger players in the SEC than
Speaker 11: there is an ACC. Yeah, the physicality is definitely more so,
Speaker 11: I had.
Speaker 1: To play that.
Speaker 8: He played at Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: Obviously he'll use here.
Speaker 8: What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 11: It's definitely fast paced. We pushed the floor, transition threes
Speaker 11: like all around.
Speaker 5: We move the ball a lot.
Speaker 8: And your role will be I'm a shooter.
Speaker 1: Okay, right up.
Speaker 8: Front, you're a shooter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you got a guard too, don't you?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 8: How are you with that?
Speaker 11: Definitely not my strongest suit, but we play a good
Speaker 11: pack line defense, so we're always there to help each
Speaker 11: other if anything happens.
Speaker 1: It's Gottay Brooks, one of the brand new women's basketball players,
Speaker 1: and of course will be trying her and playing time
Speaker 1: under her. Pops Kenny, that'll do it. Thanks to Keith Madison.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Ken Taylor that said, good night from the
Speaker 1: garage in Lexington.
Speaker 8: What has that got to do with it?
Speaker 5: Back off man, I'm a scientist.