Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Friday, the eve of the Big Game.
Speaker 1: Kentucky Louisville, we aren't that far removed from Uku. L
Speaker 1: Football didn't go so well for the Big Blue Nation,
Speaker 1: but the Wildcats should fare better tomorrow when they take
Speaker 1: on the Basketball Cardinals because both teams are actually be
Speaker 1: set with injuries. But I think more depth for the
Speaker 1: Wildcats means Kentucky should win it.
Speaker 2: But you just never know.
Speaker 1: I mean, Louisville threw a scare into Duke, and we
Speaker 1: know how good Duke can be. So it's gonna be fun,
Speaker 1: gonna be interesting. It is not quite the same rivalry
Speaker 1: for a couple of reasons. Number one, both teams are
Speaker 1: on their way back. Let's put it to you that way.
Speaker 1: Kentucky is ahead of schedule, I think, by knocking off
Speaker 1: a couple of top ten teams, of course, and creating
Speaker 1: a lot of buzz in the college basketball world, not
Speaker 1: just within the Big Blue Nation. But they've got coaches
Speaker 1: and analysts and experts and talking heads chattering all over
Speaker 1: the country, especially after the comeback win over Duke and
Speaker 1: the comeback win over Gonzaga. Louisville a little bit behind,
Speaker 1: I think primarily because of injuries, but they got a
Speaker 1: coach who is an absolute live wire, Pat Kelsey. Different
Speaker 1: from Mark Pope, but similar in that he's younger, he's enthusiastic,
Speaker 1: and in fact, he made national headlines with a comment
Speaker 1: the other day when somebody basically asked him about his
Speaker 1: concerns or his worries or whatever about his team or
Speaker 1: his program, and he basically said, you know, life is good.
Speaker 3: How challenging is it emotionally or mentally to give a
Speaker 3: team ready when at.
Speaker 4: Duke Point Sunday, this big marqueting event.
Speaker 5: You got Kentucky on Saturday.
Speaker 4: Another marquee kind of game and uteb pluff right here
Speaker 4: in the peddle. How difficult is that.
Speaker 2: This emotional stand?
Speaker 6: I mean, we get a bunch of free sneakers, I
Speaker 6: wear sweatsuits the work like like you know, my kids
Speaker 6: are healthy, my wife's hot, Like I got I got
Speaker 6: pretty good life. We didn't get to play college basketball,
Speaker 6: we get to play in the Young Center. We get
Speaker 6: to get ready for Utah. My dad used to say
Speaker 6: it all the time like I would. I would say him, Dad,
Speaker 6: you gotta go to work today, said, so not I
Speaker 6: get to go to work today, right heck heck yeah,
Speaker 6: you know. I mean, schedule's been a little bit difficult
Speaker 6: and we had some adversity, but you know, this guy's
Speaker 6: been awesome. Guy's been awesome, The process has been great.
Speaker 6: Results will take care of themselves and just onto the
Speaker 6: next one, most important game in the history of the programs,
Speaker 6: the next one we play, and that's that one on Saturday,
Speaker 6: about three hours ago. It was this one right here.
Speaker 6: It's the deal?
Speaker 2: Is that not great?
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, I think he actually
Speaker 1: believes that. That's not coach speak. I do believe just
Speaker 1: based on everything I've read and I've seen interviews and
Speaker 1: heard interviews with him. I just thought that was great.
Speaker 1: And apparently Mark Pope knows him, knows of him. It
Speaker 1: has a lot of us for Pat Kelsey.
Speaker 7: Pat does an unbelievable job. Like he's a he's a
Speaker 7: terrific coach. He is going to crush it there and
Speaker 7: and I like him as a person, and he's he's
Speaker 7: insanely intense and competitive, but he's doing things the right
Speaker 7: way and for the right reasons, and he's gonna have
Speaker 7: great success there. So They're a good team and they've
Speaker 7: already proven they can be really really dangerous.
Speaker 1: They can be dangerous starting with Chucky. Hepburn their point guard.
Speaker 1: They're all everything, really transferring in after three years at Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: started every game of his career, total more than eleven
Speaker 1: hundred points, more than three hundred assists, more than one.
Speaker 2: Hundred and sixty steals.
Speaker 1: Last year help Wisconsin get to the Big Ten Conference
Speaker 1: title games at NJ Tournament, All Big Ten Defensive Team,
Speaker 1: All Big Ten All Tournament Team. As kid's a player,
Speaker 1: and now he's in Louisville and Kentucky is without as
Speaker 1: you will know, it's top two point guards. So I'm
Speaker 1: guessing Jackson Robinson will have to try to check Chucky
Speaker 1: and he is the head of the snake, no question
Speaker 1: about it. The former Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year
Speaker 1: and Polk talked in general about how good this Louisville
Speaker 1: team can be.
Speaker 5: Terrific team.
Speaker 7: Uh, they've had some huge wins there. They can be
Speaker 7: super disruptive, they're really aggressive.
Speaker 5: Uh, they they're they're you know, they're really aggressive. Uh.
Speaker 5: You know, Chucky is is playing at an elite level.
Speaker 7: He's a veteran veteran guy, and he causes so much
Speaker 7: chaos on the defensive end, and and and also causes
Speaker 7: a ton of.
Speaker 5: Chaos on the offensive end.
Speaker 7: And they got you know, he kind of feels like
Speaker 7: they're you know, six six across the front line, guys
Speaker 7: that can shoot it and drive it and make decisions
Speaker 7: and play and have some real physicality of the game.
Speaker 7: And and and then they've got some real length, you know.
Speaker 7: I mean, you think about playing No. At six eleven
Speaker 7: at the three and the four and the five and
Speaker 7: everything he can do. And so they're a terrific team
Speaker 7: with a massive upside. They're really really dangerous. I think
Speaker 7: that's how they feel, is super dangerous. On any given night,
Speaker 7: when all the pieces come together, they can be a
Speaker 7: really really dangerous team.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And if you're not sure about that, ask Indiana.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: Over the holiday. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Louisville kind of
Speaker 1: shocked the nation by beating Indiana, back then ranked fifteenth
Speaker 1: in the country, and blew them out down in the
Speaker 1: Bahamas eighty nine to sixty one. Then they beat West
Speaker 1: Virginia in overtime, finally lost by five to Oklahoma in
Speaker 1: the finals of that event. Now Tennessee blew them out.
Speaker 1: Tennessee's really good. Ole Miss blew them out. Ole Miss
Speaker 1: is pretty good too, And.
Speaker 2: That happened in Louisville. And you know about Duke.
Speaker 1: They had Duke down, kind of let him off the
Speaker 1: hook in the Young center.
Speaker 2: But they're coming off a close win over UTEB.
Speaker 1: Texas l pass not a great team, but again, they've
Speaker 1: had ups and downs like Kentucky, and they've got injuries
Speaker 1: like Kentucky. And one of the kids who's injured is
Speaker 1: a six to eleven center named Ali Khalifa, and you
Speaker 1: know he's out.
Speaker 2: For the year.
Speaker 1: Transferred in played one year for Pope at Brigham Young,
Speaker 1: and so did another kid named Noah Waterman. And this
Speaker 1: is where things get really interesting. This is where we
Speaker 1: are today in college athletics. You've got a coach and
Speaker 1: a player crossing paths at their next respective stops because
Speaker 1: the kid was able to go into the transfer portal.
Speaker 1: Coaches move all the time, and obviously Mark Pope came
Speaker 1: to Kentucky from Brigham Young and the biggest reason was
Speaker 1: not that he's a former UK player, but he had
Speaker 1: success there and over the last couple of years, Noah Waterman,
Speaker 1: a six ' eleven forward, had big seasons for Brigham Young.
Speaker 1: He was a really important part of their success last
Speaker 1: year in twenty four minutes per game, nine and a
Speaker 1: half points a game, five and a half rebounds, and
Speaker 1: because he and his teammates played so well, that kept
Speaker 1: Mark Pope front and center. They did so well in
Speaker 1: the Big twelve. And when the job opened up and
Speaker 1: Mitch Barnard started looking at Pope's track record, he saw
Speaker 1: the success at Brigham Young, of course, and Noah Waterman
Speaker 1: was part of that. And now he's in the enemy camp.
Speaker 1: But it didn't sound that way today when Pope talked
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 7: You know, it's our job to really really just hate Louisville,
Speaker 7: but that's hard to do, and certainly in terms of
Speaker 7: those two guys, like I listen, no and I have
Speaker 7: been through it, man, and I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 5: The way that he's grown.
Speaker 7: Uh, And he's two years with me, and then he's
Speaker 7: continued to grow this year. It just as I love him,
Speaker 7: and it hasn't been easy and and he just is
Speaker 7: He's a special human being and he's grown into a terrific,
Speaker 7: terrific person. And you know, the truth is, and I
Speaker 7: actually had a conversation with my former players just a
Speaker 7: couple of days ago that that, uh, you know, I
Speaker 7: get to be here right now because of no Waterman
Speaker 7: and that's actually no, that's no overstatement, and and I
Speaker 7: love him for that.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I find that refreshing
Speaker 1: because when coaches move, obviously it's because of the job
Speaker 1: done by them, by their assistance, by the people on
Speaker 1: their staff, and by the players. And that's why I
Speaker 1: don't big rudge players being allowed to move, although I
Speaker 1: think it should be a one time only thing without
Speaker 1: sitting out portal's out of control. But that's a topic
Speaker 1: for another night. But the fact that Pope openly talks
Speaker 1: about I mean, if you held coaches down, they would
Speaker 1: tell you the same thing. Most of them would, decent
Speaker 1: human beings would. But Pope's saying, look, I don't have
Speaker 1: this job without what those players did with me and
Speaker 1: for me at bring them young.
Speaker 2: And Waterman's one of them now.
Speaker 1: Hugged before and after the game, but during the game
Speaker 1: they'll try to beat each other's brains out, and that's
Speaker 1: why it's fun. We'll talk Kentucky volleyball next here.
Speaker 2: On six thirty.
Speaker 1: WLAP Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider Coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 1: While the basketball Wildcats are playing U of L, the
Speaker 1: volleyball Wildcats will play Pittsburgh, just the top seed and
Speaker 1: the entire tournament playing at home, but the winner gets
Speaker 1: to go to the final four, and anything's possible. As
Speaker 1: we all know, Wildcats look pretty good against Missouri yesterday.
Speaker 1: Missou really put it to them in the third set
Speaker 1: after Kentucky won the first two and after the match,
Speaker 1: emmac Grome, Kentucky setter who had fifty assists, talked about
Speaker 1: how they lost a little bit of focus there it's
Speaker 1: set number three and had to reset for set number four.
Speaker 8: You know, I think we just realized that, like hard said,
Speaker 8: we did have to step it up. We lost a
Speaker 8: little bit of our focus at edge, I think in
Speaker 8: that third set and their server, you know, those were
Speaker 8: great service, but I think we could have adjusted a
Speaker 8: little bit quicker. But yeah, we just came out and
Speaker 8: forced a really strong kind of a mental change and
Speaker 8: shift in what we were doing. So we'll just really
Speaker 8: proud of how we responded and we were able to come
Speaker 8: out fighting.
Speaker 1: Obviously, you cannot lose focus against Pittsburgh. You know how
Speaker 1: good they are. They've lost one match to MU, a
Speaker 1: team Kentucky beat, But this is a team that is
Speaker 1: so driven. Panthers have twice each of the last two
Speaker 1: years made it to the Final four and lost, never
Speaker 1: got to the championship round, so they are really wanting
Speaker 1: this obviously. So yeah, you got to keep your head up,
Speaker 1: you got to stay in it. Brooklyn Delay talked to
Speaker 1: ESPN after the match about responding in a third set
Speaker 1: and then trying to move on. Missouri made it difficult.
Speaker 1: Just as Missouri did at the end of the regular season,
Speaker 1: Kentucky played at Massoo and had to rally to win
Speaker 1: that one and in doing so clinched the outright SEC title.
Speaker 9: I mean, that happened the last time we played him,
Speaker 9: so I knew we didn't want that to happen again,
Speaker 9: and I think just experience what we did last year,
Speaker 9: we didn't want that to happen again as well. So
Speaker 9: I think just all around, we did really well at
Speaker 9: responding And what.
Speaker 10: Adjustments did you make defensively, especially in that fourth set?
Speaker 10: Just slow down Island.
Speaker 9: You know, I don't think we really changed much. I
Speaker 9: think it just started clicking more, it didn't really at
Speaker 9: the beginning of the game. So I think the third
Speaker 9: set just was not what we wanted obviously, and I
Speaker 9: think we just really responded and played our own game.
Speaker 8: What's it going to take to get another one headed
Speaker 8: to the regional vinyls?
Speaker 9: You know, we just got to clean up the little things.
Speaker 9: But I think we're ready for it.
Speaker 1: Well they're gonna have to be, because I said pitt
Speaker 1: is big, strong, physical, They're tough. Kentucky is the champion
Speaker 1: of the SEC, but that league is not quite where
Speaker 1: the Big ten or the ACC are right now. Still
Speaker 1: not impossible for the Wildcats. They're playing their best right
Speaker 1: now and they're about as healthy as they have been
Speaker 1: all year long, with the exception of Asia thing Pen,
Speaker 1: but she was kind of a bonus toward the middle
Speaker 1: of the year when Kentucky was dealing with injuries.
Speaker 2: They had to move her.
Speaker 1: From a defensive spot basically to an offensive spot outside
Speaker 1: hit her. She's only five foot ten, but she can play.
Speaker 1: She'd be overmatched against this pit front line, but you
Speaker 1: gotta go with what you gotta go with. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the Wildcats will be underdogs for once. Craig Skinner talked
Speaker 1: about that. How pressure kind of changes throughout tournaments like this.
Speaker 11: You know, pressure is shifts all the time. You know,
Speaker 11: pressure shifts to you know, we had the pressure on
Speaker 11: us all year after we got in a win streak
Speaker 11: and we were expected to win the conference the last
Speaker 11: few matches, and so we understand what that means. We
Speaker 11: also know how difficult it is to be, you know,
Speaker 11: top teams in the country, and because we played a
Speaker 11: lot of top teams in the country. So I don't
Speaker 11: think there's a situation we haven't been in yet this year. Obviously,
Speaker 11: no matter who wins this next match, it's gonna be
Speaker 11: a tough one on Saturday to go to the final four.
Speaker 1: Last night on the show, I came on and only
Speaker 1: had a little bit of time because we pre record
Speaker 1: to send this in and talk about the win. I
Speaker 1: tweeted about the fact that this and I talked about
Speaker 1: it on the show. The announcers and again I'm not
Speaker 1: going to go with names, but I was so disappointed
Speaker 1: in the job they did because it was clearly from
Speaker 1: the Missouri point of view, And as I said yesterday,
Speaker 1: when you're working on the SEC network or the ACCN network, whatever,
Speaker 1: and you're the person in that home market. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna call sports, as I always say, through
Speaker 1: the prism of the home team.
Speaker 2: But if you're not working on that school's TV or.
Speaker 1: Radio network specifically, I think you have to call it
Speaker 1: as much as you can right down the middle, because
Speaker 1: there are as many viewers probably who are interested in
Speaker 1: the opposing team as the home team.
Speaker 2: I have no idea why. Maybe these women work Missouri
Speaker 2: all year.
Speaker 1: I don't think they did, but maybe they did. Whatever
Speaker 1: the reason, it was almost as though Kentucky wasn't even there.
Speaker 1: They didn't mention until the end of the third of
Speaker 1: the fourth set that Kentucky was the defending SEC champion
Speaker 1: that Brooklyn Delay was the player of the year in
Speaker 1: the SEC. In fact, they did a little quick feature
Speaker 1: on her with a full screen shot of her coming out.
Speaker 1: I think of the second set because Kentucky was on
Speaker 1: the verge of a sweep and they had to get
Speaker 1: it in, you know here they had the producer had
Speaker 1: this prepared, so they finally got it in and then
Speaker 1: Missouri really destroyed Kentucky in the third set, and oh
Speaker 1: my god, were they overjoyed the announcers with that. So
Speaker 1: and I thought of my being too hard on these people.
Speaker 1: And again I'm not gonna name names, but my Twitter
Speaker 1: feeds show that you all agreed with me. Gerard said
Speaker 1: the volleyball call was very one side of ESPN fire
Speaker 1: the announcers. Jeff said, definitely agree on the one side
Speaker 1: of TV call that was blatantly obvious. Kenny said, thank you.
Speaker 1: I thought the call on TV was horrible. I don't
Speaker 1: know their love of Missouri, but hopefully they can go
Speaker 1: home with the team NOP. They're gonna be calling the
Speaker 1: game tomorrow when Pittsburgh takes on Kentucky, and just look,
Speaker 1: just brace yourselves if you watch it or record it
Speaker 1: and watch it after basketball, which if I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to do, it's gonna be all Pittsburgh tomorrow. It is
Speaker 1: going to be a Pittsburgh Panthers Volleyball festival. It'll probably
Speaker 1: sound almost like a documentary. And again not naming names.
Speaker 1: Just tune in you'll see what I mean. But I'm
Speaker 1: really amazed by this, you know, I just because it
Speaker 1: is a national broadcast.
Speaker 2: This was on ESPN two.
Speaker 1: It wasn't on the ACC network, it wasn't on the
Speaker 1: SEC network, it wasn't on any network other than the Deuce,
Speaker 1: and of course Missouri is an SEC team. Pits in
Speaker 1: the AC scene now in case you've forgotten, but it
Speaker 1: shouldn't matter. So again I wondered, was I a little
Speaker 1: too sensitive to this? I don't think so. And my
Speaker 1: own sister and I were texting back and forth. She
Speaker 1: said same thing.
Speaker 2: So all right, coming up next, Billy Rutledge joined us.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to talk about in college and pro
Speaker 1: sports today. We haven't had a chance to talk to
Speaker 1: Billy all week as we were bumped Monday with a
Speaker 1: state wide show, which is usually when we catch up
Speaker 1: with him, so we will do that next year on
Speaker 1: a Big Blue Insider. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider,
Speaker 1: joining us down our celebrity hotline.
Speaker 2: He's actually traveling.
Speaker 4: But we didn't get a chance to check in with
Speaker 4: Billy Rutledge first of the week as we always do,
Speaker 4: because the state wide show was preempted.
Speaker 1: So I need to pick your brain, young man a
Speaker 1: little bit. First of all, Billy worked. We all know
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky alum, and you got a big one coming
Speaker 1: up tomorrow as well. Western Kentucky plays Murray State. But
Speaker 1: you were working in Louisville before you came down the
Speaker 1: interstate to work with us here in Lexington, so you've
Speaker 1: got a little taste of uku of l What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the big game tomorrow.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's really exciting, Dick. It's the first matchup between
Speaker 10: two coaches that I feel like have re energized their
Speaker 10: programs in Pat Kelsey and Mark Pope. They're kind of
Speaker 10: in like a compliment off right now, which I'm not
Speaker 10: the biggest fan of. Hopefully there will be a little
Speaker 10: hay in between them eventually, but as of now, I
Speaker 10: think there's a lot of excitement for this game and
Speaker 10: a lot of excitement for Mark Pope. You know, people
Speaker 10: are starting to say media members if that if their
Speaker 10: coach of the Year of ballot had to be casted today,
Speaker 10: Mark Hope would be their coach of the year, I
Speaker 10: think rightly.
Speaker 12: So, I mean, you've got.
Speaker 10: Two huge top ten wins versus Duke and Gonzaga, a
Speaker 10: loss on the road at Clemson. But you know, with
Speaker 10: the SEC schedule coming up, we may just have to
Speaker 10: take a deep breath when Kentucky dropped a couple of
Speaker 10: these games in conference, because the SEC is just so
Speaker 10: damn good this year. But I'm excited for Kentucky to
Speaker 10: wrap up their non conference schedule with a win over Louisville.
Speaker 12: Don't get me.
Speaker 10: Wrong, I think the Cards will play at a little
Speaker 10: closer than they did then with Kenny Payne. But this
Speaker 10: is still Kentucky's rivalry until they say otherwise. But yeah,
Speaker 10: excited for the game on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what really kind of turned it. I've
Speaker 1: talked about this before. When Beatino got here, he kind
Speaker 1: of dismissed this rivalry at first as just something that was,
Speaker 1: you know, oh, well, yeah, it's nice. It's not the
Speaker 1: Celtics and Knicks, though, But then when he lost out
Speaker 1: on a recruit. He lost out on Dwayne Morton to
Speaker 1: U of L, which committed a secondary violation. I think
Speaker 1: Danny Crumb bought his mom dinner or something, and Patino
Speaker 1: really wanted Morton, and I think he thought he was
Speaker 1: gonna get him. But that changed everything, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I don't know that that happens with this staff.
Speaker 1: I think they're built differently. But yeah, it's a little
Speaker 1: too warm and fuzzy right.
Speaker 2: Now, isn't it.
Speaker 12: Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 10: And you're right about Patino he brought the juice to
Speaker 10: that rivalry being the former Kentucky coach going over to Louisville.
Speaker 10: And I tell you what, I don't know if Cal
Speaker 10: wants anything more in this world than to beat Rick
Speaker 10: Patino when he's on the other side of that court.
Speaker 10: And you could tell, like you know, even in Rick
Speaker 10: Patino is the same way. I think at times he
Speaker 10: saw the loisvill players play really tight when it came
Speaker 10: to the Kentucky Louisville game because I think Matina wanted
Speaker 10: it so much, and so you know, it's just different
Speaker 10: now and can't coach guys the same way. Rivalries are
Speaker 10: different now. I'm hoping this rivalry sticks around, even though
Speaker 10: the football one ukuf L might be going away in
Speaker 10: the near future, but this is a basketball state. The
Speaker 10: entire Commonwealth will come to a halt on Saturday to
Speaker 10: watch this game. And that's probably my favorite part is
Speaker 10: you know, you go into a local shop on the
Speaker 10: day uku of l play and nobody's really paying attention
Speaker 10: because this is what matters right now.
Speaker 12: And I tell you what, Louisville I.
Speaker 10: Mean, if they can just stay healthy, Dick, I think
Speaker 10: they've got a shot to do some pretty good things
Speaker 10: this year. They had a good lead on Duke for
Speaker 10: most of the game, and you know, they've definitely got
Speaker 10: some potential. But this one, at being at rop Arena,
Speaker 10: I see the Cats doing some good things even if
Speaker 10: they don't have a Kerr Crisa to play. I'm expecting
Speaker 10: Lamont Butler to play though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Louisville, I think when it gets healthy, who will
Speaker 1: look like a different.
Speaker 2: Team than a will tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But if it comes in it starts throwing in threes
Speaker 1: like Colgate, you never know what might happen.
Speaker 10: Yeah, they show a lot of threes, just like Kentucky,
Speaker 10: so are I'm going to guess over sixty threes attempted
Speaker 10: in the game. But you know, Colgate was a weird one.
Speaker 10: That's how Mark Pope. That's the adjective Mark Pope used
Speaker 10: to describe it, and that's the one I'll use too.
Speaker 10: I mean, you go to the you start up seventeen
Speaker 10: to zero, and the only person in the world that
Speaker 10: thinks that this is still a game is Jack Gibbons,
Speaker 10: and he said it on the broadcast as so they
Speaker 10: need to come out in this second part and still
Speaker 10: play with intensity, and to Jack's point, Colgate came up
Speaker 10: and made it a game, and thank goodness, Kobe Braya
Speaker 10: decided to start hit the threies again, Dick, because you know,
Speaker 10: right now, what's the injuries to the point guard and
Speaker 10: Jackson Robinson thrust it into that role. It's everybody's kind
Speaker 10: of having to do something a little bit different. But
Speaker 10: that's part of overcoming the adversity and the non counfterence
Speaker 10: schedule and starting to become more of a team as
Speaker 10: we move.
Speaker 12: On to the year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked with Mark Pope earlier today regularly scheduled
Speaker 1: news conference, and he talked about how they're still trying
Speaker 1: and it will keep trying to make sure that these
Speaker 1: kids know how they want them to play, you know,
Speaker 1: with all the cutting and screening and all that which
Speaker 1: they got away from at Clemson and got away from
Speaker 1: in the first half at Gonzaga, and now to your point, Billy,
Speaker 1: minus your top two point guards, you know, it's up
Speaker 1: to a kid who doesn't really want to be the
Speaker 1: point guard to get the team into offense. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a heck of a challenge, you.
Speaker 12: Know it is.
Speaker 10: There's been a little bit of a log gym there
Speaker 10: at the two and three, and that's why Kobe hasn't
Speaker 10: been starting one of the best shooters, if not the
Speaker 10: best shooter in college basketball. But you know, Jackson going
Speaker 10: over to the one allowed Kobe to start and have
Speaker 10: that good game and get back on track. But you know,
Speaker 10: the criticism a lot of people have had is that
Speaker 10: Kentucky didn't have that guy, that guy to go to
Speaker 10: get a basket break somebody down off the dribble when
Speaker 10: you really need it late in the shot clock or
Speaker 10: late in the game. And Dick I'd argue, the system
Speaker 10: is the guy on the team this year. I mean,
Speaker 10: it may be a different guy every night, depending on
Speaker 10: who's open or who's had the hot hand, you know,
Speaker 10: case in point, I feel like Andrew Carr has had
Speaker 10: a couple of pretty bad games this year, but he's
Speaker 10: also had some really good ones.
Speaker 12: Yeah, against some of the.
Speaker 10: Best competition that they've played. So you know, if it's
Speaker 10: the Clemson game and in Car hasn't given you anything, then.
Speaker 12: He's not the guy.
Speaker 10: But if it's the Duke game, or if it's the
Speaker 10: Gonzaga game, maybe that's somebody you look to. But you know,
Speaker 10: it's just so so different than what Kentucky fans has
Speaker 10: seen in the previous fifteen years, and to Cali Perry's credit,
Speaker 10: you know that that game is probably very different with
Speaker 10: cal at the Helm because you probably have more athletes
Speaker 10: on your roster and you probably are able to maybe
Speaker 10: create some more distance than you were with Mark poper
Speaker 10: Lion on three pointers and the and the system to
Speaker 10: gain the advantage. So they have their their advantages and disadvantages.
Speaker 10: I know you're watching Arkansas as close as I am, Dick,
Speaker 10: and they've had some they've had some moments and bad moments.
Speaker 10: That Michigan Michigan game was a strange one where they
Speaker 10: were down by fifteen, then up eighteen, and then it
Speaker 10: was a one point game in the final minute. So
Speaker 10: it's you know, there's a lot up and downs going
Speaker 10: over there in Fayetvill. I'm excited for that February first game,
Speaker 10: but I guess we get we're getting too far ahead
Speaker 10: of ourselves. We've still got a few challenging opponents before then.
Speaker 2: Talking to Billy rud LEDs.
Speaker 1: We talked to Billy every week, of course in the
Speaker 1: state wide show, but we were bumped on Monday, so
Speaker 1: we're catching up with him today. He's in root from
Speaker 1: one place to another. Uh, let me ask you a
Speaker 1: little bit about college football before I ask you about
Speaker 1: the NFL. But we didn't get a chance earlier to
Speaker 1: talk about the bracket. Are you a Alabama should be
Speaker 1: in an SMU should not kind of guy or what?
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 10: I'm finding the way that it worked out, it just
Speaker 10: it just paints a clear picture on what college football
Speaker 10: will be moving forward. One, I'm glad they didn't penalize
Speaker 10: SMU for playing and losing in their conference championship game.
Speaker 10: You know, I think that would open up a bag
Speaker 10: of worms if you're that loss as a detriment to
Speaker 10: the team. You know, they they're having a chance to
Speaker 10: win the conference. They shouldn't be penalized for that. But
Speaker 10: it also really clarifies for me that there is no
Speaker 10: point in scheduling good non conference opponents anymore. And that's
Speaker 10: why I do think the Kentucky Louisville game is going
Speaker 10: to end if the conference goes to a non game
Speaker 10: conference schedule. It's just not worth it. I mean, you
Speaker 10: see the Alabama with their three losses, and you know,
Speaker 10: I mean you could say that Alabama should have beaten
Speaker 10: a six and sixth Vandy team in a six and
Speaker 10: sixth Oklahoma team to make that point across, but there's
Speaker 10: really the committee showed me at least that they're really
Speaker 10: just looking at the win loss calm and it doesn't
Speaker 10: matter what you do out of conference, the neutral site
Speaker 10: games to kick off the year that people like I
Speaker 10: just don't I just don't think we're going to see
Speaker 10: that much more because you know, as coaches have said
Speaker 10: in press conference, all that matters is winning games by
Speaker 10: as much as possible can get the best seeding possible
Speaker 10: in the College Football playoffs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but general, what if I'm on the committee and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Alabama, I'm thinking, yeah, they've got some
Speaker 1: nice wins, but look at the losses, and you talked
Speaker 1: about it. They weren't non conference losses that killed Alabama.
Speaker 1: They were losses to a six and six Oklahoma and
Speaker 1: a six and six Vandy. And yes, I know those
Speaker 1: teams play in the SEC. But everybody talks a been
Speaker 1: a well what if Alabama made it, would they not
Speaker 1: be favored to beat so and so? Well, yeah, but
Speaker 1: they were favored to beat Oklahoma and Vandy. You know,
Speaker 1: so win those games and I don't care what your non
Speaker 1: conference loss was.
Speaker 10: You're in right right, But I would argue that if
Speaker 10: Alabama played a very good team at the non conference
Speaker 10: and beat them, I don't think it would have mattered
Speaker 10: because they would have had these losses to Tennessee in
Speaker 10: Oklahoma and Vandy, And I think that's just the way
Speaker 10: that it works out, that they're not valuing that enough
Speaker 10: for people to take that risk of playing, which is
Speaker 10: a shame. I mean, you want to see the best
Speaker 10: play the best, you know, Dick, Don't you think we're
Speaker 10: going to get like an SEC playoff or an SEC
Speaker 10: Big ten playoff one of these days? Because it just
Speaker 10: feels like the ACC and Big twelve are a bit
Speaker 10: irrelevant at this point. And while they may get one
Speaker 10: team in, you know, unless they do a little damage,
Speaker 10: I feel like we're just going to get closer and
Speaker 10: closer to that reality of super conferences.
Speaker 1: Well then, yeah, you're right, because money talks, and that's
Speaker 1: why I do think that the neutral syche games will
Speaker 1: keep happening as long as they can because the networks
Speaker 1: will demand it and they'll pay big money for it.
Speaker 1: But I think that it was tickled me. The critics
Speaker 1: jump right in right away with the fact that Arizona
Speaker 1: State got to buy You know that shouldn't happen.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, you knew that going in.
Speaker 1: You know, everybody accepted this bracket, this system. These conference
Speaker 1: champs will get buys. You know now they're saying they
Speaker 1: should recede them. Okay, we'll do it next year. But
Speaker 1: you don't throw out what you agreed to do just
Speaker 1: because you didn't like the way it looked at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. But still getting back to your
Speaker 1: point about winning games and score points, I'll share this
Speaker 1: comment from James Franklin. This happened obviously before the playoff
Speaker 1: bracket was set, but they beat the daylights.
Speaker 2: Out of Maryland.
Speaker 1: Penn State did, and Mike Loxley took issue with it,
Speaker 1: and at midfield rather so I say half court, but
Speaker 1: at midfield when they went in to shake hands. And
Speaker 1: there was a lot of video shot after that forty
Speaker 1: four to seven pounding and Penn State scored thirteen points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, and those coaches went at it.
Speaker 1: But then Franklin later explained his stance on this, and
Speaker 1: first of all, talked about my subs ought to get
Speaker 1: a chance to play hard, and then I need to
Speaker 1: put up points because of the playoffs.
Speaker 3: It didn't look like it was the smoothest postgame handshake. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I get it. Right at the end of the game
Speaker 3: we throw a touchdown, I get it. But a couple
Speaker 3: things I will say. My job is to put the
Speaker 3: threes and fours in the game. Threeason four is get
Speaker 3: to go in the game. They get to play football.
Speaker 3: Those guys deserve to play football. Your ones are in
Speaker 3: the game. You were you were trying to score. We're
Speaker 3: trying to score. On top of that, you're you're playing
Speaker 3: cover zero. If you don't want to play Cover two,
Speaker 3: I'm good with it. And on top of that, there's
Speaker 3: also a change in college football. We are trying to
Speaker 3: play as long as we can make the playoffs and
Speaker 3: be seated as high as possible and scoring as many
Speaker 3: points and a point differential matters.
Speaker 4: All that matters.
Speaker 3: And if you don't get that, it's really not my problem.
Speaker 3: So w one to zero, I'm good with it.
Speaker 4: Anybody that's not, that's that's their problem.
Speaker 2: I'm not a huge Franklin fan.
Speaker 1: I kind of am Billy, But then I'll do something
Speaker 1: or say something that that bugs me. But I have
Speaker 1: a hard time I'm arguing with those two points he made,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm.
Speaker 10: Saying, Yeah, I want to disagree with the first one
Speaker 10: because I feel like there's a respect factor there.
Speaker 12: But he's right.
Speaker 10: I mean, you put the threes and fours in. They
Speaker 10: should have the opportunity to play ball hard and to
Speaker 10: be able to score. I guess I don't feel the
Speaker 10: same if it's like youth football, stick or it's maybe
Speaker 10: even high school. But the way that college football set up,
Speaker 10: you're striving to score as many points as possible. So
Speaker 10: he makes sense when he's talking about those guys doing that.
Speaker 10: You know, it's it is different, though, you know what
Speaker 10: I mean, it's very it's very strange to hear that
Speaker 10: these coaches that are taking into effect how many point
Speaker 10: totals there's going to be, you know what. It feels
Speaker 10: a little bit like college basketball, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does, and it shouldn't. But I don't
Speaker 1: know that it helped them. They've got a decent draw.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I can understand really good draw. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: can understand Locksley being angry. Bill Belichick, the new head
Speaker 1: coach in North Carolina, and of course, a guy from
Speaker 1: a TV station in Raleigh asked about and we all
Speaker 1: were thinking it. What about if he gets an NFL offer?
Speaker 3: Pat Welter wr L, But what do you say to
Speaker 3: people that fear that if you do succeed here, that
Speaker 3: you might leave for the NFL again in a year
Speaker 3: or two.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I didn't come here to leave.
Speaker 2: So now he says, you know, he didn't come here
Speaker 2: to leave.
Speaker 1: That to me is a little bit of a non
Speaker 1: denial denial. But what did you make of that, you're
Speaker 1: an NFL fan?
Speaker 10: Yeah, I haven't seen the news about the amendum in
Speaker 10: his contract. So can he leave the job without a
Speaker 10: buyout if he gets an NFL offer?
Speaker 1: Is that I haven't seen him myself. He's just saying
Speaker 1: he's in it for the long haul.
Speaker 10: Well, you know, I guess, I mean, I guess it's
Speaker 10: part of him reinventing his image. I think many kind
Speaker 10: of look at the relationship he had with Tom Brady
Speaker 10: that he was more of a benefit than Tom Brady was,
Speaker 10: and maybe he wants to prove these people wrong. I
Speaker 10: know there's a little nostalgia factor there with his dad
Speaker 10: coaching at UNC and him growing up kind of around
Speaker 10: the program. I'm just not sure the most unpersonable guy
Speaker 10: in the NFL is going to be able to, you know,
Speaker 10: get deal with young kids every day. Yeah, maybe we
Speaker 10: should give him more credit for recruiting the youth with
Speaker 10: his new twenty four year old girlfriend. But at the
Speaker 10: same time, I mean neither. Did you see what the
Speaker 10: Flora linebacker was asking to come back to Florida? He said, like,
Speaker 10: you know, I want eighty five thousand a week, and
Speaker 10: you know, I want to play on every third down,
Speaker 10: and you know, it was it was It's just so
Speaker 10: much entitlement. And you know, I'm all for player empowerment.
Speaker 10: We've talked about the transfer portal and and guys being
Speaker 10: able to move just like coaches can, but that it
Speaker 10: just seems like this is not what NIL is designed for.
Speaker 10: I was looking for the bad Boy Mower's commercials with
Speaker 10: the guys that have a name that you know that
Speaker 10: he could play off a bad boy, not the guarantees
Speaker 10: of seven million dollars so I can go to BYU
Speaker 10: to play one year of college basketball and that will
Speaker 10: correct itself eventually, and you know, the revenue sharing will
Speaker 10: do I think a big part of that and spreading
Speaker 10: the pie around. But you know, eventually, we may get
Speaker 10: these guys as employees in the university so that you
Speaker 10: can have salary caps, and you can ad mitigate that entirely.
Speaker 10: But you know, I just don't see Bill dealing with
Speaker 10: these college kids the same way he could just brush
Speaker 10: off a professional player professional player. I think, yeah, I
Speaker 10: think you could fire them. I think you can understand
Speaker 10: that this is a job. You have to go make
Speaker 10: that money, and they get that. The college kids still
Speaker 10: in this transition period, I feel like, don't. I don't
Speaker 10: know if they would take them very kindly to maybe
Speaker 10: some of Bill's antics, but maybe he herears me all wrong.
Speaker 10: And maybe Michael Lombardi as the GM is exactly what
Speaker 10: North Carolina needs. But I think if you told Bill
Speaker 10: Belichick that, you know, a year ago, he'd be accepting
Speaker 10: the fourth best team in the ACC. I just don't
Speaker 10: know if that would be the way that he wanted
Speaker 10: him to play out, but it may be what he
Speaker 10: wants to do now.
Speaker 1: I can't see Bill Belichick sitting in a living room
Speaker 1: begging an eighteen year old to sign with his team.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what recruiting is. I just don't see it.
Speaker 2: But he may prove us all wrong.
Speaker 1: Belly rud Ledge is of course our network studio producer,
Speaker 1: and you hear him all with us on the State
Speaker 1: Wide Show. You hear him as well on the ksrpre
Speaker 1: Show every morning at nine a m. On this very
Speaker 1: radio station. Thank you, sir, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 10: Thanks Jick enjoying it.
Speaker 1: Back in just a minute here on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Coming up in hour number two, Walt wells
Speaker 1: Eku football coach. I got to tell you ek you
Speaker 1: got jobbed in the playoffs. There were some really bad
Speaker 1: calls in their game. And I'm not just being biased.
Speaker 1: If you saw the game, you know exactly what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, in particular a scoop and score that they
Speaker 1: took off the board. I want to hear why they
Speaker 1: did that, if Walt got any kind of explanation, but
Speaker 1: it ended their season prematurely at Villanova on the road
Speaker 1: the playoffs. They still haven't won a playoff game in forever,
Speaker 1: but should have won. It was the same day as
Speaker 1: the Louisville game, So Walt's coming up in a few minutes. Also,
Speaker 1: our West n BUA chief Gary Moore, we were bumped
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, so we'll talk to him tonight get his
Speaker 1: thoughts going into the weekend. But I wanted to share
Speaker 1: with you some interesting comments from Steve Kerk speaking of officiating.
Speaker 1: He of course is the head coach of the Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors. They are out of the Whatever it is,
Speaker 1: the mid the early season tournament is called Whatever the
Speaker 1: Whatever Cup, and it's been a great success, at least
Speaker 1: it was last year and it has been so far
Speaker 1: this year. Teams are playing their butts off and it's
Speaker 1: really popular. They were eliminated by the Rockets and it
Speaker 1: came down to a loose ball foul.
Speaker 2: It was kind of like one of those scrums.
Speaker 1: People are going for a loose ball on the floor,
Speaker 1: Guys are diving trying to tie things up and just
Speaker 1: go for the held ball loose ball, and an NBA official,
Speaker 1: as Kerr points out eighty feet from the other basket,
Speaker 1: calls a foul and that's how the Rockets, they hit
Speaker 1: free throws, end up winning it.
Speaker 2: And you usually don't.
Speaker 1: Hear coaches talk like he does, or did hear, but
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr made sure everybody know how unhappy he was.
Speaker 13: I'm going to call it a loose ball foul on
Speaker 13: a jump ball situation with guys diving on the floor.
Speaker 5: With a game on the line. This is a.
Speaker 13: Billion dollar industry, get people's jobs on the line. I
Speaker 13: am stunned. I am stunned. I give the Rockets credit.
Speaker 13: They battle back, they play great defense all night. But
Speaker 13: I feel for our guys. Our guys battled back, played
Speaker 13: their asses off and deserve to win that game or
Speaker 13: at least have a chance for one stop at the
Speaker 13: end to finish the game. And that was taken from
Speaker 13: us by a call that I don't think an elementary
Speaker 13: referee would have made, because that guy would have had
Speaker 13: feel and said, you know what, I'm not going to
Speaker 13: decide a game on a loose ball eighty feet.
Speaker 2: From the basket.
Speaker 1: And again, that's Steve Kerr of the Warriors. And you
Speaker 1: rarely hear any coaches, college or pro talk let this
Speaker 1: because they could get fined. And I guarantee you he'll
Speaker 1: be fined, and he doesn't care.
Speaker 2: The team may pay it for him, who knows.
Speaker 1: But if you see the video and google it, you'll
Speaker 1: find it very quickly. You can see what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: So I don't blame him for being upset. And I
Speaker 1: don't have a dog in the fight. I just like
Speaker 1: hearing the comments from Kerr, very pointed, very specific, and
Speaker 1: again if you look at the video, he's got a point.
Speaker 1: And he not only said this, but he doubled down
Speaker 1: on it as he concluded a very quick news conference,
Speaker 1: he said it essentially one more time on his way
Speaker 1: out the door.
Speaker 2: I wanted to go to Las Vegas.
Speaker 13: We wanted to win this Cup, and you know we
Speaker 13: aren't going because of a loose ball foul eighty feet
Speaker 13: from the basket with the game on the line. I've
Speaker 13: never seen anything like it in my life, and that
Speaker 13: was ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool if you ask me. And we'll keep
Speaker 1: an eye on this story and see how much he's fine.
Speaker 1: Is not a question will he be fined, although I
Speaker 1: will say this, if he's not, that's the.
Speaker 2: League admitting that he was right.
Speaker 1: So I don't see how they can't find him because
Speaker 1: if they don't, they're not supporting the official who in
Speaker 1: my opinion, and you know, I'm sympathetic to officials, but
Speaker 1: that guy was wrong. Show some discretion whenever you can,
Speaker 1: as a referee, as an umpire, as.
Speaker 2: A whatever you can do at that time. Steve Kerr.
Speaker 2: Let him hear about it. I remember two is next
Speaker 2: year on six point thirty.
Speaker 1: Go Elapa, welcome back to the big blon sider, joining
Speaker 1: us now in our celebrity hotline as a guy.
Speaker 2: Put together a pretty good season this year.
Speaker 1: Eastern Kentucky head coach Walt Wells playoffs and I came
Speaker 1: up a little bit short coach, but I thought a
Speaker 1: big step for Colonel football. And now this week week
Speaker 1: has been a signing week, recruiting week, portal week.
Speaker 2: It never slows down.
Speaker 12: Does it never stops. It's you know, with the movement
Speaker 12: of the signing date to the first Wednesday in December
Speaker 12: and the playoffs being the starting the last week in November,
Speaker 12: it's just been, uh, it's been one thing after another,
Speaker 12: but that's that's what they pass for. And it's been
Speaker 12: fun so far.
Speaker 1: Mark Stoop's your your buddy and at one point your boss.
Speaker 1: He's talked about how college football needs to to kind
Speaker 1: of rejigger the calendar.
Speaker 2: I would think that you'd be in favor of that.
Speaker 12: Oh. I mean, listen, I'm all for the transfer portal,
Speaker 12: and you know, I get everything the ramifications of it,
Speaker 12: but to have it open all the way through December.
Speaker 12: The twenty eighth makes absolutely you know, let the people
Speaker 12: that make those rules come be a college football coach
Speaker 12: because and not everybody makes, you know, the nine million
Speaker 12: dollars a year or the two million dollars to be
Speaker 12: a coordinator and stuff like that. I mean, could you
Speaker 12: imagine getting a phone call on Christmas Eve that you're
Speaker 12: best linebackers going into the portal. I mean, that's a
Speaker 12: great phone call, and that's what happens. And you know,
Speaker 12: I think we got to I get money is important,
Speaker 12: but we got to have a reality of what's going
Speaker 12: on a little bit and have some common sense in
Speaker 12: what we're doing. Like I said, I don't want to
Speaker 12: take anything away from our kids, our players, the young
Speaker 12: men that are involved, but you also got to consider
Speaker 12: the other side to it a little bit.
Speaker 1: All of these changes, as you will know, are done
Speaker 1: by committees. And I always wonder, to your point, who
Speaker 1: are the people on these committees. Have they ever had
Speaker 1: to coach a sport, manage organize that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Maybe they did back in the day, but it just
Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem to follow much logic these days.
Speaker 12: No, And I think what's happened is everybody scared of
Speaker 12: the of the lawsuit or the pending lawsuits or all
Speaker 12: these things. And I understand that, and it's just like
Speaker 12: you know, a lot of different things as we go
Speaker 12: into sports. The more people get involved and understand it,
Speaker 12: the more you know, they try to make things perfect,
Speaker 12: and things aren't going to be perfect in life. That's
Speaker 12: just not how it is. And whether it's football or
Speaker 12: whether it's anything in life, it's I mean, it's not
Speaker 12: ever just going to be totally fair or perfect, and
Speaker 12: they're trying to find that. And I don't think they've
Speaker 12: thought about the reality of seventeen to twenty two year
Speaker 12: old's development. Yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing
Speaker 12: that they're forgetting about. Sure, they're getting money, and I
Speaker 12: think that's great. I'm not against that if they can
Speaker 12: make it, make it, if that's what they want to do,
Speaker 12: But there's a lot of development that's being missed and
Speaker 12: really taking away. You know, I sit here at Eastern
Speaker 12: Kentucky and think about coach Kidd and all the impact
Speaker 12: he had on all the players that he coached, right,
Speaker 12: And people say, well, the money would impact them greater, Well, yeah, momentarily,
Speaker 12: but whether they going to do. When these kids are
Speaker 12: twenty five years old, then they're not making you know,
Speaker 12: not here at Eastern Kentucky, but at other schools making one, two, three,
Speaker 12: four hundred thousand dollars a year. They don't make the NFL.
Speaker 12: Then they got to go to work, and some companies
Speaker 12: are gonna be like, yeah, i'll pay you fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 12: I'll pay you seventy thousand dollars, which is not a
Speaker 12: bad salary, but you're not you know, they're not gonna
Speaker 12: do it. How many these guys are gonna go be
Speaker 12: coaches after that? You make fifty thousand dollars out a
Speaker 12: high school, yeah, not many, you know. And and then
Speaker 12: learn the value of health insurance and the value of
Speaker 12: retirement plans, and you know, they don't they don't get
Speaker 12: any of that. They just get the quick satisfaction to
Speaker 12: play football and then move on. And I understand, you know,
Speaker 12: I understand both sides of it. But somewhere in the middle,
Speaker 12: somebody with some common sense has got to have have
Speaker 12: the kahonas to go make some rules, and that makes sense,
Speaker 12: Like I think Nick Saban should be the Commissioner of Football.
Speaker 2: It's all right that will work.
Speaker 12: And because I think he has a genuine interest of
Speaker 12: all sides. Yeah, and now he he may not want
Speaker 12: to do that. And you know, I don't you got
Speaker 12: a good gig right now. He don't care, he don't
Speaker 12: care what I think. I promise you that. But but it's, uh,
Speaker 12: you know, somebody liked that that cares about the players
Speaker 12: but also cares about the coaches and cares about the
Speaker 12: sport before it gets too far out of hand. In
Speaker 12: my opinion, you and I.
Speaker 2: Have talked before about the portal and the FCS. So
Speaker 2: one double a level, if you will.
Speaker 4: And I think people probably look at it like, well,
Speaker 4: if e Ku has a good player, uh, the bigger
Speaker 4: schools are going.
Speaker 2: To poach him and leave him. But that door does
Speaker 2: swing both ways.
Speaker 4: You've got playing time available at that level, and that's
Speaker 4: a that's got to be a big selling point.
Speaker 12: Well, I mean, I think it's you know, people look
Speaker 12: at our track record since you know, just say, since
Speaker 12: I've been here, Okay, we've we've had on two three
Speaker 12: four guys make NFL rosters. Okay, the two guys make
Speaker 12: either CFL or us us L, I think is what
Speaker 12: they call now USFL. That was rosters. If you play,
Speaker 12: they'll find you. And we got to this year playing
Speaker 12: in the Huli Boat, which you know, I'll say this
Speaker 12: out of all due respect to the Hula boat. When
Speaker 12: one of them got in Vede I wanted to get
Speaker 12: invited to this one or that one. And then he
Speaker 12: started seeing all the guys that were getting invited to
Speaker 12: the Hulabo. He's like, holy calcos. I'm like, hey, you
Speaker 12: better strap it on. There's a lot. I mean, that's
Speaker 12: a really good bat. I mean, yeah, sure, it may
Speaker 12: be the third ball, but there's gonna be every scout,
Speaker 12: every gym or assistant GM or every team's gonna be there.
Speaker 12: We've had every team come to our practices for the
Speaker 12: last three years at least bring somebody from their organization
Speaker 12: two different times. Yeah, so you can get seen if
Speaker 12: you want to play here, you can go to the
Speaker 12: next level. If you want to play here, and you're
Speaker 12: gonna play, and you're gonna be able to beat the guy.
Speaker 12: And if they hear about you, which they will because
Speaker 12: Eastern Kentucky's known, they'll hear about you. Then they they're
Speaker 12: gonna come see you and then they'll make the determination.
Speaker 12: It's like our safety Mike Smith. A lot of people
Speaker 12: looked at him. I was like, you know, or watched
Speaker 12: his early film and he did he had some development
Speaker 12: to do. Then they walked in and saw his body
Speaker 12: and like, holy cow. Then they saw the development, you know,
Speaker 12: like and it's you know, I like to credit our
Speaker 12: defensive coaches for doing that and developing it, and our
Speaker 12: strength and conditioning coaches. But it's also the fact that
Speaker 12: he got out there and made mistakes. They didn't watch
Speaker 12: that tape, and he got better and better and better,
Speaker 12: and he got to play because he increased his value.
Speaker 12: And that's what it's all about. And but some of
Speaker 12: these kids, But the good thing to this, Dick is
Speaker 12: some of the these guys you find out, are they
Speaker 12: really in love with football or do they just want
Speaker 12: a little money?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 12: Yeah, you know, because if they're going somewhere and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 12: I know, you say, hey, you're probably gonna be a
Speaker 12: backup there. Yeah I know. But I'm gonna make seventy
Speaker 12: five thousand dollars this year. Yeah, okay, go do it.
Speaker 2: And then to be fair, some families need that money.
Speaker 12: We know this, that's right, that's right. So that's what
Speaker 12: it's his life. I can't control.
Speaker 2: That's right, That's right.
Speaker 1: But to your point, you know about being found at EKU,
Speaker 1: and you know I've covered that program for a long time.
Speaker 1: I mean, your academic center is named after Chad Bratski,
Speaker 1: you know, went on to a great career in the
Speaker 1: NFL and made a little made a little bit of
Speaker 1: coin and plowed some of it back into his alma maters.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, get out.
Speaker 12: I mean, at one point when I was here working
Speaker 12: for coach kids John Jackson, oh yeah, at Chad Bratski
Speaker 12: or the two highs paid offense and defensive linement in
Speaker 12: the NFL.
Speaker 2: That's right, how about that?
Speaker 12: I mean it can be done. Yeah, yeah, it's just
Speaker 12: it's it's are you good enough and are you getting
Speaker 12: the opportunity to play? And both of them came here
Speaker 12: weighing like I think John was the offensive lineman way
Speaker 12: two forty and I think when Chad came in here
Speaker 12: he was like one ninety five.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And John was a little bit of a surprise.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was a nice player in college, had
Speaker 1: the size by the time he left. But I don't
Speaker 1: know anybody who really projected him as being a longtime
Speaker 1: NFL player.
Speaker 2: But guys develop at their own rate, don't they.
Speaker 12: Well, he got to play, yeah, and that's the biggest
Speaker 12: thing that happened to him. So when he went to camp,
Speaker 12: he was a twelve round pick best I can remember,
Speaker 12: and that's back when they had I think fifteen rounds
Speaker 12: And he was a twelve round pick. And he went
Speaker 12: to the Steelers and he was so athletic and he's
Speaker 12: so big that, I mean protect a quarterback. He ended
Speaker 12: up playing left tackle in the league for like ten
Speaker 12: twelve years.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 12: Yeah, And then Chad came and I think he was
Speaker 12: a free agent with the I don't know. He may
Speaker 12: have been a third round pick. I can't remember. I'm
Speaker 12: getting confused there a little bit. But Chad, Chad was
Speaker 12: such a hard worker and just but continued to play.
Speaker 12: And they can't ignore you if you're making play. They
Speaker 12: got to come and see what you're doing. As soon
Speaker 12: as one of them doesn't come see you, and he
Speaker 12: goes to another place and he shines, that guy's got
Speaker 12: a chance to get fired.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Rescu led the league in sacks
Speaker 2: won year.
Speaker 12: I think you know, and I think you're right. I
Speaker 12: think you're right.
Speaker 2: You just can't fire no.
Speaker 12: And John's on our Super Bowl wall because he played
Speaker 12: the Super Bowl, that's right, but he played it more.
Speaker 1: With head coach wald Wells on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on the Big Boon Sider six thirty
Speaker 1: w LP, Welcome back to the Big Boon Sider, Dick
Speaker 1: Krille with you were talking with EKU head football coach
Speaker 1: wald well Got to look back at this past season. Man,
Speaker 1: what a run you guys had. At the end, you
Speaker 1: pick up five straight wins, including a big overtime win
Speaker 1: over Austin p You got to go to Villanova and
Speaker 1: you and I talked off air about that game. I
Speaker 1: know you can't talk about officials, but uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you lose it twenty two seventeen.
Speaker 2: You'll scratch your head for the rest of your life
Speaker 2: about that one.
Speaker 12: I know, oh that that that game. Will talking about
Speaker 12: that one, hopefully in a long long time on my
Speaker 12: deathbad that that one me and my son will talk about.
Speaker 12: I promise you that because it's you know, it was
Speaker 12: just I mean, we've got to we've got to make
Speaker 12: the play to win the game, and we had an
Speaker 12: opportunity at the end of the game. And that's nothing
Speaker 12: against the young man that had the opportunity to make
Speaker 12: play just didn't happen. But uh, you know, to have
Speaker 12: you know, fourteen points taken off the board, it's just, uh,
Speaker 12: you know, it's unheard of in a playoff game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, you and I se books about the season, and
Speaker 1: we talked right before and right after your first couple
Speaker 1: of games where things didn't go in entirely well against
Speaker 1: two D one team Mississippi State and Western Kentucky, but
Speaker 1: we talked about basically them as an investment for the future.
Speaker 2: Did you see it play out that way?
Speaker 1: Walk, Because yeah, you took your lumps back then against
Speaker 1: you know, bigger teams, but it seemed like it paid off.
Speaker 1: You won three straight after those first two losses, and
Speaker 1: you wind.
Speaker 2: Up in the playoffs.
Speaker 12: Well, I think what happened is, you know, you play
Speaker 12: Mississippi State in Western the first two games, and you
Speaker 12: know you're zero and two, and everybody's like, who are
Speaker 12: we really? And I'm like, I just relaxed. Let's let's
Speaker 12: get into our SDS schedule and play who we got
Speaker 12: to play and see where're at. Yes, we go to
Speaker 12: win those games and we go to play well in
Speaker 12: those games and that didn't happen. It either plays really
Speaker 12: offensively or defensively, and so we had to check and
Speaker 12: just be real with ourselves. And you look at Western,
Speaker 12: they played in their conference final. Misssippi State plays in
Speaker 12: the SEC. And so then we went on a three
Speaker 12: game run, and then we lost our first two or
Speaker 12: or not our first two, but then we lost two
Speaker 12: conference games on the road in a row, and uh,
Speaker 12: you know, a lot of people were wondering where we
Speaker 12: were at. And I felt like if we just tightened
Speaker 12: the screws a little bit and found out what we
Speaker 12: found out what our players do, now, let's go do
Speaker 12: what they do well. And if that means we had
Speaker 12: to change our philosophies a little bit offensively and defensively,
Speaker 12: then let's do that. And we did. And you know,
Speaker 12: I sat down and with our coordinators and we challenged
Speaker 12: each other and and uh, you know, we came out
Speaker 12: with a plan and we went on a five game
Speaker 12: win streak, and our players adapted to it. They bought
Speaker 12: into it. One and uh, you know, we we went
Speaker 12: back to to what you know, offensively, roy kid football.
Speaker 12: We ran the ball and we were you know, Josh
Speaker 12: Carter carried our football team. And Matt Morrisey did a
Speaker 12: great job at quarterback of taking the challenge to run
Speaker 12: the ball more and you know create that would would
Speaker 12: help us create more holes for Josh and uh. And
Speaker 12: then he made the throws when he needs to make
Speaker 12: the throws. And then defensively it would stop the run
Speaker 12: and uh. And you know, our defensive side of the
Speaker 12: ball did a great job. Our d line, you know,
Speaker 12: did a really nice job in our linebackers are stopping
Speaker 12: to run and uh. And we put a lot of
Speaker 12: stress on our corners and they manned up, you know,
Speaker 12: Jordan Thomas and Veto Tiddell and manned up and did
Speaker 12: a great job and and uh gave us the opportunity
Speaker 12: to you know, get get three and out and you know,
Speaker 12: get teams off the off the field basically, and uh
Speaker 12: get the ball back to our offense, which we ended
Speaker 12: up I don't know where we were at one point.
Speaker 12: We were in the top five in time of possession.
Speaker 12: I don't know where we've ended up at, which you
Speaker 12: know helps your defense because they're sitting on the side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, defenses.
Speaker 12: It was the first smiling on him.
Speaker 2: I've not heard.
Speaker 1: Many coaches well, UH talk about making philosophical changes. I mean,
Speaker 1: you we can't install entirely new schemes and all, but uh,
Speaker 1: to go in a different direction in the middle of
Speaker 1: the year. Have you ever been a part of a
Speaker 1: staff that's done that.
Speaker 12: Uh, yes, I have, not totally like kind of what
Speaker 12: we did, because you know, we've been known around here
Speaker 12: to throw it all over the yard, right and do
Speaker 12: those kinds of things, and that just wasn't where we
Speaker 12: were at. With injuries and new quarterback and things like that.
Speaker 12: We just weren't you know, we didn't have the time
Speaker 12: to prepare each other. So we just said, hey, we've
Speaker 12: got to do this. And I credit Andy Richmond and
Speaker 12: our offensive staff for doing that. And uh and you know,
Speaker 12: understanding that we got to play complimentary football. That's basically
Speaker 12: what my challenge was to our coordinators, you know. And
Speaker 12: and you know, our special teams ended up playing playing well,
Speaker 12: and I felt like, you know, when we got all
Speaker 12: in there, we said, Hey, the only thing that matters
Speaker 12: is winning. It's not stats, it's not is this kid
Speaker 12: going to transfer because he's not doing this or that
Speaker 12: or this or that. It's just go out and win.
Speaker 12: And this is what it's going to take to win.
Speaker 12: You know, Offensively, we've got to keep the ball. Defensively,
Speaker 12: we've got to get out, we've got to get off
Speaker 12: the field. And special teams is going to have to
Speaker 12: score at certain times of the year and they did
Speaker 12: or put us up in scoring position and they did,
Speaker 12: and you know, and give us opportunities every game. And
Speaker 12: so those are the things that we just sat down
Speaker 12: and talked about and then we went to and then
Speaker 12: those guys went to work and we talked about it.
Speaker 12: And you know, I'm really proud of our staff and
Speaker 12: how they handle that, but also the kids because it
Speaker 12: take great sacrifice. I mean, we had a we had
Speaker 12: a guard that had to play tackle all year and
Speaker 12: that takes great events at Mundlin Junior, that takes great
Speaker 12: sacrifice guard for three years, right, he wants to play
Speaker 12: at the next level and he has to go out
Speaker 12: and play tackle. Yes, and he played well enough, but
Speaker 12: you know, he probably would have played better as a
Speaker 12: four year guy attack and got you know, or a
Speaker 12: three year guy and uh. And so those are the
Speaker 12: sacrifices that it takes to have a good football team,
Speaker 12: whether it's you know, changing philosophies like you said, or
Speaker 12: whether it's just coming together and understand there's a greater
Speaker 12: cause than just yourself. And that's the hardest thing you
Speaker 12: got to you got to get across nowadays in this
Speaker 12: inn il transfer portal era.
Speaker 1: And Josh Carter ran for a one thousand yards one
Speaker 1: hundred yards per game basically, and he was a red
Speaker 1: shirt senior.
Speaker 2: Do you lose him?
Speaker 12: Yes, we lose him. He uh had a great season
Speaker 12: and we knew, we knew he was Josh was capable
Speaker 12: of what he's capable. Uh, you know, and we're gonna
Speaker 12: miss his talent and his will to win and his
Speaker 12: will to run the football. Uh, and we're gonna miss
Speaker 12: his leadership expect But what a great young man. And
Speaker 12: you know his brothers. His brother gets everything. Brother plays
Speaker 12: for the Cardinals and great tailback and all this that
Speaker 12: and the other. But Josh is a heck of a
Speaker 12: heck of a person and a heck of a player.
Speaker 1: Well and signing days come going here looking into portal.
Speaker 1: But you came into election and you got some talent.
Speaker 1: You got some talent uh at uh Boyle County over
Speaker 1: at Woodford County. I know you're happy with with your
Speaker 1: with your sinees and can't wait to get.
Speaker 12: Definitely, you know, okay, wait, I mean we you know,
Speaker 12: we've got so many different signing periods now is just
Speaker 12: never ending. And that first signing period, because of our
Speaker 12: location and we're in state, we try to make sure
Speaker 12: we get our in state kids in that first signing
Speaker 12: period because you know, we want them. We want to
Speaker 12: make sure we don't miss on anybody. That's what I
Speaker 12: call local, which is obviously Kentucky, but you know East Tennessee, uh,
Speaker 12: and then Cincinnati down you know, if we can, or
Speaker 12: West Virginia if we ever get somebody from there. And
Speaker 12: so you know, we got like you said, boll County, uh,
Speaker 12: Woodford County, Uh, Frederick Douglass, I mean, we've got we've
Speaker 12: got some good young talent here in the state that
Speaker 12: we're excited about and uh looking forward to getting them
Speaker 12: over here in the summer and starting to work with them.
Speaker 12: But you got long ways to go because the portals
Speaker 12: just opened yesterday and and uh, you know, and we've
Speaker 12: been fortunate, but uh, but I'm sure you know we've
Speaker 12: got players. Like you said that people are recruiting right
Speaker 12: now that that you know, hey, whatever their decision is,
Speaker 12: they know we love them and want them to be
Speaker 12: a part of us.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 12: But we're gonna be supportive of them and do what
Speaker 12: we have to do. But you got to You got
Speaker 12: to recruit who for who you think might be here
Speaker 12: or not might not be here, and then you got
Speaker 12: to recruit for who's not here. And then we still
Speaker 12: got some hospital signings that we'll do in February from
Speaker 12: Florida and Georgia.
Speaker 1: Coach always great talking football with you. Appreciated and we'll
Speaker 1: talk again soon.
Speaker 12: Appreciate your time, Dick, Happy holidays.
Speaker 1: Weston Bureau chief Gary Moore up next here on six
Speaker 1: thirty Welcome back to the Big Mow Insider joining us
Speaker 1: now he's had a little bit of ahave this because
Speaker 1: our West End Bureau chief, Gary Moore was back on
Speaker 1: the West Coast for a little while.
Speaker 4: But he's back with a notebook full of stuff. Well
Speaker 4: we got we got two guys in a six pack.
Speaker 4: But don't want to tell you I was. We had
Speaker 4: to go back there for a wedding and you'll appreciate this.
Speaker 4: It was one of the former equipment managers for Oregon
Speaker 4: University of Oregon football team, nice and he got married
Speaker 4: in San Clementi And how cool was this? Of course,
Speaker 4: during the reception when Oregon was playing Penn State. You
Speaker 4: better damn well believe there are TVs blast in the game.
Speaker 4: I don't know how many weddings you've gone to where
Speaker 4: there's a football game on multiple screens, but this was
Speaker 4: very cool once in a while.
Speaker 2: But how in the world happened? How do they schedule that?
Speaker 2: Clearly the bride had a say in that.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, well, you know they both went to Oregon,
Speaker 4: so there is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: How do you schedule it on a football weekend?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, that's another story for another day. How dare
Speaker 4: they even think that?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 4: Well, Dick, our first sip in the six pack here,
Speaker 4: we know we've had rivalry weekend already in football, so
Speaker 4: it's time for the same annual animosity in basketball. We
Speaker 4: got two of them this weekend. Let's not bury the lead.
Speaker 4: Number five UK and number unranked U of L men's
Speaker 4: hoops five point fifteen tomorrow rupp Arena. It's on the
Speaker 4: ESPN Mothership. Cats have won five by the last six
Speaker 4: As I know you've talked about this week, eight out
Speaker 4: of last ten, including that ninety five seventy six blowout.
Speaker 4: Kenny Paine's last experience with that game over here at
Speaker 4: the Youm Center. It was a decidedly big Blue crowd
Speaker 4: last December. Both the Cats and the Cards might have
Speaker 4: gotten a little distracted, maybe lackadaisical two in that Wednesday
Speaker 4: in their Wednesday warmups Colgate and UTEP respectively. They will
Speaker 4: not be lackadaisical Tomorrow night. Cards come in shorthanded, as
Speaker 4: we know, because of injuries as well as short on
Speaker 4: made threes. U of l seventh in the nation for
Speaker 4: three point attempts in a game. They average almost just
Speaker 4: under thirty two a game, but they're one hundred and
Speaker 4: nineteenth in the nation for actually making the threes about
Speaker 4: twenty seven percent. And on Wednesday, Dick ufl went six
Speaker 4: for thirty four from the arch for anemic seventeen point
Speaker 4: six percent, and they did better against Duke oddly enough
Speaker 4: thirty five percent. They still lost. It says here that
Speaker 4: if Louisville shoots that poorly again and anemick like in
Speaker 4: the teens from threes and they don't get rebounds, UK
Speaker 4: is gonna win going away. I think there's like an
Speaker 4: eighty six percent chance Kentucky's gonna win anyway, accorney to
Speaker 4: Espen Analytics. But if Louisville does shoot thirty percent or
Speaker 4: better like Colgate did the other night kolkg had thirty
Speaker 4: three percent from the arch, could be close, maybe even overtime,
Speaker 4: especially if there's still no Lamont Butler for the Cats.
Speaker 4: What have you heard on that front?
Speaker 1: They think that having back, we'll find out a little
Speaker 1: bit well as we speak later today.
Speaker 2: As you hear this, folks, we should know.
Speaker 1: But all of this is predicated as well on Kentucky shooting,
Speaker 1: because Colgate shot itself back into the game.
Speaker 2: How Kentucky couldn't buy one.
Speaker 1: Kentucky's in a team wise slump over the last four
Speaker 1: games or so, shot it insanely well early and now
Speaker 1: is not hitting very well at all from the outside
Speaker 1: because other teams are doing a good job or running
Speaker 1: them off the three point line, not letting them get
Speaker 1: comfortable on the arc. And I think Pat Kelsey will
Speaker 1: make sure the Cardinals do the same thing. So but
Speaker 1: against Gonzaga, Kentucky lived.
Speaker 2: In the paint. I think it will do that tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Second swig Dan I sixty five did Arena had Dan
Speaker 4: Weell beater better be rocking like Ropperena will be tomorrow night.
Speaker 4: Western and Murray State renew a rivalry that started back
Speaker 4: up last season, WKU winning at Murray in the first
Speaker 4: of a four game yearly series that had been dormant
Speaker 4: for nine years for some inexcusable reason. Obviously, these two
Speaker 4: have to play every year. And as some guy who
Speaker 4: grew up in Murray cheering for the Racers nearly every
Speaker 4: home game, including that epic seventy one upset of the
Speaker 4: number seven ranked Toppers that went on to the Final four,
Speaker 4: then I had left Callaway County for college at the
Speaker 4: hated rival in Bowling Green. I know a rivalry that
Speaker 4: needs to happen every year when I see when regardless
Speaker 4: of who the new athletic directors are or who the
Speaker 4: new coaches are, don't get it. You just have to
Speaker 4: play these two every year. Western right now six and three,
Speaker 4: three game winning streak coming into the game, while the
Speaker 4: Racers are six and two, also winners of their last three.
Speaker 4: And if you want to talk about how evenly matched
Speaker 4: they are, besides that, Western averages eighty point seven points
Speaker 4: a game, Murray State seventy nine point eight points a
Speaker 4: game tip off is at two o'clock, but it's on
Speaker 4: ESPN Plus. And should I pull from my alma mater
Speaker 4: or should I say for the I can't say go
Speaker 4: Racers or go Toppers. May the best team win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great rivalry and people need to better
Speaker 1: appreciate the basketball tradition at both Murray State has taking
Speaker 1: teams into the NCATE Tournament as one in the tournament
Speaker 1: before is scared teams. So is Western Kentucky making that
Speaker 1: deep run under Darren Horns. So I love that rivalry
Speaker 1: and people, I hope pay more attention to it. Hey
Speaker 1: watch that one to warm up for the Kentucky Louisville game.
Speaker 4: Sure thing our third switch in the six packs. Speaking
Speaker 4: Western Louisville, Let's talk football and specifically dick the portal
Speaker 4: where u of L has grabbed Hilltopper linebacker transferred Darius Thomas.
Speaker 4: As a sophomore. This past season, Thomas had fifty four tackles,
Speaker 4: seven for losses, and four sacks. He's going to be
Speaker 4: missed in Bowling Green and I ask you, is it true?
Speaker 4: Hilltopper quarterback and Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year,
Speaker 4: Caden Veldcamp, who's in the portal again this year? Is
Speaker 4: it true? Interested eyes here in the ville are upon him?
Speaker 4: Then again, Cayden came back last year after he was
Speaker 4: in the portal after that famous toastery Bowl performance. WKU's
Speaker 4: also got quarterback t J. Finley in the portal. He
Speaker 4: was in it before. In fact, that's where they got
Speaker 4: him last year. He was slated to be the number
Speaker 4: one this year, but he got hurt in Veldcamp took over.
Speaker 4: U of L needs a veteran quarterback and oh so
Speaker 4: does your alma mater. Have you heard anything about bringing
Speaker 4: a quarterback in from the portal for the.
Speaker 2: Cats, only that they're going to do it.
Speaker 1: And those are two names that surprise you to see
Speaker 1: pop upp either at UK or u of L. Everybody
Speaker 1: needs quarterback help, everybody needs depth. If Kentucky I can't
Speaker 1: see Vandergriff coming back, I don't know about Whimsy, but
Speaker 1: it looks right now like it's gonna be cutter bowly
Speaker 1: in two true freshmen. So yeah, they definitely need help,
Speaker 1: not only to make it a competition, but just in
Speaker 1: case of injury. Right, Thanks for reminding me about the
Speaker 1: Toaster Pastry Bowl whatever it.
Speaker 4: Was with the famous the famous Toastery Bowl with.
Speaker 1: The fulls the life size toaster pastry dropping itself into
Speaker 1: a toaster.
Speaker 4: Well, that was the pop Tarts Bowl.
Speaker 2: The pop Tarts Bowl. Is that what it was?
Speaker 4: No, that's coming up that this was a minor toastery.
Speaker 4: This is this is a minor toaster. This was like
Speaker 4: a sandwich toasting company. I don't know it's back this year.
Speaker 2: Oh I don't even remember that one. Wow.
Speaker 4: Happy memories of the pop Tart Bowl exactly. That's coming up.
Speaker 4: We may talk about that next week because that's gonna
Speaker 4: be fun our fourths, Wig and the six packs. So
Speaker 4: from college football, let's turn to the NFL and Dick.
Speaker 4: Besides the indignity of the Cowboys listed as two and
Speaker 4: a half point underdogs at crummy Carolina, I have a
Speaker 4: fab four pack for Sunday possible Super Bowl preview. At
Speaker 4: the top of this, Buffalo at Detroit. How great a
Speaker 4: game is this? Potentially going to be Lions are two
Speaker 4: and a half point favorites. You also got Tampa Bay
Speaker 4: at the Chargers LA at three point favorite in that
Speaker 4: game for the Battle of the Keystone State. Pittsburgh at
Speaker 4: Philly Eagles at last check five point favorites, but clearly
Speaker 4: Dick the game of the season for you and me.
Speaker 4: You're Green Bay Packers at my Seattle Seahawks on Sunday
Speaker 4: night football. You're going down, going down. Actually, the Packer
Speaker 4: two and a half point favorites. I will not be
Speaker 4: surprised if they win because these Hawks have been crummy
Speaker 4: at home this year. Now, besides the two and a
Speaker 4: half million I've got invested on the Hawks to win
Speaker 4: straight up as using our house as collateral. How about
Speaker 4: you and I having a friendly bet the pack wins.
Speaker 4: I will buy you lunch over here at the Scottish
Speaker 4: restaut with the milkshake machine that never works. They have
Speaker 4: a drive through case. You're you know, pressed for time.
Speaker 4: If the Hawks win, joe Be's again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can live with that, you know, honestly going
Speaker 1: in reverse order. Uh that this game frightens me because
Speaker 1: your team is playing well with a quarterback that they
Speaker 1: pulled off their reclamation ep and the Gino Smith or
Speaker 1: West Virginia U product like my dad. Uh, my guys
Speaker 1: are playing well, but underdog at home on Sunday or
Speaker 1: Monday night is a really good.
Speaker 2: Bet, believe it or not. Oh okay, yeah, it.
Speaker 1: Just historically is I'm not saying you know anything of
Speaker 1: an either team, so it wouldn't surprise me if the
Speaker 1: Seahawks win it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 4: Pittsburgh at Philly it'll be a low scoring I would
Speaker 4: actually take the points and Pittsburgh five's a lot that
Speaker 4: they'll keep it close somehow.
Speaker 1: Bucks charge you gotta like the Chargers on that one.
Speaker 1: But the Bucks just keep surprising people. But yeah, Buffalo
Speaker 1: at Detroit too bad. There won't be snow.
Speaker 2: Like there might be up in Buffalo, right.
Speaker 4: I think Detroit figures out a way to slow down
Speaker 4: Josh Allen, who right now would be my MVP, and
Speaker 4: Detroit's been They've had some problems in their secondary that's true.
Speaker 4: Watch out for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they'll get to Josh Allen.
Speaker 4: True our fifth wig and the six pack. So in
Speaker 4: the lateest example, as we've seen in the last week
Speaker 4: of MLB owners still not understanding how ridiculously long contracts
Speaker 4: never work out, Mets are guaranteeing Juan Soto seven hundred
Speaker 4: and sixty five million dollars over fifteen kind of fifteen years.
Speaker 4: As as we've found out, that's actually sixty five million
Speaker 4: fraction for playing for the Mets. Seven hundred million for
Speaker 4: having to live in Zuo York is how this is
Speaker 4: apparently working out. Sodo also gets that free luxury suite
Speaker 4: and up to four free premium tickets for home games.
Speaker 4: That was something that the Yankees apparently would not cough up. Hey,
Speaker 4: buy him yourself, your greedy basket god, how much more
Speaker 4: do you want? Seven hundred and sixty five million? Dick
Speaker 4: breaks down to four hundred and twenty five million a month,
Speaker 4: one hundred and forty thousand a day, six grand an hour,
Speaker 4: or one hundred bucks a minute, kind of like what
Speaker 4: you used to make at twenty seven over there, right.
Speaker 2: I could live on that.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting about the sweet is that apparently
Speaker 1: he was one of the tipping points for so he's
Speaker 1: a he's a family guy, not none like the animated show,
Speaker 1: but he you know, it was important to him, and
Speaker 1: the Yankees basically felt like they had to say no,
Speaker 1: because when you think about all the superstars that have
Speaker 1: come through New York, if you grant that Dwan Soto,
Speaker 1: now you got to start doing it for all the
Speaker 1: other guys, you're gonna run out of sweets.
Speaker 4: The Mets not so much. That's sweet, you got it?
Speaker 4: How many would you like?
Speaker 2: So? I thought that was really interesting.
Speaker 1: But he basically said at the end he said the
Speaker 1: Yankees did all they could except for the suite. He
Speaker 1: didn't say that, but that was clearly a tipping point.
Speaker 4: And by the way, the La Times had a story
Speaker 4: early in the week about the Otani financial influence that
Speaker 4: he was bringing in from Japan. Yes, it's annually so
Speaker 4: far in the nine figures, and it could be a
Speaker 4: billion annually. Tourism groups, well, tourism groups, but also these
Speaker 4: Japanese businesses are coming over there, like Nippon Airlines has
Speaker 4: got an agreement with the Dodgers, toyot Tires. There's a
Speaker 4: bunch of famous and mid level Japanese businesses that are
Speaker 4: striking agreements with the Dodgers. I mean that happened like
Speaker 4: within the first couple of months. Excellent, our final swig.
Speaker 4: One major college football game tomorrow, not a meaningless bowlgame though,
Speaker 4: just the opposite the one hundred and twenty fifth meeting
Speaker 4: between number twenty two Army and Navy Saturday afternoon, three
Speaker 4: o'clock on CBS at Northwest Stadium, which is formerly FedEx Field,
Speaker 4: same place where the Washington Commanders have been playing for
Speaker 4: a while. In landover Maryland, Army eleven and one four
Speaker 4: point favorite over the eight and three Midshipman. And we
Speaker 4: talked earlier about Army's game uniforms honoring the World War
Speaker 4: two hundred and first Airborne Division down in Fort Campbell.
Speaker 4: Navy's uniforms will be honoring the Fighter Squadron seventeen from
Speaker 4: nineteen forty three, who had a pirate theme. So it's
Speaker 4: gonna be the screaming Eagles versus the jolly Rogers, which
Speaker 4: will be a lot of fun to watch. Navy's gonna
Speaker 4: be playing, by the way, in a bowl game like Army.
Speaker 4: They're gonna be Armed Forces Bowl against six and six
Speaker 4: Oklahoma that's in Fort Worth and December twenty seventh and
Speaker 4: Dick despite being ranked much of the season, in fact,
Speaker 4: they're twenty two. Now Army gets relegated to Shreveport and
Speaker 4: the Independence Bowl against Marshall a day later. Doesn't Army
Speaker 4: deserve a better bowl than Shreveport? Isn't that like being
Speaker 4: relegated to like Siberia. Some Kentucky fans have long lived
Speaker 4: back when the Independence Ball had an affiliation with Yeah,
Speaker 4: see see please keep winning. We don't want to go
Speaker 4: to shreve No kidding, but no, that's gonna be a
Speaker 4: great game.
Speaker 2: I got a Army winning that one. But I love it.
Speaker 1: I'll record it, and I think it's great that they
Speaker 1: haven't moved it earlier in the season to you know,
Speaker 1: fit it into somebody's schedule.
Speaker 2: They've left it where it belongs.
Speaker 4: That's that's not always the case with big time athletics
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I like armying that one too. I would like to
Speaker 4: have seen them maybe somewhere closer in the in the
Speaker 4: East Coast. Oh yeah, for more of their their fan base.
Speaker 4: You know, like they're playing at Yankee Stadium. Go back
Speaker 4: to Yankee Stadium. I know they played Notre Dame there,
Speaker 4: but you know, Fenway Park's got a Bowl game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you know what, that's closer to West Point.
Speaker 4: But the fan base for either one of those academies,
Speaker 4: service academies is everywhere.
Speaker 1: I guarantee it. There'll be a massive crowd in Shreveport.
Speaker 1: We'll come back with some odd reeves for Gary Moore.
Speaker 1: He is our West End bureau chief here on the
Speaker 1: Big bluon sider six thirty WLAP welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big blon Sider. We're chatting with our West End bureau chief,
Speaker 1: Gary Moore, back from the West coast, so we've been
Speaker 1: waiting to throw some hotters at him.
Speaker 2: First of all, let me start off with and I
Speaker 2: gave you this ahead of time so.
Speaker 1: You may have had a chance to look it up.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a great trivia question.
Speaker 1: Who is the interim coach replaced at North Carolina by
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick?
Speaker 4: Look at his staff? Freddy Freddy Kitchens.
Speaker 2: Freddie Kitchens.
Speaker 4: Now Freddie Kitchens is best known. He's a career coach.
Speaker 4: He was at one point, for one year, the head
Speaker 4: coach of the Mighty Mighty Cleveland Browns. They went sixteen
Speaker 4: and ten.
Speaker 1: He has worked in the NFL for the Cardinals, the Giants,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys, was an assistant in Mississippi State, North Texas, LSU,
Speaker 1: Glenville State in West Virginia. But to me, he will
Speaker 1: always be the quarterback at Alabama the night they lost
Speaker 1: to the Kentucky Wildcast. Now when he was a QB
Speaker 1: at Alabama. When he played there, they went to the
Speaker 1: Citrus Bowl. They went to the Outback Bowl. But the
Speaker 1: following year from the Outback Bowl. There were four and
Speaker 1: seven and lost to Kentucky and set off the bedlam
Speaker 1: here in Lexing, and it resulted with the gold post
Speaker 1: coming down and hilarity ensuing.
Speaker 4: That needs to happen again, in fact more often over
Speaker 4: the next few years. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 4: think that should definitely keep happening. But yeah, that's that's
Speaker 4: I remember that. I think if you follow Kentucky football
Speaker 4: anytime in your life, you definitely remember the times when
Speaker 4: you beat the Georgia's in the Alabamas.
Speaker 1: Well, he was the tight ends coach and a run
Speaker 1: game coordinator at North Carolina. So now you know where's
Speaker 1: he gonna go. You gotta wonder what he's gonna do.
Speaker 4: Well, people are wondering if what is Billichick? But seventy two,
Speaker 4: I think is what his age is. Yeah, if he's
Speaker 4: gonna be able to recruit younger players or relate to them, Well,
Speaker 4: he's recruited a twenty four year old that for arm Candy,
Speaker 4: So I think he's doing okay so far on that front. Right,
Speaker 4: our second high read for Gary uh you're picked for
Speaker 4: the Heisman that's coming up, and it looks like a
Speaker 4: two way player is.
Speaker 2: Going to get there.
Speaker 4: But there that's my pick.
Speaker 1: There are other candidates. Probably the best player is from
Speaker 1: Boise State. How great would that be if.
Speaker 2: Gent won it?
Speaker 4: Of course you got mister Gabriel, your cousin. Would you
Speaker 4: love to see that?
Speaker 2: I wish I gould.
Speaker 4: See somebody other than a quarterback. You know, if Jendy
Speaker 4: went it, that's fine. But I think Hunter is just
Speaker 4: he's just kind of separated himself. He's done so well
Speaker 4: on both ends. Yeah, I mean you can't say, well,
Speaker 4: he's better as a dB than he has a receiver. Well, no,
Speaker 4: he's greaty, he's superb, But he's the NFL ready at
Speaker 4: either one. That's a bad question.
Speaker 1: Statistically their best receiver and statistically with four picks, their
Speaker 1: best defensive back. So it's not just a guy they're
Speaker 1: putting in there for show or because they're short on players.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's it's probably gonna be him. He's
Speaker 1: a uh and he's odds.
Speaker 2: On to win it.
Speaker 4: But like I said, it would be really cool if
Speaker 4: a Boise State running back got got there. But yeah,
Speaker 4: I think it could be. It could be Uh, the
Speaker 4: two way guy in a runaway.
Speaker 1: Although supposedly his teammate Shador Sanders will be the number
Speaker 1: one pick.
Speaker 2: Soft.
Speaker 4: If you're an NFL coach and you draft Hunter, how
Speaker 4: do how do you how do you play him? What
Speaker 4: would you what would you see him on?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: I mean they played Dion at defensive back because he
Speaker 1: was so good at defensive back that he could cut
Speaker 1: the field in half. I don't know that Travis Hunter
Speaker 1: is that good, but he we just know he's he's
Speaker 1: good enough, you know. I think the other two, I
Speaker 1: think all four of these guys will be you know,
Speaker 1: top five, top seven picks.
Speaker 2: In the NFL draft. But I often think it's cool
Speaker 2: if a two way player want it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would love to see that, and let's see
Speaker 4: more often. And you know a team that probably a
Speaker 4: team that needs both a defensive back and a wide
Speaker 4: receiver is gonna benefit from a guy like that.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no question, no question.
Speaker 4: And age when you're trying to make do with multimillion
Speaker 4: dollar players who walk off the field and don't feel
Speaker 4: like playing at the end of that guy, if he's
Speaker 4: not already cut by broadcast on ya, that's that's You're
Speaker 4: not gonna stand for that, not in the grown man league.
Speaker 1: Whatever the equivalent is of cutting him, firing him on
Speaker 1: the tarmac. That's what they should have done with that guy.
Speaker 2: Gary Moore is our West End bureau chief.
Speaker 1: We chat with him every week when he's not trapesing
Speaker 1: about the country. If you'd like to chat with him,
Speaker 1: you can find him on Twitter or x at.
Speaker 4: At nine to five five Gary, the same place we
Speaker 4: always find you at.
Speaker 2: Blue Insider one. We will see you next week.
Speaker 4: Go team. May the best teams win this week and.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it thanks to my guest, Gary Moore,
Speaker 1: Billy Rutlins coach wald Wells UK Louisville Tomorrow five point fifteen,
Speaker 1: Tip free game of two thirty with a KSR Boys
Speaker 1: Network at three point thirty and.
Speaker 2: Then Jack and Tom at five fifteen. That'sh it. Goodnight
Speaker 2: from the garage and Electioningdon.
Speaker 4: My safe word will be whiskey.
Speaker 5: Sorry, Rod, what was that whiskey?
Speaker 13: So you mean a whiskey?
Speaker 4: What you're saying? It weird? Saying what weird?
Speaker 6: All of it?
Speaker 4: Where do you get off?
Speaker 11: I just don't get what you're saying.
Speaker 1: It that way?
Speaker 4: Why I'm saying what?
Speaker 2: What way? Forget it?
Speaker 14: I will? I will forget it.
Speaker 10: Dad,