Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Bluminsider. Dick Gabriel with you on
Speaker 1: a Monday edition of our program as we take one
Speaker 1: giant stride closer to college football. The Wildcats of course
Speaker 1: opening up at the end of August, and it is
Speaker 1: right around the corner. That means the talking season is underway.
Speaker 1: And sure enough Mark Stoops talking again today at the
Speaker 1: UK kickoff luncheon. It'll be over in Louisville again, I
Speaker 1: think tomorrow at the kickoff luncheon there. But he came
Speaker 1: back from SEC Media days a little more than a
Speaker 1: week ago. I have been on vacation since then. So
Speaker 1: we hope you appreciate the best of the show is
Speaker 1: they're always kind of fun to go back and figure
Speaker 1: out what we were talking about in the past weeks.
Speaker 1: But back in the saddle today and we'll be hearing
Speaker 1: from Mark Stoops as he spoke. Also we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from Jeff Pikoro who was there. So is Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershan at the kickoff lunch and Aaron of course with
Speaker 1: the Cats balls Jeff for the UK Radio Network. Jeff
Speaker 1: comes up at the bottom of the hour, Aaron comes
Speaker 1: up and now number two. But before we get to
Speaker 1: football a reminder, it is game night and you've got
Speaker 1: La Familia taking on the Louisville Cardinals version of the team.
Speaker 1: It's the you know, UK versus U of l Let's
Speaker 1: face it. We'll talk about that more in just a minute,
Speaker 1: but I think we need to talk about what Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops kind of referenced earlier today but was the subject
Speaker 1: of a column by USA Today's SEC football writer, and
Speaker 1: this ran in the Courier Journal, which is owned by
Speaker 1: the same company. Mark Stoops made some comments to Daryl
Speaker 1: Byrd in a long piece Daryl Road. Typically typically a
Speaker 1: great story by Daryl, but Stuops talked quite frankly about
Speaker 1: what the headline refers to as the crushing weight of
Speaker 1: the new college landscape. And you might recall a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago Stoops called his players free agents. Said,
Speaker 1: you know, there's free agency, and the sustainability of aid
Speaker 1: five free agents a year is interesting. How would you
Speaker 1: like to operate an NFL team where every one of
Speaker 1: your guys is a free agent every year? I remember
Speaker 1: that I was there when he said that, and he's right.
Speaker 1: Every coach in America in Division one at least is
Speaker 1: dealing with that one double A as well, but steps
Speaker 1: and Darrow talked about it at length, and he said, basically,
Speaker 1: he's got to make payroll. He has got to go
Speaker 1: out and raise money. I don't blame him for saying
Speaker 1: what he did to Darrel. He said, I feel very isolated,
Speaker 1: very alone. That I'll get to that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but he said I don't know how long I can
Speaker 1: take dealing with what I've dealt with. He said, personally,
Speaker 1: I can only do so much. I've never felt this
Speaker 1: kind of stress and pressure. And he said I don't
Speaker 1: need it to be woe is me or we feel
Speaker 1: sorry for you. But he said my name has changed
Speaker 1: and these issues consume me. And he said I can't
Speaker 1: coach the way I want to coach because all I
Speaker 1: do is raise money or try to raise money. I
Speaker 1: get that now. He also talked about the fact he
Speaker 1: said I'm all alone in this, and it was quoted
Speaker 1: in the column and the Courier Journal about that, but
Speaker 1: that writer failed to mention the fact that Stoops immediately
Speaker 1: at least in Darryl's story, talked about Eddie Grant, who
Speaker 1: is now the special assistant to Mark Stoops. Eddie Grant
Speaker 1: is deeply entrenched in the fundraising business, and Stoops said
Speaker 1: to Darryl Byrd, I don't know what I would do
Speaker 1: without Eddie Gran he said, at some point every day
Speaker 1: we talk about how to raise money, how do we
Speaker 1: do it, how do we make payroll? So Stoops isn't
Speaker 1: doing at all by himself. But what he talked about,
Speaker 1: of course, was the fact that he is having to
Speaker 1: do it and doesn't care for it. And I don't
Speaker 1: blame him. I don't blame any coach for not liking it.
Speaker 1: What this guy wrote about was the fact and he
Speaker 1: kind of embraced the notion. And this is not accurate
Speaker 1: that everybody in the big Blue nation media and fans
Speaker 1: are like, is content with seven wins a year? Now,
Speaker 1: that's just not true. That's the floor being raised, not
Speaker 1: the ceiling being lowered. But he's not the only guy
Speaker 1: who's written out about Mark Stoops in the UK football
Speaker 1: But I'll promise you nobody's happy with that. But now,
Speaker 1: because of all the changes in college athletics, the hill
Speaker 1: is steeper to climb for everybody. And Stoops today at
Speaker 1: the luncheon, some of his first comments are about how
Speaker 1: he and the administration are dealing with the changes.
Speaker 2: What Doctor Capaludo, what match in our administration have to
Speaker 2: deal with in the next twelve months is unprecedented, and
Speaker 2: we've already been dealing with a lot, and we've adapted
Speaker 2: and done the very best we can and will continue
Speaker 2: to find creative ways, great ways to continue to be
Speaker 2: as competitive as we've been and take it to another level.
Speaker 2: And if you heard my comments at SEC media Day,
Speaker 2: that's what we want. That's what you want. I am
Speaker 2: not interested in sitting here and just existing. You know,
Speaker 2: you know we we and I'm not interested in exiting.
Speaker 2: You know, We're interested in finding ways, in exploring ways
Speaker 2: to be the best we possibly can at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Well more coming up later in the show with Mark
Speaker 1: Tuobs and his two coordinators who were there today, Bush
Speaker 1: Hampden and Brad White. But I did want to touch
Speaker 1: on this being game night for La Familia. Coach by
Speaker 1: Tyler Eulis, the rookie head coach off to a good start.
Speaker 1: He's two and zero, has never lost to U of
Speaker 1: L as a player or an assistant coach under Calipari,
Speaker 1: and he talked today, actually it was yesterday, about some
Speaker 1: of the memories he has of the uk Uo l
Speaker 1: series he was a part of.
Speaker 3: You know that we never lose. You know, that's the
Speaker 3: best memory. You know, obviously the iconic picture where you know,
Speaker 3: Chris Jones elbowed me in the face. I know that's
Speaker 3: pretty big for me, that picture. You know, I've got
Speaker 3: to thank him for that.
Speaker 1: I guess why is that so big for you?
Speaker 3: The fans is bigger for the fans.
Speaker 1: I think fans always cheer when they see that. In
Speaker 1: the video montage before Kentucky games, that shot of Tyler
Speaker 1: Ewis with blood trickling down the side of his face.
Speaker 1: Talk about giving your off for your team. So all right,
Speaker 1: Coming up next, we're gonna talk about the Olympics. A
Speaker 1: lot going on, including UK's Lee Keefer with gold. A
Speaker 1: little bit later on Jeff Pecorrel and Aaron Gershaan, plus
Speaker 1: the UK coordinators and more from Lafa Meia. Next on
Speaker 1: six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Coming up at the bottom of the hour, Jeff Pecorrel
Speaker 1: or the UK Sports Network will join US former football Wildcat,
Speaker 1: now a veteran of Have Gosh twenty odd seasons now
Speaker 1: covering Kentucky football along Tom Leach and yours truly our
Speaker 1: number two, Aaron Gershawan will join us and we will
Speaker 1: hear from more from La Familla. It is game night.
Speaker 1: The Wildcats take on the Cardinals of Louisville tonight. It
Speaker 1: is They're not called the Wildcats, but they are Wildcats
Speaker 1: naturally in the basketball tournament, the million dollar winner take
Speaker 1: all event, and the Wildcats and cards teams are both
Speaker 1: two and oh and they will play in Freedom Hall tonight,
Speaker 1: not the Young Center, nine o'clock start. It's over on Fox.
Speaker 1: I think it's Fox Sports one maybe. Anyway, check your
Speaker 1: Fox channels for that ball game. I thought we would
Speaker 1: talk some Olympics, so I have watched a lot of
Speaker 1: Olympics covers. I will tell you that I enjoy them.
Speaker 1: I actually like the Winter Games more than the Summer Games,
Speaker 1: but I do like the Summer Games quite a bit.
Speaker 1: And of course, right now you've got a UK medical student,
Speaker 1: Lee Keefer, who is well known now in Lexington because
Speaker 1: since she was a teenager, has been known on the
Speaker 1: international circuit for fencing. She wins the gold and in
Speaker 1: fact she's thirty years old now. I think I first
Speaker 1: interviewed her when she was fifteen years old, but she
Speaker 1: became the first US woman and only the third woman
Speaker 1: ever to win two Olympic gold medals in fencing, and
Speaker 1: she beat a fellow American, Lawrence Scruggs, who's twenty one.
Speaker 1: She goes to Harvard and she became the first black
Speaker 1: fencer from Team USA to medal in a women's individual
Speaker 1: event at the Olympics. So it was American versus American
Speaker 1: and watching Lee Keeper celebrate just the absolute joy that
Speaker 1: she took in winning that gold. And her husband is
Speaker 1: also on the US Team USA fencing team, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure when it may have happened already forgive me,
Speaker 1: but Lee Keeper is also going to be part of
Speaker 1: the team fencing event. I'm not sure how that works,
Speaker 1: but she could win herself another medal, but I think
Speaker 1: I think I was the first person to interview her
Speaker 1: when she was a student at Dunbar and becoming a
Speaker 1: really really great fencer. And so she wins gold her
Speaker 1: second and individual foil by beating one of her teammates,
Speaker 1: a Canadian Eleanor Harvey took home bronze, and that was
Speaker 1: Canada's first Olympic medal in fencing. So anyway, Lee Keifer,
Speaker 1: who began fencing at age five, won the gold in
Speaker 1: Tokyo and meanwhile is going to med school at uk
Speaker 1: along with her husband Gerrick Manhart. So congrats to Lee Keefer.
Speaker 1: The weirdest story, I think, well, there's several so far.
Speaker 1: South Carolina beat China in archery won the gold medal, right,
Speaker 1: and that's not unusual because they always win. South Carolina's
Speaker 1: won South Carolina South Korea. Wouldn't that be something has
Speaker 1: won ten straight gold medals. But I'm talking about women's
Speaker 1: team archery. It looked like they were going to need
Speaker 1: a second shootout after the final regulation shots, it was
Speaker 1: all tied up, so he needed a shootout. Then it
Speaker 1: looked like they were tied again, but an official pulled
Speaker 1: out the magnifying glass and checked the targets and the
Speaker 1: South Korean team was ruled to have scored a ten
Speaker 1: instead of a nine on their shots, and that gave
Speaker 1: South Korea the win in the shootoff, and they won
Speaker 1: it five four. Can you imagine China was hoping to
Speaker 1: take them down, of course, because they beat South Carolina.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 1: I did it again South Korea at the Archery World
Speaker 1: Cup in twenty two and it looked like they were
Speaker 1: gonna have to keep going, but the judge pulled out
Speaker 1: the magnifying glass and it was South Korea, not South Carolina,
Speaker 1: that beats China for the Team Golden Women's Archery. Mexico
Speaker 1: beats the Netherlands to earn bronze if you had Mexico
Speaker 1: in your team pool. Speaking of pools, there have been
Speaker 1: just some great races, including the one hundred meter breaststroke
Speaker 1: last night, which to me is a fascinating sport because
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I swam on a team
Speaker 1: for two or three years at least, and I wasn't
Speaker 1: very good, but I won some ribbons. I didn't win
Speaker 1: any races, got seconds and thirds for the most part.
Speaker 1: In freestyle, I swam butterfly, wasn't good at it, swam
Speaker 1: backstroke a little bit, was okay at it, but I
Speaker 1: couldn't swim breaststroke. Even today, I cannot swim the breaststroke
Speaker 1: to literally save my life. If I had to save
Speaker 1: my own life by swimming breastroke, you'd say goodbye to
Speaker 1: your old boy here. But I'm watching the breaststroke and
Speaker 1: it was an incredible race, called one of the great
Speaker 1: races in the history of the event, but not a
Speaker 1: single swimmer finished would have finished better than eighth at
Speaker 1: the Tokyo Olympics three years ago based on the time,
Speaker 1: nobody cracked fifty nine seconds and rowdy gains. The analyst
Speaker 1: for NBC pointed that out almost immediately. And the reason
Speaker 1: is they're saying now, the pool is slow. And I
Speaker 1: learned this when I was broadcasting a swim meet at
Speaker 1: WKYT many many years ago. I didn't know this when
Speaker 1: I was swimming, but I was a kid who cares.
Speaker 1: But some pools are faster than others. One of the
Speaker 1: elements involved in making a faster pool are the gutters
Speaker 1: on the side of the pool. The bigger the gutter,
Speaker 1: the faster the pool can be, but also the depth
Speaker 1: and the pool in Paris is a temporary pool plopped
Speaker 1: into a rugby stadium similar to the one in Lucas
Speaker 1: Oil Stadium last in last month's Olympic trials, is two
Speaker 1: point one five meters deep. Right, the standard minimum standard
Speaker 1: is two meters. What they're usually at is three meters
Speaker 1: or at least two and a half meters. That's the
Speaker 1: new World Aquatics minimum of two and a half when
Speaker 1: they approved it for Paris, they said two point one
Speaker 1: five is okay. Now the new minimum is two and
Speaker 1: a half meters deep, and that makes for a slower
Speaker 1: pool because when the swimmers displace the water, it bounces
Speaker 1: off the bottom of the pool comes back up and
Speaker 1: makes the second fifty meters of one hundred meters swim
Speaker 1: or choppy. They're not swimming through smoother waters, They're swimming
Speaker 1: through turbulence. That's why at least that one hundred meter
Speaker 1: breaststroke final was not very fast at all compared to
Speaker 1: the Tokyo Olympics. So keep an eye on on that.
Speaker 1: Keep an eye on Simone Biles as well. She is
Speaker 1: nursing that ankle injury and she still came in first
Speaker 1: in qualifying. She's competing in all four events. It was
Speaker 1: a little painful to watch her limp off before. She
Speaker 1: is not dealing with the mental trauma that she dealt
Speaker 1: with at the last Olympics, but she did disappear briefly,
Speaker 1: came back with a heavily taped leg. It's a calf
Speaker 1: muscle she tweaked during warmups for the floor exercise. But
Speaker 1: she is still getting it done, so that's very cool.
Speaker 1: How about that by the way, Sunny Lee on that team,
Speaker 1: of course, competed for Auburn after she she won the
Speaker 1: overall goal at the Tokyo Olympics. I remember when she
Speaker 1: was having medical issues, but I didn't really understand what
Speaker 1: was happening. NBC did a great piece last night Sudie
Speaker 1: Lee mysteriously gained forty five pounds, had to stop competing
Speaker 1: at Auburn, had to stop competing internationally. So they figured
Speaker 1: out what was wrong with her was some sort of
Speaker 1: kidney disorder, and they finally got it turned around with
Speaker 1: meds and she got in shape just enough time to
Speaker 1: qualify for the Olympics, and now she'll be competing for medals.
Speaker 1: But I had no idea. They had video of her,
Speaker 1: and it was eerie seeing how big she got. And
Speaker 1: she's not very tall obviously, so for a woman that size,
Speaker 1: maybe five feet tall, to carry an additional forty five pounds,
Speaker 1: and they had lost her coordination for the most part.
Speaker 1: They showed her trying to work back on the beam
Speaker 1: and on a couple of other events and falling. But
Speaker 1: now she's okay and she did well in qualifying. Kind
Speaker 1: of a weird I watched the end of the women's
Speaker 1: bicycling mountain biking cross country event and Haley Batton of
Speaker 1: the USA won a silver medal, first ever for an
Speaker 1: American mountain biker, best finish ever for a woman, actually
Speaker 1: for an American mountain biker. But she broke the rules.
Speaker 1: She was final, won't it won't cost you the medal,
Speaker 1: but it won't cost you five hundred and sixty five bucks.
Speaker 1: Broke a rule in the final lap. She was jockeying
Speaker 1: for second place with a woman from Sweden and went
Speaker 1: through a lane meant for taking in food or stopping
Speaker 1: for medical problems. Judges said she failed to quote respect
Speaker 1: the instructions of the race organization. They didn't think it
Speaker 1: was enough of an infraction to warrant a disqualification. But
Speaker 1: she is fine. Guarantee you she won't care. Don Staley
Speaker 1: Women's basketball committee. She's not the coach South Carolina head coach,
Speaker 1: but she is on the selections committee, has admitted, and
Speaker 1: I said this the same thing a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark, the way she's playing now probably would have
Speaker 1: been included on the Olympic team back when they chose
Speaker 1: the team. You could not make the argument for Caitlin
Speaker 1: Clark based on how she was playing. People believe you
Speaker 1: could make and should have made the argument based on
Speaker 1: ticket sales and what it would have meant and interest
Speaker 1: in a women's game, and that's all important. But your job,
Speaker 1: if you're picking a team is to pick the team
Speaker 1: that's going to win the gold and at the time,
Speaker 1: she wasn't, in my opinion and in Don Staley's opinion,
Speaker 1: playing well enough to be included. Staley said in an
Speaker 1: interview last night with Mike Tariko on NBC now she
Speaker 1: would be in really high consideration. She didn't say we
Speaker 1: would have taken her, but she said she would be
Speaker 1: in really high consideration to make the team because she's
Speaker 1: playing head and shoulders above a lot of people shooting
Speaker 1: the ball well, an elite passers. She said, great basketball
Speaker 1: I quu, which she knew, but at the time she
Speaker 1: just wasn't playing well enough. One final note on the Olympics.
Speaker 1: This guy's an idiot. A European Olympics broadcaster made a
Speaker 1: comment about the Australian women's swimming team Saturday and got
Speaker 1: fired and he should have. And this is not being
Speaker 1: overly sensitive or being woke or anything. Stupid like that.
Speaker 1: It's him being a dope god named Bob Ballard covering
Speaker 1: the games for Eurosport, and he is a veteran sportscaster.
Speaker 1: He's a guy who's been around, which means he should
Speaker 1: really have known better. He's been a staple of Olympics
Speaker 1: coverage for several years freelance broadcaster for the BBC, but
Speaker 1: he decided it would be really clever when he was
Speaker 1: talking about the Australian women's swimming team, said you know
Speaker 1: what women are like? In reference to the team after
Speaker 1: they won the four by one hundred meter he said, well,
Speaker 1: the women are just finishing up. You know what women
Speaker 1: are like, and I'm quoting hanging around doing their makeup,
Speaker 1: and that was it done. You just don't I don't
Speaker 1: care if you're kidding. I don't care if you think
Speaker 1: that's being overly sensitive that you just don't go there.
Speaker 1: How many times have we said that about announcers. Don't
Speaker 1: go there? But he did and it cost him his gig.
Speaker 1: Up next, speaking of gigs, Jeff Picorrel's had the gig
Speaker 1: for quite a while as color analyst on the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network cover in Kentucky football that added more on
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Sider next in sixt thirty WLAP welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue Sider and joining us now
Speaker 1: in our celebrity Hodeline. He's my longtime friend and colleague,
Speaker 1: Jeff Pacarel from the UK Sports Network and WTVQ. He
Speaker 1: was there earlier today when Marx Tubes and the coordinator spoke.
Speaker 1: Did anything jump off the podium at you, Jeff. I
Speaker 1: know I talked earlier about how Stoop's made some comments
Speaker 1: that were kind of referencing what he has said about
Speaker 1: the burdens of really all college administrators and coaches. Now,
Speaker 1: other than that, really optimistic. He sounds like to me,
Speaker 1: how did you hear it?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think all three of them were, let's put
Speaker 5: it this way, cautiously optimistic. I really think that for
Speaker 5: this team, they've got to get through the the workouts
Speaker 5: here in the next month unscathed, mean no injuries. If
Speaker 5: they can get if they can get to the end
Speaker 5: of August with little or no injuries, that would really help,
Speaker 5: especially in a defensive front. You know, you're you're you're
Speaker 5: probably going to be one guy down with Hayes, but uh,
Speaker 5: you know, but you're thankfully that's a decently deep position.
Speaker 5: And a couple of the guys that did not practice
Speaker 5: in spring will be ready, uh you know here in
Speaker 5: the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: So well, I like to talk with you, obviously, because
Speaker 1: you've been through this not just as a college football
Speaker 1: player but at Kentucky. And yet there have been so
Speaker 1: many changes in the way things are and things that
Speaker 1: are allowed to be done in the college game. But
Speaker 1: right now there is much more opportunity for a coach
Speaker 1: to work with a player here in the off season,
Speaker 1: here in the summertime. Then it was I don't know
Speaker 1: what the rules were back when you were playing.
Speaker 5: There were none.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's true, but after a point it was
Speaker 1: like coaches, as Stud's point out, could only watch or
Speaker 1: they could work out without a ball or whatever. Now
Speaker 1: those rules have changed so much. But how much do
Speaker 1: you think, Jeff, that helps a program like Kentucky that's
Speaker 1: trying to challenge the big boys every year?
Speaker 5: Well, Jeuge, and I'm glad you brought this up, because
Speaker 5: you know, back in the seventies and eighties, what they
Speaker 5: did is we actually had three days. We had a
Speaker 5: morning practice, an afternoon practice, and then we came back
Speaker 5: after dinner for a night practices was all special teams,
Speaker 5: so we did offense defense morning, offense defense afternoon, and
Speaker 5: then special teams at night. So we had two or
Speaker 5: three days where guys stayed on campus and stuff. But
Speaker 5: before that, before the practice started, so like right now,
Speaker 5: because it starts tomorrow, we would be working at Clayburne Farms.
Speaker 5: Who worked at the FC bottling plant. We worked at UPS,
Speaker 5: so you could do that in the off season to
Speaker 5: get yourself some money. Now obviously all they got to
Speaker 5: do is sign on the dial line to get themsel
Speaker 5: some money. But I like what you said at the start.
Speaker 5: They have loosened up the rules where you can't have
Speaker 5: two the days anymore. You can't have three days like
Speaker 5: we did. But it's almost a year round gig. We
Speaker 5: got basically the summer off and we worked out on
Speaker 5: our own. Randy Jenkins, Bill Randol, Lula mcrim and all
Speaker 5: the different quarterbacks we had and stuff. Would get with
Speaker 5: the receivers and we'd go out there and toss the
Speaker 5: ball around. But now it's basically eleven and a half
Speaker 5: month out of the year job. And it's one of
Speaker 5: the reasons I asked, well, you know, cause I get
Speaker 5: to go to practice, and they don't run a whole lot,
Speaker 5: meaning run gassers and sprints and stuff like we did.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, what's up with this? Why don't you
Speaker 5: do that? And I was told by mostly the weight
Speaker 5: guys and the Mark Hills and then that, well, these
Speaker 5: guys now not. You know, when you played, it was
Speaker 5: basically a ten month job. Okay, now it's year round,
Speaker 5: and these guys stay in shape year round, much different
Speaker 5: than what it was, so you don't have to get
Speaker 5: back in shape. You know, they do tests and things
Speaker 5: like that, but we had to run sixteen forties, we
Speaker 5: had to bench press squad all that kind of stuff,
Speaker 5: whereas now these guys are basically working year round, so
Speaker 5: you don't really have to do those types of things
Speaker 5: when you come back.
Speaker 1: And some of them do have jobs, to be sure,
Speaker 1: but to your point, a lot of them don't need it,
Speaker 1: so that gives them more time to spend in a
Speaker 1: weight room or just throwing with each other.
Speaker 5: Right, yeah, and Dick, look you've been over to that facility.
Speaker 5: A lot of people listening probably haven't. Everything's there. They've
Speaker 5: got a haircutting share, they a barber shop. Basically, they've
Speaker 5: got a game room guy can go in there, hang out,
Speaker 5: play pool, huge TVs, play Xbox, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 5: There's the pools in there, there's the indoor facility. Yeah,
Speaker 5: there's food, nutritional food, not just going there and you know,
Speaker 5: scarf stuff down, but nutritional stuff. All the weights, the
Speaker 5: bikes you want, totally different. It's just it's it's such
Speaker 5: an arms race now and it's totally different. So these
Speaker 5: guys have all the benefits.
Speaker 1: What else they have is it's so much easier now
Speaker 1: to study video what you all they still call film. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we'll say, back in your day, when you wanted
Speaker 1: to study actual film, you had to go in and
Speaker 1: grab a projector. And I don't know if you did
Speaker 1: it much, but it was it. It was I don't
Speaker 1: want to say it was an ordeal. But now heck,
Speaker 1: they've all got iPads that they can study video in
Speaker 1: their room, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And this really started in the late nineties into
Speaker 5: the two thousands. We had, as you said, Doug Martin,
Speaker 5: you know, Billy Ramsell, Randy Jacin, they bring the projector
Speaker 5: back to their room and the Rick Masseys and Jokers
Speaker 5: in us of the world. Yeah, we would go up
Speaker 5: there and because they were gonna watch. We'd go in
Speaker 5: there and watch with them. Yeah, but yeah, it was
Speaker 5: totally different. You know, our film study was an actual
Speaker 5: you know, before practice it was. It was an actual
Speaker 5: year to be there, you know, two thirty and then
Speaker 5: two thirty three thirty you hit the weights maybe, or
Speaker 5: or you watch film with the coaches, your coaches. Yeah,
Speaker 5: now they just give them a disc and go here
Speaker 5: you go, everything's here, or download it now on the iPad,
Speaker 5: as you said, and it's all specific to your position.
Speaker 5: Back then, you just watched the high high eleven.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: Now it's specifically the defensive backs. You can watch the receivers,
Speaker 5: the line. So yeah, it's it's so much easier now.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Talking to Jeff Pikoro the UK Sports Network, he
Speaker 1: was there earlier today when Mark Stoops and the coordinators
Speaker 1: spoke to the fans the annual kickoff luncheon. Another great
Speaker 1: crowd on hand. It seems like a getting bigger every year.
Speaker 1: What about what bush ham Dan mentioned earlier today? Did
Speaker 1: anything he said jump out at you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of people want this
Speaker 5: almost Tim Couch offense where Kentucky's gonna throw it fifty
Speaker 5: five times a game, you know. But the thing that
Speaker 5: I really liked is when he said, you know, seven
Speaker 5: years in a row, you've had a thousand yard rusher. Ye,
Speaker 5: and I'd like to see us run the ball thirty
Speaker 5: times a game. I thought that was a great number
Speaker 5: that he threw out there. And the thing that he's, well,
Speaker 5: I think you've got to have ballot. I think it's
Speaker 5: pretty much been proven. I mean, you look at those
Speaker 5: those years with Tim Kouch and Jered Lorenza. You had
Speaker 5: great offenses and you scored points, but the other team
Speaker 5: scored a lot more points a lot of the time. Right,
Speaker 5: you have to be balanced. You have to be able
Speaker 5: to control the line of scrimmage because if you control
Speaker 5: the line of scrimmage, then you can run it or
Speaker 5: pass it, and you can also control the clock. And
Speaker 5: that's what Kentucky likes to do. Because there's so many
Speaker 5: high powered offenses, you don't want to you don't want
Speaker 5: to get into when you play Georgia or in Alabama
Speaker 5: or a Texas. You don't want to get into a
Speaker 5: pinball machine game with them because you know they're going
Speaker 5: to be able to score forty and you hold them down.
Speaker 5: This year's team looks like it can. But I really
Speaker 5: like what Hampden said.
Speaker 1: Well, and Stoops referred directly to number of plays and
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, offenses in the past that yeah,
Speaker 1: they work, but they didn't run enough plays and the
Speaker 1: clock was going down three to one. You know, people
Speaker 1: always talk about why didn't so and so get the ball?
Speaker 1: Why didn't you throw to your tight ends, Why didn't
Speaker 1: this running back get it? Well, if you're only running
Speaker 1: fifty five plays, yeah, and it could happen. And rich
Speaker 1: Brooks educated or tried to educate people, you recall back
Speaker 1: when he was here. But to your point, thirty running
Speaker 1: plays now add thirty to thirty five passing plays and
Speaker 1: you've controlled the football, haven't you. But if you're only
Speaker 1: going to run thirty in twenty pass plays, boy, the
Speaker 1: other guys are getting the ball way too much, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you're not going to be at Tennessee Space
Speaker 5: or you know some of the other schools that run
Speaker 5: the hurry up where you're going to get eighty to
Speaker 5: ninety offensive snaps of the game, that's just not going
Speaker 5: to happen. But to get in the sixties, I think
Speaker 5: that's a good number because you get if you run
Speaker 5: thirty and you throw thirty. That's a really balanced offense. Now,
Speaker 5: there's gonna be games when you play some teams that
Speaker 5: maybe they're stouter up front, so you want to get
Speaker 5: the ball on the edges a little more, and you
Speaker 5: might throw it thirty five or forty times and only
Speaker 5: run it twenty five times. But to get close to
Speaker 5: that number I think is huge for them running the
Speaker 5: ball because look, you've got a great offensive line, and
Speaker 5: I think, great, we throw that around too much. Let
Speaker 5: me tell you this. You've got an experienced offensive line
Speaker 5: and you've added a couple of key figures to give
Speaker 5: them depth. I don't know if they're great yet because
Speaker 5: I haven't seen them play together, but you've got some
Speaker 5: great depth there. You've got great depth of defensive line
Speaker 5: as well. So guys, so Dion Walker doesn't have to
Speaker 5: be out there sixty five seventy plays. If Dion Walker
Speaker 5: could go ninety to one hundred percent, and again, you're
Speaker 5: not going to go one hundred percent every play, You're
Speaker 5: only going to play twenty plays. But if he can
Speaker 5: be in the ninety percent tyle eighty five to ninety
Speaker 5: percent for forty five or fifty plays, then you're going
Speaker 5: to be really, really well off on the defensive side
Speaker 5: of the ball.
Speaker 1: One other thing to remember when we're totaling up plays,
Speaker 1: and this happened last year. When your defense scores or
Speaker 1: when your special team score, that beats your defense right
Speaker 1: back out on the field. Obviously in your offense doesn't
Speaker 1: get a chance to run more plays. So you're scoring points,
Speaker 1: but you're keeping your defense out there. But that's a
Speaker 1: good problem to have. We're going to talk more football
Speaker 1: with Jeff Pecorrol on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: here on the Big moone Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Jeff Picorro the UK Sports Network. He
Speaker 1: is the color analyst for a couple of decades now
Speaker 1: calling Kentucky football, and Jeff, you and I have worked,
Speaker 1: as well as Tom Leach and our crew are engineers
Speaker 1: eight straight Bowl games. We have every reason to think
Speaker 1: will work another one this year. The biggest question, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure in your role is color analysts as well
Speaker 1: as sports director Channel thirty six, how many games are
Speaker 1: they going to win?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I keep telling people. You and I talked about this
Speaker 1: down in Dallas. Chef was there for recC media days.
Speaker 1: I firmly believe the calendar works against Kentucky as much
Speaker 1: this year as any I've seen, and that is to say,
Speaker 1: so many tough games up front where they used to
Speaker 1: be able to kind of work into it. You know,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, if you can handle these challenges early,
Speaker 1: you're in great shape.
Speaker 6: Right Yeah.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 5: The one game that I point to says if Kentucky
Speaker 5: wins this game, they have a chance to win eight, nine,
Speaker 5: ten games, and that is Game two, thank you. That
Speaker 5: is a team that South Carolina that Kentucky is very
Speaker 5: simil one or two, but they've been able to have
Speaker 5: the upper hand until the last two years. Now South
Speaker 5: Carolina with Eli Drinkolyitch has really upped there recruiting. But
Speaker 5: I still think that that's that's a game. And I
Speaker 5: always said in Mississippi State when they were always our
Speaker 5: other side as the West team, that will be played the
Speaker 5: Kentucky played. But I really think that game. Look, you're
Speaker 5: gonna know what you got going into Old Miss. If
Speaker 5: you're three and one, then you got a great shot
Speaker 5: at Old Miss. If you're two and two, okay, you've
Speaker 5: probably lost the game. You shouldn't. If you're one in three.
Speaker 5: You know, now you better start battling down the hatches
Speaker 5: because you know, look, George is gonna be a tough game.
Speaker 5: It's here. You've got a boxer's chance, right, that's what
Speaker 5: you have to have. The one. And let me go
Speaker 5: back to one thing that you said, what excited me
Speaker 5: or what did I take out of that? They've got
Speaker 5: some quarterback that can run. Now they've got two got
Speaker 5: probably believe they're top two and I don't know, Bo
Speaker 5: is probably one A or one B or two whatever
Speaker 5: you want to call him. But look, you've got two
Speaker 5: quarterbacks that are over six three and over two hundred
Speaker 5: and twenty five pounds and they can scamper around a
Speaker 5: little bit. One has got what fifteen college games under
Speaker 5: his belt, and one's got about fifteen packs on his belt.
Speaker 5: So it's going to be really interesting to see how
Speaker 5: that works out and how Bush tries to integrate the
Speaker 5: quarterbacks into the system or into the games. I should say.
Speaker 1: I'm with you on South Carolina, and I just don't
Speaker 1: firmly believe yet in the game Cocks. I mean, you
Speaker 1: look at last year's schedule. They handle the teams they
Speaker 1: should have handled well but Tennessee spanked them. A Florida
Speaker 1: team that was not very good, frankly beat South Carolina,
Speaker 1: Florida team, Kentucky beat A and M spanked them. Missouri,
Speaker 1: the team you just talked about, beat them handily crushed Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: But Kentucky just laid an egg that night in November, yeah,
Speaker 1: and lost, And then the following week South Carolina, full
Speaker 1: of itself, loses the Clemson you know. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that's that's that. And as you said, Missouri is
Speaker 1: just getting better. I believe much more Missouri than I
Speaker 1: do in South Carolina, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah. Oh yeah, Look, and I said it wrong because
Speaker 5: I was talking about South st and said, Eli, drink
Speaker 5: whiz what you've done? Those are the two games that
Speaker 5: I always looked at. Oh yeah, but look, if you
Speaker 5: beat South Carolina and then even if you lose to Georgia,
Speaker 5: you're probably gonna be three and one right going into
Speaker 5: that contest. That's what I was trying to say. If
Speaker 5: you're two and two, so that means you've probably lost
Speaker 5: to South Carolina and Georgia and beaten the two teams
Speaker 5: you're supposed to be, then that makes that old. This
Speaker 5: game almost and you know, if you don't win this,
Speaker 5: basically you're looking at you know, then you start going, okay,
Speaker 5: we may have a chance of deliberty, you know. And
Speaker 5: I know that's early, but like you said, the way
Speaker 5: this schedule is, you've got to get out of the gate.
Speaker 5: You've got one game to learn this Hampden offense. Uh
Speaker 5: and and really get it perfected. So you get to
Speaker 5: South Carolina.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and then after Old Miss you got Vandy.
Speaker 1: But uh, two years ago, Kentucky goes to Ole Miss
Speaker 1: and basically in a position to win the game, loses
Speaker 1: a last minute touchdown on a penalty. Uh. And yet Jeff,
Speaker 1: we we talked about it during the pregame show. That
Speaker 1: was one of the greatest pregame atmospheres and not even
Speaker 1: talking about the Grove, but that got everybody ready. That
Speaker 1: stadium was literally rocking. And yet Kentucky fought back after
Speaker 1: a mediocre first half and an injury to Will Levison,
Speaker 1: came back and damn near won the game. So uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a challenge, but uh, you know, like you said,
Speaker 1: that would be a pivotal game as well.
Speaker 5: And it's probably gonna be on national television.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean if there three and one, or you know,
Speaker 5: if there four and oh or three and one, that
Speaker 5: game is going to be at noon on ABC. That's right,
Speaker 5: So that is going to be an awesome game.
Speaker 1: Could be so much is going to depend on who
Speaker 1: plays quarterback. And I've been told that the battle for
Speaker 1: the starting job is probably closer than we think. But
Speaker 1: earlier today I felt like Bush Hampden was indicating that
Speaker 1: it was Brock's job to lose. Do you have that feeling? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I do, I do. I think that here's the situation too.
Speaker 5: You've got really three guys in that room. Because bo
Speaker 5: Aley leaving and going to Charleston State and being able
Speaker 5: to start twelve games, yeah, and throw the way he did.
Speaker 5: You're not running the scout team. You're running a college
Speaker 5: team against really good teams. Charleton plays a tough schedule
Speaker 5: and he did really well. He looked different. He's a bigger,
Speaker 5: stronger kid. He still has the gun on his shoulder
Speaker 5: if someone gets hurt. Before I was hoping Boe could
Speaker 5: get the job done, but by going out there and
Speaker 5: playing in twelve games, it changed his career projection. He
Speaker 5: could have gone to a probably one hundred different schools
Speaker 5: and started this year, but he wanted to come back
Speaker 5: to Kentucky because he knows this is where I want
Speaker 5: to make him. And I think he's he's look, nobody's
Speaker 5: happy being the backup, but in his mind, he'd rather
Speaker 5: be a backup here and get some playing time to
Speaker 5: go somewhere else. And you got to hand it to
Speaker 5: a kid like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I agree, and I did wonder about that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he wanted to come back and compete with
Speaker 1: the job here, and he's much better equipped right now.
Speaker 1: I think he'll agree to compete. I think you've you
Speaker 1: just said that basically than he was before he was here.
Speaker 1: If we wrap this up with Jeff Bicoro the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network. You mentioned the defensive line and Dion Walker.
Speaker 1: I thought he did a great job down in Dallas.
Speaker 1: He was you know, with us the media scrum. He
Speaker 1: was fun, he was kind of funny. I thought he
Speaker 1: was kind of more business like in the breakout rooms,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I think he was
Speaker 1: trying to be more professional for lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: you know what. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Look, he's bigger, stronger, faster than he's ever been. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm not worried about him. He's going to play. I
Speaker 5: think there's one key to the defense, and especially if
Speaker 5: Hayes doesn't play because of the injury, then I think
Speaker 5: a lot of it has to do with t Shawn Silver.
Speaker 5: If this kid can fulfill the promise that he has
Speaker 5: and the ability that he has inside of him, can
Speaker 5: coach get that out of him. If he's able to
Speaker 5: go in there and play forty plays a game like
Speaker 5: he's shown flashes of and practice and stuff. And again,
Speaker 5: it hits people at different times. We always talk about
Speaker 5: Andre Woodson. The first two years he was here, he
Speaker 5: was a deer in headlights right, he was lost, and
Speaker 5: then all of a sudden his junior year, are like,
Speaker 5: who is this guy? And that's kind of what I
Speaker 5: helped because he's the biggest guy on the team almost.
Speaker 5: I mean, Silver is huge, and he's gonna have to
Speaker 5: play a lot of snaps right over the center. And
Speaker 5: like I said, if he can show the five star
Speaker 5: ability that he had in high school, then this is
Speaker 5: going to be one heck of a defense.
Speaker 1: He is Jeff Pcorrel. You can see him on WTVQ.
Speaker 1: You can also hear him on the UK radio network.
Speaker 1: End it's coming up fast as the Wildcats begin to
Speaker 1: open their football season, and follow Jeff on Twitter or
Speaker 1: ex at Jeff PACOROL.
Speaker 5: Thank you sir, all right, buddy, have a great one.
Speaker 1: Number two of Aaron gershin of the Catch Balls. More
Speaker 1: Kentucky football and basketball talk on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty
Speaker 1: eight wlap, Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider.
Speaker 1: Joining us now as he does each and every Monday,
Speaker 1: is Aaron Gershaan of the Catch Ball. Pretty soon, Aaron,
Speaker 1: you and Billie Religi and I will convene at a
Speaker 1: later hour after the coaches shows and the lineup of
Speaker 1: radio shows on Monday nights. It's not that far away.
Speaker 7: Crazy right, just about four three weeks away, a couple
Speaker 7: of Monday shows away from being in the studio every Monday,
Speaker 7: so from the end of football and basketball season. So
Speaker 7: I'm really excited to at that going and excited to
Speaker 7: talk to you as always.
Speaker 6: As a deal on Mondays.
Speaker 1: Here it is the talking season, as Mark Stups likes
Speaker 1: to point out, and you were there in Dallas. We
Speaker 1: were off last week, so I didn't have much chance
Speaker 1: to chop that up with you. But you were at
Speaker 1: SEC Media Days. You were there today earlier at the
Speaker 1: kickoff luncheon when Mark Stuub said a lot of the
Speaker 1: same things he said. Didn't go quite into depth, of course,
Speaker 1: as he did in Dallas, but his message is I
Speaker 1: think overall when it comes to the fans. We'll get
Speaker 1: into the nil stuff in a minute. But how excited
Speaker 1: he is about this particular team not quite bright. I
Speaker 1: don't want to say bragging about it, but you know,
Speaker 1: he made some point in comments a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago about his team that you know didn't quite come around,
Speaker 1: but he seems like he can't wait to get started
Speaker 1: with this one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think we make a good point about making
Speaker 7: some comments. That was twenty twenty two when the team
Speaker 7: kind of they were really high expectations, not only from
Speaker 7: you know, here locally, but from a national perspective. I mean,
Speaker 7: they were finished at pick second in the East at
Speaker 7: STC Media Days down in Atlanta, had the third highest
Speaker 7: odds behind Vama and Georgia to win the entire conference.
Speaker 7: So I think that year he and the players probably
Speaker 7: and admittedly so didn't do a great job.
Speaker 6: Of kind of not avoiding the hype.
Speaker 7: Train per se. But I think this year they have
Speaker 7: a chip on their shoulder. The last two years have
Speaker 7: not gone how they wanted it to go. At all again,
Speaker 7: seven wins at Kentucky is something that used to be celebrated.
Speaker 7: Now it's it's a letdown, and that's good because it
Speaker 7: shows you how much this program has grown. But at
Speaker 7: some point you do have to try to go meet
Speaker 7: those expectations. And I think he said a lot of
Speaker 7: the same things where he thinks the depth is as
Speaker 7: good as a spend. He made a point that he
Speaker 7: thinks he has the best blend of players and staff
Speaker 7: that he's had in his time here, and it's hard
Speaker 7: to disput that. I mean, we'll have to see just
Speaker 7: exactly what we get from bush Handen in the offense,
Speaker 7: but I think we've saw some positive things in the spring.
Speaker 7: I have heard, i mean glowing reviews of bush Handen
Speaker 7: just from STC media days talking to people that have
Speaker 7: played for him or or covered him. So we'll see
Speaker 7: how that goes. But yeah, he definitely is very high
Speaker 7: on this team. He's trying not to say too too
Speaker 7: much and you know, put too much pressure on it,
Speaker 7: but you could tell he's ready to kind of roll
Speaker 7: that ball out there here.
Speaker 1: Bush Hampden spoke today, so did Brad White. That who coordinators.
Speaker 1: We heard some of the comments from them earlier on
Speaker 1: the show. But what have you heard from those glowing reports?
Speaker 1: What have you heard from your your constituents about Bush Hamden?
Speaker 7: Yeah, just that you know he's a he's a guy
Speaker 7: that players love playing for players coach is the first
Speaker 7: thing I heard.
Speaker 6: But Brady Cook, the quarterback at the Zoo.
Speaker 7: I asked him about Bush last or two weeks ago
Speaker 7: down in Dallas, and he said, you know, those last
Speaker 7: three games of the twenty two season, after Kentucky beat
Speaker 7: Mazury in Colombia, the colin Goodfellow games and took over
Speaker 7: the play calling for the last three regular season games
Speaker 7: and from there in Missouri. I don't have the exact
Speaker 7: numbers in front of me, but they average. I think
Speaker 7: it was close to thirty, if not more points per game.
Speaker 7: Brady cookedn't throw another pick the rest of the way.
Speaker 7: Seven to zero touchdown interception ratio. He had two one
Speaker 7: hundred yard rushing games and he kind of took off
Speaker 7: and he said that, you know, Bush and him kind
Speaker 7: of went into that to those last three games, like, hey,
Speaker 7: we got nothing to lose, let's go out and.
Speaker 6: You know, let's do it together.
Speaker 7: Let's both have that attitude together, because at that point
Speaker 7: in time, you know, there's a lot of calls. We
Speaker 7: were at that game in Missouri, Yeah, and there were
Speaker 7: a lot of fans wanting they were chanting the backup
Speaker 7: quarterbacks name, and they wanted the offensive coordinator and the
Speaker 7: offensive staff gutted and Eli drink Wood did got that
Speaker 7: offensive staff obviously, and you know, they obviously took off
Speaker 7: last year, but that kind of Brady talked about how
Speaker 7: that kind of served as a momentum booster going into
Speaker 7: what was a fantastic twenty twenty three season for him.
Speaker 6: So I thought that was a pretty big deal to.
Speaker 7: Hear the players seem to genuinely love them and think
Speaker 7: very highly of them, and we have obviously seen you know,
Speaker 7: he I think what's cool about Hampden is unlike you know,
Speaker 7: Cohen and Skangurella. There's there's some numbers that we've seen
Speaker 7: in college from him and what his offense has been
Speaker 7: able to do. We know he's had in a thousand
Speaker 7: yard rusher each year.
Speaker 6: He's called plays. We know that he likes to run
Speaker 6: the ball.
Speaker 7: He's had, you know, top twenty five rushing offenses almost
Speaker 7: every year. This year there were number six rushing offense
Speaker 7: at Boise State in the country, so we know what
Speaker 7: he likes to do. We have an idea where I
Speaker 7: think with you know, Skanguerrella and Cohen, it was more
Speaker 7: mystery to it and more NFL stuff where I think
Speaker 7: you're going to get a more you know, you'll have
Speaker 7: some of your pro concepts. I think it's going to
Speaker 7: be a more collegey offense if you will, and that's exciting.
Speaker 1: You know what's so interesting to me, Aaron about I
Speaker 1: can't say all of college football, but I just this
Speaker 1: Kentucky program. The fan base is everybody loves to see
Speaker 1: the ball flying through the air, but what they love
Speaker 1: more is winning. And with stoops it's been because of
Speaker 1: his best teams, his better teams, the balance with between
Speaker 1: it's throwing and the run game. And as Hamden pointed
Speaker 1: out today that the fans who showed up at the
Speaker 1: luncheon seven straight seasons now at Kentucky with a thousand
Speaker 1: yard rusher. I mean, when we start talking about streaks,
Speaker 1: you talk about Stoop's tenure. You talk about Bowl games
Speaker 1: seven straight, and of course the unspoken words are can
Speaker 1: they do it again this year? You know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean absolutely, and you know it is nothing
Speaker 7: to scoff that. I mean the bull streaks they have
Speaker 7: at eight I think is yes, only three in the
Speaker 7: SEC like it, right, I think it's Georgia and Alabama.
Speaker 6: So I mean what.
Speaker 7: They're doing, especially the place like Kentucky is incredible. And
Speaker 7: Mark steps is one of I think nineteen coaches. To
Speaker 7: be in the same spot in the SEC for twelve
Speaker 7: plus years, that's incredible stuff. But the last two years,
Speaker 7: especially that twenty I think the twenty two season is
Speaker 7: what bothers people the most because they were legit expectations.
Speaker 7: You had a quarterback that we've now learned should have
Speaker 7: been a first round pick. He had an excellent rookie year.
Speaker 7: He's going to, I think, takeoff in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: This year.
Speaker 7: You had a great defense that played great for most
Speaker 7: of the year and you wasted it. You finished second
Speaker 7: in the conference because he couldn't block anyone and in
Speaker 7: the play calling was terrible, and you know, they struggled
Speaker 7: against Tennessee and some of those high temple offenses. So
Speaker 7: you had a game at Ole Miss you should have won,
Speaker 7: and then last year you just you go boat raced
Speaker 7: in some games. So you definitely need to go and
Speaker 7: and try to punch back. It's going to be tough
Speaker 7: with this schedule, but I think it's I think with
Speaker 7: this schedule, if you can get to eight regular season
Speaker 7: wins and maybe go win that Bowl game. I mean
Speaker 7: that'd be a pretty huge accomplishment to win nine in
Speaker 7: your first year in the new look SEC and maybe
Speaker 7: try to even continue momentum.
Speaker 6: Next year.
Speaker 7: It's going to be the same SEC slate, just reverse
Speaker 7: home fields. So yeah, I mean, look, there's nothing to
Speaker 7: scoff at what they've done, you know, these last eight years,
Speaker 7: and that includes the last two being part of that
Speaker 7: Bowl history. But the fans want more.
Speaker 6: You can't really you can't fault him too much.
Speaker 1: What else jumped out of you from comments today? As
Speaker 1: I mentioned Stoop's comments, we've pretty much heard, but Brad
Speaker 1: White and Bush Hampden speaking to the fans today.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that I liked what Bush Candon was
Speaker 7: saying about the quarterback room. I think there's a lot
Speaker 7: of good stuff in there with Brock, and I liked
Speaker 7: how he was talking about he's an old school throwback guy,
Speaker 7: and that's kind of the vibe we've kind of got
Speaker 7: talking to him, right. I also think it was very
Speaker 7: interesting that he pointed out Cutter Bowley as one of
Speaker 7: the more impressive freshmens he's ever worked with. I think
Speaker 7: that's something to definitely take note of. I mean, look, hypothetically,
Speaker 7: Brock has a.
Speaker 6: Great year, He's a fourth year senior.
Speaker 7: He could help in the NFL draft with a week
Speaker 7: quarterback class, and they could be looking for a quarterback
Speaker 7: next year. I mean, in a perfect world, he's probably
Speaker 7: have Brock start for two. But if you don't get
Speaker 7: that perfect world, or Brock struggles and you're in a
Speaker 7: quarterback competition next year, like you know, that could be
Speaker 7: a guy. So I thought that was very very intriguing.
Speaker 7: I thought how we talked about maybe compensating some of
Speaker 7: the inexperience they haven't running back with Gavin Weinstatt and
Speaker 7: some packages, that was interesting. So that's what I kind
Speaker 7: of took away from him. And then with Brad White,
Speaker 7: I mean, not much new. His defense is very much
Speaker 7: you know, outside of adding Jim and Dewis Jhonson for.
Speaker 6: For Trevin Wallace, which.
Speaker 7: Is obviously big, but you know, that's a plug and
Speaker 7: play situation.
Speaker 6: He had some guys. You know, there wasn't too much.
Speaker 7: I think the two things that he said that stood
Speaker 7: out to me were one talking about that cornerback position.
Speaker 7: He made a really good point about how Max Harrison
Speaker 7: had one rep in twenty three or in twenty two,
Speaker 7: which is obviously an awful one, and then he comes
Speaker 7: in twenty three and he's a second team All SEC guy,
Speaker 7: five picks. And now you go down to Dallas and
Speaker 7: he's projected to be a first team All SDC guy.
Speaker 7: So it makes you feel maybe a little better about
Speaker 7: that competition they're having across the field, because at least
Speaker 7: there's more experience than that in those competitions and maybe
Speaker 7: someone emerges. And then, you know, just talking about Dean Walker,
Speaker 7: I mean, there's not much to say, but you know,
Speaker 7: anytime you could hear your defense corners say this guy
Speaker 7: can be the best in the country at what he does,
Speaker 7: you know, and we all know it's there, but anytime
Speaker 7: the coaches talking about a player like that, because you
Speaker 7: you know, it's Kentucky at the end of the day.
Speaker 7: You don't hear that very much at Kentucky Football, So
Speaker 7: I thought those were the two big things from him.
Speaker 7: But yeah, some intriguing stuff mixed in, and you know,
Speaker 7: we'll hear from all those guys a little bit more
Speaker 7: on Friday local media day here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a media day, Friday fan Day on Saturday.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and chat more with Aaron Gershan or
Speaker 1: the cash Balls in just a minute here on the
Speaker 1: Big Boon Sider six Servy Wlap Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. It is game night. We mentioned this earlier,
Speaker 1: La mia Ya. You'll hear more from players a little
Speaker 1: bit later on. We already heard from some of them
Speaker 1: as they look ahead to tonight's battle with the Cards.
Speaker 1: But in terms of Mark pope'stball Club, Aaron, we've had
Speaker 1: a chance to chat with some of these guys and
Speaker 1: we already knew their backstories, but talking about them with
Speaker 1: the guys coming in, you and I talked earlier after
Speaker 1: the luncheon. Today, I think I think this team is
Speaker 1: going to surprise some people pleasurely so, but more for
Speaker 1: defense than offense. And I think you agree with that.
Speaker 7: Oh, I do think this will be a really good
Speaker 7: offensive team and should be at least They're gonna be
Speaker 7: nights where they frustrate the hell out of you because inevitably,
Speaker 7: threes are just not going to fall. I mean, even Alabama,
Speaker 7: who for my money, has been the best offensive program
Speaker 7: in college basketball the last four to five years, have
Speaker 7: nights like they did at Roperino to an extent where
Speaker 7: where they're relying on threes and balls, the ball doesn't
Speaker 7: fall in and we lose. But I do think this
Speaker 7: team will be able to compensate for some of those
Speaker 7: off nights because they they're going to be able to
Speaker 7: defend unlike last year's group. I mean, you know, right
Speaker 7: off the bat, you have two defensive players the year
Speaker 7: winners for their conference A Marii Williams. When they wore
Speaker 7: three times. I understand it was in the you know,
Speaker 7: the CIA, but still three time defensive player of the
Speaker 7: Year in a conference.
Speaker 6: That's crazy. It's unheard of.
Speaker 7: I don't know if there's many people that have ever
Speaker 7: accomplished that in college basketball, to be honest with you.
Speaker 7: And then Lamont Butler, not only is he a defense
Speaker 7: the player of the year in the Mountain West last
Speaker 7: year that brought six teams to the tournament. But you know,
Speaker 7: he's played so many NCAA tournament games eleven and just
Speaker 7: the guy who he's not going to be faced by anything.
Speaker 7: And you know, some of the guys have talked about
Speaker 7: how he's been a real challenge to deal with in practice.
Speaker 7: Kirk currisso was telling us, like he's telling Butler. Some says, hey,
Speaker 7: Q stop, like it's July here, like dude, chill, Yeah, Kirk,
Speaker 7: what a personality that guy's got.
Speaker 6: But uh yeah.
Speaker 7: And then you know, take always a guy that you know,
Speaker 7: you always talk about his defense a little bit before
Speaker 7: his offense, even though I think his offense is actually underrated.
Speaker 7: So Jackson Robinson's the guy who's gotten some shout about being,
Speaker 7: you know, kind of an underrated defender. Brandon Garrison, who
Speaker 7: was a shop walker at Oklahoma State last year. So
Speaker 7: there's there's a lot to like with the defensive upside,
Speaker 7: And unlike the cal Pariers, they're working on it in
Speaker 7: the summer. So look, are they going to be a
Speaker 7: defensive juggernaut. I don't know about that, but I do
Speaker 7: think they're being overlooked a little bit in that realm.
Speaker 7: And that's partly because last year at the YU, their
Speaker 7: defense struggled. But I just think there's more depth here
Speaker 7: at Kentucky than he had at b YU.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And people need to remember defense begets offense,
Speaker 1: especially the way Pope wants to play it. He wants
Speaker 1: to get out, transition and shoot threes. Guys pulling up
Speaker 1: shooting threes at the other end of the break. I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna get used to seeing that as we
Speaker 1: did during the Patino era, right.
Speaker 7: Yeah, no doubt about it. They look they're going to take.
Speaker 7: I would love to know what the number of threes
Speaker 7: are going to take this year is going to be.
Speaker 7: I mean, I know BYU was second in the country
Speaker 7: last year, so it's gonna be up there. But yeah,
Speaker 7: and I think maybe one thing with you know, the
Speaker 7: defense that they're working on here. You know, if they're
Speaker 7: going to shoot a lot of threes, you've got to
Speaker 7: learn to defend them, right if you're going to be
Speaker 7: practicing them. Last year, what was the I mean, we
Speaker 7: know the defense all around the pick and roll.
Speaker 6: We can go on and on, but.
Speaker 7: How many wide open threes did they give up? I
Speaker 7: mean or just didn't close out on shooters? I mean
Speaker 7: not closing. I know Golkie hits them York shots, but
Speaker 7: not closing out on him.
Speaker 6: Cost the season.
Speaker 7: So you know, got got to feel pretty good about
Speaker 7: where they're at at this point. And you know, I
Speaker 7: understand that, and they should kind of moderate expectitions in
Speaker 7: year one, but that's not how the team's approaching things.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I mean, we talked about how bad Kentucky was defensively
Speaker 1: last year. There's no way to sugarcoat it. It's so
Speaker 1: much fun to watch an offense, but trying to watch
Speaker 1: a team outscore somebody is maddening, especially at this level,
Speaker 1: and then with the talent level they had last year.
Speaker 1: But I firmly believe that because of their defense here,
Speaker 1: they'll be in virtually every game this year.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: Now, like you said, can they score enough to win it?
Speaker 1: We'll find out, but they'll be in all of these games, right.
Speaker 7: I do think unlike last year, they're going to be
Speaker 7: games where, you know, it felt like every time the
Speaker 7: offense had a bad night last year was a lot.
Speaker 7: I mean, outside of I'm trying to think of one.
Speaker 7: I feel the Arkansas game out there, and Arkansas was
Speaker 7: not a good team last year. As we know that
Speaker 7: was about the only game that comes to the top
Speaker 7: of mind where their offense just sunk and they were
Speaker 7: able to pull it out. I mean, Auburn, they didn't
Speaker 7: play great offensive lead, but Antonio Reeves did and kind
Speaker 7: of carried it on that side. So Arkansas, they didn't
Speaker 7: play well offensively at all. They had twenty four points
Speaker 7: a halftime and they got a Gerty win out of that.
Speaker 7: Outside of that, they didn't do it all of last season,
Speaker 7: where I think this year again, with the style play
Speaker 7: they're gonna play, they're inevitablely going to have a game
Speaker 7: or two.
Speaker 6: Where they just don't score. Like when you.
Speaker 7: Rely on the three, it shows you sometimes and we've
Speaker 7: seen it again with Alabama, We've seen it with other
Speaker 7: teams that played.
Speaker 6: To that style. We thought with YU in.
Speaker 7: The nca Tournament last year unfortunately for them, But I
Speaker 7: do think there's enough defensive prowess to compensate and pick
Speaker 7: up some Gerty wins, which this team struggled to pick
Speaker 7: up last year.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the players really intrigues me, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's because I got a chance to go to
Speaker 1: England for the first time a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: was Amari Williams from not Aham, England, and that is,
Speaker 1: you know, the Sheriff of Nottingham kind of thing, which
Speaker 1: I I. England's a big country. Well, London's huge, England's
Speaker 1: not all that big. But Nottingham is two hours from London,
Speaker 1: so when you think about players from England, you would
Speaker 1: assume they come from the major metropolitan cities. But he
Speaker 1: went to a high school on a farm. It's actually
Speaker 1: known over there as a college. But anyhow, his trip
Speaker 1: serpentine as it is, from Nottingham, England, through London to
Speaker 1: Drexel and now Kentucky. I think this whole team is
Speaker 1: interesting like that, you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: Yeah, there are definitely a lot of cool stories, and
Speaker 7: you know, that's what you kind of get to with
Speaker 7: an older team, you know, got to have some season
Speaker 7: to them and some stories. But yeah, again I'm Marty Williams.
Speaker 7: I didn't actually I didn't put that together any was
Speaker 7: from England, but that he.
Speaker 1: Was two hours he told us that Sunday.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, I wasn't. Yeah, I guess that wasn't there
Speaker 7: when he said that. But that's that is wild that
Speaker 7: that's there. But you know, again, you're talking about a
Speaker 7: three times. I love all have to go researcher one day.
Speaker 7: How many guys in college basketball history won their Defensive
Speaker 7: Player of the Year award three times?
Speaker 5: And like the last in this era.
Speaker 7: You know, obviously probably happened maybe earlier in college basketball
Speaker 7: and guys would stay four years all the time, but
Speaker 7: like nowadays, like he's saying, I mean, I get it,
Speaker 7: it's not a great conference, but still to do it
Speaker 7: three times as well. So yeah, I think he's a
Speaker 7: guy that probably getting overlooked because he was the very
Speaker 7: first one they signed, so he's kind of got forgotten
Speaker 7: a little bit. I asked him about you joining an
Speaker 7: empty roster, and he kind of talked about how a
Speaker 7: lot of the guys that Pop sold him on here
Speaker 7: are sitting in the locker room. So you know, he's
Speaker 7: definitely a fascinating one. He's going to be their starting center.
Speaker 7: But also with the way that they play offense, which
Speaker 7: is very fast, take, I would assume the big thoughs
Speaker 7: like Amari, Brendan Garrison, they're gonna be rotating a lot.
Speaker 7: I mean, it's gonna be interesting to see what the
Speaker 7: minute distribution is. But Amari, I think him and Lamont
Speaker 7: are your two defensive anchors on there, and you know,
Speaker 7: front and backboard respectively. And you know, he's a big
Speaker 7: part of what they're going to do because if he
Speaker 7: if he struggles with the physicality, uh in the SEC
Speaker 7: about how they didn't really let him be all that
Speaker 7: physical in.
Speaker 6: The CIA at times. So if he he.
Speaker 7: Struggles with that, it'll hurt the trajectory of this team.
Speaker 7: But you know, if he if he doesn't, which I don't,
Speaker 7: I don't think he willed too much, he's going to
Speaker 7: be He's huge for this team. He's simply been overlooked.
Speaker 1: Huge. Literally he's seven feet tall. Yeah, so he'll be
Speaker 1: automatically one of the biggest players in the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 1: And he's already got the skills and the instincts.
Speaker 7: And that's the difference between a big fifth year in
Speaker 7: a in a big freshman like you know, nothing against
Speaker 7: Aaron Bradshaw, but the kid was scrawnie and you can
Speaker 7: kind of tell was going to need to put on
Speaker 7: some muscle right where this kid the muscle's there, the
Speaker 7: body's there. He kind of looked, you know, he kind
Speaker 7: of looks like some of the centers that Tennessee has
Speaker 7: had over the years. That have given Kentucky sid So, yeah,
Speaker 7: definitely you could. He's definitely a guy I think is
Speaker 7: being criminally underlooked. And you know, I really do. I've
Speaker 7: thought it for a while now, like, yeah, just because
Speaker 7: he was the first one. So and Lamon Fallow is
Speaker 7: another one. I think those two guys, because you know
Speaker 7: they don't have insane shooting numbers, they're getting overlooked. But
Speaker 7: don't overlook it when defense has been the killer for
Speaker 7: this team for several years now.
Speaker 1: You are correct, sir. He is Aaron Gershawn. He covers
Speaker 1: the Wildcats baseball, football basketball for the cast Balls. Follow
Speaker 1: him on x at a Gershwan ninety nine and pretty
Speaker 1: soon he and Billy Rutledge and I will be coming
Speaker 1: your way on the Statewide Show at ATM this in time.
Speaker 1: But that's not for a few more weeks. So for now,
Speaker 1: thank you, sir, and we'll talk to.
Speaker 6: You soon anytime. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: More football and basketball chatter on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on the Big Blue Siders six thirty
Speaker 1: w Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned, it is game night. Do you know that
Speaker 1: if you're a Kentucky basketball fan because tonight laugh of
Speaker 1: Melia coming up at nine o'clock. It's a tough start,
Speaker 1: but thank you television. Tough start for us older people,
Speaker 1: but if you're a UK basketball fan, you don't care
Speaker 1: because anytime the Cats and the Cards tip it off,
Speaker 1: it's going to be fun. And based on the way
Speaker 1: both teams have been playing, this should be a good game.
Speaker 1: And Twany Beckham, the general manager who put this team together,
Speaker 1: he said it best when he was recruiting guys to
Speaker 1: come play, asking them to come play. Once he got
Speaker 1: him signed up, he told him this is not an
Speaker 1: exhibition game. It is not just a celebrity game. We're
Speaker 1: playing to win it because hey, who doesn't want a
Speaker 1: million dollars to split up? So the Cats have been
Speaker 1: playing well, the Wildcats known as La famie is you know,
Speaker 1: and the Cards have been playing well. And because U
Speaker 1: OFL fans bought more tickets, they're going to play it
Speaker 1: in Freedom Hall tonight, which is cool, not the Young Center,
Speaker 1: but good old Freedom Hall. I got to think as well,
Speaker 1: there were Kentucky fans who bought tickets, so maybe the
Speaker 1: game would come to Freedom Hall. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: UK fans did well they put good crowds into rupp Arena.
Speaker 1: I don't know that the court is going to matter.
Speaker 1: It's just that probably more UK fans obviously when it
Speaker 1: comes to the game here in rupp Aerena. But you
Speaker 1: can watch it. I don't know if there's any radio
Speaker 1: on this at all, but it's going to be on
Speaker 1: one of the Fox Sports channels, so you can check
Speaker 1: it out. As we mentioned earlier, we got a chance
Speaker 1: to talk to several of the players yesterday morning. They
Speaker 1: gave up some of their Sunday morning to come talk
Speaker 1: to us about playing in this series. For coach Tyler Eulis,
Speaker 1: who talked to us about making decisions now as a
Speaker 1: head coach as opposed to a point guard.
Speaker 3: It honestly feels basically the same. I feel like I'm
Speaker 3: making the same type of decisions, same type of adjustments.
Speaker 3: You know, Coles pretty good at let me pretty much
Speaker 3: do whatever I wanted on the court and make decisions.
Speaker 3: So you know, for me, it's you know, drawing up
Speaker 3: the players in the huddle that I'm struggling with right now.
Speaker 1: How tough has it been there? Even at the sideline,
Speaker 1: You can't go in and make the past.
Speaker 8: You want.
Speaker 3: I haven't played in about, you know, five plus years now,
Speaker 3: so you know, I'm pretty used to it. And you know,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of fun just being with these guys
Speaker 3: and you know, trying to you know, put them in
Speaker 3: a position and you know they're doing great, you know,
Speaker 3: making me look good.
Speaker 1: One of the things we asked all the players about,
Speaker 1: especially the head coach, is why is this particular Kentucky team,
Speaker 1: this amalgamation, if you will, former Wildcats plus one? Why
Speaker 1: are they playing so well?
Speaker 3: I mean, these guys are professionals. I feel like everyone
Speaker 3: has something to prove, even though we've all played at
Speaker 3: the highest level. You know, these guys are coming here
Speaker 3: to you know, finish you know, things that we didn't
Speaker 3: get to finish while we play here at Kentucky. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just a good opportunity for us to you know,
Speaker 3: showcase you know who they are still as players, you know,
Speaker 3: just try to come together and win games.
Speaker 1: The twins are back playing together, Aaron and Andrew Harrison.
Speaker 1: And Andrew talked about or rather Aaron, yeah, I can
Speaker 1: tell them apart when they tell us who too. But
Speaker 1: Aaron talked about the fact that this team has been
Speaker 1: meshing and playing so well together.
Speaker 9: Ah, I think it's a it's pretty easy for us.
Speaker 9: Most of the guys here. We we aren't out here
Speaker 9: trying to prove anything individually. We aren't really trying to
Speaker 9: We're not playing against each other where you know, we
Speaker 9: all respect each other.
Speaker 4: We all know that.
Speaker 6: You know, we've all.
Speaker 9: Of us has been through so much basketball wise, and
Speaker 9: we can't really accomplish anything individually. So I think that
Speaker 9: being professional and having a team like this that's everyone's
Speaker 9: played at a high level before makes it very easy.
Speaker 1: One of the guys who's been playing exceedingly well, of course,
Speaker 1: Eric Bledshoe, who's had a long pro career. He talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that these guys have come together and
Speaker 1: they're playing as one.
Speaker 10: Think we've been playing great everybody, you know for the
Speaker 10: little time we've been together. How we jeal you know,
Speaker 10: came together and got that team coaraderie. I think it's awesome.
Speaker 1: So why do you think you've meshed so well so quickly?
Speaker 10: I think just the person they got on the team.
Speaker 10: Everybody unselfish, want to win. Everybody had awesome careers. So
Speaker 10: we at this point in our career where you know,
Speaker 10: we want to just come back and have fun and
Speaker 10: you know, just play for each other.
Speaker 1: One of the guys who played multiple times against the
Speaker 1: Louisville Cardinals was Willie Caley Stein. He was not a
Speaker 1: one and done. He could have been, but decided to
Speaker 1: stick around for three seasons, and he talked about the
Speaker 1: fact that he and his former teammates and guys and
Speaker 1: who were just part of the family have been playing
Speaker 1: well together.
Speaker 11: We've been playing like we've been together for ten years.
Speaker 11: I don't know, it's actually kind of incredible how we're
Speaker 11: gelling and such a short period of time. I feel
Speaker 11: like everybody's pretty much bought in to the common goal
Speaker 11: and like nobody Carris who scores all the points or
Speaker 11: who does what. It's just like go out here and
Speaker 11: try to, you know, beat people as as much as
Speaker 11: we can before like that ending hits. I think that's
Speaker 11: like the whole goal is like get up as much
Speaker 11: as you can, so like maybe almost impossible for them
Speaker 11: to have like a twenty point swing or you know,
Speaker 11: they's I'm not saying it's impossible, it's possible. We've seen it,
Speaker 11: but you know, the better but the better the odds are.
Speaker 1: Why do you think you guys are messed so well
Speaker 1: so quickly.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 11: I mean we're all we're all from the cal Araa,
Speaker 11: So you know, that's what we had to do when
Speaker 11: we're here. It's quick. You gotta you gotta figure it
Speaker 11: out quick. So you know, we got the bootprint for that.
Speaker 11: There's a lot of dinners, a lot of like, you know,
Speaker 11: just being around each other and and doing things outside
Speaker 11: of the gym. You know, me and Nate and BC
Speaker 11: golf a lot. And so now we was out there
Speaker 11: and you get to you know, kind of know guys
Speaker 11: on the different planes.
Speaker 1: I mentioned Tyler Eulis and Beckham, the general manager who
Speaker 1: appointed Tyler the head coach, told us what he thought
Speaker 1: of the job the former UK point guard is doing.
Speaker 12: Tyler's doing an amazing job. I mean, he's of course
Speaker 12: an incredible basketball mind. He lays so well to these
Speaker 12: players and just the way he gets his message through
Speaker 12: the way he's very pays attention to detail with the
Speaker 12: guys and the other teams that we play. I'm just
Speaker 12: having a great time to sit back watching him do
Speaker 12: what he do. I mean at talents. I think he's
Speaker 12: got a long, long journey in his coaching career.
Speaker 1: The plan is for Tyler Ulis to join John Caliperi
Speaker 1: in Arkansas, though he posted on I think it was
Speaker 1: Instagram that if anybody has anything that might keep him
Speaker 1: here in town, he would stay. But he is a
Speaker 1: professional head coach in the making. Willie Callstein talked about
Speaker 1: playing for Tyler as a head coach.
Speaker 11: Yeah, no, I think that was always in the cars. Honestly,
Speaker 11: He's always been a great coret general and like he
Speaker 11: can talk to anybody in the room, so that, like
Speaker 11: I feel like that's important as a head coach, being
Speaker 11: able to kind of know how to coach different guys,
Speaker 11: different playing styles, different personalities, and he's one of those
Speaker 11: guys that can talk in any room. So he speaks
Speaker 11: the language of both sides, and so like him crossing
Speaker 11: number to that coaching side is going to be easy.
Speaker 1: Nate Cistina, the former Kentucky big Man who did not
Speaker 1: get to play in the NCA tournament unfortunately because of COVID,
Speaker 1: is part of this rivalry. He talked about Tyler Ewis
Speaker 1: as the head coach.
Speaker 13: Absolutely from the jump it's been you know, ty told
Speaker 13: us that he hasn't lost. It's important that he maintains this,
Speaker 13: and you know, especially in the coaching world, this is
Speaker 13: great bragging rights for him.
Speaker 1: We talked to Cistina just before he was going out
Speaker 1: to play golf with Willie Carley Stein. He said that
Speaker 1: coming back and being a part of this is pretty
Speaker 1: much what he expected.
Speaker 13: Absolutely. I mean, Kentucky basketball fans are I'm sure you
Speaker 13: guys are well aware. If crazy is the right word,
Speaker 13: well maybe just you know, enthusiastic.
Speaker 6: There.
Speaker 13: I think the best college basketball fans in the world
Speaker 13: and some of the best basketball fans in the world
Speaker 13: even as a pro. I mean, this is a tournament
Speaker 13: that's been put together for how many years and they're
Speaker 13: packing gyms out. There was eleven thousand tickets or something
Speaker 13: sold out. So first summer basketball in Kentucky to have,
Speaker 13: you know, eleven twelve thousand people is big time.
Speaker 1: Andrew Harrison, the twin who was the point guard, remember
Speaker 1: Aaron the shooter. Andrew the point guard, told us that
Speaker 1: he believed and this these are my words, the secret sauce,
Speaker 1: if you will. One of the unexpected pleasures that this
Speaker 1: team has realized is Ennis Cantor's brother Karim, who has
Speaker 1: played maybe as well as anybody on this team.
Speaker 9: No one really expected him to do what he's doing.
Speaker 9: But I'll played against him and I know how good
Speaker 9: he was, so I know people are going to be
Speaker 9: sleeping on him a little bit, just based off the
Speaker 9: other names on the roster. But as you can see,
Speaker 9: he's a really good player. We could really depend on
Speaker 9: them to score and stuff, and we need him too,
Speaker 9: so happy to have him on a team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cannor played well for Xavier and he's been playing
Speaker 1: well for for me. I Canner talked about the fact
Speaker 1: that while he didn't play at Kentucky and play against
Speaker 1: U of L, he knows about rivalries and he's happy
Speaker 1: to be a part of this one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm very excited about it. I have heard enough
Speaker 4: stories for it to feel real. I'm glad I could
Speaker 4: be a part of it. You know, I've played a
Speaker 4: couple of rivary games in college play for Xavier, and
Speaker 4: I rivaly with Cincinnati, you know, Blue versus Red Blue
Speaker 4: Or is read here, So I'm glad I'm on the
Speaker 4: right side of the rivaly here. Yeah, I'm excited. I mean,
Speaker 4: both teams got talent. I think it's gonna be a
Speaker 4: fun game. I hope we can be on the winning side.
Speaker 1: There will be a great crowd tonight, both sides. You know,
Speaker 1: blue gets in. It's Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to be I think probably split down the middle,
Speaker 1: might be a little more towards U of L. But
Speaker 1: I think it'll be sort of a fifty to fifty deal.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the way the crowd, the way the
Speaker 1: fans have embraced this lite for me a team is
Speaker 1: something that Andrew Harrison said has made their return to
Speaker 1: the Bluegrass so special.
Speaker 9: Honestly, it's just like none I've ever seen before. You
Speaker 9: come here, you get so much love. I mean, I
Speaker 9: haven't been here in eight years. So when you come
Speaker 9: back here and get a lot of love, get a
Speaker 9: lot of know, just memories, You're just happy.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 9: You realize how much fun you had when you were here.
Speaker 9: You don't really appreciate it when you're here. When you
Speaker 9: come back, you really get a chance to appreciate and
Speaker 9: look of look at all the stuff that you did
Speaker 9: accomplish and with the guys you really grew up great
Speaker 9: bond into it.
Speaker 1: So you heard earlier from twenty Beckham, the general manager
Speaker 1: who put this team together, and one of the things
Speaker 1: that has pleased him, along with the way his ball
Speaker 1: club has been playing, is the way the fans have
Speaker 1: turned out embraced this team, and he's enjoyed seeing the
Speaker 1: way his players have responded to the crowd.
Speaker 12: You know, looking on the guys faces, and you know
Speaker 12: when they run out of the tunnel and see all
Speaker 12: the fans in the Roperena or just even around town.
Speaker 12: You know, the dinners we've had just been down in
Speaker 12: the public. You could just tell these guys I've missed that,
Speaker 12: and so I'm just thankful that these guys are back
Speaker 12: in the joint.
Speaker 1: Those are some of the guys on the La Familla
Speaker 1: Ball Club who will play tonight against those Louisville Cardinals.
Speaker 1: We'll have more of the Big Blue Insider coming up
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider,
Speaker 1: final segment of our program, Gonna Shift you back from
Speaker 1: basketball to football. Mark Stoops and his coordinators speaking at
Speaker 1: today's kickoff luncheon over at Kroger Field, where the Wildcats
Speaker 1: will start their season very soon against Southern Myss jump
Speaker 1: right into SEC players. Jeff Percoro pointed out with South
Speaker 1: Carolina Georgia. It is a typically tough schedule, but as
Speaker 1: I said, it's when do the games come up? You know. Again,
Speaker 1: the calendar I think is working against Kentucky and it's
Speaker 1: just lucky to draw a luck at the computer. But
Speaker 1: this is going to be a challenge. But if they're
Speaker 1: up to it, this could be a really special season,
Speaker 1: especially looking down at those last couple of weeks going
Speaker 1: to Texas and then playing the Louisville Cardinals. But what
Speaker 1: some of the comments earlier today reference the offense. Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops talking about the fact that he wants more tempo,
Speaker 1: which means more plays and that was a problem last
Speaker 1: year as.
Speaker 2: We progressed, as we start recruiting impact players, you know,
Speaker 2: guys like that that need touches. You know. One of
Speaker 2: the conversations Bush and I talk about now is number one. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the urgent to get plays off faster. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: no secret. Heck, before Liam, you know we made a
Speaker 2: change or anything like that, we were talking about that
Speaker 2: because I didn't like it last year. I didn't like
Speaker 2: the fact that we're always getting down to one, two, three,
Speaker 2: four seconds left on the place and playclock to get
Speaker 2: plays off. We have playmakers that we have to get
Speaker 2: ball now, you get them a variety of ways. And
Speaker 2: we're all a team, right. Defense needs to get some
Speaker 2: three and outs, we've got to get field positioned in
Speaker 2: special teams. Offense has to get first downs. The more
Speaker 2: first downs you get, the more plays you get off
Speaker 2: the more guys are going to touch the ball.
Speaker 1: Bush Hampden of course coming in as the OC, bringing
Speaker 1: a new offense and this is important now new terminology,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, Stoops toyed with the idea
Speaker 1: of having Hamden convert to the terminology that Kentucky was
Speaker 1: already using. This is like a second language for these players.
Speaker 1: And keep in mind now that the guys on offense
Speaker 1: we've had to learn new terminology each of the last
Speaker 1: three years. At least the guys who played earlier under
Speaker 1: Liam Cohen recognized what he was bringing back. But this
Speaker 1: is the fourth offense change in the last four year,
Speaker 1: really five for five. So anyhow, Stoops decided that no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna let Hamden bring in his terminology because of
Speaker 1: the new rules which allow the coaches to work with
Speaker 1: the players. As Jeff and I talked here in July,
Speaker 1: so the players had much more time to learn the terminology,
Speaker 1: and Stoops pointed out it was really better for the
Speaker 1: OC because he's going to be making decisions under fire.
Speaker 2: The biggest thing was is I wanted him. I wanted
Speaker 2: Bush to be comfortable making those plays because when that
Speaker 2: pressure is on, your habits are going to come straight
Speaker 2: to the surface, and his terminology, his plant call, on
Speaker 2: his comfort level. I want it to be with him.
Speaker 1: That to me makes a lot of sense, quite frankly.
Speaker 1: So when they talked about offense, they talked about, of course,
Speaker 1: to start quarterbacks. As Tom Leech asked Bush Hamden about
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks not so much Rock vanderg group, but about
Speaker 1: the room itself.
Speaker 8: I also believe this. I think there's three other guys
Speaker 8: in the room that have a lot to offer as well.
Speaker 8: And you know, Cutter Bowley, the freshman we brought in,
Speaker 8: is as talented as a freshman as I've been around.
Speaker 8: Gavin Wims out of transfer as a big six, four
Speaker 8: to two and thirty pound player, and bo Allen's really
Speaker 8: done a nice job taking the next step as well.
Speaker 8: So excited about the competition throughout the offense, but certainly
Speaker 8: at that position.
Speaker 1: My pal Jeremy Jarman more than once on this show
Speaker 1: has talked about the fact that he believes there will
Speaker 1: be and there is right now a real battle for
Speaker 1: the quarterback job. And in fact, on the UK Sports
Speaker 1: Network podcast that he and I recorded late last week
Speaker 1: you can find it online right now, Jeremy talked about
Speaker 1: just that there is talent in that QB room, as
Speaker 1: Hamden just said, but it does look like Brock Vandergriff
Speaker 1: will be the starter this year. I mean, he could
Speaker 1: be beaten out or you know, if he doesn't stay
Speaker 1: healthy all that stuff. But Bush Hampden spoke glowingly of
Speaker 1: Brock Vandergriff.
Speaker 8: It made it sound as though it was his job
Speaker 8: to lose. I really feel this about Brock. I mean,
Speaker 8: he's an old school throwback type player and he's a
Speaker 8: guy that this is really important to him. From a
Speaker 8: leadership standpoint. I think that was always the starting point
Speaker 8: anytime you have a guy that's coming in as a
Speaker 8: transfer and the expectations how he can mesh with the
Speaker 8: rest of the team. I think he's done a tremendous
Speaker 8: He's a player that's got a really nice skill set,
Speaker 8: can run it, can throw it. We're certainly excited about
Speaker 8: him continuing to take the next step.
Speaker 1: Lots of talent in that QB room, but lots of
Speaker 1: talent in the running backs room, and that is a
Speaker 1: huge question mark, as Hamden pointed out, and he knows
Speaker 1: this because he's done his homework. It's a Kentucky program
Speaker 1: that has relied heavily and importantly on talented running backs
Speaker 1: for the last at least seven years.
Speaker 8: These guys have had seven straight years of a thousand
Speaker 8: yard rusher, and being in this conference, you know the
Speaker 8: physicality that they've played with upfront and what the backs
Speaker 8: have done. And so certainly a lot of decisions have
Speaker 8: been made in the offseason. Again, one thing with us
Speaker 8: even taking Gavin Wimsat was him supplementing some of the runs.
Speaker 8: So we'd like to hand the ball off close to
Speaker 8: thirty times a game. We're always thinking about, Okay, how
Speaker 8: many times is this guy going to carry it in?
Speaker 8: That guy again, We've got a bunch of backs that
Speaker 8: we think can be successful at this level, and we're
Speaker 8: excited to get him going.
Speaker 1: That's Kentucky's new OC Bush Hampden. Now they've got the
Speaker 1: veteran Brad White coming back. On defense, he admitted he's
Speaker 1: got a lot of depth. He's got returning athletes, guys
Speaker 1: he knows he can count on. But he lost Trevin Wallace,
Speaker 1: the talented linebacker who left after his third year and
Speaker 1: now is with the Carolina Panthers. But he's got a
Speaker 1: guy who steps in for Trevin, and not many programs
Speaker 1: can say that they've got a former All American who
Speaker 1: came through the portal to step right into his starting job.
Speaker 1: Jam and Dumas Johnson at inside linebacker. Watch for him.
Speaker 1: You'll see him right Away's number two from Hyattsville, Maryland,
Speaker 1: but was a Georgia Bulldog, lost his starting job because
Speaker 1: of injury and couldn't quite Georgia just recruited over him.
Speaker 1: So he was looking for a better opportunity. Found it
Speaker 1: in Lexington and Brad White is glad.
Speaker 14: He did with trevn in a third round draft pick
Speaker 14: and needing to to sort of bolster that inside back
Speaker 14: of room and to be able to bring Pop in.
Speaker 14: Uh brings a lot of sec game experience. He's his
Speaker 14: short era of quickness and his strength and his strike.
Speaker 14: It's it's really unique and it's special. And then he's
Speaker 14: surrounded by guys in that room. Like de Eric Jackson,
Speaker 14: who have been in this system a long time, so
Speaker 14: they can act like translators as he's sort of processing
Speaker 14: through our defensive terminology.
Speaker 1: White and Stoops talked about the depths coming back on defense,
Speaker 1: but they also talked about the fact that they are
Speaker 1: not satisfied. We're just trying to do the same things
Speaker 1: they've done each and every year. There have to be
Speaker 1: some tweaks every single year.
Speaker 14: You have to go back and you have to look
Speaker 14: and say, okay, listen, what tweaks can we make If
Speaker 14: if you just sit there and say, we're going to
Speaker 14: be stagnant and we're going to just keep doing the
Speaker 14: same thing over and over. Offenses are too good and
Speaker 14: you know, systems are too good, so we have to
Speaker 14: have small weeks in there. I think the guys have
Speaker 14: adjusted well to those. We've been able to work on
Speaker 14: some of those newer things throughout the summer, but also understanding, hey,
Speaker 14: what are we at the core? How can we play
Speaker 14: fast and letting those guys play fast and physical?
Speaker 1: All right? That I'll do it. Thanks to my guest
Speaker 1: Jeff Picore Aaron Gershawan. Tomorrow we'll talk more about what
Speaker 1: happens tonight with me. That's it. Good night from the
Speaker 1: garage in Lexington. Joey, do you like movies about gladiators? Joey,
Speaker 1: have you ever been in a in a Turkish prison
Speaker 4: Name