Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Lowinsider. Dick Gabriel with you on
Speaker 1: a Thursday edition of our program. Coming up tonight, lots
Speaker 1: of cat's talk. As always, at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from a former Wildcat, Jalen Whitlow, who
Speaker 1: played quarterback in Joker Phillips system his Jokers last year
Speaker 1: and then played under Mark Stoops and Stoops' first season
Speaker 1: at Kentucky. So in twenty twelve and twenty thirteen. Those
Speaker 1: were some rough times. Whitlow played fairly well for teams
Speaker 1: that were just overmatched and out manned. He transferred to
Speaker 1: Eastern Illinois, which was in the Ohio Valley Conference at
Speaker 1: the time, and believe it or not, still is. It's
Speaker 1: up in Charleston, Illinois and is probably best known at
Speaker 1: least among people who have KEP kept an eye on
Speaker 1: that program for a while as the alma mater of
Speaker 1: Tony Romo and in fact, in a huge game toward
Speaker 1: the end of Roy Kidds's career, I remember e KU
Speaker 1: went up there needing a win over Eastern Illinois to
Speaker 1: remain in a hunt and maybe to win what would
Speaker 1: have been Roy's last OVC championship. If memory serves me,
Speaker 1: and Romo scored on some incredibly athletic play, got himself
Speaker 1: into the end zone, and the closing seconds kind of
Speaker 1: broke our hearts because we were hoping that Roy kid
Speaker 1: could win that last OVC championship. But that's Eastern Illinois
Speaker 1: and that's where Jalen Witlow ended up and a couple
Speaker 1: of really nice seasons up there. Since then, he has
Speaker 1: become a high school coach, a trainer of quarterbacks, and
Speaker 1: has written a book about being recruited and that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So we'll chat with him at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. Coming up. In hour number two, Ryan
Speaker 1: Black of the Career Journal covers the UK beat for
Speaker 1: the CJ. Also covered the Kentucky Derby, as everybody who
Speaker 1: writes for the Courier Journal. It's all hands on deck
Speaker 1: that week at Churchill Down, really for two weeks at
Speaker 1: Churchill Downs, and justin Rowland of Cats Illustrated part of
Speaker 1: the Rivals Network, we'll talk with us about the expansion
Speaker 1: of the Kentucky football roster and the basketball roster as well,
Speaker 1: which now officially includes Rhys Potter. You heard him talking
Speaker 1: on the show the other night. He has since made
Speaker 1: the rounds of other media outlets, but he has signed,
Speaker 1: so Kentucky was allowed to follow through with the official
Speaker 1: press release. Although we all found out I think Sunday night.
Speaker 1: I think David Sisk might have had it first for
Speaker 1: Cats Illustrated and the Rivals Network. This is a guy
Speaker 1: will clearly be a depth guy. I don't know how
Speaker 1: many minutes he's going to command. He was a nice
Speaker 1: player in high school Region eleventh region player of the
Speaker 1: Year out of election and Catholic eighteen points nearly nine
Speaker 1: rebounds a game, a team captain who went on to
Speaker 1: as you know, Miami of Ohio and played well there,
Speaker 1: but got the opportunity to come home. He stepped into
Speaker 1: the portal, wanted to come to Kentucky, as he told
Speaker 1: us the other night, But even when he got the
Speaker 1: offer from Mark Pope, he kind of slow played it.
Speaker 1: You know, he wasn't trying to maneuver himself at all.
Speaker 1: But he did the smart thing, and he thought about
Speaker 1: it and really studied the situation and then decided he
Speaker 1: would become the eighty eighth UK player from the city
Speaker 1: of Lexington. And that doesn't seem like a lot. But
Speaker 1: I mentioned this a couple of times this week on
Speaker 1: the show, Joeby Hall told me, and I got to
Speaker 1: think other coaches have mentioned the same look. Just because
Speaker 1: a kid is from Lexingon, it doesn't mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you want to burn a scolly on him just because
Speaker 1: he's going to be excited to play for the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: It's got to be somebody who can help you win.
Speaker 1: And as Joeb told me, he said he only took
Speaker 1: a kid he thought could either play a lot or
Speaker 1: start because there's so much pressure on local players to
Speaker 1: get minutes to get playing time. So eighty eight players
Speaker 1: all time from the city of Lexingon, and now he
Speaker 1: is part of a seven member class of newcomers to
Speaker 1: go along with Denzel Aberdeen, Mohammed Diabate from Alabama, Andrea Jellovich,
Speaker 1: Jalen Low, Jayden Quaintons, and Cam Williams. Jayden Quainton's appeared
Speaker 1: on Aaron Torres podcast yesterday. He is, of course rehabbing
Speaker 1: from knee surgery. Quaints from the Cleveland area and had
Speaker 1: committed to Kentucky as you may well remember, under John Calipari,
Speaker 1: but when Caliperi left, Quayton's asked for his relief from
Speaker 1: release from his scholarship and he got it. Winds up
Speaker 1: at Arizona State. Had a nice year, but in late
Speaker 1: February he went down with a torn acl in his
Speaker 1: right knee as he was driving to the bucket. He
Speaker 1: had surgery on March nineteenth, and his rehabbing now, and
Speaker 1: he told Torres, rehab is coming along well. He's working
Speaker 1: on his flexibility and the goal is to become ready
Speaker 1: to play ready, as he said, for contact essentially in
Speaker 1: practicing and pickup games by September. And if that's the case,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to put the cart before the
Speaker 1: proverbial horse, but if that's the case, then you think
Speaker 1: he would be ready for the season opener. But you
Speaker 1: know as well as I they're going to take it
Speaker 1: really slow with his kid and make sure he's one
Speaker 1: hundred percent before he becomes at least on the floor
Speaker 1: a Kentucky Wildcat. He's a Kentucky Wildcat now. He has
Speaker 1: signed and he talked with Torres about why UK was
Speaker 1: the choice. When he came through the portal.
Speaker 2: I had to find a program I felt fit my
Speaker 2: play style a little bit better, and I felt like
Speaker 2: Kentucky was that perfect spot. You know, they have a
Speaker 2: better basketball environment as well. You know, they have a
Speaker 2: lot more fans support, so I felt like that was
Speaker 2: a big part of it as well as, yeah, just
Speaker 2: fitting my place style a little bit better so I
Speaker 2: could show off my versatility more and you know, kind
Speaker 2: of flourish in a different role.
Speaker 1: Obviously, Quaintans knew all about the Wildcats from when he
Speaker 1: was previously recruited. He had previously committed and signed, so
Speaker 1: that familiarity really played a large role in his decision
Speaker 1: to essentially come back to Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Already did my official visit. I had unofficial visits there
Speaker 2: as well, so I'm very familiar with, you know, the
Speaker 2: fan support that's there. Even when I was on my visit,
Speaker 2: you know how many people were there getting to see
Speaker 2: the court and the energy that surrounds the program. So
Speaker 2: that was already there beforehand that I already got to see.
Speaker 2: And then the new coaching staff as well, they just
Speaker 2: kind of showed a lot of support and they felt
Speaker 2: like it felt like they really wanted here. It wasn't
Speaker 2: like I was committed previously, so they thought the defense
Speaker 2: wanted to be there, but like they thought I fit
Speaker 2: very well into their system and I could really help
Speaker 2: them make like make a difference next year.
Speaker 1: That's Jaden Quainton's courtesy of the Aaron Torres podcast, And
Speaker 1: it's just going to take a while for him to
Speaker 1: get back to where he was before he was injured.
Speaker 1: At Arizona State, he played about thirty minutes a game,
Speaker 1: average nine and a half points, averaged two and a
Speaker 1: half block shots, and eight rebound So that's the size
Speaker 1: that you've been hearing about. When you consider the new
Speaker 1: roster and Mark Pope and company have put together, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a bigger, more physical Kentucky team. Before
Speaker 1: we hit the break, we've been talking this week about
Speaker 1: the portal. Of course, we talk about that every week
Speaker 1: in NIL and was talking with the Sean Woods about
Speaker 1: it on the show last night, and he sent me
Speaker 1: a clip from a podcast where Penny Hardaway was talking
Speaker 1: to Mike Miller, remember him from Florida. Really good player
Speaker 1: at Florida out of South Dakota, I believe, and went
Speaker 1: on to a good career in the NBA. But Penny Hardaway,
Speaker 1: now the head coach at Memphis, was talking about it
Speaker 1: was kind of like one of these kids today kinds
Speaker 1: of comments. But he talked about how challenging it is
Speaker 1: when you were trying to coach kids who are making
Speaker 1: all kinds of money.
Speaker 3: We could give up to pass the ball, rebound it.
Speaker 4: Come on, man, I mean when you were coaching here
Speaker 4: with me, you understand how hard it is being basketball
Speaker 4: savants and guys that played the game. Mike, you came
Speaker 4: up like the same way we did, grinding everything out.
Speaker 4: Nothing was given to you how to get it and
Speaker 4: to see it. Now it's way different from seven years
Speaker 4: ago when you were first with me, Like, now it's
Speaker 4: to pay someone millions of dollars and then he might
Speaker 4: come to practice and go, I don't feel like practicing today,
Speaker 4: Or if he's out there practicing, he's not getting back
Speaker 4: on defense. And if you make the team run, he
Speaker 4: still might be the slowest job. He might not be sprinting.
Speaker 4: So you make the team continus he run, you just
Speaker 4: got to kick him out of the gym and you
Speaker 4: give him a million dollars. So to me, that's just
Speaker 4: not what we were raised on.
Speaker 3: It's just how it is today.
Speaker 1: Up next, craziness in the NBA, and one of those
Speaker 1: big games last night involved a former Wildcat. Also, Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick is dealing with what one of his former players
Speaker 1: calls a distraction, something that they tried at all costs
Speaker 1: to avoid when they were all together up in New England.
Speaker 1: And Tom Brady checks in on Shador Sanders. He's been
Speaker 1: accused of having something to do with Sanders dropping in
Speaker 1: the NFL. We'll hear what Brady has to say about
Speaker 1: that next on six point thirty WLP Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Blue Insider. Coming up at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the hour, Jaln Whitlow, the former Kentucky quarterback, will look
Speaker 1: back on the final days of the Joker Phillips era,
Speaker 1: but the early days of the Mark Stoops era, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk to Jalen about the book he's written about
Speaker 1: being recruited as a college football player. A little bit
Speaker 1: later on Ryan Black at the Courier Journal and Justin
Speaker 1: Rowland of Cats Illustrated. If you follow the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: I know around here not a lot of people like
Speaker 1: the NBA, but they get into it when the playoffs begin.
Speaker 1: It has been crazy so far, with a road team
Speaker 1: in the playoffs winning like six times, including the New
Speaker 1: York Knickerbockers twice, beating the Boston Celtics in Boston. I
Speaker 1: mean they were just dismissed. The Knicks were about midway
Speaker 1: through the year, looked like they might make a run,
Speaker 1: and now they're like nope, and the Celtics are the
Speaker 1: defending champs. But the somehow the Knicks have come through,
Speaker 1: including last night when the Celtics were down a point
Speaker 1: but had the ball after a Jalen bruns and free
Speaker 1: throw made it ninety one to ninety, and the Celts
Speaker 1: did not call time out, came down, put the ball
Speaker 1: in the hands, of course of Jason Tatum, and then well,
Speaker 1: the Knicks depended on defense. Here's the call from Knicks
Speaker 1: radio Tyler Murray with.
Speaker 5: The call second three, twelve for BRUNSI got them both.
Speaker 5: That one was a swish. Knicks by one, ninety one
Speaker 5: to ninety, Celtics not using the timeout. Tatum across McCourt
Speaker 5: with ten, top of the ky with eight defended by Robinson,
Speaker 5: was seven right wing, three across over foul line with
Speaker 5: four left block step back stole it by Bridges, Pridges
Speaker 5: sucks it down fourth. They've done it again.
Speaker 6: They've done it again.
Speaker 5: The New York Knicks take both in Boston and a
Speaker 5: two only to.
Speaker 1: The Mecca Now that's how it sounded to Knicks fans.
Speaker 1: Here's what it sounded like on Celtics radio with Sean grand.
Speaker 6: Cross half court, Tatum behind the Horford screen, Tatum five seconds,
Speaker 6: Tatum at the freight throw line, Tatum falling away in
Speaker 6: the baseline is passed block by Bridges, and the Knicks
Speaker 6: have done it again. The Celtics do not get a
Speaker 6: shot away, and the New York Knicks, written off as
Speaker 6: a championship contender midway through this season, have just recorded
Speaker 6: three extraordinary victories on the road to put themselves up
Speaker 6: two games to none in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Speaker 1: Remember, these Knicks traded former Wildcat Julius Randall to Minnesota
Speaker 1: and in that deal they got Carl Anthony Towns, and
Speaker 1: it turned out to be a really good deal for
Speaker 1: the Knicks. And in fact, Towns last night had twenty
Speaker 1: one points and seventeen rebounds, so a huge night for
Speaker 1: the former Wildcat. Wildcat, always a Wildcat. There are no
Speaker 1: former Wildcats right now on the Celtics roster. There is
Speaker 1: a Kentucky connection, Luke Cornet playing for the Celtics. Luke's
Speaker 1: dad is Frank Cornet, who played at election and Catholic
Speaker 1: went on to play at Vandy and then met Tracy,
Speaker 1: his wife, who went finished her schooling at uk tot.
Speaker 1: One point, she was the morning news anchor at w
Speaker 1: l EX here in town and now works TV in Nashville.
Speaker 1: And Frank had a long NBA career. Now his son
Speaker 1: is playing in the NBA. But that's the only Kentucky
Speaker 1: connection there. But still I always like to listen to
Speaker 1: the radio calls on those last second shots from both sides.
Speaker 1: That was kind of fun. I mentioned Bill Belichick, and
Speaker 1: of course there's all kind of chatter about him and
Speaker 1: his girlfriend and whether or not she handled things properly
Speaker 1: during the interview, and you know in her background, she's
Speaker 1: making all kinds of money now in real estate since
Speaker 1: she started dating Belichick. Say what you will, judge how
Speaker 1: you might if you will, about all of this. What
Speaker 1: I find the most interesting is that none of this
Speaker 1: has anything to do with Belichick coaching football at North Carolina. Now,
Speaker 1: this interview with CBS was supposed to be as much
Speaker 1: about his book as anything, but it has become a distraction.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying just saying that a lot of
Speaker 1: people who used to play for Belichick are saying that
Speaker 1: people around the situation. And one of those guys who
Speaker 1: commented was Julian Edelman. He was on with Colin Cowhard
Speaker 1: on Fox Radio. And Edelman who played at Kent State
Speaker 1: and became it was a quarterback option QB became a
Speaker 1: tremendous receiver on those great Patriot teams. He talked about
Speaker 1: the fact that it was becoming a distraction, something they
Speaker 1: tried to avoid. He took all measure to avoid. In
Speaker 1: New England.
Speaker 7: The number one thing we used to talk about all
Speaker 7: the time in New England was distractions. Let's not make distractions.
Speaker 7: The game's already as hard as it is to prepare
Speaker 7: for to play, to coach and and you know, regardless
Speaker 7: of what her role is. Jordan h Yeah, I thought
Speaker 7: he got an unfair public opinion on the whole thing,
Speaker 7: because that happens all the time. Sure time we're doing
Speaker 7: behind the scenes this that you got someone who represents you,
Speaker 7: they're gonna jump in. But now that it's it's gained
Speaker 7: and it's snowball to the what it's become right now
Speaker 7: where we're talking about it three weeks later, it's becoming
Speaker 7: a distraction.
Speaker 1: So that's what.
Speaker 7: I'm sure that's what we all think right now. This
Speaker 7: is becoming a distraction. We gotta we gotta gotta gotta
Speaker 7: practice what we preach.
Speaker 1: Here not a bad point by Edelman, who played as
Speaker 1: a collegiate against Kentucky, and I always go back to
Speaker 1: this story. It's one of my favorite stories that my man,
Speaker 1: Jeremy Jarmon told once we were talking about the interview
Speaker 1: process prior to the National Football League Draft that he
Speaker 1: went through, of course, and was taken by Washington, the
Speaker 1: Washington Football Club, and he was asked by I don't
Speaker 1: know which team might have been Washington, to name a
Speaker 1: player who impressed him the most with their knowledge of
Speaker 1: the game, an opposing player, and without hesitation, Jarman said,
Speaker 1: Julian Edelman, of course, was the QB at the time
Speaker 1: for an option Kent State team, and Edelman played well
Speaker 1: against Kentucky and the Wildcats had to dig deep to
Speaker 1: beat that Kent State team. But Jeremy told me that
Speaker 1: that was the answer he immediately gave. And it's surprised
Speaker 1: whoever asked him the question he was expecting. Whoever was
Speaker 1: an answer about some mighty SEC player or a player
Speaker 1: on a mighty SEC team, but instead it was an
Speaker 1: undersized QB went on to play receiver, never batted an eye.
Speaker 1: Edelman didn't about changing positions, but it was an undersized
Speaker 1: QB from a MAC team. And of course when you
Speaker 1: watched him play, you know he wasn't a burner, he
Speaker 1: wasn't huge as a receiver, wasn't a monster, but he
Speaker 1: knew how to get open, how to make plays and
Speaker 1: as a result, was part of that championship run up
Speaker 1: in New England. So I always love that answer. And
Speaker 1: when I heard Edelman making comments about Belichick, I had
Speaker 1: to sit up and take notice. Speaking of Belichick, Tom
Speaker 1: Brady was talking about not North Carolina, not Belichick, but
Speaker 1: Shador Sanders, because Skip Bayless take him for what it's worth.
Speaker 1: I kind of think he's brilliant, but I think he's
Speaker 1: a bit of a shyster. I think he's just all
Speaker 1: about clickbait and attention. I think he says things he
Speaker 1: probably doesn't mean just to get attention. He made a
Speaker 1: fortune doing that on television before he finally lost his gig.
Speaker 1: But anyhow, Tom Brady was on a podcast this week
Speaker 1: called Impulsive, and the host asked him about Sanders as
Speaker 1: it relates to comments Bayles's made blaming in part, Brady
Speaker 1: for Sanders dropping down in the draft. Bayless tweeted this,
Speaker 1: and I'm quoting it is now pretty clear Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: who mentored Shador, told the Raiders not in all caps,
Speaker 1: to take Shadeur duly noted that's what Skip Bayless said,
Speaker 1: with no context, with no attribution. He just tweeted that.
Speaker 1: And so Brady was asked about.
Speaker 7: That, why did he go so late in the draft?
Speaker 4: And there's I.
Speaker 8: It's a good question. I was I wouldn't have part
Speaker 8: of any evaluation process or otherwise. I know, Well, everyone's
Speaker 8: got every you know, that's a problem with media is
Speaker 8: everyone can just say whatever they want or get away
Speaker 8: with it. It's kind of unfortunate because there actually used
Speaker 8: to be a lot of integrity in media and there's
Speaker 8: way less now because everyone needs crazy voices to get heard.
Speaker 1: That's it. And it's not just the media. I know
Speaker 1: people like the point fingers and yes, we the media
Speaker 1: can be blamed for this, that and the other thing.
Speaker 1: But there's so much out there that is garbage on
Speaker 1: social media that non traditional media members throw out their
Speaker 1: fans and people who fancy themselves experts because they anchor
Speaker 1: a podcast at a mom's basement and they're never held accountable.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem with what Baylis did and what
Speaker 1: he's done all along, is he can make these outrageous
Speaker 1: statements and he's never held accountable. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if anybody ever held him accountable when he said Johnny
Speaker 1: Manziel would become a bigger deal in Cleveland than Lebron James.
Speaker 1: He's been all kinds of comments like that and people
Speaker 1: pointed out, but they don't point it out directly to him,
Speaker 1: or if they have, I've not heard him held accountable.
Speaker 1: So I don't blame Brady for being disgusted by stuff
Speaker 1: like that. And as a broadcaster now, he's got to
Speaker 1: be held more accountable to what he says. So up next,
Speaker 1: Jalen Witlow, former UK quarterback. A little bit later, Ryan
Speaker 1: Black at a CJ and Justin Rowland of Cats illustrated
Speaker 1: on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider,
Speaker 1: joining us now as a young man. I spoke to
Speaker 1: him several years ago on several occasions, but it's been
Speaker 1: a minute to talk to Jalen Witlow, former Kentucky quarterback,
Speaker 1: transfer it over to Eastern Illinois now works with young quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: He's also also a published author.
Speaker 3: How are you, man, I'm doing well. Man, cannot complain.
Speaker 3: Man doing well? Stand busy? How about you?
Speaker 1: Well, we've been good here. We've been watching watching football
Speaker 1: evolve at Kentucky, and I wanted to ask you, just
Speaker 1: not only to get caught up, but just to ask
Speaker 1: you to take us back to those early years. You
Speaker 1: were there for the changeover Joker Phillips to Mark Stoops.
Speaker 1: That was a tough time for Kentucky fans for some
Speaker 1: of the players. You've played well here but decided to
Speaker 1: go elsewhere and that worked out for you. Talk about
Speaker 1: that in a minute. But what is that like for
Speaker 1: a young guy like you, especially a quarterback, a guy
Speaker 1: who is trying to be a leader and things just
Speaker 1: aren't going that well and then you get a new
Speaker 1: coach coming in. Tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, you know, it's not good man, obviously,
Speaker 3: but you know, it was definitely a learning process. You
Speaker 3: definitely learned a lot, you know, not from from coaches
Speaker 3: but also from players, but definitely from situations. Uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I think it was it was a huge deal. Uh,
Speaker 3: moving forward for me to go through that, But at
Speaker 3: the same time, you know, in the midst of it,
Speaker 3: it wasn't easy. I mean, you know, we kind of
Speaker 3: we had a we had an idea freshman year, especially
Speaker 3: after the Vanderbield game, that there was going to be
Speaker 3: a change uh in staff. And once that game was over,
Speaker 3: we knew that it was a pretty good chance. And
Speaker 3: then we got the news. So that wasn't that wasn't
Speaker 3: cool man to see, you know, coach that that that
Speaker 3: recruited you and uh, you know head coach and offs
Speaker 3: the corner of Randy Sanders as well. You know, you
Speaker 3: know kind of you know getting let go, uh due
Speaker 3: to how we were playing, and that's never a good feeling. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, so we had to change, and you know,
Speaker 3: coach Stokes came in and you know, and his staff
Speaker 3: and implemented some things, and you know, I thought we
Speaker 3: were The record didn't really show, but we were better
Speaker 3: in a lot of areas. Yeah, you know, I thought
Speaker 3: we had a good enough team to be a lot
Speaker 3: better than what our record show though. I mean when
Speaker 3: you look back at the defense, I mean we have
Speaker 3: four or five guys that played in the pros two
Speaker 3: of them are still playing right now, you know, so
Speaker 3: we we uh, you know, we were better than when
Speaker 3: our record showed. I think we have more talent at
Speaker 3: least than our record show. But you know, those times,
Speaker 3: weren't They weren't easy, man, being a quarterback on you know,
Speaker 3: at a big university like that and not really being successful.
Speaker 3: The first time in my life that I wasn't really
Speaker 3: successful playing football, and and what it wasn't the easiest
Speaker 3: thing to go through.
Speaker 1: How much of that did you carry emotionally being the quarterback?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, you you still carry it in ways,
Speaker 3: you know, because it's like I said, it was my
Speaker 3: first time in my life that I wasn't successful playing quarterback. Yeah,
Speaker 3: wasn't successful playing football. I've never experienced anything like that,
Speaker 3: you know, to be on, I've always won growing up.
Speaker 3: You know, I had the luxury of always being around
Speaker 3: good players and good coaches. And not saying that we
Speaker 3: weren't around good players and good coaches. But obviously the
Speaker 3: States are a lot higher at Kentucky. Obviously the talent
Speaker 3: is a lot, uh you know that the competition is
Speaker 3: a lot stiffer. But I've always you know, I was
Speaker 3: always lucky enough to be around winning situations and that
Speaker 3: wasn't the case at Kentucky unfortunately for a lot of
Speaker 3: different reas that you know, some of those reasons may
Speaker 3: not include the people that we think they include. You know,
Speaker 3: so you know, it was what it was, man, But
Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't easy obviously, but you know it
Speaker 3: was what it was, and we you know, uh, it
Speaker 3: definitely was a learning a learning experience.
Speaker 1: What do you think of Mark Stoops when you first
Speaker 1: met him when you started playing for him, because I
Speaker 1: remember he had a lot of respect for you. But
Speaker 1: what do you recall about him as your new head coach?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate him because he was always you know,
Speaker 3: I was always fortunate with coaches that were just you know,
Speaker 3: I would rather be told the truth to my face
Speaker 3: and he would always do it. Uh. Coach Sanders would
Speaker 3: always do it. Under the Joker Phillips Eric regime, Uh,
Speaker 3: coach Phillis would always do it. You know, they were
Speaker 3: always telling the truth. For Coach Tups would always tell
Speaker 3: me the god out his truth, uh, to my face.
Speaker 3: On what's going on with the program, what's going on
Speaker 3: with the offense. You know the position, you know, quarterback
Speaker 3: and he would be honest and I and I appreciate
Speaker 3: that because as a coach myself now, I think that
Speaker 3: that's a big deal for young men to always, uh,
Speaker 3: always have somebody around him that's going to be honest
Speaker 3: with them, but also not not honest in a negative way,
Speaker 3: but honest in a positive way and also given giving uh,
Speaker 3: you know, constructive criticism on how how can they approve
Speaker 3: from where they are right now? Where can we go
Speaker 3: from now? From here? Where can we move? That's positive? Uh?
Speaker 3: And I thought he always did that, and you know,
Speaker 3: under his leadership, his coaches did the same. So you know,
Speaker 3: I thought I thought that that was good. I always
Speaker 3: liked coach too. I always appreciated him. He was always
Speaker 3: a player's coach. Uh. Like I said, real honest uh.
Speaker 3: And he always had a really good I was having
Speaker 3: a conversation recently about this. He always had a really
Speaker 3: good feel for how his players were feeling. You know,
Speaker 3: he always had a really good he had a really
Speaker 3: good uh, you know, temperature of the team. He always
Speaker 3: had a really good thermometer when it came into that.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And all of his players will tell you that, you know,
Speaker 3: because that's not always the case. With some coaches. Some
Speaker 3: coaches kind of disconnected and they are kind of robotic
Speaker 3: in ways that they go about business. We would get
Speaker 3: you know, he would be at the games and he
Speaker 3: would always have a good feel on what type of
Speaker 3: game it was and what do we need as a
Speaker 3: team on a Sunday or Monday. And he was always
Speaker 3: real good about that. And that's something that I took
Speaker 3: and learned from him. Uh, you know, as I got
Speaker 3: in a coach, because I think that's really important. You know,
Speaker 3: he was he was the best I've ever seen that
Speaker 3: understanding his team and understanding, you know, where do we
Speaker 3: need to go from where we are right now and
Speaker 3: adjusting thing. He was never afraid to adjust practice schedules,
Speaker 3: adjustice the training, adjust things, you know, in the heat
Speaker 3: of the moment based on what we were feeling and
Speaker 3: based on where we were.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: And I thought, I don't think he get enough credit
Speaker 3: for that. I don't think he get enough credit for
Speaker 3: what he's doing at Kentucky. But I think that was
Speaker 3: that was one of the areas that I learned a
Speaker 3: lot from him.
Speaker 1: So being flexible like that, it sounds like you're telling
Speaker 1: me that you don't see that and a lot of coaches,
Speaker 1: especially football coaches. True.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's something that do with you just
Speaker 3: you know, football is a brute sport, always been a
Speaker 3: brute sport, always will be. But I think at some
Speaker 3: point you do have to understand, you know, you just
Speaker 3: got back at two am from a road trip to
Speaker 3: the University of South Carolina, and your players need a
Speaker 3: couple extra hours of sleep, or your players need another
Speaker 3: day to recover, or you know, maybe less running here
Speaker 3: and more time put into walkthrough and corrections. And he
Speaker 3: always had a good feel for it. And I know
Speaker 3: that that bothers a lot of coaches because a lot
Speaker 3: of coaches are are real, uh you know, they're schedule
Speaker 3: in regimented guys, so they want to stay on schedule
Speaker 3: and stay on regiment. But I do think there's a
Speaker 3: there's a human element to it that the good coaches
Speaker 3: can feel and they can kind of taper what's on
Speaker 3: the schedule to make sure that it's lining up with
Speaker 3: how their players are are are feeling, you know, the
Speaker 3: physical and men to help with the players. So I
Speaker 3: think he always really good at that.
Speaker 1: Talking to Jalen Willow, former UK quarterback he transferred to
Speaker 1: Eastern Illinois, where he was an All Conference performer. But
Speaker 1: right now, looking back on his days at Kentucky, you
Speaker 1: mentioned Randy Sanders, who I think is one of the
Speaker 1: more underappreciated offensive coordinators. You know, not just the year
Speaker 1: he spent with you, but you go back and look
Speaker 1: at some of the years he was a Kentucky and
Speaker 1: the work he did with quarterbacks and went on to
Speaker 1: be a head coach before he retired. You know what
Speaker 1: was his strength, Jalen as an oc.
Speaker 3: His strength was Frank McGinn your ass and check, you know,
Speaker 3: that was his strength. He was He was extremely knowledgeable.
Speaker 3: I mean coming from high school, I have a really
Speaker 3: good coach in high school, some of the best around.
Speaker 3: But you know how it is. You know, when you're
Speaker 3: moving up a level, there's a lot that you don't know.
Speaker 3: And I learned a lot just on how to how
Speaker 3: to go about being in the meeting room, how to
Speaker 3: go about being you know, I've always been a guy
Speaker 3: that's been on time, but being on time, not only
Speaker 3: being on time, but being on time. And we practiced early,
Speaker 3: and we met early and being on time and having
Speaker 3: you know, you know, your energy in the right area.
Speaker 3: You know, not being a sleepy guy a meeting being
Speaker 3: you know, having good posture, speaking loud and clear, commanding
Speaker 3: the huddle, you know things that you know, all quarterbacks
Speaker 3: you would assume would learn, and you do learn, but
Speaker 3: it's ratcheted up with notes. When you're in a room
Speaker 3: at eighteen with a bunch of guys that's twenty one
Speaker 3: and twenty two, it's a different it's a different deal
Speaker 3: when you just you know, you just got out of
Speaker 3: the huddle with fifteen and sixteen year olders and now
Speaker 3: you're in a huddle with twenty one and twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two year olders. Things change really quick, and I think
Speaker 3: he did a good job of kind of getting us
Speaker 3: caught up to speed when it comes to that. Obviously,
Speaker 3: he's a really good coach when it comes to the
Speaker 3: edges and nose as well fundamentals as well. I still
Speaker 3: remember him post pictures on my locker of when I
Speaker 3: was in good body positions in the pocket and when
Speaker 3: I wasn't, And uh, you know, I still chuckle at
Speaker 3: those those memories, but uh, he was always great. He
Speaker 3: actually recruited a quarterback that I coached, Gaston Moore, that
Speaker 3: played at Tennessee Yeah, the past four years. He recruited Gaston.
Speaker 3: I coached Gassing down in South Carolina. Hilton had our
Speaker 3: high school, and uh he recruited Gaston when he was
Speaker 3: the head coach at East Tennessee State. Uh So, I,
Speaker 3: you know, we kept in touch pretty well over the years.
Speaker 3: You know. So he was great man. I definitely appreciate it,
Speaker 3: appreciating the time I had with him.
Speaker 1: Talking to Jalen Widlow, former Kentucky quarterback. He's now author.
Speaker 1: He's also part of the Believe in Kentucky podcast. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about that on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: as well. Here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty
Speaker 1: w l a P. Welcome back. We're talking with Jalen
Speaker 1: Whitlow here on the Big Blue and Sider. Jalen, of course,
Speaker 1: the former Kentucky quarterback, transferred up to Eastern Illinois. Had
Speaker 1: a terrific time up there as an all conference quarterback
Speaker 1: at the FCS level, and that seemed like based on
Speaker 1: your numbers, I followed you a little bit jailing after
Speaker 1: you left, a pretty good fit for you. The offense
Speaker 1: you all ran. You were one of the top dual
Speaker 1: qbs coming out of high school, one of the top
Speaker 1: fifteen in the country coming out of Montgomery, Alabama. So
Speaker 1: when you got up to the eastern Illinois, I got
Speaker 1: to think that felt a little more comfortable for it.
Speaker 3: True, Yeah, you know, you know, in a few ways,
Speaker 3: I think it was a lot different. You know, I
Speaker 3: definitely enjoyed election. Elect was was tough to beat. When
Speaker 3: it comes to the town, you know, Charleston Lnoy, smaller
Speaker 3: ye college town, smaller school, you know, different situation when
Speaker 3: it's every everything was different, I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 3: But when it comes to the football piece, it was
Speaker 3: a great fit. You know, when it comes to the
Speaker 3: style on offense. You know, we had a really good coach,
Speaker 3: coach Greg Stevens, one of the best office coordinators I've
Speaker 3: been around, one of the best football coaches I've been
Speaker 3: around with the country to an ex and those standpoint,
Speaker 3: you know, we did a lot and it was really good.
Speaker 3: I learned a lot of football from from that guy.
Speaker 3: And he was, you know, really well versed in how
Speaker 3: he taught and you know, the ways we did things
Speaker 3: at practice and whatnot. So yeah, he was a good fit.
Speaker 3: You know. You know, we I got there in summer
Speaker 3: of twenty fourteen, right, and we kind of we kind
Speaker 3: of got rolling, man, and you know, they were coming
Speaker 3: off two great years of conference championships with coach Dino Babers,
Speaker 3: and uh, we got there in twenty fourteen, and you
Speaker 3: know and uh kind of kept that thing going. To look,
Speaker 3: we weren't as successful, but you know, we did have
Speaker 3: some games where we we lost in the quote unquote
Speaker 3: conference championship game the Jackson State Jacksonville State. That was
Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't the conference championship game, but whoever
Speaker 3: won that game won at all. And they end up
Speaker 3: beating us, and they end up going to the NETS
Speaker 3: championship that year and losing in North Dakota State. But
Speaker 3: we put us some pretty good numbers. You know, we
Speaker 3: had some good players around us, and uh, you know
Speaker 3: it was it was a fun office to play in
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you wound up one of the all time leaders
Speaker 1: at e IU in total offense and uh and based
Speaker 1: on the numbers, it looked like you had some fun
Speaker 1: up there. And now you're putting your knowledge to good
Speaker 1: use for sharing it via the podcast Tell me about
Speaker 1: Believe in Kentucky. You got some guys on there that
Speaker 1: I've I've interviewed and and talked to.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love the podcast. I haven't been able to
Speaker 3: do it as much recently, man, I've been so busy
Speaker 3: with everything else. But I love I love doing it.
Speaker 3: I love talking football, you know. I just think it's
Speaker 3: it's something that that I enjoyed doing. Man, when we
Speaker 3: start talking football. So, uh, you know those guys are great, man.
Speaker 3: You know, it's they they put a lot of effort
Speaker 3: into it. You know, they kind of handled everything from
Speaker 3: a uh from that side of it, from you know,
Speaker 3: getting everything going. And you know, I luckily have the uh,
Speaker 3: you know, the the ability to just hop on the
Speaker 3: on the zone or hop on online and and and
Speaker 3: just you know, talk football. So Vinnie and Aaron are
Speaker 3: the guys that that thing there. I'm just the h
Speaker 3: I'm just the guy that you know that can get
Speaker 3: on there and and and kind of talk from a
Speaker 3: little bit of experience. So just a good thing. You know,
Speaker 3: they do a good job.
Speaker 1: Minnie Hardy and Aaron Gershawan, they know their UK sports
Speaker 1: been on my show many times. They are good guys
Speaker 1: to talk to. Uh, you're also a published author. You
Speaker 1: work with young quarterbacks now, I know, Uh, but tell
Speaker 1: me about especially. I think it was your first book
Speaker 1: called Prepared the Guy to a Successful Collegiate Experience for
Speaker 1: athletes and parents. Man, it seems like this was a
Speaker 1: real there was a real need for this book. Tell
Speaker 1: me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just, you know, got in a writing I've
Speaker 3: always been a pretty good writer for the most part,
Speaker 3: you know, and I just got in a writing mood.
Speaker 3: I just felt like, you know, uh, that's something that
Speaker 3: I didn't have coming out of high school. I was
Speaker 3: around a lot of guys at my high school that
Speaker 3: was playing college ball. So I knew a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of guys that played college ball, but nobody had anything
Speaker 3: like a manual of what to do and how to
Speaker 3: do it in certain situations, you know. So it's just
Speaker 3: something that I thought about, and I thought it would
Speaker 3: be valuable to you know, student athletes, you know, lead
Speaker 3: going to college. I thought it would be valuable. How
Speaker 3: to you know, how to build relationships, you know, just
Speaker 3: my experience on you know, forming relationships with players or students,
Speaker 3: I should say, outside of the athletic programs. You know,
Speaker 3: just things in that nature. You know, how to build
Speaker 3: a schedule, how to be disciplined in the schedule, how
Speaker 3: to stay on schedule when it comes to you know,
Speaker 3: class workouts, meals, you know, practice how to go about
Speaker 3: your business really and you know how to handle you know,
Speaker 3: adverse situations as a student athlete, because they happen, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, just everything from that standpoint, you know, with
Speaker 3: something that I needed as a freshman, you know, an
Speaker 3: easy read if I could have you know, if I
Speaker 3: would have had it. Maybe it was some information from
Speaker 3: a different perspective that you gather and you say, hey,
Speaker 3: I like this, and I'm going to apply this to
Speaker 3: my every day you know. So that's that's just what
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: It's a great idea for a book. Has it been
Speaker 1: pretty well accepted.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's been definitely well accepted. So I appreciate everybody
Speaker 3: who supported it, you know, so it's definitely well accepted.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm looking to, you know, kind of add
Speaker 3: a different volume to it nowadays with NIL and transfer portal.
Speaker 3: I think there's some information out there that that you know,
Speaker 3: some of the seventeen eighteen nineteen year olds probably probably
Speaker 3: need to hear in a very easy read. And I
Speaker 3: say very easy because I'm sure most of them spend
Speaker 3: ninety percent of the time thinking about how much money
Speaker 3: they can make and you know, if they want, if
Speaker 3: they want to transfer, and all of that. And I
Speaker 3: think some of them need to kind of it down
Speaker 3: and really think about these things. And you know, understand that.
Speaker 3: And I talked about it in the book as well,
Speaker 3: like transferring. You know how big of a deal that was.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize how big of a deal it was
Speaker 3: until it hit the news the day I the day
Speaker 3: I told, you know, Coach Stoups and Coach Brown, I
Speaker 3: don't I didn't realize how big of a deal is.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't know. I mean, you know, being
Speaker 3: eighteen years old at the time, I mean, you just
Speaker 3: you know, you're going off of the you know, they
Speaker 3: they you know, we have a conversation and I leave
Speaker 3: and I go talk to the people that I care
Speaker 3: about that probably have more experience than I have, and
Speaker 3: they advised me on a few things, and I made
Speaker 3: a decision. And boy, man, I tell you that the
Speaker 3: next few days, you know, we're kind of crazy, and I,
Speaker 3: you know, I think there's some there was some way
Speaker 3: I could have handled those things in certain ways. And
Speaker 3: I hated that, you know, I hated that I didn't
Speaker 3: handle those situations a little bit better. Some things I
Speaker 3: probably could have done better from a leadership standpoint, you know,
Speaker 3: when the quarterbacks leaving the program, and I didn't do
Speaker 3: those things. So I I you know, not that it
Speaker 3: was anything terrible. I didn't, you know, I didn't. I
Speaker 3: didn't feel like I disrespected anybody, but I just felt like,
Speaker 3: you know, some of the things I could have I
Speaker 3: could have done a little bit better, you know. But
Speaker 3: it's you know, the book is just that, like, how
Speaker 3: do you handle those situations you don't want to write? Yeah,
Speaker 3: and most of these, you know, I was lucky to
Speaker 3: have people around me to advise me on certain things.
Speaker 3: But maybe maybe some players out there don't have as
Speaker 3: much support as I am, so I just think it'll
Speaker 3: be good for them.
Speaker 1: You can find it on Amazon. It's called Prepared type
Speaker 1: in either Prepared or Jalen's Name or both. Did you
Speaker 1: say you're working on a second book.
Speaker 3: Well, I wrote a second book called sign Uh And
Speaker 3: it's really about you know, quarterbacks getting recruited at the
Speaker 3: end of the day and what they need to be
Speaker 3: to get what they need to do to get recruited,
Speaker 3: and like I said, you know, it's funny how quick
Speaker 3: things change. Uh, that book is really good and it's
Speaker 3: really valuable, but nowadays, you know, I think there's some
Speaker 3: things that could be updated, especially in that one, because
Speaker 3: you know, things have changed since twenty twenty two. Man,
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty one, so you know, it's only been
Speaker 3: four years or so, but a lot has changed. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I've done that. You know, I would like that. I
Speaker 3: thought about, you know, kind of you know, editing or
Speaker 3: adding to the first book prepare as we move forward.
Speaker 3: So we'll see.
Speaker 1: Jalen Widlow is a coach. He helped train and prepare
Speaker 1: young quarterbacks. He's a published author, and of course, the
Speaker 1: former Wildcat quarterback went on to even more success at
Speaker 1: Eastern Illinois and as part of the Believe in Kentucky
Speaker 1: podcast occasionally with Vinnie and Aaron and Hey, I really
Speaker 1: appreciate chatting with you. Let's stay in touch. We'll do
Speaker 1: it again. I want to ask you next time we
Speaker 1: chat about just working with young qbs. But thanks for
Speaker 1: your time.
Speaker 3: Oh, no problem, anytime, man, anytime.
Speaker 1: That's it for our number one coming up and now
Speaker 1: number dude justin Rowland Katz illustrated and Ryan Black from
Speaker 1: the Courier Journal now on six point thirty wlaping.
Speaker 9: Any such such stating the canning anything can.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us
Speaker 1: now is Ryan Black of the Courier Journal. Covers the
Speaker 1: Wildcats and a lot of other stuff. We see Ryan
Speaker 1: all the time on the beat. Haven't had him on
Speaker 1: the show for a while. Welcome them back.
Speaker 10: Hey, Dick, thanks so much for having me on. Glad
Speaker 10: to be back.
Speaker 1: You survived the derby in all the weather, but I
Speaker 1: know you're pulled in every direction. We've talked about this before.
Speaker 1: When you joined the CJ, you knew that you were
Speaker 1: going to have to learn horse racing. Did you know
Speaker 1: much about it before you got here? Dick?
Speaker 10: You know what's funny is I I guess I'd always
Speaker 10: followed horse racing from Afar before I ever got to Kentucky.
Speaker 10: And you know I followed I pretty much. Mean, you know,
Speaker 10: I would try to watch the Triple Crown races every year.
Speaker 10: You know, I'm not someone who had like the daily
Speaker 10: racing form and was making bets, but I could at
Speaker 10: least tell you that I remember the first year I
Speaker 10: ever watched it was O two and that was the
Speaker 10: year that War Emblem won the first two legs of
Speaker 10: the Triple Crown and then lost to the Belmont. And
Speaker 10: the following year it was Funny Side, and then in
Speaker 10: two thousand and four was Marty Jones, and then two
Speaker 10: thousand and eight was a Big Brown. So all of
Speaker 10: these horses, who you know, I'll be honest, Dick, I
Speaker 10: just kind of thought that it just seemed like the
Speaker 10: Triple Crown was such a difficult thing to accomplish, kind
Speaker 10: of thought, after seeing so many near misses, that I
Speaker 10: would go my lifetime without seeing one. And then of
Speaker 10: course right here in the last decade we've seen we've
Speaker 10: seen two. So like, So, I mean, I at least
Speaker 10: knew kind a lot about the history, for sure, Dick.
Speaker 10: But but I can't I can't tell you that I
Speaker 10: was like to literally watching every single race or golf
Speaker 10: stream or things like that. But no, I was at
Speaker 10: least knew probably more than a lot of people to
Speaker 10: see J's hired over the years, simply because I've just
Speaker 10: always always loved it, always loved it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a great event of grade spectacles. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: before we move over to UK stuff, your response, your thoughts, uh,
Speaker 1: your reaction to the fact that Sovereignty will not run
Speaker 1: in the Preakness.
Speaker 10: You know, Dick, I'm so split on this because you know,
Speaker 10: certainly there are quite a few people, including you know,
Speaker 10: our own columns CJ. C. L. Brown, you know, who
Speaker 10: penned things to the effect of, hey, you know, we
Speaker 10: need to change up the dates of the Triple Crown
Speaker 10: races so we can avoid this happening. And I get
Speaker 10: that because again, it is about, at the end of
Speaker 10: the day, you know, Dick, the health of these horses,
Speaker 10: and you don't, you know, if these owners and trainers
Speaker 10: think it's too risky to run them in such a
Speaker 10: you know, three races in a five week fan. I
Speaker 10: get that. The flip side is, though, Dick, does it
Speaker 10: cheapen the Triple Crown accomplishment because it takes a special
Speaker 10: horse to accomplish it. So I guess I'm just so
Speaker 10: split on whether I agree with moving the Triple Crown dates.
Speaker 10: I don't know if you feel differently, but I I'm
Speaker 10: always not crazy about messing with traditions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, I was that way for
Speaker 1: such a long time. This week, I've been talking about
Speaker 1: it a lot again, I kind of likened it to,
Speaker 1: you know, digging in against the designated hitter. But time's changed.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: But the other thing too is the breed has changed.
Speaker 1: They breed out for speed more than stamina. But the
Speaker 1: other thing too is Ryan. You go back and look
Speaker 1: through the history books, the Preakness has not been run
Speaker 1: when it's run for the last one hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 1: There was a point where the Preakness was running New
Speaker 1: York in the Bronx or Colonia Island and a different dates.
Speaker 1: And in nineteen ninety team Sir Barton wins the Triple Crown.
Speaker 1: He won the Preakness Ryan four days after the Kentucky Derby.
Speaker 1: So there's tradition and then there's traditions. So anyhow, let's
Speaker 1: do what's best for the horse.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Speaking of horses, there were brothers talk about first of
Speaker 1: basketball Wildcats. What do you think of the way Mark
Speaker 1: Pope has put his roster together for the upcoming season.
Speaker 10: Well, I mean, Dicky, I think it's kind of hard
Speaker 10: not to like, you know, everything they've done, you know,
Speaker 10: and I know this is kind of like something we
Speaker 10: talked a little bit about last year, right was you know,
Speaker 10: early on, there were there were guys who you know,
Speaker 10: we heard maybe they had targeted, whether it was you know,
Speaker 10: Donovan din or this, that and the other. And then
Speaker 10: he ended up going to UCLA for instance. But like
Speaker 10: you know, like there's always that unrest of the fan base,
Speaker 10: you know, after early on it seemed like quote unquote
Speaker 10: Kentucky had missed on guys. And now you know we're
Speaker 10: sitting here a few days, you know, a week into May,
Speaker 10: and and right, Dick and me, I think anybody would
Speaker 10: tell you it looks like on paper, on paper, they
Speaker 10: Kentucky had the top five roster heading into next year.
Speaker 10: You depending on how you feel about you know, Saint John,
Speaker 10: how you feel about Louisville, you know, then there's some
Speaker 10: other good rosters out there. But I mean, I don't
Speaker 10: I don't think there's any question what what the And
Speaker 10: then I was going to say, we just the big
Speaker 10: kind of piece is weally what Okaya Oway does? I mean,
Speaker 10: I think everyone assumes he will come back, barring just
Speaker 10: blowing away NBA scouts and talent evaluators. That that's you know,
Speaker 10: the combine. But but you know, you get him back.
Speaker 10: I just don't see any way that that Kentucky certainly
Speaker 10: is out of the top ten, if not out of
Speaker 10: the top five preseasons you know in the poll.
Speaker 1: Well obviously Nio dollars. Now when it comes to oh way, uh,
Speaker 1: it's a huge advantage for Kentucky because he could literally
Speaker 1: make more coming back to college. But you know, he
Speaker 1: misses out on that proverbial second contract in the NBA.
Speaker 1: You know how guys want to get in there and
Speaker 1: get their clocks started. So this is the sport itself
Speaker 1: is in such a state of flux. It's interesting and
Speaker 1: frustrating at the same time.
Speaker 3: Isn't it It is you know, indiction.
Speaker 10: I feel like it's something we talked about, you know,
Speaker 10: in previous years, and you've had me on this shows
Speaker 10: that it's I guess. For one. In one sense, I
Speaker 10: do like the transfer portal and some of this stuff
Speaker 10: in that it gives you more content and news to
Speaker 10: talk about throughout kind of after March. But on the
Speaker 10: flip side, it's like, you know, I hate that, you know,
Speaker 10: we can't really speak with any amount of certainty about
Speaker 10: any sport anymore about like, hey, you know, the Bowl
Speaker 10: game or whatever, maybe decent for football, and now you
Speaker 10: have no clue what got It's just it's a weird.
Speaker 10: It's a weird time to be covering college sports in
Speaker 10: that sense, but like there's nothing else. I'm sure it
Speaker 10: makes your job easier in that way, right, I mean,
Speaker 10: it gives you so much more to talk about in
Speaker 10: terms of what the roster things and all that constantly
Speaker 10: kind of changing and things not being get set and
Speaker 10: stone as they want for Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well it's it's You're right, it's it's content. Uh. But again,
Speaker 1: there's so many question marks and everybody wants to be first.
Speaker 1: You know how the competitive nature is. But there are
Speaker 1: so many people out there on the Internet throwing out
Speaker 1: at what they perceive to be information that it makes
Speaker 1: it pretty confusing. But I do believe Ryan that the
Speaker 1: pendulum has swung so far in one direction, and so
Speaker 1: much of sports is cyclical. I'm mixing my metaphors, but
Speaker 1: I do think the pendulum will start to swing back
Speaker 1: toward a more manageable situation, as in only one freebie
Speaker 1: when it comes to transferring. And I'm sure someone will
Speaker 1: challenge that in court, but you got to think the
Speaker 1: powers would be can see that coming and do what's
Speaker 1: best for college sports, or is that pie in the sky.
Speaker 1: Do you think no?
Speaker 10: And I think to Dick, I know we're still kind
Speaker 10: of waiting on all this stuff with the revenue sharing,
Speaker 10: this that and the other house. And I think, you know,
Speaker 10: whenever that maybe goes through or however that maybe gets settled,
Speaker 10: I think you know you're going to see, right, Dick,
Speaker 10: kind of what's aching the pro contract is that, hey,
Speaker 10: you know, if you whether you're allowed to actually break
Speaker 10: the contract or if you do, then you have to
Speaker 10: give back the I mean, I just I do think
Speaker 10: I know you you'd say there's always the cynical type
Speaker 10: who would tell you that college sports has been pro
Speaker 10: sport for however many decades maybe, But I do think
Speaker 10: that we have certainly moved more and more and more
Speaker 10: and more and more towards this professional like model, and
Speaker 10: I think it's only going to continue to get that way.
Speaker 10: I think the most interesting potential kind of concept, Dick,
Speaker 10: and I don't think this would ever maybe go through
Speaker 10: unless we do completely completely you know, untether college sports
Speaker 10: from the universities themselves is like trade, like you know,
Speaker 10: could could could you actually do? Trade?
Speaker 3: Youse?
Speaker 10: People joke about what happened to right about it? Yeah,
Speaker 10: you know, because I think then you're you know, then
Speaker 10: you're gonna say, well, hey, that's not fair to the
Speaker 10: student athlete or whatever term you want us to to
Speaker 10: you know, trade him from uh as Zus Kentucky, from
Speaker 10: Kentucky to Ohio State, or a player to be named
Speaker 10: later in the future, recruit you know, I don't know.
Speaker 10: I mean, it's it's it's just you think it's so
Speaker 10: it's just like kind of a constantly changing field that
Speaker 10: we're on right now. Right there's and there's just so
Speaker 10: much still up in the air until we get a
Speaker 10: little more clarity from the court system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, and everything's gonna end up in court,
Speaker 1: so yeah, sure, you know, and people talk about the
Speaker 1: fact that whoever has been trying cases for the NCAA
Speaker 1: or defending cases have done a terrible job, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean they've lost every case. But you know, things
Speaker 1: you've got to.
Speaker 10: Turn around and I'll say this this. You know, I've
Speaker 10: certainly had this opinion way before some of these recent
Speaker 10: moves kind of in college athletics, but that I do
Speaker 10: think that you know, maybe in the next fifteen years,
Speaker 10: especially football, you know, the other sports are harder to
Speaker 10: predict but I think you're going to see a point
Speaker 10: where college football is completely outside of they're going to
Speaker 10: license the you know, hey, like the football Burgers are
Speaker 10: going to license the right to put UK on the
Speaker 10: helmet and the uniforms and things like that. But outside
Speaker 10: of that, they're going to basically be you know, Triple
Speaker 10: A or semi pro you know, Triple A football teams really,
Speaker 10: you know, and uh, it's it's it's unfortunate.
Speaker 3: I think that.
Speaker 10: It feels like education now is it doesn't really matter
Speaker 10: to a lot of guys, because I mean I can't
Speaker 10: imagine and you know, Dick, I mean some of these
Speaker 10: guys who are now maybe the fourth or hits school,
Speaker 10: I mean, what have you been able to, like how
Speaker 10: many of your credits have transferred to? How much did
Speaker 10: you really retain out of all these schools. But you know,
Speaker 10: I understand the end of the day, you know, hey,
Speaker 10: you're you're wanting to go play sports somewhere, and you're
Speaker 10: going to go where you think gives you the best opportunity,
Speaker 10: and you'll figure out the educational stuff later maybe.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, people might roll their eyes at
Speaker 1: this kind of conversation when it comes to uh two
Speaker 1: academics and Kentucky's got a good record when it comes
Speaker 1: to the APR. You know, the graduation rates and GPS
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And we've got to remember that
Speaker 1: the athletes that you and I cover right about, talk about,
Speaker 1: broadcast about, they are the tail wagging the dog. And
Speaker 1: as we all know, less than two percent of these
Speaker 1: kids make it to the major professional levels. I know
Speaker 1: that you can run track and make a nice living. Well,
Speaker 1: when you're talking about the NBA and the NFL, you're
Speaker 1: talking about a minuscule number of of kids, men and
Speaker 1: women w NBA who go play. So you got to have,
Speaker 1: you know, and you can make a ton of money
Speaker 1: in college. Where's that going to be in five years?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 10: Well, and Dick, that's what I would say to anybody
Speaker 10: who I can. I just you know, Dick, I think
Speaker 10: I maybe said this on this show. The fact, I
Speaker 10: do hate that. I feel like there are people who
Speaker 10: just completely they just like to they roll their eyes
Speaker 10: at the whole education, this education that. But like but Dick,
Speaker 10: every athlete's career comes to an end at some point,
Speaker 10: and so what do you have to fall back on
Speaker 10: after that? You know, if you don't have an education.
Speaker 1: What do you have?
Speaker 10: You know me, unless you just were able to invest
Speaker 10: whatever pro earning so smartly. Uh, you know, you're probably
Speaker 10: you're going to be coming up against Bill at some
Speaker 10: point that you know.
Speaker 1: And and you know what, we we all talk about
Speaker 1: the fact. Yeah, the answers all fall back on the
Speaker 1: money I made. And yet you read these horror stories
Speaker 1: about athletes who three years after the done playing, they're broke,
Speaker 1: you know. So yeah, it's it's it's a tried and
Speaker 1: true story. Ryan Black is my guess from the Courier Journal,
Speaker 1: will come back and talk Kentucky football on the other
Speaker 1: side of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back.
Speaker 1: Ryan Black is my guest beat writer for the Courier
Speaker 1: Journal and covers the Wildcats. And you got to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on the football roster too. Seemed like every
Speaker 1: day for quite a while you were seeing a new
Speaker 1: name added, either an old lineman or a wide receiver.
Speaker 1: And thirty odd new faces now so many of them
Speaker 1: are old linemen. And obviously that's the key this coming here,
Speaker 1: isn't It doesn't matter what else they do, Ryan, If
Speaker 1: whoever's behind center, whatever quarterback's back there. If he's running
Speaker 1: for his life as he has for the last three years,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what they do, Am I right?
Speaker 10: I mean, Dick, I know that. I mean I hate
Speaker 10: falling back on anything that sounds like a cliche, but
Speaker 10: I mean everything does when football start up front, right,
Speaker 10: As like you said, I mean, you can certainly, if
Speaker 10: you're a great running back what have you, you can
Speaker 10: maybe make one defender missus like you just cannot continually
Speaker 10: expect anybody to fight off oncoming rushers and uh you know,
Speaker 10: past or us type specialists if you don't have any productions,
Speaker 10: you know, from the get go. And so I think
Speaker 10: it's like you said that, it basically doesn't matter how
Speaker 10: much you upgrade the skill position. If if the offensive
Speaker 10: line uh you know, doesn't play like it needs to,
Speaker 10: nothing else is really gonna matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you had a chance to talk to some of
Speaker 1: these kids. What was your takeaway from it?
Speaker 10: Well, you know, Jacka and I wrote about this in
Speaker 10: kind of my Spring Takeaway thing and I'd love to
Speaker 10: get it's your opinion, and someone's kind of touched on.
Speaker 10: I think it was Jeff Drummond who asked SUPs after
Speaker 10: the Spring Showcase in terms of just arm talent. I mean,
Speaker 10: how that Tew's out of the news guy they've got.
Speaker 10: I mean, the ball just absolutely rifles out of his things. Yes,
Speaker 10: And I'm just curious, out of the years you've covered
Speaker 10: this scene, where does he rank in terms of this.
Speaker 10: I'm not talking about like accuracy or just I'm talking
Speaker 10: about pure arm talent. Where does he kind of rank
Speaker 10: in your mind?
Speaker 1: I need to more, But that made me sit up straight.
Speaker 1: You're right on the day of the showcase quote unquote,
Speaker 1: you know, and i'd heard well cut her ball the's arms,
Speaker 1: you know, and I see Calzada in a game situation.
Speaker 1: I'm impressed. And the first thing I thought was is this,
Speaker 1: if these kids can get open, I think he can
Speaker 1: throw them open, you know, or hit that window, that
Speaker 1: sec window where as you know, you might have six
Speaker 1: to eight inches of a target where you got to
Speaker 1: put it there, as Will Levis did in his first
Speaker 1: year when he had protection and he had won Dall Robinson.
Speaker 1: I think he could be up there, and he might
Speaker 1: if he could make better decisions than Will and and
Speaker 1: people get open. This could be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 10: No, And I you know, I think that Monte and
Speaker 10: Quisenberry really spring circase. Well, I mean, and it seems
Speaker 10: like you know that was that was the one thing
Speaker 10: you know, Dick last year, you know, because I did.
Speaker 10: That's part of what I also mentioned this spring wrap
Speaker 10: up store.
Speaker 1: I did it.
Speaker 10: I don't know if you knew this when your back
Speaker 10: look at the number, but that uh, you know, Dame
Speaker 10: Key ended up moving on. He had forty seven your receptions,
Speaker 10: which is far and away number one on the team
Speaker 10: five seasons. Right, But that when you combine number two
Speaker 10: number three were Barry on Brown and Demmy schumerccarn Bay,
Speaker 10: they combined for forty nine. So it's like, I don't
Speaker 10: think Kentucky will be nearly as reliant on just one
Speaker 10: guy in the passing game as they were last year.
Speaker 10: And agree for Dankee again, right, I mean that you
Speaker 10: don't need to give these sec defenses any more easier
Speaker 10: assignments if like, hey, we really need to kind of
Speaker 10: guard one guy. And I think so, I think the
Speaker 10: fact they have you know, uh look on paper, you know, Dick,
Speaker 10: let's say on paper, it doesn't they have more options
Speaker 10: in the passing game.
Speaker 1: Petting, No, I couldn't agree more. And you think back
Speaker 1: to first of all, it was the biggest win of
Speaker 1: the year last year at Old Miss and most puzzling
Speaker 1: because you're like, where did that team go? But yeah,
Speaker 1: that day you might recall Old Miss sold out to
Speaker 1: try to stop Dan Key. This is what impressed me
Speaker 1: the most. He still had a good game, still made
Speaker 1: big catches, even though they doubled him everywhere. They were
Speaker 1: hanging on him, hitting him across the middle, sometimes illegally. Uh.
Speaker 1: But that was a team that made no bones about
Speaker 1: the fact that, hey, you are not going to beat
Speaker 1: us with Dane Key. And still to a degree they did.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm with you. I want to see how
Speaker 1: they spread the football out. Do they throw them more
Speaker 1: to the running backs?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: And and is it more of a dangerous attack? I
Speaker 1: think it will be.
Speaker 10: Well in one hundred percent. I mean I think that
Speaker 10: you know too, if you remember too, Dick, And I've
Speaker 10: written this goodness Grace. So it feels like, I mean,
Speaker 10: how many times since the end the last season, But
Speaker 10: is that you know, at as the you know, last
Speaker 10: month of the season last year, that's when really when
Speaker 10: Jamor McLain came on. And I kind of meant, you know,
Speaker 10: most times like Hey, uh, I'm playing Mackland. My thought Macklin,
Speaker 10: Uh that uh kind of by then. Unfortunately for Kentucky
Speaker 10: was like a little too little, too late. But I think,
Speaker 10: you know, getting him back, and it seems like he
Speaker 10: already and he was one who obviously praised and you
Speaker 10: remembered that press conference after after the spring show cause
Speaker 10: he was the one who praised has out his arm,
Speaker 10: and so I just think that that what they've got,
Speaker 10: Like I said, Dick, you know, I know, it's always
Speaker 10: easy to try to make proximations in the spring after
Speaker 10: certain things you've seen, but it just does seem that
Speaker 10: they might have a more well rounded receiver room than
Speaker 10: what they.
Speaker 1: Definitely definitely which means I'm not saying that it was
Speaker 1: bad last year, Yeah, but I got to think it
Speaker 1: makes for better chemistry, you know. Yeah, although no, go ahead,
Speaker 1: sorry going to it.
Speaker 10: Why was it to say that that, you know, certainly
Speaker 10: for all the all the great things he did, you
Speaker 10: know on special teams, I mean they were definitely, I mean,
Speaker 10: I mean they just really too many times that barry
Speaker 10: On Brown just just disappeared in the PAP game. I mean,
Speaker 10: like you wouldn't even know this out there. This was puzzling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm really curious to see how he fares at LSU.
Speaker 1: I've only got about a minute left or so. But uh,
Speaker 1: you are going to be a busy man this coming fall,
Speaker 1: and do you have any plans for the summer You're
Speaker 1: going to try to because I know you're a car guy,
Speaker 1: anything fun coming up?
Speaker 10: You know, that's a great question, I am. You know,
Speaker 10: I saw this yesterday that the USA today they did
Speaker 10: like a ten best like tractions for car lover people,
Speaker 10: and number two on that list, ironically enough, was the
Speaker 10: Corvette Museum. You know, the one time I kind of
Speaker 10: did not have as much time to really I was.
Speaker 10: I was with other people that day, so and I'm
Speaker 10: one of the people would like to look at everything. Yeah,
Speaker 10: I need to go back there at some point and
Speaker 10: just really take everything in. So maybe I'll make just
Speaker 10: a trip down to Bowling Green for the day.
Speaker 1: That's a good plan. Let me know how that goes
Speaker 1: and well, and tell everybody how to follow you on Twitter.
Speaker 10: Yes, sir, Yeah, Matt Ryan a black.
Speaker 1: That's it. That's as simple as that.
Speaker 10: But be sure you include the a right, Uh, you know,
Speaker 10: if you don't, if you don't include the A I
Speaker 10: don't know where you want to know?
Speaker 1: All right, man, thanks so much. We'll see you around
Speaker 1: the ballpark.
Speaker 10: All right, Thanks so much to appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Through the years, I've gotten to know the beat writer
Speaker 1: from the Courier Journal. In terms of the UK beat
Speaker 1: has to cover both football and basketball. Of course, the
Speaker 1: Harold Leader many many years ago split that beat because
Speaker 1: it's hard to do service to both sports, especially now
Speaker 1: with the Internet and play. But when you sign up
Speaker 1: to write for the Louisville Courier Journal, even if you're
Speaker 1: not in sports, the odds are you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: write something about the Kentucky Derby, but especially if you're
Speaker 1: in sports. And sadly now there's no turf writers. And
Speaker 1: when Jenny Reese left the newspaper took the early buyout,
Speaker 1: they did not replace her at all with the turf writer,
Speaker 1: so they kind of spread it out and Ryan does
Speaker 1: a good job with his assignments. Up next, Justin Rowland
Speaker 1: of Cats Illustrated on six point thirty, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big Oeland Insider, joining us now as a guy
Speaker 1: we haven't talked with. Justin Rowland of Cats Illustrated. You
Speaker 1: heard him on this morning with Tom Leach. Justin, thanks
Speaker 1: for joining us. I want to follow up to your
Speaker 1: conversation with Tom because there's so much to talk about.
Speaker 1: But you guys touched on something that everybody's wondering about
Speaker 1: with the football wildcast. That's the additions to the roster
Speaker 1: and you know the old line. He's got so many
Speaker 1: new old linemen. Now he just brought in a new
Speaker 1: wide receiver. But what concerns me the most, Justin and
Speaker 1: you guys touched again on this and everybody's talking about it,
Speaker 1: is can you develop as a unit in such a
Speaker 1: short amount of time. But that's where we are with
Speaker 1: the portal right now, isn't it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, the expectation just has to be that these guys
Speaker 11: are going to be pros. Now that they're paid like pros.
Speaker 11: They've got to have more of a pro mindset and
Speaker 11: a pro approach. That's a lot to ask for a
Speaker 11: younger guy. But coaches also, I think are going to
Speaker 11: benefit from honest communication. Like if you get a guy
Speaker 11: in your program and he knows where he stands and
Speaker 11: he knows what's expected and what is on the table
Speaker 11: for him one year, as opposed to maybe he's got
Speaker 11: to wait a year for his turn versus just making
Speaker 11: all kinds of promises. And there's so much turnover right now.
Speaker 11: The relationship between the position coach and the guy that
Speaker 11: he's recruited to be WILLI So they're probably hoping that
Speaker 11: it's a better dynamic in the receiver room for since
Speaker 11: there's just so many new faces. I mean, they got
Speaker 11: like thirty new guys just from the portal alone, so
Speaker 11: you're almost talking about a completely new team.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that element of professionalism involved. And
Speaker 1: of course, if you're on a professional team and you're
Speaker 1: not performing properly, you can get cut. I mean they
Speaker 1: might still have to pay your contract, maybe not in
Speaker 1: the NFL they have terrible contracts, but they'll cut you
Speaker 1: and go get somebody else, you know, and you really
Speaker 1: can't do that. There are some windows where you can
Speaker 1: in college ball, but for the most part, you can't
Speaker 1: do that. So that puts a different kind of pressure
Speaker 1: on everybody.
Speaker 3: Doesn't it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, yeah, it does, and I think the whole cut
Speaker 11: thing has become probably more common. You don't hear what
Speaker 11: those conversations are like at the end of the year,
Speaker 11: but you know, if a coach. Let's say he's a
Speaker 11: linebacker coach and a guy just hasn't cut it all season.
Speaker 11: It's probably gonna be honest with you and say, look,
Speaker 11: you probably better off having a chance to play somewhere else.
Speaker 3: We want the best for you.
Speaker 11: But you know what, if he doesn't want to leave,
Speaker 11: then that's its own situation. But I mean, look, you
Speaker 11: got thirty guys transferring in and thirty guys transferring out.
Speaker 11: There are some hard decisions and hard conversations being made,
Speaker 11: and even right up until now, as they're adding guys,
Speaker 11: there's a domino effect. Like when Hardley Gilmour comes back
Speaker 11: into the program from Nebraska, what's Fred Ferrier thinking, I've
Speaker 11: got one year left and I probably just moved down
Speaker 11: in the pecking order a spot. So it's tough for everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at least when it comes to receivers, you've got
Speaker 1: the slot versus the wide app But it's also a
Speaker 1: matter of how many balls are coming my way, you know,
Speaker 1: And I know it sounds selfish, but that's almost where
Speaker 1: these kids have put themselves in a situation now, and
Speaker 1: offensive coordinators have to think about that kind of thing now,
Speaker 1: justin that's what's nuts about it. Am I getting the
Speaker 1: ball to this guy enough? Because I know I have
Speaker 1: to and you know, I guess the term keeping him
Speaker 1: happy now is is is more relevant than ever, isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 11: You have to and you got to decide how important
Speaker 11: somebody is. Yeah, you can see some weeks there's clearly
Speaker 11: a game plan to get somebody involved, and you know,
Speaker 11: maybe it's a week when you can afford to do that,
Speaker 11: or maybe you take a shot and just get somebody
Speaker 11: a chance on a big stage. But yeah, it's an
Speaker 11: interesting climate. So it's much more professional at at every level.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're talking to Justin Rowland of Cats Illustrated
Speaker 1: part of the Rivals Network. You referred to wide receiver
Speaker 1: and of course Kentucky adds a former four star who
Speaker 1: played at SMU and at Oregon and it was highly
Speaker 1: touted coming out. But I'm wondering about Ashton Kozwart. Is
Speaker 1: he just going to provide depth or does he have
Speaker 1: a shot at being a part of a relevant rotation.
Speaker 1: What do you know about him?
Speaker 11: I mean, he's a guy that's talented. He's six two
Speaker 11: six three, so he's got size and they wanted to
Speaker 11: get more size and recruiting receiver room for a while,
Speaker 11: and he ran a four four two forty in high school.
Speaker 11: And so you had Oklahoma and Oregon and some schools
Speaker 11: that have put out some really good receivers over the
Speaker 11: years were intrigued with him in high school. He's a
Speaker 11: committed to Oklahoma and he signed with Oregon. He transferred
Speaker 11: out of Oregon after one year. Yeah, so that that
Speaker 11: immediately makes you wonder was it a deal where he
Speaker 11: just saw he was not going to play anytime soon
Speaker 11: and what does that mean forecasting forward for us? He
Speaker 11: didn't see a lot of action at SMU, but the
Speaker 11: talent has.
Speaker 3: Always been there.
Speaker 11: I think in this case, they're they're they're looking for
Speaker 11: guys that are in they have interesting traits, but maybe
Speaker 11: they're not great college football players. Yes, and Cozart is
Speaker 11: big and he's fast and that so that counts for
Speaker 11: a lot.
Speaker 1: And was a broad jumper, So if you need a
Speaker 1: lob in the corner of the end zone, maybe that's
Speaker 1: your guy. Clearly very twitchy. But I'm like you, I
Speaker 1: kind of wonder I could see getting swept up at Oregon,
Speaker 1: you know, with their offense and they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of talent kind of getting lost in the sh shuffle.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised he didn't do more at SMU, which had
Speaker 1: a good program, has had a good program in the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. But uh, did that surprise you
Speaker 1: at all?
Speaker 11: Well, I mean, they're they. I think they went undefeated
Speaker 11: in the ACC just about so they they they came
Speaker 11: in and SMU has been throwing a lot of money around. Yeah,
Speaker 11: and uh, yeah, so they I'm not saying they're they're
Speaker 11: talented on the level of Oregon. You would have liked
Speaker 11: to see him produce a little bit more. But again,
Speaker 11: you're you're you're not saying we're promising you a starting spot.
Speaker 11: It's you're probably coming in and try to be a
Speaker 11: part of the rotation your first year, and then you'll
Speaker 11: have a good chance to play after that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a really interesting time for recruiters, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Justin you've got to you've got to really keep an
Speaker 1: eye and keep track of everybody you recruited who signed
Speaker 1: to go elsewhere, you know, in track their progress or
Speaker 1: lack of same, don't you.
Speaker 11: Yeah, And a lot of times, let's say, let's say this,
Speaker 11: I'm recruiting a running back. He's going to go to
Speaker 11: Florida State. They're they're they're going to host for an
Speaker 11: official visit to Marii Thomas, who's a running back committed
Speaker 11: to Florida State. Even if he doesn't go to even
Speaker 11: if he goes to Florida State, there's a really strong
Speaker 11: possibility that in the next one or two years, he's
Speaker 11: going to be recruited again. And what we see is
Speaker 11: the schools that were involved with those players the first
Speaker 11: time around have a much better chance of getting them
Speaker 11: the second time around. So recruiting is the long game
Speaker 11: now as much as it's like the here and now
Speaker 11: in the portal, but it's the long game.
Speaker 3: With high school kids.
Speaker 11: It's like, maybe maybe I don't have to be number
Speaker 11: one now, but I want to be in the conversation.
Speaker 1: That's a great way to put it, or playing the
Speaker 1: long game. And think about Wandale Robinson for whatever reason
Speaker 1: that he decided he needed to be closer to home.
Speaker 1: It was the relationship he maintained with Vince Merrill, right.
Speaker 11: That's right, yeah, yeah, And how you handle maybe not
Speaker 11: not being chosen, how things go after that, and then
Speaker 11: a lot of times it's kind of an interesting dynamic.
Speaker 11: I mean, assistant coaches turn over a lot. And I'm
Speaker 11: not saying this for Kentucky, but just in general, an
Speaker 11: assistant coach might be offering kids just knowing I'm probably
Speaker 11: just going to be somewhere else I'm problem, but their
Speaker 11: relationship with this kid is going to carry. And so
Speaker 11: these relationships are the currency in the world of assistant
Speaker 11: college football coaching, and their value is the relationships they
Speaker 11: have with these players. So they're recruiting kids even if
Speaker 11: they don't think they have a great shot at them.
Speaker 1: Right now, let me run something by you, and I've
Speaker 1: discussed it with several people. I just think it's really
Speaker 1: fascinating and it's kind of low hanging fruit when it
Speaker 1: comes to Kentucky football, But the revolving door for quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: I'm really fascinated by this season as much as any
Speaker 1: Cutter bowlie. And you know the kids they brought in
Speaker 1: that quarterback room, and you can trace it back to
Speaker 1: Drew Barker's injury. I know, you remember when they signed
Speaker 1: him and what that meant that class of fourteen. God
Speaker 1: that was ten years ago, but that was supposed to
Speaker 1: be when Barker would become the eyes and the face
Speaker 1: and the right arm of the Kentucky passing game in
Speaker 1: the football program, and his injury just set that revolving
Speaker 1: door spinning. You know what, You've got Juko's coming in,
Speaker 1: Transfers coming in. Some were very successful, Steven Johnson, Terry Wilson,
Speaker 1: you know. And but when is the last time and
Speaker 1: when will they ever be able to recruit a QB,
Speaker 1: groom him and get him under center for you know,
Speaker 1: two and a half three straight seasons. I just wonder,
Speaker 1: now is that even possible?
Speaker 11: Yeah, how often does that happen? It's more like it's
Speaker 11: more like you get a kid for one year and
Speaker 11: then you just hope you can convince him to stay
Speaker 11: for a second, not go into the portal, or not
Speaker 11: go to the draft. That's just where they're at. So yeah,
Speaker 11: I guess in a sense, Kentucky was ahead of the
Speaker 11: curve when with quarterbacks.
Speaker 3: I guess now that you mention it.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's been crazy. It's surprising that they have had
Speaker 11: as much success until recently as they did with his
Speaker 11: little quarterback development as took place. But it's just not
Speaker 11: a quarterback featured program some other I mean, you think
Speaker 11: about probably what it was like to be a cornerback
Speaker 11: for Mike Leach at Texas Tech. It's not a glamorous position, right,
Speaker 11: but it's still an opportunity. It's an opportunity for a
Speaker 11: power on a power conference stage, for somebody to go
Speaker 11: and say, hey, Will Levis did it, and he had
Speaker 11: a high draft spot. So maybe I believe in myself
Speaker 11: and just have the opportunity, then I can make something happen.
Speaker 11: That's why it's still still in attractive spot.
Speaker 1: Now, you're right, you know, you just got to hope
Speaker 1: if you get your shot, that you've got an NFL
Speaker 1: already made line in front of you like Levis did
Speaker 1: when he got here, and an NFL slot back in
Speaker 1: an NFL running back. But you know, that's why you
Speaker 1: play at the highest level. He is Justin Rowland. He
Speaker 1: is the publisher of Cats Illustrated. We'll come back and
Speaker 1: talk basketball with Justin on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty w as welcome back. We're
Speaker 1: talking with Justin Rowland of Cats Illustrated. We were talking
Speaker 1: about football, of course, but we need to talk a
Speaker 1: about basketball. It's kind of weird though, Justin that one
Speaker 1: of the headlines these days is the uk U of
Speaker 1: L basketball game. And I was talking on the show
Speaker 1: yesterday about the fact that when Bill Curry and Howard
Speaker 1: Schnellenberger put together the agreement to start playing football again
Speaker 1: in the early nineties, it was just to redirect discussions
Speaker 1: in the offseason about UK sports to football in that basketball.
Speaker 1: But that's where we are at a different age right now.
Speaker 1: And this is a headline, of course, the earliest k
Speaker 1: U of L basketball game ever. It's all about TV
Speaker 1: on the one hand, but I understand that this is
Speaker 1: when Kelsey wanted to play this game. What was your
Speaker 1: take on this? What was your reaction when you heard
Speaker 1: the news.
Speaker 11: Of the game November eleven? Yes, that's yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 11: I mean, it's a month and a half before you
Speaker 11: ever expected to take place. But I guess, I mean,
Speaker 11: it's just just the unfamiliarity of it. There's nothing essential
Speaker 11: about the game that it makes it bad. As an opener,
Speaker 11: we've seen the talk about win the football game should
Speaker 11: be played back in the day, it should be the
Speaker 11: first game, should be the last game. And Kentucky has
Speaker 11: played in the Champions Classic against Marquee teams very early
Speaker 11: in the season before. But I mean, I guess the
Speaker 11: bright side is that's the heck of a way to
Speaker 11: start college basketball. Oh yeah, so yeah, but earlier than
Speaker 11: I'd like to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah see, and I I talked about this too. I
Speaker 1: have always been a proponent of football being the first
Speaker 1: game because I'm in the hype business and it makes
Speaker 1: for great hype in the summer. You know, with all
Speaker 1: due respect, Kentucky playing a MAC team. You know, people think, oh,
Speaker 1: football's coming and then that's it. But it's the smack talks.
Speaker 1: It makes it fun. Uh So, yeah, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: a nice way to look at it. At Koube early
Speaker 1: but Tuesday night, early November before they played a football
Speaker 1: game is just weird looking at Mark Pope's team. So
Speaker 1: he just added a couple of players, two bigs. One
Speaker 1: of them will provide depth. Let's put it to you
Speaker 1: that way in rhes Potter. The other the kid from Croatia, Yelich.
Speaker 1: How do you see him fitting in.
Speaker 11: It's kind of that modern that modern big and it's
Speaker 11: hard for He's hard for me to tell because the
Speaker 11: game is so different. When you watch his highlights, like
Speaker 11: the game that he's been playing is just there's a
Speaker 11: different flow to it. There's a different energy to it.
Speaker 11: I'm not expecting him to get obviously starter level minutes,
Speaker 11: but I feel like for Pope, there's a chance to
Speaker 11: be a fifteen minute game guy and then a game
Speaker 11: a guy, and then are you somebody who fades off
Speaker 11: when you get into the tournament or maybe like Chandler
Speaker 11: and Garrison, do they lean a little bit more on
Speaker 11: you when it gets close to the tournament. So that's
Speaker 11: where he's the basket that i'd put him in right now.
Speaker 11: But certainly a skilled player, and it wouldn't surprise me
Speaker 11: if he took off and had a bigger role in
Speaker 11: I expected.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's gonna come down as well to how
Speaker 1: well does he shoot from the outside. You know, if
Speaker 1: Pope is still bent on getting thirty to thirty five
Speaker 1: threes up and we know the guy's coming in from
Speaker 1: Europe like to play that style of ball. I also
Speaker 1: think it's fascinating that Pope is not backing down. In fact,
Speaker 1: people kind of gently on his calling show. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you heard it, but challenged him this year
Speaker 1: about his quote unquote substitution pattern, which is a term
Speaker 1: that should be retired. But you know, he said he's
Speaker 1: he was. Basically, he never invoked Patino's name, but Patino,
Speaker 1: as you know, Patino's teams play this way. You know,
Speaker 1: you go like crazy for two to three minutes and
Speaker 1: we'll sub you. And so he would go deeply into
Speaker 1: his bench, and that's the way Pope wants to play now.
Speaker 1: So I don't see him trimming his rotation back at
Speaker 1: all to you, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 11: I mean, there's an adjustment from the Caliperi era when
Speaker 11: the rotation was definitely tighter and you knew that guys
Speaker 11: were going to be playing thirty thirty five minutes when
Speaker 11: the tournament rolled around. But just if you want to
Speaker 11: keep guys around, and it's harder in the Portal era,
Speaker 11: but if you want to keep guys around, and if
Speaker 11: you want to develop multi year guys in the program,
Speaker 11: then you just have to give them minutes. And there
Speaker 11: are gonna be some cases and it's like maybe this
Speaker 11: guy would be better, maybe he's more ready, maybe he's
Speaker 11: deducing better. But the long play again is you're running
Speaker 11: a program. You're not just trying to win this one game,
Speaker 11: and you have to give guys minutes and reps and
Speaker 11: opportunities and you saw the payoff as lay like Chandler
Speaker 11: last year.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And to that end, were you surprised or no,
Speaker 1: that Travis Perry decided to leave because I'm I know
Speaker 1: he noticed Chandler getting better.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, I guess he fulfilled the dream of
Speaker 11: playing for Kentucky and there's nothing to say he might
Speaker 11: not be able to come back at some point. But
Speaker 11: I mean, once you get that taste, it's like, well,
Speaker 11: what's next for my basketball career? And there's probably just
Speaker 11: better opportunity for him in the here and now elsewhere.
Speaker 11: So I mean the decision made sense. I understood it.
Speaker 11: If he thought he was going to struggle to have
Speaker 11: an expanded roller to grow in the program when somebody
Speaker 11: else is saying, hey, we got a great plan for you,
Speaker 11: I understand it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you like that fit at all, miss, because
Speaker 1: the way they played last year, I'm not entirely sure
Speaker 1: where I see Travis Perry fitting in down there.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I don't. He's not an obvious fit at Old Man.
Speaker 11: But aside from the fact that it seemed like we
Speaker 11: heard that Chris Beard has always liked him, yeah, that
Speaker 11: he liked that, he liked him and thought that he
Speaker 11: was a tough, gretty player. And look, it's kind of
Speaker 11: like Kentucky recruiting these backup offensive linemen and receivers and stuff.
Speaker 11: I mean, if you value a guy, you think somebody
Speaker 11: can be a great shooter for you and he can
Speaker 11: spell you five ten minutes when there are injuries or
Speaker 11: foul problems, and there is value in a role like that.
Speaker 11: Absolutely there. There were games when he gave him five
Speaker 11: to ten minutes and the plus minus when he was
Speaker 11: in the game was pretty much even, And there's huge
Speaker 11: value in having a point guard like that.
Speaker 1: You're exactly right. A couple of minutes slept with Justin Rowland.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Chris Beard, and he's fascinating to me. He
Speaker 1: was on the fast track and then he had some
Speaker 1: off the court problems. Now he's back. He's got a
Speaker 1: good job at Ole Miss in the best conference. But
Speaker 1: I wonder what's next for him or does he stay
Speaker 1: there and build it into what he's hoping it can
Speaker 1: be and everybody down there hoping it can be. Because
Speaker 1: I can't forget about the fact that when the eye
Speaker 1: you job opened up and Rick Patino said no, thank
Speaker 1: you to an interviewer, but he said, if it were
Speaker 1: up to me, I'd hire Chris Beard. I mean, none
Speaker 1: other than Rick Pattino endorsed Chris Beard. I think that's fascinating.
Speaker 11: I'm not saying that it's going to happen this way,
Speaker 11: but I almost wonder if the increase, the improved prestige
Speaker 11: of the SEC and the conference committing more and investing
Speaker 11: more in basketball makes it more likely that Beard stays there.
Speaker 11: It seemed even when he was hired. Even when he
Speaker 11: was hired, Yeah, so you got I mean, Nate Oakes
Speaker 11: has been at Alabama longer than I expected, and Pearl
Speaker 11: seems continued. These SEC jobs might become destination jobs in
Speaker 11: the same way as some of the big Easter or
Speaker 11: ATC jobs used to be back in the day.
Speaker 1: Exactly, unless you've got a geographical yearning like Buzz Williams
Speaker 1: wanted to get back up to the East. Cost he
Speaker 1: could have stayed at A and M and made truckloads
Speaker 1: of money. An he already wherever they go they are.
Speaker 1: But no, I agree with that, because where do you
Speaker 1: go from the SEC? You have a specific want or
Speaker 1: need or something.
Speaker 11: Like that, and uh, go ahead and Bed and Beard
Speaker 11: coached in Lubbock. So Oxford is probably not not the
Speaker 11: worst thing in the world.
Speaker 1: Now, love it, trust me, it's a nice campus, but
Speaker 1: it's out there. Uh and uh uh. And I will
Speaker 1: say this as well.
Speaker 11: Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: Did you ever go to the old arena down there
Speaker 1: before the renovate so you remember what it was like?
Speaker 1: And now, man, and it's been a while and they've
Speaker 1: renovated I think again since then. But they've done a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of great things. And I put
Speaker 1: all of this as we wrap this up, honestly justin
Speaker 1: it maybe oversimplication, but I think it's March Madness. I
Speaker 1: think when March Madness started to really blow up and
Speaker 1: and small schools we were getting all kinds of great attention.
Speaker 1: I got to think there were presidents and chancellors across
Speaker 1: the big school scene. Why aren't we involved there? And
Speaker 1: of course we all know the SEC hired people to
Speaker 1: see to it, that basketball group. But they've done it
Speaker 1: the right way, haven't they.
Speaker 11: Yeah? Yeah, the first I mean I remember the first
Speaker 11: round they were talking about the SEC is committing to
Speaker 11: basketball is when like Alabama hired Anthony Grant And it
Speaker 11: was around right around that time. Yes, and it was
Speaker 11: like another wave of that investment before it really paid off,
Speaker 11: and it was probably buoyed by the by the portal
Speaker 11: and the and the SEC money and whatnot. But it's
Speaker 11: not going to be like it was last year every
Speaker 11: single year. But I do think that they're they're going
Speaker 11: to be the deepest conference right up there with a
Speaker 11: big ten and maybe the Big twill just about every
Speaker 11: single year because of the way the sport.
Speaker 1: Is now, and we may not see a season like
Speaker 1: last year. I don't know. I don't know if I
Speaker 1: want to say ever again. But then on the other hand,
Speaker 1: way the way rosters fluctuate, we might see it again
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 11: You know, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 3: The SEC's got a lot, a lot of money. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we'll see.
Speaker 1: Well, I heard somebody. I was playing cards with some
Speaker 1: friends last night. We were talking about all the money
Speaker 1: and thrown around for football, and one of them kind
Speaker 1: of muttered, that's why Kentucky will never be great at football,
Speaker 1: you know, with the reference to all the money that
Speaker 1: is being spent. But that's a topic for another discussion
Speaker 1: another time. Justin thank you so much for joining us,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk to you again soon. I hope.
Speaker 3: All right, thanks, well, that'll do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guest justin Rowland, Thanks to Ryan Black,
Speaker 1: and to Jalen Witlow. Tomorrow night it's Kentucky baseball as
Speaker 1: a Wildcats take on Oklahoma. Darren Hedricks got the call
Speaker 1: for you six fifteen pregame, six thirty first pitch, Doug
Speaker 1: Finn and I will have it for you on TV
Speaker 1: side on SEC plubs. That's it. Good night from the
Speaker 1: garage in Leximon.
Speaker 3: So am I to understand that you men completed your
Speaker 3: training on your own.
Speaker 11: Just the fact.
Speaker 9: Tact tact showing, then back outstat sacks tip into