Speaker 1: It's stick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off,
Speaker 1: so we thought we would replay some of the best
Speaker 1: interviews from over the last several months. Please enjoy the
Speaker 1: best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now for
Speaker 1: the first time on these airwaves is Kentucky coach Lonnie
Speaker 1: Green track and field cross country as well, and coach Congratulations.
Speaker 1: First of all, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much. I really, really sincerely appreciate.
Speaker 1: What a busy time, but a glorious time for UK
Speaker 1: track and field right now heading into the Games. I
Speaker 1: got to think you're just about as excited as the athletes,
Speaker 1: aren't you.
Speaker 2: Hey man, I think I think I'm as excited ass
Speaker 2: as the young baby old Christmas morning.
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about your role going into
Speaker 1: these games with some of these athletes, some you coach,
Speaker 1: some you didn't, But of course they're wildcats forever and
Speaker 1: we'll represent UK in one way, shape or form in Paris.
Speaker 1: But but what is your role right now?
Speaker 2: My role is an individual coach. I think when when
Speaker 2: when people see the they see the Olympic team, especially
Speaker 2: in track and field, they see the Olympic team and
Speaker 2: and and and and and the media will say, Okay,
Speaker 2: here is then mister Gabriel, he's the Olympic coach. Well,
Speaker 2: he's just basically that coach entitle Okay, and and and
Speaker 2: the way we look at the sport, that is the
Speaker 2: highest honor in our sport that a coach could could
Speaker 2: could ascend to to being named the Olympic coach. Okay,
Speaker 2: But our sport is comprised of twenty two disciplines, twenty
Speaker 2: two events, and in each and each each country can
Speaker 2: tend three or three athletes per event. Now, each of
Speaker 2: those individuals have their own individual coach. My job going
Speaker 2: to the Olympic Games is going to to coach Messiah
Speaker 2: Russell and Devin Charlton. You know, that's that's going to
Speaker 2: be my job. Get them to the podium. My job
Speaker 2: is when started this in September, is to get them
Speaker 2: to the podium in any which way, shape, form or fashion.
Speaker 2: You know. So I'm going to as as a personal coach.
Speaker 2: I would be with the US contingent, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to be that coach. I'm going to be responsible for
Speaker 2: when they wake up, when they when they eat, when
Speaker 2: they train, when and when they lay down and I
Speaker 2: make sure they get to the track one time, they
Speaker 2: do everything they need to do. Tell what be called
Speaker 2: championship day.
Speaker 1: Man, that's pressure, isn't it. Although that's notice that's what
Speaker 1: you signed up for.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, it is.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It is pressure. But that's what we all time to
Speaker 2: when you get to the level.
Speaker 1: You know, I just remembered there were many, many years
Speaker 1: ago one of the Olympics there were some athletes who
Speaker 1: missed their events because the coach didn't get them up
Speaker 1: on time or something like that.
Speaker 2: So it exactly exactly you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You remember that, yes?
Speaker 2: Do you know? Basically our job is when we get
Speaker 2: there to make sure everything flows. You know, communication with
Speaker 2: the USATF staff has got to be consistent that everything flows.
Speaker 2: An odd job is to take as much stress of
Speaker 2: the student athlete, of the athlete as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting when you're saying this. In my world,
Speaker 1: excuse me. You know who does that is a great producer.
Speaker 1: And I was told I've been on the air, and
Speaker 1: I've been a producer, and I was told early in
Speaker 1: my career that if you can take stress off of
Speaker 1: a play by play man and just let him concentrate
Speaker 1: on calling a game. You've done a good job as
Speaker 1: a producer. You're taking stress off these athletes. So all
Speaker 1: they got to do is look down the track. Is
Speaker 1: that right?
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. That's our job. That's our job
Speaker 2: once we get them to that space, is to make
Speaker 2: it as stressless or as seamless as possible. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: so that their job is just to wake up, warm up,
Speaker 2: and get ready to be.
Speaker 1: And obviously that will help them block out whatever's around them.
Speaker 1: And I know they're literally world class athletes, so when
Speaker 1: they step into the blocks, they won't think about it.
Speaker 1: I'm in Paris at the Olympics. I could win a medal.
Speaker 1: Look at all these people, they're looking at the finish line.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, sir, Yes, sir. There's a lot of pressure
Speaker 2: on that. As I refer to all of them as babies.
Speaker 2: So these young befits, you know, as they get to
Speaker 2: that place, there's a lot of pressure on those babies,
Speaker 2: especially the ones who who who the media now plays
Speaker 2: up to the to the world that's a favorite or
Speaker 2: Olympic medalist or potential gold medalist. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: pressure that comes with this. My brother used to say
Speaker 2: all the time. He said, pressure bus pipes, you know,
Speaker 2: and so so at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of pressure. They look really relaxed, they
Speaker 2: look real focused, but there's a lot of pressure that
Speaker 2: they're dealing with in the moment.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how they sleep the night before.
Speaker 2: You know, most of them struggle to do that. So
Speaker 2: what Sometimes they'll have to go to the team doctors
Speaker 2: just to get a sleeve dad so that they can
Speaker 2: rest y.
Speaker 1: Yep, I said, a little mellowtonin might help, you know,
Speaker 1: but pressure also the oak cliche turns coal into diamonds.
Speaker 1: So you know, something I've always wanted to ask a
Speaker 1: track and field coach is when you're coaching a sprinter.
Speaker 1: Obviously there's technique involved and strategy involved, but there's more
Speaker 1: to it to tay get out there and run as
Speaker 1: fast as you can. Just how technical do you get
Speaker 1: in events like that?
Speaker 2: It's very technical, you know, But I think the mistake
Speaker 2: that coaches make is they try to go to the
Speaker 2: technical component first, and that's the mistake. You have to
Speaker 2: literally get the athletes fit, get them physically stronger, get
Speaker 2: them faster, and then you bring the technical component along
Speaker 2: that everybody wants to go straight to technique. For example,
Speaker 2: you get coaches talk about speed, Oh, we got to
Speaker 2: work speed. You see a lot of you know, I'm
Speaker 2: specialists around come to me and I can get you faster,
Speaker 2: and they goes the minute the young man or woman
Speaker 2: or the baby comes to them, they go straight speed.
Speaker 2: That's a mistake in my humble opinion, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, And you have to get them fit, get
Speaker 2: them strong, and get the body ready to handle those stresses.
Speaker 2: What happens is you go straight to the stress and
Speaker 2: an injury recur and occur. Preferfully, the injury won't won't
Speaker 2: be one that's going to take them out for a
Speaker 2: long period of time, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 2: a tone, hamstring or or or something that serious. You
Speaker 2: know that sometimes that even surgery will have to be
Speaker 2: done to correct it, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 2: I think the mistake is, Yes, they do a good
Speaker 2: job of getting the kids faster, but you got to
Speaker 2: you have to literally prepare the body to handle the
Speaker 2: stress that comes with sprinting or moving that fast.
Speaker 1: Talking to Kentucky, yes, Kentucky track and field coach Lonnie
Speaker 1: Green who's helping prepare some former Wildcat and current Wildcats
Speaker 1: for the Olympic Games coming up up. You mentioned prep work,
Speaker 1: and we hear a lot from the football and basketball
Speaker 1: really in baseball people too about nutrition, and I'm wondering
Speaker 1: about I got to think it's it's pretty much the
Speaker 1: same for all the UK athletes on campus. But I
Speaker 1: know that they've put a lot of time and resources
Speaker 1: into nutrition and the weight room and things like that.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that on campus?
Speaker 2: I think it's phenomenal. I mean, you know, you can't
Speaker 2: I don't think you can buy a Lamborghini and put
Speaker 2: low off team gasses. You got to put highfting gases,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. You know what's going to
Speaker 2: happen to the engine. The engines will start knocking it eventually,
Speaker 2: YouTube will fail, you know what I mean, if you
Speaker 2: don't put the right fuel into that into that engine.
Speaker 2: And I think the commitment that that mister Bonnhart are
Speaker 2: athletic director and president Capaluto and all of our senior
Speaker 2: staff are made to our student athlete, our student athletes,
Speaker 2: that is that is paramount. If you want to compete
Speaker 2: at a very high level, those things have to be
Speaker 2: in place. We the old older folk with oh it,
Speaker 2: don't take all of that. Oh I was doing it.
Speaker 2: You know. We didn't do this and we didn't do that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that has some merit, but we didn't perform at the
Speaker 2: level of these some people. What I always want to say,
Speaker 2: you very knowledgeable guys.
Speaker 1: What I always want to say is okay, but what
Speaker 1: if you had done that? How much better might you
Speaker 1: have been? I know you drank pickle juice when you
Speaker 1: were getting cramps, but you know, yes, sir, you've heard that, haven't.
Speaker 2: But I think, but I think the commitment that the
Speaker 2: commitment that mister Barnhout is, it's made to our athletic
Speaker 2: department in terms of providing every possible thing that he
Speaker 2: believes our student athletes need. But our senior staff believe
Speaker 2: our student athletes need to be successful, not a second
Speaker 2: to none. But you can't compete in any sport, and
Speaker 2: I repeat that again, any sport at a very high
Speaker 2: level if those things aren't in place. I said, you
Speaker 2: can compete, but it might not be might not be fruital.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we're talking with Lonnie Green, UK head track and
Speaker 1: field coach. He's got athletes going to Paris. You're listening
Speaker 1: to the best of the Big Blue Insider. More to
Speaker 1: come here on six thirty w LAP. It's Dick Gabriel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Lonnie Green is the head track and
Speaker 1: field coach at the University of Kentucky also cross country,
Speaker 1: and as of July, first seven UK Wildcats from track
Speaker 1: and field will make the trip to Paris. Has that
Speaker 1: number changed, Coach, No.
Speaker 2: It's remained consistent.
Speaker 3: Right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, so u K had four champions at the US
Speaker 1: Olympic Team trials. And by the way, we have you
Speaker 1: and I have spoken now for nine and a half
Speaker 1: minutes and I haven't usually our word yet. Recruiting, this
Speaker 1: has got to be the ultimate recruiting tool, I would think,
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 2: It is? It is? I mean if if me being
Speaker 2: the head coach, you know, being the director of the program,
Speaker 2: if if I don't capitalize, well we as a department,
Speaker 2: as an institution, don't capitalize on the moment, we will
Speaker 2: lose a very, very, a great opportunity to attract athletes
Speaker 2: with such talent or even greater.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Massiah Russell class at twenty twenty three and
Speaker 1: she I remember I was on a panel discussion show
Speaker 1: on KAT with Miss Barnhardt and we were talking about
Speaker 1: social media and he's mentioned her name before. She was
Speaker 1: maybe the first UK athlete, no matter what the sport,
Speaker 1: men or women, to really build a following on social media.
Speaker 1: What is it about her that that people just gravitate
Speaker 1: to her.
Speaker 2: She's got what She's got what I call a very
Speaker 2: gregarious personality, you know what I mean. She is one
Speaker 2: who she understands the social media platform. She understands that
Speaker 2: she was there was something she was doing when she
Speaker 2: was in high school. And she's very bubbly, she's very
Speaker 2: and I think she she she figured out a way
Speaker 2: to capitalize on on that that that that in those platforms,
Speaker 2: in those arena, in those spaces. But she's also very
Speaker 2: very passionate to her viewers or her followers, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I've I've followed. I've listened to her
Speaker 2: talk to her peer group here on campus and talked
Speaker 2: about how people were in boxed her telling her how
Speaker 2: motivational they she is. They were about to give up
Speaker 2: and then they watched a video or something she posts
Speaker 2: and it gave them that that that that Exusia, that
Speaker 2: dynamite that they needed to keep going to go one
Speaker 2: more day, you know what I mean? And and I
Speaker 2: told her, I said, the beautiful I think social media,
Speaker 2: the Internet failed us, I said, And I said, the
Speaker 2: reason is because you can do a whole lot of
Speaker 2: good with it, but you can do a whole lot
Speaker 2: of bad with it. But you your platform is doing
Speaker 2: good and blessing people. I said, don't ever lose that.
Speaker 2: Don't let people pull you into a vacuum where you're
Speaker 2: not doing good with it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: You stay that, don't let what people think you should
Speaker 2: be doing with it dictate what you do. But she's
Speaker 2: done a great jo heard her family have done a
Speaker 2: great job at capitalizing one.
Speaker 1: She won the US championship in one hundred meter hurdles
Speaker 1: and at a world leading time, and broke Gail Dever's
Speaker 1: the US Olympic Trials record, which it stood for twenty
Speaker 1: four years. So she obviously is running her best right now,
Speaker 1: isn't she.
Speaker 2: She she's one of the favorites. She is the She's
Speaker 2: only three women in the history of the sport has
Speaker 2: run faster, and they've only done that by hundreds of
Speaker 2: a second and in some situation thousands of the second.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. Is she going in as
Speaker 2: one of the favorites. Yes, I personally believe. Now people
Speaker 2: might say, Ana, you got to stop drinking mountain dew.
Speaker 2: But when I make the statement, but I believe if
Speaker 2: she if that race that she executed at the US
Speaker 2: Championships when she said the Olympic Trials record shows up
Speaker 2: on the eleventh of August in Paris, she either breaks them.
Speaker 2: She that particular race with the field that would be
Speaker 2: that either the world's record fall or she wins the goal,
Speaker 2: or she will she will be one of the individuals
Speaker 2: on the pot.
Speaker 1: Wow, that would be awesome. It's broken the collegiate record
Speaker 1: of both the sixty meter hurdles and the hundred hurdles.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Speaking of high profile athletes, how about Jasmine Camacho Quinn
Speaker 1: being chosen to carry the flag for Puerto Rico. What
Speaker 1: a great honor.
Speaker 2: Jazzy Jazz, that's what I call all the time. When
Speaker 2: I say I call it jazzy jazz. You know, you
Speaker 2: know she is probably one of the most humble individuals
Speaker 2: you would have a meet. She's very aggressive and then
Speaker 2: when it's time to compete. You think she's being difficult,
Speaker 2: but that's just what great athletes do. When it's time
Speaker 2: to do the work, when it's time to to to
Speaker 2: present their product, they they go somewhere and that is
Speaker 2: something they learned. That's a that's a God given gift.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. We all can go back
Speaker 2: to high school and even college and you there's a
Speaker 2: peer or a friend that they were great great and
Speaker 2: the minute the lights come on, they become we will say, man,
Speaker 2: that person becomes a peast, that person becomes that inventually
Speaker 2: becomes an animal. That's what you see with jazz. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, once she's done working
Speaker 2: in her craft, she is the most humble. She has
Speaker 2: the sweetest demeanor. You whatever you'd ever you can even
Speaker 2: you could have a think of, well imagine So for
Speaker 2: her country is Olympic Federation to ask her to be
Speaker 2: as a flag at the opening ceremonies. That's one of
Speaker 2: the greatest honor any athlete or any person in my mind,
Speaker 2: could be asked to do. To That's where national pride
Speaker 2: really pushes forward, you know what I mean. At that moment,
Speaker 2: don't care where you're from you can be from. She
Speaker 2: brought in the corner of the east corner of the world.
Speaker 2: But they say, we want you to bear the flag,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? In this particular situation, that's
Speaker 2: the greatst honor one could, one of the greatest honors
Speaker 2: one could could be asked to do the service of
Speaker 2: her country.
Speaker 1: She made her debut in Brazil in twenty sixteen and
Speaker 1: one hundred meter hurdles and then yeah, helped Puerto Rico
Speaker 1: win its first Olympic gold medal in the same event
Speaker 1: in the delayed Tokyo Games. So yeah, she's she's a
Speaker 1: great commodity down there. She finished up in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: as did Sidney McLaughlin, which is when you got her.
Speaker 1: So I don't know that there was no overlap between
Speaker 1: you all, was there? You didn't coach.
Speaker 2: Them, No, there was not any overlap. Jazz finished. She
Speaker 2: was done with her eligibility. You know, she graduated in
Speaker 2: December of twenty eighteen. She still had a year of eligibility,
Speaker 2: but she she opted out of that and went pro,
Speaker 2: became a professional appay and Iah yeah for one year
Speaker 2: with Sydney. Of course, they wanted to go pro out
Speaker 2: high school, you know what I mean. But she opted
Speaker 2: to pursue the professional round. You know, you know, you
Speaker 2: got to tip your hat to Edward Floiell, my predecessor. Yes,
Speaker 2: he had some very very good I mean, some of
Speaker 2: the most the greatest talents in the world. In that event.
Speaker 2: You look at Kenny Harrison, who was the world's record
Speaker 2: holder until the last World's two World Championships ago, who
Speaker 2: still is the American record holder. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: All of those wore UK on the chest, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. So you have to tip your hat
Speaker 2: to the work he did prior to us getting here.
Speaker 2: What we have done, thanks to be the God that
Speaker 2: that all we have done is tried to maintain it
Speaker 2: or take it to another level.
Speaker 1: You have a freshman from Nigeria and I don't want
Speaker 1: to try his last name because I'm afraid all you
Speaker 1: could say it I'm sure, but Alexander helped me with
Speaker 1: his last name.
Speaker 2: His name is Alexander, thank you excellent.
Speaker 1: But his opportunity to take part in events like this,
Speaker 1: in international events, I've got to think that's going to
Speaker 1: set him up even more for a great collegiate career.
Speaker 2: I think so he's just a freshman. As I refer
Speaker 2: to the freshman as big, he's just a baby. His
Speaker 2: upside is going to be phenomenal. I before him, we
Speaker 2: had a young man here by the name of Daniel
Speaker 2: Roberts who who just recently made US Olympic team, and
Speaker 2: we had he was a part of when I was here,
Speaker 2: and he just ran twelve point ninety six. It's only
Speaker 2: a very hand few handful of men, but in the
Speaker 2: one ten hurdles that have dipped under thirteen seconds, and
Speaker 2: if my if my stats line up correctly, it might
Speaker 2: be ten in the history the whole sport. Okay, I
Speaker 2: think he's got the ability to surpass Daniel Roberts.
Speaker 1: You were part of that great, great tradition and culture
Speaker 1: at Arkansas as an assistant coach there. You went to Purdue,
Speaker 1: did a phenomenal job, and Mitch Barnhart pulled you to
Speaker 1: Lexington and as you mentioned that there was a great
Speaker 1: foundation here and you said about building on that, what
Speaker 1: has that process been like for you here in Lexington?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's the support, you know. You know.
Speaker 2: I would present a presentation to to Mitch and his
Speaker 2: usually his response to me is responsibly would normally be
Speaker 2: is this good for kids? Is this good for young people?
Speaker 2: And I usually would say yes. He said this this
Speaker 2: does this help us to be successful? My response is
Speaker 2: usually yes. And he said, let me see what I
Speaker 2: can do make this happen for you. And he's done that.
Speaker 2: You know, I mean, you can this longstake. I think
Speaker 2: a man, every man and woman like can they can?
Speaker 2: They can toil and be. But when you guess what
Speaker 2: I call in my mind, your says you're the place
Speaker 2: of outpouring. You know, everything you touch turns to go.
Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: You could think about it and it has become successful.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? And so and I think
Speaker 2: what miss has allowed us, allowed me and my staff
Speaker 2: to do, is to continue to work in our posessed.
Speaker 2: I think this is the place of our POI you know,
Speaker 2: people have asked me, well, Alanie, what would you entertained anything?
Speaker 2: I said, no, I said, Mitch would have me. I'm
Speaker 2: he can put me out the pastor yet I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to look at the next jingling keys. I said,
Speaker 2: if he would allow me to do it, then I'm
Speaker 2: still working and we're successful. It would be this is
Speaker 2: where I'm gonna go out to pasture and this when
Speaker 2: I'm gonna look at my wife at sixty five and said,
Speaker 2: maybe what you want to do? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: You know that sounded like a plan. I tell you.
Speaker 1: When I was growing up in Louisville, I used to
Speaker 1: go to the Mason Dixon Games. I loved it. And
Speaker 1: I'll be keeping a close eye on the Olympics as
Speaker 1: well for the UK people. And in fact, my nephew,
Speaker 1: who was six eight six ' nine, did not like basketball.
Speaker 1: He threw the shot in the discus in high school.
Speaker 1: Wasn't great at it, but he enjoyed it, and I
Speaker 1: enjoyed going to watch him. So there's a lot to like,
Speaker 1: isn't there?
Speaker 2: Yes, it is. It's you know, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know about other sports. I never claimed to know other sports.
Speaker 2: I've participated in other sports, but truck and feel like
Speaker 2: you just alluded to, it's an addiction. I don't know,
Speaker 2: you know what looks like maybe me me stop drinking
Speaker 2: four mountain of six mountain dews to day.
Speaker 3: Oh man?
Speaker 2: You know, you know, but but it's an addiction and
Speaker 2: you get to enjoy just I guess the art of competing,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean, you get to appreciate the
Speaker 2: thriller victory, You get to to understand the argument of
Speaker 2: the seat. In my mind, that's what track brings to you.
Speaker 2: So you wake up, you lay it down a night
Speaker 2: and said that if I do more push ups, if
Speaker 2: I if I can bench press ten more pounds, if
Speaker 2: I can if I can move this a little faster,
Speaker 2: I could be better. I could beat him or be there.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean. The sport will consume you.
Speaker 2: You live it, Dave, you know there's something about it.
Speaker 1: Coach, Thank you so much for your time. I know
Speaker 1: your time is valuable right now as your prayer to
Speaker 1: go to Paris. Safe travels and we'll do it again soon,
Speaker 1: I hope.
Speaker 2: Thank you so very much. I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Best of the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w LAP.
Speaker 1: It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. We have talked more than once with
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons about his memoir that is just being released,
Speaker 1: and he always directs us to his co author Doug Brunk,
Speaker 1: who's on our celebrity hotline. Doug Welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Good morning, Dick C. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1: Uh. Jack has said repeatedly that he was apprehensive about
Speaker 1: this and then you encouraged him. Tell me why you
Speaker 1: encouraged him and how did you talk him into this?
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's a I thanks to Jack for pointing
Speaker 5: that out. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, I
Speaker 5: got a little restless and was looking for a creative
Speaker 5: project to take on to sort of get my mind
Speaker 5: off of what was happening around me and everybody else.
Speaker 5: You know, that was an existential time, but it proved
Speaker 5: to turn out be a great time to start working
Speaker 5: on a book because he couldn't really you know, be
Speaker 5: around people, and so we did a lot of phone work.
Speaker 5: But I reached out to Jack emailed him about this.
Speaker 5: You know, I've always I've worked with him on my
Speaker 5: two previous books, and he just strikes me as you know,
Speaker 5: not only an iconic figure in UK basketball, but his
Speaker 5: consistent positivity. You spend a little time around him, you know,
Speaker 5: it's kind of remarkable. He's kind of a magnet for people,
Speaker 5: but he also shines a light on people. You know,
Speaker 5: he takes time, he looks you in the eye, and
Speaker 5: he's generally interested in how you're doing, even if it's
Speaker 5: a perfect stranger, you know, and thanks people for his
Speaker 5: for their interest in him right all these years. So
Speaker 5: I just thought, well, you know it was I'm a
Speaker 5: curious person by nature, so I mean, I've known Jack
Speaker 5: for about twelve years, but I thought his life story
Speaker 5: would be interesting because him being the not the first
Speaker 5: African American player to wear Wild uniforms, but the first
Speaker 5: all American African American to wear the blue and white,
Speaker 5: and that I think it's just an incredible story because he,
Speaker 5: as a young boy growing up in East Lexington, never
Speaker 5: envisioned himself playing for Kentucky because nobody on the team
Speaker 5: looked like him, so it was so it wasn't even
Speaker 5: an option in his perceptions at the time. So what
Speaker 5: was fun to learn as he told his life story was,
Speaker 5: you know, when he became a star at Bryan's station,
Speaker 5: you know there were big blue name and fans in
Speaker 5: the stands that everywhere he played on the road, you know,
Speaker 5: largely white people saying come to Kentucky, we want you.
Speaker 5: And you know that was a there were other factors
Speaker 5: he wanted to stick at home. He didn't like to travel,
Speaker 5: get on a plane and so on, right, so that
Speaker 5: that kind of affected in But but without a doubt,
Speaker 5: those fans of the teams that you know, we're once
Speaker 5: all white, persuaded him. And I just think it's a
Speaker 5: great story because look at him now, you know, he's
Speaker 5: arguably one of the leading ambassadors for UK back.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think it's the great stories, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, And you know I was kind enough you
Speaker 1: all sent me an advanced copy and I read it
Speaker 1: as quickly as I could because I've known Jack just
Speaker 1: we were in school together, you know, and covered him
Speaker 1: for the school paper and the school radio station, just
Speaker 1: the whole nine yards. But there was so much about
Speaker 1: him I didn't know, obviously because of his childhood. Uh
Speaker 1: And when you grow up in the lily white East
Speaker 1: end of Jefferson County, you don't think about kids growing
Speaker 1: up in bluegrass assmen there. You don't even know what
Speaker 1: it is, you know, in the barbed wire that separates
Speaker 1: the black families from the white families. It was fascinating,
Speaker 1: and I think Jack made it sound when I talked
Speaker 1: with him and the other subsequent interviews, it was almost cathartic.
Speaker 1: For him to recount those experiences. Has that been the
Speaker 1: way you found it?
Speaker 5: Yes, And I'm glad you brought that up, because I
Speaker 5: don't want to give away too much. But the introduction
Speaker 5: of the book, Jack and his brothers used to wash
Speaker 5: wash dishes at a place called the Little End, which
Speaker 5: is not an existence off Winchester Road.
Speaker 1: I remember that.
Speaker 5: And for he and his brothers, the shortest way for
Speaker 5: them to get their most efficient way was to walk
Speaker 5: around along some railroad tracks. So I had him, I
Speaker 5: had to ask him about this more than once, to
Speaker 5: describe why they did that and how he felt, because
Speaker 5: you know, he said, that route went through some white neighborhoods,
Speaker 5: and you know, at that time there's some heightened racial
Speaker 5: tension compared with today. So he said, we and along
Speaker 5: the railroad tracks. On both sides were you know, tall
Speaker 5: shrubs and so on, and they would hear dogs barking
Speaker 5: and and the true exit point from the railroad tracks
Speaker 5: to get to the Little End, they did have to
Speaker 5: walk a few blocks through all white neighborhood Yeah, and
Speaker 5: he said, nothing ever happened. But in the back of
Speaker 5: my mind, you know, I always thought, you know this
Speaker 5: that you know folks living in those houses would view
Speaker 5: them with suspicion, and he said he always felt better
Speaker 5: once he and his brothers arrived at the little End
Speaker 5: to start their ship. Sure so, so just like you said,
Speaker 5: you know, when I was living in Kentucky, illand in Wilmore,
Speaker 5: and you know, I never had that kind of experience.
Speaker 5: You know, as a young kid, you know to kind
Speaker 5: of just be wary.
Speaker 3: You have the antenna up exactly.
Speaker 1: It makes you appreciative and it also makes you scratch
Speaker 1: your head a little bit. We're talking with Doug Brounk.
Speaker 1: He is the co writer co author with Jack Gibbons
Speaker 1: they call me Goose, which is out now. And what
Speaker 1: has been the initial response to the book. I got
Speaker 1: to think, you know, you've got a built in audience
Speaker 1: of course with with UK fans, But have they had
Speaker 1: the same reaction I did, Like, you know, they were
Speaker 1: happy to learn more about Jack.
Speaker 5: Yes, well it's it's just got released within the last
Speaker 5: couple of weeks, so I am you know, I'm based
Speaker 5: in San Diego, so I will lean on Jack for that.
Speaker 5: But attending these three book signings we had last week,
Speaker 5: I had people come up and you know, tell Jack
Speaker 5: and me that they're so glad he put his story together.
Speaker 5: And I'm looking forward to the to the book. A
Speaker 5: couple of people had read it and said they were,
Speaker 5: like you, just surprised by so many new things they
Speaker 5: learned about him. What was really terrific for me to
Speaker 5: witness at Joseph's death last Friday, there was a nice
Speaker 5: crowd of folks, and you know, Jack and I had
Speaker 5: a little discussion and then opened it up to Q
Speaker 5: and A. And one of the attendees there was Jack's
Speaker 5: old assistant high school principal, Oh wow, in the very
Speaker 5: front row. And you know, Jack not noticed him right
Speaker 5: away before things got going in Chickastania. It's nice see
Speaker 5: him man and all that. But during the Q and A,
Speaker 5: this this gentleman stood up and said, if you had
Speaker 5: told me that this man here would have accomplished all
Speaker 5: he had, all he's done as an adult, I said,
Speaker 5: I would have told you you're out of your mind.
Speaker 5: Because he said Jack was the most quiet, you know,
Speaker 5: reserved student I can remember. You know, he just kind
Speaker 5: of kept to himself, had good grades and so on,
Speaker 5: and so I thought that was really terrific. You know,
Speaker 5: all these years for him to come back, and and
Speaker 5: there were many other former classmates of his from Bryan
Speaker 5: Station that that showed up. So you know, it's just
Speaker 5: that's a legacy, you know, for the kindness he shows
Speaker 5: is something to aspire to and and it's and it's
Speaker 5: an in spine, you know. But I want to point
Speaker 5: out that he was, you know, Jack was very open
Speaker 5: hearted about some of the struggles he's had, you know, yeah,
Speaker 5: near financial ruin and you know, being arrested and accused
Speaker 5: of a crime he did not commit when he had
Speaker 5: to rebuild his reputation as a right fairly new father.
Speaker 5: So that's tough stuff and I commend him for being
Speaker 5: open about it. And hopefully people, you know, we all
Speaker 5: go through struggles, gosh. I hope folks can can learn
Speaker 5: how he coped and and have you know, some peace
Speaker 5: of mind and better life going forward.
Speaker 1: Doug Bronk is my guest. He's a co author of
Speaker 1: Jack gibbons memoir. We'll talk more with Doug on the
Speaker 1: other side of the break. They're listening to the best
Speaker 1: of the big blew Insider want to come here on
Speaker 1: six thirty w l a P. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back,
Speaker 1: to the best of the Big Blue Insider Doug Brounk
Speaker 1: as our guests. He is the co author of They
Speaker 1: Call Me Goose, Jack gibbons memoir, which has been out
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks now. Prior to the break, Doug,
Speaker 1: you referenced the downs that come with the ups in
Speaker 1: life as it pertains to Jack, and I learned. I
Speaker 1: knew a little bit, but I learned a lot more.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to give away the farm. But
Speaker 1: when you talk with Jack about that, and I mentioned
Speaker 1: things being cathartic earlier, was it difficult to get him
Speaker 1: to open up? How did you approach him on this?
Speaker 1: And you know how much of that did you know
Speaker 1: going in?
Speaker 5: I didn't know everything. Certainly we once we got rolling,
Speaker 5: and this project was largely well, the first I'd say
Speaker 5: almost two thirds of the book we put together during
Speaker 5: the pandemic because we couldn't be together with all the
Speaker 5: lockdowns and everything. So a lot of this was phone work.
Speaker 5: And once we got rolling and got into a rhythm
Speaker 5: of how we were creating text and I'd share it
Speaker 5: with him and then we kind of right as we
Speaker 5: move moved along. I encouraged him to think in blocks
Speaker 5: of five to ten years. Okay, so we would we
Speaker 5: would just focus on you know, age fifteen to twenty
Speaker 5: and drilled down and then some of these situations you're
Speaker 5: alluding to came up and and I was, you know,
Speaker 5: I am an advocate for Jack. You know, there's sure
Speaker 5: you want to you may not want to talk about everything.
Speaker 5: And I said, hey, Jack, this is your book. Do
Speaker 5: you you know, think about do you really want to
Speaker 5: talk about this or you know, he said no, no, no,
Speaker 5: let's you know, let's address it.
Speaker 1: Oh he did. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well once he told me about the you know, the
Speaker 5: financial stuff for example, that was a surprise to me.
Speaker 5: And I just said how did how did it come about?
Speaker 5: And what were the factors? And so we kind of
Speaker 5: gave some background to it, and so he uh, you
Speaker 5: know what there were that what I had to what
Speaker 5: we were encouraged to embellish on. And this was I
Speaker 5: back up a little bit. This project was from for
Speaker 5: the University Press of Kentucky and and one of the
Speaker 5: gentlemen who wrote read a early draft of our book
Speaker 5: is doctor Gerald Smith, who has a professor of history
Speaker 5: that you know, yeah, great guy. And it turns up
Speaker 5: he grew up near where Jack lived and grew up
Speaker 5: so he Ye, he's a little younger than Jack, but
Speaker 5: he had perspectives that I certainly didn't. As we were
Speaker 5: talking before, you know, I was I wasn't lived in
Speaker 5: a largely white city of Wilmore. So he came back
Speaker 5: to us and said, Jack, you know, what about this,
Speaker 5: this and this? What about these people? And so he
Speaker 5: actually put together a whole list of things for us
Speaker 5: to consider. So Jack and I spent a couple of
Speaker 5: song calls going over those points that Gerald raised. And
Speaker 5: you know, Jack passed on some of them because he
Speaker 5: didn't feel they were relevant or he didn't know the
Speaker 5: people that Gerald was talking about. But there are other
Speaker 5: things that so his I think with Gerald's help, I
Speaker 5: think we got we had Jack. Jack was opened up
Speaker 5: more about his perceived role in the black community of Lexington,
Speaker 5: and his perceived role is you know, one of the
Speaker 5: African Americans to play for the Wildcats, right, yeah. So
Speaker 5: it was so so it was great we got more
Speaker 5: detailed material that way, and I think it's going to
Speaker 5: be a good experience.
Speaker 2: For the reader.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And as I said, I don't want to give everything away,
Speaker 1: but Ben Roberts did a really nice piece in the
Speaker 1: Sunday newspaper about Jack in the book, and he wrote
Speaker 1: about the fact and this, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: if I knew this, Doug but forgot it. But that
Speaker 1: and I knew Jack had been recruited by Tennessee. And
Speaker 1: I remember being in school and hearing about the recruitment
Speaker 1: of Jack Gibbons. Oh he's going to visit Hawaii's going
Speaker 1: to visit UCLA. But he's doing it. You know. We
Speaker 1: figured I just want the trips, you know, but ultimately
Speaker 1: said he didn't want to get on the plane. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize how seriously Jack was considering Tennessee. I just
Speaker 1: cannot wrap my mind around him in a Tennessee uniform,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and to think about the fact that he took
Speaker 5: a Greyhound bus down there for his visit and I
Speaker 5: think Stu Aberdeen picked him up at the station and yeah,
Speaker 5: they treated him really well, and yeah, he left there
Speaker 5: thinking he was going to be a volunteer. And boy,
Speaker 5: can you imagine had that happened? You know how the
Speaker 5: history of UK basketball with James.
Speaker 1: I don't want to think about it before I let
Speaker 1: you go do you know people I assume can get
Speaker 1: this not just a Joe Beth but Amazon. I mean,
Speaker 1: how can folks grab this book off the shelves or.
Speaker 5: Online, sure, wherever you choose to buy books. And even
Speaker 5: the University Press of Kentucky, if you go to their
Speaker 5: website you can order it that way, that's probably the
Speaker 5: most direct. But Amazon, if you're an Amazon Prime member,
Speaker 5: you can get it shipped free to your house with
Speaker 5: you know, with your membership feet. So yeah, anyway you
Speaker 5: buy books, And I want to point out one thing.
Speaker 5: Sure you know, soon after this is about two weeks ago,
Speaker 5: there are some at least one imposter Jack Gibbons memoir
Speaker 5: floating around out there on Amazon, So buyer beware.
Speaker 3: So if the.
Speaker 5: Cover doesn't look like it's called Day call Me Goose
Speaker 5: with Jack waving and it has the University Press of
Speaker 5: Kentucky logo on the back, that's what you want to
Speaker 5: look for. Anything else is absolutely not approved by Jack
Speaker 5: and so you would not be supporting him.
Speaker 1: Somebody doing that's that's low ramp. But those are the
Speaker 1: days we live in. Doug Bronk, thank you so much, sir,
Speaker 1: and congratulations on the book. I know as an author
Speaker 1: as a writer, you're looking for that next project? What
Speaker 1: have you done for me lately? And what are you
Speaker 1: going to do for me? But keep us posted if
Speaker 1: it's something we need to know about.
Speaker 5: I sure will. And I just want to say what
Speaker 5: a tremendous honor is it's been to work with Jack.
Speaker 5: You know, he everything people say about him is absolutely true.
Speaker 5: He's a fine human being.
Speaker 1: Well, I've got to know a lot of athletes, as
Speaker 1: you might expect throughout my career such as it is,
Speaker 1: and you're friendly with a lot of them. But Jack
Speaker 1: is truly a friend, and he comes across that way
Speaker 1: on the radio. I too, I hope with people, and
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that people are going to get to
Speaker 1: learn a lot more about what has made him such
Speaker 1: a special guy. Doug, thank you so much. Best of
Speaker 1: luck to you.
Speaker 5: Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Jick.
Speaker 5: Stay well.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Our number two is next here on six thirty w lap. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's stick Abriel. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Our number two taking a little time off, so please
Speaker 1: enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. Yesterday, UK
Speaker 1: trotted out three of the new basketball players. First time
Speaker 1: they've done that. Some people have had one on ones.
Speaker 1: I have not yet had a chance to sit down
Speaker 1: with any of the players. I had a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to Mark Pope, but they're giving us a bit
Speaker 1: more access now as the season draws near, the semester
Speaker 1: draws near. So yesterday and I played a little bit
Speaker 1: of it on the show. Last night, they brought out
Speaker 1: to Andrew Carr, Ansley Almanpor and otega Oway, and I
Speaker 1: thought I would share the interviews with you. I will
Speaker 1: tell you this. You're gonna hear from Andrew Carr, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear from Angeley Almanor, but not otega Oway,
Speaker 1: simply because and I played a little bit of his
Speaker 1: interview last night. He is such a soft spoken young man.
Speaker 1: He has a beautiful deep voice and his speaks really well.
Speaker 1: Gave a great interview, but because of the way he
Speaker 1: his voice was so deep and soft, and he was
Speaker 1: at a big table and those of us would handheld microphones,
Speaker 1: I for one, could not get close enough to him
Speaker 1: to pick it up on my mic without having all
Speaker 1: the other voices in the background bleeding over. I was
Speaker 1: able to find a little bit last night to play
Speaker 1: for you. But I want to get another conversation with
Speaker 1: him because he's a really good interview, like I said,
Speaker 1: as a beautiful deep voice. But in trying to play
Speaker 1: back the entire interview, there's so much room noise. You
Speaker 1: can if you're watching him on YouTube, tube or TV
Speaker 1: or whatever, you can tell what he's saying, but just
Speaker 1: listening it's very, very difficult. So we'll have to come
Speaker 1: back to him another time. But let us start with
Speaker 1: the big man. Andrew Carr six' eleven transfer from Wake
Speaker 1: Forest from Westchester, PA. He will wear number three Rex Chapman,
Speaker 1: and he talked to us yesterday about the joys of
Speaker 1: being a big man, playing for Mark Polpe and playing
Speaker 1: at Kentucky.
Speaker 3: Just touching on team chemistry.
Speaker 6: This is a small amount of time at a short
Speaker 6: period of time to come together. How's that work for
Speaker 6: you guys thus far with this small period of time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, I think it's been it's actually been
Speaker 7: a lot of fun. A lot of guys you know
Speaker 7: who are older, fourth fifth year guys, and you know
Speaker 7: they're coming in with the emphasis on trying to get
Speaker 7: to know everybody and when you got you know, ten
Speaker 7: to twelve guys who are trying to put in effort
Speaker 7: to get to know each other. It becomes a whole
Speaker 7: lot easier when when everybody's trying to learn, you know,
Speaker 7: learn about each other. And and it's been it's been
Speaker 7: really awesome. You know, it's it's my my third team
Speaker 7: that I've been on, and and so I've been able
Speaker 7: to be around a lot of college basketball. But you know,
Speaker 7: whenever you get to be a part of a team,
Speaker 7: it's really special. And these guys are really awesome. It's
Speaker 7: been really really great people and there are a lot
Speaker 7: of fun to be around, so that that part makes
Speaker 7: it a little bit easier too.
Speaker 6: So you've been the most impressive so far in practice.
Speaker 4: You know, that's a hard question.
Speaker 7: You know, I think a lot of people have have
Speaker 7: done a really great job, and I think for for us,
Speaker 7: it's it's been really cool. It's not just one person
Speaker 7: every day, so you know, it switches up every single day.
Speaker 7: Different people have good days on different days, and I
Speaker 7: think that's what I'm super excited about with this team
Speaker 7: in general, too, is the depth. And you know, we
Speaker 7: got two of everything, so you know, it's been it's
Speaker 7: been really fun to see that throughout practice.
Speaker 6: Did anybody surprised you, like, maybe a little better than
Speaker 6: you thought, or maybe even just different, a different skill
Speaker 6: set than he maybe thought coming in.
Speaker 7: You know, I definitely tried to watch as much film
Speaker 7: on my teammates as possible, so I felt like I
Speaker 7: had a pretty good grasp of what they like to
Speaker 7: do and and everything. But I'd say BG is super physical,
Speaker 7: and you know, I think he's made a really concerned
Speaker 7: effort to keep his super high motor all the time
Speaker 7: in practice and give it his all, and it's been
Speaker 7: really apparent.
Speaker 4: So you scattered your own teammate of course, yes, so
Speaker 4: you've done that before, uh, somewhat.
Speaker 7: You know, I think whenever you go to a new
Speaker 7: spot or have new teammates, I think this year is
Speaker 7: a little bit easier, a little bit different, just because
Speaker 7: you have a lot of film from a lot of guys.
Speaker 7: There are a lot of transfers and a lot of
Speaker 7: people who played a lot of minutes at other places,
Speaker 7: so it's pretty easy to kind of find that you know,
Speaker 7: and you have other transfers for me as people who
Speaker 7: necessarily didn't play as much or things like that at
Speaker 7: their last school. So it's been really fun to to
Speaker 7: really be able to kind of dive deep into some
Speaker 7: of my teammates and see where they like and where
Speaker 7: they thrive on offensive, defense and stuff.
Speaker 1: This is not your first transfer, but this is so
Speaker 1: new for everybody, I mean, the entire team, the new
Speaker 1: coach and all that. I mean, how crazy is it
Speaker 1: been to be a part of just getting to know everybody?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, I think it has been. I think
Speaker 7: it's been pretty crazy. But I think also that's the
Speaker 7: blessing and all of it too, is everybody's new, So
Speaker 7: everybody's experiencing the same thing. You know, Coach Pope and
Speaker 7: the coaching staff are trying to feel each other out
Speaker 7: and figure it out, just as you know, the players
Speaker 7: are trying to figure feel each other out, figure it
Speaker 7: figure it out, and so that just I think, you know,
Speaker 7: the the perspective that gives everybody in the program is
Speaker 7: really specials just a super graceful perspective, and you know,
Speaker 7: I think that allows for growth, you know, not only
Speaker 7: with the coaching staff, but with us as well, just
Speaker 7: to be able to, you know, know that everybody is
Speaker 7: in a new situation and everybody's gonna give as much
Speaker 7: effort and try as hard as they possibly can to
Speaker 7: make it work. And so that's been been really cool
Speaker 7: and to have that perspective has been I think, on
Speaker 7: both sides, really beneficial for relationships.
Speaker 1: Your new coach sex practices.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so I think I don't know if it's necessarily new, but.
Speaker 4: I one thing I love and one thing I know about.
Speaker 7: Coach Pope, and he showed it definitely in in recruiting
Speaker 7: as well. But he just he loves people, you know,
Speaker 7: and and Coach Pope is just a really really great personality,
Speaker 7: and you know, it bleeds into everything that he does
Speaker 7: and with his family, you know, the way the way
Speaker 7: he coaches us, the way he acts with the coaching staff,
Speaker 7: and all the way down to the way he acts
Speaker 7: with the janitor janitorial people here and just like everybody,
Speaker 7: and I think it rubs me a really great way.
Speaker 7: And just the way that he cares about people, the
Speaker 7: way that he goes out of his way to you know,
Speaker 7: to to love on other people, and endless gratitude with him.
Speaker 7: And that's been really special to see out of someone
Speaker 7: who's a leader at University of Kentucky, especially.
Speaker 3: So in practices.
Speaker 4: How involved is he with Yeah, very involved.
Speaker 7: That was pretty cool, especially you know, uh, for me
Speaker 7: being able to to go first day, within the first
Speaker 7: couple of minutes of the first practice.
Speaker 4: Coach Pope has this in the post, is.
Speaker 7: Doing post moves, guarding me and showing me tips and
Speaker 7: tricks and things like that, which has been really really cool.
Speaker 7: And you know he's out there, you know, directing everything.
Speaker 4: It's been. It's been a lot of funder in practice.
Speaker 3: Andrew's part of a question. You've gotten a lot. But
Speaker 3: why I kent Tuck you? What made you want to
Speaker 3: come here?
Speaker 4: You know, this is a really special place.
Speaker 7: I think for me, I knew what I was looking
Speaker 7: for when I went into the transfer portal and this
Speaker 7: is a combination of everything that kind of came together.
Speaker 4: For me.
Speaker 7: First and foremost, it was a basketball fit, and I think, uh,
Speaker 7: Coach Pope did a really great job, you know, showing
Speaker 7: me how I would fit within the team and in
Speaker 7: the recruitment and just the way that I've been able
Speaker 7: to play. But also, uh, it's been was really cool
Speaker 7: for me to say, hey, you need to get better
Speaker 7: at this and this, and this is how we can
Speaker 7: help you do that. And you know, for someone trying
Speaker 7: to to continue to get better. Obviously has aspirations to
Speaker 7: to go play in the NBA. That's that's all you
Speaker 7: want to hear when you're in the recruitment process. And
Speaker 7: so that was really cool to to understand my fit.
Speaker 7: And then this part was just the embracement. Embracement from
Speaker 7: the fans. You know, I think, uh, Big Blue Nation
Speaker 7: is is just I think you said it before.
Speaker 4: It's just it's just different, you know.
Speaker 7: I think it's a really special place and been my
Speaker 7: dream ever since a little kid coming and watching basketball.
Speaker 7: You always, you know, you hear about Kentucky, Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 7: You watch Kentucky basketball, and you know you want to
Speaker 7: be a Kentucky basketball player.
Speaker 8: So we've heard a lot about this team's shooting ability
Speaker 8: right early practices.
Speaker 1: Who's who's the one guy that you you just cannot
Speaker 1: ever leave.
Speaker 4: I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 7: You know, Travis Perry has done a really, you know,
Speaker 7: a great job, just been working on going in and
Speaker 7: seeing them in there. You know, sometimes you walk in
Speaker 7: and he's at five hundred and six hundred shots up
Speaker 7: right in the day and something like that, and and
Speaker 7: he's still at like eighty five percent, and I'm like,
Speaker 7: like how.
Speaker 4: Is that possible? Walk over?
Speaker 7: It's all threes and he's eighty five percent is pretty crazy.
Speaker 7: So I'd say, you know, Travis Perry has been lighting
Speaker 7: it up. You know, I made fifty nine in a
Speaker 7: row from a corner the other day.
Speaker 4: It's just it's incredible. So what's it been like getting acclimated?
Speaker 4: I know, Wake is I'm from Winston, Okay, very good.
Speaker 4: Wake is kind of shell Antler.
Speaker 5: You get here, everybody recognized automatically because you play.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, no, It's been definitely a little bit different.
Speaker 7: I think my favorite part has been, you know, you
Speaker 7: get downtown and been able to go out to eat
Speaker 7: some some really beautiful places downtown and things like that.
Speaker 7: A lot of rooftop places I didn't know a city,
Speaker 7: you know, try to get you on the roof for
Speaker 7: some extra space or something like that.
Speaker 4: But it's been cool going there.
Speaker 7: My favorite part is also just you know, you go
Speaker 7: ten fifteen minutes and it's just green for forever, and like,
Speaker 7: you know, it's just been a beautiful. I just love
Speaker 7: nature and things like that going outside, so for it
Speaker 7: has been really cool to you know, drive fifteen twenty
Speaker 7: minutes and you know, get a taste of your hometown,
Speaker 7: and for me, Westchester is really similar to that, a
Speaker 7: lot of green, a little bit more hills, but a
Speaker 7: lot of green. And so Lexington has really felt like
Speaker 7: home and you get a taste of both in city
Speaker 7: and the country. So it's been a lot of fun,
Speaker 7: you know, being able to explore and experience it and
Speaker 7: you know, pretty comfortable being away from home at this
Speaker 7: point in my life. So it's been it's been great.
Speaker 1: We're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six thirty w LAP. It's
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. We are presenting the full interviews with some
Speaker 1: of the basketball Wildcats we had a chance to talk
Speaker 1: to yesterday. Shared a little bit last night. Andrew carr
Speaker 1: otega Oway and Angeley Almanor, who is the six to
Speaker 1: seven wing player from ups Date, New York. He transferred
Speaker 1: in from Fairleigh Dickinson, and he spoke to us yesterday
Speaker 1: first of all about the Kentucky non conference schedule and
Speaker 1: how he's looking forward to those marquee matchups.
Speaker 9: And you just can't wait to get out there and play,
Speaker 9: you know, actually play against other teams. Obviously excited for
Speaker 9: some of the bigger games like Duke Louisville and stuff
Speaker 9: like that, but just can't wait to get out there
Speaker 9: and go compete other guys.
Speaker 10: Is that kind of why you came here playing those
Speaker 10: marquee games?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's definitely a reason.
Speaker 9: You don't get to play on that type of exposure,
Speaker 9: playing national television games a lot of those big time teams,
Speaker 9: big time players, you know. Definitely definitely was the reason
Speaker 9: why I came here for sure.
Speaker 1: How are games like that going to help you, guys?
Speaker 1: Gel maybe even quicker than a game against a team
Speaker 1: that's not quite up to the same.
Speaker 3: Part, because you know, you face adversity. University brings you closer.
Speaker 9: So when you play those bigger teams, you're going to
Speaker 9: go through a lot of tough stretchers. They're going to
Speaker 9: go make runs because there's a lot of talent on
Speaker 9: those types of teams. So when you face adversity, you
Speaker 9: end up becoming quicker, jail quicker and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So those games definitely help us.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by adversity there?
Speaker 3: I think I know, but what are you just you know,
Speaker 3: when another team goes on a run. They're gonna hit shots.
Speaker 9: They're obviously talented too, you know, they're gonna go there,
Speaker 9: hit shots, going a little run.
Speaker 3: How we're gonna respond to that.
Speaker 9: The little things like that help build us to where
Speaker 9: we're competing in March.
Speaker 3: And how practice is going so far? What have you
Speaker 3: seen in the practices? Practice is great? You know, I
Speaker 3: love it. I love the lay coach runs things.
Speaker 9: You know, we get a lot of skill development, and
Speaker 9: we get to play a lot, go up and down
Speaker 9: and then putting in his system and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So it's just been great. I love this so far.
Speaker 1: Let's talked about communications and how vital that is. I mean,
Speaker 1: how quickly has this team picked up on that.
Speaker 9: I feel like, since we have a lot of vets,
Speaker 9: has something we've we know coming in for sure. So
Speaker 9: we're I feel like we're pretty good communicators, all of
Speaker 9: us top to bottom. You know, all of us were
Speaker 9: out there talking. You know, we're a pretty close team too,
Speaker 9: so I feel like it's something that we definitely have
Speaker 9: is a strength of us.
Speaker 1: What makes you say you're close? I mean, how do
Speaker 1: you get that feeling? How does that manifest itself?
Speaker 9: You need to spend so much time with the guys,
Speaker 9: like living in the lodge and stuff like that. S
Speaker 9: I feel like it just made us jelt quicker. Like
Speaker 9: I feel like all these guys and my brothers like
Speaker 9: I know them. I could h t text them, call
Speaker 9: them whenever I need him. Like, I feel like everybody
Speaker 9: has that same type of feeling when it comes to
Speaker 9: this team.
Speaker 4: In the same boat.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're all new coming into the program new year.
Speaker 9: I feel like that definitely does play a part too.
Speaker 9: You know, everybody is news first time here. We're all
Speaker 9: learning these things together, so uh that that definitely does
Speaker 9: play a part in it for sure.
Speaker 6: You guys be a team buildings guys on the football
Speaker 6: field yesterday?
Speaker 4: Who who stood out on the on the football field?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 7: Who?
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 9: Colin did pretty good? He has a good little arm.
Speaker 9: Uh uh huh? Who else is pretty good?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 9: Bg is pretty good. You know, I feel like we
Speaker 9: are we're pretty pretty solid as a team.
Speaker 4: You know, what was your reaction to Coach Pope in
Speaker 4: the helmet?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I was laughing. He came out of nowhere with
Speaker 9: the helmet on. It's like he was a tight end
Speaker 9: out there.
Speaker 10: And talk about you know, on paper, you guys can
Speaker 10: shoot the ball and Mark recruited guys who can all shoot.
Speaker 10: Can you just talk about the ability of this team
Speaker 10: to shoot from from depth?
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's not just on pay pers in real life too,
Speaker 9: you know, like we you we really got a lot
Speaker 9: of shooters. That's something he emphasizes w even in every
Speaker 9: day and practice where he makes us everybody go take
Speaker 9: a lot of threes, a lot of shots, make sure
Speaker 9: we're practicing our craft, and that's something that he emphasizes
Speaker 9: a lot as a key to how we're gonna play
Speaker 9: this year, how we're gonna beat teams. Just we're gonna
Speaker 9: take a lot of threes. We're gonna make a lot
Speaker 9: of threes, and that's definitely a big part.
Speaker 3: Of us for sure. Is that something you're looking forward to. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's something I'm definitely looking forward to. You know.
Speaker 9: It's uh one of my strengths. So it definitely can't wait.
Speaker 9: Can't wait to do that.
Speaker 3: How much different in offense from what you ran previously?
Speaker 9: Uh, It's it's pretty different, you know, cause it's is
Speaker 9: just like these types of players, these types of coaches,
Speaker 9: like they just go out there, they let you play
Speaker 9: like there's no, really set plays like that. You're really
Speaker 9: gonna go out there and read each other, read a
Speaker 9: defense like you know. That's why being a close team
Speaker 9: really matters when it comes to this type of system,
Speaker 9: cause you got to know each other.
Speaker 3: You gotta know where this person's.
Speaker 9: Gonna be or how this person's gonna react to a
Speaker 9: certain movements. So I feel like that's really like, uh
Speaker 9: how this offense works, you know, just being able to
Speaker 9: read each other and that something that's different that I haven't.
Speaker 4: Read ly is adjust But.
Speaker 9: Uh not really, I feel like you p. I played
Speaker 9: basketball for Almo almost all my life, so once you
Speaker 9: play basketball like you're you're a basketball player. At the
Speaker 9: end of the day, you know, you know what the
Speaker 9: right players, you know the wrong players. So as long
Speaker 9: as you out there trying to make the right play,
Speaker 9: everything's gonna fall into place.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 10: What're not playing with six You guys have got six
Speaker 10: fifty years seniors. What's that gonna mean for you guys.
Speaker 3: Or just experience?
Speaker 9: You know, we're an older team when it comes to compare,
Speaker 9: like comparing us to the rest of the country, just
Speaker 9: gonna be older than a lot of these teams. You know,
Speaker 9: fifty your seniors. They've been through a lot. I mean,
Speaker 9: I'm a senior myself. I've been through a lot. Like
Speaker 9: I know college basketball like the back of my hand,
Speaker 9: like I've been through the ups and downs that They've
Speaker 9: definitely been through the ups and the downs. So I
Speaker 9: feel like that's gonna help us, especially when it comes
Speaker 9: to later in the season, like when we're pushing making
Speaker 9: a play for marsh or stuff like that. I definitely
Speaker 9: think that's gonna be a key to while we win
Speaker 9: games and being able to put a pull them out.
Speaker 1: The championship team coach played for has so much talent,
Speaker 1: and they they told us that going into that year,
Speaker 1: they were all talking among themselves like, how is Rick
Speaker 1: Patino gonna do this? Who's gonna play what position?
Speaker 3: And how much are you guys.
Speaker 1: Going through a similar thing? Because you've got so much
Speaker 1: experienced talent on this roster.
Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like we're not even work like
Speaker 3: right now. I don't think anybody's really worried about that.
Speaker 3: Right now.
Speaker 9: We're just really focused on trying to learn his system.
Speaker 3: So yes, I think it's a little too so.
Speaker 9: Baby, as you get closer to this season, we start
Speaker 9: figuring that out, but like we're still just trying to
Speaker 9: learn everything. You know, there's a lot of it's a
Speaker 9: lot of this stuff is coming out as fast. We're
Speaker 9: trying to learn his system, excuse me, trying to learn
Speaker 9: his system, learning things that he's teaching us, and trying
Speaker 9: to learn each other like on and off the court.
Speaker 9: So that's that's something a little too early for us
Speaker 9: to really think like that. But like you said, there's
Speaker 9: a lot of talent on this team, so they got
Speaker 9: a tough job. I feel like trying to figure out.
Speaker 4: What would your impression.
Speaker 3: When he took you out with it?
Speaker 9: It was unbelievable. You know, you see it on TV
Speaker 9: and stuff like that. You see see the games on TV,
Speaker 9: but being in there seeing like like sitting at the top,
Speaker 9: just seeing the whole arena from that point of view
Speaker 9: is just crazy. Like I'm gonna be able to get
Speaker 9: to play there and represent those fans, and I can't
Speaker 9: wait to do that.
Speaker 11: It's always Coach Pope's system that's very advanced, and it's
Speaker 11: hard to learn from a lot of people who what
Speaker 11: a lot of people have said, can you maybe just
Speaker 11: kind of go into a little bit of death of
Speaker 11: what you've seen from his system so far.
Speaker 3: Just just like a lot of reads, that's what it is.
Speaker 4: Like.
Speaker 9: You play fast, you p you you make a lot
Speaker 9: of reads. You play basketball with a hot Q. You
Speaker 9: try to find your teammate open shot. And that's really
Speaker 9: what it is. And it sounds easy, but to feelly
Speaker 9: not like you know, it takes a lot of movement.
Speaker 9: It takes a lot of practice and a lot of
Speaker 9: hard work to be able to you know, master it
Speaker 9: and perfect it.
Speaker 3: But it's been fun so far learning it.
Speaker 11: So what do you If there's one thing you want
Speaker 11: BBN to know about you?
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 9: You know that I'm here to represent you guys, and
Speaker 9: I'm only here to win this national championship. You're not
Speaker 9: gonna see nobody go out there and like I mean
Speaker 9: a person, I'm gonna go out there and give them
Speaker 9: my all every time I get out there. You know,
Speaker 9: I'm then to comfort the the glid to the Glamoray.
Speaker 9: Just came here to win a national championship and represent
Speaker 9: you guys. That's all I came here for and come
Speaker 9: for none of the fancy stuff, you know. So that's
Speaker 9: definitely something I want them to know about me.
Speaker 3: What about defensively.
Speaker 1: What have you seen defensively in the practices so far?
Speaker 9: Its defensively what he teaches us is like really fun,
Speaker 9: Like I feel like you've got a lot of good defenders.
Speaker 9: And that's something that he emphasized that people don't really
Speaker 9: realize that. He's really a big, big emphasis on defense.
Speaker 9: We do that every day, you know, certain schemes and stuff,
Speaker 9: the way we play. It's that's something that it's important.
Speaker 9: We gotta get stops and we gotta be able to
Speaker 9: rebound on the defensive end. So it's something that people
Speaker 9: don't don't really talk about when it comes to coach Pope,
Speaker 9: but that's something you definitely emphasize.
Speaker 1: Defense is fun.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the way like, yeah, defense is fun, like the
Speaker 9: way the way we want to play Like, defense is fun.
Speaker 9: You get stops, you've got you get out and you
Speaker 9: go make them guard us, Like it's just fun.
Speaker 3: You know, what have you seen from Amari so far?
Speaker 3: As I mean mediums have you seen from he's been
Speaker 3: He's been great.
Speaker 9: You know, he probably got to get to talk to
Speaker 9: them a couple of days, but you know, everybody he's
Speaker 9: been great. Like I said, everybody is just a great player.
Speaker 9: Out here working their butts off and you know, doing
Speaker 9: their best. So it's been a great grace sperience so far.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys don't worry about this, but the
Speaker 1: preseason way too early. Top twenty fives probably don't have
Speaker 1: you guys anywhere. How good can this team be? I
Speaker 1: know the sky's a limit and all that, but you've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of basketball. Like you said, just just
Speaker 1: how good is this team gonna be?
Speaker 3: I feel like this team's gonna be really good.
Speaker 9: Like I said, it's gonna really shock a lot of
Speaker 9: people how good we're gonna be, especially especially when it
Speaker 9: comes to playing some of the teams on our schedule,
Speaker 9: Like you know, we're gonna we're gonna go out there
Speaker 9: and shock a lot of shock a lot of people
Speaker 9: in this country. And we're definitely gonna make a deep
Speaker 9: run when it comes to March, because that's the goal
Speaker 9: is anyways, the goal obviously wheen of those non conference
Speaker 9: games in those conferences early, they matter, but the end
Speaker 9: goal is getting that band number nine, and that's what
Speaker 9: all of our goals are.
Speaker 1: So so you think those big non conference games could
Speaker 1: be statement.
Speaker 9: Games, They're definitely gonna be staving games especially, you got
Speaker 9: a lot of guys who are you know, we want
Speaker 9: to be here, We want to represent the Kentucky So
Speaker 9: we're gonna go out there make statements and hopefully, you know,
Speaker 9: show people that we're not someone to play with. So yeah,
Speaker 9: we're definitely gonna go out there and make some statements
Speaker 9: in others in those games.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: More to come here on six point thirty w LAP.
Speaker 1: It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is an old friend.
Speaker 1: We knew him first when he was an assistant coach
Speaker 1: at Kentucky and since then, Tony Franklin has done a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting things. He's coached, he's consulted, he's got
Speaker 1: a podcast off and on, he's on our Celebrity Hotline. Coach,
Speaker 1: welcome back to the show, and this has got to
Speaker 1: be a thrill for you. One of your former pupils,
Speaker 1: Jared Goff, is just at a terrific year with his team,
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions. Man, what's it been like for you
Speaker 1: to watch this happen?
Speaker 8: Well, it's such a it's really a good American story.
Speaker 8: I think it's one of those things that as a
Speaker 8: as a parent, as a teacher, educator, coach, you can
Speaker 8: you can really teach so many great lessons from it.
Speaker 8: And yeah, I've known Jared since I went and watched
Speaker 8: his last high school game when we first got to
Speaker 8: cal and helped to secure him to come on. He
Speaker 8: came in early, and so I got to coach him
Speaker 8: for three years and got to know his mom and dad,
Speaker 8: and then you know, over the years as he got
Speaker 8: into the NFL and went through the extreme highs and
Speaker 8: the extreme lows with him, I just actually went up
Speaker 8: this summer. I was doing a consulting in Michigan, and
Speaker 8: so we spent a day together in Detroit and I
Speaker 8: got to watch him practice and we went out and
Speaker 8: at dinner that night. And he's just a really great
Speaker 8: example of you know, never get too high, never get
Speaker 8: too low. I told him when he was drafted, I said,
Speaker 8: You're never going to be as good as people say
Speaker 8: you are, and you're never going to be as bad
Speaker 8: as people say you are. So enjoy the journey and
Speaker 8: do the best you can and find a way to,
Speaker 8: you know, do some good every day. So it's been
Speaker 8: wonderful to see him do what he's done in Detroit.
Speaker 8: That whole cast of characters there is just a group
Speaker 8: of humans. And so I've been really proud of him
Speaker 8: and happy for him as well.
Speaker 1: He was the overall number one pick by the Rams,
Speaker 1: so I know you were ecstatic for him that night,
Speaker 1: got to a super Bowl, and then he's traded, so
Speaker 1: that it couldn't be more of an up and down
Speaker 1: life with regard to those moves, right, well, I.
Speaker 7: Think it is.
Speaker 8: I got to go to the draft, and you know,
Speaker 8: it was such an ecstatic moment when he got the
Speaker 8: phone call and I was sitting at the table with
Speaker 8: him to watch that smile in his face, and to
Speaker 8: see his mom and dad and his sister and the
Speaker 8: pride that they had, and then to watch him grow
Speaker 8: up in the NFL and just start to be good
Speaker 8: and to get that success and to be all pro
Speaker 8: and you know, go play in the Super Bowl and
Speaker 8: all that. But then also to see how the egotistical
Speaker 8: part of coaching were. Everything that good happened with the
Speaker 8: Rams was the great wonder kid Sean McVeigh, and everything
Speaker 8: that happened bad with the Rams was all that terrible
Speaker 8: quarterback Jared Goff, and for McVeigh to throw flame on
Speaker 8: those fires, and then for the way he was traded,
Speaker 8: just to do it in such an unprofessional way, and
Speaker 8: for the way that he found out and all that. So, uh,
Speaker 8: it's it's like I tell him, you know, I told
Speaker 8: him at different times, I said, you know, you have
Speaker 8: really good problems. You make a tremendous amount of money,
Speaker 8: You've got an crazy, beautiful, amazing fiance, you got great parents,
Speaker 8: and half the time the world loves you and the
Speaker 8: other half the time they hate you. So you know,
Speaker 8: that's a good set of problems.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you sign up for quarterback, you sign
Speaker 1: up for that, don't you You do.
Speaker 8: Think I think, you know, for everybody in Lexington, they
Speaker 8: got to watch it firsthand. With with Tim Couch, yeah,
Speaker 8: being the first pick in the draft. And I've always
Speaker 8: said this, and I always believed it, is that Tim
Speaker 8: Couch was not the problem with the Cleveland Browns. Cleveland
Speaker 8: Brown's were a problem with Tim Couch. And you're so
Speaker 8: dependent upon luck in that deal where you go who
Speaker 8: the coaches are, and he just had a bad run
Speaker 8: of luck with the guys that were there, and the
Speaker 8: coaching staff. And so Jared has been you know, he's
Speaker 8: had the ups and the downs and highs and lows,
Speaker 8: and you just sometimes have to told every quarterback I've
Speaker 8: ever coached, you got to overcome your coaching. Sometime we're
Speaker 8: not always right. Sometimes we're wrong. And I told Jared
Speaker 8: when he went to the NFL, I said, you play
Speaker 8: ten years, you're probably gonna have ten different quarterback coaches.
Speaker 8: They tell you ten different things, and you better learn
Speaker 8: to listen to none of them and figure out who
Speaker 8: you are. And every now and then you get lucky
Speaker 8: and find somebody that's really good. And he's been fortunate
Speaker 8: now as OC has done an incredible job, and I
Speaker 8: think he's got the best head coach in all the football.
Speaker 8: So all those guys play hard for him.
Speaker 1: Talking to Tony Franklin, former assistant at Kentucky, was the
Speaker 1: OC at Cal and Jared Goff was there setting records
Speaker 1: in the Pac twelve. Well, that's got to hurt your
Speaker 1: heart to the pack The weelve, I guess is falling apart.
Speaker 1: But to work with a guy like Golf and now,
Speaker 1: be honest, I'm actually a shareholder, a part owner of
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers but I'm rooting like crazy the
Speaker 1: Detroit Lyons, if not for golf, for Josh Pascal and
Speaker 1: Quinton Bohanna. It's a lot to like over with the Lions,
Speaker 1: you know, it really is.
Speaker 8: And Laura and I were lucky this year that with
Speaker 8: my schedule, we were able to go to a game
Speaker 8: and sit in a box with Jared's mom and dad
Speaker 8: and a group of people that really supported him. And
Speaker 8: all these years coaching in every major stadium that there
Speaker 8: is in football, I've never been to a place as
Speaker 8: loud as Ford Field. I've never been to a place
Speaker 8: where the fans cared as much as what they did
Speaker 8: at Ford Field, and for him to experience that, and
Speaker 8: especially in the playoffs with them shouting his name when
Speaker 8: they played the Rams and Stafford came back and the
Speaker 8: fans shouting Jared Goff, Jared Goff, pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 1: Tell me about his physical skills to so many other
Speaker 1: points in your career, because it's been fascinating. But with
Speaker 1: regard to Jared Goff, I mean, obviously a strong arm,
Speaker 1: but I got to think he sees a field pretty well, doesn't.
Speaker 8: He He's got great vision. He's a guy that you know,
Speaker 8: people always talk about today. There's such a divide between well,
Speaker 8: you know, they're just a system quarterback and they can't
Speaker 8: do this and they can't do that. And what people
Speaker 8: don't understand is that there is an art to operating
Speaker 8: in that pocket from tackle to tackle. Tim Couch had
Speaker 8: that art. He was tremendous at with great hot, fast feats.
Speaker 8: It's what I now call Manning GoF footwork. I named
Speaker 8: it after Peyton Manning and Jared Goff, and really, to
Speaker 8: be honest with you, because it named it after Tim
Speaker 8: Couch because all their footwork was the same. They had
Speaker 8: this incredible like a typewriter where you work to find
Speaker 8: the throwing lanes from a GAF to b gaff to
Speaker 8: see gap. And Jared has that unique ability to never
Speaker 8: look at the rush, to keep his eyes down the field,
Speaker 8: to be able to feel the rush, to slide from
Speaker 8: a GAF to be gap, to see gap. And then
Speaker 8: obviously did God give him talent and to throw a
Speaker 8: laser being twenty five yards from one hash to the
Speaker 8: opposite sideline and you know, to be six ' five
Speaker 8: and do that is a gift that you know he.
Speaker 3: Was blessed with.
Speaker 8: And all the other stuff he's worked incredibly hard to
Speaker 8: be good, and he worked hard in college. He was
Speaker 8: a guy that his first year we were one and
Speaker 8: eleven at Cal and you know, he got sacked as
Speaker 8: much as anybody in college football.
Speaker 1: And he took a beating.
Speaker 8: He weighed about one hundred and seventy pounds, and you know,
Speaker 8: he went from there to breaking every record in football.
Speaker 8: And so it's fun to watch somebody just constantly every
Speaker 8: year get better at their craft. And he's right now
Speaker 8: playing at the highest level that he's ever played at.
Speaker 1: Wow. Why you were at Kentucky. You were the OC
Speaker 1: for a Dusty Bonner and Jared Lorenzen. I know Jared
Speaker 1: could shake off defensive line, but Dusty, Dusty was sacked
Speaker 1: quite a bit, I know, but it's still led to
Speaker 1: ly in passing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and Dusty was a guy too that did a
Speaker 8: nice job of working to find the throwing lanes. The
Speaker 8: problem was we just weren't. You know, we lost those
Speaker 8: that really good group of all offensive line and all
Speaker 8: left that year before. So he had to sit in
Speaker 8: there with that and still had the SEC in several categories.
Speaker 8: And you know, it was a great quarterback and I'd
Speaker 8: still to this day will go to my grave knowing
Speaker 8: that if you know, our head coach had not made
Speaker 8: that decision to do what he did, then you know,
Speaker 8: he would probably still be a big time coach. But
Speaker 8: all that's in hindsight. But yeah, and you know, Jared
Speaker 8: obviously had Lorenzo had a phenomenal skill set that was
Speaker 8: different than any of those other guys in the fact
Speaker 8: that he was just an incredible athlete that could throw
Speaker 8: the ball seventy yards and tough guy and you know,
Speaker 8: physical and all the other things, all the other gifts
Speaker 8: that you have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Dusty's made quite a name for himself as
Speaker 1: a radio personality here and in part of our UK
Speaker 1: network coverage, So you got to be proud of him
Speaker 1: for that. But we're talking to Tony Franklin, a former
Speaker 1: Kentucky assistant coach also worked in a number of places
Speaker 1: in treading cal where he coached Jared Goff, the overall
Speaker 1: number one pick in the draft and now a guy
Speaker 1: who's just one step away from the Super Bowl. They're
Speaker 1: listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider More
Speaker 1: to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: talking to Tony Franklin, who was an assistant coach at Kentucky,
Speaker 1: worked at Troy and Auburn and Middle Tennessee, but also
Speaker 1: at cal where he coached Jared Goff, now the quarterback
Speaker 1: of the Detroit Lions. Do you get a chance to
Speaker 1: talk and you know, meet and chalk with Dan Campbell
Speaker 1: at all, because man, that city has fallen in love
Speaker 1: with that guy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I sure have. The day I went, they were
Speaker 8: gosh there in late June, so I think it was
Speaker 8: their last day of OTAs. And it was funny because
Speaker 8: they security like I was going to see the President
Speaker 8: of the United States to get into the camp. And
Speaker 8: once I got inside there and Jared had arranged everything,
Speaker 8: it was when Coach Campbell came out. He was one
Speaker 8: of the few people that in my life at the
Speaker 8: moment he walked out onto the field, there was a
Speaker 8: presence that I'd be truthful with you. I was afraid
Speaker 8: of the guy. I mean, I didn't want to walk
Speaker 8: up and say hello, who I was nothing. I tried
Speaker 8: to avoid him because he looked at me like he
Speaker 8: was ready to play. That day and the thing that
Speaker 8: Jared had said to me a long time ago was
Speaker 8: he said, you know, everybody because of his opening speech
Speaker 8: when he took over things of him as you know,
Speaker 8: a meathead and oksuskay and all that stuff. He said, he's,
Speaker 8: you know, one of, if not the smartest guys that
Speaker 8: I've ever been around in the game of football. He
Speaker 8: knows every single aspect of the game from offense, defense,
Speaker 8: special teams. And the big thing is he's a leader
Speaker 8: and they respond to him because he genuinely cares and
Speaker 8: he tells authentic truth, which is so unusual it's almost
Speaker 8: unheard of in college football. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 8: ninety percent of the guys that are out there today
Speaker 8: in the industry, I don't think there's hardly any authentic truth.
Speaker 8: But Dan Campbell is authentic truth. And I think it's
Speaker 8: easier to have authentic truth in the NFL than it
Speaker 8: is in college. But he's one of those people that
Speaker 8: I think it's what's made him such a great leader
Speaker 8: is because he does speak authentic truth.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, professionals, they've been around the block.
Speaker 1: They're going to recognize bs, aren't they.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 8: When I think that the other things that eventually pretty
Speaker 8: quickly they find out that it is a business, and
Speaker 8: as long as you're upfront and honest and blunt, then
Speaker 8: most of them will walk away with a good feeling.
Speaker 8: They'll feel good about it. And I think that was
Speaker 8: the thing that always bothered me with Jared when the
Speaker 8: Rams traded him, is that it wasn't authentic truth. It
Speaker 8: was a sneaky, behine, unclosed door deal, a secret meeting,
Speaker 8: and you know, it goes to social media thirty seconds
Speaker 8: after he finds out, and so it had all been
Speaker 8: done beforehand. So that was more like the interworkings of
Speaker 8: a college football program. Then, you know, pros the way
Speaker 8: they're supposed to handle thing.
Speaker 1: What kind of a chance do you give them? Because
Speaker 1: I had the Niners look beatable when the Green Bay
Speaker 1: played them.
Speaker 8: You know, Green Bay I thought was playing as good
Speaker 8: as anybody in the NFL at the end of the year.
Speaker 8: As a matter of fact, I think that if Love
Speaker 8: had just a little bit more experience, yep, they would
Speaker 8: have won that game because he missed. You know, the
Speaker 8: interception he threw to the running back on the checkdown
Speaker 8: was just really bad footwork and just you know, a
Speaker 8: horrible ball, and he'd thrown so many incredible balls in
Speaker 8: rhythm that he'd had the last few weeks. But with
Speaker 8: that being said, Detroit's playing really good football. They've played
Speaker 8: good football on the road this year at different times.
Speaker 8: I think it all comes down to whether or not
Speaker 8: they get a plus one or a plus two in turnovers.
Speaker 8: If they have a play one or a plus two
Speaker 8: and turnovers, I think they'll I think they'll win the game.
Speaker 8: If they don't, then I think it'll be you know,
Speaker 8: it'll be a tough deal because San Francisco is a
Speaker 8: little bit better defensively. They've you know, had more success
Speaker 8: defensively San Francisco our Detroit has given up a ton
Speaker 8: of yards in the air of the last four weeks,
Speaker 8: and they've been good against the run. But McCaffrey's so
Speaker 8: good coming out of the backfield catching the ball. I
Speaker 8: just think that they'll need to be a plus one
Speaker 8: or a plus really probably a plus two to win
Speaker 8: the game.
Speaker 1: I'm with you, and the Packers missed, as you know,
Speaker 1: two interception opportunities. One would have been a pick six.
Speaker 1: Otherwise I think that could have been a game much
Speaker 1: like the Cowboys game. This is a fascinating matchup Tony,
Speaker 1: because you know, we've talked about Jared being the overall
Speaker 1: number one and the guy on the other sideline, the quarterback,
Speaker 1: was mister irrelevant. It could not be more of a contrast.
Speaker 1: You're a quarterbacks expert. What does that tell us about
Speaker 1: the position?
Speaker 8: Well, it tells us that most people have no clue
Speaker 8: what they're doing when they're making these decisions of who's
Speaker 8: good and who's not. There's more failures in drafting quarterbacks
Speaker 8: and picking the five star quarterbacks and the elite eleven quarterbacks.
Speaker 8: And the one thing I found out over the years
Speaker 8: is that I didn't play quarterback, couldn't play it if
Speaker 8: my life depended upon it. But I got really good
Speaker 8: at coaching the position. And I think most of it
Speaker 8: was because I was extremely simplistic and the details of
Speaker 8: how I went about doing it. And with that being said,
Speaker 8: brock Party is not a good quarterback. Brock Perty is
Speaker 8: a great quarterback. He's got tremendous pocket presence, he can
Speaker 8: extend place, he's got a good arm, not a great arm,
Speaker 8: but a good arm, and he's doing People say, well, yeah,
Speaker 8: well he's just within the system. Well, you know what,
Speaker 8: Jimmy Garoppolo was in the system, it wasn't very good.
Speaker 8: There's a lot of guys within systems that can't do
Speaker 8: what Rock Purty has done. And I think a lot
Speaker 8: of it comes back to people just never wanting to
Speaker 8: admit that they're wrong, which is a huge problem in
Speaker 8: our society where that you can show it to them
Speaker 8: in their face, watch it on video, and they still
Speaker 8: won't admit it. And that's the thing now, is that, well,
Speaker 8: we didn't pick this guy. He wasn't the guy that
Speaker 8: we said was going to be the guy. They should
Speaker 8: have done this, They should have done that. So and
Speaker 8: so could have been better if they've taken him instead
Speaker 8: of admitting that this guy is a really good player
Speaker 8: and just you know, hey, sometimes it happens.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: The way I did it in college football is here's
Speaker 8: the way I said. Once every three quarterbacks that you take,
Speaker 8: Once every three quarterbacks that you sign in college football,
Speaker 8: one of them better be good. Two of them can
Speaker 8: be terrible, but one better be good. One of them
Speaker 8: better be able to win, and if so, you'll keep
Speaker 8: your job. If you get ever get a time to
Speaker 8: where you go two or three years without signing a
Speaker 8: good one, you're in trouble, you're probably gonna get fired.
Speaker 1: And now you mentioned being there when he was drafted,
Speaker 1: but of course people knocked him, said and you just
Speaker 1: talked about it. He's a system guy. I know, maybe
Speaker 1: I'm mincing words, are taking things too literally, but isn't
Speaker 1: every quality QB. Isn't every successful quarterback a system guy?
Speaker 1: Just a guy who's found the right system, because you
Speaker 1: don't just go out there and you know, let's run
Speaker 1: a little bit of this and a little bit of
Speaker 1: that and have success.
Speaker 8: Now there's no doubt. And again it becomes if it
Speaker 8: becomes a catchphrase. It's people love catch phrases. They love
Speaker 8: something that's simple that you can repeat over and over
Speaker 8: again and you don't really have to have any facts
Speaker 8: to base it up. People say, well, Kyle Shanahan is
Speaker 8: this It's just like McVeagh. It's mcveigh's the greatest coach
Speaker 8: in the history of mankind. There's this whole new trend
Speaker 8: of these guru kid coaches that are, you know, in
Speaker 8: the twenties and their thirties, and they come up in
Speaker 8: their voy geniuses and all that stuff, and so anybody
Speaker 8: that has success they are and sometimes they're the ones
Speaker 8: that are responsible. They're the ones they hear it all
Speaker 8: the time, they take the credit for it, when in reality,
Speaker 8: it's a combination. Then it always has been a combination. Sure,
Speaker 8: it's a combination of you as a football coach going Okay,
Speaker 8: what can this guy do?
Speaker 2: What's he good at?
Speaker 4: And then you.
Speaker 8: Develop the offense around that, not the other way around.
Speaker 8: And you know, you're dumb as a coach if you
Speaker 8: don't adjust what you do to what the skill set
Speaker 8: is of the best player that you have to play
Speaker 8: the position. That's why Lamar Jackson is to me, he's
Speaker 8: the MVP and it's not even close. And you know,
Speaker 8: people right now they're, well, you know he's not a
Speaker 8: true quarterback.
Speaker 2: Yes he is.
Speaker 8: He's incredible in the pocket. He just happened to get
Speaker 8: a coordinator that came in and said, you know, let's
Speaker 8: take what this guy already does really well. Let him
Speaker 8: still scramble and make some plays, but not us have
Speaker 8: as many designated runs. And then let's improve his skill
Speaker 8: set in the pocket. And then let's put it all
Speaker 8: together and see what happens. And you know, the guy's
Speaker 8: one of the best players to ever play the game.
Speaker 1: Hey, coach, great catching up with you. Let's do it
Speaker 1: again soon.
Speaker 8: Thanks great to hear from you. To take care.
Speaker 1: That'll do it for now. Thanks for joining us for
Speaker 1: this special edition the best of the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 3: Can you fly this plane and land it? Surely you
Speaker 3: can't be serious. I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.