Speaker 1: It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on
Speaker 1: Sports Talk seven nine day, Now here's Nick Coffee.
Speaker 2: As much as I enjoyed my vacation, it is nice
Speaker 2: to be back. And there's no better reminder that I'm
Speaker 2: back here in the Ohio Valley region than allergies, just
Speaker 2: you know, saying hello in a very unpleasant way. I
Speaker 2: don't know what it is, man Like when I'm here
Speaker 2: for an extended amount of time, like I guess, I
Speaker 2: get used to it to where it doesn't really impact me.
Speaker 2: Maybe I just, you know, I get used to it.
Speaker 2: But when I've been gone for a few days, let
Speaker 2: alone eight days, like we were just gone and then
Speaker 2: I returned to this lovely place that I call home,
Speaker 2: which I do love it here, wouldn't want to live
Speaker 2: anywhere else. Man a reminder of the watery eyes at
Speaker 2: all times. My throat's scratchy. I mean, I'm not getting sick,
Speaker 2: it's just it happens. I now know that when I
Speaker 2: come back, it's not me getting a bug or something.
Speaker 2: It's just my body. I guess needing to adjust back
Speaker 2: to whatever the hell it's got to do to you know,
Speaker 2: get used to these allergies that end the humidity like
Speaker 2: it's really hot here. In fact, I think it was
Speaker 2: hotter here than it was in Destined last week. And
Speaker 2: didn't it rain like all week?
Speaker 3: It rained a bunch till the weekend pretty much, and
Speaker 3: now we're not expecting rain at all this week.
Speaker 2: I don't think, yeah, I mean it was. I mean
Speaker 2: I probably this probably vacation where I was. I don't
Speaker 2: ways say unplugged, because you know, I've gone to some
Speaker 2: places in other countries that if I don't have Wi Fi,
Speaker 2: I don't have the ability to do anything on my phone.
Speaker 2: But I just there's that there's that little button on
Speaker 2: the and I guess everybody can program their phone if
Speaker 2: it's an iPhone, to you know, to have it set
Speaker 2: up differently. But I just learned what turning on and
Speaker 2: off this.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: I don't know what this button's called, but basically what
Speaker 2: it does is that if somebody texts me or calls me, like,
Speaker 2: I don't get notified, it's not you know, turning it
Speaker 2: on silent. Yeah, it do not disturb, which makes total sense.
Speaker 2: So I turned do not Disturb on on for the
Speaker 2: majority of my time there, and it made it to
Speaker 2: where like, you know, it didn't even show me if
Speaker 2: I had a text message, I had to go to
Speaker 2: the actual text message app on the messages app on
Speaker 2: my phone to didn't see it. And it just, I
Speaker 2: don't know made it enjoyable.
Speaker 3: Was it one of those things where you turned it
Speaker 3: off of do not disturb you got bombarded by all
Speaker 3: sorts of notifications or were they just already there and
Speaker 3: you'd have to worry about that.
Speaker 2: So I thought my phone was messed up because it
Speaker 2: wasn't showing me anything and I didn't even realize that
Speaker 2: I turned it on. So I did it by accident,
Speaker 2: and a couple of days ago behind, I'm like, this
Speaker 2: is awesome. And then there were a couple people that
Speaker 2: I needed to talk to and I'm like, well, I
Speaker 2: guess if they if they need me, they'll call me,
Speaker 2: and they were trying to. So it worked out perfect,
Speaker 2: and I now know, like if I ever just want like,
Speaker 2: because it's uncommon to not be attached to my phone
Speaker 2: for a variety for the for a good part of
Speaker 2: my day, because I mean, I can be a lot
Speaker 2: of people can be productive on their phone, right, Like,
Speaker 2: I'm sure depending on what kind of work you do,
Speaker 2: kind of career you have, Like you're probably using your
Speaker 2: phone for work a lot emails, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: you can do anything on your phone. To be honest
Speaker 2: with you, It's more powerful than any computer you'll have
Speaker 2: as far as the you know, the things they can
Speaker 2: do for you, and the convenience of you've been able
Speaker 2: to just put it in your pocket, so you know,
Speaker 2: to just have my phone away from me at all times,
Speaker 2: it just I would feel naked. I would I would
Speaker 2: feel like, you know, I need to call the cops
Speaker 2: or something. But having it, the ability to use it
Speaker 2: when needed but not be hit up with calls or
Speaker 2: text messages from people. Not that that are that are
Speaker 2: bothering you, but like what, I'm a vacation. Even if
Speaker 2: I knew I was gonna look at somebody's text message
Speaker 2: and say, hey, you know, I'm on vacation this week.
Speaker 2: Let's get in touch next week. Hey I'm back in
Speaker 2: town next Sunday. We can talk. Then they would be understanding, okay,
Speaker 2: enjoy your vacation. But then in my mind, I'd be
Speaker 2: thinking about whatever it is I got to get done,
Speaker 2: whatever it is I need to do, or whatever POTENTI
Speaker 2: you know, just things like that. So to have it
Speaker 2: completely off without anybody being able to like hit me
Speaker 2: up and distract me. It was.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was awesome. I mean, I'm sure every phone has
Speaker 2: that kind of feature. I just didn't know. I mean,
Speaker 2: I turned on accidentally, didn't know what happened, but it
Speaker 2: ended up being awesome. All right. It is Coffee and Company.
Speaker 2: Fil Beth Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you guys hanging out with us, and as you
Speaker 2: could expect, when I get back from vacation, I try
Speaker 2: not to give you a show that you know sounds
Speaker 2: like it should have taken place a week before. But
Speaker 2: I do like to react to some things that I
Speaker 2: miss out on, and I missed out on a lot
Speaker 2: last week. The TVT was not disappointed to miss out
Speaker 2: on that, to be honest with you, because of the result.
Speaker 2: And I asked the question like leading into that potential matchup, like, hey,
Speaker 2: we're clearly gonna want Louisville to win. Kentucky fans are
Speaker 2: gonna want like this, This is a rivalry matchup in
Speaker 2: an event that none of us ever would have thought
Speaker 2: would be possible years ago. And then sure enough, this event,
Speaker 2: it becomes pretty popular and former Louisville players get together
Speaker 2: to have a team. Same thing with Kentucky, and I
Speaker 2: kind of felt like, hey, if they win, great, If
Speaker 2: they lose, yeah, who cares. These are guys who played here,
Speaker 2: you know, ten, nine, eight years ago. I mean, I
Speaker 2: want them to win, but like, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 2: experiencing that sadness that we all know when your team
Speaker 2: loses in the NAA tournament, Like that sucks. I mean,
Speaker 2: I kind of wish I had that sadness recently because
Speaker 2: of how bad Lois's been. But you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like whenever the season ending loss happens and you know
Speaker 2: it's over, like it's sad. So with this I'm thinking, like,
Speaker 2: you know, I won't be that sad. I'll be able
Speaker 2: to get over it. And I did. But it hurt
Speaker 2: more than I thought. And it's because for me, just
Speaker 2: for myself only, I know a lot of these guys,
Speaker 2: you know all of them, but I know some of
Speaker 2: them known pretty well. I care so much about that
Speaker 2: era of Louisville basketball gave me my first and maybe
Speaker 2: only national championship I'll ever see at Louisville, which who knows,
Speaker 2: maybe they win more, but it doesn't happen often, right,
Speaker 2: It's not something that you, you know, you can just
Speaker 2: expect to happen every so often every few years. No,
Speaker 2: Like I mean, it's hard to win national championships and anything.
Speaker 2: So you know, when I see those guys lose to
Speaker 2: Kentucky players again, like it, it's sad. It pains me.
Speaker 2: I'm a fan, Like I hated it. I also feel
Speaker 2: bad for those guys who really had nothing to do
Speaker 2: with anything that went on in Minority Hall, and yet
Speaker 2: because of the you know, that story itself, and that
Speaker 2: NCAA investigation leading to Louisville having their banner vacated, all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. Like, I just hate knowing that
Speaker 2: there are people who don't know much about these guys individually.
Speaker 2: They only read the headlines. They only know that it
Speaker 2: was all over ESPN because again it's salacious story. You've
Speaker 2: got prostitution in the dorm room with college athletes and recruits,
Speaker 2: like again, that happened. It's awful. So you know, to
Speaker 2: know that there are some people that will, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that twenty thirteen team, wasn't that the team that you
Speaker 2: know cheated with prostitutes and like that's nonsense, that's not
Speaker 2: a Louisville was good and most of these guys had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with that. So you know, I just
Speaker 2: I wanted them to continue to keep winning in this event,
Speaker 2: and not that it would do anything to change their legacy,
Speaker 2: right because winning a national championship. I don't think he
Speaker 2: gets any better than that as far as how fans
Speaker 2: are going to remember a team in former players. But
Speaker 2: I wanted him to beat the law familiar team and
Speaker 2: they just they couldn't get it done. I mean, Eric
Speaker 2: BLEDSOE don't know how that guy's not in the NBA
Speaker 2: right now. He's he's talented, and nothing made me feel
Speaker 2: older than hearing that he was in the NBA for
Speaker 2: fourteen years and has not played in the NBA in
Speaker 2: like two years.
Speaker 1: Like that.
Speaker 2: Could not believe that. Willie coley Stein another guy that
Speaker 2: you know, maybe it's style of play in the NBA,
Speaker 2: but that guy, I don't know how he's not in
Speaker 2: the NBA currently. So it was a bummer to see,
Speaker 2: and I thought, you know what, this is great. I
Speaker 2: don't have to, you know, be around UK fans. I'm
Speaker 2: in Destin, I'm on vacation, and the first person to
Speaker 2: come and speak to me at the pool in Destin
Speaker 2: the next day on Tuesday was a Kentucky fan letting
Speaker 2: me know not to let last night ruin my day
Speaker 2: because it's a beautiful day here and I've got a
Speaker 2: beautiful family. And I'm like, yeah, you know what, Like,
Speaker 2: you're right, it's kind of nice to just be able
Speaker 2: to come out here and not even think about it.
Speaker 2: Oh wait, you just walked up and reminded me at
Speaker 2: nine thirty in the morning. Thanks buddy. I mean I
Speaker 2: say that jokingly. He was very nice and wasn't giving
Speaker 2: me a hard time, just just you know, just riven
Speaker 2: me a little bit about it. But again, that speaks
Speaker 2: to the rivalry. You know, this went from something that
Speaker 2: a lot of people didn't know much about until here
Speaker 2: we are, these two teams playing each other, shattering the record,
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, right, NBA players there watching
Speaker 2: because you know, it's high level. And of course what
Speaker 2: happened after the fact, like when we play each other
Speaker 2: in basketball, even if it is a bunch of former
Speaker 2: players who hadn't played in a long time, mixed in
Speaker 2: with some other randos that did not play for the schools,
Speaker 2: if you've got that love, I mean, clearly there's the
Speaker 2: connection to both schools there and when it comes to
Speaker 2: basketball and this rivalry, it's just different. If there's one
Speaker 2: thing that you know does make me happy to see,
Speaker 2: because I haven't had a whole lot of happy moments
Speaker 2: when watching Louisville basketball play Kentucky in a long time,
Speaker 2: is that there are levels to this, you know, hatred
Speaker 2: that I think does make people realize, Okay, Duke in
Speaker 2: Carolina great programs, two of the best ever, and they
Speaker 2: are rivals and they've been super competitive. But I think
Speaker 2: sometimes when you see the dust up after the fact
Speaker 2: at Freedom Hall, the old Hawktua from Shinano Onawaku, and
Speaker 2: you see guys looking like they're going to fight each other, Like, again,
Speaker 2: what a good look from Nanu by any means, And
Speaker 2: I'm glad to see that you did apologize, But like
Speaker 2: the level of hatred's just different here, right, Like I
Speaker 2: don't want to say that Carolina and Duke fans are
Speaker 2: too nice to each other, but it's just different. And
Speaker 2: I did see a lot of college basketball national guys
Speaker 2: last week saying like, hey man, like this is the
Speaker 2: most heated rivalry. Man, this is just different, and it
Speaker 2: is and I'm proud of that, but I wish Louiell,
Speaker 2: of course, you know, had more victories on their side.
Speaker 2: And you know, in the last I don't know howver
Speaker 2: many years something on the text line earlier asked if
Speaker 2: that was sort of like the the ending of the
Speaker 2: cal dominance against Louisville, which though all those guys are
Speaker 2: clearly cow guys, so maybe you know, maybe that I
Speaker 2: don't know, maybe that, uh, that was it. And now
Speaker 2: we're gonna see, you know, Mark Pope put together teams.
Speaker 2: They're gonna be good, and I think more Pope's a
Speaker 2: good coach. I don't know what kind of love. I
Speaker 2: don't know what level of success he's gonna have, but
Speaker 2: I have I believe he'll put together good teams and
Speaker 2: they'll have they'll have good players. But the days of
Speaker 2: just you know, looking out there and thinking, okay, they
Speaker 2: got a Willie Cauley Stein, feel really good about our guys,
Speaker 2: But man, like that guy's different. How about John Wall, Yeah,
Speaker 2: nobody's staying in front of him. I don't care who
Speaker 2: you are. Like the days of having to worry about
Speaker 2: going up against those kind of teams I think are over.
Speaker 2: But they doesn't mean Louisville will start winning. I hope they,
Speaker 2: you know, not that I want more than for the
Speaker 2: for the rivalry to you know, be a little bit
Speaker 2: more balanced on the Louisville side. All right, it is
Speaker 2: Coffee and Company again. We're fueled by Thorton's here on
Speaker 2: Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you guys hanging out with
Speaker 2: us as we take you up until six o'clock. So
Speaker 2: Jim Harbaugh was asked today following Chargers practice on the
Speaker 2: reported NCAA notice of allegations that Michigan is going to
Speaker 2: get which, of course, you know, he got out of
Speaker 2: there just in time, won a national championship. Quite clear
Speaker 2: that they cheated, and it was quite clear that when
Speaker 2: that cheating started, they got a lot better. But he
Speaker 2: got the hell out of town and did have to
Speaker 2: worry about it. Pulled at old Pete Carroll, who of
Speaker 2: course did the same thing when he was at USC
Speaker 2: then went to Seattle. But Harbaugh's response was this quote today,
Speaker 2: I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not
Speaker 2: aware nor complicit in those set allegation and those set allegations,
Speaker 2: so so for it's back to work and attacking with
Speaker 2: an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. What the hell is he
Speaker 2: talking about? That's so Jim Harbaugh. So what I think
Speaker 2: is wild is that this notice dellegations, by the way,
Speaker 2: is not official, like they haven't. Like it's a draft
Speaker 2: and somehow somebody got their hands on the draft that
Speaker 2: the NCAA is about to send to a mission about
Speaker 2: to send to Michigan, and it does include their new
Speaker 2: head coach, Sharon Moore, former Louisville assistant, who apparently deleted
Speaker 2: a bunch of text messages between him and the you know,
Speaker 2: the guy who did it all, Connor Stallions, And you know,
Speaker 2: let's be real, that's not a great look that you're
Speaker 2: deleting a bunch of text messages before you turn over
Speaker 2: your phone for an investigation. Or maybe he didn't turn
Speaker 2: over his phone. I'm not sure, but either way, when
Speaker 2: it comes to I think there's not a person out
Speaker 2: there that's not a Michigan fan that looks at this
Speaker 2: and says they did not cheat. They were elaborate like
Speaker 2: it was, and they weren't like if you remember how
Speaker 2: how brazen Connor Stallions was, Like somebody found his Venmo,
Speaker 2: and you can see him like buying in insane like
Speaker 2: buying insane sets of tickets to games. Not because you
Speaker 2: know he's a high roller with a bunch of money.
Speaker 2: He's doing it because it's his job. They've been putting him,
Speaker 2: you know, in that position to go watch those games
Speaker 2: Steel signs and you know, it looked like it worked.
Speaker 2: So we'll never know, like did they become a top
Speaker 2: ten caliber team? Do they go from a top ten
Speaker 2: caliber team to a top three team because of something
Speaker 2: that we'll never know, Like just the actual advantage they
Speaker 2: had is just impossible to know. But clearly they had
Speaker 2: an advantage and they cheated. And I think because it
Speaker 2: was so out in the open, everybody just said, well, Okay,
Speaker 2: I guess they know what's going on, and the NCAA
Speaker 2: is not doing anything, so I guess they got away
Speaker 2: with it. Well, now you have this Netflix documentary which
Speaker 2: is about to come out where they're talking to Stallions.
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be his first time ever
Speaker 2: being on record discussing any of this, and maybe it
Speaker 2: maybe it made the incident a realize. Uh oh, we
Speaker 2: just crowned the national champion, and word is that in
Speaker 2: this documentary. He's not going to be super discreet about
Speaker 2: what he did. He's going to be pretty open about
Speaker 2: what happened. I mean, that's the noise. Who knows if
Speaker 2: that's true or not, but you have to think you
Speaker 2: wouldn't go through with this being one of your documentaries
Speaker 2: for this Netflix untold series. They I mean they think
Speaker 2: thirty for thirty but on Netflix and honestly sometimes better,
Speaker 2: like they're that some of them are that good. But
Speaker 2: you're not going to do this if Connor Stallins is
Speaker 2: going to play like you know, the card of innocence
Speaker 2: to where he did nothing right, Like why would it
Speaker 2: would be terrible television? Like you would only do this
Speaker 2: if you actually had him on record, maybe not completely
Speaker 2: admitting to everything, but like discussing it right.
Speaker 3: And what kind of trouble can he actually get in
Speaker 3: at this point by admitting any of this?
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the thing he never like they removed
Speaker 2: him from. Like he may be bitter towards Michigan now
Speaker 2: because they got rid of him. They had to, And
Speaker 2: you know, Harball's gone. I don't know Harball was this guy,
Speaker 2: but like Harball's response to me today, I mean he's
Speaker 2: kind of out there. But I feel like he is.
Speaker 2: He's comfortable that he won't have fingerprints on it, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Yes, and it's gonna end up
Speaker 2: falling back on somebody else there, and if it's Sharon Moore,
Speaker 2: you know, probably not a good look. But I mean,
Speaker 2: they're not gonna fire him, isn't.
Speaker 3: It's so weird though, how everything just kind of got
Speaker 3: pushed under the rug last season because Michigan was so good.
Speaker 3: It's almost like the networks didn't And maybe the networks
Speaker 3: had nothing to do with it, but it's almost like
Speaker 3: they realized all the revenue was there because they were
Speaker 3: having such a wonderful season, people were tuning into Michigan
Speaker 3: football that they didn't want to prematurely end this run
Speaker 3: that they were going on because they knew they could
Speaker 3: win the entire thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember thinking to my and we talked about it,
Speaker 2: how this is so clearly cheating and they're good because
Speaker 2: of it, and yet there's nobody taking action to hold
Speaker 2: them accountable. And I would ask myself, well, what can
Speaker 2: they do right this stuff? And I just looked it
Speaker 2: up like this broke like during the season, right, so
Speaker 2: you're not going to you know in fact, didn't he
Speaker 2: get suspended or was horrible suspended for something else.
Speaker 3: So this happened. Oh, actually, that's a good question because
Speaker 3: I know he didn't he didn't coach the first four
Speaker 3: or five games.
Speaker 2: But I think that was from something else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe that wasn't related to this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to see the exact day
Speaker 2: because it may just been a timing thing to where
Speaker 2: they weren't going to be able to like in real time.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, your game at Michigan State this weekend not
Speaker 2: happening because we're investigating the sign stealing allegation. Maybe it
Speaker 2: was just one of those things that, you know, the
Speaker 2: timing of it made it to where they were going
Speaker 2: to be to finish the season if they won the
Speaker 2: national championship. They won the national championship, but the NAA
Speaker 2: was still going to take its sweet ass time like
Speaker 2: it does for everything, and do their own investigation and
Speaker 2: I guess, you know, hold somebody accountable. But when I
Speaker 2: say the whole thing start, I mean when there was
Speaker 2: news of it, like clearly it had been going on,
Speaker 2: you know for a while. I mean says here that
Speaker 2: NAA's draft obtained by ESPN states that investigation investigators used
Speaker 2: ticket information, film, photographs, and interviews to determine that Stallions
Speaker 2: had impermissibly scouted at at least thirteen future Michigan opponents
Speaker 2: on at least fifty eight occasions between twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty three. Like he was doing this last
Speaker 2: year and then he got caught, Like that's what happened.
Speaker 2: So it may have just been where the NAA always
Speaker 2: planned to hold Michigan accountable. I guess as best they can,
Speaker 2: but like they couldn't in real time. I mean, I
Speaker 2: guess they probably could have started investigating, but either way,
Speaker 2: what they weren't going to have enough time on their
Speaker 2: hands to step in and say, hey about that playoff
Speaker 2: spot that you feel like you've earned not so much
Speaker 2: by the way, which would have been stupid for them
Speaker 2: to do anyway, Like it would have been terrible for
Speaker 2: the event, like it would have been it would have
Speaker 2: been dumb. But I can't wait to hear what Connor
Speaker 2: Stallion says. But I'm trying not to get my hopes
Speaker 2: up because again, like it may not be some like
Speaker 2: elaborate plan, like I doubt he's gonna completely turn on
Speaker 2: everybody and give names and but but you know, he's
Speaker 2: a mystery. We've never heard him talk, so we don't
Speaker 2: know his demeanor. We don't know if he feels like
Speaker 2: he's been you know, if they've turned their back on
Speaker 2: him after he was the guy out there boots on
Speaker 2: the ground helping them cheat. But if I was Michigan,
Speaker 2: part of me would say, look, dnstaa, they've never had
Speaker 2: less power. They'll come in and maybe tell us we
Speaker 2: got to vacate some wins from previous years. But who cares,
Speaker 2: or maybe you are worried because you know, maybe they
Speaker 2: will take swift action in some former fashion and remind
Speaker 2: people we are still going to hold cheaters accountable. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, there's just not a whole lot, Like the
Speaker 2: reaction is pretty blah, pretty vanilla, because we all know
Speaker 2: exactly what they did and it was cheating. I guess
Speaker 2: where it becomes interesting is knowing who was given Connor
Speaker 2: stallions the assignment, who was given him money, that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, And maybe we find out in the documentary.
Speaker 2: Maybe we don't. All right, quick break, we'll come back
Speaker 2: on the other side talk some more Louisville hoops as
Speaker 2: well as this Coaches Poll preseason College Football Coaches Poll,
Speaker 2: which came out earlier today. I've got some thoughts on that,
Speaker 2: and we'll keep this thing going along. Right here, it's
Speaker 2: Coffee and Company feielbu Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 2: I guess I need to take some of my own advice,
Speaker 2: and that is to not get worked up about any
Speaker 2: preseason ranking poll, and to be honest with you, even
Speaker 2: the weekly updated poll that is the AP Poll and
Speaker 2: the Coaches Poll. I mean, it's a reference point. And again,
Speaker 2: we all love to see that number next to our
Speaker 2: name and the opponent we play, right, because beating ranked
Speaker 2: teams means a lot. But now that we have the
Speaker 2: college football playoff rankings, I just I don't know. I
Speaker 2: feel like it would be more of a of a
Speaker 2: move on. Nobody cares. But if it's your team, even
Speaker 2: if it's the coach's poll or whoever's poll, if it's
Speaker 2: your team and it makes your team look good, you're
Speaker 2: probably gonna share it. But I don't know. I just
Speaker 2: felt like Louisville would be somewhere between nineteen and twenty
Speaker 2: five on the preseason Coaches Poll, and I don't think
Speaker 2: it's criminal. That they're left out. I don't think you know.
Speaker 1: They're.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to find the right way to describe what
Speaker 2: I'm getting at here, which is that they're not. They
Speaker 2: can't really play the disrespect card. But man, it didn't
Speaker 2: seem like there's anybody that either remembers cares values last
Speaker 2: year's success. And look, I know they didn't finish strong.
Speaker 2: They got embarrassed in the bowl game against usc which was,
Speaker 2: you know, not good, and they also did not have
Speaker 2: a good showing in the ACC Championship game. It's like,
Speaker 2: I know, all those things happened, but I didn't think
Speaker 2: that would make it to where everybody's able to look
Speaker 2: back and say, yeah, ten wins. But man, I still
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not buying Louisville. And maybe people are
Speaker 2: justified in saying, yeah, Louisville was a fraud. They you know,
Speaker 2: they didn't beat anybody worth talking about other than you know,
Speaker 2: Notre Dame, who ended up not finishing the season that strong.
Speaker 2: So you know, I can't say I'm totally shocked, but
Speaker 2: I guess more than anything, I wanted to see the coaches, Pollar,
Speaker 2: the apeop Pole have Louisville there to give me more.
Speaker 2: I guess assurance that I am not getting expectations set
Speaker 2: too high and that I'm not over hyping this team
Speaker 2: because I mean it when I say it, I think
Speaker 2: they got a chance to be really good. And not
Speaker 2: to give you the same breakdown that I have many
Speaker 2: times in the last couple of months, but I mean,
Speaker 2: there's no doubt they're getting better at quarterback. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't want to act like Jack Plummer was the
Speaker 2: worst quarterback, but I think it's accurate to say, and
Speaker 2: I've said it many times. I said it during the season.
Speaker 2: Jeff Brown won ten games last year year with a
Speaker 2: quarterback who, in fact, was the weakness of the offense.
Speaker 2: He wasn't terrible enough to where you had to bench him,
Speaker 2: but quarterback play was not a strength of last year's
Speaker 2: ten win team, which is just wild to say. Because
Speaker 2: Jeff Braum, you would feel like, if he's going to
Speaker 2: have a really good season and get Louisville to the
Speaker 2: first ever ACC Championship game, you would just assume, well,
Speaker 2: offense must be really high powered. Well, no, the offense
Speaker 2: was good, good balance, but it was really led by
Speaker 2: two really good running backs. The only two. I mean
Speaker 2: Louisville is the only school that had two running backs
Speaker 2: drafted in last year's draft, Juir Jordan and Isaac Grindo.
Speaker 2: And defensively they were at a gas towards the end
Speaker 2: of the year, but they were good. They were good
Speaker 2: last year defensively, and they bring back some really good players,
Speaker 2: including a preseason first team All American. So I don't know,
Speaker 2: I want to create an argument with somebody that is
Speaker 2: anti Louisville, because you know that wouldn't be beneficial for anybody,
Speaker 2: But like, what would make you think Louisville, Like, if
Speaker 2: you're gonna put Louisville at number fifteen or fourteen, which
Speaker 2: is where I think they ended up in the final
Speaker 2: College Football playoff rankings, was number fifteen, I don't understand
Speaker 2: just not having them at all in the top twenty five.
Speaker 2: Whenever they should be again, they should be, it should
Speaker 2: be better. And again the only position where I think
Speaker 2: you look at it and feel like, uh oh, we
Speaker 2: could really miss these guys is running back. But I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty obvious. You don't have to be somebody
Speaker 2: that is studying, you know, the the U of L
Speaker 2: football depth chart to know that with a quarterback that's
Speaker 2: going to be better than Jack Plumber. A bunch of
Speaker 2: options that tied in you didn't have last year. Two
Speaker 2: really good receivers in the portal. Jacorey Brooks, who was
Speaker 2: Alabama's top receiver two years ago, called in Lacy. Nobody
Speaker 2: caught more, nobody had more receiving yards in college football
Speaker 2: than he did last year. And you hope Chris Bell
Speaker 2: can break out. Like so with all of that said,
Speaker 2: you don't have to have a Garrinda and a Jordan
Speaker 2: duo back there. Those guys aren't going to like the
Speaker 2: running backs they have this year, like Donald Cheney Junior,
Speaker 2: the transfer from Miami, Maurice Turner, who's the veteran, like,
Speaker 2: those guys aren't going to be asked or needed to
Speaker 2: do what Grindo and Jordan did a year ago. If
Speaker 2: they can, it'll be great. And I think those guys
Speaker 2: are good, by the way, But like I just think
Speaker 2: on paper, if you look at Louisville, I would have
Speaker 2: expected them to get a little bit more. And again,
Speaker 2: I know last year is not how you base this stuff, right, Like,
Speaker 2: you can't say, well, they were good last year, so
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put them at this spot. But yet that's
Speaker 2: what everybody does, right, Like, look look like the preseason
Speaker 2: rankings usually are the dominant teams, right So here's how
Speaker 2: it played out. Georgia number one, Ohio State two, Oregon three,
Speaker 2: Texas for Bama five, Ole, miss six, Notre Dame seven,
Speaker 2: Michigan eight, Penn State nine, in Florida State ten, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, you have to get all the way
Speaker 2: to number ten before you get a school that is
Speaker 2: not SEC Big ten or you know, Notre Dame. So Missouri, LSU, Utah, Clemson,
Speaker 2: and Tennessee are eleven through fifteen. Six team through twenty Oklahoma,
Speaker 2: Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Miami, Texas, A and M And
Speaker 2: then you're twenty one through twenty five is Arizona, in
Speaker 2: C State, USC, Kansas and Iowa. So look, I can't
Speaker 2: sit here and tell you Louisville deserves to be way
Speaker 2: ahead of Iowa and way ahead of Kansas or in
Speaker 2: C State, although I do feel like they're getting way
Speaker 2: too much of a bump from their quarterback to transferred in.
Speaker 2: But either way, like they're whoever fills these out, whether
Speaker 2: it be coaches or they're sids or the apeopole whenever,
Speaker 2: that's released, Like there are teams that people just clearly
Speaker 2: throw in there. Yet Clemson at fourteen, Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: They're usually they're never terrible, and they're usually in the
Speaker 2: preseason top twenty five. So let me just throw them
Speaker 2: in there at fourteen. That fits. How about Oklahoma, you
Speaker 2: know what, they took a step back last year a
Speaker 2: little bit, but you know what, they're Oklahoma, Let's throw
Speaker 2: them in there at sixteen. Like Miami, Oh, they've always
Speaker 2: got talent. We can't leave Miami out of the top twenty.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's Miami, like there's a brand bump at
Speaker 2: schools get and I just don't understand it.
Speaker 3: I always the same way we talk about how they're
Speaker 3: always just consistently that eight and four, nine and three.
Speaker 3: So I think sticking them at number twenty five almost
Speaker 3: feels like they're default setting for their football program.
Speaker 2: And look, who knows, maybe this guy that left Duke
Speaker 2: to go to Texas A and M will end up
Speaker 2: having a good run there. Already forgot his name, he
Speaker 2: wasn't that memorable. I suppose Mike Elko, Like, they clearly
Speaker 2: have resources, they bring in talent. Jimbo Fisher brought it
Speaker 2: in and couldn't win. But like, to me, they're another
Speaker 2: example of Okay, well they got a new coach and
Speaker 2: he's always gonna have talent to work with because you
Speaker 2: know it's A and M. They got a lot of money.
Speaker 2: Let's just throw them in there in the top twenty. Like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe I'm being a little sensitive to
Speaker 2: Louisville being snubbed here because I can't really tell you that,
Speaker 2: Like I know for a fact that they're a top
Speaker 2: twenty team, but usually I feel like if you come
Speaker 2: off of a ten win season and you play for
Speaker 2: your conference championship game, and you have a coach that
Speaker 2: is respected in the world of football, I just feel
Speaker 2: like Louisville could have been one of these scoals. Okay, yeah, man,
Speaker 2: they were a top fifteen team at the end of
Speaker 2: last year. Ten wins, Jeff brom here two transfer quarterback,
Speaker 2: that's better than Plumber. Oh yeah, I'm gonna pencil them
Speaker 2: in at number seventeen or number twenty two. Like why
Speaker 2: did we get that bump? John? Answer me, Da, I'd
Speaker 2: be furious.
Speaker 3: Too, because I think I'm kind of thinking along the
Speaker 3: same lines as you said in nineteen to twenty five
Speaker 3: I mean, I think just based on and I know
Speaker 3: you said you don't want to base everything on what
Speaker 3: happened last season, but you mentioned the Jeff brom bump
Speaker 3: and just kind of the respect he's always carried within
Speaker 3: college football. I do think there's a certain level of
Speaker 3: disrespect being thrown at the Cardinals, and I think they
Speaker 3: deserve to be in the top twenty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean in to say that you're not and
Speaker 2: you shouldn't factor in previous years, cause again, like fundamentally
Speaker 2: you just shouldn't. This is this is about the season
Speaker 2: that's going to be the twenty twenty four season, not
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty three. But if you ask people to
Speaker 2: fill this out and give you their top twenty five,
Speaker 2: all they have to base it off of is the
Speaker 2: most recent games they watched, which which was the previous season,
Speaker 2: So it's almost impossible not to factor that in.
Speaker 3: Well, then you have the recency of the fact that
Speaker 3: they ended on a what two to three game.
Speaker 2: Losing streak, and no, they won the spring game.
Speaker 3: And so like, And if those are the game, if
Speaker 3: those are springs that people are paying attention to the most,
Speaker 3: then I guess maybe if you're I guess this isn't
Speaker 3: the writers. I feel like the AP poll, between the
Speaker 3: AP and the coaches poll, people definitely tend to favor
Speaker 3: what people say in the AP pole over the.
Speaker 2: Church, no doubt, because nobody really knows who fills these
Speaker 2: out for the coaches poll. I mean, it's just a
Speaker 2: silly thing. See the coaches poll.
Speaker 3: They probably don't care.
Speaker 2: There's Oh, Steve Spurrier voted Duke preseason number one every
Speaker 2: year because he previously was at Duke. Like he just
Speaker 2: I mean, so here, I am telling you it's not
Speaker 2: that big of a deal. It's not important, and I'm
Speaker 2: getting worked up about it because I feel like this
Speaker 2: is actually the year where, you know what, damn it.
Speaker 2: I did want to care about it because it would
Speaker 2: give us even more enthusiasm for the upcoming season. And
Speaker 2: I just when you come off a ten win season
Speaker 2: and on paper, you should be just as good, if
Speaker 2: not better, even if that doesn't include ten wins. Let's
Speaker 2: say it's nine to three. Like, I just feel like
Speaker 2: the bump that used to be given to people in
Speaker 2: the preseason poll because of what they did a year ago.
Speaker 2: For some reason, Louisville just didn't get it, and clearly
Speaker 2: as you can tell, it makes me angry.
Speaker 3: I'm angry.
Speaker 2: Nobody's sicked up. Yeah, I mean how about Indiana being
Speaker 2: left off for me?
Speaker 3: Of which they were. They were projected seventeen out of
Speaker 3: eighteen in the Big Ten preseason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a bunch of losers voting for that. Yeah, who
Speaker 2: was picked last?
Speaker 3: Purdue?
Speaker 2: I think, Yeah, they're gonna be terrible, by the way,
Speaker 2: which again, not to go down that path today, but
Speaker 2: I'll always remember those that would on the Purdue side
Speaker 2: act as if Jeff Brohm winning there and giving them
Speaker 2: life and a pulse like meant that they have a
Speaker 2: good program, like meant that that's that they're a better
Speaker 2: program than Louisville. No, and the people on the Louisville
Speaker 2: side that would always bring up Jeff's record at Purdue,
Speaker 2: like get a clue, man, Like nobody wins at Purdue
Speaker 2: and has not won consistently at Purdue until he did,
Speaker 2: And they're gonna be bad. That's a that's a dove,
Speaker 2: for sake, Like, there's no way that's a dove?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: An all the oaken bucket? Back to blooming Bring it
Speaker 2: back to Bloomington, baby, all right? So we did talk
Speaker 2: about this earlier on the show for those that didn't
Speaker 2: get a chance to listen to a little bit later
Speaker 2: the Kentucky football stuff, right like they didn't get a
Speaker 2: competitive advantage whenever dudes were working at a hospital and
Speaker 2: not actually working, right like they were being paid for
Speaker 2: a job they weren't doing. But you know at the time,
Speaker 2: it's against the rules in Kentucky agreed to vacate all
Speaker 2: of their games from the twenty twenty one season, So
Speaker 2: technically Mark Stoops now has a losing record. He's gone
Speaker 2: from seventy three and sixty five to sixty three and
Speaker 2: sixty five, so it's not a huge deal. But the
Speaker 2: best season, one of the best seasons they've ever had,
Speaker 2: at least that I know of, and certainly one of
Speaker 2: Mark Stoops's best season, which I actually think this was
Speaker 2: their best season. I mean it now technically is tarnished
Speaker 2: by the record books, which again nobody cares. I can't
Speaker 2: give you fake in about the NAA vacating wins because
Speaker 2: I just don't care. No nobody really cares. If you've
Speaker 2: got it as ammunition to go against your rival, knock
Speaker 2: yourself out right, but when it's you, like you know
Speaker 2: that it happened. You know that you watched your team win.
Speaker 2: And it's another thing like if you had a guy
Speaker 2: out there that was getting paid to play and you
Speaker 2: knew at the time it wasn't legal, Like is that
Speaker 2: even I mean, do people care about that now? Like
Speaker 2: that's now legal? So who cares? Like it's one thing
Speaker 2: to like what Michigan did. They cheated and they had
Speaker 2: an elaborate plan that gave them an advantage that nobody
Speaker 2: else had, and they went what looks to be through
Speaker 2: a lot of work to get great you know, shots
Speaker 2: of the signals, and they could steal it and use
Speaker 2: it at their advantage. They would, I mean there's visual
Speaker 2: evidence that you know, maybe it's doctored. You never know
Speaker 2: what AI anymore. But like some of the things you
Speaker 2: would see Connor stallions run over to the defensive coordinator
Speaker 2: like before a play, like clearly like he stole their
Speaker 2: signs and traveled across the country to go to different
Speaker 2: games to do it. That is clearly cheating. But like
Speaker 2: Louisville in twenty thirteen when they had their season vacated,
Speaker 2: title vacated and all that, like whatever they were accused
Speaker 2: of doing in the NC DOUBLEA case didn't give them
Speaker 2: an advantage. Kentucky's players being paid for a job they
Speaker 2: weren't showing up for didn't give them an advantage. So,
Speaker 2: like my question is, are we gonna all come to
Speaker 2: an agreement that moving forward, like nobody cares about the
Speaker 2: NC doublea years later telling you that you did not
Speaker 2: win games that you know for a fact that you won,
Speaker 2: because Kentucky fans are gonna probably find a way to
Speaker 2: do it to you know, talk out of both sides
Speaker 2: of their mouth. But like that was something that they
Speaker 2: always used against louis Well, didn't didn't happen? Twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: didn't happen. I mean they were pretty consistent with that. Well,
Speaker 2: now are they gonna say? I England, their twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one football season is not up there with the way
Speaker 2: Louisville views their twenty thirteen basketball season. But it just
Speaker 2: as wild to me in this rivalry, how petty we
Speaker 2: are that like Kentucky fans now when they throw out
Speaker 2: didn't happen, they at least should expect a responsible Then
Speaker 2: you're twenty two, twenty one football season didn't happen, and
Speaker 2: you know, it's just it's so stupid, because again, we
Speaker 2: all know that these things happened, we watched them, we
Speaker 2: experienced it instead of as dumb. But I wonder if
Speaker 2: Mark Stoops was complaining about that or complaining a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, because like he knew this was common,
Speaker 2: which wouldn't really make a lot of sense. But anyways,
Speaker 2: we'll get to a quick break, we'll come back on
Speaker 2: the other side, wrap this thing up. It's coffee and company.
Speaker 2: I feel. Beth Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety just
Speaker 2: a couple of minutes left here before we have to
Speaker 2: get out of here and call it a day. But
Speaker 2: some sad news that I believe the Courier Journal just reported,
Speaker 2: and that is that former Louisville football coach Steve Cragthorpe
Speaker 2: has passed away at the young age of fifty nine.
Speaker 2: He I believe was diagnosed with Parkinson's not long after
Speaker 2: he had left Louisville. But yeah, he has. Yeah, it
Speaker 2: says here from the CJ that he passed away Sunday
Speaker 2: night after battling Parkinson's disease for more than a decade.
Speaker 2: So obviously the tenure here was not a successful one,
Speaker 2: but he always seemed like a really good man. And
Speaker 2: I got a chance to meet him a couple of times. Nothing,
Speaker 2: you know, like we were hanging out and buddies or
Speaker 2: anything like that, but seemed like a really nice guy.
Speaker 2: And you know, I remember the last time Steve Cragthorpe's
Speaker 2: name came up was right after Muhammad Ali passed away,
Speaker 2: because I don't know how close those two knew each other. Obviously,
Speaker 2: Muhammad Ali a big UFL supporter, his son stuart'st UVL
Speaker 2: and was on the Baseball Pro part of the baseball program.
Speaker 2: But you know, he dealt with Parkinson's as well, And
Speaker 2: I remember cracked for going on ESPN Radio. I think
Speaker 2: it was on Sports Center to one of the two
Speaker 2: he was. He was doing some kind of interview kind
Speaker 2: of talking about sort of you know, dealing with Parkinson's
Speaker 2: because obviously he had it for over a decade and
Speaker 2: it's something that really ended his not only his life,
Speaker 2: but his football career as well. You know, when he
Speaker 2: left Louisville in twenty and eleven, I think it was
Speaker 2: when he was let go for twenty ten, which every
Speaker 2: year it was he ended up taking the job. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and nine is when he left Louisville, he
Speaker 2: took the job at LS. She was the quarterbacks coach
Speaker 2: for a couple of seasons, but then was forced to
Speaker 2: retire from coaching just because of what his his health situation.
Speaker 2: So very sad, very sad, young young it's a young
Speaker 2: age to young age to pass away. So condolences to him.
Speaker 2: I know, despite the struggles, I know a lot of
Speaker 2: players really felt fondly of Steve Kragthorpe. So RP. All right,
Speaker 2: we're back at it tomorrow. You guys have a good
Speaker 2: Monday night.