Speaker 1: Welcome to The Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: on a Tuesday edition of our program. We are live
Speaker 1: on tape back in the saddle here in the garage
Speaker 1: after some time off my last vacation week of the summer,
Speaker 1: and I hope you did enjoy the best of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider. It's always kind of fun to go
Speaker 1: back and cherry pick some of those interviews. But we
Speaker 1: were back at it, and while I was gone, I
Speaker 1: was up at Saratoga Racetrack with friends and family. We'll
Speaker 1: talk more about that coming up a little bit later
Speaker 1: on Great Place you Gotta go if you're a racing fan.
Speaker 1: But of course it happened during the Olympics the second week,
Speaker 1: and when we weren't at the racetrack. Honestly, we spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time. We rented a house or eight
Speaker 1: of us in Airbnb, and we spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time watching the Olympics, both live and what they call
Speaker 1: the encore presentations. So we had a lot of fun
Speaker 1: and cheering on. You know, the locals. You know, most
Speaker 1: of the guys in my group were from Louisville, but
Speaker 1: they were appreciative of the fact that UK athletes current
Speaker 1: and former. We're racking of gold medals and there were
Speaker 1: people there with Louisville connections winning medals, so that really
Speaker 1: made it a lot more fun as well. And of
Speaker 1: course you can't knock the basketball, I mean, whether you
Speaker 1: think it belongs in the Olympics or not. It was spectacular,
Speaker 1: especially Steph Curry of course. But right now there are
Speaker 1: some controversies that are following the games, including Jordan Schilds.
Speaker 1: She has to return her bronze medal. USA Gymnastics appealed
Speaker 1: and it sounds like she got hosed.
Speaker 2: But the appeal was overturned.
Speaker 1: There was a question about a score, and I'll try
Speaker 1: to boil it down for you as best I can.
Speaker 1: Lord knows, I don't know much about it. But if
Speaker 1: you have a question about scoring, you have one minute
Speaker 1: to make that known to judges. There is a protocol
Speaker 1: and you have one minute now. According to the powers
Speaker 1: that be, the decision came four seconds too late, four
Speaker 1: seconds beyond the time limit for scoring inquiries. The US
Speaker 1: says it has video evidence that the inquiry became became
Speaker 1: thirteen seconds prior to the deadline, so it's been a mess.
Speaker 1: There was an appeal the USA won it and then
Speaker 1: the Court of Arbitration voided the appeal. So now they're
Speaker 1: saying you got to give the medal back, and the
Speaker 1: USA says, we will fight this to the very very
Speaker 1: and she has another medal, but she wants this one,
Speaker 1: and from what you can tell, earned this one. The
Speaker 1: USA says it will go as far as it can
Speaker 1: to keep her from having to give that medal back.
Speaker 1: So stay tuned for that. If you're interested in the gymnastics.
Speaker 1: What's next for Australia's tremendous, sarcastically break dancer. What do
Speaker 1: you like it or not? Does it belong in the Olympics. Well,
Speaker 1: you can make the argument that it's athletic, that it's
Speaker 1: very difficult to do properly, and that the athletes train,
Speaker 1: or that the dancers train like athletes, and if you
Speaker 1: believe that any activity that needs a judge should not
Speaker 1: be called a sport, okay, But what about boxing? What
Speaker 1: about gymnastics? What about synchronized swimming? Nobody complains about that,
Speaker 1: And what about the diving, you know, which is gymnastics
Speaker 1: going into the water. So you know they've had ballroom
Speaker 1: dancing before. I'm not sure why they do this. The
Speaker 1: problem is they added this and dropped baseball, which is
Speaker 1: an international sport, and basketball something basketball doesn't belong. Ours
Speaker 1: about golf being in the Olympics, those are all international sports.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: We taught the world basketball, there's no question about that,
Speaker 1: and we taught the world baseball.
Speaker 2: But the world has.
Speaker 1: Caught up with us, or at least is challenging us.
Speaker 1: And it was a very difficult run for men's basketball
Speaker 1: to win the gold break dancing, you know, it is incredible,
Speaker 1: there's no question about that. Some of the things these
Speaker 1: folks do. But the controversy revolves around a woman from Australia.
Speaker 1: She's thirty six, has a PhD. Her name is Rachel Gunn.
Speaker 1: She goes by b Girl Ray gun She's a college
Speaker 1: professor and she's now famous, but not for how good
Speaker 1: she is, but for how terrible she was compared to
Speaker 1: the women that she was competing against, who were half
Speaker 1: her age. Swept out of a round robin stage, did
Speaker 1: not score a single point, and her performance has been
Speaker 1: called embarrassing. And you've got to wonder how did she
Speaker 1: even get that bar in this competition? And if you're Australian,
Speaker 1: are you embarrassed by this. She said, I was never
Speaker 1: going to beat these girls and what they do best
Speaker 1: their power moves. What I bring is creativity. Come on,
Speaker 1: now here's my standard. And I'm sixty eight years old.
Speaker 1: I'm watching what she's doing, and I'm thinking, for the
Speaker 1: most part, I could do that, and forgive my grammar.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't pass the me test, if she's not
Speaker 1: better than me, she shouldn't be out there. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure there are things she can do that I can,
Speaker 1: But for the most part, she in no way even
Speaker 1: came close to what her competitors were doing. It just
Speaker 1: seemed like she was making a mockery of what was
Speaker 1: going on. And I'm talking more about breakdancing than I
Speaker 1: ever thought I would on this show. But this, again
Speaker 1: is residue from the Olympics, So that's out there right now.
Speaker 1: The discussion is out there as well. Next games are
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Back in LA in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 1: way different from nineteen eighty four. Back then the city
Speaker 1: had seven point nine million. Now LA has nine point
Speaker 1: seven million, and of course a gazillion people are coming
Speaker 1: to the Olympics. The folks who run the LA Games
Speaker 1: say they're studying what happened in Paris looking for improvements. Naturally,
Speaker 1: Paris made ambitious pledges about sustainability and clean up of
Speaker 1: the River Seine. Sustainability meaning if you had to build anything,
Speaker 1: does it fall into disrepaarity you keep using it because
Speaker 1: in Rio a lot of the sites where they built
Speaker 1: are now overgrown with weeds. In Paris they tried to
Speaker 1: clean up the river. You know that story by now,
Speaker 1: some of the swimmers got sick afterwards they're still trying
Speaker 1: to turn you know, if it was because of the pollution,
Speaker 1: come on now. But La has got different issues of
Speaker 1: course with water. But they claim that they will have
Speaker 1: a car free Olympics, meaning if you go to the games,
Speaker 1: according to the mayor, you will have to take the
Speaker 1: bus to the events. He said, we're a car dependent city,
Speaker 1: but if you're going to attend any of the sports venues,
Speaker 1: you're going to have to take public transportation. That's ambitious,
Speaker 1: but it's also a great move. They're going to use
Speaker 1: more than three thousand buses from across the country to
Speaker 1: help in that endeavor, and they're going to hope for
Speaker 1: more help from eligible workers remote eligible workers to reduce traffic.
Speaker 1: So LA's got a big job ahead of it. But
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty four the Olympics made money because then
Speaker 1: as they are now, they're not gonna build anything. They're
Speaker 1: gonna use the UCLA campus for the Olympic village. They're
Speaker 1: gonna use Sofi Stadium, of course, which has hosted the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl for crying in Atlanta's hosted Taylor Swift. Surely
Speaker 1: he can handle the Olympics opening ceremony. Some of the
Speaker 1: swimming events BMX racing in the San Fernando Valley, Pacific
Speaker 1: Palisades between Santa Monica and Malibu for golf, and we
Speaker 1: were talking about water long beach triathlon and marathon swimming
Speaker 1: that area as according to the AP, a quote mixed
Speaker 1: history on water cleanliness, but lately the ocean waters there
Speaker 1: have scored high when it comes to cleaning. So this
Speaker 1: is gonna be really ambitious, but they got the head start.
Speaker 2: On it right now.
Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna come back and talk Kentucky football,
Speaker 1: and a little bit later on Jeff Piicor and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gersham will join us here in the garage. Jeff is
Speaker 1: shooting for a preseason special on SEC football and UK
Speaker 1: football and the Big Blue Insider will be featured. How
Speaker 1: about that here in the garage, and we'll talk more
Speaker 1: about the SEC on ABC after the break. You've already
Speaker 1: heard some of the music and it has been underwhelming
Speaker 1: according to the folks who weigh in on such things.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we'll talk a lot more football, and I'm
Speaker 1: our number two with Jeff and Aaron Gershon of the
Speaker 1: Cats Balls, but we'll hear from the Football Cats next.
Speaker 1: You're on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to the Big Blue and Sider coming up in
Speaker 1: a few minutes. Well here from the Football Wildcats. They
Speaker 1: scrimmaged on Saturday, and of course I wasn't Darrows out
Speaker 1: of town, but generally the media we don't get to
Speaker 1: go anyway. But we'll hear from the Cats and their coaches.
Speaker 1: And now number two, as I mentioned, we'll hear from
Speaker 1: Jeff Picorrel and Aaron Gershan Here in the garage.
Speaker 2: We'll talk a lot of Kentucky football.
Speaker 1: We're also going to talk about the SEC on ABC
Speaker 1: because Jeff now, the sports director of WTVQABC thirty six,
Speaker 1: is preparing pregame programming for the upcoming season. Thing I
Speaker 1: used to have to do at Thede KYT. So I've
Speaker 1: handed off the mantle to him and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that coming up. While I was gone, Mark Stoops spoke
Speaker 1: for the first time about the penalties handed down before,
Speaker 1: right before I left on my vacation, where Kentucky has
Speaker 1: to vacate ten wins and now UK fans are finding
Speaker 1: out what it feels like that other schools have got
Speaker 1: to deal with that vacating wins. Of course, uove La
Speaker 1: had to take down a banner. UK fans got a
Speaker 1: big kick out of that. I personally never believed that
Speaker 1: the penalty fit the crime on that, but that's a
Speaker 1: different issue. I understand why Kentucky is vacating wins because
Speaker 1: the guys who were involved, the eight players of the
Speaker 1: eleven who played in games while they were being paid
Speaker 1: for work they didn't do by rule that made them ineligible.
Speaker 1: And people like to say, well, now with nil, you
Speaker 1: know that wouldn't be. Yeah, it would have been because
Speaker 1: clocking in and accepting money for work you don't do,
Speaker 1: especially at a university which involves federal funding.
Speaker 2: That's serious stuff.
Speaker 1: If you have an NIL deal where a company or
Speaker 1: an employer a booster, whatever you want to call him,
Speaker 1: just hands you a check that's legal.
Speaker 2: And I know these are the times.
Speaker 1: We live in now they say everything's legal now, well,
Speaker 1: no it's not, but much much more of it is.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is the Kentucky athletes will help
Speaker 1: from somebody at the Med Center.
Speaker 2: Did wrong, got away with it for a while.
Speaker 1: UK says it's internal investigation turned it up. Bottom line
Speaker 1: is they got caught. They had to pay the price.
Speaker 1: And you remember now Chris Rodriguez sat for four games.
Speaker 1: And I mentioned this when this first came out, that
Speaker 1: people were blazing away at Mitch Barnhardt for dragging his
Speaker 1: feet on nil And I don't know that he did
Speaker 1: or he didn't, but I know this on a panel
Speaker 1: discussion show that I did on k ET with Mitch.
Speaker 1: We were both guests. He did a lot more talking
Speaker 1: than I did, thankfully because obviously he had a lot
Speaker 1: more to deal with. But his bottom line was, we
Speaker 1: want to do everything right so we don't come back
Speaker 1: and have to answer for things after the fact. And
Speaker 1: that's exactly what's going on. And UK is not the
Speaker 1: only school where this has happened. I don't know of
Speaker 1: any other schools that the vacate wins. But I do
Speaker 1: know that there was there have been some schools who
Speaker 1: have been penalized because in the early stages of NIL,
Speaker 1: which is of course we all know of the wild
Speaker 1: Wild West, they broke rules that were still in existence.
Speaker 1: And people who think that, well, we should just move
Speaker 1: along and get rid of the NCAA and do what
Speaker 1: you want, Well, that's not fair to the schools that
Speaker 1: don't have the deep pockets of an Alabama or a
Speaker 1: Georgia or even in Kentucky. You don't think of that
Speaker 1: in terms of Kentucky when it comes to football, but
Speaker 1: Kentucky is one of the few college athletic programs with
Speaker 1: its head above water. That's what people forget. They see
Speaker 1: these huge numbers in the media on social media and
Speaker 1: if you still read newspapers whatever with dollar signs in
Speaker 1: front of them, and you think everybody's getting rich, and
Speaker 1: they're not. Some are, but for the most part, an
Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of college athletic programs lose money. And these
Speaker 1: are programs unlike UK that are supported at least in
Speaker 1: some part with tax dollars. Reminder, UK is athletic budget,
Speaker 1: which is what one hundred and fifty million or something.
Speaker 1: That's all independent of tax dollars. People used to love
Speaker 1: to see my tax dollars are paying for bad football. No, no,
Speaker 1: you're paying form with your tickets, but you're not paying
Speaker 1: form of tax dollars. So there's a lot of money
Speaker 1: being thrown around out there, but most of it is
Speaker 1: being spent and not a lot of it is coming back.
Speaker 1: So any school, I think the last count I heard
Speaker 1: this is old for like forty schools of the three
Speaker 1: hundred plus in the NCAA are in the black, UK
Speaker 1: is U of l IS and other than that, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I haven't seen numbers lately. So anyway, Stoops
Speaker 1: talked about it, and we'll hear more about that coming
Speaker 1: up in our number two. Also, as I said, the
Speaker 1: ABC music that will be used in some way on
Speaker 1: SEC football comes out there calling it the anthem. To me,
Speaker 1: this looks like a promo and people are comparing it
Speaker 1: and complaining based on what CBS used to use. Now
Speaker 1: you'll recognize this music. This was the CBS music. If
Speaker 1: you watch the SEC on CBS and WKYT here in
Speaker 1: town or wherever, that's the music that brought you into
Speaker 1: the ballgame. So it was music that made you feel
Speaker 1: good because you knew you were about to watch Uncle
Speaker 1: Vern and Gary Danielson and whatever teams you wanted to watch.
Speaker 1: So when a different network takes over ESPN, which you'll
Speaker 1: see at times on ABC and you'll see every week
Speaker 1: on ABC, you know, they come up with their own music.
Speaker 1: And what I'm hearing, though, is what I think is
Speaker 1: a promotional campaign that you'll see a lot, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the columns described it. Here's the music we'll
Speaker 1: be getting sick of. But I don't believe this is
Speaker 1: what you're going to hear going into ballgames. Probably some
Speaker 1: of the musical elements, yes, but it can't be. It
Speaker 1: just can't be what they're going to use. Because well,
Speaker 1: if you haven't heard a listen for yourself.
Speaker 3: This is the SEC.
Speaker 4: Every walk is a parade, every song is symphony, Every
Speaker 4: Saturday is a celebration, every game a spectacle.
Speaker 3: The SEC takes us into the wild and it always
Speaker 3: feels like home.
Speaker 4: This is the SEC on ABC, and this is how
Speaker 4: it's done.
Speaker 2: All right, that's that's well done.
Speaker 1: And they've tried to coin a new phrase and they're
Speaker 1: hoping that.
Speaker 2: It overtakes, It just means more in popularity. I'm sure.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you there was a room full of people
Speaker 1: sitting around throwing ideas and hoping that the one would stick.
Speaker 2: And that's what they came up with.
Speaker 1: But can you imagine going into a ballgame and trying
Speaker 1: to build up hype and emotion and reach into people
Speaker 1: and pull their emotions out of them with that. No,
Speaker 1: so I think we're criticizing or judging it in the
Speaker 1: wrong way. I want to hear the music they run
Speaker 1: going into and up to kickoff, or coming in and
Speaker 1: out of breaks, that kind of thing. You know ESPN's
Speaker 1: got down N that has become iconic. I worked for
Speaker 1: a little while for IMG and they wrote their own
Speaker 1: music that they have coming in and out of breaks,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't work, in my opinion, doesn't work. They
Speaker 1: firmly believed it would take over as another version of
Speaker 1: and it doesn't. I don't care how many times you
Speaker 1: play it. It didn't work. So I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: what ABC and ESPN come up with. And I guarantee
Speaker 1: you they are sparing no dollars. They will pay top dollary.
Speaker 1: By the way, the guy who wrote the sec theme
Speaker 1: song as a composer from New York and they have
Speaker 1: been using that music. It's nineteen eighty seven, which I
Speaker 1: think is kind of cool. And if you recall back
Speaker 1: during the Final Four, we did a commentary on One
Speaker 1: Shining Moment. I saw the story on the guy who
Speaker 1: wrote One Shining Moment. It was actually written I think
Speaker 1: for the Super Bowl. They never got a chance to
Speaker 1: use it, and somebody suggested they reposition it, repurpose it,
Speaker 1: and they use it on the Final Four. And I
Speaker 1: brought it up because every year now it seems like
Speaker 1: there are complaints that people try to become relevant, but
Speaker 1: they need to stop showing that. They need to do
Speaker 1: away with One Shining Moment. It's old, it's tired of stupid.
Speaker 1: My suggestion has been, don't watch it if you don't
Speaker 1: like it. Most of us ere e least many of
Speaker 1: us love it. And again it always runs at like
Speaker 1: twelve forty five am on the night of the championship game.
Speaker 1: So if you don't like it, go to bed, turn
Speaker 1: your TV off and go to bed. But music matters,
Speaker 1: and I really really want to see you. And like
Speaker 1: I said, Jeff Picrow is going to be here a
Speaker 1: little bit later on, maybe he can shed more light
Speaker 1: on that. All right, Coming up next stoops in the Wildcats,
Speaker 1: on the scrimmage, and more here on six thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in
Speaker 1: hour number two, Jeff Pikorro Aaron Gersham will join me
Speaker 1: here in the garage and we'll talk Kentucky football. And
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that Jeff got a chance to go to
Speaker 1: the scrimmage on Saturday. He often does, but we'll find
Speaker 1: out because, of course he is the color analyst on
Speaker 1: the UK Football Network, although now also sports director at WTVQ,
Speaker 1: so you know, maybe they decided to not let him
Speaker 1: in because he's in regular media along with Aaron of
Speaker 1: the Cash Boss. We'll find out coming up at the
Speaker 1: top of the hour, but we will find out more
Speaker 1: about the scrimmage. Of course, I was on vacation and
Speaker 1: get a chance to see it or hear from the coaches.
Speaker 1: I know there's been a lot of media coverage since then,
Speaker 1: but I was interested in some of the comments that
Speaker 1: a couple of the players made After the scrimmage was over,
Speaker 1: and JJ Weaver came out and spoke for the defense.
Speaker 1: He talked about the fact that he is basically going
Speaker 1: to enjoy this senior year by just setting himself free
Speaker 1: and not putting any pressure on himself except for like
Speaker 1: in a good way. But he just wants to be
Speaker 1: able to play fast and not worry about things. And
Speaker 1: with that said, he was asked, what do you tell
Speaker 1: the young people on the defensive side of the football
Speaker 1: about just how to execute and how to compete?
Speaker 3: Man, Just be competitive?
Speaker 5: Show coach White, show coach US officers of coordinated what
Speaker 5: y'all can do? Just be competitive, play fast, play physical,
Speaker 5: everything that's gonna take place. If you messed up, at
Speaker 5: least you did it fast. Only the first scrimmage, so
Speaker 5: next week we actually erase the names and put the
Speaker 5: names on the boards.
Speaker 1: You're only as good as your last scrimmage. I can't
Speaker 1: say the same about practices. If he keeps screwing up
Speaker 1: the same drill, you're gonna get that rep.
Speaker 2: But you know how it goes.
Speaker 1: Where the defense usually outshines the offense and the first
Speaker 1: scrimmage because their execution levels are different. But the next time,
Speaker 1: it seems every year the offense gets a leg up
Speaker 1: on the defense. But as Weaver said, the key is
Speaker 1: make a mistake at full speed. If you're going to
Speaker 1: screw up, make it at full speed, because at least
Speaker 1: that way, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here, you show
Speaker 1: the commitment you have to trying to make the right
Speaker 1: play and do the right thing. So make a mistake
Speaker 1: at top speed. If you're gonna make one at all, hey,
Speaker 1: at least you look better, right brock Vandergriff came out
Speaker 1: and spoke for the offense, and of course one of
Speaker 1: the questions he answered was about the offensive line, and
Speaker 1: the word was the old line look pretty good. And
Speaker 1: you're never going to air a quarterback come out of
Speaker 1: a scrimmage, a practice, a drill, a dinner party and
Speaker 1: speak poorly of the offensive line. Those guys have got
Speaker 1: to be his best friend. But he did go a
Speaker 1: little bit deeper when people asked him about how the
Speaker 1: old line has been doing, not just Saturday, but in
Speaker 1: the camp in general.
Speaker 3: They've had a good fall camp.
Speaker 6: The best thing with O line is all just chemistry
Speaker 6: and stuff and making sure they're working together on some
Speaker 6: of the different stuff that the D line brings and
Speaker 6: brings on us and make sure they're on the same page.
Speaker 6: So just building that chemistry with them has been great
Speaker 6: with them.
Speaker 3: Coach Wolf spin on them. That's good.
Speaker 6: And the O line's been having a good fall camp
Speaker 6: and we're looking forward to this.
Speaker 3: Season with them.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, they should be better. This offense should
Speaker 1: be a little less complicated in terms of verbiage and
Speaker 1: ability to get plays off and things like that. But
Speaker 1: also the helmet comes, you know, the.
Speaker 2: Radio and the helmet.
Speaker 1: That's going to be a big deal this year throughout
Speaker 1: college football. There will be a lot said, written and
Speaker 1: spoken about it, and it's gonna take some getting used to.
Speaker 1: They've had it in the pros for a while now,
Speaker 1: but Rock Vandergriff talked about the helmet come and just
Speaker 1: getting used to that and how it's gonna make his
Speaker 1: life easier.
Speaker 6: I can get the whole play whatever, I only gonna have
Speaker 6: to look to the sideline, So I'm getting it to
Speaker 6: the O line to play, and I can go ahead
Speaker 6: and do my pre snap whatever my little routine is
Speaker 6: whatever one high two high man's own blitz coming yes
Speaker 6: or no, stuff like that, and being able to see
Speaker 6: that I don't even have to get my eyes to
Speaker 6: the sideline. Those are basically just for the skill guys,
Speaker 6: so I hear it, bam, tell them to play, and
Speaker 6: it just gives me a lot more extra time into
Speaker 6: line while other guys are getting.
Speaker 3: Lined up and stuff. And then if we have.
Speaker 6: Any like cans or checks plays, obviously it cuts out
Speaker 6: it I.
Speaker 3: Think fifteen or sixteen seconds.
Speaker 6: But if we get it in and we get on
Speaker 6: the ball before that, then obviously being able to have
Speaker 6: some extra set of eyes up top and help them
Speaker 6: with those checks and stuff.
Speaker 3: So that's really good.
Speaker 6: But at the end of the day, I got to
Speaker 6: know the checks and the cans and stuff like that
Speaker 6: for if it's after fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1: Here's what stuck out to me, jumped out really from
Speaker 1: that comment. He talked about audibles, he talked about changing
Speaker 1: the call, and it was clear in the Rich Skangarillo
Speaker 1: era that one year there wasn't a lot of that
Speaker 1: that went on, And there might have been things like
Speaker 1: that going on when Devin Leary was the quarterback last
Speaker 1: year under Liam Cohen, and maybe there was was Skangarello,
Speaker 1: but it just seemed like the Scangorello offense dragged so
Speaker 1: much and it was so mired in burbage that they
Speaker 1: didn't have a chance to do much of that. And
Speaker 1: I always go back to something that Tom Leech would
Speaker 1: would bring up that Rich Brooks talked about with regard
Speaker 1: to Andre Woodson. As Andre developed as a quarterback, he went,
Speaker 1: if you we recall as a starter sophomore year and
Speaker 1: really through maybe the middle of his junior year, he
Speaker 1: would come to the line and then look to the
Speaker 1: sideline to Randy Sanders, the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and
Speaker 1: early in his stay Andrea, because I'm on the side
Speaker 1: of it, I could see him, eyes bugging out of
Speaker 1: his head, nervous, didn't want to make a mistake, short
Speaker 1: on confidence. But the more he worked and the harder
Speaker 1: he worked, the better he got at it. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's how it works with great athletes. And I remember
Speaker 1: about midway through the six year, remember that was the
Speaker 1: first Music City Bowl year. I could tell that Andrea
Speaker 1: was more relaxed, body language, expression on his face, and
Speaker 1: he would come to the line and look to the sideline,
Speaker 1: not looking for help desperately, but just checking to make sure,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe looking for a suggestion. And that's what
Speaker 1: went back to what rich Brooks said about him. Andrea
Speaker 1: became so good. He said, and not necessarily checking us
Speaker 1: into a good play, but getting us out of a
Speaker 1: bad play. You know, you might check to a play
Speaker 1: that gets you a couple of yards, moves the chains
Speaker 1: a little bit, but what it does also do is
Speaker 1: keep you from going backwards, getting off schedule, negative yardage,
Speaker 1: and just keeps things going. And Andre Woodson became really
Speaker 1: good at that. You didn't get a chance to see
Speaker 1: much of that really the last couple of years. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much will Levis did. Didn't seem like
Speaker 1: he needed to, but I'm sure he did. And you
Speaker 1: can tell if you're down there, if you're watching TV
Speaker 1: for listening to the radio, oftentimes you'll hear them barking
Speaker 1: out signals sometimes yell check, check, or things like that.
Speaker 2: What I always liked during the.
Speaker 1: Air raid was watching Tim Couch and then Dusty Bonner
Speaker 1: and to a degree Jarrel Lorenzen making eye contact. Every
Speaker 1: now and then I see Dusty drop a hand down
Speaker 1: behind the centers rear end and kind of wiggle it
Speaker 1: and you know, whatever receiver was on the outside, but
Speaker 1: just kind of nod or acknowledge it, and then they
Speaker 1: do something fun. But when they can go to the
Speaker 1: line as Vandergiff said, with enough time and knowledge to
Speaker 1: read the defense and then rattle off what he wants
Speaker 1: him to do, that's going to be a big difference.
Speaker 1: Not every quarterback is good at that, As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Andre Woodson became good at that.
Speaker 2: No idea about.
Speaker 1: Devin Leary because I don't know what he was dealing with,
Speaker 1: but it just seemed like there was too much confusion
Speaker 1: at times offensively, and this is Liam Cohen's offense, which
Speaker 1: works so well with Will Levis.
Speaker 2: That one year.
Speaker 1: But the other thing to remember is Skangarello subtracted the
Speaker 1: quarterback run forbid it basically from will Levis, So not
Speaker 1: only was it not part of the game plan, he
Speaker 1: was encouraged to stay in the pocket way too long.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly, it was obvious in hindsight us got hurt
Speaker 1: too much, and most of it came, ironically enough, from
Speaker 1: not running the football but padding the football and getting
Speaker 1: clocked when he was in the pocket. VANDERGRIFFI has said,
Speaker 1: you know, basically, and I'm paraphrasing, he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: be known as a running quarterback. Who doesn't, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, every quarterback in college ball wants to be
Speaker 1: able to sling the football, get the opportunity, get the
Speaker 1: rip as a guy who can throw the football, and
Speaker 1: quote un what make all the throws? Why, well, it's
Speaker 1: because what the scouts want to hear and see. If
Speaker 1: you tag running quarterback on a guy, he's going to
Speaker 1: fall down some draft boards. But Vandergriff, and what I've
Speaker 1: seen in practice, is a thrower but can also run.
Speaker 1: For me, the most important thing is run away from trouble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a quarterback running a game plan like there
Speaker 1: was with Levis against Louisville to a two and four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: But I believe Vandergriff can make the throw.
Speaker 2: And run the football all right.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, we'll share some vacation experience a little
Speaker 1: bit later. Jeff Pecorrel, Aaron Gershaane. I want to come
Speaker 1: on a Big Loon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes an hour number two Jeff Picaorrel and Aaron
Speaker 1: gershan right here in the garage. Aaron's never been here.
Speaker 1: Aaron's been on the show many many times, and in
Speaker 1: fact he will join me along with Billy Rutledge coming
Speaker 1: up in a couple of weeks when the Mark Stoop
Speaker 1: Show cranks up, and then of course we'll have BBN
Speaker 1: Radio and the live version statewide of The Big Blue Insiders.
Speaker 1: So we'll be talking Aaron each week on that show.
Speaker 1: But he is joining Jeff here and I talked earlier
Speaker 1: about this, Jeff actually shooting a feature story. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider is going to be featured on a
Speaker 1: preseason pregame football show on ABC thirty six. ABC, of course,
Speaker 1: is now the home for SEC football. It's gonna be weird.
Speaker 1: We played the new anthem for you. I guess that's
Speaker 1: how they're starting to broadcast that. You know, they release
Speaker 1: incidents their anthem. I just don't think you're going to
Speaker 1: start a show with that kind of low key voiceover.
Speaker 1: But anyway, we'll all find out. I guess maybe Jeff
Speaker 1: can shed some light on us. So anyhow, they're coming
Speaker 1: up in just a few minutes.
Speaker 2: I hope you.
Speaker 1: Enjoyed the best of The Big Blue Insider. I have
Speaker 1: a good time putting those together. You know, I know
Speaker 1: some people aren't crazy about it when I hear reruns,
Speaker 1: but when we can go back and pull out some
Speaker 1: of the best interviews we've done over the last several months.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun for me and I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed them as well. And I saw some retweets, which
Speaker 1: I appreciate on Twitter when we announce each night what's
Speaker 1: going to be on the show. I was on vacation.
Speaker 1: I went up to Saratoga again with my brother and
Speaker 1: some friends. This was the fourth year we've done this
Speaker 1: trip and it is a lot of fun. If you're
Speaker 1: a horse racing fan, I highly highly recommend it. I
Speaker 1: will tell you it is a commitment if you're going
Speaker 1: to drive, especially and if it gives you fly. Of
Speaker 1: course there's expense, but it's a about a twelve thirteen
Speaker 1: hour drive. We break it up and I recommend this
Speaker 1: being the summertime, especially if you're a baseball fan. Three
Speaker 1: to four years we stopped and saw baseball. We have
Speaker 1: seen games in Philadelphia. We saw a minor league game
Speaker 1: in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where one of my friend's daughter lives,
Speaker 1: and the one year we stopped to visit her, but
Speaker 1: there was no game. This team was out of town.
Speaker 1: I think at a Class A team, maybe for the
Speaker 1: Washington Nationals. This year we stopped in Cleveland and got
Speaker 1: an airbnb.
Speaker 2: Which are great if you get the right one, as.
Speaker 1: You know, and unfortunately Hurricane Debbie messed with us. We
Speaker 1: got a great airbnb two blocks from the Guardians Stadium.
Speaker 2: We could see the lights to the.
Speaker 1: Ballpark right through our window, and we walked over in
Speaker 1: a little bit of a sprinkle, but we knew there
Speaker 1: was rain on the way, but there also appeared to
Speaker 1: be a win there between fronts where they might be
Speaker 1: able to get the game in. So we go into
Speaker 1: the ballpark beautiful.
Speaker 2: I'd not been there, and.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely what I had hoped it would be,
Speaker 1: with a downtown vista behind centerfield wall. But the game
Speaker 1: didn't start on time. It didn't start and didn't start,
Speaker 1: and two hours later they said the game has been
Speaker 1: postponed and the next day they were going to play
Speaker 1: a doubleheader, which did us no good because that was
Speaker 1: a travel day for us. So we go off to
Speaker 1: a restaurant to grab a bite, and would you know,
Speaker 1: while we're at the restaurant, the rain stops and might
Speaker 1: have been that might have been the window we are expecting,
Speaker 1: but we wondered maybe because the game would have pushed
Speaker 1: through midnight, they weren't going to play so anyhow, but
Speaker 1: it is available to you depending on what route you take,
Speaker 1: and of course we went up through northern Ohio and
Speaker 1: then over into New York State. Saratoga is beautiful. It's
Speaker 1: different than Keenland, and people who have been to both
Speaker 1: tell me they prefer Keenland, but Saratoga is just a
Speaker 1: gorgeous facility and different from Keenland in so many ways.
Speaker 1: But the biggest way is that basically the area for
Speaker 1: the fans and I'm not talking about the apron down
Speaker 1: by the track. If you don't want to sit there,
Speaker 1: you sit. And what's basically a picnic area near Union Street,
Speaker 1: which is where the track is located, and it backs
Speaker 1: up to the walkway that leads from the barns on
Speaker 1: the backside all the way around the track, all the
Speaker 1: way around the far turn into the paddock, which is
Speaker 1: huge where they saddle the horses and the horses stalls
Speaker 1: are way back away from the fans, but there's lots
Speaker 1: of room to walk them when they're saddled, and for
Speaker 1: fans to get up to the fence, not unlike the
Speaker 1: hedge at Keenland and see the horse as they walk
Speaker 1: out onto the track. But in that area shy of
Speaker 1: the walkway are picnic tables and stands with monitors and
Speaker 1: speakers for the PA. There are booths where you can buy,
Speaker 1: of course food and cigars and merch and photographs. There
Speaker 1: are at least a couple, and one of them is
Speaker 1: owned and operated by a man named Richard Gabriel.
Speaker 2: Hello, no relation.
Speaker 1: I met the guy, and my family name going back
Speaker 1: to Italy as an E on the end of it.
Speaker 1: So if anybody's last name is Gabriel, like Roman Gabriel,
Speaker 1: or who's the wide receiver for the Raiders a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. Anyway, they if it's if the name
Speaker 1: is Gabriel, I know they're not related to us because
Speaker 1: our name has an E on the end of it,
Speaker 1: which my father dropped be more American. But it's fun
Speaker 1: and we set up our collapsible chairs around the picnic table,
Speaker 1: the lunch you can bring in, you can bring in
Speaker 1: anything but glass, and just made a day of it
Speaker 1: or several days of it. Now, we got there on
Speaker 1: Wednesday evening, so we went to the track on Thursday.
Speaker 2: And here's another cool thing.
Speaker 1: If you're going to camp out like we did, not
Speaker 1: camp out, but set up for the picnic area. They
Speaker 1: allow you the gates don't open until eleven thirty, but
Speaker 1: they allow you to come in, grab a spot, reserve
Speaker 1: a picnic table if you can get one, and set
Speaker 1: up your stuff, set up your cooler, set up your chairs, whatever,
Speaker 1: and then leave. And there are people there to make
Speaker 1: sure you don't just sit there the rest of the day.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can get there at seven am and
Speaker 1: there is a line down the street to do this
Speaker 1: and people rush in like it's open air seating at
Speaker 1: a concert and set up, which we did, some of
Speaker 1: us did. I did, as there were volunteers who did that,
Speaker 1: and then we come back at eleven thirty when the
Speaker 1: gates open. So it's a great set up up and
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. We started on Thursday. We
Speaker 1: lost a day on Friday because it was raining so
Speaker 1: hard by the end of Thursday and the forecast was terrible,
Speaker 1: and so you know, they were taking races off the
Speaker 1: turf and all this, and they decided we can't safely
Speaker 1: race on Friday, and why should we even staff the
Speaker 1: track when it's going to drive patrons away. There still
Speaker 1: would have been people there, but the track shut down
Speaker 1: and in one newspaper estimate, NIRA New York Racing Association
Speaker 1: lost between fifteen and twenty million dollars in betting handle
Speaker 1: that day because sarah Toga was not open. But we
Speaker 1: went back Saturday Sunday. Whether it was wonderful. I made
Speaker 1: a little bit of money, believe it or not. I
Speaker 1: got a little bit.
Speaker 2: On Thursday, roasted.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, I mean got crushed, came back and won
Speaker 1: almost all of it back on Sundays.
Speaker 2: That was great.
Speaker 1: My brother hit a big race, big race, so good
Speaker 1: for him and wonderful time. So I recommend Saratoga. And
Speaker 1: by the way, we got a chance to go over
Speaker 1: to Kenny mcpeak's. Barney invited us to come over. He
Speaker 1: wasn't feeling well, so he wasn't there that morning, but
Speaker 1: we got a chance to see Torpedo Anna. Now, when
Speaker 1: I was hanging out by her stall, she had her
Speaker 1: back to us, so you saw those hindquarters. But what
Speaker 1: those were was a reminder of why she's so good.
Speaker 1: Powerful hind quarters, big horse, and she'd run against the
Speaker 1: boys in the Haskell.
Speaker 2: So we're rooting for her. And I was with some
Speaker 2: folks who had never done that. Two of my friends
Speaker 2: are owners.
Speaker 1: They were together on the Thracky Queen, a horse that
Speaker 1: ran what was it eight years ago in the Breeders'
Speaker 1: Cup here and I think got third.
Speaker 2: But then they've got other horses.
Speaker 1: But some of the other folks had never been around
Speaker 1: the backside, so that was pretty cool. They got to
Speaker 1: see the horses in the barn at a respectful distance,
Speaker 1: and then we went over what they call the Oklahoma Track,
Speaker 1: which is a training track across the street from the
Speaker 1: main track, and just as we got there, it seemed
Speaker 1: like everybody. It was about eight am, and I guess
Speaker 1: the brake was over. I'm not sure what time they break.
Speaker 1: They break I guess earlier than they do at Keenland,
Speaker 1: But there was just a parade of horses coming out
Speaker 1: to train, and it was nice and cool and a
Speaker 1: perfect morning, and we had a wonderful time at Saratoga.
Speaker 1: Highly recommend it at least once if you're a racing fan.
Speaker 1: Put that on your bucket list and check it off.
Speaker 1: But be prepared if you don't sit in the grand stand,
Speaker 1: and you can get tickets to the grand stand. Some
Speaker 1: of my friends did that, but be prepared for a
Speaker 1: picnic if indeed, that's the way you're going to go.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's something you need to do if
Speaker 1: you're a racing fan, and.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of you already have.
Speaker 1: All right, Ever, Number two is coming up next with
Speaker 1: Jefpicor and Aaron Gershaum live and in color on tape
Speaker 1: right here in the garage and the Big moone Cider
Speaker 1: six point thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and Cider. I remember two of our show. As promised,
Speaker 1: we are here in the garage, live on tape and color.
Speaker 1: Jeff Biccorrel, Sports Director WTVQ. And of course this is
Speaker 1: your third decade now, right, you got at least twenty
Speaker 1: years behind you on the UK radio network. And Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershawn just a callow child like comparison, but a veteran
Speaker 1: of the UK beat with the Cats Bows. Now, but
Speaker 1: how many years did you cover football and basketball for
Speaker 1: the Colonel?
Speaker 7: I didn't do Colonel.
Speaker 8: I worked with you and then Sea of Blue, so
Speaker 8: I went a route, yeah, and then obviously I worked
Speaker 8: for you for three years. So yeah, this is this
Speaker 8: gonna be year, I believe season six or seven on
Speaker 8: the Wow twenty.
Speaker 9: Four for me twenty twenty eighteen for me.
Speaker 8: See you'll have me a little beata. It was a
Speaker 8: good year to start though, well, you know, and.
Speaker 1: The one thing it does is, no matter how many years,
Speaker 1: it gives you perspective. And I'm trying to wrap my
Speaker 1: head around this one. Of course, once the season begins,
Speaker 1: that'll help, but it just seems like, Jeff, every time
Speaker 1: you start a season with a new coordinator, you know,
Speaker 1: what kind of perspective does they give you?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 9: It's It's really interesting because the game has changed so
Speaker 9: much from a player standpoint in the intricacies of how
Speaker 9: plays are called, the different offenses and defenses that are run,
Speaker 9: for instance. And this is something I asked Bush and
Speaker 9: I asked Liam this as well. And I think the
Speaker 9: biggest problem with Scangarello was the professional verbiage. And it
Speaker 9: just took ten to fifteen seconds to call the play.
Speaker 9: So I said, when I played back in the you know,
Speaker 9: the early eighties, it was a pass. Play, was a
Speaker 9: right zz past eighty six x corner. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 9: That was the whole call. Eighty That meant it was
Speaker 9: a drop back pass and the line blocked that way.
Speaker 9: Fifties were different. Sixties or different series. Seventies was different
Speaker 9: than eighty. Was this seventh step drop for the quarterback,
Speaker 9: so Bill Ramsa would take the snap, take his regular
Speaker 9: drop and turn and the the stuff I was the
Speaker 9: other words or what the pass play is Now it's range, flipper,
Speaker 9: paramount packers, you know, algebra, waggle crazy, it's it just
Speaker 9: takes foreffort. And I think that has changed, and I'm
Speaker 9: really interested in seeing how much it helps. With the
Speaker 9: microphones in the headset of the quarterback and the linebacker
Speaker 9: like they do in the NFL, it's gonna be real
Speaker 9: different because now there were times in years past where
Speaker 9: they'd come to the sideline in the offense quarter What
Speaker 9: are you doing? He goes, well, that's huge, Collis. No,
Speaker 9: I didn't. I called this because well, that's not how
Speaker 9: it got to me.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 9: I saw, you know, they do the hand signals of
Speaker 9: the He goes, yeah, they do.
Speaker 7: They still are yeah, yeah.
Speaker 9: No, I saw a Nabisco. I did not see Lucy
Speaker 9: from Charlie Brown.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's like all right, they still was a fun signs. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 8: that's good. I was worried we were losing that in
Speaker 8: college football.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 1: No, you know, And I had a comment from Brock
Speaker 1: vandergriff on the show earlier, and he sounds erin this
Speaker 1: this game after the scrimmaging. You might have been there too, Jeff.
Speaker 1: He sounds like he's not only confident in that communication system,
Speaker 1: but looking forward to using it.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, I would agree one hundred percent. I just again,
Speaker 8: I think it makes life so much easier. You have
Speaker 8: the plays in your head, you have to run up
Speaker 8: to the sideline, get all the hand signals, look at
Speaker 8: every sign make sure you have it perfectly. It's right
Speaker 8: in your head. You're listening and you're relaying it. And
Speaker 8: also I think this offense too, the way they're going
Speaker 8: to operate with a no huddle, there's gonna be less
Speaker 8: not I wouldn't say less thinking, but just less more
Speaker 8: going out and playing football.
Speaker 7: I think that's something.
Speaker 8: The last two years of this offense with the verbigs,
Speaker 8: it just got overly complicated. I mean it's twenty twenty two.
Speaker 8: With rich Gangarillo, it was just a nightmare getting plays in.
Speaker 8: And last year it just was much better. And I
Speaker 8: think part of that was the quarterback and just being
Speaker 8: used to a spread tempo compared to Pro style. But
Speaker 8: I do think between the communication and the way they're
Speaker 8: going to operate this offense, it'll be easier for that.
Speaker 1: I mentioned Ken Spencer and our path from over in Louisville,
Speaker 1: but he was Jeff's predecessor as sports director at WTVQ
Speaker 1: a while back, one of the predecessors, and again he
Speaker 1: played at more at stage, so I like to get
Speaker 1: his opinion on things. And we talked about the changes
Speaker 1: in offense through the years, and I said, well, at
Speaker 1: least with Stoops, they haven't changed much in terms of style.
Speaker 1: But as Kent pointed out, when you're changing verbiage, it
Speaker 1: really puts a burden on players. And Jeff, you were
Speaker 1: talking about verbage earlier and how they've kind of whittled
Speaker 1: it down much more than you know. But Mark Stoops
Speaker 1: talked about this at the kickoff lunch and you were
Speaker 1: both there. He made a conscious decision bringing in yet
Speaker 1: another OC to use Hamden's verbiage and not ask him
Speaker 1: to adjust. He has asked the players to adjust again,
Speaker 1: but what does that mean to a player?
Speaker 9: Well, I think the biggest difference is those last two
Speaker 9: we've talked about. Skangarella and Liam both brought an NFL
Speaker 9: perspective to things, and so they're teaching it as they
Speaker 9: would teach it to twenty three, twenty five, twenty eight
Speaker 9: year old guy. Now comes Bush Hampden, who's done his
Speaker 9: entire career basically it's been college football, correct, and I
Speaker 9: think that he understands. Look, kiss, keep it simple, stupid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that's the But to that end, would
Speaker 1: it not have been simpler to keep the verbage they
Speaker 1: already had, They already knew, they already somewhat comfortable.
Speaker 2: With yes and no and stuff said, because we had
Speaker 2: time to change.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but Brock never played under that. Well, that's true,
Speaker 9: so it's a whole new qu Yeah, none of those
Speaker 9: guys have remember every guys, and I just remember in
Speaker 9: this I think is before your time. But Jared Lorenz
Speaker 9: remember he had was it three different coordinators? Oh yeah, four,
Speaker 9: and he was like, I'm just getting this down in
Speaker 9: this play right, Yeah, but one guy. But he's like,
Speaker 9: it's the seventh or eighth game, I'm finally comfortable, and
Speaker 9: all of a sudden, I got a change again the
Speaker 9: next year. So that's really hard. But but bringing Wolford back,
Speaker 9: I think, you know, I think that helps a little
Speaker 9: bit too, because again another college guy, So you're bringing
Speaker 9: two college guys in instead of two pro guys which
Speaker 9: you had in Yinzer and Liam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and let's face it, with running backs, they they
Speaker 2: just take the ball and go. You know, they know
Speaker 2: what hole they had, they know what the yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: But I think probably you've got to be on the
Speaker 1: same page, of course with your wide receivers.
Speaker 2: But quite a bit of the burns on the old line.
Speaker 8: Oh it's I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 8: that's what's kind of derailed then the last two seasons.
Speaker 8: Last year the quarterback had a lot to do with it,
Speaker 8: but twenty twenty two, the offensive line. You couldn't operate
Speaker 8: with that offense line. I think forty seven sacks allowed
Speaker 8: last year. They were better in pass pro, but Ray
Speaker 8: Davis created a lot of those run plays. The offensive line,
Speaker 8: you know, one of the worst graded run blocking old
Speaker 8: lines in the country. So that's why you feel better
Speaker 8: not only with coach Wolford, who I think gets the
Speaker 8: best out of his players and demands it, but this
Speaker 8: group is so experienced. I mean, I forget the exact
Speaker 8: number starts combined Marcus Cox and Eli Cox have. It's
Speaker 8: an obscene amount. I mean, Marcus is a seventh year guy.
Speaker 8: Eli's a sixth year guy. Jager Burton is going into
Speaker 8: his third year starting. You really need to make him,
Speaker 8: have him take a jump. Gerald Minci started the last
Speaker 8: two years at Tennessee, and then Jalen Farmers the least
Speaker 8: experienced guy in the line. But apparently it has been
Speaker 8: awesome since he's gotten here. He's kind of took over
Speaker 8: that job from Dylan Ray. I thought actually played pretty
Speaker 8: solid last year. So and that's the big thing too,
Speaker 8: you know, mixing Dylan Ray there's actually death, if there's
Speaker 8: an injury, it's not gonna be as catastrophic as it
Speaker 8: would be the last two years.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Speaker 9: Dylan is a guy that we've seen. He play both
Speaker 9: sides and a guard, right, and Jagger is a guy
Speaker 9: that could play both sides of a center.
Speaker 8: And I think keenum that he's cross cunning at guard
Speaker 8: and center.
Speaker 9: But he's I think he's the air parent at center.
Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 9: I think they really like the way he's been playing. Uh.
Speaker 9: And then Malachi, he looks like a whole different dude.
Speaker 9: I remember when he first got there, and I was like, man,
Speaker 9: that's a basketball player to learning to play football, right,
Speaker 9: because he's what six eight? He was six, but now
Speaker 9: he's just a tall football player, you know. Now he's
Speaker 9: got the part. Yeah, and he's still been Yeah, he's
Speaker 9: still got to add more, but he's close to fifteen. Yeah,
Speaker 9: but they really like the way that he's been progressing.
Speaker 9: So now we've talked about seven eight guys and the
Speaker 9: experienced so and that's something they just haven't had the
Speaker 9: last couple of years.
Speaker 1: I got a minute or two before the first break,
Speaker 1: But how about I tossed this one out? Will we
Speaker 1: see them throw much to.
Speaker 2: The tight end this year?
Speaker 1: So?
Speaker 7: I mean that's everybody else. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 8: I think Jordan Dingles as that athletic of the pass
Speaker 8: catchers they had since Conrad, honestly, so you'd like to
Speaker 8: see him get the ball. I'm not sure about Caddis.
Speaker 8: I think he's more of a blocker. He's been dinged
Speaker 8: up in camp. Uh, you know, Kamara Anderson's guy. I
Speaker 8: really want to see him ball. I mean that hurdle
Speaker 8: he had against Louisville that was all I needed to see, right,
Speaker 8: So we'll see, we'll see uh at the end of
Speaker 8: the day, when you're five deep at receiver six, if
Speaker 8: Hartley Gilmore comes back and may be challenging, it's all
Speaker 8: been depending on if they can get those extra snaps
Speaker 8: that they've been working hard to get.
Speaker 9: Yeah, Willie the freshman cupcaff Willy is a monster. He
Speaker 9: is a big boy. He's got a college body.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: They posted a highlight that he had in that scrimmage.
Speaker 8: It looks like he ran over three dudes. Will really
Speaker 8: like him.
Speaker 9: Cup CAAF is a great program up in northern Kentucky
Speaker 9: and they're just churning out really nice football players. And
Speaker 9: he's he is a bigger version I think of Katis
Speaker 9: and blocking. He's a dog and that's what coach says.
Speaker 9: But to your point of will they throw to him,
Speaker 9: I think that's more of a quarterback thing, I really do.
Speaker 9: I think one problem with Learry is he was smallish
Speaker 9: and he just couldn't really see the middle of the field,
Speaker 9: and that's why most of his throws were to the outside.
Speaker 9: My whole thing was then moving, move the pocket.
Speaker 2: Game out said, that's.
Speaker 7: How they did not play.
Speaker 8: It was a combination of he didn't know the offensible
Speaker 8: enough and they didn't play to a strength.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was just a bad marriage.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh. The thing about tight ends is, and I've said
Speaker 1: is more than once, it's either a design play for
Speaker 1: the why for the for the tight end, or it's
Speaker 1: a safety valve, which is often why the quarterback can
Speaker 1: stay alive in a pocket and dump it.
Speaker 2: A tight end already.
Speaker 1: Has at least a one step advantage on a linebacker
Speaker 1: and that's why people love it.
Speaker 9: But to get back to Air's point, do I want
Speaker 9: Macklin with the ball down the field or do I
Speaker 9: want a six yard eight yard pass to the tight
Speaker 9: end and maybe break break a tackler.
Speaker 2: Two. That's why on.
Speaker 7: The outside, that's why it is.
Speaker 2: It's a safety valve thing you call to play every
Speaker 2: once in a while to keep them honest.
Speaker 9: Right, yep, plush. I think you're gonna see him in the
Speaker 9: backfield blocking a lot too.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they're gonna make fun stuff.
Speaker 8: There were some sets they did in the open scrimmage
Speaker 8: where I forget which one that they lined. I think
Speaker 8: if they lined Willie as a full back a couple
Speaker 8: of times. So they're they're gonna do some funky things there.
Speaker 1: Aaron Gershan from the cast Pause, Jeff Piicorrel from the
Speaker 1: UK Network, live on tape here in the garage, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back with more football chatter and just
Speaker 1: a minute on the Big Moon Siders six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back our number two of our program. We're in
Speaker 1: the garage with Jeff Piicarel of the UK Radio Network,
Speaker 1: Aaron Gershan from the cast Paws. Naturally, we're talking about
Speaker 1: Kentucky football. You'll hear Jeff's coverage alongside Tom Leach coming up,
Speaker 1: and you will also read Aaron Gershaan's and the pages
Speaker 1: of the cast pause in online. If just typingcastpaus dot com,
Speaker 1: it'll take you to the website. We spent the entire
Speaker 1: first segment talking about offense, because, as Jet pointed out,
Speaker 1: that was the mystery. Uh, defensively, I know there are
Speaker 1: questions marks, but Jeff, we've seen a lot of good defenses,
Speaker 1: especially in the twenty eighteen team.
Speaker 2: With Josh Allen.
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's a Josh Allen. There might
Speaker 1: be in terms of draft status and notoriety and maybe
Speaker 1: even in a different way impacting the game in Dion Walker,
Speaker 1: but overall could his defense.
Speaker 2: Be as good or better?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think they can. I think JJ Weaver came
Speaker 9: back for a reason. It was because you just had
Speaker 9: a so so season last year and a lot of
Speaker 9: the NFL people are like, we can't take him. He
Speaker 9: has to show us more. You know, he's not huge,
Speaker 9: he's good sized, he's long, he's long. I don't know
Speaker 9: how good he is in coverage in open field. So
Speaker 9: there's some things that he has to improve on. And
Speaker 9: I think this is a huge look. When you get
Speaker 9: to be twenty twenty one, twenty two years old and
Speaker 9: you're playing football, you start thinking do I have a
Speaker 9: future in this? Because the one thing you tell kids
Speaker 9: you go to high school or something. Look around this room.
Speaker 9: How many of these guys get college scholarships?
Speaker 2: Two?
Speaker 9: Three, four on a good team? Right, you went to
Speaker 9: turn it's a little different, but still, then of those guys,
Speaker 9: how many of them make the pros?
Speaker 2: That's right?
Speaker 9: Maybe one every two years, every three years.
Speaker 7: Many.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so he has an opportunity to go to the
Speaker 9: next level he does. Can he get better?
Speaker 7: Dion?
Speaker 9: You know what he got? You know what his He
Speaker 9: doesn't have a ceiling. He's a ceiling. Is the Moon.
Speaker 2: He might.
Speaker 7: He might be. He might pass Allen as the highest
Speaker 7: draft pickery he could. Sarah think you might.
Speaker 9: I think it. If we're talking about the front, everything
Speaker 9: hinges to me on Silver. If Keithshan silver five star
Speaker 9: recruit came here from North Carolina, if he plays like that,
Speaker 9: this defensive front is going to be really really good.
Speaker 2: Agree, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you because you were at the scrimmage
Speaker 1: Saturday while I was investing at Saratoga.
Speaker 9: Second play eighty R touchdown pass?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 9: About that?
Speaker 2: From whom to whom?
Speaker 9: Brought to Dane Nice?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Who do they burn? Is that a good news things? Yeah?
Speaker 9: Jansen Dunne, it was a he just got inside of
Speaker 9: him and at his length, you've got to stay over
Speaker 9: the top with him. You can't if he gets over
Speaker 9: the top of you. As a defender your beat. You know,
Speaker 9: Jansen took one bad step and and he went by him.
Speaker 1: But well, that kind of answers my question a little bit.
Speaker 1: But we always talk about how in scrimmage's defense generally,
Speaker 1: when's the first one?
Speaker 2: Was that the case?
Speaker 9: I thought they played pretty even coach even said it afterwards.
Speaker 9: I think the coaches saw it was it was pretty even.
Speaker 9: There were some shock plays that we call, you know,
Speaker 9: the long plays like that, but I thought both sides
Speaker 9: of the ball played pretty well. You could see the
Speaker 9: defense is really good. But I think the difference is
Speaker 9: the offense is much better than last year. They're just better.
Speaker 2: So it was that apparent.
Speaker 9: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I mean there was some room
Speaker 9: to run on certain plays.
Speaker 2: I was tempo.
Speaker 9: It was good that. That's the one thing you like,
Speaker 9: and the one thing you see at practice, and I
Speaker 9: know you know is the coaches employing them. Get set,
Speaker 9: Get set, Get up there and get set.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 9: They're not trying to be Tennessee. They're not snapping it
Speaker 9: at a you know, ridiculous seting. It's just get set.
Speaker 9: So because he gets twenty five seconds to talk to him.
Speaker 9: At fifteen seconds, communication stole between the coaches in the
Speaker 9: box and the quarterback and the linebacker. So he's calling
Speaker 9: in a play and watching what's the defense doing. Okay,
Speaker 9: they're bringing a nickel. Okay, we're gonna do this. Blah
Speaker 9: blah blah blah, bah bah blah blah. Whatever the play
Speaker 9: is called, and they want everybody set. So if he
Speaker 9: calls something, if he sees that they're bringing somebody in
Speaker 9: or taking somebody out. He can shift that, you know,
Speaker 9: call it audible to his headset to him. So you
Speaker 9: just want to get get there, don't care where you
Speaker 9: just get up, get to the line. We're not gonna
Speaker 9: call the play, but just get there.
Speaker 1: You may have said this, Aaron, but hamed in going
Speaker 1: to be in the booth. I think he.
Speaker 8: I think he think he said that it was his
Speaker 8: preference back when.
Speaker 2: I asked, because oh, she usually are Cohen did both.
Speaker 7: Yeah, col switched, he gamed a game.
Speaker 8: Well, his first tenure here was exclusively on the field.
Speaker 7: This year.
Speaker 8: I think he was on the field to start the
Speaker 8: year and then he had that issue the health health geah,
Speaker 8: and then he stayed up there a last season and
Speaker 8: then Skang Guerrilla, same thing where he started, not health issue,
Speaker 8: same thing, but he started the year on the field,
Speaker 8: decided to go on the booth. So uh yeah, I
Speaker 8: think it sounds like a was gonna be upstairs. And
Speaker 8: that's how personally I always think is the best for no.
Speaker 1: I talked earlier in the show and Aaron, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure where you were in life when Andre Woodson was
Speaker 1: starting to.
Speaker 7: Well, he was drafted by the Giants, so I knew.
Speaker 2: I knew that.
Speaker 8: Well, I'm just saying I did my research on him
Speaker 8: back then when I was when you playing, well, I
Speaker 8: was eight years old.
Speaker 9: But I'm saying his first two years he was like
Speaker 9: you out there, yeah, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 9: his third year, we were like.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, wow, that's what I just That's what I'm
Speaker 2: getting to.
Speaker 1: And I mentioned this earlier, is that Rich Brooks his
Speaker 1: best compliment was, it's not that Andre gets us into
Speaker 1: a good play, he gets us out of a bad play.
Speaker 1: By the time that confidence, you remember when he stopped
Speaker 1: looking to the sidelines, like help me, and then he
Speaker 1: was almost like overnight, I got this, you know. And
Speaker 1: I think I gotta think the helmet comms will be
Speaker 1: a huge help there.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 9: I always this always was intriguing to me because I'm
Speaker 9: very good friends with Kenny Anderson, the former quarterback for
Speaker 9: the for the Cincinnati Bengals, and we talk about this
Speaker 9: all the time. And the guys that he played with,
Speaker 9: the Terry Bradshaws and Burt Joneses and Dan Fouts and
Speaker 9: all them, they wanted to call their home plates. They like,
Speaker 9: I'm on the field. I know what's working. I know
Speaker 9: you know, so you almost want that in your quarterback too.
Speaker 9: It got to a point when you have a guy
Speaker 9: that started a year or two, it's usually that second
Speaker 9: year that they can almost tell the coach I want
Speaker 9: to do let's do this. Yeah, you know this is working.
Speaker 9: It's almost And I think you're going to see that
Speaker 9: in Dian Walker on the defensive side, where they're gonna
Speaker 9: use him a lot like Bruce Smith or Reggie White,
Speaker 9: where he might be in the two hole, like between
Speaker 9: the garden center, and then the next play he might
Speaker 9: be outside the tackle, and the next one he might
Speaker 9: be on the left side instead of the right side.
Speaker 1: Probably not coverage, but he's gonna move around mound, but
Speaker 1: he wants to be in coverage.
Speaker 8: Yes, he's pre I mean, was it last year of
Speaker 8: the Florida again. Yeah, that's still one of the coolest
Speaker 8: plays I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: And that's what he keeps going back to, because the
Speaker 1: joke here is, if you haven't heard it, is that
Speaker 1: he begged, begged him, and.
Speaker 7: He put in one play and it worked.
Speaker 2: And that was the play, and you've seen it over
Speaker 2: and over where he absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 8: The end and it turned into a pick for Trevin Wallace. Yeah,
Speaker 8: and a touchdown on the other end.
Speaker 1: And apparently, and Brad just mentioned this to us the
Speaker 1: other day. He comes back to the sidelan Dion does celebrating.
Speaker 1: Stoops went up to Brad White. Don't you ever do?
Speaker 1: But can you imagine going over the middle and seeing
Speaker 1: a guy terrified? I can't imagine.
Speaker 7: Yeah, No, he he wears wide receiver shoes.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what he wears wide receiver shoes. Yeah, he's that
Speaker 9: defensive line.
Speaker 8: Yes, Stope said that after that game. We why because
Speaker 8: he says he nimble, nimble, I mean he is like and.
Speaker 2: My other question is what wide receiver has feet that shyye.
Speaker 8: That Well, that's why the last segment. I think he
Speaker 8: might end up going higher than Josh Allen because of that.
Speaker 8: I mean, he's six six three forty eight and moves
Speaker 8: like a outside backer. And in the NFL nowadays, more
Speaker 8: than ever, interior defensive tackles are getting paid and they're
Speaker 8: making impacts. I mean, as johnsid Dexter, Lawrence is our
Speaker 8: best player. He's a I saw a stat where he's
Speaker 8: eighty one pressures to sixteen to the next closest guy
Speaker 8: the last two years.
Speaker 7: Well, that's a guy who's been compared.
Speaker 9: To Donald Aaron Donald, and he only barely scratches three hundred.
Speaker 9: Not a monster.
Speaker 2: No, you know what it reminds me of As we
Speaker 2: get to the break, Jeff, this goes back away, but
Speaker 2: Dwayne Robertson. Yeah, you know it was the third or fourth.
Speaker 1: Player taking yes, yes in the draft, and and the
Speaker 1: Jets had to and you're from New York. The Jets
Speaker 1: had to make sure people understood this guy is not
Speaker 1: going to be sacking the quarterback. He's going to be
Speaker 1: commanding double teams and everybody else.
Speaker 2: Have more fun.
Speaker 7: Nowadays, these guys are getting to the quarterback too.
Speaker 1: I mean when I talked to Octavi so Oxen down
Speaker 1: about playing alongside and yeah.
Speaker 2: We love it when he's doing this thing, which you
Speaker 2: can on everybody. That's right.
Speaker 1: Aaron gershawan, Jeff Pacoro in the garage right now, we're
Speaker 1: talking football. More to come on six thirty w l
Speaker 1: A P Welcome back. We're live on taping the garage
Speaker 1: with Jeff Pcorol the UK Sports Network, Aaron Gershwan of
Speaker 1: the Cats Boss and Jeff, why don't you shamelessly plug
Speaker 1: the project you've got coming up. We already shot video
Speaker 1: for a special and as I mentioned in the first
Speaker 1: hour of the show, Jeff's station WTVQ now has the
Speaker 1: SEC through ABC and ESPN. So now Jeff has to
Speaker 1: put together the same sort of shows that I used
Speaker 1: to have to put together. And before you went to
Speaker 1: work for a competing TV station, you anchored a lot.
Speaker 9: Of those shows over at C.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but now you're a producer and probably do some
Speaker 1: of the editing. Yeah, the chief cook and bottle washer.
Speaker 9: But the twenty fourth, which is a week from this
Speaker 9: coming Saturday.
Speaker 2: Is it a UK show as Yeah, it's.
Speaker 9: Just a it's it's our preseason show for the for
Speaker 9: the the start of.
Speaker 2: The foot Networks. I'm sure gonna have something.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and we're actually having a big bash that Wednesday
Speaker 9: of the opening weeks. That would be twenty four until sixth.
Speaker 9: What date is that, I don't know, But anyway, the
Speaker 9: Wednesday before at Double Dogs out there and it's the
Speaker 9: SEC on ABC twenty first.
Speaker 2: The next week, yeah, twenty eight.
Speaker 9: Twenty at Double Dogs and yeah, and we got a
Speaker 9: bunch of stuff from like ABC and and SEC and ways.
Speaker 9: Jeff Ruby's gift certificates, all kinds of stuff out there,
Speaker 9: So coming out the Double Dogs will be it'll be
Speaker 9: a lot of fun. I'm gonna try to get some
Speaker 9: guys out there, uh, Bill Ramsdells and Dusty Bonders of
Speaker 9: the world to come out. You got that right, A
Speaker 9: lot of specials.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I also played earlier these they're calling it the
Speaker 1: sec on ABC anthem, Yes, but I think there's a
Speaker 1: difference between that and the theme music, you know, the
Speaker 1: theme that CBS said, you know, going in and out of.
Speaker 2: Break bringing a vern and all that. Do we know
Speaker 2: yet what ABC is doing.
Speaker 9: I've not heard it yet. I've just heard the song.
Speaker 2: Ye what did you think of that? And I know
Speaker 2: you're a company man, but.
Speaker 9: Oh, you know me, it'll take I'm like the same
Speaker 9: thing with Monday night football tanks from one hundred years.
Speaker 9: So just let it play.
Speaker 2: You know, it's got to be different, got to be different,
Speaker 2: gotta be different.
Speaker 1: Well, obviously we're looking at the Wildcats, but also this
Speaker 1: is going to be what might be aaron the toughest
Speaker 1: season in the history at SECA, not just for Kentucky
Speaker 1: but every Florida schedule.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna pull that up. I mean, I think they're the.
Speaker 1: First day you think Napier's not going to survive well
Speaker 1: through the entire year.
Speaker 9: He's probably in the hotest seat right now and maybe
Speaker 9: in all the college football I didn't.
Speaker 8: I think, yeah, here you go, now that you have
Speaker 8: the ap top twenty five Pole came out. They start
Speaker 8: with number nineteen Miami. They have a Samford game, and
Speaker 8: then they play number nineteen A and M also on
Speaker 8: their number fourteen Florida. I lost the Pigs, but I
Speaker 8: know Florida's on Tennessee. I'm sorry, Number fourteen Tennessee is
Speaker 8: on there. They have to go to they have to
Speaker 8: play All miss at home. Who else is on there
Speaker 8: in Florida State. At the end of the year, they
Speaker 8: gave Kentucky at home. They have Texas on the road.
Speaker 8: What I believe, I mean, their schedule is brutal. I
Speaker 8: think they played eight or nine ranked teams in the preseason,
Speaker 8: like and the Kentucky's I saw it was ranked the
Speaker 8: fourth hardest in the country.
Speaker 1: Like They've got Mississippi State in Starkville September twenty first,
Speaker 1: and then you see.
Speaker 2: F which won't be easy. Nope, that's in games. But
Speaker 2: but after that they head for Florida. I'm sorry, they
Speaker 2: head for Tennessee.
Speaker 8: Had for Tennessee, and then they have Kentucky coming in
Speaker 8: the next week for their homecoming.
Speaker 1: Game, and then Texas Georgia, Texas Georgia year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ls, I mean, and that's the thing for Kentucky.
Speaker 7: And Florida State, who should have been in the playoff list.
Speaker 1: Kentucky falls for them between Tennessee and Geordan.
Speaker 7: Kentucky's got that's either a or a bed.
Speaker 8: Well, it should be well Kentucky theoretically they're gonna have
Speaker 8: bye week Vandy Florida.
Speaker 2: There you go, and we've seen them compete in Gainesville.
Speaker 2: Do you guys think keep winning?
Speaker 9: Like you just said, Florida State should have been in
Speaker 9: the playoff last year? Do you think that having twelve
Speaker 9: because their bowl game was ridiculous shouldn't have been played? Yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean that it was just horrible that what thirty
Speaker 9: players something like that didn't didn't said we're not going
Speaker 9: that can't happen. But now that you've at least expanded
Speaker 9: to twelve teams, I'm one of these guys that there's
Speaker 9: always going to be the thirteenth team. There's always there's
Speaker 9: always the sixty fifth or now what is at sixty ninth?
Speaker 9: And now they're going to expand that even more. Come on, Yes,
Speaker 9: it set a limit.
Speaker 7: To me, Well it should, I like twelve. I think
Speaker 7: it will stay.
Speaker 2: It needs to be true.
Speaker 1: But I'm exactly with you, but it's not going to
Speaker 1: be just the thirteenth team.
Speaker 2: It's going to be the thirteenth through the.
Speaker 1: Twentieth because there will be teams, of course, with multiple
Speaker 1: losses playoffs. So any team with two losses, depending on
Speaker 1: their schedule, will be able.
Speaker 2: To point there are far fewer teams.
Speaker 1: If you lost two games and you're not LSU and seven,
Speaker 1: you're not getting into a fourteen playoff. And if you
Speaker 1: lost one game, there's a chance that you won't be
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 9: State lost zero games, didn't, Yeah, exactly, And it was
Speaker 9: all because their quarterback, because he got hurt.
Speaker 2: And that's why I said no, because I did not
Speaker 2: believe they were the same team. I agree, And there
Speaker 2: were other Somebody brought up Ohio State won a big
Speaker 2: game with a backup quarterback, Well, so what.
Speaker 9: You Yeah it was Cardill Jones, Yeah, but the running
Speaker 9: back was Ezekiel Elliot. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, uh no, but I think it'd be better
Speaker 1: for college football.
Speaker 2: But I do think the chasm is widening.
Speaker 9: Oh I mean it is. Yeah, never been bigger than
Speaker 9: what it is now.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's gonna be like I was having this, they're
Speaker 8: gonna be three team, three loss teams in the SEC
Speaker 8: where you're gonna be like they should probably. I was
Speaker 8: having this argument in a conversation, not argument, but talk
Speaker 8: with someone the other day. Like if Kentucky goes nine
Speaker 8: and three with the schedule and hypothetically steals an Old Miss, Texas,
Speaker 8: Georgia or what's the other one, h that's in there, Tennessee, Tennessee,
Speaker 8: Old Miss Georgia or Texas, if they steal one of
Speaker 8: those at nine and three, do they have an argument?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do. You've got to assume in there is
Speaker 2: and win over Louisville.
Speaker 8: Oh yeah, if they handle their business, which the point
Speaker 8: is Louisville may, Yes, yes they might.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 8: So it's like if they steal one of those games,
Speaker 8: which more so Texas, Ole Miss or Georgia, like that's
Speaker 8: a legitimate right.
Speaker 7: No, it's gonna be fascinating.
Speaker 2: Yeap, And it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because you know, they got the TV
Speaker 1: show and this and that, and and I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people have been frustrated by that through the years,
Speaker 1: not just a number of teams, but just the whole
Speaker 1: process in general. But I said, keep in mind now
Speaker 1: that while everybody's arguing about college football, they're not talking
Speaker 1: about the NFL. Right, And your network is affiliated of
Speaker 1: course owns the ESPN, and their research top to bottom,
Speaker 1: as you know, shows how popular the NFL is. That's
Speaker 1: why it's when the season begins, especially for NFL nuts
Speaker 1: like you, Aaron.
Speaker 2: Every hour on there there's a there's an NFL show
Speaker 2: on the air.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think the difference in it is right now,
Speaker 9: it's so much fun to be a college fan because
Speaker 9: in the NFL, for instance, Joe Burrow played what the
Speaker 9: first series in the last game. They're saying here in
Speaker 9: game two, none of the starters you can pay, they're
Speaker 9: not even gonna play. So why talk about Jeff Bacoro
Speaker 9: playing wide receiver for the Bears this week?
Speaker 2: Who?
Speaker 9: No one cares because it's not it has nothing now
Speaker 9: when the season starts, forget about it.
Speaker 2: Any who cares?
Speaker 9: Bananas the gamblers, Yeah, and fantasy player. Well, you know what,
Speaker 9: it's interesting because now it brings up the thing that
Speaker 9: we've heard about college football and the injuries. Are they
Speaker 9: gonna make it where they have to become more black
Speaker 9: and white with these injuries?
Speaker 2: Remember college level? Yeah?
Speaker 8: Yes, I could keep going back to twenty twenty two.
Speaker 8: The only reason anyone found out that Will Levis was
Speaker 8: herd is because the line dropped from seven and a
Speaker 8: half to two for that South Carolina game out and
Speaker 8: everyone's like, what the hell's going on? It's like, oh, well,
Speaker 8: well Levis and everyone thought he was his finger, remember
Speaker 8: his finger at all missed me before like snapped, Oh
Speaker 8: he's out for the game. Oh ends up being a
Speaker 8: foot and it's more serious injury. But yeah, it's got
Speaker 8: to be the Big ten. Did it last year?
Speaker 7: I don't know why it's not universal at this point.
Speaker 2: Well, and Jeff and I talk about this all the time.
Speaker 1: Rich Brooks first practice at Kentucky, We're all grouped around
Speaker 1: him and the first thing he does.
Speaker 9: Pull out his paper, pulls out a.
Speaker 2: Piece of paper and goes okay injuries. Then he stopped himself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he said he looked around and goes, ah,
Speaker 1: it's an NFL thing, and he wade off the injuries
Speaker 1: and you know, because.
Speaker 7: He was like some coaches doing.
Speaker 2: The sun came up the next day and Kentucky won
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 8: And you know, I mean Florida. I remember looking through
Speaker 8: their game notes. They have an injury report on their
Speaker 8: South Carolina does.
Speaker 2: It, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with Stoops say if why not everybody
Speaker 1: does it, I'll do it.
Speaker 7: He's always said, why should I do it?
Speaker 2: If everybody no? No, I get that.
Speaker 8: Oh, I have no issues with what he does. I'm
Speaker 8: just saying it needs to just I agree. Rip the
Speaker 8: bandit off.
Speaker 2: Well, and here's the question.
Speaker 1: Now, if you're a college sports commissioner, a president or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, the NFL does it? Why gamblers gambling information?
Speaker 1: That's why there are deadlines. Yes, and you can't play
Speaker 1: games within the game.
Speaker 2: You know, on Saturday afternoon or evening with injuries or whatever.
Speaker 2: So now with all these betting services around, did the
Speaker 2: college powers would be do exactly what Aaron is.
Speaker 9: I was stunned. I watched a Penn State game last
Speaker 9: year and their ribbon board all the way around it said,
Speaker 9: you know draft Kings special, you know, twenty five dollars,
Speaker 9: you know for one hundred whatever, you know, whatever it is.
Speaker 9: I don't know. We're we are not allowed to do that,
Speaker 9: but I'm just I was like, you got to be
Speaker 9: kidding me. And then the net went up. You know,
Speaker 9: it used to be the All State Good Hands right
Speaker 9: and it was draft whatever it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was extra point at.
Speaker 9: Yes, I mean so it's another avenue. Well, what the
Speaker 9: college chancellors and presidents and eighties are thinking is if
Speaker 9: Draft Kings is going to pay me a million dollars
Speaker 9: to raise that, that goes right to my nil till
Speaker 9: that I've got to have at you know, because facilities, Yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean that against that's the difference is you've got
Speaker 9: there has to be a media. We could talk all
Speaker 9: day on this because it's it's just horrible, because it's
Speaker 9: just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And
Speaker 9: when I was talking chasm, I think you were talking
Speaker 9: about the losses and who gets in. I was talking
Speaker 9: about the chasm between the haves and the have not.
Speaker 9: Miami of Ohio, Ohio, University, Western Michigan, all those schools,
Speaker 9: e K. They're they're done, They're finished. They're irrelevant now.
Speaker 9: All you are now is a feeder system to everybody else.
Speaker 9: It took Walt Wells ninety five percent of his nil
Speaker 9: money to keep Parker last years his quarterback because all
Speaker 9: these Division one teams one name is their backups, right,
Speaker 9: and we're going to pay him hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 9: dollars to come as a backup.
Speaker 7: Crazy.
Speaker 2: We'll come back and solve more problems in just a minute.
Speaker 2: Here on the Big Blue.
Speaker 1: Insider, jefp Picorro, Aaron Gershan you were surely on six
Speaker 1: point thirty wlap welcome Back final segment with Aaron Gershawan
Speaker 1: and jefpicorl right here in the garage because Jeff, prior
Speaker 1: to us taping our show, shot a little TV feature
Speaker 1: so that will appear on the pre season special.
Speaker 2: Is there a name for this alleged show yet?
Speaker 9: Just our Solid Blue preview.
Speaker 2: Show, gotcha? Okay?
Speaker 1: When I was doing this sort of thing at KYT,
Speaker 1: naming shows was my by far weakest weakest traits. So
Speaker 1: anybody who can come up with a clever name, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll tip the BBI cap to them. As we wrap
Speaker 1: up our discussion about Kentucky football, we talked about where
Speaker 1: we think they're they may end up with possibly eight
Speaker 1: nine whatever. But Aaron, you talked about growing up. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much you paid attention to Kentucky football,
Speaker 1: but I feel certain that it wasn't then clearly as
Speaker 1: relevant as it is now, which to me is fascinating. Jeff,
Speaker 1: you grew up for the most part here in Kentucky,
Speaker 1: you played at UK. This is got to help us
Speaker 1: the fortieth anniversary season. If you're all his eighty four
Speaker 1: bowl game team, the team that won the Which Bowl.
Speaker 2: Did you win? Back then?
Speaker 9: It was called the Hall of Fame Bowl.
Speaker 1: The Hall of Fame Bowl, which went on to become
Speaker 1: back the out Back Bawl in Tampa Weak Wisconsin.
Speaker 9: Then finished the year sixteenth in the country.
Speaker 1: Back to back winning seasons after a winless season, not far,
Speaker 1: you know, But relevance for Kentucky then it's sagged.
Speaker 2: But ever since Mark.
Speaker 1: Stoop's got here, it's been climbing. Now where it's got
Speaker 1: to be in the conversation, doesn't it?
Speaker 2: Aaron?
Speaker 9: I think you might know the number here, but what
Speaker 9: is it? Eight bowls in a row that he and
Speaker 9: there's only there's only like four teams in the country
Speaker 9: that have done more in the SEC.
Speaker 7: I'm yes, it's only it's only Bam and Georgia. I'm
Speaker 7: pretty sure.
Speaker 9: Yeah, roj Obama, that's it Tennessee, not Florida.
Speaker 1: That's why when people scoff, well, you have to do
Speaker 1: a schedule your way to a bowl game.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's that easy.
Speaker 9: Everybody would be doing. That's exactly. And you got to
Speaker 9: remember too. I know a lot of people say, uh,
Speaker 9: you know, they have an easy Louisville has. Let's let's
Speaker 9: face it's been on a roller coaster at Louisville, right,
Speaker 9: I mean, they were good, they're bad, They're good, they're bad,
Speaker 9: They're good, they're bad. Jeff Brawm has brought them back
Speaker 9: to prominence. They're very good. You really have three games, yes,
Speaker 9: and Louislle. Louisville's totally different that that should not be
Speaker 9: counted as a a automatic win like Eastern Kentucky, and.
Speaker 1: People chalk up non conference exactly, you know, and sadly
Speaker 1: when they add the ninth game, I think we'll see the.
Speaker 2: End of a regular game with.
Speaker 9: I agree, I think and I thought. For all that
Speaker 9: you love or hate about Mitch Barnhart, the one thing
Speaker 9: that he talked about was here's what you have to remember.
Speaker 9: With that one extra game. That means every team in
Speaker 9: the SEC is going to get a loss. Texas isn't
Speaker 9: going to be nine or half the teams at least. Yeah,
Speaker 9: I mean that's who I met. Yeah, half the team
Speaker 9: could get lost. So let's say you have to add
Speaker 9: that game, and now Texas has to play Alabama. Alabama
Speaker 9: has to play Georgia. Georgia has to play L s U.
Speaker 9: So it's that one extra game. Now you might have
Speaker 9: to play Oklahoma L s U and Texas.
Speaker 2: You every other year, we'll have to go on the road.
Speaker 9: And right, that's what I mean. So that extra loss,
Speaker 9: it's good if you if you come through the SEC undefeated,
Speaker 9: you're the number one in the in the playoffs, you
Speaker 9: have to play and probably the Big probably the Big
Speaker 9: Ten too. If you're undefeated, that up top the top.
Speaker 9: You know you've got Oregon is what third to Michigan.
Speaker 2: I mean, Jeff Kelly, Rick Patino were the first.
Speaker 1: But many have said, just give the football power conferences,
Speaker 1: let them do their own thing with football, leave everybody
Speaker 1: else alone, and.
Speaker 9: The world would be a better pay year exactly right,
Speaker 9: not it definitely would definitely. I think you should have
Speaker 9: four sixteen team conferences in football, and then that's sixty fourteen.
Speaker 1: And all the other sports men and women go back
Speaker 1: to the original geographic Yes, traditional.
Speaker 9: Yeah, did you see what came out about UCLA today?
Speaker 9: They're traveling twenty two thousand miles this year in the
Speaker 9: football games because they have a game in Hawaii, which
Speaker 9: is only one hundred miles further than I think it's
Speaker 9: Wisconsin that they're playing something. So what really, Yeah, it's
Speaker 9: twenty two hundred miles.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't if they go to figure Southern calill do
Speaker 2: something similar. You would, YEA in Washington.
Speaker 9: Well, but they're not playing Hawaii, Like you said.
Speaker 8: It sucks even more faller sports. I mean you're talking.
Speaker 8: You're talking a soccer game between Rutgers and UCLA on
Speaker 8: a Thursday night and them got to be in class
Speaker 8: Friday morning.
Speaker 9: Or tennis or golf.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I guarantee you in sane. Jeff and I
Speaker 2: are privileged to fly with the team.
Speaker 9: On the charter.
Speaker 7: Not all those people new they're on American.
Speaker 2: Airlines and your luggage to somebody and you see it
Speaker 2: at the hotel. Not that.
Speaker 1: Not the smallers PLoP Nope. So yeah, it's ridiculous, fellas.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate you coming by, Jeff one more time
Speaker 1: shamelessly plug your show.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's our Solid Blue preview special the twenty fourth.
Speaker 2: So and there will be a little segment, little feature
Speaker 2: on the BBI.
Speaker 1: Aaron and I will be with Billy Rutledge the night
Speaker 1: of the first March Stoops Radio show and then after
Speaker 1: bb AND Radio.
Speaker 2: But Darren Hedrick, the three of us.
Speaker 1: Will jump on board and chat things all football. But
Speaker 1: where can folks find your work?
Speaker 7: Yep castpalls dot com, pigres of the Cats Paws.
Speaker 8: We have an issue that will be printed today in
Speaker 8: the Football Yearbook has been out for about a month
Speaker 8: and a half. They'll still time to grab that.
Speaker 2: What do they need to look for in the yearbook?
Speaker 8: Feature story me one on one Dean Walker six seven pages.
Speaker 8: I did an interview with him back in June.
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know what I like about the high school
Speaker 9: coverage in there too? Oh yes, last forty pages.
Speaker 7: Of high school and all writers from across the state.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, and who puts all? Who
Speaker 1: does the lions work?
Speaker 8: Eryl bird Man, Caryl bird He busts his butt and
Speaker 8: we're already we're in a we're ahead of where we
Speaker 8: usually are with the basketball y your book, and he's
Speaker 8: knee deep in that too, so he doesn't And.
Speaker 1: By the way, Harrold' is the one who got the
Speaker 1: headlines rolling with his interview of Mark Stoops and Stoops' comments.
Speaker 2: Uh, well that's been churned up. It'll hang over the
Speaker 2: program for a little while.
Speaker 7: Thank you, fellasp.
Speaker 1: Now I'll do it for this special edition of the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Cider as Aaron and Jeff joined us here
Speaker 1: in the garage and again watch for us on Jeff's
Speaker 1: special coming up tomorrow night. We're back in our usual
Speaker 1: Wednesday routine. It's anything but with the unforgettable guard Sean Woods.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and talk about the basketball tournament, but
Speaker 1: also Olympic basketball as well. Gary More, Western Bureau Chief
Speaker 1: will join us and priced from the UK network. He's
Speaker 1: a guy who digs up all those cool numbers. That's
Speaker 1: a good night from the garage in lexingon