Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Tuesday edition of our program. Tuesday have
Speaker 1: a bye week, but we're going to keep talking about
Speaker 1: football because of Kentucky's win over Ole Miss, and tonight
Speaker 1: we'll talk with Van Hiles, the former Kentucky defensive back.
Speaker 1: You hear him on Monday Mornings with Tom Leech, the
Speaker 1: Monday Morning quarterback. Here him on Sunday Morning Sports Talk.
Speaker 1: You hear him on his podcast and all. But I
Speaker 1: had to dial him up, or I will dial him
Speaker 1: up a little bit later on in the show. We
Speaker 1: try not to impose upon him every week, but I
Speaker 1: just love talking football with Van, and we talked last
Speaker 1: week going into this game. I specifically wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to Van, being a former Kentucky defensive back and had
Speaker 1: a short time in the NFL, so he knows what
Speaker 1: he's talking about, and I wanted to know what it
Speaker 1: was going to take for this Kentucky defense to handle
Speaker 1: a little Miss And things went well, as you know.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk to Van at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: but we'll also talk to John Clay, the Harold Leader,
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Bruner of the Kentucky Colonel about the game.
Speaker 1: But going to talk to John as well, my old
Speaker 1: friend Steve Moss from WKYT about the passing of Pete Rose.
Speaker 1: And of course John covered the Reds a great deal
Speaker 1: for the hero leader. And Steve made several trips up
Speaker 1: to cover the Reds, both when he and I worked
Speaker 1: together and other times, and he got a couple of
Speaker 1: Pete Rose stories I will ask him to share. So
Speaker 1: that's coming up. And of course Major League Baseball playoffs
Speaker 1: are underway, with the Yankees and the Guardians in the
Speaker 1: American League getting the first round Byes, Astros, Tigers Orioles Royals. Nationally,
Speaker 1: the Dodgers and Phillies get the Buys, so it's Brewers, Mets, Padres, Braves.
Speaker 1: Pick out the team you want. But I will tell
Speaker 1: you this that hanging over the playoffs this year in
Speaker 1: the World Series will be the passing of Pete Rose.
Speaker 1: You know, Baseball's hits king holds several other all time records,
Speaker 1: games played at bats, things like that, but he will
Speaker 1: always have what has been called a complicated legacy because
Speaker 1: of his gambling, the gambling scandal that had him banned
Speaker 1: for life from baseball, meaning he's ineligible for the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame, and that debate will go on even if
Speaker 1: he is somehow later posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: people will still debate whether he belongs there or not.
Speaker 1: We talked about it on the show last night, Aaron
Speaker 1: Gershawn and Billy Religie and I I don't believe he
Speaker 1: belongs in the conventional way. But if there's a wing
Speaker 1: or people who didn't do everything properly, like steroids or gambling,
Speaker 1: sure why not. I think the fact that he is
Speaker 1: the all time hits king should not override the fact
Speaker 1: then not only did he gamble on baseball, that was
Speaker 1: the cardinal rule. Everybody knows, and if you've never been
Speaker 1: in a major league clubhouse, there's a huge sign reminding you,
Speaker 1: reminding the players that they are not to gamble. Pete
Speaker 1: ignored that and then lied about it, lied to his teammates,
Speaker 1: and according to my man Doug Flynn never apologized to
Speaker 1: his teammates for lying about it. It was odd last
Speaker 1: night and just a coincidence, sad coincidence that ESPN got
Speaker 1: the news from the son of one of Pete's teammates,
Speaker 1: Eduardo Perez. He's a broadcaster and a really good one
Speaker 1: for ESPN's baseball coverage, and he of courses, the son
Speaker 1: of Tony Perez, and as he was wrapping up a
Speaker 1: live hit from a stadium with Jay Harris, he interrupted
Speaker 1: Jay to share the sad news of what he had
Speaker 1: just heard, coincidentally enough, from Pete Rose's son, Pete.
Speaker 2: Junior Metzcrew Wars Game one tomorrow evening, five point thirty
Speaker 2: pm easton bridget Yes, y, yes, I.
Speaker 3: Want to throw in a little breaking news, a little
Speaker 3: sad news that I just received as well. Here in
Speaker 3: the last inning. My father called me and I confirmed
Speaker 3: it with my really really my brother, Pete Rose Junior.
Speaker 3: Pete Rose passed away today and it's hard. So you know,
Speaker 3: it's one of those times where Hanna and I have
Speaker 3: been together on set for the loss of Jose Fernandez
Speaker 3: years ago almost to the day, and just to be
Speaker 3: able to have lost Pete Rose today is a big
Speaker 3: hit for a lot of baseball families. So it's a tough.
Speaker 2: One right now, all right, Eduardo, as we get more
Speaker 2: information on that, we appreciate, we appreciate you giving us
Speaker 2: everything that you have this evening on the baseball in
Speaker 2: the Newswell, thank you so much, that.
Speaker 1: Said Wardo Perez talking to Jay Harris on ESPN, which
Speaker 1: did not really dive into coverage of Pete's passing for
Speaker 1: another thirty minutes or so. I guess they had to
Speaker 1: rally the troops and pull out the video and all
Speaker 1: that and perhaps get independent confirmation, even though at Wardo
Speaker 1: said he got it from Pete Junior. But that's how
Speaker 1: the news broke ones was actually ESPN two. So everybody
Speaker 1: who covered the Reds at some point has a Pete
Speaker 1: Rose story, and I've got a couple of them that
Speaker 1: aren't super great. You know, it's just people. A lot
Speaker 1: of people have much better stories. But I will tell
Speaker 1: you he was my favorite player growing up. I tried
Speaker 1: to play like him, except for the head first slide.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to break fingers but try to switch
Speaker 1: hit things like that, and just really really love Pete
Speaker 1: Rose as a player. But I'm in the Reds clubhouse
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, Big Red Machine time, and I'm
Speaker 1: leaning on Joe Morgan's locker, which was on the edge
Speaker 1: of basically what was kind of a horseshoe shape locker configuration.
Speaker 1: So I'm kind of the closest to the pathway between
Speaker 1: the showers and the trainer's room, and I'm jotting things
Speaker 1: down in my notebook working for the Kentucky Colonel Student newspaper,
Speaker 1: and I look up and here comes Pete Rose. He's
Speaker 1: only wearing a towel, so he's got that big barrel
Speaker 1: chest to all those muscles, and I thought, man, that
Speaker 1: is a big guy. Not tall, but he's big. Then
Speaker 1: I go back to my notebook. Well, at the time,
Speaker 1: I had a beard, not like the beard you might
Speaker 1: have seen me wearing on Channel twenty seven that was
Speaker 1: closely trimmed. This thing kind of hung down a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I had long hair. Not that I was making
Speaker 1: any kind of political statement, but I couldn't afford a
Speaker 1: haircut at the time, being a starving college student. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure to Pete I looked like a dirty hippie.
Speaker 1: And not that it excuses what he did, which was
Speaker 1: with me not even looking at him, he planted his
Speaker 1: shoulder in the middle of my sternum, middle of my chest.
Speaker 1: I go staggering back about three steps, didn't fall down,
Speaker 1: thank god, but I looked back at him like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: didn't say anything, and over his shoulder. He looks back
Speaker 1: and he goes sorry and just keeps right on walking,
Speaker 1: never broke stride. I thought, what a guy. But then
Speaker 1: when he decided to leave the Reds and go free agent,
Speaker 1: couldn't work out anything with the Reds. He made the
Speaker 1: rounds to various ball clubs negotiating. They came to Lexing,
Speaker 1: It came to Darby Dan Farm because the owner, Dan
Speaker 1: Goalbreth owned the Pirates. They really wanted him. Everybody wanted him,
Speaker 1: and I had one question to ask. They invited the
Speaker 1: media to come out after he was done talking to
Speaker 1: mister Goalbrith, and I thought, how can I ask this?
Speaker 1: And I turned it over in my mind and turned
Speaker 1: it over finally came up with a question like this.
Speaker 1: I said, Pete, because it looked like he was just
Speaker 1: making a money grab, and it was unheard of at
Speaker 1: the time. I mean, he had become such a highly
Speaker 1: paid player. But I said, Pete, what about the people
Speaker 1: who think you're being greedy? I didn't accuse him of
Speaker 1: being greedy, but a lot of people had. And he said,
Speaker 1: I haven't asked for a dime. And I'm thinking what
Speaker 1: he said, all I've done is listen he said, Ewing Kaufman,
Speaker 1: who owned the Kansas City Royals and made his money
Speaker 1: in pharmaceuticals. He said, he offered me interest in a
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical chain, he said, Aggie Bush, and Saint Louis offered
Speaker 1: me a brewery, you know, the Budweiser people. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what he didn't tell us what gall brother offered him,
Speaker 1: but the Phillies eventually signed him and made him what
Speaker 1: was at the time the highest paid player in the
Speaker 1: history of baseball. And all of this came evidently without
Speaker 1: him asking for a dime. He just sat back and
Speaker 1: collected offers. So I don't even know if negotiation was
Speaker 1: the proper terminal. I'm sure his agent jumped in with
Speaker 1: some questions or suggestions, but those were the only two
Speaker 1: dealings I had with Pete Rose. I know some other
Speaker 1: people had more. Steve Moss will join us here in
Speaker 1: a few minutes to share stories about Pete kind of
Speaker 1: took advantage of some young reporters from WKYT. Sadly, we
Speaker 1: also say goodbye to Kemby Mutumbo, the giant basketball player
Speaker 1: seven foot four or something like that. Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Remember he's the guy who wagged his finger when he
Speaker 1: blocked a shot and apparently was one of the most
Speaker 1: beloved players in terms of his personality in the history
Speaker 1: of the game Rockets, Knicks, Nets, Sixers, Hawks, and the
Speaker 1: Denver Nuggets. And he was the centerpiece for that Denver
Speaker 1: defense when it was coached by Dan Issel, the Kentucky
Speaker 1: All American who coached the Nuggets to an upset of
Speaker 1: the SuperSonics back in I want to say nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: three or two. They were the first eight seed to
Speaker 1: upset a one seed and to kem Ba Mtumba was
Speaker 1: right in the middle of that and became really a
Speaker 1: world ambassador for basketball. Let me see here. It was
Speaker 1: ninety four actually when Denver beat Seattle in the Western
Speaker 1: Conference playoffs first time at eight beat a one. How
Speaker 1: about that. So to Kemba Mutumba, who popped up and
Speaker 1: in some commercials I can't remember what, but remember he
Speaker 1: was hanging out at a grocery store and somebody would
Speaker 1: try to toss something into their basket and he would
Speaker 1: slap it away and wag his finger and say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: and then giggle running off. I bet he made as
Speaker 1: much for those commercials as he did in his NBA day,
Speaker 1: well probably not his entire NBA career, but to Kimmy Mtumbo,
Speaker 1: gone way too soon at the age of fifty eight.
Speaker 1: All right, coming up in just a couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: Steve Moss, we'll share some Pete Rose stories with us
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the hour of Van Hiles, former
Speaker 1: Kentucky defensive back. Hour number two. John Clay, the Harrow
Speaker 1: leader who was in Oxford covering the upset of those
Speaker 1: Ole miss rebels, and Jonathan Brunner from the Kentucky Colonel
Speaker 1: who also made the trip to Oxford. And he's just
Speaker 1: a youngster. He has not covered as many heartbreaking losses
Speaker 1: as John and I have. We're Steve Moss, but he
Speaker 1: got to be a part of the coverage of the
Speaker 1: Wildcats win over Mississippi Open Week this week, and then
Speaker 1: of course it's Vanderbilt coming to town. That one's always interesting.
Speaker 1: Between then and now, you got UK Pro Day on Monday.
Speaker 1: I'll be part of the TV covers with Jack Gibbons
Speaker 1: on SEC Plus and then Madness on October eleventh, that'll
Speaker 1: be seen on the SEC Network. So it's overlap time
Speaker 1: and we love it here in the Bluegrass. What to
Speaker 1: call him on six starter back joining us down in
Speaker 1: the celebrity hoighline as a longtime friend and Kylie we
Speaker 1: worked together many many years at WKYT. Steve Moss, who
Speaker 1: has shot sports in this town forever, which means that
Speaker 1: he has gone all kinds of places covering sports, including Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: and Steve, you and I made more than one trip
Speaker 1: up there, but I don't ever recall you and me
Speaker 1: talking to Pete Rose, but you like to tell the story,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty hilarious about a time when one of
Speaker 1: our young reporters went up there and made a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mistake, which often young reporters do, and
Speaker 1: Pete Rose had he had a moment with Pete Rose, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he did.
Speaker 4: You're talking about John Jury, who was our weekend our
Speaker 4: weekend sports guy back in the late eighties. And I
Speaker 4: can't remember if it was eighty eight or eighty nine,
Speaker 4: but I think I was either an intern or I
Speaker 4: had just started working there, uh, And Pete was in
Speaker 4: his last years as player manager for the Reds. He
Speaker 4: had been traded came back as player manager and it
Speaker 4: was a late fall game. I think they were playing
Speaker 4: the Giants, and John was like, hey, let's go down
Speaker 4: into the locker room in the clubhouse and get some
Speaker 4: postgame interviews. And I'm like, heck, yeah, I've never been
Speaker 4: down there before. And we went into the locker room
Speaker 4: and the players weren't ready, so we went into Pete's
Speaker 4: office and that's where the fund began. Basically, John was
Speaker 4: shooting with the camera and holding the microphone at the
Speaker 4: same time, and Pete looked at him and goes, I'll
Speaker 4: hold that mic for you. And there were two other
Speaker 4: guys in there, probably beat writers for the Reds, and
Speaker 4: they kind of got a chuckle out of it. But
Speaker 4: then Pete goes, are you're going to ask me a question?
Speaker 4: And I'll leave out I'll leave out the cussing and
Speaker 4: all that. But basically he had never seen us before.
Speaker 4: He kind of it was kind of like sharks, you know,
Speaker 4: feeling the chum in the water, and he took advantage
Speaker 4: of it, and it was was kind of humiliating. And
Speaker 4: I've never forgotten it because I, you know, growing up,
Speaker 4: was a fan of the Big Red Machine and here's
Speaker 4: my opportunity to talk to probably arguably the greatest player
Speaker 4: in Cincinnati history. And it was just such a tremendous
Speaker 4: letdown because he just couldn't help himself. He was not
Speaker 4: very nice that night. And you know, I've since read
Speaker 4: books about about Pete, including Keith O'Brien's recent book Charlie Hustle,
Speaker 4: and you realize, you know, he's not the greatest guy
Speaker 4: in the world. He was a great baseball player. But
Speaker 4: on that night, you know, he reaffirmed that you're never
Speaker 4: supposed to meet your heroes. Yeah, yeah, uh so that
Speaker 4: was Yeah, that's kind of our story, was it he teasing.
Speaker 1: Him about he was like sweating profusely.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: He looked at John at one point and he goes,
Speaker 4: are you sweating? Why are you sweating? I'm the one
Speaker 4: answering the questions here, And John made, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: made a remark about how it was a cool night.
Speaker 4: He had a sweater on. Un plus he had a
Speaker 4: hot light on top of his camera, and Pete made
Speaker 4: the comment, yeah, and if you'd take that, that damn
Speaker 4: seattle slew blanket off your back, and you know, and
Speaker 4: at that point, it's like, I think we probably need
Speaker 4: to be leaving. So we went out into the locker
Speaker 4: room and we were talking actually to Barry Lark and
Speaker 4: I don't remember if Larkin was a rookie that year,
Speaker 4: but he had jammed his wrist or something, and and
Speaker 4: we were getting shots of his wrist because he had
Speaker 4: ice on it and all that stuff. And literally as
Speaker 4: we were leaving his locker stall, we almost bumped into Pete.
Speaker 4: He had been standing there watching us the whole time,
Speaker 4: and and he made some comment like we were hard
Speaker 4: up for a story. So that's when we decided we
Speaker 4: probably need to head back to Lexington.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, he did that to another one
Speaker 1: of our guys who mistakenly called him coach.
Speaker 6: Called him coach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's happened more than one occasion.
Speaker 6: Coach.
Speaker 4: I've got coaches down the hallway. Let me go get
Speaker 4: Alex Grammer. So he's the coach. I'm the manager. You
Speaker 4: can call me skip.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You want to talk to a coach, you go
Speaker 1: down to their offices down the hall. It's just amazing
Speaker 1: how sensitive baseball managers are to that, you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for sure, I've heard that story many times.
Speaker 4: And and and he's not the only guy who was,
Speaker 4: you know, got caught in a crossfire there with Pete
Speaker 4: on something like that. I've heard others say the same thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, were you a Reds fan growing up?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I loved the Big Red Machine. I mean, you know,
Speaker 4: being located as close to Cincinnati as Georgetown is, you know,
Speaker 4: they were the team you rooted for, and arguably Pete
Speaker 4: the greatest player on Cincinnati's greatest teams. You know, by
Speaker 4: default you're thinking, well, I mean, this guy can do
Speaker 4: no wrong, you know, until you meet him. And I
Speaker 4: also remember a time where I can't remember, I was
Speaker 4: thinking about this last night. I don't remember if it
Speaker 4: was a Wendy's or if it was a Long John Silvers,
Speaker 4: but it was the first of one of those two
Speaker 4: fast food places that opened in Letchington. They hired Pete
Speaker 4: to come down and kind of be the guy who
Speaker 4: opened the new restaurant. And I remember my you know,
Speaker 4: asking my mom to take me up. There was a
Speaker 4: new Circle Road and I met Pete for the first time.
Speaker 4: He autographed to pick for me, and he took a picture.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, And I think that might have been in
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty nine, when I was like seven six or
Speaker 4: seven years old, and I probably still have that picture somewhere. So,
Speaker 4: you know, then you become a fan and you understand
Speaker 4: the game a little more and you realize those teams
Speaker 4: are really good. You know, some of the greatest teams
Speaker 4: in the history of baseball. And he's the guy who
Speaker 4: you know, stirs the drink.
Speaker 1: Yea, So well, listen, I appreciate the time and we'll
Speaker 1: chat soon.
Speaker 4: Sounds good.
Speaker 1: Hour Number two is next with John Clay on six
Speaker 1: point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big One, Cider,
Speaker 1: and I am very pleased and happy to be joined
Speaker 1: as always by one of my favorite guys, Van Hiles,
Speaker 1: former Kentucky defensive back, but especially now, Van, because I
Speaker 1: try not to impose upon you too much because you're
Speaker 1: pulling so many different directions. You're the Monday morning quarterback
Speaker 1: with Tom leech Son Morning Sports Talk. You've got your
Speaker 1: own podcasts and videos going. But I had to double
Speaker 1: back with you because what a win. You're we just
Speaker 1: going nuts in your house or just smiling a lot.
Speaker 6: I'm a cumbination of both. Also also a little frustrated
Speaker 6: because you know, I was taught by coach Rick Smith
Speaker 6: to look at the bad things sometimes, and this defense
Speaker 6: Ole miss really shouldn't have scored but at most ten points,
Speaker 6: so that still bothers me. A little bit because this
Speaker 6: defense played so well in the secondary, really came to
Speaker 6: this game and really played their best game. I'm gonna say,
Speaker 6: I know this recent device in the Stuke's era, the
Speaker 6: way they locked down Old Miss was insane.
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit more about what you saw
Speaker 1: from Let's go back first and talk about the Old
Speaker 1: Miss defense, because it looked to me Van and you're
Speaker 1: an ex on this stuff like they were. They were
Speaker 1: going to slap, hold, push every time they could against
Speaker 1: one of the Kentucky receivers, especially Dan Key because that
Speaker 1: was the early target. But down there on the field,
Speaker 1: it looked, like I've said it before, one of those yields.
Speaker 1: Like a basketball game. Well, they can't call every foul,
Speaker 1: and they really started to call them though, But man,
Speaker 1: those guys were all over him.
Speaker 6: That That is exactly the analogy. It's like a basketball team.
Speaker 6: Are they going to allow you to on bar to handcheck?
Speaker 6: If they are, then we're going to win this game.
Speaker 6: We're going to force the rest to call all of
Speaker 6: these calls. When you're playing Manland on an Island, a
Speaker 6: lot of corners get a little bit they they get
Speaker 6: a little bit uncomfortable and they freak out a little bit.
Speaker 6: So the first thing you're gonna do is grab just
Speaker 6: in case. So I would rather get a fifteen year
Speaker 6: old penalty. Again, they get a sixty seventy eighty year pass.
Speaker 6: So that's what happened to them. And the great thing
Speaker 6: I'm gonna say this again, we are not giving coach
Speaker 6: Shartz the credit he deserves. The nuances of route running
Speaker 6: had improved so much that that's why they were able
Speaker 6: to feel comfortable going for fourth and seven on that
Speaker 6: down on what a twenty some yard line because if
Speaker 6: you look at the play, we had two guys open
Speaker 6: yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And they single covered Barrian Brown. They gambled and it
Speaker 1: cost him the game.
Speaker 6: Well, I'm gonna be honest if if it's a if
Speaker 6: you put the gamble word on them, they gambled pretty
Speaker 6: much eighty percent of the game. They put those those
Speaker 6: they put their corners on an island the entire game.
Speaker 6: But that's also why they could play the TAPO style defense.
Speaker 6: They're playing those I'm gonna say this give I'm gonna
Speaker 6: give so much credit Omens defense because I was like,
Speaker 6: I'm not sure what they are, but that front seven
Speaker 6: is we are played three really good fronts having defensive
Speaker 6: to start to see it because those guys are flying around.
Speaker 1: They're legit, aren't they?
Speaker 6: Yeah, they are. They are really a really good defense.
Speaker 6: And now I understand why why their fans saw them
Speaker 6: being a potential national champion because they bought. They bought
Speaker 6: a great defense with the nil.
Speaker 1: But that said, Kentucky grinds out these long drives, not
Speaker 1: every time, but on more than one occasion and force
Speaker 1: that defense to stay on the field for fifteen plays
Speaker 1: at a time. Man, that was huge, wasn't it.
Speaker 6: And that was that was the calling card. And I'm
Speaker 6: gonna say this because I know that they keep getting
Speaker 6: hawked up on that old line. Since the Southern and
Speaker 6: since South Carolina game has start to jail a little
Speaker 6: bit every week, they have played a little bit better
Speaker 6: and they are not going against cupcake defenses. They'll play,
Speaker 6: like I said, I'm gonna say, the three of the
Speaker 6: best defenses in the conference. They have played really tough defense,
Speaker 6: and they're falling away to put together enough consecutive players
Speaker 6: in a row to keep the ball moving down the
Speaker 6: field and progressive. They're also not getting enough.
Speaker 1: Credit matriculating the ball down the field as they say,
Speaker 1: all right, well, let's double back to your first point,
Speaker 1: because I was concerned that what happened on that first
Speaker 1: drive against the Kentucky defense, what happened you know, a
Speaker 1: whole day like everybody else. I mean, they just zipped
Speaker 1: it right down the field. And I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: all right, they're gonna get their legs on them. They're
Speaker 1: gonna go. And I went over to the bench and
Speaker 1: I watched them talk to each other. There was no panic,
Speaker 1: you know. And then the next drive, I think it
Speaker 1: was a three and out of the sack. So I said,
Speaker 1: all right, now they've got it. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: what were you seeing?
Speaker 6: The only thing that happened on the first drive. And
Speaker 6: I'm gonna I don't like to say this, but I'm
Speaker 6: gonna put this on this situation. Kickoff, you know, you're
Speaker 6: kicking off, You're getting amped up, you're ready. They fumbled. Now,
Speaker 6: oh great, Now you just use another bit of energy
Speaker 6: celebrating with Willie Rodd about the great great cap and
Speaker 6: the fumble. Now there's a lull and play. Now you've
Speaker 6: kind of lost that edge a little bit. I think
Speaker 6: that was a factor. But I would say this, that
Speaker 6: first drive was purely on Jackson Dart extending the play.
Speaker 6: If you look at the initial set of the play,
Speaker 6: they had nothing. His ability to extend the play is
Speaker 6: why that drive was successful. The next drive once they
Speaker 6: were I would say more discipline their pass rust lane
Speaker 6: is when they had nothing the rest of the game. Honestly,
Speaker 6: all the players that they got, even the fourth and
Speaker 6: eleven at the end of the game, was because Jackson
Speaker 6: Dart extended the play. When we didn't let him, when
Speaker 6: we kept him in the pocket and squeeze that pocket
Speaker 6: on him, it was not as.
Speaker 1: Effective, which is essentially the case on most quarterbacks. But
Speaker 1: not only does he get outside, he can move, you know,
Speaker 1: he can run for like Rock Vandergrift exactly.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: But he's legit too, isn't he. I Mean, this is
Speaker 1: not I realized they hadn't really played any tough competition
Speaker 1: up until now, but they did what contenders do to
Speaker 1: those weaker teams. They destroyed them. And he's a big
Speaker 1: reason for that, isn't he.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's the orchestrator of that offense. There's a lot
Speaker 6: put on his shoulder from from coach Kiffon and expecting
Speaker 6: him to do certain things. And how to get in
Speaker 6: and out of play. Yeah. I mean it's just like
Speaker 6: the Carson Back team. We kind of had both these
Speaker 6: quarterbacks in trouble. Yeah, And I think that shows how
Speaker 6: great of defense we are. I mean, we all saw
Speaker 6: what Carson Back did in the second half to Alabama's defense.
Speaker 6: It shows how great this defense can be. And I'm
Speaker 6: gonna say it is this is not even close to
Speaker 6: how great this defense can play. They still left five
Speaker 6: or six plays out there like they have not locked
Speaker 6: in where they minimize mental mistakes are errors on the
Speaker 6: defensive end. They can get a lot better. And that's
Speaker 6: the scary part.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean hearing you say that, I was thinking
Speaker 1: this defense can it play much better? Yeah, they're mistakes.
Speaker 1: Of course, you see things that I'll never see. But
Speaker 1: now they got a week off to rest and recuperate
Speaker 1: and work on that, don't they Exactly.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna say that the easiest thing for me to
Speaker 6: look at it, for people to see is when you
Speaker 6: look at the three defenses we'll played and compare it
Speaker 6: to ours. There is a level of strain and effort
Speaker 6: on every play that you can see. Sometimes they are
Speaker 6: a handful of guys or two or three guys that
Speaker 6: are not and that's emptying their tank on every play. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's what the elite defense is. Because the thing happened
Speaker 6: is you think your your teammate had a guy locked down,
Speaker 6: he's not gonna get out of it, and all of
Speaker 6: sudden of these great running backs, great receivers pop one out.
Speaker 6: That's why everybody has to strain and run to the ball,
Speaker 6: and we have enough depth to do that. That's the
Speaker 6: one that's the one biggest thing that I would say
Speaker 6: is why they have a highest ceiling. There's once these
Speaker 6: seas and these leaderships required everyone to do that, then
Speaker 6: no one will will will play well against because they're
Speaker 6: that good.
Speaker 1: What did you see from Dion Walker? I thought this
Speaker 1: was his best game in a situation where they needed
Speaker 1: his best game.
Speaker 6: I'm deon is deon. When you're that physically imposing on
Speaker 6: an opponent, it's can you imagine looking at the film?
Speaker 6: The last two games have been an office round, like see,
Speaker 6: I hope he throws on the other side because because
Speaker 6: you're gonna need help, there's no one I don't. I mean,
Speaker 6: I don't watch that much college football, but I'm pretty complishing.
Speaker 6: There's not many offense alignment that can block to one
Speaker 6: on one even if the player is going away from him.
Speaker 6: So that is a problem and and that's why it
Speaker 6: allows other teammates to to come up and have great games.
Speaker 6: I'm so proud of Oxida the game he had this
Speaker 6: was was probably one of the best games. He asked
Speaker 6: his freshman ar he plays lights out.
Speaker 1: SEC defensive player of the week.
Speaker 6: Makes sense about that defense player the week of deferent
Speaker 6: alignment the week? Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Every lineman
Speaker 6: owns Dearl Walker a meal after every game.
Speaker 1: I hear you, and as I understand it, he can
Speaker 1: afford it. My guess. We'll come back and talk more
Speaker 1: with the former Kentucky defensive back here on six thirty
Speaker 1: Welcome back. We're talking with Vanhilse He of course, v
Speaker 1: Styles is a guy who knows his Kentucky football and
Speaker 1: shares the knowledge with us here on the Big Boe Sider,
Speaker 1: which we appreciate naturally. We're talking about the EPSOD win
Speaker 1: overall miss and they did it. We originally, of course,
Speaker 1: started off talking about d backs, which one will do
Speaker 1: with Van Hiles, but they do it Van without there,
Speaker 1: they're all America candidate Max Harriston, who actually had to
Speaker 1: be hospitalized with an infection. But young guys thrown into
Speaker 1: the fire and they came through. What did you see
Speaker 1: from them?
Speaker 6: What I saw was this is the and this is
Speaker 6: speaking on the outside not knowing, and so I'm just
Speaker 6: throwing things against the wall kind of. But what I
Speaker 6: saw was the coaches trusting the corners, and the corners said,
Speaker 6: oh wow, they really trusted to do this, and them
Speaker 6: playing like balls out the way that they played one
Speaker 6: v one. And here's the thing. I know a lot
Speaker 6: of fans saw a lot of man covers. Man coverage
Speaker 6: on the outside does not mean blitz or or we're
Speaker 6: pass rushing. It just means that we're playing man concept
Speaker 6: on the two other guys and everybody else Interiorly, this
Speaker 6: plans on the way that they held up the entire
Speaker 6: game against a team that averaged six hundred and twenty
Speaker 6: yards of offense for the whole season to that point
Speaker 6: was incredible. The passes that they got on us were
Speaker 6: a little bit of panic, and both of them a
Speaker 6: little bit of panic. They had two big plays forty
Speaker 6: nine and forty eight or forty nine forty whatever it was.
Speaker 6: They had two big plays on fourth down, and other
Speaker 6: than that, everything was running the mill pass. You're gonna say, look,
Speaker 6: we're gonna give up pass. Every team gives up by
Speaker 6: yard hitches and all that stuff. Make them continue to
Speaker 6: do that. But those two big plays they had were
Speaker 6: on extended plays and the dbs not holding up in
Speaker 6: coverage as long as they should, which is very difficult
Speaker 6: to come a guy for more than four seconds.
Speaker 1: Well, I talked with you earlier about your reaction at
Speaker 1: your home that you know you both did a lot
Speaker 1: of smiling, did a lot of jumping up and down,
Speaker 1: But I bet I know what was happening. You had
Speaker 1: to have your head in your hands when they completed
Speaker 1: at forty something yard when I look like a young
Speaker 1: safety just got lost, you know, Is that the way
Speaker 1: you saw it?
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's that's I don't know which one was worse,
Speaker 6: to be honest with you, because one ended up in
Speaker 6: a touchdown. Because as a defense, as a secondary, when
Speaker 6: your front seven is playing so well, you don't want
Speaker 6: to let those guys down because you know the first
Speaker 6: thing that happens when they look back at your cass
Speaker 6: then they put the whole surrender Cobra hands like, oh
Speaker 6: my god, are you serious guys? Yeah, so those are
Speaker 6: the ones that hurt me, the touchdowns because we are
Speaker 6: playing so well. It's just look, the other team is
Speaker 6: on scholarship. They're going to make plays. I think that
Speaker 6: those two plays, we are better than what he showed
Speaker 6: on those instances and it should not have allowed those
Speaker 6: two plays. And it's unfortunate when when a quarterback scrambles
Speaker 6: sometimes or welt six men that you have to hunker
Speaker 6: down because you are going to be on an island
Speaker 6: and you got to win that battle on that play.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and it also goes back to Jackson Dark's
Speaker 1: ability to extend to play, doesn't it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's I mean, being his third year in this
Speaker 6: Langkiff and offense, you you can see the comfort level
Speaker 6: and ease that he has in it. He didn't throw
Speaker 6: it interception. He didn't throw it in exception, which is huge.
Speaker 6: We only had one turner in this game. I was
Speaker 6: expecting that we will get at least one interception in
Speaker 6: the game and a trap coverage or something. Though we
Speaker 6: didn't fool him at all. He didn't throw a whoa
Speaker 6: that passed that was close. The only past the only
Speaker 6: pass he threw that was close was the fourth to
Speaker 6: eleven because he had to throw it up. And so
Speaker 6: his his level of comfort in the system says everything
Speaker 6: he's he has. He's athletic enough to be a problem
Speaker 6: for any defense.
Speaker 1: Well, tell me a little bit about your thoughts on
Speaker 1: fourth down. We talked about Burying being wide open on
Speaker 1: that play, but just the fact that A they went
Speaker 1: for it and b they went deep on it, which
Speaker 1: I don't think was the first option, but it was
Speaker 1: still still there, like we said, But just the fact
Speaker 1: that Mark Stoops chose that that no pun intended chose
Speaker 1: that route.
Speaker 6: Look, I personally I didn't like the call and on
Speaker 6: the day and right now I still don't like the
Speaker 6: call just from uh, just from a play caller or
Speaker 6: decision making option.
Speaker 1: You don't like that they went for it or the
Speaker 1: or the they chose.
Speaker 6: No, I don't like either one, but I understand in
Speaker 6: the moment, this is why coaches got to go with
Speaker 6: their gut. He had a feeling the way we were
Speaker 6: playing defense and the way they were going to play
Speaker 6: man the man, that we have an option, so I'm
Speaker 6: going to go with that option. And then I read
Speaker 6: someone on Twitter that He felt like that if we
Speaker 6: didn't make it, we could hold them to a field goal.
Speaker 6: As a defender, that also gives me call, oh man,
Speaker 6: we go for this. That means we're gonna hold the
Speaker 6: field goal. We still got a shot, So I understand
Speaker 6: the decision. I still don't like it, but it worked.
Speaker 6: So it's kind of weird that I liked the decision
Speaker 6: against Georgia. It didn't work. I don't like this decision
Speaker 6: in old myths, and it did work. So it's all
Speaker 6: about gut for coaches, you.
Speaker 1: Know, the reaction you had. I learned about something like
Speaker 1: that when Mike Archer was talking to me after the
Speaker 1: Music City ball in six. Remember they faked a punt
Speaker 1: and Clemson had called the time out, and of course
Speaker 1: everybody surrounded Brooks, and Brooks acted like he was pointing
Speaker 1: at this and that, and he said, he said, we're
Speaker 1: going to run. They call players called raider. We're gonna
Speaker 1: run Raider, and I'm coaching you up here, just you know,
Speaker 1: go along with it. But Joker Phillips, Uh the uh
Speaker 1: was he he was the OC at that point? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And uh? And the special teams coordinators over the coach,
Speaker 1: are you sure you want to try to talk him
Speaker 1: out of it. You know what. Mike Archer said, that's fine,
Speaker 1: but if we don't make it, we'll stop him.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: That's it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, wow, that's that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 6: That's it. Look, I'm you carry the character of the
Speaker 6: leader of your room. That's why this defense. For the
Speaker 6: majority of the time, they never blinked their eye. How
Speaker 6: many times have they ever seen Coach White yelling and
Speaker 6: demonstratives on the sideline Unless it's for a great play,
Speaker 6: the players take on the character the coach. They never
Speaker 6: have freaked out ever in the game. That's the difference.
Speaker 6: The same new coach Art. When I played for him,
Speaker 6: it was he was feisty, and that's how his defense
Speaker 6: is played. When we played defense in the in the
Speaker 6: late nineteen hundred, we were feisty. It is because of him,
Speaker 6: and our defensive back room was feisty because the coach
Speaker 6: met feisty.
Speaker 1: Can ulsle mean a little salty with Mike.
Speaker 6: Hartcher a little? We were never happy, we were happy.
Speaker 1: But one day he glanced at me. I was standing
Speaker 1: behind the bench. I was trying to eave drop and
Speaker 1: I half the time I can't hear it, and even
Speaker 1: if I did, I couldn't understand what you guys were
Speaker 1: talking about. But I just wanted to get a feel
Speaker 1: for what was going on. And the following week he
Speaker 1: says to me, uh something about you know, can you?
Speaker 1: Can you? You can't on your microphone pick up what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, can you? I said, coach? When I stand
Speaker 1: near you in that huddle, I turned the mic off,
Speaker 1: I put my hand over it, and I put it
Speaker 1: behind my back just to make sure that none of
Speaker 1: that gets hat on the air. But but he chose
Speaker 1: his moments. I know that, and Brad White, it's it's
Speaker 1: interesting game. You know. I'll be standing on the sidelines
Speaker 1: and Vince Merrill comes but always gives me a fist
Speaker 1: bump Eddie Grant every now and then. Will I never
Speaker 1: go near Brad White? He is so dialed in and focused.
Speaker 1: You should see You probably can imagine his look on
Speaker 1: his face as he's walking to the sideline before that
Speaker 1: game begin and after halftime as well. What a game
Speaker 1: he called? Man?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, there, I would say this. There are not
Speaker 6: many coordinators that I can say that I haven't played for,
Speaker 6: that don't want to play for. He is one I
Speaker 6: just think the level of respect he has for the players,
Speaker 6: he in return gets doubled at from the players. There
Speaker 6: is nothing better than have a coach that respects you
Speaker 6: and trusts you and never tries to embarrass you on
Speaker 6: the field. I don't think people understand how great that
Speaker 6: is for a young kids to not have a coach
Speaker 6: embarrassed in the field. And I'm sure in the meeting
Speaker 6: room he's an animal, sure, but when the game is played,
Speaker 6: we don't need to have that disrespect when you got
Speaker 6: to go back on the field again. So that level
Speaker 6: of trust that they all have, I can see it
Speaker 6: from a player standpoint, because they the respect they have
Speaker 6: for him is you can just fill it.
Speaker 1: Coming to the TV, well, once again we run out
Speaker 1: of time. I didn't have a chance to ask you
Speaker 1: what you're prepared for the game, but I'm sure that'll
Speaker 1: be your good luck meal. So you got to keep
Speaker 1: making it as long as they keep winning. Van Heiuse,
Speaker 1: co host of the Locker four one one Driving with
Speaker 1: Styles following v Styles seventeen and next time we'll talk
Speaker 1: about the fact that you are a grill master. We
Speaker 1: always do until our run out of time. Man, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I appreciated and congratulations on.
Speaker 6: The win anytime. Yes, that was big up.
Speaker 1: Next number two with John Clay here on six point
Speaker 1: thirty w LAB Welcome back to the Big Moons Cider.
Speaker 1: Joining us now on our Celebrity hotline is a guy
Speaker 1: who has covered a lot of different sports for a
Speaker 1: lot of different years, Jean Clay, sports columnist for They
Speaker 1: Are a Leader. John. Before I talk about Kentucky, just
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the passing of Pete Rose. I think
Speaker 1: people might have known his health was was waning a
Speaker 1: little bit, but it still came as a shock, didn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 7: In fact, I just saw a picture apparently he was
Speaker 7: at a card show in Nevada just a day or
Speaker 7: two though. Somebody had a picture of him with Dave Vinceerez,
Speaker 7: Org Foster I think was in King Grippy Senior were
Speaker 7: in the picture. So yeah, just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 7: So you know, not you know what happened, but uh yeah,
Speaker 7: I mean Pete obviously a complicated legacy because of the
Speaker 7: gambling and they being bamed for baseball and so forth.
Speaker 7: You know, as as somebody who grew up as a
Speaker 7: Rets fan, you know what I remember about Pete and
Speaker 7: associate Pete with was just the way he played the game.
Speaker 7: Charlie Hustle as they called him. You know, he was
Speaker 7: the guy when he walked. He didn't walk the first base.
Speaker 7: He grew a walk in walked the first base. He
Speaker 7: sprinted down to first base and made the made the turn.
Speaker 7: He didn't just go to the back. He would make
Speaker 7: the turn at first even though it was a walk.
Speaker 7: And uh, you know, just the determination, you know, and
Speaker 7: grit that he put into it. And as somebody put
Speaker 7: this morning, he was Cincinnati. I mean, he grew up
Speaker 7: in Cincinnati. He kind of ad that Cincinnati mentality. Uh,
Speaker 7: my friend Paul Doherty in this morning, he's retired from
Speaker 7: the Enquiry, but he still writes a column for Substack.
Speaker 7: He said that he was kind of the bad way
Speaker 7: of Cincinnati. He had a little bit of the bad
Speaker 7: boy and him with Cincinnati had that today was like
Speaker 7: a capital of pro for whiskey during Prohibition, and Pete
Speaker 7: was kind of Pete was kind of like that, and
Speaker 7: you know, and I had some interactions. We used to
Speaker 7: cover the Reds a lot more than we do now
Speaker 7: and went up there many times. I can remember the
Speaker 7: day that he was brought back as manager as player
Speaker 7: manager of the press conference there. I remember one time
Speaker 7: going into Pete's office to talk to him, and I
Speaker 7: was the only one in there, and Pete he wasn't
Speaker 7: in a great mood over something, and I asked him
Speaker 7: a couple of questions, and you know, he gave answers,
Speaker 7: but he wasn't great. And he goes, wait a minute,
Speaker 7: you're the guy from Lexington, aren't you, And I said yeah.
Speaker 7: So then he started immediately once start talk horse racing.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely. And Geene MacLean, who you know,
Speaker 7: we both used to work for the Al and Gene
Speaker 7: had a great relationship with Pete because of that. He
Speaker 7: knew Gene from horse He was the Lexing and guy,
Speaker 7: so he must know horse racing and they had good
Speaker 7: relationship because of that because Pete obviously Pete loved the ponies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he definitely did. And his trips to Keenland Man,
Speaker 1: we would go back to the back of the press
Speaker 1: box when he was gone and kind of take a
Speaker 1: peek at some of the tickets on the floor and
Speaker 1: he was not a two dollars better let's leave it. No,
Speaker 1: No he's not, No, he's not but yeah, he h
Speaker 1: at what stage of his career was he when you
Speaker 1: began to really follow the Reds?
Speaker 7: Oh well, I mean as a fan, I mean he was,
Speaker 7: I'm not you know, a little pastor's rookie year. I
Speaker 7: mean I can remember when he played, you know, in
Speaker 7: the outfield. I don't really remember him as the second basement.
Speaker 7: I think came up to the second basement and they
Speaker 7: moved him to the outfield, and obvitoually, you know, remember
Speaker 7: you know when they moved when Sparky Anderson moved him
Speaker 7: to third base so he could get George Foster in
Speaker 7: the lineup. And I certainly remember when he went to
Speaker 7: the Phillies, you know, and helped them to win the
Speaker 7: World Series in nineteen eighty. Uh, you know that sort
Speaker 7: of thing. And then of course, as I mentioned, when
Speaker 7: he came back when they brought him back as a
Speaker 7: player manager with the Reds. But obviously in those you know,
Speaker 7: big Red Machine days in the seventies, certainly remember you know,
Speaker 7: those team tams, and obviously he was the lead up hitter, catalyst.
Speaker 7: It was just you know, I remember the time about
Speaker 7: him being the first one hundred thousand dollars singles hitter.
Speaker 7: Only the power hitters made that made six figures. He
Speaker 7: was the first one to do that. And uh, you
Speaker 7: know he was. And Pete. Yeah, and on occasion when
Speaker 7: I was up there and you talk to him, like
Speaker 7: I said, on occasion he'd be kind of a he
Speaker 7: might be in a bad mood over something, but overall
Speaker 7: he was he was always accommodating, and he would always
Speaker 7: talk to the media.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 7: And I'm you know, I never had, you know, uh
Speaker 7: any sort of problem when when talking to him when
Speaker 7: I was up there covering a game.
Speaker 6: And so forth.
Speaker 1: Talking to John Clay Sports commis for the herold Leader
Speaker 1: And shifting from Pete Rose to a happier topic, the
Speaker 1: Wildcats beating Ole Miss. And we've talked before about you
Speaker 1: and I have been around for a little while. You've
Speaker 1: covered a lot of Kentucky football. You were the Kentucky
Speaker 1: football beat writer for a while. You've seen that laid
Speaker 1: hammer John, You've seen slip game, slip away. I will
Speaker 1: admit I have admitted on more than one occasion I
Speaker 1: braced myself. Can I assume you did the same.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean when they complete when Ole Miss, you know,
Speaker 7: because he goes up but twenty to seventeen and all
Speaker 7: miscomplete that long pass. First of all, you think, well,
Speaker 7: they're going to go ahead and take it in for
Speaker 7: a score, and then when they wind up for the
Speaker 7: field goal. But I will admit I thought that, you know,
Speaker 7: I didn't think it was a sure thing of forty
Speaker 7: eight yarder. I know Mark stoops at afterwards that he
Speaker 7: turned to Brad White and said, would do one?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 7: I think Contecka was kind of do one in that game.
Speaker 7: And you know, obviously to play the game has to
Speaker 7: be the fourth down call where they throw the sixty
Speaker 7: three yard bomb. Not only did they went for it,
Speaker 7: And listen to Mark after the game, I thought he
Speaker 7: had pretty sound reasoning that even if they didn't make
Speaker 7: it on the fourth down, he thought the defense was
Speaker 7: playing well, they could hold him to a field goal,
Speaker 7: you know, and would still be you know, we then
Speaker 7: get the ball back and me when then range of
Speaker 7: doing something, but you know, but not just to go
Speaker 7: for it on fourth down, but to you know, air
Speaker 7: it out and go for the big play, go for
Speaker 7: the big strike. And obviously a great pass by Brock
Speaker 7: Vandergriff and an even better catch to put himself in
Speaker 7: a position to make the catch by Barryon Brown, who really,
Speaker 7: up until this point had been the dang Key Show.
Speaker 7: Dang Key had been you know, back to back one
Speaker 7: hundred yard games, and Baryon hadn't quite had the impact
Speaker 7: so far that we thought maybe he would have. In fact,
Speaker 7: Dan said after the game that he kept that he
Speaker 7: kept telling barry On your time's coming, Your time's coming,
Speaker 7: and it certainly did, you know, did on that play.
Speaker 7: I think that play will go down, especially if Kentucky
Speaker 7: goes on to have a good season. I think that play,
Speaker 7: that fourth down play will go down in Kentucky is
Speaker 7: one of the more significant plays in Kentucky football history.
Speaker 1: I will tell you that when they went for it,
Speaker 1: I would talk about second guessing and you know, it's
Speaker 1: all well and good if you make that decision prior
Speaker 1: to the play. And I remember thinking, you know, they
Speaker 1: pretty much have to go for it here, right, And
Speaker 1: I didn't think that the feed and cement thing would work.
Speaker 1: They weren't going to draw him off side. But I
Speaker 1: also heard that Barrion Brown's route was not the first
Speaker 1: option on that road. Draft figure they'd go over the
Speaker 1: middle to Dane Key again, but he draws the double team.
Speaker 1: That's what's amazing. John is very imprunishment the last year
Speaker 1: and a halfy in double team. Then they go single
Speaker 1: coverage and they burned her, didn't they.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they got the look they wanted. And Rock said
Speaker 7: after the game, when we talked to Brock, Mandy Griff,
Speaker 7: you know about take us through that play. So you know,
Speaker 7: we got single coverage, we got single Onbarion, and we
Speaker 7: thought maybe we could get that, but you know, we
Speaker 7: weren't sure how they would play it where they plays
Speaker 7: own or man and with they single up on barry On,
Speaker 7: which they did, and uh, you know, obviously yeah, and
Speaker 7: I think, you know, obviously Baryon made great play and
Speaker 7: Brock for a heck of a ball. And but you know,
Speaker 7: I'm really impressed with the growth that Brock has made
Speaker 7: from the opener till now.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 7: The kid obviously has the tools. He was a five
Speaker 7: star quarterback coming out of high school. A little shaky
Speaker 7: at first, but I mean, you know, that's South Carolina game.
Speaker 7: That was his first SEC start. If you look back
Speaker 7: at every quarterback you know have starts like that, especially
Speaker 7: you know, in their first year as a starter. I
Speaker 7: looked back last year Jaylen Milroe at Alabama, he got
Speaker 7: Ben Stefford, they lost to Texas. Saban didn't even play
Speaker 7: him in the South Florida game. Then he came back,
Speaker 7: had a heck of a year and you saw what
Speaker 7: he did against Georgia on Saturday night. But I think
Speaker 7: brought in his toughness. I mean, he just kid takes
Speaker 7: a gear down there on the field. You see the
Speaker 7: hits he takes and he just pops pick back up,
Speaker 7: and you know, that's got to earn a lot of
Speaker 7: respect from his teammates. And I think we're really seeing
Speaker 7: him grow and boy, you know, really optimistic about what
Speaker 7: he can do the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, when you go back and look
Speaker 1: at that play, he never hesitated that. That's what impressed
Speaker 1: me the most is he read that defense and he
Speaker 1: read the safety or the corner whoever was covering Barrian
Speaker 1: Brown read that there was no safety help and that
Speaker 1: loaded that pass. That probably impressed me more than anything.
Speaker 7: You see to all this afterwards, that you know, when
Speaker 7: they came to the line and he saw what it was,
Speaker 7: it was basically you know that what the play was
Speaker 7: going to to be. He said, for me, it was
Speaker 7: just let it rip, just let it rip, and let
Speaker 7: Barryon make a play. And you know, he you know,
Speaker 7: and he made a play. I thought their game plan
Speaker 7: for the whole game was was a good, uh strategic
Speaker 7: game plan. And I know they didn't really bust a
Speaker 7: long run. They didn't have a I don't even think
Speaker 7: they had one hundred yards rushing. But I thought they
Speaker 7: kept moving forward. There weren't many negative yardage plays. They
Speaker 7: got the most out of their runs they were able to.
Speaker 7: We said one of the keys going into the game
Speaker 7: was the offense. Everybody talked about the defense. Defense had
Speaker 7: to limit o Missus big plays, but the offense had
Speaker 7: to give them some help by having some sustained drives
Speaker 7: to keep the defense off the field. Those thing about
Speaker 7: the best the best defenses when you play less defense,
Speaker 7: and I thought they did that, especially in the first half.
Speaker 7: I think they had three drives and maybe ten plays
Speaker 7: more or something like that, and that really I think
Speaker 7: that helped as well. So even though they didn't put
Speaker 7: up gigantic numbers on offense, I thought they had a
Speaker 7: really good game plan.
Speaker 1: Well, it had to be that guy, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: setting up the game plan and then executing or two
Speaker 1: to and things, but playing keep away. I mean that
Speaker 1: was vital, was he right?
Speaker 7: And you know he used Gavin Wimsett in the Wildcat
Speaker 7: I think seven or eight times, and you know he
Speaker 7: bust them for big runs and obviously get he fumbled
Speaker 7: down on the goal line, but that was another Kentucky
Speaker 7: break that they were doing for breaks at the ballfop
Speaker 7: break the Josh Katis for the touchdown. But you know
Speaker 7: they were placed that moved forward. They weren't negative yardage
Speaker 7: plates to put him in. You know, they were you know,
Speaker 7: they were second seven and second sixth as a second twelve,
Speaker 7: second and thirteen, and you know, I think early on
Speaker 7: it looked like that bush Hampden was uh you know,
Speaker 7: uh trying the perimeter runs. You know, obviously with very
Speaker 7: on in to speak, getting him on the jet sweeps
Speaker 7: that sort of thing kind of cupt back on that
Speaker 7: and against against the old Miss And let's just drab
Speaker 7: more straight ahead with with Demi and with will Cox
Speaker 7: and also when Gavin, when wimsaid in the game, and
Speaker 7: there's going to be a game where they're put whim
Speaker 7: Sat in at a Wildcat, He's going to throw the
Speaker 7: ball He's going to catch him off guard. They haven't
Speaker 7: got haven't done that yet, but I'm sure that's coming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the quarterback runs by Brock Vandergriff. I felt
Speaker 1: like it. You know, I think they probably knew they
Speaker 1: weren't going to break huge plays, but it just fed
Speaker 1: into that that as you said, that game plan that
Speaker 1: involved just moving the chains, and he moved the change.
Speaker 1: I think three or four different times, didn't he.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And you know, I think back to Bush's opening
Speaker 7: press conference with us, sort of his introductory press conference,
Speaker 7: and he said one of the things that he believes
Speaker 7: is that your quarterback has to get you two first
Speaker 7: downs with his leg. Yeah, and I think they got
Speaker 7: at least two with that as well. I didn't realize
Speaker 7: the afterwards that I think Brock had seventeen rushing attempts.
Speaker 7: Now some of those are sacks because college counts sacks
Speaker 7: as rushing attempts, but I didn't realize. But yeah, he
Speaker 7: got first down, and you know, obviously, and I thought
Speaker 7: the offensive line, you know, they gave up some they
Speaker 7: gave up some pressures, but I thought they looked they
Speaker 7: were better and when they needed to protect him, when
Speaker 7: they had to give him time to throw. I thought
Speaker 7: the offensive line did that. And that was another game
Speaker 7: where you know, Jagger Burton started, but he came out
Speaker 7: early and Dylan Ray had to come in. And I think,
Speaker 7: you know, I think Dylan Ray is. I think he's
Speaker 7: done a pretty admirable job so far. So far. I
Speaker 7: know last week after the game last week, the game
Speaker 7: before he in Ohio, I think Cole Kutlick had in
Speaker 7: his Sunday round up had a couple of clips of
Speaker 7: really good blocks by Dylan. And I asked Stoops about
Speaker 7: him last Monday, and Stoop said that, yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: he's more comfortable at guard, and they feel comfortable with
Speaker 7: him playing guard filling in. So they'd like to get
Speaker 7: Jagger back, but I think Dylan's done a good job
Speaker 7: in his place.
Speaker 1: John Clay as my guest sports columnist for The Hero Leader,
Speaker 1: will come back with more for John in just a
Speaker 1: moment here on the Big Booing Siders six thirty w LA.
Speaker 1: We'll come back. We're talking with John Clay. He was
Speaker 1: there when the Wildcats pulled off the upset of Ole
Speaker 1: Miss down in Oxford, going right into an open week, John,
Speaker 1: and you talk about a perfect time coaches through the years.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I've heard coaches talk
Speaker 1: about preseason. I'm not a big fan of open dates,
Speaker 1: and then every time they come up, Well, this couldn't
Speaker 1: come at a better time, you know, but everybody likes
Speaker 1: getting that extra day of rest. And now it's not
Speaker 1: a bitter loss that's going to fester. It's something they
Speaker 1: can build on. So it's just it's so fortuitous in
Speaker 1: more ways than one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, And it's also where, you know, after coming
Speaker 7: off a big win and if you worry about maybe
Speaker 7: having a lead down the next week, they kind of
Speaker 7: catch the breath. Like I said, they got some people
Speaker 7: that have hurt that they you know, would like some
Speaker 7: people that we know about or hurt, and then some
Speaker 7: other people that have got bumps and bruises that we
Speaker 7: don't really know about but or you know, need to
Speaker 7: heal up a little bit. Like I mentioned about Jagger
Speaker 7: Burt maybe getting him back, you know. Obviously the situation
Speaker 7: with Maxwell Hairston having to be hospitalized, I think by
Speaker 7: an infection or something. Hopefully they can get him back.
Speaker 7: Although I thought the secondary played well in it's absence,
Speaker 7: they gave up a couple of big plays, but almost
Speaker 7: it's going to get big plays. But no, I think
Speaker 7: it comes at a good time. And I think also,
Speaker 7: you know, we're talking about with Bush being first year
Speaker 7: offensive coordinator here, I'm sure Bush she kind of mentioned
Speaker 7: this after the game. This gives them a chance to
Speaker 7: sit out, kind of do some self scouting. He talked
Speaker 7: about they had done some self scouting after the South
Speaker 7: Carolina Georgia game to get to this point and dig
Speaker 7: in a little deeper about what's working and what needs
Speaker 7: to improve. So no, yeah, I think it's definitely a
Speaker 7: good time for I like the fact they had two
Speaker 7: open dates this year, and I think that helps him
Speaker 7: as well. And you know, especially when you're playing an
Speaker 7: SEC schedule, because you're going to get beat up.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting how this team bounced back after
Speaker 1: South Carolina and plays so well against Georgia. We heard
Speaker 1: the word focus over and over, which you might expect,
Speaker 1: and clearly that was the case going into this game.
Speaker 1: They leaned on their leaders, you know, and some of
Speaker 1: the leaders came forward after that loss to South Carolina
Speaker 1: and said, you know, look, we've got to write this
Speaker 1: right now. And I think it's those same leaders they're
Speaker 1: going to have to lean on John. You mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: being mentally ready now for Vanity. How many times if
Speaker 1: you and I seen Kentucky struggler lose to a Vandy
Speaker 1: team and her kids say, well, we weren't ready, and
Speaker 1: you're like, it's Vandy. You know you're Kentucky. Come on.
Speaker 1: But I think that's going to be vital in this
Speaker 1: next ten days, don't you.
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 7: Absolutely, because Vandy's not the Vandy we've seen most of
Speaker 7: here to this point. I mean, they beat Virginia Tech
Speaker 7: and their opener. We saw Virginia Tech had a chance,
Speaker 7: and some people think they did beat Miami on that
Speaker 7: ale of Hail Mary last Friday night, and then Bandy
Speaker 7: took Missouri into overtime at Missouri last week. Andy's a
Speaker 7: very yeah, should have won. I mean it's Andy. It's
Speaker 7: a very dangerous team. They've got a quarterback, the transfer
Speaker 7: quarterback who's one of those you know, past run threats
Speaker 7: that have given Kentucky trouble in the past. So yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 7: But yeah, the leadership. I think the other thing too.
Speaker 7: I think the other thing too. And Vince Merrill talked
Speaker 7: about this a little bit in the press conference leading
Speaker 7: up to the Ole Miss game about the job that
Speaker 7: Stoops did rallying the coaches after South Carolina, because the coaches,
Speaker 7: I think we're just, you know, we're just dumbfounded by
Speaker 7: the way the team played against South Carolina. You know
Speaker 7: that they weren't ready to play. You know, what they
Speaker 7: tried to do didn't work. From what my understanding was
Speaker 7: that among the coaches that they were pretty upset, and
Speaker 7: Stupids was pretty upset too, And Stoops told us that
Speaker 7: this game, said, you know, I didn't like the way
Speaker 7: we looked against South Carolina. That was a reflection on me,
Speaker 7: and I wasn't proud of that, and that hurt, he said.
Speaker 7: And I think he, you know, worked with the coaches
Speaker 7: that hey, we got to write the ship, and we
Speaker 7: got to write it in a hurry. And they came
Speaker 7: out and obviously had a chance to beat Georgia and
Speaker 7: then you know the way they played on Saturday. So
Speaker 7: I think a lot of credit obviously leadership, but I
Speaker 7: think credit goes to the coaches as well.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. When they talked about rallying the coaches,
Speaker 1: I can't remember. And John, you know, I've been around
Speaker 1: for a while. I can't remember hearing a coach talk
Speaker 1: about that kind of thing.
Speaker 7: You know, No, And that's what I think. That's one
Speaker 7: of the kind of underlooked or underappreciated, or maybe not
Speaker 7: overlooked but maybe under appreciate. It that the head coach
Speaker 7: not only has to coach the players, he has to
Speaker 7: coach the coaches. I mean, he has to work with
Speaker 7: the coaches about, you know, what's wrong, but not only
Speaker 7: did help them, you know, they need to be coached too,
Speaker 7: and they have to be you know, he has to
Speaker 7: take a critical eye what the coaches are doing and
Speaker 7: so forth, not just after the season one and so
Speaker 7: I'm done, you know, but during the season. And I
Speaker 7: think that's also the responsibility of the head coach. So
Speaker 7: I think that you know what I said about Mark
Speaker 7: and what he did after the South Carolina game, we
Speaker 7: got to get this fix. And this falls on us.
Speaker 7: It's not just the players. The falls on the coaches
Speaker 7: as well.
Speaker 1: A couple of minutes left with John Clay, the Arrow leader,
Speaker 1: speaking of the coaches, when Steps talked about how he
Speaker 1: turned to Brad White took his headset off and said
Speaker 1: we're due one. Obviously, I really thought that he was
Speaker 1: talking about after the game, after the kick, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: and he said he did it before the kick, which
Speaker 1: makes it even more impressive. And frankly, I honestly thought
Speaker 1: to myself, this kid's not gonna make it. Wasn't a
Speaker 1: hopeful thing. I thought, this kid's out of his range,
Speaker 1: out of his element. He ain't gonna make this. But
Speaker 1: it stoops basically put his faith in karma. I thought
Speaker 1: was fascinating.
Speaker 7: Yeah, man, it was a forty eight yard kick, and
Speaker 7: you know, so you know, I think we watched so
Speaker 7: much NFL we think anymore. I mean, they're just making
Speaker 7: fifty yarders and even sixty yards like it's nothing that
Speaker 7: ever in college game it's not always you know, like that.
Speaker 7: Plus it was a kick with the game on the line,
Speaker 7: which I think always makes a difference. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 7: there's got to be the pressure, uh pressure on the
Speaker 7: on the kids. But I thought, you know, over all
Speaker 7: the way Kentucky played, I thought Kentucky outplayed them. I
Speaker 7: thought they deserve to win that game, even though they
Speaker 7: were being you know, going up to that. You know, obviously,
Speaker 7: then play the long pass that set up where almost
Speaker 7: hit a chance to kick the field goal, and I
Speaker 7: think it was just a play where it gets scrambled
Speaker 7: and scrambled played that made a good play Kentucky secondary
Speaker 7: guy let the guy get behind him. But then they
Speaker 7: rose up after that and made him, you know, have
Speaker 7: to kick the field goal instead of let him go
Speaker 7: and go on in for the score. So and I
Speaker 7: thought that was going to be a big key going
Speaker 7: in the game. Ole Miss is going to get their
Speaker 7: big plays. But how does Kentucky react to that? Don't
Speaker 7: let its snowball? And I think that's what ole Miss
Speaker 7: can really do to you. They start hitting you with
Speaker 7: a couple of big plays, the defense starts dropping their head,
Speaker 7: they lose focus, and the next thing you know, you know,
Speaker 7: it's twenty one nothing or twenty eight nothing. And so
Speaker 7: the funny thing too, is that I was just talking
Speaker 7: to somebody about this who was telling me about a
Speaker 7: friend of his who's an ole Miss grad. They all
Speaker 7: went from Lane kipping is great, you know, and we're
Speaker 7: gonna we had a chance to win the national championship.
Speaker 7: After they lost, it's like, well, Lane's too busy making
Speaker 7: TikTok videos and he's worried about whether he's going to
Speaker 7: get the gonna get the Florida job. You know, he's
Speaker 7: not paying enough attention. So they're all down on the
Speaker 7: lane after.
Speaker 1: A yeah, understandable. H Travis Kelsey spending too much time
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend. Oh he had a great play, you know, right, exactly, Well, John,
Speaker 1: I lets you go with this. To me, one of
Speaker 1: the most interesting stories is the storyline where the Georgia
Speaker 1: Alabama game knocked it to use the old vernacular, off
Speaker 1: the front page. You know, this would have been in
Speaker 1: any other weekend the leads starting, not that this matters
Speaker 1: at all, but you know, finally Kentucky pulls one off
Speaker 1: like this. But oh, by the way, that's the second
Speaker 1: best game, right, Well that.
Speaker 7: Wasn't unbelievable Alabama Georgia game. That's fair the way Georgia
Speaker 7: came back. But now they're still getting the problem. I
Speaker 7: saw Kirk herb Street last night. His teams of the
Speaker 7: week in Kentucky was number two. Maybe they would have
Speaker 7: been number one if Alabama Georgia. And I'm like it
Speaker 7: take gone, But I know I think this, I think
Speaker 7: it got, you know, got people's attention, especially the way
Speaker 7: all miss it killed people coming in. But obviously at
Speaker 7: Alabama you knew the Alabama Georgia game had a chance
Speaker 7: to be a really good game, and yeah, you know
Speaker 7: that was another thing. Driving from Oxford. I stayed close
Speaker 7: to Memphis and I was driving back from Oxford after writing,
Speaker 7: and I had the Georgia radio guys on and listen
Speaker 7: to that first quarter. They were about ready to jump
Speaker 7: out of the food about any minute now. Eric Zier
Speaker 7: was just gonna just gonna climb to the top of
Speaker 7: the state, even take the leap off. They couldn't believe
Speaker 7: what was happening. And I couldn't believe in the second
Speaker 7: half when Georgia came back on him. So that was
Speaker 7: that was a pretty unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I listened to a little bit of that Georgia broadcast
Speaker 1: on the way home from the airport. I thought, oh man,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a long night. Boy. Was I wrong.
Speaker 1: John Clay you can follow him on Twitter at John
Speaker 1: Clay IV John Clay four and he has the weekend off.
Speaker 1: So I hope you hope you had to do something fun.
Speaker 6: John, I will, I will. I'll try to you too.
Speaker 1: Dick, Thanks man, thank you. And up next Jonathan Bruner,
Speaker 1: the Kentucky colonel who was in Oxford covering the upset.
Speaker 1: We're back in just a minute here on six point thirty.
Speaker 1: W el welcome back to the Big Blues sider joining
Speaker 1: us now as a guy who was with us a
Speaker 1: while back talking UK baseball, Jonathan Bruner, who covered the
Speaker 1: World Series. He was also there when the Wildcats beat
Speaker 1: Old Miss down in Oxford. Jonathan, how much fun was
Speaker 1: that for you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was certainly
Speaker 5: unexpected going in. You know, it was one of those
Speaker 5: games where you see, you know, the Cats had came in,
Speaker 5: you know, with zero to two in conference so far,
Speaker 5: and then ole Man's high flying offense just electric. But
Speaker 5: to be fair, they hadn't really played anybody to that point,
Speaker 5: so it was a very interesting game going in, and
Speaker 5: I certainly can't say I expected the result, but it
Speaker 5: was it was insanely fun to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, let's back up a little bit now. I
Speaker 1: got a chance to do a few road trips when
Speaker 1: I was in college, working with a colonel. I don't
Speaker 1: know what your budget was, but ours was basically whatever
Speaker 1: we could afford. Can I assume you guys drove down?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, we drove down Friday and then came back
Speaker 5: after the game.
Speaker 1: Where'd you stay?
Speaker 5: We stayed about forty minutes away.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it wasn't posh surroundings. But that doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter though, does it.
Speaker 5: No still got the experience, you know, Yeah, well.
Speaker 1: The one time it did matter for us when I
Speaker 1: was at Channel twenty seven was when our news director
Speaker 1: booked us into a hotel next to a Method one clinic.
Speaker 1: But that's a different story. Tell it. Did you get
Speaker 1: a chance to go over to the grove at all
Speaker 1: experience that?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we did a little bit. Pregame that was that
Speaker 5: was a fun atmosphere to be around. You could just
Speaker 5: kind of tell that there was a little bit, a
Speaker 5: little bit bigger of the game down there in Oxford.
Speaker 5: There was certainly a feeling with that team that the
Speaker 5: you know, the Rebel fans were very excited. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: It was a very fun atmosphere to be around, especially
Speaker 5: pregame with all the buzz and stuff coming in.
Speaker 1: So as you watched that first drive unfold, did you
Speaker 1: have a feeling that you might be seeing that all day?
Speaker 1: What all misses zip right down the field?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 5: It was very much kind of what I expected, almost
Speaker 5: like it was just like Okay, just kind of especially
Speaker 5: with Maxwell Harriston out, it was just like this was
Speaker 5: going to be an all task and then it certainly
Speaker 5: looks that way on the first drive, and then really
Speaker 5: flip the script for the rest of the game, which
Speaker 5: was just insane thing to see.
Speaker 1: What did you think help flip that script?
Speaker 5: I mean, it's kind of hard to put your finger on.
Speaker 5: I mean, I think they were able to get some
Speaker 5: pressure on Dart throughout the game that really he hadn't
Speaker 5: seen before to this point. I think that I think
Speaker 5: they were just able to play tight coverage too, so
Speaker 5: Dart had to fit the ball into some windows that
Speaker 5: he might not have been used to just yet, because
Speaker 5: sometimes throughout those non conference games in the hot start,
Speaker 5: I mean, these guys are just wide open, so he
Speaker 5: just gotta he's just gotta get it close. And then
Speaker 5: playing a little more of that sticky coverage with some pressure.
Speaker 5: I think it just kind of was a look they
Speaker 5: hadn't really seen before and they had trouble adjusting the house.
Speaker 5: I think Brad White just called a phenomenal game.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, you know what was interesting was how
Speaker 1: Kentucky took the crowd out of the game with those
Speaker 1: long drives off and we heard the stadium. I thought
Speaker 1: it was kind of important Jonathan that even though it
Speaker 1: was reversed that fumble on the opening kickoff, all that
Speaker 1: excitement went away. That old crowd, they just went silent,
Speaker 1: didn't they.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean absolutely, I think that I think it
Speaker 5: kind of set the tone, even though it ended up
Speaker 5: getting reversed. I think that it kind of sent a
Speaker 5: message early on, even though Old Miss kind of marched
Speaker 5: right down at first drive. I think it's kind of
Speaker 5: something to look back on and be like that kind
Speaker 5: of would set the tone, and it made the It
Speaker 5: made that first shark kind of look like an anomaly
Speaker 5: instead of you know what was to come throughout the
Speaker 5: entire game. It was more so the the intensity on
Speaker 5: the fumble that was persistent throughout the game instead of
Speaker 5: you know what came of that first drive for Old Miss.
Speaker 5: So to your.
Speaker 1: Point, to your point, it turned out to be an anomaly,
Speaker 1: didn't it, because they really didn't have much control. I mean,
Speaker 1: scored again, but uh not the way they did on
Speaker 1: the first drive.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I just found it interesting that they
Speaker 5: had punted four times total throughout their first four games,
Speaker 5: and they punted five or six times just in this
Speaker 5: game alone. And I think that says all you need
Speaker 5: to know about how Kentucky's defense performed, just with for
Speaker 5: forcing them, getting them off the field on third down,
Speaker 5: you know, stuff like that which put a lot of
Speaker 5: pressure on them. And then you know Kentucky was able
Speaker 5: to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1: Their punter was getting tired. He had not been tired
Speaker 1: all year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, his his leg had probably a little
Speaker 5: store post game. He just hadn't been trotting out there
Speaker 5: too much.
Speaker 1: It's so hard, as we all know in the SEC
Speaker 1: when you lose a game you're supposed to win, such
Speaker 1: as South Carolina to make one up to kind of
Speaker 1: steal one. And the fact that they were able to
Speaker 1: do that on the road, what do you think it
Speaker 1: means to this team?
Speaker 5: I think it changed the complexion of the entire season. Wow,
Speaker 5: Because I mean, you know, even going in, I would
Speaker 5: looking at, Okay, well, this game could be awash. Tennessee
Speaker 5: doesn't look good, Texas doesn't look good. It was it
Speaker 5: was becoming really hard to find where those wins are
Speaker 5: going to fit in. Yeah, you know, because you look
Speaker 5: at Vanderbilt, they've been playing good football and to that
Speaker 5: point you look like that, Okay, that might even be
Speaker 5: a tough game. So then you kind of really circled on,
Speaker 5: you know, Murray State, Auburn, Florida. You're kind of really
Speaker 5: looking at those is like, okay, that could be where
Speaker 5: they get in some wins. But now all of a sudden,
Speaker 5: it's like, well, you look at this game, maybe Tennessee's
Speaker 5: not out of the question, maybe they could play Texas closed.
Speaker 5: It's like, I think it just changes it and then
Speaker 5: it looks and what makes it look like, you know, Okay,
Speaker 5: well now Vandy's probably more of an automatic, more of
Speaker 5: an automatic, and you know, then you look at Florida
Speaker 5: and I just think that if if they would have started,
Speaker 5: if they would have gotten blown out or lost, that
Speaker 5: it was just going to be a really bad, just
Speaker 5: kind of a downward viral. But you look at it now,
Speaker 5: you can kind of sense that the feeling, especially in
Speaker 5: the fan base, is back with this team in particular.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Brad White in the game he called and
Speaker 1: it was certainly masterful, but as much as anything, I
Speaker 1: thought he had his guys prepared for the tempo of
Speaker 1: that game. And I talked to Ty Bryant on the
Speaker 1: air right after. I'm not sure who you talked to,
Speaker 1: but he talked about just the preparation that went in
Speaker 1: to getting the plays, in getting them communicated and being
Speaker 1: set up and ready to go first drive notwithstanding, you know,
Speaker 1: for the rest of the day, I mean, they were
Speaker 1: ready for what Ole Miss threw at him. Did you
Speaker 1: see it that way from from upstairs?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think I really did. And that
Speaker 5: was that was one of the more impressive things was that,
Speaker 5: you know, those teams like like Tennessee and on Miss,
Speaker 5: they run that high paced tempo. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 5: it's really easy to just dash a defense that way
Speaker 5: because it's it's hard to communicate on the fly so
Speaker 5: fast because they just they just keep coming. They just
Speaker 5: never they never stopped, they you know, And it was
Speaker 5: just kind of one of those things where it was
Speaker 5: just impressive to see, even when they would get going
Speaker 5: with the tempo, that the Kentucky for the most part,
Speaker 5: was able to really limit that. And I think that
Speaker 5: on those situations where Dark just had to you know,
Speaker 5: play more traditional so to speak, that it might have
Speaker 5: took him out of his comfort zone a little bit too,
Speaker 5: because they do play so fast and so quick, and
Speaker 5: when Kentucky kind of limited that, I think it was
Speaker 5: kind of a almost like a culture shock for Lane
Speaker 5: Kiss and that team, just because they hadn't faced that
Speaker 5: kind of adversity all year. And I think that was
Speaker 5: important for Kentucky to get them out of their comfort zone,
Speaker 5: and I think it played a huge part and then
Speaker 5: being able to win.
Speaker 1: Well, I've asked everybody who I've talked to about this game,
Speaker 1: what was your response, your reaction? What were you thinking
Speaker 1: when it was apparent they were going to go forward
Speaker 1: on fourth down A and B the long throw, because
Speaker 1: I've told people I kind of thought they had to
Speaker 1: go forward quite frankly, but I was amazed they went
Speaker 1: with a deep ball. What were your thoughts when that unfolded?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I was, especially after the decision against Georgia.
Speaker 5: I was surprised when I saw them lining up to
Speaker 5: go for it. I was like, really, I agree with you.
Speaker 5: I do think it was the right call to go
Speaker 5: for it, I think, and I also thought it was
Speaker 5: the right call to go for it against Georgia. I
Speaker 5: think when you're playing games that you know, quote unquote
Speaker 5: you're not supposed to win, you have nothing to lose.
Speaker 5: You know, if they wouldn't have got that, it would
Speaker 5: have been well, you know, they left it all on
Speaker 5: the field. They gave themselves the best chance to win
Speaker 5: the game. And I think that's where I really hang
Speaker 5: out hand in Georgia is like, it doesn't feel like
Speaker 5: it feels like they played not to they played. They
Speaker 5: didn't play to win. Yeah, they didn't play to win.
Speaker 5: They played to lose valiantly, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: But I think this game they played to win. They
Speaker 5: took that chance that they had to take. Now it's
Speaker 5: from the deep ball. When that ball went out of
Speaker 5: his hand, I was like, what, why, why on earth
Speaker 5: would you throw it that deep? You need seven yard
Speaker 5: Because I mean I thought, especially with some of the
Speaker 5: you know, the calls in the game where the you know,
Speaker 5: the O line had been a little it was a
Speaker 5: very up and down game. There was sometimes Brockway was
Speaker 5: running for his life. There was sometimes he had all day.
Speaker 5: So I was like, I would think, especially just because
Speaker 5: you don't know what the protection is going to be, like,
Speaker 5: you would look for a quick hit or right at
Speaker 5: the sticks, you know, something like that, probably looking Dankey's way,
Speaker 5: just because of the day that he had and his
Speaker 5: connection was brought and then he airs it out and
Speaker 5: I was like, oh my, and then he hauled it in.
Speaker 5: I think there was just like a collective kind of
Speaker 5: gasp in the box. It was just like just could
Speaker 5: not believe it that it actually won. They aired it
Speaker 5: out like that, and two it actually worked and then
Speaker 5: and then that's the That was the first time in
Speaker 5: the game where it was kind of like they might
Speaker 5: actually do this, you know, because I, like, I kind
Speaker 5: of felt like that there would always be kind of
Speaker 5: that vengeance old miss.
Speaker 4: Drive, like the the Funt drive, where it would.
Speaker 5: Just kind of be the putaway where it would be,
Speaker 5: you know, I kind of thought they would just kind
Speaker 5: of turn it up eventually. But then they connected on
Speaker 5: that fourth down and I was like, whoa, Like they
Speaker 5: took the chance that they took the gamble and it
Speaker 5: paid off. Now it started to look more realistic than
Speaker 5: it had to that point, in my opinion, and I
Speaker 5: think it was the play that won in the game,
Speaker 5: even though it might not have been the play on
Speaker 5: the scoreboard, that the game.
Speaker 1: Every bit of the momentum physically and emotionally went to Kentucky,
Speaker 1: especially late in the game. Didn't it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean absolutely. I mean I think the fans
Speaker 5: got taken out of it on that first play. And
Speaker 5: then also right there, I think there was I think
Speaker 5: even the fans started to be like, oh no, like
Speaker 5: this is hey, maybe it Like you know, I think
Speaker 5: it was just an all around just a game winner
Speaker 5: for Kentucky, even though it didn't be wasn't in the
Speaker 5: final play.
Speaker 1: Well, as we mentioned earlier, they took the crowd out
Speaker 1: of the game, and it seemed like every time the
Speaker 1: crowd would try to get back end of the game,
Speaker 1: something would happen, Kentucky would make something happen. Did you
Speaker 1: get that feeling upstairs?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really did. I thought, you know, I thought
Speaker 5: a lot of it was the defense. Anytime that would
Speaker 5: the crowd would kind of get back into it, the
Speaker 5: defense would force a punt or you know, do something
Speaker 5: or a turnover or you know, sack or sack jackna
Speaker 5: and it just kind of they were never able to
Speaker 5: the crowd was never able to find that constant momentum
Speaker 5: to kind of turn it into that super hostile environment.
Speaker 1: That's right, because that's where it was at the very
Speaker 1: beginning of the game. As I said, and then that
Speaker 1: fumble that really wasn't a fumble. They never quite got
Speaker 1: back to that level of enthusiasm, but like you said,
Speaker 1: it was always the Kentucky defense, it seemed. Or they
Speaker 1: move the chains with those long drives. And there's nothing
Speaker 1: better when you're trying to take a crowd out of
Speaker 1: a game then making their their fans sit down and
Speaker 1: watch you play offense. So coming up next is the
Speaker 1: Vandy game and Nathan Bruner will be there along with
Speaker 1: his compadres from the Kentucky Colonel Good talking to him, man,
Speaker 1: and we'll see you down the road.
Speaker 5: Absolutely see you in.
Speaker 1: We'll come back and close out this edition of The
Speaker 1: Big Bloom Sider in just a minute here on six
Speaker 1: point thirty Wlap wellcome back, final segment of our program.
Speaker 1: And some of the things that we didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to touch on earlier in the program, stories that
Speaker 1: came up last night and yesterday afternoon. How about Jared
Speaker 1: Goff going eighteen for eighteen in the Lions win last
Speaker 1: night on Monday Night Football, the double header last night
Speaker 1: as they beat Seattle. I bring it up simply because
Speaker 1: Jared Goff played his college football at cal Cal Berkeley
Speaker 1: and his position coach was none other than Tony Franklin,
Speaker 1: who was on the offensive staff for hel Mummy at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: He coached quarterbacks, I'm sorry, he coached running backs, he
Speaker 1: coached wide receivers, and has been in a couple other
Speaker 1: places Auburn, Middle Tennessee, but landed out there at cal
Speaker 1: and coach golf to the point where Golf was the
Speaker 1: overall number one draft pick and then of course was
Speaker 1: traded by the Rams to the Lions, and it's worked
Speaker 1: out well for him. The Lions had a hell of
Speaker 1: a year last year, and Golf last night perfect an
Speaker 1: unofficial NFL record eighteen for eighteen. They say that in
Speaker 1: order to be considered for all time efficiency, you have
Speaker 1: to throw twenty passes, but man, golf was he on plus.
Speaker 1: Not only threw two touchdown passes, he caught a touchdown pass.
Speaker 1: So what a night for the former pupil of Tony Franklin.
Speaker 1: And you can follow Tony on Twitter. He's got a
Speaker 1: little tidbits as he has a coaching service now at
Speaker 1: coach TF. While we're talking about quarterbacks, Will Levis with
Speaker 1: another rough night, another key interception and then an injury
Speaker 1: as he laid out and it looked like he got
Speaker 1: a first down running the football. I mean he dove
Speaker 1: extended the ball that looked like past the marker, was
Speaker 1: not given the first down, and then that was the
Speaker 1: end of that because he was injured on the play
Speaker 1: and sat out the rest of the Titans win over
Speaker 1: the Dolphins down in Miami. So he is day to day,
Speaker 1: but when he does come back, according to Brian Callahan,
Speaker 1: will Levis is the starting quarterback for the Titans. A
Speaker 1: lot of people wondered Mason Rudolph played so well coming
Speaker 1: in for him, could he have taken away the starting job,
Speaker 1: But Callahan said, nope, will Levis is the starter. You
Speaker 1: may have seen this already with Major League Baseball essentially
Speaker 1: polled the fan base and asked what do you think
Speaker 1: of these All Star Game uniforms, which if you saw
Speaker 1: the all staring, it's just horrendous, and the fans resoundingly
Speaker 1: said thumbs down. So now a pair of Major League
Speaker 1: Baseball will go back to allowing the team the players
Speaker 1: to wear their respective home or away uniforms. They will
Speaker 1: wear an All Star Game specific cap, So there will
Speaker 1: be some merch sales involved, but that was one of
Speaker 1: the things I really like, and it's a one All
Speaker 1: Star game. I've said before that I watch and most
Speaker 1: people are the same way. And some people look in
Speaker 1: on the NBA All Star Game because it's a circus
Speaker 1: and it's fun to watch. But they don't they play
Speaker 1: zero defense. People like to say the NBA, they don't
Speaker 1: play any defense. Yeah, they do in real games. You
Speaker 1: want to see a game without defense, watch the All
Speaker 1: Star Game. In baseball, the highlights come on defense. You
Speaker 1: go back and look at any number. There's some dramatic
Speaker 1: home runs, but an overwhelming majority of the highlights from
Speaker 1: All Star games they're defensive plays. And that's why I
Speaker 1: love watching Major League Baseball's All Star Game. But it
Speaker 1: was so distracting. Those terrible, terrible uniforms they were wearing
Speaker 1: just awful. So they're going back to wearing the uniforms
Speaker 1: they should be wearing. Bouncing back to the NFL for
Speaker 1: a minute, Boy, what a rough diagnosis for CHRISTA McCaffery.
Speaker 1: He goes to Germany to have a specialist check on
Speaker 1: his achilles tendonitis. Turns out he's got achilles tendonitis in
Speaker 1: both legs, bilateral achilles tendonitis, and the coach said, he's
Speaker 1: not sure when he's going to be back, and those
Speaker 1: of you may have chosen him and put him on
Speaker 1: reserve if your fantasy football team, you may win a
Speaker 1: gamble and get rid of him. I had the number
Speaker 1: one pick in my fantasy league two three years ago
Speaker 1: and chose him, of course, and of course nothing came
Speaker 1: of it. He was injured and that was that. But
Speaker 1: that's a rough diagnosis for a really, really good football player.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot to all my guests, Jonathan Bruner, the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Colonel, John Clay from the Herald Leader, and of
Speaker 1: course Van Hiles, former Kentucky d back. Hear him every
Speaker 1: Monday morning with Tom Beach on the Monday Morning Quarterback
Speaker 1: segments of the Leach Report. I'll be with you again
Speaker 1: on the Leach Report tomorrow morning as well, but for now,
Speaker 1: that's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 3: So why are you because three finals?
Speaker 5: Ever before?
Speaker 3: Because Googleen mill jus