Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dicabrielle with you Tuesday
Speaker 1: edition of our program eleven days away from Kentucky Football.
Speaker 1: And we know this because many of you, well some
Speaker 1: of you out there are posting on the interweb, on Twitter,
Speaker 1: on x on Facebook the countdown to Kentucky Football. Now,
Speaker 1: I used to do this on the WKYT website and
Speaker 1: we would repeat it on the air here on the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Insider, But my countdown was a little different.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I was the first one to
Speaker 1: do it, but I'm older than a lot of the
Speaker 1: people who are doing it now, so I was one
Speaker 1: of the first people to do that within the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Nation among Kentucky media and fans. But what I
Speaker 1: also did was I would pull the number of the
Speaker 1: countdown day. For instance, of course, numbers eleven, and I
Speaker 1: would remind you who wore number eleven, and going back
Speaker 1: several years, I brought up Rick Norton, I brought up
Speaker 1: Chase Harp, I brought up maxwells, Jeff Speedy, and Dominic Fuci.
Speaker 1: Not dom the coach over at Tate Creek, but his
Speaker 1: dad was a great athlete. But then I would pull
Speaker 1: the number eleven out of the fact book and come
Speaker 1: up with stuff like Steven Johnson ran eleven yards for
Speaker 1: a touchdown with thirty three seconds left and UK's went
Speaker 1: over Tennessee back in twenty seventeen, for the fact that
Speaker 1: U of L was ranked number eleven when Kentucky upset
Speaker 1: the Cardinals at back then Papa John's Cardinals Stadium, Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson the fumble, and remember now people want to blame
Speaker 1: all of that on Lamar's fumble. Benny Snell had fumbled
Speaker 1: the ball to Louisville. That's why U of L had
Speaker 1: the ball, and Benny never fumbled. It's all he did
Speaker 1: really was swap fumbles and then Kentucky drove for the
Speaker 1: winning touchdown. Another one that I really liked was Mike
Speaker 1: Edwards was ranked eleventh in the end CC and passes
Speaker 1: defended per game the year prior, and Mike, of course
Speaker 1: has I think two Super Bowl rings now. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: I had fun with the countdown, and I'm not knocking
Speaker 1: anybody for not doing it this way, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I had a lot of fun, a lot of
Speaker 1: work putting that together. I can tell you that labor alone, though,
Speaker 1: because it got us one day closer to football. Coming
Speaker 1: up today, We're going to talk a lot of football
Speaker 1: and some basketball and track and volleyball with Maggie Davis
Speaker 1: BBN tonight. She has been back. She's back now from
Speaker 1: her honeymoon and working hard as always. So is Michael
Speaker 1: Epps from Fox fifty six. The sports director. Will talk
Speaker 1: to Michael as well. We will hear from Craig Skinner
Speaker 1: and some of the volleyball Wildcats coming up an hour
Speaker 1: number two, because yesterday was their media day and Kentucky
Speaker 1: is now a popular product.
Speaker 2: For national television.
Speaker 1: Eighteen matches on ESPN the Deuce or esp in you.
Speaker 1: That's a high for Kentucky volleyball. That's great news for
Speaker 1: the program. Not so much for your old dad here
Speaker 1: because I do of course volleyball and the UK streaming channel.
Speaker 1: That only leaves like four or five matches for us.
Speaker 1: But that's okay because more and more people watching volleyball
Speaker 1: and learning to love it as well they should. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to volleyball a little bit later. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a lot of quarterbacks here in the first segment,
Speaker 1: but first need to make sure you understand that Dion
Speaker 1: Walker has made yet another preseason All America team. This
Speaker 1: one seems to be one of, if not the highest
Speaker 1: profile team. For whatever reason, it's the media's preseason All America.
Speaker 1: You may quibble with that, say it ought to be
Speaker 1: the coaches, But as I've said before, sometimes I think
Speaker 1: the media is more in tune with what's happening because
Speaker 1: coaches don't have time to study and rank and do
Speaker 1: research and things like that. But everybody, I think has
Speaker 1: Dion Walker on some form of They're All America team.
Speaker 1: So Sporting News, ESPN, having first Team, Atlon Magazine, Phil
Speaker 1: Steels Magazine, USA Today, the Walter Camp Award, AP, They've
Speaker 1: all got him on the second team. He's on everybody's
Speaker 1: watch list. And of course he's a preseason All Conference
Speaker 1: first team player. And down at the SEC Media Days
Speaker 1: in Dallas, somebody asked, Dion, what are your goals specifically
Speaker 1: for this season.
Speaker 3: I'm really just being more of a leader, being more
Speaker 3: off spoken, outgoing. You know, I'm more of an introverted person,
Speaker 3: So really just being more off spoken, making sure people
Speaker 3: are where they need to be, making sure people are
Speaker 3: doing everything that they need to do in the classroom,
Speaker 3: because I feel like if we got everything else square
Speaker 3: to the tee. Then on the field, that's going to
Speaker 3: come no matter what.
Speaker 1: He's right about that if Kentucky defensive squared away, the
Speaker 1: Cats will have a chance in virtually every game they play.
Speaker 1: Lot's going to depend, of course, on the offense and
Speaker 1: on the rock Vandergriff. We're going to talk quarterbacks here
Speaker 1: in just a minute. But there is some more college
Speaker 1: football stuff in the news. You may have seen that
Speaker 1: Mike Gundy, who is the head coach at Oklahoma State
Speaker 1: and very outspoken, came out yesterday afternoon and basically sent
Speaker 1: a message to players everywhere saying, tell your agent to
Speaker 1: quit calling us and asking for more money. This guy's
Speaker 1: pretty blunt, and this wasn't just to his players, but
Speaker 1: to everybody, he said. He told his players, though there
Speaker 1: is no negotiating now. The portal is over. Negotiations are history.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: We're playing football, just coaching and playing football, he said.
Speaker 1: The business side of what we do now is those
Speaker 1: conversations with him. But tell your agent quit calling us
Speaker 1: and asking for more money. Start again in December. And
Speaker 1: of course, anybody who follows Kentucky football knows that Mark
Speaker 1: Stoop's very outspoken about his job. Raising money now he
Speaker 1: and his staff for the nil dollars that are out there.
Speaker 1: So man, coach is just hated. You saw this coming,
Speaker 1: but you just got to deal with it. And one
Speaker 1: way to deal with it is to basically appoint somebody
Speaker 1: general manager, even if you have to give him the title.
Speaker 1: Eddie Gran helps spearhead Kentucky's fundraising and he doesn't have
Speaker 1: the title of GM. But you know who does at Alabama,
Speaker 1: Courtney Morgan, and he now has a brand new contract
Speaker 1: is re signed with Alabama eight hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: A year for three years.
Speaker 1: He is in charge of the negotiations for Alabama football.
Speaker 1: Not everybody, of course, can do this, not every program
Speaker 1: has this kind of money. But the board of Trustees
Speaker 1: at Alabama approved the contract yesterday. It's an updated contract
Speaker 1: as this guy came from Washington.
Speaker 2: With Caitlin de Boor.
Speaker 1: He had a similar job up there, and when they
Speaker 1: hired Debor to replace Nick Saban, he brought this guy
Speaker 1: with him. So it's almost a must. Now it's a
Speaker 1: necessity to take a lot of this off your head,
Speaker 1: coach and spread it around a little bit. You don't
Speaker 1: want your recruiters dealing with this. You want them to
Speaker 1: be knowledgeable and up to speed, but you don't want
Speaker 1: them to stop what they're doing when it comes to
Speaker 1: looking for talent and have to deal with this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. So I think that's a pretty fascinating. While
Speaker 1: we're on football, if you're a fantasy football player or
Speaker 1: just an NFL fan, you know it's all about quarterbacks
Speaker 1: right now, who's going to start, and it's always that way,
Speaker 1: but this year there's a lot more talk about rookies
Speaker 1: who's going to start in a lot of different spots
Speaker 1: because some of them have played pretty well, most specifically
Speaker 1: bow Knicks, who lit up my Packers the other night.
Speaker 1: I thought he was playing against the second and third teamers,
Speaker 1: but bo Nicks, who was the sixth player drafted, sixth
Speaker 1: quarterback drafted, it looks like maybe the starting quarterback in Denver,
Speaker 1: and they've needed a solid quarterback out there for quite
Speaker 1: a while.
Speaker 2: But he's not the only guy.
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams was six for thirteen but so dynamic that
Speaker 1: now you've got a case for him being the starter
Speaker 1: for the Chicago Bears. Drake May with the Patriots making
Speaker 1: a move Jaden Daniels has been named the starter for
Speaker 1: the Commanders Heisman Trophy winner out of LSU. That was
Speaker 1: kind of a no brainer, really. I mean, the Commanders
Speaker 1: are a mess and they need him. Michael Pennix will
Speaker 1: not be an issue. He's backing up Kirk Cousins in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I thought the kid out of Washington, I thought he
Speaker 1: was the best quarterback in the draft. I thought Daniels
Speaker 1: deserved a Heisman because he was a dynamic college player
Speaker 1: thanks to his arm and his legs.
Speaker 2: But in terms of the NFL, and what do I know?
Speaker 1: I thought Pennix had the brightest NFL future and he
Speaker 1: might still, but he's the backup the Kirk Cousins, one
Speaker 1: hundred million dollar man in Atlanta. J. J.
Speaker 2: McCarthy from Michigan.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know out for the year with a
Speaker 1: knee injury. But think about all these rookies who may
Speaker 1: be starting for their respective NFL teams. And Tom Brady
Speaker 1: was on Steven A. Smith's podcast and he has a
Speaker 1: real problem with going back to the college game, the
Speaker 1: transfer portal quarterbacks looking for places to plan. Of course,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has benefited from the portal going back, of course,
Speaker 1: to Will Levis, Stephen Johnson, tran it In, and of
Speaker 1: course Devin Leary last season, Brock Vandergriff this year. But
Speaker 1: we all know that while Kentucky appreciated and needed those guys, that's.
Speaker 2: Not what they want.
Speaker 1: I go back to when Drew Barker signed, he was
Speaker 1: the future. He was the guy who was going to
Speaker 1: start for three years and give Kentucky the opportunity to
Speaker 1: develop quarterbacks behind him. But that didn't happen because Barker
Speaker 1: got hurt and that kind of started the carousel spinning.
Speaker 1: But it's become something in college football that has Tom
Speaker 1: Brady pretty disappointed.
Speaker 5: Now there are players transferring from schools when they're not playing,
Speaker 5: and they're going to different programs, and they're going to
Speaker 5: different techniques they're learning, they're never advancing in an own
Speaker 5: individual system. There used to be college programs. Now there
Speaker 5: are college teams. You're no longer learning a program, you're
Speaker 5: learning a playbook, and the program is ultimately like a
Speaker 5: Michigan And for me, that was a.
Speaker 6: Pro style program. Five years. I got to learn how
Speaker 6: to drop back.
Speaker 5: Pass, to read defenses, to recoverage, is to be coach,
Speaker 5: to deal with winning games, to deal playing in Columbus
Speaker 5: o'hian front one.
Speaker 6: Hundred and ten thousand people.
Speaker 5: I had to learn from being seventh quarterback on the
Speaker 5: depth chart to moving up to third to ultimately being
Speaker 5: a starter. I had to learn all those things in college.
Speaker 5: That was development. Then I went to New England and
Speaker 5: I was developed by coach Belichick and the offensive staff there.
Speaker 6: I didn't start my first year.
Speaker 5: I think it's just a tragedy that we're forcing these
Speaker 5: rookies to play early.
Speaker 6: But the reality is.
Speaker 5: The only reason why there is because we've dumb the
Speaker 5: game down, which has allowed him to play.
Speaker 1: I knows a little something about playing quarterback. He's not
Speaker 1: the only former NFL player with some frank comments about
Speaker 1: quarterback play. Mark Schlereth, whose nickname is Stink, has a
Speaker 1: podcast called The Stinking Truth, and he lit up Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: If you're a Steelers fan, you're not gonna like this.
Speaker 1: But he did not like what he saw it has
Speaker 1: not liked what he has seen Adam Russell Wilson, including
Speaker 1: his time spent briefly now with the Steelers.
Speaker 7: The empty hollow statistics that he compiles that makes people
Speaker 7: that don't know jack about football think that he can
Speaker 7: play is incredible, right, So they'll stand on that. You know,
Speaker 7: they'll plant their flag in eight for ten eighty percent.
Speaker 6: Bam, look at Russell Wilson.
Speaker 7: And then they'll say things like this, like Mike Commins said,
Speaker 7: we've got to do a better job of protecting we
Speaker 7: What are you guys a bunch of French waiters. We
Speaker 7: Russell Wilson has got to do a better job of
Speaker 7: understanding football and throwing the football to open receivers as
Speaker 7: opposed to pulling the football and taking sack after sack
Speaker 7: after sack, three and out, three and out, three and out,
Speaker 7: three sacks.
Speaker 6: I mean, it is absolute garbage.
Speaker 1: Laras went on to say he would start justin feet
Speaker 1: was the guy who came over from Chicago if he
Speaker 1: were running the Steelers. So lots to talk about when
Speaker 1: it comes to quarterbacks in the college game and the
Speaker 1: pro game. Coming up here from the Football Wildcat's Bottom
Speaker 1: of the Hour Maggie Davis here on six point thirty
Speaker 1: WLAP Welcome back over UK football practice today. They brought
Speaker 1: out offensive people for us to talk to, including assistant
Speaker 1: coach in his first year with receivers, Doc Keel Shorts
Speaker 1: and he's giving thumbs up to what he's seeing in
Speaker 1: camp so far.
Speaker 8: You know, the thing I'm most happy about coming out
Speaker 8: of his camp. They worked their asses off. I'm sorry
Speaker 8: about that. They worked their tails off, they worked their
Speaker 8: butts off. But they've been s been doing a good job.
Speaker 8: They continue to buy in and they work hard and
Speaker 8: they care about each other. So it makes it a
Speaker 8: lot easier.
Speaker 9: When you reached this point in camp.
Speaker 10: It is it hard to keep the guys sort of
Speaker 10: walked in and focused and discipline?
Speaker 8: Yeah, naturally, yes, you know, human nature is just hard
Speaker 8: to you know, stay consistent within your discipline and the
Speaker 8: small details. But you know, like they allow us to
Speaker 8: coach them pretty hard and we demand a lot from them.
Speaker 8: They don't take it personal as we're attacking them. They
Speaker 8: take the coaching and they try to be the best
Speaker 8: that they can be. And that's all that you can
Speaker 8: ask for. Chemistry biggest theory of growth you've seen from
Speaker 8: barryon from when you.
Speaker 6: Got here in December one.
Speaker 8: I just want to say I'm extremely proud of him.
Speaker 8: I think the biggest growth for him, I mean, he
Speaker 8: is what he is, He's an electric He's going to
Speaker 8: make plays he's just he's got some guy giving ability
Speaker 8: that none of us have. But just mentally, you know,
Speaker 8: just mentally, you really wanted him to get mentally tougher.
Speaker 8: And I think that's something that he got better at
Speaker 8: this summer, trusting his teammates, trusting his coaching, just being
Speaker 8: more dependable and reliable. But the biggest thing is just
Speaker 8: his mental aspect. I think he grew and he matured
Speaker 8: a lot off of that.
Speaker 1: We've heard from coach Stoop say some of the players
Speaker 1: about what you brought to this group.
Speaker 2: What did you think this group needed when you got here?
Speaker 2: What have you brought one?
Speaker 9: I would say they've done.
Speaker 8: The guys that were here before me and the guys
Speaker 8: that are here now did a hell of a job recruiting.
Speaker 8: These guys got a lot of talent. But I just think,
Speaker 8: you know, sometimes you just need a fresh start, and
Speaker 8: a lot of these guys just, you know, you know,
Speaker 8: they just want to want to see how it's supposed
Speaker 8: to be done, and they just want somebody that's going
Speaker 8: to demand a lot and stay on them. I think
Speaker 8: they do want tough love. Obviously, I played the position
Speaker 8: and I'm a little younger, so I'm not afraid to
Speaker 8: challenge him and push them. But you know, it's easy
Speaker 8: for It's easy for me. They do all the work,
Speaker 8: you know, like they buy in. They come out here
Speaker 8: day in and day out. They work pretty hard, so
Speaker 8: you know, they make my job a lot easier.
Speaker 1: Some of the names that came up that maybe you
Speaker 1: haven't heard much about so far. Fred Ferrier, a guy
Speaker 1: who's kind of flowing under the radar a little bit
Speaker 1: but has been getting rave reviews. Mark Stewpens talked about
Speaker 1: him the other day, and of course Anthony Brown stevens
Speaker 1: uh five ten, one seventy six but plays big a
Speaker 1: white out just a sophomore, but naturally everybody knows about
Speaker 1: Dane Key and about Barryon Brown preseason, all this, all
Speaker 1: that as an all purpose player as much for his
Speaker 1: returns as his receiving ability. He believes in this his
Speaker 1: third year, he could be hitting on a big season.
Speaker 9: Man.
Speaker 11: I feel great, you know, just set some goals for
Speaker 11: myself and actually exceeding the goal. So feel great to
Speaker 11: you know, actually be held accountable for some and you know,
Speaker 11: meeting the responsibilities that I set for myself.
Speaker 9: What was it like having that accountability come into your life.
Speaker 9: From the coaches.
Speaker 11: Great, you know, just just knowing that they can count
Speaker 11: on me. If they say do something, I get it done.
Speaker 11: Gotta be very detailed and doing it and you know,
Speaker 11: just keeping my best for forward.
Speaker 2: So much is expected to you this year. You know what,
Speaker 2: how do you feel about it? I'm ready.
Speaker 11: I always ready for a challeng's never never shied away
Speaker 11: from a talent. That's you know, and it's again it's
Speaker 11: just doing something I love. So nothing no pressure on me.
Speaker 11: This is some I've been doing as a child. I'm
Speaker 11: just ready for it to continue.
Speaker 1: Brown said he and Brock vandergriff It worked a lot
Speaker 1: on the side uh before and after practice. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm up for throwing and catching anytime he wants to.
Speaker 1: So sounds like they're putting together that kind of connection.
Speaker 1: It's star receiver and quarterbacks have to have. But of
Speaker 1: course you'll get double team. Barrian Brown will that's going
Speaker 1: to open the gates for Dane Key. The tight ends
Speaker 1: the receivers coming out of the backfield should be interesting.
Speaker 1: With Bush Hampden's new offense. We hear more from him
Speaker 1: coming up tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Up next.
Speaker 1: Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight and the UK TV network
Speaker 1: that's ahead on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 12: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Speaker 1: Joining us now on our Celebrity hotline is a regular
Speaker 1: long time one of our favorite friends of the show,
Speaker 1: Miss Maggie Davis. No longer you're missus what now?
Speaker 13: I am missus maddingly now but I'm still going by
Speaker 13: Maggie Davis on air, so no worries there.
Speaker 2: Well, congrats died.
Speaker 1: Did the wedding planning and all the fun stuff to
Speaker 1: go off without a hitch?
Speaker 5: I hope it did?
Speaker 13: It did it was? I know everybody says this, but
Speaker 13: it was the best day ever. We truly had the
Speaker 13: best time, the best weekend. So many friends and family
Speaker 13: members who are able to come, so I think came
Speaker 13: to celebrate with us. And you know, it's a year
Speaker 13: in the making you plan your wedding. We were engaged
Speaker 13: for just over a year, so certainly felt like a
Speaker 13: long time coming. And it was all worth it in
Speaker 13: the end. A wonderful ceremony of fun reception and then
Speaker 13: a very relaxing honeymoon on a beach somewhere. So that
Speaker 13: was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: There you go, So the production paid off. Game day
Speaker 1: paid off and now you're back hard at it. And
Speaker 1: yesterday you were running around like a headless chicken, talking
Speaker 1: track and field, talking volleyball. We talked yesterday about Messiah Russell.
Speaker 1: You had a chance to sit down with her for
Speaker 1: BBN tonight, and I had never interviewed her. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've ever interviewed a gold medalist. I've interviewed a
Speaker 1: silver medalist in the past.
Speaker 2: But I'm amazed at how tiny she.
Speaker 12: Is, which makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 13: I guess you know, well, she's tiny, but then you
Speaker 13: see her when she's competing, and obviously she is absolutely jacks.
Speaker 13: I as one hundred percent muffle, and that's why she
Speaker 13: looks so tidy sometimes heause you just don't realize. But
Speaker 13: I loved hearing her talk yesterday, and like you said,
Speaker 13: I was able to sit down with her one on
Speaker 13: one after the press conference as well, which is great
Speaker 13: because I have actually probably interviewed Massai close to eight
Speaker 13: or nine times now since she's been at UK and
Speaker 13: then obviously into her professional career. I sat down with
Speaker 13: her maybe two weeks before she went to Paris, and
Speaker 13: so I almost hated to ask for her again because
Speaker 13: I feel like I really called in the favor, trying
Speaker 13: to get her right before Paris, and then of course
Speaker 13: she gets home and I'm like, oh, it would be
Speaker 13: awesome to get a follow up with her as the
Speaker 13: gold medalist, right, And so I was a little tentative
Speaker 13: in asking. I felt a little guilty, but ultimately knew
Speaker 13: that you know, last time I talked to Massi, I
Speaker 13: was so appreciative and so thankful of her time, and
Speaker 13: she was like, listen for Big Blue Nation, I will
Speaker 13: always sit down and talk to you, like they have
Speaker 13: supported me. I can't believe how much they followed me,
Speaker 13: that kept up with me. I've been gone for a
Speaker 13: year and I'm still getting all these Kentucky fans in
Speaker 13: my comments, Like she loves it. She is so in
Speaker 13: and so thankful for it that I was like, okay, fine,
Speaker 13: I'll ask her for one more interview. So I did,
Speaker 13: and of course, the nice, nice, nice person that she is,
Speaker 13: she was able to do another one with me and
Speaker 13: we had another great conversation just about truly how challenging
Speaker 13: the season was for her and how much she didn't
Speaker 13: even think she was going to make it through trials,
Speaker 13: let alone to the Olympics let alone to be the
Speaker 13: gold medal winner, and she had put all of that
Speaker 13: on her vision board really early on in the season,
Speaker 13: like over a year ago, and then the regular season
Speaker 13: just did not go the way she wanted to know.
Speaker 13: She was running five six, seven tenths slower than her
Speaker 13: best times and what she ultimately went during the Olympic season,
Speaker 13: So she wasn't necessarily in a position to have so
Speaker 13: much confidence heading into the Olympics, and yet she was
Speaker 13: able to find that confidence within herself even though her
Speaker 13: time hadn't really reflected that throughout the season. So really
Speaker 13: cool to hear her talk about that, that perseverance, that
Speaker 13: just so much respect for Messiah, the way she's handled
Speaker 13: herself through all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I talked about this last night on the show
Speaker 1: that you know, she and her coach talked about ups
Speaker 1: and downs, and all we as media people in Fancy
Speaker 1: are the ups. We see her on the metal stand,
Speaker 1: we see her, you know, hitting that tape first, leaning
Speaker 1: into that tape. But she mentioned sleepless nights and tears
Speaker 1: and I asked to follow up about that, and Lonnie
Speaker 1: Green talked about it as well. Having to help his
Speaker 1: athletes get through some of those tough times, and I
Speaker 1: was fascinated Maggie by the level of self doubt and
Speaker 1: she and I'm sure almost every athlete out there has
Speaker 1: to deal with, you.
Speaker 13: Know, absolutely, And I'm sure you heard her mention this yesterday,
Speaker 13: but she brought up Budapest and she said it like, oh,
Speaker 13: I went to Frankfurst, but she's like, oh, when I
Speaker 13: was in Budapest, this happened to me. And she's talked
Speaker 13: about it quite a lot really since the Olympics, in
Speaker 13: terms of what happened when she was in Budapest last
Speaker 13: year the World Championships and she hit a hurdle, she fell.
Speaker 13: She just had a terrible race and that would have
Speaker 13: been really easy to wallow in. And I think that
Speaker 13: was maybe even the race coach Lawnie Green was talking
Speaker 13: about when he was like, she went to the bathroom
Speaker 13: and just said I want to cry. I want to cry.
Speaker 13: I want to cry, and he was like, Okay, you
Speaker 13: can cry, but then you've got to get back up
Speaker 13: and you got to get back out there. And she's
Speaker 13: certainly been able to do that, and obviously it paid
Speaker 13: off for her in that moment. But I also love
Speaker 13: talking to her about how this season's not done right.
Speaker 13: Everybody thinks of the Olympics as the pinnacle. It certainly is,
Speaker 13: but it's actually not the end of the professional track season.
Speaker 13: She still has a couple more meets this year, so
Speaker 13: she is still going after that world record. That's certainly
Speaker 13: still on the top of her mind. She said, if
Speaker 13: she had to pick between the two, she would take
Speaker 13: the Olympic gold medal because nobody will ever, ever, ever
Speaker 13: be able to break that or be able to take
Speaker 13: that away from her. But you know, you're not going
Speaker 13: to complain about a world record either, So that's still
Speaker 13: certainly on her to do list in the coming months
Speaker 13: as well.
Speaker 1: And you know, speaking of the wow, okay, boy, did
Speaker 1: UK do so well in the Olympics. I would love
Speaker 1: to get a chance to talk to Sydney. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: she's only on campus for a year, and a lot
Speaker 1: of you guys got a chance to chat with her
Speaker 1: then I did not. But I was on vacation up
Speaker 1: at Saratoga with some friends and family and we watched
Speaker 1: so much of the of the Olympics on TV and
Speaker 1: we were all amazed at how easy Sidney McLaughlin makes
Speaker 1: it look It's like I kept wondering, Okay, when is
Speaker 1: she gonna start running hard, you know, and the next
Speaker 1: thing you know, she's hitting the tape in record time.
Speaker 1: Was another gold medal.
Speaker 2: Did it look that way to you?
Speaker 13: It does, and it does every single time I watched
Speaker 13: Sidney run, and so that is what it's so impressive
Speaker 13: about her. And I also love watching her in the
Speaker 13: relays because you know, her event is the hurdles, it's
Speaker 13: the four hundred hurdles, and they put her on the
Speaker 13: four by four as well with no hurdles, and she
Speaker 13: runs just as fast as everybody else, which I also
Speaker 13: am always amazed by. So she is a generational athlete,
Speaker 13: one of the best to ever do it, and it's
Speaker 13: for one of the best to ever rup present the
Speaker 13: University of Kentucky. And I have had the chance to
Speaker 13: interview her, but it was over zoom during the last Olympics,
Speaker 13: right before she went to Tokyo, so a little bit different.
Speaker 13: I've not done one with her in person. But again,
Speaker 13: I mean, just so respectful and so appreciative of like
Speaker 13: you said, just one year at Kentucky, and yet she
Speaker 13: so proudly repped the wildcast, which is really cool, I
Speaker 13: think too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I forgot to ask Lonnie Green this question,
Speaker 1: although he would have to answer it as simply an
Speaker 1: informed spectator somebody with tons of experience, obviously. But I
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting that Sidney ran the second leg
Speaker 1: of that relay. I always wonder how do they decide
Speaker 1: who runs when? If you got somebody with an incredible kick, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but away I figured Sidney would be the one running
Speaker 1: the anchor leg. But I mean it worked out because
Speaker 1: she gave them a lead that nobody could overcome.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 13: I mean, she just built such a buffer that what
Speaker 13: are you going to do about that? Right? That's Sydney
Speaker 13: McLaughlin way and did to see alecxic Hole on that
Speaker 13: relay as well is really cool. She's one of those
Speaker 13: athletes who doesn't get quite as much maybe name recognition,
Speaker 13: just because of the generational athletes we talked about already
Speaker 13: in Masai and Sydney especially, but Alexa Holmes has certainly
Speaker 13: paved her own path as well, and she did her
Speaker 13: part on that relay too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I agree.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Maggie Davis of BB and tonight. She
Speaker 1: is producer, anchor, chief cook and bottle washer. Although You
Speaker 1: got a great team though on that project, don't you.
Speaker 13: We do. Oh my gosh, I think we are one
Speaker 13: of the only sports departments in America with seven people
Speaker 13: still on it. So we are very very appreciative of
Speaker 13: the full team effort here at BBA Tonight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got football to talk about, volleyball to talk about.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about all of that on the
Speaker 1: other side of the break here on the Big Moon
Speaker 1: Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Maggie
Speaker 1: Davis of BBN tonight, and it is, of course, eleven
Speaker 1: days into a football season. We're going to double back
Speaker 1: to volleyball and make because you had to cover that
Speaker 1: or you got to cover that yesterday. But all the preseason,
Speaker 1: all America teams have come out and all the speculation,
Speaker 1: all the surveys, all that, it seems like, Maggie, I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but we talk about the talking season.
Speaker 1: To me, the last two weeks, it just seems like
Speaker 1: they drag on, like, let's get to the first It's
Speaker 1: going to help that the games begin actually Thursday night,
Speaker 1: but the game we cover is still eleven days off.
Speaker 1: But man, it just seems like it takes forever, doesn't it.
Speaker 13: It does, It does, especially because talking season starts so
Speaker 13: early now, right, Like I feel like a couple of
Speaker 13: years ago, maybe we really started talking about football like
Speaker 13: late July, early August, and then it was just a
Speaker 13: month until kickoff. And now with the way the schedule
Speaker 13: sets up, with how late the season goes, all of
Speaker 13: the big talking points that happen in the off season now,
Speaker 13: whether that's the coaching cares out in il changes, just
Speaker 13: college sports landscape in general, making these huge sweeping changes.
Speaker 13: I mean, there just is so much talk all off season.
Speaker 13: It starts a little bit sooner, I think, and that
Speaker 13: definitely makes it feel longer too. So I always think
Speaker 13: about the first day really of talking season being sec
Speaker 13: media DA's, which of course happened this year, I think
Speaker 13: in like mid July, and so really from then on,
Speaker 13: then you have team specific mediada's, right, So we had
Speaker 13: that a couple of weeks ago. Then you have all
Speaker 13: the kickoff luncheon. We've now had that in Lexington and
Speaker 13: in Louisville, and there's just a lot of events like
Speaker 13: that that really gear you up, put you on that
Speaker 13: ramp towards the season and I'm with you, Dick. It's
Speaker 13: like these last two weeks, I'm like, let's just get there.
Speaker 13: Let's just get to the thirty first, get to that
Speaker 13: Southern mis game, and really see what we're working with,
Speaker 13: because at this point, all these questions we have, we're
Speaker 13: probably not going to be getting direct answers to anymore. Right,
Speaker 13: you have a better chance of getting a direct answer
Speaker 13: early in fall camp than you do closer to that
Speaker 13: first game. And I think these next couple of weeks
Speaker 13: it's going to be a lot of question maybe not
Speaker 13: so many answers, and we just will have to wait
Speaker 13: and see on the thirty first.
Speaker 1: What are the blips on the football radar? This summer
Speaker 1: has been Mark Stoops's comments he made down I think
Speaker 1: in Destin, Florida. He might have made him back here
Speaker 1: with to Darryl Bird of the Cash Bass, and they
Speaker 1: were pointed and they were dramatic, I think, And I
Speaker 1: talked about this the other night. Stoops now is getting
Speaker 1: ripped by people who keep saying, you know, I'm so
Speaker 1: tired of hearing this from Mark Stoops went In fact,
Speaker 1: he said it once, he said it to Daryl. Everybody
Speaker 1: in the world had their take on, it had their
Speaker 1: version of it, and so it was all over the place.
Speaker 1: We are surprised by the comments he made because they
Speaker 1: were very pointed to Daryl, and he talked as much
Speaker 1: about that as he did about football.
Speaker 13: I wasn't surprised really at all by those comments, just
Speaker 13: because I felt like they were really consistent with the
Speaker 13: kind of messaging we've have heard from Stoops in the past.
Speaker 13: Not as much recently, but over the past couple of years.
Speaker 13: I think he's been a very open and honest coach
Speaker 13: in terms of the difficulties of NIL and what that
Speaker 13: has done to the coaching profession as a whole. I
Speaker 13: think it's very easy as somebody who's not seen that
Speaker 13: profession to say, well, that's why you get paid X
Speaker 13: million dollars a year, right, you got to deal with it.
Speaker 13: But I think if you can take a minute and
Speaker 13: really try to put yourself in those shoes, I mean,
Speaker 13: you don't go into coaching to try and raise money,
Speaker 13: and that wasn't the job even three, four or five
Speaker 13: years ago, and so there has been a drastic change
Speaker 13: in that profession. Think about the change, like I just said,
Speaker 13: in the past couple of years now, think about the
Speaker 13: change throughout Soups' entire career and how much his job
Speaker 13: and frankly his job description has changed. Obviously, you have
Speaker 13: to be able to adapt if you want to stay
Speaker 13: in the profession. That's what it is now. And so
Speaker 13: there's there's a point where, like people do get tired
Speaker 13: of you talking about it, you either deal with it
Speaker 13: and you figure it out, or you don't and you
Speaker 13: step aside. And we've certainly seen coaches do that in
Speaker 13: the past couple of years. I mean, Nick Stateman is
Speaker 13: the best to ever do it, and I think if
Speaker 13: Nil hadn't come along, maybe he'd have a couple more
Speaker 13: years less in them. But it just takes a toll.
Speaker 13: And like we talked about a minute ago, I mean,
Speaker 13: there is no off season. Guys at that level really
Speaker 13: did work three sixty five anyway, but with the way
Speaker 13: the portal and NIL works now, I mean, there is
Speaker 13: truly something for them to be doing at all hours
Speaker 13: of the day, and I'm sure that is an exhausting
Speaker 13: exercise and it's not necessarily their favorite part of being
Speaker 13: a college football coach. Right, So, no, I wasn't surprised
Speaker 13: by the comments. In general, I would be surprised if
Speaker 13: he continued to reiterate them. You know now that the
Speaker 13: season is a little bit closer, but I haven't really
Speaker 13: seen any indication that he's going to do that. I
Speaker 13: think at this point it's full steam ahead toward that
Speaker 13: first kickoff, and maybe he'll address more a little later
Speaker 13: in the season or into the next off season.
Speaker 1: No, I'm with you completely. I think from here on
Speaker 1: it's football with stoops. And that said, we talked before
Speaker 1: about the schedule, the calendar, when the game shit, not
Speaker 1: so much that the games are on the schedule, but
Speaker 1: when they hit all of that, said Maggie, and we
Speaker 1: all know that what people believe my happen when they
Speaker 1: talk in the spring. I'm talking about fans now, the
Speaker 1: hype I think grabs hold of folks, and the optimism
Speaker 1: takes hold and the expectations begin to grow. What do
Speaker 1: you think Kentucky fans can realistically expect this year.
Speaker 13: I think realistically it's fair to expect Kentucky to do
Speaker 13: better in the home games. I think that is where
Speaker 13: people if you take a really honest look at the
Speaker 13: last couple of seasons, I think those are the games
Speaker 13: that people have been the most disappointed in Obviously, you
Speaker 13: want to upset Georgia. It would be so fun to
Speaker 13: beat Alabama, right, But realistically, I think there are a
Speaker 13: few home games on the schedule the past couple of
Speaker 13: years that scanned out as games it should have been wins, honestly,
Speaker 13: whether they were at home or on the road. But
Speaker 13: then you take them and you put them inside Kroger Field.
Speaker 13: They had good home crowd environments and the team just
Speaker 13: needed to take care of business in those games. And
Speaker 13: as South Carolina comes to mind, Sandy to mind, the
Speaker 13: Surrey comes to mind, those were all winnable games, especially
Speaker 13: since they were at home, and I think Kentucky's going
Speaker 13: to have a couple more like that on the schedule
Speaker 13: of this season. Those are the games that I think,
Speaker 13: I don't want to say the most realistic Kentucky fan,
Speaker 13: because I think any Kentucky fan, whether they want to
Speaker 13: be realistic or not at the time of the year,
Speaker 13: I mean, it's fun to dream big, and who am
Speaker 13: I to say don't. But I definitely think you look
Speaker 13: at the schedule and you see South Carolina coming to
Speaker 13: Krueger Field in Week two, and you want to take
Speaker 13: care of business in that game. Because that's the home game.
Speaker 13: Alburn is coming to Kroger Field a little bit later
Speaker 13: in October, right, I mean, that's a really high pedigree program,
Speaker 13: but you get them on your home turf, and it's
Speaker 13: not necessarily the Auburn teams of the past. I mean,
Speaker 13: they could figure it out by late October, absolutely, but
Speaker 13: I think that's the home game that people could really
Speaker 13: get excited for, and then you just got to take
Speaker 13: care of business and some of the other ones like
Speaker 13: the non conference gamee the Bandy game, and then obviously
Speaker 13: you have Louisville coming selecting kid at the end of
Speaker 13: the season too, So I think that is where the
Speaker 13: expectation will really start and end. I mean, you have
Speaker 13: some tough, tough, tough road trips on the schedule, the
Speaker 13: Texas and the Tennessee and you know, even down to
Speaker 13: Florida and the Swamp is not an easy place to play.
Speaker 13: So I think if you just want to be realistic,
Speaker 13: if you look at the schedules, you want to take
Speaker 13: care of business at home and as many of those
Speaker 13: home games as possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're already an underdog against Louisville. You know,
Speaker 1: a game that's going to be played here a non
Speaker 1: conference game, and at least in some of the early rankings,
Speaker 1: Louisville's favored to win that one.
Speaker 13: So well, it said, that's talking season at its finest.
Speaker 13: I mean, I do know that the last day of
Speaker 13: the season. I mean, the things can be completely different.
Speaker 13: I don't think Kentucky's been favored in that game in
Speaker 13: at least three or four of the last five years
Speaker 13: in which he nets have won against the Cars. So
Speaker 13: I'm not worried about that one.
Speaker 1: You must guess. H And by the way, you mentioned Auburn.
Speaker 1: I keep flashing back because bo Nick's making headlines with
Speaker 1: his performance for the Broncos, and of course he finished
Speaker 1: his career at Oregon. People might remember that he started
Speaker 1: his career at Auburn, and in fact, back in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the very first COVID game of the year, remember they
Speaker 1: only played SEC games at Kentucky opened down there and
Speaker 1: he threw for three second half touchdowns to beat Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So but I don't think. I think you're right, it's
Speaker 1: not that same Auburn. But I think we're not quite.
Speaker 2: Sure what we're going to see.
Speaker 12: So it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: Just a few minutes left with Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on a loaded quarterback room? Stoops talked about
Speaker 1: that after the scrimmage on Saturday. Do you foresee a
Speaker 1: controversy or do you see a big season for Brock Vandergrive.
Speaker 13: I don't foresee controversy at this point, but I certainly
Speaker 13: think that it is appropriate to listen to scoops talk
Speaker 13: about the quarterback groop and get excited about the depth
Speaker 13: in that room because it is a little bit deeper
Speaker 13: than I think we've seen in recent years, and to
Speaker 13: an extent, I think that's a little surprising in the
Speaker 13: portal era. I mean, most of the time, one AA's
Speaker 13: going to play right, so there's not going to be
Speaker 13: a ton of seasons. There's not a ton of teams
Speaker 13: that have three or four guys in that quarterback room
Speaker 13: that you're like, Okay, worst comes to worst. He could
Speaker 13: probably figure it out and help us with some things. Obviously,
Speaker 13: I think Brock Vandergriff is the starter and will continue
Speaker 13: to be the starter unless something insane happens. But I
Speaker 13: think that listening to soups talk about the depth specifically
Speaker 13: is giving him a little bit of peace of mind.
Speaker 13: Even though the room as a whole, all four of
Speaker 13: those guys are not really experienced, especially in the SEC quarterbacks.
Speaker 13: They don't have a lot of in game experience, but
Speaker 13: they do have a lot of recruiting trusts, right, I mean,
Speaker 13: those are four and five star players and that you
Speaker 13: kind of have stacked up against each other. Hopefully good
Speaker 13: competition pushes each and every one of them. But no,
Speaker 13: I still certainly think Brock Vandergriff is the guy, and
Speaker 13: I'm excited to see how he looks in Game one
Speaker 13: because we really don't know very much about him until then.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that he's the starter, likely backed up by
Speaker 1: two guys in Whimsit and bo Allen, who have multiple
Speaker 1: starts in college football, but to your point, not in
Speaker 1: the SEC. And you know, I kept hearing and then
Speaker 1: John Clay said that one of the beat writers from
Speaker 1: down to Georgia, you know, said that vandergripp was this
Speaker 1: close to beating out Carson Beck, who is everybody's favorite quarterback.
Speaker 12: Now. So if that indeed was the case.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what he what he can
Speaker 2: do with the lights on. You know.
Speaker 13: Well, yeah, there's certainly a ton of excitement around that,
Speaker 13: especially when you start hearing stories like that out of Georgia.
Speaker 13: But I think that it does make well. It couldn't
Speaker 13: make you super excited. It could also make you a
Speaker 13: little cautiously optimistic, right, because we just don't know anything.
Speaker 13: Like even when we got Devin Leary to Lectington last year, Right,
Speaker 13: you could go back and watch NC State and obviously
Speaker 13: he had dealt with injuries and he had had some issues,
Speaker 13: but we really didn't have an unknown there because there
Speaker 13: was plenty of it State footage. You could go back
Speaker 13: and watch it, and obviously, keeping in mind some of
Speaker 13: the injury history, you got to watch a little paper
Speaker 13: on the guy. Right, We really have not had any
Speaker 13: of that with Rock Vandergrift, so certainly a lot of
Speaker 13: question marks around his play, and there have been, you know,
Speaker 13: some differing stories coming out of camp, and I think
Speaker 13: it's really depending on the day and.
Speaker 4: Who you talk to.
Speaker 13: So I think the Rock Vandergriff we see week one
Speaker 13: might not be the Bronx you seed week eight, nine
Speaker 13: or ten. And obviously you want your quarterback to get
Speaker 13: more comfortable in a system. You want him to find
Speaker 13: the rhythm what you get into the meat of the
Speaker 13: SEC schedule, but I definitely think it'll be a learning
Speaker 13: process for him, just because of the lack of experience
Speaker 13: in games.
Speaker 1: Interesting that some of the only in game video of
Speaker 1: Rock Vandergrif from last year was mop up duty against
Speaker 1: Kentucky and he looked pretty good. So Maggie Davis is
Speaker 1: the producer and cole anchor of BB and Tonight and
Speaker 1: you can follow her each and every night thirty on
Speaker 1: LAX eighteen and on Game Day on Saturday. When your
Speaker 1: first game day, I guess.
Speaker 2: Is game Day? Right?
Speaker 13: First Gay Day was actually last Saturday. Oh really cut
Speaker 13: a little bit early. We we do in this Saturday.
Speaker 13: We have a special hour long football season preview show
Speaker 13: coming your way. I know you gave me just enough
Speaker 13: runway to take over.
Speaker 14: I'm sorry.
Speaker 13: We do have this hour log special on Saturday that
Speaker 13: we are so excited about. We had exclusive sit down
Speaker 13: interviews with book Handed and Brad White. I know we
Speaker 13: were working on a JJ Weaver feature. We got Jeremy
Speaker 13: Jarman coming to the studio, so a whole lot of
Speaker 13: fun and it is a full hour only about UK football,
Speaker 13: so definitely tune into that. It's on in Lexington. I
Speaker 13: believe at nine thirty on Saturday. But we are syndicated
Speaker 13: all throughout Kentucky and I'm really all across the region
Speaker 13: right now, So check those listings and tune in, check
Speaker 13: us out.
Speaker 2: Excellent.
Speaker 1: Thank you, ma'am, Thank you so much.
Speaker 13: I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: More football talk coming up in hour number two with
Speaker 1: Michael Epps of FLOXX fifty six.
Speaker 2: Here on a Big Old siderix w l ap.
Speaker 12: Welcome back to the Big Bluing Cider.
Speaker 2: Joining us now.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned Michael EPs, Fox fifty six sports director,
Speaker 1: a guy called the Road Warrior who is back at it. Man,
Speaker 1: you had a busy day yesterday, Another busy day today, Michael.
Speaker 12: But you told me you got a little time off.
Speaker 2: You had some fun, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did. I went up to your stomping grounds,
Speaker 4: went up to Starattoga this summer, went for I think
Speaker 4: I think it was the day before the whitney, so
Speaker 4: I didn't get to see the whitney, but it was
Speaker 4: a great day just checking up the track, went up
Speaker 4: north Northern Michigan summertime in Northern Michigan's kid Rock said,
Speaker 4: can't beat it, and a couple other trips. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's been a good summer, but summer's over. Now football's here.
Speaker 1: You are a Michigander. But before I get to football,
Speaker 1: real quickly, tell everybody what you like about Saratoga. I've
Speaker 1: tried to I've tried to describe it. You don't really
Speaker 1: compare it to Keenland. It's like apples and oranges. But
Speaker 1: uh it's It's just a great spot, isn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a little different, you know, dress code, some
Speaker 4: people do stuff, but you still get people that you know,
Speaker 4: just going shorts and a T shirt and just run up,
Speaker 4: you know, for opening day. The gates open and then
Speaker 4: they sprint over their picnic tables and you know, the
Speaker 4: funny thing is you're allowed to bring in beverages, which
Speaker 4: just like, oh okay, and uh yeah, it's I think
Speaker 4: it's I think it's a really nice track and you
Speaker 4: can feel like, yeah, this is one of those signature
Speaker 4: spots on the horse race calendar every year, because there
Speaker 4: are a couple of them that really set some horses
Speaker 4: up for the Breeders Cup Classic and some other races
Speaker 4: on that first weekend in November. So it's a lot
Speaker 4: of fun to just go hang out and experience another track.
Speaker 4: I've been the three in my life now and I
Speaker 4: definitely want to hit more out a boy.
Speaker 1: And of course the surrounding town, those houses, just that
Speaker 1: particular style up there, it looks like it's something out
Speaker 1: of Central Casting. So yeah, I can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1: All Right, back to the matter at hand and before.
Speaker 2: We talk football.
Speaker 1: A lot to cover yesterday on the UK Beat with
Speaker 1: Massi Russell talking to the media along with coach Lonnie
Speaker 1: Green and volleyball. Let's start with track. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you. Had you ever had a chance to interview her,
Speaker 1: because I had not, and I did not. I should
Speaker 1: have known because I'd interviewed Passion Richardson and other track athletes.
Speaker 1: I wasn't aware of how tiny Massi Russell is. But
Speaker 1: I guess that's why she can.
Speaker 2: Fly, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I never interviewed I don't think I've ever interviewed
Speaker 4: an Olympic gold medalist, so that was a that was
Speaker 4: a bucket list for sure. And yeah, she's she's impressive. Man.
Speaker 4: It's crazy. You know, move in Day, Big Blue move
Speaker 4: In Yeah, is going on this week, So you got
Speaker 4: all these kids coming on the campus and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: she was just one of those kids and she just
Speaker 4: graduated in twenty twenty three, and now she's a gold medalist.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's pretty amazing, and you got to give
Speaker 4: her credit. And it's such a competitive field there. You
Speaker 4: had three you had two other Kentucky connections in that
Speaker 4: race with Devin Charlton and Jasmin Camacho Coin represent in
Speaker 4: Puerto Rico, so and and then you know you have
Speaker 4: like a defending world champion in there. So she beat
Speaker 4: some talent to earn that gold medal. So she's got
Speaker 4: to be proud of herself.
Speaker 1: I had not yet been in the Jim Green Track
Speaker 1: Center because I was out of town when they dedicated.
Speaker 1: I've known Jim forever, have done stories on him, He's
Speaker 1: been on my show. So happy they named it after him.
Speaker 1: But I was so impressed with that facility. It amazes me, Michael,
Speaker 1: that Kentucky had been so successful before they open that place.
Speaker 1: I know Edward Chloriel works so hard to get that done.
Speaker 1: Now he's at Texas. Lonnie Green comes down from Purdue
Speaker 1: and now is you know, reaping the benefits. But that's
Speaker 1: that's one impressive facility.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know Lonnie was on point by saying
Speaker 4: that other schools will try to call themselves hurdle you,
Speaker 4: but there's really only one hurdle you. I mean when
Speaker 4: you get the hundred meter hurdle gold medalist and Sidney
Speaker 4: Glaughlin the four hundred meter hurdle gold medalist, and I
Speaker 4: mean that Sidney had been winning this for years in
Speaker 4: the world, I mean clearly the best in the world
Speaker 4: for over four years. So yeah, this is hurdle you
Speaker 4: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And not only does Sydney win it, she wanted the
Speaker 1: second second time. She's the first woman American woman to
Speaker 1: win back to back four hundred goal.
Speaker 4: Right, Yes, I believe so, and she I wonder if
Speaker 4: she has another one in her I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 4: she could go out there in twenty eight and probably
Speaker 4: have a good chance to do something. So I don't know,
Speaker 4: but I think I think MASSI was the really exciting
Speaker 4: part where she was like, yeah, I'm I'm I got
Speaker 4: two more Olympics in it, like I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 4: And I think that gave you know, fans a little
Speaker 4: excitement and certainly awesome to see her go out there
Speaker 4: and you know, continue this history. Really and I don't
Speaker 4: feel like it's a long history, Dick, but it's this
Speaker 4: recent like surge of UK athletes just dominating on the
Speaker 4: world stage and track and field. It's really awesome and
Speaker 4: I hope he continues.
Speaker 14: Yeah, and heavy signer like Avy Segner did and even
Speaker 14: make the Olympics. Yes, I mean she she We really
Speaker 14: thought she was going to be there in twenty four. Yeah,
Speaker 14: just didn't work out for her, but she still got
Speaker 14: a chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and shout out to Daniel Roberts silver in the hurdles.
Speaker 1: So to your point, the one ten, yeah it is hurdle.
Speaker 1: You we're talking to Michael Epps, Fox fifty six sports director.
Speaker 2: You also was over there.
Speaker 1: We're over there at the volleyball media day, and the
Speaker 1: obvious story there is can Kentucky make eight straight? But
Speaker 1: it's going to be tough with the Longhorns in the
Speaker 1: league now. But I thought it was interesting, Michael that
Speaker 1: this team, in a way, it's not that they're glad
Speaker 1: to see people move on, but they want to establish
Speaker 1: their own identity. Nobody who was on that national title
Speaker 1: team for the most part, is still on the roster,
Speaker 1: so you know, they want to do it on their own.
Speaker 1: I think that's it's ambitious, but everybody has the same ambition, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, That's what I asked Craig in the press conference,
Speaker 4: was like, Hey, as another year passes, it's another year
Speaker 4: farther from when you won the national championship. These players
Speaker 4: still need to remember that that's the standard. You know,
Speaker 4: once you win one, it doesn't matter what sport, Once
Speaker 4: you win one, that's the standard for your program now.
Speaker 4: And it felt like the UK has had chances in
Speaker 4: the last couple of years to match that just couldn't
Speaker 4: quite get it done. Now it's a whole lot tougher.
Speaker 4: I mean, they're I mean they're they're right there. They're
Speaker 4: ranked ninth in the preseason poll. They're going to be
Speaker 4: a fantastic team. But as you mentioned, Texas dominant in
Speaker 4: the conference now as the new member, new kids on
Speaker 4: the block, and I love the excitement that volleyball is getting.
Speaker 4: You know, some of these matches are on ESPN and
Speaker 4: the ESPN two and they're certainly gonna roll. But in
Speaker 4: the tournament, man, you just you need the dominant outside hitters.
Speaker 4: And Brooklyn delay Is is incredible U up there up front,
Speaker 4: but I don't know if they have enough to you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know if they have enough you know, above
Speaker 4: the net athleticism and just hitting power. But I think,
Speaker 4: you know, I m Ac Grom and Eleanor Bevin to
Speaker 4: really strong returners. So they're gonna be good. It's gonna
Speaker 4: be fun to watch them, and certainly fun inside the
Speaker 4: brand new memorial costume.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, how about the comments about getting
Speaker 1: air conditioning Finally, Yeah, man, I.
Speaker 4: I can't wait. It was. It was nice to go
Speaker 4: in there and check it out when they let us
Speaker 4: in for Inside Peak a few weeks ago with Mitch Barnhart.
Speaker 4: But I don't believe that that exhibition was close to
Speaker 4: fancy the entire time. I mean, they they switched that
Speaker 4: kept the clothes they need to for safety reasons, and yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, so hopefully they get it done in time
Speaker 4: for the opener, which is what next Friday, so again
Speaker 4: I think Northern Kentucky. So they hopefully they have you know,
Speaker 4: we were there for media day and we could still
Speaker 4: hear a lot of banging and you know, rustling around
Speaker 4: right on the other side of those doories that picked
Speaker 4: up on the mic for the press conference. So hopefully,
Speaker 4: hopefully they get it done in time.
Speaker 1: I think the fire alarm went off like six times,
Speaker 1: and Craig Skinner said, We're used to that. It happens
Speaker 1: every day. We're talking to Michael Lepsi as the sports
Speaker 1: director at Fox fifty six, and we'll come back and
Speaker 1: talk Kentucky football on the other side of the break
Speaker 1: here on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Michael Lepsi is a sports director WDKY Fox fifty
Speaker 1: six and like all of us, anxiously awaiting football both
Speaker 1: high school and college. And obviously we don't get a
Speaker 1: chance to shoot video of scrimmages. I got a chance
Speaker 1: to sit in as a member of the network, but
Speaker 1: nothing really jumped out that Mark Stoops didn't talk about
Speaker 1: getting some work done Michael with the twos and the
Speaker 1: threes this past Saturday. I kind of thought that was
Speaker 1: a good sign. Kind of tells me they're pretty button
Speaker 1: down with the first team ors.
Speaker 12: Did you take it that way?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that it's interesting that they've talked a
Speaker 4: lot about the depth in the QB room and there's
Speaker 4: a they're really kind of been a scenario where if
Speaker 4: they did not get Brock Vandergriff in the portal and
Speaker 4: maybe they got someone you know, not as exciting. There's
Speaker 4: a chance that could have been a competition because I
Speaker 4: really do think Cutter Bowl is talented now he is,
Speaker 4: you know, playing at LCA is a lot different than
Speaker 4: playing in the SEC, and it would have been some
Speaker 4: serious growing pains as a true freshman, I think. But
Speaker 4: because I don't know if he's at that level, but
Speaker 4: he's talented, and we know that some of the depth
Speaker 4: that they have, you know, on defense, I think that's
Speaker 4: you know, obviously a strong unit for them. It always
Speaker 4: is under Brad White. You know, twenty points per game
Speaker 4: is like kind of his staple that they allow for
Speaker 4: scoring defense. I wonder a little bit about you know,
Speaker 4: the receivers. I think your top three is great, but
Speaker 4: the Dane Barryon and Jamury Macklin. But after that, it's
Speaker 4: encouraging to see that they made some place because I
Speaker 4: don't think that if you really need a four wide
Speaker 4: receiver set, I don't love any of those options.
Speaker 6: For UK.
Speaker 4: I think they might utilize tight ends a little bit
Speaker 4: more than they have in the pass because I do
Speaker 4: like Caddis, jefsh Kattis and during Dingal so I don't know.
Speaker 4: I think Brock's got a lot of options, which is
Speaker 4: exciting he.
Speaker 1: Does, but right now you got to wonder about running back,
Speaker 1: you know. And Stoop's talked about how much confidence and
Speaker 1: faith they have in sumocarn Bay, but he said, at
Speaker 1: least one of the young guys is going to have
Speaker 1: to really step forward and prove himself, you know, because
Speaker 1: as you know, you can't just lean on one guy.
Speaker 1: And Demi's deal is speed and he can catch the
Speaker 1: ball as well as get to the outside. He's not
Speaker 1: necessarily a power runner. In Kentucky's been blessed with a
Speaker 1: lot of power running back play over the last six
Speaker 1: or seven years.
Speaker 4: Well, the unfortunate probably ill losing ship to train them
Speaker 4: is like, I think they were really set up to
Speaker 4: have an exciting one two punts that would really compliment
Speaker 4: each other, and we're still going to see it. It's
Speaker 4: just a matter of how soon. And I mean, Dick,
Speaker 4: I'm not going to surprise the world here. They're not
Speaker 4: going to beat Georgie no matter who, if they have
Speaker 4: Chip or not. So that Week three games, you know,
Speaker 4: really doesn't matter. But that Week two game against South Carolina,
Speaker 4: that's really a must win. If you start the season
Speaker 4: one and two, you're really struggling at that point to
Speaker 4: get yourself a winning season. It's an uphill battle, and
Speaker 4: so they need to win that Week two game. Brock
Speaker 4: has to be ready. You know, the defense is going
Speaker 4: to be ready, and I don't think South Carolina will
Speaker 4: come in here and put up more than like thirty
Speaker 4: points on this defense. But can Brock lead this offense
Speaker 4: to go score four touchdowns by South Carolina and win
Speaker 4: this game that you just have to win in the East,
Speaker 4: and they have not won it the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: If you don't win that game, you're setting yourself up
Speaker 4: for a brutal season. And to not have train him
Speaker 4: out there is going to be tough. So they're gonna
Speaker 4: certainly roll with Demi and they're gonna throw the ball
Speaker 4: a lot, so broadcasts the limited turnovers and I think
Speaker 4: they'll be okay.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned Cutter Bowley earlier, and you know
Speaker 1: how fans are. They're going to get restless if things
Speaker 1: aren't perfect right away. And you've also got bo Allen.
Speaker 1: Gavin Wimsen is number two on the depth chart right now.
Speaker 1: I think that's more about the package of plays we'll
Speaker 1: see from him. But I remind people, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest names right now when it comes to
Speaker 1: college quarterbacks is Quinn Yours. And you know, he started
Speaker 1: his career at Ohio State in the Big Ten and
Speaker 1: his first, his only game came against his only appearance
Speaker 1: came against your beloved Michigan State Spartans. He played two
Speaker 1: plays and then transferred. So it's not automatic when you're
Speaker 1: that young. So they got to have the veterans come through,
Speaker 1: don't they.
Speaker 4: Yeah. The crazy thing about Yours is if Texas goes
Speaker 4: up and like somehow loses that game to Michigan, I
Speaker 4: don't think they will because they're extremely talented and Michigan
Speaker 4: lost a lot. And you know, I'm biased, Dick being
Speaker 4: a Spartman, but I'm going to say that I'm gonna
Speaker 4: certainly look for Michigan to lose that game and lose
Speaker 4: any game I'm successful. But no, those are a new
Speaker 4: head coach and you know, new quarterback. Yeah, I think
Speaker 4: Texas will win that game. But if they don't, imagine
Speaker 4: if those Longhorns fans start to get a little ticked
Speaker 4: off and try to get arch in there. I mean
Speaker 4: twin Hewers could be a first round pick and they
Speaker 4: could Bill sit in to go and put Arch out there.
Speaker 4: So it's crazy to think about the riches that other
Speaker 4: teams have. And you know Kentucky has it a little bit.
Speaker 4: You know, Cutter Bolly's a good quarterback and certainly will
Speaker 4: get his chance. You know, hopefully next year Rock has
Speaker 4: a big season and wants to declare early for the
Speaker 4: NFL Draft and Cutter would have his year next year.
Speaker 4: That's kind of how you know it would go in
Speaker 4: a perfect world for them, But can't turn them over
Speaker 4: and Will Levis so basically first round pick, technically a
Speaker 4: second round pick. He turned the ball over a lot,
Speaker 4: and if he did not turn it over that much,
Speaker 4: there would have never been that awkward moment where he
Speaker 4: was sitting in Brady Quinn style, yeah, on national TV
Speaker 4: at the NFL Draft. If he limited those turnovers, he
Speaker 4: would have been a top ten pick. So that's a
Speaker 4: challenge for Brock and they're going to need him to
Speaker 4: take care of the football because they're not going to
Speaker 4: run the ball as much until Trip comes back.
Speaker 1: I will always wonder what that second year under will
Speaker 1: Levis might have been if he hadn't been shackled by
Speaker 1: Scanguerrello's command that he's stay in the pocket and not
Speaker 1: run the football. At least you know, he would sometimes
Speaker 1: scramble for his life. But you know, you remember what
Speaker 1: s Gangurella said, it's an NFL thing. I want to
Speaker 1: protect the quarterback and all that. And yet forcing him
Speaker 1: to sit back in the pocket, A, he suffered more
Speaker 1: injuries than he would have if he had been running.
Speaker 1: And B to your point, he made bad decisions. He
Speaker 1: made her decisions and through picks. I think Vandergriff is
Speaker 1: going to remind us I don't know about arm strength,
Speaker 1: but in terms of his footwork and ability to run
Speaker 1: away from trouble, I think he'll remind us of Will
Speaker 1: Levis that first season, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the old line was really struggling last season too,
Speaker 4: I mean certainly two years ago. Yeah, and and but
Speaker 4: but struggled again last season. And like I mean, they
Speaker 4: were top five in the nation in sacks allowed at
Speaker 4: one point. And you know Leary he certainly, you know,
Speaker 4: needed some help, but he didn't get any help from
Speaker 4: his O line either. So you know, you need Eli Hock,
Speaker 4: Marcus Cox, Jaggerbart and those returning guys to really be steady.
Speaker 4: You know, your center play is going to be steady.
Speaker 4: Because they tried it with Jagger last year. It didn't
Speaker 4: work out. They put Eli back there, even though his
Speaker 4: better position naturally would be at guard. But they'll they'll
Speaker 4: figure it out, but they have to be solid. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it is. It's it's sad because that tendant three year.
Speaker 4: You know, if he somehow convinced Bondelle to come back
Speaker 4: with Levis and Liam Cohen, I mean that team could
Speaker 4: have been actually scary because that defense was good too.
Speaker 4: But it's tough. You know, Liam Cohen did what he
Speaker 4: had to do. He left and came back and and Skangerello.
Speaker 4: That was a failed experiment, but I don't really blame
Speaker 4: Stoops for trying it out. He had a pretty good
Speaker 4: history with quarterbacks at San Francisco, you know, just what
Speaker 4: he had done with development and the rest of his
Speaker 4: NFL assistant career. I think this was a good opportunity
Speaker 4: for him. I don't really know if he did much recruiting,
Speaker 4: but he clearly you could tell on the field that
Speaker 4: it was struggling, and so it was a struggle to
Speaker 4: watch and he was hampered by the online play too.
Speaker 4: They did a lot of bubble screens Tavion Robinson and
Speaker 4: even Barryon. I mean, they weren't taking a lot of
Speaker 4: downfield shots with him. So I think bus Shamdon out
Speaker 4: here is gonna give the fans something exciting to watch
Speaker 4: at Kroger Field. But well, the players executed. That's a question.
Speaker 12: You mentioned wide receivers.
Speaker 2: I'll let you go with this.
Speaker 1: I really believe that Brown and Key are both sitting
Speaker 1: on big seasons because this could be their chance to
Speaker 1: leave after three season and go to the NFL. And
Speaker 1: they know this, you know, got to not just cut
Speaker 1: down on but eliminate the drops. But that only highlight
Speaker 1: what they do best. What do you think?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I was thinking about it really when we
Speaker 4: were at media Day, because a media day last year,
Speaker 4: Dane and barry On both were saying, oh, they want
Speaker 4: to be a thousand yard receivers. They want to be
Speaker 4: the best wide receiver duo in the SEC, and they
Speaker 4: just didn't live up to it. They were kind of
Speaker 4: hovering around six hundred yards. And I think Barryon is
Speaker 4: going to have that opportunity this year because they're going
Speaker 4: to connect with him on those seat balls that Leary
Speaker 4: just could not connect with him. I asked barry On
Speaker 4: on media Day. I was like, there were times that
Speaker 4: you were in the end zone and just throwing your
Speaker 4: hands up in the air because that ball was either
Speaker 4: like ten yards overthrown or five yards to left, and
Speaker 4: like Leary just could not hit him on those deep balls.
Speaker 4: I think Brock will be able to hit him. I
Speaker 4: think he's got the arm talent. But for Danes, he's
Speaker 4: gonna find that over the middle. If Baryon can kind
Speaker 4: of take the top off, I think both of those
Speaker 4: guys could have big years. And I expected Morriy Macklin
Speaker 4: have a big time year too. I mean, I think
Speaker 4: they're kind of all they're all going to take each
Speaker 4: other away from getting to that one thousand yard mark.
Speaker 4: But if one of them hits it, that's great. Certainly
Speaker 4: not both of them will hit it, but they both
Speaker 4: have good junior years. I know Dane was struggling with
Speaker 4: some stuff in his personal life there for a little
Speaker 4: bit last season two, and so I think if those
Speaker 4: guys are kind of just hunkered down, they could each
Speaker 4: have big enough seasons to go ahead and leave and
Speaker 4: get drafted in the first, three, four or five rounds.
Speaker 4: I hope for them.
Speaker 1: He is Michael Lipps Fox fifty six. Tell everybody how
Speaker 1: to follow you on Twitter.
Speaker 4: At Michael EP's TV. Follow our team at Jordan and
Speaker 4: I'm at Colby Wilson. We got we're ramping up home
Speaker 4: team Friday nights. Is this Friday night? So we got
Speaker 4: some high school football back here in the Bluegrass. Our
Speaker 4: show is going to be on at ten thirty pm
Speaker 4: for all the highlights. Make sure to tune in. This
Speaker 4: is this a fun part of the year.
Speaker 12: We'll be watching. Thank you, Hi, Thanks Dix to you
Speaker 12: hand up next to UK Volleyball.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more with Craig Skinner and his players on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big.
Speaker 1: Blue Insider on this national radio day. And I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of fun in my radio careers such as
Speaker 1: it is, and one of the better assignments I ever
Speaker 1: had was doing UK Volleyball on the radio. I don't
Speaker 1: know did I do one or two seasons, but I
Speaker 1: did it a while back before the SEC network came along.
Speaker 1: The SECTV network came along, and of course with the
Speaker 1: advent of sec TV, they decided the powers it'd be
Speaker 1: at UK. They didn't really want to fork over whatever
Speaker 1: it cost to do volleyball on the radio when all
Speaker 1: the games were on TV in one way or the other,
Speaker 1: either streaming or on the worldwide leader, the SEC network.
Speaker 1: Even though a lot of schools do radio broadcasts of
Speaker 1: their women's volleyball Florida, Nebraska, some of the lead programs,
Speaker 1: but its tradition for those programs. And we didn't do
Speaker 1: it long enough to UK at UK to call it
Speaker 1: a tradition. But I did enjoy it, like I said,
Speaker 1: part of a fun radio career. But I still enjoy
Speaker 1: covering volleyball. And I was there yesterday at media day
Speaker 1: yesterday afternoon and Craig Skinner in his twentieth year. You know,
Speaker 1: Mark Stoops is the high longest tenured coach in SEC
Speaker 1: of football twelve years. Mary Wise has been at Florida forever,
Speaker 1: but number two is Craig Skinner at Kentucky. His team
Speaker 1: has won seventh straight SEC titles. And one of the
Speaker 1: many things he touched on yesterday was scoring and how
Speaker 1: it has to come for really.
Speaker 2: All over the court.
Speaker 10: I think the biggest factor for us is finding point
Speaker 10: production across the board from five different positions, not one
Speaker 10: or two.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 10: Obviously, Brooklyn Delay had an incredible freshman year and great
Speaker 10: summer of the USA Volleyball Aaron Lamb had a great
Speaker 10: year last year to finish her you know, junior campaign.
Speaker 10: We have two new middles starting for US, you know,
Speaker 10: so you know, red shirts, you know, and to one transfer,
Speaker 10: one freshman, you know, Megan Wilson moving from the left
Speaker 10: side to the right side. So having that balance where
Speaker 10: we're very difficult to fend because no one knows where
Speaker 10: the ball is going, is going to be the most
Speaker 10: important thing for US.
Speaker 1: Wildcats open up with an exhibition game against Dayton on Friday.
Speaker 1: It's closed to the public. It's in the coliseum, but
Speaker 1: they're not going to be finished with it, and they
Speaker 1: just want to play it behind closed doors in the
Speaker 1: interest they say, of safety.
Speaker 2: But then the following week.
Speaker 12: Regular season begins on Tuesday in.
Speaker 1: Louisville at the Coaches Association Showcase, Wildcats take on number
Speaker 1: two Nebraska. Wildcats are ranked number nine, and as Skinner
Speaker 1: pointed out, great opportunity to learn about your team.
Speaker 10: The challenge is you don't really know yet what your
Speaker 10: team will look like under the lights. Against high level competition.
Speaker 10: So and you know that, you know, teams like Nebraska
Speaker 10: aren't just gonna give you points. You're gonna have to
Speaker 10: earn them. And so it's you know when you typically
Speaker 10: aren't exactly where you want to be your first match
Speaker 10: or two. So you know, how claim can we be?
Speaker 10: How efficient can we be?
Speaker 1: Skinner led the Wildcats of the NCAA Championship three years ago.
Speaker 1: This is a brand new team now, everybody's moved on,
Speaker 1: and Skinner said, these players like that. They want to
Speaker 1: build their own name, their own reputation. They want to
Speaker 1: eave a new legacy.
Speaker 10: You know, our team has brought that up. They're excited
Speaker 10: for the fact that no one on this team was
Speaker 10: part of the twenty two or twenty twenty championship team.
Speaker 10: And so they want their identity to be what this
Speaker 10: team is about. And they want to build their own
Speaker 10: expectations and owned results and not be compared to that team.
Speaker 10: And you know, I think that's fair. It's it's like
Speaker 10: we talked, you know, Saturday night. As you know, comparison
Speaker 10: is it can be the evil, you know, empire, and
Speaker 10: so comparing ourselves to ourselves is the most important thing.
Speaker 10: How do we do yesterday? How are we going to
Speaker 10: do today? How are we going to do tomorrow? So
Speaker 10: it's this team is excited about the chance to prove
Speaker 10: themselves and show people what they're made of.
Speaker 1: Of course, the win number eight. Now it used to
Speaker 1: be you got to go through Florida. Then now you've
Speaker 1: got to go through Kentucky. New player in town is Texas,
Speaker 1: and Skinner knows that and realizes that, you know, you
Speaker 1: got to beat everybody, but it starts with Texas.
Speaker 9: Yeah, just just to drop in the bucket, you know.
Speaker 10: No, No, it's I mean it's you know, the expectation
Speaker 10: to compete for championships every year. Did it get harder?
Speaker 10: Of course it got harder. I mean it's our league
Speaker 10: is better. Adding Texas makes it, you know better, And
Speaker 10: you know, to me, that's motivation. It's exciting because it's
Speaker 10: a new challenge, it's a new target and you know
Speaker 10: what else can we do?
Speaker 9: How much better can we get?
Speaker 10: Adding people and great teams in great coaches league helps
Speaker 10: us to your point of recruiting earlier. It's like, why
Speaker 10: wouldn't you want to be a part of the league
Speaker 10: like this, and why wouldn't you want to compete for
Speaker 10: SEC championships, because if you're winning and competing for SEC championships,
Speaker 10: you're in the conversation for the national championship.
Speaker 1: The first true home game for the Wildcats is Friday,
Speaker 1: August thirtieth, the night before Kentucky's football opener against Northern Kentucky,
Speaker 1: and a new and improved Memorial Coliseum. It includes air conditioning.
Speaker 1: And this is a team that's been without really a
Speaker 1: home for eighteen months or so, Skinner says his playyers
Speaker 1: can't wait.
Speaker 10: They're like caged animals, I would say, to get out
Speaker 10: and play. They haven't really had a home for the
Speaker 10: last year and a half, and we've been shuffling between
Speaker 10: locker rooms and gyms and courts, and you know, I
Speaker 10: know the time and effort and commitment from their sake,
Speaker 10: and you know our administration and Chris and Director of Operations,
Speaker 10: our coaches to try and where are we going? Where
Speaker 10: are we practicing? Is so I think that having you
Speaker 10: take for granted some of the things you have before
Speaker 10: they're gone. And I don't know if they'll take those
Speaker 10: things for granted once you get in the building, but
Speaker 10: they can't wait. I mean, it's you know, they see
Speaker 10: some things happen in near locker room and our video
Speaker 10: room and all that.
Speaker 9: Type of stuff. So the excitement is pretty clear.
Speaker 1: They've got some new faces, but they've got some veterans returning, including,
Speaker 1: thankfully for the Wildcats, Emma Grome, All American last year,
Speaker 1: All Conference, six time SEC Center of the Week. She
Speaker 1: is the quarterback, she is the point guard, if you will,
Speaker 1: of this, and we had a chance to talk with
Speaker 1: her on media day about the fact that, yeah, they've
Speaker 1: accomplished a lot in the past, but this is a
Speaker 1: new year.
Speaker 15: I feel pretty confident.
Speaker 16: We obviously have a lot of new pieces to the team,
Speaker 16: and we lost a couple key starters, but I think
Speaker 16: we have a lot of depth this year and people
Speaker 16: might not be expecting that, but just our time in
Speaker 16: the gym, we've put in a lot of work on
Speaker 16: our offensive systems, defensive systems, and everything's clicking pretty well.
Speaker 10: Chris also talked about how nobody on this team played for.
Speaker 8: That national championship team and how important it is for
Speaker 8: you to have your own identity.
Speaker 9: How much has that kind of been discussed.
Speaker 15: It's been discussed quite a bit.
Speaker 16: I think it's honestly pretty cool for us this year
Speaker 16: because nobody's had that win under their belt, so there's
Speaker 16: a lot more like urgency and desire to get there
Speaker 16: since none of us have felt that. But yeah, I
Speaker 16: think it just makes us stronger and wants us, makes
Speaker 16: us want to push a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Well, what has to happen for you all to do that?
Speaker 1: Are there going to be one or two keys to
Speaker 1: this season for this particular team.
Speaker 16: I think we're still figuring that out a little bit,
Speaker 16: and since there's a lot of new pieces, still figuring
Speaker 16: out what's going to be the best you know, identity
Speaker 16: off the court and on the court for our team.
Speaker 16: But I think if we work on the offensive systems
Speaker 16: we're working on, we're doing a little bit faster, some
Speaker 16: different things than we've seen before. Every year, it feels
Speaker 16: like we're adding new pieces to how we're playing the game.
Speaker 16: So I think if we figure all that out and
Speaker 16: really like buy into the culture here, it'll be good.
Speaker 1: Part of your identity, though, is SEC championships. See you guys,
Speaker 1: how much of that do you carry emotionally and mentally?
Speaker 1: A lot?
Speaker 16: I mean seven in a row is really hard and
Speaker 16: we're pushing them for eight. So that's the goal every
Speaker 16: day is just to come out here, put our best
Speaker 16: foot forward, leave it all on the court, and if
Speaker 16: we do that, we'll be able to get another one.
Speaker 1: And yeah, Texas is the unanimous pick, So yeah, tell
Speaker 1: me about that challenge.
Speaker 15: It'll definitely be a challenge.
Speaker 16: It'll be tough, and we have two new teams coming
Speaker 16: into the conference and obviously we were put farther down
Speaker 16: on the list than we'd like to be in the
Speaker 16: preseason polls, but that just gives us all the more
Speaker 16: desire to prove ourselves and show the world what Kentucky
Speaker 16: can do.
Speaker 12: Bekinna cool.
Speaker 2: You have air conditioning?
Speaker 15: Now, how much are you going to be?
Speaker 16: I personally will be loving that. I am a big sweater.
Speaker 16: It was very tough, especially in those five set matches
Speaker 16: in August and September, but I think it'll make us
Speaker 16: stronger and I'm excited.
Speaker 1: Also coming back. Brooklyn Delay just a sophomore, but she
Speaker 1: burst on the scene last year as a freshman, made
Speaker 1: the All Freshman Team, was the SEC Freshman of the Year,
Speaker 1: Honorable Mentioned All American WHAT five times Freshman of the
Speaker 1: Week Player of the Week as well, and she got
Speaker 1: a chance to play because Reagan. Ruththerford, who was graduated,
Speaker 1: was hurt, so they pressed Brooklyn Delay into the lineup
Speaker 1: and she never left.
Speaker 17: Just that year of experience under my belt and then
Speaker 17: also being able to have a different role on the team,
Speaker 17: Like you come in as a freshman, you're kind of
Speaker 17: that little freshye, but now you kind of get a
Speaker 17: take on new freshmen to come in and kind of
Speaker 17: be more of a leader.
Speaker 2: I feel like a murderer.
Speaker 12: You've never had a home court?
Speaker 1: You got one?
Speaker 15: Yeah, No, I think it'll be awesome.
Speaker 9: What do you think about it? Take the peaks walk
Speaker 9: down on it.
Speaker 15: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 17: I haven't seen much of it because it's kind of
Speaker 17: been I'm closed off, but I think it'll be really cool,
Speaker 17: super grateful, and it's going to be my first year
Speaker 17: or ever.
Speaker 1: In memorial we'll shift you back to college football on
Speaker 1: the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Big Boon Sider.
Speaker 1: Final segment of our program, and I thought we'd wrap
Speaker 1: up with more college football chatter mentioned earlier.
Speaker 2: The Dian Walker p season.
Speaker 1: All America on everybody's list, including latest DAP and of
Speaker 1: course he is showing up on the pre draft big
Speaker 1: boards for everybody. I thought we would take a look
Speaker 1: at the one on the cbssports dot com website that
Speaker 1: seems to be the one I come back to. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: a cornerback Will Johnson and Michigan is there number one
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 13: Hello?
Speaker 2: By man a.
Speaker 1: Michigan d tackle. They go one to Will Johnson, Mason Graham,
Speaker 1: and yet Ohio State is a team that supposedly is
Speaker 1: the most loaded and should be feared in the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: But either one number three, believe it or not, it's
Speaker 1: an SEC player. It's not Dion Walker. It's James Pierce,
Speaker 1: Junior and edge rusher at Tennessee called a freaky athlete
Speaker 1: coming off the edge rushing. The quarterback, Travis Hunter of
Speaker 1: Colorado is fourth. He is the guy who plays both
Speaker 1: wide receiver and cornerback and he was a preseason AP
Speaker 1: All American.
Speaker 2: By the way, and out.
Speaker 1: There in Colorado they're upset the shdhar Sanders, a quarterback,
Speaker 1: was not on the first or second teams. First was
Speaker 1: Carson Becka, Georgia's second was my man, Dylan Gabriel, no relation,
Speaker 1: but you love the name from Oregon. Sanders had nice
Speaker 1: numbers last year twenty seven touchdowns, only three picks, thirty
Speaker 1: two hundred passing yards, but his team only won four games,
Speaker 1: So you're not gonna a whole lot of love that way.
Speaker 1: Carson Beck in fact number five on CBS's pre draft
Speaker 1: big board. Kelvin Banks, o tackle from Texas, number seven
Speaker 1: back to the SEC. Banks, by the way. Now in
Speaker 1: the SEC, Luther Burden, the wide receiver from Missouri, maybe
Speaker 1: the most dangerous player in the Southeastern Conference, at least offensively,
Speaker 1: and Dion is number eight and there's only one line.
Speaker 1: There's like a paragraph for each player. All they wrote
Speaker 1: about Dion this is really all you need to know.
Speaker 1: It says Walker is a mammoth of a defensive tackle,
Speaker 1: yet he doesn't move like one. That's basically all you
Speaker 1: need to know. Right behind him another defensive lineman or
Speaker 1: outside linebacker, depending on how you look at him. Michael Williams,
Speaker 1: the edge from Georgia, listed as another freak athlete. And
Speaker 1: there are a lot of these guys, these hybrid players
Speaker 1: in the SEC. Number ten is Benjamin Morrison, a cornerback
Speaker 1: from Notre Dame. Cbssports dot Com as the list. But
Speaker 1: you gotta think Dion he won't drop out of the
Speaker 1: top ten. If he stays healthy, and he may be
Speaker 1: moving up on these draft boards. It just depends on
Speaker 1: who needs what. But it's always fun to look at
Speaker 1: those when they're way too soon, but it's still fun
Speaker 1: and it just tells you football is right on top
Speaker 1: of us. I was talking about young NFL quarterbacks. There's
Speaker 1: a veteran NFL quarterback who made headlines overnight to a
Speaker 1: tongue of below of the Dolphins really candid when he
Speaker 1: was talking about Brian Flores during an interview which aired yesterday,
Speaker 1: he called the former head coach a terrible person. He
Speaker 1: was talking to Dan LeBatard on Lebatard's podcast. I've talked
Speaker 1: about Lebratard before. I really like him. But he said,
Speaker 1: to put it in the simplest terms, if you woke
Speaker 1: up every morning and I told you that you suck
Speaker 1: at what you did, that you don't belong doing what
Speaker 1: you do, that you shouldn't be here, that you haven't
Speaker 1: earned the right, how would that make you feel? Listening
Speaker 1: to one or the other. So evidently to his relationship
Speaker 1: with Brian Flores not the greatest in the world, you
Speaker 1: can understand if indeed that's what happened why he struggled.
Speaker 1: No comment as of yet from Flores. We'll keep an
Speaker 1: eye on that for you. Back in the first hour,
Speaker 1: I mentioned Tom Brady played a comment from Brady about
Speaker 1: how they've dumbed down the game for quarterbacks. I wanted
Speaker 1: to bring this one back to you because I talked
Speaker 1: the other day about Andre Woodson and the job he
Speaker 1: did developing into a quarterback just the way Brady described,
Speaker 1: I mean he struggled. Andre did when he first got here,
Speaker 1: and under the tutelage of Randy Sanders, he became one
Speaker 1: of the best quarterbacks in the country. At one point
Speaker 1: was a Heisman candidate. And again Rich Brooks spoke more
Speaker 1: than once about the fact that Andre became really adept
Speaker 1: at going to the line of scrimmage and not necessar
Speaker 1: necessarily checking off to a big play, but getting them
Speaker 1: out of a bad play. And that takes quarterback smarts,
Speaker 1: know how and knowledge, as Brady said of the program
Speaker 1: with a capital P and a relationship with the coaching staff.
Speaker 1: And listen to the way Brady described what he did,
Speaker 1: and think about what Andre Woodson did at Kentucky.
Speaker 2: Not that Andre was.
Speaker 1: The only QB, but it was a great example of
Speaker 1: what Brady's been talking about.
Speaker 5: When I was a quarterback, what I aspired to be
Speaker 5: was a game general out there. I wanted to be
Speaker 5: that field general. I wanted to call the shots.
Speaker 6: You could.
Speaker 5: If you were my coach, you would call a play.
Speaker 6: That play would come into me.
Speaker 5: I would say, okay, I think, and we've communicated before
Speaker 5: the end. This is the reason why he called the
Speaker 5: play we talked about. So I'm walking the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 5: I'm looking.
Speaker 6: At the defense. Oh perfect, I love.
Speaker 5: The defense is exactly why we call this play.
Speaker 6: I snapped the ball.
Speaker 5: Well, every defense is built a little differently, and every
Speaker 5: defense takes away something different. Sometimes I walk to the
Speaker 5: line of scrimmage, I knew exactly why we call the play,
Speaker 5: and I goes, oh god, it's not gonna work. We
Speaker 5: have no chances play working based on the defense that
Speaker 5: they called. So I would change the play and I
Speaker 5: get out of the play. I'd turn it and if
Speaker 5: let's say I had a deep pass and they were
Speaker 5: guarding you deep, I would check to a run, I
Speaker 5: checked to a short throw. I'd get out of that
Speaker 5: play to make sure that play was successful. Now, the
Speaker 5: quarterbacks walk to the line of scrimmage. Coach calls a
Speaker 5: deep play, defense calls the coverage that takes away a
Speaker 5: deep play, and they snapped the ball and that quarterback's
Speaker 5: holding the ball and he gets sacked. And then I
Speaker 5: hear people go, oh, the offensive lines got to hold
Speaker 5: up for and I'm listening like there was no one
Speaker 5: going to be open on that play. You could call
Speaker 5: it one hundred times the same result would have happened.
Speaker 5: When is the quarterback's responsibility to check to a play
Speaker 5: that's going to be successful. That's what I did. That's
Speaker 5: what Peyton Manning did. That's what Ben Roethlisberger did. That's
Speaker 5: what Drew Brees did. That's what Philip Rivers did. Those
Speaker 5: are the guys. That's what Joe Montana did. That's what
Speaker 5: Steve Young did. That's what John Elway did.
Speaker 1: Those are some of the all time greats. And again
Speaker 1: I had Mark Slera's on on the first hour talking
Speaker 1: to about Russell Wilson, who for a while there was
Speaker 1: considered on his way to becoming an all time great.
Speaker 1: Not lately though, Schlareth not a fan, as he pointed
Speaker 1: out with our comment in the first hour, and to
Speaker 1: pick up on what he was talking about. Slaith mentioned
Speaker 1: the fact that, yeah, Wilson had great numbers but took
Speaker 1: sacks way too often in a preseason game in regular
Speaker 1: season games, and Mike Tomlin stands up it kind of
Speaker 1: blames the O line, and everybody picks up on it,
Speaker 1: fans and the media, and Shlareth keeps reminding folks that,
Speaker 1: you know, you got to go to the source. You
Speaker 1: can't just listen to people who may not know what
Speaker 1: they're talking about.
Speaker 7: The media doesn't know what they're looking at. The beat
Speaker 7: writers don't know what they're looking at. So you know
Speaker 7: what the assumption is, while our offensive line really sucks,
Speaker 7: now your quarterback really sucks.
Speaker 6: It's your quarterback that's You realize.
Speaker 7: That, don't you, and not that Justin Fields is much better.
Speaker 1: Fie, as of course, was a bust in Chicago. But
Speaker 1: back to what he said. That's why I am very
Speaker 1: hesitant when I try to evaluate, because I've not yet
Speaker 1: had the opportunity to play or coach college football, so
Speaker 1: it's not always what we think we see. And oftentimes
Speaker 1: I'm privy to conversation with coaches that educate me about
Speaker 1: certain parts of the game that I can't always share
Speaker 1: with you, because if they're as frank and open as
Speaker 1: it could be in postgame conversations, well, they'd be tearing
Speaker 1: down some kids that they don't want to publicly tear down.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what Tomlin's been doing as well
Speaker 1: with the Steelers. Although he may honestly believe Russell Wilson's
Speaker 1: the right guy for the job, Mark schlera who played
Speaker 1: the game, won some Super Bowls, he clearly does not agree.
Speaker 2: That's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Maggie Davis, to Michael Epps, Thanks
Speaker 1: to you back tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Good night from the garage and Lexion.
Speaker 9: I'd like to ask a few questions about this breakfast cereal.
Speaker 6: I yeah, yeah, A box of tricks, that's right.
Speaker 15: I've been led to understand the tricks are exclusively for children.
Speaker 6: Is that correct? Well, I mean they say tricks are
Speaker 6: for kids in the commercials, and there's that enforced by law,
Speaker 6: not to my knowledge, no, n