Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Thursday edition of our program. This is
Speaker 1: sort of a special edition, I like to think, because
Speaker 1: it will be you know, baseball, football, basketball, But a
Speaker 1: good deal of our program here in the first hour
Speaker 1: will involve Rich Brooks, and I bring him up because
Speaker 1: he is going to be the celebrity monologist. If you will,
Speaker 1: he will open our broadcast, our radio broadcast on Saturday
Speaker 1: afternoon Saturday evening as the Wildcats take on the Georgia Bulldogs.
Speaker 1: And if you've missed our first couple of broadcasts, we
Speaker 1: forgive you, but come on back. Maybe if you're in
Speaker 1: the parking lot or if you're at home, you're going
Speaker 1: to watch the game on TV. Keep the radio handy,
Speaker 1: keep the phone handy, listen on the iHeartMedia app. Because
Speaker 1: we have had first Bill Ransdell for the opener since
Speaker 1: it's the fortieth anniversary of the nineteen eighty four team
Speaker 1: to Bill quarterback to the Hall of Fame Bowl. And
Speaker 1: then last week we had Jojo Kemp open the broadcast
Speaker 1: such as it was terrible game obviously, but Jojo talked
Speaker 1: about the year or the game ten years ago when
Speaker 1: he ran wild over South Carolina. So with Georgia coming up,
Speaker 1: you know how tough it is to beat those Bulldogs
Speaker 1: of late well, and rich Brooks was here. His team's
Speaker 1: got two wins over the Bulldogs, one in Lexingon one
Speaker 1: in Athens. So rich Brooks will take us back to
Speaker 1: those games. But I also had a chance to chat
Speaker 1: with him just about his time here. The wins over
Speaker 1: the Bulldogs. That's coming up at the bottom of this hour.
Speaker 1: But we will also relive the highlights because you might
Speaker 1: recall if you were there or watching on the tube
Speaker 1: where you've seen the highlights. That was the first goalpost game.
Speaker 1: Kentucky needed a win there. Kentucky had of course been
Speaker 1: blown out by LSU after an open date, ground out
Speaker 1: a win at Mississippi State, which wasn't easy, and then
Speaker 1: pulled off the upset win over the Bulldogs. Not the
Speaker 1: greatest Georgia team, but still pretty good. Matthew Stafford was
Speaker 1: the freshman quarterback the Wildcats won it, which put Kentucky
Speaker 1: into a Bowl game. That was win number six. What
Speaker 1: a breakthrough for rich Brooks, who a year prior looked
Speaker 1: like he wasn't going to survive. Then after another one
Speaker 1: over Vandy. They get seven wins, and they go to
Speaker 1: the Music City Bowl where they pulled off an upset
Speaker 1: over a Clemson team that was probably better than Georgia.
Speaker 1: So that was a great happy time for Kentucky football.
Speaker 1: So we'll take a deeper dive on that coming up
Speaker 1: in our next segment. Well, we'll talk about the highlights.
Speaker 1: We'll hear the highlights from a documentary I produced called Believe,
Speaker 1: and then we'll hear from Rich Brooks coming up at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour. Also in our next hour,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Tim Koutch quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Brian Mileham from WKYT will join us. Brian spent many
Speaker 1: many years working in Eastern Kentucky for WYMT as the
Speaker 1: sports director before moving to lexit in full time and
Speaker 1: now he's the sports director at KYT. But Brian and
Speaker 1: I will talk about the legacy of Tim Couch is
Speaker 1: going into the College Football Hall of Fame in December
Speaker 1: and we'll be honored this weekend at Kroger Field, and
Speaker 1: on hand to do some of the honoring. To lead
Speaker 1: the way will be Matthew Sein, who is the Chief
Speaker 1: operating Officer of the National Football Foundation and the College
Speaker 1: Football Hall of Fame, which is actually in Atlanta, and
Speaker 1: I have not yet gone. I need to put that
Speaker 1: on my bucket list. I really want to make that visit,
Speaker 1: but the actual ceremonies in Las Vegas. But Matthew will
Speaker 1: be here over the weekend to help honor Tim Couch
Speaker 1: and we had a chance to chat with Himseley. You
Speaker 1: hear my conversation with Matthew coming up in our number two.
Speaker 1: So a lot of football talk in this program, with
Speaker 1: a lot of specialized football talk, if you will. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to be tough, first of all, to bounce
Speaker 1: back from South Carolina. Tougher I think for fans and media.
Speaker 1: I've talked about that this week. But kids are more
Speaker 1: resilient and they have to be because during practice, once
Speaker 1: they look at the video of South Carolina, they got
Speaker 1: to move forward. They got to study video of Georgia.
Speaker 1: They got to figure out how to stop the Bulldogs,
Speaker 1: how to compete, and it ain't going to be easy.
Speaker 1: I don't know that this Georgia team is as good
Speaker 1: as the last two or three that Kirby Smartest had,
Speaker 1: but it's pretty damn good. And Brad White, the defensive
Speaker 1: coordinator knows what's coming at the Wildcats, starting with Carson Beck.
Speaker 1: He's not just a game manager. This is a guy
Speaker 1: who can make plays, extend plays, and put the football
Speaker 1: where it needs to be.
Speaker 2: It's not just Carson Beck. It's a really good offensive line.
Speaker 2: It's talented fast receivers, talented tight ends, running backs that
Speaker 2: will run through and buy you. So yes, Carson directs
Speaker 2: the ship and he is as talented as a quarterback
Speaker 2: as there is in the country. He's going to throw
Speaker 2: in complete balls like that. That's just the reality of it,
Speaker 2: you know. And they've they've been doing it as an
Speaker 2: offense for a lot of years now.
Speaker 1: We mentioned that more than once that Georgia has had
Speaker 1: great players for quite a while, just missing out on
Speaker 1: national championship runs really since the herschel Walker days until
Speaker 1: Kirby Smart got there and got them just passed those
Speaker 1: teams that kept beating them out for national titles, and
Speaker 1: you know, particularly Alabama. So Georgia became the King of
Speaker 1: Hill though it lost last year. But Kirby Smart had
Speaker 1: picked up on where Mark Rick had left off with recruiting.
Speaker 1: What a great fertile recruiting area. But they have great
Speaker 1: success going outside the state of Georgia as well. And
Speaker 1: when you look at that roster, man, are they talented.
Speaker 1: That's why Brock Vandergriff had to transfer. I mean, this
Speaker 1: guy was a five star recruit a quarterback and just
Speaker 1: could not beat out first Detson Bennett and then Carson Beck.
Speaker 1: And that's the life for quarterbacks. When you sign up
Speaker 1: to play quarterback, you know there's only going to be
Speaker 1: one starter. There's going to be one guy at the
Speaker 1: head of the room, the quarterbacks room, getting all the
Speaker 1: attention and getting most of the reps in practice. So
Speaker 1: Vandergriff transfers to Kentucky. You cannot judge him yet part
Speaker 1: of a game against an inferior Southern misteam and then
Speaker 1: a terrible game against South Carolina, which you know he
Speaker 1: was running for his life, but he never blamed his
Speaker 1: old line. He said the old line was fine. He
Speaker 1: took all the blame and that was admirable, but not
Speaker 1: accurate Anyhow, I can't imagine his knowledge of the Georgia
Speaker 1: playbook will come into place much for the Wildcats. Maybe
Speaker 1: tendencies with certain athletes, but he's still friends with so
Speaker 1: many of them, and he was telling reporters Wednesday afternoon
Speaker 1: that he has remained in group chats with a lot
Speaker 1: of guys and talked about how competitive he and his
Speaker 1: former teammates were when he was there. He would team up,
Speaker 1: evidently with Brock Bowers, the former tight end who's now
Speaker 1: in the NFL, and they would take on Jazz Chambliss,
Speaker 1: a linebacker and Cash Jones, a running back. So it
Speaker 1: was the be guys against the Sea guys and all
Speaker 1: kinds of different competitions.
Speaker 3: It was like the Bees versus Seas. That was how
Speaker 3: we did everything. So it was me and Brock first,
Speaker 3: Cash and Chazz and literally everything we did and the
Speaker 3: final tally record, I think the Bees had got the
Speaker 3: best of the Seas. But I mean it was cornhole, pool,
Speaker 3: ping pong, pickle ball, We had fishing tournaments, just everything,
Speaker 3: And I mean we're just where me and Me and
Speaker 3: Bowers are out there to win.
Speaker 1: Hey, you got to be. They're all going to be
Speaker 1: out there to win on Saturday. But it will be
Speaker 1: a tall order for the Wildcats. You'll hear it right
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP five thirty pre game of Christy,
Speaker 1: Jeremy and Logan seven thirty kickoff with Tom jeff and
Speaker 1: yours truly. Speaking of Brock Bowers, he now plays had
Speaker 1: you lost track of him? He now play for the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Raiders, who were losers to the Chargers in
Speaker 1: their opener. Behind Gardner Minshew the quarterback. He threw for
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty seven yards, and guess who his
Speaker 1: favorite receiver was? Rock Bowers the tight end. That's right.
Speaker 1: Targeted eight times among what nine or ten different receivers,
Speaker 1: made six catches for only fifty eight yards. That's almost
Speaker 1: ten yards per catch. Didn't have any touchdowns, but did
Speaker 1: have a long of what twenty six yards? And I
Speaker 1: think on that catch he had like sixteen yak yards.
Speaker 1: So Bowers may maybe be a good pickup on a
Speaker 1: fantasy team. I double checked because the Bills and Dolphins
Speaker 1: are playing tonight. Ray Davis had I thought a decent
Speaker 1: debut for Buffalo in the win last week. He carried
Speaker 1: the ball once four No, I'm sorry, he carried them
Speaker 1: ball three times for only thirteen yards, but they all
Speaker 1: came on one play. About that, no gain on two plays,
Speaker 1: but thirteen yards on another. So that had to get
Speaker 1: Bills fans excited and don't forget to check in when
Speaker 1: it comes to the passing game, as Josh Allen had
Speaker 1: a huge game. But Ray made one catch, but that
Speaker 1: was for fourteen yards, so again and twelve of those
Speaker 1: yack yards, so that had to be exciting for Bills fans.
Speaker 1: And he's a backup, they know this, but that was
Speaker 1: a tight game. Every time you touch the ball in
Speaker 1: a game like that. They beat the Cardinals thirty four
Speaker 1: to twenty eight. So every time you touch the bar
Speaker 1: in a game like that, it's important, obviously, and Ray
Speaker 1: Davis had a good one. So switching over to college football,
Speaker 1: the Pack twelve lives apparently or trying to come back
Speaker 1: to life. The news coming today that four schools will
Speaker 1: join the quote unquote Pack twelve or what's left of
Speaker 1: it for the twenty twenty six twenty seven season Boise State,
Speaker 1: Colorado State, San Diego State, and Fresno State. Those are
Speaker 1: credible football schools and a little basketball mixed in as well.
Speaker 1: Of course, the only Packed twelve schools it still exists
Speaker 1: in existence are Oregon State and Washington State, but apparently
Speaker 1: they're working on bringing it back, and a tip of
Speaker 1: the cap to them. The Pac twelve never should have
Speaker 1: died and it was mismanaged into the ground. Schools were
Speaker 1: bleeding money, which is why they left. And it didn't
Speaker 1: have to happen. A couple of commissioners mishandled things and
Speaker 1: that's why I went by the wayside. So they're trying
Speaker 1: to bring it back all right. Up next Kentucky Georgia
Speaker 1: from back in the Day, two wins on six point
Speaker 1: thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider
Speaker 1: on this Georgia week. Coming up next, we're going to
Speaker 1: hear from Rich Brooks, the former UK head coach. He
Speaker 1: knows what it takes to beat the Georgia Bulldogs because
Speaker 1: his teams did it better in the aughts. Now that
Speaker 1: was before the Dogs that hit their full stride, winning
Speaker 1: national titles as they have under Kirby Smart. But still
Speaker 1: winning here in Lexington and then down at Georgia. It
Speaker 1: ain't easy, But I thought I would take you back
Speaker 1: via a documentary that produced on that twenty oh six
Speaker 1: season called Believe, because that's the name of the video
Speaker 1: that the Wildcats put together and played for their fans
Speaker 1: on the big screen. We went back and we went
Speaker 1: over all the wins that season in that documentary might
Speaker 1: have gone over most of the games. I know we
Speaker 1: didn't talk about the LSU game, but here is the
Speaker 1: audio with the highlights and interview clips. You'll hear Rich Brooks.
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear from Mike Archer, who was defensive coordinator
Speaker 1: back then you'll hear comment from Rob Bromley, who called
Speaker 1: the game for UK TV the upset of Georgia when
Speaker 1: the goalposts came down, and toward the very end, you'll
Speaker 1: hear from offensive coordinator Joker Phillips as well as the
Speaker 1: head coach, Rich Brooks. But we're gonna start you off
Speaker 1: with a clip from a video that UK Sports Video
Speaker 1: release right after the game. It's got the pep talk
Speaker 1: with Rich Brooks and then the comments to the team
Speaker 1: after the game. So we'll start with the pep talk
Speaker 1: from Rich Brooks, then we'll get into the audio from
Speaker 1: the documentary called Believe Time for doing.
Speaker 4: This year, Guys. I'm tired of people talking down about
Speaker 4: this football team, tired about him not giving us the
Speaker 4: respect that I know that we can deserve. But we
Speaker 4: have to go out and earn that respect every time
Speaker 4: we come out of the shoot. We have to go
Speaker 4: out there and earn it. You earned some last week,
Speaker 4: You've earned some this year.
Speaker 5: You earned some starting.
Speaker 6: Off three and zero at home the first.
Speaker 4: Time and a long long time around here.
Speaker 7: So let's go get some more.
Speaker 4: Okay, let's earn it, keep burning it and keep calming.
Speaker 4: After their slam after snap after snash.
Speaker 8: The Georgia Bulldogs arrived wounded. They were struggling coming off
Speaker 8: a home field offs to Vanderbilt, and sure enough, after
Speaker 8: the Cats took an early three to nothing lead, the
Speaker 8: Dogs fought their way to a fourteen to three advantage
Speaker 8: early in the second quarter. The Wildcats steadied themselves and
Speaker 8: marched seventy six yards in ten plays, Burton and Woodson
Speaker 8: covering the final five as Kentucky made it fourteen to
Speaker 8: ten with eight minutes left in the first half. You
Speaker 8: gave as a great opportunity for more points late and
Speaker 8: a half when linebacker Johnny Williams picked off of Georgia
Speaker 8: pass deep in the Bulldog's territory and nearly scored, but
Speaker 8: the Dogs took it right back and marched straight down
Speaker 8: the field. As the final moments of the half were
Speaker 8: winding down, someone needed to make a play with the Wildcats.
Speaker 8: Roger Willie take about the Faith, the good Man and.
Speaker 6: Seventy Roger Williams zone. It was Trevart Linley who made
Speaker 6: the play. He betted the faith pattered up into the
Speaker 6: air and Williams conic.
Speaker 1: Tivart Lindley doing his job.
Speaker 9: He tips the ball and Roger's hustling over there.
Speaker 7: In the baugus kitch.
Speaker 8: You know, if we don't get that interception, who knows
Speaker 8: what happens.
Speaker 7: The game could turn with that.
Speaker 8: If they go in and score, kick a field goal,
Speaker 8: it's a minimum of a three point swing, it might.
Speaker 7: Be a seven or ten point This week it.
Speaker 8: Was a big Kentucky escapes down only four at the half.
Speaker 8: Following a score a third period, UK took a seventeen
Speaker 8: to fourteen lead on Woodston's second scoring strike to Verton
Speaker 8: avoids the rush throws for the back of the end zone.
Speaker 5: T k Tucky trips tip the lee pits King Marten.
Speaker 8: The Bulldogs answered immediately with the scoring drive that covered
Speaker 8: eighty three yards and Kentucky trailed twenty to seventeen with
Speaker 8: less than five minutes to play. That's when the Wildcats
Speaker 8: put on the methodical march of their own behind tailback
Speaker 8: Tony Dixon on a sixty nine yard drive that took
Speaker 8: eleven plays. The sophomore from Parish, Alabama, caught two passes
Speaker 8: and ran the ball another four times, howering the final
Speaker 8: three yards into the end zone for the go ahead
Speaker 8: touchdown and on the.
Speaker 6: Nixend, the.
Speaker 8: Fans across the Commonwealth braced themselves.
Speaker 10: A lot of fans were still holding their breath from
Speaker 10: remembering the LSU game before I got here and whatever
Speaker 10: games that Kentucky had find a way to lose it.
Speaker 9: And you're asking yourself that question, can Kentucky answer right
Speaker 9: here at the end, with only what about two and
Speaker 9: a half minutes or so left to go in the game,
Speaker 9: And there's you know, there is there's that little bit
Speaker 9: of doubt in your mind. But then again, on the
Speaker 9: other hand, you know, this isn't the same type of
Speaker 9: Georgia team that had won nine straight over Kentucky.
Speaker 8: This time the defense came through. This time it was
Speaker 8: the Cats who made the play. It was the Dogs
Speaker 8: who made the mistake, and Trevard Linley made them pay.
Speaker 8: Stafford retreats mony.
Speaker 6: Of time out of protection is breaking down.
Speaker 8: He slides right, he throws.
Speaker 6: Torley the Georgia forty one yard line.
Speaker 9: I think our players now are beginning to believe that.
Speaker 8: You know, they were a lot better and they expected
Speaker 8: to win up to that point. I think they hoped
Speaker 8: to him, you know, for three years, we hope to him.
Speaker 8: He is it, Abriel down on the sidelines, tell us
Speaker 8: what it's.
Speaker 1: Like Christmas morning.
Speaker 6: This one is twenty seconds away from being over, but
Speaker 6: the celebration is already on. Fans are coming out of
Speaker 6: the end zone on each side as the Wildcats have
Speaker 6: beaten Georgia for just the eleventh time and sixty tries,
Speaker 6: and the police would just say the heck would have
Speaker 6: let him go. Kentucky twenty four, Georgia twenty three two one,
Speaker 6: it's over.
Speaker 8: The celebration began and it didn't end until the gold
Speaker 8: post came down.
Speaker 10: Coming on the on the road win at Mississippi State.
Speaker 7: This was a huge, huge.
Speaker 10: Win for the Kentucky football program, and obviously the players
Speaker 10: were as thrilled as the fans, because I know some
Speaker 10: of my younger players were out there participating in that
Speaker 10: uh and it was just a great environment, and I
Speaker 10: just think it set the tone for what was to
Speaker 10: happen the rest of the season.
Speaker 1: I got Marcus McClinton part of that defensive unit. Marcus,
Speaker 1: how did you guys do this?
Speaker 10: Oh?
Speaker 8: No, just doing our job.
Speaker 6: We knew they came here in a little week and
Speaker 6: we're trying to prove what we use on defense.
Speaker 8: But we just executed every play.
Speaker 1: Nobody's been through more than Manma Cutch and the injuries,
Speaker 1: disappointing losses. What does this mean to you?
Speaker 8: You know, this is this is why I stuck around,
Speaker 8: You know, this is why I.
Speaker 6: Came to Kentucky to keey wins like this at.
Speaker 7: Home and for at our house.
Speaker 1: You played on one leg for most of this game,
Speaker 1: and you weren't coming out, were you. Hell no, they
Speaker 1: weren't taking me out of this game.
Speaker 7: I want you to let them.
Speaker 10: It was exciting.
Speaker 7: I mean most the good thing is our.
Speaker 9: Players got to experience something like that, you know, seeing.
Speaker 7: Where the program had came came from when we.
Speaker 10: First got here, uh four years ago, and seen where
Speaker 10: it was.
Speaker 9: You know, at that point, I was really excited about
Speaker 9: the program.
Speaker 1: And again at the end there that was Joker Phillips
Speaker 1: at the time, the offensive coordinator. So all the goal
Speaker 1: post came down and when they got all the players
Speaker 1: back into the locker room safely because it was dangerous
Speaker 1: out there. Rich Brooks talked to the team he had
Speaker 1: just fired up like three hours ago.
Speaker 4: I can't tell you how proud I am of you.
Speaker 8: That was a real SEC football year, a real.
Speaker 7: Football game, and we were the one to get it made.
Speaker 1: Guy. That win over Georgia was number six on the
Speaker 1: ear so it didn't sure that the Wildcats would go
Speaker 1: to a bowl game. And then, of course they beat
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt the next time out. They had to struggle a
Speaker 1: bit to beat Vandy because they had been dealing with
Speaker 1: their emotions all week, but it sent Kentucky to the
Speaker 1: Music City Bowl. You know, the lost of Tennessee followed,
Speaker 1: but what else was new? But yeah, that was the
Speaker 1: first time the Wildcats had been to a bowl game
Speaker 1: in quite a while, and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Of course, they pulled off the upset of Clemson. And
Speaker 1: then three years later Kentucky spilled Georgia in Athens in
Speaker 1: a game that was just crazy, Kentucky forcing four turnovers
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget doing the postgame sitting on the
Speaker 1: bench on the Kentucky sideline, I looked up because I
Speaker 1: was trying to remember exactly what the score was. They
Speaker 1: had shut off the scoreboard it was dark, so I
Speaker 1: always look for that when I'm on the road. If
Speaker 1: Kentucky bulls off a road wind to see does anybody
Speaker 1: else turn off the scoreboard as quickly as Georgia does?
Speaker 1: And the answer so far is not. Up Next, we'll
Speaker 1: here from Rich Brooks, who of course will be the
Speaker 1: celebrity broadcast opening voice this Saturday when the Cats take
Speaker 1: on the Bulldogs at Kroger Field. We're back in a
Speaker 1: minute here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider Thursday edition of
Speaker 1: our program UK football coming up Saturday afternoon into the
Speaker 1: evening five thirty broadcast time seven thirty kickoff. And if
Speaker 1: you've been listening to the first couple of games, which
Speaker 1: we appreciate, you've noticed that we have added celebrity Wildcats
Speaker 1: basically opening our broadcast bill Ransdell week number one, Jojo
Speaker 1: Kemp last week, and we thought for the Georgia game,
Speaker 1: why not a guy who knows about beating Georgia, that
Speaker 1: is the former head coach Rich Brooks. And of course
Speaker 1: the indoor facility now named for Rich and his wife Karen,
Speaker 1: and we got hold of him the other night to
Speaker 1: record the open and to talk about Kentucky football and
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about what it takes to be
Speaker 1: Georgia and what it was like for him to see
Speaker 1: his team, which in six, let's face it, early in
Speaker 1: the year, was struggling, but put it together in time
Speaker 1: to beat first Mississippi State after that awful loss to
Speaker 1: LSU and then the Georgia Bulldogs with a freshman quarterback
Speaker 1: by the name of Matthew Stafford. My conversation with the
Speaker 1: former UK coach, I know you talked at length about
Speaker 1: how things turned around in twenty oh six, but that
Speaker 1: Georgia game in particular, what do you remember about that?
Speaker 1: Because Stafford was a freshman, but he was pretty darn
Speaker 1: good quarterback, wasn't he?
Speaker 7: He was a very good quarterback. But you know, we
Speaker 7: had gone through the very tough loss at LSU bye week,
Speaker 7: and then we got a tough win on the road
Speaker 7: at Mississippi State and came home against Georgia, and our
Speaker 7: players had a totally different mindset and they really carried
Speaker 7: a positive attitude forward. And I really credit the backbone
Speaker 7: of our players were making play after play after play
Speaker 7: in that Georgia game, and when we need to have it,
Speaker 7: we took the ball to drive down the field and basically,
Speaker 7: you know, Tony Dixon just ran it right down their
Speaker 7: throat and we took it in for to go ahead touchdown.
Speaker 1: I just felt like Tony never got enough credit because
Speaker 1: Rafael was so good. You had so many playmakers, But
Speaker 1: Tony was a heck of a player when he was healthy,
Speaker 1: wasn't he Tony Cherry?
Speaker 7: I had Tony Cherry at Oregon? Tony Dixon. Tony Dixon
Speaker 7: was an outstanding back. I'll never forget his very very
Speaker 7: first game. We put in a little pitch play and
Speaker 7: when he came I tried him at corner first because
Speaker 7: of his size. And during a practice I wasn't happy
Speaker 7: with what our running backs were doing, so I moved
Speaker 7: him over in the middle of the scrimmage and told
Speaker 7: the coaches to hand him the ball. He didn't even
Speaker 7: and told him where to go, and from then on
Speaker 7: he was a running back. In our very first game,
Speaker 7: he made a long run about a sixty yarder for
Speaker 7: a touchdown. I'll never get going over and giving him
Speaker 7: a kiss on the forehead and He made tons of
Speaker 7: plays over his four year career that helped us win
Speaker 7: a lot of very important football games.
Speaker 1: And that Georgia run, that whole series was phenomenal. And
Speaker 1: we talked in our game opening script about the interception
Speaker 1: at the end of the first half. Roger Williams got it,
Speaker 1: but that that was huge. People we don't realize how big.
Speaker 1: We remember Trevard as well we should, and then the
Speaker 1: field goal or the goal post coming down, But that
Speaker 1: interception at the end of the first half was huge, wasn't.
Speaker 7: It, Roger Williams. I mean, we had so many underrated
Speaker 7: players that made huge plays during that six seven eight.
Speaker 7: They just were phenomenal young men. They took the bit
Speaker 7: in their mouth and just took charge, and they refused
Speaker 7: to go the way of the past teams at Kentucky,
Speaker 7: and I just admire the young men I coached. They
Speaker 7: kept making play after play after play.
Speaker 1: You've talked before about how Andre Woodson kind of blossom
Speaker 1: developed as a quarterback, and you said about halfway through
Speaker 1: that six year he went from being a guy that
Speaker 1: he obviously was looking of the sidelines, but he was
Speaker 1: becoming a guy who could get you out of a
Speaker 1: bad play. Not necessarily checked to a great play, but
Speaker 1: just get you out of a bad play. He was
Speaker 1: begging to show that in that Georgia game, wasn't he?
Speaker 7: Yes, I think you know, the Louisville lost to open
Speaker 7: that season, I think really really matured him, if you will,
Speaker 7: And as we went on through the season, he became
Speaker 7: a more of a leader and took a take charge guy.
Speaker 7: And he really I think blossomed during that second half
Speaker 7: of the season in six and really in some situations,
Speaker 7: you know, he just took over and put our team
Speaker 7: on his back. I mean, you go forward to the
Speaker 7: LSU game in seven and look what he did, and
Speaker 7: it was unbelievable the passes he made under extreme pressure.
Speaker 1: Now, looking back on those goalposts coming down, were you
Speaker 1: already inside when that happened or what was happening? I
Speaker 1: know you were concerned your players not get hurt with
Speaker 1: all that going on, but that had to be just
Speaker 1: a real source of joy for you as the head coach.
Speaker 7: You know, that was one of those I think we
Speaker 7: got to find from the sec with the fans taking
Speaker 7: onto the field, and that happened quite a few times,
Speaker 7: but it was it was a great moment. I think
Speaker 7: for our team, I think it was a great moment
Speaker 7: because of what had transpired for three and a half
Speaker 7: years before that, and coming off of the probation that
Speaker 7: I inherited. I think that win started the real enjoyment
Speaker 7: that our players brought to the Kentucky fans. And I
Speaker 7: was engulfed a little bit in the crowd, So I
Speaker 7: don't remember the goal posts coming down, but I did
Speaker 7: see them being at the end after they were down,
Speaker 7: so I was trying to get in the locker room.
Speaker 1: I don't blame you.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: There's so much talk about Bowl games, and it always
Speaker 1: really wounds me when I hear people talk about, ah,
Speaker 1: these games don't mean anything. I always go back and
Speaker 1: I will say this to people. Look at that photo
Speaker 1: of you with your players, because that game puts you,
Speaker 1: guys into the postseason and you wind up in the
Speaker 1: Music City Bowl, which which you win, you upset Clemson,
Speaker 1: and the way you celebrated with your players, the unbridled
Speaker 1: joy that all of you shared that day, that to
Speaker 1: me still means something. That's first Bowl game I had
Speaker 1: covered in forever, and just remembering that, I got to
Speaker 1: think from your memory, Max, and you celebrated when they
Speaker 1: dediccrate and dedicated the field house to you and your wife,
Speaker 1: you celebrated again with your players.
Speaker 7: What that meant, Well, I just looked back at that
Speaker 7: time and I had players that had my back. And
Speaker 7: I didn't know it at the time, but I guess
Speaker 7: I needed somebody to have my back, and the players did.
Speaker 7: The fan base was a little disgruntled. Administration was questioning things,
Speaker 7: and the players stuck with the plan and they believed
Speaker 7: in the plan and they executed it, and we finally
Speaker 7: overcame the negativity that we were dealing with. And it
Speaker 7: was just a joyful, positive moment that we were not
Speaker 7: only able to get to a bowl game, but to
Speaker 7: be a very, very good Clemson football team, and in
Speaker 7: the way we did it, I think was kind of
Speaker 7: exciting too.
Speaker 1: There were so many big plays in that game that
Speaker 1: was truly a team win, wasn't it. I mean, from
Speaker 1: the fake punt, Demorio Ford sneaks behind the defense, you
Speaker 1: score a touchdown with a linebacker. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorite games. It has to
Speaker 1: be one of.
Speaker 7: Yours, no question. And Keenan Burton playing on a bum
Speaker 7: knee and the emergence and arrival of Stevie Johnson in
Speaker 7: that game. He was huge. Jacob Tammy, I mean, we
Speaker 7: just had player after player. Travard Linley made several major
Speaker 7: plays on defense. There were just so many great things
Speaker 7: that we kept overcoming, and I just it was a
Speaker 7: very very special time in my life to be able
Speaker 7: to associate with the players that I had at the
Speaker 7: University of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: I remember, never forget this. When we got to Nashville,
Speaker 1: the media, you guys have been there working out. We
Speaker 1: got there early in the week and both you and
Speaker 1: your receivers coach Choker Phillips said the same thing. The
Speaker 1: lights have come on for Stevie Johnson those extra weeks.
Speaker 1: And you've preached that all the time. You try to
Speaker 1: educate everybody about the value of the Bowl game is
Speaker 1: well beyond just getting to the game. It's the extra
Speaker 1: weeks of practice. And I remember you saying the come on,
Speaker 1: Stevie Johnson.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And that gave us extra practices to develop the
Speaker 7: younger players going into seven and every time you go
Speaker 7: to a bowl game, you get approximately probably at least
Speaker 7: seven or eight really good practices where you can develop
Speaker 7: your younger players as well as start game preparation and
Speaker 7: those extra practices. You can't put a number on how
Speaker 7: important they are to developing a team, especially when you're
Speaker 7: trying to build something from tough times.
Speaker 1: More of my conversation with former UK head coach Rich
Speaker 1: Brooks on the other side of the break here on
Speaker 1: the Big Moon Sider at six thirty w Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Moon Sider. Here is more of my
Speaker 1: conversation with former UK head coach Rich Brooks. Well, let
Speaker 1: me ask you about the nine win again, unexpected because
Speaker 1: it's on the road, so tough to win anywhere, but
Speaker 1: especially in a place like Samper Stadium between between the hedges,
Speaker 1: and again with almost an entirely different team coach. It
Speaker 1: was a true team effort. Wasn't an offense and defense?
Speaker 1: So many different people making plays.
Speaker 7: Well, there's no question about it. I remember Steve Hellier
Speaker 7: after the game, he was up in the press box
Speaker 7: and at halftime he rode down in the elevator with
Speaker 7: the Georgia coaches and they were laughing and cackling, and
Speaker 7: you know, we got these guys now, and and we
Speaker 7: had a couple of Georgia boys make some really big
Speaker 7: plays on defense. Bat of the ball intercepted the past.
Speaker 7: I mean, yeah, my goodness, I mean, and what a
Speaker 7: moment for him in his home state, not too far
Speaker 7: where he went to high school from that stadium. So
Speaker 7: it just was a really really special win.
Speaker 1: Randall Cobb was a big Morgan Newton had a great game.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could you could sit here all night
Speaker 1: and talk about the guys who contributed.
Speaker 7: And there's no question and it just was a treat
Speaker 7: for me to be able to work again with almost
Speaker 7: a whole new group of players, if you will. Then
Speaker 7: the ones that turned it around in six those are
Speaker 7: the ones that came in and went through all the
Speaker 7: tough times. A lot of the players in that nine
Speaker 7: win had enjoyed some pretty good times. They didn't understand
Speaker 7: that the difficulty and upness, but they had the resolve
Speaker 7: to come back and pull out a win on the
Speaker 7: road at Georgia, which in today's world looks like something
Speaker 7: that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: And you remember what happened. You were still out there
Speaker 1: on the field because at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: that scoreboard went off almost instantly. Do you remember that
Speaker 1: the final score didn't stay up very long.
Speaker 7: Did it? No? No, they weren't very happy with it.
Speaker 1: You know, and it's it's such a special thing to
Speaker 1: win on the road, obviously, and you know we travel
Speaker 1: with you guys, but I don't remember what the trip
Speaker 1: back was like, but that had to be just again,
Speaker 1: something special to travel back home after.
Speaker 7: A win like that, there's no question. And you know
Speaker 7: it's hard to get out of Athens to get back
Speaker 7: to the airport in Atlanta, so the bus ride was
Speaker 7: a lot more joyful than some of them we took
Speaker 7: out of that stadium.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I phone home with a few of those teams
Speaker 1: after losing and everybody tried to get to sleep as
Speaker 1: quickly as possible, which I don't believe him, but yeah,
Speaker 1: winning on the road. So as we wrap this up, coach,
Speaker 1: I know that you were stung by last week's loss,
Speaker 1: but I know how much you care about and how
Speaker 1: highly you regard Mark Stoops in a way he does
Speaker 1: his job. Any thoughts on the game going in this weekend.
Speaker 7: Well, you know, I kind of looked back to my
Speaker 7: game at LSU in six before we were able to
Speaker 7: turn the thing around with the win over Mississippi State
Speaker 7: in Georgia. But nothing went right for us in that
Speaker 7: game either, I mean We looked awful, turned the ball over,
Speaker 7: couldn't stop anybody, couldn't make plays, drop passes, mistackles. Frankly
Speaker 7: looked like I didn't coach the team and we did
Speaker 7: whatever we did. Nothing worked. But that after that game,
Speaker 7: we figured some things out and we became a very
Speaker 7: close knit team and a team that started making plays
Speaker 7: and clutch situations rather than comping it up in close
Speaker 7: flut situations. So I'm just hoping that Mark and flipped
Speaker 7: this thing around, because that game reminded me very much
Speaker 7: of that LSU performance, where, like I said, all systems failure,
Speaker 7: it's just nothing. Nothing was working. Looked like we didn't
Speaker 7: even care almost. I mean, it was just embarrassing, and
Speaker 7: I hope that the players are as embarrassed as I
Speaker 7: know Mark Stoukes was after that game. I mean, it's
Speaker 7: one of the hardest things to do as a coach
Speaker 7: is go in when you know you've laid an eight
Speaker 7: and face the press and try to explain it. I mean,
Speaker 7: it's hard to explain.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Mark mentioned that on his press conference on
Speaker 1: Monday again. He said, you know, it starts at the top.
Speaker 1: He said, it starts with me, and we got to
Speaker 1: figure things out just as you did. Now you had
Speaker 1: the extra week which helped. And you've talked before and
Speaker 1: it was in your book about how you guys went
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals. You went to some tough workouts, but
Speaker 1: your team bonded that week and you ground out people.
Speaker 1: Forget about that Mississippi State win in Starkville. That was
Speaker 1: an incredibly important win, but it just showed how much
Speaker 1: your kids had pulled together when it might not have
Speaker 1: happened that way.
Speaker 7: If if we don't win the Mississippi State game, we
Speaker 7: probably don't upset Georgia because the players had to have
Speaker 7: some positive reinforcement for the practices that we had for
Speaker 7: two weeks leading up to that team, and we did
Speaker 7: get to win on the road and then everything fell
Speaker 7: into place for that team.
Speaker 1: Well, Coach has been great talking to you. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to hearing you open our broadcast on Saturday. It
Speaker 1: was great seeing you as they dedicated, as I said,
Speaker 1: the facility, the Rich and Karen Brooks facility here, you've
Speaker 1: got to feel named after you out there at Oregon.
Speaker 1: Are there going to be any other buildings or anything
Speaker 1: named after you in the near future, because you're all
Speaker 1: over the country.
Speaker 7: You know, I doubt it. I've just been a very
Speaker 7: fortunate coach to be able to recruit quality young men
Speaker 7: that took things into their own hands and made things happen.
Speaker 1: Well, we know about the tough times you went through here.
Speaker 1: You went through I know from reading and following you
Speaker 1: tough times in Oregon. I got to think, when you
Speaker 1: were a young head coach, you probably never thought you'd
Speaker 1: have a field named after you or a field house
Speaker 1: named after you. But but the kids came through for you,
Speaker 1: didn't they.
Speaker 7: Well I had t shirts named after Why it's Rich.
Speaker 7: That's Rich. So so you know I got my name
Speaker 7: on something.
Speaker 1: That keeps you humble, doesn't it.
Speaker 7: Coach?
Speaker 1: Thanks great talking to you. My best of Karen, and
Speaker 1: hope to see you again soon.
Speaker 7: Really enjoy you and my time at Kentucky and you're
Speaker 7: the best.
Speaker 1: Thank you, coach. We'll see I hope soon.
Speaker 7: Take care of it.
Speaker 1: Bye bye. Love talking football with Rich Brooks because so
Speaker 1: many of us set a ringside seat for how he
Speaker 1: turned this program around, and I really like covering bowl games.
Speaker 1: Up next hour number two and Matthews sign of the
Speaker 1: College Football Foundation will join us to talk about the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame and Tim Couch. That's all ahead here
Speaker 1: on a big Moon Sider six point thirty w LAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Old Sider. Joining us on
Speaker 1: our celebrity outline as a longtime friend and a colleague
Speaker 1: and a guy who knows what's going on up in
Speaker 1: the mountains of Eastern Kentucky when it comes to sports.
Speaker 1: Brian Milm, formerly the sports director WYMT now w KYT.
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to Brian because Saturday is the
Speaker 1: day Kentucky UK will honor Tim Katch going into the
Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame. And when you arrived at YMT,
Speaker 1: Tim was here just just tearing it up at UK,
Speaker 1: tearing up college football. I know how proud they were
Speaker 1: up in the mountains too. That had to be interesting
Speaker 1: to see everybody's hometown boy from me Kentucky doing good
Speaker 1: things here.
Speaker 5: Well, it was because there was an and you know this,
Speaker 5: and it goes back to the eight alph Rup days.
Speaker 5: When there is a Kentucky connection in terms of players
Speaker 5: to the Kentucky teams, whatever the sport, it means something
Speaker 5: a little bit extra and that's you know, everybody will
Speaker 5: root for UK. But if you have a guy from
Speaker 5: the mountains or from western Kentucky, not necessarily Louisville or Lexington,
Speaker 5: but when they come from a rural area, there's a romance.
Speaker 5: I think that's there. There's a story book type of
Speaker 5: a uh of an attitude people take because it is
Speaker 5: an area that you don't expect the greatest player to
Speaker 5: come from. Not a very good player, but the guy
Speaker 5: who is considered the greatest quarterback in UK history and
Speaker 5: in the high school's history can like what Travis Perry
Speaker 5: brought from Lyon County for basketball this year.
Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, yeah, when you can definitively point and
Speaker 1: say he's the best, not what do you think of
Speaker 1: that guy? Well, he's pretty good, but so and so. No,
Speaker 1: I mean the guy rewrote the record book.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, he's and he started playing as an eighth grader.
Speaker 5: He's got I think it's either seventy two or ninety
Speaker 5: two yards that are not counted by the KHSAA and
Speaker 5: the National Federation of High Schools because they only count
Speaker 5: from your true high school years for football. But they count, yeah,
Speaker 5: but they but they do count point that you score
Speaker 5: in basketball, hence Travis Berry, which is kind of interesting.
Speaker 5: But you know, you play for all of those years,
Speaker 5: and you have your older brother like Greg Couch to
Speaker 5: show you the ropes. You have a coach like Mike
Speaker 5: Whittaker who went to UK for a cup of coffee
Speaker 5: and then had an outstanding career at EKU. You grow
Speaker 5: up around that, and you have guys that can catch
Speaker 5: the football. And it was just the perfect timing for
Speaker 5: everything for Tim. And he not only brought the state
Speaker 5: spotlight to Heiden, but the national spotlight as well. When
Speaker 5: coaches of heavyweight programs are coming into little Hydeen, Kentucky
Speaker 5: that obviously, if Tim wasn't there, they didn't need directions
Speaker 5: how to get there. And it was a special time
Speaker 5: because I was in college, but I was in the
Speaker 5: mountains a lot visiting. Friends of mine dated a lady
Speaker 5: from eastern Kentucky, and so when I would go and visit,
Speaker 5: I say.
Speaker 7: Well, who's this Couch guy?
Speaker 5: Yes, you know this is pretty incredible.
Speaker 7: Well we all found out how good he was.
Speaker 1: I remember when his team came and played in election
Speaker 1: in at one of those Bowl game doubleheaders, and they
Speaker 1: played at Tates Creek, if memory serves, and I was
Speaker 1: over there covering the games. Obviously for kyt and was
Speaker 1: doing some talk radio then, and I remember the first
Speaker 1: thing out of my mouth was Tim Couch is the truth,
Speaker 1: the whole truth and nothing. But I was like, can
Speaker 1: this guy really be that good? And granted it was
Speaker 1: small high school stuff in the state of Kentucky, but
Speaker 1: you could see his athletic ability was I mean away
Speaker 1: he threw the football. Golly, that was he was just
Speaker 1: kind of a freak athlete.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And that game you're talking about where they came, they
Speaker 5: beat Highlands that day, that's right, Yeah, opening game of
Speaker 5: the season in ninety five. And and Tim is so
Speaker 5: much of a passer, that's obviously how he buttered his
Speaker 5: bread in high school and college. But in high school
Speaker 5: he also ran the ball. When you're six five and
Speaker 5: that physical you need to run over people, and he
Speaker 5: certainly did that. So he also had that the playmaking
Speaker 5: ability with his feet when he had to, and he
Speaker 5: just was a phenomenal player. Now I didn't get to
Speaker 5: see him in person, but when you watch the video, yeah,
Speaker 5: the truth, the ball just had that extra zip coming
Speaker 5: out of his hand. And again Mike White and then
Speaker 5: Joe Beeder his last year, continued that offensive play calling
Speaker 5: to maximize the skill that he had and now then
Speaker 5: he goes to UK and does what he does at
Speaker 5: Kentucky and helps revolutionize a program. And just really two
Speaker 5: years this place was talking football. Yes, basketball was doing
Speaker 5: its thing in ninety six, ninety seven to ninety eight,
Speaker 5: but people could not wait to get to the fall
Speaker 5: and that had not always happened before.
Speaker 1: Talking to Brian Mylein, sports director WKYT about Tim Kouch
Speaker 1: coming from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, where Brian spent
Speaker 1: quite a bit of his career working at WYMT, and
Speaker 1: I know you so well. You sit up laid watch
Speaker 1: baseball games on TV and on YouTube and this and that,
Speaker 1: and you know you're even more of a nerd when
Speaker 1: it comes to archiving video than I was for crying
Speaker 1: out loud at KYT. But something that's got to be down, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it's got to be down. But it's also fun.
Speaker 1: I love shifting through old video. What was it like
Speaker 1: for you when you got to YMT and you started
Speaker 1: seeing old video of Tim Couch?
Speaker 5: Well, you know it's funny you asked that, or because
Speaker 5: when I go back to help at YMT just as
Speaker 5: an advisor, usually just a few times a year, well,
Speaker 5: the last time I was there, I stumble across Kim
Speaker 5: Couch video from nineteen ninety five and I'm just amazed.
Speaker 7: I was like, wow, look at this.
Speaker 5: It was against mc napier, a school no longer around
Speaker 5: that's now part of Perry County Central, and I was
Speaker 5: just watching it and I was thinking, my gosh, how aggressive,
Speaker 5: how mean in a positive way he was on the
Speaker 5: football field. It wasn't just you know when he got
Speaker 5: the UK and how Mummy had the passing game. You know,
Speaker 5: there was a lot of you know, dink and dooint
Speaker 5: passes that some people said, oh, you know, he can't
Speaker 5: throw the ball the way Peyton Manning can. But then
Speaker 5: when you saw that rifle shot he gave Craig Yeast
Speaker 5: in the Alabama game, he threaded that triangular window perfectly,
Speaker 5: and you could see, Wow, I understand now if you
Speaker 5: only saw one pass his entire collegiate career and you
Speaker 5: saw that path, you realized what everybody was bragging about
Speaker 5: for the five years previous. But watching that video, it's
Speaker 5: just phenomenal. And then to have the touch on the
Speaker 5: football when you have a fade pattern or you have
Speaker 5: an out route, and just to see Yeah, he could
Speaker 5: throw bullets, but he could also finesse it in there
Speaker 5: and drop it in when he had it.
Speaker 1: I got to share with you something that Jeff fan
Speaker 1: Notes said to me. Of course, he was our radio
Speaker 1: color analyst back then and an NFL veteran, knew everybody
Speaker 1: in the league because he was also part of the
Speaker 1: Players Association for so long. But he was actually at
Speaker 1: the last workout, private workout that the Browns put Tim
Speaker 1: Couch through prior to that draft, because you remember it
Speaker 1: was it was was it going to be Tim Couch
Speaker 1: or Achille Smith. Brown's Bangers were drafting one two Achille
Speaker 1: coming out of Oregon, a great athlete, had a great arm,
Speaker 1: but kind of a loose cannon type of player. And
Speaker 1: we knew what Tim was. And Noter told us, he said,
Speaker 1: I have never seen a more impressive private workout. And
Speaker 1: he was not guy guy over Tim Couch just because
Speaker 1: he was a UK guy, you know, Noah was an
Speaker 1: NFL veteran. He said, I've never seen a more a
Speaker 1: better private workout. And he said the last pass that
Speaker 1: he threw Dwight Clark, I'm like what it was. Dwight
Speaker 1: Clark was in the front office with the forty nine ers,
Speaker 1: and he was catching balls from couch Uh and he
Speaker 1: said he threw one kind of a tight end route
Speaker 1: over the middle, and he said there was so much
Speaker 1: on it. He said, I thought they were gonna have
Speaker 1: to surgically remove the ball from Clark's gut, you know.
Speaker 1: So that that told me everything I needed to know.
Speaker 1: But the other thing, too, is that I like the point.
Speaker 1: I've talked to Tim about it. He said, hell of
Speaker 1: a basketball player, wasn't he?
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh. He averaged in the mid to upper
Speaker 5: thirties his senior year for Leslie County, and I want
Speaker 5: to say thirty seven a game that sounds about right,
Speaker 5: feels right, but it's within a bucket or two either way.
Speaker 5: And there were there was talk back then that, hey,
Speaker 5: if he'd misster football and mister basketball, because that's never
Speaker 5: happened before, and everybody, I think, up and down, up
Speaker 5: and down and across the country thought he would win
Speaker 5: mister basketball if Leslie County could get out of that
Speaker 5: competitive fourteenth region and the district alone that had at
Speaker 5: that time mc napier and Hazard and Bill Scomb's and
Speaker 5: and and teams like that. But it wasn't meant to be.
Speaker 5: But he could put on a show. And there's one
Speaker 5: clip of video. I want him to sit down with
Speaker 5: me sometime and relive because he got taken out on
Speaker 5: a dunk or a layup, and he got up to
Speaker 5: one of the kid who undercut it, who had a
Speaker 5: tough reputation to begin with, and he points to his nose.
Speaker 5: He goes, hit me right now. I'm right here, hit
Speaker 5: me right now. And the camera happened to be three
Speaker 5: feet from the altercation. Wow, it wasn't on the other
Speaker 5: side of the court. It was up close and personal.
Speaker 5: And I always wanted him to walk me through that
Speaker 5: situation because he was a marked man. And in the
Speaker 5: mountains they get a little rough. In basketball, they understand
Speaker 5: if they can't beat you, will beat you up in
Speaker 5: other ways to maybe get under your skin. But he
Speaker 5: could shoot it, he could drive to the basket, he
Speaker 5: could do a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: I know there was talk of him maybe playing here,
Speaker 1: but that one out the window pretty quickly. But I
Speaker 1: had him on s earlier this week. I wish I
Speaker 1: had known that. Next time I have him on, I
Speaker 1: have to ask him that question, ask him about that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, he remembers. My guest sports director w K
Speaker 1: wait to you, We'll come back and talk more with
Speaker 1: Ryan is amitted here on the Big Blue Sider six
Speaker 1: point thirty. Welcome back for chatting with Brian Mileymy is
Speaker 1: the sports director at WKYT here in Lexington, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to shift you from Kentucky football over to EKU
Speaker 1: football because you covered, I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 1: the Eastern Western game last Saturday. Correct, And you're like me,
Speaker 1: you love the traditional games, but you know they hadn't
Speaker 1: played it. I don't know how long. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're going to play again thanks to the big
Speaker 1: Jersey flap. But I've got to think, Brian, it just
Speaker 1: didn't feel quite the same.
Speaker 5: Did it. It didn't because I am, as you know,
Speaker 5: when it comes to sports. I'm a traditionalist in the
Speaker 5: fact that I want to see your student body, your
Speaker 5: community show up to support your team. And I don't
Speaker 5: care what level of sport we're talking about. If it's
Speaker 5: Berea College to Transi to Georgetown to Kentucky, obviously they're
Speaker 5: going to put sixty thousand people in there just about
Speaker 5: every Saturday. But then I was so disappointed when EKU
Speaker 5: got to Western and I was there an hour and
Speaker 5: a half, two hours before the game, and I just
Speaker 5: watched the people and there were so many empty seats
Speaker 5: in the old part of fights field. They do have
Speaker 5: a beautiful new I call it the Hardball Wing because
Speaker 5: they really did it upright when Jack Harball won that
Speaker 5: national title twenty two years ago. And they have advanced
Speaker 5: to the FCS level while EKU is still in the
Speaker 5: FBS level. But the rivalry does not mean what it
Speaker 5: once did except for those who can respect and appreciate
Speaker 5: what happened during coach fights and coach kids era, and
Speaker 5: it just didn't have that same. Hey it's Eastern Western,
Speaker 5: it just didn't have it. And I'm not sure if
Speaker 5: the rivalries of what some consider a less thir tier.
Speaker 5: It's not Major Division one football, it's not SEC ACC,
Speaker 5: Big ten, whatever. I just don't know if it's ever
Speaker 5: going to be recaptured again. But there were a lot
Speaker 5: of people from Eastern that made the trip to Western,
Speaker 5: and I would love to see one more time and
Speaker 5: then do it again, to see a capacity crowd a
Speaker 5: game go down to the wire and you just don't
Speaker 5: know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Western Kentucky Stilling Conference USA.
Speaker 7: Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 1: Okay, see, I'm hoping for their sake that EKU finally
Speaker 1: breaks through because it has tried, and it has put
Speaker 1: a lot of money into its facilities to get to
Speaker 1: Division one. We're dollars. It might cost you more in
Speaker 1: scholars but for football, they're D one and everything else.
Speaker 1: People don't understand that just because they're one double A
Speaker 1: in football doesn't mean they r D one and everything else.
Speaker 1: But if they could only get back into the same conference, Brian,
Speaker 1: I do believe we could recapture some of that, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
Speaker 7: Oh sure?
Speaker 5: And I think there was a time, as you know this,
Speaker 5: when the Kentucky schools played the Kentucky schools. There was Murray,
Speaker 5: Western was in there, obviously morehead State and e KU.
Speaker 5: You had that foursome right there that just wanted to
Speaker 5: wear out everybody. You wanted to beat Murray, you wanted
Speaker 5: to beat Western, you know, Eastern what have you? And
Speaker 5: and with the movement, the seismic movement of conferences today,
Speaker 5: I told someone the ACC does not mean Atlantic Coast
Speaker 5: Conference anymore. It just means the ACC because you can't
Speaker 5: bring Stanford in and call it the Atlantic. And with
Speaker 5: with Eastern, you know, they leave the OVC, then they
Speaker 5: get to the a Sun Well they stay there for
Speaker 5: a hot second, and then they get to the UAC.
Speaker 5: Then they get Last year was that they were in
Speaker 5: the Mountain West with some of those schools out there,
Speaker 5: and I thought, there's too much movement. People don't know who.
Speaker 5: You have to establish an identity and there's just so
Speaker 5: much movement. I think that's also taken away from the rivalry.
Speaker 5: The crowds, Hey, who are you playing this week? Abilene
Speaker 5: Christian never heard of them? You know, who are you
Speaker 5: playing this week? West Georgia never heard of them? You know,
Speaker 5: people know e KU, they know Eastern Kentucky, the reputation
Speaker 5: Roy Kid built and before him in Presnel, but it
Speaker 5: just doesn't have that same punch. And I think for
Speaker 5: Eastern to get to where Western is, they've got to
Speaker 5: start taking care of business in this new conference they're
Speaker 5: in the United Athletic Conference. They've got to start winning that,
Speaker 5: you know, they've got to start winning it three out
Speaker 5: of four years. The way Eastern seemed to dominate the
Speaker 5: OBC for so many seasons, and if Eastern wasn't winning it.
Speaker 5: Middle Tennessee was there, or Tennessee State possibly, but Western
Speaker 5: Kentucky was winning conference championships way back when, and Eastern's
Speaker 5: got to take care of what they can take care
Speaker 5: of before. I think some of the older generations says, well,
Speaker 5: Western's here, why can't we be here? Well, you got
Speaker 5: to win where you are first.
Speaker 1: Didn't get there, you know when when Roy passed away
Speaker 1: and we were talking to so many people about him.
Speaker 1: Carl Park, the longtime sid, ed e k you told
Speaker 1: us and I don't think I knew this. You might have,
Speaker 1: but what you know? You you refer to Jack Harbo
Speaker 1: who basically thanks to Jim and you know as much
Speaker 1: as anybody, because Jim poured a lot of money of
Speaker 1: his own shoe money into WK you to support his
Speaker 1: dad's program. But Western Kentucky was on the verge of
Speaker 1: dropping football's right. Roy Kidd went to Bowling Green and
Speaker 1: spoke passionately on behalf of Hilltopper football and helped save it.
Speaker 1: This is before any national championship, you know, and any
Speaker 1: conference title that Western Kentucky would subsequently win. Roy Kidd,
Speaker 1: who wanted to beat Western Kentucky as as badly as
Speaker 1: any team worse on his schedule went to Bulker Green
Speaker 1: to save the program that blew me away.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and you did. You were Roy Kidds guy in
Speaker 5: the eighties and nineties and early two thousands. I mean,
Speaker 5: you were the constant with him for those decades. And
Speaker 5: he gave an interview with you. He said, you know,
Speaker 5: it's bad enough you go down there basically, not paraphrase,
Speaker 5: it's bad enough you go down there to help him
Speaker 5: save a program. Then they come feat you. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: but it was let's say he went to Western in
Speaker 5: the late eighties, early nineties, and I believe that's when
Speaker 5: it was, when he helps Western keep that program. And
Speaker 5: then you know, you look at two thousand and one,
Speaker 5: two thousand and two when Harbaugh Western is the number
Speaker 5: sixteen seed of the sixteen teams and they.
Speaker 7: Win the off full set.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was I you know, I firmly believe
Speaker 5: it would never happen. But I'm sure Roy Kidd probably
Speaker 5: was sitting at home at that time going dogs. But
Speaker 5: you're welcome.
Speaker 7: I helped you to get there.
Speaker 1: Ryan, MYLM sports director WKYT, thanks so much.
Speaker 9: You.
Speaker 1: Matthew signed the College Football Hall of Fame next and
Speaker 1: six thirty will welcome back to the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: Dick Gabriel. What do you join now? On our celebrity
Speaker 1: Hotline by the Chief Operating Officer of the College Football
Speaker 1: found National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Matthew Signed. Matthew,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining.
Speaker 11: Us, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: You we chatted off air. You played college football at Rice,
Speaker 1: You've got an interesting resume, and now you become the
Speaker 1: COO of this operation and one of your projects, of course,
Speaker 1: is the Hall of Fame. Tim Couch going in. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's got to be just a joyful job to be
Speaker 1: a part of something like this with guys who have waited,
Speaker 1: you know, half their lives here about whether or not
Speaker 1: they're going to be Hall of famers, and you get
Speaker 1: to be a part of that.
Speaker 11: Yeah, these are really these are really nice and meaningful
Speaker 11: event and makes you really feel good about you know,
Speaker 11: college football in general. You know, it's hard to get
Speaker 11: into the College Football Hall of Fame. Now it should
Speaker 11: be it's a Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's hard to
Speaker 11: get in, and and you know, we we'd like to
Speaker 11: take everybody every year.
Speaker 7: But we you know, we just can't do it that way.
Speaker 11: So you know, these are you know, in light of
Speaker 11: the world we're living in, you know, these are very
Speaker 11: special days for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Tim was telling us the other night on the
Speaker 1: show that I think you guys educate them about numbers.
Speaker 1: There are like five million people who have played college
Speaker 1: football through the years and the holidays back to nineteen
Speaker 1: forty seven, and only a little more than a thousand
Speaker 1: have made the Hall of Fame. So it is special,
Speaker 1: isn't it It is.
Speaker 11: I mean, you're talking point zero two percent that we'll
Speaker 11: get in the Hall, and it's we're truly the best
Speaker 11: of the best, and you know, based on the numbers,
Speaker 11: it might be the toughest Hall of Fame to get into.
Speaker 11: So you know, first of all, just get on the
Speaker 11: ballot is a great accomplishment, you know, because we will
Speaker 11: only have eighty the fan of the year, eighty eighty
Speaker 11: five on that ballot that are going to be considered
Speaker 11: for the Hall of Fame. So, uh, it's very competitive,
Speaker 11: but we feel like we have a really good fair
Speaker 11: system and really looking forward to uh spending more time
Speaker 11: with Tim and honoring Tim Well.
Speaker 1: I've been a member of the Football Writers Association for
Speaker 1: quite some time. So he's gotten my boat more than once.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you, have you ever met Tim?
Speaker 11: I have in the in the previous life, I did
Speaker 11: some work for CBS Sports, so with Tim. Obviously we
Speaker 11: did some games with Kentucky with Tim Catcher quarterback and certainly, uh,
Speaker 11: you know how when Halimony was getting things up going there.
Speaker 11: So but I have not seen him in quite a while.
Speaker 1: Listen, let me tell you something, Matthew. He looks like
Speaker 1: he could still play the passionate after football. Now he
Speaker 1: puts into work out, so you might be a little
Speaker 1: surprised by what you see. But uh, now he is
Speaker 1: a great guy and then comes back quite a bit
Speaker 1: around the program a lot. But what do you remember
Speaker 1: about Mummy and capturing those games that you worked, well.
Speaker 11: You know those were you know, those were uh, you know,
Speaker 11: different times in the SEC and that's you know, right
Speaker 11: around the time that you know, Steve Spurrier had it
Speaker 11: going to Florida and they're kind of dominating and they
Speaker 11: were not really anybody else was throwing the football like them.
Speaker 11: And then when when the coach Mummy came in and
Speaker 11: had uh had coach Leach with him as a coordinator,
Speaker 11: and you know, he threw the ball around. It was
Speaker 11: and it was it was just it was different than
Speaker 11: what UH coach Spurrier was doing. And I think it really,
Speaker 11: I think it really at that time, well Kentucky to
Speaker 11: compete with the very best in the conference, and but
Speaker 11: had everybody started with Tien, it wouldn't happen. Him special
Speaker 11: talent and you know, you know, being All American and
Speaker 11: getting the Hall of Fame, you're a special talent.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 11: Look, he did special things there, you know, beating Alabama
Speaker 11: for the first time in seventy five years, you know,
Speaker 11: you know, going to a New Year's Day Bowl game,
Speaker 11: going to the Outback Bowl. Those were those are big
Speaker 11: moments for UH Kentucky football and and uh you know,
Speaker 11: Kentucky had kind of gone through some tough times since
Speaker 11: coach claiboron't have retired. So it was welcome and I
Speaker 11: can tell you it was it was always good TV,
Speaker 11: that's for sure.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when he signed with Kentucky. I was there at
Speaker 1: the news conference. It was a huge day, obviously, and
Speaker 1: you know, he was already a legend coming out of
Speaker 1: Leslie County High School and a tremendous athlete overall he
Speaker 1: led to stay to Kentucky and scoring in basketball one year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that was such a great get. And he'll
Speaker 1: he'll be the first to tell you, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's if you've talked to him or you will, he'll
Speaker 1: and he'll say this in his speech. Uh, he was
Speaker 1: surrounded by by really good players. And as you well know,
Speaker 1: you played receivers make quarterbacks, and quarterbacks make receivers and
Speaker 1: running backs in this offense. So uh, they had a
Speaker 1: lot of weapons back then. He took full advantage, no question.
Speaker 11: But and all those things you said exactly true. But
Speaker 11: you still need that catalyst, you still need that leader,
Speaker 11: You still need someone to come in and take charge
Speaker 11: of the huddle. And I think he provided. I think
Speaker 11: he really provided at the time of belief that Kentucky
Speaker 11: football could win and could win big in the SEC.
Speaker 11: And and I think it's you know, that was I
Speaker 11: think Kentucky football. Since that time, I think people have
Speaker 11: viewed it differently, but it had to someone had to
Speaker 11: get it started, and I think it started with Tim.
Speaker 11: And look, obviously he could have gone any place in
Speaker 11: the country he wanted to. You know, he stayed home
Speaker 11: and he played for Kentucky and the fact that he's
Speaker 11: still there, you know, doesn't doesn't really surprise us one bit.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Matthew sign As, the CEO of the
Speaker 1: National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. Tell our listeners, Matthew,
Speaker 1: how does the voting work? How are people voted in?
Speaker 1: How are they inducted?
Speaker 11: Sure, for a player, you have to be ten years
Speaker 11: clear of your last college game. You have to be
Speaker 11: a first team All American by an NCAA recognized All
Speaker 11: America team. Now, depending on the year, that's varied over
Speaker 11: time somewheres, we we four and eight depending on the year.
Speaker 11: And then your first team All American and you've waited
Speaker 11: ten years, and then you're also no longer playing professional football.
Speaker 11: Then the school nominates you. We rely on the school
Speaker 11: to nominate the player because they know they're players better
Speaker 11: than anybody else. And an individual institution can have two
Speaker 11: can nominate two players a year, they can have three
Speaker 11: on the ballot. And then once you go into once
Speaker 11: your nominated, you go to one of the eight district
Speaker 11: screening committees across the country and based on the number
Speaker 11: of schools and the number of nominees, will take a
Speaker 11: percentage from that district and that's how you get the
Speaker 11: ballot of eighty five. And then we have a public
Speaker 11: vote and then we have what's called the Honors Court
Speaker 11: that will make the final decision, and that the Honors
Speaker 11: Court is chaired by it and that's that board member,
Speaker 11: hall of famer and the only two time Heisman winner
Speaker 11: Archie Griffin. So there's a very it's you know, it's
Speaker 11: a very so it's a very well thought out play
Speaker 11: and of action, and you know, we feel very confident
Speaker 11: with it. The important thing is make sure people, especially
Speaker 11: to college universities, understand the process, and they and they
Speaker 11: do that. Everyone understands what the process is. And then
Speaker 11: you know, depending on the year, will take you know,
Speaker 11: somewhere between sixteen to nineteen players and usually take three coaches.
Speaker 11: So it's it's there's a there's a process to it,
Speaker 11: and like I said, it's hard to get in. And
Speaker 11: what makes Tim's Tim's All America year, What makes that
Speaker 11: very interesting is that, uh, I know, I remember that
Speaker 11: we had six All America teams that year because we had,
Speaker 11: uh we had three consensus All America quarterbacks that year.
Speaker 7: If you remember, Tim.
Speaker 11: May two made to All America teams. Kay McNown from
Speaker 11: UCLA made to all America teams. Michael Bishop of Kansas
Speaker 11: State made to all America teams. So it was it
Speaker 11: was a It was a very unique year with a
Speaker 11: lot of great players.
Speaker 1: Well, Bishop was a really exciting hybrid kind of quarterback
Speaker 1: and helped put Kansas State on the map. That was
Speaker 1: a surprise that year, wasn't it that?
Speaker 11: No, that's right, he did. You know, uh, you know
Speaker 11: they went undefeated until that last Saturday December and they
Speaker 11: got upset by you. And then of course the same
Speaker 11: day Kay mcnowh and u c l A took their
Speaker 11: twenty game winning streak to Miami and got upset and
Speaker 11: so and so you think about, you know, Michael Bishop
Speaker 11: getting Kansas State going, You talking about Tim Couch gitting
Speaker 11: Kentucky going, You talking about Kay mcnahw. Well, that's the
Speaker 11: last time UCLA has won a conference championship. It's the
Speaker 11: last time they've been to the Rose Bowl or a
Speaker 11: New Year's Day Bowl game.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 11: Sore three very special talents in the same year.
Speaker 1: Amazing. We're talking with Matthew Signed, he's the CEO the
Speaker 1: College Football Hall of Fame. Tim Couch being inducted this year,
Speaker 1: being honored on Saturday, and we'll come back and talk
Speaker 1: more college football with Matthew In just a moment here
Speaker 1: in the Big Blue Insider six thirty WLAP talking with
Speaker 1: Matthew signed. He is the COO of the National Football
Speaker 1: Foundation in College Hall of Fame. We're talking, of course
Speaker 1: about Tim Couch being inducted, going to be recognized this
Speaker 1: weekend at the UK game. I was talking to Tim
Speaker 1: about the list in war What a class. But you
Speaker 1: can say that, I'm sure every year. But I'll tell
Speaker 1: you the name. It takes me back, Matthew Dewey Selman.
Speaker 1: I mean I watched his team's play. That guy was
Speaker 1: a one man wrecking crew. And he was the Selman family,
Speaker 1: like was the first family of Oklahoma football, wasn't it.
Speaker 11: That's right? And you know glad it, you know, became
Speaker 11: his time and and uh, you know, obviously Oklahoma's got
Speaker 11: a lot of you know, a lot of players they
Speaker 11: got to choose from. But I think people when they
Speaker 11: see his highlights footage, you know, they're going to see
Speaker 11: what a what a dominating player you know he was
Speaker 11: at Oklahoma. You know, obviously got overshadowed by Leroy Salmon
Speaker 11: and forgot reason and but just a tremendous player, a
Speaker 11: great nose guard. And you know part of that as
Speaker 11: you look at this list, we really try when they
Speaker 11: when they put a class together, we really try to
Speaker 11: find balance from parts of the country, from a position, uh,
Speaker 11: from different eras you know, we got to make sure
Speaker 11: that you know, we can't pass try and pass people by.
Speaker 11: We have to really reflect because every year is its own.
Speaker 11: So it's great, it's really great to get him in.
Speaker 11: And what probably a lot people don't know about him.
Speaker 11: He was a great student. He was he was one
Speaker 11: of our scholar athletes. So he's very impressive and they'll
Speaker 11: see that induction.
Speaker 1: So many great names, Warwick, Dunn, Larry Fitzgerald, I mean,
Speaker 1: got Lee, Alex Smith, the QB at Utah. We all
Speaker 1: know what he went through with his injuries, but uh,
Speaker 1: you know they he and Urban Meyer putting Utah on
Speaker 1: the map. I love that you're taking Danny woodhead running
Speaker 1: back from a smaller school from Chadwick State back in
Speaker 1: the in the mid odds. I mean, that guy was
Speaker 1: a great football player.
Speaker 11: Great football player, and that's one again another unique thing
Speaker 11: about our Hall of Fame class, and you will see
Speaker 11: every year you will see two to three players from
Speaker 11: the divisional level, so FDS down and you'll see one
Speaker 11: or two coaches from the divisional level. So you know,
Speaker 11: this year you get Armanti Edwardson Appalachian State. Most fans
Speaker 11: will remember him. He was a quarterback when they upset
Speaker 11: number three Michigan. And then you got you know, Randy
Speaker 11: Moss from Marshall. You know, he was unique because he
Speaker 11: was All American at divisional. He was All American and
Speaker 11: FBS and so you know, because he was also an
Speaker 11: All American kick returner in FDS, we kind of.
Speaker 7: Went that route.
Speaker 11: But of course Danny Wood had, you know, just a
Speaker 11: special talent. And again, you know it's easy to see that,
Speaker 11: you know, as Casey kids. He had such a great
Speaker 11: NFL career, but before that, he was a great player
Speaker 11: chattam State.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he really was. And it was so much fun
Speaker 1: to watch the highlights because when his name got out there,
Speaker 1: you used to see more and more highlights from him.
Speaker 1: He really made a name for himself. As we talked
Speaker 1: with Matthew sin about the upcoming College Football Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame class of twenty twenty four coach Mark D'Antonio. People
Speaker 1: around here might remember when he was at Cincinnati prior
Speaker 1: to going to Michigan State, where he made the Spartans
Speaker 1: so relevant up there in the Big Ten. I love
Speaker 1: that choice.
Speaker 11: Yeah, he was did a great I mean, he did
Speaker 11: a great job there and you know, they won the
Speaker 11: hundred Throws Bowl Game. He took him to a semi final.
Speaker 11: And if you if you go back to his day
Speaker 11: at Cincinnati, if you remember he had that, he had that,
Speaker 11: he had that. I think his first big win in
Speaker 11: Cincinnati was the upset Ruggers. The year the Ruggers was
Speaker 11: the undefeated and they were ranked in the top five
Speaker 11: and they got upset by Cincinnati and and the kind
Speaker 11: of you know, took off from there. So I mean
Speaker 11: again and again, you know it's tough for coaches to
Speaker 11: get in as well. But you know, again we take
Speaker 11: great pride in the class. But uh uh no coach
Speaker 11: to Antonio a long time and so just you know,
Speaker 11: what you find out is not the these individuals are
Speaker 11: great players, that which is, but uh you find out
Speaker 11: they're great people as well.
Speaker 1: What's it like for you and the folks who are
Speaker 1: part of the Hall of Fame just to be around
Speaker 1: these guys, because this is the hype for many of them.
Speaker 1: Some will go onto the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: not many. Uh, but you know, you talk about a
Speaker 1: joyous occasion and their families are there and their friends. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's just got to be a wonderful atmosphere.
Speaker 11: Now, I mean it really is. And you know, with
Speaker 11: with with when you go into the Confortball Hall of Fame,
Speaker 11: we like to say, you get a couple of bites
Speaker 11: of the apple.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 11: You know, we make the announcement in January, but then
Speaker 11: like we're going to experience Saturday night uh at Kroger Field.
Speaker 11: You uh, you go back to campus and do an
Speaker 11: on campus salute. So we'll present Tim with a Hall
Speaker 11: of Fame plaque that that will be the one that
Speaker 11: the university keeps. And then Tim, you know, Tim gets
Speaker 11: officially inducted in Las Vegas and that's where the official
Speaker 11: induction takes place in Las Vegas, December tenth at Blagio.
Speaker 11: But so it gives you a couple of different chances
Speaker 11: to you know, have your family evolved, and and and
Speaker 11: but Faray Knight's gonna be special and Tim, I think
Speaker 11: I know Tim has been honored a lot of Kentucky.
Speaker 11: This is gonna look and feel different and he just
Speaker 11: doesn't know it yet because you hear that, but you
Speaker 11: hear that time and time again that this the the
Speaker 11: the again, the level of appreciation. Uh, you're in a
Speaker 11: full stadium, full crowd, all eyes aren't on you. These
Speaker 11: are these are wonderful moments. I got the Alex Smith
Speaker 11: on campus salute a few weeks ago, and you know,
Speaker 11: there's Alex Smith. He's had a lot of success. But
Speaker 11: you know the next thing you those he's got you know,
Speaker 11: he's got tears coming out, you know, coming down his cheeks,
Speaker 11: and it's a big moment.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got a list on the on the
Speaker 1: release about you know what these players have accomplished and
Speaker 1: under and Couches mentioned more than once, but under players
Speaker 1: who still hold school records. He's one of nine. I
Speaker 1: got to tell you, Matthew, those records are going to
Speaker 1: stand for a while. That guy got it done when
Speaker 1: he was here, thanks to the area. But I don't
Speaker 1: care what offense he was running, if it was a
Speaker 1: quarterback friendly offense. When it came to passing, Tim Koutch
Speaker 1: was going to get it done, no question.
Speaker 11: And that's that's why I said, you know, you know,
Speaker 11: you know they needed a catalyst and needed a leader. Yeah,
Speaker 11: obviously someone who was very talented. In the book that
Speaker 11: again that proved out and there there is, there is
Speaker 11: no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I got to ask you.
Speaker 1: You mentioned earlier you worked with CBS Sports back in
Speaker 1: the day. You work with Vernon Lundquist, who of course
Speaker 1: retired not long ago. Todd Blackledge as well, spent part
Speaker 1: of his childhood here in Lexing and he went he
Speaker 1: went to middle school right down the street from where
Speaker 1: I live. But vern Lundquist, what a talent, what a gentleman.
Speaker 1: It had to be great working around and with him.
Speaker 11: It was actually it was a real honor and to
Speaker 11: be able to you know, because usually you'll go in
Speaker 11: on Friday and you'll talk to the coaches and the
Speaker 11: coordinators and some players, and you know, sometimes, you know,
Speaker 11: sometimes there's coaches that make more time than others. But
Speaker 11: I can tell you one thing, when Vernal Inquist and
Speaker 11: Todd Blackledge walked in the room, you had, you had
Speaker 11: those coaches attention, and because I think they had the
Speaker 11: utmost respect and and Vern and Todd. Todd being the
Speaker 11: son of a coach, he's been there, he understand it.
Speaker 11: And Vern had just perfected his craft, and they knew
Speaker 11: what they're going to say to Vern and Todd. You know,
Speaker 11: it was going to be kept in confidence or only
Speaker 11: use when it came up during the game. But they
Speaker 11: were unique, and everybody loved Vern and the vern you
Speaker 11: see on TV is Vernon person. He was just a
Speaker 11: nice human being and one of the best broadcasters we
Speaker 11: ever had. And the first Kentucky game we did with
Speaker 11: and with Vern as a play by play, we went
Speaker 11: to dinner and that dinner, I don't remember his name
Speaker 11: was the was a former Kentucky governor, and so like, oh,
Speaker 11: this is gonna be this is gonna be a different
Speaker 11: this is gonna be a difference for us walk going
Speaker 11: to games of Vernon.
Speaker 1: He was he was broadcasting Royalty and I got a
Speaker 1: chance to say Ilo to him a few times. And
Speaker 1: then first time I met Todd Blacklitch told him I
Speaker 1: was from Lexingon. Of course his father was an assistant
Speaker 1: under Frank Kersey here and I told him I was
Speaker 1: from Lexingon and he said, how's coach son? So his
Speaker 1: middle school coach who was just a beloved coach, Harry Johnson.
Speaker 1: How's coach Johnson? You know that kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed that. And they just did such a
Speaker 1: great job for CBS. I'll let you go with this.
Speaker 1: You were a noseguard man. You played in the trench
Speaker 1: is at right and tough back when it was all
Speaker 1: Southwest Conference. You were an All conference player and as
Speaker 1: I told you, I worked on there. I know how
Speaker 1: tough that league was. But the fact that you you
Speaker 1: grounded out man as a player. But now you get
Speaker 1: to be a part of the uh the ceremonies for
Speaker 1: the College Hall of Fame. What a joy for you?
Speaker 11: Oh, I trust me, I am blessed. I get to
Speaker 11: work in college football, you know, every day of the year.
Speaker 11: You know, that's what you know. The foundation is fully
Speaker 11: committed to promoting and protecting the game, and so I
Speaker 11: get to work on it. So you know, we got,
Speaker 11: we got. There's a lot going on in college sports
Speaker 11: and college football, and I think everyone recognizes that. I
Speaker 11: think we all have to remember how much we enjoy
Speaker 11: our saturdays. You know, Lexington or wherever you are, that
Speaker 11: that that that special that specialness, that hasn't changed, and
Speaker 11: we should never let it change because I you know,
Speaker 11: that's people plan their year around five, six, seven Home Saturday.
Speaker 11: And I true believe that the fans are going and
Speaker 11: they love all the players. But you know it doesn't
Speaker 11: matter if they've been there one year, three year. You
Speaker 11: know they're they're they're supporting the UK on the helmet.
Speaker 11: That's right, and that that is what makes our game
Speaker 11: unique and special and and everyone needs to take a
Speaker 11: deep breath and just remember that and this. Enjoy your
Speaker 11: football Saturday.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about the Hall, go
Speaker 1: to Footballfoundation dot org. Matthew Sign, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Next time you're in town, holler at me. But I
Speaker 1: sure I have enjoyed talking to you.
Speaker 11: I enjoyed it and I appreciate uh the time today
Speaker 11: and hopefully I'll see you on Saturday. At some point.
Speaker 1: Matthew will be the one in the stadium helping to
Speaker 1: recognize Tim Couch at Kroger Field. That's going to do
Speaker 1: it for now. Thanks so much to my guests, to
Speaker 1: mister Sign, to Brian Milem and to Rich Brooks. Hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the look back at the two winds over
Speaker 1: the Georgia Bulldogs that said good night from the garage
Speaker 1: in Lexingon.
Speaker 8: We really must be going. Thank you for a memorable afternoon.
Speaker 4: Usually one must go to a bowling alley to meet
Speaker 4: a woman of your statue.