Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Tot Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you on a Tuesday of game week. I have got
Speaker 1: another one coming up, Kentucky and Ohio You Saturday at
Speaker 1: Kroger Field twelve forty five pm kickoff ten thirty am
Speaker 1: broadcast time as Christy Thomas, Logan Stenberg and Jeremy Jarmin'll
Speaker 1: be up and Adam early and then yours truly along
Speaker 1: with Tom Leach and Jeff Pcorrel Cats versus Cats, Blue
Speaker 1: versus Green and Ohio You, team that came in here
Speaker 1: in twenty oh four and upset the Wildcats who were
Speaker 1: struggling under Rich Brooks and wash Keef, struggling for another
Speaker 1: couple of seasons, meaning middle of four to the middle
Speaker 1: of O six. But we talked to rich Brooks last
Speaker 1: week about how the Wildcats turned things around and six
Speaker 1: and got things rolling. Maybe that'll happen this weekend. But
Speaker 1: Kentucky needs to match the effort that it showed against
Speaker 1: Georgia to get a win. I'm not saying that Ohio
Speaker 1: You is going to provide as much of a challenge
Speaker 1: that Georgia did, but we've seen Mac teams for the
Speaker 1: years go all over the Country and pull off upsets,
Speaker 1: including one this year, and Toledo goes down to Mississippi State,
Speaker 1: was paid one point two million to go to Starkville
Speaker 1: and beat the Bulldogs and their quarterback Tucker Gleason through
Speaker 1: twenty three of twenty eight for two eighty five, three
Speaker 1: touchdowns and no picks. The Rockets scored twenty one points
Speaker 1: in the second quarter alone and pulled off that upset.
Speaker 1: So things happen when you bring in a MAC team.
Speaker 1: And as I've said over and over for years and years,
Speaker 1: the difference between the MAC and other Power five conferences
Speaker 1: oftentimes is depth. They've got good players. They put players
Speaker 1: in the NFL, they just don't have as many, you know,
Speaker 1: not up and down the starting lineup, and clearly not
Speaker 1: through the first forty four. But they've got kids who
Speaker 1: either used to play for the powerhouse teams or believe
Speaker 1: they should be playing, or maybe they should have been
Speaker 1: and then they were overlooked and recruiting or the lay
Speaker 1: bloomers whatever. So MAC teams are dangerous, and Kentucky needs
Speaker 1: to be ready on Saturday. If it isn't, imagine the backlash,
Speaker 1: and there's been backlash already to Mark stoops and he
Speaker 1: knows that. He referred to it at a press conference yesterday,
Speaker 1: and he talked about it at Link last night with
Speaker 1: Tom and I'd love to know why he knows, or
Speaker 1: how he knows, and how much he knows about that,
Speaker 1: because he clearly was referring to people's second guessing. Him
Speaker 1: may have just been referring to media people because a
Speaker 1: lot of any people did second guessing for that punt.
Speaker 1: I personally did not. And I know anything I say
Speaker 1: people are going to take and they should with a
Speaker 1: grain of salt because I'm on the UK network. But
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, prior to the punt, I
Speaker 1: thought that was the right move. And I always say,
Speaker 1: second guess all you want, but what was your stance
Speaker 1: prior to a decision being made? If it was counter
Speaker 1: to what happened and what happened didn't work, you have
Speaker 1: every right second guess, and then that's what fans do
Speaker 1: and I get that. But prior to that play, and
Speaker 1: we talked about it on the State Wide Show last
Speaker 1: night with Aaron Gershan and Jeff Pikoro, I believed that
Speaker 1: that was the right thing to do. Why because the
Speaker 1: approach he was taking at that point play conservatively played
Speaker 1: for field position and let your defense put you in
Speaker 1: a position to win. The game had worked all the
Speaker 1: way up to that very moment. So do you abandon
Speaker 1: that and throw the football in fourth and eight, which
Speaker 1: obviously you'd have to against a team that had done
Speaker 1: a great job against your passing game, not so much
Speaker 1: against your run game. Wildcats rushed for two hundred yards
Speaker 1: against Georgia. When you throw out all the sack and TfL, well, no,
Speaker 1: you got to keep the TfL yardage, throw out the
Speaker 1: sack yardage and then the rushing yards or even more impressive, So, no,
Speaker 1: you don't do that. Georgia had gotten to Vandergriff, they
Speaker 1: had knocked his passes down that this is not the
Speaker 1: smart play. The smart play was to kick and then
Speaker 1: put your faith in your defense. Now, Kentucky had a
Speaker 1: breakdown on a big pass play and it was, I'm
Speaker 1: told by mister Procoro it was a similar pass play
Speaker 1: to how South Carolina burned the Wildcats last week. They
Speaker 1: got to clean that up, obviously, But hold there, make
Speaker 1: them punt. You get the ball probably within the thirty
Speaker 1: five forty five yard lot. Although Georgie had a great punter,
Speaker 1: but still he's not going to pin you near your
Speaker 1: goal line, which he could have done if you give
Speaker 1: the ball up on an incomplete pass and then hold Georgia.
Speaker 1: That's what Stukes was playing for. And you all know this,
Speaker 1: you've heard him talk about it. But it's interesting to
Speaker 1: me how many people second guessed him and ridiculed him
Speaker 1: for not gambling and not quote unot playing to win
Speaker 1: and all that nonsense. He played the game plan he
Speaker 1: and his coordinators had prepared. And the first thing he
Speaker 1: said to Tom Leach in a postgame show, we felt
Speaker 1: like we had the right recipe. They had the right
Speaker 1: game plan. And we know this because Kentucky had a lead,
Speaker 1: Kentucky was down a point because of that game plan,
Speaker 1: and because it wasn't a fluke in that game. You
Speaker 1: were there, you watched it, or you watch it on TV,
Speaker 1: listen to the radio. It wasn't all these fluky plays.
Speaker 1: There was one fluky play that resulted in a Kentucky touchdown.
Speaker 1: It was called back. Still, I will never understand it,
Speaker 1: but I mean, these teams were arm wrestling. They were
Speaker 1: like mountain rams knocking heads. This is old fashioned SEC football,
Speaker 1: But it wasn't good enough for a lot of Kentucky fans.
Speaker 1: One guy in particular tweeted how much he quote unquote
Speaker 1: hated Mark Stoops. But it just kind of makes me
Speaker 1: smile and shake my head because, as you know, I've
Speaker 1: been around here for a long time. I go back
Speaker 1: to the seventies with Kentucky football. I covered my first
Speaker 1: game in nineteen seventy five, seeing the ups and downs,
Speaker 1: and it's really interesting to me. And obviously I'm a
Speaker 1: bit older than most of you. So you've got different
Speaker 1: generations of Kentucky football fans, and there are some fans
Speaker 1: who know I won't say only success, but mostly success
Speaker 1: when it comes to Kentucky football. Are they spoiled? You
Speaker 1: could call it that. But what happens when you change
Speaker 1: the culture is you change expectations for Kentucky football. And
Speaker 1: that is what Mark Stoops and company have done. They've
Speaker 1: done it within that dozen years. And it wasn't instantaneous.
Speaker 1: What did it take four or five years to where
Speaker 1: Kentucky fans now expect to win every game, which is
Speaker 1: not realistic, but they do. Kentucky basketball fans are like that,
Speaker 1: that is realistic because generally Kentucky has a roster that
Speaker 1: is good enough to beat anybody on a schedule. But
Speaker 1: that's what I find interesting about when you compare basketball
Speaker 1: and football. There are Kentucky fans who believe that Kentucky
Speaker 1: should have not just could have, but should have beaten Georgia,
Speaker 1: the number one team in the country. That it should
Speaker 1: have happened, hands down, all right. Those same fans, for
Speaker 1: the most part, believe that their favorite basketball team should
Speaker 1: never lose. Why because they're either one of or the
Speaker 1: top ranked team in the country. We're good enough to
Speaker 1: where we shouldn't lose ever. So now your football team
Speaker 1: is playing a football team that, by the same standards
Speaker 1: shouldn't lose ever, even though Georgia is now number two
Speaker 1: to Texas. But still you get my drift. But that's fans.
Speaker 1: That's the fans. They are short for fanatic, and they
Speaker 1: pay their money and they show up. For the most part,
Speaker 1: a lot of you showed up Saturday and it was
Speaker 1: so much fun. Although a lot of you soldier tickets
Speaker 1: to Georgia, fans can't say as I blame you because
Speaker 1: I thought it would be a blowout. Some of you
Speaker 1: you did too, and you can help fund your entire
Speaker 1: season ticket fund. By selling tickets, I hope you got
Speaker 1: good money for it. But there were a lot of
Speaker 1: Georgia fans. But what was so interesting was how quiet
Speaker 1: they were. Georgia fans. Ever, times they had things to
Speaker 1: cheer about, but for the most part they sat there
Speaker 1: looking all these confused looks on their faces, like what
Speaker 1: is going on here? Because their team couldn't convert third
Speaker 1: downs and Kentucky did. Time of possession in the first
Speaker 1: half was two to one. It was almost twenty minutes
Speaker 1: for Kentucky and ten minutes for Georgia. They literally took
Speaker 1: that crowd out of the game. Kentucky won the last
Speaker 1: four minutes of the first half, won the first four
Speaker 1: minutes of the second half, plus a few more because
Speaker 1: they held george That's another thing. They start the game off.
Speaker 1: Kentucky does pinned on its own one yard liner inside
Speaker 1: the one I'm sorry there was no such thing as
Speaker 1: a half yard line, but anyway, and I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: this is going to be ugly. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: they've moved the chains a couple times and get it out.
Speaker 1: They didn't score, but they flipped the field and on
Speaker 1: the next possession they scored. And then in the second half.
Speaker 1: They hold Georgia early in the first couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: get the ball back and drive again, unfortunately for a
Speaker 1: field goal, but they scored. They kept putting the pressure
Speaker 1: on Georgia. But no, people are unhappy with stoops. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the last couple of seasons of been mediocre by the
Speaker 1: new Kentucky standards. Seven wins in a ball game, and
Speaker 1: you know, many of us go back, and I keep
Speaker 1: saying it over and over again to where that would
Speaker 1: be caused for a parade down Main Street, and many
Speaker 1: of you, and again of a certain age, never thought
Speaker 1: you would see this happen. And people can shrug it
Speaker 1: off by saying, wow, that's just a product of scheduling.
Speaker 1: Well in terms of the Bowl game record and how
Speaker 1: many times Kentucky's gone consecutive years. If it's that easy
Speaker 1: to schedule ball games or victories that get you there,
Speaker 1: why aren't more teams doing it. Kentucky's doing it, just
Speaker 1: not doing it impressively enough to satisfy fans, And I
Speaker 1: get that, but it's really interesting how people have just
Speaker 1: turned on Stoops. But I said this during the broadcast
Speaker 1: Saturday night, maybe more than any other probably the NFL
Speaker 1: is the same way. But college football, the community goes
Speaker 1: as the home team goes. If it's a community that
Speaker 1: likes it's college football. If the home team has lost,
Speaker 1: the whole seems like the whole week. Everybody in town's
Speaker 1: kind of sullen if they win, if they're on their
Speaker 1: toes just a little bit more. Aren't they bouncing on
Speaker 1: their toes on their way to the grocery store? So
Speaker 1: maybe they'll be bouncing after They'llhio You game coming up.
Speaker 1: We'll hear from Mark Stoops a little bit later on
Speaker 1: Mark's story. Keith Farmer of LAX eighteen will join us.
Speaker 1: Emmac Grolmes is going to set up the Kentucky Louisville
Speaker 1: volleyball match coming up tomorrow night. That's all I had
Speaker 1: on the Big Blon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Bluon Sider. Coming up Saturday, Kentucky football,
Speaker 1: the Wildcats and the Bobcats of Ohio You twelve forty
Speaker 1: five kickoff ten thirty am broadcast time for the UK
Speaker 1: Sports Network with Christy and Jeremy and Logan Kegs and
Speaker 1: Eggs for you folks out there. And it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be nice, Solough, I think we're supposed to get rain
Speaker 1: all week, but I think it's supposed to be nice
Speaker 1: on game day. So the Cats and the Cats, and
Speaker 1: it's an Ohio You team that came in here, as
Speaker 1: we all know, during the Rich Brooks era, which happened
Speaker 1: to be the Brian nor era at Ohio You. Brian
Speaker 1: nor was an assistant to Jim grob who took over
Speaker 1: Ohio You in nineteen ninety five and did a nice
Speaker 1: job there, helped turn things around, and then left to
Speaker 1: go coach Wake four And in fact he was the
Speaker 1: head coach at wake Forest, which went to the Orange
Speaker 1: Bowl with a defensive coordinator by the name of Dean Hood.
Speaker 1: But Brian norra only lasted for four seasons, and in
Speaker 1: his fourth year in twenty oh four, they went four
Speaker 1: and seven. It included a win over the Kentucky Wildcats
Speaker 1: on homecoming here in Lexington, but too little, too late,
Speaker 1: he got fired. That brought in Frank Solich, who had
Speaker 1: been at Nebraska. He was part of their program for
Speaker 1: a long time as an assistant coach and a head coach.
Speaker 1: From ninety eight to twenty oh three. They went to
Speaker 1: six straight ball games including a national title game, but
Speaker 1: wound up getting fired. So he comes to how You
Speaker 1: and he does good things. He was there for fifteen
Speaker 1: sixteen years. But Ohio You has played in I think
Speaker 1: it's a dozen bowl games. And it's interesting when you
Speaker 1: go back and look at the bulls in which Ohio
Speaker 1: You has played, and it's a lot of those bulls
Speaker 1: that well, some of them aren't here anymore, and you
Speaker 1: wonder why in the world are there indeed bowl games
Speaker 1: with these names, and some of these I don't even
Speaker 1: know if they're still around. But in O nine they
Speaker 1: played in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl. They played in
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Bowl. In twenty ten, they played in
Speaker 1: the famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Utah State. Back in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, they played in the Independence Bowl, which is
Speaker 1: still around, Beef O. Brady's Bowl. They played in the
Speaker 1: Dollar General Bowl in twenty sixteen. I wouldn't mind going
Speaker 1: to the Bahamas Bowl. They went there in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: and the Frisco Bowl in twenty eighteen. There's so many
Speaker 1: bowl games, and if you've got a winning record, or
Speaker 1: maybe even just a five hundred record, you're going to
Speaker 1: get there. But Ohio You has been fodder. In fact,
Speaker 1: Ohio You lost its first five bowl games before breaking
Speaker 1: through with a victory Bobcats two and one, losing to
Speaker 1: Syracuse and their opener up there in Upstate New York
Speaker 1: thirty eight twenty two, came back and beat South Alabama
Speaker 1: twenty seven to twenty Morgan State twenty one to six.
Speaker 1: So you would think Kentucky would have the upper hand
Speaker 1: by far in this one. But will the Wildcats bounce
Speaker 1: coming off that close one with Georgia. We talked about
Speaker 1: that and nour number one, Mark Stoop, still knows about
Speaker 1: Ohio You. Any coach is going to fear any other team.
Speaker 1: But Mac teams have done well this year, and Stoops
Speaker 1: knows about the Bobcats.
Speaker 2: A team that's a very good team. And I know
Speaker 2: most of the time when I say that, most fans
Speaker 2: don't believe me, but I think this year you could
Speaker 2: tell by looking at the Mac and some of the
Speaker 2: very big victories that they've had this year that they're
Speaker 2: not a joke. And people think it's coach speak when
Speaker 2: you sit there and say they're very it's just a
Speaker 2: good league. Good team's good coaches. This staff has been
Speaker 2: together a long time. The head coach. I think it's
Speaker 2: going in the year four, but he's been there forever.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of annuity. And they played very well,
Speaker 2: extremely bounced on offense, almost two hundred and two hundred,
Speaker 2: I think right right around there, so very bounced offensively, defensively,
Speaker 2: very very tough. They played very hard. They mix things
Speaker 2: up up front. They played both four down, three down,
Speaker 2: and they make you earn every yard.
Speaker 1: It's been a minute since the bobcast came in here
Speaker 1: and pulled off that upset. What's have been twenty years,
Speaker 1: But anybody who was there that night knows that that
Speaker 1: was not And I just said that was a team
Speaker 1: that ended up four and seven. And Kentucky, of course,
Speaker 1: was in the second year of the rich Brooks era
Speaker 1: and was just decimated by NCA penalties and scholarship limitations,
Speaker 1: but still should have walked all over that Ohio team
Speaker 1: and did not because they weren't ready to play. A
Speaker 1: lot of guys were still chafing against rich Brooks. But
Speaker 1: a lot of them too, just didn't think of how
Speaker 1: you had it in him to beat the Wildcats, and
Speaker 1: they learned a hard lesson. So obviously the lesson inn
Speaker 1: should have been what it is now for Kentucky in
Speaker 1: that the Wildcats need this week the same focus as
Speaker 1: they prep for how are you that they showed for Georgia.
Speaker 2: So it goes back to what I always say, it's
Speaker 2: about us, just like last week, It's about us and
Speaker 2: our preparation and what we do throughout the week to
Speaker 2: put ourselves in a position to win and to have
Speaker 2: confidence by our preparation, you know. And so it's back
Speaker 2: to work and we're looking forward to the opportunity again.
Speaker 2: I think the crowd that was here last week, I
Speaker 2: think that made an impact to put us in a
Speaker 2: position to win that game. I wish we could have
Speaker 2: done it for him. We're very close and look forward
Speaker 2: to coming back home here again this weekend.
Speaker 1: And if the crowd turns out anything like it was
Speaker 1: Saturday night, that's going to be a huge advant It's
Speaker 1: going to be tough to replicate that for obvious reasons.
Speaker 1: It's not the big time seven thirty game. It's not
Speaker 1: I know why. But the crowd clearly helped the Wildcats
Speaker 1: Saturday against Georgia. But so did the way obviously Kentucky played,
Speaker 1: getting up and getting ready and I wondered. I really
Speaker 1: thought I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been
Speaker 1: a blowout, quite frankly, but they were ready. The Wildcats
Speaker 1: look back on that South Carolina game, use that as motivation.
Speaker 1: Zion's childers talk to us about it after the game,
Speaker 1: about how he knew as a leader he needed to
Speaker 1: show his guys quote unquote that he wasn't phased by
Speaker 1: what happened against South Carolina and he was ready to
Speaker 1: move on. And obviously they need to do that this week.
Speaker 1: And I asked Stoops about comments like that from Zion
Speaker 1: and would it meant to get stuff like that, to
Speaker 1: get a reaction like that from one of the team leaders.
Speaker 2: You know, that's the response we're looking for. That's the
Speaker 2: leadership we're looking for. You know, I'll be honest. I mean,
Speaker 2: let's not get ourselves. I mean it was it was
Speaker 2: a challenging week. Like I said that, you know, a
Speaker 2: post game, it was a challenging I mean, none of
Speaker 2: us were very happy. We're still not happy. We're not
Speaker 2: happy because we're lost by one, make no mistake about it.
Speaker 2: But again, we're happy with growth. I'm happy with the response.
Speaker 2: I'm happy with the improvement that we made, and that's
Speaker 2: what I'm looking for. Yeah, I wanted to win the game.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, heck, I mean you know, that's
Speaker 2: what we're here for. But I am, you know, pleased,
Speaker 2: And if we continue to take that attitude and have
Speaker 2: that leadership and that growth, then we'll find the results
Speaker 2: we're looking for.
Speaker 1: Question is will they be as emotionally ready as they
Speaker 1: were against Georgia. My answered probably not, because it's hard
Speaker 1: to replicate that without it being real, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: they aren't coming off a horrible, embarrassing loss to South
Speaker 1: Carolina as they prepare for Ohio. You they're coming off
Speaker 1: a great but disappointing effort against Georgia. So focus will
Speaker 1: be there and hunger for winning will be there. Might
Speaker 1: be the same, but what they learned last week is
Speaker 1: what they look like when they execute much much better,
Speaker 1: not by anywhere near what they need to be, but
Speaker 1: clearly played their best football. I think they played better
Speaker 1: against Georgia than they did against Southern Myss. With no
Speaker 1: disrespect to us M, but that's not a great football team.
Speaker 1: And Georgia is and is better than Kentucky. But Kentucky
Speaker 1: was better than Georgia that night. And that's what happens
Speaker 1: in sports. On some nights, it could be the nine
Speaker 1: out of ten, it could be the ninety nine out
Speaker 1: of one hundred factor, but the week team can jump
Speaker 1: up and beat the good team. To the point I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that down in Athens and in whatever they
Speaker 1: call it bulldog Nation or whatever, they think their team's
Speaker 1: in trouble from what happened here in Lexington. Well maybe
Speaker 1: it is. But what happened was Kentucky played really well.
Speaker 1: And I think Georgia's struggles Saturday it might have been
Speaker 1: play calling, might have been guys making mistakes or whatever,
Speaker 1: but they were prompted by Kentucky. Kentucky had so much
Speaker 1: to do with that. So we'll see, we'll see how
Speaker 1: it shakes out. But clearly Wildcats need to pay attention
Speaker 1: to things this week. I think they will. We'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk to Mark's story the Hero Leader. In
Speaker 1: just a minute, you're on the Big woon Sider six
Speaker 1: thirty w Welcome back to the Big Bluonsider, joining us
Speaker 1: down a celebrity high line. As a guy who's covered
Speaker 1: more than his share of Kentucky football games, Mark's story
Speaker 1: of the hero leader, a sports columnist who's been added
Speaker 1: for a while, and Mark, I had a feeling you
Speaker 1: were going for something like this when you asked a
Speaker 1: question at the news conference yesterday of Mark Steops. You
Speaker 1: asked him if he second guessed himself about the play
Speaker 1: calling prior to the controversial punt, and your column I
Speaker 1: thought was really intriguing today you said the main criticism
Speaker 1: of Mark Steups these days is completely backwards. Tell everybody
Speaker 1: withou given away the store because we't want people to
Speaker 1: read your column. But I thought that was a really
Speaker 1: interesting take. Well.
Speaker 3: I thought there's kind of a micro criticism of Stoops
Speaker 3: arising specifically from the Georgia game, and then kind of
Speaker 3: a macro criticism, and I think they're both kind of backwards.
Speaker 3: And you know, obviously there's been a lot of you know,
Speaker 3: scrutiny on the decision to punt on fourth and eight
Speaker 3: from the Georgia forty seven. You know, I wish Kentucky
Speaker 3: had gone there. I think sometimes you just reach a
Speaker 3: point where you need to put your chips in. But
Speaker 3: I think Mark's explanation for why he did what he
Speaker 3: did has been highly defensible, you know, very logical. I
Speaker 3: mean they could not pass block Georgia. The odds of
Speaker 3: them converting a fourth and eight were not high. You
Speaker 3: still had three timeouts, you had the two minute time out.
Speaker 3: Your best This is me saying it's not Mark Stoops,
Speaker 3: but the best unit on the Kentucky team is the defense.
Speaker 3: You're basically putting them out there, giving them a chance
Speaker 3: to to put you in position to win the game.
Speaker 3: And the other point he makes, if you go for
Speaker 3: it and don't get it, even if you force Georgia
Speaker 3: three and out, you're going to have to drive the
Speaker 3: entire length of the field in a predictable pass situation,
Speaker 3: and there's just no reason to think Kentucky can block
Speaker 3: Georgia in that situation. So, you know, I think, you know,
Speaker 3: you were probably twelve yards from giving your field goal kicker,
Speaker 3: who was having the night of his life, a realistic
Speaker 3: chance to win that game. You know, I think probably
Speaker 3: if were my decision, I would have gone just feeling
Speaker 3: like you know, sometimes you just have to, you know,
Speaker 3: put your chips in and go. But I think, you know,
Speaker 3: I think kind of the anger at Stoops is a
Speaker 3: little misdirected because I again I think his rationale for
Speaker 3: why he did what he did make sense. Now that
Speaker 3: for me is the Georgia game. And I'll you know
Speaker 3: the other thing that fascinates me about that is, to me,
Speaker 3: the single biggest criticism of the Mark Stoops coaching here
Speaker 3: in terms of the in game coaching, in my opinion,
Speaker 3: has been sort of some irrational risk taking on fourth down.
Speaker 3: And I cited in the column several cases where Kentucky
Speaker 3: has gone for fourth downs and unusual situations and it's
Speaker 3: blown up on them. Yeah, I mean, it happened early
Speaker 3: in his tenure, it's happened in the middle of his tenure,
Speaker 3: and it happened two weeks ago against South Carolina. I
Speaker 3: think there's this idea and in some ways, you know,
Speaker 3: they are conservatives. Their best teams have been you know,
Speaker 3: ball control, run the football, rock rib defense. You know
Speaker 3: that that I get that. But the biggest problem in
Speaker 3: terms of his game management is not that he doesn't
Speaker 3: take risk, that he's taken some irrationals. I admit that
Speaker 3: there's an inconsistency here because I kind of wanted him
Speaker 3: to take an irrational risk on that fourth down. It
Speaker 3: gets Georgia, right, But yeah, you know, the the over
Speaker 3: kind of the overweening criticism that he's too conservative at
Speaker 3: least in terms of his game management, that the bigger
Speaker 3: problem has been the opposite.
Speaker 1: You've kind of circled this topic. But tell me again
Speaker 1: why you think he should have gone forward on fourth down.
Speaker 1: You said you got to push your chips to the
Speaker 1: middle of the table. I mean, because there's also the
Speaker 1: argument that, well, if if hope is part of your plan,
Speaker 1: you don't have a plan. You know, you could hope
Speaker 1: that they that they either draw a penalty or complete
Speaker 1: the pass. But what Georgia has been so good against,
Speaker 1: as Stupe said, predicted past situations.
Speaker 3: Well, I just think you were, you know, a field
Speaker 3: goal away from just a program altering win, and that
Speaker 3: just changes your program. And like I said, given the
Speaker 3: night that Alex Rayner was having, you probably needed twelve yards.
Speaker 3: You know, for all the reasons Mark is listed while
Speaker 3: he punted, I find them, I find them compelling. I
Speaker 3: think they made sense. I just think you know you're that.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes to finish off number one team in
Speaker 3: the kind tree, the best program in the country over
Speaker 3: the last three years, you know, the Titan of the SEC,
Speaker 3: I think sometimes to figure finish them off you're going
Speaker 3: to have to hit on something that doesn't make sense. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I just think that was kind of a moment,
Speaker 3: you know, Like I said, my biggest criticism of Mark,
Speaker 3: the Mark Stoops in game coaching in his era is
Speaker 3: irrational fourth down attempts. But in this case, I you know,
Speaker 3: I just kind of felt like they needed, Like I said,
Speaker 3: you're twelve yards from being in a position to do
Speaker 3: something that changes your program. I think maybe, I think
Speaker 3: I think maybe that was the time to to take
Speaker 3: an irrational.
Speaker 1: Risk, if ever there were a time. Yeah, Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: you make you make a compelling argument, because you're right,
Speaker 1: if they make the first down there, they're really close,
Speaker 1: and we had seen that. Let's say they get they
Speaker 1: move the change. Let's say they get a first down.
Speaker 1: Now you've got plenty of time and three more downs
Speaker 1: to move the ball on the ground and further help
Speaker 1: your kicker. How surprised were you at the way Kentucky
Speaker 1: ran the ball against Georgia.
Speaker 3: Well, I was surprised that they were able to run
Speaker 3: it so effectively at Georgia, in between the tackles and
Speaker 3: probably the you know, I think again I would have
Speaker 3: gone for it, but I think the reason Mark is
Speaker 3: laid out for why he punted are eminently logical. It's
Speaker 3: an eminently defensible decision. I think the most the more
Speaker 3: second guest thing is there is the play calling leading
Speaker 3: up to this decision. Defined. You know, you had it
Speaker 3: second and eight. You know, the way you've run the ball,
Speaker 3: and the way and the difficulty you've had pass protecting.
Speaker 3: I think you sort of just say, Okay, this is
Speaker 3: going to be a four down area and we're going
Speaker 3: to try to run it, keep and just and just
Speaker 3: just keep running it, and you can get it to
Speaker 3: fourth and two or fourth and three, then you can
Speaker 3: go for that.
Speaker 4: You know that.
Speaker 3: I don't think that would have been a question, but
Speaker 3: you know, hindsight twenty twenty, sure, there's no question about that.
Speaker 3: But I think I think, you know, and Mark, to
Speaker 3: his credit, you know, he admitted yesterday he regrets that
Speaker 3: they didn't just try to grind it keep grinding it
Speaker 3: on them. Yeah, because that's the success they had had.
Speaker 3: And I don't have this in front of me, but
Speaker 3: I looked at they had. You know, Mark makes a
Speaker 3: fair point. They didn't complete, They didn't have a lot
Speaker 3: of explosive playing there. You know, there weren't a lot
Speaker 3: of successful passes for more than more than eight yard
Speaker 3: in that game for Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You know, that's one thing. And again I started this
Speaker 1: conversation with you by referencing your question. It was a
Speaker 1: very pointed question of Mark, and I do respect the
Speaker 1: fact that he told you, essentially, yeah, that he regretted,
Speaker 1: and he has said that before, And I kind of
Speaker 1: respect that about a head coach because how many times
Speaker 1: have we heard coaches stubbornly say no, it was the
Speaker 1: right move, we just didn't do it right or something
Speaker 1: like that, you know, and they sticking by the original
Speaker 1: plan when clearly if he had to do it over again,
Speaker 1: he would have done it differently, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know, I'm I'm always a little reluctant
Speaker 3: to get into strategy second guessing because most evaluations of
Speaker 3: strategy are just completely outcome based. You know, if it
Speaker 3: worked on the field, then it was brilliant. If it
Speaker 3: didn't work, it wasn't. And I think sometimes the right
Speaker 3: strategy or the right call doesn't work out, but it's
Speaker 3: still the right was the right thing to do in
Speaker 3: that circumstance. But in this case, you know, I just
Speaker 3: think given the difficulty Kentucky was having pass blocking and
Speaker 3: just given how good the Georgia defense was, there were
Speaker 3: times in that game where the Kentucky receiver appeared to
Speaker 3: be open and Vandergriff put the ball where it normally
Speaker 3: would have needed to go, and Georgia was just so
Speaker 3: fast they could close that window before the ball got there.
Speaker 3: And it's not a knock on arm strength or anything.
Speaker 3: It's just, you know, Georgia is really good. There's I
Speaker 3: think sometimes in analysis of games we forget, you know,
Speaker 3: there's two teams out there, and in this particular case,
Speaker 3: that other team is pretty good. Defense was really good,
Speaker 3: and you know, I think that you know, impacts kind
Speaker 3: of how you need to view the view the end
Speaker 3: of game scenario. You know, it was interesting somebody was
Speaker 3: tweeting around and that's something that they were attributing to
Speaker 3: ESPN that had Kentucky gone for it, they had, you know,
Speaker 3: thirty four percent chance to win. By planning, they had
Speaker 3: an eight percent chance or something. And I'm a believer
Speaker 3: in metrics if that in fact was on the up
Speaker 3: and up. But the problem with those kind of metrics
Speaker 3: is they're they're general metrics, they're not specific to the
Speaker 3: game at hand and the problems Kentucky was having blocking
Speaker 3: Georgia in past protection. I think alters, you know, some
Speaker 3: of those I think that specific case may have been
Speaker 3: different than the general metrics suggested.
Speaker 1: My feeling on metrics in case you're interested, I I
Speaker 1: equate them with the Dosag index that pops up around
Speaker 1: derby time. You know what I'm talking about, right I do? Okay,
Speaker 1: who invented that. It's basically a formula For those of
Speaker 1: you who don't follow, it's a formula that indicates breeding
Speaker 1: and what horses have a chance to win the Derby
Speaker 1: based on their pedigree. And it's less believable now because
Speaker 1: of the way the breed has basically been diluted through
Speaker 1: the years, But for the longest time it kind of
Speaker 1: served as an indicator of what horses had a chance
Speaker 1: to win the Derby. Strike the Gold was the first
Speaker 1: horse in nineteen ninety one that defied the dosage and
Speaker 1: as Paul Rogers put it on his radio call, Strike
Speaker 1: to Go breaks the Derby jinks. But the guy who
Speaker 1: invented it try to point out it's not a handicapping tool,
Speaker 1: and to me, analytics are similar in that analytics in
Speaker 1: my mind, they look backwards. They tell you here's what
Speaker 1: has happened in the past in situations like this, to
Speaker 1: your point, Mark, not what's going to happen next. You know,
Speaker 1: they exist because they have data from many, many games,
Speaker 1: and they you know, simulated games and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean if you do this, here's what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it does now. I do think there
Speaker 3: can be a predictive quality to the accumulation of stats
Speaker 3: over a long period of time.
Speaker 4: But I did.
Speaker 3: But as you know, that is kind of a general
Speaker 3: it's a general overview, though it doesn't take into account
Speaker 3: the specifics of an individual game. Right as we were
Speaker 3: saying earlier, you know, Kentucky's difficulty pass walking the Georgia
Speaker 3: rush is not something that is accounted for within a
Speaker 3: general metric of what normally would happen in the situation.
Speaker 1: Acts Mark Stories, my guest columnist for The Harold Leader,
Speaker 1: will come back with a few more questions for mister
Speaker 1: Story in just a minute. Here on the Big Blue
Speaker 1: Sider six point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with
Speaker 1: Mark Stories. Worts, columnists for the hair leader. Looking ahead
Speaker 1: now to Ohio. You and again another horse racing analogy mark.
Speaker 1: But you wonder will this Kentucky team bounce coming off
Speaker 1: this Georgia close call?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 1: Kids are kids, people are human beings. Wouldn't be surprising,
Speaker 1: would it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to wonder about that. But given how badly,
Speaker 3: given that South Carolina performance, they they don't have any
Speaker 3: room for bouncing at this point. They and you know,
Speaker 3: Ohio University, I don't know for a Kentucky team that
Speaker 3: has struggled so much offensively, you know, and needs to
Speaker 3: get the ball in the end zone. I think Ohio
Speaker 3: can be a tough, kind of a difficult matchup because
Speaker 3: they're gonna, you know, they're they're gonna make you beat them.
Speaker 3: They're not gonna make mistakes themselves. You're gonna have to
Speaker 3: drive it on them. You're gonna have to do the
Speaker 3: little things right. And you know, you know, we'll see
Speaker 3: if Kentucky can do that. I think obviously Kentucky needs
Speaker 3: to win the game, and you know we can. The
Speaker 3: MAC has had some huge wins so far this year.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously the key to the big one and
Speaker 3: there was Northern Illinois beating Notre Dame in South Bend.
Speaker 3: But you look at what Toledo did last week to
Speaker 3: the Mississippi State, which they just absolutely bludgeoned Mississippi State.
Speaker 3: So this is not a team to take for granted,
Speaker 3: because Ohio has won ten games each of the past
Speaker 3: two years. So you know, we'll see. I think I
Speaker 3: think I think it would help Kentucky if they could
Speaker 3: get some points on the board early and sort of
Speaker 3: get control of this and kind of play free and
Speaker 3: easy and and just try to get some things worked
Speaker 3: out offensively. You know, it's possible that they've seen the
Speaker 3: two best pass rushes help this year, yes, and so
Speaker 3: you know it's you know, at least in theory, things
Speaker 3: could get a little easier just in terms of trying
Speaker 3: to get the passing game going. But yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know much about Texas. I'm sure now that
Speaker 1: they're the number one team, the long Oarners probably have
Speaker 1: a pretty good pass rush that our own. But in
Speaker 1: terms of which teams have generated the most talk the
Speaker 1: edge rushers, it's been South Carolina and Georgia. A few
Speaker 1: minutes left with Mark story of the hero Leader, you
Speaker 1: talked about Kentucky paraphrasing getting right against Ohio, at least offensively.
Speaker 1: What do we know about Brock vandergriff right now? And then?
Speaker 1: I know he's clearly a work in progress. He has
Speaker 1: started all of three games in his college career. But
Speaker 1: what can we tell about him?
Speaker 3: I don't feel like I can tell a lot. I
Speaker 3: don't have a good feel for him either way. I
Speaker 3: do think he's got some toughness about him, which is
Speaker 3: a good thing, but you know, otherwise, you know, he's
Speaker 3: been under so much dirass, I don't really have a
Speaker 3: good feel for him as a passer or what's possible
Speaker 3: me neither.
Speaker 1: Going into the Georgia game, had you altered your outlook
Speaker 1: on what you thought Kentucky would accomplish this year? Because
Speaker 1: I have to admit I did, and I'm usually not
Speaker 1: one to do that, but I was so surprised by
Speaker 1: what I saw or what I didn't see from the
Speaker 1: offensive line, I thought to myself, I don't know if
Speaker 1: these guys can can win three games this year? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I guess for me. Once the South
Speaker 3: Carolina game ended, I you know, I thought we needed
Speaker 3: to wait and see if that was kind of a
Speaker 3: one off just on all systems failure or whether you know,
Speaker 3: that was the Kentucky team. To me, though, once they
Speaker 3: lost that South Carolina game, the point of the season
Speaker 3: became just trying to extend the ball Street. Yes, I
Speaker 3: think the chances to have the quote unquote breakthrough season
Speaker 3: that the fans so yearned for given the difficulty of
Speaker 3: the schedule, and that once I mean that South Carolina
Speaker 3: game was a game they had to win and once
Speaker 3: they didn't. To me, the goal now is to just
Speaker 3: keep the ball Street going, try to have a winning season.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know what's interesting to me is I've
Speaker 1: I've heard and read comments about the rest of the schedule,
Speaker 1: and I don't think people and not that we're looking
Speaker 1: past o how you but we can do that if
Speaker 1: we want to, because we're the media. I don't think
Speaker 1: enough people are really giving ole Miss enough credit, especially
Speaker 1: based on what's happened through the last few years. Was
Speaker 1: Ole Miss. I mean, that's going to be a tough
Speaker 1: road trip, you know.
Speaker 3: I actually in the precinct thought that was a game
Speaker 3: Kentucky could win. Kentucky's played them so tough, and you know,
Speaker 3: the last three meetings have gone basically to the very end,
Speaker 3: and Kentucky's lost them all. Partly just felt to me
Speaker 3: like Kentucky was doing that. And I think ole Miss,
Speaker 3: while impressive, has not played anybody their their schedule. Kentucky's
Speaker 3: going to go into that game having played two SEC
Speaker 3: games and if nothing else has been tested, ole Miss
Speaker 3: is not. But you know, they have been impressive, and
Speaker 3: I guess my question now, I just don't know that Kentucky,
Speaker 3: even if Kentucky's defense, can impact ole Miss, and I
Speaker 3: will be disappointed if they don't. I just don't know
Speaker 3: that Kentucky can score enough to tea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it would help if they get if and
Speaker 1: when they get Chip training him back, but I do
Speaker 1: I've been pleasantly surprised by Sumo Karnbay. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about what he's done?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, maybe they don't have any
Speaker 3: you know, a game breaker, somebody that can just take
Speaker 3: it to the house. But I think the running game
Speaker 3: has been good. You know, I don't train him. Is
Speaker 3: gonna have to be really good to be better than
Speaker 3: Demmy's been so far.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we knew he had speed on the edges,
Speaker 1: but between the tackles he's been a pleasant surprise. Mark
Speaker 1: Story columnist for The Hair Leader. You can find his
Speaker 1: work via Kentucky dot com or follow him on x
Speaker 1: slash Twitter at Mark C. Story. Thank you, Sarah, we
Speaker 1: will see you at the ballgame.
Speaker 3: Thanks Dick, appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1: I truly do recommend his column today because when I
Speaker 1: heard Mark ask the question in the news conference yesterday
Speaker 1: about you know, do you regret, and again Stoops was
Speaker 1: quite frank. I really thought the colin would be about it.
Speaker 1: Some of it is, but he just sort of touches
Speaker 1: on the decision to punt, and I thought maybe it
Speaker 1: would be Mark Stoops is too conservative kind of story,
Speaker 1: but he goes back and no pun intended. Mark's story
Speaker 1: and he chronicles decisions that have been made and they're
Speaker 1: a handful, but they were big ones where Stoops made
Speaker 1: the wrong decision and coaches do this, but ironically enough
Speaker 1: you would expect as Mark wrote that the way Mark
Speaker 1: Stoops coaches, his style conservative ground game defense would be
Speaker 1: more about not taking risks and maybe they should have.
Speaker 1: That happened with Rich Brooks a couple of times cost
Speaker 1: him a win over Tennessee one year, but with Stoops Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's made some calls that backfired and cost the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: Really interesting and I commend that to you. I'll remember
Speaker 1: two is next. Keith Farmer coming up next here on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Moons, Sighter
Speaker 1: joining us on our celebrity hotline. Longtime friend and colleague
Speaker 1: mister Keith Farmer of LAX eighteen and a UK TV network.
Speaker 1: You see his work every night on BBN. Tonight, came in.
Speaker 1: You and I chatted at the Stoops Fresh conference yesterday.
Speaker 1: But tell me the truth. Going into that Georgia game,
Speaker 1: what did you expect?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I did not have a lot of high expectations
Speaker 4: because what we saw against South Carolina was so surprised,
Speaker 4: especially with the pass blocking and everything that was going
Speaker 4: on defensively. I just thought, Wow, maybe this team isn't
Speaker 4: as good as we thought, you know, I mean that
Speaker 4: was just my natural instinct that I think a lot
Speaker 4: of people had that. And then to see what they
Speaker 4: did to come back and turn that around, I think
Speaker 4: it was so amazing the fights that they put up.
Speaker 4: But yeah, going in, I thought this could get ugly,
Speaker 4: and certainly Kentucky stepped up to the challenge and you
Speaker 4: got to be proud of proud of him for that
Speaker 4: being right there a chance to win.
Speaker 1: You all featured Zion Childers as we did on the radio,
Speaker 1: and full disclosure, we often for the BBN project we
Speaker 1: share the player of the game. And I was talking
Speaker 1: to Kinsey and she's like, you're going to talk to Zion.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, yeah, because what a game he had.
Speaker 4: But yeah, he.
Speaker 1: Said similar things to you guys that he said to us,
Speaker 1: and that was he knew he had to put that
Speaker 1: South Carolina game behind him and be ready, and he
Speaker 1: had to show the younger players how to do that.
Speaker 1: I was really impressed by that, weren't you.
Speaker 4: Very And I mean, you know, naturally, after a game
Speaker 4: happens like that, I think everybody looked at themselves that's
Speaker 4: what can I do better? Yeah, but for him to
Speaker 4: say I can be better, you know, to the younger guys,
Speaker 4: they're probably looking up at him, going, maybe you played
Speaker 4: pretty well that game, you know, how can you step
Speaker 4: up better? And he certainly did. He was one of
Speaker 4: those guys that was I mean, from the moment the
Speaker 4: first kickoff happened, he was just out there making plays
Speaker 4: and seemed to be creating havoc, and I do like
Speaker 4: you know that everyone seemed to kind of have that
Speaker 4: same feeling. Look, we didn't like how we played against
Speaker 4: South Carolina, and you may have remembered, like all through
Speaker 4: the week people saying, do your job, do your job,
Speaker 4: and I feel like that's what they did. They did
Speaker 4: their job, and they gave them a chance to knock
Speaker 4: off the number one team in college football.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. I don't know how much you've had a
Speaker 1: chance to pay attention, but some of the tweets and
Speaker 1: social media and just regular media down there in Georgia,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with the Bulldogs after that game? You know?
Speaker 1: And then they'll give it the perfunctory. I got to
Speaker 1: give Kentucky credit, but you know that I think clearly
Speaker 1: that goes back to South Carolina and the perception people have.
Speaker 1: But in college footballs, you know came in, you've done
Speaker 1: this for a long time. Everything changes dramatically from week
Speaker 1: to week, doesn't it.
Speaker 4: I mean, think about how we thought South Carolina coming in, Yes,
Speaker 4: because the way they had played the week before, and
Speaker 4: so we thought this was almost going to be a walkover,
Speaker 4: and then they turned it around, you know, and you're right.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think you're getting to that point now
Speaker 4: with Kentucky. They're like, all right, they took the one
Speaker 4: loss and the second one they were right there, but
Speaker 4: now they know they've got to, you know, buckle down.
Speaker 4: It's going to be hard to beat this Kentucky team
Speaker 4: now because they know their backs are against the wall
Speaker 4: with two losses. They've got to come out week and
Speaker 4: show that growth that coach Stops was talking about on
Speaker 4: Monday and try and get better and better.
Speaker 1: Question is are they good enough? And I've been banging
Speaker 1: this drum all year long and it's you know, comes
Speaker 1: back to the old line, which was impressive when it
Speaker 1: came to running in football. Still some issues with pass protection, Keith,
Speaker 1: But I think there's still a lot of room for improvement.
Speaker 1: And I think they're capable. The key is they're capable
Speaker 1: of getting better, aren't they sure?
Speaker 4: And especially to show what they did against Georgia. And
Speaker 4: now I know they played it a little differently with
Speaker 4: a lot of play action and things like that, but
Speaker 4: they certainly ran the ball against Georgia, which was impressive.
Speaker 4: I don't know they They've got a couple of guys
Speaker 4: along the line. It's their first year here along the
Speaker 4: big Blue wall. I'm wondering almost if it isn't just
Speaker 4: one of those things that takes them a little while
Speaker 4: to jail. And unfortunately, you're you know, you had a
Speaker 4: couple of tough games off the bat with you know,
Speaker 4: some of the best defensive linemen in the country in
Speaker 4: South Carolina and Georgia. So you know, maybe now they
Speaker 4: can settle in here after a couple of games and
Speaker 4: have more film to look at and can show what
Speaker 4: they need to do to improve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they were I thought embarrassed by South Carolina,
Speaker 1: but then they redeemed themselves in an even tougher situation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right. Soacharna got some great young edge rushers. But
Speaker 1: and granted Georgia had one or two guys out banged up,
Speaker 1: they're still Georgia. And those guys acquitted themselves, didn't they
Speaker 1: against the number one or two team in the country.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I certainly thought so. I thought that a you know, again,
Speaker 4: that's one of the things that I think I was
Speaker 4: most concerned about going into that Georgia game was the
Speaker 4: offensive line, and that's what worried me that Brock wasn't
Speaker 4: going to have time to throw, they were going to
Speaker 4: be able to get a push to get the run going,
Speaker 4: and they came through, and they showed that they could
Speaker 4: do it, you know, against the team like that. So
Speaker 4: I think that's very encouraging moving forward.
Speaker 1: Speaking up, Brock, what did you think of his performance?
Speaker 4: Again? I think he took a step forward. I think
Speaker 4: you know, some of that, you'll go back and look
Speaker 4: at the South Carolina game. They didn't put it all
Speaker 4: on the offensive line. Some of that was like, look,
Speaker 4: he's got to get rid of the ball. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: I thought he did a better job of surveying where
Speaker 4: he was going with the ball. The play action certainly
Speaker 4: helped with that. But I think again he took a
Speaker 4: step forward, and it can only give you confidence heading forward.
Speaker 1: I have to admit that I have been just short
Speaker 1: of amazed by Demi Sumol Karnbay because having gone to
Speaker 1: one of the scrimmages, having watched him last year, I thought, man,
Speaker 1: when this kid gets on the edges, he is going
Speaker 1: to be fun to watch. But I was skeptical about
Speaker 1: his ability to run between the tackles. And I know
Speaker 1: you did preseason interviews with him, as did I, and
Speaker 1: he was confident, but everybody's confident in August, you know.
Speaker 1: But he has proven me wrong.
Speaker 4: He definitely has, because he was showing the other night
Speaker 4: against Georgia that you know, hey, I'm going to take
Speaker 4: it up the middle, and I'm tough to get down,
Speaker 4: and I'm going to keep turning those legs. And so
Speaker 4: I think, for me a little like you, I was
Speaker 4: impressed by the way he got out there and continued
Speaker 4: to you know, take the ball and want to take
Speaker 4: it up the middle and not necessarily get it out
Speaker 4: on the edge, you know. Uh, and just being a
Speaker 4: tough guy to get down. That was fun to watch.
Speaker 1: You make a great point. He was able to move
Speaker 1: the pile, you know. And yeah, I had people helping him,
Speaker 1: but I mean, yeah, just his drive like I never
Speaker 1: thought he could. But there's a reason they spent so
Speaker 1: much time in the weight room, right, you know.
Speaker 4: And I and I talked to him. I talked to
Speaker 4: him after the South Carolina game. I think you did too, right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: And that was one of those He was very appreciative
Speaker 4: of his offensive line, even though maybe they didn't have
Speaker 4: to great now. They they ran blocked pretty well in
Speaker 4: that game. It was the past that wasn't as well
Speaker 4: done as well. Yeah, but he was very appreciative and
Speaker 4: that he seems like one of those guys that kind
Speaker 4: of keeps urging his his guys up front. You know,
Speaker 4: just give me a little bit of space, I'll make
Speaker 4: something happen.
Speaker 1: The other thing I'm curious about, and supposedly it's in
Speaker 1: the playbook and the bush Handen playbook, is throwing the
Speaker 1: ball to the running backs. Now, I guess maybe the
Speaker 1: game plan hasn't allowed for that, but that would allow
Speaker 1: you to see Demi out in space a little bit
Speaker 1: as well. But I'm also really curious. I like what
Speaker 1: I've seen about the two young running backs. But man,
Speaker 1: after meeting Chip train him, seeing how big he is
Speaker 1: and seeing how that complimentary run game him and Demi,
Speaker 1: now that should move Kentucky up, I would think considerably
Speaker 1: in the run game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if they can just get him healthy. You know,
Speaker 4: it doesn't sound like at all chance of coming back
Speaker 4: this week still out. But yeah, you talk about your
Speaker 4: lightning and thunder and that kind of you know, running
Speaker 4: back duo. I could certainly see that happening because then
Speaker 4: Demi wouldn't have to as much pound that ball straight ahead.
Speaker 4: You could let Chip do that and then demmy, could
Speaker 4: you know, not only hit inside but also really bound
Speaker 4: from those of the outside and get the edge. Like
Speaker 4: we were talking about Keith.
Speaker 1: Farmer, my guest WLAX sports director. You see him on
Speaker 1: BBN tonight. We'll come back and talk more football, a
Speaker 1: little basketball. What came in on the other side of
Speaker 1: the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're
Speaker 1: talking with Keith Farmer. He is a sports director at
Speaker 1: l e X eighteen and you see him each night
Speaker 1: on BBN Tonight with Miss Maggie Davis. And of course
Speaker 1: we're talking about the football Wildcats. I was talking during
Speaker 1: a previous segment Keith about a lot of the fans.
Speaker 1: I don't know, want to say a lot, but there's
Speaker 1: a segment of fans who, of course have turned on
Speaker 1: Mark Stoops within the previous couple of years, the last
Speaker 1: couple of mediocre seasons and then naturally what happened with
Speaker 1: South Carolina. You've been around for a while, not quite
Speaker 1: as old as I am, but you've worked all over
Speaker 1: the state of Kentucky and hazard election in Louisville back
Speaker 1: to election, and I got to think none of that
Speaker 1: surprises you. Being the grizzled.
Speaker 4: Veteran that you are, especially in this day and age
Speaker 4: of X social media any kind, right, I mean, it's
Speaker 4: so easy to get on and complain about something. It's
Speaker 4: usually a vocal minority that that does all of that.
Speaker 4: I mean, well Mark Students has done at Kentucky has
Speaker 4: been a remarkable run and one that you know, I know,
Speaker 4: I saw you you kind of reacting to somebody from
Speaker 4: the Loysville area who thinks he's overpaid and this and
Speaker 4: that and you know hasn't done it all that much
Speaker 4: and you had to remind him. You know, man, there
Speaker 4: have been some dark days at Kentucky where people just
Speaker 4: showed up and they knew they were losing games. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, now they know their end games. And obviously
Speaker 4: by what happened last week with Georgia, I mean, Kentucky
Speaker 4: was in that game and a player or two away
Speaker 4: from making that upset happen.
Speaker 1: You know what's would I think impressed me in the
Speaker 1: most key And I talked about this in the show earlier,
Speaker 1: was it wasn't because of fluky plays. The only flukey
Speaker 1: playing a game was wiped off the board. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were you know, people drop the ball or block
Speaker 1: kicks or these dramatic turnaround It was just it was
Speaker 1: an old school football game. And but Carl pointed this out.
Speaker 1: He said, it was like a one nothing baseball game.
Speaker 1: A lot of people won't like that, but a lot
Speaker 1: of people love the drama. And hardly anybody left. Everybody
Speaker 1: was on the edge of their seat.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean that right, That right fair shows you
Speaker 4: how many people are behind Stuits in this program, right
Speaker 4: the way that the atmosphere was on Saturday night, And yeah,
Speaker 4: it was one of those I know people look at
Speaker 4: it go thirteen twelve. That was a great game to watch.
Speaker 4: I mean there were a lot of plays back and
Speaker 4: forth from both teams, you know that. I mean again,
Speaker 4: Georgia had to earn that victory. They didn't just come
Speaker 4: in and walk out with it. They had to earn
Speaker 4: it to every play. And all you got to do
Speaker 4: is listen to Kirby Smarts and know that what did you.
Speaker 1: Think we've gone here, what eleven and a half minutes?
Speaker 1: What did you think of the decision to punch the football? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, the last punt. Yeah, you know, after hearing Stoops
Speaker 4: talk about it more on Monday, it kind of made sense.
Speaker 4: You know that he wanted to try and flip the field. Look,
Speaker 4: the defensive played pretty well, right, and if he goes
Speaker 4: for it, there Georgia easily if they don't run the
Speaker 4: clock out, don't get a field goal, then you know,
Speaker 4: Kentucky's got almost the length of the field in a
Speaker 4: very little amount of time minute or so. So to
Speaker 4: try and do what he did, to try and flip
Speaker 4: the field, it made more sense to me. Now, I
Speaker 4: don't know if you line ten coaches up, you know
Speaker 4: how many of them are going to do that in
Speaker 4: that situation. I have no idea, you know, especially you know,
Speaker 4: knowing that you're on that Kentucky sideline and what's at stakes,
Speaker 4: and so I have to be behind him because that's
Speaker 4: what he felt in his heart, that he needed to
Speaker 4: flip the field, make the stop and have a chance
Speaker 4: at a punt that maybe they only go fifty sixty
Speaker 4: yards instead the eighty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know they needed was a field goal.
Speaker 4: They need it in the end, exactly. Yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 4: didn't have to get any inso correct correct At.
Speaker 1: The time he made the decision, how did you feel
Speaker 1: were you thinking they go for it? Did you think
Speaker 1: they needed to go for it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at the time, I thought, go for it. Yeah,
Speaker 4: you got to you got to make this happen. You
Speaker 4: got to keep the ball because George is gonna run
Speaker 4: out the fuck. That's how it felt. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: I didn't agree with it at first. You're correct, Well.
Speaker 1: You weren't alone. A lot of people. A lot of
Speaker 1: people agreed with you there.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean you could hear it from
Speaker 4: the groans in the stadium, you know, even even on
Speaker 4: on TV you could hear it, you know. So yeah,
Speaker 4: you know that people wanted to even go for it.
Speaker 1: It's that the game came down to that. I thought
Speaker 1: it was fascinating, you know. I mean, it was unfortunate
Speaker 1: for Kentucky and the fans the way it ended. But
Speaker 1: who would have thought that that game would come down
Speaker 1: to the decision by the coach that was behind on
Speaker 1: the scoreboard should I kick it or should I keep it?
Speaker 1: With three minutes to play. You just don't see that
Speaker 1: very often.
Speaker 4: It almost makes you wonder what if? Right?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Like I'd love to be able to go
Speaker 4: back in time and have them hold on to the
Speaker 4: wall and go for it unforeto down, just to know,
Speaker 4: just to know how how would have been different the.
Speaker 1: Big night at the stadium, Tim Kouch was introduced, got
Speaker 1: a great ovation and even some Georgia fans were applauding him.
Speaker 1: Mark Pope was there, and I think there is team
Speaker 1: they were there, But I guess that was one of
Speaker 1: the big upsets is they weren't introduced at that game.
Speaker 1: I guess they will be at some point. It's not
Speaker 1: the first time they've been at a Kentucky football game
Speaker 1: as a team, right, But Mark kind of hung back,
Speaker 1: stayed by the tunnel, you know. I was talking to
Speaker 1: the commissioner and then shaking hands with people, but looking
Speaker 1: ahead to his team. They are still flying beneath the
Speaker 1: radar came in not in the big Blue Nation. But
Speaker 1: are you surprised at all that none of the pundits
Speaker 1: have jumped up and said, hey, here's a team you
Speaker 1: need to be looking at, because clearly nobody really knows
Speaker 1: what to expect.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now it doesn't surprise me. I mean everybody was
Speaker 4: so much behind, you know, knowing what cal would bring
Speaker 4: to it a season, you know, especially with the talent
Speaker 4: that he would have, and I think everybody just maybe
Speaker 4: kind of kind of curious this first season with Mark Pope. Again,
Speaker 4: I've said this a lot about him being on more
Speaker 4: of the west coast side of the state. Yeah, not
Speaker 4: a lot of people stayed up and watched his teams
Speaker 4: to see how they play. And so I think, you know,
Speaker 4: once he gets out there with this this group, I
Speaker 4: mean it's the group he had to put together, the
Speaker 4: group that he has, I still think could be impressed.
Speaker 4: It could be a really good three point shooting team,
Speaker 4: and they're certainly going to take a lot of them,
Speaker 4: so if they can play a little defense, maybe get
Speaker 4: a little bit of inside work, I think they could
Speaker 4: be one of those teams that people are eventually going
Speaker 4: to be talking about once we get into the season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just depends on, duh, if the ball goes
Speaker 1: in the basket, Because like Caliberry said, you can you
Speaker 1: can have three point shooters, but you have to have
Speaker 1: three point makers and if they make them, then yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's going to make the rest of that
Speaker 1: team dangerous.
Speaker 4: I mean, we remember the Patino days, right when they
Speaker 4: were jacking up three. It was the occasional night where
Speaker 4: it just didn't fall for any of them. So yeah,
Speaker 4: you have to live with it and die with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, I guess statistically you could see
Speaker 1: only one out of every three has to go in
Speaker 1: because that's essentially matches one for two when it comes
Speaker 1: from two point buckets. But yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1: And coincidentally enough, who did he play for? It's I'm
Speaker 1: really curious. I don't know if you remember this, but
Speaker 1: there was a game where Patino yelled at Jamel Martinez,
Speaker 1: his post player, for not shooting a three. I don't
Speaker 1: know if Pope will come down to that. I want
Speaker 1: to see Mark Polk get ticked off, though, you know,
Speaker 1: he's so upneat and positive. I wonder what it looks
Speaker 1: like when his you know, when he looks like he's
Speaker 1: about to blow a stack. That's going to be interesting.
Speaker 4: It will definitely be Yeah, I'll just see him get
Speaker 4: a little you know, on the sidelines, like you know,
Speaker 4: in some faces. But I don't think you're going to
Speaker 4: see him be a Patino type.
Speaker 1: Oh no, uh, you know.
Speaker 4: And certainly they they never could get him cussed from
Speaker 4: the from the sounds of things, so Patino was always
Speaker 4: like he was saying some words that were similar kind
Speaker 4: of like Brock Vandergriff and they were like, just go
Speaker 4: ahead and say it.
Speaker 1: Well apparently, and Cameron Mills saw me this. Uh. Mark's
Speaker 1: favorite expression was frick and and what what he said?
Speaker 1: Patino said him, Ah, Mark, they know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Just go ahead and say it, dude. But you're right,
Speaker 1: you never would.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. Keith Farmer the guy I'm excited for, you know,
Speaker 4: for the season and everything, and he's so happy to
Speaker 4: be back. And I think you're going to really enjoy
Speaker 4: watching these teams.
Speaker 1: Oh, I agree. And and a guy who so appreciates
Speaker 1: being and not the CALIBERY didn't. Keith Farmer is a
Speaker 1: sports director eli x A G and you see him
Speaker 1: on BBN Tonight each night, following him on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Keith Farmer eighteen. Thanks came in, not a problem, can
Speaker 1: talk to you Up next to Emmigroom of the UK
Speaker 1: volleyball team. The Cats take on the Cardinals of Louisville
Speaker 1: tomorrow night at Historic Memorial Coliseum. You'll hear it right
Speaker 1: here on six thirty WLAP. Here's Emma in three two
Speaker 1: welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now
Speaker 1: in our celebrity hotline is somebody who's done more than
Speaker 1: one interview today but Emma Grome, senior setter for the
Speaker 1: volleyball Wildcats, that's what happens when you're playing for a
Speaker 1: pretty good team. You got a big match this week.
Speaker 5: Right, Yes, for sure.
Speaker 1: What do you guys think about when you go into
Speaker 1: the Louisville match? Do you have to guard against getting
Speaker 1: a little too keyed up? Because they have been putting
Speaker 1: some good teams on the court of late, and it's
Speaker 1: always interesting when you all play.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we always get super fired up for this week.
Speaker 5: There's nothing better than a rival rivalry match, especially when
Speaker 5: you know both teams are doing pretty well at the moment,
Speaker 5: and they've been very good the last couple of years,
Speaker 5: so we're ready to give it to them.
Speaker 1: You all used to own them no disrespect, but I
Speaker 1: mean they just for a while there, they were just
Speaker 1: you know, another team. But as you said, of late,
Speaker 1: they've been doing really well. What do you make of that?
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, teams get better. They've built a
Speaker 5: pretty solid program and you know, they weren't great for
Speaker 5: a couple of years, but they've really turned it around
Speaker 5: and it's honestly impressive for them. But we're ready to,
Speaker 5: you know, for it to be our turn so you know,
Speaker 5: almost the top ten matchup. We dropped just tolp of
Speaker 5: the top ten this week, but they're at number four
Speaker 5: and it's going to be a tough game for sure.
Speaker 4: What do you know about them, They're always a pretty
Speaker 4: scrappy team.
Speaker 5: That's one thing that we can usually count on is
Speaker 5: there's going to be long rallies and it's going to
Speaker 5: come down to who can stick with that the longest
Speaker 5: and eventually get the point because those are the big
Speaker 5: momentum changing kind of place. Yeah, very scrappy. They're usually
Speaker 5: pretty good on passing in defense, but our serving has
Speaker 5: been really good this year. That's something that I think
Speaker 5: is definitely a strength for this team. So hopefully we'll
Speaker 5: be able to get them out of system a little
Speaker 5: bit and that'll make things a little bit easier for us.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the serving. Craig has talked about that how
Speaker 1: aggressive you all have been, and yeah, there are some
Speaker 1: service errors here and there, but explain to people the
Speaker 1: difference because there were several years before you got here.
Speaker 1: Craig kind of made the decision, Craig Scanner to really
Speaker 1: have his teams amp up the serving aggression. Why that
Speaker 1: makes such a big difference.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that's something this year that's been a
Speaker 5: little bit different from us. In the past, it's been
Speaker 5: that we wanted to have a low air rate but
Speaker 5: still get quality serves in the court. But this year
Speaker 5: it's been a little bit of a shift in mentality
Speaker 5: to we want to what we call knock out the
Speaker 5: other team, So you have them shank the ball or
Speaker 5: just get a flat out ace, and with that you
Speaker 5: have a little bit of a higher error rate, but
Speaker 5: it's high risk, high reward, you know. So I think
Speaker 5: that's been really big. But it's super important to serve
Speaker 5: tough to get the other team out of system. When
Speaker 5: the other team is passing perfect passing balls right on
Speaker 5: the net, it's a lot easier for them to run
Speaker 5: their offense, and it's really hard on our blockers to
Speaker 5: be able to make those kind of moves when it
Speaker 5: could literally go to anyone. So getting them out of
Speaker 5: systems huge. It helps our blocking, it helps their defense,
Speaker 5: and it makes the other team a little less successful offensively.
Speaker 1: And I know oftentimes you serve right at the other
Speaker 1: team's best player or or most productive offensive player again
Speaker 1: to try to get them out of system. Right, I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of teams you serve right at Brooklyn
Speaker 1: this year, right.
Speaker 5: Right, And I mean that's honestly smart. The idea there
Speaker 5: is that you want to try to take out the
Speaker 5: best hitter for that rotation, and sometimes people will, you know,
Speaker 5: you want them to go to the ground or something
Speaker 5: like that, or just be a little bit out of
Speaker 5: rhythm with their approach. So yeah, I'm not surprised that
Speaker 5: we've been seeing that, But that's also our goal against
Speaker 5: other teams is either do that or find the weakest
Speaker 5: passer if it's not the best hitter. You know, sometimes
Speaker 5: you'll see Libero's struggle from time to time, or DS
Speaker 5: has struggled. So that's where Craig comes in, trying to
Speaker 5: find the best area for us to serve.
Speaker 1: Do you expect that from Louisville for them to go
Speaker 1: after Brooklyn, because obviously that impacts you as the setter.
Speaker 5: Right, I Mean, I'm not sure what they'll do, but
Speaker 5: the past couple matches we've definitely seen that, so I
Speaker 5: could imagine that's not the possibility. But at the end
Speaker 5: of the day, it doesn't affect things that much. Brooklyn's
Speaker 5: been passing pretty well and she's very good at if
Speaker 5: she does pass, still being able to get out of
Speaker 5: the court and get in rhythm with her approach. So
Speaker 5: there's not too many times that she gets fully taken
Speaker 5: out of being an offensive option.
Speaker 1: No, she's not gonna let that happen. Issue.
Speaker 5: No, she definitely won't let that.
Speaker 1: Talking Tomcgralm, she is a senior center for the volleyball Wildcats.
Speaker 1: They take on the Louisville Cardinals tomorrow night. You can
Speaker 1: see it on the SEC Network. You can hear it
Speaker 1: right here on six thirty WLAP. Coming off that invitational
Speaker 1: down in Dallash you sweep SMU, which is a good,
Speaker 1: good program. You get the first step and then fall
Speaker 1: to Purdue. What did you guys take away from the
Speaker 1: trip to Dallas.
Speaker 5: You know, I think we've just it's been a trend
Speaker 5: this year. We just need to stay a little bit.
Speaker 5: I don't want to stay more engaged, but just stay
Speaker 5: with the long matches. You know, we know against these
Speaker 5: top ten teams, it's never going to be easy, So
Speaker 5: focusing on getting one point at a time, not thinking
Speaker 5: about the overall picture, and just trying to stay locked
Speaker 5: in on our game plan and what we do well
Speaker 5: as a team. We always say we want to play
Speaker 5: Kentucky volleyball. We don't want the other team to dictate
Speaker 5: what we're doing. So I think just staying a little
Speaker 5: bit more locked in on what's our game, not worrying
Speaker 5: too much about the other side, because yes, you do
Speaker 5: have to worry about what they're doing, but at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, we know that if we're playing
Speaker 5: our best Kentucky volleyball, we believe that we can beat
Speaker 5: any team.
Speaker 1: Well, you have Penn State down to nothing, they got
Speaker 1: away from you. Was that kind of a loss of
Speaker 1: focus there?
Speaker 5: I think that was a little bit of a tough situation.
Speaker 4: Just we did.
Speaker 5: We have had a pretty tough schedule this year where
Speaker 5: we had two weekends in a row of playing three
Speaker 5: games three days in a row, and I think that's
Speaker 5: something we weren't used to. But I think they're The
Speaker 5: thing is just not really losing focus, but just being
Speaker 5: able to really go out in a third set and finish.
Speaker 5: You know, we were up to oh and the third
Speaker 5: set was still a really good step for us. It
Speaker 5: was close, but just being able to go out there
Speaker 5: with a little bit more fire and finish a team
Speaker 5: when we need to. That's something we've continued to work
Speaker 5: on and it'll get better with time.
Speaker 1: Well it has to obviously, because you got the SEC
Speaker 1: coming up. But prior to that and as you know,
Speaker 1: a trip to Stanford you mentioned a tough schedule, but
Speaker 1: Craig has said, you know, I never shy away from
Speaker 1: tough matches, do you players? I got to think you
Speaker 1: enjoy that or do you?
Speaker 5: For sure? Yeah, it's definitely important. I think to play
Speaker 5: teams like, play the best teams early on. They might
Speaker 5: not all go our way, but we learn a lot
Speaker 5: from those matches and we learn what it takes from
Speaker 5: our team to beat the best teams in the country.
Speaker 5: And like I said, you know, it doesn't always go
Speaker 5: our way, but overall that'll help us when it gets
Speaker 5: to postseason and SEC play because the SEC is getting
Speaker 5: tougher every year. Oh yeah, so it's definitely important to
Speaker 5: play those kind of matches.
Speaker 1: Well, not only has the SEC been getting tougher because
Speaker 1: you all chased down as a program caught in blue
Speaker 1: past Florida, Tennessee is trying to make strides others. Then
Speaker 1: you add Oklahoma and Texas. We all know what Dad
Speaker 1: means and just by dumb coincidence, you open your conference
Speaker 1: play on the road with a weekend at Auburn, then Florida,
Speaker 1: and then you got Oklahoma coming in. So this is
Speaker 1: that's one of the most challenging schedules I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: But you guys really just can't worry about that, can you.
Speaker 5: No, we can't. I mean, our goal every day is
Speaker 5: to just get a little bit better, fix what we
Speaker 5: can learn from the matches before, and then go out
Speaker 5: and give every match our all. We have the mentality
Speaker 5: that we want to win every match, so we have
Speaker 5: to like go in thinking that that we're going to
Speaker 5: play our hardest and play our best Kentucky volleyball to
Speaker 5: try to beat these teams. But we love the tough schedule.
Speaker 5: It's only going to make us better.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And yeah, Emma girl my guess she is a
Speaker 1: senior center for the volleyball Wildcast from Loveland, Ohio, which
Speaker 1: is what north east of Cincinnati, right. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: decided to become a Kentucky Wildcat. Where were you in
Speaker 1: your high school career? Was it early on? And why
Speaker 1: did you choose Kentucky?
Speaker 5: It was early on. It was like right after my
Speaker 5: freshman year ended it, you know, the second I step
Speaker 5: foot on this campus, I fell in love with it,
Speaker 5: and I knew that I wanted to come here. The
Speaker 5: people here are incredible. The program is super competitive, but
Speaker 5: I always say this, we're really competitive, but it's crazy
Speaker 5: how much they care about you as people. Like we're
Speaker 5: all competing. There's so much depth on these teams that
Speaker 5: everyone's fighting for a spot, but we're also super supportive
Speaker 5: of each other. At the same time, you really want
Speaker 5: to see your teammates succeed, and I think that's really
Speaker 5: special to be a part of something like.
Speaker 1: That you're playing in. I keep hearing it called historic
Speaker 1: Memorial Coliseum, but boy, the insides of it now incredibly modernized.
Speaker 1: My broadcast partner I did the ball State game on
Speaker 1: sec TV and Leah Edmund worked with me, and she
Speaker 1: actually kind of surprised me, but she said, I kind
Speaker 1: of liked it when it was hot in ear because
Speaker 1: it gave us an advantage. How do you feel about
Speaker 1: the air conditioning.
Speaker 5: It's definitely true. I think it gave us an advantage,
Speaker 5: but I personally am very that we have air conditioning.
Speaker 1: I don't blame you. You can still.
Speaker 5: It's like fine, it was doable, but there was some
Speaker 5: days in late September where man, if it was hot outside,
Speaker 5: it was just brutal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and oddly it's even hotter I think inside at
Speaker 1: that point of the year. But you know, I really think,
Speaker 1: and obviously you all know way more about it than
Speaker 1: I do, but I would think it allows you to
Speaker 1: play your best. It doesn't drain you as quickly does
Speaker 1: it when you're brutally hot?
Speaker 5: For sure?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well you and Leah can do bait that. I'll
Speaker 1: leave that up to you all. A few minutes safe
Speaker 1: with Emmagrove, Kentucky's volleyball cetter. What do you think of
Speaker 1: the way? And speaking of Memorial Coliseum, the crowds have
Speaker 1: supported you all because I think, slowly but surely people
Speaker 1: are falling in love with volleyball here and lexing it.
Speaker 5: I agree, and it's incredible. I mean, we've had some
Speaker 5: pretty good crowds here so far, and just being in
Speaker 5: this new gym, being a part of this history being
Speaker 5: made and having that many people come out and support
Speaker 5: you as really special. I don't think people realize how
Speaker 5: much of the crowd can play a part in these matches,
Speaker 5: but it really adds to the home court advantage of
Speaker 5: having this place packed and loud and people screaming, and
Speaker 5: it's honestly really nice as a player to look up
Speaker 5: and see everybody here and supporting us. That makes you
Speaker 5: feel really loved as a program.
Speaker 1: Before I let you go, we need to throw a
Speaker 1: little love to some of your teammates, including what we've
Speaker 1: talked about. Brooklyn Molly Tuzzo has been playing well as
Speaker 1: a libro. She's kind of worked her way into the lineup, hasn't.
Speaker 5: She She has. I mean, she was incredible last year,
Speaker 5: but this year she's taken it to a whole new level.
Speaker 5: She applies everywhere on the court. You really don't have
Speaker 5: to worry about balls getting hitting the floor around her.
Speaker 5: So she's been doing awesome. It's been really fun to
Speaker 5: watch her grow.
Speaker 1: And you can still work Elean or Bevin in defensively,
Speaker 1: so that's a huge plus. And Brooke Baltima comes back
Speaker 1: from the injury and what has she given you all?
Speaker 5: She's been awesome. I mean, she's just one of the
Speaker 5: hardest working players I've ever played with or met. She's
Speaker 5: just very focused and she can be a little hard
Speaker 5: on herself sometimes, but you never have to worry about
Speaker 5: her wanting to be better, but no, she's been awesome.
Speaker 5: We lost both of our middles from last year, so
Speaker 5: having her and Jordan Daily step up into that role
Speaker 5: has been really huge, and we've just been continuing to
Speaker 5: work on our connection and get the most we can.
Speaker 3: Out of them.
Speaker 1: Has it been weird dealing with a portal because you
Speaker 1: got a teammate who's here literally here today and gone tomorrow.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it can be tough, but I think that's the
Speaker 5: cool thing is just learning how to adapt each year.
Speaker 5: You never know how things will go, who you have
Speaker 5: or who you pick up, so just being able to
Speaker 5: adapt and grow with the team that you have each
Speaker 5: year is super important.
Speaker 1: Emma Grom Kentucky Volleyball tomorrow night against those Louisville Cardinals.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, best of luck, come.
Speaker 5: Out to the game tomorrow.
Speaker 4: We need it passed.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Ok here bye bye. I didn't want to start rattling
Speaker 1: this off with her on the line. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: embarrass her. But she is a four time All American
Speaker 1: Freshman of the Year in the SEC and a four
Speaker 1: time All American and the setter, of course, is the
Speaker 1: quarterback out there on the court. So she is one
Speaker 1: of the best, if not the best setter in the country.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you one volleyball match, it's all it's
Speaker 1: going to take. If you go, you will be hooked,
Speaker 1: especially now at the all new and improved Memorial Coliseum
Speaker 1: seven pm start. I think I said it was on
Speaker 1: the SEC networks, actually on ESPN, so you can see
Speaker 1: it and hear it here on six point thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. In the National
Speaker 1: Football League, so much chatter right now about quarterbacks, and
Speaker 1: part of that is former Wildcat Will Levis, who threw
Speaker 1: away another game for the Titans, and that game cost
Speaker 1: some headlines. In fact, his biggest turnover because the head coach,
Speaker 1: Brian Callahan Maddy with the sideline with the expletive, and
Speaker 1: it was apparently I didn't see it. I saw the
Speaker 1: replay of it, pretty evident what he was saying to Levis,
Speaker 1: what the bleep as he came off the field. And
Speaker 1: people have asked Callahan since then if he regretted it,
Speaker 1: and he said no, He said he wasn't remorseful. He said,
Speaker 1: I don't regret my feelings about how I felt in
Speaker 1: the moment. I'm generally pretty composed, he said, but this
Speaker 1: will just set me off. And I'm human like everybody else.
Speaker 1: I have blackout moments where I'll lose my mind. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I don't blame him because remember now,
Speaker 1: they fired Mike Vrabel, and one of the reports I'd
Speaker 1: read was that Vrabel was not fully committed to Will
Speaker 1: Levis as the starting quarterback, and the people who wrote
Speaker 1: his checks they were, and they were spending more than
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty five million dollars to build around Levis.
Speaker 1: So they get rid of Rabel, who's a really good
Speaker 1: NFL hit football coach, and they bring in Callahan. So
Speaker 1: now Callahan is responsible for moving this team up in
Speaker 1: the fortune of the NFL, and his young quarterback keeps
Speaker 1: screwing things up with really really poor decisions that lead
Speaker 1: directly to points for the other team. So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on what's going on. I don't think Levis gets benched,
Speaker 1: but it is not good right now. What's going on
Speaker 1: down in Nashville speaking have benched fans and some media
Speaker 1: believe that the Broncos already should bench Bone Nicks, the
Speaker 1: rookie from Oregon by way of Auburn. He won quote
Speaker 1: unquote the starting job in preseason, but the Broncos have
Speaker 1: started off zh to two they have not been impressive,
Speaker 1: nor has he four picks, no touchdown passes, did run
Speaker 1: for a rush score in Week one, but his rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback rating through two games fifty one point three five.
Speaker 1: The problem is Sean Payton, the head coach who raised
Speaker 1: eyebrows when he decided to start Knicks. Well, what are
Speaker 1: his alternatives? Zach Wilson, second player taken in the draft,
Speaker 1: who is a complete bust in New York, or Jared
Speaker 1: Stidham who is an NFL veteran from Corbin, Kentucky by
Speaker 1: the way, but has never been able to start to
Speaker 1: win a starting job, and other spots in the National
Speaker 1: Football League. So they may just be stuck with as
Speaker 1: the starting job as the starter in Denver. They've also
Speaker 1: got a quarterback situation in Charlotte, of course, with Bryce
Speaker 1: Young being benched, and he may not be the future
Speaker 1: for the Carolina Panthers of the quarterbacks, but at least
Speaker 1: ten starts since the beginning of last season. When you
Speaker 1: look at all the analytical breakdowns points added per drop
Speaker 1: back success rate, explosive pass rate, you know, big plays,
Speaker 1: completion percentage, all that stuff. He is the worst or
Speaker 1: the second worst. So he has just been absolute bust.
Speaker 1: Now there's nothing much around him. But remember it was
Speaker 1: the decision came down to Bryce Young or c J. Stroud,
Speaker 1: and they clearly took the wrong guy. But Houston's done
Speaker 1: a much better job of building around CJ. Stroud in Miami.
Speaker 1: To A Tungue of Belova will not be placed on
Speaker 1: injured reserve despite yet another concussion. Mike McDonald's, the head coach,
Speaker 1: said he needs more information, but he's still in concussion protocol.
Speaker 1: After that Thursday loss to Buffalo, McDonald said it's too
Speaker 1: early in the process. McDaniel said it's too early in
Speaker 1: the process to say whether he'll be on injured reserve,
Speaker 1: but that he and the GM will make that decision
Speaker 1: once further evaluations have been completed. Now what they have
Speaker 1: done is they have signed Tyler Huntley off the Ravens
Speaker 1: practice squad. Huntley is in his i think sixth year
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Played his college football at Utah. So
Speaker 1: Skyler Thompson will be starting because to A will miss
Speaker 1: this week's game against Seattle Skyler Thompson from Kansas State
Speaker 1: was a seventh round pick in twenty twenty two. It
Speaker 1: wasn't mister irrelevant, but he was a late round pick
Speaker 1: and here he is starting in the NFL. One other
Speaker 1: note about Jordan Chiles, the Olympic gymnast who had to
Speaker 1: give back her Olympic bronze medal. She is appealing the decision,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, one of her teammates may
Speaker 1: be the key to her winning that appeal. Simone Biles
Speaker 1: Netflix is shooting a documentary and has been shooting it
Speaker 1: of course, and in court documents released yesterday, there's video
Speaker 1: footage at the center of her appeals efforts, provided by
Speaker 1: the production company that had received permission to shoot at
Speaker 1: the Barcie Arena as part of Biles's latest documentary project.
Speaker 1: First of two episodes of the docuseries that were released
Speaker 1: prior to the Olympics, two more coming later this year.
Speaker 1: It's called Simone Biles Rising, and the footage could be
Speaker 1: the smoking gun they need for Childs to hold on
Speaker 1: to her medal because it undercut a key factual finding
Speaker 1: in the Court of Appeals. The Court of Arbitration for
Speaker 1: Sports ruling shows the American Gymnast appeal of her score.
Speaker 1: The inquiry had been submitted well before the sixty second deadline.
Speaker 1: Her coach Cecil Landy was heard saying, inquiry for Jordan.
Speaker 1: You can hear that on the documentary footage forty nine
Speaker 1: seconds after Child's score and the floor exercise final was announced.
Speaker 1: She repeats it a couple of times prior to the
Speaker 1: sixty second deadline. So we'll see if that shakes out.
Speaker 1: How about that for being a teammate that's going to
Speaker 1: do it. Thanks to my guest Emma Gromes. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Mark Story and Keith Farmer. Back tomorrow night with a
Speaker 1: short show ahead of Kentucky Volleyball. That's it. Good night
Speaker 1: from the garage in Lexington. Ay, a ron? Where are you?
Speaker 1: Where is a ron?
Speaker 4: Right now? No?
Speaker 1: A ron?
Speaker 4: Huh? Well you better be sick, dead or mute?
Speaker 1: A A ron?
Speaker 4: Er?
Speaker 1: Oh man? Why didn't you answer me the first time?
Speaker 3: I said, eh, huh, I'm just you know, I'm just
Speaker 3: asking you.
Speaker 2: I said it like four times, So why didn't you
Speaker 2: say it the first time?
Speaker 1: I said a a ron?
Speaker 3: Because it's pronounced an eron.
Speaker 5: You domb messed up?
Speaker 1: A ron