Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabriel with
Speaker 1: you Friday edition of our program as we wrap up
Speaker 1: the week heading into another football weekend. It is overlap time,
Speaker 1: so we've got a lot going on tonight, football and
Speaker 1: basketball specifically, we'll talk about, of course, Kentucky Auburn. That
Speaker 1: game comes up tomorrow night seven forty five kickoff, five
Speaker 1: point thirty pre game with Christy and Jeremy and Logan
Speaker 1: and then Tom Leech, Chef Pcory and yours truly with
Speaker 1: the action as the Cats take on the Tigers, Kentucky
Speaker 1: looking for its first win over Auburn in fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Although you don't play all the time, but you got
Speaker 1: to go back to the big night on the planes
Speaker 1: and nine, and we're gonna talk a lot about that
Speaker 1: with both Morgan Newton and Will Fiddler, two former Kentucky quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and they along with Randall Cobb, each scored a touchdown
Speaker 1: in the twenty one to fourteen win over the Tigers.
Speaker 1: And what kind of gets lost a little bit in
Speaker 1: that story was the fact that Auburn led it fourteen
Speaker 1: to six at the half, Kentucky's defense shut out the
Speaker 1: Tigers in the second half and that was rich Brooks's
Speaker 1: final season as the Kentucky head coach, so a huge
Speaker 1: win for the Cats. They needed it badly. Then they
Speaker 1: need to win badly. Now we're gonna find out more
Speaker 1: about Auburn from John Longshore from WAKATV as well as
Speaker 1: a podcast you can watch on YouTube. We'll get a
Speaker 1: scouting report on the Tigers who have been struggling with
Speaker 1: turnovers this year. And I don't know if it's a
Speaker 1: quarterback controversy, but I know fans in media aren't happy
Speaker 1: right now with quarterback play there. So we'll learn more
Speaker 1: about those guys coming up in our number two. But
Speaker 1: coming up at our next segment, we're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: Morgan Newton. As you may know if you've been following
Speaker 1: along with our radio broadcast, we have been employing former Wildcats,
Speaker 1: well once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat to open our broadcasts.
Speaker 1: Rich Brooks did one week, Bernie Scruggs, Kenneth Horsey, and
Speaker 1: this week it is Morgan Newton to open our broadcast
Speaker 1: little monologue and it opens our play by play segment
Speaker 1: as well. And I had a chance to chat with
Speaker 1: Morgan after we were done recording what we needed for
Speaker 1: that monologue. So we'll get Morgan's thoughts on that game
Speaker 1: back in on nine and then Will Fiddler joined Jeff
Speaker 1: Icorol and me for The Wildcat Whip. That's our podcast
Speaker 1: that appears via the UK Sports Network Twitter handle as
Speaker 1: well as my Facebook page. Tom and Jeff share it
Speaker 1: on Twitter and Facebook. So if you want to get
Speaker 1: a deeper dive on what we think about the game
Speaker 1: coming up, because they only get about two and a
Speaker 1: half minutes prior to the playbook play segment and the
Speaker 1: Mark Stoops interview beginning on the pregame show, so we
Speaker 1: go a little deeper and we recorded it South of Wrigley,
Speaker 1: which is a great sandwich Shopsigo style sandwiches on Southland Dry.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of fun doing that. Tom was
Speaker 1: on assignment this week, so filling in for Tom was
Speaker 1: Will Fiddler. Now he couldn't come to South the Wrigley,
Speaker 1: of course because he lives in Charlotte now, but Jeff
Speaker 1: and I prepped him. It was like, when you come
Speaker 1: to town, you got to check this place out. So
Speaker 1: that's coming up a little bit of our conversation with
Speaker 1: Will comes up as well. A little bit later on. Plus,
Speaker 1: we'll talk basketball with Ben Roberts of the herold Leader.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Wildcats coming off that blowout went over
Speaker 1: Kentucky Wesleyan, which was totally overpowered and out manned, but
Speaker 1: still the way Kentucky did it is worth discussing. So
Speaker 1: we will do just that with Ben coming up at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the hour. Mark Troops talked to the
Speaker 1: media yesterday. Of course, he lost his mom this week
Speaker 1: and as he pointed out, though his mother would want
Speaker 1: him to basically keep his head down and keep working
Speaker 1: and get this football team better. She was a coach's wife.
Speaker 1: You all know this by now. Mark Stoops a dad,
Speaker 1: was a very well known football coach up in Youngstown,
Speaker 1: and of course his sons became really good football coaches
Speaker 1: as well. Mark trying to help his team turn things
Speaker 1: around against Auburn, which as we said, is struggling. You
Speaker 1: know this, and Auburn's one of those teams like Kentucky
Speaker 1: that if it doesn't take care of the little things,
Speaker 1: that's how things get away from it, that's when games
Speaker 1: fall apart. And Stoops talked about that there. This team
Speaker 1: is Kentucky team, like a lot of teams, is so
Speaker 1: close to being where it wants to be and needs
Speaker 1: to be. But taking care of the little things like
Speaker 1: not turning it over, not penaly not being called for penalties,
Speaker 1: that's what gets you in trouble. That's what you got
Speaker 1: to take care of.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talented teams. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: good teams in the league, and you know, a lot
Speaker 2: of games you know there's it's a possession here or there.
Speaker 2: Know what plays they are and how important they are.
Speaker 2: But you know, we got to do all of the
Speaker 2: things right, you know, and put ourselves in a position,
Speaker 2: you know, to make plays in the fourth quarter to
Speaker 2: get a victory.
Speaker 1: And that's the key, isn't it. You just get the
Speaker 1: game into the fourth quarter where you can exert your will,
Speaker 1: where you've got a chance to make more plays than
Speaker 1: the other guy and pull away. Sounds simple, but it's not.
Speaker 1: We've seen stoops as teams do it, you know, We've
Speaker 1: seen them control the middle eight, the last four of
Speaker 1: the first half, first four to the second half and
Speaker 1: put itself in a position to be on top going
Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter and then lean on your defense,
Speaker 1: lean on your ground game. But again, got to take
Speaker 1: care of the little things including don't turn the ball
Speaker 1: over and when you can make the other guy turn
Speaker 1: it over, and Auburn's been doing that a lot this season,
Speaker 1: but Stoops basically said, you can't count on that. You
Speaker 1: just got to count on what you can do and
Speaker 1: take advantage when the other guys make a mistake.
Speaker 2: It's very important, but we can't always control what they're
Speaker 2: going to do, right, you know. And it's like, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously if you could talk about defenses and
Speaker 2: trying to create turnovers, but obviously they're coaching over there
Speaker 2: as well, so I think their records would be a
Speaker 2: whole lot different if their turnover.
Speaker 3: Ratio is better.
Speaker 2: And you know, in our games, you know, certain games,
Speaker 2: you know, the turnovers were a huge difference. So it's
Speaker 2: it's always a factor, and for a team like us
Speaker 2: that's going to be in tight games, it's it's super important.
Speaker 1: It has not been a banner year for turnovers for
Speaker 1: the Kentucky defense so far. The Cats have picked off
Speaker 1: only six passes and they've recovered just the two fumbles
Speaker 1: they have forced a total of ten. But as you know,
Speaker 1: for a while there, they just could not seem to
Speaker 1: fall on the football, so If they can improve those
Speaker 1: numbers this week, that would be really helpful. Defense has
Speaker 1: played well this year except for the Florida game, and
Speaker 1: I'm throwing a South Carolina game in there as well.
Speaker 1: Kentucky's defense, I thought, held on for as long as
Speaker 1: it could against South Carolina, but without really much support
Speaker 1: at all from the offense, things finally got away from
Speaker 1: the Wildcats in that game. Offense is better since then,
Speaker 1: but not exactly where the Wildcats needed on either side
Speaker 1: of the football. This would be a good week to
Speaker 1: straighten that out. Auburn quarterback Peyton Thorn has six interceptions,
Speaker 1: four of those came in one game, but there isn't
Speaker 1: a whole lot behind them. They got a freshman named
Speaker 1: Hank Brown who is the backup and he hasn't played much,
Speaker 1: so they are obviously committed to playing Peyton Thorn, and
Speaker 1: according to some of the people who cover the team,
Speaker 1: that's one of the problems. But they've got a running
Speaker 1: back named Jaquest Hunter who was really really talented as
Speaker 1: a senior from Philadelphia, Mississippi, and averages five yards per carry.
Speaker 1: So if Kentucky can keep him from getting off and
Speaker 1: getting loose, then the Wildcats have a chance to dominate
Speaker 1: when it comes to time of possession, and that's something
Speaker 1: Kentucky has been good at most of the season, and
Speaker 1: in fact didn't do a bad job in that department
Speaker 1: against Florida, but kept trying to come from behind against
Speaker 1: the Gators, and again at one point twenty seven to
Speaker 1: twenty and one more stopped by the defense, one more
Speaker 1: good possession by the offense, at least from where I
Speaker 1: was standing on the sideline, and it looked like Kentucky
Speaker 1: could have begun to slowly turn that thing around. But
Speaker 1: the crowd, which Kentucky had eliminated on a couple of
Speaker 1: occasions down in the swamp, really into it. From the
Speaker 1: opening drive. Florida drove the ball down the field. Wildcats
Speaker 1: fought them off and forced a field goal, but still
Speaker 1: the crowd was engaged and stayed that way all night.
Speaker 1: It was a big party in the swamp, and the
Speaker 1: Wildcats missed their opportunity to shut things down. So they
Speaker 1: need a party Saturday night. They need the crowd to
Speaker 1: show out the way it did at the last home game.
Speaker 1: I have a feeling at will, so we'll have it
Speaker 1: for you. And coming up next well here from Morgan Newton,
Speaker 1: who helped quarterback the Wildcats to that upset win over
Speaker 1: the Auburn Tigers back in twenty nine. Bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: Ben Roberts will talk Kentucky basketball here on the Big
Speaker 1: Blewin Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Bluin Sider. Coming up tomorrow night Kentucky Auburn football, and
Speaker 1: the first voice you hear on our broadcast will be
Speaker 1: that of Morgan Newton, former Kentucky quarterback, one of in
Speaker 1: fact three at Kentucky qbs who scored against the Tigers
Speaker 1: the last time Kentucky beat Auburn, which was back in
Speaker 1: twenty nine. Morgan, Will Fiddler and Randall copy here from
Speaker 1: Will a little bit later on the show. But as
Speaker 1: you know now, we use former wild catch to open
Speaker 1: our broadcast and Morgan gets the nod this week. And
Speaker 1: after we got done working on that project, I had
Speaker 1: a chance to fire some more questions at him. What
Speaker 1: was your like going down there and knowing you all
Speaker 1: needed a win and anytime you're on the road, but
Speaker 1: that's a tough place to play, tough place to win.
Speaker 1: Seemed like everything was against you, guys. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So for me, it was the memories were.
Speaker 6: Sort of fuzzy because at that particular point in the year,
Speaker 6: I was heading towards the red shirt and heartline was
Speaker 6: the quarterback that had recently gotten injured, and I thought
Speaker 6: there was as good a.
Speaker 5: Chance Will Fiddler was going to play as I was.
Speaker 6: But that week in preparation, Coach Brooks and team and
Speaker 6: staff told me that I was going to be a
Speaker 6: one of the guys playing a lot in that game
Speaker 6: and alongside with Randall. And so, you know, I always
Speaker 6: say ignorance is bliss because I probably didn't think much
Speaker 6: of the moment or the environment, and I was young
Speaker 6: enough that I.
Speaker 5: Was just eager to get out, to get on the
Speaker 5: field and contribute.
Speaker 1: How is it to prepare knowing that that Randa was
Speaker 1: gonna play and then Will did play, You guys kind
Speaker 1: of shared the position.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So you know it was when you when you're
Speaker 6: in that preparation for that week, you know, Coach Sanders,
Speaker 6: Coach Joker, you know, they're trying to put together a
Speaker 6: game plan where we could be successful, and we knew
Speaker 6: Randall was gonna be a big component of that. With
Speaker 6: a wildcat, I mean, he'd been doing wildcat you know,
Speaker 6: really his entire career at Kentucky at that point. And
Speaker 6: so my job was really more or less to make
Speaker 6: some plays if things kind of broke down, tried to run,
Speaker 6: you know, run a few in certain scenarios, be mobile
Speaker 6: and uh, and really just distribute the ball. I think
Speaker 6: at that time primarily to Randall, to Chris and to
Speaker 6: Derek Lock.
Speaker 1: Chris had a big game and then do you remember that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean Chris is Chris was a stud. I mean,
Speaker 5: and Chris and I came in the same year. He
Speaker 5: came from Juco, I came from high school.
Speaker 6: And I always say, if Chris was a guy that
Speaker 6: had four years at Kentucky, he'd have been, you know,
Speaker 6: an All American type player.
Speaker 1: We nearly won the Super Bowl MVP when he was
Speaker 1: in the pros.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean tons that he had a ton, tons
Speaker 6: and tons of talent and ability. And then you know
Speaker 6: when you couple Chris with with eighteen and then with Lrod,
Speaker 6: I mean, that was a formidable bunch. And I only
Speaker 6: mentioned at that time we had John Connor and the
Speaker 6: Turtle and.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know d Locke in the backfields. So some
Speaker 5: really really good football players.
Speaker 1: A lot of talent, and you all signed on when
Speaker 1: Kentucky was finding it success under Richard Brooks. You know,
Speaker 1: the guys you signed on early, they were they were
Speaker 1: coming out of probation. But so the expectations were kind
Speaker 1: of high for you guys, weren't they.
Speaker 6: Sure, Yeah, they were high. I think, you know, and
Speaker 6: I've talked to several people about this. I think those
Speaker 6: that seven year was truly in catalyst to getting a
Speaker 6: lot of good players both. I mean, it's proven on
Speaker 6: the football side, but then also I've heard John Wall
Speaker 6: and some other guys talk about it in their interviews
Speaker 6: that that was that was a time where they could
Speaker 6: really get a sense of the culture and what and
Speaker 6: what was kind of building at Kentucky and maybe even
Speaker 6: DeMarcus Cousins and those.
Speaker 5: Guys in two thousand and seven. So if you think
Speaker 5: about two thousand and seven, Randall.
Speaker 6: And a lot of that class were seniors in high
Speaker 6: school and they were probably either committed or close to
Speaker 6: being committed, and then put edge. Yeah, I think it
Speaker 6: kind of put them over head with a lot of people, right,
Speaker 6: and so you know, that was a critical critical year
Speaker 6: in recruiting.
Speaker 5: It's certainly a catalyst.
Speaker 6: But the perspective that a lot of us had is
Speaker 6: we wanted to be a part of a program that
Speaker 6: was ascending, and it felt like under coach Brooks the
Speaker 6: program was ascending at that time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you got to a bowl game. You
Speaker 1: didn't win, but you maintained that streak, didn't you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, that was really cool to do. I
Speaker 5: mean stinks that we didn't win it.
Speaker 6: It was kind of shockingly cold that night and that
Speaker 6: and so I don't know that we really expected that
Speaker 6: per se, but it's kind of amazing that when.
Speaker 5: You look back on it. I mean, that was fifteen
Speaker 5: years ago.
Speaker 6: Maybe it's been a little bit about probably about fifteen
Speaker 6: years ago, we played in that Bowl with Clemson, and
Speaker 6: so you get to see kind of how their program developed.
Speaker 6: I think that might have even been davos first year
Speaker 6: and then sort of where we were at that time.
Speaker 5: So the programs were similar.
Speaker 6: I guess you could say we probably had a similar
Speaker 6: on a similar playing field.
Speaker 1: You at l c A worked with Cutter Bowley, right.
Speaker 6: Yeah, cut yeap. Cutters A worked a lot within the
Speaker 6: last two years. He's got great, great, great, great family
Speaker 6: and they love Kentucky and so you know, Cutter's got
Speaker 6: a very bright future.
Speaker 1: You and I last spoke the day that that he
Speaker 1: committed to UK been the day that he's literally signed.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then to what.
Speaker 1: He he had, he came in in a tough spot
Speaker 1: man in Florida, you know that. Yeah, But as Mark
Speaker 1: Stuke's pointed out, that's not going to phase his kid
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 4: Is it.
Speaker 6: No, he's a really resilient, really resilient guy, tough, he's
Speaker 6: kind of he's a really mentally tough player.
Speaker 5: He'll be okay. I mean, it's it's really good to
Speaker 5: get that exposure and that experience.
Speaker 6: You know, I always said what we have in common
Speaker 6: is I had the ability early on to watch Mike
Speaker 6: Heartline in some of those early years and although it
Speaker 6: was unfortunately got injured. You know, Mike was my roommate
Speaker 6: on the road, so we got to spend a lot
Speaker 6: of time together. I got to see how he prepared
Speaker 6: and how he how he got ready for a lot
Speaker 6: of the games, and he's a great mentor that way.
Speaker 5: But as you know, you know, being able.
Speaker 6: To go to Florida and that momentum starts to happen
Speaker 6: and it just kind of they were rolling downhill and
Speaker 6: so he'll learn from that. I think the speed of
Speaker 6: the game will slow down for him over time and
Speaker 6: he'll really get a chance to prepare to play in
Speaker 6: the future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have yet tried to develop. I mean, the
Speaker 1: plan with Drew Barker was to to develop him and
Speaker 1: then recruit and keep on developing, and injuries kind of
Speaker 1: short circuit of that, and they've led to the to
Speaker 1: the steady parade of transfer quarterbacks. But that seems to
Speaker 1: be the plan with Cutter now, and he seems to
Speaker 1: be a guy worth investing in. I'm sure you're a
Speaker 1: little biased, but he should be kind of that that
Speaker 1: bedrock kind of player that they could use.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, he's I think it really helps to
Speaker 6: be an in state player. I think in this current
Speaker 6: landscape of n I L. You know, he certainly has.
Speaker 5: Support from you know, n I L.
Speaker 6: Contributors in this state. I mean, I think that's certainly
Speaker 6: something that can help, you know, keep him home.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 6: But yeah, I mean I think this staff, I mean,
Speaker 6: it's it's no secret the staff has hasn't really produced
Speaker 6: and recruited a quarterback and then kind of, you know,
Speaker 6: turn those guys that person into a you know, starter
Speaker 6: over over the course of their career, and so I
Speaker 6: think Cutters as good a chance to to see that
Speaker 6: happens as any of the ones we've had.
Speaker 5: To this point. So he's a great kid. He's going
Speaker 5: he's going to work really, really hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that he's probably the best candidate
Speaker 1: we've seen since Barker or maybe before that. I mean everything, right, yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, I've learned not to get too
Speaker 6: caught up in the stars and the rankings. I mean
Speaker 6: a lot of times the stars and rankings are determined
Speaker 6: based on tangibles and the quarterback position and kind of
Speaker 6: you know, understanding if somebody's gonna be good at it
Speaker 6: or not as far more than just the tangibles. But
Speaker 6: you know, Cutter has had a He's every school on this,
Speaker 6: you know, in the country seemed like was in to
Speaker 6: see him at l c A. When when we had
Speaker 6: him there in the last couple of years. I mean,
Speaker 6: there were people flying in from everywhere, and it's it's
Speaker 6: the who's who of that came to see him. So
Speaker 6: he's a highly sought after player. They're not all wrong, right,
Speaker 6: So you know, I I I expect Cutter to be
Speaker 6: a good player in the future. He's, like I said,
Speaker 6: he's got all the tools.
Speaker 5: Great family.
Speaker 6: Jeans, elite jeans, he's got an elite gene pool. They're
Speaker 6: just the bullies are great, great people that care a
Speaker 6: lot about this state.
Speaker 1: I tell you what, though, It's just like any of
Speaker 1: you quarterbacks, man, you're only as good as your O line.
Speaker 1: They got to keep building that O line.
Speaker 5: Yeah, they used to have.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, it's since since Schlarman, since Coach Schlarmon,
Speaker 6: you know, the rest of soul.
Speaker 5: It's kind of been a little bit of it. It's
Speaker 5: been a little bit of a challenge.
Speaker 6: These the last few years up front the blue wall,
Speaker 6: and and I know that Coach Bush and company are
Speaker 6: trying to do some things to protect Brock. You can
Speaker 6: tell from watching the tape that they're really trying to
Speaker 6: help out those tackles and and really protect the quarterbacks.
Speaker 5: So you know that's a work in progress.
Speaker 6: But you know, hopefully cutters talking to and spending time
Speaker 6: with every offensive line recruit that comes in there.
Speaker 1: I'm your best friend, right.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right, exactly right, Well, Morgan.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate the time and looking forward to hearing you,
Speaker 1: hearing you open our broadcast on Saturday night. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Likewise, I'm excited about that game.
Speaker 6: It's I think we've beat him since since two thousand
Speaker 6: and nine, so that's we got to break that streak,
Speaker 6: right right.
Speaker 1: That's Morgan Newton, one of three Wildcat quarterbacks to score
Speaker 1: against Auburn last time. Kentucky beat the Tigers, and you
Speaker 1: will hear Morgan. Open our broadcast tomorrow night at five
Speaker 1: point thirty, and you'll hear it again. The opening segment,
Speaker 1: just before play by play begins is Kentucky takes on Auburn,
Speaker 1: and you'll hear it right here. Up next, Ben Roberts,
Speaker 1: a The Harold Leader talk Kentucky basketball. You're on six
Speaker 1: point thirty w Welcome back to the Big Moon. Cider
Speaker 1: joining us now is a long time friend of the show,
Speaker 1: the excellent beat writer for The Hero Leader covers Kentucky
Speaker 1: basketball and more. Ben Roberts and Ben, I guess we're
Speaker 1: all tired of saying, well, it was just Kentucky Wesleyan,
Speaker 1: and really, I think another mitigating factor there was the
Speaker 1: Wesleyan coach after the game saying he apologized to Mark
Speaker 1: Pope for not giving him more of an effort. But still,
Speaker 1: you put up numbers like that in the school yard,
Speaker 1: you've accomplished something, haven't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean yeah, it wasn't just you know, the
Speaker 3: seventy one point aspect of it was something, But you
Speaker 3: know the way it happened. Yeah, the stats, you know,
Speaker 3: throughout the box score and especially that it's just the
Speaker 3: turnover ratio. I mean, you can do that against anybody,
Speaker 3: that's pretty amazing. And you know with the three pointers,
Speaker 3: they're you know, they worked to get open shots. They
Speaker 3: took forty two and made twenty one, and there really
Speaker 3: weren't many, hardly any forced ones, but they worked to
Speaker 3: get those shots. You know, I didn't think it was
Speaker 3: a lack of effort or anything on the Westlands end.
Speaker 3: I just think it was it was a really well
Speaker 3: run game on the UK's end. Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 3: way the ball moved was you know, we heard about
Speaker 3: it all off season. We heard I connected with these
Speaker 3: guys were all off season. But to actually see it
Speaker 3: against outside competition, even if that competition was a D
Speaker 3: two team, it was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: I got to go to practice a couple times. Involving
Speaker 1: the Pro day broadcast, we did but you know, to me,
Speaker 1: it all kind of runs together. I mean, if I
Speaker 1: were a basketball professional, a coach, or a scout, I
Speaker 1: know I would see more. But what I saw on
Speaker 1: that game sure looked a lot like what they work
Speaker 1: on in practice. And again to your point, not a
Speaker 1: lot of dribbling, a lot of passing. And you know
Speaker 1: that one more pass thing pays off, doesn't it?
Speaker 3: It does, And it keeps you know, talking to the guys,
Speaker 3: you know, really throughout the throughout the offseason and preseason,
Speaker 3: but especially after Wednesday Night's game. It it keeps everybody
Speaker 3: kind of on their toes, and it it lets everybody
Speaker 3: know that that that last pass could come to them,
Speaker 3: and you know, it's it's really, you know, it's unique
Speaker 3: that this team has already kind of found this uh
Speaker 3: shared you know, togetherness with the ball and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of unselfishness out there. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 3: I you know, you ask around, and I think a
Speaker 3: big part of that is just the guys that Pope
Speaker 3: and his staff brought in back in April, and may
Speaker 3: I mean you look at their track records, you talk
Speaker 3: to their former teammates and former coaches, and they were
Speaker 3: already those type of players, and then they come in
Speaker 3: and hope and and these guys are are teaching that
Speaker 3: kind of philosophy. You know, I think it only strengthens
Speaker 3: it across the board. And yeah, but but but still
Speaker 3: to see it and to see that it's working in
Speaker 3: October with twelve new guys again again, it's just very impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, before we start talking about individuals, let's talk about
Speaker 1: somebody who did not get to play, and that's kerk
Speaker 1: crisa sideline with a minor injury. And I keep trying
Speaker 1: to imagine how he's gonna fit into this mixed scene
Speaker 1: this game the other night. And he's a guy who
Speaker 1: plays with a little bit of an edge. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be really fascinating when he's in the mix.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we actually have a story up on Kentucky dot
Speaker 3: com this morning. I sat down with Kerr I think
Speaker 3: Tuesday afternoon, and I said, down with Mark Pope here
Speaker 3: recently to talk about Kerr in their pursuit of him.
Speaker 3: And it's really it's really an interesting dynamic those guys
Speaker 3: have had. You know, they've been Mark Pope and Cody
Speaker 3: Figer going back to b YU, their first summer at
Speaker 3: b YU over five years ago. That's when they started
Speaker 3: recruiting kerk Crisa. Kurt told me, if it weren't for
Speaker 3: Cody Figer being so persistent, he probably wouldn't even come
Speaker 3: to the United States. They college, and of course, of
Speaker 3: course he didn't. Yeah, and of course he didn't play
Speaker 3: for BYU. He turned him down when he went there,
Speaker 3: and then he turned him down last summer when he
Speaker 3: went to West Virginia and he kind of you know,
Speaker 3: opened up about why he did turn them down and
Speaker 3: then and then why he said yes a third time
Speaker 3: when they ended up in Kentucky. So those guys, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of obviously a lot of respect on on
Speaker 3: Curzon toward the two coaches. And those are two coaches
Speaker 3: who just feel like this kid going back years would
Speaker 3: be perfect and the kind of offense they want to run,
Speaker 3: and they they have, I mean literally for five years
Speaker 3: they have been wanting to coach coach them, and now
Speaker 3: they get they get one season to do it, and
Speaker 3: everybody involved just super excited about that part of it.
Speaker 3: And then Carr also took me this week, which is
Speaker 3: in the story that you know, the hamstring deal that's
Speaker 3: keeping them out right now. It's it's all pretty much
Speaker 3: precautionary setting out these exhibitions and watch.
Speaker 7: Scrimpish and everything.
Speaker 3: And he said he for sure we'll be playing against
Speaker 3: Wright State on November fourth. I mean, obviously, you know
Speaker 3: stuff like that, you never know until you get there.
Speaker 3: But I was a up really early Wednesday night, and
Speaker 3: he was actually already on the court when I got
Speaker 3: there two and a half hours for the game, putting
Speaker 3: up shots and going through some pretty extensive defensive when
Speaker 3: I will.
Speaker 1: Interesting, well, I can't wait to see him, Like I said,
Speaker 1: come into this mix. But the guys out front the
Speaker 1: other night, including let's start with Lamont Butler. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know that you can call anybody on this
Speaker 1: roster elite when you look ahead to the NBA Draft,
Speaker 1: and we're conditioned to look to do that, aren't we
Speaker 1: here in Lexon over the last fifteen years. But oftentimes
Speaker 1: that's a decent way to get a beat on things.
Speaker 1: And I think Lamont Butler can be an NBA player,
Speaker 1: but in terms of what you need in college, and
Speaker 1: he brings it all. That stat line was pretty phenomenal,
Speaker 1: wasn't it It was?
Speaker 3: And that line still didn't even really tell the story
Speaker 3: of just how effective he is. And I think, I mean, obviously,
Speaker 3: when when you talk about Lemon, you always start with defense.
Speaker 3: And people who weren't super familiar with his game didn't
Speaker 3: watch a lot of San Diego State but were able
Speaker 3: to tune in Wednesday night, so you know they saw
Speaker 3: that right off the bat. I mean, this guy just
Speaker 3: absolutely smothers opponents defensively. And it's not just guards, like
Speaker 3: he'll get up you know, he'll get up in the
Speaker 3: in the face of six ten guys and he'll he'll
Speaker 3: pester them. And I know we ripped the ball away
Speaker 3: from Brandon Garrison the Blue White game Friday night, and
Speaker 3: just just an absolutely relentless defender. And and that's where
Speaker 3: I think. You know, everybody talks about the offense and
Speaker 3: the threes and the pace and how fun that's going
Speaker 3: to be to watch, But on the other end of it,
Speaker 3: when you got somebody like Lamont Butler, that's the point
Speaker 3: of that defense out on the perimeter. I was talking
Speaker 3: to take Away about this after winter Stay's game. He
Speaker 3: said that just that just makes everybody better. It makes
Speaker 3: everybody want to want to work harder defensively. And it's
Speaker 3: not just Lamont. I mean, got O, Tega, Gotta, Marii Williams,
Speaker 3: Andrew Carr is an underrated defender. So when you have
Speaker 3: that type of talent on the other end of the court,
Speaker 3: it's going to lead to baskets, as we saw Wednesday night,
Speaker 3: you know, in transition. And and that's I think, you know,
Speaker 3: we've we've talked about it some, but I think that
Speaker 3: uh and I'm going to be an underrated aspect at
Speaker 3: least in the early going of this team is just
Speaker 3: how well they can play defensively, and all of that
Speaker 3: starts with Lamont, but then offensively, Yeah, I mean he
Speaker 3: you know, he was in that system in San Diego State,
Speaker 3: which is one of the slowest paced teams in the country.
Speaker 3: I mean absolutely, you know, won a ton of games.
Speaker 3: It's a style that works that that's not a knock
Speaker 3: at all, but but the tempo is just very, very slow.
Speaker 3: And he came here wanting to prove that. Okay, everybody
Speaker 3: knows I'm great defender, but obviously he's a six to
Speaker 3: two point guard. He's not the biggest guy. He wants
Speaker 3: to play in the NBA. He wants to prove that
Speaker 3: you know I can get to the basket advantage, I
Speaker 3: can facilitate the guy, and he showed some of that
Speaker 3: Wednesday night, and I think that's something you're going to
Speaker 3: see more up too.
Speaker 1: One for four from the Ark. But I remember the
Speaker 1: one shot he hit. It was so smooth. It looked
Speaker 1: like he'd been doing that all his life. So I
Speaker 1: don't think that's going to be an issue. But you know,
Speaker 1: to your point about San Diego State, two things I
Speaker 1: remember about that team as a Final four team. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing Lamont Butler and seeing him go after you know,
Speaker 1: opposing guards, thinking oh my god, here he comes again.
Speaker 1: And the other thing was that deliberate pace they play,
Speaker 1: forcing teams to really play with discipline physically and mentally,
Speaker 1: and when they're not used to that, that's when the
Speaker 1: mistakes come. It's like when you play against the team
Speaker 1: it's likes to play deliberate and you speed them up
Speaker 1: and mistakes come. So the fact that he can do both,
Speaker 1: I think is really really impressive. I don't know why
Speaker 1: I was surprised that otaga Away was in the starting lineup,
Speaker 1: because when you look at the rest of it, I
Speaker 1: was Cresa being sidelined. It makes a lot of sense,
Speaker 1: but he brings a lot, doesn't he He does.
Speaker 3: I mean I kind of thought early on in the
Speaker 3: summer that Otaga would be in that starting lineup, But
Speaker 3: then the more I talk to people, you know, I
Speaker 3: thought it would be Otaga, Kerr or Kobe Brea. And
Speaker 3: I kind of started out thinking it would be Otaga
Speaker 3: just because he does bring so much on both there.
Speaker 3: But then the more I talk to people, I was hearing,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know how much Kerr Lamont are
Speaker 3: really going to play together. So that kind of led
Speaker 3: me to believe that that Kerr would kind of be
Speaker 3: that spark plug off the bench at the point. And
Speaker 3: then as Kobe got back into the fold because he
Speaker 3: obviously missed some time and I'm very very her every summer,
Speaker 3: I just was hearing so much about how he was
Speaker 3: just lights out three and just it'd be hard to
Speaker 3: keep him off the court. Just I mean, we know
Speaker 3: he's a great shoot fifty percent last season, but but
Speaker 3: he was really settling into this offense really really well,
Speaker 3: so I assumed it would be him, But then yeah,
Speaker 3: it was obviously Otega. And and who was the I mean,
Speaker 3: who was the spark right off the bat. They kind
Speaker 3: of started about up on that run. It was Otaka. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's the guy who if there's anybody
Speaker 3: on this team, and Lamart can do something too, but
Speaker 3: if there's anybody on the team who can just put
Speaker 3: the ball on the floor and go get a bucket,
Speaker 3: it's going to be him. And he's not there yet.
Speaker 3: It's something he's still got to work on. But he's
Speaker 3: got the strength, he's got the physicality, he's not afraid
Speaker 3: of contact. He can finish at the basket. He's just
Speaker 3: kind of kind of get it all together and especially
Speaker 3: get more efficient when he when he does finish at
Speaker 3: the basket. But you know, if he can do that,
Speaker 3: there's there's a number of guys that you could say
Speaker 3: maybe have the highest ceiling when it comes to being
Speaker 3: an NBA pick. And I think he's in that conversation
Speaker 3: just because we know he can play defense, and we
Speaker 3: know he's willing to play defense, and man, it's such
Speaker 3: a physical defender and it can guard so many positions
Speaker 3: on a perimeter. But if he can if he can
Speaker 3: drive like that, and if he can shoot threes, obviously
Speaker 3: that opens up the driving lanes for him. I think
Speaker 3: he could. He's definitely in the conversation, I think he
Speaker 3: could definitely do that guy. But yeah, that that's you know,
Speaker 3: they don't need a ton of that the way the
Speaker 3: way they're going to run this offense, because there's going
Speaker 3: to be so much cutting and passing and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: dribble handoffs and but when you're in a late shot
Speaker 3: clock situation, maybe even a late game situation, and you
Speaker 3: need somebody to go do that, I think he might
Speaker 3: be best suited for them.
Speaker 1: And Roberts to the Harrow Leader, my guess we'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk more Kentucky basketball, talk about the freshman
Speaker 1: when we come back on the other side of the
Speaker 1: break here on six thirty three, Welcome back. We're talking
Speaker 1: with Ben Roberts of the Harrow Leader, and we have
Speaker 1: gone through a little bit of the Kentucky roster relating
Speaker 1: to the win over Wesleyan. But as I said prior
Speaker 1: to the break, I want to add set about the
Speaker 1: true freshman. But let's start with a guy who's not
Speaker 1: from Kentucky. And we had heard so many good things
Speaker 1: about Colin Chandler, but wondered about rust and he was
Speaker 1: over four from the outside, but just watching his overall game, man,
Speaker 1: you can tell you can understand why they wanted.
Speaker 3: Him, right, Yeah, I mean he I mean he's a
Speaker 3: basketball player. I mean you just watch him, and you know,
Speaker 3: you just watch the way, even if the shots don't
Speaker 3: go down or he has a turnover or whatever, you
Speaker 3: just watch the way he moves, the way he carries himself,
Speaker 3: and you know he's going to be a really really
Speaker 3: good player. I actually got to watch him some in
Speaker 3: high school. I'd kind of forgotten until he until he
Speaker 3: flipped his commitment back in the April from BYU to Kentucky.
Speaker 3: But I saw him play against Reed Shepherd several years ago,
Speaker 3: really the big events, and yeah, and he I mean
Speaker 3: he was good. I mean he was really really tough,
Speaker 3: tough to the fen just and everybody that knew him
Speaker 3: then that knows him now. You talk to Mark Pope,
Speaker 3: talk to whoever. Just talked about his level of competitiveness,
Speaker 3: and I think that that's been and just his drive
Speaker 3: in general, and I think that's been a big factor
Speaker 3: and the reason he has come so far so quickly
Speaker 3: in that ramp up process. I talked to Jackson Robinson,
Speaker 3: talked to seek Here, talked to talk to Mark Pope
Speaker 3: over the last few months about how exactly that works
Speaker 3: and how you know, some guys take them a little
Speaker 3: a little bit longer to get there, and and Jackson especially,
Speaker 3: who I mean thought that plenty of guys over two
Speaker 3: years at b YU, I said, Colin has just has
Speaker 3: taken to it much quicker than anybody who's ever seen.
Speaker 3: And and one is the skill level. I mean, he
Speaker 3: was going to be one of BYU's top recruits ever.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: And then two, it's just that just that absolute drive.
Speaker 3: Pope told me before Colin even got to campus that
Speaker 3: he thought he might have to like get him a
Speaker 3: special key card so he could not get into the
Speaker 3: Craft Center, just to keep him off the court, because
Speaker 3: because he already knew just from you know, recruiting him
Speaker 3: for so long that he was that type of kids.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's you know, he's he's he's somebody who
Speaker 3: was kind of mature beyond his years when he was
Speaker 3: eighteen and a high school recruit. And obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: we're two years removed from that down he's gone through
Speaker 3: kind of a life changing mission trip over these last
Speaker 3: couple of years. And so I mean, he carries himself
Speaker 3: like like a you know, a thirty thirty five year
Speaker 3: old and then he's a college freshman and his teammates
Speaker 3: are you know, just been super impressed. And I you know,
Speaker 3: he didn't have the greatest game Wednesday night, but he
Speaker 3: was one of the standouts for sure of that Blue
Speaker 3: White game Friday night Memorial Coliseum, and and that game
Speaker 3: really showed a lot of what he could do, from
Speaker 3: from the threes to he's another one who I think
Speaker 3: can go get a bucket if they need one. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and just I mean he he he just has that
Speaker 3: drive on both ends of the floor. I mean, he's
Speaker 3: not a Lamont Butler defender, but he's going to give
Speaker 3: a Lamont Butler a type of effort on that side.
Speaker 1: Travis Perry of course got a nice ovation when he
Speaker 1: was introduced and when he entered the game, but an
Speaker 1: interesting stat line only two for six, one for four
Speaker 1: from the from the arc. We all know he can
Speaker 1: shoot it, but five rebounds in fifteen minutes and four assists.
Speaker 1: And it was interesting when when Pope said after the game,
Speaker 1: it's it's hard to play point guard for me, and
Speaker 1: was talking about Travis being a point guard, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was an all do it all facilitator in high school.
Speaker 1: But when you assign him, you know, a position within
Speaker 1: this offense. Yeah, point guard is it? That's going to
Speaker 1: be interesting watching him develop, isn't it?
Speaker 7: It is?
Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean with Kerrout, that's obviously where he
Speaker 3: was going to play, you know, those major minutes, you know,
Speaker 3: for the time being. And and it's really I'm really
Speaker 3: interested looking long term how how Pope he uses him
Speaker 3: because obviously he's not the biggest guy, he's not the
Speaker 3: fastest guy, but he but he's one of the best
Speaker 3: shooters anybody's ever seen. If you talk to any of
Speaker 3: these guys on the team, anybody on the coaching staff,
Speaker 3: and the way that they moved that offense, there's going
Speaker 3: to be a lot of ways to get him open.
Speaker 3: So I'm really interested to see, like how much he
Speaker 3: plays with other point guards, not just this season with
Speaker 3: Lamont Kurve, but but moving forward. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: the thing about him, I remember going back to in
Speaker 3: March April when Cayle was still here and asking around
Speaker 3: because if people remember that roster, it looked like it
Speaker 3: was going to be another complete overhaul. I mean, maybe
Speaker 3: they would have gotten DJ and See and maybe a
Speaker 3: dude back here. But it was going to be a
Speaker 3: lot of new faces, and I was kind of asking
Speaker 3: around for people I really trust in the national recruiting
Speaker 3: community who would be ready, Who who among those those
Speaker 3: cow recruits would be ready to step up? And there
Speaker 3: was a lot of questions about that. I mean, all
Speaker 3: those guys were highly rated, but I remember one guy
Speaker 3: told me specifically that he wasn't sure how college ready
Speaker 3: any of them were going to be, to be like
Speaker 3: kind of that star level people around here were used to.
Speaker 3: But he added, but Travis Perry will absolutely work his
Speaker 3: tail off, and and and there's a yeah, and there's
Speaker 3: a chance that that that if he's given the opportunity,
Speaker 3: that that he could break through early, even even on
Speaker 3: a team like that. You know he is and I
Speaker 3: mean he's been there everybody knows that varsity since he
Speaker 3: was seventh grade. He's a coach's son. He has the instinct.
Speaker 3: He's another one who you talk to him and he's
Speaker 3: just so mature beyond what you know a usual college
Speaker 3: freshman is. And that's because he's I mean, he's the
Speaker 3: all the time, he's scoring. So he's been in the
Speaker 3: spotlight for for so many years, and he's gotten that
Speaker 3: attention for so long, but he hadn't obviously let it
Speaker 3: go to his head. And then he's come in and
Speaker 3: just he's one of those guys that I'm guessing will
Speaker 3: not play a ton, but Pope and that coaching staff
Speaker 3: will be will maybe feel bad about that, just because
Speaker 3: of how hard he works, and they'll be looking for
Speaker 3: opportunities to reward that with some playing time.
Speaker 1: Well, and I was so fortunate to have seen him
Speaker 1: throughout the Sweet sixteen this year and to see how he's,
Speaker 1: like I said, a facilitator. He can distribute the ball
Speaker 1: almost as well as he shoots it, so that just
Speaker 1: makes him even more intriguing. We could talk about these
Speaker 1: guys all night, Ben, but we're about out of time.
Speaker 1: We'll pick it up next time. You and I will
Speaker 1: be chatting throughout the season. You chat with everybody, though,
Speaker 1: which is what we appreciate. I will see you, I
Speaker 1: guess that Rupparna next week. I appreciate your time.
Speaker 3: Yep, Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: I remember two is up next and we'll talk to
Speaker 1: John Longshore from down in Montgomery, Alabama. He's a sportscaster
Speaker 1: down there. He will give us a scouting report on
Speaker 1: those Auburn Tigers. Well here from Will Fiddler along with
Speaker 1: Oregon Newton scored a touchdown and the upsot went over
Speaker 1: Auburn back in twenty oh nine. Plus Heroes, fools and flakes.
Speaker 1: That's all ahead on six thirty WAK Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Big bluin sder joining us now as a guy
Speaker 1: I've talked to on the radio and on his podcast.
Speaker 1: Going in the other direction down to Montgomery, Alabama, Greater Alabama.
Speaker 1: That is John Longshore, sports analyst for w a K
Speaker 1: eight Channel eight in Montgomery, and John has been around
Speaker 1: Alabama sports for the longest time. John, you're still a youngster, though,
Speaker 1: but sports Keith she young doesn't it.
Speaker 8: It certainly does. Dick. You have been around, Wow, just
Speaker 8: turned sixty not too long ago. I've seen a few
Speaker 8: things things.
Speaker 1: Well, what have you seen in these Auburn Tigers and
Speaker 1: what will Kentucky fans see? Do you think when they
Speaker 1: when they come to town?
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, I agree with with Hugh Freeze, Dick.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think they've been very close, uh to
Speaker 8: winning games. I mean that record, I'm not sure is
Speaker 8: really indicative of how what this team's really like, Uh,
Speaker 8: they've got some problems, don't get me wrong, but I
Speaker 8: think they've shot themselves in the foot, particularly in the
Speaker 8: fourth quarter. Turnovers have killed this team.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 8: I think there's been some play calls that probably would
Speaker 8: have been different. Tell the Auburn fans they've got to
Speaker 8: be patient. I mean, Brian Harson left Hugh Freeze absolutely nothing.
Speaker 8: And so it's a huge rebuilding effort going on there.
Speaker 8: They got a lot of young talent, Dick, but I'm
Speaker 8: not I'm not seeing as much as I thought I
Speaker 8: would from some of the preseason expectations.
Speaker 5: There.
Speaker 8: Again, they're just not very deep. They're missing some talent.
Speaker 8: But I think they've had a chance to be in
Speaker 8: just about every game that they've lost.
Speaker 1: Right they was kind of surprised to see him lose
Speaker 1: a cow by a touchdown at home, but four straight
Speaker 1: loss isn't really based on the score, John, other than
Speaker 1: Georgia and what a tough row of games Arkansas, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: Georgia and Missouri. They're in every game, right they are.
Speaker 8: They've They've been in every game that they've played, and
Speaker 8: I think, to be quite honest, I think if they
Speaker 8: had better quarterback play, they would have won the majority
Speaker 8: of those games. I just don't think the Peyton Thorn
Speaker 8: experiment has worked out. I've said this multiple times on
Speaker 8: our podcast. I don't think there's a team in the
Speaker 8: SEC DIG that Peyton Thorn could start for other than
Speaker 8: Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: No kidding, but do they have nothing behind him? I mean,
Speaker 1: is nobody pushing him for the job?
Speaker 8: Well, they had a little experiment several weeks ago where
Speaker 8: they've been stored for a game and the results weren't
Speaker 8: any better. Actually they were worse. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 8: it's just turnovers, inexperience. And there again, I mean the
Speaker 8: offensive line you know, has had its issues as well.
Speaker 8: That's that was a problem with the latter part of
Speaker 8: Gus mileson going into Brian Harson. Uh So that's an
Speaker 8: area that they're still working on a lot to try
Speaker 8: to get better. And one of the mysteries to me,
Speaker 8: Dick is I've heard a lot of regional national analysts
Speaker 8: say that Auburn's running back jark West Hunter might be
Speaker 8: the best running back in the league. And when I
Speaker 8: first when I first heard that, I went wow, really uh,
Speaker 8: And then the more I've looked at it, yeah, probably is.
Speaker 8: They don't seem to be giving him the ball enough.
Speaker 8: They've they've kind of gotten into that. The last game
Speaker 8: they gave you more carries. But there again, if the
Speaker 8: offensive line is not opening up holes for you, it
Speaker 8: may it is extremely difficult. But I would say this, Dick,
Speaker 8: I do think in the game tomorrow they're in Lexington,
Speaker 8: I think you're gonna see a pretty good dose of Jarquez.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I would imagine. Well, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: reading the stats at least six yards of carry. That's
Speaker 1: not bad. In rush for nine hundred yards last year,
Speaker 1: and he's well on his way this season. But but
Speaker 1: he's not saying it enough, is what you're telling me.
Speaker 8: Yes, I mean they were throwing the ball so much
Speaker 8: early in the season. You know, they had a really
Speaker 8: good haul in the in the in the recruiting cycle
Speaker 8: with wide receivers, they're young. Don't get me wrong. Cam
Speaker 8: Coleman might be one of the best in the league
Speaker 8: as a young receiver, but he's been hurt. But we
Speaker 8: do understand he'll be one hundred percent of the game.
Speaker 8: They're in Lexington, so look for him to be more
Speaker 8: of a factor in the game. But I think they
Speaker 8: just have not leaned on that running game enough. I mean,
Speaker 8: you think, well, wow, look what Kentucky did to Georgia.
Speaker 7: I mean you would think they could certain to do.
Speaker 8: That to Auburn in terms of the running game. But
Speaker 8: I think they've got deliver or die by that. They've
Speaker 8: really got to go with it. Don't bail on it
Speaker 8: as soon as I think they have in previous games.
Speaker 1: Talking to John Longshore, he's been covering sports in Alabama
Speaker 1: for a couple of decades now, including the Auburn Tigers,
Speaker 1: who come to town tomorrow to take on the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: You know, we've talked a lot up here about that
Speaker 1: terrible streak against Tennessee and a worst streak against Florida,
Speaker 1: but Kentucky's not have much success with Auburn as well.
Speaker 1: Are they confident down there? Can they be confident on
Speaker 1: a four game losing skid?
Speaker 8: You know, Dick I said, you know, if you look
Speaker 8: at Auburn schedule, it is really wacky. I mean, their
Speaker 8: first five games were at home. They will not play
Speaker 8: a game in Auburn the entire month of October. This
Speaker 8: is their last road trip that they have an off
Speaker 8: week in October. But this is the second of two
Speaker 8: road games, and I've said several weeks ago they've got
Speaker 8: to at least split with Missouri or Kentucky. If they
Speaker 8: win both, great, but they cannot lose both of them.
Speaker 8: And I fear that if they lose tomorrow night in Lexington,
Speaker 8: you might have some locker room dissension. Some of the
Speaker 8: older guys might think, you know, we're done, you know
Speaker 8: this season's over. Gonna have to really rely on the
Speaker 8: younger guys. And I've wondered why they continue to play.
Speaker 8: You play Peyton Thorne, you know there's not really anybody
Speaker 8: better behind him, But do you get those guys ready
Speaker 8: for next year? And I think if they lose Tomorrow
Speaker 8: night you could start seeing those type things. But this
Speaker 8: is an extremely important game for Auburn for several reasons,
Speaker 8: and I would say probably for Kentucky as well.
Speaker 1: Oh, no question, because they want to keep alive that
Speaker 1: streak of postseason play that Kentucky has under Mark Stoops.
Speaker 1: What do you guys know about the Wildcats?
Speaker 8: Well, it's interesting because going into the season really kind
Speaker 8: of think, can you know, watch out for Kentucky. Stoops
Speaker 8: as the dean of the SEC coaches he's you know,
Speaker 8: got a foundation there. He's built a good program in Lexington.
Speaker 8: But it's been similar to Auburn to me, Dick, it's
Speaker 8: been kind of a yo yo and they played good
Speaker 8: one week and then the next week they're not. It's
Speaker 8: really kind of hard to figure. I mean, that game
Speaker 8: it gets Florida, I think really surprised a lot of
Speaker 8: people here in the state of Alabama and people that
Speaker 8: follow Auburn because they're thinking, whoa, No, that's not the
Speaker 8: Kentucky we were expecting to be to see right before
Speaker 8: they played us. And then there you a reference to
Speaker 8: Georgia game how they were so close almost knocking off
Speaker 8: the Bulldogs there. It's kind of a Jeculine High team
Speaker 8: with Kentucky. That's what people down here seem.
Speaker 1: To think, Well, you nailed it, because not only do
Speaker 1: they push Georgia as hard as they did, but they
Speaker 1: go down on the upset Old Miss and played I
Speaker 1: was a perfect game, but but as close to perfect
Speaker 1: as it took to be an all Miss and then
Speaker 1: laid eggs against Vanderbilt and obviously Florida. So yeah, this
Speaker 1: this this game, that's what's going to be interesting about
Speaker 1: this game. John is both teams needed so badly, and
Speaker 1: it might be ugly, but I think they're gonna play hard,
Speaker 1: don't you Well?
Speaker 8: I do, I think so. And I'm curious, Dick. You
Speaker 8: know what about night games in Lexington? You know what
Speaker 8: the environment there? I mean, I've been to Elected several times,
Speaker 8: but never been there at night. I remember Auburn playing
Speaker 8: in Lexington. I believe it was at night when Cam
Speaker 8: Newton was Auburn and Kentucky took him to the to
Speaker 8: the final whistle. Alburt was fortunate to win that game.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I just posted something on Facebook that
Speaker 1: I wrote a few years ago. How on that last
Speaker 1: drive you may recall this, Uh, Auburn fumbled the kickoff.
Speaker 1: Kentucky had just tied the game behind Randall Cobb recovered
Speaker 1: the fumble, and then a player two later tried a reverse.
Speaker 1: UH fumbled the handoff which Kentucky were covered at the
Speaker 1: twenty seven yard line, but on review and it was
Speaker 1: right the guy I recovered it was out of bounds.
Speaker 1: Newton drives him down the field for that field goal.
Speaker 1: But I wrote, imagine if Kentucky wins that game, does
Speaker 1: Auburn even get a shot at the national title. Do
Speaker 1: they take TCU and does Cam Newton win the Heisman
Speaker 1: or was he the guy that couldn't beat Kentucky. You know,
Speaker 1: ultimately I think he would have. He was I think
Speaker 1: the best player of that year. Oh sure, although Andrew
Speaker 1: Luke was coming out of Stanford with big numbers. But
Speaker 1: that's how close Kentucky came to changing college football that night.
Speaker 1: It's interesting remember that game.
Speaker 8: Remember that game vividly, and Auburn was very fortunate to
Speaker 8: win that game. As a matter of fact, you look
Speaker 8: back and you know, Dick, you've been around a long time.
Speaker 8: You've seen a lot of football. To win a national title,
Speaker 8: you got to have some good breaks. That ball's got
Speaker 8: to bounce your way. You've got to avoid injuries and
Speaker 8: things of that nature. Alburn had several scares that year.
Speaker 8: They went to start ball in Mississippi State gave them
Speaker 8: all they wanted that year as well. So yeah, it
Speaker 8: was very kind of everything lined up perfectly for Auburn,
Speaker 8: but no doubt they had the best player in college
Speaker 8: football that year by far.
Speaker 1: Yep Uh kicked the field goal, as you said, at
Speaker 1: the final whistle to win it and essentially did the
Speaker 1: same thing against Oregon in the championship game. So that
Speaker 1: was a magic year down at Auburn. We've got a
Speaker 1: few minutes left for John Longshore. He works down in
Speaker 1: Montgomery primarily for w AKA but a podcast, a radio show,
Speaker 1: and he's he's a guy who knows Auburn football. But
Speaker 1: you attended Alabama. What's it like for an Alabama guy
Speaker 1: to I know, you do what the job calls for,
Speaker 1: but now you know all the ins and outs of
Speaker 1: Auburn sports.
Speaker 8: Well, you gotta know both. That's the great thing about it, Dick.
Speaker 8: Here in this part of the world, there are two
Speaker 8: teams with two uh just livid fan bases there there
Speaker 8: very emotional and very tired of their programs. So to
Speaker 8: be in this business here, you got to know something
Speaker 8: about both programs. You got to be you know, you
Speaker 8: got to have the intel for both of them. So
Speaker 8: it's what makes it fun. And of course the fans
Speaker 8: and their reaction and their love for their programs. We
Speaker 8: just we just love bringing the info to them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like my buddies who work in Louisville, you know,
Speaker 1: they they've got to know both UK and u L
Speaker 1: and put any allegiances aside. But how many people know this?
Speaker 1: But I have a good friend who's the playboy play
Speaker 1: man for University of Louisville. He went to uk UH.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you go, you go where the job takes you.
Speaker 1: And one of my favorite you I'm sure you know this,
Speaker 1: Pat guy who was Auburn football went to Georgia. Vince
Speaker 1: Dooley who was Georgia football, went to Auburn. So you
Speaker 1: got you go where the job takes you.
Speaker 8: Right, that is correct, You're exactly right. Auburn's current athletic
Speaker 8: director grew up in Tuscaloosa coach baseball at Mississippi State.
Speaker 8: John Cohen.
Speaker 1: I know John Well. I used to produce an anchor
Speaker 1: is Baseball as a Baseball Coaches Coaches show here in Lexingon.
Speaker 1: So no, I know John Well.
Speaker 8: Yeah, grew up in Tuscaloosa.
Speaker 1: Yes, dad taught there and then he played Insissippi State.
Speaker 1: Like you said, how did the fans feel about John
Speaker 1: right now? Because, as you well know, the athletics director
Speaker 1: is joined at the hip with a football coach in
Speaker 1: the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 8: They like him a lot because he's very proactive. Let's
Speaker 8: face it, Alan Green, the previous athletic director was not
Speaker 8: very well, but not welcomed obviously. When he hired Brian Harson,
Speaker 8: that was the beginning of the end. They like the
Speaker 8: fact that they've got an athletic director with sec ties
Speaker 8: and he knows what this league's about. And I say
Speaker 8: the same thing about you, Free. I mean, I know
Speaker 8: he's struggled in his first year and a half at Auburn,
Speaker 8: but he's coached in this league. He knows what it's
Speaker 8: like to recruit in this league. He knows what Auburn
Speaker 8: people want. They've just got to be patient and I've
Speaker 8: stretched that for the last year and a half to
Speaker 8: two years. It's a huge rebuilding job and bring just
Speaker 8: put together a great recruiting class if he can get
Speaker 8: them signed, and all indications are that he will. He
Speaker 8: is rebuilding this program back to where Auburn people want it.
Speaker 8: But certainly they don't like the record right now. But
Speaker 8: as I said earlier, Dick, he was left. Nothing he
Speaker 8: covered was extremely bare when Brian Harson was fired.
Speaker 1: Well, Kentucky fans are hoping that Coupboard yields a win
Speaker 1: for the Wildcats tomorrow night, and John Longshore will be
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on it for a number of media outlets.
Speaker 1: He co hosts a radio show with Barry McKnight and
Speaker 1: tell everybody where they can find you online.
Speaker 8: That's very easy. I just go to YouTube and search
Speaker 8: Longshore and McKnight Longshore and McKnight. Just search, it will
Speaker 8: pop up. We're live every morning from seven to nine
Speaker 8: on you Tube, also on Spotify, Apple play all those
Speaker 8: kind of things, and then we'd loop it and replay
Speaker 8: it all day, so you can watch it at you're
Speaker 8: convenience or listen at your convenience wherever you listen to podcast,
Speaker 8: and of course watching it on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Good way to get a scouting report on the tigers. John,
Speaker 1: thank you so much and I hope to talk to
Speaker 1: you again sometime anytime.
Speaker 7: Dick, thank you.
Speaker 1: Up. Next more were the football Cats. When we return
Speaker 1: here on the Big Boon Sider six thirty w LAP,
Speaker 1: we'come back to the Big Blue Insider. As we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: you heard from Morgan Newton, one of three qbs to
Speaker 1: score against Darburn last time the Wildcats beat the Tigers.
Speaker 1: We also had a chance to talk to Will Fiddler,
Speaker 1: who got a touchdown in that game, played a lot
Speaker 1: of the second half and played well. Will was part
Speaker 1: of the Wildcat whip this week. Jeff Picoor and I
Speaker 1: spoke to him about what it was going to take
Speaker 1: going into that game because things were not going well
Speaker 1: for the Wildcats at that point.
Speaker 3: I remember there being a.
Speaker 7: Tremendous amount of drama leading up to the game. You
Speaker 7: did we need a win? We had not been successful
Speaker 7: and I think at that point in time, we had
Speaker 7: a losing record where maybe we were just south of
Speaker 7: five hundred going into that game, and really there were
Speaker 7: a lot of question marks about, you know, the rest
Speaker 7: of the season. Mike Hartline had sustained an injury there.
Speaker 7: They were pretty hush hush about who was going to
Speaker 7: start a quarterback for that Auburn game. There was there
Speaker 7: was a little bit of up people in the locker
Speaker 7: room surrounding that. But you know, I think before that
Speaker 7: game we just decided we weren't going to let any
Speaker 7: of that get to us. And at a certain point
Speaker 7: everybody locked arms and we were gonna win that game, and.
Speaker 1: They unleashed Fiedler on them. You know what was cool
Speaker 1: about that win is Kentucky played three different quarterbacks that night,
Speaker 1: counting Randall Cobb in the Wildcat and well All three
Speaker 1: of you guys scored touchdowns. That was amazing to me.
Speaker 1: You remember that, I I do.
Speaker 4: I mean it was.
Speaker 7: It was a lot of fun, and you know, we
Speaker 7: just got back to the basics of football. And I
Speaker 7: think what a lot of teams do when they have
Speaker 7: an injury at the starting quarterback position. As you simplify
Speaker 7: the offense a little bit, you have less at the
Speaker 7: line of scrimmage, audibles going on, and things of that nature.
Speaker 7: You try to get everybody comfortable. And that really worked
Speaker 7: for us that game. We ran the ball when we
Speaker 7: needed to run the ball, we threw the ball when
Speaker 7: we needed to throw the ball, and we got a
Speaker 7: lot of different people.
Speaker 3: In the end zone.
Speaker 9: Well can you believe, he asked, if you remembered a touchdown? Man,
Speaker 9: I remember the touchdowns I scored in pee wee football
Speaker 9: coming all.
Speaker 5: The way up.
Speaker 9: Of course, you remember the touchdowns you score, especially when
Speaker 9: it's against the team like Alvern.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 9: But let me let me ask you this, well, because
Speaker 9: it's almost the same. It's eerily similar, isn't it. The
Speaker 9: situation that this year's team is as to year team.
Speaker 9: It's not an injury to a quarterback, but you've had
Speaker 9: a lot of injuries on this team. Uh you know,
Speaker 9: as we as we sit here now, the the participation
Speaker 9: report has come out. I call it the injury report.
Speaker 9: But Mitzi will not play this week. And that's that's
Speaker 9: your right tackle. So they've had some problems in the
Speaker 9: offensive line. I just want to ask you this from
Speaker 9: a quarterback standpoint, how tough is it when you have
Speaker 9: questions in your own mind as a quarterback about the
Speaker 9: five guys in front of you.
Speaker 7: I think it adds a lot of complexity to an
Speaker 7: already extremely complex position. And you've got a lot going
Speaker 7: on pre snap and then during the play and whenever
Speaker 7: you have the added element of you know, wondering if
Speaker 7: you're going to get enough time to go through your
Speaker 7: progressions and you know, see the play through. It definitely
Speaker 7: creates challenges and makes it hard to play the position
Speaker 7: for sure.
Speaker 9: Well, you also talked about what you guys did going
Speaker 9: into the game simplify things a little bit. Now you
Speaker 9: can't go back all the way to the simple basics.
Speaker 9: But I like that attitude going in. But you guys
Speaker 9: had a wrinkle that this team really doesn't use. It's
Speaker 9: not really in that offense, but it's that wildcat and
Speaker 9: that just gives you that extra blocker on the edge,
Speaker 9: takes a lot of a lot of pressure off of
Speaker 9: you being the quarterback and running the ball as well
Speaker 9: when you go to that wildcat.
Speaker 7: Correct, Yeah, it does. You know, I couldn't figure out
Speaker 7: why every time we ran wildcat they lined me up
Speaker 7: at a wide receiver position and then ran the opposite direction. Okay,
Speaker 7: I like when I was in you know, I mean
Speaker 7: not just the wildcat at you know, added wrinkle, but
Speaker 7: a guy by the name of Randall Cobb, who you
Speaker 7: know at that time was a future pro bowler, and
Speaker 7: he was a tremendous player and athlete. You know, he
Speaker 7: obviously took control when he was in the wildcat position
Speaker 7: and made a lot happen.
Speaker 3: With his feet.
Speaker 1: We're talking with Will Fiddler here on the wildcat whip.
Speaker 1: Will former Kentucky quarterback and was part of the Kentucky
Speaker 1: upset win at Auburn back in twenty oh nine, the
Speaker 1: last time the Cats played against Auburn. And as Jeff said,
Speaker 1: similar situation or trying to snap a losing skid. Auburn's
Speaker 1: got problems of its own, but well, it was interesting
Speaker 1: you mentioned pulling together in the locker room. And I
Speaker 1: got to think that was a player generated kind of
Speaker 1: emotional moment. That's something that you know, coaches can't make
Speaker 1: you do that. It has to be genuine, has to
Speaker 1: be organic, if you will, what do you recall about that?
Speaker 1: And then you know who pulled things together and what
Speaker 1: that was like you guys as a team getting together
Speaker 1: and saying enough is enough, We're tired of this losing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean it's it's you know, somebody has to
Speaker 7: emerge in the locker room as a leader in times
Speaker 7: like that. And you know that beforehand there was a
Speaker 7: lot of turmoil that the fan base may not have
Speaker 7: been aware of due to the call to start Morgan Newton.
Speaker 7: And you know, you can question the reasons and note
Speaker 7: all day long, but that was what had to happen,
Speaker 7: and like what happened, And at a certain point, you know,
Speaker 7: I stood up in front of the team and said, hey, guys,
Speaker 7: you may not agree with the game plan, but I
Speaker 7: can promise you we'll have a zero chance of winning
Speaker 7: if we aren't all marching to the beat of the
Speaker 7: same dramas, not all on that game. Game plan. It
Speaker 7: may not be the best, but let's get into the
Speaker 7: game and adapt and roll with it. And we just decided,
Speaker 7: like I said, we decided before that game ever started
Speaker 7: that we were going to win. We were going to
Speaker 7: do whatever it takes to win. And you know, I
Speaker 7: think the team took on that identity after that and
Speaker 7: went on to win some other some other big teams.
Speaker 7: It was Georgia, you know, and had a somewhat successful
Speaker 7: rest of the season.
Speaker 1: That's Will Fiddler. We had a chance Jeff of corpl
Speaker 1: and I did to talk to him from south of
Speaker 1: Wrigley where we tape the Wildcat Whip. You can hear
Speaker 1: that via my Facebook page or Twitter accounts for Tom
Speaker 1: or Jeff or me or the UK Sports Network. So
Speaker 1: on this very show, two of the three quarterbacks who
Speaker 1: scored against Auburn appear to tell us about their exploits
Speaker 1: that led to the last victory Kentucky had over the Tigers.
Speaker 1: When we come back, look ahead to the weekend a
Speaker 1: little bit later on Heroes, Fools and Flakes. Here on
Speaker 1: six point thirty WLAP, Welcome back to the Big Blue
Speaker 1: and Cider coming up. We will wrap up the week
Speaker 1: with Heroes, Fools and Flakes, but need to share some
Speaker 1: information with you. We talked about UK men's basketball earlier
Speaker 1: in the show and the Wildcats, who were ranked twenty
Speaker 1: third in the preseason poll according to the Associated Press,
Speaker 1: likewise number twenty three in the very first men's basketball
Speaker 1: coaches poll, which is a part of the USA Today
Speaker 1: coverage of a college basketball So Kentucky twenty third preseason
Speaker 1: in both the AP and USA Today. Women's soccer last night,
Speaker 1: tough loss on the road in Stockville, losing one nil
Speaker 1: to Mississippi State. Bulldogs are fourteen to one to OH
Speaker 1: eight and oh in conference play. The Wildcats now ten
Speaker 1: three and four and two three and four in conference play.
Speaker 1: Kentucky outshot by the Bulldogs eight to four to three
Speaker 1: to one in shots on goal. So rough trip to State.
Speaker 1: That was the final conference road game for the UK
Speaker 1: women's soccer team. World Series begins tonight in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: As you know, you may not know that the Dodgers
Speaker 1: have made the announcement. Dave Roberts, the manager, said, Nope,
Speaker 1: Shoheotani will not be pitching, no how, no way against
Speaker 1: the Yankees. Not really as surprise, but I guess some
Speaker 1: folks were asking, but he said there is no possibility
Speaker 1: none whatsoever, Thank you for asking. He has not pitched
Speaker 1: Otani since undergoing major elbow surgery in September of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. Strictly a DH this season, and what a
Speaker 1: season he had as a DH, overwhelming favored to win
Speaker 1: the National League MVP after post was seen, the first
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty season in Major League Baseball history, and
Speaker 1: now a chance to win a World Series. He has
Speaker 1: rehabbed his elbow. When it comes to pitching, he threw
Speaker 1: off a mound starting in August, and then the last
Speaker 1: month Roberts basically opened the door to Otani pitching in
Speaker 1: the postseason. Said he wasn't going to rule it out,
Speaker 1: but then he did so. No show hay from the
Speaker 1: mound in the World Series. You know that made its
Speaker 1: way quickly to the Yankees' locker room. College football last night,
Speaker 1: Syracuse and Penn, those two ancient rivals in the ACC.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is for real rankdom or nineteen Syracuse. We were
Speaker 1: talking earlier about Kentucky not making mistakes. How about this
Speaker 1: six interceptions last night by the Panthers against them Syracuse Orange.
Speaker 1: Three pick sixes in the first first half. Checked that
Speaker 1: five interceptions, but three of them in the first half
Speaker 1: went for touchdowns, and you talk about putting yourself in
Speaker 1: a hole. Ended up being a forty one to thirteen blowout.
Speaker 1: But I saw two pick sixes, so did you? Last
Speaker 1: year by one guy Maxwell Harston for Kentucky against Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: I have never seen red or heard of a game
Speaker 1: with three pick sixes and one half no less. While
Speaker 1: we're talking football, if you're an NFL fan, you may
Speaker 1: have heard over the weekend that it looks like the
Speaker 1: Browns well, instead of renovating where they play now Huntington
Speaker 1: bank Field in Cleveland, they want to move. They want
Speaker 1: to move just north of Cleveland proper and build a
Speaker 1: dome stadium. So now apparently there's a law that says
Speaker 1: they can't do that. It's the Model Law. Art Mode
Speaker 1: was a guy who snuck out of town on the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns all those years ago and took them to Baltimore,
Speaker 1: which was a city where the team snuck out of town,
Speaker 1: and so in order to protect itself from future sneaking,
Speaker 1: they passed a law called the Model Law. And now
Speaker 1: the Browns are suing the city looking for clarity. They
Speaker 1: want a judge to rule on this it's a state
Speaker 1: law designed to make it harder for sports teams to
Speaker 1: leave taxpayers supported venues in their home cities. Another Browns
Speaker 1: want a judge to rule that the law is unconstitutional
Speaker 1: or that it doesn't apply to the team's plans to
Speaker 1: build that dome stadium. It would come in brook Park,
Speaker 1: which is, I guess a suburb of Cleveland. This is
Speaker 1: just days after Cleveland's law director said he will enforce
Speaker 1: the model law. City council passed legislation earlier this year
Speaker 1: obligating the law director to act if it looked as
Speaker 1: though the Browns were on their way out of town,
Speaker 1: and now apparently they're trying to do just that, flouting
Speaker 1: the Model Law and acted in nineteen ninety six after
Speaker 1: the Browns left Cleveland for Balmore, and it popped up,
Speaker 1: of course, because this was a long standing franchise where
Speaker 1: fans taxpayers had supported the team, but he couldn't get
Speaker 1: a stadium deal that he wanted. And so now this
Speaker 1: law says, if you're an owner, or if you're a
Speaker 1: pro sports team and you're looking to move out of
Speaker 1: a tax supported facility, you have to get approval from
Speaker 1: the host city first or give that city at least
Speaker 1: six months notice while you give the host city or
Speaker 1: area residents a chance to buy the team. How about that?
Speaker 1: And of course the Browns are saying it's vague and
Speaker 1: unclear of the law. Doesn't sound like it to me.
Speaker 1: Sounds pretty simple. And if the fans buy the team,
Speaker 1: would that basically make the Browns like the Packers, a
Speaker 1: team where the city owns the franchise. And it's my
Speaker 1: understanding that professional sports leagues now legally are structured so
Speaker 1: that can't happen. City of Green Bay owns the Packers.
Speaker 1: And this happened many many years ago when it looked
Speaker 1: as though the Packers were going to leave town, back
Speaker 1: before the NFL was huge, of course, and some city
Speaker 1: fathers got together and sold shares of stock. And so,
Speaker 1: long story short, the city not only owns the Packers,
Speaker 1: but they cannot leave. They can never leave the smallest
Speaker 1: franchise of the smallest city in all of professional sports.
Speaker 1: And from what I'm reading here, if indeed the fans
Speaker 1: are given a chance to buy the team, you would
Speaker 1: think that the Browns would have a similar situation. But
Speaker 1: again I read somewhere that that was not possible. So
Speaker 1: I want to keep an eye on that because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of Browns fans around here. Generational yes,
Speaker 1: because when a lot of folks who grew up in
Speaker 1: Lexington and Louisville were young, the Bengals didn't exist, or
Speaker 1: when they did, they were terrible. And we got Brown's
Speaker 1: games piped in to us in both Lexing and Louisville.
Speaker 1: And when I went to work for CBS affiliate WKYT,
Speaker 1: I found out that that's known as being on that
Speaker 1: team's network. Within the overall networ work, each team has
Speaker 1: its own network of affiliates, even if you're not in
Speaker 1: the greater Cleveland area, even if you're not in the
Speaker 1: state of Ohio, and it has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with commercials that are strown throughout their regional commercials. We
Speaker 1: were complaining at KYT about getting the Atlanta Falcons. We
Speaker 1: kept getting Atlanta Falcons games and they weren't any good,
Speaker 1: and we kept requesting like the New York Giants because
Speaker 1: Phil Simms played it morehead and we would get those,
Speaker 1: but we just wanted other games because the games we
Speaker 1: got were terrible. And this CBS rep was sitting in
Speaker 1: our office and was trying to tell me about your viewers,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I'm like, no, I'm the one who
Speaker 1: takes the phone calls. You don't know, Jack squat about
Speaker 1: our viewers. And he finally he didn't mumble it, but
Speaker 1: he may as well have told me. It came down
Speaker 1: to regional commercials. I said, why couldn't we get such
Speaker 1: and such a game? Well, that's designated for the West Coast,
Speaker 1: I said, so we can pull it off the satellite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the commercials in that game, many of them are
Speaker 1: directed at regional audiences because the outfits buying the commercial
Speaker 1: time are on the West Coast. Only. Like, man, it
Speaker 1: just seemed like every time we turned around, we couldn't
Speaker 1: get the games we wanted. So I'll be really curious
Speaker 1: to see if this sticks all right the NBA last
Speaker 1: night Mavericks beat the Spurs. Got a little more on
Speaker 1: that coming up in Heroes, Fools and Flakes. But it's
Speaker 1: interesting because Klay Thompson no longer a Warrior now he's
Speaker 1: a Dallas Maverick and I'm a Mavericks fan from when
Speaker 1: I live down there. My buddies are play by play guy,
Speaker 1: so interesting to keep an eye on Klay Thompson. He
Speaker 1: had twenty two points in twenty six minutes. Seemed pretty healthy.
Speaker 1: Mavericks wanted one twenty to one on nine me. The
Speaker 1: biggest story coming out of the NBA opener is Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid basically saying I'm He's essentially said I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: when I feel like it, literally feel like it. He
Speaker 1: didn't play in the team's opener against Milwaukee and basically
Speaker 1: has said he will not play him back to backs
Speaker 1: and they're not saying he's injured. And now the league
Speaker 1: is looking into this as well it should. And I
Speaker 1: heard Coronizer and Will Bond talk about it on PTI
Speaker 1: on ESPN. Willbond, of course, never speaks ill of the NBA. Oh,
Speaker 1: they got to think about the championship ron in the spring.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, that's weak. And Corneizer was right when
Speaker 1: he said it's consumer fraud. People who buy season tickets
Speaker 1: to see Joel Embiid play for Philly. They come to
Speaker 1: the he's not playing tonight. Why not? Doesn't want to
Speaker 1: Charles Bark. They weighed in on it. You better believe
Speaker 1: he did. It's time of year when I get to
Speaker 1: pull clips from tant and listen to, sir Charles. He
Speaker 1: is not happy with Joel Embiid, But.
Speaker 4: Man, I don't have any idea what the Sixers are doing.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't think it's fair. Now listen, I
Speaker 4: want to get this number right because this is crazy
Speaker 4: and bless a kid, and I'm gonna wat he just
Speaker 4: signed for three years, one hundred and ninety three million dollars,
Speaker 4: three years, one hundred and nine three million dollars to
Speaker 4: play basketball. We're not still workers. We're not nurses like
Speaker 4: people who got like real jobs who have to work
Speaker 4: forty to fifty hours a week. We're playing basketball at
Speaker 4: the most four days a week, most of the time
Speaker 4: three days a week. He has the best back up
Speaker 4: in the league and drumming. If he had to say
Speaker 4: it in Kennyshack know this day, just say I'm gonna
Speaker 4: play twenty five minutes on the second night, or back
Speaker 4: to back or dream drummer plays. But to come out
Speaker 4: and say it in advance was a stupidity. Got a
Speaker 4: Sixers period, Love.
Speaker 1: Me some, Sir Charles. I check it every night to
Speaker 1: see if I haven't seen it. I checked to see
Speaker 1: if he has said something great, and if so, I
Speaker 1: will definitely share it with you. Interesting fun fact tweeted
Speaker 1: out by a guy named Sam Kuvaries. He is a
Speaker 1: sports journalist based in Jacksonville, and I saw this pop
Speaker 1: up on the innerweb and I grabbed it because he
Speaker 1: tweeted about uncrustables. You know what those are? Those are
Speaker 1: those pre made sandwich is usually peeb and J with
Speaker 1: no crust. They're round, and I see them in the
Speaker 1: UK locker room all the time football. They put them
Speaker 1: out there and snacks. A lot of kids eat him
Speaker 1: at halftime. A lot of players eat him at halftime.
Speaker 1: And he tweeted this. He said, it's an unknown fun
Speaker 1: silly NFL at uncrustables are the favorite snack at halftime
Speaker 1: of most teams and post practice during the week in
Speaker 1: the NFL, he wrote. League wide, NFL players eat about
Speaker 1: eighty thousand a year. He said the Jaguars, where he
Speaker 1: is ranked third with about three hundred and fifteen a week.
Speaker 1: The team that leads the league in eating uncrustables the
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos. They eat more than seven hundred uncrustables per week.
Speaker 1: That is amazing to me. Seven hundred per week by
Speaker 1: the Broncos and eighty thousand by the NFL. So there's
Speaker 1: a statue can drop on anybody and I'll promise you
Speaker 1: they'll be impressed. Heroes, fools and Flakes next on six
Speaker 1: thirty Wlap Welcome back to the Big Lewis Cider time
Speaker 1: now for our heroes, fools and Flakes. And our hero
Speaker 1: tonight is Luka Donsich of the Dallas Mavericks. He is
Speaker 1: an unstoppable force, it seems on offense and during the
Speaker 1: Mavericks win over the San Antonio Spurs last night, he
Speaker 1: was trying to beat the Spurs down the court on
Speaker 1: a breakaway. But he's not the fastest guy. So you
Speaker 1: had Paul George behind him trying to knock the ball
Speaker 1: away and Victor Wimangnana, the incredible seven foot town seven
Speaker 1: foot plus talent in his second season, trying to block
Speaker 1: his and he successfully blocked his path to the basket.
Speaker 1: So Donsich and it looked like he had stumbled, like
Speaker 1: Paul George had clipped his heels. Whips behind the head.
Speaker 1: No look past to the corner to a teammate for
Speaker 1: a three pointer. I could not find the radio call
Speaker 1: from my buddy Chuck Cooperstein. The radio voice of the MAVs.
Speaker 1: But here's Kevin Harlan, who's just great on TNT.
Speaker 2: Leaving the break, Paul nipping at his heels outside what
Speaker 2: a passsing on.
Speaker 1: That beautiful As I said, Kevin Harlan on TNT, he
Speaker 1: is he is so great himself. You hear him on
Speaker 1: Westwood One Radio, do an NFL. He also does my
Speaker 1: Packers preseason games, which of course are going away, but
Speaker 1: just another reason to like Kevin Harlan are fool tonight.
Speaker 1: While the Cleveland Browns, and of course they had lost
Speaker 1: their quarterback, and you don't wish ill on anybody, but
Speaker 1: when it happens to Deshaun Watson, you kind of shrug
Speaker 1: it off. Karma can be, you know what. But Watson
Speaker 1: now out gun for the year with the torn achilles,
Speaker 1: and of course the Browns didn't want to have to
Speaker 1: answer questions about the fact that Joe Flacco last year
Speaker 1: in relief outplayed to Shaun Watson. So what do they
Speaker 1: do in the postseason? They get rid of him. I mean,
Speaker 1: he is a Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, still capable, but
Speaker 1: it was making the Browns look bad to have him
Speaker 1: on the roster. With DeShawn Watson sticking it up, and
Speaker 1: now the Browns are stuck without approving quarterback. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, Karmack catches up with you one way or
Speaker 1: the other. Our flake tonight is the World Series. And
Speaker 1: by that I mean this is a really unusual situation,
Speaker 1: even though the Dodgers and the Yankees have played against
Speaker 1: each other more than any other teams in the history
Speaker 1: of baseball. That of course goes back to when there
Speaker 1: weren't that many teams in Major League Baseball and the
Speaker 1: Dodgers were still in New York and the year after
Speaker 1: the Yankees would beat them in a series except Heevie
Speaker 1: reason the Dodgers got one in nineteen fifty five, the
Speaker 1: year I was born, they finally jumped up and beat
Speaker 1: the Yankees. But it's so unusual now they haven't played
Speaker 1: since eighty one, Right, But ask yourself, as NBC Sports
Speaker 1: pointed out, when was the last time home run kings
Speaker 1: from both LEAs we've played each other in the World Series.
Speaker 1: You've got Otani and you've got Aaron Judge. That was
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six. I have two opponents would at least
Speaker 1: fifty home runs ever slugged against each other in the
Speaker 1: World Series. No how many times since nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 1: as the American League MVP and the National League MVP
Speaker 1: met in the World Series just once? How many times
Speaker 1: this century as the best team in the American League
Speaker 1: played the best team in the National League in terms
Speaker 1: of one loss records in the World Series. The answer
Speaker 1: there is twice, and one of them came during the
Speaker 1: pandemic shortened season. So this is all coming together tonight
Speaker 1: in the fall classic kind of flaky. That's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for now thanks to my guest John Longshore, Will Fiddler,
Speaker 1: Morgan Newton, and Ben Roberts join us for Kentucky Football
Speaker 1: five thirty Air Times seven forty five kickoff tomorrow. That said,
Speaker 1: good night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 4: Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me,
Speaker 4: speak well.
Speaker 1: Totally. I was gonna throw a douce right yep, man
Speaker 1: Netball get out of here in a hurry.
Speaker 5: Anything travels that for to have a damn stewardess on it.
Speaker 9: Do you think.
Speaker 10: Yet?
Speaker 1: W yousssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss