Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. On election Tuesday, Dick
Speaker 1: Gibrie with you. I hope you got a chance to
Speaker 1: get out and vote. Yeah, the wife and I got
Speaker 1: up early and went and voted. Line wasn't too bad,
Speaker 1: although I got to think the folks we both work
Speaker 1: from home, folks who do not voted got up earlier
Speaker 1: and got out, so we got it done. And then
Speaker 1: we went to waffle House. That's right, chicken biscuit and grits.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Hey, best chicken biscuit in town.
Speaker 1: It's known for waffles, obviously, good pancakes, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Try if you're a chicken biscuit person. And here's why
Speaker 1: I like it. It's not breaded. If you want to
Speaker 1: break from breaded chicken biscuits, this is the place to go.
Speaker 1: Waffle House. Yeah, they grilled the biscuit too. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you you'll thank me later. Just know that you'll thank
Speaker 1: me later. But basketball season opens last night in reality
Speaker 1: for the Wildcats and their fans, and two good performances,
Speaker 1: one at five o'clock, one at seven o'clock. The women
Speaker 1: and then the member. Why did they plan the same night?
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that here in just a minute. But
Speaker 1: Mark Pope got his era underway with a forty one
Speaker 1: point win over Wright State. You were either there, you
Speaker 1: heard it on the radio, you saw it on TV.
Speaker 1: It was never in doubt. Remember how the game opened
Speaker 1: the exhibition game with Kentucky missing so many shots. Didn't
Speaker 1: happen last night? And then the Cats just keep rolling,
Speaker 1: going to win by forty one, which is Mark Pope's,
Speaker 1: if not one of his favorite number because that was
Speaker 1: his uniform number when he was a Kentucky Wildcat.
Speaker 2: I like the forty one, guys, I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 2: at a very personal level. I love the fact that
Speaker 2: these kids are so special man. You know what, Listen,
Speaker 2: any coach would be really, really blessed to coach this
Speaker 2: group of guys. And the fact that they're not only
Speaker 2: aware enough and skilled enough to make sure that.
Speaker 3: The finishes of forty one point win is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Why didn't you like best about what you saw today?
Speaker 3: So I love the.
Speaker 2: Start of the game. You guys have fun at the
Speaker 2: beginning of the game.
Speaker 1: Yes they did, because the Cats came out, went on
Speaker 1: a tear and like I said, hardly ever stopped. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there were some lulls, but yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 1: It was a great performance, an entertaining performance. Great, well
Speaker 1: that's a relative term. But it was fun, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: Everybody got in Otaga Oway played the most minutes twenty
Speaker 1: seven and that's basically I'm not saying this guy's as
Speaker 1: good as Antoine Walker, but that's basically what Antoine Walker
Speaker 1: averaged when Pope and his buddies won the national title. Again,
Speaker 1: this team is not as good and it's not as deep,
Speaker 1: but you may see Mark Pope use a lot of
Speaker 1: different players. Oh way, to me has been the most surprising.
Speaker 1: I don't know why. Maybe I just expected more from
Speaker 1: other guys. Always as sophomore twenty one point, he was
Speaker 1: eight of nine inside outside, three for three from the arc,
Speaker 1: three rebounds, three steals. He's got a great floor game.
Speaker 1: But really, you could say that about all the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: Thirty assists on thirty nine made baskets phenomenal. Pope talked
Speaker 1: about that as well. Eleven to twenty four from beyond
Speaker 1: the arc. Yeah, they shot a lot of threes and
Speaker 1: Amari Williams with a double double. He had twelve points,
Speaker 1: thirteen rebounds, nine of those boards at the half along
Speaker 1: with three assists, and the most impressive it was when
Speaker 1: he pulls the rebound and leads the break. Remember that
Speaker 1: one that might have been the most impressive play of
Speaker 1: the night for the UK men and an impressed Mark Pope.
Speaker 2: I would love for you all to consider this. You know,
Speaker 2: Amari is he is a massive human being, okay, and
Speaker 2: he's a good, solid two hundred and fifty pounds athletic.
Speaker 2: And you see him grab a rebound and race down
Speaker 2: the floor off the bounce to make a play. And
Speaker 2: you have this defender who's really making a decisions like
Speaker 2: am I going to really stand in here and take
Speaker 2: a charge or not?
Speaker 1: Is a beautiful dilemma.
Speaker 2: But I thought Lamari was terrific all night long, especially
Speaker 2: coming off of Injrey.
Speaker 3: We're a hand practice this.
Speaker 1: Week, comments Pope made of course to Tom Leach on
Speaker 1: the UK Sports Network. And if you want to watch
Speaker 1: the entire exchange and the player of the game interview,
Speaker 1: just go to the UK Sports Network account on Twitter
Speaker 1: and watch the whole thing at a nice little table
Speaker 1: set up there for the camera so the everybody can
Speaker 1: watch and see who's there in the arena. And then
Speaker 1: of course they have it on video and audio for you,
Speaker 1: so check UK Sports Networks feed for the Kentucky men's
Speaker 1: game post game. As for the women, Kenny Brooks era
Speaker 1: is underway and he was really impressed with the way
Speaker 1: the entire team played well. One player he singled out
Speaker 1: was one of the Clara's I mean, I mean, Clara
Speaker 1: Silver is a good player, but she's young, and he
Speaker 1: talked about her. We'll talk about her more this week.
Speaker 1: But Clara Strack a center six ' five, seven of
Speaker 1: eleven from the floor, eight of nine from the line,
Speaker 1: twenty two points six rebounds. She fouled out, but man
Speaker 1: was she good. Last night. Usc Upstate had absolutely no
Speaker 1: answers for her in a ninety six forty three rump
Speaker 1: by the Wildcats, and Kenny Brooks was asked about Strack
Speaker 1: and said she is special.
Speaker 4: She looks phenomenal in practice.
Speaker 5: She's she has days where she's just so dominant. There's
Speaker 5: days as she does things and you know, it just
Speaker 5: it wows us.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 5: I just got to get her to stay out of
Speaker 5: foul trouble. You know, that's something she hasn't mastered. But
Speaker 5: we're gonna need her to be on the court. But
Speaker 5: she's a very confident young lady, and the sky's a
Speaker 5: limit for her. And I promise you Kentucky fans are
Speaker 5: gonna be excited for the next three years watching her.
Speaker 1: And what was funny was Georgia Amore came in with
Speaker 1: him as well, was sitting right next to Kenny Brooks,
Speaker 1: and every time he'd say something grand about Strack, she
Speaker 1: would grin and nod her head like yep, yep. I
Speaker 1: asked Georgia about communication on court. She's the point guard
Speaker 1: who transferred from Virginia Tech, and quite frankly, when the
Speaker 1: work got out that she had transferred to how good
Speaker 1: she is. Suddenly the rest of the women's college basketball
Speaker 1: world began to really take notice. They were taking notice,
Speaker 1: of course, because Kenny Brooks is well respected, but when
Speaker 1: the work got out that Georgia Amore was coming with him, well,
Speaker 1: now much more respect. So I asked her what it
Speaker 1: was like as the floor general trying to communicate with
Speaker 1: her teammates.
Speaker 6: I mean, first half maybe was like a two out
Speaker 6: of ten, and then we placed a little. Yeah, we
Speaker 6: weren't really communicating well at all. And as you said,
Speaker 6: you mentioned the defensive breakdowns and stuff like that. That was
Speaker 6: alfhaul and obviously you know, as you said, like schematics
Speaker 6: and we have to learn, but we can fix a
Speaker 6: lot about mistakes with talking. But come second half, I
Speaker 6: think our energy picked up in communication all round, definitely improved.
Speaker 6: But it's been a point of emphasis for a while
Speaker 6: now in our practice is just getting to communicate and
Speaker 6: just being decisive with it.
Speaker 1: Really two out of ten that kind of surprised me.
Speaker 1: And no, she is not from around here. She is
Speaker 1: from Australia, one of a handful of international players on
Speaker 1: this team. And I mentioned Clara Silver, she's from Portugal.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about her later on in the week. But
Speaker 1: I did want to get to another point five o'clock
Speaker 1: seven o'clock, basically double header in two different places, and
Speaker 1: I just assumed it was because of the SEC network
Speaker 1: one ding to get that on on this day and
Speaker 1: didn't want to go against the men. Brooks said they
Speaker 1: were having a lot of trouble just scheduling games because
Speaker 1: of the late arrival of the coaching staff and the
Speaker 1: fact that, believe it or not, as poorly as Kentucky
Speaker 1: performed last year, word got out about Kenny Brooks the
Speaker 1: team he was building, and he had a hard time
Speaker 1: getting opponents to come.
Speaker 5: In no offense to anything that happened before us, but
Speaker 5: this is a direct quote.
Speaker 4: We wanted to play the old Kentucky, not the new Kentucky.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Oh, we'll wait. Oh we didn't.
Speaker 5: Expect this, you know, And no disrespect to anybody else,
Speaker 5: but that's just what we were, you know, up against.
Speaker 5: So you know, Jason was gracious and to play us.
Speaker 5: It's the only game we could find. And you know,
Speaker 5: we don't want to go up against the men. I
Speaker 5: know that this twenty four thousand, you know, our fans,
Speaker 5: you know, trying to split and go different places.
Speaker 4: But we had no choice to do this.
Speaker 5: But I think, you know, everyone did a good job,
Speaker 5: a great job marketing and whatnot splitting it. I think
Speaker 5: we had to fight to get the game at five,
Speaker 5: you know, because we wanted people to have that opportunity
Speaker 5: to do both.
Speaker 4: We didn't want them to have to say either.
Speaker 1: Or Jason he was talking about was Jason Williams, the
Speaker 1: head coach of USC Upstate. They're in the Big South.
Speaker 1: Totally over man, totally overwhelmed, just couldn't handle this of
Speaker 1: the athleticism of the Wildcat They're gonna be okay. They
Speaker 1: got some good inside players are strong, just not good
Speaker 1: enough to play against SEC caliber. But how about that.
Speaker 1: Teams said, now we want to play the old Kentucky.
Speaker 1: We knew we could beat that old team. But now
Speaker 1: with Kenny Brooks coaching at Kentucky, things are different. There's
Speaker 1: a new sheriff in town, so we'll see how that goes. Next.
Speaker 1: Up for the women Northern Kentucky. That's at six o'clock
Speaker 1: on Thursday. They got that night aut of themselves. The
Speaker 1: game you'll hear right here on six thirty WLAP at
Speaker 1: five forty five with thearreon Hendrick and the men play
Speaker 1: again on Saturday and they take on Buck. Now that's
Speaker 1: a four o'clock start, so our coverage will begin at
Speaker 1: two point thirty on the network with Tom Leach and
Speaker 1: Jack Gibbons and the Gang. So first two games for
Speaker 1: the respective eras are in the book and both coaches
Speaker 1: are successful. They're both undefeated four. Now up next, we'll
Speaker 1: take a look around college football and some pro football
Speaker 1: as well. Could be controversy brewing, and at the middle
Speaker 1: of it, Tom Brady, that's right, the Golden Boy. Bottom
Speaker 1: of the hour. We'll hear from some members of the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four Kentucky team. I've been saving these interviews
Speaker 1: for a little while. They were in town and recognized
Speaker 1: that a game recently. It's a fortieth anniversary of their
Speaker 1: Bowl victory season back in nineteen eighty four, and I
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk to some of these guys
Speaker 1: at a little gathering, so we'll share that with you.
Speaker 1: Coming up in amur number two also a huge college
Speaker 1: football upset you may not have heard about. Back in
Speaker 1: a minute on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back. Coming up in just a few minutes, we're
Speaker 1: going to hear from members of the nineteen eighty four
Speaker 1: Kentucky football team, which is celebrating it's fortieth anniversary this season.
Speaker 1: I introduced at a recent game, got a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to some of those guys, guys I didn't know
Speaker 1: very well because I wasn't here they were having their
Speaker 1: most fun. I was working in Texas the two years
Speaker 1: they went the ball game. So anyhow, we got those
Speaker 1: comments coming up at the bottom of the hour, and
Speaker 1: then of course at the top of the hour ABC
Speaker 1: News election coverage. I did want to talk about a
Speaker 1: few things that had popped up over the weekend didn't
Speaker 1: have a chance. Of course. Last night. One of them
Speaker 1: was a comment made by Tim Tebow essentially about faking
Speaker 1: injuries in football games. And the only reason this caught
Speaker 1: my eye was, of course, because of what happened in
Speaker 1: the Kentucky Tennessee game where a number of the Wildcats
Speaker 1: went down. You know what, Tennessee players got hurt as well.
Speaker 1: Nobody boot about that, of course, but you see this
Speaker 1: when you have uptempo team. Same thing happened at Ole
Speaker 1: Miss which likes to get up and down the field
Speaker 1: anytime there's an injury, people think the player's faking. And
Speaker 1: trust me, that has gone on. Kentucky has done that
Speaker 1: in the past. I've seen it. Let's face it, everybody
Speaker 1: has done it. The league is kind of cracking down
Speaker 1: on it, and they've given officials the leeway to flag
Speaker 1: somebody if they think he's faking an injury. I have
Speaker 1: not heard it or seen it happen, but Greg Sank,
Speaker 1: the commissioner, mentioned it earlier this season. We got to
Speaker 1: do away with this stuff. But I can tell you
Speaker 1: I told somebody this, I think yesterday when it came
Speaker 1: to covering injuries at a UK football game. I don't
Speaker 1: think I was busier this year than I was Saturday night.
Speaker 1: There were so many injuries. For whatever, they were playing hard,
Speaker 1: they were going fast. I don't know what the deal was,
Speaker 1: but thankfully Susan Lax, who's in charge of UK football publicity,
Speaker 1: was on the sideline. Generally she delegates that job, but
Speaker 1: she did it herself, and she worked her tail off
Speaker 1: trying to get information for us about injuries. Barry and
Speaker 1: Brown goes down, Brock Vandergriff goes to the locker room.
Speaker 1: Two or three players had to go to the locker room.
Speaker 1: But what I want to say is every time a
Speaker 1: player went down, and of course the fans booed, some
Speaker 1: chant it he's not hurt. They were because they came
Speaker 1: off the field, got medical attention and were out for
Speaker 1: several plays each guy. Some didn't come back. Vandergriff didn't
Speaker 1: come back. Brown tried at halftime. I saw him on
Speaker 1: the field catching passes, trying to run. Couldn't do it
Speaker 1: because of those bruised ribs, so you know, and he
Speaker 1: had had a cat scan for crying out loud. So
Speaker 1: when Tebow talked about this, I saw it listed on
Speaker 1: a feed. I thought, I wonder is he talking about
Speaker 1: But he wasn't because the comments came during game day,
Speaker 1: prior to the Georgia Florida game, which was played, as
Speaker 1: you know, prior to the UK Tennessee game. But he
Speaker 1: may as well have been talking to the UK fans,
Speaker 1: the Tennessee fan, really to all the fans about faking injuries,
Speaker 1: and Tebow referenced another sport which is famous, or should
Speaker 1: I say infamous for players not only faking injuries but
Speaker 1: doing it in such a way that they should be
Speaker 1: nominated for Academy Awards, and that's soccer.
Speaker 7: I'm a soccer fan. I love that we're bringing teams
Speaker 7: here to Jacksonville. I think soccer is a great sport,
Speaker 7: but we don't want to turn football into soccer. Okay,
Speaker 7: there is a difference, and I don't think that we
Speaker 7: should just be tapped. Oh my gosh, I'm going to
Speaker 7: go fall down. No, no, no, that works in another
Speaker 7: sport and it's the biggest sport in the world. But
Speaker 7: we're celebrating college football right now. In college football is
Speaker 7: different game than soccer. Both are amazing. Let's keep football
Speaker 7: as football and let's not do that.
Speaker 1: I've done some UK soccer games on the streaming channel,
Speaker 1: both men and women. You don't see that, at least
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it. In college soccer. You see injuries,
Speaker 1: but you don't see somebody throwing himself to the ground
Speaker 1: or herself to the ground like they've been shot. You
Speaker 1: see that. The only time I've seen it, of course,
Speaker 1: is in the big international matches, and of course those
Speaker 1: video clips make it to the feed almost instantly. But
Speaker 1: Tebow was talking about if he had a game in
Speaker 1: mind specifically, he didn't say, but he was not talking
Speaker 1: specifically about UK Tennessee. But I do agree with him,
Speaker 1: just do it, and I hope they start flagging people.
Speaker 1: But how do you approve it? You know, a guy
Speaker 1: could come off the field and stay out for a
Speaker 1: while and come back. But maybe he stays out just
Speaker 1: to keep the referee from throwing a flag. Who knows.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was getting bad, and that's it's because
Speaker 1: of the uptempo styles played by a lot of different teams.
Speaker 1: Shifting over to the National Football League Super Bowl what
Speaker 1: is it? Sixty nine? Fifty nine is still three months away,
Speaker 1: but they're already setting records for ads sales now Fox
Speaker 1: has it this year, and Sports Business Journal quoted the
Speaker 1: Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch as saying that the network is
Speaker 1: completely already sold out of ad inventory for the Big
Speaker 1: Game at what they think is record pricing. It's nearly
Speaker 1: it's seven million per thirty second spot, and seven million
Speaker 1: was what roughly advertisers paid for the Super Bowl last
Speaker 1: year when they waited until the last minute to get
Speaker 1: on the game between the Chiefs and the Niners. CEBs
Speaker 1: averaged about six point forty seven million per thirty second
Speaker 1: ad unit in the Super Bowl. That was eleven percent
Speaker 1: up from the year before, and Fox earned nearly six
Speaker 1: hundred million for the Super Bowl broadcast in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty oh eight super Bowl forty two, if
Speaker 1: I've got my Roman numerals right, average three million. By
Speaker 1: twenty twenty was up to five and a half million
Speaker 1: per for thirty seconds. Is it worth it? Well, it
Speaker 1: must be. If the bean counters at these sponsors or
Speaker 1: at the agencies that handle the sponsors keep doing the
Speaker 1: buys and viewership just skyrockets for that game. That is
Speaker 1: why when John Skipper, the former head of ESPN, said
Speaker 1: that someday and probably my words. Someday soon that's relative.
Speaker 1: The Super Bowl will be pay per view, and you
Speaker 1: know what, there are going to be people who stomp
Speaker 1: around and storm around and say, I'll never watch it again,
Speaker 1: or hon there's no way I'm buying it. They will, Oh,
Speaker 1: there'll be a part of it somehow. People who love
Speaker 1: the NFL will not miss the Super Bowl. They'll watch
Speaker 1: it somehow. They might go to somebody else's house, to
Speaker 1: a restaurant, to a bar. They'll watch it. And the
Speaker 1: people who run it, they'll get their money. They will
Speaker 1: get their money, Mark my words. They're not stupid. How
Speaker 1: do we know this. Look what they're making on ads
Speaker 1: sales right now. But we don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: that right now. And if you're not buying advertising, just
Speaker 1: sit back and enjoy it. Some people only watch the
Speaker 1: game for the ads. That's okay too. They keep raising
Speaker 1: the bar higher, don't they, But that's good for us.
Speaker 8: Me.
Speaker 1: I watched the game live. I don't pay much attention
Speaker 1: to the spots, go back and watch them later because
Speaker 1: they're always out there on some of the websites. One
Speaker 1: other note about the NFL. Tom Brady made a comment
Speaker 1: I saw it and well, listen for yourself. This is
Speaker 1: the game with the Packers and the Lions. And there
Speaker 1: was an injection in the game. One of the Lions
Speaker 1: defensive backs was in on a tackle of a Green
Speaker 1: Bay wide receiver. Looked like he led with his helmet.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it was targeting or not. Maybe
Speaker 1: technically he was. But suddenly he was thrown out of
Speaker 1: the game. And Kevin Burkhart waited and this is the
Speaker 1: lead team now on Fox. This was the Fox Big
Speaker 1: Game of the afternoon. Kevin Burkhardt explain what happened, and
Speaker 1: Brady weighed in on it. And by the way, before
Speaker 1: he commented, they brought in Dean Blandino, who simply explained
Speaker 1: it because the call came kind of late. It was
Speaker 1: probably decided by league officials in New York. That's when
Speaker 1: Brady came up with his comment.
Speaker 9: So they just threw out Brian Branch who's one of
Speaker 9: their best defensive players, and that came from New York.
Speaker 4: Wow. I don't love that call at all.
Speaker 7: I mean, obviously it's a penalty, but to me, that
Speaker 7: has to be serious intent in a game like.
Speaker 2: This because we're thirty two.
Speaker 1: I mean, this happens first.
Speaker 3: Time every day.
Speaker 1: So get Brady credit for being open and honest with
Speaker 1: his opinion. I mean, that's what they want, except Brady
Speaker 1: is working under a number of rules and regulations because
Speaker 1: now he's a part owner of the Raiders. And remember,
Speaker 1: if you know anything about that story, Brady, because of
Speaker 1: his minority ownership in an NFL team, is prohibited from
Speaker 1: criticizing officiating or other teams. It wasn't exactly inflammatory, but
Speaker 1: the question is out there will he be quote unquote
Speaker 1: disciplined and by that you know, not going to find
Speaker 1: him or sit him down, but maybe they'll talk to
Speaker 1: him and remind him. But I don't see how this
Speaker 1: is going to work. Quite frankly, I don't see how
Speaker 1: Fox is going to put up with it. If you
Speaker 1: got shackles like that on any announcer, it's not good
Speaker 1: for the viewers because I know if I were watching it,
Speaker 1: I don't want to know what the analyst had to say.
Speaker 1: You got, you played the game, What do you think
Speaker 1: about that rule? What did it look like to you?
Speaker 1: That's why they're there, and stop that on your lead analyst.
Speaker 1: It can't be good and it's not going to work,
Speaker 1: So stay tuned on that, as we say in the
Speaker 1: TV business. Up next the guys who won a bunch
Speaker 1: of games back in eighty four, two years after they
Speaker 1: didn't win any later from them ex Wildcats and a
Speaker 1: huge upset in college football. You may have missed it
Speaker 1: over the weekend. We'll share that with you as well
Speaker 1: here on the Big boone Sider six thirty back of
Speaker 1: the Big bon Sider, Dick Gabrielle with you. I wanted
Speaker 1: to get back to an evening where guys from the
Speaker 1: eighty four Kentucky football team got together for a reunion
Speaker 1: their fortieth That was the team that two years prior,
Speaker 1: on their first year head coach Jerry klavern first year
Speaker 1: at Kentucky, they went winless. A lot of them just
Speaker 1: didn't like claybur and they chased, they boughked, They didn't
Speaker 1: want to do what football the way he wanted it done.
Speaker 1: Guys had come in under Frank Kersey. But the following
Speaker 1: year they won six games, which was either first or
Speaker 1: second all time in turnarounds, and then a year later
Speaker 1: they won a total and by the way, that six
Speaker 1: win team went to the Hall of Fame Bowl lost
Speaker 1: to West Virginia. The following year, they go back to
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame Bowl and they beat Wisconsin, a
Speaker 1: good Wisconsin team, by one point. Joey Whorley had the
Speaker 1: game winning field goal and rang up their ninth win.
Speaker 1: That was the best season Klayburn ever had. He kind
Speaker 1: of sank into mediocrity after that because a lot of
Speaker 1: Kersey's recruits were gone quite frankly. But this team, in particular,
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of fond memories because they roughed
Speaker 1: it under Clayburn. He was much tougher on them than
Speaker 1: Frank Kersey was. But from the sounds of it, the
Speaker 1: guys I talked to they had if I'm sure everybody
Speaker 1: has regrets, but not many because they were very successful.
Speaker 1: One of the guys I talked to was Paul Calhoun,
Speaker 1: who if you follow Kentucky football, you know by now
Speaker 1: he's almost a legend. He would balk at that, but
Speaker 1: he was a punter and a free safety, All Conference
Speaker 1: first team as a senior and in both punting and
Speaker 1: as a d back, and a third team All American.
Speaker 1: And here's the guy who averaged thirty two punts yards
Speaker 1: per point as a freshman and forty two and then
Speaker 1: forty three then forty four. His career averages second only
Speaker 1: to Glenn pac Alax, but made plays as a safety
Speaker 1: with interceptions as still the school record for longest punt
Speaker 1: eighty yards against Indiana, also a fake punt for a
Speaker 1: touchdown against Indiana, and a couple of other fake punts.
Speaker 1: As I understand it, See, I wasn't here. I was
Speaker 1: working in Dallas, Texas for Jim Host with the old
Speaker 1: Southwest Conference Network. So I had to go back to
Speaker 1: the record books and study up on these seasons that
Speaker 1: I missed eighty three and eighty four and a lot
Speaker 1: of these players, and Kyle Houn was one of them,
Speaker 1: but had a chance to finally, I had never interviewed
Speaker 1: the guy, but caught up with them at the reception
Speaker 1: rough year a couple of years prior year win list.
Speaker 1: Then the next thing you know, you're a five hundred record.
Speaker 1: Now you're going to bowl games.
Speaker 10: What was it like to be a part of that turnaround?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 3: That was great.
Speaker 9: I think that was the greatest thing of all because
Speaker 9: back then, I think only thirty six teams or forty teen,
Speaker 9: some very small number of teams went to bowl games
Speaker 9: back then. And yes, when we came here under Frank
Speaker 9: Cursey was our first year and I think we were
Speaker 9: three and eight. Second year we were O ten and
Speaker 9: one with the first year Jerry Clavern, and then we
Speaker 9: came back yeah, six four and one, which I think
Speaker 9: at the time was maybe the second the biggest turnaround,
Speaker 9: first biggest turnaround in college football. And then didn't follow
Speaker 9: it up to follow you at nine and.
Speaker 3: Three, and that was awesome.
Speaker 9: That was awesome because you feel like you made the
Speaker 9: right choice in the school that you came to and.
Speaker 1: You're a local, you're a Kentucky kid. That was big
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, Yes, grew up in Louisville, was born and
Speaker 9: raised in Louisville. Was David Bishop David High School. Yes,
Speaker 9: still in Louisville. So, which was one of the big
Speaker 9: recruiting things that Frank Cursey had when he was here.
Speaker 9: It was like, you know where you plan on living
Speaker 9: when you're done with the school, and all you know,
Speaker 9: you're going to stay here in Kentucky. And so that
Speaker 9: was that was that was a good move to come here.
Speaker 10: Fran and Jerry Clayburn could not have been more different.
Speaker 1: I don't mean just playing style either, What was that
Speaker 1: like I know, ten and one, some of that was
Speaker 1: guys chafing a little bit, pushing back.
Speaker 10: But what was it like when everybody finally bought in.
Speaker 1: You started winning.
Speaker 9: Yes, it's it's hard to say because, like you said,
Speaker 9: they were so different, it was unbelievable different. I don't
Speaker 9: even know if I could tell the stories.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 11: I've heard them, just cold, two.
Speaker 3: Completely different styles.
Speaker 9: The type of athlete that was here under Frank Kersey
Speaker 9: versus the type of athlete under Jerry Clayburn.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know without saying, well, winning health.
Speaker 9: Winning definitely helps. And it was you know when when
Speaker 9: we were losing it, we were O ten and one,
Speaker 9: you know, when the fans was kind of all that,
Speaker 9: you know, which all the players, you know, everybody's trying,
Speaker 9: you know, and and and people were getting on everyone.
Speaker 1: A lot of those games.
Speaker 3: I did playing a lot of those games.
Speaker 1: I mean as a team.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yes, yes, but we just we just wasn't winning.
Speaker 9: And I think there was an article back then or
Speaker 9: whatever somebody asked me about losing whatever. I said, We're
Speaker 9: not losing, We're just not winning, you know, because everybody's trying,
Speaker 9: everybody's giving it one hundred percent or whatever, but we
Speaker 9: just couldn't get over the hump to get it done.
Speaker 9: And you know, like you said, you know, we just
Speaker 9: took time to buy into the new play born because
Speaker 9: it was it was completely different.
Speaker 10: If I'll let you go with this, because it's the party.
Speaker 1: But uh, Pacoro is always telling me about the fake
Speaker 1: punt and plays you made. Uh do you think about
Speaker 1: that much?
Speaker 10: How much did people bringing up like IDEs did?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think about it from time to time.
Speaker 9: I got two son in laws or whatever, and one
Speaker 9: of them he'll bring it up on YouTube.
Speaker 3: You know, all these things when things.
Speaker 9: You did back in the day or whatever, and all
Speaker 9: that stuff, so that that always stays fresh in mind.
Speaker 9: So it's always good to see. The older you get,
Speaker 9: the more you appreciate things, you know, and so it's
Speaker 9: it's good to see that. Yeah, always good to reminisce
Speaker 9: about the old time.
Speaker 1: Paul is in the holy Cross High School Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame in Louisville, and the Holy Cross is what used
Speaker 1: to be a couple of schools Bishop David and one
Speaker 1: of them I might have been presentation. They merged and
Speaker 1: became holy Cross. Paul was a really great player for
Speaker 1: BD and now is in the Holy Cross Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame as well. Also talk to Christian Alt Finally in
Speaker 1: the UK Hall of Fame. Freddie Maggard for the longest time,
Speaker 1: So this guy needs to be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 1: Former UK linebacker and he was one of the all
Speaker 1: time best. You guys accomplished quite a bit when not
Speaker 1: allowed to expect. You get a winless team. Then the
Speaker 1: next thing you know, you're setting a record for wins
Speaker 1: and you're winning a bowl game. What was it like
Speaker 1: being part of that turnaround?
Speaker 8: Well, it was my firshman year, so I remember being
Speaker 8: in high school center. Oh they won one game. I'm
Speaker 8: not going there, but you know, but once you take
Speaker 8: your visits and the main thing that so me and
Speaker 8: this means sounds silly, is Lexington when you come in
Speaker 8: and you look down from a plane and you realize
Speaker 8: what you got here compared these other big cities with
Speaker 8: the homeless people and all like that. My old can
Speaker 8: take it home. They said it right, you.
Speaker 1: Made a lot of tackles. You got your just due finally.
Speaker 1: But how good was that that Hall of Fame bull
Speaker 1: team that won you I guess your freshman year. It
Speaker 1: was great.
Speaker 8: You, Like we said, I went into the Hall and
Speaker 8: that was one of my greatest moments. But that win overdue, overdue,
Speaker 8: But that win against Wisconsin, I think they had our tune.
Speaker 8: I mean that that game was like it was epic
Speaker 8: because Joe Royally, which I haven't seen yet, kicker kicker
Speaker 8: and came in and kicked that. And it's like Christmas
Speaker 8: Day when you get that first bite, y'all remember what
Speaker 8: that at first bite? Oh, you couldn't wait till you
Speaker 8: run around. I mean, I think I still got my
Speaker 8: luggage from it.
Speaker 3: The boat.
Speaker 8: I mean, everything's at You can't worry no more. Becaus
Speaker 8: got a little bit extra pounds on. But right now
Speaker 8: it is great.
Speaker 1: Went into the UK Hall of Fame finally in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, four hundred and eighty two tackles, second on
Speaker 1: the all time list. And I'm partial because he went
Speaker 1: to Henry Clay as did my kids, and became a
Speaker 1: Kentucky State trooper, as did one of my kids. Retired
Speaker 1: with full disability, injured on the job. But we still
Speaker 1: seem at Kroger Field, Ciscobrian was there. He's a football dad.
Speaker 1: His son Tie is a defensive back. For the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: You're smarter than the average family that comes to reading
Speaker 1: coverages and routes and all that. But that's your boy
Speaker 1: down there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 12: Well, I mean been a high school coach for thirty
Speaker 12: some years in football and baseball. The hardest thing is
Speaker 12: I don't truly enjoy the game. I said that to
Speaker 12: somebody the other day. I said, it's real tough because
Speaker 12: I'm he's out there and I'm hoping somebody he doesn't
Speaker 12: make a mistake and somebody say something personal about my child.
Speaker 12: And that said, It's enjoyable, but it's kind of heart
Speaker 12: pumping real well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has been a difficult year for the wildcatch
Speaker 1: playing super well and then playing amazingly poorly. Any thoughts on.
Speaker 12: That, Well, it's it's it is mind bonding.
Speaker 3: I don't understand it.
Speaker 12: I mean, the babies can play, you know, to me,
Speaker 12: their babies, they can flat out play. I don't know
Speaker 12: what it is that I really truly believe this dick.
Speaker 12: They've got to fix it. I don't think it's coaching.
Speaker 12: I think they gotta fix it because it becomes players
Speaker 12: making plays. And I'm not disrespecting none of the babies.
Speaker 12: Is They gotta we've got to make some plays that
Speaker 12: we're supposed to and make something we're not supposed to do,
Speaker 12: and that's what a lot of times in the eighties
Speaker 12: we did.
Speaker 1: I also talked to the tight end, Matt Lucas, who
Speaker 1: really valued the opportunity to talk to his former teammates.
Speaker 11: It's a long time, but you never get tired of
Speaker 11: it gave you get to see the friends, the brothers
Speaker 11: that you really got to play with alongside with, and
Speaker 11: it's just really to.
Speaker 3: Be to see these guys. It's just amazing. It really
Speaker 3: really is.
Speaker 1: What year were you in school? In eighty four?
Speaker 11: That was my red shirt freshman year, sophomore year academically,
Speaker 11: but it was, gosh, how do I say this?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 11: Actually, now I'm showing my age. It's my red shirt
Speaker 11: sophomore year. Okay, so you playing me and your second
Speaker 11: year playing you came in during the windless year.
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 11: I did, and glad to be red shirted that year
Speaker 11: when you really think about it, so I don't glad
Speaker 11: to be a part of it. And I think the
Speaker 11: thing that people need to remember is how Claybourne came
Speaker 11: in and you saw the changes he made that galvanized
Speaker 11: people together, and you saw how you took a team
Speaker 11: that was winless, you took some people that nobody else.
Speaker 13: Didn't want, Oh it's my lovely wife, and you took
Speaker 13: people here that quite frankly nobody else wanted but went
Speaker 13: on to have great college careers, became major contributors here,
Speaker 13: and that made a difference.
Speaker 11: I mean, people don't realize that eighty three and eighty
Speaker 11: fourteen is that was the second biggest turnaround in college
Speaker 11: football history at that time. There was a congressional decree,
Speaker 11: There was a lot of these things that came out
Speaker 11: of the legislature in Frankfort that people don't realize and
Speaker 11: just feel honored to be part of that.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, reaching that goal that had to
Speaker 1: be everything for you guys, because not much was expected.
Speaker 11: Not much was expected, and it was great to have
Speaker 11: surprise a few people. And I can the galvanizing moment
Speaker 11: happened when we're on the one two yard line at
Speaker 11: Tennessee in eighty four and they have all of these
Speaker 11: guys that were these four and five star players, and
Speaker 11: the thing that made me happiest, does it? Clavering called
Speaker 11: my number right forty eight? I blocked and George Adams
Speaker 11: comes right behind me and I'm like, holy crap, we
Speaker 11: just beat Tennessee and that is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: That's former Kentucky tight end Matt Lucas. And when we
Speaker 1: come back a bag college football upset this past weekend,
Speaker 1: you're on the Big moone Siders six thirty back to
Speaker 1: the Big Bone Cider, final segment of our program. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make way for election coverage. That's right news coming
Speaker 1: up at the top of the hour because it is
Speaker 1: election Day. I hope you got a chance to get
Speaker 1: out and vote. Coming up tomorrow night, it's going to
Speaker 1: be our usual Monday night lineup with the Mark Stoop
Speaker 1: Show and then the BBN Radio and the state wide BBI.
Speaker 1: We are not yet into the overlap period where we
Speaker 1: have the Mark Stoop Show and the Mark Pope Show
Speaker 1: of the Marx Brothers and then of course BBN or
Speaker 1: BBN Radio and BBI. That's a lot, but yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not happening yet. So that's Tomorrow night for the Mark
Speaker 1: Stoop Show and then Darren and Us. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: leave you with a little bit of excitement from the
Speaker 1: college football Saturday. A lot of folks like to discuss
Speaker 1: and debate whether or not announcers are homers. And some
Speaker 1: people believe that we like me and Jeff and Tom
Speaker 1: and everybody on the UK broadcast should be homers. Well,
Speaker 1: I came up under kvid Ledford. That's why I still
Speaker 1: don't say us and we and all that. I don't
Speaker 1: work for the university number women, number two. I'm just
Speaker 1: I just wasn't trained that way. The guys in the
Speaker 1: pregame they played football, you know, Logan and Jeremy and
Speaker 1: Christy deep down as a fan. She used to be
Speaker 1: a journalist, but she's not anymore, and that's fine. Tom
Speaker 1: is not a big WE guy. Jeff is because Jeff played,
Speaker 1: and that's that's fine. I have no problem with that.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, how you call the game can
Speaker 1: vary given your respective loyalties. I will tell you that.
Speaker 1: On SEC plus broadcasts, if it's a conference matchup, whether
Speaker 1: it's volleyball, baseball, gymnastics. Whenever I'm working on SEC Plus,
Speaker 1: if it's a conference game, I try to play it,
Speaker 1: play it as straight down the middle as I can.
Speaker 1: Because so many people watching online are fans of the
Speaker 1: visiting team, not just Kentucky. I got to think a
Speaker 1: large number of Kentucky fans are there or nearly who
Speaker 1: might be watching or at the game or at the match,
Speaker 1: but it's the people who follow that respective team when
Speaker 1: they're on the road are watching as well, and you
Speaker 1: owe it to them to be respectful and don't forget
Speaker 1: about the fact that they're there as well. We're going
Speaker 1: to tell tell the story through the prism of UK Athletics.
Speaker 1: We know the teams better, we know the coaches better.
Speaker 1: We've lived here, we've grown up here. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be inherent. But you try. That's all you can
Speaker 1: do is try. But it's a non conference game, not
Speaker 1: so much. I mean, you respect them and give them
Speaker 1: the attention they deserve, but it's not as urgent in
Speaker 1: my mind if it's a non conference game. Still, you
Speaker 1: know some of their fans are watching. But I love
Speaker 1: it when every now and then the loyalties burst through.
Speaker 1: And that was the case in a Division two game.
Speaker 1: This was an Arkadelphia, Arkansas. It was Washida Baptist University,
Speaker 1: which was ranked number three, and the coaches pulled in
Speaker 1: Division two football playing Southern Nazarene and this was Washida's
Speaker 1: final home game of the year having a good year.
Speaker 1: They were eight and oh going into this one. The
Speaker 1: other Nazarene came in winless, so you've got eight and
Speaker 1: zero versus h to eight. Wasshida was one of six
Speaker 1: remaining unbeaten teams in Division two and they were playing
Speaker 1: their third This is actually a Thursday night game, third
Speaker 1: Thursday night game of the season, so again big favorites,
Speaker 1: but it didn't work out that way because Southern Nazarene
Speaker 1: pulled the upset. This is what it sounded like on
Speaker 1: local radio. Second and ten from the eleven, Evans out
Speaker 1: of the shotgun, rolls to his right, looks back to
Speaker 1: his left, setting up the screen.
Speaker 4: Gotta tighty and.
Speaker 13: He's got a starre touchdown Southern Gyserine.
Speaker 1: Only twenty four second sleft, and it looks.
Speaker 8: Like they are going to knock off the number three
Speaker 8: team in the country for.
Speaker 4: Their first we went up in season.
Speaker 7: Undelievable.
Speaker 1: I say local radio. That was actually the Oklahoma Local
Speaker 1: Sports Network, so that's a streaming service, but at any rate,
Speaker 1: that was a home team announcer making that call on
Speaker 1: the road with Southern Nazarene, which is in Bethany, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: and pulled the massive upset of the third ranked team
Speaker 1: in Division two, so I thought i'd share that with you.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun. Every now and then
Speaker 1: you come across a call like that, and you can't
Speaker 1: blame them for being excited, because I'm assuming that that
Speaker 1: broadcast crew called every one of those eight losses finally
Speaker 1: got something to cheer about. That's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us. Stay tuned now for
Speaker 1: election coverage coming up from ABC News. That's a good
Speaker 1: night from the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 3: Bueller Buehler, the
Speaker 13: Man