Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
Speaker 1: Friday edition of our program, the eve of Game Night,
Speaker 1: when Wildcats take on Tennessee tomorrow night, it is gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough one. We'll have it for you right here.
Speaker 1: Five point thirty pre game with Christy, Jeremy and Logan
Speaker 1: seven forty five. Kick the Cats and the ball's gonna
Speaker 1: be nasty down there. Weather might be a little nasty,
Speaker 1: but there's gonna be a blackout. Tennessee's got the orange uniforms,
Speaker 1: kind of the Halloween uniforms. They'll have their lights show
Speaker 1: going like they did two years ago. Kentucky's got the
Speaker 1: same technology now, really most SEC teams do. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be stiff because Tennessee's really good. It's not
Speaker 1: the jail break stuff that we've seen in the past.
Speaker 1: It's a strong run game and a really good defense.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk more about that tonight. Well here
Speaker 1: in a minute from Mark Stoops about that. A little
Speaker 1: bit later on, we're gonna play an excerpt from the
Speaker 1: Wildcat Whip, Tom Leach and Jeff Picoro talking about this
Speaker 1: Tennessee Kentucky matchup. If you haven't heard the Whip yet, well,
Speaker 1: we directed to my Facebook page, also to Twitter or
Speaker 1: x if you will, to the UK Sports Network account.
Speaker 1: It's also on mine where Tom and Jeff and I
Speaker 1: get together at South of Wrigley Great Sandwich Shop over
Speaker 1: on Southland Drive and talk about each game. It goes
Speaker 1: up on Thursday afternoons, and what it is is basically
Speaker 1: an extended version of what you hear in the pregame
Speaker 1: show when we get together. Our segments like two two
Speaker 1: and a half minutes, so we thought we're gonna do
Speaker 1: a little bit more or a lot more. So that's
Speaker 1: what the Wildcat Whip has become. And again it's online
Speaker 1: right now on social media. So if you really like
Speaker 1: hearing the two guys who are gonna call the game
Speaker 1: break things down, then yeah, I direct you to that.
Speaker 1: I just kind of make sure it gets on the airs.
Speaker 1: What I do I just bring up a topic and
Speaker 1: sit back and listen and enjoy what they're saying. So
Speaker 1: that's coming up in hour number two. But we're also
Speaker 1: gonna hear from Mark Pope again coming up a little
Speaker 1: bit later on because his team opens up play on Monday,
Speaker 1: as does Kenny Brooks UK women, So that's coming up
Speaker 1: in our next segment. At the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: Tom Leech will chavel us just Tom on both football
Speaker 1: and basketball. He's my guest at the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: and in the second hour, Rick Russo will join us.
Speaker 1: Rickman on the show several times. Haven't heard from him
Speaker 1: in a while, but he is the sports director down
Speaker 1: a WVLT in Knoxville. He's been there forever and we're
Speaker 1: going to chat with him about just what's gotten into
Speaker 1: these walls this season. They got a really good team.
Speaker 1: The rank seventh right now. So busy show coming up.
Speaker 1: We'll talk a little bit more about the Dodgers and
Speaker 1: the World Series. Also, we're going to present, as we
Speaker 1: usually do on Friday one weekend Hero Schools and Flakes.
Speaker 1: But Mark Stoops talked to the media yesterday. Of course,
Speaker 1: he was up north with his family following the funeral
Speaker 1: of his mother on Monday, so he wasn't on his
Speaker 1: show or at the Monday news conference. But Stoops met
Speaker 1: with the media last night and somebody asked him about
Speaker 1: this Tennessee team and just what makes this particular Tennessee
Speaker 1: team so different.
Speaker 2: You know, you see the offense obviously, coming coming along
Speaker 2: to where they want it to be or you know,
Speaker 2: getting that way. I mean, obviously they could strike at
Speaker 2: any moment, you know, again, much like last year, very physical,
Speaker 2: very good in the run game, and getting more and
Speaker 2: more explosive and more comfortable, you know, with with the
Speaker 2: big plays. I think the big thing is is how
Speaker 2: good they are defensively, you know, very very good football team,
Speaker 2: very disruptive and very strong, you know, and they and
Speaker 2: they're deep. They're deep. So they have some big guys line, yeah,
Speaker 2: without question, Yeah, very very much. So you know, any
Speaker 2: great defense usually starts up front, and they're no different.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think they're very deep, they're very big, they're long,
Speaker 2: they're strong. They do a good job.
Speaker 1: And that D line, that defense pretty strong, pretty big,
Speaker 1: and they have not given up a lot of points.
Speaker 1: And it's going to be a challenge for the Wildcats
Speaker 1: to move the football, keep the chains moving. And throughout
Speaker 1: the year, when Kentucky's been successful, the Cats have basically
Speaker 1: been able to play some power football. I haven't scored
Speaker 1: a lot of points, haven't put up enough yards a
Speaker 1: lot of times, but when they have been able to
Speaker 1: get things done against the likes of Georgia and Ole Miss.
Speaker 1: They have held on to the football. They've been a
Speaker 1: possession ball control team. Stoop said, it's vital for Kentucky,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, dealing with so many injuries, but
Speaker 1: just try to stay with what they do and as
Speaker 1: he said, be who we are, and he referenced comments
Speaker 1: Brad White, the defensive coordinator, made earlier this week about
Speaker 1: just looking for answers and trying different things to.
Speaker 2: You know, coach, you know White's defense. I think you know,
Speaker 2: when you get a little bit banged up, when you're
Speaker 2: trying to start throwing things. You've heard me say that
Speaker 2: over years. I've been there as a play call. You know,
Speaker 2: when you feel like you're trying to throw things at
Speaker 2: a wall. Sometimes you know it doesn't always.
Speaker 3: Stick, you know.
Speaker 2: So we just got to be who we are and
Speaker 2: just be a better version of us. And we've proven
Speaker 2: we could do that. We just gotta we got to
Speaker 2: strain and play with great pad level and play all
Speaker 2: together and you know, and execute.
Speaker 1: I mentioned what the catcher getting into tomorrow night, there's
Speaker 1: going to be, like I said, the blackout. The uniform
Speaker 1: is going to be a huge crowd on hand. They're
Speaker 1: going to go nuts. It's the SEC, Welcome to life
Speaker 1: and the SEC and Stupe said that's just something you
Speaker 1: can expect wherever you go in the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 2: I understand I didn't see it. I don't I don't
Speaker 2: really want on social media, but I understand that's pretty
Speaker 2: cool that they got a blackout going and the fans
Speaker 2: have embraced it, you know, And I'm sure that'll be
Speaker 2: a it'll be a hostile environment and uh, it generally
Speaker 2: is when you play on the SECT, you know, particularly
Speaker 2: at night, so it'll be it'll be a challenge.
Speaker 1: Toward the end of the news conference, John Hall or
Speaker 1: rather a John Clay with a Harold Leader with a
Speaker 1: with a really good question for Mark. He said, when
Speaker 1: it comes to offense, he said, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: play calling, but he basically said to Stoops, how can
Speaker 1: you as the head coach, what can you do to
Speaker 1: help the OC to help the offensive coordinator? Short of
Speaker 1: just taken over calling the plays. Stoops talked about how
Speaker 1: bush ham Dan eventually found a groove and found some
Speaker 1: success calling plays for the Wildcast before these injuries began
Speaker 1: to pile up. But really the back end of the
Speaker 1: comment I thought was really telling. It was. It was
Speaker 1: pointed directly at apparently what Stoops has seen as the
Speaker 1: breakdowns of this team, and he made some references to
Speaker 1: work he has to do with the program, particularly in
Speaker 1: the off season.
Speaker 2: The number one objective right now is to go try
Speaker 2: to get a victory, but by any means necessary. And
Speaker 2: so I think he does a really good job that way.
Speaker 2: And as smart you know, we know we have some
Speaker 2: some you know, shortcomings and some areas of concern and
Speaker 2: some areas that we have to get addressed.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: And you know that's a there's a things that that
Speaker 2: you know, I you know that that you know I
Speaker 2: got to get fixed, you know. And so you know,
Speaker 2: but he's done a nice job of trying to adapt
Speaker 2: the best he can to what we can do.
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the Kentucky roster. I
Speaker 1: don't remember what I was looking for, but I remember
Speaker 1: I went back and looked at the twenty eighteen roster.
Speaker 1: That was probably Stoop's best team. That was the year
Speaker 1: that Josh Allen won every award you probably possibly could
Speaker 1: as a defender, and Kentucky wins ten games and wins
Speaker 1: the Citrus Bowl. It was fun wasn't it. But the
Speaker 1: one thing that jumped out at me was as I
Speaker 1: ran my finger down the list of Kentucky players from
Speaker 1: that team, it was the number of guys who got
Speaker 1: a shot at the NFL, maybe didn't make a team,
Speaker 1: that maybe did, but got to a camp, signed a contract,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like and they weren't all seniors, you know,
Speaker 1: but it just seemed like every five six names on
Speaker 1: that roster, you'd say to yourself, Oh, that guy got it,
Speaker 1: that guy made it, that guy signed. And now do
Speaker 1: the same thing with this roster. And I'm not knocking
Speaker 1: these kids sound like Caliperry, don't I. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is this team just isn't as good obviously as
Speaker 1: that team. But that goes back to Stoops and his staff.
Speaker 1: How well have they recruited, how well if they evaluated.
Speaker 1: They'll be the first to tell you they've made some mistakes.
Speaker 1: They'll be the first to tell you that some kids
Speaker 1: who came through the portal just haven't worked out. There's
Speaker 1: a reason some guys are in the portal because they
Speaker 1: just aren't getting enough clock, enough plays at their previous school. Well,
Speaker 1: why is that? Because they weren't good enough to play there.
Speaker 1: Not everybody is Awandale Robinson obviously, who came back home
Speaker 1: because he needed to be near his family, And not
Speaker 1: everybody is Will Levis, who was probably misused or misevaluated
Speaker 1: up at Penn State. No, he's not having a great
Speaker 1: pro career right now, but he had a terrific time
Speaker 1: in college, at least with a good offensive line under
Speaker 1: Liam Cohen. And he's a guy who was used primarily
Speaker 1: as a runner, and he's a good runner at Penn State,
Speaker 1: but they didn't really have the same kind of offense
Speaker 1: in which he flourished at Kentucky his first year. Rock
Speaker 1: Vandergriff has not had similar success. But I will always
Speaker 1: wonder what his season or seasons would have looked like
Speaker 1: at Kentucky or elsewhere. He's got another year after this season,
Speaker 1: if he was playing behind an offensive line with three,
Speaker 1: four or five guys who were heading for the NFL,
Speaker 1: and with all due respect to the kids they've got, now,
Speaker 1: that's not what he's got. I still believe that the
Speaker 1: crux of the problems for this team is a line
Speaker 1: that is better. They're developing. They played really well against
Speaker 1: Georgia and against Ole Miss and honestly, they did against
Speaker 1: Vandy when they weren't shooting themselves in there and both
Speaker 1: feet with penalties. But they're just not consistently good and
Speaker 1: they are gonna have one hell of a challenge tomorrow night,
Speaker 1: as they have against Auburn and Florida, because they're gonna
Speaker 1: be running into some lines linemen who are huge. That's
Speaker 1: been the biggest difference. I think no pun intended uh
Speaker 1: with these last couple of losses, big linemen. Same thing
Speaker 1: for the Kentucky D line. They run into huge offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: But getting back to the old line, when that group
Speaker 1: is on its game and if Demi Shumol Karnbay is healthy,
Speaker 1: Kentucky has a chance to move the chains. And if
Speaker 1: you do that against Tennessee, it doesn't matter what the
Speaker 1: lights show does. It doesn't matter what the crowd's wearing,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what the uniforms are on the other team.
Speaker 1: You take the crowd out, you control the clock. You
Speaker 1: saw the game at all, Missi either there. You watched
Speaker 1: on TV while you were listening to the radio, and
Speaker 1: you saw how Kentucky took that crowd out of the game,
Speaker 1: and for a little while, Kentucky did it at Florida,
Speaker 1: believe it or not, might not feel like it after
Speaker 1: the final score, but when Kentucky was coming back and
Speaker 1: made it a one score game and again the old
Speaker 1: line was getting the job done, it silenced that crowd
Speaker 1: and that was a really it was one of the
Speaker 1: better crowds I've seen at the Swamp of late, not
Speaker 1: back to the Spurier days, but you know how Kentucky's
Speaker 1: gone down to the Swamp and pushed the Gators around,
Speaker 1: and even one down there A couple of times that
Speaker 1: place has been silent, and it started to get that
Speaker 1: way until Kentucky made some mistakes and Florida came back
Speaker 1: and poured it on. There's a chance they can do
Speaker 1: that tomorrow night. But it starts with the offensive line.
Speaker 1: And again, when I was a young reporter, Frank Kersey
Speaker 1: took me to school in a good way. Wasn't yelling
Speaker 1: at me or anything, but he basically educated me on
Speaker 1: the fact that success up and down your football program
Speaker 1: throughout depends on your offensive line, because of course that
Speaker 1: says how much you're going to score, how long you're
Speaker 1: going to be on the field, how much time your
Speaker 1: defense has off the field. A smart talking head I
Speaker 1: listened to said, the best defenses aren't on the field
Speaker 1: a lot. The less time you're on the field is
Speaker 1: the defense, the better you are. That's what needs to
Speaker 1: happen Tomorrow night. We'll shift you over to basketball when
Speaker 1: we come back. You're on the big boon Sider six thirty.
Speaker 1: You come back to the big boon sider coming up
Speaker 1: in just a few minutes, Tom Leech. She'll call the
Speaker 1: action tomorrow night Tennessee Kentucky and then on Monday, Wright
Speaker 1: State and the basketball Cats. And we talked with Mark
Speaker 1: Pope yesterday. His weekly news conference apparently will be on Thursday.
Speaker 1: He's going to show up for him and answer questions.
Speaker 1: How about that? And one of the questions put the
Speaker 1: Pope in light of the shooting slump in the at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the game against Minnesota State was somebody suggested,
Speaker 1: if a guy is not hitting, do you maybe take
Speaker 1: the green light away? Do you shut that down?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't do that. You drive your guys all crazy,
Speaker 5: are you really?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 5: It's part of the game. So so guess what if
Speaker 5: you're trying to scout us out and someone someone that shot, well,
Speaker 5: the last couple of games, watch out because the numbers,
Speaker 5: the numbers bear true. You know, every time you miss
Speaker 5: a shot, you're one shot closer to making one. Like
Speaker 5: that's just the truth. That's the data, that's the numbers,
Speaker 5: And so you kind of got to pick your poison,
Speaker 5: do you got You know, the numbers might say, hey,
Speaker 5: next game, don't guard Jackson Robinson because he was eight
Speaker 5: for twelve last game. So the chances are the numbers
Speaker 5: say he's not going to make his first one, right,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't do that because Jackson is just that way.
Speaker 1: You kind of had a grin in his face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we don't do that, So don't expect that to happen,
Speaker 1: even if the Cats aren't hitting from the outside. As
Speaker 1: for Kenny Brooks, the UK women's coach, his team opens
Speaker 1: up at USC Upstate on Monday. Can he talk to
Speaker 1: us about how well he's been accepted here by the
Speaker 1: big Blue Nation.
Speaker 6: I can't go anywhere in Lexington without somebody coming up,
Speaker 6: you know, saying how excited they are to have us here,
Speaker 6: and and that that didn't happen, you know when I
Speaker 6: got to Virginia Tech. When I got to Virginia Tech,
Speaker 6: I don't think anybody knew that I was the head
Speaker 6: coach there, and they grew to know and they grew
Speaker 6: to appreciate what we were doing. But to come here
Speaker 6: and yet before you've even played a game and have
Speaker 6: everything sold out, it just goes. It's an attestament to
Speaker 6: the fan base. And that was a big reason why
Speaker 6: I wanted to come here, because I felt like it
Speaker 6: was a sleeping giant.
Speaker 1: Kyraelsey struggled with the job. Matthew Mitchell took the wild
Speaker 1: Cats to the Elite eight a couple of times, knocked
Speaker 1: on the door of the Final four, and the crowd
Speaker 1: showed up. The fans loved it, obviously, and that just
Speaker 1: showed Kentucky fans are ready for women's basketball to be big.
Speaker 1: One other note before we hit the break, I didn't
Speaker 1: really talk much Halloween last night. We had so much
Speaker 1: to talk about. Hope you had a good one, Hope
Speaker 1: your kids did terrible. Did it rain? I felt so
Speaker 1: sorry for the kids who came to our house. Well,
Speaker 1: we got more kids last night than we've had, maybe combined,
Speaker 1: in the last three years. That's a good sign. My
Speaker 1: granddaughter's got a chance to see them all dressed up,
Speaker 1: you know, and it always raises this time of year,
Speaker 1: the never ending debate about candy corn, which is awesome.
Speaker 1: Love candy corn, my favorite vegetable. A lot of people
Speaker 1: don't like it, and three years ago it became kind
Speaker 1: of a national topic for two or three days when
Speaker 1: our friend Alyssa Lang from the SEC Network was working
Speaker 1: in Mississippi State game back when the late great Mike
Speaker 1: Leach was the coach there and the Bulldogs rolled to
Speaker 1: a big win. So she had a chance to have
Speaker 1: fun with Mike Leach, who had made it clear at
Speaker 1: some point that he did not like candy corn. And
Speaker 1: in fact, I think Kentucky played down there a week
Speaker 1: before or after, and some of the students in the
Speaker 1: front row one of the end zones painted their chest.
Speaker 1: I have a picture of it where they spell that
Speaker 1: candy corn sucks. Of course they're wrong as well. But
Speaker 1: Alyssa talk to Mike Leech, who never hesitates to get
Speaker 1: off football and talk about something that's more fun.
Speaker 3: We talked about on the broadcast, how you hate candy corn?
Speaker 1: What's your favorite Halloween nycorn?
Speaker 7: I mean, I completely hate candy corn when I was
Speaker 7: a kid. Well, gummy bears, Let's see gummy bears for sure,
Speaker 7: now we're regular.
Speaker 1: The airboon. It's got to be the airbow once.
Speaker 7: And then the other thing I like is when they
Speaker 7: used to have the sprees in a box outstanding. You
Speaker 7: have to go to the dollar store to find it,
Speaker 7: but I do. And then the latest, the latest, you know,
Speaker 7: there's still candy innovation, although a while back the Europe
Speaker 7: had better candy than we did overall because they have
Speaker 7: got me everything.
Speaker 1: And then but the uh, you.
Speaker 7: Know, they have those nerds clusters.
Speaker 1: Which is new.
Speaker 8: Yeah, which is good.
Speaker 7: The nerds clusters is good. And then if you go chocolate,
Speaker 7: probably all them enjoy I love it. Hopefully you'll get
Speaker 7: some of that next week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Thanks coaching, all right, thank you.
Speaker 1: That's Alyssa Lang of the SEC Network. And then Mississippi
Speaker 1: State head coach Mike Leach posted on October twenty third,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and less than a year and a
Speaker 1: half later he was gone. Died on December twelfth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. And I remember talking to Neil Price about
Speaker 1: him after he passed and just how much fun Neil
Speaker 1: and everybody had with Mike Leach, who was pretty good
Speaker 1: football coach and as you know, at one point was
Speaker 1: coaching here on staff with hel Mummy. Up next Tom Leach,
Speaker 1: the voice of the Cats, to talk about a big
Speaker 1: weekend coming up for him. I mean works football on
Speaker 1: Saturday night and basketball on Monday night. That's next here
Speaker 1: on the first day of November. Can you believe it?
Speaker 1: We flew through October. Joining us now is the voice
Speaker 1: Tom Leech, who is a busy, busy man. This Timmy,
Speaker 1: you were going to talk both football and basketball with him.
Speaker 1: Although Tom, you've been working hard on Breeders' Cup picks.
Speaker 1: I mean it's too Is it too much of a
Speaker 1: good thing for you?
Speaker 8: Probably not.
Speaker 9: No, it's fun, but it's just kind of test your
Speaker 9: time management. So yeah, I'm busy.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 9: I do a pot Jim Goodman, I do a podcast
Speaker 9: for Queenlan every weekend and for their adw site and
Speaker 9: Breeders Cup time like an Oaks and Derby Day or
Speaker 9: Breeders Cup. We do all the stakes races for both days,
Speaker 9: and so I've been busy toiling over numbers.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was working for KYT and covering
Speaker 1: horse races, I love covering the Breeders Cup. But I'll
Speaker 1: he was always at a loss. I mean you cover,
Speaker 1: you do a story on the Classic and some of
Speaker 1: the horse in there. But it's the All Star Game
Speaker 1: and the World Championships rolled into one. As I always say, Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you can't go wrong picking a horse. But where
Speaker 1: do you start? So, but that's what's great about it.
Speaker 1: What was it? This is the fortieth anniversary?
Speaker 8: Right?
Speaker 1: Did it start about eighty four?
Speaker 9: It is?
Speaker 8: It's the fortieth.
Speaker 9: Last year they celebrated the fortieth because it was the
Speaker 9: fortieth breeders couch. Okay, but this is the fortieth year. Yeah,
Speaker 9: So it's always one of those deals that they they
Speaker 9: started basically at zero, right with having.
Speaker 8: It at eighty four.
Speaker 1: So John Gaines had a great idea and they made
Speaker 1: it work. Yes, you did well. Let us first talk
Speaker 1: about what's happening in Knoxville Saturday evening and you and
Speaker 1: Jeff and I and boy going back to the Jeff
Speaker 1: Fan No Days and others. We covered some games down
Speaker 1: there that couldn't go fast enough. It just wasn't competitive.
Speaker 1: Do you think the Cats can keep it competitive and
Speaker 1: give themselves a chance against the balls?
Speaker 9: It's anywhere close to the team that we saw in Oxford,
Speaker 9: Mississippi or here against Georgia in September. Absolutely, if it's
Speaker 9: the team we've seen in October, then it will be
Speaker 9: tough to say the least Tennessee. If you look at
Speaker 9: the numbers, they're kind of scary. You know what you
Speaker 9: have to news.
Speaker 8: Take out the non conference numbers because especially on the
Speaker 8: offensive side, they look much more mortal when they've played
Speaker 8: in league games.
Speaker 9: But their defense has been tremendous. I mean, whether they're
Speaker 9: playing SEC teams or somebody else, their numbers are tremendous.
Speaker 9: You know, Kentucky has struggled to finish drives and it's
Speaker 9: got to find a way to make some place. Hopefully
Speaker 9: they get Sumo Karnbay back. That would help the running game.
Speaker 9: You think back to the Georgia and the Ole Miss games.
Speaker 9: His ability to get some tough yards and keep drives
Speaker 9: going was the big part of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again he was a guy that we all
Speaker 1: knew had speed, could catch the ball out of the
Speaker 1: backfield or in the slot, but he proved to be
Speaker 1: a power back. He could he could run between the tackles,
Speaker 1: but not quite as strong as Benny Steller or Chris Rodriguez.
Speaker 1: And of course, the old line has been struggling still
Speaker 1: a little bit, but getting those final one or two yards,
Speaker 1: especially in the red zone. I can't remember, Tom and
Speaker 1: it's been as frustrating, can.
Speaker 9: You, No, it's been. And then we've seen teams even
Speaker 9: I go back far enough to where they just struggle
Speaker 9: offensively to the point of their punter was the most
Speaker 9: important player that they Yeah, this team has been able
Speaker 9: to move the ball that I don't know what the
Speaker 9: number is, but I've been a pretty healthy percentage of
Speaker 9: drives that have gotten onto the other side of the
Speaker 9: fifty yard line.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 9: So they've picked up a first down or two and
Speaker 9: they get to, you know, somewhere around the forty in
Speaker 9: that neighborhood, and then it stalls. And if they could
Speaker 9: just make even sometimes one or two more plays to
Speaker 9: just get a field goal out of it, because you
Speaker 9: feel pretty confident you can get points if you can
Speaker 9: just get the chance to let rain or kick it
Speaker 9: all right, you know.
Speaker 1: In the quarterback situation, it's not necessarily a controversy except
Speaker 1: for the fact that people have been talking on social
Speaker 1: media on talk shows. I mean, what's up with two quarterbacks?
Speaker 1: Does it ever work? It rarely works? And yet I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: close the book on Rock Vandergrip when it comes to
Speaker 1: evaluating him, simply because we haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: see him with many clean pockets, you know, and they
Speaker 1: wisely move the pocket, but as you know, that cuts
Speaker 1: the field in half. And there are very few quarterbacks
Speaker 1: as effective throwing on the run as they are in
Speaker 1: the pocket. So I don't know you, and you've seen
Speaker 1: more practices than I have. I don't have a great
Speaker 1: read on this kid yet, you know as a drop
Speaker 1: back passer.
Speaker 9: To you, no, that's fair. I mean, he has had
Speaker 9: some tremendous throws that he's made, most notably the one
Speaker 9: to Bari and Brown down at old Miss. But then
Speaker 9: there's other times where you know, he's the tendency to
Speaker 9: hold onto the ball too long at times or has
Speaker 9: uh missed guys through a bad interception in the second
Speaker 9: quarter last week, and that's probably guessing what maybe led
Speaker 9: to trying trying the other guy, and that's understandable when
Speaker 9: it's it's not working. But uh, you know, we'll see
Speaker 9: what they end up doing this week. But Brock is
Speaker 9: a guy that has made some enough plays that you
Speaker 9: can see potential there and he is in his first
Speaker 9: year as a starter, so you hope that he can
Speaker 9: continue to develop and as you get you know that
Speaker 9: are offensive line with them all the wink the offensive line,
Speaker 9: to be fair, it's improved from where it was in
Speaker 9: that South Carolina game. So it's just, you know, it's
Speaker 9: it's not any one thing. They don't have a you know,
Speaker 9: great running game. They the one thing that they really
Speaker 9: seem to lack is explosive plays. They made three of
Speaker 9: them on those first two drives last week too by
Speaker 9: Dane Key, and then those went away, and you know
Speaker 9: it's it's.
Speaker 8: Hard to.
Speaker 9: Live on, you know, being able. Then that's you know,
Speaker 9: probably inevitably why drives stalls that you know, they just
Speaker 9: have to be so perfect. It's you know, such a
Speaker 9: thin margin for error in terms of getting plays to
Speaker 9: be successful and nobody executes at one hundred percent efficiency,
Speaker 9: and that's I'm sure it probably to them feels like
Speaker 9: what do they have to do?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: The most puzzling thing to me, the last even more
Speaker 1: so than the problems in the red zone, is the
Speaker 1: way the defensive line has has been sort of pushed
Speaker 1: around or manhandled however you want to call it the
Speaker 1: last couple of games, both Florida and Auburn, and some
Speaker 1: of that I know, and Mark Steukes talked to you
Speaker 1: before and after those games about the relative size of
Speaker 1: the line when they were going against. But I am surprised,
Speaker 1: especially about the way Auburn gas the wildcast for big
Speaker 1: plays and Florida. Of course, Vandy did too on the
Speaker 1: first down plays. Although Kentucky was able to stiffen on
Speaker 1: several drives against Vandy could not fight off Florida and Auburn,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 9: And the offensive lines are big at Ole Miss and Georgia,
Speaker 9: and so they handed them then. So you know there's
Speaker 9: an element of it of just you know, being beat
Speaker 9: up physically, and you know it's been hit a little
Speaker 9: hard in the defensive line. You know, last week you
Speaker 9: saw the entire starting defensive line I think was on
Speaker 9: the availability report. Now, guys were able to eventually play,
Speaker 9: although they lost Jackson and we in the second half,
Speaker 9: right that certainly seemed to be a noworthy absence and
Speaker 9: that's when they had the most difficulty getting off the
Speaker 9: field against Alivern.
Speaker 1: Well, there was a game not too long ago when
Speaker 1: the Wildcats went down and had a couple of picks
Speaker 1: sixes early. I don't see that happening, but you know
Speaker 1: it would be if Kentucky be fortuitous, if Kentucky could
Speaker 1: steal a score, steal a possession, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It almost has to happen, doesn't it.
Speaker 9: You would think so something like that. But you do
Speaker 9: have a red shirt freshman quarterback from Tennessee who has
Speaker 9: had some struggles once they've gotten in the league play
Speaker 9: and they've turned it over five times in the last
Speaker 9: two games, So that would be the script. And you
Speaker 9: get a break early like that, take advantage of it.
Speaker 9: And you know, Tennessee's the big favorite, and Tennessee's got
Speaker 9: a sight set on the college football playoff, so the
Speaker 9: longer as the underdog, you can hang around. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 9: here they get and so that's what you hope to do.
Speaker 9: And just you know, they're in a situation that where
Speaker 9: they really need to get to the open date from
Speaker 9: the standpoint of just the help of the team to
Speaker 9: get a little bit of recovery. And then they come
Speaker 9: out of that with a game in which they be
Speaker 9: a massive favorite. So uh, this, but you got to
Speaker 9: get through this one, and so you've got to find
Speaker 9: a way to uh, you know, it's it's one game
Speaker 9: to go out there, and you know at this point
Speaker 9: they they can't some of the goals that they had
Speaker 9: are unattainable, right, But you always still have a chance
Speaker 9: to just as a competitor, say let's do something that
Speaker 9: nobody thinks we can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 9: They you don't have a couple of chances left to
Speaker 9: do that, and they've already done it once. So they've
Speaker 9: got to find a way to tap into that mindset,
Speaker 9: which hopefully then leads you to sharper focus, better execution,
Speaker 9: and then hopefully little luck.
Speaker 1: He is Tom Leech's the voice of the Wildcats. He'll
Speaker 1: call football Saturday for the Big Moon Network and then
Speaker 1: again on Monday. It'll turn around and we're Kentucky basketball.
Speaker 1: He's already called two exhibition games. We'll talk about that
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break here on the
Speaker 1: Big Moon Sider six thirty come back. We're visiting with
Speaker 1: the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leach, who will call
Speaker 1: two UK men's basketball games next Week's already got two
Speaker 1: in the can two exhibition games. I listened to you
Speaker 1: and Jack the last few minutes of the game and
Speaker 1: then the post game, and Jack made a great point
Speaker 1: I thought Tom in the latter stages when he talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that you have so many veteran players
Speaker 1: out there that they don't need to look to the
Speaker 1: sideline constantly for guidance. They can make some decisions or
Speaker 1: work it out on their own. They can talk amongst
Speaker 1: themselves and make things happen. I know that's what Mark
Speaker 1: Pope's looking for, and it's kind of refreshing, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Not a knock on Caliperry, but that's just the way
Speaker 1: they're doing business this year.
Speaker 9: Yeah, when you have all of that experience and they
Speaker 9: still have to uh get to a level of expertise
Speaker 9: in Mark Pope's offense, and that's still what they're working toward.
Speaker 9: But yeah, they're I don't think they're gonna, you know,
Speaker 9: guys put that much experience or are going to panic.
Speaker 9: They'll you know, know, how to figure things out. And
Speaker 9: I'm just eager now to they open up next week
Speaker 9: in Write States. I think preseason fifth in the Horizon League.
Speaker 9: I haven't looked ahead to do much prep on Buckneil yet,
Speaker 9: but those are teams. Those are names that sometimes in
Speaker 9: an NCAA tournament throw a scare into somebody from team
Speaker 9: you know, out of that league, out of the horizon
Speaker 9: for example. Yeah, and so it uh, I know Jumps
Speaker 9: are starting to do some prep on it.
Speaker 8: They shoot a lot of threes like Kentucky does, if
Speaker 8: they were one of the better shooting team. Fact, they
Speaker 8: led the nation in field goal percentage last year. So
Speaker 8: that we'll you know, maybe test Kentucky's defense. But I'm
Speaker 8: just kind of eager, assuming they take care of business
Speaker 8: in those two games next week, like we expect eager
Speaker 8: to see them play Duke and get a really big
Speaker 8: test and you just see where they are. It's, you know,
Speaker 8: not the end of the world if it doesn't go well,
Speaker 8: and it's a tremendous boost that does, but just to
Speaker 8: see them tested to that level the thing. And Jack
Speaker 8: talked about this on the Morning Show a couple of
Speaker 8: weeks ago. I said, you know, you've been watching practice
Speaker 8: since July. Is there anything they're better at than you
Speaker 8: thought they would be? And he went to defense, And
Speaker 8: that's I think that I thought that was noteworthy because
Speaker 8: you know, last night they started out two for thirteen
Speaker 8: on three. It it'll be nights when they don't make
Speaker 8: as many shots, or maybe that's because they're who, you know,
Speaker 8: the level of competition they're playing, but they if they're
Speaker 8: gonna be good, really good defensively. That keeps you in
Speaker 8: range to and try to find a way to pull
Speaker 8: it out late. And you've got a guard in Butler
Speaker 8: that looks like he can just be a lockdown defender
Speaker 8: out on the perimeter. And then assuming Williams is back
Speaker 8: healthy on Monday night, you've got a big guy to
Speaker 8: the three time defensive player of the year in his league,
Speaker 8: seven feet tall with long wingspan, so he can protect
Speaker 8: the paint. So that's those two things are all nice
Speaker 8: to have.
Speaker 9: And then the rest of the guys just learn how
Speaker 9: to communicate and pass things off. And you you know,
Speaker 9: you don't have the one. People have compared this, and
Speaker 9: I've been with them comparing this to some of the
Speaker 9: early Patino teams in terms of the number of threes.
Speaker 8: That they're shooting.
Speaker 9: Now, this team doesn't have a Mashburn, but it has,
Speaker 9: you know, probably more overall talent to go seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 9: ten deep. I mean, no I thought played well on
Speaker 9: any game on Tuesday night.
Speaker 1: Oh, I agree, and got things started with that three
Speaker 1: pointer did Yeah, I really enjoy the new format. I
Speaker 1: don't know who's responsible from our network for switching things
Speaker 1: up a little bit, but having a table out there
Speaker 1: and you guys facing the crowd and taking questions from
Speaker 1: the audience, either via social media or in person. But
Speaker 1: I got a big kick out of Mark when he
Speaker 1: sat down on the first thing out of his mouth
Speaker 1: about the cold Star was major guys nervous, didn't we
Speaker 1: But I think it's all part of the education process
Speaker 1: because I don't know. You know, you're you're busy working,
Speaker 1: but up in the boonies where I am now where
Speaker 1: they the media stuffed up into the corner of rupp Arena.
Speaker 1: It's a good look, but you're so far from the court.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, you could kind of feel
Speaker 1: the audience getting nervous. You hear the groans on a mystery,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can hear that, but there's this nervous tittering,
Speaker 1: you know, when when the missed shots begin to pile up,
Speaker 1: And I think Mark Pope is just trying to condition everybody.
Speaker 1: You can only say, don't worry about it. So many times.
Speaker 1: But his attitude is that this is what happens.
Speaker 9: You know, got to condition his own players too, because
Speaker 9: Jackson Robins is the only one that understands that he guys.
Speaker 9: Trust me, he really does wants you to keep shooting it.
Speaker 9: He's not going to, you know, pull the reins in
Speaker 9: when you're you're missing, you know, and I'm sure there's
Speaker 9: still you know, when you start two for thirteen, I
Speaker 9: have to think, you know, there's somewhere in somebody's head
Speaker 9: there are more than one guy. It's like, should we
Speaker 9: really keep shooting these? Should we you know, try to
Speaker 9: get to the line or something. But you uh, they've
Speaker 9: got anything is they've got enough shooters, so you would
Speaker 9: think the chances of a toll freeze out would be
Speaker 9: minimal because you know, it's not like they have just
Speaker 9: a couple of guys that they rely on for three
Speaker 9: point shooting, a bunch of guys that can hit the three,
Speaker 9: and they their offense is geared toward kicking it, moving
Speaker 9: it around, kicking it out for those particular shots. Right boy,
Speaker 9: once they got started last night, and really he's a
Speaker 9: lot of tension, and that's when they got the separation,
Speaker 9: and you know without as I said earlier, the don't
Speaker 9: have that Nashburne type guy. So you've got to rely
Speaker 9: on kind of the system and the some being greater
Speaker 9: than the individual parts to accomplish more than what people
Speaker 9: might expect you can accomplish.
Speaker 1: I loved it as well when he said we're going
Speaker 1: to be belligerent, you know, get again, trying to get
Speaker 1: people ready. We're gonna stick with what we do, and
Speaker 1: uh uh it was just so much. It was fun
Speaker 1: to watch it all unfold. And I made the same
Speaker 1: point as Sean Woods on my show on Wednesday on
Speaker 1: the show Wednesday, and we talked about that, and I
Speaker 1: also told him, I said, I said, Butler reminds me
Speaker 1: a little bit of you, Sean, you know, as a
Speaker 1: physical point guard and uh, you know, a guy not
Speaker 1: known for a shooting, but a guy who can get
Speaker 1: to the rim and finish. So I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of fun. But uh yeah, he's uh, he's
Speaker 1: trying to ed to BBN, but also the impassion play,
Speaker 1: like he's got to please show up and support us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna happen, you know.
Speaker 9: Oh yeah, they won't have to worry about that. But
Speaker 9: you know, you make a good point about Sean. You know,
Speaker 9: it's like kind of like a great cornerback that could
Speaker 9: take out the other team's best wide receiver. You know,
Speaker 9: if you can the quarterback point guards to the quarterback
Speaker 9: of the team and so your quarterback can you know,
Speaker 9: shut down their quarterback. That's huge. And Sean is that
Speaker 9: kind of player. And then at ninety three Final four
Speaker 9: team and they had him and Dale Brown, they had
Speaker 9: two guys that could do.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'll let you go with this. The thing
Speaker 1: I really like the most about this team is the
Speaker 1: way it's come together so quickly from all over the country.
Speaker 1: That's what's amazing about this And it's just I guess
Speaker 1: what great basketball does. Not that this is a great
Speaker 1: team yet, but it's a great situation, a great opportunity.
Speaker 1: And here are guys, like I said, like most teams,
Speaker 1: but it is as unique as any team in the
Speaker 1: history of this program and many in college basketball starting over.
Speaker 1: You know, it's almost like tom an exhibition, not an exhibition,
Speaker 1: but what's the word I'm looking for a new franchise.
Speaker 1: It's almost like an expansion Yeah, it's almost like an
Speaker 1: expansion team. And yet you're not starting from scratch when
Speaker 1: it comes to tradition, facilities, crowd all that stuff. So
Speaker 1: it's just a real fascinating story, I think.
Speaker 9: Yeah, And with an expansion team, you get, you know,
Speaker 9: access to some players at the bottom of everybody's roster
Speaker 9: to form your team. Here Pope pad access to really
Speaker 9: pretty much anybody in the transfer portal. And yet he
Speaker 9: had to pretty quickly go about assessing those those parts
Speaker 9: he was going to put together into his machine or
Speaker 9: his stew I think, as he's called it, and I
Speaker 9: have a good who One of the reasons he became
Speaker 9: successful in his business is that he was identified as
Speaker 9: early on rose up the ranks in his company.
Speaker 8: Is they would send him to problem areas and he
Speaker 8: could quickly assess the problem and turn it around. And
Speaker 8: that's a skill to be able to go in and
Speaker 8: quickly be able to assess things. And that seemingly is
Speaker 8: what more Pope has done. And in terms of you know,
Speaker 8: contacting all these guys, and I'm sure he didn't know
Speaker 8: a lot of them. I mean they'd recruited creasea before,
Speaker 8: for example, but not a lot of the other guys
Speaker 8: to go in and you know, have conversations and you know,
Speaker 8: you know, assess, okay, this is this is one of
Speaker 8: our kind of guys. And it sort of looks like
Speaker 8: I mean, the time will tell, but it surely looks
Speaker 8: like he did an excellent job of identifying those guys
Speaker 8: that would fit together and not just trying to go
Speaker 8: get twelve talented players and then try to figure it out.
Speaker 1: He is Tom Leech. He is the voice of the Wildcatch.
Speaker 1: You'll hear him calling Kentucky football on Saturday evening, and
Speaker 1: then you'll hear him calling Kentucky basketball on Monday evening.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, you can hear the Leech Report
Speaker 1: on this Ferry radio station at eight am every day.
Speaker 1: Follow him on at Tom Leachky. Thank you, brother, and
Speaker 1: we will see you in Knoxville.
Speaker 8: That sounds great.
Speaker 1: Coming up in our number two, we're gonna go down
Speaker 1: to Knoxville and visit with Rick Russo, longtime sports director
Speaker 1: WVLT TV, and find out why these valls have become
Speaker 1: so good. Also in our number two, a preview of
Speaker 1: the Wildcat Whip because Tom and Jeff broke things down
Speaker 1: extremely well. Also a comment from Mitch Barnhardt about the
Speaker 1: state of college football right now, the residual effect of
Speaker 1: the nil and the poor rule that it's having across
Speaker 1: the country. That's coming up next on the Big Moon
Speaker 1: Insider six thirty WLAP.
Speaker 10: Everything.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider and joining
Speaker 1: us now as an old friend and a guy. We've
Speaker 1: worked actually together on some projects and we have bumped
Speaker 1: into each other for years. Used to be part of
Speaker 1: the family when I was at wkyt Rick Russo from
Speaker 1: w VOT down in Knoxville. How are you, young man?
Speaker 10: Oh, thanks for calling me young. I am doing this well.
Speaker 10: More importantly, how is your health, my friend?
Speaker 1: How you doing good? I'm good, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I'm coming up on a year and I'm healthy. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. And I know you've had some some health
Speaker 1: challenges as well, and I know you oh yeah, but yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, as they all say, it beats the alternative.
Speaker 1: How many years now for you in Knoxville?
Speaker 10: Just shy of one hundred and seven. I you know,
Speaker 10: I've never claimed to be good at math, Dick, but
Speaker 10: I got here in East Tennessee, in Knoxville in August
Speaker 10: of nineteen eighty seven. Yeah, I know, the first the
Speaker 10: first Tennessee game that I covered. I was a low
Speaker 10: man on the totem pole, so I didn't get to
Speaker 10: go but the vaults. But do you remember Tennessee played
Speaker 10: Iowa in the Kickoff Classic up in the Midlands, Okay,
Speaker 10: and that was my first Tennessee game, and it's and
Speaker 10: the rest is history.
Speaker 1: Literally. Yeah, you covered national championships both in football and baseball.
Speaker 1: Now we'll get to that in a minute, But got
Speaker 1: to talk about the game tomorrow night. And when the
Speaker 1: season began, I think Kentucky fans had such high hopes
Speaker 1: for their team and they looked at the Tennessee game
Speaker 1: as well, maybe we can get that one. But now
Speaker 1: Kentucky's going in the wrong direction in Tennessee. Tell me
Speaker 1: about this ball clubs. It's got a great ground game
Speaker 1: and a hell of a defense. Rick, That's gotta be
Speaker 1: a lot of fun.
Speaker 10: You know, it has been fun to watch in the
Speaker 10: first three games, Dick. I mean, this team was scoring
Speaker 10: fifty plus and everybody thinks, you know, good night, this
Speaker 10: is a done deal. But then they've been stuck in
Speaker 10: the mud a little bit here of late. Offensively, now,
Speaker 10: Tennessee has not scored in the first half of their
Speaker 10: last three games. They trailed Arkansas three nothing, they trailed
Speaker 10: Floor to three nothing before coming back to win that one.
Speaker 10: And then Alabama they trailed seven nothing a couple weeks
Speaker 10: ago and then came back and real strong in the
Speaker 10: second half with their ground game and defense, and then
Speaker 10: were able to hang on at the end there to
Speaker 10: beat the Crimson Tide for the second time in three years.
Speaker 10: But my gosh, that's been the talk of the town here.
Speaker 10: Two things, One what does this offense need to do
Speaker 10: to get going? And two just a tremendous defense. First
Speaker 10: of all, offensively, they've got that talented young quarterback, but
Speaker 10: you know what, he's going through some growing paints, and
Speaker 10: the offensive line a lot of times Dick hasn't been
Speaker 10: helping him out, so he's been a little ants feedback there.
Speaker 10: But what's helped him and the offense, especially in the
Speaker 10: second half of games, has been Dylan Sampson and that
Speaker 10: running game. So you got to give the offensive line
Speaker 10: a little credit in that regard. Sampsons has been just phenomenal,
Speaker 10: as you know, one of the best backs in the country.
Speaker 10: Six one hundred yard rushing games this year, seventeen rushing touchdowns,
Speaker 10: the most by an SEC player since Nazie Harris did
Speaker 10: so for Alabama. And then I'll throw one more stat
Speaker 10: at you. He's averaging an SEC best one hundred and
Speaker 10: twenty yards a game. So that certainly dick something Kentucky's
Speaker 10: gonna have to watch out.
Speaker 1: For, my goodness, Yes, especially the way Auburn and Florida
Speaker 1: gashed in with a run game. And I give the
Speaker 1: staff there Hypelin this people credit because they basically, I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody wants a great defense, but in terms of the offense,
Speaker 1: they've adjusted to what they have. It's not the jail break.
Speaker 1: I know it's up tempo, but it's not to chuck
Speaker 1: it down the field jail break that that was killing
Speaker 1: Kentucky the last couple of times. And they've gone to
Speaker 1: the ground and pound, haven't they.
Speaker 10: They really have. You know a lot of people think
Speaker 10: about this up tempo offense and they think pass past past,
Speaker 10: but it's it's been a lot of run. It's been
Speaker 10: a lot of run to set up the pack.
Speaker 8: Ye.
Speaker 10: Unfortunately, Nico you know, hasn't been able to hit on
Speaker 10: some of the these d throws down the field. And
Speaker 10: that's something that they're hoping will come sooner than later.
Speaker 10: But but yeah, and they've got a good backup running
Speaker 10: back and Deshaun Bishop, he's a he's a local kid
Speaker 10: here from Knoxville, played at Carns High School. He's a
Speaker 10: eight mister football, so he redshirted. He didn't play last year.
Speaker 10: But when he comes in to spell Samson, he runs hard,
Speaker 10: he runs downhill. They've got a good stable of running backs.
Speaker 10: But the storyline this year has been that defense man.
Speaker 10: They've been phenomenal, and it goes back to uh to spring.
Speaker 10: They were talking back then in the spring that they
Speaker 10: could very well have one of the best defensive fronts
Speaker 10: in the country, and it's kind of proven that way.
Speaker 10: It's been a welcome thing and a pleasure for Hypel
Speaker 10: to be able to turn the reins over to Ten Banks,
Speaker 10: who's just been terrific as a defensive coordinator. Rodney Garner
Speaker 10: is a fantastic defensive line coach. All the kids, you know,
Speaker 10: they fear him, but they love him. He's one of
Speaker 10: those type of guys. But the thing about that defensive
Speaker 10: front is they're so darned deep he brings. I mean,
Speaker 10: he is constantly replenishing that that front, and they stay
Speaker 10: fresh and by the end of games, Dick, they're where
Speaker 10: they're wearing teams out there on the offensive side.
Speaker 1: Talking to Rick Russo, sports director WVLT down in Knoxville,
Speaker 1: he'll be covering the Cats and the ball Saturday night,
Speaker 1: and we talked about the run game in the d line.
Speaker 1: But as I said on on this show earlier tonight, Uh,
Speaker 1: Kentucky's problems, I believe, and I'm not laying at all
Speaker 1: at their feet, begin with the offensive line, which has
Speaker 1: improved this year, I believe from last year, but still
Speaker 1: has a lot of work to do dealing with injuries
Speaker 1: and what you just described in the Tennessee run game, Rick,
Speaker 1: I got to think they're ecstatic with their old line.
Speaker 10: Oh you mean Tennessee's offensive line. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, they're
Speaker 10: you know, they're doing a good job of giving Nico
Speaker 10: a little time to throw, especially later in games when
Speaker 10: they really needed to have it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 10: But uh, but that's the thing that Typel's looking for
Speaker 10: this squad to start fast this week. It just hasn't
Speaker 10: happened the last few weeks for whatever reason, whether self
Speaker 10: inflicted or you know, Arkansas maybe playing well or whatever.
Speaker 10: But but Tennessee just hasn't played well from the get go.
Speaker 10: And then the other thing to watch out for is
Speaker 10: that Arkansas loss came after a buy an open date.
Speaker 10: So that's been a point of emphasis over the last
Speaker 10: two weeks is to to you know, keep that momentum going,
Speaker 10: especially coming off that Alabama game, because Tennessee came out
Speaker 10: and laid an egg early on against Arkansas and that
Speaker 10: was coming off an open date. But this this defense, man,
Speaker 10: I'll tell you, and I keep going back to it,
Speaker 10: but I mean you've probably seen the numbers, but they
Speaker 10: haven't allowed a team to score twenty points through through
Speaker 10: seven games, and they would be or the fifth team
Speaker 10: to do that, you know, and and the other four
Speaker 10: teams that that did that, and I'm not saying this
Speaker 10: is gonna happened to.
Speaker 9: We got a log log way to go.
Speaker 10: But O three, LSU eleven and twelve them and twenty
Speaker 10: one Georgia all started like Tennessee in this regard, giving
Speaker 10: up under twenty points and they went on to win
Speaker 10: national championship. I don't know that Tennessee is as well
Speaker 10: rounded as those teams I just mentioned, but uh, but
Speaker 10: they've looked great, Dick, They've looked fantastic.
Speaker 1: Tough to expect with such a young quarterback, though, right.
Speaker 10: Pernico, Yeah, yeah, you know, there were a lot of expectations.
Speaker 10: He came out like gangbusters last year in the bowl
Speaker 10: game against Iowa, and everybody was saying, the sky is
Speaker 10: the limit, and uh, you know, when you come out
Speaker 10: and score so what sixty nine points against Utz, you know,
Speaker 10: everybody's thinking, hey, here we go. But it's really been
Speaker 10: a matter of everybody being on the same page. And
Speaker 10: when you get some guys nicked up or what have you,
Speaker 10: and the timings off and things aren't there, then that's
Speaker 10: going to happen, especially for a younger quarterback like that,
Speaker 10: And so far that's that been the case. As he
Speaker 10: looks to try to uh you know, they're waiting. They're
Speaker 10: waiting here for him to really break out in a
Speaker 10: big SEC game, uh you know, like like like with
Speaker 10: the one we're about to have tomorrow night against Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Talking to Rick Russo, WVLT TV sports director will come
Speaker 1: back with more questions for Rick about the Valls. On
Speaker 1: the other side of the break here on the Big
Speaker 1: Bloon Siders six come back, we're talking with Rick Russo.
Speaker 1: He is a longtime sports director WVLT down in Knoxville.
Speaker 1: He'll be there when the Cats and the Balls go
Speaker 1: after each other tomorrow night at Naland Stadium. And we
Speaker 1: keep hearing about these uniforms, Rick, the helmets, oh the
Speaker 1: black at all this. I mean, they can't wait, can they? Oh?
Speaker 10: The dark mode. Man, I'll tell you, but you know it. Uh,
Speaker 10: you know. The first time Tennessee War dark jerseys was
Speaker 10: in nine and Lane Kiffen's lone season when they played
Speaker 10: South Carolina. And I don't know if you remember this, Dick,
Speaker 10: but the Vaults actually came out that game in their
Speaker 10: traditional orange for War up and then went back in
Speaker 10: and then came out with the with the black jersey.
Speaker 10: But they kept the they kept the orange pants on
Speaker 10: and the white helmets. I wasn't crazy about the overall
Speaker 10: look it really They used to play South Carolina every
Speaker 10: year either on Halloween or around that time, so they
Speaker 10: were feeling good about and the fans loved it, you know,
Speaker 10: But it's evolved over the years. They wore it in
Speaker 10: the twenty one game against South Carolina, the twenty two
Speaker 10: game against Kentucky, and the twenty three game against South Carolina.
Speaker 10: Twenty two is when they came out with the dark helmets,
Speaker 10: and the fans really the players too, of course, they
Speaker 10: really love the black helmets. And and here they are,
Speaker 10: they're going dark mode again. And you know, I go
Speaker 10: back to you know who's really taking it to another
Speaker 10: level is the baseball team. And you know how baseball
Speaker 10: players and coaches can be superstitious. Oh yeah, the vault,
Speaker 10: the valls out in Omaha in the not the championship game,
Speaker 10: but the game before that. They were the dark Jerseys.
Speaker 10: They won, and I'll be darned as they didn't come
Speaker 10: out on another one hundred degree day. And we're the
Speaker 10: black Jerseys in the title game, and by gosh, they
Speaker 10: wanted But man, oh man, it's become a thing here,
Speaker 10: no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: I hear every once in a while an old school
Speaker 1: person grumbling that's not our school colors. But I'm like,
Speaker 1: just think of it as a template, you know, your
Speaker 1: school colors against the background, the backdrop, And like you said,
Speaker 1: the fans love it. And two years ago when Tennessee
Speaker 1: turned on the light show during the Kentucky game, and
Speaker 1: UK fans are grumming, why don't we have that when
Speaker 1: in fact the school was already in the process of
Speaker 1: pulling together the money because that's not cheap. But that's
Speaker 1: a thing, now, isn't it that like because you see
Speaker 1: it all over college football?
Speaker 10: No, it is. And when you've got Nike backing in
Speaker 10: they come up with this stuff and provide it for
Speaker 10: some players and staff, you know, why not go for it.
Speaker 10: But you know what, Ultimately it's gonna come down to
Speaker 10: the play on the field, the play in particular in
Speaker 10: the trenches. You mentioned that game a couple years ago.
Speaker 10: Poor Will Levis was under the rest all night. So
Speaker 10: uniforms are not. You've got to block, you've got to
Speaker 10: protect the quarterback, and you got to get it done.
Speaker 10: And but Tennessee had certainly had some talented guys on
Speaker 10: that team, and including one named Jalen Hyatt who who
Speaker 10: did his thing and now he's in the National Football League.
Speaker 10: But yeah, uniform or not, you got to get out
Speaker 10: there and get it done between the lines.
Speaker 1: I was talking earlier about the fact that this Kentucky
Speaker 1: team just doesn't have as much talent as some of
Speaker 1: Stoops's teams. Everyone wants to blame the coaches, and ultimately
Speaker 1: they're responsible for putting the roster together. And I'm looking
Speaker 1: at Tennessee, thinking, man, these guys have done a nice
Speaker 1: job of constructing this roster, haven't they.
Speaker 10: You know, they really have. But one of the things
Speaker 10: they've done nice job of constructing is building that chemistry
Speaker 10: and that that closeness within the program. I mean, we've
Speaker 10: thrown you throw out that that word culture a lot,
Speaker 10: but but I'm a firm believer that if if you
Speaker 10: don't care about the player to your left and to
Speaker 10: your right, you're not going to get it done. And
Speaker 10: Dick I saw that, for instance, with the baseball team,
Speaker 10: you know, back during the spring and summer. I saw
Speaker 10: the closeness that those guys had, and and it's it's
Speaker 10: the same type of thing I'm seeing with football and
Speaker 10: some of the other teams. And it's really refreshing because
Speaker 10: I listen recently here on Rocky Top. We've had some
Speaker 10: lean years in football and several of the other sports.
Speaker 10: But but you see everybody playing off what that baseball
Speaker 10: team did and talking about, Yeah, we want to come together,
Speaker 10: we want to win a national championship and be as
Speaker 10: good as we can possibly be. I think it all
Speaker 10: starts there. And we've seen a lot of that this
Speaker 10: season with the football program.
Speaker 1: Interesting, yeah, because it starts with your coach with baseball.
Speaker 1: Interesting personality there, and he kind of let you and
Speaker 1: your team had an interesting personality and kind of let
Speaker 1: the balls be the balls, didn't he?
Speaker 10: Oh my goodness, he really did.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 10: From time to time he'll try to rain them in,
Speaker 10: but he he tries to give them as much leeway
Speaker 10: as he possibly can, let them have fun, because after all,
Speaker 10: you got to have fun along the way. Otherwise it's
Speaker 10: just not going to work out for you. But he's done.
Speaker 10: He's like that, you know, and they feed off him
Speaker 10: and he's just right in the mix. Man, He's right
Speaker 10: in there every step of the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And some similarities with that team and Kentucky's. You know,
Speaker 1: they just had a really entertaining personality and you know
Speaker 1: some of the superstitions that they embraced in the traditions
Speaker 1: and things like that. And you see it more in
Speaker 1: baseball because you know, just the nature of the sport,
Speaker 1: the nature of the doug, the sideline, different intensity. But
Speaker 1: you know, carrying it over to football now, it seems
Speaker 1: like this Tennessee program in general, Rick is going back
Speaker 1: in the direction that it used to. I mean, they
Speaker 1: hit some real low spots, didn't they. And it looks
Speaker 1: like they finally got the coach thing straightened out and
Speaker 1: they're bringing in again top notch talent they're dealing I
Speaker 1: guess well with the Portal and Nil. Is that the
Speaker 1: way it is?
Speaker 10: Yeah, you know, it really is. I mean we were
Speaker 10: talking earlier today. We're getting ready for a for a
Speaker 10: broadcast that we're doing for previewing the game, and we
Speaker 10: talked to a couple of Portal guys during the week.
Speaker 10: Jackson moy a defensive lineman excuse yeah for defensive lineman
Speaker 10: that that's that's really played well. He's out of California.
Speaker 10: But the biggest newsmaker for Tennessee this year has been
Speaker 10: Jermad McCoy. He's a terrific defensive back. He was in
Speaker 10: Corvallis last year, played for Oregon State, and all he's
Speaker 10: done has come in and become a shutdown corner. And
Speaker 10: then on the other side, you've got Ricky Gibson the
Speaker 10: third and the two of them together have really produced
Speaker 10: what a lot of folks are calling one of the
Speaker 10: one of the best cornerback duos in the Southeastern Conference.
Speaker 10: They they've been huge in helping that defense. You know,
Speaker 10: one of the neat things about this Tennessee defense sometimes
Speaker 10: vick they'll bend, but they won't break, and they really
Speaker 10: come up big when they when it's needed. There there's
Speaker 10: red zone defense is absolutely phenomenal, and they've done a
Speaker 10: terrific job at turning teams away once they get inside
Speaker 10: the twenty yard line.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's been a problem for the Wildcats this year.
Speaker 1: That inside the two yard line has been a problem.
Speaker 10: Well here here, let me throw this one at your opponents.
Speaker 10: Opponent's third down conversion rate against Tennessee's defense downs. Man,
Speaker 10: the walls are getting off the field, which, as you know,
Speaker 10: on offense you want to keep drives going and on
Speaker 10: defense you want to get off the field. And Tennessee
Speaker 10: has done a terrific job of getting off the field
Speaker 10: against Against Alabama, the valls had and this is a
Speaker 10: concern for Kentucky the way they protected the quarterback. But
Speaker 10: Tennessee had three sacks, nine tackles for lost, two interceptions,
Speaker 10: and twelve quarterback hurry against the Crimson Tide. Yeah, so
Speaker 10: they brought it against the Jalen Milroe and company no doubt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I watched that game and I kept saying
Speaker 1: that to myself, because I asked Kentucky DC about that
Speaker 1: one day. I said, quarterback hurries oftentimes are more damaging
Speaker 1: than sacks because it forces a quarterback to do something
Speaker 1: that he doesn't want to do yet throw the ball
Speaker 1: or move out of the pocket or whatever. So that's
Speaker 1: been a problem for the Wildcats too.
Speaker 10: Yeah, exactly, especially when you got a younger quarterback like
Speaker 10: Nikola Maliava. You give him time, he's gonna hurt you,
Speaker 10: He's gonna burn you. But yeah, anybody is susceptible to
Speaker 10: that when you get that kind of pressure, especially from
Speaker 10: a strong, physical, defensive front like Tennessee. Has no doubt
Speaker 10: about it.
Speaker 1: He is Rick Russo. He is the sports director WVLT
Speaker 1: who'll be on the scene when the catch play the
Speaker 1: balls tomorrow night. Thank you, buddy, Looking forward to seeing
Speaker 1: you man.
Speaker 10: Always great to talk with you. God bless and yeah,
Speaker 10: look forward to it.
Speaker 1: Man up next. Tom Leach and Jef Picole breakdown UT
Speaker 1: and UK plus a comment from Mitch Barnhard about college
Speaker 1: athletics and where we are now thanks to the portal
Speaker 1: and Nil, I want to come him on six thirty
Speaker 1: WLAP Welcome back, thanks once again to Rick Russo, And
Speaker 1: you can tell he's an upbeat kind of guy anyway
Speaker 1: and does a great job down there. But you can
Speaker 1: tell by the sound of his voice how much fun
Speaker 1: it's been to cover Tennessee football this year. And we
Speaker 1: know that feeling. Don't we having fun with college football
Speaker 1: up here? Not so much this season, but it has
Speaker 1: happened under Mark Stoops. They're just trying to figure out
Speaker 1: how to get it back. College athletics, as you well know,
Speaker 1: have changed so much through the last three or four
Speaker 1: years because of the portal and in il not just
Speaker 1: the free movement, but just the way teams come together,
Speaker 1: the way they're put together, the way players interact, And
Speaker 1: that sort of came up because I think one of
Speaker 1: the problems I think we've all seen this and Stoops
Speaker 1: has talked about it as well, that this Kentucky team
Speaker 1: is enduring right now is a lack of on field leadership.
Speaker 1: Some of that's because of injuries, but some of that,
Speaker 1: quite frankly, is because some of the leadership positions on
Speaker 1: the field. And I'm not blaming these guys, but you
Speaker 1: know your quarterback one of your middle linebackers, some of
Speaker 1: the other spots where you need leadership from older players.
Speaker 1: It's just not as strong as it might be if
Speaker 1: these kids came up through the program as recruits, work
Speaker 1: their way up as freshmen, things like that. And I
Speaker 1: don't begrudge them their movement, but it does have a
Speaker 1: profound effect now. Sometimes it works for the better and
Speaker 1: sometimes it doesn't. And I was interviewing Mitch Barnard for
Speaker 1: our pregame show tomorrow full disclosure, we interview him if
Speaker 1: not on game day than a day or two prior
Speaker 1: because of travel, and he brought up a great point.
Speaker 1: We talked about on field leadership again, something that Stoops
Speaker 1: has brought up, and Mitch made a great point about
Speaker 1: that sort of thing across the board, not just in football,
Speaker 1: but in all sports throughout college athletics.
Speaker 11: I think it's not just at Kentucky. I think it
Speaker 11: is in college athletics in general. The movement of nil
Speaker 11: and transfers. It's causing rosters to flip more regularly. You're
Speaker 11: getting a lot of new faces in the locker room,
Speaker 11: and it's really really difficult to rally around one or
Speaker 11: two people, especially if they're new into your program, and
Speaker 11: it's hard for that to coll less together A lot
Speaker 11: the days of lots of fifth year, fourth and fifth
Speaker 11: year seniors that you build that culture around is difficult.
Speaker 11: And we've got some, we may not have enough, we
Speaker 11: might not have the right person in the right place,
Speaker 11: right fit. And just not football, but in all sports.
Speaker 11: I think it's difficult. And you're seeing that manifested all
Speaker 11: across the landscape of college athletic and.
Speaker 1: Look, that's one of these things we should have seen coming.
Speaker 1: But I guess maybe if you don't work in that industry,
Speaker 1: you don't think about that kind of thing. Now, it
Speaker 1: doesn't take a genius to figure out what has happened.
Speaker 1: And I talked about it when the nil rule came down,
Speaker 1: when the decision was made to basically open the floodgates
Speaker 1: for money and player movement. And I wasn't the only
Speaker 1: one who said this, but I did say, this is
Speaker 1: the end of college athletics as we know it. And
Speaker 1: I really didn't even think about that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: The interaction of players and leadership was on and off
Speaker 1: the field. I guess if I'd sat down and thought
Speaker 1: about it for a little while, or talk to even
Speaker 1: more people that might have come up. But this all began,
Speaker 1: as you know, without guardrails with regard to how the
Speaker 1: rules were going to be followed or not followed. In
Speaker 1: Kentucky found itself on the outside of some rules and
Speaker 1: had to work hard to rectify things. But in terms
Speaker 1: of how teams are put together, well, for instance, look
Speaker 1: at what Nick Minjiona has done with the baseball program.
Speaker 1: So many transfers, and that's the rule of life in
Speaker 1: baseball ors always player movement, always has been because of
Speaker 1: what had been a lack of scholarship money. Now that's
Speaker 1: been taken care of, but they've reduced the rosters, so
Speaker 1: a lot of kids aren't gonna have a chance to
Speaker 1: play D one baseball that they might have had. But
Speaker 1: Benji One and his staff over the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: and it looks like they've done it again this year,
Speaker 1: we'll find out have done a great job of putting
Speaker 1: a roster together with new faces coming in who aren't
Speaker 1: just talented, but can assimilate with the guys who are
Speaker 1: already here basically get along. You know, everybody worked together,
Speaker 1: play together. All that and I remember Luke Mayley who's
Speaker 1: now with the Reds back up catcher with the Reds
Speaker 1: telling me we were talking about team chemistry, and I said,
Speaker 1: it's got to be more challenging with baseball because of
Speaker 1: all the downtime, you know, even during games and the
Speaker 1: dugout in the bullpen, but travel practice days all that.
Speaker 1: He said, yeah, and because of the losing. I said,
Speaker 1: what he said, you lose more games. He said, you
Speaker 1: lose more games in baseball than you do in other
Speaker 1: sports because you play more games. So how do you
Speaker 1: handle that? How do you deal with it? And he
Speaker 1: was absolutely right. So it's all about chemistry on the roster.
Speaker 1: And Barnard made a great point there. I thought you
Speaker 1: can hear the entire interview tomorrow in our pregame show
Speaker 1: with Christy and Jeremy and Logan here on six point thirty.
Speaker 1: Wlap mentioned earlier that the Wildcat Whip is up on
Speaker 1: social media. Go to my Facebook, go to UK Sports
Speaker 1: Network Twitter page and or x if you will, their account,
Speaker 1: and you can listen to Jeff and Tom break things
Speaker 1: down a deep dive on UK Tennessee. We taped it
Speaker 1: yesterday and I got a little preview for you, a
Speaker 1: little portion of it to what's your appetite, and I
Speaker 1: mentioned to Tom that the availability report does not look
Speaker 1: good for the Wildcats.
Speaker 8: A bunch of outs, including the leading tackler, de Eric Jackson,
Speaker 8: the leading sacker uh JJ Weaver, starting tight end, uh,
Speaker 8: DJ Waller's questionable, which I assumed meet you said starting
Speaker 8: tight end, Yeah, and then DJ Waller's questionable, but I
Speaker 8: would assume that would mean he would likely be out
Speaker 8: there be on Walker was probable. So sorry, more editing.
Speaker 8: So Kentucky is gonna have to to find a way
Speaker 8: to come up with some kind of performance that we
Speaker 8: certainly haven't seen the last couple of weeks, and that
Speaker 8: maybe we saw down there four years ago, where you
Speaker 8: get a couple of pick sixes, maybe you get a
Speaker 8: defensive score of some type, or you get a special
Speaker 8: team score of some type. Because Tennessee hadn't given up
Speaker 8: twenty points to anybody else season, Kentucky struggled to score.
Speaker 8: So nothing about this on paper looks good for Kentucky.
Speaker 3: I think that of all the names you said they're
Speaker 3: the one that really sticks out to me is Deerck
Speaker 3: Jackson because he's he's just so steady, and they really
Speaker 3: haven't groomed a back up, yet they don't have anybody
Speaker 3: that's that's stepped up. I mean, you can throw Alex
Speaker 3: Afari there, but then you'd have to probably move, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just too much. He's two forty five, Alex is
Speaker 3: two fifteen wet.
Speaker 1: Maybe I think it's voice saw last week.
Speaker 3: Yeah. But the thing that's amazing to me about the Tennessee,
Speaker 3: if you want to flip it over, is you know
Speaker 3: when they got Nico at quarterback and they're paying him
Speaker 3: all that money, you're thinking, Okay, they're scoring all these points,
Speaker 3: especially in the first five games anyway, you're thinking they're
Speaker 3: throwing the ball everywhere. They're not. They are running it
Speaker 3: down people's throats. And that's why when you come up
Speaker 3: with the linebacker and alignment and this guy JJ not playing,
Speaker 3: those are huge minuses for Kentucky not having them to
Speaker 3: try to stop this running game of Tennessee.
Speaker 8: Somebody's say on that outside and doan Matthews Tyree s Furby.
Speaker 8: Somebody needs to to grow up as a football player
Speaker 8: in a hurry, and you'll play at a level that
Speaker 8: they have not played at before.
Speaker 1: And that happens. So if you guys had a chance
Speaker 1: to study much video of Tennessee because you assume that
Speaker 1: because they're running the ball, it's not the jail break
Speaker 1: offense chucking it down the field. But you can still
Speaker 1: go up tempo and run the football really tempo.
Speaker 3: They go up tempo, they spread out, Yeah, they spread
Speaker 3: you out, but when by spreading out, they're opening running lanes.
Speaker 3: And when you've got two running backs like they do,
Speaker 3: you got to let them eat man. I mean, Niko's
Speaker 3: only thrown six touchdown passes and he's got four interceptions,
Speaker 3: So that tells you their best running backs go with
Speaker 3: thirteen I think eighteen touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Seventeen seventeen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I knew it's a ton.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I would think it would be a big plus if
Speaker 8: the Corners could play a game like they played at
Speaker 8: Ole Miss, Yes, where they covered well and tackled well,
Speaker 8: Yes they did. And if you could then count on
Speaker 8: them to be able to cover those guys out really
Speaker 8: wide and then be able to you know, have a
Speaker 8: little more help, you know, in against the run. But
Speaker 8: you know, the corners, I don't. I don't think anybody
Speaker 8: really tackled particularly well last.
Speaker 3: Week right now, Yeah, I mean if you look at
Speaker 3: last week's game, what Auburn. Did Tennessee run Now, I'm
Speaker 3: talking about running the football wise, Tennessee is two steps
Speaker 3: beyond them. Tennessee is maybe the best running team of
Speaker 3: the SEC's how good they are. And then and it's
Speaker 3: just and they're huge upfront. I mean they're They're Tennessee.
Speaker 3: They're always big up.
Speaker 8: They do have a young quarterback. So if you could
Speaker 8: have some success against the run and get them in
Speaker 8: those third and long situations once in a while, that's
Speaker 8: where you maybe get a mistake.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what I was getting. If you can make
Speaker 3: them one dimensional, which nobody really has. But you know
Speaker 3: the thing is, once they've upped the competition level, once
Speaker 3: they got into playing the good SEC teams, their points
Speaker 3: were who were they was going fifty a game?
Speaker 8: Now down to thirty eight. There's a stat I was
Speaker 8: putting it in the notes and like in the first
Speaker 8: quarter they've outscored people like eighty seven to nine. You
Speaker 8: know what it is against conference teams ten to nine.
Speaker 1: There it is, Well, you mentioned size. Jeff mark Soups
Speaker 1: mentions in his pregame. He mentions in his postgame talked
Speaker 1: about it not this week, but week prior referencing Florida
Speaker 1: and Auburn size on the front line and the d
Speaker 1: line for Kentucky, which had been playing so well now
Speaker 1: not only banged up but overpowered by size. And these
Speaker 1: are not just fat guys, but pretty good athletes. They're
Speaker 1: running up against me, they are.
Speaker 8: And you look at Kentucky's defensive line where a guy
Speaker 8: like Josiah Hayes was hurt they lead up to the
Speaker 8: season or in the offseason, and there's a guy that's
Speaker 8: like three fifteen or whatever that would rotate in with
Speaker 8: silver at the nose. Instead you got Kendrick Gilbert, who's
Speaker 8: going to be a good player, but as a red
Speaker 8: shirt frashman, that's yeah, that's just you know an example.
Speaker 8: Now you got Ribke and Oxen Dne a little Oxes
Speaker 8: like two seventy five.
Speaker 1: Doesn't look it though, does he now?
Speaker 8: And then you know on the other side you have
Speaker 8: Dion and Saunders behind him as good size. But you
Speaker 8: know that you know that second line there's a drop
Speaker 8: off in terms of just the uh, the wait.
Speaker 1: And again that is the Wildcat Whip. We tape it
Speaker 1: every Thursday at South of Wrigley over on Southland Drive.
Speaker 1: Great place for sandwiches. They're open on Saturday. I recommend
Speaker 1: go over and get one or three and hang on
Speaker 1: to them and then you'll have you'll be ready for
Speaker 1: a game night. But be hungry because I'm telling you
Speaker 1: these sandwiches will fill you up in a hurry. But
Speaker 1: I can't recommend them. Looking around Pro sports, we were
Speaker 1: talking the other day about Devin Booker and the shoes
Speaker 1: that he sent to Mark Pope, and we played a
Speaker 1: clip with Pope talking about Devin Booker in the year
Speaker 1: he spent at Kentucky coming off the bench, averaging ten
Speaker 1: points a game, never had more than nineteen in one game.
Speaker 1: And then look what he's done in the pros and
Speaker 1: in fact, last night, as if on Q he takes
Speaker 1: over for Phoenix, which was down twenty one points to
Speaker 1: the Clippers, and Booker puts up forty and helps lead
Speaker 1: them back to a victory. They were down nineteen in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, twenty one in the third quarter, and
Speaker 1: Phoenix comes back to winning one twenty five to one
Speaker 1: to nineteen. Five players in double figures for Phoenix. But
Speaker 1: that's why when you're watching an NBA game, oftentimes a
Speaker 1: lead that big early just doesn't mean much. Because you
Speaker 1: know the other team's going to go on a run.
Speaker 1: And it's not that they don't play defense. They do,
Speaker 1: but it's like Pope talked last night about being in
Speaker 1: huddles with George Carl and he said, we might have
Speaker 1: been down fifteen, but Carl said, we're good, the energy's good,
Speaker 1: everything's good. We'll be fine. And sure enough, Phoenix was
Speaker 1: last night. And by the way, Booker also eight assists
Speaker 1: and five rebounds. Alo Bancaro had fifty the other night,
Speaker 1: but now he has a torn obleak, so he'll be
Speaker 1: out for a while. Man, you hate that For the
Speaker 1: young guys. Coming up next, Heroes, Fools and Flakes, including
Speaker 1: the voice of NFL Films. He's long gone but not forgotten.
Speaker 1: Stay with us here on the Big Wooon Sider six
Speaker 1: thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider as
Speaker 1: we wrap up this week, and of course again Kentucky,
Speaker 1: Tennessee tomorrow night seven forty five will have it for
Speaker 1: you right here at five point thirty on six thirty WLAP,
Speaker 1: we leave you once again with Heroes, fools and Flakes
Speaker 1: and our hero Tonight believe it or not. And I
Speaker 1: say this because he is in some corners known as
Speaker 1: the worst owner in pro football. David Tepper. He is
Speaker 1: a hedge fun guy, a billionaire, and he owns the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers, who are terrible and they make terrible moves
Speaker 1: in the NFL. He also owns the Charlotte Football Club
Speaker 1: in Major League Soccer. But he did a great thing
Speaker 1: last week. They had what was called a concert for
Speaker 1: the Carolinas as they looked to raise money for people
Speaker 1: who were hurt in the producing hurricanes at Bank of
Speaker 1: America Stadium, which he owns. Tepper gave the stadium to
Speaker 1: whoever organized the event for free, including parking and concessions.
Speaker 1: It didn't cost the people who put the concert on
Speaker 1: a dime, so every bit of the money that they
Speaker 1: could raise went to the victim. Oftentimes, people who are
Speaker 1: in the position of Tepper's in look just to cover
Speaker 1: their expenses, which can be formidable. Just to open the
Speaker 1: doors and turn on the lights is really expensive, not
Speaker 1: to mention security and as I said, concession stands and
Speaker 1: things like that. But Tepper, from what I read, basically
Speaker 1: gave him a blank slate said whatever you need, you
Speaker 1: can have it, and they raised more than twenty five
Speaker 1: million and it's still coming in. So tip of the
Speaker 1: BBI cap to David Tepper or the Panthers. You're still
Speaker 1: a bad football owner, but he did a great thing.
Speaker 1: That means you're probably not a bad guy, but you're
Speaker 1: not good with an NFL team. Our full tonight is
Speaker 1: Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and I was going to jump
Speaker 1: on him because the guys who fought with Mookie Betts
Speaker 1: over a foul ball. Initially, the reports were they would
Speaker 1: be allowed to come back to the game. On the
Speaker 1: following game, they were not. They were banned, but so
Speaker 1: far no word yet on whether they'll ever be allowed
Speaker 1: back in the stadium. Some believe a lifetime ban. I
Speaker 1: would think a one year band would be okay. But
Speaker 1: the fact that you haven't made a move in that
Speaker 1: direction has signaled fans everywhere, and really in any sport,
Speaker 1: but mostly in baseball obviously, that it's okay to put
Speaker 1: your hands on an athlete. It's okay if they come
Speaker 1: near you, you know, in your area, which these idiots said,
Speaker 1: you know where they were sitting, and it's okay to
Speaker 1: grab an athlete. And if you read Rex Chapman's book
Speaker 1: about how fans are getting more and more. They're getting
Speaker 1: bolder and bolder. And I don't know if it's social
Speaker 1: media or what, but athletes do live in fear of
Speaker 1: that of interacting in a bad way with fans at
Speaker 1: the games because they get drunk, they yell stuff, they threaten,
Speaker 1: and there have been many, many incidents throughout pro sports
Speaker 1: through the years, but not so much in American sports.
Speaker 1: But the other night, two fans laid hands on Mookie Betts.
Speaker 1: They missed the next game, which was their beloved Yankees losing.
Speaker 1: But so far that's it for the punishment. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Manfred our flight tonight. This could go in the fools category,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's just bizarre. The John Pasenda didn't
Speaker 1: even make the finals list for the Pro Football Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame. Now, those of you of a certain age,
Speaker 1: you know who that is. If you're younger, you don't
Speaker 1: know him, but you know his voice.
Speaker 8: It was a game.
Speaker 4: A handful of spectators came to see a tug of
Speaker 4: war twenty two nameless men grappling in the mud.
Speaker 8: They call it pro football.
Speaker 1: That is John Pacinda, the original voice of NFL films. Facinda,
Speaker 1: it was from Philadelphia, became a news anchor, very popular
Speaker 1: to CBS affiliate there WCAU, and from nineteen forty eight
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy three he was a news anchor. He
Speaker 1: was one of those guys with the gravitas, the voice,
Speaker 1: the reputation. People trusted. He was like the local Walter Cronkite.
Speaker 1: He was also a sports fan, and as the story goes,
Speaker 1: one night in nineteen sixty five, he went to a
Speaker 1: tavern in Philly which was showing footage produced by NFL Films.
Speaker 1: You know, the slow motion game sequences that people already loved.
Speaker 1: But back then, prior to Facinda, they would just use
Speaker 1: the play by play voices from the respective NFL teams,
Speaker 1: which was fine, but it wasn't nearly as dramatic as
Speaker 1: what we came to expect. And here's how it happened.
Speaker 1: Vacinda said. He told his story. He said, I would
Speaker 1: start to rhapsodize about how beautiful the slow mo film was,
Speaker 1: and a guy named Ed Sable, he's the man who
Speaker 1: founded NFL Films, happened to be sitting at the bar
Speaker 1: and he heard Facinda with that great voice, and he
Speaker 1: walks up and he says, if I give you a script,
Speaker 1: could you repeat what you just did for Senda said
Speaker 1: I'll try, and it absolutely was a perfect match.
Speaker 4: It starts with a whistle and ends with a gun.
Speaker 4: Sixty minutes of close inaction from kickoff to touchdown. This
Speaker 4: is pro football, the sport of all time. The men
Speaker 4: who play it of a best bearer.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine? That's how the Voice of God as
Speaker 1: he became known, got the gig with NFL films by
Speaker 1: a happy accident. And again, if you've never heard the name,
Speaker 1: and you weren't around when when he was narrating everything,
Speaker 1: it became Harry Callus after Facinda died, I don't know
Speaker 1: who does it now. You've probably at some point heard,
Speaker 1: if you're a football fan, or uttered the phrase the
Speaker 1: frozen tundra of lambeau Field. That was John Facinda. That
Speaker 1: was one of the lines in an early film that
Speaker 1: Ed Sable wrote. Ed Sable got the rights to NFL
Speaker 1: films for next to nothing from the National Football League,
Speaker 1: and he and then his son who grew up working
Speaker 1: for him with these little cameras, turned it into a
Speaker 1: huge industry, billion dollar industry that they sold to the
Speaker 1: NFL but maintained some sort of rights. Now that is
Speaker 1: you know, Google NFL Films if you want to know
Speaker 1: more about that incredible operation they have now and how
Speaker 1: it works. And both Ed and Steve Sable have since passed,
Speaker 1: but go back and find a again. Use your Google
Speaker 1: machine and find John Facenda F A C E N
Speaker 1: D A and you'll see what I mean. And the
Speaker 1: fact that he is not already in the Pro Football
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. It's just bizarre. That's going to do it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to my guests, Rick Russo, Tom Leach, see you
Speaker 1: on the radio tomorrow night. That's it. Good night from
Speaker 1: the garage in Lexington.
Speaker 8: That brug really tied the room together, did it not?
Speaker 12: Hey said.
Speaker 3: The very
Speaker 9: Lan