Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick abro with
Speaker 1: you on a Friday as we wrap up the week,
Speaker 1: and a lot to talk about tonight. A lot of
Speaker 1: football stuff, a lot of recruiting the portal. The second
Speaker 1: hour of the show is going to be really football heavy.
Speaker 1: If you like Kentucky football, I know you're mad about
Speaker 1: it right now, are concerned about it. But if you
Speaker 1: like talking and hearing about Kentucky football, top of the hour,
Speaker 1: Van Hiles will join us. We have him on all year.
Speaker 1: Tom Leech has him one, he makes the rounds and
Speaker 1: Van a former Wildcat but lives in Louisiana but stays
Speaker 1: plugged in with video. He studies that video, breaks it down, podcasts,
Speaker 1: you name it, He's on it, and we'll talk with him,
Speaker 1: kind of do a seasonal wrap up with Van. We
Speaker 1: haven't had a chance to chat with him for a
Speaker 1: while because of all these basketball broadcasts, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: hook up with him a little bit later. Also, John Halo,
Speaker 1: the HEROLD Leader on this the day after the announcement
Speaker 1: by Barrion Brown that he's leaving, and of course two
Speaker 1: days after recruiting days. So John Halo, the HEROLD Leader
Speaker 1: will join us as well. Obviously there's basketball to talk
Speaker 1: about with Kentucky playing Gonzaga tomorrow night. You'll hear that
Speaker 1: game right here on six point thirty WLAP ten pm
Speaker 1: tip off in Seattle with Tom and Jack. Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: the unforgettable guard, will join us. We were not able
Speaker 1: to talk to him Wednesday because of the Coaches Show schedule,
Speaker 1: but we move Sean to Friday and we'll find out
Speaker 1: what he has to say about both the Clemson game
Speaker 1: and the upcoming Gonzaga game. And remember, going into the
Speaker 1: Duke game, Sewn predicted a win over the Blue Devil,
Speaker 1: So we'll see what he has to say about Gonzaga,
Speaker 1: but we'll also have him break down the loss to Clemson.
Speaker 1: And also, of course, this is Volleyball Night, by the
Speaker 1: miracle of digital recordings. I am actually at Memorial Coliseum
Speaker 1: right now and you can watch the game on ESPN Plus.
Speaker 1: Coming up in a few minutes, we'll hear from Craig
Speaker 1: Skinner and a couple of the Wildcats. Knocked off Cleveland State,
Speaker 1: as we said, they take on Minnesota. So it's the
Speaker 1: SEC and the Big ten tonight at the Coliseum and
Speaker 1: it's going to be good. SEC got nine bids this year.
Speaker 1: That's the most ever, but keep in mind Texas and
Speaker 1: Oklahoma joined the league, so that's really not a surprise,
Speaker 1: but the fact that a lot of other schools got in.
Speaker 1: There have been years where the SEC only got three
Speaker 1: or four bids to the nca Volleyball Tournament. Somebody tweeted
Speaker 1: at me earlier this week about the fact that the
Speaker 1: SEC champion, which is Kentucky of course, for the eighth
Speaker 1: year in a row at least outright or a share,
Speaker 1: only got a three seed. But that's a reminder that
Speaker 1: the SEC, as good as it is and so many things,
Speaker 1: is not the best conference with all due respect in volleyball. Now,
Speaker 1: Kentucky is clearly one of the best teams in the country,
Speaker 1: but top to bottom this league had been lopsided for
Speaker 1: so long. Florida dominated twenty consecutive SEC championships for the
Speaker 1: Florida Gators, coached by Mary Wives, who used to coach
Speaker 1: at Kentucky. Her husband Mark used to be the basketball
Speaker 1: coach at Lindsay Wilson. She goes to Florida and builds
Speaker 1: an absolute monster down there. Well, Kentucky finally broke through
Speaker 1: and won an SEC title, and while the Wildcats were
Speaker 1: getting better, so was Tennessee and other schools have flirted
Speaker 1: with being good. When Missouri joined the SEC several years ago,
Speaker 1: Missou went undefeated in volleyball that year. No got knocked
Speaker 1: out in the first round of the tournament, if memory serves,
Speaker 1: But it's been pretty much Florida until Kentucky jumped in there.
Speaker 1: And then it's like a lot of sports chancellors, presidents
Speaker 1: ads looked around and thought, you know, we stink at
Speaker 1: this sport or that, why aren't we better? And so
Speaker 1: they have made moves. There have been, you know, better
Speaker 1: facilities now and more coaching. It's like anything. If you
Speaker 1: throw money in the right areas, you make good hires,
Speaker 1: recruit well, you're gonna get better. And the SEC was
Speaker 1: really competitive this year. One of Kentucky's two conference losses,
Speaker 1: one was Texas okay, the other one was Auburn, and
Speaker 1: with all due respect, Arburn just wasn't very good this year.
Speaker 1: But on that night jumped up and beat the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: So they're sitting home right now saying, hey, that we
Speaker 1: beat a team that won the SEC and is now
Speaker 1: in the second round of the nca tournament. Our buddy
Speaker 1: Hunter Shelton, who covers so well he does the best
Speaker 1: job covering UK volleyball, has been on the show several times.
Speaker 1: Used to hear him on Cameron Mills's show. He told
Speaker 1: me last night at the tournament matches, he said, some
Speaker 1: of the loose talk going around in the volleyball world
Speaker 1: is that the upset on the horizon early in the
Speaker 1: tournament was Kentucky losing to Minnesota. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: people looked at them at the matchups or whatever, but
Speaker 1: he said that was something that's been predicted prior to
Speaker 1: the tournament. Now, there was an upset last night Loyola
Speaker 1: of Chicago. The Ramblers upset Brigham Young. So maybe that
Speaker 1: was the vibe they were getting was about Loyola. I
Speaker 1: don't know if Sister Jean was at that match or not.
Speaker 1: So anyhow, we'll hear more from the volleyball Cats coming
Speaker 1: up here in just a couple minutes. There is more
Speaker 1: news and just you know, check the portal every hour.
Speaker 1: But another now former Wildcat entering the portal. It's an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, but you might not even know his name
Speaker 1: because he didn't play much. Ben Christman as a grad
Speaker 1: transfer now. He started his career at Ohio State and
Speaker 1: had a knee injury in the spring fall camp. Missed
Speaker 1: his entire debut last year, a debut season with the Wildcats.
Speaker 1: This year, he played, according to Aaron Gershaan of The
Speaker 1: Cast Boss, twenty three snaps at right guard two against Vandy,
Speaker 1: twenty one against Murray State. So this is a guy
Speaker 1: who just couldn't get it done at Ohio State, suffered
Speaker 1: from injuries.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: He was a four star guy coming out of high school,
Speaker 1: but things have just not come together for him for
Speaker 1: one reason or another. So now he's in the transfer
Speaker 1: portal and we wish him the best. Never met the guy,
Speaker 1: don't remember seeing him out on the field, but he's
Speaker 1: an old lineman. He's an interior a lineman, and I
Speaker 1: do remember hearing his name called by Tom and by Jeff.
Speaker 1: But somebody just today asked me what about all these transfers.
Speaker 1: I said, well, you know, it's happening everywhere in every sport,
Speaker 1: you know. I'll go back to the day after Mississippi State.
Speaker 1: Mississippi State won the National Baseball Championship. Eleven kids entered
Speaker 1: the portal the following day. But that's just where we
Speaker 1: are now in college athletics, and obviously they were planning
Speaker 1: it the whole time, but just forget about it. As
Speaker 1: I said earlier, I'm gonna talk to Van House about
Speaker 1: this evaluate recruit sign develop. That'll still happen, but it'll
Speaker 1: only happen here and there, and it may almost be
Speaker 1: like a happy accident. Here's a kid who's stuck around,
Speaker 1: and look at him now in lieu of going to
Speaker 1: the portal. You know, we're gonna talk to Sean Woods later,
Speaker 1: and we talked to him earlier this year about transfers.
Speaker 1: If you followed Kentucky basketball long enough, you know that
Speaker 1: back in the eighties, when the NCAA hit, Kentucky kids
Speaker 1: were allowed to leave and play right away the next year,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them did. Aron Ellis left, Chris
Speaker 1: Mills left. Sean wanted to leave, and his mom said, Nope,
Speaker 1: you're gonna stay right there and you're gonna stick it
Speaker 1: out because you said you would. And he did and
Speaker 1: it worked out. You know, didn't quite get to the
Speaker 1: final four. Sean did his very best hit the shot
Speaker 1: just ahead of that other shot and a kid from Duke,
Speaker 1: but you know he doesn't regret it. Now obviously, but
Speaker 1: that is and you know, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: you can hardly expect, especially a kill like Chrisman who
Speaker 1: he's just had bad luck, you know, with the injuries.
Speaker 1: But you've just got to find the place that suits you.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there are thousands of former college athletes saying, man,
Speaker 1: I wish the portal had been around when I was playing,
Speaker 1: because some kids just never got the chance or committed
Speaker 1: and signed to the wrong place, stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: it's crazy right now. It's people say that the nil situation.
Speaker 1: They call that the wild West. I really believe you
Speaker 1: could say the exact same thing about the portal right now. So,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, and as we record this, you've got
Speaker 1: the kid, the offensive lineman in the portal. But between
Speaker 1: the time you hear this and the time I recorded,
Speaker 1: you may have another three or four. Who knows. But
Speaker 1: as Mark Stoops also said, he needed some kids to
Speaker 1: enter the portal, kids he knew were not going to play,
Speaker 1: and he had conversations already with a lot of kids.
Speaker 1: So it's just the way business is done these days,
Speaker 1: the business of college athletics. While we're talking business, South
Speaker 1: Carolina has a new athletics director Jeremiah the NADI and
Speaker 1: of course in football, South Carolina Kentucky basically on the
Speaker 1: same pier, and right now the game Cocks have moved
Speaker 1: ahead of the Wildcats. For the longest time. Under Mark Stoops,
Speaker 1: it was Kentucky moving up. But then he comes from
Speaker 1: Texas Christian. He'd been there since July twenty seven, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: and if you take a good look, DCU has been
Speaker 1: getting it done under this guy. Do you want to
Speaker 1: give the ad credit for the big picture? People like
Speaker 1: to blame the ad for the big picture. So got
Speaker 1: to give him credit. Led their program to what they
Speaker 1: called new heights, got them you know, the TCU gets
Speaker 1: to the football playoffs, remem they got to the championship game,
Speaker 1: got blown out. But on his watch they won twelve
Speaker 1: Big or eleven Big Twelve Conference championship. First Texas team
Speaker 1: to appear in the college football playoffs. Basketball men's basketball
Speaker 1: program appeared in the last three NCAA tournaments. Baseball team
Speaker 1: won back to back Big twelve titles and appeared in
Speaker 1: the College World Series last year. So now he moves
Speaker 1: from Fort Worth to Columbia, South Carolina, and I have
Speaker 1: always thought South Carolina sleeping giant when it comes to athletics,
Speaker 1: because you got Clemson in that state and that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're the kingpin, or should be in terms
Speaker 1: of attention and money in that state. So keep an
Speaker 1: eye on South Carolina. If you aren't all ready before
Speaker 1: we hit the break, you know this by now. But
Speaker 1: the UK women lost their first game last night, falling
Speaker 1: at North Carolina seventy two fifty three. Carolina jumped out early,
Speaker 1: Kentucky fought back. Carolina kept moving away. Kentucky kept fighting back,
Speaker 1: but just didn't get enough inside. Did not hit three pointers.
Speaker 1: This is not a really good three point shooting team.
Speaker 1: They're seven of twenty four. As a team, they hit
Speaker 1: twenty eight percent so far on the air. Clara Strack
Speaker 1: did not have a great game. Fouled out. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: she didn't fall out. She only had three fouls, but
Speaker 1: played only twenty five minutes, two for ten from the floor,
Speaker 1: only got to the free throw line for a couple
Speaker 1: of shots, oh for two. And if she's not playing well,
Speaker 1: obviously there's not a whole lot Georgia Aymore can do.
Speaker 1: She played all forty minutes, only got ten points, eight
Speaker 1: assist tho in just one turnover, but oh for five
Speaker 1: from beyond the arc. Now, Dajah Lawrence, she's really coming on.
Speaker 1: Played thirty seven and a half minutes, led the Wildcats
Speaker 1: with seventeen points, three of six from behind the arc.
Speaker 1: Ameilia Hassid four of eight from beyond the arc. She
Speaker 1: had thirteen points, but just too much North Carolina and
Speaker 1: the Wildcats fall for the first time in women's basketball.
Speaker 1: It's been that kind of week. So when we come back,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about a Kentucky team that is looking to
Speaker 1: move on in the NCAA tournament. That's those volleyball Wildcats.
Speaker 1: Own One other football note for you, the NFL Players
Speaker 1: of the Month. I hate to rub this into my
Speaker 1: buddy Aaron Gershawan, but Saquon Barkley, and I'm sure he
Speaker 1: would just shrug it off like yep. Of course, he
Speaker 1: had been a New York football giant. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to resign him. He is the player of the month,
Speaker 1: and he I think is the MVP leader right now
Speaker 1: for the Philadelphia Eagles. So he's the NFC Player of
Speaker 1: the month. The AFC Player of the Month, Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: of the Bengals. He is setting records, sort of unofficial
Speaker 1: records for incredible stats for a losing team. He averaged
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty five passing yards per game last month,
Speaker 1: threw for more than a thousand yards, twelve touchdowns, one pick.
Speaker 1: QB rating was one oh seven point seven. It's staggering
Speaker 1: and his team is just bad. They just can't seem
Speaker 1: to win a game. So anyhow, if you're a Bengals fan,
Speaker 1: I feel you. My guys lost last night the Packers
Speaker 1: to the Lions. We could not get our defensive pressure
Speaker 1: to Jared Goff and he cut us up. So all right,
Speaker 1: when we come back Kentucky Volleyball. Bottom of the hour,
Speaker 1: Sean Woods Hour number two, Van Hiles and John Hale,
Speaker 1: You're on six thirty WLA. Welcome back to the Big
Speaker 1: Blue Insider. Coming up in just a few minutes, Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: the Unforgettable Guard. We'll talk about what happened down at
Speaker 1: Clemson and he'll look ahead to Kentucky and Gonzaga, a
Speaker 1: game you will hear right here late tomorrow night, ten
Speaker 1: o'clock start on six thirty WLAP tonight in just a
Speaker 1: few minutes, and again it's on ESPN plus it's on
Speaker 1: our sister station as well, ninety eight point five FM.
Speaker 1: Kentucky Volleyball. The Wildcats are in the second round now
Speaker 1: of the NCAA tournament, looking to get back that final four.
Speaker 1: Of course, in the COVID year, they got to the
Speaker 1: final four and for the first time ever and won
Speaker 1: the national championship. Only one other SEC team we were
Speaker 1: talking about strength of the league. Florida is the only
Speaker 1: other SEC team as an SEC team that made it
Speaker 1: to the final four, because Texas is back to back
Speaker 1: defending champs. But now Texas is in the SEC. But
Speaker 1: as far as traditional SEC teams go, only Texas made
Speaker 1: it once and lost out in the semifinal rounds. So
Speaker 1: Kentucky is trying to get back for the second time
Speaker 1: in five years. So after the match last night, we
Speaker 1: heard from Brooklyn Delay and Aaron Lamb and Brooklyn talked
Speaker 1: about the fact that the Wildcats got off to a
Speaker 1: good start just how important that was.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we just knew we had to jump
Speaker 3: from the start. You can't really start a game off
Speaker 3: coming in pretty soft. I mean, we knew they were
Speaker 3: going to come out swinging, and that's kind of what
Speaker 3: they did. But I think we did a really good
Speaker 3: job of stopping that and just playing our game and
Speaker 3: not letting the tournament really affect our own individuals.
Speaker 1: Wildcats swept Cleveland State. Brooklyn Delay fifteen kills. She hit
Speaker 1: three ninety one. Last year, they just had absolutely no
Speaker 1: answers for her. She did get help on the other side,
Speaker 1: of course, Aaron Lamb had ten and she is a
Speaker 1: Minnesota native looking forward playing tonight, but she also talked
Speaker 1: about how great it is on one side of the
Speaker 1: net to have Brooklyn Delay on the other side, tying
Speaker 1: up the other team's defense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no kidding, it's a great help. So I appreciate
Speaker 4: I appreciate your time. But yeah, Brooklyn's awesome. I mean,
Speaker 4: she's the hardest worker out her craft, and it's no
Speaker 4: surprise that people have to pay so much attention to
Speaker 4: her because she just puts so much time, energy, effort
Speaker 4: into the game. So yeah, definitely helps, but she deserves it.
Speaker 1: I need to correct myself. Brooklyn Delay actually hit a
Speaker 1: lot better than three ninety one. That was the team
Speaker 1: hit percentage, which is just insane. But Brooklyn Delay with
Speaker 1: those fifteen kills two errors in twenty seven swings hit
Speaker 1: four eighty one and as I always say, think of
Speaker 1: it as batting average, especially for someone who's got a
Speaker 1: lot of swings. That's just incredible. But she got huge
Speaker 1: help again from Aaron Lamb the ten kills she had
Speaker 1: four forty four and Jordan Daily the youngsters seven kills,
Speaker 1: zero errors, thirteen swings she had five thirty eight. Nothing
Speaker 1: Cleveland State could do about that. Cleveland State hit just
Speaker 1: one fourteen. So now less than a day's rest, they
Speaker 1: got to turn around and play each other. Minnesota in
Speaker 1: Kentucky and Craig Skinner talked about that quick turnaround. We've
Speaker 1: done a good job all season long.
Speaker 5: I'm preparing for the next day and you know today's
Speaker 5: super important, but also preparing by what we do physically
Speaker 5: in the gym and how we make sure we're you know,
Speaker 5: gauging our effort and loads to.
Speaker 1: Prepare us to play you know, back to back day.
Speaker 5: It's you know, it's not easy for both Minnesota and US,
Speaker 5: but you know, certainly these guys have been looking forward
Speaker 5: this moment for all season long.
Speaker 1: Obviously, this is what they've been waiting for the NCAA Tournament,
Speaker 1: so you know, adrenaline. We'll play a large part tonight
Speaker 1: for both the Wildcats and the Gophers, and you can
Speaker 1: watch it on ESPN plus. Sean Woods is next on
Speaker 1: six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider
Speaker 1: joining us now, I say every week, but Sean Woods,
Speaker 1: we have been preempted by so much Basketball League. They
Speaker 1: haven't talked to you a little while. Are you enjoying
Speaker 1: the season so far?
Speaker 6: It's becoming interesting, man, it's becoming interesting. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of parody.
Speaker 1: What any particular game or situation make you say that?
Speaker 6: Well, I love this parody now, you know, and the
Speaker 6: transferport has made it that way. You know, I mean
Speaker 6: you've got unranked teams that are beating ranked teams. I mean,
Speaker 6: you know who Kentucky was on a row and when
Speaker 6: the high teams in America they go into Clemson, who's
Speaker 6: un ranked, and get beat. You know, Kansas gets beat.
Speaker 6: You know, there's not a dominating team except for probably Alabama,
Speaker 6: and you know once they get to the SEC, even
Speaker 6: Auburn gets beat. So yeah, you know, it's it's gonna
Speaker 6: be a very exciting season. I don't think there's one
Speaker 6: dominated team. And you see Connecticut, you know, getting humbled
Speaker 6: a little bit, getting a little you know, humble pie.
Speaker 6: So you know, any given night, you know, anybody can
Speaker 6: get beat and that's the beauty of college basketball.
Speaker 1: This year. Well, let's talk about that Clemson game because
Speaker 1: it was a classic to me kind of throwback situation
Speaker 1: to the Patino era, which and you were a part
Speaker 1: of that simply because of course Mark Pope and then uh,
Speaker 1: you know the excitement around this program. But going into Clemson,
Speaker 1: that arena, that atmosphere, they had a couple of ex
Speaker 1: extra hours to get jacked up for it. And you
Speaker 1: guys face that even with your you know, the team
Speaker 1: that win fourteen and fourteen, every night when Kentucky comes
Speaker 1: to town, as you well know, you know, the circus
Speaker 1: is here, and fans who might not show up for
Speaker 1: a game all year long, that's their one chance to
Speaker 1: turn out and scream at the big boys. I gotta
Speaker 1: think that reminded you a little bit of that, did
Speaker 1: it not?
Speaker 6: Yeah? It does?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 6: By Clinton, they you know, you know, I know her
Speaker 6: coach very well. He's a humble guy and a really
Speaker 6: really good coach, and you know, I think he feels
Speaker 6: kind of slighted a little bit as far as the
Speaker 6: rankings are concerned, because you know, they go to the
Speaker 6: final eight last year and they're not even ranked this year. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, then you get number four Kentucky coming in,
Speaker 6: which is probably the highest ranked team they played this
Speaker 6: year until they get to the conference and it was
Speaker 6: their one shot to prove to the world that they
Speaker 6: belonged and they did that.
Speaker 1: What did that game tell you about Kentucky? Uh, that.
Speaker 6: They can't play without Butler. He's a major piece.
Speaker 1: And at that point guard gotta have it.
Speaker 6: And they got to get some positive minutes when they
Speaker 6: play athletic, big athletic teams like that from Kerk they're
Speaker 6: back up. You know, he has to show up. They
Speaker 6: got to establish some death, especially at the guard SPOTY mean,
Speaker 6: Ola didn't play great, Jackson didn't play great. And I
Speaker 6: think Jackson's got to play great in these type of games.
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, you know, he's supposed to be our
Speaker 6: best player. I think he's got to, you know, really
Speaker 6: get confidence in these games and ain't get going for
Speaker 6: them to get over the hump in some of these games,
Speaker 6: we need his shooting and we need that that's fifteen
Speaker 6: to eighteen point night from him and especially in games
Speaker 6: like this.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you stayed up late enough for
Speaker 1: early in the morning to hear Mark Pope's postgame comments
Speaker 1: with Tom Leach, but he made it sound as though
Speaker 1: they kind of abandoned the principles of both offense and
Speaker 1: defense that they need to play in this particular style
Speaker 1: or system in order to be successful, you know, missing
Speaker 1: some of the cuts they make and things like that.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that, I assume you did during the game.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you noticed that. But you gotta get you gotta
Speaker 6: get credit to Clemson. You know, Clinton switch and stuff.
Speaker 6: They scattered them. I mean, first of all, you got
Speaker 6: to understand the other team scouts us keep sure, okay,
Speaker 6: and with Mark Pope, it's a system. And this is
Speaker 6: just me talking now. You know, with the system, you
Speaker 6: know what they're going to do. You know, you know
Speaker 6: when the ball goes here and it's on the side,
Speaker 6: these are the actions. And what Clemson did was Clemson
Speaker 6: just cut them off. They switched, they bumped them, they
Speaker 6: didn't give any they didn't lose their man, and they
Speaker 6: get caught in a switch where both of them stayed
Speaker 6: with the same guy and they got a back door lay,
Speaker 6: which gets some Kentucky going a little bit. They were solid,
Speaker 6: they were disciplined in their switches, they were physical with Kentucky,
Speaker 6: and that was the tailtale for me. Yeah, they really
Speaker 6: just beat Kentucky up on the board. And you know,
Speaker 6: when you clashing like that two major teams that are
Speaker 6: talented and systems are nice, it comes to the untraditional points.
Speaker 6: And I think that Clemson beat Kentucky on the untraditional points.
Speaker 6: The offensive rebounds, the second chance points, the extra possessions,
Speaker 6: didn't allow Kentucky's defense to speed them up to where
Speaker 6: they can get out and run and transition. Clempson just
Speaker 6: stuck to their guns and stuck to their game plan
Speaker 6: and that was the outcome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the kid who got the twenty rebounds, I
Speaker 1: honestly didn't know much about him. We do now. You
Speaker 1: gotta wonder is he gonna have a season like that
Speaker 1: or was that his one moment in the sun. But
Speaker 1: you know, he certainly made it happen.
Speaker 6: Well, he's always been a banger, but what he did
Speaker 6: was and I'm sure the gallery port was we got
Speaker 6: to out hustle them. We can't let them out hustle
Speaker 6: us because Kentucky's been out hustling other teams, especially on
Speaker 6: the offensive glass, and they've been getting a lot of
Speaker 6: second chance points. They leaves to threes. Clemson then allowed
Speaker 6: him to do that. They beat them at their own game.
Speaker 6: So you know, Kentucky's got to go back to the
Speaker 6: drawing board a little bit, which they will. But you
Speaker 6: gotta understand too, get give Clemtson credit. They're at home
Speaker 6: their hight. You know, this is these guys first shrew
Speaker 6: road games, going to against a Power five foe on
Speaker 6: the road, you know, and to be honest with you,
Speaker 6: with all the trials and tribulations that they had, they
Speaker 6: still was in the game. They still have a chance
Speaker 6: to win. With Butler, you know, coming in and out
Speaker 6: all way, not having a great game, Jackson not having
Speaker 6: a great game. But you know they're right there. And
Speaker 6: Mark Pope, remember he said that we may lose some games,
Speaker 6: but we're gonna be there. You know, you ain't blowing
Speaker 6: us out. You know, you're Dad or the ugly. You
Speaker 6: know our style of play, and these guys are being resilient.
Speaker 6: We're going to be in games. Are we gonna win
Speaker 6: every game? Probably not, but you know we're there. And
Speaker 6: that was a Tailtale took yesterday. You know, it was
Speaker 6: just two good teams. One happened to be home. What
Speaker 6: happens to not one? You know your key player, you know,
Speaker 6: in Butler, he's in and out and for Kentucky to
Speaker 6: still stay there. You know, Clemson never really got out
Speaker 6: to a double digit league where Butler was out and
Speaker 6: things like that. That told me something, that showed me,
Speaker 6: something that showed me characters of the teak And I
Speaker 6: think I'm gonna predict again. I think we're gonna beat
Speaker 6: the Zaga.
Speaker 1: I want to get to that in just a minute.
Speaker 1: But one more point about this game. I can't wait,
Speaker 1: because you were right about the do game. But Alway
Speaker 1: leads them in scoring. But I agree with you. He
Speaker 1: was not what they needed him to be. I mean,
Speaker 1: because I think he might think you and I agree
Speaker 1: on this. He might be their best overall player, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and what he was.
Speaker 6: They beat him at his own game, you know what
Speaker 6: I mean. They didn't allow him to get second chance points,
Speaker 6: offensive rebounced, he didn't get steals, he didn't get to
Speaker 6: get out in transition where he's really really good, you know,
Speaker 6: and he couldn't take nobody off the bounce. They really
Speaker 6: guarded them off the bounce. You know, the only guy
Speaker 6: that could get to the rim on a regular basis
Speaker 6: off ball screens was Butler. Yeah, So what my thing
Speaker 6: is right now, we got to find a way because
Speaker 6: you know, other teams are going to look at this
Speaker 6: film and be like, hey, you know, switching and you know,
Speaker 6: bumping them off their cuts and making them, you know,
Speaker 6: catch the ball higher than what they want to and
Speaker 6: pressuring them. They finally got pressured by the other team.
Speaker 6: You know, Clemson's guards was making those guys dribble all
Speaker 6: the way out to have courts to start their offense.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 6: So other teams are going to you know, do that
Speaker 6: to them. And now we've got to see how can
Speaker 6: you spawn?
Speaker 1: Well, you talk about you talk about temple of the
Speaker 1: game too. A team averaging ninety three points scored sixty six.
Speaker 6: Hey, you know you could score ninety points against the
Speaker 6: butt nails and all that. You're not gonna be doing
Speaker 6: that against that. You know, Let's teams that just want
Speaker 6: to play that stallot play bad. Let's score a lot
Speaker 6: of points. But you know those days are scoring ninety
Speaker 6: points every night. It ain't gonna happened too much. You know,
Speaker 6: it's just not it's not nothing against Kentucky. It's just
Speaker 6: you should start playing against better teams. And you've played
Speaker 6: against another Final eight team that's well coached as well disciplined,
Speaker 6: a's tough defensively, and one of the top five or
Speaker 6: six teams in the ACC.
Speaker 1: How surprised were you though? The car was not more
Speaker 1: effective because he's played in physical games. He came from
Speaker 1: the ACC.
Speaker 6: Like I said before, you know, you're not playing against
Speaker 6: the same guy. You know, Duke was very young. You know,
Speaker 6: Duke's not good defensively. Look at them now, they're still
Speaker 6: not good defensively, you know. You know the tail tales now,
Speaker 6: you know, and everybody. What everybody's been talking about early was,
Speaker 6: you know, his system's good. The system's good, but we
Speaker 6: got to come up with extra points. We got to
Speaker 6: overachieve because we don't have that one guy that can
Speaker 6: put put you on you know, put the ball in
Speaker 6: his hands and then he can go get buckets for you.
Speaker 6: And we got to start finding mismatches. Uh. And it
Speaker 6: was just none. I mean in that game where you
Speaker 6: could just say, Okay, we're gonna go at this guy.
Speaker 6: He's the weakest link on their offense and we're gonna
Speaker 6: i mean on that defense, and we're gonna go get
Speaker 6: to this guy because this is where we're getting bought,
Speaker 6: you know, getting opportunity to score. Clinton didn't present that,
Speaker 6: so you know, the offense wasn't there Clinton. You mean,
Speaker 6: we just really got to tip our hats off to
Speaker 6: Clinton and the way they prepared. You know, they were
Speaker 6: well coached and they were prepared for that system, and
Speaker 6: they took Kentucky out of everything that they wanted to
Speaker 6: do for the most part. And then two, you know,
Speaker 6: it's sometimes the other team really puts so much pressure
Speaker 6: on you from an offensive standpoint that it makes your
Speaker 6: your very aggressive point guard who likes to get into people,
Speaker 6: reach and bump a little bit. You know, he couldn't
Speaker 6: do that against those guys. And then you know, for
Speaker 6: the most part, you know, kept him on the bench
Speaker 6: because of files.
Speaker 1: Yeah, any injury. Sean Woods has already predicted a win
Speaker 1: over agains Zaga. We'll come back and find out why
Speaker 1: after the break. Here on six thirty Wlap Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Big Blueing Sider. Sean Woods is my guest,
Speaker 1: the unforgettable guard We talked to them each and every week,
Speaker 1: and his jersey hangs in the rafters are up. Sean
Speaker 1: predicted before the game, now predicted the win over Duke.
Speaker 1: He has already said Kentucky would be Gonzaga. You talk
Speaker 1: about a road trip, my man, Seattle, and this is
Speaker 1: a team that has only lost one game, lost to
Speaker 1: West Virginia and other owns went over then Ah Rank
Speaker 1: Baylor owns. There was one other in Indiana they beat
Speaker 1: and they're coming off a huge win over Davidson minus
Speaker 1: Steph Kirky of course, but still looks like in Zaga
Speaker 1: has got to going. Why do you say a Kentuck
Speaker 1: you win, well.
Speaker 6: Only if Butler's healthy. If healthy, I think we can
Speaker 6: win because I think Butler can handle new Bill a
Speaker 6: little bit. Whatever the point guard's name is. I think
Speaker 6: he can physically handle him and control him on the
Speaker 6: defensive end, and I think will have a problem guarding
Speaker 6: him coming downhill off of ball screens. What scares me
Speaker 6: is not only new Bill the point guard, but Zaga
Speaker 6: is big and physical too, and they're very disciplined in
Speaker 6: their hollow actions and they're cutting series that it can't
Speaker 6: cause Kentucky problems. But I just think coming off a
Speaker 6: loss a good loss. What I mean by good loss
Speaker 6: is now, it wasn't about effort. That lost Extension wasn't
Speaker 6: about effort. It was about uh umy breakdowns, breakdowns and
Speaker 6: and and not really executing. It's really more about execution.
Speaker 6: I think they will execute more and and be much
Speaker 6: better as far as execution is concerned. Against Gonzaga, I
Speaker 6: think you'll see a much better effort. I don't think
Speaker 6: Gonzaga is tenacious defensively to where Jackson Robinson can get
Speaker 6: off a little bit. But we need we need something
Speaker 6: from the kid from Dayton. Now. I mean he's making shots,
Speaker 6: but defensively, I think Mark's just keeping him on the bench.
Speaker 6: He just feels like he can't play him, you know,
Speaker 6: because he's such a you know, he's becoming a defensive liability.
Speaker 6: But we need those points, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: When he's in there and he can get off, you know,
Speaker 6: he's making If he gets four shots, he's gonna make
Speaker 6: two or three of them.
Speaker 1: Glad you brought that up, because he he kind of
Speaker 1: skirted that. Mark Pope did a little bit post game.
Speaker 1: Why Brad wasn't in at the end, and that's a
Speaker 1: great point. They needed points and then their best shooter
Speaker 1: was on the bench. But if he's giving up points
Speaker 1: at the other end, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 6: Right, Yeah, but my thing is too and he didn't
Speaker 6: have a tenacious defensive guy anyway. So I mean, you know,
Speaker 6: sometimes you got a substitute offensive defenses. It's not like
Speaker 6: he's getting chilled, and you know they've created the team's
Speaker 6: creating separation whenever he's in the game. You know, I
Speaker 6: think he's that much of a threat from an offensive
Speaker 6: standpoint that he could offset some of his defensive liabilities.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, Mono, mono. So you know
Speaker 6: that's something that Pope's gonna have to, you know, address
Speaker 6: a little bit and decide which, you know, what is
Speaker 6: he gonna substitute. Is he gonna substitute defense a little
Speaker 6: bit so he can continue to get scoring and the
Speaker 6: scoring is not stagnant, or you know, keep him on
Speaker 6: the bench and just say, hey, if you're not gonna
Speaker 6: play defense, I can't play it. I don't I don't know,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying, I'm not lockering. I don't
Speaker 6: know how to going. But figure kid, he's too special
Speaker 6: offensively to you know, not be playing as much as
Speaker 6: he's playing.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Gonzaga's point guard Ryan themhard uh erging ten
Speaker 1: points and nearly eleven assists per game. This is a
Speaker 1: team Sewan that averages ninety points a game only gives
Speaker 1: up sixty six. Again, who have they played? So I'm
Speaker 1: not sure. I mean, do you anticipate a track me?
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a track meet.
Speaker 6: I'm telling you that right now, because you know mak
Speaker 6: Mark Few loves to score and get up and down.
Speaker 6: That's his deal, and it's gonna be a really good task.
Speaker 6: I just think, for some I got this feeling in
Speaker 6: my gut from a character standpoint with this team, nobody's
Speaker 6: you know, put the tail between their legs. I think
Speaker 6: they're gonna come out and they gonna surprise the folks
Speaker 6: on the road and.
Speaker 1: Get this one interesting. Gonzaga has five kids who average
Speaker 1: double figures and one who's at nine and a half
Speaker 1: points a game, So this could be really really entered,
Speaker 1: but they only give up.
Speaker 6: How the basketball has become now, these two teams here,
Speaker 6: they mimic each other as far as styles are comparing
Speaker 6: a little bit. They both want to score a lot
Speaker 6: of points. They both want to put up a lot
Speaker 6: of threes. But the difference between Gonzaga and I'm talking like,
Speaker 6: I don't think that's going to win. But I'm just
Speaker 6: giving you that the attributes of what Gonzaga brings to
Speaker 6: the table. They don't just bring their bigs to the
Speaker 6: high posts. They post their bigs, you know, Yeah, and
Speaker 6: that that's the only That's another thing that scares me
Speaker 6: is can we sustain and stay out of foule trouble
Speaker 6: because Mark is going to go at them down low
Speaker 6: and we'll be able to sustain and play good defense
Speaker 6: without violence.
Speaker 1: Before we let you go, you mentioned you Kon earlier
Speaker 1: and Danny Hurley made some headlines when you Kon went
Speaker 1: to MAUI did not do well the team, and he
Speaker 1: really really went after officials to the point where it
Speaker 1: became kind of a media thing for about seventy two hours.
Speaker 1: You're a fiery coach, but I've been.
Speaker 6: In that situation before where the media was all on
Speaker 6: me for about a week. I know he's in seventy
Speaker 6: two hours.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to talk specifically about officials. What what
Speaker 1: is your philosophy in terms of as a head coach.
Speaker 1: As a professional coach, and again assistant coaches aren't allowed
Speaker 1: referee hate that. But as the head coach, what is
Speaker 1: your philosophy about working officials, working with the capitol w.
Speaker 6: Well, sometimes you can tell before the game starts with
Speaker 6: a handshake how the day is going to be. Okay,
Speaker 6: I've never been one of the top tier teams, so
Speaker 6: you know, when I did play a high major team,
Speaker 6: I already knew was what I was in for. So
Speaker 6: I was gonna give them a piece of my mind
Speaker 6: all game long. Because only when you're playing a big
Speaker 6: game like that, we're playing with their reps that conference
Speaker 6: who we're playing against, we're playing with against their reps.
Speaker 6: So we're already eight points down in about four or
Speaker 6: five files, depending on who the key guy is, you
Speaker 6: know what I mean, starting off the first five minutes.
Speaker 6: So I would stay on them to let them know, Hey,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean. You know, call this game
Speaker 6: just like you called the other when they when Misha
Speaker 6: Sheski was playing the other day and he was in
Speaker 6: you cursing you out and things like that. You look it.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. Now, you want to come
Speaker 6: down here, But I'm not mich Sheste. You're telling me
Speaker 6: you're not gonna take it from me, But I'm I'm
Speaker 6: fighting for my life and my kids life, just like
Speaker 6: Misha Shesti. So you know, everybody's human and everybody has feelings,
Speaker 6: and everybody's super competitive. And I'm just telling you right now,
Speaker 6: I'm not knocking Danny Hurley. I think did he go overboard?
Speaker 6: I don't know, you know what I'm saying. I watched
Speaker 6: the game, but sometimes he feels like there's some type
Speaker 6: of respect that he should get his two term national champion.
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying, give me more respect than
Speaker 6: what you're giving me, you know. And I thought those
Speaker 6: those that one file over the back or whatever those
Speaker 6: are back he complained about good situations. Now did he
Speaker 6: go overboard a little bit? Everybody know how feisty Danny
Speaker 6: Hurley is, so it's not like is that a surprise, no,
Speaker 6: you know. And now he's a two time national champion,
Speaker 6: so now he's in the limelight and everything that he
Speaker 6: does is going to be magnified. And too they're losing,
Speaker 6: so now everybody wants to see how he responds. And
Speaker 6: I think that's the biggest issue more than anything, because
Speaker 6: he was winning those games in Maui and doing the
Speaker 6: same thing. Nobody be talking as much like Bob Knight.
Speaker 6: Bob Knight, Well, Bob Knight was winning winning, there was
Speaker 6: no problem. You know. He's a feisty guy, he's a disciplinarian,
Speaker 6: he's this, he's that. And once he started losing, uh,
Speaker 6: he's a he's a sore loser. And Bob Knight never changed.
Speaker 6: And guess what, Danny Hurley's never changed. Go watch Danny.
Speaker 6: Go get film of Danny Hurley's dad at Saint Anthony's
Speaker 6: in high school. Same dude, and he's an All of Fame.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 6: So it's just how you perceive it, you know. I
Speaker 6: think Danny Harle is still one of the better coaches
Speaker 6: in the country. Everybody knows that. Yeah, he's super competitive.
Speaker 6: I mean, shoot, coach the Teina used to get out
Speaker 6: like that. So it's just the times right now. I think,
Speaker 6: you know, he's having a struggle with this team. They
Speaker 6: will and sometimes, you know what I'm saying, You're trying
Speaker 6: to fight for your team. You're trying to show some
Speaker 6: you know, grit and fight and you know, but he's
Speaker 6: showing a little frustration. But I think he saw that
Speaker 6: and kind of like dang I do I did like
Speaker 6: sud right, let me chill out a little bit. So
Speaker 6: I'm sure it won't happen as much. He won't be
Speaker 6: as animated, but he's still gonna be fighting.
Speaker 1: Sean Woods, the unforgettable Guard. We talked to him each
Speaker 1: and every week. Coach, Thank you so much. Enjoy your weekend.
Speaker 6: Go Cat. They're gonna get the They're gonna get the
Speaker 6: Zags on Saturday night.
Speaker 1: I remember two with Van Hiles and John Hale. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be all football coming up here on six thirty
Speaker 1: w l P.
Speaker 7: Man Man.
Speaker 8: Bag Welcome back to the Big Moon.
Speaker 1: Sider joining us now is one of our all time
Speaker 1: favorite guests, and he's everybody's favorite guests because you hear
Speaker 1: Van Hiles all over the place. He is a co
Speaker 1: host of The Locker four one one host of Driving
Speaker 1: with Styles. Here on Sunday Morning Sports Talk with Anthony White,
Speaker 1: Tom Lee, Chad them on every Monday morning is the
Speaker 1: Monday Morning Quarterback and we bugging me right now and
Speaker 1: then here on the Big Blue Insider, Van, I've got
Speaker 1: to think that in a way are you kind of
Speaker 1: glad this season is limped to an end for the Wildcats.
Speaker 2: Geez, with all that you said, I think we found
Speaker 2: the reason why we had a bad season, George Van,
Speaker 2: I was on Tom Lee's Monday Morning without me.
Speaker 6: There, we don't lose all these games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a hard season, not because of the results,
Speaker 2: but because of the expectations. And when you have expectations
Speaker 2: and in the season turns out the way it turns out,
Speaker 2: it's going to be a lot of disappointing people. A
Speaker 2: lot of people who want pitch, folks outside, a lot
Speaker 2: of coaches halts.
Speaker 1: When I look at expectations that fall way short, I
Speaker 1: always the first thing I say is was I wrong?
Speaker 1: How wrong was I to expect that? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? I mean, were we because going in I
Speaker 1: still didn't have full belief in the offensive line. And
Speaker 1: that don't mean to keep banging on this position group.
Speaker 1: But we talked before it all starts there. But I
Speaker 1: mean the defense. What confuses me, Van is the Georgia game,
Speaker 1: the Old Miss game that they showed what they're capable
Speaker 1: of doing and then it just fell apart.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a comedy of errors. Here's my thing is
Speaker 2: people will blame the old line, and it's the easy
Speaker 2: position to blame, just like the cornerbacks are the easy
Speaker 2: position to plane. The miss mark for me on this
Speaker 2: season was the quarterback. I wasn't because look, as there's
Speaker 2: two people touch the ball every snap, it's a quarterback
Speaker 2: in the center. Those are the only two people who
Speaker 2: touch the ball all the time on innyside of the ball.
Speaker 2: And that result was not what I envisioned it to be,
Speaker 2: because a quarterback can make an old line look better,
Speaker 2: and we did not do well at that position this year.
Speaker 2: And as a guy who played on a team where
Speaker 2: the offense wasn't the strong the strong part of the team,
Speaker 2: at a point of season, defenses start to do things
Speaker 2: that's out of character because you know that the offense
Speaker 2: is not going to be able to put enough points
Speaker 2: on the board to keep you in games when you
Speaker 2: are going to falter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll tell you what though, And I was talking
Speaker 1: to somebody about this this week. I went back and
Speaker 1: I was looking at video from early in the year
Speaker 1: and Brock Vandergriff looked like a different guy. And I
Speaker 1: agree with Jefficory. He played with a couple of quarterbacks
Speaker 1: who got happy feet because they were beaten up so
Speaker 1: badly because they couldn't protect him very well. And I
Speaker 1: know that's maybe over simplification with Rock vandergriff, but he
Speaker 1: just looked like a different guy down the stretch for sure.
Speaker 2: Look for sure. And here's I don't like to do this,
Speaker 2: but years to think certain positions requires certain elements, and
Speaker 2: that position requires more than any other position on the field.
Speaker 2: And sometimes you have to endure things that other players
Speaker 2: on the on the team does not have to endure
Speaker 2: because of When we win, it's because of the quarterback.
Speaker 2: When we lose, it's because of somebody else. So sometimes
Speaker 2: even though it's a tough position, that's the responsibility you
Speaker 2: have to You have to be able to eat that.
Speaker 2: And I would say this, some of those stuff, some
Speaker 2: of the things early in the seasons were on the
Speaker 2: old line, but a lot of those things were on
Speaker 2: the quarterback.
Speaker 6: So it goes fit this.
Speaker 1: He made some bad decisions and force some throws or
Speaker 1: actually took some shacks he probably should have.
Speaker 2: Taken them exactly. And that's and that's the thing is
Speaker 2: is we have to That's why football is the best
Speaker 2: team sport out of any sport because it really requires
Speaker 2: everyone so so for him, the old line needs him
Speaker 2: to be able to help them and they need to
Speaker 2: help him. And sometimes as a quarterback he does not
Speaker 2: hold the ball so long and throw the ball away.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you look at Colorado, he SEEDU standards
Speaker 2: has at least has forty plus sacts. So it's not
Speaker 2: like every old line is a great old line and
Speaker 2: they won nine eight.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Talking to Van Hiles, the former Kentucky defensive back
Speaker 1: V Styles Driving with Styles, he breaks down Kentucky football
Speaker 1: on the interweb and is a frequent guest on the
Speaker 1: election and media outlets. And of course we're talking about
Speaker 1: this past season which ended with Cutter Bowley behind center. Now,
Speaker 1: Jeff Percoro and I have been debating over the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. Do you go ahead and commit to
Speaker 1: him even though you know he looked good at times,
Speaker 1: but it's not like he grabbed the program and threw
Speaker 1: it on his shoulders. But man, they've got to get
Speaker 1: some continuity at quarterback. You know, the plan. I keep
Speaker 1: going back to this. The plan was for Drew Barker
Speaker 1: to be the guy for three years, and when he
Speaker 1: went down injured, now that the doors starts spinning with
Speaker 1: duco's and transfers, and there was some success with Steven
Speaker 1: Johnson and Will Levis, but there wasn't success as well.
Speaker 1: So do you go ahead and bite the bullets as
Speaker 1: a staff and say this is our guy, We're gonna
Speaker 1: hang with him.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you stated that, because I've said that many
Speaker 2: times that one quarterback affected the evolution of the quarterback position.
Speaker 2: Here's the deal with Cutter. The next season. Let's just
Speaker 2: say we won seven games, or let's say we won
Speaker 2: six games. I think the transition to him and the
Speaker 2: expectation of him being a quarterback next year for potentially
Speaker 2: three seasons would be easier. But the fact that we
Speaker 2: won four games, I don't think that the fans would
Speaker 2: take on another potential five and seventh season learning to
Speaker 2: live with him as a quarterback. I truly think if
Speaker 2: you can find him, you have to find a quarterback
Speaker 2: that Bush Hampden loves and fits his scheme to a t.
Speaker 2: Because people forget that Bush came late because Liam left
Speaker 2: in February. So give him a chance to find his
Speaker 2: quarterback in a poort if it exists. If it doesn't exist,
Speaker 2: then we just got to give it the Cutter.
Speaker 1: I gotta wonder what what is Bush Hampdon looking for
Speaker 1: if not Cutter Bowley. You know that's a real interesting
Speaker 1: question to me.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say this after the four and eight season.
Speaker 2: He needs someone that has had a lot of reps. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that it's only based on before an eight season.
Speaker 2: I is not thinking. I know Cutter has the ability
Speaker 2: with time to be a solid quarterback like I really
Speaker 2: he has some intangibles that I see on film that
Speaker 2: you can't coach. Now, the problem is, is he ready
Speaker 2: to take the keys full time? I'm not sure. I
Speaker 2: will put him on a learner's permit first, let them
Speaker 2: drive with a parent in the car first, before I
Speaker 2: give him total control over the program. But it's not
Speaker 2: like he's not closed. He's closed, But I think he
Speaker 2: needs a little more time, a little more seasoning.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, Van played, as I said, d back and
Speaker 1: it made it all the way to the NFL. So
Speaker 1: he knows how to scout quarterbacks, how to study qbs
Speaker 1: on video. But he was also a quarterback himself. So
Speaker 1: when you talk about what you see in Cutter on
Speaker 1: video on film, as you guys like to say, what
Speaker 1: do you see.
Speaker 2: I see a guy I don't know Cutter, but I
Speaker 2: see from a visual that he's a confident kid who's
Speaker 2: a fluent athlete and being able to be fluid. It's weird.
Speaker 2: He's wired in a way where he never rushes, and
Speaker 2: that is a key component of a quarterback because I
Speaker 2: think his instinctual clock is where it should be, where
Speaker 2: I need to get out of there or I can
Speaker 2: extend the play. He did some great things against Texas
Speaker 2: with extend the plays. However, it was after seeing what
Speaker 2: Texas could do and he got into the floid game
Speaker 2: on the sideline. This last game, he didn't have that
Speaker 2: that that that opportunity, and I think his clock sped
Speaker 2: up a little bit on him, and because of that,
Speaker 2: he has some issues. But as a whole, I like
Speaker 2: the way he throws the ball. He gets the ball
Speaker 2: in his hand when he needs to, He uses every receiver,
Speaker 2: he doesn't lock on to his favorite receiver. Those are
Speaker 2: some things that you cannot coach his His his mechanisms
Speaker 2: are great, his operations are great. I think he has
Speaker 2: a chance to be special for us. But here's the deal.
Speaker 2: You cannot rush it because if you rush it, then
Speaker 2: that confidence he has now will be stagnant. We need
Speaker 2: him to get even more confident and more swag as
Speaker 2: you prolong in this program.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but how do you do that in a program that,
Speaker 1: in terms of the offense is going to be an
Speaker 1: almost total rebuild this coming year.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's the thing is if they can't find
Speaker 2: the right guys. And that's the thing that I've been
Speaker 2: saying in the past, I think coach Steps has said recently,
Speaker 2: is finding guys to fit their programs, their system, their culture.
Speaker 2: You've got to find that guy. It doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be cam Ward. It can be Diego Pupavilla. It can
Speaker 2: be someone who is just a solid presence in the
Speaker 2: locker room and a solid guy on the field. If
Speaker 2: they cannot find that, then you roll with Toda Bowli.
Speaker 2: And I think if you roll with him, you have
Speaker 2: to simplify the offense to get him comfortable early. And
Speaker 2: then it's kind of this. This would be a perfect example.
Speaker 2: When lin Bowm became quarterback in twenty nineteen, the scheme
Speaker 2: was very simple. Each week, Edy Grand adds some things
Speaker 2: to complement what he ran the previous week. I think
Speaker 2: that's what we should be doing next year. If Cutter
Speaker 2: is the just the answer, you bring him along and
Speaker 2: you progress slowly run the things that he and his
Speaker 2: teammates know how to run, to the to the to
Speaker 2: the free estate and runs fast, and then you just
Speaker 2: add on to it as the season goes.
Speaker 1: Vanheil's my guess when we come back, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: the portal and some big names that stepped away from
Speaker 1: the Wildcats. That's next year and vanis Or Pallor lives
Speaker 1: down in the Louisiana now but keeps a close eye
Speaker 1: on his beloved Wildcats and you see him break down
Speaker 1: video on social media. Uh, no surprise, Barrion Brown decides
Speaker 1: to move away from the program. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us thought by now, if he had progressed uh
Speaker 1: in such a way, he might have been to the
Speaker 1: NFL by now. But we know that didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: But also Dane Key, which was a real disappointment. But
Speaker 1: again we've talked about uh here on the show a
Speaker 1: couple of nights now that you know, if he wants
Speaker 1: to make that next big step toward the NFL, he's
Speaker 1: got to go to a more stable environment, a team
Speaker 1: with the stable offense for him, but they went out
Speaker 1: and recruited for new white Outs got the kid from
Speaker 1: Boyle County, who's uh, you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: say he's as good as one Dale Robinson been in
Speaker 1: that mold, but those are those are big losses regardless fan.
Speaker 1: But you hate to see and they didn't get out
Speaker 1: of them what they had hoped this past season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the unfortunate nature of having so many systems
Speaker 2: in three to four years. I'm look, I am It's
Speaker 2: be a weird thing to say. I am happy. I
Speaker 2: understand why Dy ain't left. I as a parent, I
Speaker 2: as a former player. I do not want to go
Speaker 2: through another coaching change in my position room. I don't
Speaker 2: think he has ever had back to back years of
Speaker 2: having a same wide receiver coach. You're correct, And and
Speaker 2: if I'm going to go through that in my last chance,
Speaker 2: why not go through that with somewhere else Because I've
Speaker 2: done it. I've held strong with this program for three years,
Speaker 2: going through the turmoil of switching guys that are leading
Speaker 2: my room. If that's the case, let me go somewhere else,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna be doing it again here anyway, So
Speaker 2: let me spread my wings and final place and final
Speaker 2: offense that suits my skill set, that can propel me
Speaker 2: to the next level. We have to we have to
Speaker 2: not look at it as a negative, so to speak.
Speaker 2: It's just life. And I think he's doing what's right
Speaker 2: for him in this future. I have no critique about it.
Speaker 2: I would love him come back, but I understand.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And it's not like he didn't give everything
Speaker 1: he had. And I thought dang Key took a step
Speaker 1: forward this year. I thought, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: he was more professional and the way he did have
Speaker 1: that that that silly penalty in the in the Louisville game.
Speaker 1: But I thought just the way he ran his routes
Speaker 1: and you know a hell of a lot more about
Speaker 1: that than I do. But that's the way he carried himself,
Speaker 1: you know. And and uh and obviously the way he played.
Speaker 1: I was really impressed with that. I thought opposing teams
Speaker 1: did everything they could to take away Barrion Brown this year,
Speaker 1: didn't they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that look when you learn this and lacks the
Speaker 2: best abilities availability and one thing that Dan are presented
Speaker 2: this year, he was always availabate and not only available,
Speaker 2: he was a professional with the way he conducted himself
Speaker 2: with his effort level and being and being still focusing
Speaker 2: and integrated to the game. There are some people who
Speaker 2: when things are I mean, just think about it. The
Speaker 2: Loulo game, he didn't catch anyvolves, I don't think, and
Speaker 2: he could have easily solved him and been you know
Speaker 2: how some players get He wasn't. He still had that
Speaker 2: focus and effort in the game, the entire game. So
Speaker 2: that to me carries a lot of weight for GMS
Speaker 2: and for the future, to whomever his future employee is
Speaker 2: gonna because now they almost got into employees. Wherever he
Speaker 2: goes to next I think they're going to take that
Speaker 2: as a positive and hopefully he takes the next step
Speaker 2: and improves enough to get himself in that first, second
Speaker 2: or third round next year.
Speaker 1: Guy I know said he's hearing Dane Key is gonna
Speaker 1: end up at Georgia though. Can you imagine I mean
Speaker 1: seeing him in the silver britches. But that would be
Speaker 1: a huge step for him. I don't know if that happens,
Speaker 1: but you know, again, the rich will get richer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just have to look find a place where
Speaker 2: you can still get your targets but also be coached
Speaker 2: by a guy whom you respect.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Uh, It's not always about the name on the front
Speaker 2: of the jersey. It's also find a place that fits
Speaker 2: you and fits your skillst find that place more than
Speaker 2: where about the national championships in the name across the
Speaker 2: front of jersey, Because I think he has the skills that,
Speaker 2: when used properly, can propel him to a higher draft status.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of minutes left with Van Heiles real quick.
Speaker 1: Where you're concerned. I don't know if you're the rumors
Speaker 1: about Brad White to Florida State. They filled that job,
Speaker 1: but his name is gonna come up this time of year.
Speaker 1: He's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I'm hoping. Look, this is one thing
Speaker 2: that I have noticed about Brad White from the outside
Speaker 2: looking in, is he is one coach that is comfortable
Speaker 2: in his skin. I don't think he has an enormous ego,
Speaker 2: which it takes to be a head coach in college football.
Speaker 2: I think he understands what his skill sets are and
Speaker 2: I think he likes to be He likes to have
Speaker 2: his hands on young men and lead young man. When
Speaker 2: you're a head coach, you don't you don't have the
Speaker 2: ability to touch a group of players. You got to
Speaker 2: be the overseer of everyone. When you're a defensive coordinator,
Speaker 2: it's a little bit more. You get your hands on
Speaker 2: your twenty plus thirty plus players that now you can
Speaker 2: mold and become great men. Because one thing about coaching
Speaker 2: that is losing in the current landscape of college football
Speaker 2: is the ability to create, to create great young men.
Speaker 2: And I think he has done a great job of that.
Speaker 2: And I think his ego and not comfortable but knowing
Speaker 2: what his strength and skill sets are, I think he
Speaker 2: likes to be able to lead a room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great point. In this day and age,
Speaker 1: guys like him are well compensated. I can relate just
Speaker 1: a little bit. When I was at UK, I wanted
Speaker 1: to be the editor of the newspaper. Lost out by
Speaker 1: one vote to a buddy of mine, so I was
Speaker 1: the managing editor and to turn out, he had to
Speaker 1: go to meetings and make speeches. And I'm back hands
Speaker 1: on run of the paper, and I'm like, man, I'm
Speaker 1: so glad I didn't get that job. Now that you know,
Speaker 1: wasn't a multi million dollar job. All right, I got
Speaker 1: two minutes left. Talk to me about cold weather food.
Speaker 1: You still. Of course, it ain't cold where you are.
Speaker 1: But but tell people up here hearing this frigid weather,
Speaker 1: who still want to grill? What's a good you know,
Speaker 1: bad weather, tough coldness, kind of thing that can go
Speaker 1: out and grill.
Speaker 2: Oh, when I was in Chicago, I grew.
Speaker 1: You would think.
Speaker 2: So, So what you gotta do is is shove it
Speaker 2: out your spot for your grill. And back then I
Speaker 2: didn't have as much money. I was on a little
Speaker 2: twenty one inch Weber kettle grill. You just gotta do
Speaker 2: what you gotta do. Now it's gonna take you longer
Speaker 2: obviously to cook because of the elements. But get that thing.
Speaker 2: Don't do it into garars now, don't do that now. Yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: get yourself out, find a spot, and you just got
Speaker 2: to man up. As simple as that.
Speaker 1: Is there anything in particular you think that lends itself
Speaker 1: to this kind of weather we have up here when
Speaker 1: it comes to grilling adders, it just the old reliable standards.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you this, I will not do a
Speaker 2: brisket or pool park that takes too long. You know,
Speaker 2: fourteen hours gets your steak. If you if you feel
Speaker 2: like you want to do a rib. Do a rib that,
Speaker 2: but then just speed it up. Maybe you just wrap
Speaker 2: it the entire time. It's not going to be the
Speaker 2: greatest rib, but wrap it for the product. Take you
Speaker 2: two and a half the three hours, and then after
Speaker 2: you wrap it, then you you unwrap it, put it
Speaker 2: on the brawler in the oven for as long as
Speaker 2: you need, and on how good you are. But got
Speaker 2: to watch it and then cook it that way that
Speaker 2: you steak chicken and port for the things you can
Speaker 2: do outside when it's frigid, and if you man enough,
Speaker 2: you can do it. You do a rib. But you
Speaker 2: just ain't gonna stay out there for four hours.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you can't stand there poking it for four hours. Well, man,
Speaker 1: always a pleasure, and I will not be I will
Speaker 1: not leave you alone because there's gonna be so much happening. Now,
Speaker 1: what's your portal? And with college football, we'll talk to
Speaker 1: the playoffs as well. But I appreciate it. It was
Speaker 1: a tough season for all of us, but we thank
Speaker 1: you for helping us get through it.
Speaker 2: I hope I did a good enough job to bring
Speaker 2: people off the edge and at least at least let
Speaker 2: us live another year. Look, there's nothing there's nothing positive
Speaker 2: that comes out of negativity, true, and so don't be
Speaker 2: as Coach Curry's day a fellowship of the miserable. Find
Speaker 2: a way to find a little positive light out of
Speaker 2: this and this the piddle light could be cut a
Speaker 2: bowl in and Ja Marion Wilcox, find something that you
Speaker 2: can hold on to for the next few months.
Speaker 6: Thanks Van anytime.
Speaker 1: John Hale's next there with us, Welcome back to the
Speaker 1: Big Blue Sider. Joining us now is John Hale, who
Speaker 1: covers football Kentucky football for The Herald Leader and has
Speaker 1: covered the program for quite some time.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 1: John, this was a season like no other, uh in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, the last gosh decade or so
Speaker 1: under Mark Stoops, but thanks to the portal and nil
Speaker 1: you could probably say that of it every year. It's
Speaker 1: just it's just a whirlwind, isn't it. It's it's kind
Speaker 1: of a circus like atmosphere with the portal and the
Speaker 1: transfers and the coming and going and then signing day,
Speaker 1: it all comes together once, doesn't it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, It's it's interesting, I mean because obviously there had
Speaker 9: been some some red flags for the last two seasons,
Speaker 9: you know, losing the Vanderbilt South Carolina in those games,
Speaker 9: but they had still salvage to get to a bowl,
Speaker 9: had played pretty well in the last Bowl against Clemson,
Speaker 9: even though they blew the lee at the end and lost,
Speaker 9: and the one before that, you know, they were so
Speaker 9: decimated that the Music City Bowl against Iowa was so
Speaker 9: you can put much into that, but it had not
Speaker 9: fallen apart like we did this year. And it just
Speaker 9: seems like so long ago that we were leaving Oxford,
Speaker 9: Mississippi and they had just pulled off this massive upset,
Speaker 9: and the week before they had almost beaten Georgia, and
Speaker 9: it was starting to look like maybe South Carolina was
Speaker 9: better than people thought. So you just looked at their
Speaker 9: schedule and said, oh, you know, Auburn and Vanderbilt in
Speaker 9: Florida coming up. If they could run the table there,
Speaker 9: they might be in the playoff conversation. When they played
Speaker 9: that Tennessee game and obviously didn't win any of those games.
Speaker 9: I just went completely off the rails after the bye
Speaker 9: week from there, and now we're sitting in a spot
Speaker 9: where last year I said that was the most important
Speaker 9: offseason the park Stutsktegi tenure. And if that was true,
Speaker 9: I don't I don't even know how to explain how
Speaker 9: important the next few months are for him, because obviously
Speaker 9: the the fan base, a large portion of it at least,
Speaker 9: is not happy and at once change. And they've already
Speaker 9: lost three starters to the portal and they're probably going
Speaker 9: to lose more. And you're going to lose I think
Speaker 9: it's eleven players to graduation who were on the two deep,
Speaker 9: nine of them starters, probably a couple more going to
Speaker 9: the draft. It's going to look like a completely different
Speaker 9: team next year. And maybe that's a good thing because
Speaker 9: of how they struggled this season, but it's just something
Speaker 9: we don't really know how to how to even predict
Speaker 9: because of this new era of college football.
Speaker 1: You mentioned those two games, and I keep bringing them up.
Speaker 1: This is why this season is so puzzling. So from
Speaker 1: where you sit, John, what the heck happened?
Speaker 9: I mean, I think there's an easy narrative to say
Speaker 9: that after the Old Mess game, the timing of that
Speaker 9: bye week, when we talked about the time, whether it
Speaker 9: was good or bad for them to take a week off,
Speaker 9: and they were in a pretty unfortunate injury situation at
Speaker 9: that point, so you thought, well, it's good for them
Speaker 9: to be able to rest up and get some guys healthy,
Speaker 9: but it also feels like that came at a bad time,
Speaker 9: or maybe they just read their presclipions for an entire week.
Speaker 9: And this was a team that played to its level
Speaker 9: of competition, that they played their best against the best
Speaker 9: teams on the schedule, and then against teams like Auburn
Speaker 9: and Vanderbilt, they did not play very well at all. Yea,
Speaker 9: so we saw that happen in that stretch. Obviously, I
Speaker 9: think that the injuries on defense played a huge part
Speaker 9: of it, because the defense was at least keeping them
Speaker 9: in the games for as bad as the offense was,
Speaker 9: and then when he started losing four or five six
Speaker 9: key players who were counting on every week, then they
Speaker 9: just couldn't. The margin of error grew too thin, and
Speaker 9: you know, the offense only didn't score more than twenty
Speaker 9: points in an SEC game all seedon. Even they're playing
Speaker 9: well at the end of the year, they weren't scoring
Speaker 9: a lot of points against quality competition, and so I
Speaker 9: think that that just caught up for them. You know,
Speaker 9: there's a lot of their portal class last season didn't
Speaker 9: pan out. That's probably part of it. And that if
Speaker 9: you pause now that you're saying, hey, we're going to
Speaker 9: fix it through the portal, maybe you got to evaluate better.
Speaker 9: You got to hit on the higher rate than you
Speaker 9: did a year ago. The injuries are a huge part
Speaker 9: of that. And then Mark Stews is acknowledg just like
Speaker 9: talked about, is a lot down the stretch other players
Speaker 9: have to This just has not been the same locker
Speaker 9: room culture since the portal and nil pain and they've
Speaker 9: got to figure out a way to win in this air.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a lot to unpack. So let me start
Speaker 1: with the line play. Because when you think about Georgia
Speaker 1: and you think about how Kentucky really handled you know, offense, end, defense,
Speaker 1: time of possession, tempo of the game, everything it needed
Speaker 1: to do, except when that game similar with Old Miss,
Speaker 1: which you know, for lack of a better term, I
Speaker 1: think is more of a finesse team. But Kentucky set
Speaker 1: the tone there as well. But John, I think that's
Speaker 1: what surprised me the most was Florida and arburn in particular,
Speaker 1: but to a degree Vandy as well. I mean, their
Speaker 1: offensive line push was impressive. I can't remember a Kentucky
Speaker 1: line on either side of the ball being pushed around
Speaker 1: so consistently as it was this season, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and it's disappointing for sure. I mean I think
Speaker 9: on offense, we didn't think they were going to be
Speaker 9: great on the offensive line come into it, but they
Speaker 9: improved from twenty two to twenty three last year. Yeah,
Speaker 9: and then he makes the coaching change. He fires Zachinzer
Speaker 9: to bring back Eric Wolford when he becomes available. We
Speaker 9: know Wolford has this reputation, is a great of in
Speaker 9: the line coach. Obviously, they were very good his previous
Speaker 9: season here with three NFL players on that offensive line.
Speaker 9: I went to Alabama, he's a great recruiter, and he thought, Okay,
Speaker 9: well this is going to be what takes them the
Speaker 9: next step forward. And then they just got way worse.
Speaker 9: I mean, I think part of that. It definitely felt
Speaker 9: like Marcus Cox, a guy a left tackle who was
Speaker 9: good for the year ago, maybe his body just gave out.
Speaker 9: I mean, he's in the seventh year of college football
Speaker 9: who played had a bunch of injuries. I think that
Speaker 9: probably had some problems with his ineffectiveness. But then you know,
Speaker 9: they added Gerald Mincy as the transfer right tackle didn't work.
Speaker 9: When Mincy got hurt, they had to play Malachi Wood
Speaker 9: before he's ready clearly, so that didn't work. And so
Speaker 9: they just could not protect the quarterback all year. And
Speaker 9: then that clearly affected Rock Vandergrift, like when even when
Speaker 9: he had time, he was thinking about it all the
Speaker 9: time and he was not making the right reads. He
Speaker 9: was you know, it was it was in his head,
Speaker 9: and I think that affected his effectiveness down the street.
Speaker 9: And then maybe it was even more disappointed in my defense,
Speaker 9: because they didn't really have the injuries there. They didn't
Speaker 9: have the issue. The question is going to do it.
Speaker 9: That was one of their deepest and most talented positions.
Speaker 9: You got a projected first round pick Indian locker On there,
Speaker 9: a guy like ron Rick who had a great season,
Speaker 9: Arcavius Oxidi. The list goes on and on, and still
Speaker 9: in some of those games they got pushed around and
Speaker 9: he just ran the ball and then in a way
Speaker 9: that we have not seen a long time. And that's
Speaker 9: a that's a huge concern. That's something they got to
Speaker 9: get fixed this off season.
Speaker 1: I was looking video from early in the season and
Speaker 1: Brock Vandergrevt looked like a different quarterback. He really did.
Speaker 1: I think they don't want to talk at It's almost
Speaker 1: like the yips, you know, happy feet. He drops back
Speaker 1: in the first thing. He's thinking his escape route, you know,
Speaker 1: towards the end of the year. So it's hard to
Speaker 1: judge him his entire body of work. But you go
Speaker 1: back and look at some of the video from some
Speaker 1: of the earlier games, even a couple of games they lost,
Speaker 1: and he looked like he was becoming a guy they
Speaker 1: needed him to be. But you can only get ground
Speaker 1: into the turf so many times, you know.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it definitely affected him. I mean that even the
Speaker 9: fourth down play at Ole Miss the sixty three yard
Speaker 9: or the bary on Brown that essentially won them the game.
Speaker 9: I mean, that was the kind of play we had
Speaker 9: just not seen Kentucky quarterbacks make very often. That was
Speaker 9: a spot where they everybody knew they had to throw
Speaker 9: it because I think it was like fourth and seven. Yeah,
Speaker 9: and so they and they got the protection long enough
Speaker 9: to get that off and it worked perfectly. Okay, they've
Speaker 9: really got something to brock Vander. He's gonna it's gonna
Speaker 9: work on it. I think it was like seven weeks
Speaker 9: seven or eight. I was still riding like we don't
Speaker 9: know how good brock Man Earth is. Like obviously the
Speaker 9: offense is not good, but like you just can't really
Speaker 9: judge him. But he was still showing enough glimpses where
Speaker 9: you thought he could turn this on down the stretch
Speaker 9: and certainly going into next year be a really good starter.
Speaker 9: And now it appears like, I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 9: he's gonna be by Kentucky. I'm really sure he's gonna
Speaker 9: keep paying football, Yeah, and so like that's that's just
Speaker 9: it's really unfortunate how the season went for him. And
Speaker 9: part of that's probleamental to You're looking at a guy
Speaker 9: who said was a five star recruit at high school,
Speaker 9: went to play for his home pound team, sat there
Speaker 9: for three years, won two national champions as a backup,
Speaker 9: and then he said, Okay, I gotta go play. And
Speaker 9: then maybe when you get into a different situation in
Speaker 9: the program, you don't have any allegiance to before six
Speaker 9: months ago, and you're playing behind a terble on hens line,
Speaker 9: you're getting beat up, you're taking hits, you're getting the
Speaker 9: concussion at Tennessee, Like it's just not the same. You're
Speaker 9: probably not an NFL quarterback now like it's hard to
Speaker 9: keep that same fire under you, and it'll be really
Speaker 9: interesting to see what his expote is.
Speaker 1: Well, the guy who caught that ball in Oxford is
Speaker 1: leaving as well. We'll talk about Barryon Brown and more
Speaker 1: on the other side of the break with John Hale
Speaker 1: of The Hero Leader. Here on six point thirty WLAP
Speaker 1: Welcome back, We're talking with John Hale. Beat Ryder covers
Speaker 1: Kentucky football for The Hero Leader And before the break
Speaker 1: we mentioned Barrion Brown and I guess you know, Mark
Speaker 1: Stuke's kind of alluded to Dane Keyes' departure at his
Speaker 1: news conference. He don't panic, you know, there are going
Speaker 1: to be some surprises. With all due respect to Barrion
Speaker 1: I think from the day he got here, we wondered
Speaker 1: would he get to a senior year, but a lot
Speaker 1: of a sudden maybe he go to the NFL. At
Speaker 1: this point, he's clearly not ready for that. But John
Speaker 1: would I was a little surprised by Dane Key. I
Speaker 1: would have been surprised if Barrion Brown had remained, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 9: Yeah, this just feels like I mean, obviously he's a
Speaker 9: huge name, he's going to get a bunch of transfer
Speaker 9: foil interesting big pro because of all of those physical
Speaker 9: skills that got Kentucky fan so excited for so long.
Speaker 9: But this felt like it was just time for both
Speaker 9: parties to move on. I mean, not only had he
Speaker 9: not really produced the last two years, but I mean
Speaker 9: at moments it felt like it was actively hurting the offense,
Speaker 9: that they kept trying to force him the ball and
Speaker 9: make him that guy when he just wasn't hit. And
Speaker 9: so now it's like, you know, he has all the talent.
Speaker 6: In the world.
Speaker 9: He's one of the most physically gifted players, is one
Speaker 9: of the fastest players in the country. But if three
Speaker 9: years in, if your production is going down every year,
Speaker 9: you probably just need to try something new, and hopefully,
Speaker 9: for Barryon's sake, a new voice, a new program might
Speaker 9: be what spurs him to take that next step and
Speaker 9: he goes somewhere else really performs. But I don't think
Speaker 9: it was going to happen at Kentucky next year, even
Speaker 9: if he came back, so that one, You're right, I
Speaker 9: would have been surprised if he was back Dane. You know,
Speaker 9: early in the first half of the season, when he was
Speaker 9: playing so well, he thought, well, maybe he's playing him
Speaker 9: his way into the draft, and then his numbers weren't
Speaker 9: as good in the second half, had an injury there
Speaker 9: against Louisville. They thought well maybe they can you know,
Speaker 9: maybe he can come back. But for him too, I
Speaker 9: don't think you can blame a guy who's looking at
Speaker 9: and saying, I got one more year to prove I'm
Speaker 9: an NFL receiver. And this offense is just for three
Speaker 9: years and he's been here. You just can't count it
Speaker 9: to consistently pass the ball. Go somewhere else. He's going
Speaker 9: to be at a powerhouse program.
Speaker 6: I'm sure next.
Speaker 9: Year the one dynamic would be and I'm sure Kentucky
Speaker 9: told him this, if you come back, you're the main
Speaker 9: guy here. If he goes to a Georgia or Michigan
Speaker 9: or whatever, he might be the number two or number
Speaker 9: three receiver. He could still do enough to get drafted
Speaker 9: in that spot, but he's not guaranteed the leading the
Speaker 9: number one option, And I'm sure Kentucky sold him on that,
Speaker 9: but he made the decision. It's probably best for his career,
Speaker 9: if we're all being honest.
Speaker 1: When he was the number one option down to stretch
Speaker 1: here and they still couldn't function. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: I fully agree with you, and I think you can.
Speaker 1: You know, he gave this program everything he had, and
Speaker 1: you mentioned the injury. You know he was. He was
Speaker 1: really banged up. And as good as Barrion Brown was,
Speaker 1: opposing defenses made it a point to take away number six.
Speaker 1: I mean, you go back to the old Miss game.
Speaker 1: You know, they pulled him, they held him, they shoved him.
Speaker 1: He drew some penalties and caught an important touchdown pass.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that might be it'd be great for him
Speaker 1: to have somebody on that side of the field who's
Speaker 1: consistently good. They lost a defensive lineman in Silver and
Speaker 1: I've had some people tell me they thought he was disappointing.
Speaker 1: Others thought he had a big season. What do you think?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean, it's just so hard to evaluate that. No,
Speaker 9: his position in the three or four defense because so
Speaker 9: much of his job is just to basically take up space,
Speaker 9: so he's never going to put up huge stats. I
Speaker 9: don't think he had his best season. He probably was
Speaker 9: maybe not even even as effective as the year before,
Speaker 9: but it also probably hurt him. Honestly, that Josiah Hayes
Speaker 9: was out for the whole year. Like that's a position
Speaker 9: where those big guys you need rotation. Like he probably
Speaker 9: played too many snaps to be honest, because coming out
Speaker 9: of spring they didn't have any depth. Fine, I mean
Speaker 9: they were talking about playing Kendrick Gilbert there, who's like
Speaker 9: probably thirty pounds too light to play nose guard in
Speaker 9: the SEC, and so they can move theon over there
Speaker 9: at times they could do some different things, but like
Speaker 9: down the stretch when Hayes came back, I think that
Speaker 9: helped them a lot.
Speaker 6: So it's good for.
Speaker 9: Kentucky if Hayes uses his COVID here and come back
Speaker 9: next year, that you know, eases the sting of losing
Speaker 9: Silver a little bit. There was a report from on
Speaker 9: three yesterday, and you have to take all of this
Speaker 9: transfer portal talk with a grain of salt, but that
Speaker 9: Silver might be the highest paid NIL player in the
Speaker 9: portal is not a quarterback, and that just tells you
Speaker 9: how like how hard it is to get those nose
Speaker 9: guards who have you know, two years of starting experience
Speaker 9: in the SEC. Is a former five star recruit, so
Speaker 9: that I think that tells you the importance of him.
Speaker 9: But yeah, he clearly didn't have the statistical season.
Speaker 1: Then maybe I was going to bring up in IL
Speaker 1: because you know, when you try to think these things through,
Speaker 1: how much did he play last year, how well did
Speaker 1: he do looking ahead to next year, you have to enject,
Speaker 1: especially with a guy like that and the receivers in IL,
Speaker 1: because it's not the kind of thing. Well, they're going
Speaker 1: to get money here as well, but you know, some
Speaker 1: of these figures are thrown around John are just nuts.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and Kentucky's my understanding, is in a pretty good
Speaker 9: spot and at all lights right now. And Marcus kle
Speaker 9: have been sending that message for a few weeks now.
Speaker 9: It's why he's so optimistic about the portal. But they
Speaker 9: still have a budget. I mean, even if it's a
Speaker 9: top twenty in ile budget country, they've got a lot
Speaker 9: of holes on offense they got to fill. They're probably
Speaker 9: going to have to get a quarterback now, at least
Speaker 9: somebody who can come in and compete with Cutter Bowlie.
Speaker 9: You're going to need to get one or two receivers.
Speaker 9: They're going to need to get three starting offensive lineman,
Speaker 9: which is going to be really, really expensive, and so
Speaker 9: you got to figure out where you can allocate that stuff,
Speaker 9: and so I'm certain that Silver would have been it
Speaker 9: would have been treated well if he had stayed here.
Speaker 9: But he's going to get more on the open market
Speaker 9: than whatever his state because Kentucky does have some other
Speaker 9: nose guards on the roster and it's just didn't probably
Speaker 9: make sense for them to give him the kind of
Speaker 9: deal he's going to get in the open market because
Speaker 9: they have so many other needs they're going to have
Speaker 9: to fill.
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about quarterbacks. You brought this up on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Cutter Bowlie is the quarterback of the future. But he's
Speaker 1: going to go out, Stoop says, and get somebody into portal.
Speaker 1: And when you do that, you have to give them
Speaker 1: the opportunity to compete or they're not going to come here.
Speaker 1: They're not going to come here just as a safety net,
Speaker 1: you know. So what do you think that means? And
Speaker 1: of course they signed two guys, which is always interesting
Speaker 1: to have the two quarterbacks or more in the same class.
Speaker 1: But what do you think that means for Cutter Bowley
Speaker 1: moving forward?
Speaker 9: I think that he'll have the chance to win the job.
Speaker 9: And if you sign a guy to beet with him
Speaker 9: and Cutter wins the job and that guy you know
Speaker 9: is annoyed, then you know that's a problem that you
Speaker 9: that you'll welcome. But for all of Cutter's talent and
Speaker 9: his excitement and how well he played at time in
Speaker 9: those last three games, he played fifteen series against Power
Speaker 9: four teams of Florida, Texas and Moibile, and they did
Speaker 9: not scorre sing a point on any of them. And
Speaker 9: so like, that's not you just can't go into twenty
Speaker 9: twenty five if that's a BAK or break year assuming
Speaker 9: that he's going to be the guy you hope he is.
Speaker 9: You hope he makes the strides that has that Andre
Speaker 9: Woodson type offseason where he becomes that guy in the SEC.
Speaker 9: Maybe that happens, but you can't bank on it. And
Speaker 9: assuming Rock vander Griff's gone, I would guess that Gavin
Speaker 9: Wimsatt probably is also gone because he's going to want
Speaker 9: to go out and find the starting spot for his
Speaker 9: last year of eligibility. You can't go in it with
Speaker 9: two freshmen as your only backup options. So they need
Speaker 9: to find a guy in their portal who at least
Speaker 9: is open to a competition. They're probably not going to
Speaker 9: get the best. They're not going to get up. You know,
Speaker 9: Devin Leary, who was the number one quarterback in the
Speaker 9: portal of Brock vander Griff who was a former five
Speaker 9: star recruit last year, it's not going to be that caliber.
Speaker 9: But they need somebody who can come in and start.
Speaker 9: And that's that's honestly, you know, not the worst thing.
Speaker 9: And nobody had Diego Pavia at the top of their
Speaker 9: list last year of transfer quarterbacks and look what he
Speaker 9: did at the Belt. So like, if you find a
Speaker 9: guy who fits the system and fits with Bushington wants
Speaker 9: to do, he doesn't have to be a five star
Speaker 9: recruit or the number one quarterback in the portal to
Speaker 9: help you. Maybe they could go out and find a
Speaker 9: Sawyer Smith type who's okay with being a backup, but
Speaker 9: who's good enough to help get forced into action. But
Speaker 9: it feels like they need somebody who can legitimately compete
Speaker 9: with Cutter for the starting job.
Speaker 1: Well, looking ahead at running back as well, you would
Speaker 1: think that Kentucky's in pretty good shape. They got some
Speaker 1: young talent there, don't they.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean they lost Marcuse Davis, who was the
Speaker 9: top rank recruit in their commitment in their class to
Speaker 9: Missouri on the Sunday before signing Day, but on Saday,
Speaker 9: Mark s Two's basically said, you know, that's probably partially
Speaker 9: because they have so many young guys there. He name
Speaker 9: checked ja Marion Wilcox specifically in signing Day, which was
Speaker 9: a positive sign because clearly he knew at that press
Speaker 9: conference the Dankey baryon brown stuff was coming already, and
Speaker 9: so you're not going to talk hype those guys up.
Speaker 9: I mean, at one point we talked about tight ends
Speaker 9: with fits Marrow, and he specifically did not mention Jordan Ingle,
Speaker 9: who went in the portal a day later. So if
Speaker 9: Mark Stoops is talking about Jamaron Willcox, they feel like
Speaker 9: they've got a good chance to keep him, which was
Speaker 9: obviously a concern given you know, his kind of inconsistent
Speaker 9: carries despite his talent down the stretch, and so that's
Speaker 9: a guy to build around. They really like Jason Patterson,
Speaker 9: who played early as a freshman, got injured and then
Speaker 9: will Cox kind of passed him, so he ended up
Speaker 9: red shirting Stoop. So the chip train him wants to
Speaker 9: come back. He's got an extra year of eligibility. Obviously,
Speaker 9: this year was a disaster with the injuries, and he
Speaker 9: really didn't play down the stretch even once he got healthy.
Speaker 9: But he's a veteran guy.
Speaker 6: Who can help you there.
Speaker 9: They probably need somebody else in the portal to be
Speaker 9: in that rotation just for depth purposes. But if you
Speaker 9: keep Patterson traying them and then Willcox, that's a really
Speaker 9: good starting spot.
Speaker 1: And real quickly, John, you referred on your Twitter account
Speaker 1: to Florida State's decoordinator job, maybe being linked to Brad White.
Speaker 1: Is that another surprise in the making.
Speaker 9: I know they filled the job, but yeah, I mean
Speaker 9: like it. I was convinced he was going yeah, and
Speaker 9: that was the one he was tied to, and all
Speaker 9: of the talk that last week, nobody around the program
Speaker 9: could you know, behind the scene, but say for sure
Speaker 9: he was coming back. And then Mark Stoops clearly was
Speaker 9: hinting at it in his postgame comments talking about offensive continuity.
Speaker 9: But he could handle changes on defense this year. So
Speaker 9: it they dodged a bullet there, But we'll see if
Speaker 9: there's other jobs out there that you know, maybe it's
Speaker 9: coming at some point. Anyway, Brad to his you know,
Speaker 9: I asked him directly about the rumors after the game,
Speaker 9: and he said, you know, his first his first story
Speaker 9: was to make sure he was safe at Kentucky and
Speaker 9: then to start focused on getting things picked there. So
Speaker 9: if he's back, you know, I think that's great for
Speaker 9: the program. He's a great defense court intor he gets
Speaker 9: some he gets some flat from fans for maybe being
Speaker 9: too conservative, but they need more brad light to the staff,
Speaker 9: not less. So if you keep hi him, I think
Speaker 9: that's that's a good that's a good sign.
Speaker 1: And again I'm amazing still here. That's how good he is.
Speaker 1: You know, programs want to poach good coaches. Kentucky does
Speaker 1: the same. So although they got a revolving door right
Speaker 1: now in the wide receiver room. But that's a conversation
Speaker 1: or nother night. John Hale, thank you so much, and
Speaker 1: we'll see you down the road.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Better do it for now, Thanks to my guest, John Hale,
Speaker 1: Van Heil, Sean Woods. Remember Kentucky basketball tomorrow night, ten
Speaker 1: o'clock from Seattle. We'll happen for you right here. That's
Speaker 1: a good night. From the garage in Lexington. I'd like
Speaker 1: to ask a few questions about this breakfast cereal. I yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: A box of tricks.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 6: I've been led to understand the tricks are exclusively for children.
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Well, I mean they say tricks are
Speaker 1: for kids in the commercials, and there's that enforced by law.
Speaker 1: Not to my knowledge, no
Speaker 7: Das