Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time Leech who joined us on the hotline right now. Time.
I appreciate the time we had and visited why I
look back over our text to see the last time
we were texting each other three years ago. Time.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh wow, I know.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I know time does move, doesn't it. But yeah, and
I imagine we'll be texting and contacting one of the
other one another a little more frequently these days with
Texas now in the SEC. But I wanted to get
your thoughts on the Wildcats, on the football team that'll
(00:32):
be coming in to Austin to take on the Longhorns
on Saturday afternoon. I didn't even realize until it through
the game notes on both sides that only the second
ever meeting in football in the first since nineteen fifty one.
And fortunately we could say that was before either of
us were around. But how what's your take on this
(00:52):
Kentucky team that's been described as dangerous, especially against the
better teams they play this season.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, they've been enigmatic, for sure. They beat Old Myths
in Oxford at the end of September and played great,
you know, played exactly how they needed to, which their
defense was playing spectacularly well at that time, and they
took good care of the ball, made a few big
plays and hurt themselves. And previous to that, a few
(01:21):
weeks previous to that, had played Georgia to a one
point game here at Lexington, and so everybody went into
October riding high and then Kentucky started shooting itself in
the feet with both hands. They turned it over four
times in the first five games. I think they've turned
it over twelve times in the last five games. And
(01:44):
that's just killed a team that is, you know, struggled
offensively for the most part, very good defensively for most
of the year, have gotten beat up in the second
half of the season. But last week they had a
game against an SCS opponent at Murray State and that
was coming off an open day, so Stoops took advantage
(02:04):
of the matchup to rest guys that if they were
playing Texas would have played. And so they're hoping that,
you know, a lot of these key defensive guys will
be back and if not one hundred percent, at least
be able to make an impact. And if they are,
then they ought to have a chance to hang in
there with their defense and then to see if they
(02:28):
Kentucky's script would be like the old miss script. Good defense,
keep it close into the fourth quarter, don't turn it over,
and try to make a big player too and pull
it off, pull off an upset and you know they're
not gonna you know, outscore Texas forty to thirty five.
You know, Kentucky hadn't scored twenty in any SEC game.
But they do have a good defense when they're healthy.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well. And the other thing that comes to mind on this,
and I've heard coaches talk about this all along, is
what it does that cause his turnovers, whether they're unforest airs,
whether they're forest airs, and you know that sort of thing.
In the in the Texas Arkansas game last week, they
had Alfred Collins forced to fumble by reaching in the
swat as a receiver starting to go by. That's a
(03:13):
forest turnover. Sometimes it's the unforced there what's been coach
Stoop's take on how First of all, you want to
avoid turnovers, obviously, but in terms of the unforced era
as opposed to the forest era.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, I think it's been forced. They've had a you know,
a few deflect you know, skips off a receiver's hand, interception,
that kind of thing. But they have a first year
starting quarterback, Brock Vandergriff transferred in from Georgia and this
is first year starting and he is still not where
(03:45):
they need him to be. Holds onto the ball a
little too long, you know, was kind of locking in
on some receivers earlier. I think they thought in the
Tennessee game at the start of November when they played
the balls close, it was like twenty eight eighteen, but
Kentucky was right in it until the fourth quarter, and
(04:10):
they thought they thought in the Tennessee. They thought in
the Tennessee game that Bush Hampton, the offensive cordiator, told
me he thought it was the best command of the
whole operation that Brock had in that game. And then
he got a head injury in the game and had
to go out and was very iffy on whether or
not he was going to play in the Murray State game,
(04:31):
ended up playing a half. So they hope he's back
to full strength now because they thought he was playing
one of his better games down at Tennessee and spreading
the ball out a little bit more to other receivers
and uh, you know, making good decisions and checking it
down when he needed to. Again had intended to hold
onto the ball too long. So they've been talking to
(04:52):
him at you know, take what's take the easy pass.
If the first option is not there, you know, just
take the checkdown to running back and get two or
three yards and let's run the next play. And they've had,
you know, problems with sacks. Some of that's the offensive line,
some of it's the quarterback holding it, hold under the
ball too long. But I know Arkansas lived in Texas,
(05:15):
lived in Arkansas's backfield last week, and Tuck he had
some issues protecting against Murray State. So they're definitely gonna
have to, you know, have one of their better games
in the offensive line to have a chance.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
All right, now, you're going to have to help me
on your senior running back. The pronunciation of.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
That name, it means Sumo carn Bay.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Of course it is so Demi Sumo karg may Is
is fifty one yard shy from getting a thousand for
his career, and he leads a team of five hundred
rushing yards and five touchdowns. Tell long worn fans exactly
the type of running back he is and what Texas
will be looking at there.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
He's a who's a running back who can get you
some tough yards, goods out of the backfield, makes very
few mistakes as a veteran, and just a solid guy,
but doesn't have the you know, he's not a home
run hitter. Uh, not gonna be a guy that's gonna
(06:14):
get you. In fact, he didn't have one hundred yard
rushing game for his career. In the last two weeks,
they've had a red shirt freshman, ja Marian Willcox, who
has started to gain the trust of the coaches where
they can leave him out there longer, and because of that,
he's got some of that big playability and he's had
some big runs and he's had two straight games over
(06:34):
one hundred yards, and he's giving him a little pop
in the running game that they didn't have before. Demi
was a guy who rarely lost yards and got some
tough yards for them. But Willcox is a guy that
can you know, break one for you know, take it
all the way from the you know, Kentucky's side of
the fifty, and they didn't have that for much of
(06:56):
the year. So that's a little extra pop for the
offense in the running game.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Visiting with Tom Leech's played by play voice of the
Kentucky Wildcats here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred zone.
Let me ask you about a guy on the defensive side,
because here in Austin, the anchor of the secondary for Texas,
and you can look at different anchors. Anchor on the
defensive front probably would be Alfred Collins. The anchor in
the linebacking corps would be just a sophomore in Anthony
(07:22):
Hill who's playing really well. But the anchor in the
second here is no question, it's the six year senior
Jade Baron, who is probably going to be a FOURP
Award finalist. He'd had a marvelous game last week when
the interception and a pass broken up and a force
fumble and a sack and all kinds of stuff. He
filled up the stat column. But then I looked at
a guy like Maxwell Hairston, who had five picks last year,
(07:45):
and he's had a pick six his sixth career interception
that coming against Ohio, and he's had to miss five
games because of injury, but he returned last week against
Murray State. How much of a boost can Maxwell Harriston
give the Wildcat secondary back in the lineup.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Big one, He's, you know, an NFL caliber corner and
now he got to get back and get some snaps
under his belt, and so I would think he would be,
you know, back to where he was in September when
he was starting and was thought to be in all
sec kind of cornerbacks. So big health there. They also
(08:24):
got back a guy in the defensive line, Josiah Hayes
last week. He had an achilles injury in the spring
and there was a thought he might not play at
all this season. Last week he had been working his
way back, so they put him out there and he
did great. And he's you know, a three hundred pounder
on the nose, so that gives them another fresh body
(08:46):
to rotate in in a defensive line. So you know,
they're getting healthier defensively. They had a bunch of guys
out last week. They're leading tacklers. Unfortunately lost to the
season a linebacker, Derek Jackson, but the guy who's replaced
him has now had two starts under his belt and
he's played well, Domus Johnson, who transferred in from Georgia there.
(09:07):
So getting Harston back is a big help. Adding Hayes
as a plus, and mainly if they can just get
you know, most of their starters back out there, other
than Jackson, who they knows out for the season, then
they have a chance, I think, to put up a
good fight with their defense.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Let me shift gears on you now. Well, first of all,
the one other thing I want to ask you, what
do you feel is most important for the Wildcats to
do on Saturday to give themselves a real shot to
win this game?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Have one or fewer turnovers would be probably right at
the top of the list, because they just don't have
the offensive firepower. We're against that Texas defense where you
think they're gonna you know, score thirty points. So they've
got to be able to take good care of the ball,
help their defense by getting some first downs and at least,
(10:02):
you know, if they don't get a threat to score,
be able to you know, keep Kentucky in a favorable
position field position wise. And if they can do that,
a healthy defense should be able to keep them in it.
And then at that point, you hope Barrion Brown could
break a kick return or you know, you get a
(10:23):
break on a route there's a guy wide open and
you you know, steal a touchdown somewhere and then you
make a driver to they've got a really good kicking game,
so if they can get to about the thirty five
to forty yard line, they feel pretty good about getting free.
So they've had some issues finishing off drives where they
get to about the midfield of the forty five and
(10:44):
they couldn't finish it off. So I bet I answer
your question. It starts with just, you know, limiting turnovers
and not giving Texas anything easy.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Visiting with Tom leads here for a couple more minutes. Now, Tom,
I want to get your thoughts on Kentucky basketball, knowing
what it means obviously in that state and a lot
of us, a lot of us really came away impressed
with Mark Pope and what he did at BYU. We
saw it firsthand when Texas played out in Provo last year.
How about the transition and how it's worked so far.
(11:13):
I know you've got a game tonight against Lipscomb. How
about your thoughts on the transition under coach Pope now
that he's got the Cats in the top ten.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's kind of funny. On a Thursday night, it started
to leak out that Mark Pope was going to be
the guy and Kentucky had made a run at Scott
Drew and was unsuccessful. The fans were pushing for them
to try to throw all the money they could round
up at Danny Hurley, and I don't think that was
going to happen. You know, Nate Oates was a popular name.
(11:42):
He was locked into a big contract, and all of
a sudden, the named Mark Pope started to circulate. And
the immediate reaction, I give you an example, you'll kick
out of this at a listener to my radio show
the morning after the story started a leak out. So
on a Friday morning, listener sends me an on social media,
this is a disaster fire, Mitch Barner. So a few
(12:05):
hours pass, Rick Patino puts out a video about how
great Mark Pope's going to do, and Mitch went on
a statewide radio show and talked about what he liked,
and within four hours, the same guy sent me another note,
I'm on board with this, let's roll, And that was
(12:25):
That was kind of how the whole fan base went
in the span of about twelve hours. And once they
once they made the U turn, they jumped in with
both feet because he's a you know, he was a
captain of the championship team in ninety six, and then
once Mark started talking and doing appearances and putting his
team together, he hit every Mark so to speak with
(12:48):
what he said and what he did. And I joke,
for the buddy of mine, it's a shame they have
to play games because you know he's doing everything right,
and eventually they'll they'll lose, and we don't know how
good they're going to be yet. So you know, then
when you go in and beat Duke, well, I still
think they're going to lose games. But you know, if
you're a Kentucky fan, you could at least hope it
(13:09):
may not be for a while. So it's really gone
away amazingly well and it's just funny how quickly it turned,
you know, within about twelve hours.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, that's happened down here with football. You can trust
me on that one. Tom Leech is the play by
play voice of the Kentucky Wildcats. The Cats will be
here on Saturday to take on the Loghorns at two
point thirty here and we look forward to it. Tom.
As always, it's great to visit with you. I appreciate
you taking a time and look forward to seeing you
down here in the Capital City on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Let me give you one note I've found in doing prep.
I went back and looked up some details in that
nineteen fifty one game. Yeah, Bear Bryant coach Kentucky. At
the time, we were talking a lot about turnovers. There
were ten in that game. Kentucky had six, Texas had four,
and Kentucky missed an extra point and that was the difference.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And it was played in front of a robot crowd
of forty seven hundred. I saw at DJIL forty seven
hundred at old Memorial Stadium, which has now been redone
and reconfigured and all that kind of stuff. State, same
physical structure with a lot of add on and improvement
and celebrating its one hundredth year this year. So that's cool. Hey, Tom,
(14:19):
thanks so much again. I appreciate you joining us, and
we look forward to it on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Sounds good, looking forward to it. Craig.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
That's Tom Leech's play by play voice of the Kentucky Wildcats.
We'll have more coming up here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.