2025-10-27 KSR PRE-SHOW

Villy talks with jeff Piecoro.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to another edition of the KSR Pre Show.
Today is Monday, October twenty seventh. I'm Billy Reutligion and
you can give us a call on the Clark's Pumping
Shop phone line.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That's eight five nine two eight zho two two eight seven.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Text us at five oh two two six five six
six five six, And as always, the KSR Pre Show
is brought to you by Italics Fine Italian Dining in Lexington, Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Here at the City Center on Main Street.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
It's Monday, and surprise, Shannon the dude is on vacation.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
He's got plenty of it.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
So we dig into our little black book to bring
in a week of guests. And today joining us is
the sports director of ABC thirty six. He is the
color commentator on the UK Sports Network for Kentucky football
games and former Kentucky football player back in the eighties.
It is Jeff Biccoro. Good morning, Jeff, what's good morning Bill?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
I feel like Michael Madson after that the great song
that you always use for that intro, it's it's really
cool Rest.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
In Peace, great movie to Michael Madson. The first time
I listened to that song was during that as well. Yeah,
so it's odd to shift my thinking of that song
from that scene.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
To this show, but it has over the last four years.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
And Jeff, you've been on the show a couple of times,
so I appreciate you joining me this billy.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Anything for you, You do a yeoman's job when you
sit on the other side of the board without the
mic in front of you, So anything you need.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, I appreciate it. Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
I've loved working with you over the past few years.
I've learned to turn your mic down as soon as
we go to break because you never know what's going
to come out of your mouth when we go to break.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
So that's the best stuff too.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
That is the best stuff, which no doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
It's it would be like Howard Stern.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Right, no, and with KSR two, I mean as soon
as those mics go dead, good thing. Rick Ryder is
doing his job this week. He's producing for us back
in the studio. Are you a morning or night person? Me?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
I'm a Nike guy only because of you know, everything
I've ever done in sports. You know, there's no not
a whole lot of sports done on them, So yeah,
you know, ever since nineteen eighty four when I started
at Channel thirty six. Yeah, you know you don't get
off the news till eleven thirty.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
So yeah, I guy, yeah, and I am for the
most part too, especially this weekend with a basketball game
and a football game, these postgame shows going into midnight
and one in the morning, but NFL shows that you
do now goes till late, Jeff, I was telling you
before the show started. I got two hours of sleep
last night because we were recording late, and then I
just can't turn off the brain immediate, right. But I

(02:30):
have had to force myself to become a morning person
with this show. I mean, you don't have you don't
have a chance, right, Like you've just got to become
Chipper in the morning, and that'd be lucid. That's taken
three to four years, no doubt about it. Oh yeah,
and especially with the little help from coffee too. I
got my little little helper over.

Speaker 4 (02:46):
As do I.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
That's uh, well, we definitely needed some coffee. After that weekend.
We'll talk about the good, the bad, the ugly. And
if you'd like to call and ask Jeff any questions
today eight five nine two eight zero two two eight seven.
And I'm just curious on what fran Cursey would say
at a time like this, what Jerry Claiburn would do
during a losing streak. Jeff, I mean you've been in

(03:07):
those locker rooms before. You you get the mindset of
players and coaches during these tough times like this.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, one hundred and eighty degrees between those two. I mean,
coach Cursey was came from basically the NFL.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
He played for the.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Houston back then they were called what I think of
Dallas Texans. But he was a pro coach and treated
us more like pro guys. And that's why, you know,
some of the problems started at the end. But you
know he would just come in there and kind of
rip your head off. The old school Yeah, oh yeah.
It was just you know, you're not living up to

(03:41):
the standards and if you don't, you're gonna be gone.
Your scholarships were one year, not four. You know that
kind of stuff. And then Jerry Claiburn was a god
fearing you know, let's make sure we all go to
you know, after the game on Saturday night, he would say, hey,
let's make sure, but he goes to church tomorrow. We've
got to have FCI meetings and we're gonna do this
and you go and you use your psycho cybernetics and

(04:03):
see yourself winning next week. So it's two totally different uh,
two totally different people.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
It sounds like me moving from Tampa, Florida to Oldham County,
Kentucky exactly just a culture shop.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Did one style work more than the other with you?

Speaker 4 (04:18):
I I really like.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Coach Kersey, I mean his staff was uh, I mean
Larry Larry Kirksey, who was the receivers coach, was an
unbelievable ballplayer in high school here in the state eastern Kentucky.
He was Jerry He left Kentucky became the receivers coach
for a team called the San Francisco forty nine ers,
and they really had John Taylor and Jerry Rice, two

(04:41):
of the greatest, maybe the greatest receiving tandem. He was
their coach, won Super Bowls with them, So he was
one of our coach Jerry Bailey defensive, I mean, it
was just one George Catavolo's just some great coaches. So
that staff was was really neat. And then coach Clayburn
was a was a very demanding coach, but he also

(05:03):
ran every facet of the game. He ran that wide
tackle six defense, and they said, look, with the people
we have, it'd be better if we ran a you know,
a five to two or you know, put that extra dip. Yeah,
now we're gonna run this wide tackle six. And then
on offense, the offensive coordinator would call the playdown to
coach Nord. You probably know Coach Nordon coach at Louisville
for him too, and Coach Nord would like, grab us

(05:26):
by the shirt and he go right eighty six, you know,
right zz past eighty six x corner and start to
push you in and Coach Clavern on the headsets would
come run out, no, no, no, no, no, run forty
six down, and you're like, gosh, just let him do
his job and we can have so much more fun.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
So it was totally totally different guys. You know, at
one hundred and seventy pounds soaking wet back then, what
he expected us to do at different positions were just
something that I didn't agree with. I didn't agree with
beating the heck out of each other in practice, especially
when you're you know, ones versus ones and you're supposed
to cut, you know, I'm supposed to take Carrie Baird's

(06:06):
knees out from under him, you know, on a running play,
and I'm like, he's the all SEC cornerback and you
want me to cut him in practice? It just didn't
make sense to me, and I just I don't know.
I probably I should have gone to Eastern after Cursey left. Really,
oh yeah, they were great back then, and coach Kid
had said, you know, the doors opened, interview all the
you know, and but you know, it got me where

(06:29):
I am now, and so, you.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Know, and you're doing great things.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
You have to go to bowl.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Games with coach Cleavern, which we didn't get to do
with coach Cursey. So there's pluses and minuses with it.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
But yeah, it's.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Fun now, Yeah, it's it's always fun to play what if. Yeah,
with some of those things, you know, it is odd
during losing streaks, and the current Kentucky team is in
one right now, losing to Tennessee over the weekend fifty
six to thirty four. They're two and five on the season,
oh and five and SEC play. I think it's ten
straight SEC games they've lost at this point. I mean,
the coach can only do so much they do get

(07:00):
a lot of the blame, but also at the same time,
I'm curious on like the player leadership you had back
in the day, because I think a team could be
set up to fail pretty easily if you don't have
the right guys that can stand up and get your attention.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
You're exactly right.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
And look, I think we all knew these three games
that they just played were going to be the toughest
part of the schedule, and you know, probably should have
won at least one of those. Should have beat Texas.
I mean, you beat them in every single fast of
the game except the scoreboard, and I know, infuriating.

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean they had two plays in the entire game,
and it's two punt returns. They don't have those. I mean,
they do nothing.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
They should have lost Mississippi State, Yes, this past weekend.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I just don't think they're that good of a team.
But to your point, it gets a little easier. It's
the first time they play a non ranked team since.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
I think Eastern Michigan. Yeah, so that's good.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Albert's got a nice defense, their offense is nothing to
wow you about. And the great thing about Kentucky is
they've kind of unleashed, cut a bowl and allowing him
to do stuff. The second year in Bush's offense, I
think he's very comfortable now.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
He's very comfortable playing.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
By himself in the backfield, which we call an empty
set where they're putting five receivers and what that does,
And every time they did against Tennessee, it would pull
the linebacker out. So now you could run the football
because now there's only six guys in the box. You
basically got five guys blocking six. But if you take it,
you know, it's a half, which you do, it's three
on two or you know, so you should have the

(08:27):
upper hand in Kentucky was able to run the football
against Tennessee, which nobody's been able to do this year.
And against Texas they were, you know, four hundred yards
of offense. So to me, the offense has really turned in.
So you ask about the leadership, and it's the seniors
that really have to step up now. And look, you
can still go to a ball game, you can still
achieve a lot of goals. You have five games left now.

(08:49):
Two of them are going to be tough games, Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Louisville last two of the year.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
The other three are winnable games, you know, And I
don't see any And I kind of said this before
the season started. I see going into those last two
games with five wins, And so that's gonna see if
you're gonna end up going to a Liberty Bowl or
if you're gonna go to the Music City Bowl. If
you get to seven, you could possibly get to the
Gator Bowl. So there's still all that in front of them.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
There is, there's still a lot to play for. And
you know, a lot's been said about this team this year.
You can't say that they've quit, especially after these last
two games.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
The offense has.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Gotten better, Like you've said, was a little disappointed in
the defense this past week.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Where did it go wrong?

Speaker 1 (09:30):
I mean, I get I hear the term that Kentucky
is a bad matchup like Tennessee is a bad matchup
for Kentucky. Is that just personnel or is it you know,
the way that they play, it's a little.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Bit of personnel only because your best cornerback is DJ
Waller and and it's it's such a tough situation.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Another what if I sat through this with how how
Morris with the Cincinnati Ritz he got hurt in the
first week the season, pulled a hamstring and he set
out two weeks, you know, went on the d L
back then it was two weeks. He comes back, tries
to play, pulls it again and for the whole season,
and then Todd Benzinger ends up taking his place. They
win the World Series, and but you know, it's just

(10:07):
it's you got to get that one hundred percent healed.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
I mean, he's rare to go all last week. Then
it warm ups.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Right before the game, he tweaks it, so now you're
throwing to Ryan back there.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Nichols, who's a freshman.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Struggled a little bit last game.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
The one thing Tennessee's had ever since when we played
it was Stanley Morgan on one side, Willie Goad on
the other's two track champions Hancock, another Olympic sprinter. They've
always had those guys. Yeah, and they they really they
really push your defense to the limit because everything they
do is vertical. On pass plays of twenty yards or more.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Okay, oh, this stat was great.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
This is the most unbelievable stat I've ever heard in
a football game. He was six for six for two
hundred and seventy four yards. You do the math, what's
a forty yards to catch up? Yeah, seventy four yards.
He only threw for like three twenty so the rest
of his completions were only nickel.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
And dimes stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
And to that point, like, let's not act like Kentucky
wasn't in the game. I mean they go on a
sixteen play, what ninety something yard drive right before half,
they make it twenty eight twenty one. You think maybe
they have some momentum and they give up like a
seventy five yard drive and a minute thirty And that's
just Tennessee right to a t. But we've seen the
middle late, you know, come back to bite stoops once

(11:28):
or twice, not finishing drives, penalties, these are things that
you have to clean up if you're gonna want to
win a game in the SEC.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Just like the South Carolina game, you gave him fourteen points,
you know, they get they get the the crazy thing
that's an oblong football and he tips it. It goes
straight up in the air, comes straight down to it
and you're like, oh, come on, yeah, can't go to
the right or left or and then the fumble was
just keystoe cops at there.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Oh it was done. No no, no no no no no no,
that was none.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
I thought when Mackley got it, hey go you know,
then he gets h I'm like, this is crazy. But
then you get him two short fields, they score fourteen
and basically it's game over.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
That interception really the one mistake Cutter made all night. Yes,
his second touchdown throw in stride to the receiver was perfect, perfect,
And you know, if there is a coaching change, that
is a fundamental piece for any coach that's looking at
this program. Hopefully he can stick around to develop into
the player that I think many want Cutter Bully to become.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
But you got to look forward, You got to move forward.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Auburn's this week, they did come back and win their game,
but Hugh Freeze is on the hot seat.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Florida's already fired their coach.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Can we talk about buyouts later in the show, because
Brian Kelly about that LSU, I mean James Franklin, Penn State,
Florida with Billy Napier, I mean, we are.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
It's almost two.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Hundred million dollars worth of buyouts being paid right now
by college football teams.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
And by the end of the year, it's good it'll
be closing on a billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
How do I get into that business?

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Like, well, it's the greatest job.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
Ed Orcheron when he went in to see the you know,
the powers to be at LSU, they said, we're going
to pay you thirty five million dollars to not coaches
for us a year. And he got up and said,
I'll see you discussed.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
We're good. I'm great. I'm gonna get on my boat
and y'all just sent me the check.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Yeah, that sounds like the dude's dream job.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
The greatest job in the world is being an ex
football coach.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah it no, Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'm not optimistic
about that Vandy game though, Jeff. I mean they won
versus Missouri. I don't know if you saw that game.
It ended on a Hail Mary at the one yard line.
But Diego Pavia has just been sensational that. I mean,
they may make the playoffs this year.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
I mean, you go out and that's the thing that
you and I talked about this a little bit. And
I'm not going to be too harsh, but the evaluators
around college football New Mexico State, you really think a
guy from Mexico State can walk into the SEC and
become Johnny Manziel the second Well you got him.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
I mean it's it's.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
He's turned the whole program around. He's funded the whole
stadium rehab just by him being there and what they've
been able to do under him.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
The place is packed.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I mean, we go to games and if the Kentucky
fans weren't there, it would look like a spring game.
I mean there's when five thousand Vanderbilt fans in the
statens and the rest.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Of them were all blue. And now you can't get
a ticket.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, we talked about it on the NFL Show last night.
It feels like Vandy has taken Nashville away from the Titans.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
They have every game Dirk Spentley's doing this, or you
know name Miranda Lambert, or if Taylor Swift comes and
swings sings the anthem, then then it's over.

Speaker 4 (14:33):
Then the Titans should move.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
But tell me if you agree with this or not,
Vandy shows you that this can be reset in just
a year, like these rosters can be reloaded.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
INDIANAA was a bad Big Ten football team. Signetti gets
there in his first year. The first year they.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Go to the Playoff.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
It's incredible. Now they're number two in the country.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Yes, QUARTERBA fifty a game.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
The quarterback's gonna go top five in the draft. Yeah,
that's just it.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
And where's he from? I don't know exactly, no idea.
It's not like he came from, you know, Florida State
or Ohio State or any of that.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
These are guys you're finding that are out there. You know.
It just proves that you can do it.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
If you have the right evaluators on your staff that
are breaking down positions and breaking down what will work
in your offensive schemes.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
It can be done.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
And that's what probably makes this most frustrating of all
in Kentucky's lack of success over the last couple of years.
We'll talk more Kentucky football today with Jeff Pikoro if
you have a question eight five nine two eight zero
two two eight seven. We've got some positive basketball talk
to discuss as well. I mean, how good to Kentucky
look versus perdue. I want to talk a little baseball
because the World Series is on Jeff, and you worked

(15:45):
with the Reds for a number of years, so you
are in a good position to talk about how the
game has changed.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
Billy, I want to talk about how expensive coffee is.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Oh, trust me, I don't. I can't. I can't buy
from those chains on this radio.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
So yeah, six dollars for coffee.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
It is ridiculous, But like I said, I have to
have it now to become that morning person. So we
can be Chipper here on the KSUR pre Show. It's
a Monday edition of the Case Our Pre Show with
Jeff Picorro. I'm Billy Rutlige and we will be right back.
All right, welcome back. It is a Monday edition of
the Case Our Pre Show, Billy Rutledge and Jeff Pecoro
here joining me in studio.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
I love these in studio shows. You know. Shannon and
I connect via teams every morning.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's like it's like I'm back in COVID doing zoom
calls with my managers. It's nice to have somebody in
person like Jeff Pikorro today.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
I can't believe you guys do the show from different
places and don't really talk that much until you get
on the air. That's the hilarious part to me. The wakes,
it's so good.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
We will say maybe three sentences to each other before
the show starts, and there's always something that comes out
of those three sentences.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
That's how we'll start the show.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Is like I'll say I've only gotten two hours of sleep,
and then he'll bring up how he got ten hours
to sleep last night. And so it's been a lot
of fun with Shannon. It'll have been fun four years.
But excited to have Jeff alongside us today. And if
you're doing any betting on DraftKings, you can bet on
the World Series today. Game three, it's all tied up
between Toronto and the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Who are you rooting for here, Jeff?

Speaker 1 (17:11):
Because I'm kinda on America's side, even though the Japanese
born player is their most popular player.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Are who you going with?

Speaker 3 (17:18):
I was really rooting for Seattle because they you know,
they never been to the World Series or anything. So
when they got beat, I switched my leechance to Toronto.
As a Red Sky, you can't root for the Diet's
kind of like rooting for Louisville if you're a Kentucky guy,
or Kentucky if you're a Louisville guy. So I understand that,
but making the playoffs this year I mean the summer
of Ellie.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
I mean we were in, we were out amazing. It
was an up and down year, but they make the playoffs.
Terry Francona works as magic. I mean, you gotta be
optimistic for their future.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
If Ellie's the shortstop next year, I might go strangle.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Terry, where are you gonna move them to a centerfield?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Centerfield?

Speaker 3 (17:54):
He would be Billy Hamilton that could hit in centerfield.
I just think it would. I think, as your shortstop
cannot have fifteen errors a year, I mean, you just
that can't happen. You can't have double digits. I mean,
you know, Doug Flynn and I we talk about it.
Your shortstop has to be the rock of that defense.
And Ellie's great, makes the spectacular plays, but he loses

(18:16):
concentration and makes easy plays that you know don't happen
and stuff. But I just think if you put him
out in the outfield, he would be a Hall of Famer.
I mean that good out there.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
You're a man of many talents, Jeff, But where does
baseball rank in your labors of love?

Speaker 3 (18:31):
I love doing baseball, you know what, Here's the thing.
I don't really like the game much anymore. It's changed
so much. It's just let's go out there and throw
the ball as hard as I can for four innings
and then I'm done. I threw my seventy five pitches.
Because when you're throwing that hard, when you're out there
trying to throw one hundred every pitch a lot of time,

(18:52):
your precision's not there, so you're getting a lot of
three ball counts. So these pitchers are only going five innings.
That's why the dude from the Dodgers, Yamamoto, is just
my blowing the two games in a row, one in
the Championship Series and now in the World So he
goes a complete game. I mean, that's something hasn't happened
in since like the eighties. Yeah, the complete games have gone.
They're gone, but we caught five and dive. A pitcher

(19:14):
goes five innings. He knows, so now you can get
the win. I'm done, and then now it's all up
to the bullpitch.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Trust me.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
I know as a Tampa Bay Rays fan, they called
Blake Snell in the sixth inning in the Game six
of the World Series because he'd never gone through the
lineup three times once in.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
The year and it only give it up, like what
two hits, one hit, one hit the entire game.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
Then the open guy gets rocks as soon as he
comes in. It's a it's a numbers game, and we've
seen that change not only in football but baseball.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
But sometimes maybe the gut is the way to go.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
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Speaker 2 (19:51):
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vision here Jeff.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Got gambling problem called the NBA.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Geez that was at an incredible story.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
I'm I'm absolutely mind by now.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I understand because we had talked about this with players,
you know, like Kenny Walker and I and other people
had talked about how easy it is for a guy
to throw a game and not make it look like that.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
Jack Gibbons, who you know very well.

Speaker 3 (20:40):
JACKI used to come around and speak to our team,
our football team every year about about gambling and drugs.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
Really because when he got drafted, he played.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Behind John Lucas, and John Lucas was a great player,
and about paraphrasing the story from Jack, about eight ten
games into the season, they're in morem ups. In's playing
ten twelve minutes a game, and Lucas goes, hey, rook,
you gonna make your money to night.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Bro.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
He's like, what, didn't know what he was talking about.
So they throw the ball up, tip off, Hawks get it,
run down, Lucas charge foul one next time down the
court defensively boomy fouls, Billy rut Ledge boom two fouls.
He sits the whole first quarter. Jack Gibbings play, gets
in second quarter, plays about a minute and a half, foul,
three fouls.

Speaker 4 (21:24):
He sits on the bench the rest of the half.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Well, Lucas was a drug addict, and he would he
was out all night the night before. It's all coked
up and everything didn't get back to the hotel till
you know, early morning, sleeps a couple hours, he gets
on the bus, goes to the game and says, instead
of me pulling myself, all I canna do is go
hard for a minute and a half. I sit the
first half a minute half of the second half and

(21:48):
Jack plays.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
The rest of the game.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
So another five or six games into the season and
warm ups, Hey, Jack, go make your money tonight.

Speaker 4 (21:56):
Jack was like, oh, so, you know, he gets a
good sweat up.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
And so Jack come and talk to you guys about.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
And he would come in about the evils of drug right,
and you know what it would do and yeah, and
outside forces, you know, playing into this tennes stuff. Yeah,
we had an FBI agent that would come in and
speak to us about gambling. Yeah, because people will call
you and just say, hey, man, how's like type right,
how's type bright doing?

Speaker 4 (22:19):
And you know he's got like.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
A bad knee or something, and you're like, yeah, he's
been really struggling.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Probably, Okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
You gotta be yeah exactly, hitch you guys right away.
We gotta take a break. We'll be back with more
on the kosrpre show. All right, welcome back, ksrpre show,
Billy Rutledge and Jeff Picoro, who just got Corey priced
over the break.

Speaker 4 (22:40):
He's unbelievable, isn't he?

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Uh found an old box store and said, even though
it was a loss. Pacoro had seventy two yard and
an eighty yard touchdown reception in UK football's JV game
against Tennessee Military in nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
Remember that, Yes, I do. And he's a little bit
off on that, oh lea. Those were just the long ones.
I had four touchdown catches and they gave and one
called back for a holding penalty that to this day
didn't happen.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Wait that you would have had five touchdown Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, we had Mike Whittaker. Mike Whittaker was the big
recruit that came in. It was going to be the
next great quarterback. And they had him and Bill Ransdell
in the class, and Bill was kind of like an
afterthought and Uh, Bill ended up beating out Mike and
became and Mike uh transferred to Eastern, but Mike was
the quarterback. We went down there and we and this

(23:36):
was Greg Nord coaches and and just said we're just
gonna throw the ball all over the field because we
had like two offensive linemen who were like coming back
off injury, so they played in the game and we
just yeah, it was like Tennessee we just boom boom.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Well one, I love it's Tennessee Military that you're playing,
am I that's that's that's like uh, Kentucky basketball playing
the YMCA back in the day, like it was different.
And then when did they get rid of JV teams
in the eighties eighties, mid eighties?

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Probably I really thought they should keep it because it
gave guys a real opportunity to get film. And you
always hear guys like Van Hiles and people like that
it's the most important thing because in practice, you're running
against guys who don't give a darn out there. You
know they no, they're on the they're just cannon fodder.
But in a game situation, guys are trying to play.

(24:27):
Because TMI was a school. You got to remember back then,
if you didn't make your grades, you couldn't get into school.
So they had these military academies and prep schools that
a lot of guys went to, Like Randy Moss for instance,
you know he went to one of those before Yeah,
before he went to college, and so these are guys
that were trying to make it, but to get film

(24:48):
against a real defense playing hard against you, and coaches say, oh,
this guy can he can actually block, or this guy
can actually throw, or this guy can actually catch.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
So I thought it helped tremendously help me.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Well, getting more film is the argument for the new
football team in Louisville, the Louisville King's the newest edition
of the UFL, the USFL. I don't know what they
call it anymore, but do you think that has a
shot of being successful?

Speaker 3 (25:13):
I just know, much like the golf that used to
be the Barbersol here now when they moved it there.
Because of the infrastructure of the companies in Louisville, I
think it's got a shot if they go that route
of trying to get you know, corporate help. Because the
tournament this year in golf was fantastic, that the Hurstborn

(25:34):
act at Hurstborn because there's just more I mean, plus
the city's what twice three times the size of Lexington.
But again it's all professional sports now are run by
corporations because it's just so expensive to go to a
Red's game and get a decent seats fifty bucks. If
you've got two kids, you know, you spend two hundred
dollars for you walk in the door.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Oh yeah, Concessions is a whole other thing. And then
they see the kettle corn over there, it's like eleven dollars.
I mean, so you've got to have the corporate sponsorship
behind you. If they can get that, then I think
it'll I think it'll. Now you glossed over Hersborn there
a little bit. I think that may have been the
last time we were together.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
That was.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
That was a nice country. Those greens were like postage
stamps too. Oh yeah, that's the green, you know. Playing
with the TJ Make and Pay Smith who lives on
the course, one of my good buddy made a tactical
stop at his house maybe for a beverage during the round.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
That was a lot of fun despite the pouring rain
out there that day.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
It's a beautiful course, and Louisville's blessed to have a
bunch of nice courses. Lexieton's got their fair share of
nice courses too. I've never played Lexington country clubs, I
wouldn't know, and I've never played Idoleers, so I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
But well, hey, speaking into existence, just that power of positivity,
and maybe we'll hear somebody have a listening and they'll
get us on.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
Maybe Stoops will bring us out.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, we'd love I'm sure he's listening right now, probably
his morning radio shows. But speaking of the power of
positivity and is it numerologyrology, yeah, power number.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Nine this year.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Uh, maybe it's hard not to overreact after what we
saw Friday and the exhibition win over number one team
in the country, Purdue. Matt Painter said after the game,
it could have been worse. This Kentucky team is really
good without two of their best players, without Jaden Quainton's
and their starting point guard Jalen Low. Jeff, you watched
the game, I'm sure did you have the same takeaways?

Speaker 3 (27:21):
That was the BB Yeah, and uh, the athletic just
this morning, it's come out in Michigan and they have
Michigan and Kentucky as the top teams, the top teams
of Michigan and I look again, it was an exhibition game,
so you don't know how hard you know, guys are playing.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
But I was. I was impressed.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
I mean, Mark made a great point afterwards, he said
in ninety six.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
I know, were you even born ninety six? So that
team was so good.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I mean, I remember Dick Vitalo one time saying the
starting five is ranked number one and their second five
is sixth on my on my list.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
That's how good they were.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, And he made the point that in ninety six
everybody shared minutes. Can we do that in this era
where guys are getting paid and they need that, you know.
But he's got a great group of guys. I think
that's one thing that is different about him. He didn't
go out and get the best players in the country
and I'm doing my little finger ear quotes, but he

(28:25):
got guys that fit what he's trying to do. And
the great teams at Kentucky were teams they did like
I guess Mashburne was the great guy with you know,
the four, but they are teams. You know, it's a
fiddle and five RUPs run. You know, it's more than
one guy, and this team is deep. The only question

(28:50):
mark to me what was going to be point guard?
But then I saw Jasper Paid played point guard, and
I was like, this kid's eighteen years old or seventeen
years old. He played like an.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Animal, Jasper and Malachi I thought were the surprises of
the night. Two freshmen you didn't know if they could
adjust to the game.

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Took the words right out of my mouth.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
I saw Malachi play for, you know, the last couple
of years at Great Cross. I said, there's no way
this kid's gonna play in the SEC. They're just gonna
knock him all over the place. And then he plays
a Big ten team and I'm like, where did this
come from?

Speaker 4 (29:20):
He's gained weight.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Number one team in the country. Yes, this is not
just a Big ten team. This is I mean, like
you said, you don't know how hard they're playing. You
don't know if they're running the same rotations that they
might or the same sets. But that was a February
rep Arena atmosphereya in October. Yeah, I mean this fan
base is ready to go, and that looked like a
twenty two million dollar roster.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Yeah yeah, yeah. You know two things.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
One, why did they wait till now to say, okay,
you're allowed to play an exhibition game.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
Instead of playing Trancy, we're.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Playing Purdue and Georgetown instead of playing you know, one other,
one of those other teams that comes in. You're playing Georgetown.
You know why is it takes all? And then here's
my other point. Mark Stoops asked about this, why can't
we baseball does it?

Speaker 4 (30:09):
Basketball does it? When this basketball does it? Baseball does
it all the time. Have an exhibition game?

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Why can't I practice against Let's say you see Bearcats
come on down and on a Friday, we're gonna have
a practice together.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
On Satday, we're gonna have a little scrimma. Is that against?
The Bilog says, oh, you can't do that. Well, you
do it in every other sport.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
Yeah, the NFL is really popular that too.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
Why can't we do it?

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (30:31):
I wouldn't want to see like a full exhibition game
just because I'm wear and tear, But like, yeah, the
just to practice with another team.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
The problem that Stoops always says, that's the reason we
can't play a regular blue white game. We don't have
the death But if you bring another team in, yeah,
now you do, because you don't need four offensive tackles,
you only need two.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
And the spring game has kind of become a moot point,
like it's just not the same it is anymore, and
people don't even let you film it anymore. Right, So
that would be very bad because a lot of times
you see these guys rusty NFL. You see them rusty
because they don't take the preseason seriously.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
But I think this game helped helped Kentucky a lot,
and I think it helped Purdue because now they say, Okay,
here's what we need to shore up because this is.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
What they beat us on. This is what they beat
us on. You know.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
But Mark is such an analytical guy, so he got
his data points what he he you know, talks about that.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Dude is one smart guy, and.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
He is and it feels like that he all the
issues on the roster last year. He is corrected, whether
it be defense with Modiabat, who was incredible, or the
depth that they have now the platoon was ten guys, Jef,
they've got twelve.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah at this point.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
That so now it's all right, who Now The discussion
between people when you're at lunch or something is, well,
who's gonna lose time with Jalen comes back? Yeah, who's
Quaintan's going to play for? Dude, they are your two
best players on the team. They're gonna play.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
Yeah, and one of them that might be on the
outside looking at as Cam Williams, and he was just
mocked in the first round of Bleacher Reports Lioness mock draft, right,
and that may be your guy that's on the outside
looking in, maybe because of defensive purposes, because everything I
saw from Aberdeen was pretty incredible.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
Trent Noah is, Yeah, probably gonna be the best shooter
on the team this year.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Isn't it amazing how far he's come since high school.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
He's a good shooter, but now he's an elite shooter.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
Yeah, and he comes in with Travis Perry, the all
time leading scorer of Kentucky history.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Kind of that your tension's there.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
But the Mountain Mamba, the holler baller, maybe the one
that's endearing himself the most to this Kentucky fan base.
It was just it was what I think Kentucky fans
needed after what's been a tough football season. Not saying
that everybody has shifted the page over to basketball season yet,
but Jeff, you know, crossover time right about now, this

(32:41):
is when people get really excited.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
To me, it's the best time of the year.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
You get the World Series going on, you have basketball
starting and Espanish. Look, I know we talk incessantly about
UK men's basketball because look at what they've done. I mean,
they are what Kentucky is. But you have two other
teams here in the volleyball team and the women's basketball
that are ranked, and volleyball has got a great chance

(33:05):
at winning the national champion.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
It's just amazing to me.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
The depth of what we have here in any sports.
Gymnastics is good, so that's kind of cool. I just
think it's kind of neat that we spread stuff around.
The baseball team went to the World Series two years ago.
I mean, it's just amazing to me the other sports
that we just kind of take for granted too.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Craig Skinner has got a squad this year. I mean
they beat it. I think they swept Alabama over there.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Be the most underrated coach in the history of Kentucky
any sport and a former CaSR pre show co host.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
He's come on here a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Great guy, Yeah, wonderful guy, really really nice guy.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
And we're wishing Craig the best.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Also Kenny Brooks, who seems like he's got another tall
roster this year. Jeff you interviewed him like, I mean,
he made a comment at media Day he was like
we take pride and not having a ton of steals
just because they play defense differently.

Speaker 3 (33:56):
Because they yeah, they funnel people into the lane where
you've got sixty five sixty four, sixty four yep.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
And that's why they lead the country in blocks last
year and I bet you they do it again yep.
Just because of how tall that damn team is.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Strack and key, both of them could take a rebound
or a block and take off. They're like Magic Johnson.
It's actually it's really cool watching them play.

Speaker 4 (34:16):
It's fun.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
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(34:39):
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Speaker 2 (34:52):
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Speaker 2 (35:02):
Jeff, do you know anything about it?

Speaker 3 (35:03):
I was just getting ready to say I need to
stretch to get out of bed.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
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Speaker 2 (35:07):
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Speaker 4 (35:14):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
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and fort Wright. Big thank you for sponsoring the pre show.
We need to take a break. We'll be right back
here on the Kiss our pre Show with Jeff Picoro.
Welcome back. It's the final segment of the show before
the show. It's Billy Rutledge and Jeff Piccoro. The hour
goes by quick, Yes it does. And I feel like
the first quarter of the Kentucky Tennessee game was like

(35:35):
an hour thirty.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Oh my god, it was unbelievable, wasn't it. We're like,
we're gonna be here till two in the morning.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
It was ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
And then the second quarter was much of the same,
and then it kind of got a little out of
hand a little later.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
I'm gonna say this is true.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Ray on Twitter says seven years ago today was Jeff's
I didn't need a signal call at Missouri.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Well, as soon as they popped out of the huddle
and you see the way they were aligned, I said,
all he's gonna do is run a little out and
there's no way the defender who was playing inside of
him to try to keep him from, you know, doing
a slant pattern, because I knew the outside guy was
going to run.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
And you see a lot of times up there right exactly.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
I anybody that sits in the booth or or up top,
if you played, you can see what they're trying to
do on different plays. And as soon as the ball
was snapped, I'm like, because they came out in man,
so I knew the outside guy was going to do
something outside and he was just going to go two
steps and go to the corner.

Speaker 4 (36:37):
And it was perfect. It was set up perfectly I
still remember that game.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
The coolest turn, but the coolest thing in the whole
game was lin Bowden going up the stoops and go
put me in. I'll return this for a touchdown and
Mark went okay, go ahead, and damned if he didn't
do it.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Is that not the best coaching performance you've ever seen
from any grand the year at Lynn, Bowden went to
quarterback for a that that looked.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
I know a lot of people don't like what Eddie
did here in his but if you would have seen
that offense at Cincinnati, which I did, and then see
what he did that year, he's a really really good coach.
And that to change your offense during the season to
a dude that doesn't play quarterback and to have the

(37:22):
season play out the way it did. Had he started
the year that way, could have been a Sugar.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Bowl team And it was really impressive. He was just
one of those dudes.

Speaker 4 (37:31):
Man.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
He was just one of those guys that you'll remember forever.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Speaking of remembering, what are some of broadcasting moments that
Jeff Percooro remembers outside of the I didn't.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Need a signal call at Missouri? Is there something that
comes to mind when you when somebody asked you one.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Of the yeah, one of questions that one of the
coolest things was Jay Bruce's home run at home clinches
the National League Central and I'm on the field, you know,
for it, and so I'm in the dugout and when
he hits it, you know it's gone because he left
handed and it's in the Great American and he hits
that ball and I was like, this place is going

(38:06):
to go crazy. And then we're in the clubhouse and
we're smoking cigars, you know, with the players and stuff.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
That that was a really cool moment.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
I mean, that's that's something that like a lot of
people don't get to do. Another one was when Todd
Frazier won the home run derby. Yeah, And as soon
as that's over, he goes inside because the Hall of
Fame is there. They have represented from the Hall of Fame,
and they take everything off of him, everything to his jock,

(38:35):
they take all really yes, and I'm there with him
standing there, and then he changes his clothes and I
get to interview him in the clubhouse for you know,
for our for our TV.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
That was really cool.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Gripped down, we need it all for the Fame Hall
of Fame. And then I was.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Doing a Mississippi State. They were undefeated basketball against Cincinnati
and in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Classic and the
the the radio announcer for UC Dan Horde, and oh
my god, I can't remember his name, but anyway, he
got he got. He the Mississippi State color guy was

(39:17):
like eighty years old, and he kept saying give him
a tea because Huggins would jump up and yell and
scream and.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
He was going to give me tea, give me tea.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
And he stood up and he said, shut the up
or I'm gonna kick your and they made they made
him leave the arena. And I'm like, I don't know
what's going on, but Chuck Mayshock is getting thrown out
of the It was but anyway, Rick Rick what's his name,

(39:44):
Rick Standstill or he used to be the coach Stansbury
at Misssippi State. They're undefeated and Steve Logan had thirty
at the half. He had like eight three pointers. It
was ridiculous. That was a cool game because of all
the crazy stuff that was happening.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Well, that's pretty You've just been around a lot lot
of iconic moments and sports, and if you're doing it
a while, you will be. But there's also some times,
I'm sure, and we have like two minutes left before
we leave, that you see things that you can't report on,
you can't talk about.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
I mean, that's probably more than that you do talk about.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
See, that's what we're talking about, having a podcast or
something where you can talk about it. Yeah, maybe I'll
tell you, guys the story about Houston.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
And the fire alarm.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Well the lot the fire you say, fire alarm in
my mind goes to the pulling the alarms the night
before the game, things like that. But like those major
league locker rooms probably back in the day were just
probably a lot different.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
Than what you would see now.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Yeah, you know, you guys can't understand what it's like
coming back from a road trip. Every player has just
boxes in front of their locker and like Homer Bailey
would get saddles and guns and stuff, bows and arrows.
Bronson Oreo would get those electric bikes or whatever they are.

(40:57):
He got a bunch of them, and everybody was riding
them all around, zipping all around the.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
Stadium and stuff.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
This is at two o'clock in the morning when we
get back from away games and stuff.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
Is there kids that have too much money?

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Cool stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Well, Jeff, we're about out of time, man, I really
appreciate you joining me any morning.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Talk a little Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
We get you something about that scam six dollars coffees too,
That is outrty.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Nothing I can do about that. You're gonna have to
start brewing a pot or something. We got some cheap
coffee here.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
You get one more time.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
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(41:44):
slash b ball.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
That's gonna do it for us.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Thank you to Jeff Pricoro for joining me. KOSRS Next
here in the studio, I'm Billy Rutlers. This has been
the ksrpre show and we will talk to you tomorrow