2025-10-28 KSR PRE-SHOW

Billy is joined by Nick Coffey. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone to another edition of the KSR pre Show.
Today is Tuesday, October twenty eighth. I am Billy Rutlie.
We continue our week without Shannon the Dude. You can
give us a call on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone
line today. That's eight five nine two eight oh two
two eight seven. Text us at five oh two two
sixty five sixty six five six And as always, the

(00:20):
KSR pre Show is brought to you by Italics Fine
Italian Dining in Lexington, Kentucky at the City Center on
Main Street. I am not in Lexington, Kentucky today, actually
made the drive through the traffic and rain to Louisville,
Kentucky for some big meetings today and to check excuse me,
to check traffic and weather. I tuned turned on eight

(00:41):
forty whas and heard my guy Nick Coffee, who has
made the journey from sports radio to news radio. He
was kind enough to join me here in studio this
morning as our special guest. Good morning, Nick, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm doing well, happy to be here and I know
along that drive you were well informed about any traffic
along the way and hopefully you were able to make
the necessit area adjustments to have a smoother trip here.
So yeah, happy to help you and happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
It's really good to see you, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I know it's been a long time. You look you
look fresh, tired, Well, no, you look you look I
don't know, you look different, and I can't really figure
out what it is. You're Maybe you're growing up. I mean,
I know you're doing that. You're you're you're a full
growing up now with so many different jobs here that
you are a part of, so many different shows, podcast
that kind of stuff. But always great to see you
and first time ever for me being on this side

(01:28):
in this studio.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
So ah, yeah, well you are a mentor to me.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Nick, Well, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Back in the day twenty seventeen is when I joined Ieheart.
You were doing mid days at that point, twelve to
three on Sports Talk seven ninety I guess seven ninety
KRD back then.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Eight years nearly nine years ago. It is time gone,
and maybe that's part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I used to slick my hair bag. Oh yeah, I
got kind of like the little some bangs going on. Now,
you a little different.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
You came in with a lot of confidence. You still
have that confidence. That's what makes you special. But my
first story of Billy is it's funny to think about
it because at the time I'm in twenty seventeen, I'm
not sure I would have expected a really seen a
scenario where you and Shannon the Dude have your own
show together. But now you do. But you were, you
were filling in producing my show and you had a

(02:13):
night with with std that that that that you carried
with you to the next day, right, that's safe to say.
I mean, Shannon, I don't know if it was a
booty shaking contest or if it was just him holding
court at a at a strip Clay Godfather, Yeah, okay,
and he took you under his wing. And I'm sure
you guys had you had a fun night, but didn't

(02:33):
you just didn't you just fall asleep on the floor.
That that speaks to I think the hangover you were
dealing with. So, yeah, Shannon, that must have been Shannon.
Like initia, He's like, he's initiating you, right.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, like, that's you're right. He did hold court at
many a place as well, That's what he does. Godfather,
it was a sponsored event he would be at and
he was like, yeah, Billy, come on, out. This is
when I'm young and trying to change the world. And
I invited him to be on a podcast with me
and he said no, and then eventually we became a
co host on the show. But he was like, yeah,
come out. So I got a beer tower at the
Godfather and hung out with Shannon the Dude, and then

(03:05):
I had the morning shift and that was how he
Lindsay's show, Oh yeah, that's right, and then your show
from twelve to three. So somehow I made it through
Katie George and Howie Lendsay from seven to ten, and
then there's a gap from ten to noon. And I
think I just took us took a nap on the floor,
and you walked in and I was on the floor
at that point.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I first I was making sure and checking if you
were alive, and you were which was which was good?
And then I remember you telling me about that beer tower,
how it was just a bad idea. I don't know
if it was just too much beer, if it was
bad beer, or what it was. But then another takeaway here,
I mean, Shannon, I don't know anybody that I can
think of that I would call a friend a colleague
that has quite the life that he does. First of all,

(03:45):
unlimited vacation, right yeah, Beach House City in Panama City obviously,
But he gets paid to go to a strip club.
I mean, like that's I mean, how many times can
can can men say they were it was a paid
appearance to show up at a gentleman's club. That's a
life only Shannon and the Dude can it?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
He'd tell you shows you do that day and then yeah,
oh I still have to go out and get paid
to go to the strip club. But that is our guy,
Shannon the dude. That's funny you bring up the first
story that you had of me because I wanted to
talk about first impressions this morning, okay, because I'm here
in Louisville to meet with one of our new bosses,
and you know, I'm excited to be in the hot seat.
Already shook his hand. I was going to go through

(04:22):
play by a play of that with you about you know,
a heart or a soft handshake, things like that. But
it's important to make a first impression, sure, because you
only have one shot, right, So was that my first
impression to you was being on the floor after that?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
No? No, no, I mean I first impression was that you
were you were eager. I would say, if I had
one word to describe you. When I met you, you
quickly told me your background. You told me. In fact,
I remember, didn't you do a show at WKU that
was named the same show that I did on seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yes, the wk zone was the student stage.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
So you came in, you were eager, you were you
were ready for whatever was thrown your way. There was
nothing we could ask you to do that you wouldn't
have at least tried. So that was the first impression.
It was. It was a solid one. Yeah, well good,
it wasn't you being hung over?

Speaker 1 (05:12):
You said that that was the first story, And I said, man,
that must have been a bad first impression. But right,
you get only one chance at it, so you need
to make it worthwhile. I think back then I was
dming anybody that it was I could dm.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
You were eager, you were ready to just get your
foot in the door to get an opportunity. And look
at you now, Well that's what I'm a guest on
your show.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I took a part time job and it only took
a ged in high school to get the job. Not
a broadcast journalism degree, and I kind of worked my
way up. First impression of you, Nick was a lot
of the same hard worker. I mean, you were at
a time slot that was not very successful at twelve
to three when we first met.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, it never really existed. That's that was my story.
I interviewed for the job that they ended up giving
to Howie Lindsay and I remember, and I've shared this
story before, so I'm sorry if you've heard it, but
I I didn't expect to get it, and I didn't
find out that. I didn't get it from anyone. I
just saw that how we had shared some news, and

(06:08):
I wasn't I mean, I was probably disappointed, but there
was also something else going on in my life. At
that time. We were bringing our first child into the world,
my wife and I, so I you know, I went
back to just you know, panicking and thinking, oh my gosh,
I'm about to be a dead I'm gonna have to
take I'm gonna have to take care of a human being,
and this is scary, so out of sight, out of mind.
After a couple of days, and then as we're leaving
the hospital, I got a phone call from Kelly Carls,

(06:30):
who hired me, and I just assumed it was him
telling me, hey, you know, we went in a different direction,
and he did say that, But then he said, but
we're going to create a show that we've never done before,
a live midday noon to three show, if you'd be
interested in that. And I was like, well, can you
can you give me? Can you give me some time
to think about it? And I think he was a
little surprised, and then I explained, yeah, I'm walking out
of the hospital, actually pushing my wife out of the

(06:52):
hospital in a wheelchair, as as the nurses are helping
us take our our new baby to the car. So yeah,
it all came pretty fast. But yeah, I did that
for a while. In fact, being back on this station,
it's uh. I held every day part on this station
for about nine and a half years and it went
by insanely fast. But that means it was fun, right absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I mean you took a leap of faith too. Oh yeah,
talk about that timing with your first born being born
at the time. You know when I entered, you know,
Tony Vannetti was doing After Your Underdogs with Dave Jennings.
That show was wild, and you had Ken Mudd produced
in it back in the day.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yes, now we're now we're going back in time.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
But then maybe the second month on the job, one
of the Louisville scandals broke, and I believe.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Which was there to choose from.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
It's like I'm trying to run through all of them
in my head. I think it's the one that Tom
Jurich got fired.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah, yeah, it was, and and so many people just
lumped those two like one scandal or got them confused.
Which was the Katina pal and then the Brian Bowen
thing were two completely separating.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yes, and so Brian Bowen was in a relatively quick
amount of time a little bit later and that was
more Patino. But yeah, the the one that aust did
Tom Jurich. I mean, it was just incredible timing because
we were on the Louisville sports station at the time
and you're trying to navigate these waters about like what
you can and can't say, what you should say?

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Oh goodness, that's that's a life I don't miss.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
And me as a producer during that time, I was like,
how do you navigate this world? I mean, I've had
to do a lot of the same working on the
UK network, at times.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Now, Oh, the thing that the thing that I that
I I guess just was it was something I was
in the moment not really thinking about any long term
view of it. But the amount of different scandals that
were that were part of content part of the show
is I mean, it's really crazy. I mean you could.
I mean there's some that like randomly like one that

(08:42):
just is easily to forget but also kind of nuts.
And that is the the FBI arresting Dino Gaudio for
trying to restore to basketball. Like it's just like that's
that's like minor level stuff compared to some of the
other things. I mean, it's it is crazy. But that
day that Rick Patino and Tom Jurch were effectively fired,
remember that's actually my first, I guess taste of what

(09:03):
has is compared to seven ninety as far as just
reach signal history that kind of stuff. Because it was
such a big day that they put me on both stations.
I was on seven ninety and eight forty simulcasts because
again we were just live, live tracking and following a
huge story to guys that you thought would never ever
be fired here effectively big fired on the same day.
Within a quick amount of time. So I was doing

(09:25):
the show from the has studio and phone lines were
completely lit as soon as it started, and I'm like, well,
this is what you would expect. I mean, it's a
big day here Louisville, Tom Juriche. I mean, we just
saw him walk to his lexus and leave the university,
probably for the last time. And we didn't take any
calls at the beginning because I was just kind of
getting set, and then we were going to break and
I'm thinking, oh man, we got I mean, we got

(09:46):
more lines on this station than we even do on
seven ninety. This is going to be I mean, it's
what you want, right, you feel the listenership, you want
to react to people, and all it was was people
trying to get through desperately to express how mad they
were that I was on and not rush Limbaugh. So
it was loaded phone lines to just say, who is
this clown? Get him off the radio. I want Rush Limbaugh.

(10:09):
And eventually we couldn't take calls from other people who
did want to talk about the obvious thing because there
were so many people that were mad they weren't getting
rush Limbaugh. So eventually they stopped calling after a while.
But that was my first, I guess realization as to
just the different worlds that are sports and of course
has which is its own animal.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
That's hilarious. A quick aside during COVID, I would put
the Andy Basher press conferences on the radio every morning
or every day it was afternoon, and people would call
in mad that Sean Hannity wasn't on, because I get it,
Andy Basher, it was on, but people want to People
want to hear their program.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Especially if it's and that's just what has is for
so many people is it's just been a part of
their everyday routine for so long. And you know, there
are listeners who it's been their life style as far
as just they start their morning with morning news or
they just keep it on throughout the entire day, and
then their kids have done it. But now their kids,

(11:03):
of course are older, you know, grown ups, and I'm
I guess one of the things I'm tasked with is
to try to make that a part of the you know,
the younger generation. And I'm not talking about you know,
young young young people, but just you know, more so
my demo, my age range. That's that's the hope here,
is that we we bring those folks in.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Well, it's safe to say the content and the topics
that you bring to the show each day have changed. Sure,
I mean it's much to do an hour of your
show today. Can I go through the topics that you
went through during that hour? Sure, you had an officer
involved shooting. Yep, you talked a little how AI is
wrong forty five percent of the time, that's right.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Don't say we're not informing you on things on news
Radio eight forty whas.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Which if anybody knows this show, they know that's true.
With the Adam Sandler ticket giveaway that we had fourteen
hundred flights being delayed, you were talking a little government
shut down during the o'clock hour on hs snap.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Benefits are running out on November first, folks, that's where
it's going to really start to hit you if you
haven't felt the effect of the government shut down sooner
rather than later. It's going to get you.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Mortgage rates possibly coming down, maybe it's a good time
to buy. And then finally you putting up a Christmas
tree the day, oh yeah, after Halloween, which is a
whole topic.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Might even be the night of Halloween, depending upon how
the how the evening works out.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Which is crazy, but I've come to accept that are
some of our stations will turn on the Christmas music
right around the same time. But I run down those
topics very different than Sure, where's Jeff Brom going to
be coaching?

Speaker 2 (12:25):
And you know, Katina pal stuff. Yeah, just a different world.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Are you still fulfilled?

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Like?

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Do you still like this?

Speaker 2 (12:31):
So I have I find myself every now and then realize, Like,
let me give you an example today. I didn't realize
until our first sports update on the show at like
five thirty. I didn't realize that Louisville basketball play tonight.
Wow it's an exhibition game. But still any other time

(12:51):
for the last I don't know, twenty years, maybe I
would have been able to give you not only who
they're playing, I would have been able to give you
the rotation. And I don't say that to Bragg, who
would brag them. I'm just saying it was a big
part of my of my everyday life. So not that
was one of those things that just kind of stopped
me a little bit and thought, Okay, yeah, this is
a lot different. So I worried that I would be

(13:11):
unfulfilled and have this big void, but I don't because
I still do get a chance to at least go
there to an extent with the platform I have on
eight forty. But also I'm kind of just enjoying it
as as a fan, and it's it's a lot of fun.
My son is at a perfect age where he's just
now old enough to be a complete lunatic about U
of L, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

(13:32):
So getting that experience with him, like instead of doing
a postgame show as soon as the game ends, I
take him to games. We enjoy that experience together, and
that's that's.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I guess it's just now this is that chapter of
my life. And I think because I enjoy that so much,
there's not really been any moment where I'm like, well,
I wish I could be sitting next to Tim Sullivan
down there to watch the Cards play to Tim Sully.
I miss Sully. But it's just you know, you know,
I want to I want to be able to, you know,
enjoy it from a fans out of it.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Well, I'm sure there's a part of you that misses it,
but there's also a part of you that did sports
talk radio daily for ten fifteen years that probably could
get away from that talk and that was probably refreshing.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yep. So the the nine plus years on seven ninety
from mid days to mornings to afternoons, which is what
I just finished up when I made the move in June,
that's the longest I've done anything consecutively in my life
other than be married. So I didn't realize that until
it came to an end. In it, In it, you know,

(14:28):
So that gave me not of like, oh, wow, what
am I going to do with my life now? It
was more so, hey, I this was awesome, and who knows, maybe,
you know, you never know how anything's going to work
out around here and what we do. But yeah, it was,
it was, It was. It was a lot of fun.
I never looked at it as anything other than just
being fortunate to be able to do that. But I've
I've found I've found some I've found a good landing

(14:49):
spot where I'm at now to where I actually do
enjoy that challenge. I enjoy the fact that it's different.
But you know, sometimes I do wish I could just
yell about you know, I could wish I could just
scream about something in sports, which I guess I could,
but that's not really what people tune in over there for.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Well, don't worry. Today we'll get your sports talk.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
I guess, Kim, I'm I scratch the itch today.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, exactly right. Well, looking forward to it. A little
bit about the eighteen inning World Series game last night
that I'd tried to stay up for. Maybe we'll talk
about Nick's obsession with Monster energy drinks. I've got some
coffee right now. That's the only way I'm getting through
this morning.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
But in fact, I got one of the fridge.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
You'll learn how many monsters that Nick drinks a day.
We may have some concern for his health.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
They say there's no sugar on it, so it can
be bad, right, I mean, it's just.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
The lighter fluid that you're ingesting. At that point, I
let it and much more on the way. Excited to
be with Nick here in the Louisville building today. You
can give us a call eight five nine two eight
oh two two eight seven if you'd like to join
the show. We'll be right back here on the KSR
Pre Show.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
Welcome back.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
It is the KSR Pre Show, rolling along on a
Tuesday morning here in the Louisville Building where Nick Coffee
is our special guest this morning. That's right, Shannon, the
dude's got more vacation. But you could have guessed that.
Getting some great responses online on Twitter says you can
football down so bad, we had to get Mick Cronan's
brother on the KSR pre show. Yeah, we've heard Mick cronin.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Before come up with something better. I mean, like, you know,
I'm really happy that he ended up not really being
a candidate and it didn't end up being the coach
at Louisville, which wasn't realistic. But obviously that would have
been a bad thing for me for people to just
remind me that they can't see, they have no vision,
they're blind, and they think that we look like because
also when you tell somebody that they look like someone,

(16:26):
nobody has any radar for like awareness of that you're
telling somebody they look like somebody that you're not that
I would say that I'm a good looking guy, but
like I wouldn't. I don't like thinking every day, hey,
when it comes to a celebrity look alike, mine is
is Mick Cronan, Because I mean, let's just be real.

(16:46):
But yeah, at times. I've seen some side by sides
and it's it's it's hard to deny.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
It sounds like you've heard that one before.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, a lot.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
One person said, asked nick if his kid is going
to be a life sized Pat Kelsey for Halloween this year.
You've got to like Pat Kelsey everything he's bringing passing out.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, the lifestyle, the life size reference is a good
joke on Pat Kelsey's height, which again very original, good stuff.
And he he's actually going to be a policeman, So
be on your best behavior in Bullet County on Halloween
night because he'll get you.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, you talk to LMPD a lot on your new show.
I've right in every now and then, Nicky.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Just this morning, I enjoyed that more than I ever
would have expected, because you know, when you and I think,
for that role, it's nice to at least and it
may not be legitimate, but I think if I can
find a way to humanize what law enforcement does to
the listeners more so than you get every day just
with coverage of what happens with law enforcement, I feel

(17:46):
like that would be me utilizing what we do for
a greater good and not to give us to give
any of us too much credit, but like I've truly
got to know some of those individuals that work at LMPD,
and you know, just you realize that they go home
to a family with kids, just like a lot of
us do. And I think most people nowadays just rarely
view a cop as an actual human being, if you
know what I mean. No, not to get weird and deep,

(18:09):
but just you know, no out there.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
No, if we're going to be honest for a second,
that's a great service you're doing for the community to well,
they're the ones to do with the service to more people.
And yeah, let's not get it twisted. They're the ones
sacrificing their lives and putting their lives on the line
every morning. You know, Nick, When we first started, when
I first started working with you, one of the things
that we did would go out to Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby,
which I'm still doing now interviewing jockeys, which is a

(18:31):
fun thing to sure, Yeah, but I got my interviewing
chops by doing it with you and Terry Miners and
Dwight Whitten, going into the infield and just trying to
look for the drunkest person out there and get them.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
See, it's an easy way to get the work done
for the day. Find a drunk person that is willing
to talk and tell you about their Derby experience, and
you can get those interviews knocked out pretty quick.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Which was a lot of fun because it got me
out of my shell to talk to strangers. But also
you carried that over into a ces that you would
go to Louisville tailgates and talk to people like.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
We did Louisville tailgates, We did music festivals, We did
some other.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
Things louder than live clips that you had and some
of the outfits that we did.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
We did a Louisville hockey game one time that was
actually kind of cool. So yeah, that was I had
no clue that Louisville basketball. Who would have known they
were going to be as bad as they were that year?
It was Kinny Payne's first year. But I just wanted
to do something different when it comes to content than
what we have typically done, which is just at that time,
you know, just talking about on the show and doing
postgame stuff and all that, just putting a visual to

(19:34):
to you know, coverage, and it's totally not really me.
I'm an extrovert to where I'm I'm there's an intro
I get those two mixed up. I mean, it's it's
not in I'm not somebody. They would typically walk up
to someone and just randomly say something like hey, you know,
just or honestly troll them. That's a lot of what
it is and have them not realize if you're being
serious or not. But we did it once and it

(19:55):
kind of it kind of worked, and I did it
for a while. It was a lot of fun. It's
hard to recreate just because I don't want to do
it and it be flat, you know what I mean.
And I've done some that I never put out there
because I just didn't feel like it was it was
worth it. But yeah, that was that was a lot
of fun. Well inventially, I'll do more of those at
some point.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
That helped me interview people off the top of my head.
You know, before I would have questions written down what
I want to say that you got to just go
out there and talk and you're right. It's you know,
for us, maybe a little harder to approach strangers than
Dwight Whitten, who could come up yeah it just act
like yes or Tony Venetti, who was perfect at it
eight five nine, two two two eight seven. We'll keep

(20:32):
going down memory lane and talk a little sports, but
before we do, this segment is brought to you by
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(20:54):
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Speaker 2 (20:57):
It, no doubt, and right now I don't And by
the way, I'm not somebody who follows baseball very much
really at all, to be honest with you, but I
think you could be somebody that's completely unplugged from sports
and probably have a tough time avoiding the conversation about
Otani and what he's doing in baseball. Again, I'm not
a baseball expert by any means, but like he's getting

(21:19):
close to being in the conversation, for he's not only
a unicorn, but like if they start winning more World Series,
and he's a part of that and continues to do
what he's doing. How is he not in the conversation
for the best that's ever done it?

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, yes, and it's not just a generational talent. There's
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(21:53):
When you use promo code KSR, that's DraftKings. The crown
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terms at DKNNG dot co slash audio Limited time off er. Nick,

(22:15):
I have I have six coaches in college football that
I want to ask you about, and I want you
to tell me about where they're going to be coaching
next year, all right, looking forward to we'll talk about
some other nonsense. I mean it's almost Halloween, it's almost
costume time.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
We'll talk it sounds like nonsense to me.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
We'll be right back, all right, welcome back A five
nine two eight oh two two eight seven. We're gonna
take some calls in the segment Billy Rutledge and Nick
Coffee the card connect here on a UK based show.
Do you still do the website at all? Nick?

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Or is that?

Speaker 2 (22:45):
Oh no, that's been long gone for a while, and
uh I got out of a good time as far
as just all information, I mean very rarely. And KSR
of course is a unicorn and has been really since
its existence, meaning the website, the platform. But the days
of the dot COM's getting a lot of traffic for
that kind of stuff, it's just it's hard. It's hard

(23:06):
to get the traffic and it's hard to monetize the traffic.
So yeah, that was a that was a big part
of my life for a long time. But again Tomming
was on my side as far as moving on at
a time where it kind of just became much more
difficult to do.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
And it's it's a grind. I mean, oh yeah, absolutely,
four or five blog post up a day. But uh,
you know, I don't know if I give the same
advice to young people today just because you talked about
the dot com boom and and how it was different
back then, but it you know, it was a great
way to show work ethic, one person said. Billy asked
Nick his thoughts on the new pro football team in
Louisville and how successful he thinks it may be.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
I hope that it's successful when it comes to just support.
No clue how successful they'll be as far as wins
and losses, because we're far far away from that. But
I love I love this as a test case because
I feel like we are a city that is it
is a sports city. We we do big events well. Obviously,

(24:00):
even when we have the best golfer in the world
come to town and get arrested, it's still viewed as
a pretty successful event. Yeah, as a wild story. So
this will give us a chance to see how we
support a sport that is super popular all over America.
Football Now, there's no competition for the NFL, this is
not going to be that, but it being at the
soccer stadium, un Family Stadium. It's the perfect venue for it.

(24:23):
As far as the size, I know a lot of
people probably haven't been to that because they don't go
to soccer games understandably, So this will give you a
chance to go experience what is one of the I mean,
I think Louisville looks phenomenal from the stadium, and the
stadium certainly looks phenomenal from I seventy one. So I
think we've got a city that will support it well
enough to where it'll be competitive when it comes to
attendance that you see in other cities and other markets. Obviously,

(24:45):
how good the team is will be a factor in that,
So I'm optimistic, but of course we haven't been in
this spot in a long time. As far as by
the way, this is a real league. This isn't you know,
the D two of the arena football. This is yeah,
so this is a real league. With the TV you
built in now again, they had a little bit of
a sophomore slump as far as viewership in this past year,
which is why some of those cities no longer have teams.

(25:08):
So I'm optimistic, but we shall see win or lose.
I'm gonna go and enjoy it, because hey, it's football
in the in the spring, that's right.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
And it seems like they've got some good people involved.
I know Eric Wood's part of that as well as
somebody that I think fondly of. So I'm optimistic as
professional sports comes to Louisville. Before we talk college coaches,
let's take a call eight five nine two two two
eight seven. I believe Frank is on the line. What's up, Frank,
how's it going?

Speaker 3 (25:33):
How's it going? Billy good?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
What's on your mind today?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
You had to hear Nick Coffee on here. I feel
like he's even killed and gives a great assessment either
Kentucky or Louisville, and he does a good job with that.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
So thank you for him.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
I figured i'd give him something that maybe he could
help me with. Let's just say, Nick, Louisville was in
the present state of football that Kentucky's in. You've won
one game, you see, in two years, haven't won an
SEC game. At night, since it feels like twenty fifteen,

(26:08):
your coach, the only thing he wants to talk about
is he's going back to work and your program is
dipping to levels not just this year. It's been dipping
for four years, and you got a sloth as an
athletic director. So I figured I'd to hang out and
let you comment.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Uh yeah, I mean it's it's it's tough times for
Kentucky football fans because I feel like, for not just
for this past these past few weeks, but big picture
the future, all right, what's it looked like in a
couple of years? And I just think for a while now,
even before this season started, I think for Kentucky football,
and I can't speak for the fans at all, but

(26:47):
the scenario where Mark Stoops was getting back to at
least getting close to being in the ten win range
like he was for a couple of seasons, it just
kind of seemed far fetched with one of the sport
changing substantially, and obviously the recent slide that the program
has been under. But what I mean, I think what
you and I know yesterday was a big talking point

(27:08):
as far as it looking as if like would Matt
say eighty ninety percent chance that there's a change something
like that, which makes total sense, But the competition for
a new coach, right like there's gonna be there's already
great jobs open, there's gonna be more good jobs that open. Obviously,
Kentucky is going to have a tough time competing for
selling their job to some of these big programs. Most
would because again we're talking about some of the best

(27:29):
jobs in the country opening up. So what I think
you have to worry about, and this is also something
you could maybe find a silver lining in, is that
if Stoops ends up actually going winless in the conference
once again, let's say you end up only getting one
more win and it's Tennessee Tech, it won't be about
do we make the move to get rid of Stoops,
to maybe go get John Sumraw before somebody else does,

(27:49):
or this coach. It'll just be unfortunately anybody but Stoops
because it's just cratering so bad you have to make
a change. Louisville was in this position with Bobby Patrino.
He was fired before the season ended. They were the
worst power program that year. They were awful. You couldn't
fade them enough. I mean they were really, really, really bad.
And I mean in that last game of the season
when Kentucky beat him, that was one of their ten

(28:11):
win seasons. I mean, you had a player take his
helmet off and try to fight somebody on the sideline
and then they put him back in the game. It
was a complete mess. So we've been there, and you
start fresh, and I just I will say this. I
said this last year and I said it going into
this year. For Kentucky, they could have been substantially better
than the record indicated, but you'd never know because they do,

(28:32):
in fact have a really tough schedule. But last year
games that were viewed as Okay, if we're going to
be the team we think we are, and if we're
still the Stoops team, the Stoops program that he built.
You know, you beat Florida when they want to fire
their coach, You beat Auburn, who nobody really thought was
any good. And now this year it's kind of the
same situation, right like, you have two wins out there
that you could get. But I think right now it

(28:53):
just seems as if the fan base doesn't seem as
if there's a whole lot of hope that that's actually
gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah, it sounds like the offensive lineman go into the
concession stand during the middle of the game last year
for Kentucky, similar to Bobby Petrino example, and it's year
thirteen for Stoops, things get stale at I.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Mean, every relationship runs its course, right, And that's what
fascinated me. The col and BBN divorce was just from
an outsider's perspective, it was really fascinating to see because
once he had the best job they he'll ever get
in basketball, and he didn't seem to really appreciate that.
He wanted it to be more about him than program,

(29:30):
and now you've replaced it with somebody who actually is
the opposite. And it can tell. It's very fulfilling for
Kentucky fans to have that. But with Cal, I mean
it was it was clearly the divorce needed to happen, right.
You just stuck together for the kids, as they say,
and the kids essentially were going to be another title,
but that wasn't gonna happen because you lost to Oakland
with Stoops the divorce, I mean, eventually, he'll just understand

(29:54):
that it'd be best for him to negotiate an exit
strategy than just holding out, because that would make it
a really, really messy, messy exit and it shouldn't be
that because even if he didn't win another game this
year and they can him. He should still be viewed
as somebody that for a good chunk of his tenure
really changed how people view Kentucky football. Absolutely, and that's important.

(30:15):
That's always gonna have value. But I think the messy
or the ending is the more long it could take
for him to maybe be remembered for all the good
that he did. It'll eventually happen regardless, just because that's
how these things play out. But yeah, Stoops, look, I'll
say this, Mark Stoops won ten football games at Kentucky twice.
If you'd have told me that when he got the job,
I would have assumed that Nick Saban left and for

(30:37):
some reason ended up in Kentucky because it was just
something that nobody ever thought was possible, and he did
it not once but twice, and that will always change
how people view what can be done at Kentucky. But
now things have fallen so far and you're looking at
what's being done at Vandy of all places in Indiana,
and that's not helping Stoops right now. As far as

(30:57):
the just well what are we going to do? We're
in a tough conference. That kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
The parallels between the end of cal and the end
of Stoops is uncanny, there are a ton of them.
But also if we're gonna have an accountability hour here,
I mean, Mitch Barnhart and Mark Stoops need to be
held accountable. I mean one, I mean they've lost nine
or ten straight SEC games. If Cal doesn't flirt with Arkansas,
Mitch has two of the worst contracts in college sports

(31:21):
under the same roof. And Mark Stoops, who's buyout has
to pay be paid out within thirty days. And then Cal,
who had a lifetime contract. I mean he got bailed
out by Cal.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
Oh, no doubt Arkansas Arkansas, I mean, and it was
best case scenario for everybody involved. Cal found a new
spot to go and they paid him a lot of money, and.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
They did a TV show sit down where they said, oh,
nothing's wrong, so fine.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
So Matt says this a lot and he's not. He's
not wrong that if you're in that position and you
feel like you've got I mean, you either if he'd
just let Cal go to UCLA, which he never was
going to go, but you don't know that, right, But
if he did, he'd I mean he would have people
would have would have lost their mind, especially at that
time of the time yeah. And then with Stoops is
what I don't understand with Stoops. I guess Stoops's agent

(32:04):
is able to put fear into Mitch Barnhart to where
he thinks, Okay, well I've got to do this or
somebody's going to come and hire him. And I never
really felt like that was that was a reality, because yes,
he would have interest from other jobs, but Kentucky is
a mean Kentucky. He's making enough money. I mean, not
to say he would never leave for elsewhere, but the
terms of Stoops's arrangement and really just how Stoops has been.

(32:28):
I mean, before he got the big contract that he's
now sitting on, he would get auto renewed or something.

Speaker 1 (32:33):
There was some Bowl game, Yeah, yeah, I got an
extra so it was.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Very incentive based and he was performing well. But the
Stoops contract, that's just insane is the amount of money
and the cities. It's thirty to sixty day clause of
getting it paid out, like, yeah, the entire that. Just
as someone who's never been involved in any contract negotiation
of that level, I can't see a scenario where if
you're going back and forth and you're negotiating, you would
agree that that makes sense because that's if you look

(32:58):
around the country and man, there's been a lot of
contracts referenced as all these coaches are getting buyouts. Nobody
else has that, you know what I'm saying, though, it's
all like defer.

Speaker 1 (33:07):
Over years or or you know, find another job and
they'll be responsible for the salary.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Or you could work in broadcasting and that actually is
considered like that. You know that that that can that
can be viewed as you found him work so we
don't have to pay you anymore.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
It's that that's that's a real head scratcher and a
bad metaphor is I think BBN found Mark Stoops's Tinder
profile when he went and flirted with Texas A and M.
I mean, that was almost the perfect timing. He probably
should have less than the same situation with Scott Saderfield
when he goes and flirts with South Carolina and then.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah twice a lot about it, And look,
timing is everything in life, it is, and you can't
control it. But the timing was perfect for Stoops to
leave then to go to Texas A and M and
then it it didn't happen, and I wouldn't know and
I have no clue as far as did that change
how he viewed the job, how he came to work

(33:57):
every day. I don't know, but something changed. Well.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
In the wild world of college sports, over one hundred
and seventy million dollars has been spent on coaches buyouts
and it's October right now. In college football, Nick, I'm
just going to give you some college coaches and you
tell me where they're coaching next year. Okay, Okay, We'll
start with Mark Stoops. Do you think he's the coach
of Kentucky?

Speaker 2 (34:17):
If you asked me last week, I would have said yes.
This week I would say I'd still say fifty to fifty,
but I would lean no.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
I'm going to lean no at this point. Jeff Brohm
is a hot name in coaching circles. Is he the
coach of Louisville next year?

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (34:33):
See, he's just motivated differently than everybody else. I mean
I got up in close personal with him at Western
Kentucky as a student reporter. I think he's just motivated
differently than some of these guys. I don't know if
he'd ever leave Louisvill would you agree.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
I'm not the guy that claims, oh, our coach would
never leave because he loves us these for these guys,
it's a job and if the more people. I mean,
I was the naive guy that was like, yeah, Charlie Straw,
he's not going to go to Texas. He's not gonna
go to Texas.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Is he?

Speaker 2 (34:57):
I mean, it's it's Texas. I I can't see him
a cowboy had I think Jeff would maybe if ever,
if ever offered, he might entertain the NFL. If ever offered,
I think in a wild I don't see it happening,
but I think Notre Dame would intrigue him. But Jeff
has something that you couldn't pay another coach to have.
He cares about Louisville in a way that no other

(35:18):
coach will because it's it. I mean, Louisville football and
Jeff the Brown family name, they're the first family of
Louisville football. He'll always care about Louisville in a way
that it wouldn't be possible. It would be impossible for
him to not care about the program because of how
much he and his family have put into it to
where you never say never. But I just don't think
he to me is a rare exception where even when

(35:39):
he's at Purdue in at Western, he still keeps up
with Louisville because how can he not. It's part of
who he is.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
So I think he was even going to come to
Louisville earlier, but I think he had some conviniments to
Purdue that he felt like he needed to see out
Lane Kiffin.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
LSU.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
Really, I mean, I see the fit. I think Florida
and LSU are great jobs that will go after him.
Would not leave Ole Miss for Florida right now? Yeah,
I might leave Ole Miss for.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Ellis totally agree. Couldn't have said it better Bill Belichick,
uh back with his uh him and his was there
name Jordan something, Jordan Hudson. Yeah, they'll just be doing
something else, maybe a reality TV shy.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
God that story is amazing. And I don't know where
Brian Kelly would be coaching Nick.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
But I don't think he's coaching you know. I think
I think he I think it sounds like he had
really in the last year or so, not like he
was trying to lose. But I think with what the
LSU job can do to anybody, because it's one of
the most demanding jobs that you'll that you'll find. I
think he probably checked out in a lot of ways
to where like he's just gonna ride off in the South.
We knew that.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Wasn't a fit. Yeah yeah, family, and like the whole
from the very beginning. That ad should get a lot
of criticism because that was never a fit. Dabo.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Man. That's a good one. I because I don't know
what the interest level for Dabo would be. He's clearly
a guy who's won two national championships and he's a
good coach. But in this new world a lot has
changed and he has not done well in that. So
I'm gonna say he's still at clemb.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I'm probably clemsing at least one more year, but they
have another year like this and his antics with Tyler
and Spartansburg or I guess you guys are getting tired
of winning and things like that, like it's just gonna
you know, he's gonna rub people ra all that way.
Uh And finally John summerle.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Ol miss oh cause link not you know. Oh, that's
that's the biggest worry for Kentucky. Even if there weren't
a ton of jobs open, he's the He's the next
he's going to be of interest everybody. I mean it
wouldn't be. I mean LSU may come after him. I
know he's mentioned as a candidate there.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Yeah, so not Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
I mean I think he clearly has an element with
Kentucky that nobody else would. I just he would have
to choose, uh, Kentucky. I think by turning down jobs
that nobody would argue that are better where you can
have more success.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
So and would you be crazy enough to hire John Gruden?

Speaker 2 (37:57):
Oh gosh, he's the ultimate if it depends on who
I am. If I'm Kentucky, No, I wouldn't hire John
Gruden just because it could play out if you are
in disastrous fact. Yeah, they're kind of a circus. Anyway,
they brought me Bobby Patrino still being there is insane
to think about. But I think Gruden could play out
like Belichick in a way, and they're like, if you
if you're a if you're a G five team, why

(38:19):
not right? Like you know, for example, let's say Tulane
needs a coach because summer all ends up at LSU
or at all miss Like that's the kind of program
that like why not, right? I mean, they may be
able to find somebody that's better. And look, the pro
to college thing has not really played out well ever.
But you know, Gruden's been away for a long time,
so it's you know, maybe he'll be you know, so

(38:41):
he'll he'll be able to start fresh and be energized.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Well, there's your sports radio fix. Oh yeah, I hopefully
it brings back muscle memory.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
I've relapsed.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
You're ready for it to give takes for three hours.
I mean Nick would do a four hour show, three
four hour show and not just an hour, so I
understand man, you'd have to take it out. But enjoyed
that discussion. We need to take a break though, eight
five nine two two eight seven. We'll just have a
couple of minutes left with Nick Coffee when we get
back here on the ksrpre Show. All right, welcome back

(39:08):
our final segment. Not a lot of time here. We
went a little long last segment with Nick Coffee, who
you can hear every morning from five to nine am
on eight forty.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
W earl it's it's early. It hurts some emphasis there
is that.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
So like we'll tell me you up like you probably
got up two hours when you first started.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Fifteen snooze button, three thirty snooze button, and I'm usually
out of bed, uh questioning life at about three forty.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
We got to get you off the snooze. But that's
not doing you any favors. Those monster inter drinks are
helping though. We mentioned it at the beginning of the show.
You're drinking one right now.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, it's it says zero sugar and it's got tourene
in it, which that's got to be good for.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
You, right, you see that, Mario, Stay away from those white.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Oh no, this is this is one those things that
I don't know what's in it. I can't look at
the I can't look at the ingredients and tell you
anything of value. But like I know, it can't be good.
Is many of these in my body as I do?
But you know, I gotta, I gotta stay awake.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
If you are a fan of the NFL, you should
bet on Draft Kings Who's promo code KSR and get
bet five dollars, get three hundred dollars in bonus bets. MLB,
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a lot of different sports you can bet on. Last night,
Nick was the Monday night football game between the Commanders
and the Chiefs. And I really enjoyed the Manning cast
A lot of times. I don't get to watch that

(40:25):
closely Monday night football, but I did last night, and
those guys, it's just like watching it with your boys.

Speaker 2 (40:30):
We all knew that Peyton Manning was was was he had.
He had charisma, funny guy, great on SNL. I had
no clue. Eli Manning was also in his own way,
pretty entertaining, pretty funny. I mean, he was like a
he was a punching bag for the NFL when he
was playing, like he had the all the very weird
memes of him making weird facial expressions. But he's he's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
He's just got to close his mouth sometimes, like he
just sits there with his mouth mouth breather. Nick. I
really enjoyed the time today.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Absolutely, thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Really good to see you in person again, as I'm
not in this Louisville studio enough. We were just talking
about it. The snacks that you guys have in this
kitchen is a lot better than the Lexington one.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yea. So we're gonna have to take us up.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
We're gonna have to go back and report on that
when it comes to the iHeart building. But so what's
on the dock at the rest of the day, You're
gonna go take a nap.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
I've got a meeting myself here and then yes, I
will eventually have to take a nap or I'll pay
for it later. And then I get to you know,
I get to go get my kids from school and stuff.
That's the benefit of the the the the shift from
afternoon the mornings. Yeah, so you get to be oh yeah,
I'm gonna be in that car rider line later today,
the car Rider line.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
I'm sure that future is is coming for me at
some point. But Nick always appreciate the time. KSR is
next here live in the Louisville Building. Should be an
interesting show. Big thank you to Rick Ryder, who as
our producer today for Nick Coffee. I'm Billy Rutley. This
has been the KSR pre show and we will talk
to you tomorrow.