2025-10-29 KSR PRE-SHOW

Billy is joined by Darren Headrick from the UK Radio Network.

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 Wednesday, October twenty ninth. I am Billy Rutledge
on a week without Shannon the Dude. He's still on vacation.
We'll keep it rolling though.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Gifts a call on the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's eight five nine two eight oh two two eight
seven Texas at five o two two six five sixty
six five six and it's always The KSR pre Show
is brought to you by Italics Fine Italian Dining in Lexington,
Kentucky at the City Center. So might say we do
our best shows without Shannon the Dude. I wouldn't say
that exactly, but I do appreciate all our guests that
have come and joined us this week, whether it be

(00:38):
Jeff Picoro on Monday, Nick Coffee yesterday.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I know you guys loved the Louisville Sports Talk.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
And then Darren Hendrick is here today to talk a
little Kentucky sports. We'll preview the UK women's basketball season
Kentucky baseball as well. It's the only person I see
on game days in the studio, I mean eleven hours
all day long. Darren is the only one that come
and says his to me, what's up, Darren, how are.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
You hello, Billy, how are you my friend?

Speaker 1 (01:02):
It's great to see you again, yes, sir, and in
the same studio this time.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
That's right. Normally you're like next door. Yeah, just talking
to me through the board.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I will come and bother you just because I have
no other human contact during those days. So I said, Darren,
I need you, buddy, I need somebody on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Quiet in here.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
And this isn't your first time joining me, but I
always enjoy it, so yeah, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I appreciate it. Man. It's a fun week. It's fun
to be here because you got basketball, you got football
in Halloween this week. We've got all kinds of stuff
going on.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Everything is. It's spooky season, Darren. I know it's a
season that you look forward to a lot. With UK
women's basketball just five six days away, Morehead State right
around the corner. They had their media day yesterday, so
we'll talk a lot about the women's basketball team. But
we were just doing our best at ojeron impressions before
the show, tagas unbelievable college sports right now, and the

(01:55):
buyouts and coaches and where John summerle Mark Stoops, if
ed Orge Ron gets back into coaching.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Jimbo Fisher, Jimbo Fisher.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
I mean, the buyouts that are getting paid are incredible.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
I think we just got into the wrong business. I know, right,
I'll go coach a football team for two three years
and then you guys can send me home.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, these buyouts are ridiculous. They are one thing I
relate with you, Darren Is. I worked for a minor
league baseball team back in the day, the Hot Rods
in Bowling Green. They raise affiliate and I know you've
done the grind before with minor league baseball more so
than a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
And my least favorite part of minor league baseball was
putting the tarp on the field, Darren. And on a rainy,
wet day like today, I can hear the coaches screaming
for the everybody, I mean, everybody in the organization needs
help to get that tarp on the field.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Were you ever pushed into service to put the Oh yes,
plenty of times. I was part of the tarp crew,
and in fact you sort of learned some of the
nuances about getting it on there and making sure it
doesn't blow, and making sure that you're not swallowed by
the tart monster. Always avoid trying to be in the
middle because then you have to go over the pitchers mound.
You always want to be on the edges.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yes, and not only in minor league baseball. I was
on the high school team and we'd get called out
of class. Weather's coming, we need to put the tarp
on the field. And look, I liked missing class, but
those sandbags were so heavy that we had to carry
to put on the tarp. I'll just never forget it.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Drenk. Yeah. Well, and you know, and now that I'm
with the University of Kentucky baseball team Kentucky Proud Park,
beautiful facility, artificial surface, you kind of forget about the
old tarps from the minor league days because they don't
have to have one, So you don't need a tarp
at all nowadays. No, no, not on these artificial surfaces
that a lot of the colleges have. Tennessee's got it,
Kentucky's got it, Louisville, Vanderbilt don't need the tarps anymore.

(03:43):
They just tarp the pitching mound. Wow.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well, it's just not like it used to be does
the game? You know, the game has changed a lot, Darren.
We could talk about the automated strike zones. Now you
can challenge balls and strikes. I mean, we'll have robot
umpires here in a few years.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
That's coming.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
But does the turf change, like how the ball balances?
Was that a big deal in this It.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Does, and you can manipulate it depending on how many
of the little rubber pellets you lay down. We have
seen and I'm not saying it's good or bad either way,
but Louisville's turf plays a lot faster than Kentucky's turf.
Vanderbilt's turf plays different than Kentucky's or Louisville. So you
can kind of manipulate it to play the way you

(04:24):
want it to, the way you've built your team. And
I think when you look at Louisville and how fast
they are stealing bases, they've got a fast turf. The
ball just skids across their turf. And then at Kentucky
it plays more true like you would see on a
natural surface. It plays sort of that it's not grass,
but it plays a little thicker like you have grass,
and so it plays true. And so I think it's

(04:45):
interesting to see how the teams have constructed it and
laid it out to play the way they want it to.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Yeah, I had no idea it could adjust based on
your style of play. Maybe your a team that likes
to bun a lot. Maybe small ball Kentucky a couple
of years ago, and I guess you don't as many
pellets in the beginning.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
And in all fairness, you can manipulate a natural surface
to do the same thing. If you're a team that
loves to bunt, you can kind of make a little
groove there along the base paths where the ball won't
roll to the left or right and go foul. Now
we play the game here in Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I mean basketball is the end all be all, But
would you say baseball is your passion more than basketball?

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Baseball's where I cut my teeth in broadcast, and growing up,
I grew up a huge football guy. Football has always
been my number one love, But baseball's up there basketball
just for the excitement and the energy of it. So yeah,
I just I consume it. Grew up going to NASCAR
races in Bristol, so a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
We won't get to your history of being a Tennessee volunteer.
We'll leave that for another day, Derek.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
That's a different day.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
But baseball is just so different broadcasting than the other sports.
I've done a little bit a cup of coffee doing
baseball broadcast. I mean, and if you've got nothing to say,
it's dead air. There is no like break to go to.
Not a lot of times you have a co commentator.
I mean, you do a ton of your games alone
on the UK Sports Network. That's that's difficult, but also

(06:07):
gives you an opportunity to get into things that you
can't in other sports.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Right, You're able to tell stories. Yeah, and that's one
of the things I love to do is tell the stories,
especially of the guys on the field. You know, I
want them to be more than just number six or
number twenty one. You tell their backstories and their journeys
within the season and how they got to Kentucky. So
it's fun and then you get to recall, oh, this

(06:32):
game reminds me of the time so and so played
for Kentucky and had two home runs, three home runs
in a game, and so, yeah, it's a different animal.
You have to learn to feel time and tell stories
and the descriptions in baseball can be fun to do too, Yeah,
be more descriptive.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, absolutely, Just I don't know if difficult is the
right word, but like, once you get used to it,
it can be a lot easier. But at the same time,
a young sports doing his first baseball game realizes there's
not a time out for us to go to break
or a stopa to play to reset the SATs. It's
constantly looking into the Backstory's right.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
The prep that goes in.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Not to say that, you know, these football and basketball
announcers aren't doing great prep because they've got these sheets
in front of them that completely organize their thoughts. But
baseball it's like you got to know the high school
that they went to and the time they had this
weird interaction with this one person, so you can just
get to the next play.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah, I mean. And the difference is in baseball, like
you said, there's a lot more downtime, whereas football it's
rigidly timed. So you know, okay, I've got so many
seconds in between plays. If you're facing these up tempo offenses. Now,
you don't even have time for that. Last weekend, you
could listen to Tom and Jeff. Jeff would barely get
three words out of Tom's like, well, here's Tennessee lining

(07:51):
up to snap the ball. So you know football is
and then basketball is just so up and down. I'll
be honest with you, I always when I'm prepping for
basketball games, I probably don't I don't get to use
maybe sixty to seventy percent of my prep because there's
just no time. Really, that much for sentny or prep
doesn't get used. Yeah, I mean sometimes that can be

(08:13):
an overreaction or an exaggeration, but there's a lot of
times so much stuff you have you don't get to
use because the game dictates your storyline and sometimes that'll
change based off what you thought it might be, and
then other times you just really don't have time to
get into it.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Is it a higher high when you have a big
play in baseball just because it's taken four or five
hours to get there? Like I think of the College
World Series walk off that Kentucky had compared to the
game winner and the SEC Tournament to beat South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
That was the final game of the tournament, right, So.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
What do you think, like excitement wise, maybe fulfilling wise
for you?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Was the bigger moment, well, I think the bigger they're
both huge for the programs. I think the bigger moment, though,
was getting to the College World Series, the final strikeout
to get there, the walk off home run in the
first game there. I think those have to be up
there just because of what they meant for the program,
how long it took them to get there, just being

(09:13):
the first yeah to do it. I think those are
bigger moments. But you know, I was sitting here thinking
when you asked that. I was thinking about hockey and
soccer and how difficult it is to score in those sports.
And that's why you always hear the announcers go nuts,
because most games are probably two to one, one nothing,
three to two, whatever, so you get overly excited. Baseball

(09:35):
can be like that. When you finally get the big hits,
you want to deliver it with as much excitement as
you can. That's a great point.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I think of the foreign soccer announcers that'll just go
go go go.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Ya, just screaming ohing nuts.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, Well, it's because the game's one to zero at
the end of it, and that was for one time
that they could celebrate. I also think of Kentucky baseball.
Not just the walk off in that run that they had,
but what was the guy's name that dove from the
middle third to home to Nolan McCarthy, then he transfers
to Georgia. I mean he's dead to me after that.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
But well he was back this past weekend for the
exhibition against Morehead State. I had a chance to.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Say, oh, just hanging out, talk one to the guys. Well,
that's nice that Kentucky welcomes people back. I mean, once
a wildcat, always a while, that's right. But I mean
that run, man, I mean when they added extra bleachers
to Kentucky Park so they could pack the park, and
just how dramatic that was.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Nickman Jones was on the hot seat not too long ago, Darren.
I mean, he has done quite a job over these
last few years. Yeah, there was there was a couple
of seasons there that were rough, but to his credit, Man,
he overhauled his staff. He just he just pressed the
reset button on the program, went out and hired an
all star staff and his I mean they have done
a masterful job recruiting and getting into the transfer portal

(10:50):
to find the right guys and in this era of
college athletics where you can use the money to build
these super teams. I think it's really interesting a watch
to see how coach Menjeon, Coach Pope and Coach Brooks
and all these other coaches have used it to add
on to their teams. But the bigger thing is they're

(11:11):
not just getting talented guys to get talented guys like
they're fitting into a culture. They're fitting into a system.
And that's what Menjion has done so well is recruit
talent to fit the culture that he wants the program
to have, but also to run or play the style
of baseball he wants to play. And that's been a
critical part of this and why they've had so much success,

(11:34):
including the run to Omaha in the last three years.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
What do you mean culture and style of play? Is
it just like a yes or noser type of thing?

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Get no, No. I mean they'll have inputs. You know, the
players will bring their own strengths to the table. But
you know they're they're looking for guys who can run,
They're looking for high character individuals. You'll have Coach Menjeone
talk about that a lot. He always talks about student
person player and what he's looking for. And so when

(12:03):
that's kind of the culture part of it, and then
you know, the talent piece on the field is what
we're seeing. Guys that can run, guys that can defend
at a high level. They can bunt, they can hit
for power, the home runs and doubles and that sort
of thing. So leadership qualities, communication skills, all of that
goes into it.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Well, the two sports you cover as the play by
play announcer Darren are in odd spots with revenue sharing, right,
I mean, when it's very public that Kentucky has a
twenty two million dollar basketball roster, or that you know,
Kentucky football is maybe getting a little less than some
of the other teams in the SEC. Sometimes you forget
about women's basketball and baseball how they still have to

(12:44):
survive on getting some of this revenue share as well.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
And I got to imagine it's the same way.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I'm sure there's an LSU out there that might put
more into baseball than maybe, I don't know, a Kentucky
or just another school. So there's going to be some
of those advantages and disadvantage in the other sports too.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, mississip State is a team that comes to mind
when it comes to baseball. That is a school that's
all in on their baseball program. We just saw that
with their coaching change in the off season. They hired
the the longtime head coach at Virginia, Brian O'Connor, who's
been to the College World Series a whole a bunch
of times, four or five times, and so now he's

(13:19):
guid in that Mississippi State program. So yeah, there's going
to be schools that commit more money to other sports
than most. There's I've even heard, you know, you want
to go down the ladder to the Olympic sports. There's
teams in the Midwest that have committed more money to
women's soccer than others, and so I think that's just
going to be a part of it going forward.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
And then you have SEC baseball teams that have their
coaches calling people at you know, their bookie or at
the casino trying to put a bed in.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
I mean, it's it's just a weird time. Weird, really,
it really is. In you also have head coaches leaving
for jobs in the major leagues.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
So yeah, I mean, and that's unprecedented at least to
my knowledge.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Oh yeah, it never happened before, right.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
So that's the Tennessee coach going to the Giants. I
want to talk about some of these other sports. Darren
is going to break down the women's basketball team. I
think we'll do that in the third segment today. I mean,
Kenny Brooks at media day yesterday was talking about his
starting lineup. They may go like five nine six, one six,
four six, five six, five. Yes, yes, I'm really excited about.
It's pretty crazy in women's basketball. I mean, they already

(14:20):
had the most shots blocked last year. They might do
it again this year. And also some random stuff. I mean,
Halloween's around the corner. Are you going to dress up
this year?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Not this year? I've done it in years past, but
I think this year I'm just going to be the
guy sitting on the poor chanding out candy.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, well, if I tell you some of them are
popular Halloween costumes this year, can you tell me if
you've heard of these things or if you would ever dress.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Up like that? This could be a dangerous game, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Okay, I'll save that for the next segment. We're going
to have some fun here with Darren Hendrick. What's your
tag on social Darren, if people want to give you
a follo up.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah. If people want to follow me on X or Twitter,
however you want to or whatever you want to call it,
you can do so at Darren Underscore Hendrick d A
R R E in HG A d R c K.
All right, We'll take a break and be right back
on this Wednesday edition of the ksrpre Show. Love this
song a Little Tears for Fear. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
See, I'm the you can call me unk now. I'm
in my thirties. I know some of the older music too.
It's uh Billy Rutledge and Darren Hendrick here on the
ksrpre Show. We'll preview the UK women's basketball team, I
think in the third segment this morning. I mean we're
five five days away before that season starts and cannot wait.
And how good to the men team? Look man in
the exhibition game, Yes, just go ahead, just go ahead

(15:33):
and give it to go ahead. I heard Tom Leach
ask Mike de Corsi, who are the three other first
seeds in the tournament this year outside of Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
I love that energy.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Tom, Let's bring that all year because because man, that
that looked like a roster that was worth twenty two
million dollars. One person on the text line, you can
always chime in and ask us a question. At five
two two sixty five six six five six, one person
ask does UK have a Spanish broadcast crew? If not,
would you and Daron be able to accommodate the Spanish
speaking UK football fan. Well, I took three years of

(16:06):
Spanish over my high four years of Spanish over my
high school and college career. It was one of two
classes I ever got to see in Darren and I
can ask if I can go to the bathroom, but
that's about it.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
What about you? Can you accommodate the Spanish speaking UK fan?
So I took Spanish in high school and college, and
I was glad I did because ten years in minor
league baseball I could communicate on an elementary level with
the Hispanic Latin players, and so they taught me some

(16:39):
We're just some words that you can't say on the radio,
but yet they taught me some and I could communicate
with them. But I don't think I could do a
whole broadcast. But it's interesting that that came up because
that's sort of been in the news this week in
the SEC and I think it's fascinating that there's four

(17:00):
there are maybe five SEC schools that have a Spanish
broadcast of their football game. Really, yeah, of the football games, yes, okay, yeah,
Tennessee and Oklahoma, I know are two. That makes sense,
I mean yeah, yeah. And there was a little bit
of a story earlier this week with that because Oklahoma's
Spanish team was not given a booth in Knoxville for

(17:22):
their game this weekend. But Tennessee doesn't really have room
for They have three radio booths and National Radio is there,
so they didn't really have rooms. So it became sort
of a story non story, if you will. But but yeah,
they don't. I don't think they traveled their Spanish radio
announced teams. They'll do them from studios when the team's

(17:44):
on the road. I would have guessed four or five total.
You're telling me in the SEC. Yes, I think there's
numerous schools across the country. That's really impressive.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
I mean, that's really accommodating for the Spanish fan. Speaking
of that, I am in the process of learning sign language,
and you know, I think it would be very cool
to do my radio show with while I'm signing. At
the same time, Okay, you see that at concerts, right
like you see you know, professional sign language people will
come and do it with the song. A lot of

(18:14):
times the artists will be like whoa, and they'll just
they'll turn that into the whole show for a little bit,
just because how awesome they are. Right, But I mean
that's accommodating to a lot of people to do it
different ways. Obviously you can't do that on the radio,
but it's a it's a way of people that they
can enjoy the sport too.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely A five nine two eight oh two
two eight seven is the number.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well, if you're a Spanish speaking fan or if you're
English speaking, you can all bet on the DraftKings sports book.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
How do you like that transition? That well done?

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Why they pay me the big bucks here, I'll score
three hundred dollars if your bet wins, you bet just
five dollars.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
You can get three months in NBA League Pass. How
about that.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
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(19:11):
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at DKNG dot co slash audio Darren. Halloween is this Friday,
and I have not heard of a lot of the
most popular Halloween costumes this year.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
I want to know if you heard of them. Okay,
let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
This is according to the New York magazine, so take
that with a grain of salt. But any chance you'll
dress up as a laboo boo this year?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
No, do you know what a la boo boo is? No,
it's like these.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Ugly cute creatures like dolls that people are buying nowadays.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
I mean, I'm sure any parent that's listening to us
right now could probably tell us what it is, right
and along with the six to seven origin and what
that means. I'm sure maybe hopefully a kid coach what
viral for yesterday. He dropping that in the press conference.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
I love you, Kenny, I love you. See he's out
recruiting already. K Pop demon Hunters are the consensus number
one Halloween costume this year. Do you know what a
K pop demon hunter?

Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's a Netflix movie show.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
It's like an animated show based off of the Korean
K pop groups. So it's I guess combining elements of
K pop culture, mythology.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
And demonology sounds great.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I mean it's Halloween time, Darren. I mean, what happened
to like spider Man?

Speaker 2 (20:36):
Yeah, Superman. Shannon and I talked Star Wars.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
The scream mask with the blood pumping, yeah, Freddy Jason,
the the movie Wicked is really popular this year, but
lazy Wicked is the costume. So it's just maybe like
a pink or a green outfit. Okay, I got nothing there.
Jack Black and Jason Momoa in the Minecraft movie are
two popular ones for kids.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
They went out and saw that movie, right, No, but
I know the movie.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
And then Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey engagement photo shoot.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Now that one I could see a costume.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yes, Oh, I love that engagement so much. I'm going
to dress up like Travis Kelcey did during the engagement shoot.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Darren, or you could just wear his jersey, That's true.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
That's probably a lot easier than the button down or
collar shirt that he had on.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
It would be easier for me to go as Andy Reid.
Just give me the Hawaiian shirt and the Kansas City
Chiefs cap.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Now we're talking to Halloween. Are you a candy corn fan? Yeah,
I'll go candy corn. It doesn't bother me. It's not
my favorite, but I'm not a hater like some people.
There are a lot of haters out there. Yeah, I
think I'm gonna put myself in the hater camp. But
I do like candy corn with like nuts, like throw
some cashews in it or something. The top five candies
of Halloween haven't changed. I feel like in twenty years,

(21:55):
Darren Reese's Peanut butter Cup, Eminem's, Hershey's Milk chocolate Bar,
Snicker and Skittles.

Speaker 2 (22:00):
I mean that's pretty predictable, isn't it. Snickers and I'm
good to go just the Snickers.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, but be the house that tosses out the full
sized candy bars.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Kids, Remember your house and remember you like you're a
sports legend. What is it in the sandlot? Heroes get remembered,
but legends never never die. I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
You can become a legend on Friday if you give
out those full side candy bars.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Now I don't want the full size Hershey's chocolate bar,
but if you mix it up and give us some
like a putter fingers or something like, you'll be remembered
with it. That's just how we do it here on
the pre Show. We'll take a break more with Darren
Hendrick on the way. Welcome back to the KSR Pre
Show Billy Rutledge and Darren Hendrick today and this segment
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(23:23):
to get a good stretch and check out Stretch Lab
and use promo code Bogies with Billy Now I mentioned
bowler strategically there, Darren, because you just got Corey priced.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
I just retweeted an old.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Photo of you. Who do you think you are? I
am to do it a little bowling in high school.
What comes to mind when you see that photo?

Speaker 2 (23:43):
A lot of fun memories on the varsity bowling team.
Uh are you rolling three hundreds back?

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Then?

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Is that? What it's never rolled? A three hundred? Best
I've done is a two ninety eight? Ninety eight? What
is that? The miss? Is that a spare on the final?

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
The fun the final shot I left too. I thought
it was a good shot off my hand. It just
didn't break right for me.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
So is that a moment where like everybody in the
bowling yes building on his watch comes together and.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
This guy's bowling for three hundred.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, it gets quiet, everybody's watching you. Well, there's nothing
like a good three hundred while you're bowling. There's also
some other great traditions in sports, like something I saw
the other day. I love a good flyover Darren, Like,
if you're at the arena, you get some jets or
helicopters to go by. Just gets the chili bums.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
In baseball, take me out to the ball game, I
think is one of my more favorite traditions in sports.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
Do you have any that come to mind? Oh, A
great national anthem before a big game, Yeah, always gets
the crowd hyped up. You know. I think in football
it's the moment when the marching band builds to the
crescendo right before the team runs out on the field.
I think that's awesome. And then and then in basketball, man,
it's that it's when everybody's lined up, you got the

(25:01):
music cranked up, students are jumping up and down, and
the referee comes to the circle ready to tip the
ball up, put the ball in the air.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
There was a really good one of those. I think
it was at Kansas and Kentucky had like a journey
video showing Savier Wheeler and Oscar just ready to go,
and then they end up blowing out Kansas that game.
But right, that's another great moment in sports. And if
you have any Texas at five h two two six
five six six five six, a great moment in sports
is coming up when the UK women's basketball team starts

(25:31):
their season against Morehead State next week. Kenny Brooks is
starting his second year with Kentucky and he's gonna have
to do it without Georgia Amore. Darren, how optimistic are
you that Kentucky will have success this year?

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh? Over the moon with this team. I like this
group a lot, so many great returners, with Clara Strack,
Tianni Key, Amelia Hassett, they call him the triplets six
four sixty five sixty five down there on the block.
And then you've got one of the top transfer point
guards in the country, Tony Morgan taking over for Georgia
Amore this year. And then there's one name amongst the

(26:06):
outstanding freshman that he's brought in and the returners everybody
seems to forget about, Jordan Noby, who's back from injury
last year. She's my X factor on this team. This year,
and I would expect to see her probably in the
lineup to start the season. But she's going to bring
a ton. She's a big guard, she can post up

(26:27):
smaller guards, she can shoot threes, she can run point
if she needs to. An incredibly smart player, gifted athlete.
I cannot wait to see what Jordan's got in store
this year.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
It seems like ch Barnhardt hit a home run with
the higher of Kenny Brooks. It seems like an elite
level coach in women's basketball and can take Kentucky to
the final fours that they want to reach. I was
just surprised to hear that he had like tianni Key
and Clara Strack bringing the ball up the court in practice, Like,
is that what we're going to.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
See is six four to six? Well, we saw some
of it last year. That's there were several times where
tianni Key got a rebound and just took the ball
straight up the middle of the floor and right to
the basket, usually ended in an and one or a layup,
and so I would expect to see that. I think
Clara can bring the ball up as well. So yeah,
this is a very versatile team and his his bigs

(27:21):
are not your typical, historically typical bigs with just the
back to the basket that they can draw you out.
Like we said, they can bring the ball up the floor.
They've got tremendous fade away jump shots, and so they're
not a typical big and I think it's going to
be a big challenge for a lot of teams to
match up with this Kentucky group.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Now, one person in the text line wanted me to
ask you about the player that recently got reinjured. Was
it the same injury that they had last year? Basically,
so tell us more about that.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, So Dominica Perova tore acl rehabbed last year. She
worked hard, we heard coach Brooks talk about that, poured
everything into the rehab. Was going to be back this
year alongside Jordan Noby reinjured in a practice and so
she's going to be out for a while again this year,
and just you know, it's just heartbreaking. I felt sick

(28:14):
to my stomach when I saw that news, and so,
you know, it's just tough. But she she's a wonderful
young lady. She's got a great personality. I've seen her
back in practice. She's wearing a smile, she's supporting her teammates.
But yeah, I mean that that was in terms of
what fate has in store, that was pretty cruel, you know,

(28:34):
to see her go through that rehab and then it
happened again. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
And I could also hear that in Kenny Brooks's voice
and he talked about it. And and not to say
Mark Pope doesn't have a similar quality, but when you're
a male head coach in women's basketball, I thought it
was really interesting that Kenny Brooks talked about being a
father figure for a lot of these girls, and especially
girls that are away from home, some international kids. You know,

(28:57):
that's I think that's something that you think about when
you get into coaching, impacting people's lives, but then you're
in it and you mean a lot to the players
that you have in the program.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, And I think that's underscored by his relationship with
Georgia Amore. Coming from Australia, she was with Virginia Tech
during the COVID shutdown and basically elected to stay stateside
instead of going home during all that, and so you know,
he basically became like a father figure to her while

(29:28):
she was here. Yeah, And so you see that. And
he's the father of three daughters, and so I think
he does take on as sort of a father figure
with these young athletes that are far from home and
can't just go home on the weekends like some of
us can. And so, but he's done a tremendous job
in terms of those building those relationships, the development aspect

(29:51):
of it. And I think that's what excites me the most,
Billy is he and his staff do a tremendous job
with growth and development when they get these players on campus.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Well, speaking of his staff, you know that they're committed
because one of them got a tattoo of Kenny Brooks's
name on her leg at Big Blue Madness.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Was that the story of this, Darren? Yeah, So Taylor
Soul who's joined the staff this year, she played for
Kenny at Virginia Tech, and she got a tattoo of
his signature on her leg, and so he just thought
that was He was like, who would do this? And
then she pulled up her you know, she pulled up
her her pants leg and showed it to him, and

(30:32):
he was, okay, Yeah, the way she posed it was
really funny.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
She was like, coach, you know, some fan got a
tattoo of your signature on their leg and he's.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Like, what kind of idiot would do that? And then
it was like me, yeah, yeah, like mab which I love.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I mean, that's kind of like the fan that like
got Tim Couch's autograph back in the day and it's like, well,
I got a tattooed on my body, Darren, And so
now Kenny Brooks's tattooed on an assistants body.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
That's right. That just shows you the commitment right there.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
You gotta love it. So so you're excited. I mean,
this could be a big year for Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, and I encourage you know, all the fans out
there come to Historic Memorial Coliseum support this team. There's
a few season tickets left available, get them while they're there,
while they last, and let's try to sell out the
coliseum for this group. It's going to be a fun
ride the SEC like it is on the men's side,
uber competitive. There's going to be some big teams coming

(31:24):
in here throughout the season. Purdues one that's coming in
in a non conference matchup later on the schedule, So
I can't wait to get in their Monday night and
see this team open the season against Morehead State, and
it's going to be a blast and can't wait to
see all a big blue nation there.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, it'll be a busy month coming up. For November.
I'm losing you. You're not going to be doing scores
for the football games.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
You're gonna be doing traveling every weekend. Yeah. We're going
to Buffalo, New York, Huntington, West Virginia to play Marshall.
You're also going to like Costa Rica, right, Puerto Rico,
Puerto Rico. Yeah, yeah, for Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
How did you I mean, did you like go to
Kenny and say we need an international trip so I
can get some.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
I think coach likes to travel to some of these
tournaments and the you know, I said, well, if you
need me to go, I'll be there.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
If somebody's got to do it, please Darren, Yeah, I'll
be there. You need a color commentator for those games?

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, sure, come on, I need an engineer.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Fortunately, they're gonna need somebody to run those games spot times.
That'll be me or Bow or Gavin, some of the
great board ops that we have the UK Networks.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
You just have a great time there in Puerto Rico
and then the next week we go to Miami. I'll
stop it.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Okay, See it's gonna be November when you're traveling around
some of the hot states in countries.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
I love that. Well eight five nine two two eight seven.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
You want to talk a little women's basketball with Darren,
We'll jump around to some other stuff in the meantime,
because it is I mean the KSR pre show, Darren,
we got to get to some fun stuff, I mean,
some wacky wild stuff. One thing I saw, you know,
as I'm doom scrolling as a you know, millennial that's
addicted to their phone the other day, and I brought
this up on the NFL Cover zero. And that's a broadcaster,

(33:02):
Greg Olsen, he does a great job on Fox. And
Luke Keickley, the former linebacker for the Carolina Panthers. They're
both former Carolina Panthers. Well in Charlotte. They are the
head coaches of a seventh grade middle school football team. Darren,
and some of the clips that you get from Greg
Olsen and Luke Kickley coaching seventh graders is incredible. They
are doing it with the same intensity they would be

(33:23):
doing if they were coaching NFL guys. They're running like
NFL schemes against middle school teams and Darren, they only
allowed one touchdown all year. I mean, they won every game,
and probably rightly so. But can you imagine being the
youth sports coach that just got off their insurance job. Yeah,
and then on the look on the other side and

(33:44):
it's Luke Kickley and Greg Olson screaming at their seventh graders.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
I kind of love that, don't you. Yeah, I'm sitting
there thinking, like, can you not call somebody and get
a Carolina Panther to help you coach your team? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:58):
That great minds think of like of random Carolina Panthers
from back in the day. But you know what, that's
just that that's got to be really rewarding for them,
you know, at the highest level and then come back
and give Have you ever wanted to be a coach?

Speaker 2 (34:14):
No, I mean I think it would be fun. I
would definitely have to be an offensive oriented coach. Okay,
I've always like, especially with football, I've always loved watching
offenses and breaking down film on things they do so well.
I was thinking more like t ball of like, yeah,
maybe if if I had a son or daughter, of

(34:37):
my own I might feel different, But no, I don't
know if I would have the patience.

Speaker 1 (34:41):
See I like to think I would I would do that,
especially if it was my kid. But Darren, I don't
have the best track record with children, and I don't
know if if I spent more than a week with
those kids that if I wouldn't be pulling my hair
out a little bit.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
Yeah, And I mean, like, what what system would you
install to run for Wait? What sport?

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Because I'll tell you seriously, I mean I did minor
and athletic coaching. So let's say football football. All right,
We're going for to three defense obviously, I mean base package,
getting set up for like when they play in high school.
Mostly you're not doing any of the Nick Saban three
four edge rusher. I'm not doing three three five. I
mean I'm not like really mixing it up. We'll just
go four to three. Make sure these kids get a

(35:21):
general knowledge of the game.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
And then I mean we've got to go like up
tempo spread for the offense, right, I mean, I'm not
playing snoops ball draining out the clock.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
We're gonna have three plays we run them. Well. Now,
see when I played middle school football. We ran Power Eye,
thank you very much. Did you have Wishbone two back
in the day. No, no, no, no no. We ran
the Power Eye and went six and one, with our
one loss being by a point to our county rival. Okay,
that's not bad. We were six and one, six and
two something like that. That's not bad.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
My high school ran like the flex wishbone. Jamie Reid
at South Ore High School had some success. Uh, Billy,
our sports didn't really grow at the rate that he
needed to to be able to play tackle football in
high school.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
So my high school, not the middle school I played for.
My high school ran the wing tea when I was
in school. Yeah, but now they have graduated to the
split back veer, so I would think eventually they're going
to get to a modern offward. It sounds like they
went backwards.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Veer was before wing tea, wasn't it, Or was it
the other way or the wing tea was first? Okay, Well,
see that shows my football history knowledge there.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
It's just like it's like a blank canvas a lot
of times with those middle school teams.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Right, you can do whatever you want with it, that's right.
But baseball.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
I mean that would be fun too, just to see
how many sunflower seeds I can put in my mouth
at the same time, Darre, I feel like that's a
challenge I could take on.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
So I have a little cousin who plays baseball, and
he's a huge fan of the Wildcats, and he listens
to our broadcasts every once in a while during baseball season.
But he plays baseball and his dad helps coach, and
I think it would be fun to coach youth baseball. Yeah,
I think that'd be a lot of fun. Yep.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
And then you you know, you start your son as
the picture of the entire time and they're known as
the coach's kid, and then it's a slippery slope from
there there, and you gotta be careful.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah see, I don't know if i'd want him to
be a picture though. I'd want him to play somewhere
in the field.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
You don't want him to have to have Tommy John
surgery by seventeen, because he's been throwing curveball since he
was eleven. I think I'd rather him play shortstop or
right field, best defender of the field than short that's right.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
You gotta have one of the best arms. If you
play shorts, well, hey, if I'm the coach's short.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Right field is like right out though that's kind of
you know, sometimes you you play like left bench maybe
at some point, or or catcher.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
I got a lot of respect for those guys.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Catcher, and talk about some good catchers that we're seeing
in the MLB World Series right now. Will Smith, the
former Louisville player with the Dodgers right now, he is right.
He's incredible. Uh, he's had his plenty of his World
Series moments, but mister World Series is Freddy Freeman.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
At this that's right. And Kentucky's had a slew of
great catchers. So yeah, they have is Barks back again.
Devin has finally graduated and moved on, although he's been
back some this fall. I've had a chance to see
him in that great smile he's got. But Kentucky's going
to have all new catchers this year. They got Tagger
Tyson the transfer from Louisville. They've got Alex Duffie transferred

(38:16):
in from Elon, and then they've got the outstanding young
man from right here in Lexington Owen Jenkins. So it's
going to be fun with a new group of catchers
this year. Yeah, you might not believe this. I played
catcher back in the day for a couple of seasons.
My hair was so long I had to wear a
headband so it could go back. I could put the
catcher's mask on. But man, it was important back then
because that ball gets by you.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
I mean, that's a free base, it's your guy. Yeah,
and that you just could not afford to do that,
Barry Shipson, if you are a good team, that's right.
A five nine two I two too, eight seven. We've
got one segment remaining here with Darren Hendrick. We'll be
right back here on the ksrpre Show. Welcome Back KSR
pre Show. Final segment with Darren Hendrick, who has done
a great job filling in for Shannon the Dude. We

(38:57):
were talking about colleges that offer Spanish speaking broadcasts and
one of them that we found is is it Idaho State? Yes,
Idaho State, and their name of their Spanish broadcast is
Vamos Vandals.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Oh no, that's Idaho, Idaho. Yeah, University of Idaho Bamos Vandals,
which I love. We get a little alliteration in there,
especially with the Spanish.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Term like vamos. I mean, come on, that's right, absolutely
love it. Before we get out of here, though, Darren,
tell me where Lane Kiffing is coaching next year?

Speaker 2 (39:25):
This is my question. He's not going to be. I
don't think he'll be in Oxford, really no, I think Florida.
Man if LSU comes calling, I think he'll end up
in Baton Rouge. I think that's the better job than Florida. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
The same time, he's been very vocal about money not
being the reason.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
You got all the resources you can want at LSU though, yeah,
you I mean ed Or Jeron's won a national championship
there less miles one one, Nick Saban won one. That's true,
So you have plenty of resources down there in Baton Rouge,
a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
You gotta call Nick first, though, make sure he doesn't
want to get back into the coaching, or at least
like give him money and say help us with this search.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
I wonder how many times his agent's been called already.
Where's John summer All coaching next year? That's a great question.
He's from Alabama, but that job's not open yet.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
You're talking about Auburn, Yes, right, yes, hey could be
if Kentucky goes down to the planes and beats you freeze.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
It's true, that's true. Well, I mean the loser of
that game could be looking for a new coach. It's possible. Yeah.
I don't know if I'm ready to say, because I
don't know what options he's going to have on the table,
but it's it's coming for him. He's getting one. Tell
me if you like this idea.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Scott Van Pelt is the top candidate to take over
for the Around the Horn time slot on ESPN.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
I kind of likes SVP in that primetime slot, but
I can't think of anybody better suited to feel that
old Around the Horn slot. It's just going to be
curious to see what ESPN does with their post Monday
night football that time slot. He used to be really important.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Yeah, And I say used to be because I just
don't know how many people are like appointment watching television.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
It's true. Yeah, I mean I can say I can.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Find what I want online before you watch a little
Around the Horn, you watch PTI, you get your sports
fixed in now. Scott comes on so late, you know,
I don't really watch Sports Center after the Monday night
game or but He's probably the best they got when
it comes to like name appeal and pop and so
it might be him getting that slot. You can hear

(41:27):
Darren Hendrick on the UK Sports Network on the women's
basketball calls coming up in just a matter of days,
and then you'll hear them once again on the baseball games.
But he's got one more football game to do with
me in studio. I'm gonna cherish it, Dren, and then
you're off to basketball.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
That's it, man, I can't wait. It's gonna be fun
with the game against Allburn They've got a great defense,
fun matchup next Monday night. We're tipping off the season.
Kats and moreheads State from the Coliseum.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Thank you, buddy, appreciate you joining me and get cue
this early for me one more time. DraftKings use promo
code KSR get those bonus bets. You can also get
some NBA League Pass with all the sporting events going on,
big thank you to Darren Hendrick.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
I'm Billy Rutler. This has been the case our pre
show and we will talk to you tomorrow.