Jeremy Jarmon and Dick Gabriel on UK at SEC Media Days

UK Sports Network's Jeremy Jarmon and Dick Gabriel were in Dallas for Kentucky's turn at SEC Media Days. 
The guys share comments from Deone Walker and Marques Cox plus share their impressions from around the league. 

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Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Welcome into Behind Kentucky Football. Thisis Jeremy Jarman and we're joined by legendary
UK Sports Network reporter football sideline reporterDick Gabriel here at SEC Media Days in
Dallas, Texas. Before we breakdown what Mark Soups and the Kentucky players
had to say today, we dowant to remind you to subscribe or follow
this podcast on whatever platform you're listeningto. Gabe, Welcome, legendary.

(00:32):
You're too kind with my case.It just means I've been around for a
while when they pumped up the firstfootball But glad to be here, glad
to be talking to you. Asalways covered your career and those of many
others. But you were a lotof fun and now you were on the
other side of the of the microphonesdown in Dallas, weren't you. Yeah,

(00:53):
that was your first as a mediaperson. It was. It was
my first as a media person,and I tell you I didn't expect thes
to hit me the way that theydid in the sense of I'm ready for
football season, and in my opinion, I think just being down there and
having the opportunity to listen to othercoaches, to get up close and to
be able to talk with players,and I was able to talk with some

(01:17):
of the Auburn players this morning,some sharp dudes, almost as sharp as
our guys. But I'm just ready. I'm ready for SEC play. What
stood out to you, I guessabout this week in Dallas, Well,
I think that coaches have done areally good job. I think of identifying
guys who were like you when youplayed. You could put some words together,

(01:41):
you could put some cohesive sentences andthoughts together. Not knocking anybody who
struggled a bit, but it seemedlike in the years and I covered a
lot of these things. And thento interject, I had not been to
the media days probably in ten yearsat least, because it just got too
crazy down in Birmingham with all thebloggers and their websites and the TV networks,

(02:02):
and you didn't have the access toplayers in terms of being allowed or
being able to ask one on onequestions. That's because it just got so
crowded. And you were referring totalking to the Auburn guys. We bumped
into them, or at least youdid in the lobby by radio row yes,
and so you caught them in alittle bit of a downtime, and

(02:25):
I'm sure they recognize you as Iprobably played, so you had some good
conversations with them. So anyhow,I was impressed and had been with the
way the OMNI ran this thing.I think they did a great job in
Dallas. But anyway, getting backto your original question, coaches now I
think are much better at bringing guyswho a deserved to be there. Yes,

(02:49):
but two can get their message across. You know, can can give
the answers without dropping into the clichesand things like that. And I'm not
talking about two minute soliloquies, butthere were some of those. You know,
but guys who can, as yousay, get that brand name out

(03:09):
there. Saw where John Clay recentlywrote an article He referred to Mark Stoops
as the elder Statesman about that.Obviously the longest tenured coach in SEC.
Now, Mark opened up, hespoke about that and what that meant to
him. He talked about the consecutiveeight consecutive Bowl appearances. How that's something
that he's very proud of. Whatare your thoughts on him starting out and

(03:32):
talking about that initially basically embracing Iguess that title. Well, we talked
about just now the brand and thathas become Kentucky Football's brand. The tenure
of the longevity, the consistency,and yeah, there have been some up
and down seasons. Yeah, weexpected nine or ten wins media and fans
alike last year and the fact thatthey got only seven wins says a lot.

(03:58):
We'll talk about that, but Dopesmentioned, as you said, the
run of bull games, which Ihad never thought was possible. I have
to be honest with you. Butalso about his tenure, and he knew
the number of coaches who had beenat their respective universities nationwide, Yes,
you know. And he gave creditto Susan Lax and Tony Neely, the

(04:20):
PR people. But that's important,and that's where you get that out.
You're not going to hear Mark Stoopsunless you push him or press him on
it at his normal Monday morning pressconference or on his Coaches show, thumping
his chest like that. But that'sthe venue, Dallas media days. That's

(04:41):
when and where you do it.And I thought he did a good job.
I do too. And when youlook at anything in life, there's
nothing, nothing comes and it's justa straight vertical line. You don't get
anywhere in life, you know,whether it's buying a stock, that stock
never just goes vertical. I mean, you know there's terms I see people
using, bar coding up down,up down, up doown and then you
let these things kind of settle andthen boom. And I think that we're

(05:03):
at a point now where over thelast few years gave where we've kind of
had the highs and we've had we'vekind of dropped back down, been a
little flat high flat. Now Ithink this is going to be a year
where you have eight home games.Can you get this line going back,
you know, get it going backvertical and try to get back to you
know, a year like eighteen twentyone where you're knocking on the door for

(05:26):
a possibility to play, you know, playing in one of the late Bowl
games. Not only that, darewe dream yes about the playoffs? Yeah,
let's just go ahead. And youknow I kind of played around with
that. No, absolutely, twentyeighteen I think they would have been in
the playoff, don't you I do? I do. I think that that
team was good enough. And thenultimately the eighteen year, I mean,

(05:49):
Georgia comes into town very very veryconservative game plan. I thought Georgia came
with and that's that's respect to BradWhite and that defensive unit. We had
pros on three levels. So you'renot going to put your quarterback in a
position if you're Georgia on the roadto you know, to let that game
get away from you because you're tryingto take shots down the field. There

(06:09):
were a couple of different years whereGeorgia came in and a win by Kentucky
would have opened that gate. Butwhen you looked at that eighteen team,
like you said, the difference isthere was talent. You know, you
could call Josh heinz Allen generational talent. But yeah, you're right, pros
at all three levels. But alsothe O line which set the tone.

(06:31):
That's I think the biggest question markthis year, and Marcus Cox talked about
that here in Dallas. You know, can they set the tone and be
more consistent. A friend of mine, a media person, said that he
believes they maybe need to let goof the big blue wall logo or slogan

(06:53):
or whatever. You know, Yeah, you know, and I could I
can understand what he's saying, butI really believe, and you can speak
better to this that I could seethem embracing the values that that original big
blue wall embraced. And you know, and yes, we realized John Schlarman

(07:14):
has gone. Rest his soul,but what he stood for I think still
needs to be here, don't you. I agree? And I think it
was just it was a different age. As crazy as that sounds, I
think when you when you you know, that was what two two offensive coordinators
ago. Yes, so with that, you know that Eddie grand style offense,
it was you know, he wasaggressive, they were aggressive running the
ball. They had pros up front, they had pros in the backfield.

(07:38):
I mean, just absolute bruisers.Uh. And that's just that's not college
football in the SEC the way thatit used to be. Now with the
new offensive coordinators, it's a littlebit more spread out. You're getting your
backs out in space. But youstill want to be able to tap into
that mentality when you need it,and in this league you need it,
especially in the fourth quarter. Youknow what you do through the first three

(08:01):
quarters, run past, mix whatever. When you get into the fourth quarter
and you have a lead or you'retrying to take a lead, you need
some kind of moniker, some kindof rallying cry. That is at the
base. That's part of your identity. So when you say so, I'd
be careful, like you said,trying to shed the big blue, trying
to shed that and trying to createa you know, a new slogan,

(08:22):
because you want guys to be ableto tap into that. That's when they
need to Well, as you know, I've been there forever. I covered
my first game in seventy five.But what I'm trying to tell you is
I've seen a lot of teams sincethen at Kentucky who took teams opponents into
the fourth quarter and lost heartbreakers.And you would hear fans, you know,
I've done talk radio forever. Youhear fans they didn't want it enough.

(08:46):
They were out coached, Bob,but no, they got tired and
ran out of depth as often asnot nine out of ten times that was
the problem. And now this stafffrom day one has worked their tails off
and a lot of assistan since Slashrecruiters have come and gone, but thanks
to Vince maryland Mark Stoop still beinghere, they've done the same thing.

(09:07):
They have tried to recruit to needand build that depth, and I think
they've done that fairly successfully and that'swhy Kentucky now is winning more games than
it has in the past, andit's winning games in that fourth quarter that
you just talked about. And whenit comes to me in physical I'll never
forget working on a TV piece.For when I produced the Football Coaches Show,

(09:31):
we would go into the video room, Jeff Pikoro and I did,
and they had just come off thefirst win at Florida and Big George George
Esapho a Jay takes Jeff and meinto the video room and uses what you
guys call the clicker. You know, the remote doesn't really click, but
that's what every calls it, andthe laser pointer, right, and we

(09:52):
were looking Jeremy in nothing but endzone video and there were some key plays,
but he wanted to do that toshow me me the skill and execution
by the offensive line in the swampobviously against Florida, and he just said
things like, yeah, we pushedthose guys around and you could see it
right there in front of you,the old line opening, you know how

(10:16):
the end zone that video that theholes look a lot bigger, dominating,
And I'll never forget that, andI would love to see this team get
back to that and see what thisteam can do if the old line can
regain that consistent physicality. No,I agree with d And I just got
chills just just listening to that.And thank you, Big George, Big

(10:39):
George. He was a good one. And you know you talk about Florida
and pushing them around, I tellyou're offensive line they have you know,
they've been They've been up and down, you know, over the past,
over the past few seasons. Butyou see, you saw some big improvement
against with some guys last year individuallyand just collectively, and that Florida game

(11:00):
obviously being one of them. Buta lot of good blocks over the course
of the season, but then youjust kind of have some of those those
misses, some of the inconsistencies whereyou're just not able to just to keep
that momentum going. So now withcoach Woolford back at the helm, with
that offensive line group, I'm reallycurious to see where they start this camp
and ultimately how this running back roomevolves and to see if someone is going

(11:24):
to emerge out of that running backgroup to really establish this all help us
to the identity. It is upto the old line and when you look
at Marcus Cox, a guy thatwe spoke with today. He seems like
he's very confident, and we hadthe chance we asked him questions, and
he's one of the most experienced offensivelinemen in all of college football and this

(11:46):
is seventh year. I don't knowhow many years then he is, but
I mean, just a guy ofhis caliber, how intelligent he is.
When you look at his stats toI think he's at knocking on the door.
I think it maybe like forty eightconsecutive starts as an offensive lineman NFL
and college coaches they just love tosee a guy figure out how to stay

(12:07):
healthy, you know, and oftentimesthat's part of the process of just taking
care of your body, but that'salso just always being the physically dominant person
as well, not being knocked down, not being pushed into a power.
There's a lot of whammies out thereon the football field, a lot of
grenades you can step on. ButMarcus Cox, I'm excited to see the
step he's going to take because he'sso intelligent. And now when we spoke

(12:31):
with him, he's talking about,uh, you know, pilates. He's
talking about doing these extra things tohelp with his hip, help with his
flexibility and his explosion. If he'sable to pick up where he left off
last year, but showed that he'sa more versatile athlete and really growing to
that left tackle position, It's goingto be a fun year watching him grow
and develop and ultimately propel this offensiveline forward. He talked a lot in

(12:56):
the breakout scrum, as we callit in Dallas. The players obviously sit
at a podium, cameras, lightsand all, but local media are given
the opportunity in a smaller room offto the side to just sort of go,
you know, maybe not one onone, but it's about fifteen minutes

(13:18):
or ten minutes per player, andtwenty minutes it's about for Mark Stoops and
everybody got a chance to ask specificquestions, those of us on the local
beat, because once they get intothe main room, it's guys and galas
from around the SEC that want tofill their notebooks and their recorders. So
that's a great thing. And that'swhere we first heard Marcus, or rather

(13:39):
yeah, Marcus talk about pilates anda lot and you fired some questions of
people. I did, and Iasked him a question because you know that
this is me as a former playernow just finding ways to just stirt the
pot a little bit. So Iasked him when we went back to camp
last year, I said, therewere times last season where Mark talked about
how disruptive Dion was in practice.I said, you know, since I

(14:01):
asked him, I said, youknow, what role do you play?
What do you guys have to doto make sure that Deon's getting those snaps
and y'all are getting those one onone snaps? And this is what he
had to say about that, Uh, just knuckle up and doing it.
At the end of the day,he's our teammates, so we gotta take
care of him. But we're gonnago We're gonna go work, We're gonna
go attack him. He gonna helpus get better. We're gonna help him

(14:22):
get better. So I asked thesame question to Dion and this is what
he had to say. You know, just excuse my French, but talking,
you know, just like in realgames, you know, everybody talks,
everybody's chirps. I feel like withme being so big and disruptive,
disruptive as I am, the onlyway I'm going to get basically on my

(14:45):
offensive lifes nerves or like get themto play up to competition. Is if
I talk, if I be howI if if I practice how I play
all the time, that's gonna bethe only time they play up to me
to where I can get that,you know. And there's some days where

(15:07):
they just aren't looking for it.There may be some days where they are
looking for it and I'm just tryingto kill. But we gotta keep on
battling no matter what, you know. We gotta have a bunch of There's
gonna be a bunch of battles betweenme and Eli, me and Mark,
Big Market is over there, meand Gerald, Me and Jalen, me
and Jaggers, you know. Butthey gotta I feel like they know that

(15:30):
it's coming from a wanting to seethe whole team get better as a whole,
not as a disrespect, you know, And I feel like that having
that common ground is going to takeus a long way. So Gabe,
as a former player coaches, referredto this as brother in law, and
that's kind of what they said,taking it easy on your brother in law
where you kind of have a youknow, a little theater session that practice

(15:54):
today And what Dion's saying is isthat that he has to make sure that
that's not that's not happening. Sohe's basically saying that when he's trying to
get that work in, he's beingyou know, he's being uplifting. He's
talking a little noise in practice,and when you're at practice he's doing those
things, he's very animated. He'streating it like a game. And with

(16:15):
that, there's that expectation that theoffensive line that they're gonna come, you
know that they're gonna come ready toget him blocked every single day as well,
Brother in law, I learned somethingtoday. If you aren't already,
you need to subscribe to The BigBlue Brew. Sign up at ukathletics dot
com slash Big Blue Brew. TheBig Blue Brew, presented by Commonwealth Credit,

(16:40):
is the only official UK Athletics newsletterand it is sent out directly to
your inbox Monday through Friday, andthe best part is it's completely free.
Sign up today at UK Athletics dotcom slash Big Blue Brew. What do
you think about the three guys thatMark ultimately decided to bring to media days

(17:00):
once again, no quarterback, noskilled player quote unquote, although all three
of those guys are highly skilled.You can understand why they didn't bring a
quarterback because no one has officially wonthat job yet. But no Barrion Brown
or Dame Key, you know,I guess because there are so many key
spots, or enough key spots onoffense. Running back is still a question

(17:25):
mark, and perhaps the starter isgoing to be a transfer and perhaps the
starter, as we said, atquarterback, So it kind of makes sense.
I thought they might bring Baron Ordain. But if you're going to bring
an elder spokesman, you're going tobring Marcus Cox. And I'm a little
biased because I played old line forabout a minute, but I've always felt,

(17:47):
or I found that old linemen arealways really good interviews because it's a
tough spot in the trenches, Jeremy, But as you know, it's a
thinking man's position. There's so muchthat goes into that moment right before the
snap of the ball. You dlineman, you've got a plan, but
now you're using explosion and instinct.These online guys are right there on their

(18:11):
own heads. So I like theway Eric Jackson handed himself for a guy
who was looking to come out ofhis shell. I think he did that.
You know, a guy who playedalongside Trevin Wallace pointed out to us,
I think in the breakout room thatwhile he's not as outgoing as Trevin
was, he was quite vocal onthe field. And you've you've pointed that

(18:33):
out before. Yeah, d Jackhas really grown on me, seeing his
leadership, seeing him come out ofthat shell, and you know, just
having a chance to talk with himbehind the scenes, just about that evolution
and just how Brad White when hecomes to the sideline being the Mike linebacker,
how their their interaction is very frequent, whereas with me as a defensive
lineman, I'm coming off the field. You know, my defensive coordinator was

(18:56):
Mike Arthur Steve Brown. They weren'tasking me, you know, hey,
what's going on in the trenches?I mean, you know, it is
what it is. And the trencheseither you're whipping somebody or getting whipped.
With the linebacker position, a lotof cerebral stuff going on there and making
calls, getting people signed up,making checks. So, yeah, just
just talking with him about just levelingup from a as a bachelor, you
know, bachelor level guy to nowa master's level player at that inside position.

(19:21):
He seems to really embrace that,and he's very quiet, but I'm
really starting to notice how fierce heis and how a competitor he is.
He feels that there's a lot ofin my opinion, there's a lot of
doubt about how elite of an athletehe is. And one of the things
you mentioned, Yeah, and heis an elite athlete, and it's not

(19:45):
evidenced by anything that he's done onthe field. And my opinion is evidenced
by the fact that he came backfrom the Achilles in eight months. That's
elite genetics. So it's the adversitythat he faced and how quickly he came
out of that that tells me everythingI need to know about him. Because
when he came out and he playedin that Louisville game, I couldn't believe

(20:06):
it. First and foremost played incrediblywell, played, extremely well, led
the team, led the team intackles coming off of Achilles. That happened
eight months prior. I mean,you go back anytime before that. I
mean the you know, I workin healthcare, I mean Achilles their career
enders for a lot of people.And if it's not career ending, you're

(20:27):
out for over a year. Somepeople they don't get back to form for
two career alter for a lot ofpeople. So for him, he's got
a lot to prove this year,and I'm expecting him to have an even
better year and just be even moreimpactful than he's being already as the leading
tackler for Bradwhite's defense the last twoyears. Well, it's a legionetics very

(20:48):
well put by you in elite courageand you tell me, as a guy
who's lived in locker rooms, howdoes that playoff to teammates? It plays
off really well because when other guyshave similar injuries, now you kind of
have a model of someone like Djack. When you talk with a Mattelino,

(21:10):
you talk with Evan the athletic trainer, there of a guy who came in
and he attacked this rehabit, thisworkout like a pro. So that sets
the standard, uh, you know, for those guys because there will be
injuries. And now he's one ofthese guys that they can point to and
say attack it the way Djack didit. It's something they had in Downdree

(21:30):
Square and now they've got a DJack and it's so interesting to watch him
kind of emerging as the personality he'shad the ability really for two seasons.
Right of that injury, he wasplaying well. But I think I've told
you this story before. But TrevinWallace, when I first spoke to him,
he hadn't set foot on the fieldyet. On game day, it

(21:53):
was summertime and though a lot ofus from the UK network were invited over
to the to the barbecue they havemidweek during summer camp, right, and
we were all milling about. Wehad just gotten there. Uh, this
kid walks up to me. Ihappen to be on the on the outside
of the group. Uh, soI'm the first one he bumped into and

(22:15):
sticks his hand down, says,how, my name's Trevin Wallace. I'm
a linebacker. You're gonna be hearinga lot about me. And I said,
well, okay, there and uhand he went around and shook the
hands of everybody. You talk abouta confident young man. And then he
had that great game last year twoyears ago against at Missouri, and I
brought that up to him. Iinterviewed him on the postgame show and he

(22:37):
didn't remember doing it, but hesaid I was right, wasn't I said,
yes, you were you know,Uh, d Eric Jackson's not going
to do that, but he's fullycapable of making the plays that have people
talking about it. He is,and I'm I'm so excited for him,
and uh, it's it. It'smade Dallas coming down the trip, just

(22:59):
having the chance to to sit aroundand just talk with him and just talk
family talk, inspiration. He talkedabout his you know, his grandmother being
able to come see and play lastseason, and just talking about football and
his first experiences with football and whatit means to him, what it means
to his family. And I justlove I love his passion. I love
his passion for life, for football, and ultimately that's what I like to

(23:22):
see from these guys. That's whyI think you do it. That's why
I do it, is because Iwant to hear their stories, their motivation
and their why. You know whatsurprised me of anything is Dion Walker the
veil of the ball down here.Well, yeah, and we had fun
talking to him, right. Hewas a little more reserved on the podium,

(23:42):
huh than I thought he would be. Do you know what I'm saying?
Did you notice that? Yeah?Why do you think that was?
I think because he knew that hewas going to be getting a lot of
questions from media now that he is, you know, he's a projected first
round draft pick, possibly number onetackle off the board. Uh, And
he just didn't want to say anything. He wanted to take time process to

(24:04):
questions and be insightful and not getcaught off guard, be more professional.
Yeah, because there's a lot ofwacky questions you get down here at SEC
media Days. You got you gotguys and women, you know, from
from all all over the South,and their timing in just asking some weird
sideball questions, you know what,was interesting and I guess we need to
wrap this up. To me,was in the electronic media room, which

(24:29):
is much smaller than the main breakoutroom. Somebody I guess was doing a
story on Kentucky. This was nota local person. I think this was
an Alabama based reporter who asked eachplayer what's it like to play for Mark
Stoops? And then I asked tofollow up the Stoops. You know,
I told him what they said andwhat did it mean to him? And

(24:53):
I don't know how much of thatyou heard if you were in a different
room than I was, but theyall talked essentially about he's there for us,
and Stoop's talked about that as well. I coach for them, I
work for them, and now ithas as much to do with raising money
as it does for helping them throughtheir lives. And I thought that was

(25:15):
a real fascinating storyline. I dotoo, And I think what we're seeing
in this new NIL era is thatwe're seeing the bond between coaches and players
grow stronger. Because in the past, before players had the ability to move
around, I think some of therelationships gave. I think some of them

(25:36):
were superficial. And I think nowthat players have the opportunity to go places
and play for different people, Ithink now these coaches more than ever,
you're always recruiting your own players,and it's not just recruiting, you're always
working to strengthen and develop meaningful bondswith your players. So when Dion said

(25:56):
that when he saw the report comeout which Mark was asked about potentially going
to Texas A and M Dion saidthat when he saw the report that morning,
he called Mark. Yeah, hesaid, he called him on the
phone and he wanted to know.He wanted to know, And that's that's
going to be good for the gamein that sense is that players and coaches

(26:19):
there's going to be more accountability,there's gonna be more camaraderie, there's going
to be more connectedness amongst everybody inthose buildings. I thought it was fascinating.
Again, I had been to many, many of these things, but
the first it's in Dallas for thefirst time because it's the inaugural season with
Texas and Oklahoma. I don't knowabout you, but I thought there was

(26:41):
a lot of excitement there because ofthat, and a lot of media people
there obviously from Texas and Oklahoma.Yeah, and I had a chance to
speak with a couple of a coupleof the outfits that were on radio road
that were from Oklahoma just curious about, you know, Oklahoma football, just
to see what kind of questions theyhad. But yeah, Texas and Oklahoma

(27:02):
coming. It's it's awesome and hopefullywe're down in Austin this year November twenty
third, the c US go downthere and beat the Longhorns in their first
year in the SEC. I'm JeremyJarman with the UK Sports Network. I'll
see you sare today August third atUK Fan Day