Wildcat Whip with Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro & Dick Gabriel pre Southern Miss

Wildcat Whip with Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro & Dick Gabriel pre Southern Miss

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the season opening edition of the Wildcat Whip.
Here on the twenty twenty fourth season, Dick Gabriel with
Tom Leach jet before they will call the action as
the Wildcats take on the suttern Miss Golden Eagles. So
we thought we whipping around and try to figure out
what's going to happen on Saturday night. And both of
these boys have been doing this for quite a while. Tom,

(00:21):
this is how many for you?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
See this would be the twenty seventh year, the twenty
eighth season, and.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Mister Braccory, you're in your third decade.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Yep, twenty four starting two thousand.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
And we're going to fold in the years that you
actually were playing for the Wildcats. So that's an additional
You red shirted five more, Yeah, so you get credit
for that. How many for you? This is my thirty
fifth believe it or not with the radio network.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I told him the other day, the dean of Sideline
reporters of the SEC.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Indeed, So yeah, we've seen some games. We've seen suttern
Miss come into election and upset the Wildcats and then
Kentucky turned the tables the following year down there. But
what we so what we know is this Tom You
can't overlook them. I mean, these are kids that grew
up in SEC territory and probably think they belong in
the SEC.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
They've got several transfers. A quarterback that we expect to
start comes in from Florida State. They've got a tight
end from Old Miss, maybe a wide out from Old Miss.
I think so they've you know, the transfer portal era.
I mean, they were only three to nine last season,
and they haven't been quite the as potent as some

(01:31):
of those Southern Miss teams from when they were here
and you know what was that eight years ago or
even farther back to the nineties and Brett Favre. But
again transfer portal era. You know no, I mean this
quarterback did was pressed into service as a starter after
Travis that got injured for Florida State, and he started

(01:53):
against Florida played pretty well, so we'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, but this team, and it's gotten war of what
has happened in the last couple of years in college football,
is a shell of what they used to be, only
because they're used as a springboard for all these kids
in Mississippi. And you know, this is a it's a
very very rich State with talent, I mean Alabama LSU
to everybody raids Mississippi for the talent. And this is

(02:21):
a team they returned ten players that started a game
last year on both sides of all, that's it. I
mean they were absolutely just gutted. Quarterback from last year,
Frank Gordon Junior, left receivers. I mean, they are absolutely gutted.
They only have two players on their offensive line that
even started a college game at the Division one level.

(02:41):
They got a juco guy coming in and stuff, but
it's just it's a shame because this is a proud program.
And Dick mentioned Brett Farve and they were a team
that you could always say was gonna sneak over if
you want to call it sneak up or have an
upset every year. But it's just not the same anymore
because of the rules that are now with this portal
and we see it everywhere. You know, we see I

(03:04):
applaud Eastern for keeping Parker last year, you know, with
all the teams that came after him, Yeah, that came
after him. The offensive lineman that stay that's playing this
year is a you know, a FCS All American. But
these teams like that are just getting killed the I
don't know if you guys heard this, but it might
be the greatest coach quote ever and it's uh coach

(03:28):
Martin up at Miami, Ohio. Did you guys happen to
see Oh yeah, yeah, He goes, you know, you lost
your kicker and goes, oh whoa, Well, we didn't lose him.
We didn't lose him. I know exactly where he is
het Alabama, and he said Alabama came in here and yeah,
stolen from us. That's where he is. So we didn't
lose him. We don't know exactly where he is. But
you know, his point was these schools like that, Sorry,

(03:51):
it's you know, you've become the minor leagues for the
big schools that in the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
You gotta wonder going back to those teams we talked
about from the middle of the last decade, Edo Smith
was there, really good running back who had a nice
game against Kentucky. But then in that second game dinner
in Hattiesburg met Josh Pascal on a particular play that
helped Josh make a name for himself. But the point

(04:17):
is they get him out of Mobile Alabama overlooked by
Auburn by Alabama has a great career, goes on to
the NFL for a little while, and you got to wonder,
is that ever going to happen again?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
You see the financials on this game for Southern myths.
I was reading this story in the Hattiesburg newspaper. They
were supposed to open at Ohio State right and get
one point nine million to play the Buckeyes. They mutually
agreed Southern Miss in Ohio State to terminate the contract
last fall. According to the story, I don't know at
whose best and if Ohio State ends up playing Akron

(04:49):
because Kentucky this season was originally slated to be opening
up at Akron. So Akron's playing at Ohio State today
Southern missis is playing at Kentucky. Ohio State paid Southern
Mis half of that guarantee to get out of the deal,
and Kentucky's paying on the other half. So they're staying hole.
They're getting their one point nine million, it's just half
is coming from Kentucky. And and by the way, that's

(05:10):
about the going rate.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
And I think hot Tucky was supposed to play at akronow.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I remember I heard Tom you talking about those numbers
on your show, and I flashed back to a conversation
I had many years ago with Rob Mullen, the ad
now at Oregon was Deputy ad here in charge of
the budgetary side of things, and he told me that
this is way back then. How's the long as he
been gone almost twenty years, But he said non conference

(05:38):
teams are so valuable now because you don't have to
return that game. Although Kentucky has returned a Southern misgame
in the past, but he said, ordinarily you don't have
to return that game. He said, they've got us over
a barrel and they know it.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
And what happens is he gets some huge numbers in
the payoffs, and the schools that are paying it still
make money on it because a home game is so
valuable to them that they're still generating a profit. As
somebody was telling me that if the Acro boy surprised
the Acron coach agreed to that he really wanted that
home game against Kentucky, Well yeah, but somebody that counts

(06:14):
the dollars and cents wanted that bigger guarantee.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Wow, yeah, I'm sure they could have jacked up the
ticket price.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Could you imagine what would have happened to ticket prices,
and every hotel would have been in that Akron area Cleveland.
You know that the south side of Cleveland would have
been sold. Kentucky fans would have flocked up there to
that small stadium they play in, and it would have
been nuts as tea you could have you could have
sold tickets for two three times the face value.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Well, everything's sold out at this stadium.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
How about that twenty eight thousand seasons show.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
So all the season tickets, all the student passes. It's
a night game. It's gonna be a little warm, but
it should be a pretty good crowd.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Could be a little rainy for you on the side.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
That may be true. We can handle it. Uh. Brock
Vandergriff the other day told the media that he will
be nervous old sleep that Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Well did he say nervous though, because he.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Just said he wouldn't sleep.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Just so jacked up. So I don't know if that's
nervous or excited. Uh, he's nervous, you may be. That's
nervous is when you're you don't feel like you're prepared.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, jacked up. He's just excited to start for the
first time.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Since he hadn't started a football game in four years
since he was in high school.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
So what do you guys expect to me?

Speaker 3 (07:27):
That's that's the huge question. Tom.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
I really don't know for sure what to expect. He's
looked good at times. I've seen him in the scrimmages
and practice. I like that. I haven't seen him have
issues with interceptions, puts the ball in the right spot.
You know, I don't know how It may take two
games to give us a better feel for how good
he is. But you know, everything you hear, I like

(07:51):
everything I hear and see is all I can kind
of go on the waist throwing the ball. Uh, I
thought this week especially, he's looked really sharp and throwing
the ball. And then you know, he hear his teammates
talk about, you know, he's first guy in the weight room,
all those guys. I interviewed his dad on my show,
who's a high school coach down in Georgia. He said
that was basically the thing he told him said, I
you're gonna be a quarterback, you know, you got to lead,

(08:13):
so you know, don't be the last guy in the
when they're running, and don't be last in the weight room.
And you'll be leading in those things.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
The thing I like about him, and I think this
is across the board, and Gavin had to learn this
because when he was at Rutgers sometimes he forced balls
into coverage. He had the great ability to take off
and run, which that was the key for him. And
I'm talking about win Set, of course, the kid from
Owensboro who's now the backup. But I think that when

(08:41):
you look at when you look at the four quarterbacks themselves,
they understand now that a dump off to the running
back isn't a bad play. You know, to get three
or four yards. And with the top two guys, Gavin
and Brock, they can run. And I think that Brock
has learned that you don't run with your head up.

(09:05):
Somebody comes near you, you get down again, a three
or four yard gain is better than throwing. Now when
you look at the other two, I don't think there's
as big a running threats. But I think Bo is
a guy that knows that you know, he's just gonna
throw it away. You know, we're going to live to
play another play. And that's what Cutter's still kind of

(09:25):
learning because he still has that gunslinger mentality from high
school that I can fit it in there. But again,
this is the SEC, so he's learning. But that's the
thing that I like about this offense is these guys
have learned that that running back is your best friend
on passing plays.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
And that would be presumably at least at the beginning
of the game. Emi shum Ocarnbay who fits that tiss
army offensive play perfectly, doesn't he he.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Does see catches it well. In fact, he was kind
of a hybrid receiver running back last year, working probably
as much with the slot receivers as he was the
running backs, and so now he's worked exclusively at the
running back spot but still catching the ball.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Well.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Good buzz on Patterson, the freshman who had committed to Cincinnati.
Where you are, Jeff, and then will Cox is the
guy that there's a lot of excitement about last season
coming in and then I don't know what happened, just
never seemed to click with the where they trusted him
enough to put him out there to you know that
you're gonna pick up the splitz or you're gonna, you know,

(10:21):
be the right spot or whatever. But he uh, and
quite frankly, and you guys know, there went a lot
of buzz about him coming into this training camp, right,
but that has changed. And first scrimmage, you know, he
he looked good. So I'm eager to see, you know,
how he can help him because I watched him on
to make a nice cut in the long run in

(10:42):
practice one day and tells somebody, I said, he's like
those racehorses where they talk about high cruising speed, where
he's running fast and doesn't look like.

Speaker 3 (10:50):
He's running fast. Well, I think ninety percent of the
kids that come out of high school as a running
back can run at the college level. And that's not
what you're worried about. It's blitz pick up. That's what
they have to learn. And and when you see a
guy and you're wondering, why is this guy not playing
he was such a stud in high school, Well, it's
because if we're in the game, we audible to a

(11:10):
pass play and he has no idea what he's supposed
to do on blitz pick up or on a pass
play in the backfield. Now you're leaving your quarterback to
get you know, get whacked back there. You know. So
that that to me is the biggest thing, because all
these guys have great peripheral vision. They've got, as you said,
the speed. Both of those guys have got really good

(11:33):
top end speed. And the guy that I was excited
to see is the Mazelle kid. Whenever he's he's been cleared.
So but I mean, he just looks like when you
look at him, you're like, whoa. I mean, he looks
like his thighs and stuff, you're like a true freshman.
I mean a kids squats like six hundred pounds, benches

(11:53):
on three eighty five, and he's he's a physical specimen
much like Chip train him is the same way.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
So maybe he's a guy. I mean there we've seen
times Benny really didn't kind of come on the scene
until the third game. So maybe a guy like that
could if it if nobody else is giving them what
they would need to the level they want it, Yeah,
maybe he works his way into the mix.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
One of the names that I kept hearing, and he
talked to the media as well from the wide receivers
coach from the other wide receivers was Fred Ferry. Stoops
brought him up, Shorts brought him up, Barrian Brown brought
him up. He is to me really intriguing and mister
wide receiver. I don't know if they've had a chance

(12:33):
to see him much, but he'll get an opportunity.

Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, I mean the four starters are going to be
him and Macklin and then obviously barry On and Dane.
That's going to be your first four guys in. But
I think this this wide receiver has got some depth.
They've got six Anthony Brown Stevens. Yeah, Anthony Brown Stevens
and the kid from Moeler both has really shown and prove.

(12:56):
But I think this year that they coaches respect him
stuff and that they've got six by by I think
they're top four fantastic. So my big question is this,
You're you're gonna run the football. I mean, this is
not how Mummy's offense. A lot of people think, oh,
Boise State, we're gonna throw it fifty times a game.
They're not gonna throw it fifty times a game. This
is still want to run first and with your tight

(13:18):
end group which is so talented and deep. My question
you two is how do you share the ball amongst
all these guys?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Right?

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Because you think Dane's got to touch it X amount
of times a game, Barrion has to touch it.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
You make sure it times more than fifty plays. Yeah, yeah,
that's the gay and it's to uptempa ought to help, right.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I hope. So I think that the biggest thing to
me with that is you've heard both of you guys
know what a play is when they call it, how
long it is, and how many words are in it.
Now it's only the coach telling the quarterback, so you're
not gonna misinterpret anything. So that's gonna be quicker because
it doesn't have to pass down to another guy who
then has to pass it down. And you're I.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
Were standing to watch a practice one day, you said,
you point it down to these two guys, these colorful hats. Yeah,
watch watch these guys. So ep that a little bit.
Then people will see on the sidelines.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yes, So what happens is you're gonna see a red shirt,
a green shirt, an orange shirt, of yellow shirt and
then so and I'm I'm just assuming this because I
haven't asked, but I will. One of them is live,
so it might be first quarter, we're gonna go purple shirt.
So whatever the whoever the purple shirt is. I don't
know if you've watched the sign stealing thing yet about
the guy. It is spectacular. This guy is a is

(14:31):
A is a a font but anyway, h so purple shirt.
So you watch him and basically all he's doing is
is because the receivers are already out, they don't have
to come to the huddle, so they're looking at him
and he's just showing him the routes. Okay, he showed
him to the routes. The other guys with hand signals, yeah,

(14:52):
and the other guys are doing stuff. But the quarterback
knows the play from him, so the line doesn't need
to know the play. They just need to know what's
their hall Okay, So they look to the side and
another guy might be given their call or what or
their signal for we're blocking this way, we're blocking slide yes,
slide right, drop back pass, uh, play action pass, you

(15:14):
run that kind of stuff. So everybody is getting a
different piece of information from the cards that they hold
up because they're doing cards too. You know. They have
Lucy on him and and junior mints and you know,
and the you know, the hockey man or what are
those things? You know, So it's crazy, but everything down
there has a meaning and it's real interesting. But watch him,

(15:36):
I mean, isn't an awesome time. It looks like the
guys on a on an aircraft carrier. They're doing all this.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Stuff, but it looks more complicated than it down.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
It's like the third base coach. They're doing all this stuff,
but until they go to the indicator, which is the
chin or the belt, everything is just for dress. Then
he does the chin. Oh sleeve, Okay, that's a streak.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
And play in high school baseball is remember us. It's
funny how you still remember things. Our head coach was
a third base and when he took his h hand
and put it, say, on his left shoulder, and pulled
it across his chest, the next sign was live.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
That was the That was indicator. Yeah, so it's interesting.
But watch those if you guys are at the game watching,
because it is fascinating how they do it. And their
mouth they did too. Like when you watch their mouth,
they're going they're saying, zipper flip. You know nobody's here, yeah,
zipper flip corner, zipper flip corner.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
Nobody else is reading your lips somewhere exactly. But the
point is there's a lot to uh ingest there. You
gotta be clean. That's the that's the the key with this,
any any uptempo offense, you know, because like you said,
everything that was is going to be relayed was relayed
last year verbally. To your point, and why I was

(17:00):
taken so long, Well, I.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Thought, I thought, you've talked to Mark about this a
lot more than I have. I thought the thing that
Mark said about tempo, the best thing is I don't
want to snap it like Tennessee at this breakneck speed.
But I also don't want to snap it with two
seconds left on the clock and we're yeah, you know,
guys are oh god, we've got to and now you're
giving the defense. Okay, they got to snap in a second.
So I know when he says, hut, it's really hot.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
You know, well we only got a couple minutes left,
so we do need to talk defense. And they're good.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
Why they're really good?

Speaker 1 (17:27):
That's not really good, aren't they?

Speaker 3 (17:29):
If Southern Miss scores more than ten points, I'll buy
you two lunch next.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well that's how good this defense is.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
They averaged Southern Miss last year. It's a different team,
not twenty three and a half a game, but gave
up thirty five and a half, which means if they're
not better on defense Kentucky, I'll just play keep away.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
But I gotta believe talk about size the defense, the
size Kentucky's defense, Well.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
That's what I was getting to you. And starting with Dion,
as we all know, whatever the sport, if you're good
up the middle defensively, you're in good shape in Kentucky.
Clearly starting with Dion, but going.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Backwards, Doomus Johnson, Derrek Jackson, the safety safety is kind
of underperformed. I think there's a group last season. I
expect that to change. And they've got an all SEC
corner on one side, and even though there's uncertainty on
the other side. There have been years where maybe you
weren't as confident on one side, but you didn't you

(18:21):
only had one guy there maybe that you trusted. Well,
now they got four or five guys in the mix,
so I have to believe somebody will, you know, just
that competition for the job will emerge.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
And I think that guy's probably the kid for Michigan.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Yeah, he's been in and out of practice because might
have already.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
DJ's problem is he's been banged up a little bit,
but you still have a heart away over there, and
Addison is that Addison. You've got enough guys that it's
going to cover. But look, you got two at noseguard
and tackle, two guys that are three forty plus. You
got two linebackers in the middle there are two forty plus,

(18:56):
and then you got two. Say you've got four safeties
that have started multiple games at the safety position. So
you're up. The middle is big, it's fast, and it's deep.
And I think that old the key. Yeah, and and yes,
and I think that's something that Brad told me in
our preview show. Is before guys had to think and

(19:18):
react or what's the play? Okay, I'm doing no Now
it's just they look over and go, we got it.
And now they now they're starting, they're so good at
it that they're saying, Okay, I'm gonna shade this guy
a little bit this way or that way because I
think I can get quicker. And he is allowing them
to do that because they're they're upperclassmen now.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
And you may look at it in the final point
here you were here, you look at last season and
you say, well, you know, their numbers weren't great last season. Yeah,
you got a lot of guys back, but their numbers
weren't that great last season. All of those were second
year guys. They were asked being asked to do more
earlier than you would ideally, like just always remember now,
Josh heinz Allen, he was pretty good at the end

(19:59):
of his second year, he was otherworldly. Yeah, in the
third year, the back.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Half of his the back half of his junior year,
he had one sack.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, but with a different guy.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
We'll look at Hairston. I mean he played what one
play that we all remember two years ago, and then
last year the guy was where'd this come from? Yeah,
and he's back, so that's huge.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Kentucky Southern Miss jefficorl tom Leaf will be upstairs calling
the action. They'll be heard in the pregame show for
a few minutes, but we felt we would share with
you our thoughts here on the Whip, the Wildcat Whip
it is. Thank you, gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
It's always a play.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
For forty two seven and we'll talk to you next week.
On the Wildcat Whip,