June 3, 2024 • 11 mins
UC guard Luke Kandra is throwing out one of the first pitches on Reigns and Reds Night at GABP next Wednesday.
The Elder product joined us to talk about his decision to transfer to Cincinnati from Louisville, his offseason, the 2024 Bearcats, and his summer nuptuals.
Get tickets to Reigns and Reds Night by going here.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Follow on Twitter: @MoEgger
Email: mo@espn1530.com
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
The Elder product joined us to talk about his decision to transfer to Cincinnati from Louisville, his offseason, the 2024 Bearcats, and his summer nuptuals.
Get tickets to Reigns and Reds Night by going here.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Follow on Twitter: @MoEgger
Email: mo@espn1530.com
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
American Ballpark A week from this Wednesday, June twelfth, Reds and Guardians.
It's the annual Rains and Reds gameat GABP, where pro seed proceeds from
ticket sales will go to Cincy Rains. We'll have a specific link that we'll
throw out for you here in justa few minutes. Luke Candra, who
was a third team All American isby the Associated Press, is going to
(00:23):
be involved with the ceremonial first pitchas well. Jillian Hayes, who was
an All Big Twelve performer for theUC women's basketball program, She will also
be participating in the first pitch.It's also an Ellie Dela Cruz bobblehead night.
It's going to be a fun nightat the ballpark, in a great
night if you're a supporter of UCathletics, specifically the football program. Luke
(00:43):
Candra left Louisville along with Scott Saderfieldand that coaching staff, came home to
Cincinnati, and the elder product hadannounced standing season for the Bearcats last year.
He comes back. He is arguablythe best returning guard in all of
major fps college football and one offive returning starting offensive lineman for the UC
(01:04):
Bearcats in twenty twenty four, andduring a summer in which he's thrown out
the first pitch at a Reds game, getting ready for another year of college
football, and getting married nice enoughto spend a few minutes with us.
It's good to have you, Luke. How are you good? How are
you doing? I'm doing well.I gotta think, man, for a
Cincinnati kid to be involved in theceremonial first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game
(01:29):
is gonna be quite the thrill.Oh yeah, it's awesome being a mic
long Reds fan. I'd never thoughtin my life I would ever throw a
first pitch, and it's really ablessing and I'm super excited, all right,
throwing a baseball. Throwing a pitchis different than blocking a large man
in front of you. Have youbeen practicing? Are you throwing off a
mound? Are you playing catch?How's that working? Uh? Yeah,
(01:53):
I've been really yeah, I've beentrying just a little bit this past weekend.
Actually, yeah, yeah, it'sgonna it's gonna be really fun to
see how I can do from ninetyfeet away. From ninety feet it's sixty
feet six, Okay, well,very good. Uh, let's let's work
(02:14):
backward a little bit. So youstart your college football career at Louisville,
Scott Saderfield announces he's coming to Cincinnati, and you follow him and that staff,
you come back home and play inyour hometown. Kind of walk us
through that decision. That decision wasprobably one of the easiest decisions in my
entire life, you know, havingwhen I got that that day when coach
(02:36):
Saturfield got got announced the head coachingjob at Cincinnati. Everyone at all,
my previous teammates that Louisville knew Iwas heading out entering the portal to go
back home. And it has beenthe greatest decision in my life. All
right. So, uh, theoffensive line last year, look at it
was not an easy season for forUC football top to bottom, but you
(03:00):
guys did more than hold your ownwhen it came to running the football,
especially against Big twelve opponents. Andthat was one of the questions a lot
of us had coming into the season, was what was the offensive line going
to rise to the level of physicalityneeded in the Big twelve. You were
a big part of that. Youlook ahead to twenty twenty four in this
era of turnover. To have allfive starting offensive linemen and a one thousand
(03:23):
yard rusher coming back is really kindof unique and it's quite a luxury.
So what sort of things from thatstandpoint do you expect this coming season?
Man, I'm expecting a whole lotmore than what we did last year.
Week we ran the ball very well, and I'm very excited and looking forward
to blogging for Corey again and theother backs that we got. So it's
(03:44):
gonna be really really fun and reallyexciting to watch them work. You come
to Cincinnati from Louisville with that staff, and so I'm sure they had to
kind of lean on you from aterminology standpoint, from the standpoint of helping,
you know, everybody learn the offense. Now with the continuity you guys
are going to have on the offensiveline, maybe not as much as going
to be needed. Give us anidea of maybe some things you could do
(04:06):
offensively this coming season that you reallycouldn't do. Last year. Really,
the easier to communicate, that's thebiggest thing for offensive linemen is the communication.
And now since we have another wholeoff season together again and now this
whole season to really work on thatand hone in and become even better in
(04:28):
our communication. Is it easier justtop to bottom when you go into year
two of a program and a staffwhere you know, a year ago at
this time, maybe not so muchfor yourself, but there was so much
chaos, so much turnovers, somany players coming and going. Is it
relatively easier from that standpoint, justbecause things are a little bit more stable
(04:49):
in year two? Yeah, Yeah, it's very it's a lot more.
Uh, it's easier because one everyone'smostly bore back. There's there's still new
guys, you know, the transportalfreshmen and stuff. But knowing what we
bese going into the summer and season, we didn't really know as in the
(05:11):
rest of the team, Like Ikind of knew how coach that ran.
But having everyone understand how coach thatworks, how defense works, and it's
gonna be a lot easier to pickup on things. Uh. What is
this stage of the offseason like foryou? What are you allowed to do?
Are you taking it easy? What? What? What does what does
(05:31):
June and I guess early July looklike for you? Yeah? With uh,
all all great praises from the strengthstaff, we have a what they
call Juggernaut. June it's gonna bethe hardest months of our entire workouts.
It's gonna be it's gonna be toughday in the day out and they always
say the easiest day was today afterour workout, so the next day is
(05:55):
always gonna be tougher and we it'sgonna be very grueling, but it's gonna
bring everyone together. You you've hadand you know, I'm sure your role
as as a guy who's been throughthis before is very helpful. We have
the day and age of early enrollieswhere kids can you know, basically jump
from high school after winter break andstart on campus. What is it like
(06:18):
watching some of those guys go throughthis process and specifically what's going to be
happening during the month of June.It's gonna be interesting because especially with the
today was our first first day,first workout with the news freshman who came
in from did early in role,so they were kind of in the spot
(06:39):
of the early early enrollees in January. So just watching them, the difference
between the two is crazy because thepeople who are early in rollies are much
more not like like a veteran,but like they know kind of what to
expect. But these new guys haveto learn on the fly. Like blocking
(07:00):
Dante Corleone every day. Oh yeah, walking Dante it's a child's day in
and day out. Let me tellyou what he is such a great football
player. Uh, I mean youyou know, you get to campus,
he's a mainstay. You know whohe is. And I mean you've you've
blocked NFL caliber defensive lineman before.But but what's it like the first time
(07:21):
you line up across from him,across from him in practice. Actually,
we go way back back in highschool. We actually played against each other
a couple of times back in highschool, so we knew each other well
in high school. But yeah,blocking Dante every day, you know,
we always we even bring that upback in high school, like we still
talk about that, which even duringpractice that hey we got you this time
(07:45):
where he said he would get me. So it's really fun competing against him
every day all right now. Likewhen I was in college, I I
can't imagine juggling more than one thing. So it was hard enough for me
to like go to school and thenyou know, you throw football. I
can't imagine that. And then you'regetting married this summer. How how's that
(08:07):
working out? Walk me through that? When's the wedding? How did you
propose? What's it gonna be likebeing a married college student? Man?
We're super excited. Me and myfiance are super excited. We are going
to get married the end of July, three days before fall camp. Yeah,
so honeymoon's gonna be in higher ground. We I wish you could come
(08:33):
to higher experiences, honestly, highergraphs, such a fun experience. But
no, no, we're gonna haveto wait up push back to honeymoon,
which she's really bombed about. Butyou know she understands, all right.
I mean, you know I gotmarried a year after college, and everybody
told me I was too young.Do you have those people in your life
(08:54):
yet? And no, more nothan yes, because I think they see
what are gonna do? What we'reable to be so young and how much
kind of I think mature, especiallyreally as since we I propose to her.
That's when a lot of the concernsarise. But what like the past
couple of months, really really whenit's the wedding, talks really started picking
(09:18):
up. That's when they're like,yeah, this is the perfect time,
all right, Well, it's verycool. You're gonna have a very busy
summer. Next Wednesday at GABP isgoing to be a lot of fun.
It's the annual Rains and Reds gameat Great American Ballpark. I know you
have a very busy next few months. I'm sure to a degree. It's
gonna be kind of a nice reliefto just get fall camp started in a
(09:39):
couple of months. Right, Yeah, it's it's awesome. Everything just coming
together perfectly and it's super exciting,especially next wednes starting off next Wednesday with
thanks to sincey Rains all right,should be a great night at the ballpark
next week. If you're looking fortickets to that game, the easiest thing
I could tay to do is goto the Sincy Rains site which is Cincy
(10:01):
Rains dot org and if you clickon events you'll see it right there,
twenty twenty four Rains and Reds.It's Reds and Guardians next Wednesday. Luke
Candra is going to be there,Jillian Hayes is going to be there.
Should be a great night, alot of Bearcat fans in the house and
look forward to it. Luke,thank you so much. Congratulations on the
impending nuptials. Enjoy Wednesday, Enjoyyour offseason, and we'll catch up during
(10:24):
fall camp. Man, thanks somuch, thank you, you have a
good one. There you go.Elder product Luke candre It came back to
UC last year and had a terrificseason. Third team All American by the
Associated Press, second Team All Americanby the Walter Camp Foundation, All Big
twelve first team performer, and abig part of an offensive line. As
(10:45):
rough as the season was for theBearcats last year, they were really good
at pushing people around and getting thingsgoing in the ground game, and hopefully
things can take off throwing the footballand the Bearcats can do more things offensively
this year. Again. If youwant tickets for next Wednesday, it's a
week from this Wednesday night, thetwelfth. Go to Sincyrains dot org and
(11:07):
UH click on events and you'll seethe Rains and Reds link. Go there,
get your tickets, and UH proceedsfrom those Pacific ticket sales will go
to since e Rains. There yougo. It's twenty eight away from six
o'clock. Five one, three,seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty
is our phone number. UH.Perhaps the question of the day in Cincinnati next
American Ballpark A week from this Wednesday, June twelfth, Reds and Guardians.
It's the annual Rains and Reds gameat GABP, where pro seed proceeds from
ticket sales will go to Cincy Rains. We'll have a specific link that we'll
throw out for you here in justa few minutes. Luke Candra, who
was a third team All American isby the Associated Press, is going to
(00:23):
be involved with the ceremonial first pitchas well. Jillian Hayes, who was
an All Big Twelve performer for theUC women's basketball program, She will also
be participating in the first pitch.It's also an Ellie Dela Cruz bobblehead night.
It's going to be a fun nightat the ballpark, in a great
night if you're a supporter of UCathletics, specifically the football program. Luke
(00:43):
Candra left Louisville along with Scott Saderfieldand that coaching staff, came home to
Cincinnati, and the elder product hadannounced standing season for the Bearcats last year.
He comes back. He is arguablythe best returning guard in all of
major fps college football and one offive returning starting offensive lineman for the UC
(01:04):
Bearcats in twenty twenty four, andduring a summer in which he's thrown out
the first pitch at a Reds game, getting ready for another year of college
football, and getting married nice enoughto spend a few minutes with us.
It's good to have you, Luke. How are you good? How are
you doing? I'm doing well.I gotta think, man, for a
Cincinnati kid to be involved in theceremonial first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game
(01:29):
is gonna be quite the thrill.Oh yeah, it's awesome being a mic
long Reds fan. I'd never thoughtin my life I would ever throw a
first pitch, and it's really ablessing and I'm super excited, all right,
throwing a baseball. Throwing a pitchis different than blocking a large man
in front of you. Have youbeen practicing? Are you throwing off a
mound? Are you playing catch?How's that working? Uh? Yeah,
(01:53):
I've been really yeah, I've beentrying just a little bit this past weekend.
Actually, yeah, yeah, it'sgonna it's gonna be really fun to
see how I can do from ninetyfeet away. From ninety feet it's sixty
feet six, Okay, well,very good. Uh, let's let's work
(02:14):
backward a little bit. So youstart your college football career at Louisville,
Scott Saderfield announces he's coming to Cincinnati, and you follow him and that staff,
you come back home and play inyour hometown. Kind of walk us
through that decision. That decision wasprobably one of the easiest decisions in my
entire life, you know, havingwhen I got that that day when coach
(02:36):
Saturfield got got announced the head coachingjob at Cincinnati. Everyone at all,
my previous teammates that Louisville knew Iwas heading out entering the portal to go
back home. And it has beenthe greatest decision in my life. All
right. So, uh, theoffensive line last year, look at it
was not an easy season for forUC football top to bottom, but you
(03:00):
guys did more than hold your ownwhen it came to running the football,
especially against Big twelve opponents. Andthat was one of the questions a lot
of us had coming into the season, was what was the offensive line going
to rise to the level of physicalityneeded in the Big twelve. You were
a big part of that. Youlook ahead to twenty twenty four in this
era of turnover. To have allfive starting offensive linemen and a one thousand
(03:23):
yard rusher coming back is really kindof unique and it's quite a luxury.
So what sort of things from thatstandpoint do you expect this coming season?
Man, I'm expecting a whole lotmore than what we did last year.
Week we ran the ball very well, and I'm very excited and looking forward
to blogging for Corey again and theother backs that we got. So it's
(03:44):
gonna be really really fun and reallyexciting to watch them work. You come
to Cincinnati from Louisville with that staff, and so I'm sure they had to
kind of lean on you from aterminology standpoint, from the standpoint of helping,
you know, everybody learn the offense. Now with the continuity you guys
are going to have on the offensiveline, maybe not as much as going
to be needed. Give us anidea of maybe some things you could do
(04:06):
offensively this coming season that you reallycouldn't do. Last year. Really,
the easier to communicate, that's thebiggest thing for offensive linemen is the communication.
And now since we have another wholeoff season together again and now this
whole season to really work on thatand hone in and become even better in
(04:28):
our communication. Is it easier justtop to bottom when you go into year
two of a program and a staffwhere you know, a year ago at
this time, maybe not so muchfor yourself, but there was so much
chaos, so much turnovers, somany players coming and going. Is it
relatively easier from that standpoint, justbecause things are a little bit more stable
(04:49):
in year two? Yeah, Yeah, it's very it's a lot more.
Uh, it's easier because one everyone'smostly bore back. There's there's still new
guys, you know, the transportalfreshmen and stuff. But knowing what we
bese going into the summer and season, we didn't really know as in the
(05:11):
rest of the team, Like Ikind of knew how coach that ran.
But having everyone understand how coach thatworks, how defense works, and it's
gonna be a lot easier to pickup on things. Uh. What is
this stage of the offseason like foryou? What are you allowed to do?
Are you taking it easy? What? What? What does what does
(05:31):
June and I guess early July looklike for you? Yeah? With uh,
all all great praises from the strengthstaff, we have a what they
call Juggernaut. June it's gonna bethe hardest months of our entire workouts.
It's gonna be it's gonna be toughday in the day out and they always
say the easiest day was today afterour workout, so the next day is
(05:55):
always gonna be tougher and we it'sgonna be very grueling, but it's gonna
bring everyone together. You you've hadand you know, I'm sure your role
as as a guy who's been throughthis before is very helpful. We have
the day and age of early enrollieswhere kids can you know, basically jump
from high school after winter break andstart on campus. What is it like
(06:18):
watching some of those guys go throughthis process and specifically what's going to be
happening during the month of June.It's gonna be interesting because especially with the
today was our first first day,first workout with the news freshman who came
in from did early in role,so they were kind of in the spot
(06:39):
of the early early enrollees in January. So just watching them, the difference
between the two is crazy because thepeople who are early in rollies are much
more not like like a veteran,but like they know kind of what to
expect. But these new guys haveto learn on the fly. Like blocking
(07:00):
Dante Corleone every day. Oh yeah, walking Dante it's a child's day in
and day out. Let me tellyou what he is such a great football
player. Uh, I mean youyou know, you get to campus,
he's a mainstay. You know whohe is. And I mean you've you've
blocked NFL caliber defensive lineman before.But but what's it like the first time
(07:21):
you line up across from him,across from him in practice. Actually,
we go way back back in highschool. We actually played against each other
a couple of times back in highschool, so we knew each other well
in high school. But yeah,blocking Dante every day, you know,
we always we even bring that upback in high school, like we still
talk about that, which even duringpractice that hey we got you this time
(07:45):
where he said he would get me. So it's really fun competing against him
every day all right now. Likewhen I was in college, I I
can't imagine juggling more than one thing. So it was hard enough for me
to like go to school and thenyou know, you throw football. I
can't imagine that. And then you'regetting married this summer. How how's that
(08:07):
working out? Walk me through that? When's the wedding? How did you
propose? What's it gonna be likebeing a married college student? Man?
We're super excited. Me and myfiance are super excited. We are going
to get married the end of July, three days before fall camp. Yeah,
so honeymoon's gonna be in higher ground. We I wish you could come
(08:33):
to higher experiences, honestly, highergraphs, such a fun experience. But
no, no, we're gonna haveto wait up push back to honeymoon,
which she's really bombed about. Butyou know she understands, all right.
I mean, you know I gotmarried a year after college, and everybody
told me I was too young.Do you have those people in your life
(08:54):
yet? And no, more nothan yes, because I think they see
what are gonna do? What we'reable to be so young and how much
kind of I think mature, especiallyreally as since we I propose to her.
That's when a lot of the concernsarise. But what like the past
couple of months, really really whenit's the wedding, talks really started picking
(09:18):
up. That's when they're like,yeah, this is the perfect time,
all right, Well, it's verycool. You're gonna have a very busy
summer. Next Wednesday at GABP isgoing to be a lot of fun.
It's the annual Rains and Reds gameat Great American Ballpark. I know you
have a very busy next few months. I'm sure to a degree. It's
gonna be kind of a nice reliefto just get fall camp started in a
(09:39):
couple of months. Right, Yeah, it's it's awesome. Everything just coming
together perfectly and it's super exciting,especially next wednes starting off next Wednesday with
thanks to sincey Rains all right,should be a great night at the ballpark
next week. If you're looking fortickets to that game, the easiest thing
I could tay to do is goto the Sincy Rains site which is Cincy
(10:01):
Rains dot org and if you clickon events you'll see it right there,
twenty twenty four Rains and Reds.It's Reds and Guardians next Wednesday. Luke
Candra is going to be there,Jillian Hayes is going to be there.
Should be a great night, alot of Bearcat fans in the house and
look forward to it. Luke,thank you so much. Congratulations on the
impending nuptials. Enjoy Wednesday, Enjoyyour offseason, and we'll catch up during
(10:24):
fall camp. Man, thanks somuch, thank you, you have a
good one. There you go.Elder product Luke candre It came back to
UC last year and had a terrificseason. Third team All American by the
Associated Press, second Team All Americanby the Walter Camp Foundation, All Big
twelve first team performer, and abig part of an offensive line. As
(10:45):
rough as the season was for theBearcats last year, they were really good
at pushing people around and getting thingsgoing in the ground game, and hopefully
things can take off throwing the footballand the Bearcats can do more things offensively
this year. Again. If youwant tickets for next Wednesday, it's a
week from this Wednesday night, thetwelfth. Go to Sincyrains dot org and
(11:07):
UH click on events and you'll seethe Rains and Reds link. Go there,
get your tickets, and UH proceedsfrom those Pacific ticket sales will go
to since e Rains. There yougo. It's twenty eight away from six
o'clock. Five one, three,seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty
is our phone number. UH.Perhaps the question of the day in Cincinnati next
Mo Egger News
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