9/3/25: Mo Egger with Cedric Walker

Cedric Walker is the Head Coach of the Kentucky Barrels, the new AF1 team that will start its inaugural season this spring at Truist Arena.

He joined us on ESPN1530. 

Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Arena football is returning to a Greater Cincinnati the inaugural
season of the Kentucky Barrels. They'll play it to nku's
truest arena in a league called AF one Arena Football one,
and this is gonna be pretty cool. The head coach
is a guy who recently won a championship in twenty
twenty four with the Billings Outlaws. A warm welcome to

(00:22):
the Greater Cincinnati area to Cedric Walker, coach, It's awesome
to have you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good afternoon, how are you.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm good man, thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I appreciate you joining us and adjusting your schedule to
accommodate my disorganization. What about what about the Kentucky Barrels
was an attractive job to you?

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Actually?

Speaker 4 (00:42):
It was more of Corey Cunningham, the owner, what he represents.
You know, he wants he wants the Cincinnati, Kentucky area
to have.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
A championship team. It was his goal.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
When I came down for the visit of the people
at the NKU Northern Kentucky University.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Were like family. They they came.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
It was like, you know, like I've known them all
my life and they made it very easy for me
to make a decision for me and my family.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So you start coaching a team that doesn't exist, which
means you need to get players. Walk me through that process.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Absolutely. Basically, right now we're going through the uh.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
The part where you can sign teams, so you can
sign players off of like street free agents, but you
can't sign any of the team any of the players
off of the other teams. So right now, I've been
in contact with a lot of of the agents of
players who didn't make it on the on the NFL,
guys who.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Are in the UFL and everything. So I've had a
good good.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Luck with some good agents, and we've already signed our
first guy, Little Bailey out of Drake, quarterback with a
big arm and the winner. We also got Malikue Malloy
who was a defensive linement out of Lincoln College, and
then we've got a couple more that's coming through. So
once we kind of get into the agents the September

(02:06):
fifteenth September sixteenth area where you can sign players off
of other rosters, it will go pretty fast because there's
a lot of people that a lot of good players
that are from this area and a lot of people
that want to come to this area.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
What is something about starting a team from scratch that
maybe the public doesn't know.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Well, you get to put your you get to put
your fingerprint on it, and you get to be able
to put everything and set up everything the way you
like it. I'm going into an organization where you know,
some organizations that I've been in that you go in
it's been through you know, turmoil, and I've been in
some organizations that's been around, some great organizations has been
around for twenty plus years. So you take those the

(02:47):
learning expedition from both from both spots, and then you
add it to.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yours and you know what to do and what not
to do.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
And the main thing is it's being able to start
from scratching and create great relationships with people that planning
to be with you for a.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Long perier Cedric Walker as with us.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
He is the head coach of the New Kentucky Barrels,
which will begin play at Truth to Arena UH this
coming spring.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
UH.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
For those who aren't familiar with the Arena football, one
product described it for.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Me sad, fun and affordable.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
I mean, you know, if you think about it, a family,
work can go watch a game constantly catch up professional
professional football and then be able to have autographed signings
with the guy who threw it or who was catching
it right after. So you think about that, Uh, I
claim to fame. And back in the day, you know,
we had some great players. Kurt Warner came out of
the a f L League. We've had a couple of

(03:39):
more guys.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
I know that some people probably don't know this, and
we had.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
This conversation, but, uh, Joe Burrow, his dad actually coached
in the in the league back.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
In Joe Burrow senior. So we've had some guys that
come through this.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
League that's created names on you know, Sean Payton playing
in this league.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
Also the coach from Green Bay playing in this league.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
So it's been great. So we've had some We've got some.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Good lineage that came out this league and some great
players and coaches as well.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Cedric Walker.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
The Kentucky Barrels began play this coming spring. It's exciting
to have as many sports teams as possible here in
the area. Awesome for Northern Kentucky and looking forward to
seeing the on field product.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
We appreciate the time coach, thanks so much, no.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Thank you very much and we appreciate you having us
and allowing us to grow our product.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Welcome anytime, Coach, Thanks so much, thank you,