June 7, 2024 • 42 mins
Jeff Piecoro is in to host the show with Drew and they're joined by Keith Madison and Coach Jay Boulware.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington welcomes David Lucas June sixth
through the eighth, Then catch Josh Blue June twenty and
through the twenty second, and don't miss Rocky Dale Davis
June twenty eighth and twenty ninth. Comedy Off Broadway opened
in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still
bringing the best in stand up comedy to the area
thirty seven years later. Call E five nine two seven
(00:23):
to one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com
co Offway.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
Here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Where's Matt Jones?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Somewhere in the world. I'm not even sure, grease and
that's just it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
He's somewhere in the world. I'm Jeff Picoro. So it's
great to be here at KSR Bar and Drew. It's
great to have somebody sitting next to me instead of
be doing this flying solo. Of course, happy to be
here with you, so that's cool. Look, we're gonna open
this up to you guys, because we could talk about
a lot of things. We do have some est today
that we're gonna talk to We're gonna talk to coach
Madison here just a little bit, the Hall of Fame,
(01:03):
former baseball coach here at the University of Kentucky about
the great success that UK has had this year, and
what is coming up this coming weekend, and is you
and we were just talking about this trying to get
a ticket to this game Saturday and Sunday. This is ridiculous.
Band are you can't find them?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I was up early this morning looking on secondary markets,
see anything popped up. Not looking good. I'm actually considering
taking a little folding chair and just sitting outside the
stadium and listening if I have to. But it is
it is an event that is hard to get into
if you're trying. If you didn't get that first round
of tickets.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'll tell you what it is really cool. It almost
gives you cold, cold chills because you think UK basketball,
it's like, Okay, we're going to the NCA turmy, you know,
or the SEC turm, whatever we do. That football has
become okay, we're going to a bowl game. But with baseball,
it's almost like this is a new thing that people
here have never experienced before.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
No, I mean the Park's five years old, but its
first couple of years open right for cod it didn't
get what it deserved. Last year it finally got that postseason.
They won the region, went on. The Supers didn't go
as well. But now you've tasted it a little bit,
a lot of the team has had a little bit.
Now you're hosting the Supers and your two wins away.
I've been excited for the baseball team, the players, but
(02:16):
the fan base has really bought in, as we're saying
yet the ticket prices. It's been very cool to see
over there. I set through every pitch and every rain
drop all three games last weekend. Had so much fun
with the fans. It's nice to see an energy over
there that deserves.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You know what I like. And you could expound on
this because you go to a lot of games at
different places too. With the addition of being able to
purchase beer, you've got now adults, college kids and adults
that are able to buy, but they still have that
kids feel to it because you still have that big
area in the grass where they the kids are out
(02:51):
there throwing the ball and rolling around and they can
get a snow cone and ice cream and everything else,
So they got something for everybody, and I think that's
what really to me, kind of sells it a little bit.
That makes it so nice as they do have all
these areas where you can go and hang out and
not feel like you're just jammed into it like you
used to be at Rupperena in the upper deck, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, And I'll admit I attended more games since they
added the beer. You know, i'd go to the postseason whatever,
but I went to a few random Tuesdays and afternoons
and had a beer. And I haven't been to every game,
but as far as I've seen, there have been no
issues adding that to the experience, and it's just I
think it's brought more people in. Like you said, overall,
there's just so much they got the Food Truck Park
over there. I ran into you at the Food Truck
Park did Sundays. Yeah, I would encourage people to get
(03:32):
out there, but that'd just be taking one more seat
that I'm trying to get.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
But dude, this is the most unbelievable fact that I
found about UK Baseball. So you know, obviously they've never
been do mall. Every single team in the SEC, everyone
and you say, most usually would go, well, Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt
was a powerhouse in baseball for years. Every team in
the SEC, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missing Me, missip Me State,
(03:57):
South Carolina, everybody's been to that. The last one is
Alabama has been to the World Series five times. Kentucky's
never been. Everybody in the SEC except Kentucky has been
to the World Series. Think about that for a minute.
You think wow, and you think about what coach Madison did,
won over seven hundred games yet never made it to
(04:19):
the World Series. That is a crazy fact that you
wouldn't even think about that. In basketball, it's like they're
always going, you know. If they don't, it's like the
chicken little the sky's falling. But baseball's never been. That's
wild to me. So we're gonna have coach Madison on. Yeah,
then we're gonna have another Hall of Famer, coach bullwear that.
(04:40):
A lot of people don't know this, Jay Bow. He
was just put in a Hall of Fame, So I'll
ask him about that. But we're gonna talk a little
football with him, only because camps are going on now
and I know you guys are big with this at KSR.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, but a lot of people ask me all the
time when I see him on the street. You know,
they talk about camps. What is a football camp now?
Because when I played, they didn't have that, and now
they have these invities only camps and things where you're
basically showing off. You're bringing all these kids that are
juniors and seniors in to show off what you've got.
(05:15):
And now Kentucky's got a lot to offer. So you're
showing in the Craft Center in the practice area, and
you're and you're bringing him over to the stadium and
you're playing on there. So we'll talk to him about
that a little bit and what he foresees for this season, obviously,
and then finally at eleven o'clock we'll talk to Kenny McPeak,
the trainer of of not only Mystic Dan, the derby
winner that's going in the Belmont Saturday, but also Torpedo Anna,
(05:36):
who won the Oaks and would have been going in
the Belmont had he not run Mystic Dan, but she
will be running today in the Acorn, which is kind
of the second leg. I'm sorry, the third lady of
the Phillies Triple Crown, so we'll talk to him about that.
And Kenny from right here in Lesnon, Tates Creek. Yeah,
we have known each other who were six years old.
(05:58):
We lived in the same neighbor go off Tates Creek
Road and went to Lansdowne and Tates Creek Junior, Tates
Creek Senior and UK together. So it's yeah, I've known
him since forevers. We've been in each other's wedding, so well,
it's kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well hear how happy he was, but quickly as his friend,
what was it like.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I was, because you know, I was in It's a
little bit different for me than a lot of the
guys that we grew up with, only because I'd done
so much in horse racing. You know, the reason I
went to Cincinnati wasn't for the Reds. I went to
Cincinnati to started a horse racing show there that was
a national show that we did out of Turfway Park,
And so Kenny and I have had that side to things.
(06:39):
That's a little bit different. But to be a friend
and see what he's gone through from the days when
he and Sean Greeley and Todd Boston and some of
these guys that Sean Greeley's dad was the president of
Keenland and he was he went and ran Dubai, you
know the racetrack there. Todd Boston is one of the
top blacksmiths in the in the business. They all used
(06:59):
to Dale Romans now used to share an apartment up
there in northern Kentucky at Turfoy Park. I remember back
to those days. So to see him go from that
and running at River Downs in three thousand dollars races
to winning now he's won all three, the Derby, the
Preakness and the and obviously the Belmont. You know, the
next thing would be to win Breeders Cup Championship. But
other than that, you know, he's none at all. So
(07:21):
it's it's really cool, and it was, Yeah, it's pretty emotional.
Then we went we went up to Baltimore with him too,
and got to stay up there for three or four days.
And yeah, it's just it's special when you got a
friend that does something like that. You know, it would
be anything if he had a friend that was an
NFL player or a baseball player. It's just cool to
see that side of things and to see it from
the you know, behind the curtain. You know, everybody thinks
(07:43):
Bob Bafford or Wayne Lucas or the you know, your competitors.
Bafford's at his barn. They're sitting there, you know, just
bsing with each other and I'm like, it's by Bafford man,
and he's like hey, I's yeah, yeah, hey Bob. And
then you know, the dogs running around and things, and
Baffort's dogs running around and you know, and then then
here comes Wayne Lucas and you're like, here comes God,
(08:05):
you know, as he strolls down, Hello boys. And but yeah,
that that's the cool part. And you know, we and
I'm including you in this, we get to see behind
curtain and a lot of things, you know. We get
to see how the how the bread's made, or whatever
however you want to say it. And that, to me
is the coolest part of the job. It isn't the games.
To me, it's leading up to him see how they
(08:28):
get a horse ready to run, to see how you know,
a guy takes batting practice in the cages and stuff,
to see how what kind of drills guys are doing
to get better. That, to me is is the cool
part of what our job is. Where we get to
go and see stuff that that other people just simply
can't do.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Oh, we're very lucky, very very lucky.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And I never take that for granted.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
I'm excited to hear from him. I don't think we've
had a Derby winner on here before. We've given a
lot of inaccurate Derby picks before the derby, but I
think this will be Ksr's first Derby winner on the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I've never Kenny and all the years he'd say, man,
my horse has got a really nice shot, I've never
heard him as positive as he was leading especially to
the Oaks with with Thorpedo Anna. He said they can't
beat here. I said, he told me about five weeks
before the Derby is Jeff, I've got the best Philly
I've ever had. My said, no, you know, Swiss skydivers
(09:18):
the best he is. This horse can run circles around her.
And I said, there's no way, and she was something else.
I mean, she's she's really good. He would have ran
her in the Preakness or the Belmont had Mystic Dan
not running either of those. So he's not afraid. He
just doesn't want them running against each other. So we'll
see how he's feeling heading into the Belmont, which is yeah, yeah,
(09:43):
they're redoing you know, just like they're doing a Keenland,
but unfortunately they're doing stuff with the track as well.
So this year and I think next year too, the
Belmont will be run at Saratoga, so it's the same
distance as a Derby, because you know, each track is
a different circumference. Uh, if you run a mile and
a half race at Saratoga, they'd have to start way
(10:04):
real close to the first turn, so you don't want
Tom coming right out of the gate and having to
hit a turn to go all the way around. They'd
have to go around twice, so it would actually be
like a four turn race, and that you just don't
do that because a horse isn't a horse isn't bred
to know. I know, I'm going one turn or two turns,
but not three year you know, it's so.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Cute, this Mario. This is more horse racing I think
we've ever had.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, so it's just just because of that. So it's
it's only gonna be a mile and a quarter so
not the mile and a half grueling race. You know
that extra quarter mile is we could just ask Ryan,
you know, because he's such a great runner.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, when you were mentioned your friend Kenny and how
you're seeing someone achieve something, have this big opportunity. I
was thinking to my friend Ryan, how this summer Matt
just left him with the radio show for two months.
And it's kind of like when in the Derby. Ryan
has this big microphone in front of him that not
many people will get to have.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It's not here.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I already took a day off, Mario. It's week
two and he's already taken a day off. He's somewhere
in Missouri State.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
And how cool is that though, too, because you've got
to see that kid grow up? Oh yeah, you know,
that's the cool part.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
We had an unfortunate injury last season set him back
at Douglas in the receiver rotation, but he took I
think he's done with basketball. I want to speak for him,
but he's been working hard on getting that uh that
arm back ready for football and he got his first
offer at Wesleyan. And now I guess once you get
that one offer, Ryan now every weekend is going to
a camp to try to get more driving. That that
is where they are today. While Ryan's away Josiah's off.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
I want to say.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I believe he said Missouri State is where they were.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's cool, That's that's a decent school. I mean, you know,
we'll see, we'll say. Because this is the time camps
right now, this is when you want to go. You
get to go and you get to see, you know,
all the facilities they have. Uh, you get to see
the support that they have. This is this is a
real important People don't realize this. This is a very
important time for football because all these recruits are coming through.
(11:54):
Kentucky's got him every day over there, and I know
that Nick has been, Oh yeah, they've been over every
day's shooting at all. And they're some big dudes. They
had a picture yesterday, I think Nick had of some
lineman from Ohio and he towered. He was talking to
Vince Marrow and it looked like me talking to Vince Marrow,
but the other way. This dude was four inches taller
(12:15):
than Marrow and he was like a junior. Where are
they building these kids? Man?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Yeah, as you'll get to bulwear later. This is when
it's kind of it's happening in the dark over there
with baseball around a lot of people didn't realize you're
parking for baseball last weekend and then Reilbird's going on.
But inside the football stadium there was some big moves
being made with offers. We talked about Evan Hampton from Owensboro,
a baseball player, getting a football offer. That was an
interesting twist from the week. But this is when they're
(12:42):
really setting the roots for the future.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Well, I'll tell you what, Why don't we take a
quick break because we got to come back and talk
with coach Madison about that. How's that?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Let's do it all right, Let's let's run through. Uh,
let's make sure one calls us at eight five, nine
to eight oh two two eight seven, Shannon. This first
segment and the whole show was presented by TJ Smith
KOs our personal injury lawyer.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
What will what will we do?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Shanne?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, you call TJ.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He'll make them pay.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Also throughout the throughout the show, we will do the
Whiskey Thief Song of the day, the Kentucky branded tweet
of the day, and the Don Franklin auto call of
the day. And we're gonna give away those last two
Tim McGraw tickets. At some point, I just remembered that
we've ever seen him before.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Uh, not a really good show. Yeah, he great show.
I was. I was really really impressed. And you gotta remember, dude,
it's been doing it for a long time. So he's
got songs back there, you know, Indian Outlaw and all
that stuff like, oh, yeah, that was here. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Oh, he's a big deal. You'll have to at some point,
we'll have to come up with the contest for these
last two tickets. H So we'll get those away throughout
the show. We'll be back after this.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Breakcome back in. I'm Jeff Picicoro along with Drew Franklin.
We are lying at KSR Bar and you guys can
come join us at about forty minutes. The bar opens
at eleven o'clock. And got a lot of great food here.
Of course, we had a lot of great talk and
the phone lines are open if you want to jump
(14:01):
on those lines and give us a call as well.
Most of you to have this written down and tattooed
on your forearms from most of your callers that I
hear you have. Eight five nine two eight oh two
two eight seven is a number here in town locally
to give us a call. But before we go to
the calls, got a a dude that has I've known
(14:21):
this guy since nineteen eighty one and he's a Hall
of Famer and our first guest of the day, and
that is the former coach whose number hangs out next
to the American flag at Kentucky Proud Park, and that
is coach Keith Madison. Coach. How are you?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I'm great? Pick how you doing, buddy.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much. I want to
talk baseball. But before we get into this, there's a
story that you tell, and I hope you'll you'll tell
the story to the people because it just shows you
the respect that some of the other coaches that UK
had for you. Please please, please tell us the story
about Joe Hall when you were getting ready to go
(15:03):
on a road trip and his generosity to you guys
in the baseball team.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Oh I'm talking about Yeah, I think I think this
the story you're talking about I think is UH. I was.
I was raising money for UH to improve UH shyly
feel and UH later known as Clef Hagen Stadium, and man,
(15:29):
I had I we were putting up lights and I
had I think I had to raise like two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, which was enormous back then, especially
for a coach and to know what he was doing.
So I got I got down. I needed about fifteen
thousand more dollars and I was racking my brain. I thought, man,
(15:51):
people are going to be hating me because they they
see me coming, they're going to turn turn and go
the other way. And so I called Coach Hall. I said, Coach,
you have any ideas about how I can come up
with this last bit of money. And I said, mister
Hagen's not going to let me start this project until
until I come up with all this money. And he said,
(16:14):
let me think about it. So he called you back
and he they had money left over from when they
originally built the Wildcat Lodge and he said, I met
with I can't remember that group, but he said, I
met with these guys and they think you need this
money so you can finish this project. So and here's
(16:37):
the thing, Eddie Sutton gave me the first thousand dollars
in that project and then Joby Hall came up with
the last fifteen thousand. Is that not cool?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That that just shows you the respect that people don't
realize how much that you You guys. When I say this,
I mean the coaches got you guys actually have a lot.
I'm sure you got. You got to go to practice,
They come to your practice, they come to the games.
Things like that. There's a great bond between you guys,
wasn't there.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh yeah, Like Coach Hall loved baseball and we would
talk baseball a lot, and and I loved basketball too,
and so I would get to spend a lot of
time with him, and sometimes we meet over in Bill
Kiteley's equipment room. Eddie Sutton was the same way. Rick
Bettino was not. He wasn't. I mean, I had a
(17:31):
good relationship with Rick, but it was a he didn't
hang out in Bill Kiteney's equipment room with me.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
I'll say that, oh lord, but yeah, And you know,
coming from uh, from the time that you were there,
the era that you were there with, as you call it,
mister Hagen, who just loved baseball.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Well gave me. He gave me an opportunity as a
twenty six year old baseball coach to coach at the
University of Kentucky in my home state. And I'll always
be thankful for that, And even though it wasn't the
greatest of circumstances at the beginning, it was an opportunity.
(18:15):
And not many twenty six year old guys get to
coach at an SEC school. So I'm very thankful. And
you know, back to Eddie Sutton real quick, Jeff, this
is kind of cool. He would you know, the coach.
Hutton was under a lot of pressure a lot of
the time he was here, and sometimes he just needed
an outlet. And sometimes he would call me up and
(18:36):
he said, hey, meet me over in Kiteley's equipment room.
And so I would meet him over there. It might
be ten o'clock in the morning or nine o'clock in
the morning, and he just wanted to talk baseball. He
was a big Cardinals fan, and of course mister Kiteler
was a due Reds fan, and he just wanted to
and you know, he and his wife went on their
honeymoon in Saint Louis at a Cardinals game. Tells you
(19:02):
how much that guy loved, you know, love baseball. And
then and then later on Tubby, you know, Tubby and
I would meet over there too and had some great talk. Uh,
there's so many interesting things and great stories told there
in that old equipment room and Memorial Coliseum. It was
(19:22):
just fantastic.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
People don't realize what mister Kitely was like. He loved baseball.
Used to come to the Reds games all the time
with Luther Deaton and Tubby Smith, and I remember they
would come all the time and they would come up
into the TV booth and then they'd go into Marty's booth,
and you talk about I don't know how Marty did
a game with those guys in there most of the time,
(19:45):
because if there were a few beers let's just say
there was a few beers up there in that booth,
and how Marty did the game when those guys are there,
I don't know how they did it.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Hey, if anybody could do it, Marty could do it.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Though. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Hey, I do gotta
ask you one question before we get onto this year's team.
Are you amazed now that some of these players are
making more money than you did when you coached and
I'm talking college.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, yeah, I am. But you know it's a good thing.
I don't you know. I I see both sides of it,
you know. I hate to see college athletics change so
drastically where you know, I don't want to see players
loyal to money instead of University of Kentucky. I'm really naive.
I'm I'm old school about stuff like that, you know.
(20:35):
And but at the same time, coaches leave for more
money all the time. And yeah, and that's uh and
then and who does who does the grunt work the
players do? Right? Right? Right?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Coach?
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yeah, yeah, I was going to say, Uh, you know,
coaches work hard, don't get me wrong, But it's a
different kind of work. I mean, the the players are
leaving blood, sweat and tears on the fields and on
the courts every day.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Coach, I think anyone that listens when you're on with
Darren knows, or when you're on with Me or Dick
or on the television side, knows how much you love
Kentucky and Kentucky baseball. But how excited are you for
this team, about what they're about to do and what
they're getting ready to get into here over the next
four days.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yeah, I mean, my excitement and pride is off the
charts for this group. And it's a really classy group
of players. I mean, you might you might see him
doing all their shenanigans in the dugout, but it's the
phenomenal thing to me is that they compete. I mean
(21:49):
they're they're they're on every pitch where they're in between
the lines, They're focused, they're great competitors. And then at
least when I've been around them off the field, they
are absolutely great young men. Just a phenomenal group of
people that have really come together. You know, some Nick
(22:11):
recruited out of high school, some from the transfer portal.
But with Knick's leadership skills and his ability to bring
people together, these guys really care about each other and
compete for each other as well as for themselves. So
it's a special group and I'm very, very proud of them.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Coach. It's a bottom of the hour, and I got
to get to a break. I appreciate you coming on,
short and sweet, but I love talking to you and
I can't wait to see a Saturday evening.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
All right, pick, I appreciate you talking to me and
we'll go cats.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Okay, thanks buddy, talk to you, so thank you. That's
the Hall of Famer Keith Madison. We'll be back with
more right after this. The bottom of the Hour on KSR.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
TJ Smith personal injury attorney.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Call TJ. He'll make him.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Pay now more Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Well it's Jeff Picoro sitting in for Matt Jones. Drew
and Mario here at the KSR bar and grill coming
out and join us. Eleven o'clock. Got a lot of
TVs here. You get all your sports, watch the memorial,
the golf tournament and stuff. But uh yeah, every time
I hear the TJ. Smith commercial, I just see him
as the wildcat or as a cheerleader when he was
(23:32):
at UK. I can't take the dude. Seriously. He's a
great dude, great guy. Don't get on a golf course
with him because he will take your money. Oh yeah
he will. Maybe he just he'll take your money. He'll
make you pay.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And you'll have a lot of fun as you take
your money. I've tilgated with him a few times. Guy
knows how to have fun. Yes, he does sponsor the show too.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Good guy all around. All right. We got a couple
of callers, so why don't we go to the line Shannon,
who we got?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
All right?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Let's start with Mickey, Mickey, what's going on Sun.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Hey guys, first time caller, a long time listener, I
want to talk a little baseball, if that's okay. Known
as coach Marshall around the city, I have coached a
long time and met a lot of great coaches. I
wanted to let you know, Jeff, at an early age,
I learned from one of the best watching and that
was your father, your father, coach, the legendary Southeastern Cubs.
(24:25):
I watched him do a play taught me two things.
He was intentionally walking a kid supposedly when the pitcher
threw the ball, the catcher squatted down and took strike
three and struck that kid out. And it taught me
that you had to one take a risk and two
have a trick up your sleeve. So I just wanted
to tell you that story that a lot of kids
(24:45):
learn as a youth about the love of the game,
and guys like your father taught a lot of kids.
So I just wanted to make that statement to you.
With baseball going on being so big this.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Weekend, well thank you so much, Vicky boy. He had
dad had a great time coach, and my father played
that I don't know if you knew this. He played
to Ohio State. The first baseman was a guy named
Frank Howard, pretty dark. Yeah, hall of famer. Second baseman
was a guy by the name of John hablechik Oh
Hall of famer in basketball. And my dad was the
backup catcher to Johnny Edwards, who was a great reds catcher.
(25:19):
Uh for the time. But yeah, I had some great
teams up there, and dad loved coaching. And that one year,
one year Mickey when that the All Star team had
Norton and and uh uh gosh, I can't remember all
these things, Ryan Sparks, Dusty Man. Yeah, and they lost
(25:41):
the are you ready for this? They lost in Tampa, Florida.
They would have gone to Williamsport. They lost to a
team that had Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell on the
same team that they lost in extra innings. Well, you know,
I'm twelve years old. Yeah, yeah, so man, that's crazy. Yeah,
there's some great There are some great coaches of Mickey
back there in Southeastern and in South Lexington. Mike Dotson,
(26:05):
who's a great friend of all of us. Here is
a wonderful coach over to South Lexington. Coach Austin Kerns
and all those guys. But you know that that's the
one thing, Mickey you brought up. There were some great
coaches here in the city for youth baseball and high
school baseball back in the day. Trip your a coach
Trip who just just passed away from Henry Clay. Uh
(26:27):
you know Ron Cole over at Tates Creek, Barry Pointer.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
I mean the.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Really good coach. Yeah, great coaches.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
Yeah, yeah, we won.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Appreciate the phone call, thanks, Mickey, that was a great
first call. How about that? Thanks make appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I want to butt in with a question from the
text machine because it fits in line with that. The
text machine, I have a Scott Woodhall who says he
knows Mickey and wants you'd explain why Creek, an alumnus
from eighty to nineties, ruled the world nineteen nineteen ninetyd
with all that Tates Creek over there, Well, I'll tell you,
especially in baseball, we won the state championship.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
My sophomore and senior year. Had some really good ball
players who went on to play in college ball and stuff.
But Woodall and his brother, I think Scott's daughter just
won a year ago the Tommy Bell Award, which which
the Rotary Club gives away for the top female scholar athlete.
(27:25):
So I think she if I'm I don't. I can't
remember his lefe. She went to Lexan Catholic with Lexi Chrishner.
Maybe he was Sayir. I think it was Sair now
that I'm thinking, But anyway, you know this Creaker stayed together.
Man bat Well, you got to remember this too. There
were only four high schools back then. Well you include
Sayer in that, but Tate's Creek, Lafayete, Brian Station, Henry Clay.
(27:46):
They only Onesto played football. Lexan Catholic didn't have a
football team. They didn't start football till I think like
ninety or ninety one. So, and Dunbar wasn't around yet.
Frederick Douglass wasn't around yet, So it was it was
real interesting. Lafayette had an unbelievable basketball team. Uh. They
had five guys and I got college scholarships. Jeff Parrett
was the sixth man who played ten years Major League baseball. Uh.
(28:08):
So it was a great time to grow up in
the city.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
And I want to be clear. The woodhalls are licensed Catholic.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, okay, okay, okay, all right, Uh before we go
to the callers, I think we got another Hall of
Famer is going to join us right now from the
UK football staff, Coach will Ward, how are you?
Speaker 7 (28:25):
I'm doing good? How you doing?
Speaker 8 (28:27):
So?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You got to tell me a little bit bit this
man we got We've we've already had one Hall of
Famer on now we got another. We congratulations.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
I appreciate it, and I appreciate Irving Schools, Irving I
f B. Which is where I grew up in Texas,
for nominating me for that uh and giving me that
blessing in my life. Man, it was, it was. It
was nice to get back and touch friends and family
who I haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Well, you're going to see a lot more now that
Oklahoma and Texas or or are in the SEC, and
we're going to get a chance this year.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Right Yeah, well uh yeah, we go to we go
to Austin this year. But that's in Austin, not DFW.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
That's true.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yeah, we're looking forward to that trip as well too.
I think our fans should be excited about that that
trip as well. Uh, hit me up, DM me if
y'all want to know where what place is to go eat?
That's that's uh, that's home.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
There's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
You just took the words right out of my mouth.
The barbecue in Texas to try I love try tip
and you can't get that a lot of places, but man,
you can get it in Texas.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And then you know
there's some of the legendary guys. Aaron Franklin's restaurant is there,
and you got to get there super early, or you
got to order it before you go to doing the
town so that you can pick it up when you
get there. But it's I mean, that line starts at
six am, man, and they don't open to eleven.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
That's awesome, that's awesome. All right, let's talk a little
bit of football, and obviously you were brought in here
and kind of throw it into a little bit of
a tough situation because a lot of people think football
games are offensive defense. But there's three teams. There's offensive
defense and special teams. And when you're a great team,
the difference between winning eight or nine games and ten
(30:15):
or eleven or twelve games a lot of times comes
down to special teams and you know, I'm just go
throw it out there. Special teams wasn't great before you
got here, but last season was phenomenal. And I'm not
just trying to blow you know what up your backside,
but you had the best returner in football. You had
a field goal kicker that was fantastic and he's coming
(30:38):
back this year. And the other thing that I see
when I come to practice, when Tom and I go
to practice and Drew, it's amazing. We used to have
kicking practice at the practice was over and then they say, okay,
kick a team pum return punt. That's not the way
you do a coach. You guys have a period right
in the middle of practice and you go after.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
It, right, yes sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
We start off every practice with the special teams period.
That's where our field goal field gold and field goal
blocked teams get their work. So that's so we actually
start the top and then at the bottom, and then
we don't have anything at the end. At the end,
it's just for offense and defense and then coach stops
called up. So it is a priority for us very much.
So we were brought in here to to change the
(31:25):
trajectory of where our special teams were headed. And I
really feel like we did that. You know, we we
climbed up from you know, c AI is the analytics,
right everybody's looking at analytics. It's the book that we
all talk about. Well, we we went from eighty third
in the country to twentieth in the country. We were
(31:46):
third in our league. And special teams efficiency, that's what
it's all about. It's not about man. I want to
go out there and see you know, for example, I
read all the comments. Man, I see people talk about
I want to I want I want us to punt further,
and this that and the other. We messed our punter
up and all this, and you know, all this type
of talk. And I'm here to ask people right now,
(32:06):
you have any idea how many big plays that we
gave up last year with our same punter and eighteen
rollout punts, we gave up two thirty plus yard returns,
you know what I mean. And this you know this
year he started for us full time. So if you
do the math, you know we had sixty something punts.
If I do the math, you know that's somewhere around
(32:28):
six or seven of those bad boys just explosive returns
against us. Well, that's not the way we do business.
That's not the way the University Ducky is. We want
to eliminate the big plays from our opposing teams. We
don't want to give teams any momentum. We preached E
four on our special teams. We want to have energy,
(32:48):
we want to energize our football team, play with an edge,
and we want to execute. And for the most part,
you know, we did that. We had a physical mentality
to us. You know, we went down to Mississippi State
and you know, I'm just gonna talk about our kickoff
team because our kickoff team was one of the areas
that let me down toward the end of the year.
Once we got a bunch of guys heard guys were
(33:10):
talking about the transport port of the last two games
of the season, and so we we we missed some
of those guys, and we went on the road into
Mississippi State, the number one kick return team in our
conference the year before, and every one of our stops
were inside the twenty yard line, every one of them,
you know what I mean. And those got out did
it with a physical nature.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Man.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
We took that on the road and dominated a really
good kick return team who a week later took one
to the house against Texas A and m yep yep.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
We call that the hidden yardage. You know when you
talk you when you start a drive inside the twenty
or up at the thirty, those you know, that's a
first down. That's a whole first down that you're taking
away from that team that they have to earn against
our defense. Right, that's right, coach. Let me ask you
this question because a lot of people I'll say, you know,
(34:01):
you go out and get an Australian kicker, but you
wanted to stay in the pocket, so to speak. What
is the difference coverage wise for a punt team when
you have the whatever you want to call it, Australian
rollout kicker, whatever it is, and a guy that stays
in it, does it change things for the for the
coverage team?
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Well, here's what changes things. Right, if you have a
great punter. You have a great punter. He can do whatever,
you know what I mean. I mean, he can roll out,
he can pocket punt, he can do this, that and
the other. The difference for us is when I looked
at the tape on us from the year before. It's
not that we don't roll out punt, because we do.
We do have it in our scheme. We didn't do
(34:42):
it last year again because for that same reason. You know,
of the eighteen rollout punch that you know that we
had with our punter Wilson Barry last year, two of them,
had two of them with thirty plus yard returns, one
of them in the Iowa game. Right, think about that.
All the fans remember that I was hired already, I
(35:02):
just wasn't part of the I just wasn't coaching yet.
But I remember watching that man like man when that
dude caught that ball from Iowa. Man, he had nothing
but space. You know, we want to eliminate ball in
hand plus grass from the punk returners. And we only
had one situation last year where I felt like, you know,
oh man, he kind of got out out in front
(35:22):
of us a little bit in terms of against a
great returner against Georgia, but we got blocked in the
back and we were able to hold that one out.
We didn't give up any thirty plus yard returns last year. Zero.
And that's that efficiency thing that you're talking about, just
because I can punt it further. You know what I
mean with lower hang time doesn't mean that's what we
should be doing. And that's what some rollout punts do
(35:42):
for you if you're not able to put the ball
in the air with their appropriate hangtime so your coverage
units can run underneath it. In this league, man, when
you get against some of these great return mans, you
have to be consistent at ball placement, hang time, and distance.
And if you're consistent with hangtime in distance which will
allow your coverage units to get downfield and make that play,
(36:04):
then you can eliminate whoever's across from you. You know,
I've been in this league before, man, I mean Honey Badger,
Patrick Peterson. I mean, you know, be at the cob
kid here. I mean there's there's been some guys here man.
I mean you give that you put the ball in
their hand, plus some grass man, and it's it's over.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
True, I got it's trouble.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You got one. You got one on your return team
number seven the same way too.
Speaker 7 (36:27):
Yeah yeah, berry On Brown Man, let me tell you
what and and and and I don't want to take
anything away from him, but I do want to speak
on that whole unit as you know, as a whole right,
as a collective. Man, those guys, man, do you realize
the first two return mans? I think I even heard
you say it on on online. He wasn't even touched.
(36:49):
He wasn't even touched, you know what I mean? I mean, yes,
that's what you said. That's what you said. Man. It's like, man,
these holes that these guys are executing on that unit.
That's a great unit. That's not just a great individual.
Not saying that Burryon is not a great individual, because yeah,
these fastest men in college football, but there's a whole
(37:10):
bunch of teams that got fast guys all over their
team and can't can't do with that what that kickoff
return did team did last year? Three kickoff return teams
for touchdown deven teams all time in kickoff return average
is what Barry arn Brown did last year. So that's
all time, you know, that's that's the history books, that's
what that's what was done last year on special teams.
(37:32):
And our guys realize that despite all the you know,
you know, we got to close out the noise, any negativity.
Anybody that wants to comment on what we're doing and
don't really know the fabric of our room.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Man.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
You should see those guys. They all come up to
us all the time. Man, I'm excited to be back
on special teams. I love the energy. You make it fun.
You know, all those type of comments. That's when we
know we're playing winning football.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, yep. I've always said you've got to want to
be on special teams to be successful.
Speaker 7 (38:03):
Hey, that's exactly right. I'd rather have volunteers and hostages,
you know. I don't want anybody on those units man,
that don't want to do it. They don't want to
do it with everything that they got to represent the
University of Kentucky in a first class manner, and we
want to be the best in the country. I don't
care who we're playing against or who you know who.
That guy is back there, man, we want to drop
(38:24):
that ball in his hands and set his butt down.
That's what we're all about.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Well, coach, I know you've got camps going on and
you got a scoot. I appreciate you taking a couple
of minutes with us, and I'll see you soon, all right.
Speaker 7 (38:35):
Yes, sir, y'all take care of appreciated.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Thanks coach coach Ja Boltware. He's a special teams coach
and running backs coach. You didn't eve get to talk
about chip training. But man, why do you see this
guy you talk about a body? Wow, this guy is
built like herschel Walker. I mean he's gonna be something else.
Telling you that the portal, it looks like he is
something else. All right, we got to hit a break.
(38:59):
It's ten forty coming out and join us. We open
up at eleven o'clock. Come in here. We got phones open.
We'll get to those when we return. Right after this.
On KSR Radio, we are back at KSR. I'm Jeff
Pickoor along with Drew Franklin, Shannon, the dude in the
studio running the commercials and everything. The only guy happy
about the game last night, I think was Shannon, Big
(39:21):
Boston Celtics fan. Hey, I know we have a couple
of callers, Emily and Brad. I think it is online.
I don't want to jipy out of any time because
we're kind of up against the top of the If
you hang on, we'll get to your first first thing
coming out. But Shannon, I guess you're pretty excited about
a win last night you won by twenty oh.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Look great, Porzingis could not be stopped. I mean he
had been out for quite a while and came back
in didn't miss a beat. So yeah, very happy. They're
up one to oh and hopefully they could take care
of business for the next game, which is again in Boston,
and then we'll see where it goes from there. But
the duror of the DraftKings, Yeah, he's not happy.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Not happy. Yeah, And I think there's a lot of
people listening that aren't happy.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Before I'm aware, I'm not I had to cast blame
on anyone else. This is on me. I made the
picks and it didn't win. We lost money because of me. However,
this is two games in a row, a blowout has
thrown things off, and a former Cat didn't make a
three pointer. There you go, Shannon, remember this moment. It
is June seventh, at ten to fifty five, am. I
(40:18):
Drew Franklin will not put former Cats hitting threes and
he parleys moving forward. This is two in a row.
We've lost his former cats and three pointers. Specifically, I
knew better on this one. I did it anyway, hand up,
This is all on me. Anyone that bet it. Do
not blame PJ.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Washington.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
He had nothing to do with this. This is on
Drew Franklin. No more former Cats than the parley is
moving forward.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
I'm not mad at you because yesterday I fully backed it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
We know we went through this leg by leg.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It looked good, it sounded good.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Got his assists by halftime. Yeah, I mean they were
gonna blow by that over if they didn't put the
the end of the bench in. But no excuses. Will
be better next time. It's a tough loss for the parley.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
So yesterday was the real deep day and then last
night was we Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Man, I'm glad she had team one. It's not all
about gann his team one. That's more important. Gambling's just
fun entertainment purposes. Use Draft King, do it responsibly. But
I am sorry for including a former Cat. No more
moving forward, Shannon, you remember this you.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Cat something today?
Speaker 4 (41:17):
We'll have something for game two. It won't have a
former Cat, but it'll be on Draft Kings, crown as yours,
all that good stuff. Use promo cok sor if you
sign up. Did you have a team in the you
got an NBA guy? You team care about Celtics or MAVs.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I was never a Celtics fan growing up, only because
I love the Sixers back when Julia Servine and all
those hits. And then I love the Lakers when it
was Michael Cooper and Magic first got in there and stuff.
I just thought they were kind of cool, you know.
And then when Moses Malone and Darryl Dawkins and Irvine,
I mean that that was just they were cool, and
(41:53):
the Celtics were like, come on, man, they were just
kind of square, you know, and their fans you just
hate it. It was like I had all the time,
I hate the Steelers because of that. They're too good
at Boston was too good, so I always wanted them
to get beat. So anyway, yeah, so there you go.
All right, Hey, one hours of the Books. That was quick.
We'll talk to Kenny mcpee coming up this hour, and
you the callers too when we come back. Come on
(42:15):
out and join us here at KSR Bar. We'd love
to have you, of course. Be yep. Hour number two
coming up after this
Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington welcomes David Lucas June sixth
through the eighth, Then catch Josh Blue June twenty and
through the twenty second, and don't miss Rocky Dale Davis
June twenty eighth and twenty ninth. Comedy Off Broadway opened
in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still
bringing the best in stand up comedy to the area
thirty seven years later. Call E five nine two seven
(00:23):
to one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com
co Offway.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now
Here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Where's Matt Jones?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Somewhere in the world. I'm not even sure, grease and
that's just it.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
He's somewhere in the world. I'm Jeff Picoro. So it's
great to be here at KSR Bar and Drew. It's
great to have somebody sitting next to me instead of
be doing this flying solo. Of course, happy to be
here with you, so that's cool. Look, we're gonna open
this up to you guys, because we could talk about
a lot of things. We do have some est today
that we're gonna talk to We're gonna talk to coach
Madison here just a little bit, the Hall of Fame,
(01:03):
former baseball coach here at the University of Kentucky about
the great success that UK has had this year, and
what is coming up this coming weekend, and is you
and we were just talking about this trying to get
a ticket to this game Saturday and Sunday. This is ridiculous.
Band are you can't find them?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I was up early this morning looking on secondary markets,
see anything popped up. Not looking good. I'm actually considering
taking a little folding chair and just sitting outside the
stadium and listening if I have to. But it is
it is an event that is hard to get into
if you're trying. If you didn't get that first round
of tickets.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'll tell you what it is really cool. It almost
gives you cold, cold chills because you think UK basketball,
it's like, Okay, we're going to the NCA turmy, you know,
or the SEC turm, whatever we do. That football has
become okay, we're going to a bowl game. But with baseball,
it's almost like this is a new thing that people
here have never experienced before.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
No, I mean the Park's five years old, but its
first couple of years open right for cod it didn't
get what it deserved. Last year it finally got that postseason.
They won the region, went on. The Supers didn't go
as well. But now you've tasted it a little bit,
a lot of the team has had a little bit.
Now you're hosting the Supers and your two wins away.
I've been excited for the baseball team, the players, but
(02:16):
the fan base has really bought in, as we're saying
yet the ticket prices. It's been very cool to see
over there. I set through every pitch and every rain
drop all three games last weekend. Had so much fun
with the fans. It's nice to see an energy over
there that deserves.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You know what I like. And you could expound on
this because you go to a lot of games at
different places too. With the addition of being able to
purchase beer, you've got now adults, college kids and adults
that are able to buy, but they still have that
kids feel to it because you still have that big
area in the grass where they the kids are out
(02:51):
there throwing the ball and rolling around and they can
get a snow cone and ice cream and everything else,
So they got something for everybody, and I think that's
what really to me, kind of sells it a little bit.
That makes it so nice as they do have all
these areas where you can go and hang out and
not feel like you're just jammed into it like you
used to be at Rupperena in the upper deck, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Yeah, And I'll admit I attended more games since they
added the beer. You know, i'd go to the postseason whatever,
but I went to a few random Tuesdays and afternoons
and had a beer. And I haven't been to every game,
but as far as I've seen, there have been no
issues adding that to the experience, and it's just I
think it's brought more people in. Like you said, overall,
there's just so much they got the Food Truck Park
over there. I ran into you at the Food Truck
Park did Sundays. Yeah, I would encourage people to get
(03:32):
out there, but that'd just be taking one more seat
that I'm trying to get.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
But dude, this is the most unbelievable fact that I
found about UK Baseball. So you know, obviously they've never
been do mall. Every single team in the SEC, everyone
and you say, most usually would go, well, Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt
was a powerhouse in baseball for years. Every team in
the SEC, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missing Me, missip Me State,
(03:57):
South Carolina, everybody's been to that. The last one is
Alabama has been to the World Series five times. Kentucky's
never been. Everybody in the SEC except Kentucky has been
to the World Series. Think about that for a minute.
You think wow, and you think about what coach Madison did,
won over seven hundred games yet never made it to
(04:19):
the World Series. That is a crazy fact that you
wouldn't even think about that. In basketball, it's like they're
always going, you know. If they don't, it's like the
chicken little the sky's falling. But baseball's never been. That's
wild to me. So we're gonna have coach Madison on. Yeah,
then we're gonna have another Hall of Famer, coach bullwear that.
(04:40):
A lot of people don't know this, Jay Bow. He
was just put in a Hall of Fame, So I'll
ask him about that. But we're gonna talk a little
football with him, only because camps are going on now
and I know you guys are big with this at KSR.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, but a lot of people ask me all the
time when I see him on the street. You know,
they talk about camps. What is a football camp now?
Because when I played, they didn't have that, and now
they have these invities only camps and things where you're
basically showing off. You're bringing all these kids that are
juniors and seniors in to show off what you've got.
(05:15):
And now Kentucky's got a lot to offer. So you're
showing in the Craft Center in the practice area, and
you're and you're bringing him over to the stadium and
you're playing on there. So we'll talk to him about
that a little bit and what he foresees for this season, obviously,
and then finally at eleven o'clock we'll talk to Kenny McPeak,
the trainer of of not only Mystic Dan, the derby
winner that's going in the Belmont Saturday, but also Torpedo Anna,
(05:36):
who won the Oaks and would have been going in
the Belmont had he not run Mystic Dan, but she
will be running today in the Acorn, which is kind
of the second leg. I'm sorry, the third lady of
the Phillies Triple Crown, so we'll talk to him about that.
And Kenny from right here in Lesnon, Tates Creek. Yeah,
we have known each other who were six years old.
(05:58):
We lived in the same neighbor go off Tates Creek
Road and went to Lansdowne and Tates Creek Junior, Tates
Creek Senior and UK together. So it's yeah, I've known
him since forevers. We've been in each other's wedding, so well,
it's kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Well hear how happy he was, but quickly as his friend,
what was it like.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I was, because you know, I was in It's a
little bit different for me than a lot of the
guys that we grew up with, only because I'd done
so much in horse racing. You know, the reason I
went to Cincinnati wasn't for the Reds. I went to
Cincinnati to started a horse racing show there that was
a national show that we did out of Turfway Park,
And so Kenny and I have had that side to things.
(06:39):
That's a little bit different. But to be a friend
and see what he's gone through from the days when
he and Sean Greeley and Todd Boston and some of
these guys that Sean Greeley's dad was the president of
Keenland and he was he went and ran Dubai, you
know the racetrack there. Todd Boston is one of the
top blacksmiths in the in the business. They all used
(06:59):
to Dale Romans now used to share an apartment up
there in northern Kentucky at Turfoy Park. I remember back
to those days. So to see him go from that
and running at River Downs in three thousand dollars races
to winning now he's won all three, the Derby, the
Preakness and the and obviously the Belmont. You know, the
next thing would be to win Breeders Cup Championship. But
other than that, you know, he's none at all. So
(07:21):
it's it's really cool, and it was, Yeah, it's pretty emotional.
Then we went we went up to Baltimore with him too,
and got to stay up there for three or four days.
And yeah, it's just it's special when you got a
friend that does something like that. You know, it would
be anything if he had a friend that was an
NFL player or a baseball player. It's just cool to
see that side of things and to see it from
the you know, behind the curtain. You know, everybody thinks
(07:43):
Bob Bafford or Wayne Lucas or the you know, your competitors.
Bafford's at his barn. They're sitting there, you know, just
bsing with each other and I'm like, it's by Bafford man,
and he's like hey, I's yeah, yeah, hey Bob. And
then you know, the dogs running around and things, and
Baffort's dogs running around and you know, and then then
here comes Wayne Lucas and you're like, here comes God,
(08:05):
you know, as he strolls down, Hello boys. And but yeah,
that that's the cool part. And you know, we and
I'm including you in this, we get to see behind
curtain and a lot of things, you know. We get
to see how the how the bread's made, or whatever
however you want to say it. And that, to me
is the coolest part of the job. It isn't the games.
To me, it's leading up to him see how they
(08:28):
get a horse ready to run, to see how you know,
a guy takes batting practice in the cages and stuff,
to see how what kind of drills guys are doing
to get better. That, to me is is the cool
part of what our job is. Where we get to
go and see stuff that that other people just simply
can't do.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Oh, we're very lucky, very very lucky.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
And I never take that for granted.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
I'm excited to hear from him. I don't think we've
had a Derby winner on here before. We've given a
lot of inaccurate Derby picks before the derby, but I
think this will be Ksr's first Derby winner on the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
I've never Kenny and all the years he'd say, man,
my horse has got a really nice shot, I've never
heard him as positive as he was leading especially to
the Oaks with with Thorpedo Anna. He said they can't
beat here. I said, he told me about five weeks
before the Derby is Jeff, I've got the best Philly
I've ever had. My said, no, you know, Swiss skydivers
(09:18):
the best he is. This horse can run circles around her.
And I said, there's no way, and she was something else.
I mean, she's she's really good. He would have ran
her in the Preakness or the Belmont had Mystic Dan
not running either of those. So he's not afraid. He
just doesn't want them running against each other. So we'll
see how he's feeling heading into the Belmont, which is yeah, yeah,
(09:43):
they're redoing you know, just like they're doing a Keenland,
but unfortunately they're doing stuff with the track as well.
So this year and I think next year too, the
Belmont will be run at Saratoga, so it's the same
distance as a Derby, because you know, each track is
a different circumference. Uh, if you run a mile and
a half race at Saratoga, they'd have to start way
(10:04):
real close to the first turn, so you don't want
Tom coming right out of the gate and having to
hit a turn to go all the way around. They'd
have to go around twice, so it would actually be
like a four turn race, and that you just don't
do that because a horse isn't a horse isn't bred
to know. I know, I'm going one turn or two turns,
but not three year you know, it's so.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Cute, this Mario. This is more horse racing I think
we've ever had.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yeah, so it's just just because of that. So it's
it's only gonna be a mile and a quarter so
not the mile and a half grueling race. You know
that extra quarter mile is we could just ask Ryan,
you know, because he's such a great runner.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Well, when you were mentioned your friend Kenny and how
you're seeing someone achieve something, have this big opportunity. I
was thinking to my friend Ryan, how this summer Matt
just left him with the radio show for two months.
And it's kind of like when in the Derby. Ryan
has this big microphone in front of him that not
many people will get to have.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It's not here.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I already took a day off, Mario. It's week
two and he's already taken a day off. He's somewhere
in Missouri State.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
And how cool is that though, too, because you've got
to see that kid grow up? Oh yeah, you know,
that's the cool part.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
We had an unfortunate injury last season set him back
at Douglas in the receiver rotation, but he took I
think he's done with basketball. I want to speak for him,
but he's been working hard on getting that uh that
arm back ready for football and he got his first
offer at Wesleyan. And now I guess once you get
that one offer, Ryan now every weekend is going to
a camp to try to get more driving. That that
is where they are today. While Ryan's away Josiah's off.
Speaker 5 (11:30):
I want to say.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I believe he said Missouri State is where they were.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
That's cool, That's that's a decent school. I mean, you know,
we'll see, we'll say. Because this is the time camps
right now, this is when you want to go. You
get to go and you get to see, you know,
all the facilities they have. Uh, you get to see
the support that they have. This is this is a
real important People don't realize this. This is a very
important time for football because all these recruits are coming through.
(11:54):
Kentucky's got him every day over there, and I know
that Nick has been, Oh yeah, they've been over every
day's shooting at all. And they're some big dudes. They
had a picture yesterday, I think Nick had of some
lineman from Ohio and he towered. He was talking to
Vince Marrow and it looked like me talking to Vince Marrow,
but the other way. This dude was four inches taller
(12:15):
than Marrow and he was like a junior. Where are
they building these kids? Man?
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Yeah, as you'll get to bulwear later. This is when
it's kind of it's happening in the dark over there
with baseball around a lot of people didn't realize you're
parking for baseball last weekend and then Reilbird's going on.
But inside the football stadium there was some big moves
being made with offers. We talked about Evan Hampton from Owensboro,
a baseball player, getting a football offer. That was an
interesting twist from the week. But this is when they're
(12:42):
really setting the roots for the future.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Well, I'll tell you what, Why don't we take a
quick break because we got to come back and talk
with coach Madison about that. How's that?
Speaker 4 (12:49):
Let's do it all right, Let's let's run through. Uh,
let's make sure one calls us at eight five, nine
to eight oh two two eight seven, Shannon. This first
segment and the whole show was presented by TJ Smith
KOs our personal injury lawyer.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
What will what will we do?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Shanne?
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, you call TJ.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
He'll make them pay.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Also throughout the throughout the show, we will do the
Whiskey Thief Song of the day, the Kentucky branded tweet
of the day, and the Don Franklin auto call of
the day. And we're gonna give away those last two
Tim McGraw tickets. At some point, I just remembered that
we've ever seen him before.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Uh, not a really good show. Yeah, he great show.
I was. I was really really impressed. And you gotta remember, dude,
it's been doing it for a long time. So he's
got songs back there, you know, Indian Outlaw and all
that stuff like, oh, yeah, that was here. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
Oh, he's a big deal. You'll have to at some point,
we'll have to come up with the contest for these
last two tickets. H So we'll get those away throughout
the show. We'll be back after this.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Breakcome back in. I'm Jeff Picicoro along with Drew Franklin.
We are lying at KSR Bar and you guys can
come join us at about forty minutes. The bar opens
at eleven o'clock. And got a lot of great food here.
Of course, we had a lot of great talk and
the phone lines are open if you want to jump
(14:01):
on those lines and give us a call as well.
Most of you to have this written down and tattooed
on your forearms from most of your callers that I
hear you have. Eight five nine two eight oh two
two eight seven is a number here in town locally
to give us a call. But before we go to
the calls, got a a dude that has I've known
(14:21):
this guy since nineteen eighty one and he's a Hall
of Famer and our first guest of the day, and
that is the former coach whose number hangs out next
to the American flag at Kentucky Proud Park, and that
is coach Keith Madison. Coach. How are you?
Speaker 5 (14:39):
I'm great? Pick how you doing, buddy.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much. I want to
talk baseball. But before we get into this, there's a
story that you tell, and I hope you'll you'll tell
the story to the people because it just shows you
the respect that some of the other coaches that UK
had for you. Please please, please tell us the story
about Joe Hall when you were getting ready to go
(15:03):
on a road trip and his generosity to you guys
in the baseball team.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Oh I'm talking about Yeah, I think I think this
the story you're talking about I think is UH. I was.
I was raising money for UH to improve UH shyly
feel and UH later known as Clef Hagen Stadium, and man,
(15:29):
I had I we were putting up lights and I
had I think I had to raise like two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars, which was enormous back then, especially
for a coach and to know what he was doing.
So I got I got down. I needed about fifteen
thousand more dollars and I was racking my brain. I thought, man,
(15:51):
people are going to be hating me because they they
see me coming, they're going to turn turn and go
the other way. And so I called Coach Hall. I said, Coach,
you have any ideas about how I can come up
with this last bit of money. And I said, mister
Hagen's not going to let me start this project until
until I come up with all this money. And he said,
(16:14):
let me think about it. So he called you back
and he they had money left over from when they
originally built the Wildcat Lodge and he said, I met
with I can't remember that group, but he said, I
met with these guys and they think you need this
money so you can finish this project. So and here's
(16:37):
the thing, Eddie Sutton gave me the first thousand dollars
in that project and then Joby Hall came up with
the last fifteen thousand. Is that not cool?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
That that just shows you the respect that people don't
realize how much that you You guys. When I say this,
I mean the coaches got you guys actually have a lot.
I'm sure you got. You got to go to practice,
They come to your practice, they come to the games.
Things like that. There's a great bond between you guys,
wasn't there.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Oh yeah, Like Coach Hall loved baseball and we would
talk baseball a lot, and and I loved basketball too,
and so I would get to spend a lot of
time with him, and sometimes we meet over in Bill
Kiteley's equipment room. Eddie Sutton was the same way. Rick
Bettino was not. He wasn't. I mean, I had a
(17:31):
good relationship with Rick, but it was a he didn't
hang out in Bill Kiteney's equipment room with me.
Speaker 6 (17:36):
I'll say that, oh lord, but yeah, And you know,
coming from uh, from the time that you were there,
the era that you were there with, as you call it,
mister Hagen, who just loved baseball.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Well gave me. He gave me an opportunity as a
twenty six year old baseball coach to coach at the
University of Kentucky in my home state. And I'll always
be thankful for that, And even though it wasn't the
greatest of circumstances at the beginning, it was an opportunity.
(18:15):
And not many twenty six year old guys get to
coach at an SEC school. So I'm very thankful. And
you know, back to Eddie Sutton real quick, Jeff, this
is kind of cool. He would you know, the coach.
Hutton was under a lot of pressure a lot of
the time he was here, and sometimes he just needed
an outlet. And sometimes he would call me up and
(18:36):
he said, hey, meet me over in Kiteley's equipment room.
And so I would meet him over there. It might
be ten o'clock in the morning or nine o'clock in
the morning, and he just wanted to talk baseball. He
was a big Cardinals fan, and of course mister Kiteler
was a due Reds fan, and he just wanted to
and you know, he and his wife went on their
honeymoon in Saint Louis at a Cardinals game. Tells you
(19:02):
how much that guy loved, you know, love baseball. And
then and then later on Tubby, you know, Tubby and
I would meet over there too and had some great talk. Uh,
there's so many interesting things and great stories told there
in that old equipment room and Memorial Coliseum. It was
(19:22):
just fantastic.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
People don't realize what mister Kitely was like. He loved baseball.
Used to come to the Reds games all the time
with Luther Deaton and Tubby Smith, and I remember they
would come all the time and they would come up
into the TV booth and then they'd go into Marty's booth,
and you talk about I don't know how Marty did
a game with those guys in there most of the time,
(19:45):
because if there were a few beers let's just say
there was a few beers up there in that booth,
and how Marty did the game when those guys are there,
I don't know how they did it.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Hey, if anybody could do it, Marty could do it.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Though. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Hey, I do gotta
ask you one question before we get onto this year's team.
Are you amazed now that some of these players are
making more money than you did when you coached and
I'm talking college.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Yeah, yeah, I am. But you know it's a good thing.
I don't you know. I I see both sides of it,
you know. I hate to see college athletics change so
drastically where you know, I don't want to see players
loyal to money instead of University of Kentucky. I'm really naive.
I'm I'm old school about stuff like that, you know.
(20:35):
And but at the same time, coaches leave for more
money all the time. And yeah, and that's uh and
then and who does who does the grunt work the
players do? Right? Right? Right?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Coach?
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Yeah, yeah, I was going to say, Uh, you know,
coaches work hard, don't get me wrong, But it's a
different kind of work. I mean, the the players are
leaving blood, sweat and tears on the fields and on
the courts every day.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Coach, I think anyone that listens when you're on with
Darren knows, or when you're on with Me or Dick
or on the television side, knows how much you love
Kentucky and Kentucky baseball. But how excited are you for
this team, about what they're about to do and what
they're getting ready to get into here over the next
four days.
Speaker 5 (21:28):
Yeah, I mean, my excitement and pride is off the
charts for this group. And it's a really classy group
of players. I mean, you might you might see him
doing all their shenanigans in the dugout, but it's the
phenomenal thing to me is that they compete. I mean
(21:49):
they're they're they're on every pitch where they're in between
the lines, They're focused, they're great competitors. And then at
least when I've been around them off the field, they
are absolutely great young men. Just a phenomenal group of
people that have really come together. You know, some Nick
(22:11):
recruited out of high school, some from the transfer portal.
But with Knick's leadership skills and his ability to bring
people together, these guys really care about each other and
compete for each other as well as for themselves. So
it's a special group and I'm very, very proud of them.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Coach. It's a bottom of the hour, and I got
to get to a break. I appreciate you coming on,
short and sweet, but I love talking to you and
I can't wait to see a Saturday evening.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
All right, pick, I appreciate you talking to me and
we'll go cats.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Okay, thanks buddy, talk to you, so thank you. That's
the Hall of Famer Keith Madison. We'll be back with
more right after this. The bottom of the Hour on KSR.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
TJ Smith personal injury attorney.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Call TJ. He'll make him.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Pay now more Kentucky Sports Radio present it by Stockton Mortgage.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Here's Matt Jones.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Well it's Jeff Picoro sitting in for Matt Jones. Drew
and Mario here at the KSR bar and grill coming
out and join us. Eleven o'clock. Got a lot of
TVs here. You get all your sports, watch the memorial,
the golf tournament and stuff. But uh yeah, every time
I hear the TJ. Smith commercial, I just see him
as the wildcat or as a cheerleader when he was
(23:32):
at UK. I can't take the dude. Seriously. He's a
great dude, great guy. Don't get on a golf course
with him because he will take your money. Oh yeah
he will. Maybe he just he'll take your money. He'll
make you pay.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
And you'll have a lot of fun as you take
your money. I've tilgated with him a few times. Guy
knows how to have fun. Yes, he does sponsor the show too.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Good guy all around. All right. We got a couple
of callers, so why don't we go to the line Shannon,
who we got?
Speaker 5 (23:55):
All right?
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Let's start with Mickey, Mickey, what's going on Sun.
Speaker 8 (24:00):
Hey guys, first time caller, a long time listener, I
want to talk a little baseball, if that's okay. Known
as coach Marshall around the city, I have coached a
long time and met a lot of great coaches. I
wanted to let you know, Jeff, at an early age,
I learned from one of the best watching and that
was your father, your father, coach, the legendary Southeastern Cubs.
(24:25):
I watched him do a play taught me two things.
He was intentionally walking a kid supposedly when the pitcher
threw the ball, the catcher squatted down and took strike
three and struck that kid out. And it taught me
that you had to one take a risk and two
have a trick up your sleeve. So I just wanted
to tell you that story that a lot of kids
(24:45):
learn as a youth about the love of the game,
and guys like your father taught a lot of kids.
So I just wanted to make that statement to you.
With baseball going on being so big this.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Weekend, well thank you so much, Vicky boy. He had
dad had a great time coach, and my father played
that I don't know if you knew this. He played
to Ohio State. The first baseman was a guy named
Frank Howard, pretty dark. Yeah, hall of famer. Second baseman
was a guy by the name of John hablechik Oh
Hall of famer in basketball. And my dad was the
backup catcher to Johnny Edwards, who was a great reds catcher.
(25:19):
Uh for the time. But yeah, I had some great
teams up there, and dad loved coaching. And that one year,
one year Mickey when that the All Star team had
Norton and and uh uh gosh, I can't remember all
these things, Ryan Sparks, Dusty Man. Yeah, and they lost
(25:41):
the are you ready for this? They lost in Tampa, Florida.
They would have gone to Williamsport. They lost to a
team that had Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell on the
same team that they lost in extra innings. Well, you know,
I'm twelve years old. Yeah, yeah, so man, that's crazy. Yeah,
there's some great There are some great coaches of Mickey
back there in Southeastern and in South Lexington. Mike Dotson,
(26:05):
who's a great friend of all of us. Here is
a wonderful coach over to South Lexington. Coach Austin Kerns
and all those guys. But you know that that's the
one thing, Mickey you brought up. There were some great
coaches here in the city for youth baseball and high
school baseball back in the day. Trip your a coach
Trip who just just passed away from Henry Clay. Uh
(26:27):
you know Ron Cole over at Tates Creek, Barry Pointer.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
I mean the.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Really good coach. Yeah, great coaches.
Speaker 8 (26:34):
Yeah, yeah, we won.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Appreciate the phone call, thanks, Mickey, that was a great
first call. How about that? Thanks make appreciate it.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I want to butt in with a question from the
text machine because it fits in line with that. The
text machine, I have a Scott Woodhall who says he
knows Mickey and wants you'd explain why Creek, an alumnus
from eighty to nineties, ruled the world nineteen nineteen ninetyd
with all that Tates Creek over there, Well, I'll tell you,
especially in baseball, we won the state championship.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
My sophomore and senior year. Had some really good ball
players who went on to play in college ball and stuff.
But Woodall and his brother, I think Scott's daughter just
won a year ago the Tommy Bell Award, which which
the Rotary Club gives away for the top female scholar athlete.
(27:25):
So I think she if I'm I don't. I can't
remember his lefe. She went to Lexan Catholic with Lexi Chrishner.
Maybe he was Sayir. I think it was Sair now
that I'm thinking, But anyway, you know this Creaker stayed together.
Man bat Well, you got to remember this too. There
were only four high schools back then. Well you include
Sayer in that, but Tate's Creek, Lafayete, Brian Station, Henry Clay.
(27:46):
They only Onesto played football. Lexan Catholic didn't have a
football team. They didn't start football till I think like
ninety or ninety one. So, and Dunbar wasn't around yet.
Frederick Douglass wasn't around yet, So it was it was
real interesting. Lafayette had an unbelievable basketball team. Uh. They
had five guys and I got college scholarships. Jeff Parrett
was the sixth man who played ten years Major League baseball. Uh.
(28:08):
So it was a great time to grow up in
the city.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
And I want to be clear. The woodhalls are licensed Catholic.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, okay, okay, okay, all right, Uh before we go
to the callers, I think we got another Hall of
Famer is going to join us right now from the
UK football staff, Coach will Ward, how are you?
Speaker 7 (28:25):
I'm doing good? How you doing?
Speaker 8 (28:27):
So?
Speaker 3 (28:28):
You got to tell me a little bit bit this
man we got We've we've already had one Hall of
Famer on now we got another. We congratulations.
Speaker 7 (28:34):
I appreciate it, and I appreciate Irving Schools, Irving I
f B. Which is where I grew up in Texas,
for nominating me for that uh and giving me that
blessing in my life. Man, it was, it was. It
was nice to get back and touch friends and family
who I haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Well, you're going to see a lot more now that
Oklahoma and Texas or or are in the SEC, and
we're going to get a chance this year.
Speaker 7 (29:01):
Right Yeah, well uh yeah, we go to we go
to Austin this year. But that's in Austin, not DFW.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
That's true.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yeah, we're looking forward to that trip as well too.
I think our fans should be excited about that that
trip as well. Uh, hit me up, DM me if
y'all want to know where what place is to go eat?
That's that's uh, that's home.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
There's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
You just took the words right out of my mouth.
The barbecue in Texas to try I love try tip
and you can't get that a lot of places, but man,
you can get it in Texas.
Speaker 7 (29:35):
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And then you know
there's some of the legendary guys. Aaron Franklin's restaurant is there,
and you got to get there super early, or you
got to order it before you go to doing the
town so that you can pick it up when you
get there. But it's I mean, that line starts at
six am, man, and they don't open to eleven.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
That's awesome, that's awesome. All right, let's talk a little
bit of football, and obviously you were brought in here
and kind of throw it into a little bit of
a tough situation because a lot of people think football
games are offensive defense. But there's three teams. There's offensive
defense and special teams. And when you're a great team,
the difference between winning eight or nine games and ten
(30:15):
or eleven or twelve games a lot of times comes
down to special teams and you know, I'm just go
throw it out there. Special teams wasn't great before you
got here, but last season was phenomenal. And I'm not
just trying to blow you know what up your backside,
but you had the best returner in football. You had
a field goal kicker that was fantastic and he's coming
(30:38):
back this year. And the other thing that I see
when I come to practice, when Tom and I go
to practice and Drew, it's amazing. We used to have
kicking practice at the practice was over and then they say, okay,
kick a team pum return punt. That's not the way
you do a coach. You guys have a period right
in the middle of practice and you go after.
Speaker 7 (30:59):
It, right, yes sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
We start off every practice with the special teams period.
That's where our field goal field gold and field goal
blocked teams get their work. So that's so we actually
start the top and then at the bottom, and then
we don't have anything at the end. At the end,
it's just for offense and defense and then coach stops
called up. So it is a priority for us very much.
So we were brought in here to to change the
(31:25):
trajectory of where our special teams were headed. And I
really feel like we did that. You know, we we
climbed up from you know, c AI is the analytics,
right everybody's looking at analytics. It's the book that we
all talk about. Well, we we went from eighty third
in the country to twentieth in the country. We were
(31:46):
third in our league. And special teams efficiency, that's what
it's all about. It's not about man. I want to
go out there and see you know, for example, I
read all the comments. Man, I see people talk about
I want to I want I want us to punt further,
and this that and the other. We messed our punter
up and all this, and you know, all this type
of talk. And I'm here to ask people right now,
(32:06):
you have any idea how many big plays that we
gave up last year with our same punter and eighteen
rollout punts, we gave up two thirty plus yard returns,
you know what I mean. And this you know this
year he started for us full time. So if you
do the math, you know we had sixty something punts.
If I do the math, you know that's somewhere around
(32:28):
six or seven of those bad boys just explosive returns
against us. Well, that's not the way we do business.
That's not the way the University Ducky is. We want
to eliminate the big plays from our opposing teams. We
don't want to give teams any momentum. We preached E
four on our special teams. We want to have energy,
(32:48):
we want to energize our football team, play with an edge,
and we want to execute. And for the most part,
you know, we did that. We had a physical mentality
to us. You know, we went down to Mississippi State
and you know, I'm just gonna talk about our kickoff
team because our kickoff team was one of the areas
that let me down toward the end of the year.
Once we got a bunch of guys heard guys were
(33:10):
talking about the transport port of the last two games
of the season, and so we we we missed some
of those guys, and we went on the road into
Mississippi State, the number one kick return team in our
conference the year before, and every one of our stops
were inside the twenty yard line, every one of them,
you know what I mean. And those got out did
it with a physical nature.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Man.
Speaker 7 (33:31):
We took that on the road and dominated a really
good kick return team who a week later took one
to the house against Texas A and m yep yep.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
We call that the hidden yardage. You know when you
talk you when you start a drive inside the twenty
or up at the thirty, those you know, that's a
first down. That's a whole first down that you're taking
away from that team that they have to earn against
our defense. Right, that's right, coach. Let me ask you
this question because a lot of people I'll say, you know,
(34:01):
you go out and get an Australian kicker, but you
wanted to stay in the pocket, so to speak. What
is the difference coverage wise for a punt team when
you have the whatever you want to call it, Australian
rollout kicker, whatever it is, and a guy that stays
in it, does it change things for the for the
coverage team?
Speaker 7 (34:20):
Well, here's what changes things. Right, if you have a
great punter. You have a great punter. He can do whatever,
you know what I mean. I mean, he can roll out,
he can pocket punt, he can do this, that and
the other. The difference for us is when I looked
at the tape on us from the year before. It's
not that we don't roll out punt, because we do.
We do have it in our scheme. We didn't do
(34:42):
it last year again because for that same reason. You know,
of the eighteen rollout punch that you know that we
had with our punter Wilson Barry last year, two of them,
had two of them with thirty plus yard returns, one
of them in the Iowa game. Right, think about that.
All the fans remember that I was hired already, I
(35:02):
just wasn't part of the I just wasn't coaching yet.
But I remember watching that man like man when that
dude caught that ball from Iowa. Man, he had nothing
but space. You know, we want to eliminate ball in
hand plus grass from the punk returners. And we only
had one situation last year where I felt like, you know,
oh man, he kind of got out out in front
(35:22):
of us a little bit in terms of against a
great returner against Georgia, but we got blocked in the
back and we were able to hold that one out.
We didn't give up any thirty plus yard returns last year. Zero.
And that's that efficiency thing that you're talking about, just
because I can punt it further. You know what I
mean with lower hang time doesn't mean that's what we
should be doing. And that's what some rollout punts do
(35:42):
for you if you're not able to put the ball
in the air with their appropriate hangtime so your coverage
units can run underneath it. In this league, man, when
you get against some of these great return mans, you
have to be consistent at ball placement, hang time, and distance.
And if you're consistent with hangtime in distance which will
allow your coverage units to get downfield and make that play,
(36:04):
then you can eliminate whoever's across from you. You know,
I've been in this league before, man, I mean Honey Badger,
Patrick Peterson. I mean, you know, be at the cob
kid here. I mean there's there's been some guys here man.
I mean you give that you put the ball in
their hand, plus some grass man, and it's it's over.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7 (36:20):
True, I got it's trouble.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You got one. You got one on your return team
number seven the same way too.
Speaker 7 (36:27):
Yeah yeah, berry On Brown Man, let me tell you
what and and and and I don't want to take
anything away from him, but I do want to speak
on that whole unit as you know, as a whole right,
as a collective. Man, those guys, man, do you realize
the first two return mans? I think I even heard
you say it on on online. He wasn't even touched.
(36:49):
He wasn't even touched, you know what I mean? I mean, yes,
that's what you said. That's what you said. Man. It's like, man,
these holes that these guys are executing on that unit.
That's a great unit. That's not just a great individual.
Not saying that Burryon is not a great individual, because yeah,
these fastest men in college football, but there's a whole
(37:10):
bunch of teams that got fast guys all over their
team and can't can't do with that what that kickoff
return did team did last year? Three kickoff return teams
for touchdown deven teams all time in kickoff return average
is what Barry arn Brown did last year. So that's
all time, you know, that's that's the history books, that's
what that's what was done last year on special teams.
(37:32):
And our guys realize that despite all the you know,
you know, we got to close out the noise, any negativity.
Anybody that wants to comment on what we're doing and
don't really know the fabric of our room.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Man.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
You should see those guys. They all come up to
us all the time. Man, I'm excited to be back
on special teams. I love the energy. You make it fun.
You know, all those type of comments. That's when we
know we're playing winning football.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, yep. I've always said you've got to want to
be on special teams to be successful.
Speaker 7 (38:03):
Hey, that's exactly right. I'd rather have volunteers and hostages,
you know. I don't want anybody on those units man,
that don't want to do it. They don't want to
do it with everything that they got to represent the
University of Kentucky in a first class manner, and we
want to be the best in the country. I don't
care who we're playing against or who you know who.
That guy is back there, man, we want to drop
(38:24):
that ball in his hands and set his butt down.
That's what we're all about.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Well, coach, I know you've got camps going on and
you got a scoot. I appreciate you taking a couple
of minutes with us, and I'll see you soon, all right.
Speaker 7 (38:35):
Yes, sir, y'all take care of appreciated.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Thanks coach coach Ja Boltware. He's a special teams coach
and running backs coach. You didn't eve get to talk
about chip training. But man, why do you see this
guy you talk about a body? Wow, this guy is
built like herschel Walker. I mean he's gonna be something else.
Telling you that the portal, it looks like he is
something else. All right, we got to hit a break.
(38:59):
It's ten forty coming out and join us. We open
up at eleven o'clock. Come in here. We got phones open.
We'll get to those when we return. Right after this.
On KSR Radio, we are back at KSR. I'm Jeff
Pickoor along with Drew Franklin, Shannon, the dude in the
studio running the commercials and everything. The only guy happy
about the game last night, I think was Shannon, Big
(39:21):
Boston Celtics fan. Hey, I know we have a couple
of callers, Emily and Brad. I think it is online.
I don't want to jipy out of any time because
we're kind of up against the top of the If
you hang on, we'll get to your first first thing
coming out. But Shannon, I guess you're pretty excited about
a win last night you won by twenty oh.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
Look great, Porzingis could not be stopped. I mean he
had been out for quite a while and came back
in didn't miss a beat. So yeah, very happy. They're
up one to oh and hopefully they could take care
of business for the next game, which is again in Boston,
and then we'll see where it goes from there. But
the duror of the DraftKings, Yeah, he's not happy.
Speaker 3 (39:54):
Not happy. Yeah, And I think there's a lot of
people listening that aren't happy.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Before I'm aware, I'm not I had to cast blame
on anyone else. This is on me. I made the
picks and it didn't win. We lost money because of me. However,
this is two games in a row, a blowout has
thrown things off, and a former Cat didn't make a
three pointer. There you go, Shannon, remember this moment. It
is June seventh, at ten to fifty five, am. I
(40:18):
Drew Franklin will not put former Cats hitting threes and
he parleys moving forward. This is two in a row.
We've lost his former cats and three pointers. Specifically, I
knew better on this one. I did it anyway, hand up,
This is all on me. Anyone that bet it. Do
not blame PJ.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
Washington.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
He had nothing to do with this. This is on
Drew Franklin. No more former Cats than the parley is
moving forward.
Speaker 5 (40:38):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
I'm not mad at you because yesterday I fully backed it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
We know we went through this leg by leg.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
It looked good, it sounded good.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Got his assists by halftime. Yeah, I mean they were
gonna blow by that over if they didn't put the
the end of the bench in. But no excuses. Will
be better next time. It's a tough loss for the parley.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
So yesterday was the real deep day and then last
night was we Unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (41:04):
Man, I'm glad she had team one. It's not all
about gann his team one. That's more important. Gambling's just
fun entertainment purposes. Use Draft King, do it responsibly. But
I am sorry for including a former Cat. No more
moving forward, Shannon, you remember this you.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Cat something today?
Speaker 4 (41:17):
We'll have something for game two. It won't have a
former Cat, but it'll be on Draft Kings, crown as yours,
all that good stuff. Use promo cok sor if you
sign up. Did you have a team in the you
got an NBA guy? You team care about Celtics or MAVs.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I was never a Celtics fan growing up, only because
I love the Sixers back when Julia Servine and all
those hits. And then I love the Lakers when it
was Michael Cooper and Magic first got in there and stuff.
I just thought they were kind of cool, you know.
And then when Moses Malone and Darryl Dawkins and Irvine,
I mean that that was just they were cool, and
(41:53):
the Celtics were like, come on, man, they were just
kind of square, you know, and their fans you just
hate it. It was like I had all the time,
I hate the Steelers because of that. They're too good
at Boston was too good, so I always wanted them
to get beat. So anyway, yeah, so there you go.
All right, Hey, one hours of the Books. That was quick.
We'll talk to Kenny mcpee coming up this hour, and
you the callers too when we come back. Come on
(42:15):
out and join us here at KSR Bar. We'd love
to have you, of course. Be yep. Hour number two
coming up after this
Host
Matt Jones
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