2025-04-24 LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Justin Rowland, Jack Givens, and Sean Woods.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody. Welcome into the Leech Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises for this very pleasant Thursday. Coming up today,
the Ghost will be with us Jack Evans justin rolling
from Cats Illustrated regular Thursday guests. And we'll also chat
with Sean Woods, the new boys basketball coach at Scott

(00:22):
County High School, so the unforgettable point guard. He will
be back into the coaching ranks. So happy for Sean.
We'll talk to him about that job. Wild Cat News
of the Day a service of Guseeppes of Lexington. It's
Draft night in the NFL and it will play out

(00:43):
at legendary lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, because they
have started moving the draft around to different cities and stadiums.
And The Today Show did their draft preview this morning
and Maxwell Harriston was prominently featured. They had clips from
an interview he did with a friend of the show,

(01:04):
Kaylee Hartung. Showed his running at the combine that got
him generating a lot of buzz with the speed that
he showed. There had a clip of him running back
an interception for a touchdown down at Vandy a couple
of years ago. So happy, how well, this is turning

(01:24):
out for Max. He's going to be in the green
room and will likely hear his name called in the
first round of the draft, So wish him nothing but
the best tonight and beyond. The judge in the House
settlement case wants to make sure current players don't lose
scholarships that they currently have, and so she suggested to

(01:48):
the attorneys yesterday that those athletes are not grandfathered in.
She's not going to approve the settlement that college administrators
hope will give them the much discussed guardrails for NIL.
So this is still in motion. There was some thought
that it would have been decided by now, but I

(02:13):
think they have a couple of weeks to respond. I
would assume they'll find a way to make that work.
But this is what will provide the schools an opportunity
to have some degree of structure, supposedly in what the
compensation looks like for athletes, and NIL would go back

(02:35):
to more true name, image and likeness deals and not
the pay for play. A couple of football notes, offensive
lineman Mark Dave Junior, who left the UK program he
has found his new home at Purdue, and Zuri Madison
and offensive lineman out at Arkansas has entered the portal.

(02:58):
Now what is interesting here is he played his high
school ball at Frederick Douglass in Lexington, So could Kentucky
be involved, baby, We'll see no names mentioned yet. This
is just breaking the last twelve hours, I guess, with
him going into the portal and Kentucky lost a few

(03:19):
offensive linemen to the portal of the spring, so we'll
see if he was a teammate. Kentucky got brawn from Arkansas,
so they were teammates, so we'll see if anything comes
of that. I don't think Kentucky was prominently featured in
his final list when he signed, but we'll see just
a name that is out there. Our Derby and Triple

(03:42):
Crown coverage this spring is presented by Clayborne farm and
doing the usual unusually well for more than a century
and journalism the Derby Favorite likely Derby favorite when they
draw for post positions on Saturday Night made his first
appearance at Churchill Downs yesterday after shipping in from his
home base in California. The Daily Racing forms Mike Welsh,

(04:04):
who tracks the horses through their morning workouts, said the
journalism had a routine, but I catching one and one
eighth mile gallop yesterday at the downs. He'll have, according
to his trainer, one timed workout before the derby. Probably
most of the workouts, I'm guessing are going to come

(04:26):
Saturday morning. That's usually when the busiest day is. Now
there's supposed to be some rain tomorrow and Kentucky, but
I think it supposed to supposedly will subside a could
be a good bit by Saturday morning. So we'll see
if that is indeed the busiest day or maybe it's
maybe it's Sunday. Just one horse derby horse work yesterday

(04:48):
and it was Sandman and it was just a kind
of a routine workout and nothing particularly good or bad
in terms of the time. Just a maintenance work, I think,
is how it was described. Links to the stories that
we talk about each day you can find those on
the bud Light bud Light Leach Report page that is
at Tom leachky dot com. Our opening segment of Wildcat

(05:10):
News each day is presented by Giuseppes of Lexington, who
told you about a colleague who took his parents out
to Giuseppes to celebrate an anniversary, actually anniversary at a
birthday at Giuseppes. It's a great place to do that
kind of thing. If you are coming into Lexington from
out of town and you're going to attend a UK

(05:30):
sporting event something like that, make plans to have a
meal at Giuseppes while you're here. You will love it.
It is just off Nicholasville Road outside Manor where you
can go to Juseppes Lexington dot com and see the
menu of outstanding items, a lot of it's locally sourced,
and then you can go to open table and make
your reservation for Giuseppes. John Wadsill join us. We come

(05:51):
right back. It is the Leach Report Radio Network and
we're presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises. Quarter past the
top of the hour. Our show comes to you each
day from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return refreshed and
refuel at Clark's and make sure you sign up for
their new loyalty rewards program at Clark's. Sean Woods on
the Club Blue INIL dot com hotline, You're back on

(06:15):
the sidelines, Coach, good to hear.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
No doubt about it. Tom, It's you know, it's a
great situation. You know, I've been in college for over
twenty five years, head coach for sixteen, and you know,
who would have thought I'd be a high school coach.
But man, you know, God has his way of putting
you in places where he thinks you should be. And

(06:39):
I've been out for two years, but this seems so
so natural that I'm highly looking forward to it and
excited about the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
Yeah, with the legendary and late Billy Hicks, Scott County
became one of the top programs in the state one
I think multiple state titles. So you go into a
program that it's got a lot of tradition.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
I do, I do, and that's the beauty of it.
You know, I called it the UK of Kentucky High
School Basketball. You know, rich in tradition. You know, the
community is thirsting for Scott kind of to be back.
You know, it's always been a basketball town and it shows.

(07:24):
You know, they build a new school and once the
legend left, you know, the other school took over and
won a state championship this year with a you know
what you call a big time talent in Malachi Marino
who's heading to the University Kentucky. So you know, there's
plenty of love for high school basketball there. Unfortunately, Scott

(07:47):
County hasn't been in the mix for about three, four
or five years, but they're hungry for it and I
feel it, and you know, it's a place where you
want to be around people who who thrive for excellence.
And I think it's a great ask for me. With
the administration there, we're all on the same page. And
it's not college, but it's close to it. And if

(08:07):
I was gonna take a high school job, this is
the one that I would take.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
So when Coach p came here to resurrect the Kentucky program,
he found Sean and Ritchie and John and Darren got
any of those.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
I hope, So I, you know, every time I go
into a new job time, I never asked about the
current players there. I just you know, I I I
you know, because you don't want to get any preconcy
notions and have any type of opinions. You know, you
want to be raw and uncut when you get in there,
and uh and just build from within. And and that's

(08:41):
my mentality. And and you know, I had an opportunity
because I did work for glack Cow TV all year
to have some type of familiarity. But you know, I
think we got enough to be competitive. But you know,
we're going to have to attract some players too, which
I think we will be with all the excitement going
on over there right now.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
You know, the styles of play filtered down from the
NBA to college to the high schools. And do you
now going back into coaching, do you see yourself coaching
stylistically any differently than you did before?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
No, I mean, you know, from a from a style standpoint, no,
it doesn't change from you know, how you coach young
people is different, you know what I mean. You know,
I sometimes you get guys that already made. You just
have guys that are you know, from a from a
life standpoint, you know, has some a little rough around
the edges and you got to, you know, deal with that.
But other than that, it's as pure as it can be.

(09:42):
And it's really who I am because by me coming
from coach p I'm I'm I'm really big on player
development and and and and life development. And you know,
because I do have great experience and you know, changing
young men's lives. You know, I've had to take some
guys that nobody else want it, but they were talented.
And I'm one of the few guys that really has

(10:03):
one hundred percent graduation rate. You know, all the things
that you hear about Sean Woods, people don't know that
every kid that's has gone through me from that to
the senior year has graduated. And that that's huge. And
that's who I've been, you know that. And I'm just
really excited to dwell into the Scott County community and

(10:24):
you know, I get to touch not only just the
high school kids, but the development of the middle school
and the elementary too. And you know, I think, you know,
as much success that I've had on the college ranks,
I think I could create even more of an impact,
become more of an impact, you know, at Scott County.
And that's that's one of the reasons why I'm really
looking forward to this situation.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
A lot of times, the key in you know, getting
a program built or rebuilt is kind of developing a pipeline,
isn't it. Kind of getting you know, the way you
want to play adopted by the middle school and younger exactly.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
And I'm a teacher, you know, and these kids are
are sponges and you're getting them at the most purest
form and you know, getting them out of bad habits.
I tell the story all the time that I used
to tell my players sometimes that I can't stand in
high school coaches and now on one because you know,
the times have change. You know, we're going to the
individual workouts. We're not teaching them fundamentals how to just

(11:21):
make a simple you know, entry into the post or
you know, jumping to the ball defensively. They just have
no clue on fundamentals. And now I get to teach
it at the purest form, and now we're really looking
forward to that more so than anything else.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Let me shift yours for a second and just get
a thought on I know you were able to see
some practices throughout the year on a regular basis. How'd
you like Kentucky basketball in the first year of the
Mark Pope era.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
I thought it was great. You know, at the beginning,
I was kind of suspect because from a defensive standpoint,
I didn't think they worked on defense as much. And
now you know, and you know, because I don't know
reason why, you know, his offense was so good, but
I think he realized once he got into the sec
gauntlet that you got to you gotta be tougher defensively

(12:10):
because you know that basketball is not gonna go in
all the time. And then to other people scout you too,
so you know you had to get become rugged. And
but as far as the results, you know, he he
he came in and did exactly what needed to be done.
He created an excitement. I thought he stayed the course.

(12:31):
You know, even when he get you know, guys got
hurt the trials and tribulations, you know, and and even
when they were hurt, they were still in games and
still won some big games. So I think the future
is bright.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Unfortunately that you got to change teams every single year.
That's the change in basketball, especially college basketball. But man,
he brought a roar that is unteachable. And then too,
I keep telling people, I thought he you know, struggle
lighting in a bottle, not with the talent that he
brought in. With the characters that he brought in. I

(13:05):
thought he brought in great character guys that really bought
in and was happy to be here. And that's the
thing that he you know, people saying, you know, looking
at the transfer a porter and they're saying, well, this
guy's not this This guy's not that. Mark's going to
bring in people that want to be here one two
that he can coach and can play his style of play.

(13:26):
And I think he's a great judge of that, and
that's the reason why he's going to continue to be
consistent more so than a lot of programs, because he's
not going to take anyone or any player that's going
to make him or this program uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, that's a great point, because you know, if you've
got the money, you can get players. But it's all
about getting the right players, not only just how they
fit into the way you want to play, but how
they fit into your culture exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
And that's what this is all about. You know, even
when I was up, you know, as a head of
college basketball coach, and I made my living on transfers,
but I just didn't take any transfer. I took transfers
that came from winning programs. I didn't take the guy
that averaged twenty five points all the time. I took
the guy that was a great piece that came from
winning programs and that was going to fit into, you know,

(14:15):
my culture. And I think Mark Pope is doing that
right now in this transfer portal.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Well, as I'm excited for you, I know you do
great things that Scott County. You got a lot to
work with in terms of the as you said, the
tradition and the facilities and all of that and the
fan support. So knock it out of the park, Sean.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Looking forward to a time. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Sean Woods joining us on the Club Blue nil dot
com hotline and the Club Blue is the official collective
partner of UK Athletics and they've teamed up with Bespoken
Spirits to craft a new release. It's a limited edition
Club Blue basketball bottle that has a bold weeded bourbon
whiskey inside. Fewer than eight hundred individually numbered bottles have

(15:00):
been produced, so it's not gonna last long. Pick one
up for yourself. It's a great collectible, great forgetting autographs.
The limited edition Club Blue basketball bottles are available now
at Liquor barn and stores across Kentucky. Every bottle sold
directly fuels the NIL efforts at UK. So get yours today,
We'll be right back with a goose Jack ebbans twenty

(15:20):
seven past the top of the hour on this Thursday.
We welcome in the Goose. Jack gibbings to the program
on the club blue anil dot com highline. Goose, thanks
you since you were last with us. The Cats picked
up another player, Denzel Aberdeen from the national champion Florida Gators.
So what was your reaction when you saw that news.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Well, I'm just totally impressed with what Mark's been able
to do in this transfer portal. Man, It's crazy that
he has been able to come up with so many
big name guys, I mean, so many guys that have
proven they can play, guys who uh I think still

(16:05):
want to accomplish more. I mean, it's it was, it
was wonderful to see that. Addition, we know what Florida
did and we know, uh, you know, how valuable he
was to them. So I'm I'm really really excited about
what Mark and his staff have been able to do.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
He is a guy that can give him some point
guard minutes when needed, and that was I thought a
nice pick up. Good defender two is what the scouting
report says on him.

Speaker 3 (16:36):
Yeah. Yeah, he brings uh, he brings a level of
toughness to the to the back court that uh, you know,
we certainly saw when we played uh played against him.
So yeah, he he brings a guy in you can
put on that point guard who can keep a guy
in front of you, not let him get going down.
He'll break you down and calls all kind of problems

(16:58):
for the rest of your defense. So and plus he
can shoot it, he can he can bring some offense
as well. So another one of those guys that could
be a very very valuable I mean, I'm a hugely
valuable piece to what Kentucky's gonna need. And I'm just again,

(17:18):
I'm just really excited to see these guys all get
together and see what Mark can do with them.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, is he kind of in it's it may be
finalized at the moment, or with Travis's decision that may
pick up one more. We don't know yet. But yeah,
this thought thought the other day is like, I mean,
when is it How long is it till we get
to November and get to see this team on the court.
So it does create an excitement. Jack Evans with us,
we're hitting the halfway point of the show, so we'll

(17:47):
take the break, come back, continue the conversation here in
just a moment. On the Leads Report Radio Network, presented
each and every day by Bob Kat Enterprise, those Jack
Evans joining us here on this Thursday day of the
Leach Reports and Goose we're talking about Denzel Aberdeen and
now Kentucky has a twelve man roster with Travis Perry's

(18:11):
decision to enter the Portal, I guess there's always a
chance somebody could return. But do we assume he is
moving on? And I know, like me, you wish him
well as he looks for a new college basketball home.
He's a nice young man and will be a good
college basketball player.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
He he was a really really good guy and boy
he worked hard, extremely hard, and with what Kentucky's done,
uh in the portal, I think he had to really
become serious with himself and his family and evaluate what
would be the best situation for him. And I think, Uh,

(18:51):
while I don't I would rather still see him here.
I do certainly understand his decision to look at some
other places. Somewhere he might be able to get more
playing time, play a more prominent role than he might
be able to get here in Kentucky in the next
couple of years. So looking I'm looking forward to seeing

(19:14):
where he ends up. And he's going to be a
great player, and uh it's unfortunate that he may not
be that great player here. Who knows, he may end
up coming back at some point. But uh, I did
not like necessarily the news when uh you know, news
travels far. IM just getting back from uh my vacation

(19:35):
in Europe and got back last night about midnight, and
I was I was hosting a group of Kentucky alumni
cruising down the uh rivieras of France and Italy, and
we spent a lot of time talking basketball and what's
happening with with Kentucky basketball. And uh, none of the

(20:00):
former Kentucky alone, none of those people were real happy
with that news, real pleased with it. But we talked
about it, and certainly I tried to make them understand Tom.
I'll say another thing they were talking about we spent
a lot of time talking about. There's probably sixteen eighteen

(20:21):
of us. We spent a lot of time talking about
was the nil and the money that's involved and the
money that Kentucky is reportedly paying out this year. And
I know you've talked a lot about that, You've heard
a lot about it. I heard about it. You know,
we were holding up the taking pictures holding up the

(20:44):
leaning tower of pizza, you know, and some guy from
not even with our group, but a Kentucky fan came
up and said, man, what's happening with all this money
Kentucky spending? And I'm like, listen, it's going to be
all right. I mean, Kentucky was in a situation where
they had to replace a lot of people in the lineup.

(21:06):
I mean, you know, you're talking about trying to replace
seven people and keeping the ones we have and all
of this, and I said, sometimes, you know, you you
you have to be the Yankees man. You have to
pay the most money to get what you want. And now,
I mean I don't think that's going to be the
case every year, because hopefully we won't have to replace

(21:30):
that many people, but sometimes you have to spend a
little bit to get what you want. And that's what
Kentucky did this year. Nothing to you know, be concerned about.
They won't do it every year, but for now, I
just told them sometimes you have to spend a little bit,
and this was the year for that.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
It's classic Kentucky basketball story. Yeah, I mean, crazy man
all the way across in this scenery beautiful, Yeah, yeah,
it's great, But what about.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Exactly exactly that's exactly the way it was. That's a
good way to put it.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Well, it's great, and the Alumni Association has a lot
of those events and cruises and things they do throughout
the year, so it's it's a lot of fun to
be with fellow members of the BBN and something like that.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I mean we talked. I mean
we had dinners together, we toured together, and we'd come
into port here and there, and we'd sit together on
the buses and in the restaurants, and well, we we
never had a shortage of basketball conversation. And Tom, I'm

(22:47):
gonna throw this out there just for people to start
thinking about and we can all save our money together
and make it happen. But I'm trying to put together
with the Alumni Association of Cruise kind of celebrating our
fiftieth anniversary of our nineteen seventy eight championship team. And

(23:08):
we'll have probably four or five of the former players,
you know, guys like Macie and Jay Schidler and James Lee.
If I can make him get on get on a
flight for eight hours to get where we're going. And
Roby will have a lot of those guys on this cruise,
and it just I think, and you got to get

(23:31):
in line because everybody on the trip said, we're going
to be there. Man, you better let us know we
want to be there. But but it'd be a great
time to get together. I haven't even I had a
initial discussion with UK and they are excited about the
hospital they're doing that. So in a couple of years
we'll be maybe able to put something like that together.

(23:54):
But you're right, they have a lot of great trips everywhere,
from Alaska to what he just did going up and
down Italy and France. It was really nice.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Just as you look at the overall roster, now, do
you think Mark has everything he needs to do what
he wants to do next season?

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Yeah, and and and and and plenty of pieces. I
mean every position thus far has been covered at least
once and and sometimes two or three times. Especially when
you have a guy like Trent Noah coming back who
can play three positions. He can play the two, the three,

(24:36):
and the and the power forward four spot. He can
play all of those. A lot of versatility on this
team when you look at some of these guys, and
I'm really exciting excited to see h. James Quinni's play
uh and be a part of it at six nine,
six ten fifty Uh. You know, players like that are exciting, man.

(24:59):
And you just look at it and you think, and
this could be really really special.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Indeed, looking forward to it. Goose, Thank you much, Thank you, Tom.
That's the ghost Jack Gibbings. And Father's Day's not too
far away. So if you haven't picked up his book
they call me Goose that he did with Doug Brounk.
Be a great Father's Day gift for the special dad
in your life. We are coming up on a break
here at twenty or nineteen before the top of the hour.

(25:28):
It's the Leach Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises. And it's
not just Wildcat Country in Kentucky, it's also Bobcat Country
called Bobcat. When you need to buy or ran a
piece of heavy equipment for job tractors, loaders, excavators, forklifts,
et cetera, they have it and they'll give you great
service after the sale as well at Bobcat Enterprises for

(25:48):
locations in Kentucky. We'll be right back. It's the late
report and we go to the club Blue nil dot
com hotline and bring on Justin Rowland from Cat's Illustrated
on the Rivals Network at Roland Rivals on Twitter, just
to wan'ts your take on the roster that Kentucky has

(26:09):
excuse me and the cough. The roster Kentucky's put together
for year two of the Mark Pope era.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
I mean, it certainly looks like he checked a lot
of the boxes they didn't have last year. Like you
go through that SEC schedule against that conference, and it's
not a surprise that he came to believe that you
need length and athleticism in addition to the shooting that
you already have in spades. And so you just think
about some of the guys he stacked the team with,
Cam Williamstivadi just down the list, they're gonna they're gonna

(26:39):
look a lot longer, a lot more athletic, a lot
more like a two way balanced team than some of
the very very best teams in the SEC were last season.
The question is how much are you giving in terms
of shooting and maybe a couple other areas, how much
of a leap to a couple of guys make Brandy
Garrison and a couple others. But they got a lot
of guys that do things didn't have last year.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
And you know, with respect to the shooting, I think
look at the guys on this first team that he
had that made significant improvement in numbers. Lamont Butler, his
best season shooting the three was thirty three percent until
he got here and shot thirty nine percent. His best

(27:22):
season shooting twos was this is according to Kenpalm dot
com forty eight percent at San Diego State shot fifty
five percent last season. You know, similar numbers for otega
Oway as well in his improvement offensively. Those are just
a couple of examples. We saw Chandler get significantly better

(27:43):
over the course of the season. So you know, guys
that if Eberdeen's you know, say a thirty five percent
shooter from three in Florida, maybe he gets to thirty
eight or thirty nine with this offense.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, not everybody's going to take a step forward. But
I even ran the roster through some AI takes and
simulations and they all they all pointed out that Mark
Pope's offense and system will probably maximize the shooting ability
of most of the guys on the roster, there's gonna
be a one off here there. But now last year
seemed to reaffirm that. So yeah, I think I think

(28:15):
the system will make a guy like low from Pitt
a lot, a lot more. I got a lot more efficient.
I think last year he kind of had to do
a lot on his own and that definitely cut into
his efficiency. Everything we saw from Pope's offense this year
was like, even if you're down a point guard, there
are other ways to attack a defense. Now, they might
not have quite as much passing from uh some of

(28:38):
the bigs without Amari and some of the guys they
brought in maybe not known quite as much for their passing,
but they're gonna have more ball handling and they should
have a little bit more shot creation as well.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, that's a good point. Amari was an exceptional passer.
So and that's the thing in the transfer portal, you know,
it's it's a give and get and relative to budget.
I was saying this earlier. You look the last two
guys they were pursuing, They missed on Wilkerson and then
end up Aberdeen jumps into the portal and they get him,

(29:08):
and they have different skill sets but ended up at
about the you know, the same price reportedly, and so
that's kind of how you have to manage it like
teams do in professional sports. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
I guess if I had one question about this team,
the depth is it looks outstanding and the complimentary parts
look impressive, and there's no reason not to believe that
Pope is and he exudes competence, so you and some
instinctive trust that he knows what he's doing and he's
going to get a pointed in the right direction. But

(29:42):
I mean, Florida won a national championship. They had a
guy like Aberdeen coming off the bench, but they also
had a Walter Clayton and Duke had a Cooper Flag
And I'm not sometimes we overplay the who's the go
to guy? Because Oway, for sure, at times last year
showed he could put the team on his back. Think
about eighteen points in a h in one game, what
he did against his former team a couple of times. Actually,

(30:06):
But do they have that one transcendent talent that on
these biggest stages is just trading blows with one of
the two or three other best players in the tch
I'm not sure. They quite have that, but some of
the parts could be could be better than the than
the whole.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
No I get, I get that, maybe O Way becomes
you know that guy. Uh the I would think possible,
But no, I understand the question shift of football. A
couple of pickups there. We'll start first with a running
back SETH McGowan from New Mexico State and saw at
Katzillustrated dot Com. You had the point that you thought

(30:45):
he checked about all the boxes that they needed for
an extra player at that position.

Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (30:52):
Yeah, he had the off field issue that led to
him leaving Oklahoma, but that was several years ago, and
it seems like you kind of turned things around and
the talent has never been a.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Question like that.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
You got to go all the way back to the
COVID season in twenty twenty. As a true freshman at Oklahoma,
he was an extremely impressive player at a seventy three
yard touchdown run. He was a very good pass catcher.
He was one of their leading rushers. And the highlights
they show a player who has breakaway speed, a guy

(31:24):
who's six one, two twenty, who's big, and then you
fast forward New Mexico stateium he's basically the same player.
He's a proven pass catcher, he's a guy who can
turn moderate gains into big games, and he's never carried
the ball a lot. So maybe he's still part of
a committee with Dabdell and ja Marion Wilcox, but I
think he definitely raises the floor of the room. It

(31:44):
was a question that room was a question before he
came in, and now I think you're a little bit
more hopeful about it.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
It seems to be a good compliment to a guy
like Dowvill from Nebraska, who's more of a power between
the tackles.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
Guy, right, yeah, yeah, and he's a more proven receiver
than Willcox. Will Cox is a guy that I think
you love having because if things click, if the switch
goes on, he could there could be a great payoff.
And there could be some games when he's just ripping
off chunk run after chunk run and making a big impact.
But do you really want.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
To count on that?

Speaker 4 (32:16):
So you surround him with other talented players in the
room to push him to make him compete throughout the season.
And you start talking about Jason Patterson, who there is
a little bit excited about during the spring and there's
four guys that could be a hot hand any given week.

Speaker 3 (32:29):
And that's not a bad situation.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I remember my old broadcast partner Jeff Edo, who spent
seventeen years in the NFL, talking about the mindset that
players in that league new is that you have to
win your job every day. And you know, I'm sure
if you're in the running back room Kentucky or Patterson
or Willcox, you weren't thrilled to maybe see him bring

(32:52):
in more competition to the room. Although it may you're
a one side happy if it can help your team,
but you know there's part of you that you know, thought, well, yeah,
that could be my role and now I've got to
you know, somebody else may have it, or I've got
to fight harder for it, et cetera. It's the thing
is that's especially in the times when money is involved,

(33:13):
that's something that is certainly that when your job every
day is more true than ever. The downside, though, is
they've talked about this before. You know, there's only thirty
one other teams to offer you a job in the NFL.
There's three hundred in college football.

Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
I means are hard, quick decisions guys are having to
make you think about when hardly Gilmore came back. I
mean that that really impacts somebody like Fred Berrier for instance. Like,
and I'm not singling him out because I've heard he's
living or anything, but like you just think about his place,
his remaining eligibility, how much time he's got left, what
order he where he's going to be in the pecking order,

(33:55):
where he's going to be in line to eat in
terms of the number of targets and whatnot. So these
are hard decisions for everybody, But I think the guys
in the receiver room and in the running back room
probably were communicated to or told that, yeah, I'm probably
going to be looking to have somebody.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Uh. Jalen Stone, the defensive lineman, ended up committing to Vandy.
That was kind of a surprise, wasn't it Was that
a nil thing?

Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, it must have been, because he was more linked
to Kentucky and Illinois and then Oklahoma came in there
at the end, and then he goes to Vanderbilt and
comes out committed committed to Vanderbilt. So closing nowadays on
a kid looks a little bit different than it used to.
Maybe a guy you thought was going to visit is
going to be a little less likely to visit, you know,
when dollars and cents are involved, and he's he's visiting

(34:41):
other places. But the big thing there was I had
heard that when Kentucky wanted to run the ball in
the spring, they were able to run the ball. And
that's a good sign for the offense, But what does
it mean.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
For the defense?

Speaker 4 (34:53):
And Stone was one of the three highest graded FCS
run defenders among interior defensive one at that level of play,
So it clearly looks like they're looking to beef up
the run defense. In a year when they got to
replace Dion Walker and Octavius Ox and Dine and Keyshan
Silver you get on the list, they need to beef

(35:15):
up that run defense to be uh, that's like number
one in the SEC. You gotta make it hard for
the opposing team to run. So I would expect they
to add somebody else.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
You can read the coverage of the Cats at Cats
Illustrated dot com for Justin and his team. Thank you
all right, thanks a lot, Tom, Justin Rowland joining us
on the club Bluenile dot com hotline, and we'll be
right back cornbreadhamp dot com. Go there and place your
first order right now and you'll get twenty percent off
if you put in the code Tom and check out.

(35:44):
Talking about all their products that they can help you with,
the sleep gummies if you have trouble falling asleep at night.
How about the just Basic Confused gummies that help take
the edge off a tough day or help you relax
on a warm spring weekend. Bombs and lotions for a joints.
They have it all at cornbreadhamp dot com. They're there
to help you start fresh and you can do that

(36:07):
right now with twenty percent off your first order if
you put in the code Tom at check out at
cornbreadhamp dot com. All of their products are made here
in Kentucky and contain the highest quality relief you can buy.
All the hemp is grown in Kentucky and all products
are third party lab tested for safety and purity at
cornbreadhamp dot com. UK softball beat Eastern last night five

(36:27):
to one, and congrats to Marquise Estel see a note
that he has signed on as the new assistant basketball
coach at Paris High School in my hometown and Quise
ought to be great working with their big men. One
of only six players at Kentucky history to have shot
sixty percent or better from the field, and of those six,

(36:47):
nobody took more shots. So congrats to Queesse and he'll
do well in that job. Shufflebean Coffee is the official
coffee of rupp Arena as well as the KFC Young
Center and several other Lexington restam It's a Kentucky based
company and they started with a commitment to be the best,
starting with the very best coffee beans. You can go

(37:07):
to shufflebeant us read more about it, that commitment to excellence,
and you can order some products while you're there. You
can get it through Amazon too, or pick them up
at a central Kentucky Myers store and put some hustle
in your shuffle with Shuffleban Coffee. Have a good day, everybody,