2025-06-19 LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Derek Terry, Jack Givens, and Justin Rowland.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everybody, welcome in. It's the Thursday edition of the
Leech Report, and we're gonna have the band back together today.
Goose is back with us this week, justin rolling back
from vacation, and then Derek Terry will lead us off
today from Batcats Central. A lot of news for Kentucky
baseball and a very optimistic coach, Nick Bengeon. I saw

(00:24):
an interview on BBN tonight, so we'll talk Kentucky baseball
and the acquisitions through the transfer portal for the Wildcats.
All that caught up today here on the Leech Report,
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Let us get to the Wildcat
news of the day. That is a service always of
giuseppees of Lexington. NBA Finals Game six tonight, it'll be

(00:50):
a Gambridgefield House in Indianapolis with OKC trying to close
out the Pacers. I saw one of the stories on
ESPN somebody mentioned the trophy will be in the building.
I think it's the Larry O'Brien Trophy will be in
the building tonight in case OKASE closes it out. I
kind of think it'll go back to Oklahoma City for

(01:11):
a seventh game, which would be Sunday night. I've enjoyed
watching the series. I don't think the last I saw anyway,
the ratings have been that great, but it is been
really good basketball, and you're going to have somebody that's
used to play at the University of Kentucky win a championship.
Ring I mentioned yesterday right at the end of the show.

(01:33):
It was a note about Tayshaun Prince making the Olympic
team and you got a gold medal, got a couple
I think anyway, Anthony Davis won one recently, Bam and Booker.
But anyway, I mentioned that Shay could be something about
maybe the next Wildcat to win a gold and while

(01:55):
we would be happy for Shay if he did that,
we really don't root for that. Somebody pointed out to
me because he would be playing for the Canadian team
in the Olympics. So that's what happens when you throw
something out off script right at the end of the show,
because you have no shot to correct it unless you
come up with it real quickly, and so I think

(02:16):
it was Phil, one of the listeners was the first
one to point that out. So it happens sometimes. Football
picked up another commit yesterday Deuce Austin, a running back
from Alabama three stars, six feet two hundred pounds, had visits,
had taken visits to Minnesota, South Florida, and Memphis at
six commits in the last nine days for Kentucky football,

(02:39):
and then the watch continues for the quarterback, a four
star quarterback from Cincinnati Moler. He's doing well from everything
I read out at the Elite eleven camps, so I
wouldn't imagine that there'd be any commitment announcement coming until
that is over. But I think I mentioned yesterday a
friend of the show, Adam Luckett from on three Sports KSR.

(03:01):
He's predicted that Kentucky will land the QB, which would
significantly boost the recruiting rankings for this next Kentucky class
men's basketball Kentucky's home and home schedule for conference opponents
was announced yesterday. The Wildcats always play home and homes

(03:23):
with Tennessee, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. Last year, the third one
that rotated in was Alabama home and home. This year,
it's going to be Florida, the defending national champs. That
seems quite natural that Kentucky would draw the Gators after
not playing them home and home. Last season, they had
that great game that started at eleven am in Rupp Arena.
How about the brutal road stretch for Kentucky. They've got

(03:46):
the Triple A schedule at Auburn, at Alabama, at Arkansas,
and so that's a pretty I don't necessarily know that
those are not going to be in succession, but those
are gonna be three of the tougher spots next season.
So you can check that out at UK Athletics dot

(04:07):
com if you want to see the full list of
the homes and the aways. And sometime probably it usually
seems sometime around in August, we'll get the full schedule
with the dates and then a little later the times
for the upcoming much anticipated second season for Bark Pope's
Kentucky Wildcats. Links to the stories that we talk about
each day, you can find those on the Bud Light

(04:28):
Leach Report page at Tom leach ky dot com. We're
gonna come back chat with Derek Terry about Kentucky baseball.
Opening segment of the show always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington,
and they want you to know that a lot of
the ingredients for their sides, salads and things are come
from local farms, locally sourced products that they're using. It's

(04:52):
a fantastic menu at Juseppes. You can go to Giuseppes
Lexington check it out and then make a reservation through
open Table to get to Giuseppes for really special special meal.
Sit in the lounge area if you haven't done that,
and you'll enjoy Dave Hall's live jazz music to a company.
A fantastic dining experience at Jiuseepies. We'll be right back

(05:13):
on the Leech Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises quarter past
the top of the hour. Leachs Report coming to here
from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio with a new loyalty
rewards program that could get you discounts on frequent phillips
and items in their stores. You can check that out
if you have the Clarks app, get signed up and return,

(05:33):
Refresh and refuel at Clark's. Derek Terry joining us now
from Batcats Central and the Kentucky baseball team has been
quite busy since the season came to an end with
a loss to West Virginia and Derek rather than go
through all the different transfers, they brought in let's just

(05:54):
talk in general first about the class of new recruits
via the transfer portal for Nick Bengione and what you
think of it as a whole.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Well, a lot of right handed pictures. That's what everyone's
kind of talking about right now. They have nine commitments
at this point. I think they'll probably have a tenth
here pretty soon. But seven of these guys right handed pitchers,
and a couple of these guys are draft eligible, so
that'll be.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Something to watch.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Although at this point, Tom, I think only Kayden Ashman,
who is from Northern Kentucky University, actually their first commitment.
He committed back before the season was was even over.
If you remember, as a matter of fact, the last
time you and I talked, they had just played Northern
Kentucky in a midweek game. He had actually taken his
visit that week, right around the time that they were playing,
and committed.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
To the UK.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I'd say he's probably the top guy, but they've they've
committed so far out of the portal is the right
handed picture, but he'll be a tough one to maybe
get the campus. I think he wants to sign, and
if he gets that opportunity, I suspect that he'll go
to the MLB Draft, but position players, I think they've
done a pretty good job with both guys they've gotten
so far. Alex Duffy is a catcher from Elon. Wrote

(07:09):
a story about him on Saturday. Really good progression year
overy year. Offensively the kind of guy with a good
story too. I think someone who knew that he was
behind other players on the roster at Elon, guys who
are more experienced and probably better players quite frankly at
that time, and he took a red shirt year, got better,
and you know, ended up pitting two ninety seven as

(07:31):
a red shirt sophomore and then jumped up to the
high three forties last year. And then Tyler Serney from Indiana.
If you kind of think of this as a really
a trade off in terms of how it played out,
because Ethan Handle's back, Tyler Bell's back, and then of
course Luke Lawrence as well. If you think about it,
Sarnie's kind of a swap out for Kayascargatt, who I

(07:52):
think could be a pretty good player at his next
stop if he goes somewhere where he can play every day.
But you know, Sernie much more experienced, lots college at
bats played in the Big Ten at Indiana. I thought
they did a pretty good job upgrading that situation there.
So all in all, still has some work to do,
but I think that this is shaping up to be

(08:14):
pretty solid. But you never really know until the draft's
coming gone how it's gonna look.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
I know coach benji One was interviewed on BBN tonight,
I think with Maggie Davis, and he said, and he
with the qualifier, that they still had to get through
the draft, but he thought they could keep this group intact.
It could be I think he said something to the
effect of if somebody told him it was a top
ten roster, he wouldn't disagree. You think they have bolstered

(08:42):
their collection of talent to that degree.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm still trying to decide, I think, and I'll talk
about this more in the future. I think the good thing,
the number one thing that you look at, is the
floor has been raised for the program. You know, this year,
I thought good expectations were just to make the tournament,
and they did. They did just enough in the SEC
to get into the tournament. I would go ahead and

(09:10):
say already at this point that next season that's certainly
I mean, that's that won't be the expectation.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
The expectation should be.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Higher than that next year. This yearly should be a
no doubt tournament team regardless of you know, they could
lose several draft eligible guys here and I would still
feel that way. So I think you got to give
them credit for the core that they've retained. But until
I think, until I see the overall roster and watch
them a little bit more of this fall, I mean,
that's pretty lofty. You know, top ten, you're be going

(09:40):
into the season expecting to be Almahawk contenders, and I
think that's a good internal.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Expectation to have.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
But if they can get some of these guys to campus,
retain some guys in terms of you know the draft,
like you've got three or four you know, Jackson, Jelkin,
Ethan Walker, what were the two main ones on this
roster to watch for the draft? But then you know
they've got four high school commitments who are out at
them will be draft combined right now. So you know,
if you get some good breaks and get some of

(10:08):
these guys back, and they show up this fall and
they look like they could have a maybe not necessarily
a Tyler Bell impact, but Ryan Schwartz type impact where
midway through the season you feel comfortable putting them in
a game. Then yeah, I think they're gonna have a
lot of great depth positionally, a lot of versatility, and
you know they could be one of those better teams.
But at this point, I uh, I'm gonna hold off

(10:31):
a little bit on that. I kind of want to
see how it plays out here the next few weeks
and make a determination at that point.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Who's poised to make the biggest jump in the next
season after what they did this year that's already on
the team.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it's easy to go to
the young guys. I mean, Bell was fantastic, but I
think there's even more that he can unlock. You know,
he double digit homer but I think he could hit
you know, five or six more next season. You know,
seventeen doubles this year, so he was finding the gaps.
You know, if he can get a little bit more
power in there, then you could be talking about a

(11:11):
first team All SEC guy. I mean, I think that'll
probably be the expectations for him coming in. And then
Schwartz showed a lot. I mean, he was a. He
was a bigger cruit, but they got when he backed
out of his Texas commitment, and uh, you would you
would think he'll be playing a lot more next season,
have a lot more steady at bats. But I tell
you another guy too, and he's part of this group.

(11:32):
Nate Harris is one that I that I want to
see a little.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Bit more from.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
He He really held his own as a freshman, and
it's not easy to go in as a freshman in
the SEC. He worked his way into the week in
rotation and he really battled like he seemed like a grinder,
you know, more so than than any kind of refined pitcher,
which is not surprising as it was his first year
in the league. He needs to probably develop a little
bit more swing and miss, but he's the kind of

(11:57):
guy that if you're talking about the ceiling for a team,
if he makes strides, then I mean, this is a
guy who can run it up to ninety six if
he can get some better secondary stuff. That's a legitimate
Friday night guy. But you feel good running out there
every night. He did a good job this year. I
think his opponent's batting average was like two thirty four,
so he didn't get hit around the time, but you know,
some of his outings weren't too deep because you know,

(12:18):
he had kind of had to go through a lot
of pitches to get some outs. Just really kind of
had to work hard some of those starts. So if
he can tune things up a little bit better. I mean,
he was great against Clemson, really good against South Carolina too.
I guess he likes throwing against those teams in the
Palmetto State. But he would be one that you know,
the potentials really threw the roof with him. But you

(12:39):
want to see him take that jump from his freshman
to sophomore year because I think he got to feel
really good about ben Cleever. I mean, he just had
an excellent season and he could be somebody that gets
even better next season, and then they'll have a lot
of competition for that third spot. But you know, I
guess that that trio there of guys who just finished
their freshman year you really need. I think those guys

(13:00):
will continue to get better and if they do that,
then you're talking about potential Awe Conference guys, and that's
what you're gonna need if you're going to be a
top ten team in the country.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Derek, appreciate the time. As always, Where can folks find
your work?

Speaker 2 (13:16):
You can go to backcat central dot com if you're
interested in it. You can type in your email and
every story gets sent directly to your inbox. And on
the website, I've got a roster tracker going that's been
pretty popular and my most clicked on page it looks like,
so it's an easy way to follow the team. I
got some information on high score recruiting and right now
just a lot of transfer portal stuff, but soon I'll

(13:38):
be transitioning. Actually today I'll be riding a little bit longer,
big picture look at the team. So anything you want
to find is that backcat Central dot com.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Derek, thank you much. All right, thanks Tom. That is
Derek Terry joining us here on the Leech Report presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. Going to take a break and the
Goose is in the on deck circle we come back,
So I stix past the top of the hour on
the Leach Report as we welcome in the Goose, Jack
Gibbons from the UK Sports Network and the UK Athletics

(14:11):
Hall of Fame and Goose. How's the golf game these days?

Speaker 4 (14:16):
Well? You know what, Tom, I'm I'm hitting the ball
halfway decent. I mean, it looks like I know a
little bit about what I'm doing, man, But it's one
of those one of those targets, man, you just keep
shooting for you haven't hit it yet, but you get
close and sometimes that's good enough. And with golf close
it's good enough.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yes, it's can be. I was looking through some pictures
and clean up some pictures on the phone and came
across the one of you and you and me and
Tom Hart down in the Bahamas a few years back. Oh. Man,
that was a beautiful course.

Speaker 4 (14:52):
That was a beautiful course and a really really fun
day Tom. Tom is a great guy, and we laughed
a lot, as you remember, and we made a few
good shots and a whole lot of tough shots on
that course.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yes, very much so. Speaking of tough practices have started
for Kentucky basketball to the degree that they can work
out with them per rules. But one of the big
points of offensis certainly seems to be right here at
the start, conditioning. And I thought it'd be fun to
talk a little bit before we get into these guys

(15:29):
about what it was like for you guys because when
you came to UK as a as a freshman, you know,
Coach Hall was just descending to the head coaching position
shortly before that, and he implemented a much different conditioning program.
What was what was this kind of year? What was

(15:49):
conditioning like or leading up to the season for you guys.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
And yeah, by the way, I will say, I haven't
been over yet to watch because of the conditioning. And
I'm just afraid that if I go over and watch,
I'll be just watching them. I'll be using some of
those garbage cans that are positioned strategically, strategically positioned around

(16:16):
the gym right now, man, I mean, this conditioning stuff
is a has been a challenge, but they'll get there,
no question about it. As far as our training, tom
things are so different now. I mean we weren't allowed
to be under under coaches during the summer months. I

(16:40):
mean most of our conditioning during the summer just came
from us playing games every night. And while we played hard,
it's nothing like what it is today. And boy, I
would have given anything now that I'm older and looking back,

(17:01):
not during the time, but I would have been given
anything to be able to have been able to go
through some of the conditioning these guys are going through
and training, individual training, the weight lifting, you know, just dribbling,
drill work, all of the stuff they're going through. I
would love to have been able to go through that.

(17:22):
And we don't have a lot of time before a break,
but we come back. I'll talk a little bit about
what that conditioning program Coach Hall instilled and how different
it was than from what was happening in college ball,
and man, how tough it really was.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
We'll get to that. Will we come right back with
Jack And if you have not yet picked up your
copy they call me Goose, the book he did with
Doug Brunk. Good time to do that. If you've got
a birthday coming up for a Wildcat fan that you
haven't bought the gift yet, there you go, there's your suggestion.

(18:00):
More with Jack when we come right back on the
Leach Report. Second half of the Leach Report presented by
Bobcat Enterprises, and we're chatting with a Goose, Jack Givens,
and talk a little bit about the conditioning program that
is underway for Kentucky Ben's basketball and Goose. As we
were saying that Coach Hall really stepped it up in

(18:22):
that area, and nobody was really doing much, you know,
with weight training and some of the other things you
guys were doing at that time. Right. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
As a matter of fact, everyone back in my day
thought that the more you lifted weights, the worse you
would shoot the basketball. You know, the muscles that you
would put on in the upper body especially would make
it difficult to get touch on the shot and you

(18:55):
just wouldn't be able to shoot the ball with a
lot of muscle. Now, we didn't get like a lot
of the football players did. Although back in the day.
And you remember Pat Atchberry. We had. Pat was the
conditioning and weight training guy for the football team, and
he brought us in and he tried to make us

(19:16):
look like football players. And uh, you know, because we
did lift a lot of weight, but you know, you
weren't supposed to lift weights. But we we went into training.
We didn't start until probably October we were able to start,
and man, we we would start out at Memorial Coliseum.

(19:37):
We would run from Memorial Coliseum over to the track.
And this is three days a week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
and we'd go over to the track and we'd do
a series of some laps and then we'd do a
series of to twenty two hundred twenty yard dashes from
uh we'd start at about four and we'd work our

(19:59):
way up to probably fourteen, adding one another one each
time we'd get to the track and man, we could
do it. We'd run it. We'd walk across the field,
and by the time we'd get back across the field,
it was time for that unit to go again. And boy,

(20:19):
between those two twenties, on those days and then the
weight training after the two twenties, and then on Tuesdays
and Thursdays, they'd put us in the van and vans
and they'd take us out Old Richmond Road most of
the time out in the country, and we'd get out
there and if we try best to find out how

(20:42):
many miles we're gonna do. And we'd get out there
and the managers and trainers would scream at us, get out,
get out of the van, and we'd say, man, don't
put us out here in the country, man, these low
roads and cars covered over hills. Get out. So we'd
get out and we just have to follow the van.
And who knows how how long we ran, how far

(21:05):
we ran, but there would be some days we'd run
six seven miles out there in the country. But that
was our training program and everyone else in the country
thought we were crazy when they heard about it. But
what happened was we transformed our bodies, we transformed our minds,
and we became we became the most physical and the

(21:30):
most in shape team in the country and that kind
of set a precedent for other teams to start following,
and Coach Hall was the first to bring that in
and it paid off. But again, Tom, it's so so
different than what they do now.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I mean now, I mean you guys, I'm sure probably
didn't do much with nutrition then, if any anything, And
that's a big part of it now too.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you a pretty good story about
what we did with nutrition, Okay. Mike Phillips, Truman Klayter
and Jay Schidler and Tim Stevens I think had missed
a couple of classes so they had to get up.
If you miss classes, you would get up at six

(22:17):
in the morning, well you would get up early in
that but they would take you out in the country
at six and they would make you run back. Now,
Mike Phillips, he was a senior. These other guys were young.
Mike would always fall behind the rest of the runners.
So one day they started looking for Mike Phillips and

(22:38):
they couldn't find him, and they said, man, he can't
be that far behind us. There's no way he's that
far behind us. Well, they finally got back into town,
coming down Tace Creek Road, went through chevy Chase. There
used to be a donut shop down there in chevy Chase.
So when they get to that donut shop, here comes

(23:01):
Mike Phillips out of the donuts shot with a bag
of doughnuts, and he falls in behind them as though
he's been running all this way. He hits Tike the
ride in and and got donuts for him, and they
and he finished up with them back to the colisem
So that has a lot to tell you about what
our condition, our food nutrition life was about at that time.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's that's a veteran move there.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
That's a veteran move. These freshmen and sophomores, they're looking
back for Mike, thinking he fell over in a ditch somewhere,
and here's Mike. He got a ride and he comes
out of the donuts shot and shop and falls in
like he's run those five mouths.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
I would imagine for the current Cats it's going to be, uh,
maybe even more intense than last year because they came
together so late last year comparatively, and plus you've also
got now guys that have been through it that can,
you know, enlighten the newcomers about what it's going on.
And I would assume maybe or would it be correct

(24:04):
to assume that they'll even get more out of it
than they did in the first year.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah. Listen, there's no easy way to
get through this conditioning part. I mean, we come in
and we always think we're in great condition. We always
think we're in great condition. We've been running, we've been
lifting women, doing whatever we needed to do. But the
fact is, there's a difference when you're in the gym

(24:30):
by yourself, because you can stop, you can slow down,
you can do whatever, take a break whenever you want to.
There's a big difference between that and then doing it
because you have to do it because the coaches are
there with whistles and there is no stopping. So that
part of it, you're going to have to go through it. Now,

(24:51):
when it comes to the basketball, part of it. And
you have these veterans who have gone through Mark system before.
You know, I always have said I learned more about
how to play basketball from, uh, the guys like Kevin
Greevy who was older, who I had to match up against.

(25:11):
The other players, Jimmy Dan they used to they they
taught me more about how to play than the coaching
staff did because they've been through it and they know
what to expect. And that's the same way it's going
to be this year for some of the new guys.
You know, they'll they'll they'll go to Colin and they'll
they'll go to Trent and and Brandon. They'll go to

(25:34):
these guys and they'll be able to say, man, what
does he want here? What do I need to do?
And they'll be able to tell him, tell him about that.
And that's going to be a huge asset. That's gonna
be so valuable to these new guys coming in because
this year they have somebody to learn from who's kind
of gone through it as a player. And and I

(25:58):
can't wait to see how much better they're going to
be in a lot of areas like cutting to the basket,
you know, on how aggressively and how quick you have
to cut to the basket, penetrating and then dishing out.
Here's where I'm gonna be. Man, if you get it
to me here, Otego would tell them, if you get
it to me here, I'm gonna try to shoot it.
If you get it to me here, clear out, because

(26:20):
I'm going to the basket. So those kind of things
in those areas will be areas where you see them
really really improved.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Goose, thank you as always for the time.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Have a good day, Thanks so much, Tom, have a
good one.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
That is Jack Goose Skivens joining us here on the
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(26:53):
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(27:14):
Right back with Justin Roland on the Leach Report. It's
fourteen away from the top of the Hour. Leach Report
presented by Bobcat Enterprises with four locations around Kentucky. Google
Bobcat when you need to buy or rent a piece
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(27:36):
Back from what sounded like but was a great vacation
with one of your kids.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Tell us a little bit about Yeah, yeah, yeah, my
son Greg, he's my first smile is probably the hardest
on him. It was a great time a couple of
weeks out on the backcountry of New Mexico, hiking and
backpacking and getting away from civilization. He's on his way
to becoming an Eagle Scout and he's going to high
school this year. And be more proud of them. A
great bombing experience.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
And beautiful scenery, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Amazing, best views that I've seen in many years. Getting
I got up at the crack of dawn and can
climbed the tooth of time about nine thousand feet to
turn forty. Couldn't have couldn't have imagined a better way
to do it.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
A lot of fun. Never been to New Mexico. My
daughter has a friend that her parents lived there. She
was there and showed me some pictures and it just
looked gorgeous. So glad you got to do that with
your son. Let me talk a little bit about football
recruiting to start justin because it's been quite busy in

(28:38):
the last week and a half. I think six commitments
in nine days. As you look at the list, what
stands out to you about any of any of those
commitments or just as a whole, what they're getting done.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Well, they all seem like Power Conference quality players. You know,
whether they were the first up for the second option,
time will tell. But you know, we've seen classes when
maybe you get the second option and it works out
even better than the first. The twenty fifteen class with
Josh Allen and a lot of late editions comes to mind.
They didn't have a lot of de commitments this year.

(29:15):
That's not why the late start. They just got started late,
and I think there were a number of reasons for that.
You know, you don't know exactly what the nil is
going to look like. You're coming off the season with
maybe not as much momentum, but you know there's some
good signs. Cameron Miller, they beat out the N State
schools Indiana and Purdue for him right right off visits
to Indiana and Pdue. You get a tackle from Big

(29:36):
Ten country. I think that's a quality edition. Prince jan
is an athlete from the South, kind of a Swiss
Army knife, and he had a lot of other Power
Conference options. You know, some guys like receiver Davis McCrae
and running back they'll Shu Austin, Douce Austin. They don't
have as many Power Conference options, but there are still

(29:57):
other teams sniffing around Central Florida. Rutgers was right there
for or for Messiah until sent a safety that that
they got. The expectation was he was going to commit
to Rutgers, and they've had some moment over the past
couple of years, so you know they're finding their way
in the post Vince Tomorrow era. Recruiting goes right on,
but there's going to be a new dynamic that emerges.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
For sure, So I know you've written a little bit
about this on on your site about your take on
the Vince Barrows situation leaving for the rival, how that
all played out. Yeah, how does it impact recruiting moving forward?
What changes do you think or has it already changed?

Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah? I think I think it was already change. Like
the way that it was told to me is from
twenty fifteen to twenty twenty one, Marrow did pretty much
whatever she wanted to do, and that was for good
and for bad. But I think when Eddie Grand came
back around the time NIL started becoming a big deal
and Grand that position, a whole new recruiting infrastructure emerges,

(31:05):
and you know, there's a lot of staff turnover as
guys that they brought in more and more new assistance.
Over the years, the way that Bence did things kind
of started to change. And so these last couple of classes,
even his overall impact on the commitment list was not
especially strong. And you think about all the guys that
they lost from from the state of Kentucky this year

(31:27):
that are going to Louisville. Now, maybe it was time
for a change, time for an injection of new new
blood and new life. But yeah, you're you're just not
gonna see the huge numbers from Ohio that you saw.
That's the main impact that they were already starting to
spread the wealth and get guys from all over the
map to do Frank a little bit more position recruiting.

(31:47):
They're still going to do area recruiting, but there's going
to be I think a little bit more position recruiting
as you as you balance things out a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
What's uh, what do you think the thinking is behind that?

Speaker 3 (32:00):
I mean, I think ideally the position coach is always
going to have a lot of say in the guys
that are that are hypothetically going to be playing for them.
And it's complicated because there's so much that there's so
much turnover with position coaches. But ideally, your strongest case
to a kid is the area recruiter comes in and
introduces the position recruiter and the position recruiter that the
relationship kind of takes off and that's where it's really

(32:22):
strong and it carries right into their freshman year. So
I think I think there's been more of that as
opposed to in the past when it was more borrow
carrying a lot of weight. Even there was some hostility
to I don't want anybody else to come in and
mess this up, you know, So I think that approach
will be different, and I think stops will probably hope
that a better dynamic with maybe maybe more teamwork. These

(32:45):
are loaded words unintentionally, but more more teamwork within the
staff in the recruiting operation. It can be possible.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Back to the next class of recruits. The big fish
that they could possibly like and that would certainly boost
their rating is the quarterback from Moeler. Ponitowski well positioned there,
do you think.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
Yeah, Matt Ponatoski. It was Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama and Oregon,
and Kentucky was there in the spring before Alabama or
Oregon came along and he had a visit, and I've
heard at the time that they were close to being
able to lock him down. At the time that would
Alabama and Oregon offer promptly a step back and think
about things. But Alabama just flipped a quarterback from Iowa

(33:30):
State and under the Oregon is trying to get a
commitment from one of the top five players in the
nation at quarterback. So that leaves Kentucky and Arkansas frankly
and Kentucky's baseball program and football program have gone all
in on football, all in with making the two sport case,
and I think they're in the best spot. So that

(33:50):
would be if they're able to lock him down. That
would be one of the most talented high school quarterbacks
that they signed in the studierra.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
And there was a four star tight end that was
in town this week too.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah, Lincoln Watkins. That's right. Yeah, he's from Michigan and
he was close to committing to Florida. He was on
a visit at Florida earlier this month and Florida had
a couple of guys in and he wasn't quite ready
to commit, and the other guy committed, so he had
to look for other options and he went straight away
into Kentucky and uh six four, two hundred and thirty pounds.

(34:23):
He's not a flex, He's not just an inline guy.
He's a tight end who could execute the entire playbook
and rivals as him as a four star and he's
fresh off of visit at Kentucky. I think I think
they're going to get him. I think he's he's probably
Kentucky bound. I haven't I haven't heard that the call
is made or that he's coming in the near future.
But Derek Shay, the New Sight insch that would be

(34:43):
quite a start for him to get her highest rated
tight end in several classes.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Justin appreciate the time, and we will talk next week.

Speaker 3 (34:51):
Thanks a lot, Tom.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
You can read his coverage and his teams at Katzillustrated
dot com and follow Justin at Rowland Rivals on x
or Twitter if you prefer it's the lead's report. We'll
be right back back for our final segment of the show.
Our Wildcat history note is in nineteen eighty four, on
this day, Sam Boy was picked second overall in the

(35:17):
NBA draft behind a chiem Elijawan and you know the rest,
ahead of Michael Jordan. But Sam had a wonderful pro
career that would have been so much better had he
been able to be healthy. But it just that's his uh,
you know, his thing that he always has to hear

(35:38):
about is court. Of course, he wasn't the only one
that was picked ahead of Michael. And the road show
or history notes always presented by Kentucky Roadshow Sports Cards
and Memorabilia on Romney Road in Lexington and at Roadshow
Cards dot com. I saw a story that ESPN's Jabillis
was on a conference call talking about the NBA Draft

(36:00):
that's coming up next week, and Jay said that he
thinks Jackson Robinson could be a choice in the second round,
and the reason is how well he shoots the ball.
Kobe Brays most likely to be a second round pick,
and a lot of buzz for a Mariy Williams maybe
getting into the second round for his versatility. There was
a report from a Phoenix Suns reporter that said Jackson

(36:23):
Robinson was cleared last week for workouts and that's big
because he can get some individual workouts in ahead of
the draft. I went back and looked at his numbers,
and if you start with that game at Mississippi State
on January the eleventh, and remember that's when Mark Pope
told us after the game Jacks had the twenty seven
I think, and Coach Pope's talked about how Jackson came

(36:45):
to him and just talked about, you know, it's going
to clear his mind and really, you know, just focus
on being in the moment. Well, over an eight game stretch,
he shot over fifty percent on threes, thirty three of
sixty five. He averaged almost seventeen points a game. He
had three games with twenty or more in that eighth
game stretch. That's the run he was on before he
got hurt and only played one other game after that.

(37:07):
That was just the half of the game out at Oklahoma.
So you know, imagine, you know how much better his
draft standing might be had he been able to finish
up that season given the trend that he was on.
And I saw note where Eric Bledsoe was arrested in California,
the former Wildcat facing and an allegation of domestic domestic

(37:28):
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week on the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises