July 8, 2025 • 38 mins
Tom talks with Larry Vaught, Jon Hale, and John Huang
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day everybody. I hope everybody's doing well. It is
the Tuesday edition of the Leech Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises,
and coming up today we will chat with Larry Vaught
to lead things off, John wag talking about the UK
sports and a new book that he has out, and
(00:22):
John Hale covers Kentucky football for the Lexington Herald Leader.
A little more on the commitment of Matt Ponatowski to
Kentucky football and baseball. Wild Cat News of the Day
has the service of giuseppees of Lexington and storing the
Cat's pause, says Ponatowski. According to their twenty four to
(00:43):
seven sports rankings, is the number two QB recruit of
the Mark Stoops era. Number one Drew Barker from Connor
High School up in northern Kentucky. And in fairness to Drew,
we never got to see his best and never got
to see him fully of because of injuries. He won
(01:04):
the starting job going into the twenty sixteen season, had
a tremendous first game, even in defeat, and then got
injured the next week, and then injured again the following week,
and that was the end of the line for Drew's
career at Kentucky, So I don't know how that one
would have turned out, as you have to give him
(01:26):
the benefit of the doubts. Number two's Matt Ponitowski, and
then number three's that's currently on the team, Cutter Bowley.
So those are the top three of the Stoops era,
so kind of all Kentucky recruits, two in state recruits,
and then Cincinnati's right there across the river. Ponaitowski of
(01:47):
course set to play baseball as well, unless he takes
the money from Major League Baseball and goes straight to
professional baseball any exit. Gaby Pointy esta he could actually
do do that and still play college football, so that's
a possibility. He in his message on a Hoski said
(02:08):
playing tots he's playing too sports because he loves to compete,
and he said, quote BBN, I'm here to keep Kentucky
on the map. So sure sounds like a guy from
everything he has said that is more inclined to be
playing college sports than going straight to major League baseball,
But still have to see how that plays out. CBS's
(02:32):
Matt Norlander has a story out making the case against
expansion of the NCAA tournament, and he notes that the
vote to do that or not do it should come
by the end of this week. So I guess is
they'll expand it to some level, but we'll see by
the end of the week. And then thirteen Cats former
(02:54):
Cats are playing in the NBA Summer League. Justin Edwards
has already started with the Sixers playing tonight, but the
Summer League really ramps up on Thursday. Jackson Robinson is
on the list with Cleveland, so UH don't know if
he'll be you know, how much he'll be able to go.
Hopefully he's full go, because the better he looks to
(03:14):
the obviously, the better chance he'll have to to make
the roster in Cleveland. I think he'll eventually be a
veteran NBA guy, but you know, we'll see how the
injury affects him as far as doing year one. If
you know, we're to really look good in this event,
that certainly enhances his chances. And then a couple of
(03:37):
former Cats that were recently waived by their teams are
still being allowed to participate with them in the Summer League.
It's Antonio Reeves with New Orleans and Chris Livingston with
the Bucks. So hopefully both of them get to catch
the attention of somebody to offer them a contract. Reeves
(03:57):
in particular, finish the season strong with the Pelicans, So
I would think he's I would think he's got a
really good chance. Chris might be a little more of
a long shot, but hopefully they both land somewhere. Links
to the stories that we talk about you can find
those on the bud Light Leach Report page at Tom
Leitchky dot com. Our opening segment's always presented by Just
(04:20):
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out past man Or Boulevard, and if you take that
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going the little country road, you will find an oasis
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sourced items and it's a really neat atmosphere there. The
(04:44):
full time jazz music every evening and the if you
sit in the lounge area is a great special addition
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Just Sepies. So go to open table and make your reservation.
We'll be right back here. We're on the Leech Report
Radio Network for this Tuesday, Larry Valdell joined us. When
we return, we're presented by Bobcat Enterprises. It is the
(05:09):
Leach Report Radio Network and we want to excuse me
fight a little cof here tell you that we're coming
to you for the Clark's Pumping Shop Studio. Return, refresh
and refuel at Clark's and sign up for their loyalty
rewards program and you can get discounts on Phillips and
(05:30):
also items in their stores. Larry Vatt joins the program
from your sports Edge dot com, Voughtsviews dot com and Larry,
first of all, we can send a big shout out
to our buddy, great wildcatfan JD. Shelburn. You guys had
him on the Sunday morning sports talk show this past weekend.
(05:51):
He made it to the top of the mountain in
country music playing at the Grand Ole Opry. That was
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
He certainly did Saturday night. Got to make these grand debut,
sing a couple of songs, soak in the atmosphere and
make the lifetime memory. And I got a feeling it
won't be his lasttime with the Grand O Opera.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now, No, that's the thing. Once once you get on
the team, so to speak, it's easier to put you
in the game again.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Absolutely, and he really really enjoyed it and it was
nice to be able to let him kind of share
that experience with folks Sunday morning. Appreciated him jumping on
there with us after a night without a whole lot
of sleep for him, So it was good oven to
get up. But you're right, it's great honor for him
and certainly not a better or bigger UK fan than
j D. Shelburne anywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And we should mention there are a couple of opportunities
that you have to meet JD. He's on the cover
of I Guess. It's a cover. He's on the label
I Guess of a new bourbon brand from Inclusion Brands,
and he is going to be signing the bottles on
July tenth, which is this Thursday, at Liquor Barn at
(07:01):
the Beaumont Center location here in Lexington starting at five
Eastern time, and then he'll be at Etown on Sunday
at two eastern at the Liquor Barn on Dixie Highway
in Etown, So gonna be two hour visits at both locations,
and you can get the get your bourbon bottles signed
there personally by JD.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You sure can. And if that doesn't work out for you,
he's gonna be performing in dan Velowe August of seventh.
Just come on down, bring a bottle with you. I
bet he'll sign it for you then.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I bet he will. And he's actually gonna perform a
little bit at these two events as well. So put
that on your calendar for later this week. All right,
let's start with a little Kentucky football. New is Matt Ponatoski,
number two ranked recruit of the Mark Stoops era as
far as quarterbacks go, and it's the kind of the
(07:51):
culmination of a pretty good five six week stretch here
for Kentucky football and recruiting.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It has been. And the thing with man, I don't
know how he'll turn out to be, how good he'll
be or won't be. Certainly the indications are he'll be
pretty darn good. But just the buzz it kind of
gives to Kentucky football. I think they needed something time
to kind of create a little bit of excitement. And
I think getting a recruit like that who picks you
(08:19):
over the schools that he did ranked as high as
he did, is really good for this time here to
just create a little bit of buzz going into this season,
though he won't be here, and it's still a long
way to go to get him here because that Major
League draft. I know, he says he wants to come
to college, but I think he's frank as a top
twenty prospect in the nation, and so next summer that
(08:41):
Major League Draft comes up, there could be some anxious
moments for Mark Stoops and Nickman Jim.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and he you know, it says all the things
that I was saying earlier. Sounds like he wants to
play college sports, and I guess it's you know, it's
possible you could play for ftional baseball in college football,
but you know, the money is always can always change
your opinions.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, it sure can't. So, like I said, there's a
long way to go with him, But just to get
a player of that caliber to go ahead and commit
to you coming off a four to eight season, when
there's questions about the Mark Stove's future and everything at Kentucky,
to get him to commit, I think couldn't have been
a better shot of confidence for the whole UK football
(09:28):
program getting ready to start practice here pretty soon now.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, and when you lose the guy that was kind
of the face of your recruiting effort. It was a
one man operation, but Vince was the guy that certainly
was out there doing the most interviews and all of that,
even on signing days. Kind of had a prominent role
on those signing days. So that was a you know,
(09:52):
it's a good message to send it as this guy
from Ohio that Kentucky could still land talented players from Ohio.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, it's sure the first one they've gotten this recruiting class.
And I kind of since ever since Fence has left,
we have a little bit of a rejuvenated Mark Stoops
when it comes to recruiting it. He seems like he's
a little bit more involved than what he has been.
Here guys talking about talking with Stoops liking Stoops. It
wasn't always that way in the past few years. They
were talking more about Vince or a position coach or
(10:22):
a coordinator something like this. But you hear a lot
of mentions as Stoops right now. So I think it's
kind of maybe, I don't know if I want to
say a little fire under Mark when Vince left or
what but you just hear recruits certainly mentioning his name
a lot more prominently than they did before.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Well, Ponatowski talks about you know what, you know, he's
a intense competitor. That's why he's playing two sports. Mark
Stoops and the Stoop family have a pretty good reputation
for their competitive fire. I remember having Kirk Herb Street
on the show early on in the Stoops tenure, and
he talked about going up to a family a Stoops
(10:58):
family event they had every summer at his late mother's
house up in Youngstown, and they were playing bachi ball,
and Herbstreet talked about his wife rolled the ball and
actually got the toe of her shoe over the line
and they went nuts. And look, guys, this is just
(11:18):
a little fun in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Wow, Dune's private. I think that's when we see Mark
Stoops doing his best coaching, when that little when that
face gets a little red and that vein pops out
on that neck, and and I all like that. And
I got to feel with my see little bit more
of that this year than what we've seen the last
couple of years. So but all in all, I say,
just a good last couple of weeks for Kentucky recruiting Wine.
We had Cared Witherington on with us of defensive alivenment
(11:45):
out of Alabama who committed to Kentucky. You had a
lot of different choices for himself too, and they just
got a lot of guys that kind of reminded me
of kind of the kind of recruits that Rich Brooks
used to have that had good offers. Maybe not as
as many stars as some other players do, but good
offers a lot of potential to them. Now you get
(12:05):
them here and develop them and hopefully you got something special.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, that's the plan. And you know you've got to
you know, I think keep the momentum going. It's I
think it certainly is enhanced that momentum if you can
over achieve this season and so that you know, they're
not talking much as we've mentioned before, but they will
get a chance to do some talking come the last
(12:29):
weekend in August with the Toledo game and beyond, and
you know they're kind of going all in on, you know,
making their statements on the field this season, so they'll
get the chance. That's a great thing about sports.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, it is now to Mark left to do a
little bit of talking. Next week, lets you see media day.
So I'm anxious kind of see whether we get swaggy Mark,
whether we get really humble Mark, whether we get Mark
is not going to say too much, or what it's
going to be. I think kind of interesting to see
how he approaches media because he's on on the very
last day, so I think it's next Thursday that he'll
(13:04):
be on, so we'll get maybe a little bit better
insight on how he's feeling with what he says.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Why is that, Well, we'll see who he takes as players,
But you know, if you're wanting to kind of spread
out the narrative, so to speak, I think i'd take
the quarterback, and i'd take Shai as Pete.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, yeah, I would certainly take Shay As Like, I
don't know if I want my quarterback to have to
answer all the questions it's going to get thrown at
him or not. So it's always kind of interesting to
see who they take, or whether they'll take go more
on the defensive side, or what they will do because
usually I think it's announcement now who you are taking.
But I've not seen anything at all about it from
(13:45):
Kentucky about which players are going to take.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, I wonder if for people in the sports information world,
if their life's starting to be a little different where
you know, part of the challenge is get somebody to quote,
do media you know, players to come out. Well, now,
I would imagine there's a you know they're there. There's
a little more competition to get to do media stuff
because it could lead to a little cash.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, it's sure good. And like say, they that's a
good lot to be able to kind of create your
brand and spread your brand in front of that many
media people at the SEC Media Day because there's nowhere
else quite like quite like that. So I would think
we'll get the word in the next day or two.
I mean, I think if it was me, I might
take somebody like ty Bryant would be a good choice
(14:30):
as well. Hometown guad that's been been a starter for
you and all like that, who says all the right
things and it comes across so well. So we'll see
what they do.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I did a long interview with Tie that's going to
air Monday and starting off the vacation with a pre
recorded show kind of focusing on football on Monday, and
got a nice long interview with Tie. That's really good,
so Larry, thank you much for the time. As always.
All right, Tom, that is Larry Vague. You can read
them at your sports edge dot com. You're gonna hear
(15:01):
him with Anthony Why Jack Pilgrim bowl Robinson each week
every Sunday on the Sunday Morning sports talk show here
in Lexington that's presented by Stockyards Bank. We'll be right
back here on the Leech Report Radio Network. It's the
Leech Report Radio Network. We're presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises.
And joining us is doctor John Wong. He is a
(15:25):
columnist for the Nolan Media Group. Wang's Whinings is the
column and the new book, the Eighth from Doctor John
is Whining for Posterity and John tell me about this venture.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, it's exciting Tom. First of all, it's a little
bit different than all the other books that I've written.
You know, some of my previous books have been sports centric,
specifically the University of Kentucky and UK athletes. This one
was very difficult to ride because it is personal whining
for posterity. The title is a little bit of a
(16:05):
misnomer because yes, I complained throughout the whole thing. But
it's really not the complaints that we're focusing on. It
really is on the life lessons behind all these complaints.
I really thought about naming this book something like things
that I know now that I wish I had known
twenty years ago, because through life's experiences, through the season
(16:31):
of Hard Knocks, you learn so many things that you
want to be able to convey to your readers, to
your listeners, hopefully we can save them some heartache through
this book.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
You have been covering the UK sports scene and the
Bengals now for how long.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It's been about eight years. I've been through the good
and bad, and of course three years ago they took
me all the way to the Super Bowl, So who
can complain about that. That's been a super exciting run.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, and what do you think about this season?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Well, who knows. It all depends on whether Joe Burrow
can be the Joe Burrow that we hope that we're
paying him all this money for. But it's e siding
always now to actually be in the hunt. You know, beforehand,
all those years with the Bengals, you'd sit there, you'd
sit through those Marvin Lewis press conferences and it would
just be mediocrity, mediocrity, mediocrity. It would be good enough
(17:29):
just to make the playoffs. But nowadays there's really a
chance for them to once again make it all the
way to the Super Bowl. They got all their offensive
weapons intact. I'm excited for another run. I hope to
see you there one of these days.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
They play the Bears, am I two teams are the
Bengals and the Bears, so I may have to get
up there first weekend in November for Bengals Bears. We're
halfway home. On this edition of The Leads Report, we'll
take our heartbreak here at the bottom of the hour.
Come back with more from doctor joh Wong. It is
the Leads Report Radio Network. If your day starts with
a cup of coffee, make it shuffle Bean Coffee. It's
(18:05):
a company that's based here in Kentucky, so that's a
good reason to support them. But the best reason is
because of the quality of their product, and they monitor
that process of quality from seed to cup. This group
of Kentuckians, that's the plan they put in place from
day one, more than a decade ago. Starts with the
best coffee beans and it's part of the reason why
shuffle Being Coffee is the official coffee of rupp Arena
(18:27):
in the KFCM Center. So pick some up at a
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through shufflebean dot us, and put some hustle in your
shuffle with Shufflebean coffee. We're talking with doctor Jia Wang.
His new book is outlining for posterity and one hundred
percent of the proceeds are going to the Long Family
(18:47):
Scholarship Program. And John, let's talk a little Kentucky basketball.
You're getting a regular dose of Mark Pope's second team
through two players a week media sessions. What's your take
on what you're hearing so far?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I love it so far. I think one of the
major differences between this team and last year's team is
the additional athleticism that you see in some of these players,
and I think that's going to be manifested mainly on
the defensive side of the ball. When you hear these
guys talk, they're not talking about scoring and passing. They're
talking a lot about defense, about rim protection, about on
(19:28):
ball defense. I think that's going to be a huge
difference in terms of pursuing this What I think is
our ultimate goal, and that's championship number nine. I think
Jalen Lowe when he came out, I think he gave
one of the most impressive preseason introductory pressors that I've
ever seen. The guy was just so authentic. You know,
(19:51):
usually when you get these guys paraded out, they're kind
of nervous, they're self conscious. They probably have been fitted
with the script that they're supposed to throw out to
all the media members. He just didn't seem that way.
Everything he said was so realistic. He bantered with the
media people. He was very, very quick to make jokes.
(20:13):
And you know, me, as a former dentist Orthodonys, I
judge everyone by the quality of their smile. He had
this wonderful, wonderful smile that's going to speak volumes in
the future. I'm sure he's going to be a great
point guard. But anybody who smiles like that has to
be able to play ball. Also, I wonder.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Who's on the All Smile team for Kentucky basketball. Varius
Miller's got to be a contender.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Darius Miller up there, Tyrese Maxie, Oh yeah, Dominique Hawkins.
You know, he had that little gap between his incisors.
But still when he lit up, he really lit up.
But that's where I do know where I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, people might ask you questions about that. Speaking of
asking questions next week, SEC Football media Days, are you
heading down to Atlanta?
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I'm not. I'm a little bit too engrossed in this
art of self promotion with all these books, but I'd
love to be down there. I'm excited about this football season.
In fact, I'm not only am I excited. I think
I'm a little bit perturbed by the amount of apathy
and the negativity that's coming out the way you've listened
to all these these pundits, it seems like that Stoops
(21:22):
is already halfway out the door. They're already pushing him out,
aren't we time? You're my age. We've been following Kentucky
football a long time, and you know, we've been through
a lot of very very difficult times. We're talking about
the coach who is the winningest coach in Kentucky football history.
There haven't been too many high points that we're able
to talk about over the course of the past fifty years.
(21:44):
You know, as I rewind, I certainly think about Frank
Kersey and Derrick Ramsey art still those guys that year
they went ten and one in seventy seven, undefeated in
the SEC. I don't think that's ever going to happen again,
realistically speaking. Then you had Jerry Clayburn his successive Hall
(22:04):
of Fame runs. I thought Kentucky had turned the corner.
Don yet how Mommy and Tim cowch outback bowl, Rich
Brooks the year they upset LSU's number one. And then
Mark Stoukes those two out of three ten and one seasons.
We should be building a statue for him. Instead people
(22:25):
are saying he needs to go. I don't care what
the buyout is. Mark Stoukes deserves another chance. He deserves
a chance to turn this thing around. Call me crazy.
I know it's July. I know it's August, Hope Springs eternal,
but I think there are seven wins still possible on
this year seven and five. You heard it here July
(22:48):
what July eighth? Seven and five.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Optimism has been in short supply for sure. I heard
the Van Heiles on the Sunday Morning Show a couple
of weeks ago, and he is optimistic. The one thing
I have said, jud is that the same people that
were picking eight and nine wins last season are the
ones picking eight or nine losses this season. And if
they could be wrong one they could always be wrong
(23:12):
the other way.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, what I've learned over time is I'm usually wrong,
but occasionally occasionally you come through, and I'm hoping this
is one of those years. I know that schedule is daunting.
You look at it and you try to pick out
the wins. But on the other hand, it's probably not
quite as daunting as people are making it out to be.
(23:34):
You've got those three teams that you should win, what
Toledo and Eastern Michigan, Tennessee Tech. But then you've got
a couple of teams that traditionally are strong, but they're
they're questionable at quarterback teams like Tennessee and Auburn. Why
can't Kentucky upset one of those? I think one of
the keys is that second game of the season. If
(23:55):
you beat Old miss if you take them down, then
you're out of the gate at three and oher o
men and builds up. People start jumping on the bandwagon,
and before you know it, you can see those six, seven,
seven wins on there you end up with Bandy. I
know they're gonna be hard. Garcia's coming back, He's gonna
be tough. You're playing down there, but if you can't
(24:16):
beat Bandy, you know, why are you even playing playing
the game, And then of course the game at Louisville,
the ends of season rivalry game. Anything can happen. I
think there really is a path for them to win
seven games this year.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I was going through some old tapes over the holidays.
Found a box of old cassettes. I'm going through them
and trying to see if there's some interesting things in
there that could, you know, use on a show or something.
And it came across an interview I did with Frank Cursey,
and they had a two win season. He got off
to a good start, not to the level that coach
(24:50):
Stoops has done to this point, but his first couple
of years they nearly made a Bowl game when that
hadn't happened in over two decades. And then in year
three they won two games. They bounced back and had
their two best seasons. And he talked about his team
in seventy six that had to go down to Tennessee
and get a win to qualify for a Bowl game,
and he said, you know, they they weren't afraid of anybody.
(25:11):
They didn't think in terms of, well, you know, we
you know, might be able to win this one or whatever.
It was a mindset that that group of players had
that they weren't afraid of anybody or anything. And he said,
because if you are, then you're beat before you go
out there. So that's the challenge to harness that mindset
for this group. And we hear a lot about, you know,
(25:32):
how the culture has changed, sort of, the roster has
has changed, so we get to see here real soon
how it not a lot of words, actually, but how
the changes translate into performance.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And trends are so important too in regard to those
those changes in regard to performance, the fact that students
that still may be able to get these transfers, these
recruits even after vents left, I think that is huge.
This Ponitowsky signing is huge because, especially with Kentucky football,
(26:07):
it really is about where the program is heading. If
it's heading in the right direction, then all signs are
pointing upwards. People are happy. It matters more where the
program is heading rather than where it is. And before
before Vin's left, there was all this gloom and doom.
You know, we're heading downwards, wrong direction, slippery slope. But
(26:29):
nowadays it does look like that it's turning around, and
I'm hoping more people are going to be jumping on
the bandwagon. I know I'm blowing a lot of balloons
and sunshine, but really, with mark suits, you can't be
kicking them out of town. We should be building a
statue for the guy.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Well that that has been mentioned before. I don't know
that it's going to happen, you know, in the next
week or two, but if he gets things turned around,
we'll see. But again, I think he has put together
a group that again, all you can go from is
what you what you see on paper, what you hear
(27:08):
is I like the sound of the culture change, and
also like what I've heard about just cow kind of
had things have changed, and that they recognized some issues
that they needed to address, and so that without that
it was not going to change. So we'll see, right.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, absolutely, when it kind of reminds me when you
talk about culture. You mentioned Frank Cercy coming in, and
he evidently was a very interesting person. You know, I did.
I helped Derek Ramsey with his memoir, and he talked
(27:47):
about those two years back in seventy six and seventy
seven where they made that Peach Fowl run in seventy
six and then followed it up with that ten and
one season. And his one big, big regret is that,
you know, they had to choose after that Peach Bowl
year whether to go to the Peach Bowl or to
kind of leave it open for the next year for
(28:10):
them to maybe do something greater, and they chose to
go ahead and take a bird in the hand and
elected go to the Peach Bowl. They ended up accepting
the probation the year after, so they couldn't go to
any bowl game. But Derek still claims that's that's the
best team ever in University of Kentucky history. And if
you just crunch the numbers, when you just look at
(28:32):
what that team did on the road and the SEC
blowing through LSU, you know, knocking Georgia out with Prince
Charles in attendance, it's hard to argue. With his assessments.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Winding for prosterity, life, sports and other things worth complaining
about from doctor John Wong, thank you so for all
the time.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You're so welcome. Tom Yes, there's a lot to complain about.
There's something for everybody in this book.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Good luck with it. We're gonna get to a break
come back. John Hale will join us from the Lexington
Harold Leader. It's the Leach Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises
for locations around Kentucky. So google Bobcat when you need
to buy or rent heavy equipment. They've got it and
they will treat you so fantastically well after the deal
is initially done. Bobcat Enterprises, We'll be right back. Leach
(29:21):
Tripart comes to here from the Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel that Clark's John Hale joins us from
the Lexington Harold Leader, where he covers Kentucky football. And
it's been quite a good month of recruiting John to
build a little bullmentium back, with the culmination being the
commitment of Matt Ponattoski from up at Cincinnati Mohler, highly
(29:42):
ranked quarterback prospect. Do you have a guess as to
how strong the lure of professional baseball will be as
far as him being a college player.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
I mean, everything he said publicly seems to suggest that
he wants to just play both in college and go
from there. And so we've seen that kind of play
out both ways with players in similar situations. I mean, obviously,
a guy like Kyler Murray played both in college, was
first TRUMP pick in both sports. Russell Wilson played both
dating back many many years for Kentucky. You know, Shane
Boyd played both. But then on the other hand, we
(30:16):
saw Bubba Chandler, who was a four star quarterback commitment
for Clemson a couple of years ago from Georgia, got
drafted in the first round by the Pirates and just
signed to play baseball and never played football again. And
so I think it could go either way. I think
part of that's going to depend on how his senior
year plays out, obviously, and what his draft stock is
going into next summer. Still a long time between now
(30:36):
and that MLB draft, But from what he's saying publicly,
at least you know he wants to come to college
and play both of them and have the option to
pursue down the road if he needs to focus on
Wonder or maybe even you have the option to play
both professionally.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Tyler Bell for UK Baseball surprised a lot of people
when he chose the college route, even though he was
very highly rated and drafted prospect just baseball only. But
I just assume part of the thinking there is, you know,
the NIL component that it's it was either take the
(31:11):
money in professional baseball or you know, have to play
without anything like that as a college athlete. Now you
can earn really good money as a college athlete if
you're a highly rated quarterback. Could imagine the market value
is pretty good. So that has to help, right versus
the old days.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Yeah, absolutely, it definitely does. I mean it's it's a
completely different scenario these days. I mean because Tyler Bell,
I'm sure he got a great NIL package from the
baseball program. But let's be honest. I mean, whatever Matt
Planetoski getting football is going to be better than what
Tyler Bell got just for baseball last year. And so
if he's like a top fifty draft pick, you know
that MLB signing bonus is somewhere between one and two
(31:50):
million dollars. He could probably get that in more over
three years in terms of NIL and revenue sharing money
playing college football. So the money part of it should
be there for him to wait if he wants to wait,
it's just a question of risking injuries and whether you know,
I don't think he's really said publicly which sports his
favorite or what is his long term goals? Ar I
(32:11):
mean baseball. It obviously takes longer to get to the
to the major leagues, but if you get there and
you're really good, the money's actually a little better than
it is in the NFL. The injury risk in terms
of like CT and all that stuff is lower. So
maybe that's you know, playing on his mind. But then
Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray both in the same situation
and ultimately picked being an NFL quarterback. So I think
it could go either way at this point, but it
(32:32):
is definitely a real risk. I mean, on paper, you
can look at this and say they have this great
kind of succession plan at quarterback right now, but because
of the baseball stuff with him, you know, it could
all get blown up in a year from now.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Two we'll talk with John Hale from the Lexington Herald Leader.
He in terms of his his skill set as a quarterback,
anybody mentioned any comps.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Now, it's interesting because he has split so much time
between the two sports. You know, he's he's clearly probably
lost some developmental time for football that other quarterbacks his
age group have gotten. It was when he went to
the Elite eleven camp in June, all of the reviews
were glowing. I mean, he was not a guy coming
into it that was really expected to finish in that
top eleven, top twelve, whatever the final number on their
(33:19):
all star team is. And he was one of the
you know, the most accurate guys at the camp. So
accuracy seems to be a real strength. Watching his highlight reel,
it seems like he gets the ball out really quickly.
But you do wonder like if he did get to
a point where he said, Okay, I'm just going to
focus on football full time, how much better could he
even get from there? And so all of the skills
are there, all of the talent certainly to be a
(33:41):
great quarterback, it's just a matter of, you know what
that decision is it And you know, if we look
at Shane Boyd what he did at Kentucky when he
tried to play both sports, he kind of just barely
played baseball while he was here and focused on football
that spring football baseball overlap. That's a really important time
for a quarterback. So when it gets to the point
where he's a legitimate contender for this parting job, how
are they going to handle that? That that'll be you know,
(34:02):
fascinating to watch to both of the team and his
personal development too.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah. The one of our listeners, Steve, notes that Pookie
Jones played both, which is true. Uh, you know, and
uh Shane more recently, Uh had Jordan Anthony running track.
But you know he was not playing much when he
was doing that. He uh, he was just freshman football player.
(34:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Brian Adams, the wide receiver, played both baseball and football
a few years ago and then ultimately chose to focus
on baseball and gave up football.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
He was here, he had Ben Jordan, who was the
life ended so tragically soon. But uh, you know he
came from the baseball team over to basketball. Uh. But
as far as you know, guys playing you know, prominent
roles in both. One name myself is Vince Harrison, who
you know, was a you know, very much in the
(34:55):
rotation as a football wide receiver and then played you know,
it was a starter in baseball too.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah. I think about Loanell de Walt, I think was
on the basketball roster for at least a year and
then obviously had the great football season. He blocked all
those kicks, but he clearly didn't last very long Kentucky.
So they've had some guys who've done it. You know,
it's even if we're talking about Shane Boyd is the
kind of the last quarterback to do it. It's the
sports have changed so much since then. I don't know
how much we can take from those, but it's been done,
(35:25):
and it's been done at the high level at other
schools even more recently. You know, Russell Wilson, Kada Murray,
Jeff Samargia, guys like that played both sports in college
at a really high level. So it can be done,
and certainly he seems to have the talent to do
both of them at a really high level. And we'll
just see how it plays out. Yeah, well, I don't
know one Ail was ever actually on the roster. He
had a try he kind of had had a tryout,
(35:46):
and I think it went really well, but the decision
ultimately was to just just focus on football.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
But he blocked everything kicks, shots, followers, probably, so he
was quite an athletics specimen. John, Thank you for the
time as always, we'll catch up again after SEC Media
Days next week. Travel safe to Atlanta. Sounds good.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
Thanks for having me, Tom.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
That is John Hale from Kentucky Sports dot com and
the Lexington Herald Leader joining us here on the Leads
Report Radio Network. We'll be right back. Corn Bread Hemp
has their Prime Day sale kicking into gear today through
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for Rich Brooks may have been as good a blocker
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(37:40):
Again a reminder about JD. Shelburne signing his Inclusion Brand
bottles of bourbon at two stops this week. Thursday night
at five on the Beaumont Center Parkway location of Liquor
Barn here at Lexington and then on Sunday in Etown
at the Liquor Barn on North Dixie Highway starting at
(38:00):
two Eastern. He'll be performing at both places and signing
the bottles as well. So get out and meet JD
and the team at Inclusion Brands. That'll do it for us.
We'll see you tomorrow on the Leach Report
Good day everybody. I hope everybody's doing well. It is
the Tuesday edition of the Leech Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises,
and coming up today we will chat with Larry Vaught
to lead things off, John wag talking about the UK
sports and a new book that he has out, and
(00:22):
John Hale covers Kentucky football for the Lexington Herald Leader.
A little more on the commitment of Matt Ponatowski to
Kentucky football and baseball. Wild Cat News of the Day
has the service of giuseppees of Lexington and storing the
Cat's pause, says Ponatowski. According to their twenty four to
(00:43):
seven sports rankings, is the number two QB recruit of
the Mark Stoops era. Number one Drew Barker from Connor
High School up in northern Kentucky. And in fairness to Drew,
we never got to see his best and never got
to see him fully of because of injuries. He won
(01:04):
the starting job going into the twenty sixteen season, had
a tremendous first game, even in defeat, and then got
injured the next week, and then injured again the following week,
and that was the end of the line for Drew's
career at Kentucky, So I don't know how that one
would have turned out, as you have to give him
(01:26):
the benefit of the doubts. Number two's Matt Ponitowski, and
then number three's that's currently on the team, Cutter Bowley.
So those are the top three of the Stoops era,
so kind of all Kentucky recruits, two in state recruits,
and then Cincinnati's right there across the river. Ponaitowski of
(01:47):
course set to play baseball as well, unless he takes
the money from Major League Baseball and goes straight to
professional baseball any exit. Gaby Pointy esta he could actually
do do that and still play college football, so that's
a possibility. He in his message on a Hoski said
(02:08):
playing tots he's playing too sports because he loves to compete,
and he said, quote BBN, I'm here to keep Kentucky
on the map. So sure sounds like a guy from
everything he has said that is more inclined to be
playing college sports than going straight to major League baseball,
But still have to see how that plays out. CBS's
(02:32):
Matt Norlander has a story out making the case against
expansion of the NCAA tournament, and he notes that the
vote to do that or not do it should come
by the end of this week. So I guess is
they'll expand it to some level, but we'll see by
the end of the week. And then thirteen Cats former
(02:54):
Cats are playing in the NBA Summer League. Justin Edwards
has already started with the Sixers playing tonight, but the
Summer League really ramps up on Thursday. Jackson Robinson is
on the list with Cleveland, so UH don't know if
he'll be you know, how much he'll be able to go.
Hopefully he's full go, because the better he looks to
(03:14):
the obviously, the better chance he'll have to to make
the roster in Cleveland. I think he'll eventually be a
veteran NBA guy, but you know, we'll see how the
injury affects him as far as doing year one. If
you know, we're to really look good in this event,
that certainly enhances his chances. And then a couple of
(03:37):
former Cats that were recently waived by their teams are
still being allowed to participate with them in the Summer League.
It's Antonio Reeves with New Orleans and Chris Livingston with
the Bucks. So hopefully both of them get to catch
the attention of somebody to offer them a contract. Reeves
(03:57):
in particular, finish the season strong with the Pelicans, So
I would think he's I would think he's got a
really good chance. Chris might be a little more of
a long shot, but hopefully they both land somewhere. Links
to the stories that we talk about you can find
those on the bud Light Leach Report page at Tom
Leitchky dot com. Our opening segment's always presented by Just
(04:20):
Seppies of Lexington. They're just off Nicholasville Road here in Lexington,
out past man Or Boulevard, and if you take that
little left turn as you're heading out of Lexington and
going the little country road, you will find an oasis
of excellence. The food is fantastic, a lot of locally
sourced items and it's a really neat atmosphere there. The
(04:44):
full time jazz music every evening and the if you
sit in the lounge area is a great special addition
to a really unique evening out of fine dieting at
Just Sepies. So go to open table and make your reservation.
We'll be right back here. We're on the Leech Report
Radio Network for this Tuesday, Larry Valdell joined us. When
we return, we're presented by Bobcat Enterprises. It is the
(05:09):
Leach Report Radio Network and we want to excuse me
fight a little cof here tell you that we're coming
to you for the Clark's Pumping Shop Studio. Return, refresh
and refuel at Clark's and sign up for their loyalty
rewards program and you can get discounts on Phillips and
(05:30):
also items in their stores. Larry Vatt joins the program
from your sports Edge dot com, Voughtsviews dot com and Larry,
first of all, we can send a big shout out
to our buddy, great wildcatfan JD. Shelburn. You guys had
him on the Sunday morning sports talk show this past weekend.
(05:51):
He made it to the top of the mountain in
country music playing at the Grand Ole Opry. That was
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
He certainly did Saturday night. Got to make these grand debut,
sing a couple of songs, soak in the atmosphere and
make the lifetime memory. And I got a feeling it
won't be his lasttime with the Grand O Opera.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Now, No, that's the thing. Once once you get on
the team, so to speak, it's easier to put you
in the game again.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Absolutely, and he really really enjoyed it and it was
nice to be able to let him kind of share
that experience with folks Sunday morning. Appreciated him jumping on
there with us after a night without a whole lot
of sleep for him, So it was good oven to
get up. But you're right, it's great honor for him
and certainly not a better or bigger UK fan than
j D. Shelburne anywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And we should mention there are a couple of opportunities
that you have to meet JD. He's on the cover
of I Guess. It's a cover. He's on the label
I Guess of a new bourbon brand from Inclusion Brands,
and he is going to be signing the bottles on
July tenth, which is this Thursday, at Liquor Barn at
(07:01):
the Beaumont Center location here in Lexington starting at five
Eastern time, and then he'll be at Etown on Sunday
at two eastern at the Liquor Barn on Dixie Highway
in Etown, So gonna be two hour visits at both locations,
and you can get the get your bourbon bottles signed
there personally by JD.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
You sure can. And if that doesn't work out for you,
he's gonna be performing in dan Velowe August of seventh.
Just come on down, bring a bottle with you. I
bet he'll sign it for you then.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I bet he will. And he's actually gonna perform a
little bit at these two events as well. So put
that on your calendar for later this week. All right,
let's start with a little Kentucky football. New is Matt Ponatoski,
number two ranked recruit of the Mark Stoops era as
far as quarterbacks go, and it's the kind of the
(07:51):
culmination of a pretty good five six week stretch here
for Kentucky football and recruiting.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
It has been. And the thing with man, I don't
know how he'll turn out to be, how good he'll
be or won't be. Certainly the indications are he'll be
pretty darn good. But just the buzz it kind of
gives to Kentucky football. I think they needed something time
to kind of create a little bit of excitement. And
I think getting a recruit like that who picks you
(08:19):
over the schools that he did ranked as high as
he did, is really good for this time here to
just create a little bit of buzz going into this season,
though he won't be here, and it's still a long
way to go to get him here because that Major
League draft. I know, he says he wants to come
to college, but I think he's frank as a top
twenty prospect in the nation, and so next summer that
(08:41):
Major League Draft comes up, there could be some anxious
moments for Mark Stoops and Nickman Jim.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and he you know, it says all the things
that I was saying earlier. Sounds like he wants to
play college sports, and I guess it's you know, it's
possible you could play for ftional baseball in college football,
but you know, the money is always can always change
your opinions.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, it sure can't. So, like I said, there's a
long way to go with him, But just to get
a player of that caliber to go ahead and commit
to you coming off a four to eight season, when
there's questions about the Mark Stove's future and everything at Kentucky,
to get him to commit, I think couldn't have been
a better shot of confidence for the whole UK football
(09:28):
program getting ready to start practice here pretty soon now.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, and when you lose the guy that was kind
of the face of your recruiting effort. It was a
one man operation, but Vince was the guy that certainly
was out there doing the most interviews and all of that,
even on signing days. Kind of had a prominent role
on those signing days. So that was a you know,
(09:52):
it's a good message to send it as this guy
from Ohio that Kentucky could still land talented players from Ohio.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, it's sure the first one they've gotten this recruiting class.
And I kind of since ever since Fence has left,
we have a little bit of a rejuvenated Mark Stoops
when it comes to recruiting it. He seems like he's
a little bit more involved than what he has been.
Here guys talking about talking with Stoops liking Stoops. It
wasn't always that way in the past few years. They
were talking more about Vince or a position coach or
(10:22):
a coordinator something like this. But you hear a lot
of mentions as Stoops right now. So I think it's
kind of maybe, I don't know if I want to
say a little fire under Mark when Vince left or
what but you just hear recruits certainly mentioning his name
a lot more prominently than they did before.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Well, Ponatowski talks about you know what, you know, he's
a intense competitor. That's why he's playing two sports. Mark
Stoops and the Stoop family have a pretty good reputation
for their competitive fire. I remember having Kirk Herb Street
on the show early on in the Stoops tenure, and
he talked about going up to a family a Stoops
(10:58):
family event they had every summer at his late mother's
house up in Youngstown, and they were playing bachi ball,
and Herbstreet talked about his wife rolled the ball and
actually got the toe of her shoe over the line
and they went nuts. And look, guys, this is just
(11:18):
a little fun in the backyard.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Wow, Dune's private. I think that's when we see Mark
Stoops doing his best coaching, when that little when that
face gets a little red and that vein pops out
on that neck, and and I all like that. And
I got to feel with my see little bit more
of that this year than what we've seen the last
couple of years. So but all in all, I say,
just a good last couple of weeks for Kentucky recruiting Wine.
We had Cared Witherington on with us of defensive alivenment
(11:45):
out of Alabama who committed to Kentucky. You had a
lot of different choices for himself too, and they just
got a lot of guys that kind of reminded me
of kind of the kind of recruits that Rich Brooks
used to have that had good offers. Maybe not as
as many stars as some other players do, but good
offers a lot of potential to them. Now you get
(12:05):
them here and develop them and hopefully you got something special.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, that's the plan. And you know you've got to
you know, I think keep the momentum going. It's I
think it certainly is enhanced that momentum if you can
over achieve this season and so that you know, they're
not talking much as we've mentioned before, but they will
get a chance to do some talking come the last
(12:29):
weekend in August with the Toledo game and beyond, and
you know they're kind of going all in on, you know,
making their statements on the field this season, so they'll
get the chance. That's a great thing about sports.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, it is now to Mark left to do a
little bit of talking. Next week, lets you see media day.
So I'm anxious kind of see whether we get swaggy Mark,
whether we get really humble Mark, whether we get Mark
is not going to say too much, or what it's
going to be. I think kind of interesting to see
how he approaches media because he's on on the very
last day, so I think it's next Thursday that he'll
(13:04):
be on, so we'll get maybe a little bit better
insight on how he's feeling with what he says.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Why is that, Well, we'll see who he takes as players,
But you know, if you're wanting to kind of spread
out the narrative, so to speak, I think i'd take
the quarterback, and i'd take Shai as Pete.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, yeah, I would certainly take Shay As Like, I
don't know if I want my quarterback to have to
answer all the questions it's going to get thrown at
him or not. So it's always kind of interesting to
see who they take, or whether they'll take go more
on the defensive side, or what they will do because
usually I think it's announcement now who you are taking.
But I've not seen anything at all about it from
(13:45):
Kentucky about which players are going to take.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Yeah, I wonder if for people in the sports information world,
if their life's starting to be a little different where
you know, part of the challenge is get somebody to quote,
do media you know, players to come out. Well, now,
I would imagine there's a you know they're there. There's
a little more competition to get to do media stuff
because it could lead to a little cash.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, it's sure good. And like say, they that's a
good lot to be able to kind of create your
brand and spread your brand in front of that many
media people at the SEC Media Day because there's nowhere
else quite like quite like that. So I would think
we'll get the word in the next day or two.
I mean, I think if it was me, I might
take somebody like ty Bryant would be a good choice
(14:30):
as well. Hometown guad that's been been a starter for
you and all like that, who says all the right
things and it comes across so well. So we'll see
what they do.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I did a long interview with Tie that's going to
air Monday and starting off the vacation with a pre
recorded show kind of focusing on football on Monday, and
got a nice long interview with Tie. That's really good,
so Larry, thank you much for the time. As always.
All right, Tom, that is Larry Vague. You can read
them at your sports edge dot com. You're gonna hear
(15:01):
him with Anthony Why Jack Pilgrim bowl Robinson each week
every Sunday on the Sunday Morning sports talk show here
in Lexington that's presented by Stockyards Bank. We'll be right
back here on the Leech Report Radio Network. It's the
Leech Report Radio Network. We're presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises.
And joining us is doctor John Wong. He is a
(15:25):
columnist for the Nolan Media Group. Wang's Whinings is the
column and the new book, the Eighth from Doctor John
is Whining for Posterity and John tell me about this venture.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, it's exciting Tom. First of all, it's a little
bit different than all the other books that I've written.
You know, some of my previous books have been sports centric,
specifically the University of Kentucky and UK athletes. This one
was very difficult to ride because it is personal whining
for posterity. The title is a little bit of a
(16:05):
misnomer because yes, I complained throughout the whole thing. But
it's really not the complaints that we're focusing on. It
really is on the life lessons behind all these complaints.
I really thought about naming this book something like things
that I know now that I wish I had known
twenty years ago, because through life's experiences, through the season
(16:31):
of Hard Knocks, you learn so many things that you
want to be able to convey to your readers, to
your listeners, hopefully we can save them some heartache through
this book.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
You have been covering the UK sports scene and the
Bengals now for how long.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
It's been about eight years. I've been through the good
and bad, and of course three years ago they took
me all the way to the Super Bowl, So who
can complain about that. That's been a super exciting run.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, and what do you think about this season?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Well, who knows. It all depends on whether Joe Burrow
can be the Joe Burrow that we hope that we're
paying him all this money for. But it's e siding
always now to actually be in the hunt. You know, beforehand,
all those years with the Bengals, you'd sit there, you'd
sit through those Marvin Lewis press conferences and it would
just be mediocrity, mediocrity, mediocrity. It would be good enough
(17:29):
just to make the playoffs. But nowadays there's really a
chance for them to once again make it all the
way to the Super Bowl. They got all their offensive
weapons intact. I'm excited for another run. I hope to
see you there one of these days.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
They play the Bears, am I two teams are the
Bengals and the Bears, so I may have to get
up there first weekend in November for Bengals Bears. We're
halfway home. On this edition of The Leads Report, we'll
take our heartbreak here at the bottom of the hour.
Come back with more from doctor joh Wong. It is
the Leads Report Radio Network. If your day starts with
a cup of coffee, make it shuffle Bean Coffee. It's
(18:05):
a company that's based here in Kentucky, so that's a
good reason to support them. But the best reason is
because of the quality of their product, and they monitor
that process of quality from seed to cup. This group
of Kentuckians, that's the plan they put in place from
day one, more than a decade ago. Starts with the
best coffee beans and it's part of the reason why
shuffle Being Coffee is the official coffee of rupp Arena
(18:27):
in the KFCM Center. So pick some up at a
Myer store in central Kentucky, order it through Amazon or
through shufflebean dot us, and put some hustle in your
shuffle with Shufflebean coffee. We're talking with doctor Jia Wang.
His new book is outlining for posterity and one hundred
percent of the proceeds are going to the Long Family
(18:47):
Scholarship Program. And John, let's talk a little Kentucky basketball.
You're getting a regular dose of Mark Pope's second team
through two players a week media sessions. What's your take
on what you're hearing so far?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I love it so far. I think one of the
major differences between this team and last year's team is
the additional athleticism that you see in some of these players,
and I think that's going to be manifested mainly on
the defensive side of the ball. When you hear these
guys talk, they're not talking about scoring and passing. They're
talking a lot about defense, about rim protection, about on
(19:28):
ball defense. I think that's going to be a huge
difference in terms of pursuing this What I think is
our ultimate goal, and that's championship number nine. I think
Jalen Lowe when he came out, I think he gave
one of the most impressive preseason introductory pressors that I've
ever seen. The guy was just so authentic. You know,
(19:51):
usually when you get these guys paraded out, they're kind
of nervous, they're self conscious. They probably have been fitted
with the script that they're supposed to throw out to
all the media members. He just didn't seem that way.
Everything he said was so realistic. He bantered with the
media people. He was very, very quick to make jokes.
(20:13):
And you know, me, as a former dentist Orthodonys, I
judge everyone by the quality of their smile. He had
this wonderful, wonderful smile that's going to speak volumes in
the future. I'm sure he's going to be a great
point guard. But anybody who smiles like that has to
be able to play ball. Also, I wonder.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Who's on the All Smile team for Kentucky basketball. Varius
Miller's got to be a contender.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Darius Miller up there, Tyrese Maxie, Oh yeah, Dominique Hawkins.
You know, he had that little gap between his incisors.
But still when he lit up, he really lit up.
But that's where I do know where I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, people might ask you questions about that. Speaking of
asking questions next week, SEC Football media Days, are you
heading down to Atlanta?
Speaker 3 (21:01):
I'm not. I'm a little bit too engrossed in this
art of self promotion with all these books, but I'd
love to be down there. I'm excited about this football season.
In fact, I'm not only am I excited. I think
I'm a little bit perturbed by the amount of apathy
and the negativity that's coming out the way you've listened
to all these these pundits, it seems like that Stoops
(21:22):
is already halfway out the door. They're already pushing him out,
aren't we time? You're my age. We've been following Kentucky
football a long time, and you know, we've been through
a lot of very very difficult times. We're talking about
the coach who is the winningest coach in Kentucky football history.
There haven't been too many high points that we're able
to talk about over the course of the past fifty years.
(21:44):
You know, as I rewind, I certainly think about Frank
Kersey and Derrick Ramsey art still those guys that year
they went ten and one in seventy seven, undefeated in
the SEC. I don't think that's ever going to happen again,
realistically speaking. Then you had Jerry Clayburn his successive Hall
(22:04):
of Fame runs. I thought Kentucky had turned the corner.
Don yet how Mommy and Tim cowch outback bowl, Rich
Brooks the year they upset LSU's number one. And then
Mark Stoukes those two out of three ten and one seasons.
We should be building a statue for him. Instead people
(22:25):
are saying he needs to go. I don't care what
the buyout is. Mark Stoukes deserves another chance. He deserves
a chance to turn this thing around. Call me crazy.
I know it's July. I know it's August, Hope Springs eternal,
but I think there are seven wins still possible on
this year seven and five. You heard it here July
(22:48):
what July eighth? Seven and five.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Optimism has been in short supply for sure. I heard
the Van Heiles on the Sunday Morning Show a couple
of weeks ago, and he is optimistic. The one thing
I have said, jud is that the same people that
were picking eight and nine wins last season are the
ones picking eight or nine losses this season. And if
they could be wrong one they could always be wrong
(23:12):
the other way.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Well, what I've learned over time is I'm usually wrong,
but occasionally occasionally you come through, and I'm hoping this
is one of those years. I know that schedule is daunting.
You look at it and you try to pick out
the wins. But on the other hand, it's probably not
quite as daunting as people are making it out to be.
(23:34):
You've got those three teams that you should win, what
Toledo and Eastern Michigan, Tennessee Tech. But then you've got
a couple of teams that traditionally are strong, but they're
they're questionable at quarterback teams like Tennessee and Auburn. Why
can't Kentucky upset one of those? I think one of
the keys is that second game of the season. If
(23:55):
you beat Old miss if you take them down, then
you're out of the gate at three and oher o
men and builds up. People start jumping on the bandwagon,
and before you know it, you can see those six, seven,
seven wins on there you end up with Bandy. I
know they're gonna be hard. Garcia's coming back, He's gonna
be tough. You're playing down there, but if you can't
(24:16):
beat Bandy, you know, why are you even playing playing
the game, And then of course the game at Louisville,
the ends of season rivalry game. Anything can happen. I
think there really is a path for them to win
seven games this year.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
I was going through some old tapes over the holidays.
Found a box of old cassettes. I'm going through them
and trying to see if there's some interesting things in
there that could, you know, use on a show or something.
And it came across an interview I did with Frank Cursey,
and they had a two win season. He got off
to a good start, not to the level that coach
(24:50):
Stoops has done to this point, but his first couple
of years they nearly made a Bowl game when that
hadn't happened in over two decades. And then in year
three they won two games. They bounced back and had
their two best seasons. And he talked about his team
in seventy six that had to go down to Tennessee
and get a win to qualify for a Bowl game,
and he said, you know, they they weren't afraid of anybody.
(25:11):
They didn't think in terms of, well, you know, we
you know, might be able to win this one or whatever.
It was a mindset that that group of players had
that they weren't afraid of anybody or anything. And he said,
because if you are, then you're beat before you go
out there. So that's the challenge to harness that mindset
for this group. And we hear a lot about, you know,
(25:32):
how the culture has changed, sort of, the roster has
has changed, so we get to see here real soon
how it not a lot of words, actually, but how
the changes translate into performance.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
And trends are so important too in regard to those
those changes in regard to performance, the fact that students
that still may be able to get these transfers, these
recruits even after vents left, I think that is huge.
This Ponitowsky signing is huge because, especially with Kentucky football,
(26:07):
it really is about where the program is heading. If
it's heading in the right direction, then all signs are
pointing upwards. People are happy. It matters more where the
program is heading rather than where it is. And before
before Vin's left, there was all this gloom and doom.
You know, we're heading downwards, wrong direction, slippery slope. But
(26:29):
nowadays it does look like that it's turning around, and
I'm hoping more people are going to be jumping on
the bandwagon. I know I'm blowing a lot of balloons
and sunshine, but really, with mark suits, you can't be
kicking them out of town. We should be building a
statue for the guy.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Well that that has been mentioned before. I don't know
that it's going to happen, you know, in the next
week or two, but if he gets things turned around,
we'll see. But again, I think he has put together
a group that again, all you can go from is
what you what you see on paper, what you hear
(27:08):
is I like the sound of the culture change, and
also like what I've heard about just cow kind of
had things have changed, and that they recognized some issues
that they needed to address, and so that without that
it was not going to change. So we'll see, right.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yeah, absolutely, when it kind of reminds me when you
talk about culture. You mentioned Frank Cercy coming in, and
he evidently was a very interesting person. You know, I did.
I helped Derek Ramsey with his memoir, and he talked
(27:47):
about those two years back in seventy six and seventy
seven where they made that Peach Fowl run in seventy
six and then followed it up with that ten and
one season. And his one big, big regret is that,
you know, they had to choose after that Peach Bowl
year whether to go to the Peach Bowl or to
kind of leave it open for the next year for
(28:10):
them to maybe do something greater, and they chose to
go ahead and take a bird in the hand and
elected go to the Peach Bowl. They ended up accepting
the probation the year after, so they couldn't go to
any bowl game. But Derek still claims that's that's the
best team ever in University of Kentucky history. And if
you just crunch the numbers, when you just look at
(28:32):
what that team did on the road and the SEC
blowing through LSU, you know, knocking Georgia out with Prince
Charles in attendance, it's hard to argue. With his assessments.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Winding for prosterity, life, sports and other things worth complaining
about from doctor John Wong, thank you so for all
the time.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
You're so welcome. Tom Yes, there's a lot to complain about.
There's something for everybody in this book.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Good luck with it. We're gonna get to a break
come back. John Hale will join us from the Lexington
Harold Leader. It's the Leach Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises
for locations around Kentucky. So google Bobcat when you need
to buy or rent heavy equipment. They've got it and
they will treat you so fantastically well after the deal
is initially done. Bobcat Enterprises, We'll be right back. Leach
(29:21):
Tripart comes to here from the Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Return,
Refresh and refuel that Clark's John Hale joins us from
the Lexington Harold Leader, where he covers Kentucky football. And
it's been quite a good month of recruiting John to
build a little bullmentium back, with the culmination being the
commitment of Matt Ponattoski from up at Cincinnati Mohler, highly
(29:42):
ranked quarterback prospect. Do you have a guess as to
how strong the lure of professional baseball will be as
far as him being a college player.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
I mean, everything he said publicly seems to suggest that
he wants to just play both in college and go
from there. And so we've seen that kind of play
out both ways with players in similar situations. I mean, obviously,
a guy like Kyler Murray played both in college, was
first TRUMP pick in both sports. Russell Wilson played both
dating back many many years for Kentucky. You know, Shane
Boyd played both. But then on the other hand, we
(30:16):
saw Bubba Chandler, who was a four star quarterback commitment
for Clemson a couple of years ago from Georgia, got
drafted in the first round by the Pirates and just
signed to play baseball and never played football again. And
so I think it could go either way. I think
part of that's going to depend on how his senior
year plays out, obviously, and what his draft stock is
going into next summer. Still a long time between now
(30:36):
and that MLB draft, But from what he's saying publicly,
at least you know he wants to come to college
and play both of them and have the option to
pursue down the road if he needs to focus on
Wonder or maybe even you have the option to play
both professionally.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Tyler Bell for UK Baseball surprised a lot of people
when he chose the college route, even though he was
very highly rated and drafted prospect just baseball only. But
I just assume part of the thinking there is, you know,
the NIL component that it's it was either take the
(31:11):
money in professional baseball or you know, have to play
without anything like that as a college athlete. Now you
can earn really good money as a college athlete if
you're a highly rated quarterback. Could imagine the market value
is pretty good. So that has to help, right versus
the old days.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Yeah, absolutely, it definitely does. I mean it's it's a
completely different scenario these days. I mean because Tyler Bell,
I'm sure he got a great NIL package from the
baseball program. But let's be honest. I mean, whatever Matt
Planetoski getting football is going to be better than what
Tyler Bell got just for baseball last year. And so
if he's like a top fifty draft pick, you know
that MLB signing bonus is somewhere between one and two
(31:50):
million dollars. He could probably get that in more over
three years in terms of NIL and revenue sharing money
playing college football. So the money part of it should
be there for him to wait if he wants to wait,
it's just a question of risking injuries and whether you know,
I don't think he's really said publicly which sports his
favorite or what is his long term goals? Ar I
(32:11):
mean baseball. It obviously takes longer to get to the
to the major leagues, but if you get there and
you're really good, the money's actually a little better than
it is in the NFL. The injury risk in terms
of like CT and all that stuff is lower. So
maybe that's you know, playing on his mind. But then
Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray both in the same situation
and ultimately picked being an NFL quarterback. So I think
it could go either way at this point, but it
(32:32):
is definitely a real risk. I mean, on paper, you
can look at this and say they have this great
kind of succession plan at quarterback right now, but because
of the baseball stuff with him, you know, it could
all get blown up in a year from now.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Two we'll talk with John Hale from the Lexington Herald Leader.
He in terms of his his skill set as a quarterback,
anybody mentioned any comps.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Now, it's interesting because he has split so much time
between the two sports. You know, he's he's clearly probably
lost some developmental time for football that other quarterbacks his
age group have gotten. It was when he went to
the Elite eleven camp in June, all of the reviews
were glowing. I mean, he was not a guy coming
into it that was really expected to finish in that
top eleven, top twelve, whatever the final number on their
(33:19):
all star team is. And he was one of the
you know, the most accurate guys at the camp. So
accuracy seems to be a real strength. Watching his highlight reel,
it seems like he gets the ball out really quickly.
But you do wonder like if he did get to
a point where he said, Okay, I'm just going to
focus on football full time, how much better could he
even get from there? And so all of the skills
are there, all of the talent certainly to be a
(33:41):
great quarterback, it's just a matter of, you know what
that decision is it And you know, if we look
at Shane Boyd what he did at Kentucky when he
tried to play both sports, he kind of just barely
played baseball while he was here and focused on football
that spring football baseball overlap. That's a really important time
for a quarterback. So when it gets to the point
where he's a legitimate contender for this parting job, how
are they going to handle that? That that'll be you know,
(34:02):
fascinating to watch to both of the team and his
personal development too.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Yeah. The one of our listeners, Steve, notes that Pookie
Jones played both, which is true. Uh, you know, and
uh Shane more recently, Uh had Jordan Anthony running track.
But you know he was not playing much when he
was doing that. He uh, he was just freshman football player.
(34:27):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Brian Adams, the wide receiver, played both baseball and football
a few years ago and then ultimately chose to focus
on baseball and gave up football.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
He was here, he had Ben Jordan, who was the
life ended so tragically soon. But uh, you know he
came from the baseball team over to basketball. Uh. But
as far as you know, guys playing you know, prominent
roles in both. One name myself is Vince Harrison, who
you know, was a you know, very much in the
(34:55):
rotation as a football wide receiver and then played you know,
it was a starter in baseball too.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah. I think about Loanell de Walt, I think was
on the basketball roster for at least a year and
then obviously had the great football season. He blocked all
those kicks, but he clearly didn't last very long Kentucky.
So they've had some guys who've done it. You know,
it's even if we're talking about Shane Boyd is the
kind of the last quarterback to do it. It's the
sports have changed so much since then. I don't know
how much we can take from those, but it's been done,
(35:25):
and it's been done at the high level at other
schools even more recently. You know, Russell Wilson, Kada Murray,
Jeff Samargia, guys like that played both sports in college
at a really high level. So it can be done,
and certainly he seems to have the talent to do
both of them at a really high level. And we'll
just see how it plays out. Yeah, well, I don't
know one Ail was ever actually on the roster. He
had a try he kind of had had a tryout,
(35:46):
and I think it went really well, but the decision
ultimately was to just just focus on football.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
But he blocked everything kicks, shots, followers, probably, so he
was quite an athletics specimen. John, Thank you for the
time as always, we'll catch up again after SEC Media
Days next week. Travel safe to Atlanta. Sounds good.
Speaker 4 (36:12):
Thanks for having me, Tom.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
That is John Hale from Kentucky Sports dot com and
the Lexington Herald Leader joining us here on the Leads
Report Radio Network. We'll be right back. Corn Bread Hemp
has their Prime Day sale kicking into gear today through
the eleventh. You can get thirty percent off their full
lineup of hemp products exclusively at cornbreadhemp dot com. So
(36:33):
it's their version of Prime Day. And whether you're looking
for the seltzers, the infused gummies, the oils, the lotions,
whatever you need to make your summer feel great, you
can get a great deal on it right now from Cornbreadhamp.
Put in the code prime when you check out, and
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(36:55):
dot com only on those infused seltzers, the newest products
superior root flavors and only thirty calories per can and
a five billigram Hemp infusion for a light, enjoyable buzz
without the hangover. That's at Cornbread heemp dot com. Happy birthday,
John Connor. The terminator as a blocker as a fullback
(37:17):
for Rich Brooks may have been as good a blocker
as any lineman. Happy birthday, John Connor. Happy birthday to
Ashton Hagens, who was quite the steel star for Kentucky
basketball in his two years. Here Birthdays and UK History
percent of by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards and Memorabilia
there at Robiney Road in Lexington and at roadshowcards dot Com.
(37:40):
Again a reminder about JD. Shelburne signing his Inclusion Brand
bottles of bourbon at two stops this week. Thursday night
at five on the Beaumont Center Parkway location of Liquor
Barn here at Lexington and then on Sunday in Etown
at the Liquor Barn on North Dixie Highway starting at
(38:00):
two Eastern. He'll be performing at both places and signing
the bottles as well. So get out and meet JD
and the team at Inclusion Brands. That'll do it for us.
We'll see you tomorrow on the Leach Report
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