July 22, 2025 • 37 mins
Dick Gabriel talks with Larry Vaught and Wesley Woodyard.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody. Dick Gabrielle sitting in for the Voice
again this morning, taking a little vacation, so happy to
sit in for Tom Leach. Leech Report of course, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. Today we'll talk with Larry Vaught of
Vought's Views and you also hear him on Sunday Morning
Sports Talk. Larry is a syndicated columnist and has been
(00:20):
covering Kentucky sports, UK sports I believe on the UK
be longer than anybody, even me, so we'll talk about
that as well as a lot of other things. Also,
one of my all time favorite Wildcats, Wesley Woodyard, will
join us. An All Conference linebacker, a veteran of a
dozen years in the National Football League and really active
(00:41):
in the community and charity work. So we will talk
to Wesley as well. Coming up in the second half hour,
Wildcat News of the Day as always presented by Giuseppes
of Lexington. And I've mentioned this more than once, and
this is unprompted. I will just tell you that when
my wife and I came back from Italy, and you
know the food of course over there, you hear everything
(01:03):
about the food when you go to Italy, It's all true,
and so I was just really jonesing for some great
Italian food made of b line for Giuseppes. We're regulars
at the drive through window, but of course it's a
great place to sit down and have dinner. Giuseppes of
lexiingon presenting at Wildcat News of the Day and the
biggest News.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Of course you may have already heard this, but a reminder.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
UK Football Fan Day comes up on Saturday, August the
second at the Joe Craft Football Training Center. It'll be
like it usually has been in the past, from eleven
am to around twelve forty five pm. Open to the public,
free admission, free parking in the blue lot. That's the
lot that faces Alumni Drive. You can walk into the
(01:48):
facility at ten am in the plaza outside Gate twelve
of Krogerfield. There will be a clear bag policy in effect.
This will be the first Saturday practice of fall camp
and one of the first on field practice sessions for
the twenty twenty five season. Just though, as it has
(02:08):
been in the past, if the weather turns nasty, they
will cancel Fan Day. That's there are just too many
people there and they cannot accommodate everybody when the team
moves indoors, so if there's bad weather, they'll cancel it.
And if you have a question about the weather, just
stay up with ukathletics dot com or the UK athletics
Twitter account at UK Athletics on x for updates on Saturday,
(02:34):
so the rope lines will be off, they ask that
you stay behind them, and of course it'll be controlled
by the UK management staff.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
There will be free UK football.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Posters for the upcoming season, presented as always by Kroger,
and of course you can buy UK merchandise through the
UK Bookstore there in the plaza. If you're interested in
tickets for this upcoming season, there will be staff members
they're available to talk with you about ticket packages for
the upcoming year, and again they've got different packages if
(03:06):
you want to buy for a cluster of games or
for the entire season. There will be prepackaged snacks and
bottled water available for more information. UK Athletics backslash football
and has always followed a team on Facebook and Instagram
and x and anyway you can follow follow along for
(03:26):
the upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Links to these stories and.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
More on the bud Light Leachpurport page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We'll get started with Larry Vott when we
come back here on the Leach Report. Welcome back to
the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel sitting in for the Voice,
joined now by a guy who knows a little something
about UK sports, Mister Larry Vott. You know him from
his VOTs views pieces his Twitter account.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He's a syndicated columnist, radio show host, the co host
of Sunday Morning Sports Talk.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Good morning, Larry, Good morning, carry you.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You and I have talked about this in the past,
but I do believe you are the dean when it
comes to the journalists who have covered the UK beat.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I think you go.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Back to seventy one. Is that writers a little bit
later than that.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Now it's actually officially would be the January of seventy.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Five, seventy fiftuff.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
All right, Well, you and I started at just about
the same time.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So we've seen a little bit, haven't we.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Yeah, seen them up, seen some down, but always fun
to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, let us start with ups and downs, and that
would describe the Mark Stoops tenure at UK and he
has had ups. I don't know that anybody anticipated with
ten wins seasons and a long string of ball games.
And obviously last year was a downer which followed a
pair of seven wins seasons. And again you and I
(04:53):
go back to the period where people just beg.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
For six wins, you know, and then and then I.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Won't say all of a sudden, but eventually seven wins
weren't enough. Where do you see UK football right now?
I mean, I do believe this will be a crucial
season for Stoops and it couldn't come in a tougher
time in the.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
SEC, right Yeah, The timing and the way things have
worked out are not good for Mark to have kind
of hit a little bit of a dip because in
the SEC right now it's hard, hard to just no
easy games. And you look at Kentucky being picked fifth
and fifteenth in the SEC, and you think, man, that's
how can that be. You look a who's picked in
front of them, you think, well, that's that's how it
(05:33):
can be. And and so I think it's really a
crucial year. When you're talking to the revenue sharing aspect
and what's right and what's not right there, you've turned
your roster almost fifty percent over, and you're just kind
of wondering what the heck's going on. But then I
look and talk to a lot of the recruits who
(05:53):
have committed to Kentucky, and they sound more eager and
optimistic than ever. So somebody is certainly doing a good
job sending a message to them that things are not
as bad as what a lot of people might think.
So it kind of a perplexing time. I'm anxius to
see them actually play games, so we know what's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
You know, I was thinking about this as I was
quite frankly walking the dog this morning, thinking about, well,
you and I we're.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Going to talk about. But so much of what's.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Happening now in college football and in the SEC have
presented greater challenges to the Kentuckys of the SEC. And really,
I would think maybe two thirds of the league, and
by this, I mean you do away with divisional play.
I really believe that that might benefit the Georgia's and
Alabama's and the Texas is in the league, but not
(06:42):
the teams that are battling to get to that level,
like Kentucky and Missouri and South Carolina. You know you
talk about nil money. You know, Kentucky just doesn't have
as much in terms of people donating that Texas and
Oklahom and those other schools have, you know, recruiting things
(07:03):
like that. It has just made for greater challenges for UK.
And yet people expect the same results, right they expect
Kentucky to challenge now for eight nine ten wins.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's tough.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, that's exactly right. It's a it's a difficult time
right now. And I don't know what the answers are
are going to be, but it's a tough time. And
nobody wants to hear excuses when you're talking about fan wise.
They don't care about the revenue sharing and nil money
and all this. They just know that you've had success.
(07:37):
Now you're paying players you ought to have you more success.
So nobody wants to give the other guy at credit
thinking that nobody's waiting on you to kind of let
you catch back up, that they're trying to move ahead,
just his face. So it's it's a difficult time. And
I mean, I don't envy what Mark Stoops and his
staff are gonna are trying to do, but I am
kind of interested to see what this season is going
(07:58):
to be like. To be Frank, I don't think I
have any idea what to expect.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, I don't either. In front.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know, I was at SEC media days, and I've
got to be honest, you know, in voting, I can't
blame people for putting Kentucky where they did voters, because
we just don't know. I mean, you and I cover
the program. We don't know because of all the new faces.
And of course every poll or survey or whatever that
(08:23):
comes out in the off season with media people trying
to fill time and fill Internet space.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I always say Internet's a bottomless pit and we have
to fill it. So now they rank everything and every body,
and you know the rankings of quarterbacks in the SEC.
Has Zach Calzada add or near the bottom. Well, of course,
he hasn't played D one football in three years. You know,
how do we know what he's going to do? He
played well at A and M and then had to
(08:52):
sit at Auburn because of his injury, and then played
at the one double A level and well add incarnate word.
But you can kind of understand why can Kentucky's a
huge question mark?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Right, Yeah, I think, especially when you look back at
the last couple of years. I mean Devin Leary, who
I still think was probably better at Kentucky than what
he got credit for. But the perception is is that
he didn't do what you thought he or or maybe
what the expectations were. Certainly last year Brock Vandergriff didn't
feel what the expectations were for him. So I think
(09:22):
now that it's just easy for fans to think, well,
another transfer guy, you know, the big hopes everybody's talking about.
But he may be a bus too. So I think
there's just so much unknown there about him, and you
would like to think he's going to be really good,
but you just don't know. I think a lot of
people were hoping, maybe, but this time cutter Bowler would
(09:44):
be ready to step in and be the guy. Apparently
that's not the case, and so there's some of that
little homestake disappointment. I think it goes along with that also,
and then just the fact that we really haven't seen anything.
He didn't really get to see a whole lot in
the spring. Summer's been really quiet. We don't really no
one way or the other. And now for almost about
a month away from the season to start, and everybody
(10:06):
just looking for answers and looking for encouragement. It's hard
to find right now.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Totally rebuilt O line coming up, which I guess should
give Kentucky fans at least a dose of optimism, because that,
quite frankly has been the problem.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I'm not laying it at the feet of any.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Particular players or coaches, but they just have not been
able to reconstruct the kind of O line that have
that has led to the kind of success Mark Stoops
teams have enjoyed in the past. And as you know, Larry,
it all starts and ends there. I mean, if your
O line isn't any good, you can't cover that up.
And you talked about the two qbs, you know, and
(10:48):
I don't think Devin really had a chance to show
what he could do, and to a degree, neither Condvander
riv right.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And you hope it's
going to be different this year. But I mean, part
of me says, yeah, you needed to go out and
bring in a bunch of new guys because you have
to make some changes. Now. The part of me says, well,
if these guys are going to be as good as
why Kentucky hopes are going to be why the teams
that had them let them go. So I mean, it's
(11:18):
it's easy just to look on one side or the
other decide which way you want to be. And again,
I just don't know enough to really have an opinion,
is what I keep saying. I don't know whether I
think Kentucky can win seven games, whether I think they
can win three, because I really there's so many unknown
parts that I can't remember a season quite like this, Dick,
where you went into it with so many I don't
(11:39):
know if you want to say questions or just unknowns,
because they just don't know how some of these guys
are going to be and how they're going to perform.
And then and then you talk to somebody like I
did a couple of weeks ago with Type Bright when
he says that he thought last year, guys just thought
would be easy, they'd go out there and win. When
it didn't work out that way, some of the guys
just kind of quit on the team. Well, I've seen
a lot of those are the guys that aren't back
(11:59):
this year. Hopefully that that did that, But you know,
if that happens once the orri it can happen again.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, they lot them shut down. It was pretty pretty evident.
You could see that on the field. Although, and I
mentioned this to Stoops at media days, when you go
back and look at the Georgia game and the Old
Miss game, for two weeks, Kentucky played as well as
anybody literally in the country, almost beating the Bulldogs, pulling
off that upset at Ole Miss. Vandergriff looked like the
(12:26):
Vandergriff THEYD hoped he would be, even though he was
sacked half a dozen times. Bush Hampden called a great game.
Kentucky made plays, got a couple of breaks, but then
things just kind of collapsed.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
They got to avoid that this year.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Easier said than done, right, Yeah, especially you start out
with Toledo with a team that you think you think
you're going to be, but probably a much better team.
And once you normally hope with the season it for
a non conference game, and you come right back with
Ole Miss, who I'm sure has been thinking for almost
a year about how Kentucky custom a spot in the
college football playoffs. Back to back pretty difficult games to
(13:02):
open up with. So we'll think about it, it won't take
us long to find out a lot about this team.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
He's Larry Vaughd. We'll come back and talk more UK
sports with Larry.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Mark.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Pope talked to the media yesterday Back in a minute
here on the Leech Report. Welcome back to the Leach Report.
Dick Gabriel sitting in for the voice for chatting with
Larry Vatt. Mark Pope talked to the media regularly scheduled
news conference yesterday and the message yesterday Larry was, of course, they're.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Not anywhere near where they need to be.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But I thought it was fascinating that Pope basically admitted
he is flip flopping the way he usually does business.
He said, I'm a coach who's kind of twisted and
really likes the offensive end of the floor. And you
and I have heard every coach from the beginning of
time say everything begins with defense. But last year Kentucky
was kind of late to the party when it came
to defense. Turned things around a little bit, really dramatically
(13:51):
toward the end of the year. But Pope says, now
everything or not everything, but much of what their work
consists of now is on defense. And then they'll get
to the offense. What did you think of that when
you heard that.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Well, I think if you just look at the way
that he structured his second team, I think you could
tell there's a lot more emphasis on looking at what
some guys might be able to do defensively than what
maybe there was last year. And I think Marcut's always
been a guy that believed in defense, going all the
way back to when he played at Kentucky for Rick Patino.
I just think he's kind of made his living with
(14:27):
what his teams have been able to do on the
offensive end. So I think he's just gone through a
year at the SEC, learned a few things about his team,
and now is going to make the adjustments that he
has to make. But I think we're going to still
see a lot of threes flying, and we're still going
to see a team trying to get up the court
pretty quick and all like that. I just think maybe
this year he's going to have a few guys that
(14:48):
are a little bit better defensive players and overall than
maybe some of the players that he had last year,
and that's going to make it a little bit easier
to have an emphasis on defense.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You mentioned Patina, and of course, you know that team.
His early teams especially thrived on transition basketball because of
the defense they played. People forget that. You know, we
want the team to get up and run up and
down the floor and fly and dunk and all that stuff,
but so many times that begins with defense turning a
(15:17):
team over or rebounding doing the dirty work.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And I think I think you're right. I think this
team is going to be built that way.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Yeah, it sure looks to me like they've got a
lot of rstial guys that can switch out and guard
different positions, and they're going to have so much more depth.
I'm kind of anxious to see if they will try
to apply a little bit more pressure defensively than what
they did last year because they were just kind of
decimated by injuries and I'm not sure how much they
could do that Mark wanted to do. Where this year,
(15:46):
you hope that this is going to be a healthy roster.
They're going to have a lot more options, a lot
more flexibility because of the depth. Then maybe they can
get out there and get after guys even a little
bit more than what they did last year. Because I
think I think they've got some guys could get after
you and lock it down.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Given the change, and you mentioned death, and you look
back at last year and it was so enjoyable for
the fans.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It was fun to cover.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
But injuries did play a huge role there, especially at
point guard. And it looks like now they've got another
good point guard, but injuries, foul, trouble, whatever could affect
the point guard spot. But that was one of the
early questions. Put the Pope yesterday and he talked about
otego oh way and he talked about Colin Chandler playing
(16:28):
the point Do you batay perhap? So I don't know
if it'll be quite the problem it might have been
last year, but it's gonna be something you got to
think about him.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I right, yeah, But I think if Jaylen Lowe was healthy,
you probably won't have to think about that position more
than maybe what ten minutes a game about what you're
going to do, and maybe in big games not even
quite that much. You're playing a little bit more than that.
I'm kind of intrigued. But I thought of Otega playing
there a little bit. They tried just briefly a little
(17:01):
bit last year and it didn't go great. But I
think if he can do that some that probably enhances
his value of going to the next level. If he
shows he can do something like that, I think Colin
could certainly come in and fill in for periods of
time right there at that position. So I think they
will be okay unless Jalen would have something happened to
(17:22):
him like what Lamont he is. I think Jalen is really,
really a good player and gonna be a lot like Lamont,
probably better than all of us realized when he first
got here. Once we get a chance to see.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Jalen won't have to carry his team the way he
did last year at Pitt and he's going to be
surrounded by a lot more talent. So I'm curious to
see what he does, maybe as much as anybody. He
is Larry Vott follow him on Twitter Vought's Views, and
of course you can hear him every Sunday morning on
Sunday Morning Sports Talk. Thank you, sir, have a great day.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You two Dick.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
When we come back, we'll talk to one of the
all time Kentucky greats, Wesley woodyard and All Conference linebacker
and a twelve year veteran of the net National Football League.
A reminder of the Leach Report, coming to you from
the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. I'm Dick Gabriel sitting in
for the Voice and we'll have more on the other
side of the break here on the Leach Report. Welcome
back to the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises for
(18:15):
locations in Kentucky when you need to rent or buy
heavy equipment or a new zero turn more for your
long term two Bobcat Enterprises. We're joined now by one
of my all time favorite Wildcats. He is one of
the all time greats at the University of Kentucky and
a twelve year NFL veteran, mister Wesley Woodyard.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Good morning, sir, Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
How you doing, mister Gabriels on with I.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Am well, Wesley, thank you so much for joining us.
Before we talk about anything football related, we need to
talk about your upcoming golf tournament. Are there still slots
open because you're looking for a sponsorship opportunities and things
like that.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Absolutely, we're still looking around anywhere from seven to eight
teams to sign up and join, and they can and
found out on my website sixteen Waves, or you can
go over there check out the website and no, man,
this is a great event to come back to Lexison,
to find sponsors every year to believe in my dream
(19:14):
for a continue to change the community. But man, it's
a great event. It's a great time to come out
there and just have some fun golfing.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
It's Friday, August the eighth, with eight am registration a
shotgun start at the Thoroughbred Golf Club And according to
Wesley's poster and artwork, changing Lives, one putt at a time,
were you a golfer growing up? Were you a golfer
at uk or did you come to the game late?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You know, I was what they call it COVID golfer.
Whereas I picked up I picked up some free time
on the golf court throwing COVID and ticket serious. But
actually my first time on golfing was at a baby
shower Roger Williams baby shower. Coach Brown brought some golf
(20:04):
clubs for us and let us tee off and that
was kind of like the first time. But no, I
was never a serious golfer growing up, never knew about
the game. But as I got older, as I got wiser,
I realized that golf is probably the only game I'll
be able to play when I'm like eighty five, ninety
years old.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Also, I'm loving that.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I hear that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And it's also great for what they like to call fellowship.
It's fun to get out there with your buddies and
laugh in between shots that drive you nuts, but that's
the fun part, especially in a shotgun charity golf scramble.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, absolutely, And I'd like to thank two of my sponsors,
Helpware and country Boy. Country Boy for sure, They've been
a part of the vision and the dream for a
long time. And just to have sponsors like that that
believe in us, it's amazing to get out there just
to to build that camaraderie ship so we can change
(21:02):
the state. You know, changed Kentucky's changed, Detroit changed Georgia.
We have around forty five athletes that are traveling to
the Junior Olympics this week with our sixteen Ways Track
Club and also my Little Flag one of my Flag
football teams that will be down there at Junior Olympics
(21:23):
as well. So you know, it's a good day for
sixteen Ways. We'll continue to change young kids lives and
that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, that answers what was going to be my next question.
The sixteen Ways Foundation has been around for a while,
and UK fans might remember that was Wesley's number at
Kentucky and it seemed like an unusual number four a linebacker,
but he came here as a safety. And of course
your Twitter handles up fifty two. That was your number,
of course with the Broncos, fifty nine with the Titans.
(21:52):
But anyhow, everybody here remembers you as number sixteen because
you were in on so many plays. But how did
the Sixteen Ways Foundation come about?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
How is it born?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
So I'm sitting I'm sitting in where we're at out
in Denver, and we're just, you know, we're trying to
find a way to you know, impact the community. And
back then you either had to have a big name
or a foundation to get some waves to get people
to buy into it. So my cousin Derrick Kelly and
(22:25):
his best one of his best friends, Joe Solomon, we
all was like, listen, we're doing a lot of work
in the community. Let's just you know, put a name
by it, and you know, sixteen Ways. We went with
sixteen of course, like you said, my old football number,
and in twenty ten we decided to start the Sixteen
Ways Foundation and it's just been a life changing event
(22:49):
for me and as well as our other co founders
as well. And so we get a chance to work
with literacy, bullying, just self confidence, building these kids up
and we try to touch our community through every positive
way that we can. And man, it's led us through
so many states. We take kids traveling every year with tracks.
(23:12):
So it's just been an amazing thing in my life, man,
and I look forward to doing it every chance I
get an opportunity to work in the community, I love
to do it.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, you were super active while you're in the NFL
as well, so you made a lot of contacts in
Denver in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
That's got to feel really rewarding to you. I would think.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
I'm really excited about the work that I put in
in Sixteen Ways i started my foundation, that it allowed
me to win the Denver Broncos Walter Payton Man of
the Year three times as well as Tennessee. I've won
the Walter Payton Man three times out a year there.
So it's allowed me to have a lot of influence.
But I think one of the most important things about
(23:54):
my platform is that I've been allowed to encourage a
lot of my other teammates to start up there foundations
to you know, get busy in the community and work
beside me as well as trying to change these young,
young kids lives. So it's been amazing. I love it,
and that's the encouragement that I try to bring to it, like, hey,
(24:16):
let's get into it man, full throttle, let's get out
of hands dirty, let's get down there. Let's change these
kids' lives right now, right now.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
You mentioned Detroit, and there was a viral video of
you with a youngster from Detroit from gosh about eight
years ago. But what is your connection to Detroit?
Speaker 5 (24:35):
So my I co founder, Derek, he works in the
automotive industry, and so he was he relocated into up
to MacComb, Michigan, which is a small city outside of Detroit,
and he as soon as he got there, he recognized
the need for, you know, some some form of a
track coach, whether he would be a mentor whether he
(24:58):
would try to coach at one the local high schools.
He was like, I know, I have to get busy
and do something that the need is here. The warrant
is here. So he started, he started, he started our
sixteen Ways Track Club in Michigan, and it's honestly, it
has been one of probably one of the most effective
programs that we have every every year, every spring, every summer.
(25:20):
We have about one hundred athletes one hundred athletes or
so on our team. Sometimes that's and just to see
those kids' lives change. We even have one of our
track students that ran track at the University of Kentucky.
So we put a lot of kids into college and
changed a lot of kids lives and more importantly, teaching
(25:40):
them how to believe in dreaming themselves.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
How many times has a young man who maybe is
not quite as young anymore come up to you and say,
you helped me early in my life.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I got to think that happens once in a while.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Oh it's one of the brightest spots, you know that
that does happen. You know, when you're doing work like this,
you know you're never trying to do it to get paid.
You know, you're never trying to really do it to
get any recognition. But the but the best recognition to
me is, like you just said, Dick, is when a
kid comes up and say, hey, I remember when you
(26:14):
when you came and did something at our school, or
I remember when you gave us an Amazon Kindle, or
I remember when I got my back back to school
book back from you. Uh, that's an amazing feeling. Last night,
I was doing some work with a kid and he
ran up to me. He was like, hey, I remember
you you missed a Woodyard. You and your MLB Baseball friend.
(26:35):
You guys came over and held a summer camp for
me and my classmates. We enjoyed it. And that kid
is now trying out for a local high school here
in Florida. So it's amazing to get that love and
respect and to know that you're actually changing these young
men and young women's lives.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's awesome. That's a great story. And we'll come back
and talk more with Wesley wood Yard. We'll talk a
little bit of football.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Was him on the other side of the break here
on the Leech Report. Welcome back, Dick Gabriel sitting in
for Tom Leach on the Leech Report. We're talking to
one of the all time great Kentucky Wildcats, Wesley Woodyard,
and we have been talking about Wesley's golf tournament upcoming
on Friday, August eighth, Changing lives, one putt at a time.
This will benefit the sixteen Ways Foundation. If you want
(27:22):
more information, six sixteen Ways dot org.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Got to talk a little football.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But first of all, we say, I wonder if your
ears were burning a couple of weeks ago, because I
was talking to Danny Trevathan about you, Danny going into
the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. You were inducted
about eight years ago, and he talked about just the
effect that he you had on him. A little bit
younger than you, but he said, you know, you were
(27:48):
just a great leader and a great influence on him.
And he of course had a great career in the NFL,
won a title with your Broncos. But you had to
be happy for him, I know. And here's a guy who,
like you, I think was maybe an underappreciated, undervalued linebacker.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Absolutely man. Me and Danny, we we fit the same mold,
you know. When uh, well, my my senior class when
we graduated, Danny Danny's freshman class replacement, and I immediately
got to talking to my linebacker coach at the school,
coach Coach Smith, and I'm like, hey, who's the Who's
(28:27):
who's the linebackers that I got to look for? And
he was like, you know, Danny's daddy kid. He's pretty good.
I think he plays a lot like you. I think
he plays a lot like you. With I was like, wait,
hold up, coach, nobody plays like me. And he was like, yeah,
he runs around, he flows around just like you. So
I got I got to watching some of this film
(28:49):
and you know, building a relationship with him, and and
of course watching him put up twenty something toples almost
every week. It seemed like in the sec I knew
he was going to be a good player. Actually mentioned
him to my coaches doing a draft in Denver and
was like, man, I would love to get a chance
to play with Danny. And not that they listened to me,
(29:10):
of course, they listened to their upper execs or whatever,
but they end they ended up drafting Danny. They you know,
they do their due diligence. They come by during the
combine and ask if you know about him. So I
was on board with Danny and I always dreamed about
playing with uh playing in the NFL, with any Kentucky
linebacker I had a chance to play with several Kentucky
(29:33):
linebackers that came out, and Danny was one of those
guys that man I was like, you know what, this
is my little brother. He's a linebacker from Kentucky. So
all I know is if we ever get a chance
to play on the same field, we're about to do
some work. And that's that's exactly what we did. So man,
I was so excited to hear Danny getting elected into
the Kentucky Hall of Fame. He deserved it. Great leader,
(29:56):
amazing player for the wildcast. Uh, one of the best
guys I ever put on that Blue.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And White, absolutely, and he had that speed going for him.
He was one of the fastest linebackers whoever played at
Kentucky to the point where you were gone. But Danny
talked somehow talked to coaches into letting him return a
kick in the Blue White game.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know, we're all sitting upstairs walking what in the world,
you know?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And he did okay, But then he inured his wrists
in that game and the coaches quickly said no, they
shut him down. But you know, he started playing linebacker,
and you did a little bit to that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
When the position began to.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Evolve and involve more coverage and things like that. It
became more of a hybrid position that fit your skill set, too.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Didn't it.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
That's that's correct. I was. I was in one of
those funky transitional stages coming out of college as well
as the NFL too, because the league was going to
bigger linebackers, three four defenses, but there was something that no, boy,
they expected tight ends like Jacob Tammy that couldn't be
(31:03):
covered because linebackers couldn't run with him. And I'll never
forget my last day of safety at Kentucky. We were
playing Cover two and I was a half field safety.
We're running our offense is running the option play to
my left. All this beach is the running back. I
run down, I hit the quarterback. He flipped the ball
(31:26):
to artist. I get up, go tackle Arlist for a
lost and I'm getting hype. I'm talking about Oh yeah,
look at that. I was like man. Coach Brown and
coach Archer ran up to me and was like, what
are you doing? Like, we don't need a safety making
a tackle in the backfield and Cover two you're.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Going you're moving the linebackers.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
So I did. I didn't take I didn't take that serious,
but I was like, dang, they might move me to
linebacker in Laurid Behold. I go into Coach Brooks office
like a week in the season, like, hey, you know,
I want to play linebacker, and that's what he looked
at me too, and he was like, yeah, I think
(32:05):
we're going to move you to linebacker too. Don't worry
about it, You'll be playing linebacker. It was the right
decision for me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It changed your life and it changed the trajectory at
the Kentucky football program. And I'm glad you brought up
Rich Brooks. We just have a couple of minutes left.
But there are three photos of you on the poster
for your golf tournament, one with the Broncos, one with
the Titans. But your UK photo, Wesley, is you hugging
Rich Brooks. I think that's after the Music City Bowl
win one of them. And you had such a great
(32:36):
relationship with Rich Brooks at the point where you're the
one who went to Mitch Barnard and said we're gonna
get this thing turned around under rich Brooks. And you
certainly did tell me about your relationship with him, because again,
he's a guy like you wasn't appreciated nearly enough till
he was.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
Gone, oh yeah, man, mean, Coach Brooks, we have a
great relationship from day one. Just just a a truth
showman of a a what a man should be as
far as somebody that's trying to become a man. And
I'll never forget when I came up there on my visit,
he looked at me and he was like, you're one
(33:12):
of the guys that we need to turn this program around.
And I've never really had anybody. You know, when you're
going to recruiting trips you're going to you're just another
You're just another guy. You know, you walk around, you
know there's way bigger players, you know, guys that have
four or five stars. But when he what he said
he saw in to me when on my visit, that
(33:34):
just stuck with me, Like, man, I want to come
here and I want to help change the program around.
I want to help put Kentucky football on the map
and make a legacy for this program. And I was
able to do that with my my freshman class coming
in and some of the guys that was there as
well bought in full speed. But man, from day one,
Coach Brooks had an open door policy, and I think
(33:56):
that's all you can respect. As a young man coming
into college, you're away from your family. You need to
find somebody that you can trust and rely on. So
these college coaches, I know, they're in a shaky world
now with nil and players voices are way powerful now
that they were back then. But man, you gotta love it.
(34:16):
You got your players, have to feel that love that
you have for the game. Still. Yeah, I know it
went from we're expecting to have you four years in
our campus too. Now it could be one year to
two years while you're here. Let's maximize that. Let's get
the best for you because at the end of the day,
it is all about our kids. You know, the University
of Kentucky comes first in aspects and certain aspects, but
(34:42):
even more than that, the University of Kentucky can't be
UK unless you have those star studied athletes coming and
leaving their homes and believing in Kentucky football. And that's
what it's about. Coach Steut's has it on the right track.
Very proud of him, Still love Coach Stewt's man, and
looking forward to seeing what they do this on the field.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Wesley, thank you so much. We'll keep plugging your tournament,
but best of luck to you. Thanks for joining us
this morning.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Always a pleasure chatting with you, all right.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Man, I see you guys just so this year as
we get ready to win the SEC Championship, do have.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
A good day.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
You tak it.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Welcome back and close up this edition of the Leach Report.
Welcome back to Gabriel in for the voice as we
wrap things up, and it's it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
I love talking to Wesley Woodyardy.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
You talk about a guy who was unheralded what he
got here, and all he did was lead his Georgia
team to a pair of state championships in high school
and was rated the best player in Georgia in whatever
class he was playing, and so and then he had
some great years in the NFL but was not named
(35:49):
to the Pro Bowl. So he's always just been a
guy who's had to overcome but he's done it so well.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
And we'll keep plugging his golf tournament for him.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But I just love talking football with him, and he
had interest comments to make about Mark Stoops and about
of course Rich Brooks, a guy who you know was
like like Wesley was unheralded when he got here and
some people thought it would never work.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
So anyhow, we'll.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Close up Kentucky Roach Show Sports Cards to memorabilia and
Lexie didn't learn more about them at Roadshowcards dot Com.
Closing up, But happy birthday to Stevie Johnson. You had
Steven Johnson, the quarterback who did great things at Kentucky.
Stevie Johnson, of course famous for Stevie got loose the
touchdown grab he made against the Louisville Cardinals, which really
(36:36):
touched off the seven season, which offensively was the best
in the history of UK football. But that was one
of the greatest moments in the history of then Commonwealth Stadium.
But Stevie also made the touchdown catch that won the
game in the upset of top ranked LSU, a team
that went on to win the national championship. So arguably
(36:56):
you could say Stevie made the top two catches in
the history of Commonwealth Stadium. For Shannon to do, Dick Gabriel,
have a great day.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Everybody
Good morning everybody. Dick Gabrielle sitting in for the Voice
again this morning, taking a little vacation, so happy to
sit in for Tom Leach. Leech Report of course, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises. Today we'll talk with Larry Vaught of
Vought's Views and you also hear him on Sunday Morning
Sports Talk. Larry is a syndicated columnist and has been
(00:20):
covering Kentucky sports, UK sports I believe on the UK
be longer than anybody, even me, so we'll talk about
that as well as a lot of other things. Also,
one of my all time favorite Wildcats, Wesley Woodyard, will
join us. An All Conference linebacker, a veteran of a
dozen years in the National Football League and really active
(00:41):
in the community and charity work. So we will talk
to Wesley as well. Coming up in the second half hour,
Wildcat News of the Day as always presented by Giuseppes
of Lexington. And I've mentioned this more than once, and
this is unprompted. I will just tell you that when
my wife and I came back from Italy, and you
know the food of course over there, you hear everything
(01:03):
about the food when you go to Italy, It's all true,
and so I was just really jonesing for some great
Italian food made of b line for Giuseppes. We're regulars
at the drive through window, but of course it's a
great place to sit down and have dinner. Giuseppes of
lexiingon presenting at Wildcat News of the Day and the
biggest News.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Of course you may have already heard this, but a reminder.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
UK Football Fan Day comes up on Saturday, August the
second at the Joe Craft Football Training Center. It'll be
like it usually has been in the past, from eleven
am to around twelve forty five pm. Open to the public,
free admission, free parking in the blue lot. That's the
lot that faces Alumni Drive. You can walk into the
(01:48):
facility at ten am in the plaza outside Gate twelve
of Krogerfield. There will be a clear bag policy in effect.
This will be the first Saturday practice of fall camp
and one of the first on field practice sessions for
the twenty twenty five season. Just though, as it has
(02:08):
been in the past, if the weather turns nasty, they
will cancel Fan Day. That's there are just too many
people there and they cannot accommodate everybody when the team
moves indoors, so if there's bad weather, they'll cancel it.
And if you have a question about the weather, just
stay up with ukathletics dot com or the UK athletics
Twitter account at UK Athletics on x for updates on Saturday,
(02:34):
so the rope lines will be off, they ask that
you stay behind them, and of course it'll be controlled
by the UK management staff.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
There will be free UK football.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Posters for the upcoming season, presented as always by Kroger,
and of course you can buy UK merchandise through the
UK Bookstore there in the plaza. If you're interested in
tickets for this upcoming season, there will be staff members
they're available to talk with you about ticket packages for
the upcoming year, and again they've got different packages if
(03:06):
you want to buy for a cluster of games or
for the entire season. There will be prepackaged snacks and
bottled water available for more information. UK Athletics backslash football
and has always followed a team on Facebook and Instagram
and x and anyway you can follow follow along for
(03:26):
the upcoming season.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Links to these stories and.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
More on the bud Light Leachpurport page at Tom Leachky
dot com. We'll get started with Larry Vott when we
come back here on the Leach Report. Welcome back to
the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel sitting in for the Voice,
joined now by a guy who knows a little something
about UK sports, Mister Larry Vott. You know him from
his VOTs views pieces his Twitter account.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
He's a syndicated columnist, radio show host, the co host
of Sunday Morning Sports Talk.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Good morning, Larry, Good morning, carry you.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You and I have talked about this in the past,
but I do believe you are the dean when it
comes to the journalists who have covered the UK beat.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I think you go.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Back to seventy one. Is that writers a little bit
later than that.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Now it's actually officially would be the January of seventy.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Five, seventy fiftuff.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
All right, Well, you and I started at just about
the same time.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So we've seen a little bit, haven't we.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Yeah, seen them up, seen some down, but always fun
to watch.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, it really is.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, let us start with ups and downs, and that
would describe the Mark Stoops tenure at UK and he
has had ups. I don't know that anybody anticipated with
ten wins seasons and a long string of ball games.
And obviously last year was a downer which followed a
pair of seven wins seasons. And again you and I
(04:53):
go back to the period where people just beg.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
For six wins, you know, and then and then I.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Won't say all of a sudden, but eventually seven wins
weren't enough. Where do you see UK football right now?
I mean, I do believe this will be a crucial
season for Stoops and it couldn't come in a tougher
time in the.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
SEC, right Yeah, The timing and the way things have
worked out are not good for Mark to have kind
of hit a little bit of a dip because in
the SEC right now it's hard, hard to just no
easy games. And you look at Kentucky being picked fifth
and fifteenth in the SEC, and you think, man, that's
how can that be. You look a who's picked in
front of them, you think, well, that's that's how it
(05:33):
can be. And and so I think it's really a
crucial year. When you're talking to the revenue sharing aspect
and what's right and what's not right there, you've turned
your roster almost fifty percent over, and you're just kind
of wondering what the heck's going on. But then I
look and talk to a lot of the recruits who
(05:53):
have committed to Kentucky, and they sound more eager and
optimistic than ever. So somebody is certainly doing a good
job sending a message to them that things are not
as bad as what a lot of people might think.
So it kind of a perplexing time. I'm anxius to
see them actually play games, so we know what's going
to happen.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
You know, I was thinking about this as I was
quite frankly walking the dog this morning, thinking about, well,
you and I we're.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Going to talk about. But so much of what's.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Happening now in college football and in the SEC have
presented greater challenges to the Kentuckys of the SEC. And really,
I would think maybe two thirds of the league, and
by this, I mean you do away with divisional play.
I really believe that that might benefit the Georgia's and
Alabama's and the Texas is in the league, but not
(06:42):
the teams that are battling to get to that level,
like Kentucky and Missouri and South Carolina. You know you
talk about nil money. You know, Kentucky just doesn't have
as much in terms of people donating that Texas and
Oklahom and those other schools have, you know, recruiting things
(07:03):
like that. It has just made for greater challenges for UK.
And yet people expect the same results, right they expect
Kentucky to challenge now for eight nine ten wins.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's tough.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Yeah, that's exactly right. It's a it's a difficult time
right now. And I don't know what the answers are
are going to be, but it's a tough time. And
nobody wants to hear excuses when you're talking about fan wise.
They don't care about the revenue sharing and nil money
and all this. They just know that you've had success.
(07:37):
Now you're paying players you ought to have you more success.
So nobody wants to give the other guy at credit
thinking that nobody's waiting on you to kind of let
you catch back up, that they're trying to move ahead,
just his face. So it's it's a difficult time. And
I mean, I don't envy what Mark Stoops and his
staff are gonna are trying to do, but I am
kind of interested to see what this season is going
(07:58):
to be like. To be Frank, I don't think I
have any idea what to expect.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No, I don't either. In front.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know, I was at SEC media days, and I've
got to be honest, you know, in voting, I can't
blame people for putting Kentucky where they did voters, because
we just don't know. I mean, you and I cover
the program. We don't know because of all the new faces.
And of course every poll or survey or whatever that
(08:23):
comes out in the off season with media people trying
to fill time and fill Internet space.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
You know that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I always say Internet's a bottomless pit and we have
to fill it. So now they rank everything and every body,
and you know the rankings of quarterbacks in the SEC.
Has Zach Calzada add or near the bottom. Well, of course,
he hasn't played D one football in three years. You know,
how do we know what he's going to do? He
played well at A and M and then had to
(08:52):
sit at Auburn because of his injury, and then played
at the one double A level and well add incarnate word.
But you can kind of understand why can Kentucky's a
huge question mark?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Right, Yeah, I think, especially when you look back at
the last couple of years. I mean Devin Leary, who
I still think was probably better at Kentucky than what
he got credit for. But the perception is is that
he didn't do what you thought he or or maybe
what the expectations were. Certainly last year Brock Vandergriff didn't
feel what the expectations were for him. So I think
(09:22):
now that it's just easy for fans to think, well,
another transfer guy, you know, the big hopes everybody's talking about.
But he may be a bus too. So I think
there's just so much unknown there about him, and you
would like to think he's going to be really good,
but you just don't know. I think a lot of
people were hoping, maybe, but this time cutter Bowler would
(09:44):
be ready to step in and be the guy. Apparently
that's not the case, and so there's some of that
little homestake disappointment. I think it goes along with that also,
and then just the fact that we really haven't seen anything.
He didn't really get to see a whole lot in
the spring. Summer's been really quiet. We don't really no
one way or the other. And now for almost about
a month away from the season to start, and everybody
(10:06):
just looking for answers and looking for encouragement. It's hard
to find right now.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Totally rebuilt O line coming up, which I guess should
give Kentucky fans at least a dose of optimism, because that,
quite frankly has been the problem.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
I'm not laying it at the feet of any.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Particular players or coaches, but they just have not been
able to reconstruct the kind of O line that have
that has led to the kind of success Mark Stoops
teams have enjoyed in the past. And as you know, Larry,
it all starts and ends there. I mean, if your
O line isn't any good, you can't cover that up.
And you talked about the two qbs, you know, and
(10:48):
I don't think Devin really had a chance to show
what he could do, and to a degree, neither Condvander
riv right.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. And you hope it's
going to be different this year. But I mean, part
of me says, yeah, you needed to go out and
bring in a bunch of new guys because you have
to make some changes. Now. The part of me says, well,
if these guys are going to be as good as
why Kentucky hopes are going to be why the teams
that had them let them go. So I mean, it's
(11:18):
it's easy just to look on one side or the
other decide which way you want to be. And again,
I just don't know enough to really have an opinion,
is what I keep saying. I don't know whether I
think Kentucky can win seven games, whether I think they
can win three, because I really there's so many unknown
parts that I can't remember a season quite like this, Dick,
where you went into it with so many I don't
(11:39):
know if you want to say questions or just unknowns,
because they just don't know how some of these guys
are going to be and how they're going to perform.
And then and then you talk to somebody like I
did a couple of weeks ago with Type Bright when
he says that he thought last year, guys just thought
would be easy, they'd go out there and win. When
it didn't work out that way, some of the guys
just kind of quit on the team. Well, I've seen
a lot of those are the guys that aren't back
(11:59):
this year. Hopefully that that did that, But you know,
if that happens once the orri it can happen again.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah, they lot them shut down. It was pretty pretty evident.
You could see that on the field. Although, and I
mentioned this to Stoops at media days, when you go
back and look at the Georgia game and the Old
Miss game, for two weeks, Kentucky played as well as
anybody literally in the country, almost beating the Bulldogs, pulling
off that upset at Ole Miss. Vandergriff looked like the
(12:26):
Vandergriff THEYD hoped he would be, even though he was
sacked half a dozen times. Bush Hampden called a great game.
Kentucky made plays, got a couple of breaks, but then
things just kind of collapsed.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
They got to avoid that this year.
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Easier said than done, right, Yeah, especially you start out
with Toledo with a team that you think you think
you're going to be, but probably a much better team.
And once you normally hope with the season it for
a non conference game, and you come right back with
Ole Miss, who I'm sure has been thinking for almost
a year about how Kentucky custom a spot in the
college football playoffs. Back to back pretty difficult games to
(13:02):
open up with. So we'll think about it, it won't take
us long to find out a lot about this team.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
He's Larry Vaughd. We'll come back and talk more UK
sports with Larry.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Mark.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Pope talked to the media yesterday Back in a minute
here on the Leech Report. Welcome back to the Leach Report.
Dick Gabriel sitting in for the voice for chatting with
Larry Vatt. Mark Pope talked to the media regularly scheduled
news conference yesterday and the message yesterday Larry was, of course, they're.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Not anywhere near where they need to be.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But I thought it was fascinating that Pope basically admitted
he is flip flopping the way he usually does business.
He said, I'm a coach who's kind of twisted and
really likes the offensive end of the floor. And you
and I have heard every coach from the beginning of
time say everything begins with defense. But last year Kentucky
was kind of late to the party when it came
to defense. Turned things around a little bit, really dramatically
(13:51):
toward the end of the year. But Pope says, now
everything or not everything, but much of what their work
consists of now is on defense. And then they'll get
to the offense. What did you think of that when
you heard that.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Well, I think if you just look at the way
that he structured his second team, I think you could
tell there's a lot more emphasis on looking at what
some guys might be able to do defensively than what
maybe there was last year. And I think Marcut's always
been a guy that believed in defense, going all the
way back to when he played at Kentucky for Rick Patino.
I just think he's kind of made his living with
(14:27):
what his teams have been able to do on the
offensive end. So I think he's just gone through a
year at the SEC, learned a few things about his team,
and now is going to make the adjustments that he
has to make. But I think we're going to still
see a lot of threes flying, and we're still going
to see a team trying to get up the court
pretty quick and all like that. I just think maybe
this year he's going to have a few guys that
(14:48):
are a little bit better defensive players and overall than
maybe some of the players that he had last year,
and that's going to make it a little bit easier
to have an emphasis on defense.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You mentioned Patina, and of course, you know that team.
His early teams especially thrived on transition basketball because of
the defense they played. People forget that. You know, we
want the team to get up and run up and
down the floor and fly and dunk and all that stuff,
but so many times that begins with defense turning a
(15:17):
team over or rebounding doing the dirty work.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And I think I think you're right. I think this
team is going to be built that way.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Yeah, it sure looks to me like they've got a
lot of rstial guys that can switch out and guard
different positions, and they're going to have so much more depth.
I'm kind of anxious to see if they will try
to apply a little bit more pressure defensively than what
they did last year because they were just kind of
decimated by injuries and I'm not sure how much they
could do that Mark wanted to do. Where this year,
(15:46):
you hope that this is going to be a healthy roster.
They're going to have a lot more options, a lot
more flexibility because of the depth. Then maybe they can
get out there and get after guys even a little
bit more than what they did last year. Because I
think I think they've got some guys could get after
you and lock it down.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Given the change, and you mentioned death, and you look
back at last year and it was so enjoyable for
the fans.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It was fun to cover.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
But injuries did play a huge role there, especially at
point guard. And it looks like now they've got another
good point guard, but injuries, foul, trouble, whatever could affect
the point guard spot. But that was one of the
early questions. Put the Pope yesterday and he talked about
otego oh way and he talked about Colin Chandler playing
(16:28):
the point Do you batay perhap? So I don't know
if it'll be quite the problem it might have been
last year, but it's gonna be something you got to
think about him.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
I right, yeah, But I think if Jaylen Lowe was healthy,
you probably won't have to think about that position more
than maybe what ten minutes a game about what you're
going to do, and maybe in big games not even
quite that much. You're playing a little bit more than that.
I'm kind of intrigued. But I thought of Otega playing
there a little bit. They tried just briefly a little
(17:01):
bit last year and it didn't go great. But I
think if he can do that some that probably enhances
his value of going to the next level. If he
shows he can do something like that, I think Colin
could certainly come in and fill in for periods of
time right there at that position. So I think they
will be okay unless Jalen would have something happened to
(17:22):
him like what Lamont he is. I think Jalen is really,
really a good player and gonna be a lot like Lamont,
probably better than all of us realized when he first
got here. Once we get a chance to see.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Jalen won't have to carry his team the way he
did last year at Pitt and he's going to be
surrounded by a lot more talent. So I'm curious to
see what he does, maybe as much as anybody. He
is Larry Vott follow him on Twitter Vought's Views, and
of course you can hear him every Sunday morning on
Sunday Morning Sports Talk. Thank you, sir, have a great day.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
You two Dick.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
When we come back, we'll talk to one of the
all time Kentucky greats, Wesley woodyard and All Conference linebacker
and a twelve year veteran of the net National Football League.
A reminder of the Leach Report, coming to you from
the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. I'm Dick Gabriel sitting in
for the Voice and we'll have more on the other
side of the break here on the Leach Report. Welcome
back to the Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises for
(18:15):
locations in Kentucky when you need to rent or buy
heavy equipment or a new zero turn more for your
long term two Bobcat Enterprises. We're joined now by one
of my all time favorite Wildcats. He is one of
the all time greats at the University of Kentucky and
a twelve year NFL veteran, mister Wesley Woodyard.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
Good morning, sir, Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
How you doing, mister Gabriels on with I.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Am well, Wesley, thank you so much for joining us.
Before we talk about anything football related, we need to
talk about your upcoming golf tournament. Are there still slots
open because you're looking for a sponsorship opportunities and things
like that.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Absolutely, we're still looking around anywhere from seven to eight
teams to sign up and join, and they can and
found out on my website sixteen Waves, or you can
go over there check out the website and no, man,
this is a great event to come back to Lexison,
to find sponsors every year to believe in my dream
(19:14):
for a continue to change the community. But man, it's
a great event. It's a great time to come out
there and just have some fun golfing.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
It's Friday, August the eighth, with eight am registration a
shotgun start at the Thoroughbred Golf Club And according to
Wesley's poster and artwork, changing Lives, one putt at a time,
were you a golfer growing up? Were you a golfer
at uk or did you come to the game late?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
You know, I was what they call it COVID golfer.
Whereas I picked up I picked up some free time
on the golf court throwing COVID and ticket serious. But
actually my first time on golfing was at a baby
shower Roger Williams baby shower. Coach Brown brought some golf
(20:04):
clubs for us and let us tee off and that
was kind of like the first time. But no, I
was never a serious golfer growing up, never knew about
the game. But as I got older, as I got wiser,
I realized that golf is probably the only game I'll
be able to play when I'm like eighty five, ninety
years old.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
Also, I'm loving that.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
I hear that.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And it's also great for what they like to call fellowship.
It's fun to get out there with your buddies and
laugh in between shots that drive you nuts, but that's
the fun part, especially in a shotgun charity golf scramble.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Right.
Speaker 5 (20:42):
Yes, absolutely, And I'd like to thank two of my sponsors,
Helpware and country Boy. Country Boy for sure, They've been
a part of the vision and the dream for a
long time. And just to have sponsors like that that
believe in us, it's amazing to get out there just
to to build that camaraderie ship so we can change
(21:02):
the state. You know, changed Kentucky's changed, Detroit changed Georgia.
We have around forty five athletes that are traveling to
the Junior Olympics this week with our sixteen Ways Track
Club and also my Little Flag one of my Flag
football teams that will be down there at Junior Olympics
(21:23):
as well. So you know, it's a good day for
sixteen Ways. We'll continue to change young kids lives and
that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, that answers what was going to be my next question.
The sixteen Ways Foundation has been around for a while,
and UK fans might remember that was Wesley's number at
Kentucky and it seemed like an unusual number four a linebacker,
but he came here as a safety. And of course
your Twitter handles up fifty two. That was your number,
of course with the Broncos, fifty nine with the Titans.
(21:52):
But anyhow, everybody here remembers you as number sixteen because
you were in on so many plays. But how did
the Sixteen Ways Foundation come about?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
How is it born?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
So I'm sitting I'm sitting in where we're at out
in Denver, and we're just, you know, we're trying to
find a way to you know, impact the community. And
back then you either had to have a big name
or a foundation to get some waves to get people
to buy into it. So my cousin Derrick Kelly and
(22:25):
his best one of his best friends, Joe Solomon, we
all was like, listen, we're doing a lot of work
in the community. Let's just you know, put a name
by it, and you know, sixteen Ways. We went with
sixteen of course, like you said, my old football number,
and in twenty ten we decided to start the Sixteen
Ways Foundation and it's just been a life changing event
(22:49):
for me and as well as our other co founders
as well. And so we get a chance to work
with literacy, bullying, just self confidence, building these kids up
and we try to touch our community through every positive
way that we can. And man, it's led us through
so many states. We take kids traveling every year with tracks.
(23:12):
So it's just been an amazing thing in my life, man,
and I look forward to doing it every chance I
get an opportunity to work in the community, I love
to do it.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, you were super active while you're in the NFL
as well, so you made a lot of contacts in
Denver in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
That's got to feel really rewarding to you. I would think.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
I'm really excited about the work that I put in
in Sixteen Ways i started my foundation, that it allowed
me to win the Denver Broncos Walter Payton Man of
the Year three times as well as Tennessee. I've won
the Walter Payton Man three times out a year there.
So it's allowed me to have a lot of influence.
But I think one of the most important things about
(23:54):
my platform is that I've been allowed to encourage a
lot of my other teammates to start up there foundations
to you know, get busy in the community and work
beside me as well as trying to change these young,
young kids lives. So it's been amazing. I love it,
and that's the encouragement that I try to bring to it, like, hey,
(24:16):
let's get into it man, full throttle, let's get out
of hands dirty, let's get down there. Let's change these
kids' lives right now, right now.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
You mentioned Detroit, and there was a viral video of
you with a youngster from Detroit from gosh about eight
years ago. But what is your connection to Detroit?
Speaker 5 (24:35):
So my I co founder, Derek, he works in the
automotive industry, and so he was he relocated into up
to MacComb, Michigan, which is a small city outside of Detroit,
and he as soon as he got there, he recognized
the need for, you know, some some form of a
track coach, whether he would be a mentor whether he
(24:58):
would try to coach at one the local high schools.
He was like, I know, I have to get busy
and do something that the need is here. The warrant
is here. So he started, he started, he started our
sixteen Ways Track Club in Michigan, and it's honestly, it
has been one of probably one of the most effective
programs that we have every every year, every spring, every summer.
(25:20):
We have about one hundred athletes one hundred athletes or
so on our team. Sometimes that's and just to see
those kids' lives change. We even have one of our
track students that ran track at the University of Kentucky.
So we put a lot of kids into college and
changed a lot of kids lives and more importantly, teaching
(25:40):
them how to believe in dreaming themselves.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
How many times has a young man who maybe is
not quite as young anymore come up to you and say,
you helped me early in my life.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
I got to think that happens once in a while.
Speaker 5 (25:52):
Oh it's one of the brightest spots, you know that
that does happen. You know, when you're doing work like this,
you know you're never trying to do it to get paid.
You know, you're never trying to really do it to
get any recognition. But the but the best recognition to
me is, like you just said, Dick, is when a
kid comes up and say, hey, I remember when you
(26:14):
when you came and did something at our school, or
I remember when you gave us an Amazon Kindle, or
I remember when I got my back back to school
book back from you. Uh, that's an amazing feeling. Last night,
I was doing some work with a kid and he
ran up to me. He was like, hey, I remember
you you missed a Woodyard. You and your MLB Baseball friend.
(26:35):
You guys came over and held a summer camp for
me and my classmates. We enjoyed it. And that kid
is now trying out for a local high school here
in Florida. So it's amazing to get that love and
respect and to know that you're actually changing these young
men and young women's lives.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's awesome. That's a great story. And we'll come back
and talk more with Wesley wood Yard. We'll talk a
little bit of football.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Was him on the other side of the break here
on the Leech Report. Welcome back, Dick Gabriel sitting in
for Tom Leach on the Leech Report. We're talking to
one of the all time great Kentucky Wildcats, Wesley Woodyard,
and we have been talking about Wesley's golf tournament upcoming
on Friday, August eighth, Changing lives, one putt at a time.
This will benefit the sixteen Ways Foundation. If you want
(27:22):
more information, six sixteen Ways dot org.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Got to talk a little football.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
But first of all, we say, I wonder if your
ears were burning a couple of weeks ago, because I
was talking to Danny Trevathan about you, Danny going into
the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. You were inducted
about eight years ago, and he talked about just the
effect that he you had on him. A little bit
younger than you, but he said, you know, you were
(27:48):
just a great leader and a great influence on him.
And he of course had a great career in the NFL,
won a title with your Broncos. But you had to
be happy for him, I know. And here's a guy who,
like you, I think was maybe an underappreciated, undervalued linebacker.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Absolutely man. Me and Danny, we we fit the same mold,
you know. When uh, well, my my senior class when
we graduated, Danny Danny's freshman class replacement, and I immediately
got to talking to my linebacker coach at the school,
coach Coach Smith, and I'm like, hey, who's the Who's
(28:27):
who's the linebackers that I got to look for? And
he was like, you know, Danny's daddy kid. He's pretty good.
I think he plays a lot like you. I think
he plays a lot like you. With I was like, wait,
hold up, coach, nobody plays like me. And he was like, yeah,
he runs around, he flows around just like you. So
I got I got to watching some of this film
(28:49):
and you know, building a relationship with him, and and
of course watching him put up twenty something toples almost
every week. It seemed like in the sec I knew
he was going to be a good player. Actually mentioned
him to my coaches doing a draft in Denver and
was like, man, I would love to get a chance
to play with Danny. And not that they listened to me,
(29:10):
of course, they listened to their upper execs or whatever,
but they end they ended up drafting Danny. They you know,
they do their due diligence. They come by during the
combine and ask if you know about him. So I
was on board with Danny and I always dreamed about
playing with uh playing in the NFL, with any Kentucky
linebacker I had a chance to play with several Kentucky
(29:33):
linebackers that came out, and Danny was one of those
guys that man I was like, you know what, this
is my little brother. He's a linebacker from Kentucky. So
all I know is if we ever get a chance
to play on the same field, we're about to do
some work. And that's that's exactly what we did. So man,
I was so excited to hear Danny getting elected into
the Kentucky Hall of Fame. He deserved it. Great leader,
(29:56):
amazing player for the wildcast. Uh, one of the best
guys I ever put on that Blue.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And White, absolutely, and he had that speed going for him.
He was one of the fastest linebackers whoever played at
Kentucky to the point where you were gone. But Danny
talked somehow talked to coaches into letting him return a
kick in the Blue White game.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
You know, we're all sitting upstairs walking what in the world,
you know?
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And he did okay, But then he inured his wrists
in that game and the coaches quickly said no, they
shut him down. But you know, he started playing linebacker,
and you did a little bit to that as well.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
When the position began to.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Evolve and involve more coverage and things like that. It
became more of a hybrid position that fit your skill set, too.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Didn't it.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
That's that's correct. I was. I was in one of
those funky transitional stages coming out of college as well
as the NFL too, because the league was going to
bigger linebackers, three four defenses, but there was something that no, boy,
they expected tight ends like Jacob Tammy that couldn't be
(31:03):
covered because linebackers couldn't run with him. And I'll never
forget my last day of safety at Kentucky. We were
playing Cover two and I was a half field safety.
We're running our offense is running the option play to
my left. All this beach is the running back. I
run down, I hit the quarterback. He flipped the ball
(31:26):
to artist. I get up, go tackle Arlist for a
lost and I'm getting hype. I'm talking about Oh yeah,
look at that. I was like man. Coach Brown and
coach Archer ran up to me and was like, what
are you doing? Like, we don't need a safety making
a tackle in the backfield and Cover two you're.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
Going you're moving the linebackers.
Speaker 5 (31:45):
So I did. I didn't take I didn't take that serious,
but I was like, dang, they might move me to
linebacker in Laurid Behold. I go into Coach Brooks office
like a week in the season, like, hey, you know,
I want to play linebacker, and that's what he looked
at me too, and he was like, yeah, I think
(32:05):
we're going to move you to linebacker too. Don't worry
about it, You'll be playing linebacker. It was the right
decision for me. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
It changed your life and it changed the trajectory at
the Kentucky football program. And I'm glad you brought up
Rich Brooks. We just have a couple of minutes left.
But there are three photos of you on the poster
for your golf tournament, one with the Broncos, one with
the Titans. But your UK photo, Wesley, is you hugging
Rich Brooks. I think that's after the Music City Bowl
win one of them. And you had such a great
(32:36):
relationship with Rich Brooks at the point where you're the
one who went to Mitch Barnard and said we're gonna
get this thing turned around under rich Brooks. And you
certainly did tell me about your relationship with him, because again,
he's a guy like you wasn't appreciated nearly enough till
he was.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
Gone, oh yeah, man, mean, Coach Brooks, we have a
great relationship from day one. Just just a a truth
showman of a a what a man should be as
far as somebody that's trying to become a man. And
I'll never forget when I came up there on my visit,
he looked at me and he was like, you're one
(33:12):
of the guys that we need to turn this program around.
And I've never really had anybody. You know, when you're
going to recruiting trips you're going to you're just another
You're just another guy. You know, you walk around, you
know there's way bigger players, you know, guys that have
four or five stars. But when he what he said
he saw in to me when on my visit, that
(33:34):
just stuck with me, Like, man, I want to come
here and I want to help change the program around.
I want to help put Kentucky football on the map
and make a legacy for this program. And I was
able to do that with my my freshman class coming
in and some of the guys that was there as
well bought in full speed. But man, from day one,
Coach Brooks had an open door policy, and I think
(33:56):
that's all you can respect. As a young man coming
into college, you're away from your family. You need to
find somebody that you can trust and rely on. So
these college coaches, I know, they're in a shaky world
now with nil and players voices are way powerful now
that they were back then. But man, you gotta love it.
(34:16):
You got your players, have to feel that love that
you have for the game. Still. Yeah, I know it
went from we're expecting to have you four years in
our campus too. Now it could be one year to
two years while you're here. Let's maximize that. Let's get
the best for you because at the end of the day,
it is all about our kids. You know, the University
of Kentucky comes first in aspects and certain aspects, but
(34:42):
even more than that, the University of Kentucky can't be
UK unless you have those star studied athletes coming and
leaving their homes and believing in Kentucky football. And that's
what it's about. Coach Steut's has it on the right track.
Very proud of him, Still love Coach Stewt's man, and
looking forward to seeing what they do this on the field.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Wesley, thank you so much. We'll keep plugging your tournament,
but best of luck to you. Thanks for joining us
this morning.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Always a pleasure chatting with you, all right.
Speaker 5 (35:09):
Man, I see you guys just so this year as
we get ready to win the SEC Championship, do have.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
A good day.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
You tak it.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Welcome back and close up this edition of the Leach Report.
Welcome back to Gabriel in for the voice as we
wrap things up, and it's it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
I love talking to Wesley Woodyardy.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
You talk about a guy who was unheralded what he
got here, and all he did was lead his Georgia
team to a pair of state championships in high school
and was rated the best player in Georgia in whatever
class he was playing, and so and then he had
some great years in the NFL but was not named
(35:49):
to the Pro Bowl. So he's always just been a
guy who's had to overcome but he's done it so well.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
And we'll keep plugging his golf tournament for him.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
But I just love talking football with him, and he
had interest comments to make about Mark Stoops and about
of course Rich Brooks, a guy who you know was
like like Wesley was unheralded when he got here and
some people thought it would never work.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
So anyhow, we'll.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Close up Kentucky Roach Show Sports Cards to memorabilia and
Lexie didn't learn more about them at Roadshowcards dot Com.
Closing up, But happy birthday to Stevie Johnson. You had
Steven Johnson, the quarterback who did great things at Kentucky.
Stevie Johnson, of course famous for Stevie got loose the
touchdown grab he made against the Louisville Cardinals, which really
(36:36):
touched off the seven season, which offensively was the best
in the history of UK football. But that was one
of the greatest moments in the history of then Commonwealth Stadium.
But Stevie also made the touchdown catch that won the
game in the upset of top ranked LSU, a team
that went on to win the national championship. So arguably
(36:56):
you could say Stevie made the top two catches in
the history of Commonwealth Stadium. For Shannon to do, Dick Gabriel,
have a great day.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Everybody
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