2025-08-14 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Jack Givens,Paul Archey, and Justin Rowland.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody. Welcome in to the Leach Report, presented
by Bobcat Enterprises, and coming up today, we're gonna talk
with a goose Jack Gibbons as we do on Thursdays,
justin Rowland from Cats Illustrated, and we'll start off with
Paul Archie from JBI Sports a little more explanation of

(00:22):
the deal that was struck with UK that was announced
this week, and also about BBN United, which is the
fan club which actually launches today. Wildcat News of the
Day is a service of Giuseppies of Lexington. So our
Saturday down South finally turned its focus to Kentucky in

(00:42):
a series that they've been doing projecting the outcome of
every game for every SEC team. Missed this yesterday apparently
the day before yesterday. Connor Ogar, who's been on the
show before with us, he projects a four and eight
season for Kentucky with wins over Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Tennessee Tech,
and an upset of the Tennessee Valls. So pretty much

(01:06):
last year one and seven SEC season is what he
is forecasting. And I get it. I've said many times
I understand why projections are going to be what they are,
you know, disappointing if you're a Kentucky fan to see,
but nevertheless, the team won four games last season and
there's fifty plus new players, and you don't know how

(01:28):
that's all going to work out. If it works out well,
then that's part of the script for how they outperform
the low expectations. But we get to see that start
to play out here in two weeks from this Saturday.
A couple of interesting notes though from Connor's peace. He
notes that he talks about the offensive line, how important

(01:51):
that is, and that it's significant that Kentucky has consistency
at the offensive coordinator spot, having the same guy in
Bush Hampden for two years in a row, which hadn't
been the case in a while. And he talks about
the importance of the offensive line and then gets into
the running backs and a couple of interesting notes on
the running backs. He notes that Kentucky last season was

(02:13):
last in the SEC in third down conversion rate and
in the Big Ten last season dow Dell when it
was third and three or less he led the Big
Ten with twenty four conversions and third and three or
less Dante Daldell Nebraska and He also notes that Seth McGowan,
the running back from New Mexico State, was number thirty

(02:36):
one in all of the FBS ranks with forty nine
missed tackles forced. So you know there's breaking tackles or
making guys miss. So a couple of interesting stats there
for the Kentucky running backs that are encouraging in the
kinds of stats that Kentucky needs to be good in
this season if it is going to pull off a

(02:58):
few surprises. Bleacher Report has an NBA mock draft out. Again,
all that kind of stuff is always under the category
for what it's worth, but it's summer and there's not
much she else going on, So we'll talk a little
bit about the fact that they have Jaden Quain's projected
to go number four overall in the first round. That's
been pretty consistent with all the mock drafts I've seen

(03:20):
JQ going somewhere in the lottery. And then this one
has Jasper Johnson going number thirty nine overall in round two.
Mark Fox assigned a one year extension to remain on
the staff with Mark Pope here at Kentucky. So those
are a few headlines for the day. We're go ahead
and hit the first break a little early and come
back and get the chat with Paul Archie that I

(03:42):
taped yesterday. Leach Report opening segment presented by Just Stepies
of Lexington out on Nicholasville Road just past man War Boulevard,
with fantastic food in a really special atmosphere. They expanded
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Sit and listen to Dave Hall's live jazz music while
you enjoy a fantastic Giuseppe's meal, maybe a selection from

(04:06):
the one hundred and thirty plus different bourbons that they have,
and the wines all available to you at Giuseppe. So
get to open table to make your reservation. We'll be
right back on the Leaks Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
It's the Lakes Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises with four
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(04:29):
heavy equipment, those are the guys and ladies you need
to talk to. Google Bobcat Enterprises. You'll find the one
of those four locations in Kentucky that's closest to you,
and they'll have the excavators and the Bobcats the forklifts
and everything that you need. Zero turn moowers for your
home lawn too, and great service after the sale at
Bobcat Enterprises. One of the big stories this week is

(04:51):
the d or the extension of an existing deal between
JMI Sports and UK, and it involves the moving over
in college sports and who's going to handle NIL negotiations
with players and all of that was a big talking
point this week. There's a lot of numbers involved, a
lot of legalities and all of that, but there's some

(05:14):
things that we try to explain a little bit. So
I sat down with Paul Archie, president of JMI Sports,
yesterday to get a little bit of enlightenment. Full disclosure.
I obviously I'm hired as a contractor by JMI to
call the Kentucky games. And here's what we chatted about

(05:34):
with Paul Archie. So, Paul, fifteen years is seems like,
I think for fans, a long time for a deal
when so much has changed just in the last two
or three years. So why is fifteen years? Why does
this work well for you and UK?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
It is a long time, and I think shows confidence
that the University of Kentucky has in US as a
multimedia rights partner. But understand that we are currently in
the middle of a fifteen year deal, so this is
really just an extension of six years through twenty forty.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
And why is that a good idea?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well, because of the way the deal is structured, we're
moving from a straight guarantee agreement to a guarantee with
revenue share that is much more lucrative for University of
Kentucky Athletics.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
So if something new comes along, they can do this
entertainment district around the football stadium that Mitch Barnhardt has
talked about. Something like that happens if there's additional revenue,
then you guys do the split on the additional revenue.
So this could grow beyond four hundred and sixty five million,
which has been the number that's reported.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Oh exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's a projected number based on the assets or the
current assets there in the deal doesn't contemplate any new assets.
And again, frankly, that's what's great about this deal. It's
set up to keep Kentucky at the forefront of multimedia
rights and sponsorships. Partnerships doesn't contemplate what you just said,

(07:06):
anything that has not been developed yet. And Furthermore, it
allows Kentucky. If you believe college athletics is going to
continue to grow and you're a big brand, which Kentucky is,
they share in eighty percent of net revenues, which is
a far greater percentage than in the current deal.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
How will NIL negotiations change for athletes moving forward now
that JMI is involved. Is JMI like a general manager
in this.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, I've heard that we're not a general manager at all.
We're not involved in roster management or the recruitment of
athletes only just with the respect as it would relate
to their NIL value in getting some NIL deals. It's
changed because the system has changed, you know, the House Settlement.

(07:56):
Starting with the House Settlement and the new rules in
place started July first, every deal over six hundred dollars
has to pass through a tool called nio GO. So
we're best positioned because of our relationships with brands. We have,
you know, over two hundred brand partnerships with the University
of Kentucky. To pitch UK athletes too is exactly in

(08:19):
partners exactly, it's turnkey for us at that respect, we're
best positioned to take advantage of what I what I
like to call hot markets. So right, you only have
a limited amount of time as a as an athlete,
may have a great performance, you know, we hit a
home run to send you to the College World Series.

(08:40):
Well you've got five days until that hitter could also
go over four So how do you take advantage? We
have built in partnerships that can allow us to take
advantage of those types of opportunity opportunities, but also you know,
just you know, the the brand prominence the University of
Kentucky has on a local and regional level, and we

(09:01):
have more tom we have more long term partnerships, the
value of our partnerships long term more than any other
school in the country, and that puts in this red
share new model puts very low risk on Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
That gives us the thing about reacting quickly to big plays.
Is a good segue to also talk about BBN United,
which you guys announced and UK announced last week and
that's launching today. And I was talking to one of
your folks about some of the content that would be there,

(09:38):
for example, and there's a Mark Pope interview that's going
to be part of this launch where he talks about
his love for chess, and how the backstory in that
how it maybe helps him as a coach. Those kinds
of long form features is something that is a bb
and United member you'd have access to if you don't

(10:00):
want to pay that cost, if you don't doesn't fit
into your budget, whatever. That content will still be put
out via UK Sports Network All Access if I understand correctly,
but it might be a few days later, so you
get the early access if you're a BBN United member.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Correct, that's correct.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
BBN United is a new innovative loyalty fan club membership
that we're launching with the University Kentucky in partnership with
two Circles as well. It will it's a membership fan
club that provides exclusive content, experiences, maybe discount on merchandise,

(10:43):
other benefits that you know fan clubs. It's really a
robust fan club that I think our fans are really
going to going to enjoy and get behind. You mentioned
the content with Coach Pope.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yes, that'll that will go out tomorrow to.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
On the launch, but fans will still the content that
they were receiving today for free on the radio or
otherwise will still be available to them.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Some fans signed up when NIL first started to be
a club member I think with Club Blue, just because
that was the way the system was set up and
they were if they chose to do that, they were
helping the NIL efforts for this team that they root for.
That is no longer prohibited, right, or that is no
longer allowed.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Well, it's no longer allowed that direct compensation from a
donor to an athlete. It has you know, the membership
club will provide revenue to support UK Athletics student athletes,
you know maybe through the revshare portion help you know,

(11:51):
as a University of Kentucky increases their revenue, but also
through some NIL opportunities with membership clubs. So if they
are representing a brand or endorsing a brand, that may
be sponsoring an event like an autograph signing that's exclusive
for athletes and it's sponsored, so that money could go

(12:12):
through INIL. Remember in IL there are a couple of
important it's a new system and it's important to remember
that through innio go, NIL has to support a valid
business purpose.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
That means a true endorsement.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
This is about true INNIL, not pay for play. So
you just can't as a donor get money.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
To an athlete this is John Doe for Bills Bank.

Speaker 2 (12:36):
That's correct, and then then it has to support a
valid business purpose and then it has to get approved
in the range of compensation by anile go.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
So we as.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
You know, setting up our system, which we're calling bbnil Suite,
will be you know, experts in helping to understand how
to maximum value through the nio go system and and
and help get those deals approved. So that's some of
the value that we're providing. And again our nil efforts
will not you know, of course, driving nil revenue for

(13:14):
our student athletes to help coaches recruit and retain players.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Is you know, maybe the most important part of that.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
But but I actually think it's a lot of the
other things that we're doing services related to that, helping
athletes grow their brand, create content, you know with the
new studios downtown, with the communication center, which makes those
athletes then more valuable maybe to something exactly right, you know.
One of the inputs in the nil go system, you know,

(13:43):
are things like, well, what's the following of the athlete.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Do they have three.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Hundred followers on social media or do they have three
hundred thousand. Obviously the athletes that have higher social media
are more more valuable.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Back in the day, Tim Couch hosting his own podcast
would have probably exceeded the bounds of the Commonwealth.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
No question, all right, he would have been a very
valuable athlete. The other types of inputs are again things
like performance is one, So you may come in. When's
the right time to do an NIL deal?

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
If you're a basketball player, you might be more valuable
before the season starts than actually depending on playing time
and and and so forth, or the other way around. Right,
you're not you don't come in, you know. An example
would be like a Reed shepherd who came in at
probably a lower level, but over the course of the season,
we saw how his NIL value grew based on performance

(14:41):
and popularity other inputs. It differs, right, are you doing
a national deal or there are very few of those
national deals?

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Right college athletes?

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I mean that there there aren't a lot of of
athletes doing national deals. But and that's where we're really
strong at the University of Kentucky. The local Red.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Brands. We're one of the top you know, fan bases
in the country. But on a local and regional level,
you know, we have we've been a top multimedia Rights school.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
You know since I've been involved in at one of
the very top and we'll continue to be.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
With this deal, a.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Lot of new terms and things for fans to wrap
their head around. So thank you for helping to explain
how some of this will be working moving forward.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Always great to talk to you, Tom.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Thank you. It's Paul Archie, President of JMI Sports. Now
to summarize, previously UK got a scheduled guaranteed payment from
JMI and JMI had to generate the revenue to make
the profit on that guaranteed payment. Now UK has more
control of that revenue and how it comes about, and
if it exceeds a certain threshold then UK keeps eighty

(15:50):
percent of that money. And if you think college sports
will continue to grow, then UK should fare much better
than in its previous partnership in turns terms of overall revenue.
And I would think it incentivizes UK in partnership with
j am I to be creative in some of the
things they do, because that's likely how they will generate

(16:12):
more revenue and UK gets a big cut of that
additional revenue. So hopefully that helps a little bit le
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(16:32):
refuel at Clark's. Well along in that first interview, So
we're gonna give Goose a holler at coming out of
the bottom of the hour break. Just got about a
minute or so here before the next one. Bunch of
Stallings and use Off Corker have joined the football staff
for Mark Stoops at Kentucky as new grad assistant coaches.

(16:53):
Of course, both were outstanding players for Coach Stoops during
his time here at Kentucky. So love to see those
guys coming back and being a part of the program.
In recent years guys like Drake Jackson and CJ. Conrad
have done this. A bunch of a great offensive lineman,
use of outstanding safety. And then Mike Hartline is back

(17:14):
as well, working with the quarterbacks. Then chatted with him
a little bit at the Coaches for the Kids dinner.
So good to see him back. And they've added Jack
Ray as an assistant for special teams. He'll be working
with coach Bullwheard in the special teams area. He was
a co special teams coordinator at Hawaii the last two years,
so has a lot of experience in that field. And

(17:35):
then did you see the note where West Virginia's state
school board has approved allowing high school and middle school
students student athletes, I guess to engage in nil deals.
Imagine like a seventh or eighth grader getting an nil deal.
I guess it can happen in West Virginia, and if
it happens in one state, it'll probably move to others.

(17:57):
Late report is presented by Bob Kenn Enterprises. We're halfway
home back with the Goose when we returned second half
of the Leads report for this Thursday. We are presented
by bobcat Enterprises, and we welcome to the program the Goose,
Jack Gibbings Goose. Uh did you guy? You guys never
played in Alaska? Did you?

Speaker 4 (18:20):
We did not the shootout Alaska? I did. I did
go up once when I was uh work in the
UK Basketball Network TV network to broadcast the games. I
did go up one year for it. But we never
played there.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
I was telling the story to Mike de Corsi yesterday
when he was on with us about I said, here's
a testament to the passion for Kentucky fans. I remember
listening to was listening to the UK Radio network before
a game in the Great Alaska Shootout. I can't remember when,
but Ralph Hacker was interviewing a gentleman who had driven
up to Alaska from Pikeville.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
And when when he said that, when Jack, you know where?
When Ralph said that, I was like drove off the
road of like what? Uh? Anyway, the guy's son apparently
called into KSR yesterday confirmed the story and uh talked
about it. Took him about what. Let me see here.
I get the note from somebody. They drove a drove

(19:19):
a Subaru for the trip and it took about three weeks. Goodness,
that is passion.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
That is uh that is Kentucky basketball man, isn't it.
I just don't know that you could get another fan
base to have someone drive that far. But uh, but
I'm not surprised. Well I'm a little surprised, but I'm
really not surprised that that would happen.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah, you and I see it. Anywhere you get the
Kentucky goes, you see Kentucky fans show up. Remember they
played out in Anaheim and the NCAA Tournament as an
eleven seed a few years ago, and there were Kentucky
fans that showed up at the open practice.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
So they're always yeah, and they are always there. And
the real interesting thing, Tom is no, it doesn't matter
where I might be traveling, you see Kentucky fans. I
was Linda and I were in Greece. This has been

(20:21):
five six, seven years ago. We were there visiting Tony Mills,
my good buddy and his my wife Marilla, who was
who was born and raised there, and we were standing
in a line to get tickets to go to the Parthenon. Uh,
just going for a visit, and there were two lines.

(20:41):
We were in the long line, and I said, man,
there's a window over there. I'm gonna go over there
and just see if I could do something. Well, I
walk away and I have Linda stay in that line
to hold our space. And when I walked away, this
lady said to Linda said it's Jack Gibbons. And I

(21:03):
mean Linda went crazy, Yes, it is. How in the
world would you know that all the way over here. Well,
her husband was a professor at the university and they
were there on a visit as well, and they were
talking about how big a fans they are, And it
really doesn't matter where you go, Kentucky fans are there.

(21:23):
That is that's kind of amazing to me. Just when
you think you're somewhere where you can kind of blend
in and let your hair down a little bit, my
little hair, you know, somebody comes up and talks to
Kentucky basketball. I mean, it doesn't matter where you go, Tom,
the fans are everywhere.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
It's a great story. Let me talk a little bit
about the freshman on this Kentucky team coming up, because
there's a new mock draft, this one I saw from
bleacher Report, and they have Jasper projected in the second round,
the first time I've seen him show up in a projection.
But you've watched a few of the practices that just
s ended last week. What are your impressions of Jasper

(22:07):
at this point.

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Well, I like the fact that he seems to love
the challenge of proving that he is as good as
any of the guys on the floor. I really like
his approach. I like his feistiness, if you will, his
desire to get in and mix it up and and

(22:31):
to accept the challenge. And I only saw him a
couple of times, and not real long either one of
those times because they were limited as to how much
time they were on the floor. But you can tell
he you can tell he has a lot of confidence.
Let's put let's put it like that. So I did

(22:52):
like that about him, and I hope that's right because
he has that kind of talent. I do believe he
will work his way into the NBA. I would like
to see him if he's projected in the second round.

(23:12):
I would like to with nil and everything else, would
like for that to mean he was gonna stay one
more year to improve his game. But but he he
has looked really, really good. Malachi has looked good as.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
Well going there next. Yeah, what were your thoughts on
his what you've seen from Malachi?

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Well, it's kind of like the freshman we had last
year during the season. Those injuries, Uh, gave some of
our young guys opportunities to play and what and that's
what I'm saying here with Malachi, because you know, our
bigs are either not here or out Rhys Potter was

(23:53):
was heard a couple of uh a week or so
of that. So Malakai got a bunch of minutes more
than he probably would have gotten if everyone was healthy,
and he has taken advantage of that. So, you know,
everybody was kind of concerned about his strength. How strong
does he and he has to pick up more muscle

(24:13):
and he has to get stronger, but he held his
own against Brandon Garrison. So both of these young guys
have looked really, really good.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Sure, you probably didn't do much weightlifting before you got
to Coach Hall's program at Kentucky, did you.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I did not anybody you know?

Speaker 4 (24:33):
Interesting, yeah, because back in those days, everybody thought weightlifting
would would really mess your shot up. You get your
muscles and upper body strength would would take away the touch.
But we found out that that wasn't the case.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Goose has always a pleasure catching up. It was fun
to that Eventia the nightd'll see him for Kevin Cook's book.
You and I were at the same table, met so
many Wildcat fans that came through, and there's a great turnout.
It us fun.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Yeah, I mean the thing I liked because the fans
were there and they brought stuff in to get autographed.
But I was, man, I was so happy to get
a copy of the last game in rep Arena.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
And somebody had kept scoring it too, right.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
Yeah, kept the program. Someone brought that in gave it
to me. It has the ticket stub attached to it.
At the score was ninety four to ninety three. We
won that game and overtime. The over it was eighty
five eighty five at the end of regulation. And it

(25:45):
was fun looking through here to see what the scoring
was like. And I'm looking at a couple of these numbers,
which I know you'll find interesting. Larry Johnson had sixteen points.
Reggie Warford, how about that name, had twelve. Let me see,

(26:07):
Mike Phillips had twenty two. I had twenty six in
that game as we and we went on to win
it by one in overtime. But man, that was great.
I'm looking at this thing and reading some of the
articles in there. I was so pleased that one of
our fans brought that in to me.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, it was cool to see. And a couple of
people had the Goose's Golden Sports illustrated cover, so that
was a lot of fun. Goose Thank you much. Talk
to you next.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
We have a good event. Thank you Tom.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
That is the ghost Jack Gibbons. Don't forget about his book.
They call me Goose that he did with Doug Brook.
Still available if you haven't picked it up yet, or if
you're starting to think ahead for Christmas. For a Wildcat fan,
pick one of those up, bring it to a game,
Get Goose to sign up before Christmas. It'll be a
great gift. Eighteen away from the top of the Hour
back with Justin Rowland when we returned. It's the Leads Report.

(26:58):
We're presented each day by Bob Katt at or quarter
before the top of the hour. It is the Leach Report.
And one of our great partners is Shufflebean Coffee. They
are the official coffee of upp Arena and the KFCM Center.
Make me official coffee of your home by picking up
some shuffle Being Coffee today at a central Kentucky Myers store,
order it through Amazon, or go to the company's website

(27:19):
Shufflebeing dot us. You can read about how this group
of Kentuckians got together to form Shuffle Being Coffee, the
commitment to excellence, and then you can order some coffee
while you're there and give it a try. Put some
hustle in your shuffle. Shuffle being coffee. Justin Rowland joining
us from Katzillustrated dot Com. Just watching a video clip
of a rookie defensive in Shamar Stewart at a Bengals

(27:41):
practice and he hit Joe Burrow. And you know, just
as you know, the quarterbacks are always in a different
color jersey. I think it's orange for the Bengals. Most
times it's like a UK, it's the quarterbacks in are
red jersey. Sometimes an injured player will be in the
different color jersey to be the so that they're a
non contact person. That would be a pretty good way.

(28:01):
It's set off a brawl. But with one of the
offensive linemen got after Stuart, which is understandable and good
to see, but that was rather not smart.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Yeah, you can't do that. No, that's a big no no.
He does have immense talent and it looks like, I mean,
he could be a huge difference maker for him, but
that is a huge no no. And I'm sure he's
going to get the message.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yes, I would imagine pretty quickly. Let's talk a little
bit about how things are going with Kentucky's camp. Two
weeks from Saturday, the season will start. They've had one scrimmage,
one more coming up this weekend, and do you get
the sense that the depth charts pretty well set at
this point?

Speaker 5 (28:40):
It seems like they know what they're rolling with at
each position, Like I'm still curious about who's going to
win this backup spot, Like how many snaps is this
guy gonna get? Because you know, we talk about position
battles and depth charts, but you know, Brad White said
at media Day earlier this year that it's it's gonna
be the kind of defense where we tell somebody go

(29:01):
be great for fifteen snaps, go to be great for
thirty snaps, instead of maybe playing seventy five percent of
the snaps in a game. And that's kind of the
ideal scenario, I think, if you're happy with your depth.
So they need the starters to be as good as
they expected them to be. But they also, especially if
they're going to roll with this kind of rotating guys

(29:22):
in and out a lot, they need the depth to
be as good as they thought it was going to be.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
I was referencing earlier Connor Ogar's story at Saturday down
South where they're projecting records for every SEC team, and
he wrote about Kentucky and one of the things he
wrote in his piece was that Kentucky's basically a team
that lacks stars. I don't think that's exactly how I
phrased it, but he said, if you ask somebody to

(29:47):
name a Kentucky player, you know who would be the
first one they'd come up with. And I understand that,
but that's part of what you know you're saying there
on the defensive side, that approach. You know, there's not
a Josh Allen, there's not a Benny Snell, etc. I
think back, again, we've talked about this before, comparing what
this team at its best could hopefully be, which would
be maybe like that twenty sixteen group that was a

(30:10):
team like that. They lost their starting quarterback, the big
name recruit, Drew Barker early to an injury. So Steven
Johnson's a quarterback from College of the Desert. Benny Snell
was a freshman that kind of emerged, but nobody really
was talking much about him before the season. That was
that kind of team, wasn't it.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
Yeah, Yeah, no, I agree with that. That's a good point. Now,
would you put it like that? I know on three
our network has college football player rankings now, not just
high school rankings, but college football player rankings and kind
of ranked players at every position. And I ran through
the list, and I think the two highest ranked Kentucky
players nationally would be Josh Braun the offensive guard. He's

(30:51):
a top twenty guard nationally and David Gusta is a
top twenty defensive lineman nationally. And they're both transfers to
have starting experience with prominent programs Washington State and Arkansas
and Florida. But otherwise you're right, not a lot of
guys showing up on the list. There's not a Maxwell
Harriston going into this season. You'd be hard pressed to

(31:12):
even find a Carrington Valentine going into this season. We're
talking more about like JQ Hardaway maybe being one of
the top five to ten players on the team. So
the sum has to be greater, the whole has to
be greater than the sum of the parts. And it's
gonna that's gonna fall a lot on scheme and and
what the coaches say, this is what our strength and

(31:32):
our bread and butter is going to be, and forging
an identity. I think the path to six seven wins
and optimism at the end of the year is can
they run the ball. If they can run the ball,
then they can force their style of play on opponents,
and some of those games like Auburn and Louisville and
maybe South Carolina and Florida become interesting. That's the path.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
And those those first two games, I mean, Toledo's supposedly
the best team of the back and then a very
good Old Miss team you get, you know, if you
can run the ball, show you run the ball in
those first two games, that gives you reason to be
optimistic moving forward.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
I'm not conceding the Old Miss game at all. Okay,
I mean, I think Ole Miss is in the top
fifteen on paper, and maybe they'll prove to be that,
but they don't have nearly as much talent on paper,
like game changing, elite national level talent as they have
the past couple of seasons. And Kentucky plays well against
Old Miss. You know, it's kind of a contrasting styles
head coaching styles that Ole Miss come out on top

(32:27):
more than Kentucky, but you could easily see Kentucky, you know,
having that as a twenty to thirteen game and late
in the third quarter and then it's interesting. So any
best kind of game, it has to be interesting.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
With tab with Justin Rolokatz Illustrated dot Com, part of
the On three Sports Network now at Roland Rivals on X.
Are you hearing any names out of either side of
the ball from training camp that that you hear are
playing really well that maybe people aren't talking about enough.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
I think by this point, you know, if we're here
and about him, we're we're talking about him. I do
think that some of the guys that may be not
as familiar with that I've consistently heard pretty good things
about would be Mike Weise, Humphrey Grace to transfer from
South Dakota. I think he's going to be a good
edge player, defensive lineman for him. I think Jalen Farmer

(33:18):
is an offensive guard, has some breakout potential. You know,
we talked about last year. We looked at the line
before the season and it's like, where's the upside coming from?
Like where's the NFL draft pick in two years? Like,
and I think that that could be Jalen Farmer. I mean,
I think he's he's got that kind of talent and
that that kind of ability defensively, I mean to go

(33:38):
to the other side, and I'm interested in the backup
inside linebackers Grant Godfrey and Antoine Smith. I've heard they've
had some moments in camp, respectively, and they're gonna have
to be good because you want them to slide up
and be starters the next season. And they're gonna probably
have to play a lot this season too. So there's
you're really looking at a whole team of guys that
are like, Okay, I think we know what we've got,

(34:00):
but now we have to see what it looks like
in live game action. It's like kind of an entire team.
So it's a very unique situation.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Wide receiver to me is going to be interesting. Kendrick
Law he figures a major force there. Macklin's returning after that.
I think in those first couple of games, the door
is open for somebody to make a statement that you
got to play me more. I can make plays that
could be a hardly Gilmore. They could be one of
the freshmen Quizon Berry or hearing good things about Cambiller too.

(34:31):
Those guys. There's gonna be opportunities for somebody to make
a statement there is the third or fourth wide out.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Here's what I would say about that, Like, if this
was a fantasy football draft, I think you would draft
Hardly Gilmore before you draft the transfer receivers with the
possible exception of Kendrick Law, because they'll probably get him
a set number of touches. The reason being it's easy
to think about what Troy Stilato and JJ Hester and

(35:00):
these transfers can be, but they haven't been that yet.
And Hardly Gilmore definitely has a lot of talent and
it has not been the football that has kept him
for making an impact. And we get to a point
where in the season where we need to give this
guy more of an opportunity. His talent is the kind
that could really take off and it's an X factor
and there's less we haven't seen as many weaknesses or limitations,

(35:23):
So would I would say Gilmour would definitely be interesting
for a possible breakout receiver.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
I think you make an excellent point justin Thank you much,
Talk next week.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Thanks Tom.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
You can read him at Katz Illustrated dot com on
the three Sports Network. It is the Leach Report. We're
presented by Bobcat Enterprises, and we'll be right back coming
to you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return, refresh
and refuel at Clark's Time for our Wildcat History note
of the day. It's a birthday. Happy birthday to a

(35:54):
member of Mark Pope's staff, Coach Michale McLean celebrating a
birthday today, so hopefully he gets treated extra ice over
the Basketball Office or Wildcat History Notes presented by Kentucky
Roadshow Sports Cards and Memorabilia on Romney Road right here
at Lexington and add Roadshow Cards dot com. I've been

(36:15):
telling you about the new flavor of infused gummies at
Cornbreadhamp Cherry Lime Chill. Guess you guys liked them. They've
already sold out, so they're making more as fast as possible,
it says at Cornbreadhimp dot com. You can go to
the website and click and grab a spot in line
to be one of the first that gets the next shipment.

(36:36):
They're sweet tart bursting with flavor of the perfect combo
for there's warm Kentucky days and nights and their USDA
organicflower only processed perfectly dosed to give you a baalanced
relief and relaxation without feeling overwhelmed. And they're made right
here in Kentucky with Kentucky grown hemp. Cornbreadhamp dot Com
puts care into everything that they produce, like the new

(37:00):
Harry Lime Chill and fused gummies that are so popular.
And if your first time customer at Cornbreadhemp dot com,
make sure you put in the code Tom at check
out get your extra twenty percent off as a first
time customer. So I note from Pro Football Focus and
it says Dion Walker is the year was the highest
graded rookie defensive tackle in Week one of preseason games.

(37:22):
Week two starting up, I think tonight with some games.
Of course, Dean's with the Buffalo Bills, as is Ray
Davis and Maxwell Harriston, and a healthy Dion Walker is
going to make that club and make a little noise.
So hopefully all those back issues are pardon the pun
behind him now. And Dion is the guy that we

(37:45):
saw in those times when he was at his best,
probably as a sophomore here at Kentucky. So happy to
hear that for Dion. Wish him well and making the
club with Buffalo. It's gonna do it for the Leads
Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises this Thursday. Have a great day, everybody,
see tomorrow