2025-08-15 - LEACH REPORT

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
Butcher Shop in Barnestown at one hundred Old Bloomfield Pike,
family owned and operated since nineteen forty six, with fresh
meat cut on site daily. Boons Butcher Shop. Good. Everybody
welcome in Leech Report. We have made it to Friday.

(00:20):
We are presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises. We'll talk
a good bit of Kentucky football today little Kentucky basketball
as well. We'll lead off with Cole Park from the
Cat's Pause, Corey Price and then Dick Gabriel, two members
of our UK Football Network broadcast crew. Gave, of course

(00:41):
a veteran on the sidelines, and Corey has joined us
in recent years doing stats for us, and you guys
all know him from his x feed and all of
the great stats that he puts out about the Wildcats.
And he has a story that he did for the
UK Network's preseason yearbook about the top twenty five touchdowns

(01:02):
in the last twenty five years at Krogerfield. So we'll
talk about that. Wow. Okay. News of the Day's presented
by just Seppies of Lexington. Mark Pope did a lengthy
chat with Matt Orlander on the CBS College Basketball podcast
that aired yesterday afternoon, and he had several news nuggets

(01:23):
to toss out in there, including one on Jadane Quainton's
as he tries to make his return from off season
knee surgery. Here's a little what coach Pope had to say.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's really important that he gets a full recovery. So
it's gonna be a little while he's working.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
In a little more specific than a little while, like
he's going to play this upcoming season right there. Every
intention that he'll be on the floor of this upcoming season.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I have every expectation that'll play this season. I don't
I don't think he's gonna play all the games this season,
but we'll see. Like he's made great progress and he's
kryd of crossing off the benchmarks as he goes. He's
in a really important three week space for him right now.
Where's the first time we get to hit strength training
head on. He's still not doing anything live this or

(02:07):
even close to it, but we're really going strength heavy, heavy,
heavy the next three weeks, and so we'll see how
these three weeks go.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
One test, unfortunately, Jayden did not pass was his driver's test,
according to Coach Pope, so I guess he'll take another
shot at that. He also touched on Otega. O Way
said he thinks he could be the most versatile defender
in all of college basketball. He also praised the improvement
in Otega's decision making as a playmaker, and several times,

(02:37):
I know Coach Pope last season, whether it be on
the radio show or on one of the pregame interviews,
he would talk about how he saw an elite level
potential there in Otaga as a playmaker for the Wildcats.
So who could create things off the bounds. He said,
in their scrimmage sessions during the summer practices, Brandon Garrison

(02:57):
had the best assist to turnover RACI And he also
talked about Jalen Lowe having the best three point field
goal percentage around forty two percent and their five on
five sessions.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
You know, he was our leading three point field goal
percent and shooter in five on five competition this summer
at almost forty two and a half, just right under
forty two percent, and so we're incredibly excited about what
we believe he's going to do in terms of efficiency
this summer. We think he's going to take a massive jump.
He's been special for us.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
So that was Mark Pope with Matt Orlander yesterday on
the CBS College Basketball Podcast, which you can find wherever
a fine podcasts are found. He was asked about the
most meaningful win last season, and as you would expect
a coach, he didn't want to single out one, but
the first one he did go to, maybe he was
thinking chronologically, was the Duke game, but he said it

(03:51):
was a chance for his guys to make an early
statement and noted that the Cats were one of three
teams ever at college basketball to have eight wins against
top fifteen opponents. He said that there's a lot of
skill work that's gone on this summer, and he really
likes the competitive nature of this group. The fire said

(04:14):
Colin Chandler might be the most competitive of the group
and anything that they do, so that Colin's made a
big improvement in his ball handling and has put a
great focus on that. And coach Pope also said that
he thinks Andrea Jelovich should be there this weekend. That's
something that Yellovitch had posted on his own social media recently.

(04:38):
Pope also said he got to spend about day and
a half with his parents, which I'm sure was great
for recharging the batteries. And one other note, he said
he thinks it's important that Kentucky play the toughest schedule
every year, when it was noted that the Wildcats had
the third toughest schedule last season. So a lot of
good stuff there. You can find the podcast and listen

(04:58):
to it. It's about an hour change, so a lot
of great content there from Mark Pope football. Second preseason
scrimmage is coming up tomorrow. I think at this point
the depth charts probably pretty well locked in for the coaches,
but you know that wide receiver group might be an
area where players could still show something that might get

(05:22):
them a little more of a look or a little
less of a look. So that's maybe one position to
listen for in terms of the post scrimmage comments. Tomorrow.
Women's soccer opened with a nice win over Jackson State
last night at the Bell Soccer Complex. It was a
four nil. Links to the stories that we talk about
each day, he can find those on the Bud Light

(05:43):
Leach Report page at Tom leachky dot com. Head to
a break call Park from the Cats Balls to join
us when we come right back. We'll talk some Kentucky
basketball and football with him. Our opening segment's always presented
by Just Sepies of Lexington. And if you're celebrating a
special occasion, there is no place better to do that
than at gi Seppe's. The food's off the charts. You

(06:06):
have one hundred and thirty seven different bourbons I think
at the bar, wines great espresso martini that Scott makes,
and then you've got the live jazz music to accompany
your meal if you sit in the lounge area. Just
a really special night out when you go to Giuseppe.
So get to open table to make a reservation today.
We'll be right back on the Leach Report Radio Network present.

(06:28):
Each re Park comes to you each day from the
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Snow's cole Park from Katspaws Dot com I want to

(06:51):
talk a little Kentucky football and basketball. We'll start on
the b ball side. Cole and Mark Pope's lengthy interview
with Matt Norlander. A lot of good content coming out
of that. Jaden Quaintance is a name that a lot
of Kentucky fans are very interested in when he will return,
And it didn't sound necessarily optimistic at the moment that

(07:17):
maybe he'll be there for the opener, but it is
definitely a situation where they expect him to play, So
I would say probably not too far into the future.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
I mean, I think the biggest thing Pope tried to
do with a Quaintance on that call was to kind
of try to temper expectations about an immediate return.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
You know, I think people have.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Been seeing on social media, you know, photos of him,
maybe even videos of him not you know, not in
any kind of any kind of gear that he'd normally
be in for his knee. But you know, he tried
to emphasize the importance of making sure gets a full recovery.
You know, he talked about the physical brand of basketball

(08:06):
that he plays in the way he you know, used
the example of his driving tests as a as a
bit of a joke there, but how he just kind
of runs over everybody he plays. He's a really physical specimen,
and how it's going to be very very important that he.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Gets a full recovery, especially as you look.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
At this Kentucky non conference schedule that has a bunch
of very high quality opponents on it, and even very
high quality opponents on it quite early.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
So, you know, Pope pretty much said that he doesn't really.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Expect him to play every single game this season, So
I don't know that you know, you should expect him
to be available for the opener or the exhibitions against
Perduer Georgetown, but did emphasize that he has every expectation
he'll play this season, that he's doing very well, and
you know, I guess the famous quote was when asked

(08:54):
if he could see the floor as soon as the
ind of November, Pope said maybe ish.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
Yeah, I like that term, maybe ish. If he's not
there for the opener, it certainly is a great opportunity
for Malachi Moreno to make his case to get some
minutes because BG isn't going to play all forty and
then if they are not confident enough in a freshman

(09:25):
to do that from the get go, then I would
assume diabate maybe we could play some five.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, I mean I think definitely you could. You could
see a lot of things there. I think we'll get
to see a lot of what they might intend to
do in some of those exhibitions against Purdue and Georgetown
before they kick off the season with the first two
games there of the BBN United tip Off Classic before
going to Louisville on the number eleventh. Obviously, that's the
first big one that really counts. I mean, it feels

(09:55):
kind of smarty to say that. I guess, you know,
no disrespect to Nicols State of Alpariza, but you know,
the exhibitions don't technically count against you, and then your
first two games of the bb and United tip Off
Classic don't really necessarily move the needle quite as much.
But that Louisvill game on November eleventh is gonna be
one that fans are really going to be wanting to

(10:16):
get the victory in. It's in the KFC Young Center,
so it's going to be one that you have to
take pretty seriously. Loisvill's looking like they could be a
very good team this year. You know, Pat Kelsey did
a lot in the offseason in the transfer portal and
then recruiting, so I think that we can.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Expect to see a few things there.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
Obviously, like you touched on there, BG is not going
to play all the minutes. Pope did kind of praise
him for kind of growing into a lot more of
a leader this season. That's something we heard pretty consistently
talking to some of the players over the summer doing
those you know, Quaintance himself even kind of cited Brandon
Garrison as a leader to him personally. So he's not

(10:54):
gonna be able to play all those minutes though, so
it's going to be a great chance for Malachi to
kind of get in there and show off. You know,
Pope had said that there's gonna be times or it
might not look like he knows what he's doing, but
there's gonna be times.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
He looks like he's ready to go to the NBA
right now.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
So if you're a Kentucky fan, obviously you're hoping for
more of the more of the ladder.

Speaker 3 (11:11):
Against Louisville from Malaca that he looks like he's NBA
ready early on.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
But we'll see what they do there and then you know,
it's something that we could see as a very you know,
as the season gets closer, Pope kind of knows more
of what he has, kind of knows more of how
he can use these guys in different roles, and it'll
be very exciting to see whether or not that can
translate into perhaps a pretty big victory up in Louisville

(11:36):
to really kick off the season there.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
This are gonna be the hottest exhibition tickets, maybe of
of all time or in a long time, to have
a Purdue could be a preseason number one coming in
a Georgetown because you know, fans know that they'll get
a really good look at their team even if the
game doesn't count in the one loss column.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Oh yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
I mean, when you look across the college basketball media landscape,
there's a bunch of disparity as to who people think
is going to be.

Speaker 3 (12:07):
The best team this year.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
But what there's not a lot of disparity about is
that most people expect from that ap pool drops in
the preseason that either Purdue or Houston is going to
be the number one team in the country. So it's
entirely possible, Like you said that Kentucky could could start
its world preseason there with possibly the number one team
in the entire country. And the Purdue Boilermakers, who.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Have been very, very consistent these last few years, made a.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
National title game a few years back with Zachi d there,
so that'll be a good test. And then Georgetown, I mean,
it's a program that it maybe not was, maybe not
is what it once was, you know, back in the day.
But we'll hopefully be training in the right direction there with.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Former Providence head coach.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
So I think that these are both two really really
strong exhibitions and I've always supported you know, I love
seeing Kentucky face other teams in the state. But I
definitely think that we're going to have a better idea
of what Kentucky could be this season coming into the
season as opposed to a year where you know, they
play a Kentucky Wesleyan or a Georgetown College.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Because Georgetown from Washington d C.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
And Purdue are both going to be actual, real tests
going into the season before you tip off with some
of those you know, smaller opponents.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
And that's something Mark Pope said, you know, when he.

Speaker 4 (13:28):
Was talking about how he scheduled, you know, he said
that starting in twenty twenty six. Obviously, then the instead
of LA Division One council voted to allow for thirty
two games instead of thirty one. He said, with our exhibitions,
you know, two high quality opponents coming in, we considered
as if we just have thirty four games.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
So I don't know if that'll be something that happens
every single year coming going.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Forward, that we have these really really big opponents in
the exhibitions. But I think it's very very exciting going
into Pope's second season at Kentucky that you do have
those opportunities and that you will get to see so
early on you know where Kentucky might stack up against
some of these higher quality opponents and then kind of
see how they grow more as the season goes on.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Don'k cole parkercatspaus dot com was shift gears to football
and a recent piece that you posted at catspaws dot
com about a guy who is I don't hear his
name pop up a lot. There's so much talk about
all the newcomers, the transfers in, and so much newness
on the offensive side, in particular, that David Rayner inside

(14:37):
linebacker is not a name who's I don't think comes
up a lot in fan discussions, but as you wrote,
he is going to be a very key piece of
the defense.

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
I mean I feel like a lot of these defensive
guys you don't hear as much about them as maybe
you'd expect to, apart from maybe a few. You know,
I feel like going into this season after last season,
there's a lot of emphasis on, you know, the quarterback position,
the running backs.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
The wide receivers.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
You know, even the offensive line is getting a lot
of talk right now because of how it's been in
the recent years. But the defense, you know, as where
the offense kind of went and added a lot in
the transfer portal. I feel like the defense certainly did
add in the transfer portal, but more than anything, it
feels like it's really trying to grow from within and
pull a lot of those guys who might have contributed

(15:29):
or played in kind of smaller roles behind some of
those stars that were on the defense last year. And
you know, it feels odd to sort of say stars
for a team that went four and eight, but you know,
you did have some stars in that defense. You had
Max Harrison and Dean Walker both go to the NFL
Octavius Oxen, Dne signs in the CFL, and you have

(15:50):
Christian stories, Ion Childress, Pop Dumas Johnson all either being
udfa's or mini camp in Vitees. So you have a
lot of guys who are gone from that defense and
a lot of guys who have been playing under those
guys who can now step up.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
And I think one of those guys is David Rayner.
You know, he he's a.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Guy who transfers to Kentucky out of Northern Illinois red
Shirts last season and is kind of immediately forced to
deal with that choice. Says Derek Jackson, goes down with
a season ending injury, but sticks to it. You know,
knows that knows that this year is supposed to be
his year. He's supposed to have added some weight. He

(16:29):
looks bigger, added some strength, ad it's a muscle, and
he's a guy that's going to be expected to be
a starter this season, you know, playing in the inside
alongside Alex Safari. And that's something that Brad White talked
to us about on Tuesday, I believe, after they had
their scrimmage last Saturday. You know, he's a guy that

(16:51):
he thinks is going to be a real leader. He's
a guy that he thinks people will gravitate towards and
he's gonna They're gonna command the middle of the defense.
He talked about Rainer is the kind of guy that
gets that green dot, meaning he's got the coaches Tom
and his helmet. He's going to be the kind of
guy that White wants to be sort of the quarterback
of the defense this year.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
So it is kind of interesting.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
You know, he's a guy you haven't heard a ton
about this offseason, but coming into the season now it's
possible he's one of the most important players on the defense.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Goparkcaspause dot com thank you for the time. Of course,
it is the Leach Report Radio Network and we are
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(17:42):
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Great folks, they'll take great care of you at Bobcat Enterprises.
We'll be right back on the Leach Report, Leach Report
Radio Network and tickets for the Keeland Fall me We
are on sale to the public starting this coming Tuesday

(18:03):
and includes dining rooms and parking and get details at
quemlan dot com and they'll start selling those at nine
am Eastern Time on Tuesday. Corey Price will join us
when we come right back here on the Leads Report
Radio Network. It's the Leach Report from the Clark's Pumping
Shop studio, Return, Refresh and Refuel, Neglected Dementia. Cole Park's

(18:25):
handle on Twitter it's at Cole col E Park p
A r k E Underscore WSC to follow his work
for the Cat's Pause. Joining us now is Corey Price.
He works with his students stats in the UK Football
Broadcast that'll be starting soon and you follow him on
social media on Twitter anyway by going to at Corey

(18:49):
p eight. Happy birthday, by the.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
Way, Thank you be the big forty on the twenty fifth.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Oh my goodness starting.

Speaker 5 (18:58):
I know it's starting to at me that I'm getting old.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Tom, Yeah, gonna be here soon. So let's talk a
little bit about the piece that you did for the
Kentucky UK Football Network Football Yearbook, and it was to
focus on the top twenty five touchdowns of the last
twenty five seasons at Kroger Field. How tough was it
to put the list together?

Speaker 5 (19:25):
Well, first off, it was all games, not just some games,
but it was it was. It was very tough. I
mentioned in the piece that UK scored nine hundred and
eighty two touchdowns in the last twenty five seasons, so
they go from nine hundred and eighty two to twenty
five is a pretty big task. It took a long

(19:47):
time to get it. I mean I had one initial
list on thirty five and had it cut ten more,
probably the most time I've taken. And in terms of
research for a piece that it was. It was hard
for sure.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
And you're a Kentucky football fan as well, so a
little bit of that's labor of love to go through
and relive some of those moments. Right.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
Of course, I've been a hard span of my whole
life trying to make you feel full. But I was
twelve when you start calling games and nineteen ninety seven,
so yes, it was the last time to go back
and recompos touchdowns. I did some more research in the

(20:34):
twenty five that I put in my list. I was
in attendance for nineteen of them, so that's pretty special.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Well, on my list would be one. I don't think
this was on your list, which I would understand, but
just for personally, the first when I started doing the
Kentucky football games, the first touchdown was Tim Couch to
Lance Michelson in the left corner of the endzone and
against Louisville in the start of the ninety seventh season.

(21:03):
And there are a few Louisville game touchdowns on this list,
and you present it chronologically. If you had to put
one at the top, would would there be a strong
opinion for you? Yeah, ranked that order of importance.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
Yes, I will freely admit I am biased, and the
four years that I was at uk AS as a
student are just mean more to me. So those four
years were two thousand and four through two thousand and seven.
So the Loisbill game my senior year that came in,
that came in ranked top ten. They had one seven

(21:40):
of the previous eight games in of the series, so
you know, it wasn't wasn't looking great, and then of
course we're down in the final minute and then we
get a fifteen yard penoty on Eric Scott, So it
was looking pretty pretty grim and then Whitson's down the
Stevie Johnson wide wide open, and you know the rest

(22:02):
is the history.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Stevie got loose, the famous you know you said you've
been there to see a lot of these plays of
the ones that occurred in Kroger Field, is that the
loudest you've ever heard it?

Speaker 5 (22:20):
That's close In the twenty twenty one for the game
when Chevin Wallace returned the block block go go, Uh,
that was pretty loud to uh.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
The bud Dupree Hicks there would be in there. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Yeah, We've been pretty fortunate to be there for those
those moments.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
You had a good run. Then you're finishing at seven
because also on your list is one from six the
Georgia game when uh they drive down and get to
go ahead score and then if to hold on and
Trevard Linley gets an interception of Matt Stafford. And even
the week before this one wasn't on your list. I mean,
there's got there's some that you have to take out,

(23:05):
but down Mississippi State an incredible catch by Dicky Lyons Junior.
So that period of six through the end of seven
when they had those first two bowl games for coach Brooks,
there were a lot of memorable plays in there.

Speaker 5 (23:20):
Touchdowns, yes, and although it wasn't a great year overall,
my freshman year two thousand and four had a pretty
big touchdown against Vanderbilt on senior Day. We were down
thirteen to the fourth quarter and shame Boyds found Glenholts
for two touchdowns. The last one was about a minute

(23:42):
forty left.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
You know, that was That's a good point, Corey. We're talking.
Corey Price is part of our UK Network broadcast team
and also you follow him on social media with a
lot of great statistical nuggets. But that one of the
for Vanderbilt games interesting Shane boy heaving the ball to
it was a Glenn hold, wasn't it in the back

(24:04):
of the end zone. After that, as you mentioned, they
were down thirteen zip in the fourth quarter, and in
those days, as you can attest, there was just kind
of an air of trepidation, even if Kentucky was ahead
in the fourth quarter, that something was gonna go wrong.
And Rich Brooks talked about being able to sense that,

(24:26):
you know, a veteran coach there on the sidelines, he
could sense it. And so when Kentucky made that comeback,
Rich asked Tony Neely, who was doing a lot of
the research for Sports Information, to look up when was
the last time Kentucky had had a comeback of that
magnitude or greater, And turned out that was the greatest
fourth quarter comeback ever for Kentucky down thirteen, and it's

(24:51):
kind of started a Rich started focusing on it and
they put it in the game notes, and over the
next several years under coach Brooks, they start warted to
pile up fourth quarter comeback wins for Kentucky and not
against Kentucky. And I thought that was one of the
more significant and the noteworthy transformations that Rich Brooks orchestrated

(25:12):
in his time at UK.

Speaker 5 (25:14):
I agree, you know, like I said that the year
was not great overall, but that was definitely a shiny moment.
And I believe that was the biggest fourth are comebacks
until the twenty fourteen South Carolina game out Yeah, pretty sure.

Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, you're right. I think what it was in twenty
was it twenty eight to ten? I think then.

Speaker 5 (25:34):
That that was the twenty ten game and they were
down eighteen I think in the second or third quarter. Yeah,
the twenty fourteen game, they were down fourteen in the fourth.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Oh yeah, that's right. I'm thinking of twenty ten when
Heartline hit the past to Cobb, we already talked about
the pick six and the fourteen game. You do such
an amazing job finding all these statistical nuggets, and you
seem to do it so quickly. Obviously, the internet's a

(26:03):
big asset, but just kinda be having the knowledge to
I guess probably know where to start looking is helpful
being a fan.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
Right, Yes, I would like to think I have a
pretty good base knowledge of the history of the program,
so that sort of helps. But if there's something really
obscure that eve and I can't really think that. The
internet has tons of places to go where I can
probably find it.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
I think finding the old pictures of well there's a
guest here, or KSR or somewhere. I think fans really
enjoy those. Is that what you get some of the
most feedback.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
For I do, Yes, a lot of fans. I can't
really believe I can kind of stuff the people that
I had the pictures of, but I think it's cool
how they looked and when they were, you know, singer
in high school it's pretty neat.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Well, before he started helping us out of the UK
Football Network, he was helping out UK Athletics sports information
and communications there in the press box. You've been around
this for a while, obviously you love it. And it's
at Corey P eight. For the ten people that aren't
already following you that are Kentucky fans, surely they need

(27:24):
to know where to go to keep up with all
of the interesting statistical nuggets. Corey will see you in
the booth here soon. Yes, Tom, thank you Corey Price.
And this is the Leads Report, seventeen away from the
top of the hour. Our show's presented each day by
Bobcat Enterprises. And we'll be right back with Dick Gabriel.

(27:44):
It's the Lead Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises. We welcome
in Dick Gabriel from the Big Blue Insider Show here
in Lexington on our flagship station o ULAP had Big
Blue Insider one on X and they'll be hearing him
on the sidel line soon with our UK Football Network broadcast.
You getting excited for another football season?

Speaker 6 (28:06):
Oh yeah, I'm you know, in this way like the players,
I'm ready for something.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
I know what you mean it gets you know, I've
always been a big advocate of something coach cal suggestive,
you know, more games, you know, in the summer. Yeah,
it's just something too. I love you know, we all
loved its Kentucky basketball followers, those games in the Bahamas
or in Toronto where you get a chance to see

(28:35):
the team at a time when there's not a whole
lot on the sports calendar. So all for that, I
think there's you think eventually college football moves to start,
you know, a little earlier. We've got a few games
on Week zero coming up a week from tomorrow. But
do you think all of college football moves to Week zero?
At some point?

Speaker 6 (28:52):
The lords of television want it, It's gonna happen, you
know that. I don't know that coaches would like that.
You know, it's like Mark Stoop says, it is what
it is, and if TV jumps, they say hi on
the way up with fist pools of cash.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Well, the thing is, you know you've got with the
playoff now you want to I'm assuming as best as
possible avoid any kind of head to head with the NFL,
and they have a little bit of it. Yeah. Now,
so the more especially NFL playoffs, NFL postseason.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
But the NFL is also looking at doing away with
the preseason games, saying that they can evaluate talent in
camp with the mixed practices. Although interestingly, they had really
good numbers for some of these preseason games. Although really
I think yeah, but I just think it's because people
are just ready for football. You know, they'd watch football

(29:46):
players reading a phone book right now on camera and.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
High schools start. I guess, yeah, So they can do
it at that level. I'm sure they'll make the case
to do it a little earlier because, as you said,
whether it's TV revenue or something else, everybody's focused on
the revenue component more than ever. It's not like they
haven't been focused on it before, but more so than ever. Now,

(30:11):
let's talk a little bit about you've been sitting in
a lot of these interview sessions, and if the ones
you haven't been in on you've probably heard through Kentucky football,
whether there's media day, the kickoff lunch, and now for
the post practice sessions. What are some of your takeaways
at this point for having heard a lot of them
over the years.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Confusion more than anything, just because you know we were
learning these players. The coaches are still learning these players.
You know, who are they? How good are they? How
will they assimilate? We've seen this in drips and drabs
and maybe even bigger numbers since the portal became active.

(30:50):
But this is just a wholesale change for this Kentucky team.
I've got Chris Dorian coming on my show tonight from
the SEC Network, and he and on her partner Peter
Burns have talked about that with regard to Kentucky, just
who are they?

Speaker 7 (31:05):
And a lot of schools can say this. A lot
of schools have brought in, you know, a lot of
new faces. I don't know if any of it has done
it as much as Kentucky, but we're just not sure
what we're looking at right now, you know. And I've
been to the open practices.

Speaker 6 (31:22):
I've been to the media the practice where the media
letters come, you know, and like I always say, I
walk away confused because I don't know what I'm seeing.
I'm not smart enough and learned enough to look at
line play and footwork and all that. I can tell
who's throwing a pretty ball, who's catching the ball, who's
dropping the ball. But it's just gonna take a little while.
But the good thing, Tom is we're gonna know on

(31:43):
opening day what we're seeing because they've got a good
opponent coming in.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yes, they do. You know, when I watch these scrimmages,
I'm like you, you know, if the offensive line looks great,
does that mean the defensive line is struggling?

Speaker 3 (31:55):
That?

Speaker 1 (31:56):
You know, you can pick up individuals. I've told the
story about watching many snell from you know, show up
on one scrimmage Saturday against the threes and fours, and
then they put him against the ones and twos, and
need did the same thing. I remember Steven Johnson. Having
watched him in the spring, I thought, well there's you know,
if they have to play him, they're gonna be in trouble.
And then by the fall I'm watching him and he

(32:18):
had really improved, and especially I was noticing he was
really good on the deep ball. Well, obviously they ended
up having to turn to Steven. The deep ball began
to be a big part of his success. And he's,
you know what, turned out to be as good a
leader from the QB position as uh. You know, he's
right there, probably in the top five in that category.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
That's right, and that's something you don't get to see
at least we don't really, we're not preevy to it.
You know, media people, fans, you know, that sort of
stuff reveals itself in the locker room and at the
lunch counter and things like that. And he's a guy,
we know his story. You know, Grambling Didjuco Kentucky just
wanted a chance to play. But he told me in

(33:00):
the documentary we did on him, he wasn't afraid to
bark at his teammates at the junior college level and say, look,
we got to get this done. And then when he
was thrust into the situation when barker went down, he
slid right in there, and his teammates loved him. You
know that.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
I've seen a little bit of that from cal Sata,
just where he's not afraid to say something if it
needs to be said. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
Yeah, I think he's grown up a lot. He admitted
that too, that he was a little too self centered
when he was at A and M, and then life
kind of docked him down with the injury to Harburn.
He has to go to one double A. You know,
he's well traveled, more mature than most, so I think
it's helped him. You're right.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Pope made a comment yesterday in that session with Matt
Orlander on the CBS College Basketball Podcast about jay Lin
Lowe as a leader. I actually forgot to mention this
one earlier. I had it in my notes. He said,
Jalen doesn't worry about being liked. In other words, if
something needs to be said, he'll say it and not
worry about how somebody might take it. And you have

(34:01):
to have that. And not everybody can't operate that way,
but usually really good leaders at the quarterback position, do
I mean you and I are our good friend. Derick
Ramsey was certainly that kind of guy, strong a leader
at that spot as I've ever seen.

Speaker 6 (34:14):
He is still a quarterback. He is still the leader.
I mean you can tell that when he's, you know,
as some sort of gathering a reunion with his old teammates. No,
you're right about that. And and you got to think
too that a point guard with Jalen Loewe's kind of experience,
you know, he might have been treading a little lightly
when he first got to college basketball, but he learned quickly.
Oh they may have learned that at the high school level.

(34:36):
You know, he's the guy that's got to set the
play and the quarterback is too u and one of
my favorites, Bill Ramsdell, told the story. Yeah, oh yeah,
and he got he got dumped, you know, by a
blitzer and the old lineman in the huddle who was responsible.
You know, they called him Dollar. Bill goes, hey, damn Dollar,

(34:57):
that was my bad. He goes, yes, it was your bad.
What are you gonna do about it? You know, I
just love stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, my bad doesn't pick me up off the ground.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
It doesn't keep me clean. That's right.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
It's always a fun time when he gets cranked up.
It's almost here. Appreciate the time, Gabe. All right, brother,
that is that Dick Gabriel. Listen for the Chris Douring
interview tonight on The Big Blue Insider. It'll be interesting
because Chris has been a guy that has usually been
more optimistic than most when it comes to the Wildcats.
So I wonder if he felt burned by last year's disappointment.

(35:33):
And we'll be more on the other end of the spectrum.
We'll see tune that in tonight and follow Gay Bad
Big Blue Insider one, we'll be right back with our
final segment of the Leads Report presented by Bob Kat Enterprises.
This stand wild Cat History presented by Kentucky road Show

(35:53):
Sports Cards and Memorabilia. They are on Romney Road in
Lexington and you can find them a road Show Cards
this day. In twenty ten, Kentucky opened up a series
of exhibition games up in Windsor, Ontario, with Brandon Knight
scoring thirty one points in a blowout Kentucky victory, a

(36:14):
little foreshadowing of what was to come that season for
Brandon Knight. A couple of Wildcat birthdays. Terry Mills celebrating
a birthday today. He was a outstanding guard from Knox
Central on Knox County on eight off Rupp's final teams
at Kentucky and then pretty good Jeans there as. He

(36:39):
is the father of Cameron Mills and Colilier Mills, who
had great basketball careers of their own at championship levels.
And then Ryan Hogan one time Wildcat nephew Kevin Greedy
celebrating a birthday today. Tomorrow is fan Day for UK
Volleyball and you can swing by Memorial Colise at eleven

(37:01):
am to take part in that and meet Coach Skinner
and the team get pictures and autographs, etc. You came
in soccer, picked fourth in the preseason Sun Belt Conference poll,
three players on the All League team for Kentucky, and
I see where Oklahoma is as a creative approach. Interesting

(37:22):
approach maybe is the better word to trying to raise
some revenue. They're going to sell The opportunity for fans
to sit in on the postgame press conference cost just
seven hundred bucks for you and a guest to do
that out at Oklahoma. Listen to the coaches and the
players after the game. We appreciate you listening to us
today on the Leads Report presented by Bob kat Enterprises.

(37:43):
Have a great weekend. We'll see you on Monday.