2025-09-11 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Justin Rowland, Jack Givens, and Jon Hale.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good day, everybody. Welcome into the Leech Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises, as we will talk UK sports with you
for the rest of this hour, and we will do
that today with John Hale from the Lexington Herald Leader.
He covers the UK football program. Goose Givens with us

(00:22):
on Thursdays from the UK Radio Network, and Justin Rowland
from on three Sports and Katz Illustrated dot Com. Wildcatnews
of the Day, a service of Giuseppes of Lexington and
Mark Stoops was on the SEC's teleconference for the coaches
yesterday and as you might expect, the first quarterback the
first question was about where he is with his quarterback

(00:44):
situation this week heading into the Eastern Michigan game, and
here is what Mark Stoops.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Said, Well, we've had no choice to this point, you know,
to get cut, you know, all the reps with the
ones and so Zach, We're going to take a look
at him today and see where he's at. I anticipate
that he will be available and ready to go, but
you know, we will see. We'll see how he responds today,

(01:09):
so I'll know more as the week goes on. But
as I said earlier in the week on Monday during
my presser. You know, you hate to see any player
get hurt at any position, but but always my stances
as I'm excited to see the next man out and
see how they respond and see how they play, and
so you know, I understand the quarterback position is different,

(01:32):
but you know, with that being said, I am excited
to see Cutter and you know, I know he's progressed
a lot between h you know, the end of last
season and this year, and you know, I'm excited to
get him some reps in this game, one way or another.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So that was Mark Stoops yesterday on the SEC's teleconference,
which was conducted before the Wildcats went out to their
Wednesday practice. And the media opportunities are over for the week,
so I will suspect we will get the final word
on the starting quarterback officially when we do the pregame

(02:09):
show and that airs on Saturday. Prior to kickoff. Kentucky
will face an Eastern Michigan team that is struggling at
h to two lost to an FCS opponent, Long Island
last week, So if Cutter Bolie is making his second start,
it would be in a little different circumstance than in

(02:30):
the season finale against the arts rival last year. And
Jamury Macklin, the wide receiver for the Wildcats, was asked
about Cutter this week and he said the biggest difference
that he has noticed in the lead up to this
season is that Cutter is making decisions faster, and that's

(02:52):
not surprising when you've had a spring ball and then
the lead up to training camp and a lot more
reps to get comfortable. Cutter has talked about being more
comfortable and the decisiveness at the QB position is really
what has been missing for Kentucky so far. It's not

(03:16):
all on Zach Calzada. Sometimes receivers didn't especially that first game.
There's a lot of talk about not getting separation, but
there have been opportunities to get the ball to open
receivers that have been missed. And so whoever the QB is,
you've got to make those throws when you have guys
that get open, especially on short passes where it's essentially

(03:40):
like a handoff and it's an easy way to get
a few yards, especially at the start of a drive
or after a first down. So that's what they'll be
looking for. Whoever the quarterback is to make the easy plays,
make the right decisions and get the chains moving and
put more points on the board. Kentucky volleyball was swept

(04:04):
last night in Fort Worth. Number seven Pitt handled the
third ranked Wildcats in just three sets. The last one
I think it was like I think it was a
twenty three all tie. Kentucky had battled from behind to
put itself in position to maybe try to win that
set and do it. Nebraska did to Kentucky earlier this
season by losing the first two sets and then winning

(04:27):
the next three, but Pitt was able to close it out.
So Kentucky has played a very challenging schedule to this
point and more to come. So I SMU's ranked, Louisville's
ranked future non conference opponents that are coming up for
the Wildcats, and before long, to look, Kentucky should be

(04:48):
coming back home and maybe this weekend I'll have to
look and see links to the stories that we talk
about each day on the bud Light Leach Report page
at Tom leach ky dot com. Our opening segment. It's
always presented by Giuseppes of Lexington and it is a
great place to celebrate a special occasion. If it's a birthday,
if it's an anniversary, whatever it might be. Plan it

(05:11):
around a day at Keeland or a UK sporting event.
Just make your reservations at open table right now, talk
it over with your crew, get the date picked and
then you're going to have a fantastic meal sit in
the lounge are I always urge people to do that,
especially haven't been to Giuseppes before. They've expanded it now
and it's an opportunity to enjoy fantastic food while you
listen to Dave Hall's live jazz music, and it is

(05:33):
really special at Juseppes. We'll be right back with John
Hale from the Heraldleader. It's the Lee's Report coming to
you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Return, refresh and
refuel at Clark's. And the UK Volleyball is at home
this weekend against number ten smu SO, another top ten opponent.
This will be a Testoric Memorial Coliseum at three o'clock

(05:53):
on Saturday before the football game, and then on Sunday
the Wildcats will take on Houston at two Eastern times So.
Two home matches for volleyball coming up this weekend. John
Hale joins us now from the Lexington Herald Leader Kentucky
sports dot com. We'll start with a hot topic of
the week, quarterback. You think Cutter Bowli will be the guy.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I would be surprised if he's not. At this point,
it just seems like the timing is perfect. I mean,
Zach Calzada, regardless of his injury status, obviously has struggled
the first two weeks. Cutter also had a couple of
throws probably in those last two drives. He wants back,
he told us that after practice Tuesday. But it just
feels like with the opponent and the bye week coming up,

(06:35):
and Zach being limited in some capacity because of his injury,
we're not quite sure how much it just makes sense
to start Cutter and see what you have and then,
based on how he plays, go from there. When you
have a bye week and an extra week to prepare
for South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
One of the things they'll be looking for if it
is Cutter. At some point, Mark has said that Bowllie's
going to play, so if it's not starting, he'll be playing.
But I think the expectation is the former. What will
they be looking for to uh get out of that position.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Yeah, I mean just some more explosive plays clearly part
of that, and bush Hampton said this after the game
and then some on Tuesday as well, is like they're
just going to have to try and scheme some of that.
It may not be, you know, chucking at thirty yards
down the field. It may be what we saw with
kender Claw on Saturday and get some of those catch
and run opportunities. And so we'll see if that works
any better or any worse with Cutter. And then the

(07:30):
decision making process, which I think is the most interesting
part to me because when you when you go out
and get a seventh year college quarterback, I think what
you're doing is say, like, Okay, we can trust this
guy to make the right decisions. He's made, he's got
some experience, he's played in this league before. Like that's
the thing you know you're going to get from a
seventh year player. And frankly, Zach has made some questionable
decisions through two weeks, So you will worry about that

(07:51):
more with a young guy. But if he can, you know,
at least do what Calzada did in the decision making
area the first two weeks, maybe the higher ceilings enough
to make a difference there.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Figure with a younger quarterback, especially one that would be
making his second start if it happens, is that you're
probably going to look at more interceptions over the course
of the season. Uh, you know, the mistakes just in general,
but you you can live with those. Jared Lorenzen threw
a bunch of them in his first year as a starter,
but he also threw a bunch of touchdowns and made

(08:21):
big plays.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it's it's kind of that give
and take, Like if if he adds some of that
explosive element, you probably take a little bit more. And
like we've been saying, like I mean, Zach Calzada through
you know, a bad interception of the week one took
that safety like some of that if you're getting, if
you're getting those mistakes from the veteran too, then the
higher ceiling makes a big difference.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Absolutely. You wrote this week at Kentucky sports dot Com
about one of the hot topics coming out of the
game Saturday, especially the first half the operational issues. Wasn't
time management first the end of the first half, they
you know, uh, with the worst thing you're going to
do there is go three and out and give old
miss a chance to get points on the board. So

(09:04):
you run the ball. If you break one, put yourself
in a better position, then you try to score out
of it. That's what happened. Had plenty of time to
do all of that until they shot themselves in the foot,
and you noted in your story that it's not the
first time that this topic has come up.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yeah, I had a little feeling of deja vu in
the postgame interview, thinking I'd had this conversation before it
and went back and looked at us because we did
like going into week three and twenty twenty three, so
Liam Cohens second second stint here, I think they had
just played Ohio and won that game like closer than expected,
and there was all this conversation about how slow they
were playing because they were subbing wide receivers in and

(09:42):
out after every single play almost and it was trying
to get this like perfect personelver being on the field
for whatever play they were calling. At that time. It
wasn't so much that they were like burning timeouts and losing,
you know kind of things that happened to the first half Saturday.
It was just the tempo was so slow and it
was like, can you stop subbing people that maybe play
a little faster, And that's what Cohen said at the time,
and it ended up being kind of a conversation point

(10:04):
that entire season. His last game as offensive coordinator here
the Tuesday before it is talking about like, we need
to spend the off season trying to find ways to
play faster. And so I think the tempo was actually
what they wanted on Saturday. They wanted to play slow
to keep old Mess off the field as much as possible,
because that recipe has clearly worked for them in the
last three times they've played. But when you do that,
you have to really precise. And because they had to

(10:26):
blow all three of those time outs, that sequence at
the end of the first half, you know, just kind
of turned into disaster because the reason they were so
confused about what to do and how to line up
on that play is they had to run a play
to get out of bounds because you have to stop
the clock to get the field goal kicker out there
to do any timeouts. So you just have to be
so precise in that situation, and they just warn't up
to that desk on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
And if you are in a position where you don't
feel you can out athlete the other guy, then you
try to out scheme them.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, and that's that's a lot of the pre pre
snap movement. Apparently, That's what what bush Hannon told us
is like they are not in a situation with their
wide receivers right now where they can like consistently just
go out and beat press coverage, and so they're trying
to move guys around and to fuse the defense a
little bit and scheme guys open in a way that
they have to do it. We'll see if maybe some
of the young receivers to hardly go more's. You know,

(11:15):
even that guy the kinder Claws a veteran, but you
know he's he's was used in a rotational role at Alabama,
So maybe they gained more experience. They can do more
of those, win more of those one on one battles.
But right now with the group they have, it's something
they feel like they have to do.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
He wrote also about Seth mcgallan, who had a really
nice game on Saturday and the relationship with his running
backs coach that really ultimately would led him here to Kentucky. Seth, Yeah,
it's in true.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
I sat down with Seth I think Seth on think
the first or second day of camp for a long
story that we published preseason. In one of the leftovers
from that was talking to him about Jay Bulwer, who
was his position coach at Oklahoma's a freshman who recruited
into Oklahoma, signed him there, coached him as a freshman,
and then obviously Seth got kicked off the team for
his arrest, but he said in those two years where
he was kind of like floating around the lower levels

(12:04):
of college football, like one of the only coaches who's
take in contact with him just to see how he
was doing was Jay Bowlwear. And so when it got
to the point where he'd proven himself and he had
done the work to make sure he was making the
most of this second chance and had an opportunity to
come play at the highest level college football, that relationship
was really important. If Ja Bolware is not on the
staff here like Seth McGowan is not at Kentucky like

(12:25):
obviously he had the fit had to work everywhere else.
But that's what opened the door and they kind of
got Kentucky who looks like maybe their best offensive playmaker
right now.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Bush Hamden this week talked about his confidence that he
still has in this offense. It would seem to make
sense that if they can get a reliable passing attack
going and hit a few of those explosives, that they
could pair that with what McGowan and Daldell and the

(12:55):
offensive line are doing in the running game, which looks
like a much improved part of their offense.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah. Absolutely, And I think what you're hearing from Bush too,
is this recognition and realization that, like I know fans
are like, well, the passing game's not working. You have
these two great running backs just handed off to them more.
I heard that several times Saturday, Like they have to
have some balance because, especially as the schedule gets even
more difficult, like you're just going to stack the box
if they don't have to respect their passing game at all,

(13:20):
and that running game is not going to be nearly
as successful. So they have to be able to get
some of those explosive passing plays to keep those running
lanes open. And that's why they're not just going to
go into a kind of a bunker and just hand
it off every play, like they know. They have to
get that worked out, and that's why you know, this
week's a huge week for that because the opponent's not great.
But maybe you can just build some momentum with whoever's

(13:40):
at quarterback out there so you feel more confident about
it in this next stretch, which is pretty brutal.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Which just serves to cycle back to what I've always said,
a really interesting SEC storied or ESPN thirty for thirty
or one of those kinds of programs on that nineteen
Kentucky season where they really had no passing attack and
they were still able to run for massive amounts of
yardage because of that offensive line and that guy that
kept snapping the ball to.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, and that was a generational player. Yeah, quarterback back.
There's a wide receiver like not on this team, And
if they had one voted, maybe they just go back
to that offense. But I don't think you can count
with that.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
They need that line too.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yeah, absolutely, John, Thank you much, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
That is a John Hale, Lexington Herald Leader, Kentucky Sports
dot Com. Twenty four past the top of the hour
here on the Lead tri Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
We'll come right back with the goose Jack Gibvans. It
is the lead Triport presented by Bobcat Enterprises and joining
us now the Goose Jack Gibbings from UK Radio Network
and Goose You and I got a chance to watch

(14:46):
a little practice last week, and yeah, that Mark was
out on a recruiting trip. It is nice to have
the staff that he has assembled there because things work
quite smoothly even if the head coach isn't there on
a given day.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, and you know, it's fun watching Mark Pope. Mark
Fox ran practice that day and it was and I
watched it last year as well. But you know, when
you have been a head coach on the level that
he has, it's like he looks forward to those opportunities

(15:24):
to lead practice and he does it differently than Mark Pope,
but he does it with the expertise and precision that
you you see Mark, and he pays attention to the
little things. And I guess it's one of those things
once the head coach, always a head coach with Mark Fox.

(15:46):
But yeah, it was. It's good when those, uh, those
other guys get the lead practice.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
And you know, Mark assembled a lot of staff of
a lot of young, hungry guys. But it is nice
to have one guy who's just been through more battles
and has you know, been a head coach himself, like
coach Fox. Uh is the line from uh, I guess
what is from a senate scent of a woman. I've
seen things, you know, And so he's just seen more.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
Yeah, and and and the thing is he wants to
see more. Yeah, you know, I mean he has gone
through I mean basketball is basketball, and and and everything's
the same except the names have changed. Now that ain't
that's not totally true because the game has changed, but
since he was a head coach. But yeah, he wants

(16:40):
to he's learned more, and he wants to teach more,
and he wants to see more out of the player.
So yeah, that's that's a great point.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Yeah, players and this team should certainly be dialed in
to all the coaching wherever it's coming from, because of
what the battle for playing time is going to look like.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Yeah, you better be, because if you have a day
where you take a step or two back, it's gonna
be a while before you get another opportunity. Because, yeah,
some of the guys that are not projected to be
a starter. I'll just use Colin Chandler for instance. Man,
those guys are bringing it. They're bringing it every day

(17:24):
and trying to turn heads and they are doing that.
So yeah, if you take a step back or let
somebody get a little bit of an edge, you may
it may be a long time before you get that
edits back. So that's another thing that's going to make
this team very interesting.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
We're hit the halfway point here on this Thursday edition
of The Leach Report chatting with the goose Jack Evans.
Will continue doing that when we return second half of
the Thursday show, coming to you from the Clark's Pumping
Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel at Clark's. We're talking
with the goose Jack Givens. One thing you have noticed

(18:02):
that practice last week, and you know we're there in
a position of we get to get to watch through
our job with the UK Network, so we don't talk
about the strategic things that they're doing or who's playing
who's not. But you can make some just general observations,
and one of them was how much older Andrea Yellovich

(18:23):
looked than Big Z when he arrived and just thicker
looks looks more mature, so physically should be able to
stack up.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Well, yeah, yeah, it was really good Tom to see
that he was. He looked like an athlete, if you
know what I mean. I mean he like you say,
he's thicker, especially through the chest area. His legs are
looks stronger. I was kind of in my mind comparing

(18:56):
him to Big Z and it was a pleasant surprise
to notice that he was. He was more mature, and
he did look like he had been in more and
going against better competition than you got the film when
watching ZA, I haven't seen enough of him yet, and

(19:19):
as is the case with all the guys, and he's
a little bit further behind than most others as far
as conditioning is concerned, because he missed that time over
the summer when they were working out, so he's still
getting in condition. But he's shown enough for me to
believe that he's going to be or he could be

(19:41):
a major factor with this team coming up this season.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Basketball put out updated roster that had updated heights and weights,
and especially in the weight standpoint tells you what some
of these got as are doing in terms of the
weight room JQ. For example, Quaintan's up to two hundred

(20:07):
and fifty five pounds and he was listed at two
fifteen when he came in Malachi Moreno adding twenty pounds.
And we've talked about this before, how you know it
was just a revolutionary when Coach Hall started it with
you guys in the seventies that people scoffed at at

(20:28):
weight training. Thought it would be bad for basketball players,
might affect your shot, those kinds of things. Obviously that
turned out not to be the case. But were you
guys skeptical at the time. I mean you were going
to have to do whatever he said anyway, but did
you have any doubts?

Speaker 4 (20:43):
We were skeptical, but we shouldn't let him know we
were skeptical, you know. I mean we were skeptical because
it was absolutely new for all of us. I mean
none of us had ever lifted weights, And man, I
started getting some definition in my young body, and you know,

(21:05):
my arms looked stronger and my legs look stronger, and
I thought, man, I'm gonna be throwing up bricks all
every game. But as it turned out, it was, it
was absolutely what we needed. Absolutely started a trend. It
seemed after that everybody started lifting weights and bringing that

(21:27):
more into their their workout and their preseason training. We
didn't lift weights during the course of the season, but yeah,
that was that was a new thing. And picking up
that extra muscle the weight, but it came from muscle
really made a difference and you can.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Make some gains. I mean, the men and women that
work in this field of strength training and conditioning can
can be really good at their jobs. Because I think
about Rob Dillingham, what he looked like up in Toronto
and just looked physically overwhelmed, and then by the time
the season started, he had put in the work in

(22:08):
the weight room with the professionals in that area and
certainly more than held his own physically by the time
the season started, and I think these guys are certainly
getting after in the weight room.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
It looks like, yeah, that's a great point, Tom and
a great example because up in Toronto, man, I thought,
is this guy thirteen? I mean, he just looked like
he just looked like a baby man, And I thought,
after watching him there, I just didn't know if he

(22:41):
was going to be a two or three year guy
or not. But man, he started, he started putting on
more weight, he started getting stronger, and he just turned
into a man right before us and that's a great example.
You mentioned Marino, and I've been remissed by not talking

(23:02):
a whole lot about Marino. I have been as pleased
as I mean with his development from the time he
started over the summer to now. Man, I can't say
enough about how hard that kid is working. Man, he
is really bringing it. He's gotten stronger, he's bullying, and

(23:25):
the paint, which I didn't think was gonna happen, he's
he's in there contending. I think, kind of like what
happened last year. There've been some injuries at that big
at the five spot, so he's gotten those extra minutes,
kind of like our freshman did last year, and they've
he's totally taken care of taking advantage of those opportunities.

(23:50):
So I'm want to just I think that's a good
time right here to highlight the improvement and how proud
I am of him. You know, I live over in
Georgetown where he went to school, so I've watched him
since he was a young guy, and it seems like
in three months he's gotten more and more physical and

(24:14):
is becoming more and more effective in the paint. So
he's another example of putting on those extra twenty pounds
of muscle that you know, that shows what that kind
of training can do for a guy, and it.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Just shows a little maturity for him as a first
year guy. Sometimes you know, it takes you know, a
wake up call of going through that first year to
realize you're not strong enough and you got to work
harder in the weight room to you know, recognize that's
what he needs to do before he even starts playing games,
to give him a chance to get to play in

(24:50):
more games than people might have thought he would play in.
Good for him for having that sense of urgency.

Speaker 4 (24:58):
Yeah, I think that is a big a part of
it as anything. And I know this big brother Michael
has has been in his ear about how hard you
have to work at this level to be effective, but
it falls on the kid. Uh, you have to want
to do it, and and he does want to do it.

(25:18):
He's been in the gym and he's really been working.
So again I'm seen as growth uh from the over
the last four or five years and really really proud
of where he is. And and Tom before I know,
we're running out of time, but I'd love to just
very quickly. You mentioned volleyball and our girls got got

(25:40):
got swept last night, which was tough. But I'd like
to give a little credit to my granddaughter, Zarah Ziah Gent.
She is leading the county in blocks per set a
little over a one block per set, and uh, you know,
I know it's my granddaughter, and you know, I mean,
I'm just so proud of her and how much she's

(26:01):
grown in volleyball. So it's growing on me.

Speaker 5 (26:06):
Man.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
I love the game of volleyball and she's a big
part of it. Very very proud of Ziah and how
she has grown men in learning and loving that game
of volleyball. Good for her.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, yeah, maybe see her for Coach Skinner down the
road in a few years.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
I would love that. I would love that. Coach Skinner
is a great coach and does some amazing things. Goose,
Thank you much, Thanks Tom.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
That's the ghost Jack Evans joining us here on the
Leach Report, presented by Bobcat Enterprises. It'll be justin Rowland
from Cats Illustrated when we come back. Our show's presented
by Bobcat Enterprises, four locations around the state. Google it.
When you need to buy or rent heavy equipment, they'll
have what you need. Excavators tractors, loaders, whatever, and great

(26:54):
service after the sale. It's Bobcat Enterprises fourteen away from
the top of the Eye leads report and welcome, Welcoming
in Justin Rowland from Katz Illustrated dot Com on the
on three network at Roland Rivals on X and Justin,
I'll ask you what I asked John Hale earlier. Given

(27:14):
that we know we're going to see Cutter Bowley at
some point on Saturday, because Mark Stoops has said he'll
definitely play, what do you want to see from him?

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (27:26):
For me, it's more just how how Cutter is as
a game manager. You know that he has some obvious
positive qualities as a quarterback. He can really push the
ball downfield. He's relatively accurate, even when his footwork and
mechanics in the pocket are fluid, good or bad. He
really has an act for stretching the defense, and he's

(27:47):
just got this internal wiring where he wants to take
those aggressive shots. And when you bring a backup quarterback
in like with Drew Barker in late twenty fifteen, or
when Cutter has had his spot duty appearances to give
the whole team kind of a rush of energy, adrenaline.
You see guys rally. Okay, now we're going to try
something different, and I think they genuinely like Cutter as well.

(28:09):
But he's got to prove how am I going to
manage second and twelve? How am I going to manage
down in distant situations? Because he's never done that before
and if he's going to be the guy moving forward
or next year, that's ultimately going to be winning football
playing for Mark Stoops. So game management, we know he
can hit the deep ball, and I also want to
see how quickly the ball comes out when he's in

(28:30):
the pocket, because I thought that had been a little
bit slow in the past and that will only improve
with experience.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
That's interesting points because it follows in line with a
couple of things we've heard this week Van Heiles' back
on Monday, he talked about some of those things you're
talking about. What he wanted to see was be comfortable
with the operation of the system and be confident when
you're throwing the ball, and had the comment that Jamury
Macklin had made earlier this week that the big difference

(28:59):
he saw in Cutter was the faster decision making that
typically does come with experience.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah. Yeah, that processing is only going to come getting
reps with the ones against one defenses, and you know,
there's no reason to think that Cutter is not going
to be able to handle that. But down in distance
football is fundamental to what Mark Stoops is trying to
accomplish because more so than than most other teams, Kentucky's
committed to this complimentary style of football. Is setting the

(29:28):
defense up for good situations, playing field position, always being
aware of what the game's situation is. That's kind of
like you take a game that's an open field against
teams in the SEC with more talent, you're basically just
trying to It's a numbers game where you're trying to
leverage advantages in each four minute, five minutes segment of
the game. And they do a great job of that.

(29:48):
But the quarterback has to play complimentary football. So some
years in the past when you could see some really
ugly quarterback stats for Mark Stoops quarterbacks Terry Wilson or
Steven Johnson, they were actually still playing pretty decent, you know,
down in distant situational football. And that's what Cutter's got
to do.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Got to be able to make the short putts so
to speak for the system because they've had stoops talked
about one after one of the interceptions where they had
a set a quick game play called that was there
and Calzada didn't deliver the ball. There was the one

(30:28):
to start the second half. And I don't know whether
Zach's fault or loss fault on the play, but that's
a simple play to start the first drive of the
second half. That should get you at minimum five to
six yards to make a second and much more manageable situation,
just what you want to kind of start the half
coming out, and they can't execute it, and that also

(30:52):
makes it a little more challenging for the play caller too,
when you're not sure what pitch you can get over
the plate so to speak.

Speaker 5 (30:59):
That's right, yeah, you know, and they got I actually
going back and watching the first two games, I see
the logic in Hamden's play calling, within the game flow.
I do see that. So I think it's been more
about communication and execution, which is, you know, a good
thing in the big picture, but in the short term,
you know, do they have the explosiveness to create a

(31:20):
truly balanced offense the SEC we're going to see, but Yeah,
there were a lot of little miscute. Honestly, Tom, against
Old Miss, it looked a little bit like a team
that had a lot of transfers that did not have
a master's level knowledge of the playbook. There were a
lot of events where the running back kind of bumps
into the quarterback during the handoff exchange during a screen.

(31:44):
You know, people, there's one or two directions that are
just unblocked, and it's early in the year and they're
going to refine all of these things. But you think
about the challenge of just getting fifty or thirty players
from the portal to just learn the same playbook, and
they've never run out of this playbook before, would figure
it would be a little tough at times.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
You have a post up at Cats Illustrated dot com
about ten Wildcats to watch in this game Saturday against
what is a big underdog in Eastern Michigan, and I
think eight of the names are from the offensive side.
And I say names because seven of them are players
and one is the OC. So clearly your focus is
going to be on the offensive side that I mean,

(32:23):
the defense had a few issues against Old Miss, but
I think people believe the defense has been pretty solid
to this point. For the most part, running game's been good,
offensive lines, much improvements. They've checked a lot of the
boxes they wanted to check. If they can just get
something clicking in the passing game.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Right, I think it's a B to B plus team
with the exception of the passing game, and that goes
across the board. I mean, I think when you consider
the scale that they had to evaluate, like the number
of players, for culture, for identity, for scheme, for preference,
all the guys they had to bring in under and
and tack it into this big idea of what they

(33:03):
want to accomplish, I think they did a really good job.
The question is can they pass the ball? And it's
really hard to win in the SEC if your passing
game is volume feeding tight ends downfield that don't have
a lot of separation. They just got to get the
receivers involved in the passing game more. We can say

(33:23):
the number one takeaway I've had early this season is
that it was not a good idea to let both
Dame Key and Barriam Brown get away. You know, you
can't replace either one of those players one to one
in the portal, and to lose both of them was
something that was serious. So we'll see how the other
guys developed the rest this year.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Yeah, you would have definitely with one of them had
your go to guy and the guy that would have
commanded the most attention from the defense.

Speaker 5 (33:49):
Right, And that's the key, you know. I think this
team could really run the ball. Between the punting and
the field position they played so far and the way
that the defense has looked and the way they can
get after the quarterback and the way that they run
the ball, all of the ingredients are there for them
to play the kind of football that Eddie Gran helped
him win a lot of games with. I'll be completely honest,
and you know, Calzada still had thirty pass attempts and

(34:11):
they only had thirty seven rush attempts. Maybe one way
to get to that six win threshold is just to
play more like they did with Eddie Grant. You know,
I think all the pieces are there for them to
do that.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Well. I was stating there talking to Eddie practice one
day back at August and I said, I see some
similarities to the twenty sixteen team that you guys kind
of broke through with. And he said, yeah, I get that,
because they really ran the ball well. Now, that team
with Johnson was able to hit some deep balls that
really took advantage of the strength of the running game

(34:41):
and how defenses had to respond to. That had a
great kicker in McGinnis, who you know you could count
on once you got, you know, to a certain spot
on the field, you felt you had three and Colwai
is certainly off to a good start there along with
the punter.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:55):
Yeah, So I think they checked a lot of boxes
and when you look at the big picture, there aren't
a lot of position groups that you feel bad about.
But you know, if the run game is going to
be the identity that they lean into, then they really
need to emphasize the run game. And I would honestly
prefer to see forty five carries between McGowan and dallall
as opposed to twenty five or thirty carries between the

(35:17):
two of them, because the run game is just a
lot better than the passing game right now, so it
makes sense that you would just do it.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
A lot more.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
You see the story we talked about with Justin at
Katz Illustrated dot com. Follow him at Rowland Rivals on X.
Thank you, Sirves talk to you next week.

Speaker 5 (35:31):
Thanks a lot, Tom.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
It is the Leach Report, about five away from the
top of the hour, one segment left when we return.
It is the Leach Report, and one of our great
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Speaker 4 (36:02):
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can get a free jar of the sleepgummies, which have
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get back to sleep. Churchill Downs opens the fourteen day

(37:08):
Fall Meet this afternoon with a twilight card, and there's
NFL football tonight. Packers hosting the Commanders is the matchup
the Day a wild Cat History presented by Kentucky road Show,
Sports Cards and Memorabilia. Here in Lexington nineteen seventy one,
Kentucky opened the season with a thirteen to ten win
at Clemson on this day. Doug Coder took the opening

(37:30):
kickoff of the game and ran it back for a
touchdown that hadn't happened since for Kentucky Football. Happy Birthday,
Mark Pope, Happy birthday Callen Grady and Bear Bryant born
on this day as well. If you're celebrating your birthday today,
you share it with some impressive list of folks, and
we wish you a happy one too. We hope you'll
be back with us tomorrow at the Leach Report, presented

(37:50):
by Bob Kat Enterprises