2025-09-24 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Chris Fisher, Mike DeCourcy, and Charles Walker.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everybody. Dick Gabriel sitting in for the Voice
on this Wednesday. Welcome to the Leechs Report, presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. Coming up today, we're going to talk to
Chris Fisher of two four to seven Sports in the
Cat's Pause. Former Wildcat Charles Walker will join us as well,
and Mike de Corsi of The Sporting News. We'll talk
football and basketball. We're beginning to get into that overlap

(00:22):
period and a lot of people believe it is one
of the best times of the year. So we'll take
a look now at Wildcat News of the Day, presented
by Giuseppes of lexing in so a little football, basketball
and soccer news. Kentucky returned to non conference play last
night to a tie of the Louisville Cardinals over at

(00:42):
Lynnz Stadium in Louisville. Kentucky now four to zero and
three overall, still just one win in conference play in
one conference game. That is so the Cats now through
seven games, four wins and three ties. Upcoming schedule features
three consecutive Sun Belt Conference matchups than the non conference

(01:03):
finale on October fourteenth at the Bell with number three Indiana.
That's always a great match. Coming up next though, from
Kentucky a trip to Conway, South Carolina. Back to conference
play against Coastal Carolina, those Chanticlears. That comes up this
Sunday on September twenty eighth at seven pm Eastern. The

(01:23):
bigger news, though, in among the Big Blue Nation and
really college football fans across the South, is the fact
that the SEC has released the upcoming SEC opponents for
the next four years, and man, Kentucky has got you
think this year's schedule's tough. Next year, the Wildcats open
conference play on the road at South Carolina no dates yet,

(01:45):
then at Tennessee, then three home games Alabama, LSU, Vanderbilt,
then back on the road at Missouri, at Texas A
and M, and at Oklahoma. So each school, of course,
now will play three annual opponents, each team's remaining six
games rotating among the remaining conference schools. And you probably

(02:07):
know why now that Kentucky's three annual opponents will be Florida,
South Carolina, and Tennessee. Each school will play the remaining
twelve schools twice, once at home, once away during the
twenty twenty six through twenty nine period. They're going to
reevaluate the annual opponents coming up for the next scheduling
cycle beginning in twenty thirty, and that'll be on top

(02:30):
of us before we know. And by the way, I misspoke,
Kentucky's first game conference game next year is Florida at home.
Then it's on to South Carolina and Tennessee. So they
come in bunches of three, and none of them easy anymore.
Now a reminder, Diego Pave is going to be gone
from Vanderbilt by then, but they'll probably still have that

(02:50):
coaching staff which is elevated the Commodores. But it's never
easy in the SEC and it never will be. I
think we all know that we're on these stories on
bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky dot com.
When we come back, Chris Fisher joins us right here,
stay with us on the Leach Report. Welcome back to

(03:11):
the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel in for the Voice and
a reminder of the Leach Report comes to you from
the Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Remember to sign up for
their new loyalty rewards program. Joining us now is one
of Tom's regular guests and a guy who's been on
my show many times as well. Chris Fisher of the
Cat's Pass, part of the two four to seven network,
Good morning, Chris, Good morning, sir. Hey, before we talk

(03:33):
about Big Blue Madness coming up, just your thoughts quickly
on the upcoming schedule of SEC opponents released by the SEC.
I mean, you know, you sift through all of these
and every year is brutal. Now, but Alabama and LSU
back to back next year. Of course those are home games,
but you close out the road of the season with

(03:54):
three straight road conference games. I mean, Kentucky fans, well
fans everywhere, they kind of have to brace themselves, don't they.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, it's, you know, going to nine conference games, it's
going to be it's going to create some brutal stretches
for Kentucky coming up. But two things I thought were interesting.
Oklahoma comes to Lexington in twenty twenty eight, yeah, for
the first time as a member of the SEC. And
Texas A and M also comes to Lexington in twenty

(04:26):
twenty eight for the first time as a member of
the SEC. It's it's unbelievable to think that Kentucky and
Texas A and M have only played one time since
the Aggies joined the SEC way back in twenty twelve.
They had that one meeting in twenty eighteen, the overtime
loss in College Station.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
But yeah, it's at the very least I guess season
ticket holders will will get their money's worth for some
of these teams that are that are coming to Lexington.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
As part of the network. I' of course been to
every campus in the SEC except for Oklahoma and looking
forward to that. But yeah, you bring up a great
point about Texas A and M. That was quite the
experience for us. That was a heck of a game.
Terry Wilson was nursing a knee injury we didn't really
know about back then then it hampered him in that game.

(05:19):
Josh Allen had a great game. But yeah, the crowd
there because Kentucky was a contender at that point in
the SEC, and it was just an amazing experience and
a lot of Kentucky fans made that trip. I would
imagine a lot of A and M fans will make
the trip up here to lexing in because they don't
have the dates on that yet, but middle of the
season is a good chance they could go to Keenland

(05:41):
as well, so well let me shift you over to basketball.
You have written on the website about the fact that
UK is releasing Big Blue Madness details. The event itself
is on October eleventh, That's a Saturday in rupp Arena
and tickets will be released beginning this Friday is me
at five pm online via ticketmaster dot com and through

(06:03):
the Ticketmaster app. This is always a huge event. It's
no longer at midnight, but it just it just never
seems to get old with Kentucky fans, does.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
It, no? And uh, you know, and this year they
are promising, uh that it will be bigger and bolder
than than ever. And yeah, they're having the the BBN
United FanFest and I'm not actually I'm sure if you
have to be a member of BBN United, uh in
order to take part in that. But uh, the ticket

(06:38):
distribution is is is kind of the same as as
it's always been a distributed free tickets online and it's
kind of first come, uh, first serve, and but it's
always a fun event. It kind of it's it's Kentucky's
version of ringing in the New Year, only at the
new college basketball season and kind of the the unofficial

(07:01):
tip off to to college basketball always a fun event.
I do wish they would get back to or or
find a way back to having the camp out. I
just think that was always such an integral part of
the event, and uh just and it made it feel big,
you know, and it made it feel important and and

(07:23):
I know a lot of fans had a lot of
fun with that over the years. I wish there was
a way they could find a way to bring it back.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, just that initial everybody got the video, you know,
the online or on the TV stations of you know,
when they kind of down and the people race across
the street and and plant their their flag if you will.
I mean, just incredible, and you know, all to watch
a team you know, glorified layup line. But it's all
part of just being part of the experience, right.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, I think so. I think that's it. That's that's
the experience. I mean, uh, as a teenager, some of
them my fondest Kentucky basketball memories were were camping out
outside Memorial for for Big Blue Madness. Yeah, you know,
getting in line and and and staying out there all
day and how many times did you do remember, Uh,

(08:16):
my dad just brought my brother and a couple of
my friends and we would come down to Lexington early
in the morning and camp out all day. And I
remember one specific big Blue Madness it was probably uh yeah,
I guess it was ninety five ninety six. I got
autographs from the starting five plus Ron Mercer and uh

(08:40):
and then I remember that same night was the night
that Kentucky kicked the last second field goal to beat
LSU on the road, and so yeah, so that was
a very very memorable night. And I think that I
think I speak for a lot of fans that uh,
you know, want those memories again, you know, and want
to create the those memories with their friends and with

(09:01):
their family.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
And I say it's a layup. I'm talking about, you know,
the actual competition at all. But really I think what
the what hinges this on just being special is when
they introduce the team and the coaches, everybody gets a
chance to come out, you know, the players make their moves,
the pyrotechnics and things like that. That's that's probably the
signature part of this event, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, I think so. I think you know, getting your
first look, first real look at the new players and
and that type of thing. And but it feels like
in recent years it's been watered down a little bit
with you know, it airing on the SEC network and
so that way everybody kind of can kind of stay

(09:46):
home and watch it on TV. And that's why another
reason I think that the camp out would help, just
with the exclusivity of the event and making it feel
again important and exclusive. And but I guess all stop
harping on that.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Well, they also do have some other things built in
with the United bb and United fan Fest presented by Kroger.
Autograph session that's always huge, as you just said, Uh,
and it's not just a matter of people in the
tents emerging to beg for autographs, although you know, the
one thing I really liked about the tent city was
when the players would deliver pizza. But anyway, autograph sessions

(10:24):
with the players, coaches and alumni. It says, photo ops
with championship trophies and memorabilia, food trucks which are always
popular music and uh, you know all the sweepstakes and uh,
it's there's a lot more to it. Yeah, we're gonna
be missing the tents, but the BBN United members are

(10:47):
encouraged to join up and take advantage of that. So
but more than anything, Chris, We're gonna get to see
a team we already know some of the players, unlike
last year, but a team that by all accounts could
be more talented this year, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, this is gonna be I think a really fun year.
I think, you know, Mark Pope understood he needed to
go out and get tougher and more physical and better defensively.
And I think they've done that. And I think, you know,
they've added some some really high end talent and a
guy like Jayden Quainton's and you know how long it
takes him to get back and how long it takes

(11:24):
to get him to full strength and kind of integrate
him into the lineup. Whenever that happens, I think will
probably be one of the bigger X factors. And you know,
I think he Mark Pope can can play around a
lot with these different lineups. He could have, you know,
an offensive lineup that can shoot the ball from the perimeter.
He could have a defensive lineup that could kind of,

(11:44):
you know, shut you down, you know, with guys like
Mo Diabat and Malachi Moreno and Jayden Quainton's When he
comes back. Cam Williams has has drawn some some nice
reviews as as a defensive player, and so a lot
of different things Mark Pope can can do with these lips,
and it'll be fun to kind of see him tinker
around with it. I think that's probably one of the

(12:05):
other big question marks kind of coming in is how
does Mark Pope kind of handle all these new pieces.
But I think based on how he handled the pieces
last year, especially with all the injuries as the season
went on, I think it gets you a lot of
confidence as a Kentucky fan.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Is Chris Fisher of two four to seven Sports. Follow
him on exper Twitter at Chris Fisher two four seven.
Thank you sir, have a wonderful day.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
All right YouTube and when.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
We come back. Charles Walker of the former Wildcat receiver
coming up next on the Leach Report, Welcome back and
we join now the guy from CBI, Charles Walker, Kentucky. Well,
Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat, former Kentucky wide receiver.
Good morning, Charles Dick, Good morning.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
How are you.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
I'm well, sir. We haven't talked in a while. I
hear you on the Leach Report all the time, but
it's good to chat with you. Uh, let me get
your expertise as a former player about a team coming
off a bye week. Coaches always said they didn't like him. Uh,
and yet they always say, well, this comes up a
good time because we're banged up or whatever. But I've
got to think Charles, with a first year starter coming

(13:06):
in on the road to an SEC game, a Cutter bully,
that bye week, I've got to think was came in
handy for the Wildcats.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
What do you think you know, I think you're spot on,
and you know it's extra reps. Well you know, now, Dick,
there's two bye weeks, and I was playing there was one,
so the players were most certainly beat up. But again
it's extra reps for Cutter. It is extra reps for
the wide receivers. Knowing that, all right, Cutters, the guy
you know, because prior they were taking half the reps

(13:37):
stoops has never been well off a bye week.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Let's be honest.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
I don't know what the record is, but I do
know one thing, Dick. When I was at Kentucky, we
were four and zero against the South Carolina game Cocks,
and it seems like Beamer might have one out for
stoops so I think that if there's one team we
can play or we should play after the bye week,
it is a South Carolina team because because Stoops is
ready to get one back.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Oh yeah, And I went back and looked at Stoops's
record after bys, and I think it's five and ten.
But it seems like the bys always came right in
the heart of the SEC schedule. There were a couple
of games they shouldn't have lost. One of those games
down to Tennessee with a ten win Kentucky team. It
was the year they went down and kind of threw
their helmets on the field and Tennessee spanked them. But
for the most part, it's always been not an excuse.

(14:23):
You got to play all the games, but challenging and
that extra week should have helped more than it did.
But back to your point about Cutter, the other thing
it did was more reps for bo Allen just in case,
and of course the two younger quarterbacks as well got
a lot of reps in the off time. But it's
all about cohesion and getting the old line of mesh

(14:43):
and things like that. What did you see in the
EMU game that you liked other than the final score?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
You know I saw a well balanced offense. You know,
Cutter goes twelve for twenty one with two hundred and
forty yards, plays a consistent game, and McCallen obviously runs
his tail off gets gets three touchdowns. But in Shane
Beemer's interview post Missouri game, he said, they want to
run the ball and they want to stop the run. Well,
guess what UK wants to do. We want to run

(15:10):
the ball and stop the run. It looks like two
well aligned teams playing a night game at Williams Brice Stadium,
which is one game that it should not be tough
to quote unquote get up for, which which seems to
be the UK's problem after a bye week. So again,
I think it's a perfect setting. You know, South Carolina
comes off a tough loss against Missouri and now they

(15:32):
get to face the Kentucky Wildcats to night.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
You were a walk on who turned into a guy
who became a viable SEC football player. I got to
think you were self motivated from the second you got
out of bed. But tell me a little bit about
getting up for a game, because Anthony White once said
to me famously that if anybody ever has to tell
me how and why I should get excited on Saturday.
I need to turn in my helmet, But what about

(15:57):
getting up for games on Saturday. I got to think
that was never or a problem for you.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
You know, we we had great leadership, and that starts
with with the headman, Mark Stoops, and everyone's seen seeing
him when he gets mad and that face turns bright
red again. We were lucky. The SEC is such an
an awesome conference that most away games, uh, you know,
were very special places between the hedges. At Georgia, we

(16:23):
played two night games at South Carolina Neiland stadiums something
in itself and when you're playing at home, the BBN
gets up for you. So uh to your point, yes,
had a chip on my shoulder, but very rarely were
we in a stadium with less than fifty five thousand
uh all the way up to one hundred thousand screaming
fans playing the sport we love. So uh. It starts

(16:43):
with Mark Stoops and then it goes to you know,
obviously the assistant coaches, the ocs, the d c's, but
the leadership on the team. And I think that we've
we've got some good leaders on this football team that
that that know how to play.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Did you hate Sandstorm because they played it as loud
as they could yesterday had practice. Joshkattas said he kind
of likes the song, but it lives in his head.
What about you?

Speaker 4 (17:07):
Same thing and Darren Stoops's interview, you know, he talked
about crowd noise and that was the more annoying thing
at practice. Sandstorm's fine, you can kind of tune it out.
But the crowd noise that TK plays over Standstorm or
in between Standstorm during practice, I'd have to think the
neighbors of the football facility were more angry than we were.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, you're talking about Tom Kalkowski in that speaker system,
and when I pulled up the practice yesterday, you could not,
as you said, not to hear the music, but the
crowd noise and they'd roll in the chicken. You know.
It just it makes for a week like no other.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
And Dick, there's one way to not have to play
against that as you go in and you get up
twenty one zero real quick and have those fans start
to leave the stadium. Not to say that's my prediction,
but you know, there's there's an easy way to take
a fan base out of a game. And that's just
to play consistent football, control the clock, win the turnover battle.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
And I've seen that happen and those fans, if they
get too far behind, they want to go start partying
and they say good night. So that's a great plan.
Charles Barker, thank you so much. Hope you have a
great Saturday.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Thanks Dick Gokatz, and we'll.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Take a break, come back with more of the Leach Report.
Welcome back, Dick gabrielin for Tom Leach. The Leach Report
presented by bobcat Enterprises with four locations in Kentucky. When
you need to rent or buy heavy equipment, google them
to find the closest location to you. We're joined now
by a regular here on the Leach Report, one of
my favorites. That is Mike the Corsi of the Sporting News.

(18:35):
Good morning, sir, Good morning, Dick.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
I hope you're doing well.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Thank you, sir, same to you. It is overlap time.
Now we've got the Midnight man or I should say,
Big Blue Manness coming up. But basketball news has been
oozing out. Mike writes about that and more, of course
for the Sporting News. But you know I was at
the very first I'm dating myself. The very first midnight
madness at UK, we had no idea what to expect,

(19:02):
but at literally the stroke of midnight, Kentucky came out
of that tunnel at Memorial Coliseum. Kenny Walker, Winston Bennett
and I can't remember who else, but those were the
two main culprits threw down dunks Mike that UK fans
had never seen. I mean, the wind jammers that rock
the cradles. They were used to seeing James Lee's power dunks,
but these guys took it literally to another level because

(19:25):
I thought the ceiling was gonna come off, and that
is morphed into into a huge show. But it's kind
of a fun way to mark the beginning of basketball,
isn't it. Oh?

Speaker 3 (19:35):
I think it is.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
I do think that the rules that made it so
that midnight madness became a thing were antiquated, and ultimately
the midnight madnesses became really they were really sort of
perfunctory in most places because it was so late. They
wanted to get their guys to bed. We're gonna hoop

(20:01):
this year fore you later. So I think the evolution
of the rules that led to what we now call
Big Blue Madness and some other sorts of celebrations similar
to that in other places. There's nothing quite like Big
Blue Madness anywhere else, but there are similar celebrations, and
they usually hold them. They try to find a hole

(20:23):
in the football schedule and a hole in the NFL
schedule and to try to get people to come out
and support their team. But I do like the fact
that Kentucky fans are still excited and honestly, maybe this
year more than in a long time, even more so
than last year, because last year was you knew everything
was going to be new, But now you know you're new,

(20:45):
but you don't know exactly where you're going, I mean everything.
You've got this great group of young players, and you're
familiar with some of them, but how.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
Exactly are they going to do it?

Speaker 5 (20:55):
And I think that's really fascinating.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Oh, I agree, so many new faces. You do have
some who are holdover from last year, but yeah, I mean,
who are these guys? That's what's great about it.

Speaker 5 (21:08):
Yeah, I think that they've got a lot to learn.
Kentucky fans who are who are obviously so into their team,
they've got a lot to learn about who they are,
what they can do, and they'll get a glimpse of
that on the night of the of the celebration, and
it's it's exciting. And I think that the fact that

(21:32):
this team has so many different ways it can go it,
For one, it leads to a lot of difficulty for
the opposition, but it also if when things are struggling,
if indeed they are ever struggling, then it leads to, well,
we could have done that. And and of course the

(21:52):
Big Blue Nation knows how to They know the game,
and so they know how to sort of pick through
what could have been or what might have been. So
it does sort of increase the pressure for everybody to
get it right the first time around.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
And to that end, I think the most intriguing part
of this team. I can't say it's gonna be lost
on anybody, but kind of reverberates in my ears is
when Mark Pope talked about how he's kind of flip
flopping his preparation with this team, and he's starting with defense.
You remember how dreadful Kentucky was on defense at times

(22:25):
last year, especially in a loss ed ole miss And
he said the very literally next day, they doubled down
on working on defense, and really there was a transformation
toward the end of the year when it came to
defense for Kentucky. It was almost too little, too late.
But now and he said, I'm kind of a warped coach.
He said, I really like the offense. And Mike, you've
heard thousands of coaches talk about it's all about defense,

(22:48):
and he now says he's starting with defense. I think
maybe last year he started with offense because it was
a little bit intricate, But I think that's right. I'm
really curious to see how this team comes out at
the beginning of the year defensively versus offensively, you know
what I mean.

Speaker 5 (23:04):
Well, I think I think first of all, he has
he has components for an extraordinary defense.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Yea.

Speaker 5 (23:12):
And and I think that's one of the reasons why
he might be going in that direction, because you have
multiple shot blockers, you have disruptive wings, and that allows
you to play defense differently. I mean, if you look
at Duke over the years, and I know Kentucky Fenn
sometimes don't want to look at Duke, but Mike Krzyzewsky
morphed defensively because his early teams, the successful teams that

(23:35):
of the late eighties and the early nineties, prototypically with
with Thomas Hill and uh and and on one wing
and Grant Hill on an other wing, uh Antonio d
excuse me, Davis on on one of the wings. Those
they were able to extend and make it harder for
you to get into your offense. And that was a

(23:55):
way to play. And then ultimately they didn't have a
lot of those guys, so then they with they and
they tried to make it more difficult for you to
run your stuff toward where you wanted to go. And
and so that's so there are there are multiple approaches
that you can take with a team that's as versatile
as this, and so that's so, you know, I'd be
fascinated to see what he imagines, what Mark imagines with

(24:18):
this group. I mean, you go back to the ninety
six Kentucky teams, and they were they were known publicly
somewhat for the fact that they were really good at
pressuring the ball and taking it away from you and
sort of wrecking you before you've basically got it into
your offense. Like I said, Mike wanted to get in
get you when you got tried to make the first pass.

(24:41):
But Rick at that time didn't even want you to
get to the first pass. But Rick also understood you
can't do that against the best teams, I mean every
now and like at home.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
Yeah, but like when you.

Speaker 5 (24:52):
Get into neutral court games against the best teams, you're
not gonna win doing that. You're not gonna because those
guys have great guards, and great guards aren't going to
be daunted by a pressure defense. So while everybody was
fascinated with the press, he cooked up this post double
team thing that literally made Tim Duncan disappear. I mean,

(25:14):
I've never seen anything as ferocious in terms of the
double teams as were applied by Anteline Walker and Walter
McCarty and that group. And so there are different ways
that you can even coach a defense within a season.
And so Mark has a lot at his disposal with
the way they've recruited and the way they've gathered this team.

(25:36):
And I think that starting with defense and becoming great
at defense is a really smart approach for this team.
Because when you've got a creative point guard like Jaalen Lowe,
and you've got multiple scoring wings, and then you've got
interior guys that can get offensive rebounds, I think offense
will come more easily to this team than defense will.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Initially interesting and by the way that ninety sixteen people
like to talk and remember about the full court pressure
with Patinos teams, going back to his very first one,
that ninety six team may have pressed less than any
of his other teams because it didn't have to because
that half court defense, now you've cut the floor in half.
With all those talented players, he didn't have to press

(26:21):
as much, but it was the threat that lived in
his opponent's head. They had to prepare for it. And
so that's why one reason the half court defense was incredible.
He is Mike the Course he had the Sporting News.
We'll come back and talk about Bruce Pearl, moving on
and more right here on the Leach Report. Welcome back
to the Leach Report. Dick Gabriel in for the Voice
and of course the Leach Report, presented by Bob kat Enterprises.

(26:42):
We were chatting with Mike the Course. He had a
great basketball well he writes about everything for the Sporting News,
but Mike headlines throughout college basketball. I don't know if
this was a shock to you, but Bruce Pearl steps
down after eleven years at Auburn, and as a Tennessee
of website pointed out, Auburn basketball hires former vall as

(27:03):
head coach after, of course his son Steven. But how
much of a shock was that to you?

Speaker 5 (27:10):
Honestly, not at all. We've been talking about this for
a while. He had or was reported to have believed
to have political aspirations to go into to perhaps running
for the Senate seat. That I've never followed this exactly
whether Tommy Tallarville has declared that he's going to run

(27:33):
for governor or is about to declare. There's always that
machination in politics that I try not to pay too
much attention to, but and that that Senate seat will
be vacant, and there's there was a belief and that
he would be interested in that.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
So I wasn't surprised.

Speaker 5 (27:48):
I was surprised by the timing, by the fact that
he said multiple times recently that he didn't intend to
do this at this point, uh and then reversed course
and went ahead and did it. So it does give
Steven the opportunity to become the head coach. I think
that was pretty much in place anyway, And unlike what

(28:10):
we anticipated on the At the very point of the announcement,
Auburn immediately back to Steven with a five year commitment. Now,
the exact nature of that commitment, whether it's, uh, we'll
pay you for the first two years and then after
that you're gonna have to do something those first two years,
or else we're clear something like that. I mean, I

(28:32):
don't know that's that that is a possibility, or it
could be a full commitment, but either way, it appears
to the public. And that's important because you want the
players that you're trying to recruit to know that that's
that he's got a chance to be your coach, that
you're not going to all of a sudden wake up
two years from now having enrolled at Auburn and oh,

(28:55):
by the way, we decided that Steven's not getting it
done or whatever, So that that's important for them, And
so I think the way they handled this was pretty smart.
I don't know. I've talked to Steven. I talked to
him at last year's Final four. I was very impressed
with him. I thought that he handled us and the

(29:18):
discussion very well, was very open and honest and interesting,
and where he you know, whether or not he's got
his father's fastball. You know, we haven't seen a ton
of instances of that, but hey, there's been instances like
Shanahan the coach, Kyle Shanahan the coach out of the
forty nine ers. He's I mean, honestly, he's better than

(29:40):
his dad.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
That was pretty good, but he's better.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
So sometimes that pops up.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
Yeah, I'm with you on that. I just have a
few minutes left and I wanted to leave time because
I always run out of time talking to you. I
enjoyed talking hoops with you so much. But your beloved Steelers,
well a quarterback that is a packer's owner, I know
fairly well. Pretty good day, but a little they've been
a little bit up and down. What's your take on
what's going on with your Steelers right now?

Speaker 5 (30:05):
Yeah, the Steelers' problems aren't really in front of Aaron Rodgers.
Their offensive line as a whole has not played well
enough yet. They've got two centsion. They've got a left
tackle who was a right tackle for two years, so
he's effectively a rookie left tackle. And then they've got
a right tackle who played half a one game last year,

(30:27):
was out, was injured and out for the year, so
he's effectively a rookie right tackle, and then they've got
a second year center and a second year right guard.
So it's not been good enough yet. And yet he
has helped them to win two games. And honestly, as
I had great concerns about what he would do to
the Steelers culture, and miraculously he's in some ways made

(30:51):
it better. I mean he's been he's been very forceful
about trying to make sure that guys within the lines
are paying attention and doing the right things. And outside
the lines, he has not been is controversial at controversial
and I shouldn't say ask. He has not been controversial
at all. He has just been strictly Steelers football, you know. Uh,

(31:15):
this is what's important to me right now. And that's
been how he's approached his time ever since we met
him at mini camp back in May.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
He's a big fan of the coach Jough. He's a
big fan of the coach and that's a huge plush.

Speaker 5 (31:30):
Look, Mike Tomlin walked away from the possibility to keep
justin Fields or perhaps to sign Daniel Jones, who has
been spectacular in Indianapolis. Uh, and he believed in what
Aaron could bring to this team, and I think there
I think the winning mentality that Aaron has, uh, the
understanding of what it takes to win, is something that

(31:51):
they felt they needed. You Russ had that in Seattle,
but I think it had sort of, uh, it sort
of had been low during his time in Denver, and
he wasn't able to completely put it into place, in
part because he was hurt for half last year, right,
But I think he believes that Aaron can do that,
and so far it seems like it's working. I just

(32:14):
I wish Aaron could figure out how to get the
offensive line to block somebody.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, And I don't know what it is about teams
that don't seem to recognize that. You know, the Bengals,
you've lived in Cincinnati for quite a while, and they've
got a talent like Joe Burrow, and yet they did
just put these stamato hands in front of him and
he keeps getting hurt, you know. So yeah, it seems
it's easy for us to say, we don't have to
sit in that GM's office and sign contracts and all
that stuff. But you would think they'd want to protect

(32:41):
and at least my Packers did that with Rogers and
they benefited from it. Mike, thank you so much. Always
a pleasure talking to you, and I hope to see
upcoming basketball season.

Speaker 2 (32:51):
I hope so.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Too, Dick. It's always a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Have a good one. Take care. That's Mike the course
of the Sporting News and when we come back, we'll
check out the birth for today and our final thoughts
here on the Leech Report. Thanks again to our guest today,
Mike the Corsi of the Sporting News, Charles Walker, the
former Kentucky wide receiver, and Chris Fisher from the Cats
Pause part of the two four seven Network Final thoughts

(33:16):
today and the little bit of UK history brought to
you by Kentucky road Show Sports Cards and Memorabilia and
Lexing and learn more about them at roadshowcards dot com.
Today's birthdays Rodrick Rhodes, Matt Heisenbuttle from Kentucky Basketball and
Trey Mitchell. Matt was a walk on from Lexington Catholic.
Rod of course, was one of, if not maybe the

(33:38):
most ballyhooed if that's still a word recruit in the
history of the Rick Pattino era. And when I remember
the most about Rod Rhods, and some of you may
remember this as well, though we're going back now, gosh,
thirty years was when he left. He left in nineteen
ninety five, but in the time leading up to that,
with Rick Pattino in the early days at Kentucky, one

(33:58):
of the knocks on Petea and of course until you
win the big one, well he can't win the big one.
But one of the knocks on Patino was he can't
sign the big recruit. You know, he was doing all
kinds of recruiting this and that, bringing in this guy,
that guy. But I remember the criticism of, well, he
can't sign that big recruit. And that ended when he signed.
Rod Rhodes out of Jersey City, New Jersey, played for

(34:20):
the famous Saint Anthony's High School. He was a six
to sixth listed as a forward, kind of a swingman,
a hybrid, and he was mister Basketball in the State
of New Jersey, Gatorade Player of the Year, Parade, All American,
USA Today, All American, and of course a McDonald's All American,
and Kentucky fans rejoiced, and why not. He was a great,

(34:40):
great talent. Made the All Freshman Team in ninety two.
Ninety three, third team All Conference his second year, second
team All Conference his junior year. But it just wasn't
working with Rick Patino. They just kind of clashed, and
Roderick admitted later he was headstrong and listened to his
brother more than a Reggie than he did Rick Pattino.

(35:03):
And I remember Patino telling us that in the home
when he signed Roderick Rose. When Rod committed, his brother said, Okay,
I'm moving to Lexington, and Patino said, he put his
hand up and said, don't do that. You be his
family here. We'll be his family in Lexington. And Rod's
sister said the same thing, yep, we will. You know

(35:26):
that sounds like a plan in paraphrasing. But his brother
moved down and again he and Patino just never quite meshed.
And so after the ninety four to ninety five season,
Rod transferred to Southern col and played one year there
before moving on to the NBA, and that didn't work
out either. He played parts of two seasons. He was

(35:47):
drafted in the first round late by the Houston Rockets,
but never did make it in the NBA. And I'll
never forget too. Kentucky lost in the ninety four to
ninety five season to Louisville and Rod had a bad game,
and man, I was doing the postgame talk show and
people were beating him up about it. And you might
recall he had that terrible moment in the SEC tournament

(36:10):
that year where he missed some crucial free throws and
it was devastated by it and could not stop beating
himself up to the point where Patino didn't put him
back in. Once Anthony EPs and his teammates got the
game into overtime, Rogers couldn't get out of his own head.
You know. Again, just a great high school player and
a serviceable college player. He scored twelve hundred points in

(36:33):
three seasons for the Wildcats, but you know, things just
never quite worked out for him. So when he moved on,
his scholarship went to a guy named Ron Mercer, who
was a pretty good true freshman for the team the
following year that won the NCAA championship. As you know,
and I'm not here to bang on Roger Rose. I

(36:53):
just think he was a fascinating person when he came
to the history of Kentucky basketball, and I would imagine,
like so many of us, if he had to do
some things over again. He might have done some things
differently during his career at the University of Kentucky, but
he did help Patino's teams win a lot of ball games,
and he did, as I say, score a lot of

(37:14):
points in those three seasons, and obviously we wish him
the best. Also, we wish the best to Tashawn Prince
and to Randall Cobb went into the Kentucky State Wide
Hall of Fame last night, and both the Prince and
Keith Bogins all echo a tweet from Chris Fisher. Both
belong in the UK Sports Hall of Fame, and Bogans

(37:36):
may be the most underappreciated wildcat of them all. We'll
talk about that on another day. For now, that's it.
So long, everybody,