Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast of the Leech Report is presented by Boone's
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Everybody will welcome into the Leech Report for a Wednesday.
(00:21):
It is always presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Coming up on
the show today, Chris Fisher from the Cat's Pause will
join us. We'll talk to the former Wildcat whiteout Charles Walker,
and we normally would have Mike de Corsi on Wednesdays,
Mike's gonna move to Thursday this week and we will
(00:42):
welcome in Mark's story from the Lexington Herald Leader. So
that's the lineup for today. Wildcat News of the Day
presented by Joseepie's of Lexington. A UK football practice on Tuesday,
the offensive coordinator and players do interviews after practic this
and so Bush Hampden was in the spotlight talking about
(01:04):
the struggles that Kentucky had offensively down at South Carolina,
and let's listen in on a little bit of that discussion,
starting with his evaluation of cutter Bully.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
If I talked to him before the game. I just think,
you know, in the state of this league, you can't
ride the buller post.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, he's a good player, and he's a resilient kid.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
He's never too high, too low. And I think that
was my conversation with him in his first start going
in the SEC as you look across the league and
how many teams are playing with their second guy and
how many injuries there are, and he's got to take
the positives and learn from the negatives.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think he's got them. I really do.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I think he's a guy. We talked right after the game.
We talked two nights ago at about ten o'clock at night,
and it was like, hey man, it wasn't perfect, but
I tell you what I mean. I thought he competed.
He showed toughness. He missed a couple of throws, and
you make those throws and everything's going in different direction.
So I think he wants it. I don't think he's
scared at all. And that's what I've learned in two
(02:05):
years here, like we better be confident at that position
and want it, and I think he does.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
With what seth in the running, you feel when you
have more of an outlets of identity, and I think
sure know.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Whether it kind of felt like you were searching put
that on your link, I think so, you know, and
I think, as you know, we just always got a
we've worked to not be as one dimensional here, and
that's continuing the focus, right because we need to run
the football, but we've got to we've got to be balanced.
(02:36):
So we've got to create some things on the outside
of four points. And frankly, we can't be in passing
situations and just expect to be a traditional, uh you know,
drop back team. I think that's maybe the frustrating part.
That game got out of hand on a third and
five and a third and eight in our opinion, and uh,
you know, we've got to be a little bit unconventional
(02:57):
and keep our team in a better position win football games.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Bush hammed it after practice yesterday, and so I think
you hear some of the frustration there certainly with where
they are right now. But you know, they they've had
to turn to a backup quarterback earlier than expected, and
so the plan coming into the year was that he
had a veteran guy that had been through a lot,
(03:23):
and I've seen a lot now Cutter's experiencing things sometimes
for the first time, and should get better for from
those experiences, and we'll see how much improvement there is.
On Saturday in a similar situation, maybe even tougher, well,
certainly even tougher down at Georgia at Sandford Stadium against
the Bulldogs who are coming off a loss to Alabama.
(03:45):
And yes they will be angry and motivated, but I
would imagine the Wildcats would be as well. So noon
kickoff on Saturday for that, and we'll talk more about
it as we moved through the week. Interesting note does
this is from With the college basketball season coming up,
you see some these lists that get put out from
(04:09):
this one's from Andy Katz at NCAA dot com. He
ranks his top ten arenas for college basketball Alan Feldhouse
and Allen field House number one, Cameron at Duke number two,
Mackie Arena, Purdue number three, Madison Square Garden, and then
Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State. Then he has Bud Walton
Arena six, Breslin Center Michigan State seven, the Pit at
(04:32):
Albuquerque eight, McHale Center at Arizona nine, and the United
Supermarkets Arena at Texas Tech number ten. And if you're
wondering what I didn't hear Rapperina there, No, you didn't.
I don't think there's And he's a good, good guy.
I've been covered a long time. I can't give a
whole lot of credibility to any list that doesn't have
(04:53):
Rapperina on it. Yeah, I mean it's flat on nights
where it can be flat on nights where it's a
dead game, but there's still plenty of people there, and
that's not always the case at some of those other places.
So anyway, it's just one of those fun things for
fans to talk about. Links to the stories that we
(05:14):
talk about each day, you can find those on the
bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky dot com.
When we come back, Chris Fisher will join the program
from Catspaws dot com and our opening segment of wild
Cat News always presented by Just Steppes of Lexington. They
make all of their pasta right there on site, handcut
steaks they've shipped in the seafood fresh because we don't
(05:36):
have an ocean nearby, but that gets here very quickly,
tastes fantastic. A lot of the sides are made with
local ingredients, local farms, and you can check all that
out at Juseppes Lexington dot com and then make a
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a fantastic meal one hundred and thirty seven different bourbons
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great meal at Ja Sepi's. We'll be right back on
the Leach Report Radio network quarter past the top of
the hour. Leach Report's presented by Bobcat Enterprises. They have
(06:21):
four locations in Kentucky and you need to google one
whenever you have a need or know somebody who does
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a great deal on it and they'll have you give
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(06:43):
it's Bobcat Enterprises. Google them and you'll find the location
that is closest to you here in Kentucky's We welcome
Chris Fisher to the program from katspaws dot com and
if you follow him at Chris Fisher two four seven
on X, you know he's a little frustrated with the
state of Kentucky football right now.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Right I didn't think you could tell. Yeah, I mean,
it's it's you know, it is a frustrating time, I
think for most Kentucky football fans. And I think, honestly,
I don't think they played that particularly poorly at South Carolina,
(07:22):
outside of that very short stretch there in the second
quarter where things went went and left on them. And
but this this is not a team offensively that can
compensate for those types of devastating turnovers. It's just not
gonna happen. And now they're in the in the thick
(07:43):
of this SEC gauntlet. Things don't get any easier. They
travel with Georgia this weekend, who I'm sure we'll be
smarting after that, uh, that loss to to Alabama, And
so this is one of those situations where the the
only way out is through and and and that's the
they have to try and head it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
If you're writing a script for a movie, you can
have ten cups shoot eighty two of the first round
of the US Open and still come back to being
in a position to win it. But in reality, that
didn't happen very often if you you know, really just
blow up at some point in a you know, whether
it's golf or some other sporting event like this one
to just in the span of a few plays the
(08:24):
game was lost in the second quarter.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
M Yeah, And I thought bush Hamden made some interesting
comments yesterday after practice and you know, talking about being
more methodical and you know, protecting the football. It makes
me kind of interested to see if they, you know,
kind of tone down the game plan a little bit
and go even more conservative, just in an attempt to
(08:50):
do a little bit better job protect of protecting the football.
I thought, you know, coming into the season, everybody thought
that Kentucky would kind of go back to the old
school Mark Stoop's recipe of you know, running the football,
controlling the clock, playing solid defense, shortening the game and
all that is well and good, but again, if you're
(09:11):
turning the football over.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
None of that is gonna matter.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
And the plan was to have a veteran quarterback who'd
been through a lot of battles and had seen a
lot and now because of the injury to Calzada and
the fact he wasn't playing well. I mean, they would
have probably turned to Cutter for a shot at it anyway,
even without the injury to Zach. That now you have
a quarterback that's just as a red shirt freshman, you
(09:38):
have things that you haven't dealt with before. You know,
first time to start on the road in the sec
you know, it's just do you live with the the
downside to that and hope you get some of the
upside of a guy who has a little swagger, who
has a big arm and can become a guy that
makes some place for you. And that's the challenge for
(10:00):
Cutter is just to keep chucking it. I remember talking
to Rich Brooks. Andre Woodson was in danger of losing
the starting job coming into six and he finally was
named the starter, and but Rich said it really wasn't
until after the first game in a blowout lost Louisville,
where he felt he learned a lot about Andrea was
convinced he was his quarterback moving forward.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, you took the words out. It right out of
my mouth. I thought back to Andre Woodson and when
he first took the reins at starting quarterback and kind
of what that looked like. And Cutter Bowley has a
lot of upside experience is just so invaluable going through,
you know, the slings and arrows of of SEC play.
And it'll be interesting to see. I don't really know
(10:45):
exactly the status of Zach Calzada and his injury. I'll
be interested to see if they if they go back
to him at some point, or if they're just completely
dedicated to letting Cutter Bolly play through this for for
better and for worse, especially if you feel like he's
your guy going forward.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And it's a rough period for him in terms of
ascending to this job. Because you know, you had a
game at South Carolina. I think you had a chance,
you know, play better, you don't make those mistakes they
made to win that one. Now you have three games
where a year, I mean you're gonna be a three
touchdown underdog this week. You can win those games. You
(11:25):
can win those games, certainly, win any game. But it's
a harder scenario to envision, certainly for fans. When you're
going into Georgia and then you have Texas and Tennessee
coming in here. And we always we all knew from
the start of the season that October looked brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, and I guess on the trying to look on
the bright side of things, Texas hasn't exactly looked like
the Texas that we thought they would. Tennessee hasn't looked
like the Tennessee that we thought they would. They've struggled
at times with a new quarterback, and then you have
this Saturday with Georgia. Kentucky has played Georgia, I would say,
(12:06):
just about as well as anybody in the SEC. Now,
they haven't come away with those wins, and they've played
much much better in Lexington than they have in Athens.
But you know, I think there's a lot of reason
for the guys in that locker room to be confident that,
you know, they can at least keep it close and
make it competitive.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Let's shift gears to basketball. Take Kenny, one time Newport
High school star picked Kansas. By the time he made
that decision, that didn't come as a surprise, did it.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Now. I think those Kentucky and Taylor Kenny were kind
of drifting in separate directions for some time. Now. I
think that's why you've seen Kentucky shift its focus over
the last weeks and months to Darren Rippy Jr. He'll
be on an official visit to Kentucky here in the
very near future. But for whatever reason, Yeah, it just
(12:57):
seemed like Kentucky had been out of the running with
Taylor Kenney for for some time. But again, they'll have
Darren Ruby Junior on campus for an official visit and
a handful of other guys for official visits in the
coming days and Big Blue Madness as well.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
What's going on with this teren Stokes recruitment.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, I think that's one that you know, there was
a lot of sentiment Kentucky maybe the leader coming out
of the summer, but everything still felt very fluid, and
I think that's still the case. It's interesting that he's
chosen to pick up football here. In the last couple
of weeks, he was practicing with the team. I think
he played in his first game last week. But right now,
(13:39):
I think it feels like a toss up between Kentucky, Oregon,
and Kansas. He recently took what I think will be
his final official visit to Oregon a couple of weeks ago,
and now I think he's there's a chance he might
visit Gonzaga, but it sounds like he's entering decision making
mode and I wouldn't be surprised to see him make
(14:00):
a decision in the early signing period.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Chris Fishercatzpause dot Com at Chris Fisher twenty four to
seven on X, Thank you for the time. Thank you.
About twenty three past the top of the hour, it's
the Leach Report coming to you from the Clarks Pumping
Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel at Clark's. We're back
with the former Wildcat wide out Charles Walker in just
a moment, Late's Report and we welcome in Charles Walker
(14:27):
to the program, former wide out for the Wildcats, and
the guy from CBI Insurance. Charles You in. When you
play football in the SEC, you get to play in
some of the legendary venues of the sport. One of
those is down between the hedges at Sanford Stadium on
the Georgia campus. Did you have a favorite road place
(14:48):
to play?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yo, Tom, Obviously games are a little bit more fun
when you win. So we were four and oh against
South Carolina. Got to play two night games at William Bryce,
so that was probably one of the favorites. That being said,
between the hedges is a special place. And we played
at BAMA when I was a junior. We got to
see a lot of them, got to play at LSU
(15:12):
as a true freshman night game in Death Valley. So
you know, pretty much everywhere aside from Columbia, Missouri is
a pretty special place.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
The schedules changing now going to nine games and for
the SEC and also you as a player, if you're
there for four years, you'll see everybody in the league
home and away. Would would you have preferred that when
you were playing?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You know, it's an interesting setup for sure. We did
get to travel to some great places. If you remember
when I was there, we had Auburn at home on
a Thursday night, we played oh miss at home. But
you know, it's it's great to travel, it's great to
see the stadiums. But you know, let's be honest, Tom,
we we play our best and teams play their best
(16:00):
from there at home. We'd hope to get some of
these really good opponents at home and maybe some of
the lesser opponents away. But I guess we'll just leave
that up to the schedule in the transfer portal, right.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, exactly, And yeah, the guys, staying for four years
is kind of a novel concept, and nowadays four or five.
So yeah, that everybody will get to make it all
the way through the SEC. It's kind of crazy. Texas
A and M is still not played here and has
been in the league, I think since twenty twelve, and
(16:33):
I missed that game.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So a couple of my buddies that red shirt freshman
year got to play at A and M the year
after I graduated. I still remember Darius West picking up
the picks, not the pick sticks, but the scoop and
score at an unbelievable game. And Kyle Field did not
end up getting the W there. But you know, Tom,
I think this team is always for success. We just
(16:56):
have to execute it. And you know, when it rains
at pours. There was a lot of plays against that
South Carolina team that simply didn't go our way. I
know the score was terrible, but you know, I'm rewatching
the game this morning, going how did it? How did
it open up so quickly? Because we were you know,
we were we were close there and we looked like
a pretty dang good football team. The first couple of drives,
(17:19):
oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I mean early second quarter they're up ten to seven
with a first down in South Carolina territory after a
bad punt. I mean, it was about as good as
you would hope to be in and you know, in
a road game with a red shirt freshman quarterback, all
of those things, and then it falls apart in the
span of just a very few series. And we'll talk
(17:46):
about this week we come back in a little more
detail how as players you recover from that, because you know,
when fans are down, it's not one game. It's a
bigger picture discussion that they're talking about. But as a player,
can you stay focused on it was just one game
and you can be better the next time out. So
(18:08):
we'll get into that with Charles when we come right
back at CP Underscore Walker sixteen. I believe it is
on X. We'll be right back with Charles Walker A
triparts presented by Bob Kat Enterprises, And we're back with
Charles Walker, former Wildcat wide out, talking about Kentucky football
(18:28):
and it struggles at the moment and coming off a
disappointing loss at South Carolina in a game that, as
you said, Charles, was off to a good start and
then it all fell apart in just a short time
in that second quarter. As a player, is it challenging
to stay focused on it's just one game and move
(18:49):
on to the next one when everything around you is
talking about bigger picture stuff, you know?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And Tom, this is kind of a two for one
because in the game it's easy to overcome a bad
drive when you have an explosive play. A lot of
teams are doing it on us. We aren't necessarily doing
that to other teams, so you know, in game, we
just need a spark. These these ten play drives that
end up in points are obviously great, but man, isn't
(19:16):
it fun to watch in Alabama or or another or
an organ that connects on a three to four you know,
three to four play eighty yard touchdown drive. In regards
to getting over one game, here's what we would do.
You know, we we watched film as a team after
the game, and really, as the coaches point out, four
or five plays that prove to you, guys, we were
(19:36):
right there and that execution led to you know, points
the other way, which leads to a thirty five thirteen loss.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And it was ugly. It looks bad, feels awful, but
you have to shake that off. Don't you because you
have to go down to Georgia this.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Week and tom it doesn't get any easier. And listen,
these these players know this when when they're being recruited,
You are being recruited to play in the SEC. This
is a this is a big league. This is a
big boy league. And if you think you're going to
come in and win every game by fifty, it's just
not going to happen. You were playing the best of
the best and hopes to make it to play on
(20:16):
Sundays where you're playing the truly best of the best.
So it's something instilled in these kids. And you got to,
you know, to rely on your leaders to pick them
up when we're down.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You play on the offensive side of the balls, you
can talk about what you're seeing, probably to a greater
detail than the average fans. Well, I know you can.
So if the Peers that they have wide receivers that
are having trouble getting open against press coverage, they have
a young quarterback, they had certainly protection issues in this game.
So as you know, the if you're the offensive coordinator,
(20:50):
what do you try to do to help manage that
to give yourself a chance?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yo, and I think a start of that is is
your identity. And I think we know that Stoops likes
to run the ball. What we had about I want
to say, forty carries and twelve pass attempts. We got
to work on releases to get off the line when
they're playing man, and it comes down to that when
it's man to man and there's a single high safety
wide receivers, you have to get open. At the same time,
(21:17):
there were maybe a time or two where Cutter had
an open guy and decided to put his head down
and you know, maybe thinking he was getting too much
pressure or couldn't get it out. That just comes with
playing the game at a high speed, and the only
way to get that's reps.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, and there were Van Hiles and his cutup was
remember one that I was looking at that he pointed
out where you roll out and you've got a running
back leaking out for a short pass. Not a big game,
but it's an easy completion, and you know, take those,
take the easy things as opposed to trying to make
the big play. And I'm sure you know as a
(21:54):
you know, as a player, you're you know, your team's
struggling to find those explosive plays. So if you think
you have a small window, you try to make one sometimes,
but I think they're the situation they're in at the moment.
Just take the easiest play you can to just to
try to keep things moving forward and avoid negative plays.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, but Bush has to give Cutter easy reads, and
I think honestly, Bush did a good job of call plays.
That third and two with Willie Rodriguez, where you know
he takes it about sixty yards is a great play
call and a great game plan. But to your point,
when you get down that this offense is not built
to come from behind, especially against a good athletic defense.
But it reminds me of the Ryder Cup. You know,
(22:36):
Team USA goes out on Sunday thinking there's no chance
we're going to win, and that's when they end up winning,
you know, twelve out of the fifteen matches. Same thing
with the UK. When we're poised and calm and we
have a good game plan, like the first couple of drives,
we look like we can beat any team in the nation.
And when things go wrong and we're down, you know,
twenty twenty one, we start to force it and it's
(22:57):
just not good for this offense and a.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Question from a list. I think he sent this in
to the Coaches Show Monday night, but he just sent
it for our show as well. He said, with a
pro style offense, it seems success has come with the
likes of Steve and Johnson, Terry Wilson, Will Levis. Why continue?
Why continue to recruit drop back passers? The run option
quarterback gives the offense so many more possibilities. Those guys
(23:20):
were running some of that run option, run pass option
stuff Terry and Steven a little bit with with Will,
but I think they had the success with Will Levis
and Wandale brought in an NFL coordinator and so they
moved in that direction and recruited to that. Uh. And
so that's kind of still where they are. But Cutters
(23:43):
a guy that they're doing. You know, in Bush's offense,
there is more of the run pass option, and I
think as Cutter evolves, he can get good at that
because his coaches have talked about the fact that he's
more athletic than maybe he gets credit for.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And you know, obviously the short answer to that is
two words transfer, portal, but that comes with another three
letter word nil. But to your point. You know, Cutter
will develop. He's still is you know. He kind of
reminds me of Stephen Johnson back there. He's he's not
exactly two point fifty yet, but it's it's a Mark
(24:23):
Stoops offense. And as you said, I think Bush is
learning these players and learning the identity. Hey, we've learned
that get Kendrick Lawl the ball and he's going to
make something happen. We learned McCowan can run pretty dang
hard and can make a man miss. It comes with
learning this team, learning the identity, and again executing. That's
what we have to do. We have to execute.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Charles, Thank you much, Thank you. Charles Walker joins us
each week here on the Leech Report to talk about
his alma mater, and we are going to get to
the break and come back with Mark's story from the
Lexington Harold Leeer. It is the Leach Report coming to
you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Turn refresh and
refuel at Clerk's Quarter. Before the top of the hour,
(25:05):
we welcome Mark's story to the program from Kentucky Sports
dot Com and the pages of the Lexington Herald Leader.
And when you follow at Mark C's story on XS
you will get links to histories like the one he
does each week that analyzes the matchups by position groups
for Kentucky and its opponent, which is number twelve Georgia
(25:26):
this week. So Mark, you've done this several times over
the years. Each year is this version of Georgia? They
have the Dogs lost anything off their fastball from recent
seasons under Kirby Smart.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
You know, they the statistical matchup, Georgia is at advantage
in most categories, but it's not as pronounced as it
often is. I was a little surprised just in breaking
them down. I just assumed they were just, you know, Georgia,
normal Georgia of the Kirby Smart era, and they may
proved to be, but statistically they have not been that
(26:03):
in many ways so far this season.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, we're into a mode, it seems in the sec
where there's it's whether it's parody whatever, there's not the
maybe level of of dominance at the very top, but
the level of parody of the best goes maybe a
(26:28):
little deeper than it has in a while, where maybe
it was you know, Alabama and maybe Alabama and Georgia
for many years. Do you think that's the case. Is
that part of what is going on with the SEC
and it's pursuit of national championships.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
You know, that's an interesting question. And I hesitate to
say this because we're still so newly into the quote
unquote new euro of college sports, and I think it's
dangerous to draw big picture pronouncements. But I actually think
the combination of free transferring and NIL has created more parody.
I think players that maybe were sitting on the bench
(27:04):
at Georgia or at Alabama are now making three hundred
thousand dollars a year and playing at Mississippi State or whatever.
So yeah, I do think that the SEC is that
it's changed a little bit. It's not as top heavy,
and I think the talent has spread a little more.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You were down at Columbia last weekend, and you've seen
some of those movies play out before for Kentucky football,
and we were talking about this on the broadcast. It
was similar to the seven game down there on a
Thursday night where Kentucky self destructed. But at that moment
for Kentucky football, that team had more goodwill in the
(27:43):
bank and more talent I think overall, and was able
to come back, you know, the next week and upset
the number one LSU. There's team's in a different situation now,
so it doesn't get viewed in terms of one bad
night quite as much, does it.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
No, It's it's seen as part of a continuation of
an unhappy trend. And you know, it's I was thinking about.
You know, they basically played two sec games, which means
they've played two games for the chance to sort of
change the narrative. And you know that Mississippi game was
a winnable game that they had all the trouble in
the first half with getting the plays in, and I think,
(28:22):
as they explained later, they were so intent on trying
to create favorable matchups that they were doing a lot
of switching and the personnel and stuff, and I think
it just got too complicated. And then obviously they got
off to such a good start at South Carolina. If
there are any glass half full people watching Kentucky football
right now, you look at the way that first quarter went,
(28:43):
and maybe that's who they need to be, that's the
identity of the team you want to see. But obviously,
whatever you know, positive there was from that was pretty
much undone. And what was one of the more disastrous
second quarters you'll ever see.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I mean the game was really lost. Is down
twenty eight ten, With where Kentucky is in terms of
offensive firepower right now, it was hard not to think
the game was over at that point, right.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Well, Yeah, I mean they just you know, my colleague
John Hale asked Mark Stoops about that Monday at his
news conference, just you know, it's what has to happen
to get to a point that if you get some
things go wrong and you get behind a couple of scores,
it just doesn't feel like the whole world is lost.
And you know, Mark just said, you know, for where
they're at right now, they just need to stay out
(29:31):
of that position.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, that's that's kind of what it what it is.
And you know, from a you know, a play caller standpoint,
you're you look at that game the other night, and
I would think you go into your next game thinking,
you know, if I get into third and third and longs,
I've got to think about you know, am I just
trying to do something safe and stay in the game.
(29:53):
In other words, as much as trying to get the
first down at that moment is just let's make sure
we take care of the football. We've got a good punter.
Let's because I think that's probably where Kentucky has to
live for the time being. They can get better, is
to just be able to do everything possible to stay
in the game and not let it not self destruct
(30:14):
like they did Saturday night. Right.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Well, you know, obviously they need to be in the
game and with a chance to win it in the
fourth quarter, and then you try to make plays just
to win games. You know, I think we discussed the
last time I've gone here about kind of the record
and one to one possession game and you know they
obviously that's not been as good lately, but they also
haven't been as many of them because they haven't played
(30:38):
they haven't been playing people as close. But yeah, that's
that's the recipe, is to get through the fourth.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Quarter with the jan you wrote about, uh, the contract
for coach Tups. It's a hot topic has been for
a while now for fans, but that that is that
is what it is. There's that that's not changing. So
it's a challenging time, I guess is the biggest understatement
(31:05):
about that for the whole program, and best case scenario
would have been to have had a little success in
September to create a little momentum. Now they face as
your colleague John Haill wrote about this week, a gauntlet
of three games this week that is, you know, he
wrote about it in historical terms, it's happened like I
think three times where they faced three top fifteen teams
(31:25):
in succession.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us that
looked at the schedule felt like they needed to get
to at least three wins in September to you know,
have a viable chance to make this, you know, to
get to the post season. That hasn't happened. And you know,
there's still eight games to go, so it's too soon
to just completely throw in the towel. But you know,
(31:49):
I think if you look at Kentucky last four years,
and I think they've beaten the top ten team in
three of those years, So you know, that's that's what
it's going to take to flip this. I mean, the
only way that this gets better is to win a
game people aren't expecting and then to stack some wins.
And whether that's realistic, we're going to find out. But
(32:12):
that's the only way to make to make this very
negative environment better.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
If you have a young quarterback and you have a
lot of new players, one would think you can get
better over the course of the season. But the key
to that is keeping everybody engaged. And Mark has talked
about how much he likes this group of people from
a character standpoint. So that's put to the test, I
think right now, isn't it, Because last year's team that
(32:44):
you know, it's it's a who knows how many guys,
but it seemed like there were some number of guys
that didn't stay engaged all the way through.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Yeah, that's correct that Kentucky had two teams last year.
There was a team that played against Georgia and all
this that was pretty good, and then there was a
team that played down the stretch that was pretty bad.
And that's the risk here is. You know, you hope
you're playing a young quarterback. You hope he gets better
each week and you start to see progress, and you
(33:12):
know you're otherwise you have kind of a better office.
But you're hoping that you know that experience, you know
they'll hang in and that they too will play better.
But you know the risk in that is, you know,
I thought what happened last year especially with the defense.
And this may be an oversimplification, but you know, I
thought in the Florida game, when Christian Story intercepted the
(33:35):
pass and ran it back to like the twelve yard
line or something and then the offense didn't score, to me,
it looked like the defense from that point on just
sort of let go of the rope. It was just like,
no matter what we do, it's not going to matter.
And that's the kind of thing you need you've got
to avoid avoid this year, is you, you know, the
coaching challenges to keep everybody engaged in positive so that
(33:56):
you know, if that you can do something and positive
and even if it's not in October there you know,
the November scheduled is not as hard. There doesn't look
as hard, and there would be some winnable opportunities, but
you've got to be, you know, engaged and open to
doing some winning at that point.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, I kind of had the same feeling on that
the Florida play. I know what you're talking about. I
want to ask you about one other things. It's a
column you did last week about Willie Rodriguez and malady
that his younger sister has been dealing with from birth,
and it was just a really touching column. And I
guess you've got a lot of really positive feedback on it.
(34:34):
I would imagine those kinds of things, those kinds of
stories can be both inspirational and yet difficult to write
for you, right, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
It was a challenging story to write, just because you know,
Willie's younger sister, Gabby suffers from a rare neurological or
disorder and is not verbal, so one one of the
chief characters in the story is not somebody who can
and you know, speak. But I had been a friend
of mine, I think had seen TV when one of
(35:06):
the Cincinnati TV stations had done a story about Willy
and Gabby when Willie was at coming and Catholic, and
a friend of mine who wasn't going to Kentucky had
told me about it, so I'd had it on my
list for a long time. And yeah, it is both
a sad and inspirational story. And Willy and Gabby are
close in age, and when they were little, I think
(35:28):
Willy was really her protector. And the real hero of
the story is Jodie Rodriguez, but their mom, who just
has done tremendous Yeoman's care for Gabby.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Well, it certainly speaks well of Willie in terms of
his character. And you did a wonderful job telling the story. Mark,
thank you for the time as always, see you in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Thanks Tom, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
That is a Mark story at Mark C story on
x Lexing and Herald Leader Kentucky Sports dot com. One
segment left, We'll get to it when we return. It
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Everybody will welcome into the Leech Report for a Wednesday.
(00:21):
It is always presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Coming up on
the show today, Chris Fisher from the Cat's Pause will
join us. We'll talk to the former Wildcat whiteout Charles Walker,
and we normally would have Mike de Corsi on Wednesdays,
Mike's gonna move to Thursday this week and we will
(00:42):
welcome in Mark's story from the Lexington Herald Leader. So
that's the lineup for today. Wildcat News of the Day
presented by Joseepie's of Lexington. A UK football practice on Tuesday,
the offensive coordinator and players do interviews after practic this
and so Bush Hampden was in the spotlight talking about
(01:04):
the struggles that Kentucky had offensively down at South Carolina,
and let's listen in on a little bit of that discussion,
starting with his evaluation of cutter Bully.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
If I talked to him before the game. I just think,
you know, in the state of this league, you can't
ride the buller post.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
You know, he's a good player, and he's a resilient kid.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
He's never too high, too low. And I think that
was my conversation with him in his first start going
in the SEC as you look across the league and
how many teams are playing with their second guy and
how many injuries there are, and he's got to take
the positives and learn from the negatives.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think he's got them. I really do.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I think he's a guy. We talked right after the game.
We talked two nights ago at about ten o'clock at night,
and it was like, hey man, it wasn't perfect, but
I tell you what I mean. I thought he competed.
He showed toughness. He missed a couple of throws, and
you make those throws and everything's going in different direction.
So I think he wants it. I don't think he's
scared at all. And that's what I've learned in two
(02:05):
years here, like we better be confident at that position
and want it, and I think he does.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
With what seth in the running, you feel when you
have more of an outlets of identity, and I think
sure know.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Whether it kind of felt like you were searching put
that on your link, I think so, you know, and
I think, as you know, we just always got a
we've worked to not be as one dimensional here, and
that's continuing the focus, right because we need to run
the football, but we've got to we've got to be balanced.
(02:36):
So we've got to create some things on the outside
of four points. And frankly, we can't be in passing
situations and just expect to be a traditional, uh you know,
drop back team. I think that's maybe the frustrating part.
That game got out of hand on a third and
five and a third and eight in our opinion, and uh,
you know, we've got to be a little bit unconventional
(02:57):
and keep our team in a better position win football games.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Bush hammed it after practice yesterday, and so I think
you hear some of the frustration there certainly with where
they are right now. But you know, they they've had
to turn to a backup quarterback earlier than expected, and
so the plan coming into the year was that he
had a veteran guy that had been through a lot,
(03:23):
and I've seen a lot now Cutter's experiencing things sometimes
for the first time, and should get better for from
those experiences, and we'll see how much improvement there is.
On Saturday in a similar situation, maybe even tougher, well,
certainly even tougher down at Georgia at Sandford Stadium against
the Bulldogs who are coming off a loss to Alabama.
(03:45):
And yes they will be angry and motivated, but I
would imagine the Wildcats would be as well. So noon
kickoff on Saturday for that, and we'll talk more about
it as we moved through the week. Interesting note does
this is from With the college basketball season coming up,
you see some these lists that get put out from
(04:09):
this one's from Andy Katz at NCAA dot com. He
ranks his top ten arenas for college basketball Alan Feldhouse
and Allen field House number one, Cameron at Duke number two,
Mackie Arena, Purdue number three, Madison Square Garden, and then
Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State. Then he has Bud Walton
Arena six, Breslin Center Michigan State seven, the Pit at
(04:32):
Albuquerque eight, McHale Center at Arizona nine, and the United
Supermarkets Arena at Texas Tech number ten. And if you're
wondering what I didn't hear Rapperina there, No, you didn't.
I don't think there's And he's a good, good guy.
I've been covered a long time. I can't give a
whole lot of credibility to any list that doesn't have
(04:53):
Rapperina on it. Yeah, I mean it's flat on nights
where it can be flat on nights where it's a
dead game, but there's still plenty of people there, and
that's not always the case at some of those other places.
So anyway, it's just one of those fun things for
fans to talk about. Links to the stories that we
(05:14):
talk about each day, you can find those on the
bud Light Leach Report page at Tom Leachky dot com.
When we come back, Chris Fisher will join the program
from Catspaws dot com and our opening segment of wild
Cat News always presented by Just Steppes of Lexington. They
make all of their pasta right there on site, handcut
steaks they've shipped in the seafood fresh because we don't
(05:36):
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great meal at Ja Sepi's. We'll be right back on
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(06:21):
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(06:43):
it's Bobcat Enterprises. Google them and you'll find the location
that is closest to you here in Kentucky's We welcome
Chris Fisher to the program from katspaws dot com and
if you follow him at Chris Fisher two four seven
on X, you know he's a little frustrated with the
state of Kentucky football right now.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Right I didn't think you could tell. Yeah, I mean,
it's it's you know, it is a frustrating time, I
think for most Kentucky football fans. And I think, honestly,
I don't think they played that particularly poorly at South Carolina,
(07:22):
outside of that very short stretch there in the second
quarter where things went went and left on them. And
but this this is not a team offensively that can
compensate for those types of devastating turnovers. It's just not
gonna happen. And now they're in the in the thick
(07:43):
of this SEC gauntlet. Things don't get any easier. They
travel with Georgia this weekend, who I'm sure we'll be
smarting after that, uh, that loss to to Alabama, And
so this is one of those situations where the the
only way out is through and and and that's the
they have to try and head it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
If you're writing a script for a movie, you can
have ten cups shoot eighty two of the first round
of the US Open and still come back to being
in a position to win it. But in reality, that
didn't happen very often if you you know, really just
blow up at some point in a you know, whether
it's golf or some other sporting event like this one
to just in the span of a few plays the
(08:24):
game was lost in the second quarter.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
M Yeah, And I thought bush Hamden made some interesting
comments yesterday after practice and you know, talking about being
more methodical and you know, protecting the football. It makes
me kind of interested to see if they, you know,
kind of tone down the game plan a little bit
and go even more conservative, just in an attempt to
(08:50):
do a little bit better job protect of protecting the football.
I thought, you know, coming into the season, everybody thought
that Kentucky would kind of go back to the old
school Mark Stoop's recipe of you know, running the football,
controlling the clock, playing solid defense, shortening the game and
all that is well and good, but again, if you're
(09:11):
turning the football over.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
None of that is gonna matter.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
And the plan was to have a veteran quarterback who'd
been through a lot of battles and had seen a
lot and now because of the injury to Calzada and
the fact he wasn't playing well. I mean, they would
have probably turned to Cutter for a shot at it anyway,
even without the injury to Zach. That now you have
a quarterback that's just as a red shirt freshman, you
(09:38):
have things that you haven't dealt with before. You know,
first time to start on the road in the sec
you know, it's just do you live with the the
downside to that and hope you get some of the
upside of a guy who has a little swagger, who
has a big arm and can become a guy that
makes some place for you. And that's the challenge for
(10:00):
Cutter is just to keep chucking it. I remember talking
to Rich Brooks. Andre Woodson was in danger of losing
the starting job coming into six and he finally was
named the starter, and but Rich said it really wasn't
until after the first game in a blowout lost Louisville,
where he felt he learned a lot about Andrea was
convinced he was his quarterback moving forward.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, you took the words out. It right out of
my mouth. I thought back to Andre Woodson and when
he first took the reins at starting quarterback and kind
of what that looked like. And Cutter Bowley has a
lot of upside experience is just so invaluable going through,
you know, the slings and arrows of of SEC play.
And it'll be interesting to see. I don't really know
(10:45):
exactly the status of Zach Calzada and his injury. I'll
be interested to see if they if they go back
to him at some point, or if they're just completely
dedicated to letting Cutter Bolly play through this for for
better and for worse, especially if you feel like he's
your guy going forward.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And it's a rough period for him in terms of
ascending to this job. Because you know, you had a
game at South Carolina. I think you had a chance,
you know, play better, you don't make those mistakes they
made to win that one. Now you have three games
where a year, I mean you're gonna be a three
touchdown underdog this week. You can win those games. You
(11:25):
can win those games, certainly, win any game. But it's
a harder scenario to envision, certainly for fans. When you're
going into Georgia and then you have Texas and Tennessee
coming in here. And we always we all knew from
the start of the season that October looked brutal.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, and I guess on the trying to look on
the bright side of things, Texas hasn't exactly looked like
the Texas that we thought they would. Tennessee hasn't looked
like the Tennessee that we thought they would. They've struggled
at times with a new quarterback, and then you have
this Saturday with Georgia. Kentucky has played Georgia, I would say,
(12:06):
just about as well as anybody in the SEC. Now,
they haven't come away with those wins, and they've played
much much better in Lexington than they have in Athens.
But you know, I think there's a lot of reason
for the guys in that locker room to be confident that,
you know, they can at least keep it close and
make it competitive.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Let's shift gears to basketball. Take Kenny, one time Newport
High school star picked Kansas. By the time he made
that decision, that didn't come as a surprise, did it.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Now. I think those Kentucky and Taylor Kenny were kind
of drifting in separate directions for some time. Now. I
think that's why you've seen Kentucky shift its focus over
the last weeks and months to Darren Rippy Jr. He'll
be on an official visit to Kentucky here in the
very near future. But for whatever reason, Yeah, it just
(12:57):
seemed like Kentucky had been out of the running with
Taylor Kenney for for some time. But again, they'll have
Darren Ruby Junior on campus for an official visit and
a handful of other guys for official visits in the
coming days and Big Blue Madness as well.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
What's going on with this teren Stokes recruitment.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, I think that's one that you know, there was
a lot of sentiment Kentucky maybe the leader coming out
of the summer, but everything still felt very fluid, and
I think that's still the case. It's interesting that he's
chosen to pick up football here. In the last couple
of weeks, he was practicing with the team. I think
he played in his first game last week. But right now,
(13:39):
I think it feels like a toss up between Kentucky, Oregon,
and Kansas. He recently took what I think will be
his final official visit to Oregon a couple of weeks ago,
and now I think he's there's a chance he might
visit Gonzaga, but it sounds like he's entering decision making
mode and I wouldn't be surprised to see him make
(14:00):
a decision in the early signing period.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Chris Fishercatzpause dot Com at Chris Fisher twenty four to
seven on X, Thank you for the time. Thank you.
About twenty three past the top of the hour, it's
the Leach Report coming to you from the Clarks Pumping
Shop studio. Return, Refresh and refuel at Clark's. We're back
with the former Wildcat wide out Charles Walker in just
a moment, Late's Report and we welcome in Charles Walker
(14:27):
to the program, former wide out for the Wildcats, and
the guy from CBI Insurance. Charles You in. When you
play football in the SEC, you get to play in
some of the legendary venues of the sport. One of
those is down between the hedges at Sanford Stadium on
the Georgia campus. Did you have a favorite road place
(14:48):
to play?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yo, Tom, Obviously games are a little bit more fun
when you win. So we were four and oh against
South Carolina. Got to play two night games at William Bryce,
so that was probably one of the favorites. That being said,
between the hedges is a special place. And we played
at BAMA when I was a junior. We got to
see a lot of them, got to play at LSU
(15:12):
as a true freshman night game in Death Valley. So
you know, pretty much everywhere aside from Columbia, Missouri is
a pretty special place.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
The schedules changing now going to nine games and for
the SEC and also you as a player, if you're
there for four years, you'll see everybody in the league
home and away. Would would you have preferred that when
you were playing?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
You know, it's an interesting setup for sure. We did
get to travel to some great places. If you remember
when I was there, we had Auburn at home on
a Thursday night, we played oh miss at home. But
you know, it's it's great to travel, it's great to
see the stadiums. But you know, let's be honest, Tom,
we we play our best and teams play their best
(16:00):
from there at home. We'd hope to get some of
these really good opponents at home and maybe some of
the lesser opponents away. But I guess we'll just leave
that up to the schedule in the transfer portal, right.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, exactly, And yeah, the guys, staying for four years
is kind of a novel concept, and nowadays four or five.
So yeah, that everybody will get to make it all
the way through the SEC. It's kind of crazy. Texas
A and M is still not played here and has
been in the league, I think since twenty twelve, and
(16:33):
I missed that game.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So a couple of my buddies that red shirt freshman
year got to play at A and M the year
after I graduated. I still remember Darius West picking up
the picks, not the pick sticks, but the scoop and
score at an unbelievable game. And Kyle Field did not
end up getting the W there. But you know, Tom,
I think this team is always for success. We just
(16:56):
have to execute it. And you know, when it rains
at pours. There was a lot of plays against that
South Carolina team that simply didn't go our way. I
know the score was terrible, but you know, I'm rewatching
the game this morning, going how did it? How did
it open up so quickly? Because we were you know,
we were we were close there and we looked like
a pretty dang good football team. The first couple of drives,
(17:19):
oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I mean early second quarter they're up ten to seven
with a first down in South Carolina territory after a
bad punt. I mean, it was about as good as
you would hope to be in and you know, in
a road game with a red shirt freshman quarterback, all
of those things, and then it falls apart in the
span of just a very few series. And we'll talk
(17:46):
about this week we come back in a little more
detail how as players you recover from that, because you know,
when fans are down, it's not one game. It's a
bigger picture discussion that they're talking about. But as a player,
can you stay focused on it was just one game
and you can be better the next time out. So
(18:08):
we'll get into that with Charles when we come right
back at CP Underscore Walker sixteen. I believe it is
on X. We'll be right back with Charles Walker A
triparts presented by Bob Kat Enterprises, And we're back with
Charles Walker, former Wildcat wide out, talking about Kentucky football
(18:28):
and it struggles at the moment and coming off a
disappointing loss at South Carolina in a game that, as
you said, Charles, was off to a good start and
then it all fell apart in just a short time
in that second quarter. As a player, is it challenging
to stay focused on it's just one game and move
(18:49):
on to the next one when everything around you is
talking about bigger picture stuff, you know?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And Tom, this is kind of a two for one
because in the game it's easy to overcome a bad
drive when you have an explosive play. A lot of
teams are doing it on us. We aren't necessarily doing
that to other teams, so you know, in game, we
just need a spark. These these ten play drives that
end up in points are obviously great, but man, isn't
(19:16):
it fun to watch in Alabama or or another or
an organ that connects on a three to four you know,
three to four play eighty yard touchdown drive. In regards
to getting over one game, here's what we would do.
You know, we we watched film as a team after
the game, and really, as the coaches point out, four
or five plays that prove to you, guys, we were
(19:36):
right there and that execution led to you know, points
the other way, which leads to a thirty five thirteen loss.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And it was ugly. It looks bad, feels awful, but
you have to shake that off. Don't you because you
have to go down to Georgia this.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Week and tom it doesn't get any easier. And listen,
these these players know this when when they're being recruited,
You are being recruited to play in the SEC. This
is a this is a big league. This is a
big boy league. And if you think you're going to
come in and win every game by fifty, it's just
not going to happen. You were playing the best of
the best and hopes to make it to play on
(20:16):
Sundays where you're playing the truly best of the best.
So it's something instilled in these kids. And you got to,
you know, to rely on your leaders to pick them
up when we're down.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You play on the offensive side of the balls, you
can talk about what you're seeing, probably to a greater
detail than the average fans. Well, I know you can.
So if the Peers that they have wide receivers that
are having trouble getting open against press coverage, they have
a young quarterback, they had certainly protection issues in this game.
So as you know, the if you're the offensive coordinator,
(20:50):
what do you try to do to help manage that
to give yourself a chance?
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Yo, and I think a start of that is is
your identity. And I think we know that Stoops likes
to run the ball. What we had about I want
to say, forty carries and twelve pass attempts. We got
to work on releases to get off the line when
they're playing man, and it comes down to that when
it's man to man and there's a single high safety
wide receivers, you have to get open. At the same time,
(21:17):
there were maybe a time or two where Cutter had
an open guy and decided to put his head down
and you know, maybe thinking he was getting too much
pressure or couldn't get it out. That just comes with
playing the game at a high speed, and the only
way to get that's reps.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, and there were Van Hiles and his cutup was
remember one that I was looking at that he pointed
out where you roll out and you've got a running
back leaking out for a short pass. Not a big game,
but it's an easy completion, and you know, take those,
take the easy things as opposed to trying to make
the big play. And I'm sure you know as a
(21:54):
you know, as a player, you're you know, your team's
struggling to find those explosive plays. So if you think
you have a small window, you try to make one sometimes,
but I think they're the situation they're in at the moment.
Just take the easiest play you can to just to
try to keep things moving forward and avoid negative plays.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, but Bush has to give Cutter easy reads, and
I think honestly, Bush did a good job of call plays.
That third and two with Willie Rodriguez, where you know
he takes it about sixty yards is a great play
call and a great game plan. But to your point,
when you get down that this offense is not built
to come from behind, especially against a good athletic defense.
But it reminds me of the Ryder Cup. You know,
(22:36):
Team USA goes out on Sunday thinking there's no chance
we're going to win, and that's when they end up winning,
you know, twelve out of the fifteen matches. Same thing
with the UK. When we're poised and calm and we
have a good game plan, like the first couple of drives,
we look like we can beat any team in the nation.
And when things go wrong and we're down, you know,
twenty twenty one, we start to force it and it's
(22:57):
just not good for this offense and a.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Question from a list. I think he sent this in
to the Coaches Show Monday night, but he just sent
it for our show as well. He said, with a
pro style offense, it seems success has come with the
likes of Steve and Johnson, Terry Wilson, Will Levis. Why continue?
Why continue to recruit drop back passers? The run option
quarterback gives the offense so many more possibilities. Those guys
(23:20):
were running some of that run option, run pass option
stuff Terry and Steven a little bit with with Will,
but I think they had the success with Will Levis
and Wandale brought in an NFL coordinator and so they
moved in that direction and recruited to that. Uh. And
so that's kind of still where they are. But Cutters
(23:43):
a guy that they're doing. You know, in Bush's offense,
there is more of the run pass option, and I
think as Cutter evolves, he can get good at that
because his coaches have talked about the fact that he's
more athletic than maybe he gets credit for.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And you know, obviously the short answer to that is
two words transfer, portal, but that comes with another three
letter word nil. But to your point. You know, Cutter
will develop. He's still is you know. He kind of
reminds me of Stephen Johnson back there. He's he's not
exactly two point fifty yet, but it's it's a Mark
(24:23):
Stoops offense. And as you said, I think Bush is
learning these players and learning the identity. Hey, we've learned
that get Kendrick Lawl the ball and he's going to
make something happen. We learned McCowan can run pretty dang
hard and can make a man miss. It comes with
learning this team, learning the identity, and again executing. That's
what we have to do. We have to execute.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Charles, Thank you much, Thank you. Charles Walker joins us
each week here on the Leech Report to talk about
his alma mater, and we are going to get to
the break and come back with Mark's story from the
Lexington Harold Leeer. It is the Leach Report coming to
you from the Clark's Pumping Shop studio. Turn refresh and
refuel at Clerk's Quarter. Before the top of the hour,
(25:05):
we welcome Mark's story to the program from Kentucky Sports
dot Com and the pages of the Lexington Herald Leader.
And when you follow at Mark C's story on XS
you will get links to histories like the one he
does each week that analyzes the matchups by position groups
for Kentucky and its opponent, which is number twelve Georgia
(25:26):
this week. So Mark, you've done this several times over
the years. Each year is this version of Georgia? They
have the Dogs lost anything off their fastball from recent
seasons under Kirby Smart.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
You know, they the statistical matchup, Georgia is at advantage
in most categories, but it's not as pronounced as it
often is. I was a little surprised just in breaking
them down. I just assumed they were just, you know, Georgia,
normal Georgia of the Kirby Smart era, and they may
proved to be, but statistically they have not been that
(26:03):
in many ways so far this season.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah, we're into a mode, it seems in the sec
where there's it's whether it's parody whatever, there's not the
maybe level of of dominance at the very top, but
the level of parody of the best goes maybe a
(26:28):
little deeper than it has in a while, where maybe
it was you know, Alabama and maybe Alabama and Georgia
for many years. Do you think that's the case. Is
that part of what is going on with the SEC
and it's pursuit of national championships.
Speaker 5 (26:43):
You know, that's an interesting question. And I hesitate to
say this because we're still so newly into the quote
unquote new euro of college sports, and I think it's
dangerous to draw big picture pronouncements. But I actually think
the combination of free transferring and NIL has created more parody.
I think players that maybe were sitting on the bench
(27:04):
at Georgia or at Alabama are now making three hundred
thousand dollars a year and playing at Mississippi State or whatever.
So yeah, I do think that the SEC is that
it's changed a little bit. It's not as top heavy,
and I think the talent has spread a little more.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
You were down at Columbia last weekend, and you've seen
some of those movies play out before for Kentucky football,
and we were talking about this on the broadcast. It
was similar to the seven game down there on a
Thursday night where Kentucky self destructed. But at that moment
for Kentucky football, that team had more goodwill in the
(27:43):
bank and more talent I think overall, and was able
to come back, you know, the next week and upset
the number one LSU. There's team's in a different situation now,
so it doesn't get viewed in terms of one bad
night quite as much, does it.
Speaker 5 (27:59):
No, It's it's seen as part of a continuation of
an unhappy trend. And you know, it's I was thinking about.
You know, they basically played two sec games, which means
they've played two games for the chance to sort of
change the narrative. And you know that Mississippi game was
a winnable game that they had all the trouble in
the first half with getting the plays in, and I think,
(28:22):
as they explained later, they were so intent on trying
to create favorable matchups that they were doing a lot
of switching and the personnel and stuff, and I think
it just got too complicated. And then obviously they got
off to such a good start at South Carolina. If
there are any glass half full people watching Kentucky football
right now, you look at the way that first quarter went,
(28:43):
and maybe that's who they need to be, that's the
identity of the team you want to see. But obviously,
whatever you know, positive there was from that was pretty
much undone. And what was one of the more disastrous
second quarters you'll ever see.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, I mean the game was really lost. Is down
twenty eight ten, With where Kentucky is in terms of
offensive firepower right now, it was hard not to think
the game was over at that point, right.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Well, Yeah, I mean they just you know, my colleague
John Hale asked Mark Stoops about that Monday at his
news conference, just you know, it's what has to happen
to get to a point that if you get some
things go wrong and you get behind a couple of scores,
it just doesn't feel like the whole world is lost.
And you know, Mark just said, you know, for where
they're at right now, they just need to stay out
(29:31):
of that position.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, that's that's kind of what it what it is.
And you know, from a you know, a play caller standpoint,
you're you look at that game the other night, and
I would think you go into your next game thinking,
you know, if I get into third and third and longs,
I've got to think about you know, am I just
trying to do something safe and stay in the game.
(29:53):
In other words, as much as trying to get the
first down at that moment is just let's make sure
we take care of the football. We've got a good punter.
Let's because I think that's probably where Kentucky has to
live for the time being. They can get better, is
to just be able to do everything possible to stay
in the game and not let it not self destruct
(30:14):
like they did Saturday night. Right.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Well, you know, obviously they need to be in the
game and with a chance to win it in the
fourth quarter, and then you try to make plays just
to win games. You know, I think we discussed the
last time I've gone here about kind of the record
and one to one possession game and you know they
obviously that's not been as good lately, but they also
haven't been as many of them because they haven't played
(30:38):
they haven't been playing people as close. But yeah, that's
that's the recipe, is to get through the fourth.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Quarter with the jan you wrote about, uh, the contract
for coach Tups. It's a hot topic has been for
a while now for fans, but that that is that
is what it is. There's that that's not changing. So
it's a challenging time, I guess is the biggest understatement
(31:05):
about that for the whole program, and best case scenario
would have been to have had a little success in
September to create a little momentum. Now they face as
your colleague John Haill wrote about this week, a gauntlet
of three games this week that is, you know, he
wrote about it in historical terms, it's happened like I
think three times where they faced three top fifteen teams
(31:25):
in succession.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of us that
looked at the schedule felt like they needed to get
to at least three wins in September to you know,
have a viable chance to make this, you know, to
get to the post season. That hasn't happened. And you know,
there's still eight games to go, so it's too soon
to just completely throw in the towel. But you know,
(31:49):
I think if you look at Kentucky last four years,
and I think they've beaten the top ten team in
three of those years, So you know, that's that's what
it's going to take to flip this. I mean, the
only way that this gets better is to win a
game people aren't expecting and then to stack some wins.
And whether that's realistic, we're going to find out. But
(32:12):
that's the only way to make to make this very
negative environment better.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
If you have a young quarterback and you have a
lot of new players, one would think you can get
better over the course of the season. But the key
to that is keeping everybody engaged. And Mark has talked
about how much he likes this group of people from
a character standpoint. So that's put to the test, I
think right now, isn't it, Because last year's team that
(32:44):
you know, it's it's a who knows how many guys,
but it seemed like there were some number of guys
that didn't stay engaged all the way through.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Yeah, that's correct that Kentucky had two teams last year.
There was a team that played against Georgia and all
this that was pretty good, and then there was a
team that played down the stretch that was pretty bad.
And that's the risk here is. You know, you hope
you're playing a young quarterback. You hope he gets better
each week and you start to see progress, and you
(33:12):
know you're otherwise you have kind of a better office.
But you're hoping that you know that experience, you know
they'll hang in and that they too will play better.
But you know the risk in that is, you know,
I thought what happened last year especially with the defense.
And this may be an oversimplification, but you know, I
thought in the Florida game, when Christian Story intercepted the
(33:35):
pass and ran it back to like the twelve yard
line or something and then the offense didn't score, to me,
it looked like the defense from that point on just
sort of let go of the rope. It was just like,
no matter what we do, it's not going to matter.
And that's the kind of thing you need you've got
to avoid avoid this year, is you, you know, the
coaching challenges to keep everybody engaged in positive so that
(33:56):
you know, if that you can do something and positive
and even if it's not in October there you know,
the November scheduled is not as hard. There doesn't look
as hard, and there would be some winnable opportunities, but
you've got to be, you know, engaged and open to
doing some winning at that point.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, I kind of had the same feeling on that
the Florida play. I know what you're talking about. I
want to ask you about one other things. It's a
column you did last week about Willie Rodriguez and malady
that his younger sister has been dealing with from birth,
and it was just a really touching column. And I
guess you've got a lot of really positive feedback on it.
(34:34):
I would imagine those kinds of things, those kinds of
stories can be both inspirational and yet difficult to write
for you, right, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
It was a challenging story to write, just because you know,
Willie's younger sister, Gabby suffers from a rare neurological or
disorder and is not verbal, so one one of the
chief characters in the story is not somebody who can
and you know, speak. But I had been a friend
of mine, I think had seen TV when one of
(35:06):
the Cincinnati TV stations had done a story about Willy
and Gabby when Willie was at coming and Catholic, and
a friend of mine who wasn't going to Kentucky had
told me about it, so I'd had it on my
list for a long time. And yeah, it is both
a sad and inspirational story. And Willy and Gabby are
close in age, and when they were little, I think
(35:28):
Willy was really her protector. And the real hero of
the story is Jodie Rodriguez, but their mom, who just
has done tremendous Yeoman's care for Gabby.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Well, it certainly speaks well of Willie in terms of
his character. And you did a wonderful job telling the story. Mark,
thank you for the time as always, see you in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Thanks Tom, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
That is a Mark story at Mark C story on
x Lexing and Herald Leader Kentucky Sports dot com. One
segment left, We'll get to it when we return. It
is the Leach Report Radio Network presented by Bobcat Enterprises.
Harvest season for the folks at Cornbread Hemp. They're bringing
in the crops of that Kentucky grown hemp that they
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Com Joshkatis nominee for the Jason Witton Collegiate Man of
the Year Award. Congrats to Josh for that recognition of
(37:10):
the good work that he has done. This day. In
nineteen seventy seven, Kentucky went up to Penn State, fell
behind ten nothing, came back and beat Joe Paterno's team
twenty four to twenty. That would be the only game
Penn State would lose that season. Wildcat History presented by
Kentucky Road Show, Sports Cards and Memorabilia. They're on Romedy
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(37:34):
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