2025-11-10 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Van Hiles following Kentucky's win over Florida.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
God Dan. Welcome into another week of shows here on
the Leech Report, presented by Bob Can Enterprises. And what
a weekend for UK athletics, culminating with the volleyball team
beating number nineteen Tennessee yesterday over at a sold out
historic Memorial Colisseum. We will talk about a little bit

(00:24):
about that and then a lot of football with our
man Van Hiles, and he'll be joining us here shortly
for the Shuffle being Coffee Monday morning quarterback edition of
the Leach Report, Wildcat News of the day, always the
service of Giuseppes of Lexington. We'll start with the volleyball
since that's the most recent. Is Kentucky rallies from losing
the first set to win the next three and defeat

(00:49):
Tennessee before the first sellout crowd in the Colisseum of
the Craig Skinner era. They finished selling it out earlier
yesterday and then went out and in the first set
Ava Hudson injured her ankle and Kentucky loses, and then
she came back and played through the pain and they

(01:09):
were behind in the second set and had to rally
to win it, and then they won the third and
fourth sets pretty decisively to claim the match. Hudson finished
with nineteen kills, four blocks, five digs, and then probably
a whole bunch of ice and ibuprofen after the match.

(01:29):
It was the largest crowd for Kentucky volleyball match since
nineteen eighty three at the Colisseum sixty two thirty six
I think was the official number. So Coach Skinner was
leading the charge all last week at his news conference
when he jumped up on the table and rupp arena
on Friday night, when he was on the microphone from

(01:52):
up in the rafters and so happy that the BBN
came through to sell it out for Kentucky Volleyball and
now Kentucky football. What a performance. Beat Florida thirty eight
to seven A lot of first time senses. It's the
first time to beat Florida on the home field three
times in a row since nineteen fifty five, largest margin

(02:14):
of victory over the Gators since nineteen fifty and a
forty to six win in the Bear Bryant era. Largest
margin of victory in an SEC game since November fourteenth,
nineteen ninety eight, when they beat Vandy by thirty eight
first time Kentucky did not punt in a game since
twenty twenty one, and there were more. We can get

(02:36):
to some of those as we talk with Van here
on the program, but let's listen to Cutter Bowley after
the game, the Wildcat red shirt freshman QB talking about
how he and his teammates rallied around their head coach.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
He's just a players coach.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
All the guys in here love him, all the guys
want to in here, want to fight for him, want
to win for him.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Everything like that.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
All around, we have a really good thing going to
Walker Room.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I mean, yeah, you can see our heartbeat. We kind
of have the night just everybody. He's like everybody loves him.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Everybody loves coach stops and what he does and what
he stands for and how he addresses the team and
every situation lost, win, no matter what it is.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
For you guys watching him to get beat ups and
that's that. Yeah, we hate it.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
I mean we're kind of taking it on our shoulders
and putting it on ourselves. Yeah, I mean we're we're
a big family in here, and I think we take
all the losses and everything together. Each person takes it differently,
but I think we all suffered through that.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
So that was Carter Bowley after the game on Saturday night,
and the Wildcats now will come back to Kroger Field
for Senior Day on Saturday afternoon and play a Tennessee
Tech team that is undefeated playing out of the FCS Division,
and it is a Tennessee Tech team that has put

(04:01):
a lot of points on the board this season as well.
No jury duty from Mark Pope. That announcement came yesterday
as he called in. I think they put that out
on social media to check on his status. And Kentucky
plays the Louisville Cardinals, so it'd be a real problem
if Pope weren't available for that one tomorrow night. And
we'll deep dive into that tomorrow, but for now, we

(04:22):
can tell you Kentucky's number one in the latest Ken
Pomeroy rankings. Kenpom dot COM's analytics has the Cats at
number one in the country, their number four overall in defense,
number eleven overall in offensive efficiency. Any UK women's basketball
team went to Buffalo yesterday and won eighty one to
forty seven. Why did they go to Buffalo, you ask, Well,

(04:44):
it's homecoming for UK junior Clara Strak and did she
ever celebrate twenty seven points a career high to go
along with twelve rebounds and four blocks. And Tiani Key
also had a big game with a double double, seventeen
points and twelve boards. So Kentucky continues to roll for
coach Kenny Brooks thanks to the stories that we talk

(05:06):
about each day. You can find those on the bud
Light Leach Report page at Tom leachky dot com. Our
opening segments presented by Giuseppes of Lexington. They have their
very own bullet barrel pick that is on the way
to the restaurant. You can buy a bottle take it home,
and they also are finalizing their new Russell Reserve barrel pick,

(05:26):
So go to Giuseppes Lexington you can find out more
about that. Go to Open Table and make a reservation.
Get on the books now. The holidays are coming up
and it's a great place to take a break from
preparing the food to letting somebody else do that for
you and have it taste fantastic and being a really
special atmospheres at Giuseppes just off Nicholasville Road pass manor

(05:49):
Or Boulevard here in Lexington, We'll be right back with
Van Hiles.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
The difference between forty six plays and it's like, we're
a better team than we put on tape. A lot
of the times want to say we put on tape,
but like what a better team that sometimes the scoreboard
shows and I think that we knew that and we're
going to continue to know that. And you know, we
got three really big games, so that we're gonna come
in and approach each one like like it's the biggest.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Game of the year.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
David Rayner, inside linebacker for the Cats, after the win
over Florida on Saturday night at Kroger Field, as we
welcome in Van Hiles to the program at V Style
seventeen on x and the Locker Podcast on Wednesday nights
and joins us here for this shuffle being Coffee Monday
Morning Quarterback Show. And wow, what a performance on Saturday, man.

Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yeah, that was That is a culmination of a team
really buying in and having a great locker room. You
cannot go through the season. They went through with that,
that gauntlet of October and to come up the back
end of that and went back to back SEC games.

(07:02):
He's are not back to back non conference games. He's
a back to back s opponents and to do it
to finally get the monkey off. I'll back in a
couple of ways this year with going to touchdowns against
the SEC teams, beating Auburn on the planes, and coming
back and dominating Florida at home is just not the

(07:22):
second or third time in the rother we've been Florida
at home. That is something I would have never thought,
what ever happened? But these kids is a three for
these kids to to fight and keep the and keep
the faith. Man says a lot about this team and
their character and their leadership.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
And to that point, I was thinking about this yesterday. Uh,
looking back at you, as I always tell people when
you've been around this as this is like I been
covering the team since the mid eighties dayah, you see,
had been a fan before that. You see some of

(08:00):
the same scripts roll around. You know, somebody will hear
a song or see a movie and not realize it
was actually done under a different title, you know, thirty
years ago. And it was really good now too. In
nineteen seventy six, they were coming off a two win
season in coach Kersey's fourth year, and they were four

(08:23):
and four after a loss at Maryland, and I remember
watching that game on TV and they didn't play real well,
and they came back and steamrolled Vanderbilt in Florida and
beat Tennessee on the road and won the first bowl
game in twenty five years. In two thousand and six,
did the book with coach Brooks. They lose forty nine
nothing at LSU to go to three and four, and

(08:46):
he told me what we did the book. He called
his neighbor a good friend to ask who was the
best realtor in Lexington because he's going to need to
sell his house at the end of the year. But
he did keep coaching and his players kept believing in him,
and they came out of that and after two weeks
after that game at LSU, they won the Mississippi State
and then they upset Georgia and then they go on

(09:08):
to win the first Bowl game. I think since eighty
four for Kentucky, the common den all of that that's
along winded lead up to say the common Denominator. There
was strong leaders Derrick Ramsey and primarily in seventy six
and others Jim Kovoch Art Still and then in the

(09:29):
six season Woodyard Burton Woodson. I'm not sure who the
Over time we'll find out the names. Ty Bryant's probably
won it, certainly on the list for this team, but
they surely have them.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
In the shows that that's the you named those two seasons.
I've never forgetten My my freshman season at Kentucky, we
battled and I think we had five We won five
games and we just couldn't beat Vandy for all six,
and we had Tennessee in East Carolina the last two games.
We had to figure out a way to win one

(10:04):
of those games in one East Carolina game sixty three
in mud like, we had great senior leadership, and it
makes a difference you here. As fans say they get
tired of the coaches speak. It gets stale along after time.
I think the players the same way. When you have
leaderships in that locker room, those are the guys who

(10:25):
propel you through tough time. It's not the coaching or
the coach saying great speeches and great words, it's the
character and the leadership in that locker room. And it's
obvious that this locker room is different than last year.
And I think that's the difference between this team and
last year's team is that is that locker room and
it's awesome just to see it for someone who has

(10:46):
been through I won't say a bad locker room, but
a locker room that was stressed over off the field
issues that happened in ninety four. And to have guys
come in and I guess subsequent years and have better leadership,
that is a different in this team this year. Is
the leadership the same way in twenty eighteen, twenty twenty one.
It really played nineteen like those things matter. And it's

(11:08):
great to see kids, young men ballop through adversity because
that's what a lot of people say about the generation
that came. They're entitled and they came battle to adversity.
This team has shown that they can.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
It's a great point. I remember we had an interview
with ty Bryant. He was just so impressive back in
the summer. It's the long interview and a very impressive
young man. And one of the quotes in there got it.
I think we still have it somewhere in the system.
Is he talked about we don't want to walk off
the field like we did at Louisville, feeling that.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Way again.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
To say that nobody wants to feel that way, but
there's a lot of work that goes into not feeling
that way.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
Right exactly, and that is and that's built actually Monday
through Friday. There's there's a great quote by Nick Saban
that says, you don't rise to occasion, you fall to
your practice habits. And that's what you do. You fall
through to the abilities that you show them during the week.

(12:10):
If you don't practice well, you're not gonna play well.
You can't expect to become a gamer if you're not
preparing and have the intensity and focused Monday through Friday.
And that's the thing I don't notice for sure, but
I know that you cannot play like they've played this
season against the Texas and against the Old Mess and

(12:31):
not have those abilities to And those characters are practicing well,
so I can say that from the outside looking in
that they're doing something right Monday through Friday, because now
it's going on Saturdays.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Come back, continue our chat with the Van Hiles, and
it is the Leads Report twenty two past the top
of the hour. We're presented by Bobcat Enterprises, not just
Spobcat or not just Wildcat Country. Here in Kentucky. It's
also Bobcat Country. When you need to buy or rent
heavy equipment for a job, you know someone who does
the next call needs to beat a Bobcat Enterprises and

(13:05):
they will have what you need tractors, excavators, forklifts, etc.
And to give you a fantastic service. After the sale
Bobcat Enterprises, We'll be right back. Shoffle me coffee. Monday
morning quarterback edition of the Leads Report, and Van Hiles
joins us for that. Each week. It's at v Styles
seventeen on X and The Locker Podcast with his buddy

(13:26):
and former Wildcat Anthony White, and that's on Wednesday nights
at nine Eastern on YouTube and other podcast platforms. Let's
start with I was looking at your cutups on x
dot com last night, Van, and one of the people
you singled out that needs more praise that he's getting
is the wide receivers coach for the Wildcats. That group

(13:49):
there was not a lot being good being said about
them back in September, and they have made tremendous progress
under coach Washington.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
It's amazing, like there's getting into coaching. One thing about
coaching that is great is seeing the development and the
progress of your players. It's the most proud that you
can be as a coach, because a lot of people
are going to say as coaching, but coaches don't forget
how a coach. It's the players taken to your coaching

(14:22):
and doing extra things on their own and developing and
hunting their craft. And you can see the little things
to the developing gods, understanding where to be guys, understanding
what to do against certain zones and against man guys,
Understanding what cut Up only likes to do and likes
to see you do on certain routes. Those are the
things that is only like Sarah earlier, only happens in practice.

(14:47):
And it's obvious these guys are working hard. It's obvious
these guys have dedication to the game, because some things
you just can't do on the field with your coach,
something you got to do on your own. And it's
obvious that these kids, especially young but not just not
not just the young kids. J J. Hester has come
along this season, losing michaelin and having some of these

(15:07):
guys developed failure has made not maybe the d the
the quantity of plays that he might want, but he's
made some quality plays in this season that has helped
move the change, which led to scoring opportunities. I'm probably
these kids because I know how hard is to play
and the n scy on Saturdays, and for these kids,
that's like the entire team to battle each week, each week,

(15:29):
each week. When these are not going well, it's easy
to just say, look, guys, I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna waste my time. We're two and five. But it's
obvious that these kids are playing well and playing well
for each other.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
You mentioned Fred Ferrier three catches in the last two weeks,
two on third and eleven and one on third and seven.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
That's that's you know, that's a guy who's moving to change.
And like you said, I thought it was more than
three because all those plays were huge, and it seemed
like it was maybe six or eight. Because those players
are so big, you might you think it's double. So
kudos to him. And here's the thing, even though he
might not get a target, that's someone that cut a
boldly trust and you can only get trusted in practice.

(16:11):
And that says they are creating that syenity money through Friday, he.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Is really spreading them all around. They had ten different
players catch balls in this game. I think it was twelve,
maybe in the Tennessee game, maybe eight at Auburn.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
Is that noteworthy, Yes, because for me, that's saying that
he's trusting the scheme and the process. If you have
one guy, you just find him, you give him every
opportunity that you can, because he's probably a best receiver.
So this means he's trusting the process, he's reading the defense,

(16:46):
he's trusting the scheme. I think that's more impressive than
a guy who passes to the best receiver in the
country every week, because now it tells me that his
relationship with Bush Hampden is progressing better than anybody could
imagine because now he trusts what Bush is calling. Bush
is also trusting him that that that nine route to

(17:06):
to j J. Hester they don't thought of all a
three or four games ago. They just don't. Now, not
only does Bush trust Cutter, Cutter's also starting to trust
this receiver to give him a fifty fifty ball.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Jeff and I talked to the coordinators each week, and
when we talked to Bush on Thursday, at one of
the things he said talking about Cutter, he said, he
is just a joy to coach and you could just
hear the the what the right word is relief or whatever?
You know that it's clicking. It's not that, you know,

(17:42):
like Frock last year's you know, I'm sure I know
it was a great young man, Uh, but it just
you know it, it was never clicking, and it wasn't
clicking at the start of the season. And now they've
kind a guy that uh is. Uh is in a
groove and he and and is oc are working together.
Pick up on that when we come right back. We're
coming up on the heartbreak at the bottom of the hour.

(18:04):
It is the Leech Report and we're presented by Bob
Kat Enterprises. We'll be right back. It's the Leech Reports.
As we roll on with our shuffle being Coffee Monday
Morning Quarterback edition to the program with Van Hiles at
V Style seventeen on X we're talking about the connection
between cutter and offensive cordator to Bush Hampton, how the

(18:25):
offenses is clicking a passing game. In particular, there was
a play where he threw the wheel route to Patterson
for a touchdown and Jeff was really impressed. He talked
about it on the air about that what a big
time throw. That was because of how he used his

(18:46):
eyes to make sure the safety stayed where they needed
him to stay, because he knew what was happening to
his right with Patterson. And then you spotted one on
X on your cutups. It was a throw to DJ
Miller or where you know, cutter sees the box that

(19:06):
a defender is in and is able to exploit that
because of you know, how the formations were matched up.
It was something that was recognizable, but young quarterbacks don't
always recognize it that quickly. So need you elaborate a
little bit on plays like that?

Speaker 5 (19:23):
For a cutter, Yeah, that's it if I got toped
through it, it's something for a defense. Is that as
a quarterback? As former quarterback is My coach has always
told me, if you have two receivers and there's no
one spitting the difference between the second receiver and a

(19:43):
line of scrimmage, that someone is coming out there a
safety twelve yards off of number after off of your
number two receiver. Is it is not possible so for
him to read that and say, oh, it's only two
by two defenses, But on average, I want one more
defensive player than you have guys else to go out

(20:04):
and in that instance that to receiver, plus they running
back defense needs four guys and there was only two
guys over there, which means two guys have to get
out there. And for Cutter to add pre snap to
read that, notice that because they had six guys on
the line of scrimmage like they was gonna blitz and
you're not gonna blitz with a safety twelve year steed.
So he recognized, Oh, okay, they're gonna play zone, which

(20:25):
one of these guys are gonna drop out. And for me,
it's the patience and to identify quickly because in football
things happened quickly for him to identify who was the
the curl flat guy and when that guy vacated the spot,
that defender can never be right. And when he vacated
the spot, he threw right behind him on time and

(20:45):
quickly on third and eleven. That was awesome. That's progress.
He wouldn't have made that throw two weeks ago. And
for me, the difference in this offense now then five
games ago is the ability to convert on third and
seven a longer. That's not something we have been good
at the last few years. When you were able to

(21:05):
convert on third and eleven. It takes a lot of
pressure off of person second down, and now I feel
like they can convert third and fifteen under and I'm
not even worried about it. And that's the development of
an offense.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
That's I heard. I saw that in your cutups. I
did a little homework this morning before the show. Last
two weeks, in these two wins, they were in third
and seven or more thirteen times and converted seven and geez,
that's crazy incredible to be over fifty percent in that

(21:41):
kind of situation, because as you noted in your your
cutups that you know that was just like a death
sentence the last year and a half for sure.

Speaker 5 (21:50):
I mean, I would say, honestly, for probably forty percent
of offenses, it's a death note because most teams cannot
convert on third and long, so down that defenses and
they know you're going to pass it. Linebackers can get
into better drops because they're not playing to run. And
that's the biggest thing with pass coverage is that fans

(22:10):
don't understand when we all want to complain about the dbs,
and I'm one of them, but the most important thing
about pass covers is a linebacker drops and when the
third and seven linebackers can drop under control without ben
phase and not being controlled by play action faith, and
when you get into third and ten, it's very difficult

(22:33):
for offense to find a third and ten play. And
as you said, we will converting on a fifty percent clip,
which is amazing for third and long. That's normally for
something with third and three or shorter, not third and
five or longer. So that just shows the level of
comfort that Bush is getting in that third and long
situation and not panicking and clutterness panicking.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
A few more numbers for you. This is a laser
from cfbstats dot com. In when it's third down, just
any third down situation, Cutter is completing thirty five of
fifty one. That is sixty nine percent on third down.

(23:16):
That's number two in the SEC just third down completion rate.
Not to pile on Zach Calzada, but you know what
it was in the two games that.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
He played, probably twenty thirty two percent.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, that's a huge difference.

Speaker 5 (23:35):
That's a I'll say it this and thirty three percent
is not bad. If it's oh, you say any third down,
no that's bad anything. It's not thirtain. Okay, yeah, that's
that's bad. It should be better than that.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Last two games he's been fifty six percent on or No,
I'm sorry to strike that. I had to just looking
at the wrong thing. Of his thirty five completions on
the third down throws, he has completed twenty four of
them for first downs.

Speaker 5 (24:09):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, I mean it's just it's and we're talking about
a guy who's, you know, a red shirt freshman. I mean,
he's played a little bit at you know, mop Actually
his this as we mentioned this on the broadcast because
the guy was still out there for Florida. Cutter's first
throw in college football was in the route by Florida

(24:31):
last year in Gainesville and it went for a Gator's
touchdown to McLean, who was out there Saturday. And I
remember one of his team Cutters teammates, talking about, you know,
just on the sideline, how he was impressed by how
well Cutter seemed to handle that. We think back to
the South Carolina game this year and you know, his
first road start in the SEC and that did not

(24:54):
go well, and some of that was on him, not all,
but Bush talked about how the next day he came,
Ben Cutter just said it, acknowledged his mistakes, looked at
the tape, ready to move on. All that stuff's not
It's one thing to talk about doing it. It's not
the easiest thing in the world to do as an athlete.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
Right, No, And I mean just think about it. He
has not even started in the entire season yet, he
doesn't have twelve starts on his belt. And it just
shows for for me, you know what, think about it now,
this is a high character kid whom I would say this,
who trust the process. He didn't have a great game

(25:35):
against Louisville. They bring in another quarterback out of the
portal and he never batter than I. They started to
kill out the portal. He gets his chance with the
third game of the season and he hasn't looked back.
That says a lot about his character, the way he
was raised. It says a lot about just off the

(25:55):
field things that this is just a kid whom is
never by any aspect of football, because we have to
as fans to take it into account. This is just football.
That's more to life than just football. Trust me, I've
been out of football probably with almost thirty years and

(26:15):
you live longer than the game of football. And for
him to ask whatever nineteen years old to have that
ability to withstand the things he had to withstand a
bad Louisville game, them bringing another quarterback he thinking probably
should start next year. He doesn't get that chance until
game two. And he has not let anyone take that

(26:37):
away from him since he got the keys to the program.
He has not let it slip away. That says a
lot about him and justice character. Man. I'm more impressed
now thinking about it how he has come through this
season than probably I was ten minutes ago.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Talk with Van Hiles will be right back to continue
the shuffle being coffee Monday morning Quarterback edition of the
Lead Report. I want to talk a little bit about
the defensive performance in the last couple of games.

Speaker 6 (27:03):
We needed to make a statement in the second half
that we weren't gonna let them come back. And I
mean that's what we were focused on at halftime, is
how are we going to put this game away? And
to have a drive like that to start the second half,
I mean it was incredible. I mean you want you
want to talk about running the ball down their throats?
I mean that we accomplished that, and that is something
that we're gonna we're gonna remember, and we're gonna watch

(27:24):
film and a good mood tomorrow. But then we're gonna
flush in and get ready for Tennessee Tech because they're
a good football team. They're coming in here to Kno.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Office out left guard and one time Florida Gator Josh
Braun there talking about the thirteen play, seventy five yard
drive that Kentucky started the second half with after building
a twenty four to seven half time lead, kind of
took away the any heart that was left maybe for
the Gators at that point. In the last seven plays
of that thirteen play drive were all runs. And that

(27:52):
was as close as this group has gotten to the
old big Blue Wall days. Right.

Speaker 5 (27:58):
Yeah, that that was impressive. I look, this whole game
was impressive if you take away the turnovers He's going
on every drive. I mean, and I know the turnovers
are turnovers and it happens, but we shouldn't have turned
the ball over all those times. And I'll say this,
we had a great two minute drive at the end

(28:21):
of the first half and Floyd just melted and gave
a ball I'm sure they wasn't ready for But then,
like bron said, to come in to have to lead,
but then to come out of halftime, and that was
some big conversion. Was that not a fourth to one
conversion on that drive?

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Looking here, I think there were two fourth down conversions
on that draft plus a third and seven, I think,
And that.

Speaker 5 (28:44):
Is that is the mark of a good offense. Now
they're not great yet, but they are good. They are
on the verge of becoming really, really good. And that's
the mark of a really good offense is the ability
to convert on third and short and fourth down. These
were third and short probably third and three or under

(29:06):
and fourth to one. You have to convert on those,
and you can sprinkle in a third and seven, third
and six in there. This shows the level that this
offense is progressing to. And to come out of halftime
to put the nail in the coffin. They could have
put the nail on the coffin there before half. But
to lick your wounds after having two side man took

(29:29):
their will from Florida, and that's what you want to
do as a team. Take the whill from your opponent
as soon as possible and they did, and that was
the end of the game.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Those fourth down conversions. I always use that opportunity to
be the champion for the stat that needs to be
talked about more in college football, and it's you don't
never hear anybody talk about effective third down conversions. That
needs to be a stat. If you converted on fourth,
then you need to get credit in your third downs,
So that would be effective third down conversions. To convert

(29:59):
on fourth, you actually because you keep to keep the ball,
and that's what a third down conversion is all about.
Let me talk for a little bit about the defensive performance,
especially these last two weeks, to give up two scores,
a field goal and a touchdown, and both came as
a result of turnovers, an interception that set up Auburn

(30:21):
at the thirty five of Kentucky and a fumble punt
that set up Florida at the thirteen of Kentucky. If
not for those, Kentucky might have pitched consecutive shutouts.

Speaker 5 (30:31):
And exactly if you're going to talk about effective third downs,
let me bring a stat. I hate the fact that
the scores when special teams other offense gives opponents to
a position inside your minus thirty, that those points count
towards the defense because the offense is going to get
at least three points. Those things are not count towards

(30:54):
the defensive scoring the scoring defense, because I know we're
probably around thirty something, and that bothers me because I've
been in that situation is that when teams like Texas
got the ball in the four yard line and they score,
that comes against the defense and it shouldn't. It's like
when South Carolina and had thick sixes in fumbal recovery.
Those points comes against the defense and it shouldn't. And

(31:17):
this defense is better than their scoring defense that is
showing probably in the stats are probably twenty eight to
above points per game. They are not playing that poorly.
They are playing. They have been playing great all season
minus the Tennessee game. And this defense deserves a lot
of praise because the same thing I said earlier, when

(31:38):
when your offense is not doing well early in the season,
for you to continue to fight and keep your team
in as many games as you can says a lot
about that defensive locker room and their character. Because I've
been in a situation where people start proning fingers at
the offense and it's obvious that this defense is doing
a great job of limiting those fingers being pointed.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
There was never any finger pointing that we know of,
but maybe and this is something you and I talked about,
you mainly at some point after one or two losses,
where a defense when the offense is struggling, can get
in the mindset of we got to find a way
to score to give ourselves a chance to win, and
so you try to do too much or you vary
from your assignment. Are you seeing all of those assignments

(32:19):
I assume locked down now for the defense.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
Hey, they are. I would say this, the back half
is doing much better in this game. Linebackers are doing
much better job, which is one of the tougher positions
that they got to play running pass. They're doing a
better job of filling gaps in the run game and
getting the pass covers. The corners and the safeties are
playing a little better than they have been playing early

(32:44):
in the season. The defensive front has been bad, has
been great off season. They have played great ball since
Game one, and now the entire defense is meeting up
to their standard. Finally, and when you're meeting up to
the standard, of those front three. You are going to
do the things that they have done these past few games,
and they have pretty much dominated the last two games,

(33:07):
and I'm interested to see this is going to be
the toughest game for them mentally. Are they going to
be able to prepare like they have been preparing the
past couple weeks against a non conference team that they
probably think they're just better than. If they prepare like
they have been paring all preparing, this should be another
dominant performance and it leads to the next team, which

(33:27):
I don't want to talk about, but leads to probably
the most important game of the season in Nashville.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
You if you follow Van and at V Style seventeen
on x you know that he's not just all about
UK football. He's into all the sports at his Alba mater.
And so I want to let you riff for a
little bit about what volleyball's doing.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
Look, this is the best program on campus that not
a lot of people are talking about. It's the last
national championship team on campus. The way coach Skinner has
rebuild teams after losing girls to the University of Texas,
what is this gonna be? I think the ninth straight

(34:08):
SEC Conference win. He goes in a portal and find
Evil Hudson, which is the perfect match to Brooklyn. And
now we have this team is incredible. They have freshmen
who are a freshman all SEC. We have great center,
we have great Little Barrow and the best thing about

(34:30):
what happened this week is the fans are starting to
realize the level of this program. And the sellout the
Mortar Coliseum for the first time really really touched me
big time because I know volleyball is not great, and
I remember my ninety three seasons that was a great
season of volleyball. And I watched a couple of games
because we have pets over there, so I guess venture

(34:51):
off and watch a couple of games. For these girls
to do what they have been doing in the last decade, Man,
it's amazing and it's not talked about enough.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Amen to all of that, Van Heiles, thank you much.
We'll talk next Monday.

Speaker 5 (35:05):
Two back back SEC game for the first time of
me being on the show.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Let's just see, well go for three here in a
week at a week plus.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
We can leven. Yes, that's sir, Thank you, Van Hey.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Follow him at v Style seventeen on X and then
the Locker with Anthony White on Wednesday nights at nine
Eastern time on the YouTube and other podcast platforms. It's
the Leach Report. We're presented Hi Bobcat Enterprises, and we
will be right back. Friends of corn Breadamp have a
great deal for you right now and at lasts until
next Monday. If you spend ninety nine dollars or more

(35:40):
on corn Breadhamp products, they'll take twenty five dollars off
your order. Just put in the code save twenty five
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(36:02):
and free. All of their products are made with Kentucky
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get your discount. It's report from the Clarks Pumpin Shop
Studio return refresh refuel at Clark's. Kentucky men's soccer needed

(36:27):
to go to a shootout to defeat Coastal Carolina in
the CUSA Tournament out at the Bell Soccer Complex yesterday,
but Kentucky prevailed six to five of them the extra session.
So they are still alive as they won their league
title in the regular season, now trying to add the
tournament title as well. Stan Wildcat history. In nineteen eighty four,

(36:48):
Kentucky beat Vandy twenty seven to eighteen, recording a seventh
win that was the most at that time since nineteen
seventy six. Wild Cat History Notes presented by Kentucky road Show,
Sports Cards and Memorabilia Ony Road in Lexington and at
roadshowcards dot Com. And another piece of Wildcat history is
we know the passing of former Kentucky basketball player Clint

(37:09):
Wheeler played on the varsity from sixty nine through seventy
one for coach Shrup Means. He was a teammate of
Issel Prattcasey out of Ashland High School and a star
for the Tomcats, and went on to play his entire
college career with the Wildcats. Condolences to his family and

(37:31):
friends and time to talk about Shufflebean Coffee. Shufflebean is
based right here in Kentucky. Group of Kentuckians formed the
company more than a decade ago with the goal of
making the very best cup of coffee. They start with
the best coffee beans. And you can read about that
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(37:52):
And you can order some product from the site. You
can order it through Amazon, and you can pick it
up at central Kentucky Myers stores. Just make sure you
pick up some shuffle Bean coffee see tomorrow on the
late Triport