2025-11-13 - LEACH REPORT

Tom talks with Jack Givens, Justin Rowland, and Ricky Lumpkin.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day everybody, and we'll welcome into the Leech Report
presented by Bobcat Enterprises. Thanks to Dick Gabriel for pinch
hitting yesterday. Coming up on the show today, we will
start out with Ricky Lumpkin from our UK Sports Network
pregame show team and talk about the resurgent Kentucky football

(00:24):
squad that he once played for the goose Jack Gibbons.
We'll get into that UKU of l matchup that he
and I saw from courtside there on Tuesday night, and
then justin Rowland Cats illustrated and we'll touch all the
bases there. Wildcat News of the Day presented by just
Sepies of Lexington, Kentucky and Louisville is still the hot topic,

(00:49):
certainly in the BBN. After the Wildcats loss on Tuesday night,
twice dug out of massive holes down eighteen in the
first half, cut it to five, down twenty the second
half cut it to four with the ball on a
couple of possessions like a miss three in that sequence.
They also had a front end of a one and
one that Jalen Low missed. But the problem is, yeah,

(01:15):
it's they had a chance to complete the comeback but
it's putting yourself in that position to begin with that
I know they want to avoid, So we'll get into
discussing all of that with Goose. I thought one of
the bright spots was that Cam Williams made a significant
contribution because you saw his numbers from last year, because

(01:41):
and I've watched him shoot the ball in practice, and
you know he was gonna get hot at some point.
And not that he had a long streak, he just
had the one three, but the way he caught it
and shot it no hesitation, shot it with confidence, made
it from way out deep, and that was encouraging as
well as just how he played overall. He was active.

(02:04):
He got I think five rebounds in his twelve minutes,
so some encouragement there that he could start to be
a contributor. Should get Noah back, hopefully for this game
on Friday. I know Coach Pope said in the pre
game that he was cleared to play. My guess is

(02:26):
would be that coming off an ankle injury and a
fast paced game like that, they just wanted to be
extra cautious. But the thing is once they get all
the pieces together, it's and then have time to work
together this team's not going to click for probably a
while to its highest level because you have acquaintance to

(02:47):
come back, Lowe's gotta fully work himself back in. Now
you got Noah coming off this. It's a minor setback,
but still, this is a couple of games. Noah and
Williams are probably their best two shooters in some order,
and they really haven't been able to get them going yet.
So I'm pretty confident that will happen. So we'll just

(03:09):
see how it all plays out. Anyway, we'll get into
a lot of that with Goose when he joins US
women's basketball. Big win last night over South Carolina Upstate
Tony Morgan had sixteen assists and that ties a Patty
Joe Hedges school record. And PJ played back in my
time attending UK and went to a lot of the

(03:31):
women's games because they were outstanding. They had Val Steel
and PJ, Lee Wise, Lori Edgington, Tanya Fogel maybe a
little later, and it was outstanding. Basketball. Tennessee was just
starting to come to life under pat Summit. So anyway,
it was kind of fun to see PJ. Hedges name

(03:54):
pop up in this reference for the big game that
Tony Morgan had last night Clara Strack eighteen points, sixteen boards,
four blocks, Amelia Hassett twenty points including four to three pointers.
Kentucky made fourteen threes in the game, block twelve shots.
In the men's soccer field out at the Bell Soccer Complex.

(04:15):
Kentucky is the one seed and in the Sunbelt Tournament
loses to UCF the five seed, one nil, just the
second loss at home all season for Kentucky, third loss overall,
So now they'll have to wait till Monday to see
where they get seated for the upcoming NCAA tournament. Thanks
to the stories that we talk about each day, you

(04:36):
can find them on the bud Light Leach Report page
at Tom leachky dot com. Our opening segment's always presented
by Juseppes of Lexington. We have dinner plans with some
friends at Giuseppes tonight. Hopefully you are getting something on
the books for Giuseppes for the upcoming holiday season. Reservations
will be going quickly and you better get on the list.

(04:58):
Go to open table, set something up for a special
night out at Giuseppe's with a fantastic meal. Sit in
the lounge area enjoy the live jazz music from Dave Hall.
It is just a really extra special night out. Gonna
get to a break. We'll come back and start with
Ricky Lumpkin on the UK or the Leech Triport Radio Network.

(05:18):
It's the Leech Triport always presented by Bobcat Enterprises. As
we welcome into the program, Ricky Lumpkin, former wild Cat
defensive lineman. You hear him on the UK network pregame
shows with Christy Thomas and Logan Stenberg each Saturday. So
they'll be out there at Kroger Field this week for
Kentucky Tennessee Tech Rickey and they're treating and ice. It's

(05:41):
a mid November game and it's gonna be almost seventy
degrees for your first first last pregame show of the
season home game.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I should say it's been all over the place, right,
like seven degrees mid early November. That's insane. I can't
remember something been like that. I'll take it because it could.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Be free, absolutely right, And this is a game I
remember the uh, I guess you started. You arrived in seven, right, Yeah,
I was six, I was six my first year, okay,
the first time, Well then you then uh, do you
remember this, well, you guys were in a spot. I

(06:26):
told the story to coach Stoops a few weeks ago.
I said, look, I remember coach Brooks had his first
Bowl team and they were sitting at three and four
and they've just been blown out by LSU and it
looked dire. And three weeks later they upset Georgia and
they tore down the goalposts. The thing is the week
the next week, you guys played Louisiana Monroe outside the league,

(06:47):
and I remember somewhere in the second half they started
running that I think either a read they started running
the read option or they made some kind of adjustment
on it that caused a problem. And they just started
marching up and down the field and Jeremy Jarmon had
to tackle a player on a two point conversion try
to keep it from going to overtime.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
Right, Yes, that is.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Correct, And you know that's the crazy thing about it.
And a lot of people are saying it's a trap game.
I'm hearing that, and I don't think it is a
trap game. I think it's a you're looking as a
regular SEC game, you're playing for your ballsed right, Yeah,
there's no such thing. As a trap game right now,
and that's how we saw it back then when we

(07:29):
upset them, we beat Georgia after getting demolished by LSU.
There's no trap game right now. Every game is a
must win game. It's a bowl game because we're trying
to play well in that week because I'm not playing.
They're trying to play in late December, right so this
is another SEC opponent.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
What have you noticed that in this last month, especially
on the defensive side where you played here and in
the NFL, what are you seeing in terms of what
the defense is done to get to where they're the
level at which they're playing right now.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Improved tackling. The effort's always been there. You look at
the film. You see the film, the guys are flying around,
they're moving around. That defensive line has played amazing all year.
But the one area that we struggling at the beginning
of the year, I think that has helped out a
lot has been a tackling. You don't see a lot
of mistackles, you don't see a lot of whiffs, you
don't see a lot of shoulder tackle. You're seeing guys

(08:28):
wrap up an alligator role right to really ensure they're
getting down on the ground. You're even seeing our linebackers
come down and feel a lot better into the gaps
in the run game, and that has really helped the
defense out. And the defense that has played, in my opinion,
very strong and very well, especially.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Up front, probably playing about as well as any defense
in the league in the last month. X if you
drove line through the Tennessee game, which too often seems
just like a really bad matchup for Kentucky. But that's
a discussion for another time. UH, to what you're talking about,
there's a play. I mentioned it with Coach Brooks on
the radio show the other night. UH, And I was

(09:05):
watching a highlight clip yesterday and saw the play at
first half. Florida runs a screen to ball leaking out
of the backfield, and they've got it set up well.
And a lot of times when you you block a play,
you you can't block everybody because you know they the

(09:27):
quarterbacks throwing the ball, they've got one more than you do.
The defense has one more than you do. So you
you count on a great on a great player to
make that one guy miss and make it a bigger play.
And that one guy was Ty Bryant. One on one
in space against ball their best player and makes a
fantastic tackle.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
And you know the words of a great coach, Ortmeyer,
you know guy, the rest of us all. He always said, Hey,
they're on scholarship too, We're all on scholarship. We're going
to be put in position where we have to make
plays and who's going to make the play right. And
you're seeing guys make those plays in open space where
at one point in the year we missed and that's
another five yard or a big game. But Ty came down,

(10:11):
he did what he did, He did his job, and
you're just seeing that across the board. There's players where
you see Dave and rain here coming in the gap,
failing and stopping running backs. And their running back was
averaging five point two yards a carry going into that game,
going into the game against US, and we stopped him,
and they were trying to look for him to do
the same thing he did last year against US, and
we didn't let it happen. And that's kudos to that

(10:33):
entire defense coming down, wrapping up, making tackles, killing the
hole in game, tackling and running around, playing fast and physical.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
And I would assume if you're on that side of
the ball, it's you know, it's all eleven on either
side working together. But when it's starting to click, like
it is for the defense, everything kind of just feeds
on itself. You know, what you're making a play helps
somebody else make one, or the way you approach your
work in practice maybe inspires others to approach it the

(11:02):
same way.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Right, oh, it does. You know, you feed off each other,
and football a lot of football players believe they're big
brother momentum, and when you have momentium on your side
on the defense, you're playing around even faster and it
helps the offense. Right, You lean on each other because
you see the defense doing well and the offense has
been picking it up and doing well, and you know,
you just feed off that energy and say, hey, let's

(11:25):
keep going, like let's not stop this. We made another stop,
let's get another stop. All right, let's get a turnover.
We have plenty of interceptions, and a lot of sometimes
interceptions are because they're working together. We have great pass
for us, pressure on the quarterback making them roll out,
throwing off their back foot, defensive backs and safeties in
the right area, and it's just flowing it's beautiful football

(11:46):
right now. And just seeing that team and seeing them
guys and that defensive side playing together, you can just
tell they're believing and just leaning on each other and
the trust is there. They're trusting everyone to do their
job and it's paying off.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
For those of us that didn't play at that at
the level of what you did, it looks to the
rest of us like a lot of this comes from
the hope that a hot quarterback has created the just
the development of Cutter Bowli is it. Can it be
that simple?

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yes and no? Right?

Speaker 2 (12:23):
You know, that does give you confidence. You see a
young guy going in there and he's playing, He's playing
his butt off. He has the confidence, he has the
ego that you want to see in a quarterback that
no quit, that desire. And it's like when and Andre
Woods in one of my quarterbacks for my first two
years at UK, he said it like you have to
have that. You have to have that like I'm gonna

(12:43):
make a mistake, but I go go out there and
throw it. I gotta keep throwing it. And you see
that in him and that helps the defense out because
you can you know that guy across who is back
there getting that ball under center, slinging that pill around.
He's going to make it happen, and he knows he's
not gonna get down because you need him, and that
helps you out defense. You're like, hey, let's get him
the ball back. He can make it. He can move
the ball around. And at the same time, you know

(13:05):
he's growing right, So you you're thinking, let's put in
a better position, let's keep doing what we're doing. But
you're not stressing out. You feel comfortable and it makes
your job easier.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Yeah, playing with momentum and then playing with confidence, one
good thing leads to another. Those are powerful forces, I'm sure.
And to wrap this up, I'm sure Tennessee text riding
a little bit of that. You know, when you've won
fifteen straight games, whatever level you're playing at, that's it's
still merits respect.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Oh exactly, you know. And that's no reason why I
say this, and I'll say anytime, this is not a
trap game, like this is a good team coming in
here that you can't take lightly. And we're a team
that is looking to prove a lot of people wrong.
That's outside of that building, that's showing that, hey, we
can make a bowl game. But a lot of people
rode us off and now look at us. We're right here,

(13:56):
it's right in front of us. But you can't take
this team lightly. You have to have another strong performance.
You have to treat this like an SEC game and
you have to win because the last two weeks in
the season you have two solid, good teams that you're
we're going on the road against and we're going to
have to show up. And it starts now to create
that momentum, continue that confidence. You don't want to leave

(14:16):
this game at oh crap oooh are we taking a
step back? No, we need to continue to take four
and it starts again this Saturday.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Ricky, thank you much, Oh thank you. That is Ricky Lump.
Can you hear him on our UK Network pregame show
with the Logan Sedburg and Christy Thomas every Saturday, and
it's the last time you'll have a chance to stop
buy and see him out at Kroger Field for the
final home game of the season when Kentucky and Tennessee
Tech square off on Saturday at one thirty. We'll be

(14:48):
right back with the Ghost Jack Evans. It is the
Leads Report Radio Network twenty six Past the Top of
the hour. We come to here from the Clarks Pumping
Shop studio, return, refresh and refuel at Clark's, and we
welcome in the Goose. Jack Gibvens is, we were courtside
on Tuesday night for Kentucky and Louisville and Goose. When

(15:09):
I was thinking back of the game, watching a little
bit of the first half, the thing that I guess
the simplest explanation that occurred to me, and you can
kind of expound on this, is Kentucky did not, with
their defense ever rarely get Louisville very uncomfortable. I know,
there'd be times, you know, they try to trap a
ball screen and be boom boom, two passes in Louisville

(15:32):
get an easier shot that this. Obviously you have some
defensive issues. They've got a lockdown, right.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, that was especially to in the first half. They
finally started to get caught up in the second half.
But yeah, you're absolutely right, Tom, It just seems so
easy for Louisville in that first halfs I mean they
I mean it was almost at times like sometimes you

(16:02):
run your plays and practice and that second unit is
kind of playing dummy defense. Just you know, showing by
allowing that first unit or that unit that's on the
floor to run their offense and then settle, look for
may jump shot, and turn around and go the other way.

(16:23):
That's what it seemed like a little bit in the
first half. But fortunately they got caught up a little
bit in the second half, and that's how they're going
to have to play, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Brown and Conwell combined to shoot twenty one free throws
and score almost fifty points between them. They were really
effective getting what they say the term these days is
downhill towards the basket. What were some of the breakdowns
Kentucky was having on that.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
Well, you know, if you listen to us often lately,
I've been talking about those first three steps, the first
three steps, and what that translates to is you have
a team that's running, and if you even have any
chance of stopping them, those first three steps from the

(17:17):
basket on your offensive end to half court, those three
steps are going to be the thing that forces you
to or allows you to stop a fast break and
to slow a team down. It seemed to me as
though Kentucky was really slow those first three steps getting
to have court and locating your man in transition and

(17:41):
being able to get in front of that guy to
cut him off. So I think they have to go
back to basics. When you play a team like Loboll,
who's so quick and have those crafty guards that are
able to get it on the break, not be phased
by someone coming from the you have to face them

(18:01):
on in order to slow them down.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Goose will pick up on that when we come right
back here on the Leach Report Radio network. It's the
Leads Report presented by Bobcat Enterprises, and we're talking with
a Goose, Jack Gibvens. And if you don't have your
copy of they call me Goose, the book he did
with Doug Brunk. Make sure you get one and get
it signed in time for the holidays. Beg a great

(18:24):
Christmas gift for a Wildcat fan that doesn't have that
one in their collection. Goose. Let's get back to a
little bit of that. Could talk about Kentucky defense coach
Pope said something after the game in the news conference
about Louisville had He said, We're not going to win
a game where the other team has twenty assists and
six turnovers and our team has fourteen and fourteen, and

(18:47):
I think the ratios the big thing there because he
went on to say that Kentucky's not designed to be
a high turnover defense, and some fans may think, what
why not? Uh, the same way with Coach Brooks's team,
He's talked about they're not going to lead the league
in steals. They're gonna be a ranking They're gonna rank
low and steals. What they hope to be is a

(19:08):
team that blocks a lot of shots and then rebounds
the misses. And I think Kentucky defensively their focus correct,
we've got wrong, but he's on just contesting shots as
best they can, they always say legally, and then rebound
the misses, which they didn't do as good a job
of the other night as they had been doing well.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
And that's part of what we were talking about before
the break, Tom. You know, if you're not back defensively
and set up and ready to help out and come
with a block or two from the weak side, as
Kentucky was in the first half, trying to play catch
up the whole time, No, you're not going to block
any shots. And then the other thing that will happen

(19:50):
is they shot a lot of long shots, so you're
now trying to get caught up, so you're also off
balance when it comes to rebounding the basketball on that
end because you haven't found anybody. So, yeah, you're not
going to be that kind of team if you're not
able to get back and to at least slow the

(20:11):
other team's offense down and give yourself a chance to
get in help position and get in rebound position. So
Kentucky fortunately started to do that better in the second half,
and you saw the Louibal percentages start to fall and
they started to turn it over a little bit and
it gave Kentucky opportunities on the break. But certainly, you know,

(20:36):
forcing and this is supposed to be a good defensive team, Tom,
I mean, that's what they have focused on. But if
you're only for six turnovers, you know, and you don't
get those transition opportunities, Yeah, it looks like it's going
to be a long night for sure.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Let's tell them about Otega away because he scored twelve
but did not shoot it wells four thirteen, five turnovers
in the game and Louisville. You talked about this during
the broadcast, the way they were really coming at him
every time Kentucky tried to get him going. How does
he's certainly going to see more of that of what

(21:16):
opponents will look at in this tape, what does he
need to do better or differently to attack it well?

Speaker 3 (21:26):
And I'm not, of course, in his head. So please
just understand that this is me on the outside kind
of trying to look in because that's my job. But
what I am saying with o Way right now is
he is trying to figure out who he is going
to be, what kind of player he is going to be. Now,

(21:50):
you go and you spend time all summer with these scouts,
and they're telling you that I want you to be
able to shoot the ball a little bit better. And
when I hear that, in my mind as a player,
I'm thinking, well, that means I've got to shoot it more.
I've got to show that i can shoot it more

(22:11):
with range. Well, that is absolutely not what they're saying.
What they're saying is that I want you to continue
to be who you are. And then when that ball
on the three occasions during the game, three occasions four
maybe two hailf when that ball rotates back around and

(22:32):
you're open, now make that shot. But I don't care
how many times Otega shoots it. At least to this point,
he has not proven that he is a step back
three point shooter. He is not proven that he can
fake a guy on the three point line, get a

(22:53):
step and pull up and shoot the three. He has
not proven that. I have not seen that that might
be what he thinks he has to be. Fact of
the matter is, if I'm an NBA scout Otaga, I
want you to be you. I want you to go
back and get those fourteen to fifteen points a game

(23:15):
that you averaged last year. But every now and then
that ball is going to rotate around somebody else doing
something on the weak side, it's going to rotate around
to you. And now those two to four occasions during
the game, that's the shot I want you to show
me you can make. So he's trying to figure that out,

(23:37):
and he will because he's a great player and he's
going to continue to get better. But I think right now,
Tom he's trying to figure out who he is and
how he can get there. But that's kind of what
it looks like to me from the outside.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
And he's been battling back from an injury for a
while too, so he's not probably one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yet even more reason for him to be who he
was last year, because the place that's gonna show itself
the most when it comes to getting back in condition,
the place that's gonna show itself the most is shooting
with range, you know, shooting from the three point line,

(24:17):
because those shots are gonna come up short, especially late
in the game when your legs are not quite there.
Those shots are gonna come up short. You're not gonna
make those. So what you have to do is now
use that body of yours that you've been blessed with,
get to the free throw line, and you know, get
your points in areas where you're used to getting your points.

(24:41):
So he'll figure that out, man. I mean, you know,
he works so hard every day in practice. He gets
his shots up and you know he's creating. But the
thing I don't and the scene that was the worst
with the five turnovers, because again that shows me that
he he's not quite back to where he was last

(25:03):
year as far as been physical and his conditioning. This concern. Again,
he's gonna get there. It's going to take a little time,
but he'll certainly get there.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
One of the guy to talk about is Brandon Garrison.
And sometimes teams coaches will have a video person put
together a tape and a clip of you at your
best and here are these sequences of plays. You were
talking about this in the second half Tuesday night, and

(25:37):
with Brandon, there was a time they got you excited.
I know when he ran the floor, gets the pass ahead,
scores gets foul, completes the three point play and that
was the play that started the run that Kentucky had
to cut it from twenty down to four. So he
sparked that and he had some other key plays in
that stretch. That's the clip you would show him, right.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Oh, man, absolutely, because it doesn't take a really gifted player.
I'm talking about a guy who dominates at that position.
Doesn't take that kind of guy to make the kind
of plays Brandon can make. He's sat a great athlete, man.
And that play where he might have gotten a rebound,

(26:23):
got out on the break, just outran the other bigs
down the floor, caught the ball in traffic. Wonderable he
flushes at That is the brandan Garrison that we have
to see. We don't need three minutes or even a
two minute stretch where you look around and you think,

(26:48):
man is Brandon even on the floor? I mean, and
you look out of there and he's on the floor.
And I saw one time when there were four Louiblle
players who jumped for rebound and not one Blue Shirt
and that was an offensive rebound for Louisville and not
one Blue Shirt jumped. Well, that falls on the big

(27:12):
So that falls on Malachy if he was in. He wasn't.
That falls on Garrison because if you don't do anything else,
you have to go attempt to get that rebound. And
one time on the offensive end of the floor, Brandon
Garrison was way on the other side of the lane,

(27:33):
way on the other side of the lane, and he
just moved around the defensive player and chased down a
rebound I mean, and gave Kentucky another opportunity and we scored.
Those are the kind of plays Brandon has to make.
But he can't do it one time in the first
half and one time in the second half. You know,

(27:54):
he has to do it consistently because he's got to
get the bulk of the man right now at that
side position. And if it means running three times up
and down, really fist hard, laying it on the line,
chasing rebounds, getting on the break, flushing it on. Somebody
look over at the bench and say, coach, get me out,

(28:17):
get me out, get Malakai in here. And that is
great to be able to say, coach, I work so hard,
I need a blow. Coaches love that out of players.
They don't want you out there, you know, just going
through the motions just so you can be on the floor.
And that's what Brandon has to avoid doing. I told

(28:38):
him the other night after the game. He was sitting
back and I walked I was I was leaving after
my player interview and I saw him sitting on the
table in the press room. He was just kind of
looking at the stat sheet and I said, Brandon, you
need to get between ten and fourteen shots a game.

(29:00):
And he looked at me and the smile came on
his face. I said, Brandon, nobody can stop you when
you're going at it like you can go at it.
And he said, you think I could get ten? I said, absolutely, man,
because that means you're going to get three offensive rebounds
that turns into baskets or ether free throws, and in

(29:20):
the flow of the game, offensively, you're going to get
seven shots. I mean, you have to get seven shots
if you're really moving, calling for the ball, make good
aggressive moves to the basket. He got the biggest smile
on his face, and you know, I said, man, that's
your game. That has to be your game. And so
I think that's what he needs to work for. And

(29:41):
a lot of times Biggs have to get those off
the glass. Tom a lot of time with Bigs, you know,
with with mode, you know, he has to go get
shots off the glass. And that's what it's all about. Man,
go get you three rebounds, three offensive rebounds. They turn
in the and you'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Appreciate the time. As always, We'll see you tomorrow night. Alrighty,
come Jack Emmittt's joining us thursdays here on the Leach
Report presented by Bob kat Enterprises. We'll be right back.
It's the Leach Report presented by Bob Cant Enterprises with
four locations around Kentucky. So when you need to buy
a rent heavy equipment, that's who you need to call.

(30:24):
We're chatting with Justin Rowland from Katzillustrated dot Com on
the on three Sports Network. We'll start with the Kentucky
level basketball game. Justin I was thinking about the fact
that Kentucky doesn't look like a team where the pieces
fit together exactly right at the moment, as they're have

(30:45):
had players coming in out of the lineup. Their starting
point guard still isn't back starting yet, they don't have
Jayden Quaintons yet. All of this we knew coming into
the season. So the fact that they would lose a
game on the home court of an opponent who ranked
twelfth in the country is not a tremendous shock, right, No,
not at all.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
I feel like every single year, whenever there's a Kentucky
basketball team that fans are hyped about, you know, you
can carry that aura of invincibility that you've worked up
in your own head, and then when that first loss happens,
it's like a reckoning. It's like, Okay, we hear forty
and zero is out the window, So what next? And

(31:27):
I don't think there's anything overly concerning in the big picture.
I mean, I guess the big question to answer is
defense and Mark Cope. But in the big picture, they
had a chance to win. They were down by four
points at the under four minute media timeout in the
second half. They missed a couple of front enders on
one and one. There were missed opportunities for both sides.
But considering the venue and considering the level that Louisville

(31:49):
played at, there's nothing overly concerning in the big picture
for Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's a little like Kentucky football. We all would consider
around and talk talk about these topics of the lead
up to the season, and that you know, October on
that schedule is brutal. It's going to be hard to
find a win in October. But it looks more favorable
in November, and it's exactly how it's played out. But

(32:14):
it was a bumpy ride to get here, right.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, Yeah, that's right. With Stoops, they're bucking some trends.
You know, they're winning with a quarterback that they've developed
out of high school, and they are getting better over
the course of the years. It's not like they've never
gotten better of the course of the year. They did
when they put Lynn Vote in a quarterback, and maybe
one or two other times, but building momentum. That's one

(32:39):
of the reasons why going into the football season it
was like, well, if they lose the old myth and
South Carolina things are going to get really ugly, because
things have typically gotten more ugly as the season has
gone on, but maybe this year we're seeing that not
only did they do as well in the portal as
they as they did in evaluating, but really the schedule

(32:59):
and where it's strong on the calendar does have a
lot to do with those that's and flows over the seas.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
What has caught your eye in terms of what has
led to this reversal of forum for Kentucky football.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Yeah, well, they got something going on offense. On defense,
I don't think it was ever broken, right. They did
have a few weeks where they struggled with misstackles. Maybe
it looked like they they were a little bit clunky
and getting all the parts that came in to fit.
But then they kind of stabilized and now, I mean
they've given up ten points in the last two weeks
at Auburn and against Florida, So you trust the defense

(33:38):
is in a good spot playing with one of the
SEC's better units. And in the offense, even without a
wide receiver one a number one wide receiver is building
momentum for the first time under Bush Amra, and I
think the play calling has been good. I think Cutter
has developed as a quarterback. Where he came into it's like, wow,
he really places a long ball well. And now it's
like defenses have caught up maybe to the long ball

(33:59):
a little bit and sticking them apart and do it
enough underneath. And he saw some of the Power run
game and it just looked like a team and a
program that is clicking at the right time and it
should make it interesting down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
It's a game Saturday against an FCS level opponent that
you're expected to win. But they've won fifteen straight games.
They haven't played a Power four opponent SIN since twenty
four they lost big down at Georgia, So it is
all against FCS level opponents. But it's the kind of
game where the momentum you have, you don't want to

(34:33):
give some of that back by not playing well. Correct.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
That's right, Yeah, I mean I wouldn't say they're one
of the teams on the Biggest upset Watch this week.
Three touchdown favorites do lose, you know, on a semi
regular basis in college football, it's not all that frequent,
but given Mark Steep's record against FCS and non Power
Conference opponents and the trend line with the game being
at home. Yeah, Tennessee Tech. I looked into him quite

(34:59):
a bit last night, and their last two games have
been their hardest. Against Gardner Webb, they had to rally
from down fourteen to three, but then they pretty well
dominated the rest of that game. And then against Eastern
Illinois it's another close game back to back, but if
you dig into that, they were up twenty one to
three at the last minute. So there's really nothing about

(35:21):
the Tennessee Tech offense that I think is worrisome for
the Kentucky defense. But I do think that if the
offense comes out lack a day's aical and maybe there's
a floater pass or they're committing penalties and it's one
of those sloppy days, then I do think the Tennessee
Tech defense could could cause some problems for I don't know,
I'm a stand upset, but it could be a tricky

(35:42):
matchup for the offense if they're not at their best.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Justin, thank you for the time, thanks a lot of
tom following man rivals on x It's Katsillustrated dot com
on the web for Justin and his team will get
to our final break and return here on this Thursday
edition of The Leach Report from the Clark's Pumpin' Shop studio. Return, refresh,
and refuel at Clark. They have a great deal for

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cornbradhamp dot com. This is the good life. Stay a while.
Cat History is presented by Kentucky Road Shows its cards
Anammreabellia on Romedy Road in Lexington at a roadshowcards dot
Com nineteen ninety nine. On this day, Kentucky notched it's
six to win nineteen seventeen at Vandy on a cold
Saturday night that secured a spot in what turned out

(37:14):
to be the Music City Bowl for that Kentucky team
led by quarterback Dusty Bonner and All America tight end
James Whale and Quentin McCord one of the stars too,
and he had an eighty yard catch and run out
of the air raid offense to give Kentucky that victory.
NFL Linemachael Jamion Davis, former wild Cat Star, has been
activated by the Raiders this weekend, so glad to see

(37:35):
him get back into the league. You need to get
into some Shuffle Being Coffee. Pick it up if you
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some hustle in your shuffle. Public sale tickets for Kentucky
Derby one fifty two go on sale today at noon.
That'll do it for us. Leach Report on l e
X eighteen about five point fifty this afternoon. Make sure
you catch that. We'll see you tomorrow, I'll Leach Report