December 18, 2025 • 38 mins
Tom talks with Eva Hudson, Jack Givens, and Justin Rowland.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day, everybody. Welcome into the Leach Report. We are
presented by Bob Cat Enterprises each day and glad to
have you on board with us for this Thursday edition
of the show. Coming up, we will hear from Eva
Hudson interview that I did with her before she left town.
As the Kentucky volleyball team plays in the Final four tonight,
(00:23):
the goose Jack Gibbons will be along and we'll talk
about the matchup with Saint John's and the win over Indiana,
and then Justin Rowland from Katz Illustrated. That's the lineup
for today. Wildcat News of the Day presented by Juseppes
of Lexington. Kentucky Volleyball against Wisconsin tonight at approximately nine
Eastern time. It'll be thirty minutes after the pitt Texas
(00:45):
A and M match ends. It'll be an ESPN. Each
team is led by a finalist for National Player of
the Year. Yesterday, Kentucky's Cassie O'Brien was named Freshman of
the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association and the AVCA.
All America teams included four Wildcats, Hudson and Eva Hudson
(01:05):
and Brooklyn Delay on the first team, Cassie O'Brien on
the second team, Molly Tuzzo on the third team. So
congrats to all of them. I think Kentucky Wisconsin, I
believe I saw him met twice with the Badgers winning
both times. So time for Kentucky to get the win
tonight and take another step toward a match that would
(01:25):
come up Sunday to decide the National Championship of volleyball
in Division one. So good luck to coach Skinner and
his squad tonight. Kentucky men's basketball continuing to prepare for
the matchup with Saint John's, just the only game this
week with the finals week on the UK campus. Saint
(01:46):
John's did play on Tuesday, handled to Paul, and after
that game on Fox, coach Rick Patino did a courtside
interview with the broadcast crew and they asked him about
matching up with his former player and captain on the
ninety six national championship team, Mark Pope this Saturday in
(02:06):
Atlanta and the CBS Sports Classic.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Here was Patino, Well, we're all going to go to dinner,
some of the ex players and Mark and me the
night before. We're not gonna talk about the game. We
will talk about the ninety six championship team and the memories,
great memories we've had. But you know, look, I love
at the University Kentucky. I love certainly the players I've
coached there. I was there for eight years and I
(02:29):
always called it Camelot because I never had a bad
day there. You always have a bad day, but I
never did. So it's gonna be great to see the guys.
Kentucky's an improving team. They got a lot of talent,
very well coached. We'll be ready, but I know they'll
be ready. It will be fine. On Saturday, twelve thirty
Eastern time, Tip. We'll get deeper into that matchup on
(02:51):
tomorrow's edition of the show.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Could Kentucky have Jane Quaintons available for some level of action?
Goodman Field of sixty eight yesterday said that he had
a source that told him that Acquaintance has been full
go for the last two days in practice. On Monday night,
remember Mark Pope said the next day, which would have
been Tuesday, that a quaintance was going to go across
(03:16):
mid court for the first time, meaning you know, go
full court in scrimmaging. So Jeff Goodman reporting that it's
gone well the last two days and that JQ could
possibly play on Saturday. Didn't say expected him to, but
left the door open, so we will see. Obviously, Mark
Pope is doing a news conference today, so I think
(03:38):
at ten this morning Eastern time will perhaps get a
little bit of an update on that. Yesterday, a new
offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan talk to the local media in
Lexington and talked about that he's known Will Stein for
a long time. They were both coaching I think Sloan'sana
Tech and coach Stein was that Texas San Antonio, so
(04:01):
they were in the same region recruiting some of the
same players, just professionally professional development situations. They were crossing paths,
developed a friendship, have continued to stay in touch, and
he talked more about that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
We've done a bunch of professional development stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And really see eyt eye on a lot of things,
and I think he's done a phenomenal job in his
last several years at Oregon and just what they've done
on offense, what he's been able to do with quarterbacks,
I think it's really really impressive. And not just that,
but also he's a great human being.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So how many times has it come up before? Kentucky
coach the question about using the tight ends more, throwing
to the tight ends more, probably in CJ. Conrad's time
was and Derek Smith maybe back to then, those two
in particular, but CJ, especially when you're gonna throw it
to the tight end more, why don't you throw it
to the tight end more?
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Well?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Coach Sloan yesterday talked about Willie Rodriguez and he said, quote,
the vision is we're going to throw him the ball
and will he knows that I've shown him many ways.
He said, will he is a really good talent. And
Coach Son said, we absolutely use our tight ends and
our offense to create advantages and create matchups where we
can win. I know Willy's excited about that, and I
(05:23):
know we're excited about him. And he also mentioned Henry
Boyer and Mchel Skinner and all the guys that they
have at that spot. And so I'm sure Josh Cattis
is wishing he had one more year of eligibility, But
I think fans love hearing the idea of throwing to
the tight ends more and getting them more incorporated into
(05:45):
the offense and Jalen Farmer declared for the draft yesterday.
It was a bit of bad news. Good for him
with him well, but he would have been Kentucky's only
returning starter in the offensive line. But Jalen is going
to head off to professional football. We're going to take
a break, come back and hear from Eva Hudson on
the Leach Report presented. Opening segment presented by the folks
(06:10):
at Giuseppes. Was out there picking up dinner for a
little dinner party. We had a couple of nights ago.
Fantastic food at Giuseppes. And while I was there, somebody
came in picked up some gift cards. So there's still
an opportunity to do that. If you need a last
minute gift ted them. You can get them through email too.
Probably a little late to get the mail out to you,
but go buy the restaurant, or if you don't live
close by, you can get them email. It's a perfect
(06:32):
gift for somebody that's hard to buy for Go to
Giuseppes Lexington dot com and they'll guide you through the process.
We'll be right back on the Leach Report. It's presented
by Bob Kat Enterprises. It is the leacher Report coming
to you from the Clarks Pumpin' Shop studio. Return Refresh
and Refuel at Clark's one of their football note Jababen
officially announced yesterday as the new defensive coordinator for Kentucky football.
(06:55):
There are reports that Colby Smith is leaving Arkansas a
coach to the run at Kentucky. Former UFL running back and
a couple of Kentucky wide receivers reportedly heading to the
transfer portal freshman Preston Brown and second year wide receiver
David Washington, junior, who was out with an injury this
season out in Kansas City. Tonight, Kentucky plays in the
(07:18):
final four for the National Volleyball Championship and Kentucky will
take on Wisconsin. And talked to Eva Hudson while she
was still here in Lexington, a Purdue transfer who is
Kentucky's National Player of the Year candidate, and we talked
about her arrival at Kentucky and finding landing on a
(07:41):
team that has a chance to win it all. How
soon did you start to think this team could be
championship good?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Honestly, it started from the first day. Our team just
clicked so easily from having free new transfers and three
new freshmen now all came in January. We've been working
on it, I mean for a year now, so I
just knew right away like we were going to be good.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
How has this team improved from when you arrived and
the season started to now.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I think we're just we're finding where people fit and
different people going in and out of the middle and
on the right side.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But that's what makes this team so special is.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
That we're so we're so deep, and anyone on the
bench can play and really get us any points.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But yeah, Lizzie is somebody you were very familiar with
in your previous location. Talk to us about how you're
seeing her game growing.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
I mean, she's just playing with so much confidence right now,
and her and Cassie have really found a connection that's
really special, and it just it makes me so happy,
and it is it makes me want to score more too,
because as she gets better and has more energy, I
just feed off of that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So I couldn't be more proud of her.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
As you guys keep getting closer through the biggest goal,
how do you avoid feeling pressure?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
We as a team, we try to say now, like
our thing is now and that means like every point,
every moment, we're gonna take in and we're gonna try
our best and do our job so that the moment
doesn't get too big, and we'll take one game ount
of times.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
From the skills of a volleyball player to volleyball team,
what are the things that are exceptional about this Kentucky team.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I would just say our relentlessness.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
I mean, you may think balls are down and Tuzzo's
right under them. And it's also like the dig precision
what we call it is like when they have a
hard hit and it's a big dig, but it gets
right to the center so we can run our whole offense.
So I think that's really special about our team and
that will never give up.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Playing for Craig Skinner. What do you think makes him
as good as he is coaching your team.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
He's just a man of the people.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
He really just loves every person on this team as
a person and not just a volleyball player, and that
just makes everybody want to play better for him.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
What are the intangibles about this team beyond your alls
collective of all skills that makes this group special?
Speaker 6 (10:03):
I think it's just how we click off the core.
Every single person is special to one another. We want
to win for each other, so like we know when
we're down that we can lean on one another.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And I think that's a really special thing.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Eva Hudson and she and her teammates go up against
Wisconsin at around nine Eastern time tonight. It's say a
round because it's going to be thirty minutes after the
Pitt Texas A and M match comes to an end
out in Kansas City. ESPN will have the coverage of
the two matches tonight. So thank you're going for a
second national championship. Good luck to coach Craig Skinner and
(10:38):
his crew. We'll take a quick break and the goose
Jack Gibbons coming up next. So Leach Report presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. Leach Report presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises
with four locations in Kentucky. And if it's heavy equipment
that you have a need for, or you know someone
who does talking about excavators and Bobcats forklifts, maybe things
(11:01):
to help with snow removal at some point this winter,
something like that or something else. Let the folks at
Bobcat Enterprises know what you need and they will take
care of you and they will give you a fantastic
service after the sale. Four locations, so just google them
you'll find the one here in Kentucky that's closest to you.
They have zero turn mowers for your home lawn too
at Bobcat Enterprises. It is the Leach Reports. I don't
(11:24):
forget about the Leach Report on LAX eighteen each week
night around five point fifty, right after Bill Meck's forecast
as we talk about UK sports and goin to have
a piece up today about Kentucky basketball. A little clip
from an interview I did with CJ. Moore of The Athletic.
(11:44):
You had a really good article on Kentucky's early season
struggles leading into the Indiana game, So we talked about
that after the Indiana game, and there's a clip from
that that'll be up in that segment tonight. Plus CJ.
We'll have the interview for you on the show tomorrow,
along with Mike de Corsi visiting, so we'll get a
(12:05):
lot into Kentucky basketball in the matchup with Saint John's tomorrow,
another chance for Kentucky to notch quality win for its
NCAA tournament resume. We're trying to land the goose Jack
Gibbns have a little issue with the phones, so we're
trying to work through that at the moment, as we
(12:27):
send out congratulations to Owensboro High School's Evan Hampton. Evan
named Mister Football for the State of Kentucky. Very deserving honor,
and was hoping he would get it because I'm friends
with the family, his grandfather and his dad and his uncle,
and don't know Evan, but I do know he is
(12:49):
a heck of a football player. Helped lead Owensboro to
a state championship in Class five A. He'll be playing
for Vandy next season. And speaking of football, Law and
Jagger Burton have been invited to play in the East
West Shrine Game, and that is I believe coming up
right after the first of the year out in California
(13:12):
and one of the important steps to getting seen by
the folks. You need to get seen by to get
drafted into the NFL. So hopefully I wish both of
those guys good luck. There are at least a couple
of guys I think playing in the Senior Bowl as
well down in Alabama. Those are the the two big
spots for scouts to see players. All right, we got
(13:36):
the Goose on the line now, Jack Gibbons joining us
ahead of the Kentucky Saint John's matchup down in Atlanta
on Saturday.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
Goose.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Let's start though, with the Indiana game, one that Kentucky
certainly needed to get. They're down nine, they're late in
the first half, seven down seven with about fourteen minutes
to go, Bo Diabate, Jalen Lowe, two guys that have
missed a lot of time were keys that come back.
What impressed you most about what you saw the Cats
do that day?
Speaker 7 (14:06):
Well, what impressed me the most after I had time
to think about it, was, I know this is a
little different take on it, but what impressed me the
most was the fact was how Kentucky actually played in
the first half is what impressed me. I know, the
second half they got it going, but the fact of
(14:29):
the matter is in some of those games that we
played where we were not making shots, we were down
twenty five points and now you have to make up
for that. If you look at Gonzaga and Loeuville and
some of these other games, we played so poorly to
start the game that by the time the second half
(14:49):
came in a lot of ways. We were out of it. Well,
the fact that we played hard, our defense was good,
and we didn't allow Indiana to build that twenty twenty
five point lead going into the second half gave me hope.
I mean, I said to myself, but then I thought
about it. I said, well, we can't play any worse,
(15:10):
and then Gonzaga bounced into my brain and I said, okay,
let me go to another analogy here. I forgot about
that one. But yeah, the fact that they were there
after at halftime was really what gave me hope that
we would get it together. We're going to start making shots,
not that concern, but the effort and the defense and
(15:32):
all of those other good things that they did in
the second half. That's what I've been waiting to see,
and I was really happy with that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You've been watching practices is back into July, and I
have to think that a lot of the plan for
this season was built around the skill set of Jalen Low.
They bring him in as their point guard, different kind
of point guard than Lamont Butler or kerk Cries the
last year, so they're going to do some things differently,
and then you don't have him for a long stretch
(16:02):
of time. So is just getting him out there for
longer stretches on a consistent basis going to be what's
going to make the biggest difference in the offense.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
Yes, But you know what I've seen in practice the
last week, the last particularly going back into late last week, Thursday,
Wednesday a little bit, but definitely Thursday, and then early
this week. What what what I've seen is the best
(16:39):
version of Kentucky that I've seen since back in the
summer because we didn't have JQ and the summer we
didn't have Yellow Bick. We didn't but but but that
whole puzzle now put together. Man, these last week or so,
(16:59):
I've just been I've been just so impressed with what
I've seen. And it really had started with just a
team that is playing harder than I've seen this group play.
They finally clicked and you know, I know we're going
to come up on a break here. But it reminds
me of my team back my sophomore year when we
(17:22):
won the NIT We finally got going after going ten
to ten, it just finally clicked and we started doing it.
We won our last ten games of that season because
we finally understood what it was about to play hard
without all those seniors that we lost from my freshman team.
(17:45):
So that's what I'm seeing from this team, and that's
what has me so excited right now.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
We'll pick up on that with a Goose when we
come right back. It is the Leads Report Radio Network.
It's the Lakes Report from the Clark's Pupping Shop studio,
Return Refresh, Refuel at Clark's. We're talking with a Goose,
Chack Givens. It is so interesting that you referenced the
seventy six team your second year at UK. The team
won the ni t and for folks that don't recall,
(18:14):
the NIT in those days was still loaded because that
in seventy six, the NCAA Tournament was just in the
second year of taking a second team from a conference,
so leagues got to send two teams. But now they'll
send seven, eight, nine, more fourteen from the SEC last season.
So all of those teams that are now going to
(18:36):
the NCAA Tournament from you know, three through whatever, are
we're going to the NIIT then. So if you won
the NIT, you were a team that was probably capable
of going to a Final four with a little luck,
and Kentucky won the NIT that year after starting out
zero to two for the season, lost the first three
conference games, had another three game losing streak on Vallentine.
(19:00):
It ended on Valentine's Day to me leave you five
and seven in the league. So yesterday, Goose, I'm working
on some stuff ahead for the holidays. I'm doing this
thing for LAX eighteen and with a shortage of games
here over the next couple of weeks, I was going
to do something on the seventy six team because of
some of the things you're talking about. I found a
headline from the Courier Journal yesterday a story Dave Kendrid
(19:22):
did after you guys beat Charlotte to win it to
win the NIT. He called it the team from nowhere.
UK goes from ten and ten to NIT title. And
here's a quote. It just happened overnight. When you're ten
and ten, you don't expect to go anywhere. We just
got our heads together, our backs were against the wall.
We had to push our way out. You know who said.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
That it sounds like something that I might have said.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
It was Jack Gibbons said that, yes.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know it was interesting because we were
ten and ten and Coach Hall had been telling us,
had we you're just not playing hard, and you know,
we had just come off of a team that went
to the final game and lost to UCLA, So we
(20:10):
knew it all. I mean, there's no question the players
we knew it all. Man. And then we went up
to Wisconsin. Then I hope this is not an omen
or anything, but the first game of the year we
went up to Wisconsin. We lost there, man, and we
were looking at each other like, what just happened? Well,
we lost the game. It wasn't something we were used
(20:32):
to and you're right, we lost. And then all of
a sudden, it was ten to ten and we called
a players only meeting after we had lost that tenth game,
and we went in the room and we were calling
each other dogs and we were just on each other
back and coming close to blows. We were, I mean,
(20:53):
you know, I mean, I'm so glad we didn't have
social media because we all might have been locked up
after that meeting, after the way people exaggerate things so much.
But we it finally just clicked. We went in and
we said, Okay, coach, here's the deal. We're gonna you
tell us, and we're gonna do it. And we did,
(21:14):
and yeah, there were some of us who had to
be benched, just like happened with Brandon Garrison, and Coach'll
didn't look at us rest of the game. All of
that stuff had happened, and then all of a sudden,
in practice, we have what was our best practice of
the year. And I saw that out of Kentucky last
(21:36):
Thursday marked today, man, because I thought, where in the
heck has this team been? So we had our best
practice and we went ken and oh now to finish
up the season and to win the championship. And I'm
not saying that's what's gonna happen to Kentucky, but it's
It was so nice the other the other day last
week in practice last Thursday, to see that practice, and
(22:02):
I walked out of the gym thinking, man, we are
gonna be all right, aren't we. And you guess what.
Jaden Quaintance was there. Moe was in practice that day
and Lowe was there. So when you're fully loaded, you're
gonna look good when you have the talent these guys have.
So I'm real excited about the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Man.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
After seeing how they practice. Forget about the game. Yeah,
they beat Indiana, but it all starts in practice for me.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Coach Pope will talk to the media a little later today,
so he'll provide whatever he wants to say in terms
of an update on JQ. So I want to ask
you to upstage that talk about what you're seeing in practice,
but you can talk about just to the flashes you've
seen from JQ, what he could whenever he comes back,
whether it's he's gonna it's gonna happen sometime soon. So
(22:54):
whatever that happens, how could he change this team?
Speaker 7 (22:58):
Well, I don't even have to mention jq's name with
what I've seen in practice because everybody else has been
uplifted and they and they see how I mean, I've
just been impressed with how hard the guy works, how
(23:18):
much he how quickly he gets up and down the
floor and gets back on defense, and that explosiveness either
going to the hole or going after a block has
been really impressive. And he is not even I don't
want to put a percentage on it because that's not
my job, but I know he's going to be better
(23:40):
than what I've even seen thus far. So I'm excited
about the other guys. I mean, I remember that first
time he scrimmaged after practice three on three on one basket,
just going three on three. They were practicing, and not
(24:00):
a guy left the floor. They all sat along the bench,
sat on the bench to watch him work out for
the first time, and then he put on a show
in a half course setting. So I think the way
the other players have been lifted uplifted is probably the
(24:21):
most impressive thing I've seen about him.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Interesting, well, Goose, I appreciate this. So I didn't know
you were going to the seventy sixth thing. It's so
interesting because it does seem like there are some similarities.
That group had some injury issues too.
Speaker 7 (24:35):
Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rick Roby messed his knee up
towards ACL late late in the season, and that's another
reason why we had the team meeting, because Rick now
wasn't going to be able to play, but he could
sure get on us man and he because he's one
(24:57):
of those guys who played hard every day, so he
could definitely get on our case, which he did, and
it was it was it was just just just kind
of a special thing that happened to us. And man,
we started whinning. We won two or three in a row,
(25:17):
and we all kind of like that feeling, you know,
after losing a couple of times when we lost three
games in a row. We won three games in a row,
and we just said, man, this is a whole lot better,
so let's keep it going. And that's kind of what
happened with that team. But again, we weren't practicing hard, man,
we were going through the motions and it And that's
(25:39):
why I'm excited about what I'm seeing in practice lately. Man.
It all starts in practice. And I'm a firm believer
that you play like you practice, and and frankly, our
saults and kind of going through the motions in practice
for a long time, and that's what you were seeing
in some games, and I just it's new. Until we
(26:00):
get better in practice. We weren't going to get better
on the floor, so hopefully we were on our way, Tom,
we got a long way to go. Fortunately, we got
along a lot of getting better we can do. I
would hate to think we get maxed out already, but
we got a lot of getting better we can do. So, uh,
we're now hitded in that direction. So uh, That's just
(26:22):
my little bit that I've picked up on in practice,
and you know, I talked to a little bit a
couple of coaches about it and they kind of agree, Yeah,
we've I'm the way to pick it up. So I'm
I'm looking forward to what's going to happen as we
get better and better and get j Low in better
shape and we get of course Jayden has to get
(26:43):
in better shape, so we've got a lot of room
to improve.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Good stuff there, Goose, Thank you much. See on the
playing tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (26:50):
All right, tom tomorrow, Jack.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Edbans and we'll be right back with Justin Rowland from
Cats Illustrated. On this Thursday edition of The Leach Report,
presented by Bob Kat enterprises quarter before the time of
the hour. It's the Leach Report and we welcome in
Justin Rowland from On three Sports and Katz Illustrated talking
to Little UK Sports. Here we'll begin with some football
Justin and the staff that Will Stein is putting together.
(27:16):
It was last week you were the first to tell
us about coach Bateman coming in from Texas A and M.
That was officially announced yesterday. Joe Sloan did a news
conference and his role as the new offensive coordinator, and
but a few other higher since then. So what do
you think of the overall group he's put together.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
You see that will Stein is an offensive guy, you know.
For Mark Stoops, I think putting together and keeping defensive
staff intact was a little bit easier just because that's
where his credentials are. You feel confident in that aspect
of the apt of the operation. And you see how
other bright offensive minds have wanted to come in. So
Will Steign one of the brightest young offensive minds in
(27:52):
the country. Incredible several year run on some of the
best quarterbacks in the country. Joe Sloan's same thing at LSU.
Jaden Daniels break out year, great year for Garrett mattnus
Meyer in his first year at LSU. He's used to
recruiting the very best quarterbacks players in the country. But
then also at UTSA, Joe Price receivers coach, who's probably
(28:12):
coming down after their bowl game later this month. He's
the associate head coach and the passing game corter at
uts coordinator at UTSA, and that's kind of been a
pipeline job for bright offensive minds. The running backs coach
from Arkansas. Colby Smith was promoted to interim offensive coordinator
when Petrino got the interim head coaching tag and Cutter left,
(28:33):
which at Oregon was brought in to be the run
game coordinator in an off field role. So I think
I'm relatively young, but I don't remember a Kentucky coaching
staff having this much brain trust power in terms of
coordinator sets of eyes on the offense that I remember.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
When Will got the job and was announced, one of
the first questions that came up in the different interviews
and things that he did, was you know you're going
to call the plays? Because he built his reputation as
being one of the premier play callers in the country.
And he said no, he wanted He thought about it
(29:12):
a low. He wanted to be the head coach and
not so he could focus on everything as the game
was unfolding. And it seems to me that if you're
going to do that and give, you know, a step
back at least to some degree from something you do
exceptionally well, he can still be obviously very involved in
the planning, but just in the heat of the moment,
(29:34):
if you're going to step back a little bit from
that it's it ideally would be to somebody that you
have a long relationship with and you know, you know
that you got you got to see things the same way,
and that seems to be what he has in Joe's lan.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
I agree, but we got to be careful, Like they've
been very careful in how they talked about that, right.
They've never come out and said that this is how
the play calling is exactly actually going to operate. And
I think it makes sense that you would kind of
be a little koy about that. You know, other teams
know less about your tendencies. It keeps other people guessing
week to week. There's really no help to being able
(30:13):
to ten all the blame on either the head coach
or the oppensive coordinator if things aren't going well. So
it's kind of delegating for a lot of reasons, I think.
But it's it's a serious question. It's not just something
the media talks about. Because you see how coaches get
more and less involved head coaches in the play calling
from one year to the next based on how they
(30:34):
feel like things are going. And you know, guys like
if will sign is like a Steve Sarkisian play caller.
Then you know, it's tough to take that away from
you because that's kind of one of the reasons that
you hired him. But at the same time, Joe Solon's
a really important hire. That's one of the guys. He
that's the guy presumably he's going to be in Lexington.
(30:54):
He's gonna be my right hand man helping me do
all this stuff. You probably had to had to give
him a lot of responsibility to get him in Lexington.
So I think it's gonna be a good working relationship
and they'll compliment one another well.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Coach Loan talked to the media yesterday. I played one
of the clips about his relationship with will and he
talked about what he said about Willie Rodriguez and incorporating
the tight ends, but he also talked about Cutter Bowley
and had some very encouraging or good good things to
say about what he's seen of Cutter and what just
(31:26):
in the time that they've been together in this new
job for coach Loan, So what do you think the
quarterback situation looks like for next season?
Speaker 5 (31:37):
One thing I'm very confident of is they really seem
to like Cutter Bowley, you know, if you look at
the traits that Joe San, that Sloan, the will Stein
and Joe Sloan are looking for in a quarterback. He's
very accurate, completed a high percent ofage passes. You got
to kind of take a Stoop's discount on all those
numbers for Bowlie last year. And that's no knock on Stoops.
(31:57):
The coaches win different ways, and if you put up
twenty one hundred yards fifteen touchdowns for Mark Stoops as
a red shirt freshman, then that could have translated to
much better numbers in a different system that was maybe
designed to make your quarterback look a little bit better.
So you got to have four quarterbacks in the room.
Joe Sloan said, I'm confident that Brennan Ward will be around.
(32:19):
You know that Stone Saunders has already left. Matt Ponatowski
could still choose baseball. I don't think he will, but
he could still choose baseball. So they're gonna have to
hit the portal. But it's not a situation where it's
like they're going to recruit over cutter. I think he
very legitimately is the future to him to them, and
they they really think that he has a chance to
be a starter next year, A great chance to be
(32:39):
a starter next year, but you're still probably gonna have
to bring in somebody else just to keep the numbers right.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I thought when they early on announced that Mike Hartline
was staying to be I took I don't know if
that was accurate or not. I took that as a
little indication of what they thought about Cutter for taking
the reins of their offense next season, because I think
Mike has got a bright future of this business, and
he was talked about often last season about coach Stoops
(33:06):
how strong the bond was between Mike and Cutter, and
you could see that in practices. And so I thought
the fact that as far as I know, uh, Will
and Mike didn't have any kind of connection like Will
has with coach Sloan, that, uh, that took that as
a sign that, Okay, we want to keep a keep
(33:27):
the guy around who already has a good relationship with
the guy who think we think is going to be
our quarterback no doubt.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
And I mean, that's the kind of thing that's going
to factor in on these decisions on a number of levels.
I've heard the same thing about heartline. You know, behind
the scenes, important guy to having the program no matter
who the head coach is and very very highly thought of.
But you know, uh CJ. Conrad Trance. We don't know
who the tight ends coach is going to be, but
he helped Vince mar recruit Willie Rodriguez, and WILLI is
somebody that they that they really want to keep around.
(33:56):
That's that's one of the guys that you would probably
look at for that position. That's the kind of thing
that you're gonna consider just keeping the roster attack. And
I liked how Sloan talked about the short term goals
and the long term goals. You got to have a
plan for this season, and you got to have a
long term plan, and when those things are really clicking,
you look really healthy. It's like, we feel great about
right now, and we feel good about next year. We're
(34:17):
not worried about what's going to happen in this position
room or that position room. But right now they don't
even know how many guys are going to lose to
the portal. So I think it's kind of just watch
manage relationships and keep the guys you really want.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
If you want to get back to having an offensive
line where you bring guys in and develop them to
some extent anyway, in this transfer portal era, that takes time.
So in the short run they have to find an
offensive line. Now they're losing Jalen Farmer to the NFL.
What do you what do you think they will have?
(34:48):
What do you think they will think? I guess maybe
it's the best way to put it. Of the guys
they already have in the program, young guys, how ready
they are, and then how extensively will they have to
do work in the portal?
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Right, So they brought in Evan Wibberley from Western Kentucky
last year and it was maybe he could start, maybe not.
I think that the expectation from the previous staff is
that Whibberley would be good to go at center, and
I think he should be locked in. Abbaceelm had been
developing nicely and I think he ran into some maybe
(35:20):
some health stuff that I'm not going to get too
much into, but I'm my understanding is he's back on
track and it seems like he's a really interesting piece
for the future at guard. And in the interim when
there was a little uncertainty about that Jaden Clark kind
of emerged as hey, maybe this is better than a
three star true freshman and he's close to be in
rotation ready. Malachi Would played too early two seasons ago
(35:43):
and got a developmental year this year, and they had
banked on him being a starter next season. And that's
going to be a huge lynph into the strategy for
Leftwich or whoever is in that offensive line room, is
Malachi Would ready to be a starter again, because that's
going to determine do we have to get one starting
tackle from the portal or we have we have to
get too I think stray, daring Stray the freshman this
year is probably two years away, so they're going to
(36:05):
have to invest a lot at authensive tackle, probably less
on the interior of the line. But that's why you
want to keep Cutter Bowl around, right because you got
to do a lot of portal work already. You can't
afford to lose the pieces that you think could be helpful.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Justin Rowland Katz Illustrated dot Com and on the on
three Sports Network and next Thursday's Christmas, so we won't
talk then, So justin Happy holidays, Mere Christmas to you the.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Family, Happy holidays, Tom, Thanks a lot quick break.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
We'll be right back to close out this edition of
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(37:42):
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that a new Year's resolution. Wild Cat History Notes presented
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two thousand and four, Patrick Sparks three free throws to
(38:04):
seal a big Kentucky come back and beat Louisville sixty
to fifty eight at Freedom Hall. What a day Patrick
Sparks had. And congrats to Moda Batte and the folks
at Kentucky road Show for hosting the Toy Drive last night.
Saw some pictures from that on social media from Kentucky
road Show. They had a great turnout. I got a
lot of toys, so thanks to everyone who participated. See
it tomorrow. The lead report
Good day, everybody. Welcome into the Leach Report. We are
presented by Bob Cat Enterprises each day and glad to
have you on board with us for this Thursday edition
of the show. Coming up, we will hear from Eva
Hudson interview that I did with her before she left town.
As the Kentucky volleyball team plays in the Final four tonight,
(00:23):
the goose Jack Gibbons will be along and we'll talk
about the matchup with Saint John's and the win over Indiana,
and then Justin Rowland from Katz Illustrated. That's the lineup
for today. Wildcat News of the Day presented by Juseppes
of Lexington. Kentucky Volleyball against Wisconsin tonight at approximately nine
Eastern time. It'll be thirty minutes after the pitt Texas
(00:45):
A and M match ends. It'll be an ESPN. Each
team is led by a finalist for National Player of
the Year. Yesterday, Kentucky's Cassie O'Brien was named Freshman of
the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association and the AVCA.
All America teams included four Wildcats, Hudson and Eva Hudson
(01:05):
and Brooklyn Delay on the first team, Cassie O'Brien on
the second team, Molly Tuzzo on the third team. So
congrats to all of them. I think Kentucky Wisconsin, I
believe I saw him met twice with the Badgers winning
both times. So time for Kentucky to get the win
tonight and take another step toward a match that would
(01:25):
come up Sunday to decide the National Championship of volleyball
in Division one. So good luck to coach Skinner and
his squad tonight. Kentucky men's basketball continuing to prepare for
the matchup with Saint John's, just the only game this
week with the finals week on the UK campus. Saint
(01:46):
John's did play on Tuesday, handled to Paul, and after
that game on Fox, coach Rick Patino did a courtside
interview with the broadcast crew and they asked him about
matching up with his former player and captain on the
ninety six national championship team, Mark Pope this Saturday in
(02:06):
Atlanta and the CBS Sports Classic.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Here was Patino, Well, we're all going to go to dinner,
some of the ex players and Mark and me the
night before. We're not gonna talk about the game. We
will talk about the ninety six championship team and the memories,
great memories we've had. But you know, look, I love
at the University Kentucky. I love certainly the players I've
coached there. I was there for eight years and I
(02:29):
always called it Camelot because I never had a bad
day there. You always have a bad day, but I
never did. So it's gonna be great to see the guys.
Kentucky's an improving team. They got a lot of talent,
very well coached. We'll be ready, but I know they'll
be ready. It will be fine. On Saturday, twelve thirty
Eastern time, Tip. We'll get deeper into that matchup on
(02:51):
tomorrow's edition of the show.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Could Kentucky have Jane Quaintons available for some level of action?
Goodman Field of sixty eight yesterday said that he had
a source that told him that Acquaintance has been full
go for the last two days in practice. On Monday night,
remember Mark Pope said the next day, which would have
been Tuesday, that a quaintance was going to go across
(03:16):
mid court for the first time, meaning you know, go
full court in scrimmaging. So Jeff Goodman reporting that it's
gone well the last two days and that JQ could
possibly play on Saturday. Didn't say expected him to, but
left the door open, so we will see. Obviously, Mark
Pope is doing a news conference today, so I think
(03:38):
at ten this morning Eastern time will perhaps get a
little bit of an update on that. Yesterday, a new
offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan talk to the local media in
Lexington and talked about that he's known Will Stein for
a long time. They were both coaching I think Sloan'sana
Tech and coach Stein was that Texas San Antonio, so
(04:01):
they were in the same region recruiting some of the
same players, just professionally professional development situations. They were crossing paths,
developed a friendship, have continued to stay in touch, and
he talked more about that.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
We've done a bunch of professional development stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
And really see eyt eye on a lot of things,
and I think he's done a phenomenal job in his
last several years at Oregon and just what they've done
on offense, what he's been able to do with quarterbacks,
I think it's really really impressive. And not just that,
but also he's a great human being.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
So how many times has it come up before? Kentucky
coach the question about using the tight ends more, throwing
to the tight ends more, probably in CJ. Conrad's time
was and Derek Smith maybe back to then, those two
in particular, but CJ, especially when you're gonna throw it
to the tight end more, why don't you throw it
to the tight end more?
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Well?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Coach Sloan yesterday talked about Willie Rodriguez and he said, quote,
the vision is we're going to throw him the ball
and will he knows that I've shown him many ways.
He said, will he is a really good talent. And
Coach Son said, we absolutely use our tight ends and
our offense to create advantages and create matchups where we
can win. I know Willy's excited about that, and I
(05:23):
know we're excited about him. And he also mentioned Henry
Boyer and Mchel Skinner and all the guys that they
have at that spot. And so I'm sure Josh Cattis
is wishing he had one more year of eligibility, But
I think fans love hearing the idea of throwing to
the tight ends more and getting them more incorporated into
(05:45):
the offense and Jalen Farmer declared for the draft yesterday.
It was a bit of bad news. Good for him
with him well, but he would have been Kentucky's only
returning starter in the offensive line. But Jalen is going
to head off to professional football. We're going to take
a break, come back and hear from Eva Hudson on
the Leach Report presented. Opening segment presented by the folks
(06:10):
at Giuseppes. Was out there picking up dinner for a
little dinner party. We had a couple of nights ago.
Fantastic food at Giuseppes. And while I was there, somebody
came in picked up some gift cards. So there's still
an opportunity to do that. If you need a last
minute gift ted them. You can get them through email too.
Probably a little late to get the mail out to you,
but go buy the restaurant, or if you don't live
close by, you can get them email. It's a perfect
(06:32):
gift for somebody that's hard to buy for Go to
Giuseppes Lexington dot com and they'll guide you through the process.
We'll be right back on the Leach Report. It's presented
by Bob Kat Enterprises. It is the leacher Report coming
to you from the Clarks Pumpin' Shop studio. Return Refresh
and Refuel at Clark's one of their football note Jababen
officially announced yesterday as the new defensive coordinator for Kentucky football.
(06:55):
There are reports that Colby Smith is leaving Arkansas a
coach to the run at Kentucky. Former UFL running back and
a couple of Kentucky wide receivers reportedly heading to the
transfer portal freshman Preston Brown and second year wide receiver
David Washington, junior, who was out with an injury this
season out in Kansas City. Tonight, Kentucky plays in the
(07:18):
final four for the National Volleyball Championship and Kentucky will
take on Wisconsin. And talked to Eva Hudson while she
was still here in Lexington, a Purdue transfer who is
Kentucky's National Player of the Year candidate, and we talked
about her arrival at Kentucky and finding landing on a
(07:41):
team that has a chance to win it all. How
soon did you start to think this team could be
championship good?
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Honestly, it started from the first day. Our team just
clicked so easily from having free new transfers and three
new freshmen now all came in January. We've been working
on it, I mean for a year now, so I
just knew right away like we were going to be good.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
How has this team improved from when you arrived and
the season started to now.
Speaker 6 (08:11):
I think we're just we're finding where people fit and
different people going in and out of the middle and
on the right side.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
But that's what makes this team so special is.
Speaker 6 (08:19):
That we're so we're so deep, and anyone on the
bench can play and really get us any points.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
But yeah, Lizzie is somebody you were very familiar with
in your previous location. Talk to us about how you're
seeing her game growing.
Speaker 6 (08:34):
I mean, she's just playing with so much confidence right now,
and her and Cassie have really found a connection that's
really special, and it just it makes me so happy,
and it is it makes me want to score more too,
because as she gets better and has more energy, I
just feed off of that.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
So I couldn't be more proud of her.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
As you guys keep getting closer through the biggest goal,
how do you avoid feeling pressure?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
We as a team, we try to say now, like
our thing is now and that means like every point,
every moment, we're gonna take in and we're gonna try
our best and do our job so that the moment
doesn't get too big, and we'll take one game ount
of times.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
From the skills of a volleyball player to volleyball team,
what are the things that are exceptional about this Kentucky team.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I would just say our relentlessness.
Speaker 6 (09:26):
I mean, you may think balls are down and Tuzzo's
right under them. And it's also like the dig precision
what we call it is like when they have a
hard hit and it's a big dig, but it gets
right to the center so we can run our whole offense.
So I think that's really special about our team and
that will never give up.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Playing for Craig Skinner. What do you think makes him
as good as he is coaching your team.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
He's just a man of the people.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
He really just loves every person on this team as
a person and not just a volleyball player, and that
just makes everybody want to play better for him.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
What are the intangibles about this team beyond your alls
collective of all skills that makes this group special?
Speaker 6 (10:03):
I think it's just how we click off the core.
Every single person is special to one another. We want
to win for each other, so like we know when
we're down that we can lean on one another.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And I think that's a really special thing.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Eva Hudson and she and her teammates go up against
Wisconsin at around nine Eastern time tonight. It's say a
round because it's going to be thirty minutes after the
Pitt Texas A and M match comes to an end
out in Kansas City. ESPN will have the coverage of
the two matches tonight. So thank you're going for a
second national championship. Good luck to coach Craig Skinner and
(10:38):
his crew. We'll take a quick break and the goose
Jack Gibbons coming up next. So Leach Report presented by
Bobcat Enterprises. Leach Report presented each day by Bobcat Enterprises
with four locations in Kentucky. And if it's heavy equipment
that you have a need for, or you know someone
who does talking about excavators and Bobcats forklifts, maybe things
(11:01):
to help with snow removal at some point this winter,
something like that or something else. Let the folks at
Bobcat Enterprises know what you need and they will take
care of you and they will give you a fantastic
service after the sale. Four locations, so just google them
you'll find the one here in Kentucky that's closest to you.
They have zero turn mowers for your home lawn too
at Bobcat Enterprises. It is the Leach Reports. I don't
(11:24):
forget about the Leach Report on LAX eighteen each week
night around five point fifty, right after Bill Meck's forecast
as we talk about UK sports and goin to have
a piece up today about Kentucky basketball. A little clip
from an interview I did with CJ. Moore of The Athletic.
(11:44):
You had a really good article on Kentucky's early season
struggles leading into the Indiana game, So we talked about
that after the Indiana game, and there's a clip from
that that'll be up in that segment tonight. Plus CJ.
We'll have the interview for you on the show tomorrow,
along with Mike de Corsi visiting, so we'll get a
(12:05):
lot into Kentucky basketball in the matchup with Saint John's tomorrow,
another chance for Kentucky to notch quality win for its
NCAA tournament resume. We're trying to land the goose Jack
Gibbns have a little issue with the phones, so we're
trying to work through that at the moment, as we
(12:27):
send out congratulations to Owensboro High School's Evan Hampton. Evan
named Mister Football for the State of Kentucky. Very deserving honor,
and was hoping he would get it because I'm friends
with the family, his grandfather and his dad and his uncle,
and don't know Evan, but I do know he is
(12:49):
a heck of a football player. Helped lead Owensboro to
a state championship in Class five A. He'll be playing
for Vandy next season. And speaking of football, Law and
Jagger Burton have been invited to play in the East
West Shrine Game, and that is I believe coming up
right after the first of the year out in California
(13:12):
and one of the important steps to getting seen by
the folks. You need to get seen by to get
drafted into the NFL. So hopefully I wish both of
those guys good luck. There are at least a couple
of guys I think playing in the Senior Bowl as
well down in Alabama. Those are the the two big
spots for scouts to see players. All right, we got
(13:36):
the Goose on the line now, Jack Gibbons joining us
ahead of the Kentucky Saint John's matchup down in Atlanta
on Saturday.
Speaker 7 (13:43):
Goose.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Let's start though, with the Indiana game, one that Kentucky
certainly needed to get. They're down nine, they're late in
the first half, seven down seven with about fourteen minutes
to go, Bo Diabate, Jalen Lowe, two guys that have
missed a lot of time were keys that come back.
What impressed you most about what you saw the Cats
do that day?
Speaker 7 (14:06):
Well, what impressed me the most after I had time
to think about it, was, I know this is a
little different take on it, but what impressed me the
most was the fact was how Kentucky actually played in
the first half is what impressed me. I know, the
second half they got it going, but the fact of
(14:29):
the matter is in some of those games that we
played where we were not making shots, we were down
twenty five points and now you have to make up
for that. If you look at Gonzaga and Loeuville and
some of these other games, we played so poorly to
start the game that by the time the second half
(14:49):
came in a lot of ways. We were out of it. Well,
the fact that we played hard, our defense was good,
and we didn't allow Indiana to build that twenty twenty
five point lead going into the second half gave me hope.
I mean, I said to myself, but then I thought
about it. I said, well, we can't play any worse,
(15:10):
and then Gonzaga bounced into my brain and I said, okay,
let me go to another analogy here. I forgot about
that one. But yeah, the fact that they were there
after at halftime was really what gave me hope that
we would get it together. We're going to start making shots,
not that concern, but the effort and the defense and
(15:32):
all of those other good things that they did in
the second half. That's what I've been waiting to see,
and I was really happy with that.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You've been watching practices is back into July, and I
have to think that a lot of the plan for
this season was built around the skill set of Jalen Low.
They bring him in as their point guard, different kind
of point guard than Lamont Butler or kerk Cries the
last year, so they're going to do some things differently,
and then you don't have him for a long stretch
(16:02):
of time. So is just getting him out there for
longer stretches on a consistent basis going to be what's
going to make the biggest difference in the offense.
Speaker 7 (16:14):
Yes, But you know what I've seen in practice the
last week, the last particularly going back into late last week, Thursday,
Wednesday a little bit, but definitely Thursday, and then early
this week. What what what I've seen is the best
(16:39):
version of Kentucky that I've seen since back in the
summer because we didn't have JQ and the summer we
didn't have Yellow Bick. We didn't but but but that
whole puzzle now put together. Man, these last week or so,
(16:59):
I've just been I've been just so impressed with what
I've seen. And it really had started with just a
team that is playing harder than I've seen this group play.
They finally clicked and you know, I know we're going
to come up on a break here. But it reminds
me of my team back my sophomore year when we
(17:22):
won the NIT We finally got going after going ten
to ten, it just finally clicked and we started doing it.
We won our last ten games of that season because
we finally understood what it was about to play hard
without all those seniors that we lost from my freshman team.
(17:45):
So that's what I'm seeing from this team, and that's
what has me so excited right now.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
We'll pick up on that with a Goose when we
come right back. It is the Leads Report Radio Network.
It's the Lakes Report from the Clark's Pupping Shop studio,
Return Refresh, Refuel at Clark's. We're talking with a Goose,
Chack Givens. It is so interesting that you referenced the
seventy six team your second year at UK. The team
won the ni t and for folks that don't recall,
(18:14):
the NIT in those days was still loaded because that
in seventy six, the NCAA Tournament was just in the
second year of taking a second team from a conference,
so leagues got to send two teams. But now they'll
send seven, eight, nine, more fourteen from the SEC last season.
So all of those teams that are now going to
(18:36):
the NCAA Tournament from you know, three through whatever, are
we're going to the NIIT then. So if you won
the NIT, you were a team that was probably capable
of going to a Final four with a little luck,
and Kentucky won the NIT that year after starting out
zero to two for the season, lost the first three
conference games, had another three game losing streak on Vallentine.
(19:00):
It ended on Valentine's Day to me leave you five
and seven in the league. So yesterday, Goose, I'm working
on some stuff ahead for the holidays. I'm doing this
thing for LAX eighteen and with a shortage of games
here over the next couple of weeks, I was going
to do something on the seventy six team because of
some of the things you're talking about. I found a
headline from the Courier Journal yesterday a story Dave Kendrid
(19:22):
did after you guys beat Charlotte to win it to
win the NIT. He called it the team from nowhere.
UK goes from ten and ten to NIT title. And
here's a quote. It just happened overnight. When you're ten
and ten, you don't expect to go anywhere. We just
got our heads together, our backs were against the wall.
We had to push our way out. You know who said.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
That it sounds like something that I might have said.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
It was Jack Gibbons said that, yes.
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Yeah, yeah, you know it was interesting because we were
ten and ten and Coach Hall had been telling us,
had we you're just not playing hard, and you know,
we had just come off of a team that went
to the final game and lost to UCLA, So we
(20:10):
knew it all. I mean, there's no question the players
we knew it all. Man. And then we went up
to Wisconsin. Then I hope this is not an omen
or anything, but the first game of the year we
went up to Wisconsin. We lost there, man, and we
were looking at each other like, what just happened? Well,
we lost the game. It wasn't something we were used
(20:32):
to and you're right, we lost. And then all of
a sudden, it was ten to ten and we called
a players only meeting after we had lost that tenth game,
and we went in the room and we were calling
each other dogs and we were just on each other
back and coming close to blows. We were, I mean,
(20:53):
you know, I mean, I'm so glad we didn't have
social media because we all might have been locked up
after that meeting, after the way people exaggerate things so much.
But we it finally just clicked. We went in and
we said, Okay, coach, here's the deal. We're gonna you
tell us, and we're gonna do it. And we did,
(21:14):
and yeah, there were some of us who had to
be benched, just like happened with Brandon Garrison, and Coach'll
didn't look at us rest of the game. All of
that stuff had happened, and then all of a sudden,
in practice, we have what was our best practice of
the year. And I saw that out of Kentucky last
(21:36):
Thursday marked today, man, because I thought, where in the
heck has this team been? So we had our best
practice and we went ken and oh now to finish
up the season and to win the championship. And I'm
not saying that's what's gonna happen to Kentucky, but it's
It was so nice the other the other day last
week in practice last Thursday, to see that practice, and
(22:02):
I walked out of the gym thinking, man, we are
gonna be all right, aren't we. And you guess what.
Jaden Quaintance was there. Moe was in practice that day
and Lowe was there. So when you're fully loaded, you're
gonna look good when you have the talent these guys have.
So I'm real excited about the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Man.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
After seeing how they practice. Forget about the game. Yeah,
they beat Indiana, but it all starts in practice for me.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Coach Pope will talk to the media a little later today,
so he'll provide whatever he wants to say in terms
of an update on JQ. So I want to ask
you to upstage that talk about what you're seeing in practice,
but you can talk about just to the flashes you've
seen from JQ, what he could whenever he comes back,
whether it's he's gonna it's gonna happen sometime soon. So
(22:54):
whatever that happens, how could he change this team?
Speaker 7 (22:58):
Well, I don't even have to mention jq's name with
what I've seen in practice because everybody else has been
uplifted and they and they see how I mean, I've
just been impressed with how hard the guy works, how
(23:18):
much he how quickly he gets up and down the
floor and gets back on defense, and that explosiveness either
going to the hole or going after a block has
been really impressive. And he is not even I don't
want to put a percentage on it because that's not
my job, but I know he's going to be better
(23:40):
than what I've even seen thus far. So I'm excited
about the other guys. I mean, I remember that first
time he scrimmaged after practice three on three on one basket,
just going three on three. They were practicing, and not
(24:00):
a guy left the floor. They all sat along the bench,
sat on the bench to watch him work out for
the first time, and then he put on a show
in a half course setting. So I think the way
the other players have been lifted uplifted is probably the
(24:21):
most impressive thing I've seen about him.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Interesting, well, Goose, I appreciate this. So I didn't know
you were going to the seventy sixth thing. It's so
interesting because it does seem like there are some similarities.
That group had some injury issues too.
Speaker 7 (24:35):
Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rick Roby messed his knee up
towards ACL late late in the season, and that's another
reason why we had the team meeting, because Rick now
wasn't going to be able to play, but he could
sure get on us man and he because he's one
(24:57):
of those guys who played hard every day, so he
could definitely get on our case, which he did, and
it was it was it was just just just kind
of a special thing that happened to us. And man,
we started whinning. We won two or three in a row,
(25:17):
and we all kind of like that feeling, you know,
after losing a couple of times when we lost three
games in a row. We won three games in a row,
and we just said, man, this is a whole lot better,
so let's keep it going. And that's kind of what
happened with that team. But again, we weren't practicing hard, man,
we were going through the motions and it And that's
(25:39):
why I'm excited about what I'm seeing in practice lately. Man.
It all starts in practice. And I'm a firm believer
that you play like you practice, and and frankly, our
saults and kind of going through the motions in practice
for a long time, and that's what you were seeing
in some games, and I just it's new. Until we
(26:00):
get better in practice. We weren't going to get better
on the floor, so hopefully we were on our way, Tom,
we got a long way to go. Fortunately, we got
along a lot of getting better we can do. I
would hate to think we get maxed out already, but
we got a lot of getting better we can do. So, uh,
we're now hitded in that direction. So uh, That's just
(26:22):
my little bit that I've picked up on in practice,
and you know, I talked to a little bit a
couple of coaches about it and they kind of agree, Yeah,
we've I'm the way to pick it up. So I'm
I'm looking forward to what's going to happen as we
get better and better and get j Low in better
shape and we get of course Jayden has to get
(26:43):
in better shape, so we've got a lot of room
to improve.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Good stuff there, Goose, Thank you much. See on the
playing tomorrow.
Speaker 7 (26:50):
All right, tom tomorrow, Jack.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Edbans and we'll be right back with Justin Rowland from
Cats Illustrated. On this Thursday edition of The Leach Report,
presented by Bob Kat enterprises quarter before the time of
the hour. It's the Leach Report and we welcome in
Justin Rowland from On three Sports and Katz Illustrated talking
to Little UK Sports. Here we'll begin with some football
Justin and the staff that Will Stein is putting together.
(27:16):
It was last week you were the first to tell
us about coach Bateman coming in from Texas A and M.
That was officially announced yesterday. Joe Sloan did a news
conference and his role as the new offensive coordinator, and
but a few other higher since then. So what do
you think of the overall group he's put together.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
You see that will Stein is an offensive guy, you know.
For Mark Stoops, I think putting together and keeping defensive
staff intact was a little bit easier just because that's
where his credentials are. You feel confident in that aspect
of the apt of the operation. And you see how
other bright offensive minds have wanted to come in. So
Will Steign one of the brightest young offensive minds in
(27:52):
the country. Incredible several year run on some of the
best quarterbacks in the country. Joe Sloan's same thing at LSU.
Jaden Daniels break out year, great year for Garrett mattnus
Meyer in his first year at LSU. He's used to
recruiting the very best quarterbacks players in the country. But
then also at UTSA, Joe Price receivers coach, who's probably
(28:12):
coming down after their bowl game later this month. He's
the associate head coach and the passing game corter at
uts coordinator at UTSA, and that's kind of been a
pipeline job for bright offensive minds. The running backs coach
from Arkansas. Colby Smith was promoted to interim offensive coordinator
when Petrino got the interim head coaching tag and Cutter left,
(28:33):
which at Oregon was brought in to be the run
game coordinator in an off field role. So I think
I'm relatively young, but I don't remember a Kentucky coaching
staff having this much brain trust power in terms of
coordinator sets of eyes on the offense that I remember.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
When Will got the job and was announced, one of
the first questions that came up in the different interviews
and things that he did, was you know you're going
to call the plays? Because he built his reputation as
being one of the premier play callers in the country.
And he said no, he wanted He thought about it
(29:12):
a low. He wanted to be the head coach and
not so he could focus on everything as the game
was unfolding. And it seems to me that if you're
going to do that and give, you know, a step
back at least to some degree from something you do
exceptionally well, he can still be obviously very involved in
the planning, but just in the heat of the moment,
(29:34):
if you're going to step back a little bit from
that it's it ideally would be to somebody that you
have a long relationship with and you know, you know
that you got you got to see things the same way,
and that seems to be what he has in Joe's lan.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
I agree, but we got to be careful, Like they've
been very careful in how they talked about that, right.
They've never come out and said that this is how
the play calling is exactly actually going to operate. And
I think it makes sense that you would kind of
be a little koy about that. You know, other teams
know less about your tendencies. It keeps other people guessing
week to week. There's really no help to being able
(30:13):
to ten all the blame on either the head coach
or the oppensive coordinator if things aren't going well. So
it's kind of delegating for a lot of reasons, I think.
But it's it's a serious question. It's not just something
the media talks about. Because you see how coaches get
more and less involved head coaches in the play calling
from one year to the next based on how they
(30:34):
feel like things are going. And you know, guys like
if will sign is like a Steve Sarkisian play caller.
Then you know, it's tough to take that away from
you because that's kind of one of the reasons that
you hired him. But at the same time, Joe Solon's
a really important hire. That's one of the guys. He
that's the guy presumably he's going to be in Lexington.
(30:54):
He's gonna be my right hand man helping me do
all this stuff. You probably had to had to give
him a lot of responsibility to get him in Lexington.
So I think it's gonna be a good working relationship
and they'll compliment one another well.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Coach Loan talked to the media yesterday. I played one
of the clips about his relationship with will and he
talked about what he said about Willie Rodriguez and incorporating
the tight ends, but he also talked about Cutter Bowley
and had some very encouraging or good good things to
say about what he's seen of Cutter and what just
(31:26):
in the time that they've been together in this new
job for coach Loan, So what do you think the
quarterback situation looks like for next season?
Speaker 5 (31:37):
One thing I'm very confident of is they really seem
to like Cutter Bowley, you know, if you look at
the traits that Joe San, that Sloan, the will Stein
and Joe Sloan are looking for in a quarterback. He's
very accurate, completed a high percent ofage passes. You got
to kind of take a Stoop's discount on all those
numbers for Bowlie last year. And that's no knock on Stoops.
(31:57):
The coaches win different ways, and if you put up
twenty one hundred yards fifteen touchdowns for Mark Stoops as
a red shirt freshman, then that could have translated to
much better numbers in a different system that was maybe
designed to make your quarterback look a little bit better.
So you got to have four quarterbacks in the room.
Joe Sloan said, I'm confident that Brennan Ward will be around.
(32:19):
You know that Stone Saunders has already left. Matt Ponatowski
could still choose baseball. I don't think he will, but
he could still choose baseball. So they're gonna have to
hit the portal. But it's not a situation where it's
like they're going to recruit over cutter. I think he
very legitimately is the future to him to them, and
they they really think that he has a chance to
be a starter next year, A great chance to be
(32:39):
a starter next year, but you're still probably gonna have
to bring in somebody else just to keep the numbers right.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I thought when they early on announced that Mike Hartline
was staying to be I took I don't know if
that was accurate or not. I took that as a
little indication of what they thought about Cutter for taking
the reins of their offense next season, because I think
Mike has got a bright future of this business, and
he was talked about often last season about coach Stoops
(33:06):
how strong the bond was between Mike and Cutter, and
you could see that in practices. And so I thought
the fact that as far as I know, uh, Will
and Mike didn't have any kind of connection like Will
has with coach Sloan, that, uh, that took that as
a sign that, Okay, we want to keep a keep
(33:27):
the guy around who already has a good relationship with
the guy who think we think is going to be
our quarterback no doubt.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
And I mean, that's the kind of thing that's going
to factor in on these decisions on a number of levels.
I've heard the same thing about heartline. You know, behind
the scenes, important guy to having the program no matter
who the head coach is and very very highly thought of.
But you know, uh CJ. Conrad Trance. We don't know
who the tight ends coach is going to be, but
he helped Vince mar recruit Willie Rodriguez, and WILLI is
somebody that they that they really want to keep around.
(33:56):
That's that's one of the guys that you would probably
look at for that position. That's the kind of thing
that you're gonna consider just keeping the roster attack. And
I liked how Sloan talked about the short term goals
and the long term goals. You got to have a
plan for this season, and you got to have a
long term plan, and when those things are really clicking,
you look really healthy. It's like, we feel great about
right now, and we feel good about next year. We're
(34:17):
not worried about what's going to happen in this position
room or that position room. But right now they don't
even know how many guys are going to lose to
the portal. So I think it's kind of just watch
manage relationships and keep the guys you really want.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
If you want to get back to having an offensive
line where you bring guys in and develop them to
some extent anyway, in this transfer portal era, that takes time.
So in the short run they have to find an
offensive line. Now they're losing Jalen Farmer to the NFL.
What do you what do you think they will have?
(34:48):
What do you think they will think? I guess maybe
it's the best way to put it. Of the guys
they already have in the program, young guys, how ready
they are, and then how extensively will they have to
do work in the portal?
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Right, So they brought in Evan Wibberley from Western Kentucky
last year and it was maybe he could start, maybe not.
I think that the expectation from the previous staff is
that Whibberley would be good to go at center, and
I think he should be locked in. Abbaceelm had been
developing nicely and I think he ran into some maybe
(35:20):
some health stuff that I'm not going to get too
much into, but I'm my understanding is he's back on
track and it seems like he's a really interesting piece
for the future at guard. And in the interim when
there was a little uncertainty about that Jaden Clark kind
of emerged as hey, maybe this is better than a
three star true freshman and he's close to be in
rotation ready. Malachi Would played too early two seasons ago
(35:43):
and got a developmental year this year, and they had
banked on him being a starter next season. And that's
going to be a huge lynph into the strategy for
Leftwich or whoever is in that offensive line room, is
Malachi Would ready to be a starter again, because that's
going to determine do we have to get one starting
tackle from the portal or we have we have to
get too I think stray, daring Stray the freshman this
year is probably two years away, so they're going to
(36:05):
have to invest a lot at authensive tackle, probably less
on the interior of the line. But that's why you
want to keep Cutter Bowl around, right because you got
to do a lot of portal work already. You can't
afford to lose the pieces that you think could be helpful.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Justin Rowland Katz Illustrated dot Com and on the on
three Sports Network and next Thursday's Christmas, so we won't
talk then, So justin Happy holidays, Mere Christmas to you the.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Family, Happy holidays, Tom, Thanks a lot quick break.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
We'll be right back to close out this edition of
the Lead Report. Carn brad Haamp has this fantastic deal
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(36:57):
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a good life. Need to stock up on some coffee
for the holiday gatherings at your home. Make it Shufflebean Coffee.
Pick them up today at a Central Kentucky Myers Store
if you're close by. If not, order through Amazon, or
you can get it through the company's website Shufflebean dot us.
Their commitment is to being the best. It is a
(37:42):
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that a new Year's resolution. Wild Cat History Notes presented
by Kentucky road Show Sports Card said Memorabilia This Day,
two thousand and four, Patrick Sparks three free throws to
(38:04):
seal a big Kentucky come back and beat Louisville sixty
to fifty eight at Freedom Hall. What a day Patrick
Sparks had. And congrats to Moda Batte and the folks
at Kentucky road Show for hosting the Toy Drive last night.
Saw some pictures from that on social media from Kentucky
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it tomorrow. The lead report
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