2025-07-16 - BBI

The Best of the BBI with Jon Hale of the HL, UK Network's Christi Thomas, Keith Farmer from BBN Tonight and retired NFL ref Jim Daopolous...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's stick Gabriel taking a little bit of time off,
so we thought we would replace some of the best
interviews from over the last several months. Please enjoy the
best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is
a guy you know from his coverage of UK football
for the Harrow Leader in Kentucky dot com, Mister John Hale.
John a good Father's Day weekend, I trust.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, absolutely, it's a it's good to take a little
breather and make sure to get plenty of football news
and for us last week beforehand, but.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
There was a lot of news. And let us start
with the headliner, which was of course Vince Merriw And
I had your colleague John Clay, who of course made
a headline of his own last week by announcing his retirement.
And I asked him if he was surprised, and he said, well,
John Hale has been hearing some rumors about this for
a while. Had you been hearing stuff like that?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yeah, it had been about three weeks since I first
heard the rumor this was in the works. It was
that week of the See See meetings and destined because
the way it was initially phrased to me was hey
to see where like the source of the events is
going to go to Mark later this week and lay
out this opportunity of will and like kind of give

(01:14):
them one last, one last chance to you to counter
or whatever. And of course we've seen this play out
so many times of Vin's marrow in the back of
my mind, and you, Okay, this is just another another
thing that's going to end with a new contract or
a new title or something like that, and read the
end of it. And then that weekend came and it
was like, well, they didn't talk today, They're going to
talk next week. And then the next week came and

(01:35):
still heard nothing. And so by the end of that
week I was like, I'm assuming this is not happening.
And then the Sunday before it came out, I got
a text that night that said it's a done deal
as long as Vents doesn't back out. I thought, well,
that still leaves a fair amount of grace. Maybe it
goes to Mark and they have that final conversation and
everything gets worked out. And then the next afternoon that Monday,

(01:58):
I was trying to track stuff down and had not
heard from anybody in the ESPN report comes out as well,
it's actually happening, So I was. I was surprised to
see it actually get over the line, even after hearing
the rumor for so long. But I had at least
gotten a little bit of a heads up that it
was possible.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Were you? And again, like you said, you had to
ask yourself. It's just just another you know, And kudos
to Viz forgetting offers. I mean, you know, good people.
That happens. But it seems like those balloons were floated
over and over again. But when it all settled into place.
How surprised were you if at all?

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I mean I was, because, like you just look at
it and you say, you know, he's had these opportunitis
before to leave and has never done it. Is he
really going to leave his childhood friend to not only
go to another job, but go to their arch rival
where he's going to be like, you know, roster management
And I had heard the title. The position was not
a position go to. It was kind of a general manager,
you know, assistant associate AD kind of position. And that's

(02:58):
like he was going to be in the roster a part,
which means like his whole job is going to be
recruiting against Kentucky. That's a, that's a huge portion of it.
He's actually going to do that, And especially when it
was dragging out the way it was when I was
your mind, the scene was like, Okay, he's getting cold feet,
He's not gonna end up doing this. So to see
it actually come through, yeah, I was surprised. I mean, uh,
and his comments you know, over the last week publicly

(03:19):
when he's talked, we still haven't really heard from Mark
Stewke's out of the statement they put out that relationship
is very, very interesting, and it seems like Vince is
trying to have it both ways where he wants Kentucky
fans still love him and not be mad at him.
I don't think that's realistic in any way, but it's
going to be fascinating to watch moving forward. What's this means,

(03:39):
you know, as as he goes out and recruits against
Kentucky and he's not been shy about poking over the
years and having done with the rivalry, and how that
there fans embrace him. Let's face at Kentucky's recruiting has
not been very good the last couple of seasons. Their
rosterman has not been great with the results on the field,
so can he get better results at Louis? Was the
philosophy change a Kentucky that kind of led him to

(04:01):
make this decision? Is that going to work? Is that
going to pay off? I wish Mark Stops would have
come out last week and done some interviews, But I
guess the next time we're going to hear from his
sec media day, Yeah, in Atlanta in July, and that's
that's going to be all we want to talk about.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, and the other biggest question is, and at this
end of the interstate it's the biggest question is now,
you know, how will this affect Kentucky's roster management? Will
there be a significant change in the way things are done?
Because you're right, of late, it has not been and
Stoops is admitted as much.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, that to me is the most interesting part because
I think the change has already happened. And I think
that's directly why Vince left because even when I had
heard that the rumor that like he might believing he
was going to be bark one last time, it was specific.
Hold me, it's not about money. Like my understanding is
his salary level was pretty much exactly the same as
his salary here, so it wasn't only more money, but
he wanted that power back in the recruiting process where

(04:59):
he basically they had final say over every player they pursued,
and Mark has not approached it that way, especially over
the last off season, probably the last year. In generally,
you look at that transfer portal class they put together
over the winner and we'll see how it plays out.
I mean, I don't think anybody can tell you for
sure whether it's a good class or a bad class
or whatever, but it's a very different class. So often before,

(05:21):
so many of their transfer targets where guys that Vince
had recruited out of high school and they went to
Ohio State or what Dillabama or wherever, and they didn't
get and then it came back. It worked with Wandell Robinson,
although wandel Stai didn't come here, with Lampohen's not the
offensive coordinator. It did not work with a bunch of
other guys. You know, maybe Chip train and ends up
being good last year if he's not hurt, but he
was hurt, and then even after he was healthy, he
wasn't really part of the offense. So they clearly made

(05:44):
a philosophy change in the transfer class to not do
that anymore, and they had given each of their position
coaches more power to decide who they recruit at their
positions in the high school classes. Obviously, their twenty six
high school classes gotten off to it really really slow start.
I think they're up to the three commitments final that don't
have one going into June, which is kind of unheard of,

(06:05):
and so that part of it had already changed, and
Vince wanted that hour, you know, to kind of have
final say back, and Mark had not given it to him.
So maybe that plays out. That's why I'm kind of
surprised that I've been more out in front of this,
because I think you could have made a very compelling
case to come out and say, hey, the results haven't
been good enough the last couple of years. I have
to put the program first, so we made these changes.

(06:27):
And Vince is my friend, but he has to do
what's best for him, and if he doesn't agree with
the changes, you know, good luck to him somewhere else.
And you maybe could have even won some pr battle
that you've been struggling to win the summer with fans
who want you to make changes, but they couldn't do that.
And they've kind of just had to be reactive to
the whole situation, which is I'm sure frustrating for fans,
But I do think they legitimately had already made changes

(06:49):
in their recruiting approach, which kind of led to this.
Now the questions whether those changes work or not.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And now it's going to be really interesting to see
what happens when these programs, as they often do, go
after the same kid, you know, because I remember when
when I'm a little bit older than you are, but
when Rick Betino got here, he was throwing all kinds
of flowers at Danny Crumb until they clashed over a
recruit and then it got really sour. So I'm curious

(07:17):
about that, you know.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, And like that's a fascinating part of this too,
because obviously Jeff Brohm has been so good recruiting in
the city of Wolversvie in particular, dating back to his
days at Purdue in Western Kentucky to a lesser extent
before that, but we had made such a big deal.
He was the twenty nineteen class when Vince went into
Louisville and like took over a recruiting there and had
such success and got all these four four star guys

(07:40):
from louisvill with five star guy in one case, and
we made such a big deal by it. But when
you look back in hindsight, none of those guys really
panned out. JJ Weeber was the only guy they got
Guibile in that stretch who was even a starter. The
rest of them all left before their eligibility was up,
and JJ's career didn't really pan out the way that
we thought it was early in his career because the

(08:01):
injuries and so like, that really didn't work. They're in
state recruiting. In the last two or three years, they
have not gotten star players from in state, and that's
not Vince's fault necessarily. They got the best players in
the state just kind of whoo who was available in
those years. But there in state recruiting, this current class
globe was already cleaned up. Or they got Vince. Maybe
that was the philosophy change because it hadn't worked recently.

(08:23):
They do have young guys in there, you know, freshmen
coming into freshman year this year their second year on
campus from both Kentucky and Ohio that men's recruited who
maybe turned into stars. But those pipelines had not been
nearly as as successful the last couple of years as
they were for most of Vince's tenure here. And so
that's that's interesting to see. Are they is that because

(08:44):
they were getting different players, they weren't getting as good players.
Is the talent just dried up? But my understanding is
the high school class in Kentucky, the junior class now
is like one of the best in the state in
a long time. Like that's going to be a huge
deal with will gets all those guys in Kentucky doesn't
but they also have to pan out, which has not
been the case recently.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well that's what I wondered about the last few classes.
You know, how many kids from the city of Louisville
have become productive D one players any idea?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I mean, not a ton, because Kentucky was getting all
the highest ranked guys in those classes, and it wasn't
like they were just getting the best of what was available,
like they were legitimately in the one class with Taju
Weaver and Jared Casey and t k Krums and like
Shaun Kell Night Golf. I mean there was like four
or five four star recruits in that class based on
all of the free one sites and just none of

(09:33):
them really panned out. And so that you know, maybe
the recruiting websites were wrong, maybe something else happened. Maybe
in this constant era of constant you know, roster turnover,
they didn't stay around long enough to developed somewhere. I
don't know, but like that part of it has not.
It just never paid out the way that we hyped
it up on signing day. So it will be fascinating
to see if Louisville has more success with those guys,

(09:54):
assuming they're getting them down Tech's not.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, And I remember Taj Crumes was supposed to be
the answer, right and it just you know, along with
the other guys. And I'm not knocking a kid, but
just here, it just didn't pan out. He is John Hale,
other Hara of Leader covers Kentucky football, and we'll come
back and talk more with John. On the other side
of the break. You're listening to the Best of the
Big Blue Insider. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the

(10:20):
Best of the Big Blue Insider. We're talking with John Hale,
beat writer for The Hero of Leader covers Kentucky football,
among other things. One of the other bits of news
about assistant coaches was an extension of the contract for
Eric Woolford, who coaches the offensive line, which has been
one of the most highly criticized elements of this team
over the last two or three years. Did that surprise you, John,

(10:42):
or did you hear about a job offer or you know,
how did that go down?

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah? Yeah, that's another one where I think they need
to do a better job of coming out publicly and
explaining what's going on. Like I have a fair amount
of sympathy from Mark Stoops this offseason in terms of
public messaging, because the people who are out and think
that the ship is sinking, nothing you say over the
offseason is going to change their mind. Right, go out
and win games. So I understand that part of it.
But there are still casual fans who are giving you

(11:08):
the benefit of the doubt and maybe aren't on Twitter
all day long or whatever. Those fans like Vince Merrill
leaving the Wolford extension like that, those are the kind
of news that resonates to those fans, and you've got
to explain a little bit more. I am assuming I
have not been told this. I haven't got it confirmed.
I just don't see a scenario where they give Eric
Wilford an extension or any assistant an extension this offseason
without some other school trying to hire them. So my

(11:31):
assumption is somebody tried to hire him, and regardless of
the results last year, they think he's a really good recruiter.
They clearly gave him full autonomy to rebuild this offensive
line the portal over the winter. They apparently like what
he did there, and so they've kind of made their
bed there in terms of, like, if we're going to
get this fixed, it's going to be Airic Wolfer who
does it. And so at that point, if you believe

(11:51):
in him that much, you can't you can't really have
another offensive flying coach turned over and start from scratching
in the summer. So you got to do what you
can to keep them. And so if it took him
in extension and one hundred thousand dollar rays to keep
them from whatever school came and pursued him, that's the
decision you made. Maybe it's the wrong decision in the
long run, but I understand why they would do that,
But they need to come out and tell us that.

(12:12):
So I mean, like come out and explain what's going
on there and maybe people will understand a little more.
I actually don't. I mean one hundred thousand dollar rays.
I know it's gotten a lot of attension. I wouldn't
read too much into that at all. That's just how
these contracts work. When you give a guy an extension,
the salary goes up by about that amount every time.
So that's is what it is. The extra year is
more interesting because they have I think five assistant coaches

(12:35):
who are only signed through next season, and normally they
don't let those contracts get down to the final year
unless there's an obvious like maybe this guy's not good enough,
not going to come back, and like Brad White's only
got one more year left, and Chris Collins, who they've
promoted to convinciquary. Unless you only got one more year,
normally we would see those guys getting extended by nail

(12:56):
and the fact they haven't done that seems to be
a clear reflection of where the pro is right now.
So since they made it. The exception with Wolford, that's
got to be because somebody came and tried to get him.
You know, let's hear a bit about why that happened.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Now in a situation like this where you know, this
is such a critical year following such a disappointing year,
really a span of three but ultimately you know, four
and eight, you know, you've got to think stability is key,
so you know, get these guys taken care of. But
on the other hand, you've got the house settlement to

(13:29):
deal with, You've got all kinds of budgetary challenges coming up.
You wonder if that's all part of the pie.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, yeah, absolutely, I mean that was the other
news that came out last week is with their revenue
sharing and they're going to operate at a deficit the
next two years, which we know the Kentucky's Athletic Department
has been financially independent for almost twenty years now at
this point, so like that is a new thing. They're
taking a loan from the university to cover that, and
then an additional one hundred and ten million dollars loan

(13:56):
from the university to finance these facility improvements that Kroger like,
all of that speaks to a finances are a big deal,
but also be like they have to find a new
way to get revenue and control expenses, and the fact
that all of these first this first wave of facility
announcements they did, or all at Kroger Field, tells you
that football is really really important to making that work.

(14:17):
Like they have to be able to make the revenue
off these new luxury suites at football whatever. This entertainment
district outside of the stadium ends up looking like they
have to get revenue from that to survive or to
at least thrive in this new environment where you're going
to spend twenty and a half million dollars every year
in revenue sharing, and so part of that is definitely
controlling expenses. But they have not laid people off. They

(14:39):
have not cut salaries and ask coaches to give money
back like we've seen at other schools. Like they are
spending money to make money, and it's almost all in
football right now, so that they got to get better
results too.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
They haven't cut sports yet either. I mean, other universities
are doing a way with the so called minor sports,
non revenue sports, and that's that's to be happening more
and more, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Absolutely, And Mitch maartnheart his like mine. He keeps saying,
is like we want to keep our family whole. It's
the same thing he did during COVID when we were
seeing layoffs and cuts everywhere else. Like, that's very important
to him. To his credit, i'd, you know, give him
a lot of a prose for that, because you know,
those people who come to school to play soccer and
whatever else, like, it's important to them and I understand
why you do it. But the finances are what they
ought at some point, and to make this work, they're

(15:23):
going to have to find a way to generate more revenue,
which is the hope with these luxury suites and some
other things, and that depends on football being good enough
to sell his tickets.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah. Yeah, the Champions blueboard that will oversee UK athletics.
What do you know about it? And how do you
feel about that?

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
It's interesting. I mean I still keep there's got to
be more to the whole LC thing than we have
figured out yet, because to me, it just seems a
little bit like, uh, just shuffling things around behind the
scenes for some reason that I had yet to see.
They keep saying more flexibility and get out of some
university like red tape that maybe was holding them back.
But we have not seen an example yet of something

(16:03):
they can do with this board, with this setup that
they couldn't do previously. Like even the facilities they announced
last week still voted on them the same way they
did before, still got the loan from the university that
they would have needed otherwise, the one accepted that might
be the board. They want to bring in people with
outside expertise and pro sports that can consult and advise
them on how to do this. And the three people

(16:24):
they announced. Jacob Tanney, and we know has this illustrious
history both playing at Kentucky, playing in the NFL, and
now is a guy who advises professional athletes on their money,
so that's an important part of it. Shannon Arvin, the
president's CEO at Keenland, has been there while Keenland is
undergoing their biggest renovation since the track opened in terms

(16:45):
of building some new seating and restaurants and the new paddock,
like that's going to be helpful for them. And the
third guy, Chris Sittings in Prindeville, was an executive that
Fanatics recently was very involved in that nil space and
their college licensing program. Amran a licensing company before that
Kentucky was a client of so he clearly has expertise
in that space. It will be fascinating to go to

(17:07):
these meetings and see like how active those three members
of the of the board are and how much say
they actually have. You know, I assume it's not just
going to be window dressing where you put them on
the board to get a headline and then they don't
actually do anything. But right I still don't think we
have a lot of a lot of information yet about
how that's going to actually work and what they're going
to do. And the next year, my understanding, is going

(17:29):
to be kind of a transition period where they're figuring
that out themselves. But they're going to start meeting soon
and we'll find out.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
Well, and the season is going to be on top
of us before we know. We've talked before about how
vital this one is, and I've talked to more than
one person about the fact that Toledo the opener, is
the typical it's going to be the typical MAC team
that comes in here thinking it can win, planning on winning,
not just coming down to pick up a check.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
You know, Yeah, I mean, they got a bunch of
people coming back and they beat two Power five teams
last year. Yeah, I mean, so they have full confidence
that they can come win this game. And Kentucky absolutely
is not in a position where they can overlook that team,
especially with so many new players, like over half the
roster will be playing for Kentucky for the first time
this fall. Have no idea what to expect from that.

(18:18):
There will certainly be I think even if they're if
they exceed expectations, there will be some growing pains as
they figure it out. And having that game week one
is a perfect trap scenario where if something doesn't go right,
so they have to be locked in immediately, because losing
to Toledo is I think a realistic possibility, but also
like an absolute worst case scenario in terms of getting

(18:41):
people to buy in and getting any sort of positive vibes,
it would be as Aspen.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, because you got to all miss next and I
don't even know what they're going to be like, but
they will be an SEC team.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Now, come in with the bigger, faster, stronger guys, and
I'll let you go with this. John, This is fascinating
to me this period right now, because you know, receive
and running backs and quarterbacks. They can go out and
throw the ball around all they want. How do linemen improve,
you know, other than the weight room. How do they
improve as a unit on their own, you know, because

(19:14):
they can't always be under the coach's supervision. If there's
a way to do it, I'd love to know about it.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, I mean, I assume they're trying to work on
that cohesion, which is going to be really important, and
it was good they got all those guys in for
spring to do some of that. But I mean, the
weight room is huge for this group in particular, and
we already heard it at the end of spring, which
I think could be a little bit of a red flag.
But also it's just kind of reality when you recruit
a bunch of transfers from a group of five schools
underline which they did. All those guys are experienced. They

(19:43):
played a ton of college football. The one exception joshua'bron
that left guard from Arkansas, so so that he's played
at this level. The folks, your tackles, the guy you
brought in at center, all of your depth that you
brought in the portal are our small school guys. Yeah,
Bushandon said the last week of spring practice like they
have to hit the away from this ring this summer
to get to the physical nature of the SEC. To

(20:05):
make that adjustment, they needed to put weight muscle on
the summer. And that is going to say. I think
as much as anything about whether this line is good.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Good payoff in the fourth quarter. We'll see, We'll soon see.
We will soon know about this team and John Hale
will cover it for The Hair Leader. Follow him on
exer Twitter at John j O n h L E
Underscore HL. Thank you, sir c down the road, thanks
for having me say with us. Christy Thomas is next.
You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider.

(20:32):
More to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel.
Welcome back to the Best of the Big Blue Insider.
Joining us now is my longtime friend, colleague teammate on
the UK Sports Network as well as back in the
day at WKYT, Miss Christy Thomas, who anchors our pregame coverage,
also works UK women's basketball. We shall discuss both here

(20:55):
on The Big Blue Insider. And if there's never an offseason, Christy, you.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Know that right, Yeah, no, never. I've got two kids
in baseball and softball and that trust me, those seasons
are year round. Two.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Yeah, and you post quite frequently about your kids, which
is great watching them, just you know, knowing you when
you were single and now you've got kids who were
out winning ball games. It's it's so much fun. But
I've got to think you are as stunned, I would
imagine as the rest of the Big Moon Nation with
the word that Vince Merriw was changing addresses. Am I right?

Speaker 4 (21:29):
Yeah? You know, I think rumor mill is always pretty wild,
and I think at the end of every football season
there's always some kind of talk about, well, people are
going to go here, so and so is interested and
so and so, and you know that kind of thing. So,
you know, Vince's name has been tossed around for years
about going places and being courted places and that kind
of thing. So I think his departure wasn't necessarily a

(21:50):
surprise as much as where. And that's probably the case
for a lot of us, is that, you know, when
you've been a part of this rivalry for so long
and it you know, really when when the University of
Kentucky becomes a part of who you are and a
part of your identity. You really understand how bitter that is,
isn't how put that can be for anybody to swallow.

(22:11):
So I think it wasn't as much wasn't as surprising
he left as much as I was about the location.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
It's going to be interesting to see the impact it
does have though on UK recruiting. But over the last
three years, the years that have clearly been disappointing to
UK fans, and ironically enough, two of those years, you know,
Kentucky's in a bowl game. But now it's all about
as much the transfer portal as it is you know,

(22:37):
wooing the high school kids. So you got to wonder
about the direction now and the effectiveness of UK recruiting
and can they get back to where they were because,
let's face it, Levis comes through the portal, Wandale Robinson
comes through the portal, and some others, But those are
the key guys for the last really great year Kentucky had.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
Right Well, yeah, you know, I think the biggest understatement
of the century could be that we're in the landscape
of college athletics is different. That is so really is
kind of almost silly to even say anymore, because it
couldn't be more true. So that then means that recruiting

(23:19):
is different, everything about it is different. And so sometimes,
you know, I'm a believer that gone are the days
that a coach is going to stay somewhere, Any coach
at any level, within any regardless of where you are,
assistant coach, a position, coach, whatever, where you're going to
stay somewhere for twenty thirty years. Those days are done.
Those days are gone. And I think that's maybe what

(23:41):
we're seeing, what we've seen here is just that sometimes
it just runs its course. Sometimes you've done all you
can do at a certain place, and then it's time
to move on. And I think that's what we're seeing
here with Vince is that, you know, he did what
he could do. He helped put UK in a really
great position when he could really utilized his skills and

(24:01):
what he did so well as a recruiter, and and
it's now different. And so I think because of that,
it's just time to have a different perspective and a
different face and different person doing that. And that doesn't
mean that he won't go be successful somewhere else. I
think that's fine, you know, So I'm not super bitter
about the departure and about this being different. I think, okay, great,

(24:24):
you he did a great job at that time, was
what Kentucky be did at that time, and now it's different.
So now we're moving on, and you know, and I
don't mind, like if the dynamics are different inside the
building and you know, then sometimes it's just time to go.
Sometimes it's just the right time for everybody to do
something else, and there's nothing wrong with that. So that's

(24:45):
really where I'm at with this, is like, you know,
now it has to be something that's you know, you're
looking for someone and something very different from what Vents
brought to the table when he came on board at
Kentucky years ago.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, and it's interesting too that he goes to Louisville
as basically the GM, not an assistant coach, a positions coach,
even an associate head coach as he was here, not
a recruiting coordinator, but he's the head hon show when
it comes now to the NIL, I guess now he
will still factor into recruiting. This is to me what's

(25:20):
going to be fascinating, even if he's not an off
campus guy. When you get a kid on campus and
Vince Merrill will be one of, if not the first
guy the kid talks to about, you know, your potential
future here at the University of Louisville. And you never know,
the kid the next day or the next weekend might
be in lectioning and having the same conversation with Mark
Stoups and Eddie Grant because they're going to be still

(25:42):
going as they have for decades after the same players.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
Right, Oh, yeah, no question. And you know, and I
think we we've all heard them talk. We've heard him
be in different situations. We've heard him do interviews and
that kind of thing. And you know, I think when
when you do come face to face with him, you
know he's he's a caarag a guy. He's funny, he's
relatable to these kids in a lot of ways. So
you know he does he has something to offer as

(26:06):
far as that goes. But you know, I think to
your point, it will be different. You know, I always
wonder what's the pitch. There's a sales pitch every single
time you're recruiting a kid, right, And I said, I
would love to be in a living room and know
what that sales pitch is from a head coach at
Kentucky or a coach at Louisville or a recruiting coordinator

(26:27):
from Michigan or Ohios. What's the pitch? There's there's always
a pitch to the kid and their parents about why
they should come to or or you know, even consider
coming to that football program. So, you know, I think
I think that would be really interesting to know as
you shift gears now to to a Leville what what's

(26:48):
the pitch? But you know, because sometimes that kind of
stuff can get nasty. There's no I mean, it's happened
in other sports, you knows, as you're recruiting the same kid,
you know, I know back in the day women's basketball,
and you know, it would get really testy and could
get you know, interesting. So I think this could be
so there could be a little of that, you know.
I mean, there's some plenty of animosity to go around.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
For all of us.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
What kind of pitch did they make at Campbellsville to
land you having grown up.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
There's not much of one. I mean, it didn't take much,
as you know, I said, if anything, it was you know,
some of the opposing coaches from other schools said, we
didn't even bother we knew you were going there, so
we didn't you. We didn't even put you on our
list of recruits to even offer you because we knew
that's where you were going.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
So you didn't have to put up with a hard
cell to trying to turn your head.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
No, the heart and cell was. You know, which was
kind of interesting is I was not a Division IE
level player, but I was offered a walk on position
at at Louisville. And you know, that was a situation
for me where I you know that that's great and
I could be really cool, but is it really what
I want? You know, in terms of of of knowing
I'm going to get beat up every day and have

(27:56):
to just give it everything. I got from it, like
a very rooty situation, you know, where you end up
one day, you know, maybe making a play in a
game and you know, because you got in for about
thirty seconds and I'm like, no, that's that's not really
what I'm when I'm after. So that was it was
a no brainer.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
You would have been the kid who when you stood
up to go in the crowd, Oh they're putting in
the subject exactly. I mean that's great for some, but
not for you. Uh Before before I hit the break. Uh,
the man who has been chosen to coach tight ends,
Derek Shay, has been on staff. But what I think
more importantly, he already knows Bush Hampden's offense. And I

(28:33):
bring that up because looking ahead, Christy, this is the
first season that ham Dan will have had the full
year cycle to work with everybody on the roster and
get that offense familiar. You know how much hope does
that give you for the coming year.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
Well, it does give me a good bit of it,
just because I think we're we're in a position with
Kentucky football that we've not seen this where we've had
that kind of consistency with offense. We've been wanting it
and we hoped for it, but we've just not seen
it and it just hasn't happened. And I think there,
you know, that becomes they're you know, unrest, I think
in the locker room, and you know that's where you,

(29:10):
I think, run the risk of really losing us to
the transfer portal when you just can't have some consistency
to really start to build something. And and that's what
we're finally seeing. And I think once you can kind
of figure out the offensive line again and you can
kind of get that back on track where we are
used to seeing that level of play. You can really
get some consistency at a quarterback position and you know,

(29:32):
different things like that. All of that can really come together,
and it just takes time and you have to be
able to give it time. And you know, we're we're
not a patient world, that's for sure. But but I
think that that that will certainly be beneficial to to
everybody involved in the program, that there's finally you know
that this is a guy. They know this is a guy.

(29:54):
This Shay. I don't know much about him. You know
he was involved, but not in a real high profile
role or situation with the program. Third, it'll be interesting
to see how that comes together and it'd be a
totally different perspective.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
We're talking to Christy Thomas. She anchors our pregame coverage
of UK football on the UK Radio Network. We'll come
back and talk to UK women's basketball. Christy of course
works with Jeff Pacarel on the UK streaming broadcast. You're
listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider More
to come here on six point thirty WLAP. Hey, it's
Dick Gabriel and you're listening to the best of the
Big Blue Insider. We're talking with Christy Thomas, broadcast partner

(30:30):
for jeff Pacarel on the SEC Network streaming channel for
UK women's basketball. Before we talk about the upcoming season
in this roster, Christy, this is going to be a
season minus Georgia Aymore. And we only got to see
her for one year, but clearly she had the impact
I think that Kenny Brooks needed and wanted. And what

(30:52):
do you think this team's going to be like minus
one of the best players in America.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
Well outside of her, which was just so impressive and
so fun to watch and actually has me very disappointed
that we only had her for one year. Is is
really her leadership this She was a young lady who
just had such a presence on the floor. Was really
a calming presence. I think she never got rattled, she
never got overly emotional in a negative way. It was

(31:21):
always in a very positive way. She's somebody who knew
Kenny Brooks better than anybody else on the floor. So
I think that to me becomes so crucial in terms
of what you're missing without her on the floor. You know,
listen she can put in you know, twenty six points
a night, and you know, tennisis and all those are

(31:42):
wonderful things. But when you take on those intangibles like that,
it made her so incredibly valuable to this team. So
I think it definitely changes the dynamic. I think it
now forces some young ladies to step up in a
way that maybe they haven't normally, Like a Clara Strack
is not a super vocal kind of leader and player,

(32:02):
but she may kind of, you know, be forced into
a situation like that where she's really got to take
on more of that. But I think that that will
be the biggest unknown. You know, when you have the
transfer portal so readily available and players that you're bringing
in like that, that is going to be the single

(32:22):
biggest question mark for Kentucky is you know, who can
kind of move and listen? Everybody needs to stop thinking
who's going to be the next Georgia Amore because there's
not one. So I mean, it's it's not that's not
the question, it's it's who can run the offense? Right
now we're looking at not who's the next Georgia Amore
and who does what Georgia does? There isn't anyone. So

(32:43):
it's going to be who can run the offense efficiently
to keep this team on that winning playing field here
where where they're they're you know, Ken, he brought him
back last year, so they've got to stay there, and
then that'll be the question.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Well, he did bring in to Morgan, the point guard
from Georgia Tech. I have no idea what her games like.
You cannot You're right, you cannot expect her to be
another Georgia Amoor. But you know she started ninety five
games and has scored twelve hundred points and you know,
as average five assists per games, so you got to
think she knows a little something about playing point guard.

(33:20):
Plus having come from the ACC, you know, Kenny Brooks
knows about her.

Speaker 4 (33:26):
That was a great get for them. I mean, there's
no doubt about it. She brings a little more size
at five nine, so she's got a little more size
than what Georgia had. But there there was no question.
You had to have somebody with some experience, somebody who
is a little older be able to put this on
that you know, this team is really you know, I

(33:47):
say on their shoulders that that that's not fair. I
don't think that's really a fair assessment. But somebody who
could come in and have some confidence about themselves to
say I can do this. We need you need me
to run the team. That's what I do. I'm a
point guard. I run, you know, and I can run
this offense. So you know, I think she is a
great get for them in that way, you know. But
again it's a matter of coming in and you got

(34:08):
to learn everybody. You're learning Kenny system, You're learning what
he wants, how he wants things. But you're also learning
Lexington and the university and a new place to live
and classes and where am I going and where can
I go eat? And you know all those things. So
it's a lot for anybody that's coming in as a
as a first year player here at any school, not
just Kentucky. But I think that was a big get

(34:30):
for them. But I'll tell you this, I am more
excited than anything about watching the two young ladies who
were injured last season, and that's Jordan Obie and Dominica Parova.
They by all accounts were or could have been starters
and so and when you lose them, and they've got
great size, they can shoot, they can do so many

(34:52):
different they're athletic, they're long, lots of things that these
young ladies can do, and they were out all season
long due to injury. So they'll both be back and
I am so excited to see what they can do
because there was so much talk about them going into
last season as Kenny came on campus. So everybody watch
out for those two. They're going to be really fun
to watch well.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
And not only that, by default it means more depth,
which is something that really affected Kentucky last year. Lack
of depth.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Oh, they just didn't have it. Yeah, I mean, you
know I said that there were every single time they
took the floor and they played, I just kept thinking,
don't get into foul trouble. Just no silly fouls, right,
I mean, and that became an issue. I mean, like
for Clara Strack, you know, she was a very aggressive
type of player that you know, would get saddled with
some fouls early. And I kept thinking that about Georgia
aymore like, please just don't pick up two early fouls,

(35:42):
and even when she did, she often still played, you know,
in the first half. So yeah, you've got to have
that depth to be able to play as aggressively and
physically as you need to play in the SEC. You've
got to have some depth because people are going to
get in foul trouble. You're going to get beat up
and banged around, and you've got to have some depth,
and they death will have that this year.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Well, let's talk a little bit about one of the
other stars they have coming back, and it's Clara Strack
and uh a tremendous defensively, but they're going to need
more offense. I guess out of her this coming sit,
I guess they need a little more of everything. Right.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Well, she she is an all everything player. I mean,
this is a young lady who, to your point, can
defend and can also score. But we saw last season
that she's an excellent passer. She sees the floor so well.
She can dribble, you know, she can. She easily can
bring the ball up the floor and Kenny Brooks has
no problem with that. So tianni Key's no different. I mean,
she's also one of their post players at six four

(36:37):
that many times rebounds the ball goes the distance. I've
seen her take it coast to coast and go all
the way up for a layup and no one stops her.
So but that that versatility is really what Kenny is
after and what he likes with his offense is you know,
being able to do lots of things, like different things
like that. And you know, Claire was somebody that I

(36:58):
think really surprised me in that regard about how well
she passed the ball, how well she sees the floor,
and so I think that's a really fun thing to
keep an eye out for her too, to see, you know,
she will just continue to get better. And she's a
hard worker. This young lady isn't doesn't shy away from
the hard work. So, yeah, a little bit more of everything, right,

(37:22):
I mean, when you lose twenty some points a game
or you know, eighteen points a game with Georgia Amore,
you've got to have a little bit more of everything
from somebody like that. But again, I go back to
this idea of her being a leader. They're going to
have to have more of that. More than anything is
her leadership and her vocal leadership, and you know so

(37:43):
so I think it'll be really interesting to watch her
kind of move into a bigger role like that and
to watch who else emerges. I mean, that's always a
fun thing as well too.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
Oh yeah, and the kid you talked about who missed
last year, those were bigger kids, right, I mean that's
more size in a league where you've got to have size.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
That's they're both six to one. And what I love
about you know, Jordan Obie's got some real personality and
I think she'll be a lot of fun for fans
to watch and get to know. You know, is a
few times that that I've interacted with her, been able
to see and interview with her. She's got a lot
of personality and she really understood she's again older. She
said she's going to be that graduate senior. So she's

(38:24):
a little older and got some years on her and
understands being around a little while. So she's going to
be a lot of fun. I think she's somebody that
could easily be turned into a fan favorite.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
She is Christy Thomas and before long you will hear
her coverage of UK football. She hosts our pregame coverage
along with uh Logan Stenberg. I'm sitting there looking at
his picture, Logan Stenberg and Jeremy Jarman.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
He'll be mad, He'll be bad. You forgot it.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Well, you needs to come back on the show. I
keep trying to get him back there, so I didn't
forget him. I'm looking right at him. But anyhow, it
won't be long before our football coverage begins. Thank you,
young lady.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
Thanks having me.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
You're listening to the best of the Big New Insider.
Our number two is next here on six thirty w LAP.

(40:54):
It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Our number two taking a little time off, so please
enjoy the best of the Big Blue Insider. Joining us
now a long time friend of the Shower, Buddy Keith
Farmer from BBN Tonight l Ex eighteen earlier today, covering
a story putting a feature together at the Chris Loft
and Darius Miller camp over in Maysville. They've been doing

(41:16):
this for two or three years now, right came in.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
Shoot more than that, man, I feel like they've probably
got some guys that have played up, even some ladies
that played up in the high school.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
By now, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
I'm interested in, you know, and just finding out so
much more about him and seeing about this camp because
they've done it for a long time and obviously well
known names that are from the Mason County area, so
it's really cool to see them still doing this.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Well, I'm older than dirt, as you know, but I
remember being over there for both players, one then the
other when they committed. And I remember Darius committing to Kentucky.
And I remember one of the questions somebody put to him,
because he was a really good you might recall it,
it's really good football player receiver, and yeah, somebody asked him,
you know, are you going to try to play football now?

(42:02):
He said, I'm tired of going.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Over the middle, And I think he made the right joy.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yeah, oh yeah, national title, state championship, and a pro
title over in Germany. And then Chris Lofton was a
great high school player, but he just didn't have many
D one programs interested in him. And we had heard
you he was looking at Georgetown College and then Tennessee
had a kid back out of a Schollie and Buzz

(42:31):
Peterson liked Chris a little bit, said okay, how about it.
And now that's one of the greatest success stories in
the history of the SEC, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (42:40):
Yeah, And I think just people thought he couldn't have
his size get his three pointers off and he taught
everybody no big deal, right that it was easy to do.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Man, I think does he still hold the record for
three pointers that at Tennessee. I'm not sure.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
If not, he's got to still be top three, I
would think, you know not. But yeah, amazing, And you.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Know, the the great thing that happened for him. I
know a lot of people later should have gone to Kentucky,
but because he went to Tennessee, he got to play,
and he wouldn't. He didn't was not going to get
the minutes at Kentucky. That he got to Tennessee right
away because Tennessee was struggling. But the other thing he
did came in This is a good lesson for the campers.
And I'm sure they'll hear about this if they haven't already.

(43:22):
He I'm told he lived in the weight room and
when he wasn't doing that, he was getting up five
hundred shots today. And look look how it served him.
Look what he turned into. So he is one of
the great stories, isn't he?

Speaker 5 (43:35):
Because of his work ethic and because he wanted to
prove people wrong and so hated that it was Tennessee,
but at the same time loved the kid and you
know what he became and all of that, and doesn't
matter where it was.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
I mean, you know, he.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
He taught people, especially campers. Now, hey, you put in
the work ethic, you got a chance to make yourself
special no matter where you go.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah, especially as a shooter. I mean, if you're not
seven feet tall, that's one thing. But yeah, uh, you know,
if you're he's not the biggest kind of world. But
his mechanics were great. Uh he didn't have Darius Miller size,
but but he sure has the dead eye. Anyhow. Yeah,
in the middle of all this, we get the news
about Vince Merrow. A lot of chatter about that over

(44:16):
the last twenty four hours. He had flirted with jobs before,
he had flirted with Louisville before. Uh, that said, were
you not totally stunned when he took the job, because man,
when you see it on the internet and you know
what goes now for in black and white, it's pretty sobering,
isn't it.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 5 (44:35):
I think you know, it felt like we had passed
all that you said, Like you said, there have been
head coaching jobs. There have been tithes in jobs, you know,
different conferences, different schools, and it just felt like one
of those that we were past that and that he
was just gonna ride ride it out with stoops And
so I was a little bit shocked this time because

(44:56):
I didn't I just didn't feel like it was ever
going to happen.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
U so hard to hear it.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
And hopefully it doesn't have as big an impact as
we think it could on the Kentucky program, because you know,
he really brought a lot of great players in and
we'll see where Kentucky goes from here.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
But of course, recruiting has changed so much over the
last few years. I just got done talking to Tom
each about this. It's maybe more so now the transfer
portal versus going into a kid's home and asking mom
and dad to you know, let us have your son
for four years, when in fact it maybe you sure one,
two or three years. Do you think that had I mean,

(45:36):
there's no way of knowing. We're speculating, but basically, schools
are having to change ways they do business.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Now, right, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
And I think at the same time, one of the
things that he was good at for Kentucky was hey, Okay,
you're going to this school for now, but don't forget
us because you know, we're here if you want to
come back, you know. And I feel like he was always, yes,
having those relationships that you could always count on a kid.

(46:05):
Maybe you know, hey, three years down the road, I
want to go back to Kentucky because they're they're still
maybe not in contact trying to recruit me, but hey,
they've always been so nice and there was never a
burned bridge, you know, with that, and so I think
that might be something. I don't think they'll totally miss
that because I feel like Kentucky has a program has

(46:25):
been good about that, but certainly Merrill was good about
building those relationships.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Well you think Wandale was the best example.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
Yeah, yeah, I think so, I totally do, because you know, hey,
you go off to Nebraska, but we're not gonna, you know,
bad mouth here. We're just gonna, you know, wait on you.
And if you want to come back here, we're waiting
on you. And sure enough it happened, he came back
and you know the rest of history.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, and even more. And I'm sure through the years
coaches have said, well, if you ever change your mind
or something happens, But now with the portal, that's uh,
that's going to be more prevalent than we're talking with
Keith Farmer of LAA eighteen and BB in tonight. We're
moving into that period of year came in and of
course earlier today your colleague Maggie Davis was over there

(47:11):
talking with us at the otega Oway Brandon Garrison gathering.
And as you know, in the summertime, that is manna
from heaven, you know, to get something like that in June, July,
August or whatever. But tell me about the challenges of
putting that show together, BB in tonight. And this isn't
the first summer you've done it, and you know, again

(47:32):
just having to fill the time and make it entertaining.

Speaker 5 (47:35):
I feel like, you know, really that first year we
were like, oh boy, what are we going to do
in the summer, you know, and it just seemed like
we always had something pop up. I don't know what
it would be now, I will say there's occasional times
when you get into like July, right before the SEC
football meetings, you know, come up and the coaches and

(47:58):
the players go there, there's just a little bit of issue.
They are trying to find something going on. But as
you know now, I mean, you know, the basketball team
reported June fifth, I think it was, and you've got
you know, football players, you know, reporting pretty soon if
not to come in and just work on their own
or you know a lot of them don't leave. So
we always seem to find, you know, things to talk

(48:20):
about and stories to tell. It just gets a little
more creative, you know, with it and makes it a
little more difficult. But we certainly have a couple of
those days where it is kind of tough, you know,
finding some things going on.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
But yeah, but there's also I think more cooperation or
whatever between the schools and the media because with social
media now, I think universities, not just UK but everywhere
realize the value of getting their message out, you know,
every week, every day, every of the entire year, you know,

(48:55):
because if we don't do it, somebody else is going
to do it. So let's let's go stuff out, yeah,
on social media. And that can lead to people like
you and me calling up and saying, hey, let me
talk to this person of.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
This coach right yeah, and like even you know, we
haven't done it yet, but there's a chance we might
go talk to Tony Neely. Now the sports information Direcord
just went into the coast sidea hall fame. I believe
it was right, and you know, we did it when
Susan Lax went in. So again, you get a little
more creative and you find those stories that maybe we
would be telling during the regular school year. And obviously

(49:29):
we have a fondness for those two and so maybe
we would be telling those two stories. But still, I
think it's so cool to be able to just branch
out and show a little bit more about what all
goes into the University of Kentucky athletics department instead of
just the you know, football, basketball, And that's what's been
fun about it.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Well, and that's what's great about BBN tonight is you guys.
I mean you were all over the track. Bet you know,
you've got the airtime, therefore you need to fill it.
But that gives you the freedom to go out and
to cover the other sports, women's sports, you know, softball, everything.
So again, it's a shameless plug for your show, but
I do appreciate it so well.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
And I will say this real quick.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
It's like one of those things where before you know,
I'm getting three minutes and we'd go to a Otago
away Brandon Garrison press conference and you might hear just
a few sound bites problem about something seconds, but now
we can tell so much more. You know, we have
that half hour, we could we could spend a whole
first block talking about those two guys and different topics

(50:30):
that they want to bring up. So that's what makes
it fun is to hear more.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah, is Keith Farmer. We'll come back and talk to
you UK football and other stuff on the other side
of the break, and you're listening to the Best of
the Big Blue Insider. It's Dick Gabriel. Welcome back to
the Best of the Big Blue Insider. We're talking with
Keith Farmer. Came in of course with la X eighteen
and BBN tonight and thanks to our man Corey Price,
we know eighty one days until the start of UK football.

(50:57):
It's going to be on top of us before we
know it. And with that, we just talked earlier about
Vince Merrill leaving. But it is so vital for this program,
this team to get off to a good start this
coming season with a real challenge Toledo. We have no
idea yet much about their roster with the portal and
all that, but we know they were good last year.

(51:19):
They'd beat Mississippi State, they'd beat Pittsburgh. They have done
damage before. MAC teams have come down here and played well,
and then right after that is Old miss So on
this pivotal Mark Stoops year, Keith, this could not be
a greater challenge, am I right?

Speaker 3 (51:34):
One?

Speaker 5 (51:35):
I mean, you know, we'd like to believe that some
of these portal guys they've brought in are the ones
that are going to help get it turned around. Kind
of we saw in the last couple of years where
they had some portal guys that maybe didn't pan out
the way we thought. But I think they've addressed the
situation with certain position groups that we hope will we'll
get that done. But we're not going to know until

(51:57):
we get into training camp, until we get into that
first game and see how they're gelling together. Especially I'm thinking,
you know, along the big Blue Wall one of the
places that we.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Want to see, you know, fixed, and.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
I believe from what I've seen that they have those
guys that can get it done. But again, in this
day and age of the portal you just don't know
how guys coming in for one year or you know
guys that come in expecting maybe two years and only
give you one year.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
You just don't know how they're going to gel right
so quickly.

Speaker 5 (52:26):
So hopefully they're working on that right now with themselves
in the summer. A little bit of coaching I think
is allowed now.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Is that right in the summer.

Speaker 5 (52:34):
I don't know if I'm seeing that corrector now a
little I know exactly. I don't know if that's just
in like a room situation where they can go over
things or what. But in any case, I just want
to see some of those situations develop. You know, it
looks like they've got the pieces, but as you said,
it's going to have to come a lot quicker this

(52:54):
year with Old. This coming week two, I think.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
We all stipulated Old line play is going to be
the key, and there are obstacles for the defensive line
as well. I'm really curious Caman about the receiver room
because minus beain Key, minus Baring Brown, those guys who
can to rup for huge plays at any moment of
different types. I want to see now where the where

(53:18):
they come from. And I'm I'm not convinced that it's
not going to happen I really think that that might
be a pleasant surprise for this team. Maybe I'm whistling
past the graveyard. I don't know, what do you think.

Speaker 5 (53:28):
I think having Jimore Acklin come back, I think that
was huge. I think just to have that voice in there,
especially in year two of Bush Hampton's offense, I believe
that's you know, so key and so big for them
to have a guy that knows what's going on that
can teach it on the field. And I believe that

(53:49):
there's a chance, you know, I like the quarterback room,
whichever one they go with. I really like the different
options that they brought in at wide receiver that can
you know, small or bigger, faster, you know, different, different
guys have those different characters. Yeah, and can make this
a fun offense to watch if it again all comes

(54:10):
together and they're all ready to take on bush Hamden's
offense and learn it quickly.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah. And you know, you look back at last year
when Hamden got here and inherited you know, this player,
that player, the O line, that struggle guys had to
learn his terminology. Just as Mark Pope talked about year
one to year two. I'm really curious to see this
bush Hampden offense in year two, but some of the
guys who have the background with it. Now a lot

(54:38):
of guys won't, but including O linemen. But they're mature
and I have a feeling they'll be able to pick
up on things fairly quickly. You know.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
And and you know, a lot of times you hear
guys say this is a similar offense to something I did.
It's just the terminology, and so, you know, I think
they can pick up on that pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
I will say this. I talked to one guy who.

Speaker 5 (55:00):
Has now departed through the portal, and I said, what
do you think about bush Hampton's offense?

Speaker 3 (55:04):
And he's like, oh, I loved it.

Speaker 5 (55:05):
He said, I really liked it, and I thought it
could be successful. So I think that there was not
any of that. Like, if anybody's trying to say it
wasn't a good offense or guys didn't catch on or
this or that, I think that's wrong. And I think,
you know, again, now he's had a chance. He came
in so late that I think now he's got a
chance to really, you know, put his finger on the

(55:28):
offense and make.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
It what he wants.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
And they went to the portal, and he's got the
players probably that he wanted to get and that he
thinks fits that offense. And so that's why I have,
you know, some beliefs that in year two it can
be something special.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Before I let you go, we're talking with Keith Farmer,
or the sports director at l e X eighteen and
the co anchor co host of BBN tonight, I must
ask you, as a fan of the Black and Gold,
the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know you did, and I talked
to Jeff Drummond yesterday. You got a new quarterback brother
my team to a championship but failed lost four other

(56:04):
conference title game. We should have been in more than
one super Bowl with him. So I will always believe
he underachieved as a Packer, but I appreciate what he
did do. What does this mean do you think for
your beloved Steelers? Playoffs? Deep run?

Speaker 6 (56:20):
What?

Speaker 5 (56:22):
I think that they can smith playoffs and maybe make
it in I don't think they're going to be division winner,
but I was okay, Like at first, I wasn't excited
about him even being an option. When they got Mason
Rudolph back, that gave me hope that okay. Now, I'm
okay with it really, you know, because yeah, because Mason's

(56:44):
been in Pittsburgh, he knows about it. I'm not sure
he ran the same offense before, but he had that
year playing down with the Titans where he had more
experience on the field. So I thought, Okay, if it
comes down to it and Aaron doesn't pan out, then
Mason Rudolph's there and can pick up the flack, or
they can, you know, even just take the option of

(57:06):
going with the rookie and just kind of bring Will
Howard along. So I am better with it now with
the two that they had there. I feel like Rogers
has still a strong arm, and I think he's probably
gonna read the field better than other guys that have
even been in there, and so that gives me some excitement.
And I know he's not going to take a hit,

(57:27):
so there's probably gonna be some thrown thrown, you know,
to no man here or there. But I still think
he's got the arm and I still think he can
read the field. So I think it can gives them
a chance at sniffing playoffs.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
You got rid of a high profile receiver, but you
go ahead and get dk Metcalf who at his best,
I just all was phenomenon and I remember him beating
Kentucky on a catch in the corner of the end
zone in the last play of a game. But yeah,
so at least you'll have a target or two. But correct, Yeah,
who is this guy? I mean, which which Aaron Rodgers

(58:00):
are we going to see?

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:02):
And is he going to be what kind of presence
will he be in the locker room? That sort of thing.
You got to wonder about that.

Speaker 5 (58:07):
Yeah, that's the big key, Yes, I think so, because.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
That that can be the worry.

Speaker 5 (58:11):
You know, if he's not all in on being a
good teammate, then that can make.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
It more difficult.

Speaker 5 (58:16):
I'm actually more worried about running back right now, so
you know which you know, Warren got some playing time,
but he wasn't an everyday back and then you got
a rookie after that. So we'll see how it all
pans out. But I'm I'm a little more excited about it.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Then need to go re sign Benny Snow.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Yeah, that'd be great.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, I mean, and Benny did okay, but then the
next thing, you know, the draft. Now they drafted over
him and Naji was a Najie Harris, Yeah, it was, Yeah,
and then he's gone. So but running backs generally last
about three years in the NFL. So yeah, I don't
know that I'm going to root for your boy. I
really like Mike Tomlins. I mean I do think. Yeah,

(58:53):
I've said before that if he left the Steelers, eighty
five percent of the teams in the NFL would look
it away to hire him. So this is going to
be an interesting mix, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (59:03):
It is it is, Yeah, And you know, Tom has
been a little bit on the hot seat, so we'll
see how. You know, he's kind of sticking his neck
out there as well, taking this chance. So but I
agree with you. I think people would definitely take him
in a heartbeat as the head coach.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
He may be the toughest head coach in the NFL,
so it's hard not to root for him. He is
Keith Farmer of la X eighteen, BBN Tonight. Watch for
him each and every evening and on the both shows
on the News and on BBN Tonight. Came in we
will see you down the road.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Thanks, they appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
You're listening to the best of the Big Blue Insider
More to come here on six thirty WLAP. It's Dick Gabriel,
welcome back to the best of the Big Blue Insider
joining us now on our celebrity Hodline is a guy
I used to actually work for back in the day
when I officiated games at UK and Jim Dappolis went
on the much bigger and better things, went on to

(59:56):
work high school, college and then in the NFL on
the field for eleven years as an NFL referee supervisor
for twelve and now is going in to the Kentucky
NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame along with four other notables.
Ref I couldn't be happier. Congratulations, Well, thank you, Dick.

Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
It's really an awful, great experience. What I'm getting right here.
As we've discussed, this is something that it's just so
humbling to me to be inclusion with these individuals. You know,
words just can't express how thankful I am for this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
I see you every year. We talk quite a bit
on the phone, but I always see you at this event,
and yeah, it's such a great So many great people
show up. If you were from Kentucky and played in
the NFL, or you know, or if you spent a
lot of time in Kentucky and played in the league.
It's great and you got a heck of a class

(01:00:53):
going in Danny Trevathan, Michael Bush, Walt Yurowski and Sam
Gruneisen who played at sant X back in the day
and play pro football. Are you keeping pretty good? Pretty
good company there?

Speaker 6 (01:01:06):
Ref You know, Jick, when when I look at those
guys and I'm thinking, God, how am I in a
group of them? You know they're going to be showing
highlight films of you know, Danny making tackles and Michael
Bush running with a ball, and you know what am
I going to be doing? You know, I haven't thrown
a football or you know, they probably showed me getting

(01:01:29):
knocked down or given a signal for something. But like
I said, it is just so so humbling to be
included with this group of individual, uh unbelievable football players
in their own right and be included with them is
just a it's so exciting for me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
I don't think I've ever asked you this. Why did
you become an official in the first place?

Speaker 6 (01:01:51):
Well, it was kind of interesting. You know, we were
probfully for the same reason you did. You know, we
were students at the university. Uh, try to pick up
a little bit of extra cash. I I just did
it to kind of, you know, kind of enjoy the
opportunity and pick up some extra cash. When I was
a graduate student at UK, and you know, I set
some goals. I listened to Tommy Bell gave a talk

(01:02:14):
one time through the Central Kentucky Football Officials Association, and
I set a goal to get in the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
That I ever think I was going to get there.

Speaker 6 (01:02:23):
Absolutely not. I just you know, I was hoping that
I would. I was hoping i'd work a championship game,
you know, one of those games up at Saint x Or,
you know, one of the high school championship games. But
I got some breaks, and then in the Ohio Valley Conference,
I kept pursuing it. I really wanted to do basketball.
I really wanted to get in the NBA at basketball,
but my breaks came in football, so it gave me

(01:02:45):
an opportunity. I got some great opportunities. So hey, I
pursued it and very fortunate to end up where I did.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
So did you start with a khsaai zoom?

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:02:56):
Oh yeah, absolutely, Well, even before that, I was for
the IBM club. An individual named Pete Owens gave me
an opportunity to officiate some you know, flag football games
that they had over at the IBM, which were probably
the toughest games I've ever officiated with those guys, but
you know I did. I started with a k say,

(01:03:18):
working junior high school games around the state. I go
over to Jessamine County and work you know, five games
on a Sunday afternoon, and you know, it just took
a lot of time. As you remember when you were
doing your ficating, you know you got to get there.
But you know, it was a great way to get
some additional income. I didn't want to have to sack

(01:03:39):
groceries at at Kroger's on weekend, So just gave me
an opportunity to pick up some money and pursue something
that I really enjoyed.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Yeah, and the thing people don't understand about KJSA officials
to this day, they are not paid nearly enough. And
you guys, I don't know how much traveling you mentioned
going over to Jessman County, but I've talked to guys
in election and who have had a on a Friday
afternoon take off and drive up into the Mountains or
or Head. I mean, you know, you put a lot
of miles in your car, don't you.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 6 (01:04:08):
I did games up in Whitesburg, get Lynch, and you know,
I think one day we had a game in Lynch
and they had a de snake the locker room before
we went in there. You know, I had some great
stories of my opportunities worked there. You know, I worked
with Bobby Flynn, who you know, the former senator. We

(01:04:29):
were on a crew together with Carl Elevation and John
Clark and Gary Paxson, and these are guys that were
so that mentored me when I first started. Gave me
the opportunity and I'm so thankful that I had that opportunity.
But I started doing it and I just fell in
love with them.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Talking to Jim d'opoulos, who is a member of the
twenty twenty five class the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of
Fame will be honored at the end of this month,
and we're talking about his career WHI started when he
was a student in the UK and worked his way
through the o VC where it was it tough to
get in. I mean, where was it. They need great

(01:05:10):
officials now need officials period. Now, what was it like
back then when you were trying to move.

Speaker 6 (01:05:15):
Up, Well, it was difficult. You know, you need to
do spend a lot of time working scrimmages.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
You know, I had the opportunity, uh to work with
individuals in Lexington and they would bring you to scrimmages.
I'd go down over to Georgetown to work with scrimmage,
I'd uh. Then I would go to Eastern and Western
and work scrimmages. And then I you know, you finally
get a break and somebody sees you, and you know,
you get that opportunity, so you know, and then you

(01:05:43):
just started making your application and hopefully I know that
if it hadn't been for Frank firsty, I probably would
never get in the Self Piece of Conference because Fran
was very instrumental in my getting in there. But it
was every afternoon going over to Kentucky practices and working
and putting my.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Time in there.

Speaker 6 (01:06:03):
And it's a it's a time thing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:06:06):
Too often now, too many individuals, you know, they expect to,
you know, sign up to work football and they want
to work for the state championship the first game, the
first year, but it just takes time. It's like anything else,
and you know, if you take your time, you know,
pay you dues. It Really it's a great it's a
great opportunity for so many individuals.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Yeah, you know, and then working those scrimmages people don't understand.
And we'll talk about this more a little bit later
on about that. You know, you guys are held accountable,
but those scrimmages are basically your practice session just as
much as the players.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
Oh, absolutely, that's that's where you learned. You know, it's
the repetition. The thing about ephish eating is, you know,
you can learn the rules and you can do all
this this to learn about the game, but it's watching
situations occur, watching how they how they handle holding, watching
how they handled catches on the sideline. It's the repetition

(01:07:03):
which really kind of helps you developed it into a
great official.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
You were an umpire in the NFL. Were you an umpire?
A great deal? And that's the guy who stands behind
the line of scrimmage. Uh did you do that a
lot as you were coming up?

Speaker 6 (01:07:19):
You know, I when I was coming up, It's kind
of funny, you know, I would have I would have
worked on the sideline I would have carried the water
bottles to the officials. You know, get that opportunity. But yeah,
you know I I learned all the positions. I tried
to learn all the positions and understand it. I even
refereed a few games and you know at the KHSAA

(01:07:41):
back to the Central Kentucky Football Officials Association. But you know,
I had the opportunity to work different positions. I worked
in the When I first sat in the Southeastern Conference,
you know, I was an umpire, and then I worked downfield.
The NFL took me in as a deep official, and
then I said, well, I'm never.

Speaker 3 (01:08:00):
Are going to be an umpire again because I don't
want to go in there with you know, with those
guys that get killed.

Speaker 6 (01:08:04):
But one of the officials got hurt. I was refereeing
the Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills and I made I
think I made three holding calls and I threw Brian
Cox out of the game for fighting, and and my
boss called me on Monday, he says, you're an umpire
next year.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:08:23):
I said, okay, send me the NFL Europe, give me
a little season of training. But you know, my first
year I worked as an umpire in the NFL. I
loved it in there, and then my second year I
refereed the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Golly. And when you worked NFL Europe, pat of that,
where did you have to fly back and forth? Did
you stay in Europe throughout the season or how did
that go?

Speaker 6 (01:08:44):
Well? What they did was when I was on the
field in Europe, Uh, you'd go over, you fly over
on a Wednesday, uh, and then you referee a game
on Saturday, and then you'd probably start you'd start off
at in London and then basic what you would do.
You'd be in there for a few days, and then
you'd go to Germany, maybe Berlin or Duseldorf or something,

(01:09:07):
and you spend ten days over there at a time,
work a couple of games, and then back and forth.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
You do that.

Speaker 6 (01:09:14):
You know, you work maybe four or five games over there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Did you get a chance to do any sight seeing
or anything? Was it fun?

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:09:20):
God, absolutely absolutely? And you know when I was in charge,
when I was a supervisor, my one of my main
responsibilities was NFL Europe.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
So I would go.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
I would go over five or six times a season
and spend time with the cruise. I would hire European officials.
I would hire some college officials and some NFL officials.
It would put them together and would work them and
it would go over there. And the thing that was
really interesting about it, Dick, was that we would go
over there and you know, tyke an officiated, we could

(01:09:54):
work for them. We wanted to see how they were
hanging out, you know, for a week over there. You know,
kind of you know, it became a family and does
he sit in with the group. Do you want to
spend You spend a lot of time with the with
your your actually your crewmates, so you know, do you
want to spend time with this guy? So that was
what we kind of did over there. But yeah, it

(01:10:16):
was a it was a great It was a developmental league.
It was the best league that they had. It was
great for NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
You know, they would do use it as a developmental
program for the officials, the announcers uh Fox uh and
especially Fox. We'd bring their young guys over there and
teach them how to be announcers. Players were over there
as a developmental league. So it was a great league,
but it was costing the league a little money, so

(01:10:45):
they decided to canceled after about ten years.

Speaker 1 (01:10:48):
He is Jim Doppolis. He is one of the newest
members of the twenty twenty five Kentucky Pro Football Hall
of Fame. You're listening to the best of the Big
Blue Insider. More to come here on six thirty w
l a P. And you're listening to the best of
the Big Blue Insider. We're talking with Jim Daopolis. He
has been inducted into the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of
Fame and the event, the Purple Jacket Dinners later this month.

(01:11:12):
There's a lot of festivities, but that's that's the big deal,
and Jim has always been there as a supporter and
now is going to be honored that night. Although it's
sold out, Jim, I don't know if they're going to
be able to fit anybody else in there, but it
should be a lot of fun going in with Danny Trevathan,
the former Wildcat, Michael Bush, the former Louisville Cardinal, Walt
Yuwarski who played at UK, and Sam grenaison from Louisville.

(01:11:36):
But Jim of course going in as are have you
mentioned Tommy Bell, He became something of a local celebrity.

Speaker 6 (01:11:45):
You know, initially I was at a meeting for the
Central Kentucky Football Officials Association and Tommy was there, and
Tommy gave us a talk. I talked about officiating in
the commitment, it's doing all the things that you need to.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Do to become an official.

Speaker 6 (01:12:00):
And it was that night that I sat there and
I went home and I said to my wife, you know,
I'm gonna I'm going to really pursue this NFL officiating
and I'm going to see if I can get to
the NFL. And as I said earlier, I never thought
I would get there.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
I really didn't.

Speaker 6 (01:12:16):
But I talked to Tommy a lot, and when I
was in the SCC, I had the opportunity to go
to the NFL. And I actually spoke to Tommy prior
to his passing, and uh, you know, I said, I
love the SEC. I was working great games, I had
a full schedule, and he said, Jim, as an attorney,

(01:12:38):
I'm going to tell you how I equated it. You know,
do you want to work in front of the appellate
court or do you want to work at the Supreme Court?
And that and that's pretty much kind of kind of
sold it for me. And you know, I just felt
so fortunate to you know, have him there to be
a mentor and let me ask some questions about it.

(01:12:58):
And you know, he he was inducted into the Kentucky
Coat Football Hall of Fame a number of years back,
and I was very fortunate to give his induction speech,
and you know, I was so proud to be able
to do that and respected him so much. As you know,
he refereed a number of Super Bowls and he was
one of the most visual referees that they ever had

(01:13:22):
in the NFL. People who he was.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
I remember his last year, correct me if I'm wrong.
We all thought he'd get to work the Super Bowl,
but they needed him his strong hand because apparently the
AFC Championship game was going to be a real Donnie
Brook if you will, and they really needed a firm
hand there. And so they said, Tommy, sorry, but you

(01:13:47):
know it's not going to be the super Bowl for you.
It's going to be this game because that's where we
need you. That says a lot about him.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
It sure does.

Speaker 6 (01:13:54):
And you know, a very close friend of mine and
one of my mentors, Mark McNally, who was who was
the only official who has been inducted to the in
the campon the Hall of Fame, and Andre Art was
the supervisor and kind of the godfather of of officiating,
and uh, he said to me, he told me how

(01:14:16):
much respect they had for Tommy and and just Tommy's
manner out there. You know, I think I heard I
heard his son, Bruce said. Tommy used to say, you know, uh,
on the during the week you know, I'm a lawyer,
but on the weekend, I am the law And that's
that's who he is. That's who he was, you know,

(01:14:38):
he was. He was so unique at such a great individual.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Jim and I in the past have talked about replay
and how things have affected the NFL and all, and well,
we may talk about that some other time. But what
I did, I've only got a few minutes left. But uh,
one of my and naturally having been an official, never
not nearly is accomplished you. But I am quite sympathetic
as a media person, and I kind of twine when

(01:15:04):
I hear people say, you know, we need full time referees,
and I always tell them, look, if you knew the
hours these guys put in away from the game, looking
at video and talking to each other and meeting It's
basically like these guys are already full time when it
comes to the hours they work and the scrimmages and
things like that. Am I right that?

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
You know?

Speaker 5 (01:15:25):
That's exactly right, Dick. You know, you know the thing
about officiating, You know, so many people have this perception
that you know, we get to the game on Sunday morning,
we come out from the stands, referee the game and
go hold that Sunday night. And it's not like that.
It's a seven day a week job. You get a
couple of months off in the summer or.

Speaker 6 (01:15:46):
In the fall, if you I mean, I'm sorry, not
the fall, but in the springtime if you want. But
guys work right through the year. I mean, if you're
not doing studying talking to someone every day. The best
you know who the better officials are. They are the
ones that spend the most time working this. It is
not a part time job. It's a full time job.

(01:16:09):
They finally, you know, they are compensated now accordingly. You know,
it was a long time. You know they say, well,
you're only working games on Sunday. Well, I think the
league has finally discovered that, you know, they need these
individuals working, you know, and study and so yeah, it's
a full time profession now and they do very well

(01:16:29):
with it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
People, especially here in Lexion in a college town, as
you know, firmly believe there are people out there that
you guys, that officials are not held accountable. And again
I try to say, look, I've known officials who are
simply not invited back, which means their contracts weren't renewed
or whatever. They don't make a huge deal about firing people,

(01:16:51):
but if you're not good enough, they leave you behind
and move on, don't they.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
That's exactly it.

Speaker 6 (01:16:58):
You know, you're graded on every of every game, and
they and the officials that work in the playoffs, you know,
great out higher than the ones that you know that
aren't working. You know, and they don't they don't advertise
or they don't publicize hiring, nor do they publicize firings.
You know, it's all kind.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Of kept in house.

Speaker 6 (01:17:19):
But if an official is not doing the job, if
he's not working in the playoffs, you know, he's not
going to be rehired. And you know it's a situation now,
you know, you get hired by the NFL as a
as an official, you know, it's almost like you hit
the lottery. It's a it's a it's a it's a
great situation. You know, great benefits, the great compensation and

(01:17:40):
great retirement, so it's not a bad situation. But you've
got to do the job. And if you don't do
the job, you will be replaced.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
And you know what you just described the life of
a player. You know, great money, great retire great benefits,
all this, but if you're not good enough, you get
cut and they move on.

Speaker 6 (01:17:59):
And there's a always somebody there waiting.

Speaker 3 (01:18:02):
That's exactly, always somebody there.

Speaker 1 (01:18:04):
Yeah, well, before I let you go, I got to
ask you this. Now. I'm sure at some point you
work baseball somewhere. You probably work softball at UK when
you were a grad student. All but they the pro umpires,
major League Empires, and again, my brother's been an umpire
for fifty years. He's in the Coaches Hall of Fames
an umpire. I did it, very sympathetic. But the way

(01:18:27):
they call balls and strikes now is just out of control.
And now they're talking about using robots, and you know,
everybody has an opinion on that, but as a guy
who has been a professional, either a supervisor or on field, official.
What are your thoughts on on that? And again, I
don't you know, I don't want you to pile on
to guys in another sport. But how does that sit

(01:18:49):
with you as a guy who was a professional official?

Speaker 6 (01:18:53):
Well, when when I got into the NFL and they
had replay, you know, I feel that replay is a
great tool for officials at every level. I think it
corrects correctable errors, and that's what you want to do.
You want to be as corrected and as perfect as possible.
I think what they have done, and my feeling is

(01:19:14):
is it's been overdone. I think a lot of officials
have kind of lost their their guts to make calls.
They're more concerned with getting you know that, Well, we'll
go to replay. Let replay, refix it, Let replay do that.
I think you've got to have confidence in the individuals
that are working out there, but you have to have

(01:19:35):
confidence in yourself as an official.

Speaker 1 (01:19:38):
Ref. I'm so happy for you. Congratulations, have a good.

Speaker 3 (01:19:41):
One, stake care Dick. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
That'll do it for now. Thanks for joining us for
this special edition the best of the Big Blue Insider.
That's it. Good night from the garage and Lexington.

Speaker 5 (01:20:01):
Stats, batting can do.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Anything.

Speaker 5 (01:20:56):
Back to.

Speaker 1 (01:21:13):
Tost likes.

Speaker 6 (01:21:26):
It, don't, don't

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
Tou