2025-07-28 - BBI

Ex-Cat Josh Hines-Allen, helping his son battle leukemia, was there to support then-teammate Josh Paschal and HIS bout with cancer when they were Wildcats; (12:00) Ichiro on being snubbed by a HOF voter; (19:00) Mark Stoops' comments to the media earlier today; (39:00) UK voice Tom Leach talks UK football; (:59:00) Josh Edwards of CBSSports.com and The Cats' Pause and it's great when everything is all right, all right, all riiight...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Booon Sider dick A Brow with
you on a Monday edition of our program. We're going
to talk a lot of football today because yeah, this
is the talking season. And earlier today Mark Stoops spoke
at the kickoff launch and at Croker Field. He or
election and he'll be in Louisville tomorrow. But he also
talked to us the media because he's got to take
care of some personal business later in the week, specifically Friday,

(00:25):
which is media Day. So in lieu of speaking to
us this Friday, we'll talk to the players. On Friday,
the coordinators Mitch Barnard will do his annual state of
the Program address. But we're gonna hear from Mark Stoops today,
and we heard a little bit from him, of course,
well not just a little bit down at the SEC
media day. So later in the show we'll hear much

(00:45):
of what Mark Stoops had to say to the media today.
This is when he talks for probably about forty five minutes.
On Saturday night. Stoops did talk to a record number
of Kentucky fans at his annual Coaches for the Kids
event in the middle of summer to raise money for
the UK Children's Hospital and that was uplifting as well.

(01:08):
So he's not been silent of late, but it has
been kind of a quiet summer for mark Soft. So
that's coming up a little bit later on the show. Also,
the voice Tom Leach will talk with us as well.
He hosted the luncheon earlier today, and we'll talk with
Josh Edwards of the Rivals Network. But there are a
couple of other UK related headlines I want to get to,

(01:29):
one of them being the fact that Derek Abney, who
is just on the show last week, has been named
the SEC quarter Century Team. One of the greatest players
in this century in the twenty first century. A guy
who finished his career breaking or tying seven NCAA records
and eleven SEC records named to the Quarter Century Team,

(01:53):
chosen by the Rodo Wires Sports Statistics and Analysis Service.
So much fun to talk to. He was a three
time All Conference wide receiver and kick returner and set
all those records. Man every Saturday, it was fun seeing
who first of all, who was foolish enough to kick
to him. He had eight touchdown returns in his career,

(02:15):
six punt returns for touchdowns and oh man, it was
amazing to watch people kick to him, thinking well, we've
got what it takes to stop him. Nope, far too
often he was racing up and down the field and
became the first player in NCAA history with two thousand
receiving yards, two thousand kickoff return yards and one thousand

(02:39):
punt return yards. So just an incredible career for Derek Abney.
Congrats to him. And yeah, we didn't know this when
we were talking to He didn't know it either, I guess,
so congrats to him. Congrats Darren Koffel. She wins the
inaugural twenty twenty five Athletes Unlimited Softball Most Bad Player

(03:00):
Award the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, which is brand new,
and she was one of the all time grades maybe
the greatest player in the history of UK softball. She
also won the league's Hitter of the Year award this week,
led her team to a second place finish in the
AUSL regular season standings. He's also a member of the

(03:23):
All Defensive Team. And get this, she opened the season
by reaching base safely in nineteen consecutive games. So that's
the record right now to shoot for. There's a lot
going on nationally the Hall of Fame. We'll talk about
that and some other things, but I wanted to talk
about the fact that Josh hinz Allen on Friday, after

(03:46):
we had put the Friday Show to bed, made the
announcement that his son, Wesley, who's seven years old, is
recovering from cancer. That kind of shook the Big Boon
Nation quite frankly. He and his wife Caitlyn released a
three minute video on social media. They said the diagnosis

(04:07):
of a form of leukemia came after Wesley Spike the fever,
started bleeding from a tooth days before last year's season finale,
which Josh missed. They said back then for personal reasons,
and of course he said, it has kind of hit
me and then nothing else mattered after that. Westley underwent
chemo for six months, has a few treatments remaining before

(04:30):
he gets to ring the bell at Nymour's Children's Health
in Jacksonville. But Josh and his wife both said he's
doing great running around playing sports, and Josh said he
got back to being the big brother that he is.
Josh and Caitlyn announced Friday that their nonprofit foundation for

(04:52):
to One for All will launch a season long campaign
called for to One for Hope to Get Back To
or cancer focused nonprofits each month of the NFL regular season.
Now this kind of hit home with me because I
guess it was seven years ago. I helped produce a

(05:14):
mini documentary on Josh Pascal, who, as you might remember,
is a cancer survivor. They found a particularly aggressive and
deadly form of cancer on his foot when he was
playing at Kentucky. Josh Pascal and we produced this documentary

(05:35):
Kirk Kanslman, Greg Gorman, and I. I was honored to
be a part of it. I wrote most of it,
conducted some of the interviews, and one of the guys
I interviewed was Josh Allen. Back then he was in
Josh Hinz Allen. He was Josh Allen, And the reason
we talked to him was because those two were so close,

(05:56):
not just because they had the same name, played on
the D line, worked out together. Josh Allen was a
mentor to Josh Pascal. And you might recall it's it's
on YouTube. Go to the Fight for four Just type
in Josh Pascal, Kentucky. It'll come up. Like I said,
it's ten minutes long. But we were really proud of

(06:18):
the way it turned out, Tom Hammond narrated it, and
after the opening introduction, it begins with the day that
Mark Steups coincidentally enough spoke to the media on Media
Day and I was happened to be at the TV
station at the time. I couldn't get there, but I

(06:40):
watched the playback of it. Mark Stoops, you might recall
us open the news conference with the announcement about John Schlerman,
but also about Josh Pascal and the diagnosis of cancer.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Before I get started, I have a couple updates that
I want to give you. Josh Pascal and the skin
lesions that he had removed from bottom of his right foot, well,
I'm sorry to say that those came back as malignant melanoma.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
You can tell he was really shaken by that news.
They knew about John Schlarman prior to that week, but
they had just gotten the news about Josh Pascal. And
as I said, that's what got me the most was
Stoops was really really shaken by that. And the thing
to keep in mind, I said, that was an aggressive
form of cancer. There was a player at Vanderbilt who

(07:40):
had a similar diagnosis, and it's apparently prevalent among African
Americans and it often presents on the foot. They found
it on the soul of Josh's foot. Same thing with
the Vandy kid, and they didn't catch it in time,
and unfortunately the young man in Nashville died. But as
I said, we talked with Josh, Josh heines Allen about it,

(08:05):
and he talked about when he got the news, when
he heard about what was up with Josh Pascal.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
He called me one day out of the blue just
told me, you know what I mean, so on the phone.
So I was just like I was shocked. I almost
started crying, you know, because, like I said, that's like
he's like my brother.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
You know, He's like my little brother, and I loved him.
I got to tell you that kind of got to
me conducting that interview when big strong Josh Allen said,
I almost broke down and cried. So we kept talking
and one of the things that he told us was
the fact that you know, they had dedicated the season

(08:45):
to both coach Schlarman and Josh Pascal. Let me call
JP and you've seen teams come together on the sideline
or on the field or on the practice field when
they break it down, everybody puts in the hand and
they decide and what they're going to break it down
to the one, two, three and then break it down
and Josh Allen said they were going to break it

(09:06):
down to Josh Pascal.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
You mean.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
We played for him for the whole you know, the
whole season. I told him before every game that we
played for you know, JP, and we played for Coach Sarman.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
That they did. And you might recall the Wildcats that year.
I had an early game down at Florida. That was
the year that one of the SEC analysts said Kentucky
was soft. And then Kentucky went down there and won.
And I happened to be in the locker room when
they came in to celebrate. That's where I had set
up the postgame interview equipment, and man did they party.

(09:43):
And they talked about who was going to get the
game ball, and they heard it from Coach Stops, we're
going to give two out who were for.

Speaker 5 (09:55):
It was just authentic and it was true.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
It was just the right thing to do to present
those two with a game ball because that game was
special to us and it was a long time coming.

Speaker 5 (10:05):
And it worked extremely hard for it. So those two
deserved it.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Emotionals was everywhere, and then I called Josh, Josh takes
he takes me right after the game.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
I love you, bro, congrats. So yeah, that was a
huge day for the Wildcats as they dedicated a game
ball to John Slarmon and Josh Pascal. Sadly we all
lost John Slarmon not long after that. He fought it, man,
Boy did he fight. Josh Pascal came back and played
that year despite the fact that he basically had a

(10:37):
hole in his foot. But as I said, when we
heard about Josh Heinz Allen and his son Wesley and
their battle with cancer, a seven year old with leukemia,
that's the first thing I thought of was, Man, when
Josh Pascal's diagnosis hit, it hit Josh Allen really ours.

(11:00):
So here he is dealing with it, even more so
with his own son. And you might recall that Josh
Allen became a family man early in his life and
now he and Caitlyn have two children. So keep a
good thought for that family. And we've tweeted and retweeted

(11:21):
about it over the weekend. But yeah, Josh and Caitlyn
and Wesley, they can use your good thoughts, your prayers
however you manage, and then we'll try to keep you
posting on that as well. Coming up a little bit
later on Mark Stoops talks to the media. This is
Mark Stoops Media Day talk with us earlier today at

(11:43):
Kroger Field and the Voice Tom Leech will join us
as well here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
the Big Boo Insider. Coming up we hear from Mark Stoops,
who talked to the media earlier today in lieu of
talking to us on Friday. We'll have the rest of
media Day on Friday with players, coordinators and Mitch Barnard.
But Mark Stoops doing his part today. As we are

(12:05):
thirty three days away from the start of UK football.
Corey Price with his daily posting of a photograph of
a UK player with a corresponding number. Today it is
George Adams hurtling the line against Tennessee. I presume this
was from back in nineteen eighty four, the best years
that George Adams ever played for the Wildcats. I wasn't here.

(12:29):
I was living in Dallas when Jerry Clayburn's teams went
to the two Bowl games back to back in eighty
three and eighty four, but George Adams Man I would say,
one of the top five running backs of all time
for the football Cats. Also, somebody else posted it's one
hundred days until basketball season begins. Not that we're skipping

(12:52):
past football, of course, but we did get a huge
taste of Kentucky basketball this summer, didn't We in TBT
basketball tournament. Now in it's twelfth year and the UK
based team should still be playing, that's right, but eliminated
in a shocker last week. Ebra Line Drive, the team

(13:14):
that beat the La Famillia Ball Club, is playing Sideline
Cancer tonight in the quarterfinals. Also, shell Shock is playing
Best Virginia yesterday after Shocks. Not that this means anything
to you. After Shocks beat Heartfire. But the craziest game.

(13:37):
This is why I'm bringing this up. We are d
three beat fail Harder ninety five to ninety three. And
if you follow this at all, you know they use
the elam ending. That is, what's four minutes to go
in the game, They stop it, they look at the score,
whatever team is ahead, they add eight points to that total,

(14:01):
and the first team to hit it wins it. Now,
when La Familia lost, they were up. I want to
say eight and let it get away. Last night, fail
Harder came into the elam ending down eighty six to
sixty six. Okay, so they set the score at ninety

(14:22):
four eighty six plus eight. Fail Harder ran off a
twenty seven to six run and took the lead. But
we are d three actually came back and won it
ninety five ninety three. How about that. That's why you
just don't mess around. In fact, against the Auburn team,

(14:45):
La Familia kind of relaxed a little bit as they
were going for the elam ending. Auburn had a shot
at a three pointer in the air. War Ready is
what they called him, had a three pointer in the
air that would have won it. But Archie Goodwin I
d a twisting layup that gave lot of mea the win,
but off of me blew it going for the elam

(15:06):
me ending against Ebra line Drive. And that's why they're
going to play tonight in the quarterfinals. But how about
that for a comeback. Yesterday you might have watched this
each he row each Eiro Suzuki goes into the Hall
of Fame, and we talked with the chain Gang, Darren Hedrick,
Keith Madison, Doug Flynn here in the garage about Hall

(15:29):
of Fame voters and the fact that Babe Ruth Hank Aaron,
how many players were not taken by unanimous vote first ballot.
It shouldn't happen every year, but it should happen at times,
and this is one of them. Suzuki the first Japanese
born player to be enshrined, one of five taken in yesterday,

(15:52):
along with C. C. Sabbathia, Billy Wagner, Dick Allen, Dave Parker,
Alan and Parker of course have since passed away. But
each he Row three thousand hits an incredible career. Two
hundred and sixty two hits in one season. That's a
record that might never be broken. Some thought George Sisler's

(16:14):
record wouldn't be broken, but each he Row broke it.
One voter decided, nah, he doesn't belong on the first ballot,
and each ye Row kind of poked fun at him.
And he had actually invited whoever it was to dinner,
but apparently that's off the table. Here he was yesterday
in English, by the way.

Speaker 6 (16:35):
Three thousand hits or two hundred and sixty two hits
in one season or achievements recognized by the writers. Well,
oh but long view and by the way, the writer

(17:01):
to have Dina at my home has now expired.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
Gotta love that all but one of you and the
offer has expired. So all in good fun. But yeah,
that's ridiculous. It really is, but incredible. Go back and
read about some of his accomplishments and they are absolutely phenomenal.
The way he came here and adjusted to pitchers in

(17:39):
the BIGGS as opposed to, of course, the pitchers in
the Japanese League that he faced incredible. And one of
the most amazing things is not only did he size
up major league pictures, but he did it so quickly.
Eachi Row in his first seven seasons at thirteen hundred
and fifty four hit Kirby Puckett was next with twelve

(18:03):
forty three. Paul Wayner was third, Chuck Klein was fourth.
Pete Rose, in his first seven years starting when he
turned twenty two, had only eleven hundred and nine each.
Row was twenty seven when he made his debut in

(18:23):
the BIGS, and if you add in his numbers from
the Japanese League, he would be the hit king in all.
I wouldn't do it myself because the pitching was better
in America. But wow, Eachi Row in terms of getting
it done in the bigs quickly was the best only

(18:45):
two hitters ever with three thousand hits after their age
twenty sixth season, Rose thirty three hundred and fifty seven
each Row three thousand and eighty nine. The only player
actively who has numbers like that as Paul Goldschmidt. Wow,

(19:06):
not Mike Trout, not Jose Altuve, and he is twenty
fifth on the all time hits list. But again he
came over from Japan where he had just torn it up.
So Eachi Road goes in and deservedly so. Speaking of
getting it done later in your career, and this is
all relative, but Bubba Wallace, at age thirty one, became

(19:31):
the first African American driver to win at Indy. He
won the Brickyard four hundred. There was an eighteen minute
rain delay, but he stuck it out and won it
for his third career NASCAR Cup victory, first victory in
the series four Crown Jewel events. The others, of course,
the Day two one of five hundred, the Coca Cola

(19:52):
six hundred, and the Southern five hundred, and it snapped
one hundred race windless streak. The data back to twenty
twenty two in Kansas. Now he's in the playoffs. His
only other win came at Talladega in twenty twenty one,
and you got to tip your cap to the team,
to the sponsors for hanging in there with him. After

(20:15):
a hunt one hundred winless races. College football, you think
about where's the money going to come from? Do you
rob Peter to pay Paul? Evidently at Iowa State the
answer is yes. Iowa State University looking at a budget
deficit in athletics of one hundred and forty seven million

(20:36):
through the year twenty thirty one, and so now they
got to start cutting. That includes indefinitely postponing construction of
a new wrestling practice facility and a twenty five million
dollar basketball coliseum renovation. Iowa State is engaging with a

(20:56):
Big twelve conference it's foundation sponsors donors to explore additional
opportunities to create growth in revenue. It says sufficient to
overcome future anticipated revenue shortfalls and otherwise support these success
and continue viability of the athletics department. Folks, they're going

(21:17):
to cut sports. They're gonna do it at Iowa State,
I'm telling you, and they're gonna do it eventually everywhere.
Mitch Barnamers said they do not want to do that
at Kentucky, and I'm hoping within the next ten years
we don't hear that they're going to have to do that.
But I covered a wrestling program back when I was
in school that was top ten in America. But after

(21:40):
Title nine came in, they had to reallocate funds for
women's sports. And I'm not knocking women's athletics. I've covered
women's sports, love covering it, but it takes dollars and
they had to cut wrestling. Now that's the only program
they've cut. And they've added since then, but they haven't
added wrestling. So if you like college sports, you got

(22:01):
to keep an eye on that kind of thing. When
we come back, Mark Stoops talk to the media today
about his team. It was sort of Mark Stoops Media Day.
We'll have that on The Big Bone Sider a little
bit later on. Tom leachs Josh Edwards on six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the Big BALLO Insider. Coming up
at the top of the hour, Tom leads the voice
of the Cats, both football and basketball. Tom hosted the

(22:26):
luncheon Today was the kickoff luncheon here in Lexington. There
will be one in Louisville as well tomorrow, but you
have the Boosters get together prior to that though. Mark
Stoops held his Media Day address pre Media Day, and
as I mentioned earlier, he's got some personally what it
is as he's having as he said, something cut on

(22:48):
his face. I'm putting tune two together. I'm assuming it
was some sort of skin cancer or whatever. I don't
want to assign the big Sea to him at all,
but he talked about it openly, joked about it, said
that he will be at Media Day but didn't want
to be wearing shades. He said, only Dion can pull
that off, and I can relate. I had basil cell

(23:11):
cancer cut off my face back during baseball season, and yeah,
I mean it was near the eye and I had
a big shiner. And thankfully by the time I had
to go back on TV to do a Kentucky game,
you could barely see it and you couldn't see it
at all with my reading glasses on. So apparently that's
what Stoops is looking at. He's a fair skinned guy,

(23:32):
and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the first
and wouldn't be the last time one of my family
members is scheduled for surgery even as we speak. So
I'm glad he's going to get it taken care of.
But the timing of the surgery as such that he's
getting it think I think he got it today or tomorrow. Anyway,

(23:53):
by the time Friday rolled around, he would be bruised
and you know, wearing the sunglasses. So he said he
would just rather do the TV. He didn't want to
be on camera. Then when pictures taken, IM I can
understand that although I took pictures of myself just to
document what happened with me. But I will urge you
if you have never been to the dermatologist. I don't

(24:15):
care how old you are, get yourself checked out. And yes,
I know we all grew up playing out in the sun.
A lot of us didn't need sunblock or didn't feel
like we needed sunscreen until later in life. I remember
the first sunburn I ever got. I was like, what
in the world is this? But because when I was

(24:36):
out in the sun a lot, it was at the
pool we were in and out of the water, you know,
a swim team practice whatever. But my mother was a
fair skinned irishwoman and she needed more than one procedure
to take care of herself. And I know a lot

(24:57):
of friends who are like that, and Mark Stoops is
like that. Oh, just an opportunity to against the backdrop
of Kentucky football to preach about going to a dermatologist
getting herself checked out. It's not that big a deal
unless it becomes a big deal. But better now than later,
because I'm telling you, skin cancer can spread quickly. My

(25:18):
mother lost one of her best friends because she was
late being diagnosed and it's spread. So please take care
of yourself. There you go, all right. So yeah, we're
gonna hear more about Kentucky football later in the week,
specifically Friday on Media Day, and of course Fan Day
is coming up Saturday, so your chance to see the

(25:40):
Wildcats practice. But here are some comments from Mark Stoops.
He talked for forty five minutes, so obviously I can't
share all of them, and you'll find them online if
you want them. I'm sure it's going to be sure
it's on YouTube by now. But here are some of
the highlights from earlier today, and while it has been
a quiet summer for Stoops and those are his words,

(26:02):
but he's right, this isn't the first time he has
spoken about his team. Naturally, he was down at SEC
Media Days, as I mentioned earlier, but also on Saturday
night he addressed the crowd at the Coaches for Kids
Dinner when they raised a bunch of money. So the
message is essentially the same, although they he spoke for

(26:25):
fifteen minutes, maybe because they had an auction to get
to and money to raise, but he talked today, took
all questions, and in his opening comments he basically echoed
the fact that again it's been an exciting time to
build for this team, so that it has been a
quiet off season, but he's excited about what he sees

(26:48):
coming up.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Going over some things with our strength and conditioning team,
and they told me this is probably the first time
in thirteen years that we had absolutely one hundred percent participation.
Not that you're you know, you're gonna have somebody miss voluntarily,
but there's always gonna be something pop up here and there.

Speaker 5 (27:09):
And this summer we had.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
A situation where a freshman was late a couple of
times and his unit grabbed him and straightened it out
and got them right back on tracks. So it's been
a tremendous offseason. It's been very quiet. Guys have put
their head down, have worked extremely hard. Like I said,
they've been remarkable, you know, really h and you could

(27:33):
see that with their strength, with their size, in their
commitment to each other. So the fact that we've been
so consistent this summer says a lot about the things.
And that's the way I felt. It says a lot
about them. It says a lot about the team. It's
the way I have felt throughout this summer, and you know,

(27:54):
so that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
You know. They have the workouts scheduled, specifically weightless, and
they go in groups. And he talked about one freshman
who was late a couple of times and the coaches
didn't have to deal with it. He said that the
guys in his group got him and said, hey, here's
the way we're doing things, and straightened him out almost immediately.

(28:17):
But the first thing he did talk about was strength
and conditioning, and he mentioned the fact that of course
everybody's got to get bigger and stronger, but specifically he
spoke to the staff about it because you remember last year,
Remember how much trouble Kentucky had scoring near not just
in the red zone, but near the goal line. How

(28:39):
many times was Kentucky turned away on third and fourth
downs because they just weren't strong enough upfront to get
into the end zone. And then conversely, the defense could
not hold on third and short, fourth and short because
they were thin and they were weaker on the lines.

(28:59):
And I had forgotten about this. They had three guys
last spring declared out for the year, and then more
injuries piled up. So they built depth, but Stoop said
they also built strength, and he really likes what he
saw in his staff and his strength and conditioning staff.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
After last season.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know, we had a meeting and looked at all
facets of the program, and you know, in our strength
and conditioning team, I really challenged them because they are amazing.
You know, they've done a remarkable job for a long
time and they have my full trust. But I did
challenge him because I'm like, yeah, we need to be bigger,
we need to be stronger, but yeah we need to
be more athletic, like we need a lot of things.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
And so there was a lot of pressure put on.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
Them, and they've really delivered and now it's up to
us and our staff to make sure that we, you know,
have a great camp. There's always that fine line, you know.
And again I'm not making excuses. I went in the
last fall camp worried from the previous because I had
three guys out for the year and multiple other injuries

(30:04):
and guys that were already out with surgeries, and it
just it did have an effect.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, did That's a kind way of saying that's one
of the reasons they just weren't very good last year.
Four wins, and it's why all the experts say the
over and under for wins by Kentucky four and a half.
I did see one that said five and a half,
but that seems to be the accepted number by the
people in the desert four and a half. And you know,

(30:29):
you can't blame them. But on the other hand, you
got fifty new players. But there were a lot of
reasons last year why they just weren't very good, and
stoops this morning kind of squared up to it.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Obviously.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
As I've mentioned throughout the offseason, it's fair to say
after coming off a season where we were not very
pleased failed to meet our expectations, our own expectations and
didn't play that the level that we wanted to. Then
we got to have a heightened sense of awareness and
we got to be just have a greater sense of urgency,
take a good hard look at all the systems and

(31:04):
processes and things that we have in place and make
sure we're doing things right. And again just to attack
those with urgency. We didn't want to just move past it.
We had to look at everything, turn over every stone,
every stone, and make sure that we're doing things to
the best of our ability.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Stoops talked a lot about the fact that and he's
done this. He did this in Atlanta, I believe he
did that for a little while on Saturday at the
charity function. But just the fact that now there's essentially
a salary cap. You know, there's going to be more
of an even playing field, and part of it involves,
of course, revenue sharing within the universities. You know, what

(31:46):
are you going to spend on this sport that sport.
And the very first question put the Stoops March story
asked him about revenue sharing and is it essentially where
it needs to be at UK.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
It excites me because I feel like, for the first time,
I just feel like we're going to be in a
position to hopefully be on equal playing ground with everybody,
you know, and that hasn't always happened. And I'm not
throwing any shade anywhere, just it's true, right, I mean,
I don't have to feel funny talking about money anymore, right,

(32:19):
I mean, it's just part of part of it, right,
part of all college sports.

Speaker 5 (32:24):
And it's been a tough time.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
But I don't like talking about that because it feels
like an excuse.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
It just is what it is. Man, it's gone.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
But I do feel like as we move forward with
the support of the administration, this path you know forever,
but you know, in particular, as we've got it, you know,
gone through this here this year, and where we're going
in the future, I really feel like we could be
put in a position to.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
Be on really good ground.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
I haven't always felt that way, you know what I mean,
So that excites me. I feel like we as we
move forward these past two three years have been rough,
I really feel like we're in a position the next
two to three years to really be in a good position.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
So I feel good about it.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
I thought that was an important answer because Stoops kept
saying through the years he didn't want to sound like
he was making excuses or complaining, but really, this is
a guy coaching, let's be honest, one of the have
nots when it comes to football tradition in the SEC.

(33:29):
And if it's all about opening up the wallets, well,
naturally Kentucky is going to have a difficult time competing
that the playing ground is not going to be anywhere
near level. But now what they're doing with revenue sharing
and essentially a salary cap without calling it a salary cap, yeah,
that's going to be Kentucky. The Kentucky's of the world

(33:51):
will be a lot better off. And you can tell
Stoops is happy about that, you know. And Stoops is
one of the coaches who said he has no problem
with play players getting a little bit of money, but
obviously there need to be guardrails, there need to be guidelines.
But he said it's also been interesting to see how
it has affected some of the players and the way

(34:13):
they go about their business.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
I think one thing I've seen possibly different. That's that's
a good thing. As payers are players are getting paid.
You know, that business like approach is a good thing,
you know what I mean, they're they're really dialed in
and and there's some guys that needed to get stronger,
needed to get bigger, and you know, and and they're

(34:38):
coming up there and they're they're doing that.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
So those are the highlights of the kind of state
of the program remarks from Stoops. He got into in
great detail a lot of the personnel. We'll talk about
some of that on the other side of the break,
including quarterback. I can't get into all of it, there's
too much, but again, go to UK Athletics dot Com,
go to YouTube. I guarantee it's going to be all
over the place, but it's going to be on the

(35:01):
other side of our break. Here on the Big Boone Sider.
Later on, Tom Leach and Josh Edwards on six point
thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Boon Sider. Coming
up in just a few minutes, the voice of the Wildcats,
Tom Leech, says, we are in the talking season for football.
Here Tom each and every day on this very radio
station talking Kentucky football. But we are going to chat

(35:21):
with him and then we'll talk to Josh Edwards. Part
of the coverage you see in the catch pods and
on the website also the two four seven network. But
we are sharing with you some of the comments from
Mark Stoops his appearance today for just joining us. Stoops
is having some minor surgery. Said he's having his face
cut open. So I got to think he's having something

(35:43):
taking off his face that shouldn't be there. But that
would mean that on media day he'd be bruised up
and wearing sunglasses, and he didn't want to appear on
camera that way, which I certainly appreciate and understand based
on what I went through earlier this year when I
was bruised up and wearing sunglasses right before I went
on camera. So anyhow, Stoop's met with the media today
and I asked a question about a position that had

(36:09):
not been brought up. We were almost a half hour
into the news conference. Here it is and a follow
up from Jordan Adams of Fox fifty six. Mark, you've
gone almost twenty nine minutes without mentioning the QB and
no one's as good.

Speaker 5 (36:27):
Let's go prove it. We feel good about it.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
They, I mean, we all know we need to play
better at that position. But we all know we need
to play better around them. We need to give them
some time. We need to make tough catches, we need
to have balance, and we need to help help those
qbs out. Feel very good about those guys, you know,

(36:52):
with having bo Allen back as a is it such
a mature smart you know, almost like a player coach,
you know. Third, you know, we could invest a ton
of reps in the top two guys, and they need
a lot of reps, just a continuity, you know, and
just continuing to develop that rapport within the receivers in

(37:13):
the old line and getting the reps. But Zach and
Cutter are two guys that we feel very good about,
you know, And you know, I don't you know, you
guys are invited to practice.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
You've been to practice, You're gonna come.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
I think we opened it both days this week, right
Friday and Saturday to you all, uh, to you guys,
and open to the public on Saturday. You'll see them participate
and you know you'll see what they can do. But
I have a lot of confidence in both guys. And
we'll go from there to piggyback off that there was
a game tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (37:43):
Who would be Yeah, there was a game tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Zach would be under center, but it's this whole depth
chart is going to move before well not not the
whole depthto but it can. It's all open to move
by the first game. We have a lot of practices to.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Go through, so good follow a question by Jordan basically
asking Stoops, who's your starter today? No surprise at Calzada,
but the fact that that's the first time he is
essentially referred to Calzada as the starter. But again it's
a competition, and there are a lot of practices ahead,

(38:18):
including Saturday's open practice. You can come, you can see
the Wildcats wha they're permitting, and again if it's rainy,
which I don't think it's supposed to be, they'll move
indoors and you the fans, can't go with them. But
Fan Day starts at ten am over on the practice
fields and you'll get a chance to see Calzada and

(38:39):
Cutter Bowlie and bo Allen and everybody out there. I'm
really curious to see what we're all going to see.
So we'll talk more about that on the other side
of the news break with Tom Leach and with Josh Edwards.
A little bit of basketball as well, and some recruiting
because that never ends for any sport. So more coal.
The Big moon Sider are on six point thirty.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Takes taking the ship Canning.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Welcome back to the Big Bluin Sader joining us now
the voice of the Wildcats. As we lead off our
number two, mister Tom leads you hear them each and
every morning on this very radio station Monday through Friday
on the Leech Report. But of course he will be
seated high above the playing field with jeppecorl when the
Wildcats open up this season. And Tom, you have been
busy over the last few days introducing Mark Stoops and

(41:12):
first of all Saturday you helped him raise money as
you do every year at the Coaches for Kids event
charity event that is just a wonderful event. It has grown.
Rich Brooks got it started and it's a wonderful event.
They raise you know, between half a million and a
million dollars every year. I have to be honest, I

(41:33):
wondered about the size of the crowd this year, and
they had a record crowd, didn't they.

Speaker 7 (41:37):
Yeah, it was a great turnout and benefit you k
Children's Hospital and Eric Wolford, he and his wife have
a member of their family that that has had some
issues to deal with and this is will forget up
and spoke to the crowd kind of let folks know.

(42:01):
This is you know, part of what these kinds of
events are for and always a lot of fun. And
as Mark and I were laughing at the Kickoff luncheon today,
it's the kickoff luncheon, but he said, I tend to
agree with this that that event that Saturday night before
kind of the big football week's years up is when

(42:25):
I kind of get in the mode of okay football
seasons here. Yeah, and it's four weeks from this Saturday,
and you'll media days think Friday and Fan Day Saturday,
and we'll start covering practices and hearing reports and it's starting.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah, it's it's a talking season, which Stoops dubbed it
several years ago, and it was a big help to
me because I was producing for KYT the preseason special
and I kind of hung the show on that on
that label for Talking Season. But it's as good as
any and his message and his demeanor have been consistent

(43:06):
from Atlanta, where you know it all begins for the media,
but in terms of the fans. Yeah, at the charity event,
Saturday night that precedes the week this week, but it's
been consistent. He's excited, he feels good. It's not it's
beyond coach speak. I think you know you know him
well enough to see that. But he's also been quite

(43:28):
frank about knowing the job at hand. Mark Pope has
talked about the assignment. Mark Stoops knows the assignment. It's
different than Mark Pope's, but he under he gets it,
doesn't he he does.

Speaker 7 (43:40):
And there's not any big, bold proclamations or anything. He
talks about owning the fact that they underperformed, underachieved last
season with a four and eight record and they know
that's not what's expected and they're not But again, he's
not making any you know, bold predictions. But he did
say that they know what the challenge today at the

(44:02):
kickoff lunch, and you know, we know what the challenge
is and we embrace it. Yeah, And that's what you've
got to do because there's not a lot of people
that believe they can win six or seven games and
get to a Bowl game. And I think if they
don't believe that they can, they shouldn't be playing. And
I'm I'm pretty sure that they do believe that they
can't do that, and there is they could pass to

(44:24):
do that, but there's not much margin for error and
getting there, and what would help would be staying healthy,
and they had very bad luck in that area last season,
and so far, so good.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
You know, you mentioned injuries. That was my next question
because I asked Stoops down in Atlanta about the fact
that when it comes to preseason questions, when you think
about it, during his tenure at Kentucky, which of course
is the longest in the history of the school in
the SEC currently, he has kind of run the gauntlet
when it came to media day down at Atlanta. He's

(44:58):
been the new kid. He's been the guy trying to
build a program at the basketball school, which is a
tired kind of trope anymore. He's been the guy who
suddenly has taken Kentucky to bowl games. Now they're winning
ten games? You know, what's your secret at Kentucky? Then
all of a sudden, it's like, oh man, how are
you going to fix this thing? You know? But one

(45:20):
of the things he brought up, and he's brought up
a couple times and he obviously did today with you,
was the fact that and I'd forgotten this, Tom. I
know you remember things like this because you make out
your spotting chart, and so does Jeff. They lost three
guys for the entire season last spring, and I believe
they're all d linemen, weren't they.

Speaker 7 (45:39):
And then yeah, every week for the reason why they
didn't have a spring game, because that's it.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
I had forgotten about that. And then every week you'll
come in the booth and you'll tell us ahead of
the coach's pregame show. Now I got another guy sitting
out today. I had forgotten how many injuries this team
went through last year. And Stoops is right. You couldn't
keep bringing it up because it sounds like excuses. But
ultimately that I think had a major role in why

(46:05):
this team collapsed. You know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (46:08):
Well, look at also a guy that that was playing
but was nowhere near his best. But the out of
locker I thought was going to you know, control the
middle of the defensive line, command you know, double teams
and open up opportunities for other people. And that back
issue he fought all season. He stayed on the field,
but he was you know, nowhere near the player that

(46:30):
he had been the previous year. And you know that
kind of affected him when draft time rolled around. Soltfully
he gets healthy and that works itself out. But you
know that was another one that you know, he he
was hurt, but he was able to keep playing, but
nowhere near full strength. So I remember, you know, Guy

(46:52):
Morris his second season when they pulled off a surprising
year that you know, he won two the year before
and won seven and should have want and nobody saw
that coming. And one of the things that worked for
them they didn't have a significant injury. I don't think
the whole season. You know this guys get dinged up
or something, but they didn't lose you know, anybody for
any significant amount of time. Yeah, you know, that's you know,

(47:15):
just luck sometimes. I know that was Phil Steel in
his preseason magazine that is so well received each year.
One of the things he has teams is the luck factor, right,
And I'm not sure how you measure that, but there's
is certainly there. He had injuries or other factors.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Well, I mean, look at Mark Pope's team last year.
It made a good run. Well what might it have
accomplished minus injuries, especially the Lamont Butler. I mean, you
you know, any sport, Nick Nick Minion, you know, his
bullpen was decimated by injuries and still made a good run.
So yeah, any sport. And you mentioned margin of error,

(47:58):
and I remember when Steve's first got here, and it
was pretty evident that that team in terms of the
roster for the first couple three years, was lacking and
the margin of error was slim. And when you talk
about the SEC, you just really don't have one, do you.

Speaker 7 (48:16):
No, you don't. And you know you look at their
schedule this year and have to be at your best
uh frequently and starts you know, in September. They've got uh,
you know, Ole Miss in South Carolina, two conference foes
that that are expected to be uh in the you know,
the top half of brutally strong league. So they've got

(48:40):
to you know, answer the bell that The thing is,
they believe they've made the decisions that it took to
get back on track, be that personnel decisions or a
few things tweaking, you know, from a culture standpoint, I
think maybe some more team building up things this year,
you know, just little stuff. Mainly it was about I

(49:03):
think getting the right guys out there. And if they're
right about that, then they get a chance to prove
it on the field. But until then, you know, if
you're a player, you probably don't like hearing all the
you know, doubters of your team and people that you
think you'll be lucky to win four games again and
all that. You don't like hearing it, but you can't

(49:25):
really have you don't have a lot of evidence to
refute it with. But once the games start, you get
to put the evidence out there.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Yeah, and stuff pointed out today, and I was thinking
about this earlier. This summer is with about fifty new faces,
including true freshmen, you know, plus the portal guys. They
can look around and say, hey, that wouldn't us. You know,
you know, we don't want to. We don't need to
hear that stuff because it essentially wasn't our fault. You know.

Speaker 7 (49:51):
They don't joke about we were alwing a looted last season,
but we've got everybody back. Well, maybe it's not a
good thing.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
I always love that we're talking with Tom Leach. We
love talking football with Tom. We'll come back with more
in just a minute. Here on a Big Moon Sider
six thirty WLP. Welcome back. We're talking with a voice
of the Wildcats. Tom Leach, he'll call the action when
Kentucky opens up with Toledo on August thirtieth. Mark Stews
brought up today the fact that, yes, somebody mentioned the
fact they've got to play Ole Miss so early in

(50:21):
the schedule, and of course he went right to the
season opener, which is Toledo and mentioned in fact that
team's been picked to win the MAC and Tom, we
talk about this every year they play a MAC team.
We talk about it on Wildcat Whip with Jeff Percorro
among ourselves. We have seen MAC teams come in here
and beat Kentucky, not just compete, but beat Kentucky. So

(50:43):
obviously they're gonna We're gonna learn a lot about this
Kentucky team on opening day, aren't we.

Speaker 7 (50:50):
Yeah, Toledo's supposed to be one of the better teams
in that league, and if that's the case, then that
is a challenge in an Ole Miss in week two.
So the h there's no easing into it this year.
And I think Eastern Michigan is not expected to be

(51:12):
quite as strong as Toledo, uh that in Week three,
but you know they're gonna get tested right out of
the out of the box, and I think that is Yeah,
you know you're getting tested, but it's a chance to
make a statement right there in the first couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Yeah, it's a chance for the coaches to figure out
the depth chart a little bit. One thing we do know, uh,
based on his comments today, as if and he said it,
if they started today, no surprise it will it will
be or would be Zach Calzada starting a quarterback. I
know that's not a surprise, but as he said, there

(51:50):
could be quite a shake up in his depth chart
before opening day. But I would have been surprised if
he said anything else, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (51:58):
No, I think that was the expect here is the
expectations for everybody. And you know, he's the guy with
the experience, and I think if the offensive it's got
to start with an improved play, significantly improved play the
offensive line in front of him, because that'll make the
running game better, and the running game helps make the

(52:19):
quarterbacks life easier. And it all kind of flows from
having a much improved offensive line, which bush Hamdon did
a kickoff luncheon today, was very bullish on that particular position.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, no kidding, that's good news.

Speaker 7 (52:35):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Well. And again Stoops talked at length about strength and conditioning.
I'm sure he brought that up at the luncheon today,
but it was interesting. Right away my mind went to
how many times and I think I'm thinking specifically of Florida,
but it happened so many times where Kentucky got inside
the five, not just into the red zone, and couldn't

(52:59):
score and conversely couldn't stop people, and that came to
backups playing more and more and strength and conditioning, he said.
He challenged the strength and conditioning staff, which he said
they had my utmost confidence, but he said they came through.
I can't wait to see how that plays out.

Speaker 7 (53:20):
Yeah, And one thing he said, I think he said
it in the media session with you guys, and he
said it the kickoff lunch in too, that he talked
to the strength and conditioning staff and I think they
had maybe one maybe it was a freshman that was
late to one or two lifting sessions, Yes, and that
was it, and they said the word he got was

(53:41):
that that was handled by the position group. And that
is the kind of thing that you want to hear,
because when he said that, it was at the kickoff
luncheon today was in his opening comments, and the first
question I was going to ask him was about, you know,
coaches always want to have player led teams and what's

(54:01):
the challenge like when you have so much roster turnover
to get to that point. But it sounds like they've
already made some strides in that area from that story.

Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah, And he has mentioned player led team since he
got here, And I don't know that we saw that
last year. We certainly didn't see the results, did.

Speaker 7 (54:18):
We No, And that you know, for this thing to
outperform what the low expectations are, that's where they've got
to They've got to do well in that area. They've
got to do well. And you know, not having you know,
just crucial penalties, they've got to do well and taking

(54:39):
care of the football, taking it away from the opponent.
Those are all the things that line up to help
a team be better than it looks on paper. Because
on paper, with what they did last season and the
fact that there's so much new that you don't have
a lot to go on certainly in terms of you
know them at Kentucky, then I understand why you know,

(55:02):
people are picking them where they're picking them and saying
the things they are about how the season will go.
It's perfectly understandable, but none of that really matters. As
I said to one of the assistant coaches this summer,
the same people who were wrong about you winning eight
could be wrong about you losing eight.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Well, that's true, that's true. We're talking to Tom Lee's
the voice of the Wildcasts em Seed earlier today the
preseason kickoff luncheon at Kroger Field, And of course that
includes Q and A's with the coordinators, and you and
Jeff meet with the coordinators every week prior to the
ball games, and there's a lot of insight I know
you share. They don't give you away. They might give

(55:41):
you the game plan, but you don't share it on
the air. Obviously, you know what you can get away with.

Speaker 7 (55:48):
Back in the old days, when I first started doing this,
Coach Buddy had that script of twenty plays that he
started the game with. And I remember one time I'd
go down and see him on the field before the
game and he'd tell me, if there is anything you
know unusual, But the two things were, it's always a
funny story if there was anything you know unusual, trick
plays or whatever, and then he would always tell me

(56:08):
what the line was where they would maybe fake a punt, like,
you know, we're at our own forty or better, we
might fake one today. So two things. One I remember
down at Georgia, I think the first year or second year,
he said, uh, there is no line today. We may
take it from anywhere, and I think they did unsuccessfully
trying to take one about their own twenty. But the

(56:31):
other thing was I said, anything usual on the game
playing today and he said, yeah, double reverse on play nine.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Nice.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
And it's it's nice as the broadcaster to know that
when they hand off going right, it's coming back left.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
I remember. I remember when Craig Yeast supposedly turn an
ankle and practice and it was it was part of
a Louisville game and he ends up scoring the touchdown
on a play and he had told our videographer Steve
Moss during warm ups he said, watch for me at

(57:06):
a certain point pretty much what the kind of name
mummy would tell you, and it worked for a touchdown.
So it's that's fun to know.

Speaker 7 (57:13):
It's also how that you know how they can scheme
that out. I remember there was a play down at
Florida in the Stoops tenure that eighty grand was the
OC at the time, and he had told somebody, you
know that whatever the play was, they were going to
score on it. And it was wide open. A quarterback
I think missed the throw, but I mean it was
wide open. They were going to score a touchdown on it.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Well, you remember Steven Johnson on the first play against
Louisville when he gets to the line of scrimmage and
tried to suppress a grin because he told us, look,
he was exactly I saw what I wanted to see
and he went deep. Uh, just a couple of minutes left.
But getting around to the OC question, Bush Hampden Stoops
was beaming about that first time in five years. He said,

(57:56):
an OC back to back seasons. Uh, what did Bush
have say today other than being bullish on the old line.

Speaker 7 (58:03):
Yeah, and he was a very upbeat. And I think
I asked Mark about that, you know, having that continuity,
and you know they've got it through most of the staff.
I think that, you know, obviously Brad White's been there
a long time, but he got most of the guys
back on the defensive side and they got back to
all and then on the offensive side most and so

(58:26):
they have so much roster turnover, but they don't have
a lot of coaching turnover. You know, Bush came in
later than you would like hiring an oc so to
use the old Bill Parcells mind, he didn't get to,
you know, shop for the groceries to cook the meal,
and he had to cook what he was given to
work with. And that's where I think, you know, now,

(58:52):
even though it had so much turnover, they've got guys
in every position group that you know, you know, uh, oh,
here's what he means when he says, I there's some
new guy that doesn't quite get it. So there's just
that carryover I think has to be helpful.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Oh. Absolutely, And Jay Bull wears back with special teams
and has done a nice job. So you know, it's
like every year, you just got to stay healthy. And
when you've got either upperclassmen who know the system or
like they have now, a whole bunch of upperclassmen coming
into the portal who have played a lot of football,

(59:27):
it makes a huge difference. And whatever happens, Tom Leach,
we'll call it for the UK Sports Network, and we're
out of time. Otherwise I would talk to you about
basketball because Mark Pope's been out in front of the
cameras of leaso of his players. But we'll keep it
in football and we'll get together soon. By the way,
Tom every morning on the Leach Report. Thank you so much, sir,

(59:48):
and we will see you down the road.

Speaker 7 (59:50):
Sounds good.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Up next Josh Edwards from cbssports dot com. He covers
the NFL Draft, but he also covers football recruiting Kentucky
football recruiting from his home up in Northern Kentucky. And
this could be a vital season for incoming freshmen for
the Wildcats, but also the portal obviously with all these

(01:00:13):
new faces, that is a huge part now of the
recruiting game, is that portal. So we'll talk with Josh.
Coming up next, and again, as Tom said, season openers
four weeks from Saturday. It seems like once it starts, man,
it just comes flying at us. But that's okay with me,
say with us right here on the Big Blue and

(01:00:33):
Sider on six thirty WLAP, Welcome back to the Big
Blumen Sider joining us down our celebrity hodline is Josh
Edwards from cbssports dot com covers the NFL Draft and
covers UK football recruiting for the catsplause part of the
two four seven network Josh, welcome back. How's your summer been.

Speaker 8 (01:00:52):
It's been good. We've had a little bit of time
to get above with family and you know, create some
of those moments with my two young boys that you
know we'll remember forever. But it definitely felt a little
bit more urgent lately that football is starting to kick
back up and we're, you know, just weeks away from
the start of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Seems like the summers come and go so much faster.
But some of that is because now the Internet and
you know, you're posting and writing, and you know, it's
just you never slow down, do you.

Speaker 8 (01:01:25):
No, No, whether it's NFL Draft coverage or Kentucky football recruiting,
there always seems to be something going on. You know,
the draft ended for me at the end of April,
and then you know, I was the recruiting camps for
Kentucky in June, and then we had official visit weekends
and then there were I think fifteen commitments fourteen commitments

(01:01:46):
in the month of June. So yeah, there's hardly a
downtime when when it comes to covering football.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
As someone who covers football recruiting for the Catch Balls
UK Recruiting, what was your take on the Vince Merrow defection.

Speaker 8 (01:02:00):
Basically, Yeah, I had a little bit of foresight that
it was coming, so I wasn't totally surprised. I knew
from you know, just the perspective, just just the outward
perspective that people were going to take with that, I
thought it was going to be a bigger loss probably,
you know, from a from a national perspective, and just

(01:02:23):
from an aesthetics perspective, because I think in today's landscape
with the NIL, so much of the business that is
being conducted, and I don't want to completely dismiss the
relationships that are formed, but so much of it is
making sure that the money is right. So I still
think that Kentucky is in a good spot to recruit

(01:02:44):
at high level as long as the money is right.
And of course we've heard Mark Stoops say that he's
comfortable with how the revenue sharing is currently being distributed
among the you know, the the programs within Kentucky Athletics.
So encouraging to hear that because of course he's been
the first to sound the horn in the past when

(01:03:06):
maybe the money wasn't there. So I think Kentucky football
is still at a sustainable point moving forward, even without Vincemara,
who was integral in building this Kentucky fall program. Just
the quantity of recruits that he had been able to
bring in from the state of Ohio. I think that
was essential in building the culture within Kentucky football. And

(01:03:28):
over the past couple of years we've just kind of
got away from that culture a little bit. But again,
we heard Mark Stoops talk a lot about getting back
to that culture this summer.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Yeah, and he talked about it this morning and basically
the Mark Stoops Media Day presentation, and he said he
was pleased with the way revenue sharing is happening. Excuse
me on the UK campus. He was in a good mood,
I mean, and he was talking. You know, over the
last three years, he has kind of braced himself for
what's been difficult. We all know that he wanted to

(01:03:59):
and m job. You know, I hired. People say why
in the world would you want that job? I was like,
are you kidding me? Do to know deep their plays are?
You know? But now I don't know if there's never
going to be a level playing field. But there's a
little more balance right now, isn't there.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
There is?

Speaker 8 (01:04:13):
And you know, it's SEC football, so you do inherently
have a little bit of an advantage over maybe some
other you know, member institutions outside of the conference. Financially,
Kentucky is never going to be able to compete with
Georgia and Texas, and you have some of those programs
that run rich and oil money. We've seen Texas Tech

(01:04:34):
even this transfer portal cycle. They're throwing money around left
and right, and that's not a program that you traditionally
associate with winning football. So, you know, the reality is,
if you have the money to support your program, you're
going to be in the mix for better players. And
if you're in the mix for better players, you're probably

(01:04:55):
going to have more success on a football field. So
that's the reality of of today's college football landscape. And
Kentucky had been able to, you know, kind of offset
that a little bit by the culture that they had established,
you know, the chip on your shoulder, the players that
were overlooked by the Georgia of the Ohio States, you know,

(01:05:16):
programs of that magnitude, and they came to Kentucky with
a chip on their shoulder. They played, you know, above
their pay grade in those moments, and that's how Kentucky
has been able to have success for so many years.
But it's impossible not to acknowledge that today's college football
landscape is different than the one that Mark Stups entered

(01:05:37):
back in twenty twenty or twenty twelve. I guess yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Now he is the dean of SEC coaches, believe it
or not, has been there longer than anybody any is
the longest tenured coach in UK history. So but that's
what happens when you win. And he brought in guys,
several of whom are still in the NFL. And that's
what a take, doesn't it. To compete in the SEC,
you've got to have at least a core of players

(01:06:03):
who are good enough to at least go to NFL camps.

Speaker 8 (01:06:05):
Am I right, Yeah, we's out a question. I thought
Kentucky has always done a good job of identifying talents
early in their high school careers, you know, freshman sophomores.
I think since tomorrow, you know, had always done a
good job of that, and that's where those relationships became
so important because he had been able to develop those

(01:06:26):
relationships for a couple of years. And then just his
personality somebody that's incredibly straightforward, someone that's going to tell
you exactly how it is and what it should be.
Uh and recruits respected that, you know, and that's how
Kentucky had been able to build their program. They've been
able to get the overlooked players like Josh Allen and

(01:06:47):
Bud Dupree. I mean, Bud Dupree was, you know, a
twig of a tight end coming out of UH Georgia
High School. So you know, he developed into a very
very high impact player for Kentucky. And I just think
that I identifying talent early, developing them both as people
and as players, and always carrying that chip on your

(01:07:08):
shoulder is ultimately how Scoops has been able to build
his legacy at Kentucky.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Talking to Josh Edwards, who covers UK football recruiting for
the Cash Pause part of the two four seven network
as well as the NFL Draft for cbssports dot com,
and we're mentioning Vince Marrow. It was right after he left,
Josh that it seemed like Kentucky suddenly got a whole
slew of commitser signees. Was that a coincidence or did

(01:07:37):
that have something to do with Vince moving on?

Speaker 8 (01:07:41):
It was a bit of both. You know, again, I
don't want to shortchange what Vince had done for the program.
He's obviously had, you know, tremendous contributions to where they
are currently, but he hadn't been overly involved with a
lot of the recruits in this particular class, obviously Jarvis Stricklin,

(01:08:02):
the offensive tackle from Paduca Hillman that has since flipped
to Louisville being the exception. So I don't think the
loss was immediately felt. I think Kentucky had positioned themselves
to be competitive for some of the other high priority
players that they have brought in. I mean, Matt Ponatowski is,

(01:08:23):
of course a two sport athlete that could be the
quarterback of the future for Kentucky. He may never play
a down of football Kentucky if he's drafted early enough
in MLB draft. You know, that's something that's going to
have to play out. But I think what they've done
is stuck to what has got them to this point,
which is identifying those fast players that got the length

(01:08:46):
to play positions in the NFL because you have to
check that box within the SEC. You have to get
players that look the part, and I think Kentucky has
certainly done that. The contributions of first year coaches within
the program uh tight ends. Coach Derek Shehay, who stepped
in tomorrow, went out and got Lincoln Watkins from Michigan.

(01:09:07):
You got Ladanian Washington, you know, coming in in his
first year, and he's had them in the mix for
several top recruits and he lane and a few of them.
Dallas Dickerson from Georgia is a track star. You've got
Denarius Gray who flips from Auburn. You've got Davis McCrae
from Texas who they're really high on. And Prince Teen

(01:09:29):
from Dodosta, Georgia, who I just know. Washington loves his
story and kind of what motivated motivates him to play
the game. So there are reasons for each of these editions,
and I think he's done a great job in his
first year at Kentucky. And you know, just seeing that
new energy I think is maybe something that has invigorated
Mark Soup's a bit. It's I've heard from a few

(01:09:50):
coaches this year that they have that reinvigoration that maybe
the last couple of years had drained from them. So
uh yeah, I think I think the coaching staff in
general is in better spirits and the success that they
had on the recruiting trailer in June is kind of
a byproduct that are going.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
To Josh Edwards, who covers UK football recruiting for the
Cats pause in two four seven and we'll come back
and talk more with Josh on the other side of
the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're
talking with Josh Edwards. He covers the NFL Draft for
cbsports dot Com as well as UK football recruiting for
the Cat's Polish part of the two four to seven

(01:10:28):
Sports Network. And I've been talking so far tonight Josh
about the comments and sharing a lot of the comments
that Mark Stuup's made earlier today with the media and
then with the boosters at the kickoff luncheon. And in
terms of the freshman class, everybody wants to know, you know,
about the new guys. And we'll get to the portal
in just a minute, because that's now even as vital

(01:10:49):
as recruiting freshmen. But in terms of true freshmen expecting
anybody to come in, especially now perhaps in the SEC
with the portal being so active, you know, a true
freshman coming in and making an impact, you feel like
that's kind of drifted away a little bit, and it

(01:11:10):
is Quison Berry the best bet for the football Wildcats
among the true freshmen showing up in the depth chart,
and right now he's running fourth team.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Yeah, I mean, I.

Speaker 8 (01:11:22):
Still think there's a place in the game for those
true freshmen that can come into play. I was thinking
about this just not too long ago. Actually, there was
you know, a time earlier when I was covering football
recruiting where you would look at an offensive lineman or
a defensive lineman coming out of high school and you'd
say it's going to take a year or two for
that player to develop into where they need to be.

(01:11:45):
Now you're seeing players come out of high school. They're
more physically ready, they have a higher level of understanding
of what is going to be expected of them as
a collegiate athlete, to the point where I think players
are actually more capable of of playing early than maybe
what they had been a decade ago. I think Caitln
Edwards the defensive tackle from Tennessee. Is somebody that could

(01:12:08):
get some minutes at Kentucky's depth is challenge there yet again,
Marcell's Carter from Paduca Filman. Everything that I've heard about
him is that he's wired right and I think there's
an opportunity there for him to push some of those
older guys in the safety room. But the one guy
that I continue to hear the most about, and he

(01:12:28):
was a late addition to the class, somebody that they
have fought off some other high level programs for is
DJ Miller, the wide receiver out of Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (01:12:39):
I've talked to multiple people that feel that he's a
player that can make plays for them down the field. Obviously,
monteve and Quisenberry from Broyle County is somebody that's smaller,
he's shifty, He's somebody that can contribute probably in the
short intermediate part of the field. He can maybe contribute
on returns as well. But to me, Miller is the

(01:13:01):
player that I've heard the highest praise for so far
this year, and he's somebody that I think they're gonna
have a hard time keeping off the field.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Interesting. Interesting and yeah, and you mentioned Carter. I mean,
he's running right now second team, and it's way early
at strong safety, and of course they can always move
people around and they're gonna end Tooop's talked about that.
But to see a true freshman running at least right
now second team as a dB in the Southeastern Conference,

(01:13:30):
you don't hear much about that, So that tells you
a lot about his innate ability. But of course, now
you've got so many people dotting the Kentucky roster. When
you add up all the new faces, Josh, it's about
fifty players. This was a total rehaul, wasn't it, And
it's not total pretty close to being total.

Speaker 8 (01:13:50):
Again, I sit there and I think you know about
what those first plays for Kentucky football are going to be.

Speaker 7 (01:13:56):
That's fall you.

Speaker 8 (01:13:58):
See the offense take the sea. It's Za calls out
a quarterback, a transfer seth McGowan or Dante Dowdell transfers
at running back, wide receiver transfers. He's got Troye Delato
from Clemson. You've got Kendrick Lall from Alabama. Jimory Macklin,
who you know is an elder statesman in that room now,

(01:14:20):
was a transfer just a year ago. So you've got
transfers everywhere the offensive line from left to ray you
got Shia's pet. Left tackle, you've got Joshua Brown there,
Evan Wibberly, Jalen Farmer was a transfer again similar to
Maclin just a year ago.

Speaker 7 (01:14:37):
Uh.

Speaker 8 (01:14:38):
And at right tackle, you've got Alex Welschlger who is
coming in from the MAC. So your entire offense, with
essentially the exception of Josh Tattis, has been brought in
this past offseason, and typically I would say it's difficult
to get that many new pieces moving together in the
right direction so quickly. H But talking to recruits, talking

(01:15:02):
to people around the program, everybody is optimistic in the
way that that group has come together so quickly, and
I think the dividends for that meshing of personalities and
talent may come together better than people expect. I'm not
sure that they have the highest ceiling as a unit,
but I think if you're looking at the floor and
what we've experienced the past couple of years, I think

(01:15:25):
we're expecting to see a higher floor for those programs
where we're not seeing the type of miscues and things
that should not be occurring for an SEC football program.
I think that's going to make them more competitive in
the fall. And then on the defensive side of the ball,
you've got transfers all over the place as well. David Goosta,
defensive lineman coming in from Washington State, is somebody that

(01:15:48):
just this summer I was having a conversation and Kashawn
Mannon was back on campus and he's regarded as one
of the most powerful, strong players to come through Kentucky football,
and David Goosta was mentioned right up there with him.
And of course I think Mark Steuf said in his
press conference that he put up thirty eight repetitions in

(01:16:09):
the bench press, which I believe was two twenty five.
That's what they do in the NFL Combine. Just incredible strength.
I mean, he would be up there among the top
performers in terms of the bench press at the NFL
Combine year in and year out. So you're talking about
an incredibly strong player, somebody that moves well for his size.
I think he's going to be a contributor for them

(01:16:30):
this year. And then you know, we'll have to see
what's made of the secondary because they've got some guys
that really needed to come along and kind of come
of age a little bit, and now they're going to
have the opportunity to do so because they haven't brought
in a lot of competition at cornerback or safety. So
it's going to be interesting to see how Chris Collins
and Frank Bifano were able to get those units up

(01:16:52):
to speed.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
You many slept with Josh Edwards of two four to
seven sports and the Cats boss. You mentioned David Gusta,
and of all the new guys, I've heard that name
more in the offseason, and specifically Josh because of what
he could do in the weight room. And you know
how players are when it comes to guys who can
move a lot of iron. I mean, they take on

(01:17:14):
almost legendary status. The three kids they brought the SEC
media days, they all brought him up, you know, voluntarily.
He was one of the first names that Mark Stoop's
brought up to that. I mean, it's just I can't
wait to see this kid play. And he wasn't one
of those guys who transferred to Kentucky because he couldn't
break through at his previous school and he played football

(01:17:38):
at Washington State, but wanted to give the SEC a shot,
you know, when a kid transfers in because he couldn't
crack the starting lineup somewhere else, you got to wonder
how much he's gonna help you. I can't wait to
see this kid at noseguard, you know what I mean?

Speaker 8 (01:17:54):
Absolutely, And that's the program that has done well evaluating
talent as well, so he kind of give them a
little bit of, you know, grace. For that edition, they
did add his younger brother as well. I think get
a defensive back, Devin Gusta. I don't know how many
people actually paid attention to that edition, but yeah, there's
been a lot of praise for him, and I think
looking at last year's team with Josiah Hayes missing as

(01:18:18):
much time as he did, he's a tone setter for
that front. He's somebody that can create a high floor
in run defense and give them a little bit of
an attitude that we have grown accustomed to Kentucky defensive
lines having in recent memories. So I think when you
put you get him back, you add Gusta in there.

(01:18:38):
Now you get some of these other young players that
are coming along. They've had a few years to continue developing.
Khalil Saunders, Gerrod Smith, I mean, there's a lot of
reasons to be excited among that group, and I know
from week to week last year maybe there were some inconsistency.
But one thing that we know is that coach Stewart

(01:18:59):
is to get the most out of that group and
they're going to be ready to fight each and every Saturday.
So I had high expectations for that group, even though
so many of the faces that we had been accustomed
to seeing in recent years have changed.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
It all starts with a line play on both sides
of the ball. We all know this, and it's going
to be really interesting to see how this team looks,
not just on Fanday, but on an opening day. As
you said, is Josh Edwards. Follow him on Twitter or
ex at Edwards CBS. He covers the NFL Draft for
CBS Sports dot Com and football recruiting. But the Cats
pause and two four to seven Sports. Josh, thank you

(01:19:36):
so much. We'll see you down the road.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
Sounds good.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Thank you and that'll do it for now. Thanks to Josh,
Thanks to Tom Leach. That's it. Good night from the
garage in Lexington.

Speaker 9 (01:19:46):
All right, all right, all right, such.

Speaker 4 (01:20:09):
Tact anything one Capactus Attackers taps intending to the