2025-07-29 - BBI

Mark Stoops on opening opponent Toledo, just picked to win the MAC; a MAC fan torches the SEC with a viral post; (12:00) Stoops on lessons he learned since arriving at Ky; (19:00) the passing of baseball HOFer Ryne Sandberg, on playing the game the right way; (31:00) Will Levis posts about his mangled shoulder; (39:00) ex-Cat and co-host of Sunday Morning Sportstalk Anthony White; (58:00) UK baseball chatter with Derek Terry of BatCats Central and... Who's On First?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
on a Tuesday edition of our program. We are now
thirty two days away from the opener. It's a week
from this Saturday. We know it's thirty two thanks to
Corey Price, our great statistician on the UK Radio Nework,
posting photos of UK players with corresponding numbers, and today's

(00:20):
number thirty two is actually by a sweet coincidence a
guest on our show and our second hour, we're going
to hear from Anthony White, the outstanding receiver slash running back.
Remember when you played for Hell Mummy and you were
a running back, you caught the ball as much as
you ran the ball. Anthony did it better than anybody
really in the Mummy era, really better than just about

(00:41):
anybody who's ever played here. And at the time he left,
I think he was one of the top five players
in the.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
SEC when it came to total yardage.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
You know, some guys have since passed him, but he
is still in the record books as one of the
all time greades. Thanks in large part he'll be the
first to tell you to the offense and to Tim
Couch and all the guys around him, but he is
also a cost of Sunday Morning Sports Talk and he
will join us in our number two to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
The football Cats.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Derek Terry from Batcats Central will join us to talk
about baseball because it's been a busy summer for Nick
Menzio and it was on our show not long ago,
and Derek was on a while back as well. But
there's been so much going on with player movement, we
thought we would get caught up.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
But we need to talk, of course about football.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
And one of the reasons I wanted to start with
the UK and Toledo the season opener, not just because
we're another day closer, but there is a tweet. Scott
Van Pelt of ESPN retweeted it and it's a really
entertaining comment and it's gotten a lot of traction. But
the supposed author of this I tried to find his

(01:51):
Twitter account and it said it didn't exist. T King
ta king all one words seven oh one. I might
be looking the wrong way or in the wrong but
evidently this guy as a fan of the Mid American
Conference macshin if you will, and he entered this scathing
comment directed at the Southeastern Conference when he posted this.

(02:15):
Congrats on your five star recruits and one hundred million
dollar facilities SEC fans. Meanwhile, the MAC is out here
playing real football in front of fourteen people and a
raccoon on a Tuesday night during a blizzard. You ever
seen a punter throw a touchdown to a long snapper
while the scoreboards on fire?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Didn't? Think?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
So, that's a reference to a play from a bowl game.
It happened this past December, in fact, the day after
Christmas in the Ventures Bowl in Mobile, Alabama. It was
the Arkansas State Bowling Green Game. And yeah, that's exactly
what happened. Fake punt fourth and twenty and Baron May

(02:58):
who was a backup quarterback, had checked in the punter
wasn't the punter back up quarterback, and he chucked it
downfield once he got the long snap, and yeah, a
wide receiver Malcolm Johnson Junior, was opened near the end
zone hauled in the past forty three yard touchdown play.
That was a lot of fun to see. Now, that's

(03:19):
not to say that nobody else can do that, but
that's something that this guy posted.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
The tweet brought up. And by the way, the scoreboard
was not on fire.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I looked and looked for that story, and there were
a couple of soccer games where the scoreboard caught fire.
If anybody knows how to find any video or information
about this, let me know. In a MAC game. But
the guy went on to write, why y'all are busy
arguing over which frat funded dynasty is slightly less fraudulent?

(03:50):
Toledo's cooking up a triple reverse flea flicker in a
game that ends forty three forty two after six miss
pats and a old post gets stolen. That's not football,
that's maxin. You wouldn't survive one quarter in Ypsilante. That
was a reference to forty three forty two game that

(04:12):
might have been Toledo's win. It was actually forty eight
to forty six over Pittsburgh in six overtimes in Detroit
at the game above Sports Bowl at four Field. It
was a wild game, no question about that. I saw
the highlights of that one. So anyway, somebody was taken
up for the Mac. And this was just a day

(04:34):
after Mark Stoops did the same thing somebody at the
news conference yesterday And this was again if you missed it,
Stoops appeared yesterday.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
With the media in lieu of Friday.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Friday's media day, which usually starts off with the Mitch
Barnhart presentation and then Stoops and the coordinators with Stoops
is having some surgery done. As he said, they're going
to cut his face open. I'm assuming he's having something
removed from his face that he said will leave him
with a black eye. So he didn't want to be
on TV looking not his best, you know. And he

(05:04):
said he's going to be at media day with a
hat and shades and probably a bruce face. So he said,
please don't take pictures of me, which I understand. I
went through the same thing earlier back in the spring.
So anyhow, Stoops talked to us yesterday and somebody tried
to ask him about playing a conference game in the
second game of the year, that is against Ole Miss,

(05:26):
But of course he went right to the season opener
with the Toledo Rockets, who have been picked to win
the MAC by the coaches.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, we got a big game in week one. I mean, honestly,
I don't I'm not just saying that's not coach speak.
I think you all could recognize that a team that's
picked to win the MAC and very very mature football
team and well coached and everything.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
You know.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
So that's going to be a big game, and that'll
get us prepared because we have to be prepared for
Week one.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
And we'll hear more from Mark Stoops a little bit
later on in the show. But as we mentioned, Toledo
picked to win it all in a MAC eight and
five last year, they were picked ahead of Miami and
U six coaches picked to Leder to win the MAC
championship game. So it may come down to those two
schools from the state of Ohio. But again MAC schools

(06:16):
have come down here, given Kentucky a hard way to
go beat in Kentucky. Bowling Green came down here and
beat a Jerry Claburn team. Ohio, you came down and
beat a Rich Brooks team and what was the lowest moment.
I have to think that was not a good Ohio team,
but it was the lowest moment I think in the
Rich Brooks era. Happened on homecoming. You might remember the

(06:38):
Wildcats wore I think throwback jerseys. I know they were
alternate jerseys. I'm pretty sure they were throwback. Whatever they were,
we never saw them again, nor should we because that
was a horrible game.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I believe it was in the second game of the
Rich Brooks era. It was just awful.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So Toledo will come down here and play the Wildcats
and then go home to play another team from the
Bluegrass State that is Western Kentucky on September the sixth.
So Toledo opens up with two teams from the state
of Kentucky. But they have four all conference players back
and starting quarterback as well, who threw for twenty eight

(07:17):
hundred yards and twenty four touchdowns last year. We'll talk more,
of course about Toledo as opening day draws.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Near.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Biggest question mark on this Kentucky team is the old line.
Second biggest question, in my opinion, is quarterback. The only
reason it's not the biggest question is because obviously you
don't know what whoever the quarterback is, Zach Calzada, cut
or bully. You don't know what he'll be able to
do because you don't know what the old line's going
to be able to do. And over the last three

(07:46):
years the old line hasn't done enough. But what that
means is whoever is the QB? And right now, as
Mark Soup said, it's Zach Calzada. He is a question
mark and maybe the biggest in the Southeastern Conference. And
in another one of these surveys that is designed to
take up space on the internet, The Athletic has posted

(08:11):
a listing of all one hundred and thirty six projected
starters from Division one football, that is FBS football. Two
writers Sam con Junior and Antonio Morales have ranked them.
They've put them in tiers. There are seven tiers, ranging
from the most talented in the country to guys who

(08:32):
have proven themselves. Then Tier three is most teams would
be happy with a QB of this caliber. The next
tier young unproven starters with high potential. The next tier
is guys you may have seen before, have played in college,
haven't put it all together yet. Tier six qbs with
a lot of question marks, but there is talent there.

(08:54):
And in Tier seven is a largely unproven group, some
decent group five returning starters, but qbs who haven't played
much at all or made multiple stops in their college
careers and hopes they'll finally putting it all together. And
I read all of that, and I'm saving you the
trouble because I know you're going to search. If you

(09:17):
look this up, as I did right away, where's Zach Calzada, Well,
he's in Tier five. He has ranked sixty third, right
behind Brendan Lewis of Memphis and just ahead of Tommy
Costellanos of Florida State. Tier five also includes The first

(09:37):
guy in Tier five is Joey Aguilar from Tennessee, and
a couple of stops down from Zach Calzada is Maverick
Macavore of Western Kentucky University and on the same tier
at number seventy is Tucker Gleason of Toledo. So, as

(09:59):
I said, I kind of thought Zach Calzada might have
been a Tier seven QB, but they've got him in
Tier five, which includes guys who have played well in
college haven't put it all together yet, But if you're
a Group five fan, there are some really good ones here.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
So that's where they have Zach Calzada.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
And in case you're wondering, these are projected starters, so
Cutter Bowley is not listed, but if you want to
read the entire list, it's really really entertaining and again
designed to take up space. But number one is Kid
Klubnick of Clemson is in virtually every survey of QB's
top five. At least, Garrett Nussmeyer of LSU is second.

(10:42):
There are four straight SEC quarterbacks. Leonora Sellers is third.
South Carolina, John Mattier of Oklahoma is fourth. DJ Lagway
of Florida is fifth. Wildcats will face him. Then you
get a kid from Penn State and you have to
go aways before you find believe it or not, Arch Manning.

(11:04):
He is tenth, but of the top ten, he is
the first guy to be listed as a new starter.
There's a transfer, that's materr from Oklahoma. He comes in
from Washington State, where he played with Dave Gusta, who
is now a Wildcat. But interesting the way people perceive QBS,

(11:28):
and interesting that they do give Zach Calazada, who played
at A and M and played well before he got
hurt at Auburn and then played well at the one
Double A level, They give him some respect in Tier five.
Up next, more college football chatter, and we'll talk a
little bit at the bottom of the hour about Ryan Sandberg,
the great Chicago Cubs infielder who passed away from his

(11:52):
battle with cancer. He was a Hall of Famer, is
a Hall of Famer always will be gave one of
the great Hall of.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Fame speeches in base history.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
We're back in a minute on the Big Blue and
Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider.
Coming up at the bottom of the hour, We're going
to talk a little bit about Ryan Sandberg, the Hall
of Fame infielder second Basement with the Cubs, he's passed away,
and the impact he made on baseball.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Also talk about former Cats.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
In the NFL a little bit later on Anthony White
from Sunday Morning Sports Talk, Derek Terry from Batcats Central.
But I wanted to talk a little bit more about
Mark Stoops and some of the comments he made yesterday
as they relate to some of the things we've talked
about here on The Big Blue Insider and in tracking Stoops.

(12:38):
His career at Kentucky. Clearly last year was a setback,
no question about that. But how far back was Kentucky set?
And I bring that up because Ryan Black, our pal
from the Courier Journal, asked an interesting question yesterday at
the Mark Stoops media day. We've got UK media Day

(13:00):
up Friday, but Stoops is having a little bit of
surgery on his face. Didn't want to appear with bruises
on his face and you know, shades and a hat.
He said, only only Deion Sanders can pull off that look.
But so he talked with us yesterday and one of
the things that Ryan asked about was Kentucky in twenty

(13:23):
thirteen compared to Kentucky in twenty twenty three and now
twenty four stoops got here in twenty twenty three, program
was in a bit of a shambles.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I mean it was.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
It had hit rock bottom when half the stadium was
empty the season prior when Kentucky went to and ten
for the Wildcats lost to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
That was ann eight season mark Steubs's first year.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Eight to and ten. So no improvement from twelve to thirteen,
but they played better and from that point on the
Wildcats didn't take a step back except for COVID. Got
to throw out the COVID year in my opinion, but
they went five and seven, five and seven, identical two
and six records. Next couple of years seven and six,

(14:09):
four and four in the league, went to bowl games,
didn't win them, but went the bowl game. Then in
twenty eighteen you had the ten win season, Will Levis, Wandale,
you know, Benny Snell, Josh Allen. They win the Citrus Bowl.
Then it's the Belk Bowl after that. But Lynn Bowden,
that was the Lynn Bowden year. Twenty twenty, they go

(14:30):
to the Gator Bowl after finishing what five and seven,
five and six regular season, No. Four and six regular
season because they were all conference games. Well, like I said,
that's the COVID year. You tossed that one.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Following year they go ten and three and go back
to the Citrus Bowl and they're ranked in the top twenty,
just as they were in twenty eighteen. Following year they
lost a.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Lot of people, didn't play that well. Last two years
really seven and six, seven and six games, and then
they crashed a four and eight last year.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
But Ryan asked Stoops about the fact that when he
came so he talked about the fact that even though
they struggled, the program was a lot different now than
it was when he first came through that door in
twenty thirteen, and the lessons he.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Might have learned, Well, yes and no. I mean, of course,
there are fundamental things that you could always lean in
on that Heck, I could go back to Hayden Fry
and playing at Iowa and being a graduate assistant with
Hayden Fry, and some fundamental aspects that you will always
hold on to, so that part of it, Yes, there are,
and then there's the piece that changes. Yes, it's definitely changing.

(15:43):
As I mentioned, I think, you know, again the same
analogy your program build and you certainly don't put your
head in the sand when you make mistakes or things
can be better. You know, you have to look at
everything a big boy.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
I don't get sess those things. It's like you better
address them, look at them and get better, you know.
But there's also you know, certain aspects that you know
you'd just better build a good team.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
And of course, unlike twenty thirteen, he couldn't bring in
fifty new players via recruiting and the portal, which is
exactly what he's done this time. And I think he's
got maybe a better staff than he had back then.
So it should be interesting. More football chatter coming up
here on The Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome

(16:36):
back to the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in hour
number two, Derek Terry will talk Kentucky baseball Anthony White,
we'll talk Entucky football. And I mentioned Ryan Sandberg passed
away from cancer. Before I get into that, I did
want to mention I haven't mentioned this. I should have
mentioned it yesterday. The story broke over the last forty
eight hours.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
But JJ Weaver has.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Signed a free agent contract with the Carolina Panthers. He's
got a chance of making a team that really needs
a lot of help.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Of course, you know about JJ. I think the nation
first learned about him because he has that condition whereby
he has six fingers on one hand on his right hand.
But really, when people took a.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Deeper dive into JJ's backstory, we all learned and we
knew about it, those of us who covered the beat.
That man, he was dealing with a lot of stuff,
you know, and he was good about you know, the
finger story and all that, because, as he pointed out,
there are kids dealing with that and if he can
deal with it openly and in a healthy way, that
could help some youngsters. And they had a special glove

(17:39):
made for him and all that. But because he was
such a good player in the SEC, he got a
lot of attention. You know, a five year letterman at
Kentucky three time team captain, one of just three players
in UK history to be a team captain three straight years,
and that's joining Josh Pascal and Deandre's. But of course

(18:01):
JJ's backstory included his dad being murdered, his high school
coach suddenly dying, and just the grief that JJ had
to deal with, and he sought counseling, and he gave
Mark Stoop's permission to talk about that publicly, and so
therefore a lot of us talk to JJ about it.

(18:22):
Local and national people talked about JJ, and once again
he talked about it with the idea that it could
help others, and to that end, he formed a support
group on campus for college kids who were dealing with
grief and depression.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
So that will be why he is always one of
my favorite UK players. And I didn't know him all
that well. I knew him to cover his team, but I.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Just knew what he went through and knew his backstory,
and man, I'm rooting for him to make the Carolina Panthers.
He's got an outside shot, he's a great athlete, and
again that's a team that needs help. So we'll keep
an eye on the Pan and on JJ. Weaver, but
he's got a chance, you know. Speaking of former Wildcats

(19:07):
now in the NFL, litt Levis is on the sideline
You made her about that he had to have surgery
on his shoulder, and he had it in California today.
This is his throwing shoulder, and last night on Instagram
he posted a picture.

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Of his injured shoulder. It's kind of disgusting. Really.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's not an open wound or anything, but it's just
how mangled it looks. And somebody posted a good question
on a podcast that I listened to. Why is he
only now having the surgery. Why didn't he have it
right after the season ended. I can't answer that.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I haven't read anything about that. Maybe he was hoping
to rehabit and get back into playing shape minus surgery,
but he underwent the surgery today. Hoped to have an
update for you on tomorrow, on a tomorrow, but he
posted a photo last night, and if you're squeamish at all,
don't look at it. It just looks like a shoulder
that's gone through the wringer. And he definitely you could

(20:08):
see you why he's having the surgery. One other college
football note, Nick Saban ain't coming back, at least not
anytime soon. He did an interview over the weekend with
Fox News and on Fox and Friends and said, there
is no opportunity that I know of right now that
would convince me to go back to coaching. I did

(20:31):
it for fifty years. I loved it, loved the relationship
with the players, the competition, but it's another station of
life now. Talked about his family, his kids, his grandkids. However,
if you watch TV, if you listen to interviews situations
like this, you know that he left the door open.

(20:51):
And by the way, this is the same guy who
was wunning with the Miami who when he was with
the Miami Dolphins repeatedly said I will not be the
next head coach at Alabama.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
You know.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
He scolded reporters much like Patino did with us when
we asked Patino about going to the NBA next. Saban
took it a step further. Patino never said I'm never
going back. Patino said there's nothing to report right now.
I will tell you when there's something to report, and
he didn't, but he never said no, I'm never going back.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
That's what Saban did. Then he went back of course.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
But he said, there is no opportunity that I know
of now that I know of, as one thing now
is another. So maybe there is something out there that
would convince him to come back that he doesn't know about.
In terms of timing, probably not right now. But then
he said, now there it is. He can always go

(21:48):
back and say, well, at the time I meant that,
and you got to give him credit, he left the
door open. I don't see it happening. He's seventy three
coach as a head coach for seventeen years at Bama,
not to mention where he was at LSU and in
Michigan State in all those years as an assistant coach,

(22:11):
and now he's with ESPN and doing a nice job.
Won a Sports Emmy Award Outstanding Personality Emerging on Air
Talent after his first year. I guarantee you he might
have played that off, but as competitive a guy as
he is, I guarantee you that meant something. Plus remember
now he's involved with ADS Commissioners, Congress, trying to work on,

(22:36):
as he put it, preserving the integrity of the game,
what with all the nil stuff happening. So right now,
right now, you won't see Nick Stabn coming back, all right.
We talked about Ryan Sandberg, lost his battle with cancer
at age sixty five, way too young, but a Hall
of Famer, and he gave one of the great speeches

(23:00):
in Hall of Fame history, and it's online. You can
google it, you can read it, or it's on YouTube.
And I got a couple of clips for you, because
you know, I've watched some of these speeches, not all
of them, but some of them. And basically, Ryan Sandberg,
the way he approaches the game, the way he approached

(23:25):
the game in terms of its integrity and the way
the game ought to be played, reminds me of my
good friend and colleague Doug Flint. Doug is all about
the integrity of the game, the history of the game,
and playing it the right way, doing it the right way,
and for all the guys who do and have done

(23:47):
through the last century and a half, I think that
what Sandberg said right off the top during his Hall
of Fame speech encapsulates everything you need to know about here.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
And I'm bad guys who cared about the game the
way they did.

Speaker 5 (24:06):
The reason I am here, they tell me is that
I played the game a certain way that I played
the game the way it was supposed.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
To be played.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
I don't know about that, but I do know this.
I had too much respect for the game to play
it any other way. And if there is a single
reason I am here today, it is because of one
word respect. I love to play baseball. I'm a baseball player.

(24:41):
I've always been a baseball player. I'm still a baseball player.
That's who I am.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
That's the first remark he made after thanking people from
the stage in Cooperstown. And again, these speeches can go
on a little, but that's okay. You know this is
their moment and they'll never be in the public eye
the way they are, these Hall of famers when they
are making their respective speeches. And I enjoyed his again,

(25:14):
like I said, because it just reminded me so much
of Doug Flynn. And Doug's not the only one, but
he's the guy I know best. And just as Doug
has talked about it on our SEC Plus broadcast on
my radio show right here in the Garage, and Keith
Madison talked about it the same way as a guy
who was a minor leaguer, didn't get to the bigs,
but loves the game, and Darren Hendrick sitting here in

(25:37):
the garage, talked about players who played the right way.
We talk about all kinds of things in the garage,
but it's all I think. The threat, of course is baseball.
That's the threat of the chain gang, and Jeffikorro's part
of that chain gang as well. But they all appreciate
guys like Sandberg. How can you not who just believed

(26:01):
in doing things the right way.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
Everything I am today, everything I have today, everything I
will ever be, is because of the game of baseball.
Not the game you see on TV or in movies, Baseball,
the one we all know, the one we played with
whiffletball bats, pretending to be Yazz or Fisk or Rose

(26:30):
in dirt fields and in alleys. We all know that game.
The game fit me because it was right. It was
all about doing things right. If you played the game
the right way, played the game for the team, good
things would happen. That's what I loved most about the game.

(26:52):
How a ground out to second with a man on
second and nobody out was a great thing.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
As Ryan Sandberg, who was an all star basketball player
in high school growing up in Spokane, Washington, was an
All State quarterback and signed to play with Washington State,
but his brother Dell convinced him to go play baseball,

(27:19):
even though he was taken in nineteen seventy eight in
the twentieth round by the Phillies. But that's how much
Sandberg loved baseball.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
He didn't want to.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Leave it behind or make it a secondary or even
his third sport in college. He went from possibly being
a star quarterback college football in Pullman, Washington to grinding
it out in the minors.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
And he made it, of course.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
First with the Phillies, then they traded him to the Cubs,
an incredible trade. He stayed with the Cubs from eighty
two to ninety four. Later on became manager of the Phillies,
first to coach, then a manager and managing the minor leagues.
And that's where he met mister Darren Hedrick and Darren

(28:13):
posted a picture of himself posing with Ryan Sandberg. Very cool,
very cool, and of course it's a younger Darren when
he still had a little bit of hair. Now he
goes for the glorious fully hairless treatment. But great photo
of Darren and Ryan Sandberg. If you follow Darren on Twitter,

(28:36):
you need to or just go find that photo. But
Ryan Sandberg gone at the age of sixty five. And
while we're talking cancer, Dion Sanders talked openly about the
fact that he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, had surgery
to remove it, removed his bladder after they discovered a
tumor there and apparently right now he's cancer free, so

(28:58):
he will coach this season, So good for coach Prime.
We'll talk more football on the other side of the
break here on six point thirty Wlap Welcome back to
the Big Bone Sider. Coming up in nowur number two,
we're going to talk more UK football with Anthony White
from Sunday Morning Sports Talk. Anthony, of course played for
both Bill Curry and Hal Mummy and really thrived in

(29:22):
the air raid offense. He was a guy who could
catch the ball as well as run the ball, and
we'll talk to him about his thoughts on this upcoming
Kentucky team. You've probably heard a lot of them already
if you listen to Sunday Morning Sports Talk. And a
little bit later on Derek Terry from Batcats Central. Derek
used to cover the Wildcats now he has a real job,
but couldn't stay away so in his spare time, he

(29:44):
publishes the website and if you want to follow Kentucky baseball,
really that is maybe the best way. I mean, he
really keeps up with it. So we'll talk with Derek
coming up a little bit later on some of the
news that, of course right now is dominating the sport
news cycle is the.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
NFL training camp.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
She can pull up Google Sports every day and there's
a reporter on almost every team, but it includes you know,
maybe your favorite team, but other guys you've heard about
former Wildcats, including in the Giants camp. One of the
headlines that came out yesterday was a block thrown by
Wandale Robinson. He took out an outside linebacker with a

(30:25):
blind side block that left the linebacker on the ground
for a minute or two and the guy wasn't hurt,
but he described he said it was a tough hit, clean,
but he said after a hit like that, you just
sort of take an inventory of yourself to make sure
you're okay. But Wandale Robinson really turning heads with a
block like that at Giants camp. You know who else

(30:45):
turnheads was a guy Kentucky fans sew last year. Really
the last couple of years. Jackson Dart, the rookie had
of ole miss and of course he quarterback the Rebels
in that upset loss to Kentucky Wildcats. Didn't contain him completely,
but did a great job when they needed to in
that game and sent the Rebels and Jackson Dart out

(31:07):
of their own stadium as an upset loser that day.
But he was taken in the first round, as most
people thought he would, and it was a little slow
out of the blocks. In the first training camp practice.
They said he was holding on to the ball too long,
believe it or not, but they said he looked much
much better in this week's practice so far. I think

(31:28):
they've got another one today. So Jackson Dart is making
the adjustment to the offense and to the pace of
NFL football. Baker Mayfield of the Bucks says he is
getting guaranteed money for next year. That's a big deal
in the NFL. He's got an extension or he's got
one on the table, and he says he's under contract

(31:51):
through next year. So he's talking about guaranteed money for
twenty twenty six. And again, this is a guy that
looked like was on his way out while he was
with the Rams. Liam Cohen helped him sort of resurrect
his career, and then Cohen left Kentucky abruptly for Tampa

(32:11):
and they brought in Baker Mayfield and he has thrived
there well. Now Cohen's in another part of the state
of Florida. He's the head coach in Jacksonville. But Baker
Mayfield is talking bigger and bigger money with Tampa and
he has Liam Cohen to thank for that, at least
a great deal to thank for that. We talked about

(32:32):
Jackson Dart. Another former SEC quarterback, Anthony Richardson, who struggled
last year with injuries. He plays for the Colts. He
and Daniel Jones are battling for the starting job. Daniel,
of course left the Giants where Jackson Dart is now
did not get it done there as a first round
draft pick, so he is trying to make it as

(32:52):
a free agent with the colt Trying to win the
starting job hasn't looked good, but neither is Anthony Richardson,
who should have stayed in year. They took him because
of his potential, but for all the great things he
did at Florida, honestly and with all due respect, if
they had watched the Kentucky game from that year a

(33:13):
couple of years ago, when the Wildcats went down there
and spanked the Gators in twenty twenty three, you could
have seen the Anthony Richardson, who is struggling now in
colts camp, but in that sport in particular, if you've
got a shot at getting the big money up front,

(33:34):
you go, and that's exactly what he did.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
So Richardson and Jones neither one of them looking.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
Too good right now in colts camp. Meanwhile, really the
biggest story when it comes to NFL quarterbacks and camps
is Cleveland because of Shedor Sanders. And that story then
unfolded on draft night where the Browns actually drafted my man,
Dylan Gabriel, Yes, same initials DJ, no relation. They took

(34:03):
him out of Oregon and then took Shadura Sanders, establishing
a pecking order two rookie quarterbacks in the same draft.
But they also had Kenny Pickett on their roster, the
guy who Pittsburgh gave up way too soon on him.
He came out of pit and got less than half
a season to prove himself and then he gone. So

(34:25):
now he's with Cleveland, but so is Joe Flacco. The
veteran who knows how to win a Super Bowl did
it with the Ravens. But he got the majority of
reps at the most recent practice with the first team offense,
and then Dylan Gabriel and then Shadurah Sanders.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Kenny Pickett's hurt.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
He's got a hamstring, can't make the club and the tub,
so that might seal his fate when it comes to
the quarterbacks in the Cleveland Browns camp.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Now they're getting the most headlines. Quite frankly.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Speaking of headlines, here's one from madd Football, the Madden
ninety nine Club. If you don't know any about video games,
the highest rating you can get is a ninety nine,
meaning players who plug in athletes from various NFL teams.
If you want a quarterback with a ninety nine rating,
there are only two now in this particular version of

(35:20):
Madden Football, and that's Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, the
guys who battles it out for the MVP Award. Then
he had Saquon Barkley of the Eagles. You got a
couple wide receivers, justin Jefferson Jamar Chase. The only defensive
player is Miles Garrett of the Browns. And you've also
got an old lineman, Lane Johnson from Philly to open

(35:41):
holes for Saquon Barkley. But no Patrick Mahomes, which is
weird given the fact that CBS Sports ran a survey
they've got him as the top player ESPN survey of
league insiders, coaches, scouts, executives. They've got him as number
one as well, but not in Madden Football.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
How about that? Well, the Chiefs offense has struggled of late,
and now it looks like, at least in Madden Football,
Patrick Mahomes is a mere mortal, but his old line
isn't the best and they lose Tyreek hillso doesn't have
the greatest at a skill position. Travis Kelsey's getting older anyway,

(36:24):
if you worry about that kind.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Of thing, you know what I'm talking about. Patrick Mahomes
not a ninety nine player in Madden Football. This note
from the NBA, remember the trade, of course, you'll never
forget it. One of the worst, apparently in NBA history.
Luka Donsti's going to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and Moore,
one of the reasons being Apparently the Mavericks drew tired

(36:48):
of Luka Donchet's showing up out of shape. Well, according
to a feature in Men's Health magazine, Luca has slimmed down.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
He's toned up.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Dnchet said, visually, I would say my body looks a
lot better. Two ninety minute workouts a day. I'm sure
you and I do the same workout right, dead lifts, dumbbell,
bench presses, lateral bounds, resistance, ban drills, sprints and hurdles.
Then he goes out and shoots jump shots, each differently

(37:19):
now gluten free, low sugar, high protein. It's almost as
though he's definitely telling the Mavericks you screwed up. Well,
you know what the Mavericks are probably saying, why didn't
you do this when you were in Dallas. We took
you as the number three overall draft pick, but you
never worked out like this for us. So now Luca

(37:42):
losing weight, getting in better shape, determined to make it
look like a terrible, terrible mistake, which we already knew
it was. Finally, there was a guy stalking Caitlin Clark.
I had heard about this and forgot about it. He
got his sentence yesterday two and a half years in
prison after pleading guilty to stalking and harrassing Clark. This

(38:06):
guy's from Denton, Texas, so he's been putting in some
miles just to stalk her. Denton is just north of Dallas,
and he pleaded guilty to one felony count of stalking
and a misdemeanor count of harrissment. Will get credit for
time served whatever that might be, and was ordered to
stay away from the field houses where the Indiana Fever

(38:29):
play where they have events, and of course no contact
with Clark and will not be allowed internet access during
his sentence.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Doesn't say anything about what happens after that.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
By the way, during Monday's courtroom proceedings, this guy predicted
that the world was coming to an end.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
So there is that.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Up next to number two with Anthony White of Sunday
Morning Sports Talk and Derek Carry from Batcat Central. That's
all I had here on the Big Blondsiders thirty.

Speaker 6 (39:09):
Such tagging.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider joining us now
on our celebrity Iseline is a longtime friend that has
shown a guy who's been on the air many years now.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
He is a co host of Sunday Morning Sports talking.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
He's been a guest with us many times, Anthony White
aunt Bee joining us, the former Kentucky running back, and
you'll hear him each and every weekend as he breaks
down UK football. Anthony, you guys have had a lot
of fun talking football this summer. But it's been a
bit of a challenge, hasn't it, because quite frankly, with
fifty new faces, basically, how do we know what we're

(41:18):
getting into when it comes to talking about Kentucky football?

Speaker 2 (41:21):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (41:22):
Yeah, that was the biggest thing. And you know, football
in the summer you don't want to hear a whole
lot about, but you do want the coaches to come
out and be optimistic sales and ticket get the fan
excited for the season, especially coming off of four and eight.
Think about the biggest news we probably had was well,
at first the trance for everybody transferring, the big dog leaving,
But yeah, I was kind of concerned about the program.

(41:45):
And then you know, Mark Stoops it's kind of going
around on the media is saying, you know, us being quiet,
is that such a big deal? Because I when we
pump our chest, then we can win the SEC, or
we go compete for the SEC, we go four and eight,
everybody thinks that, you know, you might be crazy. So
it's been extremely quiet for my twenty years. As you said,
how long I've been twenty years in the in the business,

(42:08):
it's been extremely quiet.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, it really has.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
But you know, it's been a while since Kentucky's come
off of losing season, and really this scenario is new.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Whereas you know.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Stoops, if you recall us first five or six years,
never took a step backward when it came to wins
and losses, and this was a big step backward.

Speaker 2 (42:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Yeah, And game, man, the one thing that, like you said,
we've been talking about, we've been looking for stories and
the one headline is coming up to me now. Man.
Everybody's asking who the next coach is going to be.
And I mean, you've been around UK sports a lot
longer than I have. And it's the idea that this
guy came here, longest tenured coach in the history, done
things that's never been done here, set the bar so

(42:52):
high where if we don't win eight wins, you're if
we don't win eight games, you're upset, which has only happened.
I believe three times. I think Bear did it why
and well ten times barely did that once. Yeah, Stups
has done it too time and one other coach that

(43:13):
everybody else did it once. So you know, on the
fan base is calling for his head. I'm just kind
of you know, I've been through the grinder. I came
here in ninety four, after ninety five, after a one
in ten season, you know, hoping to change the program,
and I thought we had changed it. But now I
mean these guys to sustain its success. But you know,
I guess it would have been so quiet. Everybody's tugging

(43:33):
a Stoops man. I think Stoops would be able to
you know, to you know, to give them, give them
a little grace. The one thing you pointed out to
know people that no one's taken into account. There's only
one bad season since he got it turned around. It
took him, It took him a couple of years. He
got it turned around fashion, I think, And it was thought,
don't give him credit for that, but he does. But
the one season is this is four and eight mark

(43:55):
suits or was the regular seventy five? The eighty fours
here in there, the ten wins every couple of years.
Is that? Is that him? Everybody's hanging the four and
eight on him?

Speaker 2 (44:06):
Do you think what's got to be a big partner?
Excuse me?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
A big part of this was the fact that they've
lost so many home conference games. Generally they've held their
ground at home. Losses they come on the road don't
seem to sting nearly as much because people haven't spent
their harder money. Let's they've gone on the road to watch.
I gotta think that's been a big part of it,
don't you.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
Yeah? I think it is, man. I mean we've talked
about this on your every show I've ever been on.
Because I was scared. I wanted the kids to get compensated.
But this nil, the transport portal has put all the
eggs in nineteen twenty twenty one year olds basket and
there's a lot of money. So and I say that
how it ties in this whole deal? You know who
comes to the games when we play at home? You

(44:51):
know who did not miss a home game in nineteen
from nineteen ninety six to ninety nine, Sell it, Darden.
My mother never missed a game. So you got your
family in town you're trying to do ticket things. Your
mind is I don't think it's really in the game.
I'm not saying that that's an excuse. I don't think
it's okay. I don't think it's an excuse. But there
are those outside things, I mean, other outside things you

(45:13):
being when you're at home. I've always said, I've said
on Sunday Morning, I've said on your show before. I'm
much more focused on the road. Yeah, because you're gonna
be a hostole environment. You gotta listen to signals, you
gotta listen on audible. There's a lot of different things
you got to you gotta be in tune with and
if you missed one word in an audible or you
can get somebody hurt. So I'm really more in tune
on the road. So I think they just kind of

(45:34):
got lacked. You know, guys are making a lot of
money at the end of the day. You know you
probably you probably work with lazy coworkers that you may
not call. I'm sure you're not your stand up guys,
but there's some people who didn't pull their weight sometimes
at a job you've had.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
And I think and the players are saying that the
players are saying that sometimes the guys weren't pulling, wasn't
pulling the road.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, it's funny you bring that up, because I was
thinking about that just the other day.

Speaker 2 (45:59):
I did work with people who all that.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
It seemed like, you know, they weren't playing for the
gun of money, or weren't working for the kind of
money these guys are. All they ever did was complain
about money, and which meant that's all they were thinking about,
you know, while they were doing their job, or instead
of doing their job. And Stoops is basically admitted coming
into this season, he said we had to do a

(46:22):
better job of evaluating players as athletes and as people,
which too, you don't say that unless you believe you
did a poor job.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
And while they did have reasons last year the injuries,
we'll get to that in a minute.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
They made mistakes, didn't they when it came to taking
guys through the portal?

Speaker 4 (46:42):
Yeah, act did I think two guys on the offensive
side of the ball that were in that was supposedly
intest going on the side of the wall. The biggest
thing I think about the portal nowadays, and especially at
our key positions, we hit maybe a home row Will Levis.
I don't know if Wyandale Robinson and Liam Cohen kind
of went in on Will being as good as he did,

(47:03):
but just the whole idea, you know, you need somebody
who's gonna call the snap every play and they should
lead your team and you know, ship train them. I
think how much of what someone else wants to be
paid would have taken if we didn't have Chip we
had that money available, and it's just it's just out
of hand. But I do think there are some you know,

(47:24):
some injuries called some things. I think some people being
comfortable with their being paid call some things. But I
think some of the new people we brought in on
the portal last year didn't paying out And I think
it hurts Stoops. But I mean, if that's the direction,
that's the way of the future, that's the way Stups
wants to go, he's gonna have to nestle in because

(47:44):
I do one thing are fan base ain't shy about.
He makes too much money for Stuse.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I think most people who cover the SEC in general, Anthony,
agree with you that he's earned a grace period, you know,
doing the things a Kentucky that have never been done
before or has to earn a guy some grace.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
So, you know, we'll see how this year goes. But
his attitude about.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
This team is as upbeat as it's been in a
long time.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I think.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
I don't know if you've had a chance to watch
many of the clips, but he talked to the media Monday,
he talked to the fans Monday.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
He's in Louisville.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
He's in Louisville today, you know, talked to the guys
at the Coaches for Kids.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Charity event over the weekend. He's excited about this group.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
And I think you can really tell that he is.
That goes a long way, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (48:38):
Yet. The first thing I said after the season ended
and starters and high Nio guys, our team started hitting
the portal and everybody was worried. I kept continually telling
Larry Vaught and the guys out there, these are four
and eight guys who's leaving the program? Yeah, I mean,
I mean, you got to you gotta look at who's leaving.
So I think he's giddy. And from what I know

(48:58):
from some of the coaches I know on the staff,
is some of those foreign some of those guys that
was that fourign eighteen, no matter what they were paid,
no matter their talent level, weren't pulling their pulling their weight.
I think Mark is happy you started to show off.
We got fifty something new players. I think Mark is
happy he doesn't have to reprogram anybody the fifty something
new players have come in and found. I know for

(49:19):
certain the defensive line has been told if you don't
do what I asked you to do, and if you're
not out there just you know, just pressing. Everybody's not
have the same athleticism. But if you're not pressing out there,
you're gonna stand over here and watch the game with me.
And that's Khalil Saunders, anybody who's returning on that defense line.
And David gust has come in, yeah, and hadn't heard
anything bad about him. So that's a lot of new

(49:40):
guys who's gonna be able to be plugged in there.
Don't feel entitled, just want to play, you know, to
get an opportunity at the next level, or just just
want to play good, good blue collar football.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
It's interesting you mentioned David Gusha. I have never heard
a player other than Randall Cobb, and I'm not saying
Gusta will have the same kind of career, obviously different position.
But I've never heard a guy come in, let's say,
a transfer. I've never heard a transfer come in and
be mentioned more often. And that is as much as
anything Anthony because of.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
What he did in the weight room thirty eight reps
at two twenty five, Jeff Percorrel told me, man, I
can only do four. Do you remember how many you
could do? Because that's amazing.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
It would it wouldn't happen that. It wasn't even half
of that. But I'm telling you straight out of the
coach's mouth. When a straight shooter and a guy that
don't really give you a whole lot of praise, and
this guy's asking for more, Like this guy is sitting
around asking more now, Coach push me. He don't want
I mean, this is last year. He don't want to
leave nothing on the table. And we were getting guys
like that. At one point, Billy Snail was like that,

(50:43):
Josh Allen was like that, there's a lot of guys
who came here hungry to prove themselves. And that's where
I think. That's where Mark, and that's what I think
Mark is happy. I think he knows what he has
in his back pocket. Now it may not paying off
this first year. Is why I keep speaking of a
grace period. But he knows. Man, these guys are hungry.
Let me feed them some Let me feed them some gravel,
you know, let me get them, let me get them,

(51:03):
let me get him game ready. And I think that's
I'm hearing that from all the coaches. We talked to.
Chris Collins this weekend. Bush talked today. I mean, everybody
is a little bit excited. But I don't think they're
putting it into the media because I think they either
want to sneak up on you or you know, when
you get out there and play that blue collar football,
they gonna get back to say and Kentucky, I don't

(51:23):
know what their record was, but man, they sure did hit.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
He is Anthony White of Sunday Morning Sports Talk.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
Will come back and talk more football for ant B
in just a minute here on six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Welcome back. We're talking with Anthony White.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
He is a co host of Sunday Morning Sports Talking,
former Wildcat himself. Of course, once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat.
We're talking naturally about the upcoming season. Always a brutal
schedule when you look at the SEC Anthony. But I've
said once this is one of these years. They had
one like this a year or two ago, not last year,
but maybe two years ago, where it wasn't the teams

(51:57):
on the schedule, it was the calendar.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
You know who they play.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
When you know they got Old Miss, that's a huge game.
But they got to get by a Toledo teams picked
to win the MAC. Mark Soup's pointed that out on Monday.
So you're not going to be able to ease into
the season at all, aren't you?

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Are you?

Speaker 6 (52:17):
No?

Speaker 4 (52:17):
And that's a good Robbert for us, you know, a
top level MAC team, because the top level MAC team
should finish maybe in the lower lower third of the
SEC the top maybe at the lower third. So that'll
be a good, good challenge for us. Then, like you said,
out of the game, we got Old Miss. I don't
think Eastern Mission is going to be as challenging. Then
we got that South Carolina game where Beamer has all

(52:38):
the credit. You know, Mark Steuste has lost his lost
their beamers, so that would after game four, I think
you'll know what we got. The funny thing and what
I've heard from most of the down South, not just
national local media, but I've heard most down South reporters
got us to be the Old Miss. And it's funny.
My partner Van Hows is one who told me. He said, hey,

(52:58):
whit listen. If we beat Old Miss last year, Old
Mys lost more power than we lost. We lost Brock
who didn't do a whole lot that way, didn't lift
up to expectations. Our running back room was deacing, our
receiving room was played down. So why is everybody expecting
us to lose to a team that lost everything? And
we're gonna be better at the positions that we were

(53:19):
worse at last year. And I said, dang, that makes sense.
So he's getting me to believe. But if we if
we pull up that Old Miss game, I'm gonna feel
sorry for the fan base all summer that was asking
for Mark's job. Just because that will I think the
fan base will start to get giddy again. Would have
win over Toledo and Old Miss.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Do you know what I watched?

Speaker 1 (53:38):
I don't know if you did, but on takeover day
on the SEC Network, I recorded.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
And then watched that win over All Miss last year.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Of course I was there and you know, got to
see it up close and personal. But you know, going
into that telecast and make all right, now, how did
this happen? Kentucky played extremely well and one despite the
fact it's still gets up half a dozen sacks, but
Old Miss was called for a bunch of penalties, which
was a problem all year. Dame Key had his best

(54:07):
game as a Kentucky Wildcat, but I thought Anthony did
bush ham Dan and this is early in his first year.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Called a great game. Brock Vandergriff ran.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
The ball well, through the ball well. By the end
of the year he was he had to be punched drunk.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
He was beat up so bad. Uh. But that game
down there at.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Ole Miss, it goes back to what you said about
playing well on the road. They were focused, they pulled together,
they made big plays and you might remember two years ago,
I guess it was three years h they had the
game won and gave it away on a late penalty.
So maybe we shouldn't have been that surprised, you know.
And in terms of people thinking they're gonna win when

(54:46):
they come up here, I think they're banking on the fact.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
That Old Miss is gonna have revenge. Going for him.
My reaction to that is, so what if they're not
good enough, they're not gonna win, right.

Speaker 4 (54:55):
And You're right, Like I said, I think and I'm
sorry to hear that have a lot of people have
reported reporters every reporting. I'll talked to some of the players,
and there's a lot of players like leaders on the
team starters. Yeah, last year, I think we came on
the lost focus. I think we stopped, we took our
foot off the gas. And I'm just like I've told
you for years, man, nobody else can motivate you like

(55:16):
you know, and it's nothing another reason the person is
lined up next to you is your brother for those
four years or however long you stay in college, and
the last thing you want to see them doing is
wheeled out on stretcher. Why is it so sad with
someone's wheeled out on the stretcher because your brother got hurt. Now,
if you know, you weren't given one hundred percent and
that happened, and that I said, there's a lot of little,

(55:36):
small components to the game that I think is being
left out. And these guys are mentioned in that they're
not digging into it as deep as I am but
on the you know, just for the common fan who
watches and thinks this guy is not given effort, I
don't see how you can't. Maybe they're tired, maybe they're injured,
and you don't know about it. But but I'm with you, man,
there's a lot of things that happened out in the

(55:57):
beginning of the season Old Miss game. We want a
little bit more aggressive against Ole Miss because we knew
on the road we were gonna have to beat them.
Lane kipp and gives Lane Kipping another chance, he's gonna
beat you. Then we come back again. We got Georgia
on the roads and we're home, and we want to
be confirmative because we don't want to give cvery smarter chance.
But I mean, if we if we improve from from

(56:19):
last year, because I think the receivers are more committed,
I think we maybe we will have I think Bush
is going to be more comfortable with our personnelity, like
you said, the play calling like it was in the
beginning of the season, and you never count Brad White out.
So I think I ain't really I'm not really putting
them high and the win call him yet, but I'm

(56:41):
being convinced Okay.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
That works.

Speaker 6 (56:43):
I'll let you go with this.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
I will always quote you about this.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
This was my favorite ant be quote when people always
talk about how coaches need to motivate players, and a
long time ago, you said to me, if somebody has
to tell me why it's important to play hard on Saturday,
I need to turn in my helmet.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
I'm wondering.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
I'll still hold to that, I'll still quote you on that,
But I do wonder have you tweaked that mode of
thought now with nil or does it make it even
more important? Because no matter what you're being paid, you
need to play your butt off, right.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
I think you need a little luck. I think you
need a little luck, and you need a little athleticism.
I've been thinking about that for the past couple of years.
And I say that because we had a defensive line
and leave here two years ago, because he wasn't making enough.
He put hisself on the market and can get nowhere
near what he was asking us to pay him. Now.
He was going to be a starter here, So he

(57:42):
wound up landing the home that he made the money
and now he's probably sitting back at home. He made
some money in college or the reason I say that
I didn't really tweak it because I still want that
a hungry person who would play for maybe seventy five thousand,
eighty thousand, the man in two hundred and fifty thousand.
You know how, you know what kind of performance you

(58:04):
have to show me twelve weeks, twelve saturdays a week, weekend,
week out, and that's not even the top. That's just
to start in the SEC. I believe your number is
probably about six figures to be a starter in the SEC.
So I will tweak the Verdicte. But no, I still
want that player who's gonna be self motivated for the money. Now,

(58:26):
maybe this eighty thousand that Dion Walker won't take, Maybe
this eighty thousand. And I'm not giving anybody's numbers. I
don't know anybody's number. Maybe David Gusta says, man, give
me that eighty thousand. I'm gonna lead to say, I'm
gonna lead to lead to the league in sash from the
defensive line.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Man, I cannot wait to watch this guy play. Almost
sounds like Paul Bunyan, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
Yeah, I mean we've heard it a few times, and
we've heard from Dion Walker. We heard from Dwayne robertson
there's been a few of those defensive guys, defensive lineing
guys that came in that they everybody told you they
were different, and all of them played on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Yeah, that's true. That's true.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
And Dion, to his credit, he battled that back injury
last year.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Of course, last year. We haven't even talked about the
injuries that that team.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Last year suffered in the spring, losing three guys, three
regulars for the rest of the year, and then they lost.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
A few more as the season went on. But Stoope says,
it sounds like excuses. What it is is reasons.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
But that's all behind him now and it all starts
four weeks from Saturday. Are you gonna be able to
go to fan Day or the real life get in
the way of that.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
I worked for the school system. We are gonna be
a full gear starting Wednesday. I'm gonna be a full
training mode. But I may trying to sneak out. Now,
you got me on you got me on radio man
saying that I might sneak out, So I don't know,
Well you need.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Me to Hi Jile Dud, Thank you, sir, we'll see
us soon.

Speaker 4 (59:52):
I hope all right. Appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Derek Terry's next here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
to the Big Blue Sider. Joined thing is now as
promised from bat Cats Central Derek Terry. He is the
publisher of the website and has kept his eye on
the comings and goings for Kentucky Baseballs, as it is
with practically every team in America. Derek, it's been a

(01:00:15):
busy summer. Last time you and I chatted, there were
there were already guys coming and going. But they've had
several this summer.

Speaker 7 (01:00:21):
Haven't they They have. You know, you had the draft
that got completed at the end of last week or
maybe two weeks ago now I can't remember exactly exact
I think it's in two weeks now since the draft ended.
And you know, pretty quickly those guys who got picked,
you knew the outcome. All five who got selected who
were either committed to the team through high school or
or through the draft or through the trench report excuse

(01:00:44):
I mean one scenario. And then of course Ethan Walker,
who is already on this team. All those guys are gone.
There's still at a lot of players on the roster.
You know, they added a pretty big commitment in Jayce
Sarnish from Saint Bonia Venture. He was one of the
top available guys left post drafts and they're kind of
starting center fielder quality player, so that was a pretty

(01:01:04):
big ad. And then of course that little prior as
well from Delmine or right hand to pitcher, was another
one that they had post drafts. So we're recording this here,
I believe it's July twenty eighth. We'll see if they
have anyone else to commit. I could see them being
done at this point. What you never know is about
this time last year that they added one more to
the team, Adam Hatchman, who was just here for one

(01:01:25):
season and left. But you know, as it is, I
mean they they certainly. I don't know if they turned
the narrative necessarily, but if you can remember, kind of
during the year it was like, well, we looked around
and saw how many players could come back. But at
the end of the day, they still end up with
a transfer portal class. I believe right now it's thirteen,
so quite a few players left. They brought in a

(01:01:46):
pretty good class and with the guys coming back, it
should be. You know, I think a pretty interesting team.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Now I say it's being called one of the better
transfer portal classes again in the country from Njeon and
staff am I right.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 7 (01:02:00):
I mean I think their position player class in particular
ended up really well. I mean, you know, if you
think about it, their first seven commitments all were right
in the pitchers. So I mean that was kind of
the talk of the of the class was like, you know,
if you were looking at an area which they were
losing some some arms Sink McKay from the weekend rotation
and you know, Simon Gregorson and some more from you know,

(01:02:21):
Nobe Fires God like that from the pen. But you
could also kind of take it as to say, hey,
like we've as a staff they did not think the
pitching was was maybe good enough last year and that's
where that was point here that they really wanted to
address and that's how they started out. But then you
look up in this position player class. I mean, I
think Alex Daffy at catcher was one of probably the

(01:02:43):
ten best portal catchers they could get. Uh you know,
he had Tarnish Scott Campbell from from USC upstate, and
I know he played in the Big South, but he
had three eighty eight the eleven home runs all conference
kind of player.

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (01:02:56):
You know Tyler Serny, I just posted a story about
him in Indiana transfer who you know played in one
hundred and seventy three career games, has thirty career home runs.
You know, this is a class that I think addressed
a lot of.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
What they needed.

Speaker 7 (01:03:07):
And then the way that it blends in. You know,
you know they're going to say that everybody's coming in
and competing, but realistically, you know, Alex Duthy at catcher's
a plug and play player, like you had to hit
on that. You had to have a catcher that came
in here and can handle the staff and I think
produced for you behind the plate. I think he's going
to bring that. And then with Thurny it'll be you know,

(01:03:27):
it feels like that bat will play somewhere in the order.
You know what position will it be?

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
We'll see.

Speaker 7 (01:03:32):
But whenever you add in what they brought in with
Tyler Bell coming back, Luke Lawrence coming back, I mean
I'm a big Eaton Hendle fan.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Yep.

Speaker 7 (01:03:39):
You know, I don't know that he's shown a ton yet.
He's been injured some and then of course in twenty
four it was you know, he had missed daily and
Grant Smith ahead of them, some other guys and it's
gonna be hard to get into the into the line
up there, but Hudson Brown's and other ones, and then
of course with Ron Schwartz, and it'll be an interesting team.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
I was.

Speaker 7 (01:03:57):
I was really surprised, Dick. I don't know if you
saw the Baseball America not have UK and it's preseason
top twenty five. It's way too early, preseason top twenty five,
but I saw the Riders said that they probably would
have been twenty six. But I was surprised, And that's
not really my area of expertise. I couldn't tell you
a whole lot about all the other teams in the country.
I just know kind of with what UK is bringing back,

(01:04:20):
how it finished the season, I really would have thought
it would have probably, I mean, I would have thought
it probably had been plusurre to fifteenth than twenty fifth,
and yet it wasn't, wasn't in the top twenty five
at all.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Yeah, I think it's not been as consistently among the
best in the country to where people just think about
them automatically, you know. So yeah, I was a little
surprised as well. But if you're leaning on transfer portal, man,
that's a mystery story. And to that end, I was

(01:04:50):
really fascinated by the fact that they picked up a
kid from Saint Bonaventure.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
But as long as you know this portal thing is happening, uh, And.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
As long as you've got stories of kids transferring in
from smaller schools and hitting it big in conferences like
the SEC, you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Got to pay attention to those guys, don't you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:12):
You do?

Speaker 7 (01:05:13):
I mean, I think if you look at some of
the best ones, I mean I always say the best
outcome just in terms of where he was sick and
what he mean. I mean Ryan walshmant from Charleston Southern, Yeah,
I mean, he's a guy that is a great success story.
Ryan Nicholson's a little different. He was at Cincinnati, but
you know, it was still a mid major conference at
the time. They were in the American I believe the
whole time that he was he was there. I don't

(01:05:33):
think they hadn't made it to the Big twelve yet.
Maybe they'd sent uh. I can't remember when since the
name went was the Big twelve. Maybe he wasn't the
Big twelve at that point, I can't remember exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
But either way it was it wasn't the SEC yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:05:45):
Right, I mean it was still gonna be a step up.
But you think about some of the arms you see.
You know Trey Booster College of Charleston, Cam O'Brien was
from Campbell. He can go up and down the list.
Uh well, I mean he's not really thought of in
the same way because he wasn't on a team that
was like quite as good. But like Tyler Gilfoyle was
one of the best, had one of the best single
seasons pitching in school history, and he played that lips.

(01:06:07):
So yeah, there's always gonna be guys who come up
that uh that can help them out.

Speaker 4 (01:06:12):
You know they had.

Speaker 7 (01:06:14):
Well I guess the power Power four that is the
Power four transfers are not quite as many as as
maybe you would see. Like a lot of the guys
Kentucky does bring are transferring up a level. But there
have been so many good players that uh that you
kind of just got to wait and see. And the
one thing I've also learned too is just like any

(01:06:34):
year that I would have made a list is like
what I thought the guys might look like, or how
the team might shake out. There's always somebody who's going
to show up and perform much better and someone who
maybe won't perform quite as well, So that'd be curious
to see. I could I've had a mail bag a
couple of weeks ago or maybe last week and rode
out of lineup. That was before Tharnish committed, so he

(01:06:56):
wasn't even a part of that lineup. And I could
go ahead and tell you that whenever they line up
up there in February, it probably won't be right. Like
it's just really hard to predict that something you're out
before the guys get on campus. But I do think
the fatality of what they brought in could do. I
think it's at the makings of a pretty good team.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Talking to Derek Terry, he is the publisher of Matt
Katz Central.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
Website devoted to UK baseball. And you mentioned Jace Thurnish
batt at four oh three last year slash line was
was pretty phenomenal, and you mentioned Luke Lawrence as well.
It's always interesting seeing these guys make the adjustment. Lawrence
got off to a slow start, but as he went
deeper in the season against SEC competition, he ended.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Up being their best hitter when it came to hitting
for average last year.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
So, I mean, you know, every guy is unique. Every
guy has his own way, but they all have to
make that adjustment.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
Don't they.

Speaker 7 (01:07:51):
They do, you know, so I'll make it quicker than others.
I think Luke's a great example that you talked about.
I mean, that was the guy who you know, he
went through a skid there early on, didn't really set
the roll on firreing theg But by the time you
got down to Clinston in that regional he, you know,
especially Tyler Bell kind of hobbled with his injury. I
don't know how many more guys you would have wanted
up at the plate instead of Luke. You know, he

(01:08:11):
was playing really well at the end of the season.
And he's another one of those guys too, and we're
kind of talking about, you know, preseason rankings and whatnot.
He's not going to be someone who factors heavily in
because you know, he what did he hit tharo six
I think is what it was maybe somewhere in there,
But you know, he's not he was never like a
real draft prospect. He was not an All conference type player.

(01:08:33):
But I think Luke Lawrence on a good baseball team
is a really important kind of lupiece where I could
about a term for a baseball way. I mean, this
is a guy who he hit high in the order
for Kentucky. I don't know that he has to to
be productive. As a matter of fact, I could see
him being a guy that, you know, if he's not
hitting lead off this year, I could see him hitting
down in the bottom of the order, being a guy

(01:08:53):
that kind of you know, comes in and jump at
the table. Yeah, take up the bottom of the order,
and that's a long way to be played out to
kind of see how it works out. But I think
Luke is is a guy who you know, he played second,
but he offers some more versatility than that. He played
shortstop at Illinois State, He's played third base, So I
mean he's he's a valuable member of the team. And

(01:09:15):
I think it was kind of not to take him
for granted necessarily, but you knew he was going to
be there. And whenever you get into this time of
the year, it's kind of all about either one your
star retention players, which we're gonna talk to. He was
like Tyler Bell or the new guys.

Speaker 4 (01:09:29):
The guys that kind of.

Speaker 7 (01:09:29):
Fall through the cracks are the ones that are just
kind of steady eddies that you know what to expect.
You know, they're not as much fun to talk about
maybe this time of the year, but they're super important
players than any team.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Curious what they're going to do with Serni though, the
kid from Indiana. Yeah, primarily as second baseman.

Speaker 7 (01:09:46):
Yeah well, I mean you think about it, like he's
never played third, and it's not to say he can't
play third, but if you kind of looked around, it's like,
I think the assumption when they got him was, you know,
this is a kid we're going to bring in the
compete up third or and you know, I'm not ready
to ride off handle and that the h spot will
be another one that it's not really easy for me
to just point someone else there either, Like They've got

(01:10:08):
a lot of names kind of in there who can
be in that mix. So I'll be curious as well
to see what to do with Surny. I mean, it's
good to have that depth if you did have an
injury or you know, the illness whatever might happen during
the course of the long season. It's nice to have
kind of another option. I mean, in some ways, can
you think of it as kind of a kias gar

(01:10:28):
Get replacement, like in terms of how he sits the
roster is kind of what I mean, like just a
backup insul it. You would have higher expectations than what
you know, Kayus had, just because Surny's played a ton
of college baseball. It's hard to think that you're bringing
Surney into to not play, you know, because Kyus is
kind of a backup. But in that regard, I will

(01:10:49):
be curious. You know, he also played some outfield dick
in the in his summer league. So I mean, this
is a guy who's moved around a little bit, and
they've got a lot of bodies out in the outfields.

Speaker 4 (01:10:57):
But uh yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 7 (01:10:59):
That's I've been That will be one of the most
interesting storylines of the wall can't see.

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
I can't see a guy transferring in from a power
conference without some discussion as to how he fits in
on a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
So but you know, I mean, that's that's why they're
running the team and we're not.

Speaker 1 (01:11:19):
But the fall workouts, the fall scrimmages, the inn squads
are going to be fascinating and again that's not too
far away.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
We're talking with Derek Terry a batcat Central.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
We'll take a break, come back and talk more baseball
and just the other side of the break here on
six thirty eight WLAP Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
We're talking with Derek Terry.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
He's a publisher of batcat Central all things UK Baseball.
We've talked about the fact that when it comes to
the portal, a lot of position players when it looked
like and they did need pitching out. And of course
Jackson Jokin withdrawing from the Major League Draft and coming back.
I knew nothing about him. All I knew was he

(01:11:58):
was hurt and coaching First Bay. But from what I
understand now, that is a good get and if not
a great potentially a great gift right.

Speaker 7 (01:12:08):
Very very high expectations, I would say internally, I really
think they feel like they have a player here who's
capable of starting on Friday nights, which is, you know,
pretty lofty to say. Whenever you have a guy like
Vin Sleever, who you know, just started game one for
them for a recent or regional I mean, I think
Ben was I don't have you know, a list in
front of me. It would be hard for me to

(01:12:29):
think that there were fifteen twenty starting pitchers in the
SEC that just had a better season than than cleever
ad or would project to have a better season next year.
So I think they, you know, they view Jalkins talent
pretty high. It kind of pops out that he's been
drafted twice already, would have probably been drafted again had
he gone through with with this, And you know, the
fact that they didn't have to sweat that out at

(01:12:49):
all was a really nice boost. He didn't quite get
the same pop, but I had it happened like on
a draft day or whatever. But like just knowing going
in that and like we've already mentioned, but like you
could easily have a week in rotation established with Jelkin,
Cleaver and then Ny Harris, you know, as a sophomore,
it might not work out that way. They got some
other guys like Jack Bennett who might come in and

(01:13:11):
have a chance to compete. Connor Madison from Grand Canyon
would be another that I would probably look at. But yeah,
that was that was a big deal to get Jelkin to,
you know, go through his rehab and he's one of
the guys too that like he should be. He should
be on pace to really compete quite a bit in
the fall. I'm sure they'll ease him back in, but
he's several I want to say, maybe sixteen seventeen months

(01:13:32):
now those surgery he had it, or maybe maybe he
will be sixteen seventeen months by the time you see
someone in the fall. That might be the months that
I'm getting confused there, but you know, this is a
guy who should certainly be ready for the season though,
and then should be able to get a lot of
work in last.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Year, it was so weird because going into the season
I wasn't real sure about their rotation turned out to
be really effective, but the one thing we thought would
be strong was the bullpen, but so many injuries it
got to where you just couldn't really decide on what you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
Had down there.

Speaker 7 (01:14:09):
That was one area that I think even now, you
know they will have a lot of arms. But whoever
doesn't win the weekend jobs, and then we'll see what
they choose to do with the mid week spot. I mean,
you'll have some options. I know that that spot's typically
reserved for you know, ideally you like to use a
young player who you could foresee one day being in
the week in rotation starting there, but you don't have

(01:14:29):
to use it that way necessarily. I mean, if it's
if it's an opportunity to use an older guy that
is going to help you win some games, then I
think there could be an adventage there because if you
really think about kind of their top arms out of
like the freshman class, you know, Josh Flores would have
been the one who, you know, we had a lot
of potential, but he got drafted by the Brewers and signed,
and then you know, conmor Essenberg was going to be

(01:14:51):
a two way guy, so like he really not left
with too many pictures that you would kind of envision
being that. But could it be you know, sophomore, could
it be someone like and Hunter?

Speaker 4 (01:15:00):
Maybe?

Speaker 7 (01:15:00):
You know, I think Layton Harris, it's probably the most
advanced now of you know, if you take out Nate Harris,
you know, I don't think guys who could make a leap.
I think Layton could be in the mix, but they're
so thin in the bullten with lefties that it's hard
for me to think that Layton won't be used on
the weekends because you have him, you have Bill Coleman
and Toby petersoner or the two that are signed, and

(01:15:22):
then Jackson soussie To transferred from South Carolina or the
other and that's you know, it's pretty much it. I
might be forgetting one person, but uh, there's not a
ton of lefties down there, so I'll be curious. I
could could it be someone like Connor Madison on the
on the mid league who you know, has starting experience
this stuff. Probably you would want him in the bullten.
But that'd be another another interest in the area to

(01:15:44):
see kind of how they how they go about that,
because it's I mean those minic games, are they really
show up if you don't win them, you know, if
you see that where you know, if you if you're
supposed to win and when you take care of business,
you know, everything hells so they can kind of think
your RPI. And and this year, I mean it was
it was going to be in a spot that you
were kind of it felt like they were a bubble team.

(01:16:04):
I guess the committee didn't quite have them all the
way as like the last four end they were kind
of safely in at.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
The end of the day.

Speaker 7 (01:16:09):
But you know, they had started to lose a few
more of those games this past year where they had
been so good in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty
four at taking care of business, especially at home. But
I mean, he was one of those teams they lost
to Murray State, right, yep, And Murray ended up being
phenomenal teams made.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
It all at home, Darling of the of the Baseball World. Yeah,
so you know what I remember about that game. I
remember watching Murray State warm up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
It was a period where Doug and I were filling
out our lineups and I had finished mine, Kentucky had
finished one, and Doug's studies Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (01:16:47):
Warming up, especially the middle infielders. And I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
He was a guy who spotted Patrick Carrero when Patrick
was a little gimpy, when he wasn't he was taking rounders,
but he wasn't throwing the ball. He said, I think
something's wrong with Patrick's arm or shoulder, and he was right.
But anyhow, I'm watching Murray warm up, Derek, and I
said it to the guy that anybody who listen to
some guys, this team is warming up really well. I

(01:17:11):
mean it was sharp, efficient, good throws. You know, nothing
was offline, very professional, and now we know why they were.

Speaker 2 (01:17:20):
A damn good team.

Speaker 7 (01:17:21):
Weren't they They or they were very good. It was
a very solid team and it was nice to see.
You know, I didn't know a whole lot about their coach,
but I think for to build momentum, I think it's
nice to see that he got an extension, he stayed.
I know, he was a finalist of Sentelite for the
Duke job. So just to know that they'll they might
not ever have a season like that again, but just
to ever have a year like that at murray As
it's phenomenal, and I think it's great that coach will

(01:17:43):
still be there, and you know, they won't be sneaking
up on teams as much this year, even if they're
not going to be as good. I'm sure it'll be
you know, a pretty new roster down there. But yeah,
I think Kentucky might have had one more.

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
I can't remember.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
I don't have the schedule in front of me, but
you know, I know they lost that Western, but Western
of another team that was you know, a solid team
and that was not like an RPI killer by any
means that was as a matter of fact, there's a
chance to add an R squad one game or whatever
they call it now, they were, you know, it was
going to be a good win for Kentucky. So I
do think that that midweek spot is is is really important,

(01:18:17):
and then I would just be curious to know who
it is because they don't in my opinion anyway. We'll
see what happens, but they just don't have like that
clear cut freshman young arm right that you would say, yes,
this is an easy projection to be a guy who
could start off in the midweek and maybe even as
the season goes on, like a Travis Smith, uh, you know,
move into the week in rotation. They've had other guys,
who's that Thompson. I mean, I don't know the man

(01:18:40):
after moved into the rotation necessarily, but he started game
one of the Super Regional pre UK back then. So
I mean by the end of the year they felt
like he was one of the best guys. So I
don't see that on this year's team. Therefore, I'd be
kind of curious to know which route they go here
in the mid week.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
Well, like I said, fall ball is going to be
here soon, and that's when they learn everything because.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
The good teams they've had in the past.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
When we've interviewed players and you may have as well,
they all say, we knew back in the fall you
were going to be good. And so that's why you
put so much into that, and why you put so
much stock into what happens in the fall, because it's
so competitive. But that's what happens when you pull good
players together. And if they pull them together and come
up with a pretty good team. You'll read about it

(01:19:21):
on bat CAATs Central batkatzcentral dot com if you're not
a subscriber, if you fellow Kentucky Baseball, I recommend it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Thank you, Derek, and then we'll talk again soon, I hope.

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
All right. I appreciate it.

Speaker 7 (01:19:33):
Thanks having me on, and I'll do it for now.

Speaker 2 (01:19:35):
Thanks to Derek Terry, Thanks to Anthony Whit. Thanks to
you for hanging out with us here in the garage.
That's it. Good night from the garage, and lectioningon.

Speaker 8 (01:19:43):
I'm telling you who's on first, what's on second? I
don't know's on third? You know what the fellow's name, Jazz? Well,
then who's playing first?

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:19:49):
I mean the fellow's name on first base, the fellow
playing first base for Saint Louis. Oh, the guy on
first base who is on first Well, what are you
asking be for?

Speaker 9 (01:20:02):
Tact taping? Donnything can do anything, then station to toss it.

(01:21:29):
Don't tos