2025-08-12 - BBI

Latest from the football Wildcats in fall camp; (19:00) WKYT's Brian Milam on UK football and his move to the KHSAA; (48:00) more UK football chatter with Mark Stoops and Brad White; (59;00) UK stat guru Corey Price on the top 25 UK TD's in the last 25 years...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue Insider.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Dick Gabriel with you back in the saddle after a vacation,
which really wasn't much of a vacation. Ordinarily, I would
have been up at Saratoga. I've talked about this before
on the air with you folks.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
For the last few.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Years, my brother and some friends and I would travel
up to Saratoga.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
We would drive. It's a long drive.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We would break it up with a stop in Pennsylvania.
One of my buddies, daughter lives in Harrisburg outside of Hershey,
where she works for Hershey's Chocolates. But we break it
up by going to a baseball game, either a minor
league game, or we've been to see the Phillies, went
to see the Indians that got rained out. Took the
route up, of course, near Cleveland through Cleveland. But it's

(00:43):
fun and of course Saratoga if you're a racing fan, tremendous.
It's different from Keenland but similar. I'll let you check
it out on your own, but it's just a lot
of fun. And I had just pulled my bag out
of the closet to start packing when I realized I
felt and I thought I just had a terrible head cold.

(01:04):
My wife, who was a nurse, said, I'll bet you
have COVID, and we tested, and what do you know?
Yes I did. And I'm telling you i'd had it
once before, five years ago, when it seemed like the
world was getting.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
It and I was bad. This was worse.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
And I've had the vaccinations I've had, and I'm fine
with that. There are different strains of it. It doesn't cure,
it doesn't make you invincible. But I had been in
situations around big crowds for like three straight days, so
my odds had increased that I would pick it up somewhere,
and I did, and I'll tell you, it weakened me.

(01:40):
It hit me, It knocked me down, and of course
I couldn't go on vacation. I didn't go anywhere for
a solid week, didn't get in the car, and just
kind of hung out. And it just kind of this
particular baut of It's just like the last one sap
me of strength and energy for three or four days.
But I had already, of course, prepared for vacation with

(02:02):
a week of best of shows. Hope you enjoyed them.
That we are back at it live now, just in
time for UK football. We will talk a lot of
UK football today. We will hear from several players and
coaches because today they made both offense and defense available
to us. It was a scheduling thing, a counter thing,
and I'll leave it at that. But we got a

(02:22):
chance to talk to a lot of people, so we
will share some of that today. We'll spread it out
over the next few days. We're also going to talk
some basketball. It doesn't mean we don't want to talk football,
because some of you get upset with us when we
talk about basketball before football has even started. But you know,
now every sport is three sixty five, twenty four to seven.
That's just the way it is now. But there's some

(02:43):
interesting stuff out there I wanted to share with you. However,
it is the time to look ahead even closer to
college football, in part because and Cameron Mills, I hope
you're listening because of the AP preseason.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Top twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
My boy, Cameron hates poles, hates preseason especially he refuses
to accept the fact that they were created to spark interest.
This is like back in the thirties. You know, people
talk about well, you're just doing it to sell newspapers. Yeah,
that's what they were doing. They were trying to get
people to, hey, let's pick up the paper and see what.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Pole has what team where.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I don't know, I think basketball came first, but anyhow,
the preseason top twenty five Pole is out, and mind you,
I do not believe it should play any role in
what teams get to playoffs and things like that, but
it's a great conversation starter for fans. And you may
have seen it body now. But Texas number one with

(03:42):
twenty five first place ballots, Penn State, are you listening?
James Franklin number two with twenty three first place ballots
Ohio State, which some believe will repeat his third. Then
Clemson and Georgia. Now, if you're scoring at home, that's
two teams on the Kentucky schedule in the top five

(04:04):
right now, and of course Kentucky not ranked. It's been
a while since Kentucky's been in the preseason top twenty five.
So the next best thing to do is look and
see who else from the Kentucky schedule is in the
preseason top twenty five. South Carolina thirteenth, Florida fifteenth, Ole,

(04:25):
miss twenty first, Tennessee twenty fourth. That's six teams. Half
the Kentucky schedule is living right now in the AP
preseason Top twenty five. Will they stay there? Some will,
some won't, most will, I would think, But I know,
looking at the schedule, when people are trying to project

(04:47):
for Kentucky something beyond four wins, you got to look
at Ole Miss. Right, with all due respect, you don't
see him beating Texas or Georgia, but you gotta look
at Ole Miss. You gotta look at South Carolina. Tucky's
had I won't say good luck, it's made. It's good
fortune against Florida. So those are three top twenty five
teams right there, and maybe even Tennessee, which isn't as

(05:10):
good as these teams when you know how Tennessee just
seems to somehow of Kentucky's number every year, not necessarily
under Mark Stoops, He's beaten Tennessee a couple of times.
With these are the games that you gotta win if
your stoops in Kentucky, if you want to pull your
head up above water. And it gets tougher every year.

(05:31):
And I heard somebody else or read it saying there's
no reason why Kentucky can't X Y Z. Yes, there
are reasons plural and I just named six names, six teams.
There are some of the reasons Kentucky can get better
this year and still by upper echelon standards, have a

(05:51):
mediocre year with six wins good enough. And again Barnard
has said, Mitch Barnard has said he's not going by
a number of wins. He wants to see him improvement.
You could see improvement in this Kentucky team, but look
at this schedule. It's gonna be tough to exhibit improvement
with wins. Can you get these games into the fourth quarter?

(06:14):
They got Georgia into the fourth quarter, couldn't close it out.
It got Ole missed into the fourth quarter and made plays,
big plays on both sides of the ball and won
the game and then collapsed after that. I don't see
this team collapsing. There's more depth, there's more quality in
theory thanks to the portal. But again, just a brutal schedule,

(06:37):
which is why it's not the reason, but it's a
big reason that anybody who says, well, there's no reason
Kentucky can't compete with these other teams. Look, these other
teams are not stopping they're not backing up as Georgia
backed up. No, is it picked to win the national title? No,
would surprised you again.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
No, George, is that good? Good?

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Now that Texas is in the league, Oklahoma's in the league. Alabama, Yeah,
I know Saban's not there, but they're not backing up
anytime soon. And guess what LSU is coming back to life.
An LSU team to Kentucky a few years ago, pounded
here in Lexington. Suddenly that's a team that is relevant
again in a big way. And you know the improvements

(07:25):
South Carolina has made.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Ole Miss used.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
To be in the eyes of some either a winnable game,
I won't say an automatic win, but a game you
immediately think, oh I got a shot.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Do you think that now? Yeah? They won last year.
It's a new ole Miss team.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
They're starting quarterback from last year is playing well for
the New York Football Giants.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
We don't know what they've got.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Florida has maybe the best quarterback in the league in Tennessee.
It's just a conundrum. So yeah, it's gonna be another
tough one for the Wildcats. We knew this before this
poll came out, but now this puts a face on
the Kentucky schedule, doesn't it if you didn't already know
it's going to be a tough year. All right, A

(08:06):
little bit of basketball here for you. Somebody posted on
I guess it was Instagram a clip from the nineteen
ninety five McDonald's All American high school team. It had
pictures of what twenty four players, twenty two players, including
Wayne Turner, a point guard from Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. I

(08:32):
know he was dreaming of such things, but little did
he know he would be a part of two NCAA
championship teams at the University of Kentucky, another McDonald's All
American at.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Of o'kill Academy.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Nashville native Ron Mercer part of a national championship team
at Kentucky, and, like Turner, played in the championship game
in nineteen ninety seven. Could have won a championship that year.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
But look at some of the other names.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
BJ Mackie from Columbia, South Carolina State home and was
part of an SC team that be fuddled in beat
Kentucky a few times. Stefan Marbury out of Brooklyn, Paul Pierce,
future NBA champion when the Boston Celtics, Vince Carter, great
NBA player, went to North Carolina. One of the best
dunkers ever, Chauncey Billups out of the ninety five McDonald's

(09:28):
All America Team. Hall of Famer Denver native played at
Colorado and like Mercer and Turner, played for Rick Patino.
He played for him in the Pros. Patino drafted him
in the first round, in the first five picks, and
then gave up on him, traded him away, and he
went on to have a great NBA career, and as
I said, he's a Hall of Famer. And one more

(09:49):
name out of the class of ninety five Kevin Garnett,
Chicago native who jumped directly to the Pros and won
an NBA championship the Celtics. There are more, but when
this popped up in my feed, I started going through
the names and I thought, man, this is one heck
of a class. Coming up with the show tonight, Brian

(10:10):
milem WKYT sports director. He has been a guest many
times on the show. But if you follow social media
at all, and this happened right as I began my vacation,
Brian announced that he was leaving KYT staying in town.
In fact, he'll be working right up the street at
the KHSAA. He's becoming part of the PR branch of
the High School Sports Association, so we'll talk to Brian

(10:32):
about that move and about the Football Wildcats. He's preparing
a preseason special on the Cats. Every station in town
is as you will know. Also Corey Price, he is
our statistician on the UK Radio network. Loves to crunch
numbers and he has written a piece for the Kentucky
Football Yearbook looking at the top twenty five as he
sees the history of UK football, the top touchdowns I

(10:56):
should say, over the last twenty five years. When we
come back, we'll hear from the Football Cats on six
thirty WLAP Welcome back Football Wildcats are eighteen days away
and Corey Price, who's going to join us later, always
posting a screen grab of a UK player with a
corresponding number, And of course eighteen is the number of

(11:18):
I think the all time best eighteen. I don't know
who else wore it, but I can tell you.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
That it had to be Random Cobb.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
And so eighteen days away and we'll see the debut
of Zach Calzada, who will be the starting quarterback, and
Mark Stroops.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Has made that clear.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
And after a practice the other day, Calzada talked about
what I think is the most important position group on
this team, and that's offensive line, brand new, basically four
new starters, and Calzada gave it a thumbs up.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
That's the name of the game, I think. You know,
especially early on in the season, it's going to be hot.
You know, we played long games, so you know, really
just making sure that we're conditioned and ready to go
four quarters.

Speaker 4 (11:59):
It's nice to know I.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Have guys in my face all the time, so you know,
those guys do a really good job, and you know
you can see it on film.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
They're fighting every day. So I'm excited for their group.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
And again I've said it many times. You look back
on the last three years of Kentucky's frustrations and a
lot of that has come because the old line just
couldn't quite pull it all together, not just them, not
singling out any one guy or any coach, just as
a group, they just weren't what they had been when
Kentucky was at its most successful. So it's hard to

(12:30):
judge the qbs who have been back there, and if
Kalzada doesn't get time to throw, it's gonna be hard
to judge him as well. But in terms of the
guys he's throwing two new look wide receiver room. Jamori
Macklin is back. Decided not to transfer, of course, but
new faces back there.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
And now with Dane Kee gone, Barryon Brown.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Gone, it's going to take a while to shake out
and see who's who in this wide receiver group.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
But Calzada likes what he's seen in them.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
A lot of those guys, man, I really appreciate that
whole room. You know, it doesn't matter who we have
in there. We do a lot of rotating right now.
So I mean, all of them are coming along. I
like to see, you know, the freshmen coming along. Kim
Miller and Quizenberry have done a great job just showing
effort and you know, just the fact that they believe
that they belong in their room, and you know they're
coming in. They're making their mark.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
This is year two in the Bush hand down offense,
and everybody's got a better chance of knowing what to
do and knowing where to be.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
And we will know.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
This that that there are opportunities to throw down the field.
But it's going to be a typical Marktoops offensive attack
again with balance, and cal Zada pointed out that really
that's okay with him.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
I love a lot of things about the offense.

Speaker 3 (13:45):
I think that our run game is going to set
the tembo, and as a quarterback, the run games.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Your best friend.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
So being able to just you know, let those guys
do their thing and manage the game, and then when
my time comes to take shots and let those receivers
make plays downfield, you know they'll be ready.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
What we talk about isis groups.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
Once again, we're hearing about how talented the tight end
group is. We've heard that for years, but because tight
ends have had to block more than run routes, we
haven't really seen him get down the field and catch
the ball. Maybe that changes this year. And the name
that keeps coming up from not just the offensive guys
Mark Stoops, anybody who's seen this team is Willie Rodriguez.

(14:23):
He's a hard hitter, he's a big guy who can
catch the ball. He's looked good and the two practices
we saw and he's become a favorite of Zach Calazada.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Will He's a dog. I love Willy big guy.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
You know, we're both Cubans, so we got a little
bit of that chemistry already.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
So but no, no, he does a great job.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
And you can tell he takes a lot of pride
in what he does. You know, he's not okay with
missing a play. He's not okay with if there's a
play that he's supposed to make and he doesn't.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
He takes a lot of pride in his ability and
his work. So you know, he's been a great guy.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
If you haven't noticed by now, that's the go to adjective,
that's the go to praise.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Dog.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
If you're a dog, you can play, and if your
teammates are calling you a dog, well, you know, highest praise. Indeed,
we're gonna find out what the players say about Zach
Calzada after Game one and somebody asked him about basically
his role within the offense.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
And he's a guy who knows how to play in
the SEC.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Again, he was at A and M quarterback to win
over Alabama, so he knows what to do out there.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
I mean, for me, it's just you know, being a
quote unquote game manager, and it's just keeping my team
ahead of the sticks. You know, when coach calls said
plays if it's not there or not for using anything,
taking my checkdowns, handing the ball off on RPOs when
I was supposed to, and just and just managing the game.
You know there's big plays will come, but if you're
searching for it, you can get behind the sticks quickly.
So making sure that I keep listening third and short
situations and taking taking the yards when.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
We Zach Calzada is a big quarterback. He's basically the
same size as Will Levis. He's got I think an
inch on him, basically the same weight. And part of
the success for Will lev the first year that he
played QB under Liam Cohen was the run game, not
just the design run game, but when he had to

(16:07):
scramble break the pocket. You remember how he collided with linebackers,
how he leaped over a guy in the Louisville game.
Calzada can run the ball, but offensive coordinator Bush Hamden
talked about how he might have overdone it with a
QB game QB run game last year with Brock, so

(16:27):
he might be a.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Little more conservative this year with Calzata.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
I think this is, as we all know, big players
and this is a big league you know, and so
I think in a lot of ways, his physicality is
certainly going to help us, just from that body armor,
if you will. And lasting I do think mistakes were
made with Brock, you know, and probably early on running

(16:52):
him too much, and I certainly own that from a
standpoint of in this league, that player is going to
get hitten off and he's going to take his shots,
and we got to be extremely smart in not adding
to that.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
I mentioned Jamari Macklin earlier.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
He is a guy who could have gone into the
portal but did not, and he's come back intent on
being a playmaker for the Wildcats. And people think about
transfers all the time, especially when you think about a quarterback.
So what about Cutter Bowley. We talk with him on
media day about why he didn't transfer, and ham Dan

(17:30):
talked about the fact that Bowley did not and that's
an easy thing to do for a quarterback, but sometimes
it presents other challenges.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
But obviously he's glad to have him back again.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
Similar to Jamori's situation, I think the guy is a
Kentucky guy that wants to be at Kentucky and get
this thing right. I think there's also enough data these
days too, for these quarterbacks where you know, the grass
isn't always greener, you know, And I think we've got
a lot of that. And I don't mean that in
the way of leaving, but it's learning a brand new

(18:03):
system from a leadership standpoint, the amount of time it
takes to insert yourself as a starter. We are extremely
excited about Cutter, Okay, I think everybody knows that. With
that being said, in my role, I got to think
about Cutter Bowley and his future and what he's going
to look like in two years from now and four

(18:23):
years from now, and what it could look like after that.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
And so I mean this.

Speaker 5 (18:28):
I mean it's a similar situation to you get a
high draft pick early and you put him in a
situation maybe where the guys around him aren't ready yet,
and he goes out there and can lose confidence quick
And so for him, we want to get him as
many reps as he can, feeling as confident as he can,
get the pieces around it, just like we want to
do for Zach.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
And in case you missed it, after media day, this
is what Cutter Bowley told me and Darryl Byrd.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Darryl's talking to him about why you decided to stay
given the state of the game. What didn't you just
after one year?

Speaker 6 (19:03):
Yeah, it's not a popular thing in college football nowadays.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
But my heart really is here.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
In My heart is at Kentucky, and I really love
CoA champion and everything he does, and I just feel
like I fit in perfectly here.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
That's Cutter Bowley And we'll have more football when we
come back a little bit later on. But up next,
Brian Milham on six point thirty w LAP Welcome back
to the Big Mouinsider, joining us down our celebrity hotline.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
He has done it many many times.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
I hope we have him on the show again sometime
in the near future. But Brian Milam is stepping down,
or at least stepping away as sports director at WKYT.
And Brian this You made this announcement of the KHSA
did right as I was going on vacation, and you
and I chatted on the phone where we agreed to
wait and talk about it this week. First of all, congratulations.

Speaker 7 (19:52):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
There was quite an out pouring of a reaction on
social media.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Did you do you expect that?

Speaker 2 (20:00):
I mean a lot of well wishers on Twitter and Facebook.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
And you were big news. Brother.

Speaker 7 (20:07):
I tell you what, I was overwhelmed and still getting
them a week later. I was truly overwhelmed. I knew,
like with anything, you knew you were going to get some.
But here is a week later and they're still coming.
And it really is emotional to think about maybe you

(20:29):
did something right. Yeah, for twenty seven years, you literally
gave yourself and you can attest to this. When we
do this TV business, we sacrifice family, we sacrifice personal time. Yes,
we get to go to the Final Four, we get

(20:49):
to go to the NBA Draft and the College World
Series and the Bowl Games and whatnot, but we also
sacrifice a lot of ourselves giving the public what they deserve.
And since COVID, I can honestly say since COVID, things
have changed with me personally, emotionally, physically, I see a

(21:14):
lot more gray hair than I did before. And to
be honest, the time in television is dwindling for local
sports and had hurts the heart. And I thought, you know,
I turned down this position two and a half years
ago when it was offered. Julian Tackett with the KHSAA says, Hey,

(21:36):
I want you to think about something and this time.
It's kind of like when Roy Williams told North Carolina
know the first time they and they come back again,
and he said, you know, you don't tell Dean Smith
and Carolina no a second time. And as much as
I have enjoyed UK Athletics is covering them in Eastern

(21:58):
and Morehead and Transy and Midway and Asbury and Georgetown,
my heart has always been with the high school athlete
I know. And I think that deals with my professional
upbringing and also playing for my dad in high school
and being fortunate enough to play collegiately, and and just

(22:21):
the way the passion that communities have for their high schools.
You don't get that all of the time. And uh,
and I love the Week sixteen and the tournament and
now I get to attend every single one something with
salt here in a couple of months.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
When do you want to or not?

Speaker 2 (22:38):
That's right, but no, these you're you're right to start
with your original comments, and you're right and we're not
saying oh woe with us, because we love what we do.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
But I always find it fascinating when people find out
that our jobs are not exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
What they thought they were yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
We we work in in the news department or the
toy department of life, as people like to say. Uh,
and it's not quite that simple, but yeah, I mean,
you know, there are a lot of nights and weekends,
but uh, that's what you sign up for, right.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 7 (23:13):
And when you're younger, at least in my case, you're younger,
you love the curveball that comes. You love to change up.
Oh that didn't see that coming. Oh we have this
five o'clock. There's breaking news. Let's readjust everything. Oh yeah,
I know where that video is.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
I'll get it.

Speaker 7 (23:31):
Hey, Dick, you write it, I'll get the video. We'll
do this, this, and this. Then as you get older,
it's like, oh, there comes another curveball, man, all right.
And it's not easy, especially with the world as it is,
where so much of the population knows the product before

(23:53):
you get a chance to give it out on TV.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
All right.

Speaker 7 (23:58):
I was I was doing doing a radio interview in
eastern Kentucky yesterday and we talked about if there's a
great play at that high school game, the whole world
knows it before you're before you have a chance to
put it on TV. For everybody in your period to
see the way information flows so quickly these days, again,

(24:22):
newspapers are a dying bree. Radio is starting to become
very difficult at times because TV and radio are so interlocks,
because you have to wait to give them that info
that they may already know. And and that and that
also is a change that I do struggle with because

(24:45):
you are Dick Gabriel, a TV and a radio guy
and now a radio guy. And your show comes on
in the evening well at eight AM, and a long
time ago they had to tune into your show and
my show and so and so, and now you get
it as soon as you wake up. You know just
about everything that goes on. But with high school stuff, Dolly,

(25:10):
there is still a burning desire that I have to
tell the stories that we don't get to tell on
TV anymore.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
And that brings me to my next question.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Because I've worked with a lot of people at KYT
through the years who came from from w y m T.
Christy Thomas, uh for starters, but uh and a lot
of people in news producers reporters, but you more.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Than any and I do believe.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
It's it's it's your tie to high school sports. You
maintained a relationship for lack of a better term, with
the TV station, with with w y m T, which
at times it was weird. We were they were our
sister station. Then they were competitors and there were a
sister state. It was kind of a weird corporate thing.
But you know what I'm talking about. But you know,

(25:59):
you would do radio shows down there, you would go
to that part of the world.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I mean, it was not something that you put in.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
Your rearview mirror exclusively. You maintain those ties. And I
do believe that that had as much to do with
the high school sports. Look, anybody can follow UK.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Sports wherever they are, but.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
And you and I have had this conversation on and
off the air before. Nothing binds a community in a
good way, in my opinion, in high school sports.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
And I think you live that you still do. I do.

Speaker 7 (26:33):
And and something else that I think of all the time.
And I don't care if I'm eighty years old and
that coach is seventy two years old who graduated in
the year two thousands, think about that, they were still
my kids. That's how I look at it. And I see,

(26:55):
Gosh Cook, the boys coach at GRC. He won a
state title. After I put down the camera and interviewed him,
what do you think we did? We hugged and I
was so happy for him. I covered him. Ricky Bowling,
the football coach at Great Crossing, I covered him in
high school. The new girls coach at Franklin County, Madison

(27:16):
Webb Sandford, I covered her at Transy. You keep these
connections long after the connection has been made at the
lowest high school level or the college level, you know.
And I love that. And it's just so it means
so much to me that those coaches when they were kids,

(27:39):
I got to brag on them about their athletic system.
Now they're coaches, I get to do stories about them
as they're older. And there is still a love affair
with high school sports that I just cannot get enough of.
And it's because of those relationships that I established in

(28:00):
the mountains that I have in central Kentucky for the
last fifteen years. Justin Havocks, the Boyle County football coach,
I covered a championship run in two thousand and two,
you know, And that has what another example of why
I love what I do, because those people remember when

(28:21):
we would show up to that game in the Mountains
or nobody else did, and they knew they could trust me.
That's right, and there's a trickle down effect across the
state with that.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
We're talking to Brian Milam, sports director for now at WKYT,
but before long he will work for the KHSA.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
We'll talk more with Brian in just a minute.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
We will talk about the Wildcats coming up, because he
can't get away from that yet.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Back in a minute on the six.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Thirty WLAP Welcome Back. We're talking with Brian Milam. He
is a short time at WKYT, has been the sports
director there for many years, but now is moving over
to It's too simple to say, but it's a sort
of a pr job with a KHSA. In a nutshell, Brian,
can you tell everybody what you're going to be doing.

Speaker 7 (29:05):
I will be the media relations and Communications Coordinator director
if you will, what have you for the Kentucky High
School Athletic Association. I will be SID, I will be
the media liaison. I will be a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
I get to.

Speaker 7 (29:25):
As you know, being in TV and radio for decades,
you carry a lot of umbrellas well. In this case,
I will just carry one massive umbrella with a lot
of space underneath to fit in twenty four sports that
I can't wait to dive into.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
You mentioned earlier that you refer to your high school
playing Korea went on to play at Morehead State.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
You are a Butler.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Bear, right, Yeah, all right? I always mix him up
with the Butler Bulldogs. Rob Brownie was a Butler Bulldog.
But you were a Butler Bear. Played baseball, played for
your dad, probably had more than one stop growing up.
But I gotta think, Brian, that that's where your love,
your affinity for high school sports became ingrained.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Is that right?

Speaker 7 (30:14):
Oh? Very much so. When I was a kid, my
dad coached at Iroquois and late seventies, early eighties to
mid eighties, and so I got to go to the
ballpark every day. And when my dad was when I
was younger again, I got to go to all the

(30:35):
Louisville Redbirds games because he was he got some he
got some position as like assistant pr director just so
he could throw batting practice at get murdered. You know
that was awesome. But I've been around sports my whole life,
and I remember my dad taking me to my first
sweet sixteen game, which is a classic nineteen eighty eight

(30:56):
semi finals PRP in Clay County Clay County ninety two
to ninety And then that night my dad says, watch
thirty two for Clay County, meaning Richie Farmer Well, I
think russ Chadwell had thirty eight against Prpasa Well, number
ten's a lot other than thirty two. And then that

(31:16):
night Richie goes after fifty one against Ballard in a
losing effort. My first football game at the state level
was your Trinity Shamrocks and Jeff Brom beating Louisville Man.
Oh my gosh, my dad's alma mater. Really they beat
him nothing. That was my first state championship game.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Oh that wasn't the high scoring game.

Speaker 7 (31:40):
No, that was fifty nine to fifty six Trinity and Mail,
the last game ever played at the fair Grounds, Cardinal State.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah. Those are all locked in your brain, aren't they.

Speaker 7 (31:52):
Yeah, they are, they really are. And the one thing
you know, you think you talk about Brom, he had
in that game five hundred and fifty two yards passing
in that game. Bush had four hundred and sixty eight
yards passing in that game. There was only one. Brom
had seven touchdowns passing Bush had six. I mean it

(32:15):
was nuts and what a way to close out the
fair Grounds in two thousand and two, but with arguably
the greatest game EP.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Yeah, you mentioned that you're going to be dealing with
twenty four sports, and I know that that everybody who
plays a sport believes that their particular team or and
especially appearents deserve more coverage and things like that. And
as you mentioned, you know, traditional media is shrinking as

(32:46):
we speak, I mean TV, airtime, newspaper.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Columns is now. The Internet is blowing up.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
So how are you going to face this challenge of
and you're not the only one. Every high school of
and administrator in America is dealing with that when it
comes to media coverage. You know that that's a heck
of a challenge to get everything out there as best
you can and give all the sports the attention they deserve.

Speaker 7 (33:15):
Yeah, it's not going to be easy, but there is
I think what Julian Packet, the commissioner of the KHSAA,
would like, and he mentioned something to me about this
weeks ago. You know, so many times the KAHSAA gets
a they get a negative wrap well, why aren't they
doing why aren't they doing that? Well, there's a lot

(33:37):
of legal aspects that they have to be careful with.
You know, there's I'm going to be here in a
few weeks sworn to secrecy about a lot of things
that Okay, why is that kid eligible? And this one
isn't they're the same thing, you know, they're not. I
just can't tell you why because of and so there's
so much on the surface. You know, people, we've all

(34:00):
been guilty of this because we see something we just
think we know what the ingredients are to make that something.
Well we don't know all the ingredients to it. And yeah,
there's gonna be a lot of things that you have
to fight. But I love telling stories, Dick, you know that.

(34:21):
And you know coming up this March will be the
fiftieth anniversary of arguably the most important Sweet sixteen champion
in the history of the game as we know it
in this state, and that was Edmondson County. Yes, sir,
and say, okay, what's bo Davenport Edmondson County got to do?

(34:45):
Why is it the most important? Because, as you know,
Louisville Mayo, Louisville Central Shawnee, Lafayette, Shelby County, just on
the outside of Louisville Ballard. They were taking care of
the Sweet sixteen and it almost went to classes that
I still think that's one of the most romantic things

(35:07):
about high school basketball in the state.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
There's one champion.

Speaker 7 (35:12):
And if Edmonson County does not beat Christian County in
seventy six, we may have we may be like Indiana
decades before they changed and have three classes, four, classes, five,
whatever it is. And you know, we get to tell
that story here in about eight months or so, nine
months whatever, and you get to tell stories that the

(35:35):
TV time does not allow you to do anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
And we also need to throw in the efforts of
Stan Steidell and the people who put together the all
A that I think that was You're right, Emonson County.
That's number one with a star, but number two or
maybe one A is the creation of the all A.
And people might want to scoff a dept. Just go
to one of those tournaments and watch the kids sell

(36:00):
right after they win it.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
It looks the same as the tournament we see in March.

Speaker 7 (36:04):
It is and you know the tournament the ALA went
statewide in a Sweet sixteen format in nineteen ninety, but
the ALLA started a decade earlier and it was just
the Northern Kentucky thing first. And Billy Hicks, the winningest

(36:25):
coach in state history, who unfortunately is no longer with us.
I want to do a story years ago about the
state championship he has that no one remembers. It was
the nineteen eighty three all A state title and he
won that and people were like, he won the title.
I was like, yeah, but you don't know about it

(36:46):
because the all A was not what it became in
the nineties and two thousands, where you've got to see
some teams win the ALA or win the Sweet sixteen,
but they couldn't win the ALA. Yeah, Paintsville and wins
the big show, but they can't win the All Night.
It shows you how good it was.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
I just, you know, like you said, you know, we
might have been like Indiana. Hell, we would have been
like everybody else. I got to think that there are
a lot of different and they probably would admit it.
But administrators across the country they look over here and say,
how's Kentucky doing this? You know, And they got to admit,
deep down, that's pretty cool, especially when a smaller school
like Lion County jumps up and wins it.

Speaker 7 (37:29):
Yeah, and you know the romance again of high school
sports two years ago when Lion County wins the Sweet
sixteen and they face Harlan County, and Harlan County was
the first Thirteenth Region team to go to the championships
since the aforementioned nineteen eighty eight Clay County team lost
a ballad Alex Houston and Richie Farmer and Mark Bell

(37:53):
and Russ Chadwell and Russ Farmer and Box Rawlings and
all of those guys and the all less can't produce
a lot of great champions and great players. But yeah,
to see a Lion County in Harlan County two years ago,
to see little evangel out of Louisville go to the
Final four two years ago, there's so many wonderful stories.

(38:16):
And I know on the girls side, Sacred Heart has
become the juggernaut of all juggernauts. But there was also
a time wins the twelfth Region with Laurel County and
Roy Bowling and nineteen eighty one Pulaski County wins it,
Coach Hert wins it, and there's just golly. I could
go on for days about the wonderful stories and the

(38:39):
way high school sports brings all of us together.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah, it absolutely does.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
And by the way, Sacred Heart did beat George Rogers
Clark for the championship, but that thing was touch and
go down the stretch. I mean grc oh Man had
a shot, so it's not like Sacred Heart was rolling
over everybody. But again, that's what makes it great. After
the news break, we we'll talk Kentucky football with Brian
Milan back in a minute from six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 8 (40:00):
The show everything then anything to.

Speaker 9 (40:14):
Stating welcome back.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
We are talking with Brian Milham, who for the time
being is a sports director w k YT, but is
moving over to the KHSA before long but hard to
work right now on preseason coverage of UK football. Do
you have your hands in the preseason special or have
you turned that over to somebody else?

Speaker 7 (41:22):
Well, no, that is one of the last big projects
that I will have is doing the preseason UK special.
And you know there's you know, there's a lot to
talk about with football because for one, all of the
new faces and you know. I made reference to the

(41:47):
movie Major League early in that movie where they're like,
I haven't heard a half of these guys, you know,
And the same thing with this UK team. It's like,
who's this guy? I've never heard of him before, where'd
he come from? And that's I think for UK, they
have a chance to do something that nobody sees coming
because no one knows what to expect out of it.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, you're right, that's a good point.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I was envisioned Mark Stoops and his staff in a
situation like this, handing out how my name is tags
to all their players when they first get there. One
of my favorite duties when I was at KYT, both
when I was in the sports department and then in
special projects was that preseason football show because there are

(42:32):
so many storylines and you know, new faces and everybody's bigger, faster, stronger,
And not to mention the fact that the guy that
we used, uh I think it was before you got.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
There or maybe during I don't know, but from the
UK TV network.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Back then was Jeff Pacaro, who is now at least
on TV a competitor of yours, and I still have
the outtakes of him screwing.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Up his stand ups.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
I can't share him with you on the air for
obvious reasons. But no, that was that was such a
joy because you know, you get to talk to so
many people and then you've got a little more time
to put it together. But this Brian this season, you know,
I've I've been around her since they pumped up the
first football. This season is unlike and I'm this is

(43:20):
not har Purple any other in the history of Kentucky football,
simply because there are fifty new faces plus guys coming
back from last year. So what a mystery story.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
You know it is.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
And you know, and I think, when if you go
back early on in Mark Stukes's UK career, that first
year was just a wash. He's just trying to accept
with something. He's just waiting for the cement to drive,
you know, and it just wasn't. But then he started
out five and one his second year, couldn't get to
a bowl game, four and two in year three, couldn't

(43:55):
get to the bowl game. But you could see things
were developing. And when then UK goes on that run
of eight bowl games in a row, and I thought,
as you did, and so many others did he was
his best when no one saw him coming, right Will Levis,
who's this guy? He's a what's he gonna bring? Okay,

(44:19):
So and so get hurt. Benny Snell, what's the story
with this guy? Oh, you couldn't keep one Dale Robinson.
He goes to Nebraska and then he shows up in
Lexington again. What a game changer. Nobody saw that coming
to that degree, I think, and you know, I think
there's a lot of a lot of comparisons with this team.

(44:40):
Who is this Dante Daldell? Who is this Seth McCallan
guy in the backfield? Nobody knows? Can Zak Calzada? Can
he be that next quarterback you don't see coming? What
about that old line? Can they figure it out? Is
the d live? Is this heat guy as good as

(45:01):
he is an interview and as.

Speaker 10 (45:03):
Deep as he is?

Speaker 7 (45:05):
You know, there's so many question marks. And Mark Stookes
said during the preseason then you heard him say it
several times. All we did was put our heads down
and get to work.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
That's right.

Speaker 7 (45:17):
And I think that is that blue collar Cardinal Mooney,
big ten Iowa Hawk guy mentality that he grew up with.
And I think that's and if you k can run
the football and have a great a very good offensive
line and a very good defensive line, I think Kentucky

(45:39):
can be the surprise of the SEC. But time will tell.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
I agree completely and putting the head down and going
to work.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
People don't want to hear that because well, you know
that's that's not glitzy and glamorous. But you know what,
to your point, when you go back to when he
first got here, you know he said, look, there's no
shortcuts all. It's just going to take a lot of
hard work. But the biggest difference was when people were
from around the league, how Stoop's doing this, how's he
getting this done?

Speaker 1 (46:07):
I just shrug us at good players, better players.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
You know, the teams you and I covered through the
years had some good players just didn't have enough. And
now you know, God help me.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
If you turn on.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Preseason NFL football, you see a lot of I saw
Brendan Bates catch a pass. You see a lot of kids.
Maybe they don't make those teams, but maybe they're under
practice squad. They're at least getting a shot in the NFL.
But they were at Kentucky. You know, especially those teams
that were winning ten games. You know, the Big Blue
Wall at his best had four kids who made it

(46:40):
to NFL camps, you know, And you can shrug that off,
but that's what it takes to compete in the Southeastern
Conference now. And if you don't have it, you know,
you're going to run run out of gas in the
fourth quarter, the way some are Rich Brooks's teams did,
the way Bill Curry's teams did, the way some of
the Clayburne's teams did. Because it always comes down who's
got the most talent in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
People don't want to hear that, you know.

Speaker 2 (47:04):
They think they got out coached or they didn't want
it enough. It comes down to players, and we're gonna
find out soon, aren't we.

Speaker 7 (47:11):
Yeah, we are, you know. And I think Mark Stookes
did something nobody thought he could do, and I think
he really relishes that. When I think back to when
Bill Curry was at Kentucky. What did a lot of
the pundits say, you cannot go to Ohio and Pennsylvania
and bring the Kentucky. Well guess what he did. And

(47:34):
maybe because it took one to no one, Hey, look
you come here and this is what you're going to get,
but we've got to set that foundation. And those first
three years for Stuke Boy, there were some great highs
and some tough losses and some near misses, but you
could see the wheels were turning. And then it took
off with that first bowl game and you know, Benny Snell,

(47:56):
what if and I cannot remember the running back he
got hurt? Maybe it was, yeah, but that New Mexico
State game. If Benny Smill does not go in in
week two or week three, does Kay go to a
bowl game that year? You never know. But it exploded
with Bennie and then it took off after that. And

(48:16):
you know, Eddie Grant. I still think you've got to
give that man a lot because he made so much
with duck tape and super glue, with quarterbacks getting hurt
and he turns Lynn Bowden into all world and man,
it's been such a great fun decade plus with Mark Sukes.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Well, I always say UK fans for years they cannot
wait to love football, and by that I mean throw
themselves into it the way they do basketball. I don't
know if they'll ever be able to fully do that,
but you know, and I've said it for years. One
of my most fervent desires is for Kentucky fans to
get to do what I did privileged for fifteen years.

(48:58):
I worked the SEC Football Champion for SEC Radio. I
produce the radio broadcast and I'm telling you just just
go there once and you'll see what I mean. I
so want that for Kentucky fans. If it happens, well,
you're gonna need to get a ticket, my brother, because
well maybe is a big shot. With the KHSA. You

(49:18):
can you can work your way into a game like that.
But I do appreciate your friendship and I wish you're
best of luck. Let me know if I can open anyway.
And it's been so much fun. We'll have you back
on the air at some point, I'm sure.

Speaker 7 (49:32):
Yeah, Julian Jackett, the commissioner wants me to do a
podcast eventually, and hey, let's talk about the high schools
and the this and the that, and yeah, there's gonna
be I'm sure some bleed over into UK and and
things in the future. But it has been twenty seven
years of mostly fun and now I get to be

(49:54):
a little selfish, you know, and maybe have a life.
I get to be home by four fifteen on most afternoon. Yeah,
I get to go in at eight, and Julia says, look,
if you have work to do, just do it at home.
Get out of here, go home, be with people you
love and people you don't know yet, and you know whatever.

(50:15):
But it's gonna be a it's gonna be a life change,
for sure. But I have enjoyed people you know, like
you and Robbed and all the guys over the decades.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Sure to appreciate a brother. Best of luck to you,
Thank you man. I'll stop short of.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
Saying I'm gonna miss having Brian on the show, because
he'll be on occasionally, but just not as frequently as
we had him on as a long time voice of
UK sports in Kentucky sports in general at WYMT and
wk Y team. Brian and I are really simpatica we
you know, we live parallel lives and we ran the
sports department at Channel twenty seven. But also things like

(50:53):
saving old video and knowing where everything is. You know, Brian,
like me, is almost obsessed with you know what we
call our chives video because in sports so often we
look back on great games, great people, great stories, and
if you don't know where the video is then you know,
it doesn't do you any good if you're working in TV.
So he and I commiserate quite a bit on that
kind of thing. But best of luck to Brian, and

(51:15):
I'm telling you the KHSAA is going to be better
off for having him. When we come back More from
the Football Wildcats a little bit later on Corey Price
from the UK Network will tell us about a project
that he undertook looking at some of the greatest touchdowns
in the last quarter century of UK football. All ahead
on six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
More from the Football Wildcats now, including Seth McGowan, or
running back who may see a majority of the carries
this year, at least a lot of them. He's the
guy who transferred in from Oklahoma, where he was on
his way to a big career, then ran into some
legal issues. He made some bad decisions, had to sit
out for a year, was looking a serious jail time,

(51:58):
but work things out. Transferred to Kentucky and on media
Day he talked about what it was like trying to
get through that period without football where he really had
to take a good look at himself.

Speaker 11 (52:10):
The biggest form of you know, we talked about self
love so much, but you know, the biggest form of
self love is disciplined, is honestly, you know, not giving
yourself an option.

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Other than the option of success, other than the option
of prosperity.

Speaker 11 (52:27):
And you know, and doing that, you know, you want
to pay great attention in detail today, So you know,
I do think you know, it allowed me to discover
more about myself. Like being the absent day year, I
was absolute coming from you know, a team, just you know,
being home about you working just you know, working with

(52:48):
my pops, you know, driving driving their home every day.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
You know, you just kind of you.

Speaker 11 (52:54):
You've got a lot of time to play about. You know,
who you are and who you want to be, who
you who I was really being.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
And that's how I feel like I always was.

Speaker 11 (53:03):
I just had to step back into step fully into
who I've always been. You know, I think I just
wasn't comfortable with that at the time.

Speaker 7 (53:12):
You know, now I feel like.

Speaker 11 (53:15):
I've I've done that, and you know, I feel like
I've shown.

Speaker 12 (53:19):
That and I think you know, everyone's who's who's experienced
me since then is with is with it and with
me and with everything that I'm about it's you know,
just keep rying and coach, you know, just you know,
keep pushing.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
That's seth McGowan running behind a revamped UK offensive line,
and Mark Stoup's talked about that coming out of the scrimmage.
He didn't like what he saw on Saturday. Needs to
see more of the same.

Speaker 13 (53:51):
It's good in a scrimmage situation just to see the
complete operation, you know, and just see, you know, what
is real pressure and what's not, because when we're out
there getting so many reps in practice sometimes that is
hard to judge whether it was a true sack or not.
And you know, so I think, you know, we just
got to continue to watch it. You know, anytime during camp,
you want to see one side do well because they're

(54:13):
doing something exceptional, not because the other side's inact and
I'm starting to see more quality football.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
Right of course, Stoops, like every other coach in America
looking at innsquad situations, can never be sure of what
he's seeing because if one side's doing well, the other
side is not. But they can break things down in
terms of video and figure things out. Brad White is
in the same boat. The defensive coordinator is trying to

(54:41):
figure out what he has with some new faces and
some experience, but just like the offensive side of the ball,
he's looking for more consistency every day. And with all
these guys coming to the portal and the season opener
coming up, he's got to see consistency sooner than later.

Speaker 14 (55:00):
And it can't just be you build that consistency for
an hour or two on the football field or an
hour in the locker room. It's got to be all
the time. And so we've been pushing that because there
has been a fair amount of turnover. I think the
guys enjoy being around each other. They're getting there, but
the reality is that they're going to have to They're

(55:21):
gonna have to learn from older teams that we've had here.
You know, when we watch film and you know it's
of the you know, the twenty one team or the
eighteen team, and guys that grew up in the system.

Speaker 4 (55:33):
They've got to learn.

Speaker 14 (55:34):
They're going to have to get their scars and their
scabs from guys that grew up in the system. And
because if we take those lumps, we're probably taking them
on Saturdays and we don't have time to scar in,
you know, and fix it like that. Those things are
gonna cost us, so they have to kind of learn
a different way.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
There is some experience, as I said, on the defensive
side of the ball, and as they're learning each other,
White has brought this up more than once. You know,
they got to learn on the fly, got to make
the mistakes, got to benefit from them. But minus guys
who were part of Kentucky's better defense, is how do

(56:14):
you get better by taking advantage of that?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Well, you look at the video and you look at the.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Two teams at won ten games, especially twenty eighteen that
had josh heinz Allen.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
You know, you can learn from that.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
They had a lot of good defensive players on both
of those teams. And so White has been using video
from those two years to teach these guys that he
has today about what he needs and what he expects.
And he also talked about leadership from one of the veterans,
Ty Bryant.

Speaker 14 (56:46):
There's probably about five guys in that room right now
that have been in the defense for you know, three
or more years, where in three or more years in
terms of getting good quality game reps, so they understand this,
they understand the issues they've been in part of really
good wins and they've been part of really tough losses,
and so those guys are going to be vital, you know,

(57:10):
for in Tie just today in practice, like you heard him,
you felt him, you know, in terms of there was
a it wasn't a miscommunication, it was just a soft
communication between guys. Well, you can't can't be soft.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
It's got to be loud.

Speaker 14 (57:24):
It's got to be monstrative. And he was very firm
both on the field and then when we came to
the sideline like hey, listen, guys, this is what's got
to occur. And so that's what you need from a leader.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Diy Brian as Wildcats go as a legacy as Dad
Cisco played wide receiver for Jerry Clayburne's Bowl.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Teams back in the early eighties.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
And I talked to Tie back in the spring about
what happened last year. He said, nobody wants to see
that happen again. Talked about it again pre fall during
fall camp as well, and it sounds like he welcomes
what Brad White was just talking about, you know, being
a leader, being outspoken, being vocal, and picking up where

(58:08):
some of the guys that are gone, picking up where
they left off.

Speaker 15 (58:11):
You know, my leadership, my leadership on the team, like
verbal leadership has definitely gotten better. My boss skill has
also gotten better as well. Leadership is just big and
my family and what I do and stuff like that.
My dad taught me how to be a leader at
a young age, and so I just feel like, you know,
I had great leaders to look up to, like Zion
Childerns and MaTx Harrison, but now they're gone. So it's like,

(58:31):
you know, it was only right for me just to
step up and take the role.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
Brian is part of that defensive back group that is
the most experienced area on the Kentucky defense. So don't
be surprised if you hear his name a lot.

Speaker 7 (58:46):
And uh.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
He's a guy, he's a playmaker, he's.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Around the ball, and he's a guy who's going to
be vocal, going to be more vocal for his teammates.
And that's something that this team needs. Obviously, every team
needs it. And the guys who say I lead by example,
they don't want to be vocal.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
You know, you need more.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Wesley Woodyards he was vocal from day one. Randall Cobb,
he was vocal from day one, and that's what kind
of gets it done all right.

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Coming up next, Corey Price.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
He is our statistician on the UK Radio Network and
he has put together an article for the Kentucky Football
Yearbook talking about the top touchdowns. It's his list, but
he basically lists the top touchdowns of the quarter century,
the last twenty five years at Kentucky Football. And we

(59:33):
had a lot of fun looking back on that here
on six thirty WLP welcome back to the big moon
side of joining us now on our celebrity hotline. Is
a guy who's going to be hard at work very shortly.
With the UK Radio Network. He is our statistician, Corey Price.
He is about all things numbers, but also every now
and then bangs out the occasional article which he has

(59:53):
done for the Kentucky Football Yearbook. And Corey, tell everybody
what you wrote about I thought this was a pretty
a project.

Speaker 16 (01:00:02):
Oh yes, thanks stick for having me on your show again.
So starting in twenty eighteen, I've written a piece for
the Football year Book every year, and this year is
having a little trouble trying to figure out what tore
right about. And I noticed that there've been twenty five

(01:00:24):
seasons played football since two thousand, there was a lot
of top twenty five lists like polls and whatnot, so
there would be kind of cool to do my list
of the top twenty five touchdowns in UK football over
the last twenty five seasons. And it was hard to

(01:00:47):
have it narrow down to twenty five, but I think
it's a pretty pretty list.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
That's a great idea. Now what other criteria? I mean,
was it spectacular play, the drama, you know, the state,
the point of the game when it happened. I would
imagine it's a little bit of everything.

Speaker 16 (01:01:01):
Right, Yeah. I tend to lean more towards the importance
within the game. I mean, there's there's no doubt there
are several that are great plays, but I would say
most of them are like late fourth quarter game winners
after you know, a decent comeback game winners, you know,

(01:01:24):
top ten teams to top twenty fifteens, that kind of thing.
That's that's why I leaned mostly on.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
And how many of these games did you see in person?
Do you have any idea?

Speaker 16 (01:01:36):
Actually I went that looked of the twenty five that
I looked at, I've been to nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Twenty five, no kidding, Yeah, tell us your history UK football?
When did you start going to games and that kind
of thing.

Speaker 16 (01:01:54):
I went to one game in the two thousand seasons
against South Caronta, one of my good friends down down
the street eating his dad. I think it's an ass
if I would go with them, And then I didn't
go again until my freshman year UK, which is they
choose US and and four season, and since two thousand

(01:02:14):
and fourth been to every home game and the several
road games and all of the bow games.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Of course you were there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
We'll get to these specifics, but you were there early
then in the Rich Brooks era, and you saw a
lot of big plays during that twenty oh seven six
a lot that O seven had some big plays. That
was the greatest offense so far in the history of
UK football, isn't it?

Speaker 6 (01:02:42):
Yes?

Speaker 16 (01:02:42):
In terms of points scores, and it's quite a book.
And for me for my time at UK, my four
years a UK span from two thousand and four to
two USand and seven, and in two thousand and four
team was not good at a two to nine record
and not do on offense. And then that's forward to
my senior year two seventy and like I said, it's

(01:03:04):
the score record for most points score. They were very
very excited to watch, had a lot of great, great
singers who made a lot of great, great plays.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
So I know that you used newspapers dot com, which
is a great resource I do as well. It's a
lot of fun too to go back and looking. If
people follow Corey on social media, which they should, you
see him posting a lot of clips and things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
But I've got to.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Think that this had to begin Corey, just with your
your basic memory of what has happened with regard to
UK football then and then you followed up with research
or was it the other way around?

Speaker 16 (01:03:45):
I guess mostly memory. I mean, like I said, like
I asked, I was at nineteen of those point five games.
I remember pretty pretty fondly. But it's actually there's a
section in the UK Football Factbook that I actually helped
create the of all the schools four quarter game game

(01:04:08):
winning scores. I used that kind of as a crutch
to kind of narrow it down as well as I could.
I mentioned the piece that UK scored nine hundred and
eighty two touchdowns in the last twenty five seasons, so
the narrow it down from nine hundred and eighty two
to twenty five was quite quite past. But thankfully I've

(01:04:32):
got done.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
What about road games games and you might not have been.

Speaker 16 (01:04:36):
At Oh yeah, I mean I did for ones, I
didn't have the greatest memory of I did look at
the old box scores. The that's all one, you know,
kind of stood out. That's where I looked at words
old old box scores.

Speaker 2 (01:04:54):
Well, we want people to read this, so I don't
want you to give away the score. But what were
some of the highlights when you went back and started
looking at touchdowns through the years.

Speaker 16 (01:05:06):
Well, I have to be honest with you, Dick. I'm
biased ilan like I said, leaned towards the time that
I was at UKT too. So hello. My freshman year,
I had a decent one. One of our two wins
was against B and D. I think it was senior day.
We're down thirteen to nothing in the fourth quarter and

(01:05:28):
we were one and eight. Our record was one and
eight going into the game, so it wasn't great. But
Shane Boyd and Glen holt Ye they had two touchdowns
together the last monthink. It was like a minute thirty
nine left to complete the thirteen point comeback. So I
was that was big my freshman year, and then fast
forward to my senior year, I think there were two

(01:05:50):
pretty big touchdowns. I guess Louisville they were like number nine.
Will had won seven of the previous eight games in
the series, so they had, you know, what wasn't good
for us that person history in the game, and Watson
found Stevie Johnson why white open down down the sideline.

(01:06:12):
It was like about forty seconds left to win that game.
And then fast forward a few weeks after that, we
play number one LSU at home again and it's the
battle goes to the third overtime. I believe it's third down,
What'son's about to get sacked? He gets the ball off
in time and the DV for LSU falls down at

(01:06:36):
the goal line and once again, STEVEE. Johnson's why wide
open in the end zone and our defense stops him
and we win that game. As as special.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Somebody posted that video recently on x Twitter or whatever
you want to call it, and I do believe because
of circumstance, that's the biggest touchdown, the most important in
his Tree of Commonwealth stadium slash Kroger Field.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
But to your point, yeah, Andre.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Woodson got the ball off only because Derek Locke, of
all people, and I say that because he was a
running back, but not the biggest running back. He threw
a block, he threw a chip block, he picked up
a blitzer, didn't he And that enabled Woodson, that gave
him just enough time to get that off. So you
can say that might be the biggest block. And of

(01:07:28):
course you know, uh, they stop LSU the biggest defensive
stand on fourth down. So that was the heck of
a night, wasn't it.

Speaker 16 (01:07:38):
Yeah, it was a specialized said I was a senior.
I rushed the field that game.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
You might have run right by me.

Speaker 16 (01:07:44):
I was out there probably, so I also rushed the
field against Louisville. But I was just I was so
happy and so and so joyous because, like I said,
the first three years and well, I guess the first
two years weren't one great was the UK In my
junior year they kind of got together, got the eight wins,
got football game, and then my senior year it was awesome.

(01:08:06):
And there's a lot of guys that were also seniors
that took him to great, great, great height.

Speaker 2 (01:08:12):
Yeah, talking to Corey Price, he is a statistician on
the UK Radio Network. He has also written for the
Kentucky Football Yearbook for this year, an article looking back
on the top twenty five touchdowns in the last twenty
five years of UK football.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
What about defense? What about special teams?

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (01:08:32):
I kind of took the easy way out and I
didn't rank themselst of them in order from oldest most recent,
and the oldest one I have on the list is
actually from the two thousand against Indiana late in the
fourth quarter. I had the ball and Dwayne Robertson shacked

(01:08:53):
Antoine Wendel as the fumble and Matt Leo pick it
up and squarely, I mean under two two minutes left
to win that game. I think they were down I
think thirteen or seventeen at one point in the game.
So that's pretty big. Special teams. I don't I actually

(01:09:15):
don't think I have my special teams going on there.
Oh I do, actually sorry, Derek Abney, Yeah, Missus State
justin three it was his eighth career punt or pick
return for a touchdown, which at the time had the
NCAA record for most career kick return touchdowns. So that

(01:09:35):
that I have another list, I.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Would suggest the blocked kick, the blocked field goal try.
Oh yeah against Florida.

Speaker 16 (01:09:47):
You're right, I forgot that is on the list. Yeah
that wall Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Yeah, yeah, I mean gosh, and a true freshman plucks
it out of the air and and takes it in.
What a fun assignment. It had to be one of
your one of the phaves that you've done.

Speaker 1 (01:10:04):
I would think, right, yes, it has.

Speaker 16 (01:10:08):
It's just great looking back.

Speaker 6 (01:10:10):
I know.

Speaker 16 (01:10:12):
On on the outside and we'll probably perceived as this
great program, but I know people that are inside the
state and love the program so much. It means a lot.

Speaker 7 (01:10:22):
For me.

Speaker 16 (01:10:22):
It's especially growing up a Cats fan and go and
go in the UK. It's always been a lot. So
to look back well, last twenty five years, and like
I said, it was it was hard to have it
down these twenty five with I think we're fortunate though,
with many, many, many great touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
And what was the total you said in twenty five years.

Speaker 16 (01:10:44):
Nine hundred and eighty two. Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
I guess there are times, as you will know that
it just seemed like, man, they're never going to score.
Then all of a sudden they starts coming, don't they.

Speaker 16 (01:10:54):
Yeah, like I said, just like my freshman year, they
had a hard scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
I remember that play Glenn Holt. You mentioned Boyd to
Holt and Glenn Holt was kind of walking the tight rope.
Wasn't he in the back of the end zone yet?

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
And Shane.

Speaker 16 (01:11:13):
And it wasn't the wasn't the best looking ball? Nope,
it's kind of wobbly, But you know in the box
score it's it's all the same.

Speaker 1 (01:11:24):
Listen, one of the greatest touchdown passes I ever saw.
You weren't there, You weren't even alive. I wouldn't think
in nineteen seventy six, but.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
Derek Ramsey throws a pass, a touchdown pass down in
Knoxville to beat Tennessee, and it just seemed like that
thing was taken forever to get There was not a
thing of beauty, but the result certainly was. And sometimes
passes are like that, aren't They? And Andre Woodson have
the most.

Speaker 16 (01:11:55):
You know, I didn't break down the list that quarterback.
I think I might just have for what'son. It might
just be the l s U and Louisville games. The
only one for my time of UK was the two
thousand and six Georgia game, but that was a run

(01:12:15):
run by Dixon, So I think it's I believe it's
only two paths.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
That was huge, wasn't it.

Speaker 16 (01:12:23):
Yes, So we were I think down ten or eleven
at one point, I think George d Business, I want
to say, eight or nine years years in a row
they were. They were the defending uh S, the East champions,
so that was a big one. And of course Winley
got the pick of Mats Stack or two. I see

(01:12:44):
it Dick's run.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Yeah, And it's interesting watching Matthew Stafford now and all
the great things he's done in the National Football League
and you see him on the Quarterbacks documentary and stuff
like that. But he looked like a freshman, didn't he.
He got rushed and he and he made a bad throw.
And and again Lindley, who also had a huge pick
in the L s U game, didn't he.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
So arguably two of the greatest picks in uh in
Commonwealth stadium history. So I just love stuff like that.
Uh So, to be clear, is the number one I
want to ask you to give it away? But is
the number one? P D is at your all time favorite?
I mean this is strictly subjective, right.

Speaker 16 (01:13:26):
Oh yeah, this is this is my list and like
I said, I didn't rank them. I slipped them in
order from most oldest.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
Oh okay, so they're not ranked.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
Okay, I got you, I got you, all right. So
that's something people can have fun with, right, they can
rank it themselves.

Speaker 16 (01:13:43):
That's right. I'm sure there will be some touchhowns that
people think should should be on the list. Oh yeah, absolutely,
that's that's great for debate.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
Well that said, do you have a favorite?

Speaker 16 (01:13:56):
Yeah, once again, I'll I mean I had to go
back to O seven my my senior year. It's hard
to pick between Louisville and and LSU I would I
would have to pick, honestly, probably Louisville because, uh, as
you know, growing up going to Louisville, it's there's a

(01:14:16):
lot of red here. So it's it's it's it's always
fun to beat them. And like I said, they won
seven of eight, so I just wanted to go out,
uh as a senior with the win and to win
it like that, which was pretty special.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
Yeah, And that game just had to feel like here
we go again. We've seen this game before, We've seen
this movie before. Uh, you know, Louisville's gonna Kentucky'll come
for and you know, they had the penalty on Eric
Scott the movie out and then to this day I
teased Derek about that on the air and and then
we came to the conclusion that all that did was

(01:14:52):
give Andre more room to work. But feel But what
I thought was the most interesting thing of all about
that touchdown play was that they knew it might be
there because they had it earlier in the game and
didn't get it. That same play covered by uo L
that same way safety was cheating, and I think before

(01:15:13):
they broke the huddle somebody said don't forget about Stevie
or something like that, and it just seemed like one
of those moments where and I think clearly Corey, that's
where the rich Brooks program really took a hard turn
in the right direction, don't you.

Speaker 16 (01:15:29):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean I like said six the train
was start year role for sure, but then death O seven.
I mean it reached reached heights that the school hadn't
seen you up until you know, STAPs and I guess
the twenty eighteen season probably, Yeah, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Tell everybody again how they can find your article.

Speaker 16 (01:15:51):
It'll be in the Kentuty Football yearbook. I believe It
is only being sold at Cooverfield during the home games,
so the first time you can bay that would be
August thirtie.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
All right, well, we'll look for it, and I appreciate
the time, and I will certainly see you in the
booth on opening day, if not before.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
Thank you brother, Thank you Dick.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
And we'll come back and wrap up this edition of
The Big Blue Insider, and just few on six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Just a
quick segment here, my thanks to Corey Price and to
Brian Mile.

Speaker 1 (01:16:22):
I'm going again.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
Best of luck to Brian, who I like to call
mister Baseball. He so loves baseball. When he would do
the eleven o'clock news, he'd go home, and of course
you can't get to sleep right away, so he would
every now and then on YouTube pull up old baseball games,
that's right, old Major League baseball games and watch them
and talk about.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
It the next day. Some game from nineteen ninety four.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
That he was watching and getting all excited about it. Ay,
good for you, Brian, But again, best of luck to him,
and we'll hear from him again at some point, I know.
But he and I talked about this off the era,
this day in sports history. Mickey Mannele, who was my
first and for many of us favorite baseball hero, Sweitch hitter,
and I wanted to be a switch hitter because of him.

(01:17:07):
I'm sure a lot of kids did. But in nineteen
sixty four, on this date, he hit two home runs
in the game, one from the right side of the plate,
one from the left side. Sweitch hit a home run
for the record tenth time, and that was the last
time he ever did that, and one of those home
runs went five hundred and two feet. Mickey Mantle not

(01:17:27):
only hit home runs, he hit tape measure bombs. Pretty amazing.
Now fast forward ten years on this day, ten years ago,
Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford became the first teammates inducted
into the Hall.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Of Fame on the same day. That is really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
One other important baseball night on this day in history
in nineteen seventy and you've heard my Westend Bureau chief
Gary Moore talk about Kurt Flood, formerly a great center
fielder for my Saint Louis Cardinals.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
On this day he lost his.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
Four point one million dollar anti trust suit against Baseball.
He's the guy who said, no, you're not trading me
to the Phillies. I'm not just something an object you
can trade. While we're trading your contract. Now we're trading you.
He sued and lost this case, but the ripple effect

(01:18:24):
led ultimately to free agency in Major League baseball.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Some would argue not for the better of the game.
Some would say it was for the better.

Speaker 2 (01:18:34):
It certainly wasn't fair for the players who had no
say in where they went to play and who would
pick them up.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
If they were traded.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
Things like that, because baseball was, of course given the
anti trust exemption. Kurt Fled challenged that in the court
lost his case, but it ultimately paid off for the players.
And look, the owners are filthy rich and getting richer
by the day, so don't worry about them. One final
baseball note, Harmon Killerbrew went into the Hall of Fame

(01:19:06):
nineteen eighty four Minnesota Twins slugger. I bring this up
because he was my brother's favorite player. One of my
brothers was, for whatever reason, a Twins fan. They were
winning in the sixties, so he adopted them, and that
was I think one of his favorite players, my favorite
player at the time.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
Later in the late.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Sixties became Pete Rose and I met Harmon Killerbury played
in our children's sharity golf tournament. Could not have been nicer.
One of the great gentlemen in all of baseball just
in general. A great guy. You can't say the same
about my guy, Pete Rose. They were both great hitters.
One's in the Hall of Fame, ones not. Maybe he

(01:19:43):
will be someday.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
But funny how that works out. That's going to do it.
Thanks so much. Good night from the garage and Lexington.

Speaker 7 (01:19:51):
If you're blue and you don't know where to go to,
why don't you go where fashion?

Speaker 10 (01:19:56):
Since such.

Speaker 8 (01:20:18):
Tact taking the show anything can anything do anything? Least

(01:21:15):
I think to don don don don Don do