2025-08-13 - BBI - Big Blue Insider with Dick Gabriel

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
on a Wednesday edition of our program, and coming up,
we are back on schedule after my week off, so
we'll be talking with our Western Bureau chief, Gary Moore,
as we do every Wednesday. Also unforgettable guard Sean Woods.
We'll talk not just basketball but football with Seawn, now
the head coach at Scott County High School. Also Cole Park,

(00:22):
will join us. He is the new staff writer for
the Cats Pause, covering really everything but primarily football and basketball,
taking over for Aaron Gershawan you follow Aeron on Twitter,
you know he's already taken over and started his new
job at a college down in Florida, Sunny Florida, so
he's an sid down there, a PR guy. But we'll
check in with Aaron every once in a while, especially

(00:44):
if we need to talk about his beloved New York Yankees.
But this being Wednesday, we need to get right into
it as soon as we can. But I need to
open the show and I've never done this to thankfully
evident really haven't had the cost to with an apology
for last night's show. If you listened, which I appreciate
you may have noticed there were a couple of segments

(01:07):
where I didn't really sound like myself, such as I am.
That's because I was working through a kidney stone. Now.
I had pre recorded a couple of the interviews with
Brian Milem and with Corey Price of the UK Radio
Network the night before, so those all sounded normal, you know,

(01:29):
I mean as normal as I can sound. I got
up that morning yesterday morning, and had back pain and thought, well,
I must have slept wrong because I thought it was muscular.
But way in the back of my mind, I thought, man,
this isn't a part of the body on my back
where twenty years ago at least I had experienced kidney stones,

(01:50):
and I've had up until yesterday for what I call attacks,
two of which needed surgery, but two others that were
really bad, and then some little bitty ones here and there.
Yesterday got worse and worse, and I had finished almost
the entire show except for two segments that I had

(02:13):
left open because I was going to go get interviews
from the UK football and coaches and players. And with
every minute I realized I can't do that. I can't
even get in my car and drive much less weight
around and conduct interviews with players and coaches. I was sweating,

(02:34):
threw up. I mean, you know, it was just if
you've bet into kidney stone, you know what I'm talking about.
If you haven't, please try to avoid them, talk to
your doctor about your diet. Anyhow, it just got worse
and worse. So finally I did use some UK football
interviews which I had had here in my system, and
was able to work through the two segments, all the

(02:56):
while sweating and squirming in my chair because it hurts
so badly, and finally got the show fed off to
the radio station in Billy Rutledge, and then my wife
and I headed for the er, where I spent the
next five hours at the UK hospital. It took great
care of me, but it's just when you go to
the er man you get in line and unless you've

(03:19):
got a limb hang it off, you gotta wait your turn.
But they took good care of me, and ironically enough,
while I was seated waiting to see the triage doctor,
doctor Atkins, great job, big UK fan shout out, Apparently
I passed the stone because by the time he began

(03:40):
to poke and pride. Does that hurt? Nope? Does that hurt. Nope,
tell me where it did her? Right here, right here? Okay,
cat scan all that stuff and we walked out of
there a little after five o'clock. But this is, you know,
more bad news after bad news. I took the week
off again. We had the best of shows because I

(04:03):
had scheduled my annual trip with my brother and with
some friends to Saratoga, a drive trip that we split
into two days. We would stop and catch a baseball
game wherever we were close to Cleveland or Philly or
a minor league game, and then go play the horses
for four days, run an airbnb. We always have a
great time. Well, those guys had a great time without

(04:24):
me because I had COVID. I came down with COVID.
I was packing, or actually I didn't even have the
strength to pack. I pulled a bag out of the
closet and was just standing there, beaten down, and my wife,
who's a nurse, said, I'll bet you have COVID, and
we have the home tests, and sure enough, it takes

(04:46):
fifteen to twenty seconds before it lets you know. Within
ten seconds it had registered positive for COVID. So there
I was no vacation and really no energy to do
anything around. I never left the house for a week
or eight days, and just later on and finally felt

(05:07):
better after a couple of days of miuds. But so
I come back, get one show put together on Tuesday.
But as I'm finishing that show, here comes the kidney stone.
So it's been a wonderful last eight to ten days.
But thankfully, knock on wood, it's all good right now.
So again I apologize for the quality of at least

(05:29):
two of the segments for last night's show. It's not
what it should have been. But now you understand what
I was dealing with. All right. Tonight we'll talk football
and basketball. But in coming up a list of the
best basketball coaches in the country, according to whoever. But
the same people who put out the College Basketball Report

(05:50):
put out the College Football Report, and a guy named
Bill Connolly listed the best coaches in college football right now,
purely subjective, purely designed to fill space on the Internet
and create clicks and talk and debate and all that. Well,
I'll skip ahead for you. Mark Stoops, believe it or not,

(06:12):
is ranked twenty third. And I say that with all
due respect because so many times people fall victim to
recency bias, and of course Kentucky's coming off a poor season.
But this guy apparently is cognizant of the fact that
Stoops has come to a place where coaches in the
past who come to die, and has cranked out some

(06:34):
pretty good football teams, including two they won ten games,
a program that went to eight consecutive bull Games. So
he's got Mark Stoops ranked twenty third, and I respect
that should he be higher, I don't know that's a
good discussion to have, but I respect the fact that
he's got him in his top twenty five. Number one's
Ryan Dade Ohio State. Josh Heipel of Tennessee second. How

(06:56):
about that he's got him ahead of Kirby Smart of Georgia,
who's only won two championships. James Franklin at Penn State
is fourth. You can make an argument he did a
great job at Vandy. Dabo Swiney of Clemson is number five.
Dan Mullen, Dan Mullen, he got fired at Florida. Come

(07:17):
on now, he's number six. Lane kiff And is seventh.
Brian Kelly, who's got some pressure on him at LSU,
is eighth. Jeff Trailer is ninth, Mike Gundy, he's a
man at Oklahoma State is number ten. I'll skip through
the rest. You got Billy Napier at number twelve, Florida
Kaitlin de Boor thirteenth, Jeff Brahm of Louisville number fifteen. Interesting.

(07:42):
Kirk Farenz, who coached Mark Stoops at Iowa, is ranked
number seventeen. Again, it's just one man's opinion, Billy Connolly,
But it's fun to look at, fun to read and
get you ready for college football season. Up next, Rick
Patino apparently is forgiven U of L. That's next on
six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Bluensider. Coming
up at the bottom of the Ara Cole Park from

(08:04):
the Cat's pause, we'll talk about Kentucky football. Of course,
as we get ever closer to opening day, our number two,
our unforgettable guard, Sewn Woods, will join us. We're actually
going to talk football with Sean as well as basketball.
But I want to talk about how did football fit
in to the UK athletics picture when he was playing,

(08:25):
compared to now after success from Mark Stookes, who, of
course is at least in the eyes of some fans
on the hot seat. He's not really, but there are
obviously a lot of fans who are restless now after
falling short really the last three years, although two of
those years resulted in seven wins in bowl games. But
that's not where we are now with Kentucky football. So

(08:47):
we'll talk with Sean about that, and of course, in
our second hour, our Western Bureau chief Gary Moore will
join us. A little bit of basketball chatter here. And
again these are the results of people trying to fill time,
fill the internet, Phil column inches phill airtime as we
get ready for college troops and we are what eighty

(09:08):
three days away? But there was a posting by College
Basketball Report listing the top fifty head coaches in men's
college basketball, and of course this is completely subjective, one
or more people getting together and ranking them. How do
you do that? Beats me, but somebody had some fun
putting it together. I will skip ahead and tell you

(09:30):
Mark Pope is ranked twenty eight, and again he is
the head coach obviously a Kentucky but had been a
head coach prior at Utah Valley State at Brigham Young.
I don't know that he makes the top fifty unless
he's at Kentucky or unless he's had a huge breakout
season or two at Brigham Young. But we saw what

(09:50):
he did last year, just doing an incredible job putting
together a roster for a program that was basically out
of they had no scholarship players, and played the schedule
it did, put up the wins it did, made the
postseason run that it did, and so yeah, he's twenty eighth.
Maybe he should be higher. But go to College Basketball

(10:13):
Report on the CBK Report on Twitter and you'll find
this posting. Dan Hurley is number one, no surprise. Kelvin
Sampson mark few. Rick Pattino is number four at Saint John's.
But of course this is body of work stuff, and
we all know what Patino did before he got to
Saint John's. Matt Painter from Purdue is number five. He's

(10:37):
one of these guys. He's kind of a coach's coach.
He's a really good basketball coach, and he's one of
those guys that coaches talk about when they talk about
really good D one coaches. Bill Self number six, the
Natoates of Alabama. Bruce Pearl from Auburn number eight. How
about that Alabama Auburn running seven eight. John Shire of

(10:57):
Duke is number nine, and Todd Golden from Florida, the
defending national champion, is number ten. I'm not going to
read the whole list to you. I will tell you
number eleven. Scott Drew, the guy who turned down Kentucky
and stayed at Baylor. That's why Mark Pope is here.
But yeah, you see a lot of the usual suspects.

(11:18):
Mick Cronin is twenty second at UCLA. That's a program
that still kind of flies under the radar. He's doing
good work out there, but you just don't hear that
much about UCLA unless they jump up and make the
final four, as they did at one point. Shaka Smart
is number twenty six, Sean Miller is twenty seven, and

(11:39):
then you get Mark Pope and right after him, Will
Wade at NC State is twenty ninth. Pat Kelsey, if
you're looking for U OFL, is ranked thirty third. He
did a nice job last year. Had to rebuild a roster,
just as Pope did, and then set about and win
some ball games, which it did. So Yeah, like I said,
CF hey, I'm sorry. C BK Report is the title

(12:05):
if you want to try to find it on Twitter.
But it's an interesting list and it's something to talk
about if you're waiting for college basketball. So is the
comment made by Rick Patino recently. If you haven't heard it,
Rick Patino has basically said all is forgiven regarding his
relationship with the University of Louisville, which of course fired him.

(12:27):
Some of Patino's people, people he hired, let him down,
did stupid things and ultimately put the program in a
position where they had to fire Rick Patino, and he
talks about that in this comment, but he also talks
about why he feels good again about u of L,

(12:48):
and it has everything to do with Tom Jurich, But
he also works in a lot of high praise for
his man, Mark Pope and the job Pope did and
has doing at the University of Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
I had a lot of problems with the University of Louisville,
and there's certain things I will never forgive that they did,
but that has nothing to do with the president administration
at the University of Louisville because the people that I
was upset about are no longer bought a trustees and
it really wasn't upset that they fired me. Anybody can

(13:23):
be fired. I'm okay with that. It was the treatment
they gave Tom Jurich. But just recently they named the
street outside of the of the practice facility Tom Jurich's Way.
So all is forgiven, all is forgotten. I no longer
even think the slightest bit negatively about the University of Louisville,

(13:45):
and I would go back in a New York minute.
So it's everything's forgiven that Tom Jorge Way.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Is up there.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
I really don't care too much about myself. My staff
did some things that I did notppreciate, and I have
no problem with them terminating me at all. So I've
got to take responsibility for what happened that was, But
I also take responsibility for seventeen unbelievable years, three final

(14:15):
fours in the national Championships. So great memories, great place.
And Kelsey is doing, like Mark Pope, an awesome job,
awesome job. I love his enthusiasm, I love what he's
all about as a teacher.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
They've got two great.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Coaches in the state of Kentucky, as good as there
is in our game.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
I have to admit that kind of surprised me. Now
what he was saying about Pope. But what he was
saying about juris in the fact again that all has
been forgiven in the mind of Rick Bettino, and he
owned the fact that, yeah, the guys he hired, he
took responsibility for those guys. That's what got him fired,
you know. And I went on the air, and I'm

(14:58):
not a big fire the coach kind of guy. I
did not think he should have been fired for the
triest that he had with the woman who tried to
blackmail him, and the partying in the dorm, the trippers
in the dorm. But ultimately when one of his assistants
was drawn into that FBI sting with the Adidas money

(15:18):
and all that, yeah he had to go because he
was not taking good care of his program. And evidently
he owns that now, so I gave him credit for that.
So anyway, I just thought that was interesting hearing Patino
talk like that, shifting gears very quickly to baseball. And
I know some of you out there have given up
on baseball, but those of you still enjoying him. A

(15:40):
lot of you out there Atlanta Braves fans, because maybe
when you were growing up, the Braves were in their
heyday and won you know, all those divisional titles and
only won one World Series. But they are dealing right now,
as are most teams, it seems, in the major leagues.
And we'll talk with Gary Moore about this coming up.
And I re number two pictures with arm injuries. Pitchers

(16:04):
are just throwing too damn fast. They're pitching with an
eye on the radar gun. And I've talked with a
couple of pitching experts and doctors and stuff about this,
and right now they're out there trying to throw as
hard as they can for as long as they can
until their arm gives out. Then they have surgery and
they try to come back. I was reading this the

(16:25):
other day. You know who didn't throw as hard as
he could, believe it or not, Nolan Ryan, And he
still threw incredibly hard, but he took care of his arm,
and he also knew he had better control if he
didn't try to hit you know, one h three on
the gun every time. But that's not the way it
is now. And John Smoltz, the great John Smoltz, great

(16:47):
picture for the Braves now I really find broadcaster was
on a radio show down in Atlanta and he talked
about this subject, and he's been banging the drum on
this for a long time time.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
And the one thing that I've been saying like a
broken record for ten fifteen years now is why is
everybody doing the same thing over and over again expecting
pictures to stay healthy? Why why is nobody doing anything
about it? And the answer is they know it's going
to happen and they're just dealing with it. They're not
going to do anything about it. This is an era
where we are stuck in an addiction to velocity and spin.

(17:25):
There is no interaction with the generations in the past.
Zero I mean zero across the board. This is not
just an individual organization problem. This is league wide and
so when this happens, you have to deal with what
it comes. And this year is a byproduct of the
worst case scenario. And you can make an argument that
next year would turn around and go right back to

(17:46):
the expectations of the Braves being really good. You can
make that argument. But what people don't understand there's no
guarantees that that's going to be the way it is.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I think that is incredibly wise course coming from John Smoltz.
He's a smart guy. But now when you have so
many suits who are sitting behind computers running baseball and
baseballs like the NFL, every pro sports league is. They're
copycat leagues. So you put a guy out there who
can throw between ninety eight and one oh two, we

(18:19):
got to go get us one of them instead of
going out to get somebody and invest in somebody who's
going to be there for a while. You know, the
betting right now on Paul Skeens is how long is
he going to last? Throwing the way he does kind
of an unusual delivery, throws hard, a lot of movement
on his pitches. But it's like people accept the fact

(18:40):
that it's only a matter of time before he shuts
down with an arm injury. And I read a piece
and you may have heard about it. Tommy John's surgery
is something that is just mushroom. Now. So many pitchers
have had that kind of surgery. Some have come back
better than ever and some don't. But within that article

(19:05):
I read where parents of high school kids are asking
doctors to perform the surgery on their sons so they
can pick up a few more miles per hour on
a fastball. It's crazy. And when a guy like John
Smoltz comes back to an argument he's been making, as
he said, for ten or fifteen years. That's how you

(19:27):
know it's getting to the it's been at the stupid
level in the front office of baseball teams everywhere. All right,
that's my conversation with you up baseball. We'll get back
to football in a minute with Cole Park of the
Catch Balls here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty
wlap Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider and joining
us as he does every Wednesday from the Catch Pause

(19:48):
is Cole Park. He covers the football and basketball cat
but right now he is up to his hips in football, though.
You're probably working on the basketball yearbook, right.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (19:58):
You know a little bit going on in the back
around there, getting some basketball stuff going, a lot of it.
You know, there's a few of those non conference teams
that haven't really put out rosters yet, getting some stories
going our fearless predictions, but you know a lot of
it right now. You know, Darryl's kind of shifted his
gear a little bit working on the August edition of
the print edition of Cats Paws, but a lot of

(20:22):
the basketball year book has already kind of finished, which
is a probably a bit surprising this and how early
we are from it. But we worked really really hard,
and even a couple of stuff, a lot of stuff
actually that Aaron got finished before he even left.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's like a going away gift
that he left to you, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
He gave me a checklist of a bunch of the players,
a bunch of the teams that he'd already done, and
I was.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Just like wow, like he really laid it.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
Out for me.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah. Well, let me shift you over to football because
you've got an interesting piece on the website and again
go to two four seven sports dot com Backslash College,
Backslash Kentucky or of course pick up the Cat's Paws,
and you got to look at six UK players who
could take the next step in twenty twenty five. We
don't want to give away the story. We want people

(21:10):
to go to the website in the news stands and
read all about it. But I wanted to touch on
some of these names really interesting and I think one
of them that you have in there at number four
is Montavin Quisenberry, who's a freshman wide receiver of the
kid from Boyle County, and when Mark Stoups talked about
him on signing day, Mark Sduke mentioned wan Dale Robinson's name,

(21:33):
which I thought was really interesting. That's high praise, indeed,
And it's not just that he's kind of diminutive and
is from Kentucky, but his game is similar. Why did
you put him on your list?

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (21:45):
I mean I admitted in that little section there that
it's not technically a returner because you know, like you said,
he's a freshman, but being a KHSA prospect at a
Blow County, you know a lot of fans are familiar
with him, and a lot of it was just because
we've heard so much about him.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
You know.

Speaker 5 (22:02):
It's it's at the stage now where games aren't being
played yet, the season still a few weeks away. He
kind of are paying a lot of attention to. All Right, well,
whose name keeps coming up? Who do I keep hearing about?
Who do you know teammates talk about, coaches talk about
all across the board, and and Clinton Berry is one
of those guys. I mean, it's it's really really impressive

(22:23):
how much we've heard about him so far as a
as a true freshman coming out of whole county, and
you know, he's one that he was committed to West
Virginia ends up flipping that commitment to come to Kentucky.
You know, we got to see him out there on
the field on fan Day at the open practice, and
I think something that's really interesting to me about him.
You know, Scoops credited his ability to kind of track

(22:45):
a deep ball. He's got you know, he's got really
good vision when he's out there running his routes. But
I also just think too, you know, he's a freshman,
and I think you hear about this in the NFL.
You hear about this in college. But there's that that
gas happen in strength a lot of times and sometimes speed,
but a lot of time strength. And I've seen, you know,

(23:05):
Quisenberry go up against guys who are quite a bit
older than he is and not have any fear, not
have any you know, he's fighting for the football and
a lot of times he's coming down with the football.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
You know, he's going against some of these.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
Guys who are a lot more experienced than he is.
And it's something that Zach calls out to set after
the scrimmage. You know, he credited Cam Miller as well
as well as Clissonberry. But you know, he said they've
done a great job just showing effort and the fact
that they genuinely believe they belong in that way, and
you're looking at a Kentucky wide receiver room that includes
guys like you know Law out of Alabama, you got

(23:39):
Jimry Macklin, you got Hardly Gilmour come back from the Brass.
You got a lot of really talented players. And you know,
between Stoops and Hamden, we don't really know if that's
necessarily six or eight, but six or eight viable options
in that room. And then you have true freshmen cam
Miller and mount Save and Clinstonberry who come in and
they feel like they belong right in that conversation. They
feel like they're not you know, they're not coming in

(24:02):
with the odds. It's all right, you know, next year,
but they're coming in like, let's see how we can
contribute right now to winning well.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
And I think there are two things that Quitiononberry has
going for him, and tell me if you agree, or
just three number one coming from Boyle County, which is
a championship program, he knows how to win. You talk
about culture, which is often a word that's overused. But
he's used to winning, you know, and I know coaches
put so much value in that. You bringing a guy,

(24:32):
you know who comes from a program that you know
is maybe a break even program and if things start
to go badly like here we go again, but a
guy who comes from a championship level program. Rachel Lawson
puts that that's one of the highest points in a
recruiting list, recruiting kids from winning programs. I think that
means a lot with Quisonberry. The other thing too, Cole

(24:52):
is growing up where he did and having an interest
in Kentucky. He has been able to track otherwise receivers
here and in his mind at least measure himself against
those kids, and he's got to be thinking, you know,
I can do that, I can play at that level.
Would you agree?

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (25:11):
Absolutely, I think on the first point there, like you said, uh,
you know, he's ranked a three star coming out of
Boyle County, but in his four years at Boyle County
he won three state titles at the boy A level. Yes,
the only one he did it was his senior year.
You know, they got picked off there by cub cat
and uh the region finals to Duke Tillman obviously won
the won the title last year, but that that snapped

(25:32):
the streak of four straight for A state titles for
Boyle County, three of which.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Clisonberry was on right.

Speaker 5 (25:39):
And you know, I agree with you what what you
said there. They're they're a premiere program in this in
this commonwealth that we live in. And you know, when
you when you play at Boyle County, there's a lot
of expectation, just a championship kind of teams. And he
knows what that takes. He knows, you know, what it

(25:59):
takes to compete at that level, what it's like to
be on a team that expects success in the standard
you kind of have to hold yourself to. And then,
like you said there again, you know, growing up where
he grew up and watching Kentucky, I think that he's
a very confident guy. And I think that goes back
to some of what Calzada said there. But there's not
any there's any fear or doubt in his mind. He

(26:20):
came to Kentucky and he believes he belongs there. He
believes that he deserves to be there, and you know,
he knows that he knows what it takes to be
in a successful program. He doesn't have any fear about
his own, you know abilities, and I think that that's
a really really lethal combination to be a truly special

(26:40):
wide receiver going into the season.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Talking to Cole Park from the Cats Paws, he has
an interesting piece on the website now about some of
the Kentucky players on this roster, six of them who
could take a big step in twenty twenty five. And
again I commend you to the article. I don't want
to give it all away, but another name on your
list is Jagger Burton. Uh and he is likely to

(27:03):
be the only holdover on the old line who played
a lot last year. Now, he's had his issues, he's
had you know, multiple holding calls, and he's he's just
had some challenges that he's not been able to overcome
to this point. But everything I've heard about him coming
out of this camp, Cole has been glowing. Why did
he make your list?

Speaker 5 (27:25):
Yeah, I mean it's kind of like you said there.
I think, you know, coming out of Frederick Dugless High
School here in Lexington, there's a lot of really high
expectations for Burton, you know, a lot of people wanted
him to be really, really good, and then you know,
like you said, it's not that he's been bad at
Kentucky by no means, but a lot of it. I
feel like there's been some issues there. There's been some

(27:46):
of those holding calls. They moved him over to center
two years ago and then it just didn't quite work out.
We saw some of those bad snaps, we saw some
of those you know, sacks allowed, and just some struggles
going on there, and it's kind of felt like it
we've been waiting to see him actually reach his potential,
you know, going into this upcoming season, they've moved him
back to center, which I know when I first heard,

(28:07):
I was like, oh, like are we sure, you know, like.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
We saw how that went the first time.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
But it's, like you said, every every single person that
has spoken about him so far, it's glowing. I mean,
we saw him take some snaps fan day or yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
No errors there at all.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
And you know, all of his coaches, his teammates, they've
all been praising him a lot for what he does.
You know, Stoops said after fan Day, you know, forty
minutes before practice or after practice, his office is overlooking
the practice field and they'll go out there in practice
and then right after practice, Burton's going back out there

(28:47):
on the field and taking more snaps, working on his footwork,
you know, doing more of that, you know, and that's
something that Calzada emphasized too. He said, they're they're all
doing their extra workouts, these walk throughs that they're doing,
and the big you can really tell they take pride
in their jobs. And I got to speak with Jagger
as well on media Day, and you know, he talked

(29:09):
a lot about his journey where he's at, how comfortable
he feels, and he he talks about how he's kind
of worked on recovering from some of those mistakes that
he's made earlier. And you know, we'll continue to make
because football as a football is a game where you're
going to make mistakes no matter what you do. So,
you know, he said, he said, the important thing is

(29:30):
you don't want to fail, but you have to know
that failure is going to happen, right and it's inevitable.
So it's how you bounce back when you do fail.
How are you able to flush a play if you're
going to have a bad play on play too? You
still got sixty more chances to have good plays, you know,
so learning the way to mentally do that, he said,
that's something he feels like the whole team has taken

(29:50):
an instance too, But for him personally, you know, that's
something that's been a big thing for him as he
works on, you know, holding himself to a higher standard,
will not be himself played and takes the field with pressure.
So I think that, you know, we'll have to see
once the games are played. But everything I've heard out
of Burton so far, there's no reasons me based on

(30:11):
what I've heard and the development he's shown that he
couldn't be a really really good Kentucky offensive lineman and
going into this season, and we know Kentucky's a school
that you just look at the list right now. They've
got quite a few offensive linemen that are in the
NFL right now are signed to a team for this
upcoming season. He is I think that the Skuy's the

(30:32):
limit there.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
He is Cole Park. He is a staff writer for
The Cast, Paul's covers of football and basketball Wildcasts. We'll
come back with more in a minute on the Big
Blue Sider here on six thirty. Wlap Okay here's Cole
and three to two to one, welcome back. We're talking
with Cole Park. He is a staff writer for the
cass Pause who covers football and basketball. And you talked

(30:53):
about Zach Calzada in her last segment some of the
comments he made after the scrimmage on Saturday, which was
not open scrimmage. But I saw the video of Mark
Stoup's comments afterwards, and I think it's been consistent Cole
and how he feels about this team. We've seen him

(31:14):
and I you know, you may recall from your days
working for the school paper, Mark Stup's coming off the
field after a scrimmage or a practice and he's just hot. Man.
It was just unhappy and let us know about it
after he let his team know about it. But he
has talked about how much he likes this team, and
I think his comments have reflected that at least so far.

(31:35):
Do you find that to be the case?

Speaker 5 (31:38):
Yeah, absolutely, I do, And I think that's a pretty
consistent thing with his team right now. You know, I
know that for some of the fans who don't have
a lot of expectations for this season, some of the
things they've heard are almost concerning to them, but I
think the coaches. You know, we spoke to Bush, Hampton
and Brad White yesterday. We spoke to Mark Stoops after

(31:59):
the scrimmage. All them kind of have that mentality of
you know, there's things we need to fix, there's things
we saw, but they like where their group is at.
And you know, on Saturday after the scrimmage, Stoops talked
about that. You know, one of the first things said,
I was very pleased with the progress we've made this week.
You know, he talked about he admitted there's things they

(32:19):
need to work on, there's things that you know, weren't
as good as he'd like them to be. Brad White
and Bush him and said the same thing about their groups.
But but all in all, I mean they all seem
pleased where the team is at, the progress being made.
You know, another quote from Stoops after that, he said,
I am pleased. We work really hard. I think I've
talked about it a lot, going all the way back
to last spring, certainly through camp, but we have to

(32:42):
be better.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
And you know, he.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
Talked about a lot of the stuff they were working on.
He said, I feel like we're making strides across the board.
I just feel better about it, and I think part
of that comes from, you know, those summer workouts they
were able to do. He was he was really high
on praising those right before camp started, so they got
to kind of be more familiar with their team before
this point in the season. And you know that, I

(33:05):
think it's been a consistent theme almost from all the
coaches that the team is further along right now than
they were in years prior to where they want to be.
And I think that that should be reassuring because you know,
they're they're obviously they're the coaches. They're seeing a lot
more than we are. You know, I've seen bits and pieces,
I've heard busin and pieces, but they they know the

(33:26):
team better than I do, and they they all seem
pretty pretty pleased and pretty you know, comfortable with where
the team is at right now, still having a few
weeks to go before the season starts. And I think
that that is you know, that's something that is really
really interesting to me, you know, having covered the team
for a few years and seen some of the other
years or they weren't as pleased and so far, I

(33:48):
mean that they seem really confident in their process going
into this season. And still really comfortable with the idea
that it can be a much better season.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
You minus left the Cole park of the catch balls.
Of course, he covers football and basketball Wildcats. We've talked
a lot about guys on the offensive side of the ball.
What are you hearing about defense?

Speaker 5 (34:10):
Yeah, I mean defenses. It's it's harder to get a
read on right now, I think in some cases because
you're not playing as any games and you're not getting
to see a lot of those guys. But at the
same time, you know, he's still heard plenty. I think
something that was interesting to me who was speaking to
Brad White yesterday. You know, obviously he spoke about the

(34:33):
same thing that Jaq Harway staff, the scrimmage that you know,
coming back after a long break, having that first scrimmage,
you gotta get with them from tapping a little bit.
But he seemed, you know, comfortable about that. But the
White was talking a lot yesterday and some stuff he
said was really really interesting to me. And you know,
he said that they've got a lot of guys that
are coming back. They've got some guys that are coming in,

(34:55):
you know, a lot of names that are starting to
reach that veteran status and as you where I'm building
a team, he said, it's like trying to find the
right mix right now. You know, you're mixing groups, finding
out who communicates well together, which guys maybe vibe better together.
You know, he said, if you within a practice, the
guy gets I believe the word he uses a little booboo,

(35:15):
but he gets he has to come out for a
series or something. You know, another guy has to go in.
Sometimes that's organic, sometimes it's forced. Will script different groups
intentionally see how they react. But really trying to force
these guys into situations or they're playing with guys who
are not used to playing with as much. Because he's
emphasized not allowing those communication breakdowns that were saw that

(35:38):
were seen last year. You know, take a rocket scientist
to look at last year and see that that team,
you know, a lot of times wasn't communicating, they weren't
putting in some of the efforts sometimes, and there was
a lot of flaws with last season's teams. So really
forcing these guys to be in that situation where they
have to communicate, you know, I think that there's been

(35:58):
a lot of praise so far to the linebackers, for
the way that they have been communicating with the coaches
comm system, how they've been helping you know, the dbs
to know what they need to know, how they've been
helping the line to be where they need to be.
And then you know, White else talk about how the
Kentucky brought back in Yusuf Corker as a graduate assistant.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
He's been helping the guys there.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
But he talked a lot about the development of this
defense and where they're at. He didn't highlight a ton
of specific guys. I mean, he talks about Davin Rayner,
He's going to be a guy that he expected to
be in a bigger role this year. He praised Jordan
love It for the way he was able to, you know,
back a few years back, when Geiger goes down kind

(36:42):
of be thrown into the fire and play in that
role and developing that role. And you know, last year
he was one of the leading tackles or leading tacklers
on the team. He praised ty Bryant for being able
to do the same thing as a freshman. And then
you know, we obviously we've heard from Jake Hardaway. We
talked to David and Rayner yesterday as well after the coaches.

(37:04):
But I think it's gonna be really interesting the defense.
I think Stoops has commented that he's really really optimistic
about the potential of DBS. You know, some of those safeties,
the corners back there, there's a lot of potential back there.
He said, I don't want to put the cart before
the horse, but they could be very, very good. The linebackers.
You know, there's some question marks I suppose in terms

(37:26):
of you know, Als Defaring moved over to the position
dav and Rayner is stepping into a bigger role. But
at the same time, you know, you do have some
experience there, even if it's not you know, the same
way as some of the other experience you've had in
the years prior. Where you're having some of those guys
in there, you know, there's been optimism there. And then

(37:47):
the line, even you know, the line is having a
kind of a new a really really new year with
with Dion gone, and then you have Octavias gone, and
i'd really like to what I've seen out of Khalil
Sanders so far. And then you have some of those
other guys that are gonna step up into a much
bigger role. You're Tavian Gadson, those kind of guys, and
I think that, you know, it's like I said at

(38:09):
the beginning of this, it's hard to truly evaluate with
the defenses right now, but there is a lot of
potential for it to be a very, very good defense.
And you know, Brad White Show has shown that he
knows how to coach a good defense. I think it
was a few years back, you know, like nine games
into the season they were ranked eleventh in the country
effectively or something like that. So I think that I'm

(38:31):
not saying they're going to be eleventh in the country
this year, but I'm saying that it could be a
significantly better defensive season if it all kind of comes
together the way it seeming like it has potential to
this far into camp.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
He as Cole Park. He is the staff writer for
the Cat's Pause covers the football and basketball Cats and
reach out with them every Wednesday. Thank you service, see
you down the road.

Speaker 5 (38:51):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
And up next our number two with unforgettable guard Sean
Woods and West End Bureau chief. You got any more?
All ahead on six point thirty, I think.

Speaker 6 (39:14):
Taken back outs.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider joining us now
as he does each and every Wednesday, schedules permitting, we
are back on schedule with coach Shawn Woods of Scott
County High The Unforgettable Guard as Jersey hangs in the
rafters of Rup and Sewan. You played back in the day,
recruited by signed by Eddie Sutton, and you were there
when Rick Patino took over. So that's the timeline. Back

(41:06):
in the early nineties, when Kentucky football was still just
trying like crazy, running in place, trying to get established,
you guys were doing incredible things on the other side
of campus. There's that long standing and I think it'll
always be there tag of Kentucky being a basketball school.
But you know, Mark Stoops has made some great inroads

(41:27):
in terms of football support for Kentucky and raising you know,
the Kentucky profile, So did Rich Brooks. When you were playing.
Were how much of that kind of stuff were you
guys aware of because your football playing classmates just weren't
getting it done the way you guys were.

Speaker 7 (41:46):
Well, you know, that was just the aura of campus,
you know in athletics that you know, Kentucky basketball has
always been in and Kentucky football was you know, average
at best, you know, middle of the pack at best.
You know, get to a bowl game, you know, that

(42:07):
was a good year.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
And I always ask why, and some important people told
me that because, you know, the thickness of high school,
big time high school football players. SEC football players in
high school aren't as many as say in Alabama or Georgia,
you know, your southern schools. So you know, but I

(42:33):
got along with those guys. You know, they did win some.
I mean they had a big win against Georgia doing
my tenure. I think they had a big win against
Alabama one time doing my tenure. We never beat Florida.
That's when Florida was really good. But you know, it's
always been you know what I mean, that's just and
it is today, Dick that you know, Kentucky basketball, you know,

(42:55):
I mean Kentucky football. You know, if you get into
a bowl game, that's that's that's you know, that was
the norm. It became the norm. But as far as
winning the SEC and being highly ranked in the top
twenty five, I've never seen that. I don't foresee that

(43:15):
just because you know, I don't think it's money. I
don't think I just and I think Kentucky football has
some of the best facilities in the heat and in
the country too. It's just a mystique, you know what
I'm saying. You know, and you.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
Also you've also got and you referred to these schools,
the schools in the in the SEC. You know, you
got your Georgia's, your Alabama's, or Florida's. You know, even
Tennessee that they're not stopping anytime soon. They're still working
their butts off at football with advantages in recruiting and

(43:51):
things like that. And you have been a college recruiter
and now you've got kids who will be recruited on
the high school level. You know, it's about the Jimmies
and jos And that was the first thing you talked about, was,
you know, just more talented players at the other schools.
That's always going to be a challenge for the Kentuckys
of the world, isn't.

Speaker 3 (44:08):
It It is? You know, and you know I you know,
I'm a coach, so I'm very sensitive to riff raff
about coaches need to be fired. We need a new
guy here, we need a new guy there. I don't
think changing the guard at Kentucky is going to change anything.

(44:29):
I just think that you know, Stoops and his program
ran into a couple of snags where, you know, because
he had it rolling up until maybe one or two
years ago. And you know, this is not I'm just
being honest with you. This is Kentucky is not known
for football. It's just like North Carolina is not known

(44:50):
for football. Duke is not known for football. You know. Alabama, okay,
just now getting to the point where they're getting being
known for basketball. But that's not the norm. Georgia, who's
a big time football school, is not known for basketball.
That's just the norm.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
You know.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
Very few schools have football and basketball all the time.
You know, Kentucky is known for a basketball school. It's
not known to be a big time powerhouse football school.
That's just what it is, you know, and history prevails
that every single you know, you may have a year
or two, a or five year span where you know,

(45:28):
you have some great years and you on eight games.
You know, God forbid you when nine or ten. Now
you cooking with grease and you think about being top
twenty five. But that's never been in the thirty years
or thirty almost forty years of me being affiliated with
Kentucky football. And I don't see why you should go

(45:49):
hard on Mitch Barn I mean not Mitch barn but
coach Stoops. When you know you can put all the
money in the world and in the Kentucky football and
have all the major NIO, all these issues down packed,
and still it's not attractive. It's not sexy for the
one that some of the top players in the country

(46:10):
to come to Kentucky on a regular basis is just
not it.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
What I find really interesting. And you were a highly
recruited player. We've talked about this before. You could have
gone anywhere. But what I love, and I know you
do too, these stories about a kid like Wesley Woodyard,
you know, who was recruited but not heavily recruited. Some
of the kids who got away from Georgia and came
here and did really well. Trevard Lindley I think, broke

(46:35):
his leg his senior year in high school. Everybody backed away,
but Kentucky he winds up in the NFL. I mean,
just stuff like that. But you can't build a program.
It's so hard to build a program with guys like that,
you know, because talent matters. You know, but as you said,
you know Stoops had it going. I mean a couple
of ten win seasons. I never thought I'd see that

(46:57):
at Kentucky. And to your point, I'm trying to think
of a school that has consistently had contenders in both
football and basketball. There might be one out there, Sean,
but I can't think of any. I mean, Ohio State
has got some decent basketball tradition, but not like football.
Texas has underachieved in basketball.

Speaker 8 (47:21):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
You know, it's just in Michigan has flirted with national
championships in basketball. But it's just hard to pinpoint a
school where they're getting it done on both ends of campus.
You know it is.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
You know, you're talking about Michigan, You're talking about Michigan State.
You're talking about just the big team in general, you know,
which is a basketball conference. But Michigan is always good.
Ohio State is always good in football. But then you
after that, Now it's a toss up. You see what
I'm saying. Okay, in the SEC, Kentucky reigns supreme in

(47:55):
basketball every year. Every school in the SEC has always
try trying to catch up with Kentucky basketball. But nobody
in the sec is ever trying to catch up with
Kentucky football. Ever, it's the other way around. So you know,
you got to get and then we're in a new
world of trying to figure out nil and transport portal

(48:17):
and we're already amid amid to mid low football program
and from as far as history is concerned, and you're
trying to figure it out. So you throw that on
top of it. Yeah, I mentioned, I mean coach students
is going to have some slip ups for a couple
of years until he gets a hold of it. You know,
it's just like anything else. He came in with a bang,

(48:40):
and you know, he brought some new things and it
was trending, but it wasn't nil. Then now it's nil.
You throw that on top, you throw you know, even
he's become a mid major situation now. And what I
mean by that is you get a really good player
from Kentucky or receiver or running back, so on and
so forth, and he may leave. You know, Ali Key,

(49:06):
you know what I'm saying. Docta Key's son, you know
what I'm saying. So how can you know Kentucky is
not sexy enough from a history standpoint with football? To
really really be consistent as a powerhouse in the SEC.
Hasn't been and it's hard to do. Look at Florida,

(49:28):
you know, they got to make a lot of history
in football. You know, they just won a national championship
in basketball. But they've taken a dive a little bit
in football. You know, some one of the better football
schools have taken a dive. So Kentucky taking a dive
a little bit, and you want you trying to make
a big deal of Stoops. Come on, man, I mean
Stoops has done more in his tenure than he's probably

(49:50):
got the longest tenure of any coach in football history.
And look at what he's done. And now he's it's
not good enough. You want to throw him to the
coldest because he's had a couple of down seasons.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
I have one more question before the break and we'll
get to talking basketball. But uh, just just a statement,
and you know your reaction. But yeah, when Stoops got
here and he's let's let's put it this way. In
the off season this year, all he said is we
knew we just got to put our head down and
go back to work and just grind it out. That
was his message. Sean when he got here that there

(50:25):
will be no shortcuts. It's going to be hard work. Uh,
you know, it's not going to be overnight or you know,
it's going to take People didn't want to hear that.
They were excited he was here, and it did. He
had a couple of two win seasons next thing, you know,
five wins, six wins, Bowl games, things like that. But
as a coach, you know, you got to just grind

(50:46):
it out and put in the work. And that's what
they're doing.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
They're doing that, and they're doing it differently because it
took them a while to figure out this transfer a
portal and also it took them a while to figure
out this nil yeah, you know, unfamiliar territory. They're already
at the bottom of the barrel and now they're still
you know, and and they were starting to have it
going and then you throw this onto it, and then
you not only that, dick, but then you add some

(51:13):
more powerhouses to the SEC conference that we're not good at.
We're not better than it's from from a program standpoint,
from an image standpoint, we're just not better than Texas.
We never have been. We're not better than Texas in them.
We never have been. You know, we're not better than Oklahoma.
We never have been. From a from A from A

(51:34):
from a continued you know, from a from an average standpoint,
we never have been. And now you throw those obstacles
in our way. So now that that puts us even
back further. Since it's back even further, and Vanderbilt has
become Kentucky so far, who's going to say they're not
going to be down again? You know what I'm saying
that Kentucky is going to be up. Them in Kentucky

(51:55):
are in the same same boat a little bit, you
know what I mean. So it's hard. I feel for
coach Stoups. You know, I wish you know that that
people would you know you're getting spoiled, but you you
got spoiled because he's the one who spoiled you. Spoil
you is Sean Willods.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
He's the unforgettable guard. His jersey hangs in the rafts
of rupp. We'll come back and talk basketball just a
minute here on the Big Moe Sider six thirty w
l A P. Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods,
the unforgettable guard. He is the head coach at Scott
County High School. Before I ask you about high school
hoops and your Cardinals, just a quick question about Mark
Pope and his roster. They are still awaiting the arrival

(52:37):
of the of the young man from Europe, Yellovich from Croatia.
What do you think Kentucky fans can expect from this kid?
What should they know about kids coming in from Europe?
They've had a few, you know, big Z was okay,
but this is a different kind of player. But in general,
did you have were you even a to recruit any

(53:01):
European kids when you were in college at the places
where you were.

Speaker 9 (53:05):
I'm still getting els and don't calls from European scouts
and things like that. They don't know that college basketball
right now, trying to send me players.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
So I was all off with that, with with with that,
you know, I was, you know, I've had my share
of them. But you know what, though, I'm gonna be
honest with you, Dick, and this is just me. I've
never seen a European player besides Andrew. And Andrew Gas
comes from Australia. Australia is not Europe. But I've never
seen a big time European player come over and just

(53:37):
dominate and lead a team to the front floor. I've
never seen it. And as talented as he is, you know, Europeans,
it's a different brand of basketball. I got one of
my you know, there's transferred in that that moved from
moved into Scott County from France, and it's just a
different brand. It's more for Neess basketball, whereas the SEC

(53:59):
is a grinding deal. And you saw where Z really
really struggled with the physicality of college basketball here. I
think this kid is gonna be in the same boat,
you know. I think he and Z. He's not as
tall as Z, he's not as long as the but
that he's a pick and pop type of player. He's
not a banger. He's not a force, a physical force

(54:19):
that we need from a from a physical standpoint inside
rebounding the ball. He's offensively gifted, which most of European
players are, but it takes them a while because you
will get exposed, especially in high major basketball in the
SEC with the physicality of this conference. So I'm not

(54:40):
really big on it. I think it's another piece that
you know that that fits Mark's style of play offensively,
but I don't know. I would be shocked if he's
physically ready to really contribute on the defensive end and
really defending and rebounding. That's just me right now, without

(55:01):
really laying a lot of eyes on him. But that's
where I'm in, right where I am right now. I
don't think he's the one. I think he may be
more offensively geted than the sure the five, the bigs
that they have, you know, but can he can he
sustain from a physical standpoint? I know that that's the
question that I have.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Well, and he'll have a chance to learn and learn
quickly when he gets here. A few more minutes left
with Sean Woods, the head coach at Scott County High.
There's been so much debate through the years. It seems
like it's picked up some steam of late in high
school basketball. Sean about adding a shot clock, and uh,
do you guys have a three pointer? I can't even remember.

(55:41):
Yeah you do?

Speaker 3 (55:43):
We got three points?

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah, but the shot clock. I am not in favor
of that. I mean, my Mike rationale is, why do
you want to rush kids who are still learning the
game into maybe taking more bad shots? Where are you
on that?

Speaker 3 (55:57):
Well, the game's changed. Dick the game has, and it
had we have to get a shot clock in high school.
But I'm all for it. I am all for it
because no one else in America plays that style of
play when you leave high school. When you leave high school,
you are in a shot clock situation. Okay, so kids

(56:21):
are becoming more talented and more skilled now to where
nobody's really passing the ball around and holding the ball
for two minutes at a time. That's that's not basketball anymore,
you know, and it's not fun to watch. I won't
be doing that. I promise you that I won't be
playing that way, and I'm not going to allow you

(56:43):
to play that way. So if you're a team that
has to pass the ball around one hundred thousand times,
you're not gonna be able to do that. And those
teams that have to do that struggle because it's just
not the way of the world anymore. You know, people pressing,
people want to play faster. It's not it's not entertaining
to watch. And most kids don't even want to play

(57:05):
that way anymore. They want to play for a coach
in a system that gets up and down, that plays fast,
and you know, it's it's not fun to watch. I
don't think it's the best way to play anymore. The
game is has changed, has become faster. Uh you gotta,
you know, think faster, you know what I'm saying. So no,

(57:26):
I think, you know, and most states are going with
it now. I think it's not going with it for
the moment because the rural schools that aren't that don't
have as much money. They don't they don't want to
spend the money on the shot clock, getting the new
shot cock, getting the packs for the for the referee,
and you.

Speaker 1 (57:46):
Have to work. You have to have somebody to keep
an eye on it on the sideline too, right, Yeah,
that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
So to take the extra person to do that, and
I understand, but that's the way the game's going now. Okay,
that's where I'm at.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
You're you're convincing me, you're winning, You're bringing me over.
I'll I'll give that some solid consideration. But yeah, I
wanted to talk to somebody's who's hip deep in it also.
H that's good to hear. He is Sean Woods. He
is the head coach at scot County Eye the Unforgettable
Guard and we talk with him each and every Wednesday
about not just basketball but football as well. Coach, Thank
you so much. We'll talk to you.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Soon, Okay, Dick, looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Up next to our Western Bureau chief, Gary Moore joins
us here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty wlap
Welcome back to the Big Bluinsider. Joining us now as
he does every Wednesday schedule permitting. He's our Western Bureau chief,
Gary Moore. He has a lot to say. He's been
thinking a lot since we took the last week off. Yeah,
maybe it should be a twelve pack, but it said
it's a six pack, right.

Speaker 10 (58:48):
Well, you're going to go to Saratoga where your horses
would have naturally won. Sorry to say sorry about that.

Speaker 11 (58:53):
Bad luck on it?

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Well, is either bad luck here bad luck up there?
Actually the last you know, we've gone to sarah To
three or four years straight and at the worst I've
broken even. I've actually brought home money from Saratoga, so
I was due for bad luck.

Speaker 10 (59:07):
Well, here we go, two guys in a six pack.
We're talking, Dick, a lot of football here, got a
whole bunch of football talk about and including I will
get to this and I think the fifth swig the
worst play ever called in football in the history of ever.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
I can't wait.

Speaker 10 (59:23):
We're gonna go over that in the fifth wig, but
the first wig here appropriately, the first AP College poll
is out and for the first time ever, Texas is
preseason number one. They got twenty five of the sixty
five first place votes. Penn State right behind them number
two with twenty three first place votes, Ohio State third
eleven first place votes. Then you got Clemson in there
with four, Georgia at let's see in Oregon at number

(59:47):
five and number seven, respectively. They each got a first
place vote each. Go back to Texas here not only
the first time there were preseason number one, but according
to ESPN data, this goes back all the way in
nineteen seventy eight. Texas is also the first number one
team to be an underdog in Week one because they
play at number three Ohio State the Buckeye So far,

(01:00:08):
dick are a two and a half point favorite. So
shouldn't they be the number one preseason instead of the Horns?

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
Oh that bye by the voting logic quote unquote, yes,
but you know how it is. Man out in the desert.
They know everything right and supposedly, or as we saw
saying smaller markets, supposedly, home field advantage is worth three points.
So what they're telling us is this would be a

(01:00:34):
Pickham game on a neutral site. And I'm good with that.
On a neutral site, who would you pick Man? Because
as you pointed out, a lot of voters sinkings Ohio State.
I think Ohio State's gonna win the national title. So
it's weird looking, but I'm okay, and I don't want
to question it because I love the fact Gary that
they're playing each other.

Speaker 10 (01:00:53):
Yeah, how great is that? Great second swig? And we've
talked about this before, you especially the of all these
preseason college polls football and basketball, nobody really knows anything.
Well last year, for example, twenty twenty four AP preseason
polls take you back a year. They had Georgia number
one preseason.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Then you had.

Speaker 10 (01:01:12):
Ohio State, Oregon and the Texas Longhorns were the top forty.

Speaker 11 (01:01:17):
Then you had Bama at fifth.

Speaker 10 (01:01:18):
But you also had disasters like Florida State was picked
tenth last year, Oklahoma State was picked seventeenth. There was
no SMU, no Indiana, no Arizona State, or Boise in
last year's preseason top twenty five this year in the
Ape Pole. Hey Boise's preseason twenty five, Indiana's twenty SMU sixteen,
Arizona State's number eleven. See, we're making up for last year.

(01:01:40):
AP voters also have Oregon at number seven this year, Dick,
And you know, I love the Ducks, but it's way
too high for me. I don't even think Oregon's going
to be a top ten team by this.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Last year.

Speaker 10 (01:01:48):
Wow, they got LSU at number nine. I think that's
way too high. Notre Dame at number six after they
had a lot of people lead Well anyway, I disagreed
with that one. But you know, over here in Louisville,
Cardinals are not even in the top twenty five. Their
fourth place in others receiving votes. And you know what,
if I'm a Cards player, I'm making sure that chip
does not leave my shoulder all season long. Do you

(01:02:10):
think they're top twenty five teams?

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
They might be, but I think Louisville suffers from the
two things that Kentucky has suffered from in the past.
The league's one, and that's you know, how many people
know that much or care that much about Louisville football?
If you cover the sport nationally, you should, especially if
Louisville's doing the things under Jeff Brohm that they've been doing.
But I think because the quarterback who led them to

(01:02:35):
so many wins last year is currently in the NFL
and playing well, Tyler Shuckler's looked good he did in
preseason games and one god, he's forty five years old,
you know, But I think the fact that he's gone,
Louisville lost a lot of people from that. There's been
so much turnover, and that's been the case with so
many of these schools, but they go with brand neck recognition.

(01:02:56):
LSU might be a little over ranked, but LSU has
a some say is the best quarterback in the league,
if not the country. And Garrett Nousmeier, now Texas has
a guy at quarterback people are raving about should be
the overall number one draft pick and couldn't win the
job last year starting for the Longhorns. So you know,
but Texas has a lot of talent. Ohio State has

(01:03:18):
a lot of talent. And it's right now, Gary, it's
the numbers game. Who came back to what team? What
team lost so many and let's face it, man, when
it comes to a lot of us voting. They're voting
for the brand name, they're voting for the jersey, they're
voting for the helmet. Exactly.

Speaker 10 (01:03:35):
Stay on that subject for just a second here in
our third swig. We know they're officially called preseason polls,
but we know if you also call them preseason crap shoots,
you'd be just as correct. Last year, for the twenty
four season at ESPN had the Chiefs in the NFL
preseason beating the Niners in the Super Bowl. Last year,

(01:03:56):
Sports Illustrated was as way off as I was because
we picked the same teams and the Lions, only I
had the Lions beating the Bengals. Sports Illustrated of the
Bengals beating the Lions last year. As for this year,
ESPN's got the Eagles and the Ravens, with both plus
six fifty odds for Super Bowls sixty. Sports Illustrated NFL
issue isn't out yet, but the genius is out there
in Vegas, like the Bills and the Eagles in the

(01:04:19):
Super Bowl, and I think the Bills to win it.
I'll do my predictions that the world is hanging on
for in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 11 (01:04:24):
But here's my question for you.

Speaker 10 (01:04:26):
Now we got a top twenty five college poll, we've
got thirty two NFL teams, Which to you is the
tougher crap shoot to pick the final champion in?

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
I think it's definitely the college game because there are
so many more question marks, and there are only fifty
three players on every NFL roster, plus practice squads, and
so much of what you see from this year's NFL
you can relate to last year's NFL. Now you got
a look at player movement, there's no question, but I

(01:04:55):
just think there are so many more mysteries. But the
other thing Gary I should have mentioned in your last
swig is scheduling. You mentioned SMU in Indiana, and part
of the uproar in college football right now is scheduling
as it relates to the College football playoff. A lot
of people believe that SMU in Indiana skated into the
playoffs and the seating was way off. They fixed that,

(01:05:17):
but thanks to easier scheduling. For instance, you look at
Kentucky schedule just by virtue of the fact that the
Wildcats are in the SEC, They're playing six preseason top
twenty five teams. And if Louisville made it, you would
have been seven, you know. So I think with the
NFL as well. You know how those schedules flip flop,

(01:05:37):
they rotate, the computer spits out which team has an
easier You know, if you play X division and that
division is down, you can track. You can do a
better job with the NFL of tracking which team will have.
I don't want to see an easier path, but maybe
a less challenging path because of the scheduling.

Speaker 11 (01:05:57):
Fourth swig. We're speaking of ESPN.

Speaker 10 (01:05:58):
A second ago, the world widely and the NFL have eloped.
The nuptials were announced while you and I ron hiatus,
the NFL owning a ten percent equity in the network
at ESPN getting the rights of course to the NFL
network and the greatest channel in the history of the world,
the Red Zone. This whole thing is about course, ESPN's
direct to consumer app. It's about eight days away from

(01:06:19):
going live. I think thirty bucks a month. Everything esp
including its acc SEC networks and eventually the NFL network,
may take up to two years to finally complete the
whole thing. The Red Zone, they say, will continue to
be operated by the NFL, so If they do ruin
it with commercials, it's going to be the NFL's doing,
not ESPN. ESPN is still owned by Disney, as you know,

(01:06:41):
that was a company that I used to work for
at one time. Head mouse, Bob Iger told Wall Street Journal, quote,
nothing in this deal in any way changes tried it again,
Nothing in this deal in any way changes ESPN's approach
when it comes to journalism. Unquote those famous last words

(01:07:01):
or am I being too skeptical here?

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Well, I will say this, and I've read a lot
about ESPN. I think you've read the book as well
that came out several years ago. Those guys are having
all the fun or something like that. Yeah, And they
got deeply into this side of the hall versus that
side of the hall, the contractual relationships with leagues, with

(01:07:26):
conferences versus the other side of the all, which is
where they store the journalism. I think they've done a
pretty good job so far as we can tell. But
I do think this big deal and getting the Mouse involved,
to your point, rewrites everything. There's going to come a
point where one side of the hall, and the bigger

(01:07:47):
side of the hall is the contract walks across the
journalism hall side of the hall and says, hey, let's
tone this down and ultimately it will come out elsewhere
and then ESPN will follow up with it. But how
can it not does all the talking? It sure does.

Speaker 11 (01:08:03):
Fifth swig.

Speaker 10 (01:08:04):
One more NFL note, and a painful one for me
still after ten years. Michael Sean Dugar, staff writer for
The Athletic who's covered my Seattle Seahawks for years, has
written a book just out called the Seahawks A Curated History.

Speaker 11 (01:08:18):
Of the Legion of Boom Era. And what a legion
it was.

Speaker 10 (01:08:21):
A defense that led the NFL in scoring four years
in a row from twenty twelve to twenty fifteen. Probably
never see a streak like that again. But in an
excerpt from the book yesterday in The Athletic in the
New York Times titled a Seahawks Super Bowl Disaster and
the Unraveling of a would be Dynasty, we see a
post mortem on a team that I will personally vouch

(01:08:43):
for has never ever recovered from the worst play call ever.
You remember, the Hawks were on the half yard line
of the Patriots beast mode Marshawn Lynch in the backfield,
twenty six seconds to go, one time out left and
they throw it in. A rookie patriot catches it, game
and potential dynasty over. Offensive coordinator Darryl Bevell and head

(01:09:05):
coach Pete Carroll both would double and even triple down,
saying afterwards they'd run the same play again.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Of course, you and I.

Speaker 10 (01:09:13):
Have both worked for people who are just incapable of
ever admitting they made a mistake. It's a great excerpt
about just well, what turned out to be the worst
play call the highest level of football.

Speaker 11 (01:09:25):
In the history of the game.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Yeah, change given the stakes, you know, given what was
at stake. And you know what's interesting is Michael Lombardi,
who's now the GM for Bill Belichick down in North Carolina,
used to be part of a podcast I listened to
call the GM Shuffle. He's written several books, and in
one of his books he wrote about that play and
said it was the right call given the situation, the personnel,

(01:09:49):
et cetera, et cetera. I'm sorry, but you've got to
take into account the fact that they had maybe the
best power runner in the last twenty five years half
a yard away from the gold. You know, if you're
drawing it up on a chalkboard or a dry erase board.
Maybe so, but you've got to consider the fact that
even if the Patriots had the proper personnel in the

(01:10:12):
proper places, he's going to knock somebody on there butt
and get into the end zone. That's just from where
I sit. And I'm no expert, but I'm.

Speaker 10 (01:10:22):
With you sixth in a final swig Okay, let me
end on a good note here, a positive vibe'es now loading.
I mentioned my love for Oregon, not just because I
had friends and family dick that went there, or Eugene
is an incredibly cool college town I've ever been there,
or even that my all time favorite movie Animal House was.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
Shot there at Eugene.

Speaker 10 (01:10:41):
Those reasons and the fact that they have obviously a
lot of fun with the athletics. The latest case in
point Grateful Dead game, or should I say the Grateful
Duck Game, is going to be coming up Saturday, October
twenty fifth, when Wisconsin comes to Autston Stadium. Instead of
a flight out like Penn State does, there's going to
be a tie die out in honor of the Dead
sixtieth anniversary this year, and the fact that the Grateful

(01:11:03):
Dead played on the Oregon campus twenty times huge fan
base in that area and for Wisconsin as well, because
I think you know the Badger's basketball program. It's got
a student section with ted I shirts called the Grateful
Red there in Madison. I posted a photo at nine
to five to five Gary of the first if I'm
sure many Grateful Duck shirts and merch in the pipeline

(01:11:25):
for the game. For guys like me who loved the
Dead and college football and the Ducks, nothing left to
do but smile, smile, smile to quote a deadline. And
I know somewhere Bill Walton's doing the same. But isn't
this amazing how the Grateful Dead. They've got Grateful Dead
nights in Major League Baseball, and now I think college
football is going to be jumping in with.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
The generation is being heard. I wish all the original
members could be there, But I have to admit, well,
first of all, my cousins who live in Portland, they're
big Duck fans, and so we've talked a lot of
football through the days. But I was late to the
Grateful Dead. I just was never all that interest for
whatever reason. When I bought the car that's sitting next

(01:12:06):
to me, here in my garage. The preset was to
the Grateful Dead channel radio, and so every time I
get in my car and started up There's the Dead,
I'm like, this stuff's pretty good.

Speaker 11 (01:12:18):
It's good, good vibe.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
It really is, it really is.

Speaker 11 (01:12:23):
That's what they're all about.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
And you mentioned Bill Walden. I think you probably had
dealt with him when you were working in LA I
never got a chance to meet him, but if I had,
I thought about this when he died, the one I
would have led with this question. Even if I had
just one question, I would have said, this, why the
Grateful Dead? Because he was such a fan and made

(01:12:45):
no bones of benefact. He was famously seen at so
many of the concerts, and just reading about him is
when I learned that the Dead didn't publicize where they
were going to be. They just be there and everybody
knew it. That to me, was the coolest thing about
The Grateful Dead.

Speaker 10 (01:13:01):
Word of mouth was always great. Started when he was
at UCLA and they loved playing, you know, college campuses
like UCLA, and that when he was there in the
early seventies, that was really kind of a new renaissance
for them. When they had albums like American Beauty and
Working Workingman's Dead that came out. That really pushed them
into more of the mainstream and that's when.

Speaker 11 (01:13:18):
They started to really really take off. And from there
it's there.

Speaker 10 (01:13:21):
What it's like the old Bumpers ticket said, there is
nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, and I can vouch
for a few of those.

Speaker 1 (01:13:25):
He is Gary Moore, a West n Burreo chief, will
come back with some hot reads in just a minute
here on the Big Boon Siders six point thirty wlap
back on a Big Moon Sider talking with our Western
Burea chief, Gary Moore. He joins us every week and
of course two guys in a six pack in the
river View Mirror. Now for a couple of hot reads
for Gary and Gary. The first one involves a Nata
no muskool that's Japanese for yo boy shoe o tani. Yeah,

(01:13:50):
he and his agent are being sued for almost a
quarter of a billion dollars over a real estate deal
in Hawaii, and I just heard it condensed like this.
They use their celebrity status or something to try to
take money when where they shouldn't have something like that,
basically using their celebrity to bully their way. My question

(01:14:11):
to you is not I guess the question is do
we now have more to go on when you ask
about Shoe Otani because I gave him a pass on
the fact that his interpreter stole his money to gamble. Now,
at the very least you have to ask, why is
this guy not better at choosing the people to keep
around him?

Speaker 10 (01:14:29):
Yeah, this is his agent, and right, I don't know
how much. And again we don't know how much he was.
Otani was really involved in it. He was going to
lend his obviously his celebrity endorsement, and was going to
be one of the first ones in these seventeen million
dollar homes they're in the big island of Hawaii that
they're going to build and develop. So you have a
real estate agent, you have a developer who were fired

(01:14:50):
apparently at the behest of Otani's agents by the financial
backer who was going on with the developer in the
real estate agent. How much did O'tani know about this?

Speaker 11 (01:15:01):
We don't know.

Speaker 10 (01:15:01):
Will it affect him in the batter's box or on
the Pittri's mount Well, probably not, given how he reacted
before when his interpreter was going through all of these
legal problems as well. But yeah, it's it's kind of
a mess.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
You got to start to question, you know, how much
of this is just him misreading people or is he
actually involved in this kind of thing? So who knows
it'll play out, but it'll probably play out quietly, I'll
put it to you that way, not so quiet as
our second I read Miles Garrett at it again. Caught
speeding again Gary. This is the eighth time eight for

(01:15:38):
him in and around towns in Ohio doing one hundred
and a sixty mile per hour zone. Three years ago,
hospitalized when he flipped his Porsche trying to swerve to
avoid an animal. But he's doing one hundred miles an hour,
you know, that's why you don't do that. He was

(01:15:58):
doing twenty twenty one and a seventy ninety nine and
a seventy on the same day in Dana County. Now
this latest transgression two hundred and fifty bucks gets him
out from under it. My question to you is this,
at what point or are we pass that Should the

(01:16:19):
NFL step in and do some kind of I don't know,
suspension work or hit him with He's not gonna feel
he's not gonna feel a fifty thousand dollars fine. What
they feel is the bench. He is putting dozens, if
not one hundreds of people at risk with this, not
just his himself. When should the league get involved?

Speaker 10 (01:16:40):
Well, it's like you said, it should have happened yesterday.
It sould have already happened because the owners aren't gonna
do it. We know about those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
Oh and by the way, not to interrupt you. His
head coaches reaction, Kevin Stefanski. I'm very disappointed. Really, I'm shocked. Yeah, uh, doctor,
I tell you, the league.

Speaker 11 (01:16:58):
Has got to do something about that. Whether but look
at you.

Speaker 10 (01:17:01):
Is Georgia doing anything about all of those speeding tickets? Again,
it's happened before, and in Kansas City, you know they
just had they went through something really bad with that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Yep, the league should.

Speaker 10 (01:17:13):
Be stepping in on things like this. But I again,
two hundred and fifty dollars a fine or any kind
of a fine. It should be written in his contract.
I know, in Major League Baseball contracts maybe some other ones.
There are certain things you cannot do, like ride motorcycles,
having this sport ski right exactly. It's certain things like
that whether or not they screwed up and didn't put
something like this into his contract or it should be

(01:17:34):
now and he just got an updated one not long
ago that was all this gear and he's getting like
over one hundred and twenty three million of guaranteed dollars.
Shouldn't you have something in that contract that says any
speeding tickets will result in a million dollar fine every
time you get one, or something of that nature.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Home we can all look back at Terrence Clark. There's
a UK basketball player in La Drag Race Seek Street Racing,
nineteen years old and killed in a traffic accident. You know,
just going too damn fast because athletes who feel invincible
because they are bigger, stronger, faster and in the peak

(01:18:14):
of their athletic careers think they're invincible and they're not.

Speaker 10 (01:18:19):
Maybe he's trying out for another sequel to Death Wish,
that movie that Charles Bronson was in.

Speaker 1 (01:18:24):
He is Gary Marrow, West End BUA Chief.

Speaker 10 (01:18:26):
Find him on Twitter or ex at at nine to
five to five Gary, where you're at Big Blue Insider one.

Speaker 1 (01:18:31):
Thank you sir, have a good weekend and that'll do
it for now. Thanks so much to my guest Sean Woods,
the unforgettable guard now the head coach at Scott County
High School. You know there is some blue in their
school colors, but Sean has assured me that at certain times,
as an homage to the late great coach Billy Hicks,
he will wear a red blazer on the sidelines, and

(01:18:53):
that I want to see. Thanks as well to Cole Park,
the Cats pause two four seven sports dot Com, and
of course to our west timber A chief, Gary Moore.
And we'll be back tomorrow night right here on the
big moon sider.

Speaker 12 (01:19:05):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:05):
Good night from the garage in Lexington.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
A very good, very quick basketball team.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
A guy that just went by is Michael Thompson. So
you know the answer to that, don't shut He always
seems to get involved. I'm telling you, too many coconuts
and hit him right on top of the skull down
there in the Bahamas.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
He's in trouble.

Speaker 12 (01:20:01):
Then anything then, don't.

Speaker 6 (01:20:10):
Don't think can anything anything?

Speaker 8 (01:20:15):
Then take that, don't think, I think.

Speaker 12 (01:20:45):
Think tat don't then don't. Lston School, Colston Towns, Cheston School,

(01:21:06):
Unisity

All Episodes

2025-08-13 - BBI

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2025-08-13 - BBI