2025-08-14 - BBI

Comments from a college football coach on the portal/NIL that have gone viral; (13:00) an SEC analyst says Auburn, which is on the UK schedule, is flying under the pre-season radar; (19:00) Jeff Drummond of Cats Illustrated; (39:00) Paul Finebaum on the Big 0 vs the SEC; (50:00) Taylor Swift's appearance on the Kelce brothers' podcast; (58:00) WKYT reporter/anchor Lindsey Gough and sometimes you just have to say "no" to Spam -- and not the junk mail...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Big Blue. Insider Dick Abriel with you
on a Thursday edition of our show Sixteen Days Away
from Kentucky Football. As Corey Price reminds us as he
posts a photo on ex Twitter of Pooky Jones number
sixteen for the Wildcats, and whenever I see now a
picture of Pooky Jones, I have to think back to

(00:20):
another in a series of heartbreaking moments at Commonwealth Stadium,
this was one of the best games I've ever seen.
The best game was, of course, the upset of LSU
and overtime when the Tigers were ranked number one and
went on to win the national championship. Despite the loss
to Kentucky, given the circumstances, the quality of opponent, the

(00:41):
way that game was played, at the high level of
play by the Wildcats that year in twenty oh seven,
that was the best game. Then there's going to have
to some game is going to have to go a
long way to beat that. But prior to that point,
it was actually a Kentucky loss to Mississippi State in
nineteen ninety two. State ended up I think six and

(01:04):
five something like that. They had a decent team. Kentucky
did not. Kentucky I think went four and seven that year,
but played so well against Mississippi State. Pooky Jones threw
for three hundred and fifty seven yards. It happened on
Halloween night. There were fifty thousand plus fans in the stands.
There were more fans waiting to get into Memorial Coliseum

(01:27):
for Madness that night. But it was back and forth.
Kentucky had a lead late. Mississippi State drives down the
field and scores and then gets a two point conversion, right,
So now here comes Kentucky. It was about three minutes
left and everybody clicking so well for both teams, but
Pookie Jones on that last drive completed passes of seven, ten, seventeen,

(01:53):
and twenty yards and Kentucky gets the ball down to
the twenty six yard line of Mississippi State. So now
here comes Doug Pelfrey, one of, if not the best
kickers in the history of Kentucky football. And he had
already kicked five that night. Yeah, Kentucky had five field goals,
had trouble getting into the end zone a few times,
still had put up thirty six points and here comes

(02:17):
Pelfrey to kick what was going to be the game winner.
From what forty three yards and make it six field
goals and send everybody home happy or over to the
coliseum on Halloween night, but Mississippi State blocked it. A
kid came through the line on the right side. Kid

(02:37):
had transferred in from LSU. Just just didn't feel at
home at LSU, and he sure did in Startville. And
he was a hero that night. And then he raced
from the memory banks just about one of It was
the best performance I had ever seen by a quarterback
to that point at a UK football game. Now, of
course Tim Katch came in and changed everything. But man,

(02:59):
whenever I see pictures of Pooky Jones, that was just
the Bill Curry era, you know, so close but just
could not quite push through. But still Pooky one of
my favorite people ever to play at Kentucky as well.
And honestly, if he hadn't hurt his shoulder playing football,
I believe you would have played for a long time
professional baseball. He did briefly, but just couldn't get past injuries. Anyhow,

(03:21):
sixteen days to Kentucky football. I missed this yesterday. Yesterday
was National Left Hander's Day, and I am it depends
on what I'm doing some things I do lefty, some
things I do righty. I shoot jump shots lefty, shoot
hook shots and laps right handed, batted primarily left handed.
I like to switch hit. Never got that many opportunities

(03:43):
I threw right handed. I shoot pool left handed, shoot
pictures with my left eye, so I'm left eye dominant.
It's weird. I'm not ambidextrous. I give my right arm
to be ambidestrous. But some of my favorite players at
Kentucky have been left handers, starting with my man in
late great Reggie Wharford, whom we lost a couple of

(04:04):
years ago. Sweet shooting left handed jump shot. Jack Gibbons
maybe the best left hander of all time in terms
of shooting for the Kentucky Wildcats. But there were so
many I mean of late Amari Williams, I forgot about
that he's left handed. Justin Edwards, he didn't see lance
Ware shooting many jump shots. He was a lefty. Severe Wheeler.

(04:25):
How many times we see him drive and go in
through the left side, And Mike Pratt always talked about
that Wheeler wants to get to his left side. Other
teams will try to keep him from doing that, but
he somehow gets to his left side. Jared vanderb De
Aaron Fox was a lefty. Julius Randall I did remember
that was a lefty. So was James Young, outstanding shooter.

(04:47):
Terrence Jones, a thousand points scorer for the Wildcats a lefty.
So was Eric Daniels or Tubby like to call him erk.
He was a lefty, and so is this team mat
Cliff Hawkins point. Hashimu Evans, who was part of one
of the biggest plays in Kentucky basketball history, was a lefty.
And I'm referring to the shot heard around the Bluegrass,

(05:10):
around the Commonwealth by Cameron Mills. But whenever you talk
to Ishimu Evans, he likes to remind and I don't
blame him, that Cameron got that rebound not directly off
the rim, but because Hashimu batted the ball to him.
He was not in a position to grab the ball,
but he punched it out to Cameron, who took it
in stride and knocked down the three that brought Kentucky

(05:32):
all the way back. And then Cameron, to his credit,
always talks about the fact that did not lock up
the lead for Kentucky. That was a shot a three
pointer by Scott Paget. But anyway, it all started with
Hashimu Evans, who batted that ball out to Cameron Mills.
I mentioned Jack Gibbons two thirty eight points, his running

(05:53):
buddy James Lee. People forget James was a left hander,
and James sadly ended his career with a dunk that
wasn't sad, but he ended up four point shy of
one thousand. One of my all time favorite people and
Wildcats Kevin Greevy, left hander, scored eighteen hundred points. Tom

(06:13):
Parker I loved watching Tom Parker shoot the basketball. Another
left hander twelve hundred points. So a lot of lefties
played for the Wildcats. And to me, even though I shoot,
like I said, I shoot jump shots left handed, when
I see a player shooting left handed, it looks strange
to me, and it might look strange to you as well,

(06:35):
But it is cool when you see somebody like that
taking advantage. For the first time, you'll see a defender
just maybe off balance, and forget this guy's left handed.
The guy goes right around him. It doesn't happen again,
but keep an eye on that. When you look at
the left handers, we're going to talk tonight with a
couple of people who have been covering the football Wildcats

(06:55):
doing a lot of interviews, Jeff Drummond from Cats Illustrated
and Lindsey Goff from WKYT, the weekend sports anchor. So
we will get to Jay drum at the bottom of
the hour Lindsey in hour number two. But I wanted
to begin tonight with some comments from a coach that
have gone viral. And this guy's name is Thomas Hammock,

(07:15):
and you may not know who he is, but you
are familiar with his work if you follow college football,
because he's the head coach at Northern Illinois. And last year,
Northern Illinois through the first Haymaker of the college football
season by beating Notre Dame ranked fifth at the time
at Notre Dame. Northern Illinois upset Notre Dame, and in

(07:41):
the minds of some ruin Notre Dame's chances for a
national championship. Of course, the Irish made a championship game,
but there was debate going into the playoff situation. Well,
they lost in a MAC team. Yeah, but that was
in September, you know, so that kind of thing. But
Northern Illinois made a lot of noise last year. In
twenty two twenty one, Northern was picked by the way

(08:02):
this is a MAC team and Kentucky is you know,
opens with the MAC team. This year, Northern was picked
to finish last in the MAC West and in Week
one all it did was go to Atlanta and beat
Georgia Tech. And that team went on to win the
conference that year and Thomas Hammock was named the MAC
Coach of the Year. He has coached his team to

(08:25):
three bowl games a couple of wins. He is an
alumnus of Northern. He played running back there in the
late nineties. Then he went on to a coaching career
at places like Wisconsin, Minnesota back at Northern. Five years
was the running backs coach at Baltimore for the Ravens

(08:47):
in the NFL. So he made the NFL, but then
took the job at his alma mater. And so now
like every other coach, he's dealing with the NILS, he's
dealing with transferred portals. And at a news conference recently,
Himmock made some comments that, as I said, have gone viral,
basically talking about the values in college football today. And

(09:10):
he started off talking about the portal, and he made
a great point when he said, yeah, you see all
kinds of people announcing that they're going into the portal,
but when they lay in, do they play? And the
answer is oftentimes no. We've talked about that a lot.
You know, when the music stops and all the seats
are taken and maybe you don't have a place to
sit down. That has happened so many times with regard

(09:32):
to the portal. But then he started talking more specifically
about nil and nil dollars and started talking about the
good old days.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I enjoyed my college experience. I didn't get one dime,
but the lessons I learned was more valuable than any
money you can ever pay me. And I appreciate that
because that is long term. People are losing the fact
that this is short term. I coached in the National
Football League for five years. Five years, right, don't lose fact,

(10:05):
don't lose focus of what the long term. Get your degree,
learn valuable lesson that's going to help you in the
long term of your life. That's the whole purpose. This
is a transition from being a kid to a grown up,
and I hope people don't lose focus of that. Everybody's
talking about everything else besides what is the most important

(10:25):
thing for going to college? Because if you going to
college to go get a couple of dollars, you might
have just go get a job. This is too hard
to go get a couple dollars, learn the lesson that
you need to learn to be successful in life for
the next forty to fifty years of your life. That
I would do it again for free, for free because

(10:47):
of the things I learned. That's why I'm standing here today,
because of what I learned in college, not because of
how much somebody gave me.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
And I got his point on this particular set of comments.
But when you talk about just go ahead and get
a job, no, there's no job that compares. If you're
a college football player and you're getting thousands of dollars
in addition to a free education, room and board, clothing,
full medical, full dental. Again, the education, if you take
advantage of it and the opportunity to play football, a

(11:18):
game you love, you're you're not going to sacrifice that
to go out and get a job moving boxes or
digging ditches or whatever, any kind of job you can
get without a degree. That's that's not realistic. But I
take his point. He also, though, talks about something I've
talked with at length with Shawn Woods coach Shawn Woods
about parents.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Parents. They need to learn that lesson too. Stop trying
to live.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Through your kids.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Go teach your kids. What are the things they need
to learn to be successful. That's what I'm telling my kids.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Don't.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I don't care about no nil, no revenue share. I
can care less. You need to learn things in college
to get you prepared for life, to be a father,
a husband, to work, everything else. Those are the most
important things. That's what people are missing. In my opinion,
just my opinion.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
That's Thomas Hammick. He's the head coach at Nordon Illinois,
and again I support in principle what he's saying one
thousand percent. I will say this, It's easy for us,
anybody who supports this, to say, yeah, yeah, forgetting about
the fact that a lot of these kids, I don't
care what color they are, need the money and help
their family with it. How do you turn that down?

(12:31):
If you come I came from a single parent home.
My mother would raise five kids on her own. My
dad died when we were little. If I had had
that opportunity to go to a school and grab some
money and send it home in addition to doing all
the great things, get an education, play ball. Yeah, you've
got to remember that. But he's right, and a lot
of people have talked about this of late. If the

(12:53):
driving force behind your career changes and your career moves
and decisions and choices is just grabbing them money, you're
destined for failure as a college athlete, you know, unless
you can make that one big score, that multimillion dollar
score that sets you up for life. How many college
players have done that? So again that's Thomas Hammock of

(13:14):
Northern Illinois and again coaching a MAC team the same
conference that will send Toledo, which is favored to win
the MAC, to election in Kentucky for opening Day. We'll
come back and talk more college football, more about the
SEC in a minute here on the Big blo Insider
six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blu Insider.
Coming up in just a couple of minutes. Jeff Drummond

(13:35):
from Cats Illustrated. He has talked to a lot of
the football Wildcats and we'll talk to Lindsay Goff of
WKYT as well. She's covered a lot of UK football
in her stay and has worked in and around the
SEC throughout her career. Work came up back to KYT
from a stint down in Georgia. So we'll talk football
with those two people, but we're also going to listen

(13:55):
to some comments now. And this kind of bothered me.
I got to tell you Greg McElroy, who I think
is an outstanding college football analyst for ESPN, the SEC Network,
play quarterback at Alabama and has a podcast like so
many people, but this guy knows his football and he
picked apart the Top twenty five, the AP preseason top

(14:17):
twenty five, and he's got the right outlook on it.
You know, he knows it's just for fun right now,
doesn't really mean anything. But there's so much recency bias
involved in his poll and not I guarantee you ninety
percent of the people voting aren't as dialed into the
SEC as Greg McElroy. And if you just listen to

(14:37):
his comments about the eight people overall, he knows not
just the SEC. He knows teams. He was stumping for Baylor,
stumping for Utah. Why aren't these teams ranked higher? But
one of the teams, believe it or not, a former
Alabama player was supporting setting it saying it didn't get
enough respect was Auburn. And I went, oh oh, because

(14:57):
Auburn is one of those games on the Kentucky schedule
where you look at it and you think, oh, maybe,
so you know it won't be easy. It's down there
on Saturday, November first, and Auburn is a program that's
been struggling of late, four straight losing seasons, all kinds
of problems. Last year lost to a cal team California,

(15:18):
which wasn't very good but turned it over five times.
So going into this one, depending on what's happening at
that stage of the season and injuries and things like that,
you would think just from ten thousand feet, Kentucky's got
a shot. Well, according to McElroy, this like Kentucky is
a rebuilt team down on the planes, and he made

(15:40):
a case for Auburn, which makes me think, boy, Kentucky's
gonna have a rough time.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
The other team that I feel like is really being
slept on is Auburn. If you look at where they
were last year, how many games were just flat out
given away, just given away? Whether it's the Cow game
where they threw five picks. I think against Arkansas they
threw five picks. They had a fourth and short that
was stopped by Georgia when they were marching, and the

(16:06):
process of trying to tie the game. They had just
a handful of just really difficult outcomes. Last year, they
throw they have an eleven point lead in the fourth
quarter against Oklahoma, they throw a pick six.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
They lose that game on the field.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Just there's no way it can be as snake bit
at what as it was last year. Just the football
gods won't allow it. It's not likely.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Let's all say it together. I do believe in the
football gods. But no, I'm just kidding. However, I talked
about the fact that Auburn is like Kentucky in a
couple of ways. Cheap among them personnel, and that is
this is a rebuilt Auburn team, and so many teams
are rebuilt these days, but Auburn has dramatically rebuilt. And

(16:48):
here's McElroy again talking about personnel changes.

Speaker 4 (16:52):
But you look at where Auburn had challenges last year.
Where they have challenges, they had challenged the quarterback and
they were inconsistent and wide receiver. They were inconsistent on
the offensive line, and then defensively at all three levels.

Speaker 5 (17:01):
They were pretty solid.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Okay, the offensive line has been solidified. That group is
back mostly intact, with a couple of high profile transfers.
You look at the receiver position, they bring in a
game breaker, a game breaker and Eric Singleton from Georgia Tech.
So that group has immediately gone from a middle tier
group in the SEC to one of the top groups
in the SEC at the wide receiver spot and at quarterback.
With the challenges they had with turnovers last year, I

(17:23):
know Jackson Arnold his fair share of challenges with turnovers
when he was at Oklahoma, but it sounds like those
things are kind of a thing of the past. So
hopefully they're going to get better quarterback played, They're going
to have better weapons, The offensive line should be better.
The one position that's not as good as last year
is running back, but they have some depth at that
position as well.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
So I look at Auburn, I don't know what's going
to happen, of course when Kentucky does go down there,
but I do know this, I will have a better
look at the game and Tom Leach and Jeff Picorrel
are radio broadcasters. And you're saying, what that's because with
me on the sidelines at various times, I can stand
parallel to the line of scrimmage. I can stand at

(18:03):
the goal line. I can stand in the back of
the end zone. If the ball is in the right
spot on the field, I can position myself and get
a great look. And you would think they could as
well from on high, but no, at Auburn they have
taken all the seats along the sidelines upstairs where the
press box used to be, and turn them into seats
for rich people. They're sticking the radio broadcast, including the

(18:26):
Auburn broadcasters, way off the field in the end zone
like Caddy corner from the end zone. The angle they
have is bizarre, and when the ball is on the
far end of the field, they're about two hundred yards away,
maybe not that much, maybe one hundred and seventy five
yards away. And yeah they got binoculars, but man, at

(18:48):
that angle, it makes it really difficult for any broadcast team.
I don't think they do that with TV, but they
do it with radio, and not just the away team
but the home team as well. Sticking up from our
radio guys. That is a tough situation right there, all right,
But enough complaining. Nobody cares about that. I just wanted
to let you know. And by the way, the last

(19:09):
time Kentucky played down there, you might recall there was
a controversial play at the goal line where Chris Rodriguez
got into the end zone and Kentucky was not given
the touchdown. I was at the opposite end of the field.
I could see it myself that he got in, but
it just seemed like everything went downhill from there and

(19:30):
the Wildcats lost it. So not impossible, but that was
the COVID year. By the way, that was the first
game of the year, and I think the crowd will
be a little bit a lot livelier this year. Let's
put it to you that way. Before we get to
the break, a quick note. A friend of mine that
told me just last night that a friend of his
is a regular listener to the show, and we surely

(19:51):
appreciate that and say thank you very much. But she
told my friend that she doesn't like the best of
shows when I'm on vacation, she just doesn't like the
best those shows, and she wants us here every night.
I told him I certainly appreciate that and to let
her know thank you for listening. But guy's got to
get some time off, you know what I'm saying. And unfortunately,

(20:12):
with the setup that we have now, we're forced to do,
which is pre record a majority of our shows. As
you know, I do it here in the garage. I
have a variety of guests. I love putting the show together.
But because of the way we put the show together,
we can't just call somebody like we used to and say, hey,
could just sit in for me on this night or
that Billy Rutledge did it many times. Ryan Lemon did

(20:34):
it many times. But what that meant was come to
the radio station and just sit down and we've got
some guests lined up and talked for a couple of hours.
That was easy enough, But now this involves booking guests
and recording them through my equipment here and then doing
all the editing and things like that. And there really
isn't anybody out there who is in a situation and

(20:56):
it's got to be done fairly early in the day
to get this done. So that's why we do the
best of shows. I try to make them as entertaining
as possible, and that is to say, save the segments
that are unique and that people really have reacted to
and responded to, like the Chain Gang or when I
have Cameron Mills here other people. So I do appreciate

(21:17):
the sentiments and I hope you keep listening. But yeah,
I mean, there's not a lot of best doves out there,
but a guy's got to have some time off now
and then. But thanks for listening, all right. Up next
Jeff Drummond of Kats Illustrated to talk some football and
a little basketball as well. Later on Lindsey Goff and
Taylor Swift takes over. It doesn't take over, but the
Swifties tuned in to hear her on her boyfriend's podcast.

(21:41):
That comes up in our number two here on six
thirty WAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider
joining us now is a long time friend of the
show and a guy who's been on the UK beat
for quite a while. He is Jeff Drummond of Cats
Illustrated Now part of the On three family and Jay Drumm.
First of all, congrats your fixtures from the fan data
scrimmages man, you know what you're doing out there. It's

(22:03):
got to be enjoyable for you, I would think.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 6 (22:07):
That's always a passion of mine. In fact, a lot
of people kind of associate them me for my photos
more than you know, the things that I write, and
I have to laugh and explain to them that, you know,
that's just the secondary for me. I do that because
I have a passion for it and it's always been

(22:28):
a hobby. But yeah, they there's some that think I'm
just a photographer, don't do the writing side of things.
That No, that's I got into it for newspaper and
reporting and and and the journalism side.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah. And your your photos are just so striking and
it's the first thing you see when you pull up
the website. And I was talking one night on the
air about the fact that a guy I work with
at the UK newspaper told me that he thinks great photos,
especially sports, are all about the anticipation of a moment,
like when a running back and a defender are coming together,

(23:04):
you know, just at the moment of impact, or just
before that, or just before a guy makes a catcher,
just as he does, and you just seem to have
a knack for capturing that sort of stuff.

Speaker 6 (23:15):
Well, that's there's no doubt about that. That helps you
get some great shots at times. And I'm I'm not
as technically talented there's a lot of other people out there,
but I pride myself and and trying to uh, you know,
follow what's going on in the game and trying to
be one step ahead of what might be coming next.

(23:36):
And especially with baseball. Yeah, I had a a coach
that always used to to preach to me, you know,
know what you're doing the next play, Think, think one
one step ahead, you know what one of the balls
hit to me, and that and that and that kind
of thing. So I've tried to apply that to mine.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, you definitely do, You definitely do. And I like
the fact you always pop into our booth when you're
covering baseball, so we know when you're on the job. Well,
let's talk about something you've written about, and that's the
offensive backfield for Kentucky. And you wrote about Jason Patterson.
And there's been so much talk, as you would expect
about Dante Dowdell, who transfers in from Nebraska. We saw

(24:19):
him in the spring. Seth McGowan, whose reputation now is
almost legendary, You know how it is when somebody transfers in.
You don't see him play, but there's so much talk
about him that every day their profile seems to grow.
And you throw in Jamrian Wilcox, who I think the
talk about him has been really subdued here in the spring.

(24:41):
So let's talk about Jason Patterson, who also I thought
played well in the spring. Is he going to be
a forgotten commodity do you think? Or is he good
enough to make these coaches play him well?

Speaker 6 (24:53):
It sounds like he's making that case right now, and
had a big scrimmage on Saturday, the first time the
Cats went live for a full scrimmage and camp and
apparently turned a lot of heads. Now, before you get
too excited about what that might mean for him and

(25:13):
his snaps this season, they did also come out and
say that they know what they've got with dal Dell
and mcgallan to veteran guys who have a lot of
football on tape. So it shouldn't be read into it
too much that maybe he's, you know, competing for one

(25:35):
of those top two spots. But then again, you talk
to a lot of the other players and coaches and
they say, man, he just has an ability to make
people miss and he's a guy that's just put his
head down and gone to work despite the fact that
they brought into guys, you know his position. Think about

(25:56):
that in this era too, with the transfer portal in
il and all that. You're back and you think you're
moving up the ladder and going to have a really
big chance of the season. He may still have that,
but they go out and they target not just one guy,
but two guys to take snaps away from you.

Speaker 5 (26:18):
And his response was I.

Speaker 6 (26:21):
Love competition that he he told me, he said, you know,
if I'm gonna make it to the NFL, think about
those NFL guys and how they have to compete every
year of their spot. That just really made an impression
on me. I'm I'm rooting for him because he kind

(26:41):
of feels like that the underdog and the guy that
you know, if Mark Stoops is really serious about what
he was talking about, you know, getting back to the
old culture, and I think he was serious about that.
Jason Patterson seems to represent a lot of those things
that Kentucky had when they were on their good rud

(27:03):
and he's a red shirt freshman.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
You know, so he's got a lot of football ahead
of him if he says healthy. And you also you
mentioned talking to other players. You talked to Devyn Rainer,
a linebacker who I think could be sitting on a
big year based on what we saw in limited snaps
last year. And he paid some high praise to Patterson,
didn't he He did.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
I believe his words were something on our O line. But
he makes me come to work every day. And he said,
you know, he can make you go bad at times
and make you miss, but he said, I'd rather have
that happen in camp with Jason than some guy you
know from every other school we played, instead of trying

(27:46):
to put me on Sports Center.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
He played in four games last year, they maintained his
red shirt. I really liked that rule. By the way,
I think everybody does an average five and a half
yards per carry. So you know, he made a case
for him himself last year, but of course he has
to prove himself all over again. The guy I think
Jay Drumm and I mentioned him earlier, is just really
kind of confounding. But again, I think talented is Jamrian Wilcox.

(28:15):
But all we know about him is he can make
big plays and sometimes has a hard time keeping his
shoes tied. You know, I don't know, and and now
I guess he's four on the depth chart. But you
go back to that Tennessee game where he exploded on
the first play of the game with a fifty yard run.
How do you see him fitting in?

Speaker 6 (28:32):
Well, he's got that raw ability that that tanalyzes like.
We've seen the guns of star potential with him, so
naturally a lot of the fans are asking about him too,
and even you know, some folks on our side just
assumed he was number one. Yeah, you know going into
this competition that he may well be number four. But

(28:55):
the one thing I'm like there is that Mark stew
came out kind of a little bit unprompted and really
bragged about his off season and the things he was
seeing that Jamarian was doing to change on media Day.
And even though we haven't heard as much about him

(29:17):
in fall camp yet of some of these other guys,
I still think that they view everything with him as
a positive and that his maturity and a little bit
more physical size going into the season that's going to
help him and just just a matter if he can
stay focused and hang in there, which I hope he does,

(29:37):
because he's another one that everybody you know. I think
a couple of different times people have just assumed, ah,
he's gonna transfer, somebody's going to take him away. But
he is stuck around and competed.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
He's exciting, and I really want to see what he
can do in this his third year. We're talking to
Jeff Drummond of Catch Illustrated Now, part of the on
three network. If you're interested, go to on three dot com,
back slash sites, Backslash, Cats Illustrated hyphenated UH to find
out more. And we'll come back and talk more with
Jay drum in a minute here on six thirty w

(30:10):
LAP Welcome back. We're talking with Jeff Drummond of Cats Illustrated,
part of the on three family Now and UH. He
has been covering of course football and basketball here in
the offseason. UH, And something that kind of covers both
the umbrella is the Nike deal Kentucky has re upped.
Did not do what Tennessee did and flip to Adidas.

(30:33):
Were you surprised, Jay Drumm, when you saw the Tennessee made.

Speaker 6 (30:36):
That move, Well, not so much really, because you know
Adidas has a lot of money to throw around in
comparison with with Nike, and they really need to have
some you know, anchor schools, particularly of football, those are
the ones that get targeted. And I had heard some

(30:58):
buzz for a while that Tennessee might be headed back
that direction.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
Not too much there, yeah, yeah, Well.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
And it takes hold a year from now, so you'll
still see Tennessee, I guess, wearing Nike gear. But it
all comes back to revenue streams, doesn't it, Because with
all these schools needing more money and needing a lot
of money right now. I mean, Kentucky just re up
with JMI for more than four hundred and fifty million
dollars for a number of years, and you know, the

(31:28):
TV network money and all the other revenue streams. The
traditional revenue streams aren't going to change much. So now Tennessee,
and indeed it is kind of shaking things up.

Speaker 6 (31:38):
But a ten year deal, Yeah, I thought it was
kind of good timing for Kentucky to have that contract
coming up at the end of the twenty twenty five
college sports season because with all this discussion about new
revenue needed and the sharing that's in play, that was

(32:00):
like a great time for them to negotiate a new
contract with Nike. I know some of our fans have
been a little bit frustrated with the numbers that they heard,
but I think it's going to be turned out a
little bit better than they think, given the additional bonuses,
so to speak, that they get from the loyalties of

(32:23):
seven Gear. I think that's going to be a big
part of the equation.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Well, something that they're stumping in this Tennessee Adidas deal
is the NIL Ambassador network available to all of the
Adidas partners, which could be a way for Tennessee to find,
you know, legal ways to help athletes boost their NIL
potential outside of the new revenue sharing cap, which is

(32:48):
I guess the biggest wild card in all of this.
You know, the CSC to College Sports Commission's already been
knocked down in one lawsuit situation, and everybody's looking for
a new way to create the mouse traps. So this
is going to just there's going to be a new
lead on this. I think every month it's seeing and
Tennessee a Adidas is the first one or one of

(33:10):
the first.

Speaker 6 (33:11):
Every discussion I've had with somebody over at UK about it,
just to kind of get myself more up to be
with it, because it's all a little bit overwhelming and
confusing to me at times. But they mentioned the terms
creativity and flexibility is what they're seeking moving forward because

(33:33):
this thing could be changing quickly and they've got to
be one step ahead of the game to stay where they.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
Want to be competitive in all the major sports.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Talking to Jeff Drummond from Katz Illustrated part of the
on three website Network Now and he covers of course
football and basketball, baseball things UK, You've gotten a chance,
like the rest of us have to talk to the
basketball players and mark in the offseason, and as you know,
through the years, that just never happened. But now there's

(34:05):
you know, so many new faces. They're giving us opportunities
to meet these kids. And I promiably I don't think
this is pie in the sky. I think the way
Pope has pulled this team together, given the opportunity to
work longer at constructing a roster, he did it in
a hurry. As you know, last year had more time

(34:25):
to do it. I firmly believe that this Kentucky team
could be better than last year. And I think fans
are expecting that, do you, I definitely do.

Speaker 6 (34:36):
I think that he had a chance to get back
and go through a full season in the SEC, and
there were probably some revelations during the course of that
that he said, Okay, I didn't really get it so
much when I took a job. In fairness, he did
have to throw that roster together as fast as possible.

(34:57):
So what would you do. You would lean on watch.
You have always known right best and offense and his
vision for that team offensively, But then he got into
this league and said, man, this is a rough and stumble.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
League.

Speaker 6 (35:14):
Defensively and rebounding, those two things had to be addressed
before they did anything. Uh next, Now, I know a
lot of people are you know, Kentucky fans by nature
are going to worry about something, and I think they
look at, did we mose too much three point shooting? Yeah,

(35:34):
well in exchange for defensive rebounding. But I think they're
going to have a little bit of both, and that
that balance is going to benefit them because you know,
it was until late, late late in the season that
they were still hovering around one hundred in the in
the defensive efficiency rankings, and people that follow that for years,

(35:56):
know that you do not have a chance if you're
that high, and a lot of people will suggest you
don't have a chance if you're outside the top twenty five.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
You were there.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
That's going to change big time.

Speaker 6 (36:08):
They've got so many guys, so many guys that can
guard so many positions. I'm really eager to see what
they can do extensively.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
I've only got a couple of minutes left with Jeff Drummond.
But you were there when when Pope talked about flipping
his focus preseason, when he said, I'm kind of twisted
as coaches go. I love the offensive end, but he
admitted they're starting with defense now here in August, and
I gotta think that's gonna pay off.

Speaker 6 (36:35):
You'd have to think so. And even though they might
not have one of their biggest pieces of that equation
available there, the big man Jayden Quainton right until a
little little bit later. But if they get everybody else
ready and the other bigs can kind of simulate.

Speaker 5 (36:55):
To some extent what.

Speaker 6 (36:55):
Keeven will do when he he joins the mix, have
them ahead of schedule. I think also playing Purdue in
that exhibition, we'll give them a chance to test that
and just see how much further they need to go,
which will probably be a lot because the tree was
super canidate.

Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, and I in fact, I asked Pope at one
of the news conferences about the fact that all of
his players I don't know about you, but every player
I talked to at one point volunteered the fact they
were going to be real good defensively, and Pope kind
of blew it off, said, we had a long way
to go, but everybody has a long way to go.

Speaker 6 (37:31):
Right, Yeah, I think most most are in the same
boat when it comes to that, outside of maybe Tennessee,
who seems to have them in their DNA when they.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
Get recruited there.

Speaker 6 (37:44):
But yeah, these guys are embracing it and all on board.
Even here, two or three of them mentioning they want
to be the best defensive team in the country. So
whether that's realistic or not, I'm like hearing that it's
a goal they want to play.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Dep Yes, realistic or not. If they want to do it,
then there are so many steps ahead.

Speaker 5 (38:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
You don't have to drum that into him. So well,
speaking of drum he is Jeff Drummer, Jay drum on
Twitter j drum Uk if you'd like to follow him
on Twitter or x we recommend that Ja Drump. Thank
you so much and we'll see you at the ball games.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
All right, Gabe, I have a good one and.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
That'll do it for our number one. Coming up. In
nour number two, we're gonna chat with Lindsay Goth from
WKYT Weekend Sports anchor. She has been talking to a
lot of the football Cats and the basketball Wildcats as well.
We will also hear from Walt Wells Eku's head coach,
Colonel's looking to replicate what they did last year by
sweeping their games at home. That's never easy, but of
course that is the goal. We're also going to hear

(38:43):
a little bit from Taylor Swift, mostly Jason Kelsey as
he introduced her, brought her on to the podcast that
he and his brother Travis do and it brought into
huge numbers as you might expect. So all of that's
ahead in our number two here on six thirty Wappettactution.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
Do Anything on.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Welcome Back to the Big Blue Insider, our number two
of our program coming up. We're going to talk football
with some of the Wildcats and some of the ek
U colonels that's coming up. Also, Lindsey got from channel
twenty seven. She has been covering. Sorry WKYT, they don't
like us to use the channel numbers anymore, but some
of us are just steeped in tradition, how about that.
And some of us still have garb from our previous

(41:13):
job that has twenty seven on it. But that's just
where we are now. That's a ratings book thing anyhow. Yeah,
she's covered a lot of college football for KYT. She's
the weekend sports anchor, so we will hear from her.
But first, Paul Finebaum, who of course has covered SEC
football forever and has the Daily show on radio and

(41:34):
on TV on the SEC network, was talking on somebody
Else's podcast the other day of the podcast done by
Danny Klippinger, a Clippinger who primarily has worked out West
but has a football or a sports podcast, and she
was talking to Fine Bob, and she was talking to

(41:55):
fine Bomb as they wrapped up the show and wanted
to predict from him about the college football season. The
last question that I have for you, and it's really
just to have it on record, who's going to win
the national championship?

Speaker 4 (42:09):
And is it going to be an SEC team?

Speaker 7 (42:11):
It is, and by the way, if it's not, I'm
leaving the country because I am so sick and tired
of being harassed by Big ten fans on our show.
The Big Ten has literally done nothing. They won two
national championships, Michigan won one two years ago. They won
one and a half national championships I think, and before
that in seventy years, and they act like they invented football.

(42:31):
Alabama has won about fifteen national championships in my lifetime.
Now I realize that's not a good comparison to a
realistic lifespan, but I believe Texas are going to win.
I didn't mean to avoid your question. It's going to
end all this and on January twentieth, I'll be the
happiest man in America because I won't have to listen
to the Big Tenors, or as my callers call them,

(42:54):
the Little Tenors.

Speaker 1 (42:55):
That's Paul Fine Bomb as you might expect Carrion Water
for the SEC, and of course he knows the SEC
inside and out. And yeah, he is annoyed evidently by
the people who call his show. But when you host
a show like that and you open up those phone lines.
You got to be ready for anything, and quite frankly,
it makes for better radio. We don't take many, if
any calls on this show now, but when I did,

(43:18):
people used to ask me all the time, how can
you talk to these people? Because you know, it's fun
if they're respectful, if they're not being personal, and if
they're teaching me something with their learned opinions. I love that.
If they're setting a new light on something, I love that,
and I would admit it on air. But if they
come on and just give their opinion, which isn't really

(43:40):
based on much more than emotion, and you kind of
disarm it or disable it, and then they pause and
they'll say all I'm saying is which means they didn't
listen to anything you said. Nothing you say is going
to convince them. They just go right back to their
original argument. And Finebaum is right when it comes to

(44:00):
I don't know about Big Ten fans acting like they
invented football, But in terms of the track record recently
and through history, you gotta look at the SEC, particularly
with Alabama. But is there much to talk about in
the Big Ten other than Ohio State of Late No.

(44:21):
The answer is no. But other than Ohio State and Michigan,
there have been really good teams, great players coming out
of the Big Ten. There's no question about that. But
fine Baum makes a good argument. And by the way,
he's not going to leave the country if they win.
But the and that was just said for effect, of course,
But it wouldn't surprise me if Ohio State won it.

(44:44):
It would surprise me if Michigan came back and won
it again. It would surprise me if Penn State won it,
simply because fairly or not, James Franklin is judged as
a coach you cannot or at least has not won
the Big Game. And for whatever it's worth, and it's
not worth anything right now. Penn State ranked second only

(45:07):
to Texas in the preseason Top twenty five. At Penn
State had a good team last year, has a lot
coming back. Ohio State has fine bomb pointed out kind
of in a rebuild and still ranked number three. But
Ohio State brings in the best players in the Midwest
and elsewhere, and thanks to urban Meyer. And I talked

(45:28):
to Jeff Pikoro about this because Jeff grew up an
Ohio State fan. His dad played baseball there. Jeff's been
to a lot of games at Ohio State, even though
he played for Kentucky and spent a lot of his
childhood and his adult life in Kentucky, and as a
former Wildcat, he appreciates what Ohio State has done of
late and under urban Meyer rebuilt itself or urban Meyer
rebuilt the team the program in the image of SEC teams,

(45:53):
because when urban Meyer was at Florida, that was back
when SEC teams would just destroy other teams with speed.
So he gets to Ohio State and he read jiggers
the way they play now, Ohio State is the team
in the SEC or the Big Ten rather that plays
like an SEC team more than any other. So you

(46:13):
got two Big Ten teams in the preseason top well
there's three actually, if you can't Oregon in the top ten.
But you've got Texas, Georgia, Alabama, LSU in the top ten.
South Carolina is thirteenth, but Illinois now is twelve, So
people are looking at Illinois to do good things this
year out of the Big Ten, ranked two spots ahead

(46:35):
of Michigan and Indiana's in the top twenty and ranked
twenty eth So yeah, SEC versus Big Ten. That's always
going to be a subject of debate as long as
they keep doing business the way they're doing it, and
why wouldn't they One other college football note, I have

(46:56):
asked players from way far away, asked Big Z about
being far from home when he played basketball. I talked
to Max Duffy about being from Australia but playing college
football here in the States, and that relates to the
next thing I'm going to share with you because at
a media gathering, a freshman punter named Archie Wilson was

(47:20):
standing at the podium and he is from Australia. And
if I didn't know this until I talked to Max,
I thought those kids were recruited and singularly chose schools
the way other players do. And I assume this kid
is part of this program that they have in Australia
where they have specifically kickers that they place at different schools.

(47:43):
That's why Max Duffy ended up in Kentucky. He was
placed here as the place to be. This is the
best spot for you, and it was. He won the
National Award as Punter of the Year when he was
a junior. So Archie Wilson is a true freshman and
a young guy who was asked at a media gathering

(48:04):
about the fact that, at such a young age, he
is so far from home.

Speaker 8 (48:09):
Oh, I turned nineteen tomorrow, so I'm I'm eighteen right now.
So like being the first time you're away from them, Yeah,
that part's hard. I mean, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
And right here, he got really emotional, teared up and
put his head on the lectern.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (48:30):
I loved it a lot.

Speaker 5 (48:36):
Yeah I have.

Speaker 8 (48:37):
I got three little brothers and my mom and Datt
and Night. Yeah, that's the tough part of that being here.
I love them a lot and I missed them, but
it's I mean, they know this is what's best for me.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
And it's guy.

Speaker 8 (48:48):
I can still talk to them plenty of the phone.
And that coming here to say the first first few games,
so I'm looking.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
Forward to that.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
And and that's Archie Wilson, the punter for Nebraska. And
I'm not trying to embarrass the kid because he recover quickly.
But you think about this, this guy, young man, eighty
seven hundred miles from home, eighty seven hundred plus miles
from home. When I was at Kentucky this my freshman
year was was seventy three seventy four lived in a dorm.

(49:18):
I'm from Louisville. Other kids in the dorm are from
Louisville and other places, of course in the state of Kentucky.
And they could not wait to get home on the
weekends from as close as Louisville, but other areas in Kentucky.
And we would see them out on the curb outside
the dorm waiting for mom and dad to pick them

(49:38):
up at two o'clock in the afternoon so they could
get home. And I'm not belittling anybody who gets homesick.
Being homesick's a good thing. But I think about that
when I would talk to and right now there are
kids from foreign lands on Kentucky teams. But you think
about Isaac Humphorys. You think about from Australia, ty Wynyard
from New Zealand, Georgia Aymore last year, who of course

(50:01):
had started their career at Virginia Tech and transferred to
Kentucky and now is in the WNBA. Just think about
how far from home those kids are. And ye have
Big Z when he played for Calipari here and now
in Arkansas and now he's transferring. It's just hard to imagine,
but as I learned folks from other countries, it's almost

(50:24):
ingrained in them. When you think about, say, let's drive
from Kentucky to Michigan, all right overseas. That's like going,
of course, from one country to the next, and after
you cross the border, they might speak an entirely different
language that you know. Folks from anywhere outside the US,
it's almost second nature to think about the fact that

(50:46):
you're not going to spend your entire life in that
particular country. You're going to have to travel, or at
least you'll have the opportunity to. But we're kind of
spoiled here in the US Army because the nation's so big.
You know, we can go from here to California and
we're all still speaking primarily the same language. But homesickness
among foreign players, it just fascinates me how they deal

(51:10):
with it, you know, and their parents come to visit,
and you know, here George's parents came in to visit,
and it just amazes me when man and women from
so far who are so far from home, how they
deal with it and adjust their lives. And this kid's
going to be fine, and he's probably going to be

(51:30):
a pretty good punter. Max Duffy was all right. Up next,
Taylor Swift makes a podcast appearance and almost breaks the internet,
plus more college football on the other side of the
break here on six thirty WAP Welcome back to Gabriel
with you a Big Blue Insider for a Thursday coming
up at the bottom of the hour, Lindsey got from
WKYT TV. She has been talking with a lot of

(51:53):
Kentucky football players and coaches, helping the station prepare for
the upcoming preseason special. Every TV Statehton Town's gonna have one,
so you may as well check them all out. And
Lindsay's gonna chat with us in a few minutes, and
we're gonna also hear from Walt Wells coming up. EKAU,
head coach. Eastern Kentucky opens its schedule the same day
Kentucky does, and EKAU opens up with an opponent that's

(52:15):
also on the Kentucky schedule, the Louisville Cardinals. But I
got to get to the Taylor Swift podcast appearance. Her boyfriend,
lack of a better term, Travis Kelsey and his brother
have the New Heights podcast that they made about one
hundred million dollars one of the networks paid them. Very
popular podcast, but never so popular as it was when

(52:37):
she made the appearance on it the other night, and
a reported one point two million people tuned in concurrently
to watch the stream of the podcast premiere, and at
some point at eight forty five pm, apparently the stream
faded to black and it seemed to stop with Jason Kelsey,

(52:58):
Travis's brother, and Taylor in the middle of a discussion
about her new album. Maybe this ran out of time.
I don't know how that works, but anyhow, this I'm
not going to play multiple clips from you. If you're
not as swifty. I get that I am not, but
I do enjoy some of her music. I wouldn't call
myself a swifty. I admire her for her philanthropic work
and the way, and the word of course got out

(53:20):
during our Eras tour that she took care of all
the workers on the tour, starting with the truck drivers.
She made insane amounts of money and shared it with
the people who made it possible. And of course she's been,
you know, dating Travis Kelcey now for a couple of years.
And people like to pretend that the network's all they
do is show her during the games. When I remember

(53:41):
the New York Times added up the amount of times
she'd been on camera, and you know, like a three
hour broadcast, it was something like thirty five seconds. It's
just when people are annoyed by that in their own minds,
it gets worse. So I guarantee you those were not
the people listening to the New Heights podcast. But this
is the way Jason, who retired a couple of years

(54:03):
ago from the world champion Philadelphia Eagles, this is how
he introduced the new Guest Our.

Speaker 9 (54:09):
Guest Today is a singer, songwriter, and producer and director
from Nashville, Tennessee that she is from reading. She was
the most awarded hartist in the history of the American
Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards and iHeart Radio Music Awards,
Goddamn Jill fourteen Grammy Awards, and is the only artist
in the history of the year four times. Last December,

(54:34):
she wrapped up the Airsour, which spanned one hundred and
forty nine shows across fifty one cities five times.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
That was the most attendant tour.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Of all time all time. I'm still going.

Speaker 9 (54:45):
Hold on her last album, The torture Police Department set
a record with one point seventy six billion streams globally
within the first week alone. In the first week and
as a fan of that guy on the Chiefs, she
has nineteen wins, two titles, had a Super Bowl.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Read the History of Shows.

Speaker 10 (55:11):
Taylor intro Jason, Oh my god, look his soul has
left his body.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
I'm crappy.

Speaker 5 (55:24):
I'm crappy.

Speaker 3 (55:24):
No, that was so good.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (55:26):
I tried to he tried screaming.

Speaker 11 (55:28):
For like forty seven seconds.

Speaker 10 (55:30):
That was so nice.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
That was so welcome to Thank you.

Speaker 11 (55:34):
Thanks for having me on my favorite podcast.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
As we all know.

Speaker 10 (55:37):
You know, you guys have a lot of male.

Speaker 11 (55:38):
Sports fans that listen to your podcast, and I think
we all know that if there's one thing that male
sports fans want to see in their space isn't on
their screens, it's more of me.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
I have to admit, I like that rye humor. At
the end, the last thing that they want to see
is more of me or whatever. Uh yeah, you know again,
not a huge fan, but I appreciate the fact that
she went on the podcast, and I do enjoy hearing
that podcast now and then the Kelsey brothers. They're pretty
funny and good for them made a ton of money

(56:13):
when they signed on another NFL note, Roger Goodell, take
this for what it's worth. Roger Goodell met with ESPN
employees this in the wake of the NFL ESPN buying
more NFL properties and said the NFL will not dictate
coverage her a report that came out ESPN shared Jimmy

(56:36):
Pataro addressed it on the record multiple times. But right
now there has been a back and forth going on
between Dan I'm sorry, Don van Nada Junior and Dan Patrick.
Van Nada is an investigative reporter for ESPN. Patrick formerly
an anchor for ESPN, who said ESPN quote can't be

(56:58):
any further in bed with the NFL. Van not I
came right back with do your homework before you malign
your ex colleagues, and then Patrick doubled down. From here
on out is when you're judge covering NFL, and he's right.
But Van not I can say this all he wants,
that nothing's going to change, but there will come a

(57:18):
point when one side of the hall clashes with the other,
when this guy might be looking to break a story
that does not cast the NFL in a favorable light.
And I don't mean somebody getting fined or suspended. I
mean a big story, perhaps about gambling, perhaps about performance
enhancing drugs, perhaps about domestic violence, which the NFL has

(57:39):
not handled well. And that's when the two sides of
the hall will go head to head. And from everything
I've heard and read up until now, ESPN has done
a pretty good job of separating the two, the programming
on one side of the hall, the journalism on the
other side. And you might roll your eyes and shrug
this off, but trust me, it's important and you will

(58:00):
want it to be important when you need it. If
you want to know about what's going on, you're gonna
want good journalists doing their job to figure it out,
because you deserve that. You're paying the bills, you're buying,
the tickets, you're watching, the commercials you're subscribing. You deserve
to know what's going on. And I will never forget
when I was working in college in the school paper

(58:22):
and we were working on some of the scandals involving
UK and somebody tried to corner me and said, nobody
wants to hear that. Well, no, the correct term is
nobody wants it to be happening. But if it is happening,
everybody wants to know what's going on. And I know
this because everybody stopped me to ask me what's going on?

(58:43):
What do you know? What can you tell me? And
every newspaper we published, they snatched them off the newsstands.
So pay attention to this. It's important, all right. I
mentioned well Wells and Eku. He had a chance to
talk to him and some of his players the other day.
Eku is coming in to a season that is as
challenging as it gets, but they always are right. And

(59:03):
last year Eastern Kentucky was undefeated at home, finished eight
and five on the year. Two of those losses were
to D one teams Mississippi State on the road and
Western Kentucky on the road. And once again, the Colonels
was an incredibly difficult schedule. Two D one opponents in
the first three, the Louisville Cardinals, then Houston Christian, then Marshall,

(59:26):
which is D one. Louisville of course, at U of L,
Marshall and Huntington. Houston Christian is in Richmond. That game's
in Richmond, and that's where AKU excelled last year, Colonel's
one defeated at home. The administration has done a good
job with facilities and helping to create more atmosphere, and
wal Wells certainly appreciates it.

Speaker 12 (59:48):
We're playing in a good conference against good football teams, and.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
So we're proud of that.

Speaker 12 (59:52):
We're you know, we want our fans to come and
have a great experience, which they do with our administration
and how they stepped up and changed the atmosphere around
and all those types of things, and you know that
are important to people now and then we want to
give them a good product on the field. And it's
like I tell everybody, you're gonna come see some NFL players.
You're gonna see some guys that will play, and so

(01:00:15):
be excited about that. I mean, that's in your hometown,
and be excited about that, and come out and watch
us because we want to give you a good show.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
And like a lot of other teams, the Colonel's rebuilding
their offensive line, their defensive line. They'll have a new
starting quarterback, but they do have some depth. They've got talent.
They got a lot of the guys who played last
year and played well coming back, so we'll have more
with them. With the Colonels than wal Well's coming up
in the next couple of weeks. Lindsay Goff from KYT
next on six thirty WLAP welcome back to the Big

(01:00:46):
Blue Insider and has promised Lindsay Goff Weekend Sports anchored WKYT.
She is someone who's been talking to a lot of
Wildcats of late, as we all have, lindsay, how are you?

Speaker 13 (01:00:57):
I'm good, how are you?

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
And by the way, she is missus something else because
in the last since the last time we talked on
the air, she got married. So congrats on that belated Lyba, thank.

Speaker 13 (01:01:07):
You, thank you, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
What has been the overall vibe? You've been here, you
were here and then left, came back. But you know
what's at stake with Kentucky football and yet so many
new faces. You're like the rest of us, roster in
hand trying to figure out who's who a media day
and doing your background on these kids. What's been the
overall vibe that you've taken away?

Speaker 13 (01:01:29):
Yeah, I don't know that I've ever been so lost
on a media day. You know, fifty new faces is
a lot, But I think the vibe there's putting their
heads down and going to work. They don't they don't
have a lot to say about it. I feel they're
just very much like focused on the grind. And I've
heard a lot of talk about the camaraderie the guys

(01:01:51):
that were here last year, I think, do you have
a chip on their shoulder? Well, I don't think they
have said that. You know, they kind of carry that
with them and they don't want to feel like that again.
But for the players that weren't here, that's a lot
of them, it's an opportunity I think, you know, to
play in the secs, to play at this level, and

(01:02:12):
last year doesn't affect them. So they're just coming in
with a clean slate, ready to work.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
And it's interesting and we haven't dealt with this in
a long time as media that as you point out
the veterans on this team, the ty Bryant's that the
jager Burns, they don't want to look back at last year.
They want to learn the lessons from it. But ty
Bryant said to us in the media gathering you might
have been there, said we don't ever want that to
happen again. So, yeah, even those who might draw upon

(01:02:40):
last year, they don't even want to talk about it,
do they.

Speaker 13 (01:02:45):
Ty Bryant said that to me as well. And then
Alex Lafari said that feeling in the locker room after
that last game, I don't ever want to feel that again.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
This is what he said.

Speaker 13 (01:02:55):
So they definitely feel it, and you know, I mean,
I can't say it any better than them. They don't
want to feel that way again. I think it was embarrassment.
I think it was frustrating. And so they're coming in
and Mark Stoups has said, you know, they just put
their heads down, they go to work, they don't talk

(01:03:15):
a lot, they just play football, and that's what he
wants out of a team. I think they've recruited players
that have that mentality. You know, you've heard rumblings that
there were some Stevas in the locker room maybe in
years past, and I don't think that that. If there
are issues this year, I don't think that that's going.

Speaker 6 (01:03:34):
To be one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
You know, I've thought a lot about that, and you're right,
and Stups has all but said that, you know, he's
kind of worked the edges of that topic. But I
think we all know what he's been talking about. And
and The proof was what we saw in the field
last year. That team collapsed after a great win at
Ole Miss. And you've worked the SEC for a while,
you know how tough that can be. They just collapsed.
But yeah, I honestly believe that a lot of this

(01:03:59):
new found to spread to CORP. If you will go
an old guy on, you might begin where it needs
to begin, and that's the offensive line. Because I don't
care what team you're covering, you will never find a group,
a position group, a position room that's tighter than the
offensive line because they have to be because of the

(01:04:19):
way they have to work in concert. And there are
so many veterans who have come in through the portal
and are still in his team within the old line,
and I really believe that that starts there and the
success of his team hangs on the old line. Does
that make sense?

Speaker 13 (01:04:35):
Oh yeah, I don't know if I trust this scroup yet,
that's right. I need to see them in action, but
they appear at least to have a little more depth.
I would say it could still become an issue, you know,
just if there are injuries or anything like that, but
they definitely have a lot of experience and they talked

(01:04:56):
all of them on media Day, and I'm sure you
heard it as well, how they're just really working on
that chemistry. It's been a time together and playing as one,
which is obviously what you need on the offensive line.
So I won't say that I trust them yet, like
I trust the defensive backs right like we know what
they bring. I trust the linebackers. I don't know if

(01:05:17):
I trust the line yet, but they have all signs
pointing to it will be better this year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I do trust the linebackers, not nearly as much as
I trust the d backs, just because there are some
new faces there. I think Afari's moved a linebacker did
work last year. They wanted him closer to the ball.
He's a playmaker. He was I think third on the
team and tackles.

Speaker 5 (01:05:41):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
It's just not quite the polished group that we've seen
in the past. But that's okay. They're gonna get their chance. Yeah,
they're going to get their chance. But I do think,
to use your word, there's more depth on the d line,
which they didn't have last year because it was riddled
with injuries and we kind of forgot about that. You know,
they lost three guys in the spring for the rest
of the season, and Stoops mentioned that both in Atlanta

(01:06:03):
and back here in election, and he didn't want to
use it as an excuse and Dian Walker's I think
Jeffikorral pointed out to me Dean Walker played the entire
year with a bad back. Now imagine playing that position
with a bad back. And Pro Football Focus has him
rated the number one incoming rookie d tackle if you

(01:06:24):
can measure such a thing in pro candas right now,
that was huge last year, wasn't it.

Speaker 13 (01:06:29):
I know, and people talked about it last year that
maybe his season wasn't as good as expected. That's certainly
an explanation as to why, aside from the fact that
teams are double at triple team in him, you got
a bad back that's certainly not going to help anything,
and the defense is lost. Piece is obviously Backel Harriston

(01:06:51):
both yea to the NFL. But I think they return
enough to where I feel good about that side of
the ball. The offense I think has a lot more
question marks. You know, you've got guys competing at wide receiver,
you've got guys competing at running back. I feel good
about the quarterback position. But yeah, their question marks for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Why do you feel good about the quarterback spot?

Speaker 13 (01:07:18):
Well, you have tealzo a right, that has all kinds
of experience. I mean, this is his seventh year of
college football, he's played in the SEC. He seems very motivated.
On media Day he told me, you know, he's had
a chip on his shoulder this whole time, just trying
to get back to this level and prove. And I
think he well, I don't think he said uh. When
he was playing at Texas A and M, he was

(01:07:40):
maybe a little selfish. He wasn't the best teammate. He
expected certain things to be handed to him, and now
he knows that's not the case. And I like Cutter Bowley.
I think Cutter Bowley is given Zach a run for
his money in practices, and I think if if Zach
were to go down, he is a presumed starter that
Cutter could step up the deal still that position. We

(01:08:03):
saw flashes from him last year of what he can do,
and I think coming in now he's a lot more polished.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
Oh yeah, and what I loved about what happened with
him last year and again didn't love the entire picture,
but just in snippets, was he goes out against a
really poor Murray State team, all due respect to Murray
a rebuild, and does what a guy like him should
do at home against a team like Murray State. Then
Texas beats him up and at one point, I mean

(01:08:34):
leveled him with the second Then he stood up and
made a great throw down the field which is just
behind him. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 13 (01:08:43):
Yeah, he has that ability I guess to not let
it impact and rattle him. And maybe that's you know,
in his family, a bit a whole familure of Division
one athletes. Yeah, certainly has the help. But yeah, I
think he's coming in a lot more poised, polished, and
he's probably learned a lot from Zach, I would say,

(01:09:05):
so I feel good about that. And then you have
a guy like bo Allen that's bit around and can
step up and game management needed right right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
Talking to Lindsay Goff from WKYT, she is the weekend
sports anchor, spent a lot of time preseason talking to
the Wildcats. When when does the WKYT preseason special come up?

Speaker 13 (01:09:26):
I think it is the Thursday before well I know
it is. It's the Thursday before kickoffs, So what would
that be like twenty eighth. Yeah, I think, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
We'll be looking for it. I'll tell you when I
was there, you and I didn't overlap much at all,
if at all. But I used to love putting that
show together, the preseason show, because there's so much optimism.
Everybody's bigger, faster, stronger, they're undefeated, and you've got so
much stuff, you know, you it's like, what don't you know?
You got so many interviews and so many storyline That's

(01:09:59):
what's great about football. You know, There's there's one game
a week and it's almost like a Broadway show opening,
and yeah, it's it's just it's just a different animal.
We're gonna come back and talk more football with Lindsay
on the other side of the break, a little bit
of basketball too. Here on a Big Bloe Sider six
thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Lindsay GoF. She

(01:10:19):
is the weekend sports anchor at WKYT. She is helping
to prepare kyt's preseason kickoff show. Everybody does one, So
if you like college football, if you like the wildcast,
just record. Everybody's in watch. But anyhow, you know, Lindsay
as I said, been covering a lot of Kentucky football,
high school football. But you and I have talked before

(01:10:41):
about the fact that when you were working down in
Georgia prior to coming back to KYT, you got to
cover the Masters. I mean, how awesome is that is?
I've got to imagine it is.

Speaker 13 (01:10:52):
It was probably the best work week I've ever had. Honestly,
I might have spent more at the Masters than I
made that week working, but it was worth it and
it was awesome. I didn't grow up a golfer or
anything like that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:06):
I didn't.

Speaker 13 (01:11:07):
I wasn't into the sport a ton I was forced
to learn when I moved to Georgia because we also
covered the RBC Heritage every week every year. But man,
that made me fall in love with golf and it
was so much fun. It was so cool just being there.
And I know everybody says like TV doesn't do it justice,
but it really does not, no kidding.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
You know, thinking about the Masters just a few days ago,
it sparked a memory and me my parents took Sports Illustrated,
and of course I would thumb through it and read
everything I could about baseball and a lot of football
and stuff. But I was all about baseball back then,
not much basketball. But I'll never forget the issue where
they covered the Masters, and of course, being Sports illustrated,

(01:11:51):
the photographs from oh Augusta. I was transfixed. And I
always skipped golf, like I don't want to read about golf,
it's boring. And then of course you have the greatest
writers in the world writing about it, and that article
about the Masters and those photos just grabbed me and
I read the first couple of paragraphs and it sucked
me in, and from that point on, I couldn't I

(01:12:13):
couldn't stop reading about you know, like the man, I
don't read about every tournament they all run together, but
especially the Masters. So anyway, uh special?

Speaker 7 (01:12:22):
Really?

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Yeah? But so is SEC football. You've been around it,
even when you were down there, and you are covering
it as we all are. A stage of Southeastern Conference
football that is unique. It's never been like this in
terms of strength of the league, the money being spent.
It's nuts, isn't it.

Speaker 8 (01:12:41):
Oh man?

Speaker 13 (01:12:42):
You know if you told me years ago, and I'm
sure you're the same way of it. Hey, Texas and
Oklahoma and the SEC and you know, alignment and oh
I know all the realignment and the movement and yeah,
the money, you know, the nil all of it. Just yeah,
college football that we knew ten years ago is not

(01:13:04):
the same as college football we know today. But the
SEC has always been you know, the king, I guess,
the college football and that hasn't changed.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
Yeah, yeah, Well I worked in the old Southwest Conference
back in the early eighties and those two leagues were
neck and neck with regard to you know, which is
you know, from year to year this league is better
than that league. And it seemed like, yeah, we weren't
talking much about the Big Ten back then, and then
that league unfortunately pulled itself to pieces. You know, those
those nine conference schools did not have each other's backs,

(01:13:40):
did not deal from a position of power, and it
destroyed the conference. And the SEC is the complete opposite
of that is now in a power struggle with the
Big Ten for college athletics. And we could talk football
all night, but I did want to get a couple
of comments from you about basketball in that this is
also a different are a different age, if you will,

(01:14:01):
in terms of UK basketball, because we have been given
so much access here in the summertime to Kentucky tiers
and to the coach that was in the past unheard of.
That was like getting into fourty now to talk to
a player during the summertime. But I've really enjoyed getting
to know these guys. But again, we've got a lot
of studying to do, don't we It's yes.

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
We do.

Speaker 13 (01:14:25):
It is great though that we are able to talk
to them over the summer one, because you know how
TV works, and the summer is kind of the drive on. Yeah,
there's not a lot going on, So being able to
talk to these guys throughout the summer has been great.
It lets us get to know them. It also lets
the fan base get to know them because we're putting
that content out there. I think it gets the newer

(01:14:45):
players comfortable, more comfortable in front of the media before
the onslaught that is the season and yeah, once football
stars that it kind of bleeds into basketball. You know,
you don't have that time. So the summer there is
kind of the perfect opportunity to get to know these players.
And yeah, I've enjoyed getting to talk to them and

(01:15:06):
hear from them, and you know, it seems like another
great bunch for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
What I am enjoying as well, is the fact that
the coach wants to play a brutal schedule, doesn't fall
back on it like, oh my god, look at the schedule.
He wants that, And yeah, I can't imagine lindsay that,
you know, even if they drop a few of these
tough games, that he's gonna lean back on it again,
say oh my god, we're playing this tough schedule. I

(01:15:32):
just think it's great that Mark Polpe wants this for him,
his program and his players.

Speaker 13 (01:15:38):
Yeah, I mean, what better way to be battle tested
right going into Mark madness than to have played all
these teams that are gonna.

Speaker 5 (01:15:46):
Be in the mix.

Speaker 13 (01:15:47):
You know, you know the conference plate is going to
be tough. You've got Saint John's. I mean, yeah, they
have a tough schedule for sure. And it's fun for
the fans, right like to play all these games and
have the big marquee matchup that you're not seeing blowouts
for the first like three weeks. These guys are gonna

(01:16:08):
get out there and compete, and I get excited for it.
I know the fan base probably does too. And even
if they do drop a few, you know they probably
will Oh yeah, let's be realistic, like they probably will
lose some. That's okay. You don't have to go you know,
forty to ohero. You just need to peak at the
right time.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
Yeah. And then one thing we also know is if
and when they do drop one, it will torture the coach,
Mark Pope, you know, during the week, Mark Pope before
a game compared to Mark Pope after a loss. He's
a different person entirely, which oh yeah, and you know,
and he's in his ninth year as a head coach,
so I guess that's not going to change anytime. So

(01:16:48):
but that's not a bad thing, you know. I mean
he takes it personally, and he takes this entire program personally.
A few more minutes left with Lindsay Goff of WKYT.
She's been covering football and basketball here this summer. Buddy
in particular, stand out when you think about interviews. I mean,
they all have great personalities, it seems, and you know,
with one or two exceptions, they're all like camera ready,

(01:17:08):
aren't they?

Speaker 4 (01:17:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:17:11):
How did anybody stand out?

Speaker 1 (01:17:12):
I really liked? And I'm biased because my daughter used
to teach a great crossing uh Moreno, to me, it
sounds like he's twenty five years old, doesn't he.

Speaker 13 (01:17:22):
I was gonna say, I always enjoy talking to Malachi
Moreno obviously, stories on him when he was that great
crossing and he's just so level headed. And him and
Jasper Johnson both, you know, the two local kids, and
they're both great interviews. Yeah, I can't wait to see

(01:17:42):
them succeed.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Out there and standing next to him, Jasper Johnson seems tiny,
but just look looking at his video and of course
I got the watch and you did too. Watch Malachi
in high school. I think he'll be I don't want
to use the word selfish, but you know how self
less he was in high school, always looking for his teammates.

Speaker 7 (01:18:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
But in the championship game, I don't know if you
got to cover that because you were anchoring.

Speaker 13 (01:18:05):
That night, but I did not know that was when
I broke my ankles.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
That Yeah, but that night in that championship game when
they needed him, Malachi said, I got this. And I
think we'll see more of that from him in college.
Well eventually, don't you.

Speaker 13 (01:18:22):
I think so. And I think Mark Coche kind of
encourages that to an extent among his players, that you
got a shot, take it. Yeah, you know obviously every
coach wants them to look for the better pass, to
make the better play. That's never going to go away.
But yeah, I think that he encourages that to an extent.
If you got it, man, green light it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Let's go prepping for I did radio on the Sweet
sixteen last year, and uh, somebody who covered that team
regularly told me they said, he said, Malachi I can
hit a three. He's got a three point shot. They
just don't want him to take it. And he did
shoot and make one. I think it was in the
either in the championship game, in the final four, and

(01:19:04):
when we were talking to him, you might have been
standing there and he was talking about it, or somebody
has talked about I said, didn't you hit a three
pointer in the Sweet sixteen? He said, yes, I did,
so Yeah, I think we might see a few more.
She is Lindsay Goff. She covers sports with WKYT. She
is the weekend anchor. Thank you so much and we'll
see you down the road. All right, thank you, and
that'll do it for now. Thanks so much to Lindsey.

(01:19:25):
Thanks to Jeff Drummond that said good night from the
garage in Lexington.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
I didn't want.

Speaker 8 (01:19:29):
Anything without spamming it well, span, egg sausage and spam.

Speaker 3 (01:19:33):
Just not want much spam in it. I don't want Denny.

Speaker 9 (01:19:35):
Spam walk on your egg, bacon, spam and sausage. He's
got spam in it as much as spa, egg sausage
and spam.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
Could I have in bacon, spam and sausage without the spam?
What do you mean? I don't not spam it, bat.

Speaker 8 (01:20:12):
Tact pattering, don't.

Speaker 3 (01:20:56):
Back out stat

Speaker 8 (01:21:12):
Toast innings