2025-08-15 - BBI

Mark Stoops says UK football may be on the verge of a special run; (11:00) Chris Doering of the SEC Network on how UK might re-gain college football prominence; (39:00) veteran video journalist Steve Moss of WKYT talks HS and UK football; (58:00) Mark Pope compares UK hoops to chess; (1:01:00) Heroes, Fools and Flakes and sometimes in baseball, mound meetings cover a lot of topics...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Big Blue and Cider. Dick Gabriel with
you Friday edition of our program as we wrap up
the week fifteen days away from college football. That's right,
two weeks from tomorrow the Wildcats will kick it off.
And we know it's fifteen days away because Corey Price,
our UK network statistician, has been posting photos every day
of a corresponding Kentucky football jersey number. And you knew

(00:25):
last night I was thinking who could it be? Who
else but Dusty Bonner. There have been a lot of
number fifteens, of course at Kentucky, but in terms of
a guy who had quite the impact most recently on
this football program, it was Dusty. As you know his story,
he was a starter for one year. People forget about this.
They think he was only here for a year. He
was here for three years. He was a true freshman

(00:49):
then and he was a backup QB. Then the next
year he read shirt and that was something how Mummy
did a lot. He would not instantly an immediately red
shirt freshman, and that was a recruiting tool. I'll get
back to that in a moment. So anyway, he was
a red shirt as a sophomore his second year. Then
in his third year he became the starter and took

(01:11):
over for Tim Couch, and that team lost. The entire
o line lost, Craig Yeast, lost a couple of other
weapons on offense. I had predicted that that team might
win two games, well won six, and at one point
that team won three consecutive conference games. He lost to Louisville,

(01:32):
got blown out, Dusty got beat up in the opener,
and then they beat Yukon killed him with the air raid,
beat Indiana in Bloomington, and then Florida comes to town
and wins. But then three straight wins over SEC teams,
including a road win. They win against Arkansas here. The
following week, they went at South Carolina convincingly thirty to ten.

(01:56):
That was the lou Holtz team might have been his
first year at South Carolina. They were bad and the
uk defense played really well. I was a one year
under mummy that the defense played well all year long.
And then LSU Kentucky beat LSU here in Lexington thirty
one to five. So the Wildcats won five of their

(02:16):
first seven games that year. Everybody excited. Then they go
to Georgia and they lose in a big turning point
in that one was a fake punt and people are
a fake field goal and people rip Mummy for it.
But as I understand it after the game, it was
the holder's point, and I believe it might have been
Matt Mummy, the holder there who miscounted the lineman. It

(02:36):
all came like, if you had X amount of linemen
on one side of the ball, you go forward with
the fake. If you don't have that number, then you
call off the fake. And again I don't know that
it was Matt Mummy or not, but whoever, the holder
was miscounted or forgot or something, and that was a
turning point. The following week, the Cats lose at Mississippi

(02:57):
State twenty three, twenty two. That was a tough one.
Come back get a win at Vandy, and it was
a Thursday night and on ESPN two. That was a
big deal back then. And I remember Kentucky was losing
and then had to have the ball, had to have
a turnover and forced one. And the winner of this game,
by the way, was going to a ball game. And

(03:18):
so Kentucky turns Vandy over, drives down, gets the winning
field goal. Wins in nineteen to seventeen and goes to
the Music City Ball loses the Tennessee of course at
the end of the year, but Dusty Bonner led that team.
That team also, though had the all conference punter and
Andy Smith, he transferred in from Western Kentucky, won the

(03:38):
starting job no guarantees, beat out three or four other guys,
led the league in punting, and like I said, it
was one year they had a good defense. So between
the kicking game keeping, the other teams backed up the defense,
giving the offense good field position. Dusty Bonner leading the
league in passing. Kentucky that year won four conference games,

(04:00):
four and four in the league and went to the
Music City Bowl and that's where James Whalen dislocated his
elbow and they lost to Syracuse. But that to me
was this was one of my favorite seasons. And only
later did I get to know and befriend Dusty. I
had him on the radio show a year or two
after he finished playing, and he was so much fun.

(04:20):
Other radio show hosts were calling me asking for his
phone number. He wound up doing some work with us
on the UK Radio network for several years, but in
terms of football, he's number fifteen. If you ask me,
and not so many days we are from college football
and sticking with the Wildcats. Mark Stoops has been in

(04:42):
a good mood, I think here in what they call
summer camp. He was in Atlanta, he was coming out
of the spring. He likes this group he has. You've
heard him say that over and over and I think
he's fairly optimistic. But he's got a brutal schedule. We
know this, but he just feels better about the mix,
that's obvious. And on media Day he talked about the

(05:07):
fact that because of this group they put together, because
of the fact that they've in general terms college football,
college sports has kind of worked out some of the
issues with the NIL dollars, because you might remember over
the last couple three years he was a gloomy gus
when he talked about having a roster full of free

(05:28):
agents and having to compete against these other SEC teams
which have much deeper pockets. There's no question about that,
and how does he compete against the Alabamas into Georgia's
And because of the portal, because of NIL, he is
not really able to coach football the way he likes

(05:52):
to coach football and the way he was doing the
job when he first got here. You know, now when
you got to worry about being a GM as well
as the coach, they worked out a lot of that stuff.
So he's he's in a much better mood and recently
talked about the fact that he believes they're on the
verge of what could be a pretty good run. They're
coming off a bad run, which is incredible when you

(06:15):
think about it. Two seven win seasons. That's part of
a bad run, but especially last year. But now he thinks,
and you got to go week by week, this could
be the start of something big.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Everybody we all have our own obstacles, you know, and
it is what it is. And I think I just
got to a point where I have to embrace that situation.
And I think I really believe we're coming out on
the other side of that as a whole, and I
think that's exciting. I think we went through some real

(06:48):
difficult times and you know, for myself, it's like I
can't do well on that. You know, we had had
a rough year that I wasn't very proud of, and
I've just taken the approach like, just embrace this challenge
that we have and build this football team because as
you build You've heard me talk for years about building

(07:12):
a program, building the culture, building a program. That is
still true. But it's also very true that you have
to just build a team. Like year to year, you
have to build a team. And that's where we're at.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
And of course he's absolutely right about that. You can
talk about the portal, you can talk about nil, you
can talk about anything you want, but in the end,
you've got to have better players. And that was the
biggest change when Stoops and company arrived here, a company
of course, meeting Vince Merrill and others. But if you
look around the NFL now there are veteran players who

(07:49):
played at Kentucky. And I know you don't always judge
a player a boy whether or not he makes it
to the NFL, because most don't. But when people have
asked me, and I've said this over and over when
Kentucky was having its run, and folks in other markets
or other media members or I was being interviewed house,

(08:10):
Stoop's doing it. The better players. It's easy, better players.
And that's not to say that other coaches here didn't
bring in talented guys. Bill Curry brought in a lot
of talented guys. The problem was most of them came
in in his last couple three years when it was
too late. You know, if he had survived that last
year of the year where he got fired, he might

(08:31):
have stayed here for a long time. He finally got
his staff straightened out, he got his recruiting straightened out.
He brought in a lot of good players, but they
were so young. And you might recall he got fired
mid season during an open week, and the team responded
that the players were upset about it. They took one
of the decals off the side of their helmets, that
one of the big k's off in protest, and they

(08:53):
went out and played well and won some games. And
people like say, yeah, they knew they were rid of
Bill Curry, so now they're playing well. No, they were young,
and the schedule came up to where they could win
some games, and they did. The problem was they were
just terrible leaning into that. But anyhow, it's about players,
and Kentucky has more now and Stoops has talked about

(09:15):
the depth they need to compete in the Southeastern Conference,
and that starts again broken record time with the Big
Blue Wall. It should be better, could be better, but
we just don't know yet. Because remember, now, the Big
Blue Wall developed over time. It didn't start with Drake Jackson.
That was a big deal. When they put him in

(09:36):
at center. It's solidified the Big Blue Wall and moved
Bunchie Starlings over to guard. By the way, Bunchie is back.
He's on the staff now, is a GA, but he's
coaching defensive lineman, which is good. You know, he was
an All American old lineman. He was gone up against
d lineman for a long time and he played some
D line when he was young. So anyhow, now the

(09:58):
Big Blue Wall began with John Toath and Logan Stenberg,
guys like that. But they kept moving people in. And
you remember at least one year in particular, when they
were so deep, John Schlarman could sub out four of
the five old lineman, leave him in for an entire drive,

(10:19):
build some experience, build some confidence, and even when they
were in the red zone, they didn't give into any
temptation to replace them. They left them out there so
they could successfully complete the drive and get it into
the end zone or at least a field goal. That's
how you build depth. Somehow they got away from that,
they either made mistakes in recruiting or they slacked off whatever,

(10:44):
and the Big Blue line or the Big Blue wall
began to crumble. Well, maybe it's coming together again this year.
We'll find out. We're going to talk a lot of
football in the next few minutes. Coming up Chris Doring
after the break from the SEC NETWHEK. Chris has always
been really high on Mark Stoops and Kentucky football. Yes,
he caught the pass for Florida that beat the Wildcats

(11:04):
in nineteen ninety three. Again, I have chosen to forgive
him because he's one of my favorite guests, and he's
coming up next. We'll talk more football. I have a
little basketball later on six point thirty. Wlap Welcome back
to the Big Blue and sider joining us now is
a longtime friend of the show. I'm a big fan
of Chris Doring and the SEC Network. Chris, I got

(11:24):
to think you're the old warhorse man. You played this
game a while back, but this time of year, do
you get a little extra adrenaline because you know camps
wrapping up and they are ready to play.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
I'll tell you what happened to me, Dick every single year, man,
I haven't played football in multiple decades. But we get
to July and I have dreams that I'm late for
training camps, that i haven't worked out and I'm unprepared
that I'm late. So yeah, I think that's the equivalent
of the being naked in school dream, I think. But yeah,

(11:55):
this time of year, I can relate to what these
guys are going through. Although I saw something the other day. Hey,
this is after practice five for Alabama and in the
article it says they're now twenty five preseason camp. I
five practice is like two and a half days for
us back in the day, So it's changed considerably the
time of year.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
You sound like Jeff Bacoro, who's our color analyst on
the UK Radio Network, played under Frank Kersey and Jerry
Clayburn back in the day, And uh yeah, he grumbles
every now and that we are doing two a days
and all that stuff. But times have change, there's no question.
Well let me start off first of all, As I said,
I'm such a fan of the the SEC network to

(12:34):
show you guys do listening to you and Peter Burns
and Alyssa and everybody, this is a time of year
where you've really got to be up on every team,
and you are every week, but at least during the
season you have games that you can refer to and
video you can watch and things like that. Tell me
about the preparation the prep you guys do just to

(12:54):
make sure you're up on every team in the league.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Did I would say that you probably feel the same
way that I do, although you're a little more hyper
focused on what's going on there in Lexington. I don't
know that I've ever had a season where I feel
less prepared for what's going to happen this season. Teams,
you know what rosters look like, who who, You know,
who's fielding what between, you know what's happened with the

(13:18):
transfer portal, and guys with around as much as they are,
and the limited access we had during the spring, I mean,
when everybody's kind of canceling spring games and not televising them.
I'm used to going around in two or three different
schools in the spring and getting a chance to call
games and see practices and get to talk to coaches.
I didn't have any of that, so it's hard. I

(13:40):
feel like coaches probably feel the same way to some degree.
It's like every year you try to learn a whole
new roster and trying to fit pieces together, and it's
really a matter of who can re recruit their roster
the best and be able to fill in the holes
with those pieces through the portals that they need to
help put themselves over the top.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
I've heard you guys talking about Kentucky, But for the
folks who meet not have been listening that day or
multiple days, just basically, what is the take of you
and your partners on the network of what you're expecting
or do you have any idea what you'll see from
the team that's got fifty new faces.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
That's exactly the point I was about to make. I
don't know what to make from a team that has
that many new faces. It was a disappointing season last year.
Maybe it's a situation of addition by subtraction to some degree.
A lot of what we hear are reports, aggregation of
information that is picked up throughout the spring and to

(14:35):
the summer, and some of the scrimmages that have taken
place around the league. But in terms of what I've heard,
you know, I've heard the running game has been very
impressive so far. I've heard that the officsive line is
getting back to looking like the big blue wall of old.
I want to believe that more than anybody. I've been
as disappointed as as probably most kentucktive fans have been

(14:56):
with not only how the seasons have gone, but like
getting away from who that that uh that that that
that mentality that's been developed under coach souss Is, And
so I'm sure he's focused on that. I get the
feeling that he's rejuvenated by not only having a fresh
start from being healthy again somebody else's and surgery he had,
and I think he's got a chip on his shoulder

(15:18):
and tough to prove. But the narrative nationally, or at
least you know, throughout the footprint here is that you know,
Kentucky's gonna have to thought And there was a time
that Kentucky was trending upwards, and I feel like I
was on the forefront of trying to push that narrative.
But it doesn't seem like anybody's talking about Kentucky anymore.
Maybe maybe that's a position they like to be at now.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
No, you're exactly right. You and and Peter were the
first people to tut Kentucky prior to that first ten
win season, and you would spent time on this campus.
You guys have a great relationship with Mark Stoops. I've
heard him talking to you guys, and you just kind
of alluded to what you took away from the vibe
you got from Stoops when you've had a chance to

(15:57):
talk to him, both on the phone and maybe down
in his Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, it's funny because we do have such a good
relationship with him, and I think he trusts us and
those that were trying to tell the story of Kentucky football.
At the same time, you know, he's been got short
tempered with us, you know, both in terms of interviews
we've had on the radio, over the phone, and in
person down in DestinE at the SEC spring meetings. Maybe

(16:24):
that's just the overall tenor of the program and where
he is right now. But like not a whole lot
of of patients for talking about what happened last year
and how things have been corrected this year. Perhaps it's
just a matter of, you know, let's let the actions
on the field do the speaking for us. But I
know he what happened last year is not sitting well
with him and you know, I think the way that

(16:48):
we even interact with him, that's very different than what
it's been in.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Your pat talking to Chris Joring of the SEC know
where he is and always will be a Florida Gator
and never lost to the Wildcats, of course, and had
that big TD catch in Lexington. But that was back
when Kentucky was just trying to make its way through
college football. And then, as Chris said, Kentucky was really
trending upwards. And then Chris a couple of back to

(17:11):
back seven win seasons that did include bowl games. But
you know, I covered my first Kentucky football game. God
helped me fifty years ago this fall, fifty years ago
in college. And if you had ever told me that
the Big Blue Nation would be disappointed with a seven
win season, I would have thought you were nuts. But
as I've said many times, and I didn't create this,
but Stoops is raised, not just the ceiling, but the

(17:33):
floor has any you know, the day Kentucky's not an
automatic win anymore?

Speaker 3 (17:38):
Did you reminded me of the time that I had
spent there on campus? I called the spring game. I
can't even remember what year it was, but when I
was around that program, I saw a roster that looked
different than Kentucky programs that I had played against. Looked
I heard a phrase over and over again being used
by those steps, and that was expanded capacity, helping everybody

(17:59):
understand that what we've done in the past doesn't dictate
what we're going to do in the future. That we
could push through some of these invisible barriers that are
there getting people to believe.

Speaker 4 (18:08):
And they done.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
They did that. The thing that I worry about now
is the contraction of those things. It seems like headed
in the wrong direction right now, and I hope that
coach students can find a way to get those guys
to believe again. But it really is I mean, look
at it. This is the first time that they've had
an offensive coordinator there and back to back seasons, what
the six years now, so you have some continuity there

(18:33):
you go out. I think Coachus knows who he wants
to be as a team. That's a team that plays
physical football, that that runs the football first and foremost.
Even going back to you know, moving on from Eddy
Grant to uh to call it, it was a matter
of let's let's find a way to utilize some of
the play action pass to integrate more of the vertical

(18:54):
passing game, and I think that's who they'd like to be.
But being able to run the football is the most
important of what I think football under coach Soups is
and that starts with the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Chris during my guest from the SEC Network, we will
talk more Kentucky football. On the other side of the break,
hearing a Big Blue Insiders six thirty wlap Welcome back
to the Big Blue Sider and my guess Chris Doring
from the SEC networking before the break, we were talking
about the fact that the best Mark Stukes teams, of course,
have featured balanced the run game the pass game. We'll
get to the old line in the moment when when

(19:25):
they were at their best, they did both. You know,
you look at the Will Levis Benny Snell team. You
know he's either Levis round to a Wandale Robinson who's
an NFL talent, or handing the ball off to Benny Snell,
who wound up in the NFL. And you're right, it's
Jimmy's and Joe's, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
It definitely is Jimmies and Joe's. But I think no
further than what's happened in Nashville with Vanderbilt. To me,
I give Corkle a lot of credit for understanding who
he wanted to be. I talked to him before about
the He watched that new Mexico State film in twenty
twenty three when they went to Auburn and beat the Tigers.

(20:02):
There on the plane, he saw the offense they were running,
he saw the quarterback that was running it. So he
went out not only got that quarterback, but the offensive
coordinator and the head coach. And I believe the coach
suits knows who they want to be and that that
starts with the coaching staff and obviously Bush Hamden back

(20:22):
again as we talked about another year with the offensive coordinator,
but finding the right pieces. The Zach has lot of
thing I think has been a little head scratching to
a lot of people around the league. And see him
back in his days at Texas A and M now
you know, coming back into this league. He's a veteran player,
He's been around. I respect guys that they put in
the works, that believe in themselves, They keep on, keep

(20:44):
it all and other people might give up. And certainly
having the experience in this league will benefit him as well.
So I just I'm curious that they have the pieces
around them. And I do think I think there was
a little toxicity in that locker room some of the
guys that have now gone on have you know, I
think it made we need space to open up for
some new leaders and maybe a little different vibe in
that room.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Yeah, and that's the addition by subtraction you were referring
to earlier.

Speaker 5 (21:08):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
And before I talk about kels Oda, let's talk about
that old line.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
And the fact that, yeah, they've got some really talented
experience guys, Chris, but instead of two and three years
to assimilate, they've got months to pull it together. Uh.
And and you know, five guys acting as one. Does
that make you skeptical?

Speaker 3 (21:28):
I think it makes me skeptical. I also think, you know,
it gives me more optimism than returning an offensive line
that wasn't very good for last year. So you bring
some of these guys in and and maybe you can
find that that secret sauce that allows those guys to
play at the unit well together. But I think that's

(21:48):
the key for everybody now. Like I talk a lot
about Florida football, obviously being in Gamesville and haven't played there.
As you said, yeah, I think I think the coach
Snapier and his staff have done a really good job
if I did, buying the right pieces, particularly at the
receiver spot. You go back to Ricky Pearsall last year,
Elijah Bajer and Sheen DK. This year they go out

(22:08):
and get j Michael Sartavan. So I trust that they
know who they want to be and the type of
player that fits into their scheme. And I trust the
because Soups, you know, has that same kind of recipe
in mind. So it really is a matter of just
being able to fast. Like the NFL Draft, you've got
to hit on your draft picks, you have to hit
on your trankfootball guys, right, That's.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Right, and Kalzada is one of them. And as Mike
pal Jeremy Jarmon, who was a d N A Kentucky
beck in the Outs played for Rich Books, we were
talking the other night about him and he said, Kalzada
is one of those guys who knows how to slay
the dragon, meaning he was a QB as you know
for A and M when it beat Alabama that huge win.
What do you remember about him playing at A and M.

Speaker 6 (22:49):
That's about it.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
I don't remember that game for the most part, don't.
I don't know. It's so long ago, it feels like,
but yeah, that was an unlikely upset there in College
station on that night in the ball But uh, I
don't really, I can't think of of, you know, a
whole lot of things that came out good or bad.
Maybe that's maybe that's not a terrible thing. But it

(23:11):
just seemed like he was a guy and that's that's,
you know, And in looking at what other teams are
doing around the conference, both in terms of recruiting and
guys going out and getting new guys to the portal
at the quarterback position, it didn't seem like Calzada was
a real splash acquisition. But perhaps again, maybe he's uh,

(23:32):
maybe he's one of those guys we saw cam Ward,
you know, come from Incarnate Word into Washington State into
you know, being the first pick coming out of Miami
last year. You're gonna see Tontier have a similar pass.
Maybe maybe this is a path for uh guys that
ends up being you know, a great redition story.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, and that's what I really like about him, and
I've only seen him in a couple of practices throws
an ice ball and who doesn't. But here's a guy
that wasn't sitting and waiting to play. You know, he
played meaningful minutes, meaningful reps at a and m gets
hurd at Auburn and goes to incarnate word by coincidence
where they love to throw the ball, and he threw

(24:11):
it really well. And now he comes back to the SEC.
So to me, that means and I know I'm looking,
you know, from a different prison, but that means that
he's a guy who's who's ready to play and has
been playing. And that's a huge place it is.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
You know, I would much rather have a guy that
that played a lot of snaps that you know, even
moving around and not a lot doesn't necessarily scare me.
Because he's had to acquiesce to the rest of the
guys in an existing locker room, he's had to learn
new schemes, he's had to get people to to to

(24:48):
follow his lead. I don't think that's a bad thing
in this case necessarily. So there's a lot that I
thought was disappointing about last year's Kentucky team. In the
last couple Kentucky teams. Uh, maybe maybe this is the
guy that's that Kentucky to help, you know, kind of
start a whole fresh news sheet.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
There when it was UK takeover Day or whatever you
call it on your network, and I guess everybody goes
on summer vacation. It's a great idea. But when the
UK's turned and the one game they replayed naturally from
football was the upset of Old miss and it's been
replayed more than ones, but I watched it again. Of
course I was standing right there on the sidelines witnessing
the entire thing, but I couldn't get over Chris how

(25:30):
well Kentucky played. I don't know if you remember much
about that game, but there was another huge upset that
day that kind of bumped Kentucky from the top of
the upset list. But I kept watching that game, and
Hamden called a great game. Brock the quarterback through through well,
I mean everything except for the old line give up
six sacks, but still protected well enough to win that game.

(25:50):
And then to your point, maybe it's toxicity. Everything collapsed
and they did have some personnel issues with injuries and
all that. I really wonder can they draw upon that
win because so many of the players have said, we
we want to forget about last year. You've never had
to worry about that. Your teams were so successful at Florida.
But what's your take on that kind of thing?

Speaker 3 (26:11):
Yeah, I don't know how much that's being talked about
when you have fifty new faces on the roster, so
you know, perhaps you know it's something that maybe is
being shown on. Here's what we do offensively to execute
this offense the bush Hamdons running. Here's what we do
defensively with Brad White's staff. But like more more than anything,

(26:33):
you know, I look at that game. Two things stood
out to me. The resiliency of Kentucky. Every time all
this made a play, every time they made a push,
it was Kentucky that was answering with a play of
their own. And secondly, they made the place when they
had to that fourth down throw the decision after being
conservative against Georgia the previous league and deciding to go

(26:54):
forward on fourth down and decided to get the aggressor,
putting the game in your quarterback's hands, letting make a play,
letting a receiver make a play. Those are the things
that I like to see. You don't see that a
ton from defensive minded head coaches. They typically go to
a conservative route and the further their defense. I like
the idea of being aggressive and going out there and
telling my quarterback, telling my receivers I believe in you,

(27:16):
we're going to go make a play. And maybe that's
what they take away is like, this is the team
we're going to be. We're going to be dictating the
pace rather than the ones that are reacting to the
other team's tape.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Well, it doesn't surprise me you being a wide receiver
throughout your career. That's you're right, I mean, And they
were backed up, Uh yeah, And the conservative thing would
have been let's hope we can get the ball back.
But that didn't work against Georgia and they had a
Baryon Brown. They don't have him. But as a receiver,
I'm sure you don't know that much about Kentucky receivers
right now because we don't know that. You know, we
don't know that. We know what we've seen in practice,

(27:48):
but you really don't know, you know, Jamori Macklin, that's
about it. They got a freshman from a couple of
counties over from Uh Martavius Quizenberry and on signing day
Mark Stutz. Actually he mentioned Wandale Robinson's name in comparing
him to quiz and Barry, which you don't hear very
often from a guy like Stuve. So it's we're going
to find out altogether, aren't we.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
That's high praise for sure when you're talking about Wandale
Robinson comparisons. But you know, I go back to the
early days of the transfer portal. Nobody was using the
transfer portal as well as what Kentucky was. I mean
they were oh was it Josephs they got from from
LSU early on right now the corner, I mean yeah,
I mean they they were the ones that were going on.

(28:31):
Robinson was a great acquisition there. Thinking about what they
Levens like, I thought they had early proof of concept
of why you would even consider Kentucky. And so you know,
I believe in again Kentucky and Coach Steps's ability to
evaluate talent. Maybe the most interesting thing for me, and
this is an outsider the vits wolffork or not Vitch

(28:52):
Wolfort ms Merrill uh story and and him moving on
and maybe again maybe it's addition by subtraction and getting
everybody on the same page on the staff there. But
that's that's one of the lingering storylines. We'll talk about
more as we get into the season and into the
Louisville game at the end of the year. But yeah,
I think sometimes you need new new, uh new, Sometimes

(29:17):
you need some new juice to come in and kind
of spike things up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Before I let you go, I I've got to ask
you though about you mentioned Florida some of the other teams. Uh,
Florida may have the best quarterback in the SEC. I
know he was in a boot for a while here
in preseason, but uh, what do you expect from Kentucky's
draw in the SEC? Well, you know Ole Miss. They
got ole Miss almost immediately after a tough Toledo game. So,
you know, and I've said to people all year, it's

(29:43):
not the schedule, it's the calendar. It's when these games
pop up on the schedule. They're always going to have
tough ones. But you don't have three games against East
Nobody State to ease into the SEC, you know.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, the thing about the SEC is is that you know,
it used to be like a three game stretch in
your season. That would define how your year what's going
to go. I think it's a four four or more
game stretch. Now I look at Flora's schedule. They go
to Baton Rouge, to Miami at home against Texas and
two Texas A and M in a matter of four

(30:15):
games there. That's going to define what their season is. Oklahomas,
you can look at like the final seven games with
their season, which culminates with the game against LSU and
the finale. But I look at you know this, this
is You're exactly right. It's not a matter of who
you play, it's when you play them and where you
play them. And so in addition to you know the

(30:39):
location area that's where that those two bi weeks fall.
Those can certainly be beneficial too. But it's a tough
run for everybody in this league. I have a hard
time believe even Texas, you know who's thought to be this,
you know, this invincible team. In a lot of ways,
there's a lot of question marks for them. I don't
think anybody goes more than ten and two in this
the season, just because what is from start.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
To finish, Welcome back and finish up with Chris Doring
of the SEC Network. After the break here on The
Big Blue Siders six thirty WLAP, Welcome back to the
Big Blue Insider. We're talking with Chris Doring of the
SEC Network. You can hear him on serious XM channel
three seventy four in your car, and of course you
can watch him on the SEC TV network. We're talking
about SEC teams, in fact, a team that Kentucky's got

(31:24):
on its schedule preseason, top ranked Texas Longhorns. Could you
please explain to me Arch Manning and how he's going
to be the Paul Fine Bombs going crazy. He's supposed
to get a number one pick and he didn't win
the starting job at Texas last year playing behind a
guy was a good, serviceable quarterback but was not in
a generational talent. And Quinn yours helped me with this.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I know you'll like this though. I like the trend here.
What we're seeing not only with Arch waiting his turn,
but with Jared Nuttmeyer staying around and having an opportunity
to learn like this is a little bit of a
throwback of the old days. I think there's quality of
ball improved when guys are getting chance to develop and
learn from others in front of them. As I started,
did a great job of managing that quarterback room. Obviously,

(32:08):
you know, great guidance from the Manning family there, but
I must joined anybody else probably leaving if he's not
getting this the job in the first year, certainly in
the second year. But you know, I spent a lot
of time talking this offseason about how I'm skeptical about
Arch and he's stepping in as a first time starter.
There's going to be the natural bumps and bruises that
go along with that. And I was asked to do

(32:30):
a breakdown of him last week on the Set Network,
and I'm watching it. Man, I'm like, I forgot how
good he throws the ball. I forgot how strong his arm,
And as I forgot, there's a lot of things to light.
I think maybe the biggest knock on him is that
maybe he believes in his abilities too much and can
be over the aggressive the time. I think there's reason
to be concerned. They lose two starters from last year

(32:51):
on the offensive line, and including Kevin brent Bank to
an injury this preseason has them short handed up front.
He lose a couple of receivers they're going to be
strong at running back, the defense is going to be
really good. But no, I think I think this is
going to be an amazing college quarterback. I'm just not
sure it's gonna happen off to jump like everybody thinks.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Okay, and of course, uh preseason number one, but that's
we all know that that's for fun. They're on Kentucky's
schedule again.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Yeah, them, Well last year, I think, did you know
what I mean?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah, I know we don't believe in moral victories in
this league, but I thought they I thought they went
to to toe.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
With Texas for much of that fault we did, and
some of that was because of cutter. Bowley of course,
was thrown in the fire as a true freshman, got
hit in the mouth, got crushed in one plane, and
got up and made a great throw down the field
after that. And I like what you were saying about
kind of old school football, waiting your turn, because he's
gonna have to wait probably again this season. But he

(33:45):
might be Chris the quarterback who stops that spinning door
for Kentucky. If having to bring in a new QB
every year or two, you know what I mean? And
that's kind of old school.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
I also, man, I mean continuity at the at the
coordinator position is important with a quarterback that that can
start a couple of years in a row conduit he
with the guy that's coming along that that learns from
from from that starter. It would be nice to have
a line of guys that you can just feel like
are developing a wait in their turn. We're seeing signs

(34:15):
of it, as I mentioned before, with That's Myer and
with arts Manning. But I don't know if that's going
to be the trend or not. But I'm hopeful that
we're starting to get a little bit back to the
old days where there is some development to take place.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Before question in the so fire, one more question about
an SEC team before I'll let you go, tell me
about Tennessee. Could this be a year and Stupisay's beating
Tennessee a couple of times. Sto's beaten f He's beating Tennessee.
He's being Louisville. People who are mad at him, forget
about that. But I don't know what to make of Tennessee.
You guys were talking, I think this morning or yesterday

(34:46):
about Tennessee's quarterback situation.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yeah, I I you know, I perhaps it's a backlash
of overhype, you know, the Nico Malana hype. I mean,
the the best production we saw from him with that
Bowl game in that first year where he took over
at the end of the season. But honestly, I'm more

(35:11):
worried about how they how they uh replaced Dylan fastest production.
I mean, he was the SEC Player of the Year
last year, a guy that that uh, you know, really
carried the loads for that offense. I think it's going
to be more by committee at the running back position
this year for them. But I don't think Nko won
any games for them last year. I don't, I don't.

(35:32):
I don't remember him making plays in the clutch that
allowed him to win that game. It was more about
running the ball and playing great defense. So I thought
they were going to take a step back anyway with
the loss of Dylan Sampson. The fact that they don't
have any clarity on the quarterback position still now a
little concerning to me. But I do expect Tim Banks
defense to be really good again this year, and perhaps

(35:53):
they can can lean on that running game again as
they did last year.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
I saw Josh Tipel of one of those you know, summertime,
let's fill up the space on the internet surveys or
whatever polls, listed as the second best coach in America,
which kind of knocking up balanced a little bit. Are
you a good coach? But is he that good?

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yeah? I like coach Hoffle an awful lot the criticism
that I have of Tennessee. Under his guidances, they beat
the teams they're supposed to be. Who are the wins
that they have where they're maybe equal to or lesser
than talent wise? The Alabama game comes to mind a
couple of years ago there in Oxville, which was an
amazing visual experience. But you know, honestly, when they play

(36:37):
a team that's more physical than them Georgia Ohio State
last year in the playoffs, they can't match that physicality.
So I still think there's some development there their offense.
You know, what they do with some of that deep
choice route stuff they run requires a shorter stet so
you get pressure up the middle with the way Georgia
kind of figured that out, and they can be very
disruptive to them. I need to see them not only

(37:00):
be a team that's better than them, but I need
to see them, you know, go to to toe from
a physical standpoint to people to think that they're going
to be able to push deep into the postseason.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Again, well maybe that'll be the solution for Kentucky, which
has played physical football in the pass against him and
done it very well. Getting back to that's going to
be big. And of course we're about out of time,
but I know you guys will be talking about the
defense for Kentucky. They've picked up guys through the portal
which have given him depth. And I will say this
name to you, David Gusta, and I know you guys

(37:31):
have talked about and the kid who transferred in from
Washington State, and you will appreciate this you being a ballplayer.
Every player I've talked to you, Chris has mentioned offense
and defense has mentioned this guy as much as anything
because of his work in the weight room and on
the two to twenty five bench. He did thirty eight
reps and they talk about that guy in these hushed,

(37:52):
reverential tones like Jeff our radio guy. I guess I
did four, you know, thirty eight reps as nuts as
I understand it. And everybody can't wait to see him
out on the field.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, thirty eight if is nuts. But just because you're
that strong, that doesn't mean it necessarily translated to being
a good football player. So well, we will see. But
I like if I have a choice of a guy
that's extremely strong versus the one that's I don't think
the strong guy every day.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Week and he's only about six feet toss a low
man wins, as you know, so I can't wait to
see him as well. He's a fun guy to talk
to if you get a chance. He met his lady
h online. He just kind of reached out to Vida
the internet, saw a picture of us, I'd like to
meet you camp fellow student. They met at Domino's Pizza
parking lot and now they celebrate their anniversaries at Domino.

(38:38):
So he's a fun guy. So anyhow you like that?

Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Thanks so much. Again, I always enjoy your work. My
best to you and your co workers, and we'll talk
to you later.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
All right, Thanks so much, Dick. Thanks take care.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
THAT'SID for hour number one coming up, we'll talk more
Kentucky football than I we're number two. We'll take a
look back and kind of a weird week for me
and we'll check on heroes, fools and flakes. That's all
ahead on six thirty. No, but you got laid pain.

(40:51):
Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now
is a longtime friend and colleague, Steve Moss and I
worked together at w k YT from Man many years.
He's been shooting sports and now news there gosh since
the mid nineties and Steve, I guess one of ourment
We've had many adventures together. But gosh, going back now
with Mark Pope back at Kentucky the work you and

(41:15):
I did at the Final four that year in ninety six, Man,
I remember, you know, up at seven am and down
at one am, just because we worked all day. But
that all came rushing back to me when when Pope
got back. Did you have a similar experience?

Speaker 4 (41:32):
Actually I did, Dick. I can remember being up there
in the Metal Lands and experiencing all that for the
first time, and Kentucky fans experiencing that for the first
time since nineteen seventy eight. It was a it was
a big night. I remember being in the bowels of
the Metal Lands and those guys sitting in the locker

(41:54):
room taking turns just staring at that National Championship trophy
and then you know, right as everybody was packed up
or ready to leave, you hear this faint chant of
who's in the house tonight UK and it gets it
gets stronger and stronger, and we realize that there's six
or seven of these guys, including Mark Pope, carrying this

(42:17):
trophy out of the building and getting ready to get
on an airplane and take it back to Lexicon. And
I remember shooting video of all that.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
It was fun and that was just kind of an
organic moment when that chant was worn. And it was
Walter McCarty who came up with it, and of course
he has a had I guess, I guess he still
does a deep interest in music and things like that.
But when we put together the documentary camer Mills and
Jason Eperson and I on the ninety six team Rick Patino,

(42:49):
this kind of floored me. But one of them, I
think it was Anthony Epps, asked Patino, when did you
know that we basically had what it took, you know,
to win it all? In paraphrasing, and he didn't talk
about a moment in practice or a game or whatever.
He said. Bettino said when he first heard that Who's
in the house tonight, because he knew that it was

(43:11):
something that the players had come up with. And when
he mentioned that McCarty had been he was leaning on
the counter and he stepped up and took a deep bow.
I thank you, you know, because he came up with it,
you know, and we actually had the video clip. I
don't know if you shot that back in the hallway
or somebody. Okay, well that's that was the key. That

(43:31):
was the key to that championship run. And it's so
deeply ingrained into Mark Pope right now. So every time
he talks, you know about coach p or you know,
going for a title, I just kind of everything washes
back to those memories, and you know, it was it
was a great time. We worked our tails off, but
that might have been in terms of, you know, we

(43:53):
were there in terms of travel ten days. That's the
hardest I ever worked on a project. But it was
the most fun I ever had. So anyway, But speaking
of kind of looking back a little bit, and I've
been asking a lot of people about this, I just
talked to Chris Doring about it. But Montavian Quisonberry is
one of the real I don't want to say mysteries,

(44:13):
but I'm looking so forward to seeing what this guy does.
And I don't know that he'll get to do a
lot this year. But you got to see him in
high school and when they signed him and Mark Stoops
talked about uh Robinson about just you know, yeah about
one day about you know, made that comparison. I mean,

(44:36):
the kids five ten, one seventy Quisonberry, that's where they
never are. But that that just made me sit up
straight and well, I mean, I want to see David Gusta,
I want to see shy As Pete, I want to
see these transfers who come in and play on the line.
Of course, Zach Calzada, but I just think the Quisonberry
because he's a local as well. The comparison, I think

(44:59):
is fascinating. And you saw him play, what do you think?

Speaker 4 (45:03):
He's electric? And I can't think of another word because
his change of direction, it's very similar to Wandell, so
quick on his feet. Yeah, he's he's not five to ten.
He might be more like five seven, five eight and
maybe a buck sixty. But I'm telling you he's got
you know, I know it's cliche, but he's got the heart,

(45:25):
he's got the athletic ability, he's got the change of direction.
You know, the first time I saw him play, that's
who I thought that was Wandelle Robinson because I covered
him in high school as well. And all you need
to do is get him the ball in space. Now,
granted they're playing in the NFL D League now, yep,
you know, but I hope to see him early. You

(45:49):
know what, they have four games to you know, to
kind of play with if they want to seal red shirt.
I hope to see him early. I want to see
him on punt turn. I want to see him in
the slot. I just think he's one of those guys.
You know, in a couple of years he could be
he could be Wandale again. But right now, you know,

(46:11):
there's so much uncertainty. Let's let's see what he can do.
What's the harm, you know, if Kentucky's got elite, get
him out there. I just think he's electric. Yes, he's
a you know, he played at Boyle County where they
they know how to do football, and and I hope
that it translates, you know, at this level.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Well, I was going to bring that up. That was
my next question, and I've talked again. I talked to
Chris Doring about the same thing. But he comes from
a program that is steeped and excellent. And it wasn't
always that way, you know that, but Chuck Smith made
it that way. And when he began to have success.
The schools, the public schools that fed into Boyle County
as opposed to fed into Danville High they were all

(46:52):
running Boyle County stuff at a much limited level, you know,
with their football teams. So by the time they got
to the high school, those kids are already cognizant of
what was going to be expected of them. So winning
is the culture there, and because it's ingrained in him,
he'll be one of those guys who won't stand for

(47:13):
anything less in Kentucky.

Speaker 4 (47:15):
True. True, And like most great high school programs, you know,
Boyle County basically has their assistant coaches coaching at the
middle school level, So by the time a Quismberry gets there,
it's just plug and play.

Speaker 7 (47:32):
You know.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
They do it over here in Georgetown where I live,
at Scott County, he has his players, I'm sorry, his
assistant coaches coach in the middle school, so that for
that very reason, by the time they get to the
high school level, they've repped this stuff so many times
already that they know what they're doing. And yes, Boyle County,
you know the standard of excellence in this area, you know,

(47:55):
by a wide margin. And hopefully by the time Quisberry
gets on the field at Kentucky, he's disciplined enough, he's
played enough good football that you know. It just it's
second nature for a guy like that. And given his
God given abilities, you know, he could make some hay
and I'm looking forward to it. We talked to him

(48:16):
at media day, right, and I'd forgotten how small he
really was until you see him without the pad, without
the helmet on, and You're going, my goodness, I five
eight and I'm looking down on him. How is he
going to withstand the punishment of playing in that league?
But well, you know, I have all the confidence in
the world and the guy like that.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Think about though, how many times did Wandale Robinson in
the SEC. Now as you know, did you call the
NFL D League take a really solid shot because he
was so fast and elusive. Yeah, he was tackled, but
not like a wide receiver. You know, he was a
slot guy. You know, a lot of wide receivers have

(48:58):
to go over the middle, they take that punishment. He
was able to avoid that, and so is Lynn Bowden.
Another guy. You know, you could bring him down, but
nobody really got a good shot at him. So that's
something Quizzingerry is gonna is gonna have to try to learn.
Speaking of Bowden, by the way, I hate to bring
this up, but uh, somebody posted football clips from that
Citrus Bowl win over Penn State down there, I know,

(49:22):
And there were two big plays by Lynn Bowden, And
if you were watching on TV, the one that came
to the near side showed Boden running out of bounds
and he slammed into a woman on the sideline and
helped her up, made sure she was okay. Yeah. Uh.
And then later in the game and a huge play
at another big I think it was a punt return, uh,

(49:43):
and he nearly broke it.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
Pass that's right across the middle. I cuts it up
the near sideline. He started out in the slot on
the far sideline, cuts it across the middle, gets a
late hit out of bounds, gets a hera a leader
photographer who get me.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
So it wasn't Odin who hit you. It was the
Herald Leader photographer.

Speaker 4 (50:03):
That's correct, all right.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
It was a domino effect. Well, I can tell you.
And by the way, uh, Mossy uh talking to Steve
Moss from wk YT sustained a torn knee ligament. Yeah,
but it was the ill. Yeah. But so you didn't
need the surgery at all.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
But I will say this, when Bowden was in town
on an open day, I don't remember which NFL team
he was with, and I bumped into him. Hey, how
you doing blah blah blah, and uh, I mentioned the
fact that you were there. I said, remember that guy
you ran into and he said, yeah, I want to
talk to him. I don't know if he ever found you.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
He did.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
He felt bad.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
Yeah, he asked me how it was going, okay, good?

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Well he felt bad.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
I was. I was really worried when I saw the
the hit in the first half that you know they
had those advertisements on the sideline of the foam patty. Yeah,
he jumps over one as he was going out of bounds,
and when he did, he clocked her. Yeah, and I thought,
oh my gosh, because she's slam under head on the turf. Yeah,

(51:02):
but yeah, she popped right up, thankfully.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Steve Moss is my guest, longtime videographer WKYT has shot
high school in college sports for decades here in central Kentucky.
He'll be added again when the Wildcats begin their season
coming up quickly. We'll come back and talk more with
Mossy on the other side of the break here on
six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Steve Moss.
He is a senior videographer WKYT and for the longest

(51:28):
time I shot high school football and basketball as well
as college football and basketball, traveled with the Wildcats. He's
done all kinds of fun stuff and of course is
going to be on the sidelines again this year. When
the Wildcats open their season and you have covered a
lot of different players, a lot of different coaches, this, Steve,

(51:48):
feels like a season that like no other, just because
you've got the combination of high expectation with fans and
not just the hope that you and I encountered for
so many years later. Gee, I hope we can win
some games. It's no they need to. They've shown us
they can do it. They've got the fans that are

(52:08):
just demanding more from this program now, which is a
new level. But now you've got fifty new faces. So
I don't know what to think, you know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (52:19):
I don't either. It's you know, the word to me
is uncertainty because again, fifty new faces. We kind of
knew there was going to be wholesale changes with the
way the portal works and all this, but you never
dream that you'd be going, Okay, now, who is number
eighty nine? You know what I'm saying? And so, yeah,

(52:41):
you've got a quarterback who's entering what his seventh season
in college football. You know, yes, he's well traveled and
he's got a lot of games under his belt. But
you know, some would say, if you're still doing it
after seven seasons, what's going on here? And by all accounts,
Cutter Bowie is nipping at his heels. So there's a

(53:03):
good quarterback battle going on. You know, you've got you've
got uncertainty on the offensive line. Uh, you know, is
there going to be any depth? There are these new
guys going to be able to protect cal Zatta? You know,
the previous quarterback last year had to retire for goodness,
sake because of injuries. You've got You've got a defensive

(53:25):
line that E eyeballed them at at Media Day practice,
and they're very small. It's just one of the smallest
defensive lines that I've seen under Mark stops and he
calls them twitchy. To me, that means I don't have
a lot of size here. I'm just hoping that they're
going to be fast, get to you know, get to
the ball. Who's going to provide any kind of rush

(53:46):
from the edge, because that's been a you know, sticking
point over the last couple of seasons. I don't know. Uh,
it's also the first season without the big dog, Vince Marrow.
It's just gonna It's just it's kind of weird in
a way, and it's you just kind of I'm anticipating,
you know, the start of the season, but at the

(54:09):
same time, you're going, what the heck are they gonna do?
How good are they gonna be? Yeah, you know, I
don't think Mark Stoop's is gonna go anywhere because they
owe him too much money. But then again, you hear
people say he's got to win this seasons. I don't know,
It's just it's a bizarre situation to me.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Yeah, and again Mitch Barnhard has said there is not
a set number of wins, and he said, I've never
operated that way. He really hasn't. But what he has
operated on is watching a program and seeing what direction
it's going. And it took obviously a turn in the
wrong direction last year for whatever reason, and Stoops owned it.
Stoop said, basically it's on him, and he's right. But

(54:48):
it all came down as well to as a staff,
they didn't put together a very good roster, and by
all accounts they've done that now, and they've had to
do it with transfers as well, meaning they're recruiting as
and somewhat askewed. But yeah, with Vince Merrill gone, Steve,
I'm I'm really curious to see, you know, do they
keep bringing in the kids from Ohio and Michigan and all.

(55:09):
You know, they've got to have inroads there already as
law as they got Stoops and there's more than one
Stoops on the staff, you've got a path to Ohio, right,
I think?

Speaker 4 (55:20):
So, I don't think. I don't think that part of
the equation changes much. I think with with the the
way the portal works, now you know, you're going to
have to recruit the portal just as hard as you
are the high school kids. And we saw that a
little bit last year, or at least that's what Mark
Stoops was telling us, is that, you know, my assistants

(55:41):
now need to worry about filling some holes and filling
some gaps. So I'm going to let these guys recruit
the portal. So you know, yeah, I think I think
the way the way you do business has changed a lot.
The money aspect of it has made for those changes.
So so I don't think. I don't think Mark Stoops

(56:03):
is going to try to reinvent the wheel here. You know,
the guy didn't forget how to coach. He certainly hadn't
forgotten how to recruit those guys that he does go
out and find at the high school level. I think
it still needs to be the you know what's recruit
and develop. Oh yes, that's what he's that's what he's
made his hay with. So uh, you know, I don't
I don't. I don't foresee any changes wholesale changes in that.

(56:26):
In that regard.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
I think not only does he not try to reinvent
the wheel, he pulls whatever the wheels are he's has
and goes and gets the old ones out of the
out of the garage and the ones that worked.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Yeah, I was going to say, like, you know, if
you look at their running backs for example, there there's
some big dudes, you know, with with doubt l and
uh with the other kid that just transferred in here
late mcgal and yeah they're a big guy. Yeah, there's
six two two fifteen plus if if Stoops can get
it back to where he's pounding the rock like he

(56:57):
did with Benny i Ard. You mentioned Benny a little
it a while ago on Tom Show, if he can
if he can pound the rock like that like they
used to run the ball, you know, and get back
to that, maybe maybe, just maybe, you know this this
team can have some success, but of course it starts
up trunk and uh you know, well the proof is
in the putting there. So yeah, let's see what happened.

(57:19):
And the thing to remember.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
The thing to remember too is when Benny was at
his best, they were also throwing the ball.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
They had Wando, they had Will Levis, you know, so
it's not mutually exclusive, but sometimes people do get a
little restless when it comes to that kind of thing.
A couple of minutes left with Steve Moss from w
k y T. Uh, you've gotten some new we're speaking
of high school football, some new faces in the coaching
ranks here, especially in Lexington, don't you.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
Yeah, there's I think there's four changes. Let me see. Uh,
Henry Clay, your son Jack's old school has a new coach.
They're they're stealing coach from from Brian Station. So Brian
Station has a new coach, and our buddy J. T.
Haskins too. I covered when he was playing. I covered

(58:08):
him when he when he played at U of L.
And then both of the private schools, Catholic and LCA,
both having new coaches. So it's you know, just like
with with UK, A lot of uncertainty in the in
the city this season, so it'll be fun. I'm cranked
up and ready to go. Well, we got we got

(58:29):
one week until the high school season kicks off, so
let's do it.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
He is Steve Moss from WKYT, longtime sports videographer. You'll
see him on the sidelines at high school and college games.
Thank you, brother, You're welcome, and we'll hear more from
the football Cats on the other side of the break
here on six thirty w LAP Welcome back to the
Big Blue Insider. We mentioned earlier we are fifteen days
away from college football. We know this because Corey Price

(58:55):
is posting photos of UK football players with corresponding jersey numbers.
He is also counting us down to basketball season, and
he says it is eighty days until the start of
Kentucky women's basketball and the corresponding photo. Of course there's
no jersey number eighty. But he's pulling out scores from

(59:15):
the past, and Corey's our number one numbers guy, so
this is fun for him, I know. But the corresponding
score he chose was from a game back in nineteen
eighty three in February, when seventh rank Kentucky beat number
six Old Dominion eighty to sixty six in front of

(59:35):
a sellout crowd. Ten thousand, six hundred and twenty two
fans attended that game, and at the time, according to Corey,
that made it the largest crowd ever to watch a
women's basketball game in America. Lee Wise led the Wildcat
through nineteen points, and Donovan was part of that Old

(59:56):
Dominion team. It was a great night and I was
there that we actually he did the game on cable television.
I might must have been telecable back then. But they
put together UK put together a TV broadcast and I
was part of it. And that was fun. It was
a huge, huge night for women's basketball. And there's a

(01:00:17):
photo it probably is still in the media guide that
somebody took from the top of Memorial Coliseum and you
can see just how jammed it was that night. Man,
that was fun. Oh and by the way, if you
missed it, yesterday eighty one days away, Corey pulled out
the score from the Final Four in nineteen ninety six

(01:00:40):
when Kentucky beat UMass coached by John Caliperi, in the
Final four eighty one seventy four. It was no blowout.
That was a really good U mass team which had
beaten the Wildcats. You remember this in the early stages
of the season, so they were able to get some revenge.
And I believe that lost to U Mess not Kentucky

(01:01:01):
off the top of the pole and kept the Wildcats
almost all year at second or third in a poll
something like that. Tony Delk at twenty Mark Pope scored
eight points and speaking of Mark Pope, there was an
interesting comment through the UK Sports network feed via Twitter

(01:01:21):
via ex somebody asked Pope about chess. Mark's a big
chess player, plays with some of the guys on his team,
and you got to think it's braining a guy as
Mark Pope is. He's going to play chess, he's gonna
be good at it. And whoever did the interview put
a good question to him and asked him basically to

(01:01:42):
draw a parallel between chess and basketball. Of course, the
name of the game in chess is to protect your king,
and if you know anything about chess, you know the
king can't really move very freely, only move one space.
The queen can go anywhere, but in any direction, you know,
as far as she can't. But you got to protect
the king. And so Pope kind of drew that parallel

(01:02:06):
between hoops and chess.

Speaker 8 (01:02:08):
So when I think about the king in terms of
the piece that we protect, the piece that we're here
to serve, it's BBN. Like BBN is what sets Kentucky
apart from every other basketball program in the country. It's
what makes it so special, and it's the people that
we go compete for. Every contribution on.

Speaker 7 (01:02:31):
This team, big or small matters, and that is actually
a deciding part of us winning and losing. And you
know is we adapt to that and grow that and
embrace that, that's when really special things happen on this court.
It's when Kentucky basketball is what it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
And he goes on to talk again about the assignment
number nine. And there's video of the banner that is
hanging in the Joe Craft Center or the team practices,
and they see it every day. They see the banner
that represent all the other championships. Everything else was taken down.
Just the banners are up now. You know, he took
down the images of all the players that were up

(01:03:09):
there for the longest time, the guys who made the NBA,
but no, those are down. No disrespect to them. But
now it's just the banners with the daily constant reminder
that the assignment is number nine. You can find more
through the UK Sports Network. But that was a great
idea to ask Mark Pope about chess as it relates

(01:03:31):
to the Kentucky Wildcats. Shifting back to college football, Bill Belichick,
of course, the North Carolina Now you knew he was
going to do things a little differently right. Well, evidently
there will be no Bill Belichick show weekly radio show.
The show prior to Mac Brown wouldn't called Mac Brown.

(01:03:51):
The Mac Brown Show is called Mac Brown Live. Now
they're going to call it Carolina Football Live. Belichick evidently
will appear on the first show on August twenty seventh
at a local restaurant, just like the way we do
coaching shows here. But that's it. I mean, he may
jump back on occasionally, but they're gonna have assistant coaches

(01:04:13):
and players. But the weekly presence will be Michael Lombardi,
the general manager. He has been on my show before.
Michael Lombardi is a former NFL front office executive. He's
been an NFL general manager, now the GM for Carolina Football,
and I will tell you he'll crush this. He'll be

(01:04:35):
much more entertaining than Mac Brown. Although when I first
encountered him, he was doing a podcast called the GM Shuffle,
and he was torching various people in the NFL, like
what is he thinking? I mean, calling guys out by name,
you know, specifically gms with some coaches about mistakes they
were making. Bombardi's written books about coaching football and putting

(01:04:59):
teams together. So Yeah, fans may want to hear from Belichick,
They're not going to get much out of him. They'll
get stuff out of Michael Lombardi. I he'll protect the brand.
But I'm gonna pull up. I hope it's on serious XM,
because I'm going to pull it up and listen. I
loved this podcast and it's not been the same since
he left and took the job at Carolina. But I

(01:05:21):
find it interesting given the fact that the Kentucky Coaches
shows were kind of groundbreaking way back in the seventies
when Ralph Hacker put those shows together with k would
lead for with Jim Host, and the coaches liked it
because it was a way for them to make more money.

(01:05:44):
But this was not done through UK. It was done
with the approval of UK, obviously, but the three headed
monster that was kyt VLK and Jim Host, they owned
the show and that's how the coaches got paid. That's
why if they didn't show up for the coaches shouldn't
get their money. But here they were taking phone calls

(01:06:07):
from listeners. And when Bill Parcells was in the mix,
and he was in the mix a couple of times
to be the head coach, at Kentucky. When he was
told one of the revenue streams was the calling show,
he said, no, wait a minute. He said, people are
going to call in each week and tell me how
to coach my team or ask me about coaching my team. Yeah, now,

(01:06:29):
I don't think that's gonna happen. So even if Parcells
had come here, he was not going to be on
whether we call it the Big Blue Line or Big
Will Parcells Show or whatever, that wasn't gonna happen, and
now ain't gonna happen at North Carolina with Bill Belichick,
which is not really a surprise when you think about it.

(01:06:52):
Keeping with football, you know, Netflix is now in the
NFL business right, Two NFL games coming up on Christmas Day,
as the NFL looked at the NBA and said, step aside, Sonny,
we want in on that. Christmas has always been a
huge day for the NBA in terms of ratings and
commercial sales and all that stuff, while the NFL jumped

(01:07:12):
right in, and from everything I'd read, it seemed as
though the NFL it kind of respectfully stayed away from Christmas,
or maybe they just didn't want to fool it. Well,
they jumped in man, everybody needs new revenue streams. And
speaking of which Netflix has already crushed it. Netflix released
a statement yesterday saying it has already sold out all

(01:07:36):
of its ad space for both games for the doubleheader,
Washington hosting Dallas. That's huge. Minnesota versus Detroit also huge.
Two huge games, and that's vital of course, so get
used to it. I keep saying that's the future. And

(01:07:57):
some experts were on a podcast the other day and
they were talking about the future of the NFL where
we're going to see it, and they say that the
Sunday afternoon packages will stay on broadcast TV for a
long time. But one of them said, I think it's
going to be on broadcast for a long time because,
first off, it makes everyone happy. Secondly, there's good business. Look,

(01:08:20):
you can erase the first one. It doesn't matter if
it makes everyone happy. The most important part, sadly, is
that's good business. In other words, they make money. But
the moment the bean counters say, look, we can make
more money if we move it from broadcast TV. In

(01:08:42):
other words, free television. And I know you're probably now
paying to see quote unquote free television through direct TV
through Hulu through Roku, whatever. But what I'm talking about
is streaming, and I keep going back to what John
Skipper said, the former head of ESPN, someday the Super

(01:09:03):
Bowl will be on pay per view, and he's right,
probably later than sooner. But again it's going to come
down to the bean counter saying, take a look at
the business that Netflix is doing, or Hulu is doing
or whatever. And if we put the NFL on a
streaming channel where you have to pay to see it,

(01:09:26):
like the Red Zone, that's a program, not a channel.
But if you put it someplace where and there are
some fans, you won't do it, they'll come back, or
there will be enough fans to do to make it profitable.
So just brace yourself. If you're an NFL fan, and
if you're a baseball fan, you know what I'm talking
about already. You got to pay through the nose to

(01:09:47):
see your favorite team for the most part. But keep
in mind you can listen to the Wildcats on the
radio for free. And we'll have every game right here
on six point thirty WLAP coming up in just a
couple of weeks. Stay with us. We will wrap up
with Heroes, Fools and Flakes, they're on the Big Blue Insider.
Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider, final segment of

(01:10:07):
our shows. We wrap up the week time now for Heroes,
fools and Flakes, and our hero tonight, believe it or not,
is Denzel Washington. That's right, the Hollywood actor. He was
on a podcast that you can see on YouTube, actually
for Sports Illustrated, pumping a movie called The Highest to Lowest.
It's about the music industry. He doesn't have much, if anything,

(01:10:28):
to do with sports, but there he was on the
SI podcast and he got to talking about all the
talking heads within the media. I won't just say on television,
because there are podcasts, there's YouTube, there's streaming channels. And
Denzel was complaining about the fact that there are too
many people running their apps. And I guess you could

(01:10:50):
lump me in there, but I'm not you assuming that
kind of role. I'm not on one of these shows
fritiguing and breaking down pro athletes, what they do, how
they do it. Athletes. I just comment on it, report
on it. But you know what I'm talking about. On
the network shows, on the internet shows, everybody's got an
expert on there, who, as Denzel put it, never played

(01:11:12):
the game, so they don't know what they're talking about.

Speaker 9 (01:11:14):
Everybody's got an opinion. Live in a world of opinionaires,
you know, I just want to call them opinionaires. They're
all the shows, a bunch of the guys and a
couple of them that are played, but most of them
who haven't, who have an opinion about what something should
be when they haven't done it. Those who can't talk
about those who can't. Those who have know what they
talking about. Those who haven't don't period too much talking,

(01:11:40):
too much talk. Everybody got an opinion. Somebody's sitting around
getting fatten, you know, thinking they know how to do it.
Just because you can sit behind the desk and chit chat,
that means you can do a damn thing.

Speaker 10 (01:11:50):
It's a bars.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Come get up here with me. Let's find out.

Speaker 9 (01:11:54):
Come get in the gym with me. Let's find out.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
I mean, I don't know you. You know I can
throw my hands. I I can do it for real,
I don't talk about it.

Speaker 9 (01:12:06):
Well, let me leave on the skinny kid, you know,
who never played a day in his life, and now
he can get back at everybody because he got a
mic in the Space show.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
People need to shut up.

Speaker 9 (01:12:17):
People need to shut up and learn how to do something,
be actually good at something.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Try that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Well. He ain't wrong, is he? And the reason for
all of this is simple. There are too many shows.
There are so many outlets, so many networks, so many
streaming channels with producers who need to fill the time.
So everybody has to go out and find somebody who
can talk, you know, and fill that time. And it's
not always going to be a former player. So yeah,

(01:12:45):
if you're like Denzel, you get tired of it. My
advice to you, sir, is find a show you like,
find a lineup of people you like, and move on.
I mean, the best to me in the business was
The Inside of the NBA on the TNT with Ernie
Johnson and Shaq and Kenny the Jet Smith and Charles Barkley.

(01:13:05):
And there are a couple of good football shows, but
for the most part, yeah, if you're just filling time,
it's a waste of time. Our fool tonight is the
Milwaukee Brewers fan who called nine one one because a
restaurant that was running a free Hamburger promotion was tied
to the Brewers twelve game win streak, allegedly would not
give him his free burger. Now, the Brewers won their

(01:13:28):
twelve straight Wednesday with a twelve to five win over
the Pirates. But this guy called nine to one one
because they wouldn't give him his free burger. During the game.
They told him, sure, the game's not over yet, and
the guy didn't want to stick around. He was convinced
they were going to win. They didn't give him his burger.
He wasted valuable time, precious man hours. I don't know

(01:13:53):
how much, but if they wasted a minute on this idiot,
I called him nine to one one and sending police,
then yeah, this guy's the biggest fool in the state
of Wisconsin at the moment. Our flake tonight, let's stick
with burger, shall we. It's the broadcast crew for the
New York Mets. The TV crew Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez.

(01:14:13):
I've worked with Gary Cohn a long time ago NCAA Radio.
I don't even know if you remember me, but he
was good to work with. I've never met Keith Hernandez,
but they're a good broadcasterer. And they were working Braves
Mets and it was the seventh inning and the Mets
were down five runs, and this is the kind of
thing that happens when you're calling games and you've got

(01:14:34):
to fill the time. You're bored out of your mind.
And they had been talking in the pregame show about
Keith Hernandez and how he likes to prepare his hamburgers.
All right, so Cohen brings it back up into seventh
inning and has Hernandez complete the thought as to how
Keith likes to prepare his hamburgers. Likes to dress him up.

Speaker 5 (01:14:56):
Could you please answer the question? Okay, okay, bottom on mustard,
light mustard, not too much. Now we're talking djon yellow.
You can do frenches whatever, you know. You don't want
to get too fancy with the burger. You want to
do frenches. Then the top fund you put, you lay
on the mayonnaise. Then you get the Heinz ketchup and

(01:15:20):
you put it.

Speaker 10 (01:15:21):
On top of the bar, on top of the burger.
Then you add the slice pickle, sliced onion, tomato, lettuce,
and then on top of that you got to put
more ketchup because it's got a mixing with the with the.

Speaker 5 (01:15:33):
Mayonnaise, which makes it Russian aggressing for sise light and
the left field the basic.

Speaker 1 (01:15:38):
Form, all right, Keith R. Nandez was a Saint Louis cardinal.
They traded him to the Mets. I hated it because
he was such a great hitter and one of the
maybe the best defensive first baseman in the history of
the game. But maybe I should have made him the fool,
because you just don't put that many conomics on a hamburger.
You know, I've seen people mix the mustard and mal

(01:15:59):
oh I can't do. But then he adds ketchup, which
is Coen pointed out, turns the whole thing into Russian dressing.
But no, that's too many condiments. And look, this is America.
You can eat your burger anyway you want. And I
like all the other stuff he was putting on there,
but personally, if I've got vegetables on my burger, not
that anybody cares, but mustard's off the table, and it's

(01:16:23):
got to be he said, French is no, you gotta
have brown mustard. But anyway, if you've got vegetables on
your burgers, I say, mayo or tartar sauce, try it.
It's really good. Ketchup. I like ketchup with my fries.
I like ketchup on potato skins, but otherwise I don't
use ketchup. In fact, when I go to get my

(01:16:44):
impossible burger at Burger Kink very good, by the way,
I have him hold the ketchup, so it's just some
mayo on there. But it was entertaining to say the least.
If you're a Mets fan and your team's down five.
Now you know how Keith hernandez his burger. But brother,
that's too many condiments. That's going to do it. Thank
you so much of my guests, Steve Moss and Chris

(01:17:06):
joining at the SEC Network. That's a good night from
the garage in Lexinger. Excuse me, what the hell is
going on out here? Well, Nook scare because his eyelids
are jammed in his old man's here.

Speaker 8 (01:17:18):
We need a live it a live rooster.

Speaker 4 (01:17:21):
We need a live rooster to take the curse off
Jose's glove.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
And nobody seems to know what to get Millie or
Jimmy for their wedding present.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
About right, that's right, we're dealing.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
With a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Well, camel sticks always make a nice gift, and maybe
you can find out which she's registered, and maybe a
play setting or have your silverware poundst.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
Okay, let's get do.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
Take that.

Speaker 6 (01:18:24):
Taping. They think anything, then sat change.

Speaker 3 (01:18:58):
To take.

Speaker 6 (01:19:04):
I think don taps it don't. Don't the