2025-08-21 - BBI

Ky defensive coordinator Brad White says the Wildcats will not overlook Toledo; (12:00) UK punter Aiden Laros on finding his way from South Africa to the SEC; (22:00) from the archive, a convo with ex-UK coach Hal Mumme on the Air Raid origins; (39:00) ex-Cat Derrick Ramsey, who led UK to an SEC title; (1:01:00) Chicago Cubs broadcasters owe their listeners a lot of mozzarella sticks and an NFL coach wasn't quite as clever with the refs as he thought he was...

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue and Cider. Dick Gabriel with
you on a Thursday edition of our program, as we
are one day closer, of course, the college football, specifically
the Wildcats, who opened up a week from Saturday against
those Toledo Rockets, a game you will hear right here
on six point thirty WLAP. And if you follow our
statistician from the UK network, Corey Price, on Twitter, he

(00:23):
has posted a player who wore the jersey number nine.
That would be the great Bill Ramsdell, the Kentucky quarterback
who led the Wildcats to a Bowl victory back in
nineteen eighty four. And Bill also, for the longest time
was known as the last Kentucky quarterback to beat Florida,
and every year when the Florida game came up. And

(00:44):
remember now that the streak of losses to Florida was
actually worse than the streak of losses to Tennessee. It
lasted longer. It seemed worse because it was Tennessee, but
actually the Wildcats took a little bit longer to get
over the hump against the Gators. But for the longest time,
Bill was the last QB to head up at Kentucky win,

(01:05):
which actually the Wildcats wrapped up with a play on defense.
This happened in Commonwealth Stadium, and here's how kaywod led
for called it. As Florida was driving for what it
hoped would be the winning score, but the Wildcats turned
him over.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Irwin Bell back to throw and Kentucky trying to get
to him down over the middle, and it's caught down
in Kentucky Territory.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Close ball.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Kentucky's got it at the thirty four. Honey May, Yeah,
Tony Mays fell into football and the Wildcats beat the Gators,
but it was a long long time before they did
it again, and of course they snapped the streak in
Gainesville then finally got a win against Florida in Commonwealth Stadium.
But Bill Ransdell was the quarterback on that day and

(01:50):
his jersey number nine represents how many days until the
Wildcats open up against the Toledo Rockets. By the way,
if you are following on Twitter, you also know that
there are a number of sites that are counting down
the number of days until basketball season begins. But also
today is the birthday of the great Jody Meeks, who

(02:10):
of course set a new single game scoring record for
the Wildcast back in twenty oh nine January thirteenth, when
he scored fifty four in a ninety to seventy two
win over the Balls, he broke Dan Issel's mark that
stood for thirty nine years. And of course isl did
his minus the three pointer, but Jody had fifteen of
twenty two, including ten of fifteen from beyond the arc

(02:33):
fourteen of fourteen from the line. I talked to Dan
the day after Jody broke the record. He was so
happy for him. But I've told this story before. I
had gone to work full time for the UK network
by that point. I left WKYT at the end of
twenty oh six, but I had still gone down to Knoxville.

(02:53):
But this was the first year in forever that I
had not traveled to Knoxville for the Kentucky Tennessee basketball game.
And sure enough, Jody goes off well. I'd worked the
local pregame show on the radio station, and then I
joined as memory serves Kyle Macy, Ryan Lemon, and Cameron Mills,

(03:16):
and we went over to b Dubs on South Broadway
and watched the game, and of course, as the points
began to pile up, the restaurant got louder and louder,
and down the stretch it was turning into a blowout
by the Wildcats, and Jody Meeks was going for the
record and people in the restaurant were chanting Jody, Jody.

(03:41):
So I was disappointed I wasn't there, but then in
a way, I was happy that I was with a
restaurant full of people who really really enjoyed the spectacle
of it all. And of course the rumors went around
after Billy Gillispie left that Billy he tried to make

(04:01):
Jody stop shooting in that game. And Jody was in
my studio a couple of years later. He was plugging
a camp that he was getting off the ground and
I asked him about that. I think I did ask
him off the air. I didn't ask him on the air,
and he looked at me funny. He said, told me
to stop. She said, yeah, that's what we're hear. He
goes no, But he said in the Old Miss game

(04:24):
shortly thereafter, and that was a game where Billy got
into it with the sideline reporter Janny and Edwards. But
Jody said to Gillespie, told him, you're the most selfish
player I've ever coached, go stand over there in the
corner basically the corner of the court, and don't shoot
the ball. And then we also heard that Nike had
created T shirts for the players and whoever else in

(04:48):
the building, saying we were all witnessed and had you
know each bucket that Jody made account of form in
the back of the shirt, and Billy allegedly did not
chose no to distribute them. Billy later said he didn't
know about the T shirts, but at any rate, it
was an incredible night by Jody Meeks and a happy

(05:11):
birthday to him. He created a lot of happy memories
for Kentucky fans that day. Wild Cat fans are hoping
his football team creates happy memories for them this season.
As we said, it begins a week from Saturday against Toledo.
Today was our chance to talk to some of the
defensive players, and coming up, we're also going to hear
from the Kentucky punter, who is from South Africa and

(05:34):
is on some preseason lists as one of the punters
to watch nationwide. But we start off with Brad White,
the defensive coordinator, talking to us earlier today and a
question I put to him, was is there any concern?
Of course, the coaches know all about MAC teams, and

(05:56):
we've talked about MAC teams, and yeah, they might not
have highest profile, but people who know football know they
play a really good brand of football in the MAC.
And the coaches know that those MAC teams, especially now
with the portal, have all kinds of transfers from the
power conferences. And remember the MAC is in Division one.

(06:19):
It is not one Double A. It just doesn't have
quite the high profile. Nor do those schools have the
budgets obviously of SEC schools, but they have a ton
of talented players. So I wondered, is there any trepidation
among the coaches that the players themselves might not fully

(06:44):
be ready. I don't want to say ready, but you know,
might not approach this game the way they might against
a higher profile team.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Zero zero worry about the focus there, They understand the
challenge that's coming in here. I could be wrong, but
I believe they've got votes in the AP poll and
we don't so to you know, to say that you're
going to overlook a team that you know is thought
of maybe more highly than you so.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
And deservedly.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
So I mean they've what they do against especially their
their P four opponents when they when they get to
play them, I mean, it's it's impressive. And specifically offensively,
how well you know, if you look at them historically,
how well they've played, you know under coach Candell offensive,
they've moved the ball, they've given people a bunch of fits.

(07:40):
So and we know we've seen them in twenty nineteen
and and how well they played in that game, and
you know, a turnover to start the second half really
sort of changed the game there. But no, we we
understand what's coming in here, and we're going to have
to be really really prepared and dialed in.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Next week is when they actually get into, of course,
game planning mode. But they're already there. Brad Weisse said
today that they're already thinking about Toledo.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
We know that the big challenge that's coming in a
really talented offense, you know, experienced quarterback, really talented wide out,
you know, two running backs that can really get it done,
an old line that's got experience coming back, plus Addams
some newcomers. So yeah, that's that's been the focus.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
So the last couple of days in terms of you
know both obviously coaches and then you know the player
shift a couple.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of days ago.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Anybody who follows college football or pro they know that
the MAC has produced so many talented players. Ben Roethlisberger,
Chad Pennington, Julian Edelman, who was a quarterback at Kent
State before it became a wide receiver and a damn
good one in the NFL. So fans can tell you,
and especially coaches can tell you, there is talent everywhere.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
When you go and you put the football down, it
doesn't matter who you play. And in this stay in
age when you know talent can can move around and
shift around. There's a lot of talented players on every team,
and you better bring your a game each and every week, uh,
or you're gonna get humbled really really fast. I think

(09:16):
our guys right now they've got a mentality and a
chip on their shoulder that that they understand that they've
got to get the taste out of how last year
finished out of their mouth. And that's that's the focus obviously.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
You know, Toledo as a team is the focus. But
we've got to handle our business and UH and do
our responsibility, not let it whatever opponents across from us.
It doesn't matter which one. It's got to be about
us and be disciplined. We've got to be physical, We've
got to be tough, uh, you know, and not just
physically tough, We've got to be mentally tougher.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
That that is Brad White, Kentucky defensive coordinator.

Speaker 6 (09:54):
Coming up.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
We're gonna hear from more of the Wildcats, and in
our number two, Derek Ramsey joins me. Dere of course,
quarterback the Wildcats to an SEC championship back in the
mid seventies and was an assistant ad at Kentucky for
a while, was an ad at two or three different
schools in college athletics and a huge Kentucky fan of course,

(10:15):
an NFL veteran. And we'll have a chance to talk
to Derek about the state of football today with the
NIL and the transfer portal and what he's hoping to
see in these football Wildcats. Also, we're gonna hear, believe
it or not, from how Mummy. How of course was
the Kentucky coach kind of a star crossed effort here
in the late nineties, but coached Tim Couch and had

(10:36):
the air raid offense cranked up before things fell apart.
But I bring it up because I came across an
interview I did with him back just after Stoops was hired.
And you might remember this, but when names were being
thrown around, there was a lot of activity on social
media even back then, with people saying, Oh, they o

(10:58):
to hire this guy that guy. There was such a
human cry for how Mummy disciple, somebody who ran the
air raid, because fans have short memories. Mummy's last year
he went two and nine, and people couldn't wait to
get rid of him, such as the nature of college football.
Although Mummy had led the Wildcats to back to back

(11:19):
bowl games, you would have thought he would have banked
some goodwill, but no, by the end of that season,
fans wanted him gone. But memories being what they are,
that is pretty short relatively. When Mitch Barnard was looking
for a new head coach, while he was scoping and
vetting Mark Stoops, fans were screaming and yelling, oh, we
need somebody to run the air raid. And I thought

(11:42):
that was really interesting, and so I called how Mummy.
He was a head coach at a small college D
three school down in Texas, and I talked to Mummy
about the fact that people wanted somebody who ran the offense.
He is credited. He doesn't take the credit, but he
is credited for inventing or at least making popular the

(12:03):
air raid. So we're gonna hear some of that conversation
we had with how back then. That's coming up in
our next staff hour. But more Kentucky football chatter on
the way here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to
the Big Blue Insider. Coming up in a second hour.
Derek Ramsey will join us a little bit later on.
In this hour, We're gonna go back to a conversation

(12:25):
I had back in the day with how Mummy, the
former Kentucky coach who has kind of bounced around since
he left UK. I think he had one d one
head coaching job at New Mexico State, and he's coached
on the small college level, also in pro football, and
in one or two of those spring leagues, so he
has been active since he left. But I just thought

(12:46):
it was interesting going back and listening to the conversation
I had with him right around the time Mark Stoops
was hired about just the history of the air raid
and the fact that a lot of people wanted to
see an air raid disciple here, but Stoops came here
and successful. But he's got to get the program, of course,
back to where it was. And one of the key
elements for this year's team will be Aiden Laarross, who

(13:08):
right now is figures to be the number one punter,
is battling for the job with Jordan Berry. But la
Ross came in last year, kicked off and then eventually

(13:31):
became the starting punter. He was the FCS punter of
the year at U Team Martin. He spent a couple
of years at Charlotte, transferred to U Team Martin and
he did everything there field goals, punts, kickoff's, point after touchdowns,
helped them win a big South OVC Football championship, led
the FCS and punting at forty seven point three yards

(13:56):
per punt last year for Kentucky average forty five point four,
and he was named third team preseason All Conference by
the SEC coaches. So earlier today I had a chance
to sit down with him and talk about the trail
that has brought him to lexing in from Cape Town,
South Africa. But your name's popping up on some lists

(14:18):
on some preseason teams. I know it doesn't mean anything
to the games begin, but it also means people have
noticed your hard work. Is that the way you look
at it?

Speaker 7 (14:25):
Yes, so definitely, I feel like i've over the years,
I've proven myself to get to where I am. I
obviously started as a true walker at Charlotte and made
my way up to where I am, and I feel like,
like you said, once the season starts, I'll prove that.
But it definitely is it's nice to see some results
showing off to the hard work I put in.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
What's the off season been like for you? I mean,
you don't just go out there and kick all day, right.

Speaker 7 (14:51):
Yeah, it's just maintaining good good weight and good strength
and especially power and punting, just the in the weight room,
and keeping my body a temple, you know, and mental
a lot of the mental games. So just focusing on
my mental aspect and mindfulness and keeping calm and just
just doing the small things right every day.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Tell everybody listening how it is you came to play
D one football from from where you're from.

Speaker 7 (15:18):
Yeah, so I grew up in Cape Town, South Africa,
and moving to America wasn't a thought of playing American football. Ever,
I joined the team a lot of few years of
high school too to make some friends and then obviously
just have fun, and it turned into a into a career.
And that's that's my goal out of this. I've I
wouldn't be doing this if I didn't want to go

(15:40):
to the top. And I mean, I've always grown up
hunting and kicking the ball, so I've it's something that
I've dreamed of.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
And because you grew up playing football, you know what
we call soccer, did your teammates expect you immediately to
be a really good kicker at American football?

Speaker 6 (15:56):
Well?

Speaker 7 (15:56):
Yeah, I actually I never played soccer, but it was rugby,
so I grew up play rugby. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (16:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (16:02):
I mean it's kind of like the thought is, obviously
you can kick the ball. But I think what's surprised
them a bit is that I can actually also make plays,
Like if something goes off, I'm there, I'm going to
fix it. Uh, what do you mean just in the games,
I'm not just a kicker. I feel like I'm an athlete.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
You can run the ball because you ran the ball rugby.

Speaker 7 (16:21):
If need be, I'll make I'll make plays happen and
and fix any issues that they come across and just
through my through my training.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Can you throw the ball?

Speaker 7 (16:30):
I can throw the ball if need be, Yeah, if if,
if it comes down to it, then we have something
set up for that.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
People don't understand how popular rugby is worldwide. They know
about soccer, but rugby people are crazy for it, aren't
they overseas?

Speaker 6 (16:44):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (16:44):
Actually, this weekend I'm ready to watch South Africa play
against Australia in the second Test match. My brother and
my dad are going to be all over it. I'm
gonna go watch it, just probably on my phone something
this weekend.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
The national team from South Africa.

Speaker 7 (16:59):
South Africa ring box, Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, So if
you grow up following them, I mean it was my
dream to go play for them one day. And obviously
it's changed a bit, but yeah, we've it's a huge.
South Africa backs their sports massively. It's huge for the
country and so when when the rugby does.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
Well, the country does well.

Speaker 7 (17:17):
So it's really cool to see.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
What do you hear from people back home, friends, relatives
about American football and what you've been able to accomplish.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's something that I never thought
would have happened, and a lot of family and friends
are really really supportive. And the talent and the product
of play here and what we are given is the
same level as professional sports back home. I mean, the
facilities here, the treatment, the conditioning and training we get

(17:45):
here is unlike any in world class sports. So it
is something that I've I've obviously been very appreciative.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Of some of the best Kentucky teams, and I've been
there for a long time. I've had punters who are
real weapons at flipping the field. You feel like you're
you're ready to be.

Speaker 7 (18:01):
That of course, Yes, that's my That's my goal is
to come here and help the defense, and if the
offense needs me, I'm going to put my goals to
keep us inside the twenty and start the defense backed up.

Speaker 6 (18:13):
That's that's the goal.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
And by the way, being a rugger, I covered rugby
when I was riding for the cool paper here. Yeah,
you can make a tackle, can't you?

Speaker 6 (18:22):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (18:22):
If need be, I haven't had to make one. Yeah,
I will say that hopefully, like if I'm doing my job,
I shouldn't have to. But if it, if it comes
down to it, one hundred percent, I've made tackles in
the past, and that's nothing.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
It's nothing that worries me off the air.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
He and I talked about Max Duffy coming in, but
I also told him about Glenn Pakalac, who was an
outstanding punter back under Guy Morris back in the early aughts.
Was an All American And Glenn came from small college
football where he was a linebacker and every looked every
bit the part and like going down and making contact.

(18:59):
When he kick the ball away, he'd take off and
he'd go tackle the ball carrier if he could. And
la Ross kind of reminds me in terms of his build.
He's a bigger guy, muscular guy. A lot of times
the punter looks like a third string quarterback with all
due respect, or you know, just just a smaller guy.
But not this kid. And as he said, he grew

(19:20):
up not playing soccer but playing rugby, which is huge
in South Africa. So could have a big year and
if he does, he'll be a great weapon for the
Kentucky defense. Our football talk on the other side of
the break here on six thirty WLAP welcome back coming up.
In just a couple of minutes of conversation, I have
with Hal Mummy a few years ago about the air

(19:42):
raid and him bringing it to Kentucky and the fact
that fans wanted to see it again at Kentucky. I
didn't say this to him, but even though they really
wanted him gone. And yeah, it didn't work out for
him at UK, but he has been given credit for
at least making the air raid popular. He said it
when he got He didn't invent it, but he developed it.
A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

(20:04):
And of course one of his great pupils was the
late Great Mike Leach and they were very close. This
is before our conversation, before Mike Leach passed away, but
interesting conversation coming up with Mummy. Also an hour. Number
two Derek Ramsey, the former UK quarterback who when he's
with his guys, he's still the quarterback. I mean, it's

(20:26):
just interesting how he carries himself and how his teammates
kind of deferred to him. But that's all about leadership
and he and I will talk about that as well.
Sports Illustrated as released It's All America team and many
of the names that you've already seen on Coaches All America,
the AP, all America, but I think some interesting additions

(20:47):
to the SI team. The article was written by Pat Forty.
I don't know if he's the only guy I doubted
who did the voting, but the tight end first teamer
Eli Stowers of Vandy, who was a quarterback as late
as twenty twenty three, but now he is an NFL
prospect at tight end, and he came with Diego Pavia

(21:11):
from New Mexico State and at times lined up next
to Shaiazpete, who is now an offensive lineman for Kentucky.
Stowers made forty nine catches for six hundred and thirty
eight yards, five touchdowns, and in that upset of Alabama
one hundred and thirteen yards in receptions. So he is

(21:33):
a first team preseason All America per Sports illustrated. Other
names you might not expect from Missouri Caden Green, an
offensive guard, and the other offensive guard plays at Army,
Paolo Generelli. How about that Army last year led the

(21:53):
nation in rushing offense by a bunch, and that line
won the Joe Moore Award as the best in the country.
That's the award where you would see two or three
years running. One of the finalists was Kentucky's Big Blue Wall.
And by the way, the quarterback first teamer on the
Sports Illustrated All America Team Drew Aller of Penn State,

(22:17):
not Kate Klubsick of Clemson, not Garrett Nusmeyer of LSU,
and not Arch Manning of Texas. It's the kid from
Penn State. Up next, my conversation from a few years
back with Hal Mummy on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
to the Big Blueone Citer coming up at the top
of the hour. Derek Ramsey will join as the former

(22:38):
Kentucky All Conference quarterback led the Wildcats to a conference
championship back in the seventies and was behind center or
under center usually for that ten to one team that
didn't get a chance to go to a bowl game.
And whenever I book ram on the show, we don't
do it through texta. I reach out to him via
text and then he calls me because we liked talking football.

(23:01):
We were in school together. That's how we got to
know each other. I used to interview him for the
school paper and when I was calling games for the
campus radio station, and we've been colleagues on and off
on the UK network through the years. We just became
good buddies and we love talking football. Well, he talks,
I listen, I learn, and we got to talk and
I don't know how it came up, but we got

(23:21):
to talking about a lot of it was, of course
what's going on with the Mark Stoops era. But Ram
used to be well, he used to work at UK
in athletics. He was an assistant ad But at the
time that Kentucky was looking for a new head football coach, C. M.
Newton asked Derek Ramsey for his expertise, to the point

(23:45):
where Ram sort of helped vet these candidates. And when
Newton settled on how Mummy or thought he had, we
all found out and we go down to Carson Newman
College in Tennessee where how Mummy's Valdosta State team was
in the playoffs, the D two playoffs and was playing

(24:06):
down there, and it was a steady rain, a steady drizzle,
just enough to force you to use an umbrella, and
I remember Ram standing in the end zone. I went
up and talk to him for a while and he
kind of nods towarde Vigo's games, this will never work
in the SEC. And he was referring, of course to
the air raid offense, and one of the reasons he

(24:28):
didn't like it was because the line splits were so wide,
and how Mummy's offense, his offensive sets, his formations went
sideline to sideline when you figured in, of course, the
wide receivers, but it also met the offensive linemen were
much wider than they would be in the SEC and
he said, SEC D lineman to run right through these halls. Well,

(24:51):
Mummy gets to Kentucky and he closes things up a bit.
The air raid did work at Kentucky to a point,
but what Ram didn't like about it was that they
didn't run the ball enough to where they could control
the clock when they had to. And I firmly believe
that it could have and would have worked except to

(25:12):
that end, except Mummy kind of abandoned the run game
in his last couple of years, especially his last year
when I went too and nine, because I remember they
were having so much trouble running the ball that some
of us media people we went to Guy Morris, the
old line coach. He said, Guy, what's up with your
run blocking? And he just kind of shrugged and put
his hands out and said, we don't practice that, which

(25:35):
tells you everything you need to know. But I reminded Derek,
I said in his introductory news conference, Mummy said, my
best teams had a thousand yard rusher. So I thought, okay,
I went back and looked it up and he was right.
His most successful teams at Iowa Wesleyan, his most successful
teams at Valdosta State had thousand yard rushers, and he

(26:00):
had Anthony White when he was here. And of course,
you know he looked at some of these swing passes
as extended handoffs. Yeah, that's true, but apply this to
the Kentucky team of last year. When you're inside the
five and you don't have much room to work with
as a passer, you drop back the throw. You're in

(26:21):
a shotgun. You've only got a limited amount of space
in the end zone to throw the ball. So obviously
the defensive backfield has a great advantage of there. They
don't have to cover as much ground, so you've got
to be able to power the ball into the end zone.
And that was something Ram didn't really believe, and we
may talk about that coming up here in a minute,
but it got me to thinking about a conversation I

(26:45):
had with how Mummy right after Mark Tuops was hired
because you might recall this, there was so much hue
and cry for somebody from the How Mummy tree or
a similar brand of when Mummy was struggling that last year.
He had earned no grace from Kentucky fans. They wanted

(27:07):
him out when he was losing, get rid of him.
Now they had just gone to back to back ball games.
I was amazed and how fans turned on him so quickly.
But now they're looking for a new coach. After Joker
Phillips was fired, everybody wanted somebody around the air Raid
or something like it, so they ended up hiring of

(27:27):
course Mark Stoops, who originally brought in Neil Brown, and
Neil left after a year or two and Mark eventually
got back to power football and it's had success with it.
Although you know, his best teams have thrown the ball
really well, not the air Raid, but it's been a
good mix. It's been balanced, which is what Stoops has preached.
But just out of curiosity, I called How Mummy. He

(27:50):
was at the time was the head coach at McMurray
in Abilene, Texas, a D three school, and I asked
him about the fact that or just got his reaction
to the fact that when the coaching search was happening,
everybody wanted a Mike leach er. Everybody wanted somebody who
had learned to defeat of how Mummy. So here's part

(28:12):
of my conversation from how back in late twenty twelve.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
Well, proud of those guys. I'm proud that people like
what we do, and just like I'll always been. I mean,
it's it's a fun off insta rum. And you know,
the important I think for keeping college football and not
just high school college football, but all the way down
to you know, middle school and little league. All that

(28:40):
football has to be fun. There's so many other sports
competing with it nowadays, and if kids don't have fun
playing with them, or to something else. So I've always
thought that, and it's one of the reasons I've always
done what I've done. And I'm glad other people are happy,
you know.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
So it's sort of got the higher profile here and
and uh and now when you watch Texas Tech, a
bit of an offshoot, or at least it had been.
I'm not sure exactly what they're doing now. But the
biggest question I had is you made it look easy
and I know a lot of that. You had a
Tim Kouch, but you know, Dusty Bonner wasn't Tim catch
and you had guys that uh you know, and those
two Tim and Dusty keep saying that it allows kids

(29:21):
to play beyond their abilities, and Tim obviously was blessed
with a lot. But why does it work so well?

Speaker 5 (29:28):
Well, number one, it's fun to play. Kids love going
to practice. It's like it's like I used to tell
my junior high coaches, the Coppers cub I get those
guys together and I'll tell look, we need to run
this offense all the way down to the seventh great. Well,
they don't want to do that because they were been
there for a long time. They wanted to run like
the wing tea or whatever they've been running. I said, no,
are you going to run the side and they and

(29:48):
their answer would be, well, the kids at that age
can't throw and catch. And so I would tell them, well, look,
did you guys ever play in the backyard. Right of course,
they all said yes. I said, so when I went
in the backyard, you all ran the winging team. Well,
everybody went out long for a pass and we threw it.
And I said, so what you're telling me is when

(30:09):
they're in the fifth and sixth grade they can throw
and catch, and then after you cushed them for a year,
they can. So they figured that was kind of a
trick story, but they attempted to start running it. But
the point is it's fun for kids to play. And
that's why, you know, you look all over. We needed
to do this because if you looked at basketball and

(30:31):
soccer and baseball in the eighties in high schools, those
all those programs, we're getting the football players because it
was more fun to play and they had year round programs. Yeah,
they could go out in the summer and play all summer,
they could play fall baseball and soccer plays all year around.
Basketball goes all year round. Basketball camps, I mean, just geez,

(30:54):
look at the numbers of camps. But now what's happening
is it's come full circle because football is kind of
the high school associations of losing the rules up and
the kids can now throw and catch, and you know
in college and even now in the NFL, it's it's
become popular to throw the ball.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
As you have continued on with your coaching career, and
it has spread. It just seems your offense is everywhere,
as you mentioned, middle school, high school, but especially in
college football and now some in the NFL. Have you
been surprised at that? Have you ever sat back and
scratched your head and thought, well, it's a long time
since the four tourist days when we're driving the back
roads to Texas. But you know, look at what's happened now.

Speaker 5 (31:32):
Well, I'm kind of I'm proud of it, and I'm
glad that people are are doing it because again, I
think it's fun for kids, and you know, our particular
version of it, like like Dusty and Tilm, we're slaying there.
I do think it's pretty quartered by a friendly yeah,
and you can take a guy like Cauchure has a

(31:54):
tremendous amount of ability and do a whole lot with me.
What's been more the case in our offense at all places?
And I get this, I get back from you to
say today, asked me this day? Like them, there's no
great quarterbacks from the all system in the NFL. So well,
you know Tim Cassan first got picked, his careers got
cut by cuts, form by injury, right, But you know

(32:14):
a lot of times it's just because we're our quarterbacks
are overachievers and uh and and there's nothing wrong with that,
And that's pretty much the story of America, right, over achiever.

Speaker 6 (32:26):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
One thing I noticed working the sidelines for the radio
network was that in huddles and the offensive huddles, you
would have the players talk to you as much as
you talk to them. You'd come back, come down and
you'd say, what do you got? What can you get them?

Speaker 6 (32:43):
Yeah? Tell me about that?

Speaker 5 (32:45):
Well, like, you know, probably the most famous one at
Kentucky was the first year I was here, Craig East
called the winning play on that overtime game in Alabama.
You know, we had a whole time out there and
from East my east couch and I meeting Yeast comes
in and gets them in the little gathering right there
and he says, the Colonel will win. Because you know,

(33:07):
at that point we're kind of like, all right, do
we play.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
For the field goal? Whatever?

Speaker 2 (33:10):
You know?

Speaker 5 (33:11):
And and uh, you stepped in there and said that
when I said, oh, of course, let's do that.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
What was the play again?

Speaker 5 (33:21):
It was a It was a It was the ninety
three was the name of the play. It was a
Colonel Courl. But the Craig called it. I mean, and
I don't know. This past year, we won a bowl
game against Southern Arkansas and at halftimes, the quarterback came
in and told me, touch if you'll just call the formations,
I'll call all the quick game and we'll win. We
were down by two scores and we went for two

(33:43):
at the end of one. So yeah, you know, it's
about making them buy into it. Anything you do in life,
if you can get all the people around you to
buy into it and have a take ownership, either you're
going to be successful. And so that's what it's about.
And Mike Leach and Dana Holer said, funny Dye, Neil Brown,
all these guys.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Chris Hatcher to do that.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Chris Hatcher, of course won.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
A national championship.

Speaker 5 (34:07):
That's done a great job.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, the I had a coach telling me when you
were here. He said, you know, I'm glad to see
that they're doing something different. He said, Kentucky cannot line
up and win consistently playing smash mouth football. He said,
I don't care if you guys ran the verer, the
wing tea, you know, the air raid. You got to
do something different out of Kentucky and it's it's kind
of hasn't completely leveled of playing fields throughout college football,

(34:29):
but it has helped other schools win more games, hasn't it.
That's the bottom line.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
Well, that's the bottom line. And I think it's a
good time for Kentucky because really the only other team
doing it right now is AM and they're on the
other side. Yeah, and no, it's it's a real good
timing for UK to do this.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
Tell me a little bit too, about your feelings about
the Kentucky high schools that are running it, because a
lot of them, those coaches came to your camps or
clinics or whatever and bought in and and you know,
schools that didn't have a lot of huge linemen but
had the smaller, quicker kids who you know, might have
just concentrated on basketball took their skills at the football field.

Speaker 5 (35:10):
Well it was fun to watch that. And you know,
guys like bob'spired Lex and Kathleic and you know a
bunch of other guys around the state there were you know,
they came to the camps, they learned it, they liked it,
you know, they had fun with it, and uh, you
know they they you know, it's just good to see
that kind of why we started doing it in the

(35:33):
first place.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I got to think it's gone over pretty well down
in Abilene, hasn't it.

Speaker 5 (35:37):
Yeah, they've you know, we've moved up a division, built
a new stadium. When we took over mc murray, they
hadn't won a game in two years. They've never been
to the ncuble A Division three pointyoffs, and uh, they
never won a postseason game. We've done all those things
and we moved up to D two and want a

(35:59):
postseason game.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
They are the crowds coming out of there?

Speaker 6 (36:02):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (36:02):
I know it's entertaining. Are people coming out to watch?

Speaker 5 (36:06):
Yeah, but it's a tough sell a place like mcmriam.
We don't really have We don't have thirteen hundred students
with me alms. Yeah, yeah, but we Yeah, that's where
we built from New State and we saw it up
pretty much ago.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
And I remember when Tim got to the Browns and
then one of the coaches up there said something about
they were doing the equivalent of drawing plays up in
the dirt. That didn't set too well if you.

Speaker 5 (36:25):
Did it well. I understand why they did it, because
the NFL they're totally in love with playbooks, and I've
never been loved. We've only had one playbook in the
whole history of this offense, and that's Goy Morris drew
it up at spring break and wells to stay one time.
It's the only one we've ever had, and we did.
Nobody ever looked at it, just sat minds some guy's desk. Uh.

(36:47):
But so you know, they went out there and asked
camp Mat and and uh, you know, he goes, well,
we just you know, we you know, Actually, I'm not
mad at it. I mean, it actually happens.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
I did it.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
I did it at the halftime of the game year
and threw one up at halftime, went out and scored
on the first play of the game. I mean the
second half A long past. But you know the great
thing about this offense is that you can adjust it.
And so if you're if you're doing some complicated stuff
that you got to write down in a book, then

(37:18):
you're doing too much. Yeah, like you said, a lot
of stuff needs to get written down in books are
on digital things nowadays, but most of it has to
do with cancer research and things like that. I'm not
sure it.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Has to do it football, Well, if you're if you're
devoted to an offense, it's fun, you know, making kids
study playbooks that kind of takes away a little bit,
doesn't it.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Well, they don't really. What happens with us? Is it
so rep friendly and we rep stuff so we can
teach the whole offense in three practices.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Speaking of Kentucky, how do you how do you feel
when you think back to your time here? Because you
had a lot of fun and you did a lot
of good things, but it clearly didn't end the way
you wanted it to.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
If you read the dealer around this business, it's hard
to find any that do. I'm pretty philosophical about it
at this point. I enjoyed every just about every minute there.
Last month or two is not fun. In the months
that followed that while I waited to be cleared by
the NC double A were not fun. But I don't

(38:19):
really dwell on that any The people in Kentucky are
such great people. My grandkids live there. I go back
there all the time. My daughter still lives near the
campus there, and you know, I've got great fond memories
and everything we did there, and particularly the people. You know, again,
the players.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Especially I tell Mommy part of a conversation I had
with him just before the beginning of the Mark Stoops era,
and again, Mommy had some success here. Stoops has had
success here more than one way to get it done
in college football. And we'll see how things go for
the Wildcats. And we'll hear more about Kentucky football in
our next hour with Derrick Ramsey, the DC Championship winning

(39:01):
quarterback back in the seventies. Want to come on the
big one side or here on six thirty w l
A P.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
I think.

Speaker 8 (40:02):
Anything then sat chains from Don.

Speaker 9 (40:45):
Don Don Don.

Speaker 8 (40:50):
Don Don.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Welcome back to the Big Blue Cider and joining us now.
As I mentioned earlier on our Celebrity Highline, as a
longtime friend of former classmate and of course the former
UK quarterback who led the wildcatching SEC championship back in
the day, Derek Ramsey, young man, we were talking off
their about the weather. Things have cooled off before I

(41:21):
ask about that. Every time I talk to Jeppikoro about
summer camp, he grumbles about the fact that they're not
doing two A days. Does that make you grumble, Well, you.

Speaker 6 (41:32):
Mean they're not doing three A days, because because that's
what we did.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
That's true, you know, but it is just a different
world now gave for these guys, and I am just
hopeful that they're, you know, in top shape, you know,
because again, the last few days.

Speaker 6 (41:54):
Was in ninety five one hundred degrees. Come September, it's
gonna take everything, you know, because it'll still be the
weather still be somewhat crazy, and so you just gotta
be in shape mentally and physically.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
I always remind myself on those opening days of the
first couple three weeks really where it's really hot and
the fans are sitting in the stands suffering, and guys
like me, I'm on the sidelines, and I remind myself
that the players are the people in the stadium best
suited to handle that kind of weather. If they've done
it right, you know, they're they're prehydrated and they're in shape.

Speaker 6 (42:33):
Yeah, and if they prepared for it, because this is
what happens this time of the year throughout the South.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
You grew up, you grew up in Florida. I got
to think that did you handle things pretty well, didn't you?

Speaker 6 (42:47):
Yes? I did. I mean I was always not only
going up in Florida, but when I came to Kentucky,
I grew up with John Marillovich. Oh yeah, and that
was that was just a piece of training, the psychological
park about it, you know, that, that whole conditioning thing.
I remember all Frshman the year when I first got there,

(43:08):
and we were running these things called gassers, and uh,
you know, I'm quarterback, so I got to be out
in front, or at least in my mind, but not
understanding how to pace myself. And so on the third
gasser I got to the other side of the field
and just threw up all over And of course, Marilla,

(43:33):
don't you you turk, you're throwing up all over my field?
Don't you do that? What the hell are you doing?
Get in shape? But it was that learning process, and
you know, the next day, of course I was better,
but again I knew how to pace myself.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
John Marillovich was a really good coach. Uh uh. And
he's one of those guys where players told me, if
you played for him, you liked him or loved him,
and if you didn't play for him, you didn't uh,
you know, because you were taking all that abuse and
getting nothing for it. But and John, at one point,
ram I don't know if you remember this, he was
the spotter for Ralph Hacker when Ralph was doing the

(44:19):
radio broadcast, and at times he traveled with us on
road trips in an RV and U. I learned more
football listening to John Marillovich on those trips, and I
told him once I remember we were stopping for gas
and said John, I called him coach. I said, I've
had I've talked to you more in this one road

(44:40):
trip than I did in all year years at Kentucky
because he never talked to the media. And he said,
I had nothing against you guys. I just had nothing
to say to you, so ob But man, he knew
his stuff, didn't he.

Speaker 6 (44:55):
Yeah, Yes, yes, yes he did. And I loved John early.
Uh he was a guy. Once you got past all that, yeah,
you know, and you figured out how how he cared
for you. Uh, it was just a different, different way.

(45:16):
But all the coaches that I was always wrong with
were coaches like Marilch you know, because I knew they
wanted the best best for me, but they were going
to get the best out of me, you know, And
sometimes sometimes that was very hard because it was almost like, well,
if this guy care for me, whow would he'd be

(45:38):
working me like.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Adult and yelling at you.

Speaker 6 (45:42):
Yeah, yeah, well I was compassion I remember. I remember
gave as a trushman John. I was afraid of John,
and so when I would run a plate to the
left side and he'd be walking over that way, I
would run a job to the other side of this field. Yeah.

(46:05):
He had me, you know until my sophomore year. Once
I became a starter and I could say something. I
couldn't say much. Yeah, but by the time the junior
came around, you coach Masson there, and Coach Masson became
the offensive coordinator, so I had a lot more to
say so then, but before that, just shut up, turd

(46:29):
and dose he that is.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
That is obviously old school coaching, and some people say
that you can't coach kids that way in today's college
football or high school football world. Do you agree with that?

Speaker 6 (46:43):
I disagree with that. I totally, I totally disagree with that. Uh.
You know, players have to understand that these guys care
for them. There they're just not being tough guys just
just to be tough. But certain players respaun to certain
things in certain ways. But I think where the big

(47:05):
difference is is the players today, I mean they're they're
so coddled if you would and John wasn't about coddling nobody,
and but I but I think in the end, once
it's all sitting done, they would appreciate more John Marilevich

(47:26):
today if they were out there. But now everybody's where
the players won't do this really, I mean, who's in charge?

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah? Well and if they want to play right, I mean,
the bench is the best motivator, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (47:41):
Yeah yeah, yeah, but not but not only that, just
just the results that you that you get. I mean
I was never out of shape, gave never never, I mean,
but but that all started from my high school coach.
He was a coach like that. And then I get
here with John, and by the time in the NFL,

(48:03):
that's all I knew, and that's all I wanted to do,
to be conditioned and pushed that way, because the further
you get up the line, the more you have to
do this on your own. And so if you don't
have a talundation of doing that kind of workout, then
the careers are actually cut short by either injury or

(48:26):
you know you're conditioning and get traded and pushed around
a whole.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Bunch when you got to the NFL, because you had
been coached like that, and because you had been taught
to drive yourself and you had to enter drive as well.
You know, off the bat, you think, well, that gave
him a great advantage. That gave Derrick Ramsey a great advantage.
But I got to think in the NFL, that league,
I would think is probably full of guys like that

(48:51):
back when you were playing. If not now, is that right?

Speaker 6 (48:56):
Somewhat somewhat Yeah, You'll you'll have guys that have a
great year and then the next year you wonder what happened,
But well what happened was they didn't they didn't condition themselves.
I mean, I'd have some of my teammates have a
great year one year, and then the next year they
come in thirty pounds heavy, you know, so old psychological

(49:21):
piece and your commitment to winning, and it depends on
like I said, as a pote, they're paying you to
come in in conditions, and some of the guys psychologically
was like, man, why am I driving myself like that?
I remember a couple of my teammates, they were alignment.
They used to always say, man, I can't wait till

(49:42):
they get that pill that you can take to be
in sheep. I was like, that's not coming to Now.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
We're talking to Derek Ramsey, former Kentucky quarterback and college administrator,
athletics administrator and a politician or at least worked in
Frankfurt and of course led the Wildcats do an SEC
championship back in the seventies and now a Kentucky fan
and went on to a great career in the NFL,
won a Super Bowl, but also played against one of

(50:17):
the great defenses in the Chicago Bears in the Super
Bowl when you were with the Patriots. We're going to
talk about that as well as the Wildcats. On the
other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP
Welcome back, Derek Ramsey is on the line with us.
Ram of course, the former Kentucky quarterback, All Conference Championship
SEC Championship winning QB and has been a part of

(50:40):
our UK Network coverage on and off back in the day. Ram,
you're an old school guy. We were just talking about that.
Mark Stoops is an old school kind of coach and
it was interesting watching him struggle with the NIL and
with the portal and having to be more of a
GM than a coach and deal with free agent players.

(51:01):
Now that there are more guardrails, he seems a lot happier.
He likes his team he has. We'll get to that
in a minute, but I'm wondering. I got to think
you feel for him because him coming from Youngstown, you
know that hard scrabble background, an old school guy like you.
That's tough on a coach these days, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
Uh, You just got to figure out what the guardrails are,
what the rules are, and I'm happy that coach has
figured that out. As you mentioned, he's an old school guy,
and that's the guy that I appreciate the most. Yeah,
and hints. That's why I've supported him since he's been here,
because of his way of coaching, his approach to coaching,

(51:42):
and making these guys respond, you know, this whole nil
and he gave. I mean, it's just a whole new
world now. But I'm fearful for these young guys because
there's so many opportunities for the rails really call and ladys.

(52:03):
For example, you get a young kid like myself or
Art coming there from humble beginnings and all of a sudden,
because today if art. Now I was here, we'd be
one and two million dollar players, and you know we're
coming from nothing. Then you go to the National Football

(52:23):
League and the year two, three years down the road
in and out of football, you've set this guy up
making all this money. Now, what do they do? I
mean that that is the thing that I'm most fearful of.
And I know UK and I know other schools will say, well,

(52:44):
we got financial guys and all this and and that's
a great conversation, and it's a great conversation piece. You know,
in the NFL has said that for years. And if
that is the case, why is it then that that
eventy percent of our guys today three years remove, but

(53:04):
two years removed from the NFL they found for bankrupt
That's right? Yeah, yeah. So I'm just not that convinced
of all of what they're saying, because I know a
number of my friends and a number of the guys
that I played with over the years went through those
financial issues.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (53:24):
And so I'm just hopeful that that's the big guard
rail that they put in play.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
You know, the big dollar signs that are thrown around
when it comes to nil. And now it's seeping into
the high school ranks. You know what it reminds me of,
believe it or not, It reminds me a little bit
of college baseball and talking to the former Kentucky coach
Gary Henderson. But all these coaches deal with it. Now,
you got a kid that you're recruiting who could and

(53:51):
this is back before nil because now when you know,
if a kid signs to play college baseball, he can
make money. But back in the day, it was either
play college ball for a scholarship, room and board, all
that stuff, or sign a pro contract. And if you're
a top ten pick, yeah you gotta go. The money's crazy.
But a kid who might sign for a million dollars.

(54:13):
I remember Gary Henderson had had a PowerPoint presentation where
he would break down where does all that money end up?
How much do you actually get after taxes, after expenses,
you buy mom and dad a car, or pay off
the house, and now what do you have you know

(54:33):
for the rest of your life?

Speaker 6 (54:35):
You know, now you said for simple numbers, when you
talk about a million bucks, three hundred and sixty five
thousand of it goes to the taxi guy. Yeah, so
now you're down to six hundred and sixty five thousand.
Where that's not money. Go buy mom his house by
yourself a car. And you got a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
And people coming to you asking you to lend them
money too, right.

Speaker 6 (55:01):
Oh yeah, you got more friends and more relatives than
you'll have.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Jody Meeks once told me two things about that, he said.
He said, one of the first things he learned, he said,
you have to learn to say no and stand by it. Plus,
he said he never loaned money. If if somebody knew
a friend or a relative really needed it, he would
give it. Yes, he would give them the money with

(55:29):
no expectation of being repaid. And I thought, that's that's admirable.
But it's kind of sad, isn't it.

Speaker 6 (55:37):
Well, but what do you do?

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Right?

Speaker 6 (55:39):
I had I had a limit, you know, because I
remember one time I had loaned one of my teammates
and money because one of the things that it was common.
I'm sure still coming to day. In perfection sports, a
season will be over in December, we don't make the playoffs. Well,

(56:01):
come March, all of these guys are broke. Yeah, okay,
And I remember my mother listening to me talking to
one of my teammates and one of the guys wanted
to borrow twenty five hundred bucks, and so I said, well,
let me think about it, man. And so I got
off the phone and my mother said, you gotta be

(56:22):
the films pushing in him. I said, what do you
talking about? He said, that kid plays just like he
played if he was worth it, Damn, he's go to
the bank and get some money. He wouldn't come to you.
And never thought about that, but she was right.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Oh yeah, moms always are.

Speaker 6 (56:45):
Yeah, she was right. So I told the play I say, man,
why don't we do this. I'll give you a thousand
bucks and always kind of bend my number. But if
I get it back fine, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Talking to Derek Ramsey, former Kentucky quarterback, and we were
talking a little bit about this day and age with
the nil and all that. But let me ask you
a little bit ram about the portal and the fact
that at your position, Kentucky almost seems like it's been
I don't want to say trapped, but it's caught up
in a pattern of using transfer quarterbacks. You know, they

(57:25):
signed Drew Barker ten years ago. He was going to
be the future and allow them to develop younger qbs
behind him and you know, in the old fashioned way,
the organic way. But now Barker gets hurt. Here comes
transfer after transfer. I know that doesn't set well with you,
But I don't know if cutter Bowley's the answer to

(57:47):
stop that cycle, you know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (57:50):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I know the coach, Stepson and the
staff were hoping that he was going to be that
guy because I believe that, you know, quarterback position is
a lot different from tackle, wide receiver, a defensive back,
a big thing and gave you know, I'm big on this,

(58:11):
this whole leadership thing. Yes, and that is something that
you can't do overnight. We were we were very fortunate
with Levis to come in, but he was an experienced
player and he came in, he drove the guys, and
the guys seemed to follow him. Yeah uh. But but

(58:33):
at large, since he's left, we haven't been affected with
right right, And so I'm I'm unhopeful that that we
get our kid, or get a kid that as the
freshman and and kind of sitting and you know, year
two or three, he's our guy, you know, because now
you can play for five years basically.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Yeah, And you know what impressed us about Barker, us
being the media, was when Barker committed did he created
I don't know, I do know where you are on
social media, but this is just a sign of the times.
But Barker created a social media account of Twitter account
for that class, that recruiting class at twenty fourteen, and

(59:14):
he helped bring in other recruits. So it looked like
that might be a real impactful recruiting class. It wasn't
nearly what we thought it might be. That Actually the
next year's class was bigger. But Barker took that upon himself,
which kind of impressed me.

Speaker 6 (59:28):
You know, well that's called leadership. Yeah, that's my point.
You know, you get that guy, you know who you're following,
you know, from from reading about what he's saying and
from hearing what he's seeing, you kind of figure out,
is this the kind of guy that I don't want
to follow? You know. Hints here we all gave fifty

(59:50):
years later. My guys will go anywhere with me, that's right,
and they will go anywhere for me. In the same reverse,
I'll do any for my guys anytime. Anything. I'm there.
And so these are the relationships that I'm talking about, Uh,
that a quarterback has to has, that has to have

(01:00:13):
and to be able to forge these different relationships and
drive guys when they're tired, when you feel like working out,
when they don't feel like doing that extra gass or
that extra hundred yard sprint. Uh, that's where the leadership
comes in, and that's where the quarterback piece to them
comes in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
You may you may have to chew him out in
a huddle during the game.

Speaker 6 (01:00:37):
Absolutely, as You're going to have to at some point.
You will, you know, as they as they hope, well, oh.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
I would imagine, no, fess up. And you know, speaking
of Barker, I remember this, Jared Lorenzen told us Barker
was a Northern Kentucky kid, and so Jared gravitated to him,
and Jared gave him a piece of advice. He said,
become best friends off the field with your old lineman
because they'll save your butt on the field. You did that,
didn't you.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
Oh? Yeah, to to this day, that's the closer the
relationships I've had with my line absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
Yeah, for obvious reasons. You know, in the time, you
could open your own holes but they came in Andy.
I know we're talking to Derek Ramsey, he let the
Wildcats to an SEC championship as a football Wildcat, and
that we're of course talking about Mark Troops team. We'll
come back with more just a minute on the Big
Blue Insider here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. Derek

(01:01:40):
Ramsey is my guess, the former UK quarterback and the
Wildcats are a little more than a week away from
an opener, and we were talking earlier about the fact
that you're an old school guy. You're a blue collar guy.
So is Mark Stoops and as well as Kentucky has
thrown the ball through the years from time to time
unders his best teams at Benny Snell, at Chris Rodriguez,

(01:02:05):
they can run the ball when they had to. And
I know you fully endorse that, don't you?

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
Absolutely? I did you know, because this is the SEC
and I don't care how well you throw the football.
At some point, be it in the first half, late,
bed in the second half late, you're going to have
to control the ball and that means about three to
five minutes you're going to have to run the football.

(01:02:33):
And so yes, I am a huge advocate of running
the football. And let's face it, for years and years,
going back to when I was a player here, we've
always had great running back. But so is everybody else
in the SEC.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (01:02:52):
And so you know, going back to the great Sunny College,
I mean, I still it was the greatest running back
ever here at Kentucky. So when you have that kind
of personnel, but again, it all starts with those five
hogs up front, That's right. You don't get them going

(01:03:13):
and keep pushing them and drive and then you go nowhere.
I don't care how good you are, how good you
think you are. It's one of in the trenches.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
And that said, this line right now, if I think
if they start as a day, at least three linemen
would be transfers. And they played a lot of football
where they came from, so that means, of course, and
I've talked about it a lot this summer. They've had
to build that chemistry, if not camaraderie in a very
short amount of time. How optimistic are you? Are you

(01:03:47):
skeptical about how well this line can function as one?
Five guys as one starting on opening day? Are you
optimistic or skeptical?

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:03:59):
And then Gabe, Like I said that, that is probably
a three or four game process, because not only is
the playing, but it's also the trust understanding the field.
You know, when you're double team a guy, yeah you

(01:04:20):
have the responsibility of double team in that guy. But
when you're double team that guy, you got to come
off to another guy. And so that's all a field.
That's the trust. And yeah, you go through training camp
for three or four weeks, that's not enough time. You know,
the advantage is that these are older guys, So instead

(01:04:41):
of three or four games, it might be two games.
But that first game, I'm not expecting them to set
the wall on fire.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Most of these guys ran We're here in the spring
as well, and that's new. Transfers can come in first
of the year, first of the calendar year and take
advantage of those fifteen spring practices and as you said,
they've played a lot of football. One of them said,
you know what, one of the pluses, as he said,
we already know the drills. You know, we don't have

(01:05:11):
to be taught to the drills. We can jump right
in pick up where we left off. How big is that?

Speaker 6 (01:05:17):
Uh, that's that's that's an advantage. I hadn't thought about,
but put you're absolutely right on that one. That gives
them that that three weeks of getting out there together.
But also not only is it the on the field,
it's the off the field, when you're having a conversation,
when you're going to have dinner, when you're going to
have lunch, you're talking to a guy about how do

(01:05:39):
you feel about this? How do you feel about that?
When I come off from this guy? What are you
going to do? Yeah? All those bass that take place,
that when you get out there on the field, that
all material longs and then it all kind of comes together.
Do I think it's come together by the first There

(01:06:03):
will be mistakes, and it's not because of lack of effort.
It's just that you haven't come together yet.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Yeah, Yeah, I'm curious. We only have a few minutes left.
But you and I were talking off the air. We
always talk for a long time on the phone. But
you're not going to be at the opener, which is unusual.
But you've been invited to go to the Ohio State
Texas game. I gotta think you're excited about that. And
I give both schools credit for scheduling that game and

(01:06:32):
a loss is not going to keep one of the
other from competing for a national championship in my opinion.
But what do you think, Ram of all the hype
about Archie Manning's grandson, who's never been the regular quarterback
in Texas and now people are saying he's the first
team All American. It'll be the first guy drafted, you know,
I mean you talk about the hype machine. Yeah, yeah,

(01:06:56):
what do you make of all that? As a guy who
played the position, and you've been an observer of college football,
as an as an ad as a fan, what do
you make of all this?

Speaker 6 (01:07:07):
I'm not sure how good he is. Uh. And that's
part of the reason why I opted out of going
to our game to go to this game, because if
you remember the last year and is he a talent,
absolutely I can you cannot deny it. But what you
got to see and play was against the blind schools,

(01:07:30):
against the people that don't walk so fast schools early
in the game, early in the season, you know, those
first three or four games when yours was was injured.
But what I also remember is that when I saw
him against the University of Georgia, they snashed him out
of there. Really quick. Well, this time there's no snatching,

(01:07:52):
it's all is. And so I just want to see
what happens when he's hitting them out again and again
and again. And I want to see how he responds
times I've seen him play. He is an incredible athlete.
He can throw the football, he can run, but does

(01:08:13):
he have the entire practice And that entire pactic means
is how is he gonna respond when the whole world
is on fire and everybody in the stands is against.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Certainly got the bloodlines, certainly has a grandfather who knows
the game and uncles who know the game, and his
dad was a good player. Tell health issues sideline him.
So it's gonna be fascinating. The other thing Ram I'm
curious about is Ohio State used to play the brand
of football that you love, that power football. Urban Meyer
gets there recruits for speed, and he didn't do away

(01:08:49):
with power but added speed. And now Ohio State probably
resembles an SEC team more than any team in a
Big ten, doesn't it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:58):
Absolutely? They do. Absolutely, they do, you know. And then
going back to when Art and I recruited by all
these Big ten schools, here's a big slow guys, basically.
And uh but now, as you mentioned, Urban got over
there and he had won those championships in Florida, and

(01:09:21):
everybody in the SEC can run back then still today,
and so for how I'll state to win, they realize
that and their coaches continue the same model for players.
And so it's gonna be really interesting because Texas is
really factt yeah and and and ours appears to be

(01:09:47):
really bad. So it's gonna be a good game.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
But you know, the one thing I've witnessed last year
and we'll see Texas up here this season, but down
in Austin last year, Texas has huge offensive lineman. But
they can move, can't they?

Speaker 6 (01:10:04):
Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, Well well that's that's that's the NFL model,
you know, that's that's Warren Brian. You know, yeah, I
mean back fifty years ago with this big guy, nobody
could run as fast as Warren Brian as an offensive line.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
I've only got about a minute and a half left.
But how deep down you are just at a reunion?
You played for what three different NFL teams? But deep
down you're a raider, aren't you?

Speaker 6 (01:10:35):
Absolutely? Through, through, through and through. You know, we had
about three hundred guys to show up at our reunion
past week. So it's always good to see our guys,
to see where they are, you know, at this late
date in life, and you know, some of our guys
have the issues help wise and we just want to

(01:10:59):
be there. Steers still continue to prop them up.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
Yeah. Well, the next time you and I talk off
the air, I got to get you to tell me
some Raiders stories. I know you have some you probably
couldn't tell me on the air. You talk about you
talk about the franchise. I think in the NFL that
that just has that kind of rep and it's good
for the league.

Speaker 6 (01:11:19):
I think I would think so too, And yeah, I
look forward to it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
Gate all right, brother, thank you so much, ram And
we'll see you down the road. Have a great time.
I'll get a report from you down the road on
the on the Ohio State Texas game.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
Yeah, look forward to it. Thanks brother, Thanks, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
That's the great Derek Ramsey. Love talking football with ram
And while we're talking about quarterbacks. Bet MGM on Instagram
has a graphic college football blue blood tears and have
T I E R s and has six different levels
of blue bloodedness if you will. At the topp of
House State, Alabama, Michigan, and Oklahoma. Then you've got legacy

(01:12:03):
blue bloods, gen Z blue bloods. The sport is better
when they're good, which includes Tennessee and Florida sometimes relevant
and at the bottom relevant because of one QB. And
in that category Texas Tech beicaus of Patrick Mahomes A
and M bet Texas A and M because of Johnny Manziel.
But Louisville and if they mean Johnny Unitas their way off.

(01:12:28):
Not that Johnny Unitas wasn't one of the all time greats,
and for the longest time I thought he was the
greatest until Brady blew by him. But he was not
a great quarterback at Louisville. U of L football was
not good when he was a QB. It was mediocre.
But he is their most famous alum. But I questioned
how many college football and pro football fans know that

(01:12:50):
Louisville was Johnny Uaniitas's alma mater. I would say not
very many. Up next, yours truly with hal Mommy from
several years ago on six thirty wa Welcome back to
The Big One's Cider final segment of our show. Thanks
once again to Derek Ramsey loved talking football with the
ram I always learned something. And it's hard to believe

(01:13:12):
that he and I were part of Kentucky football. Me
on the outside looking in him as the star quarterback
fifty years ago. It's actually he started at Kentucky fifty
one years ago. But I worked my first game fifty
years ago and ram played in that game. There were
two quarterbacks in that one. I'm going to write about
it next week, so follow us on social media for that.

(01:13:36):
I want to wrap up with a couple of things
we pulled off from the interweb. One of the comments
was from Greg Olsen, who of course was the number
one NFL football analyst TV analyst for Fox until Tom
Brady came on to see. Now he's number two or
one A or something like that whatever. Really talentedly and

(01:14:00):
he was on a podcast recently where he talked about
what he learns from the pregame conversations and meetings he
has with head coaches and coordinators. And I bring this
up because I've always said, you know, and I've always
been opposed to the deification of college coaches. Everybody wants
to turn these guys into gods, you know, they believe

(01:14:23):
that a coach ought to be able to take a
kid who's just an average kid and make him great,
you know, and then some guys can depends on the
kid really, man or woman, boy or girl. But I've
always said that college coaches are seen by fans in
such a light that really should be directed toward the pros,

(01:14:45):
because the pros have so many rules in place that
try to make sure that everybody has the same amount
of tools with which to work, same roster number, the draft,
the inverted draft. You know, everything is driven toward parody,
where college football is the other way around. You know.

(01:15:05):
You know, you've got a one a program that's near
the bottom of the heap that's never going to compete
with an Alabama or Georgia. Vanderbilt will never be able
to consistently compete with an Alabama or Georgia, and people
want to believe that the coach can be the difference.

(01:15:26):
And every once in a while the coach makes a
huge difference. But in the pros it's much more, in
my opinion, about coaching, about organization, about overall scheme, about culture,
if you will, and overuse term. Greg Olsen talked about
this in a recent podcast about how it was really
hammered home to him when he became an analyst and

(01:15:50):
was sitting in on these meetings.

Speaker 10 (01:15:51):
How much is your perspective on the sport change from
transitioning to a player to now doing your role of
probably forging pretty close relationships with not just head coaches,
but coordinators and probably a lot of personnel men around
the league to kind of just view football differently from
maybe all your years as a player in college and
the pros.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
It's been the coolest part of the process.

Speaker 9 (01:16:14):
As fun as sitting in the stadiums and calling the
games and all that, the coolest part of the process
is the insight into how a lot of these teams work,
just organizationally, both through structure, through communication, through processes, do
what they have in place of how they evaluate talent
and how they roster construct and how they do the draft.
And you know, when you sit down and you talk

(01:16:34):
to general managers in front office personnel and they really
give you a clear vision of why we've done certain
decisions over the last two or three years to get
to this point, It's an unbelievable insight and process into
how much time and thought is put into why certain
teams are really good, and then you talk to other
teams and you get off and you're like, these guys
have no idea what they're doing, and it's no wonder

(01:16:55):
they're not good. Like there's countless times a year where
I hang up off of some coaches conference meeting.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
I'm like, I get why Sean McVay wins.

Speaker 9 (01:17:02):
A lot, I get why Kevin O'Connell wins a lot,
And there's a million guys. And then you also get
off some other calls and you're like, they have no clue,
they're just making it up, like they're just and it's
amazing at the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
Level, But that's real. So that's the most interesting part.

Speaker 1 (01:17:19):
I just love that comment. Coaches are making stuff up
and he didn't say stuff that's phenomenal. Keep that in
mind the next time you watch NFL games and there's
a team that is consistently good against a team that
consistently struggles, and that's not always the fault of the coach.
It may start at the top. Everybody's making a big

(01:17:39):
deal about this. Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboys Netflix documentary, which
I will not watch because I hate the Cowboys, but
you know, Cowboys haven't been successful in thirty years in
a big picture since and that starts at the top.
Jerry Jones is too stubborn to bring in a good GM,
and the Cowboys are paid the price. So let that

(01:18:02):
resonate the next time you watch an NFL team that
consistently has struggled. And I'm not talking about the Bengals.
Bengals have been to the Super Bowl three times, but
sometimes they can't get out of their own way. I'm
going to wrap this up with a clip from the
Cubs Brewers game last night. Jim Deshaise is the color commentator,
Boog Shambi is the play by play guy, and they

(01:18:25):
were playing the Brewers, really good team, and the Cubs
were in a situation where they needed a double play
and Jim Deshaise spoke up and talked himself into a corner.
Mentioned somewhat flippantly yesterday that I feel like at least

(01:18:46):
once a game Patrez hits a ground ball the short stime.
This would be an ideal time for that to happen.

Speaker 11 (01:18:54):
Did he How about this?

Speaker 4 (01:18:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (01:18:56):
If he hits the ground ball to short to start
the six four three, Yeah, that's stright will you buy
Manzi sticks for everybody at the corner town.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
Absolutely, I'll go have seas with you.

Speaker 11 (01:19:11):
Okay, one out three one cups?

Speaker 10 (01:19:17):
Nay, let's go.

Speaker 8 (01:19:18):
What's there? All sticks for everybody?

Speaker 3 (01:19:23):
Corner ten pro meet up.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
I love that Mazzarelli sticks, Massi sticks for everybody at
the corner tavern. And I wondered how many people when
they heard that and saw that, jumped up and went
to that tavern to wait for these guys to get
their free Moncerelli sticks after the game. If they did,
good for them, have a great one. Thanks for listening.
That said good night from the garage and Lexingo.

Speaker 6 (01:19:47):
My suirfishal let me ask you something.

Speaker 2 (01:19:51):
Six have you missed a play like that?

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
The ball jumped out of there soon as we make
camp Tack, I'm not a tack.

Speaker 6 (01:19:56):
What you were told about you've been on the field.
Now watch.

Speaker 8 (01:20:02):
Anything any such tact anything, do anything? Can anything do anything?

(01:20:55):
Can sat.

Speaker 9 (01:21:13):
Tack thin

Speaker 8 (01:21:21):
Toasta Then