Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody. You heard the initial Mark Stoops Show of
the Year, the first BBN radio show the year, and
now the first state wide Big Blue Insider of the Year.
We're going to talk, of course about the Wildcats and
those Toledo Rockets. Cole Park of the Cat's Pause is
in the studio with us along with Billy Rutledge, be
a part of the state wide BBI from Pikeville to Paduca.
It is the Big Blue Insider Dick Gabriell in studio
(00:21):
with Billy Ruttledge Cole Park who has stepped in for
Aaron Gershawn. Aaron is off to another job down in
Sunny Florida, so now Cole is the staff writer on
the UK Beat. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
First of all, thanks for having me excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You have covered a lot of press conferences, You've talked
to a lot of players, You've been at the Mark
Stoops newsers. What kind of vibe are you getting for
the upcoming season? And by the way, Cole, not too
long out of school, but you've been covering Kentucky football
now for four or five years, right.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, about five years.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I covered Kentucky at the highest level at the colonel
since I was a freshman, you know, kind of got
lucky there with how it's how it worked out. So
I've been covered the big sports at Kentucky for four
years of college and now a year removed from college.
So I've been doing this for a little while now,
and it's tough to say what the what the vibe
is right now, I guess because in the in the program,
I feel like they're being pretty tight lipped about things,
(01:12):
you know, just expressing confidence, a lot of coach speak
from a lot of the players, a lot of coach
speak from the coaches, a lot of you know, we
know what the goal is, let's go do it. You
ask the fan base, they're not as optimistic right now.
You know, We've seen quite a bit of that and
a lot of people both in my comments on social
media and comments on my stories as well, but just
out and about I feel like it's it's kind of
(01:33):
a dichotomy there with the program kind of saying, you know,
we feel confident, we know what we need to do,
we were ready for this to be better season, versus
everyone else kind of being like, yeah, I'll believe it
when I see it, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That's win some games.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh yeah, fill with fans. It's all recency biased, right
right always, you know, And we've talked about this at
nauseum here, billion and nine and a lot of other
people about the fact that, you know, Stoops raise the floor.
I mean, last two years prior, seven wins wasn't good
enough because there were games that got away. And you know, again,
back when I was covering UK football for the Colonel,
(02:05):
they were winning big under Cursy and then they got
droll Budy and say, hey, and we all know what's
happened since then, but Stoops kind of spoiled us, didn't.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
He Yeah, I mean it got to a point where
the college football playoffs was a genuine thing people were
talking about before the season, and now it's not quite
that right now. But yeah, I mean, like you said,
for a long time, it was kind of like can
you win, can you go to a bowl game? It
was kind of the barometer for how good a team was.
And now, you know, even these last few years, you've
heard people say, well, six seven wins, that's not good enough.
(02:35):
We should be better than that. You know, Stoops gave
you quote unquote two ten win seasons. You know, the
NCAA might disagree on that now, but two ten win
seasons and in real time, and you know, there was
some real expectations after that second ten win season that
doesn't exist anymore in the record books, with Levis coming
back and people saying, hey, could they could they go
(02:55):
to Atlanta? You know, could they could they go to
the championship? And then that ended up being seven and five.
I've now last year was four and eight, and we're
at a completely different place right now.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
One of those people who believes that seven wins aren't
good enough is mister Billy Rutland.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Are we there?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Are we there?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
At?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Seven wins? Isn't good enough?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You know what? This year? Let me I'll put it
to you. With the schedule they're playing, yeah, and fifty
new faces coming off that four and eight season, how
would you feel about seven wins? Dick?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think this team could be a lot better than
last year and probably have the same record or even worse.
I mean, I mean just the way that this schedule
works out. I think it's really tough for Kentucky. I mean,
they've got some really tough games at home, yep, a
place where they haven't been able to win SEC games
for the past two years already, So you know, even
when the games like Vanderbilt, you still got Diego Pavia
(03:47):
there somehow through all his waifers and whatnot. So look,
it's about that time of the year where we all
start to buy in and get optimistic. But you know,
Cole hit on a lot of key things. I think
the key one was I'll believe it when I see it.
And you know, we've talked a lot about culture change
in Kentucky football a lot rightly, And you can change
your culture pretty quickly when you've got fifty new people.
(04:08):
But you know, can they return to the big Blue
Walk and Bush Hampden's comments from the luncheon that this
will be one of the great offensive lines in Kentucky, which,
by the way, race to my eyebrows. Yeah, it needs
to be for Kentucky to be able to make a
Bowl this year.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, when you go back and look at Stoops's best teams,
they were teams that had balanced but they had the
one thing in common was they had and they weren't
all the same guys. There was you know, the Big
Blue Wall started when Stenberg was young, and you know
there was turnover but they just John Schlarman was crafting
that O line and building depth and then the next thing,
(04:47):
you know, was like where did it go? And you
can talk all you want about coordinators and quarterbacks and
this and that, but to me, all their problems started
with O line issues, you know, over the last three years.
And that's got to change this year or it's gonna
be a long season, or it'll be when's basketball start.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, there's a lot of excitement there, so that the
tune could shift pretty quickly. But I mean, Shias pete Man,
he's become the story of the off season for Kentucky.
He is such a likable guy. Yeah, and as different
kind of guy, Yeah, for sure. I mean somebody that
you'd play for, you know, I don't know, you know,
maybe you see that guy in the locker room and
you play a little harder because it's just the way
that he talks and the way that he acts. But look,
(05:29):
that's that's gonna be the storyline.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I think this year.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
It's not going to be you know, Vince Marrow not
being here is a tight end ever going to catch
a pass or That's not gonna be the storyline this year.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
It's gonna be what is thellary storyline? Yeah, you know,
because it always is. But no, you're right. I don't
know about you, Cole, but you know, and I played
offensive lineman for like a minute in high school. But
I always enjoy talking to alignment because to me, it's
the thinking man's position quarterback. Yes, I get that, but
it just seems like nine times out of ten you
(06:00):
get a good interview from an old alignment, and I
don't think that's been uh an exception this year. I
think we've seen a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I mean I think you talk about it being the
thinking man's position. I also think that there's a lot
of a lot of common man in the in the
offensive lineman. You know, a lot of times when I played,
I was on the line at the start of my career,
moved over to tight end at the end of my career, but.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Not very just like here.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, but you know, we always talked about those skill
players and how flashy they were and how the old
lineman never gets credit.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So it kind of had more of that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Like you said, I fel like they give you a
lot of good interviews, and I feel like when you
go into an interview with an offensive lineman, you can
almost expect a level of candid that you can't with
certain other players. You know, a lot of those guys
who are used to the limelighter, the spotlight, and used
to being in the in the media, those wide receiver stars,
those quarterbacks, they're gonna kind of say that those media
training talking points. But sometimes the offensive lineman, they'll they'll
(06:56):
give you yeah, sometimes they'll sometimes they'll give you some
good answers. Sometimes they'll spend fifteen minutes talking about a
board game of risks.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So we've seen that.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
This awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It was interesting, it was different, it.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Was different, it was enjoyable, and it felt very genuine
when he was telling it. So I've always enjoyed interviewing
offensive linemen and interesting. It's always interesting to see what
they have to say so you.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Can relate to them. Yes, as well, But you're referring
to Josh Braun when you stood up and I thought,
really that was that was interesting in a kind of
a sidebar kind of way. Risk. But when he talked
about and I don't remember exactly the question might have
been yours. When he talked about the players who are
here for one year, and whoever asked a question, And Billy,
(07:37):
I don't know if you've got to hear this via
the video links or whatever, but somebody asked a question,
and you can help me with his coal basically wondering
about guys who drop in for one year? Am I
framing that the right way? You know? How devoted could
they I'm paraphrasing, how devoted could they be when they're
only here for a year?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Right?
Speaker 6 (07:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I mean they were asking him one in terms of
a tear connection in chemistry aspect, but two in terms
of a devoted to winning for Kentucky. You know, when
you're when you're kind of like getting off a plane
here for one year, then you're back somewhere else, whether
that's what you're doing, Yeah, whether that's going pro or
going to different school. It's kind of like, well, how
committed can you really be to Kentucky and how close
can you really get to your teammates when you're that
(08:18):
kind of player. So that was kind of a lot
of what he was asked about there, And I think
it's been an interesting thing we've heard this offseason from
a lot of the players. You know, he said already
he feels pretty close to this offensive line in ways
that you know. I watched him on the The SEC
Football Show on Netflix and he had said that Arkansas
was one of the closest he'd ever felt to one
of his offensive lines, and now he's said he's pretty
(08:38):
close to this one. And talking to Cam Olds outside
linebacker last week, he said, I feel like I've known
these guys for five years and I've been here for
less than a year. So something might be working in
terms of that team chemistry, that team culture aspect, but
you know, we'll see how it translates to on the field.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The amazing billy he mentioned was that because they show
Kentucky they had one year left, right, and they chose Kentucky. Therefore,
he feels like there's even more motivation. You know, I
could have gone anywhere, and I chose Kentucky, So I'm
(09:14):
going to give it everything I got. They're not just
here picking up a paycheck, at least that's what he
was saying. You know, I can't. I would imagine there
may be one or two and they're like, where could
I get the most you know, let me stay healthy
and get you know, to the draft.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, I think that's just college sports nowadays, no doubts.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But actually I did appreciate what he said. He was
very cole, He was very passionate about that, very direct.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well, yeah, you might look at it as like a
basketball one and done where they just don't spend a
lot of time here, So how could they really embrace
the culture. But it seems like that amplifies it, especially
if they're in their last year. You know, that's the
last shot. You know, this year, you can't have offensive
linemen at the concession stand while the game is going on.
(09:58):
These are just the little things. I don't think we're
asking for too much.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It is an ugly ending.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah. Yeah, and the good news there was he wasn't
in uniform. It was right, it was sidelined. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Now, I pulled up the quote here for you from right.
I found it in my audio logs. You know, he said,
you say the players don't care about the university. I
think they care about the university even more because they're saying,
this is where I choose to be, this is where
I want to represent, And because of that, they carry
themselves in a different manner. I mean, you see guys
treating their body as their business now, And because of that,
I can see people in the training room getting treatment
(10:32):
every day that I have than I have in the
past of my career ever. And I see people taking
nutritious nutrition seriously, the weight room more serious, all of that. So,
like he touched on there, he said, uh, you know,
he feels like, whether you agree or not, he said,
he feels like the modern era of college football has
made people care more about the school they play for
because it is their business and their livelihood.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Professional sports they do a lot of the same thing, right,
making tracking your nutrition, you know, making sure you're getting
them out of the time that you're spending, because this
is a business. This is not just for a college
education anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So let's face it has been a business for a
long time.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
It has. But now we're sitting more out loud, right, yeah,
and now we're negotiating the deals in plain sight than
we are maybe behind the tables. All these true other things,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Toledo coming up. I've been banging this drum on my
show locally. You probably have his Willbilly and yours and Nicole,
I'm sure you've written about it. And boy, Marks troops
didn't let you forget it, nor should he that MAC
teams are good teams. They're full of kids who either
were overlooked by Power conference schools or kids who believe
they should be playing at a higher level, and they're
(11:41):
not afraid to come in and try to prove it.
They've come into Lexington and either beat in Kentucky or
giving Kentucky everything at once. And I expect that Saturday,
especially from a team that's picked to win the MAC.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean, Toledo's a very strong squad. They're they're
you know, favorited to win that conference, which depending on
how the dominoes falls, see them even in the playoffs
if things work out the right way.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But I think something that Stoops has talked about, Brad
White talked about it.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
What's special about Toledo is even in a conference like
the MAC, they have a shocking amount of continuity on
that roster. They're able to kind of keep players more
than other schools in that conference are. And Kentucky's got
several guys in their roster this year who came from
the MAC. You know, we talked to a couple last week,
both with cam Olds, you know, Alex Wolschluger on the
offensive line. But Toledo has been able to keep a
(12:26):
lot of their players for a lot longer than some
of the other teams have, and they're a very strong squad.
They've been pretty consistently good for years and years and years.
You know, Jason Kendell has done a great job there.
And I think that Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Should win on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
But it's definitely going to be a bit of a
scary one and it's a tough way to start a
really tough schedule.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yeah, that's right. And speaking of continuity, that's a team
that I believe beat Mississippi State last year, Pittsburgh and
Pittsburgh in like four overtimes, six overtimes in the ball game.
I remember that vaguely, So I mean it's a I
think it's a good test, and to a degree, I
think that's what you want. You want to be able
to test your guys and see where you're at before
(13:07):
you take on a really tough schedule. Not too much, though, Dick,
you got you gotta win the game. You gotta win
the game, and notot drop Toledo. We won after you
lose your associate head coach and you give your offensive
line coach a raise, and you go out there and
you resell the same thing you've been doing the last
few years, and you try to package it up in
something new. It's got to be different or the fan
(13:29):
base is not going to show up.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Or if not different, you got to get back to
what was successful, and that was grinded out. And yes,
you know, and I'm really really intrigued by these running backs.
And you know, Cole got to go to some practices
as I did. We didn't get to see him, did we.
We saw down Ll a little bit in the spring.
You looked pretty good, but that's the spring. You know.
I want to see these guys. And I keep hearing
(13:51):
both of these guys have NFL potential, is what I hear? Well,
I mean, you know you can say that about just
about anybody. But you know, one is fast and quick,
the other is powerful. And will they have any room
to run?
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean that's the big question, right, you know? I
think was it Stoops that talked about that with the
running back room? He said, really and truly, like you know,
we can have good running backs, but it starts with
the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It starts up front.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It starts with how we do things, like because if
you can have a great running back, but if there's
not holes to run through, what are they going to
do with it?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And like you said, we really haven't got to see
a whole lot of them. A lot most I saw
it of Seth was his lovely walking booth that he
was in, yes, a week or so ago.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Kind of slip bias, but we all saw it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
We all saw it. Yeah, you know, we were all
paying attention.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Just brought it up.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He did, he did.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
He kind of clarified that it was nothing serious, that
they're ready to go. I mean, he was on the
depth chart with the or designation alongside Daudell there, so
it'll be interesting to see. But in terms of off
season running back stuff, it feels like all we've really
been able to write is Jamari and Wilcox and Jason Patterson,
and they've had a lot of good stuff coming out
about them, but neither of them's on the depth chart
right now. So what have we really been doing with
the running back room?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Well, they're the three four yes right naturally and Chip
got hurt all last year. Yeah, now he's on Toledo.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, and they put all of their big blue eggs
in that one basket would train them and prior to
last year, what do we hear ship train them? You
know Ohio State, although mister Pecorol very quietly said, well,
he didn't play a whole lot at Ohio State, so
we'll see what he does at Kentucky. Now we never
had a chance to see him.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
You know, he's got to score four touchdowns Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, and that brings me to how the Rockets run
the ball against the Kentucky D line. We'll talk about
that on the other side of the break, because one
of the most interesting twists of this summer camp, if
you will, I think, is one of the transfers on
the D line. We'll talk about that on the other
side of the break. Speaking of mister Pecorrel, he allegedly
(15:46):
will join us at the bottom of the hour if
he's answering his phone. We know how that goes. We
I texted him prior to the show to remind him
to keep his phone on and he said, why do
you won my Lasagnia recipe? So, Jeff, I've already got
a good Lazangni recipe. But answer, You're fine anyway. We'll
come back and talk more Kentucky football in the state
wide BBI Welcome back Bike for the Paduca. It is
(16:06):
the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel, Billy Rutligion Studio. I'm
a Cole Park from the Cat's pause going into the break,
I mentioned and Cole brought it up with Also Billy
and Cole Boat brought up the fact that Chip Trainum's
running the football now for Toledo comes to Toledo from
Ohio State by way of Lexingon, although he barely played here.
(16:27):
But Cole, I've been really intrigued by David Gusta, the
kid from Washington State, trying to fight with Khalil Saunders
for the starting job in the middle. And Billy, I
don't know if you got wind of this, but we
kept hearing about the fact that Gusta benched the two
twenty five bench thirty eight reps. How many guys mentioned
(16:50):
that to you, Cole, because almost everybody on both sides
of the ball after it happened mention that to me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I think every defensive lineman I spoke to mention that too.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I mean, that's legendary. And Pcoro at one point he goes.
I did four, so now and for a while our
Gusta was running one and now he's backing up Sonder.
They'll both play, but I want to see how well
those guys jam up the middle, you know, and allow
other guys to make plays.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah, I mean the depth chart that they brought out
today has Saunders starting at the tackle and Gusta starting
at the nose with Haze behind him. But I'll be
interested to see how that line. I was a bit
surprised not to see Jane Williams anywhere on the defensive
line depth chart, but there's a lot of good players
on that on that depth chart. With Tavion Gadson backing
up Khalil Saunders, I'm very excited to see Khalil Saunders
(17:39):
this season. That's one, you know, who I was high
on last year and I'm expecting.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Him to do big things.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
But Gusta, I thought one of the most interesting things
to me about Gusta so far, coming from Washington State,
you know, he told us pretty candid after that second scrimmage.
He's like, I feel like this is the first week
that I've felt like I'm able to breathe half the
time here.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
He said, the humidity down here is no jokes, but
it was.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Like trying to breathe through a.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, he said, I've been up there in Pullman, up
in Washington State. He said, it's nothing like this. He
said it gets hot sometimes, but not like this. Not
the humidity. He said, by the time we get into
our first game, sometimes it's cold outside. So he's had
to adjust to that and seems like he's starting to
get the hang of it, because they seem to be
very high on him and very high on.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
What he can do at Kentucky.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Was he the one that saw cicadas and thought they
were like demons?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Or was that a different didn't hear that one?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Okay, a bit different guy. Well, I mean when they
come out with eighteen years, I mean, you'd be befuddled
if you weren't around for the first one. But I
have a question for you, Dick, what do you think
happened with dian Walker last year? Like this is a
guy that's could have some success at the NFL level
with the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, but seemingly played himself out
of the first round last year. Do you think that
(18:45):
was a personal nothing of him or.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Towards the end of the year, we kept hearing that
he had a back injury, and in fact he missed
a game, remember hm, and watching him on the field,
I mean I would watch him kind of just you know,
straightening up, and you know, I mean, I've had back problems.
Who hasn't, And I can't imagine playing SEC defensive line
And you can write it off as an excuse. I
(19:08):
do not, just having watched him, you know. And plus
there he didn't have a whole lot of help around him,
so now they could double team him and if he
was in pain. We got to see what he looked
like when he was healthy, starting with that huge hit
at Florida when he was a freshman remember that. Yeah, Yeah,
And yeah last year, I don't think he was right
(19:29):
beyond the first or second game, do you remember.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
No. I mean I feel like he just he never
looked like himself out there. It kind of felt like
he was respectfully a non factor a lot of that season,
that he wasn't the kind of guy that offenses would
have to plan around. They could just be like, Okay,
well just if we go that way, we go that way,
not as worried about it, And like you said, I
think after pretty early on, he never really seemed like himself.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He never really seemed like the Dean.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Walker we all expected him to be with that kind
of that praise, that that NFL first round potential going
into the season, we just never really got to see that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
He wasn't the wrecking crew that you kind of expected
them to beat at all. And one of the great
lessons that I learned in watching a dominant d lineman
came back Mummy Morris around that end when Dwayne Robertson
was playing, and he was the best. I'll put it
this way. He wasn't the defensive player of the year
(20:24):
in the SEC, but he was the first defensive player
from the SEC drafted. I think he went forth to
the New York Jets and his job was to command
double teams, and the Jets knew this, I mean, and
I went back and looked at the stats and they
were similar to what he had at Kentucky. He might have,
you know, three tackles and an assist or something, but
(20:44):
team spent so much time double teaming him that that
freed up the people around them to make plays. And
that's what I expected from Dion last year, and he
just wasn't getting it done. Well.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I wish him the best. It's been fun watching hard knocks.
See isn't it ray and feel terrible? Yeah, it was
David Gusta that doesn't like cicadas. He didn't call him demons.
He did cuss twice when talking about them for the media.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So that must have been a session where obviously I
wasn't around. I didn't hear that one, did you that?
What I did hear was that he met I don't know.
I can't remember if he's married or steady girlfriend or whatever. Okay,
he's married, took his wife to Dominos. Well, they met
and he met her online. He saw her in you know,
student directory or something online and and just reached after
(21:32):
and said, hey, I'm so and so and i'd like
to meet you. So she agreed, I guess checked him
out and they met in a safe place, the Domino's
parking lot near campus. And so now when they celebrate
an anniversary they go to Dominoes. Not bad, right, not bad?
And the thing is Dominoes would come to them, they
do deliver.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
So anyway, it's not easy dating this this day and age. Dick,
he got lucky.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, I'm sure with the ni al, he's got a
little bit of money, but I hope he's putting it
away as a married man, I'm hoping he's putting it away.
When we come back, Jeff picorl will join us. I'm
sure he'll want to talk about wide receivers. But that's
good because I think that's an interesting element on this team.
I think, you know, when you lose a Dane Key,
when you lose a Berry and Brown, that's tough to replicate.
(22:18):
But on the other hand, now we get to see
Kendrick Law and some other guys, and those guys underachieved
a little bit last year, probably Brown more than Daned.
I keep looking back in that Old Miss game, the
Dane head his best game as a Wildcat. But we'll
talk about that as well on the other side of
the break, because for two weeks, the Georgia game, the
Old Miss Game, Kentucky played as well as any team
(22:39):
in the country and then fell off the cliff. So
all right, we'll come back with more Kentucky football chatter
with Cole Park and Billy Rutley's You're on the state
wide BBI order to order it is the Big Blue
Insider Dick Gabriel Cole Park at the Cat's pause. Billy
(23:01):
Rutledge join now in the celebrity hodline by mister Jeff
Picoro of the UK Radio Network, And as I mentioned,
Jeff's probably gonna want to talk about wide receivers his position. Jeff,
We've been talking a lot about line play. But let's
say that the line blocks well enough in the run
game to allow them to throw the ball and protect
(23:22):
Zach Calzada. What do you foresee from that receiver's room.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
I think it'll be just fine. I mean, you don't
have that standout guy, you know, the the clear cut
number one like dang Key was a year ago. But
you've got a lot of guys who are really good.
I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know if
they're all Americans, but yeah, they got they got a
bunch of guys. They're deep. They have you know, six
(23:50):
seven guys who wouldn't bother me one bit. You know
who gets the ball? Of those guys, they got some speed,
they got size, and they have diminutive guys who can
absolutely fly. You know, Uh, Montavian Cuisonberry had a great
fall camp and I just made plays and you know,
(24:13):
I I think they're gonna be just fun.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
One of your favorite expressions is and you didn't create this,
but but you know you've you've referred to it. A
receiver can take the top off the defense. Explain to
people what you mean and who can do that in
this group?
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Well, if if you remember Juice Johnson a couple of years,
oh yo, guys like that. Barryon Brown's one of those
guys that have fantastic speeds. So what that means is
you're you're stretching the defense. You have safeties, and if
they play too deep, you're stretching those safeties. So you're
(24:51):
taking the top off and that opens up the under
under routes for tight ends and running backs and things
like that. So that's that, that's what taking the top
off means. And if it's a single safety, is a
single high safety or something, you know, you just run
right by him, and that means taking the top off.
It opens things up underneath, and it also opens the
(25:12):
deep game up. And both both quarterbacks so great deep balls.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, I mean, you talk about these wide receivers that
can elevate the game. We heard all through UH all
through fall camp that there was eight guys who could
potentially be in that conversation, and you know, maybe when
you're in the media, you take that with a grain
of salt and the depth chart comes out and there's
nine guys on it at wide receiver. So they weren't kidding. Yeah,
a whole bunch of ores. Every single wide receiver position
(25:39):
has an ore on it. So what do you you
know in terms of what we're going to see from
these guys.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
I think that what the reason they had that ore
is because in all seriousness packages for instance, uh, Silato
for instance, a great possession guy for for people a
little bit older, maybe the Brian Brent and types. The
uh uh the the guy that played for the Patriots.
I'm losing my mind. I can't think of his name. Uh, yes, Edelman,
(26:09):
that's the type of receiver. Yes see, well, Steve Largin
had some decent speed and he was on the outside.
But I'm talking about a guy that goes over the
middle and gotten short passes. A third down receiver. Uh
you know, yeah, yes, yeah, a guy like the Uni
is perfect. Yes, who's who's not a speed you know,
doesn't have four to three speed, but great hands. Uh.
(26:31):
And they've got you know they've got some size there.
Uh you know, they got speed out there, so I
you know, I don't think it. But but what I
was getting at is they'll have packages for the different
different guys and they're gonna be running a bunch of
deep routes because what you're trying to do when you
run the football is you you just take off and
so those safety so when the safety start cheating up
(26:52):
and when you go buy them, so you make them
try to cover you down the field. Act you know,
there's gonna be a lot of play action asses and
draws and stuff. But uh, you know, I think they're
they're deep there and deep it deep deep deep at
tight end. I think they're going to utilize the tight end.
Dick and I made this every year, guy, this might
(27:13):
be the year for the tight end.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Baby. Carl's laughing at that too, because in high school
he was a tight end.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So yes, so my senior year, uh, Jeff Washington State
defensive lineman David Gusta apparently benched two twenty five thirty
eight times over the offseason. How many times did you
bench to twenty five?
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I did that in about three weeks.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Three weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, it's like running the marathon in stages.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, No. On pro day, what they do is
they set the bar two hundred and twenty five pounds.
You sit there and you do it as many times
as you can. And I think I did four or five,
but I was one hundred and seventy one pounds.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, well, head, that's four or five more than me, Jeff,
So I'll give you that. But that's guy. That guy's
an exciting addition, though, isn't.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
He Yeah, yes, yes he is. He's a He reminds
me a little and Dick's gonna have to help me
here because I I my memory is not like some
of these people that I taught you. Member. Yeah, But
the defensive lineman that the Jets took in the first round,
(28:22):
Dwayne Robertson, he has real good takeoff speed, meaning come
out of his his four point stance. He's a load,
you know, he's over three hundred pounds, but he's got
he's got he's got good hands, meaning he'd get him
on the the the lineman real quick. The offensive lineman, uh,
he's you know, I think he's just going to be
(28:43):
a really nice but Grace is going to be a
really nice addition to you keep talking about that line.
You know, you've got healthy guys. Josiah Hayes is back
and he's healthy, gats and is really growing now because member,
he couldn't really lift weights that much last year because
of the injury, and now he's you know, now he's
filling out that body and he's getting big. I mean,
(29:03):
they're just there's some huge guys out there. When you
stand next to him, you're like, my god, crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Jeffer Coorrol from the UK network joining us here on
the State YBBI, and you know what, jeffro I may
have buried the lead with you because as a member
of the network, you and Tom Leech, you you get
to go to these scrimmages that the rest of the
media do not. And you've been to several practices and
I'm wondering, of course you can't report on that for
the local TV station here. Uh, you know, you kind
(29:32):
of have to keep that stuff off the record. But
in general, what has been it's and this is a
term call we got to come up with another word,
but the vibe, the feeling, what is it? What does
it feel like around Kentucky football now? Around those practices
and basically what you've seen.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
I could tell you, but I have to kill you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well that's true. You know you gotta catch that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
I'll tell you the one thing, And I don't think
he'd be upset with me saying this. Mark Stoops has
gotten into this group more than anyone in the last
I mean even the ten wing teams. He is really
coaching his butt off and he has not taken anything
from the anxiety and one practice he almost stopped it
(30:16):
and pulled them together and said, I will start this
scrimmage or this practice all over again from period one.
And what they're getting at is this. And Bush has
said this to the players too when they come together.
He says, look, you guys just want to be okay,
you know, if you just want to be okay players
and keep practicing the way you're practicing, and we can
(30:37):
go out there and we'll win four or five games
and we'll be just okay. But if you want to
take the next step, if you want to get to
the level that Tennessee is, and you want to get
to the level that Georgie is, and you want to
get to the level of Alabama is, you've got to
improve every single day you have to give it one
hundred and one percent, not one hundred, not ninety eight,
one hundred and one. You have to exert yourself. The
(31:00):
one thing that I really love that coach Sanders said
at Colorado as he said what did you do today
to get better? It could be anything you could do
one more lift. He could do thirty nine lifts at
the bench press that you guys are just talking about, right,
I could do one more rep, you know with the
quarterback and make it catch. What did you do to
(31:21):
get better? And that's kind of the way they're pushing
these guys. And if you've noticed, and Dick I think
has been around it enough to notice, is too. This
is an older football team. All the guys that they
brought in are guys that are fifth and sixth year guys,
seventh year guy at your quarterback spot. And these guys
are a little bit more leadership roles. Josh Braun is
(31:42):
a leader. If he's a leader, Goosta that we talked
about Grace, those guys are all leaders that are coming
in here, and that's what you need. They're pushing each other.
It's not always the coaches having to gripe and complain
to the guys. Now, the players are buying in and
they're pushing each other, and that is what makes a
great team, Jeff.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
It was announced today that Zach Calzada would be the
starting quarterback for Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
One.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Have you been encouraged by what you've seen from him?
In two? What is it that he needs to do
better that Devin Leary and Brock Vandergriff maybe weren't able
to do in their year?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Stay healthy? Yeah, simple as you know, in all seriousness. Yeah,
But in all seriousness, I think he just has to
manage the game. He has a tendency to try to
do too much, and I call it the Brett farre syndrome.
Farvar was one of those guys he didn't care if
he had twenty five interceptions in a season because he
had fifty touchdowns. You know, that's not the way you
(32:39):
win in college football. He has to be able to
take what the defense gives him. Second down and ten
is better than first and ten going the other way.
Throw the ball away, ditch it, run the ball and
slide down. Game three yards, live to play the next
play is kind of what they're preaching to him. Because
he's got a cannon for an arm and if a
guy has got you know, sentilla of an opening, he
(33:01):
thinks he can put that ball right on the money.
Can't do that if you know, you don't push it
against SEC defensive backs. That's what in who sets boldly
had to learn. Dick. Remember the very first patch he threw.
What happened?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (33:15):
As they broke hut, I told tomp Oh because I
saw the defense of what they were going to do,
and he ran the out pattern and as soon as
he reached back, I said, no, you did, man. It
ends up being a fifty yard you know, interception returns
and touchdown you can't. The defense will bait you into things.
And when they run a four to three or four
four forty, not a whole lot you can do when
(33:36):
you release that football on a twenty yard pass. So
take what they give you, don't try to force things,
and I think the running game is gonna be much better.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, Jeff, you know you talk about what the quarterbacks
could be, a big part of that isn't even on
their shoulders necessarily. It's on the offensive line and the
way that they keep them protected. We heard from Mark
Stoops today. He said that he feels like there's eight
guys that they can really rely on in that Kentucky
in ten to try to use those eight guys not
just lean on their starting five. What have you kind
of seen from that group and what are you expecting
them to be in terms of living up to that
(34:06):
big blue wall mantle.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Well, I'll start with the guy in the middle, because
he's the one that's that's key to the whole thing,
and that's Jagger Burton. And Jagger is a lot more
confident because I think he's a lot more comfortable now.
I mean he's been here five years and he was
kind of bally hued coming in as you know, want
to be the next great offensive lineman and things just
(34:28):
haven't really worked out for him. But I think he's
done a really nice job so far. And again it's
against underwear and it's against you know, your same team.
We'll see Saturday, but I think it starts with him.
You've got two monsters on each side of him. I mean,
Braun is three hundred and fifty pounds and Farmers has
(34:49):
just looks great. I mean, he's redone his body, he's
he's basically what's happening is he's maturing, and he's maturing
physically and mentally, and he's got his head in the game.
And then the two the three tackles are ridiculous. I mean, uh,
if he Malachi and shy as a Pete look like
Bowie and Turpin together out there, there's six eight sixty pounds.
(35:15):
And and then on the other side, you know, you
got wolf Schlager and he's the guy that's played a
ton of football. So I'm real happy with that, and
they're happy with Abaselm and and the young guys. I mean,
the young guys are just monstrous. I can't believe the
size of these guys. But again, the youngsters have to learn.
But I think that you've got you know, you got them.
And Whibberley is the backup there at center, and I
(35:36):
you know, I think that they'd like to see him.
He's been really been eating and and and and killing
it in the weight room because he needs to get
a little bigger. I mean, you can't be ninety five
at center and only see just yeah, yeah, you just
get worn out. So they like to see him at
three five, three ten, and he's getting there. But you know,
(35:57):
I really think that uh, the off sid lines is
going to be a lot better. It's really going to
surprise some people.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Well, it's a tough schedule this year, Jeff, and it's
only going to get tougher after the news last week
that the SEC is going to nine conference games. Can
you imagine playing nine conference games back in your day?
And is it a pipe dream for Kentucky fans to
think that ten wins seasons are on the horizon anymore?
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think we only played
steven didn't we do? You're correct when I was when
I was there, we only played seven conference games.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Sam Newton opposed that.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Yeah, we never played Louisville. Yeah, yeah, and we never
played Louisville either. So but I think, look, guess what
Alabama has to play nine? Guess what LSU has to
play nine, Arkansas has to play nine, Missisis State has
to play nine. I think that's a crutch. And here's
what I say to that, billy when people say it,
(36:54):
I said, you know what, what is the number one
thing that every UK basketball fan and I can't say
the word I'd like to use, complains about with the
UK home basketball schedule?
Speaker 6 (37:06):
Why do we have to go see high point. Why
do we have to play you know, Sandford. Why can't
we play Kansas North Canada? Well they are this year, right,
So the football team's the same thing. You're not gonna
see these chumpy teams anymore. You're going to see Alabama
and you're going to see LSU, and you're going to
(37:27):
see Florida.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
In Oklahoma and Texas, I mean, that's that's just the
way it is. I mean, Texas goes off the h
goes off. The schedules this year, Oh you get Oklahoma, right, Okay, yeah,
So I mean I'm not a person that belly aches
about the schedule everybody has. Unless I'm talking about Indiana.
That guy's a jack rabbit up there. I cannot believe
(37:50):
that that guy has the guts to talk about schedules
with that pandy ass schedule that the Indiana has. I mean,
that's to schedule.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
That way, To schedule that way benefits It benefits his program,
There's no question about that. Because of the structure of
the playoffs. Fine, but don't sit there and talk about
come on, man, nobody's buying that stuff. Come on.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
But again, and here's there's one reason, Billy, and I'll
tell you this real quick. There's one reason it went
to nine, and it's the only reason. Because one of
the huge factors now in getting into the playoff is
going to be strength to schedules. They've added that in
and so you know, the schedule strength for every SEC
he goes through the roof when you add one more game.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, and because again because of the structure of the
playoff system, you know, that gives SEC teams one more
I mean, conceivably you could go in if you if
you make the playoff and win the sc championship game,
you've played ten power for or even eleven because you
got to outside of your conference, you got to play
(39:02):
a power for Yeah, so you could have what eleven?
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Yeah, I mean yeah, you know the other thing, Yeah,
it keeps that Clemson Gay for South Carolina, the Georgia
Tech for Georgia, and Louis for Kentucky. You know, yeah,
those are great, those are great games and great wins.
But the other thing it does is, Okay, let's say,
and I'll just use Alabama. Let's say Alabama goes nine
to three and their losses are to Texas, to Georgia
(39:27):
and LSU. That's right, they still make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
They can make the argument and that's all they want.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
That's yeah, that's that's the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Jeff Row, we will see you Saturday, if not before
looking forward to it. Have a good one, that is
Jeffcarol who makes a mean lasagna, and we'll come back
and wrap things up here in the state. Ye BBI.
Thanks again to Jeffikoro for joining us. And like Cole Park,
like Billy Rudlis, he can't wait to see this season begin.
But right about now everybody wants the players are tired
(39:56):
of it. It's a talking season for winding. Although football
did begin this past weekend, and Stoop's talked about this
on his show and at the news conference today. I
really think that injury the new rule about injury faking
injuries basically, and look, Kentucky did it, Everybody did it.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I think that is going to have a major impact.
Maybe not every week, but it had an impact on
that game. And I think we're going to see that
all year, don't you.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I mean it's it's kind of like what Stoop's talked about.
The problem comes in not with the rule. It's a
well intentioned rule, I guess you know it was. I
think everyone would tell you that it was a problem
how often people were faking injuries. There was that clip,
you know, the players saying go down, go down, we
need a time on this, or yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Like he was shot.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Yeah, but like Stoop said, there was there was an
incident where there was a genuine injury and a team
got charge of time out for it. And that it's
when you have that the way the rule is made,
there's going to be times where it doesn't work the
way it's intended.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
And he's right, it's all about the adrenaline a kid,
I'm good, Oopes, No, I'm not. Yeah, you know, and
the next thing you know, and he can't get off
the field.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You hear it all the time. I mean, I've got
family that works in hospitals. People have something just awful happen,
then get up and walk away from it thinking they're fine,
and then all of a sudden, it's not till like
an hour later you're like, wait a second, something's not
right here.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I will tell you this. When I was thirteen, I
got hit by a car and I jumped up me
and my buddy he got hit too. It's by a
yellow cab and he yells. He got knocked into a ditch.
I got the worst of it. I went up over it.
I jumped a little bit, but I jumped up. He
goes y okay. I said, yeah, I'm fine and took
a few steps and then I hit the ground. Said no,
(41:31):
I'm not. So that was the adrenaline, you know, so
I can relate a little bit. Same thing. Don't enough
to get hit by a car.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
Now.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I got hit by a car. You're ended. It was
fine for an hour, hour and a half and then
I'm like, man, my back hurts.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I remember I had two bulging discs. Oh man, and
took years of pet to make it better. So yeah,
that adrenaline can keep you going for at least a
little bit longer.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
I mean, I can't say that I've been hit by
a car personally, but I broke some of my fingers
and did some damage to my hand playing football. And
right after that happened, I kind of just got up,
was ready to go. Trainers up here, wiggling my thumbs around.
I was like, you know, it doesn't feel the best,
but I'm fine to keep going. Go get it X
ray and it's broken.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I got down.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
I'm like, oh, like, okay, well, maybe I'm not as
fun as I thought I was.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
But in the moment I was ready to get up
and just go.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
You know so, I really do believe that we're gonna
be talking about this all year, and you're gonna see
video clips and I've looked at all the rule changes,
but that's the one that jumped out. I can't think
of any others right now.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Can you nothing really to me that's dramatic? Yeah, nothing
really dramatic.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, So, Billy, you'll be here in the studio. Of course,
you're a network producer, where you'll have the game up
on the big screen as well.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
What will you be looking for when you have a
chance to look away from the controls keeping us on
the air and watching the wildcats and around.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
I'd just like to win this game. I'd like to cover,
which is I think it's close to seven right now,
but I'd like for them to cover comfortably. I feel
like these games have just become.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Remember today when we used to be able to see
what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Exactly? Like, well, especially for these first games, like now,
if you've you think you've taken that step, you should
to max school I know it's Toledo, but I'm tired
of talking about Toledo as a team that could upset Kentucky.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
I am.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
I don't know if there's any credence to what I'm
saying here, but I would just like for it to
be the fourth quarter and it not be a one
possession game.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Did they open at two touchdowns? Almost two?
Speaker 4 (43:14):
It's gone down.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
It's dropping considerably, hasn't it.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
Yeah, but you know, we're gonna need to see a
sense of urgency.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
For So you're looking at point spread, what are you
looking at?
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yes, I'm just looking at I kind of agree. I
want to see a convincing win. The thing that's going
to make me feel the best about this Kentucky teams.
If I'm going in expecting it to be kind of
a dogfight against a really good school and they just
come out and win comfortably, that's going to make me
change a lot of how I feel about this team,
especially with ole Miss coming to Lexton week two. Yeah,
you know, you don't want to look too far ahead,
but I need to see a comfortable win for Kentucky
(43:43):
against Ale Well.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I'm gonna be down in the field and I'm going
to study what's going on in the trenches and as
always that's where it's decided, but I want to see
how it's decided in the trenches. Thanks so much for
joining us, Thanks to Cole Park, Thanks to Billy Rutledge
and Jeff Pecorro and bol Robinson sitting highly by airness
to here. You look great. That's a good night from Lexington.
Welcome everybody. You heard the initial Mark Stoops Show of
the Year, the first BBN radio show the year, and
now the first state wide Big Blue Insider of the Year.
We're going to talk, of course about the Wildcats and
those Toledo Rockets. Cole Park of the Cat's Pause is
in the studio with us along with Billy Rutledge, be
a part of the state wide BBI from Pikeville to Paduca.
It is the Big Blue Insider Dick Gabriell in studio
(00:21):
with Billy Ruttledge Cole Park who has stepped in for
Aaron Gershawn. Aaron is off to another job down in
Sunny Florida, so now Cole is the staff writer on
the UK Beat. Welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
First of all, thanks for having me excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You have covered a lot of press conferences, You've talked
to a lot of players, You've been at the Mark
Stoops newsers. What kind of vibe are you getting for
the upcoming season? And by the way, Cole, not too
long out of school, but you've been covering Kentucky football
now for four or five years, right.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, about five years.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I covered Kentucky at the highest level at the colonel
since I was a freshman, you know, kind of got
lucky there with how it's how it worked out. So
I've been covered the big sports at Kentucky for four
years of college and now a year removed from college.
So I've been doing this for a little while now,
and it's tough to say what the what the vibe
is right now, I guess because in the in the program,
I feel like they're being pretty tight lipped about things,
(01:12):
you know, just expressing confidence, a lot of coach speak
from a lot of the players, a lot of coach
speak from the coaches, a lot of you know, we
know what the goal is, let's go do it. You
ask the fan base, they're not as optimistic right now.
You know, We've seen quite a bit of that and
a lot of people both in my comments on social
media and comments on my stories as well, but just
out and about I feel like it's it's kind of
(01:33):
a dichotomy there with the program kind of saying, you know,
we feel confident, we know what we need to do,
we were ready for this to be better season, versus
everyone else kind of being like, yeah, I'll believe it
when I see it, let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
That's win some games.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh yeah, fill with fans. It's all recency biased, right
right always, you know, And we've talked about this at
nauseum here, billion and nine and a lot of other
people about the fact that, you know, Stoops raise the floor.
I mean, last two years prior, seven wins wasn't good
enough because there were games that got away. And you know, again,
back when I was covering UK football for the Colonel,
(02:05):
they were winning big under Cursy and then they got
droll Budy and say, hey, and we all know what's
happened since then, but Stoops kind of spoiled us, didn't.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
He Yeah, I mean it got to a point where
the college football playoffs was a genuine thing people were
talking about before the season, and now it's not quite
that right now. But yeah, I mean, like you said,
for a long time, it was kind of like can
you win, can you go to a bowl game? It
was kind of the barometer for how good a team was.
And now, you know, even these last few years, you've
heard people say, well, six seven wins, that's not good enough.
(02:35):
We should be better than that. You know, Stoops gave
you quote unquote two ten win seasons. You know, the
NCAA might disagree on that now, but two ten win
seasons and in real time, and you know, there was
some real expectations after that second ten win season that
doesn't exist anymore in the record books, with Levis coming
back and people saying, hey, could they could they go
(02:55):
to Atlanta? You know, could they could they go to
the championship? And then that ended up being seven and five.
I've now last year was four and eight, and we're
at a completely different place right now.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
One of those people who believes that seven wins aren't
good enough is mister Billy Rutland.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
Are we there?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Are we there?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
At?
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Seven wins? Isn't good enough?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You know what? This year? Let me I'll put it
to you. With the schedule they're playing, yeah, and fifty
new faces coming off that four and eight season, how
would you feel about seven wins? Dick?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I think this team could be a lot better than
last year and probably have the same record or even worse.
I mean, I mean just the way that this schedule
works out. I think it's really tough for Kentucky. I mean,
they've got some really tough games at home, yep, a
place where they haven't been able to win SEC games
for the past two years already, So you know, even
when the games like Vanderbilt, you still got Diego Pavia
(03:47):
there somehow through all his waifers and whatnot. So look,
it's about that time of the year where we all
start to buy in and get optimistic. But you know,
Cole hit on a lot of key things. I think
the key one was I'll believe it when I see it.
And you know, we've talked a lot about culture change
in Kentucky football a lot rightly, And you can change
your culture pretty quickly when you've got fifty new people.
(04:08):
But you know, can they return to the big Blue
Walk and Bush Hampden's comments from the luncheon that this
will be one of the great offensive lines in Kentucky, which,
by the way, race to my eyebrows. Yeah, it needs
to be for Kentucky to be able to make a
Bowl this year.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, when you go back and look at Stoops's best teams,
they were teams that had balanced but they had the
one thing in common was they had and they weren't
all the same guys. There was you know, the Big
Blue Wall started when Stenberg was young, and you know
there was turnover but they just John Schlarman was crafting
that O line and building depth and then the next thing,
(04:47):
you know, was like where did it go? And you
can talk all you want about coordinators and quarterbacks and
this and that, but to me, all their problems started
with O line issues, you know, over the last three years.
And that's got to change this year or it's gonna
be a long season, or it'll be when's basketball start.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Well, there's a lot of excitement there, so that the
tune could shift pretty quickly. But I mean, Shias pete Man,
he's become the story of the off season for Kentucky.
He is such a likable guy. Yeah, and as different
kind of guy, Yeah, for sure. I mean somebody that
you'd play for, you know, I don't know, you know,
maybe you see that guy in the locker room and
you play a little harder because it's just the way
that he talks and the way that he acts. But look,
(05:29):
that's that's gonna be the storyline.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I think this year.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
It's not going to be you know, Vince Marrow not
being here is a tight end ever going to catch
a pass or That's not gonna be the storyline this year.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
It's gonna be what is thellary storyline? Yeah, you know,
because it always is. But no, you're right. I don't
know about you, Cole, but you know, and I played
offensive lineman for like a minute in high school. But
I always enjoy talking to alignment because to me, it's
the thinking man's position quarterback. Yes, I get that, but
it just seems like nine times out of ten you
(06:00):
get a good interview from an old alignment, and I
don't think that's been uh an exception this year. I
think we've seen a lot of that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I mean I think you talk about it being the
thinking man's position. I also think that there's a lot
of a lot of common man in the in the
offensive lineman. You know, a lot of times when I played,
I was on the line at the start of my career,
moved over to tight end at the end of my career, but.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Not very just like here.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, but you know, we always talked about those skill
players and how flashy they were and how the old
lineman never gets credit.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
So it kind of had more of that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Like you said, I fel like they give you a
lot of good interviews, and I feel like when you
go into an interview with an offensive lineman, you can
almost expect a level of candid that you can't with
certain other players. You know, a lot of those guys
who are used to the limelighter, the spotlight, and used
to being in the in the media, those wide receiver stars,
those quarterbacks, they're gonna kind of say that those media
training talking points. But sometimes the offensive lineman, they'll they'll
(06:56):
give you yeah, sometimes they'll sometimes they'll give you some
good answers. Sometimes they'll spend fifteen minutes talking about a
board game of risks.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
So we've seen that.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
This awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It was interesting, it was different, it.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Was different, it was enjoyable, and it felt very genuine
when he was telling it. So I've always enjoyed interviewing
offensive linemen and interesting. It's always interesting to see what
they have to say so you.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Can relate to them. Yes, as well, But you're referring
to Josh Braun when you stood up and I thought,
really that was that was interesting in a kind of
a sidebar kind of way. Risk. But when he talked
about and I don't remember exactly the question might have
been yours. When he talked about the players who are
here for one year, and whoever asked a question, And Billy,
(07:37):
I don't know if you've got to hear this via
the video links or whatever, but somebody asked a question,
and you can help me with his coal basically wondering
about guys who drop in for one year? Am I
framing that the right way? You know? How devoted could
they I'm paraphrasing, how devoted could they be when they're
only here for a year?
Speaker 5 (07:56):
Right?
Speaker 6 (07:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I mean they were asking him one in terms of
a tear connection in chemistry aspect, but two in terms
of a devoted to winning for Kentucky. You know, when
you're when you're kind of like getting off a plane
here for one year, then you're back somewhere else, whether
that's what you're doing, Yeah, whether that's going pro or
going to different school. It's kind of like, well, how
committed can you really be to Kentucky and how close
can you really get to your teammates when you're that
(08:18):
kind of player. So that was kind of a lot
of what he was asked about there, And I think
it's been an interesting thing we've heard this offseason from
a lot of the players. You know, he said already
he feels pretty close to this offensive line in ways
that you know. I watched him on the The SEC
Football Show on Netflix and he had said that Arkansas
was one of the closest he'd ever felt to one
of his offensive lines, and now he's said he's pretty
(08:38):
close to this one. And talking to Cam Olds outside
linebacker last week, he said, I feel like I've known
these guys for five years and I've been here for
less than a year. So something might be working in
terms of that team chemistry, that team culture aspect, but
you know, we'll see how it translates to on the field.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
The amazing billy he mentioned was that because they show
Kentucky they had one year left, right, and they chose Kentucky. Therefore,
he feels like there's even more motivation. You know, I
could have gone anywhere, and I chose Kentucky, So I'm
(09:14):
going to give it everything I got. They're not just
here picking up a paycheck, at least that's what he
was saying. You know, I can't. I would imagine there
may be one or two and they're like, where could
I get the most you know, let me stay healthy
and get you know, to the draft.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, I think that's just college sports nowadays, no doubts.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
But actually I did appreciate what he said. He was
very cole, He was very passionate about that, very direct.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Well, yeah, you might look at it as like a
basketball one and done where they just don't spend a
lot of time here, So how could they really embrace
the culture. But it seems like that amplifies it, especially
if they're in their last year. You know, that's the
last shot. You know, this year, you can't have offensive
linemen at the concession stand while the game is going on.
(09:58):
These are just the little things. I don't think we're
asking for too much.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Forgot about that.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
It is an ugly ending.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah. Yeah, and the good news there was he wasn't
in uniform. It was right, it was sidelined. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Now, I pulled up the quote here for you from right.
I found it in my audio logs. You know, he said,
you say the players don't care about the university. I
think they care about the university even more because they're saying,
this is where I choose to be, this is where
I want to represent, And because of that, they carry
themselves in a different manner. I mean, you see guys
treating their body as their business now, And because of that,
I can see people in the training room getting treatment
(10:32):
every day that I have than I have in the
past of my career ever. And I see people taking
nutritious nutrition seriously, the weight room more serious, all of that. So,
like he touched on there, he said, uh, you know,
he feels like, whether you agree or not, he said,
he feels like the modern era of college football has
made people care more about the school they play for
because it is their business and their livelihood.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
Professional sports they do a lot of the same thing, right,
making tracking your nutrition, you know, making sure you're getting
them out of the time that you're spending, because this
is a business. This is not just for a college
education anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So let's face it has been a business for a
long time.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
It has. But now we're sitting more out loud, right, yeah,
and now we're negotiating the deals in plain sight than
we are maybe behind the tables. All these true other things,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Toledo coming up. I've been banging this drum on my
show locally. You probably have his Willbilly and yours and Nicole,
I'm sure you've written about it. And boy, Marks troops
didn't let you forget it, nor should he that MAC
teams are good teams. They're full of kids who either
were overlooked by Power conference schools or kids who believe
they should be playing at a higher level, and they're
(11:41):
not afraid to come in and try to prove it.
They've come into Lexington and either beat in Kentucky or
giving Kentucky everything at once. And I expect that Saturday,
especially from a team that's picked to win the MAC.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, I mean, Toledo's a very strong squad. They're they're
you know, favorited to win that conference, which depending on
how the dominoes falls, see them even in the playoffs
if things work out the right way.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
But I think something that Stoops has talked about, Brad
White talked about it.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
What's special about Toledo is even in a conference like
the MAC, they have a shocking amount of continuity on
that roster. They're able to kind of keep players more
than other schools in that conference are. And Kentucky's got
several guys in their roster this year who came from
the MAC. You know, we talked to a couple last week,
both with cam Olds, you know, Alex Wolschluger on the
offensive line. But Toledo has been able to keep a
(12:26):
lot of their players for a lot longer than some
of the other teams have, and they're a very strong squad.
They've been pretty consistently good for years and years and years.
You know, Jason Kendell has done a great job there.
And I think that Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Should win on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
But it's definitely going to be a bit of a
scary one and it's a tough way to start a
really tough schedule.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yeah, that's right. And speaking of continuity, that's a team
that I believe beat Mississippi State last year, Pittsburgh and
Pittsburgh in like four overtimes, six overtimes in the ball game.
I remember that vaguely, So I mean it's a I
think it's a good test, and to a degree, I
think that's what you want. You want to be able
to test your guys and see where you're at before
(13:07):
you take on a really tough schedule. Not too much, though, Dick,
you got you gotta win the game. You gotta win
the game, and notot drop Toledo. We won after you
lose your associate head coach and you give your offensive
line coach a raise, and you go out there and
you resell the same thing you've been doing the last
few years, and you try to package it up in
something new. It's got to be different or the fan
(13:29):
base is not going to show up.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Or if not different, you got to get back to
what was successful, and that was grinded out. And yes,
you know, and I'm really really intrigued by these running backs.
And you know, Cole got to go to some practices
as I did. We didn't get to see him, did we.
We saw down Ll a little bit in the spring.
You looked pretty good, but that's the spring. You know.
I want to see these guys. And I keep hearing
(13:51):
both of these guys have NFL potential, is what I hear? Well,
I mean, you know you can say that about just
about anybody. But you know, one is fast and quick,
the other is powerful. And will they have any room
to run?
Speaker 5 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean that's the big question, right, you know? I
think was it Stoops that talked about that with the
running back room? He said, really and truly, like you know,
we can have good running backs, but it starts with
the offensive line.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It starts up front.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It starts with how we do things, like because if
you can have a great running back, but if there's
not holes to run through, what are they going to
do with it?
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You know?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And like you said, we really haven't got to see
a whole lot of them. A lot most I saw
it of Seth was his lovely walking booth that he
was in, yes, a week or so ago.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Kind of slip bias, but we all saw it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
We all saw it. Yeah, you know, we were all
paying attention.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Just brought it up.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He did, he did.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
He kind of clarified that it was nothing serious, that
they're ready to go. I mean, he was on the
depth chart with the or designation alongside Daudell there, so
it'll be interesting to see. But in terms of off
season running back stuff, it feels like all we've really
been able to write is Jamari and Wilcox and Jason Patterson,
and they've had a lot of good stuff coming out
about them, but neither of them's on the depth chart
right now. So what have we really been doing with
the running back room?
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Well, they're the three four yes right naturally and Chip
got hurt all last year. Yeah, now he's on Toledo.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, and they put all of their big blue eggs
in that one basket would train them and prior to
last year, what do we hear ship train them? You
know Ohio State, although mister Pecorol very quietly said, well,
he didn't play a whole lot at Ohio State, so
we'll see what he does at Kentucky. Now we never
had a chance to see him.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
You know, he's got to score four touchdowns Saturday.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Well, and that brings me to how the Rockets run
the ball against the Kentucky D line. We'll talk about
that on the other side of the break, because one
of the most interesting twists of this summer camp, if
you will, I think, is one of the transfers on
the D line. We'll talk about that on the other
side of the break. Speaking of mister Pecorrel, he allegedly
(15:46):
will join us at the bottom of the hour if
he's answering his phone. We know how that goes. We
I texted him prior to the show to remind him
to keep his phone on and he said, why do
you won my Lasagnia recipe? So, Jeff, I've already got
a good Lazangni recipe. But answer, You're fine anyway. We'll
come back and talk more Kentucky football in the state
wide BBI Welcome back Bike for the Paduca. It is
(16:06):
the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel, Billy Rutligion Studio. I'm
a Cole Park from the Cat's pause going into the break,
I mentioned and Cole brought it up with Also Billy
and Cole Boat brought up the fact that Chip Trainum's
running the football now for Toledo comes to Toledo from
Ohio State by way of Lexingon, although he barely played here.
(16:27):
But Cole, I've been really intrigued by David Gusta, the
kid from Washington State, trying to fight with Khalil Saunders
for the starting job in the middle. And Billy, I
don't know if you got wind of this, but we
kept hearing about the fact that Gusta benched the two
twenty five bench thirty eight reps. How many guys mentioned
(16:50):
that to you, Cole, because almost everybody on both sides
of the ball after it happened mention that to me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I think every defensive lineman I spoke to mention that too.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I mean, that's legendary. And Pcoro at one point he goes.
I did four, so now and for a while our
Gusta was running one and now he's backing up Sonder.
They'll both play, but I want to see how well
those guys jam up the middle, you know, and allow
other guys to make plays.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah, I mean the depth chart that they brought out
today has Saunders starting at the tackle and Gusta starting
at the nose with Haze behind him. But I'll be
interested to see how that line. I was a bit
surprised not to see Jane Williams anywhere on the defensive
line depth chart, but there's a lot of good players
on that on that depth chart. With Tavion Gadson backing
up Khalil Saunders, I'm very excited to see Khalil Saunders
(17:39):
this season. That's one, you know, who I was high
on last year and I'm expecting.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Him to do big things.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
But Gusta, I thought one of the most interesting things
to me about Gusta so far, coming from Washington State,
you know, he told us pretty candid after that second scrimmage.
He's like, I feel like this is the first week
that I've felt like I'm able to breathe half the
time here.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
He said, the humidity down here is no jokes, but
it was.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Like trying to breathe through a.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Yeah, he said, I've been up there in Pullman, up
in Washington State. He said, it's nothing like this. He
said it gets hot sometimes, but not like this. Not
the humidity. He said, by the time we get into
our first game, sometimes it's cold outside. So he's had
to adjust to that and seems like he's starting to
get the hang of it, because they seem to be
very high on him and very high on.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
What he can do at Kentucky.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Was he the one that saw cicadas and thought they
were like demons?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Or was that a different didn't hear that one?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Okay, a bit different guy. Well, I mean when they
come out with eighteen years, I mean, you'd be befuddled
if you weren't around for the first one. But I
have a question for you, Dick, what do you think
happened with dian Walker last year? Like this is a
guy that's could have some success at the NFL level
with the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, but seemingly played himself out
of the first round last year. Do you think that
(18:45):
was a personal nothing of him or.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Towards the end of the year, we kept hearing that
he had a back injury, and in fact he missed
a game, remember hm, and watching him on the field,
I mean I would watch him kind of just you know,
straightening up, and you know, I mean, I've had back problems.
Who hasn't, And I can't imagine playing SEC defensive line
And you can write it off as an excuse. I
(19:08):
do not, just having watched him, you know. And plus
there he didn't have a whole lot of help around him,
so now they could double team him and if he
was in pain. We got to see what he looked
like when he was healthy, starting with that huge hit
at Florida when he was a freshman remember that. Yeah, Yeah,
And yeah last year, I don't think he was right
(19:29):
beyond the first or second game, do you remember.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
No. I mean I feel like he just he never
looked like himself out there. It kind of felt like
he was respectfully a non factor a lot of that season,
that he wasn't the kind of guy that offenses would
have to plan around. They could just be like, Okay,
well just if we go that way, we go that way,
not as worried about it, And like you said, I
think after pretty early on, he never really seemed like himself.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He never really seemed like the Dean.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Walker we all expected him to be with that kind
of that praise, that that NFL first round potential going
into the season, we just never really got to see that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
He wasn't the wrecking crew that you kind of expected
them to beat at all. And one of the great
lessons that I learned in watching a dominant d lineman
came back Mummy Morris around that end when Dwayne Robertson
was playing, and he was the best. I'll put it
this way. He wasn't the defensive player of the year
(20:24):
in the SEC, but he was the first defensive player
from the SEC drafted. I think he went forth to
the New York Jets and his job was to command
double teams, and the Jets knew this, I mean, and
I went back and looked at the stats and they
were similar to what he had at Kentucky. He might have,
you know, three tackles and an assist or something, but
(20:44):
team spent so much time double teaming him that that
freed up the people around them to make plays. And
that's what I expected from Dion last year, and he
just wasn't getting it done. Well.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
I wish him the best. It's been fun watching hard knocks.
See isn't it ray and feel terrible? Yeah, it was
David Gusta that doesn't like cicadas. He didn't call him demons.
He did cuss twice when talking about them for the media.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So that must have been a session where obviously I
wasn't around. I didn't hear that one, did you that?
What I did hear was that he met I don't know.
I can't remember if he's married or steady girlfriend or whatever. Okay,
he's married, took his wife to Dominos. Well, they met
and he met her online. He saw her in you know,
student directory or something online and and just reached after
(21:32):
and said, hey, I'm so and so and i'd like
to meet you. So she agreed, I guess checked him
out and they met in a safe place, the Domino's
parking lot near campus. And so now when they celebrate
an anniversary they go to Dominoes. Not bad, right, not bad?
And the thing is Dominoes would come to them, they
do deliver.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
So anyway, it's not easy dating this this day and age. Dick,
he got lucky.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, I'm sure with the ni al, he's got a
little bit of money, but I hope he's putting it
away as a married man, I'm hoping he's putting it away.
When we come back, Jeff picorl will join us. I'm
sure he'll want to talk about wide receivers. But that's
good because I think that's an interesting element on this team.
I think, you know, when you lose a Dane Key,
when you lose a Berry and Brown, that's tough to replicate.
(22:18):
But on the other hand, now we get to see
Kendrick Law and some other guys, and those guys underachieved
a little bit last year, probably Brown more than Daned.
I keep looking back in that Old Miss game, the
Dane head his best game as a Wildcat. But we'll
talk about that as well on the other side of
the break, because for two weeks, the Georgia game, the
Old Miss Game, Kentucky played as well as any team
(22:39):
in the country and then fell off the cliff. So
all right, we'll come back with more Kentucky football chatter
with Cole Park and Billy Rutley's You're on the state
wide BBI order to order it is the Big Blue
Insider Dick Gabriel Cole Park at the Cat's pause. Billy
(23:01):
Rutledge join now in the celebrity hodline by mister Jeff
Picoro of the UK Radio Network, And as I mentioned,
Jeff's probably gonna want to talk about wide receivers his position. Jeff,
We've been talking a lot about line play. But let's
say that the line blocks well enough in the run
game to allow them to throw the ball and protect
(23:22):
Zach Calzada. What do you foresee from that receiver's room.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
I think it'll be just fine. I mean, you don't
have that standout guy, you know, the the clear cut
number one like dang Key was a year ago. But
you've got a lot of guys who are really good.
I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know if
they're all Americans, but yeah, they got they got a
bunch of guys. They're deep. They have you know, six
(23:50):
seven guys who wouldn't bother me one bit. You know
who gets the ball? Of those guys, they got some speed,
they got size, and they have diminutive guys who can
absolutely fly. You know, Uh, Montavian Cuisonberry had a great
fall camp and I just made plays and you know,
(24:13):
I I think they're gonna be just fun.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
One of your favorite expressions is and you didn't create this,
but but you know you've you've referred to it. A
receiver can take the top off the defense. Explain to
people what you mean and who can do that in
this group?
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Well, if if you remember Juice Johnson a couple of years,
oh yo, guys like that. Barryon Brown's one of those
guys that have fantastic speeds. So what that means is
you're you're stretching the defense. You have safeties, and if
they play too deep, you're stretching those safeties. So you're
(24:51):
taking the top off and that opens up the under
under routes for tight ends and running backs and things
like that. So that's that, that's what taking the top
off means. And if it's a single safety, is a
single high safety or something, you know, you just run
right by him, and that means taking the top off.
It opens things up underneath, and it also opens the
(25:12):
deep game up. And both both quarterbacks so great deep balls.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, I mean, you talk about these wide receivers that
can elevate the game. We heard all through UH all
through fall camp that there was eight guys who could
potentially be in that conversation, and you know, maybe when
you're in the media, you take that with a grain
of salt and the depth chart comes out and there's
nine guys on it at wide receiver. So they weren't kidding. Yeah,
a whole bunch of ores. Every single wide receiver position
(25:39):
has an ore on it. So what do you you
know in terms of what we're going to see from
these guys.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
I think that what the reason they had that ore
is because in all seriousness packages for instance, uh, Silato
for instance, a great possession guy for for people a
little bit older, maybe the Brian Brent and types. The
uh uh the the guy that played for the Patriots.
I'm losing my mind. I can't think of his name. Uh, yes, Edelman,
(26:09):
that's the type of receiver. Yes see, well, Steve Largin
had some decent speed and he was on the outside.
But I'm talking about a guy that goes over the
middle and gotten short passes. A third down receiver. Uh
you know, yeah, yes, yeah, a guy like the Uni
is perfect. Yes, who's who's not a speed you know,
doesn't have four to three speed, but great hands. Uh.
(26:31):
And they've got you know they've got some size there.
Uh you know, they got speed out there, so I
you know, I don't think it. But but what I
was getting at is they'll have packages for the different
different guys and they're gonna be running a bunch of
deep routes because what you're trying to do when you
run the football is you you just take off and
so those safety so when the safety start cheating up
(26:52):
and when you go buy them, so you make them
try to cover you down the field. Act you know,
there's gonna be a lot of play action asses and
draws and stuff. But uh, you know, I think they're
they're deep there and deep it deep deep deep at
tight end. I think they're going to utilize the tight end.
Dick and I made this every year, guy, this might
(27:13):
be the year for the tight end.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Baby. Carl's laughing at that too, because in high school
he was a tight end.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So yes, so my senior year, uh, Jeff Washington State
defensive lineman David Gusta apparently benched two twenty five thirty
eight times over the offseason. How many times did you
bench to twenty five?
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I did that in about three weeks.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Three weeks.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah, it's like running the marathon in stages.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, No. On pro day, what they do is
they set the bar two hundred and twenty five pounds.
You sit there and you do it as many times
as you can. And I think I did four or five,
but I was one hundred and seventy one pounds.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, well, head, that's four or five more than me, Jeff,
So I'll give you that. But that's guy. That guy's
an exciting addition, though, isn't.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
He Yeah, yes, yes he is. He's a He reminds
me a little and Dick's gonna have to help me
here because I I my memory is not like some
of these people that I taught you. Member. Yeah, But
the defensive lineman that the Jets took in the first round,
(28:22):
Dwayne Robertson, he has real good takeoff speed, meaning come
out of his his four point stance. He's a load,
you know, he's over three hundred pounds, but he's got
he's got he's got good hands, meaning he'd get him
on the the the lineman real quick. The offensive lineman, uh,
he's you know, I think he's just going to be
(28:43):
a really nice but Grace is going to be a
really nice addition to you keep talking about that line.
You know, you've got healthy guys. Josiah Hayes is back
and he's healthy, gats and is really growing now because member,
he couldn't really lift weights that much last year because
of the injury, and now he's you know, now he's
filling out that body and he's getting big. I mean,
(29:03):
they're just there's some huge guys out there. When you
stand next to him, you're like, my god, crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Jeffer Coorrol from the UK network joining us here on
the State YBBI, and you know what, jeffro I may
have buried the lead with you because as a member
of the network, you and Tom Leech, you you get
to go to these scrimmages that the rest of the
media do not. And you've been to several practices and
I'm wondering, of course you can't report on that for
the local TV station here. Uh, you know, you kind
(29:32):
of have to keep that stuff off the record. But
in general, what has been it's and this is a
term call we got to come up with another word,
but the vibe, the feeling, what is it? What does
it feel like around Kentucky football now? Around those practices
and basically what you've seen.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
I could tell you, but I have to kill you.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Well that's true. You know you gotta catch that.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
I'll tell you the one thing, And I don't think
he'd be upset with me saying this. Mark Stoops has
gotten into this group more than anyone in the last
I mean even the ten wing teams. He is really
coaching his butt off and he has not taken anything
from the anxiety and one practice he almost stopped it
(30:16):
and pulled them together and said, I will start this
scrimmage or this practice all over again from period one.
And what they're getting at is this. And Bush has
said this to the players too when they come together.
He says, look, you guys just want to be okay,
you know, if you just want to be okay players
and keep practicing the way you're practicing, and we can
(30:37):
go out there and we'll win four or five games
and we'll be just okay. But if you want to
take the next step, if you want to get to
the level that Tennessee is, and you want to get
to the level that Georgie is, and you want to
get to the level of Alabama is, you've got to
improve every single day you have to give it one
hundred and one percent, not one hundred, not ninety eight,
one hundred and one. You have to exert yourself. The
(31:00):
one thing that I really love that coach Sanders said
at Colorado as he said what did you do today
to get better? It could be anything you could do
one more lift. He could do thirty nine lifts at
the bench press that you guys are just talking about, right,
I could do one more rep, you know with the
quarterback and make it catch. What did you do to
(31:21):
get better? And that's kind of the way they're pushing
these guys. And if you've noticed, and Dick I think
has been around it enough to notice, is too. This
is an older football team. All the guys that they
brought in are guys that are fifth and sixth year guys,
seventh year guy at your quarterback spot. And these guys
are a little bit more leadership roles. Josh Braun is
(31:42):
a leader. If he's a leader, Goosta that we talked
about Grace, those guys are all leaders that are coming
in here, and that's what you need. They're pushing each other.
It's not always the coaches having to gripe and complain
to the guys. Now, the players are buying in and
they're pushing each other, and that is what makes a
great team, Jeff.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
It was announced today that Zach Calzada would be the
starting quarterback for Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
One.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Have you been encouraged by what you've seen from him?
In two? What is it that he needs to do
better that Devin Leary and Brock Vandergriff maybe weren't able
to do in their year?
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Stay healthy? Yeah, simple as you know, in all seriousness. Yeah,
But in all seriousness, I think he just has to
manage the game. He has a tendency to try to
do too much, and I call it the Brett farre syndrome.
Farvar was one of those guys he didn't care if
he had twenty five interceptions in a season because he
had fifty touchdowns. You know, that's not the way you
(32:39):
win in college football. He has to be able to
take what the defense gives him. Second down and ten
is better than first and ten going the other way.
Throw the ball away, ditch it, run the ball and
slide down. Game three yards, live to play the next
play is kind of what they're preaching to him. Because
he's got a cannon for an arm and if a
guy has got you know, sentilla of an opening, he
(33:01):
thinks he can put that ball right on the money.
Can't do that if you know, you don't push it
against SEC defensive backs. That's what in who sets boldly
had to learn. Dick. Remember the very first patch he threw.
What happened?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Yep?
Speaker 5 (33:15):
As they broke hut, I told tomp Oh because I
saw the defense of what they were going to do,
and he ran the out pattern and as soon as
he reached back, I said, no, you did, man. It
ends up being a fifty yard you know, interception returns
and touchdown you can't. The defense will bait you into things.
And when they run a four to three or four
four forty, not a whole lot you can do when
(33:36):
you release that football on a twenty yard pass. So
take what they give you, don't try to force things,
and I think the running game is gonna be much better.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, Jeff, you know you talk about what the quarterbacks
could be, a big part of that isn't even on
their shoulders necessarily. It's on the offensive line and the
way that they keep them protected. We heard from Mark
Stoops today. He said that he feels like there's eight
guys that they can really rely on in that Kentucky
in ten to try to use those eight guys not
just lean on their starting five. What have you kind
of seen from that group and what are you expecting
them to be in terms of living up to that
(34:06):
big blue wall mantle.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
Well, I'll start with the guy in the middle, because
he's the one that's that's key to the whole thing,
and that's Jagger Burton. And Jagger is a lot more
confident because I think he's a lot more comfortable now.
I mean he's been here five years and he was
kind of bally hued coming in as you know, want
to be the next great offensive lineman and things just
(34:28):
haven't really worked out for him. But I think he's
done a really nice job so far. And again it's
against underwear and it's against you know, your same team.
We'll see Saturday, but I think it starts with him.
You've got two monsters on each side of him. I mean,
Braun is three hundred and fifty pounds and Farmers has
(34:49):
just looks great. I mean, he's redone his body, he's
he's basically what's happening is he's maturing, and he's maturing
physically and mentally, and he's got his head in the game.
And then the two the three tackles are ridiculous. I mean, uh,
if he Malachi and shy as a Pete look like
Bowie and Turpin together out there, there's six eight sixty pounds.
(35:15):
And and then on the other side, you know, you
got wolf Schlager and he's the guy that's played a
ton of football. So I'm real happy with that, and
they're happy with Abaselm and and the young guys. I mean,
the young guys are just monstrous. I can't believe the
size of these guys. But again, the youngsters have to learn.
But I think that you've got you know, you got them.
And Whibberley is the backup there at center, and I
(35:36):
you know, I think that they'd like to see him.
He's been really been eating and and and and killing
it in the weight room because he needs to get
a little bigger. I mean, you can't be ninety five
at center and only see just yeah, yeah, you just
get worn out. So they like to see him at
three five, three ten, and he's getting there. But you know,
(35:57):
I really think that uh, the off sid lines is
going to be a lot better. It's really going to
surprise some people.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Well, it's a tough schedule this year, Jeff, and it's
only going to get tougher after the news last week
that the SEC is going to nine conference games. Can
you imagine playing nine conference games back in your day?
And is it a pipe dream for Kentucky fans to
think that ten wins seasons are on the horizon anymore?
Speaker 5 (36:23):
Well, if I'm not mistaken, I think we only played
steven didn't we do? You're correct when I was when
I was there, we only played seven conference games.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Sam Newton opposed that.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
Yeah, we never played Louisville. Yeah, yeah, and we never
played Louisville either. So but I think, look, guess what
Alabama has to play nine? Guess what LSU has to
play nine, Arkansas has to play nine, Missisis State has
to play nine. I think that's a crutch. And here's
what I say to that, billy when people say it,
(36:54):
I said, you know what, what is the number one
thing that every UK basketball fan and I can't say
the word I'd like to use, complains about with the
UK home basketball schedule?
Speaker 6 (37:06):
Why do we have to go see high point. Why
do we have to play you know, Sandford. Why can't
we play Kansas North Canada? Well they are this year, right,
So the football team's the same thing. You're not gonna
see these chumpy teams anymore. You're going to see Alabama
and you're going to see LSU, and you're going to
(37:27):
see Florida.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
In Oklahoma and Texas, I mean, that's that's just the
way it is. I mean, Texas goes off the h
goes off. The schedules this year, Oh you get Oklahoma, right, Okay, yeah,
So I mean I'm not a person that belly aches
about the schedule everybody has. Unless I'm talking about Indiana.
That guy's a jack rabbit up there. I cannot believe
(37:50):
that that guy has the guts to talk about schedules
with that pandy ass schedule that the Indiana has. I mean,
that's to schedule.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
That way, To schedule that way benefits It benefits his program,
There's no question about that. Because of the structure of
the playoffs. Fine, but don't sit there and talk about
come on, man, nobody's buying that stuff. Come on.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
But again, and here's there's one reason, Billy, and I'll
tell you this real quick. There's one reason it went
to nine, and it's the only reason. Because one of
the huge factors now in getting into the playoff is
going to be strength to schedules. They've added that in
and so you know, the schedule strength for every SEC
he goes through the roof when you add one more game.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Yeah, and because again because of the structure of the
playoff system, you know, that gives SEC teams one more
I mean, conceivably you could go in if you if
you make the playoff and win the sc championship game,
you've played ten power for or even eleven because you
got to outside of your conference, you got to play
(39:02):
a power for Yeah, so you could have what eleven?
Speaker 5 (39:05):
Yeah, I mean yeah, you know the other thing, Yeah,
it keeps that Clemson Gay for South Carolina, the Georgia
Tech for Georgia, and Louis for Kentucky. You know, yeah,
those are great, those are great games and great wins.
But the other thing it does is, Okay, let's say,
and I'll just use Alabama. Let's say Alabama goes nine
to three and their losses are to Texas, to Georgia
(39:27):
and LSU. That's right, they still make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
They can make the argument and that's all they want.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
That's yeah, that's that's the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Jeff Row, we will see you Saturday, if not before
looking forward to it. Have a good one, that is
Jeffcarol who makes a mean lasagna, and we'll come back
and wrap things up here in the state. Ye BBI.
Thanks again to Jeffikoro for joining us. And like Cole Park,
like Billy Rudlis, he can't wait to see this season begin.
But right about now everybody wants the players are tired
(39:56):
of it. It's a talking season for winding. Although football
did begin this past weekend, and Stoop's talked about this
on his show and at the news conference today. I
really think that injury the new rule about injury faking
injuries basically, and look, Kentucky did it, Everybody did it.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
I think that is going to have a major impact.
Maybe not every week, but it had an impact on
that game. And I think we're going to see that
all year, don't you.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
I mean it's it's kind of like what Stoop's talked about.
The problem comes in not with the rule. It's a
well intentioned rule, I guess you know it was. I
think everyone would tell you that it was a problem
how often people were faking injuries. There was that clip,
you know, the players saying go down, go down, we
need a time on this, or yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Like he was shot.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Yeah, but like Stoop said, there was there was an
incident where there was a genuine injury and a team
got charge of time out for it. And that it's
when you have that the way the rule is made,
there's going to be times where it doesn't work the
way it's intended.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
And he's right, it's all about the adrenaline a kid,
I'm good, Oopes, No, I'm not. Yeah, you know, and
the next thing you know, and he can't get off
the field.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
You hear it all the time. I mean, I've got
family that works in hospitals. People have something just awful happen,
then get up and walk away from it thinking they're fine,
and then all of a sudden, it's not till like
an hour later you're like, wait a second, something's not
right here.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I will tell you this. When I was thirteen, I
got hit by a car and I jumped up me
and my buddy he got hit too. It's by a
yellow cab and he yells. He got knocked into a ditch.
I got the worst of it. I went up over it.
I jumped a little bit, but I jumped up. He
goes y okay. I said, yeah, I'm fine and took
a few steps and then I hit the ground. Said no,
(41:31):
I'm not. So that was the adrenaline, you know, so
I can relate a little bit. Same thing. Don't enough
to get hit by a car.
Speaker 6 (41:36):
Now.
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I got hit by a car. You're ended. It was
fine for an hour, hour and a half and then
I'm like, man, my back hurts.
Speaker 5 (41:41):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
I remember I had two bulging discs. Oh man, and
took years of pet to make it better. So yeah,
that adrenaline can keep you going for at least a
little bit longer.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
I mean, I can't say that I've been hit by
a car personally, but I broke some of my fingers
and did some damage to my hand playing football. And
right after that happened, I kind of just got up,
was ready to go. Trainers up here, wiggling my thumbs around.
I was like, you know, it doesn't feel the best,
but I'm fine to keep going. Go get it X
ray and it's broken.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
I got down.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
I'm like, oh, like, okay, well, maybe I'm not as
fun as I thought I was.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
But in the moment I was ready to get up
and just go.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
You know so, I really do believe that we're gonna
be talking about this all year, and you're gonna see
video clips and I've looked at all the rule changes,
but that's the one that jumped out. I can't think
of any others right now.
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Can you nothing really to me that's dramatic? Yeah, nothing
really dramatic.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Yeah, So, Billy, you'll be here in the studio. Of course,
you're a network producer, where you'll have the game up
on the big screen as well.
Speaker 4 (42:31):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
What will you be looking for when you have a
chance to look away from the controls keeping us on
the air and watching the wildcats and around.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
I'd just like to win this game. I'd like to cover,
which is I think it's close to seven right now,
but I'd like for them to cover comfortably. I feel
like these games have just become.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Remember today when we used to be able to see
what does that mean?
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Exactly? Like, well, especially for these first games, like now,
if you've you think you've taken that step, you should
to max school I know it's Toledo, but I'm tired
of talking about Toledo as a team that could upset Kentucky.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
I am.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
I don't know if there's any credence to what I'm
saying here, but I would just like for it to
be the fourth quarter and it not be a one
possession game.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Did they open at two touchdowns? Almost two?
Speaker 4 (43:14):
It's gone down.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
It's dropping considerably, hasn't it.
Speaker 4 (43:16):
Yeah, but you know, we're gonna need to see a
sense of urgency.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
For So you're looking at point spread, what are you
looking at?
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Yes, I'm just looking at I kind of agree. I
want to see a convincing win. The thing that's going
to make me feel the best about this Kentucky teams.
If I'm going in expecting it to be kind of
a dogfight against a really good school and they just
come out and win comfortably, that's going to make me
change a lot of how I feel about this team,
especially with ole Miss coming to Lexton week two. Yeah,
you know, you don't want to look too far ahead,
but I need to see a comfortable win for Kentucky
(43:43):
against Ale Well.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I'm gonna be down in the field and I'm going
to study what's going on in the trenches and as
always that's where it's decided, but I want to see
how it's decided in the trenches. Thanks so much for
joining us, Thanks to Cole Park, Thanks to Billy Rutledge
and Jeff Pecorro and bol Robinson sitting highly by airness
to here. You look great. That's a good night from Lexington.
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