2025-09-15 BBI Statewide

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From Pikeville to Padica. It is the state wide edition
of the Big Blue Sider. Dick Gabriel joined by Cole
Park of the cast. Paul Jef Pecorra will join us
at the bottom of the hour and Cole before we
talk Kentucky football. There's a lot to unpack there as well.
But you were on hand on Friday night, big weekend
you had on one side of campus you had the
UK Distinguished Alumni being honored, and then downtown at the

(00:23):
Summit Central Bank Center you had the UK Sports Hall
of Fame. The reason for that was that was the
one weekend they were able to get josh heinz Allen
because his team was playing in Cincinnati, and Carl Anthony
Towns was available only that weekend because the Knicks We're
about to open camp, and in fact, neither one of

(00:44):
those guys could be there.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Saturday night for the football game.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
But you and I had a chance to talk to
the honorees and it's a pretty good class, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, I mean it's a really strong class. We talked
to all six of the attendees and pretty much all
six of them said like it, it's always an honor
to go in the UK Athletics Hall of Fame, but
then to look at the names you're going in alongside,
I mean, there was some heavy hitters in there. Obviously
people are gonna focus on Karl Anthony Towns, Josh Heinz Allen,
but you know, you got Mikayla Epsen there may I'm

(01:14):
just one of the greatest women's basketball players Kentucky's ever seen.
You got Doug Flynn, you know, a World Series champion
out there. And then obviously you got Sonya Han and
Abby Chee Ramsey who are both very very accomplished in
their own rights as well, and two of the best
to ever play their sports here at Kentucky with women's
tennis and softball, and it was just, you know, it
was a really really special class and it was awesome

(01:35):
opportunity to get to get to talk to them.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
I remember when Sonya Han I was playing at Kentucky
well before your time, but she had was part of
a really good team and it's when Kentucky tennis was
really starting to blossom, you know. And then Abby Cheek
especially now you go back and look at her numbers
since she's left, but what she accomplished at Kentucky. You know,

(01:58):
it was phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
It didn't have quite the team around her that they
would have later.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
On, but she was one of the best players in
America when she was here, and the record shows that.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah, I mean absolutely, they were both very, very, very special.
And obviously, you know, sonya Han's still involved in college
athletics working as a I believe, associate athletic director at
CSU Northridge. Yeah, you know, she went on to do
some some very good things after UK as well, and
it is still working in the college game. Abby Cheek
Ramsey's still you know, gone into coaching and still works
with softball pretty closely there. So I think it's always

(02:32):
special to you know, we follow these teams. You know,
some of these athletes are a bit before my time,
but you know, we follow these teams and these athletes
and we cover them for the four now sometimes more
than four years that they're on campus. And you know,
apart from a lot of the really big names in
the NBA the NFL, it's easy to kind of lose
track of some of these people. You know, you see

(02:53):
so many faces come through colleges and it's always good
to you know, take these opportunities to be like, oh
my gosh, I remember that, like you remember how good
that was, Like you remember this and reflect on that
with them, and then you know, speak with them about
what kind of honor that is, because, like I just said,
a ton of athletes come through Kentucky, far less than
that make it into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame.

(03:15):
So you make it in there, you've done some really
really special things, and you know, a lot of them,
pretty much all of them said they were quite caught
off guard when they were told that they're getting inducted.
You know, some of them with Kat and Josh they're
both still playing. But you know, for the most part,
like no one really expected that in this class. You know,
some of them have been like, you know, maybe one
day I will. I hope one day I will. But

(03:37):
when it came, they weren't expecting it. And I think
it's always special to hear those stories and you know,
hear how how you know, we all perceive their careers
a certain way, but hear how they perceived their careers
as well.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
UK circulated the video that had put together and had
played it at the Bank would on Friday night, just
sort of a compilation of when Mitch Barnhart called. And
it's the same with everyone of them. Somebody calls them
and says, hey, mister Barnard's going to be calling you
to ask you about blah blah blah, you.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Know, nothing to do.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
They post it as like a podcast they were doing
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, something like that, you know, And so Barnard calls, hey,
how you doing.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know that are very proud of.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
But by the way, here's what really the reason he
was calling. And you're right, not only were they caught
off guard, I mean some of them choked up, some
of them were speechless. I mean it was it was
really really touching I think at times. And you know,
when when he's laying all this out for people, it
brings them back to their days at UK, which is

(04:36):
which is what these speeches are about, when they get
up there and speak. And by the way, I thought MICHAELA.
Epps said the line of the night she got up.
I think you had you were gone by then, or
did you see her speech.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I don't believe I saw her speech, but she also
had my line of the night from just talking to her.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
And if it's the same one, all right, well, all
she did was when she got up there to give
her speech, she pulled out her phone and she said,
I'm sorry, but I'm reading it off my phone, like
the millennial that I am.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Now.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
My favorite line that she said is when she was
speaking to us, you know, about her career and the
legacy she left behind. She said, you know, I arrived
on campus as Anthony Epps's daughter, and now I think
I'm looking here and Anthony Apps's MICHAELA.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Epps's dad, exactly right. And she was there on senior
night because she had already arrived on Anthony was holding
her on senior night. Anthony Aps, of course, was the
point guard who led Kentucky to the ninety six championship.
In the ninety seven championship game, and in fact, his
three pointer sent that game into overtime against Arizona, and

(05:37):
he had the best line in the documentary we produced
Cameron Mills and Jason Epperson and I went because Anthony
tried after the Dallas Cowboys. Believe it or not, he
was a good football player in high school and tried
out for d back with the Cowboys because he just
wasn't enough for the NBA. Everybody else in that lineup
through the bench went to the NBA, but everybody on

(06:01):
that team. In fact, it was the first night they
were all there in Miami and they were on what
I call a party boat as a houseboat, and they
had a cocktail party and they were all sitting around
and telling stories and talking to Patino, and Walter McCarty
said this, and everybody else chimed in. He said, there's
no way we win this title, excuse me without Anthony Epps,

(06:25):
and they all were nothing. And Apps talked about the
fact that these guys all went on to lucrative careers,
some more lucrative than others, and his line was I
didn't make millions, but I made millionaires, and he nailed
it right there.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean, it's it is really special. I
think something that really stuck out to me as significant
as well talking to so many of these legends is
you know, you hear about Big Blue Nation, you hear
about the Kentucky family and all that, but the love
that so many of these athletes who have gone on
to do great things still have for Kintuck. I mean,
Mikayla Epps told us that one of her biggest regrets

(07:04):
in her entire careers that she couldn't bring Kentucky women's
basketball championship the way her dad did with the men's team.
You know, Josh talked about being kind of the face
of what Mark Stups was trying to build here with
Kentucky football and kat you know, he said, I think
multiple times when he was talking about it, he said,
really and truly, this isn't my accomplishment. This is our accomplishment.
Like my team got me here, Like I wouldn't be
anything without them, And I just think that that was

(07:26):
special to me. I mean, this is this is for
six different athletes, stellar athletes. This is their induction into
the Hall of Fame for their accomplishments, and so many
of them just put so much the value on Kentucky
in the process of doing that and highlighting their teammates,
highlighting people who helped get them there, and you know,
I think, you know, certainly it's not the only school

(07:46):
that maybe has that, but it's something that makes it
special that a lot of schools can't say they have that.
With these athletes who have gone on to some of
them make millions and they're still you know, just just
as true to the school that got them there.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
My man Doug Flynn going in of course, and is
much or more for what he did after he left
UK as a UK broadcaster, as a citizen of Lexington.
I mean, as Mitch Barnard said in his speech, you know,
there's nobody you can count on more than Doug Flynn.
Of course, I'm terribly biased because he's been my broadcast
partner for we don't know how.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Long, you know. In a speech he thanked me for
the eighty five.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Years we've been together, you know, and it may as
well because people ask us because we come off like
an old married couple. But how long have you guys
been working together?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Right?

Speaker 1 (08:33):
We don't know, you know, we cannot remember the first time.
But anyhow, Doug homegrown, michaela homegrown. But the others were
recruited to come to Lexington, and interestingly, the two higher
profile guys had the New Jersey link. Town's born I
think in the Dominican Republic, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
But Josh.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Was a high school star receiver in Alabama. And then
the reason he was lightly recruited was his family moved
to New Jersey and he did not play in camps
and so therefore the recruiters just lost track of him,
which was silly, and he was a two star athlete.

(09:18):
They brought that up in the in the at the dinner,
and you know, here's a guy who's just blossomed. Everybody
knew Towns is going to be great. I don't think
they knew he was going to be this great, like
number one draft pick. But it's interesting too that both
of them have New Jersey ties and yet they both
end up in Lexington, Kentucky.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Yeah, it is. I mean, I think for for a
really long time. Obviously UK Athletics was built on the
back of Lexingtonians and people around here. But I think
it just speaks to how big the brand is now
that so many of these athletes and across all sports
now are they come from all over the all over
the country, and all over the world the world. Really yeah,
I mean, but for most of them, you know, I

(09:58):
don't want to speak for every athlete it's come through Kentucky,
but especially the ones that are making to the Hall
of Fame. Regardless of where they come from, they all
kind of harp on. Lexington is like a second home
to them.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
Now.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
It's somewhere that they'll always kind of keep in their
heart and it's somewhere that it doesn't matter where they've
gone or where they came from, that that's somewhere that
is like home to them. And I think that that
is really special.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Well, let's shift over to football, because for the six
appeared at halftime of the game that went over Eastern
Michigan and Kentucky was expected to beat Eastern Michigan. I
can't remember what the final point spread was Bee me
six and a half?

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I guess it depends on who you look at, who
you talk to. Pretty close. It's amazing, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (10:39):
But I don't think that game unfolded for one big
reason the way most people thought it would, and that
is the defense man. No, Kim shredded that defense. What
did it look like upstairs?

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:52):
About that? I wrote a story for the Cat's Pause
with Brad White just was curious after the game, very upset.
You know. He said, I was kind of the first
one to get over there to him because they brought
him out while Josh Katis was speaking in Bush Hampton
was speaking, A lot of people were over at Bush,
and you know, I got over there to him, and

(11:14):
not a lot of people are coming over there immediately.
I guess they didn't realize he was over there. He said, Yeah,
probably wouldn't want to talk to me right now either.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
But it's like, why you had him to yourself?

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yeah, well I had him to myself for like twenty seconds.
Question and then people started walking over and he's like,
I'll wait for them to get here to answer because
he didn't want to have to answer it again.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, that's understandable.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
But no, I wrote in that story about that. I said,
you know, if you had told someone before the game
that Kentucky did not cover that twenty six and a
half point spread, they would have said, it's because the
offense couldn't score enough points to do it, not because
the defense led up that many points. But the offense,
I mean, it's Eastern Michigan. Let's be honest with ourselves here.
They led up nearly thirty against Long Island, who went

(11:54):
on to lose to Sacred Heart.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I believe this past week so one scs.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
Yeah, not particularly ranked by right, you know, but the
offense looked amazing, scored nearly fifty points. Cutter Bowley had
a real coming out party that the tight ends had
had their own kind of party. His roommates had their
own little party in the end zone. It seemed like
and you know seth McGowan three touchdowns, you know, was

(12:22):
he's on pace. He's on pace to for the record
for the season. But the defense just that first half
it looked clunky. There was a couple you know, if
you give up an explosive play here and there against
an Ole, miss okay, against Eastern Michigan, we have a
problem here. And there were a few times, you know,

(12:43):
it felt like obviously you had the hindrance of DJ
Waller being out again to Ryan Nichols goes. You know,
they take him out of that game and you're playing
you know, some of your more depth pieces at dB,
but just some bad coverage on some of those plays,
some real, really really bad beats yea in you know,
Eastern Michigan, even though they ended up getting twenty three points,

(13:05):
they had four hundred and sixty one yards of offense
that that can't happen. That simply cannot happen. And especially
with the way the game started, you have a you
have an interception on the very first play the game,
your fourth first quarter interception of the season in saying,
you know, I believe it was to Ryan actually that
popped that up, and he did. Davirin comes down with it.
But after that point, it felt like the defense like,

(13:26):
all right, guys, we did our job that we're good.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
But they and they also played the run well yes,
you know, but not to interrupt you, but I think
we have to give the quarterback his dude, Noah kim
I was playing I think for his third team and
as a Michiganders, so he wanted to come home.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Started off at Michigan State.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
That guy I thought was so nimble and they got
to him a few times, but he extended play so
well that it gave and his receivers.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
Knew what to do, didn't they. Yeah, yeah they did,
so they helped him.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
They did.

Speaker 4 (14:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
I mean that I felt like going into the game
Eastern Michigan, and it was something their coach said during
his presser I listened to on Monday as well. You know,
he said, we got to He said, we need to
run the ball a bit better, but we got a
pretty good idea of who we are offensively, he said,
we've got a pretty consistent passing attack and you know,
a big part of that is Kim You know, I
believe it was a Lockett's maybe Terry Lockett, their wide

(14:25):
receiver who's really really good, but they they for for
lack of a better friend. They kind of embarrassed Kentucky
in the first half with their offense, and you know,
obviously coming out of the halftime, I don't know what
was said in there. I can't imagine anything good. But
Kentucky did kind of clamp down a little bit better
in the second half until you let up that garbage

(14:46):
time touchdown to let them cover the spread.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
But anytime the d secondary is lacking, you know they're
going to hear from the head coach.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, because that's his specialty.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Absolutely, and yeah it was. It was a weird one though,
because you know, you score forty eight points and you
get the big win you needed after losing to Old Miss.
But you know, I think you would agree with me.
Stoops didn't seem like you just said. He came into
the presser and the energy was not high. He was
not happy with the way this game win. Brad Whyittt
was furious with how this game went, and we didn't

(15:16):
really get to talk to a whole lot of defenders.
I think Jordan Love it was the only one we
spoke with and he didn't seem too pleased either. So
just it feels weird to come out of a game
and where in which you win forty eight twenty three
and feel like, man, we did not do very well today.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Maybe not a step back, but not a step forward.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
Certainly not a step forward.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
And with the exception of quarterback. Yes, we'll talk about
that on the other side of the break. Here we've
gone six and a half minutes what I'd mentioning the
name Cutter Bodie, but we will get to that.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
There were more pressing matters at hand.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Yes, we'll take a break, come back and talk more
Kentucky football with Cole park Bottom on the aur Jett
Pecorrel on the state wide BBI.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
From Pikeville too.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
But if it is the state ye BBI, did Gabriel
Cole park from the Cat's paws. He was there when
the Wildcats knocked off Eastern Michigan. Wasn't exactly the coming
out party for Cutter Bowley. He started against Louisville last year.
He saw action against both Murray State and Texas. Will
you talk about two diverse ends of the totem ball
when it comes to college football last year, but he

(16:26):
I thought was poised and release went again. We know
Eastern Michigan is not an SEC team. But he was decisive,
which was the keyword. He was accurate, and I thought
he was pretty smooth. How did it look upstairs?

Speaker 3 (16:42):
It looks great, you are correct. I should have clarified
it coming out party this season, not all time in Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
But no, he looked maybe it's a do over, a
do over there you.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Go, I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure. After Texas and Louisville
he wanted one of those, yes, But no, he looked great,
and I thought it was a bit funny. You know,
you had people in the box a little bit frustrated.
You know, you get the interception on defense in the
first play, and then you do two runs and seth
McGowan's and the endzoner round. There's like, ah, come on,
like really we only had two runs. I don't even

(17:12):
get to see Cutter do anything yet. And you know,
once he really got going though, it was special. I mean,
obviously we talked about the roommate you know connection there
with the tight ends. He had even beyond the touchdowns,
one which he threw to Willie and one was to Caddis.
He had some great you know, I think it was
Willy's touchdown was set up by a pretty big catch

(17:33):
by one of the tight ends. And he looked really good. Obviously,
you know you talked about Kendrick Law's touchdown which was
taken back by the hold on Hardley Gilmore. But he
looked good, and he looked more importantly, I think, confident
and comfortable, and that's what you wanted to see out
a Cutter Bowlie more than just you know, he made

(17:55):
the big plays. He's certainly not afraid of going deep
with that football. But the biggest thing we wanted to
see after you know, how he played against Ole Miss
was is he going to be confident? Is he going
to be comfortable? And is he going to be decisive?
And he looked at you know, he wasn't afraid to
scramble a few times when it needed to. We got
a couple of rushes there. He wasn't afraid to sling
it downfield. He wasn't you know, he felt comfortable doing

(18:17):
some of the shorter passes that Kentucky's kind of been
comfortable doing, particularly with Calzada, and then you had Seth McGowan.
Obviously Dante Daudell was limited in this game. He went
out with thy Thibrus. Yeah, but Seth was turning it
up on the ground, looked really good. And then in
the fourth quarter you had Jason Patterson coming out there
scoring his first collegiate touchdown and adding to that and

(18:38):
it Bush Hampton's talked a lot about being balanced. We
want to have a balanced attack. Yeah, we want to
be multi faceted. We can't be one dimensional. It doesn't
get a whole lot more balanced than two hundred and
forty passing yards two hundred and fifty tw rushing yards.
I mean, that's that's what you that's what you want
to see. You had a very balanced attack.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
And did you happen to notice the yardage for Kentucky
at halftime?

Speaker 4 (18:59):
What was it?

Speaker 1 (19:00):
Two hundred and forty six total yards, one hundred and
twenty three on the ground.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Which leaves one hundred and twenty three in the yew
About that, yeah, I mean that's and part of the
reason the rushing yards are probably higher is because you
start just handing it off to Jason Patterson a lot
more in the fourth quarter to choose some clock, but
you know before that there's only there's only twelve yards
difference in passing and rushing to end the game anyway,
and that's when you're handing it off a bunch. In
the fourth quarter, it was it was a balance attack.
For the first time this season, Kentucky looked really, really

(19:27):
good offensively and kind of validated you know, again it's
Eastern Michigan, but kind of validated what Bush was saying
earlier in the week that this group can still be
a really good offense. You know, he used more colorful
language than that, but he was very confident in them,
and it seems like, you know, obviously one game sample size,
we'll see how it goes into SEC play, but if
this game is anything to go off of what it's

(19:48):
capable of, it seems like he had every reason to
be as confident as he was. And you know, Brad
White even talked about that after he said he said
it kind of felt like in this game, we just
knew the offense was going to be able to handle it,
and we need need to pull our weight. And that's
kind of the reverse of how it's been all season long,
so a really really special performance and Cutter Bowley looked,
I mean really really good. You know, only twelve or

(20:10):
twenty one completion, but at the end of some of
those were drops, some of those weren't really his fault.
At the end of the day, two hundred and forty
passing yards, two passing touchdowns, the first time all season
long Kentucky has recorded a passing touchdown. Amazing and he
got two of them. Yeah, so he finished with a
rating of one hundred and eighty four point six. I'm
not an expert on quarterback ratings, but I think that's

(20:30):
that's pretty good. I think that's pretty good.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
And in the post game, I think of camera owner
off the air, but I said something about it. He
was sacked once and he kind of went, huh. You know, well,
I watched, as I said, I watched the game again
this afternoon, and he was sacked, but the play was
called off by a holding call on defense, so there
was no sack registered by EMU in that game. So yeah,

(20:53):
Cutter Bully did what he had to do manage the game.
And you know the one thing that Bush Hamden told
us on two when somebody asked, what do you need
to see what would you like to see cut it loose?

Speaker 2 (21:05):
You know he.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Did, he really did, and it was spectacular to see
from open the box. I mean some of those plays
where some of those plays were blank and you'll miss
it kind of wo how did they get across the
entire field? Oh, he found Joshkatis, you know, thirty yards
downfield or something like that, and and was able to
bring it home. And you know, after the game, Cutter
felt confident, you know, he said it felt good to

(21:27):
go out there and do that. And I also think
it's important to note not that anything against Calzada, but
with Cutter coming out there, it seemed like everybody on
the field knew what they needed to do. The offensive
line gave great protection. The wide receivers kind of made
more than you know, working hard to kind of prove themselves.
The tight ends were there to make some big plays,

(21:48):
you know, because we can say that with Levis too,
with with him having Will Levis having one Del Robinson.
Sometimes a receiver can make a quarterback look even. Oh yeah,
and they made Cutter Bowley look good, and he gave
them positions, plays and balls to make them look good.
It felt very mutually beneficial and it felt like the
entire offense came out with a chip on their shoulder,
something to prove, and it was very special.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's a great point because I thought Levis's first year,
when he had an NFL quality line in front of
him caliber, that's exactly what he did. You know, he
made Wandale look good. Wandale made him look good and
you could see Wandale's skills on display yesterday. I mean,
Lewis is after the year, but he was an NFL
talent when he was here. When we come back, we'll
talk more Kentucky football with Jeff Bacorol the UK Sports

(22:30):
Network along with Cole Park of.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
The Cats Paws. More to come on the state wide
Big Blu Insider.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
From border to border. It is the Big Wuinsider. Dick Gabriel,
Cole Park at the Cats pos let us welcome in
on our celebrity hotline, Mister Jeff Bcaorrel of the UK
Sports Network and Jeff, I'll start with you as we
did with Cole just before we took football. But you're
a good friend in mine. Doug Flynn inducted into the UK.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Sports Hall of Fame. You grew up in Lexingon.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
You weren't born here, but you spent most of your
life here, and you you prepped as a high schooler
in Lexingon before you played for the Wildcats. But Cole
and I were talking about the fact that, yeah, Doug
was born in Lexington, MICHAELA. Epps, Marion County. Everybody else
came to election in and now it is part of
the fabric of their being. Just you know, the time

(23:22):
they spent here at the University of Kentucky. You got
to be proud as a letterman. You got to be
proud of that.

Speaker 4 (23:30):
Oh I am proud of that. But they must be
dredging the bottom here trying to find Hall of Famers now,
I mean, hell, next be me and you.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
Oh man, you were You've been needling mister Flynn for
a while and this happened you.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, well, you know, you got to get him sometimes.
I know. No, he and older looked like they had
a blast, and I feel really good for him.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Hey, you know, I walked up to him and I
walked up up to him, Jeff at halftime, not to
interrupt you. You know, a couple of minutes they were
away to go on the field and he's shaking hands
and posing and having a big time. I walked up
in the middlest excuse me, sir, can I see your ticket?

Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know? And he was kind of speechless.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
And then Olga jumped in and you know, they had
those polos that say UK Hall of Fame, and she
pressed her finger on his shirt and said, that's his
ticket right there.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I said, good for you, Please finish your thoughts.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
I was just gonna say, what a great class though.
I mean, really one of the one of the better
football players in the last you know, since the tournament,
since two thousand, probably he's maybe maybe the best. Uh.
You know, you had one of the greatest female basketball
players to ever play here, first teamer, uh, you know,

(24:49):
you had Karl Anthony Towns, who's gone on to you
know since sational one year here, but it's sensational career
in the NBA. Aby Chink one of the greatest softball
players ever to play here, Sonya one of the best
players ever. I mean, just one right after the other.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
And Doug, you're killing him.

Speaker 1 (25:10):
You played football here while the valerie still watched lot.
Well that's true, you played, you know, you practiced a lot,
but you know, you were here at the same time
Valerie Still, Lee Wise, Patty Joe Hedges, you know, one
of the best teams in the history. You also broadcast
games forever or UK women's basketball. What impressed me about MICHAELA.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Apps was she.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Represented to me what SEC women's basketball had become, and
that's much more physical, much more athletic. She's not very big,
but she played big. She played physical basketball or at
three time All Conference, and that's why one of the
reasons Matthew Mitchell had such success here.

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Yeah, and I really think it. You know, she probably
got most of that, if not all of that from
her dash, you know that that she played with, and
it really was a different style. Look, Matthew's done did
a fantastic job, obviously, but he that kind of changed
the player this profile because remember after that class, he

(26:15):
started to get these guards and he went to more
of a three guard offense and they and they pressed
a lot when he had depth and you know, played
the entire court. And I think it really changed Kentucky
basketball for the better. And you know, she was just
a wow, what just an outstanding player. Toughest nails too.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, I mean we talked about it at the at
the top of the show. But I was talking about
how so many of these athletes, and as you would
say and Doug, they've gone on to do such amazing
things both on the court, and many of them even
after their college careers. But one thing that they kept
coming back to was you know, I said, MICHAELA said

(26:57):
one of her biggest regrets was not winning a title
with women's basket here, I mean, Josh Karl Anthony Towns
said that this wasn't his induction, this was his team's induction. Really.
Josh talked about being one of the faces of what
Mark Stops has built here at Kentucky Football. For you,
you know, having put on the jersey, having you know,
been through all of that as a member of the
UK athletics family. Can you just talk about a little

(27:18):
bit what that means to so many of these athletes,
you know, being a part of that.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Yeah, you know, stick with them. Well, I think you've
got to hit on the head because you know, you
look at these players and you know, let's take Doug
for instance, gug probably could have lived anywhere he wanted,
had a fantastic career, made a lot of money, could
have could have stayed in New York, could have stayed
in Montreal. Uh, he came back here now obviously a

(27:43):
very close knit family with his brother and his parents
and everyone. But you know, the thing that surprises because
you see all these players in whatever sports, and a
lot of them stick around Lexington. Yes, it's not a
bad place to live. You know, you want to live
in a in a city like Chicago or New York
where it's hustle and bustling and you're rent because gosh

(28:04):
forbid you you make enough money to get a mortgage
up there. Forget that. You know, rent alone is just
thousands and thousands of dollars. You can't park anywhere here.
We complain about the traffic on Alumni Drive after a
game because it takes me five minutes to get out
of the stadium, you know, right, it's but uh, yeah,

(28:24):
it means something here. This is a small you know,
and it's I'll tell you one thing. Dick can can
echo this because we go around to We've been to
every SEC city except Oklahoma now and they're more smaller towns,
you know. Uh, And and these players stick around it

(28:45):
because look at it, Look at what they are, look
at the Kyle Kyle Macy, He's not from here. He
still lives here. He coaches here, teaches and things like that.
I mean, you can go on down the list of
people like that. So it's just a it's a great community.
It's actually to raise kids in if you if you
happen to want to do that, and it means something

(29:06):
to the fiber of this community. For people that stick
around here that wore a jersey or you know whatever,
you know, had a racket or a golf club or
whatever that has UK on it, and you know, it
just means it means a lot.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Sam Bowie was stayed here, Jim Masters state here. There's
so many guys who decided, you know what a great
example Dusty Bonner, you know, had a really nice season
in his one starter. Here's a starter at Kentucky. How
mummy unfairly pulled the rug out from under him. Dusty
Leaves has a tremendous career at the D two level
of Valdosta State. What does he do moves back to

(29:47):
lexingon Mary's a Kentucky girl and settles it now again
he's raising kids. You make a great point there. Josh
Heinz Allen was an amazing example. I think of a
defensive player, Jeff, and we looked at the way sometimes
you look at an offensive player. For instance, Let's say
it's third and short, third and two, your third and

(30:09):
goal or fourth and goal from the one. You know
they're going to hand it to Benny Snell because he's
going to run behind that line, and everybody in the
stadium knew it. But he'd get the yardage. But how
many times, Jeff, did Kentucky's defense need to make a play?
Did the Wildcats need them to do something on defense?
Everybody in the stadium knew that Josh Allen would be

(30:31):
double teamed or at least one in a one with
a chip, and he'd still get to the quarterback, whether
he sacked him or not rushed him. To me, that
was one of the most phenomenal things I had ever covered.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
What about you?

Speaker 4 (30:44):
I remember that. I want to say it was a
Texas A and M. That there was a Texas A
and Texas A and M was on like the twenty
yard line going in for a score and threw a
pass to the corner of the end zone and it
was broken up. But we looked down and said, wait
a minute, that's forty one. That's Josh Allen in the

(31:05):
end zone breaking up a pass that kept the game in.
You know what's oversized. Yeah, it's just he's just an
incredible athlete. You know, Dennis Johnson was a pass rusher
right right. Josh Allen could play. I mean, he played
the whole field.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
It was a mos wrecker. He was just a record.
I think he had a similar play against Florida, but
the A and.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
M play I thought was the most impressive. Anyhow, well,
let's get to the game Kentucky. Mu Cole and I
have chopped it up a little bit. But why don't
we start with the offense? Colon I started with the defense.
We'll get back to that, but we also we hang
over talking during the break. Now, Mark Stoops, it seems
the decision has been made for him. That cutter Bowley

(31:53):
just seems like the guy better capable right now of
hailing this job. But you know, as well as I
and I I do not recall you've played for two
different coaches here a Kentucky. What their policy might have
been if there was one can of quarterback lose.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
His job to injury, that kind of thing. So maybe
it's not as easy as you think.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
I don't know if you were here my freshman year,
my my red shirt, when I when I could.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Play the winless season.

Speaker 4 (32:23):
Yeah, okay, so the year before we went through how
many quarterbacks. You remember, Doug Doug Martin had come in
and was going to be the future, right, Yeah, and
Randy got hurt, Tommy Boyle got hurt, Doug Martin blew
out of his knee. You know, it was one right
after another for fran Terry Henry. You know, it was like,

(32:47):
who what are we gonna do? And it was one
right after the other with Claybourne the first year, you know,
it was it was Jenkins and Terry and then you know,
Bill kind of emerged the next year. Mike Whittaker was
the big you know, was the big guy they went
after in state. But there really wasn't much with Claver

(33:10):
and when I played, it was you know, once Bill
took the job, it was basically is that he played
through hell or high water man. Yeah, and it was
just there. There really wasn't much to.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Make a decision like that. Then.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah, he never and he never really did because you
look through the years and it was a lot of
tough hard nosed quarterbacks. Freddy's one of those. I mean,
I mean, you just go down the line of Clavern's
quarterbacks and unless they were hurt, you know, they played
most of the time, they weren't hurt.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
You or have been a proponent for the longest time
of treating quarterbacks the way you treat every other position player,
and that is, if he's not performing, sit his butt down,
play the next man up. And you're you're in a
minority on that though, aren't you.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
I am because a lot of people feel and I
think this is and I don't want to get into
a race thing, but they used to say, you know
that an African American wasn't smart enough to play quarterback.
He debunked that, myth, right, We debunked that one hundred
times over. And then they say, well, you know, quarterback, psyche,

(34:21):
you can't really break that psyche. You've got to if
he's your starting as to say, Bullowey, I just don't
think that's right. If a guy isn't you know, why
could you take the running back out if he fumbles,
or receiver he drops the ball alignment, if he misses
a block. But the quarterback, Heaven's forbid, he's so two
interceptions and it's just not playing great. So just say, hey,

(34:43):
come over here for a series or two and watch
and see what's going on from our view, and we'll
put you back in. I have no problem with that.
And I think that nowadays athletes are so much different.
It's not as the macho that you used to be.
You know, you know when you think through the years
of the Terry Bradshaws and and and you know, the

(35:05):
Archie Manning. I mean, heck, Archie Manning through one hundred
more interceptions than he did touchdown that he kept playing.
But I just think a guy. Now, all these players
are so good, I think is the is the biggest reason.
And there's not much of a drop off usually between
one and a two unless.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
You've got you know, unless you don't have.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
Yeah, unless you don't have a guy. I was trying
to make it an example of you like our arch
Manning for instance, they're not going to bench that kid
this year because he's basically the you know, the second
coming of I don't know what, but well they think,
you know, I just don't think. Yeah, I just think
that a quarterback should be should be treated just like

(35:53):
all the other players. It never hurt my feelings.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
So, yeah, you're a heigh quarterback.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
It's right, certainly, and obviously you know Mark stops hesitant
after the games immediately Nam a starter, felt like that
was pretty Yeah, that's the way you handle things.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
You know.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
I would still be shocked if if Cutter Bully is
not number one by the time we get into the
South Carolina week barring something crazy, but I wanted to
ask you, you know, pivoting just a little bit from
the quarterback play, but related to it, we saw a
Cutter go out there a lot more comfortable slinging the rock.
Two hundred and forty passing yards, very even passing and
running attack. It's been a talking point all season about

(36:31):
the wide receivers for you, you know, it seems like
we're starting to see some guys really start to emerge
there hardly Gilmour, Kendrick Lodge, a Moorey got involved. If
Fred Ferrier had his for thirty three yards, what did
you see out of that group and what are you
really seeing from those They continue to develop going forward
as we start, you know, hopefully really honing in on
a one to two and a three.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Yeah, I think that you started to see some guys
that are making a little bit of separation from the others.
I think that there's probably for those guys. And Stiletto
is hurt. He's another one that's got great hands. There
was a drop in the game and that was unfortunate,
but I just see them coming along getting more comfortable.

(37:13):
But I think the big number cold that a lot
of people are overlooking is he only completed twelve passes
for two hundred and forty yards, so twenty yards of reception.
So he was getting those chunk plays. And again, look,
I'm Eastern Michigan's defense is nowhere near Toledo's defense, and

(37:34):
of course nowhere near Old Missus defense. Ok. You got
to call a Spadas fade here. But it's gonna be
interesting to see. I think what he does. And I'm
talking about Mark Houpss. He'll sit down with Bush and
he'll probably sit down with Bullwear and the rest of
the offensive coaches and go, who do you guys think
gives us the best ability to win the game at

(37:55):
this game coming up, which will be South Carolina Lucas,
is the best ability to win the game. That's who
you have to go with and if it's Cutter, it's Cutter.
If it's if it's Zach, it's Zach. But the other
thing is though the injury, you know, is he healed?
When will he healed? And ond percent. I think the
difference we saw those in the two quarterbacks is this

(38:15):
is the second year for Cutter in this offense, so
he's a lot more comfortable in this offense. And he
was sowing passes before the players were making their cuts
out of their out of their pass routes. He was
a little more decisive where Zach was trying to wait
until the guy got open and be like he wanted
to make the perfect play and in sec football you can't.

(38:37):
You've got to boom, boom boom and get it out.
And you know Cutter did that. He got it out
in a hurry. And again against South Carolina, which is
gonna have a monstrous pass rush. You know he has
to know. It's almost like what Tim used to do
couch when he was quarterback. Dick knows this is he
knew where the ball was going before the snaps. Yeah right, Dick.

(38:57):
I mean he's he looked at the defense and go, okay,
my slot guy's being covered by a linebacker, that's where
the ball's going, or a safety is trying to cover
law that ain't happening, right, That's that's where it's going.
And that's what it has to be aga in South
Carolina because their pass rush is so good.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
And we're going to talk a lot more about South
Carolina next week, especially the game Cocks quarterback situation with
Lenora Sellers knocked out of the game and a concussion
protocol after the game.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
But, h have you guys see that play?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
No?

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Did you guys see the play? You've got to see
if Cole did you see it?

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yes? I saw it.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
Did you think that it was that bad?

Speaker 3 (39:37):
To be honest with you, No, I did, and I
was expecting something kind of kind of crazy and I
saw it. I was like, that feels like a pretty
routine play to me.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
But yeah, his helmet didn't really he was high, but
it's because he was trying to block the pass. But
I just didn't see anything to me that that that
was a target, although you know it is quarterback, but
still I just didn't think it was that bad for him.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
And then you're surprised.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
You're surprised it was called targeting or you're surprised that
he was injured.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
I yes, I heard that. What I heard was he
got blasted and it was you know, it was a
flagrant targeting call, you know, And again this is what's
going around the press Bros. Game. And then when I
saw it, I was like, it wasn't as bad as
I thought it was. And I really didn't think if
they didn't call it targeting, which they didn't at the

(40:33):
start it went. They didn't call it in the game.
It went to Birmingham after the play and after he
got taken off the field. Then they came back after
they were getting ready to snap the ball and said,
wait a minute, there's a a it could be targeting here,
and they made the call. I just thought that was
so I what I mean by saying all this is

(40:54):
I think there was something already happened to Sellers and
that was just a trigger, you know what I mean,
like maybe he got hit earlier in the game, or
hit his head earlier in the game, because it didn't
look like a vicious shot. It wasn't a helmet to
helmet blow to.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Me, you guys were talking about the tight ends and
we were joking around about the fact and uh, Tom
Leach joked around with Josh Kattis about the fact that.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Cutter lives with the two starting tight ends the guys
he had with touchdowns.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I'm wondering as not specifically South Carolina, but just moving
into the SEC. I don't know, Jeff, that we're going
to see as much of the tight end in the
Kentucky offense that we've seen already, simply because you know
as well as I you're gonna you're gonna be looking
at monsters across that line of scrimmage. Uh, you know,

(41:46):
opposing defensive lineman or we do you think we're gonna
see the tight ends like we saw last year? Keep
him in the block or at least chip and we'll
Will the quarterback have enough time to let the tight
end routes develop because so many times, you know, you've
got to go on two, three, throw them, but and
the tight end's not open by then.

Speaker 4 (42:07):
It's a great question, but I'll answer it this way.
Georgia plays a lot of two tight end, especially when
they had Bowers. Yeah, Bowers was the receiving tight end.
The other guy was a blocking tight end. They played
a lot of eleven. But you know, eleven person. We
have two tight ends. I think Kentucky will do that
and so they don't know which one will stay in
or you'll have one on the line of scrimmage the

(42:27):
other one in that what we call a tailor, a
wing or a slot position. Uh, that's probably gonna be
Willie Cattis is really good at being on the line
and making those blocks and stuff like that. So to me,
it's gonna be real interesting to see how they utilize that.
Another team that does it tonight at I think ten
o'clock the Raiders play and you know they have Michael
Mayer and Brock Bowers and they play together. Now, Brock

(42:50):
is obviously the the the the main targets, but Michael
Myers is a great tight end and uh you know
he caught it the four passes, I think. But I
think you'll see more of that too, where it's two receivers,
two tights or an empty backsit where you have three
receivers and two tights and maybe one of those tight
ends comes back as like the running back and it's

(43:12):
the personal protector.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, we're talking to Jeff of Coral the UK Sports
Network will come back and talk more football here on
the state wide BBI. We'll have a few seconds left. Jeff,
you don't have football coming at you this Saturday. What
are you gonna do with your time off?

Speaker 4 (43:31):
I'll actually be at the stadium. M seen the Big
Brothers and Big sisters. Gallop boy boy.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Hey, thanks for joining.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Birthday. Thanks Happy birthday, big band.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Cole, thanks for coming in. What are you doing with
your Saturday off? Watching football? Probably watching a boy Thanks
so much to Jeff, to Cole, to Bo Robinson.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
That's it. Good night from Lexington.