2025-09-16 BBI

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick caabro with
you on a Tuesday edition of our program one day
after your boys' birthday. And I appreciate all the birthday
wishes via social media. I hope I got back to everybody,
but it's always humbling not to hear from that many folks.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
And this was a big one. This was the Big seven.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Oh, so we'll see where we go here in decade
number eight, still covering Kentucky football as I was back
in the seventies the eighties, and I missed two years
in the eighties when I was working in Dallas, but
basically have been ever since and never a dull moment,
although there were some dull moments in a minor way
Saturday night as a Wildcats kept trying to figure out

(00:40):
how to stop Eastern Michigan's passing game, and we will
find out soon enough if they came up with a solution.
Brad White, you know, not happy after that game. Mark
Stoop's not happy with the passing secondary, which had been
the strength of this Kentucky team we thought going in
and had played fairly well going into Decea and was

(01:01):
getting good help up front. Defensively from the defensive line.
But for whatever reason, Eastern Michigan exposed flaws and faults
in this Kentucky defense. And when you look at it
this way, it's probably a good thing, because this South
Carolina team Kentucky is facing is dangerous. You know this,

(01:23):
And for a while there Kentucky owned South Carolina, but
of late it's been the other way around. Last year,
South Carolina beat the Wildcats in Lexington, and it was
just a weird game when you look at the stats.
Final score was thirty one to six. It was ten
to six at the half. They were just grinding against

(01:44):
each other. South Carolina scored with about seven and a
half minutes to go a touchdown in the first quarter
and then kicked a field goal with eight minutes to
go in the second quarter. Wildcats kicked a field goal
with about two minutes left and then picked off a
pass with seconds left to go in the half and

(02:05):
added another field goal.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
To make it ten to six.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
But in the second half it was all South Carolina,
which put up three more touchdowns and won to thirty
one to six. But here's as I said, it was weird.
When you look at the numbers. They had the same
amount of first downs. Kentucky out gained South Carolina on
the ground one thirty nine to seventy nine, but the
passing numbers were atrocious for Kentucky six of seventeen with

(02:33):
two interceptions as Brock Vandergriff shared the position with Gavin Wimsy.
South Carolina wasn't much better, what was more accurate eleven
to fifteen with one interception or just one hundred and
seventy three yards. But Kentucky turned it over four times,
couple of fumbles, couple.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Of picks and just could not get in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
And you know, we knew about the North Sellers, good quarterback,
good player, but did not have the high profile that
early in the year that he does now some believe
he's the best quarterback in the SEC. Now will we
see him a week from Saturday? Because he was knocked
out of South Carolina's win or I'm sorry, lost to

(03:18):
Vanderbilt And there was a tight game until he got
knocked out and from that point on, vandyat scored Carolina
twenty four to nothing. So which quarterback will we see?
Which South Carolina team will we see in less than
two weeks? And you know, South Carolina's people probably asking
similar questions about Kentucky, although they must know the answer.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Which Kentucky will we see the.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
One that could not throw the ball successfully against a
miss and for that matter, Toledo or the one that
looked totally different against Eastern Michigan and again not an
SEC caliber team. But still Kentucky did what a decent
team should do against with Cutter Bowley quarterback, And of

(04:03):
course Mark Stoops will not answer any questions about that.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I'm guessing until maybe Monday.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No news conference yesterday because it's an open date, but
his regularly scheduled news conference on Monday may yield that answer,
and maybe he doesn't answer it until Thursday to keep
South Carolina off ballots. Who knows, but we'll find out
soon enough, and Cutter Bowley will have a difficult job really,

(04:30):
whichever quarterback plays against Carolina. Down there, it's noisy, especially
going if you're watching on TV while you're listening to.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
The radio to the end zone on your right.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
That's the big tall bowled in into the stadium, and
it gets crazy loud down in Columbia. But we have
seen Kentucky go down there and play well. We see
Kentucky go down there and win. And I'm still not
sure how good the South Carolina team is, because I'm
not sure how good Vanderbilt is, although so by all
accounts Van he's pretty good and it handles South Carolina

(05:03):
fairly well. So that'll be a storyline we follow, naturally
for the next almost ten days. Another storyline we follow
the Bengals and Joe Burrow naturally. I've got him on
my fantasy team. I didn't set out to draft him,
but he was the best quarterback available by the time
it came to me. And he's out again another injury,

(05:24):
and dan Orlowski of ESPN makes a good point. Burrow
could be this generation's Andrew Luck, a guy with all
kinds of ability, all kinds of talent, all kinds of future,
and yet because his old line is letting him down
getting crushed. Burrow has already been sacked two hundred and

(05:46):
one times for his career. Andrew Luck, who played just
six seasons, sacked one hundred and seventy four times Burrow
in his sixth season, and both of them pressured twenty
seven percent of the time they've dropped back in contact,
made twenty percent of the time. The Bengals are getting

(06:06):
Joe Burrow killed, and now he's out post surgery, likely
for three months. Season's done for the most part. They
said he can win with Browning. I'll believe we want
to see it. By the way, Paul Finebaum is giving
up on Arch Manning. Oh, the great generational talent. But
on ESPN Sports Center the other night, he waved a

(06:28):
white flag.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
He's throwing in the towel waving the flag.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Listen, I mean, I'm I'm not right, but I'm not
the stupidest person on the face of the earth.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
I'm out.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Okay, count me out. I gave it a shot.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
It blew up.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
I like Arch.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
He's going to be a great player someday some maybe
some year, but not this year.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
It's over come on.

Speaker 5 (06:50):
You can't look at three weeks and find a way
for the front row.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
In New York.

Speaker 6 (06:55):
So nice knowing you, Arch, See you soon.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
And I've got to admit, Paul fine baums, I've seen
more various teams than I have because I'm always covering Kentucky.
But did not understand the obsession with Arch Banning in
the first place. What's going on down on the Bayou
that's next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the
Big Moonsider coming up at the bottom of the hour
just a few minutes. Van Hiles, that's right, v Styles,

(07:19):
former Kentucky defensive back, will join us. And if you're
a Van Hiles fan, as I am, you have seen
his cutups and commentary on social media. You hear him
each Monday Morning with Tom Leach. He's all over the place.
Now that's one of the reasons why I haven't talked
to him a little while. Purposely, I talked to him
before the season began, but I wanted Van to be

(07:41):
able to comment on a body of work by the Wildcats.
Now there are three games in the books, including the
win over Eastern Michigan, which was not as for lack
of a better term, pretty as it might have been,
and coincidentally enough because of not just the defense, but
the defensive secondary, which is Van spa as he was

(08:01):
a cornerback here at Kentucky Cup of Coffee with the
Chicago Bears. So we will talk to Van about that,
get him to break it down. And last week I
wrote about the fact on Facebook that Saturday marked the
fiftieth anniversary of my first experience covering a game a
football game at what was in Commonwealth Stadium, Nott Kroger Field.

(08:23):
I've been to games as a student, but the first
game I covered was September thirteenth, nineteen seventy five, and
it was for the campus radio station, not for the
School of Paper. Well, I had forgotten that this is
the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Rupp Arena, and
so Chris Fisher of The Cats Balls and two four

(08:44):
to seven Sports has written about that. So we will
talk to Chris about what he knows about the history
of Rupperina. Rupperina here's a spoiler.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Older than Chris, but of course he's.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Got a lot of knowledge and memories of great games
games in rub and in fact, if you go to
the Wikipedia page on Rupp Arena, there's a list of
some of the great games and some of the loudest games,
some of the games that have elicited the loudest crowd
reaction in the history of that building. It's kind of
a fun read. Really, I don't know who wrote it,

(09:17):
probably a lot of different people. But we'll talk with
Chris about that, and then later on we'll hear from
a couple of the Hall of Famers who went into
the UK Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend, and
of course my buddy Doug Flynn went in and as
I have already talked to Doug quite a bit and
Darren Hedrick had him on.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
The Statewide show last night.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Instead of talking to Doug, I talked to Marty Brenneman,
who was an invited guest, as was I and my
wife and I Doug invited us to come and sit
at one of his tables when we were very appreciative
and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening. But we'll talk to Marty,
who really really is fond of Doug and remembers that

(09:59):
nineteen seventy five spring training, speaking of an anniversary, when
Doug Flynn showed up at the major league camp with
zero expectations of making the big club. He'd played one
year in Single A, one year in double, one year
in Triple A, and expected to start the season back
in Triple A. But he had one of the greatest

(10:20):
spring trainings in terms of the number of hits, batting
average and all that that any player has ever had
for the Reds at the time and since then, and
basically forced the ball club to keep him because he
hit so well and they needed backups for Dave Concepcion
and Joe Morgan the middle infield, and Doug played a

(10:42):
little third.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Base that year too. Solar Marty talked.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
About that his memories and his observations about Doug Flynn
that comes up in our number two programming note and
I just saw this and I love it. NBC is already,
of course, making its roster for its Winter Olympics coverage
of twenty twenty six in Italy in Milan Cortina hyphenated,

(11:09):
and one of the people they are going to use
is Stanley Tucci, writer, producer, actor. He is Italian on
both sides. He has starred in and produced two different
travel log shows for the Internet, one for Hulu one
for Netflix about studying his roots and food in Italy,

(11:35):
and they're fantastic. Even if you're not a Stanley Tucci fan,
these shows are incredible, especially if you ever have designs
on visiting Italy. Tucci Searching for Italy won two consecutive
Emmy Awards for Outstanding Hosted non Fiction Series. That was

(11:56):
actually first aired on CNN. Now you can find it
on Hulu, So I can't wait to see that coverage
from Italy by Stanley Tucci. A couple of other notes
from the world of college football over the weekend. LSU
beat Florida Saturday twenty to ten, had real problems on offense,
and the very first question put the head coach, Brian Kelly,

(12:21):
was from a TV reporter, a guy from WBRZ TV
in Baton Rouge, and his name is Mike Cabble. And
this is the question and answer that came right after
the game ended on Saturday night in Baton Rouge. Brian
in the back, I know you love these immediate postgame sessions,

(12:42):
but what are you seeing with your offense?

Speaker 7 (12:44):
Stop?

Speaker 4 (12:45):
Really is that the first question? We won the game
twenty to ten.

Speaker 8 (12:48):
Try another question. What do you want me to tell you?
I just laid it out for you. We played the
game to win the game. We played the game to
win the game, all right?

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Third down? Then? What is going on with third down?

Speaker 8 (13:02):
It's one game. Last game we were great on third down.
Your micro you're looking at this from the wrong perspective.
LSU won the football game, won the game. I don't
know what you want from me. What do you want
you want us to win seventy to nothing against.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
To keep you happy.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
No, I think people want to know why you can't
run the ball.

Speaker 8 (13:24):
We can run the ball.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
Did you see the last play of the game.

Speaker 8 (13:27):
That's all you need, You just need one. There's a
ridiculous questions and I'm getting.

Speaker 4 (13:34):
Tired of it.

Speaker 8 (13:36):
That football team just worked their tail off to get
an SEC win, and you want to know what's wrong.
You know what. You're spoiled. You're spoiled. This team is
seventeen and one at night, seventeen and one.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Give them some respect. How about that?

Speaker 8 (13:53):
Give them some respect instead of micro analyzing every little thing.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
This is ridiculous.

Speaker 8 (13:59):
For a group of seasoned reporters, that kind of question
is so out of line.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
Obviously I will disagree and say, no, it's not why
because fans are wondering the same thing. LSU is the
third ranked team in the country. Florida is not as good.
And yeah, I had trouble moving to football, only scored
thirteen points on offense, turned it over a bunch. So yeah,
this guy knew that fans are going to be wondering

(14:29):
what about the offense. Maybe he could have couched the
question differently been gentler with a question I don't know,
probably wouldn't have worked. To his credit, though, Brian Kelly,
who was under an enormous amount of pressure the LSU
coach always is that's just the way it is. It's
like being a Kentucky basketball coach. But he came back

(14:50):
at his news conference yesterday and he apologized.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Before I get to.

Speaker 9 (14:56):
The game in Southeast Louisiana, want to go back to
the conference after the game. I've texted with Mike and
offered my apology to him for the way I handled
the questioning. I think it's important to understand that you
know my standards relative to how we work with the

(15:19):
media on a day to day basis. I need to
be higher and I take responsibility for that and I'll
be better in the future. And understanding also the way
I'm thinking after a game, and we've mentioned this a couple.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Of times in here, the emotions of the.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
Game right after it. I haven't watched any film. It's
difficult to make.

Speaker 9 (15:42):
Those assessments of specifics.

Speaker 4 (15:47):
And I'm going to defend my team. I'm going to
defend my players first and foremost.

Speaker 9 (15:52):
But having said that, I publicly apologized to Mike, and
he's an outstanding report. He works hard and out will
do better looking forward. So I just wanted to address.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
That in the OL set, and I thought that was
good because he was addressing the same room full of
people who probably were at the game for the most
part on Saturday. Too often, you know, in that situation,
a guy will text somebody and apologize and put out
of release or something, but you don't know who saw it,
who heard it, who read it. So I give Kelly

(16:25):
credit for standing up and apologizing, but keep this in
mind those of you who are critical of us the
media for and it was especially prevalent when Caliperi was struggling.
You know, why didn't you ask him this question? Why
don't you ask him that question? It's not because we're
afraid of a response like that, because we've all gotten
him with.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Caliperi, And it seemed most prevalent.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
From fans who were angry with the media, why don't
they ask Caliperi about you know, you got to remember
about cali Peri, he answered any question he wanted, whether
it was put to him or not. He could feel
the question and within three seconds diverted go off on
a tangent and begin to talk about something else. You know,
he was the king of saying yeah, that's true, and

(17:07):
what about Johnson or something like that. So it's not
as easy as it seems. But again, there are ways
to ask questions, ways to not ask questions. I give
the guy credit for holding his ground, but he basically
asked a broad question, you know, what about your offense?
But Kelly was already on edge, and to his credit again.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
He came back and apologized. All right.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Up next Van Hiles, who right now is living in Louisiana,
and we will ask him about this as well as
the football cats heron a Big Blonsider six point thirty
wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider and joining
us now is one of our all time favorite guests.
Co host of The Locker four to one one, host
of Driving with Styles, mister Van Hiles, the former Kentucky
defensive back. He's all over the media. Everybody wants him

(17:53):
as a guest.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Now.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
We were happy we were on Van Hiles early though, Van,
and I was thinking of about you while I was
actually watching that game Saturday night, because I thought, wherever
he is, he's twitching you just I guarantee you you
were probably yelling at your TV, weren't you read it was?

Speaker 10 (18:15):
Yeah, it was. It was frustrating. But and it's interesting.
In the moment, your feelings are one thing, and then
when you step back and get a clean of vision,
you you kind of change a little bit. I didn't
realize how many subs and guys who were banged up
in that game defensively, and you had to play some

(18:35):
guys that probably wouldn't have played if everybody was healthy,
and that was probably more of a of a result
or affected the outcome a little bit more than I expected.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
Yeah, and that has a ripple effect, doesn't it when
someone's missing in a defensive secondary.

Speaker 10 (18:53):
For sure it is. I can speak as from a corner,
I know how my safeties are going to play, and
I know what plays I can take quote unquote chances
with because I know Reggie Russ has the speed and
ability to cover me when I make a mistake. So
then there's the same thing as a safety. You have
a corner that's new to you. You do not know

(19:15):
how he's gonna play certain actions, certain concepts. Well, it
can be a problem. So yeah, when you have when
you're mixing match and secondary members that have not play
a lot in practice as a unit. It's going to
cause some problems.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
All right, let's talk a little bit about why em
you and you've got the video breakdowns, the cutups on
your Twitter feed and other spots at V Style seventeen.
But it just seemed like van that their guys were
running free. I mean, you know, they were finding the
open spots, finding the grass if you will, and that
can I tell you. I think he's an underappreciated quarterback

(19:50):
Noah Kim.

Speaker 10 (19:51):
Yeah he is. I know he had some His journey
has been long to to get to where someone really
saw his talent and I making the most of it.
It is a case of being a being a young
corner who's trying to gain some footing and to maybe
move up a spot in the depth chart. When you

(20:12):
get in the game, sometimes you do things that are
uncharacteristic of what you would normally do because you're trying
to make a play, because I'm trying to get the
trust from the coaches, I'm trying to get them to
see me as a potential and trivia on this defense.
And in those situations when you try too much bad
things happen, and I think in the secondary when Thomas

(20:34):
got in the game, I think he was like, this
is my chance to prove that I'm a good player
for this conference, and I think he tried to do
too much and ended up giving up some big plays.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yeah, well, why do you think I'll put it to
you this way? I thought Kim did a great job
of avoiding pressure. What did you think of the way
the Kentucky d line did or did not apply pressure
on Eastern Michigan's quarterback.

Speaker 10 (20:58):
I think for the most part we got pressure. The
big plays were actually from getting pressure and guys not
just covering. They were also some potential holding calls on
some of those big plays too that the rest missed.
And the grand scheme of it. I honestly believe this
is not the most talented defensive line we've had in

(21:21):
Stoops Air, But I think this is the best effort,
the best attention to detail defensive line we've had a
Stoops error. They are doing what they're supposed to do.
Almost on every play. They are in their rush lanes.
They are they are trying to put an umbrella around
that quarterback so you can't escape. They have done a
great job. They are the best stunt defensive line I've

(21:43):
seen a long time front the stup's error. Yeah, they
had of these stunts like I have never seen in
at least since twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
So they're not you said.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
They're not the best they've had, but they're the best
to add doing the little things.

Speaker 10 (21:57):
Yeah, talent wise, when you have a guy like Walker,
it's kind of hard to say this this group is
gonna be more talented. We have Josh Allen and Calvin Tavin. Yeah,
Quinn and Q like they're not going to match that
level of talent, but they what they do have is
they are active. They are they are straining, they are

(22:21):
trying to get to the quarterback on every play. We've
had some guys who will take a player too often
the D line. This group is not that.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
No, and you you can't take a playoff in the
SEC because you're gonna get busted on that, aren't you?

Speaker 10 (22:37):
Exactly? And when we started a little last year, when
when and I would say this, and it's hard as
a defense when the offense is having struggles and some
players when they have that, some players can't hand that
adversity well. And some players start paling, and I think
we saw a lot more of that last year than
we've had in the In the entire time of steps

(22:59):
being here, guys say, man, can they can we get
a little help, and and that affects that affects the
results from a defense when guys are not straining all
the time.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
We were talking last week to Ty Bryant about the
push up front prior to the MU game, and he said,
there's there's the good nature, the good back and forth. Uh.
You know, they tell the D line, hey, man, we
appreciate the pressure you're putting on the other team, and
the D line says, well, you guys are giving us
time to.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Do it with your coverage. That's what it's got to be.
I mean, that's that's the optimal way of doing business defensively,
isn't it.

Speaker 10 (23:37):
Football? Football is I say all the sports. Football is
the greatest team sports because you need all eleven. There
are some sports you can get away with two or
three in basketball at ca C, but in this game,
you need all players to play at their best. And
in the secondary, if the defensive line can get a push,
and if the linebackers can get good drops and coverage

(24:00):
up then it's hard for a team to find those
voids in the coverage. But if one of those three
or not thinking, then you have problems. And and we
have when we are healthy, We're when we are healthy.
I think we have a really good defense. I mean,
you look at the second second half of that game.

(24:20):
We shut them down for the last drive.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
That's right, that's right. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
And one of the things this team has done so
far is pick off passes, which I know you love
Ty Bryant with a couple in that first game.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Tell me about Ty? What have you seen in him?

Speaker 10 (24:37):
For me? And it's and it's hard because of the
viewing angle that I get, so I don't see all
the plays in its operations in this in this technique,
but what it seems like to me is he's not
thinking as much and he's playing free. He's staying freer.
And he had the knowledge he had the between the

(24:58):
ear part, but I between the years maybe affecting him
too much of trying to be too perfect, and now
with his knowledge of the game and not being quote
unquote being as robotic as he was the first few years,
now you can see that talent come along. I'm gonna
say this, and I'm just it just came to me.
I wonder if getting back there in part returning has

(25:20):
to loosen them up.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Maybe maybe, But why do you say that?

Speaker 10 (25:27):
Because now I have another activity that can take my
mind off the side. I think the part return as
a guy who was put back there after my fresh
year is prem returning in high school and pumer return
and college are too totally different things. So now he
can take that stress of playing safety is a little

(25:50):
less because all that stress is going towards being the
perf returning. So now it's sets some at ease when
he gets us a man, what I'm doing on decents
actually pretty Eas's a comparacut when that ball is in
the air for five seconds and some guys are coming
down a touch waiting to knock me out like Kingjik
Law did.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
You know, it's interesting you say that about tye Uh
playing free because one of the interesting comments he made
us last week was he said he spent the off
season not just working on his position. He learned every
position in a defensive secondary as well as the linebacker spots.
And I I said, why would you do that? He

(26:32):
basically said, the more football knowledge.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
I have, the better. And someday he wants to be
an analyst or a coach or both or whatever. But
he said, you know, the more football knowledge I have,
the better I can be. And the fact man that
he can do this, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Plays as fluidly as he is, tells you an awful
lot about not only his work ethic, but what we
can expect moving forward.

Speaker 10 (26:55):
Right, you just made my day with that. Oh good,
we're here because and that is and that is what
it's all about. Honestly, when you know and it's and
I can take it even deeper. When you know where
ERA one, what their responsibilities are, it shows how it
affects you. And now it shows you what you can

(27:15):
do to counter all of those weaknesses. Now to go
to the next level is he needs to learn how
all this his his teammates play within that system. Because
I can tell you there are plays that I made
because I understood what my linebackery what's gonna do on
a given play, because I took him to note and

(27:37):
practice when we're going, when the scouts team is going, Oh,
when they run play action, faith, Oh, he's not gonna
get him covered. So I'm gonna have to cover him too.
Those teams. When you learn he's he's he's graduating to
a pad. When you learn the scheme, now you gotta
go even deeper. Now you gotta go into what's the
weakness and the strength? Now they gotta go what does
everybody else have? When you can see all the moving parts,

(28:00):
the picture becomes so much clearer. Now it makes sense
of why he had those two interceptions because on those
two plays he made smart decisions because he saw the
weekends of the defense. Yep, man, that man, that is awesome.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
Well, you know, he was our player of the game
on radio.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
We did, and we did the interview with him afterwards,
and he told me that on the first pick, he recognized,
you're going to love this.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
He recognized the.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Formation formation, and as the play unfolded, and you know
they like to use this particular play early. So he
basically said he knew what was coming, he knew what
the receiver was going to do, and he basically hung
back a little. He hit I think when you and
you broke it down, he was hiding I think on
that quarterback and then broke on the ball perfectly.

Speaker 10 (28:47):
Didn't he that that is that is? That is awesome
because I tell my guys it's like quarterbacks. As a
former quarterback, I know the quarterback is reading from in
to out. He want to see what the safety's doing.
Now he's peering from the middlefield to the sideline at
the defensive back. If you can hide close to the sideline,
he will never get to you on a cell right

(29:10):
or corner rock. So he sees the guy who's inside him,
who's covering. He's oh, he's beat And I've gotten plenty
interceptions by being close to the sideline. And sometimes the
other thing is if you're on your sideline, your own sideline,
you blend into the into the sideline if you play
it right. So that was now hearing all of this

(29:31):
makes it even more impressive. I love to hear guys
who are able to when when a coach, a GA
and an analyst or whatever the positions that are called
that are creating these game plans, these scout reports, I
want players understand they are putting a lot of time
and effort into creating these game plans. You should read
it and take it to where it's gospel. So now

(29:54):
when you're in the game, is you don't have to
guess you're anticipated and when you and when the pitcher
becomes clear, like hm, my pet anticipation is coming to
fruition now I have to take advantage of that is awesome.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Man Kentucky former defensive coordinator Steve Brown, who I think
is in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (30:12):
Now And was it, Oh, did you actually play?

Speaker 10 (30:16):
I was in camp with the rounds with Steve Brown
with detail.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Yet he was find of fond of saying your key
will set you free.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Yeah, yeah, if you feel it, if you know it,
you're in good shape.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
We'll talk more with Van Hiles on the other side
of the break here on the Big bloon Sider six
thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Van Hiles, the
co host of the Locker four to one one, driving
with Styles and you see his cutups on the interweb.
If you're lucky, you also hear him on Monday Mornings
with Tom Leach as well. Van a former Kentucky defensive back.

(30:48):
But let me take you to the offensive side of
the ball and tell me what you saw in cutter Bowl.
You touched on this earlier, Van, but uh, he was
playing in a similar way. I think to what we
were just discussed, seeing what ty Bryant wasn't thinking, just
reading and reacting.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Did it see that will seem that way to you.

Speaker 10 (31:07):
Yeah, it's I've never met Coulter Bullet. I've actually never
been to a game with culor Bullet player, but it
seems like I would like to meet him. He seems
like a very down the earth, calm guy, and it
exhuses when he plays. Everything is just calm, effortless. Even

(31:30):
when he makes mistakes. There's it doesn't seem like he's
ever tight and pressing. And when I would say this
as as a quarterback and then the guys, my hood
says is that when the quarterback has calm, it calms
everybody else. Sure, no matter what happens in the game,
no matter what adversity has happened, if you remain calm,

(31:50):
everybody else will be calm. So that leads to when
you have adversity, when you have pilties, when everybody's in
that hole of looking at the quarterback eyes and he
doesn't like even splitch, it creates confidence within that whole unit.
And that's what it looks like on on Saturdays, is
that there's no frustration there's there's no come on, guys,

(32:13):
what are you doing?

Speaker 8 (32:14):
Like?

Speaker 10 (32:14):
Everything is sorry, guys, set it down, Let's take it
one play at a time. We're good. And that's I
can just steal that from the TV.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
You know, I don't know if you listened to the
Mark Stoop Show last night. Stoops was off recruiting and
so they had Bush hammed in in a couple of players,
and Tom talked to Josh Kattis and he he rooms
with Cutter And it was funny because uh Kata said,
he's kind of like a surfer dude. And the first
time I ever did a sit down with Cutter bowl,

(32:44):
he's got kind of longish, kind of curly blonde here,
and I thought that to myself. You know, you can
see this guy with puka shells around his neck and
a surfboard on his arm.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
But but you're right, he is.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
He is calm and collected. And what I appreciate about
him Van was course last year his very first pass
was a pick six against Florida. We know that, but
he got appreciable clock against Murray State, which was not
a good team, and then he played a bunch against Texas,
which of course was a good team and got drilled
on one play and then got up and made a

(33:17):
huge throw down the field a couple of plays later.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
That told me a hell of a lot about him.

Speaker 10 (33:21):
You know. You know what, even I may even go
beyond that, is after the rivalry game where he didn't
have his best, that has not carried over, right, Yeah,
the little game has not carried over. And I was
people gonna say, well, that was in November and not. No.
Trust me, as an athlete, you remember the last game,

(33:42):
and it affects your next game, even though it might
be six, seven, eight months later, it's going to have
an effect. And it seems like it has not affected
him at all. He is he is the He's the
guy where I think, I not think. I know that
we can build this program around for the next couple
of years. We're gonna have to deal with some adversity,

(34:04):
some mistakes, some boneheaded like man, why did he throw
that ball? But that's fine because he's not gonna crack
under the pressure, I don't think, and that's not going
to affect his next game. And that's something you need
when you can have a two to three year starter
in your program. Yep, it is a big deal, and
that can progress us to get more gittilayers in the

(34:26):
next couple two your critic class, which can extend us
to a point that we haven't seen in the Soups era.
From an offensive standpoint cutter last.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Year against Louisville six and fifteen, two picks, forty eight yards,
sacked a couple of times, gave way to Gavin Wimsy,
who actually had a better stat line.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
But you're right, I thought about that the other day.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
This this doesn't even resemble the guy we saw there.
But again, you got to give your props to Louisville,
which you had a good team last year, and it's
going to be tough again this year. A couple of
minutes left with Van Hiles, you got the bye week.
Now you've got South Carolina coming up with or without
Leonora's Sellers we saw against Vandy, and again all props
to Vandy, but South Carolina is a different team without Sellers.

(35:10):
I expect he'll be back for the Kentucky game, So
let's assume he is.

Speaker 8 (35:15):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
He did not have a super game last year against Kentucky,
but South Carolina just ground out what became a blowout
against the Wildcats.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
So what do you expect in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 10 (35:29):
I kind of expect the same thing. I expect the
same thing from them as far as attacking in with
the run center of the past, because sell Us sell
Us eats Alva play action. This is the biggest thing
for me though, and this is why I think it's
great that we fanned them early again. I sell Us
has to adapt to this note, to this new offensive coordinator,

(35:52):
and I think that's an advantage we have is that Sellers.
If you even remember last year, sell Us was there
in time with Ashford I think that's his name, but
that was the back of quarterback. He was not Blue
Sea minute as the starter. He didn't become Sellers until
later in the season. So I think if we can
catch them early the same issue. He has a new
office coordinator, a new voice, a new way of calling

(36:15):
games on Saturdays, and I think if we can catch
them kind of become last year, as you said, that
game a halftime was close, they just falln away and
they leaked us to the whole second half. I think
with the way these this defensive front is straining and
playing with good assignments, I think we can frustrate them
a little bit. In the running game. We're not going

(36:35):
to stop them now, they're going to have success, but
I think we can we can control them a little
more than what we did last year.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
I've only got about two minutes left.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
It's probably not fair to ask you this question, but
tell me. As a d back, obviously you've got to
worry about stopping a run. But when play action is working,
I guess that's what makes it so dangerous because as
a D back your instinct is to make sure it's
not a run play. I mean, it sounds overly simple,
but when it's you. Andre Woodson was a master at

(37:05):
it by the time he left here.

Speaker 10 (37:08):
As a dB, your your first responsibility, unless you're in
the box is passed first. Okay, it's not you are
not allocated for a run. We have eight guys. If
you bring us safety down, you have eight guys that
are totally responsible for the run, and we should be
able to get in every gap. Those corners should never

(37:28):
get beat on any play action. In Cover three, Yes,
and I had because what happened is as a as
a corner, I know we have a few minutes, is
that we are not covering the flat. And if a
team goes hits hits hitch as a corner, as a competitor,
you start getting answered because man, I'm giving up hits.

(37:49):
That's when they call hitch and go. You got to
play your technique all the time. And then you go
to the sideline and say, coach, look, we got to
get out of this coverage. We got to go to
something else because I'm getting as I'm gonna jump on
one of these hitches, team, coach, can we say something.

Speaker 7 (38:03):
I mean, that's really the conversation you have to have
if you're being transparent, honest. And now the coach has
to make a decision or he has to tell you, son,
look we have to get eight men a box because
they are just gashless in the run.

Speaker 10 (38:15):
Just hold the fort. We will give up the hitches.
Eventually they're gonna make a mistake or he's gonna throw
a fat pass. And now that's your chance to jump
on and make a play. Don't try to make a play.
It's gonna come to you.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, and well, and that's what all missed it. Hitch, hitch,
hitch and go, or a hitch and brooke and tackle
on they're off. So it'll be interesting.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Van Hiles, of course, is one of our faves.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
We always learned football from v Styles seventeen. That's where
you find him on Twitter, co host of the Locker
four one one driving with Styles Man, I ran out
of time and don't up times talk food with you.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
I'll get you on that next time. Okay, that was good.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Up next dow Re number two, we're going to talk
about the fiftieth anniversary of Rupp Arena opening.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
That's right, the home of the Basketball Cats plus some
of the newest UK Hall of Famers on six thirty
w LAP.

Speaker 11 (39:00):
Then such tact taking.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
The ship.

Speaker 11 (39:48):
Anything can anything.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Anything, Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining

(40:51):
us now in our celebrity hotline is a longtime friend
of the show and a guy who covers Kentucky basketball recruiting,
primarily basketball in general for the cash.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Posts, along with a little bit of football. And that's
Chris Fisher.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
And Chris you have written recently about the fact that
we're coming up gosh on the fiftiest season at Rupp Arena.
I just wrote about the fact that I covered my
first Kentucky football game fifty years ago. This past Saturday,
we've got some milestones piling up.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
Does it seem like fifty.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Years to you, considering that I'm not yet fifty years old,
you are not, you know, rough Arena predates me, but
I certainly remember, you know, the glory days of the
nineties when it felt like Kentucky was just absolutely unfeatable

(41:44):
at home. But just so much history, so much pageantry
in that building, and I think it's good that they're
celebrating that. I think if you're Kentucky basketball and you
have the greatest tradition and the history of college basketball,
and you're the gold standard and you're all those things,
you should take every single opportunity that you have to

(42:07):
celebrate those things. And fifty years is a big milestone
for rupp Aerna. And we've seen the the changes that
it's undergone here recently, but it sounds like they're going
to do, you know, a lot of fun promotions, a
lot of fun you know, reunions and things like that.

Speaker 10 (42:27):
I would love to see.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Some throwback jerseys, which I think, you know, with it
being the thirty year anniversary of the ninety five ninety
six championship team, I think that's probably likely at some
point I would love to see. I don't know if
this is going to happen, and I'm I'm sure this
would cost a pretty penny. But as throwback court, you know,

(42:49):
one of the old repperena designs with you know, the
circle in the middle, or the old you know wildcat
with the with the UK, you know, kind of at
each three point line. I think something like that would
be really really cool.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
That's a great idea. That's a great idea. We'll have
to push that one as well. Again, as you said, Reperena,
the the opening of predates you and by the way,
didn't open with a ballgame and open with a Lawrence
Welk concert. But what was your first memory of Reperena
either as a fan?

Speaker 2 (43:22):
I mean being there.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
I'm sure you're tuned in as a kid, but being
there either as a fan or as a professional.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
I would say probably as a fan. The first one
that really sticks out was the sixty one point win
over Tennessee in the first round of the SEC Tournament
in ninety three. Wow, and that was you know, that
was such a memorable SEC tournament for a number of reasons.

(43:55):
One the fact that it was in Reperena. But then
you know, the next day Kentucky had to match up
with Arkansas, and yeah, I think it was against Tennessee.
They shot out to like a seventeen nothing lead, and
then the Arkansas game, they were up fourteen to nothing,
and you know, went on to beat LSU for the
SEC Tournament championship on Sunday, and you had the big

(44:18):
blizzard that rolled through Lexington's that weekend, and so that
definitely sticks out my first first ten experience at Rupp Arena.
I was growing up. I was a little bit of
a Louisville fan. My brother and my family were Kentucky fans,

(44:41):
and you know, I was kind of at that age
where I just I wanted to be contrarian, I wanted
to be different, and so.

Speaker 10 (44:48):
I was like, well, I'm just gonna like Louisville.

Speaker 3 (44:49):
And then my dad took us to a game at
rup during the ninety five ninety six championship season. I
think they played Wisconsin Green Bay, and after that I
was true Blue.

Speaker 10 (45:03):
After that.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
That Tennessee game, people forget that Kentucky had split with
Tennessee in the regular season, had beaten the Balls intelection
in early January by fourteen points, and then Tennessee got
a measure of revenge in Knoxville on February twenty fourth,
beat that Kentucky team that will go on to the

(45:27):
Final Four, beat him seventy eight to seventy seven, and
that was the last loss by Kentucky until the Final Four.
So that Tennessee game in the SEC Tournament was revenge
and then so wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
Yeah, And the game that Tennessee beat Kentucky and Knoxville
came on a very controversial call where Tennessee missed a
free throw on purpose but the shooter, I think it
out Houston, crossed the line yea for the ball hit
the rim and it shouldn't have counted. But Tennessee got
the offensive rebound and scored for for a one point win.

(46:07):
But like you said, Kentucky definitely served out some revenge
and then some a couple of weeks later, and.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
It just went on this tear of blowouts.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
You know, beat Arkansas handily crushed l s U in
the SEC Tournament, and then it was just killing people
in the NCAA Tournament, which is why Kentucky was actually
favored to win it all that year.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I don't know if you remember that or not.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah, that that stretch, those three games in the SEC
Tournament and then Ryder and Utah and Wake Forest and
Florida State on their way to the to the Final four.
That stretch of games is as good as I've seen
any Kentucky team play, uh for for that long of

(46:55):
a stretch. And you know, if if Javal Masher doesn't
foul out late in that Michigan game, maybe things are different.
It was kind of a makeshift, you know, line up
that was kind of left to deal with, you know,
Chris Weber and Jawan Howard and Jalen Rose and those guys.
But yeah, if Kentucky beats Michigan, there's no doubt in
my mind that they're They're winning the National Chamgship. And

(47:16):
I think there's probably several years you could say that
about Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
And you know what else was vital in that game
was Dale Brown got hurt. He was chasing the table.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Yeah, they right smacked his head, had to leave the game.
Kentucky was hanging in there, and then to lose Dale
Brown and that was it. So yeah, that was I
think you're right. I think the nineties, uh, just for
year after year in rupp Aerena now Calipario, of.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Course, his team's had some great runs in Rupperina.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
And what's interesting about ruff is we talked with Chris
Fisher of the Cats Paws, Uh you know who they
beat the very first game right Wisconsin, and I was there.
Not not a classic UK win, I think the only
one by about eight points, but that team would go
long to play really well that year at Kentucky team
and I thought was actually better than the seventy eight team.

(48:06):
But when they talk about Reperena now, it's always going
to be, isn't it twenty three thousand?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Anybody who who mentions.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Rupperena, that's kind of baked in to the fabric of
the history of Reperena.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
It's not twenty three thousand now because of the upgrade.
It never will be again. But that's part of the mystique,
isn't it.

Speaker 10 (48:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (48:27):
And I think you know, you look at you know.
I think total attendance Heyracuse has dominated just because of
the sheer size of the Carrier Dome. I'm not sure
if it's still called the Carrier Dome or not, but
as far as average attendance, Kentucky has been one or
two pretty much every year since since Reupperena opened, and

(48:49):
so just a great atmosphere to watch a college basketball
and I do enjoy the upgrades that they've made. I mean,
the Central Bank Center is is unbelievable, you know, the
surrounding areas. I mean, it's it's unrecognizable to compared to

(49:10):
what it was. But just such a history of winning
in that building. I think they're at eighty nine percent
or somewhere in that neighborhood over the fifty seasons. And
you had that dominant run in the nineties where it
felt like Kentucky not only one, but they blew teams
out every time they stepped they stepped into reperena. I remember,

(49:31):
I think Mississippi State got them in ninety five maybe
and snapped a really long winning streak, and I remember
thinking like like the world was ending, Like you know,
it just Kentucky just does not lose in that building.
And then, like you mentioned John cal Perry with the
fifty four straight wins to begin his I mean, you

(49:53):
talk about winning your first fifty four games at Reparena
as the head coach, That's that's something.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Talking to Chris Share of the Cat's Paws about the
history of Upperena celebrating it's fiftieth anniversary this year. We'll
come back and talk more of basketball and a little
football with Chris on the other side of the break
here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
We're talking with Chris Fisher.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
He is a staff writer for thecatspaus Kentucky dot com
and if you go to the website part of the
two four to seven Sports network, you will see Chris's
peace on the fact that Kentucky is celebrating its fiftieth
season at Rupperina, and of course Mark Pope now at
the Helm, part of that great run in the nineties. Rupperina,

(50:33):
of course, has been the host to much more than
just the Kentucky basketball program. We've had hockey there, We've
had minor league, minor league football there.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
I loved going to Lection and Horseman games.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
You know, it's too bad financially they couldn't make it,
but I remember talking to Horseman players, the guys who
played at UK and around you know, Georgetown at KU,
and they said, opposing players took note how great the
facility was, the field was good, the locker rooms all that,
and said, hey, we want to come play for you guys,

(51:07):
because that's how good Reperena was.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
But they just couldn't quite make it work. But I
thought it was a perfect fit, you know.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Yeah, I think you know, we've seen that model kind
of over and over again of you know, kind of
a minor league team that you know, in a college
town and you know, has a lot of players from
the local college team in Kentucky had the the thoroughbolt
Blade were in Reperena as well, and I think we

(51:37):
had the River Monsters there for a while. I remember
Jared then in those those reptilian uh colored jerseys. That
was definitely an interesting look. But yeah, I gets so much,
so much history outside of of of basketball and Rapperina.
The concerts, so many legendary concerts there as well. I

(52:01):
think Elvis was there, maybe his last tour there in
the late seventies. I think came through Reperina as well.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Are you a concert guy? Did you go to many
Reperena concerts?

Speaker 3 (52:14):
I've never I am a concert guy, but I but
oddly enough I've never been to one.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
They haven't been many, haven't been many lately have there?

Speaker 7 (52:22):
No?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
No, it seems like the Young Center has kind of
stepped into that spot as kind of the h the
premiere concert venue in this area. But every time there's
a concert at the Young Center, the tickets are so outraged.
I usually don't end up going.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
Yeah, you know, the last thing I saw that you
could call a concert at Reperena was Blue Man Group,
and that was back in the met Boy.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Were they good. They were so great.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
But through the years, man, I saw Springsteen and the
Doobie Brothers, my favorite, the Eagles, Garth Brooks put on
a great show.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
I mean yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
And when Rupperina first opened musical acts, they rushed to
get there because back then a lot of acts were
still touring, you know, that was before CDs, believe it
or not, and you could fill that Springsteen literally filled
that place and it actually had more than twenty three
thousand because of the way they set up his stage.

(53:21):
But the biggest acts in the country wanted to be
here because it was so big and they could sell
so many tickets. Now that's not quite the case, but
as you said, they seem to end up in the
Young Center for whatever reason. Let me get you back
to basketball as well. One of the greatest weekends ever
in Rupperina happened, and again it predated you're nineteen eighty

(53:42):
five the Final four when Villanova pulled off the upset
of Georgetown and that, you know, it was a great
week in electionon with the Final four being here and
the year I want to say next year that women
were here for the Final four. But we're never going
to get that again. We because they got to put
them in football stadiums. And that's a shame because if

(54:03):
any if the Final Four belongs in any arena, it's
rop arena.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
Am I right?

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Yeah, I really do miss the conventional arenas playing hosts
to the final fours. And Kentucky actually won the last
national championship that was not held in a football stadium
at the Meadowlands in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 10 (54:26):
Six, and so.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
It you know, I've been to final fours in the
in the football stadiums and it's just not the same
we had. We had lower level seats in twenty eleven
in Houston, and we were still probably a good seventy
five yards away from the court, and everything is just
so open and so spacious, and all the sound goes

(54:53):
up to the ceiling. There's no atmosphere at all. And
that's not even to mention the the toll that it
takes on the shooting. It's so difficult to shoot in
those humongous buildings like that that we see low field
goal percentages, we see low scoring games. That was certainly
the case in Houston in twenty eleven with Kentucky and Yukon,

(55:17):
and I think the other semifinal was ECU and Butler.
All three of those games that weekend were extremely low
scoring and just not an entertaining brand of basketball. I
would love to see them go back to some of
the smaller arenas, but like you said, that's just never
ever going to happen at this point.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
And I remember the teams and some of the spokespeople
from the respective teams in eighty five raving about the
Final four election, and they love the fact that the
hotels were all connected. And you know, one of the
hotels downtown, I can't. I don't know what it goes
by now, maybe a Marriott or one it ushould be.

(55:59):
I think the Rattison. It was built just so Lexingon
could host the Final Four. There weren't enough hotel rooms
and they thought, okay, we'll put up another hotel and
it worked. You know, but I missed the fact that
it's not going to come back. It's a shame, but
we have a lot of regional tournaments, and I don't
know about you, but I love covering NCAA tournaments, even if.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Kentucky's not in it.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
So a few minutes left with Chris Fisher, let me
shift it quickly over to football, and you wrote up
Mark Stoops's comments after the Eastern Michigan win and that
final score to me, Chris was not surprising in terms
of a spread, but the fact that EMU just had
a day against the Kentucky defense, and I know Brad

(56:40):
White wasn't happy.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
How much of a surprise was that to you?

Speaker 3 (56:46):
It was definitely surprising. Brad White said that that was
as poorly as they've played in a long long time,
and he's probably right. You just don't see those types
of busts and coverage that Kentucky had repeatedly uh there
in that that first half. But in all honesty, I'm
not really I was surprised by it, but it's not
something that I'm worried about. I think Brad White is

(57:08):
going to get those things corrected. I think if there's
you know, There's two things that we know about this
Kentucky football team is that they can play defense and
they can run the football. And I think Cutter Bowlie
maybe you know, did some work on answering one of
those other questions. And as Kentucky kN Kentucky pass the football,

(57:30):
he just looked so much more comfortable, so much more
in rhythm than we've seen from Zach Calzada Zak Calzotta
the first two games. It's kind of had a tendency
to drift out of the pocket and you know, kind
of throw on the run, and we saw that there
was not a high completion percentage on those throws downfield.
And I think that's what we saw from Cutter Bowlie,
not only taking those shots but but hitting on some

(57:51):
of them. And that's going to be really really important
for Kentucky to find some of that down till passing game,
because as the season goes along and you get into
a DC play, teams are going to creep up closer
and closer to a lot of scrimmage and shut down
that Kentucky running game until they prove that that they
can pass the football. So that'll be an interesting dynamic
to monitor go towld Bush.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Hamden said what he needed to see Cutter do was
just cut it loose, no pun intended, and he did that,
but again, did that against an EMU team that, with
all due respect, is not nearly as good as SEC.
He's not thrown against SEC defensive backs. That's going to
be really interesting. And I've got to think moving forward,
he's going to be the starter or at least get

(58:34):
a majority of the snaps. But watching him maneuver against
SEC defensive backs with SEC defensive linement in his face,
and he already knows what that feels like from playing
against Texas and good, good players against Louisville.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
So this is going to be really interesting, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
Yeah, I, like you said, I think it's something that
Cutter Bowley has seen. He played in several SEC games
last season, played at Texas and performed really, really well.
But I think it was important for Kentucky to find
a rhythm in the passing game before the bye week
and before they kind of get into the thick of
the the SEC gauntlet. And so you definitely saw what

(59:15):
you wanted to see and needed to see from Cutter Bowlie.
And it does seem like he will be the guy
going forward. I would be surprised if he isn't. But
you also want to keep Zach Calzada ready because you
know it's a long season. You never know what can happen,
and I think Kentucky is good before the end of
the season. I think Kentucky is going to need both

(59:37):
of those guys to play well.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
He is Chris Fisher of the Casts Posh part of
the two four seven network and you can find him
on Twitter at Chris Fisher two four seven. Thank you sir,
and we'll talk again soon.

Speaker 10 (59:50):
All right, thanks bun Up.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Next we'll hear from some of the newest members of
the UK Sports Hall of Fame honored over the weekend.
Stay with us here on the Big Blon Sider six
thirty WLAP Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
The Big Blue Insider.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
As you probably know, over the weekend, the UK Athletic
Department honored six more Hall of Fame inductees and we
talked at link last week with and about my longtime
broadcast partner Doug Flynn. He was one of six. Abby
Cheek from UK Softbass, Son Jahan from Kentucky Tennis. You
also had Mikaela Epps, one of the best Kentucky guards

(01:00:25):
in the history of UK women's basketball, Josh Hines Allen,
Karl Anthony Towns, and of course mister Flynn. Prior to
the event, we had a chance to talk to some
of them, including Josh Allen, who was in town long
enough to attend the banquet. He couldn't be there on
Saturday because he was busy with the Jaguars they were
playing right up the road against the Bengals. But we

(01:00:48):
all got together and fired some questions at Josh, who
his last year a Kentucky was the best defensive player
in the country, and he talked about where he was
when he got the call telling him he was now
going into the UK Sports Hall of Fame.

Speaker 12 (01:01:04):
I was in California.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I was doing Uh.

Speaker 13 (01:01:09):
I was actually doing something for the NFL out there,
and uh, my guy's been setting me up the whole time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:01:17):
He was like, Hey, they're doing uh, you know, Mitch
wants to talk to you.

Speaker 13 (01:01:21):
They're doing uh uh they want to see after the
after college life or want to check up with you.
In my head, I'm like, why did never ever called
me before? But I'm like, I guess, But my scheduling
was just all I've been to I was super busy,
and then one day you called me out of the
blue while I was sitting down. He's like, you got
times all.

Speaker 12 (01:01:40):
I was like, well, I got time talking right.

Speaker 13 (01:01:41):
Now, and so you know, Mitch calls and well we
get on the zoom. Was calls is like, hey, well
you've just been to the Hall of Fame. I was like,
huh so it kind of caught me off guard. But
then once it kind of like those emotions came out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
Uh so real moment.

Speaker 12 (01:01:59):
Definitely proud to be a part of.

Speaker 13 (01:02:01):
The legacy and kind of leave my kind of leave
my legacy out here and continue to grow on.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
UK is an underrated guy to.

Speaker 14 (01:02:13):
Ye.

Speaker 13 (01:02:14):
I mean, my goal was to always be the best
defensive player to come out of Kentucky. That that's really
what I strove to stride for every single year. And
just now to see, you know, my four years past
and come back still in the league playing at a
high level. Uh, seven years in and now I'm getting

(01:02:35):
recognized as.

Speaker 12 (01:02:37):
A Hall of Famer. But it's so real and not
a lot of guys can say that, and I'm just
totally blessed and honored to be in this situation in
the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
What did it mean to you, Josh that your team
accomplished so much as a ball thupf.

Speaker 13 (01:02:51):
Yeah, I mean I think that's the reason why I'm here.
I think, uh, you know, there's been a whole bunch
of guys, not even for our for Tucky, but just
all over the world. That's just you know, guys that
have the individual success and that can get them so far.
But like once you can translate that individuuss to team success,
then not only I see something, not everybody else gets

(01:03:14):
to feed on that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
And that was one thing that we kind.

Speaker 13 (01:03:17):
Of strived for, was like it's not just about me.
I didn't get here about myself, and I credit to
my teammates tech. I've seen a couple of my seniors
when I was a freshman, and I'm thinking those guys
in the suite when I went.

Speaker 12 (01:03:29):
To the game, and like, you know, the josh Fords,
the Melvins, you know.

Speaker 13 (01:03:33):
My exis like, I appreciate you guys for you know,
showing me the right way to do things and kind
of wanted me to pass the torch in a way,
and I wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
To do it my way.

Speaker 12 (01:03:44):
And you know, and so I just think those guys.

Speaker 14 (01:03:47):
That what wasn't mean that in the face of fruiting
the beloty and like the culture of the blue collar
and the culture the extincts, it's still you kind of
be in the the face.

Speaker 13 (01:03:56):
I mean, you know, I came in and again one
of I had a goal for myself each and every year.
I achieved some, didn't achieve some, but I came back
the next year willing to do more and become a
better player for myself. And I think that kind of
motivated me to become a better player and push me.

(01:04:16):
And then I had my son my senior year, that
kind of that extra motivation that kind of uplifted me.
So for me, man, it was just to you know,
probably looked at as a as a roster filler, but
if you manage your time and capitalize up the opportunity,
you can probably be a future Hall of Famer.

Speaker 4 (01:04:36):
How did Coach street is going to impact that and
have one of that journey?

Speaker 13 (01:04:39):
Yeah, I mean Coch Shush was very hands on with
me throughout my whole four years. When you look back
at my senior year, Uh, he was a guy that
I kind of leached on to uh just to talk
ball and to understand where I'm at, uh, you know,
where my family is, and just being somebody I can
consult with. I can go over to this house and

(01:05:00):
you know, he can barbecue. And you know, I was
still in college. I ain't had that much money, so
I go in there and get I go over there
and get a mill, you know, but not just me,
as the whole team.

Speaker 12 (01:05:10):
So he kind of definitely instilled that culture, and you
know for us to see that.

Speaker 13 (01:05:16):
From the coaches, they kind of dig deep into everybody
else and we kind of made a family.

Speaker 12 (01:05:21):
You know, I still have my brother, heard the guys
that I played with here that are still in the league.
We still stick connected and you know we created all
that year and that's thanks to go Stups to those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Josh Allender won basically every award you could win if
you were a defensive football player in the Division IE
level his last year at Kentucky. Now with the Jacksonville Jaguars,
two time Pro bowler Josh Hines Allen. We also talk
with Karl Anthony Towns. You know, he was part of
that group that led the Wildcats of that incredible thirty
eight game win streak got to the final four first

(01:05:54):
round draft pick overall.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
Now with the New York Knicks, he talked about how
he found out.

Speaker 4 (01:05:59):
Yeah, yeah, I was in New York. He was in
the Boston Series.

Speaker 15 (01:06:03):
I think we had just came back from Game two,
found a way again to come back and win, and
all of a sudden, Coach Cooke was like, you know,
we gotta fly down. Ray Oliver also it was like,
we gotta fly down. We're trying to see you. We're
gonna see a recruit. You know, maybe we could get
some time with you. And they were very much pressing
the issue of seeing me. And you know, it's the playoffs,

(01:06:24):
so I'm kind of locked in on my job. I said,
I'll find some time. I'll come right after practice, drove down.
They were right there waiting for me, and we sat down.

Speaker 4 (01:06:34):
We talked.

Speaker 15 (01:06:35):
It was funny, we talked. He was Coach Polk was
asked me about more of like Kentucky, and I was like,
you know, I just wanted to leave a legacy. I
just wanted to do something special. You know, maybe one day,
you know, I'll get the call, you know, to be
in the Hall of Fame. Fifteen minutes later, mister Barnhart's
calling and he had to do a zoom and he

(01:06:57):
told me the news, and I would never have guests.
So I was in complete shock that. You know, I
know your guys are waiting for me to say I
made the Hall of Fame. But we made the Hall
of Fame. This is a me just representing my whole team,
coaching staff that was with me, and all the amazing
fans that supported us. So for us to make the
Hall of Fame, it's really important, and I think that

(01:07:18):
it just speaks volumes to you know, the legacy we
were all able to leave here as a team.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
Oh man, it's awesome. Man, it's awesome.

Speaker 15 (01:07:27):
Got to get myself some indies too, So I feel
pretty good. I feel pretty good. It's always good when
you get to come back home and be welcome back
to home. You know, you never know how home will
treat you, and you know how they'll welcome you back.
And to see the love and respect that I've been
given since I stepped off the plane here as humbling
and it warms my heart.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
It's been like to.

Speaker 14 (01:07:47):
Watching the transition talent and hope and just kind of
still raising this program.

Speaker 4 (01:07:51):
With the new leader. Yeah, I mean Coach Pope is amazing.

Speaker 15 (01:07:54):
I got to know him on a personal level, and
obviously as a coach, he's one offul kind and the best.
So I think Kentucky is in for a lot of
years of really great coaching and a great leadership. And
I think that with Coach Pope again, we'll be seeing
not only great players come to Kentucky and Lexington, but
we'll see these players leave Lexington and become men.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
And that's the most important thing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:08:17):
You come to the university and parents trust Coach Pope
and the coaching staff to raise their boys, and I
think he's doing a great job raising boys.

Speaker 14 (01:08:25):
To have you talk to the team today and just
kind of win advice that you have for them as
they kind of being.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
In their own legacy.

Speaker 15 (01:08:31):
Yeah, I mean the advice I had when I was here,
you know, being the present. I think we all know
in this circle, let's not kid ourselves. When you got
Kentucky across their chest and you're playing for the basketball team,
you're the rock stars of Lexington. You're the most famous
athletes and people and all of Lexington. So my advice
to them was just trying to make everyone proud. Live,

(01:08:52):
you know, show everyone what it truly means to be
a Kentucky Wildcat, Treat everyone with respect, have tremendous amounts
of humility, and appreciate this moment. How many people get
to call themselves at Kentucky Wildcat. How many chances people
get the chance to step into reperina and represent the
crowd here and the amazing fan base we have here.
I just wanted them to understand that it is one

(01:09:13):
of the biggest honors you'll receive in life to be
able to call yourself a Wildcat. And I want them
to stay in the president, don't worry about the future,
to worry about hospital with NBA and money and all
that stuff. I just want them to live in the
present and enjoy this moment. You may never be in
another room with that much talent ever again. And anyone
could tell them that, I definitely can't with our team.

Speaker 14 (01:09:33):
When you talking about the dominance of that team and
stuff like you see there's all time college basketball teams.
Does it mean something to you to say, hey, we
assembled maybe the most talented team ever heard.

Speaker 4 (01:09:45):
I mean, yeah, but you know, at the end of
the day. Assembling talent and having talent work together. It's
two different things.

Speaker 7 (01:09:51):
You know.

Speaker 15 (01:09:52):
There's been many teams, you know that in college basketball
that had a tremendous amount of talent, but they just
didn't coincide, you know, they couldn't work with each other.
I think what makes us so special was the amount
of sacrifice to have someone like d Book, who now
the whole Kentucky team's wearing his shoes, be on the
bench for our team. It just shows to the death
our team had everyone knows here, obviously, but shows the

(01:10:12):
sacrifice everyone.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Was willing to make that we were willing to get Kentucky.

Speaker 15 (01:10:18):
Lexington wins more than what we thought would get raised
our draft stocks, and in essence us sacrificing for each
other and for Lexington rolls all our draft stocks to
a level that I don't think many of us could
have thought of, let alone for me being able to
be the number one pick. I don't know there's a
number another number one pick that average ten points in
a game.

Speaker 4 (01:10:37):
But I'm glad that, you know, with my.

Speaker 15 (01:10:41):
Brothers and the amazing coaching staff that when it was
my turn entered the NBA, I was able to show
my talent I did here and I was able to
show even more in the NBA, and I had the
chance to have the career I had so far in NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Our career is not over.

Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
But where is this maybe stack up in your club
which ships so far? This is up there.

Speaker 15 (01:11:01):
Of course, you always want to be able to cement
yourself with the greats here. And like I said, in
my whole heart, I feel that I'm entering with my brothers.
You know, this is something that we as a team earned,
and we as the team will continue will finish this
chapter and finish this book together. And I refused to

(01:11:21):
go up there and say that I've made the Hall
of Fame. It's a it's a weak thing. We made
it to the Hall of Fame, us, our coaching staff,
the amazing fans again that I can't thank enough for
this opportunity to play for them in the in the
year I was here. And also shout out to the
Nintendo six and four that made it with us as well.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Karl Anthony Towns helped the Knicks make the Eastern Conference
finals last year. Maybe he'll take them all the way
this coming season. So I mentioned we talked with Doug
Flynn last week. Darren Heddrick Adam on his show last
night on BBN Radio. But at the event, I talked
to Marty Brenneman, and those two are very very close
and now just because they worked radio together, Marty has

(01:12:02):
been a Doug Flynn fan ever since Doug came to
spring training in nineteen seventy five, which is when and
how he made the team, that big red Machine team.
He played so well Sparky Anderson couldn't cut him. And Marty,
as I am very fond of Doug, you're like me,

(01:12:22):
you're very fond of this kid Flynn. What was your
reaction when you heard he was a.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
Hall of Famer.

Speaker 6 (01:12:27):
I was thrilled. I'm thrilled that he asked me to
be here. You know, we have a great relationship, Dick, and.

Speaker 5 (01:12:36):
There's not a bigger fan of Doug Flynn's in the
world than I am. And Amanda and I are really
good friends.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
With he and Olga.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
And when he called me and told me, and he
said would you come, I said, I've got to be
dead not to come.

Speaker 6 (01:12:50):
And so Rick Wallas, who runs.

Speaker 5 (01:12:52):
Our Hall of Fame in museum, and I drove down
here and I know Dick Doug is thrilled to death
about it, and I'm as happy as I could be.

Speaker 6 (01:13:00):
I wish his dad mom was still around him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
He's told me before about that spring training in seventy
five and he made the ball club and that's you
and you and he.

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
Just kind of hit it often, didn't you? We did?

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
I mean I was I had already come a year before,
but he came to camp, and I've told the story.

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
A million times.

Speaker 5 (01:13:20):
He had about as much chance of making that team
when it began that I did. And Sparky kept playing
him and playing him and playing him, trying to get
him to the level that Sparky thought he had so
he would have the reason to send him out, and
every time he played him, he got two hits. In fact,
I think he still holds a record today for most

(01:13:42):
hits by a Reds player in his spring training. And
he just forced Sparky to make him pick him to
play on the club. And it was an easy choice
by the time that spring training ended, and I was
pulling like the Dickens for him because I'm still relatively new.

Speaker 6 (01:13:57):
I've only been there a year, and to have a
guy come out of nowhere like he did. And I
think that's where the bond really began.

Speaker 5 (01:14:04):
And I realized quickly that as far as a person
who was concerned, he's a quality person there and he's
still a quality person today.

Speaker 2 (01:14:14):
And to that end, he has as much respect for
the game of baseball. We've talked a lot about this
as anybody I know. He's not crazy about the changes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
He comes off like he's a young guy, but he's
an old school kind of guy. How much did that
respect for the game do you think go into him
not just making the team, but coexisting with the Morgans
and the roads.

Speaker 2 (01:14:36):
He kind of knew his place, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Well, I think it worked in his favor because those
guys had so much talent, and I don't mean to disparage.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
Them, but it was easy for them.

Speaker 5 (01:14:47):
It was easy for Bench and Pete and Morgan and
Perez and all those guys. It was tough for him
and he had to grind it out every single day.
And honestly, God, the best thing that ever happened to
him was when he got traded, because then he got
a chance.

Speaker 6 (01:15:00):
To play every day, went to the Mets, got a
gold glove, playing with the Mets.

Speaker 5 (01:15:04):
He came into his own as a player, and let's
face facts, the bottom lineer is making money. He made
more money for himself by being a New York and
met that he ever would have being a Cincinnati read.

Speaker 6 (01:15:17):
And so his respect of the game was great. Then
the fact that it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:21):
Mattered that he didn't particularly care the way the game
has played today. There's another old guy and I one
of you standing next to you right now, the same
way about the game.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Yeah, and yet you guys are still buddies.

Speaker 6 (01:15:35):
And we always will be.

Speaker 5 (01:15:36):
I know he goes on the baseball crews with us
every year, and I go to Fantasy Camp and spend
a lot of time with him there in Arizona.

Speaker 6 (01:15:46):
I'm just a big fan. I don't There's never been in.

Speaker 5 (01:15:50):
My mind, and all the years we've known each other
a negative about Doug Flynn.

Speaker 6 (01:15:54):
I loved his mom and dad. I think the world
of Brad his brothers.

Speaker 5 (01:16:00):
Oh yeah, it's a love affair that has existed for
a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
Pretty good broadcaster, I can tell you that. You can too. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:16:07):
I don't know if he ever told you a story
about the first time he worked with me in spring
training and when he threw away his notes, had all
these notes and came down, sat down.

Speaker 6 (01:16:16):
I mean it looked like a New York City fold director.
And I picked him all up and threw him in
a trash can.

Speaker 5 (01:16:20):
I said, you don't need that. I said, just talk
about what you know. I'd never played the game you did.
You have an advantage over me. I'm going to give
you a chance to talk about it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:30):
I can tell you from experience he still works that
way thanks to you.

Speaker 5 (01:16:34):
Well, I don't know about that, but I'm glad he's
got a work ethic.

Speaker 6 (01:16:37):
I had great work ethic. I mean, he's going to
apply himself to no.

Speaker 2 (01:16:40):
Matter what he does.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
We'll come back and wrap things up in just a
minute here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back, final segment
of our program, and thanks again to Chris Fisher from
The Cat's Balls and two four to seven Sports, and
of course Van Heiles v styles driving with styles we
always learn and if you don't follow him on Twitter,
he just got great video cut ups. And of course
he talks to Tom on a regular basis every Monday morning.

(01:17:04):
But yeah, we started talking to Van quite a while
ago when we first noticed his work on the Internet,
and the fact that he he invested in some software
and as a coach, which he is a high school coach.
Now he really teaches us about football, So glad to
have it. By the way, if you hear it in
the background, we have some work being done on the
house here as I sit in the garage. It's upstairs,

(01:17:25):
but still you might be able to hear the power
tools happening upstairs. Maybe you here a dog barking as well.
Wanted to share with you something I mentioned a guy
who I follow on Twitter. His name is Jim Kennigsberger,
and I think he's a doctor. But what he is
basically is a huge baseball fan. And I don't know
where he finds these things, but he posts the most

(01:17:47):
interesting little notes, story sidebars about Major League Baseball. And
he published a photo of Chuck Connors posing with Stam Usual. Now,
some of you know Chuck Connors was the Rifleman.

Speaker 2 (01:18:06):
Oh Rightfleman.

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
Starring Chuck Connors.

Speaker 1 (01:18:16):
That's right, he was the star of the TV show.
But this came after his pro baseball career. When he
was with the Cubs in nineteen fifty one, he was
struggling and says as a hitter. He asked teammates what
he should do, and they all said the same thing.
The only guy who can save you is Musual, who
was one of the most underrated players in the history
of the Major Leagues, played for my beloved Saint Louis Cardinals.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Had he played for a.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
Team in New York or the Cubs, for instance, the
teams in the West Coast were not all that prevalent yet,
but God, had he played in New York, Oh my goodness. Anyhow,
Connors spent thirty minutes at the batting cage with Stan Musil,
an opposing player, and honor said. I was a bum
of a hitter, just not cut out for the majors.

(01:19:04):
But I will never forget Stan's kindness. And when he
was finished watching me cut away at the ball, he
slapped me on the back, told me to keep swinging,
and he said he really appreciated what Stan Musual did
for him.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
I didn't know this sedar.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
His name was Kevin, but he went by Chuck because
when he played first base edlt infield, Chuck it to me, baby,
chuck it to me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
That was one great bit of baseball trivia I never knew,
and now I do. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I hope you all are well informed now about the rifleman.
We'll be at it again tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (01:19:37):
That said, good night from the garage and Lexington.

Speaker 4 (01:19:40):
I'm sorry, what was that again.

Speaker 11 (01:19:42):
I'm a god, You're god.

Speaker 2 (01:19:45):
I'm a guy.

Speaker 10 (01:19:46):
I'm not the guy.

Speaker 14 (01:19:48):
I don't think.

Speaker 11 (01:20:06):
Contacts back then, the back stat totting

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Episode Transcript

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}2025-09-16 BBI

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

2025-09-16 BBI

On Purpose with Jay Shetty