2025-09-25 BBI

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you
on a Thursday edition of our program. Tomorrow, we meaning
the UK Radio Network, along with the Kentucky football team,
pile onto an airplane for the first time this year
and head down the Columbia South Carolina for the Wildcats'
second SEC game. First one didn't go so well, the
lost ole miss. So now the Wildcats can pick up

(00:23):
a much leading So now the Wildcats can pick up
a much needed win against South Carolina, which of late
has owned Kentucky for a while. There it was the
other way around. This was a swing game. The Kentucky
would pull in, it would swing toward the Wildcats, but
of late it's been the game Cocks. And this is

(00:44):
not going to be easy, as we know, not just
because it's a road game, not just because it is
in Williams. Brice Stadium, which is phenomenally noisy. But South
Carolina has the guy who might be now the best
quarterback in the SEC, depending on what you see what
you like. You know it's not Arch Manning. We know
that it's not DJ Lagway. We know that could be

(01:07):
Garrett nus Meyer at LSU. But some people favor Leonora Sellers, big, strong, fast,
good runner, but a really good passer. You know, he's
not one of these guys you look at and think,
you know, why, isn't he a running back just because
he can throw the football. No, it's the other way around.
He's a really good quarterback who can run the ball
and hurt Kentucky with his legs last year. We're gonna

(01:29):
talk about that tonight with Anthony White from Sunday Morning Sports.
Talk to former UK running back and Tom Leads, the
voice of the Wildcats, who is a hip deep in
his prep work for Kentucky South Carolina. Anthony comes up
at the bottom of the hour, Tom comes up and
nour number two. We're also gonna hear and our number
two from Bear Bryant, an old clip from one of

(01:50):
his TV shows, and it's really entertaining. You're gonna want
to hear that. Brian, of course, the legend from Alabama,
but also coach the Kentucky Wildcats to glory back in
the fifties. Before we go any further, though, we need
to talk about the fact that the Kentucky volleyball team
wins again last night, sweeping South Carolina. Seventeen, twenty nine,

(02:12):
twenty seven and the second said and twenty five to eighteen.
Brooklyn Delay with fourteen kills, hit five twenty two in
the match, had sixteen digs, her third double double of
the season. Eva Hudson with thirteen kills and eight digs.
That is such a great combination. And Kentucky hit three
p forty on the night. And this was a South

(02:35):
Carolina team coached by Sarah Roumley Nobles. She was a
two time All American setter at UK. It's her first
year as a head coach at South Carolina. Also happening
last night, Texas swept Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt in its first season
of women's volleyball since nineteen eighty and the head coach

(02:58):
there's Anders Nelson. Vanderbilt, looking for a new head coach,
looked at the top of the league. Kentucky looked at
Craig Skinner's staff and two years ago poached Skinner's top assistant,
which is not a bad way to do business. Mitch
Barnhardt has made a lot of hay out of hiring

(03:19):
top assistants and Vandy did just that again. You're at Texas.
Texas ranked second in the country Texas sweeps, but I
have a feeling that Anders will get the job done
to a degree at Vanderbilt, So keep an eye on
that if you will. One other football note before we
start breaking things down, Josh Katis, who is doing a
lot of great work off the field, is named a

(03:42):
Campbell Trophy semifinalist, and that's got as much to do
with off the field as on the field. There are
one hundred and seventy seven semifinalists, the announcement coming from
the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame.
Katis is a senior on track to graduate in December
with a three eight GPA in business and he has

(04:07):
done a lot when it comes to community service and
leadership and as a leader on the team, he's been
elected a game captain twice against Toledo Anamis and he's
having a good year so far. But he also represents
UK football in the Student Advisory Council, SEC Football Leadership Council,

(04:27):
all kinds of stuff like that. He's done great work
for the UK Children's Hospital. Recently spearheaded a shoe drive
for Camp horsing around to collect shoes for kids who
need them, and also of course participated in Dancing with
Election and Stars, which help raise nearly fifty thousand dollars
for various nonprofit organizations. So good on Josh Katis. We'll

(04:51):
hear more from him tomorrow when we talk about the
Wildcats in South Carolina. But tonight we'll hear from Brad White,
of course, the Kentucky's defensive coordinator, trying to figure out
a way to come up with a game plan to
stop Leonora's sellers, or at least slow him down.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Of course, the concern after Eastern Michigan was why all
the passing yards by EMU and as White said when
they broke down the video, there was a lot to like,
but a lot to work on.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Proud of the performance as a whole against Eastern Michigan again,
was there plenty of plays.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
That were really good? Heck, yeah, there's about sixty.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Three of them, but there was about seven or eight
that were just really disappointing, and we have to clean
those up because those lose jabal games. And so you've
got to be willing to take that criticism.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
And it can't always just.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Be a pat on the back, oh man, because I
don't want to hurt their feelings or lose their They
better learn and they listen. I'm gonna take criticism, but
I'm still confident stepping back out on my football.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Fo Somebody asked Brad White about the interior rush, How
vital is that going to be with the guys on
the inside trying to get to Leonora's sellers.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Well, the whole rush is if not just the interior
you just said, like if he gets out like that's
a problem, right, And so the entire rush, both in
tier and X tier, part of the.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Rush has to be in sync. They got to understand
pocket depth. They've got to understand where he is, you know,
and he does a really nice job in the pocket.
Feeling pressure, he'll slide, you know. Some qbs just like
to slide down, some like to exit up over the top.
He does both, which is an extra challenge in that regard.

(06:31):
So you can't just force him in a direction that.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
He doesn't like to go.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
He doesn't mind going any which way. You obviously saw
the throw on third and thirty seven to his left. Everybody,
I'll make him go to his off hand. I mean
throws an absolute dart that quarterbacks just standing flat footed,
you know. The squared shoulders couldn't make So yeah, we

(06:57):
got to we've got our.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Hands for Mark Dukes likes to use the world. They
put a lot of strain on you because he, of
course was a decoordinator, defensive coach, a defensive player. And
when it comes to Leonora Sellers, as Brad White said,
that guy just single handedly puts a strain on the
entire defense.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
If you if you play with fewer guys in the
box to protect some of the deep shots. Right, one
they can run the ball, but two they can go
with the QB run and so now they've added an
extra blocker into the run game, and so that can
that can really be a problem. And then if you
try to stop that, then it isolates the outside. We've
got to do a good job of playing complimentary not

(07:39):
just offense defense. We talk about conferencial football right offense defense,
rush teams, but complementary defensively, we have to do a
good job of front and coverage, you know, front end,
back end, doing a good job of helping each other
and understanding, hey, listen, what sid you what play call
that comes in? What we're trying to get done on that.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Now, if you watch South Carolina Missouri or read about it.
You saw that South Carolina flat out could not run
the ball against Missouri. The Tigers did a great job
stopping the South Carolina run, yet sellers kept South Carolina
in the game. But apart from that, White said, and
I had the same feeling that's probably with due respect

(08:23):
to Kentucky, that's not going to happen Saturday night because
South Carolina they went back to work. You know, they
did working on the run game, figuring out the problems
they had, and you know, the first thing they're going
to try to do is established a run between the tackles.
And so White said, they've got to be ready for anything.
And he talked about something he heard recently on ESPN Radio.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
You know, coach Herm Edwards was on there and they
were asking about like the NFL, when he was talking about, hey,
listen to throw records out right, it's about the best
team on that day. You know, every every Sunday. So
it's the same thing in the SEC every Saturday. You know,
sometimes a team may really struggle to run it one
week and everybody's like all there, they can't do, and

(09:05):
then next week they rush for two fifty or three legs,
So we are very aware of, you know, how talented
their running backs are scheme wise, they can mix zone
and gap scheme with their counters, and obviously then you
throw sellers in in the QB run game, so at
any moment that thing can explode.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
It's Brad White and up next instead of our number two.
Let's listen to Bear Bryant after the break here on
six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider.
Coming up in just a few minutes at the bottom
of the hour, Anthony White, former Kentucky running back who
is the co host of Sunday morning sports talk here
on WLAP and the podcast The Locker four one one

(09:45):
with the Van Hiles, one of our favorite guests. So
we'll learn football from aunt Be and Tom Leach comes
up and I renumber two, the voice of the Wildcats.
We'll also talk about some of the most disappointing college
football programs over the last decade. And I know, if
you're a cynic right now, you're saying, oh, Kentucky, Well
not really. If you go back over the last decade, Kentucky,

(10:07):
you throw out last year was one of the teams
basically on the rise over ten years, but there have
been other programs and not as much was expected of Kentucky.
There are programs where the fan base had every right
to expect their program to buy for a national title
and haven't even come close. So we'll talk about that.

(10:28):
That's coming up in our number two, And in just
a couple of minutes, we're gonna hear from Bear Bryant,
believe it or not, obviously made his name as the
head coach at Alabama, but prior to that at Kentucky.
But I wanted to throw a couple of headlines at you,
including the fact that the twenty twenty six Pro Football
Hall of Fame nominees have been announced, and the top

(10:50):
names you got to think they're going in Drew Brees
and Larry Fitzgerald. Drew Brees second all time in yardage
and touched passes, second only to a guy named Tom Brady,
so you gotta think they're gonna be first ballot picks.
The final fifteen from last year, the final seven, I

(11:12):
should say, in the class of twenty twenty five are
on the ballot. Willie Anderson, Torrey Holt, Luke Keigley, Adam Vinettieri,
other returning finalists Darren Woodson, Terrell Suggs, Marshall Yonda, Jarry Evans,
Reggie Wayne, Steve Smith, Senior, Fred Taylor, and Eli Manning,
which to me is the toughest vote of all because

(11:36):
people like to fold in whether or not a guy
was a winner. Did he go to the Super Bowl?
Did he win Super Bowls? Eli Manning won two Super Bowls?
But when the Giants weren't in the Super Bowl, they
weren't winning. So do you put that on Eli Manning
or the fact that the Giants have not been great
at consistently putting good teams together. What I like to

(11:57):
look at as well is Eli has more than twenty
fourth quarter rallies to his credit. He engineered more than
twenty come from behind victories in the fourth quarter for
the New York Football Giants. It would be hard for
me to leave him off a ballot. But the question

(12:18):
is who goes in ahead of him. Certainly Drew Brees does,
and certainly Larry Fitzgerald does. Spent his entire career with
the Arizona Cardinals. Was the overall number three draft pick
in four seventeen seasons. His catches in yards rank only
second only to Jerry Rice. And the Cardinals have made
one Super Bowl and he led them there or as

(12:40):
one of the leaders. And you might recall that it
took an incredible play at the end of the game
by the Steelers to beat the Arizona Cardinals. So and
by the way, he topped the thousand yards receiving nine times,
tied for the fourth fourth most ever. And yeah, the
Cardinals made the Super Bowl following the twenty eight season,

(13:03):
So I don't have a vote, but that will be tough.
I can tell you that well. The Tigers have fallen
completely on their face eight straight losses, are out of
first place for the first time since April. Man, it
is a tough time to be a Detroit Tigers fan.
Zion Williamson making headlines the former Duke Blue Devil now

(13:24):
the NBA cranking up Picture day media all that stuff.
Zion turned heads at picture Day for the New Orleans
Pelicans because he looks so good. He's in shape. I
saw one report that had him listed at two eighty four.
Another one had him listed at two sixty four, which

(13:44):
is the lightest he has been since being drafted overall
number one in twenty nineteen. He's only six six, and
he just hasn't been available to his team on a
consistent basis, to say the least, He's only played in
forty five percent of the possible games. In the NBA,

(14:04):
He's played in two hundred and fourteen of four hundred
and seventy two regular season games. In fact, missed the
entire twenty twenty one to twenty two season. Now, when
he does play, he averages nearly twenty eight points, seven rebounds,
five and a half assists, and makes fifty nine percent
of his shots. He's incredible when he's healthy. But if

(14:25):
you watched him play and he's a high flying guy.
I thought about this when he was in college, how
does that body withstand the physical toll of carrying all
that weight? Well, if he's down from three hundred plus
to even two eighty four, much less to sixty four,
Pelicans may have him for most of, if not the

(14:45):
entire season. And there's a reason they gambled with his
rookie contract, extending it by five years, one hundred and
ninety seven million dollars. Now, there are clauses concerning playing weight,
body fat percentages, et cetera. But I saw the photos
via USA Today dot com. Man does he look good,

(15:09):
so keep an eye on him, even if you're not
an NBA fan. Keep an eye on Zion Williamson down
in New Orleans. And remember Anthony Davis began his career
in New Orleans, gave it a shot, and nothing came
of it. So now he's a Laker, all right. I
mentioned Bear Bryant. There is a site on Instagram that

(15:31):
shares Alabama related stuff and they shared a clip from
the Bear Bryant TV show from back in nineteen eighty.
Bear Bryant went on the air and solicited from fans
a new hat. His hats were wearing out, and he
was famous for wearing what was called a houndstooth hat,

(15:53):
but evidently technically it wasn't a houndstooth style of hat.
It's called shepherd's. The checks are bigger and Bryant, if
you listen, he makes the distinction. He doesn't want the
small checks, he wants the big checks. Doesn't matter what
color it was, but it was the style of check

(16:16):
that was important to him. This comes via the Alabama
Bear Bryant Museum. But this comes from a show on
October sixth, nineteen eighty The coach Bryant's show, So listening
a new hat coach.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
But yeah, this is something one huge, but I got
to do it. And I don't want a bunch of
letters this, that and the other. Don't have time to answer.
But these old hat siwe where I'm out at, And
I know somebody got one around someplace. I don't care
how many. It doesn't have to be new, but don't

(16:52):
want old and this and old, but not the small
check I've got. You can buy the small check, but
quit making these things. And I have to have him
be myself and I'm out except this one right here
and one old red one. I want the black and
white with a big check. What side seven three eighths off?

(17:13):
I give a seven and a half, all the blue
and white, all the criminal and white, and I'd be
glad to pay for him or whatever you want to
read him with price if.

Speaker 6 (17:25):
You don't have one. If you have one, you don't
want it.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
If you just got it, cause it's pretty well, let
me buy it from me. But as I say, I
don't care about a bunch of double talk about it
because I don't have time to fool with it. But
I'm gonna run out and I don't want that to happen.

Speaker 6 (17:45):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
And by double talking man, he didn't want to interact
with the fans. Don't write him a letter to send
him a hat. I don't know if he ever got
it or not. I'm sure he got swamp with hats
that came pouring in, but evidently the hat that he
liked he quit making it. But I'll have to watch
for a follow up to see if he actually got one.
But that was the Bear Bryan Show, the Coach Bryant
Show sponsored by Coca Cola, which, of course in the

(18:10):
Deep South cock Cola and Golden Flake, and there was
a box or packet of Golden Flake crackers with some
people go nabs on the desk there, not unlike Mark
Stoops when he has a news conference and there's a
bottle of coc cola on the podium. Tom Leech loves
to tell the story about watching when he was a
kid a Bear Bryan show. He came upon where Brian

(18:34):
was sitting next to whoever was hosting, and was drinking
coc cola and eating Golden Flake potato chips out of
a big bowl next to him on the set. He'd
be watching a video, and you'd hear him, you know,
chomping down on the tater chips while he was talking
about this boy and that boy, and I know his
mama and his daddy. They're good people and that kind

(18:55):
of stuff. Coaches shows, as Bill Curry once said, they're
all terrible. I just want mine to be a little
less terrible than others. And his ones and his was
bad as well. I helped produce it. But show me
a good coaches show, and I'll stop what I'm doing
and watch the whole thing. Up next to Anthony White
talking Kentucky football here on six thirty WLAP, Welcome back

(19:19):
to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is a
familiar voice to these airwaves. Anthony White, former Kentucky running back.
You know him as the host of the Locker four
one one podcast and Sunday morning sports talk each and
every week here on six thirty WLAP.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
A B.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
This is a big one. It's of course a road game.
It's a conference game. Kentucky's already dropped one conference game.
You've played at South Carolina. You know how loud it
can be down there. Tell me about this challenge.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
I think it's gonna be a good one for us.
I think we'll answer a lot of questions. The old
miss game is when I had us winning, Yeah, it
was a winnable game. Now that was at home. Unfortunately,
uh Kroger Field is not a friendly environment for us
any anymore for some reason, under Mark, these past couple

(20:10):
of years, home games haven't been gimmes and they haven't
been advantageous for us. But I just think going into
going down to South Carolina, we're gonna be a little
bit more focused. We're on the road, you don't have
all the distractions you have of a home game. The
biggest thing though game is we've gotten some some things
figured out at the quarterback position.

Speaker 6 (20:30):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
I think that that is gonna be huge for us.
Our defense has been struggling, I think as of lately
because I think they felt like they had to make
a lot of plays. You know, we we have to
take risk or most people say they were playing soft,
but I think that's the personnel on the field. I
think the offense is gonna show up for us. And
the last game I saw South Carolina to play, Missouri

(20:53):
ran the ball against us well, and running the ball
is something we've done pretty well the past couple of years,
so I think we got we got to thing in
the right place. I just hopefully everything's coming. We haven't
played a good game yet.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Not a complete game, yeah, a complete game. All right,
Let's start with the offense. And of course you've got
a red shirt freshman who has played on the road before,
played at Texas and played fairly well. Did not start
the game though, But you know as well as anybody,
when you're the starter, especially at QB, and you're at
the front of the room literally when when they're installing

(21:29):
the game plan and you get a majority of the
reps and all that, it's easy to see how a
young quarterback can feel that that kind of pressure. I
don't get that impression from Cutter Bowley. I don't know
if you've had a chance to meet him yet. One
of his teammates said it reminds him of a surfer dude.
He's kind of laid back. But talk a little bit,
if you will, about a young quarterback carrying the expectations,

(21:53):
especially in his first road start.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
And I kind of go back to even my first
sophomore years. I actually started as a freshman, and it
was it was terrible. As an experienced. I don't want
to recall ever again, but it was when you're young,
you just care free, you just careless. You just out there,
were reckless, abandon your junior and senior year. You kind

(22:17):
of feel the game, you understand the game, and now
you're doing something you know how to do. But as
a youngster, the one thing that Cutter showed. Now, mind you,
it was an SEC competition. It may probably not have
been one of the top one hundred teams in the country,
but the offensive line gave him a pocket. He stayed
in the pocket, he took risks, he pushed the pocket
a little more, he didn't flush the pocket early. So

(22:39):
it was just some things that you don't teach, like, Okay,
maybe he's young and don't care, but he's staying in
the pocket. It makes it easier for the offensive line,
and now the offensive cordinator knows, okay, I can call
these sets of plays because the quarterback is he's not
gonna because obviously, when you leave the pocket, whatever's happened
on the backside, you have to abandon because there's not
too many people at this level that can turn their

(23:01):
whole body and throw it back. So no, when you
flush the pocket, you abandon the whole other side of
the field, yep, and cut her. You know, he stayed
in the pocket as long as he could. He didn't
take any stupid sacks. And you know, one thing that
the fan base was upset was he took some risks. Yeah,
and I like the fact that he takes risks because
now he, like I said, he's young. He's just doing things,

(23:22):
you know, to try to you know, to try to
get some yards, move to change and show coach, hey, hey, look,
hey look, I'm a I got a little boxy to me.
But once he starts to feel and understand the game,
I think is going to be exceptional. So the fact
that he's young, I think gives him is a bonus
for me. Oh yeah, he gives you that not care
factor because you haven't been you haven't been conditioned to

(23:44):
do anything but not caring.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
When we've seen quarterbacks, well Brock vandergriff is one of
them beating up so badly they get happy feet, you know,
and you do wish that on anybody, but that can
be the residue, isn't it of a quarterback's taking too
much punishment.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, well we've had that problem, And the problem is
Zach comes out as new. You know, Rock last year
was a new quarterback. But the office line this year's
playing well. They are playing well. But you do not
help the office. You do not help the offensive line
once you flushed the pocket because everybody's running away from you.
So and those guys the office line aren't fast guys.

(24:24):
But I think Zach got to that point the first
couple of games I watched, Zach, the pocket is there.
All you have to do is push up in the pocket,
keep your eyes down field, and look for your targets.
But instead of doing that, he usually flushed out of
the back door or the front door. Not an office
line can't protect you anymore. Now you're running away from
some of the fastest guys in the country. And I

(24:46):
think he got happy feet, and I think that's something
that's hard to overcome. But just the fact that is
one advantage for Cutter that whether he knows that just
from playing the quarterback position, being groomed that way, he
stays in the pocket, he gives offense the opportunity. He
gives Bush Hampton an opportunity to utilize the playbook more.
And I think Dad's gonna be the biggest difference when

(25:08):
the coach knows or thinks that you like, you've noticed
if a quarterback has happy feet, well we got to
give him one read or you know, we got to
give him simple routes, because if it's not there, he's
going to get excited and get out of the pocket.
But if you know you can give a quarterback two
or three reads, he's going to stay in the pocket.
Let him develop. The receivers are happy, the coordinators happy,
and the offense line job is easier.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Yeah, we're talking to Anthony White, former Kentucky running back,
co host of The Locker four one one podcast, new
edition of A Drop last night, and also the co
host of Sunday Morning Sports Talk here at each and
every Sunday morning at nine am till noon. Here on
six thirty WLAP, Jeff pi Corel talked about the fact
that cutter bully would climb the pocket, which is exactly

(25:51):
what you're talking about, you know, move up into that pocket.
And the other thing too, is when you roll out,
you're leaving your lineman succeptible to holding calls, aren't you,
Because once you change directions, if you got an old
lineman locking a guy up and the guy tries to
leave and he extends his arms at all next thing
you know, there's a flag on the ground.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yeah, and your expectation is at the snap of the wall,
especially at the tackle position, because you know, and the
guards are mixed up in the middle of everything there.
You know, there's a lot of money in there. But
at the tackle position, they're taught to put their their
hands pretty much underneath when you put your deodorant on,
underneath the shoulder pads and just get in there and grabbing.
And they can actually grab them because the rest will

(26:35):
never see it. As long as you're inside the shoulder
pad party, they will never see that. Now, as you
just stated, if the quarterback plushes the offensive line doesn't know,
they're not looking back at you. All they feel is
the guy starting to pull away from them, and you
can let them go or you cannot let them go.
But your first tendency and to let them go is
to drive them. And once they start turning their body lateral,

(26:56):
it automatically turns into a hole because you're already engaged
in them. So it's is a soft call, but I
mean it's part of the game. Has been part of
the game for a long time. You just really have
to understand that. And that's why I think quarterbacks that
understand staying in the pocket until you have to escape
the pocket, it is a huge advantage for you.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
We talked to Bowlie on Tuesday of a lot of things,
but we also talked with him about throwing to the
tight ends and to his roommates or tight ends. He said,
that's just kind of a coincidence. He said, I don't
care who's catching the ball. I'm wondering, Anthony, do you
see maybe fewer targets for the tight ends against South Carolina?
Because the game Cocks have really good edge rushers, and

(27:38):
I'm wondering if when they're an eleven or twelve personnel,
do they need to keep the tight ends in to
at least chip, if not block out. Right, are we
going to see fewer throws to the tight ends you
think Saturday night?

Speaker 2 (27:51):
I mean, you know you're talking to a guy who
myself and James Whaling probably caught almost two hundred balls
between the two ups, one hundred and seventy balls between
the two of us, right, I absolutely don't think it
will diminish. I think and you know, as long as
many times I've been on your show and that host
the shows, my thing has moved to change. And like
you said, if it's a chip, I don't know if

(28:11):
you want to keep them in whole time blocking just
because I think our offensive line is doing a good job.
But if you can ship and have them get out
in the flats, I cut her smart enough to you know,
climb the pocket, dump it off the same way Dusty
Bonner did with James whaling in myself. So no, I
don't think there will be less. I think what if
they come up the edge, they bring extra people and

(28:32):
they start realizing they're out numbered on the back end,
that the tight end on the backs are just chipping
and getting out on routes. Oh, you will learn quickly
that hey, we got to you know, we got to
count for these guys. We can't just pin our ears
back because cutter is gonna stay in the pocket. He's
gonna make his read. So no, I don't think that
it will go down the dump off passes and the checkdowns.

(28:54):
I think it will dictate a little bit more South
Carolina's defense that if you can pin your ears and
get back get to us, then they will continue to
do that. But if they pin their ears back a
couple of times, as you said, we chip them and
just dump the ball over for a five yard game
and whatever yack we get after that, they'll learn.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
Yet.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, you know we're not gonna We're not gonna we're
not gonna blitz as much.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, hey, five yard game not too bad. You get
that every play you can't be beaten. We're talking to
Anthony White. He is, of course, the former UK running
back and you hear him on Sunday Morning Sports Talk
here on six thirty WLAP. More to come after the
break on six thirty WLAP Welcome back Anthony White as
my guest. He is the former Kentucky running back, the
co host of the Locker four one one. You hear

(29:38):
him chatting with the likes of Van Hiles v Styles
as well on Sunday Morning Sports Talk with Larry Vatt
and a host of others at nine am. He will
be on of course the Sunday Morning this Sunday, following
Kentucky's night game. But South Carolina, did you like night
games on the road, Because I know if most coaches
and players just don't like hanging around a hotel that long.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, that's the toughest part. I mean it's hard. You
get excited, you know, we're watching all the other games.
You're getting you're watching games, you're getting excited. You get
excited if you see someone upset or you got to
calm yourself down taking that here. You can only take
so many naps when you probably don't leave the hotel
to four or five o'clock. Between you and I the

(30:21):
only good thing about a night game is when you
get back home, it's probably eleven twelve o'clock at night,
and the club, the college clubs are jumping, so you
don't have to wait for them to get warmed up.

Speaker 5 (30:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
We get right off the van and a lot of
times don't go back to the dorm or the apartment.
We just go straight out and hang out. So that's
usually a good time.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Yeah, but this is a road trip where by the
time you get to the airport, you get on the charter,
you get home, it's three o'clock in the morning, you know,
and if you got to get in there for treatment, yeah,
you know, that's tough.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah, because there's a thing that if you don't get treatment,
you do not show up at Monday on pra Do
not show up on Monday talking about your banged up
so you cannot mistreatment on Sunday. Then show up on
Monday and my shoulders store on, my knee sore or something.
So yeah, I forgot about that aspect. That kind of
gives me, It makes it makes me craage a little bit.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
You talked about the defense earlier. What did you see?
We kind of tap danced around this, but it was
it was sharp against Toledo, not as sharp against them
as that's a much better team, but surprisingly soft in
the secondary to Eastern Michigan. What were you seeing that
was going wrong?

Speaker 2 (31:35):
I think I think some of them was injuries. Injuries
Waller I think made a little bit of a problem, uh,
because I think JQ has come a long way from
last year. But I don't think it's a defense because
people put a lot of it on Brad White, you know,
and Van House. We talk about that on our podcast,
that you could play off. When you play off, you

(31:57):
just don't give any grounds. If you're ten yards off
set to ten yards off, you don't give any ground.
So the timekeepers run five yards. You've pretty much made
a decision, and at this point the quarterback should be
making a decision. So if he stopped, you run up
on him. If he's trying to run by you, then
you turn your hips and run with them. So I
can think it was just we had youthful corners and

(32:17):
we played a little youthful and you know, guys were
scared to make mistakes because the cornerback one thing you
got to be scared of because everybody on national TV
is gonna see if you get ran by for six points,
they are going to see that. And I think that's
what the younger guys are scared of being ran by. Uh.
And I just think that's something that they're gonna get
comfortable with over time. And as a fan base or

(32:38):
just even as a casual fan, do you want to
see your corner, you know, running up every time the
receiver check stutters his feet because it could be a
double move. Now, I'm as a forward player and those
guys being young, I understand that they're just being They're
just covering their tails trying not to get burnt. Does
it work now? Because and the other part of the

(33:01):
game is when the game is on the line, is
when the other team is gonna catch you if you
be aggressive the whole game. It's gonna be a fourth quarter,
three point game, thirty hour line. When they run that
hitch and I've seen his HLL game you run up there,
it's not a hitch as a double move, So yeah,
it's not to our liking. I think they will grow

(33:22):
into it, but that's just part of being a youthful player.
You don't have the confidence hit and maybe they worked
on that over the bye week.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
And I keep telling myself that Brad White and Marx
toops who as you know, and there's a little something
about playing d back. You look at the guys they've
developed through the years, including Carrington Valentine now playing for
my beloved Green Bay Packers, who was burned so much
a couple of three years ago, two years before he
came out. He was a toast at the SEC. He

(33:49):
got burned so much, but he just kept his head down,
worked his butt off, came out a year early, and
now he's playing on Sundays. Maxwell Hairston, you know, we
knew who he was, but he suddenly burst on the
scene in that Vandy game with a couple of pick
sixes and now he's playing in the league of first
round draft picks, so they know how to develop and

(34:10):
improve and help kids improve, don't they as d backs?

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Oh yeah, Like I said, it's always this seems you're right.
You name a couple guys and I go even further
back before that. But you know, you see some of
these guys as sophomores and like, man, this guy's burnt
toast like he's then you turn around their junior and
possibly senior year. That's right, and these guys have picked
it up. They've learned it. And one thing we don't
give enough credit for the football guys, does give enough

(34:36):
credit to Brad White. You don't put them in positions
where they're going to be compromised. Don't put them in
a position where they can't succeed. But alex Asfari, he
may not have had defeat the older he got and
the stronger he got to be a cornerback. Definitely pretty
good as a safety and a little bit better. But
now he's in the backer position where he can act,

(34:57):
he can tackle because he has safety abilities. He's played
corners up so he has enough footwork to guard people
in space. But you know he's so you could call
different defenses because you don't have to take Alex and Farry.
You don't lose anything with Alex Lafari on the field.
He can tackle, he can cover, he can play his own,
he can blit. So I just think Brad White does

(35:17):
a great job of not putting guys in compromise position.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I'm glad you brought up Afari because I thought he
was kind of quiet against Eastern Michigan. But I think
he could be the key defensively for Kentucky with Leonora
Sellers being a big, strong, mobile quarterback who can extend
plays with his feet. He's got a great arm and
I don't know if they'll spy him with Afari or whatever,

(35:42):
but Afari could be the defensive key Saturday night. What
do you think?

Speaker 2 (35:48):
And here's something I really I don't want you to
lose sight of when people talk about and our defense
doesn't give enough credit for that. When guy's numbers go
down a lot of times on especially a defensive line
and maybe a lineback reposition, people are double teaming, you're
being accounted for. So if you got to take two
people to block our nose tackle, no, it's not bad
because he only had one tackle, two tackles. No, it's

(36:09):
good because everybody else are getting tackles because of him.
But I think you bring up a heck of a
point that Afari has range. So even if it is
zoned or he's fying and the sellers doesn't flush the pocket,
AFARII can cover. You don't have to have a containment,
or you don't have to have your corners and cover
two or having another safety come up in the box. No,

(36:30):
because if he runs, I'm sure Afari's gonna track him down.
But he also in his zone has enough to get
from crow to hook, to get underneath deep routes. So
I think he's gonna be the X factor. But I'm
not certain that you meant that he fell off against
Eastern missions just because the tackles weren't there. But he's
gonna you have to diagram and you have to you

(36:53):
have to play call against kind of just with out Tafari,
his own stuff is.

Speaker 6 (36:57):
Going to do.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
I'm glad you brought that up, because, yeah, just because
he didn't rack up tackles doesn't mean he wasn't forcing
people into the arms of others. If a couple of
minutes left with Anthony White. I don't know if you've
got a chance to watch any of that South Carolina
Missouri game, but Missouri had a big, bruising running back
who was able to run through South Carolina, which you

(37:19):
know ended up with I think negative yard is rushing
after sacks and all that, but Sellers kept them in
the game almost single handily. Something. Now he'll be the
overall number one draft pick. What do you think of him?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
No, I think he posted a lot of problems and
for the history, and Mark Steus has seen a lot
of them. And we've seen some running quarterbacks in this conference.
We've played against Lagway last year. I mean seen Lamar Jackson,
him and Brad White. I think has seen enough quarterbacks
that are that can escape the pocket to do a

(37:54):
lot of other things. Is it going to be easy? No,
I don't think it's gonna be easy. But White and
Stoops together as many elusive and evasive quarterbacks that we've seen,
I think the edge. I'll give us the edge I got.
I put more faith in, as you said, Missouri can run.

(38:14):
I think Missouri runs like two eighty eighty five or something.
I have more faith in our running backs rushing for
almost three hundred yards than I have sellers having as
much success as he had against Missouri's defense. I will
say that.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
South Caronta is missing some key person up, but we'll
see who lines up on Saturday night. Whatever happens, Anthony
White will be on hand Sunday morning with a cast
of well you've got whoever many people call in, you know,
the numbers add up on Sunday morning Sports Talk with
Larry Vatt at the nine Am right here on six
point thirty WLAP and the locker four to one one

(38:47):
the latest edition as drops and you can check that
out and be always a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Thank you, sir, I appreciate it, always a pleasure with you.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Up next the Voice of the Way, I catch Tom
leech that's ahead here on the Big Blue side six
thirty Goldy like Tid, Welcome back to the Big Blue

(40:51):
Saturday joining us now, I promised the Voice of the Wildcats,
Tom Leachs, will call the action as the Wildcats take
on South Carolina Saturday night. Tom, before we break down
that game, you and Jeff Picor when I sat down
at the UK Sports Network studios which are very nice
now and we chatted for fifteen or twenty minutes about
the upcoming schedules, and the first thing that we talked

(41:15):
about was the fact that, yeah, you can scan this
list and see who Kentucky's going to play in the
SEC those nine games over the next four years and
shake your head about how tough it is. But everybody
can say that, right.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
Absolutely, Yeah, they I think made a real effort at
the league to kind of had some level of equity
across the platform, across the league for everybody that whether
it was like another talk, I don't know if they
if the league actually formally talked about how they did it.

(41:48):
There's a thinking of doing it in tiers and you
get a top tier, middle tier, bottom tier, you know
when you look at historical records, right, so it kind
of looks like they tried to achieve some level of that.
But I was talking about it done by the show
this morning, and one of the things that came up

(42:11):
with a guest is that, you know, it could have
been Georgia, which is you know in a cycle now
with its program where they are just a bear year
in and year out, as opposed to you know, a
team like Florida that was that team in the Steve
Spurrier era, right, but is it right now exactly? So
you know you get maybe a that's that's a little

(42:32):
bit of a you know, if you're going to get
one or the other, you probably just look at it
where the programs are now. You'd rather have to face
Florida every year than to face Georgia every year.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
If I were a Betty Man and I am going
to go to the racetrack, I would think Florida is
gonna have a new coach next year. So you know,
when you look ahead, you just don't know. There's going
to be movement player movement. Of course, that's the biggest thing,
not just and more so than the coaching movement. You know,
the teams we look at now are literally all all
going to be so different within the next two or

(43:02):
three years.

Speaker 6 (43:04):
Yeah, absolutely, and just you know by by next year,
I mean you look at the turnover Kentucky had. You know,
things don't go well, you have kind of a roster purge.
Uh and then if things go really well, you may
have may lose a lot of guests just you know,
better offer somewhere else. So, uh, it is I remember
when this first happened, just in you're and our long

(43:26):
time baseball fans. I was just thinking back in the seventies,
you know, as a kid growing up, you know, baseball
board games and I loved watching, you know. I mean
I followed the Reds, but they were my team, but
you were the Cardinals. But you knew everybody and you
could name a pretty much the starting eighth for about
every team. And there's no way you can now because
there's so much you know, player movement and uh that

(43:49):
started with the free agency and it, uh, it needed
to happen, and it was good and more equitable for
players and they've been treated much better. But from a
at standpoint, you know, you just see a lot more
turnover with your team, and you know, turnover can be
positive and sometimes it can be negative. That's why I
was saying making preseason predictions, everybody makes them for football, especially,

(44:14):
but you know it's something to talk about in the
summer mainly.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
But.

Speaker 6 (44:19):
Just things change. And look right now, where South Carolina
was thought to be at the beginning of the season,
where they're thought to be now, same with Florida. But
then you know Vandy's maybe people are looking at them saying, oh,
they're better than we projected. Yeah, maybe Auburn will turn
out to be the same way. Well, it just happens
every year that way, both of both directions.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
You know, watching so many national games as I have
because of the way the schedules worked out in the
bye week, I've noticed more and more of the national guys,
the announcers, I mean, who have to fold in when
you're talking about disseminating information this player or that, you
know for a certain team and prior to that he
was at disc school and that school. You know, oftentimes

(45:00):
there's more than one. You know, we don't have to
do it quite as much on the UK network, but
it's amazing, you know how much information's out there on
that player movement. And it makes your head spin sometimes,
doesn't it?

Speaker 6 (45:14):
It does? And I just to think of as you
were talking about that. You know sometimes when people go
into especially the Baseball Hall of Fame, what hat's are
gonna wear? You know? Uh, which team is you know
in his bust in the Hall of Fame?

Speaker 7 (45:28):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (45:29):
You know what are they going to say on was
it Sunday Night Football? I think does that where it's
like you know John Doe, uh, you know Auburn, Alabama
University of Alabama.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
That's right, you know, and or did they make him.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
Do it all it could take?

Speaker 6 (45:43):
You know, they couldn't have time to get through all.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
The line up exactly. And I happen to like that
feature when you're talking about NBC when they that's one
of my I don't know why I like that so much,
but it's probably because we cover so much college football.
Tom Lead's a voice of the Wildcats, is chatting with us.
Of course, you hear him every morning on the Lease Report.
And let's talk about South Carolina, which we've called for

(46:05):
many years a swing game, and it has been a
swing game, and unfortunately for the Big Moue Nation, it's
swinging the wrong way, and a South Carolina has moved up,
you know, inching its way up in the SEC. It's
at the expense of teams like Kentucky. And we've gone
down there, Tom and covered Kentucky wins. In the past.

(46:25):
We've covered games that have gotten away. To me, the
one that jumps out is seven. I don't know if
you remember that one much because your rememory about this game, Yes, sir,
Thursday night, Kentucky had cracked the top ten and Andre
Woodson was getting serious mentioned as a Heisman dark horse.
And as I recall, they kept putting the ball on

(46:47):
the ground that night, didn't they.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
Oh yeah, And I want to say there was at
least one scoop and score touchdown, might have been two
in that game, and Kentucky just you know self destructed,
you know, a big opportunity there, and then everybody thought, well,
you know they've they've blown their opportunity now. And then

(47:09):
the next week they beat the number one team in
the country. But that that team in seven, that was
rich Brooks's shot to win the SEC East that year.
And even with the South Carolina debacle they had that
night they beat LSU and if they could have won
that Florida game when the game day game in Lexington,

(47:30):
So they had the South Carolina game, the Florida game,
those were you know, win either one of those and
you've got a real shot to have won the East
that year. They were that close. So yeah, the South
Carolina game, you know, was a in the Mark Stoops era,
has been a note notable game. His first big win
was the one in fourteen here in Lexington pre interception,

(47:51):
and then fifteen his first SEC road win was at
South Carolina in the close game the next year, and
the game's usually close, and it's not usually particularly high scoring.
Me look up just doing game prep and some of
the numbers. Nineteen of the games they've played, let's see

(48:12):
thirty six times, nineteen of the games have been decided
by eight points or fewer. Wow, And it's nine to
nine and one. In those nineteen games, average winning margin
in the stoops era for either team is under seven
points in the six games.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
That's what makes the losses so frustrating. Yes, from both sides,
I'm sure.

Speaker 6 (48:35):
Absolutely, And you know, you go back thinking just you know,
where did we let this get away? And a lot
of times it's turnovers. Turnovers have been especially in recent
years when Kentucky has seen the pendulum swing South Carolina's way.
It contains like a negative seven since twenty twenty in
turnovers in those those games. You know, with a red

(48:57):
shirt freshman quarterback that's obviously started making his first start
on the road in the SEC Cutters kind of gives
you that laid back dude vibe. So we'll see if that,
you know, carries into this particular setting. I thought he looked,
he played like he was nervous in the Louisville game

(49:18):
last year, and I would understandable to be be so.
But you know, he seems a lot more, you know,
comfortable in the particular skin that he's in right now.
And this will this will put that to the test.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
So question it will if for no other reason of
noise and they can they can play Sandstorm only one practice,
but it's not going to be quite the same. But
it won't come as a shock to him, I would think.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
So.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Yeah, you know, maybe the Golden Retriever in him will
just just let him chill out and have fun. We're
talking to Leach. I did. I loved this because I
love goldeness. I think I was a golden Retriever in
a previous life. Tom Leach is my guess we'll come
back and talk more content Yes.

Speaker 6 (50:00):
Uh rest peak, Yeah yeah, yeah, we have to Louisville
the other night. I hated these anytime I was in
the garage was it was good to see he.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Was a good girl. Yeah, bark. She loved everybody and
she just got old and a little too infirmed and
we had to make a tough call. But we loved
her for nine years. Here's Tom Leach's a voice of
the Wildcats. We'll come back and talk more football on
the other side of the break here on six thirty
WLAP Welcome back. We're chatting with the voice of the Wildcats,
Tom Leach. You'll hear him call the action along with

(50:32):
Jeff Pacorol and yours truly on Saturday night from down
in South Carolina. A noisy place, but a great stadium,
one of the great stadiums in the Southeastern Conference. And
the new teams are learning this, but we've been down
there several times as a crew. Jeff Bacora was talking
with me the other night, Tom about the way the

(50:53):
schedule aligned with the State Fair. Back in the day,
it seemed like we were always down there when the
State Fair was next door. And then you know, kill
the parking, but you could smell the the popcorn and
the candy corn all the way over at the stadium.

Speaker 6 (51:07):
My favorite story from that was we used to do
a Friday night show. Yep, and we're doing our Friday
night show and the network and about every thirty seconds
you'd hear that's right. We could figure out what was
going on, Yeah, and it was the roller coaster.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah, Yeah, you know, and they also had one of
those rides, if you want to call it a ride
with a parachute deal where you get in some sort
of car or whatever, or they'd strap you into something
and then I seem to recall looking over there and
hearing the screaming and watching some kind of parachute lower
people to the ground. So anyway, I was kind of

(51:46):
wanted to get there a little early and get over
there and you know, maybe grab some kettle corn. Anyhow,
South Carolina is missing people, they've had people out injured.
Lenora Sellers will play, but so is Kentucky. So is
this going to be a war of attrition?

Speaker 6 (52:01):
You think, well, I think Kentucky's in better shape. It's
just there's seems to have there issues that there is
that one position that corner opposite JQ. Hardaway d J.
Waller as as we're talking, is still been listed as doubtful.
That can you know change, But if you know, if

(52:21):
he remains doubtful in one or two more reports, you'd
feel pretty likely he's not gonna be able to go.
So we'll see how that works. But you know, t
Ryan Nichols not being on the report was good because
he had had to go out with an injury in
that last game. And you know, if they if they
didn't have both of those guys, you'd probably look at

(52:43):
at a true freshman maybe making his first start and great,
and so uh if Nichols not being on there was good.
But South Carolina's got two possible starters, two guys that
did start the o line in the Missouri game that
are listed as doubtful. And then defensive lineman who wasn't
listed as the starter for the Missouri game but you know,

(53:04):
plays a lot in their rotation and as some significant stats,
he's listed as doubtful. And then they've got a couple
of guys in the secondary. One has been out since
Week one, he's still listed as I think doubtful. And
then another one that one of their secondary guys is
coming back that didn't play last week and they expect
to get him back. But yeah, they've got you know,

(53:26):
some issues pretending, most notably in the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
So now, yeah, it's a it's an issue of which
team takes better and it's not the whole game, but
who takes better advantage of the other guys and tests
the other guys backups and frowingo on both sides. The
backups may acquit themselves well, but you got to think
the coordinators are at least leaning heavily toward going in
those directions, right, Yeah, you.

Speaker 6 (53:51):
Would think so, I mean you would think they'll, you know,
if you're the Mike Schule in the South Carolina side
call and plays, you're gonna, you know, test that cornerback position.
And even if it is to Ryan Nichols, that's out there.
It's kind of like a third starter for the two cornerbacks.
But you know, you know, he went out, you were
at a test and see if he still looks like
he can move as well as he should. You know,

(54:12):
he really healthy. And then you know, on the other side,
Kentucky will uh, you know, try to see what they
can do to attack. Maybe that secondary of South Carolina
had some health issues. You know, Stuart the defensive line
is healthy. But I was just reading a story about

(54:36):
from one of the South Carolina media folks and it
was kind of three of the key storylines or whatever,
and fairly a little down on Stuart not having the
big production that was expected so far. So that I'm
sure is kind of the you know, a result of
getting a lot of extra attention because of what he
did last season too.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Speaking of last season, after that, I want to say
old miss Upset Nichols. I thought really played well in
that game. And was he a true freshman this last year?

Speaker 7 (55:03):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (55:04):
Yeah, that was he got a little dinged up second
half of the year.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
He did. But that's what's been disappointed to me. I
really wanted to see how this guy was developing, you know,
because he could be the next in a long line
of really fine Kentucky defensive backs. They've done a great job.
Of course, we all know, you know, Carrington Valentine and
Max Harrison and a lot of other guys, Mike Edwards,
you know, and I wonder is he the next one?

(55:30):
I just wonder how close he is to be one
hundred percent. I can't wait to see him go full boar,
you know.

Speaker 6 (55:35):
And I agree, because he's you know, showed some flashes
last year. And then Waller, I know, Coach Stoops walked
up the first practice they had a training camp and
we were talking about some various positions and uh he
said Waller was playing as as well as anybody on
the defensive side really coming into that that point. So

(55:57):
I think he was. The thought was he was poised
to have maybe a breakout year this year and still
could I mean if he if he doesn't make it
back for this game, uh some you know, hopefully the
next one. Yeah, and he uh can hopefully you know,
pick up where he was back there at the start
of training camp. But they you know that that's the

(56:20):
thing that scaut Carolina does best. Just throw the football
because they're struggling to run it. But they've got a
quarterback that is a you know, a big time talent,
and their receivers they've got some you know, Harbor's just
like a freak of an athlete, and he's made some
big plays. I think they've reading about some of the
coverage for the game. Const they've had some issues with

(56:40):
consistency at the receiver position, but they certainly have you know,
some guys that are capable of of big plays. And
then you know they Jordan Dingles one of the things
four tight ends that they use. Yeah, welcome, but they
lean on their tight end position too.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
Welcome back Jordan Dingle to our Consciousness. A few minutes
left with Tom Leach and Voice of the Wildcats. Of
course we're talking about the upcoming game with South Carolina.
You mentioned Sellers and talking to Jeff of course, and
you know you'll hear us talk about him on the
Wildcat Whip segment that they'll be on social media later
tonight and tomorrow. But last year I thought he really

(57:18):
hurt Kentucky by extending plays. You know, he can run
the ball, you know he's got good feet, he's big
and strong. But Kentucky I thought needed to do a
better job last year of containing him. That's got to
be job one, I would think, even though it may
force you to give up a little aggressiveness as a
pass rusher, but you just can't let him get outside,

(57:39):
which he did last year. Do you remember it that way?

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Oh? Yeah, As you were saying that, I thought of
one play that popped his mind and Brad White called
the blitz and it was the perfect call. There's a
guy coming clean ary right down on Sellers and he
missed him and just the sellers. He made a nice
move and that have did a touchdown play it certainly,
I know, a big game, And that's just an example

(58:04):
of what you're talking about. If he has that ability
to move around in the pocket, he can run it.
But he's he's you know, he's a he's not a
quote unquote running quarterback. He's a quarterback who can runs
you with it. But he's looking to make plays in
the passing game. And you know, I think that that's
the the two quarterback positions are the big You know,

(58:29):
it's not always this way in football, but I guess
usually it is. The quarterbacks are so important. But you
think about the you know, how is Cutter going to
handle that environment? And then how is Seller's going to be?
How effective can he be with the offensive line issues
they have against the very good Kentucky defensive front. So
you know, that's I'm sure a concern on the South
Carolina side. And you know, if it go if one

(58:51):
of those questions is you know, answered definitively and the
other one isn't, that's a big advantage.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
I think it was Georgia in their where Kentucky just
just could not get it together in pass defense. And
they told us later that their communications kept breaking down
partly because the noise confusion whatever, uh you know, and
that that can't happen obviously down at South Carolina, but

(59:19):
the noise just makes everything more difficult, and we think
about it with the quarterback calling signals, but the defenders,
you know, whoever the is calling signals for defense, the
U D backs have to communicate, and that's going to
be a huge key, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (59:36):
It is?

Speaker 6 (59:37):
But I think one key there or one plus for
Kentucky there is that when you're talking about that communication
in the passing game, you think in the back seven
because the you know, the defensive linemen are you know,
communicating about their rush you know, plan or whatever. But
the other guys in coverage. You got Afari and Rainer,

(59:57):
two starting linebackers have a lot of experience. You're too safe.
He's had a lot of experience. Hardaway has a lot
of experience. If it's to Ryan Nichols, looks like it
will be on the other side, then you know, at
least he's got you know, in his second year, so
he's you know, seen things before. So that would be,
as you know, especially a concern if you had to
play a lot with a you know, a true freshman

(01:00:19):
out there. But I think that might be a plus
four Kentucky in terms of handling that because you know,
all of these guys will have either seen it or
maybe in David Rainer's case, he wouldn't have there much,
but he's you know, experienced it because you know, we're
at South Carolina two years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Yeah, well, Afari, I don't know that he had an
off game or whatever. You didn't say his name much
against EMU, but it might have been because they were
trying to stay away from him, you know, like teams
try to stay away from Josh Heinz Allen. And I
would hope that you say his name a lot on Saturday.
And there's one way to find out what Tom says.
And let's tune us in when the Wildcats take on

(01:00:56):
South Carolina Saturday night, and we will have it for
you from down in Columbia. Thank you, Sarah, We'll see
you on the airplane.

Speaker 6 (01:01:03):
Sounds like a play on thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Coming up next, what college football programs, I mean, the
big D one programs have underperformed the most over the
last decade. One man's opinion, and it's not mine, but
it's somebody who's studied college football. That's coming up on
the other side of the break here on six thirty
WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider coming
up Saturday, of course, is Kentucky South Carolina down at

(01:01:28):
Williams Bryce Stadium, and we will have it for you
right here, of course, on six thirty WLAP. This has
always been kind of a swing game, South Carolina and Kentucky.
They have played each other quite a bit through the years,
even when South Carolina wasn't in the SEC. But as
Mark Stoop's program began to rise, and really we saw
this under Rich Brooks as well. This is one of

(01:01:50):
these games where I think Kentucky fans always called him
winnable because when you look at in Alabama or Georgia,
you're like, can you really win that game? In some years?
Obviously they beat Alabama one year, but and there have
been a couple of times they challenged Georgia under Mark Stoops.
But and they beat Georgia under Rich Brooks. But it's
games like South Carolina and really Tennessee, which is the

(01:02:14):
way it should be Missouri. Games like that where if
you win them now you move up. And that's what
Kentucky was doing, and it's in its best seasons under
Mark Stoops. Of late not so much, but the Wildcats
with a shot going in there, they are about a
touchdown underdog. As you know against South Carolina, but we'll
all agree that last year Kentucky underperformed and a lot

(01:02:37):
of people believe and I think at times the Wildcats
did the last couple of years prior when they only
quote unquote won seven games, and that's where we are now.
We talk about it all the time. Mark Stoops has
raised not just the ceiling but the floor. People expect
more and believe they had the right to expect more,
and maybe they do, but that's hard to say in

(01:02:58):
the world of college football because every anybody out there
is spending a gazillion dollars on coaches, facilities and now
players trying to elevate themselves. Of course, so that said,
cbssports dot com the College Football Division basically came up preseason.
I've sat on this for a little while with a

(01:03:20):
feature and internet feature the ten most overrated college football
teams of the last decade. This is done by David
Cobb ofcbasports dot Com, and I thought it would be
interesting to look at this now as we are three
or four games into the season. But you're going to
recognize these names. I can tell you no, Kentucky's not

(01:03:41):
on it, because Kentucky did not reach the heights that
these programs did in college football consistently and as such
has not been as disappointing as these programs quite frankly
over the last decade, So here we go. Number ten
is Tennessee, which is seventy five and fifty over the
last ten years, so seven and a half and five record,

(01:04:04):
you know, seven point five wins against five losses. But
the recruiting ranking is something he puts in there. Tennessee
fourteen average recruiting ranking five million bucks average for the
head coach right, three losing seasons and against the top
twenty five, eighteen, and twenty nine record and has made

(01:04:26):
the playoff once. Number nine is Texas, another SEC team,
eighty and forty nine over the last ten years, average
coach salary, head coach six point nine or six point
one million dollars, average recruiting eight point four, three losing
seasons twenty five and twenty seven against the top twenty

(01:04:49):
five and two playoff appearances Miami and by the way,
Texas has a good year going. Tennessee does as well.
Miami's got a good year going, but he's got them
rated eighth coming into the this season. Seventy seven and
forty nine, so not quite eight wins a year and
five losses. They don't put the coaches salary, but the

(01:05:09):
average recruiting ranking fifteen two losing seasons in Miami up
until this year ten and seventeen against the top twenty five.
Hasn't made the playoffs yet. North Carolina is seven, and
this is preseason, of course, when everybody thought Belichick was
going to roll this year. Nope, sixty eight and sixty

(01:05:31):
over the last ten years, hence the coaching change coming
into this year, an average of three and a half
million dollars for the head coach. Recruiting ranking twenty four,
four losing seasons with a top ten record of eight
and eighteen for North Carolina number six, Southern col seventy
seven and forty seven over the last ten years, two

(01:05:53):
losing seasons, recruiting ranking thirteen, fifteen, and twenty eight against
the top twenty five. And again the Trojans, they've got
a good one going right now. They're four to oh
and they're going into a big game at Illinois this Saturday.
It's noon on Fox, so you know the USC kids
will be just waking up at least mentally and Illinois

(01:06:15):
is ranked number twenty three on the year. But USC
can take a big step toward erasing some of these
you know, bad memories over the last few years. But
USC has not been the USC of the past. Neither
has Florida. Florida's number five on the list of ten
most overrated college football teams of the last decade. And
again not me saying this, David COBBOSCBS sports seventy seven

(01:06:40):
and fifty over the last ten years, including well to
three losses to Kentucky. Nothing to sneeze at. But when
you're paying your coach an average coaches and I mean
the head coaches through the last ten years of six
million dollars, you're recruiting ranking it's thirteen four losing seasons
in Gainesville and Red versus the top twenty of thirteen

(01:07:01):
and thirty one, you can understand why they made the list.
Florida State again off to a great start four to
ZHO two and ten last year. Over the last ten years,
seventy one and fifty three, recruiting ranking thirteen five losing seasons.
How did that happen? At Florida State? And a top

(01:07:22):
twenty five record of ten and twenty five and again,
with all due respect, playing in the ACC not the SEC.
Now Auburn has been playing in the SEC, and the
Tigers are ranked third. Their ten year record seventy and
fifty seven. That's nearly an average record per season of
seven and six all right, recruiting ranking twelve, four losing

(01:07:46):
seasons and a top twenty five record of fifteen and
thirty eight. Yeah, you're in the SEC. You're going to
be playing against a top twenty five team two out
of three weeks or so it seems so. Auburn ranked
number three, but Auburn having a big year coming off
of loss to Oklahoma but three to one so far
and a big opportunity to Saturday at Texas A and M,

(01:08:08):
which is ranked ninth, so Auburn could take a little
bit of that tarnish off its last ten years. Nebraska
number two on the list fifty and sixty nine, being
its coach is an average at four point four million.
The head coaches through the last ten years, average recruiting
ranking twenty four, eight losing seasons at Nebraska and a

(01:08:34):
record of two and twenty eight for the coron Oskers
against top twenty five competition over the last ten years.
Now that's going into this season. Make it two and
twenty nine now, because Nebraska's coming off of loss at
home to Michigan. Not a terrible loss, Michigan's really good,
but you're at home and they lose at thirty to

(01:08:54):
twenty seven. Michigan State is up next, and they don't
have a top twenty five match up at least on
pay until later in the year when they play USC
in late October early November. But yeah, Nebraska, which has
just kept changing coaches, changing coaches and never has gotten
back to those glory days of the seventies and early eighties.

(01:09:16):
But the most overrated according to cbssports dot com David
Cobb is Texas A and M seventy seven and forty
eight record over the last ten years was a coach's
salary average. And this goes back to Jimbo really of
seven million dollars a year, average recruiting ranking of eleven

(01:09:38):
at one losing season and against the top twenty five,
seventeen and twenty six. I don't know. I might flip
flop Nebraska and Texas A and M, but the Jimbo Fisher,
I don't know. If you want to call it an experiment.
Era didn't last very long, didn't go very well, but
that might be when you factor in the hype. That

(01:10:00):
might be why he's got Texas, A and m up
there rank so highly. Aggie's are off to a good start.
They're three to zero and again they've got that Auburn game,
but they really need to build on the fact that
they just got a huge win at Notre Dame. Be
a good Utah State team. If they can knock off Auburn,

(01:10:21):
that takes a little bit of the tarnish off, right.
Maybe that jump starts to Auburn on the way to
the college football Playoff, but the Tigers haven't been there.
They haven't even been close. So that's according to David
Cobb of cbssports dot com. He has done a deep
dive on this, and again, this is all prior to

(01:10:43):
this season beginning, because a lot of these teams I
mentioned are off to good starts, including Tennessee and Texas
with Arch manning Miami. North Carolina is not off to
a good start. Southern Cali is Florida struggling right now
with a quarterback situation DJ Lagway in a boot. Some

(01:11:05):
people calling for him to be bench because the Gators
have dropped three straight. And look, they play Texas Saturday.
I'm sorry, They've got the week off. Then they play Texas,
then they play at Texas A and M. And you
know what. After that, they got Mississippi State in Gainesville
and the fighting Neil Prices from down in Starkville. They're

(01:11:26):
off to a good start. They're having a good year.
Then it's Georgia and then they I guess, second week
in November, limp into Kentucky, into Lexington. And at the
beginning of the year, I wasn't sure about the Florida game.
I'm feeling a lot better about it now. The only
game the Gators have won they beat Long Island and
their season opener, and that is a one double, a

(01:11:46):
school fifty five nothing. You gotta wonder who's going to
be the quarterback by the time they get to Lexington.
Curious to see how Florida State keeps things going. Curious
about Auburn as well. I don't even care about Nebraska.
I am curious about Texas A and M. So yeah,
when you think about what Kentucky has done or has

(01:12:06):
not done, and you have every right to think about that,
of course, but other schools have fallen much much shorter,
if you will. When it comes to expectations in college football.
When we come back, what makes for a good quarterback
coming out of college? What should you look for if

(01:12:27):
you're an NFL team? The sands there are shifting, but
we'll talk about it through the eyes of an expert
on the other side of the break here on six
thirty WLAP Welcome back to The Big Moonsight, our final
segment of our show, and thanks again to our guest tonight,
Tom Leach and Anthony White aunt Bee coming through for us.
We talked about the underperforming teams and as I mentioned

(01:12:50):
several of those teams now it looks like they're making
up for chief, among them Florida State to and ten
last year rolling this year. At least it looks that way.
But you also wonder about players themselves, individual players, and
you don't want to lay blame entirely at one guy's
feet when it comes to football, because it is, you know,

(01:13:11):
the ultimate team sport, as they say, But you do
wonder about the guys who had the preseason hype and
aren't living up to it. And again, cbssports dot Com
I For some reason, they have so many of these
listings or rankings, and a guy named Blake Brockermeier came
up with this one twelve most disappointing players so far

(01:13:35):
in twenty twenty five. You can probably guess the guy
on the top of the list, and that's Arch Manning.
And to me it's not fair, reason being, yeah, he's
not played great, but this is predicated on all the
predictions of greatness that were thrust upon him by other people.
He had no control over it. You know, Yes, he's

(01:13:57):
got a lot of nil money and all that that
shouldn't should be performance, and he's not performed great. I mean,
his team's playing well, they're winning. But you know, he
was supposed to be the Heisman favorite, he was supposed
to be the favorite to be the number one draft pick.
The amount of hype surrounding this kid was absolutely ridiculous,
and it was the kid himself at one point said hey,

(01:14:19):
you know, I really haven't done anything yet, trying to
bring some sanity to this, but the grown ups wouldn't listen.
And yeah, he has not been what they all predicted
he would be. But you know what, when you put
a guy like that on top of a list like this,
you're pointing a finger at yourself. You know, I'm disappointed
because I expected more. Maybe you were wrong going in. Yes,

(01:14:40):
he's got great skills, but he's a freshman, basically a
red shirt freshman if you will. But yeah, Arch Manning
could not beat out Quinn Yours for the starting job
at Texas, and you think he's going to move it
ahead of the class instantly.

Speaker 4 (01:14:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
DJ Lagway is second, and I would maybe not a
knock on the kid because he's been banged up and
he's not been surrounded by greatness at Florida. He might
be at the top of the list based on what
I saw in him last year. He looked like a
guy who was ready to rule the Southeastern Conference. But

(01:15:17):
it's just been that kind of season for him. Caid
Clubnick of Clemson and again, this guy once Manning struggled
after the first game, everybody moved Clubnick to the top
of the class because Clemson's really good, expected to make
the playoff and contend for a national championship. Some believe
he might be the first quarterback taken in the NFL draft,

(01:15:39):
so they've got him third on this list. Or Brockermeyer does.
And again this is current, this is not preseason, of course,
because it's disappointing players so far in twenty twenty five.
He's got Leonora Sellers fourth, which makes me wonder and
on this was I've obviously done before the Missouri game.
He carried South Carolina through the Missouri game. South Carolina

(01:16:04):
could not run the football but lost by only a
touchdown on the road because Mazoo could not handle Leonora
Sellers at times. It did at times, but then didn't.
You gotta hope that he disappoints on Saturday night against
the Kentucky Wildcats, So we'll see. Kentucky will have a
lot to say about that. Everything to say about that,

(01:16:24):
frankly interesting to me. Number five on this list of
most disappointing players so far Cayden Proctor, offensive tackle of Alabama.
And if indeed that's accurate or close to being accurate
for one man's opinion, that means this guy has either
watched a lot of Alabama football or talked to a
lot of people, because when you put an od tackle

(01:16:45):
up there, it means you've looked at things like sacks
and pancakes and you know there are stats that you
can assign the offensive lineman, but really the proof is
watching and if you really believe this guy is underperforming,
that means I would hope you've studied a lot of
line play. When it comes to Alabama, Jeremiah Love of

(01:17:06):
Notre Dame is next on the list, and he's a
guy who is a Heisman dark horse. It all depended
on how well Notre Dame played this year. Of course,
you know you're not gonna win a Heisman or a
team that doesn't win a ton of games. Notre Dame
has struggled a little bit. I mean, he's still a
really good player, but he's not created the headlines that
you might have expected. Now here's the name that all

(01:17:30):
things considered, I might have put second. And yeah, Manning,
you know there was all that hype, so maybe that's
why he's on top of the list. And I mentioned Lagway.
But for all the off season hype and headlines and
all that that came with Nico Imilva going to UCLA
from Tennessee, they've got him on the list rank number seven.

(01:17:54):
Ucla is terrible and if you watched any UCLA football
you probably were asking yourself, what was the big deal
about this guy, Well, think about it at Notre Dame.
I'm sorry, at Tennessee, his skills fit perfectly. You may
be fair and saying he was a system quarterback there,

(01:18:16):
and most quarterbacks are very few quarterback can win in
any system. But this guy in particular thrived in Knoxville,
and you know use he's coach. USA fired the coach,
and he got his coach fired at UCLA. He and
all the other Ruins after that, Ernest Green of Georgia

(01:18:37):
and offensive tackle Sam Levitt, the quarterback at Arizona State,
Go Lopez, quarterback at North Carolina not flourishing under Belichick,
Mark Gronowski at Iowa, and Jaden Ott, a running back
at Oklahoma. Those are Blake Brockermeyer's twelve most disappointing players

(01:18:58):
so far in twenty twenty five. And again, you hope
that's accurate. Nothing personal. When it comes to Lenora Sellars
on Saturday night, and as Tom Leech pointed out, they
are missing some key players, but so are the Wildcats
and it's up to Kentucky to take advantage. Well, I
mentioned going into the break looking at what a veteran

(01:19:20):
NFL coach might want in a college quarterback. This is
gonna be kind of a quarterback heavy draft. But I
don't know if there's any superstar in the making in
this draft, including arch Manning. But I'm kind of out
of time, so we will save that four tomorrow that
said good night from the garage in Lexington.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
I got no respect today.

Speaker 6 (01:19:40):
I was born, really no respect.

Speaker 5 (01:19:42):
The doctor picked me up and smacked me.

Speaker 6 (01:19:43):
I found out the night she got a few.

Speaker 8 (01:19:44):
Into take.

Speaker 9 (01:20:13):
Back, then.

Speaker 7 (01:20:51):
Back past

Speaker 9 (01:21:17):
Ten in dotting to the

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