2025-09-26 BBI

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big Moon Sider. Dick Gabriel with you
Friday edition of our show. As we look ahead to
Kentucky South Carolina tonight, we hear from Mark Stoops and
a couple of the players also tonight at the bottom
of this hour, Ricky Lumpkin of the UK Radio Network,
former Kentucky defensive lineman. We'll preview the Wildcats and the
game Cocks, and a little bit later on Billy Rutledge

(00:21):
makes his NFL picks for the week, and we look
around at the college football in general, and we'll check
you in on those Cincinnati Reds, still battling for a
wildcard spot and in heroic play last night that kept
them alive in a game with the Pittsburgh Pirates that
they ultimately won two to one. So the Reds with
a good shot at making it need a little bit

(00:42):
of help, but they could still make postseason play. But
we begin, of course, by looking back at last year's
Kentucky South Carolina game of late The game Cock seem
to own the Wildcats last year was no exception. Although
it was a ten to sixth game at the half,
South Carolina jumped out to attend to nothing lead and

(01:02):
in the second quarter, the Wildcats put together a twelve
play drive covered only fifty seven yards. Every play was
a run play, and the drives stalled out at the
Kentucky fourteen started on their own twenty nine, did the Wildcats.
And it actually, I said to the Kentucky fourteen installed
out at the South Carolina fourteen yard line, and the

(01:25):
Wildcats set for a field goal. It was ten to three.
South Carolina gets the ball back. On the first play
from scrimmage, Leonora Sellers sacked by JJ Weaver and fumbled
the ball, but he recovered it right and everybody went
oh man. Then on the next play, Sellers was rushed
and throws an interception. Ty Bryant picked him off. This

(01:48):
was deep in South Carolina territory. The game cock starting
from their own eighteen and ty Bryant when sixteen yards
with a pick and ended up at the South Carolina
twenty seven yards line. But Kentucky just couldn't generate enough offense.
On third and three, Rock Vandergriff throws incomplete to Dane Key,

(02:10):
so the Wildcats have to settle for another field goal.
But still it was ten to six at the half,
and you had to feel good for Kentucky's chances in
the second half, but nothing happened and for the ballgame.
The stats are kind of weird when you look at
overall rushing and you don't subtract for stats, which is
silly in college football. Kentucky outrushed South Carolina one ninety

(02:34):
five to one twelve. Demisumo Karnbay ran seventeen times for
seventy yards. He led the Wildcats. Unfortunately, Rock Vandergriff was
sacked four times. Gavin Wimset was sacked once total of five,
so Kentucky ends up with a net rushing total of
one thirty nine. South Carolina ended up with only seventy

(02:59):
nine nine yards because the Wildcats sack Sellers four times,
but Sellers out passed Rock Vandergriff. He only threw fourteen times,
completed ten at the one pick, one sixty six and
two touchdowns. Brock was three of ten with one pick
for thirty yards total. Gavin wims At three of seven

(03:21):
for fourteen so Kentucky had forty four yards total passing
and just could not generate anything in the second half
and lost it. Gave up twenty one points in the
second half and lost thirty one to six, So now
they got to deal with sellers once again. March Stoops
talked about him earlier in the week about the fact that, yeah,

(03:43):
he can hurt you, he can put strain on your defense.
The other thing is Mike shula is now the offensive
coordinator for South Carolina. He took over for Dowel Loggins,
who went on to be the head coach at Appalachian State.
A lifer at one point, was the head coach at

(04:03):
Alabama from twenty oh three to twenty six. In five,
Alabama went ten and two and won the Cotton Bowl
beat Texas Tech led by Mike Leach and Schuler, landing
himself a contract extension six years, one point eight million
per year. But next year it all fell apart. High expectations,

(04:29):
but the team lost to Arkansas, then lost to Florida,
which was on its way to a national title. Struggled
all year, couldn't move the football, lost to Tennessee, lost
their final three games Mississippi State at home LSU, and
then for the fifth consecutive time, they lost to Auburn.
So Mike Shulan never could beat Auburn and they finished

(04:52):
up six and six, and he got fired right after
he got the contract extension. Alabama had to pay him
four million dollars. Of course, he bounced back found other
coaching jobs, but he's back in college ball at South Carolina,
and Stoop said that, yeah, it's a new OC, but
you can see some similarities with last year's South Carolina offense.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
It's very easy to see that the offense running through Lenoris, right.
I mean, he's just a dynamic player, just an extremely
talented player, very good, you know, I think you know,
you watch him in the pocket with a clean pocket,
and you see the way he throws the football and
the velocity that he has on it in the accuracy
very impressive. We all know what he can do on

(05:36):
his feet, you know, with either design runs or when
things break down. He is so big and so strong.
You know that that he's tough. You know, he's good
in a lot of ways. So you know, you know,
play calling, you know, there's obviously going to be some difference,
but there's a lot of things that carry over as well.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
But as he said, bottom line is it's going to
go through Lenora's sellers and why not six three two
forty runs really well, throws really well, just a real
good quality quarterback, one of the best in the countries.
And so in a wild cast from the defensive side
of the ball, we're talking about sellers, including linebacker Devyn Rayner.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
The Norrises. The quarterback is a really dynamic guy. He
opens up a lot in the passing game, in the
run game. So I think that and you know, limiting
explosives is something that we needed to.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Do against South Carolina.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
You didn't do the best job of so I mean Eastern.
So that's something that we're gonna really hone in and
continue to make sure that we do the best that
we can. He makes it hard because the best way
to like explain it is like when when you can
add the quarterback into the run game is obviously an
extra body. So that's an extra body that we have

(06:47):
to put into the run game. And then it all
the way he can like extend plays is something that
I don't really think it's talked about enough. I think
if you watch that Missouri game, a lot of those
plays were made because he found himself a lot less time.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
So a little bit later on, we're going to play
an excerpt from this week's Wildcat Whip, and within the
Wildcat Whip, which you can find on the UK Sports
Network app or via my Facebook page or Tom Leecher
jefficorl Tom tells us that it looks like Taren Nichols
will play for the Wildcats, who may be down a
man or two in the defensive secondary. But Nichols is

(07:23):
just a sophomore. Played really well last year. I didn't
realize this. He led the team in pass breakups last
year with five and remember he played really well against
Old Miss Maxwell. Harriston missed that game with an injury,
and I really wondered about the Wildcats. But Nichols filled
in and played well for the Cats, and he was

(07:43):
talking earlier this week about just how good sellers can
be in the strain he'll put on the Wildcats.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
Well, yeah, he's a great player. He's shown all over tape.
He can run the ball, he can throw the ball well,
and we just got to do a great job of
trying to contain him.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
But we know that he's going to be a fight
with him because he's a great player.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
There's a seven forty five kickoff. We will have it
for you right here on six thirty wlap Christy Thomas,
Ricky Lumpkin. Logan Stenberg will kick things off with pregame coverage,
followed by Tom Leech, Jeff Percorrel and yours truly and
again Ricky comes up at the bottom of the hour,
we'll get his thoughts on how does a d lineman
handle a situation like this trying to chase down a

(08:21):
guy like Leonora Sellers. Meanwhile, tomorrow night, EKU plays host
to Nichols State. Both teams are one in three, the
Colonel's coming off a loss at West Georgia last week.
EKU is only averaging fourteen points a game, but Nickel's
averaging only thirteen and a half points a game, so

(08:41):
both teams trying to get untracked Offensially, Colonel's rushing for
only eighty three yards a game they allow one hundred
and seventy. They only throw for one hundred and twelve
yards per game they allow one to eighty four, So
EKU trying to figure things out on both sides of
the football. It'll be the first time these teams have
ever met, and again it is a six pm kickoff

(09:01):
at Roy Kidds Stadium, where the Colonels have won eight straight.
Their winning streak dates back to the twenty twenty three
season finale against Steven F. Austin. One thing the Colonels
have going for them they have forced nine turnovers. That's
fifth best in FCS one DOUBLEA competition, so need to
keep that up. Their six fumbles were covered, second best

(09:24):
in FCS up. Next, the Reds are still alive in
postseason aspirations thanks to a miracle catch, and we'll hear
from Ricky Lumpkin at the bottom of the hour here
on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider.
Coming up in just a couple of minutes, Ricky Lumpkin
joins us from the UK Radio Network. He will preview

(09:46):
Kentucky South Carolina, our number two. We'll hear from Billy Rutledge.
He'll make his NFL picks and we've done fairly well,
although both of us stumbled a little bit last week.
But right now we're going to talk numbers on a
few fronts. First of all, Cincinnati Reds. They are still
in it, and the numbers say they own the tiebreakers

(10:06):
when it comes to taking the last wild card berth
from the Mets and the Diamondbacks. If the Reds can
at least tie the Mets. They are one game behind
now the New York Mets, but they are still in
it thanks to an incredible play last night in a
two to one win over the Pirates. The Reds play

(10:28):
well and win against good teams, and they struggle against
bad teams. Now, you can't say that really again about
the Pirates when they squared off on Wednesday night, because
Paul Skeins was pitching, and so was Hunter Green for
the Reds, and that was a game for the Ages.
The Reds lost it. They won it last night in
a similar fashion, two to one, and in the ninth inning, well,

(10:50):
Noel Marty saves the game by stealing a game tying
home run. Here's John Sadak's TV call Wings.

Speaker 5 (11:01):
High fly right field Marte all the way back, leaps
at the wall, play in the field.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
And you know what's crazy about that is Martello hasn't
even been the regular right field or all year long.
He's been back there some, but that's not where he's
been playing. But he sure made it his last night
and save the Reds. If the Reds get into the playoffs,
that's the play that fans likely will remember, especially if
they win some games for a long time. So the
Reds still alive, but they open a series at Milwaukee

(11:42):
tonight eight ten, first pitch. Meanwhile, the Mets are in
Miami to take on the Marlins. It would be really
helpful if the Reds could win the series against Milwaukee,
but they haven't done that. They haven't won a series
over the Brewers in three years. But who knows. Maybe
the Brewers are going to rest some people because they've

(12:03):
clinched their ticket to the playoffs a long time ago,
Milwaukee winning the division the Anel Central for the third consecutive year.
And by the way, the Brewers have the best record
in baseball at ninety six and sixty three. In fact,
the Reds have lost thirteen consecutive series to the Brewer crew.
They've lost thirty two of their last forty two dating

(12:25):
back to that August twenty twenty two series. So they
got to turn things around if they want to stay alive.
But the Reds right now seem to be playing their
best baseball all right, more numbers for you. Robert Kraft,
who owns the New England Patriots, has agreed to sell
what's being called and it is a minority stake in
his team. He is the owner, but he's going to

(12:47):
sell eight percent of the team to a couple of
groups in a deal that now values the franchise at
nine billion, with a be nine billion dollars. He paid
one hundred more than seventy two million in nineteen ninety four,
So thirty years ago, one hundred and seventy two million

(13:08):
now nine billion. So An owners once again poor mouth
about the value of their team. Do not listen. The
buyers are six Street Partners at about three percent, and
a guy named Dean Metropolis with about five percent. Metropolis,

(13:28):
listed by Forbes, is having a net worth a four
point one billion. Now if the name Metropolis sounds familiar,
there's two reasons. Number one, Superman is based in Metropolis,
but that's a different spelling, and that's just another name
for New York.

Speaker 6 (13:44):
But C.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Dean Metropolis is a CEO of an investment firm that
is known as much for food and beverage as anything specifically.
He engineered a deal, or at least that company did,
in twenty thirteen that revived the Hostess brand. You remember,
back then we got the news that it looked like

(14:06):
Twinkies were going away. Hostess twinkies, and I hate twinkies.
I can't stand them. I hate sponge cake, I hate
whipped cream. But I know a lot of people love them,
especially people counting on having hostess Twinkies whenever the apocalypse happens, happens.
The only things that will survive cockroaches and twinkies. But anyhow,
this company stepped in revived the brand, saving twinkies and

(14:31):
ding dongs and hose and all that, all the bakery items.
It went public in twenty sixteen, saw another company becomes
a majority owner. Then in twenty twenty three, the brand
was purchased by the jam Smucker Company for a whopping
five point six billion, So Twinkies were going away, and

(14:54):
then jam Smucker buys it for five point six billion. Hey, yeah,
that's the Smucker company that has that peanut butter plant
right here in Lexington on Winchester Road. It's all tied
together somehow. But again, Robert Kraft is richer today than
he was a few days ago. Finally, Connor McGregor, that's right,

(15:15):
UFC fame. He wants in if the UFC is going
to stage an event at the White House, and he
already has put his price tag on it. The White
House is pushing ford event on the fourth of July
next year to commemorate the country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday,
and hey, what could be more American than mixed martial

(15:39):
arts on the grounds of the White House. Connor McGregor
wants one hundred million dollars to appear and fight. Plus
he wants the government to fast track visas for all
his family and friends so they can be there. Just
to give you some perspective, remember he fought Floyd in

(16:00):
twenty seventeen that was worth a paltry thirty million dollars.
McGregor wants a lot more than that and the gold
card visas that the White House occasionally doles out. McGregor
hasn't fought since twenty twenty one when he suffered a
broken leg. He was supposed to fight at UFC three

(16:21):
or three last year, but I had to pull out
with a broken pinky toe. They are throwing dollars around
like it's monopoly money. Up next, Ricky Lumpkin of the
UK Radio Network here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back
to the Big Moon, Sider joining us now in our
celebrity outline is mister Ricky Lumpkin, former Kentucky defensive lineman,
part of our pregame coverage now of Kentucky football. He'll

(16:44):
be there Saturday along with Christy and Logan Stenberg, setting
us up for Kentucky and South Carolina. Let me start
right off Ricky by saying, Laura Sellers, he's crafty, he's nimble,
and he's big. Tell me about the challenges for d
offensive lineman.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Holding your rustlings right, making sure you don't rush past
the quarterback, making sure you stay in the gap you're
supposed to be rushing in, whether that's the B gap
and you're in a three technique or if you're in
a shade and not getting out too wide. And when
I say a shade, you're lined up on the shoulder
of the center and you're where you're supposed to be.
If not the man, he can run, he can throw,

(17:22):
he's a big arm and he is a big man
and a big kid. But we have to do our
job the front to make it easier for the guys
in the back end.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
How tough is that? To teach yourself to develop the
discipline to stay in your lane.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
It's practice, practice, practice, and honestly, it's not being selfish, right. Yeah,
And I one of my favorite things I always remember
hearing from coaches in the NFL was if you're going
to if you're going to take a risk, you better
make it. If not, that's your butt and you can
take of the other word that they would say. So
if you make it, it's fine. If you freestyle, you're good.
But if you don't, don't make it, you're in trouble.

(18:01):
And there's some guys that can freak doll and make it.
But if you know you're not that guy, stay where
you need to be and make sure you're playing team
defense and don't be selfish because one.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
Guy out of place. I mean, you could have ten
guys doing everything right. When we've heard that for years.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yes, you can have ten guys doing everything right, and
then that one guy can drop the ball in terms
of that literally dropping the ball, but having an emmy,
a miss assignment and miss a mental error and then
next thing you know, there's a big play, there's a touchdown.
Perfect example is you look at penalties, right, everything goes
right on the play in a drive, someone with selfish
got you got a personal foul after the play fifteen

(18:39):
yard penalty line up for a game winn field goal
or a first down to drive for a touchdown to
take the lead. Which you know, big brother, momentum doesn't
play once it swings, it swings.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Did you ever play for Mike Archer?

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yes, my freshman year I did.

Speaker 1 (18:54):
Mike Archer told me, I think it's when he first
got to Kentucky. He had two stints at Kentucky, and
you know, he came in and was trying to fix
the defense, and he was hammering home, you know, stay
in your lane. Do you don't try to do somebody
else's job, Do your job. And he said at the
time it was so frustrating because he said the guy

(19:15):
was the most guilty of doing that, of getting out
of his lane, trying to do too much. Was his
best player, and he's sadly he has left us now.
But it was sweet Pea Burns, you know. And see
sweet Pea was clearly the best player on defense he
played in the league, as you know. But sweet Pea
was so caught up in the moment oftentimes and so

(19:37):
confident in what he could do that he ends up
out of place. And how many times that year, well,
I can remember watching running backs change direction, cut back,
cut through a lane and are off to a big gainer.
That's a disaster, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
That is a disaster. And you know, watching the South
TROMLNTA film, what they do, they do do a lot
of tight end motion to get linebackers flowing and next
thing you know, they try to open up gaps like that.
And if you're a defensive linement and you swim you're
supposed to be in the B gap and you swim
into the A where you're trying to reach outside where
you're not supposed to be. The running backs find that

(20:14):
crease and it can turn into a very long day.
And that's something we don't need down there at South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
And you've been down there to South Carolina, tell me
about dealing with the noise deal.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
On defense, you don't really deal with it. But the atmosphere.
But the atmosphere it's amazing, Like honestly, it's one of
the best places outside of Crower Field to play because
of the atmosphere. It's not your typical look at stadium.
It's a little different looking. You come out right beside
the student section and I'll never forget when We went

(20:45):
down there when we were ranked eighth in the country
and we laid an egg. We had a couple of turnovers,
and we you know, we were known for shooting ourselves
on the foot against South Carolina until my senior year
and I never forget they started changing to overrat it
and it was like, oh wow, you only heard that
on the video game, right, And it was like, this
is really happening to us. But it's a it's a

(21:07):
great atmosphere, and as a player, you get excited to
play there. I know a lot of my former teammates
and college in the NFL will say the same thing
in terms of a great place to play. It's there,
So you get excited, you get amped up there. Adrenaline
is going to be flowing because you know that crowd
is going to be loud and student section is going
to be there. And it was raining that game and
it was packed like they were out there. I'm like live.

(21:30):
He was the old All right, let's go, this is
what we're doing. It's time to dance. Boys, put your
dancing shoes on. Who wants it?

Speaker 1 (21:37):
I was talking to Tom Leach about that very game
on the show last night. Yeah, you guys were top ten.
Andre Watson suddenly was being mentioned as a potential Heisman
Trophy candidate. But you made too many mistakes that night.
But then again, you follow that up. All you did
was knock off the number one team in the country.
Right now, it's funny that worked out.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Oh we were good for that. We we lose to
someone where you would think we'd win against and then
up here comes an upset. It's funny. In a lot
of my old teammates we talked about, They're like, man,
you know what, we've go upset somewhere. But then you
look back and it was like, oh, we should we
should have won that game. But you know, let's have
some kind of overs and miss tackles and blown cup
and blown coverages and there's a nine win, ten win

(22:25):
season right there. And you know, but you make mistakes
and we live and grown. We still had a great
time and fun time. It's just we left the meat
on the bones.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, but you ended up the season with a winning
in a bowl game, so uh, that was still fun.
We're talking to Ricky Lumpkin, former Kentucky d lineman. He'll
be on the coverage along with Christy Thomas. And Logan
Stenberg pregame coverage of Kentucky and South Carolina seven forty
five start man. I got to think, as a player,
you didn't like laying around the hotel or did you
enjoy night games on the road.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
It depends, and you never look ahead or to an
opponent or whatnot. But SEC games that night you're excited for,
right You're you're geeked up, You're ready to go defense
on the roads. You're like, let's go, let's shut this
place up, let's play hard, let's get them mad. And
you know, I just think of when we went at
Auburn and when we won at Georgia when I was
in college, and those were night games and seeing a

(23:20):
place like that and then talking trash to them, saying, yeah,
now what now we're going to get you in basketball too,
since you think we're a basketball school, and just throwing
and throwing the jabs right back after your heard it
all game, and you're excited for those games. And it's
hard to do that when you're going against a non
SEC opponent that isn't even like a power four power
five team at that time, and now it's a power four.

(23:42):
It's a little harder to get up for, but a
night game against an SEC team, you're you're excited for it.
And then especially when it comes Keenland season here in Lexington,
you're really excited because you know our fans are going
to be lit. So let's just say it like that,
and you know it's going to be loud.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
They're gonna be lit because they're gonna be full of fuel.
Let me get back to Leonora's Sellers, because I just
flashed into my head and I was again talking to
Tom and Jeff about this. I'm watching the Lions Ravens
and I'm watching Lamar Jackson and he is, as you know,
so good with those legs, got a great arm. He's like,

(24:20):
you know, Leonora's Seller is only much much much better.
I'm not saying Sellers is that good, but similar in
the way he operates. And I kept asking myself, how
does Lamar Jackson ever get sacked? But the Lions got
to him. But they did a real nice job of
containing hum, didn't.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
They real great joba containing them. You have pressure of
people being where there's supposed to be, and you have
probably and probably the Lions had a spy, right so
whe that hey, you're going to follow him everywhere. I
know we had games where you think of high schooling
and college. Your job is to follow this quarterback where
he goes, you go, he goes to the bathroom, you're
going with him, okay, And you're gonna make sure he

(24:56):
washes his hands okay. So everyone has a job. If
you if you maintain your pass wrest lane and you
stick to the game plan, it's going to work. And
it reminds me of the perfect example of when we
played at Arkansas and we went down.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
There when during the sad and yeah, yeah, I feel
like and Jones.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
And Coach Brown said, hey man, they're going to get
their yards, but we got to control what yards they get.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (25:24):
And you can take that either way you want, like, oh,
they're going to run and eat for two hundred or
but can you keep it down? And that's what should
to do with a quarterback that can run and throw.
He might get his but can we control how many
he gets? Can we keep him where he needs to
be where he can't make that awesome play to get
that crowd into it, which makes it harder for our
offense because that crowd is going.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
To be juiced up and by making a tougher on them,
you guys took advantage then when you were able to
turn them over and the game turned around. So that
that's obviously one of the many advantages of just keeping
it close and grinding and you know, just hanging in
there until you can turn the game around.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
Right exactly, and truthfully, you look at what we did
against Ole mess We had two early interceptions. They did
not hurt us with the passing game. They are a
passing team that at the time was averaging four four
hundred and fifty yards through the air. Could they run
the ball also, yes, but we took them out with
what they want to do to play fast, which was passed.
We caused the turnovers, We made them play slow. We

(26:25):
just had some self inflicted wounds that we couldn't get passed.
And if we can fix that, which I'm sure they
did over the bye week and getting in the film room,
and you saw some improvals against Eastern. Now it's the season.
Within the season, we have to make them slow down.
We have to make them uncomfortable. And I say it
all the time. Quarterbacks are like pitchers. Can you get
in their head mentally and then they'll start beating themselves.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
He is Ricky Lumpkin of the UK Network, will come
back and talk more Kentucky football in just a minute
here on the Big bullone side Er six thirty WLAP
Welcome back. We're chatting with Ricky Lumpkin, former ukd lineman
and member of our UK Sports Network team. He's on
the pregame coverage along with Christy Thomas and Logan Stenberg.
He'll be there Saturday evening. Really, it starts Saturday afternoon.

(27:09):
It's a long day when the Wildcats take on South Carolina.
Let's talk a little bit though about that Eastern Michigan game,
because yeah, there is a bye week follow up, so
they had a chance to clean things up. But I
was a bit surprised, Ricky, and I know Brad White,
was that they gave up chunk plays to this team
which had been struggling up until then. What did you
see in that?

Speaker 4 (27:30):
It was guys, guys freestylen a little bit right, Guys
not being where they were supposed to be, you know, sorry,
linebackers not really fitting right, just playing down to the
competition a little bit right. You think, Okay, it's Eastern,
We're here we're taking a little easy. We got to
lead and then next thing, you know, Oh, I'm going

(27:53):
to see if I can make this play where I'm
not supposed to be. Oh, I'm going to try to
do a little too much. Oh, let me see if
I really Now I'm pressing. Oh, now I gotta make up.
I'm having a bad game. Now I really got to
make something flashy. Stay calm, stay in the system, play
your defense, the defense works, don't do too much. Be

(28:14):
where you're supposed to be, and trust me, the tackles
and all that will come to you. Do your job.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Steve Brown used to say your keys will set you free.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
So true. Your keys will shut you free is so
true because the eye and the sky never lied.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
That's true too where and you guys do live by him.
We've talked for a while. I haven't even talked about
cutter bowlie. So let me flip it and say, you're
a defensive lineman. You know the quarterback on the other
team is a red shirt freshman making his first road
start in my stadium, which is full of noise. So
if you're a South Carolina d lineman, you got to

(28:53):
be thinking, I've got this kid we're gonna make his
life miserable. Right.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Oh, you're thinking as a defense line. I'm a South
carol line defensive line in any position in that room,
they're saying right now, we got to get to him early,
and we got to hit him early. Let's get on
top of them. Let's get them. Make sure we don't
do anything stupid to get appelity, which can revert and
take away momentum and take our crowd out of it.
When we get a chance, let's get our hands on
this kid, let's make it. Let's let him know. Let's

(29:18):
make him, make him know and believe we're going to
be there all games. Let him see what it's like
to play in the SEC. Let him feel what it's
like to be in the SEC stadium at night. We
are the South Carolina game Cocks. We are playing at
home in Columbia where it gets live and of the
sad man. Let him feel that energy. We're going to

(29:38):
show them who we are, and we want him to
feel it because when we do, we're gonna make him
make mistakes. Now on the opposite side, cut or slow down, relax,
don't try to do too much. Believe in your throws.
You make great throws against Eastern Michigan. Keep doing it.
Let's pile on top of that. Let's keep going step
by step, in by end, stride by stride.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
I know he didn't play particularly well against Louisville. He
was high with a lot of his passes, you know,
and it was not a great afternoon. But he didn't
start against Texas, but he came in late in the
game and he took some shots, some vicious shots from
the Longhorns, but he also stood in there. It makes
some really nice throws. I gotta think that's going to

(30:22):
pay off. I know he wasn't in there for the
whole game, but that wasn't an easy trip for him either.

Speaker 6 (30:27):
Was it.

Speaker 4 (30:28):
No, it was not an easy trip.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
You know.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
You get thrown into another environment like that in a
huge stadium one hundred thousand plus, and he stood in
there right yeh, he sat there, he threw the ball,
he threw it. He was his first, one of his
first games playing and in that type of space, and
he didn't do bad right, And like you said, the overthrows,
he didn't really see any overthrows against Eastern Michigan. He

(30:50):
getting a lot of nice, pretty balls, getting it into
some tight spots, dipping it in there, whereas okay, now
we see it right and again as a defender, your
you know he played in those type of games. But
it's still this is a full game now, buddy, the
Saint Louisville, it's Saint Texas, the Saint Shoe defense a Kentucky.
You know where you're at. I need you to know,

(31:11):
and we're going to try to make it known. And
they're going to try to make it known early on.
So don't be surprised to see some blitzer to see
if he's there. Mentally, don't be surprised to see them
running some games up front to try to get our
offensive line, which, in my opinion, our offensive line has
been amazing. I think they've done this great. I think
I think they've done a really good job in pass
protection and then run blocking. And you know that it

(31:32):
got to be a hot take for some people that, oh, well,
you know they give us three sacks. Well, if you
watch the film now, all the time it's on the
offensive line. I don't I don't like offensive lining, but
I have to say, sometimes you know, there's coverage sacks
where it happens. Sometimes the quarterback holes in the ball
a little too long. Sometimes they are going to lose
a pass for us. But look at where they've come

(31:55):
from just from last year. They're playing great football. They
did it against Old Miss, they done it against now again,
we're getting into the season. We're getting to the season.
Inside the season. Yeah, can they continue to improve and
keep going? And we'll find out Saturday, which I believe
they'll do fine.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
It's coming off of bye week, as we said, and
Mark Stoops does not have a great record coming off bys.
But in all fairness, I went back and researched this
ricky and so often Kentucky coming off of bye was
moving right back into a really difficult game. Not always,
but as often as not it was Tennessee. It just
seems like it worked out that time. Also Arkansas Mississippi

(32:35):
State one in twenty seventeen. They went down to Mississippi
State and got waxed. But you know, Tennessee is never
as you know, never been easy. But I don't think
there's anything to people try to, you know, create cause
and effect with Mark Stoops team in a bye week.
I just think it's been the result of scheduling as

(32:58):
much as anything. And I'm not making excuse because you
ought to be able to come out and win a game.
But Tennessee has been a problem and they have come
out a couple of times in the laid in Egg.
One year that the Josh Allen senior year, they went
down to Tennessee with a superior team and just went
through the motions and got their butts kicked, and then
they're winning ten games that year. So there is a

(33:20):
mental element to it. But it's also the sec brother
and every week stuff.

Speaker 4 (33:25):
There is definitely a mental element. And you know, someone
can fact check me on this. Even when I was
in college here playing, we struggled after bide weeks. I
don't know what it is, and as a player, you
started thinking like, oh my gosh, can we finally break this?
Like she it's another body, Hey, we got to change
it at some point. It's like the Tennessee the Tennessee
streak that it was and the Florida Street. Can we
end this? Like god? We like you know it because

(33:47):
you hear about it. I'm pretty sure they've heard about
it from each other or a coach that says them, Hey,
aren't you tired of doing this? After a bide week.
Come on, guys, we've had a break, we've done this,
we worked hard, let's put together a great game and
that come out flat and ourselves in the foot so
and you know it's not excuses. It does happen. Some
of it could be a little mental I know for

(34:07):
us back then, we knew that. And I'm speaking this
from my time, like like when we lost to mis
CV State after a bye week in a foggy, rainy game,
and I never forget that, like it's like, god, we
did it again. It started.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, that was kind of a weird night. It was
just it was just a bizarre wasn't it.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
It was bizarre? Right, And again it's after a bye week,
and I would love to know historically how UK has
done in bye weeks for the past forty years. I
think it'll be interesting to see, regardless of who we
play schedule wise and whatnot, just to see the overall
scores of the game, Like can we break another mental hurdle?
And this will be one right because everyone's talking about

(34:46):
like it's after a bye week, like you know they
struggle after bye weeks with stups. I don't think it's
a stupe thing. I think it's a players thing, like,
can we mentally a players because we're the ones playing.
He's not playing, but we're the ones playing. Can we
do it?

Speaker 1 (35:01):
I can tell you this from twenty sixteen through twenty
and those are the best stoops years. Well, twenty that
was the COVID you're not so much. But but that
span of five years, Kentucky won five games after buys.
But in a couple of those years they had two
bys and they lost the second by week game. But
one was that terrible game Mississippi State. One was to Tennessee.

(35:22):
So you know, again it's it's the schedule as often
as not. But you know you got a chance to
win the game. So go out there and win it.
Just a minute or two left with Ricky Lumpkin. It
sounds kind of boring, but Kentucky's gonna have to run
the ball work the clock shortened the game. Take the
crowd out of it. I mean it's almost cliche, Ricky,

(35:43):
but that's how to get it done on the road.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Right, You got to take the crowd out of it, right,
You shut the crowd up. You shut that crowd up.
It's an amazing feeling and you start to feed off
it because going in there again, they're thinking it's Kentucky. Yeah,
they've had our number the past couple of years, but
we got them last year, Like, come on, during not
who they had last year. They don't have those guys.

(36:06):
We did it last year and they had a better team.
And now I'm not saying this is what their fans
are thinking, this is what their players are thinking, because
I know what I would be thinking right as a
player when we're going against Florida or Auburn or anyone
like that. It's like, all right, they don't have this guy, Like,
all right, let's go, let's see what happens. You shut
them up, keep your foot down on the gas, and

(36:29):
you make the plays and you beat a more physical team.
And up front is where it's going to happen at
on both sides of the ball. We do that, we're
gonna be just fine. We can line up, run the
ball and stop the run, make them one dimensional, and
keep him in the pocket. It's going to be a
beautiful night for Big Blue Nations.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Just come close to doing what Missouri did against South
Carolina's run game, You're not gonna be able to replicate
it because that was incredible held him. It's basically nothing.
But you know what, it just occurred to me. If
you're the South Carolina defense, if you're the decoordinator, who
do you put up on the on the whiteboard first?
Because Kentucky's run such balance, you know running I mean,

(37:06):
you know what, I'm McGowan. But they've got more than
one running back. They've been thrown to the tight ends,
wide receivers, they've spread to love. You don't have a
whole lot of video on cutter bowlie, So how do
you prep if you're South Carolina for Kentucky, that's a challenge.
That's a I believe that's a plus for the Wildcats.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
It's a huge plus. And so you do it. You're
gonna You're gonna probably do it by committee, right, Guess
whoever gets the ball doesn't matter. You know, you know
each running back has a strength and weakness. You know
they can both run hard between the tackles. And again,
it's going to be be where you're supposed to be.
Don't do too much. Yeah, the tight ends, people, tight
ends are amazing linebackers. Make sure you're on them. They're

(37:45):
making great hard catches, cutters putting it in spots and
it's the same for us. Right guard them, don't get
your eyes buck in the backfield, especially on play actions.
Find them and be on your man because if not
their tight ends U case tight ends will hurt us.
That's what South Carolina's thinking. Keep them there and watch
out for speeds week like we started to see with

(38:06):
law number one, and making sure we have our ads
strong so he can't get to the corner and use
that speed and hurt us. Play gap sound, smart defense
and we will be fine. Make this young quarterback make mistakes,
make him force something. He has a strong arm. Let's
see if we make him think he can get something
in there that he can't, and we're going to be

(38:27):
there to capitalize.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
And if Kentucky play clean, no stupid penalties like you
said earlier, don't turn the ball over, and you got
a shot. He is Ricky Lumpkin of the UK Sports Network.
Listen for him along with Christy Thomas and Logan Stenberg
or pregame coverage of Kentucky and South Carolina tomorrow evening.
Thank you, sir, have a great weekend.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
Yes, sir, thank you so much. It's always fun talking
with you.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
Up next Hour number two, including up next, more on
UK South Carolina plus Billy Rutlege and his NFL kicks.
That's all ahead on the Big Womens Siders Third e
w l AP Welcome back to the Big Blue on Saturday,

(40:56):
cabrae with you our number two of our program, and
coming up in just a few minutes, Billy Rutledge makes
his NFL picks for the upcoming weekend, including my beloved
Packers taking on those Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. We'll talk
about that, talk about Billy's Buccaneers, and a lot of
other interesting NFL games. But I wanted to share with
you a bit of an interview that came across social

(41:19):
media this week. I don't remember, I didn't really know
what it was from, but it was Isaiah Thomas, the
former All Everything Guard, All American and Indiana National Champion,
one of the Bad Boys, a couple of titles with
the Pistons, former NBA general manager. But he was talking
specifically about Dan Issel, of course, the Kentucky All American

(41:45):
and the Kentucky Colonel ABA champ in a long time,
many time All Pro with the Denver Nuggets and just
one of the Kentucky's all time leading men's basketball scorer
and one of the most popular players ever to wear
the Blue White. But Isaiah Thomas, it's really interesting hearing
his comments and the depth of his admiration for Daniel.

(42:08):
I thought I would share that with you tonight.

Speaker 7 (42:11):
Let me take you back to a guy by the
name of Danis or the horse. You want to talk
about a power forward. What made Danisl was so difficult
to guard? His athleticism. He had hops where he can
get to the basket, he can put it on the floor.
He had good shot, fake go around you dunk it.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Then again, the.

Speaker 7 (42:28):
Pure shooting stroke that he had. That's what made him
really difficult. From the ABA to the NBA, he was
a problem. And against Denver, they play a similar style
to what the Golden State Warriors played today. It's a
read and react passing game type offense where anyone can
initiate the offense. They set screens, and when you were

(42:49):
talking about Garden Kiky vandaweight, Alex English Danisl, you're talking
about a back line that all three of them, at
any point in time could get thirty to forty points
a night. You know, I've seen it live well, I
think Kiki got fifty and Alex Ingers got over forty
on us in one game. It actually happened to be
the highest scoring game ever in the NBA. It's so English.

(43:14):
Van Derwayt definitely ranks up there with some of the
best scoring back lines ever in the history of all games.
It's so for his career, only missed twenty four games,
night in and night out.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
He showed up.

Speaker 7 (43:25):
Not only did he show up, but he always gave
his best performance and he always was a crowd pleaser.
A lot of you youngsters like to say, well, that's
so old school. Yeah, showing up his old school, being
on time, his old school, and doing your job his
old school. Danisa was definitely old school.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Really really interesting comments by Isaiah Thomas about Danissel, who
get this. In his first four seasons in the NBA
averaged a double double. His first year, he averaged nearly
thirty points game, twenty nine point nine points per game,

(44:03):
thirteen point two rebounds. That was his all time best
rebound average in his pro career. Now the next couple
of years eleven, eleven, ten. In seventy five, the year
the Colonels won the championship in the ABA, his numbers
dropped off a bit seventeen point seven points per game
eight point six rebounds per game, but of course he

(44:27):
was playing alongside artist Gilmour, and Dan also averaged about
two and a half assists per game. So Dan Issel
incredible player for the Colonels, and John Y Brown got
rid of him. John Y Brown, running everything strictly as
a business, wanted to move that big salary, and he

(44:47):
knew he could only keep one of the big guys,
so he decided to keep Gilmore and he traded Dan
Issel to the Baltimore franchise, which had just started in
the AB but never got off the ground. It was
the Baltimore Clause, although the first nickname was the Baltimore Hookers,

(45:09):
because when you go crabbing and you pull the crab
pots up, you do it with a big hook. So
the people, the locals, said, well, let's call them the hookers,
and then suddenly pointed out somebody said do you really
want to call your team the hookers? And very quickly
they backed it off and stayed with the crab motif,
but went with a clause. But that team folded before

(45:30):
played a game, so its will ends up in Denver,
and his first year in Denver averages twenty three a game.
His first three years he averages more than twenty and
in fact, on almost every season that he played for
the Nuggets, he averaged at or more than twenty points
per game. And the Nuggets never won a title with him,

(45:54):
but they were always competitive and they were always fun
to watch, and at one point he became came the
head coach actually a couple times of the Denver Nuggets,
and he was the coach when the eighth seeded Nuggets
upset the top seeded Seattle SuperSonics. That happened back in
nineteen ninety four. Denver had the Kembay Mutumbo and was

(46:20):
supposed to be cannon fodder for the Sonics in the
first round of the playoffs, but the Nuggets became the
first number eight seed in the NBA history to beat
a number one seed since the first round went to
a best of five format, and they won it in
five games, and Denver took the final game ninety eight

(46:43):
ninety four in overtime, the Kembay Mutumbo grabbing the ball
fell to the floor was weeping. I mean, that was
a huge deal back then. It would be a huge
deal now. And by coincidence, the general manager and president
of the Denver Nuggets back then was Bernie Bickerstaff, who

(47:04):
at one point coached the Sonics. But during that series,
bicker Staff, as I said, was president and GM. And
Bernie is a Kentucky and he was from Benham, Kentucky
in Southeast Kentucky. So you got Dan Issel who wanted
to play for the Colonels instead of in the NBA
because he wanted to stay in the state of Kentucky.

(47:26):
And you know, came back to live in Kentucky. He's
living back in Denver now. So you've got a former
UK player and you got a native Kentuckian running the
Denver Nuggets, and they pulled off one of the biggest
upsets still in the history of the NBA playoffs. But
interesting comments from Isaiah Thomas. Billy Rutledge next on six
thirty WLAP welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. As

(47:51):
promise we bring in as we do each week, Billy Rutledge.
You hear him every morning, Billy and the Dude at
nine am following the Leachs Report on this very radio station.
But you also hear him picking games NFL Action, we
pick about a half a dozen games. We did okay.
Last week, Billy not great. The Packers let us both down.

(48:11):
The Bengals let us both down. We disagreed on Lions Ravens.
I took the Lions and somehow they covered. But still
we're doing okay.

Speaker 8 (48:21):
Yeah, it was good to see the Lions show some
life again. They're definitely not the team they were in
Week one. It seems like just a bizarre week.

Speaker 6 (48:27):
Though.

Speaker 8 (48:27):
We barely got that Eagles cover against the Rams thanks
to the block field goal, and I mean there was
plenty of them last week.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah, and you know we would not Oh yeah, we
would have. We would have won that Packers game if
they had gotten off that field goal because it will
not Actually no, we would not have because Packers has
laid seven and a half, so we were gonna lose
that one anyway. All right, let us start this week.
The Bengals are in Denver. Bengals, of course struggling No
Joe Burrow. They're getting seven and a half in Denver,

(48:58):
and when Denver successfully rushes the quarterback, they win. They
are one of, if not the best team in the
league right now at rushing to QB and the Bengals
are the worst. What do you think?

Speaker 8 (49:15):
Yeah, it was really disappointing from Cincinnati last week. You
kind of hope that Browning could step in and the
operations could continue as normal. There was confidence with him
playing in the past that that could happen. But the
Viking's putting up forty eight against Cincinnati, forty eight to ten.
I mean, that's rough. I'm really concerned about Cincinnati this year.

Speaker 6 (49:34):
Meanwhile, Denver maybe a.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Slow start with bon Nicks a little bit, but.

Speaker 8 (49:37):
I really like what JK.

Speaker 6 (49:38):
Dobbins is doing.

Speaker 8 (49:39):
You mentioned how good their pass rushes right now, this
one a Monday night football matchup in Denver. I think
you know this could be a game where we turn
it off by halftime. Dick, I'm gonna take Denver here.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
I'm with you. I'm going to lay the seven and
a half to the Bengals. And by the way, bon
Nicks eight and two against the spread as a favorite,
So in games where the Broncos are expected to play well,
he plays well. The Saints, the team you love to hate,
is at Buffalo. This is the biggest mismatch of the

(50:10):
league so far this year. If not this weekend, Saints
are getting fifteen and a half against those Bills. Spencer
Rattler as a starter, he is won and eight overall
as a starter, and the Bills have not turned the
ball over in eight straight games. That's a lot of points.

Speaker 8 (50:30):
But yeah, I mean this is we talked about games
that are gonna be over by halftime. This one may
be over by the first quarter. I mean, the Seahawks
Saints game was last week, so the Bill is a
better team at home. Fifteen is not enough for me
to even consider New Orleans here. And I want to
feel bad for him, but I don't. Dick obviously, being

(50:50):
an FC South Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan, I'm loving the misery.
But when you're shotting Spencer Rattler out there, I mean,
you're just playing behind the eight ball already. I you know,
I hate to see it, but Buffalo I think wins
in a landslide here easily.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
I'm with you. I hate it for Landing Young and
Luke Fortner, who are now playing o line for the Saints.
But the Saints have not met any secret of the fact.
Belive that they're playing for the future. They're trying to
build a base you know, they know that. In other words,
they know they're not going to be any good this year.
And the Bills are playing for right now. I mean,
people keep saying their window is closing, so I think

(51:26):
they'll do everything they can to stay sharp. So yeah,
I'm with you. We're laying fifteen and a half, which
is a huge number in the NFL, but I'm willing
to do that. Here's a traditional rivalry, the Colts and
the Rams in LA. Rams are laying three and a half.
The Rams have twelve sacks this year. Indy has surrendered

(51:52):
only two. That's the fewest in the league, which is
one of the reasons the Colts have been successful. They're
three and oero also three and obillity against the spread,
and they keep winning at the last second. They're getting
three and a half. Kind of intriguing.

Speaker 8 (52:09):
It is two interesting teams this year. I mean, LA
looks to be a playoff team who kun Nakua leads
the league in receiving yards that doesn't have a touchdown.
Devonte Adams has looks good for LA. Matthew Stafford battling
through that back injury, uh is seems pretty capable and
if it wasn't for that blocked kicks, then they would
have beaten maybe arguably the best team in the league

(52:31):
in Philadelphia.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Meanwhile, the Colts finally punted.

Speaker 8 (52:33):
Stick with the NFL record, they they've won two games
and had not punted. They finally punt and beat an
easy uh and beat a bad Titans team on the road.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
I love this matchup.

Speaker 8 (52:44):
I uh, you know it's it's it's tough either way.
Intriguing line as well. I'm gonna go with who I
know more about, and that's the Rams. Daniel Jones and
the Colts are definitely going to win that division if
Liam Cohen doesn't get his act together, even though they
got a big win last week versus the Texans, but
LA seems to be I think more of a safer

(53:06):
pick here. Indy's been the big surprise of the season
so far. If they continue to prove it, then maybe
I'll get on that bandwagon. But I think I'm taking
the ramsa I'm going with you.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
I'm gonna lay the three and a half and again
that last half could be the hook that kills us.
But just the fact that the Rams have been so
good at getting to the quarterback and I know Indy
has done a nice job of protecting Daniel Jones, and
what a great nickname, Indiana Jones. But I think the
Rams make his afternoon miserable and do just enough to

(53:37):
cover the three and a half against the Colts. The
Jaguars in San Francisco, a banged up San Francisco team
which is still laying three and a half. The Jags
are coming in against the team that does not have
Nick Bosa, does not have Brock Purdy, does not have Jennings,
does not have Kittle, and yet they're getting points on

(53:59):
the West Coast. What do you think?

Speaker 8 (54:02):
Yeah, I just mentioned the big win from Jacksonville versus
the Texans. I feel like that was a little bit
more indicative of how bad Houston is than it is
Jacksonville being really good. But this is a two to
one Jaguars team against a three to zero forty nine
Ers team who is just banged up. We may not
see brand Ayuk for a while. Juwan Jennings still hasn't
gotten onto the field. Christian Kaffers seems to be the

(54:24):
only healthy guy there, and he pulled up on the
injury report this week with the calf issues. So you
know this is an interesting one, maybe one later in
the year that I think Jacksonville could probably win. But
on the road, I think I've got to take San
Francisco here. Kyle Shanahan has got a system. They stick
to it, and no matter if it's Rock Purty back
there or Max Jones, it's more of a game manager

(54:47):
position anymore than it is somebody playing hero ball in
these other teams. So I think forty Niners are a
better team. Nick Bosa is a huge loss for the
season for them, but Jacksonville is a little outclassed.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Yeah, I agree, but I think the personnel losses for
the Niners could come into play. They're not hurting that
badly at quarterback, believe it or not with Mac Jones.
But Trevor Lawrence has only been pressured on like two
and a half percent of his dropbacks this year, and
if the Niners can't get to him, he's been playing well.
He's got a chance to do some damage. Although the

(55:21):
Jags this is a weird one. They are zero to
seven against the spread coming off a win, so they've
not yet learned how to handle prosperity. But just for fun, Billy,
I'll go against you. I will take Jacksonville against the Niners.
So we disagree on that one. My beloved Packers are
in Dallas and they're laying six and a half. That's

(55:42):
a big line against the Cowboys, who, let's face it,
aren't very good. It's the return of Micah Parsons. He's
got fourteen quarterback pressures so far this year. He is
tied for the league lead. And he's not playing every
down either, he's only playing passing downs, but he's still
gets getting it done. And Dallas, of course is struggling again,

(56:06):
but I think has been embarrassed so far this year.
Who do you like?

Speaker 8 (56:11):
Yeah, you know, this Dallas defense is historically bad, Dick.
I mean Chicago putting up thirty one points against him
last week. That didn't even include Russell Wilson throwing for
four hundred and fifty yards and then immediately getting benched
the next week after a wish you washed he performance.
So you know, Green Bay, I think we lost that
game to Cleveland. They couldn't run the ball. It's actually

(56:32):
something that Cleveland does very well is run defense. And
so just got a couple more the block field goal
kind of things went their way. Everybody's been smelling their
own farts over there in lambeau Field Dick with Micah
Parsons there saying that they're Super Bowl contenders. But this one,
I think the emotion is much more on Dallas's side

(56:54):
because I think the fans didn't want to let Michael
Parsons go. It's seemed to get personal with Jerry Jones
there at the end, So I think this is going
to be a triumphant return for Micah. Jerry Jones ain't
playing anything on the video board for him, and that's
fine because all the highlights will be from green Bay
this game.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
Give me the Packers and laying six and a half
will believe it or not, I'm going to take the points.
I think my guys will win, but I think Dallas
will cover. And I'm always pessimistic about the Packers, but
they are eleven and sixteen against the spread as road favorites,
and I think the Browns did expose them a little bit.

(57:31):
But as a fan, I'm hoping that Green Bay doubles
down and improved its running game against the Cowboys. And
I was sold on Jordan Love after he beat the
Cowboys a couple of years ago, and I mean beat
them convincingly. I mean, the team did, but he was
of course at the Helm. So I hate doing anything
that even highlights Dallas, but I will take the points.

(57:55):
You did it last week and it worked out for
you with a Bucks. And yeah, speaking of your beloved Bucks,
they are at home, but they are getting three and
a half from the Eagles and Jalen Hurts is one
in four against the Bucks.

Speaker 8 (58:12):
Yeah. You know, I went back and listened to some
of my comments I made on your show and another
show about my Buccaneers, and I was so negative, just
you know, thinking about injuries first and not all the
success that they've had. I'm not going to do that
this week. I mean, it may be foolish to think
that the best roster coming to town this year so
far in Tampa might have their best game, but I do.
I mean, I think Tampa's Ben phillis kryptonite Nick Sirianni.

(58:34):
Over the past few years, they've beaten him in the
playoffs before. This Tampa team is banged up, there's no
doubt about it. Mike Evan's going to be missing some games,
still trying to work back Tristan Wurst and Chris Godwin,
who could be on the field for this game. They
also signed a four hundred and fifty pound defensive tackle
if you remember who played at the University of Florida.

(58:55):
He is going to try to stop the push push
with Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia, like the creativity. Tampa has
won three games in a row on those game winning
drives from Baker Mayfield. I think, arguably Baker's been one
of the best quarterbacks in the league over the last
three years. Give me my bias here in Tampa Bay
at home against Philly, who for half of that game

(59:17):
versus LA looked like they didn't even know how to
play the sport. So give me Tampa in my hopeless
optimistic mood here.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
No, I'm going to take him with you. And it
could be a game where the Eagles win but don't
cover three and a half. And the Eagles have gone
down to Tampa a day early to try to get
used to the weather. Whether or not that works, we
may see a trend in the NFL. It's interesting too.
Todd Bowles, the head coach of year Bucks, went to
Temple in Philly. I don't know if that has anything

(59:46):
to do with this game or not, but we are
in alignment on that one. We're going to root for
your buccaneers in Baker Mayfield, who can make things happen.
And he's a guy that people believe was heading for
the scrap heap in the NFL as a quarterback, got
together with Liam Cohen in LA kind of revived his
career and now he's doing all kinds of great things

(01:00:06):
in Tampa. He has Billy Rutley. Did you hear him
every morning at nine am? Billion a dude coming your
way after the Leech report, and we will try to
help you make some money each week on the NFL.
By the way, who do you like in the Kentucky
South Carolina matchup?

Speaker 8 (01:00:23):
You know this is a heck of an opportunity for Kentucky.
I mean, Stu's kind is not good with run defense,
They've got injuries to their offensive line. Kentucky has hadled
a little bit of time prep for this game, having
a bye weeknd Eastern Michigan, so Cutter is going to
be ready. But I think they lose in a close one.
I think I predicted twenty four to twenty South Carolina,

(01:00:45):
but big opportunities for McGowan and dowd Ell to really
run wild. But Glenora Sellers probably one of the first
quarterbacks that are going to be taken if he decides
to enter the NFL draft. He is very talented, but
I want to be Chambiamer sick. I am tired of
loving James and I'm sure Mark steps is too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
I feel like South Carolina was better last year overall.
Sellers is better this year, just he has to be
with experience. But South Carolina said goodbye to some talented guys.
They brought in talented guys. They got a new OC
and Mike Shula. I think Kentucky is better than it
was last year, and that game was even Stephen through
the first half. But Kentucky could not move the ball

(01:01:29):
in the second half and through the ball Billy for
only forty four yards against South Carolina last year. I
don't think that's a problem this year. I know it's
on the road, but if Kentucky does play clean, clean lee,
I think the Wildcats can pull the upset. But you know,
we've seen both. We've seen wins down there, We've seen
Kentucky land egg down there. So we'll all find out together.

(01:01:51):
Thank you, SARV a great weekend. We will talk to
you tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (01:01:55):
Thank you dig when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
More on UK versus South Carolina Here on th Wlap
Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider. I started
to get into something yesterday and quite frankly ran out
of time. My bad, But I think it's really interesting
and I will share it with you now. Bill Parcells
had rules for how to draft a quarterback. And when

(01:02:17):
you go back and think about the fact that so
much has changed since Bill Parcells retired, which was back
in twenty oh seven, that was his third and final retirement.
He did it once in ninety one, he did it
once in ninety nine, and then again in twenty oh seven.
And remember Parcells twice flirted with being the head coach
at Kentucky and another skepticism about that, but real quickly

(01:02:41):
I talked to Larry Ivy, he was the ad at
the time. At one of the times, Larry told me
about flying up to New Jersey and having a four
hour lunch with Parcells and talking about the job. He said,
I thought I had him on a couple of occasions.
And then my man, who was the playbo play voice
of the Dallas Cowboys, Brad Sham, got to know Parcels.
Of course, when Bill was the coach of the Cowboys

(01:03:02):
and he asked him, he said, Hey, Bill, I do
some work with people up at host communications and lexingon.
Were you really serious about being the head coach at Kentucky?
And Parcells said, if Jerry Jones hadn't called and offered
me this job, meaning the Cowboys, I probably would have
taken it. If you can imagine Parcell's the head coach

(01:03:23):
at Kentucky. I don't know that it would have worked.
Would have been interesting. But he had rules for drafting
a quarterback. Number one got to be a senior. Number
two a three year starter. Number three has to have
graduated from college. Number four start thirty games and number

(01:03:46):
five win twenty three of them. Number six post a
two to one touchdown to interception ratio, and number seven
complete at least sixty percent or more of his passes.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Working from the bottom up, all those numbers make sense.
If you've got a guy who has started for three years,
he's going to have started thirty games meaning he's been healthy,
and win twenty three games meaning he has been a
part of a winning operation, and he has been the
game manager or the trigger man for that team. But

(01:04:20):
interesting that Parcells wanted a guy who had graduated from college,
in other words, had seen it through. But you think today,
how many seniors out there draftable quarterbacks, Seniors who have
been a three year starter at the same school. They
might have been a three year starter now, but the
odds are they've bounced from school to school. And by

(01:04:43):
the way, a lot of seniors are guys who weren't
good enough to be drafted as juniors. So that's how
much the game has changed. That's how much the scenario
has changed when it comes to drafting quarterbacks since Bill
Parcells hung up his headset back in twenty oh seven.
Not just a senior, but a three year starter. Those

(01:05:07):
are dinosaurs right now, at least at the same school.
When you're talking about a quarterback who is going to
go high in the draft. You may take a guy
in the latter rounds or as an undrafted free agent,
but parcels rules and parcels parameters for drafting a QB,
those are long gone. Coming up tomorrow's you know, Kentucky,

(01:05:29):
South Carolina, And if you want a preview ahead of time,
you can pull up the Wildcat Whip on my Facebook
page or that of Tom Leech or Jeff Picarel or
through the UK Sports Network app. Tom and Jeff and
I get together every week at South of Wrigley whenever
there's a game not on byeways and preview the upcoming
game for about twenty minutes or so. Then we eat.

(01:05:51):
Trust me, it's worth it. At South of Wrigley they
take good care of us. They'll take care of you
as well. And again, catering is what you need to
think about. If you're having a watch party or if
you're going to a game, they will cater for you
an incredible meal. Just go to Southowrigley dot com, the
menus there, the phone numbers there. But think about the

(01:06:12):
kind of food you would get at Wrigley Field, starting
with Italian beef sandwiches and cheese steaks, and go from there.
But anyhow, here is a segment. Here's just a taste
of what Tom and Jeff and I talked about. And
we started off by mentioning the fact and we started
with the fact that Kentucky is nearly a touchdown underdog.
Does a touchdown seem a little much to you? I

(01:06:34):
think it's going to be a lot closer one way
or the other.

Speaker 6 (01:06:37):
Yeah, more like about a field goal. I think this
is going to be again I said back if we
first started doing this, there's going to be a whole
bunch of games decided in the fourth quarter, as ole
Miss was, and I think this one will be too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
And you know, the ole Miss game.

Speaker 6 (01:06:53):
On going coming into the season look like the more
logical spot to pick a Kentucky upset because it was
in Lexington. But I think South Carolina is struggling versus
what the preseason expectation. Really beat up and bad in
her offensive line at this point. Things can always get better,
but they're struggling there.

Speaker 9 (01:07:14):
I think the other thing that people have haven't even
talked about is their offensive coordinator's gone.

Speaker 10 (01:07:19):
He's now head coach, and they brought in Mike Shula.

Speaker 9 (01:07:22):
Mike Mike Shula hasn't been in college football since two
thousand and six.

Speaker 10 (01:07:26):
Things changed have changed a lot, Leori the Belichick.

Speaker 6 (01:07:30):
Knows a little bit about that. Yes, yeah, yes, exactly.

Speaker 10 (01:07:33):
But but here's the thing.

Speaker 9 (01:07:35):
Last year, Lenoris Sellers, the quarterback six two hundred and
forty pound monster, he's he's Cam Newton, Tim Tebow. However
you want to you know, but he threw forward to
twenty five hundred yards eighteen touchdowns.

Speaker 10 (01:07:47):
Last year he also ran for six hundred and seventy
three yards and eight more touchdowns. That's not happening this year.

Speaker 9 (01:07:52):
He is seventeen yards net on thirty five carries.

Speaker 10 (01:07:58):
The problem is he can at Guinea time.

Speaker 9 (01:08:01):
And the one problem with this Kentucky defense has always
been against a really good quarterback who can do both
running throw, and he has an absolute cannon for an arm.

Speaker 6 (01:08:10):
I remember the one play that sticks out from last year.
They can tuck. You had a perfect blitz dialed up.
Somebody can't remember who was, came clean and corner right, yeah,
after the edge.

Speaker 11 (01:08:22):
And.

Speaker 6 (01:08:24):
The Sellers avoided the rush and I have made a
touchdown on the play. Iff not. It was a big game,
and that's what he can do. Last week, Brad White
even referenced this in his remarks. It's third and thirty.

Speaker 10 (01:08:35):
Seven, yes, and he against Missouri.

Speaker 6 (01:08:38):
Yeah, and Seller scrambles and he's rolling, he's right handed,
rolling left and throws opposite bullet for about a thirty
yard game. They didn't get the first down, but they
got real close relatively.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
I was thinking of Sellers as I was watching Lions
Ravens and I'm not saying he's as good as Lamar Jackson,
but similar strong athletic, a guy with a great arm.
And I'm watching and I'm thinking to myself, why does
Lamar Jackson ever get sacked as good as he is
at breaking the pocket and moving and throwing on the run. Well,
the answer that night was because Detroit did a great

(01:09:12):
job relatively speaking of containing him. He did hurt him
a little bit, but of course the Lions won the
game and sacked him at some crucial times. But again,
this is the NFL, it's Dan Campbell, It's a team
well prepared. But that is to say, it's not impossible
to contain a guy like that.

Speaker 10 (01:09:29):
And again we talk about this, Tom and I will
say this a million times.

Speaker 9 (01:09:33):
You have to set the edge. And what happened to Lamar.
He couldn't escape to the outside. He had to escape
up the field. And to me, that's exactly what you
want with sellers. And I know you're crazy going I
wanted him running with it instead of throwing it. But
I mean, on one side, he's got a six foot
five track star that's like Ronaldo Nehamayah. I mean, the

(01:09:54):
dude can absolutely barry on Brown plus six inches and forty.

Speaker 10 (01:10:01):
Is what's on the left side.

Speaker 9 (01:10:03):
They've got big, huge receivers, big tight ends, including one
they played here, Dingle, and he loves to go down
the field.

Speaker 6 (01:10:13):
But I want him.

Speaker 10 (01:10:14):
Running the football. I want him running it between the tackles.

Speaker 6 (01:10:17):
And this on paper looks like a favorable matchup for
Kentucky because I think the defensive lines probably played a
stoopid this the other night, as well as any position
group they have. And so you got with Augusta and
Hayes looks like he's healthy again. You can get to
push up the middle hopefully to eliminate his ability to

(01:10:38):
kind of step up in the pocket as easily and
find alleys or growing lanes. And then on the outside
you've got Humphrey Grace I think is fully healthy now
after getting that angle, deep and speed to help contain.
And then on the other side, you know you've got
three deep really there to keep fresh legs with green

(01:10:59):
and old and souls.

Speaker 9 (01:11:00):
Yeah, I really like Steven Soles in a game like
this too. His speed off the edge I think can
be really good. But to me, there's three of the
most disappointing teams. If if you want to call it
that one is Oklahoma State. We've already did. You and
I we talked about that you time when we were
doing the schedule thing. But at Clemson and now this

(01:11:23):
offense of South Carolina, Now, look, I know they lost
a lot, but I really think that you have to
have coaches that are up to what is going on
in your sport, in whatever sports you're in. Updated I
just think that that offense there's something missing. Now, yeah,
they're only amaging three hundred yards of offense and they

(01:11:45):
played an okay schedule.

Speaker 6 (01:11:47):
It's not with the top five quarterback right with.

Speaker 10 (01:11:49):
One of the top quarterbacks in the country.

Speaker 9 (01:11:52):
So it goes back to what Tom just said about
the difference between Old Miss and them Ole Miss is
it is good as they were last year. I don't
think South Calia is anywhere near the team they were.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Last year either. I agree, But as you said, you
both said, it's always been a problem for Kentucky containing
a quarterback like this and giving up the chunk plays,
and they gave up chunk plays against Eastern Michigan. Now
some of that, as Tom, we've talked on your show
you've talked all week about it. It does go back
to Kentucky being a little shorthanded in the defensive secondary,

(01:12:26):
which going into the season was the strength.

Speaker 6 (01:12:29):
Yeah, going back to training camp, started training camp the
freshman great who played the second half at corner against
Eastern Michigan. He was seventh or eighth probably be So
now Waller is still on the availability report is down

(01:12:50):
for but assuming he doesn't go, Nichols wasn't on there,
so I'm that should not on the doubtful list at all,
and so I think, you know, that would suggest that
he will be able to play, and that if you
had two because he's like a third starter, I mean,

(01:13:10):
oh yeah, three and then Hardaway and him and Waller.
So you've got two starters out there, and you know,
you you you feel better certainly about that if you've got,
you know, a guy you're trying to basically protect on
the other side for a whole game. Is a challenge.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
You can hear the entire Wildcat Whip, as we said,
just go to the UK Sports Network app and pull
it up that way, or you can link to it
on my Facebook page or Tom's or Jeff's and again
thanks to the guys at South of Rickley. We'll come
back with Heroes, fools and flakes in just a minute
here on six thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big
Blue and Cider as we wrap up not just the week,

(01:13:50):
but the month. This is the last full week of September,
a few days coming up next week, but then we
jump into October. A man, where is the time gone?
But that's also the overlap month where we've got football, baseball, basketball,
and hockey going on. So if you're a sports fan,
October is the best time of year. Also horse racing

(01:14:11):
at Keeneland, so we'll get into that more coming up
in the oncoming weeks. But we close up tonight with heroes,
fools and flakes, and our hero tonight takes us to Seattle.
There's more than one, but in general, the hero tonight
is the man who caught cal Raley big Dumper his
sixtieth home run, gave the baseball to a little boy.

(01:14:35):
It took a little while before fans could get together
and help each other and find this man named Glenn
Moody Driscoll. He was in the right place at the
right time. The ball comes flying into the stands in
the right field bleachers at T Mobile Park bounced off.
A couple people popped up in the air. This guy
sticks his hand out and catches the ball. Within a

(01:15:00):
few seconds, he looks down and sees a little kid
and hands the ball to the child. The youngster's name
is Marcus Ruelos, and he was sitting there with his family,
and the ball actually ricocheted off his mother's head and
ended up in the hands of Driscoll. But again he

(01:15:22):
looked down and saw the kid and handed him the baseball.
And it doesn't end there. The kid told his dad,
I want Cal to have the baseball. So instead of
selling the ball, instead of mom and dad grabbing it
and putting it away and maybe you know, paying for
the kid's college education, they take the ball and give

(01:15:43):
it to Cal Rawley and Raley gives him an autograph
bat and you know, moments and all that stuff. But
later on, Rawley heard about the man Glenn Driscoll, who
was at the right place at the right time, and
he got together Rawley did with Modi Driscoll and his
family and they got souvenirs. He's got two sons.

Speaker 9 (01:16:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:16:07):
They got to meet everybody and shake hands and post
for pictures and all that. It was just a great situation,
and it all came in the wake of the Mariners
winning the division for the first time in almost twenty
five years. So just a great situation up in Seattle.
And keep this in mind, this happens just a few
days after that idiotic woman in Philadelphia screamed her way

(01:16:31):
to browbeating a guy giving her a baseball that the
man had caught and given to his child. And this
woman comes over and angrily demands the baseball, and they
gout cave just to make her go away. She has
become known as Philly's Karen, which is proper. I hope
they come up with a great title for what happened

(01:16:53):
up in Seattle. I'm not gifted enough to come up
with stuff like that, but I hope somebody does our
fools tonight. Well, in general, it's the Detroit Tigers. It's
been a rough time for Detroit, which did beat the
Guardians last night, but they should have had their feet
up by now when it comes to the playoffs. As
you know, they had an historic collapse and surrendered first

(01:17:16):
place after one hundred and eighty four days on top,
and now they are struggling just to secure the best
spot they can in the playoffs. It's been a terrible
slide for the Detroit Tigers. Our flake tonight is a
guy named Chris Smith. He is a Eugene based super fan.
That's the way he's been described. Fan of the Oregon Ducks.

(01:17:39):
There's a huge game tomorrow, as you probably know, between
Oregon and penn State in State College, and he wants
to go. So he has laid out the money and
the time. He is twenty three, one hundred miles away,
but he's got to see his alma mater in this
big game. So now he's heading for State College. And

(01:18:03):
here's what it's going to take. First of all, the
tickets are crazy expensive, so he bought them up in
the Nosebleeds and I've been to that stadium. It's huge.
If you're in the Nosebleeds, you are way far away.
But more importantly, he and his fiance are going. It's
going to cost a total of three thousand dollars. The

(01:18:24):
trip will take a total of twelve hours, three flights,
plus a rental car, and they're staying in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
which happens to be where we stay. My buddies, my
brother and I stayed in Harrisburg when we drive up
to Saratoga. Reason is my buddy's daughter lives there. It's
a great town, but it's kind of a great midway

(01:18:45):
point between Lexington for US and Saratoga. So I've been
to Harrisburg a few times. They're staying there because hotels
closer to the game they're gouging patrons for more than
one thousand dollars a night, but that's where they're gonna stay.
Then they head for Beaver Stadium one hundred and six

(01:19:06):
thousand seats and their tickets were quote unquote only two
hundred bucks apiece. But as he said, they're way up
in the nosebleeds and apparently they're expecting about three thousand
Oregon fans to fill the Ducks visiting team fans section.
Oregon's rank number six Penn State number three. Could be
a good game. I am predicting an Oregon win, and

(01:19:30):
I'm predicting these folks are dead tired when they get home.
That's gonna do it. Thanks to Billy Rutledge, Thanks to
Ricky Lumpkin. We'll be with you tomorrow from Columbia, South
Carolina as the catch take on the game Cocks. That's it,
good night from the garage in Lexington.

Speaker 11 (01:19:46):
Mister Specole. It that'sn't in the game. You're ripping the car. Yeah, hey, Bud,
what's your problem stating.

Speaker 3 (01:20:51):
Anything then.

Speaker 1 (01:21:09):
Tast to.

Speaker 4 (01:21:21):
Do it.

Speaker 5 (01:21:31):
Don't don't, don't

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
Do

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