2025-09-29 BBI Statewide

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello Ruddy. Through the facilities of the iHeartMedia megaplexus is
Dick Gabriel. It is the statewide edition of the Big
Blue Insider. Tonight, of course we'll talk Kentucky football with
Jeff ocorl the UK Network Cole Park of the Cat's Balls.
We'll also talk a little basketball because Madness is coming up.
Bo Robinson's here. We'll talk about Kyle Macy and his
latest book signing. It was a great success. More to come.

(00:23):
Stay with us on the state wide BBI Border to border.
It is the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel Cole Park
at the Cat's Balls. He was there in Columbia covering
the Wildcats and the game Cocks. And this was after
we mentioned last week a trip to Charleston, first trip
or had you've been there before.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I've been there several times to Charleston.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Okay, you like it though I do, not just because
your girlfriend's is there. But it's a great it isn't it.
It's just I was gonna say it's a cool city,
but it's usually hot when you're there. You said it
was kind of rainy.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, this last weekend was a bit more rainy, but
nice weather. You know, she does a lot of pet sittings.
We got to walk the dogs around the neighborhood quite
a bit and had a nice time down there. Good
trip regardless of age. Yeah, pretty poor football.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
They take great pride in the history of that city
and preserving it and things like that. So then you
go to Columbia, which how many had you ever been
to a game there?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I had gone to one a few years back. Whenever
I was the one where Kentucky lost in that pretty
late touchdown, the really demoralizing one where they had led
for a lot of the game got be late, I
want to say, might have been Rattler, Spencer Ratler.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, probably, Yeah, obviously been there several times. We have seen,
as I mentioned on the radio, we've seen that stadium
grow up. Literally. We've seen that around the Southeastern Conference
quite frankly, with the exception well, no, we've seen changes
at Sanford Stadium, believe it or not. Because back in
the day when I first started going to games at Georgia,

(01:52):
if you're watching on TV while you've got your radio
on the end zone to the left, it used to
not be as tall as it is now. There were seats,
but there are train tracks and an overpass and people
could stand there and kind of see from a long
distance the game. But everything now every stadium they put

(02:12):
as many seats in as they can. Mississippi State same way,
look like a glorified Juco Stadium. Now it's terrific. But
South Carolina, little by Little has just become this massive
structure and it just traps that noise, doesn't it. It's
pretty impressive.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, I mean it's it's a great environment, and you know,
they get pretty excited in there. Obviously I'm no fan
of Druid Sandstorm, but they play quite a bit in there.
They have a fun atmosphere. And also, you know, if
we're just talking about the the atmosphere, the environment, I
got to give a special shouts to the school there
that's built that area around it. You know, obviously Kentucky's
working I'm building their entertainment district around Croker Field. But

(02:51):
they got the Kakaboose out there, the big like long
train right outside the stateum, the walk all through, and
there's a bunch of you know, really fun atmosphere all
around the stadium. So it's honestly, regardless of what the
on the field product, looked like for Kentucky last Saturday.
It's a really cool area to experience a game.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
What was it like in the press box though? First
of all, your reaction when Kentucky won the toss and
took the football, because we aske Stoops about it today,
you talked about it on the radio tonight.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, it was a lot of surprise. I think most
people were pretty surprised by that. That's not usually what
you'd expect. Generally, you expect Stoops to if you win
the toss, to take the ball at the halftime as
opposed to start the game. I kind of figured as
soon as I heard that was a decision. Once the
surprise kind of settled down, I was like, all right, well,
they want to give cut her a chance to punch
him in the mouth a little bit, you know, set

(03:36):
the tone early. If this works out for them, it
could be really well. And it looked like it was
going to go that way for the first few possessions
and then obviously you had the twenty one zero second
quarter there, and by that point I think most of
the press box, at least for the Kentucky media, was
pretty pretty quiet.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Settled in for a long night, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It. Honestly, the mood was general, just like, so it's
going to be this again. Yeah, we're back here, so well,
let's just see how this one goes.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Kentucky that was a might have won game, but not
good enough to spot the home team, which is in all,
Likeli better than Kentucky can't spot him, won much less
two touchdowns, but yeah, I mean Cutter got his feet
under him, they ran the football, and I thought so
much of it was about what Missouri did to South

(04:25):
Carolina the week prior. I had a chance to watch
a lot of that game, and Missouri's got a terrific
running back and I'm on hardy, but Kentucky's got a
pretty good back in Seth McGowan, And I thought, Okay,
once I got over the shock or the surprise, not
really a shock, I thought, they're going to do everything
they can to run between the tackles. Set that tone,
and it couldn't have worked better, including a twenty yard

(04:46):
scoring run by McGowan, and that crowd quieted down quickly.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Didn't Yeah, absolutely, And it felt like early on Kentucky
was doing everything it needed to and then it all
just fell apart really quickly. I mean, we heard them
say that protect needed to be great, and it kind
of collapsed a little bit. Cutter Bowlly sacked quite a
few times. We'll say, I believe six times. He was
sacked at.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Only five last year against South Caste.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah six this year. Yeah. You know, they said they
can't become one dimensional, but the pass game just couldn't
get going. You were forced to keep relying on Seth
and naturally, the more you kept going to him over
and over again, the less reliable those runs became. They
started South Count of the game. You can't began goodness,
began kind of predicting it and stopping it. You know,
he was getting less and less yardage. They said, you know,

(05:30):
we watched the Missouri game that we know controlling time
of possession is going to be important. Kentucky lost time
of possession of this game. They didn't have more, they
didn't have the ball more than South Count did. So
it seems like Kentucky laid out all the pieces on
how they could win this game and it seemed like
they were going to follow him at the beginning, and
then they didn't do any of them.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Well, yeah, because two free touchdowns kind of ruptures your
game plan, and you're right about you know, South Carolina
the old terminology pined their ears back because from the
middle of the third quarter on it was evident that
because the clock became their enemy really early in that game.

(06:09):
And here they have to rely on Cutter Bully, red
shirt freshman making us first road start, La la la,
and South Carolina basically said, we're coming after this kid.
If you think you can hurt us with a run game,
give it a shot. And they broke a cup and it
looked like on more than one occasion, McGowan nearly broke
a big one, right, But South Carolina just basically took

(06:32):
the passing game away by selling out to put pressure
on Cutter Bully and that O line and expose that
old line, didn't they?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, I mean it was. It was not a great showing.
I thought the offensive line had looked much improved this
year going into this game. It seemed, you know that
it hadn't been perfect for sure, but compared to what
we saw last year, it seemed like they were getting
They were getting back with they need to be. They
got a lot of veterans on that group, They got
a lot of great things. And what was concerning to
me was even before we started seeing some of those sacks,
even before we saw some of those tax get be

(07:00):
you know, that's something Stoops talked about after the game.
He talked about it this morning. You know, the tackles
are pretty glaring. But even beyond that, I'm not the
only one who witnessed that even early on, there were
some shakier snaps from Jagger Burton. Again, that's a problem
that they had had years ago. It seemed like could
have been fixed this year, but Cutter had to jump
for a couple of them. Luckily there was none for

(07:21):
over his head this go around, but he had to
jump for a couple of It just seems like, all
in all, it was just a complete regression from everything
we have seen them do this season. And well, the
result was six sacs on Cutter Bowley, including you know
one that led to him coughing up the football that
they took in to take the lead for the first time,
a lead they would never surrender on a driver, Kentucky

(07:41):
had a chance to go up two scores after the
defense was able to get a stop there.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Somebody asked a question on the show that I wish
I had asked earlier today, because I do wonder about that.
Why not shorter passes to help Cutter Bowley get some
confidence to you know, like an extended hand off basically
moved the football and the slant was the play called

(08:06):
that bounced off Law's hand and turned into the pick six.
And we haven't seen that slant much this year. But remember,
and again these are players who are better than the
guys we're talking about. But Will Levis to Wandelle Robinson
that slant was money time after time.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I mean absolutely. And the frustrating thing there is
you know Stoops talked about that today. He said he
was just just a little bit ahead. Cutter just threw
it a little bit ahead of him. You know, he
couldn't quite get on it.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
And you know, a Law is not the tallest guy
in the world, right so could not come up.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
With it certainly, you know, just tried to reach for
it and it tipped off his hand right into a
South Carolina defender. And that's just how it goes sometimes,
you know. But at the end of the day, this
is football, and this is SEC football, and it is
you know, redshirt freshman not sometimes it is a game
of benches. You know that that pass was just a
few inches to the right. You're looking at a completely
different ballgame maybe, but it wasn't. It was too far ahead.

(09:00):
Law tipped it a little bit there. South Calda gets
to pick six, which quite frankly, when he caught it,
I didn't think it was going to be a pick six.
I thought they were going to get him down. But
what do I know. He got in the end zone.
So through some flags, through multiple flags out there, and
then said there was no flags.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Yeah, I didn't get that.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Weird weird thing there, but you know, preemptive flags. Who
knows no flags? After that, they call it a pick six.
And then suddenly, you know, you went from leading, having
a chance to go up two scores, so now you're
trailing by two scores. And it's all part of that
twenty one zero second quarter that Kentucky, like I wrote
about in my recap, they just they got in that
skid and they never recovered from it. It seemed like the

(09:37):
offense was just completely lifeless.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
And it opened the doors wide for that crowd, which
never backed off. And I've been down there when Kentucky
is one, and I've seen that crowd leave by the
end of the third quarter, because, let's face it, you
know that's a good town to party, and especially if
it's a night game. Well, i've seen enough of this.
Let's go to the bars. You know, a lot of

(09:59):
college town are like that, but particularly because there's some
fun places in Columbia. But when they're winning, man, you know,
it's it's quite an experience. And then you mentioned Sandstorm
and everybody's got the towels going. Here's the thing about Sandstorm,
And I didn't bring this up during the broadcast, but
to their credit, I guess we could say you don't

(10:20):
hear Sandstorm as much as you hear Rocky Top in Knoxville,
right right, That's that's a good nude. Now, Sandstorm is
a bit more of a production, you know, with the
towels and the lights and all that. But at least
we have that to be thankful for. Maybe a couple
times a quarter.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
Absolutely Rocky Top is there was There was one, I
believe SEC tournament I covered sensing on a deep run
and I went home from that tournament because I stayed
for the entire thing, and I think I was hearing
Rocky Top and my sleep it was. It was miserable.
Did not hear sandstorm my sleeve after this game, even
if we heard it about seven or eight times, So
that was always good. But they played a lot, for sure.

(10:59):
And you know, under if you're winning, you're winning big
at home, you gotta good atmosphere. Why not, you know,
rub it in their faces? I guess, But that's you're right,
as the home team. That's that's winning. But yeah, well
it's not. It's not as egregious as other schools do.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
No, yeah, you know, and and there's there's one way
to stop that win. Yeah you know. Uh, but Coral
likes to tell the story about and I guess it
was I don't remember what year it was. Might have
been his junior year. He's a senior year. No, I'm wrong,
it was. No, I guess it had to be his

(11:32):
junior year they won. No, I'll ask him one year
they won down in Knoxville, and as the closing seconds disappeared,
they stood on the benches and turned around to the crowd,
and you'll play Rocky Top now, and mixed in a
few choice words. But you know you more often than not,

(11:54):
rocky Top, you know, follow follow something good that happened.
But we've seen Kentucky went down there. Terry Wilson went
down there and beat them, beat them badly, and you
only heard Rocky Top when the game was over. That
was it. So anyhow, we're talking with Cole Park of
the Cat's Paws, the Wildcats of course losing to South Carolina,
and there were decent things that happened. They ran the football,

(12:18):
and I got to think Cole that the game plan
is going to be really similar when it comes to Georgia.
Although the worst thing that could have happened is Georgia
losing to Alabama. The worst thing, Oh it could have happened.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah, nightmare scenario.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
You know.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Georgia, it was a big talking point going into that game,
putting their legendary home winning streak on the line. You know,
they hadn't lost there in years. And then they then
they go out and lose to not only do they
lose at home, lose that winning so lose to Alabama,
a team that's just been a thorn in kirby smart
side year after.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Years one and eight, one and nine.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
It's not good. I don't it's not good. Something like that.
And then Kentucky has to go on the road. So
they're playing at Georgia's home stadium with them coming off
a loss. I mean, it's it wasn't a shock to
me that the line opened over twenty points in favor
of Georgia.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
Well, the only plus for Kentucky is that it's noon,
because the crowd there will not have the opportunity to
amp itself up. However, fans amped themselves in one way
or the other. Because the last time we went down
there to cover this game, and my procedure is I
go down from the press box to the field with

(13:28):
about twenty minutes until kickoff, and I'd been there all day,
so we kind of quietly saw the stadium come to life.
But by the time I got down there, and you know,
when when you're up in the press box, you gets
some to eat, you visit with other people from that
market or whatever. But when I walked out of the

(13:49):
tunnel orhever I got down onto the field, I was
shocked at how loud it was. It was a night game,
they already had the lights going. I mean, the crowd
was in full throat and the stadium was almost full.
You know how crowds kind of get in there sort
of late like they did in South Carolina. Yeah, I
mean that stadium was about to explode and I thought, oh,

(14:12):
this could be a long night and it turned out
to be. Now, last year one point game that Kentucky
might have won, some they should have won, but two
different teams.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, I mean there's a couple factors that go into
that one. Obviously, the very controversial pick six that wasn't
that never was Apparently.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
What did you think of that? Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (14:33):
I do. I thought it was a pick six personally,
but I'm also a fan of chaos in football, so
I was like, regardless if it touched the ground or not,
I say, a lot in the stand. But you know, yeah,
I feel like Kentucky has shown an ability to play
Georgia close. But the problem for Kentucky is that that
usually comes in Lexington. You know, you had last year's
thirteen twelve, you had twenty twenty two ended up being

(14:56):
sixteen to six. You had fourteen to three back in
twenty twenty. But then you look at the games where
Kentucky's had to go on the road. Twenty twenty three
was fifty one, thirteen twenty twenty one was thirty to thirteen.
Then you got twenty nineteen, you go twenty one.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Zero, so which was zero zero at the half. Yes,
that was a Lynn Bowden the year and it was
raining like crazy, and Kentucky should have been up at
the half, should have been Chris Rodriguez drops a pass
right in his bread basket.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
It is tragic, yeah, see truly, But you know, Kentucky.
I've heard some people say optimistically that Kentucky plays Georgia
close a lot of the time, and that is true
in Lexington, but it's usually less true at Georgia. And
unfortunately they're going to Georgia this year. So you know,
Vegas opened with it. I think it opened at like

(15:46):
twenty two point five. It's down like twenty point five now,
I think. But you know that's that's not a good
look if you're Kentucky. You know that's I think the
final line for Kentucky. Eastern Michigan was twenty six point five,
right after they'd come off a lost to an FCS team,
and you're you're only there. Vegas is saying you're only
five points closer to Georgia than Eastern Michigan is to you,

(16:08):
and that's not what you want.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
To see. Yeah, and you know they're trying to bump
up the action. Not always right. The most fascinating line
that I heard about over this past weekend. You might
have heard about this Notre Dame Arkansas. Did you hear
how that transpired? It opened at twelve and a half,
Notre Dame a twelve and a half point favorite over

(16:30):
an Arkansas team that scores a lot of points but
gives up a lot of points. Arkansas fans jumped on it,
talking heads jumped on it. Analysts, experts jumped on it.
Spind the dial on Saturday. This is an upset special Arkansas.
The line was bet from twelve and a half down
to four and a half. That's how much late money

(16:52):
came in on the Hogs. Well, I mean, and Notre
Dame slipped past him by forty three points.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah. I don't know that i'd say as an upset,
but I think some people were upset watching that game.
Oh yeah, notably. Arkansas sure doesn't have a head coach
right now?

Speaker 1 (17:05):
So oh they do?

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, it's interesting, pretty famous one, but they don't have
the head coach they went into that game with any.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Correct that's well put? Yeah, and I guess This is
patrinos second go around. As the head coach said, how
bizarre is that storyline?

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Just what a world we live in?

Speaker 1 (17:23):
I know it makes me, well, you like chaos?

Speaker 2 (17:26):
I do. It makes me confused, but it also makes
me somewhat makes my heart a little warm to know
that we have just the weirdest possible situations going on
in this sport. Sometimes.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Well, I really want to see what Arkansas does. And Arkansas,
like I said, already was doing well to score points.
Patrino's like a quarterback whisperer, So I really want to
see what happens there. But if they can't stop the
other guys in the SEC, doesn't matter. We'll step out,
come back and talk more football and some basketball with
Madness on the way. Cole parks with us here in
the studio a little later, Jeff Pikoro, you can work

(17:57):
here on the stay wide edition of the BBI Welcome Back.
It's a state wide edition of the Big Women's Sider.
Dick Gabriel Cole park here in the studio with us
from the Catch Bulls. Bo Robinson is pushing all our
buttons and you just told me, Bo that this will
be Madness Number twenty eight for you, Yes, consecutive. Yes, Wow,

(18:17):
that's impressive. Thank you, that's impressed. Now, I was at
the first one. You can't top that.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
You actually helped me get into one of them, and
I thought my streak was going to be broken and it, Yes,
you did. It was Billy Clyde's first year and I
was worried about trying to get in and you were
nice enough to let me tag along.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Did you work with me or help me or do so? Okay?

Speaker 3 (18:39):
I worked with It was awesome because I'm like, I'm
down here on the court running cable for the great
Dick Gabriel Wkyt, And I don't know what is cooler,
actually doing a little TV work for you or just being.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
There for madness. No, I can tell you what's cooler
working with you. Yeah, Cole, what's your history of madness?

Speaker 2 (19:00):
This will be my third or fourth. I want to say,
don't think I got to go my freshman year. I
think I got the assistant title position a little bit after,
like during the season because one of my feeling out
games for seeing if I've.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Made a.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
Colonel. Yeah, was the I want to say the U
Albany game maybe or perhaps it was the Southern Jaguars,
the first Unity Series game with Shawn Woods there as
their coach.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
You grew up in Richmond, I assume you followed the Wildcats,
if not the Colonels. Yes, was Madness of interest to
you as as a kid, as a fan.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
It was of interest that I ever get to go. No,
it was definitely of interest, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
I was something that you know, it becomes a tough ticket. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah. And my family, you know, my dad's always been
a really really big UK fan.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
They won't go to camp out to get you a ticket.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
No, I mean, we prefer to just watch it home,
you know. I remember watching the twenty twelve National title
game on my grandma's television in her kitchen. So more
of a we went to a couple games at times,
usually non conference games. Usually uh not big opponents, but
we got to go to a couple games. A lot
of times. We'd probably go to more EKA games than
anything because a a lot easier tickets.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
To a quint and they could be fun. They were fun,
especially now with aw Hamilton there. But I produced the
Madness telecast a couple times, maybe maybe two or three,
but one of them was when Patino was coaching early
in his tenure, and you remember Bo. He would grab
that microphone right and address the craft like all Kentucky

(20:32):
coaches have. But if you're a producer, your number one
job is to keep everything on time. Now there's someone
from the university who is producing the event, just making
sure this happens, after this, happens, after this. But they're
not married to the clock like we are. And I,
as I said in our production meeting ahead of the time,

(20:53):
I said, man, when Patino takes that mic, he turns
into Sinatra, you know, hitting the crowd every way he could.
He loved it. He loved it.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Oh it was chaos. Oh yeah, you said you like
chaos and football. I like chaos and Kentucky basketball, especially
when it's big Blue Man, it's at midnight, and it
was just deafening. And during those years of Patino, what
do you.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Think would happen if they went back to doing it
at midnight or people would go nuts?

Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think, so do bring the camp out back. As
complicated as it is, I love it. I have people
that kind of helped me out, not not ticket wise,
but you know, take breaks and things like that.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
By the way, when they left the coliseum temporarily. Yes,
I told anyone who would listen, it will never come back. No,
I don't think which was unfortunate. I don't think we
loved it in the college, but not big enough now.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
No, it'll never happen. But having people take off an
entire week just to get in line to get into
the official line to get tickets, and you meet all
these people and they have all these different stories that
you trade with them. I think it's a great experience
in it what makes Kentucky basket And you've.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Got the construction going on around the cost at leish
you had so Yeah, I'm like you, I kind of hope.
I know it's a pain in the neck to the university,
but it is one of the we've talked about tradition
at South Carolina. I think that's a great tradition at Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that it's one of those things
that makes college sports so special.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I mean I love stuff.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Like that, like Krzyzewskiville.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, I do. I love it a lot, and I
really wish it would come back. I think it'd be
you know, it's always cool to just see all the
people out there, and I think that's the really.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
And the players delivering pizza. Yah, what's better than that.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
It's exhausting, it's complicated, but it is so much fun.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, chaos chaos rules. We like that and not just
Maxwell Smart. All right, we'll come back with more football.
I am basketball chatter here on the state wide BBI
from Pikeville to Paduca to Gabriel Cole Park. From the

(22:56):
cash pause, we're talking, of course, Kentucky football. We'll get
back to basketball in a few minutes. But because it's
the overlap time, it's the time of year you've got baseball, football, basketball,
and hockey happening. But we're gonna stick with Kentucky football
right now because the Wildcats come up with the Georgia Bulldogs.
And looking ahead just to this schedule, I mean, we
talked Cole pre season about how brutal this schedule can be,

(23:21):
and I thought it was possible to get six wins,
but the first two conference games to me, were games
they needed to win. Yeah, and now it may be
an avalanche from here on.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah. I mean it's it's not looking pretty, that's for sure.
I Mean, if you had said that they were going
to win multiple Conference games. I think a lot of
people would have picked South Carolina and Ole Misses two
of those they would have won, and they didn't. They're
rowing two in the conference right now. They haven't won
an SEC game in over a year real time. You know.
Now this Saturday, they got to travel down to Georgia,
that's not gone well for them very often. And then

(23:55):
for you know, for being candid about it, most normal
teams would say, well, at least we got the bye
week after that and we can just get back to it.
But Kentucky also tends to not do very well after
bye weeks, so that's not really a pro in your
direction either. And then you host Texas, who, in spite
of all of their complications this year, their struggles on offense,
is still Texas.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Then you got Tennessee, who you know, showed showed some
weakness agains Mississippi State. But it's also possible, seeing what
Arizona State just did, he see you, maybe Missisippi State's
actually a really good team this year.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
I don't know, I think you have every right to
make that assumption. Yeah, I mean, but they're gone out good,
but they're good.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah. And then you know, you never know, we don't
know what Auburn is going to look like by the
time they have to travel down to Auburn, but that's
not one that's going to be easy by any means.
You know, Florida comes to Lexington, and that's probably other
than Tennessee Tech, who we were just talking about it
before the show, is now a top ten team in
the FCS right now. They're undefeated, So what's going on there?

(24:51):
But Florida might be the most winnable game on this schedule,
Isn't that weird? That is that is really weird? And
even that one, and you know, you still know they
played LSU close, and I get it. LSU just lost
to Ole Miss. They're not the team a lot of
people thought they were, but they're still a very good
football team, and Florida played them close. You know, obviously,
I know they got the loss to USF but things

(25:11):
happen then. Vanderbilt, you know that their defense is leaky sometimes,
but they put up fifty five points last week. They're
looking electric on offense. And Louisville, in spite of how
much I kind of feel a little South Carolina with them,
I don't know that I believe in them, just watching them,
looking at them right now. They're an undefeated football team
that could win the ACC. So you tell me, other

(25:32):
than maybe top ten FCS Tennessee Tech, who is a
for sure win on that schedule. I don't know. I
don't know that there is a for sure win on
that schedule. And there's a couple you could get, but
it could get really ugly, really fast.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
I think that. Then again, we're going way ahead, but
I think that Tennessee Tech game is really dangerous, you know,
for the reasons you just said, but not just because
they apparently are pretty good. And look, FCS is about
scholarship numbers. That's what sets FCS apart the from FBS.

(26:06):
Obviously the level of skill and things like that. But yes,
what makes the school an FCS school. They don't give
as many scholares out. I think it's sixty five. You know.
That's why when teams would get in trouble, as Kentucky
did back in the day with the NCAA, scholarship limitations
were crippling, you know. But oftentimes at the FCS one

(26:30):
double A level, the first twenty two on the best teams.
Look at the Dakotas, the North Dakota State. South Dakota State,
where Josh Allen came from the first twenty two are
as good as kids maybe should be playing in D one. Yeah,
it's all dangerous.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
I would agree, And I would also point to the
fact that you know, when you're looking at I don't
know that Tennessee Tech will stay this way all season long,
but right now they're a top ten team in the sport.
And when you look at teams that are usually really good.
Sure you have teams like Kennesau State, who makes the
jump and doesn't compete right away, but I don't really
think they were consistently top ten even at the FCS level.

(27:08):
But look at James Madison. They were really, really good,
and they weren't allowed to go to a bowl until
they I think were for bowl reasons, but because they
were too competitive at the FBS level too early when
they made the jump. So there's a lot of teams
up there, you know, like you said the Dakotas, there's
a lot of really strong schools across the country that

(27:29):
can't just compete with some of these FBS schools. They
can beat them. Sometimes we see it happen pretty consistently.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
You mentioned James Madison. Troy was like this when it
was at one delay.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
I remember when Appleachian State Coast, but.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
That's where I was going app State Troy. I remember
one year it had just become Division one, had twenty
two kids, twenty two who had either played at Auburn
or Alabama and either weren't getting enough clock or for
whatever reason, transferred to Troy. And and were they good.
They were competitive. Now oftentimes it settles down a little bit. Yeah,

(28:04):
you know, after all the transfer numbers stop, but you
just and the point is, we're not looking past all
these other SEC games. But it's just tough in the
Southeastern Conference. And I don't know about you, but I've
talked to so many people pre season who of course
they worry about They were wondering about Stoops's longevity here
as he coaching for a job, that sort of stuff.
But the other thing was so many people said, and

(28:26):
I'm sure you heard it, they could be better, but
the schedule doesn't allow that to be reflected.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
And that's where I was, Yeah, I mean, I would
agree with that, and you know that's something Stoops is
said all season. This is a better football team. I
thought this game at South Carolina as week Last weekend
was your chance to really show.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
That, which they did for what a quarter.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, maybe a quarter. You know, their first two possessions,
they kind of showed that. Defensively, you know, they did.
They did a lot better against South Carolina. Most of
those points were not scored by the South Carolina offense.
We're being honest, but yeah, I mean, it could get better,
and this team could put up a really strong fight
in a lot of these games and still come up

(29:06):
short just because of the quality of the opponents you're playing.
And you know, now we know what the schedule is
going to look like the next four years. It's not
really going to get any easier either. That's just the
life as an SEC program.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Stoop's talked today about Georgia's quarterback, who is not the
same kind of quarterback as Sellers, but can extend plays
with his legs and he's good, he's smart, he knows.
But it's more of a dropback style of defense, and
in an odd way, Kentucky defense might be better off

(29:35):
facing Georgia. I don't know how much better Georgia's offensive
personnel is than South Carolina's. South Carolina had no Deebo Samuel,
who we've seen down there before. But you do wonder
now about this Kentucky defense, which I thought was going
to be better the other night than it was, but
then again, it spent so much time on the field.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, I mean you also have the concern too of
even if they do put up a strong fight early,
can the offense do it enough to keep them off
the field long enough to give them a chance to
stay ready to play. I mean, I know you guys
have had, you have guys you put in, but they're
still lacking depth. You know, Stoop said today that there's
still concerns of DJ Waller. He might not play this weekend. Still,
you know, we've seen a true freshman Grant great and

(30:16):
get in there a little bit. He got in there
in South Carolina. But that's a true freshman. And you
still got concerns with your depth. And if the offense
can't do anything against the Georgia defense, we start seeing
you know, three and outs or god for a bit
more turnovers. Yeah, it doesn't matter how much your defense
puts up a fight. If they're on the field for
the whole game, you're not going to win that way.
That's not a successful That's not a recipe for success.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Friend of mine just texted me and I appreciated Josh
Allen was that Wyoming obviously thinking Carson Wentz played at
North Dakota State, So again there's there's there's talent up there.
Stoop Sat was asked a question today about linebackers. Alex
Safari made a play early in that game, and I
was a little surprised. We didn't hear his name called Moore.

(30:58):
What could you see much from where you were sitting
about maybe what they were doing with him or why
he wasn't more of a factor or maybe he was,
and I just didn't notice.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Yeah, I mean, I just felt like a lot of
the time it felt like the play just wasn't really
in his direction, or if it was.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Maybe they ran away from him.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, they ran away from him, and I think, em
you did, Yeah they did. Yeah. It just kind of
like you said, you were a bit surprised. I was
surprised after the game, but I felt like when I
was watching the game, it just, you know, you're so
dialed in. Yeah, I just I didn't really think about him.
He wasn't coming up, his name wasn't popping up, so
he kind of just kind of faded to the back
on mine a little bit. And then after the game,
I was like, wait a second, I didn't really hear

(31:37):
Alex far today and that that surprised me.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
That he made a great play first series. Yeah, and then.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
In that series in and a touchdown, so didn't it
didn't really matter at the end of the day, but
it was a great play. It was, And I think
he's a very great player and he can do a
lot of really good things here. He's shown a lot
of a lot of talent for a guy who grew
up playing soccer so.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Signed up for football by atident.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, I kind of misled. A great story worked out
well from it.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
He thought he was signing was signed sign up seat
for football. He thought it meant soccer because he was
born in Italy. You know, that's a great story.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
I'm surprised he didn't think it was Kelco.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
So what else do you think we're going to see
down at Georgia? I mean, what what can Kentucky do offensively?
I'm thinking try to come up with something some way
to balance that offense a little more.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, I mean, you need the run game to be strong.
You need to you need to keep that run game
going where it's at. I I want to see more
to Dante Dowdell. I know he's had that thigh bruise
he got against Eastern Michigan. He's been you know, he
wasn't as much of a factor against South Carolina. But
Seth McGowan looked great. You know, maybe we see Jason
Patterson get implemented more. We saw him returning some punts
at South Carolina. So some notable things there that could happen.

(32:48):
But really with the pass game, I feel like could
beating a dead horse to say, please, can we have
a wide receiver one? Can we can we have a
wide receiver one that really stands out? But realistically speaking,
I think plays like the slant. I know it's it's
a touchy subject because it led to the pick six,
But that's a play that can work. Yeah, Cutter Bowlly,

(33:10):
throw it a little bit ahead. Uh, he's a true
red shirt freshman. He's gotta he's got to take those
reps and make those throughs. But if he had made
that throw, that's a good play. I think that there
there was an over reliance at times against South Carolina
on trying to go deep sometimes and again he had.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
The Macklin had one time, MacLean had a step or two.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Yes, and I don't not saying you shouldn't go deep.
I know Cutter boys a quarterback who wants to go deep,
that that's what he likes to do. You know, we've
seen quarterbacks like that. We talked about Will Levis hurtly
in a show. He was known to kind of just
unleash one every here and there.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
But uh, he had Wandale.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah, exactly, that's a that's a fair point.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
He made everybody more effective.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Not really a Wando Robinson on this team is there.
But I think that you need to start really connecting
on some of these shorter passes, and I think that
if you can, It's kind of what Bush said after
the game. You got to stay ahead of the You
can't find yourself on third and long because that usually
doesn't go very well for you, especially with a red
shirt freshman quarterback. You can't find yourself losing yardage. You

(34:11):
need to find a way to keep getting yards, whether
that's a run, whether that's a sweep like we saw
a few times, whether that's a screen. If you can
get one to work. I feel like they try to
screen or two in that's South Carolina game. But the
short passes mixed with the deep balls more so, we
need to see more of those short passes that are connecting.
We need to I mean, for being honest, we need

(34:31):
to see some of those short passes be placed a
little better at times. But red shirt freshman quarterback. That's
the only way he's going to get to do that
is if he keeps getting chances to do it.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
But so, you know what, there was a play I'm
flashing back now I think was the first series of
the second half against Ole miss and they ran just
a quick slant or a drag rope over the middle
and I don't remember which quarterback, probably Calzada, Yeah, and
hit I think it was a lot hit him in
the hands and bounced off. I mean, you know that

(35:01):
you've got to make plays.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, I mean it kind of reminds me of something
Stoop said, uh in the week before leading up to
South Carolina, and it didn't age very well we saw
with the protection, but they someone asked him about, you know,
planning for the South Caronta defensive line. You know, do
you do you try to put double teams on certain guys.
He said, well, sometimes you just have to win. He said, yeah,
sometimes you just have to win the play. And Kentucky

(35:23):
is not I don't want to say they're not doing
a lot of it, because there are a lot of
good plays mixed in here and there, but there are
going to be times if it's a wide receiver, sometimes
you just got to catch the ball. You know. I
played tight end when I was in high school and not.
My high school coach always said, if you can get
a hand on it, you can bring it in. That's
that's what my coach always told me. So whether that's
true or not, I would disagree sometimes, but regardless, sounds

(35:45):
good when he says it. Yeah, you know, it makes sense.
It's yeah. You know, sometimes you just got to come
down with the ball. Sometimes you just got to find
the whole. Sometimes you just got to get a block.

Speaker 3 (35:54):
You know.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
We've talked about Levis, We've talked about Wandale. That was
a team that had an NFL ready offensive line in
an NFL ready running back, you know, and quarterback and
all that. I think what we're talking about right now
is talent level, because there's some youth on this team,
there are transfers. I'm not making mistakes. I'm just saying

(36:17):
that this team clearly is not as good as some
of Stoops's best teams. Now you can hold him responsible
for that, and why not. He's head coach. You know,
it comes back to recruiting people. I'm watching on Twitter,
I'm on the plane, and you know, people are beating
him up, of course. And what fascinates me is all
these people that want to talk about and I'm air
quoting the Mark Stoops offense. Tell me what that is,

(36:41):
because how many ocs as he had? You know what
is Mark Stoops's offensive philosophy? Well, it is we got
to run the ball. Every coach in the Southeastern Conference
will say that there's got to be balanced. Every coach
will tell you that. Steve Spurrier, what do you think,
what do you think the percentage of plays was when
he was a head coach at Florida that they threw

(37:02):
the ball take a stab, not a ton, but it
felt like they were doing it on every play because
they were so good at it, and deep ball, drag routes,
you name it, they could do it. But it just
cracks me up. The Mark Stoops offense. Uh. Yeah, he
wants to control the clock, run the football. When he
had a Chris Rodriguez or Benny Snow why not, who

(37:24):
wouldn't It is a lot easier.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
It's a lot easier to do that when you have
a clear NFL run, you know. Yeah, and Kentucky had
a string of them there. You know, you had your
Benny Snell, your.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Boom Williams, you had oh.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Man, Chris Rodriguez, Ray Davis and yeah, Ray. It just
seth Mcallen's very very good. He's he's still trending pretty
well towards some records there. But it just doesn't feel
like he's necessarily a Benny Snell. And last year Chip
trans style, Yeah, different stude and last year, you know
you had Chip Trand of getting injured for the season,
so you kind of had to rely on me guys

(37:57):
there just didn't At the end of the day, it
feels like this Kentucky team, like you said, has talent.
For sure, there are talented players on the team, but
when you look at the team, it does not look
as talented as previous Kentucky teams. And I think so
far the record and the results have indicated that.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
We'll take a break. When we come back, we'll shift
back to basketball. Here on the state wide edition of
the BBI. It is a statewide edition of the Big Onsider,
final segment of our program. And as I said, we'll
shift back to basketball because Bo was at a very
fine event over the weekend. Kyle macy Is has been

(38:37):
on a book tour, sort of reviving the book. It's
the companion piece to from the Rasters of Rupp, that
TV show that he has produced for years and hosted.
And it began with Kyle you may already know this, folks,
but featuring anybody who's got their jersey hanging in the
rafters of rup well, that's a finite number, right. So

(38:59):
from that point on he's started featuring other players. And
I don't know if it was him or John Wong.
I know John pitched into help. But there's a companion.
But it's like a coffee table book. And he had
a book signing in McLeod's coffee shop yes yesterday and
I came. When I got there, Bo was their steady
stream of fans and I worried about that. I thought, really,

(39:21):
nineteen seventy eight championship, but there are people with memories
and mementos, and now they've got autographs.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
And there's probably a few fans in there with the
first name Kyle that was born in nineteen He's.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Not kidding, He's not kidding. There were people Cole who
named their son Kyle because he was such a beloved
player and is such a beloved team.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
I believe it.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Now I have a son named Jack and as far
as Gibbons knows, he's named after him.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
But I think it's great how Kyle Macy has just
always been around for years with one.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Of those guys from Indiana said no to Bob Knights
at heck No, transferred from Purdue and played in the League,
played in Europe, could have settled anywhere, came here.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
So many of them do and for at least my generation.
Cal I was born in nineteen seventy seven, so of
course I remember everything about the seventy eight national championship team.
But it was Kyle Macy that got me into Kentucky
basketball when I was three years old and could kind
of maybe get some of those visuals in my head.
But going to his camps at Lexington Catholic when I

(40:33):
was a little bit older, we were talking about madness earlier.
My first professional interview of a UK athlete was Kyle
Macy at Big Blue Mandis at Memorial Coliseum when I
was in college.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Wow. And I was just still broadcast crew by then.
I guess what's that? Was he on the broadcast crew
by then? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (40:51):
He was, he was, And I was just standing right
next to him, and I had my cassette recorder. Yes,
it was still nineteen ninety seven. We're using tape recorder.
And I just asked him, Hey, can I get an
interview with you for the radio? And he was nice
enough to do it.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
And then he's I don't want to say pushed into
this historian role, but I think it's a role that
he has embraced.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Oh yeah, greatly. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
And he's open door. Yeah, two younger generations of Kentucky
basketball fans. And when you're sitting at rep Arena and
you look up and you see those retired jerseys and
you're thinking, my gosh, what does it take to get
up there? Well, Kyle's taking those jerseys and brought him
down to us with this book.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yeah, Cole, as a guy who grew up in Richmond,
how deep was your interest in not just UK basketball,
but the guys who preceded the players who were active.
When you started paying.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Attention, yeah, I mean I would say it was always
something I would I would hear a lot about it,
you know, in school and in my family. It's something
I've definitely taken a much deeper interest to as I
decided I want to go into scort journalism. I read
tons of books, reading one now by Russell Rice, great
story on the history of all of the Kentucky players

(42:06):
from the Commonwealth. You know the stories of that, so
it's a good one. I'm reading a lot of my
history now. But I started paying a lot more attention
to the history and the legends when I was ready
to know that I wanted to go into this field.
Growing up, I didn't hear as much about it, Macy. Obviously,
I was born in two thousand and three, so I'm
a hit a bit before my time. But I do

(42:27):
know now, and I just think that it's special. We
all know Kentucky basketball, what it is, what kind of
you know, cultural impact it has, especially around here, but
there's truly some of those people that come from the
history of it that are just seem larger than life
at times, and he was definitely one of them.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
Well, what you just said, Kentucky basketball to history, what
it is the culture that is? These guys that Kyle Macy's,
that Jack Gibbons, the Jim Andrews. Sure you know people
like that and who are still in lectionon. You know,
the Louis Dampiers, the dan Issels. Though those are names,
those are the easier names, and yet there are people,

(43:07):
there are players that a lot of Kentucky fans aren't
really sure. Now, when did he play that kind of stuff?
And I remember I was talking to I want to
say it was Karl Anthony Towns on a media day
and Sam Bouie this is over in the Craft Center,
so you know they got that that sort of that
balcony that observers see. Sam Bowie came up and I
kind of motioned to him to Carl said, you know

(43:29):
who that guy is? He goes he played here. I said, yeah,
I think he probably knew who he was, but I
tmulate that. Yeah, that's gonna do it for now. Thank
you so much for joining us for bow and for
Cole Park. Dick K. Brill. That's a good night from
Lexington