Welcome to the Big Blue and sider Dick Gabriel with you on a Thursday edition of our program. This is sort of a special edition, I like to think, because it will be you know, baseball, football, basketball, But a good deal of our program here in the first hour will involve Rich Brooks, and I bring him up because
he is going to be the celebrity monologist. If you will, he will open our broadcast, our radio broadcast on Saturday afternoon Saturday evening as the Wildcats take on the Georgia Bulldogs. And if you've missed our first couple of broadcasts, we forgive you, but come on back. Maybe if you're in the parking lot or if you're at home, you're going to watch the game on TV. Keep the radio handy,
keep the phone handy, listen on the iHeartMedia app. Because we have had first Bill Ransdell for the opener since it's the fortieth anniversary of the nineteen eighty four team to Bill quarterback to the Hall of Fame Bowl. And then last week we had Jojo Kemp open the broadcast such as it was terrible game obviously, but Jojo talked about the year or the game ten years ago when he ran wild over South Carolina. So with Georgia coming up, you know how tough it is to beat those Bulldogs
of late well, and rich Brooks was here. His team's got two wins over the Bulldogs, one in Lexingon one in Athens. So rich Brooks will take us back to those games. But I also had a chance to chat with him just about his time here. The wins over the Bulldogs. That's coming up at the bottom of this hour. But we will also relive the highlights because you might recall if you were there or watching on the tube where you've seen the highlights. That was the first goalpost game.
Kentucky needed a win there. Kentucky had of course been blown out by LSU after an open date, ground out a win at Mississippi State, which wasn't easy, and then pulled off the upset win over the Bulldogs. Not the greatest Georgia team, but still pretty good. Matthew Stafford was the freshman quarterback the Wildcats won it, which put Kentucky into a Bowl game. That was win number six. What a breakthrough for rich Brooks, who a year prior looked
like he wasn't going to survive. Then after another one over Vandy. They get seven wins, and they go to the Music City Bowl where they pulled off an upset over a Clemson team that was probably better than Georgia. So that was a great happy time for Kentucky football. So we'll take a deeper dive on that coming up in our next segment. Well, we'll talk about the highlights. We'll hear the highlights from a documentary I produced called Believe, and then we'll hear from Rich Brooks coming up at
the bottom of the hour. Also in our next hour, we're going to talk about Tim Koutch quite a bit. Brian Mileham from WKYT will join us. Brian spent many many years working in Eastern Kentucky for WYMT as the sports director before moving to lexit in full time and now he's the sports director at KYT. But Brian and I will talk about the legacy of Tim Couch is going into the College Football Hall of Fame in December and we'll be honored this weekend at Kroger Field, and
on hand to do some of the honoring. To lead the way will be Matthew Sein, who is the Chief operating Officer of the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame, which is actually in Atlanta, and I have not yet gone. I need to put that on my bucket list. I really want to make that visit, but the actual ceremonies in Las Vegas. But Matthew will be here over the weekend to help honor Tim Couch
and we had a chance to chat with Himseley. You hear my conversation with Matthew coming up in our number two. So a lot of football talk in this program, with a lot of specialized football talk, if you will. Yeah, it's going to be tough, first of all, to bounce back from South Carolina. Tougher I think for fans and media. I've talked about that this week. But kids are more resilient and they have to be because during practice, once they look at the video of South Carolina, they got
to move forward. They got to study video of Georgia. They got to figure out how to stop the Bulldogs, how to compete, and it ain't going to be easy. I don't know that this Georgia team is as good as the last two or three that Kirby Smartest had, but it's pretty damn good. And Brad White, the defensive coordinator knows what's coming at the Wildcats, starting with Carson Beck. He's not just a game manager. This is a guy who can make plays, extend plays, and put the football where it needs to be.
It's not just Carson Beck. It's a really good offensive line. It's talented fast receivers, talented tight ends, running backs that will run through and buy you. So yes, Carson directs the ship and he is as talented as a quarterback as there is in the country. He's going to throw in complete balls like that. That's just the reality of it, you know. And they've they've been doing it as an offense for a lot of years now.
We mentioned that more than once that Georgia has had great players for quite a while, just missing out on national championship runs really since the herschel Walker days until Kirby Smart got there and got them just passed those teams that kept beating them out for national titles, and you know, particularly Alabama. So Georgia became the King of Hill though it lost last year. But Kirby Smart had picked up on where Mark Rick had left off with recruiting.
What a great fertile recruiting area. But they have great success going outside the state of Georgia as well. And when you look at that roster, man, are they talented. That's why Brock Vandergriff had to transfer. I mean, this guy was a five star recruit a quarterback and just could not beat out first Detson Bennett and then Carson Beck. And that's the life for quarterbacks. When you sign up to play quarterback, you know there's only going to be
one starter. There's going to be one guy at the head of the room, the quarterbacks room, getting all the attention and getting most of the reps in practice. So Vandergriff transfers to Kentucky. You cannot judge him yet part of a game against an inferior Southern misteam and then a terrible game against South Carolina, which you know he was running for his life, but he never blamed his
old line. He said the old line was fine. He took all the blame and that was admirable, but not accurate Anyhow, I can't imagine his knowledge of the Georgia playbook will come into place much for the Wildcats. Maybe tendencies with certain athletes, but he's still friends with so many of them, and he was telling reporters Wednesday afternoon that he has remained in group chats with a lot of guys and talked about how competitive he and his
former teammates were when he was there. He would team up, evidently with Brock Bowers, the former tight end who's now in the NFL, and they would take on Jazz Chambliss, a linebacker and Cash Jones, a running back. So it was the be guys against the Sea guys and all kinds of different competitions.
It was like the Bees versus Seas. That was how we did everything. So it was me and Brock first, Cash and Chazz and literally everything we did and the final tally record, I think the Bees had got the best of the Seas. But I mean it was cornhole, pool, ping pong, pickle ball, We had fishing tournaments, just everything, And I mean we're just where me and Me and Bowers are out there to win.
Hey, you got to be. They're all going to be out there to win on Saturday. But it will be a tall order for the Wildcats. You'll hear it right here on six thirty WLAP five thirty pre game of Christy, Jeremy and Logan seven thirty kickoff with Tom jeff and yours truly. Speaking of Brock Bowers, he now plays had you lost track of him? He now play for the Las Vegas Raiders, who were losers to the Chargers in
their opener. Behind Gardner Minshew the quarterback. He threw for two hundred and fifty seven yards, and guess who his favorite receiver was? Rock Bowers the tight end. That's right. Targeted eight times among what nine or ten different receivers, made six catches for only fifty eight yards. That's almost ten yards per catch. Didn't have any touchdowns, but did have a long of what twenty six yards? And I think on that catch he had like sixteen yak yards.
So Bowers may maybe be a good pickup on a fantasy team. I double checked because the Bills and Dolphins are playing tonight. Ray Davis had I thought a decent debut for Buffalo in the win last week. He carried the ball once four No, I'm sorry, he carried them ball three times for only thirteen yards, but they all came on one play. About that, no gain on two plays,
but thirteen yards on another. So that had to get Bills fans excited and don't forget to check in when it comes to the passing game, as Josh Allen had a huge game. But Ray made one catch, but that was for fourteen yards, so again and twelve of those yack yards, so that had to be exciting for Bills fans. And he's a backup, they know this, but that was a tight game. Every time you touch the ball in a game like that. They beat the Cardinals thirty four
to twenty eight. So every time you touch the bar in a game like that, it's important, obviously, and Ray Davis had a good one. So switching over to college football, the Pack twelve lives apparently or trying to come back to life. The news coming today that four schools will join the quote unquote Pack twelve or what's left of it for the twenty twenty six twenty seven season Boise State,
Colorado State, San Diego State, and Fresno State. Those are credible football schools and a little basketball mixed in as well. Of course, the only Packed twelve schools it still exists in existence are Oregon State and Washington State, but apparently they're working on bringing it back, and a tip of the cap to them. The Pac twelve never should have died and it was mismanaged into the ground. Schools were bleeding money, which is why they left. And it didn't
have to happen. A couple of commissioners mishandled things and that's why I went by the wayside. So they're trying to bring it back all right. Up next Kentucky Georgia from back in the Day, two wins on six point thirty wlap. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider on this Georgia week. Coming up next, we're going to hear from Rich Brooks, the former UK head coach. He knows what it takes to beat the Georgia Bulldogs because
his teams did it better in the aughts. Now that was before the Dogs that hit their full stride, winning national titles as they have under Kirby Smart. But still winning here in Lexington and then down at Georgia. It ain't easy, But I thought I would take you back via a documentary that produced on that twenty oh six season called Believe, because that's the name of the video that the Wildcats put together and played for their fans
on the big screen. We went back and we went over all the wins that season in that documentary might have gone over most of the games. I know we didn't talk about the LSU game, but here is the audio with the highlights and interview clips. You'll hear Rich Brooks.
You're gonna hear from Mike Archer, who was defensive coordinator back then you'll hear comment from Rob Bromley, who called the game for UK TV the upset of Georgia when the goalposts came down, and toward the very end, you'll hear from offensive coordinator Joker Phillips as well as the head coach, Rich Brooks. But we're gonna start you off with a clip from a video that UK Sports Video release right after the game. It's got the pep talk with Rich Brooks and then the comments to the team
after the game. So we'll start with the pep talk from Rich Brooks, then we'll get into the audio from the documentary called Believe Time for doing.
This year, Guys. I'm tired of people talking down about this football team, tired about him not giving us the respect that I know that we can deserve. But we have to go out and earn that respect every time we come out of the shoot. We have to go out there and earn it. You earned some last week, You've earned some this year.
You earned some starting.
Off three and zero at home the first.
Time and a long long time around here.
So let's go get some more.
Okay, let's earn it, keep burning it and keep calming. After their slam after snap after snash.
The Georgia Bulldogs arrived wounded. They were struggling coming off a home field offs to Vanderbilt, and sure enough, after the Cats took an early three to nothing lead, the Dogs fought their way to a fourteen to three advantage early in the second quarter. The Wildcats steadied themselves and marched seventy six yards in ten plays, Burton and Woodson covering the final five as Kentucky made it fourteen to
ten with eight minutes left in the first half. You gave as a great opportunity for more points late and a half when linebacker Johnny Williams picked off of Georgia pass deep in the Bulldog's territory and nearly scored, but the Dogs took it right back and marched straight down the field. As the final moments of the half were winding down, someone needed to make a play with the Wildcats. Roger Willie take about the Faith, the good Man and.
Seventy Roger Williams zone. It was Trevart Linley who made the play. He betted the faith pattered up into the air and Williams conic.
Tivart Lindley doing his job.
He tips the ball and Roger's hustling over there.
In the baugus kitch.
You know, if we don't get that interception, who knows what happens.
The game could turn with that.
If they go in and score, kick a field goal, it's a minimum of a three point swing, it might.
Be a seven or ten point This week it.
Was a big Kentucky escapes down only four at the half. Following a score a third period, UK took a seventeen to fourteen lead on Woodston's second scoring strike to Verton avoids the rush throws for the back of the end zone.
T k Tucky trips tip the lee pits King Marten.
The Bulldogs answered immediately with the scoring drive that covered eighty three yards and Kentucky trailed twenty to seventeen with less than five minutes to play. That's when the Wildcats put on the methodical march of their own behind tailback Tony Dixon on a sixty nine yard drive that took eleven plays. The sophomore from Parish, Alabama, caught two passes and ran the ball another four times, howering the final three yards into the end zone for the go ahead touchdown and on the.
Nixend, the.
Fans across the Commonwealth braced themselves.
A lot of fans were still holding their breath from remembering the LSU game before I got here and whatever games that Kentucky had find a way to lose it.
And you're asking yourself that question, can Kentucky answer right here at the end, with only what about two and a half minutes or so left to go in the game, And there's you know, there is there's that little bit of doubt in your mind. But then again, on the other hand, you know, this isn't the same type of Georgia team that had won nine straight over Kentucky.
This time the defense came through. This time it was the Cats who made the play. It was the Dogs who made the mistake, and Trevard Linley made them pay. Stafford retreats mony.
Of time out of protection is breaking down.
He slides right, he throws.
Torley the Georgia forty one yard line.
I think our players now are beginning to believe that.
You know, they were a lot better and they expected to win up to that point. I think they hoped to him, you know, for three years, we hope to him. He is it, Abriel down on the sidelines, tell us what it's.
Like Christmas morning.
This one is twenty seconds away from being over, but the celebration is already on. Fans are coming out of the end zone on each side as the Wildcats have beaten Georgia for just the eleventh time and sixty tries, and the police would just say the heck would have let him go. Kentucky twenty four, Georgia twenty three two one, it's over.
The celebration began and it didn't end until the gold post came down.
Coming on the on the road win at Mississippi State.
This was a huge, huge.
Win for the Kentucky football program, and obviously the players were as thrilled as the fans, because I know some of my younger players were out there participating in that uh and it was just a great environment, and I just think it set the tone for what was to happen the rest of the season.
I got Marcus McClinton part of that defensive unit. Marcus, how did you guys do this?
Oh?
No, just doing our job.
We knew they came here in a little week and we're trying to prove what we use on defense.
But we just executed every play.
Nobody's been through more than Manma Cutch and the injuries, disappointing losses. What does this mean to you?
You know, this is this is why I stuck around, You know, this is why I.
Came to Kentucky to keey wins like this at.
Home and for at our house.
You played on one leg for most of this game, and you weren't coming out, were you. Hell no, they weren't taking me out of this game.
I want you to let them.
It was exciting.
I mean most the good thing is our.
Players got to experience something like that, you know, seeing.
Where the program had came came from when we.
First got here, uh four years ago, and seen where it was.
You know, at that point, I was really excited about the program.
And again at the end there that was Joker Phillips at the time, the offensive coordinator. So all the goal post came down and when they got all the players back into the locker room safely because it was dangerous out there. Rich Brooks talked to the team he had just fired up like three hours ago.
I can't tell you how proud I am of you.
That was a real SEC football year, a real.
Football game, and we were the one to get it made.
Guy. That win over Georgia was number six on the ear so it didn't sure that the Wildcats would go to a bowl game. And then, of course they beat Vanderbilt the next time out. They had to struggle a bit to beat Vandy because they had been dealing with their emotions all week, but it sent Kentucky to the Music City Bowl. You know, the lost of Tennessee followed, but what else was new? But yeah, that was the first time the Wildcats had been to a bowl game in quite a while, and it was a lot of fun.
Of course, they pulled off the upset of Clemson. And then three years later Kentucky spilled Georgia in Athens in a game that was just crazy, Kentucky forcing four turnovers and I'll never forget doing the postgame sitting on the bench on the Kentucky sideline, I looked up because I was trying to remember exactly what the score was. They had shut off the scoreboard it was dark, so I
always look for that when I'm on the road. If Kentucky bulls off a road wind to see does anybody else turn off the scoreboard as quickly as Georgia does? And the answer so far is not. Up Next, we'll here from Rich Brooks, who of course will be the celebrity broadcast opening voice this Saturday when the Cats take on the Bulldogs at Kroger Field. We're back in a minute here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP.
Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider Thursday edition of our program UK football coming up Saturday afternoon into the evening five thirty broadcast time seven thirty kickoff. And if you've been listening to the first couple of games, which we appreciate, you've noticed that we have added celebrity Wildcats basically opening our broadcast bill Ransdell week number one, Jojo Kemp last week, and we thought for the Georgia game, why not a guy who knows about beating Georgia, that
is the former head coach Rich Brooks. And of course the indoor facility now named for Rich and his wife Karen, and we got hold of him the other night to record the open and to talk about Kentucky football and talk a little bit about what it takes to be Georgia and what it was like for him to see his team, which in six, let's face it, early in the year, was struggling, but put it together in time to beat first Mississippi State after that awful loss to
LSU and then the Georgia Bulldogs with a freshman quarterback by the name of Matthew Stafford. My conversation with the former UK coach, I know you talked at length about how things turned around in twenty oh six, but that Georgia game in particular, what do you remember about that? Because Stafford was a freshman, but he was pretty darn good quarterback, wasn't he?
He was a very good quarterback. But you know, we had gone through the very tough loss at LSU bye week, and then we got a tough win on the road at Mississippi State and came home against Georgia, and our players had a totally different mindset and they really carried
a positive attitude forward. And I really credit the backbone of our players were making play after play after play in that Georgia game, and when we need to have it, we took the ball to drive down the field and basically, you know, Tony Dixon just ran it right down their throat and we took it in for to go ahead touchdown.
I just felt like Tony never got enough credit because Rafael was so good. You had so many playmakers, But Tony was a heck of a player when he was healthy, wasn't he Tony Cherry?
I had Tony Cherry at Oregon? Tony Dixon. Tony Dixon was an outstanding back. I'll never forget his very very first game. We put in a little pitch play and when he came I tried him at corner first because of his size. And during a practice I wasn't happy with what our running backs were doing, so I moved him over in the middle of the scrimmage and told the coaches to hand him the ball. He didn't even and told him where to go, and from then on
he was a running back. In our very first game, he made a long run about a sixty yarder for a touchdown. I'll never get going over and giving him a kiss on the forehead and He made tons of plays over his four year career that helped us win a lot of very important football games.
And that Georgia run, that whole series was phenomenal. And we talked in our game opening script about the interception at the end of the first half. Roger Williams got it, but that that was huge. People we don't realize how big. We remember Trevard as well we should, and then the field goal or the goal post coming down, But that interception at the end of the first half was huge, wasn't.
It, Roger Williams. I mean, we had so many underrated players that made huge plays during that six seven eight. They just were phenomenal young men. They took the bit in their mouth and just took charge, and they refused to go the way of the past teams at Kentucky, and I just admire the young men I coached. They kept making play after play after play.
You've talked before about how Andre Woodson kind of blossom developed as a quarterback, and you said about halfway through that six year he went from being a guy that he obviously was looking of the sidelines, but he was becoming a guy who could get you out of a bad play. Not necessarily checked to a great play, but just get you out of a bad play. He was begging to show that in that Georgia game, wasn't he?
Yes, I think you know, the Louisville lost to open that season, I think really really matured him, if you will, And as we went on through the season, he became a more of a leader and took a take charge guy. And he really I think blossomed during that second half of the season in six and really in some situations, you know, he just took over and put our team
on his back. I mean, you go forward to the LSU game in seven and look what he did, and it was unbelievable the passes he made under extreme pressure.
Now, looking back on those goalposts coming down, were you already inside when that happened or what was happening? I know you were concerned your players not get hurt with all that going on, but that had to be just a real source of joy for you as the head coach.
You know, that was one of those I think we got to find from the sec with the fans taking onto the field, and that happened quite a few times, but it was it was a great moment. I think for our team, I think it was a great moment because of what had transpired for three and a half years before that, and coming off of the probation that I inherited. I think that win started the real enjoyment
that our players brought to the Kentucky fans. And I was engulfed a little bit in the crowd, So I don't remember the goal posts coming down, but I did see them being at the end after they were down, so I was trying to get in the locker room.
I don't blame you.
You know.
There's so much talk about Bowl games, and it always really wounds me when I hear people talk about, ah, these games don't mean anything. I always go back and I will say this to people. Look at that photo of you with your players, because that game puts you, guys into the postseason and you wind up in the Music City Bowl, which which you win, you upset Clemson, and the way you celebrated with your players, the unbridled joy that all of you shared that day, that to
me still means something. That's first Bowl game I had covered in forever, and just remembering that, I got to think from your memory, Max, and you celebrated when they dediccrate and dedicated the field house to you and your wife, you celebrated again with your players.
What that meant, Well, I just looked back at that time and I had players that had my back. And I didn't know it at the time, but I guess I needed somebody to have my back, and the players did. The fan base was a little disgruntled. Administration was questioning things, and the players stuck with the plan and they believed in the plan and they executed it, and we finally
overcame the negativity that we were dealing with. And it was just a joyful, positive moment that we were not only able to get to a bowl game, but to be a very, very good Clemson football team, and in the way we did it, I think was kind of exciting too.
There were so many big plays in that game that was truly a team win, wasn't it. I mean, from the fake punt, Demorio Ford sneaks behind the defense, you score a touchdown with a linebacker. I mean, that was one of my all time favorite games. It has to be one of.
Yours, no question. And Keenan Burton playing on a bum knee and the emergence and arrival of Stevie Johnson in that game. He was huge. Jacob Tammy, I mean, we just had player after player. Travard Linley made several major plays on defense. There were just so many great things that we kept overcoming, and I just it was a very very special time in my life to be able to associate with the players that I had at the University of Kentucky.
I remember, never forget this. When we got to Nashville, the media, you guys have been there working out. We got there early in the week and both you and your receivers coach Choker Phillips said the same thing. The lights have come on for Stevie Johnson those extra weeks. And you've preached that all the time. You try to educate everybody about the value of the Bowl game is well beyond just getting to the game. It's the extra
weeks of practice. And I remember you saying the come on, Stevie Johnson.
Yeah, And that gave us extra practices to develop the younger players going into seven and every time you go to a bowl game, you get approximately probably at least seven or eight really good practices where you can develop your younger players as well as start game preparation and those extra practices. You can't put a number on how important they are to developing a team, especially when you're trying to build something from tough times.
More of my conversation with former UK head coach Rich Brooks on the other side of the break here on the Big Moon Sider at six thirty w Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider. Here is more of my conversation with former UK head coach Rich Brooks. Well, let me ask you about the nine win again, unexpected because it's on the road, so tough to win anywhere, but especially in a place like Samper Stadium between between the hedges, and again with almost an entirely different team coach. It
was a true team effort. Wasn't an offense and defense? So many different people making plays.
Well, there's no question about it. I remember Steve Hellier after the game, he was up in the press box and at halftime he rode down in the elevator with the Georgia coaches and they were laughing and cackling, and you know, we got these guys now, and and we had a couple of Georgia boys make some really big plays on defense. Bat of the ball intercepted the past. I mean, yeah, my goodness, I mean, and what a moment for him in his home state, not too far
where he went to high school from that stadium. So it just was a really really special win.
Randall Cobb was a big Morgan Newton had a great game. I mean, you could you could sit here all night and talk about the guys who contributed.
And there's no question and it just was a treat for me to be able to work again with almost a whole new group of players, if you will. Then the ones that turned it around in six those are the ones that came in and went through all the tough times. A lot of the players in that nine
win had enjoyed some pretty good times. They didn't understand that the difficulty and upness, but they had the resolve to come back and pull out a win on the road at Georgia, which in today's world looks like something that's pretty impressive.
And you remember what happened. You were still out there on the field because at the end of the game, that scoreboard went off almost instantly. Do you remember that the final score didn't stay up very long.
Did it? No? No, they weren't very happy with it.
You know, and it's it's such a special thing to win on the road, obviously, and you know we travel with you guys, but I don't remember what the trip back was like, but that had to be just again, something special to travel back home after.
A win like that, there's no question. And you know it's hard to get out of Athens to get back to the airport in Atlanta, so the bus ride was a lot more joyful than some of them we took out of that stadium.
Yeah, I phone home with a few of those teams after losing and everybody tried to get to sleep as quickly as possible, which I don't believe him, but yeah, winning on the road. So as we wrap this up, coach, I know that you were stung by last week's loss, but I know how much you care about and how highly you regard Mark Stoops in a way he does his job. Any thoughts on the game going in this weekend.
Well, you know, I kind of looked back to my game at LSU in six before we were able to turn the thing around with the win over Mississippi State in Georgia. But nothing went right for us in that game either, I mean We looked awful, turned the ball over, couldn't stop anybody, couldn't make plays, drop passes, mistackles. Frankly looked like I didn't coach the team and we did
whatever we did. Nothing worked. But that after that game, we figured some things out and we became a very close knit team and a team that started making plays and clutch situations rather than comping it up in close flut situations. So I'm just hoping that Mark and flipped this thing around, because that game reminded me very much of that LSU performance, where, like I said, all systems failure, it's just nothing. Nothing was working. Looked like we didn't
even care almost. I mean, it was just embarrassing, and I hope that the players are as embarrassed as I know Mark Stoukes was after that game. I mean, it's one of the hardest things to do as a coach is go in when you know you've laid an eight and face the press and try to explain it. I mean, it's hard to explain.
Yeah. Well, Mark mentioned that on his press conference on Monday again. He said, you know, it starts at the top. He said, it starts with me, and we got to figure things out just as you did. Now you had the extra week which helped. And you've talked before and it was in your book about how you guys went to the fundamentals. You went to some tough workouts, but your team bonded that week and you ground out people.
Forget about that Mississippi State win in Starkville. That was an incredibly important win, but it just showed how much your kids had pulled together when it might not have happened that way.
If if we don't win the Mississippi State game, we probably don't upset Georgia because the players had to have some positive reinforcement for the practices that we had for two weeks leading up to that team, and we did get to win on the road and then everything fell into place for that team.
Well, Coach has been great talking to you. I'm looking forward to hearing you open our broadcast on Saturday. It was great seeing you as they dedicated, as I said, the facility, the Rich and Karen Brooks facility here, you've got to feel named after you out there at Oregon. Are there going to be any other buildings or anything named after you in the near future, because you're all over the country.
You know, I doubt it. I've just been a very fortunate coach to be able to recruit quality young men that took things into their own hands and made things happen.
Well, we know about the tough times you went through here. You went through I know from reading and following you tough times in Oregon. I got to think, when you were a young head coach, you probably never thought you'd have a field named after you or a field house named after you. But but the kids came through for you, didn't they.
Well I had t shirts named after Why it's Rich. That's Rich. So so you know I got my name on something.
That keeps you humble, doesn't it.
Coach?
Thanks great talking to you. My best of Karen, and hope to see you again soon.
Really enjoy you and my time at Kentucky and you're the best.
Thank you, coach. We'll see I hope soon.
Take care of it.
Bye bye. Love talking football with Rich Brooks because so many of us set a ringside seat for how he turned this program around, and I really like covering bowl games. Up next hour number two and Matthews sign of the College Football Foundation will join us to talk about the Hall of Fame and Tim Couch. That's all ahead here on a big Moon Sider six point thirty w LAP
Welcome back to the Big Old Sider. Joining us on our celebrity outline as a longtime friend and a colleague and a guy who knows what's going on up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky when it comes to sports. Brian Milm, formerly the sports director WYMT now w KYT. I wanted to talk to Brian because Saturday is the day Kentucky UK will honor Tim Katch going into the College Football Hall of Fame. And when you arrived at YMT, Tim was here just just tearing it up at UK,
tearing up college football. I know how proud they were up in the mountains too. That had to be interesting to see everybody's hometown boy from me Kentucky doing good things here.
Well, it was because there was an and you know this, and it goes back to the eight alph Rup days. When there is a Kentucky connection in terms of players to the Kentucky teams, whatever the sport, it means something a little bit extra and that's you know, everybody will root for UK. But if you have a guy from the mountains or from western Kentucky, not necessarily Louisville or Lexington, but when they come from a rural area, there's a romance.
I think that's there. There's a story book type of a uh of an attitude people take because it is an area that you don't expect the greatest player to come from. Not a very good player, but the guy who is considered the greatest quarterback in UK history and in the high school's history can like what Travis Perry brought from Lyon County for basketball this year.
That's true. Yeah, yeah, when you can definitively point and say he's the best, not what do you think of that guy? Well, he's pretty good, but so and so. No, I mean the guy rewrote the record book.
Right, Yeah, he's and he started playing as an eighth grader. He's got I think it's either seventy two or ninety two yards that are not counted by the KHSAA and the National Federation of High Schools because they only count from your true high school years for football. But they count, yeah, but they but they do count point that you score in basketball, hence Travis Berry, which is kind of interesting.
But you know, you play for all of those years, and you have your older brother like Greg Couch to show you the ropes. You have a coach like Mike Whittaker who went to UK for a cup of coffee and then had an outstanding career at EKU. You grow up around that, and you have guys that can catch the football. And it was just the perfect timing for everything for Tim. And he not only brought the state
spotlight to Heiden, but the national spotlight as well. When coaches of heavyweight programs are coming into little Hydeen, Kentucky that obviously, if Tim wasn't there, they didn't need directions how to get there. And it was a special time because I was in college, but I was in the mountains a lot visiting. Friends of mine dated a lady from eastern Kentucky, and so when I would go and visit, I say.
Well, who's this Couch guy?
Yes, you know this is pretty incredible.
Well we all found out how good he was.
I remember when his team came and played in election in at one of those Bowl game doubleheaders, and they played at Tates Creek, if memory serves, and I was over there covering the games. Obviously for kyt and was doing some talk radio then, and I remember the first thing out of my mouth was Tim Couch is the truth, the whole truth and nothing. But I was like, can
this guy really be that good? And granted it was small high school stuff in the state of Kentucky, but you could see his athletic ability was I mean away he threw the football. Golly, that was he was just kind of a freak athlete.
Yeah.
And that game you're talking about where they came, they beat Highlands that day, that's right, Yeah, opening game of the season in ninety five. And and Tim is so much of a passer, that's obviously how he buttered his bread in high school and college. But in high school he also ran the ball. When you're six five and that physical you need to run over people, and he certainly did that. So he also had that the playmaking ability with his feet when he had to, and he
just was a phenomenal player. Now I didn't get to see him in person, but when you watch the video, yeah, the truth, the ball just had that extra zip coming out of his hand. And again Mike White and then Joe Beeder his last year, continued that offensive play calling to maximize the skill that he had and now then he goes to UK and does what he does at Kentucky and helps revolutionize a program. And just really two
years this place was talking football. Yes, basketball was doing its thing in ninety six, ninety seven to ninety eight, but people could not wait to get to the fall and that had not always happened before.
Talking to Brian Mylein, sports director WKYT about Tim Kouch coming from the mountains of eastern Kentucky, where Brian spent quite a bit of his career working at WYMT, and I know you so well. You sit up laid watch baseball games on TV and on YouTube and this and that, and you know you're even more of a nerd when it comes to archiving video than I was for crying out loud at KYT. But something that's got to be down, Yeah, well it's got to be down. But it's also fun.
I love shifting through old video. What was it like for you when you got to YMT and you started seeing old video of Tim Couch?
Well, you know it's funny you asked that, or because when I go back to help at YMT just as an advisor, usually just a few times a year, well, the last time I was there, I stumble across Kim Couch video from nineteen ninety five and I'm just amazed.
I was like, wow, look at this.
It was against mc napier, a school no longer around that's now part of Perry County Central, and I was just watching it and I was thinking, my gosh, how aggressive, how mean in a positive way he was on the football field. It wasn't just you know when he got the UK and how Mummy had the passing game. You know, there was a lot of you know, dink and dooint passes that some people said, oh, you know, he can't
throw the ball the way Peyton Manning can. But then when you saw that rifle shot he gave Craig Yeast in the Alabama game, he threaded that triangular window perfectly, and you could see, Wow, I understand now if you only saw one pass his entire collegiate career and you saw that path, you realized what everybody was bragging about for the five years previous. But watching that video, it's
just phenomenal. And then to have the touch on the football when you have a fade pattern or you have an out route, and just to see Yeah, he could throw bullets, but he could also finesse it in there and drop it in when he had it.
I got to share with you something that Jeff fan Notes said to me. Of course, he was our radio color analyst back then and an NFL veteran, knew everybody in the league because he was also part of the Players Association for so long. But he was actually at the last workout, private workout that the Browns put Tim Couch through prior to that draft, because you remember it was it was was it going to be Tim Couch
or Achille Smith. Brown's Bangers were drafting one two Achille coming out of Oregon, a great athlete, had a great arm, but kind of a loose cannon type of player. And we knew what Tim was. And Noter told us, he said, I have never seen a more impressive private workout. And he was not guy guy over Tim Couch just because he was a UK guy, you know, Noah was an NFL veteran. He said, I've never seen a more a better private workout. And he said the last pass that
he threw Dwight Clark, I'm like what it was. Dwight Clark was in the front office with the forty nine ers, and he was catching balls from couch Uh and he said he threw one kind of a tight end route over the middle, and he said there was so much on it. He said, I thought they were gonna have to surgically remove the ball from Clark's gut, you know. So that that told me everything I needed to know. But the other thing, too, is that I like the point.
I've talked to Tim about it. He said, hell of a basketball player, wasn't he?
Oh my gosh. He averaged in the mid to upper thirties his senior year for Leslie County, and I want to say thirty seven a game that sounds about right, feels right, but it's within a bucket or two either way.
And there were there was talk back then that, hey, if he'd misster football and mister basketball, because that's never happened before, and everybody, I think, up and down, up and down and across the country thought he would win mister basketball if Leslie County could get out of that competitive fourteenth region and the district alone that had at that time mc napier and Hazard and Bill Scomb's and and and teams like that. But it wasn't meant to be. But he could put on a show. And there's one
clip of video. I want him to sit down with me sometime and relive because he got taken out on a dunk or a layup, and he got up to one of the kid who undercut it, who had a tough reputation to begin with, and he points to his nose. He goes, hit me right now. I'm right here, hit me right now. And the camera happened to be three feet from the altercation. Wow, it wasn't on the other side of the court. It was up close and personal. And I always wanted him to walk me through that
situation because he was a marked man. And in the mountains they get a little rough. In basketball, they understand if they can't beat you, will beat you up in other ways to maybe get under your skin. But he could shoot it, he could drive to the basket, he could do a little bit of everything.
I know there was talk of him maybe playing here, but that one out the window pretty quickly. But I had him on s earlier this week. I wish I had known that. Next time I have him on, I have to ask him that question, ask him about that. I'm sure, he remembers. My guest sports director w K wait to you, We'll come back and talk more with Ryan is amitted here on the Big Blue Sider six
point thirty. Welcome back for chatting with Brian Mileymy is the sports director at WKYT here in Lexington, and I'm going to shift you from Kentucky football over to EKU football because you covered, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, the Eastern Western game last Saturday. Correct, And you're like me, you love the traditional games, but you know they hadn't played it. I don't know how long. I don't know if they're going to play again thanks to the big
Jersey flap. But I've got to think, Brian, it just didn't feel quite the same.
Did it. It didn't because I am, as you know, when it comes to sports. I'm a traditionalist in the fact that I want to see your student body, your community show up to support your team. And I don't care what level of sport we're talking about. If it's Berea College to Transi to Georgetown to Kentucky, obviously they're going to put sixty thousand people in there just about
every Saturday. But then I was so disappointed when EKU got to Western and I was there an hour and a half, two hours before the game, and I just watched the people and there were so many empty seats in the old part of fights field. They do have a beautiful new I call it the Hardball Wing because they really did it upright when Jack Harball won that national title twenty two years ago. And they have advanced to the FCS level while EKU is still in the
FBS level. But the rivalry does not mean what it once did except for those who can respect and appreciate what happened during coach fights and coach kids era, and it just didn't have that same. Hey it's Eastern Western, it just didn't have it. And I'm not sure if the rivalries of what some consider a less thir tier. It's not Major Division one football, it's not SEC ACC, Big ten, whatever. I just don't know if it's ever
going to be recaptured again. But there were a lot of people from Eastern that made the trip to Western, and I would love to see one more time and then do it again, to see a capacity crowd a game go down to the wire and you just don't know what's going to happen.
Western Kentucky Stilling Conference USA.
Is that correct? Yes?
Okay, see, I'm hoping for their sake that EKU finally breaks through because it has tried, and it has put a lot of money into its facilities to get to Division one. We're dollars. It might cost you more in scholars but for football, they're D one and everything else. People don't understand that just because they're one double A in football doesn't mean they r D one and everything else.
But if they could only get back into the same conference, Brian, I do believe we could recapture some of that, you know what I mean?
Oh sure?
And I think there was a time, as you know this, when the Kentucky schools played the Kentucky schools. There was Murray, Western was in there, obviously morehead State and e KU. You had that foursome right there that just wanted to wear out everybody. You wanted to beat Murray, you wanted to beat Western, you know, Eastern what have you? And and with the movement, the seismic movement of conferences today, I told someone the ACC does not mean Atlantic Coast
Conference anymore. It just means the ACC because you can't bring Stanford in and call it the Atlantic. And with with Eastern, you know, they leave the OVC, then they get to the a Sun Well they stay there for a hot second, and then they get to the UAC. Then they get Last year was that they were in the Mountain West with some of those schools out there, and I thought, there's too much movement. People don't know who. You have to establish an identity and there's just so
much movement. I think that's also taken away from the rivalry. The crowds, Hey, who are you playing this week? Abilene Christian never heard of them? You know, who are you playing this week? West Georgia never heard of them? You know, people know e KU, they know Eastern Kentucky, the reputation Roy Kid built and before him in Presnel, but it
just doesn't have that same punch. And I think for Eastern to get to where Western is, they've got to start taking care of business in this new conference they're in the United Athletic Conference. They've got to start winning that, you know, they've got to start winning it three out of four years. The way Eastern seemed to dominate the OBC for so many seasons, and if Eastern wasn't winning it.
Middle Tennessee was there, or Tennessee State possibly, but Western Kentucky was winning conference championships way back when, and Eastern's got to take care of what they can take care of before. I think some of the older generations says, well, Western's here, why can't we be here? Well, you got to win where you are first.
Didn't get there, you know when when Roy passed away and we were talking to so many people about him. Carl Park, the longtime sid, ed e k you told us and I don't think I knew this. You might have, but what you know? You you refer to Jack Harbo who basically thanks to Jim and you know as much as anybody, because Jim poured a lot of money of his own shoe money into WK you to support his dad's program. But Western Kentucky was on the verge of
dropping football's right. Roy Kidd went to Bowling Green and spoke passionately on behalf of Hilltopper football and helped save it. This is before any national championship, you know, and any conference title that Western Kentucky would subsequently win. Roy Kidd, who wanted to beat Western Kentucky as as badly as any team worse on his schedule went to Bulker Green to save the program that blew me away.
Yeah, and you did. You were Roy Kidds guy in the eighties and nineties and early two thousands. I mean, you were the constant with him for those decades. And he gave an interview with you. He said, you know, it's bad enough you go down there basically, not paraphrase, it's bad enough you go down there to help him save a program. Then they come feat you. Yeah, you know, but it was let's say he went to Western in the late eighties, early nineties, and I believe that's when
it was, when he helps Western keep that program. And then you know, you look at two thousand and one, two thousand and two when Harbaugh Western is the number sixteen seed of the sixteen teams and they.
Win the off full set.
Yeah, and that was I you know, I firmly believe it would never happen. But I'm sure Roy Kidd probably was sitting at home at that time going dogs. But you're welcome.
I helped you to get there.
Ryan, MYLM sports director WKYT, thanks so much.
You.
Matthew signed the College Football Hall of Fame next and six thirty will welcome back to the Big Blue Insider Dick Gabriel. What do you join now? On our celebrity Hotline by the Chief Operating Officer of the College Football found National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, Matthew Signed. Matthew, thanks for joining.
Us, Thank you for having me.
You we chatted off air. You played college football at Rice, You've got an interesting resume, and now you become the COO of this operation and one of your projects, of course, is the Hall of Fame. Tim Couch going in. Uh, that's got to be just a joyful job to be a part of something like this with guys who have waited, you know, half their lives here about whether or not they're going to be Hall of famers, and you get to be a part of that.
Yeah, these are really these are really nice and meaningful event and makes you really feel good about you know, college football in general. You know, it's hard to get into the College Football Hall of Fame. Now it should be it's a Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's hard to get in, and and you know, we we'd like to take everybody every year.
But we you know, we just can't do it that way.
So you know, these are you know, in light of the world we're living in, you know, these are very special days for sure.
Yeah. Tim was telling us the other night on the show that I think you guys educate them about numbers. There are like five million people who have played college football through the years and the holidays back to nineteen forty seven, and only a little more than a thousand have made the Hall of Fame. So it is special, isn't it It is.
I mean, you're talking point zero two percent that we'll get in the Hall, and it's we're truly the best of the best, and you know, based on the numbers, it might be the toughest Hall of Fame to get into. So you know, first of all, just get on the ballot is a great accomplishment, you know, because we will only have eighty the fan of the year, eighty eighty five on that ballot that are going to be considered
for the Hall of Fame. So, uh, it's very competitive, but we feel like we have a really good fair system and really looking forward to uh spending more time with Tim and honoring Tim Well.
I've been a member of the Football Writers Association for quite some time. So he's gotten my boat more than once. But let me tell you, have you ever met Tim?
I have in the in the previous life, I did some work for CBS Sports, so with Tim. Obviously we did some games with Kentucky with Tim Catcher quarterback and certainly, uh, you know how when Halimony was getting things up going there. So but I have not seen him in quite a while.
Listen, let me tell you something, Matthew. He looks like he could still play the passionate after football. Now he puts into work out, so you might be a little surprised by what you see. But uh, now he is a great guy and then comes back quite a bit around the program a lot. But what do you remember about Mummy and capturing those games that you worked, well.
You know those were you know, those were uh, you know, different times in the SEC and that's you know, right around the time that you know, Steve Spurrier had it going to Florida and they're kind of dominating and they were not really anybody else was throwing the football like them. And then when when the coach Mummy came in and had uh had coach Leach with him as a coordinator, and you know, he threw the ball around. It was and it was it was just it was different than
what UH coach Spurrier was doing. And I think it really, I think it really at that time, well Kentucky to compete with the very best in the conference, and but had everybody started with Tien, it wouldn't happen. Him special talent and you know, you know, being All American and getting the Hall of Fame, you're a special talent.
He did.
Look, he did special things there, you know, beating Alabama for the first time in seventy five years, you know, you know, going to a New Year's Day Bowl game, going to the Outback Bowl. Those were those are big moments for UH Kentucky football and and uh you know, Kentucky had kind of gone through some tough times since coach claiboron't have retired. So it was welcome and I can tell you it was it was always good TV, that's for sure.
Yeah.
And when he signed with Kentucky. I was there at the news conference. It was a huge day, obviously, and you know, he was already a legend coming out of Leslie County High School and a tremendous athlete overall he led to stay to Kentucky and scoring in basketball one year. So yeah, that was such a great get. And he'll he'll be the first to tell you, and I'm sure he's if you've talked to him or you will, he'll and he'll say this in his speech. Uh, he was
surrounded by by really good players. And as you well know, you played receivers make quarterbacks, and quarterbacks make receivers and running backs in this offense. So uh, they had a lot of weapons back then. He took full advantage, no question.
But and all those things you said exactly true. But you still need that catalyst, you still need that leader, You still need someone to come in and take charge of the huddle. And I think he provided. I think he really provided at the time of belief that Kentucky football could win and could win big in the SEC. And and I think it's you know, that was I
think Kentucky football. Since that time, I think people have viewed it differently, but it had to someone had to get it started, and I think it started with Tim. And look, obviously he could have gone any place in the country he wanted to. You know, he stayed home and he played for Kentucky and the fact that he's still there, you know, doesn't doesn't really surprise us one bit.
We're talking with Matthew sign As, the CEO of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. Tell our listeners, Matthew, how does the voting work? How are people voted in? How are they inducted?
Sure, for a player, you have to be ten years clear of your last college game. You have to be a first team All American by an NCAA recognized All America team. Now, depending on the year, that's varied over time somewheres, we we four and eight depending on the year. And then your first team All American and you've waited ten years, and then you're also no longer playing professional football.
Then the school nominates you. We rely on the school to nominate the player because they know they're players better than anybody else. And an individual institution can have two can nominate two players a year, they can have three
on the ballot. And then once you go into once your nominated, you go to one of the eight district screening committees across the country and based on the number of schools and the number of nominees, will take a percentage from that district and that's how you get the
ballot of eighty five. And then we have a public vote and then we have what's called the Honors Court that will make the final decision, and that the Honors Court is chaired by it and that's that board member, hall of famer and the only two time Heisman winner Archie Griffin. So there's a very it's you know, it's a very so it's a very well thought out play and of action, and you know, we feel very confident
with it. The important thing is make sure people, especially to college universities, understand the process, and they and they do that. Everyone understands what the process is. And then you know, depending on the year, will take you know, somewhere between sixteen to nineteen players and usually take three coaches. So it's it's there's a there's a process to it,
and like I said, it's hard to get in. And what makes Tim's Tim's All America year, What makes that very interesting is that, uh, I know, I remember that we had six All America teams that year because we had, uh we had three consensus All America quarterbacks that year.
If you remember, Tim.
May two made to All America teams. Kay McNown from UCLA made to all America teams. Michael Bishop of Kansas State made to all America teams. So it was it was a It was a very unique year with a lot of great players.
Well, Bishop was a really exciting hybrid kind of quarterback and helped put Kansas State on the map. That was a surprise that year, wasn't it that?
No, that's right, he did. You know, uh, you know they went undefeated until that last Saturday December and they got upset by you. And then of course the same day Kay mcnowh and u c l A took their twenty game winning streak to Miami and got upset and so and so you think about, you know, Michael Bishop getting Kansas State going, You talking about Tim Couch gitting Kentucky going, You talking about Kay mcnahw. Well, that's the
last time UCLA has won a conference championship. It's the last time they've been to the Rose Bowl or a New Year's Day Bowl game.
Wow.
Sore three very special talents in the same year.
Amazing. We're talking with Matthew Signed, he's the CEO the College Football Hall of Fame. Tim Couch being inducted this year, being honored on Saturday, and we'll come back and talk more college football with Matthew In just a moment here in the Big Blue Insider six thirty WLAP talking with Matthew signed. He is the COO of the National Football Foundation in College Hall of Fame. We're talking, of course about Tim Couch being inducted, going to be recognized this
weekend at the UK game. I was talking to Tim about the list in war What a class. But you can say that, I'm sure every year. But I'll tell you the name. It takes me back, Matthew Dewey Selman. I mean I watched his team's play. That guy was a one man wrecking crew. And he was the Selman family, like was the first family of Oklahoma football, wasn't it.
That's right? And you know glad it, you know, became his time and and uh, you know, obviously Oklahoma's got a lot of you know, a lot of players they got to choose from. But I think people when they see his highlights footage, you know, they're going to see what a what a dominating player you know he was at Oklahoma. You know, obviously got overshadowed by Leroy Salmon and forgot reason and but just a tremendous player, a
great nose guard. And you know part of that as you look at this list, we really try when they when they put a class together, we really try to find balance from parts of the country, from a position, uh, from different eras you know, we got to make sure that you know, we can't pass try and pass people by. We have to really reflect because every year is its own. So it's great, it's really great to get him in. And what probably a lot people don't know about him.
He was a great student. He was he was one of our scholar athletes. So he's very impressive and they'll see that induction.
So many great names, Warwick, Dunn, Larry Fitzgerald, I mean, got Lee, Alex Smith, the QB at Utah. We all know what he went through with his injuries, but uh, you know they he and Urban Meyer putting Utah on the map. I love that you're taking Danny woodhead running back from a smaller school from Chadwick State back in the in the mid odds. I mean, that guy was a great football player.
Great football player, and that's one again another unique thing about our Hall of Fame class, and you will see every year you will see two to three players from the divisional level, so FDS down and you'll see one or two coaches from the divisional level. So you know, this year you get Armanti Edwardson Appalachian State. Most fans will remember him. He was a quarterback when they upset number three Michigan. And then you got you know, Randy
Moss from Marshall. You know, he was unique because he was All American at divisional. He was All American and FBS and so you know, because he was also an All American kick returner in FDS, we kind of.
Went that route.
But of course Danny Wood had, you know, just a special talent. And again, you know it's easy to see that, you know, as Casey kids. He had such a great NFL career, but before that, he was a great player chattam State.
Yeah, he really was. And it was so much fun to watch the highlights because when his name got out there, you used to see more and more highlights from him. He really made a name for himself. As we talked with Matthew sin about the upcoming College Football Hall of Fame class of twenty twenty four coach Mark D'Antonio. People around here might remember when he was at Cincinnati prior to going to Michigan State, where he made the Spartans so relevant up there in the Big Ten. I love that choice.
Yeah, he was did a great I mean, he did a great job there and you know, they won the hundred Throws Bowl Game. He took him to a semi final. And if you if you go back to his day at Cincinnati, if you remember he had that, he had that, he had that. I think his first big win in Cincinnati was the upset Ruggers. The year the Ruggers was the undefeated and they were ranked in the top five and they got upset by Cincinnati and and the kind
of you know, took off from there. So I mean again and again, you know it's tough for coaches to get in as well. But you know, again we take great pride in the class. But uh uh no coach to Antonio a long time and so just you know, what you find out is not the these individuals are great players, that which is, but uh you find out they're great people as well.
What's it like for you and the folks who are part of the Hall of Fame just to be around these guys, because this is the hype for many of them. Some will go onto the Pro Football Hall of Fame, not many. Uh, but you know, you talk about a joyous occasion and their families are there and their friends. Uh, that's just got to be a wonderful atmosphere.
Now, I mean it really is. And you know, with with with when you go into the Confortball Hall of Fame, we like to say, you get a couple of bites of the apple.
Uh.
You know, we make the announcement in January, but then like we're going to experience Saturday night uh at Kroger Field. You uh, you go back to campus and do an on campus salute. So we'll present Tim with a Hall of Fame plaque that that will be the one that the university keeps. And then Tim, you know, Tim gets officially inducted in Las Vegas and that's where the official induction takes place in Las Vegas, December tenth at Blagio.
But so it gives you a couple of different chances to you know, have your family evolved, and and and but Faray Knight's gonna be special and Tim, I think I know Tim has been honored a lot of Kentucky. This is gonna look and feel different and he just doesn't know it yet because you hear that, but you hear that time and time again that this the the the again, the level of appreciation. Uh, you're in a full stadium, full crowd, all eyes aren't on you. These
are these are wonderful moments. I got the Alex Smith on campus salute a few weeks ago, and you know, there's Alex Smith. He's had a lot of success. But you know the next thing you those he's got you know, he's got tears coming out, you know, coming down his cheeks, and it's a big moment.
You know, you've got a list on the on the release about you know what these players have accomplished and under and Couches mentioned more than once, but under players who still hold school records. He's one of nine. I got to tell you, Matthew, those records are going to stand for a while. That guy got it done when he was here, thanks to the area. But I don't care what offense he was running, if it was a
quarterback friendly offense. When it came to passing, Tim Koutch was going to get it done, no question.
And that's that's why I said, you know, you know, you know they needed a catalyst and needed a leader. Yeah, obviously someone who was very talented. In the book that again that proved out and there there is, there is no doubt about that.
Before I let you go, I got to ask you. You mentioned earlier you worked with CBS Sports back in the day. You work with Vernon Lundquist, who of course retired not long ago. Todd Blackledge as well, spent part of his childhood here in Lexing and he went he went to middle school right down the street from where I live. But vern Lundquist, what a talent, what a gentleman. It had to be great working around and with him.
It was actually it was a real honor and to be able to you know, because usually you'll go in on Friday and you'll talk to the coaches and the coordinators and some players, and you know, sometimes, you know, sometimes there's coaches that make more time than others. But I can tell you one thing, when Vernal Inquist and Todd Blackledge walked in the room, you had, you had those coaches attention, and because I think they had the
utmost respect and and Vern and Todd. Todd being the son of a coach, he's been there, he understand it. And Vern had just perfected his craft, and they knew what they're going to say to Vern and Todd. You know, it was going to be kept in confidence or only use when it came up during the game. But they were unique, and everybody loved Vern and the vern you see on TV is Vernon person. He was just a nice human being and one of the best broadcasters we
ever had. And the first Kentucky game we did with and with Vern as a play by play, we went to dinner and that dinner, I don't remember his name was the was a former Kentucky governor, and so like, oh, this is gonna be this is gonna be a different this is gonna be a difference for us walk going to games of Vernon.
He was he was broadcasting Royalty and I got a chance to say Ilo to him a few times. And then first time I met Todd Blacklitch told him I was from Lexingon. Of course his father was an assistant under Frank Kersey here and I told him I was from Lexingon and he said, how's coach son? So his middle school coach who was just a beloved coach, Harry Johnson. How's coach Johnson? You know that kind of thing. So I really enjoyed that. And they just did such a
great job for CBS. I'll let you go with this. You were a noseguard man. You played in the trench is at right and tough back when it was all Southwest Conference. You were an All conference player and as I told you, I worked on there. I know how tough that league was. But the fact that you you grounded out man as a player. But now you get to be a part of the uh the ceremonies for the College Hall of Fame. What a joy for you?
Oh, I trust me, I am blessed. I get to work in college football, you know, every day of the year. You know, that's what you know. The foundation is fully committed to promoting and protecting the game, and so I get to work on it. So you know, we got, we got. There's a lot going on in college sports and college football, and I think everyone recognizes that. I think we all have to remember how much we enjoy
our saturdays. You know, Lexington or wherever you are, that that that that special that specialness, that hasn't changed, and we should never let it change because I you know, that's people plan their year around five, six, seven Home Saturday. And I true believe that the fans are going and they love all the players. But you know it doesn't matter if they've been there one year, three year. You know they're they're they're supporting the UK on the helmet.
That's right, and that that is what makes our game unique and special and and everyone needs to take a deep breath and just remember that and this. Enjoy your football Saturday.
If you want to know more about the Hall, go to Footballfoundation dot org. Matthew Sign, thank you so much. Next time you're in town, holler at me. But I sure I have enjoyed talking to you.
I enjoyed it and I appreciate uh the time today and hopefully I'll see you on Saturday. At some point.
Matthew will be the one in the stadium helping to recognize Tim Couch at Kroger Field. That's going to do it for now. Thanks so much to my guests, to mister Sign, to Brian Milem and to Rich Brooks. Hope you enjoyed the look back at the two winds over the Georgia Bulldogs that said good night from the garage in Lexingon.
We really must be going. Thank you for a memorable afternoon.
Usually one must go to a bowling alley to meet a woman of your statue.