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Dun fuck Touchdown Kentucky from the UK Sports Network. This is Clark's pump and Shop, Big Blue Nation Radio.
Second for one, make the turn, got him, Game's over, Kentucky WAM.
Interact with the show by calling eight five nine two eight oh Cats that's Saint five nine two eight oh to two eight seven, or statewide at eight hundred six oh six game that's eight hundred six oh six four to two six three.
Second or tweet the.
Show at UK Sports Network.
Hi for the eighth time college basketball National Championship Trophy is coming home to Kentucky.
Now your host Aaron Hendrick.
A full week of UK athletics is in front of us as we welcome you to Clark's Pumping Shot BOEBN Radio here on the UK Sports Network. Friday night, it is the first preview of basketball season with Big Blue Madness at Rupp Arena, and then Saturday a big showdown between Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Our coverage on the UK Sports
Network begins at five thirty pm Eastern. You can join Christy Thomas, Jeremy Jarman, and Logan Stenberg for our Jack Burford Chevrolet countdown to kickoff, and then Jeff Bicoro, Dick Gabriel and Tom Leach will have all the action of the Cats and the Commodoores from Kroger Field right here on the UK Sports Network. You just heard from head coach Mark Stoops and the Kentucky perspective entering this weekend's
matchup with Vanderbilt. We'll get the perspective of the Commodorees when we come back, as we'll chat with Vanderbilt's radio voice Andrew Aligreda. We'll talk to him obviously about their huge win over number one ranked Alabama and also about the matchup with Wildcats this coming weekend. So Andrew Allighrata will join us on the other side, and later in this hour we'll hear from Andrew Kappus, who is the studio host for men's basketball here on the network. We'll
get his thoughts on football, basketball and more. This is Clark's puppet shot BBN Radios. Stick around here on the UK Sports Network.
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Welcome back to Clark's Puppet Shop BBN Radio here on the UK Sports Network.
I'm Darren Hendrick.
Please to be joined on the phone at this time by the voice of the Vanderbilt Commodorees for Learfield. He is Andrew Alakretta. And Andrew, thanks for being with us on this Monday night. And I have to ask, first of all, what's the delirium level like right now along West End Avenue there near First Bank Stadium today?
Uh?
Sizable? You know. I there's probably a bunch of different little, you know, anecdotes I could give you. I could tell you.
You know, we're still doing all of our construction right and when I walk past the construction workers and I can hear one of the construction workers talking with an under construction worker.
Going, you know that that Diego Pobby is pretty good. I feel like we've gotten this.
Yeah, no doubt about it. The game Saturday obviously was a terrific start for the Commodores to score and then get the defensive score. What were the emotion like for you though, as the game got deeper and deeper and you in everybody in that stadium began to realize what they were witnessing with what Vanderbilt was accomplishing on the field.
Boy, that's a difficult question to answer because there's so much as you know about the history of the matchup, all of the times that Vanderbilt perhaps has come close to moments and hasn't been able to get over the top of that.
You also understand the play by play aspect.
Where you're trying to do the job and make sure things are executed to a certain standard. So it's hard
to like think in the moment about all of that. Personally, I think I would tell you that I remember asking our color analysts normal off air at one point, like late in the fourth quarter, and I tried to counter it because I felt like someone talking about a perfect game, you know, with one out in the ninth and I was like, if they find a way to get to the finished line, would this be the biggest win in
program history? And he said, no doubt. And I think when you start talking about things in those terms, you sort of understand we're pretty close. We're at the precipice of something that you're going to remember for a long time.
Yeah.
I originally was wanting to ask you just the simple question of how did Vanderbilt do this? How did they accomplish this win? But I think more important the question is how did this team in that locker room find or develop the belief that they could go out there and stand toe to toe and beat Alabama When you think about the fact that they were so close against Missouri and they had beaten Virginia Tech, where did that belief come from and how did it get there?
For the Commodores, I think he's from New Mexico.
I think we signed him in the transfer portal. I think he's quite a significant little player. I say that like mildly facetiously, but I don't think all of this is possible and whatever this is Darren, in terms of the entire twenty four season, we don't know yet, but I don't know that a lot of what's happened and unfolded is not possible without Diego Pavia. I've said a handful of times and this is just flat out in my take, just me, but to me, Diego Pavia.
Is exactly what clarkly wants the program to be.
And it's what he wants the program to be and has for a long time.
For better or for worse.
Because Clark is so professorial, so of Vanderbilt and of NDA for folks that know Nashville, he's a bit of an imperfect messager for.
That tough, gritty work ethic thing. But now you've got the player in the.
Locker room that can reinforce what Clark wants the team to be, and he can do it with the guys, and he's got such a strong will. He's thirty five and thirteen all time as a starting quarterback.
Wow in college football.
It's and he's self made right Like he didn't go to any of the Elite eleven camps and they wouldn't have let him participate even if.
He wanted to.
He was not one of those guys, but.
He made it happen for himself, and when you've got one of those type of people at the right position, with the right system and all of the other stuff kind of coming together, you can have a moment like you did versus Alabama.
I'm glad you mentioned about Clark Lee looking for that type of player and what he's wanting, because I was going to ask you how he's built this program. I know it's required patients, and it just sounds like from watching the broadcast and hearing the announcers on television talk about his program some of the course corrections he's had to make, including using the nil and the portal and
all that stuff available in modern college football. What's it been like though, from your perspective, working with him and interviewing him on almost a daily basis and watching him build this program to where he's gotten it coming into this week.
You know, another interesting one that is kind of it's just so difficult, But you know, I think I'm trying to figure out exactly where I want to take all of that because it's so loaded with Clark. I just you know, he this was the vision that they had back in twenty twenty when they hired him. When you have a chancellor that green lights the athletic department in
a way that no other chancellor in decades have. When you've got an athletic director who understands Vanderbilt and a football coach that understands.
Vanderbuilt they wanted to create a moment like this, but.
Clark has talked about in the past that it didn't work on his timeline, right, Like, we thought we had something, respectfully, he said in twenty two after beating you guys at your place and then coming back and beating Florida that's Levis and Richardson and back to back weeks, and then it cratered.
Right.
I think what has been so impressive about what Clark has done is the fact.
That he did get through the twenty three season and say this cannot sustain.
I think in terms of like trying to do things the.
Right way and trying to build up people and recognize the fact that you've got to do it in a way that fits Vanderbilt, not just academically but on the field because we're not going to compete with Georgia and Alabama for five stars. I don't know that that much has changed, but I feel like he was able to take the vision of what he wanted the program to be and extract it out and place it in more
of a modern sense within the past twelve months. So he's been able to kind of grab from column A and Coluin B. And we'll see where the rest of the season goes, right, Because I just referenced the fact that, you know, two years ago we thought we had something at a crater, So we all recognize that all of this sort of wave is very, very fragile, and it certainly could be equally frag coming to you guys later on this week.
Yeah, And I think in a broader perspective, that's kind of been the sec EI this year. Every time it feels like there is a team obviously A and M sitting there three and oh in the league. Today, Texas, I think is still one to oh in the league, but everybody else has at least one loss. And we've seen teams like Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee and Ole Miss look really dominant and then they're brought down to earth by a team that's able to go toe to
toe and beat them. And I think, like to your point, it's very fragile in this era of college football.
But Also, it speaks to the depth of this league.
I think it speaks to the depth of the league, he said politely.
I think it speaks to kind of the fragile nature of working with eighteen, nineteen twenty year olds.
Again he said it respectfully. And three, I do you think it speaks to.
The moment in time that NIL affords you. Yes, not deeply rooted in name, image, likeness, We're not deeply rooted. We're not some sort of transfer portal program through and through. But what it can do is it can lift your depth. Perhaps someone that was overlooked, like a Diego Poby against his shot at a level that he deserves, or perhaps someone that was going to be a second or third stringer at Albabama or Texas or Georgia has the opportunity to come to you and make an impact.
And certainly you guys have a starting quarterback that was, you.
Know, again struggling to break through as the guy at Georgia.
But now he can make an impact for you guys. And I think all of that has on a weekend, week.
Out basis leveled the playing field where all of a sudden, the total depths that certain programs could overwhelm you with doesn't quite have the chance to.
Overwhelm you with it. I think you could put it in a baseball.
Perspective, Darren, Right, like Vanderbilt for about a decade would hit you with waves of.
Depth that looked dizzy. That's not the case anymore. Like there's enough talent that.
Goes dispersed that you guys get to go to the College World Series last year.
Right, Yeah, no doubt about it.
And that leads me back to what I was going to ask you your thoughts on the matchup this weekend, because I look at the Cats and the Doors, and I think this could be a fun matchup. Both teams like to hit you in the mouth. Both teams have gotten terrific quarterback play over the last few weeks. How do you what was your first impression when you kind of sit down and looked over Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
My first impression was, Hey, both of these teams really control the clock, which means all of that sort of stuff is not going to be relevant in this game. It's going to be like whoever hits the seven yard bombs? And right, okay, great.
The other thing that I would tell you is like we sat down to.
Do our radio show earlier today and like Clark's talking about, you know, this could be a quick game because both teams like the two clocks, and then Kevin Ingram, who works with us, it is like it's supposed to be a beautiful day, and like I felt like they both jinxed us, like there's gonna be a pop up thunderstorm
in this game is going to take nine hours. I do think it will be because both teams typically speaking quote unquote, control the ball, Like at a certain point, there's going to be a turnover, there's going to be a pick six, there is going to be.
That seventy yard bomb, there is going to be that breakaway play. And if you if you are the team that walks away with that particular play.
Then you're probably going to win. If you're not the team, you know, then you're going to be trapping at the end. I would be surprised if it's not close.
But again we're we're coming off with something that this program has never sees. And it's not necessarily the mental headspace that I worry about when the team. I think it's just the overall body and mental fatigue. Right, Like so much goes in. Can you find your focus Saturday night?
I expect them to be okay.
It is again such a hard thing to do when you have just been physically and emotionally trained for the better part of you know, forty eight hours.
Well, the good news is with a seven forty five kickoff they'll get to sleep in a little bit on Saturday. Andrew, thanks so much for taking some time on this Monday not to call in and chat with us. We appreciate it and look forward to having you guys in this weekend.
See you guys soon.
All right.
That's Andrew ali Grada, the Vanderbilt Commodore's radio voice. It's the Cats and the Door is this Saturday at Krogerfield, seven forty five kickoff and the game is presented by Elliott Services. Connected to a proud tradition of electrical excellence. Elliot Services is Central Kentucky's full service residential and commercial electrical contractor. Call eight five nine two five five five seven eight eight to schedule a service. Call today. More
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Yesterday, the Kentucky baseball team played their first fall exhibition game. They went up to Frasco Park in Mason, Ohio and played Right State and it was a good day for the Batcats. In that matchup, they scored twenty five runs to Wright States eight on the afternoon. And obviously these fall exhibitions you're able to get a lot of work for guys. It's not like a normal baseball game you
would see in the spring. Their substitutions and different scoring things, and sometimes pitchers don't always do a full half inning. They'll turn things over in all the different aspects. But it gives teams an idea of what their group will look like in a live ball situation. And it's a chance to play in a live opponent. So that's why
they do these in the fall. But they played it yesterday and recently, Darren Williams and I on our or Behind Kentucky Baseball podcast had a chance to chat with Jackson Novy and Evan Byers, two experienced pitchers that come back off that College World Series run last year and they've been through this before, you know, fifth year seniors or seniors in the case of Jackson Novy. And here's a part of that podcast episode which is out now.
You can hear the full conversation. It's out now and it's available wherever you normally listen or subscribe to podcasts, whether it's Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or the official UK Athletics app. It's free to listen to, free to subscribe to, So please give us a listen there on behind Kentucky Baseball, but we chatted with nov and buyers, and for Jackson Novy, I asked him about the importance of these fall exhibition games.
How important are those fall exhibition games against an opponent, just to kind of learn everybody and just get the team out there and see it perform in life.
I have ball action, Yeah, I think it's it's really important. Obviously freshman year, obviously, all three years I've gotten the chance to throw in those games, and I think it's more so just an opportunity to just show that what
you've been working on. Obviously from a personal level, you know, just show the development you've been working with pitches, doing the stuff you have with coach Rozell, but just kind of getting us, getting us away from you know, the back and forth kind of battle we have right now between pitchers and headers. Obviously, all pitchers are cheering for all pitchers, All headers are cheering for all headers. You know, when we're doing inner squads downside downstairs in the cages today,
just getting us all on the same squad. You know, everyone's fighting for one for one goal and one reason. And I think last year at Presco was awesome, small dugout, everyone travels, all on top of each other, just going ham and just getting the new guys, you know, a sense of you know, how the game atmosphere it works. That's one thing that I think really translate well to the spring necessarily where you know, not necessarily that first game is you know, all, what do I need to
be doing in the bullpen? What do I need to be doing here? You know, it gives you you know, the run throughs of you know, BP stretch, you know how everything works with timing and the bullpen. Just small things like that that you don't necessarily think of that'll come up, but just make a big difference when you get to springtime.
Okay, so you get home from Omaha, Evan Byers's arm is shot.
Get tired.
What we don't do tired? But what does July and August look like like? What has your rollest development been like for these last three or four months, you know, since coming off that.
So me and Noby basically kind of spent the summer together. So we worked with coach Jones, our strength coach here and shut down for a little bit, just really focused on trying to move more explosive in the weight room, trying to move things faster. For me, it's not really a strength thing. It's just about moving things faster, so kind of really focus on that. We did a lot of sprint work this summer. Unfortunately it was for the better, but it was not fun. Six I am.
A little bit is okay.
So yeah, we would do that and then eventually we started to throw a little bit. So Nevie took hiatus till Iowa. I'm not really sure what he did there, but he left me for two weeks. So I threw some of the freshmen, trying to get acclimated with them, and so we were working out and throwing.
So it was it was good to have a little bit break.
You know, I played summer ball the past three years and it was about time I needed a break.
Like I really wanted to go play sommerball.
But you've been going. Yeah you've been going since December, right, Yeah, it's.
Just a constant grind.
And I tell you what, like I'm throwing the fall right now, like barm feels way better than it's ever So it needed it.
It went home. I bet he was doing chores. It was folks. How many acres your your parents have the farm.
Is yeah, my dad and my grandpa farm probably roughly about three thousand.
Any windmills on them, No, dude, No.
That's more like talking about the central Iowa, not in Eustern.
To get to Maha, draw your whole state.
Oh, plenty of them.
I saw twenty three.
Yeah.
Yeah, he's a lot of grass and windmills out there.
Three thousand acres though, wow.
But yeah, to add on to add on evis part about the summer. I thought it was really good. Obviously, you know, playing summer ball in the two summers past. You know, one, getting that break for your arm was obviously really really cool. But obviously, you know, we had probably about seven to a maybe ten pitchers, slush positional
players that were here over the summer. So just you know, building that connection with them early on in the summer just made this transition to the fall this one is easier, you know, just not having to learn you know, thirty new guys, you know, you know, it's more so like twenty. So you know, building those connections early was really nice.
You know, having some of those guys over to our house occasionally, just you know, trying to build those foundations early, trying to build a culture with them so you know they can help, you know, the freshman just as much as we do. But yeah, also getting to go home and you know, spend some time with friends and family that I haven't necessarily gotten to do the past two summers. So it was a good break. But excited to be back here at school and nice.
It's nice to have a breather after working like that for six seven months straight, pitching two times a week. Really, yeah, something break, kumba, calm down.
You know they don't do tired, but that was a good tired at the end. All right, let's talk about this year's pitching staff.
I know there's still a lot to be uh sorted out, and that's what the fall is for. But what excites you most about this group? The new faces, the guys coming back. What excites you most about this staff?
I'd say, like, I feel like we have quite a bit of an experience from different leagues and different avenues of college baseball. We have another seventh year, Dub's little friend o here, another seventh years from South Dakota State, Nick McKay. Just a guy that really goes about his business.
The right way.
He gets here super early in the morning because he.
Said his body takes a while to warm up, probably because it's his seventh year of college.
But yeah, he.
Looks really good. He's a starter.
We got, you know, Cole Henchel Scottie. And honestly, I think we have some really polished freshmen this year. From being in the program five years, I've seen some good freshmen, some bad freshmen. It's just part of, you know, the learning curve. But I got some.
I see some freshmen that can you know, contribute to the staff this year, and I'm.
Excited about that to see how well they have already progressed as being that young, because I can tell you when I came in here as a freshman, I looked.
Terrible, like it was bad. They look great.
That's a big jump to the sec Yeah, and it's you can definitely see when they get out there. Sometimes the nerves get the best of them. But I'm like, hey, man, just in their squad, just an their squad. It's easy for me and to say, because this is like an inner squad. We thrown it the people and having buds so nice.
Yeah.
To add on to part obviously, the experience is good, but I would say, just like the like diversification that we have within pictures, I feel like a lot of guys have a different a lot of different stuff, a lot of different strengths, and just honestly just I feel like for the most part, all the new guys have been really open minded about the new process. Obviously, you know, being in a program for three four years, like some of these you know, transfers have been in, you know,
it's different learning from Coach Rozel. You know, he coaches a different way. But they've been really respectful and they've been really good at asking questions, you know, to us, you know, how does this work?
What do we need to do about this?
I feel like everyone's just done a really good job of just you know, buying into the new culture and buying into like how we navigate the pitching staff and how Coach Roseel does you know, the stuff that he does.
So I feel like I feel like we've not necessarily I feel like in years past, like it's taken a little bit for the pitchers to get there, But I feel like this year we've somewhat hit the ground running and I'm excited to It's such a different philosophy in the spring versus the full trying to win.
Yeah, like all the only word the matter is when you know. But in the fall, man, it's all about developing, yep. And you know you've got to get you got it. You got to learn something every day. And you speak about those freshman pictures like you got to develop a lot in four months here in the fall if you're gonna help in the spring. Yeah, So like what specific things are you all working on on developing right about now?
I mean right now, everybody's just trying to get their legs underneath them because.
They're just like we do a lot as pitching staff. We're trying to get in the best shapes of our life. I think that development wise, I mean Salo and Fits are doing a great job of helping coach Zell navigate the pitching staff. They give us plenty of like water bag and medball stuff to do right now, which is kind of like been added in. Like probably last year was when we really added in.
We didn't do much that twenty three.
Yeah we got them, but yeah we got it wasn't but we didn't do the like what not.
So like we have an implemented plan like you have personal stuff that like coach Salo will like look at and implement in for you and he'll he'll kind of like walk you through it and watch and stuff.
And Coach fitzwill too.
So coaches really manages like that pitching, like watching your catch play and stuff and be able to critique there.
But he kind of like gives the reins to them.
With Salo having such a big background and pro ball and then fits just seeing like all the places that he's been and they combine their knowledge and they're really helping just the young guys being able to just move
their bodies in a more efficient way. And it's really cool to see because like I benefit from it more than anybody, and I'm a fifth year, you know, so's it's cool to see that having new perspective on things and like new eyes can help so much because it's just it's just all compounds together with all their knowledge.
So it's awesome if any of our listeners are like.
And that was a segment of our Behind Kentucky Baseball podcast featuring Jackson Noby and Evan Byers. That one is out now. Look out for a new episode dropping this week featuring Kaya Scarget and Ethan Hindle, a couple of the young guys from last year's team that could fill some big roles this year with baseball. Andrew Capus will join us when we come back. This is Clark's Puppinshop BB Radio here on the UK Sports Network.
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Welcome back to Clark's Puppinshop. BBN Radio here on the UK Sports Network and has promised joining us on our phone lines.
It's Andrew Kappus who.
Serves as studio host for men's basketball during the season, and also you'll hear him as the play by play voice for Kentucky volleyball and even some softball games throughout the year. And he'll be behind the mic when the volleyball team hosts Texas on Sunday at Historic Memorial Coliseum. That's at one o'clock first Serve for Kentucky and Texas. And Andrew, thanks again for taking some time and finding
some time to join us here tonight. I guess I'll start you with volleyball because you host that match on Sunday. Kentucky's on a three match winning streak, starting to play better, continuing to get better as a team, and that's certainly what you want to see as you dive into the heart of your conference schedule.
Yeah, I think there is a lot of optimism there. And thanks for having me. My man has always but I think there was a lot of optimism coming into this SEC schedule because you look at how well they played in the non conference against I would argue the toughest non conference schedule in the country. Coach Craig Skinner played four top ten teams and don't I don't really know of anybody else that schedules that way, to be honest, and that's what he that's what he prefers. You know,
he wants to see this team challenged early. He doesn't want to wait until the SEC or you know, postseason play. And it's certainly paid off for them. They're they're looking for their eighth straight Southeastern Conference title, as we well know, and that obviously takes a big, big challenge this year given that that Texas and Oklahoma have entered the league,
which Kentucky took care of Oklahoma at Memorial Coliseum. But Texas is is obviously a national power and provides a new rival that I think they'll become instant rivals on the volley volleyball floor in the SEC. So you're exactly right, though, this three match winning streak is a really good time because you want to be playing some good volleyball when you take on the Longhorns, because it's a great litmus
test of where you're at. Because remember, this is a team that relies on a lot of young players, true freshmen, red shirt freshmen, and sophomores that are currently playing really big roles. So it's a really good progress report if you Will midway through the season.
Yeah, I was looking at the schedule and I remember on the night that this happened. The stunning loss to Auburn is the first time in a long time that Kentucky fell to Auburn in a volleyball match. But the way they've responded is what has impressed me. They have to go to Gainesville and take on a Florida team that is usually the biggest competition Kentucky has in the
SEC in terms of trying to win a championship. They go down there and beat Florida three out of four sets to win the match, a top fifteen Florida team on the road, and then you come back a five set victory at home against Oklahoma. But maybe the most impressive one, Andrew, is the three games or the three set sweep match win against Missouri, which has been a tough out in the SEC over the last couple of years.
Yeah, that's a really good three match stretch. If you're trying to I don't want to say warm up for Texas, because as you said, Florida has been arguably their biggest rival during this seven season winning streak throughout the Southeastern Conference, and that's a really tough place to play. Just about every Kentucky team, whether it's baseball, football, basketball, you get
challenged when you go to Gainesville. That's a really good rivalry from a department level, and that's a really really good team that I know they dropped one set, but you really didn't feel like the match was ever in danger in that match in Gainesville. So that was a really good, I guess statement win that you could say that maybe this team lacked going into conference play and then obviously in the first few weeks of conference play. But it is great they've shaken off that loss against Auburn.
I think the one little silver lining with that is Auburn has been on the upswing here lately throughout the Southeastern Conference. So obviously not a game you want to lose, but as we know in other sports, it's maybe sometimes best to get those losses out of the way early in the conference slate.
No doubt about it.
We got to take a quick time out here on Clark's Pumping Shot BBN Radio. We'll flip things back over to football with Andrew Cappus when we come back. We'll also talk a little bit of hoops as well. This is the UK Sports Network.
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A couple of segments left with Andrew Cappus here on Clark's Pumping Shop BBN Radio. He is the second Andrew that we've had guesting with us tonight. We just talked to mister Cappus. We just had Andrew Alligreta on early in the hour to talk about the Kentucky Vanderbilt matchup this weekend. Historically, this has always been one that can Tacky and Vandy both circled as a potential win in
their schedules. But after the way Kentucky took care of business and toppled Old Miss in Oxford the way they played, and after watching the way Vanderbilt took the fight to Alabama and beat them last weekend, there's a lot more intrigue and excitement around this matchup now between the Doors and Cats this Saturday.
Yeah, I thought Vanderbilt was much better coming into the season, and I know they've had a couple of stinkers in the non con a little bit going into that game against Alabama, but especially with what happened a couple of years ago in Lexington. You knew this wasn't a game that Mark Stoops and company were going to take lighty to begin with, but fitting that on the bye week that Vanderbilt does that, and so certainly nobody is going
to be taking these Commodorees for granted. And who would have funked when you looked at the schedule in early August, once things were starting to get solidified that this would be a game that would be intriguing really beyond the two fan bases like this has a lot of locations in the Southeastern Conference, especially the way that Kentucky schedule kind of sets itself up leading into that game in
Knoxville at Tennessee in about three weeks or so. If you can take care of business against Vanderbilt at home, then you got Florida and Auburn. Those are three games that if you win all of a sudden, you're setting yourself up for a heck of a ballgame in Knoxville. But obviously that's me the broadcaster talking. I know anybody in the building isn't looking anywhere past Saturday, in which should be a thriller under the lights.
Yeah, no doubt about it. I was just sitting here thinking who would have thought when the season kicked off this year in that three game stretch Vanderbilt, Florida and Auburn. Who would have thought that as we get into it in the way the games have played out so far, that Vanderbilt might be the toughest of those three matchups. Obviously going to Gainesville, like we talked about in the
last segment, no matter, the sport is tough. But Auburn's had some issues this year offensively and have had some turnover issues. But Vanderbilt they've beaten for you Tech at home, and buddy, they they skate. They put a real scare into Missouri out in Columbia, Missouri. So yeah, this is looking like a tough matchup in that Diego Pavia who transferred to Vanderbilt from New Mexico State, He's already got a win against Auburn on the road under his belt.
Now he's got one at home against Alabama. This young man has brought a lot of confidence in belief into that Commodore locker room.
Yeah, his postgame interview, while maybe not stay for work at all times, was electric there on the field after beating Alabama.
But you're right.
In college football, the National Football League, whatever level it is, sometimes you're only as good as your quarterback is. And you mentioned those three matchups for Kentucky coming up in the next three weeks. Who would have thought that Vanderbilt probably has the best quarterback situation out of the three.
I know there's a lot of talent in Gainsville between DJ Lagway and Graham Mertz, but there's just a question of consistency and a question of who actually is the guy there in Gainsville that should be starting and then on all the issues offensively for Auburn, that the most stable, at least in my opinion, quarterback situation is there in
Nashville with Vanderbilt. In today's football game, when you have a stable quarterback situation, you're going to have, for the most part, a really good chance to win if you have a good game plan that you can execute well, which is exactly what the Doors did against Alabama.
Andrew.
I know we try on this show to keep things central to Kentucky or focused on Kentucky, but just to go off a point you were making just a second ago with the parody in this league this year, when we look a and M sitting there three and oh, I think Texas is one to O. Everybody else has at least one loss already. It almost feels like the
SEC is becoming college football's version of the NFL. The transfer portal and the NIL have really brought some teams or helped them be more competitive, and has made it to the point where if you're one of those top five top ten teams, you've got to be ready to come to the ballpark or the stadium and play every.
Week, no doubt.
And I think the big concern with NIL coming in and we're still learning a lot about it, obviously because it's still in its infancy and they're still molding exactly how it looks. But I know the biggest concern for me and for really most people with NIL was, well, I guess, you know, are the big teams just going to get stronger? Are the rich just going to get richer? And I'm not saying that the Alabamas and the Georgia's haven't benefited from NIL and from the transfer portal, but
look at what it has done. You mentioned Domingo Pavia. He's a guy that is a guy that's in transfer product at Vanderbilt. You look at all these other SEC teams, Texas, A, and m they kind of had to rebuild really quickly with Mike Delko taking that job, which, by the way, everybody wrote those guys off, myself included, because of that really lost and as you said, I saw the get in price for that game against Texas is now somewhere around two thousand dollars on aug So safe to say
I will not be attending that game. But nonetheless, it really has created this, I think dream scenario for Greg Sankee that you have in the Southeastern Conference a number of teams that have a chance at making a run for the college football playoff, and it makes the month of October, I think so huge. We talked about that, this upcoming three game stretch for the Cats that leads into the game in Knoxville at Tennessee against Vanderbilt, Florida
and Auburn. Kentucky's not the only team like that that has that three game stretch where you say, well, if you win those three games, you go into the month of November very much alive and very much in the conversation, which was not really going to be the truth in the fourteen playoff model. So I think that's been really exciting and is really exciting for the league as well.
And oh, by the way, I feel sorry for people that have weddings planned this Saturday, because the slate this Saturday in college football, you get Florida Tennessee. You've got obviously Kentucky Vanderbilt, but you also get Penn State at Southern cal Texas and Oklahoma and the Red River rivalry at the Cotton Bowl. You've got Old Miss at LSU. And at seven thirty Saturday night, you've got Ohio State and Oregon in the Big Ten. What a huge slate of games in college football this weekend.
I know, if you're a big college football fan and you're going to be at Kroger Field, you really should be checking that phone for that Oregon Ohio State game because that's you look at Ohio State schedule. They really haven't played anybody, right, they dominated people, and this is supposed to be the redeemed team right for for Ohio State, the team that finally is going to get over that Michigan hump that they've been experiencing the last three years.
And now the Carball's gone, they retooled that roster and I know Lane Kiffin has put a number on it, and I'm not willing to put a number on how much they spent, but it's it's a lot. It's a lot in the in the portal. So that's going to be interesting to see how they play against Oregon their first real test of the year. And then Texas Oklahoma as always red River rivalry, big SEC game, right, so that's going to be a lot of fun. Is it's
in its first coronation in the Southeastern Conference. But yeah, the funny thing is, though everybody said that this past Saturday, you know, it's kind of a it's kind of a boring slate. Let's let's get to next week. And he had all sorts of chaos. But now you kind of have guaranteed chaos right this upcoming weekend, just because of how many Titans are colliding.
Yeah, that means we'll just have a bunch of blowouts. We got we gotta get to a final break here on Clark's Puppet Shop, BBN Radio. One more segment with Andrew Cappus when we return here on the UK Sports Network.
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Four minutes slept in the show one final segment as we chat with Andrew Kappus here on Clark's Pumping Shop BBN Radio, and want to switch over now to basketball because we are entering that crossover time of the Here Andrew, you're getting ready to be on the air hosting things from studio for men's basketball. We got Big Blue Madness this Friday, which amazing BBN. You guys are the greatest sold out Big Blue Madness in twenty five four minutes
those tickets were taken. We've got the Blue and White event at Historic Memorial Coliseum next Friday. Then there's a couple of exhibition games for the men, and then both the men and women tip off their seasons first in November. We're off and running, Andrew. It feels like we just started the football season end of August, first September.
Now here we are. Man basketball's here starting this week.
I swear they move they move the first week of where you can officially practice. Move up. They move it up one week per year. I know that's not true because if that were the case, it would be in middle of June by now. But right the Big Blue Man just always sneaks up on me, and it's sneaking up on me again this year, so I'm a little bummed. I'm gonna miss it. I'll be at men's soccer on Friday night, but very excited to get out at the Bell. But that's gonna be really fun of it. You mentioned
twenty four minutes the sellout. Big Blue Nation just does everything better in my opinion, as they're some other official startup practices that had a much lower attendance. It won't go any further than that, but twenty four minutes to sell it out. I think it's going to be a really really fun environment on Friday. I have it set to DVR, if that's really the term anymore. But I'm really looking forward to that court. Saw it the NBA All Star Game. That's going to be really really cool.
I'm really looking forward to that, and obviously seeing the guys in a more formal setting as far as an organized practices, which is somewhat going on right now for the Pro Day.
But nonetheless, yeah, no doubt about it.
And you know when you look at it, I've had a chance to go to women's basketball practices with their new coaching staff and a lot of new faces in that locker room. Men's basketball obviously brand new coaching staff, a lot of new faces there. We talked to Cameron Mills. It's the energy you feel walking into the Joe Kraft scender on both sides truly excites me and gets me
fired up for the basketball seasons. What is it about the new era that we're going to experience that has you most excited, most fired up, ready to go?
What is it? What is it there for you that's scotch you gung ho about it?
I think the biggest thing, and there's a lot, as you said, but I think the biggest thing is with both head coaches, they know what it means to be
at Kentucky. I know Mark Pope obviously a little bit more intimately because he's won a national championship with Kentucky, But with coach Brooks, you can tell when he took the job he just understood the history of not only the Southeastern Conference, but Kentucky basketball as a whole, and how important women's basketball is too at the University of Kentucky.
So you have two people that are leading those programs, that are that understand the assignment, so to speak, that they understand that this is a religion in Kentucky and that and that winning is the expectation, and that there really isn't grace periods or anything like that or rebuilding
years or anything like that. So when you have two people that understand what this is all about and that can connect with the fans like these two coaching stats have so far, I think that's really really infectious and it gets you really excited a lot earlier, maybe than what you normally would, because again we're sitting here on a Monday, and I can't wait for Friday and not trying to wish the week aways, but the less.
Andrew, thanks for joining us. Man appreciate you going out of your way to make some time for us. Budd appreciate it.
Thanks as always, Darren.
That's Andrew Cappus, and we appreciate Andrew Aligreta, the voice of the Vanderbilt Commodores, for joining us tonight as well. Big Blue Madness Friday Night seven o'clock inside Rep Arena sold out in twenty four minutes, Amazing football against Vanderbilt, Saturday night Kroger Field seven forty five. Obviously the big volleyball match against Texas on Sunday at one o'clock. This has been Clark's Pumping Shot BBN Radio, and you've been listening to the UK Sports Network.
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