Uh.
Oh, guess what day it is?
Guess what day it is? Huh anybody?
It's hump Day?
What day?
Yeah, it's hump Day. Dick Gabriel with you on a Wednesday, one day closer to Kentucky football. This Saturday night, it's the Wildcats and Vanderbilt seven forty five kick. We'll have it for you right here on six point thirty WLAP at five thirty with Christy, Jeremy and Logan and Tom Jeff and I will have the call of the Cats and the Commodorees. The two SEC teams coming off the biggest upsets in well for Vandy in program history, in
Kentucky one of the biggest in program history. So both teams are on a roll and it should be interesting, both teams winning in similar fashions these past Saturdays, both teams controlling the football for forty minutes, making plays on defense, minimizing mistakes on offense, and doing things that quite frankly, surprise their own fan bases, much less the rest of college football. So we'll have that one for you right here.
Why don't we stay with Kentucky football. We got a lot of football chatter coming up, did a lot of basketball yesterday because of UK Media Day, lots of football coming up. Chris Doring of the SEC Network joins us next and he'll finish up this first hour. We had a lot to catch up on with Chris talking about both Vandy and Kentucky, but talking to the Wildcats this week,
to Mark Stoops and his players. Barrion Brown was front and center yesterday and talked about whether or not the team was kind of hanging on to the good vibes from the old miss win or moving forward a little bit of both.
Actually, I say hold on to it to a certain sting, like, don't get the big hit about it, because any given week we can be that team to fall if we're not prepared or we're not focused.
So yeah, I pretty should have had that.
But like I'll be telling the boys, we got to stay likeed in everything we wanted right in front of us. We just got to keep grinding for.
It, and then extra week to train their own film out here. So it was good. I liked the bowiek that's Barran Brown courtesy if Jeff Drummond and Cat illustrated and he was right back at practice catching deep throws from Rock Vandergriff, he said, so maybe we'll see more of the same with Vanderbilt coming in. That win by the Commodorees, of course, prompted the field storming at Vandy, and it also costs the school one hundred thousand dollars.
That's what happens when you storm. Now in the Southeastern Conference, they're trying to keep people safe. It can get really dangerous, especially when goalposts come down. But they revised the policy at the spring meeting in twenty twenty three. Fines here paid to the opposing institution. So Vandy pays Alabama one hundred thousand for the upset victory. Remember when he used to be I think the first offense was fifty grand,
then it got worse. This was Arkansas second offense that razorback fans rushed the field after the win over Tennessee. So it was actually going back to when they rushed the court when men's basketball beat Duke last November. So it counts them matter of the sport. So now second offense is costing Arkansas two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and yep, third offense half a million. So yeah, they're great,
but they're costly. Not that anybody on that field really really cares getting back to basketball for just a moment, I was not able to go to Women's Basketball Day. We've had some of the UK women that we had the coach, Kenny Brooks and one or two players on the show. But because I had to rush back for Men's Basketball Day to put this show together, I was
not able to go to Women's Basketball Day. But here's a comment from Kenny Brooks at the podium on his first media day as the UK head coach, coming over from Virginia Tech, and man, he is ready to get going.
The biggest thing is just a welcoming from Big Blue Nation, you know, and how everyone's been so interested in what we're doing. Welcoming to Lexington and just a big Blue nation has been awesome, And you know, and I'm very proud of what we've done in six months put together a roster. This day and age freedom of movement, sometimes you got to start all over. And we went out and we went out and we went in the portal, and we didn't want to always just get the best players.
We want to get the right players, players that can come in and represent this university, our program, help us start something special, and I thought, you know, we did a really good job of assembling a really good roster. And it's a group of great kids who just work. They work, work, work. I don't know how good they are. I don't know how good they're going to be. I do know that right now as we speak, I am undefeated. So that's a good thing.
That's Kentucky women's coach Kenny Brooks. I don't know that his team will contend or an SEC title this but I do know this. They are big, They have got size, and they may be the biggest team in UK women's basketball history. And you cannot win without size, so they're ahead of the game in that department. He's also a very good coach, and he has brought some kids over from Virginia Tech and kids who are transferred in who have had success in other places. So it's gonna be
fun watching. But unlike a season ever in the history of UK basketball, if not college basketball, both the men's and women's teams rebuilding just about from the ground up, with a fan base that expects a heck of a lot up. Dex Chris Doring of the SEC Network. Little later, Sean Woods and Weston Buer chief Gary Moore on six thirty WLAP joining us on our celebrity hotline now is
a longtime friend of the show. We love talking football with Chris Doring of the SEC Network and full disclosure, Christ and Ivert trying to get together last week couldn't get schedules to match up. Now, Chris, I'm happy that that occurred because we can talk about this Vandy Alabama game and watching the coverage out of Tom Hart and his whole crew did a great job, and you guys chopped it up so well in the studio. What was that like covering that story?
Well, first and foremost, let me tell you the real MVP of the whole crew was a list of Lang down there battling her crowd as they run the field. You know, she's just a little tiny thing, and she she was able to track down Diego Pavia better than probably any Alabama defended it all day long, so I give her credit for that. But yeah, man, I don't We don't get Alabama on our network all that often, but to have that game on there, you could feel
that the game was progressing. People changing their channel to tune in, like, yeah, beyond disbelief and what was going on.
It's my only like.
That was perfect for me because not only did we have the Alabama upset on so it was going right into the Florida game, and then it ran so long we didn't even get to come on camera. We had about two minutes we were voicing over the crowd and storm in the field and didn't even get any FaceTime. Man, So I'll.
Finally regret those times. Everything, brother, I get that, that's right now. My heart went out to Alyssa because and thanks to you, she's been on the show with us as a fellow sideline reporter. I've covered a couple of games like that. Nothing quite as frantic, though. Man. She she was running and caught the coach and the players and uh and and had great questions for him. So much respect to her.
Yeah, she she kind of went viral with that whole thing. And and I did a show with her on Tuesday morning on our normal show, and she, uh, she was just talking about you know what that was like and realizing the importance of making sure she got the papa. And you know, I have a lot of respect for all of y'all that I've done it before. As well, and it's uh one, it's just making sure you're in
the right place at the right time. It's hard enough, but then making sure you're formulating questions that make sense and trying to keep your composure about just tough. She does a great job, as you know. I'm so fortunate to work with the network and so many great people that I have such respect for professionally and friendship wise. It's it's awesome. And just the additional coverage now with ESPN ABC that she network, having that whole contract, it's a lot of fun to be a part of.
Man Diego held it together in that interview. But I want to double back to something you said about you could kind of feel the nation was tuning in. I was one of them. I was spending the dial, saw the seven nothing score, I thought that deserves it. Look
and just as I tuned in, comes to pick six. Yeah, but honestly, you know, having done it for so long, and I hate to say it is covering Kentucky for so long, which has flirted with upsets, you know, and every once in a while, Pullster, We'll talk about old miss in a minute, they somehow slip away. How did Vandy keep that from happening.
Yeah, you know, I'm like you. And when we had Coach Leon after the game on our Saturday night show, and you probably may have caught it on Saturday or maybe Sunday morning, but I was honest with him. I say, hey, Coach, I'm watching this game, thinking, wow, this is cool, but how is Vanderbilt going to find a way to lose or how is Alabama going to come back and win? Like it just felt like it was too good to be true almost, And you know, as the game progressed,
every time Alabama got closed, Vanderbilt made a play. I've been from the get go making sure to emphasize to everybody those especially they didn't watch it. This was not a flukey win. This was not an accident. This was not Alabama losing the game. This was Vanderbilt taking it to Alabama, not being intimidated at all, having a great game plan, having a star quarterback that understands the offense after playing it in a couple of years, Guys making plays.
I mean the third down conversions alone, twelve of eighteen on the afternoon, that's how you possessed the foot all for over forty two minutes. That's how you keep Jaln Milroe on the sideline. And to their credit, I mean they were able to I think I want to say the average yards to gain on third down was like over six yards. So these weren't easy conversions. They were guys making plays in the clutch, and nobody more cluts
than Diego was what. You know, he's able to do not only throwing the football but running it and just it's a lot of fun to watch. Man as a fan of competitors, Man, that's not any in this league this year that compete.
Like that, dude does.
What a great story a guy couldn't get I heard you, and I think it was Peter Burns talking about the fact that he couldn't get a scholarship offer from his hometown team, University of New Mexico. Two years of JUCO ends up in New Mexico State and had success there. And I loved the story about Clark Lee who watched New Mexico State dismantled Auburn, which had just beaten Vandy, and goes out and hires Jerry Kill, hires Tim Beck,
and now he has Diego on his team. Just an incredible story, and that guy that's the story right now, one of them at any rate of the college football season.
It really is. And I think the thing that stands out to me about it is, you know, coaches understanding what what's needed to get their team to a better spot.
You know, I think specifically about the Vandy story there, Clark Lee not only goes out and gets half the team and coaching staff from from New Mexico State, but he also goes out and reinserts himself as the defensive coordinator, a guy that gave up those play calling duties a few years back to try to manage the team as the CEO, but understood that they needed they needed his involvement, they needed his play calling ability, and the defense has been very good as well this year. So I give
him credit. I give Sam Pittman credit. You know, it's a controversial hire to go out to hire Bobby Petrino.
It's a it's you know, going out and get Taylor Green from from Boise State, you know, being able to listen into Travis Williams, a defensive coordinator who saw something on the tape when Oklahoma was able to defend Tennessee a little bit a couple weeks earlier and integrating that into the game plan, and coach Pittman being willing to completely scrap what they're doing defensively because he trusted his coordinator.
Like I just I think a lot of coaches that are willing to do things that are maybe outside of the box, are non conventional, and a lot of those things are paying off for those two squads.
Well. And clark Lee hires Jerry Kill who was a head coach but wasn't sure he wanted to be a head coach anymore, but it was one of the most as you know, well respected coaches in the business. And now Harry is in Nashville kind kind of mentoring clark Lee.
And I'll tell you what. I don't know if you if you heard alread any of the transcript or any but Mark Troops talked at length about clark Lee has enormous respect for him, has known him for quite a while, and he said I could see it coming what was happening at Vanderbilt. I don't know if he predicted the win, but he said I could see it coming with clark Lee, And I guess that's kind of what he was talking about.
Yeah, we saw it. I guess two years ago that remember that November you know, well, I know, well, they beat Kentucky and Florida in the month of November and you're thinking, I, they got a little something figured out here. They're gonna build on that in twenty twenty three, and they actually took a step back. I don't think people thought a lot of what this team was going to be this year. I didn't know a ton about Pavia. I saw the New Mexico State offense go to Jordan
Hare last year in Tara Auburn up. But I didn't really know what to expect this year until you watched that Virginia Tech game in the opening week of the season. You immediately see that this is a guy that has a little something about him, that attitude, the competitor in him. It permeates throughout the team, and honestly, like I think it's good that this guy comes from New Mexico. Maybe he doesn't know the pre determined thoughts on what Vanderbilt
can and can't do, what they've done historically. Like me, he comes in with a fresh palette, says, you know, why wouldn't we go out here and within a day, why can't we beat Alabama. And to think that, you know, Vandy had had sixty prior beatings with top five teams and never won a single one of them. And to have finally won their first top five matchup against the number one team in the country and it's Alabama. I don't think you could have scripted it any better.
The thing I noticed when I turned the channel immediately, Vandy was playing physical football. I mean taking it to Alabama. And I've seen Vandy defenses do that, but it was on both sides of the ball. How much of that did you notice?
Yeah, I went back and watched the tape on Sunday, Dick, I watched. I watched early in that first quarter, you know, Vandy's running the football and the piles getting pushed seventy eight nine yards. I watched the line up around, you know, inside the ten yard line and run power and blow the linebacker out of a hole. I watch a kickout block that knocks an Alabama player on his back. I watched them line up in a heavy formation down at the goal line and ended up scoring like they weren't
intimidated at all. They even though you saw Quincy Skinner talking trash right in the face of Alabama defensive backs, Like I think there's an intimidation factor that sometimes goes along with Alabama. Maybe that's not there as much anymore without Nick Staven, but still it holds some weight. And you know, you look at the recruiting rankings, there's not a chasm that is as big as what you're looking at between Alabama and Vanderbilt. And these guys were not intimidated.
They didn't read any of that. They went out there and did their jobs and I thought, you know, the execution. You look at what they were able to do. Two takeaways, didn't turn the ball over once, did I'm sorry, two penalties on the whole afternoon, didn't turn the ball over once, didn't allow a sack. That's smart football. That's what you
should expect at Vanderbilt. And they went out there, had a great game plan, executing it and didn't make mistakes as we saw you know Alabama make, particularly with the pick six.
Athleticism and smarts tough to be. Chris Doring is my guest from the SEC Network. We'll come back and talk about Kentucky and Vanderbilt in just a minute here on the Big Move Insider six point thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Chris Doring of the SEC Network. Of course, covers every game in the conference and talks about it on the SEC Final Show and throughout the week on the SEC Network. You can hear it as well on
Channel three seventy four on Sirius XM Radio. As I do and Diego Flavia coming to town, what does Kentucky have to do? Obviously did a good job against Jackson Dart who who can extend to play. But Flaby's got a different kind of a different skill set, doesn't he.
Yeah, Diego Pobby is a guy that can can hurts you in a lot of different ways. And let's start with what the offense is. I mean, the offense is a combination of a lot of different things. You'll see a ton of misdirection, So Coach Stukes and Brian Wide will talk a lot this week about I discipline. They also run a lot of different option games, so you got to be assignment sound uh. They also like to move Pavia outside of the pocket. He can he can
hurt you with his legs. He can hurt you by extending plays when things break down, but he really throws well outside of the pocket, and so you know, it's not a guy that's a good runner and can't throw. He could throw it really well, made some nice throws on some deep balls, including the fourth and one for
the touchdowns. So he's he's the entire packet. So I think the thing that that Kentucky has to do is be the more physical team, which they were against Ole Miss a couple of weeks ago, which they went toe to toe with Georgia before that. Uh, but I think they really have to be assignment sound in terms of what they have to do and and and defending the option and really be tight on the eigeh discipline and not let the misdirection catch him out of place.
Did you see the Kentucky deep ball in real time the Barryon Brown cat.
I did.
I was watching it live. Uh, we were in the studio, and uh, I just I'm marveled. Especially like Brock Vandergrit, we hadn't seen we hadn't seen a ball like that in his Obviously I didn't see a ton of it at Georgia, but since he's been the starter at Kentucky, I hadn't seen him throw a ball with that precision. I mean, great job, by Barrian Brown, because as a receiver, my job is to keep five yards from the sideline where the quarterback can drop it over my outside shoulder.
And even if I'm covered where the guy hit the hip, I got my body in good position to catch the ball with my arms with the defensive back shield. And that's exactly what Barrion Brown did, and that's exactly what Rock Vandergriff did and dropping it over his shoulder. And let's not forget I mean, Baron Brown's had some inconsistencies catching the ball, so you got to You got a perfect throw and a great catch exactly when you needed it. And we talked about Bandy making plays when you needed it.
Kentucky made plays. And you heard old miss Kaslayane Kiffin lament the fact that they could have closed it out on offense, on defense and special teams. And while I agree with that, I also commend Kentucky for making them play on offensive, defense and special teams to help, you know, keep them from winning that football game. So I've been really impressed with the improvement that Kentucky's made since that
awful outing against South Carolina. I thought it was going to be a long year, but knowing coach Stops and the way that that he's able to rally a team and get them to buy in. It's so surprised that they're playing a lot better right now.
It just seems like Chris. Every year they lose, Stoop's team will lose a game it shouldn't lose. But to your point, he's able to bring him back and talking to those players about just going back to work. And I remember talking to one of the guys on the post game about the fact that he said, you know, I couldn't let my guys after the Georgia loss. I couldn't let my guys see that I was down. You know. One of the vet said that, you know, which I
think is shows the ownership. They've got Barrion Brown as a veteran and made a knucklehead move when he gets called for a personal foul coming off the sideline, which would it could have been a game ending kind of penalty, you know, but they were able to rise above that and to your point, made the biggest catch of his of his career so far. And then Dane Key as a receiver, man, you got to love what he's doing.
I do.
I love the rapport that he and Brock vandergriff have created, you know, started dating back to what I guess that was the Ohio game where he had that big showing with the hurdle down there around the end zone. Like I've liked these receivers since they were freshmen, as I'm sure all Kentucky fans have. I thought they regressed last year, maybe a little bit of sophomore slump, maybe reading the headlines too much, maybe not you know, being comfortable in
the Liam Cohen offense, whatever it was. But I think there's clearly a focus that wasn't there last year, clearly something to prove and and I think that they can, you know, start building on some of what you've seen in this point of the season and hopefully, you know that protection will be a little bit better than it was early in the year. It's improved over the last couple of weeks, but I think they got something there.
And you know this a program that's that's trying to ascend has to have some proof of concept, Like we think we're good, but until we actually go out there and do it in the clutch, we don't necessarily know that for sure. So I think that game against Old miss going on the road in that environment. Winning the way that they did can be a real shot in the arm for the rest of the season.
Oh, there's no question about it. And I've covered a couple of big wins on the road. That was the biggest, of course, but to be in a locker room, and that's where they had us set up for post game. On the road, we are generally in the locker room with music so loud. You know, your own chest is stumping. You've been a part of that, I know in the past.
But just the unmitigated joy these guys were able to share, you know, all that hard work paying off and that'll pay dividends down the road as long as they get right back to work, right.
Yeah, that's the thing I missed the most is the camaraderie in the locker room, you know, being there with your teammates. It's actually something I love about doing the TV stuff that I do because there's a lot of work that goes into it throughout the week. You know,
I'm watching tape, I'm reading, We're talking to coaches. You know, we get together on Thursday night and kind of plan out what we want to do on Friday's show, and Saturday we're in the studio like watching all day long, taking notes, doing some of the halftime in postgame shows, and then we do that one hour show at night right and it's like, Hey, all of this work we did, you got the adrenaline rush from being on television and you get to celebrate with your boys afterwards. You don't
get that in life much. There's not a whole lot of facsimile for that that exists outside of sports. And you know, you can talk about the money, you can talk about the fame, you can talk about everything else, but there's nothing quite like the camaraderie in the locker room particular that exists between a football team. And it's a lot of fun to win, particularly when you put
all that hard work in. It's even more fun to win when when you have to go through the adversity that they did early in the season against South Carolina, going on the road, Like, I love playing in the swamp, but there wasn't nothing better than going on the road and making the opponents fans sad and being able to quiet the place down. So yeah, I think that this Kentucky team clearly believes in what they're doing. There's a lot of veteran players there. These coaches have been with
these guys for a long time. It's gonna be fun to watch. Hopefully as this team continues to ascend, how we talk about them from where they came against South Carolina to where they.
End up going more with Chris during of the SEC Network when we come back here on a Big bon Sider six thirty w l a p. Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider. Dick Gabriel, what do you on a Wednesday edition of our program? Chris Dring my guest, he of course is an analyst or the SEC Network. Former Florida Gator, played under Steve Spurrier National Championship Team NFL veteran and you see him each week and hear him on the radio as well. On the SEC Network.
We talked a little bit about you mentioned Brad White, and man, you know what a well respected decoordinator and the job he's done at Kentucky Bush Hamden in his first year as the OC. And there have been some hiccups on offense, I know, but the way we talked about it earlier, the way Kentucky ground out offensive drives against Ole miss I got to tell you that took me by surprise because Ole Miss comes back this past
week with an outstanding defensive performance. But the fact that Kentucky controlled the ball almost to the minute exactly as much as Vandy did against Alabama, I thought that was huge.
Yeah, it's definitely huge. And I think that people have minimized the importance of the time of possession yeatistick because of all the up tempo offenses and trying to get plays off explosiveness of you know, three or four play drives. That's all great, but when you look in the box score and you see Alabama running forty six plays, you know they had That's all they had on the entire afternoon, was forty six plays. It minimizes the impact that Jalen
Milroe and guys like Ryan Williams can have. But it also is frustrating too. I can tell you, as an offensive player, like I want to get back out there, I want to get the ball, I want to move the football, I want to catch ball. It's frustrating when you're not able to make an impact. And so that has had that effect as well. And so I we've always looked at Kentucky as a team that's able to run the football, it's able to impose their will on
the opposition, it's able to be more physical. One of the great coaching decisions I think the coach Soups made was realizing that they had to expand on what they were doing throwing the football football down vertically. That's when they moved on from Eddie Grant and got Liam Cohen the first time. And and the offense has evolved, but at the core, it's still being fit the goal. It's still running the football, it's still minimizing those mistakes and
playing great defense. And I think you know, even to what you're saying, possessing the football like Ali rush for I think what eighty something yards in that game. Like if you have told me that Kentucky scored twenty points in rush for one hundred yards or under one hundred yards, I'd just said they lost by three touchdowns. But this was a gutsy, blue collar effort along the lines of what we expect from from coach Stukes with his young
stant Ohio background. And I just it's a lot of fun to watch teams that kind of figure things out after some trial and adversity.
I heard you bring up that stat on the show, and you're absolutely right. But they had so much success throwing the football as they moved the pocket, as they went play action. Still struggling Chris with passing on downs where everybody knows they're going to throw. Georgia killed them on those downs and Ole Miss had something sass. But Kentucky is still able to move the chains or you know, stay out a third and long against the ale mission. I gotta think they got to do that against Vandy again.
Man, I think the thing that you have to do offensively is you got to be unpredictable. You gotta take some shots on first and second down. You gotta stay in front of the chains. Like Kentucky's not a team that's gonna live converting you know, third and eight all day long. I don't think there are very few teams that that that can do that. But I do think what you're you're seeing is a team that understands kind of who they are. You know, they they they hit
some deep shots with Barrion Brown and Dan Key. You get some some some some big runs from Sumo Kongba. Like I like the pieces here and again, I think maybe the most important thing is figuring out, you know, the quarterback spot. There would talk I know that in the UH, in the in the offseason, we thought, you know, maybe there'd be some some two quarterback play. We've been it at times. But I do think that that right now, Rock Vander Griffin is figuring things out, and he's getting
confidence in himself and his teammates. And I just I'm not a huge fan of riding with the two quarterback system. You watch what Mike Elko did with putting Connor Wegman in there after Marcel Reid had had won the last three ball games. Like I'm frustrated with what Florida continues to do. Graham Mertz gives them the best opportunity to win and should be in there more and and and the coaching staffs inten on playing more DJ, who I think is going to be a great player down the road.
But right now, you know, still young, and we're talking about Graham Mertz as a six year senior. So I know I'm all over the place and answering your question, but I do think there are spots where you can put another quarterback in. I didn't agree with what the offensive staff did at South Carolina this weekend, putting Robbie Ashford in for le Norcelos. The first plays in they run zone Reid and the ball is on the round
and the game never was the same to me. Lenora Sellers and Robbie asked for the very similar guys, like if you have the contrast between you know, two very different quarterbacks, that makes sense compliment each other, but the same guy switching off, it doesn't make it doesn't make any sense to me.
Well, and Gavin Wimson came in a little while a few times for Kentucky against Ale Miss, but he is a different kind of quarterback. And of course the only play was in on.
If Caddy wouldn't have caught that boss.
Exactly that situation. That's what I was going to get to. The only the only play is in on and it's almost a disaster. And Chris had happened right in front of me. I mean, I'm ten feet away and I've seen it so often, disasters and I and you know how quickly your brain works. I'm like, oh my god, they've given it up at the goal line, but it catches Kadis right on the edge.
I said the same, I literally in the studio said to said to the guys in there, I'm like, how is Kentucky gonna find a way to mess this up? We found it last time they went there two years ago. They found a way to mess it up. Driving down there, Will Levice gets dripped in the red zone like it's become We're conditioned to see that. And again it's part of like I give this staff a lot of credit. We're conditioned to watch Florida beat Kentucky every year. Then
what they do. They've turned the tides and one, what three the last five? I guess it is like it it's sometimes you need folks that can come in and change the narrative, and I think this team has a little something special about it this year.
Talking to Chris during at the SEC Network few More Minutes with Chris, you mentioned Kentucky's running attack. How surprised are you with train them still out with Demi Sumo Karnbay running between the tackles Chris and at times moving the pile.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I shouldn't be because I remember, I guess when Benny Snail got inserted in there the first time, he was taking over from somebody else before, right he got inserted as a freshman right when they remember.
Billan Williams and uh and jo Joe Camp back then.
Yeah, yep, yep, very different styles of runners there. But uh, I do think that Kentucky knows how to recruit guys that fit who they want to be personal personality, personality wise, and so I'm not surprised by it. I'm also not surprised that they're improving as the offensive line improves.
So it's.
It's gonna be fun to see when they get their their full compliment back. You probably can tell me a little bit more than what I know. I don't know how healthy they are after the bye week, but it'd be nice to see this team at full compliment.
So have said that train him had a setback in practice, so we may not see him this week. But I'll tell you who has been a pleasant surprise to me is Ja Marion Wilcox, freshman running back and man is our guy Jeff Picoor. Our color analysts like to say, and you've heard it before, he runs angry, and uh, he'll his yards after carry or yards after contact. I
should say, have been really, really impressive. I wanted to ask you another question about Dane Key, because it seemed like Old Miss had devoted itself to grabbing and hacking and clawing at him like a basketball team that figures, well, they can't call every foul, and they got nailed a few times for interference or holding or whatever. But it tells me how much stronger he is now and better he is at running routes. Am I seeing that right?
No question? Yeah, I mean I think that's one of the things you see as a freshman. You know, you may be a great athlete, you may have great ball skills, but physically you're not going to be the same as you are once you go through an offseason with the conditioning staff that you get a couple of those under your belts that you learned. That's what I said about
Ryan Williams at Alabama. Like Ryan Williams is amazingly talented and contract the football well and has great body control in this fast and smooth but when he actually learns how to run routes, when he knows how to set people up, when he learns leverage, like, this guy's gonna
be tough. I mean, he's already tough to stop, but I just I can't wait to see what he becomes and what a great you know, think about this, This this freshman class of receivers that were watching across the country right now, Jeremiah Smith at Alabama's or at I
think it's been amazing. Obviously, Ryan Williams at Alabama, Wingo at Texas, Cam Coleman at AUBURNS had some times like these guys, I don't know how they're coming out of high school so ready, both physically and I guess maybe playing in some of the seven and seven something that they do and the way that they proliferation of the passing game has seeped all the way down to high school football. But these dudes are a lot more prepared than I was when I was coming out.
I got to ask you before I let you go, about a couple of coaches, your beloved Gators trying to survive under coach Napier. Down there are a lot of people thought he'd be gone by now. Of course, not that Kentucky's looking ahead, But next up on the schedules a trip to Gainesville. What's going on down there? Is he going to survive? And then what do you see?
Think I'll tell this, I'll say this, I am surprised actually. With as bad as Florida was in two of the first three ball games, with the third being Stamford, I think there are a lot of people that were ready to make a change. I think Florida was getting embarrassed in terms of the lines of scrimmage. I think that they were trying to do too much as it related to playing too many guys, and I think they're starting
to figure some things out now. With that being said, you know, the last two wins they've had are against Mississippi State, who's the probably the worst team in the conference, and then against the UCF team that I'm not sure is gonna win a whole lot of games the rest of the way. As I watched that tape, they're not very physical and not very athletics, So I don't know. I think you needed it as a bit of confidence. But maybe the thing I was most impressed with was
the swamp energy the fans showed up. I mean, it had some electricity in there like the old days, and you know, sometimes it's easy to kind of lose interest, and I felt like there was a lot of apathy creeping into the Florida fan base. But to see them show up for a game like that against UCF and bring it. It definitely provided a home field advantage. So I'm excited to see what Florida can do on the road.
Not a lot of people giving them much of a shot against Tennessee this week, but I do think there's some things, like you know this as well as I'm watching this conference this year, like I don't know who teams are with the week. I mean, they're so inconsistent right now, and I think a lot of it has
to do with the quarterback play. But I do think what you saw from Nico on Saturday night at Arkansas was a freshman that's still learning, that has great potential, that has moments of being sharp, but didn't necessarily have his eyes in the right place, didn't anticipate throws very well, didn't throw with great accuracy, and at the end of the day, you know, there was a lot of energy on that Arkansas defense and Travis Williams did a great job with the game plan, but there were still a
lot of guys winning one on one battles, and so Florida needs to find that same energy. Sometimes it's good to go on the road and kind of have that us against the world mentality Florida, as you know, I think what's seventeen and three in the last twenty matchups between them and the balls. So something a little mastery that exists for the Florida side, and I hope it
becomes the ballgame man. Me being you know, clearly biased here, I hope I get a chance to celebrate a Dator victory on Saturday night.
Tennessee's got to get right after that performance just a minute or two lit But I gotta ask you your reaction to the people who were talking about of course, and it was you can set your watch by it. This Vandy loss would not have happened if saving had been there and you got a player acting out on the field and that kind of thing. Is this an early I don't know what to call it, a turning point, but an important point for Calen de Bore.
I think it's a massive important point. It was impossible for anybody to replace Nick Stavin on the Alabama sideline. I think you got to give cut Staban the credit for understanding that the game was changing so much that maybe he wasn't gonna be as effective as he was before and maybe didn't have the patience for it. It's tough, and Kirby Smart talked about it this week like it is difficult. Teams aren't gonna go undefeated as much anymore with the competitiveness of the league is way up.
Uh.
But really the roster Thinness that you don't have to depth of talent that you used to have. Herby talked about how you have to develop the bottom half of your your roster better now because those guys are are gonna inevitably be forced into action. So I do think that that Alabama has a lot of young players at at different spots. I think they're trying to figure out who they're they're going to be from a culture standpoint.
Quite a shock, I imagine for a lot of those guys that were recruited to the play for Nick Staban and now find themselves in a much more friendly environment there and some probably trying to take advantage of that to some degree. But that was a bad look. The losing was one thing, but the way that Malachi Moore acted was a bad look, and maybe most embarrassing was just waving off the substitution when he was coming out there telling kay Wama, the defensive coordinator no, and basically just
completely telling the coaching staff to havevolved. So they've got to get that under control this week. But I have no doubt that Calen the board is going to be successful.
There.
Chris Doring, you see him and hear him on the SEC network, SEC Radio, SEC television. It is an entertaining Saturday evening when he and his teammates cover the entire SEC. Thank you so much as always, and look forward to bumping into you again sometime.
Yeah, it sounds good. They always fun to be on with you. Thanks for having me.
Our number two with Sean Woods in West End, BUA. Chief Gary Moore is on the way here on a Big Blewing Sider six thirty say welcome back to the Big Bluins Cider. It is Wednesday, which means we are visiting with unforgettable guard Shawn Woods. His jersey hangs in the rafters of Rupp and Sean. You were back in Memorial Coliseum now Historic Memorial Coliseum for pro Day and first of all, what did you think of the renovations because you spent many many hours there practicing.
Man, it looks great. You know. I was sitting there with Rock Oliver and we would just talk about old times about where the weight room used to be. Even before he got there. You know, men'som men's and women's basketball, we had to be lift weights the little waits that we had underneath the bleaches over there in the corner. And then when coach Latino rock Them came they renovated a little bit and added a really state of the arts at the time weight room with glass windows that
can look outside to the gym. I think that was built in like nineteen nineteen ninety or something like that, and now that's completely gone, and you know it looks like, you know, a great venue, you know what I mean, it's a great college venue. Unfortunately, you know, it doesn't hold enough to hold Kentucky basketball games, but man, it would be a great home court advantage to play in that little cracker box. It's a cracker box now, but it wasn't fact then.
Well, it will be for the women and for women's volleyball. Of course. You bring up a couple of interesting points. Number one, how did you feel about weightlifting when you got to college? Had you done much in high school? And then what kind of a challenge was that for you?
Well, we lifted in high school a little bit, you know what I mean. And you know our school where I went, you know, it was really big in football. It was great to audition great wrestling tradition, any basketball tradition, So weightlifting was was not foreign to me when I got here. It was just it became more intense when you ran into to Etcherberry. If everybody remembers him, one of the best strength coaches of all time, and I
was fortunate enough for him to touch me. And then Rock Oliver came and shoot, he blew it out of the water. I mean, he's the best that they ever done it.
I was going to ask you tell me about your relationship with Rock. Were you guys afraid of him? Intimidated by him? Because I'm certain it can be kind of a scary guy.
We were intimidated big time. You know. Rock had a great, you know, jolly personality, but man, he could get you going. And he was a guy that you know, I mean, you don't want to mess around with you strictly business. And I say all the time that Rock Oliver was Coach Patino's best assistant, and Coach Patino had probably the best coaching staff in America during that time.
Yeah, no, you look at his coach. That was an all star coaching staff, wasn't it.
Oh, no doubt about it, you know, and nobody knew it. You know, who would have thought Billy Diving as a young grad assistant or whatever he he you know, to be a be where he is coaching the Chicago Boys making six million the year. Probably the smartest person in that bunch was Herb Sinde. Yeah yeah, but the most level headed, the smooth coach was Ralph Willard.
Why do you say that?
Because he was. I mean, the coach is so smart. That's the reason why coach Patino always keeps trust him. When he was coaching that team, the Mexican team on the Puerto Rican team at one time. I mean coach coach, I mean didn't look what he did at at Western and tied with Holly nothing. I mean, he's really he's really really smart and intelligent guy. And he's a big time second guy. You know, he was Coach Patino's main man.
And and those two like Avid and Stello. You know, the personality was so different coaches this raging guy and Ralph was this laid back guy that still got his point across Yeah, and then you throw Tubby Smith in there. Man. You know, now you've add some flavor. Probably you know, it comes back and wins the National Championship and going to be, you know, a Hall of Fame coach. So when you got three Hall of famers for sure in that bunch, yeah, you know, I think Billy Donovan eventionally
be all Hall of Famer. Yeah, I definitely think Tubby Smith should be a Hall of Famer. But the two most underrated guys on that staff was Ralph Willard and Hurts And that interesting.
You as a head coach have put together more than one coaching staff. What goes into that, Sean, You.
Got to have guys that can trust, that you can trust, first of all. Second of all, you want some guys that know that can bring something to the table. You know, you need some guys that can go out and recruit. Of course, you know that can go beat the bushes and get but it's still up to you to close as a head coach. But you just want some guys that you know what I mean, that that that that have the same passion and desire and work ethic that you have of being great.
Can you explain the loyalty part you were talking about. You have to have people you can trust. Uh. And yet you see some coaches who hire people that have never worked with them, other people they'll bring from a previous job or somebody they've worked with before. You know, I mean, are you rolling the dice on a new person or is it too easy to surround yourself with people you already know?
Well, I don't say it's too easy, but sometimes you know, when you're successful, you've had somebody has around you already. Yeah, you know that you can trust, has helped you get where you are, and there's a bond and an expectation and and the know all you know those guys that they know you, they know what makes you take they know they know the system, and they could get across to the players. You don't want a coach as a
point at least resistance. And what I mean by that is he doesn't like working for you because X, Y and Z, And then a player is upset because of X, Y and Z, and then he sides with the player. That happens a lot, or he sides with the parents, or he's just jealous, or he's using you to get a job. And sometimes you got guys that are out there that are backstabbing you, going to the a D, letting the a D know what's going on in camp, you know, from a negative standpoint, just trying to you know,
offset to better themselves and position themselves. And that happens, and you know, it's tough. And then sometimes you take a job to where, you know, especially small jobs, which
will happen to me. You know, I was forced to keep the staff that was already there, which wasn't good, which was a resident for disaster, so you know, and and sometimes you know, you see coaches now who've been successful for a long time and had a lot of guys, you know, had guys that they either played for them or work for them for a long time, and then all of a sudden they go off the beating path and they start getting these guys they think they got players,
and you just hired a guy because he has a player. Yeah, well that's when things start to go wrong.
Yeah, And that happens too, doesn't it Probably more.
Than people a lot. It happens a lot.
Yeah. Is it an unpleasant procedure experience? I mean, you know, how did you feel when you I mean, I know, you're you're always happy to to get a head coaching job, but now you've got to turn around and hire a staff. Was it a burden?
It is, Well, it's a burden. It's not a burden. But you just got to make sure that she got the right guys around you. Yeah, you know, you show me a successful program. You know, I'll show you that. You know, it's either you have a staff that's been around you for a long time, or you're you're hiring guys that played for you.
You know.
It's it's it's it's it's it's real different, you know, and it's it can get sticky, you know, it can get tricky. Uh, And it's unfortunate that you have people that are unloyal like that and you're giving them an opportunity.
I know you went to practices a lot when Cali Perry was here. I'm assuming you're hoping to do that with Mark Pope to drop in every now and then. And I was there the other day prior to pro day, a lot of input around the court, around the gym from the assistant coaches with Cali Perry. All of that happened pre practice, but once it began, his was the only voice. How are you when you work practices?
No, I gave my guy free rain, you know, because I want everybody engaged. You know, I want my practice to be high octane, high enthusiasm, you know, high energy. So you know, if you if you're the only one who's the rye rock guy and the other coaches that's standing around just watching, now, that's that's not a good look. You know. I want everybody engaged and excited and enthusiastic, you know, all for the same common goal and what gets you through practice, especially when you're doing the same
thing repetitiously over and over again. To be great at it, you got to make it exciting. You know, your atmosphere's got to be very, very enthusiastic, and that's what gets you through. And you know, some people don't. You know, you hear one voice, and that voice is positive and negative, and sometimes you just start to tune them out.
Sean Woods, my guest, the Unforgettable Guard is Jersey Hangs, inter Raptors of rupp. But we'll come back and talk about UK Pro Day in just a minute. Here on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Sean Woods. We do that each and every Wednesday, the Unforgettable Guard and we talked a little bit about coaching in general. And you were at Pro Day. You got a chance to take a peek at Mark Pope's ball club. And really Pro Day was basically a practice
just in front of a lot of scouts. Did anything in particular jump out at you.
No, not really, you know, I just thought it was a typical practice, you know, not a lot of things for the pros to see. As far as you know, what Kyle would do is and most other guys would do if you did have significant, highly projected pro prospects on your team, you know, you would do a couple of things to show scouts. You know, I thought, Mark, did you know what he does is you know they're going to hang their head on shooting basketball, so that
you saw a lot of shooting more soon than anything else. Yeah, And that's that's about it for right now, for what I can tell you know what I mean, you know, he that's what he's going to hang his head on, and that's who he is. And when you go to his practices, you know it's more offense, it's more generated on you know, making you know, making shots more than anything else. So you know that that that's what I gathered from it.
You know, I saw a lot of people on Twitter raving about Mark Pope's offense, and I gotta thank Sean. It was simply because maybe I'm oversimplifying, but because they put up so many shots, people love that. Uh, you know, but they got to go in, don't they. Obviously you got.
To have a physical presence, and you've got to have some great defense, and you gotta be physical, and you've got to be tenacious, you know, And so it's going to be interesting, you know for me. You know, I'm I'm, I'm I'm you know, I'm all four putting up threes. But my coaching style and his coaching style is is quite different. You know, I played fast, and you know, we try to have a seventy five eighty points a game.
But you gotta play defense, and you gotta have some physicality down there from you know, you gotta have an inside presence, and I thought last year with Cal that was a major, major, major downfall with had no physicality inside. And when you don't have any physicality inside, whether offensively going to get your bucket or defensively protecting the basket. You're gonna struggle. I don't care how good your offense is.
And it showed, and it put a lot more pressure on those young guards last year because they had to do so much, because they were so so weak and seeing on the interior.
Yeah, and I have to admit that all of us, anybody and including myself, and I went up to Toronto and watched this team, and I dismissed the lack of interior presence by saying, well, when the Biggs get here, they'll be different defensively. They remember they were missing all three And I was totally wrong, exactly to your point. There was just never a consistent presence down there. One guy, two guys, three guys. No rim protector. And Kentucky was a finesse team last year, wasn't it.
They were? And I thought they got worse when the Bigs came back because you had to play them, but they gave you no physical presence. I thought that the kid from West Virginia, you know, when he was had to play the four and the five, a dude brought a physical presence that did the other The real true Bigs didn't bring. So I thought they got weaker once those bigs came back because you played them, but they were like tissue paper. You know, none of them were
strong enough. You know, you had Big Z coming from overseas, hadn't played all year and kept getting sick, kept losing weight, never could get his strength. You know, you had the other two guys that were just you know, one one just didn't have a lot of experience, but he did bring some some tenasty from a shot blocking standpoint. But the kids from New Jersey just couldn't get it going. I mean he realized that, hey, you know, this game
is more physical than I thought. Yeah, and I thought he you know, he's the one who had, you know, had a hard time find his way.
One of the observation, well I saw it more than once, was that Pope has got a lot of talented players, but nobody who's really elite. You know, probably won't be a lottery pick or something like that.
Did you agree with that, Oh, no doubt about it. The landscape looks totally different. You know, you don't have great playmakers. You know, you don't have pros that can go make plays. You know, he's going to really rely on his offense. His motion and hopefully you know, he could shoot the basketball good enough to give him a chance. You know, that's why recruiting is so so important in the game. You know, you got to have players. I
don't care what type of coach you are. You know, you can have like that old saying, you can have you know, all the excellent those but if you don't have the right Jim and Jones, you're in trouble, that's right. And right now he's really got to get these guys.
That's why he's been so positive, you know, and getting these guys to just overachieve, you know, because it's going to take a team to that team to overachieve to really be successful or have the success that Kentechee fans are looking for what he starts to get, you know, being and it's his first year, so you know, this is his opportunity to really you know, get his his his his deal going as far as his system. And you know, unfortunately, after this year, he's got to start
all over again because he's got some transfers. But you know, it's fun to watch the offense, the movement and shooting threes. I just hope that somehow, some way that you know, they can become more physical and and be athletic enough to sustain the athleticism and the sec Have you.
Decided yet what you think this team can accomplish, because I've heard, you know, say, oh if we make the tournament, Oh if we get a win or two. But you know how Kentucky fans are shown the closer that season comes, the more excited they.
Get, no doubt about it. And my thing is this, you know, we live in a microwave society. Okay. One thing coach Patino had going for him when he first got him was we didn't lose a game at home, so and our games on the road were and televised, so he had a pass when when he got this play. In front of the fans, we won. They never saw
us lose. But on the road we didn't win a game, right, But it wasn't that big of a deal, you know what I'm saying, because you came home in front of your fans, you so everybody thought, you know, and we were successful and fun to watch and fun to watch. So I'm thinking and hoping that Mark has the same
type of impact. You know, when the games at home, you know, use the crowd and home court advantage to your advantage and then grow and try to steal one or two on the road, just overachieving out playing somebody you know, and with your scheme. But right now, you know what I'm saying, it's the positivity is what I'm very impressed with in his camp. You know, just just getting guys to just play as hard as they can for as long as they can and not kind of making it a drag. So, you know, we got to
shoot the ball well to be successful. I'll tell you that that's for sure.
Well, if you're going to shoot that many times, they better go in. I mean, you can be a volume shooter, as you well know, but you've got to make them as well. I mean, Aaron Rodgers threw the ball fifty four times in the Jets last lost, but only completed twenty nine of them. You know, you got to connect.
You remember the games we used to lose. We used to lose because we didn't shoot the ball. Well, yeah, you know, we didn't shoot the ball. Well, we were in trouble because we at that first year, we just didn't have enough. We didn't have enough interior. You know, we didn't have enough you know, taking you off the bounce, things like that. We got better at it because we
were young. We were sophomoors when coach came. So each year we got better that summer, we got better for that next year, and we won last you see that, you know. But but you know those guys that you know had to change ropes, John Pelfrey, who had played the big all his last in high school. Dan you know, never shot threes. You know, all these guys, you know, we didn't have any. You know, I was the only pretty much playmaker that could put the ball on the
on the floor. But you know that next year, everybody got better. Everybody got better. So now you know that's the difference with this makeup, well Mark post makeup compared to Coach Fatino's makeup. We all came back for that year and the year after these guys here they're gonna be gone. So now you got to start all over and hopefully you can get some freshmen that can help you. You know, you're gonna have to get a top twenty five freshman here there. You know, you got one, you know,
but you're gonna have to get a couple more. And then you got to wait from a recruiting standpoint, and see who's gonna get in the transfer portal. So now you know it's not You know you can get your freshmen already. Now you got to go get get some some some older kids. And where you're gonna get that from. You have no idea because the decision is just starting. You have no idea. Who's transformed?
He Sean Woods. He joined us every Wednesday, and watch for his jersey and the Raptors are up because RUP's going to be open soon for basketball. Thank you, coach, no poble, appreciate you. Dick West NBA Chief Gary Moore up next here on six thirty w LA P Welcome back to the Big Moonsider, joining us now as he does each and every Wednesday, schedule permitting. YEP is our Western Bureau Chief. Gary moorees at the other end of
I sixty four and keeps an eye on sports. He for the longest time was our West Coast Bureau chief and back in LA the Louisville area and joins us each week with a list of topics, knee complaints.
Two guys in a six pack, US two guys, six topics, six swigs as they were our first Swig Dick a big thanks first of all to kick off the show for the epic fail down in Music City by the Alabama Crimson Tide. Apparently the fan base has not been this upset since the cancelation of Here Comes Honey, Boo boo remember that years ago. Thanks for giving us Bama a heads up that UK's next opponent is not only not your father's Vanderbilt, they're not even your grandkids as Vandy.
They're actually pretty good. Apparently Cat's thirteen and a half point favorites. Though Saturday night you'll be down there on the field seven forty five. Also in the SEC network, It's still gonna be about UK's defense. We know that fifth overall in the nation, Cats are number six against the run, which is important because Vandy ran for one
hundred and sixty six yards against the Tide. Basically, the Cats have to pretty much duplicate that old mess game dominate, time of possession, limit, undersides offense the rest of the season.
Right, Oh yeah, interesting. You know I've talked about it all week, that the time of possession stat which sometimes you throw it out the window, like if they score on special teams or defense and the offense doesn't need to get back on the field. But interesting, it was almost a mirror image Vandy and Kentucky both forty to twenty. Yeah, time of possession and that's what it takes.
Absolutely hopefully that'll happen for our side on Saturday night, our second swig in the six packs. So Southern Methodist University, as you know, was here last weekend, reminded me of arguably their most popular alum, Dandy Don Meridith So who was so popular during his college day. You know this will be not in Dallas that SMU was nicknamed for a while Southern Meredith University. But I think back to what Don said he's miked up for NFL films when
he played for Dallas. He said some of the effective not now listen and listen good. We're going to run the ball, were going pass the ball. We're going right down this field and we're going to score, which is exactly what as Almama Mater did on the opening drive against Louisville, and again and again and again they basically
punked the cards on their own field. Louisville was so dominated on both sides of the ball that fans took to social media so vehemently that star defensive end Ashton Julyatti's mom had to post her own defense of her boy and the team, which is now, by the way, a seven and a half point favorite at Virginia. On Saturday, wdrb's Eric Crawford, who you know, wrote that now with players taking the dough, they're basically pro athletes got to
take the extra booze and criticism. So ask you, are college players now fair game for more intensified criticism like the pros?
Absolutely? Because my contention had always been, yeah, you can boo the coach, although it's hard to do that with that ripping the player, but yeah, the coaches paid big bucks and they're paid to take that kind of flack. That's what they sign up for. And it might have been naive of me to think that college kids should not be booed because they were not, But as you point out, now they are. Yeah. Not only are they accepting it and that's all well and good, they're going
after it, they're shopping for it. And now, of course you've got a rule that that was just handed down about the fact that the letter of intents going away in say schools have decided no more Loi financial aid and scholarship agreements are going to be used basically like contracts. So yeah, it's going to be more much more professional.
Third swig and a six pack.
But before those Cats and Cards games on Saturday Tomorrow night, big doings down in Bowling Green. My Hilltoppers with a new big red mascot eyes on the Helmet's got a big redout against oh to five UTEP. That'll be on ESPN U eight pm tomorrow night. Hey Toppers number five in the country, red zone defense. Just got to say back to Saturday in the matchup of the season since Bama and Georgia number two, Ohio State at number three Oregon such a huge game that ESPN Game Day is
going to be there in Eugene. By the way, if you haven't been to Eugene, great college town is one of my favorite college towns, like where they were last week for Berkeley. If I had seen Berkeley before Bowling Green, Dick, I would have sold it. I would have sold as much plasma as possible to get out there to enroll Bucks over the Ducks by three and a half. Currently, that's the latest line that's at seven thirty Saturday on NBC also on Saturday, Number one Texas, Number eighteen Oklahoma
the Red River rivalry in the Cotton Bowl. Number four Penn State now goes the other side of the country to reeling USC after the other LA school, UCLA travel forty five hundred miles to Penn State.
Last week.
You also got number nine, old mess at number thirteen LSU. I ask you though, on the first big game, can the quack attack fly past and Ohio State University.
No, here's what's gonna happen. And I'll start with your Hilltoppers, who, by the way, according to a way too soon prediction column in USA today, will win the conference and we'll play get sell your plasma now Gary in the Hawaii Bowl. So that's the prediction. Yeah, so you need to be ready for that. No, Western Kentucky will will win, Ohio State will destroy Oregon. That's going to be a blowout. Yeah,
Texas will spank Oklahoma. Okay, Penn State will spank Southern col I do believe Ole Miss LSU will be a good game. But those three high profile games that the network suits are drooling over right now, I don't think they'll be And I hope I'm wrong. I hope they're great games, but that's my prediction. I think they're gonna be buck kickings. And I think Texas and Ohio State will separate themselves. And as you said, Southern col is reeling. Penn State's probably better than we think it is.
Yeah, I'll keep those in mind.
Thanks buddy.
All Right, our fourth swig besides my toppers on a screen near you tomorrow night, my Seahawks Thursday Night Football three and a half Underbirds to the Niners, and I will tell you if Seattle plays like they did against the crummy Giants last Sunday, a team that defensive end for Seattle, Leonard Williams said we kind of underestimated, then the Hawks will lose by more than three and a half Tomorrow night. I guarantee you that after that. My top three to see in the NFL on Sunday check
these out. Washington Jade and Daniels Show at Baltimore with La Marvelous and the Ravens. You also got the Chargers at the Broncos Big AFC West game, and of course we got Detroit at Dallas Lions looking to avenge that Week seventeen loss. We all remember that controversial call against the Lions and left tackle Taylor Decker.
Who did report as eligible by God.
And you also have Monday night the Bills now two and a half point favorites at the Jets, who, as we know, fired Robert Sala yesterday, but at least they still have head coach.
Aaron Rodgers at that part.
Let's see.
You got the Lions, Ravens, Chargers favorites. Who you like in any of those?
Well, you know, it's interesting to me watching San Francisco crumble a little bit, and I do think Seattle bounces back. I think that's a well coached team with an underrated quarterback. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if Seattle pulls off that win and kind of shakes off what happened. And I'm not just saying I like Seattle as well. And by the way, I constantly remind you the play but play man is Steve rabel A, Proud Trinity Shamrock.
Great guy, too, great, does a great job.
I love this, it really does. It's a good dude. Played I think eight years at Georgia Tech and gave up his final year. He's gonna play one more year and They're like, we got this TV and radio gig over here. Okay, I'm good by football. So the next thing, you know, he's a media star. Boy. You talk about a Beltway rivalry, Washington and Baltimore means something. Now, yeh. With Jaden Daniels, you know, the most exciting young quarterback in the league, and and against Lamar Jackson, I think
that's gonna be a tight one. But I like, I do like Baltimore. That Detroit Dallas game. I think Detroit beats up Dallas in that game. I really do. I think Detroit it's like, we got something for you. I'm looking forward, not just because I hate Dallas, but yeah, that was that controversy that never went away. Bill's Jets. I don't think it matters right now who the head coach is. Their offense is so dysfunctional. Got a really great defense, but I could see that going down to
the last position. There's something wrong with the Bills right now.
Jets the worst rushing team in NFL.
By the way, well that's not.
Good fitthswig and a six pack dick. Having grown up here in the Commonwealth and living in LA for many years, as you know, I can tell you. There are many things the Kentucky Basketball and the Dodgers and their fan bases all have in common, sides wearing lovely shades of blue to the ball games. Both UK and the Dodgers have rich traditions of winning. As we know, UK has
eight national championships, Dodgers seven World Series. Played before yearly packed houses and showcase houses at that demanding fan bases that ultimately judge both on what they do in the postseason. For the Cats, what matters is March. The Dodgers, it's now October, and tonight the Dodgers are a game away from failing to reach the second round of the National League Playoffs again for the third agonizing year in a row. Lexington's Walker Bueller again last night had problems putting away
hitters with two strikes. His defense also let him down, and that six to five loss. Big bottom line on this Padre Superstar Tatis is out hitting Dodgers impending mvpd otani as are all the Padres for that matter, and they're out the Dodgers, who, by the way, are going to have the duct tape together. A bullpen game tonight, the most important game of the year, which is part
for their season, Dick. It feels like the Padres are not only on a roll to get to the NLCS, but probably to the World Series, probably will win it.
Which is the team of destiny? Is that the Padres, the Mets or the Tigers. That's why these playoffs are fun. Yeah, you know, people didn't expect these teams to make runs like that. You know, every year, Gary, and we talk about it as seams. Every year there's a great hitter, a hot hitter who suddenly buried in the postseason. But then we wisely talk about the fact that, well, great pitching takes care of great hitting.
You know.
So I am a bit surprised at Otani is struggling the way he is, But to your point, I'm more surprised that as a team, San Diego is out performing the Dodgers until you take a look, as you said, at that roster of pitchers, and that's what we all thought would carry the Dodgers this year. And nobody's Otto Tani whatever year like this, you know, but pitching was the thing. And you know, you can spend, spend, spend, but if you're not healthy, it doesn't matter.
Sixth and final swig let's talk a little bit aboot hockey. Last night, the NHL opened their twenty four to twenty five season, the first game ever for the Utah Hockey Club. That's their name, is no mascot or real name yet, and they won their first game over the Blackhawks five to two. They're in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake basically
inherited the Arizona Coyotes in April. They had one hundred and seventy three days, just one hundred and seventy three days, to re establish the organization, transport people, infrastructure, outfit the Delta Center for hockey as well as hoops, get sponsors, sell to the public, and oh yeah, take up a cool color scheme in uniforms and a team name. So it's just gonna be a hockey club for now. And they amazing to do all of that in one hundred
and seventy three days. Hopefully Utah won't use the same sports consultants that Washington used for a whole year plus. Then they finally came up with the perpetually lame commander's name. But they did do one thing really right. They made some concessions affordable, a lot of concessions hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, ice cream three bucks each, bottled water two bucks. Of course, you don't go to sporting events for health food, but you also don't want to get gorged while you're gouged.
While you're there as well, you can get gorged obviously. Kind of reminds me of when the Angels new owners cut their beer prices by almost fifty percent twenty years ago, which you, of all people remember and commented on still to this day.
Oh yeah, and the Falcons have done that as well.
They sell more beer.
Yeah, their concessions are quite affordable, even though you can't get Chick fil A in the stadium on Sunday. How about that. Gary Moore is our Western bureau chief. We'll come back with a couple of hot reads for Gary in just a minute here on the Big Bloon Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider,
talking with our Western Bureau chief, Gary Moore. Time for a couple of hot reds and Gary, you touched on this earlier Robert sala out as the head coach with the Jets Woody Johnson when he showed up for work. When Salad did said hit for a minute and it was all over. Yeah, speculation is that Aaron Rodgers fired him out la Lebron James. But what he Johnson swears that's not the case. But the word is Gary that Johnson wanted to sack or at least demote offensive coordinator
Nathaniel Hackett, and that's where it all came together. But keep in mind, Hackett is Rogers guy. So it's just I don't know if you call an experiment gone wrong, but it's a mess.
Supposedly, Rogers talked with Johnson after the London game, and he also talked with him and met with him Monday night, and Sally got it yesterday morning. His ID card didn't work when he's trying to open the door or something. But I hate when that happens. And but Johnson goes on and says, no, Aaron had nothing to do with the whole decision. Yeah, right, give us some of that. They give us some of that ocean side property in Arizona while you're at it.
Everybody who's working here, step forward, not so fast. Our second high read for Gary is the change of management in Cincinnati. Now we know that David Bell was out. In all fairness, he was dealt to losing hand, so many injuries to the pitching staff and another payroll being what it was. But now I think Gary, they make
a brilliant move. They go hire Tito Francona, who proved he could do it in Boston, proved he could do it in Cleveland, took a year off for his health and now has come back and he's one of those managers players love. But one of the reasons is he'll tell him what maybe they don't like, but what they need to hear. And somebody asked him after he was presented his jersey, which apparently is number seventy seven, can he win a World Series title in Cincinnati? Terry?
Can you win a championship in Cincinnati?
Well, I mean, I'm not going to sit here and proclaim anything because that's I'm not smart, but I'm not that dumb.
But that's our goal.
You better believe it. Man, we show up. We're going to show up, win and be the best team we can be. In god man, we're heck, yeah, we're going to try to win.
That's not a guarantee, but that's brilliant coach speak right there, isn't it. Yeah, We're going to try to win, of course.
Yeah, I've got a couple of rings here that you might be interested in what looking at very closely, especially the two thousand and four one which brought people. Look at the context of the two thousand and four Red Sox win. How many years jinks jinks, jinks every all those years people didn't think in their lifetime. You know, people in the whole New England area, especially Boston Wept who'd been Red Sox fans for years.
He's a good guy.
And look, Bruce Bochie came back and he's three years older than Terry Yep. Came back and for the same reasons that he kind of left. There was a management change in in San Francisco as well, but he had some health issues, came back.
And can do it.
I'm just wondering if the Cardinals now get rid of Ali and get Larusa back in the dugout, maybe maybe not.
You can keep him awake during the game, it might help. Well.
Yeah.
Yeah, the Red Sox eighty six year drought ended, thanks in large part to Tito. Reds have only been without for what thirty odd years. That ain't nothing compared to what was going on in New England. Yeah.
I was there for that two thousand and four coronation there at Bush Stadium when they start up the Cardinals. I mean, you just knew that you're in the statey like, nah, this, this ain't going to happen. There's a mojo going on over there in that visiting.
Dug out well after they came back against the Yankees. The way they did it was it was destined.
I think with that Dave Roberts guy who stole second Gee, what's he doing nowadays? HU, hope he's not going to be an unemployment line.
Next year to say, I know he's pulling his hair out. Gary mars Our, West End Bureau Chief. Find him on Twitter at at nine to.
Five five Gary, where you're also located at.
At Big Boon Cider one.
Have a good weekend you too, my friend go toppers and cats.
Always fun talking to Gary. Enjoy that every week. And I did want to come back to the story about the NLI going away. The INSA Division one council and that's how it works. I keep trying to hammer that into everybody. It's not this one small group of people deciding everything for the NSA. It's the member institutions. They nominate and elect people on committees and councils, men and
women from various universities and colleges. And the council has approved, with membership on board, the elimination of the NLI program national Letter of Intent. So that's all with the backdrop of that lawsuit that is going to allow schools to pay athletes as a group more than twenty million dollars annually, and so they've got to rethink the amateurism rules. Obviously that's going away quite frankly. The NLI program started in sixty four to kind of protect the schools from poaching.
They were proaching each other's players. A guy would agree to play one school, next thing you know, he's planned somewhere else. And let's face it, they were being bribed oftentimes. But now financial aid and scholarship agreement are expected to be used. They are not going to entirely ditch the NLI program, though there will be recruiting rules around the program still in place. And you might think right now
there aren't any rules in place, but there are. Why Well, because anytime you've got competition, you're going to have people who want to cheat. And I can tell you as coaches want structure. They want calendars that are not nearly as broad as they are now, so they won't be expected to go out on the recruiting trail because everybody else is. They want those windows to be shut down a little bit more. But they want rules they can all handle. And this is a big step today, So
keep an eye. Will try to keep you up to date on this as well, but it is an historic decision by the NCAA. Thanks to Sean Woods, Chris Doraan to Gary Moore, thanks to you for listening back again tomorrow night.
That's it.
Good night from the garage in Lexington.
The heroes of the sixties, like the game itself, seem larger than life size.
Listen to me and listen good. This is what we're gonna do.
We're gonna run the ball, we're gonna pass the ball, we're gonna ride down this field and we're gonna score.
Man say