Welcome to the Big Blue and Sider Dick Gabriel with you on a Tuesday edition of our program. And this is a weird, weird week after a game that should have seen the Wildcats four and two. Now they're three and three at the loss to Vanderbilt, heading down to Florida, and so we will probably talk more in the next forty eight to seventy two hours about Vandy unfortunately, then Florida. That's why it works, seems like we talk more about the losses than the wins and looking ahead. But it
was just so bizarre. You've heard Mark Stoops talk about it. We're going to talk about it tonight with John Hale of The Hair of Leader, and we'll hear a little bit from John Wong, Wong's Whinings blogger who covers the Wildcats. Also talk Kentucky basketball. My buddy Mike Sappo's coming up, a UK basketball super fan, and we call him a New York City Bureau chief because he lives in New York. We're going to ask him about the Karl Anthony Towns
Julius Randall trade. But it's just so odd to see this team excel both against Georgia and Ole Miss and then flop against Vanderbilt. Played well, but you know the story about all the penalties. So it's just it's just been a weird season so far, going back to the terrible loss to South Carolina. Now you know about Mark Stoop's record of late in SEC games, in home games, in games after buys and Brett McMurphy on Twitter tweeted this records in the last thirteen games for the following coaches,
Mac Brown of North Carolina, Sunny Dykes of TCU. These are big name coaches. Hugh Freese at Auburn, which is not a great team, Lance Lightpol at Kansas, who has led to Jayhawks to back to back Bowl games, has a huge contract now, Billy Napier at Florida coming up, Lincoln Riley Southern col Dion Sanders Colorado, Scott Saderfield. Say what you will about him at Louisville, but now he's at Cincinnati, and of course Mark Stoops. They're all in their last thirteen games five and eight, every one of
these guys five and eight. I don't know if that says more about the portal and the NIL or scheduling, or I don't know what it says, but it's just weird, and it seems like anymore now there's more parody, and again with players on the move, we shouldn't be surprised at anything that happens. I honestly thought Ohio State would go out and clobber Oregon. But Oregon beat the Buckeyes. And by the way, if you're following that story, and it's a great one, Oregon, with some chicanery at the end,
ran a twelfth man onto the field. Jepikoro was talking about this, and of course, being an Ohio State fan, he would But there were twelve seconds left. Oregon's up thirty two to thirty one. Ohio State's got time for a couple of plays trying to drive to field goal range, and in that final drive, Oregon runs a twelfth man onto the field, and Dan Lanning, the coach, confirmed that
was intentional. They called time out and then at the last second ran another defensive back on the field that forced the Ohio State quarterback to throw in the other direction to a guy who was covered by another corner incomplete. Four seconds run off the clock and now flags fly right. So Ohio State gets five yards but loses four seconds essentially loses a play. Now, I guess there were ten
seconds left. Now there's only six seconds left, and you may have seen the video, but Will Howard the quarterback takes off running and slides as the clock expires, and that was it Ohio State with no shot. This was brilliant. This was bending rules. Are breaking them if you will to make it work for you. Reason being it was a penalty called during a live play. There was no runoff. I gotta think that's going to lead to a change in the way the rules are executed because it helped
or again by breaking a rule. And as Lanning said, we practice a lot of situations like this. Some of them never come up, and some do. But that was a brilliant piece of trickery. Ohio State's still in the running for a national title, may win it yet, but that was actually pretty cool when you think about it, and a shutdown in my theory that Ohio State was going to win and win big. As for Kentucky, look,
Vandy's better than it has been in the past. It's already proven that, but I think Kentucky's better And Stoop's talked about this at his news conference on the radio lapp night if not for its own mistakes, I think Kentucky I say it, he didn't, but Kentucky wins that game. But Kentucky's not good enough this team, in particular to overcome all the mistakes. They could overcome some of them. Van the overcame penalties and mistakes and won the game. Kentucky just made more mistakes.
As far as we go, you know, there's a very thin line between success and failure, and you know, we are definitely shooting ourselves in the foot in a game like that where you have seven possessions. I think we all myself, including during the game and certainly the last time I spoke with you, you feel the frustration, you feel you know so many motions, and then you look at it and you look at that then line that
I'm talking about. It's crazy because you feel like offensively, you know we're falling short, and we are, but it's like, you know, you look at the seven possessions and we have it in our hands with every opportunity to score on five.
And that's what drove me nuts. Every time they got the ball at that and it looked like they were going to score on every possession and they did on what three, but should have scored a lot more. You know, missed out on a TD, then missed out on a field goal. That was a difference in the game. This team's not good enough to make mistakes like that, obviously. And if they play clean, We've said it many many times, play clean football, you got a shot of winning. That's
going to be the case with Florida coming up. So we'll talk more about that as the week goes on. Yankees win last night, Mets win last night. They're one and one with the Dodgers. Yankees lead one. Nothing could be a subway series. What's cool is on this day in history, Kirk Gibson hit that home run for the Dodgers against the A's in the eight eight World Series. And I'm going to share Vin Scully's call. That's the famous call. It was on TV, but I'm gonna play
the radio call as well. I know I'm biased toward radio, but here's Vin Scully's call a Kirk Gibson's historic home run. But the game right now is that the play.
High fine in the right po.
She is gone. And then he does what we call layout, which means shut up and let the crowd. Let the pictures and the crowd noise tell the story. And he does a great job here in the year that they.
Has been sire im prod Liam, impossible has happened.
And because that's where you sail. Gibson, who was hurt, could barely run limping to home play being mobbed by his teammates. Well on radio side, Don Drysdale made the call because Scully worked primarily TV at that point. Drysdell worked with a guy named Ross Porter and was Don Drysdale, the former pitching great for LA. He was behind the mic when Kirk Gibson went yard.
All the man's on their leading man. If there was ever a prippent the casey at the bat, it would have to.
Be the ninth inning true.
Out, the dying run a board, the winning run at the place, the bottom of the ninth inning, and good Gibson standing at the place.
I'm cutting out a little bit here, but I wanted the casey at the bat reference to be in there. But he talked about how Gibson stepped out kind of playing cat and mouse with Dennis Eckersley, maybe at the time, the pre eminent relief pitcher in the game, and Gibson touches his helmet as he always does, and then they squared off Anckersley.
Working out of this bet. Here's a three two pitch and a drive at the right tail way back this bof.
And then Drysdale lays out, and in fact, he lay out longer than Scully did. He shut up for like twenty seven to thirty seconds before he finally jumped back on the mic. I'm sure he just turned his mic off and sat back and watched, and then he finally came back and kind of wrapped up the call in a great, great way.
This proud love that out damn coming in the end, and this time Mighty Kase did not strike out.
I love both of them, but it's been a while since I heard Don Drysdale with the radio call. Courtesy of the Dodgers Network of Kirk Gibson's home run. I was anchoring twenty seven Sports Spectrum that night, our our magazine show, and I was on the anchored US. We were on the air when that happened. It was so late, and Kayline shouts, our sports videographer came running downstairs with a script that said, you aren't going to believe this, and I called the Highlight cold and it was fantastic,
big night for excat Ray Davis. That's next on six thirty Wlap Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider coming up in a few minutes, John Hale of The Herald Leader. Of course we'll talk Kentucky football with us our number two. We're gonna talk to Kentucky football and basketball with John Wong, Doctor John Wong, the blogger Wong's Whinings. He's also covering the Bengals and did the double header, actually a triple header over the weekend madness Kentucky football.
Then he flew to New York to cover the Bengals and the Giants. So John's been a busy man. But before we talked to John in our number two, we will also talk to somebody in New York and that's our New York City Bureau chief, Mike Seposnik. He's a podcaster. He goes by Mike Saffoy. He's a really interesting and entertaining podcast. He is a Kentucky super fan. He's a nut when it comes to UK basketball. Also the Yankees and the Knicks who now have Karl Anthony Towns and
his real job. Mike is a New York City police officer, but flirting with retirement, flirting with moving to Lexington, but has been a UK fan since he was a young kid and fell in love with that Kentucky team that nearly upset Duke in the nca Tournament and that by Hooker by Crook. As how he befriended or was befriended by Cameron Mills. It's a long story, but that's how
I met Mike through Cameron. So anyhow, Mike's gonna come up with us and talk about the Karl Anthony Towns trade for Julius Randall, another former Wildcat, and we'll get his thoughts on Mark Pope as well. If you stayed up late last night, way late, you may have seen this one. If not, that's why I'm sharing it because I did not. I heard it and saw it after the fact. But one of the stars of Buffalo's win over to New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers was Ray Davis.
I watched the game and it was pretty evident that James Cook, their lead running back, was injured, because Ray Davis got a majority of the carries and had a great game and was one of the big reasons that Buffalo was able to knock off the Jets in the meadowlands of whatever they call it now. But Ray had a heck of a game. A typical game, I might point out ninety seven yards on twenty carries, but caught three passes for fifty five yards. So you look at it,
that's what one hundred and fifty three yards. First rookie to lead the Bills in rushing and receiving yards in the same game since nineteen eighty six. You know his story, Temple, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, thousand yard rushing each time. His backstory, of course about being part of the foster care system swept up in it. But he merged literally victorious, and now after becoming a fourth round pick of the Bills, had a great game.
And afterwards he was the guest interview on site for ESPN Scott Van Pelt, so you can hear what they call the Bulls Mafia, the equivalent of the BBN, the Bill's mafia in the background. As former Wildcat and Commodore and Owl now Buffalo Bill Ray Davis spoke on ESPN late last night early this morning.
There's a saying in any level of sports.
Next man up.
You were the man tonight to step up. The mentality you brought to this stage tonight, how would you describe it?
You know, it was about just again, like you said, next man, not mentality. For me, it was about just maybe, sure I do what I gotta do.
We know James is so exposed.
He's a great running back, so we knew that we got to still push the needle.
We gotta make sure that.
We stay in the right position to succeed.
And when he got a cast like that.
Josh, the offensive line, everybody doing their job.
I don't succeed without them.
I thought it was interesting from the jump, it was like, let's saddle this young man up and ride, and you come out in that first touchdown drive and Josh said, he stole the touchdown from you. He kind of hawked it in the end right from the one, but it was clear that they were going to put the ball in your hands. How does that to fuel your confidence when they have that much trust?
To me, it's about the preparation throughout the week.
You know, again, my coaches, you know, coach, skip the guys in a room. Just again, keep my head up, keep my spirits up, telling me and just play my game, understanding that things.
May not hit perfectly.
But again, as time goes on, those two to three, four or five yard runs gonna turn into big chunks an explosive places.
That was about understanding that I don't got to get the home run right away, right by.
Just playing your game and understand it's gonna be a slow grind and they not gonna.
Want to tackle them at the end of the night.
To get the win, that's the most important.
But for you personally to contribute as you did over one hundred and fifty total yards, how do you describe the satisfaction of being able to deliver the way you did under the rightest lights here just outside New York City.
You know, it's a great opportunity.
You never want to get the opportunity when a guy goes down, right, But at the end of the day, you got to be able to step up. And you know, I don't want to be complacent and accept what happened today.
I want to keep getting better.
I want to keep understanding the things I need to get better at I can fix next week or whenever my opportunity comes again. Go out there and just present it the same round presented today.
You're new to this whole scene, but as best as you can describe for me what Bill's Mafia's support is like to come down here. You're far from Western.
New York, but you feel right at home.
And we got the best fans in the world. I mean again, they travel, they show up no matter where it is. They understand that being being a part of the mafia something great, it's special.
And they want to say something special. We got some special guys. Ray Davis, who got his degree actually from Vanderbilt and majored in communications, and you heard it. That was a great interview. You can doll and he wants to do this or that, you know, sportscasting, broadcasting when
he's when he's done playing. But that took me back to the first time we got a chance to talk to Ray when he was a Kentucky Wildcat after he transferred in in the spring, and he was just I don't want to say mesmerizing, but there are some news conferences when when guys get up and talk, and usually it's a player coaches you expected from And Ray's got
these kind of piercing eyes. I think they may be blue but anyhow, he just grabs your attention and was such a gifted speaker and just owned it and said great things including I'm not Benny Snell, I'm not Chris Rodriguez, I'm gonna be Ray Davis. And he basically said, you know, and we'll see what happens. Well, you saw it happen, and the Buffalo Bills saw it as well, and they
liked it. But that's what I was thinking on, and I think his very first game, if I recall, he was our player of the game, so I had a chance to sit down and talk one on one with him after the game. I also got to thinking about all the former Kentucky Wildcats who have been a part of the Buffalo Bills, and one of them was a guy you might not know the name. If you've been watching Kentucky football for a while, you know this one, but Willie Grant Willy was a center. We went by
will here. I guess his buddy's called him Willie. But he was a center and played behind David Hopewell, and David got injured, will went in and basically while he pipped him. I don't know if David could have come back anyway, but Will Grant was so good and David was good too, But Will often clashed with fran Cursey and that's why he didn't get as much clock as he might have early. But he went on to a
long career with the Bills. Spent eight years in Buffalo, then spent the nineteen eighty six season in Seattle with the Seahawks, came back played his last year with the Bills. This was after being a tenth round draft pick in nineteen seventy eight, and from his third year on he started played between Reggie McKenzie and Conrad Dobler. How about that for some names. But he was a starter for
five years and really good player. But Kentucky fans, you know, you don't hear much about guys who played the old line back in the late seventies and early eighties year But Art still Art played for Buffalo after he played in Kansas City. But Mike Edwards is playing for the Bills right now. I wasn't aware of that. And who else played for Buffalo? Herv Goodie from Newport, Kentucky played for the Wildcats back in the sixties and had a
long NFL career. Played for the Cardinals for doing eleven or twelve years, spent a year in Buffalo, finished up with the Miami Dolphins. I was not on there. Yeah, he was actually on their Super Bowl team super Bowl eight. So you know there have been Wildcats who have gone on to Buffalo and done good things. And Ray Davis, who looks like is on his way when we come back.
John Halo the Hero Leader here on six thirty WAP, welcome back to the Big Bluing Sider, joining us now as a longtime friend of the show and a veteran of the UKB John the Herald Leader and John, I guess people have scratched their heads now for seventy two hours. How in the world can this happen to a Kentucky team? And I don't know if we're any closer to having answers than we were in the past. What do you think?
No, it's it's confusing for sure. I will say when I left, when I was leaving Oxford after that Ole Miss game, I said to a couple of people, They're gonna lose to Vanderbilt now, like that would be the most Kentucky thing ever. But I had talked myself out of that scenario based on the way the buye we played out when that when Vanderbilt beats Alabama, when they're getting a week full of attention and everybody in the national media is there's the Darlings and Diego Poppy and
all that. Okay, well, now there's no chance that Kentucky's going to have a letdown. They're going to use all that as motivation. They're going to say, we just beat a top ten team and everybody already forgot about us. And then to come out the way they played, to see so many of those same issues from the South Carolina performance hot back up, it just felt like this
team cannot deal with success. I mean from Dayton like, even when they played well in Georgia and they played well and they wanted Ole miss and they live out Ohio, all of that was built off the back of like proving that that South Carolina game was a fluke and
everybody who said their season was over over wrong. But then as soon as it got to the point where everybody was back on the bandwagon, it feels like they just reverted back to all those bad habits, which is a very concerning trend for Mark Soups in this program. Given the way the last couple of seasons.
Gone to me, What was even more maddening, John, was that when you subtract the penalties, as you can do post, they played fairly well. They moved the ball on offense and they protected it. They only gave up twenty to a team that scored forty on Alabama, Diego Pavia hit him for a couple of big plays, but they did a decent job containing him. That just added to the frustration, didn't it.
Yeah.
Absolutely. I mean, even like if you only take the one possison where they got down to the sixth inch line or whatever, and you get a touchdown there, it's a tie game at the end of the game, and so then you leave four points off the board in terms of you mess up the field goal there and
then you miss an extra point. If you get those four points, then you're only playing the last possession, is totally different because you're just trying in the field goal range at very least, and so like, it was just so close to going the other way. I mean, it did feel like they were out playing bank about much of it other than their self inflected mistakes. But at this point through six games, like that is a trend.
I know, they keep bringing up the idea of like they were the least penalized team in the SEC going into it, which is true, and we saw in that
three game stretch they were better at that. But that's that's a little bit skewed because they only played half a game in the opener, and so like all of these, like counting stats are a little messed up pods the dad you look at them, but we know that when they have struggled, it has been many of these same issues, just like in South Carolina, and so like the disciplined part of this, which is why you know, it's interesting.
After the South Carolina game, Mark Stoops was so negative and the post game, and then when he came out Monday, he made sure to start by saying, like, I know I questioned them response and everything, but like after watching the film, it wasn't that they weren't playing hard, they just weren't disciplined. So he kind of walked back on that. But yesterday is press conference, there was no walking back
from anything. He was just as mad as he was Saturday night, if not matter, and so like it's clear he's frustrated with this message not getting through to guys.
And the bizarre stat win loss at home, wind loss after buys. I've never seen anything like it, and I don't think they're any closer to figuring that out either, you know.
No, And that's part of that's part of the big problem right now, is because like winning an old mess got them a lot of good favor from the fan base, and obviously everybody showed out and had an environment for Vanderbilt Kentucky game we're not used to seeing. But the fact that you're so bad at home. They're two and ten in their last twelve games at twelve SEC games at home, They've lost six straight SEC games in Kroger Field. Like there's no quicker way to get people to check
out them. Having them spend a ton of money to show up and park and stand in concession lines and bathroom lines and all that, and then never see them win this person and like that is a huge problem for this team right now and in many years, Like
I mean, we've seen stretches looking down. He's not get at home just because they were not very good overall, and you could you could ride right off, I say, oh, in those odd years or whatever, they get Florida and Tennessee and Georgia home or whatever happened to be well, like in that ten game or that team game. Sure they've lost to South Carolina twice, some VANDBIL twice at home. Like it's not like they're only losing to the best
teams in the SEC at home. And I think that speaks to the discipline part of this, Like there's clearly something happening. And Mark Sup you know, brought it up after the game, like are you getting too many ticket requests? There are too many distractions? Is all of this other stuff that's part of college football now, like weighing on you when you're home and have accessed all these people
like they have not. They've got to figure that out if there's any chance for them to be relevant in this new college football landscape.
And given the schedule that lies, it's hard now, I think to figure out what lies After the South Carolina game, we were thinking, God, are they going to win three or four? Then after they beat Ole Miss, you're thinking, well, you know, and now you're right back to wondering what lies ahead for this team?
Yeah, I mean I know. John clay colleague wrote this week he doesn't think they're going to make a bowl game now, which is understandable. You've got to find three wins among Florida, Auburn, Murray State, which you obviously still put in the win column, and Louisville. It's even if you write off Fitnessee and Texas on the road, and you know that's that's a difficult, you know, thing to
predict now, given how widely variant the performances being. For the same reason, I walked away from Oxford and thought, you know, they might lose the Vanderbilt. It wouldn't shock me if they go out and win it at Florida this week. And obviously Florida is not great. They're breaking in a new quarterback. Kentucky's been very good in that series recently, they played better on the road. All those
things are working in their favor. Now they have that chip on their shoulder again after everybody's saying they're toast. That wouldn't shock me. But I also don't think to me, he certainly can't count on it. We know that both Ford to this week, Auburn next week, both those teams are going to be desperate to also, you know, kind of be folded fighting for Bowl eligibility and see Kentucky as vulnerable. This is a bad spot to be in.
I mean, it's crazy how we can go from you know, two weeks ago thinking maybe they could get back in the playoff conversation to now thinking, oh, maybe they're not going to make a bowl game. But that just seems like where this team is.
Yeah, you know, and it's it's just a different day and age in college football. You wonder about the effect of nil money, and you know, with so many people changing their roster, so many teams changing dramatically, it's hard to get a handle on any team. Really.
Yeah, that that's I think kind of the heart of it. Like I have been operating under this theory the last couple of years that they haven't met Mark Dukes and his staff and Kentucky have just not figured out the way yet to duplicate that same culture that was so successful from you know, twenty sixteen to twenty twenty one roughly, and this il transfer portal are like having you know, so many transfers were higher who haven't been here for three or four years learning all these lessons, Like it's
harder to duplicate that same culture, and like that's part of this, like you know, weird losses thing. I asked Mark that yesterday Monday at his press conference, the last question, and he and he said, yeah, I think it is harder in this era with all the things. And then he stopped himself because he didn't want to go. He didn't want to sound like he was complaining, which we know that it is not popular among fans to hear coaches complain about the situation right now, but it is
part of it. But then I also take a step back and say, like, how much of this is revisionist history because you look at some of their like even their good teams, like obviously they weren't very good from twenty thirteen to twenty fifteen, and then twenty sixteen they break through. But that year they you know, lost this other miss and you know, got blown out Florida and almost lost in Mexico State. And then you know, twenty eighteen their best team that they've had here man, the
best team in fifty years. In the program lays an egg at Tennessee like a bad Tennessee team a week after they had to play for an SEC's title. In twenty twenty one, they won. They won ten games and played terrible at Mississippi State and almost lost Chattanooga. Like these games have been there even before the portal, in the transfer era. So I think part of it too, is like they have raised the expectations to a point
where you just don't write those performances off anymore. Where you're when you're trying to take that next step, you can't do it. I mean, you can have these one or two games a year where you lay an egg and still make it to a bowl game, but nobody's happy with just make it the bowl games anymore, and so that kind of increases the heat on these performances they have.
Yeah, it just seemed like no matter the season, You're right, there was one they should not lose. And it's just I don't know what it is, because it's almost schizophrenic. They look like a different team from one week to the next. And you can blame coaches, you can blame players. I suspect it's a combination of both.
You know, yeah, absolutely, and you know part of it. We also have to acknowledge, like we've watched Kentucky week and so we're hyper aware there issues and they're not the only team in the country who had the issues outside of the top three or four teams in the country, Like everybody you know tends to have some of these games, like even you know part of like Alabama lose Nick Saban and they go out with to Vanderbilt. Like it just seems to be the landscape of college football right now.
But for a program that is so desperate, in a fan base that's so desperate to be relevant and to take that next step in, the pressure is just so much on And you know, Mark Stoops signed his last contract extension the day before they lost to Vanderbilt in twenty twenty at home, and since then they have a losing record. Like that's that when you pay your coach,
he's a top ten paid coach in the country. You're paying him nine million dollars a year and they take a step back, let alone take a step forward, Like that's going to lead to the questions and the unhappiness that happens after these games.
John Hale is my guest beat writer for The Hero Leader. Will come back and talk more Kentucky football on it other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP Welcome Back. We're talking with John Hale of the Harold Leader. He covers Kentucky football Wildcats heading for Gainesville. And you mentioned a few minutes ago that it wouldn't surprise you if Kentucky beat Florida, Well, how quickly? And it's really,
honestly not that quick. It's been several years, but over the span of four decades, it seems quick that UK fans have almost forgotten the long losing skid to Florida, which was actually worse than the Tennessee skid. Because of late Kentucky has either beaten or outplayed the Gators. You talk about a program that it's having, well, Kentucky's having issues, but Florida. I mean that's bizarre, isn't it.
Yeah, I mean you would you think there's a decent chance that if Kentucky wins this weekend, that maybe Billy Napier doesn't make it to next week as their coach. I mean, that seems kind of like a foregoing conclusion anyway, But the second half of their schedule is so hard that they desperately have to win this game this weekend if they're going to have any sort of positive momentum. And so if you lose it, you wonder if they'd almost have to make a change just to like get
some excitement for the second half. But yeah, I mean it's a program. I was born in nineteen eighty seven, so the year the Street, and again I did not see Kentucky beat Florida until I was, you know, well into doing this job professionally as an adult, and so like for my entire you know, childhood adolescents, teenage years, twenties, like no, like, Kentucky just didn't beat Florida. And now they won three in a row. They won two other
last three at gains Bull. If they win Saturday would be the first time they won foreigner own this series in nineteen fifty one.
Like that.
Just it's a long stretch of ineptitude and they just have turned the script completely to the point now where Kentucky fans are gonna be disappointed they don't win this game. It's going to add to the to the kind of unhappiness that's al already there, which is, you know, a says a lot about the what Mark Teops has done this program to raise you know, expectations in this series at that point, but it also says, you know, frankly,
like how bad Florida has been compared to their historical standards. Like, given the recruiting base, the fans support all of the it seems like Florida is set up to be a Jugger Naut in this college football era and the fact that they just aren't is real indictment of.
That program, right it is. And again I try not to blame coaches as much as most do, but I do think the Dan Mullen higher just not good. But that's not the only one. And I think we learned with Billy Gillespie, with all due respect, that there are some jobs where it takes a special amount of skill. Florida is one of them. Now. Of course, you know Urban Meyer abused that by we know what happened when
he was when he was coaching down there. But still it comes back to recruiting talented players and knowing how to use them, and amazingly that just hasn't happened.
If Florida hasn't, No, it's it's crazy, and you got to figure out, like, what's the Like, I know, Florida fans, what Lane Kiffin have that job? And maybe with all miss they can, you know, step back from their playoff hopes. Now, maybe he would be interested. He seems like the kind of personality that would be needed in that position, you know, kind of like the John Caliperry Kentucky marriage cappany at the exact right moment. But I'm not sure they could
could vince him to come from another SEC program. So that's the thing. If you're going to fire Billy Napier at Florida, you got to make sure you get the next one right. And you know, old friends got Strickland's in charge there. But you know a lot of the eighties don't get the chance to hire multiple football coaches very often don't go well. And so you know who's going to be string pulling the strings behind whatever happened on the next search, I think is a big question too.
What do you think of this Florida team? Of course now with Graham Mertz, who it looked like for a while I was heading for Kentucky was playing fairly well and now he's gone.
Yeah, that's interesting because I mean Kentucky made the choice in that transfer portal cycle to take Devin Leary over Mertz. They could have had either of them that they visited on back to back days, and they picked Leary as kind of the more experienced, more productive college option, and maybe Mertz had the higher upside, and I think from most the last season you could question maybe that was the wrong choice. Martz. I don't think you know it.
When he was in the portal, it was kind of decided that maybe he was like Will Levins, where he had this canon arm and he just wasn't being used correctly at Wisconsin and Cohen could find that next step. Maybe that would have happened if he had come here, but when he went to Florida, he actually just turned into this kind of game manager. They asked not to make mistakes, and so the Kentucky could use some of that. Certainly could have used it at times last year. It's
interesting to see how that played out. But now the guy who's replacing him, the freshman, is, you know, was the top prink quarterback in the country, and you know, it's if Billy Napier has a hope, it's to sell the fact that oh we got this guy and he's the future. So they're going to need him to come out and really show out. But he's throwing a bunch of interceptions, so it should be an opportunity for Kentucky's defense to make some plays this weekend, I would think.
But every time Kentucky or Florida in the series, being the era I grew up in, I think at Tim Tebow coming out, I think it's Chris Leak, you know, his freshman year, you know, kind of making his coming out party against Kentucky and you just have that fear is this going to be the lead another Florida quarterback legend kind of emerges?
Do you know that when Chris Lee came here and now was one of those infamous games working Kentucky had it and then gave it away. As you recall, they blitzed. I think it was Mike Archer told me they blitzed twenty seven times against a freshman quarterback and Florida never caught them once in the blitz and still Kentucky didn't win the game. So it tells you a lot, doesn't it.
Yeah, there were so many of those games in this series that you're like, how in the world did they did? They like throw that away? And then frankly, there were a lot of games where Kentucky was just so bad, even on the same field. But when it goes on for twenty eight years, whatever ended up being like you got to look at it. There's there's always a handful that were like Kentucky should almost by accident, you're gonna
win a game. You're gonna you're gonna recover the fumble in the end zone like they did it that old mess, like something like that's gonna happen. And just year after year, every one of those plays went against Kentucky.
I've seen Kentucky go down to Gamesville and win. You have as well. And what's the most amazing thing to me, John is working a game in the swamp and I don't know how much time you've spent on the sidelines down there. It might be next to Vandy the tightest fit in the Southeastern Conference in terms of the crowd being right on top. So when it's rocking, it's nuts. But to hear it go silent or at least quiet, it's pretty incredible. And we've seen it in the last decade, haven't we.
Yeah, And that's going to be I think a huge factor this week. It was good that they think they already gotten that road environment out of the way and that don't miss it. No, they can play and the game hapen. It's gonna be a night game. We know that fan base is desperate for when they're going to be excited to see the freshman quarterback play, like it's going to be kind of rocking there and they're playing you know, the big song before the fourth quarter. It's
his electric as you ever see. But if Kentucky can make a couple of plays early, if they can get up, that fan base is going to turn fast on Billy Paper and that team because because they know, like as Ford offense, like we don't lose the Kentucky and we've
done it three years in a row. Like if it looks like they're in bad shape again, like that will go from being a huge advantage to Florida to a huge disadvantage because their players are that are going to be one feeling the pressure from the stands as fans to get upset. So like I think a fast start would be huge.
Oh yeah, we also you and I have lived through the periods where I don't know how far back you go, but Florida in November, which was a great advantage in home games here of course, to starting conference play at Florida and maybe not brutal heats, well sometimes it was, but just uncomfortable heat, and now it's a little more manageable, isn't it. So we're not even talking about the weather.
Yeah, no, I haven't looked at the forecast that, but you would think it would be nothing that they're not used to in terms of just playing in Kentucky in August and September and so like that. That helps a little bit. Depth is always a concern when you got to go play in the humidity, but you know, coming off the by coming off it seems like to Tuk you might get some reinforcements back, you know, Mark Radio Show last night, maybe Chip Tranum actually plays this week.
We got Hardly Gilmore back last week, Courtland Ford's coming back. So depth seems like a good spot for them, And you know, frankly, they need that right now because not only do they need depth in a scenario like that, but when you're talking about all these undisciplined mistakes that we saw last week, the best way to combat that is to have other players pushing the guys who are making mistakes. And if you don't have anybody you can reliably put in the game to replace them, it's hard
to hold those guys account. So for a variety of reasons. They need some more depth.
Anyway. It may not be brutally hot, but it's sneaky humid down there no matter what. So that's something to keep an eye on. John Hale is the beat writer for Harold Leader covers Kentucky football. John, thank you so much and we'll see you at Kentucky dot com.
Thanks for having me.
And a quick note. SEC Basketball Media Days done in Birmingham. Listen to Damian fishback on the SEC Network about Mark Pope.
We all saw big blue madness. That was what I got for phenomenal shooters. Right, He's a five.
Out zero in type of guy.
Tops amongst the country in three points. But most importantly, he is putting the brand of Kentucky first, and everything that he does, he understands how Kentucky works. Getting Rick Patino back in front of Wildcat fans.
By the way, I mean you're talking about Patino or the story times that he had over Kentucky.
Then goes to Louisville and he's.
Back there and it's just it looked wild.
I mean it was. It was a new kind of fresh start.
On everyth it's spot on. He's making the right moves. It was actually funny because Bruce Pearl did that at Auburn when he first got there. He wanted to make sure that it was a family, so he brought coach Ellis back, who hadn't been there in ten years. Mark Pope's doing those same type of things. He's given Cale the credit, but he's also saying, hey, I'm part of this family. We're gonna bring the family back together.
Or on Media Day tomorrow and Hour number two is coming up next with UK super fan Mike Saffo from the Streets of New York City. That's all I had on six thirty l APERG welcome back to the Big Blue Cider and joining us on our Celebrity hotline. Is a good friend and a guy has been on several times, not for a while though. He's our New York City Bureau chief, Mike Sephaznik. He goes but Mike's Sappho on a very popular podcast. To Mike's Sappho podcast, We're going
to talk about that in a minute. But Mike is a nutty fan of the Yankees and the basketball Wildcat So this, Mike, is a great time of year for you, isn't it.
It's one of the best times. I always say, March manness, I get too stressed out. It makes me I don't do the brackets. I don't do the tournament. Now is a great time, though we have midnight. Man, it's put the Wildcats at my Yankees making a little world series run. That Bicks are about to start a lot of good things going on right now. If you're in New York yet and it's been too long, you're right, my friend.
Well, and the reason we're checking in with you as our bureau chief is because of a huge trade. We often talk ex cats with you because you're New York Knickerbockers. I shouldn't leave them out. Traded Wildcat for Wildcat, Julius Randall for Karl Anthony Towns. And it seems, Mike that they just swap big for big, but that's not the case. Those are two different styles of player, and I think this trade really serves a good need for the Knicks.
What do you say, it's very weird. Like the United States of America, New York is divided on everything metch Jets, Giants, Rangers, Islanders, but the one thing everyone agrees on, obviously, is is the Blue and Orange. So anytime the Nicks do anything at reigns supreme. And it's very hard for anything to knock your boy Arrow Rodgers. The drama he's calling causing up here and the Yankees and Mets to cause that to get off the New York radio doesn't happen much.
But this trade did it. It came out of nowhere. It's like when you fire someone on a Friday, you're supposed to hide it. It came out of nowhere. And the fans are loving this trade. They have a few things they're worried about, but overwhelmingly they are. They feel it's a different it's a different team now with getting Cat. They all beyond excited and very rarely do you see ninety percent of the fan base really really excited.
A huh wow. Well, I'm going to get to why in just a moment, when we need to point out as well that like everything in the NBA, it does revolve to a certain degree around money. I mean you're looking at laid money on contracts and cap hits and things like that as well. So it's not just you know, putting together a fantasy team, is it.
It's not you know, it's not like the Yankees play. We'll just buy everybody. At this point, though it's been over fifty years since the Knicks won a championship, they don't. And it's funny when they say, oh, in five years we gave up draftics. Nobody cared. It's like we will mortgage children, firstborn children to see it. It does. It
doesn't matter at all. So the money on the back end, like you get guys like you, extremely knowledgeable, who are like, in a few years, we have him, we have Og and then the fans are like, we don't care, give us one title and then we'll be basement dwellers forever. We don't care. We just want one parade down Broadway. You see how we act after winning one game in the playoffs. We beat the Hawks a couple of years ago and they threw a parade. Almost we were thirsty for a title here with the next.
Yeah, no, I remember, you know. And then Randall that was probably his best season, is a nick and he he did great things in New York. But like I said, you all needed a true postman, a legit consistent and that's what you of course in the NBA. Now postman, stay out and shoot a lot. But tell me why they really like Karl Anthony Towns.
Well, it was two things. One, it was such a rollercoaster ride with Sir Julius Randall. They loved him, then they hated him, then they loved him. And I think they realized after when we lost him last year with the playoffs, it's like, holy crap, we need a big guy. We lost him and Mitchell Robertson, we need we need Julius. And then when you get a guy like Kat and I hate it's Kat on cat crime. It's a wild cat on wild cat crime here no pun intended. But
having Kat is just a different dynamic. He's going to open up the floor technically speaking, so much for brunts him. Listen, Julius light holding the ball and stuff. Kat's gonna be out there. He's one of the best big shooters in the league. I feel it just opens everything up. And I think what really changed the Knicks fans perceptives of him was in the playoffs last year, they beat Durant, they beat Joker, and he played great. You know he has the thing. Oh he's so off, he's this. He
beat two of the best bigs in the game. It's like well, why can't we beat Porzingis in the Celtics now? So I think it just changes the whole team, which people were nervous about.
But I think to be done, he above I think any other big man personifies what happens in the league when and the same thing happened with your man DeMarcus Cousins. They learn to step out and shoot a three, and you know, the thing is to be a consistent three point shooter. There's a lot of skills you need. I have none of them. But strength really helps, you know.
I mean, you got to have a stroke. But these big guys who are strong and have a decent stroke, why not step out and shoot a three in this day and age.
And I love that he also can bang down below. You know the old school mixed with Oakley Ewing chalk Smith. They banged, and Randall doesn't. He's built like a like a rock. But Carl Town's looks like the old school eighties nineties center. But he can shoot. So if you see Towns rocking the thirty two, like this guy can bang, this guy's gonna throw an elbow, grab a rebound, and he can shoot the rock. It's just like it was a no brainer.
I think, well, while we're talking New York slash Kentucky, h what was your reaction when I don't know if you saw it or read it or heard it that Rick Betino showed up in Madness and got one heck of innovation, so you know.
And I think it's because I'm kind of disconnected, not living down there. I love Coach P. You know that, And it's kind of like your first girlfriend. My first team I ever fell in love with was his team, So I love Coach P. He left went to Boston, which it really didn't affect me that much when he went to Boston, like, oh, it thinks he's leaving, But Robert
Tubby came and we want a title right away. I'm like, Okay, we don't even need this guy Coach P. Then the Louisville days, that was a dark time, and then we love another dog after everything happened to him and he went to Greece, and then I own it. I love Coach P. And unfortunately I am friends with Camera Mills and he always tells me such great stories about Coach P.
So I see that, I get emotional. I get chills when I see it seeing him address the team how much he really does love Kentucky like you can really he loved it. He loves the bluegrass state. And for me, that was like it's great to you know, it's so hard me up here to like tell my family, like you won't believe what Patino did it. My wife's like, okay, I'm like, look at this clip, and I'm sending the clips like I want him to care as much as me,
and I'm like, I'm getting chills. You're like, oh, that's that's great, that's okay, Like no one gets it. I was so pumped up though. I loved that. He was beautiful and Polpe just seems like he's doing everything right though, like bringing back nostalogic. I love it. Man, I'm so excited.
We're talking with Mikesapo. He is based in New York City and he is the producer and host of the Mike Saffo Podcast. But he has been a Kentucky fan since he was a kid watching the Wildcats almost upset Duke some Abby came intertwined with Cameron Mills. That's how I met Mike and claims he's gonna move down here. Now. You need to understand if you do or start spending more time after you retire from your real job. Cameron
is something of a celebrity here. Now you're not gonna believe it, but he actually hosted Madness Standard and I was the on court host. Although you've talked to him long enough to know where, you know he can, uh, he can fill the time?
Can he a little bit? He he gabs a little bit. Sometimes he'll go on on and on and on a little bit. The worst is when i'm uh, when I'm bed service and I lose the call and I call him back, He's like, where was I?
Like?
How long were you talking? That you didn't even know? But I'm you know, I'm so happy with him because when I really met him and met you, I came down that he was doing the Sunday night show. He really wanted to get into it. He was working his behind off, So I'm so proud that he did this as a beautiful wife. Now it seems like everything's coming around for a good friend camera, but he seems so comfortable doing it, really not boring the fan, which I'm
shocked that Rubarina isn't falling asleep when he's talking. But he's doing I loved him so much. He's amazing. I love him.
Yeah, and he uh, he actually at one point got his degree and I've given him so much grief out of that. Although I was very happy for him, I he needed one course, you know. So anyway, we're talking Mike Saphasnik. He goes to by Mike Saffo. He's the host of the Mike Saffo podcast. He is a UK Nicks Yankees fan and as our New York City bureau chief. We'll come back with Morning Minute here on six thirty WLAP.
Welcome back. We're talking about our New York City bureau chief, Mike Saffo, host of the Mike Saffo Podcast and a UK super fan. And you mentioned Mark Pope. Your response, I think maybe we texted back and forth, but uh, what was your reaction your response to Kentucky's hiring of Mark Pope.
I'm very fair. No one is more wrong about things in life than me, and I always admit my fault and there's a lot of them. When it happened, I was, I don't want to say discussed that that's not the right word. I was upset. I was I'm like, we are Kentucky we are the gold standards. Why do we not have Hurly? Why do we bring back Bobby Knight this point, coach k I wanted a huge name, and I was. I was very upset, and I was maybe maybe I tweeted a lot about how was not disappointed.
I was, But I also did say I'm not an expert and I'm probably wrong. And then a few former players actually reached out to me. I guess they saw the tweets, that's the truth, and they were like, Bro, first of all, calm down. You know it's eleven thirty nine. You're saying you're gonna throw this out. You hate the team, you hate what's going on, how far we have fallen. But everyone's like, let me talk you up the ledge.
Listen what this guy does. And I was getting polls and it wasn't like a fan phone call like when Simba would call him me and say, bro, we're good, We're good. It was legit fans. Tell me why this is a great hire. Trust me. He knows what he's doing. And Cameron said it best. He actually said he's gonna make you not only want to run through the wall with you, He's going to run through the wall with you. I'm like, oh my god, what an awesome thing to say.
He's like, Bro, he's not gonna tell his team to do it, He's gonna do it first. He's like, trust me, this guy's gonna change the culture, change everything. And right away, I would say, twenty four hours later and maybe after this press conference, I'm like, I am one million percent rongs. This is the greatest hire. I love Pope. In Pope, we trust. When he bring out my old nineteen ninety six Kentucky started jacket, I am ail in again.
Yeah, I tell you you know, you can swallow that kool aid by the gallon after you hear him and talk to him. But what I did, and I like Mark, Obviously, I covered that team. I interviewed him many times, spent a lot of time with him, putting together the documentary on the ninety six team that Cameron and Jason and I did. But what I did, Mike, No, not that I'm any expert, but I went back and looked at what he did at his prior to stops and what he did as a head coach was overachieved at Utah
Valley State, at Brigham Young. No, he did not win an NCAA tournament game. But remember he was supposed to finish BYU ad or near the basement in the Big twelve last year, and they finished fourth and pulled a bunch of upsets. So that sold me, you know what I'm saying.
Yeah, And the players that called me, they were saying, like, first of all, he's a great recruiter, number one, So like he's getting guys, like you said to you time BYU they wouldn't have came, that came, and they worked at butter for him, and you know what, how many times and listen, I'm one of the biggest you know, proposents of this. I would scream and yell him forget about these one young guys. They don't care about Kentucky.
They only care about going to the NBA. That's you know, obviously we overreact and you talk about his players all come for three or four years, like, hey, this is what we wanted. We wanted these maybe not every five star player, we wanted three and four stars who were going to grow here three years and get mature. And I'm like, this is kind of exactly what we wanted. He's bringing shooters. We wanted shooters. It seems like everything
we needed, they listened to us. So I don't know why I overreacted and yelled so much.
Well, like you said, he was not a recognized brand when it comes to head coaches who have accomplished this and accomplished that. But uh, the R word recruiting is is everything. As you know, and think about trying to recruit. Let's let's leave at Utah Valley State. We know they're they're you know, mid major at best, but let's talk about bringing me on. Think about recruiting to that school with all the challenges you know, social and cultural and
all that stuff without a doubt, you know. And now he's got the greatest brand in college basketball to recruit too. And he and not only that, he lived it. He can wear that jacket that he wore on the sidelines at the football game that has all the championship seasons listed and point to ninety six and say I was part of that. Come be a part of one here. I think that's just invaluable.
It's crazy because first of all, I love you know the youtubeer go back to ninety six, go back to our team, this was me. You win a championship here, You are a god they will love you for the rest of your life. You are iconic. Everyone's going to know we can name all the players on the ninety six ninety eight team. That's not normal, you know, unless right, you know, we'll talk about the team that we know its thirty eight and one. We know the plays because
they all player in the league. How do we know players on the bench from this team and remember certain plays? Like you win a title here, it's like winning it seriously in New York. And maybe that's why I love it so much. If kat wins, wins the title here, doesn't mean a statue came in the cards. They're really like and you know Polpe doing this, He's like, guys, I did this. You have no idea what this is and you said it best. The recruiting BYU. How do
you recruit a person to go there? If I was one of the best players in the country, I don't care what nild o, Yeah, how can you sell me there? It's impossible? Like he did it, and not only did he do it, they won there the internet. I'm super excited.
The other thing too, style of play. You know, he has made no bones about it, and it's numbers at Brigham Young. Back it up. They'll shoot probably as much as those early Patino teams did. And people forget Mike that Patinos teams they shot a lot of threes. My Mark's not got to press the way Rick did. Uh. But they started shooting threes. They didn't shoot quite as many, you know, as they got better and better, but they still were not almost not allowed to shoot mid range jumpers.
And he stopped practice the other day to tell somebody, you know, that's not a great shot if you're if you're standing here as a post over there behind the arc. So people are gonna love that too.
Oh, I actually didn't hear that, And that is great. You know, he's recruiting shooting. And what's the biggest thing we always say, We always say, we're not shooting the ball. Well, we have no shooters. What are we to do? He's everything we best for Kentucky. Kann has complied with us. So how can we be mad about this?
I'm very excited, you know, I know you know this, but people forget as well that in ninety six that team was so good, so talented, and I remember, distinctly like him or not, Billy Packer, who was so impressed with Kentucky, and the biggest reason Billy being, of course a former coach. He really really loved Kentucky's half court defense.
And I remember talking to Tony Delk about this, if I may drop a name, and you know, Tony, of course he said we didn't have to, but he said it was in people's heads that we could press them at any time, and they had spent so much time preparing for our press that they were mentally beaten before the game began.
You know, wow, how interesting is that?
Yeah? And so Pope I bring it up because you know, Patino built with defense. Yeah, the three pointers were great, but that was a way to mask a lack of talent when he first got here. But his teams, just like Caliperi's were his best teams, were great defensively, and that's how Pope has built this roster, you know what I mean?
And the suffocating defense again stuff we want we what was our biggest crist last few years? How how is this dude? We've never heard of dropping thirty five on us? That was our biggest and now posts like now we're playing defense. That's not happened this year. He's talking the game of what I'm ready to run with the wolf formesck. I'm telling the truth. I'm not like that.
You can tell a couple of minutes off with Mike Sephosnik. He goes away Mike Saffo the Mike Saffo Podcast, and I've talked about the teams he roots for. Uh. He also roots for all the folks that Jay can LaGuardia. He is a literally a world traveler. Getting ready. Uh, You're You're now in the triple digits on countries you visit. You're heading for Iraq and India. How long will you be gone?
One week? Because I just got back from another trip with my wife. The way we do it, Dick, is my wife picks I guess normal countries. So we went to Georgia, Armenia, Denmark and Azerbaijan. She gave me one crazy one at the end. I just got back and then this opportunity arose from people I work with. So I'm going to go to Iraq tonight and then I'm going to India to see my final Wonder of the
World at taj Mahole. Now that will get me to go one to eleven one hundred and eleven country countries visited.
So Julia's sitting this one out.
Well, she heard Iraq. She's like, you know what, I'm going to pass on this one. You do your thing, and she's exciting. You know, I actually never travel. I never travel in March, I never travel in the end of October the Yankee World Series. But a trip like Iraq was just too rare to pass up. So I'm gonna We're hoping that there's a sports bars in Baghdad so I can catch Garrett Cole pitching.
But we'll see a cradle of civilization. Fascinating. But let me ask you, because my wife asked me when I told her you were in Georgia, formerly part of the Soviet Union, how much do you worry about being in places that aren't exactly I don't want to say say for whatever, but you know, things happen.
Yeah, it does. And you know what, I'm gonna do one more name drop. I actually just got back from the Congo and South Sudan. Obviously not with Julia. You're right, I think listen first of all, and I'm not going to compare New York to that, but New York isn't doing great with crime. Dick but in all seriousness, when you act like you kind of belong there, Like people see me and they're like, who's this dude just walking around here without a concern. It looks like people think
maybe I'm Cia, maybe I'm this. But a lot of times at a large majority, people come up to you like what are you doing here, and like, I've always wanted to visit your country. I've heard about your food, your people very Anthony Bard didn't like when you up the food, yeah, people like really, yeah, tell me where to eat? Where should we go? And when I go there, humbly too, I'm not going there walking around. I try to kill the stereotype of a Latin American, so I'm
there very humble. Obviously. Some of the Muslim countries, I try to respect every possible rule or way they roll, and it's knock on wood, I'll make the sonnets across. I haven't had any real issues, but you know, when I was in Afghanistan and these other places, when you show a curiosity like yeah, you know the truth, I've only heard bad things about your country, and I wanted to see myself Like I was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, people will awesome to me. They're like,
you have to try this. Eat here. Yeah, so eighty more to go, so hopefully I get eighty more. Are still friendly people where I go?
You always have your Yankees cap on? Do you rock the UK gear much when you're out in the world.
I do. My wife laughed at me because I packed the same stuff with me. It's the same four T shirt, it's the same hoodie, the same hat, it's the Yankee hat. Now it's the Yankee Yankee tea shirt. I'm rocking my one Sodo thing. I have my Kentucky shirt twenty twelve Championship short. I wear the same things over and over. But yes, I always wrong the Yankee stuff. How many people know what the UK means? They might think them from London or something, But yes, but I get a
lot of the Yankee stuff. No one really knows the UK stuff. Hopefully both changes that and will become a worldwide brand.
So well, I'll tell you what. Next time, I'm gonna carve out more time so you can tell me more about food. I know you're not Anthony Bourdain when it comes to expertise with food, but I do want to hear your stories and if and when you get down here, we'll definitely have you in the garage. I would I would, I would say maybe you and Cameron, but then you wouldn't get the talk.
No words come in. He would ask me to be a guest on the show, and I would just sit there and just talk text with you the whole time. So it's never even to talk. But listen, I'm gonna come down there definitely this year for a game, so we'll set it up.
Brother, Mike Sephazenic, Safe travels, buddy, and listen for the Mike Saffo podcast where you get your favorite podcast, boon Voyage Thick.
I love you, brother, thank you so much for having me on.
Doctor John Wong Wong's Whinings author He'll be up next here on a Big Blueing Sider six thirty Wlap join us own a celebrity Highline is a longtime friend of the show and a guy who loves covering sports, Doctor John Wong, who of course works for Nolan Media Group, and you read his musings on Wong's Whinings and Doc I want to talk to you about your You got
another fun packed weekend. This isn't the first time you've had a doubleheader, although the Kentucky game wasn't fun, but you paired d with a trip to New York to cover the Bengals. How you holding up?
Yeah, I'm running on fumes right now. Greetings from the Big Apple. I guess technically I'm calling from East Rutherford, New Jerseyay, which doesn't sound quite as exotic.
But you know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, but yeah, it's been a heck of a seventy two hours. But the way I look at it, Dick, is okay.
Life is short, you know.
Honestly, you and I were probably in the fourth quarter of our lives right now.
We got to make the most of it.
We got to score that winning touchdown, you know, before we end up on a walk or in a wheelchair with the oxygen tanks dangling by our side.
We've got to go for it. Life is short.
Let's live the dream.
I don't know if I should be cheered or depressed by that, but anyhow, tell everybody, how did you book this trip? And not how did you book it? But how did you swing it? Did you cover the Kentucky game? And then what?
Yeah, I'm working for two media outlets right now, specifically for that for the NFL. It's Sportsview America. I cover the Bengals games. I've been doing most of the home games these paths, I don't know, six seven, eight years, and I've just begun now to kind of go on the road. I want to go ahead and hit a lot of these these NFL stadiums, these different stadiums, these different venues that.
I've always heard about.
And I saw where the Meadowlands where MetLife Stadium in New York was on the schedule, so I kind of marked that on the calendar. And then of course I'll have all the Kentucky games and the Kentucky events already spread out over there. And I saw that, hey, I've got this back to back to back. We've got Big Blue Madness on Friday night, then we got Kentucky Vanderbilt on Saturday night, and then oh it's Sunday night football.
It's at nighttime. I can actually do that a quick, quick turnaround, because, as you know, that Vanderbilt game didn't end until shortly before midnight by the time the interviews were over, and I got home in bed by about one o'clock or so six am flight the next morning. So do the math three hours of sleep. But hey, it's New York. How often do you get a chance to do something like that. I'd never been to met Life before. This was the thing to do, and I
have no regrets. Fortunately, after the sinker of the Vanderbilt game, the Bengals actually turned around and pulled one out for a change, So I'm happy right now.
I think I told you in the press box I had been to that stadium once that the Meadowlands Kentucky played Rutgers up there was a home and home and back in the I think it might have been Bill Curry's first year. And just like Saturday Night beat itself, Kentucky made all kind of mistakes in that game and lost. But let's go back to Let's go back first to madness, to the first part of the weekend. I think it was a slam dunk, no pun intended, but there was so much to like about that. We was the first
one for Mark Pope. Everybody got a chance to see this new team. The court was incredible. And then the Rick Patino introduction. How did you process all that?
I'm still trying to process that. First of all, the excitement generated by this new regime coming in that spoke for itself, just to see the buzz that was in rough arena again for big blue manness, which honestly had gotten pretty stale over the course of the three or four five past past years. And it was fairly full. It wasn't completely packed seat to seat, but there was
no stage, so it was legitimately in the round. And to see the players introduced and to see them mingle with the fines, to see Pope come in out of the top row of the stadium. So that spoke to me, That spoke volumes to a lot of people there that hey, the program has really turned a corner. This is a new regime. It was a folid program all around. The three point shooting, even the women's programs with Kenny Brooks coming in generated so much excitement. Boy, you talk about
a classy guy. But by the end I was saying, this is solid. It's not great, but it's solid. But then when they marched in all those former players, you see the generations, the Kentucky basketball great the program with the greatest history and the tradition of college basketball. Just standing there on that beautiful led court, I was getting goose pimps. And then and then the coupe de gras
of Rick Patino coming through. I thought that the surprise of him coming in probably directly resulted in that loud ovation that he finally got, because I was I was uncertain if you had asked me beforehand, should we go ahead and introduce Rick Patino. Now I'd be all for it personally, but from the fan base, there was still enough division in there that I felt like it was at the right time. But now looking back on it in hindsight, yeah, Hope in the program a former player
of his. It worked out as great as it possibly could. I think it it ended up being in terms of a fan and the history and some guy who's followed Kentucky basketball for for fifty years. It probably that Patino walking back in to Ruugh Arena on Big Blue Madness with coach Mark put Hope's new regime coming through. Uh probably top five moments, a mount Rushmore moment for me.
Do you think that the ovation Beatino god might sway some of the people who were still holding out, you know, and and still angry at him for taking the Louisville job. Do you think maybe they might have grudging and said, Okay, we'll let him back in the fold.
Maybe a few, but I think those people who were still out of the fold, Dick were so out of the fold. I mean they still look at Rick as Benedict Arnold.
You know, he was one who who.
Married my worst enemy and then now is begging for forgiveness coming back. I mean, that's that's something that that digs deep and I can certainly understand. But I'm not in that camp by any means. I'm hoping that people are going to shift out. You know, we have to have forgiveness in our hearts. And Rick, granted he's still still very very self centered. I think he was certainly sincere in his emotions. But people change over time too.
You and and I were a lot more mellow in our old age than we were in our younger days too. Don't judge the younger, thirty year old Rick Patino. Yeah, this is the repentant Rick.
Yeah. And as I keep saying over and over, you know, Patino ultimately wanted to be a Kentuckian like us, you know, and that's not such such a bad thing. He decided the next best thing, with all due respect to you of Elle to the place where Rick has said many times he wished if you had to do it over again, he wouldn't have left. Was being, you know, being in Louisville.
The next best thing to be an election. And so I think too, John, that the fact that he is so passionately endorsed Mark Pope has gone a long way with a big boe nation, don't you.
Yes, and understandably so, because this is one of his former pupil It's the protege of his and it's gonna look good for him ultimately. Also if Pope succeeds here at Kentucky.
But yes, I think a lot of that is genuine.
He does realize that he does want Pope to succeed on his own merits.
Also, yeah, we're talking with doctor John Wong. He is a former orthodonist who is now a sportswriter and covers the Wildcats, the Bengals, really whatever he feels like covering. But those are the two main beats for doctor Wong. And we'll come back and talk more with John about Kentucky football. Have to do that on the other side of the break here on six point thirty Wlap welcome back. We're talking with John Wong. He's a blogger, He also
covers the Bengals and the Wildcats. He was at Bengals Giants on Sunday Night fun seeing Wandale Robinson, and he is an absolute key to that offense. But I don't know if that was the Bengals getting well of the Giants just perpetuating the look of the sad team that New York fans love to hate.
Yeah, there was a lot of booing going on around around there, and it didn't take very much. But one day, I still remember all those interview sessions we had with him and being able to literally look him in the eye. I'm five eight, and I swear he's bigger than that. Now.
He's a little bit stronger, he's got a few more.
Muscles, and I think he's a past faster than you and I are a little bit dick when you say so, a little bit.
A little bit better hands too, although you, of course had great hands as an orthodonist.
But kind of different, yeah, very very different.
Yeah, Well, let's talk about that mess Saturday night. You and I go back a long way. Didn't know each other, but a long way to when we were both in school, and I kept thinking, this is old school Kentucky football, beat yourself. They were better than Vandy, not a whole lot better van He's not a bad ball club obviously.
Uh but no, Yeah, they had just played their game, they would have won that. But twenty years down the line, it doesn't matter that this is a good bandy game, this good bandy team, It's still Vanderbilt. So people still look back on this and say, well, look, Stoops couldn't be Vanderbilt, and that's eventually what got them fired. But it's just so frustrating and I hate myself, Dick when I think this way. But yeah, the history of Kentucky football.
We can't put that out of our minds. It's hard not to say, well, this is as good as it's ever going to get, because in our hearts we might actually believe that. I don't want to say that at all. I don't want to believe it. But when you look back on the history, and we've been tempted and teased so many times, thinking that we're going to break out over this threshold and it just never happens. These other SEC teams they continue to get just as much better
as Kentucky is. It's frustrating and I just can't see them getting over the homp.
But they've done it in the past. They've had ten wins seasons, they've done great things. They flirted with an secs. That to me, John, is what's the most frustrating. Is that is that they know the road map, they know the way to get there. But you know, and I
know every team is different. But what gets me is, and I'm not laying this all on him, but when a guy like Dane Key, who is such an experience now player, he's a leader, he has polished his game, it looked like he had grown up because you remember what happened last year in the Vandy game when he was flagged, you know, and then to start things off with the call that you know may or may not have been warranted. I don't know what was said on
the sidelines. Clearly Stoops was upset about it with Dane and then it just kind of snowballed after that. I just don't get it.
You just can't be doing that.
Pick you can be doing that.
It cost Kentucky points and ultimately, if you figure it out, it's gonna cost.
Him the ball gain.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that is critical and crucial. And I know he's good and maybe this is a reflection I hate sounding like the old man thing, get off my lawn, but maybe it's a reflection of nil. People keep saying that when Stoops made his pony up comments that that kind of turned the tide. Well, maybe his pony up comment is really really signifying what's really going on. It's not the pony up. It's the fact that we're having
a pony up. And the mentality now I know of a lot of fans is these players are being paid a lot of money, so they need to be held to a higher standard. So when they screw up, when they don't succeed, then I think there's more a ratenus out there. There's more of a rage from the fan base of hey, I can't be putting up with any of this. The standards have been raised. It's different. It's a different world, the horses out of the barn.
Yeah, it really is. And you know, it's interesting since we were just talking about basketball, and I believe that once Mark Pope starts to really weave his program the way he intends, Kentucky fans will get to know players. Again, not everybody's going to stay more than one or two years, but you know how it was when everybody when the world was young, and you'd get to know these guys over a course of one to four years. That's been the way it is with football, but not so much anymore.
So fans have kind of lost that element, haven't they getting to know and embrace their football players.
Fans certainly have, but I think it's also been magnified tenfold with the media themselves. I never experienced that as a media member, dick of being able to go and get to know a Dirk Minifield or Melvin Turfin for four straight years. How great would that have been if be able to talk to some of these guys. Can you imagine the depth of the question Well, of course you can, you did it. But the depth of the questions that can develop after you've developed the relationships with
the players themselves. I mean, now it's just a matter of, hey, I just feel out there when you know you had that slam dunk there there's nothing deep in there. You can't really grasp anything. You can't get any of the stories that Mark Pope was talking about during its press conference through just these superficial interviews that we have with the players.
You're right, you know, and you just got to try to get them, get to know them as best you can. But it's hard for fans now to really put their faith in a lot of these guys. And I think I think that Vandy loss has really shaken the Kentucky fan base. And of course, as we all know, all the goodwill they built with that win in Oxford, not just mathematically, but it just went out the window now, you know, because they they lost a win over South Carolina.
They got it back, but how do you make up this this lost to Vandy, and how do you keep alive your streak of postgame or postseason appearances that's on the line.
Well, in the words of the great Al Davis, just win baby, But that's easier said than done. In the sec I don't know how much time we had, but I wanted to ask you you're down there on the field, have you noticed. Sorry, I don't mean to be the host of the show now, I kind of turning the
tables on you. But Stoop's demeanor down there, it seems to me, at least when I look at these little snippets of his halftime interviews and whatever, he seems a little bit more clueless for lack of a better word, do you notice any changes just in his general demeanor and running running the team.
Well, that's an interesting question because I was talking to the guys with the radio network at halftime off air, and it was staggering to me the difference between stoops coming off the field in Oxford and Stoop's coming off the field Saturday night in Oxford. He was he was excited, he was intense. Uh, it was. It was really really fascinating. I mean he spoke in depth Saturday night. He was as puzzled John as I've ever seen him. Yes, I
mean it was. It was almost like he was almost like he walked off the field with a shrug with his hands out, like what the hell is going on? You know, because I'll guarantee you this shocked him because throughout the week he was happy with practice. But what is it too about? By here I am asking more questions? What is it about bye weeks that do not agree with Mark Pope? With the Mark Stoops. I think that's fascinating, don't you.
I I think somebody needs to really really do one of these deep deep dives into that. And stops even in his press conference afterwards he was talking about it. He was trying to diagnose the problem. He was asking the players themselves, are there too many distractions? Are we getting you enough tickets? Or family members starting to interfere? Because going two and ten at home is that's that's inexcusable. And we're not talking about playing the top rounding teams either.
This is losing the Vamberbilt, losing to South Carolina. It just cannot happen. And I send the groundswell of disappointment within the Big Glue nation about that, and that never speaks speaks well, they got to turn this thing around. So I'm worried.
Some of these SEC losses admittedly were against Georgia's and other in Tennessee, and you know, good SEC teams, But yeah, to your point, you've got to beat Vandy and Lexingon. You've got to be South Carolina and Lexingon, and for whatever reason, it just has not been happening. So now they go to Florida, which is desperate for a win, and of course we know the success Kentucky's had against Florida. Ironically enough, John, maybe this is a great time for a road trip, you know what I.
Mean, especially now and this may have changed since this program is airing, but I think Kentucky was an underdog coming out of there, and as you know, stoops as teams always played that well. Not always, but most of the time they play better with that ship on their shoulders. So yeah, no distractions. Underdog, a Florida team that's that held its own against Tennessee. This this is the makings of another another good game. Kentucky needs to win this. They need to get that last loss back.
You're right, and it's a Florida team that probably should have beaten Tennessee. So we'll see. Here's John Wong. Follow him on Twitter and the X at k Y Wong's h u A n GS. You can also read him on sports View America Wong's whinings Olden Media Group. He's a busy man, John, safe travels. We'll see you soon.
Thank you, Dick, always a pleasure, talk to you later.
Gon'll do it for now. Good night from the garage in Lexington, Nansi.