Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you on a Thursday edition of our show, One day closer to Kentucky Football, one day closer to the basketball as well Blue White. As tomorrow night, we will be in Gainesville, though we mean in the UK Network crew, so Tom Leach will be calling football this weekend. Darren Headrick will sit in on radio side with Jack Gibbings as the Wildcats play the Blue White game tomorrow night. You'll hear
it right here on six point thirty WLAP. When you talk about the Florida Gators, though you talk about a Kentucky blest, sound like Joe Knuxhall, don't know you talk about, but you're talking about a Kentucky team that of late four to the last six has beaten the Gators and now Florida without Graham Mertz, a six year quarterback, he's done for the year, he's done with college football injured. So now TJ. Lagway is the quarterback and the Wildcats will dial up I'm sure a lot of interesting looks
on defense for him. We will come back and talk about that in just a minute, but we need to point out a couple of things first, of All Volleyball with a big win last night down in Tennessee. Wildcats four and two in the league. Doesn't look like they're gonna win the conference this year. They won seven straight because they just lost to Texas. That would have been big to knock off the Longhorns at home, But now you're playing for postseason. So Kentucky with another win against
a brutally tough schedule. Four and two in the league, ten and seven overall. Asian thig Pen with fifteen kills, a freshman with her first start last night, So Wildcats pick up a big win on the road. They play against Sunday down at Alabama, three o'clock. It's going to be on sec plus Lexingon's Walker Buehller showed out last night, didn't he? Game three at the NLCS Dodgers ended up winning that one eight nothing. Bueller got the start, went
four innings, had eighteen swings and misses. If you watched it all, a lot of movement on his pitches. He looked like his old self, and he turned it over to his teammates the bullpen, Shoel Tani who had a home run. And this is something the Dodgers needed. To see from Walker. He has missed the better part of
three seasons. Enry Clay product Vanderbilt, a first round draft pick, but he has been struggling since those two different surgeries, and he has really not looked like himself for the most part until last night, and he looked really good. So now you're a step closer to the World Series if you're the Dodgers and a Dodger fan. Something really interesting I found on Twitter this morning. You may have seen it, but Michael Leaves responded to this. Michael, of
course a Kentucky native. He's from Western Kentucky, worked for US at KYT, worked up with me in the sports department now at ESPN. But he retweeted a message a graphic from a guy who goes by Matthew leb on extra Twitter. This guy put up a map of New England and circled Connecticut and Rhode Island and he wrote this. He said, I honestly believe college basketball means more in this red line than any other part of the country. I mean, you sold out a scrimmage and thousands more
watched on TV without Providence even being involved. You could make the argument that the two most passionate fan bases in college basketball. He's a little biased. I know are in this area well, Michael, of course, now a national voice, tweets back and maybe your belief in all caps, but it is nowhere near factual. No state or area exceeds the passion for college basketball like Kentucky. This coming from someone who grew up in Kentucky and currently resides in
New England. Michael lives in Connecticut working for ESPN, and Michael knows where if he speaks. Michael lived in the Lodge for at least one year when he was a college student and worked camps for Rick Patino when he was in school, and it was tight with a lot of the players, and of course knows Kentucky basketball inside and out. And I can understand why this guy would get all excited about basketball in that area, especially with
yukon going back to back. But when you're talking about the length and breadth of college basketball fan bases, and go back and look at the ratings, the TV ratings for UK and UOL basketball. The number one station in America for college basketball ratings is WLKY and Louisville, the CBS affiliate. Why well, because they get those CBS big matchups. You know, when UK or U of L are on, not lately u of L, but through the years, and when those teams play, the numbers are off the charts.
They get like seventy fives and eighties, just in general the fan bases. Michael nailed it. Yeah, Like I said, understand why you're excited right now, But to make a statement like that, you're not paying attention. That's that's what I always come back to. All right, back to football. Quick note from the interweb. Talk to Justin Rowland about this on Tom Leach's show this morning. Montavin Quizonberry, five to nine receiver kick returner, has flipped from West Virginia.
He's going to go to Kentucky. Boyle County High School and Neil Brown, the head coach at West Virginia, was a diminutive wide receiver at Boyle County and at Kentucky and he had Quistonberry. But he has changed his mind and he has posted that he will be a Kentucky Wildcat. So that's a big get for Mark Soops and his staff.
As Quistonberry's coming home, the Boyle County product says he'll be a Wildcat Justin told me that as a high schooler, Quistonberry has fifteen return touchdowns fifteen touchdowns on returns only, and wants to be a return guy at Kentucky. And that is valuable because you have to want to return kicks.
All right.
The Wildcats heading down to Gainesville, as we said, facing a freshman quarterback. Anwar Stewart d line coach asked last night about going into a game against the freshman quarterback with an old line that's had its ups and downs.
Yeah, you know they've gotten bet up for you know, old lion wise, they've gotten better, you know that way.
You know, he's really athletic, I can move.
You know, We're just gonna have to make it tough, you know, up front, you know, be violent, play physical, get out to the quarterback, get him off his point, and make him uncomfortable.
That's the name of the game.
And what we want to do is we want to finish and finish at his feet and see if we can't get him to get that ball up in the air where our defense d backs can get a few pints a few tournaments.
That's anwar Stewart and the unit he is put together for the Wildcats. That defensive front is the top area of this football team. People have recognized that nationwide. That will be the key to the game that will dictate Kentucky's fortunes on Saturday night.
We'll have it for you right here. I want to come with a Big Blue Insider Tony.
Franklin at the bottom of the hour. Former Kentucky assistant on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider Dick Cabri with you coming up.
In a few minutes.
Tony Franklin, the former UK football assistant now a consultant. Basically he coaches coaches other players around the country with the Tony Franklin system. So we'll learn more about that. Get his thoughts on Jared Goff, his prized pupil at cal Berkeley and the football Wildcats as well. He is a Kentuckian from Princeton, Kentucky, and was best known at first as the head coach at Callaway County, where he coached the great Pookie Jones. So we'll hear from Tony coming up at.
The bottom of the hour.
Big story in college football. I think it's big. It's interesting. Nonetheless, you know that loophole that Oregon used to beat Ohio State, or helped him beat Ohio State when he ran a twelfth guy on the field and yes, got penalized, but it helped them burn clock and it forced Ohio State in part to run out of time.
Quarterback made a bad decision at the end, of course.
But Oregon used a rule, broke a rule, and benefited by it.
First thing I thought is, well, they're going to shut that down.
What surprises me is how quickly rules people got together, and this is a committee put together. I don't know if there are any officials on that committee. I know somebody once told me that on the basketball rules committee.
No former officials or current officials. They run it by them.
But anyhow, whoever the people are who get together, the ads and maybe retired coaches whoever, and decide this as part of an NCA committee. They quickly got together and released a new rules interpretation and had to handle a penalty for twelve players on the field. This comes in the final two minutes of either half. You kind of
saw this coming. If the defense has twelve players actively participate in the down, the offense can choose, along with the five yard penalty, to have the game clock reset to the time that had been displayed at the snap. So it's up to the offense to choose that because, of course, at times you.
May not want that time, You may want to burn that time away.
But and by the way, if it's a twelve man situation where a guy's trying to get off the field and he doesn't make it, that's not the same thing. No time change would be made if that were the case. But they moved quickly to shut this down after Dan Lanning admitted Monday, yeah, his team intentionally used twelve men on defense, and he talked about the fact that they
had kind of prepared for such a situation. You know, I assume he and his coaches, his staff sat around saying, hey, what if we did this and investigated and realized there's no downside, it's all upside. And how often is that situation gonna come up? Not very maybe once a year, maybe once every two or three years. But it worked for the Ducks, and they've had a lot of big wins in their program history. This is one of the bigger wins as they upset the number two team in
the country, Oregon number three. I don't know why predicted in Ohio State blowout, which I did. But at any rate, these two teams may play well again in the playoffs, they may play for a national championship. And if that's the case, man, the buck Guy's got something for him. But right now it's Oregon with the upper hand because of that rule. But now nobody else can take advantage of it the way the Ducks did in the NFL.
You know by now probably Tom Brady is an owner.
He has been approved as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. He bought I think five percent of the team and apparently will be active as an owner, but now that has put certain conditions on him as a broadcaster. Brady has said in a letter release on social media this week he's eager to contribute to the organization in a way in any way he can, but he cannot sit in now with producer, director, playbook play guy in pregame meetings with players and coaches in the game.
He's going to broadcast, and that's big. I mean, I've had a chance.
To do that a little bit through my career, such as it is, and when you can sit in with coaches and I haven't done NFL games. But if you know they talked to quarterbacks and they talk to linebackers and team captains and things like that, and that adds a heck of a lot to the broadcast. You can you know hear that well and talking to so and so helps him predict plays things like that. Don Cricky was a long time NFL guy.
He said, those.
Meetings are the most useful thing we do all week and preparation for the game, so we have access to information that the audience doesn't have. Well, now they can't allow Brady to sit in on those meetings because he's an owner. Might not be the other team across the side, across the field on the other sideline. But who's to think, well, maybe he shares that information with somebody in the Raiders front office for a later game or a game involving
the standings or things like that. That's got to be tough for the lead color commentator for Fox Sports, who, by the way, will be part of the broadcast crew for the Super Bowl. This is a very weird and difficult situation. And he had already signed his deal with Fox and people knew he was looking to buy interest in a team while he was signing a contract for three hundred and seventy five million dollars with Fox Sports.
In the NBA, Lonzo Ball is back. And say what you will about the Ball family, we all kind of get tired of them because of their dad, but look, these guys can play. The ball kids and Lonzo's been injured. Lonzo hasn't played for thirty three months. And he checked in for the Bulls last night into a preseason game against Minnesota about midway through the first quarter and got a huge ovation in the United Center, the house that Michael built. He had not played in one thousand and
six days. He had suffered a minor meniscus injury in his left knee, but needed three operations. I don't know why, but they kept him sidelined for two seasons plus. But evidently he looked good last night. He hit a three pointer, his first one since January fourteenth of twenty twenty two. Kaitlin Clark making headlines again, named to the All WNBA team as a rookie and got fifty two of a
possible sixty seven votes. She of course, was the Rookie of the Year in a WNBA finished fourth in MVP voting in her first pro season set all kinds of records, and now it's the first time since twenty eight that a rookie was selected to the first team. Now that year, Candice Parker, who might be the greatest women's player ever number one pick in the draft Tennessee Volunteer, was the as a rookie now eight MVP Rookie of the Year
First Team All Conference. Since two thousand and only five rookies have earned first team honors Parker and Clark, Diana Tarassi in four, Sue Bird in two, Tamika Catchings in two. So the awards just keep rolling in for Caitlin Clark. Ryder Cup. If you're a golf fan, you may have been to the Ryder Cup. You may enjoy following this event. Well know this if you watch.
It on TV.
The paying patrons you'll see paid a fortune for tickets. Practice day tickets now two hundred and fifty five bucks.
Last time they had.
A Ryder Cup, that was what you paid for a regular round ticket two hundred and sixty one I think, which came with some food. That's for the first two days. Now third day practice ticket four hundred and twenty three dollars and sixty four cents. Now, what that does is also gives you access to the Junior Ryder Cup opening ceremonies and some kind of celebrity match deal. So if you go to the three actual match days, nearly seven hundred and fifty dollars phenomenal. How do they justify that, Well,
they don't have to, They're the Ryder Cup. Serena Williams underwent surgery recently had a cyst removed from her neck, a bronchial cyst that she said was the size of a grapefruit. Found the lumpback in May. Decided against surgery. Several tests confirmed it was benign, but it kept growing and doctor said, this thing could get infected. These things are like little sacks of fluid that you are found in the neck or under the arms. They can be tiny,
they can be huge. And she decided, Man, I'm gonna get rid of this thing. That's kind of scary when you think about it. As we go to the break, an rip and a tip of the BBI cap. Klani Demrie a long time Kentucky football superfan and a guy who covered football for various publications. He has been a fixture on the UK beat. He was more into football than basketball, loved football, actually played football throughout his life, played football in the service when he was in the Army, and so he knew.
The game, no question about that.
And I sat next to Lonnie in the press box at the basketball games. Lonnie had suffered from cancer. He also took a serious fall in a parking garage a couple of seasons back, and I knew he was sick as well during the basketball season. And I come back from an open heart surgery, and so we sat next to each other a couple of old war horses on the mend, and he and I like to talk, and Lonnie really liked to talk. I could barely hear him
though he had weakened, and I just felt bad. I leaned in and wanted to hear what he had to say. But he battled, he struggled, but he lost that battle last night, and we say rest in peace, Lonnie Demery.
Up next, Tony Franklin, former UK assistant. We'll talk about high school in college football and how he helps people get better here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Winsider, joining us now as a guy I've known for a long time when he was an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky and went on to coach in several other spots, including cal Burkelee, where he had one Jared Goff.
As a student who's now doing some great things in the NFL.
Coach Tony Franklin is back with us. He is, of course, the owner and creator of coach tf dot com, and we'll get him to explain that in just a minute, the Tony Franklin system.
But at coach, how are you.
I'm doing awesome, Dick. Was good to hear your voice and good to think about all the great memories of the great city of Lexington.
We were talking a little bit on the show the other night about some of the things that you tweet out. You basically you kind of coach coaches a little bit. And you posted the other day on Twitter about this kind of being halftime of the football season with some really sound advice. And I got to think the coaches all over the country, no matter what level, high school, college bro can do some of these simple things you talked about, like you know, attention to the tail fundamentals coaching.
What really matters.
Now You're just kind of sharing the knowledge you've accrued through the years, aren't you.
Yeah, I do.
It's funny the I think that when I first, you know, was out of coaching and was using social media, I think that maybe sometimes my goals were a little different. Uh, And today when I go on, I very simply just want to help somebody that might need help. And so it's been it's been very rewarding, especially this season, and I think it's because I've had a little bit of a refreshing attitude and the feedback has been really, really good.
It's been good for me. And the good thing is that coaches they appreciate it, and they use it and they and they send me It makes a difference. I mean, I know that sometimes one thing can change your career. And you know, I've had a business since two thousand, two thousand and one where I helped coaches, and I've had coaches throughout the country that through something that I've been able to present to them in some former fashion that they accepted is that it changed their life and
gave them a better life. And many of them are multi millionaires today. So it's been fun to watch that happen. And then you know, high school coaches, you're high school coach and you're making forty thousand dollars a year and you get a job making sixty five. That's the same as you know, being a big time college coach making a mean and getting a job at to me, and so it changes their lives. So it's fine. I enjoy
doing it. And it's the one that's like my brother told me once, he says, a good thing you can coach, because you sure can't do anything else. So I keep trying to coach coaches.
Yeah, you touched on a little bit, well, why has this season been especially rewarding for you?
Well, I think it's probably because I figured out that a lot of the things that maybe I read about how to create and build business was probably wrong. I think that I was too invested still in and maybe the business of coaching, and I think I was. I was very angry, and I think that a lot of times my anger came through, and even when I when I was doing podcasts, you know, my anger came through
more than my teaching came through. And so I just kind of made a point that there's enough anger out there without me adding to it, and I would just try to help and try to educate and u and not worry about whether or not just built my business or not, but make it more of can I help somebody out there to have a better life and to have a better day and going through some of the stuff that you know, ha's happened to our country, and you know, and being affected by myself from my hometown
is devastated by the tornados. My brother's home is completely destroyed, and the people in Mayfield that I care so much about, so many people that I knew, lost everything. So you know, it's it's kind of a different reckoning with life when you all those things happen. And so it's been it's been rewarding, and you know, the good thing is there's lots of people that do appreciate it, whether they're high school coaches, middle school coaches, fans, or college coaches or
even NFL coaches. So it's it's it's good to see that people respond to.
Your website Touched the Tony Franklin System. One of the testimonials is from a coach in Alabama. You said, since eight we've had an overall record of forty five and five you know, it's just it's pretty amazing. It's interesting, and I'm certain it's very exciting, but there's more to it than just plays and formations, am I right?
Yeah? I mean the thing that everybody has good plays. Every fan in the stands got a pencil and a piece of paper, got a good play. And the problem is is that you don't play with that. You have to go out and play, you know, one human being against another, and the things that something extremely simple such as leverage and leverage is something that is disciplining, can
be taught. And what happens is that so many times in this profession is that you get so caught up and all the other stuff is that when you go out on the field, you forget that if you don't maintain the fundamentals and the details of when you release versus man press of trying to restack, trying to constantly clear the hands, so always toe receivers. If you get held, that's your fault. It's not the DB's fault. The dbs supposed to hold you. If you get held, that's your fault.
You know, you got to be violent with your hands, but you have to you have to do these things in practice every day because the process is what makes good football teams. The process that's what makes great coaches. And the way college all is today is that if you're not doing the process right, you're not going to survive because everybody's your roster's changing completely every year, and if you lose sight of doing the little things right, then you're not going to survive in today's world.
Yeah, and it helps to have good players. And you've coached a lot of good ones. You worked at Kentucky with Dusty and then Jared Lorenzen, and in high school at Callaway County you coached mister Football.
One of my favorite people in Pookie.
Jones, who also played at UK. So it helps when you have good people as well as good well.
Yeah, and that's the one thing that I say to everybody. You know, when you're looking at a championship run and having the best year, it starts with good players. You can do all the other things right. I mean, some of the best seasons I've ever coached were we were horrible. The last season I was a head coach at Mercer County High School, we were two and eight, and it was one of the most rewarding seasons that I've ever coached in football, because we got the most that we
could get out of them. And that's you know, that's the part. If you don't have good players, sometimes good players can overcome bad coaching.
I mean.
And it used to be that the way the college system was built is that there were only you know, four or five or six teams out there in the country every year that we're going to have the best players. But today it's different. You see Georgia now that what's happened is that their twos aren't as good as they used to be, the threes aren't as good as they used to be. So now Georgia can actually get beat. You know, the coolest thing in all of football right
now is Vanderbilt. You know, I got fired for losing Vanderbilt when I was at all of them. You know, Vanderbilt is the graveyard of coaches. If you go and you lose the vany somebody's getting fired the next week usually, And so for me it was me. And when Vanderbilt beat Alabama and I watched that, the thing that I had a gut in stink that Vanderbilt was gonna beat Missouri because I love Pavio Jerry Kill is maybe the best coach in all of football, the best pure football
coach in all of football. And what Vandy did, but they had a head coach that swallowed any ego he had, brought in a guy that's probably better than him, which is what every great coach does. Got a lot of good players to Mexico State, and I think that's well, my god, in New Mexico State, are you kidding? Well, yeah, and that's the team to beat Auburn thirty one to
ten at Jordan Hare. And Pavio is the guy that on Auburn's sideline when he ran over there and somebody bumped him or something, you picked him up and slammed them. This guy's the guy you don't want to meet in the back alley at twelve o'clock at night because he's gonna whip your butt. And so they've got a formula that works for them in today's world where they can beat a good football team and they don't have the best players, but they've got a formula that works for them.
And I love how their portal has one. It's a portal where they go low and bring up good players from lower schools, lower levels and bring them up, whereas most people are looking. You know, when you're at a lower deal, you're looking to take George's number three, right, And I think that's a formula for failure.
Yeah. Interesting.
We're talking to Tony Franklin, former Kentucky assistant and now he has created the Tony Franklin System, an online roadmap if you.
Will, the football success.
We'll talk more with Tony after the break on six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Tony Franklin, former Kentucky assistant coach and now the producer of the Tony Franklin System online at coach tf dot com. It's really fascinating. But I always enjoyed talking to you when you were at Kentucky and following your career, and as I mentioned at Cal, you coach Jared Goff, and I guess you're not surprised at what the Lions are.
Doing right now, are you.
Well, it's another one of those things that in today's world in the NFL, you just wonder how people do it. Andy Reid, how does he do it?
Every year?
He's got a formula. Belichick had a formula and then the formula. The formula didn't work anymore, and he didn't adjust. But Dan Campbell's got a formula, and his formula is tough, heart love, and they built players that can fit his personality and if they can't, they're not going to make it. And so together, what he did instead of what I felt like at the time with McVeigh when Belichick handed him his butt in the Super Bowl, then the scapegoat was Jared. And so what Dan Campbell did when Jared
came in is he embraced him. He coached him hard, he coached him tough that he surrounded him with better players every year. And now all of a sudden, it's amazing. You know, Jared's a great player again. And Jared's been you know, Jared is a special young man. He's a really good football player. He's a better person. He came from really good people, and you know, he's in year nine.
He's been an All Pro, made the Pro Bowl three or four times, been to a Super Bowl, and last year almost pulled off, you know, a major run, and hopefully this year he will again. So it's fun to watch him do that. And you know, you mentioned Pooky a while ago, and Pooki was one of my favorite humans I ever coached.
You know, I went and.
Helped Pooky's son that is now at South Alabama, that went to Grambling as a quarterback, and Pooky and I still communicate and talk once every few weeks, and he's loving living down in the Mobile area.
Now, great, you have coached in the state or you did coach in the state of Kentucky high school and college from what nineteen eighty eight through the early two thousands, including a turn with the Lexid and Horseman?
Was that fun?
Most fun I've ever had, real car and nothing ever would come close.
You know.
The thing with the Horseman was it was a group of young men that played football very simply because they loved the game. They got paid two hundred dollars game. They you know, we worked our practice schedules around their work schedules, and we formed a team that just really cared about the game and liked each other. And we had more fun and so, you know, instead of like in college, you know, you got curfew, you've got bed checked,
you're going around making sure everybody's ready. You know, with the Horsemen, I took the bus and we dropped them off at the bars and told them we'd be back at midnight and if they didn't show up, And they showed up for a walk through the next day, and we went out and played, and it was literally the most fun I've ever had enjoying the game and just
enjoying young people. And you know, some of those guys will be my friends forever, and we still communicate back and forth with each other and it's fun to watch it. So yeah, it was a pretty special deal.
I was a season ticket older for as long as they existed.
I love that I didn't cover the game.
I did a little bit, but I just like my son and me, we just sat up in the stands and rooted for the Horsemen. Also on your resume, and I think we talked aboutcause you and I spoke, I think before the Super Bowl when Detroit was making a run during the playoffs, we spoke. But you were a coach of the Army's sprint team, right, What is it like being a part of that program, being on that campus. I can't imagine.
Every single day that I drove. I lived in Beacon for Beacon, New York, which is about as the Crow flies. It's probably five miles but on the roads from Beacon, around the around the Hudson River and through the mountains.
It's about a thirty.
Minute drive to get there every day, and every day, the moment I drove up on West Point on the campus, my heart fluttered. I felt like I was the luckiest man in the world. Mark west who was my first quarterback that I ever coached at Murray High School in nineteen eighty three when I was the hit football coach at Murray High From nineteen eighty three to eighty five, Mark is the head coach of the Army sprint team. Mark went to West Point. He was a football player there.
He played on the sprint team. They've been playing football for about sixty years there, sprint football. And now the cool thing is is that he's coaching his second son as the quarterback for the sprint team. He's had two sons and now I go to West Point. His youngest son is now his quarterback. But that year was again just man. You talk about appreciating the sacrifices. The big boys, as they call them, the real Army football, the ones that go and play, you know, in front of forty
thousand people every week there on the road. You know, they get some privileges. The guy's playing sprint football. They got no privileges. They're running across campus trying to get to practice on time. They got to lose weight. It's like being a wrestler. You know, you might weigh one eight eight and a game day you got to weigh one seventy eight. And so they're losing weight, their missing
meals just to play football. And you talk about loving the game of football, and that was just, oh my gosh. I just felt so privileged every day. I wish I could have afforded to go do it every year, because I would have done it every single year for the rest of my life. And I tell you a great story.
He was a defensive.
Coordinator and I told him at the end of the season, I said, you know, I've worked with Manny Diaz, with Will Muschamp, some of the best defensive coordinators in the history of football, and the defensive coordinator for Army Sprint Football was the best defensive coach I ever worked with. And I told him after the season, I said, you know, you could be anywhere coaching for anybody. You're better than
anybody I've ever coached with. And he said, I would never for all the money in the world leave this place. He said every single day that I drive here, I am the most privileged man in the world. He was a veteran and it was just so cool to have the people that cared that much about it. And of course from Mark, you know, he got program in dal you know, he lives right there and he buried. He married a cada She's a retired colonel. He's retired lieutenant colonel.
Her father was a general. So it's just a cool history, very much so.
And we should have explained sprint football is for people, as Tony said, you.
Can't weigh more than what one s eight. Yeah. Yeah, it's all about.
Speed and agility and athleticism. And that's got the Tony Franklin system written all over it.
Just a few minutes left.
But Tony Franklin, he of course, the former high school successful high school coach in Kentucky and assistant at UK coach running backs wide receivers, was the OC after Mike Leach left, but coached at Troy Auburn Middle Tennessee cal And let me ask you too, though about it, if you've been able to keep an eye on Kentucky, because man, this season is a head scratcher coach.
Yeah, yeah, And you know, I'll tell you what, the whole the whole season for everyone's ahead scratcher. And so I watched Kentucky a couple of times this year, and you know, I said this before the season. I think I was talking to Alan Color one day. And football is constantly evolving. So there was a time where I would watch Kentucky and go, man, if they would just you know, run some of our stuff and go tempo and do this stuff. As good as they are on defense,
you know, they could be contenders for the SEC. And now it's just the opposite is that defenses continued to get smaller, to adjust to the tempo stuff. Defenses became three man fronts, and so what now is the advantage is being big. Vanderbilt's success a lot of times Vanderbilt in three backs, just like wishbone football, and today that becomes an advantage. So for Kentucky, it's a weird deal
because you think about this a feel. Go against Georgia and you know, another score against Vandy, and people are saying, what a great year it is at Kentucky, one of the best years ever. But that's just the way it is. I did a podcast the other day for a West Virginia group and they were asking things about Neil and he's getting all kinds of heat there and people are wanting him fired and all that, and I said, you don't be careful what you wish for, and they go, well,
you know, we want Jim Bowsher. I said, Jimbo Fisher can't hold Neil Brown's job. You know, Neil Brown is a really good football coach, but guess what, so is everybody else. They're all good and every week when you go up and line up, you're going to play somebody who has players that are just as good as yours, and you're going to win some, you're gonna lose some. If you have a great year of the ball is going to bounce your way a few more times than
it doesn't. So people better be careful what they wish for. And I don't have any I don't have much empathy for coaches in that profession because they make a hell of a lot of money to put up with the craft that they put up with. So you know, a high school coach is making forty thousand. I'm worried about somebody walking through the hallways, the gun and shooting people and listening to the same crap from his fans. So I don't feel too bad for the college coach.
Yeah, and now they're dealing with the nil and with portal, and that's the conversation.
I'd love to have with you in another night.
Maybe when you're in town and we'll stop at Charlie Brown's. We'll talk about that. But I wish I had more time with you. Tony Franklin He is a former UK assistant but now known for the Tony Franklin System, seminar and great knowledge. He shares with us on Twitter or x via Coach TF and the Coach.
Thanks. I'll try to touch base with you more often. I love talking football with you.
Thanks Dick. It is so good catch up. Take care.
That'll do it for our number one.
Our number two brings us Maggie Davis of BBN Tonight and Steve Russell, who is a broadcaster from Gainesville. We'll get the lowdown on the Gators coming up in our number two. Here on the Big Bomb Side or six thirty w l a bag, welcome back to the Big Blue Insider and joining us down our celebrity Hotline is a longtime friend.
Of the show.
A though BB and Tonight Maggie Davis has been on the air for how long.
Now, BB and Tonight, Josh, good question. I think this will be our fourth basketball season. It's our fourth football season right now. We started the COVID year because the first year was so weird. At that point, I was just a production assistant. Basically I was helping write the show and do a lot of work behind the scenes.
But I believe that was in twenty twenty. So yeah, going on our fourth year and is in person and normal and fun and more fun when they win, of course, but any time that we're not on ZOM it's a good thing, right Yeah.
And now you're the co host. Go from production assistant.
You just kip your head down and your nose to the grinding wheel and your co host with Keith Farmer covering things all things UK and this is I know it's a hectic time of year, but when you're filling a show, you and I have talked about this. I did it for so long at KYT. There's no such thing as too much content.
As there no, definitely not. And I've actually made this joke repeatedly over the last like two weeks, that I complain when there's nothing going on, and it's hard to fill a show in the summer, So I don't allow myself to complain about being busy, right, I feel like I can't complain both ways, So I'll take the busy October if I can complain about a splow June every once in a while. So no, I'm good. You're right.
Not never too much content, certainly too many hours probably in the office and around the basketball facility, the football facility, volleyball game. Softball is actually playing this weekend, which is kind of crazy. So all sorts of fun stuff going on, and it makes our show fun. And I'm sure you feel the same way.
Oh yeah, and you know this is the overlap period, as I said. And of course last weekend you had the pro day at the beginning you and came in, were there for that, And then of course madness football, you know, volleyball. But let me let me start you with madness. Because you guys talked to Rick Patino. How surprised were you, Maggie that we knew he was coming to the football game. People wondered would he make an appearance at Madness or would he back off thinking, oh,
this is Mark's night, this is their night. But he was clearly happy to be a part of it.
Well, I think the biggest thing is yes, he was clearly so happy to be part of it. But I think Mark Hope was so happy to have his coach be part of it and to really welcome him back into the fold in that way, to make it not just about ri Petino but just part of the start of the season, ushering in a new era, to have players in national champions from so many different teams all honored.
And then, of course Rick Patino is the one who comes out at the end and ultimately speaks to the crowd and gets that welcome that he got, et cetera, et cetera. But I think Mark Pope probably had a lot to do with it. Obviously, the story early on in the week leading up to the weekend was that
Mark Stoops had invited Rick Patino to the game. He even said that on Saturday about the Vanderbilt football game, So that was maybe one thing, and then it just made too much sense that, man, this was happening that exact day weekend. Obviously, Keenland is in session as well. I actually didn't see any pictures of Patino out at Keeenland, but I would have to imagine that he made it out there at least for a little bit before he somehow got back to New York in time for some
baseball games. So he's certainly been busy. But I think it was important not only to Patino but really the Mark Pope to have his coach in attendance and to usher in this new era. Like I said, that is so important to Pope to make it a family oriented experience, and he said that so much in terms of this is Kentucky's team and we're here for you and we're all in this together and all of that sort of stuff. And I think bringing Rick back was a big part of that for him.
Yeah, and I really loved how they brought out all the old players from every era they could find.
Basically, I will say it introduced them.
I know they were running short on speak, but but that was fun as well. And what did you think of because Mark Pope on media Day, you were there when he said I'm not going to come out on a motorcycle or something like that, because that's what Rick did at one point, what did you think of the way Mark Pope made his appearance, suddenly appearing in the cheapest seats in the house.
Well, I thought it was perfect. It was so Mark Pope. It's exactly what he's done since he's been here. And that is, like I said, make this about Kentucky's team, and in that moment, it is so much about the coach. It is so much about Pope and the moment and welcoming him in and wow, let's let's look at him and put a spotlight on him and listen to him, and all of this attention goes to him and that is truly not the kind of coach or frankly person from what I've seen, that Mark Pope is or what's
to be. So it totally makes sense to me that in that moment, yes, you're all going to be looking at him and the spotlight is still going to be on him, but it's really about the fans and wow, can you imagine what that is like for then? Can you imagine what that section is like right now and
what they're feeling and seeing And it's so funny. And you mentioned I'm co host every night with Keith Farmer and We were talking about this on the air on Monday following Man on the last Friday Night, and he said on our show that he'd heard that Pope was kind of questioning, I don't know if I'm going to
do it? Can I do it? And then ultimately gets up there and it's trying to hide so it can be a surprise and have like, you know, it's put up or whatever, trying to camouflage up on the back row of a prena back against the wall, and I'm like, our Pope, man, you are way too tall to blend in to any crowd, especially in all your UK year or whatever. But I love that it worked out. And yet I would love to take here from some of those bands who were in that section, because I think
that had to be an incredible experience. And then even to another extent, the players doing their own version of it later in the night was really cool.
I thought, you know, I thought that it almost felt like Caliperi. And I don't mean any of this to ever be just a knock session on Caliperi, but you know, it did run its course. We all know that I felt like he had kind of tired of madness. You know, and this was just more of the new life being pumped into the program.
Well, I think there are certain events that just kind of lose a little bit of their sparkle year after a year, especially if they're done in a very similar way, and it is hard to reinvent the wheel. And that's not just John Caliperry. I mean I think you could say that about football events, volleyball events, anything that is the exact same every year. It's hard to build excitement and a lot of it, especially when you think about basketball season and how the past few.
Years have gone.
You have to think about how the year before ended, and there's only so many times you can build up excitement for a new season when you're just coming off of a disappointing one. And I think last year, the last year of cal Perry and his last Manness to kind of think back to that actually was a really good Big Blue Madness. I mean they brought out to
Marcus Cousins and there were some really fun moments. Obviously, Big V had sort of just been introduced to BBN, so he got a huge pop when he got introduced, So there were some fun moments that I think he deserves credit for helping create. But I also think a lot of that was even with some disappointment from this season.
Prior to that, there was excitement with the reach shepherd of it all, and DJ Lagner was a recruit fan that heard him out forever, right, So there was some natural excitement around that team that I'm not sure would have necessarily been there had the Calipari era continued. But you bring in a new coach, obviously all of that changes.
Maggie Davis is co host of BBN Tonight.
You see her each night Monday through Friday, and on Game Day Kentucky Game Day on Saturdays. And we'll come back and talk more with Maggie in just a minute here on the Big Bulling Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome Back, We're.
Talking with Maggie Davis.
She and Keith Farmer co host BBN Tonight every weeknight, and of course you see them on UK Game Day on Saturday. Christy Thomas is one of the co hosts there, and you and I talked a lot of basketball in the first Seven'm going I gotta drag you over to football now because this game with Florida, I think everybody saws a big opportunity because Florida's had troubles. Kentucky has
played well against Florida through the years. Every game is new, though, But now against the backdrop of that Vandy loss, and of course Vandy rather at Florida loses at Tennessee in a game it probably should have won. Man, this thing is could be monumental, you know, for both programs.
Well, I think it will be, and I think that this game always feels big for both programs. I think it's interesting where it falls on the schedule this year. This is maybe just me, but in my head, Florida is normally a week two, week three matchup. I like it. It's about halfway through the season this year. You know more about both teams. You've seen them, not just in a non conference, but you've seen how they've done against other SEC teams and how they want to play, how
they want you to play. But obviously that will be changing for Florida this week with their backup quarterback expecting to make the start. He has started another game already talking about j Lagway. So Kentucky has a little bit of film on him and a little bit more inside than maybe the traditional backup quarterback Cup who comes in in the middle of a game and just takes you
by surprise. Obviously, he finished the Tennessee game for them last Saturday as well, but there will be a certain element of newness to it just because of that element. And then for Kentucky there's certainly a lot to figure out. I mean, you talked about the Vanderbilt loss, and there's no sugarcoating what that loss felt like, looked like, et cetera. To fans and even to those within the program. Marchdoops has been incredibly frustrated every time we've heard from him
this week. I mean, you know this, Normally, after a game, it's one thing, and then he talks again Monday morning and it's a little looser. He talks again Monday night on his radio show. He's a little looser, and then you know, you roll in the game week and by Thursday we're on to the next right, and this week, I mean, it just hasn't felt like that. Right after the game, he was frustrated Monday morning press conference, frustrated Monday night on the radio show, doubled down being frustrated.
And maybe that's just his frustration with the situation that this team is in at this point, or maybe it's frustration that he's been saying these same things and the team doesn't seem to be getting it. At this point. He talked so much about discipline and playing clean football and not feeding yourself, and again that's what happened to Kentucky against Vandy. So I think that has clearly been the message this week for this team, and we'll see how they come out and respond to it this Saturday.
You know, I'm wondering, and they need leadership. They talk about it, and I'm wondering if in this day and age, not just Kentucky, but so many players on the move learning new teammates every year, and some programs, as you know, are dramatically bigger than others in the transport portal movement era,
but not learning guys as incoming recruits. You know, guys, I always talk about their that I can tell you what you have to So many players can go back and rattle off the names of the guys in their recruiting class. Right Well, now they're learning new teammates on the fly, and I wonder what that's like when it comes to trying to develop leadership and learn guys who should I follow?
Who is this guy? What's he all about? What are his values? And is he the kind of guy I want to hitch my wagon to, you know what I mean?
Oh, I totally agree with that. And I think the other point of that is is he a guy who's going to talk? Or do I need to toss?
Right?
Who's in charge of this locker room? Right? And there is more of a balancing act. Think about certain positions being leadership or you think about certain ages being the leaders, right, the seniors on the team or the guys back so their fifth year, but even now in the portal era, that is the player who is in his fourth, fifth, sixth, in Kentucky's case, seventh year on the team. Margustock planned seven years of college football, but only his second year
in Lexington. And that's true really, I mean across the country. That's certainly not just the UK. But it is a new dynamic of guys who are in these quote unquote traditional positions you think of as leadership positions not necessarily having the equity built up not just with their coaches but also with their teammates, with the fan base, etc. To really have a voice and to feel powerful enough
and justified enough in using it right. You think about the quarterback, well, Kentucky's quarterback the last couple of years has been new, and so that's a new way of stepping into a locker room and trying to command that attention in that respect, and you have to earn it. And I think you look back a couple of years ago, we'll let us talk about that repeatedly, and we heard a lot about that when he was here, that he would have individual meetings with individual players to get to
know them one on one and earn their respect. And you have to do that outside of practice as much as you have to do it at practice. And it really, I feel like has to be that intentional. And whether or not Kentucky's quarterback Simpson have done that, I'm not sure. They definitely could have. Devin Leary could have done that.
Rob Vandergriff could have done that. But I just remember hearing so much about it the Will Levish year, the first his first year, that it really has stayed with me as something that made a big difference on that team that when you look at it really did have a lot of these same sort of components of a new quarterback a couple of new guys on the offensive line, you have one No Robinson at wide receiver. You know he was brand new too, so there were a lot
of similar components, but they're just there. Does seem to be an issue of figuring out who the leader should be and who has earned that role within a team with so many guys, with new players, they learn it.
And earn it with their work ethic, but then they go out and make play. That's such a big thing. I mean, I remember talking to players prior to Will Levis's first season and they were so impressed with his arm strength and his skills as a quarterback. I know he has struggled mightily in the NFL, but back then, but then he goes out and proves it with his toughness on the field. So, yeah, he walked it and he talked it. And for someone to come in and
do that immediately. The more I see it, Maggie, or the more I see each season, that's rare.
That's hard to do, isn't it.
It is hard to do, and I think it's worth saying that it's hard to do in college, right. These guys are not professional athletes. And the more you're around them, and I know, obviously you are, I am anybody in the media or fans who get some kind of access, whether that's even at the catwalk or something like that, you realize up close and personal, some of these guys
are nineteen years old, twenty years old. They look like kids, and they are like Peon Walker comes to mind, because he is such a huge guy just physically, and he plays so big on the football field and he makes these big plays and he is going to the NFL next year. But you see him in person and he just has his little baby face and he's so nice and I'll give you a hug, and he's excited to
see you, and he's just nice. And I just you know, there's a lot of guys on this team like that, and you have to remember that they're figuring it out too, And a lot of that is why I think it does all on the coaching staff to get these guys in a position, like we talked about earlier, build leaders within your program in an intentional way. And if this is not a team with a personality to do it on their own, a coach does need to step in
and facilitate that. However that looks for each particular team.
So how do you think this game plays out Saturday night? Down there with the Kentucky would seem like Kentucky's strength against one of the biggest or the biggest question mark for Florida D line against Florida's quarterback.
Yes, I think Kentucky's D line should have a very good game. I mean they've been very good at stopping to run all year. I mean, sea line has been obviously the strength of this team, really, I think so. I think all the off the question marks are more surrounding the offense, and certainly coming off of a Vannerbelt game where they only scored on two of their seven possessions and made some really big mistakes along the way.
Penalties included in that. So I think clean football, discipline football. Going back to what we said earlier, Mark Fop's message for the week, you have to see that you cannot see five flags on the offensive line. I think that was brutal last week, not just score the number of yards we lost, in the momentum you lost, but just the morale of that group, of the offense and frankly of everybody in Kroger Field. I was there and every
time a flag, you know, another flag flew out. It's like this collective sigh of like, why can't we figure this out? Why are we still playing like that? So I think seeing clean football and just avoiding those mistakes and not beating yourself will be just as important in this game as finding a couple more explosive plays. And Bush had been talked openly about that this week's saying we've only had five explosive plays in the run game
this year. We have to find more of those. And I think just as important you have to find some more in the passing game as well. You have some dynamic options at wide receiver. They need to play clean football too and make catches when they do come their way.
It's so weird, Maggie, how they play so much better on the road exactly.
And I think, if anything, maybe that makes BBN feel better going into this game, right. I mean, Billy Napier has never beaten Mark Shops to this point. It's a totally different streak than the one we're used to talking about, which we can test you in Florida, right, But the guests have been better on the road this year. You go back to that all Miss game and they were good in that environment. We've had players tell us on our show this year they prefer to play on the
road because it is fewer distractions. You do come in feeling like you have a chip on your shoulder. And Mark Shops has always had a program and fully done best with a team that has chips on its shoulder and feels like they're the underdog and wants to play with something to prove and maybe going on the road helps give them a little bit of that edge more so than at home. But at the same time, the Cats really do also have to figure out how to play a Kroger field when they have a fan base
likes the Big Blue Nation. Packing it for a night game against Vanderbilts a blackout was awesome. I mean not the only time this year the fans have really showed up and showed out for the team to leave disappointed. And so obviously I'll win this weekend. It's crucial for full eligibility, it hopes for the season as a whole, but just as important it's going to be coming back against Auburn the following week.
Follow her on Twitter, Maggie Davis TV.
Thank you, ma'am, Thank you so much we soon.
Gainesville radio hosts Steve Vetter peak Florida Gator Athletics. Steve Russell's sports director w r UF. Steve, you've been covering the Gators for how long now.
Since nineteen seventy six.
Wow, we go back to virtually the same time covering the SEC. You have seen the highs and the Florida football more highs than lows.
But what's it like right now? I know the Natives are restless.
Natives are really restless. Take and I think it is just directed at Billy Napier because he's the coach now. But I personally, I think this is an accumulation of frustration over the last you know, fifteen years or so. But if you look at the history of Florida football,
they've really only had three pockets of success. The eighty four team, which is being honored in this game, you know, won the SEC on the field, and then this Burrier era and the Urban Meyer era, and there have been certainly, you know, decent teams, but those were the great days of Gator football. And it's been a while, frankly since Florida's been irrelevant, and that has not made the fan base happy at all.
That always amazed me, Steven, probably you as well, that with all the talent in the state of Florida, and you've had some really good teams, that Florida has not been more dominant. But then again, easier said than done in the SEC, right.
It is because I think, and you know this, I mean that the coaching in the SEC is better. You know, Florida is very late to the party on getting it getting facilities, so a lot of other schools passed more to buy and got better athletes and better recruits. Because of that, and because Florida wasn't winning, other schools were. You know, some kids decided to go to a program that was winning as opposed to what Florida was doing.
So you throw that all into the to the mix, and that's kind of where you have Florida, you know where it is right now.
And a tough break with your quarterback going down, Graham Mertz, Uh, I see according to his tweet, he's done.
Uh.
So you've got a freshman quarterback who's going to have to handle a load.
Right absolutely, Uh, you know, Graham Mertz. Let me just say, and covering this team for as long as I have there has not been a guy who's shown more class, uh more loyalty to his team. Just a terrific kid. And and here be missed on the football field, but he'll still be part of what's going on. But yeah, now j Lagway with five star recruit, you know all of that, and he has tremendous potential. I think he has a chance to be a really good player here
if he's back stays here. You never know these days. But he is a freshman and certainly you know, teams have tried to blitz him a little bit to rattle him. And Kentucky's really good on defense, so I'm sure Marks Dukes will has some things in store for the young quarterback.
Yeah, I remember Chris Leak as a youngster. He got kind of thrown into the fire and acquitted himself fairly well. But I do remember Kentucky blitz the daylights out of him and Florida still won the game. But you can throw a lot at a freshman quarterback, can't you.
You sure can't. Now, I will say this, If Florida has a strength offensively, it's in the receiving court. I think you know, Shamir dk Wilson, Myzelle that receiving group is pretty darn good. The issue has been protection for the quarterback. And you know, even with Graham Merch, the veteran guy that he is, you know he had protection issues from the offensive line. Lagway has a dynamic arm. I think he's a really good player for a young player. But that's going to be the key to the game.
I think is going to be can Florida protect run the football and help Blagway out. You get him in third and long. You know, second and long. That's not good for a veteran quarterback, let alone for a young one.
We're talking to Steve Russell WRUF Radio down in Gainesville. Lagway sixty five completion rate, more than seven hundred and fifty yards, five tds, four picks. How is he when the pocket breaks down?
I think that's an area he needs to improve in. I mean, certainly he's got scrambled ability. He can he's pretty quick on his feet, but look, veteran quarterbacks can scramble and continue to look down the field. He's done that on a case and when he's done, he throws a beautiful ball. But that's what he's gonna have to do more consistently. Is when the pocket breaks down, keep his eyes downfield and try to make something happen in the throw game. He's better than he was, but still work to do.
I know, Billy Napier is catching a lot of fire, the hot seat, all that stuff he was brought in. I was quite frankly, I don't know about you're surprised that Dan Mullen didn't get it done.
I know that goes back.
To recruiting, but Napier had been known as a strong recruiter at Louisiana.
How surprised are you, Steve.
That this hasn't had it hasn't really worked yet. Things aren't happening yet for Napier.
Oh wow, that's that's tough. When when Napier was hired, obviously wasn't a household name, and that got some Gator fans off on the long foot. At least with Dan Mullen, you knew who he was. He'd coached here with Urban, he's been a head coach in the league and overall, except for the collapse at the end, if you look at his record, you think, well, why was he not
still coaching? Because his record overall wasn't bad. But Napier's been a little bit snake bit, but they've had some things on the field, you know, twelve in on the field, you know, penalties like that that have just killed this team. The impressive thing for me, I will say, despite the losses and a sub five hundred record, overall, those kids played hard last week. They had kinda see on the ropes.
Arguably should have won that game, Dick. So while that's impressive and that's good, it's still a loss, and that's got to turn around.
Shut them out in the first half. Shut out a Tennessee team in a first half. How'd that happen?
I don't think Tennessee is very good in the throw game. I think their quarterback is very overrated. From what I mean the first couple of games they played against nobody, he was great, but from what I saw, overthrew receivers, kind of zeroed in on one receiver and was not impressive at all. And Tennessee was just so so running the football, and that is an area, Dick. I think
Florida's gotten better at They were frocious defensively. I think now they're a better defensive football game than what they were at the beginning.
Of the year. What is the strength of their defense.
I really liked their back end a lot. I think they're very athletic there. They've had some injuries there though, and that's what's kind of hurt them. They've not had their full compliment of guys playing corner and safety, and on occasion they can get pressure on the quarterback. But overall, I just think from a scheme perspective, knowing where to line up, knowing where to go defense is a lot better than what it was.
I was on your show Tuesday morning. What kind of research have you done, What do you know about Kentucky and how do you see this matchup materializing?
Well, I know this I witnessed last year and I know what a thumping Florida took on the ground with Kentucky. I mean when if you'd have told me that Kentucky throw it for what sixty nine yards or seventy yards and you win the fourth ball game, I would have taken that beck to the house. Well guess what happened. Kentucky just ran all over Florida. So I think the key of this game for Florida is going to be
stopping Kentucky's run. Make your quarterback beat Florida in the throw game, and then hopefully you do enough on offense to go up against what I think is a very good Kentucky defense. I don't see this being a forty to thirty five kind of game. I see this being the game in the twenties, you know, maybe twenty eight to twenty or something like that, and you hope at
home the crowd gives you an advantage. But I think this is going to be a trenches game, and hopefully the team that doesn't commit the most turnovers wins the game.
Such a disappointing loss to Tennessee, you get it into overtime, but you lose it. Any idea of the emotional state of the Gators right now, I will.
Say this is to their credit. The players that were made available Bick for media day expressed just that how difficult a loss this was, because they felt they should have won the game. Not just you know, hung in the game, but should have won the game. So I think that's going to be a big key for this game too. You would hope young guys forget this and bounce back. It's homecoming, you know all of that. But
there's no question that lost stung. I think this football team felt it was better than Tennessee was on that day and should have won the game.
Yeah. Yeah, well it appears that way.
And it's interesting Kentucky just lost on homecoming and our color analyst Jeff pcorol I played at Kentucky back in the eighties under Jerry Claybourn and Frank Kersey, and.
He told us, he said, you know, I didn't really care.
For homecoming because there were so many distractions. Coaches like to talk about distractions, but that's a reality when it's home come, isn't it.
It is? And I think it's how you embrace that, Dick. I mean you you could look at it as a as a distraction or hey, you know what our alumni are coming back. We're going to in this case onto the eighty four team which won the SEC on the field. I think it's all how you approach it. And yeah, you got Gator Grau and the parade and all of that, but it should not take away by that time, you know, on a Friday, your game plans in what you're going
to do is already there. I've never been much about, you know, that being a distraction because it should not be your game plan should be in place.
By that well, Florida goes into Nayland Stadium nearly pulls out a win coming home in a place where obviously I've tread the sidelines. Therefore, many years I've been rained on. I've an experienced brutal heat, some perfect evenings.
What are we looking at Saturday?
Low scoring game? I think, and I think the team that commits the fewest turnovers wins the game. And for Florida, you know, how does DJ Lagway do if Florida gets a run game to support him? That obviously makes it easier. You don't want to be, as I said earlier, third and seven, second and ten, that plays in the Kentucky's hands because Kentucky is good on defense. So I think the team that runs the ball better in this game, commits a fewer turnovers, has a better chance to win.
And finally, is it good rain or is it going to be a pleasant evening? In terms of weather in Florida?
Right now, it's supposed to be gorgeous with all the terrible weather we've had come through here. Tomorrow the highs are in the seventies and the lows of the forties.
Wow.
So yeah, so this weekend looks to be pretty nice, pretty kind of spring like weather here in Gainesville.
Did you and yours make it through the terrible weather? Okay, I know you're not there on the coast.
But.
Yeah, thank you for asking. Like I said, have been in Gainesville since nineteen seventy three, and I got to tell you, the first storm that came through here created more damage than I've ever seen in our area. You know, being inland here, we're not as prone to getting damage because we're none on the coast and by the water.
But it was pretty bad. We got lucky the second time, but just to see, you know, when you see piles of debris still out in front of my house after all this time, it heals into comparison with what happened in other places here in the state, in the southeast. So it's just devastating when you see that.
By the way, did I see in your bio you're a you're a New york Er. You were a New York kid who came down to Florida.
Yeah. The real quick story, my high school baseball coach graduated from here and I was a baseball player, and he raved about the place, so I I was going to walk on play baseball here, and then I was a pitcher and then hurt my arm, so I couldn't do that anymore. But I always knew I wanted to go into journalism or some kind of you know, sports journalism, so stuck it out. And it's been really good for me.
I was going to say, worked out pretty well, didn't it.
Sure I am a lucky you know, if you'd told me a kid from a one high school town in New York would be able to do what I've done and talk to the people I've talked to and seen what I've seen, I would never have believed that at sixteen, seventeen years old. So yeah, it's been great for me.
Dick Well, you can follow Steve on Twitter or x if you like, it's Steve Russell eight p fifty and tune him in at WRUF Radio and gamesvill Steve, thank you so much.
See you Saturday.
You got to appreciate you save journey here.
When we come back, we will wrap up with a look back at a big Kentucky road win. That's next on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP.
Welcome Back.
Whented to wrap this up with a couple of looks back at UK football. This day in UK football history, of course, was the day that in nineteen ninety eight Kentucky went down to Baton Rouge and beat LSU on a seth Hanson thirty three yard field goal. You might recall that Kentucky had a big lead, two touchdown lead going into the fourth quarter.
It was up thirty six twenty two.
LSU tied the game with about five and a half to go and then the team swapped punts. Kentucky gets it back with inside I think two minutes or maybe just a little more than a minute, and first down
runs it into the line. So we're all thinking, okay, how mummy's going to play for overtime and then next thing you know, it's an end around with Quentin McCord, who was incredibly fast but often injured, made it to the NFL, just couldn't stay healthy, and on this particular night it was plenty healthy and moved Kentucky into position for a field goal. Hansen nailed it and Kentucky goes on that year to the outback ball behind Tim Couch.
So that was such a great memory that when you think about going into death Valley not a great LSU team, but man, that was a great game. I mean LSU was down at the half sixteen to thirteen. Kentucky poured it on in the third quarter, as I said, but then LSU comes all the way back before Kentucky goes fifty eight yards in a minute fifty seven for that field goal by Seth Hanson. I want to take you back as well, six years ago to Gainesville when Kentucky
snapped the streak. And that's what was crazy about this thirty one game, losing skid and it ended in Gainesville, and it should have ended two years prior.
Maybe it was four years but I don't remember, but it was one of the prior trips.
You might recall that Florida got away with a play it shouldn't have when the play clock expired.
But at any rate, Terry.
Wilson, Benny Snell, they go down there and really this was the first touchdown, believe it or not, touchdown passed to a former walk.
On four man rush as Wilson sets to throw, scrambles off to his right looking down field, throwing down field touchdown Kentucky.
David Booby A how cool was that? And working the sidelines. I was ahead of the football. I'm either ahead or I stayed behind it to get a look at what the D line is doing to the O line. But I was ahead down by the end zone, and here comes David Boovier popping open, and Terry Wilson hits him, sneaking in there behind the Florida defense, and I immediately recalled that.
I believe it was that year when I.
Went to do an interview with Mark Steups priors of the Blue White Game, and I always ask him who has stood out, and oftentimes anymore he won't give you one name or real decline to answer, but a couple of times he mentioned specific players. In that year was one of them, and he right away said, you know, David Bouvier's had a really good spring. This guy is a former walk on but getting a lot of clock at wide receiver, and he catches the first touchdown pass
to the game, giving Kentucky their early lead. That was also the game where Terry Wilson did it with his arm and his legs, ran away from trouble all night. And I remember one point the Florida student section and they hang over the wall. They like to heckle me and anybody from Kentucky. But I walk by them all the time. I have to to get from one end of the field to the other. And they're not dangerous, but you know, they can be funny, they can be rude.
But they were really heckling me. But early in the game, I'm talking about middle of the second quarter, this one kid who had been yelling at me got my attention and I looked up. I'm like yeah, and he goes your quarterback. I'm like, yeah, he's awesome. I said, yeah, he is, isn't he?
You know? But it was because he made plays like this.
Wilson thankes the pitch on a keeper at the twenty at the fifteen ten five touchdown Kentucky. They sent the flow to the left, bake the pitch, and he cut it back right and went for sick.
I don't know the Florida ever caught up to him that night, because later on he gets loose and finds Lynn Bowden, and you would hear that name a lot the following year, when Kentucky ran out of quarterback. Lynn Bowden had a sensational season moving from wide receiver to quarterback, but made a heck of a play this night down in Gainesville.
Wilson with a play fake all kinds of time. He is throwing deep Soden's out there.
Got it tuck down Kentucky.
Wilson laden right in a Brent pasket inside the five.
Well. Tom just about lost his mind. I know that one.
And then of course at the very end, Florida still had a chance, but you know, nowhere near the goal line, and Kentucky flushed the Gators out of the pocket, forced a turnover and DeVante Robinson picks up a loose ball and Mark stoops and the guys on the sidelines were like run, and.
So he did.
He got tackled at the one, but fell into the end zone and it goes as a touchdown.
On the last play of the game, four man rush, Frank's retreating, He's head.
As he throws it flutters incomplete with five seconds to play.
Josh Allen got.
Him touchdown Kentucky.
They're saying there was no look at this on replay.
There was no whistle, Tom and the officials were just looking at Davonte Robinson I think was who picked that ball up, and they signed touchdown for Kentucky. After further review, the ruling on the field of a fumble is confirmed.
It streak is over Tucky. At the end of the play turns over touchdown Ku.
Touchdown Kentucky.
After thirty one long games, the streak ends.
That was a crazy night.
That was fun being in the Kentucky locker room after that, and then the next time we all go down to Florida to cover this game that I believed two years later that might have been when the somebody was it, Roman Harper called Kentucky soft. It was one of the ensuing trips and Kentucky goes down and wins. And the first thing Stoops did when he got into the locker room was jump up on the bench and.
The other Who's soft?
Now there have been over the last several years some really amazing Kentucky Florida gamest Trevin Wallace as a freshman returning a blocked field goal for a touchdown, something that got away. Jared Lorenz and throws a bad pick. Derek Abney returns a kick for a touchdown, and a holding call behind the play on the other side of the field brings that one. So there have just been and then of course the blowouts in the Spurier era.
We'd like to forget about.
Them, but uh, this will be an interesting game on Saturday night and you will hear it right here.
That's gonna do it. Thanks for joining us.
Thanks to my guest Maggie Davis, Steve Russell, Tony Franklin.
That's a good night from the garage in Lexington.
Wants an orange whip, une whip, unge whip, three orange whips, say
Dan.