Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. To Gabriel with you on a Tuesday edition of Game Week. You got basketball tomorrow night, you got football on Saturday, you got baseball on Sunday. We'll talk about it all tonight here on the Big Blue Insider. Coming up tomorrow, it's Kentucky Wesleyan and the Wildcats in an exhibition game. We'll have it for you right here. The entire Big Blue Insider will be preempted by full radio coverage of Kentucky and wesley
and yes, it will be on the SEC Network. Then on Saturday, it's Kentucky Auburn seven forty five kickoff five thirty airtime for the UK Network with Christy, Jeremy and Logan and then Tom, Jeff and I with the call. The Cats and the Tigers. They must win situation for the football Wildcats if they want to keep their bull streak alive. We'll talk. We'll hear from Mark Stoops about that in just a minute, and coming up at the bottom of the hour, Darryl Bird will join us, editor
of the Cats Pause. He will talk to us a little bit about the yearbook that has been published, but also about the latest issue of the magazine where he talked at length with Leanne Pope, Missus Pope, the first Lady of Kentucky Basketball, the new first Lady. She's on the cover along with her husband. So we'll talk to Daryl about how that went, and apparently it went really well. Second hour, we'll talk with Michael Epps of Fox fifty six.
He is, as I call him, the road Warrior because he makes a lot of the road games and he went all the way to Gainesville to cover that mess down there, so we'll hear from him about that. And Darren Hedrick, our buddy from the UK Radio network. It was our football anchor man when it comes to the scoreboard, but also the radio voice of UK women's basketball baseball,
which has a scrimmage coming up Sunday. It won't be on the radio, but Daryl also worked the Blue White Game with Jack Gibbings this past Friday, so we'll get
his thoughts on the UK men and women's team. So a lot coming up on this particular radio program, The Football Wildcatch Mark Stoops talked to the media last night, talked to the fans on his radio show, talked to the media yesterday afternoon, and I tossed out a question Adam and I talked about it on the show last night with Jeff Bcorrel and Aaron Gershawn Billy Rutledge about the fact that as ugly as that Florida game was and they got off to a bad start, Kentucky did.
And I'll be honest with you, Jeff during the break said, one of the first commercial breaks, said, if they don't change some things right now, they're going to get a real good butt kicking. And in terms of the final score, it was, but in terms of how they competed for quite a while there, it was a ball game. And
I brought that up. I mean it was there. I won't say it was there for the taking, but Kentucky was a break or two away, a big player two away from really grabbing a momentum in that game and doing what it had done more than watch that engagement that hushed the crowd and make a run of a win.
And I talked to Stups yesterday. I asked a question about the fact that it had to be frustrating about the fact that, yes, it was a game for much of the much of the evening mark is as tough as the final score was you had to come from behind all night and you were in the game. You know.
Yeah, that's what Yeah, that's what's frustrated started to cut you off their deck. But it's like, yeah, I mean it felt like got away from you so close, but you're sitting there in the fourth with a two score game and the ball. But anyway, I finished a question I.
Got you besides with the team when you go back and look, yeah, yeah, it is like you're not far off, you know what I mean.
Again, we gotta we got to finish. We gotta finish drafts. You know, we know that, we all understand that. You know, when you got the ball in the inside the three, you got to get it in, you know.
And and.
You know, so we're not as far off we think. And even defensively, if there's some plays that it looks bad, but you know that that are fixable. We got to get some guys healthy. There's a there's a fine line this week you know, with me, with you know, how
how we practice. I don't generally alter mess with my practice schedule in season, I think, but you know, I have to look at how much banging and how physical we are on Tuesday and Wednesday, like we normally are what good against good because we're getting thin, you know, so, but we'll we'll have them ready to We'll have them ready to.
Go, and they have to be ready because Auburn has played almost everybody. If you look at the scores, almost everybody tough its own worst enemy, and most of its losses lost to Georgia, like thirty one thirteen Georgia is we know how good Georgia is top ranked again after beating Texas. But you know what Kentucky did against Georgia, played into the final three minutes with a chance to win. So if Kentucky doesn't beat itself, it's a decent football team.
Same you could say about Auburn, although the Tigers are in a spiral right now and they got nothing to lose going to well, actually they do because their hopes for postseason are still alive. But I think it's going to be two desperate teams on Saturday Night. But one of the things Stoops also talked about was that streak of postseason play and how it's in jeopardy right now and they want to keep it alive.
We're in the right now, you know, and trying to win this game, you know, and that's where we have to stay focused. Is important. I mean, I think it is in the grand scheme of things. I mean, you know, there's only eight schools in the country that have gone to eight straight. I mean there's only four in the SEC. It's it's not easy.
And I do appreciate it when he brings that up because he's right, of course, and people love to slough off Bowl appearances anymore. By saying you can schedule yourself to ball game, really, well, then why haven't more teams done it? With all due respect, that's my question. If it's so confounded simple to do, why haven't more teams scheduled their way to even one of the lower level bowl games? Because it ain't easy. Uh yeah, the powerhouse teams,
they're expected to go over you. It's not a big deal to let down if they have to settle, you know, for other music, city ball or whatever. And recency biased being what it is. There's an entire I don't know if it's an entire generation, but we're getting there, aren't we of Kentucky fans who are used to going to
Bowl games. Really you can go back. I guess you could say it's a generation of fans because you can go back to the mid aughts to six, that's eighteen years ago when Rich Brooks team finally broke through by beating Matthew Stafford and the Georgia Bulldogs at the Colisseum and won their way to a Music City Bowl. Now people shrugged that off. Do you remember what that was?
Like?
How much fun that was? And they upset Clemson and celebrated like they'd want a conference title. It was such a breakthrough. That's how big those bowl games are. Their rewards for the fans and their rewards for the players. And yeah, you can be bored about going to the tax Layer Bowl or this or that. I'll trust me
on this. The players are not because when the players go, it's the extra month to practice, but they get a per diem, They got all kinds of free stuff, maybe even a new computer, and they get a little jingle in their pocket as well. That's not the only reason they enjoy going, but it's a big deal. So the Cats need this win on Saturday to keep that dream alive. Kentucky and Auburn, you're gonna hear it right here. First
time they will have played since the COVID season. We'll talk about that a lot more as the week goes on. Up next, an interesting comment from the Boston Celtics head coach, a guy who was a thorn in the side of the Wildcats many years ago. That's next year on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider Dick Gabriel with you. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, Daryl Bird, the editor and publisher of The Cats Paws.
We'll talk to him about the yearbook, but also about the latest issue of the magazine, which features on the cover mister and Missus Mark Pope. Because Daryl did a sit down interview. He did one earlier with Mark. Now he's done one with LeeAnne Pope, so we'll find out what she had to say a little bit as a little little bit of a teaser for you. And coming up an hour number two, Micahleps of Fox fifty six. He made the road trip down to Gainesville. We call
him the road Warrior. Also Darren Headrick of the UK Sports Network. We're going to talk about UK football with Darren. He's our anchor on our football radio network for the Scoreboard Show, but also UK women's basketball baseball, and he wore excuse me, the blue white game games I should say plural. The women and the men played on Friday. We were all down in Gainesville, Tom Leach and the rest of the crew, so Darren sat in doing both men's and women's basketball. So that's coming up in our
number two. I wanted to share with you some things that I found earlier today. First and foremost, this is a comment from Joe Missoula. He is the head coach of the Boston Celtics, the reigning world champions. And you probably know of Joe Missoula if you're a Kentucky fan, because he played at West Virginia and he was the author of the greatest game in his career, picked the worst time for Kentucky fans to have the greatest game
of his career. In the Elite Eight in twenty ten, Missoula went off on the Way Wildcats that was the Cousin's John Wall team and kept Kentucky had in the final four. And to this day, I know you had a team that almost went undefeated. I know you had a team that won a national championship. Talking about Caliperia at Kentucky, I'm not so sure his first team was his best team. Yeah, because not only did they have Wall and Cousins, they had Patrick Patterson. They had a
ton of points or a ton of talent. But Joe Mozula scored a career high seventeen points and by the way, it was his first start of the year. In the tournament, Wildcats were stone cold, and West Virginia pulled off the upset in the East Region final seventy three to sixty six, keeping John Caliperry's first UK team out of the final four. Bob Huggins goes on to the final four. Remember a
few years later, Huggins runs into trouble. He's fired, But prior to that, he had a kid named Oscar Shebwey who was not working out the way Huggins wanted or the way Oscar wanted. So Oscar transfers to Kentucky and becomes player of the Year one year, but kind of a problem the next is they just could not find an offense that meshed around him. I kind of digress, but Missoula goes on to a coaching career after helping to eliminate a Kentucky team that that year, when thirty
five and three. Kentucky missed its first twenty attempts from three point range, finished four of thirty two. That's just to tick worse or I'm sorry, just to take better than three for thirty three that Kentucky hit or missed in Seattle in nineteen eighty four. Man frustrating. Anyhow, I bring this up because Mozilla had a really, really fascinating comment to a good question from a Boston reporter a media day about how Mozilla balances the pressure from the
media and dealing with the Boston media. He didn't say it that way, but I am because the Boston media is different from Lexington and Louisville Rougher, I gotta say it's just a just that kind of market. Seems like I had a guy work for me from Boston. He was always angry. Everything made him angry, and that just seems like an angry city. And I don't live there.
I haven't spent a lot of time there. Maybe that's not fair, but just in knowing the way the media cover sports in Boston, so this guy asked Mozilla about handling that as a head coach, and this was his response, which I thought was pretty deep.
I just don't look at it as pressure because like a Boston media member or some they expected me to win, Like they don't have a weapon, Like they're not gonna like come after me, or we don't win.
Like if you're saying words so like they don't mean anything. They're just words. We're just saying them because you have to say them.
You're attractionally obligated to write a you know, five hundred page article after our word article after they're just words. You can't do anything, and so it's just a made up word. We don't have a pressure if we love.
We're not losing our life. Like we're not surgeons, we're not like in the military. We coach basketball for a living, and no one's putting.
More pressure and expectations than we are in ourselves.
And it's like we have a responsibility.
And we have an ownership. And like I ask guys all the time, like would you rather have someone expect you to lose or win? Like if you came up with you, we're like, man, I really expected you to lose that game.
I would be best.
But it's like you come up to me like you should have won that game.
It's like, yeah, that's that's what we signed up for, you know, So I think it's just the perspective of how you look at it and like the truth. You know, but words have power, No, they don't if you look them, Like if you allow words to take your personal power, then yes, So I don't allow words to take my personal power, and like that's just important. Like words don't have good they only have power of you allowed me, And like that's what.
I try to teach my kids.
It's like I don't give what someone says to you, Like did you allow that to have an impact on you?
Like he didn't put his hands on you, he didn't touch me, he didn't like to do anything. He said something to me.
So now you have a choice to like decide how you're going to interpret that. So, like, it's not pressure. There's nothing anyone in the circle can do to me that's going to impact my identity and who I am as a personal We're either going to win or we're not.
In forty years from now, none of you are invited to my funeral. And that's it.
That's it.
That is probably the most mature answer I've ever heard from a coach when it comes to dealing with the media and you know, you could say, well, it's kind of short sighted because you want to keep the fans on your side. He knows that when you win, you don't have to worry about that. When you lose, you don't worry about that because nothing you say is going to change anything. And I'm not knocking coaches who are sensitive to what the media say and what fans say,
because you need to know. But it's a matter of how much do you take that to heart and how do you let that dictate your words and your actions. And the best coaches are secure enough to not let it dictate some can't handle it. I really like Mozilla's answer though. I thought that was fascinating. And again, he didn't single handily eliminate the Wildcats, but he played a
big part in that particular season. And yeah, I know the twenty twelve team had Ad and it had Michael Kid, Gil Christen, a lot of talent, But man, I mean, if you match them up Cousins versus and Thanny David at that stage of their careers, I think Cousins can neutralize him. Who on that twenty twelve team is going to cover John Wall Marcus Tige. I don't think so cal Perry's first team thanks to the fact that Patrick
Patterson has stuck around and others had depth. The twenty twelve team did as well, but I still think that the twenty ten team would have handled that twenty twelve I think it was Cali Perry's best team, even better than the team that went nearly undefeated. I do. That's how good I think Patterson, Cousins, and Waal were. Got one other comment to share with you. Scott Van Pelt was talking to Steph Currier on Steph Curry on ESPN, and as they were signing off, Curry gave a shout
out to the Carolina Panthers. Steph Curry grew up in Charlotte, was born there his day, had played for the Hornets, the original Hornets, and was tight with Rex Chapman, their best buddies. Rex I think is Steph's godfather at any rate. I know he has talked more than once about changing
Steph's diapers. So yeah, he grew up in Carolina. So yeah, we plays for the Golden State Warriors, but he's a Carolina Panthers fan and he tossed in Go Panthers toward the end of the interview and listen to listen to Van Pelt's response, and he cracked up. Steph Curry put the ellipses at the end right on. You know that there's a lot more in the tank for sure.
We look forward to the season which gets underwear Wednesday for you all in Portland.
Always great to visit with your.
Steph and stay well until the next time.
A right, absolutely and go Panthers. Good luck with that, Keith Poundered. STEP's a big Carolina Panthers fan.
I love that. And again you can see on camera still Steph Curry cracked up when Van Peltz said that. So anyhow I'd share that with you. Up next, Darryl Bird of the cast Ball is to talk about the basketball and football Cats here on the Big Moon Sider six thirty. W Lap welcome back joining us on our celebrity highline. Is a long time friends of the show and I always talk Darryl Bird about Overlap, especially in October. Nobody knows that more than you because you've been working
on the basketball yearbook since the middle of the summer. Really, iid as soon as you h put to put to bed the football yearbook you start in. But got mine the other day the cover story energized. Are you pleased with the way it turned out?
Very, very pleased? Probably probably one of my favorite covers that I've put together. And just of course I'm an old Star Trek fan way back when, so I couldn't pass up. And it just hit me one day that that's that's the way the whole fan base is, and that's the way Mark Pope's personality is. It's just an injection of pure energy into everything right now. And you can just tell it by I don't know if you've been you could go down to the Craft Center in
the weeks after the hire. It was like this weight had just been lifted all that Hire building. Everybody was smiling and laughing, and it's like, it's just I mean, I love Cal working with, got along Gray with fifteen years, but it was just time to change. That happens happens with everything.
Yeah, things just weren't going well and the whole building feels in media fans, I mean, that's the way it is when you got a hut profile program, right yeah.
And I don't know if you catch the SEC media days in Birmingham, cal Cal's portion, I was like, oh no, he said, Yeah, I took a COVID test yesterday. I hopeing I wouldn't have to come down here. I'm like, really, oh man, that's where that's where you're gonna go already, has he? I don't miss that, has.
He told the Arkansas fan. Yet he doesn't care about the SEC title.
I don't know, not that I'm aware of yet.
Yeah. Man, he kept towards the end trying to walk stuff back. But anyway, let us move on as the program has. Those covers are fun. I don't know how much of a challenge they are for you to come up with some I'm sure it is to come up with something new every year, But there are times you've asked players to dress up or hold props or wear a hat or something. Are they usually pretty good about that? You have to sell them on it.
The only time the hats was the only time that I ran into any kind. Even then they it was more it was the hairs and twins and Jewish random because they were in Texas. So we went down that road. And I guess I can say this on the ear, but they opened up the rocks. I showed a due he's ran he said, oh hell, no, and the worst part was it wasn't that, it was that we were taking the photo and all of their teammates are behind it.
Unlimited grief about everything. But we did one one year where they had a lot of international players and I ordered that was great flags. I ordered flags from all over and they had a ball with those, the guys Canada and Haiti and hell, they were having it such a good time running around with those things, so that one had no problem once I've ever getting them to participate there.
I don't know if you remember, but you you were kind enough to lend me a lot of your photos and I produced a TV piece and I think I downloaded the national anthems for particular countries. That was a fascinating and a pretty good team, as I recall.
It was a good team.
But yeah, how.
Do players feel about being on the cover. I mean, do they feign like, oh, come on? But I got to think they like it?
No, Yeah, they do.
They're cool about it.
And the people at UK and did more Susan lacks football side. I mean they last time we did football slack was like you got this is a big deal, enjoy this, in which I appreciate your players. Yeah, this is a big to be on this cover. Have fun with it, and they always do.
Oh god, twenty years from now, ten years from now, they'll they'll have multiple copies that they'll show friends, relatives, kids. No, there's no question about that. Do you have it's like asking you to choose among children, But do you have a favorite or two that you recall.
Of a cover?
Yeah?
Ah, boy, that is hard to do.
Yeah.
The very first the very first year I started was the ninety seven ninety eight season, Tuby's first year, and Men in Black was off the charts popular, and I said, please, Mark Marcoms was with us, Please, we're doing men in Blue. We have to And we ordered the blue suits, we got the sunglasses, we've got the tie, and they they jumped all over. They loved it, you know, they had a ball with it. And Tubby kept the jacket and and the glasses.
That's correct.
And of course back then the players had to hand everything back over. Sorry, you can't have this is a violation.
Do you know what you still have that? I still have that copy. It's right over here in my bookshelf.
That's such a great myself.
I got to get those boys to sign it, you know, and I don't go for autographs very often, but that one was so much fun and they really went into it, and it turned out to be a pretty good team.
Yes it did. I had a good team, wasn't it.
Speaking of what do you make of this year's team.
I don't have a clue. I hope somebody out there does. I know it's going to be drastically different, and I've talked to a lot of people and they can't wait to see this three point barrage. And I talked to Cody Figure during the summer, who's been with Mark Pope every step of the way, right said, I said, seriously, thirty five threes a game? He said, yes, that's the number we reached doing the analytics. It was thirty five. Was the often hit thirty three percent out of thirty five.
You're going to win most of your games, and we plan on hitting much much better than thirty three percent. I said to your I said at BYU last year, we would come into the locker room halftime up by ten and say, guys, we've only taken ten threes. Well behind pace. We got to pick it out. I'm like, wow, that's dedication. Wow, that's that's going to be so different now. Talked a lot of old timers who were like, well, yeah, what do you do when you're three or thirty one night?
What happens? Yeah, that's a very good question. We've seen it happen. I mean, Kentucky played Alabama one year, and a lot of years Alabama just drilled UK with the threes and UK wouldn't take any And there was one year where UK kicked the daylights Alabama because they were
like three of twenty eight or something horrendous. I guess to me, not knowing that how much playing times will be spread around, I think you just go with the hot hand and you hope that twelve guys aren't off on the same night, and you somebody, somebody will have the stroke every game, or at least ninety nine percent of the games.
You know, it's so coincidental that you bring this up because earlier in the show tonight, I played a soundbye from Joe Mozilla, the head coach of the Celtics, the world champions, and we all know what he did for West Virginia against Kentucky. Well, that night, you recall probably Kentucky was four for thirty two from beyond the arc, which was only like one shot one make better pretty much then what happened in Seattle in nineteen eighty four. So, yeah,
you've got those nights with the three. But I remember Mark Krebs telling me that they had a great game plan for that West Virginia game, because I said, you know, you saw the one three one, and there are certain things, you know, certain pockets from on the floor that you can use. He said, we had a great game plan. I said, what happened? He goes, people lost their minds. They just started jacking his words, They just started jacking
up three. So this is more of a controlled environment, isn't it.
Yeah.
I think de Marcus Cousins is still mad that they just give me the ball, thank you inside, give me the ball inside. Yes, this day he's mad about it.
Yeah, and I don't blame him. I am too.
No, I don't either.
Yeah, but I do believe that this will be, like I said, with Pope's offense, more of a controlled environment when it comes to shooting threes.
Yep, Yeah, I think you're right. It's it's it's that's the heart of the plan.
This is the goal.
Every trip down is to it's to shoot a three, and it's not. We'll do something else.
Yeah, and they've got the people want to do that. Yeah.
I just I don't know about you. But every time I watch this and I read about this, and I hear Mark Pope talking about this is how we do this, I'm like god, water waste last year was to have three of the top six three point shooters in the country and two of the three don't qualify because they haven't taken enough. Him, that is such a waste.
Daryl Bird is our guest. He is the editor and publisher of The Cats Balls. We'll come back and talk more Kentucky basketball. Let's throw a little football too here on the Big one Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back for talking with Darryl Bird. He is a long time I'm a member of the UK Beat for The Cast Pause and other publications, but as the editor of the Cast Pause, featured columnist and a guy who had to
sit down with Mark Pope for the Basketball Yearbook. But your latest issue of the magazine, you had a chance to send that with missus Mark Pope. How did that go?
Yes, that was outstanding I put in there. It was one of those where he was hired in April. I put in request in May. I'm like, I don't know if she'll ever want to do it, but I would love to sit down and talk. And got the call in early October that she wanted to do it. And I was the first one, which you know, in our visit, that was a thrill for me. Oh yeah, to be the first one. And she is so her life is fascinating more I think as probably more fascinating than Mark.
Everything she heard. Her dad was a coach coach at Iahost State. He coached at Utah Jerry Tartanian gave him his coaching break way back when Wow, she just she's very much can I said you were more prepared to be head coach and Mark was and she laughed. She didn't deny it, but that's not her upbringing that it's just fascinating. And then the work to go to b YM and get internships and eventually a full time job
was David Letterman, isn't that crazy? And to be hooked up on a blind date or her brother ran in Mark. I think the exact quote was he was coaching at a clinic. Mark was a player at a clinic a big Man camp and they ran. He called. He said, I just met you, but it's a dude. You've got to meet this guy. If you but a dude, I said, is that accomplished? She said, I took it to mean we were very compatible.
Yeah, yeah, and so and they did.
But they wrote this is She said, this is the beginning of email. She said, you have to understand. Every day I had to cut she went to work at Lebanon show. I had to get the I T guy to hook up, you know, the the doll doll tone. And I had one person in my email box and that was Mark Pope. And she said, every day I came to work, there was an email and we email every morning. We talked every night for six weeks before they ever met in person.
Wow.
Really yeah, And it was my favorite quote. We're sitting there, I said, I said, so obviously that's worked for you all. You've been married twenty five years. Why, I said, why did Why was that a good way to go? Why did that work? And she said he's a really good writer.
I said, hey, well, I can't time.
We were at the Crasher and Mark Pope walked in right on cue. She said, he's a good rush of his I love him. And he walked in right just like he'd been hiding outside the door, listening on one to come in. And he was pretty clever too. He said, uh, he said.
He looked at me.
He said, you know what, I would get a journalism degree and work twenty years on the beat just to sit down with this lady one time. And he walked out, walked up the room, and she looked there. She said, see what I mean? I said, yep, oh yeah, she was really her life is really fascinating and this unlike any I think UK fans are used to, this is a partnership. She said, we got hired, we we got fired. She's been that way since she was a kid. She said her dad was at Idaho State. She said, yeah,
we got fired after five years. I said we She said, oh yeah. It's a family affair. And it used to research when they were BYU this. She is very, very prominent in the program.
Did she talk about baking cookies for the other opposing team.
Yes, she did that as though she was at the Big twelve first year and she's like, I'm going to do this to welcome the spouses coming. You know they're coming to us for the first time. They don't know anything about BYU. And she said, I just you know, they may need to know how do I get a pass for my kid? Where do I park when I get there? So she took that role of I'll just make them cookies and we'll talk about this is how it works, this is how to make them feel comfortable.
Yes, yes, very cool.
So yeah, it was very cool.
Talking to Daryl Bird, editor of The Catch Pause. The latest issue includes his interview with Leanne Pope and interesting, somebody on the inside it's many weeks ago told me that. And this is not a knock, but the Scott Drew's wife absolutely wanted no part of the notoriety of being the first lady of Kentucky basketball. She's just not put together that way. And again there's nothing wrong with that.
Some people treasure their privacy and and and shepherd their children in a different way, like you said, Leanne Pope, just see and and Allen CALIPERI handled it well, I thought, with her Twitter account, you know, and taking out the garbage came. My wife followed her, was one of thousands who followed Ellen Caliperry. But I just feel like, you know, this woman, missus Pope, is so well equipped, you know, and her daughters, their daughters to handle this part of their lives, you know what I.
Mean, that's her life. She grew up the daughter of a coach, so she doesn't know any other way. And I did late in the interview, I said, all right, I was going to ask about your daughters. If you don't want to touch that out of privacy, I'm one with that. And she said, well, she said, now you know what, they're all pretty much adults. For the baby Chase sixteen. She said, they're adults and they know how to handle this. They've been through it before, so they're good.
And we've talked. And the fascinating thing for me is the middle daughter, the tennis player at BYU. She's here for the opener on November fourth, and she leaves for mission. She's gone for eighteen months into Central American and I'm like, that would terrify me, he said, awesome, mister, terribly, But she knows this is what she wants to do. Yeah, and she's she's comfortable with that. But yeah, it's it's and the daughters are, like I said, they've grown up
with it. So she said, this is his tenth year as head coach. The kids know what's coming. Sure, they know how to handle this stuff.
A friend of mine, he and his wife, one of their daughters, lives and is a teacher in Columbia in South America. Yeah, and they go down to visit and they love it, and she loves it down there. So you know, it's what you make it. A few minutes of a Darryl Bird of the Cat's paws and gosh,
we haven't even talked much about the basketball team. But that's okay because I want to read this interview with Leanne Pope and I thought it was one of my favorite parts because I think it was part of our documentary on the ninety sixteen where Mark told the story at his introductory news conference about one of his daughters chanting, who's in the house tonight? You know, you got to wonder how many times have they heard that?
Yeah, Yeah, it's different. It's it's a nice, very refreshing change right now. And I think he's got everybody's always been a honeymoon period.
Yeah, he's got a.
Two year honeymoon period given who he is.
And yeah, and by the way, I will miss and I'll still see them. But the Caliperry daughters clapping back at fans on Twitter, I thought that was really really entertaining.
Yeah, they they were their daddy's daughters. Oh he's very sassy. They very much the old Italian player. You're coming at me, I'm coming back quite as hard and.
Very intelligent too. I just have a couple of minutes. I'm going to keep you on basketball. Uh, all right. As a guy who has covered so many different teams, programs, coaches, you know the expectations of the Big Blue Nation. Will they be able Daryl in your opinion to hold them and check A and B. What do you think we are going to see this season from this team?
Well, I wish I knew it's I think expectations, well, expectations right now would be like it would be nice to win one game at the tournament. Thank you, thank you for lowering the bar that far, mister Caliperry. That Mark Pope should be sending a Christmas card for lowering it. But get to that, get to the second weekend, I think is good. We just don't know what twelve guys that have never played together, how are they going to blend. What kind of team is this going to be?
It?
It looks like you look on papers like these guys can play. And I asked Mark about it at one point he said, the thing we can't measure, and he can't measure yet you have no idea what it means to most of these guys coming from mid majors or wherever they get to play for Kentucky. Did you have no idea what that means to them and what kind of a driving force that could be that when we look up and say, wow, he wasn't this good at
Dayton or he wasn't just good at Fairley Dickinson. What happened and this may be a huge part of is they've got a chance, they get to play, they get to put on a Kentucky uniform and go show the world what they can do. It said, you don't know how what that's going to do.
You know, I had a chance looking at.
It could be a huge positive that we're going to look back. Whoa Andrew Carr didn't do that way for it?
Wow, I had a big, big blue white game. I had a chance to chat with most of them prior to Pro Day, and in terms of grasping the situation. They know because they know the Kentucky brand. But until they run out there, do you know this? Until they run out there against an opposing team, not their own teammates in rupp Arena with twenty three thousand, they're not going to know, are they?
No?
No, then they can't. Yeah, right, Even Travis and Trent who have grown up with it, they've they've been at games where they you know, they're sitting right behind the bench and they hear the roar when they come out, And no, not until you do it. And I talked to Travis Perry Lion County. He talked about the first time he got to run out inter rupt as a sophomore Lion. They said, you that feeling is just you never forget it. Yeah, and it's going to be times
ten when he gets to do that. You know it'll be that way early on when you bring a big time opponent into the building.
Look, oh, yeah, you're right, both Travis and Trendonoah, noah, it's like to run out there. But you know, the cheers they hear are from a pocket of rapperana from their high school crowd, not everything raining down from the ceiling so yeah, I can't wait to see them.
And of course the flip side of that is good luck running out at Auburn's true or some of these places on the road. That's right, get ready for that side of it.
Yeah, you know. I remember the first time I covered a road game. Gosh, this was back when I was in school in the seventies. It was at Alabama and Kentucky came running out on the floor and it looks so odd Darrow to see them in the blue uniforms. I've never seen him in person and anything but white, and the booing that came down, and you know what, I couldn't quit laughing. I mean it wasn't you know, like doubled over laughing, but it was just so odd
and different. So I mean, the players aren't going to be laughing, but they were used to it by then.
But you're right, but it's I mentioned I'll bring it. That's my favorite road trip by far. This That place is crazy and it's to be only nine thousand. It's thunderously loud in there, and and the guys get it. But it's changed. I remember talking with Miss Mike Pratt so much that used to said when they go on the road to Mississippi Missippi State. He said, we were so close to the floor that the student section reach out and pull the hair on your legs and you're trying to throw the balling back.
I've heard that story more than one's funny.
Yeah is Darryl Bird.
Look for his work in the pages of the cast Pause Online part of the two four seven Network. Follow him on Twitter or acts at Darryl Bird two ours two L's all you need. Darryl, Thank you so much and congratulations on getting another yearbook out and I'll see you down the road.
All right, Thanks sir, I appreciate it.
Now number one on the books coming up in hour number two. Darren Hedrick of the UK Network Mike elapsed from Fox fifty six. Here on the Big Going Sider six thirty wlap.
Many st.
Welcome back to the Big Blues Sider. Joining us now on our celebrity hotline is a voice well known to Kentucky fans. He is a radio voice of UK women's basketball baseball, but he's also our scoreboard anchor on the UK Football Network. You also heard him filling in a Man of many talents on The Blue White Game Friday Night mister Darren Hedrick. Busy time. Over lap time is a busy time for all of us, though, isn't it? Yeah?
Really is that? You know what, Dick at the fun time? And I have to say, just from the responsibilities of anchoring in the studio, the last two weeks, man, my job has been fun watching. You know, while Kentucky's playing, I'm sitting there watching Georgia and Texas and Tennessee Alabama and Tennessee Florida was good last week. There was a couple of other games. You just sit there channel surfing while paying attention to the Cats. So it's been a fun time for my job.
Well, let me ask you about those games, because I was, like most of the nation, shocked, frankly at the big lead for Georgia. You knew Texas would come back, but how surprised were you to watch that thing unfold?
You know what I was. I was sitting there going, this can't be right. And especially if you looked at how that game unfolded, like you mentioned, because Carson Beck, you would think, okay, well, George's blowing out Texas. Carson Beck must be having a night, yeah, behind center, and you look at his stats and it was really pedestrian.
It's not good. He threw I think for like one hundred and seventy five yards, no touchdowns and three picks and Georgia still had a twenty three point lead at halftime. Then you had the controversy of the pass interference that was or wasn't in the second half. But you know it's Georgia reminded the nation of who they are against Texas the other night. So we've seen some wild results.
You think about Alabama against Georgia, now Georgia Texas. So the top of this league is starting to eat itself a little bit.
Yeah, which we kind of expected, but not like this. And I'm glad you brought up that Georgia Alabama game to come back because I mentioned earlier in the show. Whenever I see Georgia do something like that or of late, I think back to hell. Really well, Kentucky played against Georgia, even in a loss, which makes the way Kentucky has played the last two games even more puzzling.
You know, yeah, you know, And I think that's what has everybody frustrated, from Mark Stoops to the rest of the staff, to players and fans. As you sit there, and look, Kentucky was an eyelash away from winning that
game against Georgia. And then you go down to Oxford and beat Old Miss, And I know Old Miss has absorbed Aloft at LSU and they've sort of dropped in the polls, but that's still a really solid football team that Lane Kiffin has and they you know, And I think that's what's the frustrating part is you play these two top programs so well and beat one of them and had a chance to beat the other, and then you come back and unfortunately against Vanderbilt and Florida, lose
the ball game and really watch Vanderbilt and Florida dominate those games to an extent. So I think that's the maddening part of this whole thing.
Yeah, And what it did against Vandy and Florida, which it did not do against Georgia and Ole Miss was beat itself. It's hard enough to win much less on the road, but to beat yourself like that, it's just nuts. And uh, you know, obviously the Auburn game is huge
coming up. Before I switch over to basketball, what was your reaction when Texas Georgia went crazy on that reversed call, because I mentioned earlier, if you think about it in terms of a booth review or something like that, yeah, it's going to be booed, it's going to be controversial. But to follow a seldom seene protocol, which is confer about the call. I've seen it before and pick up the fly. But but at a moment like that was just crazy.
You know, it really was. And I've kind of gone back and forth on that whole moment, Dick, because initially you're just sitting there AGAs that after they throw stuff on the field and and there was just this chaos, they come back and say, okay, yeah, we we we reconsidered it and there was no defensive pass interpearance. You just don't see that a lot. And so you're I don't know if it shocked is the right word, but
you're just going, this is this is incredible. And then you sit there and think, actually, they got the call right. And and to me, you know, you could probably question and wonder about the avenue that the officials arrived at it, but they got the call right. At the end of
the day. The one thing, and I think Kirby did have Kirby Smart did have a bit of a point there is you kind of set a standard because the perception from watching that game was okay, well, if your students sections throw water bottles and beverage cans on the field, they can get a controversial flag picked up or you know, a play overturn, and that's the perception of it. So, like I say, I've kind of gone back and forth.
I see both sides. They got the call right, but the way they arrived at it is not the standards you want.
Well put all right, let me shift over to basketball. Because you worked the Blue White game with Jack Gibbs on Friday, I had to be a lot of fun in the coliseum. You worked there many many times calling the women's games. But of course Jack and I worked pro day and that takes him back to his first two years of college basketball when the varsity played in the coliseum.
Yeah, he was sharing some stories about playing in the coliseum and was pointing on the floor where he hits the big shot against Mississippi State when they had that miracle comeback. I yeah, what was it down five with ten seconds or something like that, which in today's modern college basketball is very possible in the way they play the game. But they also have a three point line.
They didn't have that when Jack played, and somehow Kentucky was able to force overtime and they beat the Bulldogs and ot so he was sharing some really neat stories about playing in the coliseum. I enjoyed it.
Yeah, he's uh, He's so much fun to work with on a situation all the time, but on a situation like that, to see Jack so happy to be back, and when you think about it, you know, all the hours and hours of practice and sweat and Joeb yelling at him in the cune was fun. But tell me a little bit about what you saw in the game.
You know what, I saw a team that was fast and it was really fun to watch how they got up and down and camera Mills and Jacket both warned me that they want to get up thirty five to three pointers a game. That's the goal, and this team is not afraid to shoot it. And I think we're going to see some possessions this year where the ball never touches the floor. I think it could be pass past shoot, it could be pass shoot, it might be
pass past pass shut. But the way they work the ball up and down the court, the way they just have the speed to go. Was really fun to watch that can shoot it from anywhere. And you know, the one thing, like Jack was talking about, the biggest question you might have will be can this team rebound consistently, because if you shoot that many threes, the rebounds can tend to get wonky when they come off the off
the rim there. So that's one thing coming out of And then obviously everybody wants to see how this team will play defensively in terms of can they shrink the floor, can they get the pressure on teams and so uh. But but offensively, Dick, I think anybody that shows up to watch this Kentucky team is going to be highly entertained.
Ansley Amanor is a decent three point shooter, but it was only one for six from the floor. La Mott Butler won for four, not really known for his outside shooting. But Colin Chandler man the youngster, not really all that young, but uh, he looked he lit it up for the White team. How did he look to you?
You know what?
I thought? He stole the show in the Blue White Game, similar to Big Blue Madness with the dunk over the top of Coach Pope and his wife Leanne. I thought Chandler stole the show. I thought Andrew Carr showed really well. Yeah, and so you know you sit there and think, well, it's the Blue White Games, it's going up against teammates.
But I thought both of them showed out when the lights turned on, and Colin Chandler sort of reminded folks that he was well, he was the highest ranked or one of the highly ranked recruits that he brought into BYU before Colin did his two year missionary work there. So I think fans are going to enjoy watch the Chandler. I'm interested to see how the year unfolded he fits into the lineup.
Yeah, he was a Gatorade up. I should say he was a Gatoraye Player of the Year in Utah. So yeah, you know, such as it. I mean, you know how big is Utah for high school basketball? We don't know, but one of the top rated nationally. And I've heard more than one person say they think Chandler will be for a little while flying under the radar. You mentioned Andrew Carr finished with a game I twenty five plus
seven rebounds, ten for ten from the line. This was the wake Forest transfer and uh, he did have six fouls, but no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, he only had two fouls. He forced six fouls, which meant he was a handful Forrest. Is I really really like his game?
Yeah?
Yeah, I do too, and he just like I say, he was one of the guys that really stood out me the way he was going after loose balls, He rebounded and he could score the ball.
He was just a.
Handful in that Blue White game. So obviously he's got a ton of experience coming from Lake Forest, as a lot of these guys do it. And that's something else that's different than what we're all accustomed to, is these are guys with experience, and so the biggest thing for them is just learning how to play with each other and build the chemistry as the team. Because other than that, they pretty much know how to do a lot of
the other things. This is not the all freshmen team that we're used to seeing in Kentucky where you sort of watch them grow and develop as the season progresses and hope they're ready for March.
Yeah. The two other scholarship freshman that Kentucky and Travis Berry and Trentoa modest offensive numbers. Travis played thirty six minutes. The only thing that surprised me, Darren, is in thirty six minutes, Travis only put up three to three pointers. Trent played twenty minutes and only put up four. But they're feeling their way, aren't they.
Yeah, they are, and they're going to be just fine. You can just tell that they're pure shooters and scorers. I mean, they're going to be just fine. And like you say, they're feeling their way a little bit on a team that's full of a lot of experience, for sure.
We're talking to Darren Hedrick. He is a radio voice of UK baseball women's basketball and also work the Blue White Game on radio for US on Friday Night Villin and for Tom Leach. We'll come back and talk more with Darren on the other side of the break here on six point thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue Sider. We're talking with Darren Hedrick, radio voice of UK women's basketball baseball. He is our Football Network scoreboard anchor and also called the Blue White Game on Friday
with Jack Gibbons. Before I shift to other sports, tell me about the atmosphere of the crowd at the coliseum, because this was new this was different. This was something that benefited the Nil movement, the fifteen club on campus.
Yeah, I thought the energy was tremendous for the men's game. I thought it kind of built as the night went on. I thought it was good for the women's portion of the event. There was a little bit of a lull there in between the two programs getting to showcase their talents on the floor, but you could feel it as the night went on, as the women's scrimmage and then the men came out on the floor to do their scrimmage.
I thought the.
Crowd really got into it for the hustle of both teams, but in particular during the men's Blue White game, there was a scramble for a loose ball on the floor and it kind of got deflected a little bit off hand a couple of times. And the more the more the Blue and White team went after this loose ball, the louder the crowd got it. When it was finally corralled and the possession was controlled, the lid blew off
that place. So I thought that was pretty cool to see the fans really get into and respect the hustle of the teams going after a loose ball and a scrimmage, so that was pretty fun to watch. But overall, I thought the crowd was good, and like you said, there were some growing pains for the event, but hey, it
was a pioneering event. Nobody else has tried anything like this, so you know, I'm sure there's going to be things that when they sit down and hey, we can do this better or next time, let's do this or that. But overall I thought it was a good event. I thought the crowd was really good and Dick, as you know, Memorial Coliseum is such that you feel it to the raptors and you couldn't hear the person sitting beside you.
But if you have three.
Thousand to thirty five hundred in there, it's still very loud, then't you.
Oh yeah, yeah, what impress you in a women's game? Because from reading the write up, evidently Clara Silva looked pretty good. And of course Kenny Brooks had some kids come with him from Virginia Tech.
Oh yes, and those Virginia Tech ladies showed out. Georgia Amore had a couple of really nice scoring opportunities. I thought she really smothered the basketball. Now, Brandon, they were playing the practice guys, practice players, but I thought she really hounded the point guard for the white team. And then obviously, like you mentioned, Clara Silva and Clara Strack, those two can score the basketball, they can stretch defenses.
I think they're going to be as they continue to develop, because we've got to remember Strack as a sophomore and Silva as a freshman. But they're going to be matchup problems for a lot of teams. And as Bria Goff said on the radio, if you want to contend in the SEC, you've got to have size, and that's certainly something that Kentucky has in Amore. Have already developed a
chemistry from last year playing in the NCAA Tournament. But I think the one person that really stands out and is somebody that is going to be a big factor in Dejah Lawrence. To transfer from Charlotte really yes, and I think her, along with Georgia Amore, going to form a really good Batman and Robin type duo in the backcourt. Desiah can score the basketball and she's now on a team that a lot of the attention is going to
be on Amore or the bigs inside. And I think that's going to open up avenues for Lawrence to be a real scoring print for this kentucktive team.
The women does look like to me, Darren play any exhibitions. They opened the regular season on Monday, November fourth against usc Upstate, which has been a fixture on the baseball schedule for many years. The men, of course played Wesley And tomorrow night in an exitibition game. But that's kind of unusual, isn't it. No exhibitions for the women or is that normal?
No? They typically will play one exhibition game, or at least they have since I've been here, but this year they do not have one. They do have a couple of or maybe at least one closed scrimmage. They'll play Ohio State on Sunday in Columbus in one of those what do they call them, the secret scrimmages. Yeah, so they'll have that. But in terms of an exhibition game in front of fans, no, they don't have one scheduled this year.
Okay, Well, five home games open the season, including those Louisville Cardinals coming in on Saturday November sixteenth. Then they go to the Music City Classic with Arizona State and Illinois and right after that the SEC a SEC challenge with North Carolina. So we'll find out very quickly about the women's team. And as I said, the men, as everybody knows, they open up tomorrow against Wesleyan Boy they got to be as everybody is tired of banging on
each other. They got one more scrimmage after that than the opener with Wright State again on Monday, November fourth, so it's right on top of us, and there's a baseball scrimmage. They wrap up the fall with morehead coming up Sunday. And I was talking to Nick the other day about the fact that you know, we're learning more and more. Anybody who covers a team when we've talked to the players in the spring about how a team is kind of beginning to blossom, don't they always say
the same thing. We knew in the fall we had a chance to be good. That's how vital these these scrimmages are.
Oh, it really is, And especially baseball, And even before the transfer portal has become a major storyline, and as we see it in basketball and football, baseball was already pretty transient because players could leave so early for the draft compared to the other sports. So nnam Giona is no stranger to having to complete feel a completely new ball club from the infield to the outfield. That's just part of the game in college baseball. But he's he
and his staff have done a terrific job. But yeah, these fall scrimmages, fall exhibitions are vitally important for the staff to see what the team could look like, to tinker with different lineups and combinations on defense. And you know what, I remember thinking last year that that team had a chance to be special. Turns out they were really special. And I really Dick, I like the talent on this year's team. I think in some ways we'll see if they have a Ryan wald Schmidt Frand Smith,
a million P Tree type. We'll find that out in the spring. But what I can say is they may not have that high end player, but they have more depth that that makes sense. And I don't like saying they may not have that high end player, because actually they have a first round draft ticket shortstop, so we know they do have him. He's just young.
I would love to see another story like Emilian Petrie and that somebody comes in. They don't expect much from him. They expected a quality player, but he just blossomed into a nationally known player playing alongside the best defensive shortstop in America. So oh, man, I know, don't get us started. We know. Darren Hedrick, radio voice of the UK Women's basketball baseball Football Network Scoreboard. Thank you, sir, and we will see you down the road.
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me up next.
Michael Epps of Fox fifty six, The Road Warrior. He was there in Gainesville. We'll come back and shat with Michael in just a minute here on The Big Blue Insider six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue Insider. Joining us now is a guy who's been on the show several times because we like talking to the Road Warrior, Michaels from Fox fifty six, who made the trip down to Gainesville. That was a rough one, man, wasn't it.
It was rough?
You know.
I love being the Road Warrior and I wanted to be at that old miss game, especially after being the results, but you know, just conflicts there. But it was a lot of fun being down there. My second time in
the swamp, a place where Stoops has had success. He's won two of the last three down there going into that game, you know, obviously conquered the challenge of breaking the streak thirty one straight against Florida, and it just felt like the Cats really had the mental edge and the rivalry and had a chance to really put a sword through the Billy Napier era there and just just
just didn't do it. And now you look at you know, the Mark Stoops era with you know, a little being a little uneasy, with a brutal October that really the Cats needed to capitalize on. With Vanderbilt, Florida and Auburn three winnable games and now you've lost two of them already. That makes this Saturday a massive game.
Oh man. You know, it's interesting you were there yesterday when I asked Stoops about this, and I've talked about it already tonight. The fact that for all the bad things that happened in the first part of this game, it was still you know, you use the word winnable, it was still manageable. I mean, it was still a game, you know, at twenty seven to twenty and they had the ball, and then even later it was a two score game in a fourth quarter and they just couldn't
put it together. And that's what to me, what made it so frustrating.
Yeah, they gave up all those chunk plays. Yeah you know, I mean DJ Lagway only complete seven passes that has like two hundred and fifty nine yards averaging thirty seven yards of completion, which is unreal. And those happened in the first half. But you thought, okay, you know, after halftime, maybe the defense makes some adjustment, secondary plays back a little bit, and you know, see what happens. You come
out of halftime with a great drive. I mean, brock On the football really poorly in the first half, had a good drive. They were running the ball, chip train them, had a couple of nice, nice runs, and they score coming out of halftime to make it a one touchdown game. And you're like, after a disaster of the first half, it's a one touchdown game, like this is a winnable game.
And then the.
Defense just, you know, uncharacteristically just felt flat on his face. I mean, I was son that the response right there was to give up a touchdown there and with another big play, and it was just as tough to watch because the defense has been one of the best. I didn't realize in the nation going into that game, especially run defense. But when you get those chunk plays, you know, between the thirties or between the twenties, and then you know Florida is able to just run the ball right
over you inside the twenties. It just it was a poor recipe. And the forty eight to twenty. I hate that final score because I agree with you, Dick. It felt like it was a It was a close game there in the second half, in the third quarter until they just let it slip away Carter Bully throws a pick six. I mean, it was tough to watch there in the fourth quarter, but they had a chance, and
they had a chance in these games. They just can't make the plays when it matters most outside of Oxford, which is the crazy part about it is, you know Rock capitalized, but if Brock over throws that ball a little bit to Berrian on that left sideline, you know, or Barrion actually gets called for that push off, which you probably did push off that old mis defender on that big cats, then you know, then they lose that
game too, and who knows what they're looking like. So it's a big, big game here against Auburn, and then you just try to scrape the six wins.
And you know what, you use the word uncharacteristic when you describe the defense, and you're right, of course, and yet you go back and look, they had TFLs, they had sacks, but in and around those were those big chunk plays because they gave a freshman core all kinds of time to sit back and get comfortable in the pocket. You can't do that, I don't care if you're playing Tage Greek Junior High. You can't do that. And this was the first time, even the Georgia game, they didn't
allow Carson Beck to get too comfortable. They had to move the pocket. Against Kentucky, Georgia did so. Uh yeah, that one's that just makes me even more confused. You know.
Yeah. In the front seven, I feel like has been a little underwhelming in terms of putting. They put pressure on the quarterback at times, like you said, but not getting enough stack. You know, I expected JJ Weaver to have a better season coming back again. You know, he's old now, but he's still got so much talent, but
he hasn't done much. You know, Dion Break, you know, whats up plays every once in a while, which is fun to watch and shows you why he's got the potential and it's going to be a first round pick. But you know, these guys up there just aren't getting to the quarterback. And you know they you know, Pop is going back and making good plays, the Eric's making good plays and pass covers. But if you'd just love to see them get to the quarterback speed things up
for a freshman quarterback. Surprising that they that Brad White didn't call that up, but they're they're gonna have to do it against Seyton Thorn. Thorn can can move and he's experienced. He can handle that kind of thing, so it's gonna be tough challenge.
Well, you were there when Stoops talked to the media Monday and talked about the fact that basically Auburn's problem has been turnovers. So it's almost like he was saying, we gotta we got to turn them over or we're not gonna win. And you could say that about a lot of good teams you know that are that are good teams until and unless they start turning the ball over. So that means put pressure on people, don't let them get comfortable.
Right, Yeah, I've watched a couple of Auburn games this year, Thorn makes some head scratching grows. And he's been doing that since he was an eat planting And I know because I'm a Michigan State guy, right And he was brutal up there. I mean, he had his moments, had a couple of good wins, but it was tough to watch sometimes. So he he'll come in here and make a couple of mistakes. I'm sure you know he'll he'll get the crowd excited if they if they're a pick
six or a big bumble. You know they're gonna need something like that because this offense is really tough to watch. You think, you know, oh with chip train him back now, it's now the offense will be fine. It's like, no, not at all. I mean, Demi sum mccarmbery's been running the ball pretty well, you know, Jamaran Wilcox has been running it really was just isn't getting the carries because he can't tie his shoes. I mean, did you saw it in the Flora game. This shoe came off again.
I'm that big running at up the middle, which is just stunning. And Soups talks about it again on Monday, like he's gotta they bring him along. I forget what the exact burbage was, but it was like, bring him along in all areas, and he kind of like, you know, nodded his head there, like we know what that means, you know, off off the field, Get this kid ready, because you know he's gonna have to be a guy for them next year, whether Stoops is here or not.
You were talking about Auburn's quarterback, and of course Cal comes across the country and beats Auburn on the planes twenty one to fourteen, four turnover, four interceptions by Thorn, and Auburn has since beaten New Mexico but has lost four straight. But all but the Georgia game, they were all pretty tight. You know, he played Arkansas close, they played Oklahoma close. They're coming off that four point loss
at Missouri game and maybe they should have won. So yeah, you know, it would be just Kentucky's luck, wouldn't it for Auburn to put everything together in election on Saturday?
Well, and before this loss in games, well, you know the last couple of years, the Cat's been playing better in SEC road games than home game. Yeah, I mean, right as it two and ten in the twelve home games in the conference, which is brutal, and if you lose this one, Dick, I mean, it's it's really it's gonna be tough to watch. You're gonna hear a lot of booze at Kroger Field because these fans are just set up. I mean, it's a bummer because Stoops really
did a great job with this program. It had a couple of ten win seasons and built so much excitement that kind of peaked when I got here in twenty twenty moments that will Levi us here and then you know, storm in the field with Florida beating LSU and you know, having this ten win season, Will Levis comes back, Wandell leaves, William Cohen leaves, and since then it's just been on a on a pretty tough decline, and it's it's you really just wonder if if Stoop's has enough to you know,
turn this around and bring another peak, you know, next year, whatever it might be. I just I don't know if I see it. You know, he had his run and it's been a great ride for UK fans, but it feels like they're they're over the peak now and falling into this valley that is going to be a pretty low point if they miss a bowl game. Even if they get to five and seven and make a bowl game, then if you just squeak into a bowl game just
to keep the streak going. But if you lose to Louisville and you don't make a bowl game, and you get what four wins I mean, if you lose this weekend, you're losing the Tennessee, losing the Texas, you're beating Murray State. That's four and seven going into that Louisville game. You have to win that game, and if not, I don't know what this offseason looks like for Soups.
In the program, we're talking.
With Michael left SI's a sports director at Fox fifty six wdk Y here in Lexi, and we'll talk more with Michael on the other side of the break here on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Michael LEPs from Fox fifty six. He covered the Kentucky game down in Games. We'll also talk to some of the basketball Wildcats earlier today, but before we talk basketball, a couple more football questions for you. Your beloved Spartans are coming off a win over Aye, but prior to that,
they lost three straight. But how weird is it for you, Michael, as a big ten guy, to see all these weird teams in your conference.
It is weird, you know, the USC's the UCLA's are certainly strange. But it did feel good to just go have a little bit of normalcy with Iowa and Michigan. And you know, I looked up the schedule before. I think I was watching the Boston College game, the non conference game, and the Spartans had a chance and just kind of blew it. And I was looking at the schedule, like, gosh, this is looking like five straight losses, maybe with Iowa in the poll, Michigan in the poll, with Ohio State
and Oregon and then someone else in there. But you know, to give them credit, they stayed composed one last weekend on homecoming Jonathan Smith and he's got talent. Aiden Childs is kind of along as a young quarterback. And now you have a chance in this rivalry game which you haven't had since the Kenneth Walker year, where you want at home. K nine scored five touchdowns and that was dear. Michigan made the College Football Playoff. That was only one
of two losses they had was to Michigan State. So I did not think they would have a chance in Smith's first year to beat Michigan. But if they could go out there and get this done and you know, get get to six wins, go to a bowl game with a win over Michigan, very successful first year, and you hope that he can build this program from there.
Yeah, big weekend for you, Michigan State.
I'm talking.
Yeah. Also weird in your conference, Indiana Rolling, although they're a quarterback needed surgery on his right thumb. But we'll talk.
About that, and I will tell you that the beautiful memories I have of covering those Michigan State Michigan games, Like my junior year of college, I was at the game in ann Arbor and it was a funky game where everybody knew that this storm was coming in and it was going to hit, probably in the third quarter, so whatever the score was was probably going to be the final score. It was like fourteen to seven Michigan State.
The storm hits, We're in this monsoon. I mean, if you you think you covered a game in the rain, you just wait and see what that was. I mean, And I'm a student, I got like a trash bag on my camera or like a ponto, just you know, learning how this works. I mean that that's those kind of memories are where I fell in love with my
job and why I'm still doing it today. Was covering games like that, and you know me growing up as a Michigan State fan and then you know, learning to control my bias and cover the game and and for you know D'Antonio to pull out another win in an arbor.
Uh.
You know, those are special memories. So certainly nostalgic. And I even saw Kirk Cousins video this weekend where he was talking about, you know, him winning four straight in his four years at Michigan State, scooting three when when three when he was the quarterback. Yeah, those were the you know Rich Trout, Brady Hokeiers back then.
Yeah.
And you know he's like, no, when when you win the game, you get to walk the streets of your hometown, not the alleys. And we were like, I was like, wow, what a cook. Yeah you get so that's kind of like you know this Kentucky Louisville game. You know they you get to walk the streets here instead of you know, walking the alleys, and the Cats have the mental edge in this rivalry. So I do think they're gonna beat Louisville.
I think if these players are kind of giving up, because I think they kind of gave up there in the fourth quarter. I'm not gonna say they gave up, but you could it was clear that they they they fell apart there in that fourth quarter in Gainsville and they had no chance to come back in that game. So but I do think if they'll, if they'll fight at all, they'll fight in that Louisville game and they'll get that courtfield.
Let me shift over to basketball on the time I have left, and you talked to a couple of players today, But uh, just from what you've seen so far, and it hasn't been a lot, I know, But what what do you think we're looking at those of us covering this team and Kentucky fans watching and hoping for the best. What kind of season do you think this is going to be? Because obviously as we get closer to tip off of the first real game, expectations will rise every day.
Yeah, I told you over the summer, I've told you a couple of times. I think the women's team is gonna have a better season than the mass just in terms of winning percentage. I love the women's team. I think they're set to be a second weekend team in the tournament. There's still so much to be determined with this men's team, but I do like the pieces. I actually haven't seen them in person yet because you know, the Big Madness and Blue White Game both on Friday nights.
You know, I'm doing school football on Friday night, so I'm excited to see them tomorrow and this Wednesday exhibition. I think they're gonna look good. If they shoot the ball as well as the buzzes of them shooting threes, then I think they could be a special team. But I wonder if if they aren't hitting those threes, where they're going to find their offense. And there's still so much to figure out. I don't think they'll be ready
in time for that Duke game. You know, if they do pull off that upset and win and beat Duke in the Champions Classic in a few weeks, I think, you know, that would certainly change the tone. But for now, I think this is a team that's going to be exciting. Obviously, the fans are all in on Pope and they're gonna have to learn about these new players. We just talked to Colin Chandler into Mary Williams, and then Colin Chandler is going to be a fun, fun player to watch.
We saw him with the Donks, A big glupe, a myth. Yeah, and you know he's certainly a high fire guy that can put the biscuit in the basket too. And Amari Williams is a good big. I think he'll probably start. He's a experience, good defensive player. And you know, Jackson Robinson's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. Andrew Carr has been a heat check guy. He looked good in that Blue White game. So he's another like stretch forward, good big that they can put out there, maybe even
a stretch five. And you know, you got some good experience guards, so they'll be good. I just, you know, I just want fans to be prepared if they're not good, if they're five hundred, you know, they maybe squeak in the tournament. I think that might be more likely than them being you know, a top three feed and winning the SEC. I just I don't know. I think the I think the women's team is a higher ceiling and a higher floor. I think the men's team has a
lower floor. There's a chance they could be bad, but I think they'll be good.
Well, they'll shoot a lot of threes. The question is, of course, will they make a lot of threes? And that you know Cali Peri used to chuckle at that, but that's the that's the honest truth, isn't.
It It is? And if they don't make those threes, where are they going to find that offense? Because you know they have some mid range gate guys. I think Lamont Butler will get some buckets. I think Kirk Rizo is going to be more of a facilitator, you know, in your car. Hopefully we'll have that mid range game.
I mean a Marii.
Williams said his fadeaway is nice cars fade away, you know, so he can he's got some moves, you know, could you know, have a few like twenty point scoring games. So I think they'll they'll figure it out. I think it'll be fun to watch out there just to see them take on somebody new and if they hit these threes, there's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. But that I think that's a big question once they get in that Duke game and some of the other tough
non conference games, when the game gets tight. You know they have experience, so they're not gonna get nervous, but where are they going to find their offense and what are they going to look like in close games? Because if you just hit threes and blow a team out by twenty five, that's night, right, that's not going to happen.
Right. He is Michael Epps Fox fifty six. Follow him on Twitter at Michael EPP's TV. Thank you, Sarah, We'll talk to you soon.
Thank you, Dick. It's good to see you down in Gainesville. And I'll see you this weekend.
And I'll do it for now. Thanks so much to my guest Michael Epps from Fox fifty six, Daryl Bird from The Catch Pause, Darren Headrick from the UK Radio Network. A reminder of the UK baseball team scrimmages on Sunday at twelve thirty at Kentucky Proud Park, so you can go over and get a head start on UK baseball. Not exactly the same team that played in the College World Series, but some of those guys are back. But
it should be a lot of fun. And Tomorrow night we will be totally preempted by Kentucky basketball because we've got UK Kentucky Wesley and coming up Dave and Cameron with the pregame, Tom Leach and Jack Gibbons with a call of the Wildcats and the Panthers. So yeah, tomorrow we got the night off in terms of the BBI, but we will be here there to watch our post team in action. And of course Saturday night seven forty five kickoff Kentucky and Auburn, a game you would hear
right here, that's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
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