Welcome to the Big Blue Insider. Dick Gabriel with you. Back with you after a couple three days for the holiday. I hope you enjoyed the best of shows. But tonight we'll get you up to date. We have got our West End Bureau chief Gary Moore coming in for kind of a yearly wrap up, and we're gonna talk to Richard Skinner as well from local twelve TV up in Cincinnati. We'll talk Bengals, and we'll talk Wildcats with Skinny as well.
Plus we'll talk with the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leech, as the Cats head into a weekend without basketball, but up men's basketball. The women play tomorrow against Western Kentucky, a game you'll hear right here on six thirty WLAP but Darren Hedrick, But the men don't play until next Tuesday, an odd time, two o'clock game against Brown. So we'll get Tom's thoughts on what happened up in New York and what he expects to see from here on. We're going to talk about the New York trip coming up
in our next segment. We'll hear from Mark Pope and some of the Wildcats as well. But you've had a little while to think about that. That game is festered with you, and I don't blame it just wasn't much to watch. Was it wasn't fun to watch. It was great if you're an Ohio State fan, but the Wildcats just never really got untracked and they were not not happy at all. Mark Pope was as despondent as I've
seen him since he was a player. So anyhow, we'll talk about that coming up, but I wanted to start, and this story popped up yesterday. But you talk about a sign of the times, Jim Larranaga stepping down at Miami right now, I mean immediately effective now retiring, And this was one year and a little longer removed, I guess, a year and a half from his team making the Final four. Miami makes the Final four, and ironically enough,
this is tied directly to the portal in Nil. Well, Miami gets to the Final Four by taking advantage of the portal and nil. And I'm not calling him a hippoc or anything, but it's just a sign of where we are now at college athletics. And I hate to keep banging on this drum because it certainly doesn't make well.
I'm not the only one who said this, but I did say it on these very airwaves when all of this stuff started coming down, when the rules were passed basically as theories, as even as suggestions, and then as they became a fact and were formulated, I said, this is the end of college athletics as we know it now. What I was referring to is not just all the movement by players, and I certainly didn't foresee a huge
dollar figures that are being thrown around. What I foresaw was the bigger picture, and that is and it's probably going to begin next year at least, the seeds will be sewn. When the schools begin to pay the players and the revenue sharing and all that, Athletics directors will have very little choice, few options when it comes to figuring out how to pay for all this and what they're going to have to do. And this will begin at the lowest levels of Division one. They'll have to
drop sports. They'll have to drop some of the so called minor sports. The Olympic starts sports, it'll start with men's sports because the title nine. You've got to keep the scholarship levels, even man and women. And if you've got football, those eighty five scholaries count against They try to get that, you know, some sort of waiver about football from day one, and I was voted down. So if you got a football program, you got to make sure in addition to other men's programs, you have the
com mesual number of scholarship opportunities for women. You may see some schools drop football eventually because if you look at all the dollar figures that are thrown around from these huge contracts with the TV networks, with the conferences, the rights fees, all that, they're enormous numbers, but people think that those are immediately applied directly to the bottom line for the major sports and their major schools, and
they're not. They pay for everything. When you see the dollar figure for the NCAA Division one basketball tournament, it's massive, it's a billion plus, But that chunk of change pays for all the other tournaments in every other sport men's and women's in NCAA Divisions one, two, and three men and women, all sports, not just basketball. So people who would see this number go, well, just take that up
and divide it up and give it to the players. No, it's earmark for other things and That's what's going to start to happen. You're going to see schools chopping sports and the first time of school. Remember what happened when UAB chopped football. This was well before the NIL and the portal, and there was such an uproar and outcry, and a couple of years later they brought it back. Boosters got together and brought back football. Could you afford to do that now and play at a competitive level
with the NIL? No, not at the higher levels of D one. You'll always have football at the big schools. You'll always have football in the SEC. Anybody who thinks Kentucky should lead the SEC is nuts, simply because of financial safety blanket in the Southeastern Conference. But Jim Larranaga joins the growing ranks of college coaches, and his was particularly pertinent because he ducked out here, not even the middle of the season. They haven't even started a conference
play yet. And this is what he said when he made his announcement.
I'm exhausted. I've tried every which way to keep this going. And i know I'm going to be asked a lot of questions, but I want to answer them before I'm even asked. What shocked me beyond belief. Was after we made it to the Final four just eighteen months ago. The very first time I met with the players, eight of them decided they were going to put their name in the portal and leave. I said, benj, don't.
You like it?
No, I love it.
I love Miami.
It's great. But the opportunity to make money someplace else created a situation that you have to begin to ask yourself as a coach, what is this all about?
In case you're wonder, Yeah, Miami is struggling this year, but that was not why he made his announcement in the middle of the year or shy at the middle of the year. And there will be others now he can afford to leave. Remember, this guy also took George Mason to the Final four, one of the greatest runs by a Cinderella team, and that was in twenty oh six. That's the year that Florida won. One of the years Florida won, the runner up is UCLA. The Gators beat
the Bruins. George Mason and LSU both made the Final Four that year. And you know what, all right, Florida is not a big basketball school. UCLA has some fans, but it's a neighborhood school. They don't have Yeah, they got a lot of titles, but they don't have a huge sweeping fan base. LSU football school. Do they care about basketball? Some? George Mason tiny Those TV ratings for the Final Four that year worse than the history of the Final Four and at least in modern times when
they started really tracking it. So that always tells you that people love Cinderella's the first couple of weekends after that. No, they want the big names. They want the Kentucky's and the Kansas and the North Carolina's in the Final four, and the ratings say as much.
So.
Anyhow, Learronagua has got a great legacy, but it's sad that he had to leave this way. And again, who's next? That's the question, Who's next? Speaking of the nil, Maxwell Harriston's decision had nothing to do with it him leaving for the National Football He had another year of eligibility, but I do believe he should go and he's played four years. Yeah, he was hurt much of this year, only played seven games. Still had nineteen tackles, forced, a couple of fumbles, had a pick, had a sack, he'll
get a great look. And my Packers, of course drafted and signed Carrington Valentine and he is stuck. He took advantage in camp, some guys got hurt and he made the club. But Harrison's got a better resume. I don't know if he's a better player, but he's got a real shot at making the NFL. Vince Merrill needs go and find another Maxwell Harrison since he has decided to stay.
Football Scoop made that announcement quote unquote air quotes. Now, football Scoop it's a fun website, but football Scoop publishes everything it hears. Everybody who contributes to Football Scoop they dump it all onto that website. So a lot of times it's not true, it's a little bit true. It might be true. Well, we knew that Merrill had gotten a call from Bill Belichick, or at least there had been I don't know who made the call first conversation
with Bill Belichick. But Vince has decided he would stick around. That's according to Football Scoop sources with direct knowledge. They say I was told this, I think the day before Christmas, that Vince was staying. But why wouldn't Belichick make the call, and you look around at the job that recruiters have done around the country, and look where Kentucky is now
compared to when Stoops and Merrow got here. And the biggest reason for their success not lately, I know better players and so much of that has to do with Vince Merrow. While we're in college football, Vanderbilt Georgia Tech finishing up their ball game today, the Birmingham Bull Kentucky played in that what Randall Cobbs last year. You know, it's it's a fun game for these teams, for their fans if they go. I gotta think Vandy will take some fans I don't know about. I guess Georgia Tech will,
and I'll probably on it. We pre record, so I can't tell you what's going on in the game. But what's interesting is the impact Vandy and Georgia Tech had on college football this year. On the College Football Playoff, Bandy was the best story in college football because of the upset of Alabama. That was the biggest upset of the year. But remember how the season began. We watched Georgia Tech beat Florida State, I mean outclassed Florida State, in Ireland. Now, we didn't know at the time that
Florida State would be an absolute dumpster fire. This is after that glorious year they had last year. Horrible this year. But Georgia Tech was the first team to take full advantage, so that kind of told us a little bit that
this season might not be what we thought. And sure enough, Bandy with Diego Pavia starts winning games and the biggest win of all forty to thirty five in October fifth, knocking off Alabama, which had just beaten Georgia the week prior and did not get itself ready for the game. Bans rushed the field school had to pay a hundred
thousand dollars fine, they were happy to do so. Pavia threw for two point fifty two and two touchdowns and ran for fifty six yards and moved the chains at the end of the game when Mandy absolutely positively needed first downs. That knocked Bama from the number one ranking to number seven and had never got any higher. And Bama, which also lost to a six and six Oklahoma team, as you know, doesn't make the playoff if it wins one or the other. I believe Bama's in the playoff.
So you can look at Vanderbilt as being a team that's responsible for Alabama not playing in the playoff. And by the way, remember Vandy almost beat Texas And remember Georgia Tech nearly beat Georgia, and if it had done that, it would have kept Georgia, I think from the playoff. Well, if it wouldn't have been a conference game, if Georgia won the conference, it would have gotten there. But man,
whatdn't upset that might have been? They're up seventeen to nothing at the half and let it twenty seven to thirteen of five and a half to play. Bulldogs got it into overtime and won it. And yeah, if Georgia had gone on to win the conference, they were locked into that that buy, but they wouldn't have been seated as highly probably. So yeah, those are the teams that really made headlines this year in college football. Two of them. All Right, we'll come back and talk about Wildcat basketball.
On the other side of the break, Here are the Big Moon Siders six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Moon Sider. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, Tom Leets, the voice of the Wildcats and now renumber two Richard Skinner from Low twelve TV up in Cincinnati, and our Western Burea chief Gary Moore, of course preempted on Wednesday, Christmas Day, but we'll hear his comments and the two guys in a six pack coming up in
our number two. But need to look back on the Wildcats trip to New York City and I went up. We had a very good time, although it was cold, it was windy, but Christmas in New York, Yeah, the decorations and all that, it's a lot of fun. A friend of mine said something about the chaos, and I said, I like the chaos because I can leave the chaos, but I do enjoy it. I've been up there several times, and I've been up there for Kentucky Ohio State, and once again the Wildcats lose. But this was in the
Madison Square Garden. I was up there in twenty the twenty fifteen sixteen season, the Jamal Murray season, as I put it, where the Wildcats lost in Brooklyn to Ohio State, and Murray had a huge game, but Kentucky just never could start to click. And the same thing happened against Ohio State. Eight bluck guys did a great job of
making Kentucky play their game. They ran the Wildcats off the three point line and defended well in the paint, and then at the other end of the floor, they made Kentucky play defense, probably longer per possession than the Wildcats were used to playing, because Kentucky is a good defensive team, but didn't make enough good defensive plays in that game. And the Jake Deebler, the Ohio State coach, talked about the fact that Ohio State was able to control pace.
Felt like we needed to make them guard longer in the half court in those moments. So again, that's a respect, you know, to what they've been able to do. But I thought we were able, you know, and Bruce Thrton led us in that we were able to get to the free throw line some of our own, and you know, we were able to come up with a couple timely offensive rebounds too.
Jake Deebler, by the way, in his first year as the head coach at Ohio State, started actually as a video coordinator from fourteen to sixteen, then left and came back as an assistant a few years ago, and now he's the head man and he has a pretty good win to his credit as Ohio State held Kentucky to twenty nine point eight percent field goal shooting and really more sobering the numbers. Wildcats had eight field goals in
the first half, nine in the second half. Wow, eight for twenty three in the first half, nine for thirty four in the second half in Ohio State meanwhile, shot fifty six point six percent for the entire game and the Cats three point three point percentage four for twenty two. But to me points in the paint Ohio State thirty six, Kentucky twenty four, and Aaron Gershaan chartered you may have heard or read this already Kentucky seven of twenty three
from on layups. Kentucky missed so many shots near the basket it was nuts. It's crazy. Mark Pope talked about the fact that as things went poorly, the Wildcats basically reverted got away from Mark Pope style of basketball, and he's talked about this before. He talked about it going into the game, into the season, talked about it after one of the losses. I believe it was Clemson was the only other loss, but it might have been after
one of those close games. I do believe it was at the Clemson game where he basically said, they quit doing what they're supposed to do, and they do. They were doing what they knew to do because their veterans, you know, they played so much basketball. They reverted and that can't happen. Pope said they had to trust in what they were doing as wildcats.
You know, we had some defensive shot this night, and then we just fell to pieces offense of we and we just went to our default. And our default is not right yet. Our default is still bad habits and and and it's not bad habits coming from a bad place in guy's hearts. It's coming from a great place. It's coming from a desperation to help their team. But we don't do that by ourselves. And we do it discipline, and we do it the way we do it, and we do it by making place for each other. And
and that's still not our default. And that's just that's just a trust building process. And and sometimes when things go wrong, it can build your trust because you see this, you get to see, hey, this doesn't work when we
try and do this this way. And so but these guys will respond beautifully because they're incredibly young men and they'll come back and they'll work like crazy and they know who they represent and how much it means, and it's incredibly painful to lose this game, but they'll respond great.
That kind of reminded me of a football coach talking about, especially on defense, particularly on defense, how guys try to do too much. Stay in your gap, mind your gap, play your gap. I remember Mike Archer telling me about one of the early Kentucky defenses he coached. He said, our best player is the worst example of this. You know, he knows his job, but he's so good he thinks he can do other people's jobs as well, so he'll stop doing what he's supposed to do and go try
to help somebody else as well. And then there's a disaster. Well, you know, it's not being selfish, as Pope said, it's trying to help, trying to do the right thing, and it just wasn't working. And Andrew Carr at a rough time in and around the paint three for nine, only got off nine shots, did get to the free throw line nine times, missed all four of his three pointers. But he talked as well about yeah, they got a couple buckets early, but then after that, Ohio State challenged every at the rim.
Yeah, you know, definitely, I think we kind of knew going into the game that they helped a lot, especially you know, if once we got into the paint, felt like we probably could have done a better job of, you know, when things aren't going our way to playoff two feet, go back to being you know, the fundamentals of the game and stopping at the rim, and we'd be able to get whatever we wanted. So definitely something to learn and improve on.
What struck me was how Kentucky did get some good shots like those shots inside and they weren't hitting. And I asked Otaga away if the frustration began to build as the game went on, I.
Mean, that's that's kind of basketball. Sometimes the ball won't go into the rim, but we just had to find other ways and we didn't today, but we will next time. We just have to find ways to just have hot energy at all times, even when the ball's not going in. On a defensive end, I feel like we could have sparked some energy there, maybe get some easy baskets by cleaning turnovers, but fortunately.
We did it.
But it's okay. We'll learn and get better.
Statistically, Ohway had a good game, twenty one points, only one turnover in thirty and a half minutes. But here's another reason to take the plus minus figure with a huge chunk of salt. If you're a plus minus person, that's fine. But otega Oway, who led Kentucky in scoring and drew nine fouls. He was thirteen for thirteen at the free throw line at a couple of rebounds. It was only four for thirteen from the floor. But again,
nobody shot well for the Wildcats. His plus minus was the worst of the night for anybody, minus twenty six. So again take it with a huge grain of salt, because he was one of the few Wildcats who was able to get and make shots. Although he was four for thirteen, he still got to the line and helped keep Kentucky close. But the Cats just could not make up the ground even when they got to what six And the crowd, by the way, crowd was good. You know what, we had a great crowd in North Carolina.
I walked in early in the first half of the first game. Carolina UCLA place was full. I told my wife where I left the hotel room. Yeah, you know, they'll have some fans there. The building was almost full already, and most of it literally North Carolina fans. You knew UCLA wouldn't have many, and you knew Ohio State wouldn't have many because they're involved with football. You figured it would look like an nca tournament game for the Wildcats. It did not. So learn from this one, put it
behind you, and go back to work. On Tuesday, Tom Leech to the Wildcats. He is the voice of the Wildcats. Is next heer on six thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the Big Blue and Sider, Joined now by the voice of the Wildcats, Tom Leech. You hear him on this very radio station each and every morning, and of course he'll be behind the mic the next time the Cats tip it off. But Tom, let us go back to Madison Square Garden, which is one of the great basketball venues.
I know you were kind of up in the boonies a little bit, but what a thrill still to work in that venue, isn't it?
Yeah? It is.
I was a Knicks fan. My first favorite sports team, probably even before the Wildcats as a kid, was the Bears, and then and then you know, got into the Wildcats just through you know, family, and then The next one was I Think the Knicks. I loved the Knicks and won the title in seventy and then again in seventy three with Walt Frazier, and the second title team had Earl the Pearlman Road, Willis Reed, David Busher and Brill Bradley,
and I was just a big Knicks fan. So one of my great thrills and doing this job was working a game at the Garden Kentucky and Yukon in December of nine. Really good game and we were at courtside kind of, you know, somewhere near where Marv Albert would to sit with a sat calling all those Nick games. Now, when we do these events like CBS sportscass that grew up in what they call a hockey press box way up high. Not quite as special of an experience, but still a garden is a cool place.
First time I ever covered games in the garden, as you know, was the NIT in seventy six, and my scenes for the Kentucky Colonel were up in the hockey press box. But the third game was providence of the semi final game, and there wasn't much of a crowd and I was down on the floor talking to Kwood and Ralph and just as the game began, I saw there was an empty seat right next to the official scorer, so I grabbed it and I thought a lot of move if they moved me, And that's where I ended
up watching the game and saw Larry Johns. I remember the last second lay up from there, and that was a great vantage point.
And first whatever reason there wasn't you know in cuahampionship team, but that was one of my favorite UK seasons because it didn't look like they were going nowhere, and then it got hot and played their way into the n I t when that was a much more meaningful tournament, and you know, it was played like the Sweet sixteen is here for the boys and girls, where it's you know, sixteen teams at the garden and you know, you play over four days till you get knocked out. And it
was just really enjoyed that team. And part of the reason was I was a big James Lee fan at that time, and somebody was hurt. I think it was Robie was hurt, so James was moved into the starting lineup.
Yeah, Rick Bluees near early in the year, and the whole season began to Korean a little bit.
But goose Yah had that Providence game. I looked this up and adventually to Gooster in our broadcast that he had twenty eight against Providence, and I think Tony Delk had twenty nine as the only Kentucky player to score more in the garden.
Wow, that's a great stat. Well, back to the matters hand. That Kentucky Ohio State game, You've got to credit the Buckeyes and I don't know if you read later the comments from their coach or heard about it, but they were determined to force Kentucky to play their game on both ends and the court, and they did it. And every time a team loses a game, you wonder, is
this the blueprint? Well, we know teams are going to run Kentucky off the three point line as best they can, but really ratcheting down the pace of the game I thought was a big, big move for Ohio State. Did you see it that way?
Oh?
Yeah? And there were two things I thought that were the kind of the big storylines in the first half. Aaron Bradshaw scored nine points, yes, sir, off the bench, and their leading score of House States was in foul trouble so they got zero from their leading score, but they got nine from Bradshaw, which made up that difference. And so then that was ironically a nine point lead
at halftime. And Lamont Butler got into some early foul troubles, so he sat for a lot of the first half, and then in the second half, Butler picked up his third foul pretty early and maybe that was, you know, affected his play because Thornton, I just thought dominated the second half and it was tugging with Mike the coursing my show about this that how dominant Ohio State was in that point guard matchup went on paper, it seemed to be one that would you know, maybe be a draw,
a toss up, and Thornton got thirty and Lamonta I think, had had four, and just then he wasn't as good defensively. But I have to think when he picks up his third so early, and he also knows that they don't have Kerr Creasan now and so there's more of a drop off when Lamont goes out at the point that maybe that affects his defense and feeds into how Orton was able to just dominate the second half.
Yeah, and when Butler went out. If memory serves, that's just about the time that Ohio State went on a run which was like nine or ten points and it stayed that way. There was that one run Kentucky made late when the crowd got into it and they got it down to what six or something like that, But that was the difference in the game, and Kentucky was able to impose its will for about a minute and a half and get the lead down and then the next thing you know, it's a twelve point lead again.
And one of the plays in you knew where I was sitting in the end zone and it came right at me, was the play where Lamont Butler reached in and stole the ball. I mean, as clean as steel as you could make. And here he comes down on the break and one of the Ohio State defenders reaches in ties him up held ball. I think it was Kentucky's ball, But they failed to score, and I thought that if they don't get that bucket, I'm wondering are
they ever going to get back on track. It is that kind of night, wasn't it.
Yeah, It just they just Kentucky, I thought, just seemed kind of about a step behind the whole night. Yeah, Our buddy Mike Pragg used to talk about a term called game slippage, and essentially it refers to you your team's rolling along and you just kind of lose a little bit of your edge or focus on to what the you know, your plan is, your approach it. And for this particular team, they don't, as Pope reiterated after
the game, they're not. You know, it's not a team built to just you know, okay, I mean a mom Butler got thirty three against Louisville, but you know, you don't have a guy that you can just kind of lean on to get you through the night when you're struggling to go ahead and get you twenty five. And they've got to do it collectively, kind of like a think like an offensive line in football.
And they.
In that game just seemed a little bit off. And the best example I can think of it a six point game. Kentucky had a run going, Brea had hit a three, they got it to six, and they have the ball in transition one of the few times they got out and ran and Oway makes a fantastic pass as he's coming across the midpoint line. It fires a
bullet to Garrison right under the basket. He's gonna catch it, dunk it, and make it a four point game, except he fumbles the ball at Ohio State takes it away and goes down and calls time out and comes out of that time out it hits a three, and that was essentially the game. This Kentucky never made a real run after that.
It's exact. I've had more people have brought that up to me, and I remember that. Yeah, because you talk about turning points, emotionally, momentum, all that stuff. But you know they're going to learn from it. But they've got another weekend off before they get back to work. We'll talk more basketball with Tom Leach on the other side of the break here on a big Blue Sider six
thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Tom Lea's the voice of the while Cats, and of course he called the action as the Wildcats lost to Ohio State up in New York. And yeah, there was there was, you know, no big gun to the rescue. They haven't had that all year. We knew that going in, but I think a lot of us Tom thought and I'm not laying
any blame in his feed. But we all thought that Jackson Robinson might become that might kind of develop into that kind of go to guy instead of Totega oh way, which is fine, you love to have more than one. But uh, I'm a little surprised that Robinson has been a little more deliberate, let's say, in his development. What have you seen?
Yeah, he is probably not scored consistently as at a higher level is maybe the best way to look at it. And I think probably he's been a little more up and down in his production game in a game at place hard. I mean it's not like he disappears. He gets been solid enough to sensively you know, good as to turnover ratio, all those things. It's just that the shooting percentage isn't what you would have expected for him. He's shooting him just looking at it here now, thirty
percent on threes. Last year he shot thirty five years before thirty four, year before thirty three, So a little under on that percentage. Not getting quite as much at the free throw line as he did last year. Percentage still good, but just as many opportunities two point shots, about the same turnover rates down. I mean, if you just look at his numbers, rebounding rate is up to
a career high. So there's a lot of things to like about if you just kind of look at the numbers, But then you look at his points, and he's been pretty consistently double figures. But just look at the last four games ten, twelve, eleven, eighteen twelve. I think probably you'd think maybe it'd be more you know, average year around fifteen sixteen, he'd be the leading scorer. So it's probably a little unfair to say it's any big issue
because he has consistently scored their both figures. But you know, and part of it maybe just the system and you know what they're what they're doing. It's kind of it's not designed to make one guy, you know, be the guy. It's going to be whoever gets open. And you know, he was the guy that I think a lot of people expected to maybe score at a higher level, and so the opposing teams know that and maybe get a little more of the off or the defense toward him.
But maybe that's why Olway has scored a little higher level than we expected.
Yeah, it's going to be a group effort. Whatever happens is going to be a group effort. And I played the comment from from Mark Pope a couple of minutes ago about the fact that and he mentioned this before for one of the other games that they kind of reverted, they got away from quote the system when they were trying to make up ground and went back to what they knew from their previous stops at other places where they had to stick with what they were trying to do.
And I think you know that the instances like that, I think will become fewer and fewer as the year goes on. But they've really got to knuckle down with the SEC schedule coming up, don't they.
Yeah, they do. There's a couple of things. I think. One they're missing Creasa more than is being talked about. He was a great change of pace guy, and the course he was telling me, not many teams had the luxury of having a veteran starting point guard coming off the bench, so and it was a different kind of point guff So it kind of changed the pace of the game. And he gets he was the guy got them up and down the floor a little bit more. So. It was a good combo with him and Butler, and
they'll get that back. He'll be back it'll be probably the last third of the season. And then you know, Andrew Carr. I think when if you look at the Gonzaga game, his two best games probably in Gonzaga, and those are the two biggest wins for Kentucky. And so maybe you know, he's a guy at you know, Christmas, Ohio State thirteen points and you know, four rebounds, you're like a little more rebounding, but thirteen points that they
solid out him. But maybe he needs to be a little more, you know, could be a little more assertive offensively because you know, he can score in so many different ways.
Yeah, and he was frustrated as well, but I thought Ohio State did a good job on him. But they've just got to learn to play through this. And as we said, Ohio State, we well, you know, you kind of have to throw out and you love horse racing throughout. The Auburn game is a bad race because that State Yeah that was yeah, that was because not who they were.
No, because I went back and looked at that game. In the first half, Auburn made nine to three in Ohio State made one, so the game was over and halftime. When you have that kind of you know, dispairity. Auburn block thirteen shots in that game, so there were just some some freakishly good Auburn stats. Bradshaw didn't play in that game either. Again, I think his his production to get eleven points off the bench, Kentucky really got very little out of its bench and Ohio State was able
to get a lot. Bradshaw scored eleven, Hafe had six, Glover had nine, So that's twenty six points off those three guys coming off the bench. Excuse me. Kentucky ended up with eleven points off its bench, so that was a significant advantage for Ohio State. You know, I think Kentucky needed a little more production out of out of its bench guys. Brandon Garrison was really good against Gonzaga and Duke in those two big games. He didn't have
his best game in this one. Yeah, some of that sometimes it's going to happen, gonna go through the SEC. They're gonna be some nights when you are made to look bad in this league. I was looking at the the Ken Palm numbers. Fifteen of the sixteen teams are ten and two are better.
Amazing.
Just in Kentucky's first three opponents are combined thirty four and two Lord of Georgia, and it's like two them on the road. Now some of them, you know, Georgia. You look at you know who some of these teams have beaten and it's not a lot, but you know, Georgia did beat you know, a solid Saint John's team and played Marquette to an eleven point loss. But you look at you know, Mississippi State's eleven and one. You know they have I'm looking at here. They beat Doug Memphis,
that's really their their best win. They lost a Butler by ten, So they have a nice record, But don't you know, have a lot of marquee wins and yet and yet when you watch them play, they sure look good. Yeah, you know, Myths has had a little more in terms of marquee wins. Texas not much. Oklahoma's twelve and oh probably their best win might be Louisville, you know, but you know, Missouri was winless in the league last year
and beat Kansas. That's probably the best. You know, comment or whatever on the on the strength of the league this year, where a team that was winless in eighteen league games last year had Kansas down by twenty pretty much the whole game. He is.
Tom Leach is the voice of the Wildcatch you hear him on this very radio station each and every morning, and of course broadcasting the Kentucky games with Jack Evans. Follow him on extra, Twitter or whatever you like at Tom Leach, Ky and Thomas will see you at Rupp Arena.
Sounds good, happy here here.
Our number two is next with local twelves Richard Skinner out of Cincinnati and West n Bureau chief Gary Moore here on six point thirty WLAP. Welcome back to the big moone side of joining us now. Longtime friend of the show and a guy we've known for ever. Richard Skinner Local twelve up in Cincinnati. He does really a little bit of everything TV radio, he writes for the Internet coaches Basketball. But Skinny, let me start off first of all, Merry Christmas to you. Let's ask about the
Cincinnati Bengals, who played tomorrow mathematically alive. But they're a long shot in the playoffs, right yeah.
I mean, they gotta have a lot of things happen. First and foremost, they've got to win these final two games, one of them against Denver.
They need Denver to.
Lose the final two which would be obviously if they went on Bengals beat them on Saturday.
That's one of them, and.
It's an odd one. They play Kansas City in the finale, and the question then is how long or at all does Kansas City play at starters after they wrapped up.
The one seed.
It isn't interesting to let me even for Andy reid Dick because if he chooses not to and he doesn't know the Bengals anything, I'm just laying the scenario out.
If he chooses not to play starters, they're going to not play a game for twenty five days between them playing on Christmas Day and their first playoff game at a long time for guys to not play, So I would think he plays them some I'm sure some of us with trepidation, especially Patrick, and maybe maybe he plays a chunk of the starters, and the chunk of the starters don't have Patrick Mahomes's name on it, maybe it's Carson Win.
Yes, it's an.
Interesting limit to see what takes place. But even then, even then, let's just say Bergman stake Kansas City does beat Denver, the team that's kind of in the driver's seat if that happens, is Indianapolis. They've got two really winnable games left at the New York Giants and then home to Jacksonville. Now you can always says, you know, trip up on the road in the NFL. I don't know if you trip up with the Giants because they're just so bad, but it's always a possibility. And the
Olpins are also still in the mix. They have to lose one of their final two games as well, so a lot has to happen. But the thing that you can control with the moment is beating Denver to at least go to the last week at Pittsburgh and have a meaningful game in some way, shape or form.
Denver, to me is such a great story, not just because it's my son's favorite team. Started rooting for the Broncos just hoping they would beat my Packers back in the mid nineties in the serping ball. He's yeah, he's that kind of ornery. But I just think the bow Knicks story is really interesting. And if not for Jaden Daniels in DC, he might be the rookie of the year.
But yeah, yeah, either either him or Brock Bowers, because Brock's right, he's been he's been great. It's funny because you know when I watched him at Auburn and they threw him right in the Nicks right away, right as a freshman, and you know, you still have to take that into consideration. That's a true freshmun At times he looked the talent. At times he looked it over his
head and never really came to fruition. And then you know when when he transferred and and you know, you watch him player, like, Okay, he's probably a product now of what he's playing around, but he's really good, and they played with strengths. He's a good athlete. They use a lot of naked bootleg with him off of their run actions, and they like to run the ball. They don't ask him to do a ton, but he's also
capable of dropping back and making some throws. And to your point, yeah, I think this is a odd year. I mean, there are three legit candidates between bo Nicks, jayde Daniels, and uh and Brock Bauers for for NFL Rookie of the Year uh In In in another year, a normal year, what bo Nix has done would be more than well enough and probably end up finishing third in the voting.
You know, when he was at Auburn and of course he was the quarterback the COVID year when they beat Kentucky and all that. I thought it was the typical SEC team, as you said, throw the rookie quarterback in there and then just devour him. You know, I guess that's where we are to stand. Age, he had very little time to develop, and as you point out, he was not surrounded by the can't same kind of talent he had up at Oregon. But that was just typical, wasn't it.
Yeah, no, no question. And again you know he came from a lineage's dad was a quarterback at Aubert and that probably factored in a little bit to it as well. But yeah, and again we know, you know, you see these guys and you know the talent. I mean, you're not playing without some level of talent, but you know, you're jumping from high school football to playing in the SEC. That is that's that's like jumping from college football to play in the NFL. That is a huge monks jump.
That's right. Well, while we're talking quarterbacks in the Bengals, as we talk with Richard Skinner or Local twelve, obviously we got to talk about Joe Burrow and what kind of incredible, slash frustrating year he has had. You must just scratch your head every week as you watch this team put up so many point and you lose so many games.
Yeah, it's been weird, you know. The storyline obviously in training camp was him coming off the wrist search, and there were times in camp he didn't look good. There were times in camp he flexed the wrists around right, and it felt like all of us to cover the team on a daily basis or we're on wristwatch for a wall. Oh he's putting on a glove today he's taking the glove off. What does that mean?
Uh?
And then the opening game against New England it looked like they didn't they weren't sure what the risk was like either, because it was very much a dink and dunk checkdown day. Some of that again, it's just the structure of what New England did defensively. But really, when this team gets rolled, it doesn't matter what the structure of the defense is, they're going to pick you apart.
And that was an not one and it was like, Okay, they don't trust the risk either, And then all of a sudden, he just started cutting it loose, and a question was asked of him with the every day we talked to him Tuesday this week because of the holiday, usually we talked to him on Wednesdays. And I can't remember how the phraseology, I mean a paraphrase here was, you know, we haven't even to asked you about the
risk in five or six weeks. How's it doing? And he said, yeah, I don't really think about it a ton anymore, and uh so that storyline quickly went away, and it is I mean, he's on a roll of something that nobody's ever done in the league before. He's got seven straight games of two hundred and fifty plus passing yards in three touchdowns in seven straight games in the National Football League. That's and no other quarterback can Hey, you name every quarterback you want to name, no one
else has ever done it. So he's doing some just incredible things. He's about to become the eleventh or twelfth quarterback to ever throw forty touchdowns in the season that some of those guys have done it multiple times. Yeah, but he's only going to be the twelfth different quarterback to do it. So he's just putting up some verified stuff that if he wasn't on a team that's not going to make the playoffs in all likelihood, I truly think he's the MVP of the league.
Wow, and yet they're they're not winning, as we all know, because they can't stop the other guys and skinny as you know, this is an expensive defense. They got a lot of guys making a lot of money. I got to think that that as a fan base just phenomenally frustrated.
Yeah, you know, unfortunately, you know, one of the guys that are paying fortunately Trey Henderson is having a good season, but otherwise, no, you know, they remade the safety room for the second year and signing Von Belt back, signing Geno Stone from Baltimore, and Voon is just a shell of himself. He lost his starting spot at Jordan Battle who struggled to get in shape and training camp and he wasn't quite ready early on, and Gino Stone just wasn't the same guy that he was in Baltimore. He
picked off seven passes. In fact, literally, I'm about probably a handful of paragraphs away from finishing story of Bengal Safety's trying to finish season on redeeming note. You know, all three of those guys came away with a takeaway last week. You know, Stone with an interception, Jordan Battle of interception in the end zone, and the biggest play was von Bell punching the ball away at the goal line.
He only played seven defensive snatch, but he was in on goal line defense, punched the ball away and recovered it and the Bengals turned around, went ninety nine yards instead of trailing seven to nothing. And Geno Stone has an interception in each of the last three games. But you know, the other part of it is, you know they missed on some draft picks. You know, Miles Murphy, the first round pick last year, doesn't he I think he got one quarterback pressure doesn't he doesn't play it.
In fact, Joseph Osai, who was a third round pick a few years ago, is playing over him at the moment. And so, yeah, they spend a lot of money on that defensive line. They haven't quite gotten the production. They've gotten some rookie start to do some things. But even to the point of the story I'm writing, and even to some of the things of the last three weeks, and they won three games in a row. You also have to swallow hard go. Yeah, but it was Cooper Rush,
Will Levice and Dorian Thompson Robbinson. I mean, okay, you should have beaten those guys, right, but you know, you gotta find a story somewhere. Right now, it's the redemption story for the safety room. But we'll see if they can do that against bo Nixon and his crew.
Is there any danger that Joe Burrow and I realized contracts or contracts, but any contract can be changed, beaten whatever. Burrow throws up his hands at some point and says, you know what, I'm wasting myself here. And he's had great success in the past with the Bengals, but I'm wondering could he say, look, I got to go someplace where I'm not squandered.
Yeah.
I don't think we're there yet, but I do think this, and I think there was palpable frustration with him, you know, even after the Dallas game where they win one and it was a very telling thing when it was Joe Burrow, T Higgins, Jamar Chase went out for the coins off. They've never done it as a group before, and of course Jamar is you know, he's on the fifth year option. But he's he had obviously contentious negotiations to try to
get an extension. He's playing on the franchise tag and after the game, I mean, the storyline was about the win, and they won it a weird way. All of a sudden, Joe Burrow hits this with, Yeah, I'm pretty confident we're gonna get TV signed, and it was like, wait a minute, you are well. A few days later, t drops his
agent and picks up Jamar's agent. I think Joe knows in order to get him resigned, he's going to probably have to restructure his contract into probably getting a different signing bonus to pro rate the money out across the cap as approsed to I mean, just giant chunks of guaranteed money. And I think that's the frustration for him at the moment, is, Hey, I want this guy back. I'm basically telling everybody I want this guy back, and I'm going to try to make it work to get
this guy back. I think if they don't do that, they don't address the defense, and he's playing forty one thirty eight shootouts again next year. I think that's when the frustrat we're really get in. But I will also tell you he's still got about one hundred and ninety million dollars of guaranteed money coming twice the Cincinnati Bengals, So yeah, he can be frustrated, but that's a lot of that's a lot of dough.
Richard Skinner is my guest from Local twelve TV up in Cincinnati. Will come back and talk more with Skinny in just a minute here on the Big bloom Sider six thirty WLAP. Welcome back. We're talking with Richard Skinner. He covers all kinds of things for Local twelve up in Cincinnati. But right now we're talking about those Cincinnati Bengals and Man last night. And some people say the NFL is almost unwatchable this year. There have been some great games, but what is it? I mean that that
Bears Seahawks you. I couldn't watch it, Skinny. I had to turn it off. It just seems like you've got the handful of the cream of the crop up here and everything else is just not even worth tuning in. You know.
Yeah, I did have to watch Dick because I'm in the in the playoffs in my fantasy league and Gina Smith is my quarterback for me, and that didn't work out so last ninety free games, so I need some others to take up the slack. I'll be honest with you. The Bengals offensive line gets a lot of knocks for allowing sacks, and you know they've allowed thirty seven sacks in approximately six hundred and twenty dropbacks.
That's not awful.
I think the problem is. I think you saw it last night with the Bears into some degree in Seattle to Pittsburgh on on If you watch the Netflix game on Christmas Day against Kansas City, offensive line plays just horrible. And I don't know if that's because we've gone to all the spread quick get it out of your hand stuff in college that you're not developing one blockers or guys who have to do you know, seven step past drop sets. But man, it just feels like everybody's scrambling.
So in the prison of Cincinnati Bengals fans are offense on line stinks. Well, there are parts of us that are struggle. I mean, the guard play has been horrible and they've you know, they're taking Courto Bolson out again this week and putting Cody Forty in because Orlando Brown is back. But you look across this league. There's a lot of bad offensive line play, and I think that's
part of it. That just lea's up the games because even when they maybe do something well eighteen yard game holding number seventy three on the offense, you know why they game block. And I think that's where we're at.
Unfortunately, that's a great point and it hits home here. I know you keep an eye on a lockcat. You covered Kentucky, but fans are unhappy with two mediocre seasons in a losing season, and you know you can you can look at the portal and then I own this and that. But and I'm not blaming any one kid in particular, but the old line has not been anywhere close to what it was with Stoops's best teams. And it all starts there, doesn't.
It, no question? And I mean I think the second game of the year against South Carolina were the alarm bells just began ringing big time, like, oh no, they can't block anybody, and they really couldn't. And you know, I'm not gonna I know it's easy to point the finger of blame of going to the pool and getting guys all that. I get why you got to do it at the same time when they were really good, and it's as hard to do as you know, because when you have this sort of stamps, guys then turn
around and leave. Was when John Slarmo's the offensive line coach and they would develop ten guys basically at the time of you know what, I can plug this guy here, this guy here, guy snaps here, And there's always somebody in the pipeline to do that. And again I'm not blaming Eric Wolfer or the current staff or any that because it's a different landscape than even five or six years ago when it was a big blue wall. It's just that felt like the right formula. Let's just get
our guys. We'll develop them. Guys aren't patient though, right If I'm not playing by my sophomore here playing the snaps I want to play, I just plug my name in the portal and go somewhere else. And I think that's the challenge at the moment.
Yeah, Stoops and Vince Maryland nurse, they you know, evaluate, recruit, sign them, develop them, coach them up, and plug them in. And as you say, you just can't do that now with all the movement, and you know how about Lara Andaga in Miami. I talked about this off the top of the show, just up and you know, here's a guy eighteen months from a final four and he said, I can't do this anymore. And he ain't the only one.
Yeah, I think he said, I paraphrase, you get a you know, I kind of realized when a guy has for one point two million dollars and I'm not doing I'm not ready for this now. And I think you're gonna see more. I think you are seeing more and more that are just fed up. And again I'll go back to Mark and his staff. You know, when you go to the portal, you think you're getting a fairly established guy, but you possibly missed or this guy just decided I got paid. I'm good. I'm not going to
be to be an NFL guy. I'm I got mine. I'm good. I'll I'll do just enough. And that's just I think it's really a tough evaluation, I really do.
Yeah. Or I'll stay healthy so I'll be ready for the draft.
Right, No, that's right.
Yeah, that's the other part. Yeah, make a business decisions.
Yep. If you've ben us left with skinny, let me get your thoughts real quick, just on what you've seen from up the interstate of Mark Pope and his team. I know, not a happy day up in New York. I talked about the Ohio State loss earlier, but brother, it's a different age down here and election when it comes to basketball, well.
You know you'll have to state game's gonna temper the enthusiasm a little bit, and understandably.
So.
The only thing I think that's a little alarming, not completely, but a little it is the last two games athletic lead slash point guards really did their business. Chuckie Hepburn of Louisville and then Bruce Thornton of Ohio State. They just had a really hard time guarding those guys and keeping them from scoring. And then the two losses, the Clemson loss and then this one. Offensively, Listen, our head coach is where I coach. I'm an assistant coach at Beechwood
High School. He actually went to a Mark invited a handful of coaches down for a clinic before the seasons already. He went down and fell in love with everything he was doing. So we had offensive stuff and he's like, no, I'm putting all zoom acts of stuff there. We're gona run our stuff, but he goes, I goes that stuff's just really good.
It is.
It's really good when you're running it and guys are making shots, right, and we've seen it. I mean the Clemson game, there was really no answer when you weren't making shots, and then the Ohio stinky and there really wasn't an answer when you weren't making shots. And they don't have a ton of dynamic players who can take you off the dribble and get their own I don't mean to pick Jackson Robbins has been a bit of
a disappointment to me. And again I'm saying this despite the fact that they have arguably the two best on conference wins of anybody in the country this year and the duke winning the Gonzaga within. The only thing that flipside that is what is it night off in the SEC this year? For anybody there's there's to forget it exactly. It's it's gonna be a dogfight. So I mean, even if this team goes eleven and seven in the league, I probably would look and go I did pretty dog
on Well. I don't know where that puts him for a seed and I think that's where the enthusiasm of with the one loss, the Clemson loss, a close one on the road, and coming back and beating the Zagon, you felt like they'll take care of Ohio State and obviously they're gonna take care of Colgate on Wednesday or on New Year's Eve on Tuesday. That you know, going the SEC with one loss and maybe you'll lose four or five games and you're in a mix for a
one or a two seeds. I think we all got over our skis, myself included because I will plead guilty to being that. But I do think they have some issues in certain circumstances that there's gotta be some other answer if you're not making shots. And I know that sounds simplistic, but there's nobody to throw it to in
the post. I thought maybe Andrew Carr in the Clemson game, they had got him a little more in the post, but I get it, you're trying to run your stuff, and even then they had a shot to win that game. But to me, the defensive stuff with the two athletic point guards the last two weeks, that's a little ding ding new for me at the.
Moment, That's a great point because Butler gets in foul trouble, right, and then what happens, you know, and they you can you can find somebody to run your stuff. But you're right, I mean, how do you guard and your boy? The Ohuse State guards got to the rim. It seemed like whenever they.
Felt every time Yeah, yeah, just a.
Couple of minutes. Let but to your point about running their stuff. I had a comment from Pope earlier. Uh he was saying that what happened was against Ohio State and against Clemson's well they would abandon what they were supposed to do and revert to what they knew from three or four years at other places. And he said, they're not being selfish, They're trying to win, but they've got to stick stick with the programs. Son, you know what I mean, that's a fair call.
And sometimes you know that happens, like you know, you have a set call, do you have action call? Do you want the action continue? And a guy you know his missed three straight shots or you've got five straight empty trips of no, I think my way is going to be the best at the moment, and it's not. I mean I get that and that's kind of the end of the hang of coaching, right as you know, if you'll hope guys follow the rules and sometimes they just revert to trying to to do things on their own.
And so I just am fascinated about what this SEC is going to be, not just for Kentucky but for everybody the SEC and where I am in Cincinnati with the Big Twelve and even to some degree the Big East. But Xavier's down at the moment because their best player is hurt. I mean, U See is a really good team, and Dick they have a chance. I don't think it's gonnappen. They a chance to start owen for in the Big Twelve.
I don't think they will. But their first games are at Kansas State, which isn't great, but it's at Kansas State. Then they play Arizona and they play Kansas and I'm growing and Baylor in their first four games. I mean in Kentucky opens big Big SEC play with Florida. Yeah, I mean you are you buckle in, folks, because it is going to be a crazy, crazy ride if you're a college basketball fan in some of these major conference bumped.
Into hoops wise, in Madison, Square Garden. He said, I could say champion regular season having six losses in the league. Yeah, and not entirely possible. Whatever happens, Richard Skinner will keep an eye on it for Local twelve up in Cincinnati. That's how you find him on X or Twitter. Skinny. Have a great new year coming up, and we'll keep in touch.
Absolutely, did you two? Take care?
West End Bureau Chief Gary Moore next on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and Cider. Joining us now is our Christmas elf. He is our West End Bureau Chief. Gary Moore, a long time West Coast Bureau chief when he worked at KELOST Radio in Los Angeles, but now in LA the Louisville area, joins us each and every week. I'm certain you had a great holiday.
I did, and you and your bride as well, and your family and the furry friends there did the same.
All good.
Well, we haven't talked since I guess last week when all the hoopball was going on. Dick, I'm sorry, but I got to join the whiners, all the whiners complaining that the about all these blowout college football games, I mean, based on the teams, based on the teams. We thought the Myrtle Beach ball would be close, but ut San Antonio forty four to fifteen over coach of Carolina. Come on, man again, experts.
You know death spend a lot of time worrying about that one, do you? Oh?
Man, I was so disappointed. I was so looking forward to that. Death taxes and cry babies about college playoff games. Not remember TCU and Georgia. Yeah, it's still going on, and so I find somewhere. May I remind the little lanies of Oxford that in the ten years of the fourteen playoffs leading up to these twelve, do you know what the average score was? Forty to twenty one.
Wow.
I will repeat that. For those who do not remember playoff history, they are condemned to be reminded by football junkies like me that the average college football playoff score in the last ten years with those four teams every year forty to twenty one, according to the Athletic. And for those with their panties into not because Indiana got in. At least A they didn't lose to Bandy on the road or to UK at home, and b the Hoosiers lost by fewer points than SMU did, or Clemson did
or Crocky Top so eat at Herb Street. And by the way, Herb your Alba Mater, lost to a Michigan team again at home, and a Michigan team that Indiana beat. So there's some logic for you.
It seems to me, Dick.
If you beat a ranked team, then you tank against an unranked team, you kind of offset everything. Yep, I you didn't offset anything. And for the record, just go back last week into our picks. I was one for four. You know, I had IU, I had SMU. Yeah, and that ugly Orange school. I know you did way better than I did.
Yeah. Well, I'm watching these games and I'm thinking, of course, reason being, all right, SMU has to move to the frigid North. Here are guys who when they started I'm not making excuses, this is just reasons. When they started their preseason workouts, they were in one hundred and five degree weather yep. And of course the season wears on. But here they are playing this team from Texas, playing in fridging conditions like that. That's home field advantage, That's
part of it. My other point is, and weather figured in a couple times, But I really believe that Notre Dame was underseedd. I think Ohio State was underseated, but it's their own fault for the reason you just gave. Don't lose the Northern Illinoist home. Don't lose to Michigan again when you're clearly better. Take care of business, and
then the games look a little bit more. I guess the biggest one gary that surprised me was Tennessee, given that that was one of the more at least what we saw physical teams in the sec They got punched in the mouth and never responded.
Second swig in our two guys in a six pack here. Let's go on to the quarterfinals now. Game one Tuesday, New Year's e Fiesta Bowl, Glendale, Arizona, seven thirty pm on ESPN, with the aforementioned Penn State Nitney Lions ten and a half point favorites over Boise. I'm picking the Nitney Lions, but I'm rooting for Ashton, Jenny and Boise to win that one. Then on New Year's Day, the next three on up first at one o'clock, and by the way, all the games are on ESPN one o'clock.
Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Texas, a thirteen and a half point favorite over Arizona State. I will take the long horns of Texas over the satanic devil horns of Asu. Then at five o'clock, the Granddaddy of them all in Pasadena, my former address, the Rose Bowl, top ranked Oregon two and a half point underdogs against the Buckeyes. Dick, I'm gonna pick the Ducks anyway, mostly with my heart because I love Oregon some of my head, but honestly, I
don't know if they can beat Ohio State twice. And finally, eight forty five pm New Year's Night, ESPN wraps up the day with the Sugar Bowl New Orleans, Georgia Bulldogs, Dogs, I mean dogs, two point favorite. I'm sorry, yeah, two point favorites over Notre Dame. Call me crazy, but I'm actually gonna pick the Irish in this one.
No, go ahead, No, I like your I like your picks. I'll be rooting when I was growing up as a Penn State fan, but I'll be roading for Boise. I think that'll be a better story. I think if Boise gets off to the proverbial goods start, that one could go down to the wire. Penn State, I think is really good. I have to give James Franklin credit. I will root for the Ducks as well, because any any
guy named Gabriel playing quarterback with my initials. But the other thing too, is I have a an army of cousins who moved the family moved out to Portland from West Virginia. They're massive Oregon Duck fans. And I'm a Richforks fan, and he's a He's an Oregon Duck deep down. But I do believe it'll be tough to win that game, but I'll go with Oregon. I think Arizona State, if it gets off to the good start, can can cover the thirteen. But Texas, Texas has way too many athletes.
And you know i'm Quinn Yours. You know I got to see him up close and personal, good game manager, and I think that's what this will take. I think Texas just too good for ASU, and I will pick Notre Dame as well. Like I said, I think they've been under seated and Georgia is gonna be with that Carson Beck. They got a good backup quarterback. But I think Notre Dame is sneaky good if you can be that as Notre Dame.
Just in case, my friend Ross Biork, who is the athletic director at Ohio State's listening. Ross, you guys win, I'll be very happy for you. I'll still be rooting for the Ducks. Third swig in a six pack Bowl Mania. The rest of them now in full forth. Five bowl games today, including the Liberty Bowl going on right now as we speak down in Memphis. That's Texas, Texas, Arkansas and ESPN Holiday Bowl coming up at the end of the hour of a DIC at eight o'clock, Number twenty
one Syracuse and Wazoo Washington State. That's done Fox, and then there's still more ten thirty tonight ESPN, the Vegas Bowl, Texas, A and m and USC. Then tomorrow eight kind of eight bowl games, but only three with ranked teams. Those three will include our new favorite and you're definitely yours, Pop Tarts Bowl from Orlando. Yeah, with the real toaster in the trophy. Number eighteen Iowa State and number thirteen Miami. That's at three thirty tomorrow on ABC at seven thirty.
Also in ABC, this looks really juicy. The Alimui Bowl, Number seventeen BYU and number twenty three Colorado. They do here, then at nine fifteen on ESPN, number twenty two Army and LA Tech down in the Independence Bowl. No bowl games on Sunday, just one on Monday, Music City Bowl Iowa and number nineteen Missouri, and before the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday, Dick New Year's Eve. There's four bowl games in order, number eleven Bama and Michigan, Louisville and Washington,
number thirteen South Carolina, and number twenty Illinois. And then you've got Baylor and LSU. Besides the pop Tarts bawl. I definitely want to see BYU and hopefully see him beat Colorado and maybe Michigan beat Bama.
Two fingers.
Also, yeah, I'm also curious to see how that Bama Michigan game plays out. But interesting, those two mighty brands of football kind of relegated a little whit. Yeah a reminder, Louisiana Tech is five and seven and playing in a ball game only because Marshall was forced to back out because it didn't have enough players after a ten win season. That's got to be exhibit A when they sit down and figure out how and why and where to change the college football calendar with regard and I know you know.
One of the things Gary, we don't talk about you and I mentioned this before, You can't throw a blanket over all of it. Because some schools have semesters and some have quarters, you know, So if a kid wants to go from a semester school to a quarter school, that still matters. You know. What I'm telling you is
the academic end of it still matters. Boys. So many games to look at, but I think the A and M's Southern col game is going to be interesting a program you used to cover, and remember, if not for complaints by some prominent boosters in College Station, that A and M team would have been coached this year by Mark Stoops. But I love Bowl games. We've talked about
it before, probably too many. But I hate the people in ourlina who are talking heads writers who dismissed them as being worthless and meaningless because they've never covered up close to these games. And I always go back to the O six Music City Bowl and the joy that the UK players and coaches had in getting there, playing and winning and watching their celebration. It is still one of the great days in my career getting to see that up close and.
I think a lot of whining about who is in the playoffs and how many bowl games they are is just the perflust. It makes you just look like a whiner, bast It doesn't matter if they're gonna go on anyway, that's right. And by the way, what a difference of year makes Remember the last time Michigan and Alabama played about a year ago?
Yeah, how about that?
Uh, let's talk NFL here on the fourth swig, I caught your fellow Trinity Lom Steve Rabel on the Seahawks call for a little while on the radio Chicago.
Uh.
I love listening to Steve.
He does that exciting. What's that he gets excited.
Well, when the Seahawks do something, but when somebody, when the other team does, you don't even realize it.
Now, that's that.
That's that drives me crazy in every line. And Mike Shannon used to do this with the Cardinals. Yeah, and there's a Grand Slam Cardinals lose, will be right back.
And Steve does that too.
He did it last weekend. I had the radio broadcast that I was listening to the thing with the with your Packers and uh, with the Vikings and Jefferson's in zone and he's got a touchdown and the Vikings go ahead.
Why they just scored?
What?
On to Saturday, three big NFL games, all with playoff implications Chargers at the Patriots had won, and the Broncos are Rep. I seventy five at the Bengals and finally Arizona at the LA Rams. All of those games are on the NFL Network, by the way. Three in particular, I'm interested in the Sunday Dallas at Philly Eagles fans hate Dallas even more than you and I do, which is substantial, and your lava hot packers at the Vikings.
And then Sunday Night you got the Falcons and Michael PENNOCKX at Jayden Daniels and Washington Monday Night Lions and the forty nine ers. I like your pack to serve a cold, green and gold platter of revenge in minne Haha on Sunday, even though they are one point underdogs last time I look.
Yeah, and that line's been changing. The question is how long do you leave your starters for some of these teams? You know, the playoffs slots are already set and the packers are going where we're a wild card team can't win the division. But I think you play to stay sharp. You know, you got to keep guys healthy. But yeah, you're right, we're rolling. Packers are rolling. Play the stay sharp and learn more about your opponents and things like that. Yeah,
it's difficult this time of year. Some of these teams just playing out the string. Guys are playing for stats, guys are playing for negotiations. But teams like ours are playing for momentum, and that's something you need. And by the way, Steve Rabel, he and I have spoken since high school a couple times, but we were not boys in high school. He's a year ahead of me. His
brother was a very good friend of mine. But Steve and Mike, his brother, and I played gary on the same little league football team my one year of little league football. Mike and I were two of the smallest kids. He never played. Steve, of course, was our star and the Saint Matthew's Bears, and we won one game with a future NFL player. We won one game, and I yes, yes, I have a participation trophy and I still have it.
Of course you do.
World got smaller all of a sudden, That's right, No, I do love listening to it to Steve, and of course I'm gone you yeah, Fitzwig and the six pack College hoops in order this weekend and the week ahead for the locals, Louisville's back in action over here at the Young Center tomorrow high noon against Eastern Kentucky. That's on the CW two. By the way, Sunday, my Hilltoppers and they're gonna be an ann Arbor take on Michigan, and both the Toppers and the Wolverines are nine and
three so far in the season. That's on the Big Ten Networks Sunday night at eight. And of course, as you mentioned before, ten games or ten days between games for the Cats. They'll be back at it New Year's Eve at twelve thirty at RUP against Brown on ESPN U. And by the way, speaking of the SEC, as of today, ten SEC teams in the AP top twenty five, including number ten Kentucky. The SEC not only the best basketball conference in America, Dick, this may go down is the
best conference in college basketball every right now. Three teams twelve and zho five teams eleven and one, seven or ten and two including Kentucky and South Carolina. Is the quote unquote worst of the conference at nine and three. Now, you've been covering the SEC for what eighty seven years or so? Is this the greatest start to a dozen games that you've ever seen in the SEC?
Well, clearly, and the numbers back that up. If we all know, they'll start beating each other up and that will force some teams to drop and all that. But the key Gary, as you know, is going to be when the committee gets together and if they have eyeballed these teams and done their job, they'll know that a team of six or seven conference losses could still conceivably be a one or two seed.
Yeah, that's that good a conference at least so far. Anyway, Final Swig and our six pack, as US media types often like to do here at years in, let's trade what you and I thought were the biggest sports stories here in the Commonwealth as well as across the country. If my wife had anything to do about it, she would say, well, what about Indiana's football season? Well, that's
not our commonwealth. But yeah, as for me, the biggest local story obviously UK and Louisville both getting new head basketball coaches at the time first time ever and saying goodbye to well coach cal and the embarrassing, the incredibly embarrassing tenure of ex card Kenny Payne. The biggest national story for me, Dick greatest college basketball scorer who became
a must sy WNBA superstar, Caitlin Clark. Think about it, one woman, single handedly changing the popularity and trajectory of a major sports league and still to the chagrin of certain current and former WNBA players. Was there with some resentment there? Yeah, it's tangible. The question has also been raised, has there been some reverse racism as well? It's not my call, but will she keep growing the league and eventually winning championships? I say yes, and I hope.
So I can't argue with any of that. I will throw this in perha Apps is the national story, the portal in the nil which you're fundamentally changed college athletics and not for the better. It seems like every day we hear a new and again, we just talked about a bowl game that team had to drop out because
of that. So we'll look back on this period with Caitlin Clark, and we'll look back on this period with the portal in the NIL more with Gary Moore or Western Bureau Chief in just a minute here on the Big molon Siders six thirty wlap welcome back. We have heard two guys in a six pack from Gary Moore or Western Burea Chief. Time for a couple of hot reads, Gary, NFL football all over your TV dial? Not really a dial anymore. Our Christmas Day Netflix breaks it's streaming records
with the Christmas Day doubleheader. I know Beyonce had a lot to do with that. Great Nearly one third of Netflix's global concurrent viewers our Christmas Day watch the game at one point, most watched concurrent stream of any Christmas Day for Netflix in a past four years. Should we be surprised?
No?
I disagree with Lebron. Loved Lebron, but Christmas Day is not for just the NBA anymore. NFL just lapped you guys, something serious, and it helps when you've got four teams in playoff mode. They just played four days earlier, right, all four of those were in play on Saturday. But the Beyonce show was unbelievable. I loved every second of it, well except for the rap part, but other than that, it was really cool.
The halftime performance Ravens Texans game the viewership peaked twenty seven million viewers tuning in. That's just that's just smart programming. Second Hot Reid for Gary Moore. Teddy Bridgewater, the former Louisville Cardinal, is returning to the NFL. He's only air quotes thirty two years old, which is getting up there in the NFL. But came back from that awful knee injury that almost he almost lost his life because of
the damage to the arteries around his knee. But he coaches his high school team in Miami is Alma Mater to a state championship and then says I can still play, and he's signing with the Lions. He will be their number three guy. Hendon Hooker is the number two guy. Dan Campbell says Hooker is still our number two guy, but Teddy might be able to help us your thoughts.
Well, he was last with him three years ago.
He left him.
He was the twenty twenty three. It was the last time he was with the Lions. A lot of people, as you know around here, love love Teddy for his three years that he was with the Cardinal won the Sugar Bowl beat Florida. You know that's etched forever and that injury. God to come back for that. You know, that was so bad that the Vikings have pretty much destroyed all any kind of footage from that. It just doesn't exist.
It was.
It was that bad of a well you dislocate your knee and your legs flailing. You don't want to see that kind of apen the Texans receiver.
Yeah, exactly, and but so much worse. And I remember seeing cover. I didn't see the actual injury, but seeing the surrounding video it reminded me later on when Hamlin went down, Yeah, and players were on their knees, they were crying, they were praying because they could. They knew how terrible it was. But Bridgewater very popular with his teammates and the fan base. And even though they're in my division, I root for the Lions to be successful, and I'll root for him as well. He is Gary Moore.
As we close up this year, I'll be back with us next year, our west Ham Bureau chief. You can always find him at.
At Christmas ELF dot No, Weston Bureau ELF. I'm at nine to five five Gary on ex Twitter. What do you want to call it the same place you're at.
Ron a big blue Insider one. Thank you sir, and we'll talk to you as the New year dawns next year.
Happy New Year to y'all and that'll do it.
Thanks so much to all my guests, Gary Moore, Richard Skinner, Tom Leach. Reminder Kentucky basketball tomorrow it's the UK women playing Western Kentucky. Darren Hedrick will have the call for you four o'clock tip off, three forty five pre game right here on your number one spot for sports. And of course the UK men don't play again until New Year's Eve Tuesday at two o'clock and we'll have that four year as well. That's it. Good night from the garage in Lexington.
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We'll staying there with your beak.
Open, say something explaining yourself.
You're tombs flapping, but no Norse that's coming out of your big mob.
Don't get out and stay out squashing that air
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