Welcome to the Big Blue Insider at Gabrielle with you Friday edition of our program heading into another frigid weekend, but Rupp Arena will be anything but cold. Even if they're not hitting shots. The pace of the game when the Wildcats take on Alabama tomorrow will be sizzling in my opinion, So you're gonna want to listen here on six thirty WLAP. Yes, it's on ESPN with Jay Billis and Dan Showman, the best combination on TV for my money,
and it's gonna be a great game. I think it may not be the prettiest at all time, but it's gonna come down to who makes shots usually does. But yeah, this will be a breakneck pace, nothing like we saw with Kentucky and A and M noon tip, which means you came network coverage with Dave and Cameron beginning at ten thirty, Cassar Boys at nine to thirty. So if you're not going to the game, just put your radio on when you get up in the morning. And then of course you got two years, one for radio and
one for television. So Kentucky Alabama another a huge game, but they're all big now in the SEC aren't they. And if it's anything, if this weekends anything like last night, it's gonna be wild because there were three upsets of top twenty teams, not just top twenty five teams. But Minnesota hits a three pointer at the buzzer and beats Michigan eighty four to eighty one. Michigan was ranked number twenty.
First conference loss for the Wolverine, So Michigan State's got a good year going and SODA's Michigan in the Big Ten, Minnesota even destructor. That was Minnesota's first conference win after six Big Ten losses. So I don't know if Minnesota has been relevant since since Tubby Smith was there and got off to a good start and an injuries caught up with him and he eventually was fired. But yeah, Minnesota pulls off the win in overtime, by the way,
eighty four eighty one. Now Temple in Philly hands Memphis its first American Conference loss. Memphis ranked eighteenth, but Temple wins eighty eight to eighty one, and at the same time, out on the West coast, Oregon State in overtime upsets Gonzaga ninety seven to eighty nine. This was in corvallis first WCC loss for Gonzaga, which is now five to one in the league. Played fourteen and five overall, and of course one of those losses was a come from
a head setback to the Kentucky Wildcats. So crazy, crazy night last night in college basketball. But hey, what else is new? Right? All right? The Cats and the Crimson Tide, who feature what I think he's got to be the best player in the Southeastern Conference in Mark Sears. He is leading his team in scoring at eighteen points per game, that's third in the league, four and a half assists per game that's fifth in the league. He's the only player in the SEC in the top five in both
scoring and then assists. Bama with five wins over AP top twenty five opponents, two wins away from tying the program record for most AP wins in a single season that was set last year, actually two years ago, in that twenty two to twenty three campaign that ended up a little short in the NCAA Tournament. Bama went to the final four last year. As you might recall, Nato, It's what a job he has done. Amazing to turnaround
after coming from Buffalo. That's right, you can find good coaches a lot of places, and Alabama plucked him out of the frigid Northeast. Twenty five or twenty three AP top twenty five wins during his tenure at Alabama second all time behind Wim Sanderson. When Sam Newton was there, they only had the top twenty, so I don't know that would have figured in. But Sam Newton had some
great Alabama teams. And by the way, in nineteen seventy four, I don't know, I know why I was looking this up, but Alabama went fifteen and three in the Southeastern Conference and didn't get to go to the NCAA Tournament. Why Well, there were only twenty eight teams invited back then, and only one team per conference that was slotted an NCAA tournament Berth. Alabama tied with Vanderbilt for the SEC regular season championship. There was no tournament back there no postseason tournament.
They both went fifteen and three, but two of Alabama's losses were to Vanderbilt, so Vandy gets the tiebreaker and Vandy goes to the NCAA Tournament. Can you imagine going fifteen and three in your league and not getting a bid in the NCAA Tournament and Vandy brother Alabama, and Alabama did not go to the NIT for whatever reason. Sixteen teams went back then and Alabama either didn't get a bit. I can't imagine are chose not to go.
Purdue ended up winning it in seventy four. This Alabama team is good enough to make a deep run in postseason again, and it looks like so is Kentucky. Maybe still a little premature to say that, but the Wildcats have impressive wins, as you know, and they play a similar style to Alabama, as you know. Our pope, talking to the media in his pre Alabama game news conference, said he certainly does expect to see similar styles on the floor in Repperena tomorrow.
I mean, now you're hoping to find ways to increase the pace of the game, for sure, Like we always want to keep the pace faster, and we want to keep the space on the floor, and we want to keep the pace as fast as we can. So you would think Alabama come here and they're certain they're not trying to slow down.
Those guys trying to go faster. So this might be a breakneck game where it's.
Just like you know, down and back and down the back of Tell two Who Falls over Dead first?
Right?
Which is super fun too.
So I think going into games you have an idea, but every game takes on a character of its own.
I think this is one of those games where no matter what's going on, whether team A is hitting shots, team B is hitting shots, whether they're they're missing, whether they're going on you know, cold spells, whatever, I think, neither team is going to slow down. They're going to keep pushing the tempo, keep looking for even more and more pace. And Mark Pope said, no matter what, he wants his team to keep it up.
I mean, now you're hoping to find ways to increase the pace of the game for sure, Like we always want to keep the pace faster. We want to keep the space on the floor, and we want to keep the pace as fast as we can. So you would think Alabama come here, and they're certainly not trying to slow down. The guy's trying to go faster. So this might be a breakneck game where it's just like you know, down and back and down in back and Tell two who falls over Dead first?
Right?
Which is super fun too.
So I think going into games you have an idea, but every game takes on a character of his own.
Coming up in our next segment, I'm going to share some stuff with you that Mark Pope talked about yesterday, just big picture stuff involving his team. He talked about humility versus and confidence versus arrogance. He talked about synergy and how that kind of translates into love for one
another on a team. Really fascinating stuff. You never know what you're gonna get when you go to a Mark Pope news conference, but you know you're gonna get something interesting, and may take him quite a while to get to the point, but I think that's what's fun about it. So we'll hear that coming up in our next segment. But I wanted to share some other things with you. Quinn yours. You saw him play against Kentucky, you saw him in the playoffs, EXAs quarterback. He is declaring for
the NFL Draft. We were down there in Austin, Tom and Jeff and I wondering about nixt season with Texas. He could have come back. You had to wonder if he did with their Arch Manning, if he came back with Manning stick around, because now it appears Arch Manning will be the incumbent. But get this, he could have stuck around Quinn The Yours could have stuck around and picked up eight million dollars in nil money if he had transferred to another school to play one more year
in the NCAA. That's according to the two four to seven Sports. It did not share which school made that offer. Apparently it wasn't Texas. But had he decided to play another year wherever he had gone Quin Yours, now that means you talk about gambling on yourself. He's pretty certain he's going to be in the NFL next year, at least somebody's camp, and he is supposedly the best quarterback on the board. Honestly, I'm curious to see what he does.
Maybe he didn't have to do that much against Kentucky, although he did play I think, really well in the playoffs. So some say he's the best QB who's coming out, so he'll make millions. But just imagine saying no, thank you and walking away from eight million dollars. That's pretty incredible.
Speaking of dollars, in college athletics, there is a plan on the boards to pay athletes directly, and I owe money, but the Department of Education issued a statement yesterday that would really gum up the worksh if you will, it would run a foul, it says of Title nine, a nine page memo from the Department's Office for Civil Rights said nil money that goes two athletes should be treated the same as athletic financial aid, meaning scholarships. So if that remains in place, a lot of the plans and
schools are making could be upended. I have a feeling the new president will stick his nose in there and change things. But remember Title nine level the playing field for women. But some say, I don't know. I want to use the word unfairly, but it's not equitable because it takes into account the fact that there are eighty
five scholarship athletes, you know, on college football teams. So now when you're talking about equal numbers, if you will, are equitable numbers, you have to balance that against football and there's no way to you no easy way to do that with women's athletics. So this really complicates the matter, and it's going to be something that I think will be battled over all summer long. Coming up tonight on the show, we're going to hear from Jerry Hale. Jerry
played for the Super Kittens. He was part of that great recruiting class with Kevin Greevy and Jimmy dan Connor, that bunch that went to the championship game in nineteen seventy five. They are of course celebrating an anniversary this year, and they will be honored at an upcoming UK game. So we're going to talk to Jerry coming up at the bottom of the hour. Also, we're going to talk with the Billy Rutleds, because Billy and I are going to look ahead into the NFL playoffs and the college
football Championship Game. Try to figure out who's going to cover if you will. I'm also going to talk to my old buddy Steve Moss from WKYT in advance of the Herod Leaders Sports Figure of the Year voting. It's kind of fun. I really love that project, and Mark's story will join us as he always does after the results are announced. But Steve and I have had many spirited discussions back when I was with WIE team really since then. Oftentimes our voting was maybe not wildly different,
but markedly different. It's very similar this year, which kind of surprised me, So we'll talk about that a little bit later on in the show. And we're also going to hear about some crazy backstories from college basketball that might surprise you. But next Mark Pope really digs deep into what makes this Kentucky team special and why he likes coaching it so much. That's all ahead here on The Big Blue Sider six thirty wlap Welcome back to the Big Bloon Sider. Coming up in just a few minutes.
Jerry Hale haven't talked to Jerry on the show in a while. Jerry was part of the seventy four to seventy five team that went to the NCAA Championship game, part of the Super Kittens class that was recruited at Kentucky, and of course those guys couldn't play as freshmen, but their freshman team back when a lot of colleges played freshman schedules or the talk of the nation, and in fact, it was said off times not just gave the varsity
team trouble, but beat the varsity. We're gonna I've talked to Kevin Grievy about that, but we're gonna talk to Jerry about that as well. Including a conversation about the upcoming get together and they're gonna have a reunion dinner and they're gonna be honored at one of the games
because this is the fiftieth anniversary of that season. That was such a great year, coming off a thirteen and thirteen year, you know, And this is a team that was supposed to win a national championship or two and that win the conference every year, and they did as sophomores, but really fell down as juniors and then bounced back as seniors thanks to an infusion of young talent guys like Jack Gibbons, James Lee, Mike Phillips, Rick Roby. But
there was so much fun to watch. And that's the team that I've sat Indiana, and Jerry is an Indiana native, so we'll talk to him coming up at the bottom of the hour. But I wanted to share with you a couple of comments from Mark Pope, and again, I do it all for this and I don't make these comments by way of judging him against the last coach he was here. But it's just a different style of coaching. It's a different brand of philosophy. John Calibray won a
national title here. He did a lot of great things here, and yes, things fell off towards the end. So I'm not trying to compare the two, but I'm just saying I enjoy some of these deep dives that Mark Pope is making. And I don't know if there was any way to expect this. You knew it was going to be different with Mark, if for no other reason because he is deeper into analytics than most coaches. But he's just got a big brain and he is a deep thinker. And I guess if you held a lot of coaches down,
they would say similar things. But with Mark, it just kind of comes more easily to him, and he every now and then drops in a coach speak, but every now and then he'll give an answer about well, the way his team is put together and the fact that he's got veteran players, but they're willing to all play a role. Nobody and I'm paraphrasing here, nobody needs or wants to be the star on this team. They're putting the needs of the team first. And that sounds pretty basic,
pretty obvious, but it's not always the case. It's not always been the case at Kentucky, and you, as basketball fans you've seen it. You could tell every once. So it hasn't happened a lot, but every once in a while there are guys who put their own needs ahead of the team and their teammates. And one of the things Pope loves about this team is the fact that everybody is willing to be humble when it counts.
This idea of humility is so important, right. A lot of times we mistake, we think that somehow confidence and humility somehow are not They're almost not exactly opposite, but they almost are in contention with this They're not like the most confident people are the most humble people. I really believe that there's a big difference between arrogance and confidence. Okay, arrogance people are not humble. Arrogant people are stuck. They
can't learn, they can't grow. They think they know everything, and they're just stuck. Because you think you know everything, You're not going to take any new data in, You're not gonna actually be curious.
Right.
But when you have when you have really really confident people that are really really humble and you throw in some curiosity, that is a growing that's a that's a growth mindset. Person that's someone's like, hey, I'm really good at this, and I know that I'm good enough of this to get better. I know I can get better. And the curiosity part seeps in there. And that's where
we have a locker room with guys like that. Man, We have guys that are that are confident enough to really really be humble, and they got a whole load of curiosity and they get better. And we're seeing in real time with like big like monsters, things like our work on the glass right, and that's not done, like that's going to be a continuing progress, but we've made huge progress and.
It's fun. It's funny coach guys like that.
That was toward the end of the news conference when somebody, I think it was Keith Taylor asked him about the value of having veteran players and of course he's got He didn't say this, but I am, he's got the right veteran players. We've talked before about that, how Pope has done his homework, he and his staff and did a great job of getting not just the right kind of athlete, but the right kind of person through the portal.
Because this was going to be obviously a unique situation an entire team coming together, kind of like the Dirty Dozen if you've seen a movie, you know, they needed certain skills, guys with certain skill sets to plug and play. But they needed the right kind of guy. And as Pope said, if you're confident as opposed to being arrogant, you've got an open mind and you're willing to learn. And you know he later on talked in a different
context about Amari Williams, but it fits here. He said, he bumped into Amari coming out of Rapperena, Mark'said, coming out of the gym, coming out of Repperina after treatment, or might have been out of the joke Craft Center after the game late the other night, and he said, Amari kind of brightly said him, I'm learning how to box out. This is a guy who's three time defensive player of the Year at his previous school. He's played a lot of college basketball, he's been halfway around the
world and back. But he's learning and he's happy to be learning it, which I thought was a really interesting SoundBite, a real interesting comment, especially against the backdrop of what Pope has talked about with regard to humility, and this kind of ties into another comment he made about synergy, which, as you know, is when a bunch of people or different groups come together as one and accomplish something and it's better than they could individually and cumulatively, you know,
on their own. Doing it together makes for a better result. And Pope use that word as well as the word love.
I believe that for a team to to become everything, to have all the synergy that you can have. And I'm using that word very specifically, like the definition of that word matters to really, like have the most impact of the synergy of guys together on a team that comes from a place of love, like it does. I know that sounds soft, but it's real. Like that is a real thing. And love is a two part word. Love is something it's an affection that you feel for someone,
but it's also a very it's also a verb. It's an active endeavor. It's both. It's a nown and a verb and they're both real and you kind of flip back and forth between the two.
And you know, teams function an elite.
Level when you actually care enough about your teammate that you're not totally lost, your thoughts aren't lost on yourself.
That's a real thing. It's one of the beauty.
It's why I love team sports, It's why I love team organizations.
It's why I love a staff.
It's why I love looking at companies that actually function at a high level.
Mark Pope News Conference. Never a dull moment I can recommend them. Welcome back and talk to Jerry Hale, former Kentucky super Kitten on the anniversary of a great season. That's next on six thirty Wlap Welcome back to the Big bluem sider joining us now on our celebrity hotline is a longtime friend and a former believe it in a classmate. We overlapped in school though, Jerry Hale a little bit older than I am. You graduate in seventy five.
Welcome back. We haven't talked on the show in quite a while.
Have not, Dick, but thanks for having me appreciate it.
You reached out the other day to let me know that you and your seventy five team that went to the championship game, you're having a reunion to celebrate golly fifty years.
Fifty years. Yeah.
Now, you've gotten together before, of course, but it's always fun when you guys get together, tell stories, and of course you don't have Coach Hall with you anymore. But I remember him talking about some of the stories you guys told. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear him, you know, but then he would tell stories on you guys. So it's always fun.
Isn't it. It is? And it brings me back to after I had graduated. Just a quick little story, Coach All asked me to go up on a recruiting trip up in Indiana with you. And it was Coach Parsons and myself and the pilot who was a friend of the programs. And we flew up the Indiana and Coach party since and I went to see one kid play. Coach Hall and Bob went to see this other guy play. And when we got back, we got back to this little hangar where we were. We were sitting there and
drink a salt drinking Coach Hall asked me, goes. He says, why did you drive me crazy? You know, talking about our group? Yeah, And I said, Coach, you're the one that drove us crazy. I mean it was, it was. It was a back and forth thing, but I was I was almost scared to be sitting there with him. But he's asked me this question. But but we had a lot of fun and a lot of good stories.
Tell me a little bit first of all about why you came to school here. You're one of several Indiana starred I mean you were you were a great player in the state of Indiana. Could have gone to a lot of places, turned down norm Sloan and then c state right and but decided to cross the border. Not a lot of action in the other direction. Never heard of many Kentucky kids going up to Indiana. But as you came down and and played here for a great team.
Well, mine was pretty simple and you probably know the story though, but my dad was from originally from Litchfield, Kentucky, and then when he married my mom, they moved to New Albany, Indiana, just right across from Louisville. But we listened to Claude Sullivan and Kywood Lefpard, you know, growing up. And dad was a big avid Kentucky fan. So I was in dockmated with Kentucky instead of I you, even
though I'm living right there in Indiana. But so he kind of brought me into you know, want noise to go to Kentucky. So it was a dream for me to go to Kentucky and the cake stories out there that when I was twelve, he got a ticket and we came down to see Kentucky and Tulane. I got all reps, runs, autographs is in sixty six, the sixty five, sixty sixties, and got all their autographs, and that at the end of the game, they wheeled out a big six foot cake in the shape and number one because
they were re number one in the country. He said, anybody wants a piece, come down and get it. So I ran down. I was one of the first ones in line, and Coach Trump was actually handed me a piece of cake and that actually had an A on
it or something part of his name. He cut off and I took it back and I told my dad, I want to go eat it till I signed at Kentucky, so that that cake stayed in refrigerator till I signed, and then they brought it out when I signed it a it was an assembly at my high school, and then they brought it out and then I said, well, I'm going to eat it to we win the national championship. So they took it out to San Diego with them. So if we had if we had beaten uc LA.
It's always that what if, ef hutting, what if things. But I would have taken a bite of it. But to this day that cake is in my freezer.
Will it be consumed?
I doubt it. I think the kids will probably throw it in my casket or whatever we put.
You in a casket. I know, what was it like at your high school among your friends, your teammates, your buddies when you said Kentucky I mean, or did they always assume you were going there?
Yes? I mean because they knew. I mean, especially playing golf yesterday with a good friend of mine who was the other guard on the team. He lives down in Bufford. I'm down in South Carolina right now, and he talked about that yesterday. We were talking. He says, you remember, he said, you know, you like Tennessee. And there's another guy he mentioned, Gary Downey, and he said he loved Tennessee and you know, and he and I would go
back and banner back about that. But so yeah, it was you know, I got a lot of ribbing and stuff like that about it, but not much. And I've had a lot of a lot of friends that you know, always said they rooted for me, but you know for IU, So you know it was good.
You know in the documentary we put together on your former teammate or Reggie Warford and talking to Bob Guy, yet he told the story you've probably heard it about that. Everybody knows that seventy five game. We all believe Kentucky would have won, but John wouldn't announced his retirement a little bit of extra motivation for UCLA. And really, I know you think you guys still should have won. You missed some free throws and wood and should have been teed up when he walked out on the floor during
the game. But anyhow, and Bob respectfully said to the coach, you know, we believed that if you hadn't nash your retirement, we would have won, and John wouldn't. Very equally politely but firmly explained to Bob, no, Bob, we would have beaten you with our quickness, and went on to break it down for him. That was a great story. But I gave Bob credit for even bringing it up.
Well, you know there's another story about that same thing with Greedy. Kevin had was in out in California, and you know he'd worked for the Lakers as a scout and so forth. But I don't know when this was, but it wasn't point. He might have been when he was playing ball, but he was on it on the elevator and Coach Wooden was on there. Good boy, he said. He said something about, you know, coach, and we should
have beaten you all, and Coach Woulden's responsible. That says, yeah, Kevin, but you know, if you could have played better defense, maybe you could have.
But Kevin still had a great game.
Yeah, but I'll tell you.
What then we'll move on. But I made the mistake, Jerry, of saying that to Denny Crumb once, and it was at a point where I knew him a little bit, and I brought that up. And of course Denny by then was at U of L but fiercely loyal to John Wooden, his former coach and former boss, and man, he more than firmly told me why I was wrong.
So yeah, that that door swings both ways. Talking to Jerry Hale, former Kentucky Wildcat, well, once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat, But he and his teammates from the seventy five team will be honored Prior to the South Carolina game. And uh, when you talk about that team, everybody always wants to talk about Jerry. And I know you've answered
countless questions about the Super Kittens. That was one of the last teams where freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity basketball, and your freshman team made almost as many headlines, didn't it as the varsity because you were it was a big class. There was so much talent and you guys played a I don't know if it was a full schedule, but an ambitionous schedule of freshman games, and you had the best team in.
The country as freshmen, right, And when we ended up playing twenty two games that year and we were twenty two and oho, we averaged I think we might have averaged over one hundred points, my gosh. And it was close to that. And you know that's without the three point sure go as well for shock, right, But you know, the one thing just kind of going back to the beginning when we all came to UK as freshmen. We were in the dorm and there was a show that
came on It said rainy night in Georgia. I think Billy Thompson Yell, ex field sportscaster back then put it together, but it was it was about the Western Kentucky game the previous year and how they beat us and that there was new hope on the horizon. Well, we were locked in our room and varsity Andrew Stamford, they were banging on the door and they wanted to just kill us.
We were scared to come out of the room and we were watching this thing and it was kind of you know, touting us as being the savior and all this stuff. So that was kind of the start of it.
And then as the season wore on, we ended up practicing against the varsity every day because the varsity was kind of limited back then as far as the scholarship players that they had, right, and they had a few walk ons, But we ended up scrimmaging and practic against the varsity every day, which made us a lot better
but made them better as well. And I remember the first time we scrimmaged them, they beat us fifty three points, and you know, we ran and the old they ran the old number ten play and Tom Parker had come across just lay out greevy, you know, on the ten pick. But but you know that kind of started then as we started playing our games we'd always played you know, the night before or the day the day before the game.
I'm sorry, nothing before, but you know, yeah, and then they started switching it to the day before the game, like on a Friday evening because we were selling I mean, they would be able to fill the colisseum. So we were filling the coliseum for the freshman games and so that was that was kind of neat. And then we even when we went on the road, it was kind of that way. We you know, we'd try to play you know, earlier because they can help sell more tickets.
I guess, you know, the kind of have two games there. But anyway, that was kind of good. And one of the first big games we had was in Frankfort and we dedicated the Frankfort Convention Center and it was against Furman and they had Professor Leonard who was a sudden foot center, a guy named Baron Hill who have played against in Indiana and in the high school tournament. He was ended up being a congressman later on, but he was a guard and ran the hundred like under Ten's flat. Wow.
They had a couple other guys, but anyway, we ended up beating them by sixty points. And it was you know, it's just one of those things that everything worked out. I mean, I think we started out on them and it was twenty something and nothing wow, and so it was just you know, that just kind of elevated them more. And that was like the third or fourth game of the season, and so it just carried on and you know, we we had some close games naturally at Florida and Tennessee.
I remember that. You know, they ended up being in single digit wins, but you know, they were all winning. So it was a it was a magical time.
Former Kentucky guard Jerry Hale as my guess. We'll come back and talk more basketball with Jerry in just a minute. Hair on the Big Blue Sider six thirty WLAP Welcome back. We're talking with Jerry Hale. Jerry part of the nineteen seventy five Kentucky team that played for a national championship, and we'll be honored prior to the South Carolina game and that weekend guys will get together for a reunion dinner.
And you know, Jerry that the story of that team I think is one of the most fascinating in UK basketball history. We talked about the Super kittens, and then you win a conference championship as sophomores and everything's great, but you're undersized as juniors. Bob's got to play center, Jimmy Dan's got to play forward, and you're thirteen and
thirteen and everybody want a job's head. Then you turn around ad size, ad talent and the recruiting class and as we all know, you got to the championship game. What was it like being a part of a team as a group, you guys experience that together. Boy, all the ups and downs.
You know, well we did, and you know, kind of getting back the nightmare of our junior year. It's one of those things. You know, you look at the schedule and you look at the scores. There were a lot of games that we lost that were close, and you know, I always say good teams win close games, they know how to win. We didn't do it that year. I mean, we lost those close games and that you know, that
created a thirteen and thirteen year for us. But we went to Australia, Tahiti and Australia during the summer prior to our senior year, and that got us a closer as the seven of us that came in together. We've always been close, but you know, coming both with the rest of the guys. And now we didn't have Rick and Mike and James and Jack Jack on the trip
to Australia, but it did get uscare. We spent three days in Tahiti and played the national tahesion team, which i was taller than any of their guys at six foot, so that wasn't the thing. But as we went down, we played seventeen games in Australia. And back then there's a guy named Eddie Palliabinkis who was from Australia and he played at LSU. Good white, real blond headed guard, long hair. But anyway, every time we played a national team or a real good team, Eddie would show up
and be on that team. I mean whether we're in Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide, Cannabar, wherever we were, Eddie would be on that team. But anyway, so we always saw enough of anybody you thinkus. But but that that that that trip helped us, you know, mode into more of
a cohesive unit. And then when we got back and when Rick and Jack and James and Mike joined us and Danny Hall, that just created, you know, a more team, and we really had that drive and and you know, the big guys helped us and everybody got to get back into their normal position.
Yeah, we're talking to Jerry Hill. Got a few minutes left. People to this day, Jerry asked me, what's what's the favorite game you covered when it comes to basketball. I still go back to the seventy five minutes region and I've seen a lot of games, but that game where you all upset Indiana and they'll always say, well, Scott May was coming off an injury and all, but nobody expected you guys to win that game, And uh no
it was. I mean when you look back and you being an Indiana kid against the backdrop of this Bob Knight cuffing Joe b in the back of the head and Lynn Nance wanting to attack him, I got to think, for you an Indiana kid, that had to be incredible.
Yeah, well, you know I was. We got to beat us about twenty four ye Bloomington that year in December, and I was part of the play that created the backslap in the coach Hall's head by Coach Knight. Steve Ballfield was driving down the floor and he ended up charging me and they charged. They said, well, they call
it the charge. Knight thought of was a block and that's what he went over everything, and we were up, but they were up about twenty something and you know, Coach Hall said something to him and you know, and that's when he turned and then Coach Knight slapped him upside the head. But then Lynn Nance, you know, kind of came after his defence. But but yeah, but then then you bring that over into March and Dayton, the
Bloomington or in Indiana again. And before the game, we had a practice on that Friday and Coach Hall, I know Jerry Lucas was doing play off play for CBS and Coach Hall kicked him out of practice because he didn't want anybody because he was We played with Bob Knight at Ohio State and so we didn't want anybody. We had the most knockdown, drag out practice. We had guys getting in fights. And when Coach Hall said, he said, when they set that pick down on the baseline, I
want you to run him over. Well. And then when we got back and we got ready for the game, and when nothing was said after the end of that practice, got to the game that day, we were getting ready and Coach Hall, you know, puts on the board, he puts you know, nets Bus Coliseum and we get out there and we in the first play of the game, Bob guy had just laid out Steve Green on the baseline.
And their motion offense kind of changed after that because you know, Bob got called a foul, but where they would kind of dip the shoulder and they would run their motion offense, and you know, after two or three runs through that motion, they would have an open shot because you know, we would be dodging the picks. Now they were dodging us trying to pick us, so we were getting over the picks. So that that that made it a lot better. And you know, we were up a
little quite a bit on them. When I say back quite a bit, I mean it was up to seventy eight points there toward the end of the game, but it got real tight. They're at the end as well, and that they made a run there. But yeah, that was that was That was a magical time. And to go back into the coliseum and you know like that with the bus, the place is packed.
It was, it was.
It was a lot of fun.
There's going to be a lot of laughs, aren't there When you guys get together for your reunion.
There there will be and and you know, it's just one of those things. I mean, Unfortunately, we've got four, you know, of our teammates and are not with us, with Reggie, Mike Phillips, Danny Hall and GJ. Smith, you know, so it's kind of a thing we're missing. But we've reached out and still trying to reach out to Gj's wife. Hopefully she'll be able to make it. But I know Candy Phillips and her and Mike and Mike and her son's going to join her and Marissa Warfire's going to
make it down so that's good. And like I say, we're just trying to get a hold of gd right now and any air the Danny that might be able to come and represent him as well.
Jerry, thank you so much for the time. Always a pleasure. Looking forward to seeing you.
All right, Dick, Thanks very much. Go cats.
That's it for our number one. Coming up on hour number two, Billy Rutledge and I will tell you who's going to win the NFL playoff games, and there are some great ones coming up We're also going to look ahead to Notre Dame, Ohio State. We'll pick that one as well, and I'll talk to Steve Moss and wqyit about who should be the sports Figure of the Year for twenty twenty four. Say with us all of that as ahead here on the big one side, her six point thirty lap name. Welcome back to the Big Blue
and cider coming up at in just a few minutes. Actually, Steve Moss from WYT longtime sports videographer and producer. He and I are going to talk about this year's voting for the twenty twenty four Kentucky's Sports Figure of the Year. That's the polling that the Hero Leader does. Thanks to Mark's story, it's his baby. He didn't create ate it, but he inherited the job of putting out the ballot, collecting them, tabulating them, and then writing about it, presenting
it in the newspaper and online. And the results will come out in a couple of weeks. But Steve and I for many many years work together at KYT and he has a ballot, and so we used to throw our voting together, independent on one another, and then later on we compare notes and We did that again this year, of course, even though we don't work together per se, and amazingly, our ballots were incredibly similar, including the person
we think should be at the top. I don't know that this person will win as the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year, but Steve and I feel strongly about it and we agreed on it. But like I said, it's interesting the names that are on our respective ballots are very similar, and in some cases in the exact same spot. You vote one through ten and then they just vote. You know. The Mark puts together the balloting on a point total thing and it's a lot of fun,
but it's really demanding. I take it very seriously, and I go through and I mark anybody who I think should be considered. And it's tough to ignore most of these folks. But after all these years, I kind of know what I'm looking for. Who has done the best at the highest level, be it national or at their highest level wherever they're competing. But one of the problems for me is coaches versus athletes. One year, I made it a point to not vote for any coaches, just
to see what my ballot would look like. And then this year I will tell you I've got at least one coach on my ballot high school versus college, college versus pro. You know this sport, that sport. It's been an Olympic year, so a lot of Olympic athletes on this year's ballot. So I'll go through and mark any and every person I think I need to consider. Then I win it down to the top fifteen. And then's the tough part. Who do I leave off the top
ten before I mail it into Mark. So coming up in a few minutes, Steve and I will talk about that Billy religion, and I will run down the NFL games, some great playoff games with some point spreads that will surprise you some that may not. And then of course the National Championship Game comes up on Monday night, Ohio State and a Notre Dame. But I wanted to share with you here in this segment a couple of things
I pulled off the innerweb. And the first one and I have seen comments like this, you can't help but see fans of the Arkansas Razorbacks who are just killing John Caliperry, and I don't take any delight in that some of you do. And that's fine. And then there's a lot of dumb people out there saying dumb things.
And one of Caliperi's supporters was out there trying to take up for Calipery and addressing UK's situation with Mark Pope, and he tried to basically say, Caliperi had it tougher coming to Arkansas than Mark Pope did coming to Kentucky. So listen to this. It's not very long, but you'll see why I had to roll my eyes. You probably will too.
I was on the only team to have a late Layton for the freshman I was on only team is like that, not Kentucky. You could say, well, Kentucky got he was new. He had no players when he got He had players that were still on Kentucky when he got there. But then he bought a whole bunch of juniors and seniors from BYU PW brought him two players, actually, one that really played a significant amount of minutes. Did Jay Wagon was hurt a lot last year, Big Z
was hurt or in eligible. So the only one that really played was a dude Theore and and he has stepped his game, but he has gained weight and he has put his game and he's doing his thing.
This guy couldn't be more wrong, could he. Yeah, Kentucky had players. Yeah, they had a couple of walk ons, You're right about that, But they had no scholarship players. Cali Perry, I think had a couple. Cal Perry had it bad as well, but arguably he brought with him experienced players. And look, Wagner played a lot. He was
injured last year. Wagner's an experienced college player. Yes, he had his problems, but I think prior to this season, most people would have agreed that Arkansas, In fact, a lot of people did because they picked them to do better than they are for the talent they got, plus Boogie Flant, high profile recruits. And then to say that, you know Pope, he basically shrugged off what Pope has done. But that's a guy trying to defend his program. I get it. But that's what's out there right now among
Arkansas fans. Now. The other clip I want to share is a story Shane Battier, the former Duke player, told about his recruitment and about why he did not become a Kentucky Wildcat, and it all goes back to the guidelines and rules he set up for the recruiters who were coming at him.
You have coaches calling him every hour the night, just trying to find it. I wanted my time. I didn't want to be tied down, distracted from my schoolwork and my basketball. And so I had my list of six schools. It was Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky.
And I went by alphabetical order.
And every Monday night I said, coach k your window is from eight to a fifteen. I will be there and I will be all yours. All right, Coach izoh, you're from eight fifteen to eight thirty. And I went down the list.
Shut the hell up. Think about how crazy this is. That's how psycho I was. He's seventeen. I was psycho.
And so like the coaches appreciated it, like they liked it because they knew I was going to be there. They knew, like they didn't have to talk about nonsense, and they moved on so like it was a win win.
I loved it. I'll never forget.
Rick Patino at Kentucky called me outside of his window, called me from Yankee Stadium.
He's like eh, we're you know, we're at the World Series.
I'm in Steinbrenner's box and I just wanted to holler at you and just you know, just just connect, say how you doing. It was look at Wednesday night, I said, coach man, it's great to hear from you. Man, I thank you for calling. It's you know, have fun, you know, go Yankees. I'll talk to you later.
Click.
I hung up.
I said, Mom, take Kentucky off the list.
If that guy doesn't respect my rules, he's not gonna respect me if I go there.
Take them off.
So Kentucky was off off the ship after one phone call.
No one else broke the rules. But that's how psycho I was.
He like the most disciplined seventeen year old I've ever heard of.
That was my reaction too. How does a seventeen year old come up with that? But that was great. Now. Kentucky fans lined up in the comments section to point out that Battier was on that twenty or the nineteen ninety eight team that lost to Kentucky, which eventually won the national championship. And that's true. But Battie, a boy, what a career her? You know, you could make the argument that he's the greatest player in the history of
Duke when you look at his overall career. Won a couple of NBA titles, three times National Defensive Player of the Year. At Duke, his team won a national championship in twenty oh one. He was the most outstanding player and consensus All American National College Player of the Year. There. I'm sure other Duke players who won more national titles, perhaps, but when you look at this guy's resume, he might be the greatest Duchie of them all, but might have
been a wildcat if Patino hadn't screwed up. I always wonder if Patino knows that story. I ever see him in the near future, I'll have to ask him. Up next Steve Moss from wk WHYS he will talk about the hero leader Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year voting a little bit later on Billy rutleds here on six thirty WLAP Welcome back to the Big Blue and sider joining us now is a longtime friend and former colleague.
Steve Moss and I worked together WKYT for a zillion years and have had many interesting discussions both in the office and in the car. As we went from various assignment to assignments, some of them halfway across the country. And Steve, one of the things I've always looked forward to is the Herald Leaders Sports Figure of the Year balloting. Mark Story does an incredible job. That's a huge undertaking.
But how many times have you and I and oftentimes Brian Milem chimes in as a native Kentuckian and Lee k We've differed so often and argued so much about who should win the award and who should be on the list and our top ten? And you and I put our heads together via text messages the other day and our top four or five are almost identical. I find that incredible. I don't know if it's bizarre, but it's quite the coincidence, isn't it.
It is?
And to Mark Story's credit, shout out to him because it is. I mean, we just entered the twenty twenty five year and he's probably already started by taking notes and gathering stats, and he does such a great job of presenting all of the voters with I don't know how many people are on that on that list of suggestions, one hundred and fifty maybe.
Something like that.
Yeah, yeah, uh. And and in this year's case, as I've told you before, I think you can make the case for like five or six people. Uh and yeah, yeah, at least And when when I asked you and showed you my ballot and then you returned with yours, I was like, wow, Uh, you know, we're headed in the same direction here. Yeah, it's not it's not often that that you and I or me and Brian, or you and Brian or anybody in the office would would have you know, some similar lists.
We were all over the place.
Yeah, a lot of times, there's a lot of the same names, but I think the top four or five is had caught my eye very similar for us.
Yeah, and and and this year, you know, there were there were a good number of good stories.
Uh reed Shepherd for.
Instance, you know this kid was just kind of still call him the kid even though he's a professional now, but just years ago, yeah, just a couple of years ago, was playing in North Laurel And we've seen Reid kind of grow up in front of our eyes, and you could make a case for him. And uh, you know, of course, Sidney McLaughlin, who was a you know, UK's one and done track athlete who who to me is probably the best athlete on the planet. Uh and could go could go down as one of the greatest hurdlers
in history. Uh. She won two gold medals and set a sixth world record this year. So but you know, if you if you're asking me who I voted for, uh, I went with Kenny McPeak at the top, just because, yeah, just beca he's hyper local, Tates Creek grad. We've all you know, heard that story before. You super nice guy, Yes, that too, super nice guy. But you know, nice guys
don't always finish first sometimes. But for the first time in fifty two years won the Kentucky Oaks Derby Double, which you know, when it happened, it was like, did that really just happened? And for a guy who was searching for his first Kentucky Derby win, you know, he did it in grand fashion.
Oh yeah.
So with with Mystic Dan and Torpedo Anna is still out there, you know, kicking butt. So yeah, I went with him, And I had Sydney at a very close second.
Yeah, and I had Sydney on my ballot as well. Well. First of all, I had Kenny at the top of my list. I can't remember the last time you and I agreed on who should be at the top. I'm sure we have because I'm sure it's been that obvious. But yeah, I had Sydney third. I flipped flopped her. You had Nickmns you own third. I had him second, and the reason was, again going back to sports figure, just the way his team galvanized this community. Wasn't just
what they accomplished, but it was. And again, I'm at baseball more than you are, but I know how much you enjoy covering baseball. But just seeing the way the crowds turned out and turned lexing in for a couple three weeks more than that really into into a baseball city. I had Readed Shepherd fifth. You had him fourth, and again, yeah, sports figure that you know the talk that he generated, you know the debate should he be starting, not just
the performances he turned in. I had Lamar Jackson little higher than you. I had him fourth because he is excelling, could be an MVP at the highest level of football. You've got him on your ballot at ten. Yeah, but now you and I did for a little bit. I've got Louisville's volleyball coach Danny Busman Kelly at number six. She coached her team, and again I'm extremely partial to volleyball.
Yeah, you did those volleyball games, so I understand that.
Coach them to the national title game. But then I've got Brooklyn Delay number seven, the SEC player of the year. You and I both have Shay Gilgis Alexander at number eight. Why did you pick him?
Just because he had another tremendous season and already through the start of this season, I believe he's you know, he's in the top ten and scoring. He's already being mentioned as another potential in VP candidate. He was last year he finished second in MVP voting. And for a guy who started his UK career as a backup point guard on the bench, you know, he has become a superstar in that league and the Oklahoma City under his team that he that he runs basically, they are they
are now being predicted. I think they're the Vegas pick to win the NBA World title. So he, yeah, he was. He was down on my list. Again, I I deferred a little bit more to Kentucky in's I had a couple of high school kids down there in the mix. Brady Atwell quarterback from the western part of the States who put up gaudy numbers.
Uh.
But you know, just those those three or four people that we have at the top, I mean, they're just kind of no brainers for me.
I agree. It's just the question is is the order of finish You've got Donna Mario coach Sacred Heart to get another championship. I grudgingly left her. I had her best player. His name escapes me. I had her on my initial list and had to leave Roff, the kid who was part of all four of her state championship teams. I included a high school football player, and I started to go with Brady Atwell, but Steve, I went with Jack James. He was my number ten on my ballot,
and I wasn't even quite frankly aware of him. But I knew that Paduka Tilman had another great team. There were fifteen and zero. They won the four A state title, and he had incredible numbers, as high school kids often do. But he also won a state wrestling championship, which to me just kind of moved him up a little bit on my ballot. But like you said, there are so many stories like that, aren't there there are.
This year, there seemed to be a you know a larger number of stories like that, and as you say, figures who had us all talking has more so than in the past year. So getting credit to Mark's story for keeping us reminded of all those stories and he does that's just an incredible job. And then you know he gets the job of tabulating all these votes now.
Yeah, oh yeah, I'll tell you I had on my finals but didn't make my last cut with Chad Pennington, the coach at Saye. Yeah, who coached a team that went fifteen and oh and want to state title. And you know they used to be the laughing stock of the city.
He used to not have a Yeah, they used to not have football exactly. And I understand, you know, I understand the interest with Chad. You know, if you if you gave it for a ten year period, he would certainly be on my list just because of what he's built there. Yeah, so it's it's he again, another great story.
One of my second games, kind of second gainst myself a little bit at times. That's part of the fun I left Lee keefer Off I have voted for I think I did the very first interview with her. At least I did broadcast interview when she was fifteen. I had her on the Big Blue Insider, and she is on number nine on your list. Of course, another gold medal performance, a couple of them. She did Neil too.
This time I kind of had I believe she is the most decorated American fencer female there that we've had.
And there are several Olympic athletes on the ballot. I kind of chose Sydney and left it a dad as the representative. In my own mind, if I had had eleven picks, I probably would have Lee. The other thing that I wonder, I'm probably I'm second guessing myself a little bit. I got Travis Perry number nine. You've got a number six on your list, And again going back
to sports figure, just his backstory. You know the record he set and then and then to couple that with a state championship which I got to cover this year. He certainly belongs on the list. And I'll tell you what, Steve, I guarantee you he got some first place votes. I would not be at all surprised.
I'm certain that he did. And you know, he was kind of one of those uh, you know, you hate to pigeonhole some kid, but you know, he's one of those guys that kind of forced you k, you know force K's recruiting hand. Yeah, a little bit. And uh, you know, kudos to him. His father coaches the high school team and they come in there and rub and all eyes are on him because he scored you know,
fifty three hundred points in his career. And while it's not a career award, the fact that those guys just came in there and blew through everybody, it was, you know, another good story.
Yeah, it really was. And again sports figure of the year. Uh you know, so it's so hard to compare apples and oranges, sports girls, boys, that kind of thing. But yeah, the fact that he came in with all eyes on him and he performed, you know, and and so.
The pressure yeah, no, I mean he had he.
Might he could have arguably had a better Sweet sixteen and he was on the list as well.
But I like to say, you know, and I wanted I wanted badly to put Yeah, I wanted badly to put a local picture on there who came in in a crunch period situation, you know, with the Dodger. I wanted to put I wanted to put him on there, but you know, his his season numbers.
Up to that point weren't great.
Walker Bug.
Yeah, he was coming off surgery and you.
Know it's just then he pitched so well in the World Series.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You know, in crunch time he comes in and literally, you know, on his day off, he says, I'll go in there and pitch, and he goes in there, and you know, the Dodgers won a World championship.
So tell you I had on my original finalist list was Montavin Quisonberry from Boyle County. You were raving about him all year and all he did was have an incredible season and then he won all the Gatorade Player of the Year and other awards. Mister Football signs with Kentucky. He was another guy that probably made my final fifteen.
But you know another issue that I dealt with originally my knee jerk for number one was Reed Shepherd Uh because just because of just the larger than life persona, he kind of took on bringing it back to Kenny Uh. When I looked at and this is what I wrote about, if they included. I don't know if Mark will whoever
lays out the paper. They asked us to include some thoughts with a ballot, and I just wrote about what that weekend means worldwide in the world of sports, and it's the biggest sports story in the world that weekend. And boy Kenny rose above it, didn't.
He He did. And if anybody knows Kitty, and you and I do know Kenny, uh, you know, he's a he's a grinder.
Yep.
He's had a couple of horses who have been knocking on the door, you know, to Hanald run probably yeah, you know, he's had some great phillies, but he's never been able to literally, uh get that gold ring. Yeah, and he finally does, and you know, the day before he has thorpedo Anna and she just crushes the field.
It's just a it's just a great story because you and I, well, it's it's it's kind of personal for us because we we've kind of grown up with Kenny in the business and you see him, you know, on the backside, and he's there, you know, at four am in the morning. And people don't understand how difficult the lifestyle it is for these trainers and you know, yeah, and so it's kind of cool to see Kenny now become the hot trainer.
Yeah, he's good for the game, very good for the game because he understands marketing. It's right, video of Thorpeda Anna on social media. He's got people working with him on that and uh, you know he he doesn't seek them out, but he loves doing interviews just to you know, promote the game. And I know some of the national talking heads love having him on because he's, as we like to say, good copy and I wish him the best. But this is going to be great when the votes
are finally tabulated and announced. As I said, we'll have Mark on the show and we'll look back on it. But it's a lot of fun this year, MOSSI thank you so much, and we'll be looking for your coverage tonight of high school basketball.
You got it, appreciate it.
Up next, Billy Rutligs and I take a look at the weekend's football matchups, tell you who's going to cover, what's spread, and a little later on heroes, fools and Flakes. Here on the Friday edition of The Big Bloo Insider six thirty, welcome back to the big blooing sider joining
us down. Our celebrity hotline is our own Billy Rutledge and Billy and I occasionally weigh in on NFL games and try to decide who's going to win, if not cover, And man, there are some great playoff games this weekend, are they not?
Yeah?
What a great time a year for football. We got the Divisional round this weekend, a little national championship on Monday in college football, so not only a good college basketball games, but some football to watch.
Yeah. Absolutely, So let us start with Saturday tomorrow. It's the Texans at the Chiefs, and man, what a spread. The Chiefs are an eight point favorite over an under forty one and a half. We'll get to that, but that's a lot of points, first of all in the NFL. Secondly in the playoffs. Billy, Plus, this Kansas City team has been winning close games all year long. But I know you put a lot of thought into such matters. What do you say about this one?
Yeah, I think most people will be inclined to pick Kansas City, you know, being fifteen and two on the year, But you're right. I mean, this is a team that's done it been in a lot of one score games, and eight eight and a half points is a lot no matter what you get the line at. I'm inclined to take Houston here, not to outright win, but to at least cover. I think, you know, the offensive line has not been great for CJ.
Shroudy.
I think he's definitely regressed a little bit, and they have some injuries in the wide receiver room. But I think this team will keep it close. It will be tough though in Arrowhead with Taylor SWI probably in the booth, Dick. You know, the NFL script is going to have the Chiefs going through. But I think the Texans surprise the people at the close game and they do cover the eighth.
Here's my problem, and I wish I could say I fully agree because I do just just a lot of points. But Joe Mixon is questionable, and I know he doesn't literally carry the team, but I think if if Houston's going to shorten the game with the running attack, he was their best weapon, and he's, like I said, questionable. He might play practiced in a limited way Wednesday missed Thursday, but I think they were doing that just to save
him with that ankle. But they're not gonna mention or they're not going to make any announcement until like ninety minutes prior to tomorrow's game. Damian Pierce and dari agab Walle are the backups. But man Mixon's had a good year. Does that affect your thinking in it either way?
No, I think you're right about mixing. I mean, he's a guy that came over from Cincinnati and he's been everything I think Houston wanted from him. I would counter with Kansas City and Houston played late in the year. I believe it was late December, maybe just before Christmas, one of the last few weeks of the year, and the Texans only lost that game by eight points in Kansas City twenty seven to nineteen, and they only they had under one hundred rushing yards for the game, so
they really didn't do it on the ground. It was CJS throughout through the air and in Tank Dell when he was still healthy. So you know, we'll see. It's tough to bet against Andy Reid in the playoffs. Ye, And I mean that's a guy that is really just prepared and gets the most out of his talent. And that's why Patrick Mahomes is able to win Super Bowls even after a guy like Tyreek Hill leaves the team, and and you know you're throwing to Juju Smith Schusters
and draft picks like Xavier Worthy. Patrick Mahomes is great. But you know, if I put Josh Allen on that Chiefs team, I think he'd still win the same amount of Super Bowls, if not more. Because of how strongly I feel about Andy Reid. So they've had some time to prepare. Kansas City, you know, expected to make that AFC Championship game. But I do think Demiko Ryans this will be a great test for him to see where he's out of bedge.
Yeah, great defensive coach. Also on Saturday, Commanders in Detroit, Washington is a nine and a half point underdog, so even greater spread there. And again if you're just looking at who's gonna win the game, and that's how you want to bet, you'd say the Lions. This one opened Billy at five and a half. Now it's a nine and a half. Lions have all kinds of injured players. I root for the Lions now even though they're in
my division, because Josh Pascal plays for the Lions. Former Wowcat, but Ken Washington keep it close enough.
You know, it's a quarterback league, and when you have a dynamic quarterback, I don't think you can count yourself out of any game. And Jenden Daniels is exactly that. He did a great job versus my Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild card round. But I will say the buck secondary is beat up. This is not you know, this is not night Trent Lane and some of these great names of the past. So you know, credit to him for doing what he needed to do and get the late victory that ended in a doink, which I'll
never get over. But you know what, I think the Lions are a little too much this year. David Montgomery, I know, is on the track of getting back for this game. And even if he's not there, Jamier Gibbs is just I've ment RB want this year, whether you look at fantasy or just his impact app for David Montgomery left, he has been simply incredible and the Lions
put up a lot of points. I mean, Ben Johnson is the offensive coordinator that is getting looks for head coaching positions, and rightly so, how could you not want to play for a guy like Dan Campbell, though, I mean that guy will bring the energy and have you ready for every game. So this has been a good story for the Commanders. Jayden Daniels is somebody that'll be around for quite a long time if he can stay healthy. I'll l RG three down there with wathingon. But you
know what, Detroit at home. It's a team of destiny. I can't think of too many other teams that I would feel more comfortable winning the Super Bowl this year.
Sunday Games, Eagles at home with the Rams. The Eagles are six and a half point favorite, and a lot of people think it's their year for the Super Bowl. Saquon Barkley is having one of his probably his best season obviously ever after coming over from the Giants Rams, some people surprised they got this far.
You know, Nick Sirianni's taken a lot of heat, especially last year when they had such a hot start and then lost what five six seven games in a row to end the year, and then lost to my Buccaneers in the playoffs, And it feels like the missing piece they needed was Saquon Dick. I mean, he has really taken some heat off of Jalen hurts. You know, despite aj Brown reading books on the sidelines being mad for only getting three or four targets a game, this is
a much more rounded Eagles team. And I hate to say that because I don't root for Philadelphia and anything Dick, and after some of the videos that have come out from Eagles fans and how they treated some of the Packers fans in the last game, you know, they're just the worst fan based in professional sports. And there's just simply no way other way to put it. But I
do think they get it done in this one. I think they've got a lot of firepower, and this has been a good story for the Rams, you know, with all the California fires, them moving that game to Arizona. I'm happy for Matthew Stafford. I'd love for Stafford to get another shot at Detroit. That would be a fun NFC championship game. Give some credit to Sean McVay for getting this team in position to compete. They didn't have
Cooper Cup for a while, Kuka Nakua was injured. So this Rams defense and this team has overcome a lot to get to this point. But I think you're in Philly. It's a game that they could snow over the weekend to scamdig I think Saquan who fell just short of the record because they didn't give it the old college try in the last game. We'll probably get over one hundred yards of this one.
The Eagles could be susceptible given the Rams power at their passing game and the talented receivers, and the Eagles d backs aren't the greatest. But I'm like you, I like the Eagles in this one, like them to cover as well. Best game of the weekend Baltimore in Buffalo and the Ravens are now a favorite. This one opened with the Bills favored by a point. Now the Ravens are favored by a point. The two MVP candidates, the two quarterbacks going at it.
Yeah, and if you're a Buffalo Bills player, you have to feel disrespected being at home and being an underdog, right, I mean, this is this is Josh Allen time, and he's had a great season, just like Lamar. And unfortunately, I feel like the conversation around this game will be more about who loses and the legacy of the quarterback of who loses in this game compared to who wins it. But you know what, I think this is going to
be the best win of his career. I think Lamar Jackson finally gets a done.
Dick.
He been on a different level this year, and I think the tipping point is the talent around Lamar Jackson compared to the talent around Josh Allen.
Wow.
You know, big credit to John for you know, willing that roster with maybe one other Pro Bowl player on the entire roster besides Josh Allen. Meanwhile, the Ravens have won everywhere you look, especially a lot on the offensive line and Derick Henry, who I'm kind of rooting for Dick, you know, as a quasi Titans fan as well. I think he got the short end of the stick, but he found a nice new home and looks better than ever at times. So I think that's a tough that's
a tall task for a Buffalo team. Who you know, let's be real, they'll have the home field advantage, right. It will be fun seeing Buffalo in a playoff game and these two quarterbacks go at it. But I am rooting for a guy that is electrifying, and I do hope that Lamar Jackson finally gets it done here because then the conversation becomes if he doesn't, that he just can't win the big one. And you know, I would hate that for the kid because he may be the
most exciting NFL player I've ever seen. And that do don't take it away from Josh Allen. He is somebody that I guess besides Cadillac Williams and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in they Dick maybe even Bucky Irving and what he's shown this year, but what Lamar Jackson does. Jayden Daniels has shown shades of a little Lamar Jackson as well, but Lamar is on a different level. And call me a homer of being in the Louisville market for many eight years, I think that he doesn't get it done.
I think it's Ravens simply because of Derek Henry. I think he's the answer. I got about a minute left. Tell me about Ohio State Notre Dame Buckeyes. Aer what an eight or a nine point favorite?
Right right? You know, I love the story about Riley Leonard. You know a transfer guy that's getting it done at Notre Dame. His mom texts him, you suck before every game to motivate him. I just think that's one of the best stories in sports. I don't know if my mom would have the heart to do that, but unfortunately, I don't think this game is close, Dick. I you know,
I think Ohio State breaks off of them. I still think of Ryan Day looking around that field after they lose to Michigan, and that was just a focal point for what Ohio State has done ever since. And so I think that while we want this to be a close game, and I think Notre Dame has a lot of people behind him this year, somehow as one of the more hated teams in college football over the years, I do think Ohio State gets it done.
Ohio State has explosive players on offense. Notre Dame does not. Notre Dames that plays physical football like a Big Ten team. But I do think it's Ohio State. And I'm with you on that. Billy, Thank you so much, and we will talk to you Monday night on the State.
YBBI enjoyed it. Thank you, Dick.
That is our own Billy Rutledge and you can hear him every morning on this very radio station on the KSR pre show at nine am. Heroes, Fools and Flakes, next on six thirty wa Welcome back thanks to my guest Steve Moss, Billy Rutledge, Jerry Hale. Time now for heroes, fools and flakes as we close out the weekend. My hero is Danielle Collins, who well she's a tennis player, so if you're a tennis fan you know who she is, and competing in the Australian Open. She is outgoing and
kind of fun. And the other day she beat an awesome and destiny ava and was booed about it and somebody asked her and she was heckled during the match, and after the match was over, somebody asked her about what it was like dealing with the hecklers, And this is one of the greatest answers I've ever heard.
One of the greatest things about being a professional athlete is the people that don't like you and the people that.
Hate you, they actually pay your bills.
It's kind of a cool concept, and you know, obviously my professional career is not going to last forever, and so I just remind myself every day, like when I have that kind of stuff, like.
They're paying my bills.
Like every person that's bought a ticket to come out here and heckle me or you know, do what they do. Like it's all going towards the Danielle Collins fun so like, yeah, bringing on, I love it.
That's awesome. It wouldn't be great if more pro athletes took that attitude. I mean, yeah, your your tickets, the ticket you bought that's paying me, Thank you very much for the swell money. I just love that, and I thought that was something that other athletes should hear and should adopt. Daniel Collins at the Australia Open. My fool tonight is anybody who believes that Bill Belichick and Tom
Brady are going to stay put. I'm not saying they won't, but just because they say they are, what have we learned about pro athletes? Now this is just coming off the pro athlete Daniel Collins. But contracts are made to be broken, and money talks, and yeah, Brady's making a ton of money from Fox Sports. I can't imagine he has enjoyed. He's got to know about the criticism and he's not been bad, but he's not been the greatest, which is what he was arguably as the winning his
quarterback in the history of the game. But he's just average. There are so many other and again, first year, did any of us excel in our first year? Very few of us. I wouldn't want to go back and listen to my air checks for my first year on the air.
But now with all these other challenges, including the biggest helping the Raiders put a team together, don't be at all surprised if Brady in despite what his agent Don Yee said, don't be surprised if he doesn't fulfill his ten year, three hundred and seventy five million dollar contract. Belichick has yet to sign his contract as well. The cynic in Me says he's waiting to see what happens in the NFL, despite the fact that his girlfriend, the twenty four year old Hey good for you, says Belichick
stay input. And Michael Lombardi is GM at North Carolina who's been on our show, said that he's out recruiting right now, and then please ignore all this talk about the NFL. I would hope he's out recruiting. Yeah, because nothing might come of the NFL. But in this day and age, we're all cynical. We'd be fools to think that everything is locked down and in place our flake tonight. Kind of a flaky situation. Of course. Let's go back to the Jets and Aaron Rodgers, who finally spoke on
Thursday on the Pat McAfee show. It's generally where he breaks his silence if he's not doing regular media, and he said, I think everybody understands in terms of his immediate future with the Jets, that it's going to come down to a GM and a coach and myself and whether we all want to do a dance together or if it's not in the cards. That's actually the right response. But it's so fun right now to see the media, the talking heads, everybody, fans trying to figure out what's
going to happen with Aaron Rodgers. And as a shareholder an owner of the Green Bay Packers, my response is, you guys, have fun, good riddance, that's gonna do it. Thanks so much for joining us. Have a great weekend, everybody. That's a good night. From the garage in Lexinger, What.
The hell is going on out here?
Well, Nook scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man's here.
We need a live was it a live rooster?
We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove, and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present.
About right, that's right, we're dealing with a lot of.
Well, camel sticks always make a nice gift, and maybe can find out what she's registered and maybe a play setting or have your silverware pounds day.
Okay, let's get te. We're go
Da