It's time for Coffee and Company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day, Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we are getting off our show, idiot.
The kids are crying or trail off their countries.
Are screwing it up.
Gold Play intermurals, Brother Goldpleay Intermurals.
They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not. Who's the kid here?
Who's the kid here?
Are you kidding me? Now? Here's Nick Coffee?
All right, let's get it started.
A Thursday edition of Coffee and Company coming to you live here.
Thursday's the new Friday.
Is this maybe a month now that we've been really embracing that, I'm not sure it's picked up anywhere else. I think most people are still operating as if Thursday is in fact Thursday. But I'm you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna keep h I'm gonna keep this up as long as you know, as long as possible, and then maybe one day everybody's just going to collectively share the
Friday vibes on a Thursday. But you know, Thursday, Friday whatever, you're here, if you're listening to me, right now then you chose to be here with us as we get it started, and doesn't matter if you think it's Thursday or Friday. You're here and that's all that matters. My name is Nick Coffee. The company man, mister John Alden is alongside as we take you up until six o'clock today on another beautiful afternoon. That fall weather is uh
is here, and you know, I enjoy it. I like it, But I don't know, the last couple of days, I kind of feel like I just haven't warmed up like I've just been kind of you know, like freezing.
It didn't really ease us in the way that maybe it does typically. And it is gonna warm up here in the next few days. But the last couple days have been a shock for some time.
Sure, Yeah, Yesterday, I mean, look it's fine because it's gonna get a lot worse, and I don't really mind cold weather, but like yesterday, you're right, it's I mean, yesterday was a day where I just think, throughout the entire day in this area, this region, it was just cold, like even for October, like even this morning.
To go to the DMV and get my registration up updated or whatever, you call that go you know, get your tags in that type of stuff and not a defrost in my car?
Did you really? Yeah?
Wow, it was thirty two degrees this morning.
Because I see like on I don't know why I get it from. I guess I have the Amazon app on my phone. I mean I do, I have it as far as like you know, shopping on Amazon Prime.
But I guess that app.
Is is connected to one of those like speakers, the Echo or.
Is that what they're called Echo? Yeah?
For Amazon.
Yeah, so we have one in the house that I guess was set up through my phone and I get those notifications when we've got weather that is, you know, that we need to be aware of, and I got a frost advisory, So I guess I guess it was in fact that cold this morning, which yeah, I mean, like so Saturday, it's gonna be sunny, and I think I checked the highest currently looks at right about seventy degrees.
But I feel like if that's the high and we're talking, you know, all of the Tail game is gonna be done before noon because obviously the game starts at noon. Like I think for the game itself, that sun if it's there it's gonna help, but it's gonna be I think it's gonna be on the chillier side if it's twelve.
If the game goes from noon to three or three thirty and it's nothing but sunny, it may be one of the best games people attend this.
I think you're I mean, you got to keep in mind, like people don't keep their house below seventy very often, you know what I mean. So if it's in the sixties, I feel like people are gonna be cold. I mean, you know, you put a hoodie on your good Like if you're out there in shorts and a T shirt,
then yeah, you're gonna be cold. But you know, I in a weird way, I'm trying to think about, like, you know, do I go, because I'm just thinking, if it's sunny and it's you know, the highest seventy, I'm thinking, Okay, I don't. I don't even need sleeves. But again, the majority of the time that you know, I'm think of Tailgate more than anything, and that's where it's gonna be, Like it'll probably be it will probably be hoodie weather,
which is perfect. And if the sun is shut, I mean when it's in that range sixties, the high being seventy. The sun is crucial because without the sun it's actually cold, like not to the point where you got to, you know, go get your winter code. Yeah, but like the sun can make it to where if it's in the high sixties, it's it's quite literally perfect. But and it does look
like it's gonna be sunny. In fact, we've got nothing but sunshine as I look here on the on the weather app, which is the weather app on my phone, is that from the weather channel. I feel like it is, but I don't know for certain.
It may depend I'll know what Apple uses. I think mine is a Samsung specific thing.
I don't know that.
Oh okay, well yeah we've got uh yeah, we rely on them.
High the high of the high seventy on Saturday is what I'm looking at. And it looks like it's gonna be sunny, so yeah, it should be should be awesome.
And actually I didn't even know this.
If you click on the actual date here on this ten day forecast that I've got on this app, which again it's just not something I downloaded, it's just the
weather app that comes on an iPhone. It actually shows you, like per hour of that day, so like in between, let's see here from like if you're tailgating from like nine to let's say you'd get in there at eleven o'clock and look, you're still outside it, so like you're gonna in fact, there's probably a lot of shade and you may not have that sun shining down on you.
But it looks as if temperatures are going to be between like mid forties to mid fifties to sixty like in that early morning range from like I don't know up until eleven am. So come prepared. I mean, this is the biggest game on the home schedule, which isn't saying much because the home schedule this year was just pretty is pretty bad, to be honestly, that's nobody's fault. That's just kind of how it played out. But Miami
at this point is probably better than most expected. They're undefeated, they're the number sixteam in the country, and it's a sellout. So you did tell me earlier this week, John, it's going to be big game bram on Saturday, and I
believe it. But it has hit me really in the last few hours as I'm continuing to because as you get closer to a college football Saturday, you start to see all those that you know cover the sport nationally talking about some of the bigger matchups, and there's a pretty good slate of.
Games this weekend.
But Miami being the number six team in the country, and of course Louisville being a team that a lot of people think could pull off an upset, I'm not seeing a whole lot of people predicting it, but I'm also not seeing many predictions for a blowout. So it's one of the games many of the talking heads are sharing their thoughts about, and it just reminded me, like I need to I mean, maybe I've been a little bit Dare I say delusional this week when it comes
to this game. I mean, I think I've been pretty straightforward that hey, like, if they eliminate some of these mistakes that you feel like are easy to avoid and they play well, then they're going to have a chance to win. And I mean all that, but I kind of think to take it a step further, they're going to have to be a different team and they've been all year to win this game, unless Miami just comes out and they lay an egg there, I mean, and you have no clue how they're going to come out
off the buy. I mean it really depends on I mean how their mindset is after avoiding two game two loss. They avoided two losses that could have easily gone the other way, but they held on to win. Then they hit the bye week, so I feel like it's going to be that they come out maybe a little bit flat, and maybe that won't keep them from winning the game, but I could see them potentially coming out flat off.
The bye week.
Hopefully there's a good atmosphere there to where they really feel as if they're truly in a road environment, and maybe Louisville could take advantage of that. That'd be ideal. But they could also come out feeling refreshed because they got through six games and got to that bye week unscathed,
no losses for them. So I'm getting more and more excited, But I'm not going to a lot of myself and obviously a lot of you guys that I just I think if we see Louisville be the same team they've been six games through, I don't think that they'll win and they may get beat bad. I mean I don't I'm not saying I predict that because I'm hopeful that
they do come ready to play. But this year has just been you know, it's just it's been a real surprise for me because if they were before and two, like if you'd have told me before the season started they're going to be four and two, and let's just say you literally told me, and I knew who they lost to, and I knew the scores, with each of the Notre Dame game in the SMU game being just you know, touchdown game. You know, I don't know what
I would have tried. I don't know what I would have tried to assume happen to get those results, but I probably would have guessed that it's just well, you know what you brought in Tyler Shuck, and maybe he's just not that good. Or you know, oh, Quincy Riley missed a couple of games. Yeah that's not ideal. Maybe maybe you're really learned the hard way that you needed Grindo and Jordan more than you ever realized, because now you've got a group of veteran running backs, but none
of them are really that good. Like, you know, none of that, none of what I have mentioned there in the last I don't know thirty seconds. I think has really been a huge factor and why they're for and two it's because of things that you just you know, wouldn't expect to happen. So no better time than now for this group to get right and uh, you know, play their best game of the season. And I think
they're gonna need to do that and it. You know, I don't mean to start the show today acting as if you know Louisville isn't the team that can beat Miami and we should just expect a loss. I mean, I'm not here telling you I expect to win. I'm hopeful that they win. I think they can win. It
wouldn't be the biggest shocker in the world. But the more I look at what we've seen six games in, and that's all you can do, right six games in, you have an identity and this team again, they're gonna have to be a different version of themselves to beat a team like Miami because of how good Miami is. You know, we've been saying it really since Haines King did it when Georgia Tech came to town what a month ago, that quarterbacks that have the ability to take
off and make a play with their feet. They really kind of feast against Louisville. Well, since we've been saying that week in and week out, it's still happening. So now you got cam Ward come into town and he's a Heisman candidate. He is a high I mean right now, he's in the mix to win, to win the Heisman Trophy. I would say it's between him, the running back at Boise State, and Travis Hunter. I mean, i'd say those
are the three most likely candidates at this point. So I just, you know, can they scheme something together defensively to keep cam Ward from having a huge impact on the game. Sure they can, but I just can't. I can't go there as far as saying they're gonna do it and I expect it when I have seen nothing that would make me believe that's going to start happen now. But you know, to go back to this, this this hope and belief that that that John gave me, it's
big game proms. So maybe that maybe that's when whenever these things that haven't happen yet do in fact happen, defense is well prepared. They come out ready to play. They're not letting a quarterback get loose on the ground and extend drives and offensively they're there. The old line is is given them a little bit more time meeting Tyler Shuck and you know they're not committing silly penalties that will kill a drive.
Like maybe maybe.
All that comes together because of Big Game Bram in October Fingers crossed are We got a couple of guests that are going to join us today. We'll talk with Alex Kupper coming up here at three thirty get his thoughts on this matchup. Also at four point thirty will bring in Kent Spencer from w h AS eleven and other than those two times three point thirty and four thirty, you've got an open invitation to join us here on the show. You can give us a call five O
two five seven one seventy nine hundred. You can also text in on the ln N Federal Credit Union text line five OO two six five three zero seven ninety. And another reminder, you can take us with you wherever you go, whatever you're doing, listen live right here on the iHeartRadio app or at seven ninety Louisville dot Com. As you know, we are with you until six o'clock.
I was I was at my daughter's gymnastics last night and my stepdad was there and he'd mentioned something I said on the show yesterday, and you know, I'm sure it probably came across the way he took it, and I just didn't realize it. Sometimes, you know, sometimes I don't even realize that I misspeak or you know, just get something wrong. It probably happens more often than I
would even know, which is a scary thing. But I mentioned if you are somebody that is you know, if you're listening to this show from three to six and you dedicate three hours of your of your time, you know, thank you, and you know if you're not, you need to reevaluate some things. I may have misspoke. The people who aren't listening to this show for its entire three hour schedule, those are the ones that need to reevaluate priorities. It's not the other way around. I'm not judging you.
If you are somebody that does consume coffee and company from three pm to six pm every single day, you're living right. You're somebody that's that's got it figured out. You're somebody that is living on the good side. And if you're not, you still got time to you know, to join those that consume us from start to finish.
But if you have things going on again, that's why I always try to remind you, just just know that if you're getting out of your car or I don't know, I don't know where, should be listening to an old terrestrial radio, but just know ourt radio apps always available for you as well as seven ninety Louisville dot Com. All right, So one of the things I try to do, not every day, but pretty often is think of things that you know, I know fans in this area, in
this city, in this region are are conversing about. And it's silly, but there are countless things that these two fan bases, Louisville fans and Kentucky fans have gone back and forth about over the years that are beyond silly. Like it's just what we do. And it's always a reminder how crazy this rivalry is. But the team photo, like that thing, you know, we talked about it yesterday just because at that point, you know, it was a
big talking point. But not just like you know with people who are trolls on Twitter, like you know, my sister ran in her yesterday, what's.
Going on with the team photo? Is that actually the team photo? What do we like?
I think there were some people that just you know, believe whatever they see on the internet, like thinking that that was the team photo where they were the Louisville go like, hey, the photographers there, here we go on the count of three, we're going to snap the picture, and this is your team photo. Like, I think there are a lot of people who saw what Matt mcgavii put out, and then of course it really it became a totally different type of thing whenever KSR got a
whole it. But like, there were people legitimately worried about Louisville basketball because they saw that team photo, and you know, it didn't exactly give you a whole lot of I mean, it wasn't a good look. But imagine you having somebody take your picture when nobody's looking and you're I mean,
it just it couldn't have been worse. But as silly as it is, and I mean, it really is stupid, to be honest with you, But again, there's an endless list of things that I can't think of an example of one that's like as silly as this, everybody talking about a team photo that wasn't a real team photo.
I mean, it was a photo of the team, but like that was what really got me is that after the show yesterday, just talking to people that I know, friends of mine, even family, I mentioned my sister, like they thought that that was like if you go to Uel's website, that was going to be the photo that you see, which is just like, I mean, you got
to be pretty naive to think that. But also, like Kentucky fans, maybe it's because Mark Pope, you know, he may be good, but he's kind of boring, like he's not somebody that's going to like, you know, there wasn't a whole lot to take away from his appearance at the SEC basketball media days. They're football team's coming off a loss to Vandy and they realize like they're gonna be stuck with Stoops unless he just decides one day he doesn't want to coach there anymore. And again I
talked about this the other day. Maybe we get back into it later, like Kentucky fans hoping that Stoops just kind of decides to bow out and you know, walk away and call it a career. Who's walking away from nine million dollars a year, like he'll take you all calling into his coaches shows, giving him crap about losing to Vandy for nine million year because most people would.
But anyways, I think Kentucky fans were just bored because again, Pope may be good, but he's boring compared to Call as far as just you know what Cal brings to the table. And on football, you know they lost to Vandy, so I guess they. I mean, I'm a little I guess flattered as a Louisville fan myself how much the Louisville team photo was really more of a talking point
to Kentucky fans than it was anybody else. But the reason I bring this whole thing up is because there is a tweet that's gone, I don't know, semi viral. It's got seven hundred thousand views, and it's from an account probably an anonymous troll. Yeah, I mean, just looking at the I mean, Kim English lover KENO Davis survivor Ed Cooley's biggest hater. That is the bio of this person with three thousand followers on Twitter, who I assume
is a Providence basketball fan. And I think it's this is one of those things that you put out there just to get reaction, just because people who don't follow your content may not get your sarcasm. You know, they're going to be in your mentions just yelling at you, telling you're an idiot. And at the end of the day, if you get that kind of engagement, it's what you want as a troll on the Internet, that's what they seek. But it says, honestly, believe college basketball means more in
this red line than any other part in the country. Well, on this map, there's like a red He's got a red circle around the map that shows the state of Connecticut as well as Providence Rhode Island. And it's basically saying that Yukon and Providence fans, they collectively are ruling the region of the country that they believe is college basketball country. And it's clearly not the case. I mean where we are, I mean TV ratings tell you that we watch more college hoops than anybody. But even like
in the Carolinas, I mean, it's a different world. But you know, do you think there's other fan bases out there?
You think Yukon and Providence fans are going back and forth not only on Twitter and the toxic wasteland that is now X. But like you know, there's people who work at Ford on the assembly line, or people who work at GE or people who work in an office, maybe they work at McDonald's, and one of them's a Louisville fan, one of them is a Kentucky fan, and they're probably going back and forth about a picture that somebody took on their iPhone and posted on Twitter, like
we're nuts and I wouldn't have it any other way. And we'll see how both of these coaches end up doing. But it does kind of feel like the rivalry is refreshed here, which on the Louisville side, God knows we needed something new because Cal's just been you know, very successful against Louisville to say the least. And I know that Kentucky still feels as if they are insanely superior to Louisville, even though they've got a brand new roster
and a coach who's never won a tournament game. Just like Pat Kelsey, I mean, we're not really starting off
that much differently. For being honest. The only thing that you know clearly you got as a program, there's a little more momentum there for you because you know, Louisville, what they went through the last few years is probably something, to be honest with you, that the Kentucky will never go through, and Louisville should have never gone through, but you know what had happened, and now hopefully they're getting
things back on track. I mean they already have when it comes to just you know, hiring somebody that can get you excited about basketball. Now we got to wait and see if, in fact, you know, the results are there.
But today's one of those days where, after about a twenty four hour window where I was just so annoyed and just you know, irritated, I didn't even want to get on Twitter because I just knew when I pop it open for the first time in a couple of hours, the first thing I'm going to see, rather it be people I follow or it be the for U section of Twitter, it was just gonna be people going back
and forth about the team photo. And as silly as it is, it's also a reminder that we're we're different, We're built different when it comes to college basketball rivalries, and look, Kentucky can act as if, like, you know, they don't even care. Well, clearly I'd say, the Louisville team photo was the biggest talking point among Kentucky fans for probably about twenty four hours at least those around here. And big part of that is because Matt made it a big part of his show, which you know, he
has every right to do that. It's free country, you know. I wouldn't, you know, necessarily try to make something content that is based off of personal appearance of people, because again, as I said yesterday, I know that's an open invitation for somebody to come to come back at me when it comes to my personal appearance, and I don't want to do that because that's not something I would, you know, I feel like I'm an easy target when it comes
to that kind of stuff. Before we get to a break and bring in the one the only mister Alex Cupper, former Louisville Cardinal to talk about this matchup with the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday. Have you seen the latest changes to Twitter slash x John.
I saw that you're going to be able to view somebody who has blocked to you or vice versa their tweets, but you won't be able to interact with them. Still something like that.
Yeah, I'm for the first time in a while. Really, I shouldn't say worried because I'm worried about Twitter.
I mean, I guess we're always worried about Twitter because it always seems like it could potentially be going, yeah, down the drain. But I don't see the benefit in doing this. Almost to me, what's the point in blocking somebody?
Well, I think the attempt here for Elon Musk is to make it to where we're so much about free speech that you really can't even hide what you're saying from somebody. So therefore, if you block them, they can't
interact with you, but they can still see it. Like that's my guess, because you know, that's what they're really prodding themselves on when it comes to this platform, is that we let you say anything, which is really a scary thing because there's so much misinformation going on, especially in an election year, that it's it's kind of reckless
to be honest with you. But what you would think that he knows is that there's actually rules within the app store, both for Google Play and for Apple that if you don't if you are if you're a social media type platform, which clearly that's what Twitter is, you have to have an ability to block somebody, or you
can't your app can't be available in their store. And imagine, I mean, it's not crazy to assume that they didn't know that, and they're going to have to revert back and make a change, because if the app's not available on androids and iPhone, then the platform doesn't exist. I mean, I use it on the web whenever I'm on the air, but like I would say, less than five percent of those that are interacting on Twitter are doing it on anything other than their device, their phone.
So there's that.
And also this is a this is something that I guess is in their new you know, every now and then you'll get a notification when you go to any app that says they've we've updated our terms of use and all that kind of stuff. Well there's now one I'm not going to read the whole thing, but it's
the content of services. But they now have it in their agreement essentially that I guess, if you're using the app, you've agreed to it by submitting or posting any content through their services, you grant a worldwide, non exclusive, royalty free license to use copy reproduced. So basically they're just they're saying anything that is published on the platform that is X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it, it becomes instantly free for anybody to use and monetize.
Like that's not legal.
Now.
If you put it in there and people upload it without reading that, then I guess they've you know, but like there are big time creators, big time people in the digital space that we'll see this and say, well, we're not putting anything on there, and there's nobody regulating it, Like there's nobody like monitoring if you're allowed to use
stuff that's copywritten or not. So, you know, I thought whenever we found out that Elon Musk was buying it, and then if you remember there was a time where you could only view like certain amount of tweets per day, you remember that, Yes, Like when that was going on, I felt like, Okay, I'll give this thing, you know, five six months, and it's and it's lasted longer than that, But wouldn't shock me if like it, you know, in the next few months or something like you see this
thing as actually post election, I think is when we're going to find out like really where they're going, what's going on with it? And It's a useful resource for me for and I don't even mean just for like reaching people. I mean it is is valuable resource for that just because the following that you can get on there. I mean, I've got close to thirty thousand followers.
But I really use it.
More than anything just for show prep, like figuring out what's going on, keeping up with what's out there in the news and whatnot. But I could still get that stuff without Twitter. It would just take a little bit more work. At times think that life may be better for everybody if we didn't have Twitter, But I guess maybe one day we'll find out, because I would imagine this thing will eventually be done though, But as of now,
it's still there, and it's again a toxic wasteland. All right, Alex Cupper's going to join us on the other side right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, Coffee and company rolling along here on a Thursday afternoon on Sports Talk seven ninety, we are fuel about Thornton's Make sure you sign up to become a member of the Refreshing Awards program if you haven't already, and if you do, I think you'll be happy that you did. You're going to save money at the gas pump, take advantage of
all the other perks that come with it. So we certainly appreciate our friends over there at Thornton's. We also appreciate the one and only mister Alex Cupper who joins us here to talk some Louisville Cardinal Football Cup.
How we doing, brother, It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and I'm doing well.
It is. It is a beautiful day, and it should be a beautiful day on Saturday when the Cards and the Canes get it on. And before we get to the matchup, let's just, I guess go back to a very important game that did result in a win for Louislle. They avoided a three game losing streak. They were able to went on the road at Virginia, and it was big just because you needed it. A three you know, three game losing streak would have been clearly less than ideal. But did you feel like they took much of a
step forward. Obviously winning that means you did take a step forward, But I still felt as if we saw some things that to me are avoidable, yet they keep happening. Some silly penalties. You know, the communications seem to be a little bit better defensively. But I just I think i'd be lying to you if I said I feel as if it was such a big step forward that I feel like this team's gonna, you know, completely be different the rest of the way.
Yeah, I agree, I agree with that statement.
I would also say that, you know, with all of the the downtroddenness of all those statements, I think there's the ability to play better football is definitely out there. It's all out in front of them with this team. So they have to keep their I think last week kept their mindset and if anything, moved their mindset in the right direction on Okay, we can do this.
We can win ugly.
We can you know, overcome some mistakes and really pull together and pull out a win.
Get a drive together, get down the red zone.
Exec execute to perfection on that Jamar Johnson, you know, crossing pattern, hook line, singer, perfect play call, perfect execution. Knowing that you can do that should give your team some confidence that hey, we you know we and a messy situation, we can make things work. So what happens when you play play your best ball, which I mean I wouldn't say they have to play a perfect game on Saturday to win it, but they definitely have to be sharp, much sharper than they have been and play
the best football that they have played this year. But I think there's there's plenty of ability out there on that field to make enough plays to get to make this one interesting.
Yeah, And to go back to what you mentioned as far as just you know, them being able to get that win, Like, I think it's almost a chance for these guys to reset, right like now they're not dwelling on some you know, because clearly the losses to SMU and to Notre Dame. You didn't lose to bad teams by any means, but I think you know, you know, you could have easily won if you would have been
a little bit better. And I think just getting that Virginia in on the road it kind of lets your reset here and now you've got a huge opportunity and if you do come out and you play. You're right, they don't have to play perfect, nobody you know, they're never going to be perfect, but you know it's never been throughout this entire season. Any question on my end as far as do they have the ability to be a good team to beat really good teams, including Miami,
which has just made it kind of a weird. I can't think of a season that I'd compared this one too, because I still think from a talent perspective, not to say.
That they're loaded everywhere.
They're going to be at a disadvantage at certain positions depending on you know, who they're playing.
The rest of the way.
It's not like they're bill like an NFL team, But you know, I still feel like as far as the ceiling for this group, if they do clean some things up, they could be you know, dare I say really good this year?
Yeah? No, I agree?
And it I mean when you look at the matchup itself and you think about some of the some of the vy can see that we may or you know, some of the exposure points we do a little self counting on defensively, and if you're just watching as a casual fan, if if we're able to contain cam Ward and eliminate the first and second read usually he's a primary read target guy, and then are able to capitalize on a secondary rush standpoint, and I mean that that's that's how the game is going to be won.
You got you got to get them.
To flush backwards and scramble out and make everything a scam scramble drive. He's able to step up in the pocket and avoid quickly to the sideline.
There's going to be a lot of deep balls, a lot.
Of third downs converted, and we're we're going to be stilling to try and keep.
Them, you know, out of the end zone and limit points.
So I think that's where it all starts. We should we should be able to execute. I would imagine coach Brown typically comes in dialed in for games like this. He has n't started, you know, he understands the opponent very very well and has some tricks up his sleeve. So I would assume our offense is going to be able to move the football and get points on the board. It's just defensively, can you create some turnovers? Can you
limit cam Ward's ability to make special plays? You know, that's really and if you're going to be on the game at the end, that's what you're gonna.
Need to do. Yeah.
Well, I mean again, if it was easy, then a lot of teams would have done it up to this point in Miami. Wouldn't be the number six team in the country that's undefeated, But I mean he's pretty special. I mean, I feel like he's a guy that could go up against a defense that most would say is maybe a little more talented than Louisvill's or maybe you know, just better as far as results, but yet he could still he could still have an impact on the game
that dictates two wins and loses. How I mean is he I feel like he's Maybe this is just because it's the opponent Louis's got next, and I'm I'm worried as being a pessimistic fan, but I feel like he's I mean, he he's kind of not single handedly done it because they've always had talent, and they have talent this year around him, but he's given Miami some different swagger I feel like than they've had in a long time.
Oh absolutely, Just that that whole confidence realm that we we spoke to, you know, we kind of talk about Tyler Schuck in that way after that notre end game, being able to stand in there and make some great throws in a hostile environment and pull your team together and even on your on your uh you know, you're not you're not perfect and you're not not ever going to be, but on a day where your things aren't going your way, he's able to stand up and be a leader.
That's yeah, That's.
That's what Cam Worden's been able to do and has got that whole team believing that they they belong right where they are, which is in the heart of the college football playoff conversation and and and the head of the acc kind of leadership role at the moment. So yeah, I mean, you get you got to give him some
he hadn't seen before because he he is. If he if you let him sit back there and enjoy that time in the pocket, and then you know he's able to escape and escape the pocket, it's gonna be a long day because he's gonna make plays.
Alex Cupper's our guest joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety getting set for the Louisville and Miami matchup. I think everybody listening is well aware that that coach brom has shown his ability. Rather it be a head coach here Perdue Western, or just as an OC, the guy is a really really good football coach as far as an offensive mind, good play caller. In fact, he got a shout out today from Cliff Kingsbury at his press conference because of a play that the Commanders recently ran.
So I'm not asking this question Cup to insinuate that you know, you would ever act like, you know, better than coach brom. But when you see Louisville in a fourth and very short situation, what would you do? Given the results that they've had so far this year, they've come up short many more times than you would than you'd like to see. I don't think many fans have an issue with them going forward because that's what Jeff's
gonna do. He's gonna be aggressive. And you know, it's just been been a tough run to see this group on fourth down more often than not, just need a yard maybe two, and they line up and run it and they just they can't get it done.
Yeah, I mean, you you got, I mean, and it's it's pretty standard what a defense will do to you. You know, they'll engage eight.
Guys, they'll they'll play straight up eight you know, gap eight, whatever you.
Want to call it.
Every single one of the gaps is filled and there's somebody trying to penetrate through. I mean, we our defense does the same thing. So you got to do something where you can where you can pick up a hat or gain an advantage via a gaps game or something. You know, I'm I'm not a big fan of just a straight dive.
I mean, if you if you.
Got a strong quarterback and you are able to do a QB snake like you've seen in the NFL with Josh Allen, some of those guys. I don't think we have one of those. Nothing against Tyler Schuck, but I mean that those guys are those are really really big individuals, big and strong. So yeah, I mean that's that's what you get every time. That's what you got with the Johnson touchdown, that there's just somebody sleeping in the backhand that was supposed to be made a man on them.
So that, yeah, there's got there's got to be a little wrinkle. You know, if if I'm playing defense, I've guarden any any wide receiver one on one and number eleven one on one, and I'm sending everybody else.
And I know Tyler Schuck is not built like a Josh Allen, but he's also not a not a small guy. Do you think that maybe because he's been I mean, he's sixty five two twenty five, that's what he's listed as. I mean, I'm I'm a little surprised they haven't at least tried that here and there on the many fourth down opportunities they've had. Could it be because he's somebody that quite literally has had so many injuries you just don't want to risk it.
Potentially?
I mean, I I've seen Josh Allen at you know, high level, and it's I've.
Seen them both, and there's there's a difference there. Yeah, you know was that Uh? I means it could be there. It could be you know, just.
Comfortability, and it's it's being able to I mean, there's an art to Tom Brady was a fantastic QB snake artist and he probably couldn't squat more than two hundred.
And twenty pounds.
Yeah, it wasn't because of athleticism or strength with him.
Yeah, you gotta underst and where you can do it, where the weakness and the defense is. You know, your cadence is so important. So oh, there's so many different intricacies to being good at it, and you.
Know, some quarterbacks just aren't comfortable with it.
So not the end of the world, but yeah, it's definitely something that every single time we fail on I get my text.
Changes, I guarantee it, so I guarantee it all right. So, defensively, last week, we learned right before the game that that Ron English was going from the booth to the sideline
to try to help improve communication. I think at the beginning of the game, the defense still still kind of looked, you know, as if they were going to To me, it seems as if defensively they're like given each opponent the last few weeks, a few series before they kind of figure out what they want to do, and look, there's one thing to have, you know, to get a feel for what the opponent's doing and then you counter it and you you scheme yourself to try to stop it.
But they did seem to settle in As a former player, what I mean, how big of a difference is that for guys on the field. I mean it's I mean, it's to me, it seems like a pretty big deal. The defensive coordinators. Instead of being up in the booth, he's now on the sideline. But you know, I mean, is that just something to to try to I mean, I guess, long story short, what what kind of an impact were you expecting when you heard that instead of being up top, he was going to be right there
on the sideline with his guys. I would just assume the most defensive coordinators would want to be on the sideline. But you know, what the hell do I know?
Yeah, I mean.
It's from a coordinator's perspective there, and there's so many support staff where there.
I mean you can.
Ask, you know, any one of them, hey, what what look are they giving us here? Or what what personnel are they going to come out in? Or spotters all
over the place up in the coaches booth. So it's I mean the information you need can be you know, can be given to you, whether you like seeing the game from up there and you can really see how wide receivers are breaking, or how you know from a from an offensive you know, from an offensive visual, you know, what what are they trying to do on the backside?
You know, if we give.
Them one on one, you know they tagging things, et cetera, et cetera. Those are all things that people from the boot can give you. I think from a communications standpoint, if he was the green dock communicator, so he was the voice that was going into I don't.
Know, is it Clark who's wearing it? Yep?
The communication, So you got to think he's giving a call to stan Kwan. Clark and the coaches on the sideline are trying to get a personnel grouping, and Clark is part of that. So he's part of saying, hey, we're in, we're in dime where Nickel, We're in whatever they want to call it, and this is the call and so and but you got so many voices coming at you got one upstop and then you got English probably trying to talk to the guys on the sideline.
So there's there's kind of like a pyramid.
Of stuff trying to flow and it's going through a prism essentially, so it's it can be a bit murky. So now that he's on the sideline, he can literally just like point to guy, say hey, we want this package, we want you know, needs you in at this position.
And then call the play that way.
So let's you know, he's not he's not having to yell down to the coaching staff what personnel needs to.
Go in and then what what what the call needs to be.
So it is is, uh, today, you're not today, But it was yesterday. I think whenever they were put out on social media, the black helmets with like the Matt black that says cards on him. We've talked about it before. Charlie Strong did not let you guys ever wear black. And I don't even know what the unis are going to be, but obviously that black helmet looks looks sweet.
I mean, are you jealous? Because again, like you all had some damn good teams and your uniforms look pretty good, but like the black is just special.
It's very special. I don't. I think we may have worn black jerseys one time.
But it was just with the with the normal, normal helmet and normal pants. So it's kind of like an awkward, an awkward little combo. We know, we never did the UNI combos in it.
To be fair, Adidas had they.
Had just started getting into you know, how important you know, form fit and looks are when I was playing, so that was that wasn't really their cup of tea at the at that moment, so and and Coach Strong was it was all about that, you know.
The traditionalists, look, you need you need to be.
Known for your brand. Yeah, he's very much traditionalists. Which the white on white is. Yeah, that's my favorite look. You know, no matter what whether we were wearing it back then or or how they were on the road last Saturday, that is that is awesome. But the the cardinal script is sweet. The chrome, yeah, the chrome read those those are all awesome. You know, ad INDs to to building up the programs. You can call it swagger,
but this is the brand in general. You see, you see guys making plays and you get on Sports Center and you get highlights shown of you that that sticks with people all around the country, which is pretty cool.
No doubt about it. All Right, last question for you, Cup.
Let's say, uh, we get to the end of the game on Saturday and it is, in fact a victory for Louis Wille, they knock off the number six team in the country. And I'm i'm i'm I'm presenting it as if like it would be just the old the Shocker,
and it really wouldn't be. They're five point dogs as we speak, and I think when we get closer, you'll see more and more people realize, Okay, this is a game where Jeff Brown will have his louisvill team ready and they're at home, and you know, maybe you see more people.
Pick the cards.
But what what would be the recipe as far as if we are there, Let's say it's a close game throughout, but Louisville holds on to win late. Is it Tyler Shuck, you know, making a name for himself on a big stage. Is that the defense maybe confusing cam Ward? I mean, it's going to take a lot to knock off this really good Miami team. But what would you say is your best bet? As far as if we get this victory, what are we talking about? Maybe more than anything right after the game, I think.
It's about how effective our defense was at limiting cam Ward and forcing turnovers.
You get that you have to win the turnover battle. You can't win.
You can't win a game like this and lose the turnover better You're not You're not that talented to overcome those those critical errors. So I think I think if we do or when we do make this happen on Saturday, we go, it'll be wow that the defense really, they're really,
you know, took a huge step forward. We were able to lock down the outside, shut down what they wanted to do, limit what cam Ward was will they are able to do and got them to cough up the ball a couple of times, which led obviously lead to points, and you got you have to take control of the ball game. You can't play from behind too much. Too much of our our season, you know, the two one two games we lost, and then this Virginia game where you're you're having to dig out of a of a first half hole.
You gotta get a fast start.
And then and then you know, put them in uncomfortable positions where they're going.
To give you the ball.
I love it, Cup, appreciate the time as always, and uh, I'm looking forward to this upset on Saturday. Hey man, me too, brother, take care of go cards. So that's Alex Cupper, former little of a cardinal. Yeah, it's not some big, bold opinion, take whatever you want to call it. And it's quite clear if Louisville is going to pull off the victory, you'd have to think that maybe cam Wore doesn't play the worst game of his career, but you're gonna have to find a way to neutralize him
a little bit. And here's to hoping that happens. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side of wrap up a three o'clock hour right here on Sports.
Talk seven ninety.
As you guys know, big game on Saturday, Louisville and Miami at noon, but before you get out there to Cardinal Stadium, or maybe you're not going to the game because you know it's sold out, which is true by the way, for those who didn't know. It is a sellout on Saturday, which has me expecting a pretty damn good environment and maybe that leads to Louisville having a really good start, which I think is going to be
crucial in this matchup. But what I'm getting at is if in fact, you don't you don't have any plans to go to the game, or maybe you want to do it before you go to the game. The Pints for Pausing People event at Jefferson Animal Hospital will be going on on Saturday, and I know they're really looking forward to educating folks when it comes to pet blood donation. You may not know it, but your pets, your dog or cat could potentially qualify to be a pet blood donor.
And every time that a pet donates blood, that could help save up to four to six lives. So again keep that in mind. They're going to be there to educate you, as mentioned, on how this process works. They are well aware that there's many people that didn't even realize that pets could donate blood. I'm one of those people as well. So that's why they're going to have demonstrations. They're going to be able to show you how it works. They're going to put you at ease if you're worried
about maybe you know, your pet being in pain. Look, they're professionals. They know exactly what they're doing, and that's why they're willing to show you and demonstrate sort of how this whole thing works. So you can get more information at petloodbank dot com or give them a call at five O two nine hundred Pets again, it is the Jefferson Animal Hospital on outer Loop on Saturday from ten am to two pm.
Should be a good.
Turnout for them. Bring your pets, bring your people. Pets and people are welcome, and you can also donate blood yourself to the American Red Cross so that you can tell your dog or your cat, Hey, it's not just you, I'm doing it too. Maybe they'll be a little uh, a little more willing to uh to participate. In fact, they probably won't know what the hell's going on, But
I don't know. This is one of those things as somebody who's never been as into pets as others, just because I wasn't, you know, I didn't grow up with like a dog or a cat that was my best friend. But like you ever wonder John, what pets are thinking? Like if if we could read their brain, that would be wild, wouldn't it.
Yes, be wild? All right, quick break.
We got two more hours left, so stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety