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Here's Nick Coffee? All right? Good afternoon, and welcome in to a Friday edition of Coffee and Company as we come to you live from the offices of Alex R. White Lawyers, Sue Distracted Driver dot Com, our partners for our postgame show this year, which we will have later tonight because it is Game Day. A rare game Day edition of Coffee and Company here on Sports Talk seven ninety So we're with you up until six o'clock. So hang out, make yourself at home, get comfortable. As mentioned,
we made it to the end of the week. It's a Friday, which is always always a good thing. I will apologize for our tardiness today. It's really I mean, Rick is filling in radio Rick, who is the man, and he hasn't filled in to produce this show, probably not since we moved afternoons, which we had a little bit of a format change, so there used to be a commercial break that would really start right around three o'clock.
We haven't had that in a while. But that wasn't that wasn't properly communicated to the One and Only Radio Rick. So that's why we were a little bit delayed. But it's okay. It gave me some more time to kind of get get settled in, get comfortable and enjoy the great atmosphere here at the offices of Alex Roy Lawyers. And again it's Friday. We're ready to rock and roll. So we've got, as mentioned Radio Rick back at studio, the One and Only mister Austin Montgomery. He's with us.
He's with me here today live for the show. And you know, John is out the company man, he's not here, and I hope he enjoys his long weekend. But I kind of don't want that guy around, Austin, because I mean about it. Look, Louisville, they're not in a terrible spot, but clearly the season hasn't gone the way that most fans would have expected it at this point. Your Minnesota Vikings get beat last night at a tough loss, straight, yeah, too straight, in a game that you know they didn't
I don't. I mean, I don't think many were expecting them to lose, because obviously they've been a really good team this year. And then here we have the Company Man, his Hoosiers are doing something that if you woke somebody up who'd been in a twenty year coma and told them Indiana football is undefeated, top fifteen, ranked ahead of Alabama, they wouldn't believe you. No, they you'd have they would not believe. You could show them evidence and they would
still say, you're messing with me. There's no way possible. So again, in all seriousness, I hope John enjoyces long weekend, but you know, I've.
Be in against one college game day and then we get we get the company Man taken a long location, and.
I don't blame him. I don't blame him at all. It is wild that Indiana is actually in this position. And I wish I could tell you that I think that they're going to like end up really fall and off, and they may, but like they're hammering people. And yes, their schedule has been pretty weak, but I mean, I think they're actually I don't think it's I don't think it's sluky. I think they're actually pretty damn good now, good enough to win the Big Ten, good enough to,
you know, compete in the College Football Playoff. I don't know if they're there, but like with their schedule, given what they've done so far and who they have left, like, they could easily end up ten and two at worst, which was just a crazy thing to say out loud, But that's that's where we are. So again, we're taking you up until six o'clock. As mentioned Game Day, I said, a rare game day edition of the show, because this is the first time this year that they've had a
game on a weeknight. And I think last year at least three maybe four, and if it's four, that would be half of your conference schedule would have been games that were not played on a Saturday, which is really rare. I mean, you had the opener last year in Atlanta that was a Friday night game. You had the NC State game at their place that was a Friday night. You play Virginia at home late in the year, in a game you almost lost, and I feel like there was another one, but maybe I was. No, that was
a Saturday night. It was a you know, Saturday night at home. I guess it was just three. But still three of your twelve games, three of them being league games, being on a weeknight was kind of rare. And I mean, I know that there's some that just don't like football games on the college level on any day other than a Saturday, and I get it. And still ninety nine percent, seemingly of college football games are still played on a Saturday.
But I've always enjoyed the week night games. And it's not just because of the selfish reasons, which is that it does actually give me a chance to you know, it's almost like it. I mean, I hate saying this because it makes it seem as if like I don't enjoy what I do. But I mean is it is. It's work and I enjoy it. But you know, it is time consuming and a Saturday for fans. I mean, think about it, If you tailgate for a couple hours and you go to the game at home, like you're
giving up probably six hours of your Saturday. That's a lot of time. Now again, people do it because they love it. But you know, when you throw in postgame show and all that kind, it's just a full day. So I like to have, you know, situations every now and then where we'd have a Thursday or a Friday night game to where I can just watch my team on a Thursday or a Friday, sometimes in a standalone
situation right where you're not competing with other games. Like if people want to watch football on a Friday or a Thursday, they're watching you. And here's to hoping Louisville takes advantage of that tonight. But then Saturday you get a chance to just watch all the games. You don't have to just lock into one specifically. So I am looking forward to tonight, and I've been saying all week that I don't really like there's not a whole lot
to gain and there's a lot to lose. And I still believe that is the case for the most part, meaning you know, a win tonight is really what you're supposed to. Boston College is not a team that I don't think anybody would say is is good now. They're not terrible. They've got a coach in Bill O'Brien who I think is probably a little too good for them, But the same situation worked out to where he wanted to be in his hometown of Boston. He was looking for a gig, and he took the Boston College job.
So you know, they're better off with him than I think any other coach that would have been a realistic candidate. So I don't want to act like they're you know that they're terrible. But again, this is a game that is not talked about as like a big coin toss. Now. I say that knowing that they could easily play poorly and lose tonight. But the teams you've lost to are teams that you weren't really expected to be other than SMU.
That's the different. That's that's the only one of the three where they came in and humbled a lot of us, myself included, Like, I think Louisville clearly did some things on their end to help SMU leave Louisville with a victory, But also SMU just gave us that works. Do kids stay that still? Is that a thing? Is that a little? Is that a little old? Now?
It's modern? Okay, yeah, it's up there.
I felt I felt really really like I.
Was no, it's like they're cooking. Now, that's they're cooking.
I felt like I was reaching a little bit as soon as as soon as as soon as I said that, I'm like, wait a second, you just said something trying to sound like you're you're somewhat hip and.
No, no, no, you are.
The vernacular has change a little bit, but that's still too much modern.
Yes, it's not completely outdated yet.
No no, no, it's actually yes.
And look, I think SMU when they made that quarterback change, they turned into a different team. They're playing faster and it certainly fits them they've been. I mean, their schedule sets up to where SMU, like, I think they're going to be the team, to be honest with you, that ends up and I think they're gonna be the team that ends up in Charlotte. I mean, there's a lot
of football to be played. But anyways, the teams that you have beat up to this point, I'm sorry, the teams that you've lost to up to this point, they're not bad losses. And again it's I don't think we'll ever be a fan base that celebrates a handful of losses at the end of the year because we can say, well, hey, they were good teams, because Louisville wants to be a good team too, and I think they are a good
team this year. That's what's made it really so frustrating for me is that I just think this team should be better than their record indicates. But you are who your record is, quite literally how you define if you're good, average, bad, whatever. So you know you don't win, it really didn't mean a whole lot. So tonight it's one of those games where you look at Boston College. I think they're probably the worst team you've played since Jacksonville State, and you
know you should win. So again, a win is not going to move the needle for anybody. It's not going to change the perception of Louisville football in the grand scheme of things, and a loss would shift the conversation because this would be a loss that, yeah, you can't throw Boston College in there with these other three teams that have beat you. And I think the noise that you've heard from Louisville fans really over the last really, I mean really after every loss. It's not as if
I think we've hit a level of toxicity. That's just you know, depressing, but a lot of fans are frustrated. I'm one of them. I still think this team could finish strong. I think they've got a chance, you know, I think they have the capability to beat every team left on the schedule. But I'm not ready at this point to say that, Like I expect them to do that until they play a clean game with minimal mistakes.
Nobody's asking to be perfect, but just don't make killer mistakes in crucial moments in a game that come back to bite you. And they've done that pretty consistently this year. Therefore, seven games in, you got to look in the mirror. That's your identity. So again, overall, like maybe even fans wouldn't think much about a big win tonight, Like maybe if Louisville comes out plays clean football, they went about three scores, maybe you would say, Okay, that's what we're
supposed to do. I'm still I'm still bothered by the losses we had against the likes of SMU Miami and Notre Dame. And if that's the way you feel, fair enough, Because let's be real, let's not rewrite the story. Louisville had expectations this year and right now, I think you'd have to win out to come close to getting to where those expectations were. And I don't even mean the
ACC Championship game. I just mean finishing with around you know, the best case scenario regular season, you get nine wins, and you know, as of now, it's hard for me to say that I expect them to do that. So again tonight, what's on the line as far as the positives if you win, of course and you play well, is this team, like you only play twelve games every year as a college football player. College football teams play
twelve regular season games every year. Not a whole lot of opportunities, to be honest with you, Like, that's why I mentioned this every now and then because I never hear anybody else talk about it. But you can finish a regular season in college football twelve games and really
not know if you're good or not. Like if you play a decent schedule with you know, two three teams that are bums, and then I don't know, five teams or six teams that are average, and then you play three teams that are like really good, better than you, and you know that if you beat them, it's considered an upset, Like if you just beat who you're supposed to beat and you lose to the good teams, you can finish the season at eight and four and really
not know like, hey, yeah, we didn't you know, I mean, I guess again you'red is quite literally how you can judge if you're good or not. But you know, there's not a whole lot. I mean, you know, It's one thing that just always irks me is that like they you know, I'm not asking them to play more games, but like, I always want to be able to learn
about my team. And if you're in a situation to where you know you're competitive against the good teams, but you don't win, you beat the teams you're supposed to be like, it doesn't mean you're a bad team, but like, you know, I guess it's more of a of a being in denial that like, you know, look in the mirror, your team's not terrible, but they're certainly not good. They've had opportunities to beat these good teams and they haven't
done it. So that was a long winded way of me saying this team, because they've played seven games up to this point, they need to put together a clean game where they not only win and maybe have a little bit of cushion, but they know they stayed locked in, They didn't commit silly penalties that were just senseless. They you know, they didn't turn it over at terrible times. You know, they didn't have three guys try to tackle one running back and he carry them into the end zone.
Like I think this is gut check time for them against this kind of this kind of an opponent in Boston College, to where they need to build some confidence and just at least prove to themselves that they can do that. I mean, they need to prove it to everybody, but I think what will be most important for this team is to prove it to themselves that yeah, we can go out there and avoid mistakes that seem to
me at times very avoidable. So again, Louisville favored tonight seven and a half is the current spread, and I don't really have you know, I think Louisvill's a better team. Therefore, I think that they should win, but I don't really have any feel for what to expect tonight. You know, Boston College, they clearly play is if they don't know
their Boston College. If that makes sense, and I think that is a direct result of having a guy like Bill O'Brien, who again is like, that's one thing that is kind of had me a little worried about tonight. And it's not that I'm thinking, oh, we're you know, we're going to get pounded and Louisville doesn't have an answer for the players on the Boston College side, because I don't think that's it at all. But Bill Lebron's
a really good coach. I mean, it's a guy who's done it at the college level, he's done it in the NFL, and he's clearly given this Boston College team an edge that I don't think they would have if it was the guy coaching him last year whose name I've already forgot, who bailed to go be a coordinator
in the NFL. So in a weird way, it's kind of a big game for everybody involved and I but again, not a big game in the grand scheme of things as far as like how the college football world will start to perceive Louisville or again, there's not a whole lot to gain other than internally with this team, because they if you get to your eighth game and you are four and four, or let's say you're five and three, which they could be after tonight. They're gonna be one
of those two. I mean, if you're four and four, that's a tough pill to swallow, but we'd have to do exactly that and just face the facts. But a win. But yet you're still cutting it too close. I just think, you know, that wouldn't be ideal. When you get to Clemson at their place. Pittsburgh, who, by the way, they look insanely good. I don't know if it was a product of Qus being terrible, but Pittsburgh still unbeaten and they played their best game of the season last night
against Syracuse. So you know, you go to Stanford and play and I don't think they're any good. But still, I mean, you've played some teams this year that I don't think are that good and you could have easily lost, like Virginia at their place a couple of weeks ago.
So again, postgame show will start as soon as it ends, and then we will have pregame show as well, so you'll get a thirty minute break for me, and then we will fire up the pregame show starting at six thirty percented by percent about Jefferson Anvil Hospital as well as Pellow Windows and Doors of Central Kentucky. All right, so we got a lot to get into today. We're going to be joined by a handful of different guests.
Today we'll be talking Coming up here on the other side, doctor Larry Ben's of Proria Physical Therapy is set to join us. We'll talk to him. I want to get his thoughts on Colin Lacey as far as his decision. You know, jeff said he came back early, and id be like the timetable did seem like he did return a little earlier than what I was expecting. But again, what the hell do I know? But could that have
really been a factor in why he decided. I mean, I think it's an easy thing to bring up that if he's playing and the season's not anywhere near what he thought it would be one because he missed three games and Louisville's losing games, and if he's not one hundred percent like I think that makes it make a
lot more sense. I still get why fans are pissed about it, but like from his perspective, I think it's it's a little more understandable than those that just think he's quitting so he can salvage another year and go make more money. And by the way, if he's doing that, he's a smart guy, to be honest with you. That's just how I feel about it. So we'll talk to Larry about that. Also to a tug of Alowa coming back.
If you remember about a month ago, whatever that was, I'm pretty sure everybody acted like one he was dead. And also he may never like play again, and now here he is. Yeah, so that's I mean.
And he's not going to be wearing the britsack.
Yeah cap, Yeah, I raw dog in it. He's I mean, I feel like this. I mean not to question what kind of real impact that those caps can can provide, but I feel like wearing that would make me think a little too much about the previous concussions that I've had, and I wouldn't be I wouldn't be in a good mental place, you know what I mean.
They just look goofy to me. Yeah, sorry, I get what the whole thing is. They just look goofy.
They do look very goofy. There's no doubt about that. So again, doctor Ben's gonna join usming up here. On the other side. We'll talk to Alex Kupper coming up at four oh five, and then we will bring in the one and only mister Alex R. White, who we are hanging out here at his offices today. He's gonna join us around four thirty. Very nice to talk about a really cool event that he's a part of. And with him being an attorney, he has prepared a deposition
for me. He's gonna ask me deposition questions. So I'm gonna be basically, I'm gonna be. I mean, I don't know anything about legal terms and am I gonna be on the stand here if I'm getting deposed? I mean, I don't know. I mean, again, my legal jargon's not great, but it's some part of the legal process. So I'm a little nervous. But you know, we're gonna watch his sweats. Yeah, we'll have some fun with it. So again, hang out with us for the next two and a half hours roughly.
We'll take you up till six o'clock. Again, we are coming you a live from the offices of Alex R. White Lawyers. Sue Distracted Driver dot Com. It's Coffee and Company. Feel about Thorton's right here. On Sports Talk seven ninety it's game day Louisville and Boston College. And I was not aware that that that Boston College has had as
much success against Louisville as they have. And that's you know, I don't think it's something that is a talking point in the college football landscape or even you know, in the ACC for that matter, But Louisville is not one at Boston College since twenty sixteen. That was the year, that was the year Lamar Jackson won the Heisman. So you know, when it comes to you know, when it comes to teams that you know, most people just view our the weaker of you know, of the pack when
it was to the ACC. You don't want to lose to these kind of teams. Although again, Boston College is an interesting team to look at moving forward because I do think they have a really good coach, but they don't have nil resources. And as we talked yesterday with the beat writer who covers Boston College for the Boston Globe, is that phill Brian kind of like lets players know that he that he's pursuing that like he doesn't He's not He's not real big into nil I mean, and
maybe I'm actually underselling it. Maybe he actually tells them, Yeah, if you want to talk about nil, then like you shouldn't come here, which is a wild strategy to have in twenty twenty four. But you know, whatever he's doing this year, it's working to an extent to where they've been able to be a better, better team than I think most would have expected. Uh, Rick, can you hear me?
Rick? Are you there?
I'm here? Did did we get did we get a call from from doctor Ben's not yet? Still wait? Okay, okay, just let me know whenever he whenever he does call, and he should be calling us here in just uh in just a moment. But anyways, again, tonight, we'll have pregame coverage starting at six thirty. Postgame show we'll start right after and uh, we'll see what what you know, I'm more anxious for this game than than I probably
should be. And the reason that I say that, as far as you know, I shouldn't be this anxious just because it would have been nice to come into this game with like a ton of confidence. And I look, I think it was a better team than Boston College. I think their favorites for obvious reasons and That's really the root of like a lot of the frustration for me as a fan is because I still think Louisvell's got it, Like they got the pieces to be a
pretty good team. They're not great at every spot, meaning like they you know, the offensive line, you know, is probably not viewed as anywhere near a strength for this team. But I think you've got pieces around the offense that you can you can scheme to where your offensive line is not, you know, exposed so much. Now there's gonna be certain matchups that's gonna be really tough for them.
But you know, I thought they did a pretty good job against against Miami, who's got a really good defensive front, you know, defensively, I mean, they're kind of just it's
just been sort of a mess. I mean, I know it sounds foolish when I say, hey, the defense has a lot of talent, given the fact that you know, you watched Miami drag multiple Louisville defenders many more yards than they should have gotten on the handful of those plays and including a couple of them that were really embarrassing, I'm sure to watch if you're one of those guys that tried to arm tie and just got carried for sometimes seemingly five to seven yards or something like that.
So the pieces are there, they just haven't really put it all together. And that's why tonight, I think is such a big opportunity for this group to play a clean football game. And what I mean by that is, don't be sloppy, don't make mistakes that seem to be very avoidable. Now you're going to still get some penalties. You're gonna make mistakes. You're not going to be perfect. And sometimes you get penalties and you know, you go back and look at it and you feel like you
got host you got a bad call. But then sometimes you know, even if it is a questionable call, you know, Louisville did something to put themselves in a situation where the ref had the opportunity to call it. And I haven't talked a whole lot about officiating. In fact, that is something that a few people here and there over the last few weeks have brought up, like why aren't
you more critical of the officials. It's not like I'm telling you that Louisville hasn't had some calls go against them this year that clearly had an impact in the result because you know, like that's true. I believe that.
I just think that the reason officiating has been talked about so much this year for Louisville, other than, of course the obvious bad calls or the reviews where you're wondering, what were they watching that we didn't see to make that change as far as what they were going to do, is because you put yourself in that position that bad call, miscall, whatever it was late was so crucial because you were in a spot to where whatever that rep decides good call,
bad call, it's gonna make a huge difference in who wins and loses the game. So you know you're you're making mistakes as a team that make those missed calls way more memorable and way more crucial. You're going to get calls go against you every every game, and sometimes it's gonna be worse than others, and sometimes there's going to be egregious calls that like you wonder, what the
hell are they are they conspiring against us? Which I've never once believed that, and I don't think a lot of fans truly believe that, you know, the acc or anybody's just out to get them. But at times it's probably seemed that way just with I mean, the one thing that really set me off Austin was in the game against Miami. I think it might have been Jacory Brooks or maybe Chris Bell, where he ran to the sideline and strategically did exactly what you're supposed to do.
He knew he was close enough to the line, so he just reached the ball over, yeah, and he got the first down by like two yards seemingly, and they didn't even review it, like, and I don't even know how they ended up going to look at it. I don't think Jeff burned a time out to make them go look at it, but like the the announcers themselves were even like are they not gonna look at this?
And we've gotten some questionable spots all year, and that that one actually set me off to where I'm like, like, you can't be making this up when it comes to how terrible all of these most of these spots have been for Louisville this year. But other than that, Yeah, I mean the double pass interference call on Colin Lacy, I mean I've never seen anything like that. That was crazy. The yeah, and then the what was the other one? The again the fumbles, right.
There were spots different spots expect in the Virginia game, and they had a remember it was I can't remember who the running back was. It had it had to have been forward, no, no, no, it had to have been Isaac Brown. But they they stopped as momentum.
Oh yeah, yeah, weird thing.
Yeah, when they went forward on fourth. Yeah. So look, I think the officiating has been questionable. In fact, it's probably been further than questionable at times this year. But I think we were noticing it a little bit more than we usually do because you're in close games against good teams late and if you know, could it could come down to one call that's really just the referee judgment, and if it doesn't go your way, it could, it could,
it could have an impact on it. So it's not that the officiating has been great and not worthy of criticism. I just think you notice the poor calls that go against you a lot more frequently whenever you are in the spot that you've been in games this year where you know you made some crucial mistakes that make it such a close game late. But again, let's hope tonight they play a clean game. Take care of business. Uh, and and avoid some of these mistakes that I think
have been pretty avoidable. All right, let's bring it in. And he's doctor Larry Ben's from pro Rea Physical Therapy. We certainly appreciate him as always making time for us here on a beautiful Friday afternoon. How we doing, doctor Ben's.
We're doing wonderful game day, getting sight right jailgate.
Yeah, that's right. So I'm I'm assuming you've been to Boston College Louisville games before up there in Boston, right.
Yeah, I have.
I have.
It's a great place to go. Obviously, you can get a good Italian dinners and go up there on the hill and go to the game. It's not the best stadium in the world, but good atmosphere, great campus, you know, great school.
Yeah, I remember. So I've gone once and it was only for It was for a basketball game, and they had a big hockey game the next night, so there was more buzz on campus about that than there was basketball. In Boston. College hoops wasn't in a great place at the time, but I remember thinking, man, this campus is absolutely beautiful. But once I got to the arena itself, and then the stadium that you mentioned, and of course
it wasn't football season. I was I was a little supermitted. Again, it's not that nice of a stadium, but it is a it is a beautiful campus. And what kind of turnout do they usually get as far as fans, if there, I guess it depends on how good the team is. They're not great this year, but I think they're probably having a better start than they were anticipating. I mean, I would imagine they probably have some light crowds, but I don't know, maybe I'm wrong.
Well, it'll be interesting. You know, it's a Friday night. It's a big night for high school football in Massachusetts, just like it is here in Kentucky. I don't know what the crowd will be like. You know, I suspect it will be pretty good. They have, you know, a nice history there of renewed spirit with Bill O'Brien as a coach, and they've been competitive. You can talk about how good or bad they are, but they've been absolutely competitive. And it might be one of the better offenses in
a sense that we face. I mean, certainly Miami, you know, the got to get in there due but it could be another track mate.
Yeah, and they've got an they've got a running quarterback who gave us some trouble last year, and obviously that's been something that's that's been an issue for the Cards so far this season. But Bill O'Brien, man, he's he's somebody that I think is a little bit above the job that he has, but obviously he's from the Boston area and he wanted to get back into the college game. And uh, these I mean, I know, Florida State has
not looked good at all this year. I mean, they've really been probably the most disappointing team in the country. But that didn't take away how impressive Boston College was in Week two. You know, Florida State didn't know they were that bad at that point, and Boston College just completely bullied them. So yeah, they've had a couple of losses back to back, but yeah, I mean there's I
think I think the Cards are a better team. I expect them to win, but I also know that Boston College certainly isn't gonna roll over because as you mentioned, they've been they've they've been competitive this year. One guy that will be with the Louis will be will be without is Colin Lacy, who has decided to shut it down for the season. Jeff said something last week. I think it might have been before the Miami game that
that Colin had had come back early. Do you think that that is that more so just because maybe they had a different timetable. They were expecting them to maybe need a little bit more time to get healthy. And then sure enough, working with the trainers, working with the medical staf, he got the green light and he was able to go. Because with him with his decision, there are some folks wondering, and it's really not our business, but folks wondering, maybe did he reaggravate it? Was he
not fully at one hundred percent? And I know that's tough for anybody to know other than him and the medical professionals that work closely with him. But I guess overall that injury, that surgery that he had for him to return when he did against Notre Dame, would you view that as a little early? Right on? Tom maybe you know in the middle.
Well, it's very hard to tell. I mean, he had a couple effective possessions in that game. It's difficult. I think the thing that fans are having a hard time with including myself, is that athletes. Now, student athletes have way more options. I mean, the scales have tipped, you know, arguably more in favor of student athletes than schools or the athletic departments. I don't mean that in a negative sense, because I absolutely believe in NIL and I absolutely believe
in revshare. But now you've got unlimited transfers. You have this a bill to play four games yet keep you know, an extra year, which is thankfully some of that's true because we got a quarterback who's outstanding, who's played for what the last ten years. Yeah, and so you have this sort of phenomenon, and I think it's hard for us to accept, but I could assure you that he made an informed decision in conjunction with his advisor, with his parents. I don't know his personal situation that well,
with the coaches who he deeply respects. He's a transfer for us, and you know, let's hope for the best. Let's hope that he gets healthy and does stick around and play for us next year. You never know, because we're just not used to these student athletes having unlimited options like they do now.
Yeah, we're certainly adjusting to this new world, and it's still relatively new in the grand scheme of things, considering for generations. You know, the NCAA rules as far as amateurism was exactly the same. And now you know, there's a reason people keep bringing up the wild Wild West. But we've benefited from it as well. You know, you mentioned Tyler Schuck. I mean, I'll take an eleventh year
if we can get it. Larry. I think he's been he's been sensational, and he's a guy that has dealt with a lot of injuries, and you know, I don't I mean, I'm not sure if anybody believes in Jinx's and then a knock on wood here, because you know, he's clearly healthy and he's playing some really, really good football.
And I mean, I feel like in the world of those who work with rehabbing athletes who have gone through not just one, not just two, but three pretty significant injuries that have caused you to miss a lot of time in your career, like this is probably a pretty good story in that field for a guy that you know, he's he's gone through it many times, he's gone through you know, recovering from different injuries, and now here he is you know, I would imagine that when he went
down at Texas Tech. There's probably a lot of folks, even folks close to him, Larry that thought, you know what, maybe it just wasn't meant to be. He just can't stay healthy. And now he's playing the best football of his life. And clearly it's a product of him trusting in the rehab process.
Absolutely, he has had something incredible injuries, so he's come back from big kid, strong kid. What most impressive is, you know, obviously his maturity. Notwithstanding, I think the other impressive thing about him is the scheme that coach Brohm and they've developed around him. He's not the most mobile quarterback yet he has a little bit of elusiveness at times, but the plays and the others. I know fans sometimes get upset at certain play calls and things, but you
have to develop a scheme around your quarterback. And it's the reason why Tom Brady was able to play as many years as he did. He had a coaching staff and a group that was willing to, you know, augment his strengths and put him in his sweet spot. And I think, you know, Jeff and Brian brom have done a tremendous job of coaching him up. You know, look, he played completely different offenses at Texas Tech and the West Coast and you know now back at Louisville. So it's a credit all the way around.
But he's sure has been fun to watch.
I mean, I don't appreciate those saxophones and a lot that would get these those things like awfully painful. But he's he's made the passes when he's needed to. We've had some bad luck, We've had some really tough calls that arguably a process potentially some games, and yet here we are have a chance to you know, make a little run here, have a good showing to night Weeds. Yet I had had a game where we've put it all together. I think we'll see that tonight. I'm very optimistic.
And at the end of the day, I trust I trust the jockey, and I trust our horses, and I think we're gonna We're gonna have a great win.
Yeah, I think, you know, with with with some of the calls, and it's not just Louisville. I've noticed it in a few other games this year. In fact, they're both acc games the ones that come to mind, but
you know, I thought it was you. You go and you review it, and even if you're not quite sure, that means you have to stick with the call that was made, and that has worked against Louisville and worked against Virginia Tech when they I mean, I think in the end they probably got that call right in that game as far as the Miami and Virginia Tech finished, but I think they didn't have any evidence to correct their call. So look, some people just say, hey, if
you get it right, you get it right. But if you're if you're on the other end and you know that, you know you could benefit from the refs getting around the first time, you'll certainly take it. But and you may not know this, Larry, but what we see on TV, I've always just assumed that that that's the same exact angles, in the same exact footage that they're reviewing the referees. But is that the case? And if you don't know,
I'm apologize for putting you on the spot. But there have been a handful where you're thinking, Okay, what did they see that we didn't?
Yeah, in college, I don't know the answer to that question. The NFL, I do they have way more angles that they look at in the NFL because I'm saying that a more resources and more it and more film. But I'm not one hundred percent sharing college. I don't understand though. You know this whole concept behind, you know, irrefutable or air. You know, you can't dispute this evidence, and then they turn around a call that completely looked, you know, questionable.
So we've just been on the other side of those. Hopefully that'll turn a little bit here. I don't know if you watched the NFL game last night, but that could have been one of the worst calls I've seen a non calls insight or season.
Yeah, yep, and that and that's one of those that referees I think most of them know, and and those who want a referee press conference after the game, I think you'd be pretty underwhelmed because I think these guys would tell you that they do make mistakes and they get some stuff wrong. But for that one in a standalone game on Thursday night, a late a late missed call there, I mean, that's a tough tough look for
NFL officials, no doubt. But doctor Larry Ben's is our guest joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety a game day edition of Coffee and Company. As the Cards are set to take on Boston College this evening. I wanted to ask you about Tuatuga below us. So he's returning to action after suffering another concussion a little earlier this year. He has cleared what is the NFL's you know, the timeline he had to set out for the for the concussion that he suffered. He chose not to wear
one of those one of those caps. I think I can't think of the name of what they're called. Maybe is a guardian cap. Maybe that that they're wearing over top of the helmets too. You know, I guess potential to protect you if you do have another head injury. Do you think that there would potentially be a situation where they may force players to win that if they've
had so many concussions. I know remember years ago when Peyton Siva and Elijah Justice they'd had so many concussions, which is rare for basketball, that they were required I believe to wear those helmets in practice because of the injuries.
I mean, again, Tua wants to not wear it, it's certainly his choice, But would you think we could ever see something to where they would let people know, hey, look, if you want to keep playing in this league, we want to keep you safe, We're going to advise you wear that.
Yeah, that's a good question. I can give you a couple examples over the years. When I was an athletic trainer in college, the knee braces that offensive linemen or were effectively optional. We had them available, they were for prevention, you know reasons, and very few were them. Then the mandates started to happen and the research started to come out that said, you know, these things really do prevent knee injuries for offensive linemen, and so effectively everybody wears
that that same thing could happen on concussions. Nobody has put more money into concussions in the NFL. They have had the most to risk, They had the largest financial settlement.
They are the only professional franchise that I'm aware of that has a protocol, a very defying concussion protocol to specifically didn't help himself a few you know, earlier in the week when he said I would die playing football or something to that effect, because it caused a lot of people to say, well, maybe he's signed waivers that you know, he's willing to take on the risk. Well, no, it doesn't work that way. Remember, these guys are employees.
They aired their employment agreements under contracts, and they have a protocol. It doesn't matter what he says. If he doesn't get through the approval of that protocol, which is in theory and independent you know physician, typically a neurologist or as you know, head injury specialist, he's not going to get to play. I personally think at some point you've got to call it quits if you've had too
many repetitive concussions. We have seen athletes and we won't necessarily name them, that obviously got their bell rang too many times back in the day when they didn't monitor it. So I'm all about safety. I believe that you can have too many concussions and you have to think long tail,
long term. So I'm not crazy about him playing, but I respect the decision, and I respect more so in the NFL for having very very you know, effective you know prevention and medical intervention for such a really damaging injury like a concussion.
You mentioned the NFL being so invested in in concussion research and whatnot, and I think that you know, it's what they should do as far as really being worried about and really prioritizing always looking out to be on top of it when it comes to player safety. Rather that is learning about new things. So I guess what I'm asking. I feel like it's safe to say that it would be tough to really criticize the NFL as
if they don't care about keeping players safe. I mean, in fact, I think some of the criticism from NFL fans is that they're they're too soft now, and I think that speaks to that they you know, they understand it's a violent sport. There's always going to be injuries. There's certainly a lot of risks. But I feel like maybe they don't get enough credit for making sure that they're all ways continuously making sure they're learning whatever they can to keep these guys as safe as possible.
Oh absolutely. I mean, remember they've had REVS share for a long time. They've had a very progressive pension system, you know, depending on how many years could be as low as what five and a half. Now, there's been strikes, usually the players have won those strikes, so they've acquiesced the concussion management. They had a large financial settlement on this year alone, we're watching a very goofy kickoff and kickoff return in part because of the data around the
injuries there. So I think they've been very, very progressive. I would not call them soft. I think you use If you're not going to use evidence in data to drive decisions and change the game, then why do it?
Well said? All right, last question for you. I'm a Pacers fan and the opener one of the new members of the roster, James Wiseman. He suffered a torn left achilles which is probably going to put him out for for a long long time. I saw somebody speculating earlier this was just probably just nonsense on social media. But with certain injuries over the years, you know there's now I mean, you can recover much quicker from certain injuries
than you could ten twenty years ago. The NBA is a long season, Like there's no scenario that he would be able to like return and play this year, right, like if they made the playoffs and made like the second round, which is unlikely form my Pacers. But I
don't know. I just I saw that eno thought I'm gonna ask doctor Vin's that question because I feel like that's a reach there that he could he could make a return from that kind of an injury, even if it did occur in the first game of the season in late October.
Now, if he had a complete tear, and typically in basketball you do. You can go to Reddit look up all the great basketball players that have had complete achilles tear, and he will come back next year. I think some people are spoiled a little bit because last year Aaron Rodgers, in an absolutely almost irresponsible way, claimed he was going to be, you know, playing by the middle or end of season and having some advanced procedure. Well, the reality
is you can't. You know, you can't overcome other nature. I watched my Cleveland Browns literally with Deshaun Watson, and they had a great camera angle as it was happening on his torn achilles. As soon as it happened, I texted my grid folks, all who are big time Browns fans from around the country. I said achilles because it was so obvious. But those are tough injuries. I can't imagine a hoops player coming back in one season, especially.
I mean a guy that is seven foot tall. I mean you would want to be is I mean you want to be as safe as possible with everybody. But yeah, I again, I'm certainly not a professional when it comes to injuries and tom loins and whatnot. But I felt like that was a little foolish to put out there. But hey, it's the Internet. You look hard enough, you'll find a lot of foolish stuff on there. But doctor Ben's, we always appreciate you making time for us, especially on
a game day. And let's hope the Cards can can get the win tonight.
Absolutely have a good one.
Let's go Cars, Go Cards. That is doctor Larry Ben's a pro reap physical therapy, good conversation with him, good stuff. And because of the commercial breaks that we had in place Certaly, we actually were able to have a long segment there. So what we're gonna do here? And I'm kind of thinking out loud here, folks. You guys have heard me talk about it more than I I mean, I should never talk about it because it shouldn't be
an issue. But I'm really bad at clock management. Think of the worst coach that you've ever watched when it comes to football, basketball and you just think, yeah, this guy stinks when it comes to clock management. I'm worse than that when it comes to managing the clock of this show. Like Mark Sooops gets criticized for a lot of things, especially lately, but I feel like clock management is something that Kentucky fans have consistently said he's really
bad at. I'm worse than that when it comes to managing the clock and making sure we have balanced segments to where you know, we don't have one segment that's extremely long and then one that's pretty shorter than one that's extremely short at the end. Like I want to avoid that, but I just if I could fix it out, I already would, But now I'm kind of thinking, like maybe we burn that first break at the beginning of the show like Rick did, and that way I can
spread it out a little bit more. Like I don't know, it wasn't by design, but maybe Rick, of all people, the legendary radio Rick Ryder, he might have given me an idea that could help solve this problem that I have with poor clock management. So Rick, I mean, I think I'm gonna start rolling with this, not today, but
moving forward. So thank you, I mean, not only thank you for doing a great job every time we work together, but I think this is this is the way to go about it, and I will I know, I owe Alle the credit to you, my man.
Well, I'm giving you pearls here and Nick.
Oh man Rick is the best, no doubt about it. All right, let's do this. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back here. We got two more hours to go. We're going to talk to Alex Kupper coming up here in about ten minutes, former Louisville cardinal. We'll get his thoughts on this matchup tonight. And you know, playing clean football, putting it all together, avoiding sloppy play. Those are things that you've heard me mention a lot of Louisville fans
mentioned throughout this season. I mean, if there was an easy fix to just you know, hey, let's let let's let's implement this and we won't make these same silly mistakes. If it was easy, you know, you wouldn't have teams that do what Louisvill's doing this year. But from a player's perspective, maybe Cup can give us, in fact, maybe give this team some advice on how to clean some things up. So we'll talk to Cup here coming up
here at about four ten four or five ish. And then also we'll bring in the one and only Alex R. White, who's here. We're live at his office today for the show. We appreciate them hosting us in this beautiful office. But he's going to join us to talk about a early special event that he's a part of. He'll come on at four thirty, and he's also he's also going to depose me, which I'm kind of nervous about, but hopefully,
I hopefully I'm able to, you know, survive. Should be fun though, in all seriousness, and we're gonna have fun the next couple of hours, So don't go anywhere. It's coffee and company fuel. Beth Orton's here on a Friday game day on Sports Talk seven ninety