All right, So to get to four o'clock hours started it, We'll pick up where we left off, just because I'm curious, And it's not like I'm trying to open up the phone lines and make this a big, long conversation, but it would be I don't know what I would do if I was in the position that Kentucky fans are in in the NBA in the NBA Western Conference Finals, with Shay Gilders Alexander being, you know, the MVP front runner, really likable guy, but his NBA career, he's one of
the guys. And there's not just one, but there's many. I feel like that they were good at Kentucky, but they really kind of became a bigger deal in the NBA than they even were in college. And that's certainly Shay. In fact, Donovan Mitchell's that way. There are people who think Donovan Mitchell, in my opinion, was actually a better player at lower than he was. And Donovan was great. It was the first team all accuither have not been many of those. It's not like I'm saying he wasn't
a good player in college. But Donovan within like the second or third year of being in the NBA was already a more prominent player in the association than he ever was in college. And that's credit to him. You know, he got a lot better, took a gamble on himself. There was no guarantee that he'd even be taken in the first round, so Shay, he was good. But he
started for Kentucky like midway through the year. I think Cal he went with the burger boy, Kwad A. Green, who is a very easy guy to forget for Kentucky. Right when you think of Kentucky basketball players that played for Cal, nearly all of them seemingly were five star McDonald's all Americans that you know that played there. But like Kwad Green, he's got to be one of the guys that you would just forget exists, right, I mean, where did he I mean, where did he end up like
Washington or something. So Shay, I'm sure Kentucky fans love him, but they didn't even get a hole, Like, they didn't even really get a full year of him as the guy. He became so good not to play a bunch And then by the end of that season, I kind of feel like he became their their best player, even ahead of Kevin Knox, who I believe that was the year
he was kind of his team. So anyways, like if you are a Kentucky fan, there's a way that you're like, well, we can't lose, because if it's Shay and the Thunder and they make the finals, then hell yeah. But if it's Julius Randall, and even though he's not the franchise player for the te Wolves, that's obviously Anthony Edwards, but still Julius Randall's a really good player and last night
he was their best player. So I don't know, just Louisville basketball, I don't know if this is something I just have made up in my mind or if it's actually legit, but I think for Louisville to be a program that has always, for the most part been in
the conversation as a top ten program. I mean, obviously Denny really did that starting in the seventies when they won the championship in eighty with Griff and then went on to become the team of the eighties with such a great run, and then even in the nineties not as successful for Denny, but he still had some good teams that made deep runs. And honestly, when you do what you did in the late seventies and the eighties, you're gonna still be benefiting from that well into the
next decade. And I think that was the case for Louisville with Denny. I mean, Louisville was such a big brand, and then when Rick go hired, obviously you were back in the limelight and clarity. Louisll basketball had some very successful seasons, multiple Final four as a national championship during Rick's time. But as far as NBA representation is, they.
Is.
There many programs that have had such success at the college level over multiple decades that really just never had a lot of NBA representation. I mean, Griff obviously went on to have a phenomenal pro career, and you can go back to the late junior Bridgeman, who was a phenomenal player obviously for the Bucks, who's got his number retired. Some guys in the eighties clearly went on to have good pro careers and whatnot, but you know guys who
were big time draft picks. I mean, I'm not going to call him the word, the B word, but some would, and I would understand why always defend Purvis, although I don't feel the need to do it as much anymore considering how everything played out with Kenny. And really it's been clear Pervios Elison does not give a rat's ass about Louisville. I mean he didn't have to say it. He's shown that and that's been pretty clear, which is
really unfortunate. But I think we kind of learned that over the years, and we certainly learned it the hard way during the KP here. But nonetheless, like Purvis, he's not a bust, but he was the number one pick, and he played ten years and had a good career, but never reached the level of like was he worthy of being number one? And that's a tough thing to live up to. And I always will say, if you played ten years in the league, I don't care where
you're drafted, you're not a busted. But other guys that were drafted either didn't last long at all or they you know, played for a good chunk but really just never never really were prominent, prominently featured with any team in the NBA, Like, for example, I mean the late Felton Spencer. He was drafted with the six pick overall. Felton. I mean hard for me to say he didn't have a good run. He played in the NBA for from
nineteen ninety to two thousand and two. If you play in the NBA that long and your employer is the National Basketball Association, who am I to say that you weren't insanely successful? But obviously that's a very forgettable name. To those who follow the NBA that don't keep up with U of L. Right, Reece gains one of my favorite players ever. Reese was taken in the top twenty picks. Maybe what was Ree's taking? Let me look, Reese was the fifteenth pick. I don't think he was in the
league more than four years. Francisco had a really really good run in the league, and I kind of feel like he played like Cisco was in the league from two thousand and five to twenty and fifteen. He always I mean, he played every year he played, he played in more than fifteen minutes per game. His best season came in two thousand and eight and then also in two thousand and nine, where he averaged over twelve points. So he had a good run, But you know he's not.
He's a when when you're doing a trivia game with your boys about random NBA players he would come up because he's you know, he might remember him, but he's not somebody who had like a like, He's not Shay, he's not Julius Randall. That just that just never materialized for those guys. So cliff Rosier another guy, I mean, he was taken with the sixteenth pick, and obviously it's
really sad. I've mentioned three guys that two specifically in the you know that that have that have passed away at such a young age, Felton Spencer being one, and they now Clifford Rosier. But other guys taken in the first round, Greg Minor, I mean, in fact I didn't realize that, but Greg Miner's name was brought up quite a bit during his early years in the NBA, but not because of play, because of some other reasons. And
you can go look that up if you'd like. But like Dewan Wheat, he was drafted in the second round, fifty first pick. So you know, there's not really the expectation that those guys would would have lengthy careers. But here's here's a prime example. I mean Earl Clark and Terrence Williams were both a lot of picks in the same year and t Will. We know how that played out, and I still can never be proven right or wrong, so it's just my opinion. But I don't think talent
was ever the problem for Tea Will Ever. I actually think he'd still be in the NBA if he wasn't t Will. I mean, there's no nice way to say that. And then Earl, it's always been my unpopular opinion because I love Earl, love Earl everything about him, but like, I never felt like he was going to be great in the NBA and it turned out that he wasn't.
And I didn't plan on having a segment where I basically just remind people that there's so many guys for Louisville that have been drafted that didn't really pan out in the NBA long term. But that's not my intention. My intention is that Louisville basketball has had such success, but yet the NBA representation has been there, but not to the extent that maybe you would expect for other programs that have the success that Louisville has had it.
And you know, in the last I guess the last fifty years or something forty years roughly, so, Donovan being one of the best players in the NBA certainly helped that Terry Rozier is still a successful player and has
had a great run. I'm really surprised that Tres that thing would run its course because I still believe Trez was playing at a pretty high level whenever it kind of came to an end, and he now has just been I mean, he played in Australia this past year, so you know, I've never been in that spot that Kentucky fans are in, and I don't really know what I would do because it would be hard for me. Like when when Donovan was I was, I was not surprised,
but somewhat disappointed in Austin. I want to see if you judge me on this, because I know you love your pro teams. You're a big Vikings fan. That's your squad right like you love So whenever Donovan and the Cavs were playing the Pacers, I thought I might have like, Okay, who cares what happens If a Pacers win? Great. If Donovan gets to the Eastern Conference finals, then hell, And there is an element to where if that happened, I really couldn't lose because I would be all in for Donovan.
But in the moment, I was all pacers. It did not give a damn if the Cavs scored a point, right, And I felt kind of like, Nick, that's mean you love Donovan. You know Donovan. You know, he took a picture with my kids last time I saw him, and he, you know, he meant he said my name by name, which made my kids think my son think that he knows me, which he does. I mean, he knows of me, I guess, but you know, like literally, Donna is a
great dude. Love Donovan, But when he was playing my pacers, didn't care if he didn't score point, and I felt wrong for doing that, But you know, it's one of those positions you don't really know what you'd do until you're in the moment, right right, Like if Lamar is out there carving up your vikings, I think you're probably not hating Lamar, but like you don't want that to happen, right, Yeah, exactly.
I'd say it's not my favorite thing in the world, and that that would always be my doomsday super Bowl scenario, as if the vikings somehow matched up with Lamar's or even.
And you could see it as a silver lining because if you're going to lose to somebody in it. You know, if it's going to be your guy, then you know that's better than it better than it being some do you hate. But at the end of the day, the strongest emotion in that entire situation is what you want for your team, which I think is is natural. Right, Like you couldn't quit the Vikings he get tried, right.
Yeah, No, And overall I'd want the Vikings to win at a gd super Bowl sometime before I die.
So they're they're in a good spot now. They just need it needs to work out with McCarthy, I think so. I think it is. They're not gonna get Rodgers, are they. It depends do you want him to get Rogers? No?
No, okay, Although I think the Vikings would be the best possible landing spot for someone like Aaron Rodgers.
Oh, of course, he knows what he wants and it's not I mean, I think he also would like to stick it to Green Bay one thousand percent. But also he knows what he'd be working with in Minnesota. Uh huh.
He's an egotistical guy. I know he loves the thought of chasing that. Brett Favre career arc going to the rival having the best possible season of his life. He'd be with the quarterback whisper, I still think and he's not. I still think he's holding out.
The Vikings such a good roster.
I think they have one of the best young rosters in the league. There's a few old people in.
The they're a well run organization.
Yes, because they've never been like I mean usually in my time, they're always they usually have one good year, then they fall off the next year, and then it's never like consecutively. But they're not dumpster fire enough to where like you're like, oh my god, what are they doing over there? In Minnesota? They stay relevant and good every few years. Just but at the end of the day, it's it's Minnesota. There's a curse on that whole state.
And I want to get hyped up for the Timberwolves, even though I really don't care for the t Wolves, but like it's at the same time there it's.
Part of the culture. It's the Minnesota, Minnesota pro sports culture. I get think.
I think they're the longest like big city to not have any championships. And even the Vikings are probably the best team in the NFL to never won a.
Champion, and because of that, I find myself kind of like, hey, how about it, man, let's like you being a Vikings fan. I also have another close friend who's a Vikings fans, right, and that you know, I want to I like to see it. It's kind of like with the Bengals. I don't like the Bengals. I don't dislike them, but when they do have success, it doesn't bother me in any way.
And in fact, I'm like, okay, cool, because then I don't give me hope because I know my boys are happy, you know what I'm saying, because they're big Bengals fans, and.
They because there's a lot of friends yeah that they know you're they they're ready to clown on you.
And I don't like, I don't love. I've never I've never done that.
I know, a resweet or something, but I'm never gonna like in their face like, yeah no here because your team lost bluddy.
Yeah that's I mean again, But that's that's a big part of sports, sports culture. I think for dudes, I just it's not my nature because like, I wouldn't want that done to me, so I wouldn't do that to somebody else, But overall, like the Vikings, I kind of pull for them more often than not. But I will tell you this straight up, just so we don't have any weird energy. If Rogers is your quarterback, I'm not wanting them to win because.
I wouldn't be able to because I don't like him, and I don't know how I wouldn't feel about it.
Oh you you'd have to embrace him. I wouldn't, and I wouldn't blame you. I was your team, you know.
At least Brett Farv I mean, I know Brett Farve's had his his.
His him, and Percy Harbin would have run.
Affairs him, Percy Arvin, Sidney, Rice Nasante, Shanko, that whole. There's still a bad taste in my mouth for the Saints, and recently it's translated to the Eagles because we can't beat the Eagles in the playoffs. But there's at least Brett Favre was kind of liked back then, whereon Rodgers
he seems to have burned his bridges. I do think one hundred percent they're waiting to see how McCarthy is, and he's waiting to get the if they're not one hundred percent sure about JJ McCarthy being the starting quarterback, then they're going to bring in Aaron Rodgers and he's just you think he really needs to go to mandatory OTAs or he needs to go to training camp. He's at this point in his life where he he's not going to commit to a team. Now.
When ever he does, it's going to be two weeks before the Season's best thing for Jay. The most likelihood of it working out with JJ McCarthy as you just making him the guy and not I mean, I think who's to say it would for sure stun his growth. But I feel like in this position, you let you let what's his name go because you felt good about McCarthy, And then if you decide to bring in Rodgers again and it's not the optics wouldn't be terrible because again
it's Rogers. But at the same point in time, like if he was your guy, you wouldn't do that, you know what I mean, Like it's you could maybe, well, we were gonna get him a little more time to
get settled in he's still getting healthy. But like nobody would believe that it would be it would be very much a and this may not even be the case, but everybody would see this is that you actually don't think you have you know, how we thought you had it McCarthy, right, even if that's not legit, even if that's not fair, they would have to understand that that would be the optics of it. Kind of like when Pennix was drafted by the Falcons, say what they want.
The Falcons knew they didn't really have what they wanted in kirk Cousins, right like they you know, he hadn't played it down yet for him, had he No? Yeah, so they'd had him, he'd been around, and they still drafted who they drafted, and it played out the way that they I mean, who knows what Pennix ends up doing, but I mean like they they kind of showed their hand and then we saw there and we saw, you know, they teased us a little bit as far as what
they were thinking. And then sure enough it played out tho way. And obviously kirk Cousins got her, But even before that, he wasn't he wouldn't do it anything special. But Rogers is, let me put it this way. With Rogers, I don't like him at all, really haven't ever but I also think he's insanely good. Now he hasn't shown that recently. I mean, the end in Green Bay wasn't great, and honestly, in New York they were better without him.
I mean there's a lot of variables in play there as far as what led to them, but they had a less successful football team when he was their starting quarterback compared to whenever he was there and hurt. Like, that's just that's that's the facts. That doesn't mean that it's all his fault, but that's that's the way it played out. But Rogers is an unrespectable villain because he doesn't believe he's like Draymond Green. I hate Draymond Green, but I respect him because he's a good villain. Yeah,
he's fine with you hating him. He you know, for the most part, doesn't play victim, although he actually did recently about you know, being angry or whatever. But like he doesn't. He's not surprised that people hate him. He wears it. He is who he is, and you know, he's a good villain. Rogers is a fake villain. He doesn't think he should be. He acts as if he doesn't care what people think. But every single thing he does in his life is for attention. Yeah, everything absolutely
the nonchalant I'm just hanging out in the woods. You do that for attention? Self centered? Yeah, like you have alienated yourself or they've alienated themselves from you, meaning his family. I don't really know the specifics of what played out there, but like, to me, he's a sociopath. Like that's a strong word to say, considering I've never met the man, but like Rogers plays off like I don't see what
the big deal is. I don't know why people are you know, I don't know what, but like he has such a I'm actually just on a different level intellectually than anybody else, So you guys just can't relate. I'm just I'm in a different space. And like maybe he really is a hippieess from California, so maybe that does check out. But to me, he is the most insecure
all always knowing what people say about him. He does things to get them to say things about him, and then he plays like was everybody like I don't get it, Like, no, weird, do you know what you're doing? You idiot? Like I can't stand him. So again, I'm just letting you know I'm anti Vikings. If he's the quarterbacks, I wouldn't. I wouldn't factor in. I wouldn't I wouldn't completely factor out him. Joining if something happens and McCarthy isn't, isn't the guy.
But I am a staunch JJ McCarthy believer. I thought that he was a second best yer have. I will say, if it works out, I will be able to vouch that you were a Day one guy that believed that he was the guy they should have drafted. And you believe he is the guy that even when, even when what's his name Darnold was lighting it up and looked like he was an MVP candidate, you still believe that the next year should be McCarthy was always it was always mcarthy.
It's always JJ. He was always j JJ to JJ is something I've always imagined. The kids won at every single level he's been at. I mean, I guess you could say that handoff merchant, the Jim Harball merchant, but Jim Harball is first of all, damn good coach. It's one in the NFL, and he's one in college football too.
Whatever whatever the video thing is last year, I don't really understand with the whole cheating thing, but like JJ McCarthy was the quarterback of the best Michigan team that they probably ever had, and.
I think it. I think Harball is a phenomenal coach.
I think I think the Charters are gonna be good this year. And I don't really love Justin Herbert, but I think that they're going the way that he runs a football team. JJ, Jim Harbaugh is is one heck of a coach. He is and everything just kind of tailed off with him.
And and he was always a better fit in the NFL than in college. But he just wanted to go to Michigan and you know, he might have had to cheat to do it, but he got them the championship and he was out and I think he'll and he was.
Look when he walked away from the NFL, or maybe the Niners walked away from him, he could have at any point, since he no longer was the coach of the Niners, Harball could have worked in the NFL at any point, absolutely, for any for not I shouldn't see any team, but there's always would have been a team every year that would have hired him because he's he's proven to be that good of a coach and to.
Put to put a bow on the Vikings talk here like Kevin one school baby.
That's right.
Kevin O'Connell is one heck of a coach too. He's obviously a Coach of the Year last year, and I've seen him win with I've seen him win with Josh Dobbs for three weeks.
So when he jilt out to Josh Dobbs, I forgot about that pastronaut man. He went from being a guy that was just lucky to be on a practice squad at every team in the league seemingly, to then being implemented as the guy for the Vikings and they were winning. And then now he's back to where he.
Was, Isn't he like? Is he He's just bouncing around and he's he's back to being a journeyman. He had a fun three weeks. You can't convince me that that era was real, but it was. I remember they were talking about that what the Falcons game. He had just got off the plane, hadn't even met any of his teammates, and Kevin O'Connell's in his headset saying, okay, this is how the players are run He's literally telling him what to do, and that give me a lot of respect.
Like he picked up the sticks at PlayStation and just started dialing it up. I mean it was get the tutorials. Yeah, I don't care. I don't care. I'll learn on the fly. Yeah, And it worked out for at least a little while. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side. Keep this thing rolling along. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Now back to coffee and Company. Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day.
I could be wrong, but I feel like in the next uh, in the next couple weeks, maybe not even that long, we're going to find out if there's real momentum or if there's real pushback in regards to this affiliation agreement that the power for conferences are working towards getting everybody to sign. So this was big news yesterday as the NAA's president, Charlie Baker confirmed that they are
conceding enforcement. They are no longer going to, I guess, attempt to control what is and what is not allowed, because it's been pretty evident that in the court system, even when they do have good intentions and they're trying to just get things regulated, clean it up, they don't have any power. And I think again, as I've mentioned many times, the root of that is because they just never budge from their ancient, archaic amateurism model, and that's
why we're here. But you know that's in the past. And then, to be fair, Charlie Baker wasn't around then. I mean, he's new on the job, so what it sounds like. And just in the last couple of days talking to some people at u of L, the one thing that I guess a lot of people want, meaning these ads, and I suppose maybe some of the presidents, is that we just want people to agree to follow rules and not threaten to sue, because everybody's aware that
that's going to be a loophole. That you can either sue and get what you want to bypass rules, or
you can do that in by time. And what really hit me in the last twenty four hours is I've kind of just one did a little more looking into this situation, and really I'm following along with Ross Dellinger because he's just been phenomenal his coverage and he's been the go to guy when it comes to this entire situation, and really the house be NCAA settlement and all that, so you're just gonna you needing everybody on the same
page doesn't seem like such a tall task. But I think there are some schools that realize, despite it being completely unregulated at times and it not even being clear what is and what is not against the rules, they've benefited from this, they've been in a better situation than they've been previously. And for them to just say, yeah, we'll agree to it because that's what everybody else wants, I don't think that's gonna be as easy. Now. What
it comes down to is this game of chicken. What can you actually do to a school who refuses to sign. It came out on Monday night that there would be punishment so severe that you could be booted from your league. I don't know if you can and can't do that, but that, to me would be the ultimate leverage to say like it or not if you want to keep benefiting from being in this league, meaning the annual check that you get from being in the sec of the Big ten, or even the ACC for that matter, Big
twelve two you can't fight that. I mean, you can't risk being booted. I mean there's only one, maybe two, maybe three, certainly one for sure. The other two would
be it wouldn't be worth risking it to see. But Notre Dame is the only university in the country that does not rely on a conference to pay the majority of their bills, even if you're in the have not portion of college sports, which I don't think the ACC and the Big Twelve are in the have nots, but they're certainly on the lower end compared to the Big
Ten in the SEC. But you need that annual check that you get that everybody gets because you're in a league in that league has a grant of rights deal and the ACC network, the SEC network, the Big Ten network, the Big Twelve is different because they have different partners
that collectively have their rights. But you know, you can't risk not having that, and there are certain con like I think Tennessee and the reason I mentioned them as an example is because I do feel like they've been pretty they've been pretty eager to fight anything in court, and they also to me seem like they've just been in a better situation as an athletics department in this new unregulated free for all. Maybe it's not because of the situation. Maybe it's more so just because they have
some competent coaches now. But you can look at Tennessee's success and also, at least to an extent, believe that some of it is due to the fact that they can now pay and it's legal. So if the SEC decided, all right, well you're out, Tennessee, couldn't let that happen. And honestly, the SEC, yeah, they benefit from having Tennessee,
but they'd be fine without them, right. So I think in the next couple of weeks, we're really gonna see if this is gaining momentum to actually happen to where we actually have some regulation, or if there's gonna be resistance, and then it just turns into a longer fight as far as what do you do to those who don't want to fall in line with everybody else and understand, we've got to get things cleaned up. There's got to be rules, it's gotta be guardrails for this because this
week the Big twelve. In fact, let me just double check here, this again is from Ross Ellinger. But the SEC and the Big twelve are meeting next week, whereas the Big ten has meetings this week, and school presidents are supposed to be a part of these meetings, and that's where this is going to be probably really looked into, and I think we'll get a better feel for the
likelihood of it happening now. The ACC just had their spring meetings last week and the presidents were not there, But according to Dellinger, the ACC presidents are going to meet independently this week, and I would imagine it's probably to discuss this exact thing and be shocked if we don't know in the next couple of weeks if this is either moving towards happening or there's going to be a fight. Nothing would really shock me, if I'm being honest with you, all Right, So this is something that
every year we take a look at. It's the annual college football coaching rankings from CBS, and they always give you the tiers of coach so that there's sixty eight power for programs. Now, so they'll give you rankings sixty eight through one, but not in one batch. What they've given us today is sixty eight through twenty six. The top twenty five will be unveiled probably tomorrow, I don't know. Maybe I don't know, maybe maybe next week. I don't
know when they're gonna do it. But Jeff Brohm is not in sixty eight through twenty six, which means he's in the top twenty five, which I believe he was there last year. So therefore there's probably you know, that's not really a surprise. I'm curious if he did jump up or maybe he stayed the same. But by the way, I'm actually looking at the entire list for the first time. I mean, did we upgrade or do we not upgrade? Because who could argue against this? Who could argue against
Scott Saderfield being number sixty out of sixty eight. I mean, I hate to bag on the guy, although I say that and then I continue to just at times go out of my way and bag on the guy. But it just worked out so perfectly. A lot of Louisville fans, understandably so, feel as if we've been dealta a tough hand over the years, with certain things like our basketball
program having scandals and you know all that. But I mean, Cincinnati paying Louisville to take Scott Saderfield off of our hands, so then that opened the door for Jeff Brohm to come home. I mean, I can't. I don't think I can ever look at Cincinnati's arrival. I can't do it. We are forever grateful for them now. I mean, I want to send him a Christmas card. I want to give Cunningham their ada kiss. I mean, nice little smooch,
I mean something. I mean, think about that. Well, let me tell you about that.
Let me tell you something. I was just thinking, because you're about to cut a probo on me.
Let me tell you something, brother, let me let me tell you something. Let me tell you something.
Nick Nico, at the beginning of the week a text her at text it in and asking what was some of your favorite moments from the show?
I have to say I.
Was a part of it because I was filling in that where they announced that it was what was still on in the morning. It was, yeah, six o'clock in the morning and big Will, Big Will cl.
I felt so bad, and I felt bad because I thought Will Clark got got Yeah. It was kind of awkward for the first because I didn't believe it. I used to believe him, but yeah, when they whenever, I mean, because it was so unexpected because think about it, at the time, we had just found that the two teams
were going to play each other in a Bowl game. Yeah, and Sat did enough to where he was gonna, you know, he was going to retain his job because there there honestly wasn't In my opinion, there really was not enough to fire him, like you just because you didn't know what you were going to get elsewhere. I think at the time you knew you could have you could have got Brahm, and I think that would have been the reason.
But it would have been hard for me to be super critical of Josh Hurd if he if he didn't like if he if he decided to retain Scott, and I guess technically he did, but he just didn't give Hi an extension. But even if he did' give him extension, it would be hard for me to to you know, I'd be disappointed, but it'd be hard for me to say this is a terrible decision. I mean, I kind of believe that it would, but I would also understand
his position and why he was doing that. But it to work out the that it did, where Josh, again, of all the things he's done as the ethotic director at Louisville. You know, I still believe that both things can be true. He's not the reason Jeff Brohm came here, but he also can't control that. That's not like a negative, it's just the facts. He also, you know, if another
ad was here, maybe it wouldn't have worked out. I really don't know, but hiring Pat Kelsey so far now looks like that was a great thing that Josh is gonna have on his resume. Let's hope it continues to
play out the way. And I also know that he wasn't the first choice, but either way, he hired Pat Kelsey away from Charleston and nobody else did, and clearly Louivill's benefiting from that, and he deserves a lot of credit because I think what he saw in Pat Kelsey other than just a good basketball coach, was he was going to be able to absolutely heal us in a
way that a lot of coaches couldn't. And we needed that, probably more than we knew at the time, because we probably thought we needed a big name to come in and just salvage the brand, when in reality, we needed somebody to like remind us, like what makes us love Louisville basketball, and he's clearly checking all those boxes. So when it comes to Joshua's things, he's done in the
position that really stand out to me. I still believe right now the best one is to not do what I think most athletic directors would have done, which is to give Scott an extension, because Jimmy Sexton's the most powerful agent in college football. Jimmy Sexton represents Scott Saderfield, and you know he was coming to herd saying, look, if you don't give him a new contract, how can
you recruit his coaches? They want security that their job's going to be there, and if the coach is entering his final year of his contract, they're going to bail. And actually that started to happen. He lost a couple of coaches because of that. So what did Saderfield do? You got to find me a new spot. I need a reset. I can't go into my last year here, especially with it being the first year I'm going to
be coaching without Malie Cunningham as my quarterback. So he found a sucker and that sucker was up seventy one at the University of Cincinnati, and I can't believe they did it. But they did it. And now two years in, Scott Saderfield is four and fourteen and the Big twelve.
And you know, his best season as a as a coach, not at apt State, was his first year at Louisville with if I may say, he deserves credit for getting those guys to believe and care and buy in and play hard because they were clearly in a bad way after that last year Bobby. But he did all that with Bobby's players, like that's just what happened. So he's not a bad guy. But man, it worked out beautifully. You couldn't have worked it out any better. And I
forever am thankful. But seeing Scott Cederville at number sixty on this list Austin, it just it stopped me in my tracks. If you can't tell, because man, you couldn't have scripted it better. Jeff Brohm's home. He's clearly a top twenty five coach. JB's our guy. He brings something here that no coach can because he's one of us.
We're getting quarterbacks drafted in the second round to be the face of the franchise.
You've gotten now. Emmy Award winning analyst Nick Saban. How about this the rich get richer. My guy's the best college football coach of all time. First year away from the game, steps in the broadcast booth wins an Emmy. But you've got him on draft night, just gassing up Jef Brawm's ability to develop quarterbacks and getting ready for the NFL. That's invaluable when it comes to the pr
you're getting from that. So anyways, I only brought this up to talk about Mark Stoops, but I'm looking at the whole list now and to see of the sixty eight coaches, Scott Satterfields at sixty, you really can't dispute that. And that was our guy that a lot of people tried to tell me, Oh, you're just You're just bitter. He he shut you out of his program, which he kind of did because I was very, very vocal about how I thought it was the weakest and lamest thing.
Ever when he cried about L's down at midfield, I mean like that that, you know, that got me out, and I was content with being out. So he was never good enough to be our coach. We could do a lot worse. We've had worse coaches. He wasn't awful. But people saying that like Louislle was gonna get to where we needed to be in football with him wasn't going to happen. The guy never won eight games in a regular season, and that's not that hard to do.
In fact, he could have easily won eight, like three times maybe had he not just you know, had the unthinkable game that you can't lose that you lost like Boston College. Hey, you might want to have somebody guard Zay Flowers buddy instead of having you know him, just carve you up. So anyways, this lit just for just the reason we brought it up is because I wanted to talk about Mark stoops is now at number thirty six. His high his high was at twenty four. Kind of
way too high. Yeah, so let's see, Well that doesn't make any sense. It says in twenty twenty four his rank was twenty, but it says his high was twenty four, his low was fifty eight. I don't I don't understand what that means. If you're high, if your high was twenty four, how could you be ranked twentieth last year? Either way, he used to come up in these rankings
and it would blow me away. Because one, I guess maybe there's the rivalry component of it, but also, you know, you got to look at it from like like Mark Stoops really doesn't have any monumental accomplishment that would warrant attention as far as being a really good football coach
other than one thing. Kentucky didn't suck when he was their coach for a good stretch of what four or five years, maybe longer than that, So he was always propped up as a guy who was just believed to be a really good coach because he wasn't winning at a really high level at Kentucky. But Kentucky had never really been any good and then they had some sustained success. He went to I think it's lame they include this, but he went to He went to a bowl game
from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty three. Now, one of those bowl games was a year where they went what was it five, and they were four and six in the regular season, and that was the year, the COVID year they only played SEC teams. So I mean that game, you know, I guess that still counts, but like you didn't, you know, you have to be at least five hundred to get to become Bowl eligible. They weren't that, but because it was the whatever year, they got to play
in a bowl game. So either way, like him winning ten games there, that's insane, But also it's it's insane because it's Kentucky more than it is just insane because you know, ten win teams that happen very often in the SEC for teams like Kentucky. So I don't bring all this up to say, Hahi, your coach stinks, because
I don't. I don't know if I believe that. But anybody who truly was gonna make the case that Mark Stoops was ever a top twenty five college football coach, they would only be able to make said case by dumping on the UK football program and acknowledging that, yeah, he really isn't. I mean he's he's twenty eight and sixty two in league play. But you know what, other coaches would be worse, and this guy's got Kentucky respectable to where they're oftentimes finishing just below five hundred in
league play. I mean three and five. I mean he was mister three and five for a lot of years, and look, to be fair, sometimes they would lose to teams that you know, a lot of teams would lose to because they play a great conference. But I feel like where he's at right now, at number thirty six, is way more realistic since twenty sixteen or whatever it was when he started going to bowl games, the notion that he was ever viewed as a top twenty coach or top twenty five it was it was really, honestly
like a backhanded compliment at Kentucky. I feel like, if that makes sense, because you couldn't make you can't. You can't really grasp any specific thing that was done that's like, wow, I mean, how about this? It was more so wow. I can't believe Kentucky doesn't stink anymore. I mean again, I'm I'm sure I'm going overboard here. And I do know that with Kentucky there's been the belief for a while that, well, you know, he's better than we've had.
We should be thankful. But I think they're over that. I think they realize now within il and with honestly, to a credit to Stoops, he has shown that you can win there more than anybody else has been able to show consistently to where if you get a young coach that's you know, that's going to utilize the resources Kentucky has. I mean, maybe they'll be humbled and realize twenty years from now they had it way better than
they realized with Stoops. But I think one it's a new world to where you can utilize in IL and because players transfer all the time, you can take advantage of that like you can now you don't have to go recruit top twenty classes to compete in the SEC. If you crush it in the portal, that closes the
gap a little bit, and that's a big factor. But also if a coach does come in after Stoops, whenever that may be, and has a lot of success, Stoops will be deserving of a lot of that credit, I think because he's the first coach in my lifetime that showed that, you know, they can at least be better than they were for a good chunk of their existence. So anyways, we'll take a look. Actually, let's do this.
Let's finish up the four o'clock hour looking at the rest of this list, because some coaches on here, like I don't understand why they're ranked as low as they are or as high as they are. But we'll get to that in a lot more. Keep it lock right here on SportsTalk seven ninety now.
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So I found last year's top twenty five. This is the annual college football Power Conference coach rankings from CBS. It's a lot of words. It's words salad there, but CBS every year will rank the Power five coaches Power four now and today they put out twenty six through sixty whatever it is. I think it's sixty eight, and Mark Stoops has fallen from twenty which he was last year to now being at at number thirty thirty sixty six. Yeah,
so you know, sixteen spots down. I don't like. I think thirty six is probably you know, I think that's I think that's fair him being number twenty. I still don't understand how they got there. But let me let me throw this out there. I believe A and M being as interested in him as they as they were seemingly ready to pull the trigger and hire him until they had some reflection and had other folks that said, yeah,
we're not we're not down with that. That probably made him look good, right, It probably made Stoops look good, and last year, you know, he didn't look good at all. So that's why he's had such a big fault. Brom last year was nineteenth. That comes off of a ten and two season where they made it to the ACC Championship Game. I don't know if I'm gonna guess that he will be be ranked better than nineteenth, or if maybe he's going to be right at nineteen, or maybe
he's because he's clearly somewhere between. He's in the top twenty five, or he would have been listed in twenty six through the sixties, So I'm gonna guess he's right where he was.
Yeah, I'm gonna say I'm probably gonna either say I don't think it's gonna be better than nineteen. I think it's gonna be in the range from nineteen to twenty one. Yeah, twenty two.
If you were gonna make the case that he falls a little bit, you could just claim that maybe other coaches did more to jump ahead of him, and also that you know, you went from being ten and two to eight and four, but also you know, winning and losing is ultimately how coaches are judged. But last year Louisville did go on the road and beat Clemson, something still is a rare thing to happen, despite Clemson not
being what they were during their their heyday. Although a lot of people think they're gonna be one of the best teams in the country next year. We'll see. But they also lost to Notre Dame at Notre Dame in a game that don't even get me started. So many self inflicted wounds that one of those things, one of those one of those bad plays that was all your own fault and not Notre Dame's credit. Had one of those things not happened, you might have been able to win.
It's what a could should have. But still, and I think brom showing what he can do is shocked, probably made people more reminded that he's a good coach and certainly a good coach when it comes to quarterbacks. So I'm going to guess that he's probably between nineteen and twenty one. Isn't that what you said austin nineteen twenty one.
Yeah, I say I'm gonna get myself some grace and say twenty two.
But if he's eighteenth, I'm also not going to be shocked because again, like I think last year, you know, Jeff's not perfect by any means, and the loss to what I mean, hell, the loss to I mean, he's perfect to me, but you know, there you go. We got to be We got at least act like rejective objective to an extent, but with Jeff, like you know, the game against Stanford, like that's an old time where
like how the hell does that happen? So and then SMU beats you and at the time we didn't realize SMU was going to be as good as they ended up being. But also like, if you don't spot them fourteen points seemingly within the first fifteen seconds of the game, might have been a different outcome. And then Miami gotcha. But they were just good and you were right there competing with them. So again, here I am trying to
shine up an eight and ball record. But nonetheless, I would guess that he's probably between nineteen and twenty one. But if they do in fact have him up one, it might be because you know, Luke Fickle was at seventeen last year. I don't think Luke Fickle will jump up. I think he'll probably fall, right Kirk Ferentz, Yeah, wouldn't be shocked if Kirk Ferenz, who was at eighteen last year, he drops a little bit. I mean Dave Doran last year was at number sixteen and he was ahead of Brom.
Dave Doran this year is now sitting at number thirty one. So there's been a lot of moving in this list. And you know, we'll see where Jeff Fin's up. But guys that were in the top, let's see like a big jump here, like Sataki that he say his name of the Byu, I mean he made a big jump this year for obvious reasons. B Yu was really good last year. So what I think is a little surprising is that Dion Sanders is at number thirty three. Last year he was at number sixty one. They did get
a lot better last year. I think thirty three for Dion is is understandable. I don't know if I agree that I would put him there, but to be fair, they did make a big jump last year. But there's still so much flash and not enough substance with Dion Sanders as a head coach, and that's not really his fault, that's really a credit to him, but like as a head coach, and I know people can bring up Jackson State, but Dion, and this is not a fault of his,
it's a credit to him. He used what comes with being prime deon Sanders to get guys to come to Jackson State, which you know, that's a credit to him, and that's why they were able to be so successful at that level. But Dion in two years as a Power five, Power four head coach, I mean, his record total is thirteen and twelve overall, eight and ten in conference play. And if anybody else has those results at a place like Colorado, they're not in the top fifty. I mean they're probably not.
Right.
So anyways, some other surprises here in the updated list, a big drop off from In fact, this may tell you they may do this towards the end when they actually have all of the rankings together. But I'm just trying to see if in this right up here at CBS Sports, do they actually have the biggest climbers in
the biggest fallers. But the last place coach is Jeff Levy, who is the head coach a Mississippi State, which look he did inherit a team that went wentless last year and is not expected to be much better so I guess you could only go up from there. Of the bottom. Let's see, of the bottom. Let's see, so fifty through sixty eight, that's the eighteenth worst coaches according to these rankings. You've got one, two, three, four, five, six of them
from sorry, seven of them from the ACC. Stanford's Frank Wright is I didn't even realize he was the coach at Stanford, but he is. He's at sixty seven. Tony Elliott Virginia is at sixty five, Brent Pry is at sixty three for Virginia Tech, and wake Forest hired Jack Dickert because they're head coach. Jack Dickart Clawson retired, so Dickert is at fifty six. Justin Wilcox at Cal is
at fifty five. They got Belichick at fifty four. I don't really have a problem with that, given the fact that he's, you know, he's never coached in college and he probably won't. Yeah, and he wouldn't be a shocker if they stink. And then at fifty Bill O'Brien Boston College.
So there you go. We'll see where I would say the biggest surprise, like the biggest, the biggest shocker that will have probably a fan base and maybe a lot of college football heads just in tow disbelief is that they have Hugh Freeze at forty seven, which I mean, I kind of get it, But you know, for so long, we've just heard that Hugh Freeze was great and that you know, he got a little horned up at Ole
Miss and got fired. And you know, he was never that great at Old Miss. He just happened to beat Alabama a few times, and there was always this belief that he wasn't able to coach because of the prostitute situation, and that was a factor. But also, like you know, he's now been at Auburn what two years or maybe one year. I think it's just one year, but either way, he's at number forty seven. All right, quick break, we'll come back. We've got the five o'clock hour coming your way,
and we'll try to finish strong. How about this. I forgot about this. I like this, don't It doesn't there's nothing. It doesn't doesn't impact me as a college football fan or a Louisville fan. But rich Rod being in West Virginia, I forgot they rehired him. I kind of like that. Our quick break five of clock guys, next right here on Sports Talk seven ninety