All right, let's get it started.
Good afternoon, Happy Friday, and welcome in coffee and company fuel. Beth Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety A beautiful Friday afternoon as we get you set for the holiday weekend, and really I feel like we're going to get you set for the summer as well. This weekend always feels
like these summer officially starts. I'm not sure if we're going to feel that with the weather, but hey, it's beautiful outside, a little cooler than what probably most folks would prefer, unless you know, maybe you're outside because you have to be outdoors for your job. If so, I'm not sure you could get a much more beautiful and
pleasant day. But uh yeah, we got holiday weekend, and I'll tell you what, as we get this thing started, I'm not sure I have ever been in here at three o'clock on a on a I mean, any day. I was gonna say Friday, but it is a ghost town here at our studios, which that's okay. I mean, I'm not surprised a lot of folks get out pretty early when you've got the long holiday weekend coming up. So as I made my way around the building once I got here about thirty minutes ago.
I mean there's probably I think it's me.
It's big Time Carl Bln and who's producing this afternoon, Gus Allen, who's producing for Terry Miners, And I think that might be it. Maybe one other person, maybe two other people, but if they're here, I didn't see them, so but that's okay. We'll take you up till six o'clocks. Mentioned get you set for the weekend. A lot to get into today, and you can take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeart Radio app.
Also listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. There'll be plenty of ways for you guys to participate in the show today. Be a part of it if you'd like, and I'll let you know how you can do that coming up here in just a moment. But I'm going to the Bats game that I'm excited. And I mentioned the weather not being maybe as warm as as everyone as a lot of people would. Oh, I guess what. I'm talking to people who are going to the lake this weekend. I'm talking to people who are going to
want to be around a pool. I feel like there's a lot of folks that this is the weekend annually where they just make sure that they have the poll open by then. I mean, you can still enjoy your pool all summer without it being opened this weekend, but I feel like it's the target date for a lot of folks. So if that's you know, if you want to be around water, you want to be in water,
You're probably gonna be pretty chilly this weekend. But again, the bat's played tonight, which of course you'll hear that game right here on Sports Talk seven ninety, but should be a good night. I've got a hoodie on, no shorts. I'm gonna make sure when my wife meets meets us there at at the ballpark that the kids are not
bundled up. I mean, I don't want to be dramatic, but I mean it's when the sun goes down and it's breezy like it has been today, it's going to be kind of chilly, but should be a good evening. And again I'm looking forward to the big holiday weekend, and this is the fifth after today, there'll be just four shows left for me here on Sports Talk seven ninety, and I don't want to drag that out. I'm sure I've probably made it a bigger talking point than a
lot of people probably would prefer. But I also want to make sure that whenever this isn't here meaning coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety, when it is no more, starting June second, that you at least know where I'm at. You know, I didn't I didn't leave town.
I didn't. I didn't. You know I didn't quit. I didn't get fired.
I guess I could somehow get myself fired from now until then, I hope that doesn't happen. But I'm just going to be moving up your radio dial a lot earlier in the day. In fact, it'll be middle of the night morning, depending upon how you want to look at it. So I'm going to be taking over Tony Cruz, who will be retiring. His last show will be Friday, a week from today, and then June second, that's whenever
a new world starts for me. And I was talking to Carl before the show started, and I mean, I'm telling myself next week, meaning the week before it becomes official, I need to I'm going to start getting up as if I'm needing to be on the air at five am, hoping that by the time we get to June second,
I'll be a little bit more prepared. But I've also kind of thought to myself, well, why not just take advantage of like the days I still have left to sleep in, Because I've talked to Tony Cruz others that have been a part of the morning show in some former fashion over the years, and you really never get
used to it. And then some tell me that they lose the ability to sleep in because after many years of just being programmed Monday through Friday to get up at probably three point thirty or maybe four o'clock at the latest, it just kind of becomes routine. And I mean, I'm hopeful you can go back to sleep after you wake up, but still you want to, you know, sleeping in For me, the best case scenario for sleeping in, which I don't often sleep in.
I mean, I.
Guess sleep until eight o'clock will be considered sleeping in moving forward in my new life. But usually you want to sleep in unbothered. You don't wake up, you just realize, hey, I got a few extra hours of sleep, more so than what I'm used to and I'm feeling refreshed. I hope I can still have that once I make this, make this transition. But the only person who has told me that they you know that told me two things
that and I believe both. It never gets easy. You get used to it, but it's never easy to just realize, hey, it's three o'clock or three thirty or maybe even four o'clock and you got to get up and you got to start your day. That's really early. But also you know, you, you know, will you be able to sleep in? I don't sleep in now, even as someone who doesn't.
Get up that early.
But Paul Rodgers, of course, the legendary voice of the Cards when he was doing the sports for Kentucky and his morning news for many, many many years. I mean, he was the sports anchor for Kentucky and his morning news for a long long time before I guess it was around twenty twenty when that came to an end.
But he told me he never had any problem at any point sleeping in when he wanted to, which I'm hopeful that I can follow in that path because it would be nice to because really it's it's the mental component, right, like sometimes even if even if you know you don't have to get up early, but you probably will still wake up early. That's a much different evening than knowing, hey, now I got it.
It's like a chore. It's a job. You gotta lay.
Down and try your best to fall asleep because you got to get up before too long.
Just the mental component of knowing.
Hey, if I wake up early, cool, I can just roll over and try to go back to bed. That's a better mindset, I guess than having the well I better get to sleep, because three point thirty three, forty five, whatever it is, it's gonna come, it's gonna come early. So again, after today, there'll be four more shows because we're out on Monday for the holidays. So gonna make next week a fun week at least I'm gonna try my best to do that, and then of course we'll
have some fun today. As mentioned, we're gonna take you up until six o'clock, and if you guys want to join us on the show, we will open up the phone lines coming up here after the first segment. You can give us a call five O two five seven one seventy nine hundred. You can also text in on the L and N Federal Credit Union Tech Line five HO two four three eight ninety seventy three. There's a lot we can get into today. In fact, I probably have more prepared today to run through than I have
in quite some time. It just kind of worked out that way with the recent change to the College Football Playoff, meaning they're no longer going to give buys to those who win the conference championship. They're just going to seed it one through twelve. That'll be this upcoming season. That's
the way that it should be. And we have two completely different I guess ways to react to this from those who feel like, because let's be real, if you're in the Big Twelve, like Arizona State last year, you know you were not somebody that was probably worthy of a top four seed and a bye, but you got it because you win your league. Same thing for Boise State. Boise State last year ended up being I guess the highest ranked conference champion. They were ranked higher than the
AC champ therefore they got they got that spot. So Boise State they're boohooin as if they're against it. Whereas the Big Twelve commissioner, Brett Yormack, he came out and said something that I'll give him credit because I'm going to just assume that he's being genuine. He's not, you know, just given us lip service here. But he said today might not have This was his comment from yesterday's news. He said that, and I'm paraphrasing here. I wish I had the quote directly in front of him, in front
of him, but I don't. But he said, today may not have been a great day for the Big Twelve, but it's a great day for the future of college football and the playoffs something along those lines, which I think that's actually a good way to look at it, because I mean, you could lie to everybody and act as if you, as a Big Twelve champ are annually always going to be worthy of a top four seed
and a bye, but that's realistically not the case. I mean, Kansas State and all these early rankings for next season or I guess the upcoming season, I should say for college football, Kansas State is the highest ranked team I've seen, and they're borderline twenty. So as much as I bag on the ACC in needing to be better and mostly basketball, but football certainly is behind the Big Ten in the SEC.
But it also seems as if right now, like if the teams going into this season end up being as good as we believe they are, the Clemsons, the Miamis, the Louisville's, the SMUs, then I think the ACC should be firmly at number three. And then you know, you hope that there's the occasional year where maybe you can be competing better with the big dogs like the SEC in the Big Ten. I just think it's going to be tough to envision, given that those leagues now have
just so much depth. I mean, the SEC has already been a monster for so long, and then now they've added Texas and Oklahoma and the Big Ten. I mean, I think the Big Ten really got better with their additions more than the SEC did, because the Big Ten is Ohio State's conference. Penn State's been there, they've been consistent, they're really good. But Michigan had that run with Horrball, and we know what happened with that.
That was.
I mean, that was Connor Stallion's. It was his work really that put Michigan in a different situation than they were throughout the first however many years it was for Harrball before he finally broke through and made the playoff. So the Big ten again, it's it's Ohio State, Penn State's usually really good, Michigan usually pretty solid. And then outside of that, I mean Michigan State they had those random years where they were really really good, but that's
certainly been a long time since that happened. And then now you've got USC, UCLA, Oregon, Oregon, and Washington, which I mean, Oregon's a monster USC at any moment can be UCLA. I don't really know what the future holds for them. And then with Washington, clearly they took a step back when klen de Borr left, but you know, they're a program that's consistently been pretty good.
So anyways, this.
Move to re work the twelve seeded format where you don't give anybody any automatic bid, you just seed it one through twelve.
That's the right way to go about it.
But you've got one side of it, which is, you know, the Mountain West and I honestly don't even know is Boise going to the new PAC twelve that's going to call itself the PAC twelve, but clearly just be a different version of the Mountain West. Either way, we can get intoto that a little bit. Also, we talked about the college football coaching rankings that CBS Sports gave us
this week. They gave us one through sixty eight of the Power for Coaches This and I love list season off season rankings, summer stuff just because it gets me so excited for college football season. And it's a better scenario when you're able to get excited for the college football season and also see things about your team, your program that gets you even more excited. So, Jeff Brom being listed as the seventeenth best coach in college football,
that was awesome to see. Not super surprising, but certainly nice to see your head coach getting some love. But also Louisll's running back room. There is a ranking from I Believe It's Pro Football Focus that ranks the best running back groups within college football for this upcoming season and not a surprise, but where Louisville ranked was pretty high. And I mean that just seems dangerous right a Jeff Brom offense. Hopefully Miller Moss can step in and be
maybe not Tyler Shuck but something close to it. Fingers crossed. Will see if that ends up happening. But even if he can't you got some good running backs that can definitely help you move the ball down the field, which I feel like giving Jeff brom elite running backs like Isaac Brown and Duke Watson. I mean, I think that's like it's unfair, but I'll take it. Sticking with college football, the annual Athlon Sports Anonymous Quotes from Coaches is out.
I haven't seen the ACC, but the SEC has come out. I don't think they put out the ACC yet, but we'll tell you what anonymous coach has said about Kentucky football for this upcoming season. It probably won't surprise you when you end up hearing it. So we can certainly get into that, and also coming up a little later on Mark Pope was with the KSR crew this week at some point. I don't believe it was a live interview.
I think they ended up going and recording it and then kind of just sharing it on KSR in chunks. But hearing Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelcey will just make It's just gonna make me give you a recycled take, which is that we can keep hoping and you know, believing that one day with these two coaches here within
the rivalry, Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey. We can hope that one day there'll be some real contentious animosity where they don't like each other, and maybe they're you know, they're they're at each other's throats because of, you know, being a rivalry and something is transpired to where they don't like each other, somebody did something that made the other one feel a certain way, like maybe that ends
up happening. Who knows, Only time will tell. But hearing Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelcey just confirms what I believe, which is that it's if you're at this point anybody talking about it being like a rivalry within those two, it's just a force. Now again, fans make a rivalry and that's all that matters. We're always going to be going at each other and that's what makes sports great.
But when I hear Mark Pope talk about Pat Kelsey, when I hear Pat Kelsey talk about Mark Pope, I do think there's a level of genuine respect among each other and that they it'd be a real force if they had to speak sideways about one another. Also, I kind of forgot this was even a thing, but the iu UK basketball series back on, I guess we now have the official date for when Indiana is going to go into Rup and play And this is the way, Like this just seems it's like a really good offseason
thus far in college basketball around here. When it comes to getting games on the schedule that should be played. Louisville obviously we know that. You know, they're going to play Indiana. That's been in the works I think for a while. But they're also now going to play Cincinnati in Memphis this year.
That's just the way it should be.
And with Kentucky, they played Indiana for a long time and then obviously Cal went to Bloomington and lost and cried and talked about how the atmosphere was too dangerous for his players, and you know he boohooed. And to be fair, Kentucky doesn't really need Indiana on the schedule because Indiana, to be fair, is not been really pulling their weight when it comes to the college basketball you know,
blue blood status in quite some time. I mean Indiana, I always defend him, and I do think all it takes is a good coach and they'll be one of the best programs in the country. Now, does that equate to Final Fours? In titles. That's much different conversation. But if Darien Devrees is as good of a coach as I think he is, Indiana should be really good.
Because they've got all the resources.
All it takes is somebody to, you know, get it done, and they've just really since Bob Knight. They hired one coach who I think was really good, and then he got caught at the time doing something that was considered illegal by NCAA bylaws and that changed a lot of things. That was Kelvin Sampson. Tom Creane was fine, but they never broke through and he had too many seasons where
they should have been better than they were. But now that this series is back on between Indiana and Kentucky, that's just.
Good for college basketball. These are like these are the.
Kind of games that can only help when it comes to attendance in viewership issues that we've seen in college basketball prior to March Madness. I don't know if you're
going to see sellout crowds for these games. Maybe you will, but long ago, there should have been a real push to say, look, let's stop playing Long Beach State and Montana Tech on a random November or December evening, Let's actually go out here and schedule games that fans want to see, because that will do what It'll get people more inclined to say, you know, I want to be there. That's going to be a good atmosphere, that's going to
be a good game. And you're always going to have the games against the teams that a lot of people don't know much about or maybe you have never even heard of. But reducing as many of those as possible can only help you, because one, it's good for the fans, but also you'll be more battle tested. And yeah, you might take some losses, but I think we've learned recently with the NAA Committee, you beating nobody's by thirty doesn't
do anything for you. If you lose to a decent team or a good team, that's still probably going to be a means a loss. It still counts as an l But I think we've seen recently with the committee that they don't really hold that against you if you're actually playing really good teams. And then, of course, how could I not mention this in our first segment. We've
got Game two of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight. Hope full that my Pacers can carry momentum into this one, because man, they're riding some momentum after that come from behind victory just a couple of nights ago still doesn't seem real. But it was real and it was awesome, And if they get this thing, if they win tonight, it's a sweep.
I believe that.
I mean, the Pacers clearly can be beat They're not perfect,
and the Knicks they're a good team. They were the better team in that game just a couple of nights ago, for what ninety eight percent of it maybe, So I'm not trying to get ahead of myself and get too confident here, but I think if the Knicks end up leaving Madison Square Garden to head to Indy for Game three in Game four and they don't have a win to show for their first two games, having home court advantage, I think they're just going to crawl in there and get beat.
Down in Indie. Again.
I could be wrong, trust me, I'm wrong often. We've been on the air twenty minutes. I've probably been wrong multiple times since we started the show. So I'm not guaranteeing anything. I just think if they win tonight, which again easier said than done. I think it'll be hard to envision New York rallying and being able to keep this thing a series, but we shall see. So also, one last thing, I want to make sure and mention that we get that make sure and mention because I
don't want to get to it later. I think today was a big day for those of you that will work in college athletics that worry about sort of what this new revenue sharing world will do for you. We've got one school, a power school by the way, a school from the SEC that has already started laying off staffers and they're claiming it is due to the revenue sharing that is coming. So there's already been so much change in college sports in the last three four years.
I say it all the time because it's you know, we're a college market. We talk about college sports here more than we talk about anything, and it is a different world now compared to what it was just a few years ago. But once you start having that annual twenty plus million dollar bill that you have because you've got to sheer revenue now, I mean it changes things. So again, we're loaded today. If you guys want to join us on the show, you can again the text line.
It's the L and N Federal Credit Union text line five O two four three eight ninety seventy three. And if you want to give us a call, you can do that too, five O two five seven one seventy nine hundred. It's Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety all right, three twenty eight here on a Friday afternoon, it is coffee and Company, and we are fueled by Thornton's. The last place I was prior to walking in here to our iHeart Studios
at four Street Live was Thornton's. Stopped in at the location right there off for Fern Valley Road on sixty five. Got myself what I typically need before the show, which is an energy drink, and you can still get three.
Monster Energy drinks.
I go with the white, but there's all kinds of different flavors, and I've actually not tried many other than like maybe two or three.
I don't know.
Maybe if I'm mix it up, I may realize that there's other flavors that I like, but I just stick with what I know. But anyways, whatever you like, if you like them, you can get three of them for seven bucks. That is not just a deal. That's a steal. You put in your phone number at checkout, or you scan your Refreshing Awards membership card and you'll save. And this is one of those things that I just keep thinking, there's no way they're gonna keep this around forever, right
because I mean it's a steal. So again, we were probably feel about Thornton's. If you haven't sign up yet to become a member of the Refreshing Awards program, you can. All you got to do is down all the app on your Android, your iPhone and you will.
Be good to go.
All right, So the Pacers in the Knicks will take We'll get it started tonight in game two. I'm gonna do a little I know yesterday I believe it was Pacers plus five and a half. They were underdogs, and I'm certain they still are. But let's see if there's been any change here in the spread. It wouldn't shock me if there hasn't, and there has been, but it's actually more so in favor of the Knicks. So now you've got Nick's. Mine is six, so the Pacers six
point dogs. I don't think I'm going to touch this one. But I'm also not going to be surprised at all if the Pacers win this thing outright, because even if you didn't have the situation that you had on Wednesday night, which was just i mean, one of the best comebacks you'll ever see in the NBA playoffs ever, which you got to wonder if maybe maybe it didn't even seem as crazy because the Pacers had done it two other
times in this postseason. Now again it wasn't quite a comeback, and against the Bucks or the Cavs like they were, I mean again, they would have four, they would have fourteen points with less than three minutes left and came back in one, which is just crazy to say. But Tyre's Halliburton. He has absolutely been the clutch player.
Now.
Aaron Nesmith is the reason. Halliburton was in the position to hit the big shot to at the time seemingly end it. But then we learned his foots on the line and obviously he you know, he only got two.
Therefore they went to overtime in one.
But Aaron Nesmith was in I'm not sure if he'll I mean, he may end up having a really good career the rest of the way.
Which he probably will. He's a good player.
But what he did in the fourth quarter against the Knicks on Wednesday, I mean, you won't see that.
Maybe ever.
I mean, again, this sounds like hyperbole, This sounds like recency bias, sounds like a Homer Pacers fan, which I am. But the only other time that that has happened in the postseason, And I know I said this many times yesterday, but this just this is so crazy. Why not say it once again? But the only other player that did what Aaron Nei Smith that did on Wednesday was Reggie Miller, and he did it against the Knicks in nineteen ninety
four in the Garden. The only two players in league history to have twenty plus points and five plus three pointers in the fourth quarter of a playoff game on an opponent's home court. So credit to Nei Smith. But again, Haliburton has really just been the clutch player, and I felt it when he had the ball late with that chance to either tie or potentially when I mean, I had confidence that I don't typically have. I'm a pessimist
by nature, That's just how I am. But currently Halliburton is an elite company because when it comes to the most game tying or go ahead field goals made in the playoffs. Lebron James has eight, which is the lead. Nobody has more than eight. Reggie Miller has five, Halliburton has four, Kobe Bryant has four, and this is random as hell. Chris Middleton has four, which I don't. I mean, I remember Chris Middleton, of course for his role in the Bucks when they were in a much different spot
than they were in the last couple of years. But yeah, I would have never guessed it was Chris Middleton, but it is, so shout out to him, all right, So let's talk about the Let's see, let me make sure I'm given proper credit here. Yeah, it is Pro Football Focus.
They do a.
Lot of football content and a lot of analytics, as some would say, a lot of nerd driven content, but hey, I'm nerd out for it, especially when it's propping up the team I root for, which is Louisville. So they have given us their annual off season rankings for certain positions, and they now have the top ten running back rooms in the twenty twenty five season, and Louisville comes in at number four. I mean, you got to keep in mind, they've got Isaac Brown and Duke Watson who were phenomenal
last year as true freshman. I mean, Isaac Brown was one of the best freshmen in the country, was acc I don't know if they call it Freshman of the Year or Newcomer of the Year, whatever it is, but he was special and you could tell Lee as you got closer to the start of the season. I think they wanted to kind of play it cool, as if maybe they didn't realize they had something super special with Isaac Brown, but it was really hard for them to
do that. I think anytime you'd have a coach talking after practice, during fall camp or even during the summer, I mean I think they it would be hard for him not to. When talking about the personnel on offense, mentioned Isaac Brown as a guy that's just a little bit different, and he showed that early on. And then really it was a Notre Dame game up in South Bend where I feel like it really stood out that he was he was a special talent even though he's
a true freshman eighteen years old. He's a guy that's going to be a factor for you right away, and he was. And the Duke Watson if you remember, he didn't he didn't necessarily get a whole lot of action early on. But by the time this season was, this past season was winding down, it was you had you had two running backs that were really the core of your of your backfield, and they were both really good,
and again they were both true freshmen. Because Duke Watson, he ended up I'm pretty sure I can go back and double check this, but he ended up getting enough carries because of just the workload he was given in the last three to four games to where he did qualify as far as this stat most rushing yards per carry, and I'm pretty sure he led the country in yards per carry. And then Kewan Brown. There's not really any stats specifically that I can think of that make him
as good as I believe he is. And he's not proven quite like Isaac Brown or Duke Watson. But I've always felt like this kid's got a lot of potential. He's a really good athlete, strong, strong running back from Atlanta. I mean, he showed it against FCS opponents in the first couple of years, and then he's made some plays here and there. It's not like he's only done it against that caliber competition. But if he's your third back, I mean, I think that speaks to how talented you
are in your running back room. And I'd forgot that he initially hit the portal and it committed to Boise State.
I believe it was.
I guess he was going to be the potential replacement for their star running back who's now in the NFL. I don't know, I can't think of his name, but you know what I'm talking about, right, So, Kewan Brown being your third back again.
That speaks to just how loaded you are.
So the only other programs that have better running acts according to Pro Football Focused, You've got Texas at number one, Notre Dame at number two, and then Penn State at
number three. And I know that Louisville's receivers, you know, there's some that think that maybe that's a spot that they really are gonna, you know, gonna have a question mark there, which I don't know if that's the right way to describe it, because I think everybody realizes with Colin Lacy coming back, that's a pretty big deal.
I mean, he's a special player.
And I mean right at the time he decided to opt out and just salvage a year of eligibility. I mean that was right around the time we realized that we had something special. But to get him to stick around here, that's big time. And you even saw it in the bowl game. He was able to play in that Bowl game without it counting towards him burning a year of eligibility. And then I think Corey Bell or not Cory Bell, Chris Bell, I.
Think he's he.
I think it's safe to say his season last year was a breakout type season. So I like what they've got at receiver. But I know some people aren't as optimistic. But even if you do take a step back at the receiver spot, because you do, you're gonna miss you Cory Brooks obviously. But if you've got these if you've got a line that can that can, you know, do their part. You've got some ball carriers that can can absolutely help you sustain drives and help you put some
points on the board. All right, it's coffee and company. Phil about Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. If you guys want to give us a call, you can five oh two five seven seventy nine hundred is the number. You can also text in five h two four three eight ninety seventy three. All right, So this text came in right as the show had started, and it was a question surrounding.
The exhibition, the charity exhibition.
Games that college basketball programs have been playing I think for the.
Last few years.
And I the question is, you know, is there a scenario where Louisville could end up playing one of these big time exhibitions that fans can watch and get a sense. And I'm paraphrasing here. I don't have the text in front of me, but to answer your question, I don't know if Louisville has any right I mean, I don't think they have any right now that have been announced, and maybe they're working on some from behind the scenes.
But Kentucky, I know they're playing Georgetown that got announced earlier this week, where they're going to play them in an exhibition game. And I could be wrong, but I believe the format is this. It's not a real game, it doesn't count, but you can per you know, I think they I don't know if I don't remember if
they let fans come or not. But even when they don't let fans come, it'll be available for you to watch in some way, And I think money, like if you pay in some of these games, if you pay to like buy the stream to watch it, that money goes towards charity. So you get a chance to actually play a good team before your season starts. It doesn't
count against you if you lose. Also doesn't count towards you if you win, towards your resume if you win, but it gives you a chance to, I guess, kind of see where you stand before you actually get a season started. So yeah, I'm envious. I think a tucky. Also, maybe this is something I'm making up in my head, but I think, aren't they playing Perdue as well in one of these exhibition games?
Maybe I dream that.
I don't know, But either way, I would love for Louisville to have one of these games on the schedule. But as far as is it actually happening, I've got no clue, no clue at all all right, what I want to get to coming up here on the other side, the athletic they have put together it's really Stuart Mandel who does the bulk of the college football work for the athletic, and he has put together his top twenty five college programs of the two thousands, and I'll go
ahead and give you a spoiler alert. There's no local team here mentioned, but I do want to take a look at sort of how it came together. We're not going to break it down one through twenty five, but I feel like Louisville was probably maybe just on the outside looking in. Maybe I'm wrong here, but when I see teams twenty one through twenty five, I feel like Louisville had it not been for the Bobby year of completely just falling apart, had it not been for I guess maybe the Crag years.
And then I suppose, I mean, SAT.
Never had a bad, bad year, but you really were just you were stuck in no man's land where you weren't really good, but you also weren't terrible enough to fire a coach. So we can take a look at that. And uh, we got a lot more to get into, including something that makes me happy that we can talk about later.
The penny.
Yes, the penny, the actual you know, the the coin that people probably just throw away now is dead. The US Treasury has announced they're going to officially stop manufacturing the penny in twenty twenty six, and My question is this, who's upset about this? I mean, who wants pennies? It is wild to think about that pennies may eventually down the line, like when I'm really, really old, god willing, I make it to be very, very old, that like a penny is going to be a rare thing to fined.
But then again, there's so many of them, and nobody want like, nobody's keeping them as a I mean, nobody's keeping a penny any at any point. Now, hard for me to imagine it would be like a collector's item down the line, But I guess only time will tell us.
So stick with us again.
We'll take you up till six o'clock, getting you set for the holiday weekend. A lot of you seemingly have already started the holiday weekend, so cheers to you, but double take you up till six. Right here, it's coffee and company, feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, coffee and company, fuel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety, getting you set for the holiday weekend.
Appreciate you hanging out with us, and we now bring in a special guest from Racing Louisville as well as Louisville City FC. It is the one and only mister Jeff Milby. Jeff, how are we doing, brother Nick?
I am doing wonderfully, but not as wonderfully as I hear you were doing. I just wanted to be among the last to congratulate you on your move to the mothership over at News Radio eight forty. Whas really excited for you, man, what's cool news.
Thank you.
I really appreciate that. And I ask you, what's it like getting up that early regularly? Because I know you've done it before, and and you know, I've yet to have anybody tell me it was gonna be easy, and I'm sure you probably aren't gonna do that either.
No, I mean it's it's not easy, and especially for you because you are not a coffee drinker despite your name. Correct you in the coffee.
Yeah, though it might be.
I'd tell you when I was on that shift working that show with Tony Cruz, I don't know that I could have made it without some coffee. I mean, come, like Wednesday Thursday. You sleep in on the weekend, right, but Wednesday Thursday you start to feel it when that when that three thirty alarm alarm kicks in. So you know, my advice to you just live on the vibes of the show man, live on the vibes of the show.
And I tell you what the biggest challenge of that show is making sure that you have an extra set of clothes for Dwight Whitten when it comes in. And I'll come in without a shirt, and you just got to be ready for him. So you know, maybe pack pack an extra set shirt, shoes, some underwear form just in case, because you never know when he's gonna when he's gonna turn up.
That's a good point.
And and I think you and I are relatively close to the same aide. So you're telling me that when you were doing the S Show with Tony Cruz and getting up really really early, like I'm about to start, you were still able to, like the mental alarm clock would be off. On the weekends, you could actually sleep in a little bit without like just waking up automatically.
You know, Nick, I've never been a dude that just wakes up. I mean natural sleep in kind of person. Good. I didn't have a children right now, I would sleep into like noon every day. So for me, for me. It never reset, But boy oh boy, was it an adjustment. Those afternoon naps really hit. That's what I'll tell you after I get home from work. Those afternoon naps were really important, really much.
I'm gonna have to embrace the nap and also found the balance to where it's not where I sleep so long to where then I can't sleep at night because then it just turns into a really bad cycle.
But I'll adjustin.
I really do appreciate you your kind words there. I'm excited and gonna make the most of these last last five shows i've got here on seven ninety. Let's get an update on how things are going. We'll start with Racing lou before we get to Lose City.
How's the club been doing lately? I know they are.
They're on the road this weekend against Angel City FC, but they'll be back in action here as we get June started at Lynn Family Stadium.
Yeah, next home game opportunity for both teams is that's first weekend in June June sixth, June seventh, back to back nights of soccer Lynn Family Stadium, Racing on the Friday night, lou City on the Saturday night. But yeah, racing this weekend at Angel City. Where are they located? You might be asking, well, in the City of Angels, Los Angeles out in La California, Sunshine for racing this week and makes sense, right, some solid branding there from
Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney who owns that team. Look, it's another game, Nick, This NDWSO league is so there's a glut of teams in the middle. There are like two teams that have separated themselves, Kansas City, San Diego's up there now, Washington they're in that group that separated themselves. And there are two teams at the bottom Chicago and Utah.
But everybody else in the middle is a winnable game for racing Louisville right now, from second down to racing Louisville in eleventh place, only six points separate those teams from second to eleven, and six points is two wins, get three points for a win, So it is close. It is tight right now in the NWSL.
Is that typical?
Is that typical with the league for it to be that competitive that that you know you've got a lot of balance there.
Yeah, for sure, it is typical of the league, would say Nick. Last year was a little bit of an outlier because there were a couple of teams that ran away with it, namely Orlando who won the title. But this this is the league that operates on a salary cap, and it's a really strict salary cap. I mean, you talk about the NBA, there's a lot of conversation about second second apron teams and teams spending over the cap. Not the case in the NWSL, and everybody spends pretty
close to that cap limit. So there is a lot of talent spread across the league. There's a lot of parody spread across the league. Generally, year in and year out, it is a very competitive league from top to bottom. By design, that's what they want, right They don't want any team to feel like they're out of it in any given year. So that's the way the league typically is,
and it's an opportunity for Racing Louisville. They've got four games left before they shut down for a month for summer international tournaments like the European Championships and other big international tournaments for the national teams get together, kind of like the World Cup. They're going to pause the league for a month in the summer for that. So there's four games to go for Racing Louisville before that pause.
They've got angel City this weekend. They're in seventh place, Racing down in eleventh, so a gettable game and scene that's competing for that final playoff spot in eighth place. And then next week when they come or rather after this international break next week and they'll come home for that June sixth game, they take on Utah, who is one of those two teams in the bottom. They are
second from last in the league. So it is a very winnable game, maybe a should win game for Racing Louisll when they come back to Lynn Famley Stadium on June sixth. So an important time right now with these four games leading into that month long break in July for them to get some points, make some hay, get into that playoff picture before they go on that break, and then the second half of the season will start in August. We're calling it the down the stretch part
of the season. That'll be really when they make the difference for this playoff push. But an important crucial time right now to get some points in the bag, move up the standings before they take a little pause for a while.
Well, so the last month they had to draw against Portland, and then they got two wins with the win against Houston as well as Gotham FC, and then fell short recently to to Seattle Rain. What has been I guess a theme with this group in the last month or so as they start I feel like, when you get to this point in the season, you certainly developed an identity.
I would say, Yeah, that's exactly what I was gonna say, Nick. They have really honed in on what their identity is. You talked about those back to back wins. They'd be Houston on the road, then they come home and they have a win over Gossam in a nationally televised game on Amazon Prime. Is the team that's going to press, They're going to outwork the opposition. That's the idea of this team. They're going to run harder, run more, and work harder than the team that they're facing on the
other side of the field. And in many ways that was the case last week and that lost to Seattle. It's one of those frustrating games. I talk about soccer being a game where there can be flutes. If this were a football game, Racing would have out gained the up the opponent like four hundred yards to one fifty, but still somehow managed to lose the game. That's the
way the game went. They dominated possesion, They had over sixty percent possession, They had twenty shots, twelve corner kicks, and Seattle hardly had the ball on the other half of the field. But Seattle hit them on one fast break, one counter attack going the other way scored and Racing just couldn't break them down because after Seattle went up, they dropped everybody back and just sat outside of their box and said, here, Racing, you can have the ball.
See if you can break us down. We're gonna put all eleven players pretty much in the in the mouth the goal of the goal of the mouth of the goals that I'm trying to say, and they just couldn't
do it. It was just one of those unfortunate games. But still for a loss, a good performance and a performance you can take some positives out of and some confidence out of, and so they have an opportunity to take that confidence, maybe take a little a little edge after losing a game they felt like they should have won based on the performance and go out to California and get an important result against Angel City ten o'clock Saturday night. It's one for the late nighters, ten pm on nationally
televised game, you know, for the night owls. This might be your last opportunity neck to be a night owl before you have to start right. No, so this is your your Saturday night opportunity here is, you know, get a few cold ones on the couch, watch the game on I for one in the morning. That's right, watch a little footy.
I like it all right.
So with Louisville City FC, obviously they had the close one that they fell just short in the Open Cup against Minnesota United and then since then a couple of a couple of draws. What kind of momentum do we have here? Again, we're spoiled when it comes to Low CITYFC. They've just they just went a lot. We're just used to that. But since that that close loss to Minnesota United FC, sort of, where where do we go from here? You mentioned the next chance to see both these teams
will be next weekend. I'm sorry, once we get to June, so kind of I guess where they are as far as developing their identity again they win, But is it another year where we can expect and hope for a push in the postseason.
Yeah, look, I mean that's the standard for Louisville City, right. They are the winningest all time team in the USL Championship. They're the only team to win back to back titles in the history of the league in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, you know, with a nine consecutive Eastern Conference finals in the playoffs up until last year. This is a team
that perennially wins. And so for that reason, back to back ties with a loss in that three game stretch, a loss and then two ties kind of feels like a downward swing, right, three games without a win feels like a downward swing. Based on the standards of this team, we are absolutely, we absolutely are spoiled. Yes, but it's a team that's struggling with injuries right now, especially up top.
They're a little fin in the forward position. Uh, Philip Goodroom is healthy, but he's kind of battling a leg injury at the moment. And then Sam Glidal, the backup forward to him, is out for a little while right now with an injury as well. So it's injuries are playing a factor, and then there's travel. Last week they were at Hartford in Connecticut, all the way up in
New England. This week they're at Monterey Bay, which is in a place called Seaside, California in northern California, so a California trip, And the next week they're going to be in Virginia to face Loud and United. So they're criss crossing the country right now while they're a little bit beat up. So I think for for lou City, the mentality right now is just survived this little stretch.
Survived for the most try to avoid taking a loss, try to avoid having a few bad results in a row until you get your guys healthy, get your team healthy, and maybe get some reinforcements in the potential for a move in the works over the next week or so that you might keep your eyes peeled for if you're a Loose City fan, that would be a reinforcement in
that attack in the in the offensive end. But they're just trying to survive right now and get home on June seventh, where they'll face the Tampa Bay Rowdies, typically a great team that's been a rivalry in the last five six years. They met in the Eastern Conference final two years in a row. But Tampa Bay is down on their luck right now, they're down in last place.
We'll take advantage of just what the doctor, exactly.
What they're going to do. That's exactly what the doctor ordered. They perhaps will need it when they get home after this road trip that's coming up. On June seventh, LU City against the Tampa Bay Rowties at Lynn Family Stadium. A chance for Lucity to maybe knock a few in against their old rival of years past when they're kicking while they're down. Kind of game against your rival. So we'll see what happens. That's the mentality right now for LU Cities. Just survive right now.
Good stuff.
Jeff is always appreciate the time. Enjoy the holiday week in my man, and we'll talk next week.
Yes, sir, appreciate you that. Congrats again, man.
Thank you, take care. That's Jeff Milby from Racing Louisville and Louisville City FC. Always appreciate his time. Good vibes as always from our man, Jeff. So again, we'll be back.
Once we get June.
Once we get to June, you'll be able to get back out there to ll In Family Stadium and see both clubs, Racing Louisville and Low CITYFC.
All right, quick break.
We've got two more hours left before we get out of here for the weekend, so stick around right here on Sports Talk seven ninety