8.5: We're Rolling - Hour 3

But when I've been gone for a few days, let alone eight days, like we were just gone and then I returned to this lovely place that I call home, which I do love it here, wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Man a reminder of the watery eyes at all times. My throat's scratchy. I mean, I'm not getting sick, it's just it happens. I now know that when I come back, it's not me getting a bug or something.

It's just my body. I guess needing to adjust back to whatever the hell it's got to do to you know, get used to these allergies that end the humidity like it's really hot here. In fact, I think it was hotter here than it was in Destined last week. And didn't it rain like all week?

my phone to didn't see it. And it just, I don't know made it enjoyable.

and they were trying to. So it worked out perfect, and I now know, like if I ever just want like, because it's uncommon to not be attached to my phone for a variety for the for a good part of my day, because I mean, I can be a lot of people can be productive on their phone, right, Like, I'm sure depending on what kind of work you do, kind of career you have, Like you're probably using your phone for work a lot emails, you know, I mean,

you can do anything on your phone. To be honest with you, It's more powerful than any computer you'll have as far as the you know, the things they can do for you, and the convenience of you've been able to just put it in your pocket, so you know, to just have my phone away from me at all times, it just I would feel naked. I would I would feel like, you know, I need to call the cops or something. But having it, the ability to use it when needed but not be hit up with calls or

text messages from people. Not that that are that are bothering you, but like what, I'm a vacation. Even if I knew I was gonna look at somebody's text message and say, hey, you know, I'm on vacation this week. Let's get in touch next week. Hey I'm back in town next Sunday. We can talk. Then they would be understanding, okay, enjoy your vacation. But then in my mind, I'd be thinking about whatever it is I got to get done, whatever it is I need to do, or whatever POTENTI

you know, just things like that. So to have it completely off without anybody being able to like hit me up and distract me. It was.

like it should have taken place a week before. But I do like to react to some things that I miss out on, and I missed out on a lot last week. The TVT was not disappointed to miss out on that, to be honest with you, because of the result. And I asked the question like leading into that potential matchup, like, hey, we're clearly gonna want Louisville to win. Kentucky fans are gonna want like this, This is a rivalry matchup in an event that none of us ever would have thought

would be possible years ago. And then sure enough, this event, it becomes pretty popular and former Louisville players get together to have a team. Same thing with Kentucky, and I kind of felt like, hey, if they win, great, If they lose, yeah, who cares. These are guys who played here, you know, ten, nine, eight years ago. I mean, I want them to win, but like, I'm not gonna be experiencing that sadness that we all know when your team

loses in the NAA tournament, Like that sucks. I mean, I kind of wish I had that sadness recently because of how bad Lois's been. But you know what I mean, Like whenever the season ending loss happens and you know it's over, like it's sad. So with this I'm thinking, like, you know, I won't be that sad. I'll be able to get over it. And I did. But it hurt more than I thought. And it's because for me, just for myself only, I know a lot of these guys, you know all of them, but I know some of

them known pretty well. I care so much about that era of Louisville basketball gave me my first and maybe only national championship I'll ever see at Louisville, which who knows, maybe they win more, but it doesn't happen often, right, It's not something that you, you know, you can just expect to happen every so often every few years. No, Like I mean, it's hard to win national championships and anything. So you know, when I see those guys lose to

Kentucky players again, like it, it's sad. It pains me. I'm a fan, Like I hated it. I also feel bad for those guys who really had nothing to do with anything that went on in Minority Hall, and yet because of the you know, that story itself, and that NCAA investigation leading to Louisville having their banner vacated, all that kind of stuff. Like, I just hate knowing that there are people who don't know much about these guys individually. They only read the headlines. They only know that it

was all over ESPN because again it's salacious story. You've got prostitution in the dorm room with college athletes and recruits, like again, that happened. It's awful. So you know, to know that there are some people that will, oh, yeah, that twenty thirteen team, wasn't that the team that you know cheated with prostitutes and like that's nonsense, that's not a Louisville was good and most of these guys had

nothing to do with that. So you know, I just I wanted them to continue to keep winning in this event, and not that it would do anything to change their legacy, right because winning a national championship. I don't think he gets any better than that as far as how fans are going to remember a team in former players. But I wanted him to beat the law familiar team and they just they couldn't get it done. I mean, Eric BLEDSOE don't know how that guy's not in the NBA

right now. He's he's talented, and nothing made me feel older than hearing that he was in the NBA for fourteen years and has not played in the NBA in like two years.

don't have to, you know, be around UK fans. I'm in Destin, I'm on vacation, and the first person to come and speak to me at the pool in Destin the next day on Tuesday was a Kentucky fan letting me know not to let last night ruin my day because it's a beautiful day here and I've got a beautiful family. And I'm like, yeah, you know what, Like, you're right, it's kind of nice to just be able to come out here and not even think about it. Oh wait, you just walked up and reminded me at

nine thirty in the morning. Thanks buddy. I mean I say that jokingly. He was very nice and wasn't giving me a hard time, just just you know, just riven me a little bit about it. But again, that speaks to the rivalry. You know, this went from something that a lot of people didn't know much about until here we are, these two teams playing each other, shattering the record, all that kind of stuff, right, NBA players there watching

because you know, it's high level. And of course what happened after the fact, like when we play each other in basketball, even if it is a bunch of former players who hadn't played in a long time, mixed in with some other randos that did not play for the schools, if you've got that love, I mean, clearly there's the connection to both schools there and when it comes to

basketball and this rivalry, it's just different. If there's one thing that you know does make me happy to see, because I haven't had a whole lot of happy moments when watching Louisville basketball play Kentucky in a long time, is that there are levels to this, you know, hatred that I think does make people realize, Okay, Duke in Carolina great programs, two of the best ever, and they

are rivals and they've been super competitive. But I think sometimes when you see the dust up after the fact at Freedom Hall, the old Hawktua from Shinano Onawaku, and you see guys looking like they're going to fight each other, Like, again, what a good look from Nanu by any means, And I'm glad to see that you did apologize, But like the level of hatred's just different here, right, Like I don't want to say that Carolina and Duke fans are

too nice to each other, but it's just different. And I did see a lot of college basketball national guys last week saying like, hey man, like this is the most heated rivalry. Man, this is just different, and it is and I'm proud of that, but I wish Louiell, of course, you know, had more victories on their side.

And you know, in the last I don't know howver many years something on the text line earlier asked if that was sort of like the the ending of the cal dominance against Louisville, which though all those guys are clearly cow guys, so maybe you know, maybe that I don't know, maybe that, uh, that was it. And now we're gonna see, you know, Mark Pope put together teams. They're gonna be good, and I think more Pope's a

good coach. I don't know what kind of love. I don't know what level of success he's gonna have, but I have I believe he'll put together good teams and they'll have they'll have good players. But the days of just you know, looking out there and thinking, okay, they got a Willie Cauley Stein, feel really good about our guys, But man, like that guy's different. How about John Wall, Yeah, nobody's staying in front of him. I don't care who

you are. Like the days of having to worry about going up against those kind of teams I think are over. But they doesn't mean Louisville will start winning. I hope they, you know, not that I want more than for the for the rivalry to you know, be a little bit more balanced on the Louisville side. All right, it is Coffee and Company again. We're fueled by Thorton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you guys hanging out with

us as we take you up until six o'clock. So Jim Harbaugh was asked today following Chargers practice on the reported NCAA notice of allegations that Michigan is going to get which, of course, you know, he got out of there just in time, won a national championship. Quite clear that they cheated, and it was quite clear that when that cheating started, they got a lot better. But he got the hell out of town and did have to

worry about it. Pulled at old Pete Carroll, who of course did the same thing when he was at USC then went to Seattle. But Harbaugh's response was this quote today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those set allegation and those set allegations, so so for it's back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. What the hell is he talking about? That's so Jim Harbaugh. So what I think is wild is that this notice dellegations, by the way,

is not official, like they haven't. Like it's a draft and somehow somebody got their hands on the draft that the NCAA is about to send to a mission about to send to Michigan, and it does include their new head coach, Sharon Moore, former Louisville assistant, who apparently deleted a bunch of text messages between him and the you know, the guy who did it all, Connor Stallions, And you know, let's be real, that's not a great look that you're deleting a bunch of text messages before you turn over

your phone for an investigation. Or maybe he didn't turn over his phone. I'm not sure, but either way, when it comes to I think there's not a person out there that's not a Michigan fan that looks at this and says they did not cheat. They were elaborate like it was, and they weren't like if you remember how how brazen Connor Stallions was, Like somebody found his Venmo, and you can see him like buying in insane like

buying insane sets of tickets to games. Not because you know he's a high roller with a bunch of money. He's doing it because it's his job. They've been putting him, you know, in that position to go watch those games Steel signs and you know, it looked like it worked. So we'll never know, like did they become a top ten caliber team? Do they go from a top ten caliber team to a top three team because of something that we'll never know, Like just the actual advantage they

had is just impossible to know. But clearly they had an advantage and they cheated. And I think because it was so out in the open, everybody just said, well, Okay, I guess they know what's going on, and the NCAA is not doing anything, so I guess they got away with it. Well, now you have this Netflix documentary which is about to come out where they're talking to Stallions. I think it's going to be his first time ever being on record discussing any of this, and maybe it

maybe it made the incident a realize. Uh oh, we just crowned the national champion, and word is that in this documentary. He's not going to be super discreet about what he did. He's going to be pretty open about what happened. I mean, that's the noise. Who knows if that's true or not, but you have to think you wouldn't go through with this being one of your documentaries for this Netflix untold series. They I mean they think thirty for thirty but on Netflix and honestly sometimes better,

like they're that some of them are that good. But you're not going to do this if Connor Stallins is going to play like you know, the card of innocence to where he did nothing right, Like why would it would be terrible television? Like you would only do this if you actually had him on record, maybe not completely admitting to everything, but like discussing it right.

you know, probably not a good look. But I mean, they're not gonna fire him, isn't.

national championship. They won the national championship, but the NAA was still going to take its sweet ass time like it does for everything, and do their own investigation and I guess, you know, hold somebody accountable. But when I say the whole thing start, I mean when there was news of it, like clearly it had been going on,

you know for a while. I mean says here that NAA's draft obtained by ESPN states that investigation investigators used ticket information, film, photographs, and interviews to determine that Stallions had impermissibly scouted at at least thirteen future Michigan opponents on at least fifty eight occasions between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three. Like he was doing this last year and then he got caught, Like that's what happened. So it may have just been where the NAA always

planned to hold Michigan accountable. I guess as best they can, but like they couldn't in real time. I mean, I guess they probably could have started investigating, but either way, what they weren't going to have enough time on their hands to step in and say, hey about that playoff spot that you feel like you've earned not so much by the way, which would have been stupid for them to do anyway, Like it would have been terrible for the event, like it would have been it would have

been dumb. But I can't wait to hear what Connor Stallion says. But I'm trying not to get my hopes up because again, like it may not be some like elaborate plan, like I doubt he's gonna completely turn on everybody and give names and but but you know, he's a mystery. We've never heard him talk, so we don't know his demeanor. We don't know if he feels like he's been you know, if they've turned their back on him after he was the guy out there boots on

the ground helping them cheat. But if I was Michigan, part of me would say, look, dnstaa, they've never had less power. They'll come in and maybe tell us we got to vacate some wins from previous years. But who cares, or maybe you are worried because you know, maybe they will take swift action in some former fashion and remind

people we are still going to hold cheaters accountable. But yeah, I mean, there's just not a whole lot, Like the reaction is pretty blah, pretty vanilla, because we all know exactly what they did and it was cheating. I guess where it becomes interesting is knowing who was given Connor stallions the assignment, who was given him money, that kind of stuff, And maybe we find out in the documentary.

Maybe we don't. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side talk some more Louisville hoops as well as this Coaches Poll preseason College Football Coaches Poll, which came out earlier today. I've got some thoughts on that, and we'll keep this thing going along. Right here, it's Coffee and Company feielbu Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety.

I guess I need to take some of my own advice, and that is to not get worked up about any preseason ranking poll, and to be honest with you, even the weekly updated poll that is the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll. I mean, it's a reference point. And again, we all love to see that number next to our name and the opponent we play, right, because beating ranked teams means a lot. But now that we have the college football playoff rankings, I just I don't know. I feel like it would be more of a of a

move on. Nobody cares. But if it's your team, even if it's the coach's poll or whoever's poll, if it's your team and it makes your team look good, you're probably gonna share it. But I don't know. I just felt like Louisville would be somewhere between nineteen and twenty five on the preseason Coaches Poll, and I don't think it's criminal. That they're left out. I don't think you know.

a good showing in the ACC Championship game. It's like, I know, all those things happened, but I didn't think that would make it to where everybody's able to look back and say, yeah, ten wins. But man, I still I'm not I'm not buying Louisville. And maybe people are justified in saying, yeah, Louisville was a fraud. They you know, they didn't beat anybody worth talking about other than you know, Notre Dame, who ended up not finishing the season that strong.

So you know, I can't say I'm totally shocked, but I guess more than anything, I wanted to see the coaches, Pollar, the apeop Pole have Louisville there to give me more. I guess assurance that I am not getting expectations set too high and that I'm not over hyping this team because I mean it when I say it, I think they got a chance to be really good. And not to give you the same breakdown that I have many times in the last couple of months, but I mean,

there's no doubt they're getting better at quarterback. I mean, I don't want to act like Jack Plummer was the worst quarterback, but I think it's accurate to say, and I've said it many times. I said it during the season. Jeff Brown won ten games last year year with a quarterback who, in fact, was the weakness of the offense. He wasn't terrible enough to where you had to bench him, but quarterback play was not a strength of last year's

ten win team, which is just wild to say. Because Jeff Braum, you would feel like, if he's going to have a really good season and get Louisville to the first ever ACC Championship game, you would just assume, well, offense must be really high powered. Well, no, the offense was good, good balance, but it was really led by two really good running backs. The only two. I mean Louisville is the only school that had two running backs drafted in last year's draft, Juir Jordan and Isaac Grindo.

And defensively they were at a gas towards the end of the year, but they were good. They were good last year defensively, and they bring back some really good players,

including a preseason first team All American. So I don't know, I want to create an argument with somebody that is anti Louisville, because you know that wouldn't be beneficial for anybody, But like, what would make you think Louisville, Like, if you're gonna put Louisville at number fifteen or fourteen, which is where I think they ended up in the final College Football playoff rankings, was number fifteen, I don't understand just not having them at all in the top twenty five.

Whenever they should be again, they should be, it should be better. And again the only position where I think you look at it and feel like, uh oh, we could really miss these guys is running back. But I think it's pretty obvious. You don't have to be somebody that is studying, you know, the the U of L football depth chart to know that with a quarterback that's going to be better than Jack Plumber. A bunch of options that tied in you didn't have last year. Two

really good receivers in the portal. Jacorey Brooks, who was Alabama's top receiver two years ago, called in Lacy. Nobody caught more, nobody had more receiving yards in college football than he did last year. And you hope Chris Bell can break out. Like so with all of that said, you don't have to have a Garrinda and a Jordan

duo back there. Those guys aren't going to like the running backs they have this year, like Donald Cheney Junior, the transfer from Miami, Maurice Turner, who's the veteran, like, those guys aren't going to be asked or needed to do what Grindo and Jordan did a year ago. If they can, it'll be great. And I think those guys are good, by the way, But like I just think on paper, if you look at Louisville, I would have

expected them to get a little bit more. And again, I know last year is not how you base this stuff, right, Like, you can't say, well, they were good last year, so I'm gonna put them at this spot. But yet that's what everybody does, right, Like, look look like the preseason rankings usually are the dominant teams, right So here's how

it played out. Georgia number one, Ohio State two, Oregon three, Texas for Bama five, Ole, miss six, Notre Dame seven, Michigan eight, Penn State nine, in Florida State ten, which, by the way, you have to get all the way to number ten before you get a school that is not SEC Big ten or you know, Notre Dame. So Missouri, LSU, Utah, Clemson,

and Tennessee are eleven through fifteen. Six team through twenty Oklahoma, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Miami, Texas, A and M And then you're twenty one through twenty five is Arizona, in C State, USC, Kansas and Iowa. So look, I can't sit here and tell you Louisville deserves to be way ahead of Iowa and way ahead of Kansas or in C State, although I do feel like they're getting way too much of a bump from their quarterback to transferred in.

But either way, like they're whoever fills these out, whether it be coaches or they're sids or the apeopole whenever, that's released, Like there are teams that people just clearly throw in there. Yet Clemson at fourteen, Yeah, that makes sense. They're usually they're never terrible, and they're usually in the preseason top twenty five. So let me just throw them

in there at fourteen. That fits. How about Oklahoma, you know what, they took a step back last year a little bit, but you know what, they're Oklahoma, Let's throw them in there at sixteen. Like Miami, Oh, they've always got talent. We can't leave Miami out of the top twenty. I mean, it's Miami, like there's a brand bump at schools get and I just don't understand it.

Let's just throw them in there in the top twenty. Like, I don't know, maybe I'm being a little sensitive to Louisville being snubbed here because I can't really tell you that, Like I know for a fact that they're a top twenty team, but usually I feel like if you come off of a ten win season and you play for your conference championship game, and you have a coach that is respected in the world of football, I just feel

like Louisville could have been one of these scoals. Okay, yeah, man, they were a top fifteen team at the end of last year. Ten wins, Jeff brom here two transfer quarterback, that's better than Plumber. Oh yeah, I'm gonna pencil them in at number seventeen or number twenty two. Like why did we get that bump? John? Answer me, Da, I'd be furious.

give us even more enthusiasm for the upcoming season. And I just when you come off a ten win season and on paper, you should be just as good, if not better, even if that doesn't include ten wins. Let's say it's nine to three. Like, I just feel like the bump that used to be given to people in the preseason poll because of what they did a year ago. For some reason, Louisville just didn't get it, and clearly as you can tell, it makes me angry.

program than Louisville. No, and the people on the Louisville side that would always bring up Jeff's record at Purdue, like get a clue, man, Like nobody wins at Purdue and has not won consistently at Purdue until he did, And they're gonna be bad. That's a that's a dove, for sake, Like, there's no way that's a dove?

a job they weren't doing. But you know at the time, it's against the rules in Kentucky agreed to vacate all of their games from the twenty twenty one season, So technically Mark Stoops now has a losing record. He's gone from seventy three and sixty five to sixty three and sixty five, so it's not a huge deal. But the best season, one of the best seasons they've ever had, at least that I know of, and certainly one of Mark Stoops's best season, which I actually think this was

their best season. I mean it now technically is tarnished by the record books, which again nobody cares. I can't give you fake in about the NAA vacating wins because I just don't care. No nobody really cares. If you've got it as ammunition to go against your rival, knock yourself out right, but when it's you, like you know that it happened. You know that you watched your team win.

And it's another thing like if you had a guy out there that was getting paid to play and you knew at the time it wasn't legal, Like is that even I mean, do people care about that now? Like that's now legal? So who cares? Like it's one thing to like what Michigan did. They cheated and they had an elaborate plan that gave them an advantage that nobody else had, and they went what looks to be through a lot of work to get great you know, shots of the signals, and they could steal it and use

it at their advantage. They would, I mean there's visual evidence that you know, maybe it's doctored. You never know what AI anymore. But like some of the things you would see Connor stallions run over to the defensive coordinator like before a play, like clearly like he stole their signs and traveled across the country to go to different

games to do it. That is clearly cheating. But like Louisville in twenty thirteen when they had their season vacated, title vacated and all that, like whatever they were accused of doing in the NC DOUBLEA case didn't give them an advantage. Kentucky's players being paid for a job they

weren't showing up for didn't give them an advantage. So, like my question is, are we gonna all come to an agreement that moving forward, like nobody cares about the NC doublea years later telling you that you did not win games that you know for a fact that you won, because Kentucky fans are gonna probably find a way to do it to you know, talk out of both sides of their mouth. But like that was something that they always used against louis Well, didn't didn't happen? Twenty thirteen

didn't happen. I mean they were pretty consistent with that. Well, now are they gonna say? I England, their twenty twenty one football season is not up there with the way

Louisville views their twenty thirteen basketball season. But it just as wild to me in this rivalry, how petty we are that like Kentucky fans now when they throw out didn't happen, they at least should expect a responsible Then you're twenty two, twenty one football season didn't happen, and you know, it's just it's so stupid, because again, we all know that these things happened, we watched them, we

experienced it instead of as dumb. But I wonder if Mark Stoops was complaining about that or complaining a couple of weeks ago, because like he knew this was common, which wouldn't really make a lot of sense. But anyways, we'll get to a quick break, we'll come back on the other side, wrap this thing up. It's coffee and company. I feel. Beth Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety just a couple of minutes left here before we have to

get out of here and call it a day. But some sad news that I believe the Courier Journal just reported, and that is that former Louisville football coach Steve Cragthorpe has passed away at the young age of fifty nine. He I believe was diagnosed with Parkinson's not long after he had left Louisville. But yeah, he has. Yeah, it says here from the CJ that he passed away Sunday night after battling Parkinson's disease for more than a decade. So obviously the tenure here was not a successful one,

but he always seemed like a really good man. And I got a chance to meet him a couple of times. Nothing, you know, like we were hanging out and buddies or anything like that, but seemed like a really nice guy. And you know, I remember the last time Steve Cragthorpe's name came up was right after Muhammad Ali passed away,

because I don't know how close those two knew each other. Obviously, Muhammad Ali a big UFL supporter, his son stuart'st UVL and was on the Baseball Pro part of the baseball program. But you know, he dealt with Parkinson's as well, And I remember cracked for going on ESPN Radio. I think it was on Sports Center to one of the two

he was. He was doing some kind of interview kind of talking about sort of you know, dealing with Parkinson's because obviously he had it for over a decade and it's something that really ended his not only his life, but his football career as well. You know, when he left Louisville in twenty and eleven, I think it was when he was let go for twenty ten, which every year it was he ended up taking the job. I'm sorry. Two thousand and nine is when he left Louisville, he

took the job at LS. She was the quarterbacks coach for a couple of seasons, but then was forced to retire from coaching just because of what his his health situation. So very sad, very sad, young young it's a young age to young age to pass away. So condolences to him. I know, despite the struggles, I know a lot of players really felt fondly of Steve Kragthorpe. So RP. All right, we're back at it tomorrow. You guys have a good Monday night.