It's time for coffee and company, fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven nine day. Now here's Nick Coffee.
All right, hour number two Here on a Wednesday afternoon Coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety. Don't forget it. Take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeartRadio app. Also listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. Also make sure if you have not yet sign up to become a member of the Refreshming Awards program. You'll save money at the gas pump. And not only that, you'll get a free red Bull.
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to go. We're now good to go because we've got the one and only Ken Spencer from whas with us Ken.
How are we doing, brother, man, I'm doing good. Thanks for asking, Bobby.
I gotta start with this. We'll get to Louisville. They haven't really played anybody, so it's tough to kind of know. But when it comes to Kentucky, you know, it could always be worse, right, Like, that's one of those things that I truly do believe anytime you say, well, it can't get worse than this, that's an invitation for it to, in fact and get worse. But the way it played out for Mark Stoops and his team against South Carolina, I mean, I kind of get why people would say, Man,
that couldn't have been worse. Just your thoughts overall on what happened Saturday in Lexington.
Oh, I think it was an all systems failure. Look, their schedule is already brutal to begin with, Like, it's absolutely brutal, and so if you're going to have a decent season, or you know, you want to get to you know, top twenty five, respectable whatever this year, you've got to win your fifty to fifty games. And South Carolina was considered one of those kind of fifty to fifty games and they've lost it the last couple of years, and that's kind of been an indicator of what their
season has been. But those games have been relatively close going to the fourth quarter. They've had chances whatever, they should have won a game, you know what I mean. Saturday, second week of the season, packed house place was raucous at the beginning. They get blown out thirty one to six. You know, I don't that's not great, not at all.
I mean, and and to be honest with you, Nick, I mean offensively, you know, they got out outside of maybe like a series where they had success running the ball eleven straight times, they got absolutely dominated and it was almost like and all of that is up front, Like we can talk so much about wide receivers and running backs and quarterbacks. I mean, if we're being honest, like that's the sexy topic, right sure, Offensive and d defensive lines or what win you football games? That's what
it's what takes you to championships. That's what it is. Like we can get enamored with play callers and this and this, but if you've got guys getting the job done in the trenches, you're gonna be good. On the flip side of that, if you've got guys getting whipped both inside and outside up front, You've got no chance. And I mean Brock Brock Vandergriff like the first couple series. You know, he was hitting that third and fifth step on the drop and they were there. Ye, there was.
There was just nothing you can do almost every time, almost every time. And I and you know, I kind of think at some point, like at some point in the second quarter, he was already seeing ghosts, you know what I mean, Like he wasn't looking downfield, he was looking for the rush. And then you might as well scrap the passing game because you got no chance from that that point on. And so now now I would also say this, it is I totally get that he was seeing ghosts. But if you're going to be elite,
you never see those ghosts. Does that make sense?
Totally makes sense.
There are dudes like if you're one of those dudes, you're still able to stand back that even though you've gotten the heck beat out of you all day, and still being able to keep your eyes down the field. So, like I said, it was, you know, especially from an offensive standpoint, it was an all systems failure. On the other side of the football, for them. You know, look, they've got veteran guys blowing coverages. That's also not great,
especially against the South Carolina team, which look proof. Will eventually be in the pudding and we'll figure out what this South Carolina team is down the road once they play more games. I don't think they're very good.
Yeah, they And here's what was what was scary for Kentucky is that I don't even think they looked good in beating you thirty one to six. I mean, clearly they took advantage of some mistakes that you made. They were really able to get after you in your quarterback, and.
They were good.
They're supposed to be good up front defensively, and they certainly looked that way on Saturday. I thought of you. You mentioned that big blue wall people have talked about for years, and yet that big blue wall has not been as effective, and it was anything but a big blue wall on Saturday. I mean, is that I mean, is that personnel? Is that is that schematic?
Like?
I mean, it's one thing for them to not be the strength of the team, but they were. I mean, they were bullied in a way that really I've never seen a Mark Stubs offensive line play that poorly. I know. There was the one of the guys who works for the Ringer just doing some some recap of college football
this past weekend. He made the claim that he's never seen a defensive line dominate an offensive line in a college football game quite like what he saw on Saturday, And it sounds like an exaggeration, but I don't know, maybe not well.
Look, I think I think in one aspect, like to be quite honest with you, like Kentucky was able to run the ball pretty good, you know, all things considered right, Like they were able to at least move the sticks on occasions runt of the ball. They just couldn't pass. And so once you become one dimensional, than the other team could just kind of pin their ears back. But they've got look, they've got major, major pass blocking issues. And you've got to be able to be balanced in offense.
It's whatever conference that you're playing in, you better be somewhat balanced to be able to keep somebody on their on their heels. I think, especially in the SEC with those defenses and and and what you'll go again, specially against you know that high level competition, you know, like you know the Georgia's of the week, you know, this week in Texas later and you know, uh, some of the teams that they'll they'll face later in their in their season, so you know, they they're going to have
to figure out some things pass, block and wise. Honestly, I just think that they are on their fourth offense. I want to say, maybe I'm wrong, fourth or fifth offensive system in as many years now. Liam Cohen came back for a second one, but there was a lot of dudes that weren't around his first time around, and so like, they've just been changing so much upfront, it's hard to keep any kind of continuity whatsoever. You know, guys could go through a system change, you know, once
or twice at college and they can be fine. But it's just it's just been a lot for them, and I think it, to be honest with you, Dick, I think it's kind of caught up to them. Yeah.
And I think with Kentucky, you know, as a Louisville fan myself, I'd love to sit here and say that they stink and you're only as good as your record shows, right, I believe that, But I think from a personnel standpoint, maybe not in the offensive line, but in a lot of other areas, I think they have really good talent. Now again, if you don't produce, then I guess it
doesn't really matter. But I felt like this was one of those years where from a personnel standpoint, I think Kentucky could have a record that they wouldn't be pleased with, but they could chalk it up as well. We did happen to get a bad year of SEC scheduling where we play some really, really really good teams. We got Ole miss and they're now in the top five Texas, they're as good as they've been in a long time. First year in the SEC, they're on the schedule. But
like South Carolina, that's what makes it to moral. That was a game not only that was kind of viewed as a fifty to fifty Kentucky I think by by just about everybody was expected to win that game and they just had a terrible result.
Uh yes, and so I think everybody. I mean I talked because we have the Kentucky Georgia games on our air, we had an opportunity to talk to Chris Dorian today, Uh from the SEC you know network to kind of preview the game, and you know, Mark Stoops kind of walked this, walked his statement back after the game on Saturday that says, you know, he didn't have fight back and then he said, well, I take that back, well and this and this and this, and Dorian was like, no,
I didn't see it, Like I get what we're saying, but I didn't. I didn't see it. I just didn't see a whole lot of fight. And so, you know, players can put that back in a given week through practice and getting ready for a game. You can put us a loss like that behind you. You could, you could, you know, just chalk it up to it was a bad day and they can move forward, where maybe fans and media members you know, do not. They just always
remember what that was. But what happens is is on Saturday, when Georgia does something great early and it's Georgia, so they're gonna do something great early, do you say here we go again. And when you start saying here we go again, man, it gets real bad, real quick, especially against the number one ranked team of the country.
One more on Kentucky. When it comes to Marx Stoops, I remember we talked about this right before the fall camp started, and you made a good point as far as Mark Stoops is one of those coaches that you cover in this market, along with Jeff Walls, that will just tell you exactly what it is. Hey, we're buying players. That's that's what this is. And I can appreciate that transparency.
I think some of his comments about how much work goes into really budgeting your roster, it is putting a lot on the on the plate of a coach that didn't used to have to worry about that. However, I get the sense that not that he's necessarily I think it'd be a stretch to say he's checked out. And I'm certainly not, you know, embedded within the Lexington market in the Kentucky football program. But I just don't get the sense that he's got a chip on his shoulder,
a hunger about him that used to be there. Just curious your your thoughts on that. I mean, obviously he still wants to win. He's a competitor. He wouldn't be in the position that he's in if he didn't have that. But I just the way that his team played Saturday, and it's not all on him. These guys got to take some accountability as well. But to go back to what Dora and said, like, I didn't see a fight
from them that I really hadn't. I mean, usually even in games where they get beat pretty bad by good teams, you see a fight that you just wasn't there Saturday. And I'm curious if maybe that maybe their coach is rubbing off on him a little bit.
Just curious.
What's your thoughts on the temperament of Mark Stoops as he's entering what is this is a twelfth year maybe at Kentucky.
And he gets paid nine million dollars a year, a lot of money, and so you know, you get paid nine million dollars a year and what eight nine? You know what I mean? Like, those are awesome seasons at at at Kentucky. So and sometimes you can hit that ten wood Mark. Here's what I here's what I think. I think. That's that's a that's a very you know,
that's a good observation that you just made. Because at the end of that Louisville game last year, he was taking the Texas A and M job, he thought he was gone gone, he was gone, right, And so the way I look at it is, you know, obviously things didn't work out he's he's back in Lexington. He's still making nine million dollars a year. He's got a he's got a recruiting coordinator, tight ends coach that makes one point three million dollars a year in Vince Merrow. Are
your teams prepared? That's really the indicator, right, I think of a coach, are they ready to play? And are they prepared? And so you know, generally under Stoops, they've always had one game a year where you can't you can't explain it. They just kind of lay an egg.
And so I think last year you could look back at the South Carolina game, which I heard that loss absolutely gutted him because that was a bad South Carolina team and they couldn't answer the bell to beat that team, and they just they they were just they they were undisciplined that game. They didn't follow a game plan like all of that. But that all comes back to coaching, and so I think that they should have beat Missouri
last year at Kroger Field. They didn't do it. I don't think they were really prepared for that game, especially after the fake punt, And so that comes back to coaching, and so are you are you dialed in as much as you were when when you had the guys like Will Levis on your campus and even before that, are you as dialed in and are you putting in the same amount of work that you did then? Now? I
think it's a very you know, curious question. And also like if your guys don't come out prepared, there's your answer right there because you're not putting in the time to get them prepared.
Good answer, good stuff. Ken Spencer's our guest here from w WHS eleven. When it comes to Louisville, they've yet to play an opponent that really tells us a whole lot. What would you if you had one word to describe what you've observed thus far with Jeff Brom's team this year, what would it be solid?
They've taken care of business, They've been solid. I don't think anybody, like you know, haven't been blown away because to be honest, like it was Austin p and it was Jacksonville State, but they did what they did. I mean, you know, Tyler Shuck has just he's done the job right, Like he's he's gotten back there, he's gotten the ball out of his hands, he's thrown it to the right people.
It's almost I mean, you know, some of the plays have really wowed you, but it's almost like, hey, this is just kind of boring, but we're just going to go down the field and we're going to complete passes. I've been impressed with what I've seen from Ja Cory Brooks. I think they have, you know, a multitude of running backs that they could go to, which I think that's a that's a really good sign. It'll be interesting to see, you know, like next week when they when they host
Georgia Tech. Okay, what what's that rotation look like? Are they going to keep it the same or are they going to tighten it up just a little bit? So who who do they really trust in those moments? And so I think I think that they've been solid offensively and look on defense in moments, you know, against Jacksonville State, they got they got a little soft. But look, you're playing Jacksonville State, your twenty eight point favorite, you end up putting the game by thirty five. Like, I think
it's kind of natural. Sure, I think they've done what they've they needed to do. Now, I will be I will be honest with you, like I've been really impressed with what I've seen from Tamary and McDonald the first couple of weeks. You know, I think he's I think he has played played well for them, So I'm anxious to see them against somebody that that can that can fight back a little bit.
You would know this better than I as a former player. How much like when people people talk about coaches not showing anything or being really vanilla, I mean.
How how legit is that?
I think it makes sense that you would want to have a smaller playbook and just not really expand a whole lot in a game where you feel like you won't need to do that in order to win big. But like I've never known like how legitimate that is when people say that, Like you really think Jeff Brom's got some tricks in his bag that like he's holding out for I mean, it wouldn't shock me given him in his mind as an offensive coach. But they have
been pretty vanilla. But yet it hasn't impacted them because offensively they've really not had any struggles. They did exactly as they're supposed to do. Against those kind of teams.
You could run plays out of different formations and you may be save in certain formations for certain teams to run certain plays, and so you know it's you may be saving maybe some of your eye candy back, but yet you're still you're probably still running the same plays, but you're just not using as much eye candy different
elements you will for when for win teams. That's what Vania for me, that's what Vanilla is, right, And like you're not going to run you know, a bunch of trick plays or anything like that, like even though they didn't really do a whole lot of that last year, but you know, you're you're saving some of that back. But yeah, it's all pretty much like formationally, you know,
disguising different things. You're just not disguising as much stuff against your the Jacksonville States of the world and the Austin piece of the world.
All Right, big takeaways from the NFL Week one. I mean, we'll get to the Bengals in just a second, but any you know, any result, maybe it is the Bengals that stood out as the biggest surprise, Uh good or bad, but just your overall thoughts after we get one week of the NFL in.
But it was one hundred percent the Bengals Yeah.
They were the only team I think favored by a touchdown or more and they did not look good.
Yeah, no, it was. It was one hundred percent of the Bengals. Like I had, I almost like had no no doubts that they were going to beat the Patriots and Week one and it just it just didn't happen. They just came out so flat and so yeah, that for me, that was the that was the biggest surprise I did. Now after Thursday night when Lamar got in the press conference and that you know, that was that was a catch. I'm gonna stand by that. I did want somebody to ask him, like, have you not seen the replay?
Yeah, yeah, that it was quite clear his photo was on the line.
Like what he was like, he was like, I'm gonna stand on that. Well, I mean the toe on the line, says says, No, it wasn't a catch.
With with bad vision, you could you could see that that was that was on the line.
But by the way, great throw, great catch, he just wasn't in bounce. Yeah, by a toe, but it was to a toe.
When it comes to Joe Burrow, you know there's a weird stat about Zach Taylor and Obviously Burrow's not been a part of all of this, but you know, they they get off to slow starts in the first couple of weeks. Uh, not only with losses, but just kind of with the way they play. Burrow doesn't get much run in the preseason, and that's pretty typical, I feel like around the NFL, especially when you know what you have at quarterback, and they quite literally know exactly what
they have. They have a really good quarterback. But you feel like maybe there is some truth to maybe he's rusty because he he doesn't get as much run in you know, the not real games.
No, I don't, I don't. I don't buy into that this year. I probably have bought into that in the previous couple of years because he's battled injuries through through training camp. You know, this year he had a full training camp, and plus they do those they do those like practices with other teams, and they scrimmage with other teams during the week, and then they eventually play that team in a preseason game and then he just doesn't play in the in the game, but he is in.
He is in for those scrimmages. While he may not be getting hurt he's still got live bodies around ing, and he's still throwing against active defenses for me, and he's probably going against that team's first strength unit in those practices. So for me, like that's if he's getting that work, I'm good. I honestly like, I just I feel like they just are so careful early on with what they're calling that it's it just all feels like
it's just way too simple. And then and then at some point in the season they start opening up and then it becomes fun. Well, I don't know why you can't do that in the first first game, first week of the season.
Makes sense.
Kent, you are the man.
I appreciate you. It's always making time for us. Always enjoy the conversation, have a good rest of your week and we will talk soon.
My friend.
Always a good time, brother.
Take care. That's Kent Spencer from Whas eleven. Good stuff there. I love talking with Kent each and every week, especially when we get the football season man. Good stuff from Kent. All right, quick break, we'll come back on the other side. Keep the party rolling along at his Coffee and Company and we are fueled by Thornton's right here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. In one hour, we're giving away another pair of tickets to see Brooks and Dune at the Neon Moon Tour coming to KFC I'm Center in April of twenty twenty five, So again we'll give away tickets the rest of the week. In five thirty one hour from now is your next chance to be the lucky winner. We're gonna go back to trivia today, but we're doing
Brooks and Done trivia. So you guys like that, you gotta be a fan to win these today, or you know, at least bigger fan than the opponent that you're going up against in the trivia. And please, if you are, like, keep in mind, like if you're on the hook, meaning you're with us and you're you're down, don't just hang up because you never know, right, I mean, there's only four questions that are.
Going to be asked. That just makes it a weird situation like it was yesterday.
Yeah, I mean it's hard for me to say, well, no, you always your time. No, I mean, you didn't feel like you were going to win, so you hung up, and that's fine, but it did kind of have I think, all things considered, I've been a part of really bad trivia contests on this station before where it falls apart. We have tie breakers. We'll go through four rounds of questions and nobody will get anything right. Then I questioned myself,
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All right, so.
The let's see here. This is just something I found to be interesting and I wanted to share with you guys.
So.
Joseph Duarte is a beat writer who covers the University of Houston for the Houston Chronicle, and he's he's in a open records request fight with the school he covers, the University of Houston, and it's because he is asking for transparency on nil money. He wants the University of Houston to share what amount of money they've gone through
to approve innil deals for their athletes. So his tweet from earlier today got a lot of traction because he is claiming that the University of Houston has denied a Houston Chronicle open records request for a breakdown of the total value of these nil deals over the past three
years for their athletes. He notes that Texas A and M they provided exactly what was asked, whereas Houston has decided not to, and in their response they say that it says in its response, uh's Open Records Division said, quote, the requested INIL information is confidential and not subject to public disclosure. So we'll get to more of what he had to say, and we'll get to the numbers from Texas A and M, which you know, pretty impressive if
I'm being honest. Do you think that should be public? John? Like, should we have a right to know the amount of money that NIL athletes are making?
That's a I don't know. I don't really have a strong opinion. I don't either. I don't, but I mean it's fine. I'm fine with it being private.
I'm with you, Like I don't. I can't claim that I really care to know the exact amount of money. Like I just you know, I mean, you and I were probably on the exact same page when it comes to that, Like, you know, it's not a big deal one way or the other. Wouldn't shock me if it was public. But like, I'm not out here claiming we need to know.
I do feel like if it's public, it causes a lot more issues like whenever different athletes are competing for different amounts in the future and that type of thing. So I could see that being a good reason for why it should stay private.
Yeah, And I think, you know, I'm all about privacy for people when it comes to money. Now, obviously, if you have like a public job, your government employee, like you're you know, you work for a school like your you know, your salary is is available for people to find out. It's public record. So like, I get why that's the case, But like, if they made that private, I wouldn't be against it because I guess maybe if taxpayer dollars are helping fund your salary, people should know
what you're making. But I mean, I've always been someone that leans towards being very discreet about people's finances. That's just me. But here's what Joseph wrote that I thought was a pretty good counter to the whole privacy thing. He says, for me, it's not here, I'm sorry. Coming back up, he says, for the for the it's none of my business crowd. This is what A and M sent me. And frankly, this was enough and I'll give
you guys what they sent. But he said, my argument is there is precedent set by another public school to release the info. If UH wants to cite statute, that's fine, But the request, in my opinion, wasn't asking for state secrets or even KFC secret recipe. If you're going to ask the public for money, there should be a level of transparency. Same thing when we were denied access to
Memorial Herman's gift amount for the Football Operations Center. I don't know what that is, but apparently when Tom Herman was there, there was a big donation made and people wanted to know what the money was spent on. But that is a good if you are again we had listeners. I think that brought that up at one point. When it comes to nil that if you are asking people to donate money or have a membership to your collective, I do think you have a right to know where
your money's going. Now clearly people don't, and they're fine with it. They just know and they trust and hope that the collective is going to do whatever is needed with that money to keep athletes happy and bring in more athletes. But I do think when it comes to that, Like, if you're going to say, hey, look we need this money.
If you're out here fundraising for your collective, which you have to do, and you want a big, sizeable investment from somebody like for example, I'd be willing to bet if somebody like.
Rick Kiever or.
Even Larry Benz somebody like that who clearly people who are very influential and big donors and supporters of U of L Athletics. Larry's on the board now, so maybe that's not a good example to use, but just somebody. Obviously Rick Keeper put up a million dollars with glowbrands whenever they did the match for the basketball program when
Pat Kelsey was hired. So if you're somebody out there that you're being, you know, kind of hunted by those that work within the five h two circle because they know you do care, you are passionate, and you have shown previously that you will donate, and they know you have the money, Like they're not going to tell you, hey, we need a million dollars and not tell you what it's going for. So again I'm not I can't give you a fake response. I can't give you a fake opinion.
Is like no, they because I don't care to know. But I do think when it's public like that, it makes a little more sense to where, like I get it from people who do donate. Let's say they donate I don't know, fifteen hundred dollars a year to the collective. I mean that's that's to me. That's not a small amount of money. I mean, it's not crazy. It'd be hard for them to tell you specifically what your money
went towards. But I do think just an overall breakdown of the funds that came in and how they were dispersed, I think that's not asking too much. And that's exactly what Texas A and M did, So they what they gave when the Houston Chronicle requested A and M to provide transparency information about the nil SO from twenty twenty one, So from July of twenty twenty one to July of twenty twenty two, the overall NIL money that came in
was three a little over three million dollars. Two point nine of that went to men, whereas one hundred thousand and some change went to women. July of twenty twenty two to July of twenty twenty three, that went from three million overall to six point one million, so it doubled. And of that six six six point one seventy nine that was the overall value. The men got six basically six million of it, and the rest of it went to women. So it's about one hundred and fifty four
thousand dollars this past year totally different Planet Man. From July of twenty twenty three to July of twenty twenty four, the overall inile value nineteen point four million dollars. Eighteen of that nineteen went to men, whereas five hundred and twenty eight thousand and some change went to women. So clearly there's a lot more money going to men than women.
That shouldn't surprise anybody. Not to say that that's right or wrong, that's just that's anybody claiming that's a surprise and that it should be split up evenly, it's just not. That's not real life. So one, I'm fascinated by that amount of money, but also, like I think if you are somebody who would be more willing to donate to a collective if you could see this, I think collectives would be wise to share that information. I know, so
I don't know if they're going to. But I just thought that was interesting because we know nil matters so much in the grand scheme of things when it comes to college sports now, and I think the more transparency that you have out there makes it a little bit more easy for people to understand what it is. Like there's some people that still don't really know how it works. I'm one of those people, Like I have a good idea.
I know that you need money to come in and these players now getting paid, But as far as how you decide to divvy it up and all that, that's not really something I care to know about. But it's because I'm not giving you a bunch of money because I don't have a lot of money to give you, know what I mean. So I just thought that was interesting. All right, So this is a non sports thing, but it is a big deal starting to become a big story nationally, and it's certainly a huge story right now
in Kentucky. Have you kept up with this shooter in London at all? Have you kept up with like that whole story job? I have not, you know it all? What I'm talking about, I don't think. So I love this about you saying unplugged for no reason at all. I mean, look again, like you know, I mean, there's nothing wrong with this, but like I'm I'm more fascinated how you I'm more fascinated at how you could not know about this, Like I know you're not watching the news.
I'm not either.
Sorry about that. There's an auto ad from our partners over at WKY apologies. But there was a guy on Saturday that decided to just start shooting people on Interstate seventy five in eastern Kentucky near London. And they've been searching for him since it's now day five. So the Kentucky State Police believes this suspect is still in the area. They released video. They released video of like the difficult search area because there are areas of eastern Kentucky. I
heard Matt talking about this on KSR. I believe yesterday that they don't believe that humans have ever been to like it's such a big rural, remote area that like you would have no reason to have ever gone there, and that he could be in those areas. So they're kind of looking at areas to where like they don't even know where to start. But it's in Laurel County and today Mark's day five as they look for the young man named Joseph Couch. He injured five people in
a shooting on Interstate seventy five on Saturday. There's been a lot of confusion as to what really happened. I know, somebody came on Matt's postgame show Saturday from that area. I think it might have been the mayor even of that area, or maybe it was police chief. I'm not quite sure who it was, but they shared information that ended up not being the case. Like this was not a road rage incident where he had it out for somebody.
This guy just went out while already being on I mean, he got bond for I believe terroristic threatening and yet he went out while I'm bond for terroristic threatening and bought, you know, dangerous weapons and started shooting people. Now, thankfully nobody's been killed, Like nobody died, but five people were shot, and they don't know where He's just out in the woods. Probably Now there's a chance he probably could have killed himself. Be honest with you, like that wouldn't be a shocker.
But yeah, there's now a five thousand dollars reward that the Kentucky State Police have offered, and they did share that another person has offered anonymously ten thousand dollars added to that. So that's a good samaritan there given ten thousand to help. You know, I'm be honest with you. I think when somebody's in this position to do what
this guy did, I don't think anybody's protecting him. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but like, this guy's so far gone he just wanted to go get a gun and just start killing people like he's a lunatic.
But he led the allegations of that.
He opened fire on I seventy five around five He's Saturday, striking five people and then causing three people to be injured in accidents because of the shooting. As you could expect, that's the kind of stuff that happened. So they found his abandoned Toyota on top of a hill near a forest access point Saturday night, So it sounds as if he did not go back to the vehicle after he went and did what he did. But they found an AR fifteen they believe was used in the shooting. They
found that on Sunday, So he's abandoned his AR fifteen. Also, it says here that there's an Affidavid that Couch sent a text message before shooting, saying quote, I'm going to kill a lot of people. Well try at least the Warren Affidavid was also said in a separate text that Couch said quote I'll kill myself afterwards. So these texts were sent at five o'clock five oh three on Saturday,
less than thirty minutes before the shooting happened. I mean, my guess would be that he killed himself, but you know, they until they find him, they have to assume he's still out there, and he might. I mean, this is a this is a really really awful I mean, clearly an awful situation. But you can't just assume he's dead. You're gonna have to keep looking for him, to find his dead body or find him because.
Because I mean, the dead body's going to be somewhere if there is one.
Yeah, of course, but that you know that could be I mean, if.
You think it'd be harder to find the dead body or if he's still running somewhere.
So that's a great question. I would say it's hard, it would be I would say it'd be harder to find him if he's moving around, but then again, he may if he's savvy enough to move around, then yeah, it'd be more difficult. But like if he's dead, eventually, you know, dogs can find that, you know, and that would kind of be Yeah, but with that said, you're gonna need a humongous area, Like there's no aerial chopper view that's gonna spot this guy. Like that's how remote
it is to where he's believed to be. So it did not say though in the Affidavid the arrest. They did, Yeah, there was an arrest warrant that says Laurel County Dispatch received a call from a woman describing the text from Calp saying he was gonna kill people, But they did not say what his relationship was to the person that he sent those those texts too. So just a just an awful situation that again is now becoming more of a national story and it's a scary situation and it's
impacted schools in that area. There are still many schools that have not gone back to school this week because of this situation. Because there's a guy that could be you know, and again he's he's a lunatic. You can't you know, you can't take this lightly at all. In fact, you know, keeping people safe is the most important. And I hate to say this and make it sound like it's you know, like this is what really matters, but like they're kids that aren't going to play football this
weekend because they can't go back to school again. That's that's not Football is not a priority over keeping people safe. But like it just the lingering effects of something like this.
That people shouldn't have to deal with.
Hell, yeah, I mean, I'm so hopefully they find him. I mean, I'm not. I don't look at this at these I mean again, I have no clue how any
of this works. But when I hear some criticism out there about how they still haven't found him, I kind of think, wait a second, Like I don't think first of all, they're trying, they're trying, putting all the effort into it, but also like this wouldn't be easy to do, and in fact, now that I think about it, it may be harder to find him if he's dead, because if he's moving around, he'll get caught right eventually, and
if he's he'll get desperate too. If he's alive, he's gonna get desperate for food, desperate for something to drink like that. That that's to where maybe he'll slip up if he's just laying somewhere dead.
I mean you mentioned the dogs or wolves who whatever gets a hold of him. If he's dead, they could you know, you wouldn't be able to tell it's a human being potentially, depending on what happens.
That's a great point, like they I mean, here's here's what's crazy to say. And I hope it's not the case, but this is a very realistic possibility. They may never find him.
I mean they may mean it's a true true crime podcast.
Yeah exactly, they may never like, they may never find him at all, and eventually you probably assume he's dead, but you don't know that.
So I'm sure they have like a timetable that they have to at least like like protocol that they have to give it at least this amount of days or months whatever it may be, before they just say, you know what, there's nothing else we can do.
And it you know, like if they don't, like I can see this being something that they like, you're not gonna let your guard down and just act like Okay, well, I guess he's dead. We'll find his body in a few years. You can't take that kind of risk when it comes to keeping people safe. All right, quick break will come back on the other side. Wrap at four o'clock hour. It's coffee and company. Feel about Thorton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I've failed you guys
once again with my poor clock management. I apologize. Gonna have a short segment here, but we got to five o'clock hour coming up, and we're gonna have a lot to get into, including our giveaway Brooks and Done tickets will do that at five point thirty, So stick around for a variety of reasons. But one of those reasons could be that you might find yourself with a pair of tickets to go see the iconic duo that is Brooks and Done. All right, So this stat cannot be real.
There's all kinds of numbers that just get thrown out in tweets and everybody because it's surprising and you just just you know, maybe you want to believe it's true, so everybody shares it and.
Just assumes it's legit.
Maybe this is legit, but I have a hard time believing this stat about Kentucky football that conference games with two hundred or more passing yards since twenty eighteen. Again, games against conference competition where you've had two hundred or more passing yards since the year twenty eighteen, Kentucky's had thirteen, Ioways had twenty three. I didn't do any fact checking, and to be honest with you, I'm not going to, but like, can that be real?
I think it can be as crazy as it sounds. I do think it can be real because I do think Iowa's always been good at getting down the field, but they can just never Yeah, they could never finish the job and getting the end zone.
Like the perception of Iowa football is terrible, and yet they're not like that bad. Like they went and they did lose to Iowa State, which was a real very weird for them. Yeah, and that was a tough loss for them, but they scored more points than they typically had, right, Like that wasn't a shootout, but it was you.
Know, nineteen, I mean that's right right around the road.
I guess that's true. Yeah, what was it nineteen to twenty or nineteen twenty one or something like that.
I only know what the over under is, But I won't have to go back to betting the under in those games.
Yeah, I mean it's for the most part, it's in a safe bet. But like that, not to pile on Kentucky today, but yeah, let's do that actually, because that's fun. Even when they were having success in winning with Levis, it wasn't usually because of anything like Levis at Kentucky. Even when when they were winning, he didn't have many games where he really you know, lit it up with a bunch of passing yards. He showed he has a
good arm and whatnot. He also showed at times at Kentucky that he can't really see the field great and that really reared its ugly head for him in Chicago and the opener on Sunday with the Titans. But I just you know, like Mark Stops has had a bunch of different offensive coordinators and Liam Cohen. He had success with Levis and then when he came back last year, they weren't as successful. He didn't have Leves to work with. But Liam Cohen was pretty impressive with the Browns in
Baker Mayfield. That's his first year as the OC there, and you know, looked pretty good, Like maybe maybe Stoops is too much involved in the offense. And again I I don't know what his rolodex is as far as networking. But Butch Hampden is that his name? The guy who's the OC for Kentucky now, who came from Boise State. Like, I'm sorry, but like to me that you hiring a guy that you know you can tell what to do. That's not you hiring a guy to give the keys
to the Cadillac and let him run the offense. But that's just that's just my opinion. All right, we got another hour to go with the five o'clock hour coming up next. Keep it locked right here, It's coffee and company. Feel about Thornton's on Sports Talk seven to ninety