It's time for coffee and Company. Fueled by Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety Holy crap, I don't know who the hell we think when we.
Are get off our show, idiots, the kids are crying or turn them off.
Their countries are screwing it up. Gold Play Inner Murals, Brother, gold Play Inner Murals. They're supposed to be mature adults, but they're really not. Who's the kid here?
Who's the kid here?
Are you kidding me? Now? Here's Nick coffee?
You guys have heard me mention it throughout the week that I just it didn't really feel like the season had started for Louisville. And I stand by that because today, really, this week overall has felt real. No offense to Austin p and who else did they play Jacksonville State? Yes, yeah, I mean no offense to those guys, But I mean this is this is real, and I feel like there are stages to game week. Whenever you have a game
that is important, I mean every game is important. You only play twelve, you got to win as many as possible, and if Louisville is the team that we hope they are, then this is certainly a game you should win. So I say all that to say, like this is this feels real? You know, Monday it was like, Okay, here we go, We're now here game week, is here your first actual test. And then Tuesday I started feeling pretty confident, like, man, I can't wait. Maybe Louisville wins by seventeen and makes
a statement something like that which could happen. I'm not backing away from that. But then yesterday and Wednesday, I suppose it was more of like, Okay, maybe this Georgia Tech team, like should not be double digit dogs here, maybe we should be a little more worried. I mean, they got a lot of guys on their team that I think could play for not any school in the country. I mean, they could probably play for just about any school in the country. I don't know how, you know,
if they'd be elite. But they got some dudes, man, some guys who produced big numbers last year in the ACC and they're off to a good start this year. And then yesterday really turned into like, Okay, this brin Key guy's pretty impressive. He not only is off to a really good start at Georgia Tech, but he seems to thrive in these moments in these situations, I should
say where his team. It's not David verus Goliath, but I would be highly, highly shocked if Brent Key and his team weren't surprised to see that they were double digit dogs here. And he again is really good at taking those situations and getting his guys ready to play. And I still feel the same way about Brent Key today as I did yesterday in the day before, but like today's day where I'm like, let's just get this thing going, let's get it started, let's play some football.
And we are now, you know, roughly twenty four hours away from getting this thing started, and I'm excited. Let's get the show started. Though, shall we get his coffee in company? And we are feel about Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you guys hanging out with us. Maybe you're getting your weekend started, Maybe you're on your way suburban and beyond. Maybe you're I don't know, you could be doing anything, but if you're listening, that means
you're with us. Therefore you are part of the show. You are coffee in company. The man with the plan is the company man himself, mister John Alden. He's alongside and I would hope that you know who I am. My name is Nick Coffee. I said that as if like it meant something. I'm not sure if it does, but maybe one day it will. Are you fired up on a Friday?
John?
I am fired up.
I'm ready to watch some more college football this weekend as always, and the.
Vibes are good on a Friday, per usual. Yeah, you know, it's never good when we're not in studio together. I mean I shouldn't say the show's not good because we make we make it work. I'm just saying, like we both know, I think everybody would agree, and we probably shouldn't talk about it as much as I do. But it's not ideal when we're not together. I mean, it's not like we're a married couple and we miss each other.
Like you know, it's not that don't get weird, guys, but you know, the show just flows better when we're both in the iHeart headquarters. But today, I I probably could have made it in, but I would not have been able. I wouldn't have been comfortable, and you know, comfort is key when it comes to what we do here. John, it is so I just decided to not rush and be stressed and just you know, do the show from home today. We've got the good equipment. We're sounding good, right, John,
we're sounding in crisp. Oh, you sound amazing. I'm hoping, I'm I'm hoping I'm able to keep up because you sound phenomenal today. You look good too on this webcam. By the way, you're looking pretty good too, And I thank you.
Not that we need to point out what each other is wearing, but I really love the Catalina Wine mixer shirt you got going on.
Yeah, I gotta I got a shirt on today that I you know, I don't wear it often. In fact, it's relatively new. I've worried a couple of times. But it's a picture of of Dale and what's the what's Brennan Dale? Yeah, Brennan and Dale. It's a picture of Brennan and Dale. And uh, it's a Prestige Worldwide is the brand. I mean, it's not really a brand, but it says Prestige, Prestige Worldwide Presents. It's got a picture
of these guys and it says the Catalina Wine. So that's kind of I didn't even plan it, but I'm going for that vibe today. Catalina wine mixer is the vibe, which you all know. That's a great vibe. So we're feeling good here on a Friday. We are gonna have a couple of guess join us today. Alex Cupper. We'll see if he shows up today. He will, I mean I'm hopefully he will. I mean I did double check, a triple check today to make sure he was good
to go. And it's not because you know, he's dissing us and just says he's too good for us, but you know he's busy. He's busy, guys. I want to make sure if I tell them, because I let the folks down. I mean technically he did, but I tell them Alex Cupper's coming on the show, and then Alex Cupper doesn't come on the show. That's not ideal for us, guys. I feel responsible, Yeah, exactly. So again it's really his fault, but he did have a legitimate reason for not being
able to make it. And we're gonna have him on today at three thirty to talk some football. I like picking his brain, not only on football itself, but he can give us perspective that I know I don't have. I didn't play for Louisville. You know, I didn't play in the NFL. Might surprise you guys, but believe it or not, check my resume that's not on there. Did you play never?
That's the funny that you mentioned that. It's really the only of like the four or three or four major sports that we have in the United States. Football is the one that I did not play as a kid.
Same here now. I tried baseball, didn't didn't do well at that, gave up on that pretty early. Then I got to basketball, and just my even still to this day thirty plus years later, my personality has not changed when it comes to like I'm I'm gonna get locked down on something. I have an addicted personality, and once I realized, hey, I really like basketball, and I think I might be able to play this game a lot
better than any other sport. I never picked up another ball, never picked up another a club, a racket, a bat. What are the other things you would you would use in sports? I mean, I think I think stick, maybe, yeah, hockey stick, although I did I did, and we had an unfinished side of our basement. As a kid, I used to blade down there acting as if I was a member of the of the Mighty Ducks, head coach by Gordon Gordon Bombay. So hockey might have been my
second sport, but basketball was it for me. So Cup can provide a football perspective that most can't. So we'll talk to him coming up here at three thirty and I don't know the exact time, but doctor Eric McElroy also going to join us at some point today. Looking forward to catching up with him as we get you set for the weekend, like we do every single Friday, it's a football Friday. We've got some good college football tonight. Did you see the Slate tonight? John You Kidney?
Bad line by Nebraska and Illinois, two unbeatens and the big Men.
That should be a really good game. And I've yet to really decide what I want to do when it comes to a wagering standpoint, but you know I'm gonna get it. And I do well on Fridays. Not to say that I'm great, and you know I might have just jinxed myself, but I do much better on Fridays than I do any other day when it comes to college football, and it's because I'm able to more so focus on, you know, just a couple of games and not look at the whole board and just kind of
you know, guess. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all guessing. But Illinois Nebraska, that should be a good one. And I think tonight QS may win by eighty that's a stretch. But they do, like QUS does, big games on Friday nights. In fact, I remember they pulled off two big upsets I think in the ACC since Louis's been in the league on a Friday night. One of them was when they knocked off Clemson only lost they had until they went to the playoff that year.
That was Kelly Bryant's year, I believe at Clemson. So you know, Q, they've got some momentum. They got a new head coach, and I can tell you by being there. I was there on a Friday night. In fact, it's probably coming up on a Friday night, you know. I guess it were a little late. It was week two for Louisville, so a little bit over eight years ago. I was there on a Friday night at the Carrier Dome, hot as hell. I mean, John, you talk about swamp
ass brother inside the carrier dome. Yeah, and that was the running joke, the Carrier dome. You know a company that supplied they supply air conditioning. They did not have AC in the carrier dome.
Yeah.
That's a problem. Yeah. And you never get hot weather, humid weather really in upstate New York that late in the year, even in September, and it was hot, it was sweaty. I just remember, it's a visual I don't really want to want to, you know, think about often, but now I'm here, so I'll share it with you guys. There's a guy who covered Q's. I don't know if he was a beat writer or a radio guy or whatever, but a heavy set man and Syracuse their meal for
the press room. Their meal not there like you know, not a side. Their meal was macaroni and cheese with fries. And the mac and cheese was good, but like I've never been anywhere, it was the main course. And there was a guy that was eating his mac and cheese in the press box and I saw his sweat drip in his mac and cheese and he didn't know it, and then he still ate it as real gross. Again. You remember stuff like that, do you not? You remember stuff like that. So you know q S that night
when Lamar did Lamar things. Let's be real, Lamar didn't give that team those fans anything to cheer about. But you know, before the game got away from Q's, the place was like seventy to sixty percent empty. It's a humongous stadium that's for basketball, but it's like out in there. So they've got some momentum and they're in Louisville situation. They played two games and then a bye week, just like Louisville did. So Huston's minus eight and a half,
Nebraska's minus seven and a half. You know, I never like doing this, but man, aren't you feeling like like like the dogs are getting put to sleep tonight? No pun intended. That's a terrible thing to say, but you know what I mean, like the underdogs are going down tonight.
Yeah.
And I think Illinois's top twenty five ranking is obviously based on the fact that they beat Kansas at home a couple of weeks ago. And I don't know how good Kansas actually is. Yeah, I mean, also don't really know how good Nebraska is. They're getting the love because they curb stumped Colorado.
Yeah, that's true. That's true, but it's at Nebraska and four hundred sellout in a row. They're celebrating. We could make fun in Nebraska because they currently, for those who don't know this, Nebraska has the longest active drought of making a bowl game or being bowl eligible. And that's crazy if you really consider the fact that they there's no there's no power for power five program that has gone as many years without going to a bowl game as Nebraska, and yet they've sold out. You say, forty
five consecutive times four hundred oh four? Oh my god, it's a lot, Yeah, four hundred. How did I go from forty five to four hundred?
Oh I don't know if it's four hundred consecutive, but this is their four hundreds.
Oh okay, got got either way? Do you have a very long street? If it was thirty, it'd be impressive consecutively. So, like, I know, the running joke is that there's nothing else to do in Nebraska, but like that is a they've been They've been ass for a while now, and I don't mean the good ass. They've been bad, a bad football team. In these miserable Nebraska Cornhusker fans still show
up and spend an entire day watching their misery. But I think this year, I don't know why I used to Matt Ruhle has gone from a guy that I used to mock, like, Hey, this guy he was decent at Temple, he had one year at Baylor, and then he goes to the NFL, wasn't good there, and everybody acted like he could come back and pick his job, And I'm like, what resume are you looking at? I never said the guy is terrible, but I just never understood how he had proven anything to where he could
come back to college and take any job. And to be fair, Nebraska is a really good job. I mean, I don't know if it's what it was in the nineties, but it's a really good job. But listening to him, he's done a really good job of marketing and branding the program with him being the leader. And we've talked about it. I believe John when you hear his his his locker room speeches and really just his press conferences, Like I could get behind that guy, right, I mean,
he's you know, very cinematic. I know he's bad. Yeah, No, I think that actually is a really I hadn't thought of it that way, but I think that's the best way to describe it. Could be, could be some of it a little fake, could be some of it to work, but it works. He's he's so good. This might be a weird pull.
But he also gives off Kevin James vibes whenever he goes to sideline reporter interviews and stuff like that.
I could see that that's a good observation. So we got some college football tonight and of course the loaded day tomorrow with Louisville having their first test an NFL Sunday that I think has some better matchups than most people realize. I got to be honest, I think with it when it comes to the Baltimore Ravens, they got to beat the Cowboys or it starts to become a really dangerous situation where maybe they be maybe they end up being the wildcard team in the playoff, which again,
you make the playoff, you make the playoffs. But like they've been in positions where they should have won both games and have not, and with their division and the way the playoffs stuff work, I mean, like you can't keep doing that. And the Cowboys are coming off with terrible loss so again we're loaded today and I hope you guys will stick with us, take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the out Radio WEP.
Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. As you know, we are fueled by Thornton's Here Coffee and Company on Sports Talk seven ninety. So I'm going to get into something that happened to me in the last twenty four hours that I'll I'll just dive right in. And at times I've shared some experiences, some stories of my life where I feel like I'm living a Seinfeld episode. This isn't that, this isn't really like a good story. It's
really not that entertaining or fascinating. It's just probably a surprise as far as the overall situation. And I want you to know ahead of time, I'm not doing this for sympathy or for pity, but I do think it's worth sharing. And I have an itch to talk about what's happened to me in the last twenty four hours. And I'm not going to mention the business, but if you go to my Twitter, you'll see it and I might be able to do it here on the radio. But I gotta be safe, John, I don't know. Maybe
they've advertised before. I don't know they are currently. Yeah, well you know, so I'm not going to mention who they are on these platforms, but on my social media you'll see who it is. But yesterday, when I got in the vehicle, my twenty nineteen Volkswagen Antlyts to leave Iheart's Studios at four Street, a light came on that gave me a warning that my battery needs service soon. Service battery, you know, as soon as possible. So I thought, okay,
I probably need a new battery. Well, then I stopped to get gas at a Thorton's and then I started the car again and it gave me the same morning. And then as soon as I took off, it told me service battery soon, and then it said you can still drive. It was like the next level of the same message. So my worry was that if I I went to my son's football game or football practice, I would park the car and not it wouldn't start again. I'd have to get a jump and I didn't want
to do that. So I thought, look, one of the simplest things you could probably do. I can't help but laugh saying that. Now, one of the simplest things that you might think would be to just have somebody at AutoZone replace your battery. So I went to the AutoZone that is near my home, and I walked in, and I know, Volkswagens are different. They're not easy to work on compared to the American made muscle that we have here. But you know, I love my car, So I go in.
I use their that I said the company named, didn't I sorry either way. Either way, I don't care. I don't care because I'm not going to say anything that's not true. It's all true. I slipped up pretty early, didn't I. And I told John ahead of time. But I tell you keep a finger on the dumb button because I might. And it's not like I'm going to be like animated for entertainment value. Like it's just it's a crazy situation that's happened, and I'll get right to it.
So yesterday when I got there, I pulled up the website. I put in my ven number on their on their website, which made me, I should say, it got me the exact model of my car. Like there's a lot of different versions of the Atlas, the four wheel drive, the turbo, the whatever. So I put my VEN number in to make sure that the battery I picked up was in fact a battery that is compatible and good for my car. But I know that replacing the battery on my vehicle is a little different. So what did I do? I
walked to the register. Battery was heavy, but you know I've been in the gym, set it up on the counter and I asked the manager. I said, ma'am, I'm going to get this battery, but would you be able to tell me if you guys can can replace it
for me. I don't have the tools to do it, and I think I could probably get out of here, but I just didn't know if you guys would be able to And she said, okay, well, what kind of vehicle isn't And I told her she said yeah, she did give me the heads up there may be a situation where electronically, like your presets in your radio may not save or something with the battery being disconnected. I'm like, okay, it's no biggie, I'm not worried about that. But she said, yeah,
we cane to replace. So she wheels the battery out there on the cart. It's about seven o'clock. I pop the hood. She's the manager of the store, and she disconnects my battery, the effective one, because you get a little bit of a discount when you when you replace the battery, like you swap it out, so like the battery went from a certain price to being like, I don't know, eight percent less because they kept my battery. So she takes my battery off, the old one and
puts the new one on. And as soon as she starts to reconnect the battery, my alarm system starts going off like somebody stealing the vehicle, and you know, it's loud. It's a surprise. She seems kind of stunned. She doesn't know why. I don't know why. I don't work it. I don't work there. I don't know anything about cars, although I've learned a lot in the last twenty four hours. In fact, I've had to educate some people about some stuff in the last twenty four hours when it comes
to voltzwagons. But nonetheless, it doesn't work like it's going off, and so she says, well, let me go inside do some research and see what I can figure out. I'm like okay, if that's fine, and I'm thinking I might be there maybe ten more minutes. So what she has determined what I looked up as well. And by the way, Chad GPT is amazing. I literally asked, hey, what do you do when you are replacing a battery on a twenty nineteen Volkswagen Atlas and the alarm system goes off?
And they literally said, if that's happening, here's what's going on. It's a theft prevention system within your vehicle, and it thinks your vehicle's being being stolen. So here's some things you can do. There's and this may sound crazy, but think about like having a video and game controller as a care where you can put in like a cheat code. The manual tells you this as well. You put the key in the in the door and you like unlock unlocked,
unlock unlocked three times and it'll turn it off. Well, that didn't work. So the next option, which this makes total sense and it's an inconvenience but whatever, No, like, it's not a big deal. You disconnect the battery for twenty minutes at minimum, and your your car will have no juice at all to where he won't even know to enable that security systems. That makes sense, John, Yes, Like you won't even have any life in your car for it to be alerting people. That is just completely stolen. Yes,
so we tried. That didn't work. So I'm there from seven o'clock till ten o'clock. She can't figure it out. Her assistant manager, he can't figure it out. You know, they don't give me any option as far as like, hey, here's what it could be, here's what we're gonna do. Let me call this guy and you could lie to me. Tell me, oh, okay, I think I know a store
that's had this happen. Let me make a call. Nothing just looking as if like well, I mean like they're like they're they're waiting to see if I'm going to be like, oh okay, well I guess this car's done had a nice life. I'll see you later. I'll walk home. It's like that's what they thought I was gonna do. And I'm not, like, I'm not confrontational in any way.
That's just not my personality. But you know, finally I had to call my wife at ten o'clock and I said, Hey, you're gonna have to come and get me, my car will not I can't get home. So you know, She's like, are you seriously I'm like, yeah, they've not given me any you know, any any option other than like that. They just don't know what to do, and I'm not
gonna stay here any longer. So she gets the kids up, gets him in the car, and at this time I'm telling them like, hey, I'm gonna leave it here, but please don't tow it. And also when I come back tomorrow, I would like to know what we're gonna do other than just us standing here. And I didn't say it in those words, but like, can we get some course of action here? She's like, well, we may be able to call a mechanic and I'm like, fer Auto's one.
She said, no, he works for another place. I'm like, okay, we like is that? I mean, like that doesn't I mean do we know for sure? Like she's like, I'll call him tomorrow, and I'm just sitting here, like what do I do? Like I feel like I'm gonna come back the next day and I'm gonna be in the same situation. So I start getting everything valuable out of my vehicle, even things that aren't valuable. But things that like I like, because I can't lock it. John, the
car won't lick. There's no power, yeah, so I can only lock manually. The driver's side door or the other doors I can't lock. So I'm getting everything out my kid's car seats, I mean, like my daughter's baby doll, and I'm loading up. At all I can get is my wife's coming to get me. And as I get out of the vehicle to come around, I hear the assistant manager the guy. He says, well, I guess it's worth a try. I don't know what she said at
that time, so they give it a shot. I walk near the vehicle and she puts the battery back in, and anytime she would touch anything on the battery, the alarm system would go off. And they thought it was because the theft prevention thing. It wasn't wasn't that at all. So once she connects it, nobody says anything. I'm not under the hood, so I can't see, but she looks at him as she's got it connected and gives him a wide eye, which I guess was the sign that like,
oh my god, they'll alarmed and go off. So then he hops in the car puts the key, the ignition, turns it on and it started. It started, and the radio stations were on eight forty whs, which is where it was on when I got there, listening to you and Terry. So I'm happy and I just say, you know what happened, and she says, you don't want to hear this, but we had the battery on backwards. And I'm in disbelief, but also just relieved and want to
get the hell out of there. And then she started to give me some kind of an excuse of like, well, here's why I didn't know, So I didn't you know, I kind of you know. I don't think I was rude. I would have been entitled if I was going to be rude. But I just say, give me a second. So I called my wife, like, hey, have you left? And she says, I just got the kids in the car. We're gonna pull all the garage. I said, you don't have to. It started. She's like what how, And I'm like,
you're not gonna believe it. I'll tell you when I get home. So then I get back to my car and start putting all the stuff back in it, thinking everything's okay, and that just sucked, and I'm going to chalk it up as a Thursday night lost. Well, then they've rolled their car back into the door, into the into the building. Lights are off, stre's closed now. So once I get everything back in my car, car seats aren't easy to get back in, so, like, you know, it took me some time to do that. I get in,
start the car, it starts. I got no power steering. Every volkswaggon error message that exists starts popping up all in front of the screen. There there's no there's no life, no electricity coming to the heat and air system that's in front, like no lights at all, can't turn it on. Nothing. The radio works fine though, No, and again it's right back on has like nothing ever happened. So I go back to the to the door and like look in and you know, they're I don't think they're gone, but
like they're not. They're not. They're in the back. I suppose lights are off, doors locked, and I just want to get home. So I drove home with no power steering. Luckily, I can actually get to my home through like three different neighborhoods without getting on a main interstate, without going more than twenty five miles an hour. That was luck,
and I'm lucky. I also didn't get I didn't get in front of a cop because they'd have pulled me over for looking like I'm driving like I've had eighteen beers, cause I'm you know, imagine, I mean just I'm going wide as hell. I got a hit a I hit one turn in a neighborhood I was going through. I had to back up to turn in because I couldn't. I couldn't. I wasn't strong enough to to to, you know, turn I need to go back to the Little Men's clinic because the tea was low. Couldn't couldn't hook the
wheel strong enough. So I get home and uh, you know, I'm I'm thinking I'm gonna go back up there and I'm gonna tell them tomorrow morning. So, because I can't drive my car in the morning, my wife has to go and work a little bit later, I get the kids up, I take them to school in daycare in her vehicle. I come back home, leave the vehicle to her, and then I go back into AutoZone and the manager she wasn't there yet. She was actually off today. The
guy who helped me was working with somebody else. When I walked in, three other associates were there. They didn't know about last night, they weren't there. They said can you help me? And I said or They asked if they could help me, and I said maybe, but long story, I'm going to talk to this gentleman. He said, well, hey, what can I help you with? Then I said, you're not gonna believe this, but here's what happened. And I mean the two people that worked there that I told
the story too, they were in disbelief. Couldn't I mean know, they honestly probably thought I was lying. And to be fair, like you know, they they they had like this is so embarrassing on behalf of this company that no, but there's nothing they can say, like I don't think that they're like acting like they did anything wrong. But what could you say? You had? You know you had. I came there, gave you business, bought a new battery, you didn't offer me a refund, and now my car doesn't work.
And once they connect something to it, they tell me, well, it's the computer module system. We don't and and if I don't keep pushing the issue, they just I think assume I'm gonna be like, well, okay, rip to my twenty nineteen atlas, have a nice day. Everybody like that's I think that's what they were hoping I would do, and I wasn't. So finally the other people that worked there that were not worth me the night before, I just said, can somebody tell me what we need? What
we're gonna do here? Like, can somebody tell me? Like how we you know, I know you guys can't fix it, but what are we gonna do to get it fixed? And finally I called the district manager. He wasn't nice. He was I think to be hon I'm gonna give him a bit of doubt. I think he was stunned and disbelief at the incompetence of the people he employs that he just wanted to get off the phone me to call them. So they're towing my vehicle to a
Volkswagen dealership to get serviced at their cost. And I do love how they were like wanting me to appreciate that what I'm still I mean, like what so they are going to tow it there and figure out what's wrong? But I call the Volkswagen dealership. They told me We've not talked to anybody in AutoZone. We don't know of this arrangement could be in place, but we don't know yet. And then I described to them what happened, and they said, yeah, it sounds like they did some real damage to the
electrical system of your vehicle. It's not just like a fuse. And I said, uh, oh, you know, you know. So then I get on the phone with corporate at AutoZone, like everybody's in disbelief that I talked to in the higher ups that they don't really tell me anything. So I've got no vehicle of my own. Thankfully, my wife's grandmother, Nana, she loaned me her car for the weekend. And I've got a big old sticker on the back that says Blessed Nana. So technically I'm over right, like I'm up
on this situation. No Volkswagen may be dead, missed my son's football practice, wasted six hours at this business, and got no help from them other than they're gonna send a tow truck to take my vehicle away. But I get to be blessed Nana this weekend. I'm trying to find the positives here, John, that is the silver lining, if there is one, I'm trying to find it. Man. So that's that's been my day. And there's some more layers to this that you guys won't believe. We'll get
to it later. We got to take a break. We'll talk to Alex Cup from the other side. It's coffee and Company. We are fuel about Thornton's right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That's right, it's coffee and Company fueled by Thornton's here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Appreciate you hanging out with us here on a Friday. Hopefully we can help you get you set for the help get you set for the weekend. If your weekend hasn't
started already. If you went to Bourbon and Beyond last night and you went to work today, shout out to you. I would assume that you know, you would plan a vacation day, a day off some pto. Because it looked like everybody that was there had had had a good time last night in a late and well probably not a late late night, but for someone old like myself,
it would have been a late night all right. Joining us now here on Sports Talk seven ninety to talk some Louisville football as a former Louisville cardinal himself, mister Alex cupper Cup, how we feeling.
Oh, you know, it's a beautiful day here, Nick, and we're gonna miss these these hot days. So if anybody complains about the heat the next couple of days here, in a quick, quick bit, it'll be we'll be we'll be clamoring for it. So take it all in at Bourn Beyond or the game tomorrow wherever you might be.
Yeah, and it'll be getting dark soon at like six o'clock, which is I know makes makes a lot of people sad. But Louisville coming off of bye week, can you in your time as a as a college player, can you think of any player? And maybe it's maybe I'm totally off here. I didn't play college football like you did. No way players other than like guys who want to get healthy because of an injury. No way players like bye weeks?
Right, Uh, No, especially not this early where you're you're you should still be fresh. The perception is that you're fresh to the coaching staff. So it's it is, yeah, continuation of camp in some sorts when it comes to putting in work and showing up and at least, you know, three days last week. I'm sure they they got after it pretty hard. So it's uh, yeah, it is not enjoy It just depends on the week. But later on in the year definitely a little more favorable when it
comes to taking it easy and getting rested up. But you know, hopefully they got sharpened up essentially and they're ready to rock and roll in conference play.
I wouldn't ask you to break down the Georgia Tech depth chart or anything like that, but you know, what do they do for you when it comes to the eye test. Let's say cups out there. You know, he sees this Georgia Tech team get off the bus and he's he's on the opposing side. I mean you you're a little too skinny now to play offensive line.
Right, Yeah?
Yeah, I means yeah. I was gonna say it's a good compliment. Yeah. I don't know how you guys do it, but you guys are built, you know, to to you know, push people around and be very large and then you know you and would you guys, you know, you get real thin. Uh when whenever you call it a crew, which is again that's a good thing. That's what you want. But if you see Georgia Tech and you know what they've done last year under brick Key. In this first year, uh,
they're winn against Florida State. Doesn't look as impressive now, but still I think they got some dudes. Man, I don't. I'm not gonna act like we're about to go up against like a team that has a ton of NFL draft picks, but I feel like from a personnel standpoint, they've they've got some pieces to where I think they're a team that really if they if they play well, not to say they could beat anybody, but like I'm long story short, man, I'm surprised louiell is a double digit favorite here.
No, I'm with you one hundred percent. They're the books and and those odds makers do see something in this Louisville team, which is it's good. We hope that something comes to fruition, you know, every single Saturday, starting with tomorrow.
But when you look at Georgia Tech, you know, they always they seem to put you in bad spots offensively when when they're on offense, they got they just put you in a predicament where you've got a linebacker covering talented running back, how the backfield or they just get good favorable matchups is what? You know what really watching that Florida State came to kick off the year, but then checking some highlights and it's like, man, there's there
always seems to be space created in that offense. And you know when push comes to shove and you need a first down, the quarterback King can't get it for you. So he's got he's got good mobility. So that always
always puts a challenge on you. So they need to you know, defensively, I think you you'd obviously want to challenge his first and second read get him thinking, uh thinking a little bit too much thinking run first, so that when you do have those guys spying on you, you can hem them in and you can't get them, can't
get them out in space, have you? I If King Hank holds onto the ball and we're not able to apply pressure and you know he's able to see down the field, it's gonna be it's gonna be a tough one and we're we're not gonna be able to get
off the field on third down. So those are you know, from a matchup standpoint, I think I think offensively, if we just execute like we have been, you know, put those running backs, get those running backs downhill, offensive line, established a line of scrimmage, and Shuck just managed the game and make make the throws he needs to make, should be fine. So yeah, I mean, really, it's it's gonna be hard to tell. There's not there isn't there isn't a ton of book of tape on Louisville.
But yeah, this was the first test.
Yeah, adds makers seem very confident in us, which is nice.
Yeah, I'm I'm encouraged by what they think. I just you know, I'm well aware of that, and I think again, I've really tried to reiterate this throughout the week. I think Louisville fans are justified and looking at their team in the top twenty and feeling like, yeah, that checks out. We're coming off of a special season. We got a damn good coach, we got some really good pieces. But again, this is where you really kind of get a chance to see where you stack up in a big win.
Wouldn't guarantee great success to the rest of the way, but clearly Georgia Tech much better than the opponents that you played up to this point. And you know, I don't want to say these guys are super similar, but I think Coach Key and Brahm, you know, they seem to both be really genuine, Like what you see is
what you get. I would imagine those are two coaches that when they're away from the camera and away from you know, the public, they're probably pretty similar more so to them to you know, to who they are when they are in front of a camera. So I guess my question here is players they can sense how genuine
a coach is, right like the the BS detector. I feel like, you know, everybody's different as far as the ability to determine that, but Brick Key's got to got a way about him to where he can get his guys, maybe not having the mindset of it's us against the world, but it's almost honestly like the coach you played for,
Coach Strong. He really had you guys locked in and ready to play, especially when there was any scenario where you were being doubted and maybe people thought that you weren't as good as others are saying what would you Again, everybody's different, but what do you think stands out about
coaches that is it. Is it genuiness to where players you know that they know the coaches being straightforward because I don't know, I A is A is a player and didn't play football, but like I would want to play for a guy who I think has sort of the same demeanor as coach Brom and coach Key.
Oh, absolutely, you definitely want to player, you know, a coach that has your back the first foremost. I would say he pulled one hundred, you know, one hundred college football players. Having having your back is number one of the utmost importance, So that that's a big piece. I would say consistency is another one, and that that that
there's some genuine nature to that as well. So if you if you have somebody show up a certain way one week and then you know, it completely flips and they're they're more you know, they're more hesitant and they're more uh closed off, and then I was open. And that's that's when you get into situations where it's hard
to trust and build that trust player coach relationships. So yeah, I know both both of them, Coach Brom obviously and coach Key down there seemed to have bought have a bought in locker room, which that I mean, that's that is job number one. You can't win any games if your locker room's not behind you. You need you need the horses to believe in you and really want to really want to do everything they can to execute and and and put put the best product out there on Saturday to win games.
Former Louisville offensive lineman Alex Cuppers are guests joining us here on Sports Talk seven ninety. I feel like it's a humongous fraternity, meaning offensive linemen like you guys are not all the same your individuals, you have your own personalities and whatnot. But like there's a brand about being an old lineman that you know, I feel like is
rather consistent. If you did not know anything about Brent Key as a player, like you would know he's an offensive lineman, right like he to me, he gives off that vibe like he's one of the boys.
Yeah, yeah, I mean definitely the way nothing against the way he dresses, but just seeing seeing them playing.
Action and yeah, not a not well dressed nah.
Well, just like you know, comfort built. You know, he's built for comfort. You could tell dress is for comfort. He's not here trying to win, you know, the the Polo Surprise Award.
Well look, hey, hey, since we're talking about a cup, like, I mean, I don't remember what your fashion. I feel like, you know, when you guys are in the trenches every day getting no credit for doing a lot of the most of the important work for the offense. Yeah, you weren't thinking about what you look like. You weren't thinking about style. Now that you have retired from the game, you slim down. Now, now you got you know, now
your dapper, you got some style. So like maybe he maybe he just hasn't entered that part of his life yet because he's still he's still in football.
It's true, This is true. Now, I mean I think he definitely puts off, you know, just kind of kind of there's there's more things. There's things more important than the way I look and the way you know, my my, what I put off Like the team's he can tell he's a team guy. He's not. He's not trying to stand out and and be voisterous and be the center of attention kind of thing. Which is that's that's those are all carbon copy, uh samples of offensive linements.
So so let me ask you this. You know that coach Brom already has in his mind what he's going to do the first few series here. Uh, given what you've seen in the first couple of games, what would be your guests as far as something he may try to get started with, because you know he's gonna want to put something on, put me putting the putting some points on the board pretty quickly here in what should be a really good environment with Louisville at home in
front of their fans. What would you just guess would be something we might see early on here to get this thing started.
Yeah, I mean everybody wants and you you can expect that there would be some shot shot play called so uh you know big play action, have have a receiver running down the middle of the field.
Or yeah, just tell you Cory Books to go make a play, right.
Yeah, yeah, so now go get him just like straight throw throw a go ball. But something that has a little uh, has a little built in action where you're trying to get the defense to bite on it. That and that and a lot of just establishing run run game is his big You know, you can just look back and and wanting to make sure that you have that pop and you build that trust from the first series that the offensive line is going to be able
to move people. You know, there might be some reps where they get an edge on the end that you only gain a yard or or it's no gain. But if you if you see them firing off and you know that they have they have the physicality built with them that day, it just gives you confidence in the rest of the play sheets. So you know, a lot of shifts and motions trying to get edges, trying to
get to the edge some things I would see. Uh, but yeah, I think more than anything, And you see any pundon or you talk to anybody around town that's been the first two games, it just feels like a lot of the play sheet has been been under wraps just because it's been needed. Yeah, so it's now it's time.
Now it's time to watch the offense evolve and hopefully see see Tyler shuck uh, you know, really progress and really really see his game step up to the next level and making making Sick and Darry reads and making making really big town throws.
I know, if they like that scoreboard up, which certainly they're capable of doing, I know that's going to make the fans really really happy. A couple more questions for you, Cup, just to go back to your playing days. I think we're going to have a really good atmosphere at Cardinal Stadium. I know there's the music festivals going on and there's a lot of events, but I still think you're going to see a good crowd because of the momentum that's within the program and it should be a beautiful day
for some football. But when you were a player, is there a home game that stands out to you as far as thinking, Okay, we've had some really good atmospheres here with Cardination, but this one is this this one was more special than the others.
I think. I mean, if I had to nailed down on one that anything senior year was going to stand out, that Cincinnati Keg and Nails game in twenty twelve was definitely a big one where hell, yeah, you know, great game, the all whites and the all whites, you got it, you got it. But yeah, you could just feel the elect tricity, you know, a game like this mid afternoon.
I look back on you and see my senior year and that was just because it was you know, that was a good quality opponent on your schedule, that you had shiven into your house, that you could feel that the crowd was going to be locked in and engaged as soon as you walked out that tunnel. I would expect something similar to that. I don't. I don't think we're going to be sleeping tomorrow. I think we're we're
itching person football, some competitive football. So yeah, to three point thirty tomorrow when we tee it up, I can I can already feel a little bit of the electricity.
Hell yeah, good stuff. The vibes are good. Cup. I appreciate you making time for us. Enjoy your weekend, enjoy the game, and we'll talk soon.
Brother, all right, Nick, you too.
All right, that's Alex Cupper, former little of the CARDINALLL Always appreciate his time and his insight. Again, he can speak to things that you know, I'd have no clue about, like you know, playing in the NFL and you know, leading Louis to a Sugar Bowl and yes, he was a leader for that team, who was a captain and you know the old line and those guys don't get the credit when somebody breaks free for an eighty yard run or or the quarterback got perfect protection to make
a play. You know, they only get called out when a sack happens, and I hate that for those guys. They're very selfless. All right, quick break, We'll come back on the other side. Wrapped up for three o'clock hour on Coffee and Company. Bilbout Thornton's on Sports Talk seven ninety I'm gonna I'm gonna take a guess. Here is this Charles Wesley Godwin. It is not oh Man again,
but go ahead, I was gonna say. At least, I mean, at least I didn't just act like, oh yeah, this is my God like you know, That's why I'm gonna now, even like yesterday, I knew that was staying. But I'm in my head so much about not knowing thinking I know what the company man is bringing us back to and not knowing. So uh, you know, I was wrong again, But at least that time I didn't say it with confidence. This this time.
I picked the band squarely or mainly. Don't even know what the hell I just said squarely. I picked this band curely, I know, but it didn't make sense with what I was about ready to say. But I picked them purely based on their name Mountain Grass Unit. How do you knock like a band called Mountain Grass Unit.
Are you familiar with him at all?
I'm not.
I just I'm not either. Yeah, no, but but but the reason I asked if you were familiar with him is because I actually feel like, despite you know, not knowing anything about him, like I could that sounded. You know. It's not like I heard the whole album or anything, but like, that's a good. That's a good I could see that being a band that would get the interest from those that book the acts that come to Bourbon
and Beyond, which we'll get to this later. We'll talk a little Bourbon and Beyond here on the show.
Uh.
And we don't have a lot of time left really at all in the hour because my clock management's bad. My story about my situation yesterday with my car battery, you know. And what's crazy is we'll die back into that because I there's a lot of that that I didn't even include that will really make it seem as if, like you, I mean, honestly, you won't believe it, Like people will think, oh no, he's adding next, he's being extra, He's adding stuff for the sake of content and I'm not,
I promise you. Uh it's been. It's been. I mean, you guys know I'm a blessed nana and it's not you know, I don't even feel worthy of being a blessed nana, but I have to be a blessed nanna. This beeginnding because AutoZone took my car, tried to change the battery and now it doesn't work anyways. Let me get to the important stuff, and that's the Jefferson Animal Hospital. Let me tell you guys once again about their big event that's coming up next month. It's Pints for paws
and people at the Jefferson Animal Hospital. The American Red Cross will also be involved. You can bring your pet. It's a family friendly event and it's a one of a cond type of event where you can learn all about how your pets can become blood donors. And that may not even be something you knew was possible, but I'm telling you that it is possible. So you can also give blood yourself to the American Red Cross while your pets, dogs and cats can sign up to become
blood donors themselves. Each pet donation can save up to four to six lives. You can also enjoy. They're gonna have food there, live demonstrations on how the whole process works. So again, it's Saturday, October nineteenth, ten am to two pm at Jefferson Animal Hospital and Regional Emergency Center on outer Loop there just in South Louisville. You can get more info at pet Bloodbank dot com at and you can give them a call at five h two nine
hundred pets they are. If you're not familiar with Jefferson in the hospital, with your social media, they're on social media at Jefferson Vetts, So check that out. We gotta run. We got two more hours to go. We're gonna have some fun. It's a Friday. We're feeling good. And again I'm a blessed Nana.