9.24: Help Me Out, Here - Hour 3

worry about that. So tomorrow's orientation for Jerry Duty, John, and that lasts about an hour, okay, so like that'll just be a short not official Jerry duty says you check in orientation from the jury clerk and a visit to a courtroom where the judge explains the case. After orientation, jurors are either selected for a jury panel or excused.

And during this orientation process, like when I and I will see well, a lot of people have said this on the text line and even on Twitter, and I was just talking to somebody who works here that kind of said the same thing. Is if you if you mentioned that you work for a talk radio station, sports or even you know, they're gonna want you to not be a part of their jury in every way and tell you to leave, which thought, to myself, that's good.

But why And it makes a little sense. I guess they fear that when I wasn't doing jury duty, I would maybe like bring up the case or something like I like, you know, like I whatever gets me out of it is great. And I do like the idea of like being on a jury because I think it would be interesting as somebody who's interested in like, you know, that kind of stuff. But you know, I don't want to miss work because I mean, there's a reason this show is called company because we got the company man,

and I'm a company man myself. Like, I mean, they don't even know what I would do this for free. I kind of do anyway. But it's a different story. So hopefully Jerry duty is not, you know, not something that keeps me from being here the rest of the week. But we shall see. But most people who have shared their story about showing up because they got the thing in the mail have said that they didn't have to do anything. They just showed up and were sent home.

So hopefully that happens with me? Or maybe you know what's the what's the guy? Who's the guy or a girl who's the leader of the jery what's the name of Uh, what's that four person? Yeah? The four person is the juror charged with overseeing jury deliberations.

they told me in that letter. So we'll see. I got so much going on in my life right now, nothing crazy, and you know, I'm sure there are many people listening that have a lot more going on than me. But for me, it's been hectic as hell. And then it hit me yesterday, Oh yeah, I think I have Jerry duty. And here we are all right, Coffee and company, five o'clock hour. Thanks for hanging out. With us here on a stormy Tuesday afternoon. Don't forget you could take

us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeartRadio Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot Com. So real quick. I know we usually don't talk a ton of recruiting on the show, but Pat Kelsey is going to be hosting one of the best players in America today tonight. I think he lands tonight. Mckel Brown Junior

is a five star prospect. He is the number seven player overall in his class, and he's a point go yard and obviously that's the kind of guy that you know, if you could somehow land him, I mean, he'd be huge. I mean again, Louisville, when's the last time they landed a top seven player nationally? I think I know the answer. I think that's smart o' Samuel's that was a long time ago. So look, this kid's got offers from everybody. He's he's the kind of guy that and by the way,

he lands, I think tonight at the airport. I know Tyspolden, who does some work for Cardon he actually runs Cardinalsports dot Com, is trying to organize I think some fans to show up and greet him, which, hey, that's a good that's a good initiative.

is one of the top prep academies out there. So he's he's such a talented player that no matter where he goes, he's gonna get paid, and the schools that he's gonna consider are going to have good in il situations. So to me, he's the kind of guy that, yeah, he won't he's going to be paid, but it's more of a yeah, I want to really just take advantage.

I really want to take advantage of the one year that I have in the college game and get developed by a good coach, play for a good team, play in front of a great fan base that kind of stuff, play within a system that's really going to highlight what I do well. And I don't know how Pat Kelsey's pitch is going to compare to others, but there's actually, you know, this is not one of those things where

it's just going to come down to money. I mean, maybe it would like maybe somebody comes over the top and just says, Okay, we're gonna give you five million, which clearly nobody would do that, but I just you know, I think Pat Kelsey having the Louisville job kind of speaks to his ability to sell, you know what I mean. He has a you know, his family as a background in selling. His father is one of the most successful entrepreneurs when it comes to car dealerships in Cincinnati. So

you know, he could sell. He can recruit. He's shown that when he was at Charleston getting the caliber players to come to Charleston and the portal class he's put together. I mean, I know that there are some people growing a little impatient because the twenty twenty five class is not there's not a commitment yet, but I wouldn't be shocked if you get one here in the next couple of weeks, and you know, I think they're gonna put

together a pretty good class. I'm not sure where it's gonna rank, because I think you can be really selective when it comes to high school recruits right now, because you know you don't have to have any of them. You could literally say, man, this class is kind of duds. I'm gonna take the year off and I'm just gonna get portal guys. I mean, that's that. I don't think you'll see guys do that every year, but occasionally they might, so you can be selective. So again, I know people

are impatient, but I think get what. You know, they're not going to just take guys to take them, and they're in the mix for a lot of good players, and eventually one of them is going to pop. I would say, however, let's not forget they've already landed one of the highest ranked recruits, louisls Ever landed in Kahani Rus like that just kind of get swept under the rug because at that time we were so intrigued by all the portal additions, which again the majority of the roster,

all of the roster is portal guys. Outside of Russ. But you just kind of snuck in a high four star who is at one of the top fifteen. In fact, I think he might even be a top ten recruit of all time here according to the rankings. So I'm not worried yet. And again I hate to say this because I know people can. Recruiting is always going to be a big deal when it comes to programs, right.

It's it's still going to be an aspect of your livelihood as a coach, right bringing in young talent developing them, but not to the extent that it used to be because of the portal. So you know, even if Louisville didn't end up having a stellar freshman class that features you know, like four guys that are in the top one hundred, I would be a liar if I told you that meant I'm worried about Pat Kelsey, because again, you can be selective.

and hopefully it's Louisville. All right, we'll step a basketball really quickly here before we get back to the Notre Dame Louisville matchup, because yesterday the ACC announced that Louisville is going to play Duke in their ACC opener that'll be in early December, and we'll get the full basketball schedule tonight. By the way, the entire Louisville hoop schedule will be unveiled as soon as the ACC announces everybody's league schedule. And we know who Louisville, like, we know

the schedule, we just don't know the dates. Like we already know which teams you play twice, which teams you play once, and if you're gonna be at their place or hosting them. We just don't know how they're laying it out. And that does matter, by the way, I mean, you can have a tough stretch just by the way the conference set up your schedule. That might be a real rough month for you in January or February. That

could be impactful for your tournament seating and whatnot. So it does matter, But overall, as far as who they're going to play, like, we already know. So I feel comfortable in saying that right now with Tennessee a top fifteen team preseason, Indiana a top twenty team preseason. Maybe you get West Virginia they're not top twenty, but still that's a big twelve team that's got a good coach that comes from from Drake who brought his son who

might be the best shooter in the country. Maybe you mess around and end up getting Gonzaga, that's a top five team. And then who are the other teams in the like who who could you end up playing? I guess there it could be anybody from.

a talented squad. But if you win while you're there, like, the more you keep winning, the more likely you're gonna play really good teams. So I mean it's not likely, but like if you got Indiana Gonzaga in Arizona in some I mean, I don't even know if that could break down that way with the bracket, but like the event's loaded and you lost. Was it Nova or was it Creighton?

I'm sorry, Dave Davidson, thank you. So and then you come back from the Bahamas, very little time to rest, and then you've got the acc SEC Challenge where you play Ole Miss Chris Beard's team, a top twenty team, and then a week later you will be playing Duke at Home, who will be top ten for sure, and I think they're gonna have the best player in the country, Cooper Flag. And then within a week's time of that, you will play Kentucky at Ruck their top twenty five preseason.

I think they'll probably end up getting the benefit of the doubt and be a top twenty team in the actual ap pole that comes out. And even if they struggled a little bit early on, you're still playing Kentucky and Ruck. And I think Mark Pope's a really good coach. Hopefully he's not hopefully he's a bum. But like I'd be lying to you if I said, I think he's going to be terrible. There so on paper and it

all means nothing. You know, once the season starts and you actually see who's good and who's not right, you toss the paper away once you actually have the ability to get results and see where everybody stands. But I can't remember looking at a Louisville schedule before the season started in November and December, that was as challenging as this,

and I'm excited about it now. I have no I mean, I have no clue how successful they're going to be in some of these games, because the reality is this, they could play well and lose to some of these teams because they're really good. But if you get battle tested, you take some lumps in this early part of the schedule, and yet you end up still being very competitive in the acc which you should be. Let's say you end up being one of the better teams in your league.

If those teams that beat you early on end up still being pretty damn good. This is the kind of thing to where you could end up getting into like the early the early net rankings that come out that the NAA gives, as I always forget when they put those out. It's a January endings January. But either way, like you could end up having a record that doesn't look great, but yet you're really highly ranked because of how loaded your the front part of your schedule was.

So I'm excited, I am, and I'm gonna be in Charlotte not next week, but week after that, two weeks from now. For the ACC basketball tip off, looking forward to that. Can't wait hoops And that's the thing, like, I'm not impatiently waiting for hoops season to start when I got football. That's why once, I mean again, my calendar year starts when we get football season, because then basketball be here before you know it. And it's just you know, it's my happy place, all right. It is

coffee and company here on Sports Talk seven ninety. We are fueled by Thornton's appreciate you guys hanging out with us. Don't forget you could take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the Ahear Radio app Listen live at seven ninety Louisville dot com. All right, so shout out to those and shout out to John for actually having me look because I had not. I didn't look. I don't know why, just didn't think of it. I've been so busy jury duty, a car that doesn't work, that

may you know, never work life. But it was nice for John to like, hey, I think your underdog fantasy play hit last night, and you know what, You're damn right it did. John. I appreciate you letting me know because I might have never checked. But if you want to get in on the action with Underdog Fantasy, you can do it right now, and they've got a special offer going on that you need to take advantage of. So over a million fans across thirty three states got

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ORVI is it NCP gambling dot org? All right, before our first break, let's talk about Let's talk about two people that are really, really good football coaches. One clearly is on a different planet than everybody. That's Nick Saban. The other's Jeff Brohm, who no clue if he's gonna come close to any of accomplishments that Nick Saban has. But obviously Louisville fans, myself included, fel pretty good about who they have leading their football program. So let me

just give you a crazy stat about Nick Saban. First, they are currently two point dogs against Georgia this weekend. The last time Alabama was a home underdog was when they played LSU in two thousand and seven. If that isn't one of the most impressive things about the Nick Saban era at Alabama, I don't know what would be more. Mean again, that's insane if you really think about it. I mean, two thousand and seven, John, what were you doing.

He was LSU than the NFL, and then you know, I went to Obama and the rest is history. But he went twelve and two in his second year overall, eight to o in SEC play, he went too straight. In his second and third year in the SEC, Sabin went sixteen and oh combined in the league. In twenty ten, they had a total three losses. They never had more

than two losses after that. I mean, the guy was insane at Alabama, and he was good elsewhere too, but like he was decent at Michigan State, he was pretty damn good at LSU, but nothing like he was at Bama. I mean it was I mean again, I don't think you'll ever see a better college football coach than Nick Saban. And this guy, he's a big fan of Jeff Brown. I'd forgot all about this, like I don't know, maybe because it's been so long, maybe because so much has

happened since then. But like I was talking yesterday about how nobody can be happier than Oscar brom former Louisville quarterback himself, who you know, played at Louisville before you know it was the cool thing to do. He had some really, really talented kids that could have gone to some big time programs, but they stayed and followed in dad's footsteps and played here and left their mark on the program. And now now Jeff is leading the program and all and the brothers are on the staff, so

like he's got to be happy as hell. But I'd forgot about there being some adversity, some bad blood a little bit in between there. And yet that never, that never changed Jeff and the Brom family's feelings towards Louisville. So this is this is from the s V pod. It's the Scott Bene Pelp podcast. And obviously Nick Saban now working for ESPN. Apparently those two were chatting and Brom or not Brom, but Saban was open up Louisville and he shared this with with SVP about Jeff Brown, Syrahcuseton.

other day, we were like, what about Louisville. He's like, uh, brom He's like tried to hire them multiple times unsuccessfully. I think the world of them until you know, you need to know you think the same and Brom as I do.

I mean I remember Jeff being here obviously coaching the offense when Brian was the quarterback, and I knew that it didn't end well. But it's not something that comes to mind very often. But yeah, I mean it was a story locally here, you know, the Capitol Jay's were covering it that while he was calling the plays for

Bobby or working not calling the plays. But I think Jeff's the only coach that ever had any influence in Bobby's play calling, although Bobby clearly ran the offense, and I'm sure Jeff would say he learned a lot from Bobby too. Bobby is still a great play caller. I think. However, Nick Saban wanted to hire him, right he knew that he could offer Jeff, you'll come here and call my plays with Bobby, you're not doing that. But Jeff, obviously he wanted to coach his brother. I mean, that's a

special thing. He's from Louisville, he loves Louisville. He's gonna go take the same job at Alabama, which he probably would have made a lot more money. He would have actually been calling the plays. It's Nick Saban, It's Alabama. But you know, he wanted to stick around, only for then a year later Bobby to go to the NFL and Crackthorpe and Jurich trying to fool people that it was a disaster, trying to make it appear that this wasn't a bad mistake that we're all going to regret,

which it ended up being. They blamed it all on Jeff. You know, there was some there was some bumping of heads between Jeff Brom and Steve Cragthorpe because Brom was a holdover on that staff that Crackthorpe, you know, crack Thorp came in. And it usually can be weird. I shouldn't say usually, but it's not unusual for it to be awkward if you've got a leftover on a staff because you guys, if you've never worked together, like it's just you know, there's a reason coaches bringing their own guys.

But there was no I mean, there was no I mean, let's be real. If if Jurich was looking for a coach and the coach said, I'm not going to keep your oc who happens to be the brother and a successful guy, but he's the brother of our star quarterback who's a Heisman Trophy a candidate the following like, he's

just no scenario like it was. There was no scenario where Brom wasn't going to be working alongside Crackthorpe and they bumped, they butted heads a lot, and I mean, I mean the stories are out there, but like when things were going bad, Crackthorpe, I think was telling I don't know think he was telling Jurich this, but Jurich started to worry that maybe because he wanted Crackthorpe out, that he was sabotaging the Louisville offense, meaning bron which

is just ridiculous that he would do that to his brother's career, but his brother, I mean, it's just it's insane. But the paranoia was pretty high at that point. And that's bad blood, you know, that was that was That was an ugly, ugly thing to happen to Jeff Brom who again turned down Nick Saban in Alabama, only for a year later to be thrown under the bus and fired or I guess mutual, you know, it was a

mutual parting of ways, I think in the end. But he was out, he was They dumped Jeff to the curb to try to act like that was why the Crackthorpe parra got off to such a bad start, and we all, I mean, Jeff is killing it now and he's successful, so you can even add that to the whole story here of how awesome it is that he's you know, that he's home and look, I know, like it makes it even more awkward and difficult if you have all this the connection the story, and you know,

like things don't work out. But I don't think about that until I see things aren't working out. And so far, so good. I don't know why people remind me of that. Well, you gotta be careful, Okay, Yeah, if he ends up stinking, it's gonna be difficult. But why are you thinking about that? He hasn't shown us any sign that, like he's not going to be super successful here. Now will he get us to the championship? I don't know, but so far

so good. Quick break, come back on the other side, keep it rolling along here On Sports Talk seven ninety so, two people in the text line have asked the same question, just asked the little litle bit differently, and that is, is there any truth to Jeff Braun, the bron family, and Tom Jurich being enemies or having bad blood? Only they could truly answer that question in regards to like the like the emotion and feeling. But yeah, I mean that that was a tough situation. You know, I just give

you some I mean I don't even have to. I mean, I don't have a lot of background info. Like it's not like I was behind the scenes back then. That was a long long time ago, but just look at what played out. You know, Brian was entering his last year at Louisville and Bobby left for the NFL. So Tom knew he was going to hire, and he was really good at hiring coaches. He made some really good hires, but he made a bad one with Steve Cragthorpe RP.

But that didn't work out here. And I think Jeff was able to tell pretty early on that Crackthorpe was not like this, this isn't gonna work like I mean, I think Jeff had the confidence and himself as a coach, and he was already there before him, and I think he I mean, this is all just speculation on my end, but I would imagine that he was able to to see right away that hey, this guy's probably in over his head and this isn't gonna work out. And that's

exactly what happened with with Steve Kragthorpe. And you know, I think he expressed that to Tom. I would assume that he did. And in the end they decided to move on from Jeff and and you know, I'm sure he wasn't happy about that. I think at that time, he went down to work for coach Nellenberger at FAU and of course Brian went off to the NFL. But you know, that was that was that was probably not

a fun time for them. So even if it's not personal, I think those are things that, in my opinion, it's almost impossible not to take personal, especially when you have I mean, like Louisville football is in is part of the brom DNA, you know, so to be let go after you gave so much your family has Again, these guys chose Louisville before, like it was. I mean, not to rehash what we talked about yesterday, but when these guys committed Louisville, they did it because their dad went

to Louisville, they love Louisville, and they're from Louisville. They knew at the time they were going to a football program that was, you know, flat out inferior to programs that really wanted them. So then to be, you know, let go when you kind of know deep down that they're letting you go and yet you are a better coach than that guy, Like that's got to be a tough thing to deal with. And I'm sure the bron family overall, didn't you know, didn't love how that thing

played out the way that it did. But what really got weird was when Jeff was at Western and when Jeff was at Purdue. Obviously, you know, when Jeff was at both those schools, he was in Louisville a lot because Louisll was home to him, right, So he would come back to Louisville and do media interviews like I had him on the show when he was at Purdue.

I had him on the show when he was at Western, and he went on all kinds of other radio shows I'm sure did some TV stuff I believe to promote, you know, really basically saying hey, once you guys, come check out a game at Western Kentucky a loto WKU alum. Right. And then when he started doing it at Purdue, you know, it was a little bit of a stretch. But then again, like it's the Broms, you know, well, like Purdue wasn't a threat to us. Whenever Jeff got the job, I

wanted to see Perdue do well. And then you started realizing, Okay, these guys are are going up against each other for recruits, and Louisvill was losing recruits to Bobby at the end. So I say all that to say Tom hated that Tom would I mean, I never got the talking too, because I think shortly after this thing happened, it ended badly for Tom and for Rick with the whole FBI thing. But I had the Broms squad in studio to just do an interview. And you know, obviously they're representing the

school that they work for, and that's Purdue. And you know, at the time, we were cards Radio and it had been made clear to my bosses that that was a no no, like I made a mistake and that you know, I needed to be I guess, you know, waiting for some kind of a punishment or some kind of a

talking to because that kind of stuff happened. And I always defend Tom in a way because I think the reason he was like that about like media stuff is because he cared so much and he he really did build Louisville's athletic department to what it is not to say that, you know, others weren't a big factor in that success. They were, but like Tom Jurich really changed everything about Louisville athletics from top to bottom. Other than basketball,

of course, which is already well established. But hey, he brought Rick Patino in, and I'm not sure where basketball would be if that higher wasn't made at that time. So Tom did, in fact think you were insulting him, and he was taking it personal if you said anything about the programs, which is not how you should operate in that position in my opinion. But I always give him the benefit of doubt because I think he cared that much and he he's very loyal to the people

that are loyal to him. And if you know, I'm bringing in a coach to talk about Purdue, he he thinks that's you know, that's a no no. And to be fair, we were you know, we were broadcast partners at that time, so you know, I think that was just Tom being Tom. But there's also there's it's always been in my mind that like he was doing that because he didn't want Bram around any you know, he just it didn't end well between those two. So I'll

never We'll never know, and it's not relevant. But this question has come up before, and that is that if Jurich never got fired, would would Braun be the coach here?

And we'll never know, like it's just speculation, but I think there would have needed to be you know, again, I'm just I have no clue, but my gut would tell me that if that was to ever happen and it was Tom trying to bring him back, there would have needed to be you know, a good sit down for them to you know, probably air it out, probably do a lot of yelling. That would be my guess. Man. Just just looking back on all this stuff has really

reminded me how long I've been doing this. Not to say I'm some you know, old veteran, but like, you know, like some of the stuff that I'm referring to, there are people listening in their twenties, even late twenties that like they don't remember that because they were in elementary school or something. I mean, am I an og? John? I think I might be?

have a following. But you know, like there are people who launch their own shows on YouTube or just a podcast whatever, and they end up taking off and having a lot of success, like the way you can. You don't need a large corporation a media entity to give you a platform. I mean, you don't need that now like you used to. That still is a big deal,

and I'm very appreciative of what I have here. But you know, covering a team as a fan, a guy who's clearly not gonna hide that he's a fan years ago, like you would you know, the Capitol Jays, they thought, you know, you know they fanboys.

they present themselves. I mean, I don't I'm just doing my job. I don't care who wins. I mean, I'm not not like I'll have a dog in the fight. Yeah yeah, I mean like, I mean what, like then why are you like? They don'most like what do you do? I would just look at you like, dude, that's a weird hobby to dedicate your you know, your entire livelihood to covering a team that you don't care if they

win or lose. What like, you know, So doing it has helped me at times deal with losses because you know, I honestly being able to yap about it on the radio has been therapeutic for me. I wouldn't survive Kenny Paynair without that. That, So you know, I'm I've always never made it. I've never made it a secret that, like, I'm a big Louisville fan, and I maybe I'm in my own world here thinking that I can be a fan and still be objective. I think I can. But you know, do you ever ask this real quick?

and you can be. But like, we're gonna be beating teams that we used to beat fifteen, ten, even five years ago, and you wouldn't care. And now we're gonna be like, hell, yeah that was awesome. We're gonna know what it is and we're gonna probably have to remind ourselves, Oh yeah, forgot what this is, Like, this is what

we're supposed to do. But like when you've gone through what little Basketball has gone through the last couple of years, Yeah, you're we may people may be driving through the region here popping on sports talks seven to ninety after Louisville takes down the Morehead State and you know they don't They're not from here, and they're listening and they're like, wow, did somebody just win the national champ This fan base is fired up, Like I'm exaggerating, but like no, and

I'm here for it because it was just a big sad sadness. It was just sad the last couple of years. So I'm excited. And you know, I think, you know, Pat Kelsey is going to have success. I mean, how successfully is in year one? That remains to be seen. But you know, to answer your question, John, I think the vibes are going to be phenomenal. And we've needed those vibes for quite some time. All right, great vibes

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be happy that you did. All right, quick break will come back and wrap it up on the other side right here on Sports Talk seven ninety we've mentioned it many times that because we just are in caves throughout this, you know, three and a half roughly three out have to four hour window of the day, we don't really know what the weather is doing. But it sounds like we had a lot of storms. They canceled my son's football practice, so you know, I guess we needed the rain.

It's a really old person thing to say, but a lot of a lot of neighbor a lot of my neighbors. They had some some uh some orange looking grass.

It's I mean again, they'll probably have fun with it, because that seems to be the nature of a lot of people who go to that festival rain. It'll be they're gonna make it.

worked out well. I mean, they had a record crowd here at Bourbon and Beyond and I think there'll be a lot.