2025-03-11- KSR - Hour 1

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Speaker 1: Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington. Welcome's Jay Darena March sixth through the eighth, Then catch club favorite and f You Tommy March thirteenth through the sixteenth, and don't miss Michael Pallisak March twenty first and twenty second. Comedy Off Broadway opened in downtown Lexington in nineteen eighty seven, and they're still bringing the best and stand up comedy to the area thirty eight years later. Four tickets call eight five nine two seven one joke or visit Comedy Off Broadway dot com Off Bway.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: Welcome everyone, Kentucky Sports Radio, Tuesday, March the eleventh. I'm Matt Jones here in studio in Lexington. You give Sewan the Clark's Pumping Shop phone line. We will We'll close the phones for right now, but we will open them later. A five nine two eight oh twenty two eighty seven. A Vision Auto glass Tex machine is seven seven two seven seven four five two five four in this edition sponsored by the TJ. Smith Office. If you call TJ, he'll make them pay. We are happy to have in studio. We rarely Ryan start things off with an interview. I can't I can't think of how many shows that's ever happened? Ever, can you no?

00:01:05
Speaker 3: Because you like to talk, so we like to talk to like to.

00:01:08
Speaker 2: Talk for a minute. But it's pro day for UK football, So Mark Stoops was nice enough before March Madness gets rolling to join us in here right off the top, Mark, how are you doing?

00:01:19
Speaker 4: I'm doing great, Matt. Good to be in studio, good to come talk with you guys. I know this is a little late for us usually, Yeah, we usually.

00:01:27
Speaker 3: Do it early.

00:01:27
Speaker 4: But you had surgery, is that right? I did have surgery. Yeah, I had to have ankle surgery. And I'm doing much better. It feels much better. However, today I woke up and it's a little sore, but hey, I'll work through it.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: So you you had to have surgery? What right after the season, wasn't it? I did? Yeah, you were kind of limping around a little bit.

00:01:46
Speaker 4: There, I was. I definitely was. It's just wear and tear on the ankle. There wasn't any one injury.

00:01:53
Speaker 2: You know.

00:01:53
Speaker 3: I had to have knee replacement surgery.

00:01:55
Speaker 2: You get in a while and I tell you, yeah, those it adds up.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: You and I.

00:02:00
Speaker 4: We were all just talking about my son and whether he's going to play college bon and he's not. And I'm totally okay with that, you know. I mean, I'm not the biggest guy. And so the body takes its wear and tear, and ankle was next. So I had to have ankle replacement surgery. That does not happen too often.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever heard of that, have you? Have you ever heard that? I've never heard that before. So ankle replacement. Why. I hope you're doing well, and yeah, thank you for taking the time spring practice. What started yesterday?

00:02:28
Speaker 3: It did?

00:02:29
Speaker 2: And how's it going? You like in the group?

00:02:32
Speaker 4: I definitely do, I think, you know, let's be honest. You've heard me talk many times. I'm never going to come on here and think, oh, this guy's fallen. But I love the group, you know you and I'll get into the weeds here. We'll talk about many things. Obviously, I was not very happy with the way of the year was. Who was nobody that cares about the cats? So things didn't go well. So you had to take a deep die, have a deep look at every thing in the program again and strip it all down and and take a good hard look at at the things you know, that we've done well over the years. You know, where did we fall short last year?

00:03:12
Speaker 3: Why?

00:03:13
Speaker 4: How do we get better? How do we coach better? You know and put put our guys in position to be successful? H you know, how do we get into the leadership factors and and bring that out of the team and and you know, and grow in that area? And then how do you build the roster? And well, I love the roster for this year. Let's put that Well, let's talk.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: I want to kind of do this in two parts. Yeah, maybe start with last year, kind of put it to bed, and then talk about what's what's upcoming. Sure, Uh, let's start. You know, let's start with with last year. It was obviously a year that was disappointing for a lot of fans. I'm sure it was disappointing for you as well. When you look back on that year last year and you say to ourself, Okay, it did not go how we wanted to go. Why do you think that happened? Why do you think it was? I think Mitch Barnhardt said a one year blip. But if that is what it is, why do you think it happened?

00:04:04
Speaker 3: Well?

00:04:04
Speaker 4: I think there's there's many reasons you know that it happened. And you know, I think that's a very broad based question right there. I mean, obviously there's many factors that go into it, clearly, you know, And I'm not just saying this. I know people get tired of it after being here twelve years, thirteen years talking to you. You know, it falls on my shoulders and all that. People are like, blah blahlah blah. I understand, but it truly is, you know, you have to look at why that happened. I mean, it starts with myself and making sure the leadership was what we needed it to be, you know, and you know, with myself, with our staff, with strength and conditioning, with nutrition, you know, x's and o's, you know, everything you know that we do in the organization, and making sure we're all on the same page. We're you know, pushing our players to the best of their.

00:04:58
Speaker 2: How do you think that might have fallen short?

00:05:00
Speaker 4: Well, I just think of it starts with us, right, It starts with us, and so we you know, like one of the things we did when we got back together as a staff and brought everybody in a room, we got off site and put us in a big you know, circular table and you know went at it as far as having a meetings for for six eight hours, you know, however long it takes just to you know, hear from every department and the things again where we've done well, where we fell fell short? Why And there's a lot of a lot of things that we could have done better, and you know we have to look at those things. Everything from again from x'es and os. You know leadership, accountability, you know strength and conditioning, you know nutrition, you know anything. And you know you've heard this same you know many years. If you do the little things, the big things aren't so big, right and and last.

00:05:55
Speaker 3: Year the little things were big.

00:05:57
Speaker 5: Well.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: Give but I think for fans there would be some value in specifics. I mean it's I think a lot of fans here they hear you say that and say, take responsibility. But give us some examples of like when you got in that room with eight hours and you said, okay, this needs to be better than that. Like what what are some examples of that? Oh?

00:06:16
Speaker 4: I think you know again, hear me when I say this, because if I say any one thing in particular, one thing I did learn last year when you lose and everybody you know, and it's bad. Whatever I say gets absolutely ripped apart. Right, I have to be a little bit broad stroke there. You can understand that I can.

00:06:34
Speaker 2: But fans want to hear, like our fans, SEC fans in general, they know football and they want to hear. I do think they want to hear more than a broad stroke of what what what could have been bad? Let's just take discipline. Did you feel like the discipline was where it needed?

00:06:51
Speaker 3: I mean no, how can I say it was okay?

00:06:54
Speaker 4: And and but I don't need that to be You can understand my point of view saying Mark Soup said this one was the absolute proble. That was one of many problems, right, And and when when I say discipline there, there's there's different layers of that. Right, It's not like our team went rogue and you know that's never going to happen under my watch. You know, was it is is dialed in as we needed to be clearly not, you know, clearly not. And and I understand that I take responsibility for that. That doesn't mean everything was all I loved our team was it was it where we wanted to be? No? No, absolutely not. We we didn't coach good enough, we didn't play good enough. We weren't disciplined enough, you know, we weren't physical enough. There's a lot of things, and so that is part of it that that I have to look at. And so again, if you let you know, a little thing, you know what I mean, slip by or if things go unchecked, then then it can become a bit.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Do you think that you think of that? I think do you think there was some There was some There was some chatter that would come out from the from the you know, just people around the program that said, you know, maybe there's not been as much attention to be on time. Do your reps do all these things? And that maybe some things got were let to slip. Is that fair or no?

00:08:15
Speaker 3: I think that's fair.

00:08:16
Speaker 4: I have to take that kind of criticism, you know, and when things unravel like they did and you have the season like you did, you have to be accept all that. And again, do I think it was completely rogue and things were No, that's never gonna happen. That's never gonna happen under my teams. Was it as dialed in or as tidy as it needed to be? Clearly not the results weren't there, and little things became big things, and so you know that you know that can't happen.

00:08:47
Speaker 2: There was obviously struggles with let's just start with offense on the offensive line. Some of that may have been like personnel were there. Other I mean, when did you realize you had an offensive line problem? It clearly wasn't what it has been a lot of the time you were.

00:09:02
Speaker 4: At Yeah, I think it was Game two, you know what I mean, When we go in there and and have the struggles that we had, I think, you know, we didn't anticipate that, and uh, you know, I think you know, Coach Bush, you know adjusted after that, you know what I mean to some extent, you know what I mean, Let's be honest. I mean, if you get behind, if you're getting in predictable pass You've heard me talk about this a lot. Certainly, if it's not a strength and you're not holding up, you know, and so you know, I think, you know, we went into the season, you know, trying to get the depth that we needed, the continuity that that I haven't had on the offensive side, and with the offensive line and with the offensive coordinator clearly caught up to us. You know, at a point and again, that's that's not fun, that's not good to go through.

00:09:58
Speaker 2: And something was Yeah, I mean, I know you didn't think you'd have that turnover at offensive coordinator. You went and you got basically a completely new offensive line and that may be something that just happens a lot in the portal era. Do you think this group will meld and has a talent level maybe that last year's group didn't. I mean, do you feel better about that position because it felt like we were a number of steps back last year?

00:10:25
Speaker 4: Fair you know, agree, I think we're better and definitely better. One thing that was a point of emphasis. We had to keep our good players that you know, are good young guys in place. Malachi Abba, you know, you know, we had to keep the Jagger, you know, and he's not young, but the guys we had inside, Jalen Farmer. You know, we had to keep the nucleus of the good players. We had keep them here and then add to it and in particular tackle, you know, we had to get better at tackle and we certainly did that. We certainly addressed that issue and we had to, I mean.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: You guys win a different way, at least from an outsider's perspective in the portal, Whereas I think a lot of the times in the past you'd gone and gotten guys in big programs, maybe didn't play as much as they like, et cetera. It felt like you went and got maybe mid level program, but guys who had performed started a lot of games. Was that a change in philosophy at all?

00:11:23
Speaker 4: You know, it was I think finding the right guys to come in and you know, fit in our culture, fit and play for us. That that that you know, had the physical attributes that that we clearly have to have, but also you know, you know, socially, the way they fit in the way they adapt to our program was certainly important. I think I don't know how much, you know, you've really dove into the weeds, and I really don't want to get into too much. But I mean, with the changing landscape, we've all talked about that for three years.

00:11:55
Speaker 3: It is what it is.

00:11:57
Speaker 4: But this last recruiting cycle for football, it'll go through that one more recruiting cycle for basketball. From what my my understanding is, you know, come July one, I think they're trying to put some guardrails around this thing. And so this last recruiting cycle, you know you had to make a move or you you know you were gonna get completely left.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: Do you feel like Kentucky going forward? I mean when I hear fans, I asked fans yesterday. I was like, all right, what questions do you want me to ask? Mark Stoops? And the one that came up the most was, you know, we're entering a new era. I say this all the time, like, this is a completely new era of college sports. You know, coaching, the x's and o's may still be the same, but the off the field stuff's completely different. Do you feel like UK and Mark Stoops specifically are do you feel like you're ready? Do you enjoy I mean, whether you enjoy it or not, Are you ready for this new era? Is Kentucky ready for this new era? Because it's a different sport in a lot of ways?

00:12:57
Speaker 3: Absolutely?

00:12:58
Speaker 4: I think the last these three seasons have been absolutely, unequivocally the most challenging. You know, at this point, you know, come July one, we're supposed to have some guardrails around this thing. True authentic name, image and likeness. If a young man can earn money, you know with his name, image and likeness, by all means he.

00:13:22
Speaker 3: Should be able to do that and go do that.

00:13:24
Speaker 4: The era of just truly donors pouring twenty thirty million dollars into rosters and just paying for play, that's been the last three years. That's gone okay, So again this has to happen. Now the judge has to rule on it. And in Hyeah, you know that has to happen. And you know, we have to actually get this third party entity that can you know, have some teeth and monitor you know, whether this is a true, authentic nil deal or not.

00:13:57
Speaker 3: Otherwise it's just who's going to pour the most money.

00:14:00
Speaker 2: Into But is in that system? Do you feel like Kentucky can be competitive? Are you eager? I guess it's a different way to put it. Are you eager to play in this system? Because I kind of wonder like if you're not, Like if coaches aren't, is it gonna work for them? Like? Are you are you ready to sort of go to war with these guys?

00:14:17
Speaker 3: One hundred percent? You know we went to battle this year. I do.

00:14:21
Speaker 4: I do love the team that I put together. You know, you know we will see. We went through one spring practice. I love and I'm not just saying this is not lip service. I love the way they have attacked the off season, you know, coming in and attacking the weight room, having the accountability, having the discipline, having the work ethic, you know, attacking the day truly, you know what I mean, watching all their weights, making sure everything's you know, buttoned up, so to speak. You know, I feel like it's been a great winner. Guys have attacked it.

00:14:52
Speaker 3: You know.

00:14:52
Speaker 4: We went into our fourth quarter drills, which we you know, basically challenge them physically and mentally and do some drills with them. And early in the morning they did that. You know, they attack that. You know, we started springball. We're off to the right start. I hear you. You know, I agree with you. You know, there's there's no defense on some of the things you know, and you know specifically or broad strokes, however you want to say it. Definitely some things needed to be readdressed. And I think, you know, we are off to the right start. I think we attack this portal. I think if you go back, if you look at it in a segment, we all hope as coaches, the most challenging time in our history has been the last three years.

00:15:36
Speaker 3: We hope we can move forward and attack it.

00:15:39
Speaker 4: And yeah, we have the rev share, you know, if that if that's then then we'll be on equal playing field with everybody.

00:15:45
Speaker 3: If if it works that way, we're.

00:15:47
Speaker 2: Going to take a break. Be right back. Got more questions from Mark Stoops. We're also going to get ready. The SEC Tournament is coming. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. If I'm nine two eight oh two Edy seven on the text machine, let me give some quick hitters to you that people want to ask. One person rates I want to ask Mark, do we have a general manager? You hear people getting hired as general manager for the football team. Is there an individual with that role at Kentucky.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't. It's none of the title, but it is. It's Eddie Grant.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: So Eddie Grant is kind of our general.

00:16:22
Speaker 4: Works with me, works with the budget. You know, he does many he wears many hats, he helps. What he's really worked hard at the last three years is raising the money that we've needed to get paid some of these players.

00:16:33
Speaker 2: And so the extent that so we don't have that as a title, but for practical purposes, that's him. Okay, I don't know that people have known that I had heard that is so when you're trying is that I assume that's an all year job of watching players, trying to figure out where you're gonna go. Who makes the kind of final decision of all right, this is it? Because I know you don't have time to watch all these who who we're gonna take that guy inste this guy?

00:17:00
Speaker 4: So you know, Eddie will Eddie's the general manager as far as helping me, you know, prepare the budget, raise money, you know, and then you know, decide where we're going to allocate those funds. And then we have a personnel department as well, where the guys in there with many people in there, you know, crew of people, and they're watching players all year long. So they watch high school and college.

00:17:22
Speaker 2: Okay, so there are people whose job is to look at who's out there on the scene.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: Exactly, and then it's like, let's say, okay, we need to tackle.

00:17:29
Speaker 2: So is the final choice of there's this kid from northern Illinois and then there's this kid from Colorado State. We're going to take the Northern Illinois kid. Is that you who makes that call?

00:17:40
Speaker 4: We we make that call as a group. Okay, obviously if it's an offensive alignment. Eric Wolford, you know grand offensive coordinator myself. I will say this. You know, with the free agent market in football this last cycle and the cycle before, it was kind of out of control, you know what I mean, what the value and what people were going. It's like free agency in football right now. I mean, you know, when you have eighty five free agents on a football team.

00:18:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, things could get out of hand in a hurry.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: So let me ask you about another person here writes, has Mark ever considered having a clock management person? I will say from my and you, you know, I'm a big fan of yours. My one criticism over the years of your coaching has been the clock mayorgs. But sometimes I feel like there's just somebody just to go, hey, if we call it time out here, it'll be thirty five cent just literally math. Do you all do you have someone in your ear giving you that information during the game?

00:18:37
Speaker 3: One hundred percent?

00:18:38
Speaker 2: Okay?

00:18:38
Speaker 4: I have absolutely, unequivocally, you know, go to the analytics on that on when to call it time out, when not to and all those things and when to go.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: So how does that work on game day, is there someone going okay Mark here.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm far ahead of it. You know, when we're going into the series, you know, whether we're going on offense or defense, He'll he'll be right in my ear saying, do not take one until the four minute mark. Okay, you know, and it's so uh that that you know, and so at that point, I clearly I go directly by analytics.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: What about like decisions on punt no punt? I used when you were here early it always felt like Mark Stoops is gonna put. Sometimes I would be going, gosh, I wish they would go for Mark Stoop's gonna put. In the last couple of years, it seemed like that's been more. I think you've made decisions sometimes I've heard you after games go I wish I hadn't done that, Like how do you decide in a do we go for it or not? Situation?

00:19:34
Speaker 4: I do listen to the analytics first, okay, and I will look at those. I think you have to look at what you know, who you are a little bit too. What what do you think you can you can do? You know who you're playing, what are their strengths, what are your strengths. You know, where is that I accept that. I mean, there's gonna be that criticism. You know, I don't take offense to that, you know what I mean? You go for it on fourth or not?

00:20:00
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?

00:20:00
Speaker 2: I do you consider yourself aggressive? Conservative? Like? How do you consider yourself? As a coach?

00:20:08
Speaker 4: I play things usually by the book, you know, for the most part. I think I think the big one last year was the the Georgia game, and you know, and that's it's really fairer, you know, criticism. I could also sit here and say we were in that game because well, well we were in that. We were in that game because of defense and field position.

00:20:31
Speaker 2: Do you so? So fans will say to me. Fans will say to me, how does this and what's your answer to this? How does the same team that played Georgia to the final play wins at Old Miss? Plays Texas really well, a little bit on the road for a lot, a good part of that game. Then have the results against Vandy the kind of way it fell apart against Louisville, Like, how did you just as a coach, how did you explain beating Old Miss on the road and then losing to Auburn at home. I mean like, how do you how did you explain yourself?

00:21:03
Speaker 3: Well, well, Auburn at home.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: I mean just but just in general, I mean, there was wildly inconsistent result.

00:21:09
Speaker 4: Fair, fair, fair criticism. I think you know, the the you know you go play. I've said this for years. I think people sometimes latch onto it.

00:21:17
Speaker 3: Sometimes you don't.

00:21:18
Speaker 4: When you play people in this league, you see weird stuff all the time. It is extremely taxing on our players mentally and physically. You know, where you hit something, where you're playing, where you're at right there, what your headspace is, what you're like physically factors into it. I can't always see that coming. You try to head things off. You try to make sure you're ahead of things.

00:21:39
Speaker 3: You know. You look at Bandy and and they had a really good year.

00:21:42
Speaker 4: They brought in a quarterback that had a great spark, They brought in some players that were used to that system. They played, you know, extremely hard. You know, we made that is a game that that we brought up earlier. The the you know, discipline and the problems. I mean I had remarkable players for me making making incredible mistakes early in that game. And you know that's hard. You know, that's hard. There's no excuse for it, you know what I mean. We should have scored the first three times we had the ball, and you know that that we didn't do it just didn't happen, you know. And then the Louisville game, you know, I think by that time, I don't know. It's again, it's indefensible. We've had a really good run. Yeah, but we are players, understand the importance of it. We embrace it. We we embrace that challenge, you know, we we were You don't hang it. We didn't play very good.

00:22:28
Speaker 2: Thirty seconds real quick? Do you want Do you want that game to keep going? If you go to a nine game sec Ski?

00:22:34
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do?

00:22:35
Speaker 2: You want to keep playing?

00:22:36
Speaker 3: I do. I think it will be a real challenge, but I do.

00:22:38
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, I like that because I want to keep Why can They may not do it, but I want them to do it. All right, we'll take a break, be right back here with Mark Stoops Cancer. Welcome back, take you sports radio. Let's talk for a second about this year with Mark Stoops. All right, So we I was saying, I'm not sure there'll be a Kentucky foot ball team that we like know less about as fans. So tell me about the quarterback position you're going to have, Zach Calzada, you got cutter. How do you expect that to go. Do you go into spring practice saying I think this will be our guy and if so, who would it be?

00:23:17
Speaker 4: No? I think you you know, obviously it's an open competition getting back to you know what we opened with, and you know you have to when you go through a year like that, you have to challenge every player and say you're coming in here and you're going to earn your position, right, no entitlement whatsoever. Everything's going to be earned, nothing's given, and we have to get back to that.

00:23:40
Speaker 3: That's the way it's always been.

00:23:42
Speaker 4: Again, we address some of the issues that I take full responsibility for, but that can't be like that going going forward.

00:23:48
Speaker 3: Nobody's going to be given anything. They better go win the job.

00:23:52
Speaker 2: And so do you think in the process of getting players you had to promise stuff before that you just decide you're not gonna do that anymore.

00:23:59
Speaker 3: I don't think.

00:23:59
Speaker 4: You know, yes, you know, in a way they feel like there's an open door, which there is anything anything. Time I've told a player you have a great opportunity. And so if you go to the quarterback position, you have Cutter coming back, who we have great faith in. But you know, let's be honest, that was the only one on campus. Bo Iron decided to come back. We love that just you know, to have that depth and experience and a guy like that. But there wasn't much on campus. Right, We're bringing into freshmen. So you bring in Zach Calzada. He's a six year guy. So I love that experience of that. Here's a guy that's played a lot of football. You go to the portal, if you go back a little bit of history. We took a shot on Will Levis's home run, right, yeah, you know, but didn't have much experience. You know, last year with Brock, you know, we brought Brock in, didn't have that much experience. Maybe you know, he could have played better, but maybe I could have done a better job.

00:24:51
Speaker 3: I take my responsibility. I've never put that on Brock.

00:24:54
Speaker 4: Right, we talked about oline issues, we talked about coaching, you know what I mean, that's all of us. But it could have been better, you know that. You know, with Zach, you see a guy that's played a ton of football. So I like that part of it.

00:25:06
Speaker 2: But like in Spring, are they both taking like QB one reps?

00:25:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.

00:25:10
Speaker 4: And I'll be honest, I made this, you know, with with uh what little media appearances I've made so far talking about Spring, and I will throughout the Spring. I really want to stay away from it. I don't mind talking about a little bit and all that because I know you have, you know a lot of listeners that care. But right now I want to make everybody earn it. I want to talk about I want to talk about like the position, the quarterback position, you know what I mean. They need to be a great leader. I love the arm talent of both of those guys. I mean, they could rip it. Both of them could throw the heck out of the football. Both of them are passionate about Both of them have leadership skills, you know. And bo Allen gives me a great third, you know, because he came back you know, to me, his arm is much fresh, you know, strong and fresh again.

00:25:53
Speaker 3: You know.

00:25:53
Speaker 4: I think Bo is the type of guy when he first got here during during COVID, I think the guy works so hard, you know what I mean, he he you know, set himself back a little bit, but he's back to full strength and a guy that I believe in, and so I just feel like as a room and then the two freshman guys that will bring along. But I think as a room, I love it and I love the top two guys wide receiver.

00:26:14
Speaker 2: You had two of the more explosive players we've seen here in a long time in barry On and Dane. They ended up leaving. So what do you do? You feel good about where you are at that position. I mean, it's hard to replace guys like that, but what is that? What's the game plan? Well?

00:26:29
Speaker 4: You know, I think once again, you know, would bring Jamori Macklin back because he played so well late in the Citiason last year. And again, I think that's an area where if if there's some criticism, it's like, you know, you had those two guys outside. You kept on waiting, you know what I mean, you know, for them to do things, and they did certainly. Dane was you know, very steady and reliable for us. And then you know, but then j mack we played inside, and then when we started playing him outside, we realized he's a better outside guy. You know, you know, he'd made some really tough contested catches late in that season. And so I think, you know, once again, like I talked about with the the the offensive lineman that we needed to bring back, it started with j Mac too, because he played so good late and again he has a ton of experience, so bringing him back, you got you know, you got Fred back. We brought in JJ Hester, you know from Oklahoma that has some really good upside. That's a tall guy that could really run, that that needs to you know, needs to produce for us. Uh, you know, you bring in Stiletto that's played a lot of football, especially when healthy from Clemson. You know, Kendrick Law that that gives us a strength in a build of a receiver that we had that I haven't had, you know, and you know, a ball and hand guy that's extremely strong and explosive, you know.

00:27:48
Speaker 3: So you know, I like what we've added there.

00:27:51
Speaker 4: David Washington was a guy late last year that we felt like, you know, was going to be a good football player.

00:27:57
Speaker 2: You in terms of a coaching staff, you know, the fans tend to say they see a position struggle and then they put it on that position coach. There's been a lot of talk about as we said the offensive line, but also other positions. How did you you kind of kept a lot of your staff together. How do you feel like, I mean, do you understand fans criticisms about that or do you think it's not really fair to say the offensive line? Coach?

00:28:26
Speaker 4: I don't you know myself. And I don't mean to be oblivious to this, because I do talk to you. I talk to media like I understand the gist of it, and my head's not in the sand.

00:28:37
Speaker 3: I don't listen to all that.

00:28:38
Speaker 4: I can't right, you know what I mean, I can't, but I will say this, there's you.

00:28:45
Speaker 3: Know, I understand the frustration.

00:28:47
Speaker 4: Heck, I was frustrated when Eric left the first time, you know, and hen I go go back.

00:28:53
Speaker 3: I can tell you this.

00:28:55
Speaker 4: There's there's not a coach that I've ever had that I take more or calls for.

00:29:01
Speaker 3: You know.

00:29:01
Speaker 4: The guy could go anywhere he wants at any time, and he knows the last time and he decided to go work with Nick, and you know, and I understand that, and it hurt us though, you know what I mean, the continuity. He knows that when he came back, we had those discussions and you know, both professionally and personally, you know about the responsibility and what we need in the consistency and the continuity that I need. He understood that, embraced that take. He's taken those bullets, He's come back. He he just recruited as good as anybody have ever had any any.

00:29:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you all did get you all did get a ton of guys.

00:29:39
Speaker 4: But I guess what, I'm listen to me on this in his defense, and I'm not, you know, I'm not. I'll defend any of my guys if I believe in it, you know. But he's a guy that's on the treadmill at five point thirty six am every day, texting twenty five recruits all day every day, working his butt off, and can can literally I don't need to start naming names. But like the biggest of the big in our profession, all called to hire him this offseason, you know, every one of them.

00:30:10
Speaker 2: So so you feel you feel confident.

00:30:12
Speaker 4: In that and his ability, yes, and his recruiting and is coaching in all of it. And and he's a he's a tireless worker, he's relentless, he's tough as nails.

00:30:21
Speaker 3: Believe me.

00:30:22
Speaker 4: Yes, the inconsistency of the continuity has hurt us. Yes, he was a part of that, but that you know again, that's the side of it. We accept it, we know it. Now it's about what are we going to do moving forward?

00:30:34
Speaker 2: Right are you do when you look at your your offense and defense, just philosophy, big time, big picture? Do you is there anything you want to change from what you had last year? I remember after Liam left she said, well, okay, we want to try to run the ball more, get back to some of that, and I think you did some of that last year. Do you see anything going into this year where you're like, okay, I want to see us move in this direction from a philosophy standpoint.

00:31:00
Speaker 4: I think just getting better at all things we did right last year. Again, getting back to some of the criticism. When you know, you we got into it a little bit. You know that it's hard to get into everything is as much as we need to. But when we talked about old line issues early, you know, in the season, and we identified that it's and it's kind of like package some things to what you can do right.

00:31:21
Speaker 3: We have to try to win games.

00:31:23
Speaker 4: I think we've done a decent job over the years with that, right, not always perfect. I'm not trying to pat myself, but it's like adapt to what you can do, and that's that goes into the factoring of what whether you go for it on fourth and ten or not, and who you're playing, can you get it?

00:31:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I mean.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: And so but you know, I think offensively, defensively special teams. Continue to build on the good things we're doing. And then yeah, we you know, situational football last year again not very good at times. And and let's look at critical moments, some short yardage scenarios that really hurt us. You know that I have to take response, but that is going to be addressed in the spring. There were a lot of like third one, yeah, most definitely. Yeah, let me finish with.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: This because this is the I think this is probably the sixty four thousand dollars question there are When I talk to average UK fans, here's exactly what they say to me, most of them about Marx Tuobes. And he has been amazing in what he's done here. He did stuff I never thought we could do at Kentucky, right, Like he recruited at a level that we didn't think. He invents, brought in players that we didn't think. You know, we had these ten win seasons, I didn't know if we'd ever do that, all these bowl games in a row, et cetera. And then they'll say, so he's done a great job. Period next sentence, I am worried though about the future. How do I know he's going to be ready for this next era? How do I know this next year is going to be better than the last couple. If you were to hear that, and you were to try to give a message to the fan base, it's why they should still be excited and pumped up for the future of UK football.

00:33:06
Speaker 4: What would you take well, I would say Number one, I hear them and I accept, you know, the criticisms one hundred percent. I'm not, you know, so hardheaded where you know I'm gonna I'm not going to try to embrace any challenge, any obstacle to get better. You know, you could take this or leave it, Matt. And you know I've never been you know, as motivated as I.

00:33:35
Speaker 3: Am right now.

00:33:36
Speaker 4: No, you know, if you know anything about me, I do not like an ass kicking and and you know, and we didn't play to our best last year, and you know, I could guarantee you since that season was over when we lost on Saturday against Louisville. Our butts were in that office on Sunday and have not stopped since. We're going to attack this thing. We have to put the pieces together. We have to strategically, you know, get better and put them in a position to be successful. But it came with building a roster. That was the first thing I had to do. We've done that. Then it comes with absolutely demanding excellence from them and in leaning on them twenty four to seven in a way, you know what I mean, in a very positive manner, but you know, in keeping them accountable and making sure you know, they have the leadership qualities that it takes to be successful, to stay united through you know, challenges, because there's going to be obstacles when you play in our league. You're going to hit adversity and how do you handle that? And do you have the roster, do you have the depth, do you have you know, the preparation that it takes. We're leaving no stone unturned. We're working our tail off. I love this place. I've been here twelve years going on thirteen, and I promise you.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: You know, I'll be honest with you.

00:34:55
Speaker 4: I've never you know, I'm emotional right now talking about because Maas wants to get back to the office to work and make this team better. That's that's what I could guarantee you, and I could guarantee you that they're gonna play with the same level of competitiveness, that we always have the same chip on our shoulder, the same discipline. We're not gonna be perfect, but we're gonna play hard, and you know we're gonna do things right.

00:35:15
Speaker 2: Mark. Thank you very much. I'll let you get back to your office to go do that. And good luck with pro day today and uh, I hope it goes well. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks for shuting. We're gonna take a break. We'll be right back to Kentucky Sports Radio. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio AFI. I'm nine two eight twenty two eighty seven. This segment sponsor by Cornbread Hemp. If you need rest, relaxation and all the great stuff from corn Bread Hemp, you make sure if Daylight Savings time is messing up your sleep. Corn Bread Hemp Sleep Gummies full spectrum flower only Hemp, CBD gummies no next day grogginess. That gave some mounted our free at our show the other day thirty percent off use my co KSR check out. It is corn bread hemp. All right, So guys, Mark was here. I thought he finished very strong with his sort of take there at the end. What did you think of? What did you think of? Mark?

00:36:08
Speaker 5: Just as a fan listened to him, I heard some things I needed to hear. You know, he took it, didn't didn't make excuses. You know, he took responsibility for a lot of things that happened last year. And if you're a media person in this town and you cover UK football, there were some golden nuggets and what he said there in forty five minutes, I mean they were.

00:36:22
Speaker 2: Mister media guy, what are the golden nuggets, mister scoop, I'm a respected member of the miya the football one of the golden nuggets.

00:36:29
Speaker 5: Well, like, I think that's the first time I think public he's talked about the problems with culture and the problem with the offensive line. You know, I think that was some.

00:36:37
Speaker 2: He did acknowledge the culture, Yes he did, which she did I think is important. I think it is because everybody around the program knew that, and like it felt like nobody was saying it. Uh he did. I thought that was good, Drew. Nice to have you here this first time you spoke.

00:36:53
Speaker 6: I think, yeah, hell hello over on, Yes, good to see everybody I got met, you know, mostly in you was all right.

00:37:01
Speaker 2: You know, didn't fire me up at the end.

00:37:02
Speaker 6: He got me fired up a little bit when he said because a lot of people have questioned his motivation when he said, I'm emotional to get back to the office to fix this right now. Yeah, I hate an ass kicking. I thought that was a great answer. I mean, we all know that he knows it didn't go well. But I think there's been a lot of people wondering how much gas is left in that tank. And I can tell you just sitting across the table, that is a guy that is pretty motivated, or at least seemed that way to go fix everything that went wrong?

00:37:26
Speaker 2: Is that the first time? Am I right? That? Like it's been acknowledged that Eddie gran was the gum first I've heard that. Yeah, I knew that that's what it was, but I don't know that they've ever said that even though he said it wasn't the title.

00:37:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, not the title, but he's acting as the team general manager. Yeah, which in this day and age, you got to have somebody like that.

00:37:45
Speaker 2: Oh, you definitely have to have somebody. Yeah, I mean you and and I think Eddie's been doing it a lot on the fundraising side, but the picking players side, I think is also a big part of that too.

00:37:57
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's mentioned now helpful EDI's been in the past conferences, and Eddie does do a lot of fundraising, but I think that's the most open he's been about actual roster management and Eddie's rolling that. But I know Eddie leading the charge on getting the money for an ale.

00:38:10
Speaker 2: Shannon, You're harder to convince on everything. What did you think of it?

00:38:13
Speaker 7: I think Stoops is always at his best when he's on this show. He's just so open and honest. He took responsibility, he sounded like he had energy. I think his best segment was the last one. So we ended on a hoigh cost and I think maybe the most important thing I heard is that he would be interested in keeping the lovel game on the schedule for next season.

00:38:30
Speaker 2: Yeah. That was interesting. I mean, that was an interesting comment. Like I don't know that anyone else at UK has said that, but they need to be because.

00:38:37
Speaker 5: Another golden nugget at local.

00:38:39
Speaker 2: Media there golden nuggets. Was there a bunch of old golden nuggets? You like the golden nuggets?

00:38:44
Speaker 5: He was just dropping them for you guys, making your job easy today.

00:38:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I overall listen, I think it's very difficult whenever you've had success to all of a sudden have to deal with failure and and what you say. And I've always thought of Mark as like a guy who you know, I don't think he's stubborn in the way that I thought Cal was stubborn, but he's also like he wants to defend himself, and I think sometimes it's hard for those people to just go, you know what, it didn't work right, And I feel like he's getting closer to that. That's not easy. It's not easy to do something that fails when you're a successful person and just say this failed. I've talked about like when I did worked at CBS, it just kind of failed. Like I just the two people I worked with it was me, Matt Norlander and Jeff Borzello. We were all hired at the same time. Those two guys are two of the national college basketball writers, and I'm not it just didn't work. But that just did not work for me. Sometimes that's hard to just go, you know what, I just failed, And I think Druy's getting closer to that because I just don't know how you can look at last year is anything except it didn't work. But in order to make it better, I think you have to acknowledge the failure.

00:40:06
Speaker 6: Yeah, he did that as best he could. He didn't get too specific on some things. I could have wanted to hear more, but really just you got to give the man credit for sitting here for fifty minutes. People didn't hear this, but you said, how long do we have you? He said, as long as you need me and as many questions as you have. Because they have pro day at eleven, he's gonna be late for that. I know, we get accused. The defendant stoops a little bit. Not many coaches would have just done what he just did.

00:40:28
Speaker 2: And by himself. Okay, that's another thing. Like a lot most of the time, if coaches come, there's gonna be media people sitting here and they're gonna look at you like, don't ask that He came here by himself, right he You know, I do give him credit for that. Look, I don't know him well. Like I talked to him earlier today and it was the first time I'd talked to him and you know, since the season ended. But I also think like he seems like a guy who when the when when the criticism, it does hurt him and he really wants to show people he can he can fix it. And you know, this year will ultimately decide the tail ran like it is what it is. The results are going to be what they are, and we'll see what happens.

00:41:13
Speaker 5: Yeah, you're right, whether you're a coach or whatever you're doing in life, if you have great success and all of a sudden there is a blip.

00:41:18
Speaker 3: If you're a good leader, you do exactly what he did.

00:41:20
Speaker 5: You take it head on, you don't take you take responsibility, you don't make excuses, and you promise that it's not gonna happen again. And I think we heard that from our coach today.

00:41:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, you always say our coach very much like if it's funny how you say that, you you you're big on our coach. Are he's our he's our coach From being Mark Pope too. Yeah, it's like you do you consider these people to be like your family.

00:41:44
Speaker 3: I would welcome into my house for Christmas anytime.

00:41:48
Speaker 2: The parties, that's true, the players are. I don't know if we have a pull party this year. Dane left the pool.

00:41:53
Speaker 3: Parties may be over.

00:41:53
Speaker 2: They would be weird if you did. Yeah for a poll party. Yeah, I shut up, mister. Don't invite us of the Christmas party. There's nobody that can talk about that less than you. Al Right, we are gonna talk basketball when we return. This is Kentucky Sports Radio.

00:42:10
Speaker 3: Your mind did sound a little