Andy & Ari On3 - Michigan State needs a new AD. Could Sparty hire North Carolina's Bubba Cunningham? Kentucky Derby Preview

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

(0:00-2:38) Intro: Kentucky Derby Weekend(2:39-13:19) Michigan State fires AD Alan Haller(13:20-15:41) Watch our show on YouTube!(15:42-30:59) Nick Roush with a full preview on the Kentucky Derby(31:00-34:45) Was Nick right about Nico?(34:46-43:20) Preview of Kentucky's 2025(43:21-47:51) Wrapping up with Nick(47:52-51:11) ConclusionMichigan State is looking for a new athletic director who is equipped to lead the Spartans in the NIL era. Could that AD be North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham, who didn’t lead the charge to hire Bill Belichick and who probably isn’t keen on dealing with the Belichick situation now? Andy and Ari discuss some of the wild details of why Alan Haller’s tenure fell apart in East Lansing. Later, Nick Roush of Kentucky Sports Radio joins to talk Kentucky Derby. Nick offers tips on who to bet in the Derby and in the undercard races on Saturday. Nick also breaks down Kentucky football in 2025. Will the Wildcats get back to the style of play that made them consistent winners under Mark Stoops? Also, Nick is waiting for the apologies from Tennessee fans who got mad when he called Nico Iamaleava an “$8 million volleyball player” last fall. Want to watch the show instead? Join us LIVE, M-F at 9:30 am et! https://youtube.com/live/zmaUr6fUKGY Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Want to partner with the show? E-mail [e-mail]

Welcome to Andy and Ari on three. Happy Friday. Kentucky Derby weekend. We got our Kentucky Derby preview. Never thought we'd have a horse on the thumbnail of the show. That horse is called journalism. Kentucky Derby and Nick Crouch, who the only thing he knows more about than Kentucky football is the Kentucky Derby. than Kentucky football is the Kentucky Derby. I would love to go back and figure out, I'm sure there's a story about it on the internet of how journalism got his last name. If I had a horse, I would name him Clickbait. I like it. I like it.

We do, the Clickbait thing's funny to me. We're like, this is Clickbait. I'm like, I would like you to click, Yes. That helps us sustain our business. So please click. But also clickbait does have like a horse's hooves. Like, like, does that actually mean something? Well, maybe next year. Or maybe there's some horse being born now that in as a three year old will run in the Derby.

Yeah, I don't know Equestrianism is that a word? I don't know much about owning a horse, but I know it's isn't it like millions and millions and millions of dollars to buy the right horse and get it trained and ready to go in this thing like aren't aren't these people in for like 10 mil by the time their horse even arrives at the race track. But then sometimes some somebody who bought the horse for 60 grand. Like the horse is just magnificent. The jeans all worked out right. And then they win. That doesn't happen that often.

But yeah, we should tell Shannon Terry to create a horse scouting star service. If there wasn't one already, like there's this publication called the daily racing form that is essentially what we do, but for horse racing. Oh, it exists already. I was gonna say, I wonder if there's any zero star recruits out there that, you know, no one scouted and has a big heart. You know, I don't know. I'm excited to watch this. I always enjoy watching it. Um, and joy playing, playing it, but, um, don't understand the first thing about it. So I'm happy Nick was here to walk us through some of it. Well, he'll be on later today. And, and I just want to kind of explain to you some of the things that you get.

With your on three subscription. This is a good day for that because if you go to KSR and read Nick's story on how to read a horse racing program, you don't have to be a KSR subscriber. As long as you're an on three subscriber, you can read that. The other really interesting thing you can read, and this feeds into our normal course of discussion, if you go to Spartan Mag, which is our Michigan State site. A fascinating story by Jim Caparoni breaking down exactly what happened with A.D. Allen Haller and why Allen Haller got fired yesterday and what Michigan State has to do to move forward in this era. Because basically Allen Haller, good guy, alum, dream job.

basically, Alan Howard, good guy, alum, dream job. The reason he didn't make it is because he thought the NCAA rules that don't exist anymore mattered and that he wasn't supposed to have much direct involvement in NIL and it essentially has kneecapped Michigan State's football team for the last couple of years. Yeah, and it's also too like that thought process two years ago is viewed as prudent behavior. It's like we were talking about how certain teams were being reckless at the beginning or pushing the boundary too far, you know, not considering that the NCAA might have some

recourse in terms of the compensation. And, you know, there were discussions about that. And it turned out that the schools that were most aggressive kind of were the frontiers of improvement. That doesn't come without drawbacks. Ask Tennessee right now if they feel like everything worked out for them. But I think that Tennessee's behavior

at the beginning of the NIL era was probably the correct behavior. Tennessee made the playoff. Yeah. Or she can say it would like Tennessee made the playoff. Yeah. Or she can say it would like to make the playoff. That's true. And is quite a bit farther away.

So I think- And from a Niko standpoint, like that was the big- Oh yeah. Move and it kind of backfired there at the end. But if you think that, but that's the question too, Andy. Do you think that how much they paid Niko was worth the playoff appearance? Yes. I do too.

I do too. In a word, yes. So like even though it blew up at the end,er part and speaking of contracts that didn't all get paid out, Alan Haller was one of the people at Michigan State who said, hey, we probably don't need to back up the Brinks truck for Mel Tucker because I don't think this LSU thing is real. And remember, Mel Tucker got that massive deal at Michigan State because they thought LSU was coming after him. LSU was going after Brian Kelly the entire time we found out later. Haller knew that, but got steamrolled by donors who wanted to make sure that Tucker stayed and gave him this massive

contract which they ended up not having to pay out, but that was because Tucker messed up not necessarily because of anything they did right. And it's so the Allen Haller thing is a complicated one because he did some good things, but also just did not have them in a position to compete on the football field. And that is ultimately what was his downfall. But what's interesting to me, Ari, and this is where it ties in to a story that we've been talking about all week is who comes next at Michigan state. The current president at Michigan State.

I'm not sure if they call it a chancellor or president, but Kevin Guskovitz is the former chancellor of North Carolina. He worked very closely with Bubba Cunningham, the athletic director of North Carolina. Bubba Cunningham is from Flint, Michigan originally. Bubba Cunningham needs to get out of North Carolina. He's had the board chair trying to run him off there. He did not want to hire Bill Belichick.

He was trying to do a more traditional hire. He wanted to go after John Somerall. I think he would have loved to have been able to go after Matt Campbell. And Matt Campbell was like, I have no desire to even set foot in this. So if you're Bubba Cunningham and Michigan State comes calling, I think you're on the first thing, smoking. It does kind of look like Bubba Cunningham is a lifelong North Carolina person,

though, doesn't it? Just by looking at him. I didn't know he was from Flint told us right now. He's named Bubba. It doesn't look like a traditional Bubba, but he's from Flint. He went to Notre Dame. He worked at Notre Dame for a long time, so he actually he's been in North Carolina quite awhile.

He almost took the Florida job back in 2016 when Scott Strickland wound up getting it, but Bubba Cunningham was very close to taking the job at Florida then. So it's not the first time that this has been a thing, but I think if I were him, I would want out of there, especially given the events of this past week. Yeah, and I don't know like how much if that blows up

as a reflection of him or if it's just kind of like. Well, I think if you know how the coaching search went down, it's not a reflection on him at all. Yeah. He did play the good soldier and go sleeveless Well, I think if you know how the coaching search went down, it's not a reflection on him at all. Yeah. Now, he did play the good soldier and go sleeveless at the press conference where he cut the sleeves off one of his sport coats. But I just think that given everything that's happened, because I think we're about two

weeks away from the one year anniversary of when their board chair tried to kneecap him on the first day of ACC spring meetings. Uh, like if I'm public cutting him, like you guys don't appreciate me very much. I'm gonna leave. Yeah. Um, and I would assume that Michigan State's probably a lateral move at the least, right? Maybe I would say so. I don't know if you like think that the basketball program, I don't know North Carolina's basketball program is story, but Michigan State's basketball program is like maybe even more consistent than they've been.

Um and um the football North Carolina is one more national titles recently, but Michigan State has been more consistent under under Tom is in the North Carolina has been and then also I would say that Michigan State's football program has been more successful in the last 15 years than North Carolina's football program. I don't know if that's how you judge these types of things. I would agree with that. But it's probably pretty similar.

But you and I have had this discussion going back to our old gig. And I remember having a pretty fired up discussion with you when Mel Tucker was coaching there. About Michigan State and what it can be now at the time we didn't know what the NIL situation was going to be. If I had been told, hey, you're gonna have a situation where the collective. Emails players right before the Iowa game in 2023 is like we're going to stop paying you now. I would have told you there's no chance this is going to succeed, but motivated Michigan State. Making good hires, I would think Michigan State can be competitive in football in the

Big 10. Well, the thing that's interesting when comparing the two programs to is just that like I think the um the discussion of whose football program was in a more advantageous spot to accumulate talent um three years ago and the same question now are different if you can't answer that the same but I still feel like Michigan State probably is in a better position as of now than North Carolina is because North Carolina from what I understand is not been a very NIL football friendly back to brings a truck up type of program. And the way that you can know that and maybe that's changed now that Belichick's there and they realize that there's a financial commitment in getting him. But

if you look at the recruits that North Carolina was landing before NIL with Mac Brown and then you look at the recruits that they're no longer even involved with afterwards, I don't think it was a philosophical shift. I think it was a financial shift. And like Big Ten money versus ACC money, like I think that there was something to be said about that. So like I could see that this would be a pretty solid move, but at the same time too, it's like which football footprint would you rather have? North Carolina, which I said yesterday on the show was one of the most underrated states in the country for talent accumulation, but then Detroit in Midwest is pretty, pretty fricking good too. So I don't know from that standpoint, which one has a higher ceiling at the

moment, but I like Jonathan Smith. I like, um, you know, Michigan State's ability, but I feel like also too, Michigan State's football program has been very dysfunctional the last four years. A lot of like weird things happening, like both with the former coach there, we all know how that played out, you know, the times. And if you read Jim Comperoni's story, it really lays that out well,

because a lot of that was guys, basically people aligning themselves with Mel Tucker or not and then how that all shook out. Really they're still reeling from giving Mel Tucker that contract, having to fire him the way they did and then every all the fallout from that. So what they need is somebody to come in and like Howler kept saying well all right the house settlements coming we'll able to pay, then we'll be on even footing. And if you were not really hard, charging into NIL,

and you thought the house settlement was going to save you when you play in the same league as Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State and Oregon, like you were lost, you had no chance. So they need they need to hire someone who's going to understand like there still aren't really going to be any rules. You're still going to have to raise a bunch of money to compete in the Big Ten. Yeah, and you're going to have to be aggressive.

I think aggressiveness is important. Yeah, so we'll see what happens, but this is a fascinating situation, fascinating story. Again, one of those reasons you get that on three subscription because Jim's story dropped this morning and it was like, okay, this is meaty. This is like, if you wanna go behind and we've got these team sites where people, this is what they do. They live and breathe these programs. So, Spartan Mag

for Michigan State, Volquest for Tennessee, Bama Online for Alabama, The Wolverine for Michigan, Letterman Row for Ohio State. Now, you know, we got the R rivals group coming in. So we got Tiger Illustrated for Clemson, Orange Bloods at Texas. It's a really fun time. Jayhawks, Slant at Kansas. This is a fun, fun time to be an On3 subscriber. So if you're not already, hit that subscribe button here on the On3 YouTube page,

which will cost you nothing. But also hit that subscribe button, the on three YouTube page, which will cost you nothing. But also hit that subscribe button at on three, which may cost you a little bit, but you will be the best informed college football fan that you know. So not too bad. Not too bad. Ari, we're going to go to Nick Roush now, but I want to tell the folks who are watching on Twitter, we love you, but you would love this experience more if you're watching on YouTube because you could hop in the chat and our chat is awesome.

The people in our chat are incredible. If you go back to yesterday's mailbag show, it's all from people in the chat and they really brought it, really brought it. They're my favorite people in the world. So there'll be a link just below the one you're watching and you click that and you can hop on YouTube with us and you join that chat and you can yell at Nick Roush if you're a Tennessee fan, if you're one of the folks who posts on the ball quest message boards and you would like to,

I don't know, Ari, how do you how should Tennessee fans feel about Nick Roush who, you know, last time he was on the show might have said something about Nico that they didn't like, that they probably agree with now. I mean, I don't know that they should apologize to him. Listen, you know, I think that you know firmly where I stand. I am the king of all Twitter. He wasn't right about what he said. He was, he didn't say that he was going to leave and burn you financially. He was, he called him a volleyball player.

And I think that the journey- I believe it was volleyball player who can't hit a go ball. But remember the Tennessee fans in their anger about what happened have revised their feelings on Nico, the football player too. So there's, there's one thing Andy, that we agree with now is that there's no going back. If you call somebody an idiot a year later, if they turn out to be right, those people who call them an idiot are vanished. There's no there's no victory lap on Twitter. It just doesn't exist.

I think Nick's about to take a victory lap. So he is. But I'm very curious to see how Nico turns out. but I don't know Tennessee vans. You had a rough few weeks, just just leave it alone. Just you know, plus. Next a Kentucky fan, he's having a rough year, so let's we'll see. But here here is Nick Roush talking Kentucky Derby. Kentucky football and yes, the Niko volleyball player comment. We're joined now by our friend Nick Roush of Kinsucky Sports Radio and it's a big week for

Nick. This is Derby week. He's at Churchill Downs right now. He can walk there from his house. What's up, Nick? I'm excited. I'm at Churchill Downs right now.

I'm sweating out of bed that I don't think I'm going to win, but you know, we're here to have fun. It's the most're here to have fun. It's the most wonderful time of the year, the anticipation for the fastest two minutes in sports, the tradition, the booze, the gambling. And it's not just one great race,

it's getting together with all your friends and just hoping that you can crack the code, that you can beat the track and that you can have the best time of your life. I had a wonderful time last year, even though I didn't have Mystic Dan, we had the three horse photo finish. It was emotional with my Okeechukie home plan. I got to walk around in the infield, my bare feet. I just, I can't wait for it all. I'm so excited. I haven't slept in like two weeks really. We got a full five

hours last night. I feel like buddy the elf. But I'm still ready to roll. Um we got a full five hours last night. I feel like buddy the elf but I'm still ready to roll because it's a man. There's we we wait all year for this. There's no time to chill out now. Andy, I don't know if you know this about me but when I was living in Columbus like

every year, all my buddies would fly in from all over the country. We'd rent one of those like cruising America vans and fill this thing up with like a thousand beers and we would buy inflatable pools at for kids at Walmart and a bunch of ice and we would like go to the Kentucky Derby like the Louisville football field parking lot and we would put the pools down on the floor fill it with ice put the beers in and they would drop sorority girl buses like school buses into this tailgate

lot and I went to the Kentucky Derby like it was like and then you would put the beer down into the pool and it was almost like putting food down in like the the animal kingdom and people would just come and it was just like there was a bathroom on the bus it was incredible and Nick I'll tell you I went to the Kentucky Derby like five years in a row. I don't think I made it inside to the race three out of the five years. And then the other I never once saw a horse and I never even placed a bet. I was blacked out by noon. Like the race doesn't start till 4 p.m. And it was some of the most fun I've ever had in my entire life.

So like, I know you're excited about the horses, but, you know, my memories don't even involve. And then one year we went and it was the night that the Kentucky Derby. That's what was the same day as the Pacquiao Mayweather fight. Remember that it was the same day. So we went and paid like five hundred dollar cover to go into a bar to watch the Mayweather fight. And it was like maybe one of the best days of my life.

And my best buddy beat Shani Fry at Hoop Fever in the bar. And it was just a fun time. So I understand your excitement. I don't know how you're sweating a bet out. Aren't they like two minutes? Like did you win? Like during my rant? Like did you, did you, I mean they're racing right? Did you hit? Yeah, we came in third. We came in third. So we just betted to come in first and second just so the world went in place. So you know, we're trying to get some good price sources. That's fine. It's early in the week, we had a great Saturday to build that

bankroll. But Ari, you're not alone. As much as I love being in here for the Derby. Now, there were many times, especially in the early 20s, where I had tickets to go Friday, and then I found a tailgate. And I just said, you know what, I can, I don't need to go in there. I'm having a good enough time out here. I don't need to go in there. I'm having a good enough time out here. I don't need to see the inside. And that's what's, this is great.

It's what you make of it, right? Like some people like to do all of the fancy hats and the frou-frou, and you gotta be a gazillionaire and do all the fancies. You don't have to have a fancy time to have a great time at the Kentucky Derby. And I hope everybody, even if you're not there, if you're betting at home,

just drinking, sipping a little bit of bourbon. So that's all about. It's about hanging out on a nice spring day and enjoying a little pastime from yesterday. I never once wore anything nice. I wore like basketball jerseys and like swimming shorts. Like it was, I was the what's wrong with the race. Nick is you. So you've covered college football for a long time.

You've been to some of the best tailgating environments in the country. Is the Kentucky Derby the greatest tailgating environment in the country? So I would. It's changed though. That's that's the part that's hard about this is it's a it's much different than what Ari and I used to go to, right? Where I think infield tickets when I first started going

were $50 and we thought that was extreme. Now it's like 115. So things are a little bit different. It's not as rowdy inside. And the tailgating, the tailgating is great still in certain areas, but like the RV lot used to be right out front and center. Things got really out of hand in the RV lot.

That was like top tier, tier one, like right up there with the Grove, just in a much radier way in all the right ways. It was awesome. But Churchill Dan's like, do we really want to have, you know, these these drunks drinking out of ice luges with the, you know, the VIP poles in the middle of the parking lot right by our twins bars? these drunks drinking out of ice luges with the VIP poles in the middle of the parking lot, right by our twins' bars.

I don't think so. So they've changed things around. It's a little bit prettier, but you're still gonna find people who are getting after it, especially like you said, in the Cardinal Stadium parking lot. I don't even know what they changed the name to now, but I can't stack it up to the Grove quite yet,

but I will be drinking like there's no tomorrow whenever I'm there tomorrow recording on Thursday, but for Friday and Saturday. My experience with the infield was that the infield during the race was just a tailgate during the event. Like everything in the infield from what I remember was just a bunch of hammered people running around in the mud.

Like there was no sporting event being watched by 85% of the people that go to that race. Like I said, I went there five years in the mud. Like there was no sporting event being watched by 85% of the people that go to that race. Like I said, I went there five years in a row. I don't think I ever saw a horse. I actually saw one of our colleagues, YouTube Trey, joined me in the infield last year. He came out to our spot. We almost have like a camp out sort of deal where we have a shade tree. It is our shade tree, our designated shade tree. We hang our contraband in the shade tree

so that nobody can see it. It is, like I said, it's a little bit more down back. You'll see a lot more people who are dressed up for Instagram. There's these dudes wearing wool suits in the infield, like it's 1950, and it was 80 degrees outside. You idiots, like what are you doing here? This is the infield.

Why are we taking it so serious? It is awesome when they have a turf race to get up right next to the fence and you hear them storming back I just as much as I like Take this sport more serious than most people The pure thought of being on the back of one of those thoroughbreds is terrifying I mean going 40 miles an hour just humming around the side like, not meant for me, not meant for me. I'm too big for that.

When I read the book, Sea Biscuit, Laura Hillenbrand's description of what you have to do to hang on to a thoroughbred as it is running that fast, like physically what you must be able to do. I was like, nope, never gonna happen. Not for me. I do wanna give, like if you're at home and this is just the one horse race a year that you watch, a few just basics, like a dollar exact a box,

that was kind of my entry bet into Derby. It's cost $6, you pick three horses and they gotta come in first or second, right? And like if you could win twelve to forty dollars Especially on a race with odds as crazy as the Kentucky Derby But throughout the day like that is just a fun nice little bet That can kind of get you in the action and we also made a YouTube video recently where I pointed out some stuff in a horse Racing program that can help you find out like just using how they finished lately versus their speed

figures can give you a good idea of how a horse has been performing as a weight but like guys let's be honest my biggest lick that I've cut here in the longest time was I tried to be Johnny program like I went through this thing all day and was just like hey I'm gonna be the smartest sharpest horse player ever and I lost my ass off. I was terrible I didn't I didn't win anything in this pouring down rain. We're hiding under a tarp to keep ourselves safe and This horse named funny duck is running and I'm like, well, I guess the duck horse It's got to be doing all right Like if any horse can win in the rain, it's this one and sure enough it won the pat day mile paid like 115 bucks

So point being guys, it's better to be lucky than good If you have some sort of name connection do it if there's like I'll be betting my kids birthdays, right? Like just go for it You can't go wrong with horse racing and even if you've got a little bit of just a little bit of scrolling on it Like it is so much fun So much fun to have some action while they're coming down the stretch and your horse has a chance to win. That's the thing I've never understood about handicapping. Like listen, I'll bet on anything.

I bet on the derby every year because it's on TV and you can bet on it. I mean, I bet on the 4th of July hot dog eating contest. I've just never understood how to cap an animal. I just don't get it. Well, some of it is just connections like one of the horses I like this year Final Gambit, one Final Gambit. He's trained by Brad Cox. He's my favorite trainer, right? Like, there's there's another horse out there. Rodriguez, who's Bob Beffert's horse this year. He's a front runner on Mike Smith, who's a two time derby winner. Like there's a lot of reasons his dad authentic won the

Kentucky Derby. So it's in his blood. They've got a similar racing style. There's reasons why you think they could match up. But a lot of it, the reason why journalism is the big favorite this year is because journalism just keeps winning. Right? Like the horse is won. He's won in different ways. So it can be tricky when you don't have your, you haven't followed this horse closely throughout its entire career. But sometimes it's just enough as you talk to the good old boy down the street and the wise guy says like,

I don't know, I think there's something about D-Wayne's horse this year. D-Wayne Lucas is 89 years old. He has his 51st Kentucky Derby entry. And I'll be a fool if I don't bet it to come in. So I'm gonna do a little sprinkle on American promise as well. I love when you said journalism keeps winning.

Like, I don't know if you can see the look on my face. I'm like, oh, you meant the horse. I thought you meant the concept because it is most definitely not these days. So the biggest story is Bill Belichick's girlfriend at this point. So, but that is, so journalism as we speak is a three to one, it's the favorite three to one.

I just like, that seems just too, like feels like too much of a favorite like that's as favorite as any horse has been in a while right yeah but um American Pharaoh I think was five to two and you never got American Pharaoh at five to two ever again and now I don't want to immediately say that this is a triple crown winner, but this might be your last chance to get journalism at three to one. And part of the reason why guys is, not only has it won in different ways, it got into a little bit of trouble out at Santa Anita,

it's stacked up good wins, its speed figures just keep improving every time out, but a lot of it is an indictment on just the rest of the field, where there isn't like a couple surefire other horses that you know will be up there. I mentioned some earlier that have a shot to be up there but they haven't been stacking up wins and so there's a lot more holes to poke in the resumes of others than of journalism's who might just be the

horse of the year and go out and win all the big races including Saturday's Kentucky Derby. You mentioned a name connection I've got a name connection right now because I've worked in journalism long enough to know the thing the What about my book right now in Journal 21? What's plus 215? Those are crappy odds. Yeah, you got it. You got to get somewhere else Ari, but publisher has the fun distinction. Maybe River can pull up a picture of the fighting finish. Publisher has started in seven races and has never won. If he does win, he will be the first horse, what they call break. It's maiden. It'd be the first horse to win its debut race in the Kentucky Derby. The last one was Broker's Tip in 1933, and that created the famous fighting finish

where the two jockeys are like slugging each other while they're coming down the stretch. There's a famous photo of it. That was almost 100 years ago. So, publisher, a bit of a long shot, but the other Steve Asmey's horse, Tiztastic, that's a fun name. I don't know. I got a weird feeling about this. I also get talked into all of

these horses the whole week. It's a Cardinal sentiment. I can't help it. I mean, there's a horse that's called journalism. There's a horse that's called publishers or a horse that's called layoff anywhere. I don't know. That one would be three to two. Yeah. Oh, Nick. So now we're talking about the Derby itself, but for those of you who are there, like how much fun is the Oaks the night before

the you know the the undercard of the Derby that afternoon? What? How much fun is betting that? You can win much more money on those than the big braces Now it might be a little bit different this year just because of some of the horses in it But those are always my biggest licks Another connection I always play it's grand motion on the turf last year

His horse trickery won at 47 to 1 and I had that one. It was a pretty good day I was buying beers afterwards, right? Like when you get one of those That's awesome. And that's why you do need to be locked in especially to some of the turf horses Some of the pat de ma like you can get some great odds You can win some big bets and the thing about Oaks two guys is it's usually my first day out there So that's that's when we we unbutton the top button. we're not working anymore, and we're getting after it. We're having ourselves a good time.

So there's a big favorite in the Oaks too, in good cheer. I heard somebody say that this is a great year for the one seeds, and it kind of sounds like that. It's kind of similar to the NCAA tournament, but that just means there's more money to be made on the undercard. So I think the one bet I'm giving out, I usually have one like,

let's just hammer this one horse every year. Torpedo Anna was the Oaks winner last year. She's kind of a super filly. I'm a little worried about her. I'm a little worried about trusting Mike Rapoli and Fierceness again, who's making his four year old debut this year. But there is a horse running on Saturday

in the American turf that's been good to me before. And it's starting at 10 to 1 morning line odds. Test score. That's I forget what exactly is, but the American turf, really like race eight on Saturday. I like test score. It won't be the shortest price. That that's one of those that I just I got I got a good feeling about it. It ran well at the Transylvania. Talked to some people in its barn. And the horse has been running out of his shoes.

The exercise rider said he was hanging on for dear life, going around the turn. So that sounds good to me, say less. So I like test score on the Saturday undercard. I love it, info from the barn. Now look, we cannot have Nick Rausch on the show, although first of all, you do need to go see Nick Rausch's guide on YouTube to placing your bets have Nick Roush on the show. Although, first of all, you do need to go see Nick Roush's

guide on YouTube to placing your bets, to derbying correctly. But this is a man who covers Kentucky football, covers it very well. But let's be real. You're a Kentucky fan. And sometimes you mix it up with other fan bases. You were on the show in the fall. And you said something that made the Tennessee fan and uh sometimes you mix it up with other fan bases. You were on

the show in the fall and you said something that made the Tennessee fans very very very mad. Let's play that. You see, it's it's there's never a dull moment. Vanderbilt's probably going to host college game day next week. They're throwing

goal posts in the river. Uh beavers, we're getting on that works, but it's still is fun. It's not always f specific team, but it is life from afar. So Tenni you're out there. I know triggered, but hey, I don dollar volleyball player

goal ball. So it's okay. It's okay guys. Hypo system's fine. You're gonna be fine. Maybe you'll find a quarterback who can hit some open receivers. It couldn't against Florida. You'll probably figure it out against Kentucky, but it's okay. As long as you're not winning national titles,

don't look like you're gonna be doing it with that guy. So find by me, have fun with that guy. I don't know where that was, Nick. But first of all, go watch the show back and then look at Andy in my face when you said that. And then also, I don't know if you know this, but producer River is behind the scenes here. Andy, did you get a scope of his face when he said that? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Cause he's a Tennessee guy. The last thing that the people of Pompeii saw as the lava came down. It was like, you know, he was he was more than Alonzo Morning GIF because he's thinking about, yeah, he's like, how can he say

that about Nico and he thinks back to the Florida games like, well, actually, that's kind of what happened. Oh, boy. I see the Tennessee title waves in your mentions, Nick. I am the worst guy you know has an opinion that might be right. Makes good opinion, right? The onion gift, that's me.

I'm even bald like that guy too. So Tennessee fans, I warned you about the volleyball player. Just remember this when bad things happen, who told you about it first? It was me. I told him, I told him about it. I told him, did I expect him to do a little NIL standoff? the shocked, absolutely stunned that the guy who came to Tennessee because he was chasing a bag, a bag that they bragged about being able to pay him, wasn't big enough. Can you believe

it? It wasn't big enough for the big bad volleyball player and you just hate to see it. It's a real shame. Real shame. Have any Tennessee fans written to apologize? Because I'm sure they were really mad when that came out. You know, they were very mad originally, but here's the thing. That was a big win for Josh Hyple. He stood his ground. He wasn't gonna be bullied.

And there's no way this comes back to bite him in the butt whenever Joey Aguilar steps into town. But at least Hyple's offense is so easy that he should be able to figure it out pretty quickly right like Just step right in and start pulling the ball down the field just option routes like it shouldn't be that hard Don't worry balls. You're definitely going back to the playoff No way you start snowballing down into six and six territory would be a real real shame If you lost the beer barrel in Lexington, I'm just saying

Seventh year's not Embarrassing with that? There's no way. Well, you just brought it up. You just brought up the name. Because. I don't know that a lot of our audience. Obviously the folks who subscribe to KSR know this and and and their your fans know this, but the non KSR portion of our audience.

I don't know that they realized, one, that Zach Calzada was still in college, or two, that he's probably Kentucky's starting quarterback this year. Zach Calzada is the, like, he was in the same draft class as Trevor Lawrence or something like that. I think that's correct, who Trevor Lawrence is now on his second NFL contract.

But Calzada's actually might be exactly what Kentucky needs because they had a real, they had real problems in between the years with their program last year. They went from this hard nose mentality team to a team that kind of just quit, right? Like you expected when Kirk Herbstreit would be picking stoops on the game day stage, it was always because you knew they were going to play a certain way and they got away from that. And I know that Calzada isn't a guy who's in the trenches, but they got a lot of really good linemen in the trenches who were power, uh,

G five players that were all conference talents. They got a lot bigger. They're going to be able to run the ball. And I think in Calzada's case, I'm, I am worried about how many weapons he has to actually get the ball to. But from a maturity standpoint, he has the intangibles that they need in that locker room to be successful. He can run the ball a little bit. He can make those crazy plays on third down.

And Kentucky's been at their best under Mark Stoops when they win within the margins. He's the kind of guy, this scrappy seventh-year guy who never thought he was gonna get back to the SEC that can win in the margins and it would there's a couple teams on that schedule that like it would just rip their freaking guts out if Brian Harsin's old quarterback came down there and beat him on the plates like that in a year where you want Hugh Freeze to turn it around. Things didn't go well for Calzada there. They didn't certainly didn't the entire Brian Harson era, but I can at least see a scenario where people are going to talk about Kentucky and rightfully so, but

they'll probably achieve expectations because Calzada can be their sort of Diego Pavia for the lack of a better comp. that can be their sort of Diego Pabia for the lack of a better comp. Where is the Kentucky fan base in relation to their head coach? Cuz three years ago, I felt like they would die for him and now it feels like they're dying. I don't know what's going on. It's not great, Ari. There's a joke going around this off season because part of Mark Stoops' deal is he can

be coach-speaky and people get a little bit tired of it. They get a little bit tired of hearing about going back to work. But what was unusual, a lot of it stems back to how he handled the NIL and the portal situation a year ago. It seemed like every time he put a microphone in front of his face, he had something to complain about. And they're like, what happened to the guy that was this angry, gonna fight you back in the back alley sort of football coach?

And it was gone. And he eventually changed his tune and he talked about how motivated he was going to be and he was going to be back. So people have ironically said called him motivated Mark Stoops. This isn't regular Mark Stoops, this is motivated Mark Stoops and that is the running gag around Big Blue Nation right now. And the thing is like there's like a little bit of grain of truth to it but it's mostly just a way

for the many people who have checked out on football and went all in on Mark Pope. This is how they're like self-defense, be like, please Mark Stoops, don't hurt me again, because last year hurt, and it wasn't just last year too, it was the two years prior where they underperformed and underwhelmed compared to preseason expectations. I've gotten quite a few mentions of motivated Mark Stoops

in my replies and it seems to be from Kentucky fans who are a little bit of a Bronx cheer there. Is MMS a thing on the KSR message boards? Is that something we're gonna see a lot of? Yeah, yeah. Cause I think Mark Stoops would have a lot more rope too with some of these fans. If they didn't feel like this was like the one opportunity,

he got him to the stage and now it might crumble down on top of them. There's a fear that in this new SEC when you've got a $40 million Texas roster coming to Cobra Field, that if you slip at all, you might never have it again. Right? Because we love Mark Stoops. He got 10 win seasons.

I've never seen a 10 win season before at Kentucky. It'd been 40 years, but he got him to a certain point and there's a real fear that he could get them off that point and they'll never be able to get back and meanwhile there's a pretty good ball coach down in New Orleans who's who's looming who's lingering who's played for you at that school who's assistant coach so there's a lot of please mark stoops don't don't leave us hanging out to dry and I, and I have a feeling though, that the motivated Mark Stoops fans that are just so done with him ultimately aren't going to get what they want because

there's something about this team where they're probably going to be just annoying enough and just good enough that Mark Stoops is around for year number 13 after a five and seven or a six and six season where they knock off a top 15 Louisville team at the end of the year to get to a bowl game and go to Birmingham. Well, like what does success look like for Kentucky though? I don't even like what do you like if things go well and motivated Mark Stoops like balls out this year with what does that look like?

It means they run the ball well. They don't get embarrassed. I think a big game is that Ole Miss game at home I know they knocked him off last year But Kentucky hasn't been a SEC home team since Ray Davis had what like 250 yards against Florida a couple years ago That's almost three years without a home game that game happened in September, right? Like winning at home is a it goes a long way to getting the fans back on board and Unfortunately, like I do think a six and six record while the bar has been higher. This schedule is

Incredibly tough and you you could see a scenario where they're able to scratch and claw and get to six and six Now beat in Tennessee late by rattling off a few Tennessee Tech, Vanity Voivod, like you can see a six and six, but for some, he might just lose the fans off the jump if they lose to Ole Miss and then take another loss to Shane Beamer. That's gonna be really hard for a lot of fans to get over. That's what it feels like, Nick, to me,

that the South Carolina loss last year, even though they played Georgia tough and then beat Ole Miss afterward, it felt like that South Carolina loss was the one that everybody was just like, oh, no. Whatever era was going on before is over now. I wouldn't call South Carolina a rival, but it is hard for one. How can one have success while

the other does too? Right? Like you kind of one has to be above the other in the ladder. There's no equal footing for either team. And Kentucky fans took a lot of pride in that because we had to hear insults from the old ball coach for year after year after year after year. And then he gets to South Carolina and you finally got him. And then you turn the table in that series and I want to say at one point Kentucky had won seven of eight and It was almost like you could lumped him in the category with Vanderbilt where this was a win on the schedule You could you could just check off and to lose it to a guy like Shane Beamer

Who is a big rah rah guy who loses his mind on the sideline? like that it and then the whole sunglass bit with him and Mark Stoops, like, that's when you, you wanted Mark Stoops to shove that guy in a locker, and instead, old Beamer balls just, he keeps, he keeps winning, and that, to lose in the way that they did, were used to be the offensive line team that was bullying him,

and then, meanwhile, they are just punching Brock Vanegra from the face before he can say hut. Like, that was, it was deflating the on it. You mentioned earlier on in one of your answers that a lot of people have gravitated to basketball again. Not that they weren't there to begin with. But from a fan buy-in standpoint, do you kind of get a sense that the football aspect of the program that was so proud and people were so bought in on the last few years of slipping,

just in terms of indifference? Or what's the word, Andy, for indifference? Apathy? Apathy yeah, I I don't know like The peak of apathy was the Joker Phillips era and that's why I have a hard time Criticizing Mark Stoops because he pulled Kentucky out of that which is a major major achievement But I do worry and I I don't think this is limited to Kentucky, because I saw this happen at South Carolina. You mentioned Spurrier.

Spurrier won so much at South Carolina that they started thinking beating Clemson's something South Carolina's supposed to do every year. And then they got really mad when they found out, oh wait, it's not. So like, it's hard at a place where they don't have a huge history of winning When you do win some and then it it sort of comes back to to reality

part of the the connection with basketball to is There was there's there was a very much a staleness within the UK athletics department where Mitch Barnhart Longest tenured ad and the SEC. I know I think judge Castiglione change it once Oklahoma got here But he's been here for 20 plus years. John Calipari was here for 15. Mark Stoops is here for 10. Like things get stale and people want to refresh and we got to experience that with Kentucky basketball. Like a lot of fans fell back in love with Kentucky basketball this year because of Mark Pope. The energy that he brought. just the general enthusiasm that he emanates

whenever he speaks, the different kind of style that he plays. Like, I think you see that happen with the basketball program. It's like, wait, if we can do this with basketball, with the Hall of Fame coach, why can't we do this with our football team? Like, why can't we get a fresh restart?

And I know that it's much different because he's the winningest coach you've ever had in your program. But I certainly do understand why that fatigue is there and why a hard reset could go a long way into bringing people back. But they kind of have done that with just the roster period where I bet 30 of the 85 scholarship players that were on their team last year, probably on their team this year. It was at least 50 as far as moving on, transferring out and then bringing new guys in high school recruits in. So they've done a hard roster reset. And I think they'll play more like the Mark Stoops football that people fell in love with. I just don't know if it's going to be good enough for this schedule to to win people back over. Yeah, we used to say

that Mark Supes has the best job in America, but we didn't know it'd go sour, did we Andy? We gotta find a new, like now we have to figure out who has the best job in America. I think we can actually put an end to that, like, and I know Mark Supes never liked it when we said that. So congratulations Mark Stoops. You no longer have the best job in America. I never thought I'd say that but it's true. I mean, so

get a new coach. Let's not ignore the the salary and the fact that even if it ends, they're still probably going to I don't know if they build the statue of him but he's still going to be a beloved and and look, the buyout is so amazing. People don't realize it's a massive, massive buyout that would all be due within 60 days.

So it'd be the greatest buyout. It'd be even better than Jimbo Fisher's buyout. So that's also why I don't think it's the best job in America because I don't think they're gonna pay it. And I just think everybody's just gonna be mad the whole time. Am I wrong, Nick? Am I wrong? Well, mad or motivated, you tell me.

Mad or motivated? They can be the same thing sometimes. All right, Nick, we need to let you go, because you have a lot of preparing to do, because the best two days of your year are coming up. Thank you so much for this. We will follow your advice as we watch the races and as long as no horse named layoff shows up,

I think maybe journalism has a chance. Yeah, I mean, best of luck everybody. Thanks, Ned. Enjoy your time. Let's catch some tickets. Thanks. Enjoy your tickets. That is Nick Roush and hopefully we will all follow his advice and it will cash in and who knows maybe journalism will have its first big W. And I don't know, really, since the Internet was invented. So go journalism.

Normally we're not rooting for the favorites, but I kind of have to at this point. So I do want some nominations. So chat help me out here. If Kentucky is not going to be the best football job in the country anymore, which it might not be now, because I do think the fan base is gonna be a little more demanding of Mark Stoops going forward.

We have to figure out what the best job in America is now if Kentucky is not the best job. Steve in San Antonio suggests Vandy. I don't think I would go with Vandy because I think Vandy is just inherently difficult. Like I feel like with with Kentucky you have a chance to get better, maybe not to compete for the SEC title, compete for national titles, but you can be pretty good everyone. You even have a 10-win season as Mark Stoops has proven. So what is the best job in

college football? Not what is the best football in college football? Bruce River, Missouri River suggests that's, that's not bad. That's not bad. Because I think that kind of come down because it post Gary Pinkle era, they were a little over their skis in terms of what they expected. I think Barry Odom fell victim to that I think Barry Odom fell victim to that. I think Barry Odom fell victim to massive expectations created by Gary Pinkle being a really, really good coach. Now I think Eli Drinkwitz has done great there. I just, my question is if Eli Drinkwitz keeps doing this well, do the expectations just ratchet back up and

all of a sudden it becomes unreasonable again? So I don't know what you need. The secret sauce is they'll pay you like one of the best coaches in college football, but they will not expect you to compete for your conference title ever. That's the key. And maybe nothing will ever stay that way. Producer River su suggests Nebraska. Absolutely not. They'll fire you in a heartbeat and Nebraska. So I don't think

anything could ever stay this way because I think if you win enough, then eventually the fan base expects more wins. They expect you to climb that ladder, even though you may be a program where you can't really climb that ladder. I think that's that it's a good question though and it's something we will delve into next week. But Monday Steve Wiltfong on threes recruiting guru will join us because there's a big quarterback commitment coming on Monday on Cinco de Mayo Jared Curtis quarterback from Nashville deciding between Oregon and Georgia. Of course, you will get the answer on Monday, along with probably some margaritas. So producer river

and all the rest to celebrate on Sunday, may the fourth be with you. Then Cinco de Mayo. Then we're talking Cruden. We'll talk to you on Monday.