KSR - 2025-10-03- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

KSR is live from Shady Rays at the Oxmoor Mall. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories,

their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor?

It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports.

From the Bob and Tom Show in Tosh Point O, Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington, welcomes Greg Hahn, October 2nd through the 4th. And from Chelsea Lately and Comedy Central catch John Caparillo, October 10th and 11th. Then it's a clean comedy show featuring the hilarious Greg Warren, October 16th through the 18th. For tickets to all comedy off Broadway shows, call 859-271 joke or visit Comedyoff-Broadway.com. This is Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome, everyone. It is Kentucky Sports Radio Friday, October 3rd.

I'm Matt Jones here in Louisville, Kentucky, and an absolutely great crowd at Shady Rays in Louisville at the Oxmoor Mall. You can give a shout to Clark's Puppet Shop phone line, 859.9. 280 2287. The A Vision Auto Glass Text Machine is 772-724, although I don't have access to it right now, but that's okay. And this edition is sponsored by T.J. Smith Law Office, you call T.J. O'Make-May, guys, nice to see you all after a little bit of time off. Welcome back. Yeah. How about our boy back finally after forever? We are here at Shady Rays in Louisville. I want to thank this crowd. Okay, so I've been gone now. About three weeks, I come in. This is without question. the best crowd we've had at Shady Rays in Louisville, and one of the better crowds we've had in Louisville

for a non-UK-UFL preview game, maybe of all time, Ryan. This is a great way to come back into the States and get going is looking at this massive set of blue in Jefferson County. Well, Drew and I, we tried to rally the troops yesterday and said, hey, let's welcome Matt back home the right way. Let's all show up in blue. Let's all show up at Shady Rays and welcoming back to the airways. Perfect timing.

Way to go, people. Yes, thank you. And for Shady Rays here, while you're here during the show today, Louisville, buy one, get one 50% off in Shady Ray's here in Louisville. But it's only during the show. Buy one, get one, 50% off. They just show me they have a new bourbon, Drew, sunglasses, and if you get it, the case comes with the UK state flag on it, which I think is very nice. Got the handshake going on there. How are you doing? I feel like I've talked to you because of cover zero, although I feel like I've not talked to anyone else in the world except you.

I've tried to give them updates. I feel like I've had stolen Matt time with our cover zero twice a week, So I've tried to let them know how things have been going, but I know you have a lot of stories to tell. Well, I'll do it through the course of the show. I got back last night after a 16-hour flight from Johannesburg to New York and then New York to Louisville. Awesome trip. I'm sure over the course of the next week or two, I will tell stories about it. But overall, absolutely awesome. South Africa was great.

It is beautiful. I would say Cape Town is probably the most beautiful city. I've ever been to in the world. Wow. Just visually. Mountains surrounding it, ocean. It's just absolutely beautiful place. Went on a safari, which was unbelievable.

You know, I had an elephant from me to you sitting there staring at me. Made me a little nervous a couple times, but that was all right. Lions, you know, rhinos, hippos, and like, not just seeing them, but they're right next to you. And there's nothing in between you and them, which is a lot. Yeah. And then Johannesburg, you know, might be the most chaotic place I've ever been on earth without question. You know, statistically, it's one of the most dangerous cities in America. And while I didn't feel danger necessarily, I can totally see why that is the case.

But overall, one of the best trips I've been on in my life, Ryan, I absolutely loved it. Like I said, we've got a million questions, but I think one thing everybody wants to know is, did you really sleep in a tent? I did sleep in a tent. Now, if you watch the video on Instagram, it looks a little more sparse than it was, but it was a tent. You know, I mean, it had just a lining on it. It was a nice tent. I'm not going to act like I was roughing it. It was a nice tent with a nice bed, but I did sleep in the, as they call it, in the bush out there, Drew, with the animals.

There was an electric fence between us and them, so they couldn't come into our rooms. But I got up one day, looked outside, and there were, you know, these little, they call them spring box. just running around right up next to your tent. I think they call that glamping. It's in the camping family. You just have a nice thread count on your sheets, but you were still out there in a while. Did you repel?

I know that's one thing you were worried about. Well, I did not repel, but the reason is what was the bigger theme of the trip, which is I broke my phone quickly into it. Now, if you didn't listen to Cover Zero, I broke my phone by spilling coke on it in my pocket while going to Nelson Mandela's prison, Shannon. That was, which is not how most people lose their phone.

A pocket Coke. I've never heard of it. It's interesting. I had a pocket Coke. I'll tell you the story in a minute, but I had a pocket Coke. But what it led to is, you know, I was there 18 days. Starting on day five, I didn't have a phone. And, you know, it's not crazy to say I'm pretty reliant on my phone.

But I would argue, even if you all aren't as addicted to your phones as I am, It is a nerve-wracking experience to be in a country you do not know, in places that you do not know, some of which are places that are a little sketchy without a phone. And really no way to communicate, because when I tried to log into things, they would all send verifications to the phone that I could not get to. So the only thing, I couldn't send text messages. The only thing I could do is I message, but I could only I message people who I had talked. to on my iPad before, which was only like a handful of people. It was like my mom drew,

you know, probably 10 people total. So if you weren't one of those 10, I could not communicate with you, couldn't get into any apps, any social media, except for some reason, Instagram, and otherwise was just kind of cut off from the world. I had no ability to communicate. And that is when you are in a place that you do not know, just think about like Uber. if I had to go out, I had to figure out how am I going to get home? I can't call a taxi. I don't have a phone. Right.

You know what I mean? There was just no, like you literally had to sit and think, okay, if I go there, how am I going to get back? And that was the whole thing. Because I like to just roam, couldn't quite do that. This is the first time I've communicated with you since you left. And to your point, I don't even want to be in St. Matthews without a phone, let alone South Africa. So I can't even imagine how it would be without your phone for that long.

Being in Johannesburg without a phone is probably one of the few times. I've ever been where I was like at every move trying to think, okay, what do we do here? What do we do here? And I'm with a group of people. The second half of the troop, though, the eight women, I don't know those people, really. You know, so that also made it Ryan different. I think it would rattle anybody to be in a foreign country with no access to the people in case you need to reach somebody. I guess you told the story to Drew about the yogurt shop.

I mean, that was early on. By the way, when I went back, I saw that I could have gone to the yogurt shop on my own, Drew. I think I would have been fine. I don't think anything would have happened to me in that neighborhood. Well, that was like when you first got there. You were still on high alert. But it was an awesome trip. Those of you that do follow me on Instagram, which is KY Sports Radio,

thank you guys. You were honestly my connection back home. People were sending like DMs and messages, and it was great. So I want to tell stories as we go. I missed. I didn't get to watch, Ryan, any of the Kentucky games. Didn't see any of Eastern Michigan. Didn't see any of South Carolina on the flight home yesterday.

I watched the first half of the South Carolina game, and I was so disgusted somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean that I stopped it at the end of the first half. So that's kind of where I am on having watched the games. I think it's fair to say that second quarter of the South Carolina game is one of the worst quarters of UK football in a long, long time. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Offense couldn't move the football defense.

Well, the defense had a couple short touchdowns I gave up, but what do you expect? you know Tom Tom Hart did reference I heard he made a lot of references to my trip Is that right? Yeah he said It's like seeing a giant tortoise on the beach one day

And penguins on the beach the next day Did see penguins Let me tell you something When you're with a group Drew of eight women They get very excited about the penguins I mean Who doesn't get excited about the penguins I mean I didn't realize penguins

Were as big a deal to people They were very excited about the penguins Did you have an animal that you were really excited to see Did you freak out over like a a hyena or you told a story about some bamboos? Yeah, so when the elephants get so close to you, I don't know, Shannon, that's

kind of cool. I mean, those are massive you know, anything, those are massive beans. And when they come up right next to you and their little snout comes out and it's probably from me to you. Yeah. And you just go, wow. Did you give us some peanuts? No, I mean, they were very adamant about do not stick your hands

out. There was a story, I don't know if you're aware of this. There was a, a, well, old story about somebody in South Africa just a couple of days ago that got attacked by an elephant in South Africa. And I thought, I hope that's not bad. But I can totally see how it happens because you start thinking about them like their toys. Yeah. You know, because they're just right there and you're like, aw, isn't that sweet? Yeah.

But they're not sweet. You don't want to cuddle up with an elephant. They're not sweet. And then the hippo, now we were farther away. But, you know, I don't know if you've ever seen videos of hippos. Like those are, it's not like the little hungry, hungry hippo. Right. Those things will come after you.

And so, yeah, I mean, it was very cool, but, you know, there's a lion from, like, me to that woman right there. Those kind of things are. What kind of defense did you have? You don't. I mean, they had a, the woman that was driving us around, I think she had a gun. So if like things got, but, you know, where you go? I don't know if a gun stops an elephant, to be honest with you.

Well, elephants are big. You're not going to outrun it. it. No, not me, especially. It's the old line. You just got to be faster than those eight women. You got to be faster than the elephant. Or at least one of them. Yeah. So the eight women, so first of all, the first eight or nine days was me on my fellowship. It was all in Cape Town. That was great. You know, that was, I love those people. They've become good friends of mine. And then it was me and eight women for the next 10 or 11 days

that I did not know, ended up really liking all of them. But that was a transition. being one man with eight women, you know, you had to get used to it. They ended up being great, and I liked all of them, and they're there from all over. But, you know, I was like, it's weird to be the, I don't know that I was the manliest person, to be honest with you, right? Just because, you know, I'm not that alpha, but I kind of had to be for this trip. Well, that's what I was going to ask you. Did they hold your hand and walk you through some of the things? No, no, no, no. It's South Africa is like a very patriarchal society.

Like everyone talks to the man, which is, you know, that's weird. Like, everyone talks to the man. So, like, I had to – people would come to me like I was a spokesperson for the group, and I wasn't. I mean, I learned when you went to Mary over here. You're like, where y'all want to go? That's where I'll go. Right? I sound like you, Ryan, but that's true when I have eight of them.

Wherever y'all want to go, I'll go. So I ended up being very differential. I probably talked less on the second half than you. You wouldn't be even recognized. Maybe you need to add some females to KSR. I think that's how we get Matt to finally stop talking as much. But I would say, though, you know, if. What a jerk.

You don't you want? Okay. Welcome back. No, if I walked around, though, and I saw one guy with eight women surrounding him, I'd like, I five, man. You're the man. You had to be the most popular guy in South Africa. There is no doubt that some people talk to me like these were my eight wives. You're a reality show.

No, I mean, they did. Some people would talk like that, and I'd be like, no. It's not like that. They're just teaching me how to repel. But I didn't get to repel to answer your question. I didn't get to repel because that was the day I was trying to get my phone fixed. But I broke my phone. If you didn't listen to Cover Zero, I told this story on there in more detail.

We got on a boat to go to where Nelson Mandela was held in prison. It's called Robin Island. And if you ever get to go, highly recommend going. I mean, Nelson, 27 years in prison is one thing to hear about. It's another thing to see. and it's an island about four miles off the coast of Cape Town. You have to take a boat. It's very rocky weather.

So like this is where the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean come together, and it makes it very bumpy and rocky. The boat trip was very, very rocky. And they said, make sure you sit down so that you don't fall. So I had a seat, right? And then this woman comes over to me. She's probably in her 80s, 90s. from the rural parts of South Africa.

She was with a group of 10 women who were coming to Robin Island for the first time. It was clearly very special to them, right? These 10 or 20 women. You know, they're like grandmas. And you know I have a soft spot, Ryan, for grandma. Yeah, you really do. I have a soft spot for grandmas. And if 10 or 20 women are coming from rural South Africa to see Nelson Mandela's prison for the first time,

Drew, that's a heartwarming story. And who am I to get in the way of that? So I help these women on the boat. I help, because safety is not a thing they're big on a lot of stuff. So helping these women on the boat, etc. Well, we're out on the boat. This woman's sitting over here. I'm here.

She just gets up in the middle of boat ride, looks at me, and goes, looks at me points, and goes, get up out of that chair. I just looked at her and she said, get up. And I was like, well, okay. Whatever you say. Whatever you say, Auntie, right? And then someone takes her chairs. The point is, now I've got to stand during this thing. And I was drinking a Coke, and I was having a hard time having balance.

This was the rockiest water I've ever been in. So I put my Coke in the pocket of my jacket. I forgot my phone was in there, too. And so when it started rocking, I got thrown into a wall, Coke poured over my phone. And Drew, that's how I ended up ruining my iPhone in South Africa. I love the trust in an open Coke in the pocket without a phone, though. Like, that's just going to stay. It did not work, and that's Shannon how I ended up without it.

You didn't have another pocket on the other side that you could. I did. But I was trying not to throw up. Yeah. So there's probably very few people who can say they ruined their iPhone, Ryan, at the island where Nelson Mandela was held for 27 years, but I actually was one who did that. On a boat with pocket coat. On a pocket coat with a pocket coat.

Yeah, did it. Was it a little liberating, though? you're not attached to your phone 24 hours a day? It was, but it was, first of all, yes. Like, you know, we, here's one of the things I think that I realize from it. A lot of the BS that we take in every day, we don't need to do that. We really don't. It's something with arguing and the, we really don't need it.

Like, you can really cut that out of your life, and it can be, there's no reason to sit there and watch people scream at each other. We choose to do that. We don't need to do that. So that was good. But what I did miss was communicating with people, and I did feel detached from like this world, this big blue nation world, and I missed that. But I didn't miss a lot of the other stuff. Well, last Saturday during the game, I poured Diet Coke on my phone and my TV trying to not watch that.

So you were in a good spot. Well, I want to talk about that because I do think there's a lot to talk about about the status of UK football. The athletic, the writer for the athletic called me. And I think after the Georgia game, the athletics doing a pretty big feature on will Mark Stoop survive? at Kentucky. And we talked for a long time. I want to talk about that. And I also have to note while I was gone,

the Reds made the playoffs. We will do all of that and be right back here in Louisville. This is Kentucky Sports Radio. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.

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859-2-8027. Text machine, 772-745-254. So I don't have access to text machine, so I can't read questions. So I'm going to give a couple that people wrote me on Instagram that I'll answer real quick. When person writes, Matt, would you recommend going to South Africa on a trip for other people? I think it's awesome. A lot of the stereotype, you know, people got me worried before I left, Drew, because everybody was going, oh, it's dangerous.

They don't, they're going to, you know, it's fine. Like, you do have to keep your, I'm not going to lie, you have to keep your wits about you. Like, there are parts of town that the locals said to me, I wouldn't go in those parts. So it's just, you have to, you have to know where you are. But in general, I definitely would go. I think a lot of the stereotypes that I'd heard before were not true at all. I think we just sort of take it for granted that whatever we hear from media about the rest of the world, well, that has to be how it is.

I didn't find that to be the case. Although, I will note, that Johannesburg is chaotic and wild. But if you just went to Cape Town, you'd have an amazing blast. I'd rather go to Johannesburg. That sounds more fun to me. If only you had pictures to show us of all this. I would like to have pictures. Were you drawing mental images in your brain?

No pictures. I did ask some of the women with me if they would take pictures. So that I could have them when so that I could prove to people I went. There's one of you standing on the the shores of what Cape Fear? Cape Fear is no, that's a movie. That's been cool if you'd like that. That's a movie and that's in North Carolina. Sorry.

Close. The Cape of Good Hope. Cape of Good Hope. I stood on the edge, which was maybe the most beautiful view I've ever seen in my life. Cape of Good Hope, right? The southwest tip of Africa where you look out into the ocean, And that was very, I did get a video. But again, I didn't take that, Shannon.

I had to get somebody to take it for it. I understand. Now, going back to the yogurt story real quick, because this is the one I want to focus on for just a second. When the guy said that you need a chaperone across the street, did you not think that maybe this guy, he lives there, he knows what he's talking about? Maybe I should take him up on that. Well, so I drove in in the middle of the night or had an Uber, so I couldn't see the surrounding neighborhood. Right.

But there was, like, I could see across the street a mall. So I thought, you know, I can get that yogurt. Turns out he was ridiculous. Right next to the yogurt store was a Rolex place. I would have been fine. Yeah. But there are parts of the, I will say, to be fair to the guy, there are parts of that city that I wouldn't have gone without a, like we, so I went to a part called Soweto. And if you get the chance, you ought to look it up sometime.

It's called Soweto for Southwest Territories. Basically during apartheid, the government, any act. African-American that was living in parts of the city, they just moved them all out. They made them all leave and go out and they created these shanty towns on the outside of town. And they made them all move there. They basically, this is like in the 50s and 60s, just completely moved out millions of people. So we went walking through one of those places. And I mean, I'll remember it forever.

It's the worst poverty I've ever seen in my life. You know, there's a lot of times. I'm the same way. We complain about how bad things are. and this and that. There's a lot I complain about in America. There's a lot other people complain about. You guys should say a prayer every single night of thanks.

Because you, like, you can't, you can't picture how some people in this world have to live. Some of the saddest scenes that I've ever seen. And we went walking through them. And I've been to the poorest parts of Appalach up in the hollers. And I've seen some places that are very, very sad. Now imagine you take those places and, you put a million people and you make them live on top of each other right like on top of each other eight people in a room the size 15 people in the room of the size of this shady rays right here

so when you see that it's it's disheartening and it's tough and it's you know it's nerve-wracking listen when you're six foot four and you look like me and you're you're white and you're walking through these places, you start to, like, you can't help but feel like everyone's looking at you and you can't help it. But I'm so glad I did it because there will be a time where I will have something that I'm really upset about and I'll be ready to complain and I will just sit and think of that image, Ryan, and go, you know what? Things are pretty good here. I'm standing here in a city where everyone here has access to pretty much everything, even if they're not, if they don't My money, a lot of money, you can get by, like, it's a different thing over there.

It's sad. Just hearing you talk about it. It breaks your heart. Listen, that society has got the greatest wealth disparity of any society in the country. You can see some of the nicest mansions you've ever seen in your life, drive four blocks, and people are living in absolute squalor. And it's four blocks away. And you just go, good and grief, how in the world does this happen?

Was this part of your, the fellowship where you guys, it was part of a group field trip? It was actually part of the second part. They wanted to see the actual local community, and I'm glad we did it. And then, you know, because the history there, like, it's a lot of lessons for here. And I don't want to get into all that. I may do that on the Matt Jones podcast sometime, but a lot of lessons. But the thing I learned the most, I'm coming out of there saying I'm going to be more appreciative. Even in the worst time, Shannon, for what life is like for all of us,

as opposed to, you know, it's one plane trip away, people who share the same earth as us, same God, et cetera, who live a completely different existence than we can even imagine. It gives you a whole new perspective that you weren't even really truly aware of. I mean, you see these things, I'm sure, but then when you see them in person, it's got to, you know, change you for the better, and it sounds like you took that away from your trip.

I hope so, yeah. And also by not having a phone, Drew, you're living in the moment walking there, and there's also because there's nothing else to look at. Yeah, I mean, it stinks. we need those reminders, but thanks for sharing that, because we all need to realize how lucky we have. Amen. But I do want to make it overall very positive, because I did have a great time. Let's talk UK football when we return. 8.59-280, 2287. Very disappointing week in the Georgia coming tomorrow.

Let's see this. Kentucky Sports Radio. T.J. Smith, personal injury attorney. Call T.J. He'll make them pay. Now, more of Kentucky Sports Radio presented by Stockton Mortgage. Here's Matt Jones. Welcome back, Kentucky Sports Radio. I'll see. I thought to remember the cues here in a minute. We are here at Shady Rays. Buy one, get one off, 50% off. Two or more during the show today.

They also have the new Wildcat Blue Colorway Shaves. They have Kentucky Shades in there. Make sure you get them during the show or right after the show today. 859-2807. Independent American-owned company here at Shady Race. Quickly tell me the summary, because I don't know the specifics. Because this was the day I lost my phone. Did Mark Pope and Pat Kelsey get in a fight?

It didn't get into a fight. It was Tay Kenny visiting him, and the period to visit him started at midnight. So apparently Pope had scheduled like 12 midnight to 1215, and Kelsey was coming in right behind him at 1215 to 1230. Well, traffic, things got happened. It was down in Atlanta. Pope got there late. So Kelsey went in a little early. Okay.

So when they came back out, they had some words. No, nothing physical, and apparently they even hugged it out when it was over. So they had words like in his yard? Yeah, in his yard. That's kind of awesome, through Franklin. I like, I would imagine you're a high school recruit and two of the biggest coaches in the country, at least one of the biggest and the other one really tiny, getting a fight right in your yard. Yeah, it's the visual. I think the height differential makes this so much more entertaining.

When this first leaked out on message boards in the internet, it was like, Tay Kenny's dad is pulling them off of each other and there were baseball bats. So it was like greatly exaggerated there for a little bit, but it does, it seems like the consensus has come out they were yelling at each other pretty good outside people were riding me shan and going what do you think about mark pope beating up pat kelsey and i was like what yeah what i did i had no context because like i only had access to the news and it was like that wasn't on the news no so i i go did that really happen i was getting excited but it sounds like maybe it was greatly exaggerated the most embarrassing part of the story though is that tay kenny didn't pick either one of them he went to

kansas after all of that he ended up picking kansas all right let's talk uk football uh i watched the first half of South Carolina, disaster. Everything, you know, everything that's frustrated me about the last few years of Stoops era kind of summed up there into the first half, problems again, two turnovers that end up in touchdowns, an offense that looked completely lost to me. So I had a lot of time to sit and think about it, and Drew, here's where I am. Mark's got to finish the season, and I think fans should. should support the team.

I know I'm going to be watching the game tomorrow. Hopefully people come out to KS Bar and root like heck for them. Everybody did against South Carolina. We were full for the South Carolina game of people being excited. Look, we got seven, what, eight games left. We might as well cheer and be excited. With that said, you can't, this can't continue to go on. Like this, Kentucky football is a, and I said this to the athletic yesterday,

right now to me, it's a terrible combination of not, good and boring, which is an awful conversation. Awful combination. Not only do we really not, does it not feel like we have a chance to win these games, they're also awful to watch. Our offense is just a complete disaster.

I don't blame Cutter Bowley. I got to be honest with you, I don't really blame Zach Kalsata. And I'm now going back and not blaming Brock Van the Griff, and not blaming even Devin Learie. At some point, when you bring in four high-profile quarterbacks and none of them work, you have to sit there and

go, all right, maybe it's us, not then, right? At some point you have to say that. I also would say when you have an offensive coordinator that was here and is now three and one in the NFL and it's kind of the toast of the NFL and here the offense sputtered, you do have to sit here and ask, well, maybe it's not them, maybe it's us, right? When we have guys that are playing in the NFL, who are free agents that played here, and yet we're part of defenses or part of offenses that didn't have success at some point, you have to sit here and say, maybe it's not them, maybe it's us. There's only one common denominator in all this.

Honestly, it's Mark. And for me, Mark's got eight games or seven games, whatever, left for me to see if I have any confidence. But at this point, if it doesn't get better, Drew, you can't bring this back next year. You cannot, you cannot, if the program is not significantly better, in November, Drew, you can't run this back again. No, this is kind of the, we're running it back this year because they went and got 40 new players and you hit the reset button and it's like, now show us that you've got this

back on track and so far it's not looking to be back on the track or even near a track at all. I can't even see a track. I hate how, you know, the two defensive touchdowns, that's awful. You're not going to win a game ever like that. But even then, it's 21 to 10 in the second quarter. Yes. But when you're Kentucky football, 21 to 10 is lights out. It should not be the case that you're at SEC football team.

And it's over. A top 10 paid coach. And if you're down 10, it's like, well, what could we possibly do down 10? They're not able to create explosive plays or come from behind in a gap whatsoever. If they don't get that first touchdown, which they did Saturday, if they don't just hang on to that with good defense, then they just can't outscore teams. For me, it's a very simple question. And let's, I mean, we got a huge crowd here today.

I mean, let me just ask, is anyone in this crowd looking forward to watching that game tomorrow? One guy, you okay, two guys. That's good. We've got 100 plus people here. There's two guys raising their hand. They have Georgia to cover. I'm watching it, Ryan. I want us to win, but I'm not looking forward to it because I know what's going to happen.

Here's what it's going to happen tomorrow. We're going to be oddly more competitive than you think, but never have a chance to win the game. and really never had so we're going to lose like 30 to 13 and it's going to be like we've always kind of been in it but there's never going to be one moment in this game where anybody thinks we had a chance to win the game that's going to be what it is tomorrow the final score will be maybe it'll be 37 13 but it was like 20 to 13 halfway through the third quarter and we had the ball with a chance to tie and then we just got two yards and punted and then that was it Right, Ryan, that's going to be the game.

We've seen it a million times. I think it's going to happen again. I think you're probably right. I got to admit last weekend that we took the first drive and we got a touchdown. Second drive, we got a field goal. I think, okay, they've got the offense figured out. And then just nothing after that. And then, you know, Coach Stoops on his coaches show this week.

Didn't offer any excuses, but he also didn't offer any solutions. But he also had one phone call from what I understand. You know, 30 minutes in. And not because he wouldn't take him because no one's calling. Like, that's the problem, is apathy. The thing that kills your program, Shannon, is apathy. We were getting towards the end of Cal with a little bit of apathy. You can't have that.

We are in apathy. And next week, Big Blue Madness is happening on an off week of UK football. At that moment, this show will only be talking about basketball. Let's be real. I mean, I'm not saying that's what it should be, but that's what it'll be. Every single one of you all will be asking me questions. about basketball, we'll be talking about the roster, we'll be looking at the schedule, it's going to be out of mind.

And then Texas is going to come. Right? And then Tennessee. And then Tennessee is going to come. And then by the time we get to games that in theory we could be competitive against Auburn Vandy, we're going to be playing basketball against the number one team in America, Purdue. We're going to have Louisville just around the corner.

And those bat football games are going to be like, well, they're on. I guess I'll watch it. But, Shannon, apathy is going to hit. And you, in 2025, when NIL and everything is so important, you cannot have apathy in your football program, and we have it. You know, I think back to the Joker Phillips era, the first couple of years of the Mark Stoops era. About this time of year, we all shift our attention to basketball.

But then Stub's kind of took that away for a while when he has some success. But now I feel like we're trending back to those early Mark Stoops years to where we're now to the point where we don't care and we're ready for basketball, October the 3rd. There's one more thing that, and this, when I was talking to the athletic yesterday, they were talking Drew about, and they pointed this out because they were asking, they asked me a question about it, but then he pointed it out and I went, man, that's a good point. All right, so what teams Drew Ryan are on our level in theory in the SEC's programs?

What are the teams on our level? Mississippi State. Mississippi State. Mississippi State beat a team that was in the playoff last year at home this year. nearly beat Tennessee at home last week. Mississippi State, I think we would all say is clearly on the rise. Who else? Missouri.

Missouri, two years ago, won 10-plus games, would have been in the playoff if we had the current playoff system and is 5-0 right now. What's another one? You'd think Vandy is in a game today that's going to get a game tomorrow that's game day against Alabama with a chance to really, if they win tomorrow, have a shot at going to the playoff. Vanderbilt football.

What else? Well, South Carolina was in that game? South Carolina. We are uncompetitive against South Carolina in the last two years. They've won the last four in a row against us now. And we have not been competitive in the last two games. Who else? Arkansas.

Arkansas just fired their coach and decided we're not going to be on this level anymore, and they've decided to make a change. Now, you just hit the five teams that I think are on Kentucky's level. And drew, every single one of them. Every single one of them is either much better and on the rise or has made a coaching change. We are definitively 16th out of 16 in the SEC. We are literally definitively.

There's not even an argument. We are 16th out of 16. Drew, you just can't be that. You just can't be that. And that's why if you want to talk pony up and NIL and the things for Kentucky's at a disadvantage, I'll hear you when we're having a conversation about trying to knock down the Georgia wall or get to an SEC championship.

But these other schools have just as many disadvantages, Vandy even more, and they figured it out. You can go outside the conference. Look at Indiana right now. I mean, they went and got a coaching hire who has completely turned a program that was nothing into a contender and a playoff contender. So, you know, we can talk all day about, well, he doesn't have enough money. Well, he has enough money to be better than 16th in the country. We'll talk to the money when you're trying to get to fourth, fifth in the conference. Right now, we just need to not be dead last.

So our goal here is to at least, we will never be on the level of Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and, like, Texas in terms of resources. But our goal was to get to a level that was like the Tennessee, Florida, Old Miss, that level. Well, that level, forget that. We're now in the last level that Mississippi State, South Carolina, Vandy, Arkansas, Missouri. And within that level, we are definitively the worst situation.

Definitively. It's not even arguable. We're definitively the worst situation. And Ryan, you can't keep that up. When they go into this off-season, if they're going to fix this, they're going to need $20 million worth of players. Who's given that money? Who's given that money if you don't have a change?

We have to either improve exponentially or this is going to have to switch. think what hurts us as a fan that I think we had fought and clawed our way back up to get into that middle tier a little bit. We were ahead of these five schools you're talking about, but now we've dropped not just with them, we're below them. Yeah, you got an Auburn hat on, sir. We were – last year, that was a game. If you want to be successful in the SEC, you have to beat Auburn at home. You have to. You have to. And not only did we not win, I think we got dragged, if I remember correctly. Now we're going there. Now we're going there. I just don't

have any confidence. So I hate it. I like Mark Stoops, and I will say this. Mark Stoops is, in my opinion, the best coach Kentucky has had in modern college football in my lifetime, the best. And one day when he's gone, everyone should applaud him, and one day we should honor him in the way we've done Tubby Smith and Rick Petino, et cetera. But it's not about what you did in the past. Ryan, it's about the future. And I don't see a way that this fan base can continue on the traditional. objectory it is. No, because there's no answer for this season. I think we're in just for a long, hard, ugly season the rest of the way. We bought in, you know, they were so quiet this spring. Maybe that's why they were quiet. Maybe they knew we were going to have a bad season.

You think they were quiet because they knew we were going to stink? Maybe so. Maybe so. That's another thing. They checked out on the off season completely, even though they denied it. They did. There wasn't a spring game. They didn't even act like there was a spring game. But part of that was, you know, you talk to people in the circle. They're like, well, it's a quiet confidence. They're just going to catch everyone off guard. Right. Well, they did. So now they're here and there's nothing. It's like, well, what did we just do all year? I said during the offseason. If you're going to be like this, well, you better be good. You know, if you're not going to get fans engaged, well, you better be good, and they weren't good.

UK Federal Credit Union, if you would like to join, you do not have to be a UK graduate. You don't have to be a part of UK to join. That is a myth. Joining is not an ordeal. Right now you can go, UK Federal Credit Union. Seven local branches are online, and under three minutes you can sign up whether you wear blue or not. It is UK federal credit union membership eligibility required federally insured by ncUA we'll take a break and be right back this is kentucky sports radio last night a blown call changed a game this morning the internet lost its mind highlights are trending opinions are flying and nobody's telling you exactly what happened that's where sports slice comes in i'm timbo every episode we're cutting through the noise

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podcast. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio here at Shady Race. By the way, I actually got it wrong. It's Shady Race. If you buy two in there today, the entire purchase is 50% off. It's not buy one. The second one's 50% off. The entire purchase is 50% off. Wow. So that's pretty good.

They got sunglasses in there. You can get basically, if you get two of the same one, you get two for the price of one. So that's during the show today and after the show in store right here. So make sure you do that. 859-2-80-22-87. I want to talk some basketball in the second hour. Before we get to that, let's go to a couple other things. Bruce Pearl is no longer the coach.

Drew Franklin, I have some strong thoughts about that, but what do you think about him resigning? Apparently, he's not going to run for Senate, so I don't know what he's going to do, but my guess is he's going to end up with a conservative political talk show. That's my guess, but what do you think about him not being a coach? I was surprised he actually did it. You know, it was rumored for a few weeks that he was considering

stepping away for a Senate run, but I thought, you know, he has the political interest. He's very open about it. I thought that was just him being a part of the conversation. Not that he would actually retire a year removed from, what, winning in Roperino, winning the regular season, making the final four. I thought he'd still try to go a little bit longer to try to actually get a national championship since he's been so close.

I was shocked. What an absolutely, Ryan, completely selfish action by Bruce Pearl. No, it is. It's completely selfish. Wait till two weeks before the year. year, your players cannot transfer, right? You put the school in a position. I mean, they can, but they can't really. Because where are they going to go? Like, everybody else has already filled their rosters. I mean, maybe the top guy could go, but most of the guys are going to be stuck there.

Plus, the semester's already started. Like, he waited until they got until the end of the, you can't even enroll at some of these schools this late. Then you make it to where the school has to pick your son. Now, they were probably going to pick it. son anyway, but you wait till right before the season and then they have to pick your son. So you end up with a situation like Villanova did with Jay Wright, where he did it to where they had to pick the assistant, and then that guy ended up not being very good. So you're being completely selfish. You spent the last few months basically saying you didn't want to be the coach, but you didn't

have the guts to actually do it. Instead, you trapped everybody and waited until the last minute to do it. Bruce Pearl's a great coach. I think Bruce Pearl's really funny. I like Bruce Pearl. If he came here right now, I'd say, hey, man, great to see you. You've done great. We can be friendly.

But that was a completely selfish action that now he's done. Jay Wright did. Tony Bennett did. I think these coaches, it is unbelievable to me that they would do that and put their teams in that position. Yeah, you know, I'm a Bruce Pearl supporter. I've always liked Bruce Pearl. But the timing of it, he put the Auburn basketball program, put him in handcuffs. There's nothing they can do.

they could do. Nothing they could do. And they've made it. I think, Shannon, he doesn't even help his son. Because rather than his son getting an offseason to build the team in his image and dig it some time, now if they don't succeed, they'll put it on his son. He didn't even get that long to do it. He didn't even get to establish. He's now he's got his dad's culture with the team. I just, I see it, I know we have an Auburn fan. You might disagree with me, but I just think that was just a completely selfish act by him for an otherwise great coach who really has built something awesome at all. I agree with you. You should have announced that last March. I was also shocked to see the news.

Also kind of surprised they signed Stephen Pearl to a five-year deal. Where's he going? I mean, yeah, exactly. And I think Bruce Pearl, they said he's going to be like an ambassador to the program. I'm not really sure what that even means. Would you? But if you were Stephen, would you want him around? No, no.

I wouldn't want my dad over there. Like, if you're going to make it on your own, you need to establish. I mean, I could see Bruce showing up at practice and telling Stephen to shut up and starting to coach. He's the ambassador. I guess he could do that. You know what I mean? I wouldn't want that if I was Stephen, to be honest. No, I expect Bruce sitting in the corner at practice with a whistle and a clipboard,

and he won't chom him in a lot, but his presence is just enough that it's a distraction and it won't feel like they've really handed things over. I feel like now that we've seen Tony Bennett just do it last year, you mentioned Jay Wright. There's probably others at other levels we don't even know. These are three high-profile schools. Is this like a move that coaches will start doing? Without question. Like, is this?

There is no doubt this a trend. back programs because I don't think anyone expects that it's going to work for Stephen and it probably won't work at Virginia and it didn't work at Villanova. It's been pretty clear for a while. And by the way, this is fine. He's a grown man. Like he has a right to do whatever. It's been clear for a while. His mind is on a different world.

He wants to be involved in politics. It's clear he does interview after interview after interview about politics, which is totally fine. But if you want to do that, Bruce, go do it. Right. Go do it. Maybe you'll be successful. Maybe you won't, but go do it. But this, I think Auburn basketball is going to take a step back and they didn't need to,

and they're going to because of his selfishness. Yeah, Bruce Pearl built Auburn basketball at one of the best teams in the conference, one of the best teams in the country. Stephen Pearl didn't even get the Murray State job. That's a really good point. He was a runner up for Murray State. Well, you know, now I'll be coaching Auburn. We'll take a break.

Come back. Talk some UK basketball next. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in.

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