KSR - 2025-12-04- KSR - Hour 1

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

KSR is Live KSBar & Grille talking Will Stein's introductory press conference and take your calls.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 IHeart 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. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Clivert Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out.

Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's he at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford Show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming until he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Comedy Off Broadway and Lexington. Welcome Cincinnati native and club favorite Josh Sneed, November 14th and 15th.

Then catch the return of the GT finalist Preacher Lawson, November 21st through the 23rd. And November 28th and 29th, don't miss the Queen of Comedy. Lexington's own Adele Givens. For tickets to all Comedy Off Broadway shows, call 859271 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 Thursday.

December the 4th. I'm Matt Jones here at the KS Bar and Grill on a cold day in Lexington, Kentucky. You can give a shout on the Clark's Pumpet Shop. phone line 859-2-80-2-8027. A-Vision Auto Glass text machine is 772-7-745-4. And this is sponsored by the T.J. Smith Law Office. If you call T.J., he'll make them pay. Look at all these people on their phone. Everybody, this is what we all are now. We just, you're the one. You're the one sitting there and not staring down at your phone, including Mario, who I think is attached physically to his phone. He is working, though.

We are here on a, like I said, kind of a cold day. You can come out to KS Bar, see us, have a little food. Today, 11 o'clock, Will Stein will make his KSR debut. We'll come on here. I'm very much looking forward to talking to him. Ryan, Drew, Shannon, nice to see you guys. We've got to start with first. How's the patient?

How's Larry? Give us an update. Yeah, he's doing okay. You know, thank you all for the literally hundreds, maybe thousands of people who've written something kind. saying you were thinking about him. It was, he is, he's still in the hospital in Knoxville, which is the place they go because it's close to Middlesboro and is still recovering.

So I still would ask that people pray for him. He's got, you know, a little bit of a road. It was an, what they had to, he went in for one procedure and they unexpectedly had to do a second one. And then, you know, my mother lost a very close friend of her. and that funeral was during that period. So I went because I wanted her to get to go to that. And anyway, so.

So you were Larry's nurse for a while. Yeah, I was like 24 hours of caretaker. I'm not going to say, I mean, this may surprise people, Drew. That's probably not my stream. Did he like his gummy clusters for dinner? You know, it was good. I was, you know, I'm not, I don't think anybody likes hospitals. But, I mean, if we're being honest, you know, I had that experience of being in one for like 10 days.

And that was a difficult time for me. So I'm not a huge hospital person. But, you know, this one is nice, and the people were very nice. But, yeah, it was, you know, they didn't get, they didn't get ESPN. So I didn't get, I didn't get see any of the game. Should have moved to a different hospital. Now, it sounds like I didn't miss anything, but I didn't get to see, like, one minute of the game. I was following it on my phone, and I was just getting frustrated.

You know, I don't know if you've all ever had to do that. You're like, all right, when I hit refresh, hopefully the score will be better. And then it was like 56 to 50, and I said, okay, here we go. And then I think I refreshed it and we were down 61, 59 or something. And I just, well, I forget it. I think somebody down in Knoxville pulled a little prank on you. That's the only room that didn't get ASPN. It feels like the only thing they had, the only thing that would come in clear with no static

was Fox News, which was like, all right, now you're just teasing me. Come on. You can't do this to me. But I got, you know, had a good time. This was kind of nice. They brought, this will be a moment like I remember forever. They brought a guy that the Knoxville Symphony came and played in the lobby of the hospital. First of all, how nice is that? Very cool. That is very for the patients. And one of the violin players came and he came into Larry's room and played. Really? We want to talk about making Larry happy. So that was really good. I can only imagine how that light Larry up. Yes, it did.

So that was really nice. I'm sure he wanted to get up and get his base out and join him a little bit. I think he would have if he could have. So anyway, thank you all very much. So glad he's doing well. To everybody that reached out and, you know, checked in. I do really appreciate it. Now, I did, I was driving back.

I didn't get to get back for the press conference. I was driving back and I listened to it, old school. Like, listen to it on the radio, which you don't, I didn't know you. How many people did that? It was on this station. Yes, it was. I listened to it on the radio, and I thought it sounded like, I thought it sounded great.

Excitement in the room. Will, it was interesting because I don't think, like Will's not a rehearsed guy. So it felt like to me it was kind of off the cup. We got natural answers. At times I thought initially it was a little nervous, which I get in that situation. You were there, right? What did you think of it? Very cool.

A lot of people there. A lot of people. Was there a lot of people? Yeah, it was broken into the sections. There was like a fan section, a former player section. Then you had the current team, the guys that wanted to show up. Then you had, of course, the media, then some rich people. But just the whole nutter had it.

There was a rich people section? Yeah. It specifically said you have to be rich. I guess I should call them donors. If you're not rich, you cannot sit here. Everyone there looked rich, I guess. Maybe I don't know their incomes. But great turnout.

I mean, they had Pyro inside, shot some Goldberg sparks off out as Will Stein came through. and then we've seen him kind of twice now. When he came out at Rupp, that was a huge pop, and we saw his energy where he's fist-pumping. And then in this, we're getting to see a little bit of his character. A little bit of a potty mouth, which I like in my football coach. Yeah, so I thought about that. I mean, like, drop some curse words.

He said he wants his quarterback to be an M-Fer is exactly what he said. He didn't say the word. He didn't know. He said M-Fer. I didn't say the word. Well, that's good. Don't we want that, right? But yeah, it's his football.

You want a little bit of that juice. It was interesting. First of all, let me tell you the few things just in listening that I liked. Okay? I liked probably the two answers I liked the most. Answer one was he basically said, okay, it doesn't matter whether you all like the new era of college football or not. It is what it is, so we got to go do it. I've been preaching that.

I've been preaching that forever. I wrote Matt Jones will love that quote. Because it doesn't matter what your opinion is. Like, it really doesn't. Unless you're in Congress and you're making the decision, it does not. matter what your opinion is. You have to take what the rule. You got to, people got to stop whining, and they got to take what the rules are, and they got to go win. And the fact that he said that, Ryan, it was literally music to my ears. I felt like I had written it. I was so excited.

Yeah, he basically said something like, well, like it or not, you have to adapt. And we are going to be able to adapt it from day one. I loved it how you got a little emotional, talk about his wife. But then the more he went on, the more fired up he got. And like he said, he dropped a couple of F-bomb when he met with the players yesterday afternoon. Got me fired up, ready to go. But you need that answer. Okay, so you need that answer. Then the second thing, and I think this is important, I am really proud of how everyone involved has handled this transition from Stoops to this. I'm proud of how Stoops handled it. Stoops could have, he could have taken us to the map for the $37 million.

He ended up not doing it. I mean, he's getting the $37 million. He's not going to be broke, but I appreciate that he did it in a way that that's good. I've heard, I wrote about this on KS Board. I've heard that actually he has a really, as positive as you can have, a situation with this with UK, with Mitch, with everybody involved, and he gets it.

And I think I said, I think he's going to stay in Lexington. And then I love that Will Stein brought, you know, talked about him yesterday and talked about his influence because it is there, right? It is. I mean, like, this is a better job than it was when Stoops got it because

of Mark. And so I like that Will said it. It just felt like rather than this being a break that we've seen this sometimes where it's a break and then I mean we saw it, we've seen a lot actually. Just saw it in basketball where like it's awkward for a while and people don't know what to do. It feels like that this has been as good as it can be. Yeah, they're doing a great job. A lot of new coaches won't even mention the last coach at all to avoid that.

I mean you look around the country. I know we're not some other programs, but there's just other chaos at other schools and it's nasty. Compare that to Lane Kiffin. Or Penn State right now where they're shipping cookies back and forth. We just, I mean, it was outside of the outcome of the last couple games and it being nasty wanting to change. It's been pretty smooth. Even fans that were really upset with Stoops have turned that off because they got the

move they wanted and everybody's trying to shine a light on the positive days. Yeah, and I like that he said, look, we're going to score points. And let me say something. And this is not a criticism, okay? It's a little bit. Now you've got to back this up. But he had some, he had some, like, cocky lines. What was the one he said that I tell?

texted you, Ryan. Oh, people are going to want to play coach with Will Stein. People want to coach with Will Stein. He said everyone in the country will want to coach with Will Stein. I loved it. And he did himself in the third person. Everyone will want to coach. I mean, I loved it.

But I thought, man, that's some confidence. Everyone in the country will want to coach with Will Stein. Said they're going to light up the scoreboard. You know, that's what we want to hear, man. Just that boost of energy into the program. I want to go back to what you said about Stoops. I love the fact he gave him these flowers and kind of said it. And I think it was so good because it sounded so sincere.

I think Stein was 100% sincere in his gratitude to Coach Stubes. His direct quote was, trust me, everybody wants to work for Will Stein. I like it. Win Will Stein's money there. I love it. I like the third person. He also, he didn't say teams by name, but he basically said, we're going for the big teams in the SEC. Like, you know, we have our tier that we want to be.

He was very happy. But he was looking to the top top. He was very adamant. We're going to win here, but we're not settling for just winning. I mean, he set the expectations that for years people have called this show and said, which is, can we go to the playoff, can we go to the SEC championship? And I've always been like, I don't know. That's not what he's saying.

Now, all coaches say that kind of, but he said it like, that's what we're, that's our expectation. Not that's our goal, that's our expectation. I mean, that's setting it high. Do you like that? Yes, that's what I want to hear. I want to come in and tiptoe in. I want him to come in and knock people over. So, look you said, man, you got to adapt,

and he's the guy that's going to come in and be able to adapt to whatever offense he has, or these players he has. He mentioned that. Tell me, I'm going to be a little bit jealous because I would have loved to have seen this. Tell me about the moment he came out at Rupp. I, of course, didn't get to see it.

They did it very early. So the crowd was still on fire, score was low. He was the Y. They did two Ys. They had a Tashon Y in the second half and the first half Y for him. And I compared it to the Menefield dunk because it was loud, but then he started lifting his arms, and it's like we hit another level that I didn't know we could have.

Like Rupp Arena already exploded when he walked on the court, but when he started throwing his arms and y'all let's go, it somehow kicked in another gear. It was one of the cooler moments, especially non-basketball things that I've seen in a long time in there. Since I'm going to end up later in the show, being a little critical of this person. Let me be fair by being positive.

Do we grade the transition from Stoops to this new coach to Will Stein in the process? For Mitch Barnhart, do we grade it in A? I think you have to grade it in A. Somehow he got Stoops to agree to a better buyout. Somehow he got the one guy who was the top of all of our wish list within, what, 24, 48 hours? hours from when they announced Stoop's departure to when they announced Stein was the coach. So be critical if you want to Mitch, but on this situation, the way he handled it, it's a definite A. Yeah, I agree. I said it the day after the hire. I have plenty of Mitch complaints,

but the fact that you went out and got the name that everybody wanted and did it quickly. Now, I know I think he kicked the can a little bit down with another coach that ended up in Florida, but everybody loves Stein, so I'm not going to penalize him for that. I think he did a great job of getting it done quickly, especially with everything has to move so fast this day and age, and building teams and everything in the off season? So there have been a couple whispers now that it's over, that the initial conversations about at least gauging interest. And again, I'm not saying Mitch was part of it.

I bet he probably wasn't. But that they started after the Tennessee game, that there were like some conversations of, okay, what could happen, what would you think? That makes sense to me, and I'm good with it, because it did leave. I mean, we kept from a circus. I mean, Penn State has had a job for six weeks.

They still don't have a coach. So, like, I think it helped. I think that's when most of the fan base, too, realized a change needed to be made. Now, he won a lot of people back over with the Auburn win, the Florida win. But that Tennessee game came kind of start the downhill slide where they're going to make a change. And I'm glad, you know, I'd kind of talk to myself into a while I'll still really like Brian Hartline. But then I had some folks, I had somebody I know really well who likes Brian Hartline who said,

and Matt, Brian Hartland's a good coach. He's going to have a lot of success. He was like, but he's a lot. He was like he's a lot. Just like he's, well, they were like, he's a little bit of a jerk. And I don't know how that would work with Mitch. And he said, so he's a lot. This guy will see, but does not seem like that.

No, and I like, we're talking about how cocky and confident he's been, but there's also been like humble moments where yesterday he was talking about he looked out the window of the plane and saw his police escort and he couldn't believe how many police cars were there and he's like i'm taking pictures like i cannot believe this is me that i have a police escort yeah it's there so you have moments like that too that bring him down to showing that he still has that excitement and appreciation too and i am a sucker for the whole like i was sitting there in the stadium and i wore the jersey yeah you know jared Lauren. Like, I'm a sucker for all that.

You know, as Mark Pope is finding out, it doesn't really matter if you lose a bunch. But at least for now, it's really nice. The things he said made you convince you that he was a Kentucky fan at heart. Talked about all those games he went to at the old Commonwealth Stadium. Talked about

he got starstruck at Rupp Arena because there was Tashon Prince and he goes, that's Tashon Prince. You know, he's one of us. He's of the age, though, where he would have been a kid and, like, Tashon Prince would have been like, oh, that is Tashon. literally Tayshon Prince is probably his Jamal Mashburn for me in terms of like, whoa. Yeah, he said he's like, why am I the Y? Make him the Y. Now, they ended up doing both.

But he also listed several football memories. Now, he did name, most of them were losses. Yeah, he started with the Bluegrass Mirror. I mean, we're Kentucky football fans. That's kind of what our memories are. He even named the, which bowl was it against Penn State? Was it Outback, Peach? Yes, to what Jimmy Whalen got hurt. He named that one. The Outback Bowl in Tampa, yeah.

Oh, no, that was Music City. Music City's where we lost to, or did he miss? No, I'm talking about the one in the 90s with the football. I mean, he named a lot of our heartbreaks too, which taught me out. He really is one of us. 859-28027. Talk a little bit more about the press conference. I want to talk a second about what Mitch said at the press conference, which was a testy thing.

And what about the cut man? Cut man. No filter. That's next here on KSR. 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, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose. On my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's gonna be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. agency, the ability to know that we're the experts in our own body.

On the podcast cultivating her space, Dr. Dom and Terry Lomax create a space where black women can show up fully and be heard. I wholeheartedly think, you know, you hit 30, you shouldn't have to share one with anybody. Mm-hmm. From navigating friendships and healing to setting boundaries and prioritizing your mental health. These are real honest conversations. We don't always get to have out loud. totally unreasonable with different parts of life, right? Like, oh, have all three meals and make sure you're mindful during all of them?

Absolutely not. During one meal, I'm standing. I'm standing and handing my children food. Because healing, empowerment, and resilience aren't just ideas. Their practices. And this Mental Health Awareness Month, there's no better time to pour back into yourself. Listen to cultivating her space on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back. It is Kentucky Sports Radio. 859-2-80-22-87. Come on out and have lunch.

By the way, we'll talk a little bit about this in the second hour. Big weekend coming up. High school sports. UK volleyball tonight. UK basketball Friday against Gonzaga. We're going to have all of you coming from around the state. We'd love to have you here. We're going to have the games. We'll have the Gonzaga game. We'll have the volleyball games. That starts tonight. Who do they play tonight? It's like Hampton or something. Wofford, the Terriers. Oh, God does love a terrier, but not tonight. We're number one seed.

We'll get to all that. That'll be kind of a second hour thing. One person says, Matt, Mitch doesn't get any credit for hiring Stein. A train seal could have hired him. It was an easy hire. Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't buy that. You have to give, you know, that was the same. He didn't get, people say, hey, he didn't get credit for Cal.

That was Mike Pratt. No, sometimes the easy pass is the right pass. So yeah, I mean, and it's, I mean, it's, of course, it's a little bit of a risk. He's never coached before, right? So, yes, if it works, he gets credit. Just like he will get credit. I mean, I know he went through six guys or whatever to get to Pope, but if Pope wins here, he deserves credit.

You're going to blame him if it doesn't work, so he gets credit if it does. I give him a lot of credit, especially, like if you said, he started on the process after the Tennessee game, moved super quickly after the Louisville game, had him here, you know, just a couple days after. After we lost that game to Louisville, I think he deserves a lot of credit for how he handled this situation. One person writes, Matt, Will Stein has Billy R. Sports confidence. He does a little bit. A little bit. Billy R. Sports was more delusional in the early days.

I think Will has at least – Will's accomplished some things. Billy was coming in cold talking about dating Jennifer Lawrence, who word on the street is, Will might actually have dated. Back in the day? Back in the day. Nice. That's my first question at the next new – conference. Well, we're going to have, you know, you might remember, yeah, Shannon, I mean, he's on

the show today. You could ask him about 35 minutes now. We're not going to ask him about him, because, like, he's married. We're not going to ask. His family's here. His families might be on the call, so we're not, we're not going to ask him that. That's why you don't get to ask questions. Is that answer right there? What I would like to know is, what, and I'm being serious about this, 7-7-2-7-4. We have him here for like 15 or 20 minutes. What would you ask? Because I want to ask him, like, like, he answered a lot of the basis. I'll probably do one like what's it like to be here. But then we got, I want specific things.

If you have things you want me to ask, you got 40 minutes here to let me know. What are you interested in, Drew? I heard him tell Tom Leach that he's not going to call the plays. Like he'll be very involved, but it won't be, you know, the full-time play caller, which kind of surprised me since that's a lot of a little bit. I mentioned to hear about that. And so is that, again, I've been off a little bit a couple days not totally plugged in. Is Justin Burke going to do that or do we know yet?

We don't know an official role, but yeah, he'll be added. But we don't know if he's the OC? There's reports out there that he will be the OC, but it's not officially. They haven't finalized anything. Okay, and I saw he was going to be on the staff. The Texas San Antonio coach had a weird, he was asked about it, and he was just like, Justin Birx better than Will Stein. What?

Did you not? I saw that. I mean, that's not exactly what he said, but that was weird. He almost said it like that. Yeah, I had to did some digging because it was so weird. I guess there was some context. Fans were upset with Justin Burke, and now the defenses they're playing are tougher.

So he was trying to kind of be like layoff Justin Burke. He's not playing the same defenses that we had when Stein was here, so the numbers aren't. And then I guess they're bringing the director. So he did say he was going to have a GM. Yes, he did. We love that too, right? In this day and age of college athletics,

you absolutely have to have a GM in place. Not according to Mitch Barnhart. He was very, even though we're hiring. Mitch Barnhart is the only person who we would announce we're hiring a GM, and he would defend not having a GM during the announcement. But regardless, I'm glad we're doing that. Yeah, might have been first reported by right here at this table. It was.

Oh, it was. 24 hours in advance. I thought we're keeping up with the new cycle. You two? Him. Oh, Drew. Just remember where you heard. Drew R. Franklin had a little scoop there.

He had a little scoop who was on the plane with Will Snyd when he flew over here. One person said, was it C4A? Was it C4A? I'm just kidding. I made that part up. That's not a good. One verse says, Matt, does it mean anything that the crafts were not at the press conference? I can say that they are out of town.

And so I don't read anything into that. I believe Will Stein set in the craft seats at the basketball game. So I think that will be fine. Yeah. If they're out of town, it doesn't no indication they're not supporting this move right now. I mean, I wasn't, you know, I mean, just to give me, I wasn't there either. It doesn't mean I don't support it. Sometimes life happens.

people have to do things. One person says, I love the experts are saying how great of a higher Stein is that makes me more confident. This does make me confident. Normally I don't care what experts say, but like none of us know. I mean, we've all probably seen Oregon play, but we've not probably broken down their play calls, et cetera. The fact that people who cover college football all say, this dude is really good.

And some people, I mean, Todd McShay was like, this may be the best low profile higher of the entire site. that can't help but Drew make you feel good, right? Yeah, and I've seen some Oregon fan accounts tweeting about how they'll miss him. I mean, anytime a team is losing someone and they're not upset about it and they're actually torn up, I mean, that helps our case. I've seen some national things ranking the hires so far this offseason. It was almost unanimously number two behind Lane Kiffin, which is a pretty big deal.

So, yeah, the response outside of Lexington and Big Blue Nation has been all positive, it seems. Did I, I saw someone sit me a thing on the text machine. Is there some recruit that was going to go to LSU that people rumor think might end up here, a receiver or something? Or am I dreaming that? Yeah, there's a receiver. I'm drawing up like a derby, something like that. There's been, there's one receiver. Barbie Allen?

The wrestler. Okay. He went up like the barrow yesterday. He's not very tall. But, no, the personnel, we're all having to learn on the fly. They did a great job on National Signing Day, keeping people, including a bunch of receivers. I don't know who Will will keep as a coach, but Washington, the wide receiver's coach, is one to watch because he kept...

Well, he was... The wide receiver coach was acting like he was staying. Honestly, I don't know a lot of behind the scenes over there, but the two practices I went to both times, I was like, that dude is awesome, because he is in their grill and actually coaching. We saw what happened with the freshman this season, turned into stars about in the year, and then he retained his sign-ease, so I'm not Will's advisor,

but if I were keeping anybody, Washington would be high on the list. I guess he said a signing day was also huge. yesterday and they got 12 guys. He else? Go ahead. I was going to say not only was he busy, you know, just adjusting. He had to go recruit guys and get them to sign yesterday. And he also has a game play and he has to do for Oregon here at some point, too.

We'll take a break. 859-28027. Take your calls. 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.

By the way, some people with good questions. This is why I like to outsource. some things I hadn't thought about for me to ask during the Ask our new coach. Yeah, during our phone call. That's at 11 o'clock. I'll probably do one of those things where I push him as long as I can

before we have to take a break because I think I only get one segment there. 859-280-2287. Text machine 772-7752-174-1. One person writes Matt. George Clooney was on the Kelsey podcast, said he was a huge UK fan. I feel like we don't have.

hear him about him enough as a UK fan. I'm glad he did that. I know he is. Hopkins is kind of friendly with him, says he is, but like we don't hear about it a lot. Wouldn't even come to a game? Wouldn't it be cool to see George Clooney at a game? Yeah, there's been other podcasts in the past where he'll mention he's a fan, but I can't think of a time he's popped up at a game.

I don't think so either. He's not really present online. I've seen him like wearing a Kentucky shirt playing basketball, but like, I don't know if he still plays basketball. He's got to be, what, his mid-50s now probably? Oh, he's older than that. Is he? Yeah.

Yeah. That would be a good question for trivia one night. How old is George Clinton? You want to take a guess? I'm going to say... Shannon, you look it up and tell me how Ryan does. Okay, I'm going to say he's 64. 64?

Wow, what do you think he is? 61. 61. What is he, Shannon? He is 64. Wow. Look at Ryan getting it exactly right. I stayed at Holiday Express last night.

You've got to come up with a different joke. He has said that joke so many times over the years. a new joke. Can you do it? I can do it. I do want to mention one more thing. It tickle me about the news conference yesterday. The word, like the fact you use the word tickle. Yeah. You know, all the pyro, the sparks, the fire extinguisher shooting up in the air. We're all

excited. Let's go, let's go, let's go. And then Eli Capoluto gets up, talks about the Gatton new Gatton donations. Let me say this, okay. See, I actually disagree with you. I actually thought Eli's actually thought it was pretty good. Oh, I thought it was way too wrong. I thought, if I, well, here's Way too much.

I want to hear from my coach, damn it. Get off the stage. That's odd. That's odd. Again, I was hearing it on the radio, but I actually thought it was a pretty good speech. And I remember thinking, if I was Mitch Barnhart, I would love how nice Eli is being to me.

He was. He was very complimentary. Man, you just don't like listening to Eli speak. I just think that's the wrong place in time for that situation, man. We're all the bands playing, the cheerleaders are whoopty-doing, and then we got, talking about the donations that we got in business building. Okay, well, I mean, you do it. I guess you make a fair point.

I actually thought he was okay. Okay, so I do have to, for you, I got to talk for a second about the Mitch thing. Yeah. All right, so I have an overall frustration with Mitch Barnhart that he does not talk to the public because he does not. He only talks on media days and sort of what you're getting at right there, Ryan, media day is about the coach. And like, so it's hard because you're sitting there. Everybody's in a good mood and you don't want to be. be harsh to the AD in that moment, but when else are they going to talk to him? He never

do press conferences. So he was asked about the NIL situation. And I mean, I'm not saying this was a shot at us or me, but I think it probably was. And here were his comments when asked about, does Kentucky have enough NIL? Go ahead and play it. We're confident what we're doing, John. People have asked that question 19 different ways from all the stuff that's been going on. And it's exhausting. You know, enough. Enough about have we got enough. We've got enough. And we're working at it just like everyone else is working at it. We're no different. Everybody will, JMI, they've got Learfield, they've got Learfield, we've got JMI, they've got JMI, they've got playfly. So this notion that we don't have enough is ridiculous. We've got enough. We've got to resource it the right

way. We've got to assess talent the right way. We've got to acquire it the right way. And we've got to make sure we're within the boundaries and the rules. We're not going to break the rules. That's flat out. We're not doing that. We will do it the right way. We don't need to do that. We're good enough at what we do. We've got good people. That's why we hired this guy.

He's really smart. Really smart. He's put together a really good game plan of how they're going to do it. In the first day, they've made some really nice adjustments to what we're doing, and we'll be fine. But that notion and all this nonsense has been created a variety of places that we don't have enough or we're not working at it has got to stop. It's enough. All right, so I have a few thoughts here about it. Number one, as an athletic director, you don't get to tell people enough or it's nonsense.

Your answer cannot be, just stop talking about it, stop asking me things. Your job, you are the leader of a public institution. You are not the CEO of a private company. You are the leader of a public institution. When people have questions, and it was John Hale who asked it, who is not exactly the most confrontational guy in the world. You do not get to look at them and say enough nonsense. You say you've been asked 19 different ways.

You've done two press conferences in eight months. Do not tell me you've been asked 19 different ways. You don't go in public, okay? You don't ever talk. So you have not been asked 19 different ways. Kentucky signed a deal to do. NIL is going to be the most important thing in college sports for the next 25 years. I don't think anybody would disagree with that.

Kentucky signed a deal with JMI to basically do their NIL unlike every other program in the country. Nobody else has a situation like ours. They've essentially turned their NIL over to a private media company. Now, is that going to work? I don't know. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. But there is not one person, myself included, who's a lawyer, no sports and knows politics.

and I don't even know how it works. I don't even know what our setup is. You know why? Because they announced it via press release and then never explained it. No one understands it. I called people at JMI the day it came out and they couldn't explain it to me.

There's people at the university that can't explain it. And to sit there and tell the fans to basically shut up, we're fine. Well, if we're fine, why did we win four games, five games next year and switch our coaches? All right? If you're going to take the position that we don't owe you all an explanation, well, I don't like that. You're the head of a public school. You do owe people an explanation.

You've now taken the athletics department and basically made it private, and I think so you don't have to release stuff to the public. So I'm never going to accept we don't owe you an explanation. But if you're going to say that, then you better win, right? And you better get recruits. And you better not have rumors of Kentucky can't get NIL deals done for these guys. So the idea that you can just stand up there and say, it's nonsense. It's not nonsense just because you say it is. Rather than get mad, why don't you explain what we're doing?

There's not one person who can explain what we're doing. not one who's negotiating the NIL deals how much money are we given to football how much money are we given to basketball Mark Stoops has basically acknowledged he literally said pony up which was an which I think he shouldn't have done but was an acknowledgement that at a time we didn't have enough money so I'm just supposed to believe Mitch say we've got enough because I say it well okay fair enough then why haven't we won so I hated that answer I I think it distracts from a good day. And I would say, anytime a leader is asked a question and their answer is to just get mad at the fact the question is answered, or excuse me, is asked, that's on the leader.

That's not on the people asking the question. If the media and the fans do not understand what is happening at UK, that's because you haven't told them and you haven't talked about it. and you haven't, you've not made it to where anyone gets it. And that's not our fault. That's your fault. Well, well, I'm just, that really frustrates me because, you know,

Drew, it's not nonsense to ask that no other school in the country is doing it like this. Yes, these other schools have media deals, but they're still letting their private collectives do stuff. We're the only one that's taking it in-house. And I don't know, man. And since we've done that, we haven't signed a basketball recruit yet.

And I'm nervous about it. Will it work? It might. But I don't think it's crazy to ask about it. Do you? No, and I was smiling. That's my Mitch. There he is talking to him like their five-year-old.

Yeah, he talks to us. That's exactly right. Any press conference I've been to, which is biannual, he talks to the media like their kids, and I can't believe you're questioning me. This goes back to the Cal Stoops thing. He called a press conference and set with Stoops and scalded us saying we're making up a story. and I'm thinking, you emailed me and told me to be here, and now you're yelling at us.

Anytime he gets challenged on anything. And this wasn't even challenged. It was a very basic question, and he lost it. And he was pretty unhinged. The question before that, he got on some rant about people not appreciating Mark Stoops, and he's pounding the desk, and everyone's looking around like... You fired him! But also people are looking around.

I was like, who are you fighting with? Because the people in front of you, no one has done the things that you're arguing about right now. It was like an unhinged press conference, and I see why he doesn't get out there because he cannot handle it. He cannot handle it. criticism and this wasn't criticism this was John Hale from the Herald leader asking if our money situation is good enough for the coach you just hired and Mitch you could see like a switch flipped he could not handle it and he was talking to everyone like their three year old just

spilled something in the house he acts like he is act and he's not always like this Mitch is a good guy I think he's a wonderful man privately but he has this issue where he acts like the media and to some extent the fans work for him that he can just talk to you like you're his employee. How dare you ask me? A very normal question. It's a very normal question. I cannot imagine what it would be like for him if he was at a place where they did ask really hard questions.

Can you imagine if Jerry Tipton was still here? And he asked a question, what would happen in that scenario? Watching that, I was getting flashbacks when I asked him about the checkerboards. And you went off on me. Checkerboard uniforms and went up on me about checkerboards. He has, he's very much an old school. Like, I said it, that's enough. I feel like my grandpa was yelling at everybody.

Yeah. And the middle. Like an old man. He don't work for you. I've had to say to people at UK a lot. Because they all kind of reflect him. I have said to them, I want to remind you, I don't work for you. By the way, it's a little thing, but let me just give you a final example of why UK sports is behind in this regard.

There was a press conference yesterday introducing the new coach. Question for you. If you had a press conference, introducing a new coach, what's the point of doing it? Publicity. What if I told you that unless you were JMI, you couldn't broadcast the press conference? They didn't let any of the TV stations broadcast it. The only one that could do it on radio was the official one, which is all. But when Louisville does a press conference, they'll let anybody.

The whole point is to get it out there. That's the whole point. The point is publicity. So they had an official press conference where you could only show it live if you were their official station. And guess what? The stream didn't work. Nope.

That is ridiculous. And it's the only, let me tell you something. It's the only school in the country that does that. We are the only school that would. call a press, you remember when Cal got hired? That press conference was everywhere. And when we get hired, it's on

the JMI stream and then it doesn't work. And by the way, I'll note on the radio, they finished it early, and they cut off the last 10 minutes of his talking so we could hear analysis instead of the guy talking. It's ridiculous. Sounds very right. It's ridiculous.

And I hope that this kind of thing changes. But that answer summarize to me why I'm worried now not so much about the football program. I'm excited about it. I'm looking forward to talking to this new coach, but why I'm still worried about the athletics department. That answer to me was the symbol as to why. We'll take a break.

Be right back. KSR. Last night, a blown call changed the 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, breaking down the plays, the controversies,

and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action, with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, We get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust.

I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real. conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective

on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by,

like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. man, he running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Agency, the ability to know that we're the experts in our own body. On the podcast, cultivating her space, Dr. Dom and Terry Lomax create a space where black women can show up fully

and be heard. I wholeheartedly think, you know, you hit 30, you shouldn't have to share one with anybody. Mm-hmm. From navigating friendships and healing to setting boundaries and prioritizing your mental health. These are real, honest conversations.

We don't always get to have out loud. Totally unreasonable with different parts of life, right? Like, oh, have all three meals and make sure you're mindful during all of them? Absolutely not. During one meal, I'm standing. I'm standing and handing my children food. Because healing

empowerment and resilience aren't just ideas, their practices. And this Mental Health Awareness Month, there's no better time to pour back into yourself. Listen to cultivating her space on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back, Tucky Sports Radio, 859-28027. A couple of people were saying the press conference was on WLAX in Lexington. which it was that's the official TV station. So again, like that you only get them through the official TV stations, which is the same as it being on our station.

Look, from a selfish respect, it's great that it's only on the station you're listening to me on now. But from a program perspective, that doesn't help. And again, I'll note if it's such a great idea, why does no other school in the country do it? We finish four and eight and five and seven, and then I get told that what we're doing is brilliant. I think that, I think, you know, there are people who say to me, why don't you just trust what he's going to do? When we're going 10 and 2, then Ryan, I'll trust and not ask questions. He is the leader of one of the most powerful entities in our state, and they're trying to get us to support it and be behind it. Well, then explain it to us.

Isn't that your duty as the leader to explain, why you want us to support your new entity that you've in... When you surround yourself with only people who agree with you, or you only allow entities that agree with you to ask you questions, you become separated from the rest of the world. And we see it in politics, and we have seen it in sports. That's why I give so much credit to people like Mark Stoops, who would come on here after they were critical.

When I was critical of Cal, what did he do? stopped coming on. I'm going to ask Mitch to come on. I hope he will. But the more criticism he's gotten over the years, they've retreated. And I love Tom Leach, but Tom Leach is not going to ask those questions because he's paid by them. But when is the, and then the very few times you get a question from somebody who's not paid by UK, you get that reaction. That's a problem.

It just is. And I'm not going to let it ruin the day, because Will's going to be awesome here in a few minutes. But it just is. Leave aside that he doesn't know how to handle it and was clearly unhinged and shaking. That was an opportunity to get more. Like he's saying it up, like we're good. Stop asking coal miners for 50 bucks if we're so good. That should have been, we're in a great spot, but we can always do better for Will Stein.

We've got to feed these studs. I like where we're at, but we need to keep this energy going. No, he said it's enough. All right, so we're good, cut it off. Nobody needs to donate. That's really good point. That was a chance to ask for more and say, we're going to do better. Who wants to anything just be like, I'm good, we're done here.

No, more. Tell us you need more. Say you're working to get more. But it was like, no, everybody shut up. We're fine. That's a really good point. I hadn't thought about that. Who's next, Shannon?

Dave. Dave, go ahead, Dave. Hey, continue, prior to your dad's speed of recovery, Matt. Thank you very much, sir. Hey, I know it's a football-centric day, but I've got to buy a basketball question real quick unless I'm missing things. There's literally nothing being said about the injuries,

about JQ, about Lowe or Diabate, and there's work going around that the Diabate thing is that there's some disciplinary issues involved. Hope you've heard something. Yeah, I don't think. I have not heard that it's disciplinary beyond just people speculating. I think it's an injury.

We saw him go down, you know. So, I mean, it's tough. I mean, we'll go into the Carolina game at some point. I mean, you can't lose that game and then you did. We're just not very good. And that stinks, but we're just not very good. I know. And with so much excitement and the national championship expectations to just be 0 and 3 at this point,

none of us considered 0.3. Some people, I can't remember who picked what. Some people probably had us losing the Louisville, maybe losing another one. But 0 and 3 and getting blown out in two of them and having a 10-minute scoring drought in the other, it just doesn't get you excited for what the next one. It's not very good. And I actually had listened to a podcast on my drive to Knoxville where the guy talked about how, you know, in the NBA, they're always looking for the next thing. And the next thing in the NBA right now in offense is offensive rebounds.

Basically, if you look at the offensive rebound rate in the NBA, it has exploded this year. Teams like the team that would have led the league in offensive rebounds five years ago is now like 19th. like offensive rebounds has become the focus and people crash the boards. I listened to that and I go, oh, that's interesting. I want to look at some of that stats. I want to see how it applies to college basketball. And then I saw that we gave up 22 second chance points to North Carolina. They had 20 offensive rebounds, North Carolina.

But basically they were like all this, essentially what the NBA coaches realized is was so many threes being shot. What do threes lead to? Long rebounds. And the thing to exploit is now you have a better chance of getting offensive. rebounds because if you position yourself right, the rebound's coming out longer, better chance to come to the offensive player. And the Houston Rockets specifically have decided offensive rebounding would be their thing,

and it's worked amazingly well. And I was like, man, that's really interesting. I wonder if we'll start thinking about that in college and then 22 second chance points that night to North Carolina. I was like maybe Hubert Davis listened to that podcast. Poor Malachi was doing everything he could, but man, they were just, they all crashed to glass. That big guy they've got just a big strong butt.

post player that got every offensive rebats. They weren't trying. He always has to say the word, but. He likes it. All right, we will have Will Stein here next on KSR's first interview and returns. Kentucky Sports Radio. 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 Sports Slice 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 headline. 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 podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. What's up guys? This is Cliverts Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast,

The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet. that famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, ref, my mama wants you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.