KSR Postgame UK FB vs Tennessee 10/26/25

Summary

KSR Postgame Show: UK Football vs. Tennessee (10/26/25)

Podcast: KSR (iHeartPodcasts/Sports Talk 790 WKRD-AM)

Date: October 26, 2025
Hosts: Ryan Lemons & Billy Rutledge (No Matt Jones tonight)

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Episode Overview

The KSR crew, led tonight by Ryan Lemons and Billy Rutledge, discuss Kentucky’s crushing 56-34 home loss to Tennessee in a game that exposed ongoing problems for the program. Callers express mounting frustration with Mark Stoops’ tenure, defensive breakdowns, and broader issues in the team's direction and administrative leadership. Despite another stellar game from young quarterback Cutter Bowley, the show’s tone is defined by anger, disappointment, and calls for change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Game Recap and Defensive Collapse

• UK Defense Breakdown: Kentucky gives up 56 points to Tennessee at home; explosive plays and defensive lapses dominate the discussion.
• Failure in Critical Moments: The "middle eights" (final 2 minutes of 1st half and first 2 minutes of 2nd half) once again prove disastrous for Kentucky.

  "It's almost like the middle fours. The last two minutes of the first half and the first two minutes of the second half just seems to spell doom time and time again for Kentucky." – Ryan Lemons (04:06)

• Defensive Coaching Scrutinized: Repeated reference to Brad White’s defensive schemes failing, particularly three-down linemen, allowing Tennessee’s QB Aguilar to pick apart the secondary.

  "There were just a lot of holes in it tonight, Billy." – Ryan Lemons (19:27)

2. Standout Performances and Missed Opportunities

• QB Cutter Bowley’s Growth: Despite the loss, Bowley throws for 330 yards and 5 TDs (26/35, 1 INT—a tipped pick six).
• Emergence of Young Receivers: DJ Miller and JJ Hester each catch two TDs—a striking contrast to their limited earlier roles.

  "Going into tonight's game, we had only thrown four passing touchdowns all season. Four. We threw five tonight." – Ryan Lemons (05:41)

• Questioning Usage Decisions: Fans and hosts alike lament these young talents weren’t featured earlier.

3. Fan Frustration and Declining Support

• Poor Stadium Atmosphere: Excessive Tennessee orange at Kroger Field, empty seats, and lackluster home-field energy underscored the fanbase’s malaise.
• Callers Expressing Disgust: Multiple callers cite the atmosphere as “flat,” "like a funeral," and evidence of a disengaged fan base.

4. The Stoops Question: Future Uncertainty

• Mounting Pressure on Stoops: Callers and hosts openly question whether Stoops should return. The argument: the program has plateaued (or worse), and the buyout is an anchor.

  "Our program has gotten to the gutter... When stands start emptying out before the second quarter, tonight felt like Joker Phillips." – Nick, Caller (13:01)

• Nothing Changing:

  "Nothing changes when nothing changes." – Richard, Caller (16:04, repeated by hosts and others throughout)

• Buyout and Admin Issues: Massive buyout makes firing Stoops costly; Barnhart’s stewardship, especially contract negotiations and NIL, criticized.

5. Program Direction & Roster Retention

• Fear of Losing Cutter Bowley: Concerns that top talent (Bowley, Rodriguez, Patterson) might leave if Stoops is retained or if the program doesn’t quickly stabilize.

  "Who are we going to keep, Stoops or Bowley? Because the big boys are going to be coming..." – Steve, Caller (17:43)

6. Culture, Administration, and Branding Concerns

• Marketing/Atmosphere Flubs: No “blackout” effort despite all-black unis; weak in-stadium traditions and student engagement; Barnhart’s recent record vilified.
• Fan Focus Shifting to Basketball: Multiple mentions that with basketball’s big win over #1 Purdue, fans’ energy is redirecting.

7. Recurring Rivalry Pain

• Tennessee Dominance Historical Context:

  "Some of us old timers, this felt like an old time Tennessee butt whooping… Five years in a row they scored over 50 points against us." – Ryan Lemons (39:38)

• Callers’ Historical Perspective: Many remember prior dark eras; dismay at feeling they're potentially returning.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Game/Postgame Analysis

• On Defensive Collapse:

  "As good as our defense played last week against Texas... they played equally as bad tonight against Tennessee."
  – Ryan Lemons (03:16)

• On Coaching Responsibility:

  "If you know it's a bad matchup for you, go out and fix it... That can’t be the excuse."
  – Ryan Lemons (03:44)

Callers’ Voices of Frustration

• On Program Decline:

  "You can tell the fans are done. When stands start emptying out before the second quarter tonight felt like Joker Phillips. Mark Stoops has got to go."
  – Nick, Caller (13:01)

• On Stoops’ Tenure or Buyout:

  "I hate how, you know, he sounds so upset ... but nothing changes when nothing changes. And nothing changed this year."
  – Richard, Caller (14:17)

• On Retaining Talent:

  "The big boys are going to be coming and they're not just going to be offering money. They're going to be offering chances at a national title and maybe even a Heisman..."
  – Steve, Caller (17:43)

• On Atmosphere:

  "You go into the, you when you tailgate, there's, there's, there's no energy, there's, everything's just flat. And you get into the stadium, everything is just flat."
  – Kettle, Caller (28:50)

Hosts' Reflections

• On Mark Stoops Leaving:

  "Man, I kind of feel the same thing that's happening with Mark Stoops... Now he's going to maybe have to walk out with his head down again. The postgame show, he sounds defeated, he sounds beat up, and I don't want that for him."
  – Ryan Lemons (35:46)

• On Barnhart:

  "All the pressure is no longer on Mark Stoops. I think all the pressure is now on Mitch Barnhart because now this is gonna have to be his decision."
  – Ryan Lemons (37:18)

• On Basketball Taking Priority:

  "Thank God it's basketball season because I promise you a lot of Wildcat fans are going to start going to Rupp instead of Kroger Field."
  – Darrell, Caller (54:25)

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Noteworthy Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Highlight | Speaker/Context | |-----------|--------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------| | 03:16 | “That was ugly... Tennessee just whoops Kentucky 56 to 34...” | Ryan Lemons' game summary & frustrations | | 05:41 | "Going into tonight's game, we had only thrown four passing touchdowns all season..." | Lemons on Bowley & new receivers | | 08:50 | "The corners really struggled today..." | Billy analyses defensive secondary struggles | | 13:01 | "When stands start emptying out before the second quarter tonight felt like Joker Phillips..." | Nick, first passionate anti-Stoops caller | | 16:04 | "Nothing happens when nothing happens. Nothing changes when nothing changes." | Richard, caller/tagline for the night | | 17:43 | "Who are we going to keep, Stoops or Bowley?" | Steve, caller, on transfer risk and program future | | 28:50 | "You get into the stadium, everything is just flat..." | Kettle, caller laments lifeless fan atmosphere | | 39:38 | "In 1996, Billy, how old were you in 96? One. Tennessee scored 56 points..." | Lemons recalls long history of Tennessee blowouts | | 54:25 | "Thank God it's basketball season because I promise you a lot of Wildcat fans are going to start going to Rupp instead of Kroger Field." | Darrell, caller, sense of resignation | | 56:44 | "You want to put Fruit Loops up your butt and fart rainbows? Is that what Darrell said, Billy?" | Lemons ends show with comic relief after venting |

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Key Takeaways

• Complete defensive collapse and poor adjustment doomed Kentucky, undid any positives from offensive breakout.
• Cutter Bowley’s potential and the sudden emergence of young wideouts are the lone bright spots; fans fear losing their top young talent if the program doesn’t stabilize fast.
• Mark Stoops’ future is center-stage amid cries for change, but complex by his massive buyout and growing calls for AD Mitch Barnhart to act decisively.
• Atmosphere at Kroger Field is at its lowest in years: empty seats, opposing fans dominating, and listless energy among home fans—problems of both performance and engagement.
• Callers and hosts repeatedly invoke "Nothing changes when nothing changes" as the night’s rallying cry for the need to overhaul leadership, culture, and trajectory.
• Public focus is pivoting to basketball. Kentucky’s win over #1 Purdue feels worlds apart; for many fans, basketball season can't come soon enough.

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Listener Utility

This episode is a cathartic snapshot of a program at a crossroads—raw, honest, and deeply emotional. Anyone who missed the show will understand the specifics of the game, the root of current frustrations, and the tenor of the UK football fanbase right now. Optimism for the future is thin; calls for change are loud and impassioned.

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End of summary.

Transcript

[Ryan Lemons]

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[Caller]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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[Ryan Lemons]

Is offered to US customers through PayWord Interactive Incorporated. Terms apply. This is Julian Edelman from Games With Names. Football is back. That means it's tailgate time and this season the only meat I'm going to grill is Dietz and Watson. I'm loving the Black Angus Dietz dogs. They're flavor packed and you can tell they are made with the highest quality ingredients. Sundays just got a whole lot better. Visit deetsandwatson.com the right way to learn more about the deets difference. Well, welcome in the local Total leaders KSR post game show Ryan limited from Matt Jones tonight and that was ugly. Tennessee just whoops. Kentucky 56 to 34. That was just, that was one of those old fashioned Tennessee buckwholfins we've seen over the years and it just, the game didn't even feel like it was that close. I, you know you'd score 34 points. Kentucky scoring 34 points. Everybody should be happy about that, you know. You know in this league you're going to win a lot of games. You can score 34 points. I didn't know we could score more than 13 in this game. 13 kind of in the magic number. But when you give up 56 points, you ain't gonna beat anybody, nobody. And as good as that defense played last week against Texas, which I thought they played really, really well, they played equally as bad tonight against Tennessee. I don't know what happened to our defense. It's just, you know, you heard Coach Dupes say four or five times on the postgame show, it's just a bad matchup for us. Well, then fix it. If you know it's a bad matchup for you, go out and fix it. Get the scheme in place to help you or get the players in place to help you or whatever. But that can't be the excuse that it's just a bad matchup for us. If you knew it's a bad matchup for us, well, then do something about it. Give up 56 points. And the whole game turned again. I don't know how many times we say this after a UK football game. The whole game turned at the end of the first half, Kentucky scores to pull within one touchdown, 28 to 21, going into over halftime. And we had the ball to start the second half. All they had to do is make a stop at the end of the first half. You're down a touchdown in the locker room. Coach Dubes goes in there, guys, we're still in this, man. We're just down a touchdown. We're going to get the ball here to start the second half. We're going to punch him. We're going to tie this game. It's a new game. No, they let another disastrous score at the end of the first half. Then they come out of halftime, can't get any points on the board when you get the ball to start the second half. And again, that Freddie Mag always calls it the middle, the middle eights. It's almost like the middle fours. The last two minutes of the first half and the first two minutes of the second half just seems to spell doom time and time again for Kentucky. And they never recovered after that. I mean, Tennessee just big play after big play after big play. I don't know what is. What was wrong with our defense tonight? I mean, you're missing Sack Em Souls and DJ Waller, but my goodness, how can you play so well against tennis? I mean, how bad must Arch Manning be if he couldn't do anything against his defense? And then look what Tennessee did against his defense tonight. So that. That. That's my big takeaway is that Cutter Bowley had another great game. The guy just continues to grow and get better. What do you have? He had 330 passing yards, five touchdowns, 26 of 35. He had one intercession. That was a tip pass that they tipped up in the air and hauled it in for a pick six. The guy's just growing right in front of our eyes. And these Young Receivers, man, J.J. hester and D.J. miller, where have they been all year? You team to tell me these two guys have been on the sideline now for half the season and not even been in the game hardly. I think DJ Got in the last game against Texas a little bit. Hester's been in off and on. But they are obviously, you know. Billy, listen to this. Going into tonight's game, we had only thrown four passing touchdowns all season. Four. We threw five tonight.

[Billy]

That's incredible.

[Ryan Lemons]

Two to Miller, two to Hester, and one to Kendrick Law. That just tells you right there, Cutter Bowley is becoming the man. And they need to do everything they can do whether whoever the coach is to keep that kid here in Lexington, because that kid's going to be a star someday. He's going to be an NFL quarterback someday. I mean, I really believe that. He just gets better and better each time out now. He's got these young receivers. I hate the fact it looks like maybe Willie Rodriguez is hurt and maybe going to be out because he's a guy that's really kind of flourished under Cutter Bowley. So if you. If you. But you think about next, you know, next couple years, Patterson, young guy. Got a lot of young guys that could build around offense. After all the complaints I've had about the offense and the. The poor play calls and the poor execution. All my complaints with the defense tonight, and I'm sure everybody feels the same way. So if you're leaving the stadium tonight, give us a call. 859-280-2287. You know, I wasn't there, but we saw pictures of the crowd. A lot of orange, Billy. A lot of orange at KS Bar for the pregame show. A lot of orange in the stadium. I got a picture from my son who was sitting there. He goes, I thought this was supposed to be a home game. He sent the pictures. All the Orange fans were in there. A lot of empty seats. So as. As much as we bragged on our fan base and our crowd last week against Texas. A little disappointed tonight, the way he shook out. So, I don't know, I'm just, you know, I'm like everybody else, man. You just get tired of getting whooped by Tennessee. This, you know, it wasn't that long ago where we were competitive with Tennessee, we'd beat him a couple times. But then, you know, you go back in history, it's just we've seen this time and time again. What was that like was in when Stoops first got here? Maybe in like 2014, 15, 16, something like that. They put 50 on us like three years in a row. Well, they put 50 tonight if they wanted to. They could have had over 60. They could have scored every single time. Did they punt the other they punter ball like on their second possession? Yeah, they put in a couple times. So what's your takeaway, Billy? I kind of ran in there for a while. What's your big takeaway?

[Billy]

Well, if you're looking for a positive, there were two marriage proposals tonight. Well, at Commonwealth, Billy said there were.

[Ryan Lemons]

Two marriage proposals at Commonwealth at Kroger Field. So that's a positive.

[Billy]

They both said yes. So two for two there.

[Ryan Lemons]

Okay, now wait a minute. My son was there. He wasn't one of them, was he?

[Billy]

I don't think so, but my fiance was there and.

[Ryan Lemons]

That's right, your fiance was also there. She wasn't one of them, was she?

[Billy]

We got bigger problems if she was, but I don't think. I don't think so. You know, you mentioned the end of the half and right before Tennessee marched down the field and scored in like a minute 30, Kentucky went on a 16 play, 96 yard drive that took eight and a half minutes. You make the score 28, 21. You think, man, I mean, Cutter bowling can keep us in this game. But at times Brad White's defense has held this team together. It was not tonight. They were outmatched. And like you said, it's not a good matchup for Kentucky. I don't know, is that because Tennessee has better players than Kentucky? Is that why it wasn't a good matchup? I just, it's. It's frustrating to see time and time again Tennessee be able to put that many points on the board for a team that prides itself on their defense.

[Ryan Lemons]

I'm glad you brought up that score that made it 28, 21 because I wrote a note to myself. 96 yard scoring drive, best drive of the season. Question mark because it took like nine minutes off the clock. They went from almost goal line to goal line, ended with a Hester touchdown pass. I that may be the best drive of the season. I thought, man, we're in this, we're down just a touchdown. There's a minute and a half left. We'll get out and get out of here. Down a touchdown at halftime. But then they scored just right before the halfs and went 75 yards in like the blink of an eye. Just all those explosive plays. Billy, I mean every time he turned around, I think I heard Jeff Picor on the postgame show. Aguilar was 6 of 6 passing of over 20 yards or more. Just didn't miss. Every time they went deep, they got it.

[Billy]

Yeah, the corners really struggled today. Kentucky just simply couldn't finish. They couldn't finish their drives even coming out of halftime. They got to midfield about to like the 39 yard line and then a couple of penalties backed him up. They had to punt and then Tennessee scores the next drive. You cannot have that many penalties and drive killing things. If you want to compete in this.

[Ryan Lemons]

Conference, somebody needs to look it up and I'm sure they will. How many points Kentucky has given up in the last two minutes of the first half and how many times they have failed to score coming out of the at halftime when they have the ball to start the second half? It just never happens. I just don't understand how that can be such a recurring thing. And if we're going to be honest, that falls on the coaches game prep, preparation, execution, that falls on the coaching staff. So whether it's a bad matchup or not, you got to find a way to stop things like that that keep happening over and over and over.

[Billy]

And we don't see DJ Miller till middle of the year. We don't see JJ Hester make these plays till middle of the year. I mean Calzada starts over Bowley to start the year. It's just it stinks that it's taken till this late in the year for to see these young guys play so well.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, the receiver room has been the biggest puzzle on offense. You know, they started with Macklin and Fred Ferrier and Kendrick Law was going to be the three main guys. Well, Macklin's caught like four or five catches all year, maybe more than that, not sure. But he hasn't got a touchdown. Kendrick Law scored his second touchdown tonight. Fred Ferrier has been pretty much non existent and then these young guys come in. Remember Cam Miller two games ago had a couple of big plays and then D.J. miller last game had some big play. The two, I don't know, their last name's Miller and I think they both should be on the field at the same time. But Hester definitely should be out there. Kendrick Law had the big play tonight. The big explosive play went 70 yards.

[Billy]

So how about a crazy fumble in.

[Ryan Lemons]

The first quarter that was like what you see at the my kids old 5th and 6th grade games where the ball, somebody falls on the ball and it squirts out. Somebody falls on the ball and picks it up and it squirts out again. Somebody falls on the ball and it squirts out again. That was actually kind of funny, I think.

[Billy]

Yeah. The carnival music in the background.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Billy]

And then that led to Tennessee going up 28 to 7. You thought it could have been a terrible night, but Kentucky, game over.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, that kid, I thought that was gonna be game over. But they scored. The Kendrick scored on the touchdown. The D.J. miller scored, cut it to one score. Could have been one score going into the locker room at halftime. And they just never recovered after that. So it's gonna be one of those nights. It was ugly. I mean it was. I had a friend of mine, he always used to call me after these games. He'd say, pitiful, pitiful, pitiful. There is no. I expect I'll get that call from him tonight. So. 859-280-2287. We'll take our first break, come back, we'll load up the phone lines, give you a chance to talk. It's your turn. We'll be right back. This is the local Total dealers KSR postgame show. All right, welcome back. This is the local total dealers KSR post game show. Ryan and Billy staying up late tonight. We appreciate everybody who has tuned in. If you're stuck in traffic trying to get home or you're trying to repair the glass, that broken glass that you threw up against the wall and Tennessee scored again tonight. Give us a call. 859-280-2287 billion I said our piece. Time for you guys, the fans to kind of take over and we want to hear from you. So Billy, who we got first? Yeah.

[Billy]

Let's start with Nick.

[Ryan Lemons]

Nick, Go ahead, Nick.

[Caller]

Hey, you know, look, always appreciate what Mark Streets has done for Kentucky football, all right? But now our program has gotten to the gutter for what the Kentucky taxpayers donators from the fans are putting in. We're not getting the return we deserve. All the fans can do is show up and hope for the best. When I see Florida Vandy, Louisville And Tennessee Tech, who's 80 right now, I can seriously see us going 2 and 10. You can tell the fans are done. When stands start emptying out before the second quarter tonight felt like Joker Phillips. Mark Stoops has got to go. If we want change If I were the ad, I'd have John Summer on the plane right now.

[Ryan Lemons]

Nick, we appreciate the phone call, Billy. You could hear the pain in his voice and I think a lot of fans are that way. You could just hear it in his voice. We love this program. We loved Mark Stoops, but this is not. This is not acceptable.

[Billy]

Yeah, maybe one of those fans that broke that glass on the wall at some point during the game.

[Ryan Lemons]

And he's right. Tennessee tech is now 8. And, oh, everybody counts that up as a win. Look out. And Auburn just won at Arkansas today. Guess where we're going next week at Auburn. All right, who's next, Billy?

[Billy]

Richard is next.

[Ryan Lemons]

Richard. Go ahead, Richard.

[Caller]

Hey, guys. So, you know, I was listening to Mark Stoops after on with Tom Leach and I hate how, you know, he sounds so upset. I'm a. I feel like I'm overly sympathetic. But my conclusion about this season, that last season should have been when we fired him. Like the buyout. We could have gotten that money, but we were told, you know, they were going to change everything that caused all the problems last year. Discipline, the culture, the play calling. We gave Bush Hampden the excuse that he didn't get his pick of quarterback. Well, he got his pick of quarterback and wasted $4 million on him when we had Cutter Boli already and absolutely did not scheme to his strength. You don't have any play action rollouts really, that make take advantage of his legs. But I think that, you know, nothing changes when nothing changes. And nothing changed this year. They were quiet. They probably, I mean, and we like now it's a terrible time to hire a coach. Last year would have been perfect. And I thought that we should have gotten rid of him last year. I'm sure there are hundreds of thousands of others who feel exactly the same way. And now we just have to feel like, yeah, we were right. But, you know, that does absolutely no good at all. I don't mind losing to Tennessee. We're going to lose to Tennessee, but I just can't stand, like the game being this miserable. I mean, I grew up going to Joker Phillips games. At least the tailgating back then was fun. We weren't getting priced out tents weren't going to banks who were having employee hospitality or whatever. We could actually have fun in the tailgates and at the games. But anyways, I'm gonna hang up. Love you guys. Thanks for doing this tonight. Go Big Blue. Go Cats. Go Kentucky football.

[Ryan Lemons]

Appreciate it, Richard. Billy. Truer words never spoken. Nothing happens when nothing Happens. Nothing changes when nothing changes.

[Billy]

Yeah. So when does something change? Right.

[Ryan Lemons]

I think they're gonna get to a point where it's gonna have to happen. But the caller brought up a great point. This is a horrible time to probably try to make a coaching change with all these other job openings that are already open and are going to come open yet. I think the things would have. If. If Stoops would have just taken that job at Texas A and M, we would still love the guy. We would still praise him. He did wonderful things here. And then we wouldn't have had the disappointing season last year. We wouldn't have this disappointing season this year. Be in the middle of this. Are we gonna buy him out? Are we gonna fire him while this controversy that's going on? I don't know, man. I just don't think Barnhart's the type of guy that's going to pull the trigger right now. I think there's going to. He's still going to play it out. You know, a lot of people still think they can beat Auburn at Auburn. Florida's limping in here in a couple of weeks. That could be a win right there.

[Billy]

So Barnhart's going to be behind again because he was behind on nil, right?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Billy]

We're in a changing landscape of college sports and Kentucky has the longest tenured coach in the sec. I mean, just because it's not going well right now doesn't mean there weren't good times and things that. For Kentucky fans to love Mark Stoops. But, you know, there. There is a lot of truth in that caller's point of nothing's going to change until something changes.

[Ryan Lemons]

Nothing changes when nothing changes, Billy. All right, who's next?

[Billy]

Steve?

[Ryan Lemons]

Steve. Go ahead, Steve.

[Caller]

Hey, guys, once again, another powerful point about a Brad White defense that just has no consistency whatsoever. But the big point is, and I think this conversation is going to start happening and it should be happening quick, who are we going to keep, Stoops or Bowley? Because the big boys are going to be coming and they're not just going to be offering money. They're going to be offering chances at a national title and maybe even a Heisman in a year or two, because the kids that talented. But he's not going to stick around. But Stoops around.

[Ryan Lemons]

Great point, Steve. And not just him, all these other young guys I'm talking about. You don't think other schools are going.

[Caller]

To come after Cutter Bowley after with everything they've got? We like to match them money wise.

[Ryan Lemons]

Absolutely.

[Caller]

We're not going to match them with opportunity.

[Ryan Lemons]

They're going to come after Willie Rod, Willie Rodriguez, Hartley Gilmore, Jason Patterson, all these guys. I mean, they're going to come after these guys. He's got just some talented guys, so. All right. Appreciate the phone call, but he's. He's right. You got to think about the future of the program. And our future right now kind of relies on the shoulders of Cutter Bowley, not necessarily our head coach. Right now, at this moment, right now, I think most people would want to keep Cutter more than anybody else.

[Billy]

Well, yeah.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah. Including your head coach. Including your offensive coordinator.

[Billy]

Quarterback's most important position.

[Ryan Lemons]

No doubt.

[Billy]

That second touchdown pass he threw to Miller for 56 yards was beautiful. I mean, the guy on the money caught it in stride. Easy touchdown. You know, it is going to be. I hope they can keep him because whatever new coach comes in, he's got, you know, got to be really optimistic about that.

[Ryan Lemons]

If Cutter stays, if there is a new coach, that is his number one priority. Keep that kid here in Lexington. Keep him as our quarterback. I totally agree with that. Now, the other thing that Steve said, though, is about Brad White's defense. You know, we had a discussion this past week where there are some people, again, I think I got blamed for being the person. Some people were. Like, to see Brad White potentially be the next head coach. Boy, after tonight, I don't know. I think that Brad White fan club may have lost a few members tonight because that defense was like Swiss cheese. There were just a lot of holes in it tonight. Billy.

[Billy]

Yeah. I don't know if it makes a lot of Sense to pay $38 million to buy out Stoops and then retain the defensive coordinator either.

[Ryan Lemons]

It's.

[Billy]

Yeah, you kind of want to start over a little bit, but we'll see.

[Ryan Lemons]

All right, let's get another phone call. Who we got?

[Billy]

Pete.

[Ryan Lemons]

Pete. Go ahead, Pete.

[Caller]

Hey, Ron. Hey, Billy. Just. Yeah, I mean, I'm 28 years old, you know, like, I appreciate what Stoops has done, but, like, to see, like, we are definitively the worst team in the sec and, you know, we have no hope going forward. I just. I feel like there's just nothing to look forward to next year. So, like, there's no sense in keeping him. I mean, you know, Cutter Bowley looks great. I would love for him to come back, but, like, there's just no, you know, forward momentum to come back. I mean, Mississippi State scored, what, 38 points, right, against Texas, I think, and, like, you know, that looks Horrible for us. And like, it's just when, when was the last time that the, you know, the last team in the conference keeps their coach? And I just, I just don't think that there's any hope going forward. It's just, it's a, it's a lost cause in my opinion.

[Ryan Lemons]

Pete, we appreciate it, you know. Yeah. Mississippi State just lit up the scoreboard against Texas, a team that we only scored one touchdown against last week. But like I said earlier, how, how bad was Mart Arch Manning be if he couldn't move the football against our defense last night? I mean, our defense look really, really good last week when we played Texas. And if you saw the Texas, Mississippi State game, the Texas punt returner, Nibbler Niblett, he ran another one back for a touchdown. Why punt? Why are teams punting to that guy? He ran one back against Oklahoma. He almost ran two back against us. And he ran one back against Mississippi State today. Dudes like Derek Abney, 2.0. All right, let's get another phone call. Who we got?

[Billy]

Cody.

[Ryan Lemons]

Cody. Go ahead, Cody.

[Caller]

Hey, Ryan. I tell you what, this is just really makes me sad because I've always liked Mark Stoops and I think he was the right coach at the right time for Kentucky especially to kind of counteract the energy that Cal had. I mean, Stoops was always blue collar and kind of about the people and then, you know, hard nosed and went out there and turned the program around. But I think tonight was pretty much the nail in the coffin for his tenure. Unfortunately. I mean, Bushamdon finally had a somewhat decent game, but it just kind of proved that he's really been malpractice and how he's been managing the team all year. You look at the athletes we got and how good they played tonight on offense, on some of the big plays, we should be doing that all year long.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yep.

[Caller]

I've always kind of thought Brad White was fool's gold because I want to. I'm sure Billy's too busy to look at it, but I bet if he went back and tried to tally up what he's given up to Tennessee in the last three years, I bet it'd be over 100 points we've given to Tennessee in three seasons. And I mean, the, just the totality of the circumstances, I mean, it's, it's.

[Ryan Lemons]

Got to tell you, I looked the scores up. I've got them right here. Beat us tonight, 56, 34. Last year was 28 to 18. Year before that was 33 to 27 year before that, 44 to 6 and in 2021 was 45 to 42. So they've scored over 40 points three of the last five years.

[Billy]

206, my goodness.

[Caller]

And people want to talk like that guy's going to be a head coach somewhere. I mean if you can't figure out a team in four seasons to not give him 200 points, you shouldn't be head coaching a pee wee league if you ask me.

[Ryan Lemons]

You.

[Caller]

So that's just my opinion. But the question I want to ask you though is granted the last after the last two weeks and the way Auburn and Florida's playing and then whoever knows the Louisville, what does happen if we end up winning five or six games? What do you think Mark Stoops or Mitch Barnhart would actually do now? I mean it's, it's going to be. That would leave us with a pretty odd situation because yeah that may be Auburn beat Florida, but they're neither one of them's really that good. So what do you think? I'll hang up and listen.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well Cody, we, you know we've had that question on KSR the last week or so. You know if they finish five and seven but that include that, that's going to mean you beat somebody you weren't supposed to. If you think Florida and Auburn are now winnable games, I get you for Tennessee Tech who's undefeated. Is 5 or is Louisville going to be that win? I don't know. I think if you'd asked me just a guess if this team finished 5 and 7, I think Barnhart would keep Stoops. Stoops would have to leave on his own. I, I that I don't think Barnett would want to pay that buyout after five and seven season. That's just me. Billy, what's your opinion on it?

[Billy]

I think if they get to five they'll keep Stoops.

[Ryan Lemons]

I do too.

[Billy]

The progression a cutter. You'll say that you've won at least two decent games.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yep.

[Billy]

If you beat Tennessee Tech and then two of those other three so and, and the relationship Mitch has with Stoops, I think he just keeps them. And that's 38's a lot.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yep. Before I go to break, I'll read this tweet I got from Zach. He goes Ryan. I don't think anyone was stuck in traffic after that one. I think there was more Traffic leaving a 6th grade playoff game between Harlan county and Betsy Lane today. By the time that game was over. That's true. People emptied out even the Tennessee fans were leaving early after that game tonight. So balls went at 56, 34. It was ugly. Ugly. That ain't no alibi. You're ugly. You're ugly. We write back. This is Connected Sports radio. Welcome back. The local Totallers KSR postgame show as Tennessee just whoops the snot out of Kentucky tonight. 56 to 34. I mean I let myself believe it, Billy. When they pulled within 28, 21, I thought, man, we're going to go in the locker room down a hat. Only a touchdown. After the disaster the start the game there, big explosive touchdown and then the tip pick six. And then after that I just like oh my goodness, what happened? It was just happened so fast. It seemed like the knockout punch. We talked about the crowd leaving. My buddy Phil just sent me a picture of the Longship club which is, you know where they have the. The Keeneland Room I think they call it.

[Billy]

Yeah.

[Ryan Lemons]

12 minutes left in the game. He says when he took this picture and it's deserted. I mean there's like eight people there. That is it.

[Billy]

But you got to give them a reason to stick around.

[Ryan Lemons]

And that's what gets fires coaches. That's what gets coaches fired faster than anything is empty seats, no ticket sales. That's what happened to Joker that last game against Vanderbilt. So which Vanderbilt? They won again today. So they're now what, seven and one. Look out Vanderbilt Commodores used to be an automatic win. We won last time we went to Vanderbilt though, two years ago. Can we have a little magic this year?

[Billy]

You see the end of that game?

[Ryan Lemons]

I did see the end of it.

[Billy]

Missouri Hail Mary to the one yard line.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, dude. Dude caught the ball but we wasn't in the end zone.

[Billy]

Yeah. Good finish.

[Ryan Lemons]

859-280-2287. Who we got next, Billy?

[Billy]

Jerry is next.

[Ryan Lemons]

Jerry. Go ahead. Jerry. Jerry.

[Caller]

Jerry. I heard him, okay. I'm sorry. Look man, it's just completely horrible, man. I set your watch. We cut the lead down to 28, 21. Tennessee's got the ball and he's trying to rush the quarterback with three down linemen. There's no way in God's beautiful earth that you can ever complete put the ball rush the quarterback for three down linemen against Tennessee.

[Ryan Lemons]

Appreciate Jerry. Yeah. I think there's gonna be a lot of people questioning a lot of things that that defense did tonight because Tennessee did whatever they want whenever they wanted. Explosive play after explosive play. What they. When we came out of halftime and didn't get a. We got way out one first down, then we punted. They ran like one play and went like 70 yards again for a touchdown. It was just amazing. So, So I don't know, that just seems to be Brad White's philosophy. The three down lineman up front. They don't put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and they just. Aguilar just sat back there and picked us apart tonight. Who we got next?

[Billy]

I remember I didn't get the name right on the pregame. I'm not sure this person's name either. I think it's Kettle.

[Ryan Lemons]

Kettle. Is this, is this the right name? Is this Kettle?

[Caller]

Hello?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah.

[Billy]

Who is this person?

[Caller]

Hey, this is Kettle.

[Ryan Lemons]

Go, go ahead, Kettle. We were waiting on you.

[Caller]

Hey guys. I mean I don't, I don't think it takes a rock science to know this, but this is just an absolute mess. Season ticket holder. Here you go into the, you when you tailgate, there's, there's, there's no energy, there's, everything's just flat. And you get into the stadium, everything is just flat. And then you see the product on the field last week against Texas. Yeah, there's a little, little bit of emotion there, but you know, we're just not getting the results that we need and then that builds into this week and we get our absolute teeth kicked in and this is just an absolute wreck. Don't know where we go from here. Just all around disappointment.

[Ryan Lemons]

Thought Kittle. Appreciate the phone call. Yeah. We knew during the pregame show at KS Bar and Grill when maybe 30%, 40% of the restaurant were in orange. There was no buzz, no energy like there usually is in our pregame shows. You could kind of get the feeling then we had these reports that tailgating lots were empty, people weren't there tailgating like they always are. I mean last week was homecoming and parents weekend. Maybe that added to a lot of the people who came to the game this weekend. It's still, it's Tennessee. It's your rival. And the buzz and the energy. I think Billy just was not there from our crowd tonight.

[Billy]

Nope.

[Ryan Lemons]

No.

[Billy]

A little worried about the last home games too, you know.

[Ryan Lemons]

No doubt. I tell you what I hate too is hearing them, the Kentucky, the Tennessee band play Rocky Top in our stadium over and over and over. I know it may be bad form to try to out play or the opponent's band, but when they fire up your Rocky Top, why isn't our band firing up something to try to drown them out a little bit?

[Billy]

I mean, I heard rock, why not?

[Ryan Lemons]

I'm not gonna Sit there and let. Let them play Rocky Top whenever they want, all the time. I just hate that. I don't know. That's just. It's always bothered me. I don't know. Okay, who's next? Who we got?

[Billy]

Edward.

[Ryan Lemons]

Edward. Go ahead, Edward.

[Caller]

Hey, Ryan, I'm a longtime fan and I had a memory pop up on my phone today from 2014. It was Stoops troops. Why not? The big banner furled out with the fan.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, yeah.

[Caller]

I mean, this was terrible. And like you said, I heard Rocky Top. They were chanting Rocky Top all around me, and I stayed till the bitter end. It was terrible. That's awful.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah. That should never happen on your home field. No doubt about it. I hate that, too, Edward. Yes.

[Caller]

And I hate to say it, but Stoops has got to go.

[Ryan Lemons]

All right. We appreciate it. Well, you know, the, the Stoops has got to go argument is going to get louder and stronger as the season progresses. But as of, as of after a game like tonight, people are beating their drums. I mean, my whole timeline is filled with anti Mark Stoops and negative comments about our program. Hard to argue against it right now when you're sitting here with two wins and getting your teeth kicked in. You know, we thought we had a. We thought we did something last week against a pretty good Texas team. Well, I don't think they're really that good at all. They kind of lucked out today against Mississippi State. But I don't know, man, that game down in Auburn now scares me. Next weekend. Auburn seems to kind of found themselves a little bit. They just won at Arkansas. Now we gotta go down to their place. Kind of just scares me a little bit. There's no way they're going to win at Vanderbilt on Diego Pavia Senior Day down there. So now you're looking what, Florida at home, Louisville on the road. Tennessee Tech.

[Billy]

Gets you to five.

[Ryan Lemons]

Gets you to five. There we go. All right, let's take another phone call. Who we got?

[Billy]

Jordan.

[Ryan Lemons]

Jordan. Go ahead, Jordan.

[Caller]

What's up, Ryan Lemons? First off, I want to say I for one am happy you're on the post game show. Just want to let you know that. Thank you.

[Ryan Lemons]

Got a lot of pushback tonight on that, but thank you.

[Caller]

Yeah, I see. I've seen the tweet. I've seen the tweet. Disrespectful. Anyways, Second, bring on John Summerall, man. Let's get it going. Thank you for the call.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, that's going to be the argument. But the thing is there's some other jobs that are going to be maybe more attractive to John Summerall than Kentucky. You know John Sumrall is from Alabama. He coached at Troy Alabama. The Auburn job isn't going to come open. I'm sure if it does, they're going to go after him. I'm sure teams are already talking to John Sumrall or talking to his agent if nothing else. So he may be at the top of the ladder of some of these coaching candidates that are other schools going to be looking at right now. Obviously he played here, obviously he coached here. Obviously. I think most fans would love to have him here. But the John Sumrall lottery may be a tough one to win this this go around but not mistaken. So get another phone call. Who we got? Billy.

[Billy]

Nate.

[Ryan Lemons]

Nate. Go ahead Nate.

[Caller]

Yeah, well I much prefer Willston bring bring the Kentucky kid home. And in that that previous caller the why not? I mean Jimmy Sexton's gonna be sitting there talking to Mitch tonight saying why not pay me my 38 million dol let me, let me run this by Uran and Billy and maybe get some comments from you, okay? Say Mitch is too scared to fire him right after the game. He can't do that to the all time winning as coach. But we're getting to a part point where this last half of the season this is what people are going to remember Mark sts for for the next couple years until this goes over. So why not work a deal without him and give them his twilight tour. Fans will show up, announce it on Monday. Hey, this will be Stoops last season. Please come out and support the all time winning his coach and let him go out with fanfare and appreciation from the fans whether that rather than us getting blown out by 60 points by Vanderbilt the end of the season but I'll let y' all answer that after a couple.

[Ryan Lemons]

Nate brings up some great points. I mean I really like Mark Stoops. I'm so happy he was our coach. He did things here I never thought could be done here. And Billy, a part of me kind of hates the way this is coming to an end. It's so eerily familiar with what happened with Calipari. We loved him. He was doing great things here. He turned it, you know, he turned our program around, got us back where we were superstars again. And then it just kind of faded the last couple years and he left kind of with his head down. Man, I kind of feel the same thing that's happening with Mark Stoops. I love Mark Stoops. We were just talking about building a statue for the man just a season or two ago, and now he's going to maybe have to walk out these head down again. The postgame show. He sounds defeated, he sounds beat up, and I don't want that for him. You know what I mean?

[Billy]

Yeah. And he's started to read the room and, you know, recognize that he's put the program in a place that fans aren't happy about and he understands that in a perfect world, I'd love for that to be announced and for us to give him his flowers over the final few games. But, I mean, that's the argument of why Stoop should negotiate a lower buyout or, or at least take the deal. Because the perception is that you're losing a lot of fans in these final years. Yeah.

[Ryan Lemons]

I truly believe if he did that, if he negotiated a less of a buyout, our fan base would still love the guy and worship the guy. I think if he fell on the sword, so to speak, for our program that he helped build, we would love him like we do Rich Brooks. I really do.

[Billy]

Well, I mean, time heals all. Rick Pitino came back to rub.

[Ryan Lemons]

I mean, very true.

[Billy]

Even if it does end in 2 and 10, there's going to be a time where they honor Stoops and welcome him back. But it's, you know, it's just tough in college sports today. You need to get a jump on the next transfer class and, you know, it feels like we're one day behind every day. Stoops is still there.

[Ryan Lemons]

You're right. Because the. At the day after that last game of the season, that transfer portal, everybody's going to be jockeying for position, trying to get the best deal they possibly can. And if we, if we don't have a. We have no idea what our coaching situation is at that time. You're right. It just puts us behind.

[Billy]

And if you keep Stoops, you're probably gonna have to overhaul the staff, right?

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, for sure.

[Billy]

Can't keep a lot of the people that you have if you're gonna say you're gonna change things and that puts you behind the eight ball again.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, all the pressure is no longer on Mark Stoops. I think all the pressure is now on Mitch Barnhart because now this is gonna have to be his decision. He's got to make the decision what's he going to do program. And that may end up being Mitch Barnhart's legacy. This may be his last hire before he go rides off to the sunset Summer Sunset. It's the sunset in Somerset. May decide how we view him as well. All right, we got one final break. We'll take our final segment calls. Line them up. 859-28022. Had some really good phone calls. I knew we were going to get this tonight. And that's what this show is all about, man. It's for fans to kind of voice their. A lot of times they're joy. A lot of times they're frustration. Tonight we're hearing a lot of frustration and sadness. And I completely understand. We'll be right back. Local Total Leaders KSR Postgame show welcome back. Final segment. Local Total Dealers KSR Postgame Show A lot of people giving Matt a hard time for not doing this postgame show. But this was decided long before the game tonight. You know, the man does deserve some time off. Give him a break. And people don't understand. I've done a lot of post game shows like this. They acted like every. He was doing me a disservice by having to do this, man. I did the Gardner Web Post game show back in the day. I did the Evansville Post Game show. I think I, I did either. I did St. Peter's if I'm not mistaken. I've done some really bad Post Game Show.

[Billy]

St. Peter's was a tournament game, Matt.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, for that one. It was one. No, it was the, it was the game. They got beaten the nit. Matt was at the game in Pittsburgh. Who'd they go be by? Robert Morris. That's what it was. That was the one I did.

[Billy]

Is that the worst one?

[Ryan Lemons]

The Evansville one may have been the worst one.

[Billy]

Really?

[Ryan Lemons]

That was really bad. Gardner Webb was bad. I've had some bad football ones too, so. Yeah, give, give, give. Cut Matt some slack, man. The dude doesn't have to work 24 hours all day, all day, every day, does he? So I do want to read this text I got from someone called Marissa. Did you know that was the most points Tennessee put on us since 2000? 25 years that we've been torched like that. And she is 100% right. And I wanted to read you the scores during this time frame in 1990, starting in 1996. Billy, how old were you in 96 1. You were one year old?

[Billy]

Yep.

[Ryan Lemons]

I was working at Channel 18. Tennessee scored 56 points. The next year they scored 59. Next year, 59. Next year, 56. Next year, 59. 12. Three, four, five years in a row they scored over 50 points against us. Can you believe that?

[Billy]

That's. That is incredible.

[Ryan Lemons]

Unbelievable. That's. Well, that's why some of us old timers, this felt like an old time Tennessee butt whooping that they just put on us scoring 56 points like that and could have easily scored over 60. Could have easily had over 60.

[Billy]

We were looking at the worst loss in the Stoops era. I think Alabama put 63 up on Kentucky and 2020.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. The COVID year. Yeah. So. All right, we got our final six callers and we hope we got some good ones. So who we got? Billy.

[Billy]

Henry.

[Ryan Lemons]

Henry. Go ahead, Henry.

[Caller]

Hey, Ryan. All callers have hit in on everything, so I'm gonna be a little more light hearted. Got a couple points.

[Ryan Lemons]

All right.

[Caller]

One of the more Kentucky but not Kentucky sounding stats I've ever heard. Almost 900 total yards in these last two games and lost both of them and only had 13 points in one of those. Secondly, I love the blue white chant. I think it's the loudest our stadium gets. But they changed it tonight. Instead of doing the directional like they usually do, they just flashed it up on the screen and nothing at all got started which did not help the environment at all.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, usually on the Jumbotron they had the arrow plucked the one side of the field blue, then the arrow the other side of the field white. So I see tonight they didn't do the arrows. They just put blue white and wanted everybody to join in together.

[Caller]

Yeah. And absolutely nothing got started up from that.

[Ryan Lemons]

All right, what's your final?

[Caller]

I'm. I'm sitting here watching Utah beat Colorado 46. Nothing in the conference game. South South Carolina and Shane Beamer lost in heartbreaking fashion earlier. Louisville got smacked yesterday. So as a fan basically could be in a worse mental state. Oh, finally. We wore all black today against arrival and there was absolutely no attempt to get the fans to wear black today. The football media, team, social team has had. Absolutely have absolutely. I fumbled the bag this year with, with getting the fans into it with all the basketball team has done in such little time that's happened this season. It's. They're being embarrassed right now.

[Ryan Lemons]

Appreciate it, Henry. Yeah, we talked about that on the pregame show that the football team wore the all black unis, including the black matte helmet. Why was not there a concerted effort to have it as a blackout? Why didn't they kind of get the word out earlier in the week like, hey, we're going to wear black unis. So you guys, everybody come to the game to play Tennessee and Everywhere black, Nothing. Not one. And somebody was like, my son was at the game, said, man, that the students showed up. The students body was that they were there. They showed up. But wouldn't have been cool, Billy, if they had all been wearing black. Kind of in that end zone. That kind of been. Maybe been a cool look.

[Billy]

Yeah. On the pregame, we were talking about it. I think the students got told to wear blue. Seemed like a missed opportunity.

[Ryan Lemons]

Drop the ball somewhere. All right, take another one. Who we got?

[Billy]

Steve.

[Ryan Lemons]

Steve. Go ahead, Steve.

[Caller]

Hello, Mr. Lemon. Big fan. My brother and I show up to one of your post games at the Waffle House one time.

[Ryan Lemons]

Had a great time. Yes. And I will do that again, I promise you. The. The post game show from the Georgetown Road Waffle House.

[Caller]

Yes, sir. We all have fun. I just like to point out that I can't figure any way except for Ms. Barnhart's legacy has to be mishandling of nil. Combined with the Cal Perry contract, Cal Peris Forever contract, combined with Stoops's contract, that is worth more when you combine the yearly salary and the payout is worth more than Hypo Darkowitz and Lane Kiffin's contract currently. I mean, he lucked in to Mark Pope coming in because of his connection with the university and being a former player. But other than that, what has Barnhart done in the last five years? You just mentioned the. They cannot, the social media team cannot coordinate with the fans to say, hey, we're wearing black. I mean, at what point? I mean, Barnhart, I understand that he runs the SEC just because he's been there as long as he has to have influence for Kentucky, but what is his legacy at this point that he is not almost undone?

[Ryan Lemons]

Steve, we appreciate it. Yeah. Another topic we've discussed on KSR where if we go back to that time when Barnhart and Stoops reached this contract agreement, they were five and, oh, they had just beat Florida at home, which, by the way, was our last SEC home win. They beat Florida at Kroger Field. They announced. They. They didn't announce it yet, but they made this big. Agreed to this term, to this contract. At that time, I felt like if we go back to that time, we all felt like we got the greatest coach in the history of the college football. He is out. We got to keep him here. We're afraid he's going to go to bigger jobs. Oh, my goodness. What happens if Ohio State comes open? They're going to go after Mark Stoops because he's From Ohio. You know, Stoops needed to get him under contract. But it's the construction of the contract, that buyout that I think is going to, like you said, maybe tarnish Barnard's legacy. That's where, you know, Stoops has an agent that worked a little magic for him and got that done. But same thing on the, on the Caliperi contract. John Tyson and Tyson Foods saved us because that could have been another messy deal. We have to pay that buyout with Calipari. But again, we go back to when Calipari got that contract deal from Barnhart. That's when Caliperi was talking to ucla. You couldn't let John Calipari leave Kentucky to go to ucla, so they get him under a new contract. But this, that huge buyout, again, the construction of the contract is what gets so much criticism. But Tyson Foods and Arkansas Sages have to pay that one. I don't think anybody's going to step in here at the last minute and try to save us with Mark Stoops. Now, I don't know what team we want to hire him right now that he would want to go to. I know his name was connected to Virginia Tech. Well, he may be a good candidate for them if all the other good candidates are long gone by the time they get into the around in the pecking order to find somebody. So I don't know. That's. Barnard had to get these guys under contract. It's just the construction of the contract, these buyouts that really gonna be criticized and deservedly so. I feel like. Who's next, Billy?

[Billy]

John.

[Ryan Lemons]

John. Go ahead, John.

[Caller]

I'm just thinking. You remember whenever we had to pick a side between pretty much Mark Stoops or Caliperi. Are we a football school or are we a basketball school?

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, yeah.

[Caller]

And we all, we all pretty much backed Mark Stoops and then we backed Mark Stoops and this is what we get. Well, on the other side of the hand of. We just beat number one Purdue last night. Are we a basketball school or are we a football school? We want, we want to support the football team. But you know, when you. It's hard, it's hard to. Whenever you come out here and stink it up like how many SEC wins at home. And we want, like, sure, we can beat Toledo, we can beat Eastern Michigan at home, but it's hard to get fired up for an SEC game at home when we're playing someone decent. Sure. Texas. We go to overtime against Texas. Whoopty whoop. Are we a Football school? Are we a basketball school? We're all in on basketball, baby. We are all in on basketball. Was Caliperi right or is Caliperi wrong? We pushed him out. It is what it is. I say we go get Mike Gundy. I say we go get Mike Gundy.

[Ryan Lemons]

Thank you.

[Caller]

Thank you, spooks. Thank you, Stoops, for everything you've done. But let's go get Mike Gundy. Let's go have fun. Let's go play some football and. And then we're gonna win number nine in basketball. Who cares? Whatever happens, happens. Let's go win our ninth championship in basketball and let's hire Mike Gundy. Let's go have some fun. Come on.

[Ryan Lemons]

All right, John, we appreciate it. I appreciate that very much. Yeah. That. That comment was created some. Some riff between over there at uk, between Caliperia and Stoops. Deep down, I think we all know Kentucky known for basketball. They win national championships in basketball. They've not even been to a conference championship in football. But it's not something that the head coach would probably have said, just bad form, I think, on Cal's part, to Eve to say that. We can think it as fans, we can believe it as fans, but I think as the head coach of the basketball team, you don't need to be saying that kind of rubbing your nose of all the other sports rubbing their nose in it a little bit. You know what I mean, Billy?

[Billy]

Yeah, he said that we pushed Cal out. I'd say him losing to Oakland and St. Peters and talking down to the fan base and not adapting with the game and not starting Reed shepherd, it would be some of the other things that pushed him out.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, we didn't push him out. He. He opted to go to Arkansas.

[Billy]

Yeah, he wanted to have conversation.

[Ryan Lemons]

That's right. That's exactly right. All right, who's next?

[Billy]

Just two more left.

[Ryan Lemons]

Two more.

[Billy]

Bullock County Bill.

[Ryan Lemons]

Bullock County Bill. All right, here you. Bullet County Bill.

[Caller]

Hey, guys, thanks for staying up with us tonight. Ultimately, I do not want this fan base to lose appreciation for what Mark Stoops has accomplished here at the University of Kentucky. But inevitably, I, in my heart of hearts, I believe it is time to make a change. And that is a very difficult thing to say. But, you know, it's. It's. It's time to move on. And when we think about the fan base and where we're at and, you know, how we. How we process all these things, the Tennessee game is one of the biggest games of the year. And we need to hear From Matt right now. And Matt needs to be on the postgame show. I firmly believe that. Appreciate you guys being with us tonight. Take care.

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, thank you, Bullock County Bill. Once Matt on here, but he appreciates us being here.

[Billy]

He should be on here.

[Ryan Lemons]

We gotta give. Cut Matt some slack, man. The dude does need a day off. I mean, we're all. It's 1:30 in the morning right now, for crying out loud. It's okay. He's got a shows all day tomorrow also, so it's okay if he wants to step out and pass it off to somebody that is content. Go ahead.

[Billy]

I was going to say, do you want to do the post game show for me next week?

[Ryan Lemons]

What day is it?

[Billy]

I mean, Saturday.

[Ryan Lemons]

Oh, you're doing the Saturday football post game show.

[Billy]

Yeah, well, I'm not doing the post. I mean, I run the post game. So like, would you like to come run it for me so I can have a. Have a night off?

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, I don't know how, but I would for you. Billy Drew's going to do the postgame show for the Georgetown basketball game Thursday night, right?

[Billy]

I haven't heard that, but that's. Yeah, that's good to know already.

[Ryan Lemons]

This stuff was already planned weeks ago. What if Kentucky would have won tonight? Then I get to do that pre post game show. It was already decided. So that is Tennessee's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 win in a row over Kentucky. Of course we had that stretch where they won like 25 or 26 games in a row, but it just seems like they're whooping us again. It just seems like, you know, they're rubbing our nose in it again and that's what I don't like. All right, let's get our final caller. Maybe our final call if it's a good one. Who we got? Daryl Darrell. What up, Darrell? This would be a good one. What up, Darrell?

[Caller]

Not much. Yeah, I got a couple things real quick here for you. The, you know, it was eight to 10 years ago, if you remember, me and Chester went to war on whether Stoop should be fired or not.

[Ryan Lemons]

That was good, good material for ksr.

[Caller]

Yeah, that was a, you know, I was premature, you know, on the phone wanting the firing of Stoops. We went on to have some great years and listen, I'm sure this week Chester's going to call in and he's going to try to punt fruit loops up our backside and say everybody's farting rainbows here in Lexington, but that's just not the way it is. It's a mess here. And you know, today I come up with one of the top quarterback prospects in southern West Virginia. And I was telling him about, you know, all these great, this great atmosphere you'll see, you know, from the get go, you know, it's been all season. The atmosphere is horrible. This is hard earned money that people pays to come in there. And was you there when they sung My Old Kentucky Home? I mean it was like a funeral, regular Baptist funeral. You know, it was sad, the whole situation. And I left halfway through the third period. But you know, halfway through the third period, Grove street played one time. I mean, what the hell is going on in the Lakeston, Ryan?

[Ryan Lemons]

Well, I wish I had some good answers for you. It just seems like, like we said, even on the pregame show, Darrell with the KS bar, there was just no buzz or energy. Like people were already knew what was coming. They were waiting for that other shoe to drop. And it dropped right at the end of the first half, I think when they scored that touchdown right before halftime.

[Caller]

Yeah, I agree. It was the turnover there in the first half. I mean, you know, that really got things off. Then we fought back and you know, and I, I looked at the kid that we come up with and I told him, I said watch this right here. I said, we got within a touchdown. We had a minute 40 on the clock. I said, I promise you, I said Tennessee will go down and score. I said Stoops is notorious for handling the last two minutes of the first half horrible. And there they go and they score and it just deflates the whole stadium. Like it's really bad right here in Lakes. And listen, thank God it's basketball season because I promise you a lot of Wildcat fans are going to start going to rough instead of Kroger Field. And you know, I tell you, if you want to make a lot of money, bring back the Team Daryl and Team Chester shirts. I promise you, you're going to see a lot of them.

[Ryan Lemons]

Darrell, we appreciate it, but a good one day to end on right there. Appreciate the phone call. I, you know, you could hear just the pain in a lot of these callers voices. You could hear the pain in Darrell's voice. Darrell's a huge Kentucky fan. You know, I'm a member of the media but I'm a huge Kentucky fan and it, it pains me to see that we're in this situation where we're going to bowl games every single year and now we're hoping, hoping to beat Tennessee Tech for crying out loud. Hoping to get them to be get our third win. We've not had an SEC home win since Florida in 2023. It's just ridiculous and it's sad. It's more sad to me than ridiculous. I hate what's happening to our program. I hate this is happening to Mark Stoops. I want him to be successful here. I want him to be my coach. But this is just getting to the point where it's unacceptable. And our fan base kind of made that loud and clear tonight with how there are a lot of empty seats there, a lot of people left early and I just don't know if it's going to get any better, especially if they get whooped next weekend down at Auburn, a game that many of us thought that's what maybe a winnable game. Now Auburn kind of found themselves a little bit. We'll have to wait and see. So Tennessee wins it 56 34. Another loss to the Volunteers. Cats will regroup, go down to Auburn next weekend. Billy, final thoughts.

[Billy]

That basketball game was a lot of fun the other day.

[Ryan Lemons]

Basketball season has started and just like Darrell said, most fans focus will shift over now, especially after they beat the number one team in the country pretty handily last night. So that'll do it for the local total dealers. KSR postgame show. Thanks to all of our callers who called in. Thanks for Billy who stayed up late. All everybody stayed up late tonight listening. Tonight it's after 1:30 in the morning, for crying out loud. And we're still got. It's gonna be hard for me to get to sleep. I mean, most of us are gonna lay in bed, toss and turn. Remember the good old days when we were scoring touchdowns and beating teams and winning 10 games a couple years in a row? Those are the glory days. These are not. You want to put Fruit Loops up your butt and fart rainbows? And that what Darrell said, Billy, that.

[Billy]

Was a one way to end it.

[Ryan Lemons]

Yeah, that's one way to end it. All right, good night everybody. We'll see you Monday morning on ks. Limu Emu and Doug, here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Caller]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Caller]

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[Ryan Lemons]

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[Billy]

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