Kernel at the Buzzer: Kentucky football's season debut

welcome back to another school year another football season and another episode of colel at the buzzer I'm your host Colton Johnson and this week it is all Kentucky football we're going to talk about their new roster new opponents in Texas and Oklahoma being added to the SEC and the unsure future for the Kentucky Wildcats all that more next [Music] [Music] welcome back to a new school year a new football season and a new episode of Colonel at the buzzer I'm your host Colton Johnson today I'm joined by three people you're going to hear a lot from this year introduce yourselves I'm the sports editor once again Cole par I am the assistant sports editor and on the football beat Jonathan Bruner uh I'm on the football beat in a sports writer and I'm Sarah Gibson shocker Cole is still the sports editor but nonetheless football is back it's a beautiful time to be alive how y'all feeling feeling all right excited for the football season it's uh it's gotten here a lot faster I feel like during the summer it feels like it takes forever but now that it's here it's been moving at rapid Pace I mean we're on we're on track right now to have four football stories going out every single day and that's not even including the ones that we're still going to be writing this week throughout practices and interacting with the Southern Miss the Student Prince with a z um and all the stories we still have coming about that so lot of lot of football coverage coming out we have our Pig Skin preview special section first physical special section of the Year very excited for that it's on the racks on campus embedded into the back to school section and we got some really really great stories actually the first probably the first sports newspaper whether weekly or special section that I don't have a published story in since I had my first published story as a freshman so that's a little bit Bittersweet for me but I think uh these three here along with your host killed it as well as our boy P sizzle also on the football beat in case it wasn't obvious we're talking about football today um and I feel like the biggest question that everyone wants to talk about is the guy under Center and uh as the people that we're going to be I'm going to be in the Press Box with a lot this year what are we thinking about Mr Vander Griff I think it's just going to be one of those things we're gonna have to just see it on the field because you hear all these things there's not a whole lot to go off of is the thing he hasn't hardly played but five-star coming out of high school went to Georgia you know Georgia don't they don't recruit slouches I mean so they obviously seen something that they thought they could work with in their program so but I also think that you know here he's going to demand a lot bigger of a role where sometimes at Georgia the quarterback is not necessarily the most important position on on the field for them I think it is going to be for this Kentucky team and it's kind of unfair to put all the success on one guy but if the offense is inefficient like it was last year it's going to kill Kentucky this year just like it did last year I definitely agree with Jonathan there um coming off of last year with Devon ly um he had a lackluster 56.3 completion percentage um compared to will Levis the years before who was like mid high 60s consistently I think Brock fer Griff has a low bar like set from him from the years before um so I think his chances of exceeding those expectations are a little high I'm you know five star coming out of high school pure pocket passer has shown ath ISM like I'm excited to see where he can go especially considering what Kentucky fans have been used to the last few seasons with L now you have the term transfer quarterback attached to both him and ly two very different types of transfer one you have a guy that played three four years of college football and then you have a guy that has 165 total yards and two touchdowns in his entire career in Georgia did not complete a pass until the junior his junior year there so I mean like you said you touched on it there's a small sample size with this guy what does that mean uh I mean I just think that you're never going to know what you're really going to get with him until he's on the field till he's playing I think it can work in kuy's favor because it's going to be hard to Scout and game plan for a guy like him because of just that there's no film to watch unless you go back to his high school film which I would hope now he's developed a little bit since I mean so just a little bit I mean one would think so I think that could work in kuy's favor but as far as the skill goes and what people should expect it's kind of up in the air right now and I think I think you we'll see really week too what this season could really be like kind of the what how high this season could get or how low it could get because I mean you know Southern myth is Southern myth is not the greatest test for a new quarterback I mean ly did okay in non-conference and then we saw how that went when competition Rose so I think we'll see early what this guy can be now you said week two we'll know what we got yeah you know we play week two I mean I think that's a bit of a tall task I mean to kind of gauge but nonetheless I don't I don't know maybe South Carolina we can have that conversation later I kind of want to move on to the next position another one of high contention I want to talk about these running backs we know it's going to be very different um from even a what is used personal Wise Snap counts and how the running backs are used on this team obviously we got a big curve ball uh thrown a couple weeks ago with a chip break in his hand but what do y'all think is going to be the narrative with this running back room to me I mean both the quarterbacks and the running backs the biggest piece this year or the biggest word is depth you see with the quarterbacks just to finish up that with a little nice footnote um we saw years ago with Levis what happens when the starting quarterback went down to Kentucky Kai Sharon very nice guy did not have it now you've got two really capable quarterbacks in Brock Vander Griff and Gavin whimet from ruers then you have you have four total quarterbacks because you got Bo Allen also training cutter byly The Freshman you're not going to see much out of them this year but you have options we got a running back ky's a school that for as long as I've been in college and even before that it's been defined by one just Stellar running back you had Chris Rodriguez you had Benny Snell you had Ray Davis I mean these guys are three backto backto back generational running backs for a college to have I mean fantastic level running backs and this year you don't maybe have that as much I'm not saying chip can't be that when he comes back but he's not probably not going to be a thousand yard career rusher he you're going to have much more of a committee approach you know um with chip going out and hopefully he'll be able to live those expectations when he comes back but you do have Demi Sumo k a guy you saw last year who had a lot of flashes and potential and you've got other guys down that uh down that line like Patterson guys who can really shine and really you know have a commit approach so it'll be something a little bit different the Kentucky fans are used to I think but it'll be something that you know I think fans also need to see that there's there's not really I was going to use a really Southern phrase there but we're not going to use that phras there's a lot of different ways to do things yeah yeah I mean I second that I think that it's going to be a and it's even been said it's going to be a by commmittee approach which is very abnormal coming from all those you know NFL type Talent running backs who just were feed it to them 30 carries a game Call of the day I don't think it's going to be that simple I think we're going to see a different offense or at least should see a different offense that's maybe not so runhe heavy which it could be unique and something that fans aren't really used to but I also think that the the Dual approach could also have some benefits and making it harder to plan for Kentucky and making it harder to defend against them if you know you know Bray Davis might not get like you know like there's not that one guy where everyone in the stadium knows he's getting the ball at least two times on every Drive no matter what with that not there this year I think it could present a new element to kuy's offense that just hasn't been there uh I don't have much to add to their analysis or breakdown there I think they nailed that on the head pretty much covered it right but I will say out of with chip being down the guy that I heard a lot about uh in the media preseason at practices and stuff was Jason Patterson Jason Patterson this is a guy who in high school had 3,800 yards and 50 touchdowns his senior his not senior season Junior and senior Seasons like obviously the SEC is not Florida high school um but he's just a guy that the excitement has been there and I'm excited to see how that translates especially with him getting an earlier opportunity than what we expected with chip being out you know I wanted to touch on something Jonathan said there Stoops himself has even said you know I think we were at our best when everybody knew who was getting the ball and we were still finding success with it and I can respect that but I think it's also a more idealic you know you're almost living in the past when you do that because let's not forget the reason Kentucky was that way everyone knew who was getting the ball and you were still good at it was because that was the only option you simply couldn't throw the football so you didn't have a choice but to be good at it I think that you know while it was nice to have so many years of Kentucky where you knew exactly what they were going to do but they would still do it why do you want to pigeon hole yourself into that idea you know you've got quarterbacks who can throw the ball now you've got quarterbacks who can run with the ball you've got running backs who can run fantastic receivers I mean across the board you've got options and with a guy like Bush hamton taking over his OC I think we're going to see a very versatile offense one who you know rather than everybody knows what's coming nobody knows what's coming you know I mean you can predict but one that you know keeps defenses on their heels I think that's going to be especially with the SEC getting two new teams to really tough teams that's going to be one of the keys to prevent Kentucky from sinking down is that unpredictability about them M now I don't want to go position group position group here but one group I did want to put bit a bit of a highlight on you know you expect the defensive line to do what they're going to do you expect the wide receivers to do what they're going to do there's not much mean not any question marks around that but uh Sarah I know you've been uh following these linebackers a lot tell me what's going on there with the mics tell me what's going on I think ky's Lineback like inside linebacker Duo has the potential to be one of the best in the nation you're talking about a guy with um leading the linebacker core Derek Jackson he's been with the team for years now the leading tack um the last two seasons um a guy that is comfortable in Brad White's system and comfortable executing Brad White's system we'll see how that looks this year with the helmet c um but he's helping translate this defense to a another top linebacker in the nation transfer from georia just like Brock and jam pop Dumis Johnson um he's a stud we're a guy that talking um coming from Georgia has a chance to learn under guys like ncoe Dean who's playing in the NFL now who has 34 tackles five and a half for locks for a loss and three sacks like that's major production to add to your already good linebacker core and then you look at the return of JJ Weaver who has just been a staple of this Mark St and Brad white defense um they're looking for consistent gamechanging plays out of him like between those three I think it's like it's hard to compete with and then they're kind of working through that outside linebacker spot opposite of JJ waver still I think it's going to be Alex Safari who's having a position change from safety um they had him listed as the depth chart for the strong side line top of the depth chart for the strong side linebacker he is the top of the okay see yeah look at me showing my not looking at the depth start like I should have when it came out yesterday um so it is Alex safario across from him so that makes a lot of sense especially the way uh Brad white was talking about him um the way that pop and dear have helped him translate this defense and move to a new position he's feeling confident and obviously week one against Southern Miss will help him you know adjust to it and we'll see week two South Carolina if the outside linebackers are ready to go no I told you I'd give you the opportunity to do your special teams rant yeah I know we're not too happy with the we knew that Alex raner was going to be the kicker that was not going to be that wasn't the doubt let it out man tell us how you feel yeah okay so I was looking at the depth chart um and I get down to punter and I was expecting to see you know transfer guy we bring in brand new guy and I see Wilson Berry's name on there you're still a little bit short by just saying brand new guy as if it's not like FCS punter of the FCS punter of the Year averages around 10 more yards per punt than this team put up last year with Wilson Barry as the punter it was pretty obvious last year that um punting situation was not ideal and you know there was some coach speak in some interviews that tried to make it not look as bad but it was terrible I mean you know field position was awful from majority of the year and to still see running it back with the same guys even a possibility after after bringing in a transfer like what I what are we doing I don't understand this is a travesty anything else to add are we good I think we're good we can we can are we good on the punting conversation are you sure as long we can pick this back up if Wilson Barry comes back out on the field okay cool cool cool cool going to jump topics we we talked enough about this team I want to talk about who they're playing two teams in well one team in particular two teams that they could be playing Just additions to the conference I want to talk about Oklahoma and Texas the implications that come with those two monsters being in the SEC now what are they they're massive I mean both across all sports really but in football they're massive and for Kentucky you got to have a little bit of sirens going off in your head when you see that happening because simply put I don't know how they're both going to fair I don't know what they're both going to do but if we're just looking at last year Kentucky goes from one spot on the rankings to two spots lower cuz Oklahoma and Texas were both better than them now you never with the two I think that there's two very different scenarios you could be looking at with the two teams Texas I have no doubt in my mind rather unfortunately for Kentucky since they're going there this year that Texas is going to adapt just fine they're going to be at the top of the conference they're going to be up there with the alabas the georgas you know every single year you can expect Texas to be really good went to the College World playoffs last year wouldn't be shocked if they do it again this year Oklahoma a little bit more of a maybe you know who knows I mean it's easy to forget now but there was a time where an Arkansas or a Missouri were not what they are now they were a little bit you know they've fallen down a little bit since joining the SEC I wouldn't be shocked if that's Oklahoma but also we're talking about Oklahoma a team who has been to the college football playoffs whether or not they did well in it you know multiple Heisman winners though multiple Heisman winners I mean a really really good school that has the resources to succeed so Kentucky you know it just makes it that much harder obviously with the playoffs expanding it makes a little bit easier but it makes it that much harder to be consistently near the top of the SEC and Kentucky for a little while got to that spot where they were usually just below Georgia maybe they would be battling for Florida with that spot but they were just below Georgia now there's not divisions in the IC really anymore it's kind of every man for themselves so you've got Alabama Georgia Texas Oklahoma Old Miss this year who knows what they're going to be I mean Kentucky could do everything they can lose only the games are expected to lose and be like six in the SEC that's that's tough yeah I mean I think I think Texas will keep on rolling just like they were last year I mean we saw what they came into Alabama and did if that wasn't enough evidence that they're going to be just fine I don't know what else you need to see I mean truly I know that Bama got a lot better as the year went on that and you know you run that game back at a different time it might have been different but it also could have been the exact same and I would have been like okay that's fair just the way they they kind of just took care of business in Alabama that shows that Texas is going to be just fine and we probably make a lot of noise this year looking at Oklahoma I think you hit it right on the head call I think it's a kind of a tossup still they have the resources the availability I think that was the key point of both of these schools is you're bringing in two schools who have all the resources in the world to build excellent programs that can knock Kentucky down even two more pegs and you're kind of seeing a little bit of a Downs slope with Kentucky going into this year with back-to-back seasons of kind of just mediocre and you know that's raised a lot of nio questions and whatnot but these two schools are going to be able to they're going to be right there with nil with all these other schools in the conference which is going to create Big Time challenges for Kentucky if they don't you know figure out a new system and better ways to win kind of flipping things from just looking at the competition side and needing to find wins and how much more difficult that will be with teams like Texas and Oklahoma just kind of looking at it through a fan perspective it makes me wonder like having more teams come in with like Championship caliber expectations and college football or playoff caliber expectations how much longer are Kentucky fans going to be okay or like find it acceptable to win seven to 10 games and maybe a bll win if if if things go their way like will Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC give Kentucky fans the kick in the butt that they need to be like winning eight games winning nine games isn't acceptable we want Championship caliber expectations in just curious to see how that goes Sarah I feel like you should honestly be the host of this podcast because you that's exactly where I was going and because of that I'm going to throw it right back to you with you saying that you don't know how long Kentucky fans are going to be happy with these these seven win Seasons these six win Seasons where at the end of the day we talk about you know the fiesta like going there and we have a somewhat of a b bowl game that maybe we win maybe we don't they win sorry maybe they win maybe they don't we talk about Mark stops the guy that's got them to this point is there a point that the people with the powers that be look at Mark STS and be like yeah he's brought us all this way but maybe he's not the guy to get us there I think there definitely is an appreciation and a love for everything Mark Stoops has done for Kentucky football I mean he has put them from laughable to like a respectable team a team that now Kirby Smart in Georgia looks at Kentucky and says they're a tough match they play physical like we have to be prepared for them so I think that's obviously something that we should love Mark stops for but at the same time I do feel like especially with the change of the College college sports landscape not just college football landscape um that maybe Stoops leaving for Texas A&M would have been a better thing for Kentucky because in the long run these seven eight win Seasons sure they feel good for mhm right right then in the moment but when you take a step back and you look at just eight win season after eight win season seven win season after seven win season it's just not what Kentucky fans want to see and just not what I want to see now Cole bit of a flashback here going back to the the evening about the whole Mark shs Fiasco when we didn't know if he was going to College Station we didn't know if he was going to College Station looking back at that knowing like and seeing this type of conversation grow now if you go back if you could go back not really if you could go back but do you think that it' have been better if he left um you know I think that there's definitely reason to believe that uh the biggest question after that would be where do you go from there I mean obviously the the biggest name right now would be probably some rall uh we'll see how he does it to Lane this year did really really well at Troy turned them into an actual respectable program in the fun belt shout out to him but um you know I I I want to Echo a lot of what Sarah said though I mean everyone wants to say we're in the SC got the toughest schedule vandy's in the SEC too you know being in the SEC isn't good enough anymore and I'm not saying ky's Vandy because you know over a decade ago they were worse than Vandy but now V's respect Vandy but um you know I'm not saying k at that level but you are looking at you know just being in the SEC isn't good enough anymore I mean we're still looking at the same conversations that we're having all these years ago I mean stops is complaining about nil Kroger field still isn't seen as that Elite of an atmosphere you think that's going to be you think that Texas is going to be a calm atmosphere in they go at the end of the year I don't think so they don't play at Oklahoma but I can tell you there's probably no love there um but you know um I think that I think that there's a lot of people who would say it would have been better if he had left it kind of reminds me a little bit of the conversations that started about calip Perry when people said you know maybe he should have gone to UCLA in 2019 revisionist history you know we can we couldn't change our minds at the time nobody wanted him to go at the time when he Stoops was going in there was a lot of fears about what are we going to do but I just think that this year is going to be a really big prove it year it's right here on the front of this special section prove it year for Kentucky football it needs to be a good year for Mark stops or the conversation's going to be really unbearable now JB I remember that you were the one that kind of sparked this conversation Among Us at least and when you look at the situation with Stoops and you know after every season when they have their same what what's happened the past two seasons you know the seven and six go in a bowl game maybe everyone always asking what's it going to take for Kentucky to get to the next level and he always I mean he had that one I mean that one radio show that sparked at all he told everyone to Pony up yeah and in a in a sense like he's kind of right that's what that's what needs to happen not it help it would help at least but in your mind what else would he have to do apart from nil if there even isn't anything that would Elevate Kentucky football you know it's it's even harder now looking at some of the things because you look at the 10 in three year now technically has a big asteris on it that was technically it's an 0 and three year now exactly I mean like you know looking at that now with all that stuff vacated now you look at okay well what else is stops is Legacy like especially in recent years it's been mediocre and so personally I don't think nil could save this team I think that kind of like and this year we'll prove it one way or another whether his time is up you know I think if it's another year of middle of the pack to Below in the SEC that it might be time to have the serious conversation of it's time for a new voice it's time for someone else and I think that is the fix I think if Kentucky wants to reach that level he's not the guy but it's not like a you're not good enough get out situation it's a thank you for what you've done we're going to Go a different direction yes oh of course for sure I I mean I don't think it's outside of the realm for Mark stops to have you know something named after him or something to honor his time here a statue any of the above and that should absolutely happen because it's no secret that what he's done for this program is take them from nothing bottom feeders laughing stocks to something to where it's not okay ky's an easy win this week for certain teams anymore where it used to be Kentucky was an automatic you could count it where it's it's not like that anymore now it's you know we have to be competitive against Kentucky or they can beat us but there's still to me is such a gap between Kentucky and Georgia and Bama and now Texas and now even possibly Old Miss with some of the noise they could make this year yeah now that's four teams before we even really get into any debate that are Miles Ahead of Kentucky and that's why I don't think even with nil he could he could get to that level with those programs I just don't see it now talking about stops' uh Legacy at Kentucky we're going to talk about the inevitable sequel to one of the bigger smears on it we're going to talk about the Southern Miss game which on paper I don't know what y'all think it should be a if all goes well a what a w pretty easy W right in theory yeah in theory right in theory it's what they thought 10 years ago that is what they thought 10 years ago I mean different connotation records I keep upli on that but looking at this game from an analytical stando point I mean what are yall wanting to see I think we just need to see them first of all just take care of business this should not be close at any point it it should be a runaway game but I just think a clean game early I think limited limited turn little to no turnovers from the offense would be nice to see because you want to build confidence going because the conference starts right next week South Carolina I mean you get right into conference action where last year I think they had kind of three games to kind of figure it out you don't have that this year CU if you're not if you don't figure it out South Carolina who has had your number could easily come in here and beat you so I think being in sync early and you know just an efficient game on both sides of the ball and with special teams would be that would be all I need to see to just kind of get some early confidence in this team some words that you just said there that really stuck with me uh you want to see them in sync um that is like a question that has been circulating this Kentucky offense all offseason so far and leading up to leading up to the season is the Tempo Tempo Tempo what is this offense going to look like Tempo wise so week one I'm looking at Brock vandagriff and his receivers are they on the same page is the timing there what's the tempo of this offense look like and if that's looking good then you know a little optimistic for South Carolina but it does kind of suck not having that cushion for them this year of getting to play the Ohio and the Murray States before you get into that conference play yeah and I mean it's caused a question over the last couple years is like because it's normally taken them a game or two because I mean like even the EKU game last year was close at halftime it was a ball game you were like no way this is actually going to happen right like they can't afford that this year or they could easily start off 0 and three which could happen anyways yeah I mean I think I I agree with a lot of what Jonathan said here I the biggest thing I want to see is just come out ready to play and nail it ACC across the board I want to see a good offense like Sarah talked about that needs to be but another thing I think I need to that needs to be key how are the corners and the defensive backs going to do the defensive line I've got complete faith in them the linebacker group we've already talked about them but how are those backs going to do you know they lost uh Andrew Phillips to the draft that was one that last year they even had a tendency sometimes to give up some deep balls some third and Longs you know can we limit the silly mistakes against a team that should be beaten you know simply put I I don't want and I think Jonathan used exact words I don't want it to be close for even a second I think Kentucky needs to come out here and say hey we're here we're ready South Carolina Georgia you know we're not looking that far ahead to you yet but like you have to pay attention to us you know don't let this be a game don't let this be close and God forbid don't start how Florida state did yeah well concluding point I'm going to go around I'm going to ask for each of y'all know it's already in the pick Skin preview if you want to check out their thoughts on the first game we're not going to do the whole schedule this year uh this episode you can go look at the preview for all that but talking about the Southern Miss game how to think it's gonna go I'm gonna say I want a score yeah I want a score the exact score I'm gonna [Music] go 31 to3 Kentucky 31-3 I'm kind of with JB here on this I think it's going to be a defensive master class for Kentucky I think that's going to be the staple of the team this year so I think Southern Miss is going to be low scoring I'm kind of more nervous about our offense though I'll go more like 28 to7 I'm G to go 38 to 14 TouchDown for southern missing garbage time okay garbage time touchdown he's taking care of the garbage time touchdown well you three fools I'm sure I'll have plenty of you on here for the rest of I'm not going to get sick of you at all so oh no thank you'all for coming on uh it's been awesome and catch youall next week let's do it [Music] we want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of caral at the buzzer we plenty more Kentucky football next week we'll talk about their results of their game against Southern Miss and talk about the cats as they encroach SEC play again we want to thank you for tuning in I've M Colton Johnson and we'll see you next week