Tom Leach admits it felt “pretty normal” calling the University of Kentucky season-opening football game at Auburn last week even though Leach and members of the UK Radio Network drove to the game rather than being part of the team flight due to COVID-19 concerns. Leach even joked that because of the configuration of the Auburn press box that he had to use a TV monitor at times to see what was happening but did have Dick Gabriel on the sideline for help.
Saturday he expects more of the same at Kroger Field when he calls the UK-Ole Miss game. One plus will be that he will have a spotter in the booth with him that he did not have at Auburn.
While Leach and his partners were at the Auburn game, the SEC Network had announcers working remotely. ESPN has done the same with football and even Major League Baseball playoff games. Same for the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour.
Leach knows he may one day have to call a game remotely but he thinks it is important to be in the stadium.
“There are more things you can pick up when you are there than when you are not,” Leach said. “You can quickly ask somebody about something if you need some information where if you are at home you are going to be trying to call or something. You can just see a lot more details from the stadium.”
Leach still believes Kentucky — which was down two points with 12 minutes to play and had the ball at its own 35 last week — can play with any SEC team despite the 29-13 loss at Auburn. However, he knows how important Saturday’s game is.
“There are no easy marks in the SEC but beating Ole Miss is important for Kentucky for what their goals are. I think Kentucky is the better team on paper but you are not enough better that you win just by showing up,” Leach said during his time on WPBK-FM Thursday morning. “I think Kentucky will get its errors fixed. They are a tight team as you can tell by the COVID numbers that players are making the right decisions for the good of their teammates.”
Ole Miss had over 600 yards of offense against Florida, a rarity for the Gators, but gave up 51 points.
“Coach Lane Kiffin’s reputation is that of being an outstanding offensive mind,” Leach said. “It was the first game and Florida had no tape on them. Maybe they just chew Florida some curves they were not ready for that UK will be ready for. Florida also scored on nine of 11 possessions, so the defense might not have been playing with great intensity all over the field and was willing to give up yards knowing its offense could score every time.”
