If you don’t want to watch the videos…you can read the transcript from yesterday’s press conference.
COACH JOKER PHILLIPS
THEMODERATOR: With the unusual schedule this week of the Thursday game and thenwith next week being Labor Day week, we’re still working out our practice andinterview schedule. We will get that sent to you in the next couple days soyou’ll know how to plan for your next week. But looking ahead to this week ofcourse, season opener against Western Kentucky University, 9:15 EasternThursday night in Nashville. Here to tell us more about it is the first UKcoach to go to a bowl game in his first season as a head coach, Joker Phillips.
COACH PHILLIPS: Like Tony said, it’s anunusual week. It’s really a Monday, but it’s a Wednesday, but we practice on aThursday‑type practice. We’ll practice another Thursday‑typepractice tomorrow. The reason for that is we want to give the guys a chance toget their legs back. Thursday is a little lighter practice. It’s usually anhour and a half, 50‑minute team, a couple special teams, finish up. We’ll have another Thursday‑type practice tomorrow on Tuesday. It isunusual.
Our injury situation, I’ll go over thosereal quick. Stuart Hines practiced. He put together a really good practiceand feels really good. We probably will not start him. We’ll probably startKevin Mitchell, who has had a really good time, taken advantage of all the repshe was able to get while Stuart was out. We’ll get Stuart in there as quick aswe possibly can because he deserves to play also. But he’s ready to go.
Matt Smith did not practice. He will go andprobably play. He should play, I’ll say. But Jake Lanefski will start out inthe center position. Tyler Robinson did not practice. He should play also. Gene McCaskill has put together four, five really good practices, and he shouldplay also.
On the defensive side of the ball, DonteRumph has really had a good three, four days of practice. Looks like he’s fullspeed. Huge load there inside. Taiedo Smith has not practiced. We’ll takehim and hopefully he can play also. Mikie Benton will be the starter at one ofthe safety spots.
That’s our injury report.
We’re excited about playing. We’ve beenbeating up on each other for a month now. It’s game week. You can feel itaround our place with our players, especially our older players, and it’sstarting to rub off on some of these young kids that understand how to handlethemselves and prepare themselves for what is game week.
This is a good game for us trying to see howmuch we’ve improved. I really think that we’ve improved a lot. But the gamewill be a barometer to see how much we’ve improved.
Just excited about watching these kids playbecause they’ve put a lot of time and effort and are committed to a lot ofthings that we’ve asked them to commit to. They’ve done a really good job. SoI’m excited about watching them play.
Any questions?
Q. On if this game is a good test for Kentucky’srun defense …
COACH PHILLIPS: Yeah, definitely. Lastyear (Bobby Rainey) ran for about 180. I’m not sure exactly what the teamdid. I mean, you cannot allow a team to rush for that many yards on you.
Rushing yards demoralizes you. You got tostop the run. When people are able to line up and run the ball on you, it’s aslap in the face. Last year was a slap in the face the way they ran the ballon us.
Their offensive line coach, I’ve known himfor a long time, does a great job. They have a really good offensive line. But we’ve got to rally to the ball, get Rainey on the ground. He’s a talentedback, no question about that.
But we’ve got to stop the run. To stop therun, sometimes you have to commit to getting enough people in the box tostopping the run, which sometimes hangs guys in the secondary out to dry. Those guys got to compete like the dickens outside because we’ve got to try tocommit extra people to the line of scrimmage.
Q. You mentioned Donte (Rumph) having three orfour good days of practice. What did he do exactly that caught your attention?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, he’s aload. He’s 325 pounds, really strong, explosive, understands how to come outof his hips, use his hands, get off blocks. He’s an SEC ‘three technique’(defensive lineman). He’s what we see every week. It’s a look we hadn’t seenhere in a long time.
For us to stop the run, you have to havesome big guys inside. These guys like to go to extra offensive linemen intheir run game, extra tight ends. You’ll see six offensive linemen, you’ll seethree tight ends at times. They want to run the ball. They do a really goodjob of it.
We’ll have some different packages. We’lltry to match big versus big. Donte is a huge key to that. He and MisterCobble are a big key to that.
Q. What is the challenge of going up a guy youhaven’t seen call plays?
COACH PHILLIPS: You talking about Western’sdefensive coordinator?
Q. Yes.
COACH PHILLIPS: That makes it tough. Itseems every year in our first game we’re going up against a differentcoordinator. You have to watch some film. We watched some Miami film fromlast year. We didn’t go all the way back to McNeese State where he was at. But we did watch the Miami tape.
Sometimes it’s hard to get the guys tofocus. Hey, we’re not playing Miami, we’re playing Western Kentucky, so we’llfocus just on the scheme.
What we’ve seen in practice, there’s notmuch more you can do that we haven’t seen. That’s what the game is about, iswho can adjust the fastest. If they’re giving us something we weren’texpecting, we’ll have to adjust. Our kids will have to adjust because of thethings we’ve seen in practice.
Q. Any advantage for you because of newco-defensive coordinator Rick Minter?
COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely. Works bothways. I’m sure they’ve been studying Rick’s (Rick Minter) past. Willdefinitely be an advantage for both sides on defense.
Q. Where do you feel like you are right now offensively?
COACH PHILLIPS: We haven’t changed muchoffensively. We’ll look the same. I think this guy that we have pulling thetrigger can stretch the field. I’m really excited to watch him play. I mean,I’m not trying to say things too fast, but some days you don’t recognize himfrom the bowl game, you know. He’s that type of guy that has that type ofcommand of the huddle, command of the ball. I’m just excited to watch himplay.
Q. How about the other skill positions? You’rereplacing a lot of production. Starting out, how do you feel about that?
COACH PHILLIPS: The thing that we have, wehave schemes. We have good zone schemes in the passing game. We got good manschemes. Our schemes give us a chance to get people separation. So I feelreally good about our schemes.
I think our receivers understand. They’vebeen around here a long time, so they understand our schemes, which I thinkwill give them a chance to get themselves open.
We know how to take advantage of differentschemes that people play against us, whether it’s man schemes or zone schemes. That’s what’s given us a chance to throw the ball efficiently the last fewyears.
Q. On having several freshmen in the two-deepdepth chart and if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don’t think it’s acurse. We got to play the best players that are going to give us the bestchance to win. Some of these freshmen are talented enough and mature enough. We have one offensive lineman in the two‑deep that’s a young guy. Therest of them are skill positions. We have one defensive lineman that will bein the two‑deep also. The rest of them are skill.
You see skill playing every week, every weekfreshmen skill playing. Like I say, our schemes will give them a chance to besuccessful.
Q. On if he is surprised there are so many inthe two-deep depth chart …
COACH PHILLIPS: We wouldn’t have signedthem if we didn’t expect those guys to come in here and help us. That’s justbeing honest. We expect every time we go out and recruit a class that we’vegot to get better than we have every year.
I’ll tell these freshmen that just walked oncampus, ‘We got to get better than you for us to be successful and continue thegrowth of the program.’
Q. You talked about freshman Alvin Dupree,trying to find him a home. Sounds like he found one at linebacker …
COACH PHILLIPS: All of those guys have donea really good job. That’s the reason we have so many of them in two‑deep. Like I said, I’m looking forward to watching those guys play. It’s a talentedgroup. Like I said, they look and carry themselves like SEC players aresupposed to look and carry themselves. I’m excited to watch those guys play.
Q. On finding the next Randall Cobb or DerrickLocke and if he has seen that type of talent yet?
COACH PHILLIPS: You got to find them onThursday night. You’ll be there, right?
There will be some guys that will catch youreyes, no question about that, or they wouldn’t be in the two‑deep. Theywouldn’t be in the two‑deep if we didn’t feel like they were eye‑catchers,because they definitely caught our eyes. That’s the reason why they’re in thetwo‑deep.
Q. Will you early on actually go with thefullback or will you rely more on the tight ends?
COACH PHILLIPS: We’ll mix and match. We’llhave some two tight‑end looks that give us some fullback sets, some two‑backlooks with the tight end. Go out there and let them play. We’ll have somefullback sets also. We’re not going to shy away because we have a young guy atfullback. We’ll play him. The reason why he’s there is because he’s talentedenough.
Q. On playing in-state games to start the seasonand if they are more dangerous because of the rivalry as opposed to otheropeners …
COACH PHILLIPS: They’re all dangerous. They are motivated. Our guys will be, too. This is a brand‑new team. First opportunity for us to go out and play and see how much we’ve improved. We don’t feel any danger. We just feel like it’s a great opportunity for bothsides.
Q. How about getting a chance to play inNashville?
COACH PHILLIPS: Big for us. We tried tohit (that area) really hard in recruiting. It’s also close to westernKentucky, which we’ve done well there in the past also. Been a really goodrecruiting tool for us in that area. It’s been a really good recruiting toolto say we’re playing at an NFL stadium. We did it two years ago. We’re doingit again this year. We’ll go back in two years. It’s been really good to usethat as a selling point.
Q. On backup quarterback Maxwell Smith and howthey will work him into getting game reps …
COACH PHILLIPS: No, we don’t have a backupquarterback that has any snaps. So we’ve got to start getting one ready. We’ve learned a little bit of a lesson from a few years ago with Morgan, we hadto put Morgan out there as a true freshman. But we had a backup that hadplayed a few snaps. We thought that Morgan was a little bit more talented. Wethought if it was a week, we’d play the No. 2 six games to bring a truefreshman up to give us a better opportunity to win the six games because wefelt he was the guy that gave us the best chance.
Now, we don’t have an opportunity to have aguy with experience in front of a talented guy, so we’ve got to start gettingsome snaps. I would hate, four, five games, he’s thrown in there with hisfirst snaps having no experience. We have to find an opportunity to get himsome snaps.
Q. Is that a thing where you can do that secondquarter or early?
COACH PHILLIPS: It will just be a feelthing. We’ll go from there.
Our quarterback situation, I was thinkingabout it the other day. We have done a really good job of developingquarterbacks. That’s my opinion. I don’t know what everybody thinks, but Ithink we have. We were kind of screwed up in our cycle because we lost areally good quarterback about five or six years ago. It kind of screwed us upin our cycle of quarterbacks. It was in between Andre’ and Mike Hartline. Sowe lost a couple years in that.
I think we’re back on schedule where thisguy will have a really good career here for two years, then the next one comes,then we got one already committed to us that he’ll be in a perfect situation totake it over after that one. We’re now back on schedule with our quarterbacks.
Q. On what he expects from Morgan Newton …
COACH PHILLIPS: Hope he can get the ball inthe end zone. That would help. And winning games. That’s what quarterbacksare judged on. If you’re going to judge Morgan, he’s won games around here asa starter. People talk about managing the game. I want a quarterback that canmanage the game. I want a quarterback that can help us win games also. Ithink Morgan is ready for that also.
Q. On Kentucky’s depth at running back …
COACH PHILLIPS: Let’s talk about therunning back situation. I really like the running backs. Do we have adifference‑maker? I’m not sure of that yet. I think a couple young guysare really talented. I’m waiting to see if there’s a difference‑maker inthe group, a difference‑maker that can hold up for 12 games, a difference‑makerthat can go the distance like we had last year. Don’t know that yet, but we’llfind out.
We’ll have to play a few of those guys earlybecause they all deserve to play. There’s not a lot of separation amongstthem, so we got to try to find some separation in the games now.
Regarding Morgan, night and day. You don’trecognize the guy that we had in the bowl game. I mean, he’s a lot differentthan what we saw in the bowl game. He’s much improved. A lot of it has to dowith his confidence. A lot of it has to do with getting reps and understandingof schemes better, understanding our protection.
But let me tell you this, when he played asa true freshman, he knew nothing. I mean, he knew nothing. He didn’t know howto protect himself with protections. We had to be as simple as we possiblycould be. Like I say, that’s the process of our quarterbacks. It takes alittle bit of time.
Now he has it. He’s fixing protections. He’s checking plays. He’s doing all the things that the good quarterbackswe’ve had here did.
Q. How comfortable are you with the productionyou are getting from kickoff return and punt return?
COACH PHILLIPS: I’m comfortable with thekick returns. I really like our schemes. I think we’re better up front in thewhole blocking scheme. I think that will give us a chance to be successful inthe kickoff return.
The punt return, you know, we have guys thathaven’t done it yet. We got some guys that have returned kicks. I thinkthat’s a little easier than the punt return, because you know you’re going toget them started. I really like our schemes. I like our personnel that wehave up front blocking for him. The punts, we certainly don’t have a guythat’s done it. That’s the thing that bothers you a little bit. The guyshaven’t done it yet.
Q. On if there will ever be another Randall Cobb…
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I hope like heckthere will be. We said there would never be another Tim Couch, and Andre’Woodson comes around. We said there would never be another Andre’ Woodson andMorgan comes around. I’m hoping there will be another Cobb around here. Thething that Randall gave us more than anything was his leadership, hisdetermination. I think that was infectious on this football team.
Q. On how it would boost his team’s confidenceif they could come out and defend the run early …
COACH PHILLIPS: Man, that would give us alot of confidence. Like I say, we talk about where we want to take thisprogram. To do that, don’t play good defense, you play dominant defense. Ithink that will be huge in our confidence if we can shut down a big‑timeback like that. It’s a huge challenge. He’s (Bobby Rainey) a great back. Hemakes people miss. He runs through tackles. He knows how to run around you. He can run over you. That’s a huge challenge.
They got great schemes. They do anunbelievable job of running the football. We’ve got to make sure that weunderstand the schemes and then being attacking and aggressive like we say wewant to be.
Q. How well do you know Willie Taggart?
COACH PHILLIPS: I’ve known him since he wasa player. Really good guy. Doing a great job with the program. I was excitedfor him when he got a chance to lead his alma mater also. I’m sure he’s livingthe same dream I’m living. We communicated a lot while he was coaching as anassistant there and I was an assistant here. We haven’t talked as much sincewe were head coaches. When we see each other at events, we get a chance tovisit with each other.
Great guy, doing a good job with hisprogram.
Q. On if they will use all the defensive looksthey have installed …
COACH PHILLIPS: I mean, that’s justinstalling. Our defense was installing. You see a lot of stuff. We won’tsend all of it at them. As we install, our guys got to get it on tape so theycan teach, therefore, we were the ones who got to see it every day.
Q. On how this year is different than last yearnow that he has a year under his belt …
COACH PHILLIPS: You know what to expect. You know you got a press conference the Monday of the game. You know thetravel schedule, the obligations you have as the head coach as you travel. Youstart preparing a little bit earlier to get in front of your football teambecause you know how many times you’re going to be in front of your footballteam and how much time you’re going to have.
It’s a lot different. A lot more comfortable. And who wouldn’t be from year one to year two?
Q. Who will be on the field or in the booth froma coaching staff standpoint?
COACH PHILLIPS: On offense, Coach Sandersand Coach Nord will be up top. Special teams, special forces, Coach Nord is incharge of the overall organization. Even last year, we have different coachesin charge of different segments. Everything will be ran through him. But eachcoach on the sideline will have their area they’ll be in charge of. So that’show we’ll handle the special forces. Nord was on the field last year, but wefeel we need some more eyes up top to help Coach Summers to see what we’reseeing on defense.
The rest of the staff on offense will bedown, Coach Martin, Coach Woodson, down on the sideline. He and Coach Martinwill be the guys communicating with Morgan in-between plays, in- betweenseries. Coach Summers will be on the sideline.
Defensively Coach Minter will be on thesideline. Coach Brown will go up also with Coach Sanders. The rest of thedefensive staff will be on the field. A couple GAs up top as well.
Q. On how comfortable he is heading into theseason opener than he was last year …
COACH PHILLIPS: You know, last year, I gota lot of sleep. I don’t sleep much anyway, but I got enough sleep. Probablygot more sleep on the night before the game than I do during the week.
But last year I was a little bit moreworried about tickets. I got that out of my hands. I got that way out of myhands. I was ready for it. I’m only 35 minutes from there. Everybody inFranklin were calling for tickets. I just transferred them to Sandy.(laughter)
Q. On how important it is to play well in thefirst game …
COACH PHILLIPS: It’s good to go out andplay, first of all, so we can have some video to teach off of because we havesome new personnel on offense, new schemes on defense. It will be good. Andit will be good to see some different schemes that we’re facing.
I think that’s important to us. But it alsowill be very, very helpful on Friday if we start teaching off of video that we(played well). I think it helps because you have to have a different attitudebased on how you play. It will definitely help us teach a little bit better, alittle bit more calmer if we have played well.
All right. Thank you, guys.
