[B]
BIRMINGHAM, Ala – [/B]Throughout the offseason, college football writers and fans alike have comprised a list of college football coaches on the hot seat. At the top of that list has been none other than Kentucky’s Joker Phillips.
While many would expect this to be a big thing on Phillips’ mind, the third-year man denied such rumors on Wednesday.
“I don’t have time to listen to that stuff,” he began. “All we have time to think about is doing all the productive things in our program that we need to get it back to the level that we want to.”
In hindsight, the last few weeks of the season were positive movements for the Cats.
“Our last four games last year we were 2‑2. Of those last four games, what also makes you excited, for some reason or another, there were a lot of true freshmen, true sophomores, that were thrust into playing time, playing significant roles on our football team, whether it be offense, defense or special teams. Of those last four games, you saw a lot of those guys making huge plays for us. That’s what gets us excited.”
The youth will only continue this season; Kentucky has a nice recruiting class coming in, and they will only go well with the rest of the team.
As Phillips noted, 26 of the top 44 players on the depth chart are freshmen or sophomores.
“That may seem disastrous to some. We feel like we have more quality players in our program now, especially in our young groups,” he explained.
Nevertheless, most do not see Kentucky as a big threat in the SEC, let alone expecting the Wildcats to win a single conference game.
Expect a young and inexperienced team for Joker Phillips this season.
Follow Garrett Tucker on Twitter [URL=”http://twitter.com/gtuckerf150″]@GTuckerF150[/URL] for more updates.
