HOOVER, Ala.– The Kentucky football program has never blew any fans away like the basketball program has in the institution’s history. But head coach Joker Phillips feels that the best is on the horizon.
Thus, Kentucky’s theme this season will be ‘Rise.’ With a team on the rise and its best days ahead of them, the football program must compete in the next few years.
“We have shown that we at Kentucky can compete in this league,” said Joker Phillips at SEC Media Days.
Coach Phillips has a couple of major points that he believes could allow his team compete in the dog-eat-dog world of the SEC. This is what he asked his team in January:
“Are you ready to do the right things with the right attitude, with the right maturity, with the right focus every day? That’s what it’s going to take for us to continue to rise in this league.”
Phillips and his staff have challenged the players on this year’s team to replace those that the Cats have lost, most notably Randall Cobb and Derrick Locke.
“We have challenged our present players, our new players, to make sure they are filling the void of some of the players we lost. In order to rise, we have to do the thing necessary to rise,” Phillips explained.
With a new year comes the developments of new stars. Danny Trevathan is slated to have another All-American season, and Stuart Hines and Larry Warford are set to protect Morgan Newton in his first season as the starting quarterback. However, they aren’t the only ones that will push Kentucky to a make-it or break-it season.
“(The coaching staff) is excited about the new faces,” Phillips began. “We’re impressed by what we saw in the spring. You will see some new faces that just walked in the door.”
In order to compete in the SEC and rise to the potential UK football can have, Coach Phillips says he wants to strive to meet a couple of characteristics.
“The teams that are successful in this league are the teams that have discipline, teams that are physical, teams that are tough and have toughness. Those are the things we have to get back to.”
As a fan, what do you think the football teams has to do to be successful?
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