Joker Phillips Speaks at SEC Media Days

University of Kentucky head football coach took the podium at the SEC Media Days around 4:30 this afternoon. He began by talking about transitioning from offensive coordinator to head coach and  said that the biggest difference is that he is now forced to make, “hardcore decisions”. As an offensive coordinator he had a lot of opinions, but he often kept them to himself and would even laugh about them. No more.

When talking about his new assistants, he said the most important things were, could they recruit, what are their schemes and how do they teach those schemes, and do they have the “juice”.?

They better have the “juice” and it better get loose, real quick.

He then spoke about Operation Win and the GameDay Ready campaign. He said that Operation Win was in full effect and it means they want to win in the classroom, in the community and on the football field. He said their goal is to take that next step in the SEC and to win a SEC Championship. They do not worry too much about National Championships, because if you take care of business (TCB) in the SEC, the National ”thing” will take care of itself.

The “3″ in the GameDay Ready billboards refers to the 3-dimensional promotional items you will see around town, not the three strait wins over Louisville.

Randall Cobb has to touch the football. He said that Cobb would be the sorest guy in the SEC and that they will get him touches in a multitude of ways, including at wide receiver, quarterback, and punt returner. They look to put in him motion a little more this year. He is a 1st Team All-SEC player. He has to touch the football.

Much has been said about the upcoming quarterback battle and Phillips said that it was important that the quarterback do more than just manage the game. They need to help them win games. He said it has been three seasons since Andre Woodson was under center and it’s time for someone to step up. He said all three guys (Hartline, Newton, Massakowski) are competing and he doesn’t expect quick separation.

He would like to announce a starter as soon as possible, but will not avoid entering Louisville week without a named starter, if the best option has not popped out at him.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Brian Adams was a topic of conversation and he mentioned that he was the key player to watch out for this year. He’s big, he’s fast and he has hops. He should be a beast. 

He talked about recruiting briefly and said they are much further along than they were at this time last year with 14 verbal commitments. Last year they had two.

Phillips closed by talking a little bit about former head coach, Rich Brooks. He said the main thing that he learned from Brooks was to stick to the plan, even when everyone around you is trying to get you to change it. He said many people wanted Brooks to change everything early in his tenure, but he held his ground, and eventually it worked.

That’s it from Joker Phillips at the SEC Media Days. We’ll be starting our position-by-position outlooks here in the coming weeks so keep an eye out for those.

I love football.

8:23 PM Update – Found some videos of Joker Phillips

Joker on Some Roster Changes

Joker on the QB Situation

Category: Kentucky