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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 30, 2010Joker PhillipsCOACH PHILLIPS: A little disappointed this morning. We had walk-on tryouts. I was expecting to see Chip Cosby today (laughter). I didn't think he was training to look good, I thought he was training to try out for us. He failed to make it the first time (laughter). We selected captains yesterday. I think it's been announced to you yesterday. Randall Cobb will be the offensive captain and DeQuin Evans will be the defensive captain. We will have two game captains selected for this game. Mark Hartline will be on offense and Ricky Lumpkin will be on the defensive side of the ball. I know Rich always started off with the injuries. I'll do that. The injury report, Melillo everybody knows will be out. He was our starting tight end, worked himself up to being our starting tight end. Dakotah Tyler has an high ankle sprain, also he will be out. Then obviously Gene McCaskill will have surgery tomorrow and be out for this game also. We'll get back some important people tomorrow for practice. Jonathan George, Donte Romph, Danny Trevathan, Chandler Burden will be back, Collins Ukwu. We really lucked out yesterday with CoShik Williams. He will be back on Wednesday. His injury is not as severe as we thought. Just a ankle sprain, not a high ankle sprain. He should be back on Wednesday. He's a guy we're counting on a lot in our special teams and also as a backup runningback. Saturday when we last talked, Saturday was very disappointing in how we weren't into the practice mentally. It's not as bad as it looks when you are actually out there. So the film was not as bad as it looked on Saturday. But also it wasn't good as far as being into the practice mentally. I thought yesterday was as good a mental practice as we have had since we've been around here. Everybody was into it. One thing we did yesterday, all we did was try to create different situations, getting different personnels on the field. As you guys know, having 10, 11, 12 guys on the field is a coaching error, in my opinion. One of the things we don't want to do is make that error on Saturday. So we went over and over different personnel groupings getting on and off the field. I thought our team was into it as good as I've ever seen a team. A couple things we think we got to get done this week is we got to be mentally prepared for a lot of different things. It's just been a pretty difficult team to prepare for, especially the defensive side of the ball. Actually defense has been a little bit easier than offense. Offensively, because they have so many -- there's not just one person that comes from Florida, there's a couple that came from Florida that's not in charge, so it's hard to get a read on what we would do offensively. We have to prepare for Utah, which is where the coordinator was, and he went to UNLV. We have to prepare for Virginia, which is where the offensive line coach was at. A guy I worked for, worked with, Dave Borbely. Defensively it's a little bit easier to try to round up film on them. We just looked at Florida, where Charlie was coming from, and also their defensive coordinator Vance Bedford. We have to prepare mentally. We've played this game a lot of times when we've had to do that. Seems like it's every year we've had to prepare for when English was there, had to prepare for Michigan, had to watch Michigan. When Mike came in, we had to watch Illinois. I mean, it becomes difficult to get your troops to understand that you're not playing Florida, you're playing Florida schemes; you're not playing Michigan, you're playing Michigan schemes. Sometimes it becomes hard to get them to focus on that film because of that. We also got to be fresh physically. We got to get the troops back fresh, playing fast. The third thing that we have to be able to do, and it can happen in the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, could be after the first play, we've got to be able to adjust because if they're not running the offense, the things that the coordinator has ran at UNLV, our defense has to adjust. Same thing offensively. If we are getting different stuff than we had been preparing for, we got to be able to adjust. That will be the most important thing that we'll have to do. Same thing in special teams area. We've watched mostly Florida special teams, which is very aggressive, attacking, organized chaos. Got guys running all over the place, getting after people. So we'll be prepared for that. In the middle of the game, we'll have to adjust to that if they're not giving us the same thing we've been watching on film. With that we'll open it up for questions. Q. On Saturday for all the fans, a new era for Kentucky football begins. Can you share your thoughts and feeling about taking over here. COACH PHILLIPS: It is early. My thoughts is similar to the other seasons that I've started. But I'm sure maybe Saturday morning I'll be hugging the toilet somewhere, I don't know (laughter). Haven't done that in a long time, since I was a player at one time. But I don't know. It's just one of those deals that I've been as relaxed as I've ever been. But Saturday, who knows. The thing that I know that I have to be is have the emotions under control because there's a lot of decisions throughout the game you have to make, so you have to have your emotions under control. Q. (Question regarding McDermott.) COACH PHILLIPS: He came here as a walk-on. I think it's his third year, fourth year maybe. He's a guy that always gives you 110%. We told him to eat. He needed to get bigger and stronger. We said, Go to the dining hall, eat. As soon as you get full, eat some more. He's over to the dining hall hour and a half, two hours sometimes. We'll leave breakfast and go back at lunch, he's still there. Same thing in the weight room. You go in the weight room, he's in the weight room two and three hours. He's in there an hour after he's supposed to work out. The guy just continues to do everything he needed to do to get himself ready to play at this level. We've had some injuries. Luke has a lot of reps, taking advantage of them. Just one of those guys that has a high motor, real aggressive, will never back down from anyone or anything. He's a big part of this defense. Q. When you were living down in Columbia with Charlie, could you have envisioned this scenario, where you would be involved in this kind of rivalry thing together? COACH PHILLIPS: No, I didn't. A house was in between he and I. We used to work out every day together. We used to talk about if he got a job, that I would go would with. We never envisioned this, that we both would be head coaches, head coaches 80 miles apart, and in-state rivals. We never envisioned this. Q. How much have you kept in touch with him? COACH PHILLIPS: We've kept in touch, but not like we were when we were together obviously 'cause we would call periodically just to say hello. But we also worked against each other too. He was at Florida, I was here. And the same since he's been at Louisville. We have talked. We do talk on the phone. But when we do see each other, we have conversation also. But, again, you know, we are fighting for the same thing, so we don't talk as much as we did when we was on the same staff. Q. How true do coaches usually stay to what they've done in the past? COACH PHILLIPS: It's true they don't have the same personnel and all, but they still have the same philosophies. It's hard to change a coach's philosophy. Charlie is going to be aggressive. I mentioned it's going to be a blitz-orama. He's going to attack. He'll blitz on first down, second down, third down. He'll be blitzing as soon as he comes out of the locker room. That's just what they do. We don't think his philosophy will change in that area. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: I feel good about Mike's ability to identify and get us in the best protection possible. Know where his problems are. That's the thing a quarterback needs to know, to know where his problems are, fix things. If he doesn't have time to fix it, he understands how to sight adjust, which we call, such as quick passes. He understands it. I think he'll be fine. Q. Can you talk about Jordan Aumiller. COACH PHILLIPS: Danville guy, right (laughter)? Q. Can you talk about whether you expect him back, that kind of thing. COACH PHILLIPS: Jordan went from linebacker to tight end in the spring. Got 15 days in the spring. He and Melillo were battling for the job. Melillo actually won the job. He was one tight end that had played. After him there's five freshmen, three true freshmen and two redshirt freshmen, in Aumiller and Kendrick. The thing that Aumiller has done, we think he might have the chance to be the most complete tight end. Huge physical presence, blocking on the perimeter, not yet, blocking on the edge, but we think he will eventually be that type of guy that will be able to handle one of the edges. Tight ends are used when you're having a lot of pressure, getting a lot of pressure to protect at least one of your edges. A lot of teams play with two tight ends, try to protect your edges and blitz. When team are a heavy blitz team, I think Aumiller will give us that. He's really good as far as catching the football, stretching the ball down the field. We think he has a chance to be the most complete tight end in the group at this point. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: No. You told us we needed to recruit him (laughter). We believe everything you tell us, you know. I heard you didn't believe Randall, though, about the other one, the backup guy. I mean, I really think this backup guy, he's probably the most physical guy that we've had as a true freshman walk in these doors, Tyler Robinson. He'll be our second tight end. He'll be the stationary tight end when we go in a two-tight end set. Aumiller will be the move guy. The move guy, you can classify him as a fullback if we get into that type of set. We really feel good about Tyler Robinson's progress. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: I like the attack. I did it in 2007. I don't know if people would classify me in 2008 and '9. But I want to be aggressive, get the ball down the field. Tony gave me a stat that in 2007 our average scoring drive was 2 minutes. That's attacking to me. But in the last two years we haven't been able to do that. But we want to be able to get the ball down the field and score points as quickly as possible. That would mean that I like to attack people and get the ball in the end zone. Q. Do you feel like you have the personnel right now to do that? COACH PHILLIPS: I think we're closer, I really do. I think we're closer than we were in '8 and '9. I think the reason why is we're more experienced at the positions outside, more experienced at the quarterback position also. Everybody knows how I feel about this offensive line's ability to protect and run the ball. I think those guys have done an amazing job in knowing where they're supposed to be, being physical and nasty, that we have been trying to get up front for a long time. Q. They'll be fired up. How important is it for you guys to get off to a good start? COACH PHILLIPS: It's very important. We want to play fast. That's been one of the things we haven't done around here in the last couple years, is get out to a fast start. We've come out at halftime and played like we want to play, but we haven't gotten off to a fast start in the first quarter. That's one thing we have to do. It's very important for us to do that. Confidence, it will help our confidence. It will help ourselves winning on the field. I think it will help us. Q. What does a coach worry about going into an opener? COACH PHILLIPS: The thing that you worry about is how the young guys are going to react. It's a big arena that we're about to go into. We'll play I think it's eight first-year guys, guys that just came in with this class, whether it be junior college players or true freshmen. We'll play eight new guys. The biggest thing is how those guys will react. Mychal Bailey will be starting for us. Last year he was starting at Southwest Community College in Mississippi in front of about 400 people, friends and family only. Saturday he'll be starting in front of 55,000 people and playing on regional TV. Q. (Question regarding the importance of winning or losing this game.) COACH PHILLIPS: You're going to have a great year, either team. If either team is going to have a great year, it's important to get this one. I would say momentum is the biggest thing that's come out of this game here. It's important for both teams involved that you leave this game with momentum to carry you through the rest of the season. I don't think either team can have a great year without this 'cause I think we both need the momentum. Q. Talk about the other defensive tackle. COACH PHILLIPS: The guys that are behind him. Shane McCord is a guy that's been around here a long time. He's played in some big games. One of the things, we try to get his attention. There's no question about that. We want him to play with the passion that Luke is playing with. We have a couple other guys that were injured. Rumph we think will have a chance to battle for that position also. He'll be back starting tomorrow. He sprained his knee, but he's fine. He sat out about three practices. He'll be back tomorrow. He actually ran yesterday. His weight is coming down since he's been out, which is a huge positive. He tells me every day how much he's lost. He's down to 306, I think something like that. So he's lost 12, 13 pounds since he's been here. He's continued to lose it since he's been out, which is huge for us. Those two guys are guys that we think can help us at that position also. But McDermott is the guy that we think deserves to start at this point. Q. Can you talk about special teams, especially the kicking game. COACH PHILLIPS: The kicking game, we think we have two of the most dynamic returners in this league in Locke and Cobb. The kicking responsibilities, the punting. Tydlacka will handle the punting duties and he'll actually handle the PAT field goals also. He has won that be job, been the most consistent. We think that someday Mansour will be a guy that will line up and kick 60-plus-yard field goals. Today he's not ready to do that. He hasn't been as consistent as we would like. There's still a battle between he and McIntosh to do the kickoff duties. We'll continue that battle this week and try to figure it out before Saturday. We might use them both. Might use them both. But Joe has to be a little more consistent if he has a chance someday to be a guy that kicks 50, 60 yarders at will. He kicked one there the other day when you guys were there. We need to bring you there every day. He had plenty to spare. It was at the 50, and it was into the wind. We think he's got a chance to be a big-time kicker for us. But we also got to bring him up slowly, too. But sometime he'll be a big-time one for us. Q. Talk about both coaches being new in this rivalry. COACH PHILLIPS: New coaches. 20 something years (laughter). Q. Is there some sense that the game has some importance in recruiting in the state? COACH PHILLIPS: It's not just because of that, that's every year. This game is important for recruiting. It's important for momentum. It's important now that we both are first-year head coaches. I don't want to start off with a loss and I know he doesn't want to start off with a loss. It makes it important. It's also important and big for recruiting. We both understand that's a huge part of having success in this game. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: Both of them have got really natural ability. I can't wait to see those guys run 40s because I think they will be guys that will challenge to be one of our faster kids on this football team. Sanders, he reminds me a lot of Derrick Locke when he walked on campus, his leadership ability. He's a guy, they had 28 signees last year. If you asked any of them who was the leader of that bunch, he was the leader of Stephenson High School's football team. He's continued that here. The first week he was there, Derrick Locke came up and said, I've never been around a smarter guy than this guy. He understands our checks, he understands our signals, he understands the tracks that the runningbacks have to make on each run, he understands the pass protection. I guess Locke was bragging on himself like he always do, because he was teaching (laughter). Then Priester, we think he has the same type of ability. The thing about him is he's one of those guys that is not very big, but he's very aggressive and he runs well. He has great vertical, which you have to have if you're a small guy at the corner position. He got a lot of reps when some of our older corners were down. He got a lot of reps. He'll definitely play on Saturday. He'll be an impact before this year is over also. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: Not yet. We want him to learn as much as he possibly can about the defensive side of the ball before we decide to give him some offensive side. He will be a backup returner in the kick return area. Then he or Mychal Bailey will be the backup punt returner. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: It's not dirty to me (laughter). We manage to win this game, it will be the cleanest thing I've ever seen (laughter). Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely. You know, Mike has won a lot of games, okay? We've won with the quarterback position, too. I mean, the game he got hurt, he was the guy that was giving us a chance to win the game, which is the reason he's our starter now. We say he gives us the best chance to win. The quarterback position, similar to a pitcher. You don't manage the game at that position. You got to go out and win games, make people hit the ball on the ground or in the air, also strike people out. Mike does those things you need to do at that position. Q. (Question regarding the offensive line.) COACH PHILLIPS: Those guys just beat them out. We think those guys played really well, well enough to be at the starting position. Billy Joe came on late the last couple weeks. He's been starting at the left tackle because Chandler has been out. But we thought he was playing better than Brad, so we moved him over. That's the thing about all of our positions. We don't play the person who is behind the right tackle, we play the next best tackle. We have to get our best five on the field. Billy Joe is a swing guy, plays the left, plays the right. Chandler we can't keep stationary. He's on the left side. We feel like Brad can be a left or a right also. But those two guys we feel like in the last couple weeks outplayed. It was a continuous battle on both positions. We talked about that throughout the training camp, but those are the two guys that we think deserve a chance to start. Q. You lost several guys on the offensive line. Over the last couple years you were able to get other guys reps. COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely, definitely. That's what we wanted to do. This program has to be in the position where being able to redshirt a lot of those guys. All of those guys have redshirted except Brad Durham and Larry Warford. Those are the two guys that did not redshirt. When you're able to redshirt as many guys as we've redshirted up front, you have some guys, Mitchell is one of those guys, we've got to try to get him some experience. Once you redshirt them, the next year you try to get them as much experience as you possible can. That's where the depth comes in. When you lose four seniors like we just lost, okay, we don't miss much up front because we got a lot of guys that have played a lot of reps. And those guys are young, too. We have every one of those guys, except for Brad, back. We only signed one offensive lineman this year. But Mitchell is a redshirt freshman. We'll try to redshirt Tevan Eatmon, get him some reps. We'll give Mitchell some reps. Four of the five will be going out the door in two years. So we got to be ready to insert some guys and be ready to play right away. Q. (Question regarding coaching changes.) COACH PHILLIPS: I think it's a plus. It's a huge plus to have been around here, too. I think that makes it a big plus because you know the strengths. We had talked about this. It's nothing that I'm saying against Rich. Rich and I talked about some of the things we felt like we needed to get better at also. The thing is, you know where your strong suits are and you also know where you need to get strong at, too. So I think that's been a huge plus. Q. (Question regarding the team being overconfident.) COACH PHILLIPS: I thought you were talking about me being overconfident (laughter). The team? I don't think this team is overconfident. If I thought they were overconfident, usually what needs to happen, they start working. This team is working extremely hard. We challenged them after Saturday. Sunday they came back focused, as focused as I've ever seen them. This team is not overconfident. We have a lot of guys that have been in games. I was looking at the number, we had five guys on offense that are returning starters, six on defense. It's not a lot. But the other guys that are starting have all played. We got guys that understand not to be overconfident. Then you look at Louisville. They have nine starters on offense, 27 seniors, okay? We got 13, 12 or 13 seniors, so... But our guys will not be overconfident, I can tell you that right now. Q. How will play calling work? COACH PHILLIPS: Randy will call the plays from the box. I'll listen. We all will have input, okay? We'll all have input. I expect Steve Brown to have input on offense. He's got to tell us what's going on if he sees something. We can't waste any eyes. We can't have Steve Brown up in the box and not looking at the game, looking at something that he sees that can help us. Same thing with Randy Sanders on defense. If he sees something that the offense is doing that he thinks we can take advantage of, expect him to tell us that we need to blitz from the weak side. Q. (No microphone.) COACH PHILLIPS: This week we'll start with our backup quarterback Tyler Sargent. He and Coach Martin will do the signaling. Q. How difficult will that be for you, being in the box? COACH PHILLIPS: Being in the box, it will be different from there, having all those folks turning around, looking at you (laughter). THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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