	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 16, 2010

Joker Phillips

COACH PHILLIPS: First the injury report. Kevin Mitchell, got a tweak in his hamstring, his left hamstring, on the PAT field goal. You guys explain it. I don't know how an offensive lineman can tweak his hamstring on a PAT field goal but he did. Martavius has a concussion, and we'll take a look at him tomorrow.
And McCord. I almost said Quinton McCord. Shane McCord has a left groin. I'm still shaking.
What an effort. But we've given this type of effort every week, okay. We've given this type of effort every week. We made a lot more plays today, especially in the second half, we challenged our guys at halftime, that we were in a street fight. We're in a street fight. I'm in a street fight. I want to see who has my back.
And we drive with 80 guys, and all 80 of them had my back. All 80 of them. Really, our defense, for what they did, all they did is come out in the second half and give up 103 yards and throw a shutout to one of the best offenses in the conference. Offense scored when they needed to score, put together some big-time drives. The 95-yard drive was as good as I've ever seen.
When we really, really needed something to get us going, they put together an unbelievable drive. And our special teams, when we needed a play there, also our punter punted them back and our guys ran down and pinned them back and gave us the short field. We started playing on the short field.
Just all three phases. All three phases played their hearts out. But we have seen that every week. We've played this week every week. We made more plays this week. And we had a lot more confidence. And confidence comes when you make a play.
You make a play and then the next play you feel a little better about making the next play. And we had a lot of guys that made plays. We had many -- I don't know if you guys heard anybody on this football team talking about Derrick Locke being up. Love Locke to death, but we've got to run 11 out there. Nobody said about DeQuin Evans. Our football team just rolled their sleeves up and went to battle.
And I really like -- I really like how they're fighting, period. They're fighting, scratching and clawing. I asked them last night, I went over and seen the 65 to 72 Bradshaw team. I'm a big-time Kentucky history buff. And I got a chance to talk to those guys, got to see Mrs. Bradshaw and Mrs. Pale. When you talk to those guys over at the K House, every time they talked about our players, the passion, the strength in their voice, first of all, how they felt about how our team was playing, the passion that they felt in their hearts.
And I asked our team to play with that type of strength that I heard over there last night, to play with that type of passion, to play with that type of heart. And they did.

Q. Came close to becoming extremely --
COACH PHILLIPS: I wasn't done.

Q. Tell us what's in your heart --
COACH PHILLIPS: Everybody knows what this program means to me. What it means to me a small town Kentucky boy getting a chance to lead the program that he's grown up -- grown up loving and a lot of people said I wasn't supposed to love this place. But I guess I'm stubborn. I made the decision in '81 that I wanted to come here and being in this program and seeing those young men in there, living out their dreams, it is a dream come true to me, and I'm living it.

Q. The last couple of weeks, what was that like for you and the players?
COACH PHILLIPS: It was fun. It was fun. It was a lot of excitement. You know, what we've asked our kids to battle back from and for them to see the rewards, because we asked them to battle back from a tough loss to Florida.
They battled back and played their hearts out at Ole' Miss, and we asked them to battle back from that tough loss and they came back and battled their hearts off at when we played Auburn and we asked them again. That's three tough losses.
Two of those losses, 10 points. Those are two really tough losses back to back. And for us to ask those guys to battle back from those two tough losses and for them to give us the type of effort -- all week. It just didn't happen today. It happened on Sunday, okay, when we came in.
And Sunday was just a day to get the soreness out, to lift, and they lifted their tails off. And the running, it's get their soreness out and they ran their tails off. Then to see the way they prepared themselves on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then we hit the bus on Friday.
The way they went about their business -- it was a business trip. Okay, the way they went about their business says a lot for this football team.

Q. (Question off microphone)?
COACH PHILLIPS: We ran a little underneath route. Everybody's been talking about, I've got questions from even you, Larry, on third down, why do you run the underneath routes. I guess we've been hitting the underneath routes enough that the corner jumped it.
Mike went through his read. The corner jumped this time, over the top. That's how we got him open.

Q. A little like deja vu on the sidelines, came narrowly similar to last week?
COACH PHILLIPS: Yeah, it did, because I told our guys, when we had seven and a half, I said let's us take the ball down the field, hold it for seven and a half minutes and score and get out of here.
We left way too much time on the clock. Wanted to run, catch the ball and fall down on the 1 so we could get it and run the clock down, but he didn't. (Laughter) But I just felt that this was a big opportunity. We would get a stop, get a penalty on the thing, punt return.
But we got the ball. And we put our offense out there in the offense, they did a great job of going in there getting points for us.

Q. Do you think this is Mike's best game ever?
COACH PHILLIPS: Best game? He played good. He played really good. I have to look at the film. I mean, I said it last week that I thought he played one of the best games I've seen out of a quarterback.
But for him to stand in there and take some of the hits. This is really the first time he's taken some hits. For him to stand in there in a blitz on the last drive that he got hit right in the face, and he delivered one on the left sideline that I think that was a big-time throw.
I think he probably made big-time throws with people in his face in this game. Best game? I have to look at the film to see to make that assessment.

Q. Defensively, the last two games, the first half, pile 700 something yards, the second half in both games, been completely different story. Have you made -- last season you didn't make changes?
COACH PHILLIPS: We didn't make any today. We didn't. I tell you what happens we had a couple of opportunities get ourselves off the field in the first half. We didn't make a tackle or didn't get over the top of a corner route or those things. Didn't get in our gap.
In the second half, we did. We sent some blitz in the first half that you send the blitz, makes two guys miss and he walks in the end zone. We sent some pressure and they brung it back out of the back field and makes unbelievable throw on the long one that Lattimore made on our side.
I mean, just dropped it over our peeling in, our ends are peeling, because when you blitz you usually expect the back to step up and take on one of the linebackers.
But if he doesn't, our end has to peel. If he goes out and he made an unbelievable throw on that one. The second time he was our end didn't peel with him and he got behind us.
But our defense is playing really good, especially in the second half giving up 103 yards in the second half and shutting these guys out. And they're playing inspired football, especially in the second half.

Q. What's it mean the winning streak?
COACH PHILLIPS: It was a big win. We've got to get wins. And 5 and 3, we'll have a chance to win in the East. We will. I don't know what the other teams are doing in this side. I know it's a big game for Mississippi State. No clue with that one.
But 5 and 3, we'll have a chance. We'll have a chance. The only way we can beat 5 and 3 is the winning tonight.

Q. What about Matthews tonight, I thought he played well?
COACH PHILLIPS: He did. He played really well. He's been playing really well. I see him back there. He's been playing like crap. (Laughter).
If he gets another personal foul, he's going to have to deal with me. No, but let's talk about Chris. Chris, he's a battler. He has our back. I say, it's 80 guys in there. All 80 guys in there had each other's back and Chris is one of those guys. All he did is went out there and made play after play after play especially on third down, I think that's big. When you're 6'5", I told you guys when you're 6'5", 6'4", doesn't matter how tight they are, you're open when it's a 5'9" guy. He made a huge play on the dig route when they're all over him, safety breathing down his neck. That's what he's gotta do. That's what their guy does.
We expect Chris to make those plays.

Q. Talk about the interception, the play in the wind?
COACH PHILLIPS: Mosley and Cartier. Just had three deep, and that's the coverage you want to play. The corners have to be over the top, deeper than the deepest, and they were. They tried to throw a fade route.
We should be playing downhill on that play. And we were. A couple of times we weren't playing downhill on that play. If you get deeper than the deepest, which is Football 101, you would know that, Larry, right? You get deeper than the deepest and play downhill on that fade route, we should make that play. I thought it was a great call and the guy made the play for us.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297