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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 23, 2010

Joker Phillips

COACH PHILLIPS: Injury report, Cobb had a hip pointer. We took him inside to take a closer look at it, massaged it, got some ice on it and he came back. Tyler Robertson had an A.C. sprain in his right shoulder, and La'Rod King has a knee sprain, and we'll take a look at it tomorrow.
One of the things we talked about is starting fast and playing the first half. You come in at halftime and it's like we've been here before. Down 18, I think it was the same score as last week, and made a play right before the half to get the momentum similar to what we did last week.
We made the play on defense to turn the ball over to keep it from going up 25. But in the first half this week, you turn the ball over three times. We turned the ball over on downs and they score 21 of their 28 points on 67 yards. Then they have a kickoff return and at half our defense has only given up 96 yards total and 28 points.
I mean, you show me a team that's only given up 96 yards and 28 points, and I could tell you before even looking at the game, looking at the stats, that you probably would have turned it over or given up a big play on the special forces, and that's what we did.
I'd like to see what type of team -- I think we know what type of team we have. We've got a team of fighters. There's no question about that. That's not hard to determine. I'd like to see what type of football team we truly have. A team that -- we'll only see that when we see this team play for four quarters and we have not done that yet. Any questions?

Q. (No microphone) you've haven't had a game where all three phases played well on a given night. Can you put your finger on anything at this point?
COACH PHILLIPS: No, we can't. I wish we could. All three phases played in the half together at the same time, but we haven't played four quarters. Today I thought our defense was battling their tails off.
I thought our special forces gave up the big return. We had guys hit him on the 25-yard line, we've just got to get him down. Our offense turned the ball over three times in the first half, and gave it up on downs, which is like a turnover especially when you're on the short field.
I'd like to see us play, all three phases, play for four quarters. So we'll see what type of football team -- so you guys will see. Because we think we have a pretty good football team, we do. We think we have a good football team. We've just got to put four quarters together in all three phases.

Q. Can you talk about the pass rush and how that affected the team?
COACH PHILLIPS: It's the best pass rush team we've seen, no question about that. That was one of our offensive keys to the game is we felt like we had to handle the edge rushers. They've given a lot of people problems. We had to use some chip, to chip our way out to give the guys some help.
But you can't use it all the time, because you won't get some of the underneath control guys out free sometimes. But the times that we didn't, especially the first time, the first pass we tried -- first dropback pass we tried, they got pressure on us and caused the fumble. But this is by far the best pass rushers we've seen.

Q. (No microphone)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Yeah, it changed. We had offensively one thing we had done is we had scored, I think, four out of the five times we've taken the ball first. We had a big first down on the first play, was it Jordan Aumiller?
All right, so we got some momentum, and we tried to play action, hard play action pass to get the ball down the field, and we thought we had the route open, we just gave up the sack, and caused fumble, and that set the momentum back to their side.
That's one of the things the defense denied. We need our defense to go out on the field with a long field with a lot of grass behind them. And they had to go out with a short, I think it was 29 yards behind them, and that becomes tough. It really does.
But we've got to get them stopped. We've got to at least hold them to the field goal, and they took over the momentum. We thought we had it back when we got the field goal. The goal is 7-3, and they returned the kickoff back. That is the thing I'd like to see our defense go back on the field at 7-3. They didn't go back on the field until it was 14-3.

Q. So that first drive they have the long drive. Do you think that really hurt you?
COACH PHILLIPS: Hurt? The first drive in the second half? I mean, it did take some of the momentum that we had gained in the first half away from us. But we drive right down too, and we turn it over again.
If we could just get the ball in the end zone and get close to the red zone, if we could just get the ball in the end zone we'll be able to get that momentum back with about 6 minutes left in the half, 6 or 7 minutes left in the half. I think that hurt worse than them going down and scoring on us.

Q. In the fourth quarter they ran like eight minutes off the clock just running and catching (No microphone)?
COACH PHILLIPS: And that's disappointing too, because a couple of those times they ran on us it was a nine-man front. Somebody's got to make the play for you. You've got nine guys in had the box, and the only reason we didn't have ten is we wanted to put somebody over the top of the Green kid. Want to have somebody underneath and somebody over the top.
So we had a nine-man front. You've got to get yourself off the field when we've got nine men in the box.

Q. When you went on the fourth (No microphone)?
COACH PHILLIPS: It was a quarterback sneak, simple quarterback sneak. We expect, we expect to get half an inch on fourth down, 4th and 1. I don't care how many guys they put up there. We've got to be able to come off low and hard. We expect when it's 4th and inches to get it. And it cost us. It did.
I'll take the blame for that. Again, put our defense out on the field with a short field and you can't do that. I think that one was 39 yards, I think, something like that. 37 yards, and we can't do that to our defense. I expect to make that.
Looking back on it, probably should have punted it. Probably should have punted it. But I did expect to get that. We needed some momentum also, and it took the momentum away from us when we didn't get it.

Q. Somebody like A.J. Green kind of hurt you in facing the rushing attack? Did that open up for some of the other teams? Did that make it tough?
COACH PHILLIPS: It does. Because A.J., one thing you don't want to do, you don't want to single him up a lot. You want to try to put a guy underneath and a guy on the top so it takes another guy out of the box.
But late in the game they were playing two tight end sets and two back sets, so you actually have an extra guy when you put that -- you don't have to cover down on another receiver, because they've got two tight ends in the box.
But, yeah, he does help their running game because he brings another guy with him. You've got to mix and match your coverages. You've got to get two people over the top of it or one guy over the top of it at times. That gives them the ability to run the ball with numbers.

Q. What did you see from Raymond Sanders? A little bit of a ray of light?
COACH PHILLIPS: You know, we've seen it all most of the year from Raymond. Raymond is a really determined runner he's a really sharp kid, catches the ball well. He's a perfect back for what we do. He makes some people miss, and he got stronger as the game went on. I'm just proud of him.

Q. What about Locke? What are the chances you think he'll be back in?
COACH PHILLIPS: He will work out tomorrow. I think he's got most of the feeling back. The thing we've got to do is make sure he's got some strength so he can protect himself. One thing you don't want to do is put a guy out there that can't protect himself. But he'll work out tomorrow, and we'll see it. It will be day-to-day, whether or not he can go.

Q. What did you think of (No microphone)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Good back. Every week you play in the SEC, you're going to face some good backs, and he is good, tough, hard-nosed. A typical SEC back, that's what you're going to see every week.

Q. You talk about big plays and winning games and things. Do you think (No microphone) are contagious?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don't think they're contagious, no. I don't think they're contagious. They did a good job of tackling the football. La'Rod -- I mean, that's not effort. That's an effort turnover.
La'Rod's fighting his tail off. He's carrying them. And everybody's saying go, go, go, and he's at 5 yards, he's at 10. He gets to 15 yards after contact, and the guy comes in and puts his hat on the ball, that's an effort turnover.
Like the one down on the goal line coming out, we've got to put our eyes on the ball, secure it, and get up the field. That is the one that you get discouraged about.

Q. Speaking of La'Rod, do you guys keep guys fighting or when they're wrapped up at that point --
COACH PHILLIPS: No, we teach them to keep fighting. It's hard to tell them to go down once you get wrapped up. We want to put both hands over the ball. He was trying to get his other hand up to continue fighting.
Like I said, that's an effort. That's an effort. The guy came in and put his hat on perfectly on the football and knocked it out. But, no, we want to teach our guys to keep fighting. That's how we're playing. Our guys continue to fight, scratch and claw. And that's what La'Rod was doing.

Q. The interception in the end zone, was that a miscommunication? Did it kind of cut off or what?
COACH PHILLIPS: I think Chris was thinking it was going to the back shoulder, which we've done quite a bit. And Mike was thinking over the top, which it's kind of in between when the defensive backs are over the top, you throw back shoulder. When the receiver's over the top, you throw over the top.
It's kind of an in between deal where Chris was even with the guy and could go either way. But it was a huge play for them, it was. And I think that took the momentum, not their offense going on us on the first series. That was a big play for them and getting the momentum back in the second half.

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