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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 5, 2011

Joker Phillips

COACH PHILLIPS: First of all, we've had a chance to watch the Western game a couple times. We've buried that, and now it's time to go to work. Obviously, offensively, we have some work to do, a lot of work to do. Get our offensive line playing to the level that they've played in the past. Got to get a couple of them healed up also, got to get our receivers making plays and making plays just means catching the football.
We've got to get our running backs started, and we've got to get our quarterback playing better also. So we've got a lot of work offensively.
Defensively I'm really proud of the effort that we saw those guys gave last week. Also proud of our special teams. Some stars are starting to emerge in the special teams area, and we'll give those guys that didn't play a lot, offensively and defensively that played on special teams and gave us great effort, we'll start giving a couple of those guys more reps to play offense and defense.
We've talked to our troops about whatever role we give you, whether it be big or small, and if it's a small role, you take advantage of the amount of reps that you get and play the way we want you to play, then you will start expanding that role. There will be a couple of guys that will start getting more work because of the effort that they gave on special teams.
So we've got a chance to watch Central Michigan. They were a team that won their opener also, and as 1-0, we expect those guys to be excited to come down here and play an SEC team. Last time they were here in '06, we had to battle our tails off to win in the last minute.
Offensively, they're led by their quarterback, the Radcliff kid that competed 60% of the passes last year. Really did a good job especially late in the season last year. He's one of the all-time leading passers in Central Michigan's history. So he'll be excited to come down here and play also.
The running game is led by the Tipton kid. They actually play three backs, including a back that's from here in Kentucky, the Phillips kid, Tim Phillips does a good job running the ball. But Tipton had 73 yards last week, and he's a big, 225- pound guy that we've got to get to the ground. Our defense has to accept that challenge.
Their defense played well in the opener. Gave up 130-something yards, really swarmed the ball, didn't allow South Carolina State to get started. So they'll be foaming at the mouth to play our offense. So we've got to do a good job of preparing the offense and getting them ready to play.
Any questions?

Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Two of the three will be back. Crawford, we'll still hold Crawford out, but E.J. Fields and Mychal Bailey will be reinstated and will play this week. Both of them got a lot of reps. Then that was a carryover from last season. Those guys have been great this season, but it was a carryover from last season.

Q. Why do you feel the fans are really down even though you've won?
COACH PHILLIPS: In 2008, going back, we lost a lot of production. How do we win opener? Anybody know? Defense, we won defense. Defense scored two touchdowns, we had 205 yards, I think, offense in 2008, and later on in the next game. We end up putting the ball in the end zone a couple of times, we had scored two touchdowns on defense to keep going. And they set up another one. Went with defense and special teams, and we had to hang on in the third game against a Sunbelt team also.
We had a tackle guy on the 2-yard line as time ran out. Just give us time. We said this going into the season too to our defense, as you guys got to carry us until had this offense catches up, because we've got some unknowns.
We've seen some things in practice that got us excited. We didn't see anything in this game that got us excited, obviously. But there is nothing wrong with winning with defense and special teams.
I know this place has been accustomed to scoring a lot of points, but we went into that game right before the game with one of our coaches, we just win 6-3. Sometimes you've got to win games like that.
Now, offensively you want to score more points than that, and we expect them to. We're 1-0. How many teams out there are 1-0? Only half of them. A couple of teams in this league. I think it was only eight teams that lost to non-BCS teams.
So we're a team that's 1-0. We're excited to be 1-0. Got a chance to have a long week this week. We'll get a couple of extra practices with this being a holiday, so we've got four days that we'll get prepared to play Central Michigan, and we expect to be 2-0.
We expect to play better, and we expect to be 2-0 after this game.

Q. Joker, what is the status of Matt Smith?
COACH PHILLIPS: He tried to go today. Didn't finish the practice. We need Matt Smith. Matt Smith's a vital key to us having success offensively. He's played a lot of ball around here, and we need him to get himself healthy and to be able to come back and help us.
Jake did a good job. No doubt about that. I thought Jake was solid. But we're going to need some depth, we need some depth up front. And Jake's kind of our floater guy that can play the guard, play the tackle. Billy Joe is day to day, so we need a guy like Jake that can float to any position. And if Billy Joe can't go, then Jake would be one of the guys that can go play the tackle if Matt's healthy.
With Matt not being healthy, the young freshman's got to get some reps over there.

Q. Tyler Robinson?
COACH PHILLIPS: Tyler Robinson practiced today. He practiced today. He's a guy that we need his attitude. We did not play especially well at the tight end position. You can take especially out of that. We didn't play well at the tight end position. Tyler brings an attitude, a different attitude, an aggressive attitude that we need on this football team, especially offensively.

Q. (Inaudible) tight end.
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, Winston did a good job of bringing blitzes that made our running back stay in. Then after we started -- they started whipping us up front, we had to keep our tight end in some and some of our protection. There was one time we had a two-man route and we got sacked. And I think both the tight ends got beat, the two guys on one. We've had to keep those guys in to protect because we weren't doing a great job to of protecting.

Q. How about Winston Guy?
COACH PHILLIPS: Exactly. Exactly how I envisioned, our whole defense. I thought our whole defense played well. But I think but Winston Guy and Danny, I think you're seeing more guys play like Winston Guy and Danny. Our guys played with great effort. It's infectious. I think you see those two guys playing had a way. And both those guys are pros.
We tell those guys, carry yourself like a pro. You have to come to work with your pad in hand, be there early, pay attention, when you're not in, pay attention. Those two guys do that. They're into the game, they're into practice, and it's starting to be infectious.
We're starting to get a whole defense that does that. We need our offense to do that. Our receivers and backs and those guys, they don't see enough of our offensive line, because our offensive line does a good job of being pros. And I'm not talking about pro athletes, just being pro, pro exec, you know? A pro at your business.
So those guys are starting to act that way on defense. I mean, they're playing really, really fast, aggressive and all of them are running to the football, which gives you a chance.

Q. Your wide receivers. You mentioned the other night some young guys will get looks and the older guys continue to not perform the way you want in the games. Have you reached that point yet?
COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely, definitely reached that point. I mean those guys did not play well at all outside. It was embarrassing watching them. We weren't a very physical wide receiver group either as far as blocking.
So it's okay. If you're going to act like a pass catcher, you better catch the dang ball. You better catch the dang ball. If you're not a pass catcher, you better give the running backs a chance to make one guy miss.
Okay, there are too many times when the wide receivers didn't block the guy they were supposed to block. Now it's two guys, and very seldom did we get them back into the secondary. But when we did, it was two guys that we had to make miss. Really it was three because you had wide receivers standing in the way.
So our wide receivers have to go eliminate one. (Inaudible). Our backs are good enough. If you're not going to catch passes, you better be a good blocker or you're not going to play.
Everybody knows what kind of wide receivers I like. I like guys that are going to be tough, physical, and will put their nose on people, and we didn't see that last week. There will be some changes at the wide receiver position, and rightfully so. Anybody in here don't think there should be some changes? There should be some changes.

Q. Joker, the problems at wide receiver that you talk about, does that make it a little more difficult to assess your running game?
COACH PHILLIPS: No, there were wide receivers -- there weren't a lot of clean plays blocked anyway, you know. But when we did block a clean one, we did knock people down. Didn't get a hat on the secondary.

Q. You said you wanted to get Max into the game and didn't get a chance to do that. Do you have some other guys you want to try to do that again this week?
COACH PHILLIPS: We'd love to get Max Smith in the game. I thought it was going to go in. He actually was warming up at that time. Because we didn't think Morgan can go. They were X-raying his thumb, and we didn't think he could go. So we were trying to get in the game. We would have liked to have gotten in the game.

Q. You mentioned Robinson as a guy that would be one of those shake-ups at wide receiver. Did he get some work with the ones today, and what about him specifically? You say kind of explosive, but what about him specifically?
COACH PHILLIPS: Number one, he catches the ball. That's got to account for something when you're a wide receiver. He is really an explosive kid. We've got to get him started - did get him started once on the reverse and once on the jet sweep. We've got to get him started and get the ball out in space also. Those two plays are misdirection type plays that you're trying to get the defense running, and misdirection with reverse, and with the jet sweep. We've got to get the ball to him out in space because he has the ability to make people miss.

Q. (Inaudible).
COACH PHILLIPS: Robinson is one the of the guys that deserves a chance to play. E.J. Fields being back. We'll take a look at Aaron Boyd. The guy does catch the football, so those three guys will get an opportunity.

Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: He's fine. He's fine. He's a lot better today, his non-throwing hand. He did a good job last week of sucking it up. We didn't think he'd take snaps from center, but he did last week after the injury. He's fine though.

Q. (Inaudible). Did he have a transition like not blocking?
COACH PHILLIPS: He didn't block especially well. He did not. And Gene's a guy that's on practice every other practice, so he could see some of the rust on him, a guy that hadn't played since '09. So you could see some of the rust.
But Gene understands our offense can lineup in all three positions. Did a good job last week. Did catch the football. That's a plus. He wasn't as nifty as he usually is. A couple times they had the upper hand on him. That's not Gene. Usually Gene is a guy that has really good moves, really good skills getting off the line of scrimmage.

Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: He got padded up a couple of times and people got stuck on him. But he's not as nifty right now as he's been in the past. But we expect him to get better as the year goes on.

Q. Do you feel like he's ready to go yet?
COACH PHILLIPS: I think so. I think so. Because usually when a guy's kind of favoring an injury, he's worried about making the cut off that side when he's off his knee. He's been fine. He's cut, he's moving. He took a couple of hits. So I think he's fine.

Q. Any word on Collins?
COACH PHILLIPS: Collins didn't practice today, but they say Matt said he's a lot better than he was. It's just a bruise to his chest, and I think he'll be fine. He's the only one on defense that didn't practice today. Offensively Matt Smith practiced a little, and didn't make it through the whole practice.

Q. What about Brian Adams? (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Brian didn't practice also on offense. He got an average ale sprain on a catch that he made on the 3-yard hitch route. How do you get hurt on a three-yard hitch route? But he's a guy that's still learning. And a lot of his injury happened by learning. The ball's at his throat, and he's 6'5", the ball's at his throat, no need to jump, and he came down. The guy tangled him up.
But he's still learning. Hey, you don't have to jump with those balls. That comes with experience. We need to get him going too because he's a guy that can help us.

Q. Talk about your -- I guess you played three guys at nose guard?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, that's a position that we think will be one of our strengths on defense before long. I'm really -- I mean, 99 played as good as anybody that we've had around here. We think he's got a chance to be a big-time player. The three technique, we played Taylor in there at the three technique some. When we play Taylor in there, he's a move guy. He's not a guy that's going to stand in there toe-to-toe.
So that's what he does best is move. We've slant angled him outside, and he did a good job. The young guy, Coleman, I think he's got a chance to be a good player also.
We played, at the nose, we played Luke who may be one of the craftiest guys out there, not very big. But he understands how linemen set. And he works off of how they set. And P.C. Cobble is a perfect combination of three it techniques. We have a three techniques and nose. We have five guys. If another guy gets his stuff right and does what he's supposed to do, we should have more depth. But until then, we have five guys. Those guys played really good inside.

Q. Are you excited to have the young guys, Tyler Brause making plays (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Yeah, Alvin Dupree, Bud is what he wants to go by. So Bud played really, really well. For a guy going in his first time. He played stand-up, played the position that Ridge Wilson plays, and some speed packages, he plays with his hands, hand down. Got pressure, got a hit on the quarterback once. Actually flushed the quarterback another time. So we think he's got a chance to be a good player.
It's really good to see some young guys like he, Tyler Brause, Malcolm McDuffen went in the game also got some reps, Lowery got in the game, at critical times, too. Also the DB, 28 Dixon. Dixon got in the game also during critical times.
The whole game was a critical time, so I mean, none of them played mop-up. The whole game was critical.
So it was good to see those guys and how they responded. They all got lined up, and they all looked like they were playing fast. Miles Simpson got in the game also, another red shirt freshman. Miles was dehydrated and was sick all day and didn't eat anything, so he was limited.
I think he only got like five or six reps, and would have played a lot more because he was in a lot of our speed packages also. He was in some of our big packages too when we wanted to get into more and take one of our DB's out and get some more linebacker sets and get big inside.
So he was in on those sets and didn't get a chance to get many reps because of it. He will not be here today or tomorrow. His grandma died, ask we are praying for he and his family.

Q. What is the biggest difference in McDuffen last year to this year?
COACH PHILLIPS: McDuffen, he's learning. He knows what's going on now. He played with his hand down in high school, and he played a little bit of fullback, so he's just learning how to play standing up, and being around Danny helps that. He's a back-up to Danny, so we've told him to watch everything Danny does, and Danny, like I said, he's a pro. He understands how to go about his business when he's in the football building, and Malcolm needs to watch him as much as he possibly can.
But he's a little bit bigger. Little bit bigger. We need him even bigger.
The thing that he did last week, he didn't do a lot of good on defense, but he did get lined up and play a good assignment. But the thing he did is on the special teams. He played great effort. Again, the guy played seven plays on our punt team, gave us great effort. We've got to find a bigger role for a guy like that.
The guy that went into the game on special teams and gave us great effort is Alvin Davis. Alvin Davis's role will start to expand. We're trying to get him on more special teams and get him on some packages on defense because if a guy's tough and a guy's physical, and the guy gives you effort, any one of those three, you've got to find a spot. That is the coach's job to find a spot for him.
But if you don't get that from a guy, shouldn't be complaining about playing time because you can give us that. It has nothing to do with effort and nothing to do with talent, rather. You don't have much talent because I saw you over typing, and I saw these young boys typing really fast, and I saw you over there -- (laughing).
Yeah, you're like me. Saw these two young guys over there killing it. Yeah. He was killing it too, and he's an old guy too now. You're becoming an old guy just like me.

Q. Any comments or thoughts on opening up on the road?
COACH PHILLIPS: It was our fifth time, right? Fifth time. Where's Coach Cook at? Fourth time. We've got three more coming, so we'll go 7 in a row. But it was fine. Thursday night, the best place to play a Thursday night game is opener.
Now we've got a couple of extra days to get ready for this next game. But it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter though. You get a chance to play. You get 12 opportunities; who cares where you play it at.
But Thursday night games, I like to play them in the opener. That is the best place to put it.

Q. Do you think guys going through two-a-days, here's your reward for doing all this stuff? They go out there (Inaudible)?
COACH PHILLIPS: Again, it should not matter. You know, again, it shouldn't matter. It should not matter. I mean, you get 12 opportunities. And I heard we didn't play inspired. You don't think our special teams and defense played inspired? You don't think those guys played great? Shoot, we played inspired football. We didn't play good on offense, we played pathetic on offense. But our guys played inspired.

Q. I know you don't have any control over this, but for your program, for Kentucky, say bigger SEC better, worse or indifferent?
COACH PHILLIPS: We don't worry about that. I mean, we don't worry about the expansion. I've said this before; it has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with the SEC. But I don't worry about it because we had two teams that pop up in this league what, 15, 20 years ago, 15, 12 years ago that happened overnight, and there wasn't a lot of talk about it.
I don't remember getting interviewed one time about it. I was an assistant, but still, didn't remember hearing anything about it.
We'll handle this in the same way.

Q. What is your assessment of Morgan's performance? What's he need to improve on?
COACH PHILLIPS: First of all, we need to protect better and make plays for the quarterback also. When you get a face team and open receivers you gotta hit 'em. You are a Division I quarterback and an SEC quarterback, you gotta hit 'em. You can't get right up on people -- and I don't think that happened to him.
But when you get a chance to hit an open receiver, I don't care if it's on the runner, if you are standing in the pack, that, in my opinion, is the ideal of a great quarterback. And you don't look very good at quarterback. You have four or five bad plays as a wide receiver, and you still look pretty good.
I had a receiver that had 150 yards, two touchdowns one time, and I thought he played crappy. And everybody else thought he played pretty good from the stands, I'm sure. But that's the thing. The quarterback, you have four or five bad plays, and you look bad. Other positions, you can have four or five bad plays and look pretty good.
He had four or five bad plays that are critical errors, and you have a critical error and your football team loses at that position.

Q. (Inaudible) I've got to think it's tough to get a rhythm with the ball?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, it was tough. The reason we only had 50 plays is we didn't move the ball. Okay, it's your job once you get it. I mean, we still had -- who had the ball first? We did, okay. So we have 15 possessions. We had 15 possessions. 15 possessions in 50 plays, a lot of that has to do with you not moving the chains.
So it didn't have anything to do with them having the ball, we just didn't keep it long enough because they had 14 possessions.

Q. How difficult is it to get into a rhythm?
COACH PHILLIPS: It becomes difficult when you're not moving the chains. Because if you're three-and-out and you're on the sidelines and they are possessing the ball for a long period of time -- and I think the time of possession was not that far off, okay. But it becomes difficult to get into a rhythm when you go three-and-out.

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