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UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 10, 2011

Joker Phillips

Kentucky Â– 27
Central Michigan - 13

COACH PHILLIPS: All right. The injury situation: Winston tweaked his hamstring and Martavius Neloms had a stinger. Besides that we got out of this game pretty healthy.
They say there's no such thing as an ugly loss. Well, we just had another not-so-pretty win. But we are 2-0. Probably about a third of the teams across the country are 2-0. We found a way to win this one.
I think the turning point was the fourth down. Our guys did a good job on fourth-and-eight-inches of stopping them, then our offense did a good job of converting to get us back in the game.
Our defense played outstanding after the third series. I think they scored on the first three series, and after that our defense threw a shutout, which is what we expect for those guys.
Again, we didn't play very clean offensively, but when the time came to step up, I thought they stepped up and made some plays and got the ball in the end zone and did a good job on the 85-yard drive.
It was a deal that I asked the guys to pick me up. It was a deal where on fourth-and-inches we could kick the ball and go up two scores or we could go for it and go up 14.
Did a good job of making the play. Morgan ran the naked. It wasn't open. Tyler Robinson did a good job of blocking the perimeter and Morgan getting into the end zone. We made plays when we needed to. That's the name of the game.
Our defense created I'll call it three turnovers. The biggest one was the fourth down. That was a turnover to me. We had way too many turnovers, especially one we lose the possession right after the second half. That's losing a possession when you fumble on the kickoff return.
But we got a win. Again, we'll enjoy this thing and get ready to go next week.
Questions.

Q. (Question regarding starting fast.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, I don't consider it a slow start. We both went out the first drives. Our defense held them to a field goal. Our offense came back and we had an opportunity to get the ball into the end zone. Again, drop showed up. I don't consider that a slow start. It was an even start. I think if we make the play, I think we started off pretty fast.
We have to make the plays we're capable of making. We're more than capable of making the one we didn't make on the first drive.

Q. (Question regarding the offense struggling.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Nothing surprises you. You just got to be ready to play the next play. The next play was them going for it on fourth-and-inches. Our defense did a good job of stopping it.
Yes, our offense struggled. I think the energy that the defense went out on that fourth down and created a stop, which is a turnover, I think that fed into our offense and making the big play they made immediately afterwards.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Their quarterback?

Q. Yes.
COACH PHILLIPS: I don't know if we stopped it. They caught a lot of quick passes in the flat. We did get some people in his face and got some deflections - some. Sometimes the guy that's on the line of scrimmage has to expand to the outside to try to get underneath the quick outs. A couple times when we did do it, they weren't able to complete those passes.

Q. Starting with the touchdown pass, is that the kind of offense you've been seeing in practice that you want to translate to the games?
COACH PHILLIPS: We've been making some big plays down the field. That's what we expect. The guys have been getting behind people. We just hadn't been making them. We didn't make them the first game. We want to throw the ball down the field.
Last week we were two-for-two, with the other two being drops. La'Rod last week was a touchdown. Gene had a huge play down the middle last week. Again, we want to throw the ball down the field. La'Rod had two big plays. Those are what we call gap plays, game-altering plays. La'Rod had two. The first one down our sideline got us a chance to kick a field goal in the first half, then the huge play after the fourth-down stop. We want to throw the ball down the field.
You have to start with the run. We have to start with the run, then get people committed to the line of scrimmage, then have an opportunity to stick in it our runningback's belly and try to get behind people.
This freshman back, he gave us a chance when we broke the tackle. Now your running game gets a little bit more confident, you get a little more confidence up front coming off the ball. Now it gave us a chance to throw some of the play-action passes.

Q. More drops again today. You talked all week about giving other guys a chance. Is there going to be more of that?
COACH PHILLIPS: Those two guys deserved to play, especially if the other guys aren't making plays. We'd like to get E.J. Fields in there in the mix also. He's a guy that had a good week of practice last week. Didn't get an opportunity this week.
He missed last week because of suspension. When you do that, guys move ahead of you. Aaron and Demarco moved ahead of him.

Q. What does it say about your defense that they were able to gather themselves after the first couple series?
COACH PHILLIPS: Experience. Says a lot for their experience. Those guys have played a lot of football around here, and we expect that. The good thing is our team did not panic when we got down. They did not panic. At halftime we told them, Just relax, play, go out there and play with enthusiasm, have fun doing it, and good things will happen.
Immediately after, we turned the ball over (laughter). But the defense did a really good job of gathering themselves and getting the stop for us. I think they threw a three-and-out on that possession.

Q. How did Morgan play?
COACH PHILLIPS: Again, he's got to make some of the throws that he's missing. We had some real easy, simple throws for him. We got to create some easy throws early. He's struggled a little bit to complete passes underneath. But I think he's throwing the deep ball as good as anybody we've had here throw the deep ball. We have to continue to do that. Say you throw five deep balls, you hit it on three, that's 21 points, a huge game-altering play, a game that flips the field also. We have to continue throwing the ball down the field with him.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, it was important for us to play well, especially as a team. I thought we found a way last week. The defense played really well last week. The offense did a good job late of putting the defense in a tough situation. I think that was a good team win. I think this was a really good team win. That's what we have to see.
It wasn't especially us playing well today going into this game, it was just important for us to play well, period, because of the performance we had last week.

Q. Talk about Miller.
COACH PHILLIPS: I mean, I looked out there one time, there was three true freshmen in the game. Yes, I've been bragging on those guys, but I didn't want to see three of them in the game at the same time either. It was Miller, the fullback; Warren; then the tailback Josh Clemons.
Miller had one mistake, one glaring mistake on the sack. With experience, he will get that. It was a missed assignment by him. The linebacker walked up in the gap, he called a squeeze call, baited him, backed out of there, he wasn't able to get back out on the defensive end.
But I thought the thing with the offensive linemen, if you noticed that he's out there, then you know he hadn't played very well. I didn't even notice him being out there until I saw two true freshmen going at tailback, started counting them. Then I noticed we had another one at right tackle.
When you don't notice them, I thought he played good enough to win.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH PHILLIPS: He did. He had some good carries. I mean, unbelievable run when he broke the tackle. He showed speed. We thought he had good speed. Didn't know if he had that type of speed. He has game speed. He missed a couple runs also, which he'll be the first to tell you that. That will come with experience also.
But he's a really natural, really good runner for us.

Q. Morgan was more comfortable when he ran the ball.
COACH PHILLIPS: You know what, everybody gets more comfortable when it's open, when you block it right. I mean, he did look comfortable running it when there's nobody there. That's obvious.
But when it's block right, Morgan is a good runner. We have to run Morgan Newton this year to be successful. And we'll continue to do that.

Q. What can you do to get the defense settled in?
COACH PHILLIPS: Last week we scored after a turnover. I think that's a short field. This week they drove the ball on us. The good thing is we only gave up one touchdown, you know, and it was, again, a big play they threw over our head. The guy made a great play on it. I think the defense, what they did, they went in and created field goals, which was good for us.
So I view that as a positive, something to build off of, when the defense goes in there and plays their tail off, stops them, makes them kick field goals. It would have been huge if went in those first three possessions and be down 21. I think it was a good job by the defense.

Q. What do you think this will do to your offense's confidence?
COACH PHILLIPS: I hope they build off of this. We got some good players on offense. The thing that our guys got to do is just relax and play. Our offensive line is starting to play, starting to come, starting to get healthy. I think that's huge. Hopefully we get the other two guys back.
But we know we got some depth at tackle with the young kid getting the snaps that he got today. Hopefully we'll get those other two guys that were injured back next week.

Q. Two games weren't real pretty. Is this one better? Do you feel there was progress?
COACH PHILLIPS: I think definitely there was progress. We definitely played better. We didn't play very clean in the first half, but I thought we played pretty clean in the second half.
I wanted to tell you guys, we gave the game ball, last week was to obviously Dr. Capilouto, we gave him it. Wish I could have put a bigger score on the other end. But this week I had a young man's wife come into my office that's over in Iraq, Marco (indiscernible). His wife brought in a UK flag with a plaque. I'll give you one quick line. It said, 'This flag was flown in the enemy's face.' I like that.
Then I got a chance to get him on Skype, which is something that Tee Martin just taught me. He did not know that it was me. His wife said she talks to him every day on Skype. I said, Let's Skype him. I think I know how to do this. We got him on Skype on my iPad. When he showed up, he had a UK hat on, and behind him you could see a UK flag. He did not know it was me calling him.
After talking to him, and his wife presented the flag at that time to me, just knowing that we got fans across the country, guys that support us, I got cold chills in talking with him as he teared up talking about our football team, how it's like family to him.
So we're going to send the game ball to his wife, send it over to the guys over in Iraq. I think they're in Providence, Iraq. We'll send a game ball to them.

Q. (Question regarding Charlie Strong.)
COACH PHILLIPS: We'll see next week. I mean, we'll see next week. When we play those guys, everything goes out the window. We understand that. Become a really healthy in-state rivalry. We'll enjoy this one and get ready for it tomorrow afternoon.

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