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Joker Phillips is under scrutiny as the understudy to coach Rich Brooks
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson@thestate.com
Posted on 10.10.08
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survey:
Joker Phillips might be Kentucky’s coach-in-waiting, but the Wildcats’ anointed successor to Rich Brooks is facing second-guessing as though the handoff already had taken place.
Phillips, Kentucky’s offensive coordinator and receivers coach, has received unsolicited advice on how to improve his sputtering offense from all corners of the state, including the Wildcats’ locker room.
Tailback Derrick Locke told reporters the Wildcats needed to run the ball more — one of many play-calling suggestions Phillips received from armchair coordinators, some of whom found Phillips’ e-mail address.
But Phillips understands the scrutiny is part of the job — both his current one and the higher-paying one he will inherit from Brooks.
“It comes with it. It comes with the coordinator’s position,” Phillips said Thursday during a phone interview. “Offense isn’t doing well, the coordinator is held (responsible) for it. And I understand it. I understand what I signed up for.”
The 45-year-old Phillips, who spent the 2002 season at South Carolina as Lou Holtz’s receivers coach, was a big part of Kentucky’s offensive success the past two seasons. Paced by quarterback Andre Woodson, tailback Rafael Little of Anderson and a slew of talented receivers, the Wildcats rolled to back-to-back, eight-win seasons that culminated with Music City Bowl victories.
But the nucleus of the offense that scored a school-record 475 points last season is gone, forcing Phillips to reload with sophomore quarterback Mike Hartline and a number of other young players.
Kentucky is eighth in the SEC in total offense (336.8 yards a game) and managed 12 first downs and 35 rushing yards last week in a 17-14 loss to No. 2 Alabama.
“It’s exactly the same offense. There’s obviously some new guys in there,” South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said. “Their quarterback last year was such a productive player. But the quarterback this year is a very good player in the scheme. He knows what he’s doing.”
Brooks has the same confidence in Phillips, who was introduced as the school’s head coach-in-waiting in January. The 67-year-old Brooks said he approached his administration about the succession plan to quell whispers from rival recruiters that he was on the verge of retiring and to hang on to Phillips, a Kentucky native who played for the Wildcats from 1981-84.
“I think one of the things that’s happened to me in my coaching career is I was either going to be fired or retired, or go to another job at different stages of my career. What we wanted to do is put (such talk) to rest on the recruiting trail,” Brooks said.
“And Joker is clearly ready to be a head coach. This is his alma mater. He’s been a big part of the turnaround of Kentucky football here on this staff. I just thought it would be a good continuity move in a program that hasn’t had continuity to have him announced as the future coach.”
Phillips is part of a growing trend of coaches-in-waiting among major college football and men’s basketball programs. Danny Hope will take over for Purdue football coach Joe Tiller at the end of the season, while the succession timelines at Florida State, where Jimbo Fisher is waiting in the wings behind Bobby Bowden, and Kentucky are more ambiguous.
Brooks said he is going from year to year.
“A lot of it is health and whether I still have the energy and the desire and the commitment to put in the time necessary to do this. And at this stage, I don’t have any doubt that I do,” he said. “So we’ll just have to see how things progress in the next year or so. I don’t think I’ll be around as long as Joe Pa and Bobby, though.”
Phillips is not in any rush to push Brooks out the door, saying he plans to learn as much as he can from the former Oregon and St. Louis Rams coach.
In the meantime, Phillips will try to get the offense clicking while continuing to lean on his South Carolina contacts to lure players from the Palmetto State to Kentucky.
Little was the first impact player from the state to sign with the Wildcats, who have eight South Carolinians on the roster.
“There’s enough to go around and there’s some guys who get overlooked in the state of South Carolina. It’s obvious by some of the guys we’ve taken out of there,” Phillips said. “We just felt like it was an area we would try to dip into. As we started dipping, it started getting very good to us.”
Phillips hopes his tenure as Kentucky’s coach is equally productive — whenever that may be.
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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