Kentucky head coach Joker Phillips has been waiting for Saturday for a while now. It was just a few years ago that UK named Phillips head coach in waiting during the Rich Brooks era. Now that Brooks has retired, Joker inherits a program that is steady and looking to reach new heights.
Joker joins Charlie Strong at UL and Willie Taggert at WKU as the three new college coaches in the state of Kentucky. Yet unlike Strong and Taggert, Joker may not have as much room for error. Rich Bozich explains in his latest article for the Courier Journal. Here are some excerpts.
But the circumstances whipping around Phillips make this coaching transition trickier than the circumstances surrounding Strong.
Phillips inherits a stable program with better players — and more of them. Kentucky has won against Louisiana State, Georgia and Auburn — and punctuated four consecutive seasons with bowl games.
Maybe that explains why Phillips joked that he might be “hugging the toilet somewhere,” Saturday morning before his first UK team plays Strong's first UofL team at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
The expectation that UK will play in another bowl begins with another victory against Louisville. So while both new coaches deserve a transition period, only one truly has time for that.
Phillips needs to beat Strong more than Strong needs to beat Phillips, at least this year. Strong has the more daunting long-term task. Phillips has the more immediate task. His clock started before Rich Brooks cleaned out his office.
“We need to get him a win under his belt for our fan base,” UK receiver Randall Cobb said. “I think that's the biggest thing. You don't want to start out with a losing term with him as head coach, and our fans start getting discouraged.
“I think there's a lot of second-guessing if you start off with a loss. That's not something we want to do for Joker.”
They are the same moans Phillips heard after Kentucky's total offense average tumbled from 443 yards in 2007 to 299 in 2008. The figure improved to 331 yards last season, but, like any ambitious fan base, UK fans want more.
Phillips' skills as a play-caller didn't change. Kentucky's personnel changed as Andre' Woodson, Keenan Burton, Jacob Tamme and Rafael Little departed for the NFL.
He said the daunting expectations of upgrading UK's stature in the Southeastern Conference's East Division are balanced by the benefits of taking over a program that he understands, a program with stability he helped create.
“It's a huge plus to have been around here,” Phillips said.
It would be another plus for him to get his chance to exhale.
