Thursday, December 09, 2004

At this annual summer camp for future Franklin-Simpson football players, Joe “Joker” Phillips said it was only a matter of time before he landed a head coaching position in Division One college football. Phillips took a giant step Sunday.

The former Franklin-Simpson star was named the offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky by head coach Rich Brooks.

“Joker, experience-wise, has coached under some very good coaches, and he’s been in a variety of different offensive systems . . . he’s an outstanding football mind,” said Brooks during his call-in show last week.

Phillips replaces Ron Hudson, who resigned Nov. 22 prior to the Tennessee game. In his absence, Phillips, Brooks and line coach Paul Dunn called the plays against the Volunteers. The Wildcats rolled up 323 total yards against the 15th ranked Vols and nearly pulled off a huge upset, falling 37-31 after rallying in the fourth quarter to trip up Vanderbilt.

“I believe our football team finished really strong this year. We came from 14 points down (against Vanderbilt) which Kentucky hasn’t done in a long time. And we took Tennessee to the wire,” said Phillips. “We are having unbelievable response from the recruits. The No. 1 thing we had to do was to show improvement . . . to give the kids a reason to come here.”

Phillips, who served as recruiting coordinator/receivers coach during Brooks’ first two seasons, will have his work cut out for him. The 2004 Wildcats ranked 115th in total offense and 114th in scoring among the 117 Division 1-A college football teams.

The 42-year-old Phillips led Franklin-Simpson to back-to-back Class 3-A state championships in 1979 and 1980 and went on to set several receiving records as a four-year starter at the University of Kentucky. He played briefly for the Washington Redskins and also served as an intern coach on several professional football team staffs.

Brooks, a former defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons, met Phillips at a pro camp.

“I was impressed with him when I first met him,” Brooks told the Louisville Courier Journal. “My respect for his ability has grown during our time together at UK. He’s ready.”

Phillips has been an assistant at Kentucky for 11 years. His coaching career at UK began in 1988, and he remained with the Cats until the departure of Bill Curry in 1996.

Phillips then served as an assistant at University of Cincinnati (1997-98), University of Minnesota (1999-2000), Notre Dame (2001) and University of South Carolina (2002). He has worked alongside some of the best college football minds in the country, including the legendary Lou Holtz.

But, he readily admits that much of his success dates back to his high school playing days at F-S, where he learned from Hall of Fame coach the late James “Shadetree” Mathews. The two remained close until Mathews died recently.

“He was my football dad. I learned a lot from him,” said Joker. “I was not a so-called self-starter when I entered high school.”

Phillips will remain as UK’s chief recruiter through the national signing day on Feb. 2. Brooks will work with a new recruiting coordinator after then. Joker will remain as the receivers coach.

“We’ll do what we have to do to score points, whether it be to spread the field and throw it all over the place or line up in the I and pound people,” Phillips said. “I do believe you have to run the football, whether it be running after the catch or running it up the middle.”