Kentucky Wildcats Football: Can Joker save his job?
By Kyle
Kentucky’s 2012 spring sessions have wrapped up and the coaches have hit the recruiting trails and are preparing for the offseason camps. Football news is slow right now, so I thought I’d take a minute to do what so many other fans have done, and review Joker Phillips. I have quite a few thoughts on our head coach, so hear me out until the end.
First of all, I’m a fan of Joker Phillips the person. I know not everyone is, but there are a lot of reasons to love the guy. He comes from the small town of Franklin, KY, which is actually sort of a suburb to Bowling Green (if you want to call it that). It really doesn’t get more “small-town” than that. After growing up a UK fan, he played his college ball at Kentucky and was a part of some of the most successful teams the Wildcat program has ever seen. After his days playing in Lexington were through, he moved on to stints in the NFL and lesser leagues before jumping into coaching. After a long, windy road led him back to his alma matter in Lexington, Phillips moved up the ranks until he made offensive coordinator. He then guided the Kentucky offense to some of its most impressive seasons ever with a group of players (K. Burton, J. Tamme, and S. Johnson) that were rated at two-star players by some services. After becoming one of the hottest offensive coordinators in the country, he turned down head coaching opportunities to become Kentucky’s head coach in waiting. No matter how you feel about Phillips, you have to acknowledge that he’s been as loyal to UK as anyone could have ever hoped. Maybe it’s the way he treated me and my family when I was camping with Kentucky as a high school player, but I really like him.
Now that that’s out of the way, it’s time to address the situation. Joker Phillips is on an incredibly short leash and saying that his job is in jeopardy is a major understatement. The winning seasons that that the team had under Rich Brooks have spoiled the fans and sub .500 seasons are no longer acceptable (nor should they be). The 2011 campaign saw embarrassing losses to Louisville and Vanderbilt, but possibly worse were the closer than expected wins over Central Michigan and Western Kentucky. The feel-good story at the end of the season was the streak-ending win over a bad Tennessee team, but there’s no way you can slice 2011 that doesn’t produce the same word: disappointing. The previous season in 2010, Kentucky was able to slip into the BBVA Compass bowl, but still finished the season with a losing record and was thoroughly beaten by a coach-less Pittsburgh team that had underachieved all season. The 2010 season also has to be considered a disappointment. Now, after two disappointing seasons, Phillips must recollect and lead this team to greener pastures in 2012 or he will likely be unemployed at the season’s end. As much as this team needs to win, I’ve devised a checklist of sorts for what Joker needs to do to keep his job.
1. Finish the season with 7 wins or Make a bowl game
2. Beat Louisville
3. Beat Florida
4. Have a top-25 recruiting class committed at season’s end
5. Have an offense ranked in the top half of the SEC
6. Finish the season as the #4 (or higher) team in the SEC East
I know that this may seem unlikely, maybe even impossible, but it is not. Here is why.
1. Kentucky’s schedule is as favorable as any SEC team could ask for. The Wildcats will have seven home games and five road games on their slate. The only game that is probably unwinnable is the Florida contest in Ben Hill Griffin stadium. Outside of that contest, Kentucky should at least have a shot at every other team. South Carolina, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State will all travel to Lexington this season, Arkansas is in turmoil, and Tennessee is struggling. A road game in Missouri will be very tough, but this isn’t one of the more brutal schedules UK has faced in recent years and Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M are all absent. There will need to be major improvements to get to 6 or 7 wins, but it will not be impossible.
2. Louisville was destroyed by a bad NC State team in their bowl and played no one all year. You could argue that Kentucky was one of if not the best team they played all year. The Cardinals will not be able to play the underdog role this season and their depth along the trenches is bad. The team is talented, but also very young. Kentucky should be an underdog in this game, but Louisville was an underdog last year, so it is certainly a winnable contest.
3. Beating Florida at home is extremely unlikely, but possible. Kentucky will have to play a great game and Florida will need to be off, but it can happen. No one thought Ole Miss would beat Florida at home in 2008, but they did.
4. Kentucky had a phenomenal class in 2011 and another good one this year. With fewer scholarships, the team can afford to be picky and fill holes with the best available players. The key here is that Kentucky will need defensive linemen, offensive linemen, wide receivers, corners, and a quarterback the worst. Defensive line players, offensive tackles, quarterbacks and receivers tend to all be rated higher than some other positions and thus more four-star players are available. In addition, Kentucky can sell playing time to some of the higher rated defensive backs and offensive linemen. It’s always tough to break into the top 25, but if Joker can have a top-25 class committed at the end of the season, it will be tough to get rid of him.
5. Whether it’s fair or not, Kentucky’s offense is directly tied to Phillips. Having been the team’s offensive coordinator before his promotion, fans hold him accountable for the unit’s production even if he is no longer calling the plays. If the offense does not start out well, Joker will probably have to assume play calling duties from Randy Sanders and essentially make his offensive coordinator a sacrificial lamb at the season’s conclusion.
6. Kentucky fans have expectations, but they’re not unreasonable. If the Wildcats can finish the season as the number four team in the SEC east or better, that would mean a big step in the right direction. This would likely mean a bowl game. However, even if the Cats finish the season at 6-6, if the team is last or second to last in the SEC East, there will probably still be calls for Joker’s job.
While there is plenty of work to do and the bar is set high, Joker CAN save his job at Kentucky. There is no one that wants him to succeed more than I do and I believe that accomplishing four or more of these six goals will do just that. Now it’s up to the 2012 Kentucky football team to get it done.