Kentucky Wildcat Football: Joker Phillip’s post game quotes after Vanderbilt Commodores game

Nov 3, 2012; Lexington , KY, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores running back Brian Kimbrow (25) runs the ball against the Kentucky Wildcats at Commonwealth Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE

Q. Do you believe you still deserve another year?

COACH PHILLIPS: That’s not for me to decide, but we’ve tried to do this thing the right way. We’ve got to come up with ways of keeping our kids in our program. We’ve put together some things that allowed us to do that. There’s a lot that’s helped us to do that.

Again, we have a lot of young kids in this program, but that’s not for me to decide. The other thing, our last 12 (SEC) games, we’ve played a true freshmen at quarterback. There’s no excuse. These are facts. I’m not making excuses. I’m giving you facts. Playing a true freshman or wide receiver at quarterback other than the Florida game where Morgan went in and played the start of that game.

Q. Question regarding the comparisons in Kentucky and Vanderbilt …

COACH PHILLIPS: Vanderbilt is Kentucky, in my opinion. That’s a program that you have to continue to keep people in your program. Defensively they have a lot of juniors and seniors all throughout their program. Only four of their freshmen ‑‑ the great class that you announced that they have, only four of them are playing, four. We’re playing 14 of ours.

I’m not here trying to sell me or whatever. I’m just giving you facts. These are all facts. These are the facts of how you win here at Kentucky. We have to ‑‑ we’ve won here with veteran quarterbacks. We don’t have a veteran quarterback right now.

Q. You’d like to be back though, correct?

COACH PHILLIPS: I’d love to. No doubt I would love to. It’s not for me to decide. I understand Mitch’s position and the things that go into.

We’ve got some good young kids here that are hurting worse than any guy that is associated with this program. I’m talking about fans also. Those kids are hurting. They’re hurting badly by the way we performed today.

Q. What do you tell them when they’re hurting that badly?

COACH PHILLIPS: The one thing that I do not want our kids to do is try to shoulder the things that are happening there are coming at me. I don’t want them to do that. I would be very disappointed, okay. I also want our kids to do the right things. One thing you see when you start going through this type of ‑‑ when your program starts to go through things like this, you start seeing kids start veering off and not doing things the right way academically. You start seeing kids not doing the right things socially and on the football field and practice field. You see kids start to quit.

Our kids are not quitting. Our kids are doing what they’re supposed to do in the classroom and socially we’re demanding they do the right things.

Q. A statement we’ve heard all year is that this thing would be evaluated at the end of the season. Do you have any reason to believe that will change?

COACH PHILLIPS: No, I don’t. But here’s the thing: If there was a decision either way, I would think it would be important for me or Mitch to come out and make a decision, either way help either way. Help get another guy or help us in recruiting.

So, we have not talked. Again, it will be evaluated at the end of the season, like you said. That’s all I know about it.

Q. What is your gut? Do you think you will come back?

COACH PHILLIPS: My gut was that we’d win this game today, okay? That’s where my gut was. You can’t go on your gut.

Q. Talk about Patrick Towles and how he impacted the game today?

COACH PHILLIPS: Inexperience. He’s a freshman quarterback. He’s a freshman quarterback who tries to manage all the things that we ask those guys to do. I thought at times he threw some really good balls. The thing that Pat needs to do is continue to grow and understanding how to read coverages, and understand where his first, second and third reads are. Sometimes he does get confused with coverages, sometimes he does get confused with where his reads are. But when he knows where his reads are and cover, he has very good command of the football, stands in there strong.

I thought he made some really good plays, even one that we missed on the fourth down. That was as good a throw as we’ve ever seen around here.

The play he threw to Legree, another outstanding throw and catch. He’s only going to get better. He’s a true freshman. He’s a true freshman that’s probably played ‑‑ what did he play, 16 snaps in that Mississippi State game. 16 to 19 snaps. I bet he played 20 last week and maybe 20 this week. So talk about a guy that’s probably played 59 snaps of college football. So he is only going to get better.

Q. You have the bye week coming up. Do you try to do something fun?

COACH PHILLIPS: We’re going to scrimmage some of the young kids that’s haven’t gotten a chance to play. Again, I said this to the staff and I looked up and said all the young kids played. Who are those guys? Those guys will be the other 12 guys that are in this class that have not played. There will be some young guys that haven’t gotten a lot of reps also. The young guys, we can’t hit them. We won’t be able to hit them because we need them. But we’ve got to try to get some of the young guys better.

Sometimes when you go throughout the season you neglect some of the guys that are red shirting. You don’t get a chance to coach them, and every chance we get, we want to coach those guys.

Q. Question regarding the play of linebacker Avery Williamson, who ended with 20 tackles – a career high …

COACH PHILLIPS: Avery’s a self‑made football player. He’s done an amazing job. Self‑made meaning he’s made himself a physically fit guy in the weight room. He’s made himself a good linebacker by film study, a guy that works really hard on the football field. He’s just a guy that plays his heart out. You know, he’s a guy that takes care of business off the field also. He’s one of the leaders on the defense. I’m not surprised by anything that kid does.

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