Sept 29, 2012; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Jalen Whitlow (13) throws the ball against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Commonwealth Stadium. Credit: Mark Zerof-US PRESSWIRE
Q. What about the young guys, so many of them are playing. Are you starting to see a kind of bond together?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, you do that with your classmates anyway, even if you’re not playing. But I think the ones that are playing, it kind of separates them from the guys who aren’t playing because they’re together. The ones who aren’t playing, they go lift weights together. The ones who are playing go lift weights together because of the time, because the ones who aren’t playing have more time. They lift four days a week.
The ones who are playing are on a different schedule, so they do see each other a little bit more. And they are getting a little bit closer than the guys who aren’t playing because the time schedules are different. But you’re close with your class anyway, because as a freshman you’re in classes together. They all live in the dorms together. So they’re close anyway.
I think it’s bringing them a little bit closer, though, especially when they make the plays. And they all are. You look down the board, I think there’s 12 of them playing. We took 15 of them to Florida. I think there’s 12 of them playing, and I can’t name one that’s not making plays, including (Jordan) Swindle. Swindle is going out on the field goal team and holding his own, and when he gets in at tackle he’s making plays for us.
Punter’s (Landon Foster) playing at a pretty high level. Last week most of our instruction was to try to keep it as close to the sideline as we can because of their returner. And he did exactly what we wanted him to do. The punt returner (for South Carolina) averaged 16 yards, and I think he was minus two or three last week, so he’s playing at a high level, too. So a lot of freshmen are playing high levels for us.
Q. Question regarding Dakotah Tyler being out for the season and if Daron Blaylock will get the reps?
COACH PHILLIPS: Yes. Blaylock will have to step up and play more. And he was the guy that blocked the punt. You know, he’s really our captain on our punt team, so he’s a real smart guy. And when you’re the safety, you make a lot of calls, so he’ll get more opportunities.
If I stay in Sam (hybrid linebacker/safety) backer position, the way it is, we might have to move some guys down to our Sam backer, which is really a nickel safety. So we might have to move either Tay or Ashely into that position to try to get more speed, more cover guys, because we’re about to see more spread teams, which would give him an opportunity to get more snaps also.
Q. Did you say Jalen is the starter and Patrick is the backup?
COACH PHILLIPS: We’re going to play them both. One’s gotta go in, and that’s what you guys call starters. We don’t always call them starters. So one of them will have to go in, and Jalen will probably be the first one based on the play that we call. Who knows what we’ll call first this week whether it’s Jalen plays or Patty Ice plays. That sounds pretty good. Patty Ice plays. We need to name a play for him. Maybe it would be easy for him to learn.
Q. On Mississippi State being a physical team …
COACH PHILLIPS: They are. You know, they’ve gotten into this year a little bit different than they have been in the past, but they’re still physical. They’re looking to throw the ball a little bit more. You don’t see the quarterback run game like you’ve seen when they (MSU coaches) were at Florida and when they were the first three years here at Mississippi State. This guy’s a drop‑back passer. You’re seeing him do that a lot more.
But they still have their counter run game, which is a real physical downhill run that they have. They’ll always carry that, I’m sure. That’s the way it looks. But you see them spread the field wanting to throw the ball a little bit more.
Q. On if he sees a situation where both Jalen and Patrick play at the same time …
COACH PHILLIPS: I mean it’s still just Monday. We just found out today, so it’s really hot off the presses for you guys. How many guys have tweeted it already? Oh, okay. So the world knows now, huh?
At our SEC coaches’ meeting someone came to talk to us and said that information gets out in about 30 seconds. How many of you guys got it out in 15? (Laughs).
Q. Based on what you’ve seen with these two guys, what kind of personality do you think they’re going to give the offense?
COACH PHILLIPS: I hope they give them a winning personality, a personality that gets the ball in the end zone, but it’s hard to say with a true freshman. You know, when Morgan (Newton) went in as a true freshman, we had to become a more physical team. I don’t think we’ll be that with these two guys. I’m talking about a more downhill team. Not talking physical. Downhill. We still need to be physical, but more downhill. I don’t think we’ll have to be that as much with these two guys because I think they ‑‑ offense is a little different than it was when Morgan took over three years ago or four years ago. So we’ll still have some of our bunch throw game, some of our bunch run game, all the things that we’ve been running with Max. So we’ll just have to maybe split that ‑‑ split the packages up for them.
Q. This is not the first time you have had to play a true freshman quarterback … What are the challenges they face?
COACH PHILLIPS: How difficult it is. And it is. I mean everybody thinks it’s easy. It’s difficult to get a true freshman ready to play with all the things that are involved, especially some of the defenses that we see.
And we’re about to play our third (consecutive) SEC team that’s coming in here with a lot of confidence, undefeated, ranked in the Top‑25. And it becomes difficult to get the guys ready. And that’s what I can remember the most.
Now, we had a week to get Morgan ready. Max had to go in in the middle of a game, and now we gotta wait to get ‑‑ Jalen had to go in two plays into a game, and let’s see what he feels comfortable at. And you don’t really know until they get into the games what they feel comfortable ‑‑ all the things that we practiced with Jalen, some of them you would call and motion wouldn’t get called, the shift wouldn’t get called. So you really don’t understand how much ‑‑ it might get called in practice, but in the game is a different deal, so what I remember is how difficult it really is.
Q. When did you specifically get the news on Maxwell and have you talked to Patrick?
COACH PHILLIPS: We talked to both of them. No, I hope they see it on Twitter. (laughter) Okay. What is it, Patty Ice.com. No, but we got a chance to talk to them. We found out last night maybe, but today was when our doctors were able to read the MRIs for sure.
Q. Is Patrick excited?
COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely. He came here to play. So definitely he’s excited.
Q. Is there any pressure about not pulling that redshirt off of him especially at this point in the season?
COACH PHILLIPS: No, because that’s what we talked about. We’ve been in close communication with him, and being out indefinitely means it could be a long time. So we immediately brought ‑‑ talked to Max first, then talked to Patty Ice.
Q. If Maxwell gets his medical redshirt and then all three of those guys are sophomores next year …
COACH PHILLIPS: It’ll work its way out. It’ll work its way out. Who would have thought two plays into it that we’d be sitting here talking about a guy that’s got a chance to have a medical redshirt? So it’ll work its way out.
I think to me it’s best to play him. And if we’d have redshirted Max last year, he wouldn’t have been able to get it this year. So I just think it’s best to go ahead and play them, all three of them. They all will be sophomores with two having an opportunity to redshirt down the road if something happens. And in this game of football, something can happen. And we all understand that.
Q. When Patrick goes out there for the first time what are some of the challenges he will face?
COACH PHILLIPS: Just speed of the game, and it’s definitely going to be a lot faster than he’s used to. He hasn’t gone against the one defense in full speed, you know. They’re coming to sack you. He’s always got a redshirt on, and we take care of our quarterbacks in practice, which we should. So I mean the speed of the game will be his biggest challenge, and understanding it.
Where you might outrun a guy to the corner in high school, you better have a good angle before you decide to try to outrun him. And also the speed at which those DBs break on balls. These guys (MSU) are leading the league in interceptions with nine. They got two for touchdowns, and that’s going to be his biggest challenge to understand how quick they really are.
Q. Is there some advantage the fact he’s been operating against your first string defense?
COACH PHILLIPS: Yeah, but a lot of times it’s ‑‑ you only read one side, and hey, throw it here, we don’t care if it gets picked. Here’s where they’re going to throw it. But there’s some benefit going against those guys, but there’s also some down things going against those guys, too, playing on the scout team. But we’ll get him ready. We’ll get him as ready as we can in three or four days and let him go out there and make some plays for us.
Q. Have you seen an improvement in Patrick?
COACH PHILLIPS: You know, you see a guy that’s really confident and a guy that’s yelling, screaming and trying to get the scout team jacked up, and now we need him to get our number one in offense on that level. So that’s the thing that I’ve seen in him. He’s a lot more vocal since he’s been on the scout team.
Again, he’s been around those guys a lot more on the scout team and feels like he’s the leader of those guys. He’s been in the weight room with them. He’s been down on the scout team with them, so he’s feeling comfortable in being vocal down there.
Now we need him to be up with the ones. And he will be. That’s his personality. Need Jalen to be there also. That’s not quite his personality yet, but I think he will eventually be that guy.
Q. Did Jalen do anything different the other night that made you think, okay, let’s try a few more things with him?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don’t know if we need to call it as much just looking at it. I know I said this after the game about quarterback run games, but I think the best quarterback run game for him is dropping back and throwing. And now the guy can go make a play for us while everybody’s in coverage. Guys may get out of the rush lane, and I think it gives him an opportunity to pull the ball down, extend plays. If everything’s covered, then go get us five to ten yards.
Q. How hard is it to get the rest of the offense prepared to play with almost completely different quarterback styles?
COACH PHILLIPS: It shouldn’t be hard ‑‑ we’re going to call the same plays that they’re used to. So it should not be hard for the rest of the offense. The hard part’s getting those two guys, trying to figure out what they both feel comfortable doing.
Q. Do you believe that you are snakebitten?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don’t.
Q. I know it has to be crazy, the thought of putting two freshmen quarterbacks out there, but on the other hand, is there something exciting about it, too, that you know ‑‑ let’s see what we’ve got. We think these guys can do it, let’s see what we’ve got?
COACH PHILLIPS: I think it is exciting because I can tell you this. The team we’re about to play has no idea what they’re about to get. We really don’t know what we’re about to get, but we’re going to go for it.
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