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Kentucky – 27 Central Michigan – 13
An interview with: COACH JOKER PHILLIPS
COACH
PHILLIPS: All right. The injury situation: Winston
(Guy) tweaked his hamstring and Martavius Neloms had a stinger.
Besides that we got out of this game pretty healthy.
They say there's no such thing as an ugly loss. Well, we just had
another not‑so‑pretty win. But we are 2‑0. Probably about a
third of the teams across the country are 2‑0. We found a way to
win this one.
I think the turning point was the fourth down. Our guys did a
good job on fourth‑and ‑inches of stopping them, then our offense did a
good job of converting to get us back in the game.
Our defense played outstanding after the third series. I think
they scored on the first three series, and after that our defense threw
a shutout, which is what we expect for those guys.
Again, we didn't play very clean offensively, but when the time came to
step up, I thought they stepped up and made some plays and got the ball
in the end zone and did a good job on the 85‑yard drive.
It was a deal that I asked the guys to pick me up. It was a deal
where on fourth‑and‑inches we could kick the ball and go up two scores
or we could go for it and go up 14.
We did a good job of making the play. Morgan ran the naked.
It wasn't open. Tyler Robinson did a good job of blocking the
perimeter getting Morgan into the end zone. We made plays when we
needed to. That's the name of the game.
Our defense created, I'll call it three turnovers. The biggest
one was the fourth down. That was a turnover to me. We had
way too many turnovers, especially one we lose the possession right
after the second half. That's losing a possession when you fumble
on the kickoff return.
But we got a win. Again, we'll enjoy this thing and get ready to
go next week.
Questions.
Q. (Question regarding starting fast.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, I don't consider it a slow
start. Our defense held them to a field goal. Our offense
came back and we had an opportunity to get the ball into the end
zone. Again, drop showed up. I don't consider that a slow
start. It was an even start. I think if we make the play, I
think we started off pretty fast.
We have to make the plays we're capable of making. We're more
than capable of making the one we didn't make on the first drive.
Q. (Question regarding the offense struggling.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Nothing surprises you. You just got to be
ready to play the next play. The next play was them going for it
on fourth‑and‑inches. Our defense did a good job of stopping it.
Yes, our offense struggled. I think the energy that the defense
went out on that fourth down and created a stop, which is a turnover, I
think that fed into our offense and making the big play they made
immediately afterwards.
Q. (Question regarding the passing game.)
COACH PHILLIPS: I don't know if we stopped it. They caught
a lot of quick passes in the flat. We did get some people in his
face and got some deflections ‑ some. Sometimes the guy that's on
the line of scrimmage has to expand to the outside to try to get
underneath the quick outs. A couple times when we did do it, they
weren't able to complete those passes.
Q.
Starting with the touchdown pass, is that the kind of offense you've
been seeing in practice that you want to translate to the games?
COACH PHILLIPS: We've been making some big plays down the
field. That's what we expect. The guys have been getting
behind people. We just hadn't been making them. We didn't
make them the first game. We want to throw the ball down the
field.
Last week we were two‑for‑two, with the other two being drops.
La'Rod (King) last week was a touchdown. Gene (McCaskill) had a
huge play down the middle last week. Again, we want to throw the
ball down the field. La'Rod had two big plays. Those are
what we call gap plays, game‑altering plays. La'Rod had
two. The first one down our sideline got us a chance to kick a
field goal in the first half, then the huge play after the fourth‑down
stop. We want to throw the ball down the field.
You have to start with the run. We have to start with the run,
then get people committed to the line of scrimmage, then have an
opportunity to stick in it our running back's belly and try to get
behind people.
(Josh Clemons), he gave us a chance when we broke the tackle. Now
your running game gets a little bit more confident, you get a little
more confidence up front coming off the ball. Now it gave us a
chance to throw some of the play‑action passes.
Q. More drops again today. You talked all week about giving
other guys a chance. Is there going to be more of that?
COACH PHILLIPS: Those two guys deserved to play, especially if
the other guys aren't making plays. We'd like to get E.J. Fields
in there in the mix also. He's a guy that had a good week of
practice last week; didn't get an opportunity this week.
He missed last week because of suspension. When you do that, guys
move ahead of you. Aaron (Boyd) and Demarco (Robinson) moved
ahead of him.
Q. What does it say about your defense that they were able to
gather themselves after the first couple series?
COACH PHILLIPS: Experience. Says a lot for their
experience. Those guys have played a lot of football around here,
and we expect that. The good thing is our team did not panic when
we got down. They did not panic. At halftime we told them,
Just relax, play, go out there and play with enthusiasm, have fun doing
it, and good things will happen.
Immediately after, we turned the ball over (laughter). But the
defense did a really good job of gathering themselves and getting the
stop for us. I think they threw a three‑and‑out on that
possession.
Q. How did Morgan Newton play?
COACH PHILLIPS: Again, he's got to make some of the throws that
he's missing. We had some real easy, simple throws for him.
We got to create some easy throws early. He's struggled a little
bit to complete passes underneath. But I think he's throwing the
deep ball as good as anybody we've had here throw the deep ball.
We have to continue to do that. Say you throw five deep balls,
you hit it on three, that's 21 points, a huge game‑altering play, a
game that flips the field also. We have to continue throwing the
ball down the field with him.
Q. (Question regarding the importance of the victory.)
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, it was important for us to play
well, especially as a team. I thought we found a way last
week. The defense played really well last week. The offense
did a good job late of putting the defense in a tough situation.
I think that was a good team win. I think this was a really good
team win. That's what we have to see.
It wasn't especially us playing well today going into this game, it was
just important for us to play well, period, because of the performance
we had last week.
Q. Talk about (OT Darrien) Miller.
COACH PHILLIPS: I mean, I looked out there one time, there were
three true freshmen in the game. Yes, I've been bragging on those
guys, but I didn't want to see three of them in the game at the same
time either. It was Miller, the fullback (D.J.) Warren, then the
tailback Josh Clemons.
Miller had one mistake, one glaring mistake on the sack. With
experience, he will get that. It was a missed assignment by
him. The linebacker walked up in the gap, he called a squeeze
call, baited him, backed out of there, he wasn't able to get back out
on the defensive end.
But I thought the thing with the offensive linemen, if you noticed that
he's out there, then you know he hadn't played very well. I
didn't even notice him being out there until I saw two true freshmen
going at tailback, started counting them. Then I noticed we had
another one at right tackle.
When you don't notice them, I thought he played good enough to win.
Q. (Question regarding Josh Clemons)
COACH PHILLIPS: He did. He had some good carries. I
mean, unbelievable run when he broke the tackle. He showed
speed. We thought he had good speed, but didn't know if he had
that type of speed. He has game speed. He missed a couple
runs also, which he'll be the first to tell you that. That will
come with experience also.
But he's a really natural, really good runner for us.
Q. (Question on Morgan Newton running the ball)
COACH PHILLIPS: You know what, everybody gets more comfortable
when it's open, when you block it right. I mean, he did look
comfortable running it when there's nobody there. That's obvious.
But when it's blocked right, Morgan is a good runner. We have to
run Morgan Newton this year to be successful. And we'll continue
to do that.
Q. What can you do to get the defense settled in?
COACH PHILLIPS: Last week we scored after a turnover. I
think that's a short field. This week they drove the ball on
us. The good thing is we only gave up one touchdown, you know,
and it was, again, a big play they threw over our head. The guy
made a great play on it. I think the defense, what they did, they
went in and created field goals, which was good for us.
So I view that as a positive, something to build off of, when the
defense goes in there and plays their tail off, stops them, makes them
kick field goals. It would have been huge if we went in those
first three possessions and be down 21. I think it was a good job
by the defense.
Q. What do you think this will do to your offense's confidence?
COACH PHILLIPS: I hope they build off of this. We got some
good players on offense. The thing that our guys have got to do
is just relax and play. Our offensive line is starting to play,
starting to come together, starting to get healthy. I think
that's huge. Hopefully we get the other two guys back.
But we know we’ve got some depth at tackle with the young kid getting
the snaps that he got today. Hopefully we'll get those other two
guys, that were injured, back next week.
Q. Two games weren't real pretty. Is this one better?
Do you feel there was progress?
COACH PHILLIPS: I think definitely there was progress. We
definitely played better. We didn't play very clean in the first
half, but I thought we played pretty clean in the second half.
I wanted to tell you guys, we gave the game ball, last week was to (new
UK president) Dr. Capilouto, we gave it to him. Wish I could have
put a bigger score on the other end. But this week I had a young
man's wife come into my office that's over in Iraq, Marcos
Alaniz. His wife brought in a UK flag with a plaque. I'll
give you one quick line. It said, 'This flag was flown in the
enemy's face.' I like that.
Then I got a chance to get him on Skype, which is something that Tee
Martin just taught me. He did not know that it was me. His
wife said she talks to him every day on Skype. I said, ‘Let's
Skype him. I think I know how to do this.’ We got him on
Skype on my iPad. When he showed up, he had a UK hat on, and
behind him you could see a UK flag. He did not know it was me
calling him.
After talking to him, and his wife presented the flag at that time to
me, just knowing that we got fans across the country, guys that support
us, I got cold chills in talking with him as he teared up talking about
our football team, how it's like family to him.
So we're going to send the game ball to his wife, send it over to the
guys over in Iraq. I think they're in Providence, Iraq.
We'll send a game ball to them.
Q. (Question regarding Louisville head coach Charlie Strong.)
COACH PHILLIPS: We'll see next week. I mean, we'll see next
week. When we play those guys, everything goes out the
window. We understand that. It’s become a real healthy in‑state
rivalry. We'll enjoy this one and get ready for it tomorrow
afternoon.
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