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No. 15 Florida 48, Kentucky 10
Coach Phillips postgame
COACH PHILLIPS:
Injury report: Martavius Neloms had a concussion; Josh Clemons,
hamstring; Winston Guy, bruised ribs; and Mychal Bailey had a bruised
forearm. X‑rays were negative.
For five minutes in the game we looked like a pretty good football
team, and then the things that we had been doing in the past started
showing up, turnovers, giving short fields, three short fields and
turnovers ‑‑ actually two short fields on turnovers and another
turnover for a touchdown to give them 28. We did a good job of
getting the momentum back on our side right before the half and then
coming out of halftime. We've been there before. We've been
down before at half and got a chance to get the momentum back right
before the half, and we get the ball back and we move the ball ‑‑ we
did move the football, we pinned them back and gave them a ‑‑ let them
off the hook by giving up a big run.
But they are fighting. Our kids are fighting, scratching and
clawing. We're just not playing very smart. They'll
continue to fight. I believe in those guys, but we've got to get
some things corrected, and this begins with me.
Any questions?
Q. What do you think needs to be corrected?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, we've got to take care of the
football. We've got to understand field position. You can't
give many teams a short field and survive, but you definitely can't
give a team like we just faced a short field and survive, and you
definitely can't give it to them three straight times in the first
quarter.
Q. Did your kids lose confidence?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I don't think they lose confidence because
of the way they played. I think they played hard. I think
it gets infectious sometimes when a mistake gets made, and then another
one comes and another one comes. But when you lose confidence, I
think you start to see lows, you start to see guys strain. I
think our guys were definitely straining trying to make plays, and we
saw that by the end of the half. The end of the half we caused a
turnover, offense punches it in, and then they have a chance. If
you lose confidence right at the end of the half when there's a minute
and eight, the other team scores on you. But our team continued
to fight, and we caused a turnover to get out of the half and got the
momentum back on our side, and come out at half, and like I said, gave
them the big drive for the 99‑yard touchdown.
But I don't think our guys lost confidence.
Q. Talk about the mental mistakes.
COACH PHILLIPS: You know, it's hard to say with the naked
eye. We have to go back and watch the tape. You know, some
of them are obvious. I consider a fumble, an interception, those
things, I consider those things mental mistakes, also. Those are
easy to see, glaring. But what we've got to do is go back, look
at the tape and make sure ‑‑ and there wasn't as many as last week, I
can tell you that. But if you play a team at that level, like
this team we just played, you can't have mental mistakes and have a
chance to win a game like this.
Q. When you say things need to be corrected and it starts with
you, what do you mean by that?
COACH PHILLIPS: Turnovers. That's a sloppy football
team. I've got to get this football team to know how precious,
how precious the football is. It puts a huge strain on your
defense. Our defense in the first half, when Florida had to drive
the football, they gave up a field goal and they got them stopped the
other times when they I've got to get this football team ‑‑ it's my job
to get them to understand just how precious the football is and how
precious field position is, keep people snapping the football, keep
them snapping the football. We've had very poor field position
the last couple weeks, and we've given the opponents good field
position, and that equals an L most of the time.
Q. You guys are a third of the way into the season. Where
are you all right now? How would you define your football team?
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, we're 2- 2, I'll tell you that, and it's
not a pretty 2-2, there's no doubt about that. We're a football
team that looks good at times, and definitely tonight there were some
good things, and that's the thing that's lost in this. We did
some good things at times. We threw the ball, we moved the
football.
Again, if you've got a long ways to go, you've usually got a chance to
make a mistake, and we made them, we did. We had dropped
footballs, dropped balls that can't show up. But we've got a team
that's battling, there's no question about that. They're fighting
and trying. We've just got to get some mistakes corrected.
Q. How do you think Maxwell Smith played?
COACH PHILLIPS: Played as good as expected. You're down the
way we were down when he went in the game and he moved the ball, threw
some nice passes. He had a couple drops, also. The game was
a little fast for a guy going in the first game, especially you're
going into an SEC game, so it's a little fast for him. But I
thought he handled himself well. He'll learn from the few plays
that he got in.
I think it's great experience for him, and he'll only be better because
of the experience that he got tonight.
Q. On Florida’s rushing offense …
COACH PHILLIPS: Well, I mean, you give up a huge play like we did
in the second half, that's a big one, and like I say, they did not have
many series where they drove the football and scored touchdowns, so
from the ‑‑ I don't care how many yards they get, the thing we can't
put our defense in is in short fields. We can't do that.
Late in the game we gave up a huge cut‑back run that adds to that 400
yards. But you can't let a team rush on you like that.
We've got to get them stopped.
The biggest play, I think, in the second half to me was when you've got
them 3rd and 7 and they backed up coming off the 1‑yard line, it's 3rd
and 7, and they run the ball right at you for seven yards and get the
1st down. That's a huge, huge play, and then two plays later they
go 80‑something yards for a touchdown. We can't let teams run the
football on us, but we also can't let them throw it over our heads.
Q. Where is your level of frustration (with the receivers) right
now?
COACH PHILLIPS: Being an ex‑receiver, ex‑receiver coach, it's
pretty high right now. If you're going to play in this league, at
this level, you've got to be able to catch the football. We can't
use the excuse that these guys have not been ‑‑ quarterbacks handle the
ball every play, so expecting the guys to be able to handle it when it
comes to them. Pretty frustrating. It's my job. I've
got to get it corrected because that, too, is the lack of how precious
the football is when we've got it because you see a lot of balls bounce
off receivers that end up in interceptions, and that's giving the ball
up. So you've got to secure the football when you have an
opportunity.
Q. At what point do you think Florida’s speed raised its ugly
head?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don't think it raised its head as much as the
score indicates, because the first turnover had nothing to do with the
speed. I think we ran into the back of one of our own guys.
I'm not sure if we were even hit. The first interception had
nothing to do with speed. Ball kind of got away from us.
Second interception didn't have anything to do with speed, okay, we
turned a guy loose on the quarterback and backed up, and he hit his arm
and the guy intercepts him. I don't know if any of those things
had anything to do with speed.
I think our mistakes was a huge indicator of what the score is.
Q. Is the turnover problem a lack of discipline?
COACH PHILLIPS: Definitely, definitely, and it's my job, also, to
make sure we have discipline with the football. You have to
understand how important it is to finish the play with the football.
Q. As a former receiver and you see drops, is it concentration or
is it technique?
COACH PHILLIPS: It's both. It's both concentration, guys ‑‑
sometimes guys trying to make a play. They're trying to catch and
turn their head and run, but when you're struggling to catch the ball,
you've got to squeeze the ball with not only your hands, your eyes ‑‑
you've got to squeeze it with your eyes, you've got to squeeze it with
your hands, and then who cares how many yards you make after the
catch. We've got to catch the football. We want to throw
and catch the ball, okay. We've been good here in the past at
throwing and catching. Right now we're not very good at it, not
very good at throwing and catching, and we've got to get better at it.
Q. How do you think Morgan Newton did?
COACH PHILLIPS: I thought he moved the ball well, although one
got away from him early in ‑‑ someone said it was tipped. I'm not
sure of that. I just thought it got away from him. But I
thought he moved the ball well.
Again, we have got to run the football better to allow us to throw it a
little bit more. I know at half we had less than 100 yards.
We ended with 100 yards rushing, but again, we've got to run the
football. I thought he threw it, had command of the ball for the
most part. Again, we just can't put ‑‑ we can't be down 28 points
and throwing him back out there and asking him to go win the
game. We've got to keep the score manageable, and a lot of that
has to do with giving up the short fields that we did.
Q. When Maxwell Smith went in, was that an opportunity to protect
Morgan in a game like that?
COACH PHILLIPS: I just think it was an opportunity to get a young
guy in the game, also. I would have had no problem with keeping
Morgan in the game, but it's an opportunity to get Max Smith, which we
sent some down the line this season. He's got to go in the
game. So it was an opportunity for us to get him some reps, and
again, he'll be a better player by getting this experience that he was
able to get tonight.
Q. Do you have a quarterback controversy?
COACH PHILLIPS: No, no. I mean, we don't have a quarterback
controversy. Max ‑‑ every opportunity we get to get Max in the
game, we will, and we had an opportunity tonight. If we're
struggling at quarterback, we know that the guy can go in there and
handle himself. He did a decent job tonight, so this experience
gives us that opportunity.
Q. We've been watching the games with Florida for 25 or 30 years
and it seems like there's always this kind of spread.
COACH PHILLIPS: I wouldn't say that. We've gotten close to
these guys.
Q. But in general it's been a pretty wide spread. Is that
coming any closer?
COACH PHILLIPS: I don't think turnovers have anything to do with
talent. I don't think it has anything to do with talent.
You turn the ball over like this, it doesn't matter who you play.
The spread is going to be this big, the gap is going to be this big in
the score.
Thank you, guys.
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