Kentucky Wildcats' Joker Phillips Is on the Job

Joker Phillips inherited a Kentucky program that continued an upward climb on the jagged cliffs known as SEC Football. Kentucky, a perennial basketball powerhouse, possesses an athletic department that has long allowed the football program to play second fiddle, the Tonto to Calipari’s Lone Ranger. However, the fans residing in the Bluegrass have longed for something much more.

Visit Lexington and the grounds of Commonwealth Stadium on a Saturday in October, and you will feel the passion building as you make the journey down Nicholasville Road. A fanbase that has suffered through many years of disappointment, including The Curse of the Bear and the era known simply as Mumme, is longing for a successful program, a program that brings pride to the Bluegrass.

Kentucky began to enjoy the taste of mild improvement under the Rich Brooks regime, and their fanbase enjoyed it thoroughly. Although winning seven games is not considered an accomplishment by many of the southern power brokers, at Kentucky, it’s the equivalent of spotting a unicorn running through an open horse field in the hills of Central Kentucky.  Following Brooks in an attempt to continue this rebuilding effort was Joker Phillips.

Phillips’ first year on the job was one heeded with a mixture of praise and criticism. Phillips managed to beat the dreaded Cardinals of Louisville and became the first coach in school history to defeat The Ol’ Ball Coach, but losses to both schools in the state of Mississippi and a worrisome performance against Tennessee brought the message board vultures from the nest to circle over Commonwealth Stadium.  

The Wildcats finished the season with an abysmal performance against Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl, and the vultures began dropping onto the grounds of C.M. Newton Field before the plane had touched down in Lexington.

However, after several weeks, the stinging sensation dwindled, and the fanbase looked back upon a season that had provided them with several positive moments. The hand-wringing subsided, and the warmth of Coach Phillips’ seat slowly cooled and allowed him to concentrate on the future.

Joker now enters the 2011 season with concerned fans speculating about what brand of product will be placed on the field. The Kentucky offense lost its three most productive players, including the steady and sometimes spectacular Randall Cobb. With these mass losses on the offensive side of the ball, and the return of a struggling defense, what will be in store in Lexington this year and for the near future?

Enter a skilled and adroit recruiting class and new Defensive Coordinator Rick Minter (former Cincinnati Bearcats headman and Notre Dame DC), and you see the building blocks of a promising future. It is an example that Coach Phillips is implementing the right maneuvers to progress this program toward the proper position on the aforementioned steep cliff, a position needed to make an attempt at a promising advancement. 

The question remains, will the overly zealous Kentucky fans, engulfed in the compulsion for football success, allow Joker the amount of time needed to reach the final handhold and empower them to peek over the cliff? There is the possibility that they could have a panoramic view of several unicorns galloping through the horse fields, instead of the lone grazer that is currently prodding through the field.

When, and if, they manage to reach the peak, Joker hopes to be the man on the job.

Derrick Stacy is the owner, founder and lead content editor of Sports-at-Work, http://www.sports-at-work.com, and is a columnist at http://www.southernpigskin.com