Team Speed Kills - Kentucky Hires Mark Stoops to Replace Joker PhillipsSports are just better in the SEChttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52580/tsk_fav.png2012-11-27T15:42:20-05:00http://www.teamspeedkills.com/rss/stream/33647072012-11-27T15:42:20-05:002012-11-27T15:42:20-05:00Kentucky Hires Mark Stoops as Head Football Coach
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lguy3ndsvuv8nYtKBLW0oFUKt5c=/0x247:3089x2306/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/4011119/20120915_gav_av1_093.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Melina Vastola-US PRESSWIRE</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The reports were true: UK's new head coach is Mark Stoops.</p> <p>It's official: Mark Stoops is the new head football coach at Kentucky. Per <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/112712aaa.html">the school's release on the hire</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mark Stoops, who oversaw dramatic improvements as defensive coordinator at Florida State and Arizona, and has turned FSU into one of the nation's top defenses, has been named head football coach at the University of Kentucky, UK director of athletics Mitch Barnhart announced Tuesday. ...</p>
<p>"I am thrilled to be named the head football coach at the University of Kentucky," Stoops said. "My family and I are excited and looking forward to becoming a part of the Big Blue Nation."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stoops <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/KySportsRadio/status/273506843899355137">reportedly</a> "blew away" Kentucky's leadership with a plan that includes winning the SEC there. UK has only one outright SEC title, won in 1950 by Bear Bryant, and it shared the 1976 title with Georgia after Mississippi State forfeited its win over the Wildcats.</p>
<p>Press releases tend to overstate things in order to get fans energized about the new coach, but UK isn't overselling the turnaround that Stoops engineered at FSU. The defense was a disaster in 2009, the last year of the Bobby Bowden era when the game had simply passed Mickey Andrews by. Stoops's arrival in 2010 brought immediate improvement, and he continued to improve the defense each year. Here is how the defense changed over time against ACC competition:</p>
<table align="center" border="1"><tbody>
<tr style="background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;">
<td>Category</td>
<td>2009</td>
<td>2010</td>
<td>2011</td>
<td>2012</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pts. Allowed/G</td>
<td>34.8</td>
<td>20.9</td>
<td>17.8</td>
<td>15.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yds/Rush Allowed</td>
<td>5.61</td>
<td>3.60</td>
<td>2.45</td>
<td>2.32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yds/Att Allowed</td>
<td>8.5</td>
<td>6.7</td>
<td>6.7</td>
<td>5.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Pass Eff. Allowed</td>
<td>150.56</td>
<td>117.68</td>
<td>127.76</td>
<td>105.88</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yards/Play Allowed</td>
<td>6.78</td>
<td>5.1</td>
<td>4.55</td>
<td>3.97</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sacks/Game</td>
<td>1.13</td>
<td>3.44</td>
<td>3.25</td>
<td>2.38</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p> </p>
<p>Stoops fits the kind of recruiting profile that Kentucky needs in a head coach. He, like all the Stoops brothers, is a native of Ohio. That's the most talent-rich of the states that border Kentucky. He also has extensive ties to the state of Florida, having coached at both FSU and Miami. If he is able to get some gems from the stuff that the big guys leave behind in those states, then UK will be on sound footing.</p>
<p>I'll be honest, Mark Stoops is a better candidate than I thought Kentucky would be able to get. He's got a tall task ahead of him as all Kentucky head football coaches do, and of course, his choice of offensive coordinator will be important. However, it's hard to imagine anyone in Lexington complaining about this hire. Stoops is one of the best defensive coordinators in college football right now, and now he is all Kentucky's.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/27/3698608/kentucky-hires-mark-stoops-as-head-football-coachDavid Wunderlich2012-11-27T13:41:36-05:002012-11-27T13:41:36-05:00Report: UK to Announce Mark Stoops as Head Coach
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2MP9tblKvXpuxFTDfVtif3MovxQ=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828197/large_teamspeedkills.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>Here it is, a report that UK is ready to announce a new head coach:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>OFFICIAL: KSR can confirm Mark Stoops will be named Kentucky football coach this afternoon</p>
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) <a data-datetime="2012-11-27T18:34:22+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/KySportsRadio/status/273494993572880384">November 27, 2012</a>
</blockquote>
<p>
<script charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</p>
<p>Stoops is currently the defensive coordinator at Florida State, where he replaced legendary DC Mickey Andrews after Bobby Bowden and much of his staff left. He previously worked on his brother Mike's staff as defensive coordinator at Arizona.</p>
<p>Given the short time horizon, it won't take long to know if this report is true or not.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/27/3698114/kentucky-hires-mark-stoopsDavid Wunderlich2012-11-09T10:01:35-05:002012-11-09T10:01:35-05:00The Tragedy of Joker Phillips
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HLgplFTC17X1nt6IxE7e6C7Wt7Q=/0x5:4000x2672/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/2924525/20120922_lbm_sv7_201.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How Joker Phillips went from one of the few successful examples of a head-coach-in-waiting to the first SEC coach fired in 2012</p> <p><b>EDITOR'S NOTE: </b><i>These are some thoughts I've had about the dismissal of Joker Phillips over the last few days. The need to focus on a national story that Florida played a critical role in -- you might have heard something about that -- made it difficult to sit down and actually write them until now.</i></p>
<p>It wasn't that long ago that Joker Phillips' move to the head coaching position in Kentucky seemed like the only head-coach-in-waiting arrangement that hadn't gone horribly awry. Will Muschamp, the original HCIW, ended up taking the head coaching position at Florida instead of waiting on Mack Brown to leave Texas. James Franklin, the head-coach-in-waiting at Maryland, joined him by taking the job at Vanderbilt instead of cooling his heels for a couple more years in College Park. And there was the programmatic equivalent of a couch fire in the bizarre Bill Stewart-Dana Holgorsen saga at West Virginia.</p>
<p>But before last season, the Rich Brooks-to-Joker Phillips handoff seemed to have gone relatively smoothly. The bowl streak remained intact, even if Phillips' inaugural season as head coach ended up with a puzzling loss to a Pittsburgh team that was a basket case at the time. And add to that the upset of a SEC Championship Game-bound South Carolina team that Kentucky hadn't defeated in a decade, and Phillips essentially seemed to be picking up where Phillips left off -- maybe even improving things a little bit.</p>
<p>Now, Phillips seems to be putting the program in about the same place where it was when Brooks took over. Phillips is 2-11 over his last 13 games, with the only bright spot being last year's surprise upset of Tennessee, and two straight blowout losses to Vanderbilt being the clear lowlights.</p>
<p>The thing that has to have made the fall all the more difficult for Kentucky was that Phillips was supposed to be the local guy done good. Phillips was a player at Kentucky from 1981-84, and he has spent all but six of his 25 seasons coaching at Kentucky. After hiring an outsider to build the program up, the Wildcats would turn it over to an alumnus to keep things going.</p>
<p>But there was always a question about Phillips that had to nag at you. While the skills needed to be a head coach and a coordinator aren't always the same, the fact is that Phillips was never really all that good as an offensive coordinator. He wasn't terrible, but a look at his offense from 2005 -- when he took over as coordinator at Kentucky -- to this season also shows results that are uneven, at best.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1709647/Joker.jpg"><img src="http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1709647/Joker_medium.jpg" class="photo" alt="Joker_medium"></a></p>
<p>There are only two years when Kentucky was substantially ahead of the median SEC offense under Phillips, and one of those was 2007 -- known to most of us as "Andre Woodson's senior season." I'll leave it to your judgment as to how much credit Phillips gets for that.</p>
<p>Of course, all of that could have been overlooked if Phillips had continued to win. Which brings us to part of what makes Phillips' story so tragic -- the fact that he was a head-coach-in-waiting might very well have contributed to Phillips' downfall.</p>
<p>A season or two ago, I was talking to Glenn Logan of <a href="http://www.aseaofblue.com">A Sea of Blue</a> (I believe on our podcast at the time) when he made the point that Joker Phillips could actually end up with a shorter lease because of how he got the job. The thought process went something like this: Because Phillips was part of the Rich Brooks regime, he brought all of the existing baggage of the Rich Brooks regime with him.</p>
<p>So the sense that the program had hit something of a ceiling and had actually plateaued in the last couple of years with Brooks at the helm had carried over to Phillips, rather than Phillips being seen as a fresh start who should be given a few years to install his program.</p>
<p>At the same time, I think it's fair to say that Phillips doesn't enjoy the same stature among Kentucky fans that Brooks did. Brooks' shortcomings in taking the next step at Kentucky could always be overlooked, because he was the one that had rebuilt a decimated program into a perennial bowl team; Phillips had far less capital to draw on when the program seemed to stall out.</p>
<p>The other part of Phillips' dismissal that has a tragic tinge to it is that Phillips is generally seen as a good man, and looks very much like one who was as loyal to his alma mater to the end. It's a sense that was only reinforced earlier this week, as I read <a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/ukbeat/2012/11/03/joker-phillips-addresses-his-future-after-vandy-loss/">his remarks during what turned out to be his last press conference before being fired</a>, after the 40-0 shutout against Vanderbilt.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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 – (it would) help either way. Help get another guy or help us in recruiting.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Glenn has <a href="http://www.aseaofblue.com/2012/11/4/3598704/kentucky-football-the-turning-of-the-wheel/in/3374451">portrayed that</a> as Phillips essentially asking Mitch Barnhart, who's been around since before Phillips returned to Kentucky in 2003, to go ahead and fire Phillips now if he was going to do so eventually. And that's certainly one way to read it, and perhaps the right way to look at it.</p>
<p>But I think that, in a way, Phillips might also have been giving Barnhart permission to fire him now. Not in the sense that Barnhart needs that permission -- he is the athletics director, after all -- but in the sense that Phillips acknowledged that he was to blame and that he would understand if Barnhart decided to let the ax fall. If it came down to a choice between what was best for Joker Phillips and what was best for Kentucky, it seemed that Phillips was once again signaling that what was best for Kentucky was the right answer.</p>
<p>The other thing you'll notice, looking through that transcript, is that Joker Phillips doesn't look to throw anyone else under the bus. The small crowds didn't matter, he said after a pathetic showing by the Kentucky fan base. His roster is relatively young, he notes, then adds that there are no excuses in the SEC. And when he talked to the press about his decision to stay around, he says he did so not because he wanted to -- quite the opposite -- but because <a href="http://blogs.courier-journal.com/ukbeat/2012/11/07/joker-phillips-fields-firing-questions-on-sec-call/">the players wanted him to</a>.</p>
<p>So when you look at the kind of man you want to coach your football, the kind of man you want to win as a head coach, Joker Phillips fits the profile almost exactly. The tragedy isn't that he was fired. The tragedy is that there was no other logical decision for Kentucky to make.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/9/3621364/kentucky-football-coaching-change-joker-phillips-recordBrandon Larrabee2012-11-08T11:52:41-05:002012-11-08T11:52:41-05:00Bobby Petrino Is Interested in the Kentucky Job
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2MP9tblKvXpuxFTDfVtif3MovxQ=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828197/large_teamspeedkills.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>Bobby Petrino wants to get back into coaching. That much is not a surprise. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise either that he'd be <a target="_blank" href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121107/COLUMNISTS02/311070125/1002/Bobby-Petrino-s-father-touts-son-Kentucky-football-coaching-job-were-offered?nclick_check=1">interested</a> in getting back into the SEC according to his father:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"I know he wants a job; he needs a job," [Bob] Petrino Sr. said by telephone Wednesday. "He told me, ‘I need a job, Dad.’ I said, ‘Well, you must still have some money. You made 31/2 million dollars.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I do. It’s not the money.’ He just misses coaching so much." ...</p>
<p>"I just know this, that he’s interested in Kentucky," the father said. "He wants to stay in the SEC. That was his life’s goal was to go to the SEC."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It would be kind of a reverse Rick Pitino type of deal for the former Louisville head coach to set up shop in Lexington.</p>
<p>There's certainly no guarantee, though, that Mitch Barnhart would be interested in hiring the former Boss Hog. The stench of the Jessica Dorrell scandal has not lifted off of Petrino, and he did put his former university in a bad legal situation with the way he handled her hiring in the athletic department. In fact, Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--kentucky-not-considering-hiring-bobby-petrino-after-firing-joker-phillips-04081709.html;_ylt=Av_wXyaMNKLwgDlfBX0aSuoLcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFoZnA0Y2I3BG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXg-;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3" target="_blank">reported</a> on Sunday that the school was not planning on including Petrino in the coaching search.</p>
<p>In any event, this information was not meant to be public:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Talked to a member of the Petrino camp this morning.... They are not happy info got out he's interested in UK.</p>
— Kent Spencer (@KentSpencer) <a data-datetime="2012-11-08T16:29:52+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/KentSpencer/status/266578292843372544">November 8, 2012</a>
</blockquote>
<p>
<script charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</p>
<p>Too late now.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/8/3618238/bobby-petrino-is-interested-in-the-kentucky-jobDavid Wunderlich2012-11-05T16:13:38-05:002012-11-05T16:13:38-05:00Joker Phillips Will Coach the Rest of the Season
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2MP9tblKvXpuxFTDfVtif3MovxQ=/0x26:400x293/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47828197/large_teamspeedkills.com.minimal.0.png" />
</figure>
<p>The only odd thing about Mitch Barnhart's letter from Sunday announcing Joker Phillips' firing was the fact that it didn't say whether Phillips would finish out the year. Well, now we know:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p>Joker Phillips will coach Kentucky in its remaining two games, the school announces.</p>
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonRivals) <a data-datetime="2012-11-05T20:48:05+00:00" href="https://twitter.com/BDawsonRivals/status/265556112777039873">November 5, 2012</a>
</blockquote>
<p>
<script charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</p>
<p>The only reason why Phillips shouldn't finish out the year is if he didn't want to. He's by all accounts a good guy, and his roots at UK run as deep as anyone's can with one school. It's good to hear he'll get a chance to be sent off with a win over Samford in his final home game in Lexington.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/5/3606194/joker-phillips-will-coach-the-rest-of-the-seasonDavid Wunderlich2012-11-04T18:58:36-05:002012-11-04T18:58:36-05:00Who's Next for Kentucky?
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TxMgErIfHnKhmBNtJ0P5SafQObE=/0x33:466x344/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/2660521/132601280.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Chris Graythen</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now that Joker Phillips is out, which candidates are likely to crop up as the Wildcats search for a head coach? Some of the likely and unlikely names that you might hear over the next few weeks</p> <p>Mitch Barnhart's <a href="http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/110412aac.html">statement</a> announcing <a href="http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/4/3599720/kentucky-fires-joker-phillips">the firing of Joker Phillips</a> is remarkably short on the specifics about what Kentucky will be looking for in its next head coach. Perhaps that's best, because almost anything Barnhart says is likely to either be seen as hinting at the next head coach or is likely to spark a revolt among some members of a badly divided fan base.</p>
<p>Truthfully, I'm not sure in which direction Kentucky wants to go at this point. Do you take an offensive guy to fix the unworkable mess on that side of the ball, or a defensive guy on the often-correct "pendulum swing" theory that the next coach is always the opposite of the guy you just fired? A BCS coordinator or a mid-major head coach, given that Kentucky is not the kind of job that can draw many BCS head coaches?</p>
<p>Here are a few names that are floating around or might in the next few weeks. But whoever is hired will have to be in line with Mitch Barnhart's expectations for the next head coach, and he's currently not sharing that most important criteria.</p>
<p><b>Willie Taggart.</b> This is likely the first name on just about any casual observer's list, though there's no real indication yet whether the name appears on Mitch Barnhart's list in any order. Taggart is young at 36, but he's already making a lot of noise as the coach at Western Kentucky University. He comes from a solid coaching tree. Taggart was running backs coach at Stanford for three years under Jim Harbaugh, and you might remember one of the guys that Taggart coached out west -- name of Toby Gerhart. As a head coach, Taggart is 13-4 in his last 17 games after a rough beginning, and he could guide Western Kentucky to its first bowl game since the program joined the FBS in 2008. But whether Taggart is in any hurry to leave WKU is another question entirely; he's one of the greatest Hilltopper quarterbacks of all time and has spent all but three of his 14 seasons as a coach at his alma mater.</p>
<p><b>Dirk Koetter.</b> There is no reason I can think to ever type those words in connection with a college football program again, but there they are. Pat Forde, who spent a long time in Kentucky before heading to ESPN and now Yahoo!, reports that the Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator is <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--kentucky-not-considering-hiring-bobby-petrino-after-firing-joker-phillips-04081709.html">on the list of candidates for the Wildcats job</a>. Which, as a fan of a fellow SEC East team, I say go right ahead. Even with the nicer climate and other recruiting draws of Tempe, Koetter went 40-34 at Arizona State in his previous BCS head coaching stint, was 21-28 in the Pac-12 (never finishing higher than third in the conference) and finished the year ranked once in six seasons. Translate that record to Lexington, where the program is even less of a traditional powerhouse and the recruiting challenges even tougher than they were at Arizona State, and it's hard to see Koetter having much success at Kentucky.</p>
<p><b>Sonny Dykes.</b> This is another candidate that Forde brings up, and the Louisiana Tech head coach is bound to surface in connection with more than one job after leading the Bulldogs to an 8-1 record and toward what would be the last WAC football championship. But therein lies the problem -- with the exception of Tennessee, which has been down that road before, it's likely that most of the programs who are looking for a new head coach are going to at least kick the tires on the Louisiana Tech head coach. He did spend a couple of seasons (1997 and 1999) as a graduate assistant and position coach at Kentucky in the late 1990s, and coached for the 1999 Music City Bowl team, so the idea of Dykes going to Lexington is not totally absurd. But he spent most of his time to the south and west of the state of Kentucky, and was a baseball player in Lubbock from 1989-93 and then football assistant at Texas Tech for seven seasons starting in 2000. If things continue to go south for Tommy Tuberville this year, Dykes could be in line to get the job at his alma mater.</p>
<p><b>Brent Pease.</b> Huh? Offensive coordinator who shows mediocre results in the SEC. When was the last time Kentucky lined up someone like that to be head coach? Pease, 48, is probably going to get his turn as a head coach soon enough, particularly if he gets things straightened out in Gainesville. (Admittedly, a multi-year project after the mess Urban Meyer and Charlie Weis left behind.) But aside from Koetter, this might be the most puzzling name on Forde's list.</p>
<p><b>Neal Brown.</b> Here's your sleeper pick, if you count a name that I've already seen come up in a couple of places as a sleeper pick. He's the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech and was a player at Kentucky before transferring to UMass. The concerns are that he's still relatively young and kind of fits into the same on-paper profile that Joker Phillips does: Offensive coordinator, former Kentucky player. Programs tend to go in the other direction when they hire a new coach, and I'm not sure that Brown isn't just a bit too close to Phillips to get the job this time.</p>
<p><b>Kliff Kingsbury.</b> Here's a name that's been bouncing around a bit. Kingsbury is young -- 33 -- and has no apparent ties to Kentucky. But the concerns that the Texas A&M offense wouldn't work in the SEC have been annihilated by the Aggies' first season in the conference. Kingsbury would need time, though; one strike against Kevin Sumlin's offense is that it appears to take the right quarterback for it to really gel, meaning that it could be a couple of years before Kingsbury has the talent he needs.</p>
<p><b>Bobby Petrino.</b> No. Just no. Stop it. Kentucky is not the sort of program that takes wild risks with its football hires, and the lawyers in the Kentucky administration would stage a sit-in if the Wildcats even started negotiations with Petrino. If Bobby Petrino ever gets another job in major college football -- and we <a href="http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/4/11/2942104/bobby-petrino-is-done-as-a-major-college-head-coach">have seriously questioned whether that's even possible</a> -- he's going to have to wait a few years.</p>
<p><b>Kirby Smart.</b> This is an SEC job, so we're contractually obligated to float his name. But, again, this is a guy with much better options should he choose to wait for them.</p>
<p><b>Gus Malzahn.</b> An intriguing name that might get bandied about a bit. Malzahn's stock probably fell because of the bizarre circumstances of his departure from Auburn, but Arkansas State has won four straight and is currently 6-3, so it's not totally out there in terms of accomplishments. He might wait to see what other jobs come open this year and whether the Arkansas or Auburn administrations want to give him a call.</p>
<p><b>Mario Cristobal.</b> Now we're getting kind of tenuous, but Cristobal is the kind of coach that Kentucky might be able to get now if they want him. Cristobal took FIU to back-to-back bowl seasons and stayed with the Golden Panthers. He's 2-8 this year, but four of his losses are by a touchdown or less, and the smart money is on a rebound relatively quickly. Still, it's very unlikely that Kentucky gives him a call; going from a coach who's likely to end the year 2-10 to a coach who's likely to end the year no better than 3-9 is not a recipe for an athletics director who wants to keep his job. I mostly included this out of the hopes that we can use a Super Mario headline.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/4/3600224/head-football-coach-candidates-kentuckyBrandon Larrabee2012-11-04T15:35:53-05:002012-11-04T15:35:53-05:00Kentucky Fires Joker Phillips
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0XT_kr5zIobkqk_7qVKlxGxyvhg=/0x16:1000x683/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/2650131/133488597.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Kevin C. Cox</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was only a matter of time, and it's apparently now time.</p> <p>UK athletic director Mitch Barnhart <a href="http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/110412aac.html" target="_blank">has fired</a> Joker Phillips today after the coach had just under three seasons in the director's chair in Lexington. The meat of his open letter is here:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After much conversation, evaluation and prayer, I have determined that it is in the best interest of our athletics program to make a change in our football coaching staff at the conclusion of the season. I do so with a heavy heart for a man who has served his alma mater for almost 22 years as a player and a coach. Joker Phillips has carried the banner for the Blue and White with honor and pride. I have enjoyed working alongside him and am thankful for his friendship for the last decade. His concern for the entire program, his work and teaching of young people, his humanitarian work, and the friendship we all enjoy with him will long surpass the scoreboard. I want to thank him for all of those things on behalf of Kentucky.</p>
<p>The search for a new head coach will begin immediately and will be managed internally. I understand the challenge and significance of finding a new leader for our football program. It will be done with great concern for our student-athletes, students of the University of Kentucky, the Big Blue Nation and the citizens of the Commonwealth. Kentucky Football needs to be and will be a championship contender in the SEC.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People have been talking an awful lot about Gene Chizik and Derek Dooley being on the hot seat, but it became increasingly apparent through the year that Joker Phillips was the most fired SEC coach. His team is dreadful, and it traded its spot as a decent team that could go to marginal bowls regularly with Vanderbilt's doormat status. It was never more apparent than <a href="http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/3/3596070/vanderbilt-40-kentucky-0-final-score-stats" target="_blank">in Vandy's historic 40-0 win</a> yesterday that they are two programs headed in opposite directions. The fact that the fans have quit showing up is the last straw; even the dreadful 2-9 outfit from 2004 <a target="_blank" href="http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2004/Internet/attendance/IA_CAPACITY.pdf">enjoyed</a> an average home crowd of 92% capacity. All of the gains made in the Rich Brooks era are gone.</p>
<p>The most obvious candidate to replace Phillips is WKU's Willie Taggart. He has turned around what was a dreadful program in I-A infancy to a team that went 7-5 last year and is 6-3 so far this season. Taggart's roots in the state of Kentucky go deep, and the biggest hurdle I see for Barnhart trying to land him is Taggart potentially getting a better job than UK's. If that isn't the fit, then I could see them trying to get the Brooks lightning to strike again by hiring a veteran hand like Phillip Fulmer. I suppose the Bobby Petrino rumors are going to start up too, though I don't know if it's even a possibility.</p>
<p>The letter from Barnhart does not mention an interim coach, so it would appear that Phillips will finish out the season.</p>
<p><b>UPDATE</b></p>
<p>Yahoo! Sports' Pat Forde, who was once a beat writer in Louisville, <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaaf--kentucky-not-considering-hiring-bobby-petrino-after-firing-joker-phillips-04081709.html;_ylt=Av_wXyaMNKLwgDlfBX0aSuoLcykA;_ylu=X3oDMTFoZnA0Y2I3BG1pdANCbG9nIEluZGV4IGJ5IEF1dGhvcgRwb3MDMQRzZWMDTWVkaWFCbG9nSW5kZXg-;_ylg=X3oDMTFrODdzYXZuBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANhdXRob3IEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3" target="_blank">has sources</a> telling him some names for the job. Notably, Petrino is not on the school's initial wish list. He says Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Dykes, Atlanta Falcons OC Dirk Koetter (who also was head coach at Boise State and Arizona State), and "several college offensive coordinators" are on Barnhart's list. Forde also says that Florida OC Brent Pease, a former UK assistant, and Texas Tech OC Neal Brown, a former UK player, are interested in the job. Dykes was a grad assistant in Lexington during the Hal Mumme era and runs an Air Raid derivative offense.</p>
https://www.teamspeedkills.com/2012/11/4/3599720/kentucky-fires-joker-phillipsDavid Wunderlich