#zack blaylock

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Joker Phillips transcript (Oct. 11)

Joker Phillips met with the media Thursday for the final time before his team travels to Arkansas. There will be plenty of freshmen and sophomores on the trip -- including 23 of 30 defensive players -- so he's not quite sure what to expect. Phillips remains in good spirits though as you can tell from a couple of good lines in the transcript below:

Opening statement

Well, it is time to go play. We will play without (Martavius) Neloms, without Mikie Benton, we'll play without Ashely Lowery. We'll start two true freshmen in the back end at safety -- the Blaylock twins. Then we'll start Cody Quinn at one of the corners, and we'll have a veteran guy out there at the other corner in Cartier Rice. Line up and go play against the No. 2 throwing team in this league.

Other than Eric Dixon, do you have any depth at safety?

Other than Eric Dixon? We'll play Eric Dicker -- Eric Dixon. I wish we had Eric Dickerson. (Laughs). We also will bring up a true freeman, another true freshman, the kid from Alcoa: Cody Lewis. He's a true freshman walk-on that played at Alcoa last year. He'll be one of our safeties also. We got two. (Laughs).

How are you keeping a good sense of humor about this?

What am I going to do? You got to. Again, you get excited for those guys because they all came here to play. I don't know if they came here to play that soon, but they have to. Let's go out there and play. Let them go.

You said you get excited for them, does that mean you're scared as hell?

Nah. (Laughs). I'm not scared as hell. Again, I've always taken the attitude of next guy up. We went into some big games with some guys that hadn't gotten snaps at a lot of different positions and won some of them. We're going to go into this one, same way, same attitude: line up with the next guy. I am excited for them, for the team. Those guys get behind those young guys. They know how hard the young guys work and how excited they are, so our guys rally together.

You said you didn't want to look at the travel list yesterday, but have you checked how many freshmen and sophomores you will take to Arkansas?

On defense, I did look at it. Defensively, we'll travel with 30 guys, and 23 of them will be freshmen and sophomores. I wonder how many of them have ever traveled on a plane. I know (DeMarcus) Sweat was scared s---less last time. (Laughter). We'll find out who else is this week. Should be a few more of them.

How is Jalen Whitlow doing fixing some of the issues that led to him being sacked nine times in two weeks?

He's doing better. Every snap he gets -- today he got probably 90 percent of the snaps. The reason why is on Thursday's you don't have a lot of two work. He got about 90 percent of the work. Every rep that he can get in practice is real helpful for him in understanding.

I know in the two-minute (drill) today, he took a sack with about 20 seconds left. Apparently, it happened in the game and apparently it happened here. That was a great time for us to stop what we were doing and get those things corrected. Get it out of your hands. Can't take sacks. We've taken 11 sacks since Max (Smith) has been out, and our line is doing a good job. We got beat a couple times against South Carolina -- when I say beat, physically. After that, I don't know if there has been many other times that our offensive line has just gotten whipped. 

You've talked about players in the past with a quiet persona, like one of the two Blaylocks…

Really both of them. Both of the Blaylocks. One of them, he'll talk if you talk to him.

With the one who has to make the calls though, in a game are these kids any different because of the adrenaline? Do you have to worry about that kind of thing?

You do have to worry about it, and you hope they are different when the adrenaline sets in. We'll see. Again, they had a lot of work this week. They got a lot of the ones and the twos also. 

How did they do?

To be expected. They're going to make some plays because they're so talented, but they're going to make mistakes also. We just hope we can eliminate some of those mistakes on Saturday.

Do change how the defense communicates at all with them at safety?

It's hard. The linebackers communicate to the front seven. It's hard to put a corner in charge of the back end. He's way out here.

Did you say yesterday you expect Zack Blaylock to be one of the people to make the calls?

He is. The safety position who should be able to see the whole formation. He's the guy that's in charge of making a lot of the calls in the back end. We'll simplify some things and give those guys a chance to get lined up and play, but we also have got to do enough that we can take away some of the things that we think that Arkansas will do in the passing game.

Arkansas tailback Nile Davis doesn't seem to be having the same type of year running the ball as he had in the past. What have you seen on film from him?

I've seen some good runs from him. The difference is he's not getting as many opportunities because Dennis Johnson has had a lot more. I think they played a third back also. The times that he's touched the ball, he's looked pretty good. Looks like his old self. We expect him to be his old self and be able to carry the load this week. If not, Dennis Johnson is a quality back also.

Do you like the fact that the young guys might just 'not know any better' than not to be sacred?"

Yeah. That's the why I'm not sacred. They don't know. They don't know what they got into. They shouldn't have to be playing at this time in their career, but they are. Again, they're excited. I'm sure before kickoff they'll get a little nervous. I saw it in (Patrick) Towles last week. Once he got in the game, it was like, 'Hey, let's go play.' It's like playing in the back yard. Hopefully, these kids feel the same way.

Given your youth in the secondary, do you think you'll see more deep balls from Arkansas?

Yeah. I think we'll see more balls in the air. Whether they're deep or intermediate passes, who know? But I think we'll see more balls in the air. I'm sure. What we've got to do is do a good job of disrupting some of the timing from the quarterback up front. That's where we do have some older guys. We've got to get off. We've got to get some pressure in his face. Then we've also got to get our hands up. I can't remember the last time we've knocked down a pass. Those things have to occur. When you start knocking down passes, you start creating some turnovers with them also. It's got to be a team effort on defense, not just the back end. It's got to be the front seven also.

You were really excited when you signed this group of freshmen defensive backs. What they lack in experience, do they make up for in talent versus the older guys?

Talent wise, yeah. You've always got to try to get better than what you have. We think we've got a really talented group. Again, they lack in experience, but the thing because they have so much talent, we have so much talent in this secondary group, is we started playing them early in special teams. We knew we were going to have to play them before the year was up. We didn't know that they would have to be starters, but we knew we'd have to play them before the year was up. Therefore, we started working them in on the special teams. We used to try to hold off putting them on special teams because you don't know if you're going to have to play him. We knew early that these guys were going to have to play, so we've got some game snaps which will be beneficial in a game like this.

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Rick Minter transcript (Oct. 9)

Have you heard the UK football team's defense is young?

There are seven true freshmen in the defensive two-deep this week before the Cats travel to Arkansas.

Defensive coordinator Rick Minter met with the media Tuesday, and fielded plenty of questions about his team's youth and where they go from here.

You can see a full transcript of his comments below:

It has nothing to do with the offense. We stay on the field too long because of our inability to get ourselves off. Each game you get the same amount of drives as the opposing team gets -- 13,13; 12,12; 11,11 -- whatever it turns out to be. When you’re giving up 50 percent of your plays on third down, you just keep playing plays. So if you’re not getting takeaways, which you’re not getting yourself off. If you’re not getting yourself off on third down, you’re just continuing to play a lot of football. It’s just a game of math; I think arithmetic as Bill said. Add it up. If you’re not getting takeaways and you’re not stopping them on third down, then you’re just out there until they run out of time or space. It’s what’s happening, you know. It’s nothing to do with any other factor. I mean, we’ve got to get ourselves off. We don’t have any control of how or when we get on -- we always tell our guys that -- it’s only how we get off. And we’re not getting ourselves off. Four times the other day, third-and-8-plus, we let them off the hook. We should be off the field in those situations. If you are, then you’ll see that time of possession change. You’ll see that score go down; you’ll see that yardage go down. You’ll see our offense get more opportunities, perhaps. It all works together.

What's your health status right now? 

I feel fine. Unfortunately, they don’t need me on the field. We’re fighting through some things, you know. Next man up is our motto. We’ve got some DBs hurtin’ on the back end, so we’ve got some young guys trying to step up and assume their roles. So we’ve got guys who are day to day, but whether that day comes, who knows?

Did any of the day-to-day guys practice today?

No.

We've seen the Blaylock twins out there at the same time -- obviously you don't want to throw two true freshmen in…

Why not? (Laughs)

But is there some added connection between those guys, having played together for their entire lives?

I hope there’s some can carry over from their infancy years. Those are two great young kids. They’re really going to be great football players; we hope it’s by Saturday. They know how to play; they come from good stock. They’re heady guys; they’re good fundamental football players coming from a good high school football program that went to a state championship game last year. That’s the kind of kids we want to bring into this program and whether or not they’re playing before their time, it’s now their time. We just have to close ranks and march on with those that we have. If we’re young, we’re young. Everybody was young at one time and stars are born every day.

Joker said Zack Blaylock played about 23 plays and had four tackles Saturday. What did you see from him?

He was productive. We had contemplated on him to play or not to play. We had plenty of seniors back there. The depletion expedited the decision for us. He had his own little setbacks the last two to three weeks with some tweaks and some bangs and that slowed him down a little bit. But we just threw him out there when Tay (Neloms) went down and he just started playing. That’s what he’s capable of doing.

Does this get frustrating for you, what's going on?

It doesn’t matter how I feel. That’s just life, it really is. Whether it’s Murphy’s Law for this team right now, who knows? But things happen. Things don’t always go the way we want them to, and what are we going to do? Wallow in self pity or make lemonade out of the lemons being dealt to us? We just kind of suck it up, tighten up our boot straps and make sure our guys can execute the things we call on Saturday, go out there and go against a great quarterback and a good football team, a team that’s finally perhaps found itself offensively last week. We’ll have a major challenge ahead of us, but we’ll feel good about the guys we take to Fayetteville.

When you lose a guy like Martavius Neloms, who's experienced not only physically but can make calls and things like that...

You lose a lot. You don’t replace those guys, not with a true freshman. So you’ve got to be careful with what you do, how much you can do. The guys who aren’t out there are security blankets for us as coaches, guys who have been around the program for a couple of years under our direction. So you’re going to miss those guys. It’s like we said earlier in the season when Danny (Trevathan) and Winston (Guy) left, you dropped all the way down. Now you’re losing some of those starters form a year ago and in comes infants. So you’ve got to be careful to not do more than they can do. So there’s two prongs: one, we’ve got to do what we can do and we have to be good enough at what we’re doing to beat a good football team.”

So much has gone wrong for you guys on that side this season, is there anything you feel really good about right now?

I’m about to go eat lunch. (Laughter) Nah. The kids are really great and they’re trying extremely hard. They’re giving us all they’ve got. Our guys up front, I think are playing solid football. Our linebackers are getting better each and every week. Our young corners that have begun to play, it’s been a great opportunity for them. They’re stepping up. Knock on wood: We have not been hurt very often at the cornerback position, which was our biggest fear in August once we lost some kids, who’s going to step up? Well, opportunity came and they stepped up. Cody Quinn seized that moment. (J. D.) Harmon and (Fred) Tiller are seizing those moments. Cartier (Rice) is playing like a senior and the linebackers are beginning to settle in a little bit better. So now we’ve got some growing pains at the safety position.”

What are the biggest challenges Arkansas presents?

You name it; they can do it.  Tyler Wilson’s a great quarterback. They’ve got good, ample receivers. They’ve got No. 11 and No. 17. They’ve got a tight end, who very well could be back this week, they’ve been missing a lot. They’ve got a good runner, solid big old guys up front, left over from Mike Summers a couple of years ago that are coached very well. They’ve got an aggressive play caller in Paul (Petrino), and I don’t think he likes Kentucky. That won’t help us any. We’re going to have to defeat all forces. We feel good about what we’re doing right now and who we’re doing it with. The most important thing is our kids are trying their tails off, couldn’t be more proud of how they’re playing effort wise.

Avery Williamson is leading the conference in tackles. Is this the kind of season you were expecting him to have?

Absolutely.

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Joker Phillips transcript (Sept. 27)

Joker Phillips met with the media Thursday for the final time before his team plays South Carolina Saturday. He updated several injury situations and explained why this information is different that the updates he gave last Thursday that almost all turned out to be incorrect. You can see those stories and more in the transcript below:

Opening statement

Alright, let's get started with this injury deal before I get asked and have to walk out of here. (Laughter)

Ashely Lowery is probably doubtful. CoShik (Williams) is out. (Mister) Cobble will be available, yet he didn't get much work in and got very little conditioning today. We'll take a look at him, we'll travel him but don't know if he'll play. Max (Smith) threw the ball, threw the ball well today and should play.

Is Cobble's issue at this point conditioning?

More conditioning. He's been out, didn't eat for about three or four days. You know what that will do to guys like you and I, just think of a guy that's 300-plus pounds. But yeah, it's more conditioning than anything. He's a guy that understands the gameplan, especially inside. You don't have a lot of different assignments from the nose-tackle position. It's just, 'Hey, line up and kick that guy over top of you's rear end.' We could play him, but we've just got to take a look at him, see how many snaps we can get out of him.

You've played a lot of young guys on defense. While the stats and results may not be what you want, can you see progress in those guys?

We are. You saw a lot of young guys in the back end challenging receivers. That's the thing that stood out to me last week. Guys like (Fred) Tiller and Cody Quin and J. D. (Harmon) were challenging guys. That's what you want to do. At defensive back, you're going to get beat. It's just a matter of when and where, what time you get beat, but you're going to get beat. The thing you have to do is win your share. What I saw is those guys won more than their share of opportunities.

At the second-level, those two young freshmen linebackers (Khalid Henderson and Pancho Thomas) made some plays for us and will continue to get better. Farrington Huguenin is a freshman also that continues to get better. The thing we have to do is just keep improving as much as we possibly (can). That's the idea of us getting a chance to play again: see how much we've improved each week and see how much we can improve each week, especially with a young team.

Will Cody Quinn start at cornerback again in place of Cartier Rice again?

We worked (Martavius) Neloms a little bit more at the safety position this week. The reason being because of Ashely Lowery's (injury). The reason why we're able to do that is because of how we feel about those young corners. We feel really comfortable about the young corners going in there and playing. That allows us this week to move Te' Neloms to play some safety. Te' Neloms can always go back and forth at safety and corner. If he starts at the safety, definitely Cody Quinn will be a starter.

Last Thursday you said Maxwell Smith threw the ball well but then he didn't play. Is there anything that can happen between now and Saturday that might change your prediction he will play this week?

No. I did say that last week, I was telling Tony (Neely) on the way in here. Last week, I didn't know what the effects would be if he got hit again and got injured again. That's not the case this week. He's a lot healthier than he was last week, so therefore he'll play.

For all the improvements you're making, it's still a typical SEC schedule that might make it hard to see a difference on the scoreboard…

Definitely. It's a grown man's league. We can improve, but everybody else is improving also. They're improving with some older guys. I mentioned yesterday, those guys have got seven seniors in the front seven. Then you take the guys who are juniors, many of their guys went to prep school too, so they're really seniors. The thing we have to do is continue to see how much we can improve and continue to get this football team better. Again, they're trying to do the same thing. We've just got to try to match them.

Connor Shaw completed his last 20 passes Saturday. Were they doing something schematically to kind of facilitate that?

No. He's really accurate. He's similar to our guy. He's a better runner, which kind of gives you a little bit more problems than a guy like ours because he can pull it down. He ran for 80 yards against Missouri. He is a wildcat-type guy. He's a tough, physical guy. He's been injured a lot too because of it. They've done a little bit different run game with him, outside instead of inside run game with him. The thing he does is he makes you simplify things because of his ability to run the football.

How do the numbers break down in terms of the number of times you've been in shotgun versus under center?

I would say it's probably 95 percent of the time, probably even more, that we've been in the shotgun. When you've got a guy like Max, that's what he feels a little bit more comfortable in doing. With the way we're throwing the ball, I think you've got to get him back there where he can get away from the center. It's also helped us in protection also, getting him farther and farther away from the line of scrimmage.

He's a guy that gets it out of his hands really quick, therefore you're able to run your quick game from the shotgun. With a lot of your quick game, you want to be underneath the center so he can take a quick three-step (drop) and get it out of his hands, but Max is a guy that kind really catch the ball, can find the laces really quick and can get it out of his hands. It gives us a chance to be in the shotgun.

What percentage would you give to Maxwell Smith starting Saturday?

One hundred. Unless something happens to him between (now and then), 100. He's going to be the starter.

I wasn't trying to mislead you guys last week. I kind of get that, but I wasn't trying to mislead you guys. Again, when I hear from Jim Madaleno about how he could be out for five or six weeks or even more, that's not worth chancing in my opinion.

Were you trying to mislead us before the Tennessee game last year?

You guys didn't ask. That was the thing. You guys didn't ask. (Laughs). Good thing we were indoors too. Plus, nobody was coming around at that time.

With CoShik Williams' injury, could we see more of Dyshawn Mobley against South Carolina? How is he doing in terms of pass protection and those things?

What keeps him from playing is how well those other guys are playing. Those other guys are playing really well. They're averaging five yards per carry, they're catching the ball well, they're protecting. What scares you with him is you call a protection and he lines up and you have to (tell him), 'Hey, get over here.' It's hard to limit what you do with the tailback in the game. You can kind of limit what you do sometimes with the quarterback, but you can't limit what you do with a tailback. You can't say, 'Alright, we're just going to run the ball.' He knows all the run game, no doubt about that, but he's got to understand the protections, he's got to understand how to get lined up. 

He didn't carry the ball much last week. He did play in the first half, but we didn't know what we were going to do. We were going to try to run the clock out, so he got a couple runs during that time. We'd love to see him play more. He's starting to play on more of the special teams, which is what a third or fourth back needs to be doing. Then when his time comes, he needs to be ready to take over. His time hasn't come where we've gotten down to the third back yet.

Does it look like a redshirt year for Justin Taylor?

Yes. Definitely. We've talked to Justin about that. As the weeks go on, we definitely will not try to use him. We'll still take him on the trips. He's traveling with us, but in week five or six we'll be able to tell more of that.

Is his knee OK?

He's fine. He's fine. You want to get some separation between those two guys. You can't find enough reps to get a fourth and a fifth guy. We're seeing how we're having a tough time getting the fourth guy in the game as much as we'd like. As talented as he is, it's just tough, especially the way those guys are playing.

It's still a long season. I always say, we don't have…Jonathan (George) is a bigger, physical back, but those other two backs that are in front of (Mobley) are not big, physical ones. It's obvious. CoShik has been out two of the five weeks. Actually this will be his third, third week he has been out in five weeks. A lot of ball. There will be opportunities for Dyshawn down the road.

What about Glenn Faulkner? Is he looking like a redshirt too?

Again, it's getting late in the game. We'll probably make a decision here in the next couple of weeks. I think he's supposed to be running next week, but we have to make a decision. The decision, if I had to guess today, would be to redshirt him. I think it wouldn't be right on his part or the program's part to play him at this point.

With Ashely Lowery out, will you play Zack Blaylock for the first time?

No. Zack Blaylock will not (play). Again, that's the reason we're moving Te' Neloms back there, to get him some reps back there. Daron (Blaylock) will play, but Zack will not play.