Joker Phillips says Kentucky was ‘great opportunity,’ but he didn’t have time to build a program

From his playing days to his time as a coach, Joker Phillips has spent a total of 23 years of his life with the Kentucky Wildcats.

However, that time came to an end back in 2012, when he was fired as the Wildcats’ head coach after going 13-24 in three seasons, including a disappointing 4-20 mark in SEC play.

Now, Phillips is a member of Luke Fickell’s staff at Cincinnati, serving as the wide receivers coach. In a profile on Cincinnati.com, Phillips discussed his time in Lexington and said he appreciated the opportunity to serve as his alma mater’s head coach, but added that three years wasn’t enough time to build the program he wanted:

“It was a great opportunity,” Phillips said. “A lot of things have to be lined up at a place like that, similar to this. You’ve got to have time to implement your program. We just didn’t have that, and I get that. The opportunity was a great opportunity for me, my family and the staff I put together. We’ve moved on from that and tried to help other places out.”

Phillips may have a point. Through current coach Mark Stoops’s first three seasons with the Wildcats, Kentucky had an identical 4-20 record in SEC play (but were a slightly worse 12-24 overall).

Then, in 2016 — Stoops’s fourth at the helm — the Wildcats went 7-5 and qualified for a bowl game (which they lost to Georgia Tech). It would have been interesting to see what Phillips, a Wildcat through and through, could have done with one more year.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.