Joker Phillips

Winning and losing football games is one thing. Life is another. That's the message Kentucky coach Joker Phillips has been preaching to his team since receiving a text from a former unidentified player battling liver and lung cancer last week. The players are trying to salvage their season, while Phillips is battling to save his job. Somewhere, a friend of Phillips is trying to save his life. “It's a bigger fight than we are facing right now and that's how I look at it,” the Kentucky coach said.

It's time to quit referring to Kentucky coach Joker Phillips as a great guy or someone who has spent multiple years of his life at UK as a player, assistant coach and head coach. It's time to quit referring to Kentucky's young roster even though the Wildcats are playing more true freshmen than almost every team in the country. Instead, it's time to face the obvious - something just has not clicked in Phillips' three years as head coach and the Wildcat have to make a change, especially after the embarrassing 49-7 loss at Arkansas Saturday.

LEXINGTON - The Kentucky football team will honor recent Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Dermontti Dawson on Oct. 20 with Dermontti Dawson Day at Commonwealth Stadium when the Wildcats face Georgia. Dawson, who played at Kentucky from 1984-87, will sign autographs in the Wildcat Refuge two hours before the 7 p.m. kickoff. Dawson will be honored on the field during the game, while the first 10,000 fans in the stadium will receive a Dermontti Dawson rally towel. Dawson spent his entire professional career playing playing center for the Pittsburgh Steelers and was a six-time All-Pro selection.

LEXINGTON - Kentucky football coach Joker Phillips is counting on a lot of freshmen to carry the load for his team at the midway point of the season. One of those newcomers - punter Landon Foster - has been a consistent performer for the Wildcats and turned in a solid outing in Kentucky's 27-14 loss to Mississippi State Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. Foster had eight punts for 350 yards, an average of 43.8 yards per kick against the Bulldogs, including a 56-yarder in the first quarter.

LEXINGTON - He's a college basketball analyst, but he's a college football fan. So while Dick Vitale knows Kentucky fans were bitterly disappointed with UK's overtime loss to Western Kentucky, he was also thrilled for WKU coach Willie Taggart because he played “where I lived” in Florida. “He has kids from Bradenton, Fla. He knows how good football is in this area,” said Vitale, who was in Lexington last Friday speaking to those attending the John Calipari Fantasy Experience. “Manatee High School is No. 1 in the USA Today football poll.

LEXINGTON - He had a career-high 10 tackles and 1.5 quarterback sacks against Western Kentucky on Saturday and has had a sack, tackle for loss, fumble recovery or pass breakup in seven of his last eight games. But senior defensive end Collins Ukwu knows Kentucky is at a crossroads going into the Southeastern Conference opener at No. 14 Florida this week. Kentucky is 1-2 after the overtime loss to Western - the Hilltoppers' first win over a SEC school. Ukwu, a team captain with 82 career tackles, offered these insights into what lies ahead for the Cats: Question: Did you ever imagine teams could be so successful running the ball on Kentucky this year?

LEXINGTON - He's won only 12 games and lost 16 in a little over two seasons at Kentucky, but it's not hard for coach Joker Phillips to explain why he thinks he deserves more time to get the football program back on track. “Well, I mean, we got 72 freshmen and sophomores in this program.  We just played a program (Western Kentucky) that has 50 juniors and seniors in their program,” Phillips said Monday. “We got to be better than that. But we got a lot of good, young players playing ball for us.” Not only are they playing, but Phillips noted how many are playing “significant roles” this season.

The noise is getting louder. The dissident voices have gotten more vocal in the aftermath of Kentucky's 32-31 loss to Western Kentucky in overtime last Saturday night at Commonwealth Stadium. Some of them haven't been happy since the Wildcats went 5-7 a year ago. Others aren't satisfied because Kentucky opened the season with two losses in three games, including the one-point setback to the Hilltoppers, a team the Cats defeated soundly 63-28 two years ago at Commonwealth Stadium. Many season ticket holders spoke out by not renewing their tickets before the season even began, resulting in sub-par attendance in the stands, with numbers that haven't been as below-par since the Bill Curry era. Much was given to Joker Phillips when he assumed control of the program three years ago and much has been expected.

About 48 hours before Kentucky lost to Western Kentucky, three UK¿players were cited for marijuana possession. One was starting junior running Raymond Sanders. Another was redshirt freshman receiver Bookie Cobbins, who missed part of spring practice for academic reasons. The third was sophomore cornerback Marcus Caffey, who was slated to be a starter before being declared academically ineligible for the season. WLEX-TV confirmed that the three were not arrested, but were cited to appear in court Oct. 9. Both Sanders and Cobbins were suspended for the Western game by coach Joker Phillips.

LEXINGTON - Sophomore Demarco Robinson had seven catches for 75 yards and three punt returns for 28 yards against Western Kentucky Saturday for his most productive game at Kentucky. However, the Wildcats still lost 32-31 in overtime and Robinson was one of the players who met with the media after the game to try and explain the loss as well as UK's 1-2 start going into the beginning of Southeastern Conference play Saturday at No. 14 Florida: Question: How hard will it be to come back from this loss and get ready for Southeastern Conference play?