Kentucky Football Coach Rich Brooks might be leading the nation in frequent flyer miles ? or, at least he has for the last 11 days as he has traveled to much of the continental United States and Hawaii on recruiting visits. He returned to Lexington Wednesday night and met with the media on Thursday to catch up on his recent activities. Here are quotes from Coach Brooks:
On the factors that led him to name Joker Phillips as the new offensive coordinator?
?Joker is a very experienced coach and a very knowledgeable coach. He?s a guy that has been in a variety of different programs and offenses. I was very impressed with him back in 1998 when he spent a summer with us at the (Atlanta) Falcons, and that was on the defensive side of the ball. He?s a bright young coach who has probably been overdue to be a coordinator. I think this is a good situation to give him his first opportunity. Everybody has to get that first opportunity somewhere. I?m glad I?m able to do it for Joker.?
On what he?s looking for when he hires the two new assistant coaches?
?I?m just looking for the best coach, the best fit. I?m looking in-house. I may shuffle a coach to a different position. I?m either going to hire a quarterbacks coach or a running backs coach. I had one interview today and another this afternoon. I will continue to go through this process. I would expect that on the offensive side, I?ll interview at least five or six individuals in-person before I reach a decision. There?s no timetable on it. It will be kind of open-ended because right now, although getting a good coach that fits in here is critically important, the most important thing for me right now is recruiting.?
On whether Coach Phillips? new title will change his involvement in the recruiting process?
?He will be the recruiting coordinator through the end of this recruiting season. When this recruiting season?s over, and when I hire the two assistants, I will designate a new recruiting coordinator. Basically, that entails all of the organizational things in recruiting, the planning, the visits, the scheduling of the coaches when they?re out and when they?re not. Joker is still going to recruit, like all of our coaches, and Joker certainly will still be on the road doing the recruiting. During the season, because he?s the (offensive) coordinator, he probably won?t be out but maybe two or three days that the other coaches are out, but other than that, he?ll be recruiting full-time and do the excellent job that he normally does.?
On recruiting?
?I think it?s going very well. We?ve had a few more commitments. We?ve been able to gain more interest from a few players who had indicated they may not have been interested, initially. Maybe they?ve gone in another direction and they will reconsider us. We have a big weekend this weekend with quite a few prospects in. We have a pretty decent-sized weekend the first weekend of January and there will be very few numbers coming in after that. We?re probably over half-done on commitments. That doesn?t mean they will sign on signing day (Feb. 2), so that?s the thing we have to ensure happens.?
On whether they are recruiting by position or by finding the best players available, regardless of position?
?There?s a few guys like that who can go to either side of the ball and play more than one position, but we have to get some offensive linemen and we have to get some defensive linemen. Other than that, it?s by position. Because of the holes left by the probation, there are some positions on this team that are very undermanned.?
On what has helped the Cats? recent recruiting efforts?
?I think the thing that has changed some of the players? minds is the hard work of the coaches that have been out recruiting. It?s an advantage when you?re able to sit down face-to-face with players on the road or in their home or in their high school during the contact period and do that. I don?t think the changes specifically had anything to do with whether you perceive it to be a better program. I thought recruiting was going very well before any changes took place. This staff can recruit. They can evaluate and they can recruit.?
On whether the staff will continue to ?grayshirt? incoming freshmen?
?We have to do that. We?ve already addressed that with some recruits. We will continue to do that through the next six weeks. We will end up with maybe a similar number of grayshirts a year from this January as we have coming in this January. We have had to get a little creative to try to cover some of the holes those limitations created and we will continue to do that. In my mind, the grayshirts next year will hopefully replace, like they will this year, some of the junior-college players you would normally bring in that slot. So, we will try to do the same thing going forward, next year.?
On former inside linebackers coach Ron McBride, who recently accepted the head-coaching position at Weber State?
?Coach Mac is a unique person. He?s an outstanding coach and an even better human being. I?m excited for him that he?s getting another opportunity to be a head coach. I know he?s excited about it. We will miss him as a person and as a coach. He?s a guy who keeps things on the loose side when sometimes it isn?t the best atmosphere in the world after a tough loss. Coach Mac always had a way of lightening things up a little bit.?
On the team?s injury situation?
?Arliss Beach had a bone spur in his ankle that has been a continuing problem for him. He had that removed Tuesday. He?s rehabbing from that and he will have maybe a scope (arthroscopic surgery) on his shoulder as well on the AC joint. We have ongoing issues with Wesley Woodyard with the surgery. They may go in and remove that screw at some point that they put in the tibia and the fibula in his ankle, but we?ll just have to see. We do have some other minor issues. There?s nothing that I perceive as a major thing. Ernie Pelayo continues to recover fully from his shoulder operation. He will be cleared for full lifting in January, which is good news. We?ve got a good situation where we may be able to get him a medical sixth year (of eligibility) because he also missed a year in junior college because of the other shoulder he had operated on. The poor guy has had two shoulders (injuries) and a knee (injury). Hopefully, we can have him healthy and get him going. We are gathering all of the information to apply to get that year back.?
On the positives from Kentucky?s final two games of the season?
?I think one of the positives you draw from the last two games of the season is that we had maybe the biggest fourth-quarter comeback in UK football history against Vanderbilt. We scored more points than a Kentucky team has scored on Tennessee at Tennessee (since 1893). We had an opportunity to win that game. You?ve got to see that there are some positive things building with a lot of young players. A lot of the players that made plays in both of those games are back. When you add more good talent to those players that are returning, I think we have a little positive momentum that we can build on. Having said that, we still have to lift, we have to run and we have to go through spring ball. We have to get in the summer (lifting and conditioning), we have to go through fall camp and then we have to come out and beat somebody. Was there a little progress at the end? Yes, there was. But, does it mean anything? We?ll have to wait and see.?
On Lonnell Dewalt playing football and basketball?
?It?s the same way as last year when we recruited Lonnell. Tubby (Smith) decided at that time that he would give him an opportunity to practice. I agreed we would do that. I?m not requiring that he does anything for football until he?s done with basketball. I haven?t talked to Tubby since he?s been out there. I?m assuming he?s practicing. I don?t know how he?s doing, I?ve just been recruiting. I hope he?s doing well and hope that he can be a guy that can help them.?
