The annual Kentucky Football Kickoff Luncheon was held on Friday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Lexington. Offensive coordinator Joker Phillips, defensive coordinator Mike Archer, and head coach Rich Brooks were the featured speakers. Here are quotes from each of the coaches.
Offensive Coordinator Joker Phillips
?I?m really excited about the opportunity to be the offensive coordinator. Being a Kentuckian and an alumnus I am really excited to be leading the offense. I?ve gotten a lot of letters from people since I?ve taken the job. One that stood out, from Bill Ransdell (former UK quarterback) said have fun. The other, from Jeff Van Note (former UK player) said you must attack on offense, even more so than on defense. Those two notes stuck in my mind.?
?I plan have to have fun with my job. If I have fun, my players will have fun. Mitch Barnhart mentioned having fun and that?s what we have to get back to. Coach Brooks added two great coaches to our offense. He added Kurt Roper from Ole Miss to coach the quarterbacks. He is doing an unbelievable job with Andre? Woodson. Coach Brooks also added Jimmy Heggins. You don?t stay 18 years at Florida State like he did without knowing what you?re doing. Jimmy Heggins has done a really good job with our offensive line. We already had Steve Ortmayer who has a lot of experience in the NFL. We also have Ron Caragher who does a really good job with our running backs. One thing we did this off-season is put our heads together and we all came up with things that had been successful at different places and aome up with an offense that will be successful at Kentucky. I think we have so really good young talent and right now we have to get those guys experience.?
?On the offensive line we have Matt McCutchan, who is a transfer from the Naval Academy. He is guy who will fight you to the horn. Our guards are Mike Aitcheson and Trai Williams. Trai Williams is one of the strongest guys I?ve been around. He?s from Franklin, Kentucky (Coach Phillips? home town) so that makes him even better. Our tackles are Hayden Lane and Fatu Turituri. He is doing a tremendous job from moving to guard in the spring to tackle. He has adjusted well. The thing I like about the offensive line is that they all fight.?
?At tight end we have Jacob Tamme, who I think has the ability to be one of the best tight ends in Kentucky history. He converted from wide receiver and understands the passing game. He is also athletic enough to stay on his feet and be effective in the running game.?
?At wide receivers, I don?t know who the starters will be. We have four starters in my opinion. Keenan Burton is probably the most athletic. Scott Mitchell is a senior and you guys saw what he could do in the Tennessee game. He had over 100 yards receiving in that game. He has great physical body. Tommy Cook is a sixth year senior who I joke was playing back when I was playing. He was just named captain. He is a tough, hard- nosed, throwback player. He knows how to play the game. We also have Glenn Holt returning, who is the second leading receiver in the conference. The thing I talk to him about is making those eight-yard catches 10-12 yard catches.?
?At fullback we have Alexis Bwenge, a Canadian kid, who is a solid hard-nosed football player. He hasn?t missed a practice in five years and I think that says a lot about him.?
?At running back, we have Rafael Little as our starter. He is a real explosive guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield. He is getting better at pass blocking. Arliss Beach has been around battling injuries for years. He is a solid player for us. We also have Draak Davis, who is our fastball. He is a little guy who can get to the corner for us.?
?The main ingredient for our offense is Andre? Woodson. He is 6-5, 235 pounds, with a very strong arm. Woodson is very talented. He has really started to become a leader and we?re happy at how he is becoming a student of the game.?
?Our goals offensively are three things. I want us to play with effort and passion. The second thing is no bad penalties. The third thing is you have to take care of the football. If you do those three things, in the fourth quarter we?re going to grind out some football games.?
Defensive Coordinator Mike Archer
?On defense we?ve had two great additions to our staff. Rick Petri, our defensive line coach, came to us from Ole Miss. He?s been a great addition and he is going to make us a better football team. Chuck Smith, from Boyle County, was a very successful high school coach. He has done a great job with our linebackers. He is an alum (of Kentucky) and it?s very important to him to turn UK into a successful program. Those two, along with Steve Brown, give us a great staff that I really enjoy working with. All the three coaches are great teachers who care about the players on and off the field.?
?We have changed to the 4-3 defense. We started playing that defense against Louisville (last season) because I thought it gave us the best chance to win. It worked for a half and as the season went on we decided to make the change. I think our team has embraced and enjoyed the change.?
?Right now on defense we have a young man named B. Jay Parsons, from California, starting at one end who played some for us last season. This year he is a different guy. At tackles we thought we?d have five players but due to injuries we are down to three. Starting at one tackle will be Trey Mielsch who has been a starter and very consistent. At nose tackle we have Lamar Mills from New Orleans. They?ll be backed up by Myron Pryor, a freshman from Louisville, and Ventrell Jenkins. Jenkins is anther freshman from Columbia, South Carolina. The other end will be Durrell White, who played outside backer for us the last couple years. The ends are backed up by Nii Adjei Oniku, from Cincinnati, and Travis Day. Day has been here a couple years, including a redshirt, and I think he has had an outstanding camp. He makes things happen and is fun to coach. I think he has put himself in position were I would be very comfortable putting him in the football game.?
?At linebackers everybody knows about the transition and has talked about doom and gloom. I don?t see it that way. I think Chuck Smith has done an outstanding job coaching the young linebackers that we have. Right now if we played the game today Braxton Kelley, a true freshman, would be starting at middle linebacker. On the outside, we have Wesley Woodyard, who played last year as true freshman, will be our weakside backer. Woodyard and Kelley are from the same program in LaGrange, Ga. They know how to win, expect to win, and they love to practice. It?s very contagious around the rest of our program. They are very enthusiastic and have fun. Usually when you have fun, you have success. On the other side we have Raymond Fontaine who has been here and been successful. He is a Canadian who had a very good camp. They?ll be backed up by Joe Schuler. Joe has been slowed by injury. Schuler will be a major factor on our football team. He?ll probably be our fourth linebacker and be very versatile. Johnny Williams, a true freshman, will be backing up at our sam (strongside) backer. We also have Terry Clayton, who is mostly deaf. He?s an amazing story. He?s a fun young man to coach. He is also an outstanding student.?
?I like our secondary. We have Bo Smith back after sitting out last season with an injury. Smith is a warrior. He?s very well respected by his teammates. I think he is going to have a great year. He is back up by David Jones. Jones is a young man from Belfry in Kentucky and who has played on state championship teams. He will be a major contributor to our football team as a freshman. At strong safety we have Muhammad Abdullah, who has been named a team captain by his teammates. He is a quiet leader, but when he says something you listen. I have a lot respect for Mo and what he has done. He will be backed up by Roger Williams, who has had an outstanding camp. At free safety we have Marcus McClinton, a young man who had to play as a true freshman. He?s backed up by Karl Booker. Karl is making the adjustment from corner to safety. At the other corner we have Antoine Huffman, who has been starting for three years. I think he is going to step up in his leadership role. He is backed up by Shomari Moore. He?s not the biggest guy at 5-8, but he has really made a lot of progress.?
?I think four things will happen this year. You?re going to see our defense play hard. I think they enjoy being around each other. I?ve had more fun coaching this group since I?ve been back in college. We?re going to play hard, we?re going to play together, and we?re going to be a team that is united, pulling for the offense and special teams. In the fourth quarter, we have an opportunity to pull out a game like last year we?re going to play smart. That?s all I can guarantee you. Being around these kids the last few weeks you can see they are having fun. It should be fun to be a student-athlete at the University of Kentucky. If can?t get excited about playing your arch-rival in that environment then you need to be doing something else. Our young men understand that and enjoy it. This team will be very enthusiastic to play.?
Head Coach Rich Brooks
?This attitude that Coach Archer and Joker have expressed just didn?t start in fall camp. It?s been a process starting in January, going through spring practice, and the summer.?
?I?d like to touch on our special teams, starting with Taylor Begley. Begley is our kicker and a near-4.0 student. He?ll be doing the placements. At this point Tim Masthay will be kicking off. He is a freshman from Murray, Ky., who is in serious competition with Kris Kessler for the punting job. Hopefully that gets decided in the last week. I think the return game is in pretty good shape. We have Keenan Burton who was a key guy for us last year. From there we have quite a few other choices like John Logan on kickoffs, Dicky Lyons on both punts and kickoffs, and Rafael Little who did such a great job for us last year. That phase looks to be in pretty good shape for us.?
?I really believe that this team will really need your support. We have a very young team. We have a lot of talented young men like Andre? Woodson. Woodson started one football game as a freshman against an undefeated football team at Auburn. He played admirably. He is a sophomore and he will make mistakes. He is also going to do some wonderful things, so let?s not get down on young players. I think we are going to very exciting and young players like Woodson, Kelley, Burton, Little, McClinton, and Tamme are going to play huge roles for us and do some wonderful things for our football team. I?m as confident as I?ve ever been here that our team is going to compete. This isn?t going to be a situation where somebody comes in here and rolls us. That?s not going to happen to our football team. This group of players is going to lay it on the line and compete. As the rest of my coaches have said, we?re going to have some fun doing it. I look forward to seeing everyone out at Commonwealth.?
