Nobody, including Joker Phillips, wants to see Rich Brooks go. His contributions and his footprint will be eternalized in Kentucky football lore.

But Brooks is gone and the program is now at a transition. Where will it go? That direction will be determined by Phillips, a coach who has long paid his dues to get where he is today.

“It’s an interesting journey (trying to move to your dream job) and there are days … that you think that day will never come,” UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said. “I had the journey for about 16 or 17 years. Joker has been an assistant coach for 20-plus years and I’m sure there were times when he wondered if he was going to get his chance. I’m very glad that the day has come for him to take the reins and be a head football coach.”

He’s earned it and he deserves it for all of the reasons he deserved it and earned it two years ago when he was named the successor to Brooks.

“Two years ago when I introduced (Phillips) as head-coach-in-waiting, it was a very unique deal at the time but since then has been used a couple other places,” Barnhart said. “There are those that are proponents of it and critics of it. Regardless, we’re at a spot where we hoped to be a couple years ago with the characteristics of a guy we truly believe understands and wants to carry Kentucky football to another level and build on the foundation that Rich and Karen (Brooks) have left for us to move on with.” For the same reasoning a couple of years ago, it was the right move Wednesday. Those very same characteristics are what made it so easy.

The credentials that warranted Phillips’ hiring are long and accomplished. In fact, it probably would be easier to try to dissect the few reasons why maybe Phillips wasn’t qualified (but we’ll take a stab at all the reasons he was hired anyway).

Maybe more importantly than all the rest, he earned it. 

As an offensive coordinator for the last five years and wide receivers coach for the last seven, UK’s offense has thrived. In 2007, the Cats scored a school-record 475 points, helping spark UK to a second consecutive Music City Bowl championship.

When offensive stalwarts like Andre Woodson, Rafael Little, Keenan Burton and Jacob Tamme left for the NFL, it left Phillips to juggle with an inexperienced and unproven roster of playmakers.

Even when injuries, a disciplinary dismissal and constant quarterback changes in 2008 and 2009 piled on, Phillips was still able to put on a show, helping UK to seven wins and bowl appearances in each of the last two years.

Phillips faced some minor criticism the past two years – largely from a minute fraction of the fan base that was spoiled by the high-flying 2007 team – yet he still managed to finish in the top half of the SEC in scoring offense last year and transformed the Cats into an unstoppable run machine in 2009.

And make no mistake about it, whether it’s been stellar recruiting classes or dynamic play calling, he’s been one of the most important people in the turnaround.

“Our program has come an awful long ways the past seven years,” Barnhart said. “From the journey of probation, from the lack of scholarships, lack of competitiveness, to where we have the ability to line up on the field and compete anywhere at any time, that’s a tribute to the coaching staff and the effort they’ve put in place. … Joker has been an intricate part of that.”

He was an integral part because he shared the same vision of the man largely credited with the turnaround. Just because the visionary is gone doesn’t mean the dream has to die.

“(I’m) just passing the torch,” Brooks said Monday.

The choice to replace Brooks with Phillips two years ago and today created stability within the program. With Philips at the helm, not much is going to change. The goal to win and the desire to take the next step is still there.

That much was obvious when Phillips instituted his first order of business as head coach at the news conference, an initiative called “Operation Win.”

“This means continuing to strive for excellence in every possible area related to the Kentucky football program,” Phillips said. “This is not about Joker Phillips. This is about we. There are many parts to a successful program and my job is to evaluate where we can turn it up a notch.”

As Brooks’ right-hand man and successor, Phillips was placed in a unique position where he could study what he needed to do to be ready.

“I thought that he was prepared a few years ago and obviously, the administration agreed as well,” said Brooks, who two years ago at the Music City Bowl approached Barnhart and UK President Dr. Lee T. Todd, Jr., that Phillips should be the next head coach.

“He is a Kentucky guy who lives and dies the job of college football,” Brooks said. “There is a week here and a week there where you can shut it down, but it is a seven-days-a-week, 24-hour-a-day job. Joker lives it and breathes it. He is prepared from a fundamental standpoint. He has a great personality and he is good with the young men he coaches. He and the coaching staff are in a position to take it and run with it and do a very good job.”

After all, it’s not like he hasn’t learned from one of the best.

“Rich has prepared Joker well,” Barnhart said. “I’ve watched them interact. When I call Rich sometimes he’ll be in the car and Joker is right here with him. You don’t drive miles and miles on the recruiting trail and travel on planes together without gleaning knowledge from someone you trust.”

The stability will trickle down to recruiting as well, which Phillips, a nationally respected recruiter, called the most important part of building a successful program.

Those high school kids, then and now, that Phillips and Brooks recruited, knew as well as anybody that Brooks likely wouldn’t be around for their entire careers, but they chose to commit to UK anyway because they placed their trust in Phillips.

If nothing else, it saves a long and arduous coaching search. Although people are sad to see Brooks go, they can take solace in the fact that a proven, deserving guy is taking over.

“It hit me (Sunday) night as I was kind of letting this all sink in,” Todd said. “It’s great not to be doing a coaching search right now. Those things are anguishing. You get tons of opinions, tons of analysis … We know who the coach is going to be. Joker has paid his dues. He is, as Rich said, a Kentuckian. It does make a difference.”

Because Phillips understands where Kentucky came from, what it’s been through and where it wants to go. He’s lived it. He’s breathed it. He’s waited for it.

Throughout Phillips’ 20-plus years as an assistant coach, he never knew quite when it would get here.

“I was just plowing ahead trying to be the best assistant,” Phillips said. “I learned from Bill Curry (to) do the best job with the job you got and people will call. That is all I ever tried to do.”

That call finally came Wednesday. It was the right one two years ago, and it’s the right one now.