Aug. 13, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. — First-year University of Kentucky football head coach Joker Phillips and the 2010 UK football team has completed its first full week of fall camp and will hold a closed scrimmage at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday. The scrimmage is not open to the general public or the media.
Phillips said practice was “a lot better” Friday after cutting down on the speed of practice in order to make sure that the players will be at full speed for Saturday’s scrimmage.
“We cut back a little bit because we want to see them play fast tomorrow,” Phillips said. “We went over some assignments and walked through special teams to get those things organized for tomorrow. Mentally, they were into it and we just hope physically tomorrow they come prepared and ready to go.”
The first-year head coach reiterated the point that the scrimmage will pay dividends in formulating the depth chart, saying it was a “huge” scrimmage for most underclassmen.
“After tomorrow we will try to figure out who we think can help us and start to cut down on who we are working with,” Phillips said. “We won’t be working with the same amount of numbers because we will start scaling back and get ready to play against Louisville.”
The scrimmage will consist of a few special teams, or special forces as Phillips calls them, to begin the practice. Phillips says the punt team, which he calls the bombers, and the kickoff return team, which he calls the strike force, will get several reps in order to get those formations on tape to study and teach. The field goal unit will also receive enough snaps in order for Phillips to get to see all kickers in action.
After the special teams’ snaps, Phillips said he will put the ball on the 35-yard-line and “go with it.” The head man said the scrimmage will be longer than normal in order to get all quarterbacks the reps that they need. He also said that he will dictate the scrimmage by making sure that all the formations and situations they want to see, happens.
“I will control it,” Phillips said. “If we are not getting enough (reps) in the redzone, then we will end up in the redzone. If we are not getting enough (reps) on the goalline then I will make sure that we get some. We will make sure that we are getting all the situations that we want to get, which are redzone and goalline.”
