BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Joker Phillips became the first head coach in Kentucky football history to go to a bowl game in his first year, but the season didn’t quite end like he hoped with Kentucky suffering its first losing season since 2005. Even so, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart was satisfied with the job Phillips did in his first year at the helm.”Joker did fine,” Barnhart said following UK’s 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl. “He was fine. It was a learning process. You’ve never been a head coach until you’ve been a head coach. He was a head coach for the first time this year and it is no different than a guy moving into a starting quarterback role or something like that. It moves quickly. … He did a lot of good things. We were a good offensive team at times but eventually the two things that hurt us the most was turnovers at critical times and the special teams. And at times we just flat out made mistakes that cost us.”Phillips wasn’t shy about taking disciplinary action with the team, handing out multiple one-game suspensions throughout the season. The most controversial one was the latest, a one-game suspension to starting quarterback Mike Hartline, who did not play Saturday because of an off-the-field incident.Phillips maintained throughout every suspension that the team had to conduct itself better on and off the field, adding that he was at Kentucky to prepare his players for the rest of their lives.Barnhart fully stood behind his football coach and his decision to hand out suspensions.”He established some of the things he wanted to put into the program,” Barnhart said. “He had some hard lines he had to draw early on about the way that he was going to conduct his business. That came back to hurt us at times because he sat some guys down when it probably wasn’t the most popular thing to do and sometimes it wasn’t the most popular thing in the locker room, but he did it because he thought it was better for the long-term piece of the program, and I appreciate that.”As expected, Barnhart was noticeably disappointed following the loss, but he remained positive for the future of Kentucky and for Phillips.”We have guys that have been around this program and now it is time for us to continue to grow,” Barnhart said. “We don’t want to be a 6-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 type of program and you have to grow. It is a tough league to grow in and we know that. I want to thank the seniors as they leave because they have given a lot to this program. The guys that came when they said we couldn’t get anything done, they made something happen for us.”