Kentucky head coach Joker Phillips met with the media on Wednesday after a cool and blustery spring practice session, and his mind was on the Wildcats’ first full scrimmage of the spring, which took place this past Saturday.Initially, Phillips and his staff were critical of the team’s performance in multiple facets of the game, but a look back at the scrimmage on tape revealed they were a little too harsh. There effort was there from both the offense and defense, which is something that can’t be taken for granted.”I was a little concerned about both sides of the ball, but when you look at it, especially from a head coach’s standpoint when you’ve got a chance to see it on film, it was really competitive,” Phillips said. “Both sides can’t win.”In the session at Commonwealth Stadium, UK’s defense got the job done initially.”The thing I saw on the defensive side is how fast they started,” Phillips said. “They stopped the number one offense three straight series. That means our defense is playing well.”The offense, though, stepped up.”On the other side, our offense wasn’t playing well, but I was also pleased with how they responded in the second half of the scrimmage and made some plays, had some explosion plays, we put together a drive off the 10-yard line,” Phillips said.On the offensive side, sophomore Demarco Robinson, who has worked primarily as UK’s slot receiver, looked to have the ability to be the playmaker the offense needs. He caught a 30-yard square-in pass and then a screen pass from Jacob Russell that he turned into a 60-yard touchdown in the blink of an eye.”He’s starting to get confidence and we’re starting to have confidence in him that he knows what to do,” Phillips said.Phillips is also hoping Robinson can assume full-time kick and punt return duties and provide some much-needed game-breaking ability on special teams. Like the rest of the team, it’s a work in progress.”Are we where we need to be?” Phillips said. “Not even close, but there are some positive things for us to build on.”Here’s video of Phillips’ comments today:
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