UK Football: Phillips ‘relaxed’ heading into debut

It’s only five days until Joker Phillips makes his debut as the head coach at Kentucky, but he’s not sure how his emotions will be when the Wildcats take on Louisville at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.
“It is early. My thoughts are similar to the other seasons that I’ve started,” Phillips said Monday during his weekly press conference at Wildcat Den. “But I’m sure maybe Saturday morning I’ll be hugging the toilet somewhere, I don’t know – haven’t done that in a long time, since I was a player at one time. But I don’t know.

“It’s just one of those deals that I’ve been as relaxed as I’ve ever been. But Saturday, who knows.
The thing that I know that I have to be is have the emotions under control because there’s a lot of decisions throughout the game you have to make, so you have to have your emotions under control.”
Like his predecessor Rich Brooks, Phillips said his top concern is making sure his team is prepared for the season opener, especially the newcomers.
“The thing that you worry about is how the young guys are going to react,” he said. “It’s a big stadium that we’re about to go into. We’ll play I think it’s eight first year guys, guys that just came in with this class, whether it be junior college players or true freshmen.
“We’ll play eight new guys. The biggest thing is how those guys will react. Mychal Bailey (defensive back) will be starting for us. Last year, he was starting at Southwest Community College in Mississippi in front of about 400 people, friends and family only. (On) Saturday, he’ll be starting in front of 55,000 people and playing on regional TV.”