Conversation with QB Reese Phillips

[LarryVaught1]

Often redshirt freshman quarterback Reese Phillips will emerge from a meeting with Kentucky offensive coordinator Neal Brown feeling good about the way he’s playing.

Then he’ll see and read media reports about how the competition to be UK’s starter is between sophomore Patrick Towles and freshman Drew Barker, both in-sate players.

So does he feel overlooked by the media?

“Absolutely. I like you guys, but absolutely. A lot of times I will read stuff and watch the news — and I try not to but that is so hard nowadays — and my name is not even mentioned,” he said. “Coach Brown will say all these good things about me and I will turn on the news and I am not even on it.

“I think a lot of it is now people are starting to realize I can hang, but I don’t know if they want to know that. I don’t know if that makes any sense. People have their favorites and that’s just part of it.”

He knows many fans and media members are surprised he’s still in the quarterback competition.

“I think surprised is a good word. People tell me that all the time. But for me it was a thing where I just keep my head down, don't focus on the media,” Phillips said. “That's part of it with great players like Drew, and that's what we want; we want that kind of attention. For me, it was just do the right things, do what coach Brown wants me to do, and that builds trust; and with that, I might not get all the attention, but I know that coach Brown knows I can play and I can start."

Phillips doesn’t even being labelled as the most consistent of the three quarterbacks. To him, that’s praise, not a negative.

“When I read that, I read it as a good thing, especially in this kind of offense. This is one of those offenses where you have to be consistent, and when the time comes, make the big play. So, no, I don't look at it as a negative. I think that's a good thing,” he said. “That's a big part of this offense. We want to throw it. So to be able to throw it a lot, you've got to be consistent, make accurate throws and good decisions. I think he's starting to trust us a little bit more."

Phillips, like the other quarterbacks, is honest with his view of the competition and likes the players he’s competing again.

"Drew, he's a young guy, but he's picked up stuff very well. He's picked up very quickly. He's a smart guy. He's got a good arm, obviously. Towles obviously has a big arm. He's improved a lot, just like all of us have. Max (Smith) is extremely intelligent when it comes to understanding football, just as a whole. We all have different strengths, but a lot of us have the same things, too,” he said.

What is his bigest area of improvement?

"My lower body, my footwork. My footwork's gotten a lot better from last year. That's just work in the summer, just consistently drilling it,”  Phillips said.

He’s also improved his arm strength.

“My tempo and my drops have become a lot faster. With that, I can use my legs more, not have to rely on just using my arm. So a lot of that in the summer, working on that kind of stuff,” he said.

He did that work because he knows whoever wins the starting quarterback job could lay claim to it for a while. Smith, who is still limited as he comes back from a shoulder injury, is a junior. Towles has three years left and Barker and Phillips both have four years.

“It enters my mind. I'm sure it enters theirs. That's just part of it,” Phillips said.

But this is not a cut-throat competition and all the quarterbacks are handling it in a professional manner.

"We are good friends. We've hung out, outside of football, quite a bit,” Phillips said. “This group is a lot closer than last year. We all care about each other. At the end of the day, it's about the team. Whoever does come out on top, it's about winning. It's about this team winning. We support each other. We help each other. We help each other when we make negative plays or mess up. We try to fix each other."

For Towles and Barker, winning the job would be a dream come true for a Kentucky prep star. But Phillips’ rise would be a fairy tale story, too.

Remember he verbally committed to UK when Joker Phillips was coach and Randy Sanders offensive coordinator. Since Phillips was planning to graduate early to enroll at Kentucky for the second semester, that gave new head coach Mark Stoops and Brown a short period to evaluate him. Brown even got lost on his way to Chattanooga to make a home visit.

“I have always said that my first spring practice, coach Brown had never seen me throw until that first practice. That was my recruitment by him,” Phillips said. “He got lost coming to visit me. But I just got extremely lucky with this staff and we’ll just see what happens. But it would make for a good story if I am the starter.”

And then nobody would be able to overlook him.

[Darrell KSR]

Larry, thanks for writing that story. It needed to be written. There are several guys here who have touted Phillips, and keep the embers stirred, but this was a sorely needed story for the masses. Enjoyed it a great deal.

[Terry Blue]

After watching Saturday, it would not surprise me at all if he's named starter. It would surprise me if it's Towles either, but Reece is right there