Joker Phillips arrived at Roxy’s Pub in downtown West Palm Beach with a sense of humor and excited about a fresh start.
After three frustrating seasons as Kentucky’s head football coach, Phillips joined Florida coach Will Muschamp’s staff in December as recruiting coordinator and receivers coach. He spent Tuesday night familiarizing himself with scores of Palm Beach County Gator Club members.
"They paid me a lot of money at the other place not to coach," Phillips, 49, said of Kentucky's buyout after his former team's 10-loss season in 2012.
“I wanted to stay in the South, where I could get sweet tea. I wanted to recruit some of the elite athletes across the country. Third, I want to win a damn championship.”
Phillips, who over his career has coached receivers at five different schools and went 13-24 in his time at Kentucky, touched on a variety topics at Roxy’s rooftop bar.
He joked about taking a forearm shiver from ex-Florida linebacker Wilber Marshall as a freshman receiver at Kentucky. He conducted snap-count drills with the audience. But he also covered serious football territory.
His primary jobs? Getting receivers to run crisper routes — especially, he said, with Florida expanding its passing game — and “going door to door” to find the Gators’ next star players. Phillips, who has recruited Florida prospects for more than two decades, said the Gators would continue their statewide push for recruits while still recruiting nationally.
“Because we can,” he said.
Florida nabbed Glades Day grad Kelvin Taylor as part of its impressive Class of 2013 haul and is considered a top contender for 2014 receivers Johnnie Dixon (Dwyer) and Travis Rudolph (Cardinal Newman).
As he started to tell the crowd more about his recruiting plan, the zookeeper who warmed up the audience walked by with a 3-year-old alligator in her arms, preparing to put the gator back in its cage, which was a few feet from Phillips.
“Oh, no,” he shouted, jumping to his right and losing his train of thought. “When’s the last time he ate?”
The crowd loved it, and in that moment, Phillips endeared himself to at least Palm Beach County’s faction of Gators fans.
“I was in the back, and I met a guy named Franck,” Phillips said, spelling the man’s name. “Franck said, ‘Hey, we love you. Go Gators.’
“I said, ‘They loved me at the last place where I was 0-fer.’ I hope Franck loves me after this season.”
