SEC Season Preview: Can The Joker take Kentucky from the SEC basement?

Joker Phillips’ job at Kentucky can’t be easy. After all, they seem to always live in the shadow of their band of basketball brothers, and never seem to come out. Even when they posted relatively successful numbers in 2006 – 2009, no-one particularly appreciated them, and even now it’s as though Randall Cobb went straight from high school to Green Bay without playing for Big Blue in between. Well, Joker wants to make right on all of that, and have a team that can not only own hated rival Louisville, but do some damage in the SEC East. Can this be his year? LAST SEASON Last season the Kentucky Wildcats were pretty awful, finishing the year 5-7. That might not

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Maxwell Smith named as Kentucky’s starting quarterback

Joker Phillips has made Maxwell Smith his starting quarterback for the 2012 season. Smith, who threw for 819 yards and 4 TDs (and 4 INTs) for the Wildcats last year, was named earlier this week. The new QB told the Courier-Journal: “I heard about it this morning. Coach Joker and Coach Sanders were together and they called me in, and that’s when I found out. I felt good, felt great. That’s what I’ve been working for since I was a little kid, to get a job to start on an SEC team. It might not have been SEC at the time; you know I’m a West Coast guy. It might’ve been Pac-10 at the time, but I’m glad to be

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