Mark Story: A few suggestions for Joker in 2011

I feel a little sorry for Joker Phillips.

For the ex-Wildcats wide receiver and longtime Kentucky assistant, being head football coach at the University of Kentucky is his dream job. Yet Phillips got his chance to be head coach at his alma mater at a particularly challenging time.

Coming into the 2010 season, Kentucky had won at least seven regular-season games three times in the past four years. For Phillips to be perceived as succeeding as UK coach, he needs to do better than that.

"We don't want to be a 6-6, 6-7, 7-6, 7-5 football program," Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said Saturday after UK's 27-10 loss to Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl. "We want to grow our program."

For Phillips to take Kentucky football "to the next level," he needs to win at least eight games in a regular season. Which UK has done exactly one time — 1984 — in the last 30 years.

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