Bookie Cobbins
By LARRY VAUGHT
Redshirt freshman Bookie Cobbins is still an unknown going into Kentucky’s preseason training camp. He was a high school quarterback in Louisiana but has been moved to receiver after redshirting last season. However, he missed the end of spring practice because of academic concerns.
Kentucky coach Joker Phillips said he was a lot like defensive tackle Mister Cobble, who lost a year of eligibility due to his poor academic performance his freshman year but is now a starter on track to graduate.
“We battle our tails off to get players to be sophomores and learn how to take care of business,” Phillips said. “But when you are doig that, how could you trust him to be on the field? It’s hard to say what he can do talent-wise. Will he do what he’s supposed to do. Does he have it now? We think so. If not, you will be seeing him somewhere else.
“I think he is very talented, but he’s got to do what he’s supposed to do on and off the field. He was one of those guys we thought might hurt us, so we did not play him because we did not trust him. I think now he is becoming a guy we can trust.”
Fullback D.J. Warren had a solid freshman year and is a player Phillips can trust, but the UK coach is not sure how much he’ll play.
“You don’t see a lot of fullbacks in the game today. We think we have got a quality fullback, but you have to get your best 11 players on the field and sometimes the best 11 is not the fullback position,” the Kentucky coach said. “When we had John Conner, he was one of our best 11. But when we put him in the game, that meant (receiver) Dicky Lyons was on the sidelines. You want to try and get your most explosive guys on the field. We have a quality fullback, but how much he will play is yet to be seen. A lot has to do with how our third receiver comes around.”
19 Responses to Joker Phillips has to learn to trust Bookie Cobbins more, not sure what role FB D.J. Warren will have
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Bookie has a great name and unproven talent. Would love to hear his name called, after making big plays. With Joker lamenting his shortage of play makers, last season, he better give Bookie and anyone else a shot to prove they can be one.
I agree.
Need Bookie to get his chance to show his talent. team needs playmakers
i won’t pretend to be a football guy because i am not, but i will say this, if your line can’t block anybody and the qb is constantly running for his life , you might want to consider the fullback and more playing time, even though, ok , even though it might slow you down some. It is like another lineman. Realistically , i know it won’t happen, but uk does not really keep anyone out of there back field on 1st and 2nd downs let alone 3rd downs. Maybe the line will be better this year. Maybe?
With you Grant and think the fullback will play a lot this year. Too good not to use him
I am not sure what to make of the comment -
“He was one of those guys we thought might hurt us”….. ???
Joker better get over his “trust” issues real quick and decide who can play and who can’t and go with them. He’s going to have to simplify his offense and gamble on his more talented players or he’s history…sound a little disgruntled?–I am, but I don’t think I’m alone.
If a player can not fulfill his academics requirements, NCAA will not allow him to play. If he can’t play, he can’t help the team…even if he is 5-star, All-American! So, yes, it is smart for Coach Joker to assess the players ability to succeed in the classroom first (which is the prerequisite) before determining if he will be able to succeed on the field. Can you imagine if the UK coaches developed a game plan around a player (or players) who later were not allowed to play due to academic issues? Now THAT would be foolish and irresponsible to the other players on the team. So, yes, TRUST is an extremely important character trait the coaches have to continue to evaluate and assess when determining how best to position the team to win. Maybe that is why the coaches value character so much when evaluation players.
My guess, and hope is that Joker is that this is just coach speak, and saying those things to motivate Bookie, just like he did with Mr. cobble. Otherwise, it sounds a little like a high school girlfriend complaining after their boyfriend was talking to another girl in the hallway.
As far as the fullback thing, I don’t know what to say? I seem to remember Joker talking about how great it would be to have a fb like Connor on the roster again when we frist got Warren. That’s one thing that concerns me about Joker as HC. He seems to contradict himself and change philosophically way too often. Maybe he’s intentionally trying to keep secrets about the offense, but those comments seem strange to me.
Thanks for the Football news. Not much out there to read indepth except you and and K Tucker. LH not even in the game. How about some Rock Oliver summer conditioning info, drills, workouts, who is stepping up?
I really don’t understand why Joker would be saying or allowing any of this to go out to the media and public. Is he saying it to motivate? Maybe, I don’t like it though. I’ve always been the type that believed positive praise worked better this time of the year… Joker needs to focus on making the team better and trying to build up their trust and confidence then maybe they would play alittle harder and execute for him. Bad move.
Obviously this “trust” issue really got to me since I’m still fuming about it. It got me thinking about the various coaches in the SEC and what one word comes to mind when I picture them in my mind:
Nick Saban: Confidence
Les Miles: Determination
Joker Phillips: Indecisiveness
I think Joker needs to get out of his mind and into his gut feelings…that’s the real trust issue!
Making sure they are doing right off the field first is a good life lesson for him and future recruits. I hope he is on track to produce in both areas.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GO BLUE OR STAY HOME
i hope he sure eventually trusts the kids SINCE HE RECRUITED HIM! DANG.
I agree with the Barker post. I hope we can get a better attitude going with the head coach,by that I mean let’s go in to win and not to keep from losing. Trust Bookie and the rest of the guys like when you went into their livingrooms and told Mama to send her son to Kentucky,TRUST ME I will take care of your son ON THE FIELD and off. Let’s get the playmakers on the field and TRUST their talent!!!!
Think he just means he has to trust him to be where he is supposed to be on field and do what is called for.
the reason saban and miles have the confidence in there players is because they typically are 5 star studs and they are plenty trustworthy. i would be willing to bet a bag of doughnuts that if bookie were a 5 star player for coach phillips, there would be a 5 star tutor helping him and trust would be moot.
If Mr. Phillips does not swallow his pride and put his best 22 athletes on the field and I mean if its Mobley and Taylor with Towles so be it, he will not be around next season. I have serious reservations about the 2013 class almost to the point that I thank Joker does not think he will be here next year. By the way, I think the 2012 class is unreal!