Joker Phillips Resigns as Florida WR Coach
- Thread starter RTR91
- Start date
I'd say going to the school during a dead period is more than just accidentally bumping into them and should be taken seriously. To me, a bump would be if Saban wanted a kid that went to a Tuscaloosa high school and they just happened to see each other at Wal-Mart,
There must be something more to this, because no coach is ever going to get canned for an unintentional violation of the bump rule.
Perhaps it was something like with Bruce Pearl, who got in trouble not for the contact, but for denying it happened to NCAA investigators (which was later disproven by photographic evidence)? Perhaps it was something else entirely, but, again, there is more here than what we know so far.
Perhaps it was something like with Bruce Pearl, who got in trouble not for the contact, but for denying it happened to NCAA investigators (which was later disproven by photographic evidence)? Perhaps it was something else entirely, but, again, there is more here than what we know so far.
That would be a major violation - aside from recruiting, there's zero chance CNS would be at Walmart. :biggrin:
Safe to guess you've not read this thread or the article linked?
It wasn't a bump, he was caught (photographed) having dinner with a recruit during a dead period. That's a major violation.
Was he? Perhaps, but that is not what the articles linked in this thread state. The original Yahoo article merely references two sources that claim a violation of the bump rule, and the follow-up report linked above references a photograph at a restaurant. The photograph, which to my knowledge hasn't been published, apparently only shows Phillips in a restaurant with a prospective recruit, but that's not the say he was "caught having dinner with" the recruit, or that it was planned beforehand with any intent to circumvent the rules. Could feasibly still be incidental contact even with a photograph to establish that the contact indeed happened.
Either way, even if it was premeditated, I still have a very hard time believing that, in and of itself, would justify immediate dismissal / resignation. Though a lot of people may like to think otherwise, that type of behavior is pretty common on the CFB recruiting trails (and has been for a long time now). If it were standard practice to axe guys who intentionally circumvented dead period rules, there would be a rather large army of CFB coaches looking for work right now. Again, there just has to be something here that we just don't know yet.
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His resignation leads me to believe that this is likely a major violation and will bring the NCAA to Gainesville. If he is no longer employed by the university, I don't think the NCAA can compel him to answer questions regarding the incident if he is no longer an employee (I could be wrong). This seems like a CYA move by UF.
The quote from the article you are referencing could be interpreted in at least two ways. It's not really clear if he was having dinner (at the actual table) with the recruit or not.
Could the NCAA slap a show cause on him if he refuses to answer questions?
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Yes, a refusal to cooperate with an NCAA investigation is grounds for the issuance of a show cause penalty.
If you will recall, the NCAA actually did just that a couple of years back to former UNC assistant John Blake, who refused to discuss with them the details of his involvement with Gary Wichard.
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So you think UF fired him for a minor secondary violation?
I think it's pretty clear what happened here, Occam's Razor and all...
Yes 100%.
Looking forward to this season with our new O.C., our starting QB healthy again, a bunch of new linemen, backs, and receivers, and a (so far) non-injured squad.
Regarding the departure of Joker - from what I understand there had been some friction with our coaching staff - including a rumor that Joker was very interested in the O.C. position when it opened up. Remember Joker was a head coach in the SEC for many years including Kentucky when our newly hired O.C. Kurt Roper was an assistant there. With the hiring of Coach Roper as our new O.C. and Joker now as his assistant.....well I'll let you draw your own conclusions on how that went over. This situation with the photo may have just provided the catalyst to do what might have been the inevitable.
I give Joker a lot of credit for doing all he did while at UF - not the least of which was his recruiting efforts.
Now that Chris Leak has taken his place, while a different personality than Joker - at least he can flash that MNC ring to prospective recruits and say with a wink: "How'd you like to have one of these?"
Seriously though we are thrilled that Chris is back at our program and feel he is well equipped to pick up where Joker left off.
I don't know any more about that photo - I'm sure we'll know more in the coming days.
IIRC, Coach Saban actually got a secondary violation early on in his Bama tenure when he was visting coaches at a certain school and happened to bump into a big time recruit. College coaches visit high school coaches quite frequently on the HS campus so it happens and it is not serious.
I will owe a big ole you were right, if he gets things going at UF. I hope it works out for ya.
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