Joker Speaks About Quarterback Play

by:Jonathan Schuette09/22/12
During his post game press conference Joker Phillips was asked about the Quarterback play during today's match-up against Florida in Gainesville.  The topics that were covered included Maxwell Smith's health status, the play of Morgan Newton, and why he waited so long to play Freshman Jalen Whitlow.   First and foremost in his opening statements regarding the overall performance Joker was quoted as saying.
"Our kids competed hard, moved the ball offensively, but our turnovers didn’t give us a chance field position wise in the second quarter. It put us back in a hole and our defense had to go back on the field a couple of times in a row and it made it tough for those guys."
When asked about the injury to Maxwell Smith and why he didn't suit up today.
I was not prepared to do that. My kid. I treat him like he’s my kid and I just did not want to do that. Max wanted to go and was willing to take a shot, but I was not willing to do that to him, to our our football team. I treat him like he’s one of my kids and I wouldn’t want to risk one of my kids being out for a significant amount of time. We’ll get him back next week and I didn’t want to risk that.”
In regards to Newton's performance and the multiple interceptions he tossed.
He was throwing it to the right person. We just weren’t very accurate. We had a chance to hit a wheel route up the boundary at 10-0. Daryl’s fast enough to stick that thing in the end zone and he didn’t. Two plays later, it’s an interception." Had a chance on third down to hit (George) running a whip route and we overthrew it and it was an interception. The next play, the ball was intercepted for a touchdown. Again, it wasn’t very accurate. Again, for us to be successful offensively in this offense, you have to be able to throw and catch and we didn’t today.”
Why it took so long for him to replace a struggling Newton with true Freshman Whitlow.
“It’s a tough place to ask a true freshman to come in. We decided we were going to give him one more series and then they scored, so we decided to give him one more and by that time it was out of hand, late in the game."

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