Reese Phillips plays in the 2013 Blue/White spring game at Commonwealth Stadium in this 2013, file photo.ATHENS, Ga. - Kentucky first-year coach Mark Stoops has loads of praise for freshman quarterback Reese Phillips from Signal Mountain, whose redshirt season was essentially cemented after he sat out Saturday night's lopsided loss at Georgia.
Phillips has not played this year and has been listed in recent weeks behind Jalen Whitlow and Maxwell Smith on the depth chart. Whitlow was injured midway through the first quarter against the Bulldogs and was replaced by Smith, who came in when Whitlow went down against Alabama on Oct. 12.
Had Whitlow been hurt later last month or earlier this month, Stoops admitted, he would have gone in a different direction.
"Once Jalen came back, if he was reinjured, we were going with Reese," Stoops said this past week. "We were going to put Reese in the game and give him a shot. Now with no chance of a bowl game, I think it would be in our best interest to keep that redshirt year now.
"But he was moving up and repping with the twos really the second part of this season, so I'm impressed with the way he's progressing and excited about him in the future."
Phillips enrolled in January after completing 172 of 274 passes for 2,274 yards with 15 touchdowns and only three interceptions as a Signal Mountain senior. He completed 10 of 12 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown in Kentucky's spring game, but he entered preseason camp viewed as the fourth quarterback in a three-man race among sophomores Whitlow, Smith and Patrick Towles.
Stoops said last month that he wasn't quite ready to move Phillips ahead of Smith on the depth chart, and he could not be more pleased with the way the 6-foot-2, 219-pounder has dealt with the possibility of playing despite the likelihood of redshirting.
"He handled it very well," Stoops said, "because he was willing to take his redshirt year off and go in and help the team, and he was preparing to play and really still is. I was excited to get Reese some reps in practice. I liked what I saw. He's handled it very well and has been very unselfish. Like I said, he was willing to play.
"I thought he would have went in there and done very well, so in a way I'm kind of disappointed I didn't get an opportunity to see him play this year, but in the long run and for the future of the program, I'm glad to be able to keep his redshirt."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.