Phillips heads for Notre Dame
By TIM CASETY
Assistant Sports Editor
Joker Phillips, the University of Minnesota's wide receivers coach for the past two seasons, will likely join the Irish staff sometime this week.
"He's on his way [to Notre Dame]," an employee in the Minnesota football office told The Observer on Tuesday. "He's not with us [Minnesota] anymore."
According to Elvin Jones, a junior receiver at Minnesota, Phillips in-formed "around five" receivers on Sunday afternoon that he would be heading to Notre Dame. The receivers and their coach met in Ron Johnson's [Minnesota's top receiver in 2000] dorm room.
"He had trouble telling us," Jones said. "He obviously wanted to tell us himself rather than to have us read about it or hear it from someone else. I respect him for that. A lot of coaches, the way they do it, they just pack up and leave and the players don't know about it until he's gone. It was nice to see that he took time out to let us know [that he was leaving]."
Phillips has not been officially announced as an assistant but sources at Minnesota confirmed that he has been offered the position.
"It's pretty much a done deal," an employee in Minnesota's media relations department said.
Officials in Notre Dame's sports information department declined comment.
Urban Meyer, Notre Dame's wide receivers coach for the past five years, left after the Fiesta Bowl to take over as head coach at Bowling Green. It is believed that Phillips will assume Meyer's duties.
Phillips, a four-year letterwinner at wide receiver, graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1986 and played sparingly for the Washington Redskins and the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts.
He served as a graduate assistant at Kentucky in 1989 and 1990 and then became an assistant recruiting coordinator in 1990. He coached Kentucky's receivers from 1991-96 before heading to Cincinnati where he was wide receivers coach in 1997 and defensive backs coach in 1998.
"He's a real good receivers coach," Jones said. "He knows his stuff. That's for sure."
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, February 14, 2001
