COLUMBUS, Ohio — Joker Phillips, the former Kentucky head football coach, has been hired by Ohio State as an offensive quality control assistant, a Buckeyes spokesperson confirmed to cleveland.com on Wednesday night. The news was first reported by Matt Jones of KentuckySportsRadio.com. Phillips, 53, was the head coach at Kentucky, his alma mater, from 2010-12. You might know his name from the recruiting violation he incurred while working as an assistant coach at Florida in 2013. Phillips was found to have impermissible contact with a recruit, a Level II NCAA violation. Phillips met with a recruit off-campus during a time in which those kind of visits weren’t allowed. He was forced to resign from his position at Florida. The university received no punishment from the NCAA. Phillips most recently worked as the wide receivers coach for the Cleveland Browns during the 2015 season. This will be the first time Phillips has worked with Urban Meyer, though both coaches share some of the same stops in their coaching backgrounds. Phillips worked as an assistant at Cincinnati from 1997-98, and he succeeded Meyer as Notre Dame’s receivers coach in 2001. He’s also had coaching stops at Minnesota and South Carolina. As the head coach of Kentucky, Phillips went 13-24 in three seasons. As an offensive quality control coach, Phillips will help the coaching staff in game preparations and scouting — any details to help Meyer and his nine assistants. Phillips won’t have any on-field…
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