And know we know at least a portion of the rest of the story. Allegedly.
Earlier today in a surprise announcement, it was revealed that wide receivers coach Joker Phillips had abruptly resigned his post at Florida. Further intrigue was added when “personal reasons” were behind the decision as well as Phillips reportedly working a camp on the very day he resigned, which, if true, would be highly unusual.
Now comes a tweet from Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com that, per a source, “Phillips [was] forced to resign at UF by Will Muschamp because of Phillips’ possible NCAA recruiting violations.” McMurphy later amended that tweet to read that Muschamp hadn’t pushed Phillips out the door, although, as of this posting, the report remains up on the WWL’s website with a headline of “Source: Joker forced out at Florida.”
What those possible NCAA recruiting violations consisted of weren’t detailed by McMurphy, although FootballScoop.com subsequently reported the violation -- singular -- was very minor in nature.
The sources I spoke w said the issue at hand is a "bump" w a HS junior. Very minor. Was turned in by another program in Florida.
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) June 11, 2014
A guy like Joker who is well liked and doesn't have a bad bone in his body shouldn't even consider stepping down over a "bump".
— FootballScoop (@FootballScoop) June 11, 2014
Why Phillips would step down, let alone be forced by someone at UF to step down, over what’s barely a minor, secondary violation is the great unknown at the moment -- unless, of course, there was something significantly more serious than just a little ol’ “bump.”
Phillips came to the Gators in December of 2012 with the reputation of being a master recruiter. He used his Twitter feed, replete with photoshopped messages to potential recruits, as part of his sales pitch to unnamed and unspecified prospects -- not a violation of NCAA bylaws, incidentally.
Aubrey Hill, who Phillips replaced, abruptly resigned on the eve of summer camp in 2012 for what was described at the time as personal reasons. That decision, however, came a mere two weeks after Hill was named in a report as possibly committing recruiting violations while he was an assistant at Miami.
(Photo credit: Florida athletics)