My comments on Phil are based on an opinion, and to be honest, he can and has been a horse's hindquarters at times. Did he believe his own hype at times? Absolutely. Did he make bad decisions at times? Absolutely once again. If anybody thinks though that Powell Valley had something great the last few years, they are kind of out there. Phil's biggest problem the last however many years ago it is/was now was thinking he had the next generation of Jones, and falling in love with that idea. If anything he probably lost touch with the generation and the kids by losing assistants, not so much of a change in him or anything. If you want to say he probably was stubborn to a fault, I'll agree with on that but sometimes that stubborn benefits, especially when the talent matches

I can definitely appreciate where someone would not have liked Phil, particularly if they were in his doghouse because he's about too stubborn to admit he was wrong or made a mistake. You can talk about the man wanting to be the last PV coach or whatever but I kind of think thats silly, Phil wanted to win, and at the end of the day, the man is/has been breaking down but was still there. It's always easy to down someone, dang easy, but appreciate what someone gave and did. Nobody is saying talk about how saintly he was, or anything along those lines, but realize what he did give to the program and the area. Now did he like the praise and attention? Heck yeah, anybody who thinks Phil didn't have plenty of ego and liked praise is silly but you know what, he's earned the right to have a lot of ego too.