Charlie Strong and Joker Phillips have a friendship that still will be tight after their coaching careers are done. Yes, they will each be trying to win when Strong’s Louisville Cardinals and Phillips’ Kentucky Wildcats meet on Sept. 4 in the head-coaching debut for both. But they will never, ever be enemies. That’s a media story line, nothing more.

Each came up through the ranks, paying their dues as assistant coaches. For awhile, they worked together on Steve Spurrier’s staff at South Carolina. Each had to wait longer than necessary for a head job because, even though they belong to the second generation of African-American head coaches, college football still lags behind its basketball counterpart in the equal-opportunity department — especially in the South.

Oh, they’ve heard all the horror stories about discrimination in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. They are proof — along with new Western Kentucky head coach Willie Taggert — that times have changed for the better. But they also know that race still is such a delicate and divisive topic in America that they won’t be cut as much slack as if they were white.

That’s more true for Phillips than it is for Strong. African-Americans make up 10 per cent of the population in Kentucky, and 80 per cent of that number live in Louisville. That’s one reason that some rural Kentuckians harbor such hatred for Louisville — and rural Kentucky is the foundation of UK’s support. As Tubby Smith probably would tell Phillips privately, some Big Blue diehards will never support him simply because he’s black.

Besides that, Phillips doesn’t have the advantage of being totally fresh, the way Strong is. When he moved into the head coach’s office, he brought with him the baggage he gathered as offensive co-ordinator and head-coach-in-waiting under Rich Brooks. For a couple of years, many UK fans thought the offense was too conservative. Now we will see whether that was Joker’s call or whether he was being stifled by Brooks.

From what I’ve seen, the two men genuinely like and respect each other. I don’t expect to see anything happen, on or off the field, that will change that. While playing at UK in the early 1980s, Phillips developed his character and standards under Jerry Claiborne, one of the most decent coaches who ever blew a whistle. And if Strong did not have an equally acute moral compass, Tom Jurich never would have hired him because Jurich does not hire cheats or charlatans.

I had to laugh at former UK quarterback Freddie Maggard’s reaction after meeting Strong and his staff at the Governor’s Cup press conference and golf scramble Wednesday at Louisville’s Lake Forest country club.

“Man, that staff is intense,” Maggard said. “Really intense. I think we’re going to have our hands full.”

Of course, Joker’s staff is equally intense. I expect both teams to be so fundamentally crisp and sound that they won’t make many silly mistakes. I expect both teams to be disciplined on and off the field. I doubt that we’ll see a lot of trash-talking or unseemly displays of poor sportsmanship. Both impress me as coaches who will not tolerate nonsense from anybody.

Both also have pleasant personalities that play well with the media. To accurately gauge that, of course, we’ll have to see how they act after tough losses. But I don’t expect to see any tantrums or outbursts. They are both too smart and mature for that.

Under Strong and Phillips, I expect the rivalry to be conducted on such a high plane that maybe even the worst elements of their fan bases will pick up on it. Whomever loses the first game, I don’t expect to hear any whining or excuses. I expect the winner to be gracious, the loser philosophical. That’s the way it goes with class acts.

The best part of Wednesday’s press conference came when Strong told about how the fans try to play the two of them against each other. “If I can’t do something, sometimes they’ll say, ‘Well, Joker’s going to do it.’ And he gets the same thing. They don’t understand that we talk a lot so we know what’s going on with each other.”

The UK and U of L head coaches talking a lot? Now that’s a news flash. Somehow I doubt that Brooks chatted much with either Bobby Petrino or Steve Kragthorpe. But Strong and Phillips are bound by more than their race. They are in the same age bracket and have undergone similar career experiences. Both are from the South. Both have waited patiently for their opportunity to be a head coach.

I wish both the best of luck and I expect both to be successful. It’s a new day for football in the commonwealth, and so far it feels just right.