KNOXVILLE — The hard part actually may be in the past for Kyle Phillips.
Now that his college choice is made and his career at Tennessee is underway, the touted defensive end’s phone probably isn’t blowing up as much as it was a couple of weeks ago.
The hoopla that’s become a staple of today’s big-time college football recruiting is over, and Phillips now can get started preparing for what appears to be a promising career ahead of him.
“I’m not going to lie, it was pretty stressful, but the place that I chose, I couldn’t do any better than this place,” Phillips said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s a great place. The environment is great, the coaching staff. Just being around the guys this week and a half, it’s been great. I’m excited about my decision, and I’m glad it’s over with now.”
As one of the top players in Tennessee, Phillips, who had 33 sacks in three seasons at Hillsboro High School in Nashville, always was going to be one of the Vols’ top 2015 targets.
There was no shortage of suitors for Phillips’s services, and he trimmed a scholarship offer list that included Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Clemson, Florida State, Florida, Michigan State, Stanford, Missouri — you get the point — down to Tennessee, LSU and Ole Miss.
Set to make his decision during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio on Jan. 3, Phillips had plenty of Tennessee commitments trying to get him to pick the Vols, including freshman offensive lineman Jack Jones, who played at Oakland High School in Murfreesboro.
“That was the guy right there that I really worked on,” Jones said Tuesday. “We’ve been going against each other since we were sophomores and freshmen, so we were really tight. Kyle was one of my close friends, so I was like, ‘I want you do to what’s best for you, but what’s best for you is to come to Tennessee, so why don’t you go ahead and come up here.’
“I didn’t know until the Friday before he committed that he was coming here, and he was messing around with me the night before saying stuff, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be terrible.’ He came, and I’m real excited about that.”
While practicing for the all-star game in San Antonio, Phillips had two Tennessee commitments in linebacker Darrin Kirkland and five-star defensive Kahlil McKenzie in his ear.
“They were on me,” Phillips recalled, “but it was all good.”
“All week,” fellow early enrollee Kirkland said Wednesday. “Even though we weren’t on the same team, when we spent time at the hotel during down time, it was really enjoyable. I’m happy he’s here at Tennessee with me.”
Asked if he wanted to take credit for Phillips picking the Vols over the Tigers and Rebels, Kirkland grinned and replied, “Just a little bit.”
Coming from a family of what he called “big UT fans,” Phillips acknowledged there was some pressure to stay in state, but he said the “family atmosphere” at Tennessee and its proximity to his family in the mid-state ultimately led to him choosing the Vols.
“It was a hard, long process, but I feel like at the end, I just grinded and decided Tennessee is the best place for me,” he said. “It was a hard decision. The other schools are very good institutions (with) very good coaching staffs, but I just felt like Tennessee was the right place for me at the end of the day.
“It was exciting to see how the coaches take care of the players and how much they care about the players, just not on the field, but off the field as well, so they want you to succeed in every aspect of life.”
Phillips joked that he was so impressed by Tennessee on one of the first visits to campus he made that he nearly verbally committed then, but the Vols are excited to get Phillips, regardless of when they did.
After a strong showing in San Antonio, Phillips was bumped up to a five-star prospect by 247sports, which ranks him 21st overall in the 2015 recruiting class.
“Kyle has size, range and speed and is just starting to realize his potential,” Vols defensive line coach Steve Stripling said last week. “Being a mid-year addition will be a great benefit for his development. He has all the tools to be successful.”
Watching fellow Nashville native and defensive end Derek Barnett have the freshman season he had at Tennessee in 2014 has Phillips hoping he can make a similar impact in 2015.
“He was guy that could do it. Why can’t I do it?” he said. “I just feel like if I come in here and work hard, listen to the older guys, take advice from everybody and do well in the classroom, I can be just as good as he was on the field this past year.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.