Under different circumstances, Sam Phillips may not have ever made it to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football roster.
Maybe if he was a little bit taller than his 5-foot-8 frame. Maybe if he hadn’t graduated from nearby Cartersville in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic cost a lot of college athletes opportunities due to a combination of the lack of available scholarships as well as lack of chances for college coaches to evaluate talent.
“If he’s 5-foot-11, we probably don’t get him,” UTC head coach Rusty Wright said recently. “He’s probably got some other stuff going on (in recruiting).
“But he’s a smart, savvy football player. Just a good football player, so probably not.”
So Phillips walked on at Chattanooga, presumably with a chip on his 180-pound shoulder due to the fact that he felt overlooked due to his size. He spent the 2021 season on the scout team, but given a chance with four of the team’s top six pass catchers gone, Phillips knew opportunities to get on the field would present themselves.
“Entering camp, I just wanted to show these dudes I could be a number one receiver,” Phillips said last week. “Last year, I felt like I could have played, but I understood there were a lot of old heads in front of me so I decided I was going to get better going against the (number one defense). I feel like being on scout team last year helped me do what I’m doing this year.
“It prepared me for this year.”
Phillips hasn’t shied away from having lofty goals while in Chattanooga despite being considered an underdog of sorts. When asked about those goals, the terms “1,000 yards” and “Jerry Rice Award” — given annually to the best freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision — were tossed about. He’s always been considered “too small” or “not fast enough,” or “just an average receiver.” He’s embraced the chance now to show everything he’s about.
“I feel I’m the king, because my middle name is David,” Phillips, who has a tattoo that says “Chosen One,” said. “I interpret that as David and Goliath, because I’m like a small kid out there, and David was crowned king and nobody knew he was crowned king; everybody was looking for all his other brothers.
“He was just a shepherd who nobody thought he was king because he was the smallest one, but he’s the one who came out king.”
Quarterback Cole Copeland singled out Phillips as a player who he thought was in line to “have a big year.” That comes in part due to the fact he spent six months after the conclusion of his senior football season (in 2020) with Quay Mack, a coach at North Cobb also known as “the route master,” refining his route running. It must have worked since that’s one of the things that receivers coach Ricky Spradling singled out about what he’s seen in Phillips.
“When Sam got here, we just found out he’s a very natural route runner,” Spradling said. “He does stuff you can’t teach. To be honest with you, I try to tell these guys to be as creative as they can, and there’ll be some things that I’ll coach them up on, but then also some things I’ve learned from them. And almost every day, I learn something from his routes. We have a bunch of guys who have never played the position before, and it’s easy to use him on film as to how we should run this particular route.
“I think he’ll be a really, really good player for the next few years.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC (11) Sam Phillips runs a route during practice at Scrappy Moore Field on Friday, August 5, 2022.