Rivals100 CB cuts list to 12
La Habra (Calif.) cornerback Clark Phillips III will have his choice of virtually any school when it comes time to make his college decision. Ranked as the No. 53 overall prospect in the nation for the Class of 2020, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound athlete was fielding dozens of phone calls and messages each day from top football programs across the country.
In order to narrow his focus a year before his letter-of-intent day, the Rivals100 honoree trimmed his list of schools to an even dozen: Arizona State, Cal, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Utah, Vanderbilt and Washington.
“It has been a long process just to get to 12 to be honest,” admitted Phillips III. “It has been about building relationships and looking for overall best fit. Getting to as many campuses as possible. I haven’t been to all those schools yet, but I do plan on making it out to the ones I’m super-interested in, the ones at the top of the list.”
His father Clark Phillips Sr. has been helping his son through the recruiting process and has been to all but one of his unofficial visits to date, and they have visited six of his finalists so far.
“We have been to both Arizona schools,” Phillips Sr. began. “We’ve been to Alabama, Oregon, A&M, Georgia and LSU. I did not make the Georgia trip, but I’ve made all the others.”
Now that he has defined his top schools, the next step is to get to know his prospective coaches.
“I really want to build relationships and that has been the biggest factor so far,” said Phillips III. “Since the dead period there has been a lot of regulations and rules that kind of keep us from building relationships at certain times. So, it’s important to build them when we have the opportunity."
How important is the men he will be learning from for the next four years? It was his biggest football consideration when assembling his list.
“It has really been about relationships with the coaches,” Phillips III said. “It has been about feeling at home and that I can relate with the coaches and feel like their plan for me is the best plan for me.”
But equally important to the high four-star prospect is his education and he has a strong preference for his future field of study.
“Kinesiology, somewhere in sports medicine, that is what I will study in college,” said Phillips III. “I want to learn about the human body. Wherever I go it has to offer that.”
Academics is important to the Rivals100 honoree because he is accustomed to putting forth great effort towards it.
“He has done well,” Phillips Sr. conceded. “He has always been a kid with well-stated goals. He is pretty focused and driven whether it is ball or the classroom.
“He has taken it to another level. He was hovering around 2.9, 3.0 his freshmen year. And he was challenged by not only us but by some prestigious academic schools that from all they had heard from faculty, he was an incredible kid. That based on their research, he should have a higher GPA.
“So, the last few semesters he has had 3.5’s and won academic awards. He has done very well carrying a hard load, going to summer school. He has been at the head of his class in math and is taking AP anatomy and physiology.”
With a year to go before signing day for the Class of 2020, 12 coaching staffs have their opportunity to form strong bonds with the Phillips family, and to prove that they are a school with the academic chops he is looking for.