MD Tight End Drawing Major Interest

The fall evaluation period is in full swing as coaches can get out on the road and see prospects play in games. This is the time when many high school seniors get their first offers and see their recruitment pickup. Tight end prospect Paul Phillips of Georgetown Prep is a good example. Schools from around the country are scouting him and the offers are starting to arrive.

An injury at the end of track season prevented Paul Phillips from participating in summer camps. Many schools had invited him with the expectation of offering. That was put on hold until the fall when coaches could get a closer look at the tight end prospect.

“I'm a tight end, a senior, and I have two offers right now. One from Richmond back in the spring. This summer I got hurt at the end of track season. So, I missed a bunch of camps from schools that were close to offering. I missed out on that, but they are watching me this fall. So, I'm playing a little bit of a waiting game. I did get an offer from Indiana.”

Now that coaches can get out on the road and scout players, interest is picking up. Several schools are close to offering and new schools have been in to take a look.

“I have been talking to coaches. Syracuse is ready to offer and the coaches at Rice sound like they are ready to offer. At my last game coaches from UVA and Tennessee were there to see me. I have not talked much with Tennessee, but I have been in regular contact with the coaches from Virginia.

“The schools that are regularly talking to me are Indiana, Richmond, UVA, Boston College, Syracuse and Rice. There are a couple of new schools now. Wisconsin, NC State and Rutgers have started to talk to me now that the season has started.”

Although the offers have been slowly coming in, Paul has been looking at colleges with an eye on academics as well as football.

“I go to Georgetown Prep and I've been getting interest from schools just for academics too. So for football, I have picked out the schools that have strong academics and will be looking at them the hardest.”

The evaluation period has just started and the next phase is to get film out to interested coaches at the end of the month. Most programs want to see film before offering a player.

“I'm going to do a senior tape after the first three games. We have only played one game so far. In a few weeks I've have enough to put together a tape for the coaches. A lot of schools want to see me as a tight end, but other schools think linebacker. UVA is recruiting me as an outside linebacker. So, I'll put together tape of me at both spots and send that out in a few weeks.”

Unlike many football prospects, Paul did not spend his summer at football camps and in the weight room. He had an interesting summer job that took him from Maryland to Fall River Massachusetts.

“My dad runs a fishing company in Fall River. I went up there for some time in the summer and worked on one of the boats. It was a really good experience. We were bringing in crab and it was pretty exciting. It was one of the tougher things I've ever done.”

Paul plays both offense and defense for Georgetown Prep. His oldest brother plays at Stanford and his second oldest brother plays at Virginia.