Arizona Football: Senior Nate Phillips confident about next season

The bond between Arizona Football Head Coach and wide receiver Nate Phillips is strong and so is their confidence in each other.

Coach Rich Rodriguez picked two seniors to come with him to Hollywood for the Pac-12 Football Media Days, one of them, WR Nate Phillips, has been with Rich Rod since he was a freshman. Both Rodriguez and coach Calvin Magee saw something special in this very determined young two-star athlete.

Coach Rodriguez and staff seem to be able to find the diamonds in the rough, and they find a way to motivate each player to battle for their position. In retrospect, the strategy works because those players who float to the top are the hardest workers.

There is a calmness about Phillips, he is confident, well spoken, and has some mad skills on the field. Although he is very serious about his sport and talking about his team, his smile is truly infectious. He will be a fantastic leader this season for the WR crew.

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Nate Phillips played in his first year at Arizona as a true freshman. He took his coach seriously when he was told the job was his if he just worked hard because it paid off for him. “They’re men of their word,” said Phillips, “They said if you come and fight as a freshman and I did. I didn’t come in and they said you are a redshirt, it doesn’t happen at some schools.”

Most freshmen explain why they commit to Arizona. The freshmen believe the coaches are honest with them, and Phillips proves just that. You can tell how comfortable, and close Rodriguez and Phillips are in this very funny competition they took part on the ground floor of the Hollywood and Highland Center during a Pac-12 Media Days.

The Chandler Arizona native injured his foot in his sophomore year against Colorado but got healthy and returned stronger than ever. Treadmill running in the water did the trick, that and took his time to heal. He is ready to lead his squad of senior wide receivers Trey Griffey and Samajie Grant to a great season.

Phillips fielded questions about his teammate Trey Griffey‘s dad Ken Griffey Jr. being on the sidelines, “Trey hates it [having a famous name] he honestly, if he could change his name, he probably would..we all give him crap for it.” Both dad and son hang around the team as if they are just one of the guys.

Coach Rodriguez was complimentary of Phillips and his wide receivers crew this season:

"“Really proud. Nate Phillips has been a four-year starter, been one of the most consistent wide receivers I’ve ever coached in 30 years. He practices hard. He’s smart, intelligent. He’s tough. He blocks well. He’ll have a big year for us. We’ve got himself, Samajie Grant and Trey Griffey, are three seniors that are starters for us for a long time, so we’re pretty excited there.” – Rich Rodriguez"

According to Phillips, Transfer Shawn Poindexter and Tony Ellison are the two wide receiver standouts from the summer in his opinion.

Nate explained that being projected fourth in the Pac-12 doesn’t bother him or the team one bit, and they will just keep their nose to the ground and concentrate on football. Who will be throwing the football to these three seasoned targets is a mystery, but it doesn’t matter to Nate:

"“Since my freshman year we’ve had a quarterback battle coming into fall camp and you’ve seen we’ve gone to three straight bowl games. I don’t think it’s really going to matter…no matter who we play we’re going to play our game.” – Nate Phillips"

Nate admitted to ZonaZeealots that he has caught passes mostly from Anu Solomon and Brandon Dawkins in practice, but has also caught passes from freshman Khalil Tate. He gave us no inkling on who he thought would become the starting quarterback next season, and rightly so.

Here are Nate’s stats to date:

Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CFB: View Original Table
Generated 7/18/2016.

Provided by Sports-Reference.com/CFB: View Original Table
Generated 7/18/2016.

must read: Pac-12 Media Days: Arizona Coach Rich Rodriguez extremely entertaining

Switching Jersey’s to No. 11 because Julian Edelman is his inspiration shows Wildcats fans he is ready to take the lead and the majority of the passes no matter who the QB will be next season. BearDown Nate! Thanks for your time, it was a privilege.