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SALT LAKE CITY — A five-game season was not the ideal situation for the Utah football program in 2020. The limited number of games were better than nothing, but none of it was ideal.
Athletes were constantly reminded of a raging pandemic with every swab administered up their nose — and even then there was no guarantee there would be a game on the weekend. Was any of it worth it, especially for a game? Utah already had little lead-up time to prepare in an already delayed season, and even then Utah was the last Power Five program to start its season.
On top of that, Utah needed to learn quickly on the fly, in particular on defense, as the team replaced a loaded 2019 team that saw multiple players join NFL teams. Replacing that talent wasn't going to come easy, especially with little preparation time. And yet, Utah found a way to turn its inexperience into a strength.
Utah's defense featured nearly all underclassman — many of which being freshmen in their first Division I experience — and managed the 37th-best total defense in the nation (second best in the Pac-12) in 2020. Each game, the defense got better and better and became the team's strength — not an uncommon reality for a Utah team.
"I think the COVID year was really good for us," cornerback coach Sharrieff Shah said Friday after Utah's third day of fall camp. "It gave us a chance to just get some valuable reps."
The 2020 season, in which Utah finished with a 3-2 record, wasn't all bad, though. It was never going to be like the 2019 season, but having five games of real playing experience was invaluable for a unit that got a free year to play due to the pandemic. If anything, it was the best preparation a team could get to help a young secondary unit.
Despite all the ups and downs, Utah found multiple guys that could step up when the odds were stacked against them. One such person was freshman Clark Phillips III. For Phillips, his acclimation to the program was even more difficult as the coaches asked him to learn both corner and nickel — all with little time to do it and with limited reps.
"I put so much on him, and it's a credit to who he is and the program that he came from — the high school was a good program," Shah said. "But I asked him to learn nickel, which in the corner room is exceptionally difficult; it's fraught with so many pitfalls.
"A number of the mistakes that he made throughout the season I felt like were my fault, because I tried to tell him, 'Listen, I need you to be ready,' and he didn't back down," Shah added. "I think just naturally you're going to fold when you just have so much on you, and he still showed up."
Phillips took it all in stride and turned the adversity into a positive. "I think it helped the team. I think, as a group, as a unit, defensively, it made us a lot stronger," Phillips said. "It was only five games but we don't take anything for granted. You know, and for me personally, I just put it in the books and it's some film to study."
It was an opportunity to learn.
Phillips is now game tested and ready to make an even bigger impact in his second season (he'll still be listed as a freshman due to the free year). And by all accounts from his coaches and teammates, Phillips isn't wasting any time. Now locked in primarily at the corner position, Phillips has a full offseason of work and film to help him improve.
In only three days of camp, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is pleased with how Phillips is developing. On Friday, Whittingham said his freshman corner, who will be a starter opposite of JaTravis Broughton, "made a bunch of plays today; Clark had a really good day." His great day involved multiple pass breakups against the offensive players he was tasked to guard.
He did his job, and at a high level.
"Having him primarily on the outside, I think it's made life a lot more simpler for him, and you can see him make more plays, which was evident today," Shah added.
Whether in practice or in a game setting, Phillips isn't content with being average. Every moment on the field is an opportunity to get better, and he doesn't need a reminder from anyone about what it takes to do it. He's coachable, though, and preys on advice like it's being fed into his book of life.
If you listen to him for even just a brief moment, you'd come away thinking he's a veteran of the game and has everything already figured out — and he probably does, at least he's already looking ahead and not content just living in the moment. It's a maturity that makes him both a threat on the field and in life. Phillips knows what he wants and you'd better bring your A-game to combat him — and even then it might not be good enough.
"Discipline, it's something that every DB needs," Phillips said when asked where he's grown the most in the offseason. "And every DB, in order to be good — from good to great — you have to have that."
So much more to be written. Chapter two starts 9/2/21. pic.twitter.com/c3wZ5B6VvY
— Clark Phillips lll (@ClarkPhillips21) July 1, 2021
Even in practice, Phillips is competitive — not just against the offense but his friend in Broughton on the other side of the field.
"We compete every day," Phillips said of Broughton. "He gets a PBU, I'm like, 'Dude, I need two.' I get three PBU's, like today I had a lot of PBUs, this dude had a pick and I'm like, 'Damn!' So having that competitive rivalry and edge is only gonna make us better. He speaks about it and I speak about it all the time. We love each other because of it — we push each other."
That competitive edge never ends. He remembers his first game at Utah — a deer-in-the-headlights-like experience against the eventual South Division champs USC. It wasn't Phillips' best game and he knows it, but it also wasn't his worst either, as he showed out in his first Division I action.
Each game is personal.
"For me, I take every game personally — good or bad. In this sport, of course, the losses speak louder than the wins when you're super competitive like I am. And so I'd say that game was one that we plan on getting back, and we'll get to do it in their house this year," Phillips said, speaking about USC.
It's still a long road ahead for Phillips, but as the COVID year showed, he's ready for the challenge. Some may see him as the freshman or being a part of secondary unit that's relatively inexperienced, but Phillips sees it as an opportunity to prove the world wrong; it's like the brief calm before the lioness jumps from behind the thicket and destroys her prey.
"We're going to be licking our chops out there," Phillips said. "And I tell all the guys every day, I'm like, 'They still think that we're not ready.' We're a young group, but I feel like those games really — and even for the guys that haven't played, our rotational crew is going to be very, very good as well.
"I think you guys are gonna see something special this year."
