Was the nation’s top recruit
Coming out of Redlands East Valley High School in Redlands, California, Jaelan Phillips was not only the top recruit in his state, or even at his position. He was the top recruit nationwide. Both ESPN and 247 had Phillips ranked as their composite No. 1 overall.
It was an interesting time for Phillips, who was trying to prove he could be good game in and game out, but was unable to, since teams were literally running away from him and to the opposite side of the field.
In turn, though, it created a linebacker who will willingly chase someone down from the opposite sideline.
“The better I got, the more dominant I was; people just started running away from me,” Phillips reflected last season.”So if I wanted to get tackles and stuff, I had to go chase the ball down on the other side. So I just started doing it, and it just became part of my game.”