He was out the door. Gone for good. Finished with his University of Florida football career. And then a funny thing happened on the way to law school at the University of Miami. Jonathan Phillips discovered he still had the football bug and still had a few things to prove, not so much to all the detractors that had written him off long ago, but to himself.
Seven months later, he has kicked his way into a tie for fourth on Florida’s all-time single season scoring list with 108 points and is just three points away from sole possession of second place, a number he figures to get in the first half of the FedEx BCS National Championship Game in Miami on January 8. He has missed only one extra point and one field goal in a season that has more than made up for all the disappointments of the three previous years.
The disappointments had him ready to walk away from football for good but the hard times have been washed away by the tide of success.
“Looking back at it now, I don’t know why I even considered not playing,” said Phillips, who deferred entry into the University of Miami law school for a chance to fulfill the dreams he had when he came to Gainesville in August of 2005.
Back then he was considered one of the top two placekickers in the country by one scouting service. He kicked off as a freshman, lost his job when he had injuries as a sophomore and spent almost his entire junior year on the bench. He kicked five extra points in mop-up duty against Western Carolina as a sophomore, missed one extra point and kicked off all of one time as a junior. Critics called him the perfect example of a recruiting bust.
He went through spring practice even though he had one foot out the door already. He was set to graduate in May and had already been accepted to Miami. He really wanted to do law school in Gainesville but because of the football schedule in the fall, he had missed a deadline to apply to Florida’s Levin School of Law.
Phillips was supposed to provide token competition in the spring for Caleb Sturgis, an early entry freshman with thunder in his foot from St. Augustine. Token competition became full-fledged open warfare when Phillips wouldn’t back down. Every time Sturgis launched a 55 or 60-yard field goal, Phillips matched him. Kick for kick they battled to an April draw. Phillips had proven to himself and Florida coach Urban Meyer that he could kick if only given a chance.
When spring practice ended, Meyer called Phillips into his office for a heart to heart talk.
“Coach said he saw an attitude in me during the spring that he never saw before,” said Phillips back in July in an interview with Gator Country. “I always thought I had it before, but maybe I didn’t. Maybe that’s why I was kicking so well. I know Coach really likes confident guys.”
That confident spring prompted Meyer to open the door for Phillips to return in August. There were no promises made. Phillips knew that all Meyer was doing was offering him a chance to compete for the starting job.
It was a chance he just couldn’t pass up. He decided to stay, entered a master’s program in business and spent the summer prepping for a chance to prove himself worthy when practice cranked up again in August.
The momentum of the spring carried over into August. Phillips earned the placekicking job and never let go, turning a question mark position into a position of strength. Phillips was near perfect on both extra points and field goals. In setting Florida’s single season record for most extra points (75) Phillips missed only once and that was because a lineman blew an assignment against Ole Miss. He had never attempted a field goal in a game until this year and he responded with a 10-11 effort.
For a fall that could have been spent in a law library, this season has turned out special.
“It feels great especially when you think something isn’t going to happen and it does it’s even greater,” said Phillips. “I was really at a point that I didn’t think I would be playing this year so it really means a lot. I think the last game I hit the most extra points in a season by a kicker at UF and that’s just shows you what kind of team I’m on. That’s really a team statistic even though my name will go next to that someday.”
Not only has this turned out to be a special season for Phillips, but it has turned special for the Gators. Given up for dead after that 31-30 loss to Ole Miss back on September 27, the Gators have rebounded with nine straight wins. The first eight were in convincing fashion and that was followed by a 31-20 slugfest win over Alabama for the SEC championship.
The Gators have earned their way into the national championship game for the second time in three years. Phillips was on that 2006 championship team but he was a spectator on the sidelines when the Gators disposed of Ohio State, 41-14, in Glendale.
This year he feels like he has had a hand in getting the Gators into the championship game and that makes this even more of a dream come true season.
“I think the SEC championship ring this year will mean a lot more to me,” he said. “Obviously I was part of the team before but now I’m really contributing in other ways.”
Finished with finals, he and his teammates will get a five-day break from football from December 21-26. He already knows that he’ll be spending a portion of his break telling people no when they ask if he has extra tickets for the championship game. As he has already discovered, making it to the championship game uncovers friends and family that he didn’t even know he had.
“Everybody you have ever met that has some way of contacting you asks for tickets to the game,” said Phillips with a laugh.
And when he comes back from Christmas break, he will turn his full focus to doing whatever he needs to do to help the Gators beat Oklahoma. No matter what the outcome of the game, he will have to take some time to think about the future once again.
Miami law school is assured since he deferred admission. He’s applied to five or six other law schools including Florida. There is a very good chance he will be accepted to Florida and that would open up the possibility of one more chance to kick for the Gators.
“There is a chance [I could come back] but I’m kind of waiting to see what happens,” he said. “If I could play another year I definitely would.”
But even if kicking for the Gators in 2009 doesn’t work out, Phillips can walk away knowing that the alarm clock doesn’t always ring just before something good happens in your best dream.