Phillips Puts Best Version of Himself on Display
His academic progress now matching his play on the field
Mike Brohard
They just didn’t know.
There were no indications of any past concerns. As far as Jordon Simmons was concerned, Devin Phillips was the ideal player. All Colorado State’s new head strength and conditioning coach knew of Phillips was he was always polite and showed up ready to work and learn. Not a single red flag was being raised.
He had no idea a few years back, Phillips had been on academic probation, or that the four-year starter on the defensive line had wondered himself if he was going to find his niche in the classroom.
Who knew? Not the current staff. A new staff, which is something Becky Orr, the director of student-athlete support services, finds encouraging – somebody else is seeing what she’s seen transpire. She told Phillips to use the change in his favor.
“I think he really took advantage of an opportunity students have a when a new staff comes in,” she said. “You get to make that decision about what they know about you. He set his intentions to be known as the guy who puts his head down and works hard and he kept consistent with the good academic progress he’s been making. It’s great to hear.”
When Jay Norvell and his staff arrived, it wasn’t as if Phillips was going to have to keep secrets. Everything they saw in him was an honest representation of the person he always had been, but also the student he had become. Behind the current portrait were some rough moments for him, many of which he admits were self-imposed. He also did what many of his fellow students on campus have done, which is switch majors after finding out what he thought he wanted to do was not something which clicked with him.
Through all of that, Phillips enters his final season with great anticipation for everything it holds, not just the football, but just as important, he is perfectly in line to graduate this December.
“It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been through a lot of trials and tribulations I’ve had to overcome,” Phillips said. “Being able to graduate, that will be an early birthday present to me, knowing that I’ve made it and I did it. I’m very excited and can’t wait. My brother graduated this May and seeing him graduate gave me even more motivation to get it done.
“Hey, four years ago I didn’t know. I didn’t start off great coming in. I had trouble academically starting school, and it got to a point where I didn’t think I was going to get through that. I had to sit down and focus on what I have at hand, and I had to put my priorities first. I wasn’t doing that. I had to take a look at the future and look ahead instead of just the right now. That put me a step forward toward building a structure and foundation for the years ahead to where I know what I have to do and what I need to do to get it done.”
His first summer had him feeling good. He did well in the few classes he had as he worked out with his new teammates and the Louisiana native became accustomed to his change in locale. It helped his brother, Joctavis, was already on campus as an offensive lineman. He was also making friends, one being Tywan Francis, another Louisiana native who had reached out to him right after both signed at CSU, striking up a friendship which has grown through the years.
Francis liked Phillips from the start and the bond has only grown. They’ve been roommates the past two seasons and have served as each other’s rudder – trying to keep their boats going in the right direction when the other’s course became somewhat skewed.
The friends they are now, they always will be. The people they are now, they resemble a bit the two youngsters who showed up four years ago, and you’d be hard pressed to find anybody prouder of Devin than Francis.
“I would say more than anything, it’s exciting to see. It’s amusing to see how people can change in a lot of ways,” Francis said. “As a brother, being around him the past four and half years, seeing the growth in him mentally has been neat. Our conversations are different, the things we talk about and how we go about the conversation. It’s a good feeling.
“We came in both as kids. Now we’re 22, 23 years old. It’s a funny feeling to see him go from there to here, find his own niches.”
I would tell him that everything you do is all going to pay off in the end. No matter how hard it is, or how bad you feel like you’re struggling, you can always persevere.Devin Phillips
The easiest one for Devin has always been the football field. He came in and made an immediate impact, though one of his first impressions led to a nickname – Big Baby – which still exists but isn’t always in common use among his teammates.
Devin likes it and hates it at the same time, for pretty much the same reason, too. It was bestowed upon him by a strength and conditioning coach, Brison Manor. Devin, who came in at 320 pounds, was struggling with a hard workout on a hot summer evening. His back was aching and so were his legs. When Manor rode him a bit, Devin snapped back, which was completely out of character.
Manor took it in stride, but ran with it, too. He told Devin he was going to call him Big Baby, then showed up a few days later with a binky on a chain and had Devin wear it during the workout. To this day, Manor and Devin remain in contact, the player appreciating – though not at the exact moment – what the coach brought out of him.
And Devin has a special mouthpiece. It is light blue and pink and shaped like a binky at the end. He’s just been too afraid to bring it out, and he’s not sure how Norvell would react. Still, he’d love to wear it in a game.
“I’ve encouraged him to do that. I’ve been seeing that mouthpiece for three years,” Francis said. “I’ve been like, bro, why do you have it here and you don’t wear it on Saturdays? You might be the flashiest D-lineman in America if you pull that out.”
Football is his passion now, but it wasn’t always. He said his father, John, who played football at Louisiana-Monroe, put both Joctavis and Devin in the sport when they were young and neither one of them liked it. Devin said he really was a baby then because he didn’t like the sport at all, especially the contact. But over time, that changed for him, and he grew to love it. He came to understand it was a pathway for him to do other things.
Such as go to school and get a degree, and he was really interested in construction management. Francis said he always looked the part, saying Devin was always wearing work boots and had a pencil behind his ear. It reminded Francis of his father, who works in construction and dresses the same way.
Phillips really wanted to make it work. He carried a regular load of classes his first semester, but he also had three special math courses on top of it. So, his main problem started immediately – he would procrastinate. He would choose one thing over another, and before long, what he had shelved was too far gone to catch up with later in the semester.
He did this for two years in a row – the same path, the same result. If the Rams had qualified for a bowl game in either of those years, he wouldn’t have been eligible to play. It bothered him and he wanted to change, but he didn’t initially know how.
Truth was, he was scared personally. He was also facing his first experience with a coaching change, and as it turned out, they put some fear into him in a good way.
“My second year, I was on academic probation. Knowing it was my last chance to get it right, if I didn’t, I’d have to go to a junior college and never play college football at Division I ever again,” Devin said. “The coaching staff change, when Steve Addazio first came in, having Antoine Smith, he prioritized getting our work done and he stayed on us heavy about that. He was bringing me in at 6 a.m. every morning in the spring to get ahead on work, or he’d check classes every day. He had grade checks and he stayed on us 24/7 about that. That also opened my eyes and helped me get better about that.”
He also had to admit to himself construction management wasn’t something which piqued his interest the way he thought it would. What had was communications, as well as sports management. He found he was more in tune with what he learned in the few classes he had taken, and it came to the point he was really enjoying attending those classes. So, he started asking himself the right questions. Just as important, he was asking the right people how to change his ways, improve his study habits and help him get the degree he so coveted.
These are the types of students Orr really has come to appreciate. She’s seen some student-athletes come in and are a bit immature, or at the very least, they need a bit of a development and a confidence boost. Confidence is what she felt he needed most, and once he started to gain some he was on a new path.
“When you hit that point – which is the best part of our job – and you see a student start where they are and make a bunch of progress and end up graduating, that’s the best part is that turning point,” Orr said. “He got to a point where he knew how to ask for help, and that was a big progress. That was probably in the spring of 2021. He had a really rough fall, so we sat down and asked him where he wants to be, and we stayed goal focused. He was able to articulate when it was, he needed help, and that was really important in the things he was struggling with.”
Before, he was taking classes because he thought they sounded interesting. Now, he’s checking the actual course description and seeing who is the professor. If the knows who they are, great. If not, he researches them. He will ask teammates about certain classes and professors.
Devin credits both Orr and Will Allen for helping him improve the way he studies, but mostly for the faith they showed in him and the confidence they helped build. In both his major and minor, he’s finding he’s more engaged in what is being discussed in class, and with that, Orr has seen him develop relationships with his professors.
Devin credits both Orr and Will Allen for helping him improve the way he studies, but mostly for the faith they showed in him and the confidence they helped build. In both his major and minor, he’s finding he’s more engaged in what is being discussed in class, and with that, Orr has seen him develop relationships with his professors.
So, for two years, Devin has been on a steady climb academically, matching what he’s been doing on the football field.
The confidence has spread to all aspects of his life, which Francis sees as the greatest switch in his friend.
“To me, the biggest change in him is I see more confidence in Devlo, as a person. He’s a more confident individual,” Francis said. “Just look at way he dresses. It’s through the roof now. You can’t get him to go nowhere without putting something flashy on.”
By one metric, Devin is the best recruit the Rams have ever signed. When Mike Bobo convinced him to join his brother, he was the only ESPN Top 300 recruit ever inked by CSU and is still. He was highly sought after as an offensive lineman, having been a three-year starter at guard, but he also spent time on the defensive line. That’s where he wanted to play in college, and that’s where Bobo and his staff wanted him to play.
He was a starter from the first game and has been for all 36 contests he’s played in his career, missing a game here or there due to injury. From the very beginning, the team knew they had something special, a nose guard who at the time was asked to eat up blocks and hold gaps.
“I knew how good he was as a freshman. I don’t think the average fan would, just by the nature of his position,” Francis said. “He eats up blocks and it’s not a stat position. People who know football know how good Devin Phillips is.
“I can tell you a story. I came in one Saturday my freshman year; it was after we played Florida. Our DC was watching film and he was pulling up fits on run gaps, and he talked about how Devin held on to double teams and maintained his gap as a freshman. These are full-grown SEC lineman, and he put his feet in the ground and was manhandling SEC lineman. I saw our DC fantasizing over that clip.”
The past two seasons, the defensive line has taken a more aggressive approach which has led to better tackle-for-loss numbers, and Devin has done his part. He had his best season to date, playing all 12 games and finishing with 33 tackles, including 4.0 for loss and 2.5 sacks.
This year, he expects to be even more active because of a drop in weight. After reporting at 320, he played at 305. But he played at 320 the next season, 310 the two which followed. Currently, he is at 282 pounds and expects to play at 285.
He feels it will make him more mobile, and because of the drop in weight, he’s made sure to make gains in his strength to handle the position and a few new asks.
“I have struggled with it, so I couldn’t move the way I wanted to. This year, I’ve cut down on my weight and gotten my body in shape to where I know I can play nose,” he said. “This year I’ll play more three tech and maybe get some shots at D-end, and I can play and move the way I want to and not get tired. One of my biggest things is being able to exceed boundaries I didn’t think I could exceed. I wanted to build my endurance and know I can go four or five plays at full speed without getting tired.”
This is the player the new staff knows. They love him.
When Buddha Williams came in as the defensive line coach, he brought in some different techniques he wanted his linemen to use, both in run stopping and pass rush. They weren’t sweeping changes, but subtle enough to require teaching and repetition. Before long, Devin was a player who became the example of how to do things correctly and help his linemates.
“Devin absolutely caught on extremely fast. He’s a chameleon,” Williams said. “He can adapt to anything, and he’s played so much football, so he was one of the first ones to catch on quick and be a good resource for the inside guys.”
Devin was the guy who was working hard in conditioning drills and in the weight room. He was the guy in spring practice making a difference, adapting to the new way of doing things without a complaint. And he wasn’t being called in to catch up on his schoolwork, as this staff has made it even more of an emphasis.
The struggles he had, the doubt he felt, are all part of who he has become. He’s proud of himself, too. He should be. Yet, if he could go back in time, he’d love to pass on what he has learned to his younger self.
“I would tell him don’t procrastinate, work two weeks ahead on all assignments and get a little more extra work in – just a little bit more,” Phillips said. “I would tell him that everything you do is all going to pay off in the end. No matter how hard it is, or how bad you feel like you’re struggling, you can always persevere.”
And when you do, you’ll love being the guy everybody sees you as at the end.