WR Cam Phillips Starts Hot in First Four Games, Takes Aim at Tech's Record Books

When you ask freshman wide receiver Cam Phillips what's been his favorite play at Virginia Tech in his fledgling career as a Hokie, you get answer that would make any good position coach proud.

"Other than the ECU touchdown, my first touchdown, in the William and Mary game, I sprung Shai McKenzie for a touchdown," Phillips said. "I made a great crackback block on a linebacker, then ran up the field and made a block on another guy, so I had fun with that."

Phillips was instrumental on McKenzie's 39-yard touchdown run, and his hustle down the field is something that made every member of the offensive coaching staff proud.

"Coach (Scot) Loeffler put it on in the team meeting, just showing the effort that I showed on the play," Phillips said. "He said 'that's how it should be, every play.' So I felt kind of special, it kind of stuck out."

But blocking is hardly Phillips' only talent on the football field. Phillips already has 13 catches for 168 yards and a score just four games into the season, and has quickly become a key part of the Hokies' passing game.

In the past two games, Phillips has become a deadly weapon for quarterback Michael Brewer on third downs, when he needs someone to get open downfield the most.

Over the course of the team's last two games, Phillips has caught balls for gains of 12, 22, 13 and 30 yards on third down to extend critical drives for the Hokies.

Yet just a few months ago, Phillips wasn't even sure if he'd be attending Virginia Tech.

"It was Tech and UVA," Phillips said. "I went to Rutgers for a 7-on-7 tournament, but that was pretty much it. But UVA and Tech were my only two."

Phillips makes it sound like a simple process, but he had to sort through offers from a total of 11 different schools to make his decision.

He says it ultimately came down to the promise of early playing time and his relationship with the staff.

"I took (playing time) into consideration," Phillips said. "But it was just a matter of which receiver coach I had a tighter bond with, what I thought he could teach me. So that's why I chose Tech."

But Phillips, a native of Hyattsville, Maryland, thought he'd have even more offers from schools in his area, but felt a bit overlooked by some.

"There were some colleges I thought kind of just looked me over, and I thought I was a pretty good player. I thought I'd have their offer, but they said I wasn't good enough," Phillips said. "So I try to pride myself on working hard and doing everything I can, and hopefully those teams don't play Virginia Tech."

Now he finds himself in position to prove his abilities early and often with the Hokies. With Josh Stanford taking a leave of absence from the Hokies, he's assumed a bigger role in the offense, even starting the last two games.

He's joined in the starting lineup by fellow freshman Isaiah Ford, and it's hard to avoid making comparisons between the two given their lightning-fast impact on the team.

"We're very tight," Phillips said. "We're dorm mates and our lockers are kind of close together, so we talk a lot and watch film together."

It's certainly unusual for a pair of freshmen to start for any college team at receiver, let alone one like the Hokies that's so frequently valued veterans on both sides of the ball. But wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead says that if the duo keeps making plays, he's perfectly content to leave them in the game.

"I'm never going to say 'take my guys off the field.' If anything, I'm going to push for that," Moorehead said. "So as long as we're making plays and putting the balls in the end zone, I want them to stay on the football field."

With Moorehead ready to give him a chance to succeed, and with such an early start to his career, Phillips is even considering the possibility of smashing some of Tech's receiving records.

"I believe every good player should have a goal in mind to reach, that kind of pushes them to work for something," Phillips said. "After you beat the record, hopefully you want to continue to make it go further so nobody has a chance to break that. It's just something to have in my head every day, something to shoot for in the season."

There are some big names to pass in the record books, like Danny Coale and Jarrett Boykin, but Phillips will take things one step at a time.

As his pride in his blocking abilities indicates, he's more focused on the team's performance than anything else.

"To me none of the individual stuff matters, catches, yards, none of it matters if we don't get a win," Phillips said. "Even when we do get a win, I try not to talk about statistics because it's a team thing. If the team's doing well, I'm happy."