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Wisconsin Football picks up surprise pledge from Cam Phillips

By Sam Land

MADISON, WI - OCTOBER 31: Head Coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates on the sidelines during the second half against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Camp Randall Stadium on October 31, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
MADISON, WI - OCTOBER 31: Head Coach Paul Chryst of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates on the sidelines during the second half against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Camp Randall Stadium on October 31, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) /
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Wisconsin Football fans got some unexpected and exciting news on Saturday with 2019 wide receiver Cam Phillips committing to the Badgers.

Wisconsin got an interesting pickup in its 2019 recruiting class yesterday.

3 star IMG Academy (Bradenton, FL) wide receiver Cam Phillips announced his commitment to the Badgers via Twitter on Saturday, and interestingly, he did so with the understanding that he would be a preferred walk-on in Madison, according to Evan Flood of 247Sports.

One could understandably be confused why a high-3 star prospect who held scholarship offers from Cincinnati, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Rutgers would accept a walk-on opportunity.

Well, the situation makes much more sense due to Phillips missing all of his senior football season at IMG Academy with a torn ACL, which he suffered back in the spring. It appears as though that injury was severe enough to scare off those programs that at one point had extended scholarship offers to him.

One of the teams that felt it was necessary to back off of a scholarship offer after that torn ACL was Wisconsin. The Badgers offered Phillips in June of 2017, and hosted him for a gameday visit in November.

That being said, this was an awesome move by the staff to find a way to still bring Phillips in as walk-on. When he was healthy earlier in his prep career, he was one of the best class of 2019 receivers in the Midwest out of Ohio before opting to transfer to the football factory that is IMG Academy for his senior year.

Phillips had a fairly decent offer list to his name, and had he been healthy and able to showcase his abilities this season at IMG, a school which cranks out several FBS prospects every year and is a must-stop destination for college coaches as a result, one can assume he would have picked up many more. Before going down, Phillips was being scouted by programs such as Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern, and Stanford. Per his Twitter feed, he also made visits to Washington State and Florida.

This pickup is a massive steal for a Wisconsin program that has a reputation for finding hidden gems on the recruiting trail. Phillips has good size at 6’2, and his  junior film shows a player with some pretty soft hands who runs crisp routes. An added bonus is that, in addition to wide receiver, Phillips has experience as a punt/kick returner and as a defensive back. You just get the sense that, so long as he recovers relatively well from the injury, the staff is going to find a way to get this kid on the field at some juncture down the road.

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Phillips will be able to take all the time he needs to gain strength and get back to 100 percent in Madison.  The Badgers will be deep at wide receiver next season, so there will be no need to rush him into action. If he can get back to being even close to the caliber of player he was emerging as before his injury, we will look back on this move as a recruiting coup of massive proportions.