Wisconsin football head coach Bret Bielema announced the 2008 football signees Wednesday, and the main topic of the conference was incoming quarterback Curt Phillips, who is already enrolled at the university.
Obviously every year I want to sign at least one quarterback. I'm very excited about Curt and what he brings to the table,"" Bielema said.
Phillips comes to Wisconsin with quite the pedigree. As a senior at Sullivan South in Kingsport, Tenn., he was a PrepStar All-American, the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year and was a member of the PrepStar 135 Dream Team.
The 6'3"", 215 pound quarterback was rated as the No. 10 quarterback in Tennessee and the 42nd-best quarterback in the nation by Scout.com.
Phillips threw for 2,263 yards and added another 1,885 yards on the ground, with a total of 57 touchdowns. Despite the awards and statistics, however, Phillips does not feel any pressure or have any lofty expectations for his freshman season.
""I don't really have any playing time expectations, just to come in and compete,"" Phillips said. ""That's all you can ask for is to get a shot to come into spring practice.""
Bielema echoed Phillips beliefs, as the head coach is not placing any expectations on any of his new recruits.
""As a coach I really try to downplay expectations because it is unfair. Curt is a tremendous football player,"" Bielema said. ""He has accomplished a lot of things in high school. He has been a guy that has gotten better every year, and hopefully when he comes to Wisconsin those same things will happen. But we didn't tell Curt that we expected him to come in and play next year.""
Phillips also touched on some of his strengths, which he feels will benefit him at Wisconsin.
""Just trying to be smart with the ball, not make mistakes,"" Phillips said. ""[I'm just] trying to relax so that I don't make any mistakes. I'm kind of an athletic quarterback, which should hopefully pay off a little bit.""
Considering Phillips is from Tennessee, it seems odd for him to have chosen Wisconsin, but Phillips made it clear that all it took was one visit to Camp Randall before he knew UW was the place for him.
""Just coming to a game at Camp Randall [was a big selling point],"" Phillips said. ""Obviously coming from Tennessee, I didn't really know that much about Wisconsin and the Big Ten, but after I came to a game, it was an amazing atmosphere.""
Camp Randall was a selling point for many of the signees, as a total of 24 players - with an additional five players joining as walk-ons - will join the Badgers' roster. One of the walk-ons, tight end Ricky Wagner, decided to attend Wisconsin without a scholarship, even though he had received multiple scholarships to play basketball elsewhere.
Both the offensive and defensive line were a point of emphasis for Bielema and his coaching staff, and the head coach felt very comfortable with how this year's recruiting class turned out.
""I really believe that this recruiting class is the culmination of a lot of hard work, not only by the guys who are out on the road recruiting, but by the coaches who did a great job of analyzing the film and prioritizing who they are,"" Bielema said.
