The Arizona Wildcats went into Wednesday's National Signing Day for junior college football players confident it would officially add two recruits to its 2017 class.
One was linebacker Delshawn Phillips of Garden City Community College in Kansas, the other defensive tackle Sione Taufahema of College of the Canyons in California.
Instead, Phillips backed out of his commitment to Arizona and flipped to Illinois. Taufahema is still expected to sign with the Wildcats and enroll at the UA in January.
Phillips made the announcement that he'd be playing at Illinois instead of Arizona in an interesting video posted to Twitter where he awoke his mom from a nap with an Illinois hat and the news of his decision.
Woke her up from her nap thought she was gone kill me‼️💯 pic.twitter.com/QA9YeDcoyS
— King Phillips (@PROseason) December 15, 2016
Phillips took an official visit to Illinois over the weekend, and beforehand he told the Star "it's going to be hard to top" Arizona in his recruitment. It appears that's exactly what coach Lovie Smith and the Illni were able to do.
Phillips initially committed to Arizona back in July and was expected to come in and compete for immediate playing time in the Wildcats' thin linebacker unit next year, which is set to lose Jake Matthews, Michael Barton, Cody Ippolito and Paul Magloire from its 2016 lineup. Phillips had planned to enroll at UA in January.
"That’s been the biggest factor, that I’d come in and play right away," Phillips told the Star last week. "Of course, that’s what I’m looking for. I want to go in and play right away."
With the loss of Phillips, the Wildcats are down to 24 commitments in the 2017 class, and UA expects to lose another junior college recruit in Arizona Western defensive tackle Matt Leo, who might flip to Oklahoma.
Arizona still has three linebackers committed for 2017 in Josh Brown, Kylan Wilborn and Tony Fields, who will enroll early.
