UCLA Football Recruiting: Jaelan Phillips Is Committed to Being Committed as Others May Not
After a sixth player decommitted over the weekend, the UCLA Football team got some reassurance from the top defensive end in the nation stating he is “1000% committed” to the Bruins.
Recruiting can be a tough sea to navigate through. The UCLA Football coaches know this all too well as another player had decommitted on Saturday.
Related Story: DE Hunter Echols Decommits… So Where Is Recruiting Now?
This past weekend, 3-star cornerback Jeffrey Manning, Jr. had backed away from his commitment to the Bruins only seven days after he gave his pledge to UCLA’s 2017 class.
This was also days after 4-star DE Hunter Echols had also decommitted from the Bruins. The thing with Echols is that his commitment always felt like it was more of a soft verbal, despite him claiming that UCLA was his “dream school”.
With both of these decommitments, the UCLA Football team is now down to just three commits for the 2017 recruiting class: OT Ronald Rudd III, OT Kanan Ray and DE Jaelan Phillips.
The silver lining in all of this is that the 5-star defensive end Phillips (who is also the top DE in the country), wanted to put aside all worry and stated that he is “1000%” committed to the UCLA football team.
I'm 1000% committed and always will be! Don't feed into the negativity, come signing day the UCLA recruiting C/O 2017 will be special!
— Jaelan Phillips ;🕴🏾® (@JJPhillips15) July 31, 2016
In a time of instability with recruiting, the fact that Phillips can come forward and make a statement like this shows a lot of character. It is unknown what exactly is going on with the coaches and recruiting this summer, but it is good to see a player stick to his commitment and take responsibility for his choices.
Phillips has also been very vocal in his support of the Bruins as he has been doing some recruiting of his own and trying to show other prospects the excitement of UCLA Football. A player like Phillips epitomizes what a coach and a team look for in a prospect and the Bruins are lucky to have him.
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Phillips will not officially be a Bruin until he signs his National Letter of Intent in February 2017, but from what he has shown, there is no other school he is interested in. Now if other recruits see what Phillips sees, than he is right in claiming that the class of 2017 will be very special.
Go Bruins!