UF Denies Admission To 4-Star DT Signee

July 2nd, 2012 12:44 PM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Florida
Tags: NCAA, recruiting, signing day, UF

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Four-star defensive tackle signee Dante Phillips won’t be suiting up or Will Muschamp’s defense this fall. In fact, he won’t be on the Florida campus as a student, either. According to his stepfather, Damon Wilson, Phillips has been denied admission into the school:

“We were kind of blindsided. He did everything he needed to do to be cleared by the (NCAA) clearing house, but now he’s been told he doesn’t have a scholarship to Florida. He’s been cleared by the NCAA. He’s academically eligible. But the admissions office says he can’t enroll at Florida. If he can’t get in there, we have to look at other places. He’s got some offers out there. He’s totally qualified (academically)…

Something like this should never happen.”

Wilson told The Gainesville Sun the family is appealing the decision, but he doesn’t expect a reversal on the ruling.

Phillips was ranked by Rivals.com as the #9 defensive tackle prospect in the nation on signing day. Fellow top D-line signees Jonathan Bullard and Dante Fowler have yet to enroll as well, but it’s expected — as least for now — that they will be cleared by the NCAA and by the school.

That doesn’t help Phillips, however. And it won’t help Will Muschamp on the recruiting trail, either.

The University of Florida admissions office — or someone in the athletic department — should have gotten a look at Phillips’ transcripts long before signing day and found that there were potential potholes. The fact that a player was recruited by UF, signed by UF, but then denied entry to UF will be used against the Gators’ coach on the recruiting trail. Of that you can be sure.

“They might tell you that you can get in, but did you hear what they did to Dante Phillips?”

One can only imagine Muschamp’s private response when given the news that he’d wasted a scholarship — and a helluva lot of time — on a player cleared by the NCAA but not cleared by his own university.

As for Phillips, if he and his family were truly as “blindsided” as Wilson says, then someone in Gainesville owes the young man an apology.

4 comments

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rockriver

Why should UF apologize? Certainly the recruiting team would have made him aware of the academic standards he would need to meet to get into UF, as they do with all student athletes. If he failed to meet those standards, it's totally on Phillips.

John at MrSEC moderator

1 Like

rockriver...

This is the kind of comment that ticks me off. You clearly posted before actually reading all of what was written. That or you couldn't comprehend what was written. So let's look at the last line of the above post in it's entirety:

"As for Phillips, if he and his family were truly as “blindsided” as Wilson says, then someone in Gainesville owes the young man an apology."

I see the words "if" and "truly" written right there in black text on a white background. I also referred to what the stepfather "says." The clear, obvious, unmistakable point being -- if the family was not informed of the situation, then the family is owed an apology. They claim they were blindsided. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. But if they were, UF dropped the ball.

Your post, therefore, is garbage.

But thanks for (sort of) reading,

John

rockriver

@John at MrSEC The thrust of your article was that UF screwed up. Maybe you should study the concept of tone, it will help your writing immensely.

Dash1Bravo

Yeah BUT.....

Its a sign the football recruiters did not close the loop with admissions a while ago. Recruiters responsibility. Somebody missed something. Sorry for the family, this is a very frustrating situation to for everyone involved.