Stanford's Harrison Phillips Pokes Fun At The SEC's Academics
PALO ALTO, CA - OCTOBER 25: The scoreboard at Stanford Stadium shows the Stanford Cardinal taking a big lead against the Oregon State Beavers on October 25, 2014 at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. Stanford won 38-14. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images)
The Cardinal's standout lineman poked fun at the league's graduation rate.
Stanford head coach David Shaw made a controversial comment about the SEC in 2016. It was about holding satellite camps in southern states.
"It doesn't make sense for us to go hold a camp some place where there might be one person in the entire state that's eligible to get into Stanford," Shaw said.
The Cardinal's head coach later clarified his comment, saying it wasn't a shot at the south or the SEC. Rather, the comment was taken out of context. He was more talking about how expensive it is to hold satellite camps so far from Stanford.
Still, the SEC didn't appreciate it. The league isn't going to appreciate a new comment from one of his star players, either.
Former Stanford lineman Harrison Phillips took a (playful?) shot at the SEC's graduation rate on Wednesday. He made it during an interview on the NFL Network at the Senior Bowl.
“Stanford, when I committed, was coming off a season where they were ranked fourth in the nation, Rose Bowl champions, Pac-12 champions,” Phillips said. “I believe they had eight players drafted. They’re almost like a football factory, kind of like the SEC is, except they get you your diploma.”
Shots fired. Phillips then backtracked a little, telling NFL Network host Charles Davis (a Tennessee grad) that no one in the SEC recruited him.
"(Stanford) is the Ivy League of the West Coast. No one down there (in the SEC) recruited me. I wasn't good enough for that," he said.
Phillips, an early-entrant into the NFL Draft, is one of the top defensive linemen in the class. Mel Kiper has him ranked as one of the top 10 defensive tackles in the class.
