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| Wednesday, July 16 |
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| Where Are They Now? By Jeff Goodman SchoolSports.com | ||||||
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Phillip Deas left Evangel Christian Academy (La.) as the nation's all-time most prolific passer. He was destined for stardom, but bad luck and injuries limited his playing time to a trio of handoffs and not a single pass attempt in his college career. His predecessor at Evangel, Josh Booty, is throwing passes at LSU. The quarterback who followed Booty, Brock Berlin, is ready to take over the starting quarterback duties at Florida next year. But Deas can only sit and watch. Deas, who established national records with 11,324 career passing yards and 138 touchdown tosses during his four-year run as Evangel's starting quarterback (1993-96), has dropped off the radar screen as a player. But he hopes to get back in the spotlight as a college coach.
Deas came out of high school after enjoying the best individual campaign ever for a prep quarterback, throwing for 4,656 yards and 53 touchdowns as a senior. He could have picked just about anywhere in the country to play his college ball, and after much deliberation, he decided to suit up for University of North Carolina coach Mack Brown. But after a redshirt season for Deas in 1997, Brown left the Tar Heels for the University of Texas, and a new run-oriented offense was put in place in Chapel Hill, N.C. "The best fit for that offense was an athletic-style quarterback that he was bringing in," says Deas. "I could have stayed there, but I probably wouldn't have fit in and never would have played. If I would have gotten in there and had to run the ball, I probably would have embarrassed myself." So Deas transferred to nearby Louisiana Tech and its pass-happy offense. But Deas never got to air it out at Tech because he injured his back lifting weights and the pain never subsided. His left foot went numb, he had a sharp pain in his hip and basically the whole left side of his body was sore -- all the time. "I had to have surgery, and they told me I could be all right in three or four months or maybe three or four years," says Deas, who was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back. "I knew I was taking a chance, I went through rehab and I was coming back fairly well. "I tried to get it done and took more time in the summer to get back, but it just never got there. It never got to the level to play Division I football." Deas ended up giving up playing the sport and decided to focus his efforts on becoming a football coach. "I'm honestly not looking at this as a negative," says Deas. "Right now I'm helping to coach the quarterbacks at Tech, and this is really what I wanted to get into after I was done playing." Deas is technically a student assistant for Louisiana Tech and is still on scholarship. He actually has one year of eligibility left in his collegiate career, but it doesn't matter. "I'm not going to do it," says Deas, who will graduate later this month and hopes to find a graduate assistant job somewhere. "I'm going to forgo that year. "To me, it's more important to be able to play with my kids when I'm 40 years old than play a couple of college football games. It's just not worth it."
Material from SchoolSports.com.Visit their web site at www.schoolsports.com | |
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