Dwight Phillips Jr: The electrifying RB commitment is now one of the fastest high school sprinters in America

Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep has the latest with 4-star RB commitment Dwight Phillips Jr. He ranks as the nation’s No. 6 RB and the No. 87 overall prospect for 2024 on the 247Sports Composite ratings.

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Dwight Phillips Jr. ran 10.35 in the 100 meters on Monday afternoon at McEachern High School. He took first place in the Cobb County Championships.

It was his SLOWEST race of the young season so far.

It sounds wild to say this, but he was a little tired and maybe everyone watching was just a tad disappointed. Phillips also ran the second leg of the 4X100 relay for Pebblebrook. His team also took home first place in that event.

“I was a little tired,” he said. “Coming back out here off of Saturday.”

That’s how fast Phillips has zoomed along this spring. The 2023 Class 7A state 100-meter champion had already clocked a 10.29 and a 10.26 in his first two events.

That 10.26 he clocked in the prelims of the Cobb County event on Saturday was impressive. Meet officials said over the PA it was the third-fastest time in the nation this spring. According to Milesplit.com, that would have been the fastest time in America during the 2022 high school outdoor season.

“I’m getting there right now,” he said.

There really isn’t any grand plan.

“Really I just try to get to the finish line as fast as possible,” he said.

The gold medal Olympic legacy (his father brought home gold in the long jump) is committed to play football for the ‘Dawgs in the class of 2024.

To put Monday’s time in the proper context, his 10.35 is still special. Especially after clocking that 10.26 on a Saturday and then coming back on Monday for the finals.

Phillips ran a 10.43 on a bum hamstring last spring. Yet he is bigger, faster and stronger as a junior in 2023.

“It is really just believing in yourself,” he said.

His father analyzed the 4.28 he ran last summer in Athens. The 4-time world champion long jumper pointed out several bio-mechanical flaws that left the effort looking stellar on the clock, but not so much on tape.

“My best part is probably the middle,” Phillips said. “Once I hit the middle to the end, I don’t really see anybody near me.”

Picture this visual in Athens: Phillips breaks free on a stretch play or maybe streaks downfield on a wheel route. As he crosses the goal line, he has the biggest and wildest smile.

Think of the Joker character from the Batman movies and comics. That’s what Phillips looks like every time he crosses the finish line first in a 100.

That’s his trademark.

If he takes his times into the low 10.0 range, then he will move into Matthe Bowling territory. UGA’s senior All-American sprinter Matthew Bowling did when he set the national high school wind-legal marks in 2019.

Bowling ran a 9.98 as a senior in high school. He also ran four of the fastest 100-meter dash times in high school history in 2019 on the way to being named Gatorade National Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

There’s one big clarification here with Phillips. He’s football-first. His father basically had to talk him into running the 100 meters last spring. They made a pact he would run five races.

He wound up with that 10.43 and a state 100-meter title despite competing with a bum hamstring.

4-star Class of 2024 RB commitment Dwight Phillips Jr. participates in the Cobb County Track Championships on Monday, March 27, 2023, at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Jeff Sentell, Dawgnation

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Dwight Phillips Jr. and Georgia football: What’s next?

Let’s take a quick moment and feel a tad sorry for McGee, Mike Bobo and Kirby Smart and what they won’t have for spring practice in 2024.

That’s like getting the Super Nintendo for Christmas back when they were kids, but not getting to play with it until June.

They won’t have a weapon like Phillips to work with next spring. He does not plan to enroll early in January and will finish out high school and the high school track season.

Phillips said on Monday that he’s looking forward to getting back up to Athens this spring. Just as soon as he gets a bye weekend from high school track.

Are any other college programs still coming at him?

“No, I’m locked in with the ‘Dawgs,” he said.

What does he say when another school reaches out to continue to recruit him?

“Go ‘Dawgs,” he said.

Phillips said that he’s heard from the Georgia staff and running backs coach Dell McGee about what he has done so far.

“They said that they feel I really have elite speed,” he said.

4-star Class of 2024 RB commitment Dwight Phillips Jr. participates in the Cobb County Track Championships on Monday, March 27, 2023, at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Jeff Sentell, Dawgnation

4-star Class of 2024 RB commitment Dwight Phillips Jr. participates in the Cobb County Track Championships on Monday, March 27, 2023, at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Georgia. (Jeff Sentell/DawgNation)

Jeff Sentell, Dawgnation

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Dwight Phillips Jr: “This is just regular to me”

Phillips might compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials one day in the 100. He could set the state record in the 100 meters this spring. But he really looks at this track stuff as his side hustle.

“It is regular to me,” he said. “Other people see this and go all crazy.”

Football. That’s the big ticket item here. He scored the first time he touched the ball as a freshman on a 94-yard kickoff return.

Phillips has amassed over 4,000 yards and 32 touchdowns in his three seasons. He’s gone over 1,000 yards all-purpose every fall. He had approximately 890 rushing yards last fall in a thunder-and-lightning tandem backfield. Then he tacked on another 300 approximate receiving yards in 2022.

He looks to Alabama’s Jahmyr Gibbs and NFL All-Pro Alvin Kamara as inspirations for his game.

“Football is fun, man,” Dwight Phillips Jr. said earlier this year. “I love it. I want to make it to the league, but more than that I’ve really got a passion for it.”

RELATED: Why 4-star RB commitment Dwight Phillips Jr. is a very rare breed for Georgia football

His mother, Valerie, was also an 8-time track and field All-American in college. Phillips was definitely leading off third base in the game here when it comes to some true 5-star genetics.

She’s been working with him this spring as his unofficial sprint coach. Her specialty was in the jumps.

But Phillips said she’s doing so well this spring he needs to give her a raise.

“She’s doing pretty good so far,” Dwight Phillips Jr. said. “She got me to a 10.29 and a 10.26 so far.”

He said on Monday that a 10.10 or a 10.16 is his target time for this spring.

The fact he’s already cracked 10.35 three times in three meets so far is a good start. They knew this was possible.

“Absolutely,” his mother Valerie Phillips said. “Last year he woke up one morning and said Mom I want to do track. The first meet was the country meet. The second meet was regionals. The third meet was the state championships. People don’t know that.”

“So yeah, I thought this was possible.”

His mom/coach was still happy with the 10.35 on Monday.

“I didn’t know how today was going to go,” she said. “Especially because it is an off day. Most people don’t compete on a Monday. I told him to give it all he had. He really wanted to break a record today, though.”

He wanted to hit a 10.16 on Monday, but that will be in his sights for the rest of the spring.

“He’s just such a humble kid,” she said. “You know nothing really rattles him. He’s just very focused and determined. He creates his own goals for himself. Before you even mention something to him, he’s already thought about it and ingested what he wants to see and he does it. Then it works for him. I don’t really have ot push him in any direction.”

“He’s a good kid and just a really funny guy. Most people don’t know that about him.”

SENTELL’S INTEL

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