KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee football defensive end Kyle Phillips will play in the 94th East-West Shrine Game on Jan. 19 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The college football all-star game announced on Thursday night the Vols’ captain has accepted an invitation to play in the contest.
The 2019 edition of the East-West Shrine Game will kick off at 3 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field and will be broadcast live on the NFL Network.
Phillips will be the 49th Vol to play in the East-West Shrine Game all-time, joining recent participants Ethan Wolf (2018) and Justin Coleman (2015) as well as other notable Vols such as Casey Clausen (2004), Frank Emanuel (1965), Steve DeLong (1964) and Beattie Feathers (1934).
Phillips was an outstanding leader for the Vols on and off the field during his career, saving his best season for 2018. The Nashville, Tenn., native ranked second on the team in sacks (5.0) and tackles for loss (8.0), and finished third in tackles (56), while starting all 12 games this fall. He added a pick-six versus No. 1 Alabama, five quarterback hurries, four pass breakups, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one blocked kick to fill up the stat sheet in his final collegiate season.
For his career, Phillips finished with 114 tackles, 16 TFLs and eight sacks, while appearing in 41 games with 20 starts.
In addition to being named a permanent captain for the 2018 season, Phillips took home the Bill Majors Award and Defensive Player of the Year honors at the end-of-season team banquet.
Phillips collected SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors after logging a career-high nine tackles and forcing a fumble in a 30-24 victory at No. 21 Auburn on Sept. 13. Phillips was a semifinalist for the 2018 Campbell Trophy as well as the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award, and grabbed Google Cloud Academic All-District honors.
Phillips graduated in three years with a degree in sports management and was a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. He was named to the SEC Community Service Team in 2017 and traveled to Vietnam as a member of the 2016-17 VOLeaders Academy class.
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