George Ferguson Column: Thank You Reese Phillips

Adversity comes in all forms. In sports, it can come in the blink of an eye.

In football, one second everything is going good and then, boom, it isn’t.

That’s exactly what happened to University of Montana quarterback Reese Phillips last Saturday in Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula. Phillips, a senior transfer from the University of Kentucky was showing all of Griz Nation exactly why he was brought to Montana — to be the Grizzlies’ next great quarterback.

Then, in a split second, it was over.

By now, everyone knows what happened to Phillips. He suffered a gruesome and horrific leg injury — one that surely ended his season, if not his football career.

But what some of you may not have seen yet is how Phillips has handled his bout with adversity. Shortly after he was out of surgery, Phillips tweeted that coming to Montana was “the best decision of my life.”

On Tuesday, Phillips also released a statement through the University of Montana: “Being the QB for this team is truly the honor of a lifetime and simply a dream come true. Although I won't be on the field playing, I'll be at every game doing everything in my power to help my team continue to reach our goals. I look forward to communicating more with Griz Nation in the near future. Until then let's pack WGS this Saturday and get after the Eagles! Go Griz!"

All I could think about when reading that yesterday was, wow, how lucky is Griz Nation, and the University of Montana to have this guy on its side?

I already considered the Griz and head coach Bob Stitt very lucky to have found Phillips after watching him play his first two-plus games. I saw in Phillips, even if it was going to be just one season, the next prolific Griz’ quarterback. Yes, in my humble opinion, he’s that good.

But in the days following his injury, I quickly realized, the Griz are even luckier to have Reese Phillips the person, and Reese Phillips the leader on their team. He doesn’t need to throw footballs to impact the Griz in ways I’m not sure many have in a long time. In other words, Reese Phillips just being who he is, has already had, and will continue to have, an incredibly profound impact on Griz football.

He’s just that special, and it's no wonder that in less than two years in Missoula, he had already become one of the most highly respected Griz players on this team.

So as a member of Griz Nation, as a University of Montana alum and as a coach, I just want to say two words to Reese Phillips — Thank You. I know, I'm a journalist and I'm not supposed to care about these kids that I cover but, too bad, because I do.

So again, thank you, Reese, for choosing to come to play for the Griz. Thank you for being such a tremendous person and setting such a positive example for so many, even in the face of the difficult circumstances you are going through right now. Thank you, Reece. You will always be one of my favorite Grizzlies.

The world, and especially the world of sports and college football, could sure use a lot more people with the character and integrity of Reese Phillips.