The NCAA concluded that a former Florida assistant coach committed a Level II recruiting violation when he made contact with a prospect during a recruiting dead period in January 2014. However, because Florida immediately suspended the coach – former wide receivers coach Joker Phillips (who resigned soon after) – and stopped recruiting the prospect, the NCAA opted not to punish the program further.
According to the NCAA’s release, Phillips (who was not named by the NCAA) met with the prospect outside of his school after being “notified by a recruiting service reporter that the prospect would be waiting outside of his high school.” Phillips then spoke with the prospect, expressing his interest in him attending Florida and also “got the prospect’s social media contact information.”
Because Phillips’ contact with the recruit was “not inadvertent and provided more than a minimal recruiting advantage,” an NCAA infractions panel concluded that it was a Level II violation.
Florida administered the following penalties and “corrective actions” on itself:
A suspension of the former coach from all off-campus recruiting for 30 days beginning on April 10, 2014 and the end of recruitment of the prospect involved in the contact.
The NCAA panel adopted these penalties.
In a statement, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley thanked the NCAA for its thorough investigation – which can be read in full here.
“The University of Florida Athletic Association takes pride in the culture of compliance it has built over the years. Integrity is one of the core values of our organization - we act in a fair, ethical and honest manner and we strive to do things the right way every day," Foley said. "That is why we took quick and decisive action after we learned of a recruiting contact rule violation involving one of our assistant football coaches in January 2014.
"We stopped recruiting the involved student-athlete, we removed the assistant coach from all recruiting activities, and later secured his resignation. We thank the NCAA Committee on Infractions for their thoughtful deliberation. We look forward to putting this issue behind us and we will continue to operate with the highest level of integrity and compliance.”
After a year away from the sideline in 2014, Phillips was hired by the Cleveland Browns as wide receivers coach last month.
For more Florida news, visit InsideTheGators.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
