Phillip Sims: No Longer the Center of Attention

At this time last year, Phillip Sims may have been the most important member of the Virginia football team. Not the best, mind you, but certainly the busiest. As the only healthy center during UVa’s spring practice period, he made virtually every snap during scrimmages and drills.

“Seventy reps a day for three weeks,” he said. “Mentally and physically, it was exhausting. I’d just go home every day and crash.”

These days, Sims is far less tired. And for the Cavaliers, that’s a good thing. It means they have plenty of players at a position that is shaping up as a strength in 2004. Rising senior Zac Yarbrough, rising sophomore D.J. Bell, and redshirt freshmen Jordy Lipsey and Gordie Sammis have handled almost all of the work at center this spring. Sims, a rising sophomore, mostly watches — a big change from his role a year ago.

“Now it’s more of a mental thing,” he said. “You have to pay attention and watch what the other guys are doing and learn from their mistakes.”

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