With a 6-foot-4, 233-pound frame, supernatural downhill speed, and mile-wide, thousand-watt smile, Jacob Phillips makes a lasting first impression.
Just ask JaCoby Stevens, currently Phillips' LSU teammate but once, not so long ago, his opponent.
Before the two were five-star signees out of the state of Tennessee with the Tigers' 2017 recruiting class, they were rivals at Nashville-area prep schools, and they first crossed paths in a freshman scrimmage.
"I guess they were trying Jacob out on offense," Stevens recalls, "and they were running some type of counter. I'm flowing, and I guess Jacob didn't think I saw him, but he tried to get a crack back block on me.