Better an Absence of Men Than Imperfect Men
The secret is out on Sam Houston slot receiver Malik Phillips...
Better an absence of men than imperfect men.
- Pol Pot, former Cambodian prime minister
The other day I read an interesting (at least, I found it interesting) article written by one of my favourite non-CFB writers on substack: Mr.
.In this article, titled with a quote from former Cambodian dictator Pol Pot (which I stole for the title of this article), he examines how throughout human history, evil regimes arise from seemingly well-mannered, good intentioned, and educated people.
Evil never presents as evil when you’re living through it, he explains; and the greatest atrocities across human history almost always come with the promise that things will be better (e.g., more egalitarian, fair, and humane), particularly for the most vulnerable in society.
As part of this examination, he highlights the common threads between three of the 20th century’s most murderous communist regimes: the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (admittedly, a cool regime name), Stalin’s Soviet Union, and Mao Zedong’s Communist Party in China.
In fact, all three of these are pretty cool regime names—evidently there’s some sort of correlation between wanting to murder people in the name of equality, and picking out neat regime names.
When current Wisconsin head coach (and potential undercover communist) Luke Fickell declared last offseason that if the Badgers funnelled 100 targets to their WR1 in 2024, that would be evidence of a schematic and/or philosophical problem, I couldn’t help but think of Henderson’s sentiment above: the greatest evils are often committed by seemingly well-intentioned individuals.
The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth, and ended up redistributing poverty.
- Thomas Sowell
Fickell’s declaration is anathema to everything I believe in. It is, in fact, the exact opposite of what the #VolumePig mantra is all about. And just as we have philosophical disagreements along political and socioeconomic lines, it’s important to remember that those on the other side see themselves as ‘the good guys’ too and presumably think they’re doing something ‘right,’ morally and/or otherwise.
Fickell, for all intents and purposes, is a good man, and a good football coach, but I simply can’t stand by and watch such an act of terror transpire on US soil without calling it out.
I imagine former Badger OC Phil Longo felt similarly when he got his ass out of there ASAP to take over the Sam Houston Bearkats (yes, they spell it with a ‘K’ just to be cool).
The history of College Football is full of examples of coaches that set out to redistribute touches, and ended up redistributing losses. Both for CFF managers and themselves.
- VP, 2025
In the past, Longo has been explicit about his love for slot receivers. He makes no attempts to hide his preference to funnel mucho targets that way. I respect that. You have to love a man who tells you what he wants to do in plain terms, and subsequently executes that very thing in real time (at least, in a CFF context).
Which begs the question, what the hell went wrong in Wisconsin? This is a program that I have adopted as one of my favourites in CFB, and I’ll tell you why with a quick story.
A few years ago, I was vacationing in the Dominican Republic. My wife and I were staying in a sleepy beach town along the northern coast of the country. We stayed in an Airbnb that was part of a small complex along the beach with a pool.
Every morning around 6AM I’d go swimming (this was in August so it was already damn hot at that hour). I ended up spending a few hours in the pool, oscillating between exercise and chilling in the water when I saw a familiar face. A man who I’d seen walking around the area before but hadn’t yet introduced myself to.
We chatted for a bit. He told me he owned a place there as a second home but was primarily based in Milwaukie, WI. He then told me he was a season ticket holder of the Badgers. Me, owning a near-encyclopedic knowledge of CFB rosters, conversed fluently with the man on the Badgers football program for the next few hours. We were both excited about rising sophomore Braelon Allen.
A few days later, I was chilling once again in the pool on a sunny Dominican afternoon, scrolling through the Fantrax app to see how the week zero games played out.
My new friend, whose name is Brian, emerges from his unit holding a Badgers T-Shirt. He hands it to me as a gift and we exchange numbers. He tells me whenever I want to come down, to just let him know and I can stay at his place on a discount, which I appreciated.
I already had an affinity for the Badgers program from a CFF perspective. This club was damn near like clockwork printing out productive RBs—and these were really productive RBs. I’m not just talking about 1000+ yard rushers, these dudes were toting the rock 300+ times every other year in the 2010s.
In fact, I maintain to this day that 2019 Jonathan Taylor remains the most perfect CFF prospect ever. There were no flaws in the profile. Given everything (the staff, infrastructure, OL, talent) he was the closest thing you could get to CFF perfection in my opinion.
I go back and forth in my head from time to time between him and 2021 Breece Hall. They both checked all the boxes that I could come up with—no flaws. Incredible.
Anyways, I fear I may be drifting too far off topic now. All this to say, when it comes to the 2023 and 2024 Wisconsin Badgers (when Longo was involved), I have been watching them closely as a fan from a distance.
My take is this: what we ended up with was sort of a weird amalgamation of both Fickell’s preferences, and Longo’s, and the result was neither CFF excellence at WR, nor RB. The worst of both worlds. Subpar QB play of course doesn’t help either (though injuries are more a matter of bad luck than anything).
Now, Longo has full reign over his current program. He’s also coaching at a lower level, with decidedly worst defences compared to the B1G. All of this is good news in my mind.
Malik Phillips is probably not a name you’ve heard much about (unless you read my quarterly WR rankings, or listen to the G5 Hive, or Jared Palmgren’s CTN podcast—so many options!). I’ve been familiar with him ever since Noah Smith broke out in CFF during the 2023 season.
I miraculously acquired Smith on a cheap bid in CFFNate’s 24-team, 45 man-roster dynasty league, and thus began paying more attention to the Bearkats program that season. What did I find? I was impressed not just by Smith, but by the other slot receiver who’d come in occasionally and torch it: Mr. Malik Phillips.
In fact, Phillips had himself a 21 point performance on 10 receptions (13 targets), and 118 yards vs. New Mexico State. I made a note to keep tabs on him ever since. In fact, I will declare once and for all here and now that this is a player I will claim as a ‘my guy’ this offseason as I (believe) I was the first to acquire a share of Phillips all the way back in March in a bestball draft hosted by CFFInsiders.
On a related note to the quote from Fickell, around the same time then-Sam Houston head coach KC Keeler declared that the Kats were going to spread the ball around more this season (2024), rather than rely on one individual (e.g., Noah Smith). Do you see what Rob Henderson means when he says that evil often arises from seemingly well-intentioned people?
And sure, maybe Keeler would point out that SMHU improved to 10-3 in 2024 compared to 3-9 in 2023, but who the hell cares about wins and losses when your star receiver averages less than 10 PPG in PPR formats?
But there’s a new sheriff in town, and something tells me he wants to get back to basics, doing it the only way he knows how: by featuring the slot receiver. To further exercise this point, let us take a look at the history of Longo’s system.
Coaching & System
WR1 PPG AVERAGE — HC: 15.31 (half ppr)
Longo’s most prolific receiver was UNC’s Josh Downs, who operated from the slot for the Tarheels in 2021 and 2022. What I find interesting about Downs is his target share actually took a huge hit from 2021 to 2022, going from 38% to 22%, and yet was more productive.
This is a function of the fact that his targets actually didn’t wane that much (11.3 to 10.9, to be precise). More so, UNC just passed the ball more.
Other notable receivers include Dyami Brown, who operated on the boundary at UNC in 2019 and 2020, and AJ Brown, who moved between roles at Ole Miss in 2018.
It should be noted that Dazz Newsome technically led the 2019 Tar Heels with 102 targets compared to Brown’s 90, but Brown had more yards and TDs.
Measuring by targets, the slot receiver has led Phil Longo’s offence four times out of the last five full seasons. With the exception of Vinny Anthony this past season, every Longo WR1 has averaged over 20% target share dating back to 2018.
His teams typically average over 70 plays per game, and averages around 23.5 seconds per play over the last six seasons.
There isn’t an official OC listed, so suffice it to say this will be Longo’s offence in 2025.
Malik Phillips (5’11, 175)
2023 RECEIVING STATS: 35 (63) - 430 - 1 (7.1 PPG)2
Phillips missed almost all of 2024 with injury, appearing only three games total. The slot receiver out of New Mexico has the aesthetic of a potential Longo heartthrob in my opinion and I’m sad that his notoriety is starting to proliferate throughout the CFF community.
Case in point, shortly after the G5 Hive interview on SMHU, C2C’s very own Jared Palmgren selected Phillips in a supplemental draft for Nate’s Dynasty league. Yours truly was hoping to pick him up off waivers after…
As alluded to earlier, MPhilly had a few notable performances in 2023 as Noah Smith’s wingman in the slot. Given that he’s expected to be the starting slot receiver with a returning QB (Hunter Watson) for 2025, he’s landed at the center of the CFF universe all of a sudden.
But those who’ve followed along with my WR rankings will have already been familiar with the name:
Qua’Vez Humphreys was the name getting a lot of love this time last year by the SMHU beat reporter when interviewed for the G5 Hive. He remains, but is a boundary receiver.
Given that we saw both AJ Brown and Dyami Brown put in major work for Longo’s system at Ole Miss, and UNC, respectively, we shouldn’t rule out that Humphreys potentially finds himself as the go-to target either.
In fact, if things break right I would posit that this offence could resemble those 2019/2020 UNC teams where both Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown were CFF relevant players.
My boy MPhilly is such a rogue figure that he doesn’t even have a 247 or ON3 profile to examine. Just my type—and he’s a G5 slot receiver too! Indeed, if you’ve been following along lately, you’ll recall that I wrote in the Southern Miss article that I—in a manner similar to that of Longo—love myself some (G5) slot receivers too.
Phillips currently has no ADP according to C2C’s tool, suggesting that he can be had as an end of draft dart throw currently. Both he and Humphreys are worth taking shots on in my opinion. ◾
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Sample of 2018-2024, excluding 2020.
Full PPR.