| Player Profile | |
| Phillip Buchanon | |
| Position: Cornerback |
|
| College: Miami (Fla.) | |
| Height: 5-9.7 | |
| Weight: 186 | |
| Hometown: Fort Myers, Fla. | |
Career Notes | Agility | High School | Personal | Stats
ANALYSIS
Positives: Compactly built athlete who stays tight with receivers on deep routes…Has good play development recognition skills…Keeps a tight relationship with the receiver in the open and despite his size, is very effective jamming the opponent at the line of scrimmage…Can cover ground instantly with his closing burst…Plays good angles and shows top-end speed…Takes proper angles towards the ball and is willing to step up and fill the rush lanes…Makes proper body adjustments turning and flexing for the ball…Has the hip snap and body control to position himself low before delivering the hit…Has an instant burst after fielding punts, showing excellent sideline awareness and patience waiting for his blocks to develop.Negatives: Can stay with the receiver deep, but struggles to much to get his head turned to track the ball…Needs to totally refine his backpedal, as he comes out too high with a choppy motion, causing him to lose quickness out of his breaks…Hesitant to throw his body around when asked to step up and fill the rush lanes…Plays too conservative and stays too deep in the zone, which makes him late in handling the switch-off…Has very short arms and small hands for this position.
CAREER NOTES
Classic speedster and an exceptional big-play producer who earned first-team All-American honors as both a cornerback (by ABC Sports Online) and a punt return specialist (Sportsline.com) in 2001, in addition to being one of three finalists for the Mosi Tatupu Award, awarded annually to college football's finest special teams player…Has scored on an interception, fumble and punt return during his career…Recorded 88 tackles (62 solos) in 32 games for the Hurricanes…Returned 32 punts for 477 yards (14.9 avg) and a pair of touchdowns, adding 235 yards and a pair of scores on seven interceptions.
2001 SEASON
First-team All-American selection by ABC Sports and Sportsline.com, adding second-team honors from The Associated Press and honorable mention from CNN/SI…AllBig East Conference first-team choice and Special Teams Player of the Year…Finalist for the Mosi Tatupu Award…Lined up at left cornerback, recording 23 tackles (15 solos) with two stops for losses of 22 yards…Caused and recovered two fumbles…Deflected 12 passes and had five interceptions for 157 yards in returns, including a touchdown…Led the conference and ranked seventh in the nation with 31 punt returns for 464 yards (15.0 avg) and a pair of scores…Only Santana Moss (467 yards in 1999) and Kevin Williams (560 in 1991) gained more yards on punt returns in a season for the Hurricanes…Added 150 yards on four kick-off returns (30.0 avg)…Averaged 64.6 all-purpose yards per game…Earned Big East Player of the Week honors vs. Rutgers and Temple.
- Penn State - Opened the season with four tackles and a pair of pass breakups.
- Rutgers - Returned five punts for 89 yards and a 56-yard touchdown.
- Pittsburgh - Registered three tackles with a 67-yard interception return, a 5-yard sack, a pass deflection, a 17-yard kickoff return and four punt returns for 46 yards.
- Florida State - Posted four tackles, deflected four passes, intercepted two others and recovered a fumble.
- West Virginia - Caused a fumble which he recovered and had five punt returns for 71 yards.
- Temple - Gained 109 yards on three punt returns, including a 52-yard touchdown.
- Syracuse -Caused a fumble, returned an interception 76 yards for a score and had four punt returns for 75 yards.
- Washington - Collected four solo tackles and returned a free kickoff 60 yards.
- Virginia Tech - Had another 60-yard kickoff return.
- Nebraska (Rose Bowl) - Closed out his career with three solo tackles as he sacked quarterback Eric Crouch for a 7-yard loss, made another stop behind the line of scrimmage and returned four punts for 37 yards.
2000 SEASON
Played in every game, starting six regular season games (including the final four games) and the Sugar Bowl…Sixth on the team in tackles with 44 (35 solos)…Had a stop for a 3-yard loss and a quarterback pressure…Returned two interceptions for 78 yards, including a touchdown and deflected nine passes…Caused and recovered a fumble…Also had a 13-yard punt return.
1999 SEASON
Appeared in 10 games for the Hurricanes as a reserve cornerback…Tallied 21 tackles (12 solos) with a stop for a 12-yard loss…Deflected a pass and caused a fumble.
AGILITY TESTS
4.31 in the 40-yard dash…37-inch vertical jump…39 ¾-inch arm length…7 ¾-inch hands…11 Wonderlic score.HIGH SCHOOL
Class 4A All-State selection at Lehigh (Fla.) High…Registered 102 tackles, including 42 solo stops, two quarterback sacks and seven interceptions during his senior season…Also returned three punts for touchdowns…Competed at running back, registering 928 rushing yards on 115 carries with 13 touchdowns…Caught 15 passes for 289 yards and three scores as a senior…One of the state's top baseball prospects…Four-year letter-winner as a member of the baseball team…Second-team All-State selection in baseball as a senior after batting .463 with seven triples, six doubles and five home runs…Four-year letterman on the school's basketball team where he averaged 20.1 points, 5.5 assists and 4.3 steals per game…Ran track for three seasons, recording personal bests of 10.5 in the 100 meters and 21.8 in the 200 meters…Member of the school's honor roll and the Scholar Club…Recognized for his work in the classroom by being named one of Lehigh's top scholar-athletes.PERSONAL
Liberal Arts major…Son of Annie Dalis and James Buchanon…Born Phillip Darren Buchanon on 9/19/80…Resides in Lehigh, Fla.STATS
| DEFENSIVE STATISTICS | ||||||||||||
| YEAR | GP | GS | TK | SO | AS | FR | FC | INT | TFL | PBU | SACK | BK |
| 1999 | 10 | 00 | 21 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1-12 | 1 | 0.0- 0 | 0 |
| 2000 | 11 | 06 | 44 | 35 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1- 3 | 9 | 0.0- 0 | 0 |
| 2001 | 11 | 11 | 23 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2-22 | 7 | 1.0-17 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 32 | 17 | 88 | 62 | 26 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 4-37 | 17 | 1.0-17 | 0 |
| INTERCEPTION RETURNS | |||||
| YEAR | NO | YARDS | AVG | TD | LONG |
| 2000 | 2 | 78 | 39.0 | 1 | 71 |
| 2001 | 5 | 157 | 31.4 | 1 | 76 |
| TOTAL | 7 | 235 | 33.6 | 2 | 76 |
| ADVANCED FUMBLES | |||||
| YEAR | NO | YARDS | AVG | TD | LONG |
| 2000 | 1 | 77 | 77.0 | 1 | 77 |
| 2001 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 2 | 81 | 40.5 | 1 | 77 |
| PUNT RETURNS | |||||
| YEAR | NO | YARDS | AVG | TD | LONG |
| 2000 | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 0 | 13 |
| 2001 | 31 | 464 | 15.0 | 2 | 59 |
| TOTAL | 32 | 477 | 14.9 | 2 | 59 |
| KICKOFF RETURNS | |||||
| YEAR | NO | YARDS | AVG | TD | LONG |
| 2001 | 4 | 150 | 37.5 | 0 | 60 |
| TOTAL | 4 | 150 | 37.5 | 0 | 60 |
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