Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
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C Kingsport and Bristol, in the northeastern part of the state, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Spurrier was a three-sport star at Science Hill High School in Johnson City. Twice, he pitched the baseball team to state titles. He was undefeated. Of course, he received far greater notoriety as a quarterback. The local football field has even been renamed in his honor: Steve Spurrier Field. The current Science Hill coach is Stacy Carter, who just happened to be Phillips' coach when he was starring as a quarterback for the Sullivan South High School Rebels in Kingsport. Phillips is also from Johnson City which is about 100 miles from Knoxville and about an 11-hour drive from Madison. "Steve Spurrier is kind of the hometown legend and I've always followed what he has done," said Phillips, who has never had the opportunity to meet Spurrier. But he realizes that he will get that chance when the Badgers and the Gamecocks convene in Orlando prior to their Jan. 1 matchup. "We've played in the biggest games against some of the best teams," Phillips said of the UW's appearance in the last three Rose Bowls against TCU, Oregon and Stanford. "We've learned how to prepare. We're not going down there (Orlando) to have a good time. We're going there to win a game." Phillips, along with Wisconsin defensive end Brendan Kelly, also a sixth-year senior, have been collecting bowl watches and filing away postseason memories since their true freshman season when the Badgers lost, 42-13, to Florida State in the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Phillips was sketchy on the details of that loss beyond remembering the "horse coming out before the game" ― Chief Osceola on Renegade, the FSU mascots ― and the beatdown that followed. "We had some tough breaks," Phillips said, "and things backfired on us and then snowballed." "If just one thing might have gone differently − The following December, the Badgers it always sticks in your mind," Phillips said. "It's returned to the scene of the crime, Florida not something you dwell on. But when that Citrus Bowl Stadium, and got a large meanext opportunity comes up, you want to make sure of redemption by upsetting Miami, sure you don't allow it to happen again." 20-14, in the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl. 36 // VARSITY December 12, 2013 GREG ANDERSON urt Phillips was raised in SEC country — Tennessee ― so there may have been an extra adrenaline rush for the sixth-year Wisconsin quarterback when he found out that the Badgers would be playing South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl. Especially because of the Ol' Ball Coach. That would be none other than Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier, who's arguably the most famous athlete to come out of Johnson City, Tenn.; which is located in the Tri-Cities region, along with