It’s been a unique road to get to this point, but Indiana State wide receiver Phazione McClurge is approaching his goal of making it to the NFL.
McClurge started off his collegiate career as a cornerback at Cornell, made the switch to wide receiver and transferred to Indiana State for the 2021 season. His career saw him finish as one of the leading Ivy League defenders in pass breakups, as well as making it onto SportsCenter with highlight catches on offense.
As his collegiate career comes to an end and his path to the professional level begins, McClurge is grateful for his experiences and is battle-tested for the roads ahead.
Draft Wire had the chance to speak exclusively with McClurge about his collegiate career, playing at the College Gridiron Showcase, his mother being a source of inspiration, and much more.
JI: You’ve had quite the journey to get to where you’re at now, starting off as a cornerback at Cornell and now playing receiver at Indiana State. How have your experiences helped you grow as a player and as a person?
PM: That’s a great question. Since I’ve been playing peewee ball, I think I’ve always just been such a hard worker, and I really get it from my mom. She really instilled what it is to really work hard and just perfect your craft. When I got to Cornell, and I made the decision to go to Cornell University and play there, my first couple years playing DB, my job was to perfect my craft and be the best that I could for the team in that situation.
From there, just being an athletic person, I always wanted to play wide receiver I was like, “Coach, you gonna let me play both sides?”, so I was always bugging him my whole time. I was like, “Hey Coach, I can help y’all out, man, just give me a little package. Throw me a deep ball or something,” and then he actually gave into it. My junior year he gave into it. I was gonna have a little package, but then our two starting ‘X’ wide receivers at Cornell got injured that summer, those are like the bigger kind of receivers. We had slot receivers, we didn’t have any big receivers. So from there, he was like, “Phaz, if you want to do this, we really need you here. I know you love defense.”
I went on and did that, did special teams, and from there, that’s all she wrote. I just dominated there. That led me to have the year I think that I needed to put myself on the map a little bit, and then that helped me actually get myself over to Indiana State, where I was able to have a pretty good season at wide receiver, as well.
JI: How do you believe your experience as a DB has helped your transition to WR?
PM: Tremendously. I’d say, first thing is the knowledge; the knowledge of the game. You see the game from the offensive and defensive side, that helped me and allowed me to see the game from [another point of view]. I’ll say, I raised my football IQ, because I’m able to see the coverages and really understand them from like a defensive coordinator perspective. That just helps me know where to go, know how to run different type of routes and stuff like that. I think [it helps] the aggressiveness…I mean, defense, you got to have a little dog in you, you got to be aggressive. I don’t lose that going to wide receiver; I take that with me when it comes to blocking or getting aggressive on my releases or just to having fun in the game.
JI: Your mother’s gone through quite a bit from a medical standpoint. Has watching her fight inspired you in your collegiate career and beyond?
PM: Yeah, I think it’s inspired me to the fullest, really. I don’t think I really would be to the point I am right now. I don’t think I would have gotten through Cornell or gotten to Indiana State without her. Honestly, she’s always been that guide, that angel on my shoulder, just being able to guide me and she doesn’t have to say anything. It’s just really her actions. She has stiff-person syndrome, a rare disease for people that [don’t] know, so she’s been battling with that for a very long time. During my career at Cornell she said, “Okay, I’m going to go back to school, and I’m saying I’m going to get my degree before you know now,” and then I ended up graduating early from Cornell. So I was like, “Okay, no, I’m not gonna let you graduate [before me].” Just that kind of competition, love and with everything she’s going through, she didn’t say she could sit around all day, just chill and whatever.
She’s really trying to make a difference in this world. She went back to school, got a degree, I’m like, “Okay, Cornell is tough, being a student athlete, especially at Ivy League school, but I’m going to push myself. I’m going to talk to her and do the best I can so I can get a better report card.” Going for GPA, who had the higher GPA that semester. I think just her being that person there that always supports me and [is] always pushing me, and just watching her actions, for her to be able to go through what she’s going through and still succeed and achieve all these things. In football and in life for me, I think that just pushes me so much further.
JI: That’s remarkable. Going to that competition, how did she react when you decided to push to graduate before her?
PM: She was serious, definitely. I’d say she was happy about it, but she has that kind of edge to where she’s like, “Okay, I’m not gonna let that happen,” so she was setting it down. She showed me her report card, she’s like, “I got an A on this test. I got an A on this test. What’s your GPA looking like?” So we just go back and forth, for grades GPAs and stuff like that. Just as far as her coming to football games, we would always make little bets for if I can get this many touchdowns, maybe we could do this, things that were always pushing me. When I was younger, it was like, “I’ll take you to get some ice cream if you score this many touchdowns.” Now I don’t really do that, of course, but it’s still her being there and having that competitive edge is just something I always look forward to.
JI: You had the chance to go down to the College Gridiron Showcase. How was that experience?
PM: It was amazing. The guys there that run the College Gridiron Showcase, I give them all the props, because that’s a lot of kids coming through from all over, and they managed it so well, especially with NFL scouts and interviews. I had a great time there. It was really good to see, because it’s different people from all different levels. I’m going against cornerbacks from LSU, from Georgia. I see guys from Miami. I’m seeing guys from all different conferences. This was the test for me like, “Okay, yeah, you play in the Ivy League. Yeah, you played at Division I FCS, we can compete with these guys.” I think that if any scouts ray were there, and they’ve really seen that, the level really doesn’t matter. I can dominate everywhere I’m at, whatever level. Football is football.
JI: Which wide receivers have you grown up idolizing?
PM: I think growing up, I’ve always heard a lot about Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Cris Carter. I think those are the main guys. I like to sit back and just look at older film and older games and just really watch how one player at the receiver position can dominate the game, because that’s what I like to do. That’s what I like to visualize for myself, so just seeing the impact they had on the game of football during that time was amazing.
Even nowadays, you see guys like DeAndre Hopkins. Keenan Allen, OBJ, Cooper Kupp. Just the artistry of being a wide receiver and what a receiver truly is. I think I love watching those guys, and Davante Adams, of course. I think this past season, I sat and I watched every Davante Adams game from the past season. We had had it on film, now we’ll go through every game leading all the way up to the playoffs and not just watch every single route. Even if he didn’t get the ball thrown to him or even if it was the wrong thing, I just watched his mannerisms and things like that to see what it means to be such a pro dominant receiver.
JI: I’m a Bears fan, so I’ve seen Davante Adams torturing my team for years. That guy’s a stud.
PM: I’m a Bears fan, too, so I got feelings, too [laughs]. Shoutout to “ARob,” though, Allen Robinson. He’s a dog.
JI: He just got a nice payday with the Rams!
PM: Yeah, he’s one of those guys; I definitely watch him, as well, and just the way he can attack [the ball] and things like that.
JI: How do you like to spend your free time outside of football?
PM: The big thing: I’m a big family guy. I like to spend a lot of time with family. I enjoy music, I enjoy going out traveling, different things like that. Also, just recently with COVID and everything, I know a lot of people have just been inside a lot. For me, I just started a podcast with some guys that I played with at Cornell University, because we started with just hanging out and had these great conversations, so we’re like, “Let’s just turn this into a podcast”. It’s called the “4L Podcast,” so we started doing that. I think overall, I just spend time with family. I love eating, so finding nice restaurants and different things like that. That’s how I spend a lot of my time.
JI: What kind of stuff do you talk about in your podcast? I’ll have to check it out.
PM: The whole theme of the podcast is just to think deeper about things. That’s our whole thing. We take the small, kind of fundamental concepts, and we just connect them to ourselves and have deep conversations about it. Our latest episode, we’re talking about fear, you know, like, “How do you use fear? Trying to achieve things? What role does fear play in our lives? How do we use it, or how do we fight through it, or how does it paralyze us?” Different things like that, and I just talk a lot about my journey right now, trying to achieve my dreams on that path to the NFL and where the fear comes in and plays a role in that part.
JI: Let’s say I’m an NFL general manager. What would I be getting if I drafted you to my team?
PM: I think that’s a great question. I think what you will be getting is a leader, of course. As a rookie, you’ve got to come in, you’ve got to be a sponge and soak up things from a lot of guys. I think I bring a lot of leadership, I bring a lot of positivity, and I think I could really be somebody that can help win games. I feel like I’m a winner on all aspects. You’re getting somebody that can play special teams, that can play offense, has played defense, so you’re getting that all-around person that’s able to come into the team and just be that spark that a team can need and a team could use wherever they need me.
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