UA football recruit Phil Garcia hears the same three questions just about every day.
" 'Do you play football? Do you play basketball? How big are you?' " Garcia rattles off from memory.
"It's always the same questions. It's like a common thing now. It's natural."
Here are the answers, before he arrives on campus:
● Yes, Garcia plays football. He verbally committed to the UA late Thursday night after two stellar seasons at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif. Garcia, 19, is expected to compete for the starting left tackle job in 2008.
● He played basketball at Schurr High School in Montebello, Calif., but passed on hoops to pursue life as an O-lineman.
"I wasn't the best basketball player, but I wasn't bad," he said.
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● Garcia stands 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 340 pounds. By the time Garcia arrives at the UA next month, he will be the largest player on campus in any sport. Four UA football players stand 6-6; none weighs more than 310. Arizona's tallest basketball player, Kirk Walters, stands 6-11, but he is built like a fireplace match.
When it comes to weight, however, Garcia wants to make one thing clear.
"If you see me, I'm not heavy. I'm not fat. I'm just … big," he said.
"A lot of guys think O-linemen just eat and eat and eat — and then go to practice. I'm not saying we're not fat, but we're not sloppy fat. It's a misconception. People think that because you're 340, fat hangs off your sides. With me, you can see the definition. It helps being 6-8."
Garcia might be tall, but nobody will ever confuse him for lanky. Garcia's shirt size is a 5XL tall, and his pants are 42 waist and 34 inseam. He drives from Los Angeles to Cabazon, a desert town just outside Palm Springs, just to buy shoes.
Even other linemen think he's big. Mike Diaz is Garcia's best friend, and high school and junior college teammate. Diaz, another UA commit, stands 6-5 and weighs 330 pounds — and is the smaller guy when the two go out.
"I never get a feeling of looking up at somebody except when I'm out with him. Everybody oohs and ahhs and asks us if we play ball," Diaz said.
Garcia calls himself a "meat and potatoes guy," but says he eats about the same as everybody else. "I don't eat anything out of the ordinary. I don't eat 10 pounds of meat a day or anything," he said. "I'm just bigger, you know?
Garcia was not always this big.
He was a sturdily built 6 feet 2 inches and 300 pounds — "baby fat," he says — as a freshman in high school when he hit a growth spurt. By the end of his sophomore year, Garcia grew to 6-5 but lost about 50 pounds. He wrestled in the heavyweight division during the football offseasons, and learned how to eat right and exercise. He added weight the right way and, by the end of his high school career, was a sought-after prospect. Offers to Oregon, Oregon State and Montana fell through, however, and Garcia went the junior college route.
The 300 club
The UA has seven players on the roster who weigh 300 pounds or more. They are:
Name ht wt
OG Joe Longacre 6-3 315
OT Bill Wacholz 6-6 311
OT James Tretheway 6-6 310
OT Eben Britton 6-6 310
DT Conan Amituanai 6-4 310
OT Adam Grant 6-6 308
OG Jovon Hayes 6-2 300
