NFL Draft: Giants take safety Tyler Nubin in second round, cornerback Andru Phillips in third round

Say this for Tyler Nubin: He’s been on a mission to make his dreams come true since he was in high school.

“I’ve been crying for the last 35 minutes,” Nubin said on a conference call with the Giants’ media.

Now the safety is the Giants’ second-round pick as the NFL Draft continued Friday night. He was the 47th pick in the draft and likely will be expected to replace Xavier McKinney, who signed a free-agent contract with the Packers.

After his sophomore season at St. Charles North High School in Chicago, Nubin asked for a meeting with his head coach. He was 15.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which later chronicled the story, coach Robert Pomazak met with the young player.

Nubin told his coach that he wanted to get a Division I scholarship and to play in the NFL.

At that time, Pomazak said, “You wouldn’t have thought that was the endgame.”

Now? Seven years later, Nubin is positioned to make his dreams come true.

Nubin had a terrific college career with Minnesota, including a school-record 13 interceptions in a program-record 55 games. He made 207 tackles (143 solo), had 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks, and was credited with 24 pass breakups. He was a four-time Academic All-Big Ten selection.

Nubin was invited by the NFL to the opening night of the draft in Detroit but declined the invitation. He instead wanted to share an emotional moment with his family and friends.

“A lot of anxiety,” he said, “just not knowing where you’re going to go and where you’re going to be, and your dream being so close to being here after all these years of working and all these years of dreaming.”

Giants make cornerback Phillips third-round pick

Andru Phillips said he can’t wait to get on the practice field with the Giants.

With one Giant in particular.

Asked about practice battles with running back Wan’Dale Robinson, his former teammate at Kentucky, the cornerback was particularly animated.

“I can’t wait to get back with a great player like him,'' he said. "He’s established himself in New York, and to compete and win and get better every day, I can’t wait to get better [on the practice field] with him. It’s going to be a great competition.”

Robinson and Phillips spent one year as teammates at Kentucky.

Among the questions about Phillips, who prefers to be called Dru, is his lack of interceptions, which is putting it mildly. He had none in his college career.

“I was asked about it, but in the grand scheme of things, everyone knows I’m sticky, in coverage I’m sticky,” Phillips said. “I’m going to do my job on the back end [of the defense] . . . It was a question, but I’m doing my job and I’m doing it at a high level. So they trust me.”

Phillips said that during his pre-draft visit to the Giants, he was struck by the history in the building.

“I can’t think of no better organization to go play for,” Phillips said. I went on a top 30 [visit] up there and everyone up there was so cool. It was like I fight right in. I was walking around the organization and there was [Giants] history everywhere. We bonded so well. I met the type of people they are, and those are the type of people I tend to lean toward.''

Phillips said he is comfortable playing in the slot and on the outside, which could give the Giants needed flexibility.

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.