Texas A&M QB Kenny Hill's championship skill set can't be ignored
Texas A&M quarterback Kenny Hill seemingly went through a career’s worth of peaks and valleys in just his first season as a starter for the Aggies.
He initially was pegged as the Southeastern Conference’s next superstar, after a flawless debut against the much-hyped University of South Carolina to jump off the season, but was soon relegated to collecting splinters in his butt after a late-season benching that saw No. 1-ranked recruit Kyle Allen take over in his stead.
To make matters worse, Hill christened himself “Kenny Trill” (early 90’s slanguage for true and real) after his early success, and even his parents saw fit to reportedly file for a trademark of the the god-awful nickname.
Coming on the heels of A&M’s greatest QB ever (Johnny Manziel) — a person believed to be more concerned with being an uber-celebrity — made Hill look even more like a diva.
And when it was reported that Hill was suspended prior to his benching for breaking unspecified team rules, it seems as though it all but cemented Hill as college football’s version of a highly comedic one hit wonder (Baha Men, anyone?)
But in retrospect, there’s nothing funny about Hill not being the quarterback of a major college program as he has a very serious skill set.
With Allen already in tow, and No. 1-ranked dual-threat QB Kyler Murray coming to College Station, we may have seen Hill throw his last pass in major college football.
But A&M may just be making a mistake if that’s the case.
Scheme-Specific Fit For Sumlin’s Offense
Outside of, perhaps, Auburn University’s offensive scheme (and Oregon’s) — orchestrated by the mad scientist Gus Malzahn — the Aggie offense is undoubtedly the most exciting scheme in the entire country.
The original mad scientists, Hal Mumme and Mike Leach of Kentucky fame, unleashed the “Air Raid” offense on the SEC in the late 90’s amid ground-and-pound offenses that were often counteracted with power-based defenses.
The plan was to force the opposition’s hand by coercing, in a football sense, players in the front seven to cover a plethora of receivers running an overabundance of routes.
Former Kentucky QB Tim Couch parlayed a season in which he threw for 4,275 yards (72.3 completion percentage), 37 touchdowns and 15 interceptions into a No. 1-overall selection in the 1998 NFL draft. (The most eye-opening stat was that Couch attempted an astronomical 553 passes, in the friggin’ SEC!)
It was at the University of Oklahoma, as tight ends coach to a Leach-coordinated offense, where Aggie head coach Kevin Sumlin drew on principles from the Air Raid to formulate his own version — which were to be meshed with spread-based principles he learned as an assistant at Purdue University under noted assistant coach Jim Chaney.
It was with the Boilermakers that Sumlin got a chance to be around a QB who Hill most reminds me of, future Hall of Famer Drew Brees.
But at Oklahoma, Sumlin can be somewhat credited for some of the early success of former No. 1 pick Sam Bradford. From there, Sumlin made a name for himself at the University of Houston as the head coach of record-setting QB Case Keenum.
At Houston, Sumlin went full Air Raid-mode with Keenum as he, like Bradford, was cerebral enough to pilot the scheme, but it was the Heisman Trophy-winning Manziel who fully established Sumlin as one of the preeminent offensive minds in the business as his success came inside the SEC.
QBs in this scheme have a ton of responsibility as its an up-tempo, no-huddle attack at its core; accuracy is the most important aspect for a QB due to the amount of high-percentage throws in the short-to-intermediate area — which sometimes act as pseudo runs as the scheme can have as much a 70 percent throws.
Mobility is a necessity as Sumlin is heavy in the move-the-pocket game and won’t hesitate to use the QB on designed runs; arm strength is not a necessity but possessing a strong arm allows for Sumlin to dig deep into his vertical game once the defense commits to the short game.
Hill, much like Manziel, possesses all of the aforementioned qualities and will only continue to get better with more experience, which is something he won’t be getting while he’s riding the pine watching highly recruited prospects operate the scheme.
While many will say that Hill padded his stats against favorable competition to start the season, which is somewhat true, he showed that he could be the lynchpin for an offense with many moving parts as his QB acumen superseded his experience.
His statline: 2,649 yards, 23 TDs, eight INTs with a 66.7 completion percentage was good enough for him to finish third in the conference, and fifth in the nation, behind Alabama’s Blake Sims and Auburn’s Nick Marshall in QB rating.
This kid needs to be fronting someone’s program.
Accuracy/Arm Talent
The ability to point and shoot on an accurate basis entails a few aspects: proper mechanics, a keen sense of anticipation and a complete understanding of offensive and defensive concepts.
When you factor in that the Aggies operate at a breakneck pace, while consistently putting the ball in the air — which entails constantly facing a pass-rush — you can see just how the difficulty heightens.
Imagine trying to navigate the catch-and-advance game with a Nick Saban-orchestrated manufactured-pressure package bearing down on you; it’s enough to give anyone cause for pause.
Hill has all the tools to be an extremely accurate QB: a compact over-the-top delivery, adequate arm strength and the ability to display proper mechanics.
The trouble is he knows it, too.
Oftentimes, Hill trusts his arm a little too much and forgets to marry his eyes with his feet. When you’re as talented as he is, you often get away with faulty mechanics. But once the coaching staff starts drilling mechanics, ad nauseum, we will see a good player become potentially great.
When Hill has it all going, he’s a beauty to watch (in a football sense, of course). But he can be downright frustrating on plays like the above sequence. He has a propensity for relying on just his talented arm and not putting the rest of his body in his throws.
This is the type of throw that has Brees written all over it; expect Hill to be more surgeon-like when receives his next chance.
Great Mobility/Pocket Awareness
What may separate Hill from the majority of young QBs is that he’s truly a signal-caller before an athlete — although he’s a pretty good athlete, too.
He’s a pocket-passer who uses his mobility to extend plays opposed to trying to make plays for himself. Texas A&M will return the most talented receiving corps in the division and the scheme is set up perfectly for utilizing a plethora of weapons.
Case in point: Hill evaded this rush and kept the play alive long enough for his talented receiver, Speedy Noil, to uncover.
Hill is a good with his ball-handling which works well with A&M’s front- and back-to-the defense play-action fakes. Sumlin deploys his QBs in “Pistol,” “Shotgun” and conventional formations; Hill excels at them all.
Here we see great example of Hill’s ability to put the necessary touch on the deep pass. While Hill wasn’t always consistent in the vertical game, his mechanics often played a part as to why; he drove off his back leg and led the receiver upfield after a couple of hitches.
For Hill, it’s mostly about getting his head together and foregoing the wanna-be celebrity status that comes along with being a successful QB at a historic program like A&M. With Allen looking like budding star in his own right, and Murray captivating the imagination of the fan base, who knows what the future holds for the rising junior.
However, I do know that Hill is talented enough to lead a team to a title and I can think of a host of teams that would love to procure his services.
It’s all on you, Mr. Hill…
