Air-Raid Superstar? Kylin Hill will have chance to shine in Mike Leach's offense
Kylin Hill is fresh off a year in which he led the Southeastern Conference in rushing yardage during the regular season. However when the Mississippi State running back met his new position coach, Eric Mele, a few months back, Mele went ahead and informed Hill he might as well get ready to relinquish that crown. At the same time, Mele wanted Hill to prepare to pick up another.
“I told (Hill) when we first got the job, I said, ‘Hey listen, you’re not going to lead the SEC in rushing this year, let’s just get that out of the way,” Mele said. “But you’ll probably lead the SEC in all-purpose yards though. That’s what we’re all about. We want yards on the ground and in the air.”
Already an established runner, now Hill is about to have a prime opportunity to show he’s so much more than that. When Mike Leach was hired as the new head coach of the Bulldogs back in January, it ushered in the famed Leach air-raid style. It certainly has the chance to take Hill from standout to superstar in his final season wearing MSU maroon and white.
It’s an opportunity that it once appeared Hill wasn’t going to get. Immediately after the 2019 season, Hill declared he was going to skip his senior year and jump into the NFL Draft. By mid-January though, after Leach was hired, Hill reversed course and released a statement that said, in a nutshell, he’d changed his mind.
“Mississippi State University means so much to me,” Hill said at the time. “When I stepped off the field after the final game of the season last month, I thought it was my last time in maroon and white. After careful consideration, I’ve decided to return to Mississippi State for my senior season. I’m thankful and blessed for these last three years, but I’m also excited for the opportunity to play my final season in the Coach Leach era of Mississippi State football and continue the pursuit of my degree. There’s some unfinished business to take care of with my brothers. The work has already begun. Let’s ride.”
So what might this final ride look like for Hill? It’s perhaps best to look at Leach and Mele’s past to paint the picture.
Mele became Leach’s running backs coach at Washington State in 2018 and spent the ’18 and ’19 seasons in that role before following Leach to Starkville. Take a look at what Washington State’s running backs did those two seasons.
In 2018, the Cougars had a dynamic duo at running back with All-Pac-12 honorable mention James Williams and Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honorable mention Max Borghi. Williams led all FBS running backs with 83 catches that season. Borghi had 53 receptions himself. The duo combined for eight touchdowns through the air. All told, Borghi and Williams combined for 330 touches. About 41 percent of those were catches.
Fast-forward a year to last season. Borghi, as a sophomore, was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention player as he ranked third in the conference in total yards from scrimmage with 1,414. A total of 597 of those yards came through the air as he caught a whopping 86 passes, marking the second straight season that a Leach/Mele player led FBS football in catches by a running back. Again, more than 40 percent of Borghi’s touches came courtesy of receptions. Compare all this to Hill, who last year, less than seven percent of his touches came via the passing game.
What’s the message here? Hill might be good, or even great, at running the football. But to shine under Leach, he’s going to have to do so much more. Running will be just half – check that – maybe just about a third of the battle when you consider what Hill's role will be in pass protection too.
For Hill, the measure of his success in 2020 won’t come with how high up he is among the SEC rushing leaders. Instead, Mele says it’s all about three words.
“Yards per touch,” Mele said. “That’s a big thing I kind of measure our guys on for our production and our success. If you get a handoff, we want six yards. If you catch a ball, we want about eight yards. At the end of the season, when we tally it up, however many touches you have, we want about seven yards per touch. That’s a heckuva number for these guys.”
Six yards per carry and eight yards per catch. Here’s the good news for Hill, he basically already did that last year. He rushed 242 times for 1,350 yards (5.6 yards per carry). He averaged 10 yards per catch. Now here’s the caveat for that last number. He only caught 18 passes all year. Meanwhile, up at Washington State, Borghi was averaging close to seven…per game.
It seems like a lot to ask to expect Hill to have such a jump up in the passing game. Only time will tell if it’s too much. But Mele and Leach both praise the abilities they see in Hill. On the Thunder and Lightning podcast last week, Leach talked of hopefully getting Hill up around 2,000 all-purpose yards this season. Mele, sees a path to maybe get there too.
“We’re just going to hone in on doing some of his best stuff and kind of maximizing his skill set,” Mele said. “Again, for him, he’s got a really good jump cut where he can get lateral, then get vertical really quick. He can do that in a small space.
“He’s got some good size to him and he’s got some good wiggle. He’s not going to get tackled by the first guy and he runs with some power and he’s an athletic kid. I’m excited. I think he’s his own back and I’m ready to work with him and get out there and start training him.”
Mele praised Hill’s hands too and thinks he’ll be just fine catching the football.
Of course for Hill, if he can indeed become MSU’s Mr. Do-It-All, it serves a dual purpose. One, the Bulldogs are likely to win a lot of football games in 2020. Secondly, come spring of 2021, Hill might just hear his name called highly in the NFL Draft.
“I think part of the reason for (Hill) coming back is kind of him looking at trying to elevate his status,” Mele said. “You look at the NFL now and look at teams like the Chiefs and the Patriots and kind of go down the line, a lot of our concepts in the pass game are showing up at the next level. Then they’re all looking for these backs that are the all-purpose backs, which is what we major in.”
So for Hill, 2020 is a chance to showcase he’s so much more than a guy that can tote the rock. Someone else might have to pick up the mantle as the SEC’s rushing king this year, but if Hill can click in the air-raid offense, there are few players in college football that will come out of the upcoming season as a bigger winner than him.
