House Meeting: P.J. Hill Is More Than Fat

He might not have the alleged visual appeal of Tim Tebow, the ESPN-led hype of Myron Rolle, or the everyone-led hype of incoming Notre Dame freshman Jimmy Clausen, who has already won three H*i*m*n Trophies (explanation of asterisks forthcoming) and is the #1 pick of the 2010 NFL Draft (probably to the Lions, but you never know).

But you don't need all that outside hype to make a huge impact as a freshman, as evidenced by what has been accomplished by Wisconsin redshirt freshman running back P.J. Hill.

Were it not for a stroke of bad luck last summer, I wouldn't be able to write this. And Wisconsin would have wasted a year of Hill's eligibility at the same time. See, Hill was going to play for Wisconsin last year. Then, during August training camp, Hill suffered a broken leg. The injury set his rehabilitation back far enough to convince the UW coaches to redshirt Hill. The situation couldn't have turned out any better for Wisconsin, or for Hill.Hill would have seen time playing behind junior Brian Calhoun last year, which would have been an incredible waste. Calhoun accounted for over 2,000 yards of total offense a year ago, and while the Badgers used him a ton because they didn't have any competent backups, Hill doesn't belong on the bench.

(Michigan fans can feel free to insert the "Right, because he'd just gain more weight that way" jokes somewhere around here. I know, they're not funny. Don't whine to me.)

Hill is likely to top the 1,000-yard mark for the season this weekend, as the Badgers host Minnesota in a Big Ten game. He's coming off a 249-yard effort against Northwestern where he broke off a 60-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage. Hill was close to 200 yards before halftime in Wisconsin's 41-9 beatdown of Northwestern.

Everyone who has seen Hill wants to compare him to that Ron Dayne guy. You remember Dayne. After all, he ran (well, wobbled) for a lot of yards and won a H*i*m*n Lifetime Achievement Trophy (explanation of asterisks still forthcoming) at Wisconsin. Hill and Dayne are somewhat similar in physical stature (um, pudgy), but that's about where it ends.

The Badgers have a better overall talent in Hill than they had in Dayne (yes, I just typed that, and the best part is that I am 100% serious). Hill is more physical at the point of attack. In other words, Hill is more capable of running over defenders and carrying them for extra yards than Dayne was. Hill is also somewhat faster in terms of his straight-line speed, and he is a better receiver at this point than Dayne either ever was or ever was allowed to be. By no means is Hill a shoo-in for the top half of any NFL Draft first round, but he probably has a better chance of making an impact at the next level than the somewhat overrated Dayne did.

Two years from now, as Hill is wrapping up his junior year at Wisconsin, he will be among the top running backs in the country, and he will get plenty of exposure in high-end bowl games before he is done in Madison.

(He'll also get plenty of quarters off if Wisconsin keeps scheduling terrible non-conference opponents, but that's a different rant for a different day.)

I'm not nominating Hill for any major freshman honors, but I'd take Hill over any other freshman back in the country right now. If nothing else, I'd have the numbers on my side (Hill's yards-per-game average is the highest in the country for any freshman back).

--> As for the H*i*m*n thing, it's actually pretty simple. I don't take the award seriously, and I haven't since Jason White won it over Larry Fitzgerald in 2003. I will never take it seriously again, because it has nothing to do with who the best player in college football is, and it never will.