With the New Year upon us, it’s time to look towards the future of 2020 for the USC offense and start placing the pieces of commitments and transfers in their rightful places.
Newly added transfer from Colorado State is the 6’5 200 pound quarterback Collin Hill, a local South Carolina native who is following Mike Bobo to the Palmetto State.
Hill, a junior transfer, has been in the collegiate football system since 2016 that has seen a plague of ups and downs.
Hill hasn’t had the career he’d hoped for thus far in his campaign, with only his 2018 season having more than five starts, due to three ACL tears while at CSU.
The most recent injury came this past August against Arkansas.
Nonetheless, while at Colorado State, Hill still came back and competed following the first two injuries and accounted for 23 touchdowns and 3,323 passing yards, all the while throwing just 11 interceptions.
With the minimal time he has seen over the past three seasons, he does possess traits that are valuable to an offense and could be used assuming he progresses through this last injury.
During his stretch at CSU, Hill had demonstrated decent accuracy from the pocket while keeping his interception total to a modest level and has shown to have the arm to get the ball downfield.
If a collapsing pocket occurs, don’t look for Hill to come in and take the place of a Jake Bentley type.
Hill is not know for his rushing yards and ability to scramble efficiently. Especially with his third ACL tear, we should just look for some quality pro-style passing from the pocket to be the job for Hill as long as this offensive line can contain pressure.
With the value Hill can bring to this Gamecock offense, he will require some of those reps to keep him sharp that will undoubtedly come behind Hilinski, who will likely keep the starting job at QB.
Hill does have promising features, and is comparable to Hilinski on a lot of fronts. Although, if he does show strong recovery and puts in great work this off-season, we could see a battle for the QB spot come springtime.
This upcoming season for Hill is one to get back to his home state and compete again before his time to hang up the cleats and move on from the playing side of football.
I do think Hill will have his value set as a leader and a mentor to the young Quarterback core the Gamecocks currently have, and inspire some competition amongst the ranks.
Overall, Collin Hill is a strong quarterback who hasn’t seen the chips fall the right way.
He’s looking for his last shots, and will provide whatever is requested from Muschamp and Bobo.
Will he get a start and will he recover from this last ACL tear? We’ll find out soon enough if he has what it takes.
Next year South Carolina will have Dak Joyner, a sophomore who is our most electric offensive player but whom Muschamp refuses to try at QB despite Hillinski’s woes; Hillinski, a sophomore whom the jury is out on since his injury history is a mystery but flashes of potential; Doty, a freshman dual threat phenom; and this guy-who is on his fourth year and fourth ACL. Anything better than 4th on the depth chart for Hill would be coaching malpractice.