In Texas, where high school stadiums cost upwards of $60 million and college programs can have their own television networks, football is a priority that ranks right up there with religion.
Faced with the prospect of leaving his home state to continue his college career, Caleb Hill wanted to find a comparable environment. As it turns out, it was a pretty easy discovery.
Hill took his first — and only — official visit to Montana this past weekend and discovered religion in Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“The main thing is it just reminded me a lot of Texas,” said Hill, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound sophomore quarterback at Blinn College. “There is a lot of pride in Montana, a lot of tradition, the fans are crazy. It really felt like an SEC atmosphere except the stadium didn’t hold 100,000 it just holds around 28-30,000, that’s really the only difference. But it’s so much like Texas it’s not even funny.”
Hill became Montana’s 12th commitment for the 2017 class and the first to commit from the junior college ranks. The second quarterback in the class — Polson’s Tanner Wilson gave a verbal commitment in August — is eligible to sign his scholarship papers on Dec. 14 before enrolling in school for the spring semester.
“I can go do spring ball and get to learn the offense, meet the guys and start getting ready to try to compete for the starting position,” Hill said Monday morning.
Montana’s coaching staff is prohibited by NCAA rules from discussing Hill until after he signs his papers.
Though he had never watched live football outside Texas’ borders, Hill was familiar with the Grizzlies. Just a year ago, he watched his former high school and college teammate, James Homan, commit to Montana as the first player from Texas to join the program in more than three decades.
Before playing together at Blinn, the two shared the field at Brenham High, leading the Cubs deep into the Class 4A playoffs. It was shortly after Hill transferred from Class 2A Little River Academy that he made quick friends with Homan.
“He was one of the first guys that I really got close to,” Hill said.
With that relationship established, Hill asked Homan if the Grizzlies might be in the market for a quarterback this recruiting season. Homan passed Hill’s name along to Montana running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Justin Green who was first impressed with the quarterback’s highlight tape. It wasn’t long before Montana’s head coach Bob Stitt and quarterbacks coach Andrew Selle were in touch with Hill through social media.
The tape they were able to watch was limited to just a few games. As a freshman, Hill played sparingly in the Air Raid system favored by former Blinn coach Keith Thomas. Those reps appeared to be in jeopardy as interim coach Ryan Mahon went looking for a quarterback and brought in UCLA transfer Aaron Sharp to run his spread, run-pass option system.
“I recruited Aaron to try and beat Caleb out and I didn’t do a very good job of it,” Mahon said. “Caleb would just not beat out.”
Mahon said Hill adapted quickly to the offensive overhaul, learning the new verbiage and showing an understanding of the the responsibilities that were put upon his shoulders. Similar to the expectations of Montana’s quarterbacks, Blinn’s were expected to quickly get the signal from the sideline, make the correct protection calls and get the offense into the right play for what the defense was showing.
“It’s an important thing to manage the game and he does an exceptional job of that,” Mahon said of the athletic Hill, who also ran 19 times for 50 yards and two touchdowns in addition to his 872 passing yards and five touchdowns. “When you’re out there executing and doing all the little things right that’s what you want in that quarterback position and that’s what he brought to us.”
Hill won the starting job before he went down for the season with a broken collarbone in Blinn’s sixth game. Mahon feels that Hill’s limited time behind center at Blinn cost the left-handed quarterback looks from some of the bigger schools that frequent the college’s campus. Cam Newton is among the school’s prestigious alums. Hill said he had discussions with Mercer, was starting to get looked at by Florida A&M and was contacted by a few Division II schools.
“He’s a very athletic kid. Very versatile. Great head on his shoulders. He’s a kid that is going to put you in the right position,” Mahon said. “We’re losing a good one when we lose Caleb Hill.”
Hill never pursued those avenues, but instead focused on Montana. And when the opportunity came to visit, he got on a plane with his mother and father and headed north to watch the Griz play Idaho State.
“I think Montana is where God had me planned to go,” Hill said.
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Photos by Jake Gordon, Blinn sports information. All Right Reserved.
