STARKVILLE — Kylin Hill knows his first career touchdown should have came a week earlier than it actually did.
The Columbus native and Mississippi State running back clearly had holes to run through in his college football debut, as he averaged over 11 yards per carry on his first three carries. Looking back on it, the holes were big enough to do more.
“I was nervous when I was running. I should’ve scored — I know I should’ve scored,” Hill said.
He didn’t have to wait long to make up for it.
Hill scored his first career touchdown Saturday in a 57-21 blowout of Louisiana Tech. As MSU (2-0) prepares to host No. 12 LSU (2-0) Saturday at 6 p.m. on ESPN, Hill’s role in the backfield remains undefined. He’s not alone in that respect, but what is certain for Hill: he has every opportunity to make his role grow.
“He’s still learning the offense. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t learn something new,” MSU running backs coach Greg Knox said. “He’s grinding at it and he’s got a good work ethic. He’s making big plays, so we decided we want to play him, get him in there and see what he can do.”
Seeing what Hill can do, to date, has been all encouraging when it comes to his carries. He is averaging 6.52 yards per carry (19 for 124) and only has yet to tally a rush for more than 20 yards, thus the numbers aren’t inflated by one carry. His yards per carry rank 74 th in the nation among players with at least four carries in each of his team’s games and is better than the yards per carry number of all but 13 FBS teams.
Where Hill is growing into a prominently featured running back is every play when he doesn’t have the ball, be it carrying out fakes or blocking. Mullen proved that point by looking at starter Aeris Williams, who he said played, “a ton,” against Louisiana Tech but only got nine carries.
Hill is completely bought in to the approach.
“I know what I can do with the ball in my hand, I know I can be very successful, but I know in the long run, to be a great back and make it to the next level,” Hill said, “I have to do the little things like blocking.
“Can’t outrun everybody like I did in high school.”
Both Knox and MSU head coach Dan Mullen are seeing growth in that respect.
“I think he’s been learning a lot of blocking schemes, obviously,” Mullen said. “He was well-coached in high school, but they were making sure he was going to get the ball a whole bunch; now he has to be an all-around player.
“The great thing for a young guy is he understands that and figured out pretty early that if he doesn’t figure it out he’s going to lose reps. I think the message that got sent to him early helped him learn and mature in that.”
Hill attributed his progress in those respects to 6 a.m. film room sessions over the summer and the eye-opening experience of seeing the field in Week 1. Hill said the week of practice after his debut leading up to the Louisiana Tech game had, “a different feel,” even if Knox didn’t see anything different in his work habits.
The strides Hill’s made has confirmed Mullen’s thinking on the decision to play him. Mullen has a track record of redshirting numerous freshmen in each class — particularly so at running back — but Hill has clearly benefitted from the early playing time.
“Everybody’s in different positions: he’s ready to go physically. The best way to develop him mentally is to actually get him out there and play some,” Mullen said. “It is a long year and you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s very similar to (backup quarterback) Keytaon (Thompson) where you sit there and say let’s try to not play him, then all of a sudden in Week 5 you need to play him because of injury or whatever has happened and he has no experience.
“That was the thought, giving him that experience so he can develop to be a better young player.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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