Khalid Hill (image via Twitter)
Name: Khalid Hill
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 263 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) East English Village
Position: Fullback
Class: Redshirt junior
Jersey number: #80
Last year: I ranked Hill #41 and said he would be a starting F-back by the end of the season (LINK). He started two games and made 4 catches for 71 yards.
Hill missed spring 2015 practices due to a torn ACL, so he was someone getting his first reps in the fall. As a backup tight end used off the line or in motion, he made 4 catches for 71 yards, almost doubling his yardage total on the same number of catches as he had in 2014. He proved to be a pretty solid blocker, and the coaches seemed to cook up some special plays for him on some delayed screens.
This spring Hill moved to fullback after seniors Joe Kerridge and Sione Houma graduated. He’s a bit of an odd fit at fullback because he’s never taken a handoff before, and he’s on the taller end of the spectrum for a fullback. But the Wolverines have limited options of players who fit the mold, so much so that the other top option returning from last year is 6’4″ former defensive lineman Henry Poggi. Little used walk-on Bobby Henderson returns as a fifth year senior, and he may be the best bet to carry the ball from fullback, but Hill is the most valuable of the bunch, in my opinion. He has soft hands to present a threat in the passing game, and I think he’s a solid blocker. He probably has the most well rounded game of any of the fullbacks. He won’t be Larry Centers and catch 100 passes from the fullback position, but I think he’ll probably hit double digits in receptions and score a touchdown or two.
Prediction: Part-time starting fullback; 11 catches, 110 yards, 2 touchdowns
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I know most of you think he is just a feel good story, but Michael Hirsch just might get into a game when he gets back into football shape. I expect him to be at least FB insurance in his RS Sr year. Makes me feel good anyway.
Hill ranked above O’Korn? I understand your logic Thunder, but I would not have put money on it this time. Great work on this countdown a guaranteed daily read for me.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfh_LNL8Z4U
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Got a little quick on the trigger finger.
That’s Mike Hirsch, 2010 Senior hi-lite reel.
I’ll take him.
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Thanks for the link. I’ve watched these highlights or similar before and thought we could do worse for a walkon FB, He will feel right at home in our unis and helmet. I hope he stays healthy and gets a chance to prove himself and contribute.
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This is probably too high for anyone at FB. It’s the lowest impact position on offense, and very interchangeable.
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While I know Houma was a uniquely talented fullback, the position as a whole last year generated 246 rushing yards, 6 rushing touchdowns, 14 catches, and 112 receiving yards. Add in the fact that fullbacks are used regularly as blockers, decoys, special teamers, etc., and I don’t think it’s overrated to have someone in the top 21. Now maybe Hill doesn’t get enough snaps, production, etc. to warrant this spot, but it’s an important position in this offense.
IIRC, you’re the one who was arguing against use of the fullback a few weeks ago and vouching for spread offenses, so you may have a bit of inherent bias against the position as a whole. I’m a bit more open-minded to the use of a fullback if the coach knows how to use him properly, and I think Jim Harbaugh does.
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Agree with your take on the position’s importance (hence the upvote), but Hill can and will be swapped out with Poggi & Henderson, which I think limits HIS significance on the Offense.
JOK on the other hand, (even as a back up) plays the most important position on the field, and could be behind an unproved Speight. If lack of production or injury were to occur, our season hinges on him
*agree with GK though, this is must-read stuff!
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Do you agree or disagree that fullback is the lowest impact position on even a Harbaugh offense? if you disagree, which starting positions are lower?
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I generally don’t think in terms like that. All 11 starting positions are important. Some more than others (QB, for example), but I can’t diminish a fullback’s importance for a Harbaugh offense. In fact, going back to his time at Stanford, I might say that WR was less important. Fullbacks are incorporated at the point of attack on running plays, they’re used in pass protection, and they’re used in the passing game.
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Come on…that’s just tap-dancing. In one breath you say you say that you don’t think of positions in terms of relative impact, and in the next breath you say the exact opposite (that some positions ARE more important than others). And we’re not talking about Stanford in the last decade. We’re talking about THIS team, THIS year. Are you saying that you have NO opinion about whether RB will have a higher impact than fullback for us this year? Or whether #1 WR will have a higher impact than fullback? Or whether C or TE will have a higher impact than fullback? Of course you do, otherwise this countdown wouldn’t make any sense. Ask yourself why they don’t chose an All Big Ten or All American fullback, and you’ll start to get the point.
And we haven’t even touched on my other point, that even if you said that FB was going to be a higher impact position for us this year than WR and quite a few others, Hill has never even played the position, so it’s pretty hard to regard him as significantly better and harder to replace than anyone else. The fact that the guys who end up at fullback are all too often players who have failed to make an impact at the position they were originally recruited at is just another indication of that. If you had to choose one position on offense to lose the starter for the season, you’d chose fullback without a second thought.
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For this team this year, I think the wide receivers are more important. Which is why we have not reached them yet in the countdown.
EDIT: Now that I have some more time to expound on this comment, the quarterback position is the most important position on any team. There’s no getting around that. Whether you’re at Stanford or UCF, NFL or middle school, the QB is most important. We all know that. But when it gets down to OG vs. FB, WR vs. OT, etc., I think there are some major question marks about what position makes the most impact. Jim Harbaugh has an offense that typically includes a tight end, a fullback, and two wideouts. Therefore, FB is an important position in his offense. Would I say the same thing about a Rich Rodriguez or Mike Leach offense? No. But Rodriguez thinks slot receivers are more important than fullbacks or tight ends, so I wouldn’t say a slot receiver is a low-impact position if he were still the coach; it’s important to him and his system.
This is why I say your bias toward a spread offense clouds your judgment a bit. It’s not that fullbacks are important to college football, but they’re important in certain offenses. I accept that Jim Harbaugh, who is a very good coach, uses the 11 most important positions that he knows how to employ. If he thought he could employ a better system with different personnel, then he would probably do so.
If I had to pick an offensive starter to go down this year, I would probably pick Grant Newsome. That’s why I already profiled Grant Newsome. Next year it might be fullback. It might be different again in 2018. The dynamics of the team change from year to year. So when you ask a question about “a Harbaugh offense,” I take that to mean Harbaugh’s offense as a whole over the years. If you’re talking about THIS YEAR’S Harbaugh offense, then you should have said so. I can’t answer your question as well as you want if your question is something different than what you ask.
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The importance of the fullback position on any given team only has to do with how that specific coach wants to play football. Mike Leach places zero value on the position, Harbaugh places significant value on the position. It’s that simple.
If you want to argue that the position is in decline overall, you win, except of course in Ann Arbor where the position is ascendant. Leach wants to spread your DBs all across the field with three wide receiver sets, create space for his quick guys and make you tackle. Our guy wants to overwhelm you with numbers at the point of attack and hit your DBs in the mouth. It’s all good.
The notion that Fullbacks are retreaded failures from other positions is true only in the sense that Safeties are frequently failed Corners, or vice versa. Slots are often failed WRs, and Guards are failed Tackles. John Navarre couldn’t make it as a DE at Michigan ….. I’m being facetious on that last one. Different people come with differing bodies, temperaments and skill sets. You mix it all up and build a team that fits the way you want to play football..
As an aside, I am slowly moving away from the notion that the QB is the most important guy on your team and am coming back around to every guy matters equally. I hate to reference Brady Hoke for much of anything, but the one comment that made sense to me was the one about just one mistake from a different position on every play was killing our running game. So I went back and watched it. Sure enough, a different guy in some maddening rotation would screw the pooch and we would turn it over on downs ….. again. I heard some guy give a speech once about “The Team. The Team. The Team.” It was pretty stirring stuff.
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Every guy does not matter equally. No player has more impact on scoring than the QB. And no player affects the opponents’ defensive gameplan more than a QB. QB play tends to make or break a lot of teams.
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Not sure that even a great QB is worth a whit if he’s sitting on his ass wondering where the train came from. Or if he’s hitting guys in the hands and nobody can hold on to the football, or if you are always sitting at 3rd and long because you backs cant tell the difference between a hole and a linebacker.
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So am I reading this correctly that you think Hill will log zero carries as a FB?
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well even if hes not much of a running threat the staff will still likely try to give hill a few carries if for no other reason than to put it on tape. these coaches are all over every detail, including charting tendencies and the breaking of them, so im sure its something theyll consider.
agree with thunder in general though, hill could have a big year. the coaches obviously appreciate his skill set given some of the unique calls they dialed up for him specifically last year. while hes not sione houma (and weve seen the dimension added to this O with an extra versatile FB like houma), hill is a tough, physical guy with soft hands and a decent feel for the game. itll be interesting to see how FB / H-back shakes out this year (especially since guys like kingston davis or even winovich and others prob have more suitable overall skill sets for houma-type FB yet dont play the position).
if henderson or even hirsch can actually run from the FB spot like some want to believe while still proving competent as blockers then those dudes should earn snaps. but as of now and based on what ive seen to date, hill has the most versatile skill set of all the options given that he can block the edge and lead through the hole on par with the others and looks superior to his competition in terms of catching and turning upfield in the flat or getting opportunities downfield or behind the D
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I think he’ll probably get a couple carries to keep defenses honest, but I didn’t make a prediction on that particular stat.
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I put HIll a few spots lower just because he is unproven and there are other options, but I agree with the FB position’s importance in this offense. I’m excited to see Hill operate in this offense and don’t really care if he gets 2 carries or 20.
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The biggest thing for Hill will be finding out whether he can lead block. He proved himself to be a pretty good blocker from the H-Back spot, but lead blocking from the FB spot is a unique art. Will be interesting to see. Regarding size, Hill is a bit tall for FB, but his height is exaggerate on the roster at 6’3″.
I’m guessing that taking the occasional trap hand-off will not be a problem for Hill. He is comfortable with the ball in his hands. Probably won’t touch the ball as much as Houma did late last year, but he does bring a nice receiving capability to the position.
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Hill is the offense’s Peppers. Not in terms of talent (obvs), but in versatility. Peppers is the hybrid player you can line up on the edge to blitz, chase down running backs behind the line, and cover WRs. Hill is a guy who will run-block at FB, pass-block on the edge, or motion out as a receiver. He’s a FB/H-back/TE, and Peppers is a LB/S/CB.
The matchup problems Hill creates by being able to go between FB and TE are going to be very helpful for this offense. Consider a situation where they line up with a FB(Hill) and TE (Butt) to the strongside. Some shifts/motion can flip the D’s assignments and suddenly a LB tasked with watching the FB is now trying to cover Jake Butt and DB tasked with covering Jake Butt has to face getting destroyed by a Hill block.
Hill might be the biggest pleasant surprise of the season for Michigan fans. I think he’ll look adequate as a rusher and be a much bigger part of the pass game than most expect. The key here is for him to execute his blocks as a traditional FB.
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