Lavert Hill (#24) with Delano Hill (#44, image via MLive)
Name: Lavert Hill
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 168 lbs.
High school: Detroit (MI) King
Position: Cornerback
Class: Sophomore
Jersey number: #24
Last year: I ranked Hill #74 and said he would be a backup cornerback. He made 2 tackles, 1 fumble recovery, and 1 pass breakup.
TTB Rating: 84
Hill was a very slight cornerback coming out of high school, so it was questionable whether he would play in 2016 or not. With three very good corners on the roster, how many redshirts would be worth burning? The answer: All of them. Of course, all three of those top corners were seniors, so the staff naturally wanted to develop guys to replace them. Hill was one of those guys. Early in the season, he was reportedly running behind David Long, Jr. to play, but an injury to Long pushed Hill to the forefront of that 2016 corner class. He ended up being the fourth (or fifth) cornerback behind Jourdan Lewis, Channing Stribling, Brandon Watson, and Jabrill Peppers (depending on your view of Peppers’s position).
This spring Michigan’s coaching staff suggested that Hill might be the most talented cornerback on the roster. Those are strong words, considering the presence of David Long and Ambry Thomas, among others. However, a constant theme with Hill has been “toughness” or perhaps a lack of it. The coaches publicly and gently suggested that Hill (and Long) needed to learn how tough the college game is and how to play through bumps and bruises, but I think we can be assured that such a sentiment was shared more strongly behind closed doors. Hill has the quickness to be a solid field corner and has some similarities to Jourdan Lewis, but there’s not a whole lot of experienced depth at cornerback. Normally, a fourth or fifth (or sixth if you go back to pre-Clark) corner won’t jump to #17 on the countdown, but the huge loss of talent at the position pushes Hill and a couple of these other guys into the top 20.
Prediction: Starting cornerback; 25 tackles, 2 interceptions
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Vert is a damn cool nickname.
I think the rank is justified for the reasons Thunder stated. I think it’s meaningful that Hill was a guy the coaches put in during primetime against FSU. It didn’t go great, but the fact that he was out there being competitive with talented players means a lot to me — as it did when Stribling and Lewis were out there get roasted as freshman against PSU.
Expecting great things in the long-term. Hoping for competence in 2017.
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20 lbs wouldn’t hurt here.
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True, but that’s a lot of weight to add. If he can be 175-180 lbs. this year, I think that’s about the best we can realistically expect. Those kinds of body types don’t generally add weight quickly.
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Yeah, With those scrawny types, that particular twenty pounds frequently does’t bother to show up until the late 30s, and then doesn’t want to leave.
Trust me.
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