Anthony Hill enjoys playing at a high level
Against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, Texas linebacker Anthony Hill brought something from Saturday morning cartoons to life last Saturday night following a sack of ULM quarterback General Booty.
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Hill brought Booty down to the ground, ran back, and celebrated his accomplishment.
Where did that come from? Key and Peele? Something else?
No, Hill said Monday the dance move came from Spongebob Squarepants.
His head coach Steve Sarkisian appreciated that in the midst of playing a violent sport, a star middle linebacker like Hill still showed he’s enjoying the game and excelling at it.
“I kind of teased a couple people about that, most notably his coach and him about how I was anticipating our middle linebacker who’s this fearsome player maybe (would) do a fist bump or something like that and not the Spongebob dance,” Sarkisian said Thursday. “With all that being said, I think there is something to be said for our players playing with a lot of confidence and playing in a relaxed state of mind to where they’re clear minded so they can fluctuate between the intensity that they need to play with yet (also) the joy of playing the game.”
Hill’s performances so far this season have been nothing to chuckle about. Pro Football Focus labeled his week four performance as its highest graded among linebackers across the nation. Hill notched three tackles with a tackle for loss and the sack.
He also returned an interception of Booty for a touchdown, but a ticky-tack block-in-the-back penalty took points off the board.
It’s been a strong start to the season for Hill. A fun one, even.
“We’re having a lot of fun playing,” Hill said Monday. “We’re real close, we’re real tight. I’m just excited that everybody’s making plays, everybody’s happy.”
So far this season while playing the Mike linebacker in Pete Kwiatkowski‘s defense, Hill has 25 total tackles with 11 of them solo. He racked up a career-high 11 tackles against UTSA the week prior to Texas’ win over ULM. He’s had at least 0.5 TFL in every game this season, and his interception against ULM was the first of his career.
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Hill is playing at an all-conference and potentially an All-American level. He has a PFF grade this year of 84.9, good for seventh among FBS linebackers and third in the SEC behind Ole Miss’ Chris Paul Jr. and Alabama’s Jihaad Campbell. When it comes to PFF defensive grades, only Michael Taaffe (85.4) and Jahdae Barron (90.2) are grading higher than Hill on the Longhorns.
That’s not stopping Hill from seeking more.
“We feel like there’s always something to get better about every week, week-by-week,” Hill said.
SEC play arrives this weekend for Hill and company. His defense is No. 1 in scoring defense and No. 6 in yards per play allowed. The Longhorns have allowed only 20 plays for 10 or more yards this season, a total second only to Ohio State’s 18.
The Longhorn defense is stifling opponents, and much of that is thanks to Hill.
For No. 0, it’s been a fun time playing a punishing style of defense. He hopes to bring that style to Mississippi State and others as SEC play starts Saturday.
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“I feel like we’re just a physical unit,” Hill said. “We’re smart and physical. We just want to keep it up.”
