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Film Room: Luke Hill

Luke Hill locked down receivers for powerhouse St. Frances
Luke Hill locked down receivers for powerhouse St. Frances (Rivals.com)

Duck Sports Authority continues its Film Room series with a look at another Class of 2020 signee from a blue-chip program. On Sunday we assessed the film of Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco wide receiver Kris Hutson, ranked No. 2 and No. 1-ranked high school football team in the nation during Hutson’s junior and senior seasons.

Today we look at a premium program from the other side of the country, Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances and their star cornerback Luke Hill.

Overall

The junior and senior seasons for Luke Hill at St. Frances were filled with wins. In 2018 as a junior the Panthers posted an unblemished 10-0 record, dominating every game they played and finished the season as the No. 5 ranked high school team in the country. The asterisk that season would be that their only quality win was against Leesburg (Ga.) Lee County, an impressive 43-14 road win against a national Top 100 team.

During his senior season St. Frances played a schedule that left no doubt they deserved to be listed among the high school elite programs. Quality wins at Miami (Fla.) Central, at Montvale (NJ) St. Joseph Regional, at Venice (Fla.) and at Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy cemented their qualifications. Their sole loss was at the hands of West Coast powerhouse Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei.

For St. Frances those seasons, 5-foot-11, 175-pound athlete Luke Hill was a lock down cornerback who could be trusted to completely take away one boundary from the opponent’s passing game.

Junior season St. Frances Academy 10-0 No. 5 nationally

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His junior clips really start to tell the story of what he can do. Mostly it is lots of one-on-one coverage of the outside receiver. He does not give much cushion to the receiver particularly when the opponent gets near the red zone. He can do this because he has plenty of speed and very quick hips that can flick around and go different directions to match the receiver.

The break he gets on the ball really stands out. He seems to make very quick decisions and picks good paths to defend the play.

When he needed to get up to the line and bump, he was a big nuisance to the wide receiver trying to get off the line.

His run support was quite good although his technique was much better in coverage than tackling.


Senior season St. Frances Academy 11-1 No. 3 nationally

In the senior clips he has refined what his tendencies and makes it clear he is not going to give the wide receiver the sideline. He lines up slightly wide of him, making the outside routes much more difficult to get into. But he gets away with it even when he does not have help inside because of his reflexes and speed.

Also, with the outside position he takes, he reads the quarterback. A few of his interceptions that year there was no receiver around who went the wrong way, but Hill had the QB read all the way and picked it off.

The other things you see more of in his senior clips is that because he is reading the play as it develops coupled with his quickness, he gets off his man and helps his teammates with their assignment.

He also begins to show some serious physicality taking on blockers.

Another great part of his game that has developed is his ability to tie up the gunner on the opponent’s punt team. Often in college the gunner will get two defenders on him to slow him up. With Hill it just takes one.


Analysis

For 2020, the Ducks are loaded at cornerback and nickel, to the point where during the offseason the coaching staff has been working on adding multiple DB packages in addition to the nickel. Seniors Thomas Graham and Deommodore Lenoir should retain their starting roles, and behind them sophomores Mykael Wright and DJ James have the inside track at backup roles. R-Fr Trikweze Bridges was impressive during his redshirt season.

But in 2020 both starting CB spots will be wide open. While Hill will likely play in four games during the 2020 season, his best path forward could be joining the team this summer, redshirting and learning from some outstanding seniors in his meeting room, and fighting for a starting job in the summer of ’21.

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