The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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DECEMBER 2020 THE WOLVERINE 19 "We could put him at corner and we put him on the best receiver, ev- ery time we played. Any receiver we'd get that was their stud, we'd put Dax on him. It was shutdown. Completely. It was unbelievable." RAISED RIGHT AND READY Derrick and Tia Hill didn't just pro- duce great athletes, insist the observers back home. They reared great people. Hill's older brother, Justice, per- formed as a running back at Okla- homa State, getting drafted by the NFL's Baltimore Ravens in 2019. The younger brother enjoys similar skills, without a trace of the entitlement and unruliness of some top athletes. "This is my 30th year in the profes- sion," Calip noted. "He's probably the best player I have coached. He led our team at Booker T. to a state championship in '17. "He's such a humble kid. Some- times, coaches get a player like that, and they're not very coachable, be- cause they know they're good. He was just the exact opposite." That didn't happen by accident, Calip assured. "What a classy family," he said. "Their parents raised both of them right. You just don't see athletes like that every day. You read about them. But once you get to coach them, you're like, 'Oh my God! I can't be- lieve I'm coaching this guy!'" When signing day arrived, Dax- ton Hill didn't make it a big show, Calip remembered. He inked his let- ter of intent quietly at home, in part because of not wanting to take the spotlight away from another Booker T. Washington football player who was signing with Oklahoma State. Beyond that, Hill is remembered by his prep coaches for the help he constantly supplied for others. "He always helped the underclass- men to get better," Calip said. "They knew he was great, but he took time to help those guys get better around him, the younger guys. "He was very humble. Very coach- able — 'Yes sir, no sir.' Those are things that really stuck out. I have coached some kids that were very talented, but not very coachable." Blitch seconded the notion of Hill's coachability and all-around superstar status — on the field, and off. When it comes to doing things the right way, Hill has always been the right guy, his former DC insists. "Dax was the epitome of all that," he said. "He's like the perfect foot- ball player. His grades were never an issue — straight As. He watched film, he would work out, outside the program. If we said something, he would do it right the first time. "And he was so humble about it. That was the best thing about him. He's a funny guy, but he was always about business. It was a worker 's mentality when he was out there." On the field? The stories are much harder to contain than the receivers Hill blanketed. "His junior year, we played Sapulpa at Sapulpa," Calip recalled. "One of their best receivers caught a bubble pass. He stuck his foot in the ground and just nailed that guy as soon as he caught it. They had to carry that kid off. We, as a coaching staff, were like, 'Wow!' The speed he has breaking on the ball and breaking on the runners was just incredible." Brennan Presley is a freshman receiver at Oklahoma State, whose younger brother, Braylin, plays for a Bixby high team that recently took Booker T. Washington down, 70-21. The younger Presley proved unstop- pable, Blitch acknowledged. "He had a field day with us," Blitch admitted. "He was just that special guy on the field. When we played with Dax, Dax was that special guy on the field, at all times, in every game he was in. He just was that elite, superior talent, and everybody knew it. "Brennan Presley is a great athlete and a phenomenal football player. When he was in high school, when we matched up with them, we gave Dax a challenge, and we put Dax on him. "We said, 'Hey, we want you to take him out of the game.' That's the level of play Dax is capable of. We put Dax on him, had him spotlight him and follow him wherever he went, and we just Xed him out of the game plan. "We won state that year we played them. You're taking a superior, pre- mium athlete and just putting Dax one-on-one with him. He would come up to that challenge." Hill has another challenge on his hands now. Those back in Tulsa warn anyone considering betting against him. ❏ Helmholdt: Hill Can Play Corner If Needed Rivals.com Midwest recruiting analyst Josh Helmholdt insists if Michigan needs a cornerback, sophomore safety Daxton Hill can provide it. Then again, there's not much Hill can't do, Helmholdt argues. "Dax was a five-star for a reason," Helmholdt said. "We expect him to be one of those guys who has a chance to be an All-American, a first-round draft pick type. He certainly has all of those tools, and I think Michigan fans are starting to see why he was a five-star out of high school." If Michigan's coaching staff opted to move Hill to a corner spot to help shore up some of the outside issues it has experienced, Hill could make the switch seam- lessly, the analyst opined. "If Michigan decides that biggest need is at cornerback and makes the move for Dax to slide over there, I certainly think he will handle that position very aptly," Helmholdt said. "Even though he's a true safety, he has the skills, and also the mindset, the confidence, to be able to play that cornerback position. "You need a guy on the edges who has plenty of faith in their own abilities. Dax has that. He has the moxie and the swagger to be able to play the cornerback position, if that's where he's needed." In short, Helmholdt argued, Hill lacks nothing in his upward climb. "Dax has all the physical tools," Helmholdt said. "He's fast, he's athletic, but it is really that play-making ability that he has, the football IQ to make the plays that other players just don't make or sometimes don't even try to make." — John Borton Michigan radio sideline reporter Doug Karsch on Hill "He's the best player on the defense. While his time in Ann Arbor isn't long, he could be a guy who steps up and be- comes a real leader, and sends a message to the rest of the defense — what's happened thus far isn't good enough."