Over the phone, the confidence and excitement in Stephen Hill’s voice were evident. The Georgia Tech wide receiver will give up his senior season and enter the NFL draft.
“I surely won’t let Georgia Tech down,” he said Thursday.
As of Thursday, Hill hadn’t hired an agent, and he has until Jan. 18 to withdraw, but Hill said his mind is made up.
It wasn’t an entirely expected decision. Hill said the draft evaluation he received from a board of NFL scouts informed him that he didn’t have the potential to be drafted in the first three rounds. (That is the second lowest of five evaluations that the board gives. The lowest is that the applicant doesn’t have the potential to be drafted.)
But Hill will gamble on himself and his considerable athletic ability to find a spot in the draft. His 6-foot-5, 206-pound frame and other measurable traits — he set the state high school long-jump record — will undoubtedly bring him notice in pre-draft evaluations.
“I just have faith that I can rise [in the draft],” Hill said.
A recruiting coup for the Jackets out of Miller Grove High, Hill dazzled with his speed and capacity for acrobatic catches. He thrived in the single coverage given him in Tech’s spread-option offense.
His 29.3 yards-per-catch average on 28 catches this season was the highest rate in FBS. His career average — 25.5 yards on 49 catches — would have broken the school record had he made one more reception to qualify for consideration. But he also dropped passes he should have caught and could well have improved his stock with a solid 2012 season.
However, Hill said that “just going ahead and getting started with my career, that was my No. 1 focus.”
Hill said he hadn’t considered leaving until after the Georgia game. He said that his performance in that game (three catches for 78 yards) and over the season led him to conclude that “I felt like I could play with any of those guys.”
After weighing pros and cons with his parents following the team’s return from its Dec. 31 Sun Bowl loss to Utah, Hill said he made up his mind Tuesday.
“Stephen feels that he is ready for the NFL, and I know that is a dream of his,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said in a statement. “I hope that he is drafted high and does well as a professional.”
With receiver Tyler Melton’s career also complete, Tech will look to 2011 freshmen Darren Waller and Jeff Greene, as well as Chris Jackson, Daniel McKayhan and Jeremy Moore. McKayhan’s three career catches are the only receptions that any returning receiver has made at Tech.
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