BREAKTHROUGH PLAYER: Hill's season comes as no surprise

Before the season, Central’s Ron Nelson said he felt he had the best back in the state lining up in his backfield.

After watching Deon Hill rush for 1,587 yards and 17 touchdowns in his senior season, Nelson can’t help but think that his feeling was right.

“He might be the best back I’ve coached in 30 years,” said the Red Devils coach. “As far as the complete package. I might’ve had some with better speed, some with better moves, some going downhill a little better.

“But as far as the complete package, doing a little bit of all of it, he might be the best back I’ve coached.”

That’s some high praise from a coach who has been on hand for three decades of winning football — one who just watched All-State back Orwin
Smith graduate the year before and move on to play at Georgia Tech.

Hill, who ran for less than 400 yards as Smith’s backup last season, picked up the Yellow Jacket back’s mantle this season, earning first-team All-State honors and the Opelika-Auburn News Breakthrough Player of the Year for his troubles.

“I knew it was a big role that the team needed,” Hill said. “I had to step up and be the player that the coach wanted.”

The 6-foot, 195-pound senior served notice from the first game of the season that this would be a different year for he and his team.

Central, which edged Shaw (Ga.) by a point in the first game of a 4-6 2008 campaign, waxed the Raiders, 49-0, behind a 123-yard performance from Hill.

He went on to eclipse the century mark — including a career-high 227 yards against Russell County — 10 times during the season.

The only two times he didn’t were against Auburn High and Prattville, the top two teams in the state according to the final Alabama Sports Writers Association poll and the only two teams that defeated Central in its 10-2 campaign.

“It’s not only the mental toughness, that he can get that 2 or 3 yards when he has to,” Nelson said. “He had that breakaway speed where he could bust one if we needed it. Not only that, but he was such a good blocker for Cordary (Clark-Allen) also. That 1-2 punch we had in the backfield made us even better.”

Quarterback Darren Daniel, a three-year starter and three-star recruit, got most of the attention heading into the season for the Red Devils. And for good reason: Daniel’s mix of size (6-4, 185), classroom smarts and skill in football and basketball had him mulling offers from schools such as
Stanford, Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech.

But it was soon Hill and his backfield mate, Clark-Allen, that started getting second looks toting the rock behind the Red Devils’ experienced line.

Clark-Allen ran for 817 yards and caught 192 more at H-back, and the Red Devils amassed 3,247 rushing yards (270.6 per game) on their way to their most successful season in six years.

“It’s our friendship. We complement each other,” Hill said of he and Clark-Allen. “He blocks for me, I block for him. We go do it for the team.”

Nelson said Hill had been getting sniffs from FCS schools such as Samford and Jacksonville State entering the season, mostly because of his size and potential rather than anything he had done on the field.

That interest is still there. But so are looks from Western Kentucky, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Troy, Middle Tennessee State and even Georgia Tech.

Now that’s a successful senior campaign.

“It was special,” Hill said. “The hard part was losing, because we didn’t want it to end like that. But it’ll always be one of the best memories I’ll ever have.”

dmorrison@oanow.com | 737-2568