NC State Football

B.J. Hill Has Become A Technician

Published

9 years ago

August 28, 2015

Sophomore B.J. Hill played running back and defensive end at West Stanley High School (Oakboro, NC), but when he arrived in Raleigh early for the 2014 Spring semester, the NC State coaches began training him to be a defensive tackle. Hill adjusted quite well, recording 40 tackles as a true freshman, with 7.5 of those being for a loss. He started 5 out of the last 6 games, and brings much more experience into the season than other sophomores, but he feels like it’s still the little things that he’s trying to improve on this year.

“I’ve improved a lot. I’ve gotten stronger and bigger,” said Hill. “I’ve been growing in the little things, all of the fundamentals that Coach Nielsen has been teaching is.”

Coach Nielsen, Hill’s defensive line coach, spoke to me very highly of Hill’s continued improvement as a technician.

“He’s come a very long way with the fundamentals. He played running back in high school. Going from that to nose tackle, is a completely different position,” said Nielsen. “B.J. is a very smart player in terms of understanding the position…body angles, pad level, hands and things like that. He’s come a very long way.”

When asked what Hill needed to do this year to take his game to the next level, he kept it simple.

“Take those fundamentals, apply them to gameday, and make plays.” said Nielsen.

Hill thinks that the defensive line will surprise people this year, and that the Wolfpack team as a whole has a chip on its shoulder this year.

“We’ve got a young group. There are three sophomores starting and one senior. I think we are all going to surprise everybody,” said Hill. “I think we walk around with a chip on our shoulder. I think we have a lot to prove. I think we are definitely going to do better than last year. More than 8 wins…I think so.”

NC State squeaked out a 24-23 victory against Georgia Southern in the season opener in 2014, and Hill reassured me that the Wolfpack team wasn’t taking Troy lightly.

“We’re going to treat the Troy game like it’s the Clemson game,” said Hill. “It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we are going to treat them like their top dogs.”