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It didn’t take long for Kenny Hill to have the college football world asking “Johnny Who?”
In his first career start, the 19-year-old sophomore torched South Carolina, breaking Johnny Manziel’s single-game passing record with 511 yards. He set another school record for completions after going 44-60 in the romp over the Gamecocks.
Now, one start into his career, Hill has already vaulted to the top of the Davey O’Brien award’s early polling. That’s a lofty perch for a guy who had thrown 22 total passes coming into the season. The question is, can he keep it up?
Kevin Sumlin’s offense once again looks poised to tear up defenses across the football landscape. Against South Carolina, the Aggies ran 99 plays, most of any SEC team in week one. Over the next few weeks, they’ll have a chance to go at it against some less-than-stellar competition.
A&M’s next three games come at home against Lamar University and Rice University, then they travel to play at Southern Methodist University before meeting back up with SEC competition in a neutral-site game against Arkansas. Will any of those teams be able to slow down the Air Raid attack?
Lamar is coming off a solid performance in its first game, beating Grambling by 15 points while holding the Tigers under 300 yards of total offense, including 192 passing yards. Lamar did a good job against the pass on the whole in 2013 playing against a mostly FCS schedule, but got lit up in their only matchup with a ranked FBS team, Oklahoma State. The Cowboys put up 426 yards of total offense and passed for 271 yards, which could have been higher had the score been a little closer than 59-3.
Rice and SMU, both struggled in their openers, giving up 48 and 45 points, respectively. Neither allowed huge passing numbers, but lopsided scores tend to encourage coaches to take their foot off the gas.
Will any opponent on the Aggies upcoming schedule be able to stay competitive long enough for Kenny Trill to sling it around for the entire game? True freshman Kyle Allen was neck-and-neck with Hill leading up to the opener, and getting him some reps might not be a bad idea, especially if the Aggies find themselves on the right end of another blowout or three.
Still, Hill has given himself a big cushion in leading all SEC passers and currently ranks in the top three nationally in passing yardage. A couple more big games could not only see Hill entrench himself at the top of the O’Brien award list, but Mr. Trill could start to creep into the Heisman conversation as well.
A former freelance journalist from Philadelphia, Brett has made the trek down to SEC country to cover the greatest conference in college football.
