T. Y. Hilton

T. Y. Hilton

Hilton at the 2008 Shula Bowl
No. 13  Indianapolis Colts
Position: Wide receiver
Personal information
Date of birth: November 14, 1989
Place of birth: Miami, Florida
Height: 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Weight: 178 lb (81 kg)
Career information
High school: Miami Springs (FL)
College: Florida International
NFL draft: 2012 / Round: 3 / Pick: 92
Career history
Roster status: Active
Career highlights and awards
  • Pro Bowl (2014)
  • AFC Special Teams Player of the Week (Week 12, 2012)
  • Sun Belt Freshman Player of the Year (2008)
  • All-Sun Belt Conference First Team (2008)
  • FWAA Freshman All-American (2008)
  • All-Sun Belt Conference First Team (2010)
  • Sun Belt Player of the Year (2010)
  • Little Caesars Pizza Bowl MVP (2010)
Career NFL statistics as of 2014
Receptions: 214
Receiving yards: 3,289
Receiving average: 15.4
Receiving TDs: 19
Stats at NFL.com

Eugene Marquis "T. Y." Hilton[1] (born November 14, 1989) is an American football wide receiver and punt returner for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Colts in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He played college football at FIU.

Early years

Hilton was born to Tyrone and Cora Hilton. He attended Miami Springs High School and was a two-sport star (basketball and football) for the Golden Hawks.[2] He was selected by the Miami Herald as a First Team All-Dade player in football in his senior year, while also selected as a First Team All-Dade in basketball both his junior and senior years.[3] He averaged 18.7 yards per catch as a senior, with 785 receiving yards accumulated in the season to go with 16 touchdowns. He was also successful as a kick returner, returning four kicks for touchdowns in 10 games.[4]

College career

Hilton committed to Florida International University (FIU) on February 6, 2008. He was scouted by the University of Mississippi, West Virginia University, the University of Florida and FIU. He made the choice to go to FIU over West Virginia the night before National Signing Day, when his son chose FIU six times in a row when he put both an FIU and West Virginia hat in front of him.[5][6]

Hilton was a starter under Mario Cristobal in every year of his enrollment at FIU. In 2008, he returned a punt for a touchdown in his collegiate debut against Kansas on his first touch of the game.[7] Later that year, in a game against Arkansas State, he threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Junior Mertile late in the game after he fumbled the hand off in a reverse play.[8][9] This play became known in FIU as "The Hilton Heave". He was responsible for 12 touchdowns in his freshman year, scoring them all in five different ways, the first player in the program to do so (7 touchdown receptions, 2 rushing touchdowns, 1 passing touchdown, 1 punt return, and 1 kickoff return). He also set the FIU single season record for total receiving yards (41 receptions for 1,013 yards), average yards per reception (24.7 yards per reception) and all-purpose yardage (2,162). He finished his freshman season ranked third in the nation in all-purpose yardage per game, with an average of 180.25 yards per contest and consequently named Sun Belt Freshman Player of the Year.[10]

Foreshadowing the start of FIU's 2009 campaign against Alabama, Nick Saban referred to Hilton as "a better offensive player than anybody [from Virginia Tech] that we played against last week".[11] In 2009, Hilton's first touch of the season was a 96-yard kickoff return against Alabama.[12] He paced the team with 57 catches for 632 yards and 5 touchdowns, as well as returning 22 kickoffs for 633 yards, despite struggling with an injured knee picked up in the fifth game of the season against Western Kentucky. He finished his sophomore season with 1,301 all-purpose yards.

In 2010, Hilton got off to a slow start, scoring no touchdowns in the first four games of the season, before returning home to play WKU and scoring his first touchdown of the season, a rushing touchdown. After a mid-season loss to FAU, Hilton came back strong the next game against Louisiana-Monroe, scoring 4 separate touchdowns, the first coming on a 95-yard kick return while the others were two passes from Wesley Carroll and the last a rushing touchdown. Later in the season against Troy, Hilton put up 158 yards rushing in 6 carries with two rushing touchdowns on his way to helping set a school record of 448 total rushing yards in a game.

In his school's first bowl game appearance in the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, Hilton returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the second half of the game against Toledo. He was also instrumental in a late hook and lateral play on a 4th-and-17 situation, helping his team get the first down and keeping them alive to eventually set up the winning field goal. He was named the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl MVP for his efforts in helping his team beat Toledo, 34–32. At the end of his junior season, Hilton was honored as Sun Belt Player of the Year,[13] as well as being named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team at the wide receiver and return specialist positions. He finished his junior season with 2,089 all-purpose yards, 848 of them on receptions over 59 catches and 282 rushing yards over 30 carries, a personal best.

In 2011, Hilton got off to a hot start, putting up a school record 283 all-purpose yards in FIU's rout of North Texas.[14] A week later, Hilton was instrumental in FIU's 24–17 upset of Louisville,[15] with 74 and 83 yard catches for touchdowns. He finished that game with 7 receptions for 201 yards, breaking his school and personal single game receiving records.[16]

Hilton set several school records at FIU:

Professional career

2012 NFL Combine

Pre-draft measurables
Ht Wt 40-yd dash 10-yd split 20-yd split 20-ss 3-cone Vert Broad BP
5 ft 10 in 183 lb 4.34 s 1.53 s 2.51 s 4.36 s 7.03 s 35.5 in 9 ft 11 in 7 reps
All values from NFL Combine

2012 NFL Draft

On April 27, 2012, Hilton was selected with the 92nd overall pick of the 2012 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts.

Indianapolis Colts

2012

In late May, 2012 Hilton signed a contract with Indianapolis worth $2.642 million over 4 years. Hilton was utilized during his rookie season as a punt/kick returner and as a receiver in the slot. Hilton was the first of Indianapolis's 2012 1st–3rd round picks to be signed. During a Week 12 game against the Buffalo Bills, Hilton returned a punt for 75 yards and later caught an 8-yard touchdown pass. The two scores proved to be the difference in a 20–13 victory. Hilton finished the 2012 season with 50 catches for 861 Yards and lead the team in touchdown catches with seven.

2013

Hilton had a career best day for yardage against the Seattle Seahawks top ranked pass defense in a week 5 matchup. Hilton had five catches for 140 yards and two key touchdown receptions, including a career long 73 yard touchdown. Hilton's scores helped the Colts win the game, 34–28.[17] Playing against the Houston Texans in week 9, Hilton caught 3 touchdowns to lead the Colts to a comeback win, 27–24.[18] In week 17, with a pass from Andrew Luck, Hilton recorded his first career 1,000 yard season, and broke his career record for receiving yards with 155.

In the Colts 45–44 comeback wild-card victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Hilton recorded 13 receptions for 224 yards (both playoff-franchise records) and 2 touchdowns. His 224 yards are the third-most by a receiver in a playoff game in NFL history.[19]

2014

In a week 6 matchup against the Houston Texans, Hilton established a new career-high in receiving yards, making 9 receptions for 223 yards and a touchdown. He also finished just 1 yard short of Raymond Berry's franchise-record, set in 1957.[20] In week 12, Hilton surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the second consecutive season.[21] Hilton broke his personal receiving yards record in week 14 against the Cleveland Browns. He caught 10 passes for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns, bringing his season total yardage to 1,295. Hilton also tied his personal best in touchdown receptions with 7 on the season. He was named to his first-career Pro Bowl on December 23.[22] Hilton would miss week 16 with a hamstring injury, and did not record a catch in week 17, finishing the season with a career-high 1,345 yards on 82 receptions.

Career statistics

Regular season

Season Team Games Receiving Rushing Fumbles
GP GS Rec Yds Avg Lng TD Att Yds Avg Lng TD FUM Lost
2012 Indianapolis Colts 15 1 50 861 17.2 70 7 5 29 5.8 19 – 1 –
2013 Indianapolis Colts 16 10 82 1,083 13.2 73T 5 2 6 3.0 3 – 1 –
2014 Indianapolis Colts 15 15 82 1,345 16.4 73T 7 2 20 10.0 15 – 3 1
Total 46 26 214 3,289 15.4 73 19 9 55 6.1 19 0 5 1

Postseason

Season Team Games Receiving Rushing Fumbles
GP GS Rec Yds Avg Lng TD Att Yds Avg Lng TD FUM Lost
2012 Indianapolis Colts 1 0 8 66 8.3 25 0 – – – – – – –
2013 Indianapolis Colts 2 2 17 327 19.2 64T 2 – – – – – – –
2014 Indianapolis Colts 3 3 11 211 19.2 36 0 1 1 1.0 1 0 – –
Total 6 5 36 604 16.8 64 2 1 1 1.0 1 0 0 0

Personal

Hilton and his wife, Shantrell, welcomed a baby girl on November 23, 2014. Hilton scored a touchdown later that day for his daughter against the Jaguars.[21] He also has a son named Eugene Jr.[5] Hilton, whose given name is Eugene, explained how he became known as T. Y.: "My daddy’s name is Tyrone, so ever since I was little, everyone has just used the first two letters of that."[23]

References

  1. ↑ "ESPN Profile". ESPN.com.
  2. ↑ Aguila, Sissi (May 2, 2012). "Congratulations, T.Y. Hilton, on being drafted by the Indianapolis Colts!". news.fiu.edu. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ "T.Y. Hilton (Florida International)". betbigdc.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  4. ↑ "TY Hilton, Florida International, NFL Draft". cbssports.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Clark, Kevin (October 10, 2008). "Golden Panthers can thank Hilton's son". sun-sentinel.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  6. ↑ Landon, Chuck (December 18, 2011). "Chuck Landon: T.Y. Hilton's fate decided by bouncing baby boy". herald-dispatch.com. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  7. ↑ Beasley, Adam (September 2, 2010), "Golden Panthers receiver T.Y. Hilton starts from scratch", The Miami Herald
  8. ↑ FIUSports.com (November 8, 2008), "Fourth-Quarter Comeback Lifts FIU Over Arkansas State", FIUSports.com
  9. ↑ FIUSports.com (December 20, 2010), "Top-10 Football Moments: No. 5 – Panthers Close Out OB in Style", FIUSports.com
  10. ↑ FIUSports.com (December 9, 2008), "T.Y. Hilton Named SBC Freshman of the Year", FIUSports.com
  11. ↑ Pelegrin, Pete (September 7, 2009), "Nick Saban On Your FIU Panthers", Miami Herald: FIU Golden Panthers Prowl
  12. ↑ Haro, Martin (September 15, 2009), "T.Y. Hilton earns Kickoff Returner Performer of the Week, FIU falls to Alabama", news.FIU.edu
  13. ↑ Adelson, Andrea (December 8, 2010), "T.Y. Hilton Headlines All-Sun Belt Awards", ESPN College Football Nation Blog
  14. ↑ Associated Press (September 1, 2011), "Hilton leads FIU over North Texas 41–16", The Miami Herald
  15. ↑ Neal, David J. (September 10, 2011), "Hilton stars in FIU's win over Louisville", The Miami Herald
  16. ↑ Associated Press (September 9, 2011), "T.Y. Hilton's 201 receiving yards help FIU upset Louisville", ESPN College Football
  17. ↑ Alper, Josh (October 7, 2013). "T.Y. Hilton: Browner's insult made me flip the switch". NBCSports.com. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  18. ↑ Wilson, Aaron (November 4, 2013). "T.Y. Hilton leads Colts with 3 TDs". nationalfootballpost.com. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  19. ↑ Brooke, Tyler (January 4, 2014). "Ty Hilton, Andrew Luck Light Up Stat Sheet in Historic Comeback Win over Chiefs". bleacherreport.com. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  20. ↑ Gantt, Darin (October 10, 2014). "T.Y. Hilton racks up big numbers against the Texans again". profootballtalk.nbcsports.com. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Wells, Mike (November 23, 2014). "T.Y. Hilton cradles ball after TD". espn.go.com. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
  22. ↑ "2015 Pro Bowl: Complete roster". NFL.com. December 23, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  23. ↑ Beas, Mike (September 25, 2012). "Time to recover: Speedy rookie receiver off to fast start". Franklin (IN) Daily Journal. Retrieved November 25, 2014.

External links