Is this Justice Hill’s last season at OSU?
CATOOSA — Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy knew the applause from the mostly Tulsabased crowd of Cowboy supporters was deserving for what he had just described.
Gundy was heaping praise on running back Justice Hill Monday night during the Tulsa-area stop of Cowboy Caravan at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino when the coach explained that Hill — who grew up not far away and attended Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School — was on track to earn his degree in three years.
The applause followed. Then Gundy spoke up.
“That’s good news and bad news,” Gundy told the roughly 700 OSU alumni and donors in attendance. “The bad news is, when he finishes up, he’s probably gonna move on — which is good news.
“He’s gonna be a very high-round pick (in the NFL Draft), and somebody’s gonna get a fantastic player for a long, long time.”
It was the first publicly stated suggestion from anyone on the team that this could be Hill’s final season at Oklahoma State.
The 5-foot-10, 205pound junior led the Big 12 Conference last season with 1,467 rushing yards, 15 touchdowns, 112.8 yards per game and 268 carries on an offense that led the NCAA in passing yardage at 389.2 per game.
He was postseason AllBig 12 after that impressive sophomore season, and he’s gathering preseason recognition from all over the place, including the Walter Campbell Player of the Year and Doak Walker Award watch lists.
That said, Hill wasn’t on the list of top college players Gundy was looking at recently.
“Somebody had emailed me something that had put out a top 50 college players in the country, and Justice isn’t on there, which was awesome,” Gundy said. “I saw six or eight running backs on there, and I’m sure they’re all good players, but I’m not taking anybody over him.”
Education has always been stressed by Hill’s parents, and his pursuit of a degree was one of the reasons outsiders speculated he wouldn’t likely leave OSU early. But graduating early would alter the dynamic.
Adding another layer of complexity, Hill’s younger brother, Dax, is a top-25 national recruit who is looking strongly at Oklahoma State. It’s unclear how much of a factor Justice’s presence — or lack thereof — would influence Dax’s college choice.
A couple of way-tooearly NFL Draft projections for 2019 have named Justice among the best running backs available should he choose to leave.
With the deep group of running backs the Cowboys have this season, including J.D. King, LD Brown and Chuba Hubbard, Hill isn’t likely to take as much of a pounding as a year ago.
“If things work the way we want it to, Justice touches the ball 15 times a game, that’s it. He stays fresh, he stays healthy,” Gundy said. “That’s tremendous for our team and for his durability, and it’s awesome for him.
“His marketability for the NFL is his body. It’s a rough business, and his body will be in tremendous shape when he moves on from here, so it’s a win-win for all of us.”