Former FIU star T.Y. Hilton one win away from the Super Bowl


T.Y. Hilton

T.Y. Hilton played four seasons at FIU and helped lead the Panthers to two bowl game appearances.

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

Former FIU football wide receiver T.Y. Hilton, now a member of the Indianapolis Colts, is one win away from playing in the biggest game of his life.

Hilton – who set FIU records for career receptions (229), receiving yards (3,531) and receiving touchdowns (24) – caught four passes for 72 yards in the Colts’ 24-13 road win over the Denver Broncos in the AFC Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.

The game’s main storyline was Colts quarterback Andrew Luck facing the man he replaced in Indianapolis, Peyton Manning, who is now the quarterback for the Broncos. It was Luck and the Colts who came out on top, and now they are one game away from the Super Bowl.

“It takes the great ones to beat the great ones. At some point in time, you have to beat the great ones,” Hilton told USA TODAY Sports after the win.

Now Hilton and the Colts will take on the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, Jan. 18. Kickoff is slated for 6:40 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS. If the Colts win, Hilton will become the third FIU football player to play in a Super Bowl, following offensive lineman Caylin Hauptmann and defensive back Nick Turnbull.

Hauptmann was on the Seattle Seahawks team that won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 and Turnbull was with the Chicago Bears when they played the Colts in 2007 in Super Bowl XLI, which was held in Miami.

Now in his third season in the NFL, Hilton has been making his mark as one the league’s rising wide receivers. During the 2014 regular season, he caught 82 passes for 1,345 yards and seven touchdowns.

He was voted to participate in the Pro Bowl, the NFL’s all-star game, on Jan. 25 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the site of this year’s Super Bowl, which will be played a week later.