The Fast and the Furious 4

Star player T.Y. Hilton pushed himself this summer so he can defend FIU’s Sun Belt Conference championship

By Pete Pelegrin ’96

Photo: Samuel Lewis.

If you were looking for T.Y. Hilton this off-season as he prepared for his upcoming senior season you were likely to find him on the beach or with his parents and son.

Hilton, one of the top players in college football and a possible Heisman Trophy candidate, wasn’t taking it easy. Rather, he was doing his own kind of training.

“I would hit the track with my mom [Cora, a softball player] and we would condition,” Hilton said. “I practiced with my father [T.Y., Sr., a former high school receiver] and with some of my friends from my optimist football days. I pushed myself more than ever this off-season.”

The family training even included T.Y.’s son, who plays pee-wee football, and plenty of time running on the beach.

Hilton has had many memorable moments in his first three years at FIU. He delivered on his promise of scoring a touchdown the first time he touched the ball in college football. He did so against Kansas in 2008. He twice defeated Arkansas State with last-minute touchdowns – the second score clinched the 2010 Sun Belt Championship for FIU.

At the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, Hilton told a teammate that he would return a kickoff for a touchdown. Hilton did so and fueled an FIU comeback that led to a 34-32 win over Toledo in the Panthers’ first-ever bowl game.

Hilton has accomplished more in three years than most college players do in four years, yet he’s not satisfied.

“I want to come back and help my teammates and this great coaching staff try and win another championship and another bowl game,” he said.

The Panthers are elated to have Hilton back as they try to repeat as Sun Belt Champions and win another bowl game.

“You are fortunate if you can coach a guy like that in your lifetime,” FIU Head Coach Mario Cristobal said. “His DNA is to compete and find ways to win at the highest level against all odds.”

There is more to Hilton that has made him the face of FIU football. His involvement in the football team’s community services projects is “second to none,” Cristobal said.

“His mother, Cora, and father, T.Y. Sr., have instilled tremendous core values and principles in him and he really exemplifies that in the way he lives and carries himself,” the coach said. “He has become the face of FIU football and a tremendous role model for our community.”

When you have as much success as Hilton, you become a target, Cristobal said.

“He understands that and he feeds off the challenge,” he said. “I think the perception out there is that because he has become a great player, he’s always wearing a bull’s eye on his jersey. I think it’s more important to point out that T.Y. is the type of player that is always on the attack.”

That voracious appetite had Hilton seek out FIU quarterback Wesley Carroll this off-season. The receiver and the quarterback began preparing for the 2011 season shortly after the Panthers returned from Detroit, Mich., after winning the Pizza Bowl.

Most quarterbacks and receivers usually just throw the ball around in the off-season, but Hilton and Carroll spoke every day, watched enough game film to start their own film festival and, of course, threw the football.

Besides being one of the most athletic and electric players in college football, Hilton is a student of the game. He is as quick to break down a defense and as he is to outrun a defense with his 4.2 speed.

“He’s one of those receivers, which you love as quarterback, where he will come to you and he just won’t tell you he is open,” Carroll said. “He will tell you what he sees in the defense and say something specific about the coverage and tell you what he is going to specifically do on his route. And he’s a guy you listen to because he knows what he is talking about.”

Already the owner of many FIU receiving records and the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year, Hilton is being mentioned as a possible candidate for the Heisman Trophy, which is the most prestigious award in college football.

“He is one of the best players in college football. One of the main reasons is because he is unselfish. He will do whatever it takes for our team to win,” Cristobal said. “He understands that the rewards that come with the team’s success are far greater than any individual achievement. I believe he has a great shot at winning the Heisman trophy, and the fact that we have a Heisman candidate in our young program adds to the already tremendous amount of excitement surrounding the 2011 season.”