Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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I was standing in the south end zone of LaVell Edwards stadium shooting (television lingo for filming/taping/recording) the Cougars as they close out a hard fought victory against rival Utah State.
There was just 1:06 remaining on the clock. It was first down and Utah State had just one timeout remaining. BYU could get in victory formation and kneel down a few times and close out the game.
To my great surprise, freshman quarterback Taysom Hill (24/36 C/ATT, 235 YDS, 1 TD, 1 INT, 19 RUSHES, 80 YDS) stood in shotgun formation, took the snap and rushed for 4 yards on the quarterback draw.
I had the perfect angle to see Utah State safety Brian Suite bring down Hill with a low tackle. I don't think this tackle was in any way dirty, but Suite hit Hill in the left thigh just as the freshman planted his left leg into the turf. As if I were watching it in slow motion, I saw Hill's leg hyper-extend and Hill went down hard.
As a testament to Hill's toughness, he popped right up.
Utah State took its final timeout and Hill hobbled to the sidelines. As he came back out to the field you can see him reach down and grab his knee.
As he knelt the final two snaps into the ground, he clearly favors his left knee. He walks to the locker room with a barely perceptible limp and doesn't acknowledge the injury in his post-game remarks.
I had a very bad feeling about the hit and it came as no surprise when one of my former interns Ben Wagner (@ben_wagner) tweeted at 3:25 p.m. on Saturday:
I quickly tweeted out video of the injury. I included the play-by-play radio call by Greg Wrubell (@gregwrubell), Marc Lyons (@marclyons) and Nate Meikle (@nate_meikle). You can hear Lyons groan as Hill takes the hit to the knee.
As a former college football player, Meikle makes an astute observation, "the other thing you do when you run option and run, you just expose Taysom that much more to the brutal hits. He's limping, he's trying to shake off that last hit. I mean, you look at him coming onto the field, he just doesn't look right."
A few hours later, BYU confirmed that Hill was injured although they did not give specifics on his injury.
Additional information is expected early Monday evening after practice.
Injuries are part of the game, but it's still difficult to watch them happen. Especially if you have are standing in the end-zone with a telephoto lens.
