BYU's Keanu Hill grew up on Texas Tech football. Now he wants to beat Red Raiders

PROVO — Some of BYU wide receiver Keanu Hill's earliest memories surrounding the game of football involve Texas Tech.

His father, former Texas Tech star and first-team All-American receiver Lloyd Hill who was drafted in the sixth round of the 1994 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, would often sit down his young son in front of the television on Saturday afternoons and teach him the rules, plays and concepts of the game while watching the Red Raiders.

Almost as soon as time went final on the Cougars' embarrassing 44-11 loss to TCU, his parents brought it up: "This next week is going to be real big," he recalled of Saturday's first game against the Red Raiders (5 p.m. MT, FS1) for the first time since 1940 at the midway point of the 2023 season.

"I have a lot of boys on other teams and stuff like that," Hill said. "It's going to mean a lot in general because my pops went there, and I grew up watching Texas Tech. He always watches them on Saturdays. I was always sitting there watching the game right with them. It's going to mean a lot for multiple reasons. A lot for family, and for bragging rights in the family."

BYU (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) finds itself at a crossroads in its first season in the Big 12 Conference, the inheritance of Lloyd Hill's standout days in the Southwest Conference.

Back in 1992, Lloyd Hill led the SWC in receiving touchdowns, setting a single-season record for the league before it folded in 1996 with expansion of the Big 8 into the Big 12. Years later, the former Odessa Permian High standout in Texas watched as his son was again recruited to (eventually) play in the Big 12 — though not by Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders knew of Keanu Hill, and kept their eye on the prospect. He received offers to play at Wyoming and Texas A&M at Commerce, in addition to BYU. But for a variety of reasons — the young Hill mentions his high school's run-oriented offense tht didn't always put up big numbers in the receiving game — a scholarship never came.

"I think that was the big thing," added Hill, a former all-district receiver in 2017 and 2018 with Trinity High in Bedford, Texas, whose uncle Roy played for the Dallas Cowboys.

Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick wasn't involved directly in Hill's recruitment to BYU — he had just been installed as passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2018 during the recruitment. But the receiver has been "a joy to coach" since arriving on campus in 2019.

"He's a great kid, and talk about someone who is accountable," Roderick said of the receiver who he described as "pretty banged up" and "a tough kid" playing through physical limitations. "There have been times in his career where he's been playing a lot, and then not playing for a while because Puka and Samson (Nacua) or other guys came back, then he came back and played well again. But he never complained, just kept working; he's a team guy, all the way."

Hill grew up idolizing former Texas Tech star Michael Crabtree and remembers all the big names at the school, including two-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, among others. But did he consider himself a fan? Or does he still?

"I would say so," he said, "because my pops always had the games on. He would teach me as I watching the games with him."

Still, Hill is firmly in the BYU camp in the present. The 6-foot-4 wide receiver finished second on the team a year ago with 572 yards and seven touchdowns, earning All-Independent first-team honors by the College Football Network. The fifth-year junior has started five games of the Cougars' first season in a conference in a dozen years, catching 10 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown.

But the offense has come under fire in recent weeks, with one of the worst run games in the country — 67.5 rush yards per game and 2.38 yards per attempt ranks 129th out of 130 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision — and a passing offense that ranks 61st nationally with 238.5 yards per game with 11 touchdowns under fifth-year senior quarterback Kedon Slovis.

Hill doesn't put the struggles entirely on his quarterback. He knows the receivers have to shoulder at least part of the blame — and a fast start against his boyhood team would help assuage a lot of complaints.

"We've got to be doing our jobs as receivers and getting open," he said. "Another thing is that even if we're not open, we are making those tough catches. We call ourselves playmakers for a reason. Coming down with those big catches for sure is one thing we can work on."

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