Defining Moments : West Virginia’s Ed Hill Will Be Remembered for Two Passes--One Dropped and One Caught

His career at West Virginia will be remembered for one drop and one catch, each with millions of dollars at stake.

Ed Hill, a senior receiver, an amateur, had the whole world in his hands. Twice.

Had he accepted a T-shirt or under-the-table money from a booster to fly home for Christmas, NCAA investigators might have swarmed his dormitory.

Yet, split-second transactions on the field involving teen-agers and footballs and millions in prospective bowl payouts are somehow all part of the college football experience.

Ed Hill knows of the murky distinction. Also of condemnation and redemption.

Because he dropped one pass two years ago against Syracuse, the Mountaineers were not invited to a bowl game and denied a considerable payday.

Because he caught one pass against Boston College this season, West Virginia will play Florida in Saturday’s Sugar Bowl at the Superdome in New Orleans.

An important catch?

Hill’s game-winner against the Eagles represents a $3-million difference between the Sugar Bowl’s $4-million payout and the $1-million check West Virginia would have received from a likely Carquest Bowl bid.

THE DROP

It confirmed what experts had said about Hill coming out of Mt. Healthy High School in Cincinnati--that he was not a Division I receiver. Hill had played the position all his life until his senior year, when the team switched to a wishbone offense. Bill Fridman, his coach, told Hill his best chance of getting a college scholarship was to become a defensive back.

Hill switched, and Fridman proved to be correct. Universities came knocking: Louisville, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Kentucky. All wanted Hill as a defensive back.

When Hill begged for a chance to play receiver, the recruiters scoffed. Louisville Coach Howard Schnellenberger sat on Hill’s couch in Cincinnati and told the kid to be realistic.

“He told me I would never be a Division I receiver,” Hill recalls. “There wasn’t much I could say. I asked him why. He said he didn’t think I would be good enough. He was the first coach to come visit me.”

Don Nehlen of West Virginia was the only coach who would accept Hill as a receiver.

Initially, Nehlen would regret it.

In the last game of the 1991 season, their bowl lives on the line, the Mountaineers were driving toward a possible winning touchdown against Syracuse in the waning moments. Hill, used only on running downs in the drive, was pestering Nehlen to give him a chance.

Finally, with the ball on the Syracuse 20, Nehlen relented. Hill broke free on his route, and quarterback Darren Studstill floated a perfect pass to Hill in the end zone.

Hill dropped it.

Syracuse ran out the clock and won, 16-10. West Virginia finished 6-5 instead of 7-4. The sucking sound heard in Morgantown afterward was that of bowl suitors fleeing to the nearest airport.

No matter what Hill would do later, the drop would be part of his portfolio.

“I’ll always carry it with me,” he says. “It’s the one that brings me down to earth if I become big-headed. It keeps me humble.”

There was nowhere for Hill to hide. He was a college sophomore, not an NFL veteran who could flee the country and go incognito after the season.

Hill had to go to class, walk the campus, face the fight song.

“It was very difficult,” he remembers. “I had to carry the burden the whole year until we played the first game of the next season.”

Hill walked softly in the ensuing months, his ego an eggshell. But, remarkably he says, there was relatively little fallout. Students left him alone to recover.

“In fact, nobody said anything to me about it,” Hill says. “They might have said it to somebody else. But to me, not a thing. It’s probably the reason why I’m still here. I appreciated it. I know they all knew about it, everyone had to know. But the students were real good about it.”

THE CATCH

Since the drop, Hill has exorcised his share of demons. He has since caught a pass in 22 consecutive games. He ranks eighth on the school’s all-time touchdown reception list with nine. He was the team’s leading receiver as a junior with 43 catches.

He has shaken off the distractions and is on schedule to graduate in the spring with a degree in liberal arts.

This season, on Oct. 9, he also settled a matter with that couch-potato Schnellenberger:

West Virginia 36, Louisville 34; Hill had three catches for 36 yards.

Schnellenberger has never told Hill he was wrong about him.

“I haven’t talked to him, and I haven’t heard anything from him,” Hill says.

In his defense, Schnellenberger could always pull out the Syracuse tape.

But that stigma was removed on Nov. 26 at Chestnut Hill, Mass. Boston College, a week removed from its upset of Notre Dame, was leading the Mountaineers, 14-9, with 1:13 to play. West Virginia had the ball at the Eagle 24. The play came into the huddle: 81 Deep Switch, a route intended to get single coverage on Hill in the slot, or Mike Baker on the outside.

The Boston College secondary doubled-teamed Baker as Hill streaked to the corner of the end zone.

Studstill lofted a pass to the 6-foot-5 Hill, who outjumped a shorter defender to make the game-winning catch.

After the play, Hill ran over to Studstill and settled another score: “We can forget about that one now.”

It took two years.

“I guess it makes up for it,” Hill says of the catch. “The Syracuse drop is something that pushed me, kept me going.”

The 17-14 victory over Boston College kept the Mountaineers’ record perfect at 11-0 and afforded them the chance to make the Sugar Bowl money grab.

In Morgantown, they refer to Hill’s reception as the $3-million catch, the difference between the Sugar Bowl and Carquest Bowl payouts.

Hill said it was only afterward that he realized the significance of the moment.

“I was glad to catch it just for the sake of

winning,” he says. “I guess it adds a little more incentive ending up in a higher-priced bowl.”

Ironically, the Sugar Bowl was the first bowl game Hill ever remembered watching on television and the one he always wanted to play in. He was 8 at the time and watching cartoons at home when he happened to switch to the game.

He doesn’t remember who was playing, only that “something snapped in me.” Hill told his mother, Bonnie, he was going to play in the Sugar Bowl someday.

Her response: “Whatever you want to do.”

Hill says he never had doubts about sticking to his decision to be a wide receiver. It may not lead to a career in the NFL, although Hill has hopes of at least catching on in the Canadian Football League.

Whatever his future, Hill is glad he stuck to his guns back when it was just a coach and a kid on a couch.

“I really thought I was doing the right thing,” he says. “I don’t know if I was vindicated, but I am happy about the outcome. I’ll leave it at that.”