Safety first? Not for Cougars' Hill

You could probably count on one hand the mistakes made by the USC football program in the past few years, but Jason Hill is at least a subject for debate.

"I was the one that recruited him," said Nick Holt, the Idaho coach and a Trojans assistant three years ago. "We thought he'd have been a heck of a free safety. We had some guys like Jason Leach graduating, and we didn't have many safeties in the program."

Who knows, maybe Hill would have been a heck of a free safety. That's speculation, but this isn't: He's a heck of a wide receiver.

Hill travels with his Washington State team Saturday to top-ranked USC. He's a couple of rings short of where he'd be had he opted for Pete Carroll's program as a prep player in San Francisco, but he has proven himself on the offensive side of the ball.

"That was something I couldn't accept," says Hill, recalling the attempt to turn him into a safety. "I always see myself as scoring touchdowns rather than hitting people."

Offensive statistics are bloated in the 21st century, but Hill has pushed that trend to extremes. In 2 ½ seasons, he has shattered the school's career touchdown-receptions record established 43 years ago by fabled Hugh Campbell.

It's a record that withstood a lot of attacks, from the Fab Five-era wideouts that went to the Rose Bowl in 1997, to those who caught passes from Drew Bledsoe in the early 1990s, even back to guys like Mike Levenseller in the mid-1970s and to Doug Flansburg a decade earlier.

So stout was Campbell's record that, with 22 touchdowns, he was at least four ahead of everybody else. Now it belongs to Hill, after he torched the California secondary — one of the Pac-10's better ones — for three long touchdown catches Saturday night among six receptions for 240 yards. That added to an already-gaudy career average of 21.1 yards per catch. "He and Alex [Brink, the quarterback] have a good combination going," said WSU coach Bill Doba of quarterback Alex Brink and Hill. "They really are on the same wavelength."

Even as tailback Jerome Harrison has run for one 100-yard game after another, you could make the case that Hill is the most important of all the Cougars.

He departed the Oregon State game Oct. 1 with a thigh bruise with six minutes left in the third quarter, right before WSU's meltdown, scoring three points the rest of the way. He missed the Stanford loss, when an exceptional athlete might have been game-changing against the vulnerable Cardinal secondary.

Fact is, Hill's 23 touchdowns have come in 17 games as a wide receiver. The Cougars pressed him into action as a true freshman on several special teams.

Hill became a man at 18 that 2003 season. Almost a thousand miles from home, he got the call that his wheelchair-bound father Jerry had died. Estranged from Jason's mother LaVerne, his dad had asked Jason to take charge of family matters upon his death.

"That's how my dad wanted it," Hill says. "He and my mom, they discussed me being the one. It really doesn't hit you until it's actually time to sign the papers and the death certificate. It really hit me then."

The parents had long ago sensed something in Jason that defines his relationship with his family today.

"As far as his maturity, Jason has shown that all his life," said his mother. "I mean, he's my backbone. My kids say, 'That's your best friend.' And he is. I talk to Jason two or three times a day."

When Hill isn't checking in with his mom, and vice versa, he's often keeping tabs on his three younger siblings — twin sisters Mary and Helen in high school, and 12-year-old Paul.

"He's their friend, he's their coach, he's their mentor," said his mother. "They look up to him, not because of what he's doing, it's because of who he is."

In the crush of responsibility with his father's death, Hill gave serious thought to leaving school and tending to his family.

"That was not a choice for him right then," insisted his mother. "I truly believe in my heart his father wanted him to go back to college, and his siblings wanted him to go back to college.

"We told him, 'We need you to reach for your goals and believe in your dreams.' "

There's a certain businesslike manner to Hill. WSU's recruiting coordinator Robin Pflugrad remembers Hill's recruiting visit to WSU.

"He had an overcoat on," Pflugrad said. "He was all business."

That visit moved Hill past some others on WSU's receivers list: Among them, Brian Paysinger and Garren Strong, who ended up at Oregon; and Corey Williams, who went to Washington.

After winning Hill's heart, the Cougars had to shepherd him through some shakiness born of Mike Price's departure for Alabama. But Hill stayed steady.

The moment of truth came when Pflugrad went to visit Hill at Sacred Heart Prep in his hometown. They had everything but a place to talk, and eventually found sanctuary in a cramped storage room off the biology labs, next to skeleton props and the like.

They laugh about it today. And in a season of aching disappointments, those at WSU hope Hill still finds himself connected enough to stay for his senior year.

It's hardly a slam-dunk. Doba said Tuesday he would discourage Hill from coming out unless he's a first-round pick.

"Right now, it's floating through my head, yes," said Hill of entering the NFL draft. He talked to his mother about it after the Cal game, and added, "I have her blessing, whatever I do."

He isn't a finished product, but that might not deter him. He wanted to improve his medium-range capabilities this season, and as good as he was against Cal, he dropped a post pass from Brink that would have given WSU a key first down just before Cal's winning drive.

If Hill does go, he'll take with him one of the school's hoariest records and the reassurance that for him, long distance worked both with family and on the field.

Notes

• Washington State's Lorenzo Bursey (shoulder) may be able to play Saturday against USC and is being taken on the trip. He missed last Saturday's game at California. Doba said Bursey, a backup cornerback who usually returns kickoffs, might return punts instead if he can play. Doba said there is less chance of injury on punt returns because they usually don't involve high-speed collisions.

• Michael Bumpus (ankle), who usually returns punts, is out this week. Also staying home is backup tight end Jesse Taylor (pinched nerve).

• Starting cornerback Wally Dada (groin) is listed as questionable.

• Linebacker and co-captain Will Derting (knee) will travel to the game but won't play. Doba said Derting is "probable" for next Saturday's home game against Arizona State.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com; staff reporter Craig Smith contributed to this report.