Ohio State Football: Hill has been the most underappreciated Buckeye

This year’s Ohio State Football team has several players who will go down as legendary Buckeyes, but none are more underappreciated than K.J. Hill.

Many Ohio State football fans celebrate the play of guys like J.K. Dobbins, Justin Fields or Chase Young, and rightfully so. Those guys are already Buckeye legends and will continue to build on their legacies over the next few weeks.

One guy who may be underappreciated though, is wide receiver K.J. Hill.

Hill has gradually become one of the most reliable receivers in Ohio State history. After catching 18 passes for 262 yards during his redshirt freshman season in 2016, he caught 56 passes for 549 yards in 2017 and 70 passes for 885 yards in 2018. Additionally, so far this year he has 38 catches for 423 yards.

He has had several monster games in his career too including a 12-catch, 102-yard performance against Penn State in 2017 and a nine-catch, 187-yard performance against Minnesota in 2018.

His play over the past few years has given him the opportunity to cement his legacy at Ohio State as one of the best receivers in school history.

Right now, he is eighth all-time in career receiving yards with 2,119. That is more than guys like Ted Ginn Jr., Joey Galloway and Michael Thomas. He has a chance to move up that list too as he is only 133 yards behind Doug Donley (2,252) for seventh and 176 yards behind Santonio Holmes (2,295) for sixth.

His best category though, is the number of times he has caught the ball over his career as he has totaled 182 receptions, which is good for second in Ohio State history. That is more than Cris Carter, Michael Jenkins, Holmes, Gary Williams and other Buckeye greats.

He has a very good shot at becoming the all-time reception leader at Ohio State too. Hill is only nine catches behind David Boston for No. 1 with 191. I foresee him breaking that record either this week against Penn State or next week against Michigan.

That’s pretty incredible that pretty soon he will have caught more balls than anyone who has ever donned the Scarlet and Gray.

This Buckeye team is loaded with future NFL draft picks and possible future NFL legends, but Hill is one of the best to ever suit it up for the Buckeyes. Let’s let him know how much we appreciate him over the next handful of games.