QB Ryan Hilinski back from major road trip
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. - Ryan Hilinski showed up at the Under Armour Camp on Sunday, hours after flying across the country, fresh off a round of important visits.
The three-star quarterback from Orange (Calif.) Lutheran stopped at a bunch of SEC and ACC schools and got a much better feel for his recruitment.
Let’s start in the SEC.
“Georgia was just awesome,” Hilinski said. “It’s just Georgia. They have two guys on scholarship right now - Justin (Fields) and Jake (Fromm) - and they were talking to me and stuff like that. Coach (Kirby) Smart wasn’t there, he was in Mexico at a conference but I talked to coach (James) Coley. That place is just awesome. It’s a great feel and a great family atmosphere.
“Ole Miss was awesome. Coach (Phil) Longo and all those guys. He said this is his most important recruiting class at the quarterback position so that puts a lot of stuff on my mind which is good to think about. I talked to coach (Matt) Luke for about an hour. He’s excited for their future and they’re going to be pretty good this year.”
Trips to Tennessee and South Carolina were also highly valuable.
“I talked to coach Jeremy Pruitt for about an hour,” Hilinski said. “They’re going to come out in the spring and evaluate me a little bit more. I talked to coach Tyson Helton. It was good to see him because I talked to him at SC and I’ve been seeing him since I was 13.
“South Carolina was just great. I had coach (Will) Muschamp walking with me and showing me the dorms. Across the street people were waving to him and saying ‘Ryan Hilinski,’ and all that stuff and they knew I was coming which was just awesome. I talked to coach (Bryan) McClendon and coach (Dan) Werner. I think they’re going to do great things there.”
Then it was off to the ACC for Hilinski, who threw for 3,749 yards with 33 touchdowns and six interceptions in his junior season.
“Duke is Duke, it’s great there,” Hilinski said. “They were playing Syracuse (in basketball) when I was there that night and you had guys just camping out on campus which was great. It was just crazy.
“I got NC State last minute. Coach (Eliah) Drinkwitz texted me and said, ‘Hey, Ryan, I saw you were in South Carolina, you should definitely come up here.’ I told him I was actually going to Duke and he said that’s 14 miles from us so I said all right, fine. I got there at 9 in the morning and stayed until about 11:30 and they extended an offer.”
The Orange Lutheran standout said he could return to many of those schools in the coming months. Trips to Oregon, Boise State, Boston College and Rutgers are also being planned. A commitment should happen before his senior season.