Spotlight #1: FIU WR TY Hilton

Spotlight #2: Louisville TE Josh Chichester 

1^st quarter

14:53: TY Hilton with the 36 yard return. So fast. Note that it’s “TEAWHY” not “TIE” Hilton.

9:58: Louisville runs to Chichester’s side between the left tackle and Chichester the tight end and he paves the way to a 6 yard run with a nice block.

7:29: Winston Fraser with the pick six for FIU. Always something to take note of. Read the quarterback’s eyes, jumped the route and showed athleticism on the return. He’s a linebacker, but looked like a safety on that play. Undersized and still a junior, but a great play there.

6:48: Another nice run block by Chichester. Uses his long arms to his advantage in a big way.

6:14: Chichester catches the ball on a crossing route and then makes a nice open field run for a 31 yard catch.

5:57: False start by Chichester.

4:47: Chichester fails to bring in a target. It wasn’t a great throw by the quarterback, but it was catchable if he turns around faster. Bad instincts.

0:14: Chichester makes a tough catch going over the middle in coverage. Takes a shot midair, but holds onto the ball.

2^nd quarter

13:40: Chichester makes a nice catch in the back of the end zone, but isn’t able to drag his feet to stay in bounds. Tough catch to make.

12:06: TY Hilton catches the ball on a slant and then just blows past the safety and outruns the entire defense for a YAC heavy 74 yard touchdown. He’s so unbelievably fast with the football in his hands.

9:28: TY Hilton blows past everyone down the middle of the field, catches the ball in stride and scores easily for the 83 yards touchdown. Louisville is going to need to play their safeties extremely deep from now on. Hilton is just too fast.

5:49: Hilton catches the ball on the flat, able to get a positive gain, but doesn’t break it for a big gain.

1:54: Chichester wide open over the middle of the field for his 3^rd catch. He hasn’t been perfect, but he’s having a nice game. He leads Louisville with 3 catches for 67 yards. He’s a big target at 6-8 240, but he needs to fill out a bit more. He’s had a few nice blocks and he’s got long arms, but he’s not exactly playing against an elite defense. Looks like a mid rounder. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out for him, however (2 catches in the opener).

3^rd quarter

11:14: Hilton with another catch, through the seam for 16 yards. He has 4 catches for 178 yards and 2 touchdowns now. FIU has 10 completions for 219 yards and 2 touchdowns total.

9:50: Hilton with a 5^th catch, this time a short 8 yard catch with no major gain after the catch.

5:44: Hilton calls for the fair catch and then tries the return anyway for a 5 yard penalty. Complete mental lapse. He has to know better than that.

4:14: Another catch by Hilton, a 16 yard catch to give him 6 catches for 201 yards on the night. They’ve kept him from the big play in the 2^nd half, but he’s still made his impact on shorter routes.

0:35: Chichester with the 20 yard catch. He looks like a big receiver out there.

4^th quarter

12:01: Chichester with another catch to give him 5 on the night. The 15 yard catch pushes him over the 100 yard mark to 102 yards.

9:40: Hilton on the screen, goes nowhere.

0:00: Final totals for Hilton, 7 catches for 201 yards and 2 touchdowns. Louisville looked like they had no clue how to defend a deep route in the first half, but they made adjustments in the 2^nd half. Hilton was still able to make an impact. He’s extremely fast and can hurt you in so many different ways and he has surprisingly good hands. I’m not ready to call him a #1 receiver or anything, but he looks like a nice slot receiver/kick returner/punt returner who can also hurt you out of the backfield. He also had 181 yards of offense in FIU’s season opener.

As for Chichester, he showed some nice things as a blocker, but he’s still not a great blocker. He’s still mostly a big wide receiver. Remember, that was his former position. He showed some nice hands and route running going over the middle for 5 catches for 102 yards and there’s a lot of upside here with his height and arm length. He doesn’t look like much more than a mid to late rounder, however.