Texas Longhorns College Football Pregame Quote, 01/08/2025

Q. What do you see from Quinn [Ewers] going into a big game? I mean, he’s not the loudest guy. What do you see from how he locks in going into the game?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Just his composure in big moments. You’ve seen him on fourth and 13, he was really composed and ready to go. Just his composure is really cool to see during these moments.

Q. When you think about the quarterback on the other side and what their offense can do, how pivotal is it to get after Will Howard?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: It’s going to be really big. We got to get pressure, especially this week. These big games, we want to get pressure on the quarterback, of course, to limit some of their elite passing receivers, their running backs. So we want to try to limit some of that.

Q. What was going through your mind on fourth and 13?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Man, it was crazy. You really don’t expect to be in the moment, especially when you’re not on the field. So I was kind of expecting what was going to happen. So when it happened, we were really excited.

Q. Double overtime, a lot of emotions. Now you move straight on to Ohio State. How are the coaches preparing you for the game?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: We knew our goal was to win a national championship. So after we won, we enjoyed the night. And the next day we moved on and ready to go for the next team. Moving on, getting ready to go.

Q. Have you allowed yourself to think about playing for that national championship?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I kind of allow myself to, because that’s the end goal we want to focus on, to have something to dream for. So if you’re just playing every game, like blah blah, it kind of gets hard to go out and play every week.

But when you think on the bigger scale, it feels like it kind of helps to understand what the goal is, and why you’re pushing forward to do these things.

Q. Ohio State has so many weapons. Is there one in particular that you know you have to slow down or stop to walk away with the W?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I’d say both of their lead backs and the best two receivers [Emeka] Egbuka and Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, and they have four lead guys. So we’re going to have to go out there and stop all of them.

Q. The last time Texas won it all, you were almost born. You weren’t even born. That was in 2005, right?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Yeah, what day was that game? I was born on the 14th of February. I may have been born. I may have been a couple weeks old. I mean, I wasn’t watching it.

Q. You weren’t watching. Have you gone back and watched highlights of Vince Young? And how does that give you an appreciation of the legacy you’re trying to add?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: It was pretty cool going back and seeing him. We watched the documentary last year, so we’ve kind of seen all that stuff. So it’s been pretty cool going back and seeing that. But now it’s time to create our own story.

Q. January 4th.

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I wasn’t born yet.

Q. How do you guys talk about legacy and what that means?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Just how we go out and practice every day and do the stuff we need to do. That’s how we think about legacy: How we practice every day, and what are we going to do.

Q. When you think about achieving that ultimate goal, what would it mean to bring Texas the national title?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: It would be big. It hasn’t been done in, I think, 20 years now. It’s going to be pretty cool. Hopefully, we can do that. We’re going to try to execute and do that.

Q. You said a couple minutes ago “I’ve never lost in this stadium.” (AT&T Stadium) Do you ever talk smack to the guys in the other locker room? Who was the best high school player? Who has the most high school success?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: No, not really. I played a couple guys on the team. I played Morice Blackwell in high school. I played [Carson] Marshall. I played a decent amount of guys, so I never really lost to any of them, so it’s pretty cool having the bragging rights on them.

Q. What’s your favorite memory in this stadium (AT&T Stadium)?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Against Cedar Park [High School], I had a strip sack. I had run like 30 yards sideways, 30 yards back. That was probably my favorite moment winning the [Texas] State Championship.

Q. I was talking to Jahdae [Barron]. He mentioned how he loves the competitive factor of everybody on this team. Just talk about that competitiveness between each other.

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Everything we do, no matter the play of the game, everybody is so competitive. And I feel like that’s part of the reason we all ran so far. We’re all so competitive in a good way, in a positive way. It’s been pretty cool being with this team.

Q. Any examples of that?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: When we were playing “Madden,” everybody was so competitive. It was pretty fun doing that with the team. It was like a tournament.

When did we play last week, on a Wednesday? So the tournament was on Monday night. So, it was pretty cool doing that stuff.

Q. You’re a gamer. Did you win?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I lost in the championship game to [Christian] Rizzi, so I was pretty mad about that. I played with Alabama. He was playing with Texas.

Q. How did that loss to Washington fuel this team? Tre (Quintrevion Wisner) said it defined your culture. What did that do for you guys?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I was a young guy, so this was my first time around. I’m kind of getting older, so I kind of understand how hard it was getting to this moment. First, to be able to do it again is pretty cool, and I feel like it shaped our culture because it kind of set the standard for the team.

And now that we’re in a new era of Texas football, I feel like this is where we need to be every year from now on.

Q. Is it weird that you’ve already had to get two playoff wins just to get to the same point you were at last year?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: No, we don’t think about it like that because we knew it would be a new format and what we would have to do to get here. It’s like, okay, let’s go execute.

Q. The season is still ongoing, but have you had any opportunity to really take a step back and consider what this year has been for you personally?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: During the bye week and during the Christmas week, I kind of had time, seeing all the All American stuff, so it was pretty cool sitting back.

But after the season, I’ll probably try to stay locked in.

Q. Between year one and year two for you, what has gotten easier in terms of playing and mastering your position?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Johnny Nixon kind of helped me with my pass drops, tackling, rushing the passer, just everything. I feel like I got a little bit better, and something I’m going to work on this year is to get a little bit better.

Q. When is the last time you remember being nervous?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I’ve never really been nervous for a football game. I’m not really a big nervous guy before a game.

Q. So how do you feel when you take the field, especially for a game this big?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I kind of look in the crowd and just kind of soak in the moment. And after that, I say a prayer, and I kind of lock in after that and get ready to go.

Q. Have you seen someone like Jeremiah Smith before?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: The closest thing, I’ll say in high school, is when we were playing Jaylen Hill. He kind of killed us every time. Hopefully, Jeremiah isn’t going to kill us.

Jaylen Hill is one of the best I’ve ever played against. I played him here in this stadium (AT&T Stadium), actually, so hopefully he doesn’t do what he did when I played Jaylen Hill. That would be pretty nice.

Q. What was the big difference last year, y’all had a great run difference. This year, the run defense is great. Last year’s was great. What has been the adjustment, as far as scheme, technique, improvement. What’s changed?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: We kind of looked at some of the stuff we did wrong last year and went into the season and went to go correct it.

We assessed ourselves a lot. So looking at that, I feel like it was a big key point in helping us change the season around and get better in the passing game.

Q. What’s the biggest challenge whenever you watch Ohio State’s run game?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: Their O line is really athletic. So they’re getting out in space and blocking guys. Their backs are elite. They can bounce it and do a lot of stuff that we’ve saw when we played Georgia.

So we’re going to have to be sound. Everybody will have to do their job to stop the run game.

Q. Have you seen any comparisons between the Georgia offensive line and that of Ohio State’s?

LB ANTHONY HILL JR.: I haven’t seen too many comparisons. I feel like they’re two separate groups, but they’re both elite at the end of the day.