Overview:
Deacon Hill has passed for 1,096 yards in his nine games as the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback
Uneasy rests the head that wears a quarterback’s helmet.
Deacon Hill learned this altered version of Shakespearean logic during his fall semester at the University of Iowa.
The former Santa Barbara High School football star overcame an autumn of media discontent to lead the Hawkeyes to the Citrus Bowl on this New Year’s Day.
Iowa (10-3), ranked No. 17 in the US LBM Coaches’ Poll and No. 20 by the Associated Press, will kick off against No. 23/25 Tennessee (8-4) at 10 a.m. Monday Pacific time at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
“It means a lot for me, but the main thing for me is doing it for the guys,” Hill said during a media session last week.
The social media universe wasn’t always so kind to him this year. Every overthrown pass drew a cruel assessment.
“At first, it was a little difficult to deal with,” Hill said. “It got easier and easier once you realize that nothing else matters except for the people in the building.”
Hill, a 6-foot-3 sophomore, entered that building in Iowa City exactly one year ago when he transferred from Wisconsin.
He took over as the Hawkeyes’ starting quarterback eight months later, during the Sept. 30 game against Michigan State, when Cade McNamara suffered a season-ending knee injury.
“When I was in the (transfer) portal, I didn’t know if I was going to play football again,” Hill said. “Fast forward a year later, I’m going to play in a bowl game.
“It’s meant a lot to me.”
Although Hill rallied the Hawkeyes to a 26-16 victory over Michigan State and two more wins, an Oct. 21 defeat to Minnesota stirred up a hornet’s nest of naysayers.
His 10-for-28 passing performance that day dropped his season’s accuracy to just 36.7% (33-for-90).
“Sometimes it can be tough, you know?” he said. “Especially before Michigan State, I hadn’t played real meaningful snaps of football since high school.”
Don of His Career
Hill had led Santa Barbara High to the 2019 CIF-Southern Section Division 8 final by passing for a school-record 3,102 yards and 33 touchdowns.
But the COVID-19 pandemic delayed and then shortened his senior season with the Dons to just a few games during the spring of 2021.
He red-shirted that fall at Wisconsin and played only a few snaps for the Badgers during the 2022 season.
“I was trying to get back into that rhythm and trying to understand what I want to do and what the team is going to do,” Hill said.
“Just getting back on the field into that flow I think can be tough at times, but staying level throughout all of it is the biggest thing.”
Hill has since completed 57.3% of his attempts and passed for 1,096 yards total this season.
He engineered a four-game winning streak that clinched the Big Ten’s Western Division title for the Hawkeyes and put them into the Dec. 2 conference championship game against Michigan.
“Obviously he’s faced ups and downs — media, things inside his own head maybe,” offensive lineman Mason Richman said. “He’s been really steely eyed. He’s learned how to turn off the noise.
“I’m really proud of him. He just keeps working. He’s the same guy every day.”
Iowa’s 26-0 loss to No. 2 Michigan in the Big Ten Championship game didn’t alter his approach.
“That game, with the stakes that were there, it hurts a little,” Hill admitted. “But as an athlete, I took the next two weeks and kind of threw myself into school. I had finals after that, so that kind of helped.
“I took time to process everything. As soon as we started back, I just got right back to it.”
His diligence has impressed head coach Kirk Ferentz.
“It’s been a long haul and, really, the credit goes to him,” he said. “It’s everybody working with him, though. I think we know him better.
“He’s certainly improved dramatically, and I think it’s just a credit to him sticking with it. He just kept on going.”
Family Ties
Hill did opt to get off social media and “lean on the people I love and trust.”
That includes a close-knit family of elite athletes.
His father, Pe’a Hill, played football at Fresno City College and basketball at BYU-Hawai‘i. His mother, San Marcos High alumna Cindy Battistone Hill, was an All-America basketball player at BYU.
Hill’s three older sisters — Dos Pueblos High graduates Sami, Kodi and Abbi — were All-America water polo players at UCLA. Sami won a gold medal as a goalkeeper for Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“I think the biggest thing was finding that patience and understanding that not everything’s going to come right away,” Hill said. “You hear stories about all these (backup) quarterbacks coming in and lighting up the world.
“That definitely wasn’t the case with my story, but each week has been a stepping stone. Each weekend I’m trying to grow, leaning on my friends, family and coaches here.”
That’s included Spencer Petras, last year’s starting quarterback who now serves as a volunteer assistant coach. He endured his own Shakespearean tweets and arrows of outrageous media fortune.
“It’s never easy for loved ones or parents, ex-teammates, things like that, to read some of the things people say,” Petras said. “It happens all the time with guys across the country, especially at quarterback.
“But to have my mom see some of the stuff people say is tough … It’s definitely tough to see her emotions about it.”
It reached a flash point after Petras threw an interception to doom a Hawkeye comeback in the 2022 Citrus Bowl.
The profane firestorm it ignited on Twitter got so bad that Petras eventually asked the fans of Iowa to “remember that I’m a human being.”
“Spencer took a lot of heat,” Hill said. “I’m sure someone else will take a lot of heat besides me at some point.”
’Tis the Season
The support of his teammates never wavered. Hill rewarded his offensive linemen on Christmas Day by gifting each one with a set of headphones.
“Ton of personality from that guy,” Richman said. “I mean, he’s screaming before we go out there on the field, and as we get off he’s screaming.
“He’s really exciting and a fun guy to work with.”
The Citrus Bowl could be a defining game for his future, especially with McNamara planning to return to the team next fall.
Hill refused to speculate about a competition for next year’s starting job.
“The future is the future,” he said. “We’ll wait and see what happens.
“We’ll just focus on the team. What do I need to do to help this team win on Monday?”
Hill climbed a mountain to get there.
“Spring ball until now, it’s been a roller coaster,” he said after Thursday’s workout. “It’s been a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“It’s been awesome to be the quarterback for this team.”