LOGAN — They’ve never met, but boy have they met. Brian Suite and Taysom Hill have converged at the most public events. Perhaps you’ve read this before: UTAH STATE SAFETY PUTS BYU’S TAYSOM HILL OUT FOR SEASON.
It’s getting repetitive, like Twitter ads for Blue Apron. For the second time in his career, Hill is gone, thanks to a tackle by Suite. The same players were involved in the 2012 BYU-USU game, in which Hill was also knocked out for the season.
“I know in my heart that I play the game the way it’s supposed to be played and would never purposely do anything to injure anyone,” Suite said on Tuesday.
In 2012, Hill was running out the final seconds of a BYU win. Communications short-circuited on the BYU sideline and instead of taking a knee, Hill ended up rushing the A-gap. Suite came up from his free safety position and popped Hill at the knees. His helmet connected, sending Hill limping back to the huddle. The BYU quarterback missed the final seven games of the season with damaged ligaments.
In replays of last week’s hit that broke Hill’s leg, the contact was as unscripted as the first. Hill faked a handoff as he does numerous times a game. He next tucked the ball and rolled right as Suite angled toward him. Momentum carried Suite down on Hill’s extended leg, bending it in an awful position.
It was easy to surmise Hill’ s season was over.
Because the players have had so much contact, it seems likely they would know one another. Not so.
“I’ve never talked to him,” Suite said on Tuesday.
He did send a tweet after Friday’s game saying, “Wishing @T_Hill4 a speedy recovery. One of the best players I have ever gone against. Much respect.”
Hill said in a tweet this week that his surgery went well.
“I know he’ll have a long career ahead of him, hopefully in the NFL,” Suite said.
Suite has received some feedback accusing him of dirty play, but said “they’re not truly people who understand the game and how it’s played. I try to stay above that and not really respond …. I know in my heart I didn’t try to hurt him.”
Suite remembers both plays that knocked Hill out for the season. Of the 2012 occurrence, he said, “Usually you’d want him to take a knee, to not risk the quarterback, but he’s a big guy and he was in a position where I had to get him down and that just ended up being what happened.”
Regarding Friday’s play, Suite said he missed an earlier tackle and was determined to bring Hill down the second time by focusing on containing the star quarterback.
“Just one of those freak things. It could happen to me, as well, and to anyone in the game,” Suite said.
Suite actually left the game with “just a little tweak” injury to himself, but expects to be fine for Saturday’s Mountain West opener against Air Force. He didn’t know Hill was hurt until the next play, when backup Christian Stewart appeared.
Anyone who has met Suite knows he’s not exactly Darth Vader. The mellow Honolulu native has neatly trimmed hair and beard. He is conversational but not boisterous. Only two Division I offers came to him during high school, one from Hawaii, the other from Utah State.
“I’ve never made a better decision in my life,” he said.
He jumps at volunteer opportunities set up by the team, mostly involving the child development program on campus, or visiting hospital patients.
“I’ve been blessed to be in a position where people look up to you and I feel I have that responsibility,” he said.
Beating nationally ranked BYU “is something people will never be able to take away from you,” Suite said. “It’s something I’ll be able to tell my children about.”
If he doesn’t, it’s a sure thing someone else will.
Email: rock@desnews.com; Twitter: @therockmonster; Blog: Rockmonster Unplugged