Everything Linebacker Anthony Hill Said at 2025 SEC Media Days

ATLANTA – On Tuesday, Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian, linebacker Anthony Hill, safety Michael Taaffe, and quarterback Arch Manning took the stage at SEC Media Days.

Before the star linebacker enters his junior year in Austin, check out all the questions and answers from Hill’s time in Atlanta:

Q. What is the most complicated offense you’ve played against, not the best skilled players, but the most complicated offense?

ANTHONY HILL: Like, in the SEC or just by far my time?

I feel the most complicated offense Kansas my freshman year. They ran a lot of triple offense stuff, and it was pretty difficult.

Other than that, I would have to say, let me think about this, I would have to say the Georgia offense. They did a good mix running and passing the ball with complex concepts. It was a really fun game to play in, and I’m looking forward to playing them next year.

Q. What makes Colin Simmons so unique, special, and was there a moment you knew he was a guy that could make an impact early?

ANTHONY HILL: From the first day of spring ball when he came in, I seen, I knew something was going to be different about him, just the way he can get off the football and do different stuff. The way he can bend, I knew he was going to be special from one of the first couple practices. It’s an honor to play with him. He’s going to have a great year this year.

Q. What do you remember from the Texas A&M game last year? How much are you looking forward to that rivalry at home in Austin now?

ANTHONY HILL: Mostly, I remember the crowd. The crowd was kind of crazy. It was a fun game to play for the crowd and the media.

I remember the quarterback making some elite runs and stepping up in the pocket and making a couple good throws. That’s definitely something I know he’s going to improve on going into another year.

I’m looking forward to seeing them. And Rueben Owens is out there. I can’t wait to compete against him this year. It’s going to be a fun game.

Q. Looking back on the Texas A&M game, how is that rivalry different than the OU-Texas rivalry, as you’ve been able to play in both now?

ANTHONY HILL: It’s a little bit different. We’re not playing at a neutral site. It’s really fun just playing against that team. We have a lot of familiar faces. I know a lot of the guys on the team; I was committed with some of them. It’s really fun playing against some of them, and I can’t wait to play them again this year.

Q. Kind of comes with the name “Manning,” having such high expectations placed on you. But just from practicing against him, what have you seen that makes you think that he’s going to be a star player at the college level?

ANTHONY HILL: Just the way he reads the defense. He reads it really well. He also has the ability to take off and run and change the play calls. He’s done that a lot of times against us. I feel he’s going to have a really good season. He deserves to have the season that he rightfully deserves.

Q. You said you’re looking forward to Georgia again. Playing them twice, they got the better of you both times. What did you learn from each of those games? And how much are you looking forward to playing them and the possibility of another SEC title game?

ANTHONY HILL: I mean, it’s fun. I feel like they have a really good football team. We want to play against the best teams in the world. Going against them is a great test for us throughout the season.

And playing them in the regular season is going to be a really good game. And we know we have to play them at their house. We’re looking forward for that test. I know it’s going to be a really tough game for us, but we’re ready.

Q. There’s a lot of hype around Arch Manning this week. What do you make of the outside expectations and how do you think he does at handling those expectations?

ANTHONY HILL: I feel like he does a really good job handling some of the hype around him. He doesn’t really have a social media or do any of that stuff. I know he’s going to be ready to play.

I’ve been practicing against him for the last three or four years. I know he’s going to be ready to go or ready to play when the moment and the lights are on.

Q. Earlier this season, Sark has been on TV and discussed how active a role Arch took in the leadership. So obviously as a backup, there’s only so much you can do, but what’s the difference you’ve seen from him this offseason in that regard versus his first two offseasons?

ANTHONY HILL: You can see his competitive nature pop out a little bit more in the workouts and some of that. He’s come in with an energy to lead and be a leader. And he’s calling the plays like he’s been back there leading the show for the last three years.

You can tell he took the right steps towards being a leader and learning from Quinn throughout this time of him being a backup.

In summer workouts, we were kind of struggling with doing our Longhorn shuttles. He brought the group up and gave us the motivation, pumped us up. We went out there and finished the job, executed it.

Q. You had a defense that helped the team reach the playoffs last year. If you can complete this sentence — the Texas defense will help reach the College Football Playoffs if…

ANTHONY HILL: Say it one more time.

Q. The Texas defense will reach the College Football Playoffs if…

ANTHONY HILL: If we go out there and communicate, execute like the level we’ve been doing, and even exceed it a little bit more. I feel like we have to communicate better than we did throughout the years. And we have to execute in some of the big moments, like we had last year.

Q. Do you guys talk about expectations surrounding this team? Obviously, a lot of noise on the outside, but internally, what do you guys focus on at this point, knowing you want to get back to where you were and better?

ANTHONY HILL: We kind of just focused on keeping everything day by day. We’re going through the summer workouts right now. We’re just going to focus on that. When we get to fall camp, we’ll focus on that. When we get to in-season prep, we’ll focus on that. We want to take everything day by day and figure out things as they go. We want to execute and do our job.

Q. I know you’re on the defense, but when Arch came in some of those situational moments, like when he scored the touchdown against A&M, how did him having success in those moments help prepare him to step into the starting role now?

ANTHONY HILL: Getting in the action, of course, gets you ready for the game. There’s nothing like that being back there for every single play. I feel some of those games where Quinn was hurt and he played every single moment kind of got him ready, kind of got him a taste for playing in some of the bigger games.

Q. Does the SEC feel like home, or is it still kind of a new home for Texas?

ANTHONY HILL: The SEC, I wouldn’t say it feels like home. It’s just our second season. But we’re going to go out there just play our best, execute. We know we have some tough away games and home games this year, so we’re just going to go out there, try to execute, and do our job.

Q. Obviously, given his last name and the notoriety of being the number one recruit and all that, what’s something about Arch that most people probably don’t know that’s kind of something that only really his teammates, coaches, maybe his family, understands about him?

ANTHONY HILL: I feel like a lot of people don’t know how fast he is. When he gets out of the pocket, a lot of people aren’t going to catch him. He really can run. He really can go.

Q. As a player, how do you sort of view momentum game to game, week to week? The last season ended how it did, but how do you carry over the positive momentum you guys had at some points last year into a new year?

ANTHONY HILL: It’s our job as leaders to carry the momentum and push some of the younger guys and make sure they have the confidence to go out there and go play when they have to go step up in the moment. So we kind of just want to take the young guys, get them in the film room to make sure they have the momentum and the confidence to be able to go play.

Q. Can you tell me your feelings and the team’s feelings on being able to face Ohio State after just playing them the last game?

ANTHONY HILL: I mean, it was a tough loss, but that was the last season. We have a whole new team. We want to go out there and be 1-0 next year. That’s all we’ll focus on is just being 1-0, and we’ll handle everything else when the time comes.