What USC QB Ryan Hilinski is trying to improve, even with spring football shut down
You can see it in the videos shared to social media: There’s some burst from Ryan Hilinski.
The South Carolina football quarterback has not been seen as synonymous with speed, either in his recruitment or in his first year on campus. He’s a player who can slide in the pocket some, but he’s not been one to take off and make plays on the run to any large degree.
But he’s working on that, even as he can’t practice with his teammates.
With the coronavirus outbreak shutting down all of spring football, Hilinski and his Gamecocks teammates can’t do workouts with trainers or strength coaches at USC. But the California product is getting in some work on the side, trying to keep things up and take a step forward.
“This is the time of year where speed and jumping are crucial,” said Kevin Darlington, a local trainer who has been doing speed work with Hilinski of late. “The speed and ability to push quickly and get a high rate of force development, that dissipates about every four days if it’s not constantly worked on.”
Hilinski connected with Darlington through David Cromer, a Lexington High baseball player who will play at South Carolina next season. (His father is former Gamecock D.T. Cromer.) With the high school baseball season effectively over, the younger Cromer started up working with Darlington (they’d worked together before), and in recent weeks Hilinski joined them.
A few videos made their way to Twitter, with Hilinski working on running, acceleration and his feet. He’s working with Darlington three times a week, usually for about an hour to an hour and a half at a time outdoors.
“It’s a lot of short bursts that involves sprinting,” Darlington said. “We’ll time a lot of 10- to 20-yard flying sprints to see that we’re making progress. And then we’ll do a lot with teaching them how to maximize their steps.”
He pointed out some differences in a baseball player like David Cromer (can run with his head down at times) as compared to Hilinski (cannot run head down). They’re also not running timed 40-yard dashes as to not put trainees at risk for hamstring issues. Much of the work is done from a standing stance, but at times Hilinski will get down in a three-point stance like he’s running the 40.
The aim is to maximize push on each step and therefore minimize the steps needed to traverse certain distances and to make the rising sophomore a little more elusive.
And Hilinski is taking to it and showing progress.
“We put everything on film,” Darlington said. “So just about after everything he does, he’ll come up to me and I get it in my phone and we’ll do it slow-mo so he can see it and do it again. Just seeing a lot more explosive steps. He’s covering more ground with each step, with the session. And this was session four (Monday). And each one, we keep seeing progress and he was just saying how he’s amazed with the progress in just four sessions.”
Darlington has worked with a range of athletes in the Midlands for a while now with his Speed 2 Compete Performance Training company. Some of his work includes NFL Draft combine and pro day work, but he’s trained athletes from other sports as well.
Hilinski said mobility was something he spent the past offseason working on. He took a lot of hits last season and was slowed by a nagging knee injury that required offseason surgery.
It’s not likely he’ll mold himself into a dual-threat passer anytime soon, but that little extra bit could help in a big moment.
At some point he’ll be back on a field, working with teammates and preparing for whatever comes next. For now, he’s trying to shore up a weakness into a strength, getting out and getting to work, maybe even impressing someone in his own home.
“I was telling him what some of the goals were for his speed,” Darlington said. “He told me (Monday), he said, ‘Coach, if I could reach that, my dad would be like, ‘Wow.’”
