Coach | New OL Commit Jackson Hill "Perfect Fit" For Notre Dame
Jackson Hill may have arrived to the national recruiting conversation later than most, but his head coach is convinced he landed at the perfect place.
The 2027 California offensive lineman flipped his commitment from UCLA to Notre Dame on Thursday, a move Chaminade High School head coach David Machuca believes is great for both sides.
“I think Jackson is a perfect fit for Notre Dame,” Machuca told Irish Sports Daily.
That belief started well before Hill ultimately made the decision and long before Hill even had Power-4 offers.
Machuca spent time around Notre Dame’s program a couple years ago and quickly connected the traits he saw in Hill to what the Irish consistently look for up front.
“From an academic perspective, he has a 4.2 GPA,” Machuca said. “His work ethic, his toughness, just blue-collar mentality, he just works really, really hard at everything that he does.”
The 6-foot-6, 300-pounder’s development has also been unusual compared to many national offensive line prospects.
Hill arrived at Chaminade as a 190-pound freshman and had never previously played organized football.
“He literally came into high school and said, ‘Yeah, I want to play football,’” Machuca explained. “Then it became something bigger.”
That relative lack of experience means Hill’s ceiling remains extremely high.
“This is only going to be his fourth year of playing football in his whole life,” Machuca said. “He just doesn’t have all of the experience maybe other guys have, but he’s definitely going to get it. He’s amazing. Quick learner.”
Machuca believes Hill’s physicality immediately separates him from many other prospects.
“From the beginning of the whistle to the echo of the whistle, he plays all the way through every single play,” Machuca said. “He’s absolutely mauling people.”
ISD expert Jamie Uyeyama summed it up in his Film Don’t Lie.
“If you don’t like watching Hill block, then you don’t like football,” Uyeyama wrote.
“He’s 100 percent correct,” Machuca said of Uyeyama’s statement.
The Chaminade coach also pointed to Hill’s combination of flexibility, toughness and rapidly improving physical development as traits that helped elevate him nationally over the last several months.
“He has put on 25 or 30 pounds since the end of our season,” Machuca said. “But his flexibility and his nastiness, it hasn’t gone away.”
Even as Hill’s recruitment exploded late, Machuca remained convinced the offensive lineman’s long-term upside had barely been tapped.
“I think he’ll end up kind of being a coach on the field,” Machuca said. “Everything we’ve given him, he’s done and improved on.”
Machuca specifically believes Hill’s intelligence and approach to the game should mesh naturally with offensive line coach Joe Rudolph’s system at Notre Dame.
“Me and Coach Rudolph spoke for about an hour in my office and we just talked about schemes and what they do and it's like, ‘Yeah, this is a whole nother level. This is like PhD, above PhD of offensive line play,’” Machuca said.
“And Jackson's going to be able to conceptualize those things and then put them on the field.”
The move away from UCLA was difficult, though.
“It was not easy,” Machuca said. “Especially how short the timeline was.”
His entire timeline accelerated rapidly after Hill picked up his first Power Four offer earlier this spring before ultimately deciding Notre Dame was the best spot.
“It just felt like the right fit for Jackson.”
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