T. Y. Hilton

Eugene Marquis "T. Y." Hilton (born November 14, 1989) is an American football wide receiver who is a free agent.

Hilton committed to Florida International University (FIU) on February 6, 2008.

He was scouted by the University of Mississippi, West Virginia University, the University of Florida and FIU.

He made the choice to go to FIU over West Virginia the night before National Signing Day, when his son chose FIU eight times in a row when he put both an FIU and West Virginia hat in front of him.

Hilton was a starter under head coach Mario Cristobal in every year of his enrollment at FIU.

In 2008, he returned a punt for a touchdown in his collegiate debut against Kansas on his first touch of the game.

To start the month of October, Hilton broke out with three receptions for 145 yards and two touchdowns against North Texas.

Later that year, he recorded a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Louisiana–Lafayette.

In the following game against Arkansas State, he had six receptions for 199 receiving yards and threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Junior Mertile late in the game after he fumbled the hand off in a reverse play.

This play became known in FIU as "The Hilton Heave".

He was responsible for 12 touchdowns in his freshman year, scoring them all in five different ways, the first player in the program to do so (seven touchdown receptions, two rushing touchdowns, one passing touchdown, one punt return, and one kickoff return).

He also set the FIU single season record for total receiving yards (41 receptions for 1,013 yards), average yards per reception (24.7 yards per reception), and all-purpose yardage (2,162).

He finished his freshman season ranked third in the nation in all-purpose yardage per game, with an average of 180.25 yards per contest and was consequently named Sun Belt Freshman Player of the Year.

Foreshadowing the start of FIU's 2009 campaign against Alabama, Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban referred to Hilton as "a better offensive player than anybody [from Virginia Tech] that we played against last week".

In 2009, Hilton's first touch of the season was a 96-yard kickoff return against Alabama.

He paced the team with 57 catches for 632 yards and five touchdowns, as well as returning 22 kickoffs for 633 yards, despite struggling with an injured knee picked up in the fifth game of the season against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

He finished his sophomore season with 1,301 all-purpose yards.

In 2010, Hilton got off to a slow start, scoring no touchdowns in the first four games of the season, before returning home to play Western Kentucky and scoring his first touchdown of the season, a rushing touchdown.

After a mid-season loss to the FAU Owls, Hilton came back strong the next game against the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks, scoring four separate touchdowns, the first coming on a 95-yard kick return while the others were two passes from quarterback Wesley Carroll and the last a rushing touchdown.

Later in the season against Troy, Hilton put up 158 yards rushing in six carries with two rushing touchdowns on his way to helping set a school record of 448 total rushing yards in a game.

In FIU's first bowl game appearance in the 2010 Little Caesars Pizza Bowl, Hilton returned a kickoff for a touchdown in the second half of the game against the Toledo Rockets.

In 2011, Hilton got off to a hot start in his senior season, putting up a school record 283 all-purpose yards in FIU's rout of the North Texas Mean Green.

A week later, Hilton was instrumental in FIU's 24–17 upset of the Louisville Cardinals, with 74 and 83 yard catches for touchdowns.

He finished that game with seven receptions for 201 yards, breaking his school and personal single game receiving records.

On October 8 against Akron, he had 12 receptions for 144 yards in the 27–17 victory.

On November 12, he had a 97-yard punt return for a touchdown against FAU.

He played college football at FIU, and was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

Hilton has also played for the Dallas Cowboys.

After having 861 receiving yards his rookie season, Hilton took over the number one receiver role on the team from veteran Reggie Wayne.

Due to chemistry with his fellow 2012 draftee Andrew Luck, Hilton caught over 1,000 yards in four straight seasons, including leading the league in the category in 2016.

Hilton has made four Pro Bowls over his career.

Hilton was born to Tyrone and Cora Hilton.

He attended Miami Springs High School and was a two-sport star in basketball and football for the Golden Hawks.

He was selected by the Miami Herald as a First Team All-Dade selection in football in his senior year, while also selected as a First Team All-Dade in basketball both his junior and senior years.

He averaged 18.7 yards per catch as a senior, with 785 receiving yards accumulated in the season to go with 16 touchdowns.

In addition, he played on special teams and was successful as a kick returner, returning four kicks for touchdowns in 10 games.

He was also instrumental in a late hook and lateral play on a 4th-and-17 situation, helping his team get the first down and keeping them alive to eventually set up the winning field goal.

He was named the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl MVP for his efforts in helping his team beat Toledo by a score of 34–32.

At the end of his junior season, Hilton was honored as Sun Belt Player of the Year, as well as being named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team at the wide receiver and return specialist positions.

He finished his junior season with 2,089 all-purpose yards, 848 of them on receptions over 59 catches and 282 rushing yards over 30 carries, a personal best.