Senior Bowl Website  |  South Team Roster

MOBILE, Ala. – Slippery Rock University running back Wes Hills was added to the South Team roster for the Reese's Senior Bowl in an announcement late Thursday night from Jim Nagy, executive director of the Senior Bowl.
 
Hills has been turning heads all week during practices at the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl in Pasadena, California and earned enough attention from NFL scouts to receive the call up to the Senior Bowl, which is the premier senior showcase event for NFL prospects. He will play in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl at Rose Bowl Stadium Saturday before flying to Mobile for a week of practices and events leading up to the Senior Bowl next Saturday, Jan. 26 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
 
Both showcase games will be televised nationally. The NFLPA Collegiate Bowl will air Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. (EST) on Fox Sports 1. The Senior Bowl will air Jan. 26 on the NFL Network at 2:30 p.m. (EST).
 
Hills becomes just the third NCAA Division II player to receive an invite to play in the 2019 Senior Bowl and becomes just the second player in Slippery Rock program history to be invited to the prestigious senior showcase event. He joins current Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman Brandon Fusco, who was invited to the 2011 game after finishing his SRU playing career in the fall of 2010.
 
Hills will play for the South Team, which will be coached by the current coaching staff of the San Francisco 49ers, led by head coach Kyle Shanahan. The coaching staff for the Oakland Raiders, led by head coach Jon Gruden, will oversee the North squad.
 
Hundreds of NFL scouts, general managers, head coaches and the top college football media in the country are expected to attend practices and meetings throughout the week of the Senior Bowl.
 
"This is a tremendous accomplishment for Wes and for our program," said Slippery Rock head coach Shawn Lutz. "If you look at the list of all-time NFL greats that have played in this game, it shows you how special it is to be invited to the Senior Bowl. We're incredibly proud of Wes and we know he will represent our program with a great deal of class next week."
 
The Senior Bowl traditionally features numerous first round NFL Draft picks and has seen many of the top NFL players take part in the game. This year's NFL Pro Bowl rosters include 17 players that took part in the Senior Bowl, including the likes of Phillip Rivers, Von Miller, Aaron Donald and Bobby Wagner. Last year's game featured Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield. Some of the other major names to appear in the Senior Bowl in recent years include David Johnson, Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Richard Sherman, Cam Jordan, Josh Norman, Jimmy Graham, Russell Wilson and Derek Carr.
 
Hills is the only Division II player on the South Team roster, which includes mostly players from Power Five Division I conferences, including 21 players from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The South Team includes quarterbacks Will Grier (West Virginia), Jarrett Stidham (Auburn) and Gardner Minshew II (Washington State) and national champion wide receiver Hunter Renfrow (Clemson). The squad will feature three running backs as Hills will be joined by FCS national champion Bruce Anderson (North Dakota State) and Ryquell Armstead (Temple).

Some of the notable names that will appear on the North Team next week include quarterbacks Trace McSorley (Penn State), Daniel Jones (Duke) and Drew Lock (Missouri) and running backs Dexter Williams (Notre Dame) and Karan Higdon (Michigan).
 
The postseason showcase game invites came after Hills broke the SRU single-season rushing record in 2018 with 1,714 yards, despite missing nearly three full games. He averaged 7.0 yards per carry for the season and closed the year averaging 164 yards per game over the last nine weeks after returning to the starting lineup. He topped 150 yards in six games and ran for more than 200 yards in three different games. Hills, who ran for more than 150 yards in all three NCAA playoff games this year, led Slippery Rock to the NCAA quarterfinals for the second time in the last four years.
 
Stay tuned to @Rock_Athletics on Twitter for updates from the Collegiate Bowl and the Senior Bowl.
 
 
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