Erick Hunter talks NFL draft, playing against Michael Vick & DeSean Jackson-coached teams

Morgan State defensive star Erick Hunter made his name as one of the best players in HBCU football. But before his time in college athletics, he excelled as a multi-skilled high school student-athlete, competing in football, basketball, and track while also being a percussionist in his high school marching band and orchestra.

In a recent interview with ClutchPoints, Hunter spoke about how he navigated his time commitment.

“The way my schedule worked in high school, I would be in school all day. The workload isn’t as crazy as college, but you have classes at the end of the day that you have to be in—you don’t get a choice when you’re in high school. I had free time to knock out homework, and we still had mandatory study halls for football.Right after school, we’d be in study hall from about 2:30 to 4:00. Then we’d hit practice from 4:30 to 6:30, and then I would have [marching band] practice from 7:00 to 9:00. That was just my day, every day.”

He added, “Being a kid and being young, I was able to just go home, go to sleep at 10:00, and get up to do it again the next day. I didn’t really have much of a social life outside of school; my social life was the people I saw in class every day. It wasn’t really a ‘time to yourself’ kind of thing. I didn’t need much sleep back then—I was just a ball of energy, so I was good at the time.”

His ability to be disciplined is what stands out about Hunter, who is one of the rare HBCU stars in the transfer portal era to stay with his institution all four years of his college career. Hunter was impactful during his time with the Bears, finishing his career with 298 total tackles, with 183 of them being solo tackles; 35 tackles for loss for a total of 133 yards; 10.5 sacks for a total of 80 yards lost; three interceptions; 12 pass deflections; seven forced fumbles; and seven fumble recoveries. Hunter says he views defense as not only an art, but also a test of strength and will.

“I view defense like an art. That’s what it is—especially my position and the techniques that we use. Your job is to stop another man from getting to a certain spot on the field. It takes a lot of will, effort, and expertise to do that. It takes effort on offense as well, but there are two different mindsets. On offense, you’re thinking, ‘I have to hurry up and get to this spot on the field by any means.’ On defense, it’s, ‘I have to stop this person at any cost.'”

Perhaps one of Morgan State’s crowning achievements in his tenure with the team is their two 2023 opening season victory over the University of Richmond. At the time, Richmond was an FCS playoff contender and was ranked in the FCS Top 25, but Morgan State was undeterred as they won the game 17- 10. Hunter finished the game with 11 total tackles, 4 of them solo; 1.5 tackles for loss for six yards; 1.5 sacks for six yards; and one forced fumble.

Hunter views this game as one of the most memorable moments of his career, though he had a unique opnion on how he played in that matchup.

“I had a really good game, really good stops, and a really good sack, forced fumble that gave us the go-ahead score right after. It was a really big game for me. And there was another game that I made a really big play at a really big moment, but the game overall itself wasn’t probably one of my best games; just that moment was probably one of my best plays in that game. I feel like some of the games where I had my best games, I wasn’t making my best plays, but some of my average games I made my best plays. It was just very rare for me.”

But Hunter also received the opportunity in his senior season to play against both Michael Vick’s Norfolk State Spartans and DeSean Jackson’s Delaware State Hornets. While he viewed both games, which occurred in back-to-back weeks, as “business as usual,” playing against NFL players he grew up watching was a crowning achievement.

“I’m not gonna make it seem like it was not extremely cool to play against DeSean Jackson and Michael Vick. I, like every college kid in America, grew up watching them two on the Eagles. Literally, I have memories of watching them all the time. Even when DeSean Jackson came to the Redskins when I was growing up, just seeing him in the city—I remember it all. I’m not gonna sit here and make it seem like, ‘Oh, it was just a…’ Nah. Heck yeah. It was so cool playing against them dudes.”

In the Delaware State game, Morgan State was able to stifle Delaware State’s rushing defense, as they finished the game with 114 rushing yards, which was well under their season average of 290.3 rushing yards per game, which put them atop both the MEAC and the FCS. Hunter says he and the Bears’ defense were confident in their ability to stuff the run.

“We’ve never been a team that gives up a lot of rush yards. I hang my hat on that. Of course, you can always go find a game or two since they’ve been hired, but it’s never been a moment where a team’s ever really ran the ball down our throat. This entire defensive program takes pride in stopping the run.

He added, “We take so much pride in stopping the run, and anytime we’re faced with that challenge, especially me being the linebacker that I am, I step up to that challenge. We had Elijah in the past too, a guy who is in the 53-man roster now who took a lot of pride in that.”

Now he looks to be a player who makes a fifty-three-man roster by either hearing his name called in the NFL draft or signing as an undrafted free agent. Hunter made his pitch to NFL decision-makers clear.

“I’m a person that’s gonna handle myself as a professional. I’m gonna do anything I can to play my role and help the team win. I could be an immediate impact on special teams as well. I’m a guy who loves to learn the game of football. I can handle playbooks, and I can fit any locker room that you put me in.

He added, “The biggest thing for me is I feel like I haven’t even hit my ceiling yet. I still have so much that I know that I’m going to get better at, especially when I get those resources and more things like that. Everything I’ve done has been raw. I feel like I’m just really raw talent who has the discipline to be carved into something beautiful. I’m really excited. I know I could play in this league for sure. It’s something that I look forward to.”

The post Erick Hunter talks NFL draft, playing against Michael Vick & DeSean Jackson-coached teams appeared first on ClutchPoints.