I think I might enjoy watching this as much as I did old Noel Devine videos. So, given the first opportunity yesterday, I asked him about it. Had to.

“It was a reverse and I was coming around the corner. I’d seen a blocker and I’d seen that dude was going to block for me, but then I’d seen three guys coming. I knew one of them personally and I knew how he hits. He’s always going to hit me low.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I should just hurdle over him.’ It happened that I dove. I didn’t even think about it. I just dove. I didn’t know if I’d make it into the end zone or not, but I did.”

I … I can’t. I just can’t.

First, this play begins right around of the middle of the field, so he has about 28 vertical yards with which to work. He gets the ball at the 19-yard line. And he’s moving fast and changing directions under duress. So a small space is shrinking and the surroundings are changing fast … and Dillon picks out a defender and identifies him by the way he likes to tackle Dillon, thus prompting the idea to hurdle defenders.

Second, he was going to hurdle the defenders. I had to circle back on this later. I mean, he was a two-time state champion hurdler, but not until after that football season. He was kind of average  at it prior to this, to the point he didn’t even want to run track as a senior. So it’s not like hurdling was his forte at the time of takeoff.

But, yes, hurdle the speeding defenders. He didn’t quite understand why I didn’t understand — which is great and which I’ll explain in tomorrow’s paper.

Third, the defender, No. 2, really did go low on Dillon.

Fourth, Dillon gets redirected by No. 24, but it doesn’t assist Dillon into the end zone. It sends him spinning, but Dillon was already going to make it.

Fifth, Dillon starts a little deeper than the 4 and lands a little less than yard deep in the end zone. That’s, say, 17 feet? The state champion in Dillon’s high school classification jumped 23 feet, 9 inches in May. Dillon, with no real runway to start on, with what would best be classified as the total opposite of what a long jumper should do, with defenders trying to take him out and actually getting hands on him to shorten his flight, was six or so feet shy.

Mind you, this is from a kid who was 6-2 and 185 or so pounds and is now 20 pounds heavier with what he says is all the same agility. And he’s a safety — not a receiver — that the Mountaineers are going to have a hard time keeping off the field this season. He’s backing up Darwin Cook, which is totally fine and understandable, but Dillon can play.