“Final play of the game. Shotgun formation. Three-man rush. Randall stops, throws it as far as he can. Caught! Caught! Jack Hunt, touchdown! I don’t believe it!”
Obviously, Devery Hen-derson caught the astonishing Hail Mary pass in the “Bluegrass Miracle” Saturday. But in the midst of the excitement, the voice of the LSU Tigers, Jim Hawthorne, confused Hunt’s No. 8 with Henderson’s No. 9, as well as their apparent skin-color difference.
“Anybody that watched it knows that that’s not me,” Hunt said with a smile. “I know a lot of people were watching the game and gave up, and were on their way home and heard it in their car. I would have outrun [the Kentucky players] just like Devery, too.”
Last year it would not have been so odd to hear Hunt’s name called after an offensive play. After all, he played wide receiver. But during the off-season, Hunt filed a change-of-address form and moved to the defensive side of the ball.
Following the South Carolina game, starting free safety Damien James was nowhere to be found. And after his dismissal from the team, head coach Nick Saban was looking for someone to step up in James’ absence.
“I said [to coach Saban], ‘Tell me, what do I need to work on to get on the field?'” Hunt said. “[Coach Saban] said, ‘You need to be more aggressive, you need to hit people and you need to be more confident with your calls.'”
Hunt said it took him a while to realize it, but by not playing with an added intensity during practice, the aggressive style of play he needed during the game did not come naturally.
“I feel bad for doing it, especially to my teammates [during practice],” Hunt said. “But if it’s thrown over the middle, I own the middle, so I’m going to knock you out. If you don’t practice like that, you’re not going to play like that. And if that’s what I have to do to get on the field, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
And getting on the field was a top priority for Hunt after playing sparingly at receiver the last two seasons.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior from Ruston has 31 tackles on the season and one quarterback sack. In his first game as the full-time starter against the Wildcats, he showed Saban a more aggressive player and led the team with 15 tackles.
“I really felt comfortable the whole game,” Hunt said. “I had a chance to make a lot of tackles. That’s good and bad. I’ll make the tackles whenever I get a chance, but I don’t know if it’s good for your safety to make that many tackles every game.”
Hunt and strong safety Norman LeJeune led the team in tackles because of Kentucky quarterback Jared Lorenzen’s ability to throw the ball downfield and running back Artose Pinner’s frequent sprints into the secondary.
“Jack played really well in the [Kentucky] game,” Saban said. “He played with a lot of toughness. I think he is going to offer a lot of stability at that position for us.”
Hunt is used to being a major contributor in games. In one high school game, he touched the ball just 10 times and scored five touchdowns. But he has not seen a lot of action as an LSU Tiger. He said playing as much as he did against Kentucky and winning the game meant the world to him.
“Jack recognizes a lot of things,” LeJeune said. “He brings a little more hitting and a little bit more knowledge of the game. And I play a little more relaxed knowing that I have somebody on the side of me I can trust.”
Hunt was not always headed for Baton Rouge out of high school. His great-grandfather was an All-American running back at Georgia Tech. His grandfather and his older brother also played football for the Yellow Jackets, and his father played basketball there as well.
Tech offered Hunt a scholarship during his senior year in high school, but on his official visit, the university withdrew the scholarship and said it was full at the receiver position.
“Fortunately, that worked out well for me,” he said. “Because the only reason I would have gone [to Georgia Tech] was because of family ties.
“I really never seriously considered LSU until Saban was hired. He came to Ruston and explained his system. He originally wanted me to play safety, and he preached about how he needed character guys and a character program.”
Hunt has established himself as the full-time starter with his aggressive play and his knack for the ball. And he is now the starting free safety on the top-ranked defense in the country.