Back in February, former Texas linebackers Anthony Hill Jr. and Trey Moore not only got the opportunity to participate in the 2026 NFL Combine but got to do so as roommates and close friends.
However, four years ago, it would’ve been nearly impossible to predict that their paths would align at all.
In 2022, Hill embraced life as a five-star recruit from Denton, Texas. Juggling over 30 Division I offers, he was widely regarded as one of the nation’s best high school players.
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If someone had asked him if he could make it to the NFL, he probably would have said yes. He had the frame, physical prowess, confidence and speed to develop into a professional prospect, and all the right programs pursued him because of those traits.
What Hill’s 17-year-old self likely wouldn’t have predicted, though, was that his future NFL Combine roommate would be an unrated recruit with no Power Five conference offers out of high school.
Rather than harboring national attention from college football’s biggest names, Moore spent 2022 climbing the depth chart at his hometown program, UTSA, after redshirting as a freshman in 2021. It wouldn’t be until 2024 that he suited up in burnt orange for the first time, taking a major leap ahead of his junior season.
It was at Texas that Moore met Hill, a player who would become his partner throughout the nerve-wracking process of making it to football’s pinnacle league.
“That’s my guy,” Moore said. “(We’ve been) moving together for the past two years — (we’re) pretty close … We’re boys forever, so it’s been good going through it with him and having somebody to do it with.”
While they’re separated by two years in age and a world of difference in their collegiate journeys, the pair of linebackers are united by the two seasons they spent playing with one another, alongside the common goal of hearing their names called on Draft Day. Traveling to Indianapolis, Ind., together in February, they got one step closer to achieving those dreams.
“I had fun (at the NFL Combine) — me and Trey,” Hill said. “I’ve kind of been with him the whole process. He was my roommate in Indy. So, finishing out with him was a pretty cool thing.”
Hill had a strong showing at the Combine, and he is predicted to be drafted somewhere between the late-first round and mid-second round of the NFL Draft. If his Combine roommate has any say in it, Hill will be taken in the earlier part of that window.
“He’s a first-round guy for me, and he’s a baller,” Moore said. “The teams know what they’re gonna get with him. He plays physical, plays fast, so he’s a dog. If a team doesn’t come and get him in the first round, that’s gonna be a big surprise for me. I think he deserves it.”
Many anticipate Moore to be a Day 3 pick, getting drafted somewhere in Rounds 4-7. After five years of college football, the former Roadrunner and Longhorn is accustomed to proving himself on increasingly competitive stages.
Moore and Hill are proof that there isn’t a set formula for making it to the NFL. It’s a league defined by diverse personalities, skillsets and backgrounds, and come April, these two former Longhorns will find out where they might fit.