OT Hollin Pierce reflects on his hard work, getting ready for 2022 season
With many new faces on the offensive line for the Rutgers football team, one of the mainstays all of a sudden is sophomore tackle Hollin Pierce.
Pierce is back for his third season as a Scarlet Knight, and slated to start for the second straight year this upcoming fall. The 2021 Academic All-Big Ten member spoke with TKR and others after practice on Monday.
“Camp’s been great. It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been great,” Pierce said. “We fight every day, every moment. It’s one thing at a time. We all work hard.”
Pierce made a jump last summer and pushed his way up the depth chart. He played in all 13 games with 12 starts at right tackle including in the Gator Bowl. He helped pave the way for 218 rushing yards and five touchdowns against Indiana and 230 more yards on the ground with no sacks against Illinois.
According to Pro Football Focus, Pierce 725 snaps on offense in 2021, and he graded out at 68.7 in pass protection and 54.7 in run blocking. Some of his best games per PFF were against Ohio State (81.4/68.3), Illinois (80.6/67.4), and Delaware (80.2/69.7). He also had a pass blocking grade of 82.6 against Indiana and 78.0 against Syracuse. Among the year-long starters, he finished with the second best overall offensive grade along the O-line.
“It was great,” Pierce told TKR. “It was a great learning experience being out there. You see a lot of different things. It was a lot at first, but you get used to the game from playing a lot. You meet a lot of good talent, and you just have to keep playing.”
Pierce missed some time this past spring due to injury, but the versatile tackle is back during training camp and playing well.
“It’s always tough, but getting back is always the most important thing. I feel like I’m in a good spot,” Pierce said. “I’ve been working really well. It’s always easy coming back from an injury, but the hard work always pays off.”
The story and transformation of Pierce’s time at Rutgers has been told a thousand times, but it never gets old. In September of 2020 -- when Rutgers and the Big Ten had called off the season at that point -- Pierce showed up on campus. The Scarlet Knights accepted him as a walk-on and now he’s on scholarship.
“I just kind of pulled up in the parking lot around this time,” Pierce said. “They gave me a walk-on opportunity, and from there I was grateful to coach (Greg) Schiano and went up from there.”
Pierce started playing football and basketball beginning as a junior at Trenton High School, and then he went on to play football at Fork Union Military Academy. In high school, he was pushing 450 pounds. When the 6-foot-8 Pierce first got to Rutgers, he was 390. Now strength and conditioning coach Jay Butler, his staff, and others have gotten him down to 330.
“It wasn’t easy, but it was great getting the weight off,” Pierce said. “I felt like a new man.”
“Hollin is a tremendous story,” Schiano said last season. “He has potential to be special. …All he did was come in here and lose 50 or 60 pounds. He worked like a maniac.”
Pierce has come a long way since his days at Trenton High or even 2020.
“It’s a blessing from when I wasn’t playing football either,” Pierce said. “I got football late in high school and where I am now, it really shows if you work hard at what you do, anything is possible. Earlier on, nothing like this was possible like it is now.”
Pierce mentioned he hopes to make the NFL one day, but that is so far in the future to even think about. He’s focused on camp and the season. If Rutgers is going to have a successful campaign, it’ll start up front with Pierce and the offensive line.
“We’re getting better on the front. It’s by inches, but we’re getting better,” Schiano said. “That’s going to have to be a steady climb the entire season for us to be effective with our schedule.”
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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