Want a daily lap through Georgia football recruiting? That’s what the Intel will bring at least five days a week. We’ll cover the news and which way a pair of elite trench monsters like Christopher and Myles Hinton might lean plus add some perspective to help fans figure out what it all means.
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It was going to happen. Likely very early. The football and family DNA could not be missed.
The Hintons would not need to chase scholarships. That happens when the father was once traded for John Elway, was a fixture on All-Pro teams and deserves a spot on every NFL Hall of Fame contenders list.
That’s Chris Hinton. The same gentleman who starred on the field and in the classroom at Northwestern before those NFL years. He went on to marry a young lady who also played basketball for the Wildcats as an undergrad. She then went on to earn a law degree from Notre Dame.
They have two sons, Christopher and Myles, that college recruiters already break out their A-plus recruiting pitches. That seems natural. Not newsworthy.
This all happened without any pressure from their father.
“There was never any push from my Dad,” Christopher Hinton said. “He was like if we wanted to play football, then go play. If we didn’t want to play a sport, we didn’t have to. I was set on playing college basketball at first. But he’s been behind us from the start. There’s never been any pressure. No pressure and also no shadow either. He just helps us with whatever we need and always gives us great advice. Because he’s been through what we both want to achieve.”
When the ‘pop’ came for Chistopher and Myles Hinton
The “pop” still caught the family by surprise. The term “pop” signifies when the two had arrived as elite college prospects.
Christopher picked up his first offer from Michigan in the spring of his freshman year. Myles earned his from Georgia.
Tim Hardy, their coach at Greater Atlanta Christian, chronicled how the latter offer went down. It was the summer before Myles played his freshman season with the Spartans.
“Dad was kind of like ‘Ok, alright here we go’ with it but they have handled it well,” Hardy said.
Jim Harbaugh offered Christopher when he was in town to recruit 5-star QB Davis Mills in the class of 2017. Myles was supposed to just tag along with his older brother to a lineman camp at UGA.
This was that summer prior to his first year of high school.
“Dad had asked me if it would be okay if Myles went along,” Hardy said. “I was like ‘Yeah, it would be good for him to go along and get some work’ and that’s all we were thinking there.”
Chris Hinton called Hardy afterward. He told him to guess what happened. Hardy’s first thoughts were a sprained ankle or a twisted knee.
“He told me they offered Myles,” Hardy said. “Then he said he didn’t want this to start for Myles this early.”
Will they play together in college? Christopher hopes so, but he acknowledges that decision still has some research up ahead. For both of them.
The things that stand out about the Hintons
Consider the academic and athletic backgrounds that shape the two brothers. Northwestern. Notre Dame. NFL. Law school. Those are the clues for what they are and their eventual college choices.
These well-rounded apples dropped right below the family tree.
“The main thing about Christopher and Myles is they are both outstanding young men,” Hardy said. “First class people. The way they interact with their peers, teachers and adults is just exemplary. They are the kind of people adults want to be around and that they hope their children can be around, too. Coaches want their other players to be around them, too.”
“Then you see their focus and how driven they are in the classroom. They have interests outside of school and outside of their sports. They play multiple sports, too. So it is fun to deal with young people that come from a great background and just have a lot to them. You are able to really talk to them and have an intellectual conversation as mature young men. Not just as football players.”
The Hintons are true to their age. Christopher, who stands 6-foot-4 in height and weights about 265, has only been 15 for a few months. His 6-foot-6 younger brother has passed him on the growth chart. Myles also tips the scale at 305 pounds.
They have similar offers. Alabama. Georgia. Michigan. Ohio State.
“Their parents are just really sharp people,” Hardy said. “But there’s a distinction here. They are very active and appreciative and very respectful of the recruiting process and yet they are not enamored by it.”
The total picture matters to the family. That’s part of the reason why their sons are at Greater Atlanta Christian.
“If only football mattered to the family, I don’t think they would be here,” Hardy said. “All of it matters here. Multiple sports matter. The people they are around matters. Their education matters and that’s what will also matter as they move forward toward their college choices, too.”
Both sons play basketball. Christopher just missed his first year of AAU ball. He’d been on two national championship AAU teams sponsored by Chris Paul so far. Myles was a middle school state champion in the track and field. He threw the discus and the shot put.
What does Christopher Hinton think about UGA?
The Hinton family is laser focused on academics. Michigan and Stanford have offered. Those degrees are big. Notre Dame also stands out.
Does a degree from Georgia compare? How does the reputation as a public Ivy league stand up?
“Yeah, it does,” he said. “People have been telling me that a Georgia degree has really come on in recent years.”
But he also acknowledged the main thing.
“Education is a huge part in our college choice,” he said. “So I am leaning toward that higher-end education choice but also the school that plays some great football. I might lean to a more competitive football program than maybe where Myles wants to go.”
Does that place out a lot of SEC schools?
“No school is counted out or counted in,” Christopher Hinton said. “It is about what the school actually brings to the table. Like Georgia, I didn’t know how good that school actually was. I still have to do my research on all of it.”
Christopher Hinton feels Clemson, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina are currently recruiting him the hardest.
“I expect a big turnaround at Georgia,” Christopher Hinton said. “Everything that Georgia is doing with Kirby Smart and his staff seems like it is on the up and up.”
Rare compliment for Christopher Hinton
WarDaddy.
That’s the word Hardy used to describe Hinton on the field. The oldest of the two Hinton brothers projects to play defensive line on Saturdays.
There’s a story about Hinton from the 2016 football playoffs at Peach County.
It might have been during a timeout or maybe a cramp that came along a one-score game. It was during the fourth quarter. That’s the moment one of the game officials came over to speak to Hardy.
“That guy comes up to me and says that No. 74 is a winner,” Hardy said. “I’ve never in 18 years of coaching had a guy just come up to me voluntarily in the middle of a playoff semifinal game like that. He said that kid is a winner. Just fighting hard. Competing. Leading his team.”
Christopher Hinton rates as the nation’s No.2 strong-side defensive end for 2019. That 247SportsComposite also has him at No. 14 overall.
Myles is already that adept, too. He played 55 of 62 snaps at left tackle with Stanford-bound QB Davis Mills back in the pocket. Mills had just returned from a knee injury and definitely needed a good force field around him as he came back from that setback.
That was at 14 years old. Myles kept Mills in that bubble wrap and didn’t give up any sacks
Myles Hinton already has an eye toward Michigan
The big offensive tackle already thinks about what he will do after football.
“After football, I want to do something big like in architecture or medicine,” Myles Hinton said. “I might go toward a school that is more academically inclined. Probably that Stanford and Notre Dame and Michigan kind of stuff.”
His ideal path would be to play in the stadiums. Then maybe build them.
“When we went to Michigan we talked about what to do after college,” Myles said. “That’s the whole four years for the next 40 years of your life thing.”
Both sons said they enjoyed their Michigan visit a great deal. That stands out as one of their top visits up to this point.
Myles sounds very comfortable with Michigan at this time. He wants to be an architect and already knows how good that degree he might bring home from Ann Arbor stacks up nationally.
The sons could commit earlier than most might think.
“With what we are looking for academically and with football, the schools we can choose from our kind of limited,” Christopher Hinton said. “So my decision and maybe our decisions might come a little earlier than most guys. Earlier than most guys think we might. There are only a handful of choices as far as schools that might fit both of us.”
That lean toward architecture is just a nod toward Myles having a very creative side.
He loves to draw. Anything. Portraits. Landscapes. He drew a picture of the art building at GAC for class. Myles could even draw a great representation of the time Christopher dunked a basketball on that Nerf hoop at their home and then collapsed as wall as he came crashing down through some real paint.