We are lit to unveil the first edition in our third annual SoFloBulls.com USF Football Highlights Series as Bulls’ ball hawk Ronnie ‘Major’ Hoggins (@ronthedon19 ⨳ @RonnieHogginsJr ) prepares for the 2019 NFL Draft. Our #BallHogg19 highlight reel is a calculated concoction of the Broward County native’s biggest interceptions, pass breakups, tackles for loss and biggest hits from the 2018 season.
After starting 27 games as the shutdown man-to-man corner for USF, Major transitioned inside to nickel to fill the void left by current Arizona Cardinals defensive back Deatrick Nichols who excelled after making a similar move prior to the 2016 football season.
The Monarch High School alum topped his stellar 2017 performance with an outstanding 2018 season, recording 82 total tackles (59 solo), two interceptions, breaking up six passes, posting 4.0 TFL, and 0.5 sacks. Hoggins has amassed 214 total tackles (165 solo), 6.5 tackles for loss, eight interceptions, broke up 23 passes, 0.5 sacks, forced a fumble, and recovered a fumble in 49 career games (started 40) at USF.
I have a personal affliction towards Hoggins because I sent his tape and information over to then USF Director of Player Personnel Paul Gonnella for evaluation after watching the 954 standout’s highlights. What’s also interesting is Texas, Charlie Strong offered Hoggins just two days before I sent the email in October of 2014. As they say, the rest is history.
Hoggins has been a staple of the Bulls program since signing as part of the class of 2015 under then Head Coach Willie Taggart and will be sorely missed this fall.
Hoggins was a consensus three star recruit rated 85.11 by 247 Sports, 73 by ESPN and the 37th corner recruit nationally by Rivals for the class of 2015. 954’s very own was named Broward’s 8A Defensive Player of the Year by the Sun Sentinel and selected to FHSAA’s 2014 Florida All-State 8A First-Team Defense after intercepting 15 passes in 12 games as a senior, four for touchdowns.
We will continue to drop exclusive USF highlight reels during the off season, so keep it locked and tell your friends to follow us on Instagram (@soflobulls), Facebook (@SoFloBulls) and Twitter (@SoFloBulls).
by Matthew Manuri
Publisher & Editor, SoFloBulls.com | @Mcknurkle