He was a two-time All-SEC selection at Kentucky. Now the Wildcats want his son.
After his first tour of the University of Kentucky’s football facilities prior to his freshman year of high school, Nikolas Hall looked at his dad and gave them a ringing endorsement.
“He fell in love,” Antonio Hall said. “Before that, my son was gung ho about Ohio State and after we left he said, ‘Dad, I don’t care about Ohio State anymore. I want to go to Kentucky.’ Ever since then it has been the school on my son’s radar. This was the one school he hoped would offer him.”
That offer was officially extended this week. Hall, a two-time All-Southeastern Conference player during his own time at UK, was elated. His tweet, which broke the news Tuesday, looked like this:
“This guy just got OFFERED by the Bluegrass!! Thank you Coach Stoops, Coach Schlarman, and Coach Marrow for seeing the potential in my son! GO Big Blue!!!!”
A proud papa, indeed. It was Nikolas’ second offer — the University of Akron delivered one in June — and first from a Power Five school. Based on feedback Antonio has received from coaches around the country, it won’t be the last.
Nikolas is in the midst of his junior year at Akins High School in Austin, Texas. Like his father, he’s an offensive lineman, and has spent this year at right tackle for the Eagles. He’s 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds — an inch taller and about 15 pounds lighter than his father during his senior year with the Wildcats — and is more athletic at his age than Antonio was, according to the defendant.
Perhaps more importantly, he’s started to develop the kind of aggressive instinct needed to excel at a high level in the trenches.
“He’s trying to put people on the ground,” Antonio said. “He plays with a mean streak and that’s very enjoyable to watch, especially a kid at that age, already kind of learning how you should play the position. And that’s with an attitude and with a demeanor that you are the toughest and baddest guy on the football field.”
UK legacy
John Schlarman, UK’s current offensive line coach, was a graduate assistant and offensive line coach with the Wildcats from 2000-2002, coinciding with Antonio’s final three seasons in the football program. His experience under Schlarman at the turn of the century sounds no different than the one linemen playing for him now are having.
“I can’t say enough about the guy as a coach, but especially as a man,” Antonio said. “He’s definitely the kind of ideal person who I want my son to play for, not only because he develops great linemen, but he develops great young men.”
That prior relationship is what put Nikolas on UK’s radar, but his work ethic is what got him an offer. Right now he’s an unranked prospect — in fact, he doesn’t appear to have a 247Sports or Rivals recruiting profile page as of this article’s publish date — but that’ll certainly change once offers start to pile up.
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Antonio is the athletic director at Ohio’s Canton McKinley High School, for whom he once was a heralded football recruit, as well as the district-wide athletic director for Canton City School District. He moved back home from Texas when he and his wife divorced, but Nikolas and their other son, Noah, remained in Austin. Between his own job in athletics and the distance — more than 1,300 miles separate the cities — Antonio seldom gets to see Nikolas play in person, but he streams every game to an iPad (often checking in between plays from the sidelines at McKinley games) and frequently breaks down film with him throughout the week.
“It’s almost like I’m there because of technology,” Antonio said. “I’m able to help him develop week in and week out even though I’m halfway across the country.”
That’s a far cry from his own playing days. Nikolas was born at UK Hospital while Antonio was still a student but his mother, Candice Shipp, had finished her own athletics career with the Wildcats (she was a high jumper) and moved back to her home state (Texas) to work on a master’s degree. Nikolas went with her and Antonio would visit whenever he could in his off time.
“Back then we didn’t have half the technology that we have today. There were a lot of expensive cell-phone bills,” Antonio said with a laugh.
He’s not shy about wanting Nikolas to attend the same school where he once was a star, but Antonio is excited to see him shining on his own terms.
“That was one of my biggest fears,” Antonio said. “As a dad, you want your kids to develop their own identity, especially if they’re athletes. I don’t want him to be known as Antonio Hall’s son. I want him to formulate his own identity, become his own player and be known for his own body of work and not mine. I’d much rather be Nikolas Hall’s dad than him be Antonio Hall’s son. ... I want them to do things because it interests them and because they love it, not because their dad is trying to rehash his glory days.
“But believe me, if I could see ‘Hall’ in a jersey that’s blue and white, you bet your ass I’m all for it.”
Next game
Kentucky at Missouri
When: 4 p.m. EDT Saturday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Kentucky 2-2, Missouri 1-2
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Series: Kentucky leads 7-3
Last meeting: Kentucky won 29-7 on Oct. 26, 2019, in Lexington.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 5:45 PM.
