Darrin Hall leads all rushers in East-West Shrine Game

Former Pitt running back Darrin Hall was one of three Panthers invited to the East-West Shrine Game, which was played at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Saturday afternoon. However, he ended up being the only one to take the field, as Qadree Ollison and Alex Bookser were listed as non-participants.

As is typically the case with all-star games, players cycled in and out and did not get the opportunity to become fixtures of the contest. But despite getting just 12 touches, Hall put in a full day’s work. When all was said and done, he led all rushers with 77 yards for a game-high average of 6.4 yards per carry. Hall also broke away from the pack for a 39-yard rumble that was a contender for the play of the game.

The timing of Hall’s big performance could not have been better, as draft season is officially underway, and he happens to have posted three impressive games in a row. The first was an 86-yard outing against No. 2 Clemson in the ACC Championship on Dec. 1. The second was a 123-yard outburst against Stanford in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31. The third came on Saturday in the East-West Shrine Game.

Each of those games was nationally televised, as the conference championship was on ABC in primetime, the Sun Bowl appeared on CBS and the Shrine Game aired on the NFL Network. And in each of those games, Hall topped 75 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry or better.

While Hall only reached the century mark in one of those games, it’s telling that the game in which he did top 100 yards was the Sun Bowl, as that was the only one of the three where he was relied on as the workhorse of the backfield. In the title game, he split carries with Ollison, and he played a limited role again on Saturday. However, he managed to maximize his output on both occasions while also displaying his explosiveness and reliability.

Given all that, pro scouts should have little doubt about what Hall brings to the table at this point, and that should bode well for him with the NFL draft just around the corner.