Before Texas football’s College Football Playoff game with Washington Jan. 1, former Longhorns linebackers coach Jeff Choate referred to Anthony Hill Jr. as a “chess piece.”

Choate, now the head coach at Nevada, praised the freshman for “affecting the game in a variety of ways."

“The more you can do, the more value you have," he said.

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As evident during Monday’s spring practice at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Hill's value right now looks the highest at middle linebacker. Think of him as the Longhorns’ queen on a chessboard since his striking distance seems to range from sideline to sideline.

After practice, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian confirmed that the 2023 Big 12’s defensive freshman of the year has spent much of the first week of spring workouts at inside linebacker while filling the role that Jaylan Ford played for the past two seasons.

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However, Sarkisian cautioned against making assumptions about Hill’s future. The 6-foot-3, 243-pounder from Denton lined up everywhere from inside linebacker to outside linebacker to the edge last season while playing in all 14 games, including six starts.

“It's probably safe to say, if we were playing tomorrow, he would play middle linebacker for us. But we're not playing tomorrow,” Sarkisian said. “As a guy who's going to be one of the leaders of our defense and with his style of play, where he exactly actually finds his home, we'll see. I just know that he can do multiple things. And so I'd hate to pigeonhole them into one thing.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas football's Anthony Hill working at middle linebacker