Xavier Hill was riding through the woods on a golf cart. He was heading down a trail near one of the most remote and picturesque lakehouses in the South. He had one thought dominating his mind: Don't crash.

Why was his focus so intense? He was driving Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

"I would be one of the most infamous men in history if I crashed a golf cart with Coach Saban in it," said Hill.

The 6-3, 325-pound Olive Branch senior was on his official visit to Alabama at the time. He is the No. 9 prospect in Mississippi in the Class of 2020, according to the 247Sports Composite.

The Alabama offensive line commitment is also No. 8 on The Commercial Appeal's inaugural 2019 Dandy Dozen, a collection of the top 12 college football prospects for the Class of 2020 from the Mid-South as picked by the newspaper.

And remarkably, at this time last year he didn't have a single minute of game film for scouts to marvel at. Last season was his first time playing organized football games.

Xavier Hill had hoop dreams

Hill's father, Rico Hill, is 6-foot-7 and was selected in the second round of the 1999 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers out of Illinois State. He played overseas in a number of places, including in Italy and Spain, and spent some time in the NBA D-League.

Xavier Hill had always enjoyed playing hoops. He played for Olive Branch during his freshman year and is still able to dunk. He even catches alley-oops.

But Hill stopped growing after he hit 6-foot-3. And he weighed more than 250 pounds by the time he hit high school.

"He was a tall kid, but he wasn't a 6-foot-7 kid. We have kids like (Memphis forward) DJ Jeffries and Cameron Matthews that play basketball here," said Olive Branch assistant coach Justin Riley. "Xavier is a great kid, and I knew he loved basketball, but I knew that he was probably more suited for football."

Hill's mother and stepfather also tried to convince him to give football a try. So did some of his other teachers and coaches at Olive Branch. Eventually Hill decided to give it a shot.

"That’s something they’ve been trying to do for a long time," said Hill. "I guess they finally broke through."

"I tried to explain to him that God has given him every ability that he needs to succeed. He's just got to want it," said Riley. "I told him I didn't even think he was a juco product in basketball, but that he was literally a Division I left tackle or guard. It's undeniable when you see a guy that's that talented."

From tutorials to Tuscaloosa

Hill transferred to Lewisburg for the last five weeks of his freshman year but went back to Olive Branch.

He joined the football team as a sophomore. But he just practiced that season because of a team rule that players who miss summer workouts don't get to play in games.

That gave Hill a year to learn the game through practices. He started with the basics. He didn't know how to get in a stance. But he picked up the game quickly and showed rapid improvement.

And at the time, Olive Branch had Fabien Lovett, who was one of the top 10 recruits in the state and went on to play at Mississippi State. Hill and Lovett were often matched up against each other in practice and it made Hill better. Then, when scouts would come see Lovett, coach Tyler Turner would tell them about Hill, too.

"Anybody who comes, we’re going to tell them about him," said Turner. "Anybody who came to watch in the spring offered him."

Hill, who also holds offers from LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida, among others, committed to Alabama in June. He said that being on campus made him feel "like a champion." And he was inspired by a conversation with Saban on his official visit.

"Coach Saban told me how much he believed in me and he told me why he thinks I'm so special. He explained to me that (he likes) big guys who can bend, have good feet and can move," said Hill. "And then he told me I have ‘this’ and he like clapped his hands real fast and told me I have quick twitch and fast reflexes and that’s what makes me so special."