The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/917835
JANUARY 2018 THE WOLVERINE 35 That contest goes into the highlight reel vault, but it's far from the only notable moment in Hudson's first season as a starter. He secured the first interception of his career early on, against Air Force, and later built off the Minnesota success. Following the victory over the Go- phers, Hudson snagged his second interception of the season in a win at Maryland. A trip to Wisconsin, with its massive offensive line, loomed as a huge challenge. Hudson didn't back down, logging eight tackles, 1.5 sacks, one pass bro- ken up and a quarterback hurry. He had Badgers QB Alex Hornibrook running for his life most of the game, about which Brown marveled. "They would run a lot of their bootlegs to the quarter- back's left hand, so he would roll a lot that way," Brown noted. "Khaleke did a great job of disguis- ing and giving him edge pressure. Obviously, one thing that can distort na- keds and rollouts is edge pressure. "I thought he did a good job of disguising it and then coming. You can talk about it until you're blue in the face with some guys … and then they go. He's got it figured out. "It was hard for him to have that figured out, be- cause he should have had an 'X' on his chest from the week prior. Like, 'Hey, this guy's coming — a lot.' For him to do a good job in the disguise factor was not easy to do." Hudson knows Brown's praise is always hard earned, and embraces even his high-decibel critiques. " I j u s t l o v e C o a c h Brown," Hudson said. "He's one of my favorite coaches. He has lots of en- ergy. He brings the love and the passion to all of us. It all shows on the field, just how he's coaching us and how he's preparing us for games. " H e s c re a m s a t u s , but you know he's only screaming at us because he loves us. He knows our potential. He knows how good we can be. He just wants the best out of us. "He's a great coach. The future is bright here with him." SCARY GOOD IS COMING Hudson's first season hasn't fea- tured only All-Big Ten plaudits and SportsCenter moments. He's been caught on good calls at times, and at 6-0, 205, he has work to do battling the behemoths of the conference in the box. The latter remains an ever-present challenge, really for anyone with the dimensions and speed Brown wants out of someone playing the viper. Michigan will often go with a big- ger outside linebacker against power teams, but Hudson's goal is to hold his own there. "I'll be able to play in the box against big linemen," he said. "I'm not a big linebacker, like a normal linebacker. It's proving I can play against these big, pulling linemen. That's very important to me, and also to show I can go in the slot and cover a receiver." Hudson stresses, like many of his teammates, that the Wolverines weren't far off last year's effort this season. They let a four-point game slip away in the rain against Michi- gan State, then threw massive scares into the Badgers and Buckeyes before the two teams that battled for the Big Ten title made late escapes. Better is coming, Hudson vowed, and soon. "Our team can be very good, like scary good," he insisted. "Playing with each other for a long time, gettin g our ch emistry down, getting comfortable with everybody. We can be very, very, very good. It's going to be great for us." That goes for both sides of the ball, even in a year in which Michigan's offense battled through injury and inconsistency. "Even if our offense is not playing well, I still have faith in them," Hud- son said. "We have great weapons. Honestly, to me, it takes a little longer for an offense to click, because of all the stuff they've got to know, all the adjustments they've got to make. "Ultimately, it will all come together and just be a dominant offense." Put those parts together, and Hudson isn't spending much time playing what- if over the regular season just past. He's focused on South Carolina in the Out- back Bowl, but definitely casting his eyes down the road as well. "I think about that some- times, all the talent we've got coming back next year and how feared we're go- ing to be," he assured. "It's going to be great." ❏ Hudson's average of 1.38 tackles for loss per game was tied for 13th nation- ally at the end of the regular season. The only Big Ten player with a higher average was defensive end teammate Chase Winovich (1.42). PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN