Sophomore offensive guard Ben Bredeson was a near lock to be a captain of the 2019 Michigan Wolverines football team, having earned the honor last year. If there had been odds for defensive captain, Khaleke Hudson would have been the overwhelming favorite.
Hudson was still in the meeting room awaiting results when the news broke on twitter, Instagram and just about everywhere else that he'd join Bredeson and senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp to form the trio. Senior quarterback Shea Patterson and senior safety Josh Metellus are alternate captains.
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“I just wanted to soak it all in myself. By the time I knew, it was on social media … I was getting text messages,” he said.
So he called his mom, gave a speech to his teammates and accepted congratulations from guys like former captain and linebacker Mike McCray, who still has a role as a coach.
The honor meant a lot to him.
“My teammates thought I’d be valid and good enough to be captain of the team. That just makes me happy, because I’ve been working hard my whole life,” he said. “When things like this happen, it shows my hard work is paying off. I’m going to keep working hard to lead this team in the right way and help us be at the top at the end of the season.”
He might have been the only one in the room surprised by his captaincy. He said he learned leadership from guys like Delano Hill, Jabrill Peppers and Chris Wormley and plans to follow their lead.
“I was just focused on the season and just want to get better at every aspect of the game. It caught me by surprise,” he said. “I had my head down the whole time working hard. I guess my teammates just saw that, fed off that, wanted me to be the leader of the team.
“I’m just so appreciative and can’t wait to get going.”
NOTES
• Hudson is as anxious as the fans to see how he and senior Josh Uche fare when on the field together.
“I feel like we’re both very versatile. We both can pass rush; he’s like very skilled at pass rushing, but we can both pass rush … we can both drop back and play zone, play man to man,” he said. “Just to have two players on the field that can do that, have your defense be very versatile and not have to switch packages … just to have us out there being able to do different things is a plus for our defense.”
• The defense has done a good job keeping up with the new offense in practice, Hudson said, .
“Teams have gone more in the spread area … spread guys out and 11 personnel, just throwing the ball,” he said. “You’ve got to move with how football is changing, so we got to change up a couple things, add in different types of personnel and stuff to keep up with the game.”
He's moving around more than ever before in coordinator Don Brown's defense.
“It just makes it kind of tough because I can blitz or play deep half, deep safety, cover one or something, or I can play man on the tight end,” he said. “I’m just trying to show different things and trying to have the offense questioning what I’m doing. That’s our main goal.”
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