Boise State football recruit Dudley turns tragedy into motivation. ‘I’ll run for us both.’
Palmer Ridge High football coach Tom Pulford said Kaden Dudley has a knack for making game-changing plays.
That was the case in the 2019 3A Colorado state championship game, when he scored on touchdown catches of 81 and 86 yards. It was as true last year when he made a near impossible diving catch in the second round of the playoffs as it was this season on a long punt return that set the tone early in a dominant win over Grand Junction.
But all of Dudley’s highlight reel moments pale in comparison to what happened on the 50-yard line of Colorado State-Pueblo’s ThunderBowl following the 2019 title game.
Dudley’s mother, Rachel Frey, was helped down to the field to pose in her wheelchair with him and his younger brother, Carmine. The photo of Dudley standing behind his beaming mother with the state championship trophy resting in her lap is one of his most cherished possessions.
“My mom was always there to be my support system, so being able to see her proud of me, holding the trophy, it was an unreal feeling,” Dudley said.
Frey got to witness another milestone in Dudley’s athletic career Wednesday when he was one of 15 recruits who signed to play at Boise State. For Dudley, it was him making good on a promise.
”I always told her, since she can’t walk anymore, I’ll run for us both,” Dudley said.
In 2018, Dudley’s freshman year in high school, his mother was in a car wreck that left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was ejected from the car she was driving and spent weeks fighting for her life in the hospital. She broke her neck in three places, her back and multiple ribs and fingers and was in a coma for days.
Dudley transferred from Vista Ridge High in Colorado Springs to Palmer Ridge just before his mother’s accident. He was focused on settling in at a new school and getting started in the football team’s offseason conditioning program, but seeing his mother on life support had a profound effect.
“At the end of it, it made me a better person,” he said. “I don’t take things for granted, because you never know what can happen.”
Dudley’s father, David, remembers standing in the hospital with his son at his side, tears streaming down both of their faces, and telling him, “You’re going to use this as motivation.”
Dudley took those words to heart and dedicated every route in every game to his mother, who was a star basketball and volleyball player in high school.
“Mom was a funny, outgoing person and she always had a smile on her face,” Dudley said. “I was worried the accident would change her, but it didn’t. She just kept fighting.”
Dudley took the same approach to the field. As a sophomore, he joined a team coming off a state championship and earned a starting spot on a defense full of college prospects. He went on to help Palmer Ridge win two more 3A state titles and, after a move up to 4A, he led the Bears to a fourth consecutive championship game, which they lost 42-6 to Loveland.
Pulford said Dudley is such a great player because he knows what he’s playing for.
“Everybody has to have a reason why they play the game,” Pulford said. “Sometimes people find the why in playing for each other. Sometimes you find people whose reasons go beyond the field.”
Compared to one of Boise State’s best players
Dudley did it all for Palmer Ridge.
When he arrived, the Bears needed help at cornerback, so he stepped in and led the state with nine interceptions. He has since started at safety and wide receiver, carried the ball on plenty of jet sweeps and returned punts and kicks.
“He’s the kind of kid who is going to be successful no matter what he does,” Pulford said. “He has the athleticism, the work ethic and the football IQ to do just about whatever the team needs.”
On 247Sports, Dudley is rated the No. 12 athlete in Colorado, meaning he may not have a true position. He’s joining the Broncos as a slot receiver, but Pulford said he wouldn’t be surprised to see him make a name for himself on special teams first.
“He does some explosive things with the ball in his hands,” Pulford said. “Kaden operates at a high level, and he’s going to go 100 mph while running precise routes.”
He ran plenty of them for the Bears. As a junior, Dudley caught 38 passes for 794 yards and nine touchdowns. His senior season was shortened to seven games because of COVID-19, but he still caught 28 passes for 389 yards and a touchdown and averaged 27.3 yards per punt return.
On Wednesday, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin paid Dudley what many see as the ultimate compliment, comparing his versatility and explosiveness to that of Boise State wide receiver Khalil Shakir, who leads the Broncos this season with 634 receiving yards and is the team’s second-leading rusher.
“He’s very impressive and very competitive, and he brings a lot to the table in that wide receivers room,” Harsin said.
David Dudley said several Power Five schools, such as Colorado, Washington State, Arizona and some Big Ten programs, wanted his son to pay defensive back.
“I can remember him in fifth and sixth grade, running crisp routes and making catches you wouldn’t see other kids make,” David Dudley said. “He has a passion for the game, and he can play anywhere he’s needed.”
Dudley said he’s just excited to play for a program with a tradition like Boise State’s.
“They don’t lose very much at Boise State,” Dudley said. “Even going back to Pop Warner, I haven’t lost very much and I definitely don’t like it.”
From Colorado to Boise State after coaching change
Dudley’s parents are big Colorado fans, and he developed such a strong bond with former Buffaloes coach Mel Tucker that he committed to the Pac-12 program as a junior. That changed when Tucker announced in February that he was leaving Colorado to take over at Michigan State.
“How it happened kind of shocked everyone,” David Dudley said.
Dudley verbally committed to Colorado during a visit to the campus in Boulder in October 2019. He reopened his recruitment in March and said he wanted to commit to Boise State immediately but waited to give the Broncos his verbal in July.
He said he already has a strong bond with Boise State wide receivers coach Matt Miller and they speak at least twice a week. Dudley also said the Broncos were the first program to send him a recruiting graphic.
“The coaches have been really loyal and made me feel wanted,” Dudley said. “From what I’ve seen, Boise reminds me a lot of Colorado Springs. I love the campus, I love the program and I can’t wait to get started.”
Whether he develops into a Swiss Army Knife on offense like Shakir or emerges as the Broncos’ next special teams spark, Dudley will never stop running because he knows what he’s running for.
“You can’t take one play or one practice for granted,” he said.
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 9:48 AM.
