College scouts overlooked this Eagle linebacker. Now he’s signing to play at Harvard.
Matt Hudson never saw himself as a college football player.
He figured his senior season at Eagle High would cap his football career, and he was fine with that.
A breakout senior season convinced the linebacker he could play at the next level, but most college coaches had already settled on their recruiting classes by then. So Hudson rolled the dice, enrolled at a prep school across the country and reclassified into the class of 2020.
That gamble paid off Wednesday as Hudson signed to play at Harvard as part of National Signing Day.
“I pretty much just bet on myself,” Hudson said. “… I always believed in myself, and I had some coaches that reassured me. I looked at my film and I looked at my measurables compared to all these other (Division I) guys, and I’m right up there with them.”
After a postgraduate semester at Virginia’s Fork Union Military Academy, Hudson stands 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds. He’ll still have five years to use four seasons of eligibility.
He signed a likely letter Wednesday to signal his intent to play for Harvard. Ivy League programs do not offer athletic scholarships and their athletes do not sign national letters of intent.
Coming out of high school, the 2019 Eagle High grad owned an offer from the College of Idaho and an academic scholarship at the University of San Diego, which also doesn’t offer football scholarships.
He took an official visit and held an offer from Yale, too. But Yale pulled that offer once another linebacker committed.
Unhappy with his options and assured he could do better, Hudson and his family sought a prep school opportunity. A Google search brought up Fork Union, which saw seven players sign Division I letters of intent in December and claims NFL players like Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, Texans running back Carlos Hyde and former Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress among its alumni.
So Hudson packed his bags and headed across the country to enroll in a military academy. Wakeup calls came at 6 a.m. Students marched in uniforms. And cell phones were banned.
“At first, it was a hard transition,” Hudson said. “But once I got used to it, I realized that this place is actually making me better as a football player and as a man.”
It also boosted Hudson’s clout on the recruiting trail. He started pushing his name and film out to any college coach who would accept it. And his battles against other Division I prospects day in and day out proved he could play at the next level.
“It was completely different the whole process,” Hudson said. “So many more schools reached out to me this time around.”
He chose Harvard over offers from Yale, Rice, Fordham, Monmouth and UC Davis. But he said he couldn’t pass up a Harvard education and noted the Ivy League’s history of producing NFL prospects.
“That’s something that is a goal of mine in the future,” Hudson said. “I can accomplish everything I want to at Harvard.”
Former Eagle football coach Paul Peterson remembers Hudson as a quiet, unassuming player who didn’t seek any attention. He rarely saw the field as a freshman and sophomore, but he kept showing up every day and putting in the work. So Peterson gave him a chance at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl 7-on-7 tournament entering his junior year, and he took off.
He turned that opportunity into two seasons in the Mustangs’ starting lineup. And as a senior, the 5A Southern Idaho Conference coaches voted him a first-team all-conference linebacker.
That breakout senior season, along with prodding from the Eagle coaching staff, convinced Hudson to see himself as a Division I player. And a year later, Hudson proved them all right.
“About 50 percent of the kids out there, if they could just hang with it long enough and keep their mouth shut and do the right thing, and just keep working and plodding along, they’ll get some doors opened,” Peterson said. “They’ll get a chance.
“He just went to work. He’s one of those guys. Nothing spectacular, but he just worked. He just kept going.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 3:44 PM.
