Will Khaleke Hudson have a 2017 or 2018 type season?
I did recall that Hudson was employed a little bit differently in 2018 than 2017 but when I checked his stats on mgoblue.com today I was shocked at the difference between the seasons. Here are some numbers:
2017: 83 TOT, 18.5 TFL, 8 SACK
2018: 44 TOT, 3.5 TFL, 2 SACK
I hope his production returns to 2017 levels. Will Don Brown turn him loose on opposing QBs with a less-experienced DL in 2019? Any predictions or thoughts on him?
He will have a 2019 type season.
In all seriousness though, he is probably the most Bush-like player on the roster right now (different positions noted). The D is going to need impact tackle production from him this year to continue to play at an elite level. I personally think he will deliver, albeit unlikely at the same level as Devin.
Neither, he'll have a 2019 season
Didn't he have that record tying game against Minnesota in 2017? That had to inflate his numbers quite a bit to be completely unblocked for an entire game
He did have 8 (!!!) TFLs and 3 sacks that game. Incredible.
"Whatever you do, DON'T block Hudson. He's to remain absolutely free at all times, do you understand me?"
Yes, and no. It's complicated.
Those targeting calls crippled his 2018 campaign.
I hope he regains his 2017 form and composure (I think the 1st call pissed him off and the 2nd call deflated him a bit).
I agree. Those targeting calls cost him a lot of playing time, and I think it sapped some of his aggression for the rest of the year. Here's hoping he comes out and is ready to go all out again in 2019.
I'm certainly hoping for an 2017 season. With our current DL, we're really going to need to step up our pass rush from the Viper spot and elsewhere.
I just hope Josh Ross plays well at the MLB spot. He will probably be the starter.
Hudson plays Viper. What's your answer to the OP's question?
I'm hoping for Hudson being better than the 2017 campaign.
I hope Hudson plays more like he did in 2017 as OLB/FS=viper. I'm just bringing up the fact that the entire LB unit needs to plays well after losing Bush to the NFL. We will need WLB - Gil and the SAM - Uche to all play well this season. McGrone has a lot of speed, hope he can add more muscle weight.
That’s the problem. He’s a LB/S hybrid and seems to struggle against more athletic teams. The real issue is Gil.
Keep in mind at least 40%~50% of his 2017 stars came from the Minnesota game.
I think he’ll be good this year, he’ll be better than just a guy, but I don’t think he’ll be a week to week game changer like Bush was.
bush is the best LB at michigan in maybe forever - safe to say hudson will not make that type impact. hudson is still a valuable player though and should be ready for a nice senior year. they should be rock solid overall at LB
I liked what I saw from Ross last year. I expect him to be a playmaker. I'd like to see Gil take a big step forward. I certainly hope you are right in seeing our LB unit being rock solid.
+1 for your assessment of Hudson.
And IIRC, the reason he got such eye-popping stats that game is either because of the total ineptitude of the Minnesota's offensive gameplan, or because--as bad as the gameplan was--it was the LEAST bad of several bad options.
As a result, Hudson was basically unblocked for a huge% of the game.
Bottom line is I expect Hudson's statistics to be more of the 2018 variety, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes defensive contributions don't show up in the stat lines. Instead, they force offenses to allocate too many resources to deal with them, which frees up other dudes on defense to blow up a play.
Regardless, I'm really pulling for Hudson this year. During that debacle of a bowl game last year, he was one of the guys that still had the fire in the belly on the sidelines giving a shit when a big % of the team had already packed it in for the season.
Even though I have no idea what I'm looking at, +1: Fascinating
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. great book. ok movie.
Even better all-text Infocom computer game. I know the book is an all-time classic, but the Steve Meretzky-Douglas Adams video game is too.
I’ve waited 8 minutes for it to open...I don’t think it’s happening.
That's what she said.
The chances that Hudson's numbers will be between those of the previous years are very high. He will have plenty of talent around him. There is a set of LBs who can really run and hit. I cannot imagine that Brown will dial back the pressure from the front seven.
Otherwise, I know it is popular for fans to seek a safe psychological place and postulate/hedge that the team will be weak here and thin there...and fret all this doom and gloom. The more objective guess is that the 2019 Michigan football team is going to be very good. In looking down through the roster there are at least 70 players that we can say with strong assurance are legitimate Power 5 football players. These kids are very talented, accomplished athletes...they can play this game. Sure, they have to apply themselves but so do the other guys.
Ill settle for less targeting calls
Oh yeah. Well recalled. Those penalties did seem to rattle both Brown and Hudson.
If you remove Minn from 2017 where they basically forgot he was (a) violent (squirrel) and remove the time off in 2018 due to aggressive protection against violence (by squirrels), and then add some extra tackles where Bush was just everywhere (no one else has a chance), and average it out, and you have the likely 2019 Hudson.
His TFLs will probably be closer to 2018 levels, otherwise I have confidence that he'll regain the aggression as one of the leaders of the defense.
Hudson, Metellus, and Hill need to play like they believe they're the best at what they do in the country. They are our unquestioned leaders on a rather inexperienced defense.
Expect HUGE year
Because of the later start time I only stayed for the first half of the Minnesota game, but he was insane that game. Hope he gets turned loose but you can’t expect him to play like that against every opponent.
He might.
Yeah but didn't he have 39 tackles, 15 TFL's and 6 sacks against Minnesota in 2017?
2017 was inflated by Minnesota and 2018 was deflated by targeting, but I do think we'll be incredibly impressed by the end of the season. He's shown what he's capable of, needs to fill a big void this year, and he has 12 games to prove it to the NFL. Board man gets paid.
With no Bush, Gary and Winovich commanding attention I'd guess he's gonna fall closer to 2018's numbers. He'll likely command a lot of attention this year as one of the team's returning studs.
I think he'll make a big impact but he won't put up big numbers. Similar to Rashan's impact; pressuring the backfield but not making the tackle, re-routing plays away from his gap, etc.
I think a lot of his dropoff in production was opponents deciding you had to account for Hudson every play. He ran free a ton in 2017, 2018 he had a man designated just for him all season.
He looked timid after the double ejections early in the 2018. He seemed to be gaining confidence more towards the end but it took a while, he seemed like the only defender interested in the bowl game.
Watching him go after his teammates who did not see interested in the bowl game fired my ass up. Hell, I wanted to suit up and just be their tackling dummy after that. So awesome!
In 2018, Brown didn't solve his problems with aggression as much as he did in 2017. With the d line cycling out, I would expect the defense as a whole to be arranged to apply pressure from everywhere again. So, yeah, I would expect more stat production from Hudson.
One caveat though, offenses last year seemed very capable of pulling Michigan's D out of alignment, which probably foiled a lot of Brown's plans. If he can make them less susceptible to that this year, I would expect Khaleke to be a major beneficiary in the form of backfield chaos.
Hid possible I think many people underestimated how great of a defensive lineman Mo Hurst was...there were a lot of play that the opposing offense had set up perfectly and if it was for him being a world beater would have gone for big gains.
I have no idea...but I hope he tops both combined!
We don't really know how good he is or if he really even is "good" or just average. 2017 he had the Minnesota game and a lot of the other plays he made were total gimmies. Bush is all over the field in games, running people down, making wow plays, always in there. Hudson, just doesn't make those plays albeit they do play two entirely different positions. I don't know why people think the guy is a sack machine. All of his sacks have came unblocked.
Depends, it appeared last year he was 10-ish lbs heavier and lost a step. And he was never the fastest guy to begin with. If he's at the same weight as last year expect similar production.
Hell yes - Go Blue !!!
No doubt the targeting set Hudson back. apart from injury, he should be improved as a player. The difference this year will be the no huddle offense will push the number of plays he must play on field. Given that fatigues a player in the second half doesn't suggest he will have a rebound year. Hope I'm wrong, I love the Michigan D. But I see that side of the ball giving up more plays and higher numbers in yards. We can have a great year with an upward arrow for the offense. It will be a blast seeing Michigan win.