The Cardinal Countdown: 0 Days Until Kickoff

2021 Season Recap: Hudson is the ninth and final transfer we’ll cover on this year’s countdown and he may very well end up being the most valuable in terms of production. Playing last season for Central Arkansas Hudson (T-Huddy), as the kids would say, “balled out” and found himself a part of the FCS All-American team, along with being named the ASUN Offensive Player Of The Year. Hudson tallied up a monster number of receiving yards (1,242yds) to go along with eight touchdowns. While I know the focus of this recap is 2021, this season was no outlier as Hudson was the 2019 Southland Conference Freshman of The Year, and the Southland Offensive Player of The Year in 2020 as well before the Bears made the move to the ASUN. My man has more trophies in his room than my son has dirty socks, and that is quite a feat, trust me. T-Huddy has been on a collision course with playing for a Power 5 program for years now, and the Cards got a steal in the offseason.

2022 Season Outlook: While the impact of one player outside of the quarterback position is very challenging to quantify when we talk about wins and losses the impact T-Huddy may have this season is projected to be one of the Top 10 transfers, maybe in the whole country. The Spring, Texas native showed his roots when he walked into the program during the spring camp and just absorbed everything he could. Malik told the media back then that Hudson had not only learned the playbook in a matter of a few weeks but had learned all three positions in the playbook during that time, able to slide around the field as needed. Want to know how to get on the field on a new team? Make yourself invaluable.

Hudson, no matter where he lines up is gonna be a problem for defenses as he has speed and shiftiness but also a massive catch radius, per Satterfield. That combination of skill has earned him a starting spot at wideout at least in Week 1, and I don’t think he’ll lose that gig this season. Earlier this year Malik was calling him “Dez 2.0” in reference to Dez Fitzpatrick and his raw athletic ability. If Hudson wants to drop 800+ yards like we saw from Fitz in 2020 I’d take it, and if he wants to toss in another eight touchdowns like he had last season I’d take that as well. Someone is going to step up and be a big target for Cunningham this year, and I think Hudson is the top candidate to do just that heading into Week 1.

Sweet Tweet:

Some highlight clips of the award winning season for Tyler last year. I have a sneaking suspicion in his short time on campus he will quickly cement his name in Cardinal lore.

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2021 Season Recap: Edwards was a two-time team captain and a Top 100 corner nationally coming out of high school last year and came into the program knowing he was likely going to redshirt behind some upperclassmen in the secondary. Edwards played in the FSU contest but kept his redshirt intact with no action on gamedays the rest of the season.

2022 Season Outlook: The outlook for Edwards in 2022 has changed slightly as he is in the mix for PT at the safety position but I assume he’ll still be behind guys like Duncan, Harper, Minkins, Griffin, etc when it comes to significant time, at least early in the year. The RS freshman may get some opportunities on special teams but my guess is that his participation in the secondary will still be limited this season with some of the transfers and upperclassmen who have been in the mix waiting their turn as well. No denying Edwards can contribute down the road but he may need to be patient to see noteworthy minutes consistently.

Sweet Tweet:

Year one is in the books for Derrick, and today marks me closing the books on Year Eleven of ‘The Cardinal Countdown’. While the summer months are bit insane for me in getting this cranked out daily the comments, the retweets, the likes, the feedback, it all helps motivate me to keep going when I’m staring down the barrel of 10 offensive lineman posts in a row (love you big guys). Every year I wonder if this was the last one of these I’ll do as I’m not getting any younger and neither are my three kids, all of whom I’ve welcomed since this journey started way back when. I can’t thank you enough for the continued support each day both on the site and out on the interwebs of Twitter, Facebook, etc. From May 26th to September 3rd, we all made it. Only one thing left to do. Beat Syracuse.

Go Cards.