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The world according to Hud
Greg Hudson might seem like the typical football guy at first, but after four years around him, I can confirm he’s anything but.
The man who has overseen East Carolina’s defense for four memorable seasons, in fact, is easily the funniest and most candid man in the ECU football framework.
Attend a practice and expect Hud to call everyone into his web of jokes and fun-poking. As he strolls off the field in the midst of his players, any one of them might get called out as Hudson passes by the waiting media.
“Don’t talk to Bell today, you guys, he was bad today,” he’ll say. Or sometimes, “Ah, look at those media darlings” to those players already being interviewed.
The same man who called his linebackers “The Victoria’s Secret Crew” last season because they spent so much time wearing the red jerseys donned by injured players at practice also seems to have some strange attention coming his way.
At Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, Hudson was quite literally interrupted in mid sentence. A woman opened the conference room door and, without waiting for Hudson to finish what he was saying into the microphone, announced that all the young girls in the adjoining room - there are about 600 young girls in this hotel this week, 15-year old cheerleaders apparently - could hear everything he was saying because the speakers were on in their room.
Hudson flashed his usual look, part annoyance and part amusement. He allowed the woman to finish interrupting him and leave the room before giving a classic response.
Loudly into the microphone, Hudson said, “Can you hear me over there? We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up.”
Later in the conference, Hudson referred to one of his defensive ends, C.J. Wilson, as his hero. Hudson said his other end, Zack Slate, was the “skinniest defensive end in the country.”
I’ve spent a good deal of my column space the last couple of years saying head coach Skip Holtz was one of the best things to happen to East Carolina football in a long time. Hudson is certainly not far behind, and someday soon will likely be a head coach showering his unavoidable personality on his team and the media that covers it.
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