The Fantastic Phoenix

The Division I College Football regular season comes to an end this weekend. While three games this weekend will result in three teams clinching spots in BCS bowl games, the Division I-AA playoffs will also continue and will send four teams to the semifinals of the tournament. The defending champions of the tournament, the Richmond Spiders, moved on to the second round with a 16-13 win against the Elon Phoenix of the Southern Conference last Saturday. Elon's placekicker, Adam Schreiner, made two field goals in the first three quarters, but missed a 27-yard field goal and had a 48-yard one get blocked as time expired. A tragic way for the Elon football season to end, as the 9-3 Phoenix made their first playoff appearance in over 25 years.

Elon had a terrific season, but their biggest bright spot was senior wide receiver Terrell Hudgins. Hudgins had an unbelievable career for the Phoenix, racking up a total 28 career 100-yard receiving games, an FCS record. He also had 5,220 career receiving yards and 51 career touchdowns, tallying 1,633 of those yards and 16 of those touchdowns in his senior year. He is ranked the 31st best wide receiver on nfldraftscout.com out of 337 players. I was fortunate enough to see Hudgins' last homecoming game against Chattanooga this fall, and in the game, he already had three touchdowns with twelve minutes left in the second quarter! This game was one of the only two games that he did not have 100 receiving yards. He had 74 on 6 receptions, but they took him out of the game in the second quarter.

Hudgins has the body type and ability, in my opinion from my experience of watching him and his stats, to play in the NFL. The 6'2", 236 lbs. wide out is a physical receiver who will catch any high ball thrown to him. Because he is in D I-AA football, he does not get as much recognition as he should, nor do many weaker Division I teams and players. Hudgins had a career that no Elon student will forget, and I know I won't despite the fact his career has been under-the-radar. With the end to his college career last Saturday may be the beginning of his next career: a wide receiver in the National Football League.