Kyron Hudson always wanted to be a wide receiver.
Even when college coaches took interest in him as a defensive back or tight end, even when his own high school coaches wanted to convert him into an outside linebacker, Hudson had his mind set.
"He was 212 pounds his sophomore year of high school. And Mater Dei wanted to put 10-15 pounds on him and make him a linebacker, make him an outside edge guy, and they were telling me how special he was going to be," Chance Hudson, Kyron's father, says over the phone this week. "And Kyron heard that and that kid lost 7 pounds so quick. He lost 7 pounds in probably eight days and he's been at 205 since his sophomore year of high school."
Chance Hudson remembers former Arizona State coach Herm Edwards talking to them after a football camp.
"He saw us at a camp and said, 'You're going to play defense for me.' And Kyron had scored touchdowns all day," the elder Hudson recalls.
Again, his son had other ideas -- no matter what anyone else thought.
And so as he watched from his seat inside Allegiant Stadium last Sunday in Las Vegas, as his son made that incredible one-handed catch vs. LSU that immediately became an early contender for college football's catch of the year and the No. 1 play on SportsCenter's Top 10, Chance Hudson immediately thought back to everything it had taken to make that moment possible.
"This kid, we have been working on one-handed catches since he was in middle school, since he was probably in sixth grade, seventh grade. Whether it's cross-body's, standing 10 feet apart, 15 feet apart, over the shoulders, everything. Any drill that we could come up with that would maximize his potential and strengthen his hands. It was one of those things where the emotion came from all the work that we've done and all the time [and] his patience of having to sit and kind of wait his turn, to watch something like that was very emotional. Like, it's your time," he says.
"... So my emotions came from knowing everything he's done, the work he's done and to watch it, there's nothing you can do but be overfilled with joy."
For his part, Kyron Hudson kept those emotions to himself, both in talking with reporters after the game and then again Tuesday after practice.
He doesn't give away much and seems as eager to point the spotlight anywhere but on himself -- even after the best game of his collegiate career, as he led the Trojans with 5 catches for 83 yards in a long-awaited breakout performance as a redshirt junior.
"I'm just enjoying this moment with my team," he said immediately after the game, when asked if he'd seen the replays and social media response yet. "When I'm able to see it, I'll see it."
Hudson's father knows him best, though, and says his son's stoicism and seeming uninterest in basking in his moment publicly actually says it all.
"I think his responses are him having an understanding, 'I've worked my ass off to get to where I'm at when a lot of people doubted me. A lot of coaches recruited me as a tight end or a H-back or even a defensive player, an outside linebacker or a strong safety,'" Chance Hudson says. "He has always wanted to do one thing, and he doesn't care. He's just going to continue to work on what he needs to get better."
