With AMX Gold, you can experience the gold standard. You get access to exceptional dining, plus four times membership rewards points on eligible dining purchases. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply, cap applies, learn more at americanexpress.com/with AMX. Credit Karma is your evolved financial assistant, making managing your finances simpler and more tailored to you. Join us at Credit Karma.com to start your personalized financial journey today, and continue to grow with our innovations. Credit Karma, Evolve your finances. Welcome to the UNI Panther Football Show, your weekly dose of Panther football on demand with yours truly in voice of the Panthers JW Cox. This week, wide receiver Desmond Hudson joins the show. He discusses his football journey from Iowa to UNI, how the Panther wide receivers push each other every day and how a tragedy has shaped his perspective and given him a deeper purpose. Also this week, we hear from head coach Mark Farley headed into another difficult Missouri Valley Football Conference match-up. But first, listen in to some of the top moments from the fast game with the Panther Claw calls of the week. Second down the throw, Shekelman to go deep, open down the left seam, it's Desmond Hudson with the grab inside the 30 on a dime from Matthew Shekelman, and they'll put him right in the middle of the field at the 25-yard line. Shekelman, the 50-yard bomb, and it's first in 10-pamper. Give it to Edwards, Edwards trying to push straight through the middle. Shekelman gets in there to help shove him through, and it's a Panther touchdown. Turn, give, tie Edwards, lanes the blocker, this time his Edwards gets to the edge. Stiff arms, a man cuts back in, stays in bounds at the 15, still on his feet, and they say he did step out. At that 15-yard line, he tried to side-step his way again, and there would have been nobody left to hit. Edwards motions out of the backfield to the left. Shekelman steps up, Hudson Edwards wide open at the 10, he has the catch, hit a man at the six, doubles inside the five, and he's got a first in gold, Panthers good. Extemporaneous play there from Matthew Shekelman, getting it to his man, tie Edwards open on the left side. Shekelman wants to throw on second and eight, long out to the sideline, and Tae Norman with a great toe-tap along that sideline, he brings it in, Norman's first catch is a Panther, and it gets the chains moving. He drops back, wants to throw first and 10, has Hudson grab near the 50, past the 50, and ushered out of bounds. So he'll stop the clock there, great root, great hands for Dez Butler. Butler nearly got there, opened down the seam, knocked away, good coverage coming over the top. JJ Durville, two wide to the right, give it to Edwards, Edwards, pitch it back. Shekelman, Flee Flicker wide open, Ellis Lehi, he's got it, 10-5, touchdown, Panthers, that'll do it. Over pursued to stuff the box on the run, the flip back to Shekelman, and Jay Nell is Lehi. Beat everybody down the field and he's into the end zone for the first time this year, and the Wisconsin rifle fires one off again for 50. Here, every Panther game live on the Panther Radio Network with me. JW Cox and longtime Panthers, Scott Peterson fired us on your local radio affiliate by going to uniepanthers.com and searching Keyword Network. Take us anywhere you go to get a varsity network at. Stop now to hear from the coach how important is it to keep the consistent approach each week that you often talked about with me about no matter the tie or low, you got to stay consistent. How important is it in times like these to maintain that culture that you've built here? Well, that's the only thing you can do right now is consistency is how you get better. You just got to build from what the foundation is, you can't start over, you can't do too many things because you don't have the time to do it. We'll just do it worse. So right now you take what you did, tweak it, fix it, and make some adjustments in it, but you do essentially the same thing, you just have to do it better. Look at Matthew Shekelman in that debut, what was your kind of thoughts now that you've gotten to digest that a little bit after seeing it live about his debut and what he was able to do? Shek did a really good job. He played a good game. He threw some nice balls. Uh, you had a red shirt freshman at quarterback, you had a red shirt freshman at the center. Uh, first start for both of them on the road. Uh, we did not have a penalty, we did not have a bad snap. Uh, you know, you're going to have some mental errors, but there are very few of those by either of them. So yeah, between Jack Hearn and Shekelman, I thought they both did a good job. What's the outlook at that center position now that you're into the week a little bit when it comes to Jack being there? Keon coming back or what it looks like? Keon's out and we might get Hayden back, but that's still in dilemma, but we're keens out for a little bit. So you're to the stage now that injuries and surgeries and things like that start to add up and it plays into your plan. One game changing moment and it was Shek doing it was on that second drive that turned into a field goal. He's driving down before the end of the quarter. He takes it down to the one yard line reaches across, looked like he maybe got to the pylon. Is that one that you went back and looked on? Because that could have been game changing at the time, because if that's six, then you're never in the situation where you're settling for three or anything that that became. Did you go back and look at that? Did you see anything different on that after the fact? No, that was a touchdown. That was a touchdown. You can send that stuff in, but it's not going to change the outcome. So I move on and, you know, those things that you don't control, I don't have enough energy to burn on that type of stuff, man. There's too much other stuff to get done. The validation though that he was in there, that's at least something. He was in. Winning the line of scrimmage. How big of that is pressuring the quarterback as well more consistently to be able to put that kind of pressure into the backfield and make them uncomfortable back there? Well, the big thing that you don't know now is that there's not that many sacks when you're watching games until you get to third down, because the ball's coming out too quick. If you really watch football nowadays from NFL to college, the ball's going out some fast. You can actually have an open guy free and he can't get the quarterback in time to hit him before he throws it. It's the timing of the throw. So you got to get him in second and long, third and long situation to create the sack. We didn't have enough of those situations that we produced, and yet even when we got him, we didn't make the play when we had an opportunity to get him on the ground. Second play of the game we should have on the ground. We had a cover sack. He was back there 2.5 seconds. That's a sack, in my opinion. That's a cover sack, but we didn't get the four guys off to make a play in that particular case. Later in the game, you send six guys. You want to touch them anyway, because you got the ball out so quick, meaning loose coverage, that I didn't have time to get to him on a free run, because the coverage you got the ball out too quick. So this is a game of inches and a game of seconds that you have to play in, and that's why tight coverage helps pressures, and cover sacks are just as good as pressure sacks. They got to work hand in hand. You need 11 guys. You only see one make a sack, but you need 11 guys, and we need turnovers, let alone sacks. When I hear that, I hear that you're not going to get as many opportunities as maybe you could have in years past to make that game-changing play behind the line, to get that sack. How difficult is that for guys to know, and then not put too much pressure on each individual play, and still just go out there and do what they can do, knowing that this might be the one time that I get this chance, and that might lead to some error. It just comes down to the play call. Every play you better be going 100 miles an hour. You don't have to worry about some of these things. Players know down in distance before the snap, but no, what they need to do is have their butts high coming off the football, and they better get their butts low when it's first intended. It's a hard charge and third and short, and you better get your butt up and roll when you got a longer situation. Either way, you're coming off the ball with the intensity that you don't know where the collision is coming from, and there's only a few seconds together. There's only a few seconds to get to where you need to be. Flip side of the ball, the Panther protection, continually getting better. It's been a strength of this team as far as not giving up sacks just eight on the season, top five in the valley. How crucial has that aspect been for you guys as a building block for this offense and to propel it where it can go? Well, you've got to protect the quarterback, went through the ball better last week, so the better we throw the ball, the more people will rush, and then you're talking the same thing we just covered. Are they bringing four? Are they bringing five? Are they bringing six? What's our outlets if they're bringing six that we can get the ball at on time? I think sacks are down across college football right now because of where the game is going. It's much more in the pro level of getting the ball out right now than it was years ago in college football. So it's I think that that part of the game has probably changed the most that you don't see on paper, but you do in the timing of throws and you start watching, stop watches. Desmond Hudson had a career high in yards in 94 yards. By the way, he's the guest and he told me that he's got the rust knocked off. It had been a while since he caught a deep ball and he wasn't exactly sure what to do once he caught it. He said next time he's ready to catch that and then make that move and then there's your difference. All of a sudden it's a 49 yarder and then it's to the house. No, that does is a great person. He's not just a good man. He's a great man. I mean, does is really became a great panther, a great player, just a really good person. You talked about it earlier this week. It's going to a Valley week of prep for you and scheming and you see a lot of the same things no matter who you're playing. It's kind of a league where offense, defense, there's some repetition in how people are approaching things. Does that represent an opportunity? And like you said earlier, you can't change too much, right? Because then you're just bad at what you might have changed it into this late in the game. But is there opportunity to somehow be an outlier and find that way to be a little bit of an outlier in this league? Whether it's on offense or on defense and throw something at people that they might not be expecting? It helps. It helps because it throws a curve ball in their prep week of something different. It takes a little bit more to teach than just doing the same thing again next week and carrying it over. So everybody has so much film nowadays and there's so many things going on that half this film is broke down before everything get it. So it's like it's crazy how what's on the market right now of what you can purchase of analytics. And that's became a big part of the game that tells the tendencies that's became and then how to use that. So yeah, when you do something you better do it well because everybody's going to know it because we all got film now and we all got probably more film than we had in years past. So it's a lot of things that are moving part and that's why resources are such a key man because there's a lot of the stuff that you can get purchased that you don't even have to have manpower to get anymore. You just need to have the money to go get it because half the stuff is broke down. Then you break it down yourself like we always did. You're kind of ahead of the game where maybe 10 years ago. So it's a challenge but it's an exciting challenge. North Dakota had a week off they've been at home in four of their six games so far. What have you seen from them that has made them effective in the four wins that they've been able to pick up? They've only had two road games right now. They've only had two road games. They're FBS game and then at North Dakota State. We've only had two road games. Right? None of the difference. Hey, all I know is that it helps be home just because of rest recovery and wear and tear. More mental wear and tear over time because riding that bus home this last week man just feels like we're on a bus every Friday through Sunday. But all in all, I don't know what the answer is of that. We're used to be on the road so we'll leave on Friday. We'll go out there and we're accustomed to it's just us in the locker room. It's just us on the sidelines. We have to be able to operate and bring our own energy. Thanks to Coach Farley for his time this week. The Panther Point of View is your spot for all things. Panther Athletics from the UNI Panther football show in the fall to the Hoops and Family Podcast in the winter and everything in between. Like and subscribe to the Panther Point of View to never miss any of the great content from UNI Athletics. My special guest this week on the UNI Panther football show senior wide receiver Desmond Hudson. Let's go back a couple of weeks into the trip to Hawaii. Just been asking everybody kind of their experiences or best part away from the football of it all of that trip for you. What stands out as kind of a memory for you on that trip with your team? I think just being in Hawaii and having that type of environment around you, we extend the hotel right off the beach. So it was good to just, I know I got up a few mornings and just walked the beach. Just put my feet in the water and seeing the sun rise or seeing the sunset. That was pretty cool just to be that close to the beach and away from Iowa at the flatlands for a little bit. So that was probably the best experience right there. All right, so let's go all the way back to, I've got you down as born and raised in Raytown, Missouri, right? Yes, sir. All right, so that's not far from Arrowhead Stadium. So did you grow up a Chiefs fan? Was that something that was a big part of what you guys were doing knowing that you've got the football side of things? Was that a big part of growing up for you? No, yes, sir. Chief Stadium is actually in Raytown, so I grew up where I went to school that was probably four or five minutes away from the stadium. So the Chiefs just been, they always been like my whole family been really big into the Chiefs. I've been a fan since, as long as I can remember, Matt Castle was a quarterback when I was a fan for the Chiefs. So I'm going from Matt Castle to Eric Smith to Patrick Mahomes. So if you know anything about Matt Castle, I love him, but Patrick Mahomes is definitely a blessing to have on the Chiefs now. So yeah, I've been a big Chiefs fan, really happy about their success, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do this year. They started off to a hot stop so that three feet would be amazing if we can get a chance to get them, get a three feet. You mentioned it was funny, I was thinking this way. There's a lot of Chiefs fans around here, a lot of Chiefs fans that I've met since I've been here. I was thinking like, so you get the bye week, right? Which you as a player, you understand how important that is. As a fan, do you feel yourself when they're five and I'll be like, man, I'm kind of missing that they're playing, not playing this week. I wish they would keep at it. Listen, I was just telling myself that the other day I checked, Sunday I was looking up the games and I'm like, didn't the Chiefs play last Sunday? Like, where's the Chiefs at? Like, when are they going to get on the schedule and I checked and it had the bye week. So I am missing the Chiefs a little bit. It does give me something to look forward to when the NFL games are on. I watched the Jets and the Bills game last night. That was a good, pretty good game. But I tend to say my NFL fix for the Chiefs since they're not playing this week. I had to suffice for Aaron Rodgers, but it was a good game between those two. But I do miss the Chiefs a little bit for sure, though. Well, that's a funny dynamic too, right? Everybody else that isn't a football player or doesn't even like me doesn't even work around football weekly like with the Panthers. Like, okay, yeah, you can just watch football and that's what you do. Like, do you find yourself having enough time to really kind of have that make up a part of your brain because it's all football all the time anyway, the rest of the week? That's what I'm saying is football. Like, that's why I don't usually dive into the NFL. I do enjoy watching football, but sometimes, like you said, you do need a break away from it when it's your day to day 24/7. You're watching film, you're playing football, you're analyzing yourself, you're hard on yourself, and with some of the films. So, sometimes you do want to take a step away from it. So, the people who are super obsessed with it every day, like, oh, man, I can't wait to watch my team. I've set when a team moves, it's not, I am like that with the Chiefs, but to a certain extent. But I usually just say my fix for the Chiefs games. I don't usually go outside of the Chiefs games. I watch quite a bit of college football, too. That's just because I'm still in it. But NFL wise, I do say my fix for Chiefs. When you're watching college football, how are you watching that? Is it, hey, this is what other teams are doing? Is it maybe that there's teams with guys that you've got connections to over the years that you've played football? How are you kind of watching college football when you do get to catch some? So, it's a little bit of all of it. I'm watching it from a perspective of like, oh, that's a cool play or trying to dissect the coverages. I see in how the defense might, something that I can kind of pick up on for my later games. Like you said, just watching a couple of players that I play with over the years, some of the people that I know, they're all around the world. When you get into college football, you kind of realize how small that world is. And it is a lot of people from a different lot of teams. Some ways somehow have a connection to. So, I was always excited to see some of those guys. I got two close friends to play for Oregon. And I was watching Oregon versus Ohio State, really, really excited for those guys. So, it's just games like that. You kind of pick up here and there watching your boys play or looking at it from a perspective of like, oh, that's a good play. Maybe I should kind of steal that, bring that to my coaches or something. But just watching it from just different layers when you watch your college football. It's a lot of layers to it. You mentioned the college football world and it can seem kind of small. And then a guy like you who just had a different journey from one school to another. Then obviously you've made a lot of different connections. Your connections have a little wider than maybe someone who just started at one school. What was that experience like going to Iowa? What was it that drew you to Iowa in the first place out of high school? And what was that experience like for you at that first stop for your college career? I think starting off with what just drew me to Iowa when I came to high school was. When I visited the state of Iowa, it was a little bit different than a lot of other schools that I visited. Just the locals and the coaches. It felt like way more friendly, more of a family vibe. And I'm big on family. So my family was kind of worried about me leaving college being somewhere away for four years. They were worried about if I would fit in or if it would be a place that I was comfortable at. As soon as I got to Iowa, I just felt like the city area was some place that I can feel really comfortable. I feel safe. It was a very safe area. And just a good family vibe. They call it Iowa nice. And I felt that as soon as I got there, Iowa. And just the difference from being one school to another, it just kind of taught me a lot of life lessons. Being in Iowa taught me when I first got there, I was an 18 year old kid. Kind of still trying to figure out who I was as a person and how I can navigate life on my own. And being in the structure like Iowa kind of taught me made me grow up a little faster, a little bit faster. And kind of gave me the values I needed to continue to be the athlete and the man I wanted to be. When I went to the next school and you and I kind of did the same thing, just kept building me, gave me a place to where I can be. Kind of isolated is not a lot to do in Cedar Falls, not a lot of ways to get in trouble or get in the mix of things. You kind of just locked in and focus on the things that you need to get down, which was school. And I graduated last December. And that was a goal of mine. And then football, as you can see, I just continue to try to get better every year. And Iowa was a place that I feel like I can do that. I be kind of isolated and locked in and the people that surround me are good people. And the locals, I could feel safe around and they'll hold me accountable as well. So that's really why I chose Iowa, just someplace I felt like was the best place for me to flourish. Obviously, as you mentioned there, there's a lot of similarities, certainly community wise. We're not that far away. And there's a lot of those similarities from coming to Cedar Falls. When you did make that decision and the things go as they do to go in the transfer portal, what was the process like? And what put you and I as a football place kind of on your radar and how did that work out to get you here to be a part of this team? Yeah, so when I first came here, the OC was Bodie and my receiving coaches and coach Gans. And those two guys, kind of the plans that they had for me on the offense, it drew me to you and I. They had ideas of playing, switching up my position a little bit, playing tight end, playing receiver. And those guys helped that come true. And also, like you said, a lot of the similarities with the community. That kind of drew me close to knowing that I can go to another college and still have the same goals to be locked in and still do what I need to do. Not saying that the bigger city would have had me distracted or anything like that, but it's not the wrong. We're going to acquire a city and kind of limited those distractions. So that was another thing that kind of drew me to you and I. And you mentioned if we talk a little football a little bit as far as on the field, you've gone through some changes when it came to whether it's schemes and then certainly with coordinators in the turnover this year. But you've been pretty consistent throughout what you've been able to do. I've got you down as you've had a catch in 25 of the 26 games that you've played since you've been here at UNI. How have you been able to find that consistency no matter where you might be lining up or what technically position you've been playing? How do you think you've been able to be so consistent in what you've been able to produce on the field? I really think it's just the game playing. Coach is putting me in the right position to make the right play. Me and the quarterback being on the same level, saying understanding of where I need to be and where they want me to be. The game playing has always gave me opportunity to just make a play and then it comes to me getting out there and executing. I trust my quarterback when quarterback trusts me and over the years I've had the A and the hashtag. These are all quarterbacks that I feel like I've been close friends with and outside of football. So when we do get between those lines, it's just a little bit easier because we already have that connection. I just mean not being where I'm supposed to be at the right time. I feel like that's what put me in a position to stay consistent throughout the years. Now that consistency has been there. We saw this last week at South Dakota some of the deeper routes that you've run or had success finding. A lot of what you've done has been kind of in the intermediate and being off the close to the formation there. What was different in that game and what kind of allowed you to be able to do that and be more of the big play threat that we know you can be too? It was just just kind of expanding my role a little bit more coaches trusting me quarterback trusting me to make that play. Also just different coverages different teams play different coverages. So we try to just see what match up works the best. And last week that just happened to be one of the match ups that we felt like at that moment we could attack and we executed. So that was pretty cool to kind of have a deeper plans. Like you said a lot of my catches been more in the intermediate. But I do feel like as the time progressed throughout the years has shown that I can be in the intermediate. I can be in the backfield. I can be down the field. You really never know where they might put me on the UNI offense. So I'm just pretty much everywhere. Whatever you need. I feel like I can execute. That 49 yarder. I mean that's that's long enough anyway. But how close were you to being able to turn on the Jets and get away from people there? It was into some traffic. How close was that to going all the way to the house? So now that it's been a little bit of time since I got a deep ball like that. Now that I knocked the rest off and I know the deep ball, the deep ball threat is there. Now I can start making a little bit more happen after the catch. I was just caught the ball and I was like okay. Now what's the next move? It took too long to kind of snap in. But now since I knocked the rest off it's going to be a little quicker. Talk about the receiving core that you get to work with and you've built relationships with these guys. Certainly Sergio the last several years and Jaden how he's come along and the different guys that are part of that crew. How has that been kind of building a relationship with your position group in there and what you guys do to impact the team? So yeah the relationship that we built and the receiver group I've been in. I had the opportunity to be around a couple of these guys for quite a few years. And just a brotherhood every time we get together you can just feel the connection that we have. It's never too heavy when we're together. It's always just relaxed. And we all expect a lot out of each other as well. So when we do get on each other it's all out of good faith. And just being able to be around these guys knowing they're going to compete every day. It pushes me to go a little bit harder. And I feel like they feel the same with me when they get around me. They know that it's going to be a competition between each other and a friendly competition but still competition at the end of the day. And knowing that we are a big impact on the offense we just got to continue to hold each other to a higher standard. Each week and each day of practice knowing that we are a vital point of the offense and we just have to get the job done. And we know that each week so we just got to continue to hold each other to that standard. And I know everybody in the room is thinking the same way. So just brotherhood just moving forward and being a competitive room is what I enjoy about that. I think my answer to this next question would be you from some of the things that I've seen the catches that I've seen you make. But who's got the best hands on in the receiving court? Is that you or is there somebody else? No, I don't know man. I think we all I think we all work hard to get to have the hands every day. We own drugs. We try and improve every day. But I don't know man. I hope at the end of the season somebody can answer that question. It depends on who has the less drops that will tell. That's never a lie. What is that key because I say that because I can think back to a handful of catches that you're either whether you're the throw was to the outside or something you're reaching out and you're certainly not catching it with your body or your arms at all. But your hands just all of a sudden they're there and it's pulling the ball in. What is the key to situations like that and putting yourself in a spot to succeed when you have to make a catch like that whether it's in traffic or reaching back, reaching forward or whatever it might be. It's really just confidence. Let balls in the air. I learned over time is you can't say can guess yourself. You got to know that ball is yours when the ball is in the air. And if you have any slight thought that it's not yours that ball is not being caught. And nine times out of ten if you just trust yourself and put your hands out there for your eyes and that ball all the way to to the catch. There's going to be a catch because this is it's not it's not just something to happen overnight either. I know that this is something that I work on every day at practice after practice before practice and I'm getting catches in. So they say confidence comes with preparation and knowing that I have that preparation behind me. I just feel like I can go get that ball if it's in the air and I got to continue to prove that every time I just step out there and continue to have that confidence that that ball is in the air is mine because I know that preparation is behind that. You mentioned earlier when you were talking about your decision to come to Iowa how important your family is and obviously it's a story that's been told and something that you guys have dealt with the tragedy of losing your brother and you talked about that in high school. How that was a motivating factor for you to just to keep on living and keep on playing. How was that as a motivating factor kind of continued and developed as you've gotten older and you've become a man at this point thinking back on that experience and how that kind of puts you on a path to where you are now. Yeah, just having that. A part of my life a part of my story, knowing that it's not just me who went through it as my mother went through it my father went through it my little brother went through it like this is all something that we share together. And as I get older, the motivation continues because I know that it's not I'm not only just going throughout my life for myself, but it's people behind me that also looks towards me as inspiration are just look up to me rather than my little cousins or my little brothers are you never know who's really truly looking up to you so I know that my brother since he's no longer here. My life is also I like to think of it and I'm also living through him or he's living through me. And so I'm continuing his journey and he didn't get to see any age or milestone or our landmark that he didn't get to reach is all happening through me. So I know every day I wake up, I've got to be grateful for that for that breath that God gave me and wake up every day with motivation to continue to get a little bit better the next day or take advantage of the day that's ahead of me because you never know what your last one is, your last day is going to be on this earth, it can happen out of nowhere so I just try to take advantage every day and I realize that I can't take it for granted. There's people just not here to be able to experience things that I'm experienced and our life might be tougher for someone else on the other end so any little mishaps that I have in my life that I feel like, oh man this is tough or oh I'm sore, oh I got to go to class, I got to realize that these are just small on the scale of the world and the things that's really truly happening around the world are truly happening with my family or happening in my life just take the things that I feel like I already went through the worst thing that ever could have happened in my life so just continue to move through life with happiness and know that it's actually a blessing to be here and the people who is not here to see the next day live for them and do the things that they can do and just knowing that I have that motivation behind me makes me a little bit happier when I reached those milestones for myself and for my family so just got to keep going. Anybody that's experienced any tragedy probably would have the similar idea that you don't really get over it, there's not an end point to when that happens but you do gain that perspective and obviously that's something from that answer that you have Has that been something that kind of perspective on life that that's given you and the way you've been able to deal with that? Has that been something that you've been able to share with people or your teammates or kind of use it as an example, if anybody has been going through something, do you think that's kind of been a part of what your leadership role has become on this team and the kind of leader you've turned into? Well, for sure, I think that was my biggest perspective shift was losing my brother, someone who was super close to me, just knowing that things aren't always as bad as they seem. It's up to you to find it and it's up to you to kind of flip your perspective of what situation that you're in and that's something I kind of try to push on my receivers. Like I said, we are a competitive room so sometimes we can get tough on each other, maybe it's a drop here or maybe it's a miss assignment or something that we feel like we could have did better. And remind them that even if coach is only hard or media is on you hard or somebody's on you hard, no one should be saying anything that you don't already know like that you should be your hardest coach. So knowing that you are your hardest coaching and your coaching yourself to be a better or you have a standard for yourself, you just got to realize the next time you just got to go, you got to go harder. There's no time to kind of talk and be sad about that mishap because life is going to continue to keep going and it's going to, the next player is going to happen no matter what, whether you're sad or you got your head in your hands. The next player is going to happen no matter what so it's up to you to kind of decide what your next move is or what your future may look like, even if you're going through tough times. And that's kind of perspective that I gained through losing my brother that life does continue to go and even though you have that pain just stuck into you. How can you turn that into motivation or how can you turn that into hard work or how can you turn that into just knowing that you want better out of that situation. And when I lost my brother that was something that I knew I had to do better for him. So I kind of put that in football perspective that you have to do better for yourself. If you have a why that you play this football for do it for that for that why don't sit and salt for too long or don't worry about the past. Just continue to move forward continue to get better and you have all the control in your hands when it comes to who you want to be and what you want to do with this football stuff or with anything you want to do in life in general. I appreciate you sharing that desk. What you said you graduated last year. What was your major and what kind of led you to choose what you did as a major. Yeah, I graduated in December. I graduated with a sociology degree minor in social justice. What led me to be an sociology major. I back home in Kansas City. Me and my family in honor of my late brother. We started an organization called Breathing Me Life in You. Our main goal is to teach kids conflict resolution. We also have different things that we do throughout the community community work helping give back to our community back home in Kansas City. And just that work we did in Kansas City. I'm just helping that society just around us known to this people in society who are just like me may just had a little bit of mishaps growing up. The dynamic of their family might look a little bit different. Our situation that they got put in might have just set them back a little bit knowing that the skills that these people these kids still need to grow up to be a productive person in society. And knowing that we have the opportunity to give those kids just made me think what could I do in college that can help me go back home and help. That organization are maybe understand what these kids may be going through or what society might look like from a different perspective than just the outside view of. Oh, these people are just they're just like that if they really wanted a better life for themselves they can go get it just kind of understanding of what really causes the problems in our society is really is what drew me towards sociology and throughout my whole career I was something that I was very interested to kind of learn and really dive into. They also gave me a better perspective for when I do go back home and helping that organization. When we are writing up our curriculum for the organization some ideas I can throw it and toss it to kind of really impact my art really give me, give my family a good head start or understanding up what can help these kids or artists society around Kansas City. So, sociology's definitely gave me a different perspective on not just society but just life in general. Anyways, people can support what you guys are doing. Right now we just have a couple of private donations so it's not really a lot. There's not a lot that we can ask for. I do have a link on my Instagram and people would like to go just check out the website on my Instagram is just there's dz underscore Hudson H U T S O N and I have the link to organization on there we also have an Instagram page that we can follow. And just show support maybe like something share something we do have times when we're doing drives backpack drives and stuff. And we I'm looking I'm looking to do some things Iowa as well just because I'm here and I'm leaving soon and the community has given so much to me. I would love to get back something to the community of Cedar Falls so just upcoming months maybe if you guys just go follow that Instagram keep you updated on what's going on. That would be greatly appreciated. Before I let you go goals football wise like let's I mean let's look. Obviously I remember talking to Christian Boyd about the same time last year and obviously there's still season left but he had the goals that he wanted that he's now attacking now in the NFL and it's kind of a fine line to walk right. You got to put yourself in a position to do what you want at the next step and while still as we know you are giving everything to what the Panthers have this season. What's your outlook right now when you look at football and what you're going to continue to do even when this season comes to an end. My biggest goal really for football is to make it to the playoffs I've been here for just my third year I haven't been to a playoff. Yeah so I would love to go just to see what it is what it feels like to be an FCS playoffs. That's probably my biggest goal right now right and as far as after football. I've really just been trying to put myself in a position to my main goal as always to have a chance at the NFL. Go to NFL play football as long as I can to support that I love dearly he's given me so much allowed me to see so much. So if I can continue to play it for as long as I can of course I'm going to try to attack that but right now my main focus is just put myself in the best position to get to the playoffs. To help my team and whatever that looks like that's what I'm attacking right now and everything else I hope just works yourself out later. If I play well, play well enough to really help my team and win games and make it to the playoffs then everything else should handle itself at the back end. Alright so let's close it with that I mean everybody knows where we sit when we're talking right now there's six games to play everything is still out on the table Panthers as far as making those playoffs and going on a run here. But what is it going to take when you guys have those conversations internally as a team and knowing what has happened and what can still happen what is it going to take in your mind to turn this to where you guys are looking and hunting for the playoffs when this season comes to a close. Yeah man coming in in our conference Missouri Valley is one of the toughest conference in FCS so no team is just going to lay down everything that we have to get we have to take it. And it's some spots is open right there and that's that's up to us for to take and it's going to take it's going to take some grit and it's going to take some some some real liking and some real believing and just continue to grow and improve. Each day each week in practice and take that into the next game with confidence that that preparation that we just did is going to make us successful week by week. So we just definitely got to win some games pick it up pick up the momentum and hopefully just clean house and take one of those spots. Does his organization's name again breath in me life in you find him on Instagram to keep up on how he's using his platform to help his local community. You've been listening to the UNI Panther football show each week get a dose of the Panthers on the grid iron as you hear from head coach Mark Farley and special guests. Don't forget to tune in to the Panther radio network pregame with me JW Cox and Scott Peterson pregame at noon from inside the Oleyra Center in Grand Forks as the Panthers kick off against North Dakota at one. The Panther football show is a production of Panther sports properties from Learfield. Thanks for listening. Go Panthers. I fly indoor skydiving lets you experience the freedom and thrill of flying. No experience or wings required. 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