Arkansas Football: Hudson Clark goes from walk-on to hero vs. Ole Miss

It is hard to believe that and Arkansas football freshman walk-on would have a huge impact on the outcome of an SEC game, but 2020 has been wild.

According to his bio, Hudson Clark is listed as a 6-2, 176-pound defensive back from Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas. Prior to the Razorbacks’ game against Ole Miss, he had recorded a total of nine tackles with one pass deflection this season.

It’s not shocking that Clark can have an impressive game for Arkansas as he has played significant snaps this season. However, what he did against an Ole Miss team that put up 48 points against the No. 2 ranked team in the nation the week before was beyond extraordinary.

Clark would end up receiving an A+ for his performance against the Rebels.

The first impactful play that he made was when he intercepted Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral. The play was significant as Arkansas had a 7-0 lead and the Rebels were looking to tie up the game. Had the pass been completed, Ole Miss would have been near midfield and the momentum that the Razorbacks had up to this point may have been lost.

Clark was not done on the day as he was on his way to having a historical defensive performance. With Ole Miss threatening to score to make it a single-digit game, he came up huge defensively for the Razorbacks. The Rebels were almost in field goal range and looking to make a big play to position themselves to score their second touchdown of the game.

Clark, however, made sure that didn’t happen as he jumped in front of the Ole Miss target for his second interception of the game.

It was only fitting that Clark would be the Arkansas player to officially end any hope of an Ole Miss comeback. The Rebels were down two scores and they needed a touchdown and then an onside kick to have any chance of defeating the Razorbacks. Clark made his most acrobatic defensive play of the game. He not only jumped in front of the Ole Miss receiver, but he also caught the ball at its highest point and returned it 18 yards to solidify a Razorback victory.

The former walk-on rightfully earned the nickname hat-trick Hudson with his outstanding performance against Ole Miss.

Does his performance against Mississippi earn him a scholarship?

We would all hope so as he technically has four more years of eligibility remaining after this season as the NCAA has granted all fall participates an extra year. You may be thinking, why did he choose to walk on at Arkansas? You can say that his family had a strong influence on that decision.

Even though he didn’t have Division 1 coaches from Power 5 conferences offering him scholarships, he did have some great choices to walk-on though. He had preferred walk-on opportunities from Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. However, he chose Arkansas for various reasons but it didn’t hurt that both of his parents Travis and Jennifer Clark are both graduates of the university.

Who would have thought that a walk-on would have such a tremendous impact on the Razorbacks defeating Ole Miss?

Before the game, only those in the city of Fayetteville, or maybe in the state of Arkansas or back home in his hometown of Dallas knew of him.

Now it appears that Hudson went from a walk-on who not many have heard of to a hero that now the college football world knows. He has a bright future ahead of him and he will have another opportunity to lead the Razorbacks to victory when Arkansas travels to play Texas A&M next week.