dropped<\/a> the video showcasing his HBCU career, which began at Alcorn State University, then at Hinds Community College, and culminated at Prairie View A&M University. They went to Prairie View A&M, where he took the cameras to show the place that helped solidify his collegiate career.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is where I grew up,\u201d Hodge said after returning to the PV campus. \u201cI became a man here at PV.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time he left the institution, he had totaled 1,797 receiving yards while scoring 21 touchdowns, earning first-team All-SWAC honors and Black College All-American recognition.<\/p>\n
Even with those impressive numbers, no NFL teams selected him in the 2018 NFL Draft. But Hodge knew the odds were against him, as only 36 players who attended an HBCU had been selected in the NFL Draft since 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that HBCU athletes are slept on,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cYou just gotta take that to heart, and you have to look at it like I\u2019m just as good as those guys, no matter how much work I gotta put in, I\u2019m going to keep proving to you and whoever else said I can\u2019t do it, to show that I can do it and I am good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, after having spent some time with the Los Angeles Rams, the Cleveland Browns, and the Detroit Lions, he landed on solid ground with the Falcons in 2022.<\/p>\n
He remembers his time at Prairie View A&M University and where it led him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came here lost,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know what I was going to [do] as far as my football career or academically, so this is where I grew up, where I found who I was. I disciplined myself. So, when I come back here, it\u2019s always smiles, good times. I get chills every time I walk on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
RELATED CONTENT: \u2018A Different World\u2019 Reboot Hosts Casting Call For The Series\u2019 HBCU Students<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton February 7, 2026 The team celebrates Black History Month by spotlighting the wide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[223,254,2554,224,7,13100,6,29512],"class_list":["post-735661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-atlantafalcons","tag-falcons","tag-football","tag-hbcus","tag-nfl","tag-prairie-view-am-university"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116029521947195796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"KhaDarel](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/KhaDarel_Hodge_2021-1920x1253.jpg\")
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