When Khalil Hodge was in emotional pain as he watched his classmates and football teammates sign their national letters of intent in winter 2015.
Hodge, then a senior linebacker for St. Mary’s High, had received NCAA Division I FCS offers from Sacramento State and Weber State, but neither enticed him as a teenager with NFL aspirations.
“It hurt,” Hodge said of that day. “It’s a different type of pain.”
Instead of accepting one of the two offers, Hodge decided to play at junior college power San Francisco.
And his decision paid off.
Hodge excelled in his only season in the Bay Area, and transferred to an NCAA Division I FBS program in Buffalo.