How Chris Hood's basketball background created a Ball State offensive lineman
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Ball State is home to the tallest man in the MAC.
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Standing at a whopping 6-foot-10, Cardinals offensive tackle Chris Hood is currently the tallest player in the Mid-American Conference and one of the tallest players in college football. The fifth-year senior has started 20 games over the last two seasons — the most on the Cardinals' roster — and enters his final season of collegiate football as a team captain.
Football, however, is not the sport that runs in Hood's family. That would be basketball, where his family has experienced great success across several generations. His mom, Renee, played college basketball at Morehead State and Alaska-Anchorage, while his uncle is former Purdue star Brad Miller, who went on to have a 14-year NBA career. Hood also had three great-uncles who played high-level college basketball at programs like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
And of course, Hood was a pretty good basketball player himself, given his towering height. As a senior at East Noble High School in Kendallville, Indiana, he averaged 16.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game for the Knights and earned senior all-state honorable mention honors from the IBCA.
"We're a huge basketball family, and that was kind of stuck into me when I was a little kid with travel leagues," Hood said. "I was actually part of some pretty good travel teams. I played up most of the time, which is kind of terrifying, but when you're in sixth grade and 6-6, you kind of have to."
Hood's shift towards football began when he joined his first travel football team in eighth grade. He had played the game his whole life but had never taken it that seriously, but that team struck a perfect balance between fun and hard work that Hood found himself gravitating towards. As he continued to grow into his massive frame, football grew on him even more.
"I found my love for food, and I don't like running as much, so I thought, 'Wait a minute, maybe football would be better for me,'" Hood said.
Hood started attending football camps and began drawing interest from college football programs as early as his sophomore year. His basketball tape even helped him when it came to showing off his athleticism to interested football coaches. According to Hood, former Ball State offensive line coach Colin Johnson scouted his basketball tape to see how he moved his feet when shuffling side to side and how quickly he could get up and down the court.
"(Ball State) was the second school to offer me, and they were interested pretty early, sophomore year of high school," Hood said. "Before that, I didn't even know Muncie or Ball State was a thing. I was kind of closed-minded, but they offered me, and it just felt personal. The old coaching staff loved them to death; they made it feel like home."
Despite his attachment to the previous coaching staff, Hood was one of a few Cardinals who stuck around through the transition into the Mike Uremovich era — and one of even fewer who stuck around for Uremovich's second year. With his hulking frame and multiple seasons' worth of good film, Hood drew interest from some larger programs during the last two transfer portal cycles. However, the opportunity to develop as a leader with Ball State kept him in Muncie.
"One of the things that Coach U talked about with me and (offensive line) coach (Alex) Barr is I had the opportunity to lead," Hood said. "Obviously, I'm very honored to be selected for MAC Media Day, preseason all-conference, all of these awards that come in, that means a lot and shows how much work I put in, but it also put me in a leadership role. I'm not the most vocal guy on the team, but I've embraced the fact that guys look up to me, and I like the fact that I inspire all the young guys. It means a lot.
"I could have gone somewhere and got paid, but maybe I wasn't put in that role because it's a bigger school and everyone's like me, so I stayed where I'm able to get that leadership role, and I think it's going to help our team."
Hood's loyalty is a rarity in college football's transfer portal and NIL era. Players of his caliber rarely spend five years at the same school, no matter where they are, but especially not at smaller programs like Ball State. Hood's commitment to the Cardinals was bred when they first took a chance on that East Noble sophomore, and he plans to reward the university's belief in him by leading them to new heights in his final season.
"It's just something about Ball State that means so much to me," Hood said. "This town, Muncie, I've lived here for five years. I've been here more than I've been home, so it's very special for me. There's been lots of conversations with my parents, and it's something that I wanted to continue. I didn't want to leave, especially when I feel they took a chance on me, so I wanted to give them all I could and didn't want to leave them looking for a new person.
"It's just a special place, and I think it's going to be even more special when we finally have success here, get to a bowl game, and win the MAC Championship."
Contact Cade Hampton via email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: How Chris Hood's basketball background created a Ball State offensive lineman