A little over a week ago, we all watched the college football national Championship between the Clemson Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide. Actually, maybe you didn’t watch according to the ratings of the playoffs and championship game but that’s another story. The game featured some of college football’s biggest stars including Nick Saban who has won what seems ten titles in five years, Heisman trophy winner Derrick Henry, head coach Dabo Swinney who was jump started the Clemson program and electric quarterback Deshaun Watson. The game did not disappoint as it went back and forth all night ultimately won by Alabama 45-40.
The chatter around the sports world a few days later is what really surprised me. As I stated earlier Derrick Henry took home college football’s highest individual honor in winning the Heisman along with the Doak Walker, Maxwell and Walter Camp award in the 2015 season. He also broke Herschel Walker’s single season rushing yards record in the SEC with 40 less carries. Henry rushed for 3,591 yards in his career at Alabama scored 45 touchdowns and averaged 6.0 yards per carry. He’s also the all time leading rusher in in high school football with 12,124 yards. Almost seems like this kid was born to carry the football right?
On national sports talk I heard “experts” debating if NFL teams should be weary of the wear and tear on Henry. He averaged 26 attempts per game this season. If the kid hardly carried the ball there would be cries that we haven’t seen enough on film to invest in him. I’m not sure if the doubt stems from Henry coming from a program who produced Trent Richardson, a seemed sure thing that flopped in the NFL or what.
We’ve seen running backs come off devastating injuries to be selected high (Willis Mcgahee, Todd Gurley). Even in an era where the running back is becoming the forgotten skilled position I think teams in need of a workhorse would be crazy to pass on a player who has shown he is ready to deliver whenever his number is called.
I think Henry will be in the Trent Richardson category soon.. if I’m wrong I’ll eat my words.. but I don’t think he does much at the next level