Can Spartans slow Henry?
Alabama running back doesn’t tire despite workload
“(Henry) is just unique; they don’t make guys that big, that fast, that tough.”
Michigan State is somewhat resigned on the Derrick Henry front.
The Spartans know Alabama’s Heisman Trophy-winning running back is good. They know he’s big and quick and unlike anything they can replicate with their scout team. And, most potentially discouraging, they know it’s basically impossible to tire him out.
Forty-four carries didn’t do it against Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Or the Alabama singlegame-record 46 carries the week before against Auburn. Henry only seemed to get stronger as the games wore on — which bodes well for the Crimson Tide.
“It’s a fact: He won’t wear down,” Spartans co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel said. “He’s going to get better. So we’re going to have to be the same. … The thing about the workload is, I wish we’d played him the week right after he had consecutive 40carry games. But with the break he’s had right now, he could carry the ball 80 times and he’d be fine, and he’d be strong.”
Entering Thursday’s College Football Playoff Cotton Bowl semifinal, Henry has carried the ball 339 times this season, the most of any Crimson Tide running back in Nick Saban’s tenure. Trent Richardson ranks second with 283 carries for 1,679 yards in 2011. But players such as Richardson, Mark Ingram, T.J. Yeldon … well, they all had sidekicks to help lighten the individual load.
Henry’s 339 carries produced a nation’s-best 1,986 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns. And though that workload might seem like a lot — no Crimson Tide running backs have had more than 42 rushing attempts in a game until Henry did it this season, twice — it isn’t completely unusu- al in offensive systems that rely heavily on one featured back. To compare, former Michigan State star Le’Veon Bell had 382 carries in 2012, and Jeremy Langford had 292 in 2012 and 276 in 2014.
“(Henry) is just unique; they don’t make guys that big, that fast, that tough,” Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin said. “That’s genetics. Then, the second thing is injuries to Kenyan Drake — I don’t think the numbers would be where they were had Kenyan not been injured. ...
“I was always a 20-25-carry guy. Not just are they wearing down, but you have to worry about ball security because that’s where the fumbles increase. It just blows me away sometimes, because I’ll ask upstairs on the headset, and he’s at 32, he’s at 36, but it doesn’t seem like it.”
Kiffin says he and the other coaches will talk about taking the 6-3, 242-pound junior out of the game but they’ll see he’s not wearing down, his body language is strong and there’s no need to substitute for him.
For his part, Henry downplays the wear and tear of his workload this season. He says the key to staying healthy and at full strength is simply recovery and treatment.
“You just take care of your body the way you did all season,” Henry said. “Get treatment, just so your body is right.”
It also helps to make sure you are not the one bearing the brunt of the big collisions that come with the territory. Michigan State’s coaching staff has noticed Henry is adept at stiff-arming and keeping his body away from defenders.
“You’ve just got to deliver the first blow,” Henry said. “In football, you’re going to get hit. Don’t let someone deliver the hit to you. You’ve got to deliver the hit to them.”
Even so, Alabama wide receiver Richard Mullaney is amazed by Henry’s workload and the way he handles it. Said Mullaney: “I couldn’t even imagine after a game what his body is feeling like. We’re grateful for him, obviously.”
Alabama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin on Derrick Henry