Mind Over Matter
August 18, 2003 11:59 AM | General
August 18, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Football practice for West Virginia University junior wide receiver Miquelle Henderson has turned into mind over matter.
It is now a matter of whether his mind can overcome the doubts and fears associated with recovering from a broke right fibula sustained last spring.
“It’s me thinking about the injury and favoring it too much, so I’m trying to overcome that right now,” said Henderson.
“I’m worried about his mind,” added West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. “The doctors and trainers have cleared him to play. He needs to get out into the fray and get into playing shape. I think he'll do that."
The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Mobile, Ala., native came on in a big way last year as a sophomore. He caught a team-best 40 passes for 496 yards and two touchdowns. Henderson’s two best games came in a row against Wisconsin and Cincinnati, when he caught 13 passes for 211 yards in those two games.
He was planning to build on that with a positive spring before going down with a broken right leg. Initially, he was convinced it was going to be a relatively short rehabilitation period.
“I thought it was going to be a month-and-a-half, two-months, I would be back out onto the field,” he said. “Everybody thinks like that and then reality sets in and it took me a lot longer.”
According to Henderson, reality for him was the understanding that he had to deal with more than just a broken bone. He says there was also tendon and ligament damage.
“It was more serious than what they thought at first,” said Henderson. “They thought it was just a broken fibula but it turned out to be something more than that and that’s why I had to have surgery.”
Now four months later, he’s fighting through the pain and soreness associated with the injury.
“It’s day-by-day and it’s getting better. I think I’m progressing,” he said.
During fall camp, Henderson said he spent as much as “five-to-six hours a day” in the training room getting ice and whirlpool treatment to regain motion in his leg. He says that rehabilitation schedule will still continue now that classes have started.
Those treatments are starting to make an impact.
In last Saturday’s scrimmage Henderson looked much better moving around on the field. He caught three passes for 40 yards working with the first and second groups. He still isn’t quite the same old Miquelle Henderson just yet, but he is getting a lot closer.
“Right now I think I’m about 85-90 percent back. I think I will be 100 percent if not more by the Wisconsin game,” he said.
Miquelle says the biggest mental obstacle for him right now is making simple cuts on his bad leg.
“I feel myself getting back to that point, though,” he said. “When I first came out I didn’t make any cuts with my right leg. Right now I can feel myself making cuts and making plants with my right leg and doing things I used to do.”
One of the reasons it has taken Henderson a little longer than usual to recover is the fact that he’d never really been injured like this before.
“I had a broken finger but that was pretty much nothing,” he noted.
Helping expedite Henderson’s recovery time has been the development of several other wide receivers. Senior Aaron Neal has come on this fall and the addition of sophomore Chris Henry has many people close to the Mountaineer program excited, too.
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| Wide receiver Miquelle Henderson is making steady progress this fall after suffering a broken leg during the spring. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“We’ve got a lot of depth and we’ve got some great athletes running around out there … the best I’ve seen in the three years I’ve been here,” said Henderson.
“We still don’t know who our top four are and we certainly don’t know who our top eight are,” added Rodriguez. “We’re going to try and get that settled by mid-week. The Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday practices are going to be important to see who is going to be in the mix this year.”
As Miquelle works his way back into the regular receiver rotation, he believes he is redeveloping the synergy with the quarterbacks that led to his 40-catch season of a year ago.
“I can feel myself getting my timing back with Rasheed (Marshall) and with Charles (Hales). I’m working in with the ones and the twos,” he noted.
As a unit, Henderson says the receiver crops must continue to work on blocking downfield on running plays and going up and catching passes on go routes.
“We’ve got to get better at jumping up and making plays,” he said. “The quarterback throws it up and we’ve got to make a play. We’ve got guys like Chris Henry who is 6-5, Aaron (Neal) is 6-4 and I’m 6-2. We’ve got to use our big bodies to our advantage.”
West Virginia’s passing game really came near the end of fall camp. Henderson believes it will continue to improve.
“It’s pretty good but it can be better. We’re working on that right now,” he said.
Briefly ...
“It’s still wide open,” said the coach. “It is good competition and I think we’re going to have some guys in there who are solid and who can compete.”
“Let’s be honest, I’d rather face Tennessee-Chattanooga again,” he said. “I like the challenge, and if I had a veteran team and it was at home … yeah great. With a younger team, because they all count as one and they don’t let you replay any of them, I’d rather play somebody not quite as good. The first game is going to create mistakes that only a first game causes. Even last year’s game with Chattanooga -- we had mistakes that were first-game mistakes. Then we didn’t make them again. If you do those against Wisconsin you’re going to get beat.”
