Oh Henry
May 17, 2004 08:08 PM | General
May 17, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Chris Henry’s sophomore campaign in 2003 has to go down as one of the most productive pass-catching seasons in West Virginia University history.
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| Wide receiver Chris Henry ranked 29th in the nation in yards per game as a sophomore in 2003. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
On the surface, his 41 receptions for 1,006 yards and 10 touchdowns are outstanding. He became just the second player in school history to record 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. He did so on 33 fewer catches than school-record holder David Saunders (it took Saunders 74 receptions to reach the 1,000-yard mark on the way to a 76-catch, 1,043-yard campaign in 1996).
Henry’s 24.5 yards-per-catch average is the fourth-best in school history, though all three players ahead of him did so with less than 30 catches. Rich Hollins’ 16 receptions in 1982 resulted in a 27.1 yards-per-catch average, Jay Kearney’s 29 grabs in 1993 produced a 25.9 yards-per-catch average and Calvin Phillips’ 24 catches in 1988 went for 25.5-yards per reception.
Henry’s 10 touchdown receptions in 2003 tied Cedric Thomas (1980) for second all-time among WVU single-season receivers; Reggie Rembert owns the school record with 11 TD catches in 1989. Eight of Henry’s 10 TD catches covered 30 yards or longer and the first three receptions of his career resulted in touchdowns.
Henry was named ECAC and Big East rookie of the year and was a second-team all-conference pick.
“A first-year player doing the things he did, you really can’t ask for much more,” said quarterback Rasheed Marshall. “A lot of people just expected a deep threat here and there, but he did it on a consistent basis.”
Chris’ initial campaign in 2003 also exceeded outstanding first seasons put up by Saunders, Rembert and Danny Buggs.
As a freshman in 1995, Saunders caught 38 passes for 682 yards and five touchdowns while averaging 18 yards per reception. Buggs came onto the college scene as a sophomore in 1972 and produced 35 receptions for 791 yards and eight touchdowns. Buggs’ 22.6 yards-per-catch average that year broke Jim Braxton’s school record (20.9) set in 1970, and Buggs topped his own mark a year later in 1973 with an average of 23.1 yards per catch.
Rembert nabbed 21 passes for 476 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior in his first season in 1988 after transferring to WVU from junior college. Rembert’s 22.4 yards-per-reception average that year ranks seventh all-time in school history.
Henry’s outstanding sophomore-season numbers are obvious for all to see. Yet it’s only when you break down all 41 of his catches that you really begin to realize how important Henry has become to West Virginia’s offense.
Thirty two of Henry’s 41 catches last year resulted in first-down yardage. That comes out to 78 percent of his receptions. On third down it was 80 percent (12 of 15). On two different occasions he had nine consecutive catches go for first-down distance that included a Syracuse performance rivaling the best single-game efforts ever produced at WVU.
In addition to setting the school record with 209 receiving yards in a 34-23 Mountaineer victory, five of Henry’s six catches that day came on third down plays in big situations. All six of his catches were for first-down yardage and all six of them either went for touchdowns or directly resulted in scores. Along with Henry's two TD catches, a 42-yard reception set up a Brad Cooper first-half field goal, a 13-yard catch on third down led to Tory Johnson’s short TD catch and a 21-yard reception on third down kept another drive alive and led to Cooper’s second field goal.
And Henry’s two touchdown catches that day were back breakers. The first came on third and four at the Syracuse 24 with the Mountaineers clinging to a 20-17 lead. Henry got past Orange safety Troy Swittenberg in the corner of the end zone and managed to walk a tight rope and keep his feet in before crossing the end line.
His second touchdown catch was just as impressive. Leading by four, 27-23, and faced with a third and short situation, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez noticed single coverage on Henry and instructed Marshall to go deep. He told his quarterback to throw the ball as far as he could.
“It’s hard to overthrow Henry,” Rodriguez said.
Henry blew right past 5-foot-10 defensive back Diamond Ferri and hauled in a beautiful 67-yard bomb that put the game out of reach for the Mountaineers. The soft-spoken and sometimes media-shy Henry actually lobbied for the play on the sidelines.
“Any time a play for him is called, you’re smiling,” said backup quarterback Charles Hales, who hooked up twice with Henry for scores in the Boston College game. “If it doesn’t work the first time, you’re thinking, ‘Coach, call it again. It will work.”
“Defenses put two men on him every single time and he splits them and makes catches,” said former teammate Grant Wiley. “I remember David Saunders and Shawn Foreman. They were great. But this kid is so smooth, so fast.”
Asked last fall to describe Henry’s best quality, defensive back Lawrence Audena admitted there were too many to just single out one. He finally settled on the way Henry jumps up in the air and attacks the football,” To be like 6-5 and jump that high, you can’t beat that,” he said.
Henry offers a rare package of size, speed and athleticism that only the great ones possess. Depending upon which newspaper article you read, Henry’s vertical jump is anywhere from 35 to 39 inches. He consistently runs the forty in less than 4.4 seconds and he stands 6 feet 5 inches and weighs close to 200 pounds. That in itself puts him in the Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Plaxico Burress category.
But Rich Rodriguez maintains Henry still has a long way to go to reach that level. The coach says Henry has to become a much better practice player. According to a story written by Charleston Gazette’s Dave Hickman last fall, Rodriguez once counted 28 loafs by Henry in a single game early last season. An acceptable number of loafs in Rodriguez’ eyes is one or two.
That’s why Henry didn’t earn his first start until the Miami game, and has worked from time to time with the second group of wide receivers this spring. Rodriguez is constantly looking for a ways to ignite the laid-back Belle Chasse, La., native in practice.
Wide receivers coach Steve Bird offers this critique: “I think he’s had to learn a better repertoire of routes. He had maybe six, seven routes he was good at. He has to get up to the whole package. He has to make a lot of routes look just alike.”
In his defense, all of this is new to Henry, whom West Virginia only found out about when his high school coach brought him up to Morgantown for a 7-on-7 passing camp during the summer of his senior year of high school.
“Coach (Calvin) Magee and I have known his high school coach (Bob Becnel) for a long time,” said Rodriguez. “We spent a lot of time trying to convince him to bring up some of his players to our summer camp. Well, before his senior year he brought Chris up here.
“We had some of the top recruits in the country and he outshone them all.”
“He got in there and took over a game,” added Bird. “A bunch of guys from the other team made him mad. He stepped up and did some things that made me go, ‘Wow.’”
After leading Belle Chasse to the Class 3A state title game in the Superdome, Henry decided to sign with West Virginia and sat out his first season in 2002 to concentrate on academics.
By the time he played his first college game last year he didn’t have the benefit of a redshirt year or spring practice to rely on for seasoning. Despite learning on the fly, Henry came up with some instinctive plays usually seen in much more experienced players.
On one of his two touchdown catches against Boston College, Henry actually faked out the BC defensive back by looking over his shoulder like the football was going to go way past him, stopping abruptly, and letting the defender run past him to clear an easy path for him to catch the ball in the end zone.
“He went for it,” said Henry after the game. “Most of them do.”
Henry enters 2004 as one of college football’s most exciting wide receivers. The web site College Football News.com mentioned Henry as one of the “117 (college) players you should know about.”
Wrote the web site, “Henry has excellent size at 6-5 and close to 200 pounds with the deep speed to strike from anywhere on the field with his speed and athleticism. He's a top home run hitter who has the hands to make tough catches as well. He's just scratching the surface on his potential. As Rodriguez put it, ‘as a coach, he makes you look good.’”
Bruce Feldman of ESPN The Magazine listed Henry as the nation’s No. 42-best player in his Spring Hot 100. Wrote Feldman: “No wide receiver in college is a bigger home-run threat.”
Henry's spring game performance lends additional proof to those assessments. He finished the game catching 13 passes for 200 yards and scoring a touchdown.
Chris is currently tied with Tulane’s Roydell Williams for 13th among returning receivers with an average of 83.8 yards per game. With Pitt’s Larry Fitzgerald’s early departure to the NFL and the uncertain status of USC’s Mike Williams, Henry joins Cal’s Geoff McArthur, Oklahoma’s Mark Clayton, Washington’s Reggie Williams and Michigan’s Braylon Edwards as the country’s five-best returning receivers. And of the five, Henry’s 24.5 yards-per-catch average is tops among the group.
“He’s still like a young babe in the woods,” admitted Rodriguez. “But as a coach, he’s going to make you look good.”
Season tickets for the 2004 Mountaineer football campaign are now on sale. They can be ordered by calling toll-free 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com
