Derrick Henry’s unreal high school football career: The stats, the highlights and the story | Sporting News
So many ridiculous numbers are tied to running back Derrick Henry, the primary author of the Titans’ improbable run to the AFC championship game in 2019. In Tennessee’s stunning playoff upsets over New England and Baltimore, the 26-year-old became the first player with at least 180 rushing yards in consecutive postseason games in NFL history.
Yet no matter what he accomplishes at the professional level, he might always be better known for the absurdity that was his high school football career.
Many have called Henry the greatest running back in the history of high school football on the basis of anecdotal evidence, like the amusing visual of his barreling though teenage opponents like the Incredible Hulk would through a crowd of civilians. But the legend is rooted in fact.
In November of 2012, Henry, then a senior at Yulee High School outside of Jacksonville, Fla., broke the national career high school rushing yards record. He did it on a 52-yard touchdown run during a playoff game in which he posted 482 yards and 6 touchdowns on 58 carries.
Of course, Henry’s 482 yards in that playoff game wasn’t even the best total of his senior season.school dominance is the collection of mind-numbing stats he produced over four years at Yulee.
Below is a year-by-year breakdown of Henry’s rushing totals in high school, followed by his career numbers.
(can do this,” Ramsay told TitansOnline.com in 2016. “We were bad. My running backs coach kept telling me to hang in there, that there was this kid, Derrick, in middle school. And I would think to myself, ‘We’re about to go 0-10, and there’s this nice little eighth grader down there in middle school I’m supposed to get excited about?’ I’d never seen Derrick.”
Soon after that, of course, Ramsay saw the middle-school version of Henry for the first time: “All of a sudden, out of this group, is this towering kid. I always equate it to a stock having a good month on a chart. It was way, way above the others.”
Cole Willis, who played basketball against Henry in middle school, gave Yahoo! Sports an estimate of 6-2 and “at least” 215 pounds when asked about Henry’s size at that age. Ramsey, though, said Henry was 205 pounds as a high school freshman and a bit taller at 6-3.
Needless to say, the exact measurements were irrelevant.
“From the very beginning of every game we played from his ninth grade on, he was probably the best football player on the field every game he played throughout high school, and that is even in the ninth grade,” said Ramsay. “As a coach, it was like having a big, comfortable chair to rest in everywhere you went because you knew you’d always have this guy who would produce 200 and 300 yards and four to six touchdowns a game.”
Yahoo! recently spoke with a handful of former high school athletes who competed against Henry at that level. (The full article is worth your time.) Below are a few examples of what was a similar experience for all who faced him, including opposing coaches.
— Dalton Delano, linebacker, West Nassau High School: “He was almost like a machine … You just kinda step in there, and get ran over, and accept your fate.”
— Michael Dudzinski, linebacker, West Nassau High School: “It felt like you were tackling a big four-wheeler. … Usually when you tackle someone, it doesn’t hurt you. Tackling him hurt. … Everyone was really sore after the game.”
— Travis Hodge, head coach, Fernandina Beach High School: “If you got him right at the line of scrimmage, or behind the line of scrimmage, (players) would be more aggressive. But the kids knew, when he got to the second level, and it was you and him — all of a sudden, they might trip, or take a (bad) angle, or mistime their angle. They’d make a decision: I got a date with my girlfriend tomorrow. I don’t want to get hurt.”
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“I’ve always been grateful to Derrick that he’s allowed me to do a lot of stuff I never would have done had I not coached him,” Ramsay said. (Ramsey left Yulee in 2017 for the head-coaching job at Mandarin High School in Jacksonville.) “Not only did I get to coach him in high school, but to be able to go to the Heisman, and then seeing him drafted and watching him at Alabama and seeing him in the NFL, it’s a lot of fun.
“As for Derrick, he was always just one of the guys when he was here. Obviously he stood out physically and he was the guy at the forefront, but he was a leader and one of the guys. And he sure left his mark here.”
From Henry’s bio page on Alabama’s football site, below are additional accomplishments and stats that put in perspective how dominant he was at Yulee.
Rated a five-star prospect by ESPN, 247sports and Scout.com
Nation’s No. 1 athlete and No. 4 running back prospect
Member of the 2012 All-USA Football Team, chosen by USA Today
2012 Maxwell Football Club National High School Player of the Year
Parade Magazine All-American and the publication’s National Player of the Year
MaxPreps National Player of the Year and first-team All-American
Ranks fifth all time with 153 rushing touchdowns in high school
2012 first-team All-State selection by the Associated Press and was the Player of the Year on the All-First Coast team
2012 Columbus (Ohio) Touchdown Club National High School Player of the Year
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