Nick Saban has never been short on memories from his Alabama run, but one of his favorites comes back to Derrick Henry and just how much the future star had to learn before becoming a wrecking ball in Tuscaloosa.
Henry arrived in 2013 and eventually turned into one of the defining backs of Saban’s tenure, but he wasn’t polished when he first got on the field. Saban said the freshman Henry “knew nothing about protection, knew nothing about how to block.”
That made the early teaching moments matter. Saban said he told Henry, “I told (Henry), you have to be a complete player, you have to learn how to block, you have to learn how to pass protect,”
Henry, by Saban’s telling, was upfront about the gap between what he had done in high school and what Alabama needed from him.
“Coach, all I know is what they did in high school. They turned around, tossed me the ball and told me to run with it, so I have a lot to learn,” Saban remembered Henry telling him.
The work paid off. Saban summed it up simply: “He did. He learned, and he’s done well,”
By the end of his Alabama career from 2013-15, Henry had helped lead the Tide to a national championship and stacked up just about every major honor available in 2015. That final season ended with the Heisman Trophy, along with 2,219 rushing yards and 28 rushing touchdowns.
Now 32 and still going strong with the Baltimore Ravens, Henry remains one of the great success stories from Saban’s Alabama years. And while Saban has coached plenty of stars, Henry stands out as one who grew from raw talent into a complete player. These days, Kalen DeBoer is the coach trying to get the most out of Alabama’s running backs as the program aims to get back to SEC supremacy.
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DeBoer pointed to leadership and the way the quarterbacks respond during practice as a key part of the evaluation, which is why this battle figures to keep unfolding well beyond the first few sessions. For now, the coaches are seeing two passers who have been consistent enough to stay squarely in the mix, and Alabama is still waiting for the performance that separates one from the other. [Read more 🡒]