By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – At some point in Old Dominion's football game Saturday at Georgia State, linebacker Jason Henderson will almost surely break ODU's single-season tackling record.
He needs just 12 to supplant the record of 123 set by TJ Ricks in 2015. And it is a testament to what a spectacular season Henderson is having that he likely will do so in the eighth game of the season.
The numbers he has stacked up, along with running backs, wide receivers and tight ends, have been amazing.
Henderson broke his own ODU single-game school tackling record in last week's loss to Georgia Southern with 22 tackles. He has 112 tackles this season, an average of 16 per game, which far and away leads the nation.
How far? Jackson Mitchell, a fourth-year junior from UConn, is second in the country. And he has 24 fewer than Henderson.
Troy linebacker Carlton Martial, a fifth-year senior, is second in the Sun Belt with 71 tackles, 41 less than Henderson.
The NCAA's website only began tracking weekly national leaders in 2013, but it's telling that Henderson has more tackles and more tackles per game than anyone in the record books over the last decade.
Clearly, seven games in, he's having an All-American season.
Perhaps the most remarkable part of his story is that Henderson is not a veteran, like Mitchell and Martial. He's a second-year sophomore, a 19-year-old less than two years out of high school.
Veterans are the guys who set tackling records. Sophomore linebackers usually struggle to break into the lineup.
And he's done it against quality teams – Virginia Tech, East Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas State, Liberty, Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern, in that order.
But stats tell only part of the story of Henderson, who is every coach's dream. He is a religious kid raised in rural, small-town Pennsylvania in modest circumstances.
He goes to class and is a Dean's List student. Off-the-field issues? Not a chance with Henderson, who wears a St. Christopher's around his neck that his mother gave him and talks to her by cell phone before every game.
His dad works in a quarry and his mom in social services. He grew up with middle class values and work ethic as good as any athlete I've ever seen.
And although he loves to hit people, he's a throw-back to another generation when it comes to his on-the-field demeanor. Rather than stand over a player he's just knocked to the ground and gloat, he will often offer his hand and give the guy a lift back up to his feet.
When I asked him why, he said it's important to respect your opponents.
The first time I saw him in the summer of 2021, he had biceps that looked bigger than my neck and his neck looked like a tree trunk. This is a guy who lives in the weight room when he isn't studying film or out on the practice field.
In some ways, he reminds me of Ray Nitschke, the Green Bay Packers linebacker who many believe to be the toughest player ever to play in the NFL.
?
Jason Henderson with his family.
Nitschke lost his four front teeth on the first play against Ohio State in his freshman season at Illinois. Blood poured out of his mouth, but he played the rest of the game in pain.
Thank goodness players now wear face masks and mouth guards, and rarely lose their teeth, but Henderson plays in pain every game. Not from injuries, but from bumps, bruises and contusions that ache when you make 22 jarring tackles.
"He's a very tough guy," defensive coordinator Blake Seiler said. "And he ain't coming out of the game.
"You see him grimacing a lot, especially when he makes a tackle and winds up with a lot of guys on top of him. But he just refuses to come out.
"He doesn't get any rest. I watch him play and there's no need to take him off the field because he doesn't get tired. He's a remarkable football player and a remarkable young man."
Seiler hands out "Perfect Effort" awards after fall practice for the guys who played hard every down, who didn't take any plays off. Only a handful of players received Perfect Effort awards and most had 100 or so plays.
Henderson had more than 400 snaps "but he had perfect effort," Seiler said. "He gave it all on every play."
That hustle is why he's making so many tackles, ODU head coach Ricky Rahne said.
"The thing he's doing as well as anybody in the country is he's playing with great effort," Rahne said. "And it's allowing him to be around the football over and over and over again."
Asked to describe Henderson at Rahne's weekly news conference Monday afternoon, running back Blake Watson said, "He's a great player, but he's a little crazy.
"He's always following the ball. I mean, he's like a magnet to the ball. I'm glad he's on our team."
Safety Robert Kennedy III echoed the "crazy" comment.
"There was one time in a game earlier this season, I forgot which one, when I made a tackle and Jason just hit me instead of (the opposing player).
"I didn't say anything. I just looked at him and shook my head.
"The guy is really crazy."
When you're a linebacker, being called crazy is something of a badge of honor. The good linebackers, from Dick Butkus to Sam Huff, all had a little crazy in them.
And Henderson has proven that he's a very good linebacker, one who has made himself into a genuine, All-American candidate.
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: ODU Linebacker Jason Henderson is a Tackling Machine Having an All-American season
