Drew Henson highlights
Soooo...I got a request from a fan to make a tribute video to Henson. And there was a surprisingly large amount of footage to use considering how little he played his first two years, no senior year and the fact that he missed the first 3 1/2 games his junior year because of injury.
I have to be honest. His laser like passes were breathtaking to watch. And it's painful to think what he would have done had he come back in 2001. So I apologize in advance if this is like rubbing salt to the wound. Whether you're interested to watch or you want to send me some hate mail, I'll understand either way.
Embed after the bump:
EDIT: On a sidenote, my old VHS tape doesn't do the game justice but that 2000 Wisconsin game at the big house has got to be one of the loudest non-rivalry games we've played at home in recent memory. It's a low scoring game but the crowd is pumped and extremely loud from the beginning to end.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:20 PM ^
darn!!!!!
Henson not coming back for his senior season will always be a sore subject for me, FU George Steinbrenner!!!! He was a Buckeyes fan and did this on purpose, Tressel would not have won his 1st game against us had we had Henson, in fact, every game we lost that year was because Navarre was just not at the same level as Drew.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:52 PM ^
How is the Spartan Bob game Navarre's fault?
November 11th, 2015 at 3:37 PM ^
It might not have been as close with Drew.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^
My contention is that if Henson was the QB for that game it would not have been so close, Henson might have won the Heisman that year, he was that special.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:15 PM ^
The pass to Calvin Bell at 15:31 is one of the most amazing throws I've ever seen. On the run, right after his facemask has been grabbed, he effortlessly tosses a 40-yard throw against his body - and it's right on the money.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:38 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 11:51 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 12:46 PM ^
What 2001 could've been.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^
Would have loved to see him play one more year. Can't wait until Harbaugh gets a qb like that. If only Morris could put it together, he has an arm like that.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^
Wait... He has another year of eligibility, right?
/s I know, he really doesn't.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:52 PM ^
FUCK THE DAMN YANKEES. THEY FUCKED US. NAVARRE WASN'T READY YET. YES I AM YELLING.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
People forget how good Henson was. There is a reason Brady was splitting time with him. In my opinion, Navarre starting for 4-years was where it all started to go wrong.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:54 PM ^
We started giving in to Henson's demands way before he stepped foot on campus and we paid for it. Also, Navarre won a B1G title outright. How many of our QBs can say that from the past 20 years?
November 11th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^
Eh, the "outright" thing is overblown. Bottom line is that any shared title is still a title, as silly as a shared title sounds. By the rules those teams were given, they did enough to win the conference. Thankfully shared titles will no longer be a thing, whether it be conference or national.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:55 PM ^
Carr's promise to Henson was that he wouldn't recruit a QB in the class before him (1997). Those guys would have been 5th-year seniors in 2001. Considering how good Henson was, anyone we would have signed in '97 probably would have transferred, or else would have been a career backup and probably not the answer in '01 anyway.
In the class after Henson, Carr recruited two QBs: Navarre and Andy Mignery.
November 11th, 2015 at 3:35 PM ^
threatened baseball if he didn't get adequate playing time. . . .
November 11th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^
Fuck Steinbrenner!
November 11th, 2015 at 12:53 PM ^
Do you mean to tell me we were losing to Illinois by 2 scores? 2 different times during the same game! WTF?
November 11th, 2015 at 1:30 PM ^
Navarre started the Illinois game. Henson came back a week early from the broken foot and put on a show pulling that one out of the fire.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^
Henson's heroics were helped by a few very bad calls that went our way. The Illini were very ill-tempered after that game.
November 11th, 2015 at 5:22 PM ^
I was at the game as well.
The fumble by Thomas that was not called was the most glaring.
I remember feeling like the game was lost until Henson came in.
November 11th, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 3:21 PM ^
they were like todays Penn State dangerous in some games and hard to beat at home.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 1:08 PM ^
It gets much more recent when you're trying to block out the last 7 years.
Random trivia that I found out while looking up his stats: Henson was born 6 days after I was born. Doubt anyone cares but that's a better example of me showing my age.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^
35 years old?
November 11th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
Yep. People are usually surprised to learn that I'm not 80.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^
Qmatic, you are a duster
/s
November 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
He was a phenom, fuck you Steinbrenner.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:58 PM ^
...got his master's from Ohio State. Becuase of course he did.
November 11th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
Here is the retrospective piece of Drew Henson's long 10 years:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/02/28/sweeny-drew-henson-former-2-spor…
"Looking back now, maybe the best thing would have been just to play my 4th year of football and go through that, because the same opportunities I had in 2001 I would have had 12 months later. "
He's an alumnus and continues to support the program. I'm proud to have him still be a Michigan man.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^
November 11th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^
If he stayed at Michigan, he would've been the #1 overall pick by the Texans in 2001. David Carr was a bust and still made over $50 million in his NFL career.
November 11th, 2015 at 7:19 PM ^
"Looking back now, maybe the best thing would have been just to play my 4th year of football and go through that, because the same opportunities I had in 2001 I would have had 12 months later."
November 11th, 2015 at 12:58 PM ^
How does Terrell not own every Michigan receiving record? He was the recipient of so many of those beautiful deep passes.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
No shit!
November 11th, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^
Terrell went pro after his junior year.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:07 PM ^
Henson in 2000 was the best quarterback performance by a pro-style QB at Michigan. I'll give the nob overall to Michael Taylor, but it was a different game.
If not for the defensive meltdowns at Purdue and Northwestern, 2000 was a special team. The last time we went into the 'Shoe and won the Game.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:46 PM ^
Not only were his stats impressive, but as noted, he just looked the part. He threw tight spirals, had a good arm, could run with speed if he had to, and was accurate.
He also took part in the craziest game (in terms of offense) I've ever seen UM play against a good opponent -- the 51-54 loss to Northwestern (which I was at --- just go down Anthony Thomas! You already have the 1st down! Ugh...fumble. Flashback.) Yeah, the defense wasn't very good that year.
I'm glad for this video. Thanks for putting it together. He led us to victories over OSU and a bowl win, so while I'm disappointed he didn't come back for his senior year, he definitely made a big contribution to UM.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:09 PM ^
Yeah, the defense wasn't very good that year.
What's nuts about the defense giving up 54 points in that game is that they'd shut out each of their prior two opponents.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
Granted it was Indiana and a Bobby Williams-era MSU, but they still were shut outs.
I just remember, off the top of my head for that team, the near-loss to Illinois (where Henson and timely bad call from the refs bailed us out), the loss to Purdue, and the wins over OSU and Auburn. All of those were high scoring games.
Plus, the NU game was *so* bad. I just remember Larry Foote running around, trying to pump everyone up, and that defense not being able to stop a darn thing.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^
he's the best i ever saw (for that one year). i never saw rick leach play much, though.
November 11th, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
Wow, best since Grbac!? There've been some impressive qbs in that time, but looking back at these highlights, you've got a point. Drew would've turned into a world-beater under Harbaugh!
November 11th, 2015 at 1:09 PM ^
Totally should have been caught in the backfield by the Hawaii linebacker/DE, instead he accelerated away from him and ran untouched down the left sideline for a ~40-yard TD.
November 11th, 2015 at 2:26 PM ^
fun week, I was in Maui earlier in the week watching the BBall team and flew to Oahu to catch the football game,
Sidenote, I saw the biggest human being I have ever seen in my life at that game, he looked Samoan and was walking down the aisle....very slowly.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:11 PM ^
Man, bullet after freaking bullet. The guy had a canon for an arm!
I loved the fake Brady injury where Henson rushes in, Penn State assumes he will hand off and they run a double pass back to Henson for a big gainer. Brilliant call and a well executed play! I'm glad they didn't get an intent to deceive penalty.
November 11th, 2015 at 1:19 PM ^