Derrick Henry may be tearing up the NFL as he’s done for the last several years, but before he was a terror for the Tennessee Titans and now the Baltimore Ravens, Henry was one of the best running backs to come out of Tuscaloosa.
Henry played for the Alabama Crimson Tide from 2013 to 2015, winning the Heisman Trophy in 2015 after rushing for 2,219 yards and 28 touchdowns in one of the greatest campaigns from college running back we’ve ever seen.
He’s someone who knows what success at Alabama looks like, and that’s a success he believes can translate in the post-Nick Saban era. Sure, Kalen DeBoer already has two losses to his name, but recently speaking about the Tide on the “The Triple Option” podcast, Henry said he believes No. 15 Alabama just has to remember that it is indeed, Alabama.
“You’re still the same ‘Bama team. Did you have some adversity? Yeah. But that doesn’t define you, it’s about how you overcome it,” Henry said (h/t On3). “You’ve gotta have leaders step up, embrace that role more than ever, the team gotta be closer more than they have been to be able to go on this run. Is it going to be hard? Yeah it’s going to be hard. But you’ve gotta embrace that challenge.”
The Crimson Tide are undoubtedly talented — they beat Georgia earlier this year — but losses to Vanderbilt and then No. 11 Tennessee have tainted this season. Expectations are always high in Tuscaloosa because that’s the program that Saban built, but it sounds like Henry thinks the team is thinking a bit too much rather than just going out and doing it.
“I think these last three weeks, everybody’s just thinking,” Henry said. “Like, before it wasn’t no thinking. You were just going, going. Snap — ball snapped, you go. And just play that style and play that way. I mean y’all still the same team, still the same players. Just gotta take the thinking out of it, man, and go play with confidence, play within one another man. And go out there and play with your brothers and go get a dub. We ‘Bama. It should be no question, we ‘Bama man.”
Henry is confident the Crimson Tide can snap out of it, but they have yet another big task ahead of them this weekend against No. 21 Missouri.