The Hurry-Up is your nightly dose of updates from the Ohio State football recruiting trail, keeping tabs on the latest from commits and targets from around the country.
Henderson getting faster, stronger in offseason
Flip on TreVeyon Henderson’s junior season film and you will see one of the more impressive highlight tapes in America for a high school prospect.
The five-star running back seems to glide across the field more than sprinting, with smooth lateral transitions and a stop-start burst in which he gets back to full speed faster than any other at his position in the 2021 class – or maybe even the past several classes, as he’s been labeled “the most complete running back prospect in years” by the scouts at 247Sports.
Henderson caught up with Eleven Warriors this week, detailing to us what he’s been up to the past few months, and as you might expect, it’s been a loaded schedule with multiple workouts every day.
“What I do each and every day depends on my workouts that day. It’s mainly been track, weight room and football all in one day,” Henderson said. “I work out three times a day – track workouts, just stuff to keep my speed up. Track, weight room and football.”
One of Henderson’s best traits is his track speed, as he set a personal record with a 10.94 in the 100 meters as a sophomore, and he earned Hopewell (Va.) High School’s first-ever state championship for a member of the boys track team by winning a title in the 55-meter dash during the 2020 indoor season with a run of 6.48 seconds (6.45 is his PR).
He also has a strong build to him, with some good muscle tacked onto his body that helps him with being able to show some physicality as a between-the-tackles runner.
And, according to Henderson, both his speed and strength are getting kicked up a notch in the offseason heading into what will likely be his final semester at Hopewell.
“My coach got me into a track meet in late July. My 100’s gonna be down to a 10.4 or 10.3. Last year I ran a 10.9. I haven’t timed myself yet, but it’s definitely gonna be low 10.4 or 10.3,” Henderson said. “My bench and my squat all went up a lot. I couldn’t even push 225 one time at the beginning of the year, but now I rep that with ease. I think my bench is around 265 or 270 right now, and my squat I could only hit 405 one time. Now, I’m repping 405 with ease, and I’m at 450 or more.
“With my track coach, we do more of hang cleans than power cleans. I was supposed to max out my bench and hang clean (on Tuesday), but my hang clean I’m probably at 270-plus. It was lower than (225) coming into the year. I had to transition from a safety – from a defensive back – to a running back, so my numbers weren’t as high anymore. But I hit the weight room hard, and my track times went down and my weight room maxes went up a lot.”
Enjoying life
Henderson, ranked No. 16 overall and the No. 1-ranked running back in the class, says that life has “been great” since May 27, the day he became the Buckeyes’ highest-ranked running back commit since Beanie Wells (No. 7 overall; No. 1 RB) in 2006. For one thing, he’s been afforded more time to relax and not stress over any more recruiting.
“I’ve finally been getting to enjoy myself and enjoy life,” Henderson said. “I don’t have to check my phone all day, every day, and I don’t have to be on the phone all day, every day with different people. So I’ve been able to enjoy myself, finally.”
As you might expect, a day in the life of the nation’s top running back prospect could get pretty hectic and stressful at times, as the then-uncommitted Henderson had to keep up with communication with coaches on essentially an hour-by-hour basis.
“It was very wild,” Henderson said. “It was fun at first. Taking your visits and stuff is fun, but when you can’t take no visits, you’ve got everyone calling you and things like that. It’d just get irritating all the time.”
In the end, Henderson chose to end his recruitment in May without ever having visited the school he picked. That decision came down to the factor we always say is far and away the most critical factor in recruiting.
“It was the relationships,” said Henderson, who has great relationships with his position coach (Tony Alford), area recruiter (Al Washington) and Ryan Day. “My relationships with the coaches – they still check up on me every day. They’re always checking up on me and my family. They’re still telling me more about the school to this day – what the football program is like and everything. I’m liking everything about Ohio State.”
Visit planned
Henderson’s situation mirrors that of J.K. Dobbins, who also did not visit Columbus prior to committing and then signing as part of the 2017 class. Henderson says he and Dobbins have talked several times, and that added a helping hand in making his decision.
“I talked to him a lot before I committed – it was like the week before I committed,” Henderson said. “I asked him about what his time was like at Ohio State and things like that. He was just telling me things about Ohio State and about Coach Alford and what it was like to commit without visiting. We talked a little bit after I committed, also. Just chopping it up.”
Almost Everyone: What made you commit without even visiting?
— TreVeyon Henderson (@TreVeyonH4) June 21, 2020
Me: So where you want me to start? pic.twitter.com/WI8HeuaHOa
As of now, Henderson says he and his mom are planning to take a trip to Ohio State sometime in the summer or fall, driving over from Virginia to check things out before he signs in December.
Because of the recruiting dead period, that will be an unofficial visit in which he visits as a prospective Ohio State student.
“I’m planning on taking a visit down there – just going to check out the campus and see what that’s like,” Henderson said. “Because that’s really what I need to see, for real. Just check out what the campus is like and what the city is like. So I’ve got that planned. I’m gonna take a trip out there myself. Me and my mom will be able to walk around and check things out on campus and in the city.”
TreVeyon Henderson photo: Don Callahan/247Sports
