George Henshaw, who coached for two decades in the NFL as an offensive coordinator and position coach and also worked at the college level -- including seven years under Bobby Bowden at Florida State -- will offer occasional insights to Warchant.com readers during the 2018 season.
Henshaw, whose son Matt played quarterback and tight end at Florida State in the early 2000s, has a wealth of experience at the college and pro levels. He was an assistant coach at West Virginia, his alma mater, in the early 1970s before coming to FSU with Bowden in '76. He later would serve as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Alabama in the mid-1980s before taking the head coaching position at Tulsa and then embarking upon a lengthy NFL career.
Henshaw coached under Dan Reeves with the Denver Broncos from 1988-'92 and the New York Giants from '93-'96; he then served on Jeff Fisher's staff with the Tennessee Oilers and Titans from '97-2005; and the New Orleans Saints from '06-'07; before wrapping up his career with the Titans in 2013.
In this first edition of Henshaw's House, the veteran coach discusses the NCAA's new redshirt rule, which allows freshmen -- and older players who have never redshirted -- to preserve a year of eligibility while playing in up to four games during a season. The old rule required players to sit out the entire year to receive a redshirt, or they could apply for a medical hardship provided they played in less than 30 percent of the season and only in the first six games.
In this conversation with Warchant.com managing editor Ira Schoffel, Henshaw discusses the benefits of the rule change, how it will help players and their teams, and also how it might have an impact on players' readiness for the NFL.
Warchant: I think a lot of fans are very interested to see how college coaches are going to use this new redshirt rule to their advantage. It seems like something that probably should have been done a long time ago. Do you like the change?
Henshaw: I was happy to see it. I think it gives the players more flexibility, and I think they will be able to play longer in college now -- especially the guys who are not phenomenal athletes that come in for three years and then go be pros. There are always some guys who are like that, but if you look at the majority of college football, most guys probably need to be there for four or five years. What this does is it gives them an opportunity to play later on during the season and still keep that fifth year. That's from the player's standpoint.
From a team standpoint, it helps you with your depth. With only 85 scholarship players, if you go down at one position, all of a sudden you come to November and you’ve got three or four games left ... you can bring a guy off of his “redshirt," play him for four games, and be able to make it through the season. And it gives him the experience of playing without losing that year of eligibility.
Warchant: Do you think we’ll see it used in a lot of different ways depending on the team’s needs and the demands of different positions?
Henshaw: I think the main way it’s going to be used is when a key player gets injured, or is out for whatever reason, in the last few weeks of the season. Then you can bring in that young guy. Another way is if you’ve got a player who has the talent to really be special but is pretty raw and can’t help you early on as a freshman. Then as the season goes on, he starts getting better and better and better, to where he can help you now in those last few games.
Another situation is with these bowl games where you’re starting to see seniors and some juniors not playing because they want to go get ready for the NFL. You can bring that young guy up in those situations too. Even if it’s just for that one game, it gives that freshman a better understanding of not only what it’s like to play in a game, but probably more importantly, learning how to prepare to play in a real game.
Warchant: Coaches often talk about young players needing to get used to game speed. Are there some positions where coaches will look to get guys in as freshmen just so they can experience that game speed ... even if they're not necessarily needed to win games right now?
Henshaw: I think that would help with every position. In general, it’s easier for positions like wide receiver, running back and defensive back to play earlier. The line of scrimmage is usually the most difficult because you are interdependent with the other linemen. What you might do on the defensive line with this rule is bring someone in in November who is a great pass-rusher, and he’ll have fresh legs off the corner and be able to give you a spark.
Warchant: Do you think coaches are already planning for how they’re going to use this for certain players?
Henshaw: I think they’re probably all doing that. Your really good teams might have one plan, and then a team whose season is not going very well, they might get to November and say, “We are not as good as we thought we were going to be. So let’s start preparing for the following year.” Now I can tell some of these seniors, "Hey look, I appreciate everything that you’ve done, but we’re gonna start playing some of these younger guys."
What you’re doing over those last four games is you’re getting them the equivalent of another spring practice, or even more than that. And then that following year, they’re more ready to play, but they haven’t used a year of eligibility.
Warchant: As an offensive coach, how much do you think it would help a quarterback just to get in a few games during the season -- even if he's not being counted on to lead the team?
Henshaw: Oh, there’s no doubt about that, it would be a big advantage. If you’ve got a game where you’re up by say 30 points and you want to put in a backup -- instead of always putting in the number two guy, you could put in a freshman just to give him a feel for the game. And the way the rule is written, it can be any four games during the season. So that would be a big advantage for that player.
Warchant: Specifically, with regard to Florida State this season, only one of the three quarterback candidates has not yet taken a redshirt, James Blackman. If he doesn’t win the starting job, some fans have suggested that maybe they redshirt him and let the other quarterback be the backup. Can you even look at it like that?
Henshaw: The only thing I can say about that is if he doesn’t win the starting job, and in one of these early games you’re up by say 30 points in the fourth quarter -- even if he’s your No. 2 quarterback -- you’d have to seriously think about not putting him in at that particular time. You might wait and let the next guy who has already redshirted go in and play the remainder of that game. Because Blackman has already played in games. He doesn’t need to play in a game where he’s 30 points ahead.
Now, if he’s the second-team guy and the starter is not playing very well, and you need someone to go out there and win the game, then you’ve got to go ahead and play him. To heck with redshirting, he’s got to go play.
Warchant: Because of this rule, we're all now talking about preserving players' fifth year of eligibility. But in reality, it seems like most players only want to be in school for three or four years anyway before they go pro. Some guys actually get offended by the idea of being redshirted. Has it always been like that?
Henshaw: No, 25 or 30 years ago, there were a certain number of guys who actually wanted to get redshirted.
Warchant: Really?
Henshaw: Yeah, because they had rather be redshirted than maybe be a second-team offensive guard that only goes in and plays when the game is already decided. They would rather redshirt and use that year to get bigger and stronger.
Warchant: Almost every player nowadays seems focused on how quickly they can move on -- whether or not they're going to be a high draft pick.
Henshaw: I think that’s because we now live in more of a "me" society and more of an instant gratification society. And it starts with recruiting. Some of these more dominant schools will talk about players being on a three-year program now. They recruit guys with the idea they’ll only be at the school for three years. That’s just the way it is now. It used to be where coaches recruited with a four- or five-year program.
In fact, one of the greatest teams, Nebraska for example, when Coach [Tom] Osborne was there, they almost always recruited on a five-year plan. Their players were going to come in and they were going to redshirt, and then maybe they would be a backup for a year or two. Then by the time they were a fourth-year player, they’d be out there playing a lot. At some of those dominant schools back then, you might be there three years before you ever really got on the field.
Warchant: You coached in the NFL for about 20 years. Did the coaches and front-office people look at players differently if they had only played two or three years of college as opposed to four or five?
Henshaw: I’ll say this, the less a guy played in college, the more risk there is of a mistake when you draft him. And that’s probably true in all sports. If you take a guy out of college after three years, there is going to be more mistakes than if he’s been there four years. Just like there’s always been a belief that guys who graduate from college, there’s less of a chance of that guy being a bust in the NFL. That’s especially true of quarterbacks. That’s why guys like Peyton Manning will tell young quarterbacks not to come out early. "Stay in there for four years because the more you play, the better chance you'll have of getting to your second contract in the NFL."
I can remember Bill Parcells would say he would never draft a quarterback in the first round unless he met two criteria. Number one, he had to have started 30 games in college. Number two, he had to have won 70 percent of those games, or he was not going to draft them in the first round. That’s old school, but it’s interesting. If you look at the quarterbacks who have had longevity in the NFL, most of them I bet have had those two criteria.
Other quarterbacks might have success early. But it usually takes about three years before you can really tell if a quarterback is going to be a “for real” quarterback. A lot of guys will come in and do great to start with and be kind of a flash ... then the league catches up to them. Defensive coaches look at film, too. And they’re looking at film throughout the offseason, and they get a better handle on how to defend these guys.
Warchant: So, if they start for several years in college, that lets you see how they adjust when defenses start attacking them in different ways?
Henshaw: Yeah, and you’re also able to see how they are going to do from their sophomore year to their junior year to their senior year. What’s going to be their progression? Because some guys are not better as a junior or senior than they were as a freshman. Well, if that’s the case, what makes you think they’re going to get better when they go into the NFL? Meanwhile some guys might not play great early in college, but they’ve gotten better year after year after year. So, as an NFL person, my thought process is, "He hasn’t reached his ceiling. He’s going to continue to get better as he goes along."
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
