George Henshaw, who coached for two decades in the NFL as an offensive coordinator and position coach and also worked for many years at the college level -- including seven seasons under Bobby Bowden at Florida State -- occasionally offers insights into Florida State football for Warchant.com subscribers.
In this week's conversation with Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel, Henshaw tackles a variety of topics related to recruiting. He talks about the challenges college coaches face today because of social media, the importance of selling a vision, building relationships and more.
Warchant: Willie Taggart and his staff have been here for a year now, but this is their first full recruiting cycle. One of the challenges I think they're having is explaining to prospects that things aren't as bad as they might appear. When you came to Florida State in 1976 with Coach Bowden, this program was in a very bad place. What kind of vision were you all able to sell recruits at that time?
Henshaw: When we first came here to Florida State, one interesting thing is Coach Bowden did not really want us to recruit guys that Florida had already offered. He felt like, at that particular time, that you were wasting your time because you weren’t going to get that guy if Florida really wanted him. And he realized that there were so many guys in the state. So it was our job to go out there and evaluate players and get the best players you possibly could.
We knew we weren't always going to get the best of the best at that time, but he told us not to worry about the players we couldn't get ... worry about the ones we could. And that's something I always remembered.
I’ll give you a good example of a time when that worked out incredibly well. When I left here (in 1983), I went to the University of Alabama. And the only reason I went there was because Coach Bowden told me, “If you ever get a chance to coach at Alabama, that’s what you should do.” So I did what I was told to do.
And when I first started coaching at Alabama, I recruited Miami, just like I did when I was here. So we went down to a high school down there -- South Miami High School -- and the head coach down there was Sam Miller. And Sam Miller had been very instrumental in helping us here at Florida State, in getting some guys to come here.
Well, there were two linebackers on his team that year. One was Keith Carter, and I believe he was one of the top defensive players in the country. There was another guy who played linebacker for South Miami, and his name was Derrick Thomas. And nobody was recruiting Derrick Thomas. Everybody in the country was recruiting Carter.
So I went down there and saw the coach and said, “Hey, can you help us at least get a visit from this Carter guy to Alabama?” Well, Sam Miller said, “I’ll do that if you want me to. But Carter’s gonna go to Florida State.” Then he said, “And he’s not the best linebacker we have." He said Derrick Thomas was their best linebacker, and no one was recruiting him.
So we looked at the film, and he said, “Look, Derrick Thomas doesn’t know what to do. He hasn’t been playing linebacker very long, but he will be the best football player of the two.” So I took his word for it because he had been very good to us before. And I took the film back up to Alabama.
Of course, none of the coaches at Alabama would approve him. They didn't think we should sign him. So I went in to Ray Perkins, the head coach, and said, “This high school coach has told me that Derrick Thomas is their best player and that we should take him.” And I said, “If you don’t want to take him, that’s fine. But I want you to know that I will stick my neck out and I will put my name on this guy.”
Ray Perkins said, “You know, if I go in and say we approved Derrick Thomas, you know these other coaches are gonna get mad at you. And when he comes in here, if he doesn’t turn out to be a good player, these coaches are going to be very upset with you. And so am I.”
Well, I told him I was willing to take that risk. And Derrick Thomas came up to Alabama, and we all know how that went. (Thomas would go on to be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame.)
It’s just an example of how things can work out. This phenom, 5-star, all-world recruit comes up here to Florida State, and he ends up being just another guy. Meanwhile, his teammate goes on to become one of the best players in college football history.
Warchant: Wow. I had never heard that story about Derrick Thomas. Was he really kind of an unknown?
Henshaw: Well, after we talked about it, we went down and watched him in their last game of his senior season. They had gotten their punt returner hurt in the game, and they put Derrick Thomas in to return punts. He returned two punts for touchdowns. Then we get to the spring, and his track coach always wanted him to come out for track. But Derrick didn’t want to run track. He just didn’t want to come out for track.
Well, the track coach told him how much he really needed him, and Derrick liked the coach. So Derrick finally said, “Hey look, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. I’ll come out, and I’ll run one event in one track meet for you. And that’s it."
So he goes out there and trains a little bit, works on his start, and he runs the 100 in the county track meet. Now, the county track meet in Dade County has some really fast guys. Well, at that time, it was the 100-yard dash, and he goes out and runs a 9.6. He qualifies for state! That’s a big deal, now, to qualify state in the 100. So the coach comes by and says, “All right, we've got state next week, Derrick." And Derrick says, “Nah, I’m not going. I told you I was gonna run one event in one meet. That was it. I’m not running anymore.” (laughing) He was something now.
Warchant: When you look back at that story, it shows that some things change but some things stay the same. Even back then, there were high-profile recruits who would get all the attention, while some really talented players might go under the radar. At the end of the day, though, everybody'e pretty much equal when they get to campus, right?
Henshaw: Well, they should be all equal. That’s not always,100 percent the case. I’ll give you another example. When we first got here, the guy that I think did more to help Florida State go from one level to another level -- player-wise -- was Ron Simmons.
If you remember, back then, freshmen didn’t hardly play at all in college football. Well, to get Ron Simmons to come here, Coach Bowden told him that he would start his first game as a freshman. That’s what he promised him. And Ron Simmons was a linebacker at the time.
I was fortunate enough to be coaching defensive line, and Jack Stanton was our defensive coordinator back then -- an outstanding defensive coach. Well, I remember Jack saying that he didn’t know how Ron would be able to learn everything he’d need to know to start at linebacker in his first game. Plus we had some good linebackers at the time anyway. So Coach Bowden comes in the defensive staff room, and he says, “Guys, I promised Ron Simmons that he would start as a freshman. So y’all have to figure this out. Y’all have got 10 guys to put out there, and I’m gonna have one. When it comes to those 10, you can play whoever you want to, wherever you want to. But Ron Simmons is gonna start somewhere on that defense."
Well, the rest of that story is unbelievable, because we moved him to nose tackle, and of course he was a phenomenal player.
Q: From talking with Michael Langston, our recruiting reporter, it sounds like Willie Taggart's staff got hit with a good bit of negative recruiting in the early signing period. We've heard at least one player was turned off by all of the negativity coming from FSU's own fan base, and at least one other has held off on signing because other schools are telling him that Taggart might get fired if he doesn't turn things around in 2019. As a coach, how do you battle that type of negative recruiting? Was it prevalent when you were still coaching in colleges?
Henshaw: Negative recruiting has gone on forever. That’s not anything new. It’s just going to come down to who sells their story the best. You’ve got some coaches out there selling the idea that there’s something going wrong at a particular school, say Florida State. Well, it’s up to the school that is having the negative comments said about them to turn around and say, “Hey, look, things are not the way that we want right now. So you should come help us get it back to where we all want it.” It just comes down to the salesmanship at that point.
Warchant: While negative recruiting might not be new, this idea of taking negative comments from fans on message boards and social media -- and using them against their own school -- does seem new, if it's really happening.
Henshaw: That is one thing that's so much different from back when I was coaching in college. Back then, you didn’t have all the social media and things like that. It’s certainly much more challenging today. And there's no doubt in my mind that that is happening. Look at what they're doing with these players like Kyler Murray, who just won the Heisman Trophy. They're going back and finding these old posts on social media and using it against them. Don't you think they're doing the same thing in recruiting?
It's a difficult situation because you want a fan base that is passionate, and our fan base has great passion. But sometimes, I don’t think fans realize that anything you put out in social media -- that is very critical and can go public where anybody can see -- can go to the recruits. Or to the recruits’ parents. Or to a high school coach. Or to anybody who has any type of influence with a high school athlete.
And the thing about it is, it only takes one comment -- if another school takes it and uses it against you -- to make a recruit have second thoughts and even pick another school. And you’ll never know if that guy could have been the player who made the difference in the Florida game, or in another big game. So that’s something that has become a real challenge today.
Warchant: The problem is there’s not much a coaching staff can do about it. It kind of has to be up to the fans to control themselves.
Henshaw: The fans have to understand … look, I’m a fan. And I have to understand that what happened this year is not what any of us wanted. It’s not what the coaches wanted. It’s not what the players wanted. It’s not what the administration wanted. It’s not what the fans wanted. OK, so what are we gonna do about it in 2019? What happened in 2018, that’s over with and done. But how are we going to make 2019 the best that we can be.
Well, we all want to be passionate. We all want to support our team. But we need to understand that when we do things, there are consequences to our actions. And sometimes, we have to be careful that we don’t let our emotions get the best of us and we end up hurting the things we are passionate about.
Warchant: This obviously isn't unique to Florida State fans. We're probably hyper-sensitive to it because this is the program we follow. I think it all just speaks to the lack of patience in fans these days.
Henshaw: Well, I can understand that. Because I’m not a patient person, either. You can ask my wife and my kids. I am not a patient person by any stretch of the imagination.
And that’s not always a bad thing. I mean our fans want things to be great again. And we should be. I feel like we have an elite program. This is one of the top 10 jobs in the country, in my opinion. And I feel that way because of our ability to recruit compared to the people that we have to play against. And that’s been proven. For 14-15 years, we finished in the top four in the country. That is real. It happened.
And we as fans, one thing we should never do is lower our expectation levels of being an elite program. And when I say an elite program, I mean one of the teams in contention for the playoffs and paying for a national championship … those four teams in the playoff, plus Ohio State and Georgia. That’s where we should be. That’s what our expectations should be.
And we all have to ask ourselves, what can we do to get it back to what it was? It’s not just the coaches’ job. It’s not just one or two or three or five or 20 people’s jobs … it’s all of our responsibility to get it done. And sometimes we have to be careful because we want to help, but we can do things that are actually hurting.
You're correct though. This isn’t just Florida State fans that go through this. Don’t think for a second that when Georgia lost to LSU that those people up at Georgia weren’t mad. They were sick, man. They were on the coaching staff, the players and everybody else. And they’re upset again because they lost to Alabama, too. They were up two touchdowns and turn around and lose that game -- they’re upset up there too.
But you have to be careful of how you criticize sometimes. Because it can get back to a particular player that could make a difference. It's not even a matter of it can be used against your program ... you can just go ahead and figure it will be used against you.
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About Coach Henshaw
George 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 Bobby 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.
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