Henry carries tremendous load
PULLMAN – Considering the way Chris Henry’s career has been, the Arizona junior running back had a career against Washington State on Saturday.
He ground out 94 yards on a school-record 35 carries and scored two touchdowns as the Wildcats stunned the 25th-ranked Cougars 27-17 at rain-drenched Martin Stadium.
“As far as running the ball, this is the best game I’ve had,” Henry said. “This is the most carries I’ve been given. The more carries you get as a running back, the more confidence you gain each time you run the ball.”
Coming into the game, the 6-foot, 215-pounder had 164 carries for 512 yards and three touchdowns spread over 31 games, mostly as a backup and on special teams. He played in two games as a true freshman (one against WSU), but was injured and received a medical redshirt.
Henry started the first two games this season before an academic misstep got him suspended for the third game, which happened to be against I-AA Stephen F. Austin. His replacement, Chris Jennings, had a career day with 201 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries.
The Wildcats running game was held to negative yards the next three games. They discovered the running game at Stanford, with Henry getting 91 yards on 16 carries – both career highs – but that didn’t prepare him for Saturday’s workload.
“When it was the fourth quarter, when there was like 10 minutes left and they kept giving me the ball and I kept getting first downs, I knew it was all good,” Henry said. “If they give me the ball, I was going to get first downs.
“When I’m tired like at the beginning of the play, as soon as Willie (Tuitama, the quarterback) says ‘hike,’ I’m not tired, I just run full speed. I was a little winded, but it was cool. The O-line stepped up big tonight and I just ran wherever they had a hole.”
Henry wasn’t spectacular, but the results were spectacular.
His longest run was 19 yards, but that came on a draw play on third-and-17 early in the fourth quarter.
“The linemen blocked that perfectly,” Henry said. “It looked like it was drawn on up paper.”
Although that series ended with a punt, Henry carried seven times for 30 yards, helping chew up more than 6 minutes.
“I thought Chris ran exceptionally well,” Wildcats coach Mike Stoops said. “He really protected the football and got us some tough yards in there. … To really grind out two or three first downs right at the end of the game was really good to see, and that helped us finish off the game.”
Arizona converted on 9 of 18 third downs and one fourth down and had the ball 11 more minutes than the Cougars,
“What were our numbers? They were not very good,” WSU defensive coordinator Rob Akey said of the inability to make stops on third down. “The one that stands out in my head, we’ve got 7 minutes to get the ball back for our offense and go get two scores. We get them in third and forever and they run the draw that went for quite a while.”
Four Wildcats had carried the ball 34 times in a game, the most recent being Trung Canidate against the Cougars in 1999.
“Every running back thinks about a game like this when you can help your team out and run the ball hard, lead your team to a victory,” Henry said. “It definitely feels good.”