EXCLUSIVE: Unbelievable MSU RB Target Reveals Improvements
2027 running back Jance Henry should be called "the Martian" because he has a seemingly out-of-this-world ability to play the running back position.
Just a sophomore in high school, the 5-foot-8, 200-pound running back's bench press sits over 300 pounds. His squat is around 450 and his deadlift is a back-hurts-just-reading-this 550 pounds. As for a 40 time, he runs a 4.62.
Here's the thing: 40 times do not matter in running backs like they do in wide receivers or defensive backs.
Why? The great Sports Illustrated writer and perhaps one of the best football minds to ever grace journalism, Paul Zimmerman, put it like this in his "The New Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football", one of the quintessential works on the sport:
"Running back is a position governed by instinct and … the great ones usually run with their feet close the ground—Sayers, Brown, Jimmy Taylor, Perry, they all did it. ... The actual mechanism of carrying the football slows people down … Pure track athletes who pop up in the pro football drafts come in as wide receivers, occasionally as defensive backs, but seldom as running backs. Their speed is used for running without the ball."
That being said, Central Valley coach Mark Lyons believes that Henry's speed is overlooked.
"I don't think he gets enough credit," Lyons said. " ... Because he don't have that long gait, that long stride that looks like he's covering ground," Lyons said. "But I tell you what -- there's several clips on his Hudl where people have gotten angles on him, and they haven't gotten to him ... When you're running in a pair of shorts in a place where everybody's got a stopwatch on you, opposed to putting equipment on and somebody is chasing you, and they haven't caught you, that's more impressive than a clock time in my opinion."
Michigan State running backs coach Keith Bhonapha would have a lot to work with. But for all of the raw gifts Henry possesses, he is still managing to improve in Year 2 of high school. The area he is improving might spell doom for opposing defenses for years to come.
"My vision," Henry told me. "Last year, I was just running just to run. This year, me and my coaches really sat down and studied film. We looked at what I could do better, what holes I could be hitting more. And then just accelerating. Once I hit that second level ... I feel like I exceeded on that a lot."
Michael France is Sports Illustrated's Michigan State recruiting beat writer, covering all things Big Ten recruiting for Spartan Nation. Be sure to follow him on Twitter/X@michaelfrancesi for exclusive Spartans recruiting coverage.
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