2025 4* RB Alvin Henderson Flips From Penn St To AU!

[ellitor 33,668]

32 minutes ago, Viper said:

Jason Campbell played in a 1A or 2A program in MS.

Another great outlier to the norm.

[Auburn93 732]

38 minutes ago, ellitor said:

We nor any team would recruit him.

1A in Georgia is like 3A in Alabama.

Stuffing the stat sheet vs bad compririon is worth leeping an eye on. Most aren't saying Alvin will or won't transition well to college ball. The fact is the acclimation curve is much steeper than if he had better HS competition.

He is a role player. I think he has traditional good college speed unlike a few of the slow small backs we have signed in the recent past.

[Auburn93 732]

37 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Another great outlier to the norm.

JC was also rated as one of the top three quarterbacks that year. He was a major national talent desired by everyone. Henderson is not that highly rated.

[DAG 34,552]

What’s going on here? Now that he is committed the questioning gets started?  If you are talented you are talented. 

[yngwie1995 2,324]

6 minutes ago, DAG said:

What’s going on here? Now that he is committed the questioning gets started?  If you are talented you are talented. 

Agreed. There's a reason he's a 4*, and had a ton of offers. And there's a reason Hugh Freeze was in contact with him daily and never gave up. 

[Sizzle 3,948]

47 minutes ago, Auburn93 said:

Henderson is not that highly rated.

According to who?

[yngwie1995 2,324]

12 minutes ago, Sizzle said:

According to who?

I think he means compared to what Jason Campbell was rated? 

[ellitor 33,668]

1 hour ago, Auburn93 said:

C was also rated as one of the top three quarterbacks that year. He was a major national talent desired by everyone.

Yes I know.

1 hour ago, Auburn93 said:

Henderson is not that highly rated.

Not JC highly rated but 2 sites have him top 60 overall & top 5 at his position. Nothing to sneeze about.

[ellitor 33,668]

56 minutes ago, DAG said:

What’s going on here? Now that he is committed the questioning gets started?  If you are talented you are talented. 

We are Auburn fans. We are always questioning things. Sometimes over question.

[Bro Johnny Mac 1,450]

3 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

I was referring to his stats. If you think he averages 15 ypc in a high classification, well good for you. Great comparison pulling Marshall out tho. For every Marshall, there are dozens in 1A that never make it. That's more the reality. But I never said he wouldn't. I said the inflated stats are because of the 175 lb DL and 150lb LBs he plays against every week. It's not rocket science.

His offer sheet speaks louder than his stats..

[AU-24 3,128]

6 hours ago, Bro Johnny Mac said:

His offer sheet speaks louder than his stats..

I know, you beat me to it plus he is a freaking four-star. Should he not be a four-star because he played for a small school? This is a good get!

[ellitor 33,668]

5 hours ago, AU-24 said:

I know, you beat me to it plus he is a freaking four-star. Should he not be a four-star because he played for a small school? This is a good get!

Nobody is saying or implying he shouldn't be a 4* because he did what he was supposed to do vs low tier competition. His ability to be productive vs SEC competition is a legit question for now. In sum, what he did in 1A ball shouldn't be dismussed, nor should it be overhyped either.

[tinman1 506]

13 hours ago, ellitor said:

We are Auburn fans. We are always questioning things. Sometimes over question.

Truer words were never spoken!

[lca408 379]

14 hours ago, Bro Johnny Mac said:

His offer sheet speaks louder than his stats..

This. More than half of the FBS coaching staffs have extended him an offer, including a hell of a lot of P5s. Freeze and Co. have recruited him just about the hardest of anyone in the class so far (at least consistently and longer). I’m concerned about lack of competition too but the dude is clearly talented. Playing in 6A might negate some of the crazy numbers he has but wouldn’t negate his potential to be a fantastic RB

[Viper 3,457]

17 hours ago, ellitor said:

Another great outlier to the norm.

Yup and a great factoid. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,300]

7 hours ago, lca408 said:

This. More than half of the FBS coaching staffs have extended him an offer, including a hell of a lot of P5s. Freeze and Co. have recruited him just about the hardest of anyone in the class so far (at least consistently and longer). I’m concerned about lack of competition too but the dude is clearly talented. Playing in 6A might negate some of the crazy numbers he has but wouldn’t negate his potential to be a fantastic RB

I agree. He has visited multiple schools and I am sure they have all measured him and timed him with different drills like the  shuttle, the 10 yard dash the 40 yard dash, maybe even had him benchpress. The fact that so many schools have seen him and want him means he is talented. 

When coaches watch film and games they can see certain things against any level of competition. A RB's vision, how quick he can stop and re-accelerate, how the RB users his blockers, If he can cut on a dime, etc. A good recruiter when he watches film often has a stop watch with him, so he can time acceleration out of a stop or a cut.  That accleration speed is there regardless of competition.

Any player would look better against weaker competition but a good recruiter takes that into consideration he also knows which players on the other team may be Power 5 type competition and the recruiter can compare how the RB does against that player. Recruiting is both a science and also a feel for the game that they can see in players they are recruiting.

Edited June 22 by AuburnNTexas

[LPTiger 5,455]

Imagine a day when we have 22 starters each rated top 5 in the country at their position....   Would we hesitate for a moment to take that?   Watch the young man's film.   His vision is very good.   He breaks tackles. He accelerates.   He is not afraid of talent.    His size and speed plays at every level.   There are many very good lower level football teams in Alabama.   They lack depth...

[Hank2020 3,283]

12 hours ago, ellitor said:

Nobody is saying or implying he shouldn't be a 4* because he did what he was supposed to do vs low tier competition. His ability to be productive vs SEC competition is a legit question for now. In sum, what he did in 1A ball shouldn't be dismussed, nor should it be overhyped either.

I thought the players from small programs usually get the stars from the camps ( up against better competition).

[ellitor 33,668]

49 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

I thought the players from small programs usually get the stars from the camps ( up against better competition).

@Hank2020Sometimes. They can't always make it to camps though. Also judging RBs abilities at camps is very difficult to do given the strucrure & lay out of camps.

[TeamZero77 1,908]

Nearly every big school recruited Alvin and this has gone all the way back to 9th grade. In a recent interview he said after he committed to Penn State that Freeze, Norvell, Kirby Smart, Kalen DeBoer, Kiffin, Cristobal and others started recruiting him even harder. Kirby and Dell McGee showed up to Alvin's school. Freeze and Derrike Nix, Mike Norvell, DeBoer and all those coaches were still coming to his school. 

I won't lie, I was kinda worried awhile back because he plays against 1A competition. After watching and reading his interviews and the way he talked about how hard all these top coaches STILL recruit him, that eased my mind a ton. These coaches know football and football recruiting 100x's more than I do. If they're still fighting this hard for a RB from 1A Elba High School, then that tells me they think he's definately worthy of being a starter in the SEC, BIG10, ACC, etc. 

I'm very happy we flipped this guy and I hope we can hang on to him. WDE Alvin!!

[cbo 8,556]

Like any other recruit, we don't know if he will work out. But he's highly rated by coaches and recruiting sites, which means something. This is a big recruiting win. 

If you want to nitpick something, it should be why he was so hard to land. Will he stay? I'm not that worried about it but that's the bigger question for me. 

[Hank2020 3,283]

11 hours ago, ellitor said:

@Hank2020Sometimes. They can't always make it to camps though. Also judging RBs abilities at camps is very difficult to do given the strucrure & lay out of camps.

Appreciate the info. Makes alot of sense to me.

[Quietmaninthecorner 2,029]

I see being 1A  from a different perspective.

When I first started coaching baseball.  I had just moved and was in a VERY small town where I knew nobody and no one knew me.   This was the equivalent of a 1A league.

My son was 5.  We joined a 5 and under league.   Kids were assigned teams.   I said "I don't care,  just give me a team."

Turns out,  the locals (as normal) knew the good players and families.  But they stacked one team with the best players at the expense of mine.   I got only  scraps.  I only had 9 players.  other teams had 14 .  The big team had 18... They were undefeated and had never been behind in a game even for one inning.     1 of my kids was only 4 years old.  One was 3 and only sat in the field and cried. ( we are talking Bad News Bears 1 type team here)

BUT!!!!    One of the kids had crack addicted parents. (the reason he was put on my team).    Only saw his parents one time.  This kid lived with his grandparents. (granddad was obviously a baseball aficionado)    This kid was the most talented baseball player I have ever seen.   He had perfect fundamentals and form.  Always hit the ball and got on base.  Could hit, catch and throw amazingly well compared to kids 3-4 years older than he was.  He understood the game of baseball at 4  years old.  He was my star player,  and better than anyone else in the league BY FAR!  Just naturally a baseball player.  HE had  gift from God!  Esp when he was being serious.

I have heard that coaches can coach for decades and only have 1 player with the telnet that MAY go pro.  I had mine on my first team!  He was a prodigy.

This kid would have ben a 5* where ever he played.    Tiny town or big city.    

He was  also hilarious and entertaining to watch!  He was so good it was like watching the king and his court.    He was actually bored with the game.  He would literally MOCK the game of baseball when he knew he was doing well.      i.e.  When he would hit the ball hard enough and far enough he would run in slow motion,  squat down and "duck walk" the bases.       Often,  Kids on third base ,  and even second base, would score before this kid would duck walk out of the batters box.    (vid link below.  BTW the kid refused to use a properly weighted bat in this game he wanted to use his cousins  31 oz -ish bat  other videos show his form and fundamentals but this shows how entertaining he was to watch. )

Turns out in the championship game  we were beating the stacked team for the first 3 innings.  The stack team came back and won in the 4th, but we had their ball sacks shriveled up for over an hour!   LOL

 

THE SAD:   the kids crack parents took back custody of the kid and he never played ball again.

 

TLDR:  Talent can come from anywhere.

 

^^ Ironically, the two nerdiest players in the league were both named Richard and they meet in the vid above. 

IF you made it this far,  I have dozens of stories about this kid and that specific team. 

Edited June 23 by Quietmaninthecorner

[RunInRed 18,112]

[AUBwins 10,257]

36 minutes ago, RunInRed said: