‘An impact player’

By Ryan Greene     Sep 2, 2004

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
Wide receiver Marcus Henry catches a short pass during workouts. The Kansas University freshman football player and the team practiced Tuesday afternoon at the Jayhawks practice fields.

Marcus Henry could become one of the Big 12 Conference’s elite football performers within two years, Kansas University coach Mark Mangino said.

That might be surprising, considering how easy it was to recruit the freshman wide receiver.

“You know it just goes to show you what an inexact science recruiting is,” Mangino said. “We spend thousands and thousands of dollars going around the country, calling kids, bringing kids in to visit. One 10-minute phone call and we got an impact player.”

A little more than a month ago, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Henry was planning to attend Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. His junior-college plans were cast aside after his eight-reception, 156-yard performance in the Oklahoma All-State game caught Mangino’s eye.

Henry had received looks from Tulsa and Texas Tech — and even some minor interest from Oklahoma and Oklahoma State — but just a week after the all-star game, he had a scholarship offer from Kansas.

“I took a visit the day before I signed,” Henry said. “They told me if I came up here I’d have a chance to play, so that kind of was my decision right there.”

At Eisenhower High in Lawton, Okla., Henry was a talent that nearly went unused. He caught just 22 passes as a senior, but averaged 23 yards a catch and scored five touchdowns. Basically, he was an afterthought in a run-first offense that featured tailback D.J. Wolfe, an Oklahoma signee who ran for 1,601 yards and 16 TDs.

Still, Henry garnered all-district honors, and coach Bill Whiteley called him the best receiver he had seen in his 27 years at the school.

The soft-spoken Henry vowed he had no complaints about how little he was used as a prep.

“We ran the ball a lot,” he said, “but as long as we were doing good, I didn’t mind.”

Henry’s breakout performance at the All-State game was July 30, and in the following week he had received an offer, taken a visit and ultimately signed with Kansas.

So far, any noise made by Henry strictly has come from his performance on the practice field. Literally.

“When he first got here, he’d sit over there at lunch by himself, and I told the guys ‘Hey, I’m gonna go sit with this new freshman,'” KU quarterback Adam Barmann said. “I thought maybe he was homesick or something, but he is just genuinely quiet. He doesn’t say much, he just does it on the field. He’ll make the play and hand the ball back to the official. He’s one of those old-school kind of guys.”

Mangino, too, has noticed Henry’s quiet demeanor.

“All I’ve got out of him is ‘hello’ and ‘hi,'” Mangino said. “He’s all business. He’s a great kid and comes from a great family. He’s a great catch for us. I’m really pleased to have a guy of that caliber this late.”

Barmann, for one, believes Henry will become more vocal once he becomes more comfortable around the whole college scene.

“It’s hard to get a read on him he’s so quiet, but I like to talk to him as much as I can,” the sophomore QB said. “When he’s around the guys he starts to open up a bit. I think he’s starting to come around.”

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