Coastal Carolina’s Henderson primed for even bigger things in ’15?

When a player finishes his first season as a starter ranked ninth at the entire FCS level in rushing, well, it’s hard to ask much more.

But junior running back De’Angelo Henderson showed Saturday night that he just might be even more of a weapon for Coastal Carolina this fall.

Henderson started the season off with the program’s second-highest single-game total for all-purpose yards, catching seven passes for 129 yards and rushing 15 times for 95 yards and a touchdown in the No. 5 Chanticleers’ 38-35 win at Furman.

Those 224 combined yards rank behind only Mike Tolbert’s 266-yard performance against VMI in 2007 and were tied for the ninth-best total (including players who also totaled return yardage) across the FCS in week one.

“I mean, De’Angelo is De’Angelo,” senior quarterback Alex Ross said.

Henderson was just five rushing yards away from becoming the first player in Big South history to total 100 yards rushing and 100 receiving in the same game. The receptions and receiving yards, meanwhile, were both career-highs and a peek at his potential in that regard this year.

After finishing last season with 33 catches for 289 yards – on top of his 1,534 rushing yards, of course – Henderson is expected to be more involved in the passing game this fall, which makes him an even more dynamic force.

“This offseason I really focused on working on my hands a lot more, just trying to be more involved in any possible way I could be to help the team,” Henderson said. “Coach said he was going to use me in the passing game a lot. It caught me by surprise how many times he threw me the ball, but it was pretty cool.”

Coastal Carolina head coach Joe Moglia indicated that was partly a product of how well Furman defended the Chants’ receivers downfield Saturday night, but offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude had suggested in the preseason that he wanted to find more ways to get the ball in Henderson’s hands.

Ross also said he has made a concerted effort to take more advantage of his check-down opportunities this fall.

“He’s phenomenal and he gets open. When I don’t have the passes down the field that I want to take, a large part of the game is being able to check the ball down. And if you want to be successful you have to be able to do that well,” he said. “They covered very well down the field tonight and I had to check the ball down more than maybe I wanted to tonight, but De’Angelo took advantage of that.”

Before this season is done, Ross and Henderson might both be battling for consideration for the Walter Payton Award – the FCS level’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

Even after his breakout campaign last fall, which also included 21 total touchdowns and an average of 6.6 yards per carry, Henderson challenged himself over the offseason with a new diet to better prepare his body for the rigors of the season.

He was inspired by the diet former Chant running back and current Baltimore Raven Lorenzo Taliaferro adopted before his record-setting 2013 season. By cutting out fast food, fried food and sugars and cooking for himself, Henderson commented last month how much better he felt and reiterated again Saturday night that he feels it translating to the field.

“I felt like Superman,” he said. “I just felt great. I had a lot of energy, didn’t get real tired, didn’t cramp. I just felt great. My diet, I love it now. Like I [said] before, I wish I did it earlier. I’m definitely going to continue that. I’ll probably push it even harder more now that I’ve seen the results of how I felt out there.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 7:40 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina’s Henderson primed for even bigger things in ’15?."