Film Room: Coach Kingsbury finds way to use freshman running back

When you score 63 points in one game, there are bound to be some great performances. While Antoine Wesley broke the Texas Tech single game record for receiving yards and Alan Bowman broke the Big 12 freshman single game yards mark, another performance caught my eye. True freshman Ta’Zhawn Henry scored 4 touchdowns on the ground against Houston this past weekend, a mark that hasn’t been achieved since Deandre Washington did it in 2015 against a ranked TCU team.

Henry did something that was impressive to me, as he also had over 100 yards rushing. Henry had the benefit of a great offensive line to lead him the entire game, but his burst in the open field is what separated him in this game.

This first play that I dissected was Henry’s touchdown on the sweep play. This play in particular was special because it was the first time I can remember a pitch play working for the Red Raiders this year. With Da’Leon Ward as our main running back, most of the plays come towards the interior of the field, with Ward using blockers and his elusiveness to gain yards. On this play, left tackle Dawson Deaton and fullback Donte Thompson pull out to the left side of the play while the rest of the offensive line contain the remainder of the defensive players.

Deaton on this play is working on pinning the outside shading linebacker to the interior of the play, something that he does very well in this instance. Thompson has the key block on this play as his job is to keep the strong side safety away from Henry. The combination of these two key blocks along with blocks from receivers Ja’Deion High and Antoine Wesley allow for Henry to have a huge running lane between the hash and the numbers. Henry turned on the jets, get to the outside hash, and score 6 points.

This next play was similar to the last one, as Henry was able to get to the outside easily for a score. This was more of a power play, as left guard and tackle Dawson Deaton and Jacob Hines pulled around the right side for give Henry extra blocking.

Hines hooks the defensive end and pushes him back toward the interior of the field. Deaton gives the outside linebacker enough pause when he comes around for the defender to miss Henry coming around the outside. Give credit again to Donte Thompson for getting up on the strong side safety giving Henry a running lane.

No matter when Da’Leon Ward and Tre King get back from injury, this freshman should get ample playing time from here on out. His explosion out of backfield is unmatched on this team and I fully expect for him to one day take strong hold of this backfield. His versatility is unmatched as a running back as in addition to leading the team in rushing carries and yards, he is also fifth on the team in catches.

What do you all think of Henry? Let us know in the comment section below!