‘Crazy’ good: ODU sophomore Jason Henderson is close to becoming college football’s single-season tackles leader

On Nov. 6, 1869, Rutgers beat New Jersey (later to be called Princeton) 6-4 in history’s first college football game.

Since then, tens of thousands of players have donned evolving equipment over the decades to play an ever-changing game.

Not one of them has done what Jason Henderson could soon do.

The Old Dominion sophomore linebacker leads the nation with 166 tackles this season. With 28 more in the Monarchs’ final two games, he’ll break the single-season Football Bowl Subdivision record of 193, set by Texas Tech’s Lawrence Flugence in 2002.

Lawrence Taylor never did it. Neither did Dick Butkus or Randy White or Lee Roy Selmon or Mean Joe Greene — or any of the college game’s all-time greatest defensive players.

But the soft-spoken Henderson, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound native of Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, isn’t overly anxious to talk about the possible — even likely — record.

“There’s a lot more on my mind,” he said. “I do have the time every once in a while to think about it. But for me, it’s not as much personal as it is for the team. I would definitely like for a lot more successes to come for everything around the program than just for myself.”

Henderson also leads the nation with 16.6 tackles per game. The single-season FBS record is 15.9, set by Boston College’s Luke Kuechly in 2011.

Based on probability alone, Henderson should break both records by the time ODU (3-7, 2-4 Sun Belt) finishes the season on Nov. 26 at South Alabama.

First comes Saturday’s game at Appalachian State (5-5, 2-4), where Henderson will attempt to continue to amaze his coach.

Monarchs head man Ricky Rahne has marveled at Henderson’s unstoppable motor.

“He’s made tackles in the box. He’s made tackles outside the numbers,” Rahne said. “So I think that that’s been really, really incredible. Also, you’ve got to be tough. You’ve got to play in all of these plays. You’ve got to play in all these games.

“I think that’s the thing that probably hasn’t been talked about enough, is to be able to be tough and durable enough to be able to do that. And that’s something that’s been really, really special as well.”

Henderson’s season has been dotted with unprecedented performances. On Sept. 24 against Arkansas State, he set a single-game school record with 21 tackles.

Four weeks later against Georgia Southern, he broke his own record with 22 stops.

A former standout high school wrestler, Henderson has put more ball-carriers on the ground this season than any other player in Sun Belt history.

Of note: Flugence set the FBS record in 14 games. Henderson will have played in 12.

Henderson credits ODU’s strength and conditioning staff for his durability. Offseason workouts, he said, prepared him for anything.

His other explanation is tied to his passion for the game and his pursuit of perfection.

“Football is something that I’ve loved my whole entire life,” Henderson said. “I try not to take for granted the opportunity of being on the field. If there’s a play where I’m jogging, and I see maybe a touchdown scored, I go back on the film and I see that maybe if I was sprinting, I could’ve made that play and prevented a touchdown. That’s something that I would regret, and when I’m on the field, I don’t want to have any plays that I kind of regret doing.”

Most of the regret belongs to ball-carriers who are funneled Henderson’s way. Rahne contrasted Henderson’s numbers with those of a record-setting baseball power hitter, who needs players ahead of him to get on base to prevent intentional walks and dangerous hitters behind him for protection.

“But for the most part, it’s individual,” Rahne said, using New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge as an example. “This one, while the tackles are an individual stat, you do need everybody else around you to force the ball where it needs to go and things like that. And then you also have to perform on your own individual level.

“It’s obviously a very special season.”

Teammates who have both played alongside and gone up against Henderson in practice have called him “crazy,” a reference to his madman’s approach to chasing tackles.

Though he doesn’t count tackles in his head as he’s racking them up, Henderson admits he knows exactly how many he needs to take his place in FBS lore.

But he’s trying not to dwell on it.

“For me, it’s something I don’t want to put in my head too much,” Henderson said. “That hasn’t happened yet. If it does happen, obviously, I’ll have more thoughts of it. But as of now, I’ve just got to keep playing football and go each game. I have to go each practice, getting better, making sure that I know what I’m doing for each play so that I can make tackles and stuff like that.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonlline.com

Old Dominion at Appalachian State, 2:30 p.m.

On the air: ESPN+, 94.1 FM

The Monarchs (3-7, 2-4 Sun Belt): Playing in a regular-season game without the possibility of bowl eligibility for the first time under coach Ricky Rahne, ODU’s players will have to find internal motivation. Rahne admitted that there are probably a few players on his roster who haven’t fully bought in to his “1-0″ approach, and he believes they’ll quickly reveal themselves. The Monarchs are searching for offense; they haven’t scored a touchdown in 10 quarters. Their offensive line will need to find cohesion to turn things around and avoid finishing the season with six straight losses.

The Mountaineers (5-5, 2-4): App State has lost consecutive games to Coastal Carolina and Marshall, two of the Sun Belt East’s better teams. The Mountaineers, picked before the season to win the East, have largely underachieved. QB Chase Brice (2,377 passing yards, 25 TDs, six INTs), who has played for Clemson and Duke, leads an offense that Rahne called “very balanced.” With 34.4 points per game, App State is second in the Sun Belt in scoring.