Quarterbacks are not fragile.
Quarterbacks are expected to be the emotional rock of their respective teams.
The highs and lows of the season and the emotions of their teammates swirl around them, but the quarterback is expected to maintain an essence of normalcy.
For Mike Henig, however, the off-season has been anything but normal.
The redshirt sophomore started off the spring on a huge upturn. He shined in the team’s three scrimmages and earned the coaches’ praise with Most Improved Offensive Player honors for his skillful command on the Bulldogs’ offense.
Henig was 33 for 61 in the scrimmages, passing for 333 yards and five touchdowns against only one interception.
During summer school, however, Henig took a huge misstep.
The sophomore took an arrant step and broke his toe on a staircase, sidelining him for most of the summer conditioning program.
Surgery was required, and Henig was sidelined until the opening part of fall drills.
Henig is practicing now, but is still not quite 100 percent.
“It slowed me down some in the summer, but even then I was on the bike everyday and still working hard,” Henig admitted. “I felt like I had worked hard enough to handle an injury like that.”
Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom said that Henig is almost back to normal now, but he’s still being careful with him.
“The key right now is to keep him protected and to keep guys off of him so that he doesn’t re-injure it,” Croom said.
Henig’s fall sessions have been focused more on acclimation and leadership than skill honing.
Croom is looking for a signal caller that can march his vaunted West Coast scheme up and down the field with authority.
He needs a field general.
This will be Henig’s first full season as the Bulldogs’ signal caller, and he is starting to learn what that spotlight is all about.
“Last year it was Omarr (Conner) that everyone was looking to for leadership and guidance,” Henig said. “Now it’s me. I have to understand that this is my team. We’ve got guys that want to win, and that’s what we expect.”
Henig has an unquestioned ability to handle himself in the pocket, but Croom is still trying to teach his young quarterback the value of smart decision making.
“He’s got such a good arm that he wants to throw the ball down the field all the time,” Croom said. “If it’s there fine but if it’s not there, I want to hit the guy that’s open and let him run for the yards.
“That’s the key part of the offense. If you don’t have your first option, you have to be able to find your second and third options, and do it very quickly,” Croom added.
Both Croom and Henig expect more from the Bulldog offense than was the case last season when the team managed only 1,524 yards passing for the year and averaged only 13.9 points per game.
Henig’s development and maturity will play a huge part in the realization of those expectations, although from Henig’s point of view, the new crop of Bulldog wide receivers will make the season’s goals much more attainable.
“We’ve got some receivers that want to go out there and make plays, and that’s always nice for a quarterback,” Henig said.
Henig is backed up at quarterback by 6-foot-1 Tray Rutland, a redshirt freshman from Decatur, Ga.