NORFOLK — It turns out there was a reason Old Dominion coach Ricky Rahne was noncommittal Saturday night when asked about linebacker Jason Henderson.
The Monarchs’ top player, in essence, has grudgingly decommitted.
Henderson, a two-time All-America performer who was twice among the nation’s leading tacklers, announced Sunday on social media that he has decided to “step away from being a football player” after struggling to overcome a major knee injury.
Henderson led the nation with 14.2 tackles per game in 2023. A season earlier, his 186 tackles led the country and threatened the NCAA single-season record.
A recurrence of a knee injury suffered late in the 2023 season cost him nearly all of 2024.
Henderson had five tackles in the Monarchs’ 27-14 season-opening loss at Indiana two Saturdays ago.
“Almost two years now I have been trying to get to a point to where I can return to the football field and confidently give my all as I always do when I’m on that field,” Henderson wrote Sunday on Instagram. “Through this process, I have tested my mental and physical strength to the max. I have done everything in my power to be as physically and mentally prepared to give it my all one last time. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get to the point to where I can maintain playing at a competitive level again.”
A senior from Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania, Henderson was conspicuously absent from Saturday’s 54-6 win over North Carolina Central.
Asked about Henderson’s condition after the game, Rahne said he was still with the team.
“You’re injured, and you feel better, and then you don’t feel better,” Rahne said. “I mean, all of us feel that way, right?
“Obviously, we’re working through some things, and so we just need to make sure we continue to support him.”
An ODU spokesman confirmed Henderson’s announcement Sunday evening.
Over the course of his career, Henderson became the face of ODU football. He was one of the top-rated players in EA Sports’ College Football 25 video game.
Henderson said football has been “everything” to him since the fifth grade.
A former high school wrestling star who brought his grappling moves to the football field, Henderson tore his ACL, MCL, MPFL and meniscus in the 2023 injury.
The game, he wrote, taught him lessons and gave him “a second family.”
“I took advantage of each and every opportunity given to me,” Henderson wrote. “I was blessed enough to accomplish things that I couldn’t have ever dreamed of as a football player and I feel as if I have done all I could and given everything I possibly could to the sport of football. Football will forever be a part of me. I’m forever thankful.”
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.
