MSU Mankato star goes from walk-on to tackles leader

Tyler Henderson is a "ferocious" competitor, his coach says, a linebacker whose passion for winning oozes out of him. In fact, his intensity is visible from across the football field.

It erupts from under his helmet, flows down his shoulders, curls across his pads. Henderson's long blond hair is a trademark of Minnesota State Mankato's defense — but it's also a personal yearlong victory lap for the linebacker who wears it. Let this be a lesson to ballcarriers: Henderson won't give up until he's beaten you. And not even then.

"A friend from high school bet me who could grow his hair longer," the Mavericks' leading tackler, a former walk-on playing in his hometown, said with a laugh. "He lasted a year and a half, maybe."

That was more than a year ago, but Henderson, having established himself in the interim as an enemy to barbers and backs alike, chose not to return to his lifelong, buzz-cut look. He won the bet, and he's still winning it.

"That hair is the last thing a running back sees," said Todd Hoffner, the coach who has guided the Mavericks to an undefeated season and the school's first Division II championship game against Colorado State-Pueblo on Saturday in Kansas City.

It's been a remarkable season for the No. 1-ranked Mavericks, who were briefly in the national spotlight when Hoffner was reinstated in April by an arbitrator who ruled that he had been wrongly fired during a controversy over naked photos of his children. The players protested at first, then eventually welcomed Hoffner back by roaring through the regular season and playoffs, scoring 600 points and going 14-0 entering Saturday's national championship game.

And on defense, the Mankato West grad with the hair of Hercules has been in the middle of it.

"Tyler's been playing very well all year long," Hoffner said, "but in the playoffs, he's got another speed, another gear."

Good thing, too, or Minnesota State would be watching today's title game on ESPN2. After a season in which MSU trailed in the fourth quarter for a total of 79 seconds all season, the Mavericks were handed a huge challenge to open the playoffs: Pittsburg State. The longtime Kansas powerhouse, 11-1 and just three years removed from its last national championship, held Minnesota State to just 21 points in regulation, less than half of its 44-point regular-season average, then forced the Mavericks to kick a field goal to open overtime.

Henderson had been having a typically do-everything game, roaming the field for a team-high 13 tackles, three of them in the backfield. But as Pittsburg State lined up for its shot at spoiling the Mavericks' extraordinary season, he never suspected he was about to do something extraordinary himself.

"I was just doing my job," Henderson said. "It wouldn't have happened if my teammates hadn't been doing theirs, too."

Pittsburg State, wary of a grind-it-out overtime battle "decided to go for the jugular on the very first play," Hoffner said, trying to surprise MSU by calling a deep pass play to a tailback that they had never used before. Henderson followed a tight end who was in motion, and when the ball was snapped, rotated over to pick up the tailback, who headed for the end zone.

"That guy was Tyler's responsibility, and he recognized it, caught up to him, and got in trail position," Hoffner said. "The ball was underthrown, and Tyler turned around just in time."

"It was like the ball fell into my lap," Henderson said of the first interception of his career which ended the game.

In some ways, Henderson himself fell into the Mavericks' lap. He was a three-year starting safety at Mankato West on two Big Nine Conference championship teams, but figured he would end up at St. Cloud State for college, since his brother had played there. But in a mixup, his film was lost, delaying his recruitment there. While he waited, MSU assistant coach Brian Bell called and arranged a workout.

"I met the coaches, worked out for them, and love it here" Henderson said. It meant walking on to the team, but he didn't mind; by the end of his first year, the Mavericks put him on scholarship.

He also put on 40 pounds, grew 2 inches, and moved from safety to outside linebacker, where he has thrived, leading the Mavericks in tackles for two consecutive seasons. He solidified the best defense in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, a unit that has allowed only 180 points in 14 games, or 12.9 points per game.

Oh, and he also stopped cutting his hair.

"I don't mind the hair. At least it's his natural color," Hoffner said. "But he grew a mustache this season and dyed it black. I don't know, I guess he likes it."

As long as the Mavericks are winning, he does.

Phil Miller • 612-673-7011