2021 Recruit Colin Henrich Talks Unique Experience of Receiving Offer from LSU Football During a Mid-Term

In his sophomore year, 2021 offensive guard recruit Colin Henrich was in the middle of a religion mid-term when his coach pulled him out of the classroom to deliver some interesting news.

"LSU just offered you," coach Pat Ward said.

"Really, who offered me from LSU?" Henrich replied.

"Well coach Orgeron offered you from LSU," Ward said.

"I remember I couldn't really take the test because I was so excited, I mean it's LSU," Henrich said. "So the moral of the story is don't get pulled out of your mid-term exam to be told about an offer because you end up failing that exam. I retook it so it's all good now but I really appreciate LSU for giving me the offer. It sort of solidified my style of play because I know LSU is famous for their offensive linemen."

Henrich, a native Washington D.C. with no real ties to the LSU program, recalled names of past LSU greats like Kevin Mawae and most recently Lloyd Cushenberry to symbolize the rich history of offensive linemen.

"The interior offensive line for LSU is elite and it can be shown through this draft and through history," Henrich said. "My dad played at South Carolina and played against LSU. It was pouring down rain but he said that they are just monsters up front, their technique, their size and the knowledge they have for the game is very respectable and it shows to this day."

Henrich has been training for the college level since he was five years old. He comes from a family of offensive linemen, starting with his father, Charles, an interior o-lineman for the Gamecocks who was recruited by Joe Paterno at Penn State and Steve Spurrier at Florida before ultimately settling in on South Carolina.

"From the jump, he's allowed me to have an open mind throughout the process," Henrich said. "He has a knowledge and understands what I'm going through and just breaking down the process for me which makes everything so much easier."

Just a few of the schools that have shown the most interest in the 6-foot-3, 300-pound center have been LSU, Boston College, West Virginia, Army and Kentucky. For Henrich it's been a nice mixture of independent, SEC, ACC and Big-12 schools that are interested in bringing him aboard.

Ideally he would like to commit sometime during the summer before school starts up but the coronavirus has pushed those plans back a bit. He wants to make the most informed decision at the best possible time because that's where he'll spend the next three or four years.

While the calls haven't been as frequent in recent months on the LSU side of things, Henrich receives mail all of the time from the Tigers.

"I think of it as a complete honor to receive interest from such a high program like that," Henrich. "You send four drafted and signed offensive linemen, it tells me they're doing something right developing those players and that I'm doing something right for them to show interest in me."

Until the time comes when Henrich is ready to pull the trigger and commit to a school, he's working out twice a day to make sure he's prepared to finish his high school career off the right way.

He'll wake up at 5:45 a.m., go through various drills including ladders, jump rope and stair jumps, then go outside where he works on pass sets for footwork purposes. In the afternoons, Henrich can be seen running hills and pushing 50-pound sand bags which he runs in his pass and run block positions.

"Nobody's perfect so I'm constantly looking at videos on how to improve my technique," Henrich said. "Everything that I eat and do is all with the end goal of improving my technique."

When he was down for a visit during the LSU-Texas A&M game, he made sure to study the footwork and technique of Cushenberry and was able to learn a lot.

"He has a pretty great pass set going on so I watched how he prepared during warmups, how he did it in the game and I try to emulate parts of his game into mine," Henrich said. "That was a crazy experience, I pretty much grew up watching SEC football and I had the most fun down there.

"It fit my personality so well. I mean random people would just come up to me and start striking up conversation about Louisiana and the culture there. We drove down 22 hours to get the full experience but it was a good time."