Countdown to Kickoff: No 56
Eric Henderson
The countdown to kickoff is officially on as Georgia Tech‘s season-opening matchup at Colorado on Aug. 29 is less than 100 days away.
Until then JOL will be counting it down with one Jackets’ player daily that wore the corresponding number of days remaining until toe meets leather in Boulder.
With it now 56 days until kickoff in Boulder, today’s focus is on No. 56 Eric Henderson, who was an impact defensive lineman during his career on The Flats from 2001-2005, racking up 59.5 tackles-for-loss to lead the program all-time in that category along with compiling 25 sacks, which is good enough for fourth on the all-time list for the Jackets.
Henderson came to Georgia Tech in the 2001 recruiting class out of Edna Karr High in New Orleans, Louisiana, picking the Jackets over several other offers. After a redshirt year on The Flats, he played sparingly in 2002 but really made a name for himself during his redshirt-sophomore season in 2003, exploding for 24 tackles-for-loss and 11 sacks as he started all 13 games at defensive end on his way to a First-Team All-ACC selection.
Henderson followed that up with strong showings as a junior and senior in 2004 and 2005 and finished with 30 total tackles, 10 tackles-for-loss and 7.5 sacks during his senior campaign despite only playing in eight games due to missing some time with an injury. In all, he was named the ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week three times in his career and was a two-time All-ACC Second-Team pick after his All-ACC First Team season in 2003.
After completing his career at Tech, Henderson wasn’t picked in the 2006 NFL Draft but signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals where he played for three seasons from 2006-2008. He then went on to play three seasons with the Las Vegas Locomotives from 2009-2011 and was a part of two United Football League Championships during that time.
After his playing career came to an end, Henderson quickly made the transition to coaching, spending time as a defensive assistant at Georgia Military College, a graduate assistant and defensive quality control coach at Oklahoma State and a defensive line coach at Texas-San Antonio (UTSA) before getting his first coaching gig in the NFL as an assistant defensive line coach with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2017.
In 2019 Henderson was hired as defensive line coach by the Los Angeles Rams and eventually worked his way up to both defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator. He stayed on with the Rams through the 2023 season, winning a Super Bowl in the process.
Prior to the 2024 season, Henderson returned to the college game as he was named co-defensive coordinator, defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach at USC under head coach Lincoln Riley.
Honorable Mention
–Hall Miller (offensive lineman from 1949-1952, co-captain of the 1952 GT national championship team, two-time All-SEC selection, unanimous All-American in 1952, drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fifth round of the 1953 NFL Draft, member of the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame, the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame)
