Ryan Carty was jilted, as college football recruiters frequently are in their quest for high school prospects.
This one stung a little bit extra, because Carty had been the first to offer a scholarship, showing faith in a quarterback some felt may not have the physical make-up.
His eyes visualized something others had not yet, a talented if undersized quarterback with playmaking potential.Nolan Henderson did not end up in the New Hampshire uniform Carty wanted to put him in.
But now, on the rebound, Henderson is Carty’s quarterback at Delaware, and both seem delighted that their football fates have suddenly and ironically become intertwined.
“I liked him a lot when I was recruiting him, just as a person also,” Carty said.
That admiration has only grown the past eight months.
Years later, Ryan Carty is glad for the chance to coach Nolan Henderson
Carty is now in his first year as head coach at Delaware, where he’ll call the plays in the Blue Hens’ up-tempo spread offense when games begin Sept. 3 at Navy.
Henderson, the former Smyrna High All-Stater and Delaware offensive player of the year, is in his fourth season as the Blue Hens’ starting quarterback, a job he first earned for the Sept. 21, 2019, visit from Penn.
During that time, Henderson has had stretches in which he’s been a nightmare for defenses and earned distinction, such as his first-team All-CAA 2021 spring selection. Henderson’s 70.7 completion percentage that season set the single-season school record, no small feat in a program with Delaware’s long list of celebrated signal-callers.
But Henderson has also periodically had to leave games or been unavailable due to injuries, including the final seven of a 5-6 2021 season that ultimately cost former coach Danny Rocco his job. Delaware had been 7-1 and an NCAA FCS playoff semifinalist in the spring, having seemingly recaptured its lost glory.
Now Carty, the back-up quarterback on Delaware’s 2003 NCAA title and 2004 quarterfinal teams and the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for 2021 spring NCAA champ Sam Houston, has been brought in to lead that ongoing quest.
Carty, who was offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at New Hampshire before that, knows as well as anyone that scoring points – and national title contention – begins with a quarterback who can see where the football needs to go and get it there consistently.
Henderson, in his sixth college football season, certainly has that ability. Carty knew that long ago, perhaps before anyone else.
“It lays the groundwork for, I guess, belief, right?” Carty said.
“It’s not like you’re coming in here blind saying. ‘Does this kid have any talent?’ We know he does. I’ve seen it. I saw it. I came down here multiple times and watched him throw at Smyrna High School. I fell in love with him then as a recruit. I’m glad I get a chance to coach him now.”
Henderson agreed that the roots of their relationship have strengthened their football fellowship.
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“It was an interesting path to get where we are today,” Henderson said after practice Tuesday. “But the reality is, I’ve known him the longest out of any college coach, being the first offer I got.
“It’s kinda unique how it turned out. We built some trust, we learned a lot about each other through the recruiting process . . . He went off to Sam Houston State and had his success there and I’ve developed here as a player. For it to come full circle is definitely a cool situation.”
As a high schooler, Henderson had attended UNH’s football camp, where Carty feasted his eyes on the quarterback and also, he was recently reminded, gave Nolan’s little sister a popsicle on a hot afternoon.
It ultimately became unrequited recruiting adoration, which wasn’t surprising considering Henderson’s devotion to his home-state university. He’d grown up going to Delaware Stadium and rooting for standout quarterbacks such as Joe Flacco and Pat Devlin.
Henderson verbally committed to Delaware the summer before the start of his senior year at Smyrna, when Dave Brock was Delaware’s head coach. He committed again after his senior year when newly hired coach Rocco also confirmed his affection.
By that time, Henderson had sparked Smyrna to a second straight DIAA Division I title, on the Delaware Stadium turf where he’d later excel in college. In those two 2015 and 2016 title seasons, he completed 300 of 464 passes (64.6 percent) for 5,614 yards and 68 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He also rushed 98 times for 724 yards – a 7.38-yard average – and seven touchdowns.
Carty, essentially, was spurned by Henderson twice, as Brock’s mid-October firing had unleashed the recruiters again. New Hampshire, fellow CAA rival Albany and recent CAA addition Monmouth led the pursuit, but there were other suitors, too.
“He was a devastating one for me,” Carty confessed. “I saw it happening. I was hoping because he was so skinny that Delaware wouldn’t offer him. But I figured once they did he was untouchable at that point based on his history here and being from here.”
Carty had been quite prescient in his evaluation of Henderson, being the first to offer him a scholarship after a sophomore season in which Smyrna went 5-5 and Henderson passed for 2,200 yards. But Henderson’s slender build – he weighed 150-some pounds when Carty first recruited him and barely 170 as a Smyrna senior – was viewed by some as a potential hinderance.
Henderson suits Carty’s new offensive system for the Blue Hens
Before the start of preseason camp this summer, Henderson, now 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, called it “a really unique situation” to have a head coach who is a former quarterback. It has led to “next-level thinking” that allows for more astute analysis and conversation.
Their long connection strengthens the bond.
“He was the first one to believe in me,” Henderson said. “Those after him maybe validated me through the fact that New Hampshire and coach Carty offered me. He was definitely the first one to pull the trigger. It means more to me, the fact that he believed in me, back when I was 150 pounds.
“Looking back, it was a risk for him. But I had a chip on my shoulder because I didn’t have any offers, I wasn’t getting highly recruited. So the fact that he stuck his neck out there meant a lot.”
At Sam Houston, Carty coached another quarterback who had a prolific high school career but was viewed by some as perhaps not physically built for the rigors of college football. The 6-1, 180-pound Eric Schmid sparked Sam Houston to that 2021 spring FCS title, was a Walter Payton Award finalist last fall and threw for 7,401 college yards, more than any Delaware quarterback except Matt Nagy.
Carty, who was hired at UNH in 2007 by then-Wildcats offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, arrived at Delaware bringing the uptempo, pass-oriented attack that helped define the teams’ success at New Hampshire and Sam Houston.
Compared to systems Henderson has operated the last five years at Delaware, this is more like, though certainly more elaborate than, Smyrna assistant coach Mike Marks’ spread-the-field system in which Henderson flourished in high school.
“You have to defend the full field,” Henderson said of Delaware’s attack. “There’s a lot of freedom in it. There’s a lot of calculated decisions but I think there’s areas where I can be myself and feel comfortable out in space, making plays, delivering from the pocket.”
Throughout preseason camp, in which Henderson has flung the football to a flock of different pass-catchers out of numerous formations, he has appeared quite comfortable.
Carty said Henderson suits the system ideally.
Seeing what Henderson has become confirms everything Carty felt about him as a college prospect seven years ago. He is a proven leader, passer, runner and decision maker quite adept at executing a college offense amid the game’s violent swirl while still yearning to learn, adapt and develop.
“His skill set is what we look for,” Carty said. “A thrower who can run. He processes information fast, has a quick release, can get the ball out in all of our [run-pass option] operations.
“Again, that’s why I recruited him in the first place.”
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