May 1, 2023 • 12 mins
Illinois Defensive Coordinator, Aaron Henry joins Puck and Jim to share what type of player the Seahawks are getting in Devon Witherspoon, how a player w/ 0 stars became the 5th overall pick, how will he overcome being, "undersized" and much more.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
With their first pick in the draft, fifth overall out of the University of
Illinois, Devin Witherspoon, the cornerback. And joining us right now on the
Bacon Plumbing hotline is Aaron Henry,the defensive coordinator out of Illinois. Coach
Enry, Welcome to Joe. Howare you. What's up? Brother?
(00:22):
How are you doing? How areyou doing? Thank you for having me
on, Coach Henry, It's ourhonor to have you on. Um.
Tell us what you know about like, actually, let me let me stump
there. I was. I was. I don't know what the right word
is, shocked or flummixed, whathave you. You know, we make
a big deal, you know,in the sports world, especially when it
(00:45):
comes to high school recruiting in collegefootball, right it's how many stars do
you got? You a four starkid, you a five star kid?
And you know, I always kindof roll my eyes at it. I
know that it probably if we lookedat the NFL Draft, you would say
the majority of those guys taking thefirst round were probably four star kids or
even five star kids. And I'mreading his draft. I'm reading the draft
makeup on Devin Witherspoon. One.We're covering the draft a Thursday. Dane
(01:07):
Brugler, who writes and covers thedraft for The Athletic, he joins us
every week he's this big bible forthe NFL Draft, and I'm reading in
there, and I'm reading the storyon Devin Witherspoon said he received zero stars
coming out of high school, andwe were amazed. On draft night,
We're like, there is no hemust be the first ever kid taken in
(01:27):
the first round and probably the first. And so if he's the first ever
kid in the first round, he'scertain the first kid in the first five
picks to be a zero star recruitand drafted five. So I guess my
long winded point in question is this, how does a kid he have zero
stars coming out of high school andbecome the fifth overall pick. Well,
I think that's the first and foremost. I think that's a testament to his
mother. His mother is absolutely incredible. I think that's a testament to his
(01:51):
hard work. Like the kid is. Although although he was obviously under recruited,
right, although he had he hadno stars, he I don't think
he was one of those kids thatthat went out on a million circuits.
You know what, I'm saying togo to all these camps, you know
what I mean, Like he wasa he was a he was a kid
that played He played every sport underthe sun, you know, and he
(02:12):
was primarily a basketball guy, youknow. And so he didn't start playing
football until this junior year. Soon top of playing football, this junior
year, he don't I don't eventhink he really cared to play. It
was his mom who convinced him,who could convinced him to play, you
know, and and and and bythe grace of God, he went out
there and kind of played for herand happened to be pretty decent at it.
(02:35):
And his senior year he wasn't gonnago out again, and he was
like, well, I guess I'lljust I'll just do one more time for
you, and ended up being prettypretty good, or you know what I
mean. Like I just think thathe wasn't really on the circuit of going
to a million different high school camps. Um. I don't know if the
kid had college in his foresight interms of going to school to play football,
(02:58):
because he was a he was areally basketball player. Like his goals
we were set on going to theNBA, like like Devin will tell you,
you know, he wanted to play. He wanted to play the NBA,
and it just so happened that thatthat he had the ability and and
he was damn good playing football,man, and the rest is kind of
history. You know, hey,coach, I'm really interested in this mom
(03:19):
angle here because most moms, Iwould think if their kid didn't want to
play football, they she'd be like, okay, great, because you worry
about your kid getting hurt. Sowhat were what were the specifics that went
into that. She just saw himmore like he'd have a better future as
a football player than in basketball.He got no, no, no,
that wasn't the case at all.So so when growing up Devin, she
had him in baseball, she hadhim, she had him in everything,
(03:40):
right, But because he was hewas like, really really good in basketball.
When basketball season was over, hehad a lot of free time,
and so she didn't want him getin trouble. She didn't want she wanted
him to. For her, itwas just it was a way for him
to stay out of trouble, didn'tget involved with the wrong crowd, you
know. So in her mind,she was like, listen, man,
you gotta do something like you ain'tjust gonna be hanging out with your friends
(04:04):
riding around town, like you gottado something, and so, um,
that's something happened to be you needto go out and try a football,
you know. She told them youto go out and try to try for
it. You never know, andit wasn't because she thought he was better
at it and that like she wasliterally just trying to keep him out of
trouble when it ended up parlaying tothe fifth. It's pretty cool, Absolutely
(04:28):
love it. Coach Aaron Henry withUS defensive coordinator University of Illinois coach.
I don't know how old you are, but I mean it's you come thirty
four, okay, thirty four,So when you were grown up, you
probably did the same thing like youjust see kids nowadays, right, and
it's it's probably more about the parentsdoing it to them than they want to
do it. Where you don't seekids play all these sports. You see
(04:49):
the specialization of just one sport andthat's all they do and they don't play
everything else. Um, but thatdoes not not when you play multiple sorts
not present to p people as theyget older and they continue to play maybe
their favorite sport just allows them tobe a little bit more well rounded athlete.
You know, if if, if, if Devin played his favorite sport,
(05:11):
he wouldn't have been a top fivedrafted. His favorite sport was basketball,
like like that was his favorite.His favorite, He had hoop dreams.
His favorite sport was dribbling the basketball, you know. And and he
football was the kind of the sidesport and he's just so having to be
good at it. And I tryingto tell these parents all the time,
parents across the country, don't haveyour kids specialize. Don't have them specialized
(05:35):
in the sport. Man like you, you don't know what they're good at.
You don't know what they're amazing at. It's it's it's just because they
don't have a passion to love forit. Have them tried out. They
may grow to love to They maygrow to love that sport. And I
think he grew to love football becausehe was still able to have fun in
it, you know, And hewas he's just a highly competitive young man.
And so for him it was achance to compete in and then I
(05:59):
mean his competitive I've never been aroundplayer with his competitive major ever ever.
Boy, what so number five pickoverall. So yeah, I have these
great projections for him. Is hegoing to be the next Richard Sherman or
the next somebody else? An allpro type cornerback. I will say this.
I will say this. I amfrom South Florida, born and raised,
(06:20):
all right, a little bit oftown called a MoCCA League. Okay,
Um, we've had quite a fewNFL guys playing the pros, all
right. Dion Sanders grew up abouttwenty minutes thirty minutes away from a MoCCA
Lean town called Fort Myers. Devincan be as good as he as he
wants to be. Devin Sky istruly the limit. This young man is
(06:44):
so freaking special, you know,growing up around me, having a luxury
to grow up worlf around guys whoare really really special football players. Devin
May he may be probably athletically probablyone of the more athletic, athletically gifted
young man ever been around. UM. And he has the he has the
mindset, he has the genetic makeup. UM. Just in terms of of
(07:06):
of how he gets in and outthe breaks, you know. I mean
he was never the biggest, right, he was never the biggest play His
mindset truly, truly sets him apartfrom any other player I've ever had the
opportunity of luxury to coach, youknow, and so he's just he's just
different. Coach Aaron Henry's with USIllinois defensive coordinator who coached of course that
(07:28):
Devin Witherspoon as the decordinator this pastyear, but before that, he was
his secondary coach. The okay,so he is his his people. The
knock on him is his size.He's it's not that prototypical size. As
a corner. I hear the chucklealready because you know that question is coming,
and it's not the protocol typical,prototypical size that the Seahawks have drafted.
(07:48):
He obviously has overcome that. Yousee fierce competitor being written about him.
You know. One of the firsthighlights that they show when he was
drafted is I think I can't rememberwho the team was, but it was
a screen trying to set up andhe blows the guy up. How does
he overcome that size? What doeshe do that makes him so special?
(08:09):
His mindset? Man, he ishe is wired like completely, completely,
completely different than any other player I'vehad the luxuric like his mindset is just
one of if one of a playthat's just unbelievable, you know. Like,
so Devin's whole life, he's alwaysbeen too old. You know,
you're not quite big enough, right, So that's why that's why we're not
(08:31):
going to offer you a scholarship,or you're not quite fast enough, or
you're not quite this, you're notquite that. And all he's ever done
was take it and kind of justput it in his back pocket and Okay,
well you you you said I wasn'tbig enough, a fast enough Let
me hit play. Let me letyou see what I'm capable of doing.
And so he like the cool thingabout this young man is he never let
(08:52):
that stop him from being as greatas he's capable of being. And I
mean we've heard that, right,I mean he I think he came into
college at one fifty eight, right, But that just speaks to like,
like we're not the Alabamas of theworld where we don't go out and find
If we do go out and findhim, we're not getting the five star
(09:13):
players. So we pride ourselves onthe universe Illinois the develop development players,
right, our developmental program, ourstrip program. And so it's the biggest
heart of any player I've ever beenaround him. He's wide the right way.
Well, I just I love Puck. Mentioned Dane Brugler from The Athletic
and he said he competes with thetenacity of a junkyard dog. But what's
he like off the field? Thatpersonality wise? So Devin, Um,
(09:41):
Devin, Devin is Devin Man.He is, he is. He's different,
you know, he is. Heis so confident man, He's he's
He's He's got a loud, bigpersonality. Um, he's a fun loving
kid, you know. Um.Um, he's gonna let you know how
good he is every single day,you know, walking in the building,
walking out of the building. Imean he's he's always got a smile on
(10:03):
his face. Um. Um,he's uber, uber confident. I've never
met a play I thought I wasconfident playing. I've never met a player
more confident than him. Um,I mean, he's, he's, he's
everything you want when you talk aboutthe dB position, you know, like
like, yeah, he would getbeat in one on ones in practice and
(10:24):
he was still tall, trash hewould get yeah, I mean, and
and that was that was very rarethat he got beat in practice. You
know, like he that's how hethe way you guys had a chance to
see him on tape play, youshould have seen him at practice. Practice
was Tim's ten as it was umum on game day, because not only
(10:45):
did you have him during practice,but you had Sidney Brown yet I'm kwan
Martin. I mean, so itwas absolutely crazy in practice, dude.
We had to we had to pullthe rains on those guys several times just
because just the way they practiced,dude, that they practiced with so much
effort in in Tennasi. It wasinsane. Okay. Last thing for he
give me one word to describe himto see oak fans. Dog perfect,
(11:11):
absolute dog. I mean somebody's alreadysaid it, right, Junkyard dog.
I mean, that's that's quick storyabout Devin. Right. So every every
every Friday, every Friday, Igive the players a test, okay,
um, I give him. Igive him a dB test. And at
the end of the at the endof a test, there's a riddle okay,
every Friday, right, I've beendoing this for about eight nine years,
(11:35):
Okay, and whoever got the riddleright, okay, typically right,
I would take them to dinner.I would do some nice for him.
Well, there were times on Fridayswhere you're talking about players were almost coming
to blows because it was so competitive, right, they wanted to be the
first ones to get the riddle right. And so Devin was just he was
(11:58):
he was always in a mix,all right, now, Coach, I
got the riddle a round. Igot it like it was. It was
so feisty in that meeting room.Like I knew game they was gonna be
a breeze, you know, becausethat's how competitive it was. And he
set the standard for that. Andso the kind of player you're getting,
it's it's it's that that young manhas the ability to change the franchise.
I know Seahawks is an amazing franchise, but the kind of player you're getting,
(12:22):
I mean, he all had inthe bag of tips. Um.
I wish I had the luxury tocoach him again another year because I truly
believe he's absolutely special. Man.Hey, coach, it was a pleasure
to do talk with you, andsorry we kept you a little longer and
they need to go, but weappreciate the time and good luck this upcoming
season for you guys. Yes,sir, thank you, brother. I
appreciate you,
With their first pick in the draft, fifth overall out of the University of
Illinois, Devin Witherspoon, the cornerback. And joining us right now on the
Bacon Plumbing hotline is Aaron Henry,the defensive coordinator out of Illinois. Coach
Enry, Welcome to Joe. Howare you. What's up? Brother?
(00:22):
How are you doing? How areyou doing? Thank you for having me
on, Coach Henry, It's ourhonor to have you on. Um.
Tell us what you know about like, actually, let me let me stump
there. I was. I was. I don't know what the right word
is, shocked or flummixed, whathave you. You know, we make
a big deal, you know,in the sports world, especially when it
(00:45):
comes to high school recruiting in collegefootball, right it's how many stars do
you got? You a four starkid, you a five star kid?
And you know, I always kindof roll my eyes at it. I
know that it probably if we lookedat the NFL Draft, you would say
the majority of those guys taking thefirst round were probably four star kids or
even five star kids. And I'mreading his draft. I'm reading the draft
makeup on Devin Witherspoon. One.We're covering the draft a Thursday. Dane
(01:07):
Brugler, who writes and covers thedraft for The Athletic, he joins us
every week he's this big bible forthe NFL Draft, and I'm reading in
there, and I'm reading the storyon Devin Witherspoon said he received zero stars
coming out of high school, andwe were amazed. On draft night,
We're like, there is no hemust be the first ever kid taken in
(01:27):
the first round and probably the first. And so if he's the first ever
kid in the first round, he'scertain the first kid in the first five
picks to be a zero star recruitand drafted five. So I guess my
long winded point in question is this, how does a kid he have zero
stars coming out of high school andbecome the fifth overall pick. Well,
I think that's the first and foremost. I think that's a testament to his
mother. His mother is absolutely incredible. I think that's a testament to his
(01:51):
hard work. Like the kid is. Although although he was obviously under recruited,
right, although he had he hadno stars, he I don't think
he was one of those kids thatthat went out on a million circuits.
You know what, I'm saying togo to all these camps, you know
what I mean, Like he wasa he was a he was a kid
that played He played every sport underthe sun, you know, and he
(02:12):
was primarily a basketball guy, youknow. And so he didn't start playing
football until this junior year. Soon top of playing football, this junior
year, he don't I don't eventhink he really cared to play. It
was his mom who convinced him,who could convinced him to play, you
know, and and and and bythe grace of God, he went out
there and kind of played for herand happened to be pretty decent at it.
(02:35):
And his senior year he wasn't gonnago out again, and he was
like, well, I guess I'lljust I'll just do one more time for
you, and ended up being prettypretty good, or you know what I
mean. Like I just think thathe wasn't really on the circuit of going
to a million different high school camps. Um. I don't know if the
kid had college in his foresight interms of going to school to play football,
(02:58):
because he was a he was areally basketball player. Like his goals
we were set on going to theNBA, like like Devin will tell you,
you know, he wanted to play. He wanted to play the NBA,
and it just so happened that thatthat he had the ability and and
he was damn good playing football,man, and the rest is kind of
history. You know, hey,coach, I'm really interested in this mom
(03:19):
angle here because most moms, Iwould think if their kid didn't want to
play football, they she'd be like, okay, great, because you worry
about your kid getting hurt. Sowhat were what were the specifics that went
into that. She just saw himmore like he'd have a better future as
a football player than in basketball.He got no, no, no,
that wasn't the case at all.So so when growing up Devin, she
had him in baseball, she hadhim, she had him in everything,
(03:40):
right, But because he was hewas like, really really good in basketball.
When basketball season was over, hehad a lot of free time,
and so she didn't want him getin trouble. She didn't want she wanted
him to. For her, itwas just it was a way for him
to stay out of trouble, didn'tget involved with the wrong crowd, you
know. So in her mind,she was like, listen, man,
you gotta do something like you ain'tjust gonna be hanging out with your friends
(04:04):
riding around town, like you gottado something, and so, um,
that's something happened to be you needto go out and try a football,
you know. She told them youto go out and try to try for
it. You never know, andit wasn't because she thought he was better
at it and that like she wasliterally just trying to keep him out of
trouble when it ended up parlaying tothe fifth. It's pretty cool, Absolutely
(04:28):
love it. Coach Aaron Henry withUS defensive coordinator University of Illinois coach.
I don't know how old you are, but I mean it's you come thirty
four, okay, thirty four,So when you were grown up, you
probably did the same thing like youjust see kids nowadays, right, and
it's it's probably more about the parentsdoing it to them than they want to
do it. Where you don't seekids play all these sports. You see
(04:49):
the specialization of just one sport andthat's all they do and they don't play
everything else. Um, but thatdoes not not when you play multiple sorts
not present to p people as theyget older and they continue to play maybe
their favorite sport just allows them tobe a little bit more well rounded athlete.
You know, if if, if, if Devin played his favorite sport,
(05:11):
he wouldn't have been a top fivedrafted. His favorite sport was basketball,
like like that was his favorite.His favorite, He had hoop dreams.
His favorite sport was dribbling the basketball, you know. And and he
football was the kind of the sidesport and he's just so having to be
good at it. And I tryingto tell these parents all the time,
parents across the country, don't haveyour kids specialize. Don't have them specialized
(05:35):
in the sport. Man like you, you don't know what they're good at.
You don't know what they're amazing at. It's it's it's just because they
don't have a passion to love forit. Have them tried out. They
may grow to love to They maygrow to love that sport. And I
think he grew to love football becausehe was still able to have fun in
it, you know, And hewas he's just a highly competitive young man.
And so for him it was achance to compete in and then I
(05:59):
mean his competitive I've never been aroundplayer with his competitive major ever ever.
Boy, what so number five pickoverall. So yeah, I have these
great projections for him. Is hegoing to be the next Richard Sherman or
the next somebody else? An allpro type cornerback. I will say this.
I will say this. I amfrom South Florida, born and raised,
(06:20):
all right, a little bit oftown called a MoCCA League. Okay,
Um, we've had quite a fewNFL guys playing the pros, all
right. Dion Sanders grew up abouttwenty minutes thirty minutes away from a MoCCA
Lean town called Fort Myers. Devincan be as good as he as he
wants to be. Devin Sky istruly the limit. This young man is
(06:44):
so freaking special, you know,growing up around me, having a luxury
to grow up worlf around guys whoare really really special football players. Devin
May he may be probably athletically probablyone of the more athletic, athletically gifted
young man ever been around. UM. And he has the he has the
mindset, he has the genetic makeup. UM. Just in terms of of
(07:06):
of how he gets in and outthe breaks, you know. I mean
he was never the biggest, right, he was never the biggest play His
mindset truly, truly sets him apartfrom any other player I've ever had the
opportunity of luxury to coach, youknow, and so he's just he's just
different. Coach Aaron Henry's with USIllinois defensive coordinator who coached of course that
(07:28):
Devin Witherspoon as the decordinator this pastyear, but before that, he was
his secondary coach. The okay,so he is his his people. The
knock on him is his size.He's it's not that prototypical size. As
a corner. I hear the chucklealready because you know that question is coming,
and it's not the protocol typical,prototypical size that the Seahawks have drafted.
(07:48):
He obviously has overcome that. Yousee fierce competitor being written about him.
You know. One of the firsthighlights that they show when he was
drafted is I think I can't rememberwho the team was, but it was
a screen trying to set up andhe blows the guy up. How does
he overcome that size? What doeshe do that makes him so special?
(08:09):
His mindset? Man, he ishe is wired like completely, completely,
completely different than any other player I'vehad the luxuric like his mindset is just
one of if one of a playthat's just unbelievable, you know. Like,
so Devin's whole life, he's alwaysbeen too old. You know,
you're not quite big enough, right, So that's why that's why we're not
(08:31):
going to offer you a scholarship,or you're not quite fast enough, or
you're not quite this, you're notquite that. And all he's ever done
was take it and kind of justput it in his back pocket and Okay,
well you you you said I wasn'tbig enough, a fast enough Let
me hit play. Let me letyou see what I'm capable of doing.
And so he like the cool thingabout this young man is he never let
(08:52):
that stop him from being as greatas he's capable of being. And I
mean we've heard that, right,I mean he I think he came into
college at one fifty eight, right, But that just speaks to like,
like we're not the Alabamas of theworld where we don't go out and find
If we do go out and findhim, we're not getting the five star
(09:13):
players. So we pride ourselves onthe universe Illinois the develop development players,
right, our developmental program, ourstrip program. And so it's the biggest
heart of any player I've ever beenaround him. He's wide the right way.
Well, I just I love Puck. Mentioned Dane Brugler from The Athletic
and he said he competes with thetenacity of a junkyard dog. But what's
he like off the field? Thatpersonality wise? So Devin, Um,
(09:41):
Devin, Devin is Devin Man.He is, he is. He's different,
you know, he is. Heis so confident man, He's he's
He's He's got a loud, bigpersonality. Um, he's a fun loving
kid, you know. Um.Um, he's gonna let you know how
good he is every single day,you know, walking in the building,
walking out of the building. Imean he's he's always got a smile on
(10:03):
his face. Um. Um,he's uber, uber confident. I've never
met a play I thought I wasconfident playing. I've never met a player
more confident than him. Um,I mean, he's, he's, he's
everything you want when you talk aboutthe dB position, you know, like
like, yeah, he would getbeat in one on ones in practice and
(10:24):
he was still tall, trash hewould get yeah, I mean, and
and that was that was very rarethat he got beat in practice. You
know, like he that's how hethe way you guys had a chance to
see him on tape play, youshould have seen him at practice. Practice
was Tim's ten as it was umum on game day, because not only
(10:45):
did you have him during practice,but you had Sidney Brown yet I'm kwan
Martin. I mean, so itwas absolutely crazy in practice, dude.
We had to we had to pullthe rains on those guys several times just
because just the way they practiced,dude, that they practiced with so much
effort in in Tennasi. It wasinsane. Okay. Last thing for he
give me one word to describe himto see oak fans. Dog perfect,
(11:11):
absolute dog. I mean somebody's alreadysaid it, right, Junkyard dog.
I mean, that's that's quick storyabout Devin. Right. So every every
every Friday, every Friday, Igive the players a test, okay,
um, I give him. Igive him a dB test. And at
the end of the at the endof a test, there's a riddle okay,
every Friday, right, I've beendoing this for about eight nine years,
(11:35):
Okay, and whoever got the riddleright, okay, typically right,
I would take them to dinner.I would do some nice for him.
Well, there were times on Fridayswhere you're talking about players were almost coming
to blows because it was so competitive, right, they wanted to be the
first ones to get the riddle right. And so Devin was just he was
(11:58):
he was always in a mix,all right, now, Coach, I
got the riddle a round. Igot it like it was. It was
so feisty in that meeting room.Like I knew game they was gonna be
a breeze, you know, becausethat's how competitive it was. And he
set the standard for that. Andso the kind of player you're getting,
it's it's it's that that young manhas the ability to change the franchise.
I know Seahawks is an amazing franchise, but the kind of player you're getting,
(12:22):
I mean, he all had inthe bag of tips. Um.
I wish I had the luxury tocoach him again another year because I truly
believe he's absolutely special. Man.Hey, coach, it was a pleasure
to do talk with you, andsorry we kept you a little longer and
they need to go, but weappreciate the time and good luck this upcoming
season for you guys. Yes,sir, thank you, brother. I
appreciate you,
Puck & Jim Show News
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