From yellowjackets.com, the official source of State sports.
Nobody is readier for West Virginia State’s football season to start than Austin Hensley.
That is because it has been a long time since he was THE man.
Since 2014 to be exact.
When WVSU kicks off its football season on Thursday, Aug. 30, at the University of Charleston he will be back where he is most comfortable — starting at quarterback and leading his team into battle.
“I am very anxious,” Hensley said. “I’m eager to play and show people what I’ve got and what this team has — it is a special team.”
Let’s take a little time to get to know the Yellow Jackets’ new man-under-center.
In 2014 Hensley was a senior at Hurricane High where he was QB1, the starter, the All-State star.
The quarterback and leader of a playoff football team he was also a baseball star who pitched a complete game in the state championship contest won 9-2 by the Redskins.
Football was his first love though and the 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, who was blessed with a strong right arm was highly sought after.
“I had pretty much every DII school in the area recruiting me,” Hensley recalled. “Then WVU asked me to come up (to Morgantown) as an invited walk-on.”
He mixed part-time semesters with red-shirting to maximize his eligibility.
“My quarterback coach was going to put me on scholarship the next season but then he left,” Hensley said. “Then they brought in two more quarterbacks.”
April of 2016 saw Hensley play in the Mountaineers’ spring game. April of that year also included former Florida quarterback Will Grier transferring to Morgantown.
So what had previously seemed like a clear path to a good shot at the starting spot was now a crowded competition that included a former Parade High School National Player of the Year in Grier.
Hensley decided to make a move.
“I decided to transfer and play some ball,” he said. “I was looking at a few schools in the conference and Coach Pennington contacted me.”
John Pennington was the Yellow Jackets’ offensive coordinator at the time and had recruited Hensley when he was a member of the coaching staff at Concord.
“Coach Pennington was straight forward with me,” Hensley said. “I appreciated that (and) I like his offense.”
It turned out to not be exactly a move home though as his parents have moved to Clarksburg because of his father changing jobs and his older sister, a former Hurricane softball player, is now a nurse in Palm Beach, Florida.
Hensley feels he gained valuable experience at WVU?
“The speed of the game at that level, you had to go through your reads quicker,” Hensley said. “I learned a lot under (Coach Dana) Holgorsen.”
He knew he would be competing with the returning starter, Matt Kinnick, when he arrived at WVSU.
Kinnick was coming off a strong freshman season and held onto the starting spot.
But when Kinnick had to come out midway through the second game of the season with an injury to his throwing hand Hensley got his shot.
He finished 11-of-12 in the second half to lead the Jackets to a 37-24 win at Urbana.
Hensley started three games after that and completed 97 of 158 attempts, 61.4 percent, while throwing for 1,207 yards or 301.8 per contest.
That yardage per game figure would have led the conference by a wide margin, 279 was tops, if Hensley had played enough games to qualify.
“It was a boost to me,” Hensley said. “I didn’t really have a good grasp of the offense yet and I was kind of thrown into the fire.”
A pulled hamstring ended his run and forced Kinnick, who went on to break several program passing records, back into duty a little earlier than expected.
WVSU finished just 3-8 that season.
“I hated it,” Hensley said of losing. “It left a bad taste in my mouth.”
In 2017 Hensley appeared in just three games and threw only one pass, a 27-yard scoring strike.
Fortunately the one word he would use to describe himself helped him through that long season.
“Humble,” Hensley said of himself. “My Dad installed that trait in me when I was young, never get too high of too low.”
Now it is his turn to take over for good.
“I’ve had two years now,” he said. “It makes me very comfortable that I know the offense.”
After turning in the program’s first winning season in nearly a decade with a 6-5 finish in 2017 the Yellow Jackets are setting their sights higher.
“That’s a good step forward,” Hensley, who has another year of eligibility remaining after this season, said. “But it’s nowhere near where we want to be.”
After a strong showing both playing and leadership wise during spring ball and into the fall his teammates voted him team captain.
“That’s a great honor,” Hensley said.
So while the Yellow Jackets still have a ways to go Austin Hensley is back where he is most comfortable.
The starting quarterback. The Man.
And handling everything that comes with it.
“You have to deal with the pressure,” he said. “It’s just part of the job.”
One he enjoys very much.
