They said Keisean Henderson wasn't a QB. Now the 5-star is mentored by a legend who heard the same

SPRING, Texas -- Sitting in a small office space, head football coach Michael Bishop (yes, the former K-State star QB) is on the phone with Keisean Henderson, the No. 2-ranked QB in the high school recruiting class of 2026, wondering when he'll be back from Chipotle with a takeout order.

In the meantime, Bishop plants the seeds of a joke to a visiting reporter. "Ask him why his nickname is Honey Boo Boo."

When Henderson, the team's star quarterback, walks into the room, he and Bishop pull their chairs together for an interview, munching on burrito bowls while trading verbal jabs. The first question, of course, is about the nickname.

Henderson: "It's not. It's not!"

Bishop: "Answer the question, man."

Henderson: "That's the nickname he gave my girlfriend. He calls her Honey Boo Boo all the time."

Bishop is cracking up while Henderson makes this denial, almost like an uncle creating a bit of chaos for his own amusement.

Soon after, the conversation turns to a play Kei -- Henderson's actual nickname -- made during his junior season at Legacy The School of Sports Sciences, a charter school just outside of Houston. It was supposed to be a fade ball to the right side of the end zone. Problem is nobody on the o-line blocked due to some snap count miscommunication. That meant Henderson had to make things happen. It started with a hard jump cut and quickly turned into a spin move. It ended with seven missed tackles and a spectacular 31-yard touchdown run.

That's when Bishop jumped in: "He stole that move from me, too."

He may have. YouTube highlights live forever.

Bishop is arguably the best player in Kansas State history. He was a consensus All-American in 1998, the Davey O'Brien winner and the Heisman runner-up to Texas' Ricky Williams.

His mentee, Henderson, is the rare talent who can realistically dream of that sort of career. The Houston Cougars commit is the No. 3 player in the Top247 rankings for the class of 2026 rankings, which were updated Wednesday. He's also the first junior to win MVP at the Navy All-American Bowl, an annual high school all-star showcase.

🏈 Top 10 players in 2026 recruiting class

RK	Name	POS	ST	COMMIT
1	Faizon Brandon	QB	NC	Tennessee
2	Zion Elee	EDGE	MD	Maryland
3	Keisean Henderson	QB	TX	Houston
4	Tristen Keys	WR	MS	LSU
5	Felix Ojo	OT	TX
6	Keenyi Pepe	OT	FL	USC
7	Lamar Brown	DL	LA
8	Xavier Griffin	LB	GA	USC
9	Jared Curtis	QB	TN	Georgia
10	Jackson Cantwell	OT	MO	Miami

Their paths don't fully run parallel. Bishop is built like a linebacker. He played JUCO football before making his way to Kansas State. Henderson is a long and stringy athlete with a national offer list.

But if you dig in a little, there's a striking similarity in their stories as both contended with – and in Henderson's case still fight – the football world at large seeing them as anything but a quarterback.

"It's been a blessing to have Coach Bishop," Henderson said. He was (30) years ahead of me and still says it's the exact same way."

Before Henderson arrived with those burrito bowls, Bishop regaled his visitor with war stories. The subject turned to how so many local programs missed on him out of Willis High School, a school in the Houston suburbs that that later produced DJ Lagway. But the idea that schools missed is a bit of misnomer, Bishop says.

Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and so many others offered.

They just viewed him as a wide receiver or safety. Bishop wanted to play quarterback. Blinn Community College was the only school willing to provide that opportunity.

Blinn's head coach, Willie Fritz -- yes, that Willie Fritz -- had a scouting advantage on everyone else as a former Willis assistant a few years earlier. He also saw Bishop play the "greatest high school game" he'd ever seen from an individual during Bishop's senior year.

"It was easy to say I wanted that guy to be my quarterback," Fritz says 30 years later in his University of Houston office.

That offer provided relief for Bishop and his family. So often Bishop would sit with his parents while coaches came through front door selling to recruit, but it always came with the caveat of a position switch. "Oh, here we go again," Bishop remembers thinking.

Asked why so many teams missed on Bishop back then, Fritz said: "It might have been the 90s. I'll leave it at that." It's a vague reference to the negative stereotypes black quarterbacks have battled for decades.

Fritz saw something more. He thought Bishop could win the starting job. He offered a chance to compete at QB.

"That's all I ever wanted," Bishop said. "That was a big weight off my shoulders."

Bishop led Blinn to a 24-0 record and a pair of JUCO national championships.

Coaches again flooded in to see him. They again wanted him to switch positions.

K-State head coach Bill Snyder thought differently. He saw Bishop as an ideal offensive engine as a mobile quarterback. Bishop signed with the Wildcats and went on to set program records for passing yards and touchdowns as a senior, helping the program to an unbeaten regular season.

"At the end of the day I was on the biggest stage in America playing a position they said I couldn't play," Bishop said. "I'm a perfect example you can reach out and touch who they said couldn't do it but got it done."

Henderson could touch him. He just had no idea. Bishop had the secret identity of "coach" to Henderson in eighth grade. It took his uncle coming up to him and practically yelling: "Your coach is MICHAEL BISHOP."

Bishop had never said anything to his players about his background or pedigree, so Henderson assumed his uncle was mixed up. Then he googled.

"It was eye opening," Henderson said.

When Henderson made his debut on varsity as an eighth grader, he did so as a wide receiver. He'd never played that position before but colleges took notice anyway. Henderson earned his first offer from UTSA the summer of his eighth grade year. The next season he caught 73 passes for 1,135 yards and 14 touchdowns. By the following spring Texas A&M, Oregon, TCU and many others offered.

"His wide receiver tape is phenomenal," Bishop said. "He does everything you want a wide receiver to do."

The only thing missing for Henderson at receiver was a desire to play the position.

Henderson loves being a quarterback. He likes the responsibility. He thrives on the pressure. He told schools as much and served as Legacy's backup QB as a freshman. Most didn't listen. They saw a massive, 6-foot-3, fluid athlete and pegged him as a receiver. Full stop.

Henderson, who was going to start at quarterback his sophomore year, remembers going to an LSU camp that summer. He competed as a quarterback. They didn't offer.

"They hadn't seen the practices or my background work at quarterback," Henderson said. "They'd only seen the film. They say the film never lies, but I just feel at that time it was untruthful to who I was."

Henderson went on to throw for 1,574 yards and 21 touchdowns against three interceptions with a 63 completion percentage. He was even better as a junior, passing for 2,689 yards and 25 touchdowns on a 65.7% completion rate.

Tape nor a clear trajectory of improvement changed the view of most schools on his future role, especially the bluebloods. One of a few contrarian viewpoints came from Houston. Fritz and his staff, which had previously offered Henderson at Tulane, made Henderson a priority within a week of him taking over the program in December of 2023.

New Cougars QB coach Shawn Bell, previously at Baylor, was one of the few Power Four coaches who viewed Henderson as a QB throughout the entire process. Henderson remembers Bell telling him shortly after that LSU camp: "Everybody might not see it, but we do."

Together that pair helped recruit Henderson to Houston. They called him the "Kei" to the city, a homegrown talent who could help launch the Cougars to new heights on the Power Four level. When Fritz told Henderson they wanted him to play QB right away, Henderson almost couldn't believe it.

"It was like, 'Man, somebody finally believes in me,'" Henderson said.

Joked Bishop under his breath: "You cried."

Even 247Sports listed Henderson as an "athlete" instead of a quarterback for months following his junior season.

Yet Houston believed and Henderson was drawn to that affirmation.

Bishop drove up with Henderson when he decided to commit on May 27, 2024. Fritz had an idea it was coming. When Henderson sat down to tell Fritz the news, Fritz surprised Henderson first.

"I just want to let you know, I coached Coach Bishop," Fritz said.

Bishop's background had, once again, taken Henderson by surprise. Neither Bishop nor Fritz told Henderson of their connection during the recruiting process. But Bishop remembers the first thing Fritz said to him when they initially talked about Henderson.

"This is you all over again."

Erica Henderson remembers the deluge of attention happening almost at once. Her son, Keisean, won MVP honors on Jan. 11. The next day their phones wouldn't stop ringing.

"It was kind of frustrating," Henderson said. "I showed the things y'all said I wasn't doing before the All-American game. It was almost like, 'About time.' But it was late. Y'all didn't have that belief you said y'all have."

In the weeks after the All-American Bowl, Henderson picked up offers from Auburn, North Carolina, Ole Miss, Georgia, Florida State and Alabama.

It was a familiar arc for Henderson as his friend, Keelon Russell, experienced the year prior. Like Henderson, Russell had been committed to a local program (SMU). Then the bluebloods came calling after a huge junior season. Russell eventually flipped to Alabama.

Henderson knows their situations are similar. Two fast-rising five-star QBs committed to their hometown schools with poachers circling them aggressively and big NIL offers being dangled in front of them.

"The difference between me and him is that there was a lot of people open to hearing him out because that's all they'd seen was quarterback," Henderson said. "I still feel doubt from them."

Henderson noted a few weeks after the All-American Bowl he got a call from Notre Dame. The coach on the phone stressed his NFL background and then pitched Henderson on having a better future in the NFL as a receiver than a quarterback. He asked Henderson to visit campus. Henderson declined.

That lingering doubt helps illustrate why Houston remains in such a strong position with Henderson despite the push from other schools.

Henderson speaks glowingly of the Cougars. He'll never forget that Fritz met his younger sister, Keiara, and then treated her like family every other time they interacted. No other head coach had ever remembered her name. The family went for a campus visit once and Keiara told her mom, "Doesn't this feel like home?" Erica agreed.

Said Bishop: "When you see these flashy things, the bigger name coaches, you still have to find the right fit. ... Right now, the best fit for him is the University of Houston under Coach Fritz."

247Sports recruiting analyst Tom Loy said Houston remains in strong position for Henderson but home state Texas and Texas A&M are two schools to watch. There's a world in which Alabama and Ohio State also make a big play as they both look for 2026 quarterback takes, especially if Henderson continues his trajectory of growth into the fall.

"Henderson seems as locked in with Houston as one could be," Loy said. "But I think he's an extremely high priority for both Texas and Texas A&M."

The lines of communication are staying open on Henderson's end, too. He's a gregarious teen who his mom said works diligently to return every recruiting call that comes his way. But it goes beyond manners. Henderson had friends on Colorado's roster when Deion Sanders arrived and cut more than 50% of scholarship players in Year 1.

Henderson doesn't want to get stuck in a similar situation with no other contacts across the sport.

Still, Erica emphasized Henderson's loyalty streak. Plenty of Texas high school powers have come to Henderson and his family and tried to convince him to move into their districts. But home is home. That's under Bishop's guidance. Plus, as Henderson put it, "money is getting thrown at you like a bribe, and I don't like bribes."

Said Erica Henderson: "Keisean is very loyal and very loyal to the people who are loyal to him."

MORE: VIP intel on Henderson staying locked in with Houston as stock soars

The interview is at its end, and Henderson and Bishop are talking baseball.

One area in which Henderson and Bishop differ is Bishop is a one-time Major League Baseball draft pick of Cleveland. Henderson played baseball for a season and had a swing so bad that he quite literally bunted every time he came to bat. He got on base a lot, though. Speed goes a long way.

Bishop, of course, is roasting Henderson's swing and ribbing his pupil over the fact he won't eat any vegetables in his burrito bowl.

"They have a language they speak amongst each other," Erica said. "They have a connection a lot of people don't have the chance to get."

These are two quarterbacks of two very distinct generations. Yet 30 years apart, their stories intersect in a remarkably coincidental and auspicious fashion.

A junior college football coach believed in Bishop all those years ago. Now, that same coach (Fritz), is the first college recruiter who really saw what Henderson believed he could be.

"I've always said, 'You don't have to prove me wrong, because I've been in your shoes,'" Bishop said. "I'm here to guide you on this path."

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