Illinois Defense Coordinator Aaron Henry Nominated For Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award

DALLAS (FWAA) — Illinois defensive coordinator Aaron Henry is this week’s nominee for the 2024 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award. Henry coached the Fighting Illini to an upset win at Nebraska on Friday shortly after the passing of his sister.

“As excited as I was that we got the win in a complete team effort, part of me didn’t want to have to face the reality of heading home during the season to lay my sister to rest,” Henry posted on X the day after the win, adding his thanks to staffs at Illinois and Nebraska.

He continued: ”Thank you to everyone who reached out to myself or my family. Your thoughts and prayers were much appreciated.”

Henry’s older sister, 39-year-old Ashley Lee, died unexpectedly earlier this month. She was a mother of four children between the ages of 9 and 22. Henry coached Illinois in the following week’s win against Central Michigan, along with the win six days later at Nebraska, before her visitation and funeral that weekend in Florida.

Illini head coach Bret Bielema had recruited Henry to Wisconsin out of Immokalee, Fla., when Henry was 16. Henry went on to become an All-Big Ten safety with the Badgers in 2011, and the relationship only grew from there.

Henry was teaching and coaching prep football in Kalamazoo, Mich., when Bielema had asked him to come help with a camp in Arkansas, where Bielema coached from 2013-17. Henry stuck around, working odd jobs in the area until a spot opened up on the Razorbacks’ staff and he became a graduate assistant.

He went on to coach defensive backs at Rutgers, NC State and Vanderbilt before Bielema hired him to the same role with the Illini in 2021. Henry was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2023.

The 4-0 Illinois currently rank No. 15 nationally in scoring defense (12.5), and they have beaten two ranked teams in No. 19 Kansas and No. 22 Nebraska. They enter Saturday’s game at No. 9 Penn State ranked No. 19 in the AP poll.