UW Football | A changed heart for White

They named Scott White the Pac-10 defensive player of the week on Monday after he made a team-high 10 tackles and two sacks in Washington's 21-10 win over Arizona.

It's a lot better designation than he was being given in early August, when he took a one-day sojourn from the Huskies football team to contemplate his future.

"I heard everything in the book, man, I really did," White said this week. "And a lot of it hurt me. I'm a real sensitive kind of guy. I probably read too much into things."

So, yes, if you're wondering, he is feeling quite a bit of satisfaction that through five games he has put to rest all that talk that he was a quitter, he was immature, a sterling example of the kind of "soft" attitude that was said to have permeated the program when it went 3-19 the past two years.

"I really want people to know that I'm not that type of dude," White said.

"I'm not selfish. I'm not a baby."

No, what he mostly was that August day was a little confused and frustrated — though not, he says, with his coaches.

Instead, it was simply an accumulation of events that had him pondering his future.

When last season ended, White says the plan was for him to move to weakside linebacker, which he considers his natural position and is the one he is playing now instead of the strong side, where he started in 2004 and 2005. The weakside backer in UW's scheme has more freedom to roam than the strongside linebacker, who usually has to account for the tight end. Evan Benjamin played that position the last two years before graduating. White says he feels the weakside position plays to his strengths.

But when spring ball began, White was on the shelf due to a hamstring injury suffered in offseason conditioning, and the plan to move him to the weak side was mothballed. White suffered the injury during a mat drill, trying to finish a 10-yard sprint at the end of a burst. "It just gave out on me," he said.

So White spent the spring mostly on the sideline, watching as Dan Howell ascended to the starting job at strongside linebacker.

When fall camp began, White found himself backing up Howell, just as it had been left in the spring.

And for a day, he thought about leaving, skipping a practice one afternoon, though he says it was mostly about himself. If he couldn't handle the backup role, he didn't want to let his frustration get the better of him and turn into a season-long distraction to the team. So, having already accumulated enough credits to graduate, he could just leave. But talks with UW coaches helped him better understand what they had in mind, and he realized that leaving wasn't how he wanted his legacy to read.

Some wondered if coach Tyrone Willingham was setting a bad precedent, allowing White back. Willingham doesn't.

"As a coach and as a parent, you want to make sure that you look at things for what they are," he said. "Every situation is different. Every child is different. You just look at the situation and make what you think is a wonderful decision. I think he made a good decision, and I think we made a good decision."

Once back, White was fully back, even if he initially was relegated to the scout team.

And as he got healthy, UW coaches decided to return to the original plan of moving White to weakside linebacker, feeling that allowed them to get their best three linebackers on the field with Howell on the strong side and Tahj Bomar in the middle.

White has thrived, making double-digit tackles in three of UW's past four games. The only time he didn't came against Fresno State, when he moved back to the strong side to fill in for an absent Howell. White was named a captain for that game, evidence of how he and the coaches have long forgotten what happened in August.

"The position change has really been key in putting me in a situation where I could show my ability," White said. "In years past when I played the strong side, you can be kind of isolated, and that's where the perception that I could be inconsistent came in. I'd flash on for a couple of games, and then there were other games where I wasn't getting tested as much because I was over there on the outside. Now I'm right in the thick of things and I'm freed up a lot more and that's more my game."

A perfect example came Saturday when Arizona drove to the 4-yard-line in the third quarter, threatening to make a game of it. On first down, White broke through to tackle running back Chris Jennings for a 4-yard loss; on second down, he broke through again to sack QB Willie Tuitama for a 16-yard loss — plays he probably wouldn't have been in position to make a year ago if lined up over the tight end. The drive ended in a missed field goal.

White didn't start against Arizona after missing much of practice during the week with a sore shoulder, which he says is getting better. He entered on the third play and, once deciding it felt good, basically never left the field when the Huskies were on defense.

He's learning that what you're called isn't necessarily what you are.

"I wanted to come back and win games and just give it my all one last time so that whenever I walk away from this game I can be content with that," he said. "Winning these games and being this close to a bowl game and going out with the guys I came in with [in 2002] makes it all the more worthwhile."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com