Bowling Green State University Athletics
Hard-Hitting White is Not Just Another Joe Student
October 13, 2006 | Football
Oct. 13, 2006
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - With his small wire-rimmed glasses and backpack, Terrel White looks like any other Joe Student walking across Bowling Green State University's campus.
But when White, listed as 5-feet-10, 224 pounds, changes into his football uniform, puts on the pads and the helmet and pops in his contacts, he is one of the top linebackers in the Mid-American Conference. He led the Falcons with 100 tackles a year ago and is currently third in the MAC and 15th in the nation, averaging 10.2 tackles per game.
Not bad for a walk-on who had no Division I-A football scholarship offers as a senior at Wooster High School.
"Recruiting is not an exact science," BG head football coach Gregg Brandon understated. "You have to look inside the guy's chest and see how big and strong that heart is.
"You look at him physically. You're not going to go into a high school and say `Oh yeah, that's a guy we're going to take,'"
White was a second-team All-Ohio selection at Wooster, playing running back and cornerback. However, only Wofford, a Division I-AA school in South Carolina, offered him football aid, and he said that was too far from home.
He was offered an academic scholarship at Bowling Green and decided to take that opportunity and also walk onto the football team.
"I figured since I was still going to school for free, that I would try to play D-I football," White said. He is now on a football schoalrship.
White was a running back in his first season for the Falcons in 2002.
"When I came here there were eight running backs and I was No. 8, the only walk-on," White said, laughing. "Basically they told me: `We play one running back and we play three linebackers, so which one do you think you have a better chance of playing?'"
It didn't take long for White to reach the decision to make the switch.
"We moved him to linebacker and we never looked back," Brandon said. "We had P.J. Pope and B.J. Lane. We had some dudes (at running back)."
White played on special teams in 2003 and earned a spot in the linebacker rotation in 2004. He became a full-time starter last fall.
"He's a sideline to sideline player with great intensity. He's a solid tackler and a quiet leader of our defense," Brandon said, also noting White makes the tackle, gets up and goes back to the huddle to get ready for the next tackle.
White has embraced the switch, basically because he enjoys the contact and being the person to deliver the blow.
"I've always loved to hit. When I played running back in high school, I wasn't too much of a shaker guy. I would rather run into you," White said. "I never really knew I would be doing this well, but I don't mind it. Linebacker is definitely fun."
Because of his size, White has to know his assignments and then react to the play rather then waiting, because some 6-5, 300-plus pound offensive lineman is going to be looking knock him on his backside.
"Since I'm so short, I kind of have to find little spaces or I might lose the ball or somebody might stand up in front of me and I won't be able to see over them," White said. "I try to know everything I can about the defensive scheme. It makes it that much easier, the less thinking I have to do."
During the 2003 season, White watched and learned from Mitch Hewitt, a pretty good linebacker in his own right for the Falcons.
"It seemed like he was always in the right position," White said about Hewitt. "He always knew what he was doing. He was always around the ball. I just tried to imitate that when I would be out there."
After playing both outside linebacker spots earlier in his career, White has moved into the middle this fall.
"It let's you be around the ball. When they put me in the middle during two-a-days, Coach (John) Lovett (BG's defensive coordinator) basically told me, `it's harder for them to run away from you. If you're on one side, they can run away from you.'
"It's a lot more responsibility, but I definitely like it."
