Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This year, White expects to get a little more intimate with the Seminoles' tailback on the field.
White, who played with Dunn at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, La., has been working with Virginia's first defensive unit since regular Mark Krichbaum suffered a broken leg Aug.20.
``We didn't think it was serious at first,'' said White, a sophomore, ``but then he started screaming that his leg was broken. The next thing we heard was that he would be out for the whole season, that he had the same injury as [UVa basketball player] Cory Alexander.
``Everybody on the defense was traumatized, especially Mike Frederick, because he was the guy who fell across [Krichbaum's] leg. But once they got to the hospital and checked it out, they said that he would be out four to six weeks.''
The earliest Krichbaum could return would be Oct.1, following an open date. By that time, the Cavaliers will have played ACC rivals Florida State and Clemson.
``I believe this will get me ready for the next two years,'' said White, viewed as the eventual successor to Krichbaum, a fifth-year senior. ``All I did last year was get my toes wet.''
White admittedly was pushed around last season, when he weighed 245 pounds. He added 15 pounds during the off-season and was named UVa's most improved player following spring practice.
``It doesn't make any difference what he weighs,'' head coach George Welsh said Monday. ``He's the best we've got.''
Indeed, if the Cavaliers have any reservations, it is about a lack of experience behind White. Neither of his backups, redshirt freshman Julius Williams nor signee Tony Agee, has played in a college game.
``Todd White's definitely ready to play,'' Frederick said. ``He's undersized and everybody tells him he can't do this or do that; then he goes out there on the field and does it. He's one of my favorite players on the defense.''
``Krichbaum and I were joking around about it and we said, `If [White] were 6-5 or 6-6 and 270 pounds, we'd both be out of a job. He could play both of our positions.'''
At 6 feet 1, White is shorter than most Division I-A linemen, although that didn't prevent some of college football's perennial powers from looking at him.
``I heard from Nebraska and Arkansas,'' he said, ``but that was a point when we were still playing and I wanted to concentrate on our season. After awhile, I started to look toward another type of school.''
White, who took official visits to Rice and Southern Methodist, was recruited for Virginia by Mike Archer, then the Cavaliers' linebackers coach. Archer had Baton Rouge ties from his days as head coach at Louisiana State.
``Mike loved Todd because he had superb technique,'' said Dale Weiner, White's coach at Catholic High School. ``Mike was a bottom-line guy who just wanted to know if you could play or not and wasn't hung up on heights and weights.''
Archer subsequently moved to Kentucky as defensive coordinator, leaving White as the only Bayou native in the UVa program. White knows it is an 18-hour drive from Charlottesville to Baton Rouge because he has made the trip by car a few times with his father.
It's a relatively short hop from Baton Rouge to Tallahassee, Fla., where White's parents and two sisters will be in the crowd Saturday for the first start of his career.
``There's some pressure on me,'' White said, ``but I believe I'm ready to step in. What really helped was when I was on the second team last year and went against [All-America guard] Mark Dixon in practice every day. He didn't care who you were, he was going to try to knock you 15 yards downfield and humiliate you.''
White's size shouldn't be a handicap against Florida State, one of whose starting guards weighs 250, but tackling Dunn and the Seminoles' other backs will be another matter.
``I know some of his moves ... some of them,'' White said. ``He's faked me out before, too.''
Before the teams played last year, White called Dunn, the roommate of eventual Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward. Those living arrangements were made after Dunn's mother, a Baton Rouge police officer, was murdered while he was in high school.
``I was close to him and his mother,'' White said. ``His mother was real sweet; we'd come back to school to eat after the games and I'd sit there and talk with her. I went back to my high school right after she was killed, but I didn't know what to say [to Dunn]. Mostly, we talked about football.''
Dunn, a quarterback and fullback in high school, scored a team-leading 10 touchdowns for Florida State as a freshman.
``I didn't know that he would do that well,'' White said, ``but he always was creative.''
by CNB