LENDALE WHITE

'LenDale White' (born December 20, 1984) is an American football running back who plays for the Tennessee Titans. He played for Norm Chow at USC, who is now the Titans' offensive coordinator. His head coach in Tennessee, Jeff Fisher, also played for the USC Trojans.He is also the cousin of Detroit Pistons all-star Chauncey Billups.

Contents

High school career

College career

Pro career

2006 NFL draft

2006 NFL season

High school career

White played the 1999 and 2000 seasons at Denver (Colo.) South High, where he made the Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team in 2000 and the Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team both years. White then enrolled at Chatfield High School in Littleton, Colorado. As a junior in 2001, he earned Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team and Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team notice. He rushed for 1,850 yards with 30 TDs, plus had 185 receiving yards with 2 TDs in 2001. Chatfield went 14-0 in 2001 and was the Class 5A champion. His coach at Chatfield was Dave Logan, the former Colorado All-American wide receiver who played in the NFL.
His 2002 honors included Super Prep All-American, Prep Star All-American, Tom Lemming All-American, Super Prep Elite 50, Tom Lemming Top 100, Super Prep All-Midlands, Prep Star All-Midlands, Tom Lemming All-Midland, Orange County Register Fab 15 second team, Gatorade Colorado Player of the Year, Rocky Mountain News All-Colorado first team and Rocky Mountain News Class 5A All-State first team as a senior tailback at Chatfield High in Littleton (Colo.). He ran for 1,683 yards and 21 TDs in 2002.
He finished his career (he started all 4 years) as Colorado's career rushing leader, with 7,803 yards.

College career

White shared his playing time at tailback with Reggie Bush at the University of Southern California. White struggled academically, with widespread rumors of illiteracy surrounding him. These rumors were later overshadowed by rumors of sexual assault, but these were never proven. Despite being the lesser known member of the Trojan backfield, White was a standout rusher who actually led the team in rushing in his first two seasons and was a 2005 All-America selection. White also rushed for three touchdowns against Oklahoma in the national championship and three touchdowns as well against Texas in the Rose Bowl.
While Bush is an elusive back with a plethora of moves and astonishing speed, White is considered more of a power back who prefers to run over his defenders. This combination gave USC one of the most talented rushing tandems since Auburn's Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown. White is being mentored by his cousin, Detroit Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups. With Billups, he created the G-Unit clan among colleges nationwide.
White showed his comedic skills in 2005 when he conspired with Trojan coach Pete Carroll and movie director and Trojan fan Spike Lee to play a Halloween prank on his teammates. White pretended to be upset with his coach over the lack of carries he was receiving during practice. He was subsequently kicked out of the practice and carted away from the field, while Carroll told the team to prepare to move on without White. As the team huddled to end practice, White stood on the roof of a building near the facility. White began shouting down at the field as his teammates looked on. He was soon joined on the rooftop by a team assistant, who began tassling with White. The assistant wrestled White to the ground out of the team's view, and, next thing the team knew, there was an object in a red #21 jersey thrown from the top of the building. Everyone watched in horror until they realized it was a dummy dressed in White's jersey.

Pro career

2006 NFL draft

White's draft stock tumbled before and during the draft, mostly because he had not had a full workout before NFL scouts. During USC's workout day, he cited hamstring worries as a reason for not running or performing any workouts aside from the bench press, where he managed only 15 repetitions at 225 pounds.
However, there were concerns that White had not done everything he could to prepare himself for the NFL Combine. Reportedly, there were audible groans when he bared his chest at a weigh-in.
As one NFL general manager said after seeing White at the combine: “The guy needed a bra, it was ridiculous. You come to the combine looking like that and you want to be a first-round pick? Come on. The guy had obviously been doing nothing.” [1]
On draft day, he also mentioned that he had weighed as much as 252 pounds at the Rose Bowl, but despite that, he managed to rush for three touchdowns. It has since been confirmed that he has a torn hamstring, but surgery will probably not be required to mend it. His injury is, however, predicted to keep him off of the football field until May.
White's plummet in the 2006 NFL Draft was one of the first day's most interesting storylines, and ended when he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the second round with overall pick number 45.

2006 NFL season

On August 10th, during a Titans' practice, White was involved in a brief scuffle with one of his teammates. During the scuffle White allegedly spit in the face of safety Donnie Nickey, leading to a few tense moments in which several other players took out aggression on White.
During his rookie season he carried the ball 61 times over 13 games, running at an average of 4 yards per carry, but failing to get into the end zone. His longest run was for 26 yards in week 13 of the 2006 NFL season, but was against the 32nd ranked run defense of the Indianapolis Colts. He also caught 14 passes in his 13 games, for a total of 60 yards. The game in which he had the biggest impact was the game early in the season in Indianapolis, where he ran for 48 yards and caught 3 passes for 7 yards, in a 14-13 loss.