Oh no, here it comes …
Dread passes from coach to coach quicker than a flea-flicker. The Trojans have opened the season with a 63-17 blistering of Hawaii, but members of USC's staff have heard that LenDale White is pissed. This could be it, the time he finally blows. Men with mikes and notepads sniff smoke. If White is USC's power back, they ask, why was Reggie Bush out there in the goal-line offense?
In the bowels of Aloha Stadium, White tries to say the right things as the loaded questions are lobbed. "I never talk about carries," he says. "We won, so I'm not complaining." But frustration eventually gets the best of him. "I have no clue at all what's going on," White responds to a persistent reporter. "You have Bush on the team and that's what happens."
This is White treading dangerously close to meltdown mode, and USC simply can't have that if they are going to three-peat. So before the next practice, Pete Carroll, who is as sure to teach his players how to deal with the press as he is to instruct them on footwork, warns his running back, "The media is coming after it. Be prepared, be patient, be humble." The next time White faces a tape recorder, he may as well be waving Song Girl pompoms: "I was never mad. Let's get that clear. There was nothing wrong. I don't dislike Reggie, I don't dislike the coaches. I love SC." Fight on!
Ever since he showed up three seasons ago as Colorado's all-time prep rusher, White has seemed to be on the verge, the Trojan most likely to snap. Lord knows, there have been a few occasions when the junior couldn't resist lowering his head first and surveying the wreckage later, like when he had to be restrained last year from going after running back Michael Coleman when the freshman called out White to his hometown paper. "I'm definitely a Florida State/Miami kinda guy wrapped in cardinal and gold," says White, who is happy to answer to Showcase. (Teammates prefer Pudge or Turtleboy.)
But take a closer look at USC's resident roughneck and you'll see he's managed to do off the field what he does so well on it: stay balanced. Tailback U.'s career leader in touchdowns (54) is indisputably invaluable as the thunder to Bush's lightning on the field and the quotable loudmouth to the softspoken Heisman winner off it. For all of his supposed unpredictability, White is, in fact, the guy who gives this team something it has often lacked: his special brand of hell-raising. "He's brought a real toughness that we were always looking for," Carroll says.
YOU CAN'T really bitch in the middle of a 34-game winning streak. Still, in an offense that is likely to produce a 3,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and two 1,000-yard receivers, it's hard for White not to wonder about the numbers he could have put up if he'd gotten 30 carries a game. (He's had more than 20 just twice over the past two seasons.) "I think about that all the time, what if I was at a Michigan or a Texas?" he says. "And because of my competitive nature, I get mad sometimes when I'm not getting mentioned. But I'd rather be second-team All-Pac-10
and have a couple of championships than have a Heisman and be 6—5."
White has averaged 6.7 yards per carry and scored 23 times in his current 1,178-yard season. His dearth of carries has actually been tougher on his family. "He's a rhythm back who is just not being used to full capacity," says Herman White, LenDale's uncle and father figure, a high school football coach in Denver. "He could have been up for the Heisman."
White's done his best to keep his mouth shut and the offense running smoothly, but sometimes he can't help himself. Ask Collin Ashton, a former walk-on who now starts at linebacker. Ashton got the worst of a run-in with White in a recent drill and heard it from his conqueror. "How does it feel to know the Tings got scholarships and you didn't?" White asked. (The Tings are a pair of reserve safeties with near-4.0 GPAs.) The rest of the team couldn't stop laughing; even the Ting twins looked amused. "LenDale doesn't just talk about you," says tailback Herschel Dennis. "He goes straight for your heart. But you know he's just playing."
There's a reason Carroll chose his big back for the infamous faked-suicide prank. By his own admission, White is a sucker for drama and the spotlight. These days, anyway. "He was very shy growing up," mom Anita says. "I had to beg him to play football." When LenDale, her 6-year-old middle child, said, "Uh-uh. They ain't gonna hit me," she replied, "Run fast enough and they won't get to."
Anita says the transformation came during LenDale's middle school years, with her wallflower suddenly morphing into Martin Lawrence redux. Around this time, he started to work out with his older cousins, Herman White and Darcy Levy, both of whom were eyeing their own college football careers. But before any of them realized his dream-White became a linebacker at Wyoming, Levy a tailback for Notre Dame and then Pitt-they all learned how to spew trash from another older cousin, Chauncey Billups.
Although White learned to give as well as he got back then, he was clearly a kid with a strong understanding of right and wrong. It took just one lesson. When LenDale was in grade school, his uncle Herman, a juvenile probation officer, took him to a youth correctional facility. "I think that really affected him," his uncle says.
"He saw where he didn't want to end up."
Before long, White was piling up yards-7,803 total between Denver South and Chatfield High. It's the kind of career that does little to quell a teenager's brazenness. He signed on with USC even though he knew he would be part of a crowded backfield. In 2002, the Trojans had designs on three tailbacks. Local star Chauncey Washington, who's still at USC although his career has been derailed by academic troubles, was the first to commit. A month before signing day, Bush and White were teammates on the West squad in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. During the week leading up to the game, White saw Bush's moves and blinding speed and still called Uncle Herman to say, "I'm not going to run from the competition." Both players announced they'd be Trojans before the game was over. "My attitude was, if you're really good, you're gonna play," White says. "And I believed he was going to bring out the best in me."
USC linebacker Thomas Williams was also selected for that all-star game. On a layover in Utah on his way to the event, Williams saw a guy in Helix High gear sitting quietly at the gate. "I figured that's gotta be Reggie Bush," he says. "So I introduced myself. He said 'Hi,' and that was about it. Then LenDale comes in and you hear, 'I'm Showcase. Showcase is here!'"
Showcase, though, almost didn't make it to fall camp. He'd arrived on campus in June, before most of the freshmen. "A young guy scared about what he might be getting himself into," says Carroll. Making matters worse, White was especially close to his grandmother, Sharon, who had become seriously ill with diabetes and a heart ailment.
As soon as two-a-days began, Bush asserted himself as a star, dazzling the entire squad the first time he put on pads. And although White made steady progress, nothing he did could convince him he shouldn't go back to Colorado. His family pushed him to tough it out while keeping mum on the details of his grandmother's weakening condition. Slowly, as Bush emerged as an all-purpose if not yet dominant threat, it was White who became the workhorse. He rushed for 754 yards and 13 touchdowns and was named Pac-10 co-Newcomer of the Year by ESPN.com.
Today, he continues to reap the benefits of keeping the faith. Those closest to him say he has definitely matured. (Grandma Sharon has made her own remarkable gains. Although she can't travel, she rarely misses a chance to watch LenDale's games.) White believes his friends see through his theatrics, but he's not bothered by people who think he's a blowhard. "If people feel that way, they must not know me," he says. "I'm a nicehearted guy." He'll remind you that he signs autographs for kids and hugs people in wheelchairs. "I really just try to make things as light and fun as possible."
Until the whistle blows. Then White is all business. On the sideline he trades tips with Bush. "That 26-Power's looking real good," one says. "So is the inside zone, but make sure you step this way so you can get by that," counters the other.
White was the biggest Heisman campaigner for Bush, printing up some "Prez Bush for Heisman" T-shirts before flying to New York to celebrate his pal's coronation. "I could never be mad at a guy I see work as hard as Reggie does," White says. "He really does deserve everything he gets."
Like his award-winning teammate, White is expected to seek his just rewards in the NFL next season. But, the truth is, Bush and USC wouldn't be where they are right now if White hadn't decided to play along with the program. Do not underestimate the importance of Showcase.
Back on Nov. 19, the Trojans were clinging to a 41-35 fourth-quarter lead against Fresno State. Bush, who was running all over the Bulldogs, had just fumbled a kickoff. He fumed on the sideline as Fresno took the lead on the next play. White walked over to Bush, put his hand on his teammate's shoulder pad and said, "It's gone now, man. All you can do is go back out there and do something else. Just do what you do." On the next series, Bush took a pass 43 yards to the Fresno 21-yard line. Five plays later, USC lined up in its goal-line offense and White plunged in for the game-winning TD.
All was cool in Troy.