Healthy again, White eager to start to make his mark

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Each year coaches spend most of spring and fall camp tinkering to try to find the best lineup combinations. Nowhere is that more evident than on the O-line, especially at Florida, where offensive line coach John Hevesy likes to cross-train at least a handful of players to provide position flexibility.

Going into the 2020 season, the O-line was up in the air.

Florida had to find a new starting center following the departure of Nick Buchanan, while it also hoped to plug in Mississippi State transfer Stewart Reese somewhere along the line in an attempt to upgrade the unit.

So Hevesy identified the player most likely to be a great long-term answer at center, both for the long haul and for 2020. That was sophomore Ethan White. The rest of the line was built around White manning the center spot.

Midway through camp, the plan to start White there came to a screeching halt when he suffered a left knee injury that knocked him out for several weeks, though.

“To be honest, it was rough,” White recalled on Thursday. “When it happened, those first couple days I was kind of feeling bad for myself and stuff like that.”

Instead of going from a 400-pound, overweight true freshman to a trim, starting center at an SEC contender in just a year, White was put on the back burner.

The Gators forged ahead without him, shifting veteran Brett Heggie to center and moving a few other pieces around to cobble together a starting five. White, meanwhile, had to find a way to regroup and get his rehab underway.

“I just talked to some guys on the team who had been through similar experiences,” he said. “And probably two to three days after it happened, my mind was on just get back as fast as possible. Worrying about it won’t do anything. All I can do is rehab and just take care of my body and get back to where I want to be.”

When White returned, he played in just four games. He did not make a start. Hevesy knew he had to be careful bringing White back into the fold in game action.

“I think really his confidence was skyrocketing last year at center until that injury,” the veteran UF O-line coach said. “Any injury always kind of puts a kid questioning what he’s doing. And even last season, he’s probably ready for the Georgia week but you watch him in practice, not 100% confident. I mean ready, but not confident, which is something you don’t want to ever throw a kid in there when he’s not confident in what he’s doing, and you wait one more week to get him in there so he’s playing.

“I think since then, even watching through spring practice I think still a little bit, and now through camp, really just hasn’t bothered with thinking about those things and he’s playing with a lot of confidence.”

White echoed that sentiment. He has his weight down under 330 pounds and looks as fit as ever. He sounds confident, like a player going into his third season who knew he was on track for big things before he was set back.

“My confidence is high. Part of it is the guys I’m playing next to,” White said. “Having practiced with them so long and knowing what they do it allows me to play with confidence because I know for example I know where my help is with Richard (Gouraige) or Kingsley (Eguakun) and I can kind of play faster because I’m not worried about what’s going to happen around me.”

In 2021, fans will get a glimpse at the guy they thought last year would be the poster boy for Hevesy’s recruiting strategy. The UF O-line coach has often taken players who aren’t rated as highly by services like 247Sports, confident he can take a physically massive player, trim him down to size and work with the raw athleticism underneath.

That plan was working like a charm for White before his injury.

Now, down to a sleek 320- to 330-pound wrecking ball and no longer worried about his knee, White is ready to get after it. Realistically, though, he knows he’s got more to do than simply lose weight to make good on his potential.

“It’s nice to trim up and all that, but it’s still got to translate to the field obviously and you have to play well,” he said.