OC Chad Scott Believes Best Yet to Come From RB Jahiem White
August 05, 2024 05:00 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia offensive coordinator Chad Scott believes sophomore running back Jahiem White is ready to take the next step and become the guy about whom everyone talks.
Despite earning Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic, On3 and Pro Football Focus, White is still pretty much unknown to a lot of the national people who cover college football today.
For instance, last month, when Neal Brown was in Las Vegas for Big 12 media days, he said he didn't get a single question from national folks about his emerging running back.
Scott, notorious for picking up these little tidbits of information and passing them along to his guys, has made it a point to remind White daily that people outside the program have been sleeping on him.
"Yeah, for him, I just talk about the fact that nobody is talking about him," Scott said last Saturday afternoon. "Nobody is asking about him and sometimes these rankings come out and he's not one of the top guys, and he was a freshman All-American. He says, 'I know, coach, I know. We've got to go play ball.'"
What White did as a true freshman last season basically boiled down to his last six games against UCF, BYU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Baylor and North Carolina.
He didn't touch the football in the victory against Pitt nor the loss to Oklahoma State; he got one rushing attempt against Texas Tech, five versus TCU and seven against Houston. Then, he played a big role in West Virginia's 41-28 road win at UCF when he rushed for 85 yards and scored a touchdown.
A week later, he erupted for 146 yards on only 16 carries against BYU and followed that up two weeks later with a career-high 204 yards rushing and 279 yards from scrimmage in a home win against Cincinnati.
His regular-season-ending game at Baylor featured 133 yards rushing and the winning 29-yard touchdown catch on the Mountaineers' final offensive possession of the game. For the year, the York, Pennsylvania, resident averaged 7.7 yards per rush and nearly 9 yards every time he touched the football.
Scott said White's role with the football in his hands increased once he became reliable enough on the field without it.
"The biggest step for me, as far as on the football field, is him having the same confidence he has running the football to go pick up the blitz," Scott explained. "It's more so being able to recognize it and he's taken that next step in that regard. He's out there playing freely right now, and even through these first four days, he's so much more relaxed out there playing play to play.
"And it's a great thing to see because he's got scary talent, and the fact that he can recognize different looks and all the adjustments they may throw at him from a pass protection recognition standpoint is huge," Scott added. "That's the step he's taken on the football field."
WVU co-defensive coordinator ShaDon Brown, who is tasked with defending White each day in practice, says his unique set of skills make him difficult to stop.
"Jahiem is powerful, he's quick and he's a guy who knows how to run behind his pads," Brown explained. "And he's also a guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield, so he's multi-talented. They can line him up in the slot and he can run between the tackles and on the perimeter.
"You look at him walking down the hallway and he's got calves that look like a linebacker's," Brown explained. "He's 195 pounds and he's a compact, low-to-the-ground guy so he can run tough. He's got an unbelievable confidence about himself. He doesn't play like a young player. He plays like he's been doing it for four or five years because he's confident in what he can do. If he doesn't have 1,000 yards this year, then we didn't give it to him enough."
What makes White particularly difficult to defend is that his diminutive size actually benefits him because he can hide behind much taller offensive linemen and once defenders eventually identify him having the football, he's either to them or past them.
"When we run the zone schemes that we run, and he stays in behind those linemen, he's got the ability to find creases and cut the ball back," Brown noted. "He can make cuts full speed. And when he gets arm-tackled he runs through them where smaller backs usually get taken down. For a small guy, if you can do that, then you can give people problems."
Scott says White continues to make strides off the football field as well.
"He's taken the next step in regards to doing the little things to get himself prepared to go play and go practice. Thus far, he's been getting here way earlier than he normally does to get himself into position to be better prepared mentally to go practice," he explained. "That's a huge step because before he went out there and played off his natural talent and ability and now, he's taking care of his body."
When you compare White to other players, the one guy who immediately comes to mind is former Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn, now playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
Vaughn's last two seasons at Kansas State in 2021 and 2022 featured more than 1,800 yards from scrimmage, which included his impressive production in the passing game. White has similar ball skills to go along with a much more muscular and compact 5-foot-7, 195-pound frame.
Vaughn is only listed at 5-foot-6, 176 pounds on Dallas' roster.
The fun challenge for West Virginia now is coming up with unique ways of getting the football into White's hands besides quarterback Garrett Greene just turning around and handing it to him.
"We'll see this season," Scott smiled. "Last year, he had to learn how to practice. He didn't have great practice habits at all. Once he picked that up his play picked up. You see him right now … he's coaching the young guys in practice and his capacity to pick up more has increased because his attention to detail has increased.
"He takes notes every day, and he's studied the game more," Scott continued. "He understands defenses now so we're putting a lot on him and he's able to handle it. There are ways that we can get him the ball that hadn't been seen last year."
Which means offensive staff meetings this fall will be fun figuring out different things to do with him.
"It is fun, and it is fun for him, too, because he didn't think there were other ways that we can get him the football, and so that makes it more intriguing for him to continue to learn more," Scott pointed out. "In his mind, 'Well, if I could have learned this last year maybe you would have given the ball to me this way last year.'
"It's fun to have that type of talent who can pick up on it and it's even more fun when he sees the opportunities that are presented to him to make him want to study the game a lot more.," Scott said, adding, "We have not seen the best from that kid yet."
This morning, explosive plays were a big part of today's practice featuring several long pass hookups, including one from backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol to tight end Will Dixon.
Later, Mississippi State transfer Justin Robinson took advantage of a blown coverage to make a long scoring reception and sophomore Traylon Ray continued to demonstrate his ability to make people miss when catching the ball in space.
Coach Neal Brown called today's practice a "typical fall camp practice" with lots of good on both sides of the ball.
"If you think about our first group, defensively, we did an end-of-half, end-of-game, two-minute (period) and they did their jobs," he said. "On the opening drive at the end of practice, they got a three-and-out and that was a positive.
"On the flip side of that, our first group on offense the positives are a lot of explosive plays," Brown said. "Garrett hit a couple of big scrambles and then we had some really deep balls down the field that were completed. If you just look at those two groups, our first defense has got to do a better job of taking angles to the football and preventing those explosive plays and we've got to do a better job of communicating in the back end.
"Offensively, we've got to be better on the first play of drives and just some two-minute situations we've got to protect the passer better. We didn't do a good enough job today and it showed," he said.
After five practices, Brown was willing to talk about some of his individual players. The first one he brought up was redshirt freshman middle linebacker Josiah Trotter, who continues to shine and give the Mountaineers a big, physical presence in the middle that it has been lacking in recent years.
"He needs to be more consistent, but there are flashes every day with him," Brown said.
Other defenders the coach singled out were sophomore linebacker Trey Lathan, who followed up Saturday's two-interception performance with another strong practice on Monday. Troy transfer TJ Jackson II is another player who continues to perform well, according to the coach.
In the back end, he singled out the play of Northwestern transfer Garnett Hollis Jr. and Duquesne transfer Ayden Garnes at the two corner positions. Both are 6 feet or taller, giving the Mountaineers sorely needed size and length at those positions.
"I thought Garnett Hollis had a really nice day today, and Ayden Garnes has really been a bright spot through the first week," Brown said.
Offensively, Brown mentioned the work put forth by starting left guard Tomas Rimac and tight end Kole Taylor, both spring holdouts. The coach also mentioned Ray's effort at wide receiver.
"Traylon Ray is making the jump like we thought he would," he said.
Brown indicated Tuesday's practice inside the stadium is going to include lots of tackling and teamwork.
"I want to see us take all the drills that we've been working and see if we can get guys on the ground," he said. "It's going to be a big day where we focus on running the football – goal line and short yardage.
"It's the first time we are going to execute that in a live setting, and then we're just going to put the ball down and play inside the stadium. That's important. That's real football. On special teams, we are going to full-cover punt and we're going to full-cover kickoff, so we want to see who shines there in a live situation, both returners and guys that are covering those kicks," he said.
Following today's practice, co-defensive coordinator ShaDon Brown and players Aubrey Burks and CJ Donaldson Jr. were made available to the media.
Neal Brown said Wednesday's practice will be light and then no on-field activities are scheduled for Thursday.
Despite earning Freshman All-America honors from The Athletic, On3 and Pro Football Focus, White is still pretty much unknown to a lot of the national people who cover college football today.
For instance, last month, when Neal Brown was in Las Vegas for Big 12 media days, he said he didn't get a single question from national folks about his emerging running back.
Scott, notorious for picking up these little tidbits of information and passing them along to his guys, has made it a point to remind White daily that people outside the program have been sleeping on him.
"Yeah, for him, I just talk about the fact that nobody is talking about him," Scott said last Saturday afternoon. "Nobody is asking about him and sometimes these rankings come out and he's not one of the top guys, and he was a freshman All-American. He says, 'I know, coach, I know. We've got to go play ball.'"
What White did as a true freshman last season basically boiled down to his last six games against UCF, BYU, Oklahoma, Cincinnati, Baylor and North Carolina.
He didn't touch the football in the victory against Pitt nor the loss to Oklahoma State; he got one rushing attempt against Texas Tech, five versus TCU and seven against Houston. Then, he played a big role in West Virginia's 41-28 road win at UCF when he rushed for 85 yards and scored a touchdown.
A week later, he erupted for 146 yards on only 16 carries against BYU and followed that up two weeks later with a career-high 204 yards rushing and 279 yards from scrimmage in a home win against Cincinnati.
His regular-season-ending game at Baylor featured 133 yards rushing and the winning 29-yard touchdown catch on the Mountaineers' final offensive possession of the game. For the year, the York, Pennsylvania, resident averaged 7.7 yards per rush and nearly 9 yards every time he touched the football.
Scott said White's role with the football in his hands increased once he became reliable enough on the field without it.
"The biggest step for me, as far as on the football field, is him having the same confidence he has running the football to go pick up the blitz," Scott explained. "It's more so being able to recognize it and he's taken that next step in that regard. He's out there playing freely right now, and even through these first four days, he's so much more relaxed out there playing play to play.
"And it's a great thing to see because he's got scary talent, and the fact that he can recognize different looks and all the adjustments they may throw at him from a pass protection recognition standpoint is huge," Scott added. "That's the step he's taken on the football field."
WVU co-defensive coordinator ShaDon Brown, who is tasked with defending White each day in practice, says his unique set of skills make him difficult to stop.
"Jahiem is powerful, he's quick and he's a guy who knows how to run behind his pads," Brown explained. "And he's also a guy who can catch the ball out of the backfield, so he's multi-talented. They can line him up in the slot and he can run between the tackles and on the perimeter.
"You look at him walking down the hallway and he's got calves that look like a linebacker's," Brown explained. "He's 195 pounds and he's a compact, low-to-the-ground guy so he can run tough. He's got an unbelievable confidence about himself. He doesn't play like a young player. He plays like he's been doing it for four or five years because he's confident in what he can do. If he doesn't have 1,000 yards this year, then we didn't give it to him enough."
What makes White particularly difficult to defend is that his diminutive size actually benefits him because he can hide behind much taller offensive linemen and once defenders eventually identify him having the football, he's either to them or past them.
"When we run the zone schemes that we run, and he stays in behind those linemen, he's got the ability to find creases and cut the ball back," Brown noted. "He can make cuts full speed. And when he gets arm-tackled he runs through them where smaller backs usually get taken down. For a small guy, if you can do that, then you can give people problems."
Scott says White continues to make strides off the football field as well.
"He's taken the next step in regards to doing the little things to get himself prepared to go play and go practice. Thus far, he's been getting here way earlier than he normally does to get himself into position to be better prepared mentally to go practice," he explained. "That's a huge step because before he went out there and played off his natural talent and ability and now, he's taking care of his body."
When you compare White to other players, the one guy who immediately comes to mind is former Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn, now playing for the Dallas Cowboys.
Vaughn's last two seasons at Kansas State in 2021 and 2022 featured more than 1,800 yards from scrimmage, which included his impressive production in the passing game. White has similar ball skills to go along with a much more muscular and compact 5-foot-7, 195-pound frame.
Vaughn is only listed at 5-foot-6, 176 pounds on Dallas' roster.
The fun challenge for West Virginia now is coming up with unique ways of getting the football into White's hands besides quarterback Garrett Greene just turning around and handing it to him.
"We'll see this season," Scott smiled. "Last year, he had to learn how to practice. He didn't have great practice habits at all. Once he picked that up his play picked up. You see him right now … he's coaching the young guys in practice and his capacity to pick up more has increased because his attention to detail has increased.
"He takes notes every day, and he's studied the game more," Scott continued. "He understands defenses now so we're putting a lot on him and he's able to handle it. There are ways that we can get him the ball that hadn't been seen last year."
Which means offensive staff meetings this fall will be fun figuring out different things to do with him.
"It is fun, and it is fun for him, too, because he didn't think there were other ways that we can get him the football, and so that makes it more intriguing for him to continue to learn more," Scott pointed out. "In his mind, 'Well, if I could have learned this last year maybe you would have given the ball to me this way last year.'
"It's fun to have that type of talent who can pick up on it and it's even more fun when he sees the opportunities that are presented to him to make him want to study the game a lot more.," Scott said, adding, "We have not seen the best from that kid yet."
This morning, explosive plays were a big part of today's practice featuring several long pass hookups, including one from backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol to tight end Will Dixon.
Later, Mississippi State transfer Justin Robinson took advantage of a blown coverage to make a long scoring reception and sophomore Traylon Ray continued to demonstrate his ability to make people miss when catching the ball in space.
Coach Neal Brown called today's practice a "typical fall camp practice" with lots of good on both sides of the ball.
"If you think about our first group, defensively, we did an end-of-half, end-of-game, two-minute (period) and they did their jobs," he said. "On the opening drive at the end of practice, they got a three-and-out and that was a positive.
"On the flip side of that, our first group on offense the positives are a lot of explosive plays," Brown said. "Garrett hit a couple of big scrambles and then we had some really deep balls down the field that were completed. If you just look at those two groups, our first defense has got to do a better job of taking angles to the football and preventing those explosive plays and we've got to do a better job of communicating in the back end.
"Offensively, we've got to be better on the first play of drives and just some two-minute situations we've got to protect the passer better. We didn't do a good enough job today and it showed," he said.
After five practices, Brown was willing to talk about some of his individual players. The first one he brought up was redshirt freshman middle linebacker Josiah Trotter, who continues to shine and give the Mountaineers a big, physical presence in the middle that it has been lacking in recent years.
"He needs to be more consistent, but there are flashes every day with him," Brown said.
Other defenders the coach singled out were sophomore linebacker Trey Lathan, who followed up Saturday's two-interception performance with another strong practice on Monday. Troy transfer TJ Jackson II is another player who continues to perform well, according to the coach.
In the back end, he singled out the play of Northwestern transfer Garnett Hollis Jr. and Duquesne transfer Ayden Garnes at the two corner positions. Both are 6 feet or taller, giving the Mountaineers sorely needed size and length at those positions.
"I thought Garnett Hollis had a really nice day today, and Ayden Garnes has really been a bright spot through the first week," Brown said.
Offensively, Brown mentioned the work put forth by starting left guard Tomas Rimac and tight end Kole Taylor, both spring holdouts. The coach also mentioned Ray's effort at wide receiver.
"Traylon Ray is making the jump like we thought he would," he said.
Brown indicated Tuesday's practice inside the stadium is going to include lots of tackling and teamwork.
"I want to see us take all the drills that we've been working and see if we can get guys on the ground," he said. "It's going to be a big day where we focus on running the football – goal line and short yardage.
"It's the first time we are going to execute that in a live setting, and then we're just going to put the ball down and play inside the stadium. That's important. That's real football. On special teams, we are going to full-cover punt and we're going to full-cover kickoff, so we want to see who shines there in a live situation, both returners and guys that are covering those kicks," he said.
Following today's practice, co-defensive coordinator ShaDon Brown and players Aubrey Burks and CJ Donaldson Jr. were made available to the media.
Neal Brown said Wednesday's practice will be light and then no on-field activities are scheduled for Thursday.
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