But if an award ever were given for perseverance and overcoming a mountain of personal obstacles, White would deserve it.
GSPHOTOWestern Michigan's Jordan White, a North Ridgeville grad in his sixth collegiate season, had one of the year's best receiving seasons and completes his college career Tuesday in the Little Caesars Bowl against Purdue. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Justin Blackmon will make some NFL team very happy next year, maybe even the Browns. The Oklahoma State junior, voted the best wide receiver in college football, caught 113 passes this season. That was second-most in the country.
Some kid named Jordan White was first with 127.
Jordan who?
After starring very quietly at North Ridgeville High School, White will complete a record-setting career at Western Michigan in Tuesday's Little Caesars Pizza Bowl against Purdue in relative obscurity.
White was also first in the nation with 1,646 receiving yards, and second in touchdown receptions with 16. With 110 more receiving yards, he'll become the Mid-American Conference's all-time career leader. He already holds all but three of his school's receiving records -- this at a place that produced Greg Jennings, the top target of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his rollicking Super Bowl offense.
"If he was anywhere else [in major college football], he would have been in the discussion for the Heisman," said Josh Gattis, White's position coach at WMU.
Coaches are prone to hyperbole, but he's probably right.
Although White caught 12 passes each against Michigan and Connecticut, and 14 at Illinois this season, MAC player don't win Heismans or even Biletnikoff awards, given to the game's most gifted receiver. (White was a semifinalist.) But if an award ever were given for perseverance and overcoming a mountain of personal obstacles, White would deserve it.
At 23, White is a sixth-year senior who hears his share of old-man jokes from teammates. The NCAA approved an extra year of eligibility, but not for academics. (He's already earned a degree in advertising and promotions and is working on a master's in business administration.)
He's the senior citizen of the Broncos' locker room because he lost two seasons -- one for each knee.
From flag football in fifth grade through high school, White never got seriously hurt. Never even dinged enough to sit out a play or two. Then, in 2006, with White penciled in to start as a true college freshman, his right knee popped on the fourth day of practice. He tore an anterior cruciate ligament, one of joint's four major connectors.
"When that happened to him, it hit him pretty hard," said his mother, Sharon Gall. "But I think being a first born [of three], he's very determined and hard-headed."
Zolton Cohen Inc."I wouldn't go back and change anything," says former North Ridgeville star Jordan White, "because I believe it's made me a better player and a better person." After that redshirt season, in which schools can extend a player's eligibility because of an injury or other reasons, White returned in 2007 to catch 19 passes and his first college touchdown. He was back, or so it seemed. Then he ripped the ACL in his other knee. The 2008 season was wiped out, too.
Some doctors advised him to hang it up. "But I couldn't do that," White said.
In fact, the second recovery was much easier, he said, because he already understood what it took to get back on the field.
"It's more mental than physical," he said.
Mental, indeed. That same year, his father James White, who played football at LSU and made the Browns as an undrafted free agent in 1985, suffered a brain aneurysm while driving west on I-480 in Garfield Heights. His car crossed the median and struck a pick-up truck head-on, killing the driver. White was flown to Metro Hospital, slipped into a coma and has been in that condition ever since. He's in Louisiana being cared for by his mother and two sisters.
Until the accident, White was an active Browns alumni member -- even though he only dressed for the last game of the '85 season.
Through it all, Jordan White somehow persevered.
"Just wake up every day and try to do the best I can," he said. "I wouldn't go back and change anything, because I believe it's made me a better player and a better person."
His best has been outstanding as his game took off this season -- partly because of the NFL lockout.
Green Bay's Jennings, who lives near the Western Michigan campus in Kalamazoo, spent some of his summer working with White on speed, pass routes and other nuances of the position. White, at 6-0, 215 pounds, also studies videos of such NFL standouts as Carolina's Steve Smith, Houston's Andre Johnson and New England's Chad Ochocinco.
The Jordan White file
- Position: Wide receiver, Western Michigan
- Local connection: 2006 graduate of North Ridgeville High School.
- Age: 23
- Height/weight: 6-0, 215.
- 2011 stats: Led nation with 127 receptions and 1,646 yards, and was second with 16 touchdown receptions.
- 2011 awards: Biletnikoff Award finalist; Walter Camp Football Foundation second-team All-American; American Football Coaches Association All-American; Associated Press third-team All-American.
- Milestones: Holds Western Michigan records for career catches (293), catches in season (127), catches in game (16), career receiving yards (3,922) and yards in season (1,646).
— Bill Lubinger
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"Jordan White is great," said WMU head coach Bill Cubit, "because he wants to be great."
That may be, but he was largely overlooked coming out of high school, where he was honorable-mention -- not first- or second-team -- All-Ohio in Division II in 2005.
Kent State head coach Darrell Hazell, who coached receivers at Ohio State at the time, said he wasn't even aware of him. Louisville showed interest but didn't offer a scholarship. White chose WMU over Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green.
Six years later, postseason rewards are rushing in. White was a Walter Camp Football Foundation second-team All-American, joining Blackmon, Oklahoma's Ryan Broyles and USC's Robert Woods. The American Football Coaches Association selected him and Blackmon as its two All-American receivers.
His 2011 highlight? Easy. He scorched Toledo for 16 catches, 238 yards and three touchdowns in a 66-63 loss.
"As fine a football player as we played against this year," said Paul Nichols, Toledo's co-defensive coordinator. "He's tough, he's strong, he can run every route. He's a complete receiver."
White's game against Toledo was marred by two fumbles, one of which was returned for a Rockets touchdown. Those errors shouldn't leave a mark with NFL scouts, but competing in the MAC and his knee injuries leave some questions he'll have to resolve in college all-star games and at the NFL Combine.
Cleveland sports agent Andy Simms projects White as a fourth- to seventh- round pick, based on feedback from scouts.
From, "Jordan who?" to possibly Jordan White, NFL receiver. Sometimes, in private moments, he and his mother make sure it's all real.
"Jordan's like, 'Mom, can you believe this?'" said Gall, a Continental Airlines maintenance employee. "You almost want someone to pinch you. These were dreams, you know?"