Getting to Know our New Recruits: DB D.J. White

The penultimate (big words to start your Monday....you're welcome) recruit we're going to talk about is one that makes me wonder why we waited so long to cover him. DB D.J. White comes from Union Grove HS in McDonough, GA, a high school which has been good to us in recent years, also sending us DE Anthony Williams and LB Steven Sylvester. His commitment is actually the product of a decommitment, as he was committed to USF for a while, before deciding that the the program "seemed a little unstable", which ended up in him decommitting from them and committing to us over Vanderbilt about a week later. He's considered one of the top DB prospects in the state, and had offers from a slew of schools, including Auburn, Cal, Illinois, Mississippi St, Purdue, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Texas Tech, and UCF. He's 5'10", 180lbs, which is about what you would expect from a corner. At the 2011 Nike camp, featuring many of the Southeast's top prospects, he won Defensive Back MVP honors. Clearly this kid has a lot to offer our team.

When watching his film, the first things I noticed about White were his ability to catch the ball, as well as carry the ball. He made some truly acrobatic interceptions in that film, as well as some great catches in traffic when on offense. His role on offense also involved a lot of taking handoffs to run sweeps, and watching him on those plays suggests that he will not go down for arm tackles -- he has good balance and good agility. With a 40 time clocked at slightly above a 4.4, this kid has some serious speed to go with those catching and run back skills, which always makes for a dangerous combination when the opposition is looking at throwing to whoever he's got locked up. Being a ballhawk with good speed, I can see him fitting into either a corner or a safety role in our secondary. I think he has a lot of skills necessary to be a good punt and kick returner as well -- looking at his film, it looks like he's far from afraid to reverse the field and find an opening so long as he's getting blocks set up by teammates, and when he does have to run in traffic, he has a knack for finding a lane that's not as common as you might think in skill position players.

I think we're going to see a lot of good things from D.J. while he's at Tech. He has a lot of good football instincts, and with a lot of his natural skills, I feel like CPJ/CAG will find a good way to put them to use. I picture him as the next Jerrard Terrant, but maybe a little better in coverage. Hopefully all of the potential there is in him surfaces during his time on the Flats. Welcome to Tech, D.J.!