He may not be Tua Tagovailoa. He may not be Joe Burrow. Hell, he is not Joe Burrow, but Brady White is showing that he is exactly what the Tigers need at quarterback.
With the Tigers two previous quarterbacks Paxton Lynch and Riley Ferguson having success on the team, the Arizona State transfer, Brady White, had quite a few expectations to live up to once he joined this explosive Memphis offense.
Heading into the 2018 season, White was entrenched in a battle with fellow quarterback David Moore to decide who be named the team’s starter. After the latter transferred shortly before the beginning of the season, it was clear that White would be the team’s starter.
In his first season with the team, White was serviceable, throwing for 3,296 passing yards on a 62.8 completion percentage, 26 passing touchdowns and nine interceptions.
He did not have much pressure to put up astronomical numbers because the team boasted one of the nation’s best run games in the nation with running backs Darrell Henderson, Tony Pollard and Patrick Taylor Jr.
Now in his second season with the Tigers, he has been tasked with assuming more responsibilities since two of those running backs have taken their talents to the NFL and Taylor has not played since the season opener due to injury.
Though replacements Kenneth Gainwell and Kylan Watkins have been doing a great job toting the rock combining for 257 rushing yards against Louisiana-Monroe, Brady White has been tasked with making more impact plays this year than last year.
A prime example of this was in the team’s game against Navy, where White led the squad to a 35-23 victory after Memphis was down at halftime 20-14.
He had his fair of struggles in the first half and wound up passing for only 29 yards in the first thirty minutes. Fans were visibly frustrated by the results and began to boo him.
However, the California native did not let their response phase him and told the media that he knew that his team had his back.
“I didn’t care,” White said. “I got my teammates and my true supporters behind me. It was actually kind of funny to me.”
Well White ended up getting the last laugh, and in the second half, he threw for 167 passing yards and three touchdowns to secure the Tigers win.
That game served as a culmination of the fight that White has been displaying this season, and it does not seem to be ending anytime soon.
Against Louisiana-Monroe, White continued the momentum that he had gained against the Midshipmen and completed 15 of his 23 passes, threw for 249 yards and had three passing touchdowns and an interception in the team’s 52-33 victory.
What has helped to make White and the Tigers’ offense so dangerous is that he is talented enough to spread out to multiple receivers.
In Saturday’s game, he threw the ball to eight different wideouts with Damonte Coxie, Antonio Gibson and Kameron Wilson being on the receiving end of his touchdown passes.
With arguably the toughest game of the season coming up next week against Temple, the Tigers need White to carry the load against a talented Owls’ secondary.
If you had asked me before the season started about my confidence in White being the focal point of the offense, I would have been admittedly skeptical.
Now five games in, I can tell that this year is going to be different than what we have seen in the past. I just hope that the rest of the nation can handle it.
Brady White makes a tough throw to a nearby receiver. White ended with 249 yards passing, three touchdowns and one interception in a 52-33 win over Louisiana-Monroe.
Kenneth Gainwell reaches for more yardage. Gainwell had a historic game against Tulane where he was the first player since 1997 to have 100+ rushing yards and 200+ receiving yards in a game.
