By all accounts, final season was DaShaun White’s finest at Oklahoma.
He completed his senior 12 months with a career-high 66 tackles, including 5 tackles for loss and a fumble restoration. He began 12 of the Sooners’ 13 video games, solely lacking the Baylor sport as a result of damage.
It wouldn’t have been a shock for him to hitch different Sooner defensive gamers like Nik Bonitto, Brian Asamoah and Perrion Winfrey in declaring for this 12 months’s NFL Draft. However when it got here time for him to decide, one thing saved him from shifting to the following degree.
“It was a type of issues that I do know I needed to make the fitting determination for myself,” White stated throughout his media availability Tuesday. “[I] actually felt deep down inside I simply left a lot on the desk right here. If I had went on and went to the league, I do know that it most likely would’ve been a type of issues that simply would’ve [eaten] at me for fairly a while, simply understanding that I didn’t go away the legacy that I needed to right here, I didn’t do the issues I needed to right here.
“That’s basically what it got here all the way down to, me feeling like I simply left an excessive amount of on the plate. I do know there’s one other degree I can get to and that’s the one plan for the following 12 months.”
White determined to remain at Oklahoma, although one thing else helped along with his determination — the Sooners’ hiring of Brent Venables as head coach.
“That was most likely the best a part of the choice, simply understanding that I’d play for the completely finest defensive coordinator in faculty soccer,” White stated. “I’d say [he’s] the best possible head coach now. That was most likely the best a part of the choice… The issues that he’s performed, it’s video-game like, so the chance to play for somebody like him on the [linebacker] place that he focuses on and teaches in, it doesn’t get higher for me individually.
“I believe it was straightforward to see in his actions, the issues that he began doing. He’s a type of folks, it’s clear that he’s a players-first coach. He at all times says he’s going to like us robust however he’s going to like us arduous, too. He demonstrates that in his actions each single day, and it’s one thing that I by no means surprise if he loves me or not as a result of I can inform, whether or not he’s yelling at me proper in my face, like actually proper right here, or if he’s telling me I did job on one thing.”
After deciding to remain, White went proper to work within the offseason with Jerry Schmidt, the Sooners’ energy and conditioning coach who returned to his former function after Venables was employed. Whereas the main target has been on getting stronger, White additionally dedicated to watching extra movie to assist with making faster on-field reads throughout video games.
Although he was nervous in regards to the depth of Schmidt’s exercises, that feeling rapidly went away.
“The tales had at all times had me form of anxious,” White stated. ‘I acquired in there, surprisingly they put me on his rack. So I’ve been understanding with ‘Schmidty’ each single day. He works his tail off, however he’s actually sort of goofy… Schmidty, he’s my canine, I’d do something for him. Actually that fast, I may see form of like with this complete teaching workers, you possibly can see how invested they’re within the gamers and to the tradition of this program.”
He’s additionally taken on extra of a management function after the departures from final 12 months’s protection. As a graduate scholar and fifth-year senior, White has been working to assist facilitate Venables’ tradition of accountability.
Although many of the linebackers this season are younger — six of them are underclassmen — White is assured in regards to the group he’s main.
“I believe the management on the workforce stepped up so much and that’s made that massive of a distinction,” White stated. “All of us have our accountability teams that we’re accountable for as leaders, seniors… We take phrases from Coach Venables like [having a] ‘no excuse’ mindset and we persist with that. That’s what it’s. No one’s going above that. There’s no excuses. It’s that easy.”
On Tuesday, he was on the sector at Everest Coaching Heart for the beginning of his fifth spring soccer season with the Sooners.
It’s additionally the start of White’s quest to strengthen his legacy in his remaining season with the workforce.
“I do know I haven’t been part of a greater offseason than what we simply skilled simply so far as everyday,” White stated. “Simply the intent to work was a lot completely different than what we’ve had prior to now. I do know we’re heading into the fitting route.”