FB Stan White, Jr. (official thread)

[LightningRod]

Stan White, Jr. is one of a number of current Buckeyes who are leading the way academically as well as on the field. This Bud's for you.

OSU FOOTBALL
Renaissance man waiting in wings
White’s horizons go beyond football field
Friday, November 11, 2005
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Beyond earning a couple of college degrees in the next two years, taking a shot at pro football and perhaps creating a business, one goal of Stan White Jr. is pretty simple.

"I want to be a Renaissance man," he said.

What?

"Growing up, my faith always has been very important to me, and I think that is part of the teachings, to use all of the gifts God has given you," he said. "I have been blessed with some athletic talent, and God gave me some intellect, a little bit, and I’m trying to use that."

No one who knows him would argue, except with the part of having "a little bit" of intellect. White, a junior fullback for Ohio State, is in the final stages of a degree in corporate finance and already is into the MBA program in the Fisher College of Business. He carries a 3.8 GPA.

Here’s how smart he is: "As long as Ohio State is going to pay for my education, I am going to take full advantage of whatever they’re willing to pay for."

Having graduated in 2002 from the prestigious Gilman School in Baltimore, Md., he could have written his ticket to any of the nation’s elite academic schools, including Northwestern, Ohio State’s opponent Saturday. He chose OSU over Stanford.

"Everybody at school was like, ‘Seriously?’ " White said, laughing. "But to me, Ohio State is all about what you put into it. And the Fisher College of Business is excellent; it’s rated as high as any of those other schools around the country.

"I feel like I have gotten the same education I could have gotten anywhere."

No matter where he went, he wouldn’t have just sat there staring at the walls. The son of former OSU and NFL linebacker Stan White, Stan Jr. has shown signs of "a little bit" of intellect all of his life.

Like the time his mother purchased fans for their house when the air conditioning went out. As she put one together in another room, she heard a fan come on in Stan Jr.’s room.

"I ran in there and I couldn’t believe it," Patricia White said. "I asked him if his father had put the fan together and he said ‘No. I did it, mom.’ "

He was 7.

Fast-forward to a couple of years ago in the Accounting 211 class of professor Ray Krasniewski at OSU. Krasniewski gave about 20 to 25 quizzes that quarter, and sometimes he would let the students wander around the room to ask others for help.

"We’re talking about a class of about 60 students, and it was amazing to me how many of them would walk over and ask the football player for the answers," Krasniewski said. "They knew he was one of the smartest and hardest-working people in the class."

Krasniewski had a feeling he would be, because he had Stan Jr.’s dad in class 33 years earlier.

"I tease his father that his son has got his mother’s brains," Krasniewski said, laughing.

Together, Stan and Patricia White have produced three outstanding students. Amanda, who was a strong competitive swimmer at Stanford, is one of the world’s elite triathletes. Meghan won the Wendy’s Heisman award in Maryland her senior year in high school before going first to North Carolina and then Maryland as a cross-country runner.

"They both were in the top two or three of their school class; they always worked hard on their academics and their athletics," Stan Sr. said. "I think Stan grew up in an atmosphere where that was kind of expected.

"Sibling rivalry is strong. I think that has more to do with his desire than anything I did. What I did was before his time."

Leave it to Stan Jr., to have done homework on his father’s career. As he pointed out, his father, at the insistence of Woody Hayes, went on to graduate from law school because Hayes told him, "You’re a smart fellow, and you shouldn’t just be a football player. You need to develop all of the talents that you have."

Asked when he realized he also might be a cut above intelligencewise, Stan Jr. gave an interesting answer.

"There was a philosophy class where I read The Death of Socrates, by Plato," he said. "And it said the reason Socrates was the smartest man in the world was because he realized there was little that he actually knew. . . . There’s tons of things I have no idea about."

But he’s curious. The only time he fought that urge was his senior year at Gilman.

"It wasn’t that I took an easy schedule, but I didn’t take some of the more challenging courses I could have taken," White said. "About halfway through the year, I thought I was going to have this great time, but I found out I wasn’t as satisfied as I could have been by challenging myself.

"It’s not by slacking off or wasting time that you feel most satisfied. It’s when you live up to the potential you’ve been given."

tmay@dispatch.com

[DaddyBigBucks]

I have a new sig...

[Steve19]

Find out who hires him when he graduates and then invest heavily in their stock.

[el mastiff]

Nice O-Zone article

FootballWhite Says Summer Conditioning was Fruitful, but It's Time for Some FootballBy John Porentas
The Buckeyes wound down summer conditioning in late July before the heat wave that currently is sweltering Columbus set in, but it was plenty hot while they were working out. Fifth-year senior fullback Stan White was running sprints in the late-July heat as conditioning drills wound down, and between each rep White poured copious amounts of water over his head trying to stay cool. It worked, White stayed cool, but the water ran down his head and body and into his running shoes, adding about a half a pound to each of them and making the sprints all that more difficult.

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=100 align=left border=0><CAPTION align=bottom>Stan White Jr. </CAPTION><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

"I can't every remember that happening before," laughed White, "at least the part where they (the shoes) get real heavy."
White, like all the Buckeyes we talked to this summer, claims the team came out of summer conditioning in excellent shape.
"I think sometimes in times past the attitude was that summer conditioning was just something you had to endure and get through. This year it's been more a mindset of it's an opportunity to improve ourselves, so it's not getting through it, it's maximizing it," said White.
Like so many of the other Buckeyes White says that he is not only in shape, but is faster, so much so that he actually was worried that he had dropped weight because he was moving so well. A trip to the scale calmed him down.
"I weight just as much as I ever have, I'm over 250, and I actually was a little scared to get on the scale at the end of the week, because I thought I was going to be a light because I was feeling so fast," he said.
"I got on the scales and I was as heavy as I've every been. I think when you work out hard and do it for a long time its hard to do that, but Coach Lichter has done a great job of getting us prepared."
The Buckeyes were off last week, but will get to serious business this week when they reconvene for fall camp.
"We've been working real hard, maybe harder than any summer since I've been here," said White.
"It's time for the season to start. Some guys like to work out, some guys like to be on the field all time, I like working out, but I'm ready for the season to start.
"People have been talking for so long about what this thing could be, it's about time for us to actually go out there and do something about that. There's definitely a sense of anticipation to get out there and actually show what we can do, not have it just be the press talking, but actually us out there doing," White said.
White came to Ohio State a heralded linebacker/tight end, but was in a class that included players like A. J. Hawk and Bobby Carpenter, special talents that made it tough for White to get on the field as a linebacker. He eventually found himself at tight end, then fullback, as he searched for a way to contribute to his team. White says he has no regrets about the way his career has unfolded.
"I've always said that I'm a football player, that's why I initially got recruited in a class that was full of linebackers, because I could play a number of different positions," he said.
"I think that I've found a niche where I can be successful. I think I showed last year that I could get the job done and be a player you can count on. This year my goal is to be not just a player you can count on, but to make impact plays."
On a team that will feature talented running backs, explosive wideouts and a proven playmaker at quarterback, it's hard to imagine the fullback position as one that will be counted on as a playmaking position. White smiled, however, when asked if the fullback would ever get a carry in 2006.
"That is a great question," he deadpanned, that smiled when he added "I think they're saving that for the right opportunity, the right moment, a special play that will break right up the seam and go 86 yards."
In his final go-round as a Buckeye, White will be an important cog in an OSU offense that is being depended on to carry the team to great heights. Those kind of expectations, along with a lofty preseason ranking, bring pressure, but pressure is something White has learned to cope with at Ohio State.
"I don't know if the pressure is ever not there at Ohio State no matter the season," he said.
"Preseason rankings, as long as you are in the top-15 it doesn't hurt you, as long as you have a shot to do it (win a national title), I don't know if it really matters."

[rocketman]

"...but Coach Lichter has done a great job of getting us prepared."

About the 4 millionth time a Buckeye player has said this...
</BOD>

[osugrad21]

BSB $

8/9

Good read from Adam Jardy as Stan discusses his role in the offense, planting Prescott Burgess last year, and his goal of becoming a Rhodes Scholar.