"Best players you've never heard of" includes Mike White

[rich.sessums]

Glad to see him get some love from Bleacher Report.  Bottom player on the list.

Bleacher Report article

[The Sheriff]

So, did Willie fail to develop Mike White? Is Flowers similar to BJ Daniels? All natural talent with limited coaching to maximize the talent? I guess we'll find out by watching Oregon this season. A Jim Leavitt defense though will give Willie plenty of room for error on the offensive side of the ball to get things straight.

On Q's development, we'll see if the new changes to his throwing motion set him over the top as a QB on the college level. With his talent, this could be what the doctor ordered to complete those intermediate passes that he's struggled with throughout his time here (although he has gotten better from year to year). If he makes a substantial leap, we could literally steam roll our competition game in and game out assuming our defense shows up.

[206BULL]

Good for him. I'd say his transfer worked out well for all parties involved. 

[GaUSFBull]

50 minutes ago, The Sheriff said:

So, did Willie fail to develop Mike White?

I think the biggest thing on this question is that we just didn't have the personnel to run the offense Willie wanted to when he got here.  Mike White was a bit of a casualty of that.  All's well that ends well, though, and I'm glad Mike has done well at WKU and I wish him all the best.  Maybe he'll get some backup/practice squad work at the next level when all's said and done.

[Fold FB Invest in BB]

http://www.thebullspen.com/topic/93813-ok-i-am-sold-mike-white-is-the-real-deal/?do=findComment&comment=1217156

Look, I'm right again.

[raptorcj]

Happy for him, he's a good kid and had a lot of potential coming in. His arm is great, but the legs were the reason (IMO) he never seemed to fully click at USF.

[Ionbull]

Mike White had the tools, Willie was just trying to run a system that wasn't working with the talent he had. Heck his first game as a true freshman against Houston wasn't bad at all. The scheme change worked for both Mike and Quintin in their careers. I guess Taggart could recruit QBs pretty well, which speaks great for Kean bad Chris O.

[Breedwell]

5 hours ago, The Sheriff said:

So, did Willie fail to develop Mike White? Is Flowers similar to BJ Daniels?

I think White's experience here could be explained in  couple of reasons:

1) The system he was expected to use was too complicated and was too clunky, leading to mistakes by the entire offense.

2) Being in such a toxic environment for so long made it impossible for him to get out of the funk and regain confidence.

--

White got a total change of scenery by going to WKU. Not saying that USF was a bad place for him, but going 2-10, 3-9 under his lead presents a lot of negative stigma. A larger monkey on the back. and if you're a quarterback without confidence in yourself and your team, you get essentially what White looked like for a large portion of his time at USF. He showed flashes of having the arm and the smarts, but (I believe) being so entrenched in the gunk surrounding those good times made it impossible to really rise from the ashes. 

Now he's at WKU throwing 5k yards and 40 TDs like its nothing. He was put into a position to succeed, and he's been able to become confident in himself and his throws, and it really shows. 

[Bull Dozer]

5 hours ago, The Sheriff said:

So, did Willie fail to develop Mike White? Is Flowers similar to BJ Daniels? All natural talent with limited coaching to maximize the talent? I guess we'll find out by watching Oregon this season. A Jim Leavitt defense though will give Willie plenty of room for error on the offensive side of the ball to get things straight.

You can stop right there with that.  Flowers was EXTREMELY raw coming out of high school and was leagues better last season as a passer than he was when he made appearances his Freshman year. It's taken a ton of work to get Flowers where is now as a passer and there's still tons of work to be done.  There's a reason why we were the only team who recruited him as a QB and it's taken a ton of work from the staff and him to get where he is.  

[Bull94]

49 minutes ago, Breedwell said:

I think White's experience here could be explained in  couple of reasons:

1) The system he was expected to use was too complicated and was too clunky, leading to mistakes by the entire offense.

2) Being in such a toxic environment for so long made it impossible for him to get out of the funk and regain confidence.

--

White got a total change of scenery by going to WKU. Not saying that USF was a bad place for him, but going 2-10, 3-9 under his lead presents a lot of negative stigma. A larger monkey on the back. and if you're a quarterback without confidence in yourself and your team, you get essentially what White looked like for a large portion of his time at USF. He showed flashes of having the arm and the smarts, but (I believe) being so entrenched in the gunk surrounding those good times made it impossible to really rise from the ashes. 

Now he's at WKU throwing 5k yards and 40 TDs like its nothing. He was put into a position to succeed, and he's been able to become confident in himself and his throws, and it really shows. 

Think it had more to do with the fact that he was an inexperienced true Freshman playing for a team that went 3-9 the year before that had a crappy o-line, no real running threat and a terrible defense while he was here.

 

Playing for a winner as a Junior/Senior with quality players will make anyone look better. WKU was 12-2 the year before White started there.