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Published Nov 22, 2023
White was 'unstoppable' in career-best outing against Cincinnati
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Zach Anderson  •  WVSports
Staff Writer
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@zachanderson_11

Simply put, West Virginia freshman running back Jahiem White made the most of his first career start for the Mountaineers, going for a career-high in rushing and receiving yards while also putting up WVU's best rushing individual performance of the year.

White, a first-year player from York, Pa., felt like he was having an excellent day on Saturday, but this unstoppable attitude is something he brings out every time he steps on the field to compete.

"I always feel [unstoppable]," White said.

The freshman ball carrier was certainly unstoppable against the Bearcats in the 42-21 win, as he ran for a career-high 204 yards and one touchdown, while catching one pass for 75 yards and another touchdown.

On the way to his special performance, White averaged just under double-digits in yards per carry at 9.7 and did all of his work on only 21 rushing attempts.

Another impressive fact of White's career-best performance was the season's implications. Saturday's total is the highest individual rushing yard performance on the season for West Virginia and it came from a freshman making his debut on campus this fall, as a player with only 89 carries for 659 yards and three touchdowns on the year.

White said that better practice has been aprt of his recent success and it comes down to him simulating competition in practice to have that practice translate to an in-game situation.

"It's just really going hard every time I get the ball, making game-like reps in practice," White said. "Scoring everytime I get the ball in practice, it leads to in a game."

Coming in at only 5-foot-7, White feels like this height is actually a benefit to his one-cut running style, after he of course gets help from his offensive line.

"For me to be the smallest, I have more power to the ground for me to push and then my lineman help me out," White said.

West Virginia's total rushing attack is predicated on a duo of speed, quickness and decisiveness, along with a run-first and ground and pound attitude, which makes quarterback Garrett Greene another factor to tote the football on every snap.

Greene added even more to this running attack, contributing 154 more yards and three touchdowns to make a hefty team total of five touchdowns and 424 yards rushing on the day.

Greene had high praise for his running back in the backfield making his first start against Cincinnati, noting how versatile he is as a freshman.

"Jahiem ran his butt off. He is one of the best football players in the country," Greene said. "You can ask him to do anything."

As the team's signal caller, Greene takes responsibility to get White the football. Especially when he's performing so well like he did against the Bearcats.

"The only knock you have on him is his height but he's a hell of a player," Greene said. "It's my job and the offense's job is to find creative ways to get him in space."

White believes that Greene's running ability opens up more running lanes for him and they fed off each other in the run game to change the defense's focus on each snap.

"It opens it up for me and it obviously opened it up for him [Greene] because we always run the ball so they've got their eyes on the running backs and for him to do that, that was just amazing," White said.

White made his first-career start against Cincinnati due to an injury to regular starting running back CJ Donaldson, and he said he knew he needed to step up as the starter.

"Right after that injury, I knew I had to step up. It's the same mentality."

Now that White was given an opportunity to start at running back, he shined and this was something he's waited all season to do.

"I've been waiting to actually show my talent and for me to start tonight was a big jump for me," White said. "I just wanted to show the world and show [West Virginia] my talent."

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