Meet the five-stars: Zamir White
There are five five-stars in our initial Rivals100 for the class of 2018. Here is an up-close look at one of those five-stars: running back Zamir White.
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Recruiting wrap: An early Georgia lean, White hit the reset button on his recruitment after the dust settled from the coaching carousel this offseason. He’s taken a lot of visits lately. Georgia, Clemson, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida State, LSU, Tennessee and Ohio State are in good position right now. Expect White to visit Michigan, Ohio State and possibly Tennessee this summer, likely in early June. An official short list from White could come sometime this fall.
Analyst’s take: White will be a perfect fit at any school, regardless of their offensive system. At 6-foot, 205 pounds he has an ideal frame to run with power and speed. When running between the tackles, White shows excellent burst through the line of scrimmage, can run through tackles and find the end zone with ease. If he has to run to the outside, he has no trouble beating defenders to the edge, faking out would-be tacklers, finding cutback lanes and out-running any defenders giving chase.
Why he’s a five-star: “White has everything you want in a running back – he has size, speed, vision and he’s able to make people miss or break tackles. He hits the line of scrimmage decisively, he runs with excellent pad level and when he gets a step on his opponent he’s gone. He’s a downhill runner with elite speed and reminds me of some of the old school running backs I’ve seen like Knowshon Moreno when they were coming out. He runs like his hair is on fire and you have to love that.” – Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell.
His coach says: “There is really nothing on the football field that Zamir can’t do. Zamir is an every down back. He has the ability to run between the tackles. He’s physical, strong and can run through tackles but he also has the speed to run on the edge and take it the distance. He ran a 10.5 100-meters this spring. The other thing Zamir does well is catching the ball. He has very good hands from doing all these camps and 7-on-7s. He is also a physical and willing blocker. I’ve told him that the biggest thing keeping running backs off the field early in their careers is their willingness to block in pass protection. Zamir takes pride in that and does a good job.
"Zamir loves the game. A lot of players like Friday night but they don’t like the other things they need to do leading up to Friday. Zamir likes it all. He trains hard in the weight room, on the track, and he practices hard during the season. He is a joy to coach. He isn’t going to have another 2,000-yard, 40-touchdown season. Last year I asked him to do that because we didn’t have a solid back up. This year I plan on easing the burden on Zamir, but I think he’ll end up averaging more yards. I’m hoping to have him average about 14 or 15 carries a game if it all works out right.
"I think Zamir will continue to get bigger. I think he’ll eventually be at 220 or 225-pounds in college. You’ll see him catching the ball a lot more and improving on that in college. He will also become a better route runner. Zamir is a workaholic but doesn’t study the game as much as (2016 North Carolina signee and former teammate) Jonathan Smith did. I think Zamir will get better at understanding defenses and being able to anticipate where the cuts will be.” – Richard Bailey, Scotland County HS
Odds and ends: As a sophomore White scored 43 total touchdowns and amassed 260 carries while running for 2,159 yards averaging 8.3 yards per carry and about 180 yards per game.
His teammate last season was three-star linebacker Jonathan Smith who signed with the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Recent recruit comparison: Damien Harris, Alabama