LAURINBURG, N.C. -- Chances are you've already heard of Todd Gurley, Elijah Hood and Keith Marshall. Those are three of the highest rated running backs ever to play high school football in North Carolina, a state usually known for producing exceptional defensive linemen.
The next name to enter that running back conversation is Zamir White from Laurinburg (N.C.) Scotland County. Where the heck is Laurinburg and how does a player supposedly as good as an NFL first-round draft pick pop up there? Scotland County isn't traditionally a regular stop on the recruiting trail, but that has changed because of White.
With a population of less than 16,000, Laurinburg is about 41 miles south of Fayetteville along US-401 and less than 10 miles from the South Carolina border. It is here that college coaches have been regularly stopping for more than a year to catch a glimpse of the 6-foot-1, 215-pound White.
"Lately we’ve had Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Carolina, N.C. State, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Florida State, Alabama and many others," said Scotland County head coach Richard Bailey. "You name it and they’ve been here recently."
There have only been five running backs in the history of North Carolina to finish inside the top 50 of the Rivals100 and only one (Hood) was rated a five-star when the rankings were finalized. Many believe White could be better than all of them.
"It's not something I think about," White said. "I just go out there and ball out. I know about Gurley, Marshall and Hood. They were beasts in high school and they were beasts in college. I try to model my game after Todd Gurley. He's big and he's fast. Elijah Hood is big and fast also but at some point I think he gets a little tired. Gurley can just go and go."
Bailey, who has been coaching high school football in North Carolina for more than 15 years, has a good idea of where White could fall when compared to the best running backs North Carolina has produced.
"Zamir is right there with the Todd Gurley-types and Elijah Hoods," Bailey said. "Elijah is a pretty good comparison. He’s a big back but has that side speed. So did Todd Gurley. He was a state champion in the 110-meter hurdles but was also about 6-foot-2, 210-pounds coming out of high school. Zamir fits that kind of mold. He may not have the absolute top-end speed that Keith Marshall had but he’s bigger than Marshall was in high school. I always kind of migrate to Todd Gurley because I got to see him for a week at the Shrine Bowl. I remember 'Touchdown' Toney Baker. He was a great player. He was a big guy that could run.
"I’ve seen all four of those guys play in high school. Gurley was the most special kid that I’ve ever seen in high school. I remember when I saw him at the Shrine Bowl combine. He was not a big time recruit then. He was a little under the radar and I called every college coach I could after I saw him. Everybody was already on Marshall at the time and I told them Gurley was the best player in the state.
"After Gurley I would probably go with Elijah Hood, Keith Marshall and then Toney Baker. If I were to throw Zamir in there, I would put him in that top category right behind Todd Gurley."
Not just a star on the gridiron, White ran the 100-meter dash in 10.58 seconds in a regional track meet to qualify for the state finals.
"Zamir has a unique running form," said Keith Wood, Scotland County's head track coach and assistant football coach. "Football is all about speed. Track helps Zamir with his elusiveness and breakaway speed. He has that next gear. Going down the track people couldn't believe how big he was and how fast he was when he had that burst."
Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell, who has been scouting high school football players since the late 1990s, provides a good snapshot of where White stands in comparison to the great North Carolina running backs of the past.
“Gurley is the standard, to me, in the state of North Carolina," Farrell said. "People will say, 'White's a five-star and Gurley wasn't. He's one of your top five players in the class and Gurley wasn't. This guy has to be better than Gurley.' I'd say, at the same stage, White is a little bit ahead of Gurley but for him to maintain and be better than Gurley is going to take some really special ability. I think he'll probably end up being ranked higher than Gurley but that's more a reflection of how we didn't push Gurley up high enough.
“I think Gurley and White have different running styles. White is more compact in his running style and has better leverage. I don't think he has the same long-striding speed that Gurley has but I think he could be right in that discussion with Gurley as the best running back in North Carolina in the last 20 years.”
Matt Carter, editor at TheWolfpacker.com, has been scouting and reporting on high school football in North Carolina since 2004. His view on the best running backs in the history of North Carolina is slightly different from Farrell’s.
“I probably would have had Toney Baker at the top coming out of high school, disregarding what happened in college,” he said. “Todd Gurley at No. 2, Zamir White at No. 3 and closing fast, Elijah Hood at No. 4 and Keith Marshall at No. 5. If Gurley had done it for one more year in high school, I would think he would be at the top of that list. It's just a matter of Zamir White staying healthy and just doing what he's done and he'll probably be at the top of this list. White has done it earlier than any of those guys and he's much more physically advanced.
“The first thing that stands out about White is his physical size for a player that age. He's a much more physically mature prospect than someone that's about to be a junior. He's always had a presence about him where he just walks into a room and you see it in him. You combine that with track speed and a program that really likes to run the ball and he produces at a very high level. There's nothing you could really point to and say you don't like about him.”
White clearly belongs in the conversation with some of the top rated running backs of the past few years and the top running back in the 2017 recruiting class, Najee Harris.
“Now what we're looking for, and what the NFL wants based on drafting Gurley, Melvin Gordon and Ezekiel Elliott, is guys that have pretty good size and can run away from you,” Farrell said. “I would compare White's running style to Dalvin Cook. Zamir reminds me of a bigger version of Cook as a runner. He still has to improve as a receiver to get to Cook's level. I could say Ezekiel Elliott but Elliott was not the same guy coming out of high school that he was coming out of Ohio State. It wasn't even close. He got so much faster when he got to college.
“I would say Harris is rarer. He's a 6-foot-2 guy who is so fluid in the passing game, catches the ball effortlessly, is so much of a glider it doesn't even look like he is trying. If we're looking for the next Leonard Fournette freak or Adrian Peterson freak, you'd think Najee Harris would be that guy, the once every five years kind of guy.
“What's trending in the NFL is long, tall guys who can still make defenders miss, are big targets out of the backfield, and have that gliding speed to just run away from everybody. I think Najee Harris just fits that mold perfectly. The NFL wants three-down backs. That's why Ezekiel Elliott went fourth, because he can block and catch the ball. I'm not sure if White is on the same level as far as being a third down back as Harris is but he has another year to develop so we’ll see.”
White has some knowledge of how good Gurley, Marshall, Hood, Elliott and these other running backs were but he has a healthy and motivated view of how good he is and how good he wants to be.
“Right now I would put myself at the bottom of that list but when I get to college I plan on being at the top,” he said. “I want to be a great one. I want to be one of the greatest players ever come out of North Carolina. That’s the goal.”
