The end of Auburn quarterback Sean White’s regular season didn’t go how he planned, but all that’s in the rear-view window as the Tigers get ready to face off against Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl on Monday, finally at full strength.
White suffered an AC sprain in his throwing shoulder and then aggravated it early in the Georgia game. It clearly hampered him in the loss to the Bulldogs, and he didn’t play in either of Auburn’s final two regular season games, both of which Jeremy Johnson started.
In those games, Auburn threw for a combined 263 yards and a touchdown on 21-39 passing. However, most of that came in the 55-0 shutout of FCS opponent Alabama A&M.
But after a few weeks off and then having a handful of bowl practices, White says he’s feeling great.
“I feel great,” White said. “I’m ready to go. I feel healthy again and I’m just excited to be able to go out there and play with my teammates and feel good and just feel 100 percent and ready to go.”
Those weeks following the Iron Bowl allowed White’s shoulder to regain its former strength, and although it took a bit for him to get acclimated to throwing with high velocity for multiple reps again, his shoulder’s back to what it was before the injury.
“We had a couple weeks off between the end of the season and bowl practices, and when I got to come back for bowl practices after a couple weeks off, I really just felt good. I haven’t noticed any pain or had to hold back or anything like that.”
With White back to his old self, Auburn’s passing attack will ideally open up and but utilized more than it was against Alabama A&M and Alabama. Although Oklahoma has the 88th-ranked defense in the country, if the Tigers’ passing attack doesn’t take the top off the Sooners’ defense they’ll be able to stack the box and load up on shutting down Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson, something Auburn’s aiming to avoid.
But White’s tenacity and refusal to be overlooked is why offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee is confident his offense will be able to achieve the balance they need come Monday.
“I think Sean’s always been one of those kids, I’ve said before, that’s kind of always been a little bit of the underdog,” Lashlee said. “He’s got a great competitive desire, and that’s what these guys love about him.
“He just keeps coming at you, so having him out there, I think, gives our guys a shot in the arm just because of his competitiveness...Any time we challenge him, [when] people kind of write him off, he usually rises to the occasion.”
Compared to his counterpart in the Sugar Bowl, the more jokester-like Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, White tends to be more reserved and direct. He puts his head down and works on what’s directly in front of him, and that’s the way he leads the team.
It works for what Auburn needs, and his teammates appreciate it.
“Sean White is more direct line of focus,” said Kerryon Johnson. “I feel like some quarterbacks, that’s how they have to be. They have a lot on their mind, they have a lot of accountability, they have a lot of big roles on the team being a leader, and I think Sean fills that role well. Make no mistake, he is a very funny guy, but I think he does his in a more low-key way. Ultimately, he’s just focused on the task at hand and what he has to do, and he gets it done.”
That task is topping the seventh-ranked Sooners, who haven’t lost since falling to Ohio State in the third week of September. Oklahoma’s rattled off nine straight wins, and it hasn’t scored fewer than 34 points since then.
“They’re 10-2, they’ve won, what, nine games in a row? I think they’re really good,” White said. “It’ll be a challenge for us, and we’re gonna have to come with our A-game.”
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