Giannotto
downs last year.
We know they have do-it-all junior Tony Pollard, a playmaker unlike any other in the country.
We know they have one of the nation's most experienced offensive lines back in the fold.
We know they have an improved defense, with substantial depth following last year’s injury-ravaged campaign.
We know they have a roster stocked with talent because Norvell's first two recruiting classes are coming of age.
We don't know, however, if Memphis has a reliable quarterback.
White's emergence is a storyline that will likely determine whether these Tigers are merely good or if they can live up to preseason expectations that suggest the program’s first outright American Athletic Conference championship is a possibility.
He is tasked with replacing Riley Ferguson, who broke school records after replacing first-round draft pick Paxton Lynch two years ago.
White doesn’t have the same arm strength as his two predecessors, nor does he have the explosive athleticism of the player he beat out for the starting job (recent transfer David Moore). But White is accurate, intelligent and just mobile enough to be a threat, traits that fit well with all the pre-snap and postsnap reads a quarterback must make to succeed in Norvell’s offense.
Ask Norvell about this transition under center, and he’ll note that all offensive schemes are built around its playmakers, not just the quarterback. This season, he added, is no different.
There will be similarities to what the Tigers did well last year when they ranked among the top five in the country in scoring and total offense, and there will be changes based on the team’s personnel.
The process of figuring out what works will mirror what Memphis went through during Norvell's first year here when Ferguson was a first-time starter.
“We have a plan going into Game 1,” Norvell said earlier this week. “I can tell you we had a plan going into Game 1 two seasons ago when Riley was just taking his first snap and we really evolved as an offense to fit him as he got that experience. I see the same for this offense this year.”
The inevitable learning curve tends to be overlooked when determining how this season might play out.
Though White is a graduate transfer, he has appeared in just three college games. He has attempted just 49 college passes. Saturday will be his second college start and his first since suffering a serious foot injury that ended his 2016 season at Arizona State.
But it’s the injury that brought White here, to a moment five years in the making. Because this connection, between quarterback and coach, is real.
White remembers the first phone call he got from Norvell, in his father’s office ahead of his junior year of high school, and how initially he “never thought in a million years I would have attended ASU.” But then he did, becoming the highest-rated quarterback to commit to the Sun Devils.
During their one year together in Tempe, Ariz., when Norvell was Arizona State's offensive coordinator and White was a freshman, Norvell let his new quarterback help babysit his daughter, Mila. Even once Norvell left for Memphis, White’s mother made sure to stay in touch. The two families were bonded together.
It’s why White often found himself watching Memphis football games on television last fall, thinking about the coach who recruited him more than anyone else, wondering if they might be together again.
“I’m here for a reason,” White said. “I always knew I would come back just as healthy, just as able, and that time is now.”
The trajectory of this Memphis football season depends on it.