Loyalty Helps Ua Coach Make The White Choice

After 27 consecutive starts, Dan White was asked to step aside last weekend and let little-used sophomore Brady Batten see if he could smooth the sputter in Arizona’s offense.

The demotion offered an ideal opportunity for White, a fifth-year senior quarterback, to create a scene.

He could have strapped on a big-time pout. He could have gone public with cries of indignation and bad-mouthed coach Dick Tomey for his decision. He could have become an immensely divisive factor on a team already riddled with doubt over a disappointing 3-4 start.

He could have driven a wedge of dissension right into the heart of the Wildcats program.

But that’s not Dan White’s style.

What White did, instead, was accept his fate like a loyal soldier and patiently wait on the sidelines next to Tomey for a second chance.

He watched Batten struggle mightily in his first college start at home against Washington. He watched his young understudy complete just 1 of 7 passes for 5 yards. He watched him throw an interception.

And he watched the Wildcats lose 14 yards on their first four possessions and fall behind the Huskies 14-0 in the opening quarter.

Then, in the second quarter, he confidently strolled back under center and proceeded to complete 22 of 44 passes for 305 yards and two touchdowns.

White’s splendid relief performance wasn’t enough to save Arizona from itself as UW took advantage of five Wildcats turnovers to post a 31-17 victory.

But it certainly blew away any lingering doubts about White’s character.

“He handled the whole situation like a champ,” Tomey said of White, a 6-foot-5, 213-pounder who transferred from Penn State in the fall of 1992. “Whatever I thought of Dan White before, I think a lot more of him now.

“Dan White is not our problem, I promise you.”

White, who is expected to start against Washington State in Saturday’s 7 p.m. Pacific-10 Conference matchup at Martin Stadium in Pullman, said the demotion was one of the most difficult situations he has faced as a football player.

“Being my third year as a starter, it was tough,” he admitted. “But I knew I’d get another chance eventually. It wasn’t necessarily a move made because of what I’d done, but just something to spark the team and maybe give our offense a different look.”

White said he first learned of the pending quarterback switch from Wildcats offensive coordinator Duane Akina last Friday, less than 24 hours before the start of the UW game.

The 11th-hour decision still allowed time, however, for some bad feelings to fester among teammates who felt that White was being played as a scapegoat.

Several, according to White, approached him about the perceived injustice. But White never let the problem come to a head.

“You have to deal with it and act like you’re not upset or getting the shaft,” White explained. “If you don’t, your teammates are going to start acting the same way, so I tried to stay as positive as I could and act pretty much like I always do.

“As long as you have a positive outlook, something like that doesn’t effect the team.”

Tomey’s reasoning behind the quarterback change is understandable, considering the Wildcats rank eighth in the Pac-10 in total offense (330.4 yards per game) and ninth in scoring offense (17.9 points per game).

Yet, what little yardage UA has produced has come primarily from the sidearm slings of White, who has completed 94 of 185 passes for 1,078 yards and nine touchdowns.

In his three years at Arizona, White has thrown for 5,038 yards and is just 53 yards short of ousting Bruce Hill from the No. 3 spot on the Wildcats’ career passing yardage list.

He has thrown for 37 touchdowns and is 19-8 as a starter.

Yet White has never been able to capture the imagination or admiration of Wildcats fans, many of whom expected magical things from the former prep standout at San Diego’s Point Loma High School.

Those grand expectations were fueled, no doubt, by the belief that Penn State’s legendary coach Joe Paterno would not try to lure a quarterback prospect all the way across the country unless he was, indeed, something special.

And while White has been solid enough under center, he has not been spectacular.

His lack of mind-numbing numbers is the result of several things, including his unorthodox, sidearm throwing style that negates much of the size advantage he enjoys.

In addition, the Wildcats’ pro-style, drop-back passing attack is still predicated by the run.

“It wasn’t just being a transfer from Penn State,” White said of the unreal expectations he has faced at UA. “The offense changed, too, from an option to more of a drop-back (passing) attack, and I think some people thought U of A was going to change into the BYU of the Pac-10, but that wasn’t what the coaches wanted.

“They wanted to still have a balanced attack that depended basically on the run - that was coach Tomey’s philosophy. But people always think that if you’re not throwing for 300 yards a game, you’re not doing well.”

Still, White admits that he and his teammates are every bit as disappointed with the season as their fans.

“It’s been frustrating, sure,” he said. “But there are other teams in the country that are having the same problems we are.

“It hasn’t been easy and it’s not the way we wanted it, but we can’t dwell on the past few games.”

That’s not Dan White’s style.

, DataTimes