Titans OTA observations

White on new weight, mindset -- with a picture

<em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky</em> <p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=9631" target="_new">LenDale White</a> knows how to deliver when surrounded by cameras, recorders and notebooks.</p> <p>I vacillate on him. I think he does have rare feet for a man his size -- and people a lot smarter than me have said so. And while a lot of his stats last year were set up by <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=11258" target="_new">Chris Johnson</a> and spoon fed by coaches, that doesn't mean he's not <a href="/blogs/afcsouth/0-5-196/White-s-size-obscures-feet--vision--production.html#myespn" target="_blank">a good complement</a> to the Titans' speedy and primary weapon. Still, he's capable of going over the top and appearing selfish and immature, like last season when he <a href="/blogs/afcsouth/0-6-157/Fisher-says-angry-White-s-issues-resolved.html" target="_blank">lamented his lack of playing time</a> in a loss to the Jets.</p> <table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0" width="200" align="right"> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0506/nfl_e_white_200.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em">Paul Kuharsky/ESPN.com</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em"><strong>LenDale White has trimmed down from last season.</strong></font></td> </tr> </table> <p>Wednesday, in uniform without pads at an OTA workout, I thought he looked thinner. And then when he talked without a shirt I knew he was. That hardly means he had a sculpted physique, but he's more toned and less flabby than he's been in the past. And that's not nothing.</p> <p>I was told by someone who knows that White is 236 or 237 pounds now. White said when he ran 80-yards for a touchdown in Kansas City on Oct. 19, 2007 he was 261.</p> <p>Some of what he said was smartly scripted and preplanned, but he sure sounded convincing.<br /> Here's <a href="http://podcasting.fia.net/6832/3653024.mp3" target="_blank">the audio</a> of White's media session Wednesday, courtesy of Titans Radio. It's a better listen than read.</p> <p>But here are a couple of the best nuggets:</p> <ul> <li>"In the past I took time off, too much time off. I'm not saying I wasn't working, because I was. I don't feel like what I did in the NFL the last two years you could do unless you do some kind of work. But I don't think I pushed myself as hard as I could. This year, I came in with the mindset after we lost that game [against Baltimore] that this is what I wanted to do. I felt like I was one of the reasons that we lost, if not the reason. So I've been beating myself up about that all year ..."</li> <li>"For the rest of my life y'all will probably never know how much I exactly weigh."</li> <li>"It's just about trying to make my body look the way I want it to look. I've always been a big guy. I was 230 pounds as a senior in high school. I've been up to 265 before, too. I went 80 yards in the NFL at 261 ..."</li> <li>"I don't really care if I have an ab or not. I know how much I weight and I know when I go out there and I run I know how my knees feel, I know how I feel when I wake up in the morning and everything like that. So I feel amazing ..."</li> <li>"This is for ESPN, this is for everybody: I don't care if I was on San Diego's team, New England, any team, you can go get anybody, you can go get Emmitt Smith back, anyone, I will never run from competition. I never have and I never will, you can go ask <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=9588" target="_new">Reggie Bush</a>, you can ask Chris Johnson ..."</li> <li>"[The fumble against Baltimore] is all I think about, I feel like if I'd have never fumbled that ball we would have kicked a field goal and won. That's how I feel, I feel like I lost the game ..."</li> </ul> <p>I asked running backs coach Earnest Byner about whether he saw change in White and what he expects: "The thing I am most concerned about is the ability to be disciplined," Byner said, "to carry over into football the things that he's been doing, into the game, into the group, spread some leadership around. Those are the things I am most concerned about and he's been doing a good job."</p>

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