DaShaun White Back to Lead Oklahoma's Defense After 'Easy Fix' Targeting Ejection

Oklahoma linebacker DaShaun White was in the midst of his best performance of the season Saturday. In less than two quarters, White had tallied six tackles, a sack and a pass break-up that nearly turned into six. He never got a chance to close out his career day, though, as he was disqualified due to targeting late in the second quarter.

After White checked out, talented freshman Jaren Kanak took over. Kanak looked like one of the more talented players on defense, leaving fans excited about his potential and craving more of his presence on the field.

But Kanak, after the biggest performance of his young career, attributed a portion of his success to White, who was helping the Sooners make plays even when he wasn’t on the field.

“I mean, I couldn’t ask for a better role model or leader to kind of show me the ropes,” Kanak said. “He’s been doing this a long time and he knows kind of the stuff I need to learn from experience he’s already got down. So he’s a really good guy to look up to and bend on in situations like that.”

Even with the emergence of Kanak, White is a key team leader on the defensive side of the ball. He’ll be the one sliding back into his starting spot Saturday, where he looked as comfortable as ever last week. White settling in at the cheetah position is a big positive for the Sooners.

He was certainly a positive for Oklahoma over the first two games, but really seemed to take ownership of the cheetah spot in Saturday’s first half.

“I feel really good,” White said Monday. “I think the position has allowed me to do things that I felt I’ve always done well, that I’ve had to push to the side and just be a middle ‘backer. Being in this position, it allows me to do a lot of things at a high level.

“Just being out there in space, I can still be physical in the screen game. I get in the run game a lot too. It’s the best of both worlds and keeps a smile on my face.”

White’s ejection was a fluke play, and one that was about to be a highlight. The talented senior burst into the backfield and had a free shot at Nebraska quarterback Casey Thompson near the Huskers’ goal line. White, who had nothing but green grass in front of him, was just a bit too excited to record a crucial sack. His contact was high, helmet to helmet, and his lick on Thompson got him ejected from the game.

"We’re always coaching keep your head out of a tackle or hitting the quarterback high or hitting them with your facemask that turns into the crown," Brent Venables said. "It’s not an easy thing. I didn’t do anything different other than reemphasizing all the fundamentals. Even then, he should have just jumped up and got in the (passing) window. He sees the quarterback’s arm going forward, so jump up and get in the window, deflect the ball.

"Everybody wants to go hit him and take him to the ground. I get that too. But when you feel like the ball’s coming out, you have to do a good job of affecting the quarterback in different ways. You don’t always have to hit him. Hopefully he’ll learn from that."

White seemed to recognize his mistake right away and thought back to the week of practice before, where Venables kept stressing pad level. In a bang-bang play, he probably wasn't thinking about batting down the ball with a free path to the quarterback. With adjustments and film study, though, this shouldn't be a common issue with a disciplined player like White.

“Originally when they called it, I thought it was going to be roughing,” White said, explaining his side of the story. “As soon as they said targeting, I kind of had a thought of ‘Did I or did I not?’ As soon as I didn’t know if I did or didn’t, I kind of knew that I probably did.

“I have to keep my head up. It’s funny, last week during practice, coach kept emphasizing to me specifically, pad level, pad level, pad level, and even before the game he said it once to me. It came and got me. It’s an easy fix.”

White is one of the hardest hitters on Oklahoma’s defense and, often times, is the one leading the Sooners in tackles. It makes sense that the coaching staff would stress pad level to him specifically.

There’s plenty of lessons for White and the team to learn from the targeting penalty, but the coaches also learned a lot about White, too. The hybrid linebacker is a big part of what Oklahoma wants to do moving forward.

“I think we’re doing OK," White said about the linebacker group, and the defense as a whole. "But we’ve left so many plays out there. Even just thinking about the last game, me having to leave the field but not even considering that and the plays that I had, just leaving a lot out there. We’re going to keep pushing each other to get better and taking this thing up a notch every game.”