Deon White Breaks Down Cal Commitment
Cal landed junior college DB in the form of Deon White, from nearby College of San Mateo. He played the past two years with LB Colt Doughty, and along with recruiting assistant Benji Palu, he's glad there'll be more former CSM Bulldogs to be around
"I think it's always gonna be good to have another Dog there," White said, "Benji Palu, then Colt, he was on the same defense as me this year and my freshman year, we both started as true freshmen, we both left and now we're at the same school."
Cal put out the offer yesterday, as White visited the Cal staff, and the commitment followed soon after.
"It feels great," White said about committing, "like a dream come true, it feels like the beginning of something pretty big."
The Bears had been talking to White for a while, but space opened up in the class recently, and with the relationship they'd build beforehand, they restarted that relationship back up to get him up to visit.
"They'd been in the picture for a while," White said, "they started recruiting me a little heavier toward the end of the season. Coach T(uioti) came down and talked to me, and he showed me how much interest he had in me and how much Cal did, and I was very interested in them at the time too. Then they came back and contacted me again, and it all happened real fast. It felt great to get the offer, and it felt great to visit so I can actually see if that's the best place for me and if I will enjoy being there for the rest of my college career."
As far as a position goes, White's going to play outside linebacker at Cal, something we speculated on when he committed. He has the cover skills from playing corner at CSM, and played enough in the box to make the shift not seem out of place.
"I played corner, so I have the coverage" White said, "I played linebacker, in the box, I played safety over the top. Cal likes me at outside linebacker, but if they want me to to play over the top at safety, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. The plan is to get me in, get me right, get me big. I believe I could play at this size, but it's better to be bigger."
White will come in over the summer, and as he looks to study either architectural engineering or sports management, and learning about the school more helped seal the deal for him.
"Getting more information about the school academically and how much help they give," "and how the networking is after football. We all know football isn't forever and I feel like the degree part is really important. I really enjoyed the visit, I enjoyed the campus, and I enjoyed the coaches. I see myself there with the coaches, playing for the coaches and program."
The two Bay Area recruiting coaches played a big part in getting here, in Burl Toler and especially Tony Tuioti.
"Coach Toler, he's a good man," White said, "I really appreciate him and everything he's done for me, same with Coach T. I just felt like I could bond with them. They understand me and I understand them, I caught on to everything Coach T was teaching me, about football then taking more than ball, like the bigger picture to being at Cal other than football, just being a bigger man on and off the field. I understood what he was saying, I liked it, and that was another reason I committed."