Inside receiver Xavier White
Everyone loves when a hometown kid makes good on his hometown team. After all, we saw that play out with Jarrett Culver and the Texas Tech basketball team over the past two seasons.
Perhaps the next Lubbock product to make an impact at Tech will be inside receiver Xavier White. A JUCO walk-on as a sophomore, he came farther than anyone during fall camp and now is going to get some serious playing time this year.
After he made just five receptions for 66 yards a year ago at Dodge City C.C. in Kansas, no one outside the football building even batted an eye when White arrived at Texas Tech this summer. But it was not long before his name started to surface among his coaches and teammates. After just a couple weeks of camp, Wells was talking about White battling for playing time as you can see in the clip below from David Collier of KAMC in Lubbock.
Monterey product Xavier White is battling for playing time at H receiver with two other West Texas products in McLane Mannix (Midland) and Dalton Rigdon (Perryton).
— David Collier (@CollieronTV) August 13, 2019
Head coach Matt Wells shared his thoughts on White following Monday's practice. pic.twitter.com/ZmTrhp3Wea
It looks like there will be a three-headed monster at inside receiver to begin this year with White, McLane Mannix and Dalton Rigdon all neck-and-neck heading into week one. Rigdon, a sophomore from Perryton sits atop the depth chart but all three players are separated by the word “or” meaning that there is no clear-cut starter among the group.
When White does take the field this Saturday, it will be an incredibly special moment for him and his family as well as everyone at Monterey H.S. And it shows just how far this local product has come in just an incredibly short period of time as a Red Raider.