Few people could’ve seen Ethan White’s body transformation happening this quickly. When he enrolled at UF in January 2019, he weighed nearly 400 pounds. And it wasn’t a well-built, impressive-looking 400 pounds, either.
White was significantly overweight and out of shape. He struggled to make it through some of offensive line coach John Hevesy’s drills that spring. He looked like a work-in-progress that made you wonder what Hevesy and Dan Mullen saw in him when they recruited him.
Fast forward nearly three years later, and White is slated to start at left guard this season. He’s down to 319 pounds on the official roster, which makes him lighter than fellow guard Stewart Reese by more than 25 pounds. He looks leaner and stronger, the way an SEC offensive lineman is supposed to look.
“Ethan really put in so much work during the offseason,” left tackle Richard Gouraige said. “I know the coaches always say, like, ‘It’s on you’ and stuff like that. Ethan really bought into the system and really wanted to change his weight and everything, his diet and everything. Now look at him. He looks phenomenal. He’s moving great. He has great feet. I can remember him walking on campus and like, ‘Who is this guy?’.”
While much has been written and discussed about his incredible weight loss over the past couple of years, White said the process was much simpler than you might think.
“It’s just doing what Coach [Nick] Savage and his staff says,” White said. “If they say go do this workout, eat this way, drink a certain way, I’m going to do it because they know best, and I came here to kind of be coached and learn from those guys. So, it’s kind of just following the program that they set.
“It’s always nice when you see your work pay off. It’s nice to trim up and all that, but it’s still got to translate to the field, and you have to play well and stuff like that.”
Playing well on the field is indeed the next step for him. He played in six games at right guard as a true freshman in 2019, including his first career start against Vanderbilt.
He entered 2020 as the likely starter at center, but he suffered a left knee injury that required surgery in fall camp. By the time he returned, the Gators had already found a rhythm with their five starting offensive linemen, and White couldn’t crack the lineup. He played in six games as one of the top reserves.
“To be honest, it was rough,” White said. “When it happened, those first couple days I was kind of feeling bad for myself and stuff like that. But then I just talked to some guys on the team who had been through similar experiences. And probably two to three days after it happened, my mind was on just [getting] back as fast as possible. Worrying about it won’t do anything. ‘All I can do is rehab and just take care of my body and get back to where I want to be.’”
White is fully healthy now and playing yet another new position. Hevesy said he prefers to have massive starting guards, which made White and Reese better fits there than at center. White is continuing to cross-train at center, though, just in case.
White feels comfortable playing left guard in part due to his relationship with Gouraige. When White practiced as the starting center last fall, Gouraige lined up next to him at left guard. When White played right guard as a freshman, Gouraige took some reps at right tackle. They’ve developed a solid rapport with each other on the field and a friendship off of it.
“Me and Richard have kind of been working together since I got here as a freshman,” White said. “We’ve just been on the [same] side over the years, so we have a pretty good chemistry with things like just making calls and being on the same page with each other.
“My confidence is high. Part of it is the guys I’m playing next to. Having practiced with them so long and knowing what they do, it allows me to play with confidence. For example, I know where my help is with Richard or Kingsley [Eguakun], and I can kind of play faster because I’m not worried about what’s going to happen around me.”
Hevesy has noticed White’s increased confidence and expects him to have a huge impact on the entire offensive line.
“I think, really, his confidence was skyrocketing last year at center until that injury,” Hevesy said. “Any injury always kind of puts a kid questioning what he’s doing.
“I think since then, even watching through spring practice, I think, still a little bit and now through camp, [he] really just hasn’t bothered with thinking about those things, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence, which helps the whole group.”
White is ready to become more than just an inspiration to every overweight person in America. He’s in shape, confident and prepared to lead a running game renaissance at Florida.