By Robert Wilson
Lee Roberts knows quarterbacks. He has been watching quarterbacks even before he was the starting quarterback and led Southern Miss to conference championships in 1996 and 1997.
He has been the radio analyst for Southern Miss play-by-play announcer John Cox since 2015 and been the public address announcer for Oak Grove High for a decade. Roberts has seen many great quarterbacks over his years.
Roberts came away impressed when he watched Madison-Ridgeland Academy quarterback and Southern Miss commitment John White play in person for the first time Friday night.
The 6-foot, 204-pound White completed 25 of 30 passes – 83.3 percent – for 394 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two TDs in MAIS Class 6A MRA’s 45-44 loss to MHSAA Class 7A and nationally ranked Oak Grove at Warrior Stadium in Hattiesburg.
For his outstanding performance, White has been named the Junction Deli/MSB Metro Jackson Football Player of the Week.
White’s 394-yard game was the second highest of his career and it came against a team filled with Division I prospects and ranked No. 118 in the country by High School Football America, the highest ranked Mississippi team and one of the favorites to win the Class 7A state championship. White’s career high was 521 yards against Jackson Prep as a sophomore when he led MRA to a 6A state championship. He completed 28 of 40 passes with five TDs in a 50-20 regular season win.
Against Oak Grove, White completed TD passes to sophomore wide receiver Case Thomas (69 yards on the first drive of the game and 40 yards in the second quarter) and junior wide receiver Jack Polles (5 yards in overtime) and ran for two TDs (13 and 1 yards) in the second half.
“John is talented, smart, very efficient and throws great intermediate passes,” Roberts said. “He has a great touch on the deep ball. John is very poised and never got rattled.”
“John showed that he can play in the SEC by his performance against Oak Grove, a team loaded with Division I players,” Davis said. “He has tremendous poise and great accuracy and made great decisions.”
In addition to Southern Miss, White has Division I offers from Syracuse, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Tulane, Arkansas State, Old Dominion, Liberty, Florida Atlantic, Toledo, and Alabama A&M. He is rated as the No. 3 quarterback in Mississippi, No. 84 quarterback in the country and No. 34 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2024 by the 247 composite rankings.
White got closer to his attempt to become the leading career passer in Mississippi history. He now has thrown for 1,918 yards this season and 13,428 in his career (9,028 in three seasons at MRA and 4,400 yards in two seasons at Winona Christian as an eighth and ninth grader), third on the all-time list. Myles Brennan is the Mississippi record holder with 15,138 career yards at St. Stanislaus from 2013-16 (fourth highest in the country) and Ty Keyes from Taylorsville (14,525 from 2017-2020). White has five regular season games to play and at least one playoff game. He would need to average 285 yards in those six games to tie the record.
White has started 59 consecutive games, 34 at MRA and 25 at Winona Christian. He has thrown 136 TD passes in his career. Brennan has the Mississippi record with 166, tied for eighth best in the country.
White completed 58 percent of his passes for 3,175 yards (highest in MAIS and fifth highest in Mississippi) and 28 TDs with eight interceptions and led MRA to a 10-4 record and a MAIS Class 6A runner-up finish last season as a junior.
He completed 67.9 percent of his passes for 3,935 yards and 39 TDs and 14 interceptions and helped MRA to an 11-3 record and its third straight 6A state title as a sophomore two years ago.
White is on the PriorityOne Bank/MSB Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team for the second straight season. He was one of three sophomores to make the All-Metro Jackson team first team two years ago.
White (@johnwhite2004 on twitter) is the son of Jason and Jolynn White. Jason played quarterback for coach Jack Carlisle at MRA and played baseball for coach Tom Gladney at Mississippi College. John’s older sister, Sara Burden White, played basketball, tennis, track and field and cheered for Winona Christian. She is a senior at Mississippi State is a bio-chemistry major and has been accepted to the UMMC medical school and will enroll next summer. John’s younger sister, Carlyn, is a junior at MRA. John’s first cousin, Will Martin, played football for coach Bobby Hall at Madison Central and at Ole Miss for coaches Houston Nutt and Hugh Freeze.
MRA has a bye week this week and plays at East Rankin Academy Sept. 29 in Pelahatchie.
Mississippi Scoreboard selects a football player from Hinds, Madison, or Rankin counties each week. Coaches can nominate a player by text or call to Robert Wilson at 601.506.2276.
2023 POW winners:
Week One: John White, MRA
Week Two: Jacob Clearman, Tri-County Academy
Week Three: Ryan McCall, Madison Central
Week Four: Brayden Bullock, Central Hinds Academy
Week Five: Nate Blount, Brandon
