He doesn’t have the power that Vondrell McGee has, he doesn’t have the speed that Jamaal Charles has and he doesn’t have the pass blocking and catching ability that Chris Ogbonnaya possesses.
What makes redshirt freshman running back Fozzy Whitaker special, according to his coaches and teammates, is his lateral quickness. Greg Davis said he reminds him of former Longhorn back Hodges Mitchell.
“Fozzy has an unbelievable level of quickness,” Davis said. “He’s got the ability to jump laterally and pick up speed really quickly.”
The 5-foot-10-inch back rushed for 5,717 yards in his career at Pearland High School and drew a lot of attention after becoming the sixth-leading All-Time rusher in Texas 5A history.
He’s impressed his teammates in practice and in the spring game. Fans cheered for him after he scored a touchdown run during an open practice in early August.
“Fozzy is real fast, and he’s shifty,” McGee said. “He’s one of those guys who’s in front of you one minute and then he slashes in another direction and he’s by you. You see defenders miss him a lot.”
But Whitaker has yet to carry the ball in college. And it may not happen as soon as some would hope.
Whitaker was supposed to be in a battle with McGee and Ogbonnaya for the starting spot. But according to head coach Mack Brown, a bruised knee injury Whitaker suffered in practice on Aug. 16 may limit his action in this Saturday’s game against Florida Atlantic, and he’s listed third on the ‘Horns’ depth chart.
“He fell behind in the mix when he banged up his knee,” Brown said.
Whitaker said one area he needs to improve on is blocking.
“It’s definitely an area I need to get better on,” Whitaker said.
That’s what new running backs coach Major Applewhite is there for, though.
“[Applewhite] helps us know what to do in which formation and what our blocking assignments are,” Whitaker said.
While the question of what he’ll look like in a game may not be answered right away, Whitaker has been able to answer some pressing questions so far in practice.
One being the question of how he got his name, Foswhitt. Whitaker got the first name because it is a combination of the first three letters of his father’s first name, Foster, and then the beginning of his last name, Whitaker. He likes going by Fozzy though.
The other question was what his new number would be. He was going to be No. 22, but when Bobby Layne’s jersey was retired, Whitaker was left without a number. He went with No. 28. The changed bothered Whitaker’s mom more than it did him.
“She was really excited about me wearing the double deuces and she had already got some stuff monogrammed,” Whitaker said. “But for me it doesn’t matter because I hope to have a number of my own retired some day.”
He may differ in style, experience and many other areas than McGee and Ogbonnaya, but Whitaker maintains the positive attitude the other two share about the running back situation being up for grabs.
“It’s friendly competition,” Whitaker said. “It’s a committee more than one person trying to win the starting spot. All three of us are playing to be that starting back, but we all three can play.”
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