Jordan White Reacts To Being Named Vanderbilt Captain

NASHVILLE—-Jordan White went through each day assuming that his final college season would include him being one of the guys and leading where he could. He was okay with that. 

The Vanderbilt center didn’t need a label to go about his day-to-day duties and be himself. He never appeared to have any ulterior motive. He was just being Jordan White. 

Turns out that being Jordan White is all that the Vanderbilt center needed to be in order to become a captain in his lone season at Vanderbilt. The Liberty transfer is Vanderbilt’s lone player to be named a captain midseason. 

Perhaps Diego Pavia, Randon Fontenette and Richie Hoskins felt as if their call was imminent as Vanderbilt named captains. White never did as he was named one on September 26. 

“I was lost for words, speechless,” White said on Tuesday. “I love this team, I love the group of guys we have around this team. I love Coach Lea. I love Coach [Klenakis]. Like, it's a great group, great group of guys, great unit here. 


“I love just being around the facility. I love being around this group of guys.”

White is the anchor of Vanderbilt’s offensive line and is the “type of guy you could go to about anything,” Vanderbilt offensive lineman Cooper Starks says. He’s also Pavia’s point person on deciphering running lanes. 

Perhaps most importantly, White recently started a foundation named the Jordan White Foundation to honor his cancer-surviving grandmother Margaret Georges. The foundation plans to host an event over Vanderbilt’s bye week. 

White and his grandmother have been close since his early childhood and he looks to show her that she’s valued and that he’s about the right things through his foundation. 

“Really, really special person,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “It’s no surprise that he’s doing big things out there and he’ll continue to do big things and use his platform for good.” 

White now has a valuable platform within Vanderbilt’s locker room as a captain alongside Pavia, Fontenette, Eli Stowers, Hoskins, Langston Patterson, Marlen Sewell and Yilanan Ouattara. He’s Vanderbilt’s fourth offensive captain. 

He’ll likely approach it similarly to how he’d approach his role prior to being named one of Vanderbilt’s captain. 

“I want to put a smile on people’s faces,” White said over the summer. “I want somebody to see Jordan White [and say] ‘oh, Jordan White is doing something great right now.’”