John White was only saying what every running back probably thinks going into a season. Although he couldn’t go without prefacing it.

“I usually don’t go for real goals or anything like that,” said the 25-year-old, now entering his fifth season as an Edmonton Eskimo. “I feel like if I work hard enough, everything will come to me. But I really want that rushing title this year. I really do.”

White wants to be the best. It’s a mountain the Utah graduate has tried to climb ever since entering the league in 2013.

He nearly scaled its peak in 2014. Then, Jon Cornish was widely considered the best running back in the CFL but a 23-year-old White was closing the gap.

“No lie, Cornish deserved whatever praise he got,” said Adarius Bowman, Esks receiver and White’s teammate of four years. “He’s awesome. I do remember that time.”

That season, Cornish led the CFL with 1,082 rushing yards in only nine games, helping him earn his third consecutive Most Outstanding Canadian award in addition to CFL All-Star and CFL West All-Star honours. With a league-leading 7.8-yard average, all of that came in just half a season’s work.

But while Cornish probably goes down as the past decade’s best running back, White showed flashes of being ‘the next one’. The same season, the Eskimos’ sophomore rushed for 852 yards, including a league-leading 10 runs of 20 yards or more. He also needed only nine games to do it.

2014 COMPARISON: CORNISH VS. WHITE

CORNISH WHITE YARDS 1,082 852 TD 5 2 YPC 7.8 6.9 YPG 120.2 94.7 20+ 9 10

A strong, explosive runner that could do all the small things required to play the position on this side of the border, White’s 6.9-yard average put him with Cornish on the island of Canada’s truly elite running backs.

But while Cornish’s play declined the following year, a season-ending, career-threatening Achilles injury took White out of the game in training camp in 2015. All of a sudden, the Eskimos’ star running back had a different mountain to climb.

As Cornish put a lid on his illustrious career, White rehabbed and watched the Eskimos win the Grey Cup without him.

“That next year they won the Grey Cup and I tore my Achilles in training camp — I couldn’t really be a part of it,” said White. “They’re like, ‘you’re a part of it, John’ – but I wasn’t on the field, man. Let’s be real, you know.”

Watching alongside his dad at Winnipeg’s Investors Group Field only fed White’s hunger to get back.

“Just that feeling of being in that championship game, that high-calibre game.”

The Achilles injury has claimed promising young careers before. A select few have bounced back.

Eskimos fans might remember Tyler Ebell. Ebell was 23 when he led the Esks with 1,318 combined rushing and receiving yards, earning him team rookie of the year honours in 2007. He suffered a ruptured Achilles in 2008 with the Argos and was cut the following season.

White, on the other hand, was given the benefit of the doubt. The Eskimos signed him to a new deal on the first day of free agency in February, 2016, then remained patient during his first season back, though it wasn’t without its trials and tribulations.

The CFL’s fourth-leading rusher in 2016, White joined Solomon Elimimian as the latest to rebound from the devastating Achilles injury. This year, former Esks DB John Ojo and REDBLACKS RB William Powell will try to do the same.

For White, last season tested his patience almost as much as the rehab.

“Physically I was there but mentally I’m like, ‘dang, can I still do that?’, even though I’ve done it a billion times,” said White.

While the Eskimos threw the ball all over the field, White’s production wasn’t what Esks fans were accustomed to. Some even called for Shakir Bell to step in and take over the backfield.

Bell did end up providing a spark when he got to play throughout parts of August and September, rushing for 425 yards on 68 carries — a 6.25-yard average and 106.3 yards per game over four outings.

“He got his shot and I came back and got my shot and from there my confidence shot to the roof. That was a turning point.” John White on the competition at running back

Knowing the business, all White could do was remain positive.

“I wasn’t nervous, it was just more – you kind of have to sit back,” said White. “What am I going to say to my coach? Whatever we need to do to win, I’m for it. That’s what a real teammate and a real football player is about.

“Sometimes this guy might be doing better than that guy one week,” he added. “One time he might fall off or he might not be as consistent on a weekly basis. It just comes with the game.”

White’s ability in the passing game, both as a receiver and in protection, kept him relevant. Eventually, he got not just his job back but, it would seem, that same explosiveness that made him stand out two years previous.

For the first time since the injury, the Achilles became an afterthought.

“It’s just in the back of my head,” said White. “I never really thought about my Achilles but it was just like, ‘I don’t want to get hurt again’ in the back of my head.”

By Sept. 30, White was reinstalled as the starting running back, from that point on rushing for 683 yards on 96 carries — an average of 7.1 yards per carry. Cornish numbers.

JOHN WHITE’S 2016 SEASON SPLIT

WEEK 1-12 WEEK 13+ GAMES PLAYED 10 6 ATTEMPTS (PER GAME) 100 (10.0) 96 (16.0) RUSHING YARDS (PER GAME) 429 (42.9) 683 (113.8) YARDS PER CARRY 4.3 7.1 TOUCHDOWNS 3 7

“He got his shot and I came back and got my shot and from there my confidence shot to the roof,” said White. “That was a turning point. Towards that middle break, I finally got that confidence; that belief in myself.”

Despite his slow start, White finished with 886 rushing yards and 5.4 yards per carry — but that doesn’t tell the whole story. For those who remembered him from 2014, John White was back to being John White.

“He is his old self, if not better,” said Bowman. “I think there’s a lot of mental growth that came with it so I know he’s even better.

“And some might not see it,” he added. “They might want to talk about what injuries he’s coming off of. But in terms of growing in his career, he’s going up, definitely not down. So as long as he keeps building on that, the sky’s the limit for that young man.”

Now, with another season nearing, you could almost pretend the injury never happened. White says he’s excited to go into a season feeling 100 per cent, with no limitations.

He feels like he’s back to his old self, too.

“I definitely feel like it,” he said. “Definitely missing a whole year of football, that can do a lot to you. I feel like I’m definitely getting back in that groove.

“Ending the year like I did those last seven, eight games really shot my confidence through the ceiling. I’m ready to come back and show I’m the best here.”

A lot has changed since 2014. Jon Cornish has since retired. For now, the peak of the mountain is unoccupied. Can White get to that point?

“I’m going into my 10th year and he’s one of the most explosive running backs I’ve seen,” said Bowman. “I don’t like watching football games but I will sit up and watch film on me and my team and I’ll become a fan.

“He’ll definitely be one of those backs who, probably six years from now, we’ll be talking about being a Hall of Famer in the same calibre of Cornish,” he continued. “I know Cornish always gets all those pictures with the rings and Grey Cups – I think this guy will be in the same position.”

For White, his second Grey Cup ring would be a pretty good start. And, of course, his first rushing title.

“I’ve never spoken like that, ever, in my life,” said White. “But I feel like I have something to prove. Even though people say ‘John, you don’t have anything to prove’. Yeah, that’s when you let up.

“Of course I thought about it, I just wouldn’t say it,” he added. “But this year I’m really putting my foot down. I really want that.”

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