RUNNING WITH ALL HIS HEART DESPITE FINDING NEW HOME AT USC, WHITE STAYS CLOSE TO GRANDMOTHER.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne  Staff Writer

LenDale White knew what his grandmother, Sharon, would say if he told her what he was considering.

He didn't want to burden her with that kind of a distraction when she needed to focus her energy on the heart condition and diabetes that was threatening her life.

But mostly, he knew she would be disappointed that he was considering returning home from USC, the school she always had dreamed he'd attend.

``She's like my second mom. My whole life, she's been right there for me,'' he said. ``I never told her (about wanting to leave) because I didn't want her to go through anything she didn't need to. If I'd have told her, I knew she would've told me to stay.''

But still, a thousand miles from his hometown of Denver - and her - White felt alone with the teammates he had met only a few times and a city in which he had no roots.

To see him now, bouncing around the field with the swagger of being USC's leading rusher with a handful of freshman rushing records to his name, that vision of White is hard to imagine.

But along the line, White found a home at USC, first under the protective wing of his best friend, sophomore tailback Herschel Dennis, and then on the football field, where he's given an attitude to a running game that lacked an identity early in the season.

The transformation didn't happen all at once, nor has White lifted his heavy heart. He calls his grandmother every day, writes her initials ``SW'' on his wrist bands before every game and always wears a gold pendant, with her picture, close to his heart.

But he has done what she'd want him to: stay at USC. He's found strength in her ongoing fight and found a way to cope at the time his team needed him most, with the season on the line.

White's breakout game came against Arizona State, a week after the Trojans lost at California in triple overtime. The running game had struggled against Cal, gaining only 99 yards. Dennis had a costly fumble, prompting USC's coaches to give the 6-foot-2, 225-pound White a shot.

Turns out, that's all he would need. White rushed for 140 yards and two touchdowns against the Sun Devils, breaking Charles White's freshman record for most yards in a game.

Afterward, all the talk was about White and the rushing record. But inside, all White could think about was his grandmother.

``When I think about her, I just want to fight for her,'' he said. ``I think about her all the time. I dedicated my season to her, I dedicated my life to her. I wouldn't be here without her.''

The success seemed to help White feel more comfortable at USC and fit in with the team.

``I think it was hard on him at first. Even before the first day that he arrived, I think he was real nervous about what was going to happen, where he'd fit in and wasn't sure what was going to occur,'' USC coach Pete Carroll said. ``It's really a beautiful story because it worked out just the way we had hoped. ... We talked and held him real close because he was a little shaky when he first got here, but once he got going and realized where he could fit in, he really hasn't looked back.''

In the eight games since Arizona State, White has rushed for 668 yards and 10 touchdowns, an average of 83 yards a game and 5.8 yards a carry.

In the same span, USC has averaged 187.8 yards a game on the ground and 5.0 yards a carry. During the first four games of the year, in which White only carried the ball 17 times for 70 yards, USC averaged 114.3 yards and 3.6 a carry.

``After that game the whole dimension of our offense changed,'' Dennis said. ``Our coach wanted us to run with more attitude because we weren't really getting it done in the beginning of the season. But seeing him run with that fearless attitude in the ASU game, it showed all the running backs what the coaches wanted and made us all step it up.''

For Dennis, the ``older brother'' of USC's freshman running backs - a corps which includes White, Reggie Bush and Chauncey Washington - seeing White succeed and find a home at USC is a personal success.

White lived with Dennis when he first came to Los Angeles for summer workouts. White's grandmother had just gone into the hospital a month earlier, and Dennis guided him through those first few weeks away from home when White spent most of his time alone in his room.

``In the beginning, I didn't know what he was going to do. It was on him. If he felt like going home, it was his decision,'' Dennis said. ``But I kept telling him, 'This is the place to be. This is where everybody is trying to get.' ... The older guys on the team last year did that for me, and I wanted to be there for the freshmen coming in this year, too.''

White's heart might remain in Colorado, but he has made USC his home.

Ramona Shelburne, [phone]

ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com

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Freshman tailback LenDale White has rushed for 668 yards and 10 touchdowns since running for 140 yards against Arizona State.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

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