OV season begins next week, and UH Football is set to host its first group of official visits May 28-30. Shepherd DL Brayden White will be a part of that group.
White was born in Oklahoma, where his parents met at Northwest Oklahoma State University, and then moved to Shepherd when Brayden was six months old. His dad, Cedric White, is from Houston’s Fifth Ward, and he attended North Shore High School. He already has ties to the city.
Houston has been recruiting White since last March and was the first program to offer him.
“I walked in to say hi, because I say hi to my dad every day,” Brayden said. Cedric coaches football and powerlifting at Shepherd High School. “And he was like, ‘I need to talk to you.’ We’re talking, he just told me that they offered me a full scholarship.”
White says the UH offer kicked off his recruiting and that he started hearing from other coaches. More offers have started to come in, but Houston has been consistent in communicating (here, he mentions Wes Fritz, Casey Smithson, and Jay Girdner). According to Brayden, Coach Oscar Giles is in constant contact, and he loves OG’s style.
“He doesn’t just get mad. He doesn’t just go off on somebody when they don’t get something right. He slows down, and he breaks it down so it prevents the mistake from happening again,” White said of Coach Giles interacting with his players.
It doesn’t take long into White’s film to see why the Coogs are interested. He provides an interior presence on the defensive line. Along with his size and strength, you see some of the athleticism he developed on the basketball court translate to the football field for White. He is the leading scorer in his high school’s hoops history, with 1,889 points.
White believes his power is one of his biggest strengths, and he will “wear somebody down” over the course of a game. His get-off at the snap knocks linemen back and often puts them in panic mode. He utilizes his length to keep them off balance and bully his way into the backfield.
Since the end of the season, White has lost nearly 40 pounds; he says he’s at around 275 right now. He viewed his speed as a weakness and wanted to carry less weight to improve his explosiveness. “I feel like (my weight) kind of restricted my movement a little bit”, White said.
The weight loss should help him improve his play-to-play explosiveness and his effectiveness over the course of a game.
White told GoCoogs Recruiting+ that he will be an early enrollee. He brought it up in reference to the disappointment of not scoring 2,000 points in his basketball career, knowing that this past season was his last on the hardwood. His season was cut short due to an eye injury, which he has recovered from.
At the moment, White says that it’s between the Coogs and Baylor for the top spot. He really values the “loyalty” that Houston has shown him both in being the first to recognize his ability, and in maintaining and building a relationship over the last year. White has five official visits set and will then make his decision.
Brayden White OV calendar
Stanford: May 22
Houston: May 28-30
Baylor: June 5-7
Vanderbilt: June 11-14
Oklahoma State: June 18-20
GoCoogs Recruiting+ is #1 in UH Recruiting
GoCoogs.com does not use AI to write generic slop, and we aren’t aggregating someone else’s content.
GoCoogs Recruiting+ is the best UH recruiting info on the market. Using our on-campus and recruiting relationships, we report original, first-hand information on the Houston Cougars.
We have published over 375 pieces of content since Fall camp started before the 2025 football season – all focused on the Coogs. The depth of our podcasts, basketball scouting, recruiting info, and behind-the-scenes information for UH Football and Basketball can’t be found anywhere else.
Get *all* of our content and insider information by supporting GoCoogs.com as an annual Recruiting+ subscriber for just $50 or a GoCoogs+ subscriber for $100. Thank you!
