When Quavian White arrived in Hamilton last season, following his one unsatisfying year with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, he was ravenous.
“After being with Arizona and then having a year out, it just made me hungrier, all the doubt,” the quick-footed, quick-minded defensive back says. “I just know I’m a ball player and I can play in any league and it just gave me more hunger to see that doubt, not being able to play or get on the field.”
He’ll definitely be on the field in Thursday night’s CFL opener at Hamilton Stadium, starting at field (wide) side halfback and reading and reacting to Montréal Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander and his armada of receivers.
White, a native of Greenville, South Carolina, spent and finished in 2018 as the school’s all-time leader in interceptions and knockdowns but went undrafted by the NFL, perhaps partly because he’s only 5-foot-8, which doesn’t fit the metrics profile many scouts are looking for.
But he’s thick-chested and muscular and hits with the force of a much bigger man, powered by aggressiveness, reflexive recognition and the speed of a sprinter, which in fact he was…and still is. He can move it, which he shows when he asked to return kicks, a skill set which adds valuable versatility to the overall Ticat roster, beyond defence.
White has the self-assured gait, almost a strut, of a life-long sprinter: he was a three-time high school state champion in hurdles and the 4×100 relay, and also won several regional titles on the track and in the jumping pit, and did have some scholarship offers in athletics but chose Georgia State and Sun Belt Conference football. He was recruited by numerous other big-time football programs, turned down an offer from Wisconsin and deemed pitches from North Carolina and Clemson as too late in arriving.
“I’d rather go where I was wanted from the start,” he said. “Georgia State had already told me I had a good possibility of starting on Day 1. I went up there…and started on Day 1.”
And kept starting, and stayed loyal to the program and head coach Shawn Elliott rather than enter the transfer portal that was readily open to him.
Not only did White excel on the field, he was good in class making the Dean’s List for academic achievement and graduating with a degree in kinesiology.
But that wasn’t his first choice of course majors. As physically threatening as he can be on the field, he’s empathetic off it and wanted to study nursing at Georgia State. But the nursing clinical lab hours conflicted head-on with football practice.
“My uncle was a nurse his whole life and I’d go out there with him: he was helping people and it’s cool to be around that kind of atmosphere, so I gravitated towards it,” White says.
“My dad pushed me to have something outside of football and not have myself labelled as just a football guy….and I wanted to not be dependent just on football. So I kind of had my mind set on nursing and after I got to school and it wasn’t going to work out, I was ‘Dang, what should I do now?’ I don’t think anything else equated to nursing for me.”
White credits his parents Quincy White and Cassandra Bennon with understanding that sports can have a positive influence on a young person’s outlook and development, and he was enrolled in football, basketball, track and baseball until paring it down to track and football in high school.
“I think my confidence comes from my dad pushing me to be in certain sports my whole life and to play a certain way and walk a certain way,” he says. “My dad said, ‘just be you.’ And once I could see I was pretty good, the confidence never left me. I try to stay humble at that the same time though.
“Having my family in my corner gives me a certain kind of confidence that a lot of people don’t have and everybody doesn’t have the same family or the same opportunities that my parents have provided me so I think that helped a lot.”
Athletic confidence, which includes the facility to analyze—but then forget—mistakes, is important for a defensive back, who will encounter plays when his receiver beats him, or he is flagged for interference. It’s akin to the short-term memory of a relief pitcher.
“That’s what I go by the short-term mentality,” White says. “And I think all DBs should have it, because if you keep dwelling on that last play it’s going to carry on to the following plays and it’s not a good feeling. Anytime something bad happens I forget about it and go to the next play.”
While he was a cornerback in college, he sometimes played nickel back—the extra defender between a safety and corner on passing downs—which has some responsibilities similar to those of a field-side halfback. With the evolution of run-pass-option offences, which often go to the wide side, many analysists now call that the hardest defensive position to master in the CFL and White says he’s still learning the nuances. He was in two games last year, including a start in the season finale, and that experience hastened his learning curve, gave him something to study in the off-season and elevated his comfort level with the team and three-down football.
“I think that helped him take a few more strides and really solidify himself in that position,” says All-CFL safety Stavros Katsantonis, who lines up beside White. “He gets it really quick. If there are any mistakes—we all make mistakes sometimes—he’s quick to correct it. And he’s got elite speed. He’s obviously done some returning for us in the past.
“Him being able to utilize that, along with his football IQ is something that I’m excited to see this season.
“And he’s definitely very vocal, which helps us communicate back there when you’ve got 25,000 people screaming loudly and going crazy.”
CATS CLAUSES
Mitchell in rare yardage and TD company
Last year Bo Levi Mitchell led the league in both pass yards and TDs, the second year in a row he’d topped both categories, and the first time since Khari Jones 23 years earlier that a CFL quarterback had led those two stats charts in back-to-back seasons. If Mitchell does it again this year, he’ll join only Sam Etcheverry (1954-57) to do it in three or more consecutive seasons.
Some changes
Besides Quavian White at boundary half, new Ticats starters for this game include corner Gregory Junior, weakside linebacker Jordan Crook, free agent receiver acquisitions Keric Wheatfall and Kurleigh Gittens Jr., running back Larry Rountree III, and Global punter Mitch McCarthy.
Uncommon….Ticats playing first game of CFL season and two of first three games at home
Thursday is a huge night at Hamilton Stadium, with the official launch of the new Porter Hangar behind the north end zone, a special half-time musical show featuring Hamilton native Terra Lightfoot, all kinds of activities, and the first official look at Phase I of the new CFL regulations: no single points for punts, kickoffs or missed field goals which roll out of the end zone, which starts immediately after the previous play ends, (with the old 20-second clock taking over for the final three minutes of each half).
Also it is the only CFL game being played on Thursday and is the first time since 2019 that the Ticats will host the CFL opener of a full season. They were on Day 1 in 2021 but that was a pandemic-shortened season which started in August.
The Ticats also play two of their first three games at home and in five of the previous six times that combination has happened—being in the season opener and starting with two of three at home, the Ticats got out to a 2-1 start.
Besides the shortened 2021 season, this is just the seventh time since 1999 that the Ticats have even played –home or away—on the first day of the CFL season.
Ticat pass-catch combo ranks 2nd and 3rd in TSN Top 50 players poll
Seven Hamilton Tiger-Cats were named to the TSN Top 50 CFL Players list, including two in the top three. Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was ranked second overall behind No. 1 Nathan Rourke, the BC Lions QB, and wide receiver Kenny Lawler finished third. The Ticats tied with Winnipeg for second-most players on the list, two back of Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan.
Other Ticats to make the list are LB Wynton McManis (18th), DE Julian Howsare (20), S Stavros Katsantonis (27), OG Brandon Revenberg (28) and CB Jamal Peters (32).
“They have that belief”
Head coach Scott Milanovich said on the eve of the season opener that his team has evolved from 2025 when they finished first in the CFL East for the first time since 2019.
“At this point last year part of the motive was to get them to believe that they could do good things. I don’t think that’s an issue with this group any more. They have that belief. Now it’s a matter of focus and all those boring things coaches say every week.”
“It’s how you finish”
The Ticats have lost the first game of the season 19 of their last 22 seasons but while Scott Milanovich said he’d prefer his team not to chase from the start he’s not concerned, noting Wednesday that the Ticats started 0-2 last year but got it up to 6-2 at one point. “It’s how you finish, not how you start,” he said. He also pointed to the Ticats starting the season so often on the road, “although that is no excuse at all.”
Hamilton means something to Montréal quarterback
Alouettes quarterback Davis Alexander made his first pro start in Hamilton in August of 2024, and as was his custom he called his late father Matt from the field on game day. Matt Alexander, one of the best rugby players in U.S. history, died of cancer a year and a half ago.
“I was telling him I was getting the first start of my pro career in Hamilton and he said, ‘Hey! I had MY first career pro start in Hamilton as well,’” Alexander told Ticats.ca this week. “When he told me that I was, ‘Are you kidding me? It was super cool.
“I told my brother that story and he said, ‘What are the actual odds? I don’t even know what Hamilton is.’”
Matt Alexander played pro rugby into his early 40s and his pro debut came with the U.S. National team in 1996 against Team Canada at Hamilton’s Mohawk Sports Park, a Canadian victory in the Pan American championships. The only other time the US team has played Canada here was in 2017, a 28-28 World Cup qualifier draw in front of over 13,000 people at Hamilton Stadium. Matt Alexander, who, like Davis Alexander, wore No. 10, had retired from the pro game by then.
Quick hitters
In 204 meetings since 1950, the launch of the modern CFL, the Alouettes have 103 wins, the Ticats have 94 and there have been seven ties. The Ticats won both regular season meetings last year after having lost seven straight to the Als prior to that.
Kenny Lawler was targeted 53 times on passes of 20 yards or deeper last year, almost double the runner-up (Eugene Lewis at 28) and the most in the league since Duke Williams had 55 deep targets in 2018 for Edmonton.
Besides quarterback Davis Alexander, who has a current streak of 120 passes without an interception, the Als’ offence gets a boost from RB Stevie Scott III who had 358 yards in 71 carries after becoming the lead back over the final six games and WR Tyler Snead who was second in the league with five games of 100 or more receiving yards. Balance that, though, against the Ticat defence which led the league in interceptions and had Stavros Katsantonis and Jamal Peters tie for the pick lead at six each, and Julian Howsare ranking second in sacks.
The Als defence lost LB Darnell Sankey to free agency and star S Marc-Antoine Dequoy to retirement but is still formidable, anchored by league-leading tackler (114) LB Micah Awe who came over from the B.C. Lions.
Compliments from the opposition
Here’s Alexander on the Ticats: “We’re going to get their best shot. They’re extremely well-coached on both sides of the ball and on special teams as well. They’ve got a great defensive coordinator. I don’t know Scott Milanovich super-well personally but it seems he has kind of the same ideologies as our head coach, Jason Maas. And we know the fans will bring it, so now it’s time to play ball.”
