TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Each day Markus White looks in the mirror, staring back at him is a reminder.
On the left side of his face, next to his eye, is a scar. Not an ugly scar. Not one that would cause strangers to stop and stare.
Just a slight discoloring, but enough for White to notice.
"Every time I look I say, 'That's all I got.' It's kind of a gift because my life could have been taken away if the seizure got any worse," said White, a Seminoles defensive end.
"I'm at Florida State. I'm playing football. If I want to be all I can be, if I want to move on, I've got to take that medicine. I know it's not a joke."
The seizure came 3 1/2 weeks ago, about a week after White's first practice for the team he dreamed of playing for as a child.
When he passed out in the locker room, he fell into a row of cabinets and injured his face.
White was given medicine, briefly hospitalized and cleared to resume practice.
Recently, he made his Florida State debut, contributing a tackle and barely missing his first sack in a 69-0 season-opening win against Western Carolina.
"Markus White is the most determined football player that we've got on defense," coordinator Mickey Andrews said. "He plays harder on every play than anybody on defense.
"But he's learning. And when he does he's going to be a force to be reckoned with."
White's journey to Florida State has been complicated by the seizures he started suffering in seventh grade. One minute White was sitting in science class, and the next thing he knew he woke up in the hospital.
Eight years later, doctors still have not pinpointed a cause for the seizures, said Markus' father, Andrew White.
"I'm always scared, I'm scared right now," said Andrew White, who lives in Riviera Beach, Fla. "They've tested him. It's just one of those things. They don't know. The MRIs. ... they just don't understand it."
Markus said he thought his latest seizure was the fifth in the last six years. None, he said, have come on the football field. They usually occur when he's "sitting around." Typically he blacks out and wakes up in an ambulance or hospital room.
The most recent seizures occurred when he reduced his medication.
"I just hated the fact I had to take medicine at such a young age," he said.
Although White is not allowed to drive for six months after suffering a seizure, his father and his mother, Tonya, have been assured that he is in no danger playing football.
Andrew White has been researching the subject since the day his little boy was taken from that seventh grade classroom. He's read about Samari Rolle, a former FSU star, and Alan Faneca, players who have thrived in the NFL despite seizures caused by epilepsy.
Until last month, Markus had kept his condition secret from most of his teammates. The last incident, in the locker room, changed all that.
"The whole world knows — it was on ESPN," Markus said of his teammates' awareness of his illness.
"We're just checking on him. ... 'How you doing? How you feeling? Are you taking your medications?'" fellow defensive end Everette Brown said. "Not babying him or nagging him, but just making sure and keeping him accountable for it."
White originally signed with Rutgers in 2006, but a low SAT score prevented him from enrolling. After spending that fall in New Brunswick, N.J., and working at a Hyatt Hotel while trying to qualify, he returned home and then enrolled at Butler Community College in Kansas, where he got his academics and football in order.
In his last two years of football — 2005 at John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres, Fla., and 2007 at Butler, where he was an NJCAA All-America — White had 34.5 sacks.
White (6-foot-4, 245 pounds) relied on his physical skills in the past but knows it will take more than that to succeed at this level.
"All I had to do was have a great takeoff in junior college," White said. "High school was pretty much keep your outside contained. I'm getting used to it here. It's going to be a little while until I perfect it."
Noteworthy: The Wake Forest-FSU game will start at 7 p.m. ET Sept. 20 and be broadcast by ESPN2. ... Guard Rodney Hudson was named ACC offensive lineman of the week. ... Defensive tackle Emmanuel Dunbar underwent back surgery and is out for the season.
Tom D'Angelo writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: tom UNDERSCORE dangelo AT pbpost.com.