Will WVU’s White be a pro surprise or a Vicktim?

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, January 01, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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Some NFL scouts look at Pat White and see Michael Vick, with all the good and bad that entails.

Others look at him and see a wide receiver.

Certainly, no one has ever questioned the West Virginia star's ability to make plays with his legs. He has, in fact, rushed for more career yards than any quarterback in college football history, passing Missouri's Brad Smith for the career lead this season. As a sophomore, White rushed for 1,355 yards; as a junior, 1,219.

And White, like the lefthander Vick, can also throw. He proved that in his final appearance as a Mountaineer, hitting 26 of 32 passes for 332 yards and three TDs in a 31-30 victory over North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Comparisons between White and Vick are inevitable, and that may not be to White's advantage. He and Vick are both about 6-foot-1 (although that altitude may have been fudged a bit in both cases), but Vick is more solidly built. Even though White is listed as 190 pounds, he looks frail when he's on the field.

Vick's biggest problem (other than his off-field shenanigans) was that he never could seem to decide whether he was a quarterback or a running back. A quarterback who can reel off a long gain when it's necessary is a huge asset to any team. A quarterback who runs when he would be better off throwing is not.

Donovan McNabb found that out early in his Philadelphia Eagles career. Coming out of Syracuse, he was a classic double-threat guy, very quick to take off when the passing lanes seemed closed. A series of emphatic hits and nagging injuries caused him to alter his style considerably, and McNabb is much more robust than White.

Vick's career stat line as an NFL quarterback says it all -- 71 touchdown passes, 52 interceptions. That was unacceptable, even before the dogfighting fiasco. He demonstrated itchy feet in the pocket, which meant that he seldom stayed planted there long enough to use his arm -- unquestionably a cannon -- to connect with wide receivers deep. Most of his completions came to tight ends, backs or possession receivers, which can often point to a tendency to panic.

Vick was always an instinctive sort of player, which works a lot better in college than in the pros. His best college season was his freshman year at Virginia Tech, when his initial burst of speed -- unheard of for a quarterback -- caught opponents by surprise. By his sophomore season, other teams had begun using "spies" on Vick to keep him contained, and his stats diminished. He was drafted No. 1 purely on potential, which never really developed despite a couple of mind-blowing performances.

This is not to say that Vick may not return to the NFL and become a good quarterback, but he remains a work in progress.

White, unlike Vick, seems to have a keen mind for the game. His TD-to-interception passing ratio this season (21-7) reflects that. In four seasons at West Virginia, he has developed a good sense of when to throw it, when to run it, when to take a sack and when to launch the ball harmlessly out of bounds. He's learned that sometimes a quarterback has to throw away a down as opposed to throwing away the football.

True, there is a long line of White-type quarterbacks who failed to make it in the NFL, several of them (like Nebraska's Eric Crouch) Heisman winners.

The way the game is evolving, however, White may well become more valuable. He could spend a year or two honing his quarterback skills behind an established passer, while contributing to the team in other ways. As the economy goes south, a versatile performer like White will begin to look more and more attractive, because a team can get a quarterback, wide receiver and kick returner rolled into one.

Without question, the NFL generally requires a different sort of quarterback than in college, and a Matt Ryan is always going to command more respect from the draft geeks than a Pat White. It would be nice, though, if somebody gave him a chance to run the team before turning him into a Josh Cribbs sort of player. He just might surprise them -- White has been surprising people ever since he left Daphne, Ala., to play for the only college coach (Rich Rodriguez) willing to hand him the ball.
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