Pat White: Not a thrower, but a throwback

By Darrell Laurant  |   Wednesday, October 18, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

West Virginia Mountaineers
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If you liked Eric Crouch, you'll love Pat White.

Indeed, the sophomore West Virginia University quarterback is a later model of the 2001 Heisman Trophy winner from Nebraska -- sportier, perhaps, with more acceleration and maybe a GPS navigation system on board.

"Pat makes decisions in the blink of an eye," says fullback and teammate Owen Schmitt.

Watching White is like seeing ESPN Classic footage of the glory days of the Big Eight/Big 12, when running quarterbacks like Crouch, J.C. Watts, Jack Mildren and Tommy Frazier were galloping all over the Midlands. Just ask the Syracuse Orange, who grabbed futilely at White all last Saturday afternoon as he rushed for 274 yards (a Big East record for quarterbacks) and four touchdowns in a 47-14 romp.

White has also been compared to Major Harris, a former WVU quarterback flash who once outgained Penn State single-handedly in a pivotal game. And, of course, to Michael Vick. But while Vick generally thinks pass first and has made most of his most scintillating runs off third-option scrambles, White is more like a running back who occasionally throws the ball.

"People say we don't run that much, but it's not because of Pat White," says Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez. "He can make all the throws."

Coming out of Daphne, Ala., White was recruited by most of the SEC powers. They all thought he'd make a great wide receiver.

West Virginia offered him a shot at his favorite position, but it took awhile. It wasn't until fellow QB Adam Bednarik was hurt against Virginia Tech that White finally claimed the spot as his own, hitting 9 of 11 passes for 85 yards against the Hokies and rushing for 44 more in his team's only loss.

He then burst onto the national scene against Pitt in late November, rushing for 220 yards (a record he broke against Syracuse), and helped blow apart a highly regarded Georgia defense in the Sugar Bowl, hitting 11 of 14 passes for 124 yards.

Exploding repeatedly out of a no-huddle offense, White, Schmitt and tailback Steve Slaton are downright scary. Slaton, mentioned more and more as a Heisman candidate, has been especially hot of late, so Syracuse concentrated on stopping him. That enabled White to sucker the Orange with fake handoffs to his running mate and then bolt through the resulting gaps for big gains.

Nevertheless, East Carolina did a good job of shutting off Slaton and White on the ground a few weeks ago. So White threw for 216 yards, and the Mountaineers kept winning.

There is a temptation to think of Pat White as small, but that's not really the case -- at 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, he is quite capable of bowling over defenders downfield.

"He makes quick reads," says backfield coach Bill Stewart, "and then lets the Good Lord take over when he gets out into the open field."

It remains to be seen how the West Virginia Mountaineers would react if another team were to jump out to a big early lead. Would they feel compelled to throw to save time?

Probably not. The way White and Slaton run, it doesn't take much time at all.
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