Pat White Reveals How He Nearly Left WVU Football

The history of Mountaineer football would look a lot different if Pat White decided to leave to go play baseball.

Pat White is one of the greatest players to ever play football at West Virginia University. In fact, depending on who you ask, he is the best to ever suit up in the old gold and blue. The lefty quarterback was ahead of his time with his dual-threat ability which made him nearly impossible to stop from 2005-08.

White led the Mountaineers to a 35-8 record and four bowl victories in four years. He finished his career with 6,049 passing yards and 56 touchdowns to go along with 4,480 rushing yards and 47 rushing touchdowns. White previously held the record for most rushing yards by a quarterback before Michigan's Denard Robinson eclipsed that mark in 2012 by 15 yards. However, Robinson's record should have an asterisk next to it considering he started lining up at running back toward the end of his final season. 

White will forever be remembered in West Virginia, but his legendary career almost never happened. In a sit-down with former teammate Pat McAfee on The Pat McAfee Show, White revealed that he was very close to leaving to go play baseball. A phone call to his dad kept him in Morgantown for another week to see things through and it ended up all working out.

"Actually before I got in versus Louisville, I was ready to give it up and called my dad like listen, these guys, Rich Rod, don't think I can play quarterback," White said. "He ain't ever going to put me in and keep throwing this guy in and he keeps getting hurt and keep going back in, whatever. I'm like bring my glove. He was like, heck no son. You show up every day and you show up and you act like you're the starter. At the end of the week, if you still feel the same way, I will bring your glove. That game, he got hurt and I went in and the rest was history. Yes, I was ready to get the heck up out of Morgantown."

McAfee chimed in immediately with, "Thank God you didn't." And I think it's safe to say McAfee spoke for all of Mountaineer Nation in saying that.

After spending some time in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins, White eventually did get back into baseball and had a little run with the Kansas City Royals. "I felt like I was a little too aged to be out there competing with 17, 18-year-olds at 25 trying to compete for a rookie ball contract or single-A, double-A, or whatever it may be. I was 2/6, but I hadn't swung a bat in like six years. It's like riding a bike. I mean, I don't mean to brag, but I can play a little baseball."

A few years had passed since White had truly been involved in the game of football, but he recently got back into it, getting his start in coaching. White began at Alcorn State as the quarterbacks coach for two seasons before moving on to become the running backs coach at South Florida. This past season, White served as the QB coach at Alabama State and now, will be back coaching quarterbacks at Campbell, an FCS school.

"I'm blessed to be back in it. A former teammate of ours, Ryan Stanchek is the one who got me back into it and I'm forever grateful for that and I'm back coaching my QBs, so I'm loving every second of it."

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