Pat White: The G.O.A.T. of WVU Football

There have been great players roll through Morgantown since they began playing football, from Ira Errett Rodgers to Sam Huff to Chuck Howley, Bruce Bosley, Major Harris, Reggie Rembert, Darryl Talley, Aaron Beasley, Marc Bulger, Amos Zereoue, Avon Cobourne, Grant Wiley, Steve Slaton, Noel Devine, Geno Smith, Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Will Grier, and many others.

The best West Virginia Mountaineer of all-time, though? It's Pat White.

I know a strong case can be made for Major Harris. He is absolutely deserving of being in that conversation. I'm not dismissing his greatness and the tremendous things he accomplished, such as leading the Mountaineers to a perfect regular season in 1988 and an appearance in the national championship game.

But White's 35-8 mark as a starter, 6,049 passing yards (56 TDs), and 4,480 rushing yards (47 TDs) just can't be topped. He was the engineer of the greatest four-year stretch in program history. As a team, West Virginia went 42-9 from 2005-09. Now, a handful of those wins came with Adam Bednarik before his injury, and Jarrett Brown got a start against Rutgers, but White was responsible for much of that golden era.

To this day, White is the only quarterback to start and win four bowl games. With the way college football is now, with the transfer portal and teams wanting to stay old, it's going to become even less likely that we'll see someone accomplish that feat.

The legendary career almost never happened

December 6, 2008; Morgantown, W. Va., USA; West Virginia quarterback Pat White (5) takes the field against South Florida before a football game at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Don Wright-USA TODAY Sports | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

White had multiple opportunities to give up football for baseball and nearly did in 2005. The week of the Louisville game, White started to doubt his future in football and told his father, James White Jr., also known as "Chief," that he wanted to play baseball. The message his father gave him changed his life forever.

“My father told me to show up every day like I was the starter, every play. At the end of the week, if I still felt the same that he would bring my glove, and lo and behold, that was the Louisville game. I was this close to becoming an Anaheim Angel. It says a lot about my father and the leadership he showed."

The Louisville game could have marked the end of White's career as a Mountaineer; instead, it became the turning point for both him and the program. That night, he filled in for an injured Adam Bednarik and helped guide West Virginia to a thrilling triple-overtime win over the Cardinals.

The ultimate hero

Every Mountaineer fan still remembers the sting of a certain game in 2007, as well as Rich Rodriguez's departure for Michigan. The program felt like it was on the cusp of becoming a perennial powerhouse, and everything changed in the blink of an eye.

That loss, that departure, could have broken the Mountaineers heading into the Fiesta Bowl against Oklahoma. Instead, it brought them closer together. Pat White threw for 176 yards and two scores while adding 150 yards with his legs in a 48-28 win over the Sooners. Mountaineer Nation needed that bowl win in the worst of ways.

They were gut-punched by the loss, and Rodriguez leaving just poured salt in the mountain-sized wound. White and the Mountaineers gave the state something to be happy about, and while it may not have been the national championship, it was a big bowl win over a big-time program, ending the incredible season on a high note.

White put West Virginia football back on the map

Aside from the undefeated regular season in 1993, the 90s did not treat the Mountaineers well. It was still by far better than the current stretch the program has been in since 2019, but they didn't capitalize on the momentum of the team that played for the national title in 1988.

The end of the Don Nehlen era had folks wondering if WVU would be able to remain in the national picture. Oh boy, did they ever. Rasheed Marshall's contributions as the starting QB got it all started, and Pat White took it to a whole other level. What makes the story even more special is that no one viewed White as a quarterback. LSU saw him as a defensive back, and so did many other schools.

“I’m barely six-foot. I’m a lefty. Very unorthodox as a quarterback, and I’m of African descent, especially back in 2004, so those are all things that sort of go against you in the eyes of the decision-makers at that position," White said. " I was told no a lot. I was told from teammates in high school and college that I should think about switching positions. In baseball, it’s more mano a mano. I was pretty good, at least in my mind. So, it was always, ‘You can.’ It was a lot less scrutinized. And so, I guess I wanted to prove to myself and those that refused to believe, and more importantly, those that did believe, that I was capable.”

White fit into West Virginia perfectly. West Virginians always have to do things the hard way and are often overlooked. White busted his tail and proved that he could not only play quarterback on the biggest stage in college football, but also be one of the best to ever grace the field at that level.

The things he did on the field were just incredible. It didn't matter the down and distance or the situation; you had the belief that White would get the job done and find a way to win the down or the game.

Pat White is greatness. Pat White is West Virginia football. Today, his No. 5 will be unofficially retired, making him the seventh player in program history to have that honor, joining Major Harris (9), Ira Rodgers (21), Chuck Howley (66), Sam Huff (75), Bruce Bosley (77), and Darryl Talley (90).

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