EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — The beauty of Patrick White is that in this day and age of the chest-thumping, me-first, in-your-face athletes whose brashness often outweighs their toughness, his feet are so solidly planted on the ground that you wouldn’t think he could jump if he were standing a puddle of hot lava.
Take his demeanor Saturday after coach Bill Stewart took the wraps off him and turned him loose in a 35-13 victory over Connecticut, the Mountaineers’ first road victory of the season and a game that keeps them alone in first place in the Big East.
White was coming off a game in which he had been treated more like a Mountaineer fullback than their most dangerous runner, seldom carrying and totaling just eight rushing yards at game’s end. What’s more, he struggled through a first half they he dubbed “the worst of my career” in this game, only to finish with …
Let us pause here for a moment to gather ourselves what White did in this game will take some time.
Here is the list:
• White finished with 109 yards on 21 carries, his 15th 100-yard game.
• White rushed for two touchdowns, one of 23 yards, one of 36 yards. He now has 43 rushing touchdowns, second to Steve Slaton and passing a pair of pretty well-known Mountaineers — Ira Errett Rodgers and Avon Cobourne.
• White became the second quarterback in history to surpass 4,000 rushing yards. At WVU, only Cobourne and Amos Zereoue have more rushing yardage.
• With 121 passing yards he surpassed 5,000 passing yards, which gave him more than 9,000 yards of total offense, most in Mountaineer history. That’s more than 5 miles of yardage.
• He jumped to 4,051 rushing yards, just 248 yards shy of Brad Smith’s all-time record of 4,189 yards at Missouri.
• White accounted for three touchdowns — two rushing, one passing — giving him 91 for his career, five behind Syracuse’s Donovan McNabb’s Big East record.
So what did he want to talk about?
“We won. That’s all I care about.”
The words sort of echoed what his coach, Bill Stewart, had to say after the game.
“I’m not into style,” he said. “Do you get the ‘W’ or do you get the ‘L’? There are no more ‘T’s’ any more. They ruined the game when they took that out. I’m old school.”
Whether or not overtime really ruined the game is debatable, but what isn’t debatable is that Stewart is an old-school coach coaching an old-school quarterback in a new-era offense.
And even in the second half Saturday, when the offense came to life and scored four touchdowns, White promises you haven’t seen anything yet.
“I feel if we execute, there isn’t anyone who can stop us,” White said. “We haven’t hit on all cylinders yet. When we do, it will be a thing of beauty.”
Certainly, the weapons are there. He is a breakaway threat who is more dangerous when things go bad than when they go well.
Take his first-half touchdown that kept WVU in the game. The Mountaineers were trailing 10-0 and trying to waste a great scoring opportunity, having driven down to the UConn 10.
Things began coming apart when center Mike Dent was called for a false start when he picked up the football. Then Jock Sanders fumbled a pitchout from White and lost four yards. Next White was sacked to lose five more yards.
It was now third-and-goal at the 24, and one more play like that and they would have had to punt on a fourth and goal.
But bad plays become good plays with White. He faded to pass, everyone was covered, slid to his left, saw a gap and went 24 yards down the sideline to a touchdown.
“I know I had good protection on the play because I felt I was in the backfield a long time,” White said. “Then I saw an alley and took it.”
The second half showed what White was talking about when he spoke of how potent the offense is when it executes. Helped by the defense, which force a punt and took two turnovers, WVU scored three quick touchdowns … White hitting Jock Sanders with a 6-yard screen, then Sanders scoring on consecutive 3-yard runs.
A close game had become a rout, more so when White went around right end for a 36-yard touchdown run for the final score of the game.
The Mountaineers have four games remaining, beginning next Saturday night when they host Cincinnati.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
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