Two for the Ages
September 03, 2007 09:18 AM | General
September 3, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After watching Patrick White and Steve Slaton perform so magnificently the last two years, it is becoming almost an afterthought for Mountaineer fans seeing the two do what they do on the football field.
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| Steve Slaton and Patrick White have combined to score 83 touchdowns by land and by air in just 25 career games.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Naturally we’ve watched them do this before: White in last year’s Gator Bowl running around, past and through the same Georgia Tech defense that barely broke a sweat at Notre Dame last Saturday night and Slaton out-running those SEC football factories that people say produce college football’s fleetest players.
When you buy a ticket to watch a West Virginia football game you are paying to see White and Slaton score touchdowns. So far White and Slaton have delivered 60 by land and 23 by air – in just 25 games.
Last Saturday against Western Michigan, White waved his magic wand twice: evading five tacklers, changing direction and maneuvering his way to the prettiest 38-yard TD run you’ll ever see, and then somehow popping through three defenders and turning a certain sack into a first-down run.
And Slaton showed once again why he is the most explosive runner in college football, taking a screen pass and racing 50 yards past everyone for one touchdown and then bursting through a hole on a fake reverse and running for another long score.
It was Tony Caridi who put it best on MSN’s Internet post-game show when he said that West Virginia has had great players in the past, but never two paired together like White and Slaton.
“They’re so competitive and you kind of expect them to do something (spectacular) all the time,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said Sunday. “I think you’ve got to realize that they sometimes make mistakes, too. I think Steve is feeling good because obviously he’s healthy as he’s been in a long time and Pat I think continues to grow each and every season.”
Rodriguez watches what they do every day in practice and he says the reminders usually come on Saturdays.
“Everybody says how fast they are and I see them running around every day,” Rodriguez said. “Until you play somebody you don’t realize just how quick they can be but they are.”
White’s beautiful second-quarter TD run even got Rodriguez momentarily out of his laser-beam-like focus on the sidelines.
“I was talking to (offensive coordinator) Calvin Magee on the headsets and I said, ‘Can you believe what just happened?’ In practice sometimes he’s in a hands-off jersey so he’s not allowed to get tackled and you see him moving around a little bit but when it’s live and they can tackle him he seems to move a little faster,” Rodriguez said. “He made one of those highlight reel runs again and it was pretty fun to watch.”
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if a play is blocked perfectly or even blocked at all: White has a way of making blockers look good.
“He may step into something but boy he can get out of trouble in a hurry,” Rodriguez said.
What separates White from other quarterbacks, says Rodriguez, is his commanding presence on the field. All elite players have it.
“He’s got a lot of God given ability but he works hard at it, too. He understands the game and he’s got a presence about him. He just has a feel for what’s around him,” Rodriguez said.
And the good news is West Virginia has two of them.
