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Quarterback Pat White took a beating in the first half of West Virginia's 2007 Gator Bowl game against Georgia Tech but was able to bounce back to lead a second half comeback in defeating the Ramblin Wreck 38-35.
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WVU Photographic Services/Brian Persinger photo |
If you haven’t already done so, I recommend you go and check out Jerry West’s lengthy interview he did with Dan Patrick earlier this week on Patrick’s website:
It’s 25 minutes of your day well worth spending.
Jerry comes off as such an honest and sincere person, which is one of the biggest reasons why he is so greatly admired and revered to this day.
The fact that he was also a terrific player helps, too.
By the way, the secret to Jerry West’s greatness was his willingness to compete. He was by far the most competitive athlete to ever step on West Virginia University’s campus, but from my era of covering WVU sports over the last 25-30 years I would have to say the closest person that we’ve had to Jerry in terms of competitiveness is Pat White.
I once heard a story about Pat when he was playing pee-wee football in Daphne, Alabama, and how his coaches used to have their players go one-on-one against each other until they blew the whistle (oftentimes letting them go at it a little bit longer before stopping them to see who was going to stand his ground). Pat always sought out the biggest and toughest kid on the team and would go after him until he began to cry.
Well, I got an opportunity to watch most of the 2007 Gator Bowl from the sidelines and saw first-hand what an amazing competitor Pat White was on the football field.
On one particular play early in the second quarter, Pat was completely blindsided by one of Georgia Tech’s gigantic defensive ends and got hit so hard that he could barely get off the field. The tears were again streaming down his face as he was helped to the bench.
I’m thinking to myself, “There is no way in hell this guy is going back out on the field to finish this game.”
And why would he?
He was taking a tremendous beating, the Mountaineers were dead in the water and besides, he had already accomplished so much during his young career by leading the Mountaineers to a great Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia the year prior and producing another tremendous season as a sophomore in 2006.
Just sit the rest of this one out, regroup, and come back ready to go for spring ball in 2007, at least that’s what I was thinking.
Not Pat White.
He wiped off his face, got pissed off and went right back out there swinging the next time West Virginia got the football.
Soon WVU erased Tech’s double-digit advantage and eventually retook the lead in the third quarter.
Then, late in the fourth quarter when the Mountaineers got the football back, they needed to make a couple of first downs to milk the clock and put away the game.
Starting tailback Steve Slaton was out of the game with a thigh injury and regular fullback Owen Schmitt was not accustomed to carrying the football that often, so it was up to a wounded and fatigued Pat White - all 185 pounds of him - to carry the load.
I could be wrong about this but I believe he carried the football 10 or 12 straight times at the end of the game to run out the clock and kept Georgia Tech’s offense off the field. West Virginia won the game, 38-35, with the football still in Pat’s hands as time expired.
Now this wasn’t the Sugar or Fiesta Bowl so nothing was really on the line that afternoon.
It was the Gator Bowl!
Who really cares about the Gator Bowl? Other than the teams playing in it that afternoon nobody else would even remember who won or lost the game.
However, I know I will never forget that game because watching Pat White out there competing his butt off is still one of the most inspiring things that I’ve ever seen in sports.
That’s why those West Virginia University football teams in the mid-2000s were so great, and that’s why Pat White will ALWAYS be the player I use when comparing others, just as Jerry West was to those Mountaineer fans older than I am.
More good players are going to come down the pike, that’s for sure. When that happens the question for me will always be: Is he good or is he Pat White good?
There were many who loved to play the game, but nobody here at West Virginia University loved to compete as much as Jerry West did when he played for the Mountaineers in the late 1950s, or Pat White did a decade ago.
White, in my opinion, is the best football player that I’ve ever seen wear a West Virginia uniform.
And I’ve seen thousands of them.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
