Could Pat White Be the Greatest College Quarterback to Ever Lace Up the Cleats?

On Saturday, it became official: There is no quarterback, maybe player, to have ever graced a football field at the collegiate level better than Pat White.

White and the West Virginia Mountaineers beat the North Carolina Tar Heels 31-30 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, winning their fourth straight bowl game.

Unless you are a Mountaineer fan, or if you caught SportsCenter, you are probably unaware of the fact that West Virginia's star quarterback became the first and only starting quarterback to lead his team to four straight bowl wins.

With this latest bowl victory, White can be justified as the greatest quarterback to have ever played the collegiate game, and he probably won't be playing the position when he makes the step to the next level. 

It all began in 2005, when the redshirt freshman quarterback had to choose between keeping his scholarship to play football or accepting a six figure contract to play baseball for the Anaheim Angels.

Luckily for Mountaineer fans, he chose to stick around Morgantown, where he became a freshman All-American quarterback. White did this despite having more rushing yards than passing yards. He went on to lead the Mountaineers to the Big East title and a Sugar Bowl win over the Georgia Bulldogs.

As a sophomore in 2006, White enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career. He had over 1,200 yards rushing and 31 total touchdowns. Garnering All-Conference and Big East Player of the Year honors, White led the Mountaineers to the Gator Bowl. Scoring 21 points in the second half, the Mountaineers stormed back to beat Georgia Tech 38-35.

Expectations were high, entering White's junior season. There was talk of a BCS title.

In 2007, White finished sixth in the Heisman voting, and led West Virginia to a BCS bowl game victory over heralded Big 12 Champion Oklahoma. The win made West Virginia the only team with an interim head coach to win their bowl game. White finished the season with 28 total touchdowns and a career high 1,335 rushing yards.

After his 2007 campaign, White decided to return to school for his fifth and final season of eligibility.

After a somewhat disappointing season for the Mountaineers, White led the team to victories in their final regular season games, and most recently the Bowl game victory over North Carolina. He was a bowl game MVP for the third straight year, while setting a career mark in passing yards with 332.

Although his most notable accomplishment has been becoming the first ever quarterback to win four bowl games in the history of the game, White's list of accomplishments stretches far longer than that.

He stands alone among quarterbacks in terms of rushing yards all-time, and holds nearly every rushing record among quarterbacks in college football.

Not only is White undefeated in four bowl games, he is 10-3 in his career against ranked opponents.

However, this man's accomplishments stretch much further than statistics and accolades.  He is a living legend, and as the great prophet Scotty Smalls dreamed "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."

No words can do justice to what White did on the field, and if you blinked over the last four years, you may have missed it. 

I'll admit, I took it for granted, but we all just lived through the career of the greatest quarterback to ever play college football.