The text came through yesterday morning from one of my oldest friends who I regularly have long and insightful discussions with about sports. This wasn’t very different, even in text form, because it was actually two complete texts. Pat White will do that to you.

“Legendary performance by Pat White. He has to be one of the all-time greats now. Cemented a spot in the NFL now too, right?”

It went on a little more about the season and asked how fans felt, but what mattered most is what I mentioned above. To be honest, I didn’t think Pat could do anything in Saturday’s game that would change his all-time standing. He had the NCAA rushing record, he had the BCS games and he had the void where a national title win/appearance should rest. He was, for all intents and purposes, finished.

I’m pretty sure I was wrong.

If he had to go out in a way that wasn’t competing for a national title, then it would have to be something like what we witnessed in the bowl: third straight MVP performance (each uniquely different, by the way) in a rally to set a NCAA record for bowl wins.

The cherry? He did it with his arm — first 300-yard game and three touchdowns. The one knock was he couldn’t carry a team with the pass. Whoops. It still may be the case, but for one day — his last day — he did it.

So, yeah, legendary. That’s a strong word, but damn if it isn’t accurate. NFL? I refuse to believe the league can go on without giving an athlete/competitor like that a shot. He’s better than some sixth-round scrub receiver and I wouldn’t ever tell him he can’t play quarterback. Well, unless I was a G.M., and the next thing I would do is sign Pat because that slight would probably cause Pat to transform himself into Drew Brees.

It’s a long time until March and the beginning of spring football and April and the NFL draft, so time will be spent debating Pat’s place in history. This is not just a regional debate. It’s gone national.

CFB Bowling: If there was an MVP of all of the bowls between now and last Tuesday, it would be West Virginia QB Pat White, who not only put on a career-best 332-yard passing day vs. UNC, but he led WVU to his fourth bowl win as a starting QB, a record widely considered unprecedented in college football history. I think it is only WVU’s choke at home against Pitt last year — keeping them out of the national-title game — that keeps White from being considered one of the Top 10 QBs of the past 25 years in college football.

And away we go …

I’m kind of thinking Pat’s in that top 10. Check out his 24 WVU, Big East and NCAA records:

1, 2, 3 —NCAA, Big East and WVU career quarterback rushing – 4,480 yards
4, 5 —Big East, WVU career touchdown responsibility – 103
6 —WVU career 200-yard rushing games (any position) – 4
7, 8 —Big East, WVU single-game QB rushing yards – 247 (vs. Syracuse, 2006; White has four of the top five QB rushing games in Big East history)
9, 10 —Big East, WVU single-season quarterback rushing – 1,335 in 2007
11, 12 —Big East, WVU single-game rushing touchdowns by quarterback – 4 (vs. Syracuse and Louisville, 2006; shared with Temple’s Walter Washington, vs. WVU, 2003)
13 — Big East single-game yards per rush (any position) – 16.5 (15 carries, 247 yards vs. Syracuse, 2006)
14 — Big East single-season yards per rush (any position) – 7.4 (1,219 yards on 165 carries, 2006)
15 —WVU single-game completion percentage — .900 (18-of-20, vs. East Carolina, 2007)
16 —WVU single-season completion percentage — .659 (118-of-179 in 2006)
17 —Mountaineer Field single-game touchdown passes – 5 (vs. Villanova, 2008; shared with Pete Gonzalez, Pitt, 1997)
18, 19 —Big East, WVU career total offense – 10,525 yards
20 —WVU single-game total offense – 424 yards (vs. Pitt, 2006; shared with Mac Bulger vs. Missouri, Insight Bowl, 1998)
21 —WVU total offense for a sophomore – 2,874 yards (2007)
22, 23, 24 — Bowl wins as starting quarterback – 4 (2006 Sugar, 2007 Gator, 2008 Fiesta, 2008 Car Care)

Stat’s don’t mean the most. Matt Grothe, after all, is going to shatter White’s Big East total offense record and Grothe is not going to make this top 10 conversation. It’s substance and style and Pat had both with the wins to accompany the stats. That’s why I think the way he won the bowl meant so much to this mythical cause.

He was a guy you wanted on your side, no matter what, and that means an awful lot at that position.

It’s hard to put in a hypothetical sense, but suppose there’s a 10-team round-robin league. The defenses are the same, but the offenses are not. You get to pick a quarterback from the past 25 years to lead you through the league. You run what he runs and surround him with the appropriate talent. Figure Tom Frazier and Matt Leinart are off the board early because of how they worked in their offenses. Ditto for Vince Young and Danny Wuerffel.

Is Pat in the next group of three or four — maybe Mike Vick, Charlie Ward, Tim Tebow and … sheesh, Steve Walsh?

It’s at least compelling. What Mr. Shanoff started one voice from Mountaineer Nation attempted to finish with a pretty nice back-and-forth with Shanoff.

First, we’ll start with what Dan sent me back…then go from there. 

That’s a great point, and I think that we’ll look back at White as a truly exceptional college QB. He’s already the greatest running QB in history — although
Nebraskafans will argue Tommie Frazier is above him. However — and you’ll agree, especially based on this past weekend, that Frazier couldn’t throw the ball to save his life, while you don’t just luck into 300-plus passing days.

I went through a list of the best QBs of the past 20 years, and I really did have a hard time finding 10 better than White, both in terms of overall mastery of the position and of value to his team.

So as a White expert, is there any chance he can play in the NFL? Is he going to be relegated to being a smaller Brad Smith — forced to move to a new position?

My pet theory: Every team is going to adopt some form of the Wildcat next year in its offensive package, and I could see White (and Tebow for that matter) offering an incredible option, no pun intended. I mean, the guy runs a sub-4.4 40 and can throw if needed.

Thoughts?