There's something that's a little dispiriting about what's happened to the 2005 West Virginia Mountaineers. Back then, they went 11-1, winning the Big East and the Sugar Bowl. Rich Rodriguez was their offensive whiz head coach, and Steve Slaton and Pat White made up the fastest backfield in college football. It was a fun team, as riveting as the current iteration of Boise State. But now, there is nothing.
You already know what's happened to RichRod, who bombed spectacularly at Michigan. Slaton went from a 1,000-yard season in 2008 to fourth on the Texans' depth chart this year, behind Ben Tate, Derrick Ward, and Arian Foster. Similar problems for other Mountaineers: the Eagles tried to dump fullback Owen Schmitt, the Giants did dump return man Darius Reynaud, and Pat McAfee got arrested on weird charges. And that's to say nothing of the fortunes of Pac-Man Jones, who left the Mountaineers as a junior before the 2005 season to enter the NFL Draft, or the late Chris Henry, who entered the same draft.
But, oh, Pat White. The fastest quarterback there was, the lefty who scampered at full sprint. White was a second-round pick of the Dolphins in 2009, a planned wildcat specialist, but he was released after one season. Then White decided to try baseball, signing a minor-league deal in late 2010 with the Kansas City Royals. Then he didn't show up for spring training this March. So White went and signed with the UFL's Virginia Destroyers in June. (Fun fact: Marty Schottenheimer is the head coach.)
But now the Destroyers have cut White so they could start 35-year-old Chris Greisen, whose NFL claim to fame is probably that he's Nick Greisen's older brother. This means Pat White is jobless. Pat White the former NFL second-round pick, the former MLB fourth-round pick, the all-time NCAA leader in quarterback rushing yards.
This is weird on its own, but, as you can see, he's one of many former Mountaineers with mediocre or worse pro fortunes. And here we thought unemployment was down in West Virginia.