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White helps No. 8 West Virginia roll past Villanova

Aug 31, 2008 - 1:20 AM MORGANTOWN, West Virginia (Ticker) -- Perhaps the speedy feet and cannon arm of quarterback Pat White actually are enough to make West Virginia forget about the messy exodus of Rich Rodriguez.

In coach Bill Stewart's first regular-season game since taking over for Rodriguez, the eighth-ranked Moutaineers were propelled by White's career-high five touchdown passes in Saturday's 48-21 romp over Villanova.

"Offensively, I tried to say way back - particularly to most of the experts in this room - if you put nine people in the box, we're going to throw the football," Stewart said. "I don't know how to run with nine in the box. I hated to throw the ball at the end, but they wouldn't take nine men out of the box."

Rodriguez took the head coaching job at Michigan in mid-December, beginning what would become a bitter end to his seven-season tenure in Morgantown. The school sued Rodriguez for breach of contract later that month, and the issue wasn't resolved until Rodriguez and Michigan agreed July 9 to pay a $4 million buyout.

Stewart, an assistant coach with the team for the last eight seasons, took over for Rodriguez on an interim basis for the Fiesta Bowl and helped the then-No. 9 Mountaineers deliver a 48-28 upset of fourth-ranked Oklahoma.

A huge part of that win was the magic coming from White, who totaled 176 yards and two touchdowns passing while rushing for 150 yards.

A Heisman Trophy candidate, White led all quarterbacks in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 1,335 rushing yards last season and ran for 14 touchdowns. He also threw for 1,724 yards and 14 scoring strikes to lead a West Virginia offense that ranked ninth in the FBS with 39.6 points per game.

That success carried over into this campaign, as the senior completed 25-of-33 attempts for 207 yards and also ran for 62 yards on nine carries.

Alric Arnett and Jock Sanders each caught two touchdown passes while standout running back Noel Devine finished with 84 total yards from scrimmage.

"We couldn't really have too many great drives offensively because we scored with big plays, so it didn't really help the defense much," Stewart said.

White connected with Arnett to open the scoring with 2:04 left in the first, sparking a run of six straight scoring possessions for the Mountaineers (1-0). Sanders' first touchdown increased their bulge to 31-7 with 9:14 remaining in the third.

"The balls to Sanders, Will Johnson and Arnett couldn't have been threaded any better," Stewart said. "No one could have passed those balls better. Pat White was on target - bull's-eyes all day. He could have been 31-of-33 with no picks."

Villanova was paced by running back Aaron Ball, who ran for 55 yards and scored with 14:45 left to cut the deficit to 34-14. Quarterback Antwon Young was 17-for-33 with 218 yards, but was intercepted twice.

"I was a little concerned the defense was on the field a lot," Stewart said. "Defensively, we came out a little better in the second half and we stopped them from big plays. We played a lot of people today, and we wanted to do some things with a lot of people."