West Virginia: Is Kevin White The Next Larry Fitzgerald?

Is West Virginia’s Kevin White the next Larry Fitzgerald?

This year in college football has been one of the most special seasons to watch. With the arrival of Mississippi State as a powerhouse, seeing Robert Nkemdiche take over the college football landscape at defensive line, and watching the dominance of the Southeastern Conference has been awesome.

However, besides the SEC there have been so many intriguing storylines such as Florida State’s Jameis Winston, great players to watch like Kenny Hill and a ton of upsets. Speaking of upsets…one of the biggest upsets during this season of college football was watching the No. 4 Baylor Bears fall victim to the West Virginia Mountaineers.

One of the reasons why Baylor lost to West Virginia is because of their awesome wide receiver Kevin White. Though he has only played for two seasons in Morgantown, White has shown that he is going to have an awesome finish to his college career, and already is proving that he will be a go to receiver in the NFL. 

He’s not a household name, but he’s on the rise and many more observers will be getting to know him with some high-profile matchups awaiting West Virginia in the second half of the season, including home meetings with TCU and Kansas State.

Before I continue, let me just say this. During this year of college football, Kevin White is the best wide receiver and it isn’t even close. To all of those who don’t know who Kevin White is, shame on you, but thankfully the bandwagon has a ton of room available (let’s say we have about three more greyhound busses ready)

At first, I had no clue who White was until one of my coworkers spoke glowingly about him right before the season started (well just call him John).

As a proud West Virginia graduate I first heard John talk about White winning the Heisman Trophy because he thought he was that special as a player. I would walk into work and hear him say “Kevin White for Heisman. You seen the best receiver in college football play last night? What you going to do with them West Virginia boys huh? We have another monster pass catcher on our hands.”

Eventually after hearing John talk about White for days and weeks with no end, I began to take notice and decided to watch him play. Thankfully my first impression of White came against his monster game against the Maryland Terrapins on the road.

Maryland lost their home game 40-37 to West Virginia. What was White’s final stat line?

13 catches, 216 yards, 16.6 yards per catch average, one touchdown.

It was then my eyes opened up and I saw the light. I was once blind, but now I saw that White was the real deal and this man was someone who needs to get attention.

One of the media analysts for the NFL, Charles Davis, said this about White: “He’s not a household name, but he’s on the rise and many more observers will be getting to know him with some high-profile matchups awaiting West Virginia in the second half of the season, including home meetings with TCU and Kansas State.”

Currently White has 69 catches, seven touchdowns and is leading the nation in receiving with 1,020 yards. What is even more impressive about his receiving yards stat is that White would have even more yards this season if it not been for multiple pass interference calls. Because White is such an excellent route runner, and finds openings within the defense, he causes nightmares for cornerbacks, and they often have to get too physical with him to attempt to guard him.  

White’s size at 6’3 210 pounds, gives him the advantage with the cornerbacks that line up against him. Even the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide felt the wrath of White’s offensive game. With the legendary defense that the Crimson Tide supposedly has every year, White fried the Crimson Tide for nine catches, 143 yards, had a 15.9 yards per catch average and a scored touchdown.

In addition one of the most eye-popping of White’s statistics is that if he once again breaks the 100 yard receiving mark against Oklahoma State, White will become the second wide receiver in the last decade to have eight straight 100 yard games. The only other person to carry out this feat was Justin Blackmon who was also coached by White’s current coach, Dana Holgorsen.

Picture yourself inside of one of your favorite sporting goods story and you are in the middle of attempting to make a purchase of favorite team’s jersey. You aimlessly walk around the store looking for the best deal and eventually get frustrated because you can’t find what you’re looking for. When White was playing in junior college, West Virginia was looking for ways to replace their amazing wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.

When Coach Holgorsen got White to enroll at West Virginia after playing at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania it was like finding an authentic jersey for 120 dollars. Picking that jersey up, finding out their’s a 40 percent off sale on authentic jerseys and having a gift card that already has 20 dollars remaining. White’s signing gave Coach Holgorsen a true bargain and diamond in the rough.

The receiver who already is drawing comparisons to Larry Fitzgerald is already shooting up draft boards.

No one can predict the future. Let’s just make a check list though.

• Size: Fitzgerald and White each are 6’3 210 pounds plus
• Speed: They both are extremely explosive
• Heart: They each make plays to win their teams win games.

I don’t want to go that far yet, but I won’t disagree with anyone’s assessment that speaks awesome about White. 

Maybe I’m starting to sound like John…or maybe we all are gaining wisdom because Kevin White is a wide receiver that is going to change the game every time he laces up his cleats. 

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