Doubling White didn't work out for OSU

The West Virginia wide receiver had played himself into contention for Heisman Trophy consideration with a string of seven games unlike any seen in WVU football history.

His receiving yardage totals through those seven games was 143, 101, 216, 173, 132, 123 and 132.

His reception totals read as follows: nine, 10, 13, 10, six, 13 and eight.

Somewhere early in his fourth game, White matched his total of receptions for all of last year, just as he surpassed his yardage total in the same game.

He was dominating cornerbacks — and not just any cornerback.

Oklahoma’s Zack Sanchez, considered the Big 12’s best corner, could not keep up with him as he caught 10 passes for 173 yards. Baylor opted to single cover him with Xavien Howard, probably the next best corner in the conference behind Sanchez, and it was a disaster as White not only caught 8 passes for 132 yards and two touchdowns, but drew six interference penalties.

All of this, of course, alerted the football world that a new star had been born, but when that happens, defenses sometimes decide that such a player is so good they cannot afford to let him beat them. They rig a special defense to try and stop him.

So it was as White went into Stillwater to face Oklahoma State this past Saturday.

As a coach, Mike Gundy had often been on the other side of such matchups as he coached both Dez Bryant and Justin Blackmon, watching the havoc they laid upon opponents.

He made a realization.

“The other team has a choice,” Gundy said.

His choice was to help his cornerback on White, to essentially take him out of the game.

“We tried to get a little bit of bracket coverage,” Gundy said on Monday during the Big 12 coaches’ conference call. “He is a guy who has dominated games.”

The result was that they did take White of the game — as much as you can.

He caught only three passes and gained only 27 yards through the air, but did grab one from 19 yards out for the game’s first touchdown, which only served to re-enforce Gundy’s decision to blanket White.

White could have cared less.

“If you want to pay that much attention to me, then everything else is going to open up,” White said, following the game.

Like what?

Oh, like Mario Alford’s 79-yard touchdown grab on a slant over the middle on WVU’s second possession.

Alford had no safety to worry about in the middle as he was “leaning”, as Dana Holgorsen put it, toward White.

And there was the run game.

WVU controlled the ball and the clock by staying on the ground, running 44 times while passing only 30.

Wendell Smallwood rushed for a career-high 135 yards, and Dreamius Smith added 72, including a 40-yard touchdown burst.

Why?

Because a safety wasn’t involved in the run defense.

“(The decision to double Kevin White) definitely hurt our run support,” Gundy admitted.

So it was that White’s mere presence of the field changed the way the game was played, opened up things that would not have been open.

White was as big a factor in the game as if he had caught his normal 10 passes for 145 yards.

What’s more, his acceptance of what happened added more to the legend of the kid himself.

Here was a player looking not only to find a way to be a first-round NFL draft choice but, also a Heisman finalist, willing to accept a lesser role for the team.

“I don’t care about the Heisman,” White said. “They can take me off the (contenders) list or drop me. I couldn’t care less about the Heisman. That’s not why I play the game. I’m just happy we got the win.”

Follow Bob Hertzel on Twitter @bhertzel