Pat White is no stranger to criticism and doubt. He’s basically dealt with it for nearly half a decade. In high school, in college, and now in the NFL. And he’s proved them wrong every time.

Coming out of high school, White was a highly recruited player, being pursued by top teams like Auburn, LSU, Kentucky and Mississippi State. But none of those teams thought that White could play QB at the college level. They either wanted him as a defensive back or a wide receiver or something of the sort. No one thought he had the talent to play QB. Until West Virginia came along. Former WVU coach Rich Rodriguez offered White a chance to play QB for the Mountaineers in his spread offense, and White graciously accepted.

Pat White had passed up a 6 figure salary with the Anaheim Angels, who had drafted him in the 4th round of the 2004 MLB Entry Draft, to play for the Mountaineers, so naturally Rich gave him plenty of playing time. Pat spent his Freshman season sharing time with Adam Bednarik up until the seventh game of the season. With West Virginia down 24-7 in the 4th Quarter, Pat White replaced a injured Bednarik to lead WVU to a 46-44 triple overtime victory. Pat White eventually led WVU to a 11-1 record and a BCS Bowl win over the heavily favored University of Georgia.

This wasn’t White’s only accomplishment though, together with Steve Slaton, Pat White became part of one of the most dynamic and feared duos in college sports. During White’s tenure at WVU, he set many records and became one of the greatest QBs in college football history and becoming the greatest running QB in history as well. He set the record for most rushing yards by a QB in a NCAA career, was a two-time Big East Offensive Player of the Year, was an All-American, a 3 time bowl MVP, and led the Mountaineers to a 4-0 record in bowl games, a feat no other starting QB has ever done. Yet with all these accomplishments, there was still doubt about him playing QB in the NFL.

After his Senior season, Pat White was named the Senior Bowl MVP and intended to attend the combine as a QB, and not a WR as many “experts” had predicted, the most notable being ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., who had said that Pat White will not be able to play QB at the NFL level. Of course they had good reasons to think so. Pat White is a small QB. He’s only 6 feet tall and weighs only 197 pounds. Not to mention he’s a rare lefty QB. Nonetheless, he received an invitation to the NFL Combine, and he shined. Pat White had one of the best combines for any participant, and had the best combine performance by a QB, co-winning the General Motors Top Combine Performer. Even with all this, people still doubted him. ESPN still listed him as a WR. Mel Kiper continued to say that the only position he would be playing in the NFL would be WR.

Draft day came around, and in the second round Pat White was selected by the Miami Dolphins with the 44th overall pick. It seemed obvious that Miami was bringing him in for the Wildcat formation and to essentially turn that into a spread offense. Yet Mel Kiper still said that he would only play WR for the Dolphins and take a few snaps in the Wildcat if he was lucky. All this talk came to a close when a Dolphins official stated that Pat White would run the Wildcat formation and even compete with Chad Henne and Chad Pennington for the starting job.

So what have we learned in the past half-decade? What have we learned from watching countless amounts of his games? What has he taught us? Simple. Don’t ever doubt him, because when you do doubt Pat White, you just look like an idiot. Why? Because he is the master of proving the world wrong, especially when only his team’s home state, West Virginia, believes in him.