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Pat White, Tavon Austin Not Included in The Athletic's Top 25 Players Since 2000

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated May 20, 2025 3:34 PM ET

When you think back on the best players in college football of the past twenty-five years, all sorts of names begin to populate your mind. Reggie Bush, Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson, Tim Tebow, Christian McCaffrey, and so on.

Two former West Virginia Mountaineers , Pat White and Tavon Austin, also belong in that discussion. Unfortunately, both were omitted from Bruce Feldman's Top 25 players since 2000 on The Athletic.

Who is the best college player in the last 25 years?

Over the past few weeks, @BruceFeldmanCFB reached out to around three dozen coaches, TV analysts and NFL scouts. pic.twitter.com/JOWSBF134E
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) May 20, 2025

Joe Burrow and Jayden Daniels are two guys on the list who each had an incredible senior season, but that's it. White and Austin were dominant for several years.

Heck, White was the first-ever quarterback to start and win four bowl games, two of which were BCS games. He helped lead the Mountaineers to the doorstep of a national championship appearance and likely would have had he not suffered a hand injury that kept him on the sidelines for the majority of the 2007 Backyard Brawl. Not having White on this list is mind-boggling.

During Tavon's tenure in Morgantown, he put up videogame numbers at the receiver AND running back positions. One week, Dana Holgorsen came up to him and told him to be prepared to get a lot of carries with the Mountaineers' backfield being a little banged up and not producing. All he did was rush for 344 yards on Oklahoma in his first game at the position since high school. He was one of the most electrifying players in college football history and perhaps one of the most influential.