Let me say, I don’t like the piped in panther growl. Never did. Found it annoying and stupid. That said, I’ve never forgotten this.

Sometimes it just seems like there is justice in the universe. Last year, White was completely stopped and knocked out of the Backyard Brawl that could have sent the Hoopies to the BCS National Championship game.

So, after Friday, let us drink deeply of the tears of his sorrow.

“I’ve been balling my eyes out,” White said after the game. “I felt my mistakes hurt us. Those two picks were the game.”

White threw a game-changing interception to cornerback Jovani Chappel with 8:39 remaining to let the Panthers back in the game. Tailback LeSean McCoy rushed for two fourth-quarter touchdowns to make White’s mistake even more costly.

“I feel like it was personally my fault for the loss,” White said.

Well, if you want, to blame yourself. Okay. You did do the number on Pitt almost singlehandedly the first couple times out.

So the quarterback who bolted for 220 yards in each of his freshman and sophomore season games against Pitt, West Virginia victories and 45 points apiece, was reduced to 41 yards and 93 yards rushing in his final two Backyard Brawls. The vaunted Mountaineers offense scored just two touchdowns in its past eight Brawl quarters.

Should coaches have run White more often? Should he have been given chances to run more to the wide side of the field, such as the third-and-goal trick play late in the second quarter? That’s when he took the hand-off from Jarrett Brown and rolled left to the short side for a high-ball throw to Woodland Hills’ Wes Lyons, who caught it out of bounds.

“If ‘if’ were a fifth [of liquor], we’d all be drunk,” White tried to joke.

At least the Hoopies have basketball season… Oh. Sorry.

Don’t worry Pat, most in West Virginia are blaming the offensive coordinator.

If you want to know how this team that had national championship aspirations and had in White a Heisman Trophy candidate could lose four games — as many as it had lost in the past two seasons combined — look no further than the bizarre play calling of offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen.

Success in football, as it is in most sports, basically comes down finding a way to take advantage of your best player’s greatest skill. Patrick White is West Virginia’s best player. His greatest skill is running the football and to not recognize that and have him run but 12 times while throwing 28 is simply not giving yourself a chance to win.

Really, I can’t blame the Mountaineer faithful for calling for Mullen’s head.

Don Ireland can smile a little more after this game.

Among them:

• “Attention fans: There is a tractor in the parking lot with its lights on. License plate EIEIO.”

• “This is a reminder to all fans that smoking is not permitted inside the stadium. That includes cigarettes, cigars and corncob pipes.”