MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- For starters, it's probably a good thing his name isn't Patrick Wisteria. Patrick Periwinkle. Patrick Burgundy.

For the upcoming White-Out Saturday night, when Mountaineer Field patrons are being encouraged to wear that hue in his honor and the opposing South Florida Bulls are graciously permitting host West Virginia to discard the NCAA-mandated home dark uniforms, Patrick White isn't enamored of spotlighting his surname.

"Will it feel weird?" the record-setting quarterback asked last night, repeating a query about wearing road whites in this Senior Night finale for him and 18 classmates. "No. Doesn't matter what you wear. Or how you look. You've got to show up and play."

Therein lies the fundamental issue, fashion police aside.

The Mountaineers (7-4, 4-2 Big East) could use a victory to avoid their lowest victory total since the 2001 regular season. They could use a victory to enhance their bowl outlook and improve their psyches, with two last-minute losses in the past three games. And, maybe most of all, they could use a victory against the only other team besides Pitt to stump them twice in White's storied starting career: South Florida (7-4, 2-4).

"I hope Pat White bounces back and has a huge game," said kicker-punter Pat McAfee of Plum. After all, it was only Friday when the quarterback threw two fourth-quarter interceptions and publicly accepted blame for the 19-15 loss at Pitt.

McAfee added that White does not deserve "to have his reputation tarnished" by that defeat, White's fourth in 10 senior-season starts equaling the number in his previous 30 career starts combined.

"He's an absolute superstar," McAfee continued. "And if he bounces back and has a big game, that means we win."

The past two years, the Bulls have minimized White's contributions and won instead. True, in last season's meeting, White sustained a thigh bruise and missed more than half of a 21-13 loss in Tampa. He rushed 15 times for 17 yards. He completed 14 of 22 passes for 178 yards plus two touchdowns and two interceptions.

In November 2006, on an unseasonably warm Thanksgiving weekend in Mountaineer Field, White rushed nine times for 36 yards and completed 12 of 18 passes for 100 yards and one interception. South Florida also prevailed, that time by 24-19.

Here they go again: on ESPN2 a third fall in a row, with White looking to recapture a 177-yard rushing night in victory as a redshirt freshman, with White looking to punctuate this Senior Night and his career as major-college football's all-time rushing quarterback and Big East's career touchdown-maker and yard machine.

As for this White-Out, coach Bill Stewart explained that it celebrates the player "at the head of the class, and the entire pyramid system that helped Patrick White become what he has become. So our senior class would not want to have it any other way."

The honoree? White shrugged and offered: "The stadium will be a little brighter at night."

NOTES -- Stewart sounded doubtful about McKeesport middle linebacker Anthony Leonard returning from a high ankle sprain that kept him out for Pitt. Center Mike Dent (neck) and tight end-fullback Will Johnson (quad bruise) are doubtful, if not out.