MORGANTOWN - No one in West Virginia's 116-year, 1,163-game football history has played in more of those games than Pat McAfee.

Nor has anyone scored more points or - and here we get into a bit of a gray area - had more fun or spoken his mind so freely and colorfully while doing so.

Oh sure, there have been other colorful guys. Plenty of them. Give me a chance to sit down and talk to any West Virginia football player, past or present, and from a purely what-is-he-going-to-say-now standpoint there are even a handful I might choose over McAfee.

Where, oh where, have you gone, John Thornton?

As we learned a year ago, though, it is quite possible to discourage even the seemingly indiscourageable McAfee, at least temporarily. Go down through the list of seven other recent Mountaineers who share the school's games-played record of 50 - McAfee will break it with his 51st in the Meineke Car Care Bowl Saturday - and find one who was ever vilified to the degree West Virginia's kicker was following two missed field goals against Pitt last season.

Shoot, find anyone who ever played in even one of those 1,163 games who had his car vandalized and his well-being threatened because of something he did on the field. (And, for the record, no, we're not counting Bobby Bowden's 36-35 loss at Pitt in 1970; at least McAfee, to my knowledge, was never hanged in effigy.)

The memory sticks.

"I guess I still think about it,'' said McAfee, who just last week claims he had to restrain himself from beating the stuffing out of someone who had been among his detractors after that Pitt loss. "It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I've been noticing more, things that I didn't pay attention to before about our fans.''

Now, before we go any further here, understand that McAfee doesn't hate you. In fact, chances are he likes you. McAfee likes just about everyone he meets. It's the ones he doesn't meet, the ones who hide in the shadows or behind a telephone or computer screen or an anonymous Facebook or MySpace page that he doesn't care for.

Oh, and for that segment of West Virginia football fans who aren't so much fans, but critics.

That's what he means when he talks about things he notices more these days after the treatment he got a year ago for doing the best he could to make two field goals against Pitt, only to fail. Before that, perhaps he wouldn't have paid much attention to the criticism heaped upon West Virginia's new coaching staff this season, or to smaller-than-capacity crowds for even the biggest of WVU's games.

Now, though, he notices it all. And he's not timid about sharing it.

"I'm on my way out,'' McAfee said. "I know I don't have to deal with it anymore.''

MORGANTOWN - No one in West Virginia's 116-year, 1,163-game football history has played in more of those games than Pat McAfee.

Nor has anyone scored more points or - and here we get into a bit of a gray area - had more fun or spoken his mind so freely and colorfully while doing so.

Oh sure, there have been other colorful guys. Plenty of them. Give me a chance to sit down and talk to any West Virginia football player, past or present, and from a purely what-is-he-going-to-say-now standpoint there are even a handful I might choose over McAfee.

Where, oh where, have you gone, John Thornton?

As we learned a year ago, though, it is quite possible to discourage even the seemingly indiscourageable McAfee, at least temporarily. Go down through the list of seven other recent Mountaineers who share the school's games-played record of 50 - McAfee will break it with his 51st in the Meineke Car Care Bowl Saturday - and find one who was ever vilified to the degree West Virginia's kicker was following two missed field goals against Pitt last season.

Shoot, find anyone who ever played in even one of those 1,163 games who had his car vandalized and his well-being threatened because of something he did on the field. (And, for the record, no, we're not counting Bobby Bowden's 36-35 loss at Pitt in 1970; at least McAfee, to my knowledge, was never hanged in effigy.)

The memory sticks.

"I guess I still think about it,'' said McAfee, who just last week claims he had to restrain himself from beating the stuffing out of someone who had been among his detractors after that Pitt loss. "It opened my eyes to a lot of things that I've been noticing more, things that I didn't pay attention to before about our fans.''

Now, before we go any further here, understand that McAfee doesn't hate you. In fact, chances are he likes you. McAfee likes just about everyone he meets. It's the ones he doesn't meet, the ones who hide in the shadows or behind a telephone or computer screen or an anonymous Facebook or MySpace page that he doesn't care for.

Oh, and for that segment of West Virginia football fans who aren't so much fans, but critics.

That's what he means when he talks about things he notices more these days after the treatment he got a year ago for doing the best he could to make two field goals against Pitt, only to fail. Before that, perhaps he wouldn't have paid much attention to the criticism heaped upon West Virginia's new coaching staff this season, or to smaller-than-capacity crowds for even the biggest of WVU's games.

Now, though, he notices it all. And he's not timid about sharing it.

"I'm on my way out,'' McAfee said. "I know I don't have to deal with it anymore.''

So let's go.

"I think West Virginia fans are so fair-weather every once in a while it's ridiculous. I know that from personal experience,'' McAfee said last week. "We have some great fans. I just wish all of them were like that.

"I guess every city has that, but it's pretty sad because we've got a good thing going here and I think in the future it's going to be a really good thing. I wish they'd stick by our side instead of falling off and coming back on. I think this year showed ... I mean, we couldn't even sell out this place on senior night. And fans leaving at halftime? I really wish they were more dedicated.''

Now understand that, for the most part, McAfee has been treated well. Aside from the Pitt episode, almost everything he experienced in four years at West Virginia was positive. In fact, had he to do it all over again, he wouldn't change a thing.

"Oh, there's not a doubt in my mind,'' McAfee said. "The people I've met here, I'll remember forever. I've had a great time. It's the people you don't meet that try to ruin things - the ones who are scared to talk to you in person.''

And those, he figures, are pretty much the same ones who have made it their life's work to dump on Bill Stewart and Jeff Mullen and the rest of West Virginia's new coaching staff for failing to live up to the expectations of others and losing four football games this fall.

Granted, McAfee is a kicker. A kicker, of all things. What does he really know about football?

Then again, how much football expertise is shared by those 12,000 empty seats on senior night and the critics who have been after the new coaching staff almost from the start?

"Whenever we'd lose a game, all you heard was all the negative stuff, people attacking our coaching staff,'' McAfee said. "It's all the things you notice after your eyes are opened to it.

"Be patient and be a fan, not an armchair quarterback. You're not a coach. You don't know football as well as these guys do. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the game. I think if they start winning everybody will be back on their side. And I think it's only a matter of time before this coaching staff does something special.''

Oh, and by the way, if you are among those that McAfee refers to as fair-weather fans, don't let it consume you. McAfee isn't. Every once in a while he just likes to vent.

"I don't remember anything I say,'' McAfee said. "As soon as it leaves my head, it's gone.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.