Redshirt freshman quarterback Garrett Greene got his most extended opportunity to see the field in his young career against Long Island and it might not be his last.
Greene came in on the third offensive series of the game and led the Mountaineers on a touchdown drive capped off by his first of two rushing scores. The signal caller rushed for 98 yards total and completed 4-7 passes for 57-yards showcasing his ability to use his feet.
West Virginia came into the game with a plan to play Greene early in the game for a scripted series and then allow him to soak up valuable reps later in the contest. According to head coach Neal Brown Greene did a nice job creating plays but also some of that didn’t need to be created.
Still overall Greene displayed some growth on the field and continues to play full throttle despite perhaps not always having a complete grasp on what he should be doing at all times.
“We had his first two drives of the game scripted for him play wise, I don’t know if he ran any of the plays the way they’re supposed to be ran but he made some plays,” Brown said. “Credit to him and that’s kind of where he’s at. He’s fun to watch, he is. He’s got some juice about him.”
But that learning curve isn’t all that surprising given Greene’s background at the position. That’s because he’s never truly had the “normal,” quarterback upbringing. While many signal callers are immersed in 7-on-7 and spring football, Greene was a baseball player and didn’t go through much of the normal route.
“I thought he did some good things. Was he perfect? Absolutely not but he did a good job managing the environment,” Brown said.
Couple that with the fact that Greene played in a high school system that was run based and didn’t require him to make progressions or look at coverages then it makes even more sense. But over the last 20 months is the first time that Greene has been locked in entirely on football and the fundamentals.
While he was up and down in the spring and in fall camp, Brown knew he’d come into this game with the opportunity to showcase what he can do against Long Island.
“He’s had to go through progressions and his athletic ability just wasn’t enough because he’s relied on that so it’s a growth process for him,” Brown said.
Moving forward, Brown plans to evaluate the film of this game as well as practice to decide if Greene will be part of the plan at quarterback moving forward.
“We’ll go back and evaluate the film and if his play here and play throughout the week warrants he gets an opportunity in situations then yes we’ll use him. I think he can help us,” Brown said.
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