West Virginia has experienced a lot of change with head coach Rich Rodriguez taking over the football program with both the coaching staff and the roster.
But one area that the veteran head coach is confident heading into the first spring of his second tenure atop the program is at the quarterback spot.
There is no returning starter, but the Mountaineers do have players that have experience both at West Virginia and other places as well as some talented young options on the roster.
Redshirt junior Nicco Marchiol has completed 71-122 passes with 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions during his time on the field. He's also rushed for 285 yards and 3 scores.
Last season in his two starts against Arizona and Cincinnati, Marchiol completed 27-37 passes for 354 yards with 3 touchdowns and one interception. Most importantly the Mountaineers won both of those games with him filling in as the quarterback for an injured Garrett Greene.
“I thought Nicco in his opportunities played really, really well. I think it was the Arizona game and maybe Cincinnati but I thought he played really well,” Rodriguez said. “Had a great command about him. Been really pleased that he’s coming back and I think we’ve got some good competition in that room.”
On top of Marchiol, West Virginia also added a pair of transfer quarterbacks in Texas A&M signal caller Jaylen Henderson and Charlotte transfer Max Brown.
Henderson had previous stops at Fresno State and Texas A&M. Henderson did not appear in a game at quarterback in 2024 but played in five games in 2023 where he completed 53-78 passes for 715 yards with 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He also rushed for 104 yards and 2 scores.
But over those four years, Henderson has played just 248 snaps.
Also an effective runner, Henderson had 91 yards on scrambles and 66 on designed runs. He also forced a total of four missed tackles showcasing his athleticism.
Brown, 6-foot-3, 230-pounds, played six games during his lone season with the 49ers where he completed 43-93 passes for 561 yards with 3 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. The Oklahoma native started his career at Florida where he redshirted during his first year and then completed 19-28 passes for 192 yards in 2023.
Brown has played a total of 313 snaps at the college level and like Henderson is a dual-threat option that is looking for the opportunity to prove himself in a new destination.
“Of all the rooms, Nicco has some experience and some of the other quarterbacks do at other schools but that’s probably one position we’re more comfortable with the talent that we have and those guys are willing to learn and run our system and all of that. I think we’re in good shape at the quarterback position with the guys that we’ve got,” Rodriguez said.
West Virginia also had some young talent on the roster in redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox to add even more to the competition.
The scheme is one that Rodriguez refers to as “quarterback-centric,” as the Mountaineers are going to play with 11 at all times and while they don’t have to be blazing options running the ball they simply need to be willing. That is something he has seen to date.
“I think all our quarterbacks have competitive athleticism and that same kind of mental toughness so they’ll run what we need them to run. So we’ll play with 11. And whatever they do that’s best, whatever they are best at that’s probably what we’ll feature in our offense and in the spring it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch those guys compete,” Rodriguez said.
Now, the spring will be critical to sift through the options on the roster and see how they perform in live action situations in order to get a handle for how they can perform. That way Rodriguez and company will have a real handle on how things are developing.
But so far so good under center.
“Now Rhett (Rodriguez) and I are going to figure out a lot and get the guys a lot of opportunities but there’s some really good skill in that room and we’ve got some experience with Nicco and some of the other guys so I feel pretty good about the quarterback room right now,” he said.
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