West Virginia football has a lot of options at quarterback entering this summer, and head coach Rich Rodriguez is happy with where that room is ahead of the fall.
"For us, it's really an open competition. Nicco's played some and been successful. Jaylen's played some at this level, been successful. Max played some at this level. We also have a couple of young guys on the roster, too, that I think are competing for it. It is truly a wide-open competition," Rodriguez said on the In The Gun Podcast.
Nicco Marchiol is the only returner of the group, while Jaylen Henderson (Texas A&M) and Max Brown (Charlotte) are two transfers who are also likely candidates to challenge for the starting spot.
"The thing I feel good about is I think the talent is there to have a quality. I always think you can't win if the quarterback ain't pretty good. You probably can't win if you don't have at least two quarterbacks that are pretty good," Rodriguez said.
Marchiol has played in 19 total games in three seasons, passing for 742 yards, eight touchdowns, and five interceptions, while he's also rushed for 285 yards and three touchdowns.
Henderson did not play last season, but he played the final four games of the season for the Aggies in 2023. In five games that season, he completed 67.9 percent of his passes for 715 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. He also rushed for 104 yards and two scores.
Brown spent time at Florida and Charlotte in his first two seasons of college football. Last season at Charlotte, he played in five games, completing 46.2 percent of his passes for 561 yards, three touchdowns, and six interceptions. He also rushed for 72 yards.
Rodriguez believes in preparing as many quarterbacks as possible to play, as his overall goal is simply to win.
"I think we're going to have more than two. If we have three guys that are good enough to win with, I'll play all three. I don't subscribe to the theory that if you play two, you must not have none. I hope I have five. I might play all five. We play all five in practice," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he's not creating a timeline in order to find a starter, but is going to let fall camp play out, and they will continue to assess where they are as they head towards the start of the season.
"Probably the competition will be ongoing throughout the summer. If somebody separates himself during training camp, that's great, move on. But, at least I feel comfortable that we have guys in that room that are going to be good enough to win with, and it's going to be a good situation," Rodriguez said.
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