West Virginia keeping position battles mum

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown currently isn’t planning on publicly naming his starting quarterback prior to kickoff against No. 7 Penn State.

That’s nothing new as the fifth-year head coach already made that clear even though those on the team and within the building know exactly who that will be. So, for now, neither redshirt junior Garrett Greene or redshirt freshman Nicco Marchiol have yet to be publicly appointed the winner of the derby.

“No. We’ve gone this far, might as well just let it roll,” Brown said.

That same extension goes to the other open position battles on the roster, too.

“The reason I’m not getting into it is they don’t have a depth chart. Might as well,” Brown said. “Everybody you know is going to play. Everybody you think might play is going to play.”

The they in that quote is Penn State and that speaks to some of the gamesmanship that goes on between college coaches in the leadup to the first game of the season.

West Virginia also is treating it similarly with injuries and while Brown did acknowledge that no starters were set to miss the game there are a few question marks when it comes to backups on the depth chart.

This isn’t anything new between college football programs as teams often will be liberal with their use of “or” on the depth chart that is released or avoid any injury updates at all prior to when media members are able to actually see the team during warmups to confirm or deny who is out there.

That’s often when there is at least some clarity on what is unfolding although it isn’t unheard of to see the gamesmanship even spill all the way up until kickoff.

Truthfully, there isn’t any real reason to release that information before you have to even if it is obvious in the current college football model and there is an argument to be made that it’s a competitive disadvantage to do so if your opponent doesn’t do the same.

That’s where Brown believes there is a solution copied directly from the professional ranks.

“I think it needs to be across the board. I think what we should do is mandate depth charts, and the depth charts can have “or” in them or whatever and we should mandate injury reports,” he said.

It’s something that could help to clear up some of what often unfolds in these situations and Brown is in complete favor as long as it is fair and balanced across the board. As the college game moves more and more toward a professional model in many ways, it is the best approach in order to accomplish just that.

It remains to be seen if that will eventually be an option, but it is certainly a way to eliminate some of the back and forth that comes during the build up to the season opener or even to offer clarity at any point once the schedule gets underway.

But in the meantime, we wait for a formal appointment under center.

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