West Virginia head coach Neal Brown is pleased with the way that redshirt sophomore quarterback Nicco Marchiol handled himself in his second career start in the win over Arizona.
Marchiol completed 18-22 passes for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns, while not turning the ball over and rushing for 39 more yards in the 31-26 road win over Arizona.
“I thought he played really under control. He didn’t do anything to hurt us, and I mean that in the most positive way,” the sixth-year head coach said.
The Mountaineers put on a lot on Marchiol in the read game as well as with a number of errant snaps, but the signal caller did a great job catching the football and making the correct decisions in the run game a high percentage of the time.
It wasn’t a perfect effort but it showcased his maturity since his last start when he was previously called upon to start for the Mountaineers last season against Texas Tech.
“I think about where he was his last start against Texas Tech and where he was in this game over a year later and the progress he’s made as a quarterback and a football player, and I’m just really impressed with that and it’s a credit to his work,” Brown said.
He was also efficient when he threw the football and flashed his arm talent on a number of throws throughout the game including a 17-yard completion to Hudson Clement on third down, a 54-yard touchdown toss on a shot play to Traylon Ray and the third down pass to seal the game to Jaylen Anderson.
“It was the right read but that was his third,” Brown added.
And while the head coach is happy for how the current backup played in a difficult situation, Brown doesn’t have any long-term answer for the moment on what it means at the position. Senior starting quarterback Garrett Greene did not make the trip to Arizona and is still struggling with his injury.
That has prompted some to ask if a change at the position is coming, but Brown isn’t close to that yet.
“I’m sure some of you guys are going to ask about quarterbacks. I wouldn’t waste your time because it’s not worth talking about until he’s healthy,” Brown said.
Brown believes that it’s difficult for a player to lose their job due to injury because it isn’t good practice so any type of decision on how to proceed won’t be made until Greene is back and healthy, which isn’t the case right now.
The head coach did admit that Marchiol has played well when given chances, but outside that it’s hard to make any sort of call on what that means moving forward.
“Now has Nicco played well enough to deserve some playing time? Absolutely. But as far as starter or anything we’re not going to talk about that until Garrett is healthy,” he said. “And that’s not where we are at right now.”
Brown did acknowledge that with quarterback being a rhythm position it is difficult to bounce back and forth between options there, but it can creatively be done. Still, at this stage, the focus is on getting Greene back to full health and then determining the best way to proceed moving forward.
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