MORGANTOWN — In his first year back as West Virginia’s football coach, Rich Rodriguez expressed concern this spring about the lack of depth at many of positions.
That wasn’t necessarily the case at quarterback, though.
“I like where our quarterbacks are at. We have some competition there,†Rodriguez said.
The Mountaineers’ QB corps has a mixture of old and new. Nicco Marchiol (6-foot-3, 223 pounds, junior) heads into his fourth year at WVU. The Hamilton (Arizona) High School product has played in 19 games at WVU, including some spot starts when since-graduated first-teamer Garrett Greene was injured.
Marchiol received plenty of competition throughout the spring for the QB1 role, primarily from a pair of experienced transfers — Max Brown (6-3, 233, junior), previously at Charlotte and Florida, and Jaylen Henderson (6-3, 229, senior), previously at Texas A&M and Fresno State. All three are similar in stature, and all have dual-threat ability.
West Virginia also has a pair of promising young scholarship quarterbacks in Khalil Wilkins (6-3, 202, redshirt freshman) and Scotty Fox (6-2, 205, freshman), as well as walk-on Scott Kean (6-2, 204, junior).
Rodriguez hasn’t given any indication yet as to who will be the Mountaineers’ starting quarterback this season, and he very well may not tip his hand in that regard until he sends one of those contenders out for WVU’s first offensive snap in the Aug. 30 lidlifter against Robert Morris.
It was an open competition throughout the spring and will almost certainly remain that way through the summer.
“I think the attitudes of all the quarterbacks are good, and they all want to be good,†Rodriguez said. “They all want to learn what they’re supposed to do. I think by the end of the summer after Rhett [Rodriguez, WVU’s quarterbacks coach] has more time with them, they’ll almost be an extension of the coaching staff. That’s what I want.â€
Much is made of the leadership ability of a quarterback. Above all, though, Rodriguez wants playmakers at that position.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever worried about personality. It’s not like it’s a beauty pageant, ‘And the winner of Miss America is … and Miss Congeniality is ….’ Miss Congeniality apparently had a good personality,†Rodriguez said. “If you run good offense and make good plays, you can be a loner, though quarterbacks usually aren’t loners.
“You want somebody who will lead the team, but people talk about leading the team during practice. That’s what coaches are there for. We’re supposed to be leading the team in practice. When coaches aren’t on the field in games and aren’t around in the summer times or in the locker rooms, that’s when you want leadership.
“The best leadership is an earned leadership in that you know what you’re doing,†Rodriguez concluded. “I think a lot of times, the leaders are the ones who other players can go to when they’re not sure what to do on a play and they’ll tell them. It’s not someone who is rah-rah, who will jump on them when they screw up or whatever. It’s the guy who says, ‘Hey, this is what you do on this play, and this is what you do on that play.’ I say that because it’s hard now for our quarterbacks to be that guy because they’re all still learning.â€
