West Virginia QB battle: Rich Rodriguez evaluates play, plan to use multiple options

West Virginia has been led by quarterback Nicco Marchiol so far through the first two games, but the position is anything but sewn up according to coach Rich Rodriguez. It remains an open competition of sorts.

Rodriguez was asked about the position coming off a 17-10 loss at Ohio over the weekend. In that loss, Marchiol was 15-of-26 passing for 178 yards and an interception.

“Well he’s like everybody else, he’s still learning,” Rodriguez said. “Nicco’s a great competitor. I love the way he competes. It’s important to him. But he’s, like everybody else, he’s a freshman in the system. So it’s still going to be a little bit of a process, and I’ve got to remember that because I appreciate the way he’s bought in and he’s competing.

“He’s doing everything he can. Nicco wants to be great. I know that we’ve got to help him in certain spots as well.””

Rich Rodriguez has some other options at his disposal. Jaylen Henderson seems to be the next in line, getting a handful of reps in games the last two weeks. He has yet to complete a pass, though, at least officially.

“I thought Jaylen was looking for a little spark and he, the best play he had we got called back because of a penalty,” Rodriguez explained. “And it was probably a good call. So he got a couple series there, but I think he’s still in the mix, as is some of those other guys. We’ll see.”

During his heyday as a coach, Rich Rodriguez was known for having electric play at quarterback. He’s the king of the dual-threat prospect, and to that end Marchiol has already run for 65 yards and a touchdown.

Still, there’s work to be done overall at the position. And Rodriguez feels like he’s legitimately got as many as four guys who could play the position. Former Florida and Charlotte transfer Max Brown is in the mix, as is freshman Scotty Fox Jr.

“The quarterback position is very unique here,” Rich Rodriguez said. “I’ve never had this many guys that were kind of in the mix and had different skill sets. So we’re, I don’t want to say we’re still figuring it out because we’ve had some time to figure it out, but you get some answers in games. Like hey this guy’s really good at this, but maybe we need this guy to do this better. We’re figuring that out.

“I’m not a typical, ‘Hey, you’re just going to play one quarterback’ or you’re just going to play that quarterback. We like to give everybody opportunities and see what happens.”

So will Rich Rodriguez name a starter going forward? Nope, it’s an open battle, even if Marchiol has commanded most of the reps so far.

“No, I’m not going to name anything because we’ve got a long week of doing practice and evaluating our guys,” Rodriguez said.