Rich Rodriguez expects difficult decisions at quarterback
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez understands the difficulty involved when it comes to sorting out the quarterback position for his football team ahead of the season opener against Robert Morris.
The veteran head coach believes that it’s going to be a difficult evaluation daily especially once the Mountaineers start fall camp in August and doing 7-on-7 against the defense.
“Typically, I don’t let my quarterbacks, top two or three, get live in August. I might have to let them do a couple days live because some guys are better when it’s live,” he said.
That’s a lesson that Rodriguez has learned over the years and is excited to see what his position group can do. He even went as far to say that while there are concerns at other spots, quarterback isn’t one of those.
The quarterback spot is one that doesn’t have a multi-year starter returning but it does feature options that have played at the major college level in redshirt junior Nicco Marchiol, redshirt senior Jaylen Henderson and redshirt junior Max Brown. Marchiol has started games in Morgantown under the previous staff, while Henderson played at Texas A&M and Brown did so at both Florida and Charlotte.
There are also younger options in the program competing such as redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox who are beaming with potential.
All of them have many of the same things in common.
“We have a room full of guys that are talented enough to win with and that’s a good thing. And I also think we have a room full of guys that are willing to be great competitors and also be a willing runner as well as a passer,” Rodriguez said.
When it comes to eventually selecting one or possibly more of those options to take snaps once the bullets start flying for real this fall, Rodriguez is taking a simple approach.
“The guy that executes the plays. Not who can make the longest throw or the fastest run, it’s who can execute the offense,” Rodriguez said.
Admittedly, all of the quarterbacks are relatively new to the offense, and it will be on the backs of the coaching staff to sort through the options to determine who will eventually carve out a role.
“They’ve done some really good work so far. These guys have been taught a little bit too so we’re not that far off,” he said.
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