West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez will eventually need to make a decision on a starting quarterback.
That wasn’t expected to come this spring as Rodriguez himself has joked that a choice isn’t likely to be known until around a minute before the kickoff to the season Aug. 31 against Robert Morris.
But that is a bridge that must eventually be crossed.
The eventual decision won’t be too complicated, either.
“Run the offense, make good plays,” he said.
The Mountaineers have a number of quarterbacks competing for that role including redshirt junior Nicco Marchiol, senior transfer Jaylen Henderson, redshirt junior transfer Max Brown and freshman Scotty Fox. There are varying degrees of experience there, but each of them are new to the West Virginia offense.
It’s a competition that Rodriguez has been excited about.
Marchiol has played in 19 career games, starting three of those, and has completed 71-122 passes for 742 yards with 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He’s also rushed for 285 yards and 3 scores.
Henderson leads the way with four career starts while at Texas A&M and saw action in a total of nine contests across his time at both Texas A&M and Fresno State. He’s completed 58-of-86 for 764 yards and six passing touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. He also rushed for 170 yards and 2 scores.
Brown has appeared in ten games between his time at Florida and Charlotte, where he completed 62-121 passes for 753 yards and three touchdowns with seven interceptions while rushing for 109 yards.
Meanwhile, Fox is a true freshman who enrolled in January and has yet to take a college snap but has impressed with his abilities throughout the spring.
Each of them had a chance to take snaps in the Gold Blue Showcase and there were certainly highlights for each.
But when it comes to making a decision, Rodriguez isn’t going to be placing any sort of special interest on the personality of his signal callers.
“It’s not like a beauty pageant,” he said.
Rodriguez does want players at the position that will lead when the coaches aren’t on the field in the summertime or in the locker room but that’s a trait most quarterbacks are equipped with just from playing the position. But ultimately, Rodriguez wants them to become an extension of the coaching staff.
“I really think all of the attitudes of the quarterbacks are really good, and they all want to be good, and they all want to learn the system. And right now, they’re just learning about what they’re doing,” he said.
