If Marchiol is WVU’s QB on Saturday, it will be interesting to see if sprinkles can be added to vanilla offense
When West Virginia University’s football team got past Pitt in a rock fight last Saturday, it was a feel-good moment for Mountaineer fans.
On a beautiful night in Morgantown, the crowd was able to celebrate by singing “Take Me Home Country Roads” and, I’m sure, toasting with a Country Roads Trust lager or two.
It was big for a struggling program. And it was very big for Coach Neal Brown. Many had called it his Super Bowl because of the heat beneath his seat.
“I’m proud of our staff,” Brown said afterward. “I said this to our team, and I made a point of this, it had been since Nov. 25, 2011, since the state of West Virginia and our fanbase had experienced a win and been able to celebrate a win over Pitt on the gridiron. Our state needed this, our university needed this, our football program needed this. This is a huge win on a bunch of different levels, and that’s not lost on us.”
Brown gets it. Likewise, he gets that the football played wasn’t exactly top shelf, especially after starting quarterback Garrett Greene went down with an injury.
“Offensively it wasn’t pretty, but we were able to ground it out,” Brown said. “It’s tough. Backup quarterbacks get about 20-25 percent of the reps. So, the first time in a long time, I had our call sheet and, I don’t know if you saw, but I was carrying a notebook. I was making a bunch of notes of plays I felt Nicco [Marchiol] felt comfortable with and what he could do, and it was about a half of a sheet of paper.”
I must admit that last sentence surprised me for a few reasons. First, it’s not like Marchiol just walked on campus. The 6-1, 224-pound QB from Chandler, Ariz., is a redshirt freshman that, according to Brown, was in a competition this summer/fall with Greene to be the starter. Also, Marchiol played in games against Towson, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State last season.
I’m surprised Brown was only comfortable with a half sheet of paper worth of plays. Remember, Marchiol was a U.S. Army All-America recruit. He was the Arizona Gatorade and MaxPreps player of the year. He was dubbed the No. 10 pocket passer by ESPN and Top 20 by Rivals and 247Sports. He passed for 8,310 passing yards and 91 touchdowns in high school. As a senior, he completed 74.4 percent of his 273 passes. Oh, and his father Ken played for the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers.
Yet we saw a vanilla offense that would make Breyer’s jealous with Marchiol completing 6-of-9 passes for 60 yards (a long of 15) and a touchdown. I can’t help but hope to see WVU open up a bit if Greene isn’t back for the Texas Tech game.
“It’s an ankle injury,” Brown said of Greene, according to MetroNews. “A lot of it has to do with how he responds over the next few days. We won’t play him unless he can utilize his best skill set, which is his athleticism. It’s too early to tell. If he can’t go, Nicco will play.”
Brown pointed to Marchiol’s prior experience.
“He’s had two wins when he played a lot of snaps,” said the coach. “On the road at Oklahoma State, which they hadn’t lost in a long time at home. I know people don’t want to talk about that game, but we did beat them at home at the end of last year and broke a long winning streak for them at home. And he played quarterback the whole second half.”
That was on Nov. 26 of 2022 to finish the regular season. Marchiol had taken over for Greene early in the third quarter after Greene was shaken up on a hit to his head/neck area and did not return.
And Marchiol had a similar stat line to that of the Pitt game. He completed 2-of-9 passes for 29 yards in the 24-19 win in Stillwater. He rushed six times for 32 yards. Jaylen Anderson, then a redshirt freshman, was the star of that game with 155 yards and two TDs
Of course, much goes into it. Strengths and weaknesses of both teams. WVU has a good offensive line. Pitt has a shaky quarterback. Matchups. There are game situations, etc.
When WVU plays Texas Tech, though, the Mountaineers can’t rely solely on the run. Teams are having more success through the air (235 yards per game average) than on the ground (143).
This is what Brown said after the Pitt game:
“For not getting a whole bunch of reps during the week, I thought he handled it pretty well. If he’s the guy next Saturday, if that’s the way it plays out, he’ll obviously have a whole week of practice and the expectation is he’ll play much improved. I think he will.”
On Monday, Brown doubled down.
“There’s a lot of trust with him in the locker room,” said the coach of Marchiol. “Guys believe in him. It’ll be huge for him. Garrett didn’t practice [Monday] and [Marchiol] got every rep. Garrett won’t practice [Tuesday] and [Marchiol] will get every rep. You’ll see much improved play by Nicco when he gets the majority of the reps.”
It will be interesting to see. One would think Marchiol has tons of practice reps under his belt by now and is ready to go. He has the pedigree. He has a couple victories in the bank.
Let’s see if he can cash in if called upon against Texas Tech.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.
