MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For elite high school football players, scholarship offers can come early and in bunches. It didn’t take long for 4-star signal caller Nicco Marchiol to fly onto the radar of the some of the best programs in the nation. An early decision in the recruiting process would not be his last and a change of heart has led him to Morgantown.
Early years
Marchiol was born into a football family and became one of the top college football prospects in Colorado. Nicco is the son of former NFL player Ken Marchiol. Ken played linebacker for the New Orleans Saints in 1987.
“He was a hard-nosed guy. And my two older brothers, one is 23 and then the other is 21. They both played linebacker as well. I’m the only lefty in the family and the only quarterback. I was just kind of the oddball out,” Nicco said on a July edition of the MetroNews Three Guys Before the Game podcast.
“I actually started playing defensive end. And then I was like, this is so awkward. I need to be doing something else. I felt like I was a little more athletic than a defensive end. I felt like I had some different qualities that could be used someplace else. Quarterbacks have to be vocal guys and leaders, taking command. That’s something I have always enjoyed doing.”
‘Travel ball’ is common in such sports as baseball and basketball, where teams will criss-cross the country looking to catch the attention of college recruiters. That isn’t as common in football but Nicco played on a team that racked up the miles and the games while he was still in middle school.
“My dad actually had a youth team that was like a travel team. We went to Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Texas, California — everything you do for baseball and basketball, we did. We played with these other top teams in the country.
“We played probably thirty [games] in a year, in a full football season. We played full football-padded tournaments. It was a blast. When you are that age, you don’t get sore and you don’t get tired. You can play all day, every day.”
As with many youth football programs, Nicco’s team employed a run dominated offense with few opportunities to showcase his passing skills.
“My dad was the coach and we ran the Power-I. We had a fullback and two tight ends. If I was lucky, I would probably throw it five or six times a game.”
Colleges come calling
Nicco began his prep career at Regis Jesuit in Aurora, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. In his sophomore season, Marchiol led the Raiders to an 11-1 record and an appearance in the Colorado 5A quarterfinals. He tossed 27 touchdowns with just 8 interceptions and passed for 2,552 yards. The first colleges to officially extend scholarship offers were in his backyard.
“I didn’t have any offers my freshman year but that is when we were talking to coaches. The in-state guys like Colorado, Colorado State, they took interest. They were the first two programs to offer me. They would come out to games and watch us. It was a blast.”
Coming from a football family, Nicco had advice coming his way on how to handle the recruiting process. Marchiol committed to play at Florida State on January 31, 2021. In hindsight, Nicco admits his decision was rushed.
“What they were telling me is to take your time. Take a look at everything. They are committing to you just as much as you are committing to them. The three things I was looking for was building a relationship with the coach, a place I can get on the field early and play and a place that is going to help me get to the league and capture my dreams.
“You go through all the programs and this program has that, but they are missing that. It just takes time. I messed up the first time and kind of rushed into things. It wasn’t moving at my pace the way I wanted to. I only realized that when it was too late and I had already committed. When I decommitted, I knew just to take a complete fresh start. Let’s take a look at something that is totally different from the other schools and something that is kind of out of my comfort zone, someplace where I could really see myself. That is West Virginia.”
Take him home…
Marchiol moved to Chandler, Arizona prior to the start of his junior season and he enrolled at Hamilton High School. Scholarship offers poured in from such heavyweight programs as Arizona State, Michigan State, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi, Penn State and USC. West Virginia first entered the mix via social media.
Just the beginning… pic.twitter.com/DMdVbbe07U
— Nicco Marchiol (@MarchiolNicco) December 7, 2021
“They reached out in a Twitter DM. They were like, ‘Hey, give us a call whenever you get a chance. We want to start recruiting you’. I think at the time I was committed to Florida State. I didn’t think anything of it. I was like, oh, it is another school reaching out.
“I saw their page and I kept seeing the gold and blue everywhere. I followed them and they started retweeting all this West Virginia stuff. I was like, ‘They’ve got a really big following and this is a cool place’. I kept looking at it more and more and I decommitted from Florida State. Some stuff happened at Florida State. It wasn’t what we thought it was. I locked in three official visits with Arizona State, West Virginia and Michigan State. I knew those were going to be my top three no matter what.”
Marchiol had one first-hand connection to West Virginia and he vividly remembers WVU’s most compelling win of the 2018 season.
“All I knew about West Virginia was one of my best friends growing up, and still one of my best friends, he played baseball [at WVU]. He was a big-time pitcher here, Cody Wood. And I remember seeing the legendary Will Grier Texas throw into the back of the end zone. It was a dime, the best throw I have ever seen. Great catch, that was awesome. It was literally probably one of my favorite plays in college football.”
(.) https://t.co/60lcawuLI4 pic.twitter.com/19l1Fj4fyV
— Nicco Marchiol (@MarchiolNicco) June 23, 2021
On June 21, Marchiol announced his verbal commitment to WVU. In his senior season at Hamilton High School, Marchiol passed for 2,690 yards in a dozen games. He tossed 37 touchdown passes while throwing just two interceptions. He also scored six rushing touchdowns. Marchiol was named the Gatorade State Player of the Year in Arizona last week.
Marchiol is set to sign with the Mountaineers on Wednesday. He is expected to enroll early and join the program for the spring semester. When he does, Marchiol is stepping into a program with facilities that are better than many of the other schools he visited.
“We saw everyone. I saw the top dogs in the SEC, top dogs in the Pac-12, everyone. This is brand new, top-of-the-line technology with everything. Everything is just brand new here and it is definitely number one.”