MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There wasn’t much doubt among the West Virginia fan base as to who would start at quarterback for the Mountaineers in Thursday’s season opener at Pitt.
Any of it that remained was erased Monday afternoon when Neal Brown, three days ahead of his fourth season as WVU’s head coach, named JT Daniels the team’s quarterback for the 105th edition of the Backyard Brawl.
Daniels will play his first game at West Virginia before a sellout crowd at Acrisure Stadium and a nationally-televised ESPN audience for the 7 p.m. matchup.
“JT earned the right to start,” Brown said. “Decision-making is what won that job for him. He has full trust of players and staff. We have a lot of confidence in him and how he’s going to perform in the opener.”
After two seasons at USC to begin his college career and more recently two seasons at Georgia, Daniels committed to West Virginia in mid-April. Although he did not participate in spring football practice with the Mountaineers, Daniels got to work with WVU wide receivers during organized team activities over the summer.
He then separated himself from the rest of the pack during preseason camp, leading to Brown settling on Daniels as the team’s top signal caller. Thursday will mark the 20th start of Daniels’ college career. He started 11 games as a true freshman for the Trojans, then one in his second season as he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the third quarter of the team’s 2019 season opener.
At Georgia, the Bulldogs won all seven games Daniels started.
“He’s played in big games, so I don’t think the atmosphere is going to rattle him,” Brown said. “He’s played in these types of games before. He’s really accurate with the football. He’s thrown the ball down field at a high completion percentage during camp. He does a really good job on run and pass decisions.”
While Daniels was surrounded by a wealth of NFL talent at both of his previous schools, in particular Georgia’s 2020 and 2021 teams, he has a 13-6 career record as a starting quarterback. Each of the six setbacks came during 2018, when Daniels was a true freshman at USC after graduating high school a year early.
“It’s kind of like starting pitchers in baseball. It’s lost some of the significance, but you’re still looking at their win-loss record,” Brown said. “He’s been successful. He’s been on some good teams, too, and that’s important to note. The fact that he’s played in big games helps, too.
“If you look at his career, he’s had some really high highs and really low lows. He arrived here as a really mature player and one that is really hungry. He fits the rest of our team, too, because we have a lot of hungry guys eager to prove a lot. He’s prepared with a chip on his shoulder and I like where he’s at mentally and physically heading into this opener.”
Daniels’ recruitment and transition to West Virginia was helped by the Mountaineers hiring Graham Harrell as offensive coordinator in January.
Harrell was previously offensive coordinator at USC for three seasons starting in 2019, and though Daniels didn’t complete a full game that season as a result of the knee injury, he had familiarity with Harrell’s system and expectations.
“He had a background knowledge of what we do,” Harrell said. “It’s not like he was learning a completely new offense or language. It was stuff that he knew and basically had reps in. It had just been a while. If you look at offensive football, everyone throws similar concepts. It’s not like Georgia runs a completely different offense with different concepts. He’s played football and had reps.
“Getting back to the reps and the way we do it, seeing our signals, knowing our language and getting used to the guys that we have here was probably the biggest adjustment. Coming in with reps in it, knowing it a little bit and working it together before definitely helped him.”
In addition to having experience and maturity, Daniels has impressed with his accuracy on long passes, another factor that went into him being named the starter.
“He throws a really catchable deep ball and that’s a throw that can take reps to get to used to with new receivers,” Harrell said. “But he’s done a good job of that. That’s a knack he has. Lots of people can throw deep balls, but his is very catchable for whatever reason. He does a good job putting the right amount of air on it and putting it in a position where his guys can catch it.“
As for Daniels’ primary backup, Brown didn’t announce one Monday.
Sophomore Garrett Greene played sparingly in 11 games a year ago, redshirt freshman Will Crowder is entering his second season in the program and true freshman Nicco Marchiol was one of the prized possessions of the Mountaineers’ 2022 recruiting class.
“All four of the guys had an equal opportunity and over the course of two weeks and two scrimmages, it was clear that JT earned the right,” Brown said. “The battle for the backup is ongoing. I feel really positive about the future of that position. I like the young guys we have and we’re doing some things with their development.”