MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — While West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene struggled with accuracy for much of what was an otherwise strong 2023 season, a big part of what made the campaign successful was Greene’s ability to protect the football.
While throwing 277 passes over 12 games, Greene was intercepted only four times, though he made it known throughout the offseason one of his primary goals was improving on a completion rate of 53 percent.
When Greene went the first two games of his senior season without throwing an interception, it appeared he was on his way to another low turnover rate.
However, that has changed in a big way over the last month, and in Saturday’s 28-16 loss to 11th-ranked Iowa State, Greene was intercepted twice for the third time in WVU’s last four games.
He has thrown six interceptions on 158 passes after going 63 attempts without a pick to start this season. Greene had seven interceptions in 448 career passes until his first one this season.
Both of Greene’s interceptions against the Cyclones came during the second half while his team was faced with deficits of 4 and 11 points, respectively.
On Greene’s first interception against ISU, the Mountaineers faced second-and-9 from the Cyclones’ 29, and a pass intended for Kole Taylor was brought in by defensive back Jamison Patton.
“He went to the first read, and our first read got two-hand pushed in the back, and the ball gets picked right in front of the official,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “That should be called not nine out of ten, but ten out of ten.”
While Brown disagreed with the no call, Greene’s attempt at a short completion sailed beyond Taylor at a critical juncture in the contest.
“They gave us a look where Kole runs a slant and it should be there,” Greene said. “Looking back on the iPads, thought the contact was premature, but that’s not my job.”
After Iowa State gained the first two-score lead of the night, WVU got the ball back trailing 21-10 with just inside 12 minutes to play. On the second play of what was essentially a must-score series, Greene lofted an ill-advised pass that could and perhaps should have been intercepted by linebacker Beau Goodwin, who instead had the ball deflect off his hands and to teammate Jontez Williams.
It was Williams’ team-leading third interception among Iowa State’s 10 this season. As a note of comparison, West Virginia, as a team, has three interceptions this season.
“The second interception was a bad decision,” Brown said. “That’s on second down and he has to live another day. Either run the ball or throw it away. That ball should never be in the air.”
Greene took ownership of his second interception against an eight-man coverage, saying he did exactly what the Cyclones were hoping he would. He finished 18-for-32 with 206 yards and one touchdown, which came with time winding down on a 10-yard pass to tailback Jahiem White after the game was well out of reach.
“If they drop eight and we have five guys on routes, that’s not great numbers for us,” Greene said. “That’s what they want to do and they want to keep everything in front of them. They do what they do well.”
Greene had also been intercepted twice in a mid-September loss at Pitt as well as the following week when he led a come-from-behind victory against Kansas in the Mountaineers’ Big 12 opener.
In WVU’s second league game, Greene was forced to exit for a portion of the first half after he was shaken up at the end of his 39-yard run that moved the ball into the red zone.
While backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol finished off that series with a well-placed 10-yard touchdown pass to wideout Traylon Ray, Brown never considered a quarterback change against Iowa State.
“Nicco is going to be a really good player here, but Garrett Greene is our starter and I believe that you play through some issues,” Brown said. “We’ll do the same with Nicco, because he’s a great player and he played well last week. The turnovers were an issue. One of them was a bad decision. One of them was a terrible non call. I don’t have a quick hook with quarterbacks. I don’t believe in that. I don’t think that’s ever the right thing to do and we won’t do it when Nicco is the starter, and we’re not going to do it tonight.”