MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Neal Brown will likely settle on West Virginia’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s 4 p.m. matchup against Baylor in the coming days, perhaps as soon as Tuesday.
Just don’t expect the Mountaineers’ sixth-year head coach to announce whether it’s Nicco Marchiol or Garrett Greene.
“Garrett practiced today. We’ll see how he does tomorrow when it’s 11-on-11 stuff,” Brown said Monday during his weekly media session. “We’ll see how the week goes on him. We’ll get both quarterbacks ready. You all can ask a bunch of questions about them, but I’m really not going to say anything. Everybody has a right to ask. I want to see how Garrett does. He practiced a little bit last Wednesday, but today was the first day he really practiced. He’ll practice tomorrow and we’ll make some decisions as the week goes, but really not going to comment on it.”
Marchiol made his second consecutive start last Saturday in the Mountaineers’ 31-24 victory at Cincinnati, though the redshirt sophomore wasn’t as sharp as he was back on October 26 in a 31-26 victory at Cincinnati.
Marchiol completed 9-of-15 passes for 156 yards with one touchdown and one interception against UC. He also rushed for 18 yards and a score.
Against the Wildcats, the southpaw was 18-for-22 with 198 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while rushing for 39 yards.
For the season, Marchiol has completed 37-of-55 passes for 434 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions. He also has 120 rushing yards and a pair of TDs on the ground.
“Nicco played really well against Arizona, not so well on Saturday. From a fundamental standpoint, he has to be consistent,” Brown said. “That’s the biggest difference between him being super efficient versus Arizona and playing at a high level, and then him not playing as well on Saturday.
“It’s all correctable things and it’s little things. We had a play where if his eyes were on the backside safety, which he should, we have an explosive play to Traylon Ray, but he doesn’t have his eyes there. We had a couple plays where his drop is supposed to be a certain way and he takes a different one. It’s a minuscule thing, but it throws off your timing. He has to clean up those. He had some positive sides in the game. He had a really nice run on his touchdown and threw the go ball well, but he wasn’t consistent with his fundamentals and that’s what cost him.”
Greene, who started 12 of 13 games last season and each of the first seven in 2024, has not taken a snap since October 19 against Kansas State. Greene played the first two quarters against the Wildcats, before being sidelined for the second half, meaning he’s been out 10 straight quarters.
The senior did not travel to Arizona, but was with the team and in uniform for the matchup with the Bearcats after being medically cleared last week.
Brown said after the contest Greene would only have played in an emergency situation.
Greene is 99-for-177 with 1,352 yards, nine touchdowns and eight interceptions on the year. Starting with the Mountaineers’ third game of the season at Pitt, Greene was intercepted twice in four of his five most recent outings. The other instances came in a win against Kansas and losses to Iowa State and K-State.
Last season, Greene threw all of four interceptions on 277 passes.
While Marchiol provides dual-threat ability, it’s not to the extent of Greene, who has rushed for 471 yards and three touchdowns this season and 1,865 yards and 25 TDs in his college career.
“Since the Kansas State game, he did a little bit of 7-on-7 work last Wednesday and that’s really the only work he’s had,” Brown said. “You’re talking three weeks. He did some 7-on-7 work today. Tomorrow will be the first 11-on-11 work and I need to see him in 11-on-11 work before we make a decision whether he’s ready to go. That’s a big layoff, you know?”
If nothing else, it appears the Bears are forced to prepare for both Marchiol and Greene.
“You want them to have to prepare for both for sure. Not that we’re drastically different, but we’re different when one or the other plays,” Brown said. “The fact that one of them is right-handed and one of them is left-handed makes it different as far as some strengths of how you’re going to call the game. Without a doubt, part of the reason we’re not is so they don’t know. I’m not trying to hide that.“
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In other injury-related news, Brown confirmed safety Aubrey Burks, cornerback Ayden Garnes and wideout Jaden Bray will again be out of action for the matchup against the Bears.
Brown said Burks and Garnes are both “highly questionable” to play in what remains of the regular season, which is three games starting with Baylor.
Wide receiver Hudson Clement was sidelined for the Cincinnati contest as a result of a hamstring injury suffered in practice last week.
The Martinsburg native has a chance to return Saturday.
“Hudson ran today off on the side,” Brown said, “so I’m hopeful for him.”