That there are 12 quarterbacks present from 11 Big 12 teams at the conference’s media days this week in Frisco, Texas presents an idea of the challenge defenses across the league should face in the near future.
Nine teams return signal-callers that passed for at least 2,400 yards in 2024, including Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Sam Leavitt of Arizona State.
“There are a lot of good quarterbacks. Hell, that’s not very pleasing to me,” West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez said Wednesday. “I wish there were no quarterbacks returning. It’s the best collection of returning quarterbacks in the country by conference.”
TCU’s Josh Hoover, Texas Tech’s Behren Morton, Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson, Iowa State’s Rocco Becht, Arizon’s Noah Fifita, Cincinnati Brendan Sorsby, Kansas State’s Avery Johnson and Kansas’ Jalon Daniels all threw for at least 2,400 yards last season and are joined in Frisco by Colorado’s Kaidon Salter and Julian Lewis and Utah’s Devon Dampier, a New Mexico transfer named Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year.
Of seven quarterbacks on the Mountaineers’ roster, two — Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson — have quality experience at a Power 4 Conference program, while Max Brown saw limited action at Florida in 2023 and more of it a year ago at Charlotte.
West Virginia has won all three of Marchiol’s career starts, including consecutive games at Arizona and Cincinnati last season.
In seven career contests that Marchiol has attempted at least nine passes in, WVU has won six. He’s 71-for-122 with eight touchdowns and five interceptions throughout college to go with 285 rushing yards and three TDs on the ground.
Henderson, a Texas A&M transfer, did not play last season after starting the Aggies’ final four games of 2023, a season in which he completed 53-of-78 passes for 715 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions, while rushing for 104 yards and two TDs.
“I like our quarterback room,” Rodriguez said. “There are lot of positions I have some unknowns and there’s a little bit of unknown in our quarterback room, but there are four or five guys we feel have the talent to have success in our quarterback room.
“It’s going to be an interesting competition. We have a couple guys that have played some football, and I’m really excited about them. We have a couple young guys that have great futures. It starts at that position. I have less filter than I had 20 years ago, but if you don’t have a good quarterback, you have no chance to win. There are a lot of really good quarterbacks in the Big 12 this year.”
Quarterbacks with less experience include redshirt junior Scott Kean, redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins and true freshmen Scotty Fox Jr. and Max Anderson.
Marchiol, Kean and Wilkins were with the program last season, while the other four quarterbacks are new to WVU.
That’s a theme across the Mountaineers’ roster, which features more than 60 new players in Rodriguez’s return to Morgantown after he compiled a 60-26 record and three top 10 finishes at West Virginia from 2001-07.
“Your first year, you’re probably going to have a little bit more roster turnover with a new staff and all that,” he said. “It was more than we kind of expected, but at the same time, I didn’t think we panicked. The biggest thing if you’re going to bring a bunch of guys in, you have to make sure you evaluate the right way and that it doesn’t change the culture or environment you have to have. That’s one thing we were adamant on. Whether we’re bringing in 70 new guys like this year or 25 or 30 next year, the culture and environment have to be stable and the way we want to do it. That’s why we feel good about it.
“I’m hoping we don’t have to do that every year. Last year at Jax State, it was more than 60 and it took us a little longer than we should have to kind of get cranked up, but once it did, we wound up being pretty good. We’re hoping the same thing happens.”