Graham Harrell Details When He'll 'Make Decisions' at Quarterback
Can the Mountaineers be a serious threat in the Big 12 in 2022? Well, if they are they're going to need improved play from the quarterback position. In three years under the direction of Neal Brown, the WVU offense has lacked explosiveness and efficiency.
This offseason, Brown knew it was time for a change and hired Graham Harrell to be his offensive coordinator. A few months later, the hire paid off in big dividends by landing former five-star quarterback JT Daniels.
Now, Brown has yet to name Daniels the starting quarterback but one can assume that's who it will inevitably be. For now, Garrett Greene, Will Crowder, and Nicco Marchiol remain in the mix.
West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels.
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"I think we're doing the best we can to get guys reps with all the different groupings to see what you're working with," said Graham Harrell. "Regardless of who you're playing with as the quarterback, your job is to make it go and make the guys around you better. The guy that does make the guys around him better, makes the offense look better. I think for us, as soon as guys start separating themselves, you have to start trimming it down. As soon as you start to see separation, even if two separate themselves from the other ones - then let's move to those two. Then hopefully one separates himself from there. When you see separation it's time to start making decisions. We're going to get as many reps as we can and as many combinations as we can to create that."
There is no timetable for a starter to be named but we could see that happen sometime in the next two weeks. I would imagine Neal Brown would want Daniels, or whoever wins the starting job to have two fulls weeks of heavily repping with the ones heading into the season opener. Daniels is the most experienced quarterback in the program and his familiarity with Harrell's system gives him an edge.
"I definitely think it's an advantage. More than anything coming in, you're not completely learning a new way of doing things. JT is a really intelligent kid and so when I showed up, we changed some verbiage, changed some signals but he still remembers, 'oh, that was this, that was this'. He stepped way ahead of a normal transfer that you took who you would have to teach from scratch. So, I think him having a prior relationship, having a year of reps, and being familiar with what we do definitely helps the cause and speeds up his ability to execute on the field."
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