Neal Brown Believes one of his Young Quarterbacks will Emerge in the Spring

West Virginia will be entering the 2022 season with its first real quarterback competition since head coach Neal Brown took over in 2019, with three young talented signal callers eager to take over play calling duties.

If there is a frontrunner, it’s redshirt sophomore Garrett Greene. Entering his third year in the program, he naturally has the most experience, albeit very little and was primarily used in the running game, rushing for 306 yards and four touchdowns on 47 attempts in 11 appearances. Additionally, he was 16-26 for 147 yards through the air.

Will Crowder is entering year two in the program and played 11 snaps versus Eastern Kentucky last season, and freshman Nicco Marchiol enrolled in January after a sensational senior. He earned Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year MaxPreps Arizona Player of the Year after passing for a Hamilton High School-record 2,690 yards and 37 touchdown passes.

“We got three guys who are going to get their reps during the spring. They’re going to go through 15 practices, and they’re going to get a really good evaluation,” said Brown.

2021 starting quarterback Jarrett Doege opted to enter the transfer portal following the season. Brown decided not to hit the portal again for another quarterback, allowing his young guys to secure the starting role.

“If we went and got a transfer quarterback, I don’t know how we get a really good evaluation on the young guys. And it’s not about this fall, but it’s about the future. And, we got three guys here in Garrett Green and Nicco Marchiol and Will Crowder that deserve the opportunity to show what they have,” said Brown. “So, we’re going to go through the spring, and the belief is that one of them will take reigns of the job, or we’ll get it narrowed down to two, and if that’s not the case, then we’ll go find a guy. There will be guys available, but I thought it was important for them, and important for the trajectory of our football team, to let those guys have the ability to go out and compete in the spring, and so, we’ll do that.”

“The good thing about those three is, they’re kind of alpha mentalities,” added Brown. “If you were in there watching that workout this morning, a guy that would really stick out to you is Garrett Greene. These changes of directions and those types of things and being ‘rah rah’ and having energy, and if you had no idea who any of those kids were, you’d be like, ‘who’s that?’. And then, the way Nicco and Goose, both, carry themselves, they kind of draw people.”

West Virginia will kick off spring practice on March 22 before the annual Gold and Blue Spring Game on April 23.

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