Neal Brown Evaluates Nicco Marchiol's First Start of the Season

Does West Virginia have a quarterback controversy?

In all likelihood, Neal Brown will move forward with a healthy Garrett Greene after the bye week, but it does give the Mountaineer head coach some confidence knowing that if awry, he does have the option to turn to the redshirt sophomore, who seemingly wins just about every game he's been a part of at WVU...Kansas State aside, of course.

Marchiol completed 18-of-22 pass attempts for 198 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one of which was a 55-yard strike to Traylon Ray deep down the field. He felt the pressure, stepped up in the pocket and delivered a beauty for the score.

West Virginia might have found something in Nicco Marchiol pic.twitter.com/aClrkQQoit
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 27, 2024

His first touchdown of the night may have been more impressive, though. On 4th & goal, he found Hudson Clement in the back of the end zone, placing the ball to where only his man could get it. Clement had multiple defenders around him, yet still found a way to come down with it and inbounds.

This was a DART from Nicco Marchiol pic.twitter.com/6zWNcWWBoI
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) October 27, 2024

"I thought he was really efficient on end-of-possession downs – third and fourth downs," Neal Brown said of Marchiol's performance. "That was a great throw he had downfield to Traylon Ray, that was huge. We really needed it and that proved to be kind of a deciding factor too. But I thought he was calm."

"He’s so much a better player than he was last time he started a game. The last time he started a game versus Texas Tech, and that was a year ago. He’s mature, he’s been patient, and he’s gotten better, and I’ve said that a lot… and then he showed that today. He didn’t play very well in the second half of the Kansas State game which was a tough setting for him. But I thought he really stepped today when we needed him and I thought he played really well."

The former four-star recruit wrapped up his high school playing career in Chandler, Arizona which is roughly an hour and a half away from Arizona's campus in Tucson. For him to be able to block out all of the distractions of returning to a familiar place and play the way he did against a team who was just as desperate to get a win as WVU, says a lot about the young man's moxie.

There's no telling whether or not we'll see Marchiol again this season in serious action, but one thing is for certain...there is no guessing as to who the future quarterback of this program is. With what he did on Saturday night, he cemented himself as Greene's successor.

The coaching staff has always felt that way about Marchiol, but until he went out and did it in an extended role against a Power Four opponent, there would be some level of suspicion from the fanbase.

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