Nicco Marchiol Making Big Strides as He Waits His Turn

West Virginia's quarterback room is in good shape entering the 2024 season.

West Virginia redshirt sophomore quarterback Nicco Marchiol drops back to pass in spring practice. / Christopher Hall

For the first time in a long time, West Virginia knows who its starting quarterback is during spring ball. They also know who the backup is with Nicco Marchiol just one year away from taking over the reins of the offense.

As a redshirt freshman, Marchiol was called on just six snaps into the Backyard Brawl as Garrett Greene suffered an ankle injury. With Marchiol in, Neal Brown’s offensive gameplan changed. He wanted to put Marchiol in a position to run what he was most comfortable with and not ask him to do too much in a big time atmosphere. More importantly, the conservative gameplan was to protect Marchiol from taking any unneccesary hits. If he went down, West Virginia would have been in a heap of trouble. 

Marchiol did what was needed to not only take down Pitt, but beat Texas Tech the following week in his first collegiate start. This offseason, he’s making big strides both on and off the field which has the WVU coaching staff excited about his future.

“I think it starts with his preparation which sounds really simple. But he’s matured as a football player, so when he turns on the video he knows what to watch,” said head coach Neal Brown. “He knows how to prepare and he’s done a really good job of asking for the script so he can be prepared going into each practice. I think from a fundamental standpoint, he’s much more compact right now. His confidence has risen because he’s got a lot of repetitions but the game has slowed down a lot. Pre-snap he has a better understanding of what defenses are trying to do to him. I talked about (offensive lineman) Landen Livingston, but Nicco is right up there with the most improved player on offense.”

Quarterbacks coach Tyler Allen may be in his first year leading the room, but he’s been on staff since the first day Marchiol stepped in the building. He, too, can see the growth taking place.

“The mental part of the game, when he was in high school, was all about looking at receivers. It gets him in trouble a lot of times because at this level, you just can’t look at a receiver. The safety is going to come over and he’s going to make a pick and you saw that at times. Well, over the last few months, I’ve spent a lot of time with him on it and that first day (of practice) that Garrett (Greene) wasn’t here, Nicco got to take the team over and he had a great day. His eyes were in windows, his eyes were looking at safeties. Really, it’s a lot more film study and he’s really strating to come around on how you sit there and watch film as a quarterback. He’s really come a long way. The other thing with him was, look man, we had ten sacks this year. You started two games and had five of them, so that’s one thing we got to fix. You and Garrett had the same amount of sacks and you only started two games, he started eleven. A lot of it starts with reading the defense and seeing that stuff. He’s finally coming around and he sees it now and when he does it right, he’s confident in it. And then being able to throw with people around him. If the pocket is collapsing a little bit, still being able to stick in there and make a throw and knowing when to run too or knowing when to throw the ball away. All of our drill work is showing up. Wednesday at practice on film, you see him take a drop and the pocket’s collapsing a little bit and he moves, steps up and makes a great throw.”

For many players in Nicco’s position, they would have transferred out due to a lack of patience. But the guy in front of him, Garrett Greene, is the perfect example of what being patient can do for you. He sat, learned, developed, and waited his turn and now, he’s considered one of the top quarterbacks in the country. Marchiol is following down that same path.