Rich Rod is Seeing a 'More Comfortable' Scotty Fox Jr. in Year Two

After a promising true freshman season, West Virginia quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. finds himself in a unique position.

Immediately after the season, many believed, myself included, that Rich Rodriguez would go out and land a veteran quarterback with maybe one year of experience to serve as the mentor/backup to Fox. Instead, they landed an uber-talented youngster in Michael Hawkins Jr., who is a former four-star recruit with loads of potential.

Rodriguez hasn't officially named Hawkins the starter yet, but that's where this thing will almost certainly end up. I stand firm in my belief that Fox is a Power Four-caliber quarterback, but he needs one more year to develop, whereas Hawkins is ready to go right now and wins games. Heck, he was ready during his time at Oklahoma, playing behind Jackson Arnold and John Mateer.

Instead of picking sides in this fight, fans need to realize how good a situation this quarterback room is in. They have two talented and promising youngsters who are going to make each other better every single rep of every single day.

As far as Fox is concerned, he has to stay locked in because, as we saw last season, things can change with just one snap. The Mountaineers played five quarterbacks a year ago because of terrible injury luck, and it ended up leading to Fox starting the second half of the season, where he showed some promise with a far from ideal supporting cast.

Where has he improved since we last saw him in late November against Texas Tech?

“I think just more comfortable with not just what we do, but what they’re doing on defense," Rodriguez said. "You know what the coverage is and where to go with the ball. He was really good with that as a true freshman, I thought, but I think he understands it even better now. Today he made some really good reads on some pass plays, the things that the defense did, some pressure stuff…he’ll keep getting better too.”

The biggest thing for Fox is for the game to slow down for him. Having a year of experience under his belt in this system and having logged some starts should help, but to take that next step, he's got to just let things come to him and not force things.

Obviously, we haven't been able to see what's going on at spring ball, but he can't be worried about the other quarterbacks in the room and try to play hero ball to raise the eyebrows of the coaches. That's not going to improve his game. Staying consistent and playing within the offense will. If he is, then Rodriguez has to feel a million times better with this quarterback room than he did this time a year ago.