Rodriguez Says a Third Quarterback Almost Played in WVU’s Loss to Ohio

The offensive line is a massive concern for West Virginia, but so is the quarterback position. Nicco Marchiol missed some things in the pass game in the loss to Ohio and doesn't have the ability to make big plays with his legs, as some of the others in that room do when things are covered up.

Head coach Rich Rodriguez inserted Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson late in the third quarter for a few snaps, looking for a spark, but to no avail. He then turned back to Marchiol, and nothing changed.

Rodriguez was asked about the quarterback situation during his coach's show on Monday night and even mentioned that another guy nearly got in the game.

"That's the hardest thing to manage, obviously, because you're only playing one at a time and they all have different skill sets. A lot of them can do certain things well, but it's inevitable that this quarterback does this play better and then this quarterback does this play better, and so, we're figuring it out. We almost put in a third quarterback in. It's kind of crazy we do rotate four or five in practice regularly. For them, it's not a big deal. Hopefully, we don't have to do that, but at the same time, I may need to do that to be fair to all of them. If we're moving the ball and scoring touchdowns and whatever, hey, we're going to roll with what we got. But if we're not, we've got to give other opportunities. It's pretty simple."

Rodriguez didn't reveal his plan for this week's game against Pitt, and it's extremely unlikely that he will in this afternoon's press conference. One can assume that Marchiol will remain as the starter, but there's a good chance we'll see more of Jaylen Henderson or perhaps someone else. He didn't say who that third quarterback would have been, and while it could have been true freshman Scotty Fox, my guess is that it would have been Charlotte transfer Max Brown.

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