West Virginia's Two Young Quarterbacks to Get 'Majority of Reps' This Week

The quarterback position has been a tough one to solve for West Virginia this season, but the supporting cast has not done its part to make life easy on whoever is operating the offense.

Three different quarterbacks have started games for the Mountaineers this season, and with the injuries to Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson (questionable this week), WVU will once again lean on its young pups.

"We've got the two young guys, the two babies. Scotty Fox and Khalil Wilkins will take the majority of the reps this week," head coach Rich Rodriguez said on his radio show Monday night.

A starter has not been named, and as you know by now, Rodriguez will keep that close to the vest. That said, the belief is that Wilkins will indeed get his second straight start. He was the bell cow in West Virginia's run game against BYU, rushing the ball 23 times for 89 yards and a score, while also completing 7of-15 pass attempts.

True freshman Scotty Fox came in at the end of the game and completed three passes for 54 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown to Cam Vaughn.

"I think every play that they played, those young guys, they learn a lot," Rodriguez said. "I mean, for his first time, he didn't seem wide-eyed, but there's also a lot of plays he'd like to have back. But I think the key part is you have to learn from everything that you do, good or bad. I think he is a very contentious guy, so he'll learn. Same way with Scotty when he's getting his chance. I've had freshmen before play, and you have to be patient a little bit sometimes because sometimes they don't know what they don't know. You try to cover everything with them, but the games are going to be unique. Not everybody is going to play us like you see on film. They'll show something different, and if you don't have experience going against that different thing, it can surprise you. But they've worked hard in practice, and it's been good to have this open week to try to get those two guys ready."

When asked about Wilkins' performance in Provo, Rodriguez responded, "He didn't really explode like we thought he could have at times. We think some of it was he didn't have as many opportunities, but some of it too was he was thinking too much. When you truly know what's going on, you're more decisive in all your actions. That comes with experience."

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