Sep 10, 2025 4 min read

By Spencer Ripchik

For the Observer-Reporter

newsroom@observer-reporter.com

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s offense couldn’t get anything going in the second half. Quarterback Nicco Marchiol didn’t look like the quarterback he was in the season opener. He took care of the football but couldn’t get the offense moving down the field.

Head coach Rich Rodriguez looked to the sideline and subbed in Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson. Henderson came in for two drives and couldn’t get the offense going either. He had one big play, but it was called back because of a penalty. Rodriguez said he was just looking for a “spark.”

Marchiol came back out to close out the game. Rodriguez said during his radio show that he subbed Marchiol back in because WVU was down and they needed to throw the ball. He also said he thought of going to a third quarterback.

After Ohio, Rodriguez was asked who the starter would be going forward, but he said he needed time. Tuesday, Rodriguez had time to reflect, but still didn’t name a starter for the Backyard Brawl on Saturday against Pitt.

“We got a long week of doing practice and evaluating our guys,” Rodriguez said.

While evaluating each quarterback, he first looked into Marchiol’s performance. He won the starting job because he was the most consistent in camp. Rodriguez also thought Machiol had a great attitude when he played.

Rodriguez cut Marchiol some slack for his bad outing against Ohio because he’s still learning the system. It’s been a couple of months, but he’s still getting comfortable.

“He’s a freshman in the system,” Rodriguez said. “It’s still going to be a little bit of a process, and I got to remember that, because I appreciate the way he’s bought in, and he’s competing. He’s doing everything he can. Nicco wants to be great.”

Rodriguez also said the support around Marchiol wasn’t great, whether through his play calling, the offensive line, or the receivers. Rodriguez will work on that this week during practice to prepare the starter for the weekend.

“We’ve got to help him in certain spots as well,” Rodriguez said.

WVU’s quarterback situation has been interesting all offseason. Rodriguez hesitated naming a starter through the spring and summer, assuring no quarterback jumped in the portal. But, he also didn’t name one because he didn’t truly know which quarterback would be the guy.

The week of the Robert Morris game, Rodriguez still didn’t pick one and listed every quarterback on the depth chart.

He’s learning a lot more about his quarterbacks through games.

“I’ve never had this many guys that were kind of in the mix and had different skill sets,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t want to say we’re still figuring it out, because we had some time to figure it out, but you get a lot of answers in games. This guy’s really good at this, but maybe we need this guy to do this better. We’re figuring that out.”

Rodriguez’s indecisiveness can only go on for so long because it’s already started to get the better of him in the loss to Ohio. Heading into Pitt, Marchiol seems to still be QB1, but Rodriguez, like he said in the offseason, said there are a lot of quarterbacks still in the “mix.” How long can WVU sustain that? Who knows?

“I’m not a typical, you’re just going to play one quarterback, or just going to play that quarterback,” Rodriguez said. “We like to give everybody an opportunity and see what happens.”