A Tale of 2 Quarterbacks: Who Should Start Under Center for West Virginia Football
After being sidelined with an upper-body injury for the Mountaineers last two games, starting quarterback Garrett Greene was back in the saddle at quarterback for a home game against the Baylor Bears on Saturday. West Virginia lost to Baylor 49-35 and fell to 5-5 (4-3) on the season.
Greene had positive and negative moments against Baylor, ending the day 19-for-39 passing with 237 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. He also added 129 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground, carrying the ball 22 times.
From a look at the box score, the only thing you do not like about Garrett Greene’s performance on Saturday is his completion percentage and 1 interception. He had 4 total touchdowns and rushed for a season-high in carries and yards while also picking up 2 rushing touchdowns in a game for the first time this season. He was a big reason WVU kept the game close early.
With that said, Greene hasn’t picked up a win as the starting quarterback since the Mountaineer victory over the Oklahoma State Cowboys on October 5th. Since then, he has lost to Iowa State, Kansas State, and Baylor, all at home -- he is 3-5 as the starter this season and 12-10 overall in 22 career start, but he played on just one possession in his starting win against Pittsburgh in 2023 before an injury sidelined him and backup Nicco Marchiol closed the game. Meanwhile, in his two starts this year, Marchiol picked up road wins against Arizona and Cincinnati -- he is 3-0 overall as a starter, also owning a win against Texas Tech in 2023.
So, who should start for the Mountaineers in their final 2 regular season contests?
The Case for Garrett Greene
West Virginia’s Big 12 Title hopes are mostly done away with, and Senior Day is this Saturday against UCF. Greene, a fifth-year senior quarterback from Tallahassee, Florida, began his career as a backup for the Mountaineers. The level of loyalty that Greene has displayed toward this program after sitting behind widely unpopular and ineffective transfers in Jarret Doege and JT Daniels for the better part of 3 seasons is rather impressive. The easy route for Greene would’ve been to enter the transfer portal a few years ago, but he didn’t, he waited his turn and has been the Mountaineer starter for two seasons.
Not only should Greene potentially start senior night because of the loyalty he has displayed toward the program, but his performance against Baylor last week was not one worth benching him for. Again, with 4 total touchdowns in a game where he impressed with his rushing ability, at this point he may very well still give WVU their best chance to win ball games.
The Case for Nicco Marchiol
When he’s played, West Virginia has won. That is a pretty good case in itself. In a 31-26 win at Arizona, Marchiol completed 18 of 22 passes for 198 yards and 2 touchdowns. While West Virginia defeated Cincinnati in large part due to their defense stepping up, Marchiol led the WVU offense again, completing 9 of 15 passes for 156 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.
The bottom line is, even dating back to last season, Marchiol is undefeated in games that he has either started or played the majority of due to a Greene injury. As a sophomore, Marchiol is the frontrunner to land the starting QB job next season, so why not give him the reigns now? Marchiol is a talented quarterback and Mountaineer fans believe that he has a bright future, and you could argue he could use the extra starts this season to jump-start that future in a similar fashion to when Greene led the WVU offense for its final 3 games of the 2022 season.