WVU football wrapped up its thirteenth session of preseason practice on Wednesday as they hit the halfway point through their second full week of fall camp (or more accurately, late summer camp) and their third overall week practicing since returning to the field on July 30.
The West Virginia Mountaineers have just over two weeks remaining until they kickoff the season against Robert Morris at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, a game set for 2 PM EST on August 30th – which is coincidentally the same time you should probably expect an announcement from head coach Rich Rodriguez on a starting quarterback. Rodriguez flashed a potential glimpse at some sort of a depth chart, which was mostly too blurry to interpret, on Tuesday. But has said before he’ll likely won’t be disclosing the starter until opening day.
What Rich Rodriguez has disclosed is that there is a five-man battle going on at the position, and that he’s been trying to get all five a suitable amount of reps during camp to determine just what the exact order on the depth chart should be. But on Wednesday, WVU quarterbacks coach – and Rich’s son – Rhett Rodriguez spoke during a press conference following practice, and he disclosed that we might not even truly know the starter at the start of the Robert Morris game.
When asked about evaluating quarterbacks without seeing them in game action, Rhett Rodriguez referenced 2024 Jacksonville State quarterback Tyler Huff and WVU legend Pat White and indicated the current quarterback battle might take a little longer than expected to play out. Why? Because sometimes you have to compare quarterbacks in-game to truly determine your best signal caller.
“I think every year is different. Again, Tyler Huff didn’t end up starting our first game last year and ended up being conference player of the year. Same thing with Pat [White], where he ended up being obviously a great player for us and he didn’t start the first game. So every year is a little different. I wouldn’t be surprised if even going into the year multiple quarterbacks get reps and we kind of have to see how it goes in the game,” Rhett Rodriguez said.
“Part of it is always going to be how it looks when you’re live, when you’re full speed. But, I mean, every single quarterback on the team has gone live up to this point, and I think they’ve done a good job at taking care of the ball, holding the ball high and tight, and all that type of stuff. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this continues on into the season.”
WVU QB Coach Rhett Rodriguez references Tyler Huff not starting the first game for Jacksonville State last season and discloses he wouldn't be surprised to see WVU's QB competition stretch into the season. #HailWV pic.twitter.com/AfSSyNnlcB
— Joe Smith (@joesmithwrites) August 13, 2025
It’s an understandable situation given none of the quarterbacks in the room have extensive starting experience at the collegiate level, and that they’re all new to Rich Rodriguez’s offensive system. But most coaches typically prefer to know who their guy is headed into the start of the season, and there’s no shortage of nightmare stories when it comes to having a quarterback battle extend into the season.
Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson have appeared to be the two frontrunners so far, but it will be interesting to see just how long it takes someone in the room to separate themselves from the competition.