The West Virginia Mountaineers are off to an 0-3 start in conference play and sit at 2-4 overall. Understandably, one of the team’s priorities in the bye week is to get healthy, with numerous players battling injuries. The first half of the season has seen the loss of the some of the WVU stars that fans were most familiar with heading into the season. Among those is starting quarterback Nicco Marchiol had a nagging foot injury that eventually led to him missing WVU’s Big 12 opener vs Kansas in Week 4. Marchiol is now seeking a medical redshirt and is likely to enter the transfer portal.
At the midway point of the season, Marchiol’s injury has led to more questions than answers in the quarterback room for West Virginia – not that anyone felt super confident about Marchiol's play anyway. Jaylen Henderson started in Week 5 against Utah, and both he and the entire offense struggled. The next week, West Virginia visited BYU, and it was redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins who got the start, while Henderson was out with an injury.
While Wilkins showed a lot of grit and toughness, he struggled passing the football as the Mountaineers dropped their third straight game to begin conference play. Now, looking to turn things around in the second half of the season, the quarterback race may very well be between Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox Jr., who has looked strong in his limited action this season as well.
Now, looking to turn things around in the second half of the season, the quarterback race may very well be between Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox Jr., who has looked strong in his limited action this season as well. Coming out of the bye week, the Mountaineers will have a road game against UCF on October 18. While head coach Rich Rodriguez may very well continue to play multiple quarterbacks, all indications seem to lead to Wilkins and Fox Jr.
The Case for Khalil Wilkins
While Fox Jr. is a capable runner himself, Khalil Wilkins has proven to be far more elusive. On top of that, picking up 23 carries for 89 yards against an impressive BYU defense is not a small feat. His grit and toughness in the running game bode well for a West Virginia offense that has been largely one-dimensional throughout this season.
Secondly, while Wilkins didn’t exactly light it up through the air in his first career start, he showed gradual improvement over the course of the game. While he needs to work on his touch rather than firing bullet passes to his receivers every time, he showed signs of growth and delivered a few nice balls, including a catchable deep ball to Cam Vaughn that resulted in an interception, but not due to any mistake Wilkins made.
Another reason to start Wilkins is to give him a boost of confidence. He’s had one start, and it came on the road against an unbeaten, ranked opponent. Starting, or at the very least getting more playing time over the second half of the season, will give you more about the likelihood of Wilkins being involved in the quarterback race in Morgantown to start next season.
The Case for Scotty Fox Jr.
In the brief action that Scotty Fox Jr. has seen this season, it seems as if it has either been the highest of highs or the lowest of lows. His performance has either been electric or head-scratching, and there has been no in-between.
In the season opener against Robert Morris, Fox stole the spotlight for a moment as he picked up a 59-yard touchdown run. Against Pitt, Fox engineered a touchdown drive in the second half that had Mountaineer fans thinking he may very well be the man for the job at quarterback. He quickly followed that up with 2 interceptions on consecutive possessions, and has seen little action since. But then against BYU, he delivered a 29-yard strike to Cam Vaughn for a touchdown in garbage time late in the 4th quarter, and picked up a 23-yard run while Wilkins was sidelined for a couple of plays in the first half.
While it’s an incredibly small sample size, Fox has shown an ability as both an accurate passer (aside from his two interceptions in his first significant collegiate action) and a capable runner. While we’ve seen Wilkins for the majority of an entire game, we have yet to see how Fox performs when he gets into the flow of the offense.
The Future
Overall, West Virginia should commit to their young quarterbacks finishing out the remainder of the season. Whether one of them takes the reins and runs away with the job, or they both see an even amount of playing time, the WVU coaching staff must begin to think about the future of the program in 2026. If they see either Wilkins or Fox Jr. as potential candidates for the starting job, they should give them an opportunity to showcase what they bring to the table now.