While West Virginia’s gameplan vs. Kansas State likely didn’t feature a heavy dose of Nicco Marchiol at the beginning of the week, an injury to Garrett Greene flipped the script.
Marchiol was thrust into the game for the second half of action, with Greene sidelined, but was unable to muster up much production against a stingy Kansas State defense.
When asked to evaluate Marchiol’s performance, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown didn’t hold back on some open discussion.
“He didn’t play well,” Brown said. “He didn’t play well. I don’t think it’s a fair assessment of where he’s at. You know, Oklahoma State, he played really well. But he also had a great week of preparation that week and he practiced well. I wasn’t surprised. Last week, missed practice on Tuesday and then wasn’t real sharp, so didn’t practice real well. And that’s kind of how he played.”
While speculation about a potential quarterback change began to creep into the mindset of select Mountaineers fans ahead of the Week 8 loss, the difference between Greene and Marchiol was notable. Greene outplayed Marchiol in his limited drives by posting 174 yards of total offense and a passing touchdown to 58 yards and a score for Marchiol.
Brown finished his thoughts by saying, “He’s going to get a bunch of reps, so if his number’s called, he’ll be ready, and I expect him to play at a high level,”
As Brown mentioned in the interview, Greene’s status for Week 9 is still up in the air. Should he suffer any setbacks, Marchiol would be the next man up in Morgantown.
