The Explanation Behind Nicco Marchiol's Not-So-Sharp Outing vs. Cincinnati

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown evaluates the redshirt sophomore's performance from last week.

West Virginia University quarterback Nicco Marchiol / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

West Virginia has had to turn to redshirt sophomore Nicco Marchiol at quarterback for its last two games due to the injury of starter Garrett Greene, and it's resulted in a pair of road wins.

Although the lefty hasn't posted eye-popping numbers, he's done just enough to get the job done. That being said, I don't want to say it was a completely game-managing type of approach. Marchiol has connected on several deep balls in his two starts and has found a reliable home run threat in Traylon Ray.

In the win over Arizona, Marchiol was extremely efficient, completing 18-of-22 passes for 198 yards and two scores. This past Saturday against Cincinnati, it was a little bit of a struggle throwing the football, but there's enough blame to go around. It wasn't all on Marchiol by any means, but there are some things that head coach Neal Brown would like to see him clean up.

Brown's evaluation on Marchiol's second start

“Nicco played really well against Arizona and not so well on Saturday. From a fundamental standpoint, he just has to be consistent with his fundamentals. That’s the biggest difference between him being super, super efficient versus Arizona and playing at a high level and then him not playing as well on Saturday. It’s all correctable things. It’s little things.”

Examples of what Brown wants to see

“We had a play where if he got his eyes on the backside safety, which he should, we’ve got an explosive play to Traylon Ray. But he doesn’t have his eyes right there. We had a couple plays where his drop his supposed to be a certain (depth), and he takes a different one. It’s a minuscule thing, but it throws off your timing. He’s just got to clean up those. He had some positive signs in the game. He had a really nice run on his touchdown. He threw the go ball really well, but he wasn’t consistent enough in his fundamentals, and that’s what cost him.”

Brown has not determined if it will be Marchiol or Garrett Greene who will get the start this Saturday versus Baylor, but he has to feel good about having two quarterbacks capable of winning games in the Big 12. A decision will be made later this week, but probably won't be made known to the public prior to kickoff.

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