Neal Brown Slams the Door Shut on In-Game QB Change: 'Why Would We Do That?'

The West Virginia head coach had zero interest in getting Nicco Marchiol in the game on Saturday.

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 13, 2024

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West Virginia Mountaineers

After the opening drive of the game, the West Virginia offense really struggled to get into a rhythm and move the ball. They played behind the sticks because of bad snaps and found themselves in several 3rd and longs due to an inability to run the football and hit explosives in the passing game.

But maybe the biggest question that needed to be asked was immediately shot down by head coach Neal Brown in his postgame press conference.

Garrett Greene failed to complete passes at a high rate and turned it over twice. With the offense sputtering, it wouldn't have been the worst of ideas to get Nicco Marchiol in the game toward the end to try and ignite a spark. Brown had zero interest.

“Why would we do that? What? Do you think we needed one? Nicco is going to be a really good player here. But Garrett Greene’s our starter and I believe that you play through some issues and we’ll do the same with Nicco. He’s a great player and he played well last week. The turnovers were an issue. Like I said, one of them was a bad decision, one of them was a terrible non-call. I don’t have a quick hook with quarterbacks. I don’t believe in that. I don’t think that’s ever the right thing to do and we won’t do it when Nicco’s the starter and we’re not going to do it tonight.”

Yeah, Neal. I'm pretty sure everyone thought the offense needed a spark. What did you have to lose? I mean, seriously? It was mostly a two and three-score game in the fourth quarter and pulling Greene wouldn't have damaged his confidence. It would've been an understandable move.

Now, there's no guarantee that Marchiol would have engineered a comeback, but after the second interception, why not make a change?

Now that we are at the official halfway point of the season, it's safe to say that Greene is what he is. All of the offseason chatter centered around him making this gigantic leap as a passer, but his completion percentage is only up 3.2% from last year at 56.9%.

Not to mention, he's already thrown more interceptions this season than he did all of 2023. The most staggering stat? The one that popped up on the broadcast last night that noted Greene has thrown at least two interceptions in every game where he logged 30 or more pass attempts.

Greene hasn't played well on the big stage and it could be the difference in West Virginia being a contender or a pretender in the Big 12.

In the three "big stage" games versus Penn State, Pitt, and Iowa State, Greene went a combined 49/90 (54%) for 577 yards (192.3 per game) three touchdowns, and four interceptions.

Is it time to make a full-on quarterback change? No. But what would it have hurt to throw in Marchiol for a drive or two on Saturday night?

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