West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is approaching the 2025 season with confidence in the depth and talent of his quarterback room. As the Mountaineers gear up for summer workouts, Rodriguez emphasized that the starting job is wide open, with multiple players vying for the role.
“It’s truly an open competition,” Rodriguez said on the In The Gun Podcast. “Nicco’s played and had success. Jaylen’s done the same at this level, and Max has experience too. We also have a couple of younger guys pushing for it.”
The most seasoned of the bunch, Nicco Marchiol, is the lone returner. Over three seasons, he’s appeared in 19 games, totaling 742 passing yards with eight touchdowns and five interceptions, along with 285 rushing yards and three scores.
Jaylen Henderson, a transfer from Texas A&M, showed promise in limited action during the 2023 season. In five appearances, he completed nearly 68% of his passes for 715 yards, six touchdowns, and just two interceptions, adding 104 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Max Brown, who spent time at Florida and Charlotte, also joins the competition. In five games for Charlotte last season, he threw for 561 yards, three touchdowns, and six interceptions, completing 46.2% of his passes and adding 72 rushing yards.
Rodriguez stressed the importance of depth at quarterback, expressing openness to rotating multiple players if necessary. “You probably can’t win if your quarterback isn’t pretty good. And you probably need at least two. If we have three that are good enough to win with, I’ll play all three. I might even play five. We rep all of them in practice,” he said.
While there’s no rush to name a starter, Rodriguez said the team will let fall camp determine how things unfold. “The competition will likely continue through the summer. If someone separates himself, great. But I’m confident we’ve got the talent in that room to win,” he said.
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