Local Sports

QBs the focus for WVU entering spring drills

MORGANTOWN -- With spring practice opening in the near future, finding the heir apparent to Jarret Doege is at the top of West Virginia University football coach Neal Brown's to-do list.

Right now, it's a three-man race.

"I don't know how, if we went and got a transfer quarterback, I don't know how we'd get a really good evaluation on the young guys," Brown said Thursday. "And it's not just about this fall, but it's about the future. And we got three guys here in Garrett Greene, Nicco Marchiol and Will Crowder that deserve the opportunity to show what they have."

Greene is the most experienced of the three, entering his third season in Morgantown. He was the primary backup to Doege last season, but still saw playing time in 11 games due to his athletic abilities.

To date, Greene is 16-of-26 passing for 147 yards at the collegiate level. He possesses a knack for making plays with his feet, having rushed for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns last season.

Marchiol is a true freshman, but is the most decorated of the three. A four-star prospect, the left-handed passer was named Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Arizona last season.

Across his high school career, he completed nearly 68% of his passes for more than 8,000 yards and 91 total touchdowns.

Crowder, a redshirt freshman carrying the nickname of "Goose," is the only other returnee in the mix. A pocket passer, he's only tallied two passing attempts in college -- both completions against Long Island last season.

"We're gonna go through the spring and the belief is that one of them will take the reins of the job or we'll get it narrowed down to two," Brown said. "And if that's not the case, then we'll go find a guy (through the transfer portal). There'll be guys available, but I thought it was important for them, and important for the trajectory of our football team, to let those guys have the ability to go out and compete in the spring."

Playing a major role in the competition is the shuffling of the offensive coaching staff, namely the addition of new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Graham Harrell. Former offensive coordinator Gerad Parker was demoted prior to taking a job at Notre Dame, while former quarterbacks coach Sean Reagan shifted to tight ends coach.

"I think the NCAA allows you two hours a week," Brown said, "and so (Harrell)'s kind of done a good job getting with the quarterbacks and now we're three weeks into really using that meeting time with our team. So we're not necessarily starting at ground zero when we have our first practice on March 22."

Harrell was under center at Texas Tech for the better part of the late 2000s and finished fourth in the 2008 Heisman Trophy race, providing him with a perspective the Mountaineers have not had out of a quarterbacks coach during the Brown era.

"I think that the quarterback position may be the most overcoached position in all of sport because everyone wants them to all look the exact same," Harrell said. "But if we all go out there and start running none of us would look the exact same you know what I mean? It's the same thing with quarterbacks, I don't think you can create robots, I think you guys got to take what they have and make them the best versions of themselves."

The Mountaineers will hold their first spring football practice on Tuesday, March 22, with the annual Gold-Blue Spring Game scheduled for Saturday, April 23.

Milum moves to left tackle

WVU's starting offensive tackles are switching sides.

Starting right tackle Wyatt Milum, who earned three different freshman All-American honors last season, is now taking reps at the left tackle spot. Redshirt junior Brandon Yates has also switched to the other side, now taking snaps at right tackle.

"He's left-handed," Brown said of Milum, "it's a more natural fit for him."

Injury report

Key pieces on both sides of the ball will miss spring practice, according to Brown.

Mike O'Laughlin, the team's starting tight end, continues to recover from a knee injury. He's on pace to return in the fall.

Defensively, defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor is out with an upper body injury, but is expected to be a full-go in the summer. Linebacker Exree Loe and defensive lineman Edward Vesterinen will also not participate in the upcoming practices.

Starting cornerback Nicktroy Fortune, who missed a major chunk of time last season, is slowly working his way back and will be a limited participant.