Rich Rodriguez Reveals Truth in Joke About Timeline for Naming Starting Quarterback

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Still in the early stages of the competition, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez is ready to give fans a hint about when he’ll announce his starting quarterback.

Not even two full weeks into the spring practice period and Rodriguez was asked for a timeline to name his QB1. Rodriguez’s response was offered with levity, but had some truth in it as well.

“When’s the first game,” Rodriguez asked jokingly. “Do we have a game time yet?”

Then after being told the date, he kept having more fun with his answer.

“Okay, well if the game is at 1, [you’ll know at] 12:59. We’ll know before then…to determine the starter, someone may separate themselves before the end of the spring, but they may not,” he said.

WVSN photo by Cody Nespor

Even though Rodriguez enjoys teasing the media, all signs do point to West Virginia trying to kept the starter for the season opener close to the vest as long as possible.

Obviously, just because WVU may not officially announce a starter until close to kickoff, that doesn’t mean Rodriguez won’t have an idea well beforehand. But at the same time, it’s also likely he won’t have his mind fully made up until fall camp at the end of the summer.

“I like to come out of camp with three guys we can win with, and I feel pretty confident with the talent we have right now that we have three guys we can win with,” Rodriguez said to emphasize he wants to have multiple quarterbacks he can rely on.

Rodriguez also seems open to the idea of giving both quarterbacks time throughout the upcoming 2025 season. So instead of a typical QB1 and QB2 situation, it could be possible Marchiol and Henderson, the two quarterbacks believed to be battling for the starting job, are more of 1A and 1B.

“Some coaches say if you have two, you have none; if you have three, you have none. I don’t believe that I say if you’re good enough to win, just play with them, that’s for any position including quarterback,” said Rodriguez.

WVSN photo by Cody Nespor

To clarify, this doesn’t mean they will share equal time or rotate every other series, but that the backup could play far more often than just in the FCS game or if the game is decided. Maybe specific packages would be designed to use frequently for the backup.

Rodriguez believes his system is “quarterback centric” and he’s intentionally made it “freshman proof” and easy to learn. He’s done this intentionally in case he abruptly loses a player to the transfer portal or an injury.

“The progress of the quarterbacks has been good to see; we have three quarterbacks who have started division one football games, and then we have a couple of talented freshmen. I think that room has shown some really good progress,” said Rodriguez as his early evaluation of the quarterback position.

While fully acknowledging the work ahead, Rodriguez likes what he’s seeing effort wise.

“I think the mentality we have in that room, there are some really competitive guys, and they’re going to want to show that they can do both in practice and in the game.”

For a related story, Mike Asti explains his view of how Rich Rodriguez is handling the quarterback position at WVU.