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In last night's injury report for West Virginia, it was revealed that redshirt freshman quarterback Khalil Wilkins had been downgraded to out, leaving the Mountaineers with just two scholarship quarterbacks for today's game against Houston — Scotty Fox Jr. and Max Brown.

Wilkins appeared to be on track to suit up this week, initially being listed as probable on Wednesday. He was downgraded to questionable on Thursday and then ruled out last night, but likely before the team boarded the bus to head to the airport.

For Rich Rodriguez's sake, he's hoping to play another complete game with Scotty Fox, who became the first Mountaineer quarterback to start and play the entirety of the game this season. The true freshman threw a program record 301 yards (for a frosh) and tossed two touchdown passes in the 23-17 loss to TCU. Max Brown would have been available if needed, but still wasn't quite 100% a week ago. This week, he is.

If Fox were to, for some reason, take a step back and struggle mightily against this Houston defense or get injured, Rodriguez will have to be extremely careful with Brown, considering walk-ons Scott Kean and Max Anderson are the next options.

Brown would have likely entered the season as the third quarterback on the depth chart behind Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson, but was banged up early on, and it took some time for him to get settled into the system. He did appear in the final drive of the game against Utah and made a couple of things happen with his legs, but had to leave the game after suffering an injury on a hit he took trying to hurdle a defender.

For a more in-depth look at Brown's path to WVU and a scouting report on him, check out my story here from last week. I take a look at what he does well, what he struggles with, and what you can expect if he were to enter the game.

This article first appeared on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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