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Rich Rodriguez Talks 'Wide-Open' QB Competition and When a Decision Could Be Made

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Jun 19, 2025 7:32 AM ET

A starting quarterback has not been named in Morgantown...yet. While we've all made our predictions on who we think it will ultimately be, it's something head coach Rich Rodriguez is willing to let spill into fall camp, which was to be expected.

What does he think about the makeup of the room? I asked him in our latest episode of In the Gun.

"The thing I feel good about is I think the talent is there. You can’t win if the quarterback ain’t pretty good. And you probably can’t win if you don’t have two quarterbacks that are pretty good. I think we’re going to have more than two," Rodriguez said. "And if we have three guys that are good enough to win with, I’ll play all three. I don’t subscribe to the theory that if you play two, you must not have one. I hope I have five. I might play all five. We play all five in practice. Now, that being said, there’s not a case where I ever want a guy playing quarterback or whoever to go in there and be afraid to make a mistake. Ah, I make one mistake, I come out. That’s not going to be the case.

"But there could be quarterbacks that, hey, this guy does this play really good, this quarterback has these two plays, three plays he does really good. I’m not adverse to playing them in that regard," he continued. "I like our depth there, I like our competition there, and probably the competition will be ongoing throughout the summer. If somebody separates themselves during training camp, that’s great. But at least I feel comfortable that we have guys in that room that are going to be good enough to win with, and it’s going to be a good situation.”

Thanks to a much kinder start to the year, where the Mountaineers will play an FCS and Group of Six opponent (Robert Morris and Ohio), Rodriguez could hold back from revealing who the starter is entirely. You would hope that both Nicco Marchiol and Jaylen Henderson would play in the opener and perhaps in Week 2 against Ohio if all goes right. If it works out that way, then Pat Narduzzi will have no idea what or who to prepare for in Week 3 for the Backyard Brawl.

While it makes sense to hold the decision back publicly as long as possible, Rich Rod doesn't plan to do it for those reasons. Instead, it's more about letting the competition have some runway and allowing it to have a little back and forth to make each player involved in the battle better.

“There’s no really gamesmanship with that and holding it back. First off, why would you let anybody know? But second off, I don’t think it’s a big deal one way or another unless you got totally different types of quarterbacks that are coming in. For us, it’s really an open competition. Nicco’s played some and been successful. Jaylen’s played some and been successful. Max has played some at this level, and we also have a couple of young guys on the roster too that I think are competing for it. It truly is a wide-open competition.