Marchiol strives for growth after some good, some bad in first career start – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Largely on the strength of its defense, West Virginia has won three straight games for the first time in head coach Neal Brown’s tenure.

One week after a 17-6 victory over Pitt, the Mountaineers began Big 12 Conference play on a high note Saturday by holding off a late Texas Tech rally to prevail, 20-13.

A 3-1 start to the season, with the only blemish being a loss at seventh-ranked Penn State, is a better start to Brown’s fifth year in Morgantown than many anticipated, particularly when considering West Virginia was chosen to finish last in the 14-team Big 12 Preseason Poll.

The latest victory was Brown’s first in five tries against Texas Tech, which was selected fourth in the league’s preseason poll.

“They were kind of the darling pick of the Big 12 early in the year,” Brown said. “They were picked two or three in a lot of these polls in preseason, so this was a really good win. This was an important home stretch and we knew it. We felt like if we could win our home games, it gives you a chance to win in your league. If you look at who’s performed well in the league, you win home games. We had a three-game homestretch and swept it.”

Starting with the fourth quarter of West Virginia’s first win this season against Duquesne, the Mountaineers did not allow a touchdown over eight consecutive quarters — an impressive stretch that ended with the Red Raiders’ first and only touchdown with 11:54 remaining in the fourth period.

Yet as the Mountaineers have displayed significant defensive improvement and locked down on both the Panthers and Red Raiders, the WVU offense remains stuck in neutral as it tries to increase its production.

Against the Panthers, WVU lost starting quarterback Garrett Greene to injury after six offensive plays, leaving Nicco Marchiol to take over behind center. Marchiol threw for 60 yards and managed the run-oriented attack, while the Mountaineer defense took care of matters in game that both teams finished with 211 yards.

With Greene still out of action Saturday, Marchiol made his first career start. For the second straight game, WVU did not reach 100 passing yards. Marchiol threw for 78 while completing 12-of-21 passes with a pair of interceptions. Wideout Traylon Ray also completed a 21-yard pass to tight end Kole Taylor, leaving WVU with 159 passing yards over its last two contests.

“We can be better in the pass game,” Brown said. “We threw for 100 yards, but there was a lot more than 100 yards out there. We can do a better job designing those, but we have to do a better job executing, so there’s blame to go around. The blame is not necessarily with Nicco. Everybody points to the quarterback, but that’s not really where our issues were in the pass game today.”

However, Marchiol did throw an early ill-advised interception that led to the Red Raiders taking a 3-0 lead as Malik Dunlap’s pick gave Tech the ball at the Mountaineers’ 35-yard line. The pass, intended for wideout Devin Carter, was thrown too late and led to Marchiol being picked off for the first time in his college career.

“He held the ball forever,” Brown said. “He had the ball for 4 seconds and he threw a route that should be completed in the divide between the numbers and the hash, and he threw almost it in the middle of the field. That’s how late he was and the guy was covered. He wasn’t open. It was a bad decision. I just told him, ‘it’s a bad decision, you have to move on.’ I told him laughingly, ‘we’re wearing gold, they’re wearing white and if white’s in front of gold, let’s not throw it. Let’s not make it any harder than it is.’ But he handled that well.”

Marchiol was also intercepted in the second quarter on a pass intended for Carter, though that one first hit off the receiver before being hauled in by Ben Roberts.

Brown was pleased with the southpaw’s response to the second pick, which the head coach didn’t fault the quarterback for.

“The bigger thing for a quarterback is when you have the one on third down that hit off Devin, because he made a really good play,” Brown said. “That’s hard to come back from, but he did a good job. I saw him [talking] with the receivers and he did a good job getting over there with those guys.”

Marchiol felt there was plenty of room for improvement despite helping guide the Mountaineers to a conference win in his first start.

“Not a good quarterback performance on my end. Could’ve been much better,” Marchiol said. “I got the reps all week. There’s no excuse for some of those mistakes made out there, but what matters is some of those critical moments that we practice. Those have to have moments on third and fourth downs and those big-time catches. When you’re playing in the Big 12, it’s a tossup every week. This is one of the best leagues in the world and you have to prep every week for it. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

A redshirt freshman who has played extensively in each of West Virginia’s three wins this season, Marchiol has not completed a pass for more than 15 yards the last two games. Over that time, Ray’s 21-yard pass to Taylor is the Mountaineers’ longest play from scrimmage.

That could’ve been corrected late in the third quarter against the Red Raiders when wideout Hudson Clement broke free on a busted coverage, only to be under thrown by Marchiol on a second-and-5 play from the WVU 15. A more accurate pass could’ve produced a touchdown, and Clement still nearly brought in the reception, but it was confirmed as an incompletion after being reviewed.

“That’s one I really wish I would have had back,” Marchiol said. “That was the second time we’d ran that play and a lot of different elements come into it. You have the wet ball. You’re on the move. I saw it late. No excuse — it should’ve been a throw I made. You never want to leave it up to the refs and that situation could’ve definitely been avoided if I’d have made a better throw, but what an outstanding effort by Hudson.”

Still, there were positive moments for Marchiol, including his play on a critical seven play, 79-yard touchdown drive that produced West Virginia’s only score of the second half.

On that series, Marchiol was 3-for-3 passing with 32 yards and rushed once for 17 yards. Just before before his 9-yard touchdown pass to Taylor, Marchiol read the defense well and threw a pass to wideout Preston Fox in the end zone that drew a pass interference penalty on third down.

“You have to have that fear of failure and fear of letting those down around you,” Marchiol said. “That’s what was really speaking to me internally was seeing how hard our defense was working and we just weren’t putting up points. That’s deteriorating as a quarterback. It’s hard not to put all the blame on yourself on that. That’s a big motivator for me is the guys around me. These guys are working their butt off and I owe it to them to go get some touchdowns.”