West Virginia to start Nicco Marchiol at quarterback, Garrett Greene available in 'emergency role'

West Virginia will start redshirt freshman Nicco Marchiol against Texas Tech, sources tell Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. It will serve as the first start of Marchiol’s career.

Marchiol will make the start in place of Garrett Greene, who started the first three games for the Mountaineers. Greene was limited this week with an ankle injury suffered last week against Pitt.

According to McMurphy, Greene will dress and is available but only in an “emergency role.”

Through three games this season, Greene has completed 36-of-47 passes for 402 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. The Mountaineers also have four players that have surpassed the century mark on the ground as well, with Green being one of them.

Meanwhile, Marchiol has seen limited action this season as QB2 but has still been utalized in late-game situations. He comes into the matchup completing 13-of-23 of his passes this season for 135 yards and a touchdown. He saw action in both wins this season against Duquesne and Pitt over the past two weeks.

Before entiering the collegiate ranks, Marchiol is a former four-star recruit out of the 2022 recruiting class, per the On3 Industry Rankings, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET live on ESPN+.

Neal Brown reveals importance of winning 2023 Backyard Brawl

Nicco Marchiol might not have played a major role in West Virginia’s 17-6 victory over Pitt last week, but his number was called multiple times during the matchup. He finished the matchup completing six of his nine passes for 60 yards as well as throwing his first and only touchdown to this point of the season.

WVU head coach Neal Brown explained why the win was so important after the fact, and what it means to his program to defeat the Panthers for the first time in over a decade.

“A huge win, a huge win. I thought it was a team win,” said Brown, via On3’s Sam Gillenwater. “They call it The Brawl for a reason. That wasn’t a thing of beauty there, that wasn’t, like, a classic that they’re going to talk about the beauty of that game for a long time. But, regardless of what it was, it was a win for West Virginia.”

“We’re a tough football team. We’re a mentally tough football team, we’re a physically tough football team. I thought that that showed” continued Brown. “It was ugly and we can play ugly ball.”