MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Having lost two straight Big 12 games, West Virginia’s promising start to conference play is no more with the Mountaineers having split their first four league contests.
An opportunity to move forward from the mid-October struggles comes Saturday in the form of a 7 p.m. matchup at Arizona, which has yet to win this month and enters on a three-game skid.
It remains to be seen which of the Mountaineers that suffered injuries forcing them to miss the second half of last Saturday’s 45-18 loss against Kansas State are healthy enough to play at Arizona for what will be the first meeting between the two programs.
Quarterback Garrett Greene, left tackle Wyatt Mium and tailback Jahiem White were each out for the final two quarters of the most recent contest, during which time KSU outscored West Virginia 28-8 to turn a seven-point halftime advantage into a runaway win.
After the game, Brown described the significant losses to his team’s lineup as a rash of head injuries. On Monday, he provided a further update, which included positive news on White, but uncertainly regarding Greene and Milum.
“Wyatt, too early to tell,” Brown said. “I’ll know later in the week. Same with Garrett. Jahiem, I feel good about, and I think by the middle of the week, he’ll be able to go.”
If Milum, the Mountaineers’ lone selection to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, is unable to play, it would leave redshirt freshman Johnny Williams in line to start.
Brown confirmed wideout Jaden Bray will miss a third straight game due to injury as the Oklahoma State transfer continues to battle an injury he suffered toward the end of the Mountaineers’ victory against the Cowboys back on October 5.
Safety Aubrey Burks will also be sidelined a second straight week after suffering an injury October 12 in a loss to Iowa State, though Brown is hopeful cornerback Ayden Garnes practices by Wednesday and returns to the lineup after the Duquesne transfer missed last week’s game.
Defensive lineman T.J. Jackson and Hammond Russell both battled through injury to play against the Wildcats, but were forced to leave for good during the second half.
“T.J. Jackson was limited, but he gave us some really good snaps. He and Hammond Russell went out at some point in the third quarter,” Brown said. “Both of them played well and neither practiced much last week. They gave us some good snaps. Fully expect them to play.”
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In the event Greene is unable to play, redshirt sophomore Nicco Marchiol will make his second career start at Arizona.
Marchiol started West Virginia’s fourth game of the 2023 season — a 20-13 home win over Texas Tech that marks Brown’s lone victory in five tries against the Red Raiders. Marchiol completed 12-of-21 passes for 78 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions in that game. He also rushed 15 times for 72 yards. It came one week after Marchiol took the majority of the snaps in a victory over Pitt, a game Greene was hurt in on the first offensive series.
Marchiol has also played extensively in two Big 12 games this season — first during the win at Oklahoma State when Greene was forced to sit out for a stretch after suffering an injury, and again throughout the second half of the most recent game.
Marchiol completed his only pass attempt against the Cowboys — a 10-yard touchdown to wideout Traylon Ray — and rushed seven times for 46 yards.
Against KSU, he was 6-for-13 with 58 yards and a 12-yard touchdown to Ray and did not log a rushing yard on nine carries.
“He didn’t play well. I don’t think it’s a fair assessment of where he’s at,” Brown said. “Oklahoma State, he played really well, but he also had a great week of preparation that week, practiced well and I wasn’t surprised. Last week, he missed practice on Tuesday and then wasn’t real sharp, so he didn’t practice real well and that’s kind of how he played. He’s going to get a bunch of reps, so if his number is called, he’ll be ready and I expect him to play at a high level.”
Should Marchiol be the No. 1 quarterback Saturday, it would leave the backup job to redshirt freshman Ryder Burton.
A BYU transfer, Burton has yet to throw a pass at the collegiate level.
“He has a live arm, can run, but not necessarily a guy you’re going to call a bunch of run plays for,” Brown said. “He’s good enough to protect himself and he’s really intelligent. But he’s a young player and hasn’t played a whole lot of football at the collegiate level. He’ll get reps as the No. 2, and he’s been getting a bunch of Monday Night Football reps, too, so he’s not going to be too rusty.”
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A mere 2,070 miles separate West Virginia’s home of Milan Puskar Stadium from where it will play Saturday at Arizona Stadium.
While it’s the Mountaineers’ longest trip of the season and first matchup against a Big 12 newcomer, Brown says his team will not alter its normal travel itinerary with the exception of leaving from Pittsburgh as opposed to North Central West Virginia Airport.
“We go to Lubbock every other year. It’s really not a whole lot further than that, so we’re not treating it a whole lot different,” Brown said. “The biggest change for us that our players will notice is we have to leave out of Pittsburgh rather than Clarksburg. We got fortunate that the television people were good to us, and we’re playing at 7 p.m. eastern time, so for our guys’ bodies, we are going to be fine. We’re not going to make a big deal out of it besides we’re leaving out of Pittsburgh.
In the summer, Brown mentioned the possibility of the Mountaineers staying behind an extra day in Arizona to recover, but that will not be happening.
“We probably would if we had a game on the other side, but we have a bye week,” Brown said. “We’ll be getting back nice and early in the morning.”