Between The Eers: The Plan is in Place
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 The succession plan is always nice to have, when it works out, that is.
00:17 Hello everybody, I'm Skylar Callender here on Between the Ears,
00:21 Monday's episode here on January 15th.
00:23 And today, we're gonna touch on some news that hit a couple of days ago,
00:28 prior to the weekend or over the weekend.
00:30 And that was Nico Marquial committing to the Country Roads Trust and
00:35 announcing his intentions to return to WVU for the 2024 season.
00:40 [MUSIC]
00:42 This is really, really good news for Neil Brown, for the program.
00:49 And specifically for Sean Reagan in that quarterback room,
00:53 who will have to find another starter after next year as Garrett Green enters
00:58 his last year of eligibility.
01:00 [MUSIC]
01:02 Not only is this a good thing for the future, but it's also a good thing for
01:07 the immediate future as well, because as we've seen a couple of times before,
01:13 Garrett could suffer an injury and all of a sudden Nico has to go in there and
01:19 not necessarily save the day, but keep things above water.
01:28 And he did a very good job of that in the backyard brawl,
01:33 in the Texas Tech game, and would have had to have done it at TCU,
01:38 if it weren't for spraining his own ankle that week.
01:42 But the big thing here is, I'll go both positive and
01:48 negative, what happens with this whole plan?
01:53 What if it goes well, what if it goes south?
01:56 So let's get the bad out of the way first, and
01:59 we'll focus most of our time here today on the good stuff.
02:02 So let's just say the succession plan doesn't work,
02:07 or it doesn't go as everyone plans, right?
02:12 What happens then?
02:14 Well, that more than likely means that in 2025,
02:20 Nico Marquial either wins the starting job and
02:25 doesn't perform as well as expected, or
02:30 he loses the starting quarterback job in fall camp in
02:36 25 to either Khalil Wilkins, Scotty Fox, or
02:41 somebody else, and all of a sudden,
02:46 you're a little concerned.
02:51 That's not what you want to have happen, obviously.
02:58 But if it does happen, you better hope that the reason why he is not
03:05 the starting quarterback is because one of these younger kids passed him up,
03:11 and maybe it's even Sean Boyle,
03:14 who is about to enter his second year in the program, Charlotte kid.
03:19 But you hope it's that, and that it's not,
03:23 he wins the starting job, he's not as good as expected,
03:28 and then you're scrambling to find an answer.
03:32 And then you kind of hit the reset button, and you're out of contention,
03:38 and all of a sudden, You're kind of back to where you were pre-2023.
03:45 So I don't think that's necessarily what will happen.
03:50 I don't think that at all.
03:53 Do I think Nico is gonna be a star?
03:56 I don't know.
03:58 I really don't.
04:00 I haven't seen enough of the kid to make that kind of a judgment.
04:07 I think it'd be unfair to do so.
04:09 I think it'd be also unfair to sit here and
04:13 say he's gonna be just as good as Garrett Green.
04:17 And win as many games as Garrett Green.
04:20 I think that's all unfair at this point.
04:22 You have to get more reps under his belt, whether it be in the spring game,
04:32 fall camp, in garbage time against Albany next fall.
04:39 Excuse me.
04:39 And even then, you still really don't know what you have because it's
04:45 almost like a scrimmage setting.
04:47 But you can see better flashes, or you can hope to see better flashes.
04:52 I think what we saw from Nico in the past is a little bit of hot and cold.
04:57 And I think he'd probably be the first one to admit that.
04:59 Neil Brown has talked about that a lot, how his good is really good.
05:04 And his bad, it's not necessarily really bad, but there's some things that he
05:09 needs to clean up to make sure that his lows aren't as low as they are.
05:14 We saw that in the Texas Tech game with the pair of interceptions he had.
05:18 But he was also really good in that game.
05:20 He's also really good with his legs.
05:22 He made a couple of big throws.
05:23 He's just gotta become more consistent.
05:28 That's the biggest concern for me out of Nico Marchio.
05:30 But again, you could say the same thing about every young quarterback.
05:34 It's not just Nico.
05:36 It's not that I have something against him.
05:37 It's just that's the stage of his career that he's in right now.
05:40 He's finding things out.
05:41 He's getting his feet wet.
05:43 There's no reason to panic about any of that.
05:45 If it goes well, however, if it goes well,
05:50 now we're talking about some serious stuff here.
05:56 Because I think everyone kind of looks at this upcoming season in 24 as
06:01 like the end all be all, just because it'll be the first time since 2018 that
06:07 this team's actually had a chance entering the year to compete for
06:13 something more than just a bowl game.
06:15 I mean, Garrett Green comes back.
06:19 You have all those pieces around him at the skill position.
06:23 You have a veteran offensive line still in place.
06:26 The defense, you're starting to feel a little bit better about through the pickups
06:30 that they've had in the transfer portal.
06:32 And you're like, yeah, you're looking around the big 12.
06:36 There's no Oklahoma, there's no Texas.
06:39 And all of a sudden, Arizona just lost their coach to Washington,
06:44 who was going to be a preseason top 10 or 15 team.
06:49 What happens with them in the portal?
06:51 That's a big question mark.
06:53 And you got Penn State at home this year instead of having to go up to Happy Valley.
07:00 There's just a lot of things that are starting to fall West Virginia's way.
07:03 And although we're all understandably looking at 2024 as,
07:10 crap, this could be the year that they really make a run.
07:13 It doesn't have to be just 2024.
07:17 It can be 24, 25, 26.
07:20 This thing can really kind of snowball in a good way for
07:23 West Virginia if Nico Marquial works out.
07:26 And you look at, I think the biggest reason why Nico has to work out,
07:35 like there's no if, ands, or buts about it.
07:39 If Nico works out, this team, I'm promising,
07:44 I shouldn't promise anything in today's world.
07:47 But I would almost guarantee West Virginia gets a playoff appearance in
07:53 the next four years.
07:54 And I know that sounds maybe a little disappointing or
08:00 underwhelming to the most optimistic fans on here.
08:04 But getting in the top 12 is not necessarily a lock.
08:09 And look, this year it could happen, 100% it could happen.
08:16 I'm one that actually fully believes it could happen.
08:19 But you've also gotta wonder what this year will look like, and
08:25 this is part of the succession plan too, what teams will do to Garrett Green now
08:31 that they've got a full year of tape on him, and how does he respond?
08:37 How do teams respond?
08:39 How would a, not necessarily a full year, but
08:41 a healthy chunk of tape on Jaheim White, and Rodney Gallagher,
08:47 Trae Lynn Ray, and some of these other young kids that are gonna have to
08:51 adjust to teams adjustments?
08:53 That's a big, big question mark that nobody is talking about.
08:58 If they handle those well like I anticipate, then they're gonna be fine.
09:02 But that's why Nico is so important in this thing.
09:11 Because once Garrett leaves after 24, say they win,
09:14 worst case scenario, they win 10 games, 10 games total.
09:20 That's including the bowl game, whatever.
09:22 That's still pretty damn good.
09:25 And look, again, you can have your thoughts and hopes and
09:30 aspirations for a playoff spot, and I'm not gonna stop you, you should.
09:35 This is a very talented team that Neil's got coming back next year.
09:39 But this is worst case scenario here.
09:41 If your worst case scenario is 10 wins, and I'm not saying it necessarily is, but
09:46 let's for sake of this video, 10 wins is pretty damn good.
09:53 Especially considering for WU football who's typically average somewhere between
09:58 seven and eight wins over the last 20 some years.
10:01 That's not a bad thing.
10:05 But if you win 10 games with Garrett Green,
10:07 you've now won 19 games over the last two years.
10:11 And you more player retention obviously plays a big part in this.
10:18 But assuming you get that whole young cluster of kids back, and
10:23 that's Traylor Ray, Hudson, Clement, Rodney Gallagher.
10:26 Same thing with the guys on the defensive side of the ball.
10:31 If those guys continue to stay in the program, you're gonna have the nucleus
10:37 needed to get to the college football playoff.
10:40 And not just get there, but win a game.
10:43 Maybe win two games, maybe really make a run.
10:47 That's why this year for Nico Marchio is so critical, so important.
10:59 We saw what 2022 did for Garrett Green.
11:04 Now, you hope Nico doesn't get into the game in 23,
11:09 unless it's in a blowout situation.
11:13 Because this is Garrett's team.
11:15 This isn't something that you go back to the 20, what, 22 season.
11:20 And JT was your starter for how many ever games and
11:24 it was just not working out.
11:27 And then at the end of the season, Neil flipped the switch and said, all right,
11:29 GG, you're going in.
11:30 You hope that's not the case with Nico in this situation with Garrett.
11:36 I don't really think it would be.
11:37 Garrett's way too proven a quarterback at this point.
11:40 He's too much of a playmaker.
11:42 That's not happening, as long as he's healthy.
11:44 Health is the only concern there.
11:48 But there's a real legitimate chance, folks.
11:56 I'm telling you, a real legitimate chance for this thing to really, really soar.
12:02 Not only do I think West Virginia could make a playoff,
12:07 not only do I think they could win a playoff game or two.
12:10 But this could be the start of West Virginia
12:17 becoming one of the nation's sleeping giants.
12:23 Again, that is if the plan works.
12:27 If the plan works, there is no ceiling on this thing.
12:33 Because you win nine games with Garrett Green in 23, so you win 10 in 24.
12:40 You flip the page over and the plan, the thing works.
12:45 And Nico picks right up in 25 and so you win,
12:49 because of the pieces around him, he's an older quarterback now.
12:54 So you win 10 or 11 games again.
12:55 26 is his last year, I believe.
13:01 And that's a pretty veteran laden group at that point.
13:06 And along the way, your success on the recruiting tour,
13:12 I would assume would be exponentially better than what it has been.
13:18 And it's not that it's been bad at all, but
13:21 you're gonna be getting kids you weren't getting before.
13:25 You're gonna be getting interested kids more,
13:29 you're gonna have more kids interested in your program more than you did in 21,
13:35 or 2020, or 2019, or 22 for that matter.
13:42 This has a chance to really be the turning point for Neil Brown and
13:48 for this football program.
13:51 To get away from being that six, seven win team in the Big 12,
13:56 that every once in a while they just, there's the nine to one year.
14:01 And then you go back to hitting the reset button,
14:04 you're trying to find your quarterback for a couple of years.
14:07 And this is the first real chance that we've seen,
14:13 since we go back to what, 2016, 17?
14:19 Right, where you had Skyler Howard win ten games unexpectedly,
14:25 kind of like how this just happened with Garrett Green,
14:27 how you unexpectedly won nine freaking football games in a year.
14:32 You were picked dead last in the conference.
14:35 So, obviously how everyone saw that offseason was,
14:40 well, hell, you just won ten games with Skyler Howard.
14:46 What do you think they'll do with Will Greer?
14:47 Now, obviously that situation was much different.
14:52 They didn't really have any proven receivers going into 2017.
14:55 Now, it sounds crazy to say, but at the time, David Sills was
15:02 maybe one of their best receivers in fall camp.
15:05 And everyone was kind of panicking because this kid that just went and
15:11 tried to be a quarterback at the Juco level is our number one receiver.
15:14 Reggie Robertson is a young kid who's one of our better receivers.
15:20 Gary Jennings, another young kid, unproven at that point in time.
15:24 Obviously, we knew what those guys would end up being, but
15:29 this is a much better situation that they're transitioning into than the 16 to
15:34 17 situation.
15:35 So, but it is still a very good chance for this thing to really,
15:41 really go uphill and for West Virginia to kick down the door.
15:48 And I don't know about owning the conference because this conference is too
15:52 competitive from top to bottom.
15:53 I don't think any team in this newly formed Big 12 is ever really
15:59 going to dominate this thing like Oklahoma or Texas did for several years.
16:04 More likely Oklahoma, but there's a legitimate path here for
16:12 West Virginia to kick down the door and be one of these top three or
16:16 four teams in the league every single year.
16:19 And if you are one of the top three or four rosters in that conference every year,
16:23 you're giving yourself a chance.
16:24 The ball bounces your way a couple of times in a single season.
16:29 If you got a top three or four roster,
16:30 all of a sudden you're playing in the college football playoff.
16:32 So now I do want to mention that with the college football playoff,
16:41 everyone's like, you just got to get to the top 12.
16:42 That's not necessarily the case.
16:45 Really, it's the top 11, right?
16:49 Because they're giving a 12th spot to the group of five,
16:53 whoever the highest ranked team is out of that.
16:57 So really, you need to kind of be on the fringe of the top ten.
17:01 If you're inside the top ten, there's no questions about it.
17:05 But again, it's kind of like the same rule applies, at least for
17:08 me, with the 14 playoff.
17:11 Because if you're hanging around, say West Virginia got there,
17:15 let's go back to the 2018 season for just a second.
17:17 I know we're getting way off path here, but go back to the 2018 season,
17:21 where they got up to number seven, right, before the collapse.
17:26 Had they hung around that area for the rest of the year, and
17:29 you get to selection Sunday, and it comes down to, let's say,
17:33 a one loss West Virginia, who their only loss was to Iowa State.
17:38 They're a big 12 champ, they beat Oklahoma.
17:40 Let's just say that scenario played out.
17:46 And you have a one loss Alabama, or I don't even remember the other teams, but
17:50 let's say you have a one loss SEC team.
17:52 You're putting yourself in a tough situation,
17:56 because you know what the committee wants.
17:58 You know what the committee is gonna do.
18:01 The same thing can happen in the 12 team,
18:05 if you're not really comfortably inside the top ten.
18:08 Or maybe even the top eight, right?
18:13 Because when you get to that eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve spots,
18:18 someone's gonna be pissed off.
18:20 That's just how it's gonna work.
18:22 It's always gonna be like that,
18:23 no matter how many teams you have in the dang thing.
18:25 But you need to really kinda get in the top ten early in the year and
18:32 stay in there, because the longer you've been in there, the more likely it is that
18:36 you're gonna get in there for the college football playoff.
18:39 But I don't wanna go too far off track.
18:43 I know I've done that quite a bit here today.
18:46 But the main theme for this episode, again, the plan is in place.
18:52 You've got Garrett Green for one more year.
18:55 Go ball out, kid.
18:57 Do everything you can in your last year to try and
19:01 bring back a big 12 title and set the standard for
19:07 West Virginia football moving forward.
19:09 That way you can pass the torch to Nico Marquial, and
19:13 this thing can really just blossom into something special.
19:17 And I'll just go ahead and put this out there right now.
19:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]
19:24 If West Virginia wins, let's just say nine or ten games, or
19:29 if they get to the big 12 championship,
19:32 because there's so many ways that that could look like, right?
19:36 If they do that, for some of you Neil Brown haters,
19:42 sorry, but he's gonna be around.
19:47 They're gonna be throwing some money his way because other teams around the country,
19:51 other schools around the country, they're gonna look at what he's done over these
19:56 two years at West Virginia in 23 and 24, if that happens, and say,
20:01 what's going on over there?
20:06 And some of these donors or these upper echelon people at these other
20:11 power five schools are gonna look over there and say, hey,
20:16 you wanna go check that situation out in Morgantown?
20:21 Is that guy gonna wanna leave?
20:24 Could we get him to leave?
20:26 So he's preparing you now for those that don't want to see Neil succeed.
20:31 If he succeeds again in 24, he's gonna get the bat.
20:35 He's gonna get a contract extension.
20:36 And it'll be well deserved one at that point in time.
20:41 And look, I'm not necessarily right there with you.
20:46 And when I'm saying you, I'm saying the Neil Brown haters.
20:50 I'm in the middle right now in terms of my trust or
20:54 optimism with Neil on this program,
20:58 probably a little bit more towards trusting the client.
21:03 But I think, for me at least, I've gotta see something twice to
21:08 really believe that it's an actual thing,
21:12 especially when there hasn't been concrete evidence of it happening before, right?
21:20 Because you go back to from the 19 to 22 seasons, and
21:25 I mean, let's be honest, it was a crapshoot, right?
21:30 Wasn't very good.
21:32 So is this 23 season just a factor of a lighter schedule?
21:38 Is it the ball bouncing your way a couple times minus the Hail Mary and
21:42 the Oklahoma State game?
21:43 So I guess the ball didn't really bounce your way, so check that box.
21:46 Was it just an anomaly?
21:49 Or is this gonna become what a Neil Brown coached and
21:55 lead team looks like at WVU once he's finally got a quarterback in place?
22:00 Because the first four years, he didn't have one.
22:04 So, like I've said before many times before,
22:12 I tip my hat to him because he overcame a lot of adversity, a lot of criticism.
22:17 I've criticized him just about as much as anybody.
22:20 But credit where credit is due, and
22:25 Neil Brown deserves a whole hell of a lot of credit right now.
22:28 So we'll see.
22:31 What do you think about the plan?
22:34 Is Garrett Green gonna win enough games to kind of set the standard?
22:40 Is Nico Markey all gonna come in and pick right up where Garrett left off and
22:46 keep this team toward the top of the Big 12?
22:49 And then all of a sudden, wouldn't you know it,
22:54 West Virginia is a sleeping giant in college football.
23:00 Let me know your thoughts in the YouTube comments.
23:04 And let me know what you think about Nico Markey all in his game.
23:10 I'm interested to see kind of your thoughts on him right now as we speak,
23:14 not as the finished product.
23:15 I wanna hear you guys' thoughts on him.
23:18 If you've been able to catch some of his tape or
23:20 just the stuff that you've seen in either the spring game or
23:23 the small sample size that we had this past season.
23:25 So let me know what you think about Nico and
23:28 just the thoughts about having that possibility where Garrett Green does
23:32 exactly that, Nico steps right in and he is the dude, and this thing is off and running.
23:37 So that'll do it for me here today.
23:40 On Between the Ears, I'm Skylar Callan.
23:42 Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube and Mountain Ears.
23:45 Now give us a like as well and follow us on X at the same handle.
23:49 You can follow myself at Callahan underscore.
23:53 That'll do it for today's episode of Between the Ears.
23:55 We'll catch you back here tomorrow morning.
23:56 [MUSIC]