West Virginia’s Scotty Fox runs with the ball during a college football game earlier this season in Morgantown. (Photo by David Pennock)

Usually, when the season isn’t going well, like West Virginia at 2-4 this season, it’s time to give the young players a shot, building and preparing them for next season. For Rich Rodriguez, he’s needed to play young players out of necessity, especially at quarterback.

Rodriguez announced Monday that four-game starting quarterback Nicco Marchiol was out for the season, backup Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson was doubtful for UCF, and Charlotte transfer Max Brown was also banged up. All three veterans don’t sound like they’ll play against UCF. So, the options left are redshirt freshman Khalil Wilkins and true freshman Scotty Fox Jr. to play in WVU’s seventh game.

“Unfortunately, the experienced guys, Nicco is out, Jaylen’s been out, still doubtful, Max, he’s the other experienced guy, he’s been banged up,” Rodriguez said. “So the two young guys have been taking more reps, which is good for them. Every rep they can take is going to help with their growth.”

Wilkins started against BYU when the veterans weren’t healthy, and threw for only 81 yards and had two interceptions. He was more effective on the ground, leading the team in rushing with 89 yards and a touchdown. Fox came in during garbage time and was 3-for-3 for 54 yards, including a 29-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Cam Vaughn, keeping the quarterback competition open.

Rodriguez spent the bye week working with his young quarterbacks, trying to correct the errors, like the two interceptions Wilkins threw against BYU and the back-to-back picks Fox had against Pitt.

“They’re also learning the game at this level, and what it takes to execute at a high level,” Rodriguez said. “I thought last week was good for them to get a lot of reps, then certainly, they’re going to do the same this week.”

Rodriguez is still looking for one of them to emerge as the starter, and he said it’s really not that complicated in what he’s looking for. He’s looking for one of them to “make the plays that are there,” and if the playcall is bad, not make it worse by going something “disastrous.”

“A lot of times, your quarterback, people are judging on what they do with the good plays,” Rodriguez said. “Sometimes, if there’s a play call that’s not as good, they can rescue you out of it, or at least minimize the damage a little bit, too. That comes with experience, but again, we don’t have the benefit of that. They’ve got to grow, grow in a hurry.”

Rodriguez said before the season he’d prefer to have just one quarterback, but with the injuries, he hasn’t had that luxury. The issue is, you need a quarterback. All the top teams in college football have a quarterback. Ohio State has Julian Sayin, Miami has Carson Beck and Indiana has Fernando Mendoza.

“If you have a great quarterback, you’ve always got a chance to win,” Rodriguez said. “If you don’t have one that’s good, you always struggle. It’s a team game, but it all starts with that guy at any level. You look at the pro level, you look at the collegiate level, at the high school level, you got a guy there, you’re going to have a chance.”

The question is, does WVU have that on its roster? Are one of the two young players going to be the future QB1 for WVU?

With the injuries to the veterans, Rodriguez should figure out if Wilkins or Fox is gonna be the starter going forward, starting with UCF in Game 7.

“There are a lot of good ones out there,” Rodriguez said. “I think we got good ones on our roster. We’ll recruit good ones and keep bringing good ones in.”