Last week in this exact same spot of the Sunday sports section, there was a call for WVU head coach Neal Brown to dig deep within and do something about a stagnant offense that seemingly hasn’t done much in over two years.
Three turnovers against Maryland, including two critical interceptions by quarterback Jarret Doege, doomed the Mountaineers, and it was after an offseason hearing how much Doege had improved after his benching in last season’s Liberty Bowl.
To no one’s surprise, Doege earned the start Saturday against Long Island, but Brown said on his weekly radio show this week the plan was to get backup Garrett Greene a fair share of chances.
That plan succeeded as Doege played a majority of the first half with the exception of one drive — led by Greene, then Doege had two more drives in the second half and Greene brought home the 66-0 win the rest of the way.
And both QBs played very well, with Doege thriving in the short and medium passing game, and Greene using his legs in a way WVU fans haven’t seen for a long time. Doege’s day ended with 267 yards and three touchdowns, while Greene threw for 57 yards but had a big game on the ground with 98 rushing yards and two scores.
With a big rivalry game against Virginia Tech looming, many wanted to see Greene take the reins away from Doege, but Doege did nothing against the Sharks to lose his starting spot.
As well as Greene played, LIU is a struggling program trying to work its way up from Division II to FCS, which it did just three years ago.
There is no one on the team as popular as the backup quarterback, and while many clamor for Greene to get more playing time in meaningful situations, myself included, the coaches are the ones who see them every day in practice.
Brown made it a point postgame to applaud Greene on a job well done, but also point out that his performance is exactly why the starting quarterback battle wasn’t much of a battle at all during fall camp.
“Garrett did some things,” Brown said. “We had the first two drives of the game scripted for him play wise, and I don’t think he ran any of the plays the way they were supposed to be ran, but he made some plays. Credit to him, and that’s kind of where he’s at right now. He’s fun to watch. He’s got some juice about him.”
Greene has a flair to him that Doege doesn’t. He also has the added dimension of making plays in the running game. But if he doesn’t have control of the offense and improvises when he shouldn’t, that can spell big trouble against another Power 5 team.
Doege will start against the Hokies, there is no doubt about it. But with Greene’s performance is an intriguing one, and Brown said he will evaluate the quarterback situation early this week.
For those hoping for Greene, Brown ended his postgame news conference with a bit of hope, but he may not be the immediate savior you think.
“He’s going through this maturation and growth process. He’s a guy that didn’t have a ‘normal quarterback upbringing,’ ” Brown said. “His spring was up-and-down. We felt like he had a better summer. His fall camp was still up-and-down. It wasn’t as consistent as we’d like to see. We didn’t think he was ready to play in the opener. We knew he was going to play this week. We’ll go back and evaluate the film and, if his play here and his play throughout the week warrants that he gets an opportunity in situations, then, yes, we will use him. I think he can help us.”
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