MORGANTOWN — Three days into fall camp, WVU head coach Neal Brown and first-year offensive coordinator Graham Harrell are mum on the quarterback situation, no surprise considering pads weren’t even put on until Wednesday.
After Garrett Greene, Goose Crowder and Nicco Marchiol battled it out this spring, JT Daniels enters the mix this fall with the expectation he’ll grab the starting job, with his previous track record at USC and Georgia, replacing three-year starter Jarret Doege.
But that isn’t the way coaches operate, and no one is willing to say who is favored to lead the Mountaineers against Pitt on Sept. 1.
“I would say it’s still really early,” Harrell said. “You’re still almost getting a summer workout. When we put pads on, it’ll probably be a lot more telling.”
According to Brown, there have been an equal number of reps between the four to start camp, though that number will change when someone starts to separate himself over the next four weeks.
Stills, Daniels did not transfer to WVU to ride the bench, and one of the biggest reasons he chose the Mountaineers over Missouri and Oregon State was his prior relationship with Harrell. Harrell was the offensive coordinator at USC in 2019, Daniels’ final season with the Trojans.
Daniels started that season as the starter, but an injury forced him to the bench behind Kedon Slovis, who has also since transferred and is now expected to start at Pitt.
While some of the language within the offense is a bit different from three years ago, Harrell said Daniels’ familiarity with the offense works to his benefit.
“I definitely think it’s an advantage,” Harrell said. “He stepped in way ahead of a guy you took, a normal transfer, that you’re having to teach from scratch. I think having a prior relationship, having a year of reps in this offense and being familiar with what we do definitely helps the calls and speeds up his ability to execute.”
In between the two stints together, Daniels worked in a more “pro-style” offense at Georgia under offensive coordinator Todd Monken, while Harrell’s philosophy falls under the Mike Leach “Air Raid” system.
Harrell doesn’t worry about overlap or Daniels being weighed down with too much information going from system to system, even hoping certain things he learned with the defending national champions carries over.
The reason? Harrell trusts Daniels and knows it’s difficult to get him flustered.
“He’s very intelligent and he’s very even-keeled,” Harrell said. “I think because of that, coaching him, he doesn’t change much. It’s very similar to the way he was before, he’s always been intelligent and understands football very well, and I think now maybe he understands it a little better.”
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