MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As WVU football hits the midpoint of its spring season, position battles continue to heat up. The one garnering the most attention is at quarterback.

Junior Garrett Greene and redshirt freshman Nicco Marchiol continue to duke it out for the starting role.

“They do some of the same things well. Overall they are different but have the same characteristics like the ability to be a dual threat. Nicco is more of a strong runner and Garrett is more of a fast runner,” head coach Neal Brown said. “Both are really talented but inexperienced.”

As to be expected, the competition has seen ups and downs for Greene and Marchiol, but that doesn’t change Brown’s excitement about what both players are capable of.

On Tuesday, Marchiol threw a touchdown and then hit Devin Carter in stride on the opposite end of a 50-yard pass. He did have a crucial error in a two-minute situation and a turnover that Brown said could have been avoided.

Greene connected with CJ Donaldson for a score, made guys miss on a big play with his legs and added a second TD pass later in practice. However, he did take a sack and a grounding penalty.

According to the head coach, their good days are really good. The goal is to put them in pressure situations to see how much they’ve learned and how far they still have to go.

“One of them will have a really good day, or maybe two in a row. Then the other one will show up. Even if one of them goes on a hot streak for a week, we aren’t going to base our decision off one hot week,” Brown said.

The evaluation process started this spring but Brown said he really started taking a closer look at Greene and Marchiol over the final three or four weeks of the season as he mapped out the direction of the program’s future.

“I felt really good about the direction we needed to go. We had two really, really good candidates. Both guys can win games in the Big 12. Through nine practices, it really confirmed my thoughts from back in November,” Brown said.

“It’s going to be a long approach. We will look at spring in its entirety then summer, and carry it into fall camp.”