After West Virginia’s week one loss to Penn State, quarterback Garrett Greene took a significant amount of blame for the loss.
“It just comes down to me not making enough plays,” Greene said after the game. “That’s what it boils down to.”
Even after he threw for four touchdowns on Saturday — being the first WVU quarterback to accomplish such a feat since 2018 — he echoed that same sentiment.
“I think the biggest thing was me getting on page with the wideouts,” Greene said. “It all gets back to me, I got to get the guys going. I got to get them started faster.”
So far this season Greene has totaled 402 yards and four touchdowns through the air, while adding 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Greene’s leadership as well as his mindset have been noticed head coach Neal Brown and the rest of the WVU coaching staff, even just through six quarters of play. Brown said he saw Greene’s leadership play out in a crucial way against Duquesne when Greene had multiple chances at touchdowns, but he was plagued by drops.
“He threw two really dime throws that should’ve been touchdowns. He threw another one on an out cut that should have been a first down,” Brown said. “We had four legitimate drops in the game but it didn’t faze him one bit. Totally unsolicited, I kind of peeked back there and he’s over there talking to the guys that didn’t make the catches. He did the same thing, I think we had two drops at Penn State. He didn’t let it affect him.”
Offensive coordinator Chad Scott saw the same thing in Greene; turning a negative into a positive.
“He didn’t sulk, he didn’t hang his head. He came on the sideline and told those guys, we’ll get the next one. I thought that was a great response by him,” Scott said. “That was his response, they’ll get it, we’ll get it, and that was good to see.”
With Greene’s leadership abilities and high energy comes a price to pay if you’re West Virginia. In the first quarter Greene has completed 42.8 percent of his passes, compared to his 57.8 percent mark on the season.
“He’s a ball of energy, that’s his greatest strength. He does a really good job of being that energy guy all the time. That probably works against him a little bit at start of games because he is so amped up,” Brown said. “We’ve got to figure out a way as a staff and I’m talking about everything from our sports psych people to our strength and sports science and our coaching to get him to calm down a little bit where he can execute a little bit higher.”
“He throws a really tight ball,” Brown added. “It’s a tight spin and when he gets really excited, that ball comes out hot and those balls are hard to catch sometimes. He knows this and he’s conscience of it, but it hurts him a little bit early in games. He’s going to get better at it, it’s just handling those emotions.”
Scott said his staff want to try and get Greene comfortable early on through design and by being smart with their play calling selection.
“The best way to do it is to get him involved early whether that be a quarterback-called run play or him having the opportunity to scramble and get himself hit,” Scott said. “We’re going to need him to have that same energy and keep that energy.”
