Allen’s Familiarity With Quarterbacks Making His Coaching Transition Easy
April 02, 2024 01:30 PM | Football, Blog
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – First-year West Virginia quarterbacks coach Tyler Allen has known Garrett Greene since recruiting him when he was at Troy, and his relationship with Nicco Marchiol spans his entire Mountaineer career.
So, Allen knows his top two quarterbacks very well. Perhaps getting to know Allen a little better is in order before proceeding.
The Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, native's playing days consisted of a two-year stint at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College before an arm injury prematurely ended his career.
He hooked up with offensive coordinator Matt Canada at LSU where he earned his bachelor's degree before connecting with Neal Brown at Troy. That led to graduate assistant positions at Troy and then West Virginia before he landed an assistant coaching role at Jacksonville State.
Then came a year at Rice before returning to WVU in 2022 as Brown's offensive analyst and special assistant. When WVU quarterbacks coach Sean Reagan was named Troy's offensive coordinator in January, the logical choice for Brown was to promote Allen.
He knows Brown's system and terminology, and his familiarity with the quarterbacks has made the transition an easy one.
Last Saturday, Allen spoke about his ties to Greene and Marchiol. First-year QBs coach Tyler Allen watching Garrett Greene throw a pass earlier this spring (WVU Athletic Communications photo).
"My relationships with Garrett and Nicco have gone on for a long time," he explained. "I've known Garrett since 2018. I was a GA at Troy and when coach Brown hired me, we were recruiting Garrett when he was at Chiles High School in Tallahassee, and we had him on campus a bunch so we're going on six years now.
"I was here when he got here and then about two months in, I left to take the QB job at Jacksonville State. Coming back, we just really picked up where we left off," he said. "It was an easy transition, and the same with Nicco, who was a freshman when I came back. He had been here for just a semester, and we spent a lot of time together just developing him mentally. He's really taken some big steps these last few months in his development."
Allen said his ideas on developing West Virginia's quarterbacks are a little bit different than what they have experienced here in the past.
He explains.
"Since I've been back, everything I've wanted to do – me and coach Reagan have different opinions on stuff, and that was obviously what he wanted to do, and now it's what I want to do development-wise."
For Greene, that means working on better drop mechanics.
Allen said they made cutups of Greene's best and worst throws, got together and broke down all of them while he took notes. What they determined was that he was consistently inconsistent.
"He has been getting all this (Pro Football Focus) hype and hype on Twitter, and he's got a lot to improve upon," Allen explained. "He can make a huge jump; we know that, and he knows that. He was the 101stquarterback in the country in completion percentage at 53%. That's the obvious thing.
"Well, the non-obvious thing was last January we sat down, and I made him get a cutup of all his bad throws and good throws from this year. We went through and watched them together. On every bad throw, what was wrong? What showed up consistently of things that went wrong was his drop mechanics were different every time," Allen said.
On the intermediate and quick-game throws, Greene's feet were inconsistent each time, according to Allen. Three different hitch passes were typically thrown three different ways.
"He was shuffling (his feet) and doing different things," Allen explained.
He believes Greene's downfield passing can be improved, too.
"A lot of people say he was great throwing the ball down the field, but he also missed a lot of stuff that was on him. If you think of the bowl game, we throw a post to Traylon Ray and the corner is on top of him, and there is nobody in the middle of the field," Allen recalled. "So, what we're working on now is throwing guys open. Instead of throwing the ball over the corner where we can't run through that guy, now we want to throw the ball to the middle of the field where Traylon can separate from the corner and go catch and score."
Allen also believes Greene needs more touch on his short and intermediate passes and having better mechanics when he's in the pocket or on the move.
"We're working on pressure in the pocket, and he's having to move and still make accurate throws when he's not falling off and becoming inaccurate," Allen said. "He had a really tough time working to his left being accurate."
As for Marchiol, Allen is working on the mental approach to his game.
"It was all about looking at receivers, and it gets him in trouble a lot of times because at this level you can't just look at a receiver," he explained. "The safety is going to come over and he's going to throw a pick, and we've seen that at times in practice. Well, over the last few months, I've really spent a ton of time with him and the first few days of practice we've looked like a completely different group.
"Garrett wasn't here (for the first practice), and Nicco got to take over the team, and he had a great a day and his eyes were in windows," Allen said. "He was looking at safeties. How do you sit there and watch film as a quarterback? He's really come a long way in anticipating throws."
Allen admits he gives his guys the unvarnished truth when it comes to their play.
"When we meet, I don't leave anything out. One thing with (Nicco) was, 'Look man, we had 10 sacks last year. You started two games and had five of them.' That's one thing we have to fix," Allen said. "A lot of it has to do with reading the defense and seeing that stuff. He is seeing it now and he knows how to do it, and when he does it right, he's confident in it and has been able to throw with people around him."
Allen said the growth and development Marchiol has made the last couple months as a college quarterback is remarkable.
"He's gotten so much better these last two months, and it has shown in the first two days of practice. He was lighting it up, and his decision making was in the 90th percentile after grading it all," Allen said. "It all has to do with he's been here longer, he understands the offense and now it's that next step of getting his eyes in windows and seeing safeties and limiting negative plays and his decision making has just skyrocketed."
Having two experienced quarterbacks is a luxury West Virginia has not had since Brown took over in 2019. Both guys are capable running the offense and playing winning football.
"We know Garrett is the starter, but the thing about Nicco is he is just one play away from playing and it happened last year," Allen noted. "Garrett had to come out and it was, 'Nicco, it's time to go, man.' My thing to him is there can't be a drop-off. It's got to be better. How do you get there?"
Beyond Greene and Marchiol, Allen said the next objective is to develop a reliable No. 3 quarterback between redshirt freshman Sean Boyle and sophomore Scott Kean. He said those two are in a real position battle this spring.
"We're trying to get them a lot of reps this spring," he said. "Both of those guys have got to come along. We have to see if we have a guy who, if the stuff hits the fan, who can go in and go win a football game? They've got to prove that one of them can do that, so we have a true No. 3."
As for his No. 1 and No. 2 guys, the secret for Allen will be helping them become the best versions of themselves.
For Greene, that means fostering his tremendous playmaking abilities. By either using his arm or his feet, Greene was involved in every explosive offensive play from scrimmage of more than 20 yards that went for a touchdown last year. With Greene out there, West Virginia is a threat to score from anywhere on the field.
For Marchiol, it means complementing his competitiveness and physicality. Nicco has the size and strength to break arm tackles and move the football in the run game while just being a baller out there on the field.
Both are proven winners.
Allen believes Greene can develop into an elite college quarterback this fall despite his diminutive stature.
"Today, it doesn't matter how big you are. If you can run around and make plays, you can play," he said. "He had a great year, but we feel like he can turn that into something even better to where he is among the top (quarterbacks) in the country."
West Virginia had practice No. 4 earlier today inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility and afterward players Sean Martin, Anthony Wilson and Brandon Yates were made available to the media.
The remaining schedule for this week includes a Thursday morning workout, followed by interviews with assistant coaches ShaDon Brown and Matt Moore, and then a Saturday morning practice with Neal Brown discussing it afterward.
