MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Quarterback David Sills, who famously committed to USC coach Lane Kiffin as a 13-year-old seventh-grader in 2010, pledged to West Virginia on Wednesday afternoon, according to Rivals.
The Class of 2015 four-star recruit decommitted from USC last month, a move long predicted after Kiffin was fired last season and the Trojans began courting other quarterbacks.
Sills is no longer hailed as a can’t-miss, once-in-a-generation prospect. The hype has simmered and he’s not among the 19 top quarterbacks listed in ESPN’s national top 300. Yet he continues to be pursued by the likes of Michigan, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Maryland as he enters his senior season at Eastern Christian Academy in Elkton, Md. That’s the same program that produced WVU receiver Daikiel Shorts and running back Wendell Smallwood.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Sills—ranked by Rivals as the nation’s No. 14 pro-style quarterback—is the Mountaineers’ second quarterback commitment for 2015, following June’s announcement by three-star prospect Chris Chugunov of New Jersey.
“Sills has prototypical size and throws an accurate, catchable ball,” said Rivals senior writer Keenan Cummings of WVSports.com. “Sills isn’t the dual-threat with feet like class of 2014 quarterback William Crest, but he does have the big arm and pocket presence West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen has shown to prefer.”
Added Scout writer Kevin Kinder of BlueGoldNews.com: “He looked good at WVU’s camp in drills where he had to reset his feet and avoid pass-rushers, so he’s not a statue. But he’s definitely a stand-in-the-shotgun, read-the-field-and-let-it-go type of quarterback.”
A longtime pupil of quarterbacks guru Steve Clarkson, Sills has played a number of high-profile high school games—the kind of training that could make him a contender for West Virginia’s starting job as a true freshman. By that point, Crest would be a sophomore or a redshirt freshman and junior-college transfer Skyler Howard would be a redshirt sophomore.