MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Eastern Christian Academy football coach Dwayne Thomas says quarterback David Sills plans to enroll at West Virginia in January with hopes of winning the starting job immediately.
“His goal has always been to be a starter as a freshman,” Thomas said.
Sills, whose astonishing four-year commitment to USC began in seventh grade and ended last month when he re-opened his recruitment, committed to West Virginia on Wednesday.
The Mountaineers, who previously received a commitment from three-star prospect Chris Chugunov, were in desperate need to add a second quarterback to the 2015 class, considering the depth chart is topped by three seniors: Clint Trickett, Paul Millard and Logan Moore.
A pair of 2014 signees—four-star recruit William Crest and junior college transfer Skyler Howard—are waiting for their shots. That means Sills could arrive to a wide-open race next spring.
“The roster fits well for him,” Thomas told MetroNews “Sportsline” on Thursday night. “West Virginia has three quarterbacks that are seniors right now, and barring injury, the younger guys won’t play. David will report in January and have as good an opportunity to earn a starting job as anyone else.”
While recruiting analysts say Sills hasn’t lived up to the stratospheric expectations heaped upon him as a middle-schooler, Thomas thinks his quarterback’s career trajectory has been special nonetheless.
“He’s been a starter for me since eighth grade. He’s been a captain for me since ninth grade.
He has run all my offseason training programs,” Thomas said. “He’s well prepared. I think you get a kid who’s a student of the game, has a high IQ and an extraordinary work ethic.”
With Eastern Christian planning to install several WVU-style sets this fall, the coach said Sills’ versatility will be on display.
“Most people think of David as a statuesque, sit-in-the-pocket type quarterback, but he really is quite the opposite. He is a dual-threat quarterback.”