Will Grier impresses during season in the shadows

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Though West Virginia is in the midst of an encouraging start to its 2016 football season, the bye week gives idle minds room to cogitate on matters forthcoming. I mean, doomsday preppers don’t start building bunkers after the apocalypse, right?

The Gold & Blue Lunch notes there are 331 days until West Virginia vs. Virginia Tech at FedEx Field and, presumably, the dawn of the Will Grier Era. By that juncture, Grier will have gone 693 days between college football games.

So how is his season in the shadows progressing?

Tony Gibson, WVU’s defensive coordinator, encounters a torrent of quality quarterbacks across the Big 12 and likes what he sees from Grier in practice.

“Will is really, really talented. Will really sees the field,” Gibson said. “He’s got scout-team guys on offense going against our ones on defense, and he does some things that are just ‘Wow!’”

Gibson so appreciates the value of his defense practicing against a quality quarterback that Dana Holgorsen must balance the time Grier spends learning WVU’s offense as opposed to mimicking the opponent’s flavor the week.

”Gibby, he loves Will now. He says ‘I want him with me the whole time,’ and I was like ‘Well you’re not going to get him the whole time.’ He has to keep progressing with us,” Holgorsen said.

(Sidebar: Don’t let the tug-of-war angle become overblown. Gibson told me Grier’s football I.Q. is so advanced he doesn’t have to sit in scout-team meetings to understand the opposing offense. “We can show him a card,” Gibby said, and Grier essentially approximates the look.)

With Chris Chugunov and William Crest needing to become serviceable backups, Holgorsen can’t afford to devote live team reps to a quarterback who’s sitting out the entire season. However, there was a good-on-good skelly drill earlier this season in which Grier briefly took command of the offense.

“He threaded the needle a few times,” Gibson said, “and did some other things I hadn’t seen in a while.”

Added receiver Ka’Raun White: “He only practiced that one day (with the starters) but he looked pretty good from what I saw. He’s comfortable back there, he’s got good height to him, and his ball looked pretty good.”

Incumbent quarterback Skyler Howard, who’s 13-6 as a starter for the Mountaineers, has a promising senior campaign afoot, ranking 18th nationally at 318 passing yards per game. Based on four months’ interaction with Grier, he understands how the Florida transfer became Rivals’ No. 2-rated dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2014.

“He’s a baller, he’s a quarterback, he’s a guy who loves playing football,” Howard said. “With his knowledge, he picks it up faster than other guys.”





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