MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Marshall redshirt freshman quarterback Grant Wells has already gone through a full spring practice schedule with the Thundering Herd. No more practices will be coming this spring however.
Schools across the country at all levels have had their traditional window of fifteen spring workouts halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Marshall was scheduled to open drills just days after all sports nationwide were put on hiatus.
Wells threw for 2,538 yards and 22 touchdown passes in his senior season at George Washington High School. He graduated early in December of 2018, allowing him to enroll at Marshall for the spring semester in 2019. Wells was able to get an early jump on his first season of college football.
“It was a huge benefit,” Wells said. “Basically the spring is a whole different season so going through a whole season before the season gave me an edge. Things go a lot slower than they do in the fall. It is really good for the young guys to get a foot in the door and learn the offense as quickly as possible.”
With in-person classes and official practices discontinued, Wells is mixing workouts with online classes and virtual team meetings.
“(Tuesday) I had virtual class at 11. So I logged in there and then we had a quarterback meeting at 3. We all got on Zoom and did the meeting as normally as possible virtually. We are getting everything in online and it is up to you to get all your work in.
“Everybody is in the same boat. It is not like anybody has gone through something like this before. We kind of lean on each other to motivate each other even if we aren’t together. They are trying to make everything as consistent as possible as if we were all still in Huntington.”
During his redshirt season, Wells served primarily as Marshall’s scout team quarterback. He was named the scout team player of the week prior to the Louisiana Tech game.
“The speed of the game changes but so do the people around you. Building trust throughout the whole offense and the whole team was really one of my main priorities.
“I was mainly the scout team quarterback so the majority of the time I was going up against our defense, which was a blessing in disguise because I was going up against one of the top defenses in Conference USA.”
Redshirt junior Isaiah Green is the incumbent starter for the Herd. He has appeared in 22 games over the last two seasons, tossing 29 touchdowns and 20 interceptions. Wells is one of five quarterbacks listed on the Marshall roster and he is hoping for a chance to climb the depth chart as the 2020 season nears.
“Certainly I would love to get the starting job but my main goal this year is to help this team in as many ways as possible. My goal is to go into fall camp and show them that I am ready to help this team succeed.”