WVU Football: David Sills V Shines in Spring Game for ‘Eers
By Phil Poling
The annual Gold-Blue spring game was an exciting one for WVU football Saturday, but one particular ‘Eer stood out from the rest.
His name is a familiar one in Morgantown, but his particular path is far from ordinary.
David Sills V – now a wide receiver and the favorite target of quarterback Will Grier for WVU – was once a child quarterback prodigy. At the age of 13, Sills had a scholarship (albeit from Lane Kiffin) to play football at USC. This was in 2010 after the Pete Carroll-empire had collapsed, but still just a minor footnote in Sills’ journey.
He wound up in Morgantown as a freshman, but instead of playing quarterback Sills was impressing coaches at wide receiver. He played sparingly his first year on campus, but managed to grab seven catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns – including the game-winning touchdown in the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl against Arizona State. It was his only catch of the game, which makes it that much more impressive.
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After the 2015-16 campaign, Sills still had dreams of playing quarterback. And, luckily for him, he was able to chase that dream; it wasn’t going to happen at WVU, though.
After turning down a West coast quarterback opportunity once, Sills opted for it the second time around when he enrolled in El Camino College in Torrance, Calif. His lone season as a Warrior was up-and-down. Sills played in 10 games and threw for 1,636 yards and 15 touchdowns. He had 7 passes intercepted and completed only 54 percent of his throws. Sills did run the ball 96 times for 258 yards, but fumbled three times; the Warriors finished their season 4-6.
Then, Sills announced on December 14, 2016 he’d be returning to Morgantown and the WVU football team. In the spring game, Sills gave us a peek into the type of career that’s possible, and coach Dana Holgorsen gave much praise to the transitioning wide receiver in his post-game presser.
"“Yeah, he’s our most valuable guy right now, which is not surprising. He’s been doing it every day for 15 days. David has a starting quarterback mentality. He’s extremely, extremely football smart. I knew that when I recruited him, and so that rubs off on the guys in the huddle. That connection has been fun to watch, and over the course of the next two years, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch. David is going to keep getting better. He’s committed to playing receiver now, and he gets better every day. I mean, he’s disappointed in himself right now because he didn’t make a couple of the plays that you thought he could have (made). I thought it was a pretty good spring game for him.”"
Sills caught five of Grier’s seven first quarter passes for 62 yards, and even chipped in a nice down-field block on Justin Crawford’s 51-yard touchdown. Sills added a third quarter catch for 34 yards and finished his day with 6 catches for 96 total yards. It was the way he did it, though. Over the middle, out routes, broken-down plays: Sills understands what a quarterback is looking for.
Have I mentioned that Sills is 6’4″? That’s great size for a wide receiver, especially when his quarterback can place the ball anywhere he wants to. Expect Sills, who wore No. 13 in the spring game, to have a large role going forward in Holgorsen’s offense. This six-catch performance shouldn’t be the ceiling for Sills, but rather the groundwork to a 60 catch, 1,000-yard season.