Grier, Sills bring out the best in one another

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There have been plenty of dynamic duos over the years.

Batman and Robin. Peanut butter and jelly. Tom and Jerry. Are just a few.

How about considering adding Will Grier and David Sills to the list?

The pair connected for 18 total touchdowns last season, tied for first nationally between a quarterback and wide receiver combination. Impressive, but even more when you consider that Grier didn’t play the final three games of the season after breaking his finger.

And perhaps even more so when you realize that Sills was in his first full-year as a wide receiver at the college level and had just given up his desire to play quarterback.

Grier is one of the front runners for the Heisman Trophy, while Sills, a Biletnikoff finalist a season ago, is right in the thick of things again for the honor given to the best wide receiver nationally.

The two have been joined at the hip even before either really knew it. It even started with their jersey numbers when Sills decided to return to Morgantown after spending one last semester at a California junior college in hopes of sparking some interest for his abilities at quarterback.

“I said No. 7 because that was my number all growing up but obviously that was taken,” Sills said.

The two have learned to play off one another in practice as each have developed into unquestioned leaders of the West Virginia football team entering their senior seasons. The one-time quarterback Sills understands what it’s like to play the position and uses that to help Grier on the field.

“He’ll run a route and come talk to me about what we can do better. If they give us a look, do I want him to do this and I think he understands from a quarterback perspective what I’m looking at and he tries to make it easier on me or how he can adjust,” Grier said. “He helps me and helps him get open.”

It’s something both of them have taken pride in as each tries to motivate one another on a daily basis. The pair have tried to make not only each other great, but the rest of the team as well.

“He sees when I’m struggling or tired and I see when he’s tired or sore so we definitely push each other. We try to be like that with all the guys and he does that with all the guys too,” Sills said. “He picks people up and pushes people to be as good as they can.”

That stretches across the board showing the competitive nature of both. From warmups, to skeleton drills to everything in between the goal is to keep pushing and feed off one another.

The mission is simple set the tone for the rest of the team.

It's something that hasn't been lost on the coaching staff either.

"They're together 24-7 it seems like. I was talking to our nutritionist and they're the last two to leave every day and the first two to get here. They understand they have year left to do something special," offensive coordinator Jake Spavital said.

It also makes sense that when it came time to decide their future last winter, the two consulted each other on whether or not they’d return to school or enter the NFL Draft. While each decision was made independent of one another, it didn’t hurt that both would return.

“It definitely played into it,” Grier said.

The two will look to add even more to their totals this coming fall on an offense that should be improved all the way around considering the maturity and talent returning.

But one thing is for sure, they will be right there pushing each other along the way.

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