Might WVU’s signing of Daniels be bigger than that of Grier?
I was scrolling through social media the other day when my eyes stopped on an opinion.
WVU landing Georgia transfer JT Daniels through the portal, said the writer, isn’t as big as when Will Grier left Florida for Morgantown.
And he’s correct. Landing Daniels isn’t as big.
It’s bigger.
I know, I know. When Grier left Florida schools like Ohio State and Oregon were recruiting him. With Daniels, WVU reportedly beat out Missouri and Oregon State.
Still, when it comes to Neal Brown, the Mountaineer football team and the WVU athletic department, landing Daniels was huge.
Let’s look at the ways.
First, when Grier signed with WVU, yes, there were (as with Daniels) national headlines. With Florida as a redshirt freshman, the QB and his Gators were 6-0 before he was stopped by a failed PED test. Everything then fell apart between coach Jim McElwain and Grier.
But when national sports TV chyrons trumpeted the news that Grier was heading to WVU, it was good news in good times.
Grier announced his intentions on April 6, 2016. The Mountaineers had won eight games in 2015. And in that 2016 season, West Virginia went 10-3 (thanks Skyler Howard) and finished No. 17 in the coaches poll.
When Grier took over the records were 7-6 and 8-4. (Grier broke a finger on his throwing hand during the 2017 season). Also, look at the players WVU had in that time frame: Gary Jennings, David Long, Kyzir White, Dravon Askew-Henry, David Sills, Trevon Wesco, etc. The cupboard was anything but bare.
Compare that with WVU’s football fortunes of late. Under Neal Brown, WVU has gone 5-7, 6-4 and 6-7. And that cupboard has been losing talent at an alarming rate to the transfer portal. Defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor was the latest.
Brown received good news when quarterback Nicco Marchiol arrived on campus a couple of months ago, but college football fans don’t expect a true freshman to immediately lift a team by himself.
So, first, this was huge for Brown, who knows he must win now. That wasn’t the case for former WVU coach Dana Holgorsen, although his schtick was getting old.
It must be huge for the Mountaineer team as a whole. Along with new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, Daniels can give WVU an offensive identity – finally.
Yet, perhaps foremost, the arrival of Daniels is huge for WVU’s athletic department, specifically the ticket office. When Daniels signed, John Antonik, director of athletic content for WVU athletics, immediately put this on Twitter: “I’m hearing the Mountaineer Ticket Office is open today selling football season tickets in case you were wondering.”
Sure, signing Grier also provided a boost to ticket sales, but, again, that was good news in good times. Signing Daniels now is like finding a water truck in the middle of the desert.
Daniels is a former 5-star recruit. He has the pedigree of being at USC and Georgia for two seasons each. He was 7-0 over two seasons for the Bulldogs.
And check out his message, which, Brown hopes, is heard loud and clear nationally. “Going up and down the roster, I feel like they have very, very good pieces everywhere,” Daniels told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “It feels like a great fit for a quarterback.”
Daniels’ father also helped with WVU’s marketing.
“He felt comfortable with the staff,” said Steve Daniels to 247Sports’ Tom Loy. “He felt there was plenty of talent there to win. They took him in, they have this analytics dude. They have all these ratings for all the players. They said JT comes in and is among the best QBs in the Big 12. It takes them from roughly 6 wins to 10 wins at minimum. That was big. He wants to win a championship and now they know the Big 12 title is now attainable.”
Again, that’s huge.
Understand I’m not downplaying Grier’s time at WVU. One of my last duties at the Charleston Gazette-Mail was to write a feature on him. A normal game story is around 12 inches in length. My feature reached 80-plus inches.
But considering how starved WVU was for good news – pairing Daniels with Harrell – I can’t help but think this is bigger.
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