Grant Wells has been lights-out.
Marshall University’s third-year redshirt freshman quarterback is among the nation’s leaders in some statistical categories.
In three games, the 6-foot-1, 203-pound Wells has completed 78 of 117 passes (.677) with four touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s averaging 371.7 yards passing, which ranks Wells No. 3 in the country.
Lights-out, indeed.
But what if? What if Wells wasn’t the Thundering Herd’s starting quarterback at 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Appalachian State in Kidd Brewer Stadium at Boone, North Carolina? What if Wells had chosen to play a different sport instead of football?
He almost did.
“It definitely was a hard decision,” Wells said.
That’s how good of a shortstop Wells was. In fact, to this day, there are astute baseball aficionados in both Kanawha County and Cabell County that swear Wells picked the wrong sport.
They insist he was better at baseball than football.
So, did Wells get any college offers in baseball?
“My No. 1 sport for a long time was baseball,” he said. “It was a hard decision to finally pick football over baseball. I eventually did in my senior year of high school.”
That meant Wells fell off the baseball recruiting radar.
“Uh, yeah,” he said. “I probably could have pursued it a little more than I did, but at the end of the day I picked football over baseball.”
As for the knowledgeable baseball guys who think he would have made a better shortstop, Wells just smiles gratefully.
“I did enjoy it,” said Wells. “I had a great time playing high school baseball and travel ball and everything, but I like my decision now.
“I was a pretty decent hitter. I’m not going to pump myself up. That’s not my job to tell you my baseball stats. But, yeah, I enjoyed it.”
Wells obviously would have been a good-sized shortstop at 6-foot-1, 203 pounds. Besides that, he also obviously has great lateral movement. He demonstrates that on the football field every game.
“Yeah, it definitely correlates,” Wells conceded. “Some of my baseball skills come over to baseball and the other way around.”
Of course they do. The list includes throwing motion, strong arm, strong hands, great lateral movement. There are many cross-over elements between being a good quarterback and a good shortstop.
So, how early on did Wells make the decision between football and baseball?
“I eventually made the decision final the fall of my senior year — so, the fall of 2018,” recalled Wells. “But I had known probably for a year or two — sophomore year of high school — that I was going to pick football over baseball. I just put it off as long as I could.”
Yet, it was a closer race than people might think. Football and baseball were fairly even when Wells measured the “like” factor.
“Yeah, they were for a while there,” admitted Wells. “Middle school, the beginning of high school, I would have told you that I would have picked baseball over football. And, then, my success started coming a little bit more in football than it did baseball.
“So, maybe that had a part in the decision.”
Probably so.
But does that mean Wells will lead MU to victory vs. App State? Not necessarily. In fact, I’m calling a balk.
My prediction is App State will defeat MU, 31-21.
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