With fall camp for Virginia Tech football well underway, the battle for the starting quarterback position looks to be between transfers Grant Wells and Jason Brown since the team has no entrenched starter.
Head coach Brent Pry, offensive coordinator Tyler Brown, and quarterbacks coach Brad Glenn will ultimately have to make the decision as to the starter. Both Wells and Brown have shown flashes of success and athleticism across the last two months in Blacksburg.
A Marshall transfer, Wells completed 66.3% of his passes last season for 3,532 yards and 16 touchdowns. The Charleston, West Virginia, native demonstrated his dual-threat ability by finding the end zone seven times on the ground.
A two-year starter during his time in Huntington, Wells came to Virginia Tech having been named the 2020 Conference USA Freshman of the Year when he led the league with 2,091 passing yards and 18 touchdowns. He also has eight 300-yard passing games on his resume.
Brown is a Fredericksburg, Va., native who came to Blacksburg after having started four games a season ago at South Carolina where he quickly became a key component in helping the Gamecocks reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018. Brown connected on 60-of-108 passes for 721 yards and eight touchdowns during the 2021 season for Shane Beamer’s team that won the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
After leading the garnet and black to two big-time victories against Florida and Auburn, Brown became a fan favorite in Columbia. Prior to South Carolina, Brown was a 2019 FCS All-America selection at St. Francis (Pa.) after leading the Northeast Conference with 3,084 passing yards, completing 62.3% of his passes while delivering 28 touchdowns against six interceptions.