Player Spotlight: Grant Gunnell

It has been a bit since the first player spotlight was posted on here (although I did do one on my inaugural podcast episode... "The Redshirt" on Spotify), but today we will deep dive into another athlete. For this, I reached out to the dark side, I asked my buddy Noah Mgrublian to write about Arizona QB Grant Gunnell. I am a loud and proud hater of the Wildcats from Tuscum, but this kid could be special. Now let's look into the Texas-born gunslinger, take it away Noah.

For the second edition of player spotlight series, we’ll be breaking down Grant Gunnell of the Arizona Wildcats.

Sport: College Football

Position: Quarterback

Team: Arizona Wildcats

Birthplace: The Woodlands, Texas

High School: St. Pius X (Houston, TX)

Year: Rising Sophomore

Accolades: All-time Texas HS passing yards and touchdowns leader, 4 time HS All American.

Grant Gunnell is a 6’6” pocket statue with a very bright future. Grant is a rising sophomore with moderate expectations for success in 2020. Gunnell begun his freshman year of high school on the varsity squad with St. Pius X high school a TAPPS Division 1 District 3 Football team. Grant saw limited playing time in his freshman season, but still was able to post 1,447 yards, 16 touchdowns, and a completion percentage of 65.8%. The sophomore year for Gunnell was his first opportunity at being a full time starter at the high school level and he ran with it, throwing for just under 5,000 Yards, and throwing a whopping 65 Passing touchdowns. He averaged an elite 414 passing yards per game, while posting a completion percentage of 70%. Just to add to the dominance of 2016 Gunnell, he ran for 400 yards, and 5 touchdowns. The incredible year from Grant led him to a First-Team Sophomore MaxPreps All-American nomination. Fast forward to 2017, Gunnell’s Junior year of high school. Again, Grant really proves himself. Grant once again is just shy of 5K passing yards, posting 4,936 passing yards, with 61 passing touchdowns, while only throwing 6 interceptions. Grant had arguably single handily brought St. Pius X all the way up to The #23rd ranked team in Texas and the #156th ranked team in the US (According to maxpreps.com). After this phenomenal season, Gunnell earned MaxPreps Second-Team Junior All-American status, just another accolade for the young stud Grant, who at the time, had racked up offers from prestigious schools like the LSU Tigers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. With that being said, on June 6th, 2018, Grant Gunnell made it clear he was intending on attending the University of Arizona. This was a phenomenal pickup for the new (at the time) head coach Kevin Sumlin. Going into his senior season, Grant was rated as a high 4 Star recruit by 247Sports Composite. When it comes to 2018, Grant statistically had a phenomenal season with 4,752 yards, 53 passing touchdowns, and 7 interceptions, It was still considered a disappointment of a season for a guy who had nearly 5K yards and 60+ passing touchdowns the past two seasons. Although Grant may have been “disappointing,” he was still pretty highly regarded by recruiting sites like 247 Sports and Rivals. Grant was named to All-USA second team by USA Today following the 2018 season. Just like that, Grant’s high school career was over, a quite successful high school career at that. Grant Gunnell signed with the Arizona Wildcats on December 19th, 2018 , and promptly enrolled at Arizona on January 1st, 2019. We now enter Grant’s 2019 Freshman season where he split time with Senior Arizona QB Khalil Tate. A majority of Arizona fans including myself can agree that Arizona mismanaged Gunnell in the first season, playing him in 8 games, yet only starting him in one. In his lone start, Grant Gunnell beat the UCLA Bruins 20-17. When looking at Grant’s 2020 stats, he threw the ball 155 times and posted a completion percentage of 65%. Grant had a TD/INT ratio of 9 touchdowns to 1 interception, with 1,239 yards. If you look back at the 2015 high school Freshman season for Grant, he showed somewhat similar numbers, which is definitely something interesting to look at. Here we are now, and quite frankly 2020 has been very wacky. I don’t even know if we see college football this season, but if we do, Gunnell is definitely a name to watch. Arizona has a sneaky deep WR core and we know that Gunnell has the potential to put up big numbers If the season happens and Grant stays healthy, he could very well propel himself up to the status of Pac 12 elite just like USC QB Kedon Slovis, and Arizona State QB Jayden Daniels. The future is bright for Grant and only Arizona fans can imagine what he can do.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Did you know about Grant Gunnell? Can he be a top QB in the Pac 12? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below!

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