North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: 'I've Landed on a Different Planet'
4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Erik Kramer may have found himself a couple of camp instructors.
The former NC State, Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears quarterback spent the last couple of days watching the Wolfpack’s spring football practice. And he took particular notice of sophomore Russell Wilson and redshirt freshman Mike Glennon.
Kramer said the high school prospects he counsels during his summer camps in Los Angeles might learn more from them than they could from him.
“From what I have seen these last couple of days, I am going to bring them out to camp and let them teach for me,” said Kramer, who was the 1986 ACC Player of the Year after leading the Wolfpack to an 8-3-1 record and a trip to the Peach Bowl.
Kramer, who spent two years as NC State's starting quarterback after transferring from a California junior college, is now a broadcaster and analyst for the Chicago Bears preseason telecasts and for FoxSports.com. He happened to be back on the East Coast visiting his wife’s family in Atlanta, and decided to make his first trip to the spring football alumni reunion, now in its third year.
Kramer and former defensive back Derrick Taylor, who now works for the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles, won the awards for the furthest distance traveled to attend the event, which has grown in number and scope since Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien began the popular tradition shortly after he was hired.
More former players registered for this year’s event which includes an invitation to Friday’s practice, a reception at Vaughn Towers Friday night and special seating at Saturday’s Kay Yow Spring Football Game at Carter-Finley Stadium than attended last year.
Many familiar faces returned for the event, including former NFL No. 1 pick Mario Williams, former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, DeMario Pressley and a handful of other current and former NFL players.
But the sign that the event continues to grow is that several older alumni from around the country made their first appearance at the event. Ex-linebacker Levar Fisher came in from Chicago. Defensive back Nelson Jones came in from Dallas. Former All-American kicker Steve Videtich on hiatus from the Arena Football League came from Salt Lake City.
“This is just a great chance to see all the guys, to convene, have some fellowship and network,” said Jones, who is a consultant for a medical company in Texas. “These were the guys who were an integral part of me growing up. Those experiences here helped mold me into the person I have become.”
For those who hadn’t been here in a while like Kramer, whose last trip to Raleigh was nearly 15 years ago the changes in and around Carter-Finley were hard to believe.
“It’s like I’ve landed on another planet,” said Kramer, who still owns the Chicago Bears’ single-season records for completions, attempts and passing yards. “I am scraping up the pieces of my jaw right now. I cannot believe what has gone on over the last 15 years.
“There is something special about this place. It’s incredible.”
Kramer has already decided to return this fall to see his first game since his career with the Wolfpack ended. He plans to come to the North Carolina game on Nov. 28, but perhaps he could consider also coming to the Sept. 2 season-opener against South Carolina.
Then, he could relive, one more time, perhaps the greatest play in history of Carter-Finley Stadium, when he hit receiver Danny Peebles on a 36-yard touchdown pass to beat the Gamecocks in 1986.
No matter which games he comes to, he plans to make it back for next year’s reunion as well. And he’ll tell others about it, as well.
“If I am a recruit coming in here, they have me sold,” Kramer said.
But for all the smiles and joking that peppered the sidelines during Friday’s two-hour scrimmage, there was also a sense of sadness for the handful of former teammates of the late Corey Smith, the former NC State defensive end who is presumed dead after being lost in the Gulf of Mexico during a February fishing trip.
“I talked to Corey about two weeks before he went on that fishing trip,” said Fisher, who played with Smith for four years with the Wolfpack. “I called him up out of the blue for the first time in about three years and he said if I was planning to come to the reunion he would be here too.”
Sadly for his former teammates, that won’t be the case.
For O’Brien, Friday’s practice was the last day of working on fundamentals before Saturday’s Kay Yow Spring Game at Carter-Finley Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m., with parking lots opening at 9 a.m. and stadium gates opening at noon. Visit GoPack.com’s spring football page for more information.
One thing O’Brien knows is that All-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson will only play for one hour in the game because of NCAA restrictions that limit student-athletes to 20 hours of participation per week. Wilson, a dual-sport athlete, has worked out with football this week and played baseball against Wofford, East Carolina and Florida State this week.
“We will play with Wilson and Glennon for an hour and then we will play with Glennon and [walk-on Daniel] Imhoff,” O’Brien said. “Wilson will go with the Red offense and Glennon will go with the Whites to start out.
“When an hour is up, Russell will turn into a pumpkin and we will send him off the field.”
Overall, O’Brien had a positive assessment of his team’s first 14 spring practices.
“I think we had two bad days,” O’Brien said. “When you look at the total work of the spring, that is a pretty good job by these kids. My first year, we got to practice No. 13 before we had a decent day.
“It just shows the difference [of where the program is] between Year 1 and Year 3.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
