North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: O'Brien Talks Wolfpack Football
7/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Editor's note: NC State athletics director for ticket operations Brian Kelly says Wolfpack football season tickets will be mailed by Aug. 8.
BY TIM PEELER
GREENSBORO, N.C. – NC State third-year football coach Tom O’Brien is rarely verbose, and hardly enjoys the spotlight. So it’s no surprise that the third-year coach of the Wolfpack was ready to move on at the end of the annual ACC Football Kickoff at the Grandover Resort.
“Holy cow, this is a marathon session,” O’Brien said after a full hour of non-stop talking.
He covered just about every topic imaginable, from the health status of linebacker Nate Irving, running back Toney Baker, wide receiver Donald Bowens and tight end Matt Kushner to first-team All-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson’s long-term future at quarterback.
O’Brien reiterated what he said last week about Irving, who was involved in a serious auto accident earlier this summer: he will know about Irving’s status for the upcoming season after the player pays a mid-August visit to an orthopedist to check on the compound fracture in his left leg.
“It is all going to come down to the leg,” O’Brien said. “I don’t think he has been allowed to put any weight on it. I just have to say he is indefinite until he sees the doctor.
“Nate … is lucky to be alive. When I got to the hospital they showed me pictures of the car and it was amazing that he doesn’t have a head injury and that he is still with us.
Since emerging as one of the ACC’s biggest hitters and playmakers, Irving has had a string of bad luck. He missed three games because of a high ankle sprain last season and was rarely at 100 percent.
“Something good is going to happen to Nate,” O’Brien said. “He had a bunch of bad luck. Whether he gets back to us this year or next year, something good is going to happen to him.”
Irving is home from the hospital after suffering a broken rib, a punctured lung and a separated shoulder to go along with the broken leg. He is recovering nicely from the other injuries, O’Brien said.
But Irving is not, the coach emphasized, running after a bus on campus, as teammate Willie Young jokingly said on Sunday, sending some bloggers and reporters into a tizzy.
O’Brien said both Baker, who has missed most of the last two seasons with knee injuries, and Kushner, who suffered a knee injury in the second game of last season, are fully healthy and ready for preseason camp, which begins for the entire Wolfpack squad next week.
But Bowens, who sat out last year with a stress fracture in his spine and suffered a knee injury over Christmas, will likely be out until October or November.
The coach raised some eyebrows with other comments, revealing that Wilson, the two-sport star, is on the fast track to graduate after only three years on campus. He will be eligible for the major league baseball draft next summer, after he completes his third season with the Wolfpack baseball team.
“We don't know what Russell's baseball future is – he may be here a year, might be here two more years,” O’Brien said. “If he's here a senior it’s because his plans in baseball have fallen apart.”
Those comments followed a question about how much O’Brien plans to use redshirt freshman Mike Glennon this coming season.
“He is going to go into the game sometime in the first half,” O’Brien said. “It’s a situation where he has never been in a college football game. If Russell goes down, you don’t want someone going in the game that has never played, especially if you are down the road and you are playing in an important game or for a championship.
“He is definitely going to get in the game, especially with Russell’s history of getting hurt three times last year. Michael has definitely got to play.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
