North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Wilson Ready to Roll -- And Slide
8/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State third-year football coach Tom O'Brien made it into the lobby of the Murphy Center before he wheeled around to tell the assembled reporters in the press room the most important news of the moment.
He had just completed a 30-minute press conference, tantamount to "War and Peace" from the normally short-sentenced coach. But O'Brien definitely wanted to share this tidbit: "The best thing about last night's scrimmage was that Russell did a hook slide and didn't get hurt. I gave him a standing ovation on the field."
Russell, of course, is NC State's first-team All-ACC quarterback Russell Wilson, who was injured three times last year while scrambling away from defenders: once against South Carolina, once against East Carolina and once against Rutgers. So the little change for the diminutive signal caller - learning when to slide on the turf instead of taking a brutal hit from a linebacker or defensive tackle - might be the difference in advancing Wilson from all-conference to All-America and the different from a sub-.500 record to a shot at the ACC Championship.
It also shows how much progress that Wilson has made since this time last year, when the two-sport standout was little more than a utility infielder who happened to be in the middle of a five-player battle for the starting quarterback job.
He eventually beat out the other four and, when healthy, became the most dynamic offensive player in the ACC. He scrambled, he took care of the ball and he made big plays when the Wolfpack needed them.
Wilson, however, has moved on from last season, thanks to another year of playing baseball for the Wolfpack, the 29 games he played for a wooden-bat summer league team in Gastonia, N.C., and one session of summer school.
The 2008 football season seems like a distant, packed-away memory.
"Last season was last season," he said. "We are ready to start a new one, and get rolling for 2009."
But the jumping-off spot is much different than last year, when no one knew much about the talented athlete from Richmond, Va., other than he sat out his freshman year for football and contributed some as the Wolfpack baseball team advanced through the NCAA Raleigh Regional to the NCAA Athens (Ga.) Super Regional, ending one game short of the College World Series.
Wilson earned a lot of attention early in the season, as he won the starting job, then missed the season half of the season-opener against South Carolina after suffering a severe concussion.
He came back to guide his team to an overtime victory over rival East Carolina, but suffered another injury that cost the Wolfpack offensive momentum.
When he was finally healthy again, Wilson was practically perfect throwing the ball, with just one interception in 275 passing attempts. His string of 249 passes without an interception is the longest in school history and the longest active streak in the NCAA heading into this season.
Wilson helped lead the Wolfpack to four consecutive victories to end the regular season and had the offense clicking in the first half of the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., before suffering a knee injury at the end of the first half. Rutgers came back to win the contest.
For now, Wilson says he is completely healthy and ready to go. He will rely on last year's experiences to make him feel more comfortable under center or in the pocket, but he doesn't want to over do it.
"I feel 10 times more comfortable than I did last year," Wilson said. "I am definitely excited about the season coming up."
But you don't have to look further than O'Brien to keep Wilson grounded. The coach and his staff have spent the better part of the off-season, when Wilson was working out with the team, trying to teach him when to run with the ball, when to throw it away and when to look at a different receiver downfield.
"No one here can rest on their laurels, by any stretch of the imagination," O'Brien said Monday during the team's annual media day. "Our quarterback proved himself over four and a half games at the end of the year. He really doesn't have a great track record. He still has a lot to prove.
"But we are definitely in a much better starting point at quarterback than we were last year."
That also has something to do with redshirt freshman Mike Glennon, who will see his first college football action after sitting out last season.
O'Brien does admit that going into the season with an experienced signal-caller is a big advantage, and Wilson's accomplishments are a big reason why there are heavy expectations on the Wolfpack to improve last year's 6-7 final record.
"I think that the most valuable piece that any college team can have [is] a quarterback," O'Brien said. "Certainly, the more you have a quarterback that has experience and has played, the better off your starting point is going to be for the next year."
Wilson, who has been out of the spotlight for a while, is eager to pick up where he left off, even if his enthusiasm seemed a little muted on a day when he was surrounded by dozens of writers, television cameras and radio interviewers.
He told them: "I am just trying to grow as a quarterback in every facet of the game, making sure that every time I step on the field, I am a winning quarterback."
That's where he left off last season, and where he wants to pick up this season.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
