North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Wilson Looking Forward, Not Back
8/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Editor's note: NC State's 2009 schedule cards include the wrong time for next Thursday's season-opener against South Carolina. The nationally televised contest on ESPN is slated to kickoff at 7:03 p.m.
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Russell Wilson remembers the play when he was knocked out of last year's season-opener against South Carolina, causing a severe concussion that kept him out of the Wolfpack's next game. He just wants everyone else to forget about it.
"It happened, but that is in the past," Wilson said Tuesday morning, in his first of weekly meetings with the media. "I am not really worried about it."
Wilson is ready to move forward, as he reiterated on several occasions during his 20-minute interview with a handful of local reporters and a couple more by telephone from South Carolina.
The reigning first-team All-ACC quarterback was willing to talk about his improvements and the expectations for the coming season, which begins next Thursday at 7:03 p.m. when South Carolina visits Carter-Finley Stadium in a nationally televised contest on ESPN.
"It's going to be a great atmosphere," Wilson said. "They want to win, we want to win, it is going to be on national television. That's the exciting part. It's not about last year, to be honest with you.
"It's about this year and starting all over and progressing from the experience I had last year to the growth I had throughout the season and to continue to keep getting better every day."
Wilson – who had just one interception in 275 passes last year and ended the season with 249 attempts without an interception – knows that his performance will be scrutinized on every play this year, after going through the first part of last season in relative anonymity.
That changed as Wilson was named the ACC's Rookie of the Year and the first-team All-ACC selection at quarterback, the first freshman so honored. But those things aren't really important to the sophomore.
"The main goal for me is just to win every time I step on the field," Wilson said. "That's all that matters."
The Richmond, Va., native has absorbed the excitement about the coming season. He heard about it throughout his second season with the Wolfpack's baseball team, at the inaugural Kay Yow Spring Football Game and while he played for a summer-league baseball team in Gastonia.
He's heard it ever since he returned to campus for the second session of summer school and now that the fall semester has begun.
"I think a lot of people are definitely excited about the season, but you can't pay attention to the outside hype," Wilson said. "As a team, as a person and as a player, you know what you have and what you don't have, what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are.
"I am going to keep working hard as I can. I know the guy that is beside me, behind me and in front of me is going to be working as hard as they can also to be the best that they can."
While he wasn't nervous going into last year's season opener, his first game as a starter, Wilson says his comfort level in leading the Wolfpack offense is higher than ever.
"I'll be a lot more relaxed," Wilson said.
And, rest assured, even after suffering three separate injuries that limited his playing time last year, he has no fear about getting hurt again this season.
"I am never afraid," Wilson said. "I am going to be smart. If I need to get down, I will get down, but I think a lot of it goes back to watching film and understanding certain situations where I could get down earlier. A lot of it is just being more mature.
"I am definitely excited about this season and about being the best quarterback I can be."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
