ESPN.com profiles Russell Wilson

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Read the whole article here. From this excerpt, I can tell we’re going to like watching this guy lead the Pack in the fall…which we will be doing…since we told you earlier in the week that he will be starting for the Pack:

What gives Avent the confidence that his star pupil can develop into the next Brian Jordan is not only Wilson’s extraordinary athleticism, but his unrelenting work ethic. In the dead of winter bridging the end of football season and the beginning of baseball, Wilson regularly hit the weight room at 5 a.m. before heading off to class. If he was exhausted come class time, it didn’t show: Wilson posted an impressive 3.6 grade-point average his freshman year at NC State.

In other football news today, the N&O highlighted some of NC State’s question marks heading into the season in this article today which includes the #1 question, “Who will be the quarterback?”

The player who seems in front of the others, redshirt freshman Russell Wilson, is the popular class president type, a favorite of his teammates and Tom O’Brien’s coaching staff. Wilson is a solid pocket passer and dangerous scrambler who performed well in spring practice before struggling in the spring game.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

'08 Football

12 Responses to ESPN.com profiles Russell Wilson

  1. choppack1 07/31/2008 at 12:42 PM #

    I was hoping he’d have a fantastic spring game – the kind that clearly established him as the starter. He didn’t have that kind of game – but he apparently did establish himself as tops amongst himself, Beck and Burke for the entire spring. I wrote off his problems in the spring game to pure exhaustion.

  2. Daily Update 07/31/2008 at 12:44 PM #

    Great story. So he is an incredibly hardworker(two sport, 5 am workouts, 3.6 gpa), he is smart(3.6 gpa), has a strong arm, runs well and is a great leader?

    All of those atributes probably outweigh being a few inches too short to play QB. The one unknown is his accuracy throwing the football.

  3. RickJ 07/31/2008 at 1:52 PM #

    “I was hoping he’d have a fantastic spring game – the kind that clearly established him as the starter.”

    Choppack1 – I actually got the feeling watching the first half of the spring game that O’Brien & Bible did not want Wilson to have a great spring game and be burdened with any more expectations than he is already receiving. Specifically, I believe Wilson was only given 3 series in the first half of the spring game. All three were played against the better defensive front of the two teams and one possession started on the 4 yard line. This may not have been intentional on the coaches part but Wilson was under much more pressure from the pass rush than either Burke or Beck in this game. I actually thought he handled himself very well in this game by not forcing the issue.

  4. packbackr04 07/31/2008 at 2:01 PM #

    i hear his precision is one of his better qualities as a QB

  5. BJD95 07/31/2008 at 2:07 PM #

    I think the “uncertainty” regarding Wilson’s lock on the starting job is also effective expectations management.

  6. ChiefJoJo 07/31/2008 at 2:42 PM #

    What a fantastic story. I was going to link it here, but BJD beat me to it. He just sounds like a great kid. I like how he sought out Brian Jordan to seek his advice on playing two sports and being in broadcasting. Let’s see: he excels at two sports, is well-spoken, a good leader, hard worker, and carries a 3.6 GPA. We need more like him. Putting athletics aside, I hope everyone doesn’t miss just how impressive a person he seems to be.

    I had never heard the combination of “Hagans and Flutie” but it makes sense. If he can be anywhere near as good as those two in FB, we are going to be alright. It will be interesting to see if we put him into the Lions den starting the first game at Columbia under the lights on ESPN. At least he’s been in a pressure situation on TV before (baseball vs UGA, super regionals).

    I hadn’t realized how good a prospect he was in baseball. I would love for him to stay all four years, but I could see him focusing on baseball and being drafted as a JR. If Glennon turns out to be as good as advertised, it might be just the impetus for Wilson to switch to baseball full-time in ’09 or ’10. We shall see…

  7. choppack1 07/31/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    RickJ – I think that’s an excellent point. It seemed that in terms of the D he faced and the playcalling – that it would have been hard for him to put up #s.

    Like you, I did notice that although he didn’t put up great #s – he didn’t throw any INTs or make any horrendous decisions.

  8. McPete 07/31/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    So maybe the people who said RW would get drafted by an MLB team and leave after his junior year were right; it sounds like he’s a legit baseball prospect. perhaps he starts the next two years, and hands the reigns to glennon. i’d feel alot better about that than questioning every fall who the starting qb will be.

  9. b 07/31/2008 at 2:53 PM #

    I think we have rich man’s Jamie Barnette. All the leadership skills, plus more athletic.

  10. packbackr04 07/31/2008 at 3:01 PM #

    “I think the “uncertainty” regarding Wilson’s lock on the starting job is also effective expectations management”

    BJD^ If that is the case, then this is a real paradigm shift in what we have seen from the previous regime. i am very glad TOB called Fowler and wanted to come coach here. Lord only knows who Fowler would have hired had he not been hog-tied by the BOT’s.

  11. Noah 08/01/2008 at 8:29 AM #

    All of those atributes probably outweigh being a few inches too short to play QB.

    There really is no such thing as “too short to play QB” in college. There have been highly successful QBs who were under six-feet. Our own Jamie Barnette was only about 5-10. Erik Kramer was only about 6-1. Shane Montgomery was the same size.

    It is a much bigger deal in the NFL, where the line between success and failure is incredibly thin and where even touchdown-scoring plays seem about a millisecond away from complete failure.

  12. Six Pack 08/01/2008 at 9:15 AM #

    ^Noah, just to support your point further here are a few other very successful short (below 6’0) college QBs: Danny Wurffel sp?, Doug Flutie, Jeff Blake, Major Applewhite.

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