Former Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson — you may know him from his work with the Seahawks (or his engagement to Ciara) — was invited back to Madison on Saturday to give a commencement speech. His address was about overcoming obstacles, and one anecdote stood out for its details about what led him to be a Badger, his departure from N.C. State.
With the Wolfpack, Wilson had been a very effective quarterback, the first freshman to earn all-ACC first-team honors. But his decision to play baseball in the Colorado Rockies’ organization before his 2011 senior season, coupled with the presence of backup Mike Glennon, caused a conflict with then-Coach Tom O’Brien. When Wilson had one year of eligibility left, Glennon had two, and O’Brien decided to go with the latter, advising Wilson to transfer.
Wisconsin offered Wilson a starting spot, and the school was rewarded with a win in the first-ever Big Ten title game and a berth in the Rose Bowl. On Saturday, Wilson described the conversation with O’Brien that led to his transfer:
“The summer before my senior year of college, I’m playing minor league baseball. I call my football coach at N.C. State and say, ‘Hey Coach, I’d like to come back for my senior year.’
Somewhat oddly, Wilson employed a Southern drawl when reciting O’Brien’s comments, even though the coach, who grew up in Ohio, played college ball at Navy and led Boston College for 10 seasons before arriving at N.C. State in 2007, doesn’t speak with one.
Earlier in his speech, Wilson referred to his coach’s “country voice” when recounting how when he was in his second year at N.C. State (after a redshirt season), O’Brien wanted to move him to the defensive side of the ball, indicating that he thought his coach never had much faith in his abilities.
“In training camp there’s a red jersey they put on quarterbacks,” Wilson said. “Nah, not this guy. No one gives me that jersey. I’m doing everything, catching punts, catching routes, getting hit. I know I can play quarterback, I just need a chance.
O’Brien didn’t offer a rebuttal Sunday to the Charlotte Observer, as the newspaper reported that the now-retired coach texted them this message: “Good for him.” In 2013, O’Brien had this to say about what happened (via the Seattle Times):
“You make decisions on the facts you have at the time,” O’Brien said.
It didn’t work out quite so well for O’Brien. With Glennon starting the 2011 and 2012 seasons, the Wolfpack went 8-5 and 7-5 and he was fired, never to be a head coach again.
In that sense, Wilson has long since had the last laugh but like so many successful athletes, it’s clear he’s using past slights — or at least the perception thereof — as ongoing motivation. The two-time Super Bowl starter presumably has a long list of such slights at his disposal considering that, for all his college success, his relative lack of height (listed at 5 feet 11) caused him to go undrafted until Seattle plucked him in the third round of the 2012 draft with the 75th overall pick. That was long after quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III went 1-2 (with Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden and Brock Osweiler also selected ahead of Wilson).
The Charlotte Observer noted that Wilson, in other anecdotes from his commencement speech, greatly inflated the amount of at-bats he’d had as a baseball player at N.C. State, and described a game between his Wolfpack and UC Irvine as involving two “top-five in the country” squads, when his team was unranked at the time. So it is possible that Wilson’s account of his conversation with O’Brien was not entirely accurate either, but the essence of it is providing inspirational fodder for the quarterback, and his audiences.
At least one former Wolfpack teammate took issue with Wilson’s comments. Kalani Heppe, whose final year at N.C. State was the first for both Wilson and O’Brien, wrote a Facebook post Sunday in which he said (via Backing the Pack), “Russell was a great player, but he was a ‘me’ player, unable to put the team before his ‘illustrious’ baseball career at state.”
“I think it is pretty well known how much I despise Tom O’Brien on a molecular level … However … Getting rid of Russell Wilson was the one admirable thing he did during his tenure at state.” Heppe, who was recruited by and played three years for Chuck Amato, also wrote. “80% of the s— Russell said in his speech didn’t even happen.”
Perhaps out of a realization that his description of his time at N.C. State would not be well received by that school or some of his former teammates, Wilson, who earned his degree before transferring to Wisconsin, took to Twitter Sunday to claim, “I love N.C. State too!”
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