Will Brinson's hit piece on Wilson's speech was to journalism what Jared Fogle is to babysitting. I broke down the speech into 13 parts and looked at his criticisms:
PART 1: “In 2007, I went to college at NC State because I wanted to play baseball and football. Most of all, I wanted to play quarterback in the National Football League.” This is clearly the truth. Wilson was actually drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of High School in 2007 in the 41st round, and was offered a shot to go play for them, but opted to go to college because of a desire to pursue football. Then NC State QB coach Marc Trestman “loved him.” Trestman left by the time Wilson got there. (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2580695-the-college-recruitment-of-russell-wilson) and he was signed by then Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato. Amato got fired after the 2006 season and replaced by Boston College head coach Tom O'Brien who was not sold on Wilson, according to Curt Cignetti, who was the recruiting coordinator for NC State at the time. "Tom was a little leery because of his height, so I kind of had to sell Tom on how special he was." PART 2: “Fast-forward to 2008, my first eligible year on the football team, and I’m fighting against four other guys for the starting job. In training camp, there’s a red jersey that they put on quarterbacks. Nah, not this guy. They don’t give me one of those. I’m doing everything. I’m catching punts. I’m catching routes. I’m getting hit. I mean, I know I can play quarterback. I just need the chance.” Brinson did not refute this. In fact, I haven’t seen one report refuting this. Here are the 3 Quarterbacks ahead of Wilson on the NC State roster that year: -Daniel Evans (starter). -Harrison Beck (backup who got significant playing time and 160 pass attempts). -Justin Burke (redshirt freshman from the previous recruiting class who was recruited by Marc Trestman). It is entirely possible that the 5’10 redshirt freshman who also played baseball was asked to play Safety on the scout team. It is also understandable that an 18-year old who had given up a pro baseball career after being drafted, and chose NC State over other schools including Duke, and was recruited by a coach other than the one he now had, saw this as a challenge, a slap in the fact, and was frustrated as his ultimate goal was to be an NFL quarterback. Then, Wilson got into details about his 2nd season at NC State: PART 3: "About two weeks before our first game, the coach calls me into his office and tells me I’m not getting that chance. Excuse my country voice here, but he says, ‘Son, I’m switching your position. I’m moving you to safety.’ He’s not asking me. He’s telling me. I could have just gone along with it, and maybe I should have just gone along with it. But for whatever reason, I wasn’t ready to take no for an answer. I prayed about it. I talked to my mom. I talked to my brother. I would’ve talked to my dad, but he was on his deathbed at the time. And after a few days, I just came to this peace.” It is not uncommon for players to be asked to change positions. Brinson provides no evidence from that season that Wilson is lying about this. PART 4: "Now, this is the part of the speech where I’m supposed to tell you to believe in yourself. But those days of praying and all that, that wasn’t about believing in myself. They were about knowing myself. Let me put it this way: I love singing. Michael Jackson, I’m Michael Jackson’s Tito. I’m Janet Jackson’s long lost brother. My moonwalk cuts the rug. Dancing machine, smooth criminal, this guy. But no matter how badly I want to be a pop star, it would not matter how much self-confidence I had or have or how many hours I spend at the studio. Trust me on this. I cannot sing. So the question I asked when life told me no was: What am I capable of? Am I capable of doing what I want to do? I really had to think about it. And when it came to playing quarterback, the answer was yes. I knew I could throw a football and move really well. I knew I had the focus. I knew I had the ability to succeed. I just needed a chance.” Ok, so here he uses his first year experience where the coach, according to Wilson, said that they were looking to movie him to Safety. There has been no evidence presented that Wilson is lying about that. Not by the one, bitter ex-teammate, nor by Brinson. PART 5: “Once I knew what I was capable of, I didn’t feel afraid to let everyone else know it too. So a few days after our first meeting, I walked back into my coach’s office, chest big, feeling good. I’m 18, 19 years old at the time. And I said, ‘Coach, I’m going to be your starting quarterback. I’m going to be first-team freshman All-American. And I’m going to be first-team All-ACC. I’m going to play in the National Football League for a long time. I’m going to win multiple Super Bowls, and I’m going to be a Hall of Fame quarterback. What do you think?’ He looked at me like I was crazy, scratching his head. But three days later, he named me his starting quarterback.” In this paragraph, Wilson explains to students that he confronted his coach, and became the starter days later. This would have been his second year with O’Brien. According to this http://www.thestate.com/latest-news/article14331761.html article from The State newspaper, Wilson was in a three way battle to start that 2nd year: “Senior Daniel Evans, redshirt freshman Russell Wilson and freshman Mike Glennon remain in the competition at quarterback.”
O'Brien said the coaches like something about the performances of each of the three remaining quarterbacks in the race for the starting job. Each will be evaluated in two remaining scrimmages, one of which is set for Friday.” Evans has started 17 games over the past two seasons and was 6-for-8 for 89 yards during Sunday's scrimmage. Wilson is the team's most mobile quarterback. At 6 feet 6, Glennon is the tallest and the most similar to quarterbacks who had success at Boston College under O'Brien. "They're learning the system," offensive coordinator Dana Bible said of the freshmen. "Russell has been here, I guess, a year longer. Sometimes some of the pieces fit better than others. But we're pleased with the progress they're making. We can't wait for the next day to see how they take the next step."
After the last pre-season scrimmage on August 20th, it was announced that Glennon was redshirted. http://www.lsunow.com/coaches-redshirt-glennon-campus-reacts-positively/article_3de14e88-a8df-5a7a-a6ae-0c77b299cd96.html.
According to a radio report at the time: http://www.850thebuzz.com/blog/?p=4867 “3 down, 1 more to go. Justin Burke and Harrison Beck were already ruled out of the starting QB contest at NC State. Forget about Mike Glennon as well. Tom O’Brien announced that the school will redshirt Glennon this season. That leaves Daniel Evans and Russell Wilson as the final two contestants on Wolfpack Quarterback Idol.” The following week would have been Wilson’s meeting with the coach, as Wilson was named te starter. Some reports said that with wideout Donald Bowens out for the season and a weak offensive line, Wilson was the best choice with his running ability.
From the WRAL report: “O’Brien said it was possible that the two finalists will both see playing time in the season opener. “We’ve been in these situations [at Boston College] and we’ve put the other guy in the game some time in the second quarter just to get the starter out because he was new. But it depends on who it is. If it’s Russell Wilson maybe we’ll take him out and put Evans in just so he can settle down and look at the defense.”
NC State opened the season August 28th against South Carolina. The report added that “O’Brien said the starting decisions for all positions will be made when the Wolfpack exchanges depth charts with Gamecocks.” Here is why I believe Wilson’s story about confronting O’Brien in his office: because Wilson was a long shot. Daniel Evans was a senior who had played in 26 games at that point with over 600 pass attempts and 3800 yards. Wilson ws redshirted the year before, recruited by O’Biren’s predecessor, the complete opposite of the players O’Brien has success with at quarterback at Boston College, and completely different to the player he recruited as his ace for the future, Mike Glennon. The week before the Gamecocks game, O’Brien decided to start a redshirt freshman on the road against an SEC school during the Thursday Night college football opener on ESPN. It is not out of the realm of possiblility that Wilson’s self-assurance at that meeting with O’Brien helped his cause. It is thus bewsildering that people like Will Brinson would doubt this story. Even a critical article of Wilson from WRAL points out “There’s a rule in college athletics that if you’re a two-sport athlete and one of those sports is football, your scholarship comes out of that allotment. And, even though Wilson came to NC State to play both sports, O’Brien, who didn’t recruit him and had experience primarily with traditional, drop-back passers — think Matt and Tim Hasselbeck as well as Matt Ryan — was less than thrilled that a player using up one of football’s precious 85 scholarships was planning on missing the spring to play baseball.” Read more at http://www.wralsportsfan.com/wilson-s-commencement-fish-story-stinks-for-nc-state/15709464/#cuiSqGyXEwsC9ceE.99 Against South Carolina, Wilson suffered a nasty concussion in the 2nd quarter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZbhySnBrc. Evans came in and went 4 for 12 for 37 yards while Wilson completed 1 pass for 5 yards. Beck also had 3 passes with no completions. Their next game was against William & Mary at home, and with Wilson injured, third string quarterback Beck replaced Daniel Evans late in the second quarter threw two touchdown passes.