The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1249704
MAY/JUNE 2020 ■ 31 he looked good. He was going to come to our camp. … I told them I was going to take a quick shower, dry off because it was hot, and I'd be back. "We went down and watched him throw the ball, and I said, 'The kid is good! He's a 5-foot-10.5-inch Charlie Ward [Florida State's former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback], with maybe a stronger arm, maybe a little more mobility.'" Jamison: "Russell says I was catching for him, but I don't remember that. Trest- man was working him out and having him throw downfield to either me or somebody else, whomever was catching for him. So [Trestman] put him through drills, and he said go get a drink and switch sides so we could throw the other way against the wind. "When we switched sides Trestman walks by me and I said, 'What do you think?' He goes, 'He's the best of anyone we've ever had here.' … Russell had the best zip on the ball, he was accurate, good footwork. Obviously he wasn't 6-foot-4 like the typical pocket passer, but he could run, too." Trestman: "I've been around enough quarterbacks to know what they look like and feel like. I've always felt there is no formula for quarterbacks. There is no height; there is no weight. There are a lot of things that go into this. "I thought this kid is under the radar, and we need to sign him as soon as possible. The more this got out, the more word got around, I would not be the only person that sees it. We had to get it done." Picking NC State Trestman at this point began to feel strongly about Wilson, and he also knew that offering the opportunity to play both sports in college was critical to landing him. The offensive coordinator remembers discussing that with Amato, a former two-sport athlete at NC State himself. Trestman called that "the fork-in-the- road moment of the recruitment." On July 26, Wilson announced his com- mitment to NC State. Wilson: "My dad [Harrison Wilson III] had to go back home to Richmond for work [after the NC State camp], so I hopped on a bus and went to Wake Forest. My mom met me there. I did well there. If I remember right Coach [Jim] Grobe was the head coach there. They wanted me to play football and baseball there. "… My mom drove me to Duke, and my dad met me there. I worked out at Duke, and … they offered me that day. Shortly after, NC State offered me, too." Trestman: "I was an advocate. I didn't care whether he missed part of spring ball. My feeling was that when a kid comes to college, they should be able to create the experience that they want and that we shouldn't take it away from them. "Chuck was in complete agreement. He said, 'If you like him and he wants to do both, we can work it out and work with him on this.'" Amato: "During football season we'll have him, he'll be in the meetings, and he is going to learn. When the season is over, we'll go to a bowl, and then after the bowl he'll go directly to baseball. If we didn't go to a bowl, he would go there as soon as the season is over." Avent: "Chuck had this at Florida State with Deion Sanders. In the old days you had a lot more two-sport guys. You were really used to that. It's not as common today. "When Chuck was here, Russell was going to play baseball in the spring, and he was going to play football in the fall the whole time he was here. That was the arrangement we had, and that would have made it a lot easier for Russell." Wilson: "That was everything. That was a massive part of it. I always wanted to play two sports. "If I was going to go play pro baseball [out of high school], I was going to go pretty high. I got calls in the late first round, begin- ning of the second round to go play. I ended up turning it down because I wanted to go to NC State to play both out of high school. "I was committed to playing football and baseball in college, and I wanted to be able to play somewhere they were going to let me play quarterback and baseball. Some schools were wanting me to come play, but they didn't want me to play quarterback. … UNC was going to let me play both sports, but they were going to offer me as an athlete, versus a quarterback. My dad, was like, 'No, I think you need to be playing quarterback.'" Dunlap: "Duke maybe was with him because of the academics. Wake Forest al- ready had a quarterback committed." Jamison: "Since then, I've talked to guys who had been at all of those places. North Carolina liked him a lot, and Coach Cignetti's brother was the offensive coordi- nator there at the time. He wanted to offer him, but he couldn't be- cause he already " That was everything. That was a massive part of it. … I wanted to be able to play somewhere they were going to let me play quarterback and baseball. Wilson on NC State offering him the opportunity to play both baseball and football at his preferred position PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS