NC State Interviews Former QB Russell Wilson for Head Coach, 15 Years After Releasing Him

Russell Wilson has always kept a ledger of the people who doubted him, and few entries weigh more than the one NC State wrote on his way out of Raleigh. The school that released him from his football scholarship, and made sure he could not resurface at a conference rival, has now sat him down and asked whether he can run the whole program.

That is the story under the headline. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the former Super Bowl champion interviewed for the Wolfpack’s head coaching job, joining Philip Rivers, the other famous quarterback the program produced, in a search that is anything but quiet. Most of the coverage describes Wilson as a former NC State player who transferred. That word skips the part that made him.

The release that sent him to Wisconsin

In April 2011, with Wilson playing minor-league baseball in the Colorado Rockies’ system, coach Tom O’Brien announced in a school statement that his quarterback had been released from his scholarship and was free to transfer. O’Brien had already said Wilson would be a backup if he came back, and Mike Glennon was the starter. “Within those discussions I also communicated to him the importance of his time commitment to NC State Football,” O’Brien said. Wilson’s statement was shorter and colder: “It has become apparent that the time has come for the program to move on without me.” According to The News & Observer, as relayed by CollegeFootballTalk at the time, the terms barred him from transferring to any ACC school or to any team on NC State’s schedule that season.

He went to Wisconsin, which offered him the starting job, won the first Big Ten championship game and reached the Rose Bowl. Seattle drafted him in the third round. NC State, with Glennon at quarterback, went 8-5 and 7-5 over the next two seasons, and O’Brien was fired and never ran a program again.

A grudge he carried, and a version that is disputed

Wilson never let the episode go quiet. In a commencement speech at Wisconsin in 2016, he described a coach he believed never had much faith in him, one who had once wanted to move him to defense. O’Brien had already summed up his side of it in 2013, in a single sentence: “You make decisions on the facts you have at the time.” When the speech made headlines, he texted the Charlotte Observer two words: “Good for him.” The Observer also noted that Wilson had inflated other details in the same speech, and Wilson soon posted, “I love N.C. State too!”

That refusal to accept somebody else’s ceiling is the trait that defined his career more than any throw. It carried him from the third round to a Super Bowl title with the Seahawks, ten Pro Bowls and fourteen NFL seasons with Seattle, Denver, the Giants and Pittsburgh. Whether it can carry a college program is the question NC State now has to answer.

What the interview actually tests

The résumé is all on the field. Wilson stepped away from playing to join CBS Sports as an NFL analyst, and Yahoo Sports points out that he has never coached at any level and lacks the executive experience the modern job demands. Heavy framed the gap plainly: playing quarterback teaches preparation and leadership, while running a program adds recruiting, roster management and building a staff. None of that is something a quarterback proves on a Sunday.

He does have a door held open. Bill Cowher, his colleague on the CBS set and a former NC State player, is an adviser in the search, Yahoo Sports reported. That connection may have earned Wilson the room. It will not win him the job.

Rivers, the alumnus who never left

The contrast with Rivers is the sharpest edge of this race. Rivers played all four of his college seasons in Raleigh, holds the school record for passing touchdowns and has his No. 17 jersey retired there. He is in his sixth season coaching St. Michael Catholic High School in Fairhope, Alabama, has never coached in college and has told NC State he wants to finish his high school season first, ESPN reported. His son Gunner, the St. Michael quarterback, is committed to the Wolfpack. Rivers is the alumnus who stayed. Wilson’s time at the school is the one that ended early, on the program’s terms.

Where the NC State search stands

NC State fired Dave Doeren on Oct. 24, after a loss to Stanford dropped the Wolfpack to 3-4. Doeren leaves as the school’s all-time wins leader at 98-74, though his teams never contended for ACC titles. Wilson is 38 and Rivers is 44. No hire has been announced, and USA Today noted the school could still turn to a candidate with head coaching experience.

The last official word NC State issued about Russell Wilson’s football future was a release. If the next one is a contract, it will put him on a sideline in the one conference that release had closed to him.

Tags: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Michael De Luca, Joe Mixon, Nick Sirianni, Bill Cowher, Philip Rivers