Russell Wilson is a College Football Free Agent

Russell Wilson is an exceptional athlete. As a quarterback for North Carolina State, he was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2008. Last season, he was the ACC's offensive player of the year as a junior. In addition to his success on the gridiron, Wilson is similarly impressive on the baseball diamond. Wilson doubles as a minor league baseball player in the summer, playing for the Class A Asheville (NC) Tourists in the Colorado Rockies farm system. His commitment to football is limited until the minor league baseball season ends in September. This year, with a veteran team returning to NC State and a talented veteran backup quarterback, Wolfpack head coach Tom O'Brien decided that it would be best for Wilson and the program to go their separate ways. He apparantly did not want to risk tampering with the chemistry that the team was developing without Wilson. O'Brien will turn to highly touted junior quarterback Mike Glennon (brother of former Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon) to lead his team. The story gets intriguing here. Wilson will focus on baseball for now, but he still intends to play college football this season. Now with one year of eligibility remaining, one the best quarterbacks in college football is effectively a free agent. Wilson has not made a decision on where he will play his final year of college football, but when he does, a team in need of a quarterback will become exponentially better. Wilson is not allowed to join an ACC team, and cannot join a team that plays NC State during their non-conference schedule (this rules out Liberty, South Alabama, Central Michigan, and Cincinnati). That means big time schools with quarterback concerns such as UCLA, Auburn, South Carolina, and California will all be willing to take Russell whenever he's ready to suit up. Getting an All-American quarterback a week into the season is better than not having one at all. It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.



This type of situation is not totally unfamiliar to Wolfpack fans. Before the 2006 season, the NC State basketball team lost talented center Andrew Brackman to the New York Yankees. Brackman, a pitcher, is still trying to break out of the minors. However, he is still generally regarded as an eventual major leaguer.