Hearing his name called as the Colorado Rockies’ fourth-round selection in the MLB Draft will not keep record-setting Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson away from the football field, Wilson said in a teleconference Tuesday.
“I am also planning to come back and play football this fall,” Wilson said. “I want to come back and win an ACC Championship.”
After starting in 25 of his team’s 47 games and batting .306, Wilson was the first Wolfpack player off the board in this year’s draft when the Rockies selected him with the 140th pick Tuesday afternoon.
“You may wonder how a guy that wasn’t an everyday starter can go in the fourth round,” coach Elliott Avent said. “Number one, that shows how they feel about the makeup and character and how important that is in a player like Russell Wilson.”
Wilson, who redshirted his freshman football season, has completed three seasons of baseball and two of football. Statistically, Wilson has accomplished far more in two years on the football field than he has in three on the baseball diamond.
A first-team All-ACC quarterback and ACC Rookie of the Year in 2008, Wilson is already one of the most prolific passers in school history, leading the conference with 31 touchdown passes in 2009. After just two seasons, the two-sport star from Richmond, Va. already ranks fifth in school history in both yardage and completions, with 4,982 career passing yards and 374 completions. He is also in third place with 48 career touchdown passes. Avent said Wilson’s exploits on the football field have likely made him all the more appealing to the Rockies.
“They factored football in and the things he’s done from the quarterback position, so they knew what a winner he is and how competitive he is,” Avent said. “They factor in the fact that baseball is such a repetition sport and that he wasn’t able to play baseball as much as he needed to for his skills and talents to come into play. They know once they get him on the baseball field more often, then those talents are going to showcase themselves and he will make progress quickly in their organization.”
For Avent and the baseball team, Wilson has bounced around between various positions as a utility player, seeing time in the outfield, infield and even on the pitcher’s mound. Offensively, he finished 2010 with 12 RBI, three home runs, two triples and five doubles. From the mound, Wilson made 10 appearances, recording a 5.84 ERA in 12 1/3 innings of work. Avent’s top assistant, associate head coach Tom Holliday, said Colorado’s use of a fourth-round pick on Wilson speaks to how much he has proven to the baseball world while juggling the demands of playing two different sports at such a high level.
“Russell Wilson has been identified by the baseball world,” Holliday said. “That’s what the draft tells you. [Being drafted] in the fourth round means he’s a pretty good prospect, and as little as he’s played, that really is a tremendous compliment.”
With the ability to keep opposing football team’s defensive coordinators up all night by fall and woo seasoned baseball scouts by spring, Wilson finds himself in an unusual predicament as the upcoming football season approaches.
“He’s got a real decision ahead of him,” Holliday said. “For most kids who get drafted in the fourth round, it means a new life for them. But he has three options: he can give up college baseball and football, give up college baseball and play college football, or return for college football and baseball.”
