RALEIGH -- Back in August, a number of ACC quarterbacks received serious preseason consideration for conference and national awards, including Florida State's Christian Ponder, Georgia Tech's Joshua Nesbitt, Miami's Jacory Harris, Clemson's Kyle Parker and Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor.
As the first-team All-ACC pick at quarterback in 2008, and honorable mention a year ago after throwing for 31 touchdowns, N.C. State's Russell Wilson should theoretically have been at or near the head of that list, yet the preseason buzz surrounding the third-year starter was noticeably absent.
Some of that was happenstance - all five of the other quarterbacks played for bowl teams last year, which tends to influence preseason publicity. Some of it, though, was by design.
N.C. State was planning a marketing campaign before the season but didn't want to push too hard promoting an individual player without seeing some team success. Now, with the Wolfpack off to a 4-0 start and Wilson second in the nation with 11 TD passes, the curtain is ready to rise.
In the next few weeks, if not before Saturday's big game against Virginia Tech, the university will unveil a promotional campaign selling Wilson as a "Man for All Seasons," a tagline designed to trumpet his football and baseball skills as well as his academic achievement.
"We really want to tell the story of not just this football player who can throw touchdown passes, but the type of person he is," said Annabelle Myers, N.C. State's assistant athletic director for media relations. "That's kind of the theme of what our promotion will be. This is more for fans than voters, because when you do some of the things he's done, he's getting the national recognition."
Still, it won't hurt Wilson's candidacy for various individual awards - he opened the season on the watch list for the O'Brien and Manning awards, and if N.C. State keeps winning, he may wedge his way into the Heisman discussion - just as it won't hurt N.C. State a bit to bask in his reflection.
After all, it's hard to think of a more suitable individual to promote the university: dual-threat quarterback, fourth-round baseball draft pick, an Academic All-ACC selection in both, degree already in hand and taking graduate courses, engaged to be married, willing to talk openly and eloquently about playing in memory of his recently deceased father.
He's also an expert at sticking to the party line. Asked if the impending individual promotion made him feel awkward or self-conscious, Wilson deflected the focus right back onto the team.
"I'm not self-conscious at all; I'm a very confident person," Wilson said. "I focus more on the team than myself. That's why I am successful when I am on Saturdays, because of the team not because of me personally. That's the way I look at it."
That kind of straight-arrow image makes it easy for N.C. State to campaign on Wilson's behalf, and if the university gets some positive publicity in return, the more the merrier.
New N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow believes in using sports as a vehicle to push the university as a whole, making it a point to supply broadcasters with nuggets like this: N.C. State produces more generals and admirals than any school but the service academies.
Having an exceptional individual on a winning team could be another weapon in that kind of campaign.
"Loosely, it gives us a chance to tell the story of the university and all the positives that go on," Yow said. "I think many people would say we haven't done a terrific job of doing that, and that's a campus initiative."
The push to promote Wilson may be a little late in arriving, but the timing looks to be just about right. It's hard to think of a better candidate for promotion, even if he'd just as soon let the team's record speak on his behalf.
