RALEIGH - The fans walking out of Carter-Finley Stadium were still buzzing over Harrison Beck's turnaround performance right about the time N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien was relegating him to backup duty.

Russell Wilson will be the Wolfpack's starting quarterback next week, O'Brien said flatly, no matter how impressive Beck was in a 34-24 win over William & Mary on Saturday.

Wilson sat out Saturday, but O'Brien left no doubt that this is his team regardless.

It's a statement of O'Brien's confidence in Wilson, who beat out Beck and Daniel Evans in a training-camp battle before suffering a nasty concussion in the Pack's 34-0 opening loss at South Carolina.

It's a statement that O'Brien views Wilson's mobility as crucial to State's ability to move the ball, that there are bigger challenges ahead than the Tribe -- and Wilson is better equipped to handle them.

Cleared to play, Wilson was in uniform on the sideline but held out on O'Brien's orders. (Wilson took one snap as the holder on an extra point.) When Evans struggled -- going 4-for-11 for 12 yards and an interception -- Beck stepped in to throw for 246 yards and two touchdowns. Turns out his time under center was only temporary.

"I've been playing college football for four years now," Beck said. "You learn to expect nothing."

The Pack's running game averaged 2.2 yards per carry against an FCS defense Saturday, and Wilson gives the Pack a dimension Evans and Beck cannot. Evans offers composure and Beck a cannon arm, but Wilson is a threat to run or pass.

Like Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech, who decided to yank the redshirt off Tyrod Taylor, O'Brien clearly believes State needs an extra dimension on offense. Wilson can provide it. The playbook is set up to utilize it.

There is no battle for the quarterback job. It belongs to Wilson.

If there were a battle for the quarterback job, Beck would have made a statement Saturday. State was 0-for-7 on third down when Beck entered the game. After one sputtering series, his third completion was a 22-yard touchdown to Jarvis Williams with time running out in the half.

"We were going three-and-out, three-and-out, and we needed to do something to get the offense going," O'Brien said. "(Beck) certainly -- he'll throw the ball. He did a nice ball throwing the ball deep."

Beck's arrival coincided with State's first positive momentum of the season. The offense started to click and the defense clamped down on the Tribe, satisfying a restless crowd.

After watching the Pack nosedive 34-0 in Columbia to start the season -- a performance not flattered by South Carolina's subsequent loss at Vanderbilt -- the usually festive air of a Carter-Finley home opener was poisoned by a sense of impending panic.

Not that it stopped anyone from coming -- despite (unfounded) fears over the weather and (legitimate) worries over the general state of the Pack, the stadium was packed. If anyone was seriously unhappy about the South Carolina loss, they didn't vote with their feet.

There was a voice vote, however, after N.C. State's first two possessions ended with an interception and a near-interception. Evans was booed again after what turned out to be his last series.

"You hear 'em," Evans said, "but it doesn't really affect you."

Evans has overcome similar circumstances too many times to write him off now, but it's possible Saturday was the last significant action for a player born to play for the Pack -- one who will be remembered as the local kid and second-generation quarterback who rallied State to an upset of Boston College in his first collegiate start, not as a target for fan frustration.

Evans and Beck shared QB duties last season, but it looks like the backup job is all they'll share this season, starting next Saturday at Clemson in State's ACC opener.

"Russell will be our quarterback next week," O'Brien said, and that was that.

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