After injury, Wilson prepares for first game as a WVU starter
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Ask Quincy Wilson the date of his worst football moment and he answers without hesitation: April 15, 2000. On his third carry of West Virginia’s spring scrimmage, the running back was hit by a defender and tried to spin away. As he was going down, he was hit again.
Wilson didn’t get up and had to be removed from the field on a cart with a torn ligament in his right knee.
Had the injury not occurred, Wilson likely would have finished his career in 2002 – as the backup to Big East rushing leader Avon Cobourne, no less.
Being given an extra year to play due to the injury turned out to be a blessing.
Now Wilson is preparing for his first game as a starter Saturday when West Virginia opens the season at home against No. 21 Wisconsin.
“All the things are lined up for him to have a big senior year,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday.
Wilson has a tough task in following Cobourne, the first Mountaineer running back to top 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons.
But Wilson comes with some decent credentials, too.
The son of former Chicago Bears linebacker Otis Wilson, he became the first player in West Virginia high school history to rush for more than 3,000 yards in one season at Weir High. He was the co-winner of the 1998 Kennedy Award, given to the state’s top player.
After sitting out the 2000 season to rehabilitate his knee, Wilson saw coach Don Nehlen retire and Rodriguez take over. Wilson wasn’t sure he’d fit in to a no-huddle, spread offense that uses four wide receivers.
Eight games into the 2001 season, he got his answer.
As a third-stringer, Wilson ran for 129 yards on just six fourth-quarter carries in an 80-7 rout of Rutgers.
“After that Rutgers game, I really knew I had a place in this program, and I actually started looking forward to the day I could be that ‘next guy,”‘ Wilson said.
His role increased greatly last year when he ran for 901 yards and 13 scores, including a 198-yard performance against East Carolina, as the Mountaineers became the nation’s second-leading rushing attack.
With Cobourne now gone, the stage is Wilson’s.
With three starting linemen gone and with no proven backup running back, Wilson may have to do a lot of the work on his own. Only one of four others hoping to get some playing time behind him have carried the ball for the Mountaineers.
“I’ve got to be a leader. I have no choice,” Wilson said.
He added seven pounds of muscle in the offseason and now weighs 215.
“I wanted to be a little stronger and bigger just to be able to carry the ball 25 or 30 times like Avon had to do last year,” Wilson said.
Rodriguez is confident Wilson can have a season that would rank alongside Cobourne and former Big East rushing leader Amos Zereoue.
“He’s had a good camp. He’s in great shape,” Rodriguez said. “If he can have that type of year where he’s getting over 1,000 yards … that will go a long way to helping us have success on offense.”