How Russell Wilson ignited the graduate transfer trend nobody saw coming: "We didn't know it was going to become that popular"

Although Russell Wilson could not ride smoothly with the Denver Broncos, he will always be remembered as the quarterback who started the trend of graduate transfers.

He had said to ESPN in 2019:

"We didn't know it was going to become that popular."

13 years ago, when Wilson was playing minor league baseball for the Asheville Tourists and was talking to his NC State football coach, Tom O'Brien, he learned that he could no longer return to the football team for his senior season after missing spring football.

Russell Wilson wanted to play both football and baseball in college, and that too professionally. He decided to join the Colorado Rockies for spring training early in 2011. He also thought that since he'd graduated, missing spring football would not have any consequences.

But little did he know that O'Brien had started to feel good about another QB, Mike Glennon. The coach faced a dilemma over telling Glennon that Wilson might come back. The coach said in 2014, as per ESPN:

"Michael would have graduated that year. He could move on if he wanted to at the end of that year. So that was just all part of the decision-making process. It had to happen. You could have one quarterback, you could have two quarterbacks or you could have no quarterbacks."

But when Wilson delivered a speech in Wisconsin, he said:

"He [O'Brien] said, 'Listen, son, you're never going to play in the National Football League. You're too small. There's no chance. You've got no shot. Give it up.' I'm on this side of the phone saying, 'So you're telling me I'm not coming back to NC State? I won't see the field?' He said, 'No, son, you won't see the field.'"

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Russell Wilson made a quick decision

Russell Wilson and his baseball agent Mark Rodgers got in touch with the NCAA and were surprised by what they learned. In 2011, the NCAA passed a new grad transfer rule that allowed all sports graduates to transfer and gain immediate eligibility without a waiver as long as they were enrolled in graduate school.

Russell Wilson had settled on Wisconsin and Auburn. The then-Wisconsin coach, Bret Bielema. introduced him to the Bagers' skilled roster and also advised him to play at Auburn because football needed him.

In just over a week, Wilson committed to Wisconsin, though not without criticism because not every grad transfer gets to experience a career like Wilson, Joe Burrow, or Jalen Hurts. His ability to not only play football but prove a point by bringing his A-game to the team defined him and eradicated any reservations against the grad transfer rule, which many people also call "The Russell Wilson Rule."