Tudor: Pack's taken this path before

When N.C. State last went the Russell Wilson route at quarterback, it worked a lot better than most Wolfpack probably remember.

That player was Jamie Barnette.

At just under 6-feet and about 180 pounds — roughly the same size as Wilson — Barnette emerged under Mike O’Cain in the late 1990s as one of the program's most productive quarterbacks.

The thinking then, as now, likely had was more directly related to the present than the future.

O’Cain, now the quarterbacks coach at Virginia Tech, started showing interest in Barnette (out of Roxboro Person High) not so much because of an NFLish throwing arm or even the degree of accuracy State had enjoyed behind Terry Harvey and Shane Montgomery.

“Jamie is capable of  buying us some time on passing plays, and we’re going to need all of the extra time we can create,” O’Cain said.

That is exactly where another Irishman — Tom O’Brien — is today with a State offense.

Wilson, a redshirt freshman, had no legacy as a passer. He has no legacy at all, for that matter. But he is quick, and he can scramble for time. Those were Barnette’s primary assets when he led the Pack to a 23-20 win at Texas to start the the 1999 season, which turned out to be O’Cain’s last season.

That game on a 100-degree night in Austin ended with Barnette’s right shoulder in a sling and top receiver Chris Coleman nursing a bum knee.

A week or so later, with Barnette virtually immobile, State was back Raleigh and faced South Carolina. The Pack won, 10-0, in part because Barnette was used only as an option-pitch decoy while the Gamecocks’ defense spent most of the game double-teaming Coleman on the slants than did in Mack Brown and the Longhorns.

Who knows? Maybe TOB has been reading the MOC X-Files?

Even if it would be a rerun, it’d a lot of fun to see.