ORLANDO - When coach Tom O'Brien learned N.C. State was headed for the Champs Sports Bowl, he turned to a former staff member for advice on how to handle the week.

The Wolfpack (8-4) will meet No. 22 West Virginia (9-3) in the bowl game at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Three years ago, Boston College edged Michigan State 24-21 in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Frank Spaziani, who's now Boston College's head coach, coordinated the Eagles' defense for Jeff Jagodzinski in that game and previously was O'Brien's defensive coordinator at Boston College. Spaziani advised O'Brien to have his players take their amusement park trips early in the week because the walking the players do at the parks can take a toll on their legs.

N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien didn’t sound confident Sunday about the prospects of quarterback Russell Wilson returning for his senior season.

Wilson, a junior, returned to the Wolfpack after playing pro baseball last summer in the Colorado Rockies organization. But O’Brien said next season will be a different situation.

“When he left the last time he spent the whole spring here and was, the whole time, around us,” O’Brien said. “And he wasn’t being paid [last spring]. He’s being paid now. And they have money. And what do I have to offer? So who knows what’s going to happen.”

Wilson has said many times that his goal is to be a professional in both baseball and football. If he has decided whether he will play quarterback for N.C. State in 2011, he hasn’t tipped his hand. 

RALEIGH -- N.C. State coach football coach Tom O’Brien admits to seeing a little extra glint in his players’ eyes as they prepare for Saturday’s game at Maryland.

Win, and the 21st-ranked Wolfpack advances to the ACC championship game. Lose, and Florida State represents the Atlantic Division.

“I think they’re more focused,’’ O’Brien said today. “I think they understand that they’ve got the opportunity. They almost lost the opportunity at Clemson, but it was given back to them. There’s been a renewed sense of purpose here. They’ve been focused, and they’re working hard, and hopefully we’ll finish the deal here Saturday.”

No suspensions will be assessed to North Carolina’s Kevin Reddick or N.C. State’s Jarvis Williams for their roles in an end-zone scuffle Saturday, ACC associate commissioner Michael Kelly said today.

Both players were given personal fouls and ejected from the 29-25 N.C. State win, but referee Brad Allen’s report categorized them as flagrant fouls, not fighting fouls. The latter would have warranted one-game suspensions.

With his team getting ready to visit North Carolina on Saturday, N.C. State football coach Tom O'Brien was asked about the ongoing NCAA investigation taking place at UNC.

"First off, I don’t think you ever want to see anybody in our conference in that situation," O'Brien said Monday at his weekly news conference, "because I believe we pride ourselves [on NCAA compliance] in the ACC, and I don’t know what the outcome is, other than there seems to be something over there going on."

"Second of all, anytime you have an agent thing, I think, certainly you have to evaluate what you’re doing and look at what your program is doing, if you’re doing the right things as far as protecting your players and educating them and making sure that you’re doing the best you can. Because certainly no one in college football lives in a glass house. It could happen a lot of different places."

A comment N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien made in a story in Wednesday’s editions of the Charlotte Observer and News & Observer was jarring enough that other media have followed up seeking further details.

In a story describing team building exercises the Wolfpack did in July, O’Brien said that his first three N.C. State teams might not have benefited from similar exercises because of their lack of character.

Asked about that comment, O’Brien expanded Wednesday on the ACC’s weekly coaches’ teleconference:

“I didn’t paint the whole football team as a character issue, but there were enough guys that, it was all about, ‘Me.’ It wasn’t about team. Nothing was going to change in their mind. That was who they were, and 31 guys, 32 guys aren’t here because they didn’t want to conform to the team concept with what we’re trying to get accomplished here.

Almost four years later, there’s no doubt about it.

The program Tom O’Brien took over after the 2006 season is in better shape than the one he left behind.

Russell Wilson passed for 328 yards and three touchdowns as N.C. State hammered Boston College 44-17 this afternoon at Carter-Finley Stadium. O’Brien, who coached Boston College from 1997 to 2006, had been 0-3 against the Eagles as the Wolfpack’s coach.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien is confident in his team's maturity, pleased with the development of his linebackers and unconcerned about place-kicker Josh Czajkowski's struggles at Georgia Tech.

Here are excerpts from O'Brien's news conference Monday as the Wolfpack (4-0, 1-0 ACC) prepares for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. game with Virginia Tech (2-2, 1-0) at Carter-Finley Stadium.

Q: I guess the next step is handling the success. How do you help your team in doing that and staying focused and do you sense this is a mature enough group to be able to do that?

N.C. State defensive tackles Natanu Mageo and J.R. Sweezy were walking on campus this morning when a fellow student shouted a short congratulations.

"Four and oh," the student yelled.

The Wolfpack (4-0, 1-0 ACC), picked to finish fourth in the ACC Atlantic Division in the conference's preseason poll, is the only undefeated team left in the ACC heading into Saturday's 3:30 p.m. home game with Virginia Tech (2-2, 1-0).

N.C. State also is ranked No. 23 in The Associated Press' top 25 for the first time since 2003. While the players are enjoying the positive vibes after the quick start, they also seem determined to continue the hard work that has led to their early success.

The Tom O’Brien job watch ended Saturday.

It’s not completely official yet, of course.

It’ll probably be a few more weeks before new N.C. State athletics director Debbie Yow rewards the fourth-year football coach with a job extension.