Mike's Story: How It All Started

My older brother, Sean, attended Virginia Tech and played quarterback, and his experiences there played a major role in my decision.  Because of what he went through I knew I wanted to find a school that ran a pro-style offense and that would best prepare me for the NFL.

That led me to coach Bible and coach O'Brien.

That was their background, they were known for running a pro-style offense and developing pro-style quarterbacks.  Honestly, I was just talking about this with some of the coaches here with the Bears, I was so advanced when I got to the NFL because of my time at NC State with them. 

I'm lucky I was able to have that. 

So many guys are playing in these systems that don't really prepare you for the pros. They come in completely unprepared for this level.  If  I could give any advice to a high school kid, a quarterback that wanted to go to NFL, I would tell him to find a school that runs a pro-style offense.

Again, a huge part of my college decision was coach O'Brien and coach Bible.  I looked at them and knew of them when they were at Boston College, but I'm really glad that they came to Raleigh.

From the moment I visited NC State, I loved everything about it.  The location, the city, just everything that State had to offer.

I did have some offers from some bigger schools, but for whatever reason NC State felt like home from the minute I pulled up to the Murphy Center.  I can still remember just like it was yesterday, pulling up to the Murphy Center in the spring of my junior year at Westfield.  Right then I felt like that was a place that I could see myself going.

It's the craziest thing. It's been ten years since I committed to NC State.  If I had to do it all over again, I would have done it the exact same way. 

Looking back at how everything played out, I remember how when I was being recruited, and really when I stepped on campus, I knew I would have a legit shot at starting as a true freshman. 

I really believed that from the moment I committed to when I arrived on campus as a freshman.

The coaches said positive things about Russell [Wilson], but honestly, I don't think they even knew what Russell would turn into... how good he would be. 

They gave me a real shot to compete with him as a freshman.  He was a redshirt freshman at the time, and I was a true freshman.  The reality was it came down to me, Russell, and Daniel Evans.

Russell earned the job. 

He was definitely the most... he was more ready than I was at the time. Truthfully, I think it's better for quarterbacks to redshirt, and I ended up benefitting from that in the long run.

It's funny to look back now at how everything has played out for both of us.  I had a shot to compete and Russell won the job in fall camp, but then I remember he got hurt in that South Carolina game. 

I didn't know what they were going to do.  Were they going to put me in there?  What about the next week when we were going to play William & Mary? I thought maybe then, but I didn't have a clue. 

Obviously, he came back and that didn't happen, but I stepped on campus preparing to be the starter and from that point on, that's how I approached the job, even with Russell ahead of me.

I do believe that situation really benefited me.  I learned from it.  I learned a lot from Russell.  My biggest takeaway from him was the way he approached every day.  How hard he worked. Just his mindset of getting better, believing in yourself and having that confidence. That was definitely something I admired about Russell was just his work ethic.

We would be on the bus heading over to training camp and most people are trying to get an extra 15-minute nap in before the day starts.  Russell would be studying his playbook. That's an example of how serious he took things and how much it meant to him.

I think that we both had similar approaches as to how much the game meant to us and how bad we wanted to be successful, and I think that made me better... that experience.  I think some things that I did, it probably pushed him too.

It was a friendly competition, but I think we both made each other better without ever really talking about it.

That first couple of years, I did win off the football field because I met my future wife.  We started dating right after my redshirt freshman year, so we were together pretty much my entire time at State.

She's been a great support system for me from that time forward and is always pushing me to be better.  I was fortunate enough to have her from then on and obviously, now we have a little boy together so just from that perspective, it's another reason why I'm grateful to have chosen NC State.

I met her and we now have our first son together. I was truly fortunate to end up at NC State.

IPS NOTE: Stay tuned for more from Mike Glennon on his time at NC State!