The long path of Martez Wilson

From a distance, Martez Wilson appears to be following a familiar path to the NFL. Athletic kid — the fastest on his freshman high school team — dominates on the prep level from the moment he first steps on the field before becoming a five-star recruit. Elects to attend his home-state, major-conference school. Starts slowly but ends his college career playing great ball prior to passing on his senior season and making himself eligible for the draft. Workout warrior impresses coaches and scouts to increase his stock and become one of the top players at his position.  

Examine it a bit closer, however, and it's easy to see that not everything in Wilson's football career has followed that straightforward trail. The Illinois linebacker won't be the first player from his recruiting class to make it to the league, nor is he likely to be the first Fighting Illini player taken in the 2011 draft. He didn't dominate from Day One in college, overcoming a position change, a violent crime and a horrific injury that placed him on the sideline for nearly all of his junior season. Heck, unlike most of the top prospects available, Wilson is almost guaranteed to not be the most famous name when he attends his next high school reunion. Yet even with all that, the path that Martez Wilson did choose to walk down has provided him with the tools needed to be an impact player on the next level.

The road began at Simeon High School, located on the Southwest side of Chicago. Wilson stood out as a defensive end/outside linebacker while playing for the Wolverines, earning Parade and USA Today All-America honors. Displayng a unique combination of power and speed, he racked up 25 sacks his last two years, solidifying his place as one of the top recruits in the country. Rivals.com said he had "a good frame, long arms and excellent speed for a pass rusher," and that showed on the field, as Wilson made play after play despite the best efforts of opposing offenses to avoid him.

"We were able to do a whole lot of things with Martez defensively being a linebacker. It just made us a lot more versatile and we were able to stick him in key spots where the other teams couldn't key in," said Dante Culbreath, Simeon's current head football coach and an assistant during the years that Wilson was at the school.

"We just unleashed him, we played him in places where he could just get after the quarterback or running back. So he made us versatile as a defense."

Still, Wilson's accomplishments were overshadowed even at his own school. While the football team made headlines in the fall of 2006 thanks to the nation's 26th-ranked player according to Rivals.com, the basketball team shined even brighter in the winter and spring behind the player the site ranked as America' third-best hoopster. Of the 380 or so kids who graduated from Simeon in the Class of 2007, Wilson wasn't the best athlete. That would be Derrick Rose, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA draft and currently a top league MVP candidate for the Chicago Bulls.

"It's a blessing," Wilson said of the parallels between him and Rose. "It's more of a blessing because we graduated together, we're in the same class. So that's even more amazing. Two guys from the city, both grew up in Chicago and just to come out and overcome all the things that can happen … I'm very happy for both of us."

When Wilson chose to spurn Notre Dame, USC, Ohio State and Miami (Fla.) in favor of the University of Illinois, it was seen as a spark for the school's downtrodden football program. Along with fellow blue-chip prospect WR Arrelious Benn, the linebacker helped the Fighting Illini reach their first Rose Bowl in 24 years during his freshman season. At that point, Wilson's future was as bright as the team's.

The brightness dimmed a bit in December 2008 when Wilson was stabbed in the lung following a fight outside a bar on the Illinois campus. The linebacker was not one of the people fighting — he was trying to intervene to defend a teammate — but wound up in the hospital for nearly three months.

Just as he recovered, injury struck again, dimming Wilson's future even more. In the opening game of the 2009 season, after recording nine tackles in the first three quarters against Missouri, the player who was supposed to become the centerpiece of the Illini defense found himself back in the doctor's office. Wilson suffered a herniated disc in his neck after making a play, requiring surgery and forcing him to miss the rest of what was supposed to be his junior season; the team finished that season with a 3-9 record. His former coach gave him words of encouragement following the operation, ones that motivated Wilson to come back better than ever.

"It's just a stepping stone, you'll be back," Culbreath told Wilson. "Just stay confident in what you're trying to do in life. You'll bounce back and stay strong."

The pep talk worked. Wilson came back healthy in 2010 and put up the best stats of his college career. Moving from an edge rusher to lining up in the middle, Wilson played in all 13 games, leading the Illini in tackles with 112, along with four sacks and three forced fumbles, good enough for second-team All-Big Ten honors. Even with Benn departing to the NFL (he was taken in the second round of the 2010 draft by the Buccaneers), Illinois' record improved, with the team posting a 7-6 mark and winning its first bowl game in 11 years. Having a healthy middle linebacker played a major part in that, and the success he achieved, both personally and with his team, was a key reason why Wilson declared for the draft.

"It took him a few weeks before he kind of got a good feel for it," Illinois defensive coordinator Vic Koenning said of Wilson's rehab from injury. "He really became one of our better leaders on defense and he took it upon himself to become a leader. Football is really important to him and he did the things it took for us to be successful."

Wilson says he "doesn't even think about the neck any more" and that after NFL teams asked him about the injury at the NFL Scouting Combine, the issue hasn't even come up. "They could see that the MRIs and X-rays looked very good too, so they don't question me too much. Some of the guys in the league have had the same surgery as well, so it's not new to them," he explained.

Along with his Illinois teammates RB Mikel Leshoure and DT Corey Liuget, Wilson expects to hear his name called in the first three rounds of the NFL draft, joining his college classmate Benn in the league and his high school classmate Rose in the world of professional athletics. His lung and neck now healed and his confidence back, the hard-hitting linebacker has nearly completed the path to the league.

The next step? Wilson hopes it's an even longer path as an NFL star.

Source: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/04/05/the-long-path-of-martez-wilson

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