This is the third of a three-part series on former Gamecocks coaching in the NFL. The first two featured Travelle Wharton and Lemuel Jeanpierre.
Shaq Wilson has held nearly every job imaginable in football, which made the phone call he got before the 2023 NFL season even more special.
It was late March, and his phone lit up with a call from New York Jets then-head coach Robert Saleh, offering him the opportunity of a lifetime. A dream almost a decade in the making was finally realized: Wilson would get to coach in the NFL.
“That moment for me was everything. It was a moment I was waiting on 10 years ago when I didn't get drafted,” Wilson says. “It was three days after my son's birthday and coach asked me, ‘Are you ready to be a Jet?’ I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ I was screaming, excited.”
To understand the emotion bubbling up from Wilson is to understand the last 10 years of his career. After piling up 246 tackles over 53 games for South Carolina, the linebacker went undrafted out of college and never played a down in the NFL.
Wilson, who graduated from USC in 2012 with a degree in African American Studies, turned to the next best thing: coaching.
He worked in nearly every department possible, putting in overtime to get where he wanted to go. Wilson came back to USC as a coach, beginning his career as a defensive analyst before moving over to the Gamecocks’ recruiting department.
He spent two years there before going to work for the University of Tennessee’s football strength and conditioning program, and then back to South Carolina where he was an analyst again for two seasons.
Through all of those roles, he picked up pieces of knowledge and expertise that help him now as an assistant with the Jets.
“Recruiting is the lifeblood. And it helps me now, even with the Jets. It brings great value during the draft, during free agency because I know what we're looking for. I know what I'm evaluating. I know the measurements, but I also know the things that you don't see,” Wilson says. “I would say in strength and conditioning I truly learned like how to relate to everybody on the field.”
Ask Wilson now if he ever thought he’d be coaching and he’d it only crept into his mind late in his playing days.
Wilson suffered a season-ending injury at the start of his junior year and was forced to watch and teach his teammates from the sideline. It was there he took a liking to coaching, spurred by his teammate Addison Williams—now the defensive coordinator at Central Florida—who went from player to a coach as well.
“He helped me a lot. He suffered a season-ending injury the year before and became a student coach,” Wilson says. “Seeing his path, it helped me know coaching is something else I can do after ball’s done.”
And now Wilson can’t imagine a life without coaching. He’s moved up the ranks to assistant linebackers coach.
“When you see me, I want everybody to say, ‘All right, I want to be like Shaq. I want to have the same enthusiasm going about my day at work,’” Wilson says. “When people see me, I want them to have a great feeling and know things are going to get done the right way at all times.”