SEC football stars are, collectively, no stranger to publicly setting their individual goals eyebrow-raisingly high.
At last summer's SEC Media Days, South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore said he wanted to win the Heisman. Georgia's sophomore tailback Isaiah Crowell said much the same thing this past March. And though Tyler Wilson hasn't mentioned anything about the bronze stiff-armer just yet, the personal goal he set Tuesday won't be any less hard to come by.
“Well, I haven’t told a whole lot of people this, but there’s always a drive, a competitiveness inside me and when I look at the draft, I want to go No. 1,” Wilson said (emphasis added). “That’s my goal."
Not surprisingly, Wilson also told Arkansas Sports 360 that he's not going to mope his way through the 2013 draft if he doesn't go that high. But that's where he wants his bar set all the same.
"It’s a lofty goal. Now, any team that picks me I’m going to be happy for and I’m going to work to hopefully have a great career. It’s flattering to hear those type of projections. I’m honored by that, but I’m doing what I do now," he said. Win a bunch of football games here and those things will take care of themselves. But I do have high goals.”
The difference between Wilson's goal and the Heisman talk from Lattimore and Crowell is that Wilson appears to be in as solid a position to reach those heights as possible. CBSSports.com's Pete Prisco ranked Wilson as the No. 2 quarterback currently in the college football class of 2013, behind only USC's Matt Barkley, and the No. 10 prospect overall. NFL Draft Scout's Dane Brugler ranked Wilson No. 4 overall, with other outlets going so far as to name Wilson the top prospect in the class.
However you look at it, there's nothing -- other than perhaps another huge year from Barkley -- that can stop Wilson from hitting the top of the draft if he lives up to his promise his senior year. And Wilson looked every bit the part of living up to that promise during spring, throwing 146 passes across four spring scrimmages without an interception and for better than 11 yards an attempt.
For nearly every player in the FBS establishing "go No. 1 in the 2013 draft" is a hopelessly unrealistic goal, and even for Wilson, putting that kind of premium on his own personal performance -- rather than repeating some form of standard-issue "I don't care, as long as the team wins" pabulum -- may not be what his Razorback coaches and fans would prefer to hear.
But say this for him: Wilson is not nearly every other FBS player, and for Arkansas to accomplish what they want to accomplish in 2012, Wilson's going to have to play like a No. 1 overall pick anyway. In this case, he might as well say what he's thinking.
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