Columbia, S.C. — When quarterback Russell Wilson went down in the second quarter of N.C. State’s game Thursday night at South Carolina, center John Bedics and backup quarterback Daniel Evans immediately gathered a group of players to pray for Wilson.

The team’s chaplain joined the group in a scary moment for a team in an already hostile environment.

“To see him get hit in the head you know it’s not a good thing,” Evans said. “And add to that he wasn’t moving at all.”

Wilson went down after a fake handoff to running back Andre Brown. State’s new starting quarterback had already shown off his wheels and looked to get the defensive line moving with Brown on the play.

But the line didn’t budge, as Wilson was pinballed between two defenders before knocking the back of his head off the knee of South Carolina defensive end Cliff Matthews. Wilson laid motionless on his side as the players cleared the field and the medical staff rushed to assistance.The doctors ruled it a concussion, brought a stretcher onto the field and immediately transported Wilson to a nearby hospital, accompanied by team neurosurgeon Tim Garner.

Garner and a team of doctors later diagnosed the injury as a grade-three concussion and would perform further tests on Wilson into the night.

A grade-three concussion is the most severe type and causes the victim to have no memory of the event. Wilson did not suffer a spinal cord injury and coach Tom O’Brien said after the game he knew nothing new about the injury.

“Our medical people did a great job,” O’Brien said. “They were on top of it and you have to give the South Carolina team a lot of credit because they helped too.”O’Brien couldn’t see the injury from his vantage point, but after Wilson was carted off the field, O’Brien gathered the team together.

“I just told them he’s in medical hands and he’s in God’s hands,” O’Brien said. “There wasn’t much that we could do.”

The team couldn’t finish the drive Wilson started — the Pack’s longest of the game — and Larsen said the injury took its toll on the team.

“After that we struggled some,” Larsen said. “It kind of threw us out of our rhythm.”

Evans took the field as quarterback after the injury, and said the team was still focused even after the injury.

“To see a guy out there like that, it’s hard. But the hangover from that wasn’t why we lost today,” Evans said. “Other than losing a great player, I don’t think there was an emotional hangover that caused us to lose.”

Evans struggled the rest of the night, as the Pack were shut out in back-to-back games for the first time since 1956. While O’Brien still has the option of burning the redshirt of freshman Mike Glennon, he said he would wait to hear the condition of Wilson before talking about Glennon’s status.

Check out this slideshow of Thursday’s festivities by Technician photographer Dreier Carr

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