Wilson Mentors Young Sooner Receivers

Travis Wilson | Senior | Football

NORMAN, Okla. -- It's hard to say that Travis Wilson has flown under the radar. Such statements usually don't apply to All-Big 12 performers who rank second in the OU record books in both touchdown receptions in a season and career touchdown catches.

It's difficult to be overshadowed when you're a 6-3, 213 pound, blazing fast receiver with NFL potential written all over you, but that's the position Wilson found himself in, until this year at least.

When you're sharing touches with three NFL draft picks (All-American Mark Clayton, Mark Bradley and Brandon Jones), it's tough to make a name for yourself. It has been an adjustment for Wilson with his mentors no longer roaming the Owen Field sidelines.

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"The biggest difference this season was just realizing that they're gone," Wilson said. "They had been here since my freshman year and over the years we became really close as a group. We really did become like a family, like brothers really."

With the triplets now playing on Sundays, Wilson has had to make the transition from little brother to leader and role model for OU's batch of young receivers.

"Now I see the role," Wilson said. "When they were here, I knew they were a year older, and as far as respect and ranks, I looked up to them. Now I feel like Jejuan (Rankins) and I have taken on that role. We've got to be the lead figures in the group, and to help them out with anything they need. We have to be the big brother figures."

Wilson has some experience playing that big brother figure, as he has two younger brothers of his own.

Growing up, Wilson was, as his mother, Wendy Wilson, described him, a "do anything kind of kid."

He started playing football in fourth grade in the city league in Carrollton, Texas, but he excelled in other sports as well. Wilson was a select soccer player, an all-star little league pitcher and a standout basketball player at Creekview High School.

"He's just an athletic kind of kid," Wendy Wilson said. "That's what he's always loved to do."

People say that the best way to earn a living is to find something you love to do and find a way to have people pay you to do it. Wilson loves the game of football, and he certainly has the special skills necessary to make a career out of it.

Recognized as a physical presence with his frame, speed is what Wilson believes sets him apart.

"I really don't think people realize what I can do," Wilson said. "I feel like I'm as fast as anybody out there on the field on either team. I may not have had opportunities to show it off so far this year, but I can prove that at any time."

Despite what looks like a promising career at the next level, Wilson has another passion he hopes to pursue when his playing days are finished.

"I'd really like to do something with kids, whether coaching football or basketball," he said. "I know there are a lot of kids out there who are going the wrong direction in life and I don't want it to be that way. I want to make people happy."

Whether it's on, or off the football field, count on Travis Wilson making plenty of people happy for years to come.

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