Russell Wilson is going to the Super Bowl and he is taking Steven Hauschka with him to the big game. For most people that should only make sense. They are the quarterback and kicker of the NFC Champion and defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks. However the two share another connection that casts an interesting light on this Seattle team. They are both products of the NC State Wolfpack.
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Wilson had twenty touchdowns passing and six rushing during the regular season. He frustrated Panthers and Packers alike with his soft feathery touch on the football. It is that insane touch that Wolfpack fans watched beat the Tar Heels for three straight years with a guy that North Carolina coach John Bunting did not think was big enough to play the position.
Hauschka, Seattle’s kicker, produced almost as many points as Wilson did over the course of the season. The kicker from Massachusetts (of all places) scored 134 points on the season. Wilson scored 156 points. Of course these are fantasy football numbers. You can score lots of points and not win games. How important was this NC State duo to the course of Seattle’s season.
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No, I am not talking about Wilson’s grounded positive leadership style. That was important too, but how much of Seattle’s production was accounted for by the former Wolfpackers. The Seahawks scored a total of 394 points in the regular season. Wilson and Hausckha combined for 290 of those points. That means that NC State produced 74% of Seahawks points this year.
Now as a kicker-quarterback combo, that number is probably a little low. That makes sense because the Seahawks score on defense and with Marshawn Lynch. Indeed the Packers combination of Aaron Rodgers and Mason Crosby is more impressive statistically, but nowhere else does one school have such an impact on the numbers.