Former Gamecock captain wins third Super Bowl
Former South Carolina linebacker and assistant coach Rod Wilson has won his third career Super Bowl, after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime in Super Bowl LVIII.
Wilson, who is in his fifth season with the Chiefs, is in his second season as a defensive assistant for the team. He returned to coach with Kansas City in 2022 after spending the two previous seasons coaching at Coastal Carolina in 2021 and South Carolina in 2020. Before that, he was on the Chiefs coaching staff from 2017-19 as an assistant special teams coach. There, he won his first Super Bowl title when the Chiefs beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV.
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A standout linebacker for the Gamecocks, Wilson played five different positions from 2000-2004. A captain in 2004, his play earned him All-SEC honors after leading the team in tackles that season. He’d go on to be drafted in the seventh round of 2005 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears before also having stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars.
After a six-year playing career in the NFL, the Cross, SC native began his coaching career at Charleston Southern as an inside linebackers coach. His break as an NFL coach came in 2017 when he was hired as assistant special teams coach by the Chiefs. This came less than three weeks after being hired as an assistant coach at Furman.
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During Wilson’s lone season as an assistant coach at South Carolina, he worked with the linebackers under Will Muschamp. He helped develop future Super Bowl champion Ernest Jones, who was named to the 2020 Phil Steele All-SEC fourth team that season. He also worked with Mo Kaba who earned SEC All-Freshman honors that year.
