Well if Montana did in fact turn their back on Jimmy when he was in need then they are trying to make amends now by offering him a chance to graduate and get a degree.
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By FRITZ NEIGHBOR of the Missoulian
Lost in Jimmy Wilson's surprising return to the Montana Grizzlies, behind the hung jury in 2008 and then finally the acquittal in 2009 for the death of Fred Smoot, is that he hasn't put on football pads in a while.
It's been three years and change.
Perhaps lost behind that is the fact that Wilson, however rusty he may be when he reports to fall camp in August, is getting a second chance at more than football.
"What he really needs to do is get his damn degree," former UM coach Bobby Hauck said Tuesday. "He's not very far away."
Jim Foley, UM's executive vice president, said Monday that Wilson has three semesters left for his bachelor's. But he was on good academic footing when he left Missoula in 2007, when he was already an All-American candidate at cornerback and before he was incarcerated for the next two years.
Maybe it won't take that long for a refocused young man - Wilson turns 24 on July 30, which made him barely 18 when he entered his first fall camp with the Griz - to get that degree.
His return could be celebrated a scant nine months from now, if it isn't already. When Wilson left, it was amid a dark cloud that brought charges of roguish behavior before Smoot's death in Lancaster, Calif.
Most of it was after the fact, none of it stuck and, some asked, why we were bringing Wilson down anyway? Of course in reality he was a star who in three seasons garnered more positive publicity then Kroy Biermann had at the same point in his Griz career.
Biermann capped that career with the Buck Buchanan Award, and I'll say it here: Wilson was that good. It was rare when he did not do something remarkable in a game. A big hit here, a blocked field goal return there, an interception return.
Whether he can be that good again is one question.
"Have you ever played basketball after not playing for three years?" one person close to the situation asks. "You don't make your shots, you don't jump as high..."
"It'll be interesting to see how that part of it comes out," added Hauck. "He's a good player. He can help. But that's definitely part of the equation."
Not many figured Montana was going to be where Wilson made his comeback.
"I actually thought he was going to Central Washington," said Hauck. "But how many credits will transfer over - those are things that come into play."
Wilson contacted UM early this year and athletic director Jim O'Day, associate AD Jean Gee and new coach Robin Pflugrad got the waiver process going. The NCAA granted Wilson his senior year last week.
Now we wait and see. We don't know how good Wilson will be, or if he'll grant an interview. We do know he's getting a second chance and that many, many eyes will be watching how he does on the field and off.
Yet it's hard to doubt someone who has, according to Los Angeles County statistics, beaten 49 to 1 odds against acquittal. In light of that, pick-sixes and mortar boards seem very possible.
He has some important people in his corner, like Pflugrad and UM President George Dennison.
And Hauck. He'll be watching, too.
"He's not some freshman anymore," Hauck noted. "He's an adult, and he has to do things the right way."
Odds are he will, or UM wouldn't have worked so hard to bring him back.
