By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Former North Rowan star Malcolm Wilson Jr. quickly worked his way up to second team running back at Barton College, but that was as far as he was going to be able to go.

Barton’s Jordan Terrell still has eligibility, and he’s one of the best and most durable backs in Division II. A workhorse warrior who carries most of the load for head coach Chip Hester’s Bulldogs, Terrell rumbled 300 times for 1,672 yards in 2022 to finish in the top five nationally for the second straight year. In an 11-game season, Terrell averaged 27 carries and 152 rushing yards per game.

“Jordan was getting 30 carries every Saturday, and I can’t take anything away from him, he’s a great back and he earned everything he got,” Wilson said. “But it was hard being the No. 2 guy behind someone like that. If you’re the No. 5 or No. 6 guy, well, you know you won’t play, but being No.2 is so much harder. You want to be on the field. I was that No. 2 guy at Barton for two seasons.”

Wilson has come back home for the 2023 season. He’s looking forward to suiting up for the Catawba Indians. It’s a rebuilding program that lost 10 straight to close the 2022 season and lost big in most of them. There’s a new coaching staff headed by Tyler Haines, who has a solid track record.

“There was more opportunity at Catawba than Barton,” Wilson said. “My goal is to become part of Catawba’s running back rotation and to show what I can do. Catawba has good players and good guys. I just want to be part of it.”

Wilson accelerates quickly, hits holes fast. He has exceptional balance and instincts. He can catch the ball out of the backfield. He’s tough enough to get yards after contact and elusive enough to make the first tackler miss.

In his high school days, playing for head coach Ben Hampton, Wilson basically was Jordan Terrell for North’s Cavaliers. In the tough games like the playoff win against Princeton in 2019, Wilson would get the ball 25 times and he’s often find enough daylight to get 200 yards.

He was a backup to a star (Jaleel Webster) as a sophomore, but he broke loose to be the county’s top back in 2018 and 2019.

Wilson’s father died when he was a junior, but he kept going and pushed even harder.

Hampton frequently described Wilson as a gentle soul who became a monster when it was time to strap on the pads.

There was a night he rushed for 318 yards. There was a night he scored a county-record seven touchdowns and there was another night he scored six.

Wilson finished his high school career as one of the county’s all-time top 10 rushers. He topped 4,000 rushing yards and put the ball in the end zone 66 times.

His senior year he averaged almost 8 yards per carry. He produced 31 touchdowns and nine 2-point conversions for the first 200-point season in North football history.

It was a phenomenal high school career that included player of the year accolades.

Still, a lot of colleges didn’t think he was quite fast enough or quite big enough. Barton got him pretty late in the recruiting game, and he headed there (Wilson, N.C.) as part of Hester’s second recruiting class. When Wilson arrived, Barton still hadn’t played its first official game.

Wilson scooted up the depth chart shortly after his arrival, but then Terrell emerged as a star, and the rest is history.

Wilson, who has 205 pounds on his 5-foot-10 frame now, hasn’t been completely idle on Saturdays at Barton.

In 2021, he got 35 carries and produced 169 yards and two touchdowns.

Both touchdowns came in a homecoming romp against Bluefield State. Most of the yards — 93 on 20 carries — came when Barton blew out Limestone, and Wilson had a chance to shoulder the rushing load in the second half as the Bulldogs chewed up the clock.

“That was the first time I really felt like I had the experience of being a college running back on game day,” Wilson said. “I came off the bench cold, but I got a lot of carries and had a chance to get into a rhythm.”

In 2022, he had 21 carries for 80 yards and one touchdown. The TD came at Newberry. A season highlight was a 22-yard carry when he got to tote the rock late in a win against Catawba.

Off the field, things are going well for Wilson, who is pursuing degrees in business administration and sports management.

He believes his future is in the business world, but he loves football so much that he also wants to coach in some capacity.

“I’m excited to be back in Rowan County, getting to see a lot of friends, and looking forward to the season,” Wilson said.