Rod Wilson knows what it’s like to make it in the NFL, heck he played in 51 games over four years in the league and was part of a Chicago Bears team that made it to two NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl.

So, when it was really time to take the next step in coaching, he went back to the NFL to do it.

He probably found one of the best places to do it, spending the last three years in Kansas City with Andy Reid.

“I’m an early bird anyway but coach Reid was in the building before the sun comes up, the last one out the building and the sun’s still coming up,” Wilson said. “That’s what I learned from him; I was one of the first ones in the building and the last to leave. He’s a consistent guy. That’s another thing I took from being under him for three years: his consistency.

“He’s straight ahead. You know what you’re getting out of coach. You know what to respect. The culture he built there in Kansas City and when he was in Philadelphia was huge. From that standpoint on how to work, how to communicate with players, how to grind and how to not only expect things out of players but give them what they expect.”

Wilson spent the last three years with the Chiefs where he was a part of the staff that won three AFC West titles, went to two AFC title games and won the 2020 Super Bowl.

There he was an assistant to special teams coordinator Dave Toub, who is widely considered one of the best assistants in the NFL.

“Then the guy I worked under with coach Toub, the way he commands the room and the respect he’s given by the players but at the same time he knows how to have fun,” Wilson said. “I learned a lot from that standpoint from those two coaches when I worked there and a ton of coaches who worked on that staff. That’s a great staff.”

Now, it’s Wilson’s job to impart the knowledge he learned after four years playing the game and three years coaching it at the NFL level to his new group of players.

Wilson is taking over as the Gamecocks’ linebackers coach this season, his first gig in college since coaching at Charleston Southern.

He’s already taken the opportunity to discuss his career and let his players know what it’s going to take to be successful if they want to play at the next level.

“One of the first things I talked about when I got here was I liked the fact we practice in the morning. It gets you up and gets you going. If you have aspirations of going to the NFL, meetings start first thing in the morning,” Wilson said. “You’re in the building anywhere from six-something if you have treatment or seven to six at night. It’s a full day’s work. Your first meeting starts at 8 o’clock or 8:15. I really like the fact we get up and get going in the morning. Even life after football, it gets you prepared for getting a job and working.”

Wilson gets a chance to at least have his players in the building over the next few weeks with the football team beginning its offseason workouts Monday, the first real resumption of athletics activities since Coronavirus shut things down in March.