The 2008 season will go down as one of the best of O'Brien's tenure, as the Wolfpack became the first in Atlantic Coast Conference history to start the season 0–4 in league play and finish 4–0, with an overall record of 6–7. The bid to the Papajohns.com Bowl marked the ninth bowl invitation in the past 10 years for O'Brien. His freshman quarterback, Russell Wilson, who would go on to become a Super Bowl winning quarterback for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, became the first rookie in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference to be named first-team all-conference at his position and it marked the sixth time in his 19 years in the league that a quarterback under O'Brien's tutelage was named the All-ACC signal caller.