Huntley tried to stick the ball over the goal line. Wilson knocked it out. Hubbard snatched it and went 98 yards the other way, disappearing into an orange-and-black vortex swimming with sound. Not to mention the winning touchdown.

“Credit Logan Wilson,” Hubbard said that night. “Right place, right time.”

Wilson laughs now. Credit?

“I don’t ever get the credit. But Sam can have his glory,” Wilson says. “I just remember after I punched it out, just walking toward Sam as he was running away. I just held my fist up. Such a big moment.”

The two snaps crystalize Wilson’s run here. Right place, right time. Wilson and Tremaine Edmunds are the only linebackers with at least 11 interceptions in the 2020s. Hizhonor, two-time Super Bowler Reggie Williams, with 16, and original Bengal Al Beauchamp, with 15, are the only Cincy linebackers with more.

“He had everything you would want in a linebacker on and off the field,” says former Bengals senior defensive assistant Mark Duffner. “He could run, diagnose, recover. Didn’t come off the field.”

It was Duffner and Bengals scout Bill Tobin who fell in love with Wilson’s right-place-right-time-tape at Wyoming long before the 2020 Senior Bowl. When the Bengals coached the South in hopes of working with LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, they ended up finding another quarterback on the North.

“He was playing against us, but just to watch him every day at practice, we really could see how good he was as a player and as a guy,” Duffner says. “Bill and I were so happy when we drafted him. What a great kid. I remember when I called to congratulate him, he was out walking his dog.”

Right place, right time? That’s where Joey Boese, the Bengals head strength coach, found himself once. He remembers a rehab session when Wilson and wide receiver Tee Higgins were coming back from injury and opening it up with sprints.

Wilson was right there with Higgins. At 21 miles per hour on the GPS.

“Wide receiver speed,” Boese says. “He didn’t get enough credit for his athleticism. He was 240, 241 pounds, and he could flat out run. For a couple of years there, he was sideline to sideline and making big plays. And a good dude to be around. He was good to everyone in the building.”