Arizona Wildcats running back Nick Wilson's parents never stressed as they sat and watched their son go from a high school graduate to a starter at the FBS level in a matter of months.
And in that way, Wilson is a lot like his parents. Through his entire athletic career he admits that he rarely feels the nerves. In fact, he can point to every single time he has ever gotten nervous. It has only happened twice.
Once, as a freshman in high school running at the California state track and field championships on Central High School's 4x100-meter relay team.
And a second time, four years later as a freshman at Arizona in the Wildcats' second game of the season, Wilson's first start of his college career.
Terris Jones-Grigsby, who had started the Wildcats' first game of the season, was out and Wilson had leapfrogged Adonis Smith on Arizona's depth chart. Coach Rich Rodriguez sensed Wilson's nerves and gave him some very basic advice.
"He was just saying, 'Just play, it's a normal game, do it like practice,' " Wilson remembered.
And he did. The same aggressive, dominant, calm player that Rodriguez had recruited and seen through fall camp showed up on the field against UTSA. Wilson carried the ball 30 times and rushed for 174 yards and one touchdown.
It was just one highlight in a season that fully surpassed Wilson's expectations as he became the Wildcats' workhorse.
He finished as the Pac-12's fourth-leading rusher with 1,375 yards (and it would've been more if he hadn't been sidelined a bit due to injury) -- the most of any freshman last season.
Yet, in a league that had a pretty full stable of backs, his season went largely unnoticed amidst the talk of the Royce Freemans and the Devontae Bookers and the Paul Perkins of the conference.
But Wilson was the best on third downs (of backs who carried the ball at least 150 times). He was tied for the most touchdowns in conference play. He was the best back on a team that featured the most even attack of any team in the Pac-12 (49.5 percent of their plays were passing plays, 50.5 percent were rushing plays).
Just like the pressures never got to him, neither did the fact that he didn't get as much attention as other players in the conference despite his numbers.
And just like last season, Wilson came back this spring ready to work without any nerves or much spotlight.
Throughout the spring he felt more physically and mentally prepared for the practices despite the fact he hadn't even been on campus for a year (that anniversary didn't come until June 20) and looked even better than he did in the fall.
Some of his teammates can hardly believe he's so young and he's starting to forget that, too.
"I definitely feel older," Wilson said. "I'm just more experienced and I know a lot more. That's kind of weird to say even though I'm just about to be a sophomore."
And if this offseason is any kind of a sign, then there's no chance of a sophomore slump for Wilson.
Not that he'd be nervous about that anyway.