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Wilson introduced as next Tulsa Football coach

Current Ohio State OC and former Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson was introduced on Tuesday as Tulsa's next head football coach.
Current Ohio State OC and former Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson was introduced on Tuesday as Tulsa's next head football coach. (AP Images)

New Tulsa coach Kevin Wilson's first impression at his press conference should go a long way to squelch concerns the doubters may have.

Wilson was in command, showing intelligence, wit, a strong belief in his ability to coach, and even got emotional when talking about his past players. It was a strong introduction to the media and to TU boosters Tuesday afternoon at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Of course, there will always be doubters. Certainly for a 61-year-old newly appointed head coach. Any coach has to prove what he is talking about.

But the Ohio State offensive coordinator knows what needs to be done.

Wilson knows he isn't going to get the five-star recruits to Tulsa. But it was telling in what he said about recruiting rankings.

"You've got to find that two or three-star level guy on paper but that can develop to be the four- or five-star," Wilson said. "If you look in the NFL Draft world, there will be more three-star guys drafted in the first round than four- and five-star high school recruits.

"Some guys just mature later, body types change. Some guys tap out. Some guys are tapped out. Some guys are futures. There's an art in evaluating recruits to gauge that. You don't want to miss on that lot, but you're gauging on a developmental piece."

The lure of Oklahoma was strong for Wilson. He loved his previous time in Oklahoma. He even has a daughter going to school at OU.

"I had a chance for nine years living in Oklahoma to get to know a lot of people here," Wilson said. "I have a great deal of respect for people in this part of the region. My wife will tell you, of places we've been, if we could go back and live, retire, she'd say, hey, Norman is not a bad place to go.

"And of course Rick and Brad both said Tulsa is going to trump that one. So it's great to be back here in this neck of the woods."

Athletic Director Rick Dickson and TU president Brad Carson were both enthusiastic about their new coach, as would be expected.

Wilson will split time between Ohio State and TU until the Buckeyes' playoff run is over. He will spend time in Tulsa during recruiting time, but during the dead time in recruiting, he will help Ohio State prepare.

A big thing that got Wilson emotional was talking about how his former players at all of his previous schools have been contacting him about their support for him.

A huge selling point for Wilson is his time spent at OU from 2002 to 2010 where he was the offensive coordinator. Working with Heisman Trophy winners Jason White and Sam Bradford under enormously successful coach Bob Stoops while leading terrific Sooners offenses are big reasons why Wilson was even considered for the TU job.

Stoops is clearly a fan.

"I think Kevin Wilson is one of the best offensive coordinators and, to be honest, will be one of the best head coaches in the country," Stoops said. "He's got a great mind and a great passion for football. He's the right guy and I love that Tulsa has made this move."

Wilson's time spent in Oklahoma means that he knows the area. That is critical.

Also critical is that since 2017, as offensive coordinator for Ohio State, the Buckeyes have been highly successful.

But it is also important to know that Wilson, who played for UNC as an offensive lineman, has spent a lot of time away from the so-called power conferences. He talked about his time at Miami, Ohio.

And even though Northwestern is in the Big Ten, they are a private school, like Tulsa, with high academic standards. And a clear underdog most times in their conference.

So, the snob mentality that comes with spending all of your time in highly successful schools in big conferences shouldn't be present for Wilson.

When you spend 9 years as an assistant at Miami, Ohio, from 1990-1998 -- the last 7 over those years as OC -- like Wilson did, then you know what it takes to win away from constant limelight.

And make no mistake. Tulsa in the in AAC is ahead of Miami, Ohio of the MAC in the prestige and pecking order.

Before coming to OU, Wilson had spent 19 seasons being tutored by Randy Walker, the last two years from 1999-2001 as OC at Northwestern. Wilson had followed Walker from Miami, Ohio, and before that, had coached under him as a grad assistant and played under him as a player at North Carolina where Walker had been an assistant.

The biggest criticism about Wilson is that his head coaching record at Indiana, from 2011-2016, was 26-47. At first glance, that looks uninspiring, at the least, or just plain bad.

But keep in mind Barry Switzer's comment about getting hired by the right schools. In short, Switzer was saying that his success at OU was helped a lot by being at a school that traditionally wins. And conversely, some schools don't have a winning tradition, and it is almost impossible to win there.

At Indiana, in 15 of the previous 16 seasons before Wilson was there, Indiana had losing records. In fact, the last 14 coaches at Indiana have had losing records there.

You have to go back to Bo McMillin, who coached there from 1933-1947, to find a coach with a winning record at Indiana. For time reference, that was the time era were TU was playing in the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl.

Even legendary Lee Corso was 41-68-2 in 10 years at Indiana. And the best coach there, Bill Mallory, who coached Indiana from 1984-1996, had 6 winning seasons and a .500 season, but still finished 69-77-3.

For Wilson, the cupboard was bare his first year at Indiana, and he went 1-10. That was followed by 4-8, 5-7, and 4-8 before a 6-6 regular season in 2015 and a bowl loss. He was 6-6 again in 2016 but parted ways with Indiana before the bowl game due to philosophical differences.

It took Wilson less than 2 months after Indiana to become Ohio State's offensive coordinator, hired by Urban Meyer. Amazing how being at Ohio State changed his fortunes. Ryan Day was elevated to head coach the next year, and Wilson stayed.

Indiana's offenses were good under Wilson, being ranked second in yards and third in points in the Big Ten. His Ohio State offenses are always highly ranked, being ranked third in the nation in yards since he arrived at Ohio State, and second in touchdowns.

His Ohio State offense produced back-to-back Heisman Trophy finalists in Dwayne Haskins and Justin Fields. And produced J.K. Dobbin, who is the only back to rush for over 2,000 yards in Ohio State history.

Not to mention that the 2008 Oklahoma offense set a FBS record for points with 716, which still is ranked second in FBS history.

So undoubtedly, Wilson's history of fast-paced, exciting and productive offenses was appealing to Tulsa's search committee.

As far as whether Wilson will be calling his own plays, or leave that to the offensive coordinator, Wilson is open to either. He has called his own plays as head coach, but said he is probably leaning to letting his offensive coordinator call the plays.

But Wilson has not decided on that. He will see how the process unfolds with his assistants.

Dickson and Wilson talked about how Tulsa quarterback Braylon Braxton, who had entered the transfer portal, will be staying at TU. Unfortunately, Braxton's father was in a serious accident, so Braxton has been spending time with his dad.

But both Braxton and Braxton's father were able to talk with Dickson over the phone. Wilson has been able to talk with Braxton on the phone as well.

A key thing Wilson stressed was trying to get as many of the current players to stay. And it sounds like he plans on retaining several coaches, if possible.

He also plans to focus on recruiting local players, as well as the obvious places, like Texas.

A concern at TU has been getting the fans back in the stands. Wilson knows what needs to be done for that to happen.

"I know there's some other great teams in the state that everyone likes, but bottom line, we'll be as accessible and we'll do all the little tricks of the trade to look at marketing," Wilson said.

"But we've got to put a product out there that they want to come see. We need to win games. If you win games, they'll come."

Wilson talked about the type of product he will put on the field.

"We're in the entertainment business, and we need to put a product on that's going to be disciplined, that's going to be exciting and score, but also - our program goal number one is to play great defense,” Wilson said.

"And I'm an offensive guy. But we've got to play defense, and we've got to learn how to do that, and we've got to learn how to get stops."

Wilson isn't planning on waiting long to get Tulsa to be successful.

"I'm too old for four and five-year builds," Wilson said. "Let's do what we can to be as good as we can right now and rock and roll."

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