Kevin Wilson - Football Coach

Kevin Wilson

Title:
Head Coach

	PERSONAL INFORMATION
	Hometown: Maiden, N.C.
	Education: North Carolina, 1984 North Carolina, 1987
	Family: Angela - Wife, Elaina - Daughter, Makenzie - Daughter, Marlee. - Daughter, Trey - Son, Toby - Son
	COACHING EXPERIENCE
	2022-present: Tulsa, head coach
	2017-22: Ohio State, offensive coordinator/tight ends
	2011-2016: Indiana, head coach
	2006-10: Oklahoma, offensive coordinator/tight ends/full backs
	2002-2005: Oklahoma, co-offensive coordinator/offensive line
	2001: Northwestern, assistant head coach/offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
	1999-00: Northwestern, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
	1998: Miami (Ohio), offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
	1992-97: Miami (Ohio), offensive coordinator/offensive line
	1990-91: Miami (Ohio), offensive line
	1989: Foard (NC) High School, head coach/athletic director
	1988: North Carolina A&T, offensive coordinator/offensive line
	1987: Winston Salem, offensive line
	1984-86: North Carolina, grad assistantKevin Wilson is in his second season as head coach of the Golden Hurricane football program. He was introduced as The University of Tulsa’s 34^th head football coach on December 6, 2022.

Wilson came to Tulsa following six seasons as the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at The Ohio State University. With 31 years of coordinator experience, Wilson has directed some of the most innovative and prolific offenses in the nation over his 39-year collegiate coaching career.

Before his stint at Ohio State, Wilson spent six years as the Indiana University head coach. He also coached at Oklahoma, Northwestern, Miami (Ohio), North Carolina A&T, Winston Salem and North Carolina as a graduate assistant.

In his first season at Tulsa, Wilson not only laid the groundwork for future success with the Golden Hurricane but instilled a culture that saw his student-athletes turn in the program’s best marks academically. His first season ended with a 4-8 record against a schedule featuring three of the nation’s top-20 teams, including eventual FBS national runner-up Washington. Four of the losses came by seven or less points, while Tulsa’s four victories were by nearly 17 points per game.

Wilson has been a part of 13 seasons with 10 or more victories and has coached in four national championship games, including three at Oklahoma and one with Ohio State. He helped guide the Buckeyes to a 67-8 record in his six years on staff and before that won 26 games at Indiana.

In 2022, Wilson was selected as one the inaugural recipients of the GRAPHITE Award recognizing excellence in Offensive Play Calling Efficiency, presented by RII Sports Technology. His Play Calling Efficiency Rating (PCER) of 80.2% during the 2022 campaign was the highest in the Big 10 Conference and ranked in the 96^th percentile among all FBS programs.

Ohio State featured one of the nation’s top offenses under Wilson’s guidance. The Buckeyes have ranked among the top-7 in total offense all six of his seasons, and among the top-8 for scoring offense five times. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Ohio State was also eighth in rushing offense and 11th in scoring offense.

In Wilson’s six seasons, the Buckeyes:

• Averaged 524.1 yards per game and 43.6 points per game;
• Topped 500 yards of total offense 47 times and 600 yards 18 times;
• Scored 410 touchdowns, second-most nationally;
• Threw 242 touchdown passes, No. 1 nationally;
• Produced three Heisman Trophy finalists (Dwayne Haskins in 2018, Justin Fields in 2019 and C.J. Stroud in 2022);
• Produced the first 2,000-yard rusher in school history (J.K. Dobbins);
• Produced two 1,000-yard receivers in back-to-back seasons (Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson in 2021; Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka in 2022); and
• Produced eight NFL First Round Draft selections on offense (C Billy Price, QB Dwayne Haskins, QB Justin Fields, WR Chris Olave, WR Garrett Wilson, QB C.J. Stroud, OT Paris Johnson Jr. and WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba)

The range of diversity is nothing unusual for Wilson. Twice he’s been on an offensive staff – at Oklahoma and Indiana – that produced a 3,500-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and a 1,000-yard receiver in the same year, and Ohio State came within 46 rushing yards from Mike Weber in 2018 to giving Wilson a third team to accomplish the feat. In 2021, his offensive unit had a 4,000+ passer, two 1,000+ receivers and one 1,000-yard rusher.

During his tenure, Ohio State won four consecutive Big Ten championships plus claimed a Cotton Bowl win over USC in 2018, a Rose Bowl win over Washington in 2019, advanced to the College Football Playoffs in 2020 and defeated Clemson in the 2021 CFP Semifinals to advance to the CFP championship game.

Wilson spent six seasons as the Indiana head coach and led the school to consecutive bowl games in 2015 and 2016 for the first time in 25 years. His teams led the Big Ten Conference in passing three times (2012, ‘13 and ‘15) while finishing second in 2016. His 2015 offense led the Big Ten in passing, total offense and scoring.

An offensive coordinator to the late Randy Walker for seven years at Miami-Ohio (1992-98) and then for three years at Northwestern (1999-2001), Wilson and Walker led the RedHawks to a 59-36-5 record before devising a power-spread offense at Northwestern that carried the Wildcats to a Big Ten Conference co-championship in 2000. Highlights of that season included Northwestern leading the Big Ten in rushing for the first time in 54 years.

Wilson then coached under Bob Stoops for nine years at Oklahoma, serving as co-offensive coordinator from 2002-05 and offensive coordinator from 2006-10. During his tenure, the Sooners won six Big 12 championships, played in three national championship games (2003, ’04 and ’08) and Wilson’s offenses “evolved into a beast,” according to published reports and featured a then-NCAA record 716 points scored in 2008 that still ranks No. 2 in FBS history.

Following the 2010 season, Wilson was named Indiana’s head coach. His IU stint was not only an exciting offensive era for the Hoosiers, but it also featured an average of 21 academic all-Big Ten players each year and his tenure was the second-longest for an IU coach in 20 years.

Student-athletes have thrived under Wilson wherever he has coached. Some of note include:
• Miami Redhawk Travis Prentice rushed for 3,937 yards and 56 touchdowns in three seasons under Wilson, and he closed his career sixth in NCAA rushing history;
• Northwestern’s Zak Kustok had 532 yards of offense in a 2001 game – still the seventh-most yards in Big Ten history – when Wilson was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach;
• Two of Wilson’s running backs – Northwestern’s Damien Anderson and Indiana’s Tevin Coleman – accumulated 2,000 rushing yards in a season with Coleman’s 2,036 in 2014 16th in NCAA history and Anderson’s 2,063 in 2000 not ranked by the NCAA because of bowl game yards but fifth in Big Ten history;
• Oklahoma’s Adrian Peterson just missed a 2,000-yard season under Wilson in 2004 with 1,925 yards;
• Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford became the NCAA’s career-leader in passing efficiency (min. 500 completions);
• Bradford and Oklahoma’s Landry Jones each passed for over 4,700 yards in a season to rank 21st and 23rd, respectively, in NCAA history;
• Wilson’s 2008 Sooner offense set an NCAA record by scoring 60 points in five consecutive games;
• Indiana quarterbacks Nate Sudfeld, in 2015, and Richard Lagow in 2016, held the top two single season passing yardage totals in IU history, with Sudfeld’s 3,573 yards 10th in Big Ten history; and
• The 2015 IU offense became just the fourth in FBS history – and second for Wilson – with a 3,500-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and a 1,000-yard receiver in the same year (USC in 2005; Oklahoma in 2008 and Southern Miss in 2015).

Wilson was selected as the Frank Broyles Award Winner in 2008 as the nation’s top assistant coach and was twice a finalist. In addition to Ohio State’s eight first-round draft selections, Wilson also had four first-round draft picks at Oklahoma – Bradford, Peterson, Trent Williams and Jermaine Gresham – and 23 of his Hoosiers moved on to the NFL.

A native of Maiden, N.C., Wilson is a 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he was an offensive lineman and received his bachelor’s (education; 1987) and master’s (physical education) degrees. After three seasons as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Wilson’s full-time coaching career began in 1987 at Winston Salem State and included stops at North Carolina A&T (1988) and Ford (N.C.) High School prior to his tenure at Miami.

Wilson, and his wife, Angela, are the parents of five children: daughters Elaina, Makenzie and Marlee, and sons Trey and Toby, an offensive lineman at Ohio State.

Kevin Wilson Year-by-Year Coaching Record
Year	Position	School	Record	Postseason
1984-86	Grad. Assistant	North Carolina
1987	Offensive Line	Winston Salem
1988	Offensive Coordinator/OL	No. Carolina A&T	2-9
1989	Head Coach/Athletic Director	Foard (NC) HS
1990	Offensive Line	Miami (Ohio)	5-5-1
1991	Offensive Line	Miami (Ohio)	6-4-1
1992	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	6-4-1
1993	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	4-7
1994	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	5-5-1
1995	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	8-2-1
1996	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	6-5
1997	Offensive Coordinator/OL	Miami (Ohio)	8-3
1998	Offensive Coordinator/QBs	Miami (Ohio)	10-1
1999	Offensive Coordinator/QBs	Northwestern	3-8
2000	Offensive Coordinator/QBs	Northwestern	8-4	Alamo Bowl - Loss
2001	Assistant HC/Off. Coordinator/QBs	Northwestern	4-7
2002	Co-Offensive Coordinator/OL	Oklahoma	12-2	Rose Bowl - Win
2003	Co-Offensive Coordinator/OL	Oklahoma	12-2	Sugar Bowl - Loss
2004	Co-Offensive Coordinator/OL	Oklahoma	12-1	Orange Bowl - Loss
2005	Co-Offensive Coordinator/OL	Oklahoma	8-4	Holiday Bowl - Win
2006	Offensive Coordinator/TEs/FBs	Oklahoma	11-3	Fiesta Bowl - Loss
2007	Offensive Coordinator/TEs/FBs	Oklahoma	11-3	Fiesta Bowl - Loss
2008	Offensive Coordinator/TEs/FBs	Oklahoma	12-2	BCS Championship - Loss
2009	Offensive Coordinator/TEs/FBs	Oklahoma	8-5	Sun Bowl - Win
2010	Offensive Coordinator/TEs/FBs	Oklahoma	12-2	Fiesta Bowl - Win
2011	Head Coach	Indiana	1-11
2012	Head Coach	Indiana	4-8
2013	Head Coach	Indiana	5-7
2014	Head Coach	Indiana	4-8
2015	Head Coach	Indiana	6-7	Pinstripe Bowl - Loss
2016	Head Coach	Indiana	6-6	Foster Farms Bowl - Loss
2017	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	12-2	Cotton Bowl - Win
2018	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	13-1	Rose Bowl - Win
2019	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	13-1	Fiesta Bowl - Loss
2020	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	7-1	CFP Championship - Loss
2021	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	11-2	Rose Bowl - Win
2022	Offensive Coordinator/TEs	Ohio State	11-1	CFP Playoffs
2023	Head Coach	Tulsa	4-8