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Kevin Wilson explains decision to leave Ohio State, biggest lesson learned during time with Buckeyes

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Kevin Wilson has returned to the head coaching ranks after a 6-year stint as an assistant at Ohio State.

In a coaching career that dates back to the 1980s, Wilson has had some big-time stops as an offensive coordinator at Northwestern, Oklahoma and Ohio State. He was also the head coach at Indiana from 2011-16, going 26-47 overall but producing back-to-back bowl games in his final two seasons.

In a recent appearance on The No. 1 College Football Show with RJ Young, Wilson discussed his decision to leave the Buckeyes after spending 6 years as an assistant coach for the program under Urban Meyer and Ryan Day. While Wilson spoke positively about his time in Columbus, he noted a decision to take “one good swing” at leading a program.

“I think when you are on assistant coach — I had a great job (at Ohio State) — having been a head coach prior at Indiana, I tried to be a great assistant coach at Ohio State,” said Wilson. “I tried to do the job that was asked and to be a good teammate and tried to be someone who brought something to the table.

“When the opportunity (to be a head coach) came, it wasn’t about ego or needing to show anyone I could do it… what I felt was my best opportunity if the good Lord wanted, I thought I had one good swing to lead a program and to make a change.”

As for lessons learned during his time with the Buckeyes, Wilson pointed to the way Ohio State’s staff consistently made decisions based around what is best for the players. He is trying to implement a similar system and model of a player-focused program at Tulsa.

“You think Ohio State’s got all these resources and all these great players — and they do — but it was the best place I’d ever been with everyone working to do what was best for the players,” Wilson explained. “The best thing about Ohio State was the strength of the people but most importantly how the people worked for the player.”

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.