Kevin Wilson doing 'great job' balancing Buckeyes CFP run, Tulsa head coaching duties

ATLANTA — Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson had on-hand props to illustrate how complex his life has become this month, having been named the new head coach at Tulsa while also working with the Buckeyes headed toward Saturday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal against Georgia.

During a session with the media Tuesday morning, he pulled three cell phones out of his pockets. One was his Ohio State issue, one was his personal phone and the third, well, it had a Tulsa logo on its home screen.

“It’s been fun. It’s been exciting,” said Wilson, 61, named a head coach for the second time, his first six-year stint at Indiana having come to an abrupt halt in 2016. “My wife told me I had my bounce in my step back, which was kind of cool.”

Then-Ohio State coach Urban Meyer hired Wilson as what amounted to co-offensive coordinator in 2017 after anyone could see the improvement he had brought to the Hoosiers during his tenure. Ryan Day retained him after being elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach, succeeding Meyer, headed into 2019.

But Wilson said he still had the bug to be a head coach again at least once more in his career, and the chance came when Tulsa fired eight-year coach Phillip Montgomery. Wilson jumped at the opportunity, knowing it also meant his December and perhaps first week of January were doing to demand a split commitment, since he pledged to Day to work with Ohio State through the College Football Playoff.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud has been impressed by Wilson’s ability to stay on task, whatever that has demanded this month, while knowing Wilson also in his “spare time” has been assembling a staff and recruiting for Tulsa.

“Coach Wilson has been there every time I ask for him or need him,” Stroud said. “There’s no confusion. That’s probably for you guys. We’ve been doing the same things we’ve been doing. 

“But yeah, he does a great job. And I think he’ll do a great job, and I tell him that. He has that aura of a head coach, so I’m excited for him to go up there and do his thing.”

The key part for Wilson to raise Tulsa to the standard its administrators desire will come down to recruiting.  The soon-to-be-former Ohio State offensive coordinator was able to sign eight recruits to the 2023 class to Tulsa on Dec. 21, despite his late start, and will have a second shot at beefing up the class in the second signing period which starts Feb. 1. And that’s not the only way to restructure a roster these day, of course.

“It’s different from years past because of the transfer portal,” Wilson said of the availability of more than 1,000 players who have stepped into the portal since the regular season ended, seeking a fresh opportunity at another school. “And you’ve got to go try to embrace people you don’t know and try to convince them to hang in there” on the recruiting front in general as, again, a staff is assembled and points of emphasis are established.

Wilson said one thing that helped him better juggle his time this month was Day’s emphasis on getting the planning part of the Ohio State game plan vs. Georgia together early.

“We’re very much, I think, ahead, as the players would tell you with the game plan, what’s going on, playing a challenging team with a lot of great athletes and a lot of stress they bring in their structure,” he said referring to Georgia’s vaunted defense. “But we’ve worked really hard to be ahead and give our kids a chance to go out and be aggressive and play well Saturday night.”

FOOTNOTE – In 2014, Ohio State saw its offensive coordinator Tom Herman hired as head coach at Houston, even as the Buckeyes were preparing to play Alabama in the first College Football Playoff. Herman stayed on through the playoff which saw Ohio State upset Alabama and then Oregon to win the national championship.