Former Oklahoma coach Kevin Wilson can join elite company with a Buckeyes win on Monday

Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson can join elite company on Monday night.

Of the 27 different men who served under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, Wilson can become just the third former Stoops assistant to go elsewhere and win a national championship.

The others were Brent Venables, who won both the 2016 and the 2018 titles as defensive coordinator at Clemson, and Bo Pelini, who won the 2007 title as defensive coordinator at LSU.

Wilson would be the first ex-Stoops aide to win it from the offensive side of the ball.

(There’s a technicality at play, of course: Stoops’ brother, Mike Stoops, who coached the Oklahoma defense from 1999-2003 and then again from 2012-2016 under his brother, is one of Nick Saban’s 13 football analysts. Stoops isn’t allowed to actually coach in his current role, although he did fill in this season — like his big brother did for a few days for Lincoln Riley’s Sooners — if members of the coaching staff are in COVID quarantine. That means one of Stoops’ old assistants will definitely get a national title ring no matter who wins.)

Wilson joined the Sooners in 2002 as offensive line coach after Mark Mangino left for Kansas, was promoted to offensive coordinator before the 2006 season, and he called plays through 2010 before taking the head coaching post at Indiana.

Ahead of Monday’s College Football Playoff showdown with No. 1-ranked Alabama, Wilson was asked last week about his coaching path and how he evolved into one of the progenitors of the modern up-tempo game.

“I was fortunate enough to get hired (from Northwestern) by coach Stoops to come to Oklahoma,” Wilson said, “and we fiddled around my first year or so a little bit in some practices with coach (Chuck) Long, but it really didn't fit the terminology we had at the time and really didn't fit our guys.”

Wilson utilized the shotgun formation and implemented the quarterback run game under the late Randy Walker in Evanston, IL. His first game as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator was the 2005 Holiday Bowl in San Diego, and he had quarterback Rhett Bomar (the game’s MVP) and running back Adrian Peterson unleash on Oregon what could be considered early elements of today’s widespread run-pass options (RPOs).

But when Bomar was kicked off the team, Paul Thompson was the emergency starter in 2006, and Sam Bradford was a redshirt freshmen in 2007. So it wasn’t until 2008, when Wilson had his fabulous freshman quarterback coming back, that he unveiled the Sooners’ record-setting up-tempo game.

“Bob came in the offseason and said, ‘I think we need to look at no-huddle,’ ” Wilson said. “I said, ‘Coach, if you want to, we need to change a couple things the way we practice, because you've got to practice a certain way and I don't know if that fits the way you want to do things defensively.’ ”

After clearing it with Venables — who said he was 100 percent on-board — the Sooners became the fastest offense in college football.

“I remember (Stoops) had coach (Bill) Snyder came down that year from K-State,” Wilson said. “He was out of coaching at that time and did a clinic, and I met with coach Snyder and I said, ‘Coach, I'm struggling because coach Stoops wants to go no-huddle and I think that might mess us up because we're really pretty good on defense. What do you think?

“And he says, ‘Well, because you've got a good offense, I think you're going to get more at bats.”

The Sooners led the nation in possessions per game, and also set an NCAA record with five straight 60-point games and actually set the modern-day college football record with 714 points scored. Wilson said the key to OU’s success that season was in being able to keep its talented tight ends and fullbacks on the field to create personnel mismatches.

“What we were able to do (with) Jermaine Gresham, Brody Eldridge — a phenomenal player — Matt Clapp, we were able to then start doing no-huddle with personnel groupings where were weren't spread out all the time or it wasn't quarterback run game all the time,” Wilson said.

“We were able to add the Mike Leach style passing that we had continued to do, that Mike had brought in there in '99, we added that with some really strong tight end play with Jermaine and Brody; we had a really good offensive line: Trent Williams and Phil Loadholt and Duke Robinson and Jon Cooper. I mean, we had some good players. Manny Johnson and Juaquin (Iglesias). We had DeMarco (Murray) and Chris Brown dotting the I back there, so, some good players.”

Wilson helped get Landry Jones’ career on a record-setting arc, then took his talents to Bloomington, IN, but only managed a 26-47 head coaching record.

After Indiana fired Wilson, he was hired by Urban Meyer at Ohio State in 2017 as offensive coordinator and tight ends coach. When Ryan Day replaced Meyer, he kept Wilson on to run his offense, and Wilson is now in his fourth season with the Buckeyes.

“When we came here, it wasn't like we were putting ideas in,” Wilson said. “We were learning what coach Meyer wanted us to do, period.”

Wilson said he remembers talking to ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit before the 2008 season about the coming offensive wave.

“He said, ‘You guys are going to be good,’ ” Wilson said. “I said, ‘Kirk, I don't want to say anything until after we get by this (Texas) game in the middle of October, but I think we're going to go no-huddle with this multiple-personnel groupings. I think we can mess with some people.

“Now the game has caught — defenses have caught up. But I think from that's from there, where the RPOs started coming in, the multiple personnel groupings. Offense has continued to grow.

“There's still some great defenses, but you're going to see two strong defenses playing against two pretty really strong offenses on Monday night, and that's kind of where the game has evolved.”

Bob Stoops' Coaching Tree

Coach (school): Record

Mike Leach (Texas Tech, Washington State, Mississippi State): 143-97
Mark Mangino (Kansas): 50-48
Bo Pelini (Nebraska, Youngstown State): 100-55
Chuck Long (San Diego State): 9-27
Mike Stoops (Arizona): 41-50
Kevin Wilson (Indiana): 26-47
Kevin Sumlin (Houston, Texas A&M, Arizona): 95-63
Josh Heupel (UCF): 27-6
Jay Norvell (Nevada): 25-22'
Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma): 45-8

Bob Stoops' assistants

The ‘99ers

Mike Leach
Mark Mangino
Steve Spurrier Jr.
Jonathan Hayes
Brent Venables *
Mike Stoops
Jackie Shipp
Cale Gundy
Bobby Jack Wright

The Rest

Chuck Long ’00
Kevin Wilson ’02
Darrell Wyatt '02
Kevin Sumlin ’03
Bo Pelini ’04*
Chris Wilson ’05
Josh Heupel ’06
James Patton ’06
Jay Norvell ’08
Willie Martinez ’10
Bruce Kittle ’11
Tim Kish ’12
Bill Bedenbaugh ’14
Jay Boulware ’14
Jerry Montgomery ’14
Kerry Cooks ’15
Lincoln Riley ’15
Diron Reynolds ’15
Calvin Thibodeaux ’16

* won a national championship as an assistant