The last three times the Oklahoma Sooners reached the national championship game, Kevin Wilson was the offensive coordinator, so he knows what it takes, at least on offense, to really contend for a national title.
"It's an art. It's a challenge," Wilson said recently on The Oklahoma Breakdown podcast. "The game, to me, is at an all-time high of offense and defense competitiveness. And we're not gonna win, as great as our defense is, we're not gonna win at an elite level if we can't score 30, 35 points against the best teams in this conference.
"When you're watching the Super Bowl, you're watching the national championship games, those are the best defenses, and by the way, the offense is scoring 35, 40 points, and we've got to become that kind of offense again."
We asked @CoachKevinWils about improving the run game.
— The Oklahoma Breakdown with Ikard and Lehman (@OK_Breakdown) June 14, 2026
Here's what he said: pic.twitter.com/oGwccO6LtE
Sooners can't rely on defense alone to win College Football Playoff
After being away from Norman for over a decade between head coaching stints at Indiana and Tulsa, and six seasons as Ohio State's OC, Wilson returned to Oklahoma last offseason as an offensive analyst and now holds the title of Assistant Head Coach for Offense and assistant offensive line coach as Ben Arbuckle enters his second season as the Sooners' offensive coordinator.
In Wilson's first season back, the Sooners reached the College Football Playoff after going 10-2 in the regular season thanks to one of the best defenses in college football under head coach Brent Venables. Despite the success and amazing turnaround from 6-7 the year before, it's fair to argue 2025 should have been even better for the Sooners if their offense didn't seem to hold them back at times, especially after sputtering in a 34-24 loss to Alabama in the first round of the CFP.
A poor running game has garnered a lot of the blame for OU's offensive struggles, which is what sparked the conversation that prompted Wilson to set the point-total goal it will take for the Sooners to not only get back to the CFP, but be serious contenders.
Read more: Oklahoma run game doubts refuse to fade despite massive offseason overhaul
The Sooners last season averaged 26.23 points a game while the defense allowed just 15.46, which was seventh in the country. For comparison, national champion Indiana was even better while giving up only 11.07 points a game. The Hoosiers, though, also had the No. 2 offense in college football that scored 42.6 points a game, including 27 against Miami, a top-5 defense, in the national championship game.
Each time Wilson helped get the Sooners to the BCS National Championship Game during the 2003, '04 and '08 seasons as either co-offensive coordinator or OC, the lowest they ever averaged was 34.8 points a game.
It's obvious Wilson's point is correct that it takes a complete team to have a legit chance at winning it all. No matter how elite a defense is, it can carry a team only so far, which the Sooners learned the hard way and now have to make sure they're a two-way squad in 2026.
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