Maybe sometimes the easiest way can actually be the best.
The Oklahoma Sooners are searching for a new tight ends coach after firing Joe Jon Finley on Thursday, and although there's a list of candidates that includes a big-time splash hire, the quietest hire could make the loudest impact. The Sooners will certainly look across the country for their next tight ends coach, but he could currently be inside the Barry Switzer Center with former tight ends coach and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson already on the coaching staff as a senior offensive analyst.
Kevin Wilson among candidates to be Sooners' next tight ends coach
Wilson returned to Norman ahead of this season as a senior offensive analyst to help guide young offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. Wilson was most recently the head coach at Tulsa, and before that was offensive coordinator and tight ends coach at Ohio State and head coach at Indiana.
During a coaching career that started in 1984, long before Arbuckle was even born, Wilson left Oklahoma in 2011 for his first head coach job at Indiana. He had earned that position after an extremely successful nine-year run at OU.
In 2002, Wilson was hired from Northwestern to be the Sooners' offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator. He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2006 and also started coaching tight ends and fullbacks then.
Wilson won the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant in college football, in 2008 as the Sooners posted a then-NCAA record 716 points in a season. During Wilson's five seasons leading the offense and coaching tight ends, the Sooners had Finley, James Hanna and Jermaine Gresham emerge as some of the best tight ends in OU history.
Gresham was the greatest among the trio and the only one to have Wilson as his position coach during his entire career. In 2008 as a junior, Gresham was named an All-American after catching 66 passes for 950 yards and 14 touchdowns. After missing the 2009 season with an injury, Gresham went on to a successful NFL career as a first-round draft pick.
When OU fans think of the days it seemed like the Sooners always had a play-making tight end, it was likely Wilson in charge. A name like Jason Witten will certainly entice OU fans and hiring from within while looking for change sometimes seems like an oxymoron, but, if he wants the job, Wilson is by far the most qualified candidate Brent Venables has to choose from.