The hiring last week of Kevin Wilson as the newest addition to Brent Venables' coaching staff is getting rave reviews from experts both inside and outside of the Oklahoma football program.
Former Ohio State, Florida and Utah head coach Urban Meyer, now a FOX Sports college football analyst, was the latest to weigh in on what this could mean for Sooner football in the coming season.
"I've got a lot of respect for Kevin. I think it's a great fit," Meyer told The Oklahoman. "I can't think of a better guy that, first of all, people love in Oklahoma. And second, a more experienced, knowledgeable coach to help with the young coordinator (new offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle).
"He's arguably the best practice coach I've had," Meyer continued. "He's an offensive line guy by trade, and that's where his eyes go. I've never had a coach do that. It just made so much sense to me."
Meyer went on to say that he'd never seen a coach huddle so close to a bull-rushing defensive line during live practices, according to the article last week in The Oklahoman.
Meyer, like Bob Stoops, has first-hand knowledge of the impact Wilson can have on a team. Wilson was the offensive coordinator at Ohio State under Meyer in 2017 and '18.
In the two seasons Wilson was at Ohio State, the Buckeyes finished seventh and second, respectively, in college football in total offense. Ironically, Oklahoma was the top-ranked team in the nation in that category both seasons.
During his weekly show this week on KREF Radio 1400 in Norman, Stoops said, "I love Kevin Wilson. Everybody knows the nine years he spent with us. I think the last five or six he was offensive coordinator set records...with Sam Bradford. He's got great experience, easy to work with, really smart guy. He'd be an asset to anybody to, you know, have in your building."
In the eyes of many who live and breathe college football, the 2025 season shapes up as a make or break year for Venables after two highly disappointing seasons as head coach of the Sooners. When Venables took over the program following the stunning and sudden departure of Lincoln Riley in 2021, Oklahoma was best described as a team with all offense and no defense.
Under Riley, the Sooners were one of the top offensive teams in the country, but that was at the expense of a defense that was not capable of slowing down or stopping anybody.
It was blatantly obvious that Job 1 when Venables took over, himself one of the most proven defense coaches in college football, was to fix the dreadful Sooner defense and return it to relevancy. He did just that.
However, Oklahoma's performance on offense in 2024 will go down as one of the worst in three decades, which is an incredibly sad testament for a program that built its long-standing national reputation as an offensive powerhouse (a la the Wishbone and Air Raid offenses).
The addition of Ben Arbuckle as the Sooners' new offensive coordinator, as well as John Mateer, the quarterback he coached the past two years at Washington State, was a giant step toward improving the sputtering Oklahoma offense and returning it to its more natural form.
Then you add Kevin Wilson with all of his experience and record of success directing college offenses. Chalk up another big step forward.