IU introduces Kevin Wilson as football coach

UPDATE (4:49 p.m.): IU introduced Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson as its new football coach during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Athletics director Fred Glass opened the press conference by reflecting on making a quick hire just a week after firing former coach Bill Lynch. "Indiana got our guy," he said.

UPDATE (3:55 p.m.): Follow a live stream of the press conference introducing Wilson as IU coach.

UPDATE (10:04 a.m.): IU has officially announced a press conference at 4 p.m. today in the Henke Hall of Champions.

The purpose is to "make a major announcement regarding the Hoosiers football program" which has been confirmed as naming Kevin Wilson the next football coach. The press conference is open to the public and will also be aired live on the Big Ten Network.

UPDATE (9:19 a.m.): The Indiana Daily Student can now confirm Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson will become the next football coach at Indiana University.

Wilson will be announced at 4 p.m. Tuesday inside the Henke Hall of Champions at Memorial Stadium. Henke is located within the North End Zone Facility, IU's recently-completed expansion to Memorial.

Additionally, a private flight from Bloomington's Monroe County Airport was scheduled to leave for Norman, Okla., just after 9 a.m. Tuesday. The plane, owned by Cook Aircraft Leasing, is expected to ferry IU officials to the University of Oklahoma Airport where they will meet Wilson and bring him back to Bloomington.

Stay tuned to IDSnews.com for extensive coverage of Wilson's hiring at IU.


EARLIER: Several reports Monday indicated IU has a new football coach, but the named candidate said the deal wasn’t quite complete.

KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City first tweeted just before 8 p.m. Monday that Kevin Wilson, the offensive coordinator at the University of Oklahoma, is leaving the Sooners to become the Hoosiers’ new head coach.

Later, a tweet from Indianapolis Star sports writer Terry Hutchens indicated the deal between the North Carolina-born coach and IU was complete, with a news conference scheduled for late this afternoon in Bloomington.

So far, the Indiana Daily Student has been able to confirm that a football team meeting will be at 3 p.m. today.

These reports conflicted with what Wilson told several Oklahoma newspapers after landing at the University of Oklahoma Airport in Norman, Okla., on Monday. Wilson had just arrived on a private plane from Indianapolis, where he presumably met with IU Athletics Director Fred Glass.

“I talked to them,” Wilson said. “We’ll see where it goes. Nothing’s final yet.”

Wilson’s unwillingness to commit to any confirmed detail is hardly surprising, especially after his boss at Oklahoma vehemently denied that IU had any contact with the 49-year-old coach as of last Friday.

“He hasn’t been contacted, and we haven’t been contacted. So, as usual, it’s erroneous and made up,” said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops the day prior to Saturday’s Big 12 championship game in Dallas.

Stoops’ denial came even as an ESPN.com report said Glass had met with Wilson on Friday morning in Oklahoma City — a story corroborated by tracing the tracks of a private aircraft.

A private jet owned by Bogey Bird II, Inc., from Jeffersonville, Ind., flew from Indianapolis International Airport to the OU airport early Friday.

The aircraft, connected to pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, also flew to and from Boston last week at about the time of the IU’s men’s basketball game at Boston College — indicating possible use by IU officials.

Presumably, Glass and other IU officials met with Wilson before departing at 12:32 p.m. for Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis.

There, IU officials could have met with rumored candidate Dave Doeren, Wisconsin’s defensive coordinator.

The news came after a day filled with more tracking private airplanes and reports that Wilson had been on IU’s campus to tour the team’s facilities.

Early Monday, a different private plane flew from Indianapolis to Norman and then returned to Indianapolis. Monday evening, the same plane departed Indianapolis, again bound for Norman, where the Oklahoma reporters caught up with Wilson.

Wilson would replace Bill Lynch, a Hoosier native who won just a single Big Ten game in each of the past three seasons. Lynch was fired Nov. 28, the day after leading IU to a win against rival Purdue in the final game of the season.

“The bottom line is three Big Ten wins in three years isn’t the basis for an extension,” Glass said when he announced Lynch’s contract would be terminated. “While it’s a very tough decision, I’m confident that it’s the right one.”

Wilson helped guide the then-No. 10 Sooners to a 23-20 victory in Saturday night’s Big 12 title game against then-No. 13 Nebraska, giving Oklahoma their sixth conference championship since he joined the program in 2002.

Previously, Wilson had ties to the Midwest and a former IU head coach.

From 1990 to 1998, Wilson worked in roles as an offensive line coach, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Miami University in Ohio. Wilson worked alongside late IU coach Terry Hoeppner at Miami during his entire time with the RedHawks.

In 1999, Wilson followed the late Randy Walker to Northwestern, where he helped guide the Wildcats also as offensive coordinator before moving to Oklahoma for the same job in 2002.