The offense of the Ohio State Buckeyes has been one of the most explosive in college football for the past few seasons. For most of 2021, the unit has ranked among the best in the country.
As a result, the man responsible for running the offense in Columbus for the last five years has grabbed the attention of another in-state program.
According to Zac Jackson and Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Akron is “making a push” to hire Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson as its new head football head coach. The Zips fired Tom Arth earlier this month after a third consecutive disappointing season.
Wilson has plenty of experience in the state of Ohio and is coming off of one of the Buckeyes best offensive seasons yet, but it’s unclear if he will accept the Akron job at this time, per The Athletic.
Reporting with @BruceFeldmanCFB: Akron making a push to hire Kevin Wilson as its new head football coach. Wilson is Ohio State’s OC and was formerly head coach at Indiana. It’s not yet known if Wilson will accept the job.
— Zac Jackson (@AkronJackson) November 28, 2021
Wilson has spent the last five seasons at Ohio State as the program’s offensive coordinator. Since taking over, the Buckeyes have ranked near the top of the nation in just about every statistical category.
That’s certainly proven to be the case in 2021. Ohio State ranks first in the FBS in scoring offense with 45.5 points per game and first in yards per game (551.40). The Buckeyes have a strong young quarterback and likely Heisman Trophy finalist in C.J. Stroud, along with three elite wide receivers in Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Wilson has also proven that he can be a head coach rather successfully at the FBS level. Prior to landing at Ohio State in 2017, he served as the head coach at Indiana from 2011-16.
Wilson went 26-47 during his time with the Hoosiers, but turned the program around from a 1-11 record in his first year at the helm. He parted ways with Indiana at the end of the 2016 campaign due to “philosophical differences.”
If he were to take over Akron, Wilson would have his work cut out for him. The Zips have gone 3-27 in their last three seasons, landing them at the bottom of the MAC more often than not.
Time will tell if Wilson does decided to get back on the head coaching side of things or remain at Ohio State as an extremely successful assistant.