Meet Kevin Wilson, IU's new football coach

Abruptly, Kevin Wilson was in Bloomington.

Touching down on runway 35, the private twin-engine jet carrying Wilson and Bloomington’s newest famous family arrived at Monroe County Airport seven minutes early on Dec. 7, 2010.

In a sense, the surprise landing was akin to Wilson’s hiring as the newest leader of IU football. The coach doesn’t fit the bill of a big name in the college ranks, but yet it took mere days — and few other candidates, if any — for IU Athletics Director Fred Glass to make the eye-raisingly quick hire.

But the North Carolina-born coach, with a hint of a southern drawl — however surprising to followers of IU football — already had ties to IU’s Athletics Department.

Wilson’s pedigree includes time at a pair of traditionally black colleges as an assistant before he was hired as an offensive assistant at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Wilson’s most recent background was as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

Often nicknamed the “Cradle of Coaches,” Miami has employed an incredible array of successful coaches, ranging from legendary Ohio State coach Woody Hayes to former IU coaches Bill Mallory and Terry Hoeppner.

Such begins Wilson’s inadvertent, but very real, connections to IU.

While at Miami, Wilson worked alongside Hoeppner for several seasons and in a very direct way.

“Terry was the defensive coordinator, and Kevin was the offensive, so they had some battles (on the field),” Hoeppner’s widow Jane said. Terry Hoeppner tragically passed away in June 2007 after coaching IU for just two seasons.

“We lived near each other for 10 years. He lived in our neighborhood,” Jane Hoeppner said about Wilson. “When I heard there was a chance that he might get the job, I was just beyond thrilled.”

Wilson only needs to look toward IU’s Sembower Field to find another acquaintance from his days at Miami. Tracy Smith, IU’s baseball coach, was a member of the RedHawks baseball staff during part of Wilson’s time in Oxford.

“You have to remember — Miami University in Oxford, Ohio is not a real big place,” Smith said. “I knew him from his coaching days there. We weren’t great buddies, but we knew each other professionally. We certainly knew each other well enough to sit down and talk.”

Smith said he thought bringing Wilson and his demeanor to IU football would work out well.

“The thing you always got from him was that, yes, he was always a very intense guy, very direct,” Smith said. “I think what everyone is going to see from him is that he is very focused. ... He’s a very con?? dent guy, and he’s been-there-done-that in the Big Ten.”

Smith credited Glass’ outlined process with bringing in a coach he feels will ?? t well into the IU Athletics culture.

“As Fred always says, take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously,” Smith said. “That’s kind of how I would see Kevin. I think he’s going to come in here and have an understanding of what he wants to do, but he’s going to bring other people along with him. As my wife Jamie said, he’s unpretentious.”

Wilson and Glass made no hesitation to draw upon the indirect connections during a press conference announcing the new hire. It left Wilson to make one simple summation of why IU felt like the right first.

“I knew this was a great place, a place I could be a part of,” Wilson said.

Originally published in the IDS on Dec. 8, 2010.