Kevin R. Wilson

Kevin R. Wilson (born October 23, 1961) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers football team.

Playing career
Wilson played offensive line and linebacker at Maiden High School. He was all-conference for two seasons and for his senior season was named to the Charlotte Observer All-Piedmont team.

He went on to play center and guard for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels as a walk-on. After two seasons as a walk-on he earned a scholarship. He earned a degree in Mathematics in 1984, and then became a graduate assistant for three years while working on a masters' degree in Physical Education.

While at North Carolina Randy Walker was a Tar Heels assistant. When Walker left North Carolina to become head coach at Miami University in 1990, Wilson became his assistant there.

Assistant at North Carolina
After playing for the North Carolina Tar Heels, he spent three seasons (1984–1986) as a graduate assistant coach while he worked on this masters degree. In 1987, he became the offensive line coach at Winston-Salem State University. Wilson was the offensive coordinator for the 1988 season for the North Carolina A&T Aggies.

High school
In 1989 he became the head coach and athletic director of Fred T. Foard High School, near his hometown and alma mater Maiden, North Carolina, where the Tigers went 0–10.

Return to assistant coaching
Following one year coaching on the high school level, Wilson returned to college coaching for the Miami University RedHawks in 1990, under head coach Randy Walker, and coached there as offensive line coach, quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator until 1998. When Walker moved to Northwestern University Wilson went with him, serving as the offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and assistant head coach, from 1999 to 2001.

After spending 19 season's under the tutelage of his mentor Walker (four as a player at North Carolina, three as a graduate assistant there, nine as a coach at Miami, and three as a coach at Northwestern),  Wilson left his long-time mentor, who died in 2006 at age 52, to become the running game coordinator and the offensive line coach at Oklahoma in 2002. In December 2005, Wilson was named the offensive coordinator for the Sooners prior to the 2006 season, replacing Chuck Long who left to become the head coach at San Diego State. Oklahoma named James Patton to replace Wilson as offensive line coach, Patton served under Wilson at both Northwestern and Miami, and Wilson recommended Patton to Sooners' head coach Bob Stoops. In 2008, Wilson won the Broyles Award, which is given to the top assistant in college football annually. He was also named the "FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year".

Indiana Hoosiers
Indiana athletic director Fred Glass announced the dismissal of Bill Lynch and the rest of the coaching staff on November 28, 2010, following a third straight season with only one conference victory. Glass announced the hiring of Wilson on December 7, giving Wilson his first collegeiate head coaching job. Just thirteen days later Wilson hired New Mexico defensive coordinator Doug Mallory and Nebraska linebackers coach Mike Ekeler (also LBs) as co-defensive coordinators. Mallory, the son of former Indiana head coach Bill Mallory, was Indiana's defensive backs coach from 1994–1996. Wilson also hired Rod Smith from Michigan and Kevin Johns from Northwestern to be co-offensive coordinators. Wilson took over a Hoosiers team that has finished 10th or 11th in the Big Ten in each of the previous three seasons and has not been to a bowl since losing to Oklahoma State in the 2007 Insight Bowl.

Under Wilson's first year, the Hoosiers had a 1–11 record. In his second year, Indiana improved to 4-8 on the year, but surpassed Northwestern's record for most losses in Football Bowl Subdivision history. Nevertheless, Wilson's team exhibited an explosive offense, going from 80th nationally in pass offense to 19th and leading the Big Ten with 311.2 yards per game, in spite of losing the starting quarterback Tre Roberson in the season's second game.