Sooner Fiesta: Norvell expected to call plays, Wilson will assist
Published: 12/13/2010 9:39 AM
Last Modified: 12/13/2010 9:39 AM
Nothing official yet, but it appears Kevin Wilson will coach Oklahoma’s tight ends and fullbacks in the Fiesta Bowl. It doesn't look like Wilson, however, will be calling plays.
Wilson, who took the head coaching job at Indiana last week, has been OU’s offensive coordinator since the 2005 Holiday Bowl. But Wilson is expected to hand the keys to the Sooner offense to assistant offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Jay Norvell for the Fiesta Bowl and probably beyond.
An announcement from the school could be coming within days.
Wilson will assist the Sooners while trying to hire his own staff, learn his new players, make recruiting inroads and just find his way around the Bloomington campus.
“If I’m part of that, we’ll make it work at both ends,” Wilson said last week at his introductory press conference. “It’s not an issue to me. I know (OU coach Bob Stoops) is gonna do what’s best for Oklahoma.”
The No. 9-ranked Sooners (11-2) meet No. 25 Connecticut (8-4) at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 1 in University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
Norvell, 47, looks ready for the job.
He was hired by Stoops in 2008 from UCLA, where he was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2007 under Karl Dorrell. In 2004-06, Norvell was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Nebraska. Though head coach Bill Callahan was the Cornhuskers’ primary play-caller, Norvell coached quarterback Zac Taylor to Big 12 player of the year accolades.
Wilson was promoted to offensive coordinator in December 2005, one day after Chuck Long left for San Diego State. Stoops took six days to elevate Mark Mangino in December 1999 after Mike Leach left for Texas Tech, and took two weeks to promote Long in December 2001 when Mangino left for Kansas.
Norvell likely would have been promoted sooner, but he reportedly has been involved with the head coaching vacancy at Pittsburgh. The Panthers’ athletic director is Steve Pederson, who was AD at Nebraska when Norvell was there.
Norvell was an All-Big Ten defensive back at Iowa in 1985. He played one season there with Stoops (1982) and was a Hawkeyes graduate assistant for two years (1986-87) at the same time Stoops was an Iowa volunteer assistant.
Norvell was an assistant at Northern Iowa in 1988 and Wisconsin in 1989-94. He was assistant head coach at Iowa State under Dan McCarney from 1995-97 before spending four seasons coaching receivers for the Indianapolis Colts and two coaching tight ends with the Oakland Raiders.
The Colts offense was among the NFL’s most prolific (wideout Marvin Harrison became the first player in NFL history with four consecutive seasons of 100 catches), and the Raiders led the NFL in total offense in 2002 and went to the Super Bowl.
Norvell was hired by Stoops in 2002 as receivers coach and was in Norman for a month before joining the Raiders.
In his second stint at OU, Norvell has coached Juaquin Iglesias, Manuel Johnson and Ryan Broyles to All-Big 12 honors. All three players owned the school record for either single-game receptions (Iglesias), receiving yards (Johnson) or both (Broyles).
Norvell’s guidance helped Broyles mature into an All-American this season. Broyles leads the nation with 118 receptions and ranks third in receiving yards (1,452) and fourth in touchdown catches (13). He now owns virtually every major receiving record at OU.
In October, when the OU staff received raises, Norvell's annual salary was bumped to $255,000.
Wilson, 49, takes pride in what the Sooners have accomplished this season and wants to help the team enjoy that success as long as possible.
“We’re getting some monkeys off the back down there,” Wilson said last week in Bloomington. “One of them was we couldn’t win on the road, couldn’t win tough games, couldn’t come from behind. All that, we’ve done it down the stretch. Now we’ve got at thing that we can’t win a BCS game. We’ve lost the last (five).
“It’d be nice, though. I know coach (Stoops). We need to win that, Oklahoma needs to win that bowl game. So I know he’s gonna do what he wants to do.”
— John E. Hoover
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
