Kevin Wilson entered spring football for the Ohio State Buckeyes carrying a pretty heavy burden — fix the OSU offense, or else!
Okay, maybe that’s not exactly accurate, but it’s probably pretty close to his current demeanor.
The Ohio State offense will remain “the Ohio State offense” until Urban Meyer is no longer in charge of the program, but Wilson’s touches and flourishes will be readily apparent.
Fixing an offense isn’t just as easy as fixing an offense, however. It’s a process with levels upon levels, which is why Wilson has certain priorities this spring that he is focused on.
“I think the first thing in my opinion is really getting comfortable with the way we do things and earning their trust,” he said recently. “Because again you can always tweak a scheme or an attitude, but like we say for the players who’ve been around and what we’ve done in the past, the first step is the kids and getting those guys to play together and to play hard and play as a unit.”
Wilson, the coaches, and the players have gained that comfort with each other, and the results are being seen in practice. Those positive results then give the players even more confidence, which leads to more trust, and the byproducts just start churning out like an assembly line.
Making adjustments and enhancements to an offense is a process, but the personnel on hand to implement those changes can either be a positive or a negative. For the Buckeyes, having J.T. Barrett at quarterback is definitely a positive. Getting to know the senior quarterback has been a priority for Wilson as well.
“The first thing I do with J.T. is you’ve got one of the best players in the country, you’ve got to bring your best every day,” he said. “Be great in the meeting rooms, be great on the field, be great at practice. Like today, I didn’t practice well. I could have done a better job. I thought our players did really good, but I thought I could have done a better job.
“As we go through, it’s going to be my ability to connect with our staff, my ability to connect with the players, and we have our units, but it’s important to figure out how to get those guys to play together. Working with J.T. means you’ve got to bring it every day.”
