Kevin Wilson, in his first year as Ohio State's offensive coordinator, will be tasked with making sure J.T. Barrett, Mike Weber and co. make improvements on the offensive side of the ball in the coming season.
A year ago today, Kevin Wilson was gearing up for another season at the helm of the Indiana Hoosiers football program. Today, he's switched up the hue of red on his shirt and hat and is part of Urban Meyer's staff that has hopes as high as any team for a national championship in the coming season.
And, as any fan who paid attention to the offense last year, he's going to be expected to help out in a big way.
With the team's two leading receivers from last year gone, needing an offensive guard spot to be filled and just the need for overall improvement on the offensive side of the ball to keep up with the rest of the NCAA, Kevin Wilson will certainly have his hands full.
But how much can a new coordinator really help a team out? Especially a program that is already a national championship contender year in and year out?
Well, you won't even have to turn your eyes to another school to find out just what a new coordinator can do.
Hearken back to the 2013 season. Braxton Miller was still a quarterback, and a Big Ten offensive player of the year caliber one at that. Tom Herman, Texas' new head coach, was in charge of the offense, the offensive line had four seniors holding up the fort and the defense was anchored by players like Ryan Shazier, Bradley Roby, Michael Bennett and Noah Spence.
The team began the season 12-0 before suffering a heartbreaking loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game and then a 40-35 loss at the hands of Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
Not the worst loss to Clemson you can recall, I'm sure, but a bowl game loss nonetheless.
But even as the team succeeded greatly (despite the sputtering finish to the season), one glaring hole seemed to exist on the team: the secondary.
Bradley Roby, C.J. Barnett and Christian Bryant anchored the group, and they were all fine players in their own right, but of the three, only Roby was a first-round draft pick, Bryant was a seventh-round pick and Barnett went undrafted. In contrast with last season, three players from the secondary were selected in the first round alone.
To compete with college football's finest, the Bucks needed an improvement in the secondary. And where did they turn to find that improvement? Arkansas defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach Chris Ash.
The holes in Ohio State's secondary at the end of the 2013 season may have been shown by Clemson's Sammy Watkins who set a new Orange Bowl record with 227 receiving yards en route to being named the MVP. Ash certainly had a tall task in fixing Ohio State's secondary.
And that he did, and in only one season, no less.
2014, as you know, was a magical year for Ohio State. After Braxton Miller went down with injury before the season, J.T. Barrett stepped in and carried the Buckeyes to the college football playoff and Cardale Jones sealed the first national championship in over ten years for the Scarlet and Gray.
Perhaps the most unsung heroes of that season, though, were in the secondary. The play of Tyvis Powell and Doran Grant improved, as well as some new faces like Vonn Bell and Eli Apple who were big contributors.
Vonn Bell broke out in a big way under Ash and amassed six interceptions for the Buckeyes in 2014, while Apple added three interceptions of his own. Bell also went on to be a second-round pick while Apple was a top-10 selection. At least some of that credit has to go to Ash for coaching them to great collegiate success.
Maybe those players would have blossomed into stars on their own, but maybe they were coaxed along by co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash, who was able to bring out the best in them for the two years he called Columbus home.
Think what you want about the 2014 team — that it was a team of destiny, that teams didn't have enough time to prepare for what J.T. Barrett brought to the field, whatever else — but the biggest improvement for any group on the squad from the prior year came in the secondary, and it may have just been the thing that made them finish the season on top.
Whether Kevin Wilson will be able to improve the offense that greatly in just one season like Ash was able to do remains to be seen, but the offense is flowing with talented players just waiting for the right opportunity for that talent to come out. And if Wilson is the one to bring it out of them, the Buckeyes could be competing for another national championship at the end of the season.
So, what can a new coordinator do for a team, even one that's already a staple in College Football Playoff contention? Well, if you ask Urban Meyer and Chris Ash, that coordinator can be the difference between an Orange Bowl loss and a national championship victory.
