Don Fischer has been calling Indiana football and men’s basketball since 1973 and has seen his share of ups and downs when it comes to the Hoosiers on the grid iron…certainly more downs. However, head coach Kevin Wilson, in his third season at Bloomington, is trying to turn that program around.
Mizzou fans may have read this week that Wilson was the offensive coordinator for Oklahoma when they beat the Tigers in the Big 12 title game in 2008 at Arrowhead Stadium. However, Wilson has a much deeper background and was one of the first to refine the spread offense started by Rich Rodriquez while he was OC at Clemson.
Back in the late 90’s Wilson, the offensive coordinator at Northwestern under Randy Walker, went to Clemson to meet with Rodriguez and learn about the spread offense. They returned and copied the offense and found a way to further incorporate the run game into the spread. After Urban Meyer landed his first head-coaching job at Bowling Green in December 2000, he met with Clemson, and Northwestern as well.
I think many fans want to give a lot of credit to Urban Meyer as being the guy who refined the spread offense. In fact, when Gary Pinkel and Dave Christensen converted Mizzou to a spread offense, they visited with Meyer, but in reality, before Meyer…there was Wilson.
Basically, Wilson and Indiana are direct descendants of the spread offense. You’ll see Indiana throw, you’ll see Indiana run. Don Fischer breaks down the Hoosiers on this Google+ Hangout.