Kevin Wilson on telling coaches, players to move on: You're not going to get the Notre Dame job

Oklahoma State is making its first trip to in-state foe Tulsa since 2019.

Interestingly enough, way back five years ago, Alan Bowman was a redshirt-freshman quarterback at Texas Tech.

This week, Bowman is the seventh-year starting quarterback for the No. 13 Cowboys, who enter 2-0 after their thrilling come-from-behind overtime-win last weekend at home against Arkansas.

But don't color Tulsa head coach Kevin Wilson as one ready to wax nostalgic about Bowman's seven-tenths of a decade tour in college football. 

Not when his own signal-caller, redshirt-freshman Kirk Francis, has just four career starts. 

"Seventh-year quarterback ... you know, I don't know if I'm into seven-year players," Wilson said this week in a press conference. "I think we're going to get to one of these days it's five years, no redshirt [as the standard clock for a collegiate football student-athlete]. I know COVID got us to six. I told a couple guys that were seven years, wanted to come back they needed to get a job and starting working, you know?"

Wilson doesn't discriminate between players lingering too long in college or coaches starting their careers with one too many seasons of graduate-assistant roles. 

"It's time to get out of college. Sometimes, you've got to tell your G.A.s (graduate assistants) move on," Wilson said. "You're not going to get the Notre Dame job, man. Go get an FCS, D-2 job and start coaching."

Wilson, however, is familiar with Bowman. Enough to reference Bowman's sensational passing day as a true freshman in 2018, when Texas Tech faced off against Houston and Bowman led the Red Raiders' offense with 605 passing yards. 

"They got a seventh-year guy, they got a guy who threw for 600 yards, what six or seven years ago?," Wilson asked. "And we've got a guy playing his sixth game. 

"He's got a lot of work to do."