Frank Wilson Season 2024
Frank Wilson is home.
The New Orleans native and two-time national recruiter of the year was one of the first hires for Brian Kelly when he took over the LSU program in December of 2021. Wilson serves as LSU’s running backs coach and associate head coach.
Since returning the staff, Wilson had helped the Tigers to back-to-back 10-win seasons. The Tigers have also signed two Top 10 recruiting classes during that span.
Wilson previously spent six years on the LSU coaching staff, serving as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator from 2010-15. During that time, Wilson helped LSU lure some of the nation’s top players to Baton Rouge, as the Tigers had four Top 10 recruiting classes, including the No. 2 class in 2014 and the No. 5 class in 2015.
In his first stint at LSU, Wilson helped LSU to six bowl appearances, including the 2012 BCS National Championship game, the 2011 SEC Championship, and an overall mark of 61-17. He’s now been part of 81 wins at LSU to go along with eight bowl appearances and two SEC Western Division titles. In eight years at LSU with Wilson on staff, the Tigers have won at least 10 games six times.
In 2023, Wilson’s running back room played a key role in the nation’s most explosive offense as the Tigers led the FBS in scoring (45.5) and total yards per game (543.5). LSU was only team in the nation to rank in the Top 10 in both rushing (No. 10 at 204.5) and passing (No. 3 at 338.9). LSU set the school record for yards per carry with a 6.2 average.
Without a featured back, LSU once again used its stable of running backs in 2023 as the Tigers had three players start games at the position with Logan Diggs leading the way with eight. Seven LSU running backs combined to rush for 1,515 yards and 22 touchdowns with Diggs (653 yards, 7 TDs) and Josh Williams (284 yards, 5 TDs) leading the way.
In his first year back with the Tigers in 2022, LSU set the program record for rushing touchdowns with 39, breaking the previous mark of 37 set in 2013.
Williams led all running backs in rushing yards in 2022 with 532, while Penn State transfer Noah Cain followed with 409 yards and 10 TDs. John Emery had 375 yards on the ground and six TDs, while Armoni Goodwin followed with 267 yards and five scores.
Wilson has experience coaching running backs, receivers, and special teams, and he made his mark at LSU as an elite recruiter and developer of talent. He coached seven running backs at LSU who went on to be selected in the NFL Draft, a group that included consensus All-America Leonard Fournette. Four LSU running backs Wilson recruited or coached earned All-SEC honors, a list that includes Fournette, Steven Ridley, Spencer Ware, and Jeremy Hill.
In eight years as LSU’s running backs coach, Wilson’s backfield has produced four 1,000-yard rushers, had 49 100-yard individual rushing performances, and broke the 200-yard rushing mark as a team 53 times under his guidance.
During his first run with the Tigers, Wilson was recognized as the nation’s top assistant coach at his position in 2011. Wilson also was named the 2011 Recruiter of the Year by Rivals.com, the 2014 NFL.com Top Recruiter in College Football and the 2015 Scout.com SEC Recruiter of the Year.
As the lead recruiter for the Tigers, Wilson landed some of the most decorated players in school history in Fournette, defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, wide receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. and offensive lineman La’el Collins.
Overall, Wilson has coached or recruited 40 individuals who have gone on to play in the NFL.
In eight seasons at LSU, Wilson developed seven running backs that were selected in the NFL Draft, including first-team All-SEC performers in Fournette, Hill and Ridley.
Wilson has twice been a head coach, first at UTSA (2016-19) and then McNeese (2020-21). He has an overall head coaching record of 26-40 with an appearance in the New Mexico Bowl in his first season at UTSA.
In 2016 at UTSA, Wilson led the Roadrunners to a second-place finish in Conference USA’s Western Division with a 5-3 mark with upset wins over Middle Tennessee and Southern Miss. That season also produced the first player in school history to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in Marcus Davenport.
UTSA knocked off Baylor in the 2017 season-opener, the program’s first win over a Power 5 school and went on to post a 6-5 mark.
Wilson spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons at head coach at McNeese having to endure back-to-back hurricanes that devastated Lake Charles as well as the COVID outbreak. McNeese played a 7-game spring schedule in 2021 followed by an 11-game schedule in the fall that year.
Other collegiate coaching stops for Wilson include Tennessee (2009, wide receivers), Southern Miss (2008), Ole Miss (2005-07, running backs/special teams), and Nicholls (1996).
Wilson is a 1997 graduate of Nicholls where he was a three-year letterwinner at running back for the Colonels.
Wilson and his wife, Tiffany, have three children: Alaina, Sabree and Frank IV “Quad”, who plays defensive back for the Tigers.
THE WILSON FILE
BIRTHDATE: Nov. 5, 1973 in New Orleans
WIFE: Tiffany
CHILDREN: Alaina, Sa’bree, and Frank IV
HIGH SCHOOL: St. Augustine High School
COLLEGE: Nicholls State (B.A., 1997)
PLAYING EXPERIENCE
1992 Geneva (Pa.) University (running back)
1993-95 Nicholls (running back/defensive back)
COACHING EXPERIENCE
1996 Nicholls State (student assistant)
1997-99 Karr High School (assistant coach)
2000-03 O.P. Walker High School (head coach)
2005-07 Ole Miss (running backs/special teams)
2008, Southern Miss (running backs/recruiting coordinator)
2009 Tennessee (wide receivers)
2010-15 LSU running backs/recruiting coordinator)
2016-19 UTSA (head coach)
2020-21 McNeese (head coach)
2022-24 LSU (running backs, associate head coach)
Bowl Experience
Season Bowl Team
2008 New Orleans Southern Miss
2009 Capital One LSU
2010 Cotton LSU
2011 BCS LSU
2012 Chick-fil-A LSU
2013 Outback LSU
2014 Music City LSU
2015 Texas LSU
2016 Gildan New Mexico UTSA
2022 Citrus LSU
2023 ReliaQuest LSU