The final part of Badgers Wire’s look at Wisconsin football at the end of the 2010s is an examination of the current Wisconsin Badgers head coach, Paul Chryst. He was born and raised in Madison, a Wisconsin kind of guy from the beginning. He played at Wisconsin too, quarterbacking and playing tight end for the team from 1986 through 1988. Chryst knew his future was in coaching. He immediately enrolled in a graduate studies program at West Virginia after getting his undergraduate degree in political science from Wisconsin.
Chryst bounced around among the college game, the CFL, and the World League. After bringing Oregon State’s program into the top tier of the nation for offensive production in 2003-04 — No. 10 in total offense and No. 6 in passing yards — Wisconsin came calling with a job offer. Chryst was a co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach in 2005, which would become a stepping stone. He became the full offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2006. Chryst left to become the head coach at Pittsburgh in 2012, but was the top choice by Wisconsin to replace the departing Gary Andersen at the end of the 2014 season, in time for 2015.
Since taking over the program, Chryst has three 10 (or more)-win seasons and four bowl victories in four tries: Holiday, Cotton, Orange and Pinstripe. Chryst has kept the offensive system favored by Badger alumni. His Holiday Bowl win came against USC in 2015, his first season. While Badger fans wait for the program’s first outright conference championship since 2012, the program still regularly competes with the conference’s elite. As noted a few weeks ago, Wisconsin leads the Big Ten in conference championship game appearances, with six, and is one of only three Big Ten programs to make the Big Ten title game more than once (Ohio State and Michigan State being the others). Chryst has also been recognized as the conference’s best coach on two separate occasions — 2016 and 2017.
There can be no doubt that Chryst has been a blessing for Badger football. The program should be happy and comfortable with him as the leader of the program at the start of the 2020s.