The last great hurrah for Barry Alvarez on the sidelines at Wisconsin.
The object of the game is to win, but entering the 2015 Outback Bowl, the Wisconsin Badgers had to decide for themselves and each other how much this football game meant to them.
They had just unraveled against Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game, on a night when — we would later learn — former coach Gary Andersen had one foot out the door after just two seasons on the job. A bunch of coaches were not happy. Wisconsin got embarrassed on national television. The players had to sort through the aftermath. It was not a good time to be a Badger.
The Auburn Tigers had endured a rough 2014 season. In the first month of 2014, Auburn played Florida State for the last BCS national championship, and very nearly won. Coach Gus Malzahn didn’t have everyone back for 2014, but he still had quarterback Nick Marshall and some run-pass-option concepts which were not easy to defend. People thought Wisconsin would give Ohio State a good game in Indianapolis, and that did not happen. People thought Wisconsin would probably lose to Auburn, but before that, Wisconsin had to determine that this game was important.
Enter Barry Alvarez, the architect of Wisconsin football.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIyZbEGqo0
Badger football had enjoyed meaningful moments and forged historic achievements before Alvarez. Alan Ameche won the 1954 Heisman and, before that, led Wisconsin to its first Rose Bowl in the 1952 season. The 1962 team beat Minnesota when the Golden Gophers were at the height of their powers. Quarterback Ron Vander Kelen and a tight end named Pat Richter were part of the almost-but-not-quite comeback attempt which made the 1963 Rose Bowl against USC one of the most memorable college football games of all time. In the 150 years of college football history, that Rose Bowl game has to be one of the sport’s 50 best games, which is no small feat.
Yes, Wisconsin football had climbed great heights in a few specific moments before Alvarez came aboard at the end of the 1980s. Yes, the Badgers had left a positive imprint on college football in the decades before Alvarez was hired — interestingly enough — by Richter, who made a contribution to Badger football which was greater than the 1963 Rose Bowl or the 1962 UW season.
Yet, what changed for Wisconsin when Alvarez was hired is that the program found a true builder and sustainer, someone who could not only win and win big, but do so on a relatively consistent basis.
Ivy Williamson (who took Wisconsin to its first Rose Bowl) never won at least seven games in consecutive seasons. Milt Bruhn (who took the Badgers to multiple Rose Bowls) won at least seven games in consecutive seasons one time. In the early 1980s, Dave McClain won seven games in four straight seasons, but Wisconsin played 11 regular-season games at that point in time, not the nine games Bruhn and Williamson played in the 1950s and ’60s. It wasn’t until Alvarez turned the corner and established his identity that Wisconsin won with high-caliber consistency.
Under Alvarez’s oversight and guidance, the program is still robust and relevant, decades later. On the first day of a new calendar decade, the 2020s, Wisconsin will play in yet another Rose Bowl. This will be the Badgers’ seventh Rose Bowl since the Alvarez era began. Wisconsin played major college football for nearly 100 years before Alvarez arrived in Madison. The Badgers reached three Rose Bowls in that span.
Barry Alvarez is truly the “before and after” figure in Wisconsin football history. The program is split into two eras, with Barry in the center. He might not be a football Jesus if you’re uncomfortable with that comparison or imagery, but we can all agree on this: He sure did resurrect Badger football.
Therefore, when Alvarez coached Wisconsin for the 2015 Outback Bowl against Auburn — in a one-game relief appearance which recalled the 2013 Rose Bowl against Stanford after Bret Bielema left — the Badgers gained a very good reason to treat the game in Tampa as an opportunity and not a chore after the misery of the blowout loss to Ohio State. That reason was simple: Win it for Barry.
The rest, as they say, is history, and a very cherished part of history for Wisconsin.
Melvin Gordon closed out his career with 251 rushing yards on 34 carries. Wisconsin flustered Auburn for much of the day and did what it wanted to do on offense. In overtime, the Badgers kicked a field goal but stuffed Auburn and watched the Tigers miss a tying 45-yard field goal.
Wisconsin 34, Auburn 31. Barry Alvarez has led this program the past few decades even though other men have taken over gameday responsibilities as the head coach of the Badgers. It was fitting — and not that surprising — that when Alvarez came down to the sidelines for one last direct taste of the passion of coaching, his players delivered him an immensely satisfying victory.
Let’s be clear about one thing: The fitting and unsurprising nature of the victory does not make the moment less poignant or resonant, five years later. When one recalls the glories of Wisconsin football under Barry Alvarez in the distant future, the 2015 Outback Bowl will be one of the first games college football historians point to.
