The “where are they now” series continues today with a shift in focus from the field to the sidelines as we catchup on former Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen‘s career after spending two unforgettable seasons in Madison in 2013 and 2014.
The first of the two, the 2013 season, was understandably a tough one as Andersen was taking over from the successful Brett Bielema era after Bielema left to take a job at Arkansas. The team finished 9-4 that year, losing to No. 8 South Carolina in the Capital One Bowl, but showed promise with an improving quarterback in Joel Stave, a backfield of Melvin Gordon and Corey Clement and a defense headlined by Chris Borland, Michael Caputo and Sojourn Shelton.
What followed in 2014 was an absolute rollercoaster of a season, one which ended in turmoil and set the stage for Paul Chryst to step into the head coaching job going forward.
The 2014 campaign began with Andersen’s Badgers ranked No. 14 in the nation as they prepared to face the No. 13 LSU Tigers Week 1. The Badgers led 24-7 as one point in that game but ended up falling 28-24 and starting the season 0-1. In only one game there was already a peak and a valley, what seemed to be the theme during Andersen’s tenure.
The team then peeled off three out-of-conference victories, returning to No. 17 in the polls, but followed it up in Week 5 with a loss at unranked Northwestern that put them 3-2 on the season and out of the top-25. Valley number two.
Andersen’s unit then went on a seven game winning streak, all in-conference, with ranked victories against No. 11 Nebraska and No. 22 Minnesota. The most notable of the seven contests was the victory at Camp Randall against the Cornhuskers as Gordon broke the NCAA single-game rushing record with a 408 yard, four touchdown performance. Peak number three.
The team was riding high with 10-2 record entering the Big Ten Championship against No. 6 Ohio State who saw their starting quarterback J.T. Barrett break his leg the week prior, opening the door for sophomore quarterback Cardale Jones to start his first collegiate game.
As Badger fans know too well, Ohio State beat Wisconsin 59-0 that day, handing the Badgers their worst loss since 1972 and punching their ticket to the College Football Playoff in its inaugural year. Valley number three.
Andersen left the program four days later to take the head coaching job at Oregon State, giving way to Barry Alvarez to take over as interim head coach for the team’s 34-31 Outback Bowl victory against No. 19 Auburn.
It later surfaced that Andersen was unhappy with Wisconsin’s academic standards for athletes, something that was a driving force for him to leave the program in search of head coaching jobs elsewhere.
Gary Andersen’s tenure in Madison came to an end with a record of 19-7 (13-3 in the Big Ten) and the infamous 59-0 defeat in the 2014 conference championship game.
That became the coach’s best two seasons record wise during his coaching career as his team at Oregon State from 2015-17 held an abysmal record of 7-23 and he and the school parted ways after a 1-5 start to the 2017 season.
2018 saw Andersen return to The University of Utah, his alma mater and the place where he began his coaching career, as a defensive assistant and the assistant head coach.
Now on to last season, the coach returned to Utah State, the place he coached for four years before coming to Madison, and had a 7-6 record including a 51-41 Frisco Bowl loss to Kent State.
His quarterback was now-Green Bay Packer Jordan Love, a player who excelled in 2018 during the old coaching regime and struggled for the most part in 2019. Much was said during his draft process about the talent that graduated after 2018, but also about the coaching difference between Matt Wells, his coach for his first two years, and Andersen who led him last season.
Looking forward to 2020 the former Badger head coach is still at the helm at Utah State as he looks to improve upon the team’s 7-6 record from 2019 and reach his first conference championship game since the infamous 2014 defeat at the hands of Jones and the Buckeyes.