The next part of Badgers Wire’s series on Wisconsin football at the end of the 2010s focuses on the very brief Gary Andersen tenure that eventually gave way to the current Paul Chryst years.
Bret Bielema decided the best thing for him and his family was to chase a job in the SEC at Arkansas. That left Wisconsin with the need to find a coach who not only understood the culture of Wisconsin football, but one who also had the pedigree to replicate the success the Badgers had created under Bielema and, before him, the godfather of modern Wisconsin football, Barry Alvarez. The man chosen to take on the task of carrying the torch for UW was Utah State coach Gary Andersen.
While Andersen was only there for two years, and then left because of complicated and intertwined issues involving Wisconsin’s academic standards and how that affected Andersen’s ability to recruit, he won 19 games and lost seven. Perhaps more importantly, he went 13-3 in Big Ten play and won the Big Ten West in his second and final season in Madison. Andersen took the Badgers to the Capital One Bowl and the Outback Bowl, winning the Outback and losing the Capital One. Both seasons ended with the Badgers being ranked in the final AP Top 25 poll.
It’s interesting to speculate on how much farther Andersen could have taken the Badgers if not for his departure. He certainly understood the priority of winning Big Ten Conference games. His teams were almost always prepared. While the 59-0 loss in the 2014 Big Ten Championship Game to the eventual College Football Playoff national champion Ohio State Buckeyes was the exception to the rule in terms of gameday preparation, Andersen was a competent coach with an ability to win and recruit.
Despite his departure, the Badgers didn’t miss a beat and hired Paul Chryst to lead the program in the future. All Chryst has done since taking over is go 52-15 overall with a 34-10 record in Big Ten regular-season games (0-3 in Big Ten title games) and two Big Ten Coach of the Year Awards. More on Chryst as our series continues.