Give Bret Bielema credit..........

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Unregistered User said:
I don't know the guy's story, but someone should update his wikipedia page if that is true:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Markuson
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He was the one that was fired. The new coach is Bart Miller.

A 2007 graduate of the University of New Mexico, Miller was a starter and two-year letterman for the Lobos on the offensive line, earning Academic All-Mountain West Conference honors as a junior and senior. A part of four bowl teams, Miller played right guard for the 2007 UNM team that had a 1,000-yard rusher, two 1,000-yard receivers and a 3,000-yard passer. The Lobos finished the season 9-4 and won the school's first bowl game since 1961.
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Ahh...thanks for the clarification. Bad reading comprehension this a.m.
 


Blart Bielema

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Best I could come up with...oldie but goodie.

BB.jpg
 


Here is what I find interesting.

Mike Markuson is a well-respected and experienced coach, having served multiple stints for many years as an OL coach in the SEC.

The coach that Enema decides to replace him with, Bart Miller, has zero experience as a staff-level coach. He came to Becky because of his personal relationship with Bostad (who he played for while Bostad was the OL coach at New Mexico). And yet, when Bostad left, he didn't procure a position with the Buccaneers for Miller (and one was certainly available given the entire staff was new under Schiano) despite their personal relationship. And further, when Chryst left and took Rudolph with him, neither could find a spot on his brand-new staff for Miller despite working with him the previous year. All of this tells me that Miller is not seen as a coach on the rise and/or one worth hiring. Nonetheless, Enema was chomping at the bit to get him on board as a full staff member.

I understand the need to sometimes get rid of someone to address a bad working relationship, but is it better to do that when you have no contingency in place?
 



I don't see any actual defense there. He claims that it may not make sense to an outsider, but "he knows how to win". But it isn't just laypeople who are raising eyebrows at this decision. He also claims that he learned that it was a mistake to wait too long to fire a coach. I'm open to hearing about all the times that an assistant coach was fired two games into the season and it worked out great. If there are cases of it working, then he might have something to back it up, but to cite as an example a situation where an assistant wasn't fired in mid-season and things didn't go well isn't evidence that it is a good idea to fire assistants in mid-season.

His claim "Panic is for the outside world, Reality is what I live in." Maybe he's living in reality, maybe he's not. But everyone says they live in reality, few people would say "I'm panicking!" even if the are, or especially if they are. A midseason firing is an example of instability, and it looks like panic to a lot of people.

If there was something terribly wrong, couldn't he have seen it in spring or fall practice?
 

The support the wisky fanbase is showing burt is fascinating to me.

Markuson has got be one of the best O line coaches of the past decade in the SEC. This isn't a chump coach with a history of leaving jobs under turmoil.
Granted, he's mostly been with Houston Nutt, but he's been a mainstay of Nutt for a long time and was behind a ton of great running games.

Burt up and fires him and suddenly he should be commended?
Any badger fan NOT seeing this as a huge red flag has their head in the sand.

Burt is over his head, has been from the beginning, but so much structure has been in place to keep him from losing it. He absolutely believes he can simply plug coaches and players in and out. He believes he is at the head of a helmet school. His fans believe they are a top 10 program regardless of circumstance.

In fact, they are simply wisconsin. A middle tier program in the BIG that has benefited the past 2 years from OSU, PSU, and Michigan having major issues inside their programs. They also were able to steal resurgent MSU's thunder in back to back seasons under dubious circumstances.

They will now see what happens when a middle tier program fools itself into thinking they are a top team. All Americans do not simply get replaced by their also AA backups, rent a QB's do not always have near flawless seasons, and offensive coordinator and Oline coaches cannot simply be swapped in and out like puzzle pieces without major transitions occuring.

Make no mistake, BB isn't panicking. He just isn't smart enough to understand that he should be.
 

Ole said:
The support the wisky fanbase is showing burt is fascinating to me.

Markuson has got be one of the best O line coaches of the past decade in the SEC. This isn't a chump coach with a history of leaving jobs under turmoil.
Granted, he's mostly been with Houston Nutt, but he's been a mainstay of Nutt for a long time and was behind a ton of great running games.

Burt up and fires him and suddenly he should be commended?
Any badger fan NOT seeing this as a huge red flag has their head in the sand.

Burt is over his head, has been from the beginning, but so much structure has been in place to keep him from losing it. He absolutely believes he can simply plug coaches and players in and out. He believes he is at the head of a helmet school. His fans believe they are a top 10 program regardless of circumstance.

In fact, they are simply wisconsin. A middle tier program in the BIG that has benefited the past 2 years from OSU, PSU, and Michigan having major issues inside their programs. They also were able to steal resurgent MSU's thunder in back to back seasons under dubious circumstances.

They will now see what happens when a middle tier program fools itself into thinking they are a top team. All Americans do not simply get replaced by their also AA backups, rent a QB's do not always have near flawless seasons, and offensive coordinator and Oline coaches cannot simply be swapped in and out like puzzle pieces without major transitions occuring.

Make no mistake, BB isn't panicking. He just isn't smart enough to understand that he should be.
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This guy gets it!
 

Benny > Bucky. If this is the start of the unravelling of the Badgers I will go to my grave happy that it started with the domination of the vaunted Wisky O-Line
in Corvallis. What I find encouraging is that Kill runs a similar style of D that places a premium on speed vs bulk. We have a good chance of beating them if Gray can keep improving in the passing game.
 

Ole said:
The support the wisky fanbase is showing burt is fascinating to me.

Markuson has got be one of the best O line coaches of the past decade in the SEC. This isn't a chump coach with a history of leaving jobs under turmoil.
Granted, he's mostly been with Houston Nutt, but he's been a mainstay of Nutt for a long time and was behind a ton of great running games.

Burt up and fires him and suddenly he should be commended?
Any badger fan NOT seeing this as a huge red flag has their head in the sand.

Burt is over his head, has been from the beginning, but so much structure has been in place to keep him from losing it. He absolutely believes he can simply plug coaches and players in and out. He believes he is at the head of a helmet school. His fans believe they are a top 10 program regardless of circumstance.

In fact, they are simply wisconsin. A middle tier program in the BIG that has benefited the past 2 years from OSU, PSU, and Michigan having major issues inside their programs. They also were able to steal resurgent MSU's thunder in back to back seasons under dubious circumstances.

They will now see what happens when a middle tier program fools itself into thinking they are a top team. All Americans do not simply get replaced by their also AA backups, rent a QB's do not always have near flawless seasons, and offensive coordinator and Oline coaches cannot simply be swapped in and out like puzzle pieces without major transitions occuring.

Make no mistake, BB isn't panicking. He just isn't smart enough to understand that he should be.
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Sorry but this is just fantasy. His first six years at Wisconsin were BETTER than Barry Alvarez's last six years. How do you explain that? His two Rose Bowl teams had zero players recruited by BA, again how is that possible? Do you think BA is really wearing a headset against NCAA rules up in the AD's office during games? Wouldn't he need to b at practice to be this effective as a puppeteer? BB may be a bit of a jerk, unpopular among his peers, etc. but no matter how you cut it he's been very effectiveve.
 

badgergopher said:
Sorry but this is just fantasy. His first six years at Wisconsin were BETTER than Barry Alvarez's last six years. How do you explain that? His two Rose Bowl teams had zero players recruited by BA, again how is that possible? Do you think BA is really wearing a headset against NCAA rules up in the AD's office during games? Wouldn't he need to b at practice to be this effective as a puppeteer? BB may be a bit of a jerk, unpopular among his peers, etc. but no matter how you cut it he's been very effectiveve.
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How he handles adversity is what will determine how good of a coach he really is. An average coach can take a good program and keep the wheels on for a few years. We're starting to see cracks in the foundation and this next year will be very telling.

Hastily firing a newly appointed assistant will not help him at all. If this is the way he deals with adversity, even the hardcore supporters will have to admit that BB is not the coach of the future.

I will enjoy seeing his demise.
 

badgergopher said:
Sorry but this is just fantasy. His first six years at Wisconsin were BETTER than Barry Alvarez's last six years. How do you explain that? His two Rose Bowl teams had zero players recruited by BA, again how is that possible? Do you think BA is really wearing a headset against NCAA rules up in the AD's office during games? Wouldn't he need to b at practice to be this effective as a puppeteer? BB may be a bit of a jerk, unpopular among his peers, etc. but no matter how you cut it he's been very effectiveve.
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Your program was built by barry to be steady. To run the ball and take advantage of other better teams' mistakes or grind out the game over worse teams. That formula wasn't changed by BB when he took over, he was probably told not to change it by barry. Chryst and Bostad took it to a new level offensively. BB ushered wisky into the new era of recruiting nationally, which everyone now does. He made no changes to the program besides being an arrogant ass and racheting up media sound bytes like an idiot. Where's the defensive improvement you'd expect from a defensive coach?
A complete moron could have steered wisky the past 6 years with that support staff and that AD down the hall. In fact, it seems like one did.

You really think firing an experienced offensive line coach after a tough loss is the right move?
Have you ever heard of a coach doing that before?
It's a red flag, and unless this GA is a fricken wunderkind coach it's going to show.
 

badgergopher said:
Sorry but this is just fantasy. His first six years at Wisconsin were BETTER than Barry Alvarez's last six years. How do you explain that? His two Rose Bowl teams had zero players recruited by BA, again how is that possible? Do you think BA is really wearing a headset against NCAA rules up in the AD's office during games? Wouldn't he need to b at practice to be this effective as a puppeteer? BB may be a bit of a jerk, unpopular among his peers, etc. but no matter how you cut it he's been very effectiveve.
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I don't think anyone here is burying the Badgers quite yet, but this is an extremely odd move and any attempt to portray it otherwise comes up short. As has been posted, Markuson has a very good track record as an assistant coach and Bielema did interview and hire him. Yet, I see no indication of Bielema taking any sort of responsibility as the guy who hired him for making a bad hire (one doesn't fire good hires). I see this as a somewhat "Brewsterish" move (and all comparisons to Brewster end here).

I laugh at all the mindless and cheap braggadocio that accompanies sport at all levels these days. Bielema's "Panic is for the outside world. Reality is what I live in." almost made me roll on the floor in laughter. Who the f*ck does he think he is to utter something so pathetically banal? I'm old and there are days--and the number of these days is increasing--when I would love to turn the clock back to the days when coverage was at a level that the general public wasn't exposed to the mindless chatter of coaches and athletic administrators.
 

50PoundHead said:
I don't think anyone here is burying the Badgers quite yet, but this is an extremely odd move and any attempt to portray it otherwise comes up short. As has been posted, Markuson has a very good track record as an assistant coach and Bielema did interview and hire him. Yet, I see no indication of Bielema taking any sort of responsibility as the guy who hired him for making a bad hire (one doesn't fire good hires). I see this as a somewhat "Brewsterish" move (and all comparisons to Brewster end here).

I laugh at all the mindless and cheap braggadocio that accompanies sport at all levels these days. Bielema's "Panic is for the outside world. Reality is what I live in." almost made me roll on the floor in laughter. Who the f*ck does he think he is to utter something so pathetically banal? I'm old and there are days--and the number of these days is increasing--when I would love to turn the clock back to the days when coverage was at a level that the general public wasn't exposed to the mindless chatter of coaches and athletic administrators.
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That could literally be a Brewster quote if you didn't know who said it.
 

50PoundHead said:
I don't think anyone here is burying the Badgers quite yet, but this is an extremely odd move and any attempt to portray it otherwise comes up short. As has been posted, Markuson has a very good track record as an assistant coach and Bielema did interview and hire him. Yet, I see no indication of Bielema taking any sort of responsibility as the guy who hired him for making a bad hire (one doesn't fire good hires). I see this as a somewhat "Brewsterish" move (and all comparisons to Brewster end here).

I laugh at all the mindless and cheap braggadocio that accompanies sport at all levels these days. Bielema's "Panic is for the outside world. Reality is what I live in." almost made me roll on the floor in laughter. Who the f*ck does he think he is to utter something so pathetically banal? I'm old and there are days--and the number of these days is increasing--when I would love to turn the clock back to the days when coverage was at a level that the general public wasn't exposed to the mindless chatter of coaches and athletic administrators.
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Ah yes, how times have changed.

With 24/7 sports talk radio and tv sports programming there are way too many hours to fill. The attempt is made with endless and often mindless drivel.

Time to get back to discussing sports at the appropriate places; ballpark, stadium, arena and the barbershop...........................................and Gopherhole.
 

There is no doubt that red flags are firing up everywhere on this coaching firing; but I am starting to believe that this was a serious personality conflict between the two of them. Even if the coach is doing a crap job, how in the world do you at least let him do his job for 80% of the year.
 

I agree it is an embarassing and desperate move. I was only commenting that characeterizing it as evidence that the last six years were an apparition doesn't really make sense.

It still may be the right move for the UW program. We'll know more by the end of the year.

I still contend that this Gopher team will have a better chance against Wisconsin this year than they have since the year they took a 2 TD lead in Madison ('08?).
 

badgergopher said:
I agree it is an embarassing and desperate move. I was only commenting that characeterizing it as evidence that the last six years were an apparition doesn't really make sense.

It still may be the right move for the UW program. We'll know more by the end of the year.

I still contend that this Gopher team will have a better chance against Wisconsin this year than they have since the year they took a 2 TD lead in Madison ('08?).
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The only thing Wisconsin had in the last six years was a considerable amount of stability in their coaching staff. Wisconsin may have lost one asst. coach in the offseason, but a high majority was always back. When you lose 6 to 7 coaches in one offseason, you are creating a new culture.
 

I would love for all of this to be true but as I have said before, this current wave of "Wisconsin is in a free fall" opinion is eerily similar to what I read in this same forum back in the summer of 2009. I've learned my lesson, this time I will wait to actually see the Gophers beat the Badgers before I start counting my chickens related to any sort of prediction related to the direction of that program.
 

Schnauzer said:
I would love for all of this to be true but as I have said before, this current wave of "Wisconsin is in a free fall" opinion is eerily similar to what I read in this same forum back in the summer of 2009. I've learned my lesson, this time I will wait to actually see the Gophers beat the Badgers before I start counting my chickens related to any sort of prediction related to the direction of that program.
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Could not agree more with you. Two games is not indicative of a free fall.
 


IDFM said:
Could not agree more with you. Two games is not indicative of a free fall.
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However, if we take BB's actions in to consideration, two games is enough to decide the fate of a positional coach. I think BB is under a lot of pressure and we're starting to see publically what's been going on inside the program for months. He covered his butt by assigning a scape-goat, but eventually he has to look in the mirror.

I won't say the program is in complete disarray, but there are cracks in the foundation. A real coach could get through it. I doubt BB has it in him. I predict we'll see some empty seats later this year.

And by the way, this is my 500th post. I can't think of a better way to celebrate than bashing Bret Bielema.
 

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