GVBadger, I'm assuming you live in Golden Valley and love the Badgers, can you give us any insight on how this guy is regarded in Madison?? I understand he was a complete failure to Nebraskans, but it seems like you like the guy??
Cosgrove was responsible for bringing in some of the best talent that we had on defense in the 25 years I have followed the Badgers. Jamar Fletcher and Wendell Bryant from St.Louis were the cornerstones of two Rose Bowl defenses. He was one of our better recruiters for some of our best teams.
The best team the Badgers were going to have was in 2000 and was derailed by the shoe circus. It led to a slump for the program and a non bowl season and was tough to recover from. At the same time, Alvarez was resting on his laurels and the defense suffered during the time frame leading to his leaving Wisconsin. Also, he was being judged against two great defenses with multiple big time players and it is not possible at Wisconsin to have a top ten national defense every year. He was also not going to get the HC job so that did not help the situation.
At the end of his tenure, he was criticized for being too passive, playing corners ten yards off the ball, etc. Again, people forgot that when he had the talent to play more aggressively, he did. When he had Fletcher shutting down half the field and Burke getting 20 sacks a year he was a genius. When he had guys that couldn't cover a a wet paper bag, he was an idiot. Same stuff that goes on everywhere.
Most people were happy to see him leave but did not accept that there were other variables as to why the performance had slipped and conveniently forgot how good the defense was on the two Rose Bowl teams that he was DC for.
He is very competent and was regarded as a very good teacher. Coached some very good linebackers at Wisconsin. Most of them not highly recruited.
Obviously the Nebraska deal did not work out, but he has a ton of experience and has coached and recruited some very good players and some great defenses.