UPDATED 12/18: UW reportedly hires Gary Andersen with career 30-31 record

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Dunceswithwolves said:
Seems like the guy can coach and with Wisconsin having a lot coming back next year, he has a really good shot at starting with 10 wins.
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He'll need three more wins from somewhere. He'll need to replace Montee Ball. He'll need to find a much better QB. He'll need more than Badger hopes to do it.
 

Wisconsin's New Coach - Your take?

As a Badger fan, here's my take on UW hiring Gary Andersen from Utah State- from an honest and obviously very preliminary standpoint.

What I'm worried about

-Personal "Fit"- It's been claimed that Gary turned down jobs at Colorado, Cal and Kentucky because they weren't the right "fit" and that at the end of the day he needed to stay in Logan, Utah. I'm not sure what changed his mind to move across the country away from the place he's spent nearly his entire personal, professional and academic career, but apparently the guy felt some type of "fit" when he was in Madison earlier this Fall. It will be interesting to hear what he says on Friday about that decision. I'm assuming he is a Mormon having attended a school in where 95% of the student body were members of the LDS and having lived in Utah for his entire life and coaching at "Romney Field" for the last 4 years... and now, Welcome to Madison! The Liberal hub of the Midwest, the People's Republic, America's #1 College town. A city known for beer, booze, bars and wild parties. I'm not sure if it's going to be an issue or not, but I am struggling to see Madison as a fit for this particular guy

-Lack of Wisconsin/Midwest/Big Ten ties- The guy has absolutely zero experience coaching or recruiting in the Midwest or Wisconsin. We've lost nearly all of our assistant coaches (again) and we appear to be getting an entirely new staff. I'm worried that, although he is known to be one of the best recruiters in the country, he may be in over his head with how important and intense Big Ten recruiting can be.

-The Brewster Effect- On first glance and by watching a few practices, I immediately noticed a correlation to a certain, ahem, coach who used to work in the Big Ten. Lots of energy- almost over the top, lots of talking, some silly sayings and lines dropped. I appreciate the energy, but I absolutely don't want a loud mouth buffoon like you guys had for 4 years. There is something to be said about keeping that calm "chess player" demeanor which I think is important to a good Head Coach. Save the chest bumps, hoots and silly catch phrases for the Grad Assistants and Ball Boys. And Tight Ends coaches at Mississippi State.

-His Spread Offense, Offensive Coordinator- Apparently he is bringing his guy from Utah State to presumably be the OC for the Badgers. The guy ran a high octane spread offense with a dual-threat QB. Quite frankly, that will never fly at Wisconsin, I don't want it to every be tried at Wisconsin and I hope he doesn't. If Wisconsin has any value to it's "brand" as a football program, everyone in the country knows it is a pro-style, power run game. That's the way it's been since the beginning. Even before Barry. Big Wisconsin and Midwest linemen, powerful running backs and smart quarterbacks. That's the brand and that's what I consider "The Wisconsin Way." It's strange, because you don't want to immediately put a leash on the guy you just hired, but it's like Ford said: "People can have The Model T in any color... so long as it's black."

- Is this a destination job? - Like I said before, the guy has no apparent reason to be here that anyone can see other than what will assuredly be a pay increase. Does he really want to be at Wisconsin? Is this a destination? Is this just a stepping to something else in 4 years if he is successful. He is our 3rd coach since 1990. We have thrived on continuity and consistency and I want a Wisconsin man who is a Badger for life, ideally.

What I'm excited about

- The guy knows how to run a football program- What he did at Utah State is pretty damn impressive- I would hope you folk especially would appreciate that. Arrived in 2008 in Logan, freakin Utah and inherited a decimated football program who, on top of being in ruins, had to compete with two strong state brands in Utah and BYU in the same state. Within 4 years, he build a winner out of absolutely nothing in the middle of nowhere in a *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!#ty state, he flipped recruits from the 2 rival state schools, went 11-2 this year with loses to UW on a missed kick and 3 points to BYU, won an outright conference championship, dominated in their bowl game, ended the season at #18 in the country and was probably close loss away from playing in the Orange Bowl instead of NIU. That he was able to do all that work must have taken an extraordinary amount of commitment to winning, recruiting and building a program. That's all I can ask for in a HC. I'm certainly not gonna say Wisconsin is CFB royalty or anything, but compared to USU, the resources, facilities, brand, fan support and recent success here at UW blow his former situation out of the water. If the guy made a winner out of that pile of crap in the desert, I wonder what he will be able to do at an established program.

- Seems like a heck of a recruiter- Lots of positive things being buzzed around by former players and coaches about the guy's recruiting abilities. I mean, he must have been good to get guys to play at Utah State. Apparently he was personally recommended to BA by Urban Meyer and players around the league and the NFL, like Chris Maragos, have been ranting about how great of a recruiter he is. I'll save my judgement for later, especially given his unfamiliarity with the region and this position, but also I think there is great reason to be optimistic.

- A good guy, a player's coach- He is widely known to be loved by his players. I think this is so important for so many reasons. Bret Bielema was also very good at this. The fact that Andersen took the time to personally call each one of the players on his Utah State team and break the news to them and explain to them last night - until 2:30am - says a lot about his character. You want a coach that will do things the right way and say the right things. I think he loves the game and he loves coaching young people and as obvious as it might sound, I don't think half of coaches in the NCAA have that quality.

- Barry "The Emperor" picked his man- I will always have ultimate faith in "The Emperor" and I think he is one of the smartest men around the game right now. He saw something he like very much in coach Gary and whether you believe it or not, he says he was very much on the "short list". If Barry believes he is the guy for the job, then I can sleep easy because Barry has made Wisconsin Football what it is today and his hiring helps shape what it will be tomorrow.
 

I can't really argue with your logic here. Pretty well stated. I had never heard the Mormon angle before.

I think if I was a Badger fan my biggest concern would be about the offense. Is he going to adapt to the Wisconsin style power run offense (which I think some coaches are not good at doing - adapting) or is he going to try the spread. I'm not sure the spread will work at Wisconsin (or Minnesota for that matter).

He seems like an up-and-comer as a coach. The big question mark is if that will transition to the big ten and if he can at least maintain Wisky's level of success of the last 10 years.
 

That was a really good post. I get your point on it being, "preliminary", so it would be really great if you could give us updates every week or so and then maybe more often once fall camp starts.
 

Seems like a good guy who knows how to coach, but due to a powerful bias, I hope he burns the program to the ground.
 


I don't care.

WI football and MN football intersect on 1 day a year - when the two teams play each other.

Yes, they may fight over the same recruits on occasion, but other than that, what WI does and what MN does has very little, if no impact on each other.

The more that MN fans obsess over WI, the more we look like jealous little twerps who sit around and complain because the kid down the street got a more-expensive toy for Christmas.

Let it freakin' go. Worry about your team - not somebody else's team.
 

How many Badger/Gary Andersen threads do we need? This is a Gopher message board.
 

He looks very good to me - from the start at Utah State he was playing some of the big boys (Auburn, e.g.) close and the won-lost record didn't fully indicate the progress he was making. He hit his stride this year with a bunch of victories. As stated elsewhere, he is young ,energetic and smart. I think he could be a winning coach at Madison for decades - and a consistent thorn in our side. Barry picked good - if he had been hired here, I would be really excited. (If he drops the signature Alvarez offensive style, we should pick it up).
 

Your thread sucks. You also made a boring hire because no other coach wanted to come to your boring state. Troll thread.
 



I didn't know utah state had a football program!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

First, The majority of coaches who have ever been hired by a BCS football program (except Brewster) have had success at a lower level of competition and less than 10% of those hires last at least 5 years, so getting excited about him being a winner at Utah State literally means nothing about how successful he will be at Wisconsin. Also every coach gets high regards from their peers when being hired, E.G. The University of Blank is getting a defensive/offensive mastermind who is a tremendous recruiter/talent evaluator and is a player's coach. You could look back to every article written about a coaching hire and see those generic compliments. Also, don't act like Anderson was in your top 10 choices or Barry's so called "top choice", nobodys buying that but Badger fans. At least Minnesota came out and said Kill wasn't there first choice.
 

Iceland12 said:
He'll need three more wins from somewhere. He'll need to replace Montee Ball. He'll need to find a much better QB. He'll need more than Badger hopes to do it.
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Returning Gordon and White in the backfield is pretty solid. Because Gordon was running through Nebraska untouched you didn't get to see what he can do between the tackles. He's not going to do what Ball did there but he's a pretty rugged runner and best speed they've had in a long time. They got a lot of guys back from a team that outplayed Ohio State but suffered without a productive QB. The QBs won't get worse. Stave was looking like a capable thrower until he got broken. Anderson is stepping into a pretty good situation.
 




short ornery norwegian said:
I don't care.

WI football and MN football intersect on 1 day a year - when the two teams play each other.

Yes, they may fight over the same recruits on occasion, but other than that, what WI does and what MN does has very little, if no impact on each other.

The more that MN fans obsess over WI, the more we look like jealous little twerps who sit around and complain because the kid down the street got a more-expensive toy for Christmas.

Let it freakin' go. Worry about your team - not somebody else's team.
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I agree. We should be more worried about if Adrian Peterson will catch Dickerson's single season record. For goodness sakes there just isn't enough media talking about this event.
 


To Kill A Badger said:
Once in 10 years would be a great start. He could be a horrible coach and they won't drop to our level for years - be realistic people!
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Can't help but agree. They have been to 6 Rose Bowls since '94. 6 in18 damn years. How many of us were even alive when the Gophers went to the rose bowl? I fear Wisconsin just got stronger, not weaker.
 

Adam Rittenberg, who is usually good, made a funny in his 'Anderson will keep UW's offense' blog.

2nd to last paragraph:

A source tells ESPN.com that Andersen will retain Wisconsin running backs coach Thomas Hammock, who has molded stars such as Montee Ball and John Clay.
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Oh, I didn't realize that Benedict Hammock was molding Ball and Clay when he was supposed to be doing as such with Bennett, Edwards and Kirkwood.
 



IMO kind of a boring hire for UW. Maybe he works out, and I caould not stand the former coach. Barry seems pretty cocky through all of this, if this hire goes south I think it tarnishes him a bit...although I guess everyone gets at least 1 mulligan...
 


There's a big reason they weren't able to attract a more notable name for this hire and it goes beyond Wisky not being the high end job their fans want to think it is.

The only way to go is down for the Badgers, and most attractive candidates recognized that. Not even Bear Bryant was going to keep winning BT championships in Madison. Situations like Russell Wilson falling into your lap and two teams in your division not being eligible for postseason play only happen once in a blue moon. At the end of the day, you're always going to be looking up at teams like Michigan, OSU, Nebraska, and Penn State.

I happen to think Anderson is a really, really good coach; probably even a better hire, individually, than Kill was. Problem is, it doesn't sound like he's bringing much of his staff with him (last I heard, his two coordinators were both in the running to replace him), and Wisky is just not the type of elite program that can withstand the kind of turnover they've had in the last 24 months or so.

They'll be pretty good next year with the holdovers they have coming back (provided the new coach doesn't change things up TOO much), and the schedule is RIDICULOUSLY easy for Wisky next year, with them missing Michigan, Nebraska, and Michigan State. At the very least, things are set up next year for Anderson to have a solid inaugural season at the helm.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
There's a big reason they weren't able to attract a more notable name for this hire and it goes beyond Wisky not being the high end job their fans want to think it is.

The only way to go is down for the Badgers, and most attractive candidates recognized that. Not even Bear Bryant was going to keep winning BT championships in Madison. Situations like Russell Wilson falling into your lap and two teams in your division not being eligible for postseason play only happen once in a blue moon. At the end of the day, you're always going to be looking up at teams like Michigan, OSU, Nebraska, and Penn State.

I happen to think Anderson is a really, really good coach; probably even a better hire, individually, than Kill was. Problem is, it doesn't sound like he's bringing much of his staff with him (last I heard, his two coordinators were both in the running to replace him), and Wisky is just not the type of elite program that can withstand the kind of turnover they've had in the last 24 months or so.

They'll be pretty good next year with the holdovers they have coming back (provided the new coach doesn't change things up TOO much), and the schedule is RIDICULOUSLY easy for Wisky next year, with them missing Michigan, Nebraska, and Michigan State. At the very least, things are set up next year for Anderson to have a solid inaugural season at the helm.
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Thing is, we've been hearing that since 1994. Heard it after Rose Bowl #1 heard it during the mid-90s lull. Heard it when Barry retired.Heard it in the early 2000s. Heard it after the 2008 season. Heard it after we lost our D coordinater to NIU. Heard it when we lost Paul Chryst and 7 coordinators. Hearing it now again. Yeah, yeah, yeah... OSU, Mich and Nebraska are going to crush Wisconsin back to the dark ages paving the way for (insert your school here) to rise to greatness.

Each time, curiously, it never happens. And here we sit with 3 consecutive Big Ten Championships, our best recruiting class ever, our players in Pasadena getting ready to play in the Rose Bowl, brand new football acilities nearing completion and our new coach hand picked by our CFB Hall of Fame Coach/AD.

Just sayin... Im trying to help you NOT set yourself up for disappointment.

Focus on building your own program instead of wishing for the demise of ours. There is room for the both of us, and it would fun!
 


Not yet lost. Just wants to look around-take some plane rides, eat some free steaks. He'll be back.
 

Curseislifted33 said:
hahaha Wisco loses big time 2014 4 star home state DT commit Craig Evans
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He'll have a lot of other big offers to look at. Me thinks Wisky will still have a good shot at him since they have kept Ben Strickland on the staff and he is his primary recruiter at UW (think he handles all the in-state kids).
 


BT championships aren't with spit, nationally speaking. of course, it would be nice for the gophs to have a couple.
 

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