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I am on the opposite side, and am thrilled the Gary Andersen chafed under the BA meddling and left. GA was the real deal. Jerry Kill might have started to beat UW at times in future years, but vs. Gary Andersen it would have been tougher than under Paul Chryst. I nook note of Gary Andersen's teams at Utah State and was impressed with GA. I always assumed he was a hard core Mormon like the other Utah FBS coaches and would not move from Utah, but that proved not to be correct (regarding his LDS status). I would have been thrilled with a Gary Anderson hire at Minnesota back in 2011.
He lost all of the Bret B defensive talent from 2013 and was able to field a tough defense with mostly different players this year, using a new system. He was a pure running spread type coach at Utah St., but at Wisconsin ran a lot more traditional power football to match his O line and RB strengths.
Any good coach can innovate and adapt, and is not held hostage by his "system". I think the meddling by Barry Alvarez is the 75% of why he left and the rest became a problem later. The guy can recruit, and if he lost 4-5 good players due to an overly selective UW policy, and Alvarez probably gave him no support, I can see how that was a big #2 problem for him. The story line that he went "home" to the west is beyond credible. Logan Utah is almost 800 miles from Oregon State in culturally miles further. Corvallis is not that far from the leftist/ granola belt of western Oregon and not much like conservative Utah. Eastern Utah has a lot more in common with Madison Wisconsin than does Logan Utah. He left because of Barry Alvarez looking over his shoulder daily, and not backing him up.
Nothing lasts forever and when Barry can't hang in there as he approaches his mid 70's there is a chance for failure and decline at Wisconsin. Chryst is not the coach in the dynamic-leader mold that Andersen is, and he will not have huge success in Madison, nor will he fall on his face.
We as Gopher fans should be pleased that Nebraska dumped Bo for a 61 year old, and that UW (BA) drove off Gary Andersen. I think Mike Riley can coach, but his still is 61 years old, and most programs have difficulty processing any change for a couple of years. Riley can probably match the results of Bo Pelini, but he is no Bill Snyder, who had the ability to innovate on offense, bring in loads of JC talent, and coach into his seventies.
Iowa should have filled up the Brinks truck and lured Bill Snyder to Iowa back in 1998. They probably would have played in, and won many BCS bowls in the last 15 years under Snyder, one of the most impressive coaches of the last 25 years. Iowa, especially on coattails of Hayden Fry had a lot more going for it than Kansas State, and probably still is more appealing of a job.