GatewayRedbirds.com

The selling point with Chryst would be great offensive coach + better recruiting compared to Pitt = take us to next level.

I haven't forgiven him for abandoning the running game in the TCU rose bowl but I don't know who else is available. Unless they promote the DC Dave Aranda

I don't fully get WI glorification of Alvarez, like he was Bear Bryant.

Well he took a program that usually finished last in the bigten and by his fourth season was 10-1-1 and won the school's first rose bowl victory (had lost two or three many years before). He had several up and down years and then recruited Ron Dayne and won two more Rose Bowls. He beat Ohio St and Michigan sometimes. As AD he has had his share of problems but the men's hoops team makes him look good and he clearly wants football to compete at a high level. So he gets a lot of leeway.

One of the team's preseason goals his fourth season was to beat Indiana.

Don't get me wrong -Alvarez well above avg - kind of like his old boss Hayden Fry. Close but no cigar situations. Not quite to next level. but, in fairness what more could they do?

never satisfied, I guess.
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Weird - before Hayden Fry - Iowa was a doormat. 17t straight non-winning seasons .

Before Alvarez - WI 7 straight losing seasons.

Did they not schedule 3 guaranteed wins back in those old days?

Before Gary Barnett -NW was a model of futility including that winless streak - with NW you could blame school size and standards
But even NW is good for almost a 500 season these years. Even IL is 500 this year

Yeah, the Badgers were in a place very similar to where Mizzou was when Pinkel took over. Worse, really. From 1964 to 1989, they had six winning seasons (one of those was 5-4-2). They won 3 or fewer games 10 times in that stretch. Before Barry took over, they had been to six bowls in their entire program history. They were a total joke of a program.

Barry turned all of that around. And he was a really, really likable guy whose identity meshed well with the state. Throw in the fact that Madison has a tendency to fetishize stuff and you've got yourself an idol.

And I don't think anyone in 'Sconnie mistakes him for Bear Bryant. But they do recognize him for what he is- very clearly the best thing that ever happened to their football program, the guy that put them on the map.

JL21 wrote:Yeah, the Badgers were in a place very similar to where Mizzou was when Pinkel took over. Worse, really. From 1964 to 1989, they had six winning seasons (one of those was 5-4-2). They won 3 or fewer games 10 times in that stretch. Before Barry took over, they had been to six bowls in their entire program history. They were a total joke of a program.

Barry turned all of that around. And he was a really, really likable guy whose identity meshed well with the state. Throw in the fact that Madison has a tendency to fetishize stuff and you've got yourself an idol.

And I don't think anyone in 'Sconnie mistakes him for Bear Bryant. But they do recognize him for what he is- very clearly the best thing that ever happened to their football program, the guy that put them on the map.

That sounds about right. Hayden Fry is another comparable.
WI revival under Alvarez had a St. Louis connection with player, many from STL HS suburban north conference. According to my buddy that coached in North County, one of Alvarez's assistants was from here. Lately, Mizzou has done better getting whatever MO HS has to offer.
Pregame vid they play at Camp Randall on the screens -is what spurred my comment.

STL was a huge pipeline for those Badger teams. Of course, now I can't think of any of Barry's STL guys. But I know they were out there. He also did really well in New Jersey.

I remember Barry making that "You'd better get season tickets right now..." proclamation. And people ate it up.

The first 80% of that video should just be Bucky doing stuff in black and white with old-timey silent music playing.



RE: Hayden Fry, he really has quite the coaching tree. The Stoops brothers, Barry Alvarez, Dan McCarney who had a little success at Iowa St., Kirk Ferentz...

Terrell Fletcher was from St Louis