Wisconsin football coach Paul Chryst starting to prove he was the right choice

[Mark87]

Paul Chryst starting to prove he was the right choice

Paul Chryst was a feel-good hire in the winter of 2014.
The Wisconsin native, who had played and coached at UW, returned home after three years as the head coach at Pittsburgh.
He was introduced as UW’s 30th head coach on Dec. 17, 2014. That came one week after athletic director Barry Alvarez learned Gary Andersen was leaving before the end of his second season in Madison to take over the Oregon State program.
Still stinging from the stunning departure of Bret Bielema, who left UW for Arkansas just days after the 2012 Big Ten title game, Alvarez was determined to land a quality coach who also viewed UW as more than a rental property to use before looking for a permanent home.
Chryst was the obvious choice, though he wasn’t universally embraced. Some UW fans expressed concern about his 19-19 record in three seasons at Pittsburgh, including a 5-9 mark in games decided by seven points or fewer, and wondered whether he had the chops to recruit well enough to keep UW in contention for Big Ten titles.
After two seasons, Chryst and his assistants have done just about all they can to silence any critics. UW is 21-6 under Chryst, including an 8-5 mark in games decided by seven points or fewer, and has one Big Ten West Division title and two bowl victories. The 2017 Big Ten meetings are set to be held Monday and Tuesday in Chicago and the Badgers, who navigated a brutal schedule to finish 11-3 and No. 9 in both national polls last season, received 31 of 38 first-place votes from a panel of Big Ten voters to win the 2017 West Division title. Read The Rest Linked

 

[57packer]

Time will tell if Chryst can move the UW brand forward. So far, he seems to pretty much have kept UW at the same level as Barry and Bret, which is terrific. I have no doubt he can get the job done and recruit well enough to keep UW among the top 4-5 in the Big-10. What I'll be interested in seeing is whether, in time, he can recruit at maybe a level above what Barry and Bret (and even Gary) were at.

In the meantime, I couldn't be happier to have him as the HC. The article states it well - he's a UW/Madison guy through and through and he's able to sell the city/school/program as well or better then anyone.