(no message)
Link: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34714751/wisconsin-fires-football-coach-paul-chryst-sources-say
or it has during the Alvarez era. Leonhard has turned down lots of money to stay in Madison. I will be surprised if the gig does not remain his, even with Leopold's Wisconsin ties.
(no message)
Bowl Games. Made it to the Big Ten Championship game 3 out of those 6 years.
Not sure what WI is expecting but it seems to me this guy did a real good job with the WI program over the years. They may regret the day they canned him midseason.
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
(no message)
Defense - soft on the line, badly coached on pass d assignments, linebackers out of position on run defense. Very very un-Badger
Special teams - sucky. Bobbled nearly every kick return, and fumbled one back to the Illini at their own 13, resulting in an Illinois touchdown
Offense - Mertz' replacement got hurt early in the season, so the back-up is a third-stringer or he would definitely get in. Mertz panics easily, gives up on his reads early, just looked bad. Braelon Allen, a potentially great runner, has regressed since his great freshman year. That, in turn, may have to do with offensive line play, which was half-hearted in both run blocking and pass protection. Mertz was under the gun a lot, and Allen ran into a wall on most of his running plays. His back-up, Clemson transfer Chez Melusi, is just average too.
So, long and short, Chryst was doing a crappy job, and after the Ohio State embarrassment, it was probably a gutsy, needed move by the admin to cut bait instead of waiting for the damage to metastasize the rest of the season.
(no message)
He got them to bowl games every year, and even had two NY6 bowl wins, along with another NY6 bowl appearance, as well as two top 10 finishes (and nearly a third).
Even last year, when everyone thought the season was going to stink, he still managed to pull it to a 9 win season.
Overall, he didn't seem to be any worse than Bielma had been for them, so I'm guessing that his attitude probably rubbed too many people the wrong way.
There's stuff going on in the background that predicated this.
It's Leonard's job to lose but they can still connect with some of the bigger name candidates now rather than waiting for the rush at the end of the year.
(no message)
Big time.
years.