Bret Bielema is still more than a month away from officially taking over as the University of Wisconsin’s next head football coach, but he moved one step closer to that job title Friday.
The UW Board of Regents announced it had approved a contract for Bielema, who has agreed in principle to a deal which has been in the works since July, when current coach and athletic director Barry Alvarez announced he had hand-picked Bielema to be his successor following the 2005 season.
….Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Alvarez said he used the contract of Arizona coach Mike Stoops as a starting point. Stoops signed a five-year contract with an annual base salary of $650,000 when he took over the Wildcats’ program as a first-time head coach in January of 2004.