Malcolm Robey will make his third trip to the Rose Bowl as a member of the UW-Madison marching band. This year, he?s the band?s drum major, just the second African-American student to lead the band.
He hasn?t so much as stepped on the sidelines yet at Camp Randall Stadium, let alone coached a game under the Bucky banner. But already new University of Wisconsin football coach Gary Andersen has been impressive.
There will be no alcohol on Wisconsin?s Rose Bowl-bound equipment truck this year.
The University of Wisconsin changed its policies regarding the purchase and serving of alcohol at school functions after a student accused the senior associate athletics director of grabbing his crotch during a pre-Rose Bowl party the official hosted last December at the Los Angeles hotel where the team was staying.
Minutes after finishing a lengthy interview session with Gary Andersen, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez turned to a colleague and suggested they take the night to mull over their initial impressions.
When Alvarez and UW senior associate athletic director Walter Dickey met the next morning, Alvarez didn?t attempt to mask his excitement. “I think he is a slam dunk,” Alvarez told Dickey on Tuesday.
Gary Andersen?s final call as leader of the Utah State football program, far away from the field and undetected by TV cameras, was arguably the most painful he faced in his four seasons at the school.
Yet the two days he spent calling his players, one by one, to tell them why he was leaving Utah State for Wisconsin might reveal more about UW?s new coach than anything he accomplished in a career that has spanned more than two decades.
New Wisconsin football coach Gary Andersen met the media in Madison for the first time on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, and Jim Polzin and Adam Mertz say the session made Andersen appear impressive and genuine.
A few days after Wisconsin set a school record for rushing yards in a 62-14 victory over Indiana, offensive line coach Bart Miller received an unexpected gift. Waiting on the desk in his UW office was a homemade T-shirt.
Citing depression that “goes way back to childhood,” former Olympic runner and Madison-area resident Suzy Favor Hamilton confirmed Thursday that, until recently, she had lived a “double life” as a high-priced prostitute in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Chicago. The news of Favor Hamilton?s secret life was broken Thursday by the website The Smoking Gun.
In what will be music to the ears of the state?s prep football coaches, native son Ben Strickland will be a member of Gary Andersen?s staff at the University of Wisconsin. Strickland, who was elevated to full-time assistant in charge of the secondary prior to Bret Bielema?s final season on the sidelines, is a former Brookfield Central athlete who walked on with the Badgers and eventually became a team captain.
Saying that he was “grateful” and “humbled” to make Madison the next stop on his coaching journey, Gary Andersen was introduced this morning as the University of Wisconsin?s new football coach. Andersen arrived in the city on Wednesday but had his introductory news conference delayed 24 hours by Thursday?s snowstorm. The former Utah State coach was finally able to meet the media during a mid-morning news conference Friday at the Nicholas-Johnson Pavillion with his boss, UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez sitting proudly at his side.
MADISON, Wis.- Gary Andersen is Wisconsin?s new football coach. Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez made the announcement Thursday, and Andersen?s official introduction will come Friday morning. The 48-year-old Andersen just completed his fourth and best season at Utah State. The 18th-ranked Aggies finished 11-2 with a bowl victory over Toledo and won the Western Athletic Conference.
When Gary Andersen called him the other day, Ron McBride thought it was just to chat about something going on at Utah State. Then Andersen dropped the bomb, telling McBride he was going to become the head football coach at the University of Wisconsin. McBride couldn?t believe it at first. Some things just sound too good to be true, so it took a moment for the news to register with him.
MADISON, Wis. – Two of the three men accused of assaulting Wisconsin running back Montee Ball this summer pleaded guilty to battery charges Wednesday, but both were given a chance to avoid prison.
MADISON, Wis. ? Two squares of sticky tape remained where Bret Bielema?s nameplate had been. Barry Alvarez moved back into the head football coach?s office overlooking Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin this month for convenience, but he has no plans to settle in. Alvarez took only one significant thing from his athletic director?s office with him: a glass candy jar filled with gumballs of assorted colors.
MADISON, Wis. -Two of the three men accused of attacking Wisconsin running back Montee Ball were accepted into the first-offenders program during plea and sentencing hearings Wednesday. Twenty-one-year-old Wendell J. Venerable and 22-year-old Robert A. Wilks were each facing a single count of battery. The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine.
MADISON (WKOW) — Two of the three men charged in the attack on Badger running back Montee Ball are scheduled for plea and sentencing hearings Wednesday.
The University of Wisconsin has selected Utah State?s Gary Andersen to be its next head coach. A source close to the UW football program told the State Journal on Tuesday night it is a done deal: Andersen is UW athletic director Barry Alvarez?s choice to succeed Bret Bielema, who left to become the head coach at Arkansas. The source said Andersen was going to inform his staff of his decision to leave on Tuesday night.
I was moved by a recent letter from a UW-Madison engineering professor questioning the generous financial package being awarded to UW athletic director Barry Alvarez while the school is being forced to cancel academic courses due to lack of funding. The irony is Alvarez was hired during UW-Madison Chancellor Donna Shalala?s era as part of her efforts to raise the profile of the athletic department. Shalala?s hope was that success on the athletic field would translate into increased support for university programs around the state. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred.
A key legislator is asking state and UW-Madison officials to review the process through which a subcontractor was selected to build a new scoreboard and sound system at Camp Randall Stadium, to see if the jobs should be rebid. Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, chairman of the state Assembly?s Committee on Colleges and Universities, ?is very concerned with the appearance of how this bidding process worked out,? said Mike Mikalsen, Nass? spokesman.
Utah State?s Gary Andersen is set to be hired as the new football coach at Wisconsin, according to reports.
Two of the three men accused of attacking Wisconsin running back Montee Ball are scheduled for plea and sentencing hearings.
Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez stepped a bit outside the box in selecting Gary Andersen of Utah State to take over the UW football program.
A little less than three weeks after he announced he would remain at Utah State, Gary Andersen has accepted an offer to become the new coach at the University of Wisconsin, The Salt Lake Tribune confirmed late Tuesday.
After declaring publicly that he will be staying at Utah State, head football coach Gary Andersen may very well be on the move.
Barry Alvarez and the University of Wisconsin are poised to hire Utah State?s Gary Andersen as the new head football coach.
A key legislator is asking state and University of Wisconsin-Madison officials to review the process through which a subcontractor was selected to build a new scoreboard and sound system at Camp Randall Stadium, to see if the jobs should be rebid.
The Big Ten spent much of the year as a national punch line.It might get worse during bowl season.The Big Ten could only fill seven of its eight predetermined bowl slots ? and each of those bowl-bound teams is currently an underdog.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez was so frustrated by the departure of so many assistant football coaches last week, he considered being the head coach next season at one point, just to halt the exodus.
The exodus of Wisconsin football assistants continues and once more the coach trimming the UW staff is a familiar face. Tight ends coach Eddie Faulkner has accepted a job offer from North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Joel Stave was so intent on getting back on the field as quickly as possible for the University of Wisconsin football team, he sacrificed a good part of his wardrobe toward the effort. One of the hardest things for Stave after suffering a broken left collarbone against Michigan State on Oct. 27 was keeping his left arm motionless for the first few weeks, to help the bone heal.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? The contract for new University of Arkansas defensive line coach Charlie Partridge will be $350,000 per year. The contract released Monday shows it runs from Jan. 2 until June 30, 2014, and includes an automobile paid for by supporters of the Razorbacks athletic programs.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez was in northwest Ohio on Tuesday, presumably interviewing a potential head coaching candidate, multiple sources close to the UW football program told the State Journal.
Plea hearings for two men charged with an attack in August on UW football running back Montee Ball were delayed until Wednesday over apparent confusion about what was to happen at the hearings and whether Ball and his father wanted to attend.
Your editorial last Sunday on UW athletics advances the antique idea that “amateur” collegiate sports should involve minimal investment and revenue. That probably worked a hundred years ago. Today, the greatest amateur athletic event ? the Olympics ? involves hundreds of millions of dollars in both investment and revenues. The editorial implies that institutions of higher learning, such as UW-Madison, really don?t need an athletic program. Former UW Chancellor Donna Shalala was smart when she realized the overall value of the athletic program to creating greater interest in and support of the entire UW System.
….If demand drives advertising and ticket prices upward, should college football refuse the revenue, which is considerable and, at UW-Madison, actually leaks back to the university? Railing against big bucks in college football provides stimulating reading and letter-to-the-editor yeast, but also a contemporary case of Don Quixote?s windmill tilting. Skip stressing over consumer behavior, since it only changes at the tipping-point of pricing (supply) and demand.
Last Sunday?s editorial, “College football running up its score,” raises important questions for higher education. These include dealing with the consequences of a financial arms race, the potential corruption of the institutions at stake, the death knell for traditional rivalries that have inspired so many fans to be avid followers ? look at what is happening to UW hockey ? and the incredible salaries now being paid to coaches that dwarf what even university presidents make.
During these austere times in the UW System, with diminishing state resources and grants and scholarships, it is judicious to question the fellowships and rewards received by athletes in high-profile sports such as football. The football program is currently flush with money and resources (it has not always been), due largely to Pat Richter and Barry Alvarez turning the program around. The lucrative funds from donors are retained within the athletic program and do not help support academic programs.
At UW-Madison?s winter commencement ceremony Sunday, former Athletic Director Pat Richter cleared up one of legendary football coach Vince Lombardi?s famous quotes. ?He?s been misquoted as saying, ?Winning isn?t everything, it?s the only thing.? But what he really said was, ?Winning isn?t everything, wanting to win is.? There?s a tremendous difference,? Richter said during his speech to graduates at the Kohl Center.
UW interim chancellor David Ward started the graduation ceremony by asking for a minute of silence for the people of Newtown, Conn., two days after a massacre at an elementary school there.
A contractor hired by the state to manage a $76.8 million renovation of Camp Randall Stadium agreed to accept a higher bid for a new scoreboard over a competing offer that an outside consultant advised was of better quality. The contractor, J.P. Cullen & Sons of Janesville, is a listed subcontractor on the winning bid, for which it stands to receive more than a half-million dollars.
Wisconsin assistants Matt Canada and Charlie Partridge faced the same decision.Should they accept secure offers at other football programs?Or, should they gamble they might be retained by Wisconsin?s next head coach after UW faces No. 8 Stanford in the Rose Bowl?
Surrounded by reporters after Wisconsin?s practice Sunday night, Barry Alvarez displayed a mix of confidence, defiance and frustration as he addressed his search for a head football coach and the impending departure of several assistants. “Everyone gets anxious,” he said of the coaching search that began Dec. 4 when Bret Bielema informed Alvarez he was taking over the program at Arkansas. “But I said all along we?re going to take our time and get the right guy.
Apparently, the place to beat that trend is in the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s athletic stable. Departing head football coach Bret Bielema was making $2.7 million this year. Former coach and current Athletic Director Barry Alvarez was being paid a paltry-by-comparison $1 million. Now, UW regents have decided Alvarez will pocket a one-month salary increase of $118,500 for December as he takes over from Bielema to coach one game ? yes, one game ? at the Rose Bowl.
MADISON ? A contractor hired by the state to manage a $76.8 million renovation of Camp Randall Stadium agreed to accept a higher bid for a new scoreboard over a competing offer that an outside consultant advised was of better quality.
For a brief time Thursday night, it appeared the Wisconsin football program had lost its second assistant coach in less than a week: Offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
An ad for offensive coordinator / assistant football coach was posted on an NCAA website. However, according to UW officials, the posting was premature. All nine assistant positions will be posted by the end of Friday. The move is procedural because their contracts expire Feb. 3.
There is plenty of uneasiness swirling around the UW football program these days. The uncertainty of who the next head coach will be and which of the current assistants might stay top the list for most players. Those players are trying to put all of their focus on the Rose Bowl game against Stanford on Jan. 1. But it?s hard for the non-seniors to keep from wondering who will be coaching them next season.
University of Wisconsin offensive coordinator Matt Canada has been offered the same job at North Carolina State under Dave Doeren, according to a source close to the UW football program. UW athletic director Barry Alvarez is high on Canada and was pushing to keep him with the program, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not cleared to speak on personnel matters.
CORAL GABLES ? Miami football coach Al Golden was connected to another high profile coaching job Thursday afternoon, but multiple sources within the UM football program said he?s not leaving.
Madison (WQOW) — The fall semester is winding down at the University of Wisconsin, so the Badgers are taking a break from football to get ready for their final exams. Wisconsin has a practice scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Dear Editor: The UW already pays its athletic director more than the average athletic director in the Big Ten ? in fact, he may be one of the few athletic directors who actually has a salary higher than what was paid the head football coach. Now Alvarez is going to pay himself an extra $217,000 for coaching the football team in the Rose Bowl (1/12th of what the departing coach made).
Twenty-four UW-Madison engineering seniors and graduate students who had enrolled in a mechanical engineering course in fluid power recently received an email that read, in part: “Unfortunately, due to budget reductions, the mechanical engineering department will not be able to hire an instructor for ME 545 for spring 2013.”
Dear Editor: Holy cripes, Ed Garvey! Attacking Barry Alvarez because he wants to be paid for his coaching is looking a gift horse in the mouth. We get to trade in a GOOD coach for a GREAT coach in an attempt to win another Rose Bowl!
The way the Big Ten Conference commissioner and the presidents of his newly snatched-up member universities were talking last month, one might think there was nobody under the sun who took issue with the University of Maryland at College Park and Rutgers University joining the traditionally Midwestern athletic league.
UW senior tailback Montee Ball on Tuesday accomplished something that eluded Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne. Ball was named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press for the second consecutive season.
Not long after Arkansas coach Bret Bielema announced he had hired defensive coordinator Chris Ash away from Wisconsin, UW athletic director Barry Alvarez raved about the strength of the UW staff and revealed he hoped to extend an offer to a head-coaching candidate in the next two weeks.
First while working from home Tuesday morning and then again in the afternoon while watching men?s basketball practice at the Kohl Center, I couldn?t stop thinking about Barry Alvarez?s search for Wisconsin?s next football coach.
University of Wisconsin defensive coordinator Chris Ash is following former Badgers coach Bret Bielema to Arkansas after the Rose Bowl game. Bielema, who was named the Razorbacks? head coach last week, announced on Tuesday he had hired Ash as defensive coordinator, his first assistant coaching hire there. That?s only the first move of what could be an exodus of the current coaching staff.
One week after leaving Madison, former Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema is taking his first assistant to Fayetteville, as Arkansas announced Tuesday UW co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash will take the same job with the Razorbacks.
The executive committee of the UW Board of regents approved an additional $118,500 in pay for UW-Madison Athletic Director Barry Alvarez to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.
If you want to sell a T-shirt with Barry?s name on it, either shell out for a royalty fee or wait until after the Rose Bowl. That?s what Sconnie Nation found out. On the heels of Barry Alvarez?s announcement that he would coach the Badgers at the Rose Bowl, the printing shop, located on State Street, put shirts reading ?Barry Knows,? and ?Keep Calm and Barry On? up for sale, as well as a third shirt that referenced the Rose Bowl, but didn?t use Alvarez?s name. That was on Thursday. By Friday, the shirts were pulled.
Quoted: Trademark Licensing Director Cindy Van Matre and Financial Aid Director Susan Fischer
Barry Alvarez will get an extra $118,500 for one month?s work. That?s on top of his annual salary of $1 million.
