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The search for a new head coach for the Wisconsin Badgers continues. Current coach of the Pittsburgh Panthers, Paul Chryst, a Madison native, made it known that he is staying put and will not attempt to get the head coaching job at the university he attended and played football for.
It’s really too bad because immediately when I heard Chryst’s name, the term “perfect fit” was the only thing I could think of. In all seriousness, Chryst would have been a perfect fit to be head coach for the Badgers, and if he hadn’t taken the job with the Panthers, I’m fairly certain that this would qualify as Chryst’s dream job. But life is timing and Chryst’s timing was a season off as Chryst just completed his first regular season as a head coach, leading the Panthers to a 6-6 record and a berth in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
Chryst’s Badgers credentials are not only solid, but it’s almost tragic that he isn’t going to get the chance to coach them at this time. Chryst was born in Madison, Wisconsin and was basically exposed to the Badgers from the very beginning. He went to school and played quarterback for the Badgers for three seasons, though those seasons came right before Barry Alvarez‘s arrival as head coach, so they weren’t successful seasons. He spent one season (2002) as Tight End coach for the Badgers and came back in 2005 as the offensive coordinator, a position he held until the end of last season.
Chryst has also had plenty of other coaching experience between college and his recent stint with the Badgers. He jumped around from high school football to the Canadian Football League to the Oregon St. Beavers (two different stints) in assistant or coordinator jobs with short trips to the NFL (San Diego Chargers as Tight End coach) and Illinois St. Redbirds squeezed in there.
The fact that Chryst was offensive coordinator as recently as he was is the key to him being the perfect choice. Most coaches who come into a new school will obviously implement their own ideas and their own philosophies on the team. Most times, these new ideas & philosophies are completely opposite to what the team and its fanbase had known for years. The perfect example of this would be the Rich Rodriguez debacle with the Michigan Wolverines. However, it’s unlikely that this would’ve been the case because the current Badgers offensive philosophy is one that Chryst helped create. And Chryst has only been gone for one season, so it’s not as if that philosophy has changed that much since Chryst was there as offensive coordinator.
It really would have been a perfect fit. One of the biggest problems an incoming coach can face is an unfriendly fanbase. If the fans that come to the home games six or seven times a year don’t like the man in charge of the team, they will not only let him know it, but they can also break him. And all of that will become detrimental to the team and its potential for success on the field. It’s happened before and it will happen again plenty of times. As if I need to make this point, but not all coaching hires are good fits, something Bret Bielema may end up learning with the Arkansas Razorbacks. It’s all a combination of instant gratification and trust for a new coach to create a good relationship with the fanbase. The exception is if the fanbase already knows you. At the end of the day, they need to know you and trust you and see that you & your team are getting the job done on the field.
With Chryst, Badgers fans, alumni, and the team itself would have had a coach they would know, a coach that would likely not make any drastic changes to the team, and a coach that would have a passion for the team that has been there almost since birth.
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