Barry Alvarez announced yesterday that this is going to be his last season as head coach for the Badgers. Truly an end of an extremely successful and wonderful era has begun. The following illustration shows how much of an impact he had:
15 years pre Alvarez (1975-89) 69-96-4 (.420) 3 bowls 1-2 record
Alvarez's 15 years (1990-2004) 108-70-4 (.604) 10 bowls 7-3 record with 3 Rose Bowl wins
The numbers are even better when you take out his first 2 seasons of a combined 4-16. Then his record goes to 104-54-4 (.642). That averages out to 8-4 record for the last 13 years. Ask any fan of another Big Ten school and they would welcome that with open arms. Except for MI and Ohio State, but nobody cares what they think anyway.
I was in my last year of college when the Badgers went to their first Rose Bowl (1994) since the reign of Queen Elizabeth (she was a Badger fan you know). Just the absolute chaos that went on on State Street (which I gladly partook in) the night they clinched and the whole mood of the campus from that point until after the Rose Bowl win is something I will never forget.
Barry has acheived a status in WI that few coaches in college sports have obtained. I would put him on par with Favre in the minds of WI sports fans. He put WI back on the collegiate sports map and made WI sports relevant again, and gave the university a renewed sense of pride. His creation of an extremely good football program and getting the UW sports finances turned around helped pave the way for the WI basketball success. He'll still be around, but I'm going to miss him on the sidelines. Here's to one more great season for Barry!
America's Team
The Packers have now signed 10 of 11 of their draft picks all that is missing now is Rodgers. Given he is not expected to start or play much this year, I'm not all that worried. That said, I would expect a deal to be worked out shortly and him in camp. Reports from over at The Railbird, my local contact in GB state that rookie Marviel Underwood is having a great camp so far. He has learned the defense incredibly fast and is making plays already. Let's hope this continues and carries over to the season.
4 comments:
Hey! I think Don Morton laid the groundwork!
Yeah right, good old Morton sure knew how to "veer" away from victory.
Love the Railbird for training camp commentary. Makes me want to take a day off to make my pilgrimmage up to GB for a day of watching the Pack. Maybe I will. Thanks for the tip! Sara.
I felt bad for Morton. He was very successful at NDSU, but the veer just doesn't work in the Big TEleveN.
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