When Gary Andersen shocked the college football world by darting for Corvallis last December, it set the wheels in motion for yet another coaching staff shuffle for the Wisconsin Badgers.
For the second time in 24 months, athletic director Barry Alvarez was left searching for a new head coach, an unusual amount of instability for a Big Ten powerhouse that had endured just one coaching change in the 23 years prior to Bret Bielema’s departure.
In stepped Paul Chryst, who chose to leave Pittsburgh to return to the school where he played quarterback during his collegiate career and served as offensive coordinator from 2005 to 2011.
Along with him came an almost entirely new coaching staff, including a handful of assistant coaches who followed Chryst to Madison from Pittsburgh. Offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph, defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield, special teams coordinator Chris Haering, running backs coach John Settle, tight ends coach Mickey Turner and head strength and conditioning coach Ross Kolodziej all opted to join Chryst at Wisconsin.
In fact, Rudolph, Settle, Turner and Kolodziej all either played or coached for the Badgers in the past, so the move back to Madison served as an opportunity to bring their career paths full circle.
“It’s a unique opportunity when you get to work with someone that you trust and care about. Coach Chryst and I have that relationship,” said Rudolph, who was a team captain during his playing career at UW in the early ‘90s and served as the Badgers’ tight ends coach from 2008 to 2011. “It’s always difficult when you have change, and I don’t think any decisions are easy ones. But being here is awesome and I love it.”
Even Breckterfield, who doesn’t have any ties to Wisconsin, noted he had little hesitation before jumping at the chance to join Chryst in Madison.
“It took me all of probably half a second to say yes,” Breckterfield said of his decision to follow Chryst. “I appreciated him giving me a chance to come out to Pittsburgh. He’s a great guy to work for — loves his players, loves the families of the coaches, loves the coaches, and he’ll do anything he can to help out.”
However, there are a few new faces among the UW coaching staff that didn’t serve under Chryst during his tenure with the Panthers, including wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore, defensive backs coach Daronte’ Jones and outside linebackers coach Tim Tibesar.
Gilmore has worked as an assistant coach at seven different schools throughout his career, including Nebraska and USC, and spent the last three seasons as the wide receivers coach of the Oakland Raiders.
Jones and Tibesar actually have prior experience working together, as they were both members of Marc Trestman’s coaching staff with the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes in 2011.
Tibesar coached under Trestman for one season during the latter’s tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bears as well, and also served as Purdue’s defensive coordinator in 2012. Meanwhile, Jones spent the last three years as Hawaii’s defensive backs coach.
Though there was a large amount of turnover on the Wisconsin coaching staff from last season, there will be one familiar face patrolling the sidelines for the Badgers in 2015: defensive coordinator Dave Aranda.
Aranda, the lone holdover from the Andersen era, drew plenty of interest from across the country after Andersen announced he’d be leaving for Oregon State, but he elected to stay with Wisconsin to coach under Chryst.
Though their experience working with him has been brief, Aranda has quickly impressed the rest of the new coaching staff.
“It’s been a great working environment with [Aranda],” Breckterfield said. “He does a great job leading the group and the kids love to play for him.”
Aranda’s presence provides valuable continuity for a program that has seen an unprecedented amount of coaching turmoil over the last few years. Though this kind of constant turnover can be frustrating for players and fans alike, the overarching sentiment from the coaches is that Chryst has assembled a staff that has clicked well this spring.
And perhaps they’ll be the group that finally provides the stability that the program needs.
“I think it’s a great group,” Rudolph said. “Guys that are truly in it for the players and work their tails off to help them to get better. When you have that environment, it’s a lot of fun to be around.”
