The University of Wisconsin fired head coach Paul Chryst on Sunday after a blowout loss to Illinois
On Sunday, University of Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh announced that Chryst had been relived of his duties as the head football coach effective immediately. “It’s a big decision and it’s got implications that are not lost on me, but really, really thankful to have been able to work side by side with Coach Chryst through some incredibly exhilarating, positive moments, and some tough ones like today, but I’m incredibly optimistic that today is the first day of the future of this program.” McIntosh said.
Chryst had been the head coach at Wisconsin for seven plus years and compiled a record of 67-26 and led Wisconsin to three appearances in the Big Ten Championship game as the winner of the Big Ten West. Wisconsin is the second Big Ten school to fire their head coach this season as Nebraska fired Scott Frost on September 11.
He was hired in 2015 as the Wisconsin coach after after Gary Anderson left to become the coach at Oregon State. Chryst is an alum of Wisconsin and played football for the Badgers for two years and then worked as an assistant at the university for four years before leaving to become the head football coach at Pitt.
In his first five years as the coach at Wisconsin, he won 10 plus games in four of those years, and lead the Badgers to a Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl appearances. However in the last two seasons they did not meet expectations, they had a 4-3 record in 2020 and started 1-3 last season before winning eight of nine games to get their record to 9-4. The record vs ranked teams since 2019 was abysmal going 4-10 in those games.
This year, the team is 2-3 with its last two losses by more than 30 points. Before losing to Illinois on Saturday by a score of 34-10, the Badgers got trounced by Ohio State losing that game 52-21. Wisconsin has been known for his physical style of play on both sides of the ball but that has not been seen at all this season especially in its losses.
On Saturday, the Badgers only had 2 rushing yards total and gave up 137 yards rushing to Illinois. The loss to Illinois on Saturday particularly stung for two reasons: Illinois had not won at Camp Randall since 2002 and former Badgers coach Bret Bielema who left Wisconsin for the head coaching job at Arkansas in 2012 is the current head coach at Illinois and did not leave Wisconsin on good terms.
The Badgers named current defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard as the interim head coach and his first game as interim head coach will be against Northwestern at Ryan Field on Saturday.
Here are some of the possible candidates for the Wisconsin job:
Jim Leonhard (defensive coordinator for Wisconsin and interim head coach): Leonhard was a defensive back that played for the Badgers from 2002-2004 and was an three-time All-American at the school. After playing at Wisconsin, he spent 10 years in the NFL and returned back to Wisconsin as an assistant coach in 2016. Leonhard has been the defensive coordinator for the Badgers since 2017.
Dave Aranda
Dave Aranda (Head Football Coach at Baylor University): Aranda was the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin from 2013-2015. During his time as the defensive coordinator at Wisconsin, the Badgers ranked first in total defense, second in scoring defense, third in pass defense and fourth in rush defense. Last year, he guided Baylor to a Big 12 championship and he may want to coach in the Big Ten as opposed to the unstable Big 12 conference
Lance Leipold
Lance Leipold (Head Football Coach at Kansas University): Leipold has turned once dormant program who in the last two years had won only 2 games and now has the team 5-0 and ranked in the top 25.
Previously, he coached at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and was born and raised in Wisconsin. Leipold is probably on the wish list of other athletic directors who have a vacancy for a head football coach. The competition for his services will be heated this off-season.
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell (Head Football Coach at Iowa State University): Another Big 12 Coach on this list and he has the most wins out of all of these coaches but has never won the Big 12 and has struggled vs Iowa (1-6 in his career).
But he has made Iowa State into a place where they have developed lightly recruited players into All-Conference or even professional players similar to what has been done at Wisconsin over the last 20 years. Also, he has recruited in the same recruiting footprint that Wisconsin does so he would be familiar where to look for talent that he could mold to his system.
Matt Rhule
Matt Rhule (Head Coach of the Carolina Panthers): Here is my wildcard pick. Rhule started this season on the hots seat in Carolina and right now his team is 1-3. When the Panthers hired him, he was fresh off of 11-1 season at Baylor and did a tremendous job taking over after the Art Briles era at Baylor. His record as a coach in the NFL has not been good so maybe a return to college could be his next move.
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