The Front Row

The impending hire of Gary Andersen, formerly of Utah State, by the Wisconsin Badgers is just another indication that Ohio State is playing chess while everyone else in the B1G is playing checkers.

Anderson isn’t a bad coach – though I am sure many Badger fans that are also Minnesota Vikings fans will never forgive him for the missed field goal attempt that would have launched the Vikings into the Super Bowl 15 years ago. (I jest, folks.)

Seriously now, Andersen is about as ready for the big time as Ryan Leaf was for the NFL. But in Andersen, it seems that Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez has the yes man he wanted. Why else would Alvarez go after a coach with virtually no pedigree, a 30-31 career record and only 2 winning seasons in 5 years as a head coach? (Andersen was under Urban Meyer for a year at Utah, though.)

When Ohio State has a coach leave suddenly and without warning, they go out and get a rock star coach named Urban Meyer who brought a 104-23 career record and 2 national championship rings with him. When Wisconsin has the same happen to them, they bring in a man with a 26-24 record at his current position – but he does sport a fancy 2012 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl ring. Now that’s bling!

B1G coaches records when hired at in their current positions (record in current B1G positions)

Ohio State, Meyer: 104-24 (12-0)
_ichigan, Brady Hoke: 47-50 (19-6)
Penn State, Bill O’Brien: 0-0 (8-4)
Minnesota, Jerry Kill: 127-73 (9-15)
Northwestern, Pat Fitzgerald: 0-0 (47-39)
Iowa, Kirk Ferentz: 12-21 (100-74)
Indiana, Kevin Wilson: 0-0 (5-19)
Purdue, Darrell Hazell: 16-9 (0-0)
Nebraska, Bo Pelini: 0-0 (49-19)
Wisconsin, Anderson: 30-31(0-0)
Michigan State, Mark Dantonio: 11-11 (50-28)

Let me rephrase my previous statement. This isn’t chess versus checkers. This is more like doing the NY Time Sunday crossword in permanent marker versus a 1st grade-level word find.