Wisconsin, Barry Alvarez expected to move quickly in naming new head coach

I mentioned this earlier, but found this article on it, which kind of confirms what I thought - Wisconsin wants to move pretty quickly on its coaching hire after losing Gary Andersen to Oregon State.

Barry Alvarez confirmed briefly that they want a coach in place by the team's bowl game. That game, by the way, is January 1st against Auburn in the Outback Bowl.

Given that timetable, there does appear to be some time. But don't forget to factor in practices, media sessions, etc. The preparation for the game is going to get underway quickly and having a coach be a part of as much of that preparation as humanly possible would be a big deal.

That's a factor for Pitt and Paul Chryst, obviously, if he becomes a candidate. Alvarez was respectful for Pitt during the last hiring process, and you have to think if he's coming for Chryst, that he'll want to do it quickly to allow the Panthers to prepare for their own bowl game. Again, there's time here since the games are later in the bowl season, but factoring in the preparations, there's less than you think.

I don't see this dragging on very long and that's particularly true if Wisconsin is pursuing a coach like Chryst, who is the head coach of a team with a bowl game coming up.

The alternative, however, would be to wait a while and, as I mentioned in one of the other threads, have Alvarez coach the game himself while making a hire later. He did that very thing a few years ago when Wisconsin hired Gary Andersen when the program was still trying to steady itself.

Still, that's not ideal since Chryst and the other candidates will have to continually dodge questions from the media while their athletic departments try to handle an uncomfortable situation. Plus, the better situation is to have the new guy in there getting his feet wet with his new players.

As most of us expected, Wisconsin will likely be moving quickly here.

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