Kirk Ferentz: Where Does He Rank Among Big Ten Coaches?
By Jeremy Karll
No. 4 – Paul Chryst, Wisconsin Badgers (15-5)
Out of Paul Chryst‘s five losses as Wisconsin’s head coach, four have come against ranked teams and the other was against Iowa before the Hawkeyes were ranked. Plus, Chryst has beaten two ranked teams. A 2-5 record against ranked teams isn’t ideal, but neither is the dreadful schedule Wisconsin threw at their new head coach.
After a coaching carousel for a couple of years, the Badgers finally found their man, unless he decides to leave too. He led the Badgers to 10 wins during his first season and has a legitimate chance to top that mark in 2016. While winning is impressive, the fashion Wisconsin has done so in is even more impressive.
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Wisconsin owns arguably the best defense in the nation and almost upset Michigan and Ohio State in back-to-back weeks. Sure, Wisconsin’s offense has struggled under Chryst, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that Wisconsin owned the top scoring defense in 2015 and fifth best scoring defense in 2016.
Chryst has had one of the hardest first two seasons of any new coach in recent memory, and he hasn’t fared terribly. In fact, Wisconsin still has an outside chance of making the College Football Playoff and winning the Big Ten West. A lot would have to go right, but it’s fitting considering how close they have come to being undefeated this year.
Despite the constant success every year, Wisconsin still doesn’t recruit extraordinarily well and are often forgotten in the Big Ten. It makes what Chryst has built over the past two years even more impressive since he doesn’t constantly have a stream of five-star recruits coming to Madison.
Chryst might actually be a lot better than fourth in the Big Ten, but he doesn’t have the track record to back it up yet. It’s hard to argue with the results and he’s very close to bringing Wisconsin back to the level Bret Bielema had them at when he brought Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowls.