Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - January 3, 2013

Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.

Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/101925

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 17 of 55

BEHIND THE DESK B A R RY A LVA R EZ • UW DIREC TOR OF AT H L ET IC S No regrets in returning to the sideline I 'm glad that I did it. I told the players that it was one of the best months of my life. It really rejuvenated me. It made some wheels turn that haven't been turned in a while. I got into it. I felt that we had the kids ready. They bought into everything we were doing. They played hard. I was very satisfied with the effort they gave us. We had the ball around midfield with two minutes left and we had a chance to win the game against a very good football team. We just couldn't pull it off. I thought it was a microcosm of the season. You fall behind. You don't quit. You don't feel sorry for yourself. You battle until the end. And that's what they did. They gave themselves that chance to win. It didn't take me long to get up to speed on the sidelines. It was pretty natural. As I said going into this, I had to lean on the coordinators and assistant coaches, and they were very professional. The only thing I questioned was my decision on fourth-and-1 at the end of third quarter. It was a field position game. I've always called it an old coal miner's game. You have two teams standing toe-to-toe and slugging it out on defense. Nobody is moving the ball very much and everything is played between the tackles. It's a conservative, hard-nosed, physical brand of football. It's about solid fundamentals and toughness. And it goes back to how 18 » VARSITY JANUA RY 3, 2013 I first learned to play the game in Pennsylvania. When you change possession, you want to gain yardage. But not every possession is going to be a scoring possession, and you're always working towards shortening the field. We had the field position against Stanford and I felt that if we kept kicking from around midfield and kept backing them up, it was just a matter of time before we'd have a short field to work on. I just didn't feel like it was the time to go for it on fourth down. We couldn't pick up a yard for a touchdown in the first half and I didn't feel confident enough that we would get it, so we punted. I didn't want to give up the field position. Somewhere along the line, we could have used a big play. But they had a good defense and we couldn't handle their front at times. But I'm still proud and pleased that our players and coaches hung together. We gave it a good shot. The kids were very emotional afterward. I was emotional. Everybody was spent. They put a lot into the game. They put a lot into the preparation. We just came up short. That's a good group of kids. I told them that they have a chance to do something only one team in the Big Ten has ever done, and that's go back to the Rose Bowl for a fourth consecutive year. We have a good nucleus returning. Gary (Andersen) will have to fill a couple of spots. He could use another receiver to complement Abby (Jared Abbrederis) and a corner or a safety. But we'll have a chance to be a very good team again. Along with some of his staff, Gary had a chance to watch practice and evaluate the players, which will give them an idea on what they have to recruit, the strength and weaknesses of the team. Gary Andersen is all business. He's going to do an excellent job for us. He'll be fired up and it should energize everybody this off-season. I know that he will hit the ground running.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics - Varsity - January 3, 2013