Varsity - The Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics

Varsity - January 17, 2013

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LUCAS AT LARGE M I K E LUCA S • UWB A DGERS.C OM Busch circles back to rejoin the Badgers T he last time Bill Busch was on the Wisconsin coaching staff … Brad Childress coached the quarterbacks and coordinated the offense while Dan McCarney coached the defensive line and coordinated the defense. On offense, Bill Callahan had the linemen, Jim Hueber had the running backs and Jay Norvell had the wide receivers and coordinated special teams. On defense, Kevin Cosgrove had the inside linebackers, John Palermo had the outside linebackers and Tom McMahon had the secondary. Bernie Wyatt was the recruiting coordinator and tight ends coach. The last time Bill Busch had an office in Camp Randall Stadium, he was a first-year graduate assistant on Barry Alvarez's coaching staff. The year was 1994. Busch was 29, single, and making $300 a month. At least grad school was paid for. "I made some money through summer camp but under five grand a year,'' he said. "That was part of the deal.'' The previous season, Busch had been a grad assistant under Tom Osborne at Nebraska. In his final game, Florida State beat the Huskers in the Orange Bowl to claim the national championship. At Wisconsin, Busch took over as a GA for Lance Leipold, who got a job at Nebraska-Omaha. (This would be the same Leipold who has since won four Division III national titles at UW-Whitewater.) Coaching can be such a small 12 » VARSITY JANUA RY 17, 2013 world. "It was a great feeling to land back in Madison,'' said Busch, 47, who has returned to the Badgers as a member of head coach Gary Andersen's staff. "Obviously some things are different.'' Busch spent just one season with Alvarez. In 1995, he was hired as a full-time assistant at Northern Arizona. In fact, he joined the staff one day after a Utah high school coach had been hired. That would have been Park City head coach Gary Andersen. "He picked me up at the airport,'' Busch recalled. "That's how we met.'' It didn't take them long to get on the same page, and build a lasting friendship. "We were always in the office super early and we were always talking football,'' said Busch. "Then I ended up living a couple of blocks from his house, so I was basically there every night. "I got really fortunate to meet a great guy at that time of my career.'' Their coaching paths have intersected four times: Northern Arizona, Utah, Utah State and now Wisconsin. At each of the last three stops, Andersen recruited Busch. Why have they meshed so well? "It's just the simple work ethic factor,'' said Busch, who will coach the UW secondary for Andersen. "He knows that I'm going to work my tail off, and he can lean on me.'' Andersen encourages assistants to ask hard questions and make suggestions when warranted. "I can walk in the room and say, 'Hey, this is what I'm thinking … respectively, what are your thoughts on that?''' said Busch, adding that Andersen has always been willing to listen to new ideas. Just do your research, and put some thought into it. "That's what he looks for,'' said Busch, a native of Pender, Neb. At various turns, Andersen has had a meaningful influence on Busch's professional career. But so did Busch's dad, Ron, who was a high school coach for 44 years. "I grew up in a school bus,'' he said. "All I did was go to his games.'' Alvarez, of course, also impacted Busch. "I was enamored with the pulse that Coach Alvarez had on the team when I was here,'' Busch said, "and how well he knew the players ― when to hug them up and when to kick them in the butt.'' Thanks to his previous experience on campus, Busch is the only new staffer who has a scouting report, however dated, on the football culture in the community and state. "There's no place greater just because of the people here,'' he said. It's not often that a graduate assistant gets an opportunity to return as a full-time assistant to the same football program where he took his first baby steps in the coaching profession decades ago. "People would kill to have this opportunity,'' Busch said. "And I'm not arrogant enough to think that I deserved this.'' No, but he earned it, which is even better yet. Just ask Andersen.

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