Who Makes Wisconsin’s Mt. Rushmore of football head coaches?

For my latest installment of Wisconsin Football Mt. Rushmore, I decided to go right to the top: coaches.

Yes, I may be a bit biased in this *wink, wink* but I also know so much that I’m ideally situated to make these tough choices.

I’ll say this again: I have a strong modern bias. If your Badger Football thing is leather helmets and playing U of Chicago, brace yourself.

Let’s get to it.

Barry Alvarez

Let’s just get the GOAT out of the way now.

The Godfather took over a moribund squad that had sputtered to six total wins in the previous three seasons and turned it into a Rose Bowl champion just four years later. He injected swagger, discipline, and grit into the DNA of a program and made it cool to be a Badger again.

Three Rose Bowl titles, two Big Ten Coach of the Year awards, countless All-Conference and NFL players, Jake Ferguson’s grandpa, College Football HOFer. There are simply too many accolades to list.

Went 119-73-4 (118-63-4 after year one) with a sterling 9-4 bowl record. And did all of it looking like the coolest guy in the room.

Ivy B. Williamson

Besides looking like a college football coach more than any college football coach in the history of college football coaches, Ivy was a total badass, going 41-19-4 over seven seasons in the late 40s and early 50s.

In 1952, he rode Alan “The Horse” Ameche to the Badgers’ first Big Ten title since the WWI era and finished near the top of the Big Ten his last six seasons, losing a one score game to USC in his lone Rose Bowl.

Became AD after retiring as coach. Just an absolute Badger legend.

Bret Bielema

Here’s where the list gets tricky, since it involves flawed but proven Badger winners who had rough departures.

Bielema, as many recall, skipped out of Madison under cover of darkness for Arkansas one night just three weeks before a Rose Bowl, leaving a stunned team, fan base, and AD. But we can’t ignore how successful Bert was at Wisconsin, and I don’t just mean closing down Madison bars.

Although his bowl record was subpar, he won three Big Ten titles, his 68-24 record ranks #2 all time in Badger winning percentage, and he pumped out NFL talent on the regular.

Yes, some would say he was born on 3rd base by inheriting a 10 win program that was already playing at a high level, but Bielema was a good coach for Wisconsin. That’s not debatable.

Paul Chryst

Like Bert, Chryst’s Badger coaching career ended with a thud, albeit a much different one.

After compiling a really solid 67-26 record with Wisconsin, HCPC was let go after starting 2-3 in 2022 (and getting hammered at home by Bielema’s Illini).

It was a sad exit for a man who had won 10+ games in four of his seven full seasons in Madison, including a robust 2-1 in New Year’s Six games. Chryst also had a 6-1 bowl record and produced a lot of NFL talent on defense and along the offensive line, but the post-COVID Badger program, from recruiting on down, just wasn’t the same.

That said, the reality is that Chryst presided over a clean and objectively successful program for most of his tenure, and deserves a spot on this esteemed mountain.

Just Missed: Milt Bruhn, Phil King.

Honorable Mention: Dave McClain, Gary Andersen (grudgingly).