July 13, 2018 at 11:54 a.m.
Mendota Gridiron Club gives Northwoods a taste of Badger football
Mendota Gridiron Club gives Northwoods a taste of Badger football
Those who purchased a ticket had an opportunity to meet, take pictures and get autographs from Chryst and Alvarez before the former briefly spoke and took questions.
The Mendota Gridiron Club raises money for the Wisconsin football program to use toward new facilities, equipment or anything else it may need.
"We don't do these to make any money," Alvarez said. "This is a friend-raiser, this an opportunity to have Paul talk about his football program and to say thank you to our fans. You don't raise any money at things like this."
Wisconsin has emerged as one of the top football programs in the country in recent years, compiling a 34-7 record in three years under the guidance of Chryst, including posting a 13-1 record last season, which was the highest win total in school history.
Winning changes the way things are done within an athletic department. The more a program wins, the more expensive it becomes to maintain that success through coaching salaries, equipment, travel and facility upgrades.
"I know what we have to do to compete at a high level," Alvarez said. "You have to be competitive in salaries, you have to be competitive in facilities. If you look around our league alone, you have so many schools that are building $200 million facilities. They're using the Big Ten Network and TV money to build new facilities so we need to keep up with that. If we don't keep up, we're going to fall behind and we certainly don't want to do that."
Chryst and his coordinators - Wisconsin is the only program in the FBS where the head coach, offensive and defensive coordinators are alums of the school they coach - all received an increase in pay during the offseason, which has been a knock on the school over the years.
Former coach Bret Bielema cited the lack of pay for assistants as one of the reasons he opted to leave for Arkansas following a third consecutive berth in the Rose Bowl in 2012.
"I think it's all part of it," Chryst said. "Certainly, when you're winning, people like it. Winning helps the level of applicants in the school and certainly the support around the program. I've always been fortunate in my time at Wisconsin that they've been competitive with all the things that matter to a program. Winning's good for the program."
Many pundits across the country favor the Badgers as one of the teams to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff, after being one of the final two teams on the outside looking in the past two seasons.
Wisconsin has come up short in the Big Ten Championship Game in each of the last two seasons and three of the last four.
"Certainly we've got a number of players that have come back and have been a part of it so you learn through your experiences," Chryst said. "I don't think it does anything to carry forward other than those experiences and you know the work that goes into it to give yourself to have a chance to have a season like that. That's what we're working toward right now."
Winning also helps on the recruiting trail and Wisconsin has always planted its flag with in-state talent, but as the program gets more exposure, it allows schools to recruit on a national level.
Last season the Badgers rode talented New Jersey running back Jonathan Taylor to a great deal of success and being able to recruit such players comes from a culmination of several good seasons.
"We'll always start with Wisconsin and the number of years Wisconsin's had success that's opened up doors for us," Chryst said. "I don't think necessarily one season impacts as much as a lot of seasons, which we've been fortunate enough to have."
The popularity of the Badgers within the state is sky-high, which is aided by being the only college in the state with a Division I football team.
That has also helped Wisconsin become one of the top destinations for walk-ons in the country.
Players such as J.J. Watt, Joe Schobert, Rick Wagner and Ryan Ramczyk have all gone from non-scholarship players to becoming NFL standouts.
"Players come and know they are going to get a chance and they know they are going to get rewarded," Chryst said. "This summer we put three more kids on scholarship so they know their hard work will pay off. It's a combination. There's not another Division I program (in the state), but I think more than that, they're gonna bet on themselves. If they do that they're going to be rewarded. They're going to able to play and be coached. A ton of them have earned scholarships."
Fall practice begins for the Badgers on Aug. 1.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @NickSabatoLT.
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