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December 21, 2012
By Troy Derengowski of Richmond High School

Barry Alvarez

Gary Andersen

THE MODERATOR:  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Wisconsin Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez and today's guest of honor.
Start with some opening comments from Coach Alvarez.
BARRY ALVAREZ:  Thanks, Brian.
Appreciate all of you coming out tonight under this bad weather, et cetera.  This is an exciting day for the Badger football program.  I'm pleased to announce Gary Andersen as our head football coach.  First would like to welcome his family, his wife Stacey, who's here, sons Keegan and Hagen, and his son Chasen.  Chasen is also here.  Welcome.  Welcome to our family.
I want to thank the Board of Regents and the athletic board, who assisted in this process.  I said all along that we would take our time so that we could find the right fit.  I feel very confident that we did our due diligence and we have the right fit.
They're very similar.  He believes in first supporting the kids, supporting the players, both on the field academically, and socially.  The first questions he asked me were about academic support for the athletes.  In visiting with him and also doing my research?? I had Joe Panos, former captain, contact some of the players in the NFL who played for Coach Andersen and get their feedback into the guy, and it was very consistent from what I had heard.
He has a passion for the game of football, and that explains to people, he's a ball coach.  Dedicated to helping his student?athletes, as I mentioned before, and he's done a tremendous job in turning around the Utah State football program.  He turned it around in a hurry.
COACH ANDERSEN:  First of all, I'd just like to say thank you to Coach Alvarez.  It's been an unbelievable three days.  You get to learn a lot at a very fast pace?? the support, the belief, the care factor from everybody at the University of Wisconsin that I've come across is unbelievable.  Thank you, Coach, for giving me this opportunity.
When I had the opportunity to start looking into this job, it didn't take me long.  When Coach offered me the job, I just said yes.  I think it shocked him a little bit.  I didn't ask any questions, just held my hand in the air and was ready to go.
A couple more thank yous before.  It's a transition for a family at any time.  I'd like to thank my wife Stacey and my three boys for hanging in there with this situation and being so supportive.  It's been a big part of it.  I have one son that's on the team at Utah State, and it's a position for him, a little bit to go through with dad as a head coach and all of a sudden, he up and leaves.  It's a controversy whenever you leave a program without question.
And then the young men that I've had an opportunity to talk with here on the football team is exactly what I thought, is exactly why I took this job because they're tough minded kids.  They care about growing academically.  They care about growing socially.  Football is important to them, and they play with a toughness and a chip on their shoulder.
As I told Coach Alvarez during the interview process, I'm a big believer as you watch a team?? and I had the opportunity to watch Wisconsin all summer, 12 games, evaluations of trying to find a way to be able to stay on the field with Wisconsin.  You can see how a team plays, their commitment, their toughness.  They like the game of football, and it's very easy to see on the game film that they love the game of football.
The last thing they need from me is to hang around them.  Coach Alvarez, the staff, and the young men will go put themselves in a position to go win the Rose Bowl.  I'm going to be a fly on the wall and evaluate and watch the practices as best I can.  I just want to be there for the young men and start to get a relationship with them.
And number two is to reach out and secure our commits.  That's so important for us to be able to?? there's been a lot of hard work, a lot of hours, countless hours put into having these young men commit to the University of Wisconsin and to play football here.  It's my job now to reach out to those young men, to those families, and let them understand the direction that we're headed and that they're in great hands.  So that's obviously a high priority.
And number three is to reach out and start recruiting.  When I say that I want to recruit the state, the easiest way for me to tell you, show you that I want to recruit the state is I went to Utah State four years ago, there was 18 young men from the state of Utah on that team.  There's now 55.  There's 50?plus young men from the state of Wisconsin that are on the roster at this point.  I believe the number is 53 is what I've been told.
We will secure our own state.  We'll wrap our arms around the coaches.  We'll wrap our arms around every player, and we'll have a strong walk?on program because there's terrific coaches, there's terrific players in the state of Wisconsin.  And that's another reason why I sat back and looked at this job.
That's how I grew up in coaching, coaches like Coach Alvarez, Coach McBride, who coached here is you reach out to young men that care about football, and when you're recruiting them, they look you in the eye and say, Coach, I love football.  If they can say that, they've got a chance to be something special.  And there's also something special about playing in your own state.  You can't underestimate that.  We'll do a tremendous job in reaching out to those young men.
Wisconsin, the football program's recruiting, in my opinion, is obviously very well respected throughout the country, and as a staff and as a football program, we should be able to get into any recruiting fight that we want to get ourselves into.  There's nowhere you can go in the country when you're a football player that you can't understand the logo of the University of Wisconsin.  That's very important for everybody to understand.
Other than that, I'm extremely grateful.  I'm humbled.  I can't wait to get started.  Again, my intent with the kids is to watch them go win a Rose Bowl and do everything I can to put them first.  That's my goal.
Social world that we all live in, it's important to me that young men very simply, he walks in here as a young man, and he turns himself into a man.  That matters to me.  And you'll hear me refer to the kids as kids a lot.  Sometimes I take some grief for that for calling football players kids, but they are my kids.  Every single one of them are my kids.  I look at them the same as I look at Chasen and Hagen and Keegan.
The football side of it, obviously, that's why we're here.  Unbelievable tradition, the belief, the want to, the care factor of the university, of Coach Alvarez, all his staff, and the young men in the program to not be good, but to be great is there, and that's fun to be part of.  I can just tell you that, and I wrap my arms around that.
I'm excited to be a part of this.  We'll get the staff moving forward here quickly.  Hopefully, we can deflect this back to the young men and let them go win a Rose Bowl.  Very grateful, humble to be here, and happy to answer any questions that you have.

So we will be a power run team.  We will use tight ends and use multiple sets and multiple formations, absolutely.  I believe we'll be a football team that will be run first, and our goal and our mindset and our want to will be to wear you downs as the game goes on and to out tough you and out physical you.  Easy to things to sit up on the podium and say, but that will be the mindset, and that's the way it's always been whenever I've had an opportunity to coach a football team.
I do want to have a touch of option within the game, the game plan every week to force defenses to deal with it.  But we're going to line up and let those big kids work.  That's what they like to do, and we should be able to recruit and get in any recruiting battle in the country with a quality running back.
The one thing I would like to say on top of that?? might be a little bit of a recruiting pitch or whatever you want to say?? but I've been around three NFL backs the last two years at Utah State, and that's because we run the football, and I expect to be able to do the exact same thing here with tremendous athletes on the offensive line?? tight ends, fullbacks, and wide receivers that will block you.  Physical, tough?minded kids that will block you downfield, and I've seen that in the game we played against Wisconsin.

Q.  You alluded to it earlier, contacting all of your players at Utah State.  Can you elaborate on that?  How many phone calls are we talking about?  How long did that take you?  And most importantly, why that was an emphasis for you in the transition?
COACH ANDERSEN:  Well, there's been a lot said about?? it was a three?week process that I was leaving, I was going here.  I did interview for a couple other jobs weeks ago now.  The bowl game was less than a week ago, and that seems like it was about four years ago now.
And just because I leave, I never say good?bye, and they know that.  I won't say good?bye.  I'm here if they need me, and they'll continue to reach out to me, and they have since I've accepted the job.


I'm not a prediction guy.  I'm not going to reach out there and say we're going to do this or we're going to do that.  I just let the results speak for themselves when we get out on the field.  I think this football program?? I don't think.  I know this football program has everything it needs to compete at the highest level.  In everybody's mind, I'm sure the National Championship is at the highest level.  Again, that's all talk.
The table's been set for these young men to have everything they need, academically, socially, and athletically, to succeed at a high level.  How high that level is, only time will tell.

But sitting down with them?? so I met with the corps of those young men.  I met with the corps of offensive linemen, and I want to continue to reach out and talk to those kids.  I have five or six different meetings set up today with different young men.
I have a team meeting with them today.  Coach Alvarez gave me an opportunity to meet with them for a few minutes today, and I'll tell them exactly the same thing that I said here.  So just want to be there for them.

COACH ANDERSEN:  Well, I just think?? well, Coach Alvarez, for one.  If there's one thing that jumps out to me, it's where it came from.  If you were asked and take every head coach and every position coach in America and every level of college football and ask them to draw up the top 20 best college football programs in the country, I guarantee Wisconsin is on 99.9 percent of those ballots that you gather.  That makes it a special place from a football standpoint.
Again, it is the people in the buildings.  At the end of the day, it's not the buildings.  It's the people in the buildings that I believe makes this place special.  I believe that when I walk in here, and I have a tremendous, much better understanding of why I believe this place is special.

Q.  Gary, obviously, Coach Alvarez brought in a coach who he thought would?? could perpetuate the program that's been built here.  But ultimately, what do you think your stamp will be?  Will you be able to take this program to different places than it's been?

I mean, we loaded up four buses and rolled down the road four hours to go play in a bowl game.  That's a special experience.  But it's just this?? there's a lot of things I'm excited to learn, a lot of things I don't know, but there's a lot of things I'm excited to wrap my arms around and figure out, I promise you that much.

The key is to find the right guy that can run this offense and build it the way that we want it to be built and carry over and use the best kids?? use the kids the best way as far as their abilities.  So that will be a little bit of a work in progress as we move forward.

COACH ANDERSEN:  I think it's always going to be difficult.  The schedule you play in the Big Ten is difficult.  It's a little bit different.  You have to have that mindset at different places to be able to say, hey, we're going to walk in here as an extreme underdog, and that was kind of our chip on our shoulder that we had.  You don't need that chip on your shoulder here.  You expect to walk into any environment and play at a high level, and our kids will be excited about doing that, and they are excited about doing that.
So nonconference games, I think to reach out to another conference?? next year it's Arizona State.  That's a great game.  That's going to be fun to go there.  I've been there.  It's a tremendous setting.  Our kids will be excited to go play there.
How the rest of the schedule falls has been set by Coach Alvarez for years.  He has his arms wrapped around that.  He understands.  I'll be included in that, but we're also going to make decisions that are best for the school as we move forward.  I think you'll see the same plan that you've seen here for a number of years ?? as far as seven home games is important.  It gets sometimes hard to get seven home games the right way when you're a good team.  Not a lot of people are jumping up and down to say, hey, we can't wait to come and watch you play.

COACH ANDERSEN:  Securing what?

Q.  Commits, commitments.  When does that process start for you if it hasn't already?

Q.  Gary, can you give us a little bit of insight?? back here in the back row.
COACH ANDERSEN:  Okay, I got you.  There you are.

COACH ANDERSEN:  Coach Alvarez didn't have to make any pitch to this guy, I'll tell you that.  The pitch was made here when I spent three hours out on that field a long time ago.  But was I?? I wouldn't say I was shocked.  I guess, if I felt like I was shocked, I wouldn't have felt I was ready to take this job.  So shocked is not the right word.
Sidelines, you know, I don't?? if I'm on the sidelines, I'm not going to be in the sidelines sidelines.  I'll be a fan on the side watching the kids.  The whole key for me is I want to get to Pasadena.  This is not anything to do ?? in any way, shape, or form does this Rose Bowl have anything to do with me other than I and my coaches need to evaluate the young men in the program so that we can get a head start on building for the next year.

What was the other question, Tom?

Q.  The factors to choose Gary.
Having watched his teams play, studied his background, having turned around a program, what his?? the important things for him in how he coaches, how he manages a team, how he manages his staff, all those things came out.  The longer we talked, the more I could see that.

COACH ANDERSEN:  You're right, the experience here is tremendous.  Before I go into the identity of Big Ten and my experience here?? I haven't said this yet, but when we walked off that field and we left the stadium?? we lost the football game, which is obviously a tough loss when you're at Utah State at that time.
As far as my experience, my identity, what you think of the Big Ten, physical, tough, very good football players, the highest level of Division I football that there is, well?coached?? those are some things that come to my head there.  I don't have a bunch of experience in playing in those venues, but I'm excited about it.  I'm excited about the opportunity to recruit at this level.

Q.  Gary, you've talked about how eager you are to come here and jump?? and taking the opportunity to coach here.  There has to be some culture shock.  You were born and raised in Utah.  You're leaving, taking some pretty deep roots out of the ground.  Could you speak to the challenges of moving from there to here and some of the adjustments you and your family have to take.
COACH ANDERSEN:  When we left Logan, we shoveled 7 inches of snow.  When we got here 24 hours later, there was 20 inches of snow.  Snow is snow.  Cold is cold.  That stuff doesn't matter.  What a beautiful day it is here and sunshine.  No issues there in any way, shape, or form.
To pick up?? there's just so many similarities.  The people that I've been able to meet and reach out to?? really it's been people in the athletic department and people in the hotel, that's about all I've been around.  But I don't think the transition is going to be difficult at all.  It's not like I'm coming from Mars and moving to Madison.  I've been surrounded with quality people, and I know again I'm going to be surrounded by quality people here.

Q.  A lot has been made about how well you rebuilt Utah State basically, and that's safe to say that won't be the case here.  Coach Bielema said next year's roster could be the most talented he's had.  First of all, does your mindset change when you come into a program that you're not rebuilding.  And how exciting is it that you're inheriting quite the team?
COACH ANDERSEN:  It's very different.  It's often said in coaching, when you get a job, you're either getting a team that wasn't very good or a team that's really good.  That's the facts.
It's a little different dynamic, but the hardest thing to break down and build in my opinion is the belief to win.  There's something to be said about that.  It's not in a bottle.  It's not magic dust that you sprinkle on top of their heads.  It's an expectation that they work all year long to do, and these young men expect to win.
I know the young men that are here, and we're excited to continue a winning tradition.  It's a little different than when we took over the last one for sure.

COACH ANDERSEN:  Absolutely.  For me, coaching?wise, it all started with Coach McBride.  He was my position coach.  As I grew into coaching, he gave me my first Division I job.  Coach McBride spent some years here.  He cried, by the way, when I told him I had this job.  He couldn't believe it, how fortunate I was.
He's an unbelievable mentor for me and will continue to be.  He spent a ton of time at practices and camps.  He taught me a lot what Coach Alvarez is all about?? the toughness of the game, the care factor for the kids.  If there's one thing I learned from Mac, and I probably say it too much?? I only say it because I mean it?? you have to put the kids first.  That's number one with Coach McBride.  And then his toughness.
Past that, Kyle Whittingham and I spent a lot of time together.  We started way back when at Idaho State.  He was a first time coordinator, and I was an offensive line coach because I was an offensive lineman when I played, so I coached offensive line for my first years.  Coached defensive line with Kyle at Idaho State at the beginning, and that went all the way through the Utah years.
From him being a coordinator to me turning around and being a head coach and coming back and being a D?line coach and him being a head coach and me being a coordinator with him.  We share so many lessons, some good days, some bad days, some mistakes that we've made.  He's definitely a mentor of mine, and he always will be.
I learned a ton from Urban Meyer in a year.  It's easy?? my experience with Urban was a little bit different because we never lost.  So Urban Meyer was always a great guy to meet because, oh, we won again.  That's all good.  We had a tremendous relationship, and I have a lot of respect for him as I've watched him go through it.
And another guy is LaVell Edwards.  When I took the job at Utah State, I'll never forget LaVell Edwards spent time.  Obviously, he was at BYU for a number of years, but I had Coach Edwards come and talk to the team.  He grabbed them the first day of spring practice, and I had them out there at the stadium.  He looked at the kids, and he told them one thing.  He said, you have to win at home first.

COACH ANDERSEN:  Well, Coach Alvarez has given us everything we could possibly need.  If you talk about facilities, some of them are still being built, and it's a constant move, but there's a facilities race that goes on out there with kids.  Facilities are very important, the way they present themselves to recruits, but most importantly, the functionality of the building and the way it's built, the new facilities is unbelievable.
It's functional.  The kids are in one place, their academic world.  They can eat.  They can get treatment.  They can move to the weight room.  They can move to the coaches' offices, and that's important to me because that does build a family environment.  The kids are in your building.  If we need to know something about a kid academically, boom, we can find out something real quick.  We can get to the training room quickly.
The second thing is the people that are in place that understand?? in a very short period of time, we're talking 2 1/2 days?? but people that know their role and understand what their job title is.  The importance of moving along, whether it's in the football offices or in the academic offices, the training room, and the biggest thing is people have a smile on their face.
Another thing you can really tell by the special places and I ask people?? I always like to ask people, how long have you been at a place?  Everywhere I go, I've been here 13 years.  I've been here 19 years.  I've been here 20 years.  I've been here 10 years.  It's not like that everywhere.
THE MODERATOR:  We've got time for probably two more.

COACH ANDERSEN:  No.  No, absolutely not.  There's some tremendous young men there, and my belief is they're where they need to be.  There was one, I have personally a tight end that plays there that I would love to see come and walk on, but he's told me that that's where he wants to be.  When we went to the press conference yesterday, he feels great about being there.  And he's going to be a junior.
Other than that, I don't?? I do not.  I don't think we need to go down that road.  So I don't anticipate that.

They're coached very well, and that's what you look for.  As a defensive coach, I look for?? I don't care what the front is.  I don't care the structure, as long as it's sound, and it was very sound and very physical.

COACH ANDERSEN:  We'll major in the traditional areas that Wisconsin has recruited in the past without question.  But you also?? some people deem themselves?? and the word out there that people always?? we nationally recruit.  I don't quite know what that means, but I know that we have the ability to reach out to any young man in the country and again let them understand who we are as a program, and they'll be interested.
THE MODERATOR:  Want to thank everyone again for coming out and again remind everybody that football practice starts at 12:45.  That will be open to the media, and then there will be players available after practice if you'd like to speak with them.  Thanks again.

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