Re: 2013 DI BCS Thread: Thorthu Thame ish bacth!
There's nothing "false" about it. People don't like the guy due to his off the field d-baggery and his bowl game failures as well as a few pretty memorable late game, game management failures.
I saw him more than once (twice, actually) in bars making a meathead fool of himself. Once when he was d-coordinator on a Thursday night till bar time and then we went to Northwestern two days later and they put up 50+ on us. The other was in Dotty's when he was head coach where he was holding court in a booth, hammered and saying things like, "You know how much I make? and "You know who I am?"
Those are the ones I witnessed and I've heard other stories from friends and people (friends) within the department. This was "normal" behavior for him.
As far as losing a bunch of starters, you think we haven't had that before in the past 20 years? It's normal college football except for the handful of elite programs. Having to replace that many players doesn't concern me as a sufficient number of good players want to play here and always will. The program is established and I wouldn't quite compare us to Iowa. I don't believe that Iowa is a peer - next step down the ladder - sorry.
And Andersen stepped into a good situation? So did Bret. It's not like Bielema had to rebuild and in addition, he had Paul Chryst as his OC for most of his time here - the guy that most of us attribute our success to and had the timing been better, would have liked as our head coach, both in 06 and before they got Andersen.
3 Big Ten titles did you say? There's an awfully big asterisk on that third one, don't you think? Big Ten titles are not unprecedented around here anyway. Losing back to back to back Rose Bowls is though. Sure, Barry was at the helm for the third one, but he took over a team that really didn't deserve to be there and put up a decent showing with them.
Finally, Bielema has yet to prove what he can do as a head coach when he isn't handed the reigns of an existing solid program. He'll show what he's made of if he can make Arkansas competitive in the SEC. Time will tell there. I wouldn't bet on it though.
If Andersen fails, which I don't think he will, but if he does, we'll go get ourselves another quality guy and no one will pine for the days of Mr. B. I've never heard anybody say they miss Alvarez - someone who actually accomplished things here - so who's gonna miss Meathead?
It's far more likely, imo, that Mr. B is looking for a job 3 years from now (or sooner) than it is that we're wishing we had him back.
Let's take a look at the last couple years of Wisconsin and Iowa Recruiting..I'm using rivals as my source.
2013: Wisconsin was ranked #57, Iowa was ranked #53.
2012: Wisconsin was ranked #56, Iowa was ranked #43.
2011: Wisconsin was ranked #40, Iowa was ranked #30.
2010: Wisconsin was ranked #87, Iowa was ranked #42.
2009: Wisconsin was ranked #43, Iowa was ranked #63.
Since the 2000 season...
Wisconsin: 116-56, 3 B1G titles, 3 BCS Bowls(0 wins), 5-7 Bowl record
Iowa: 99-64, 2 B1G titles, 2 BCS Bowls(1 win) 6-4 Bowl record
Until 2010, when Wisconsin beat Iowa on the fake punt, Iowa was probably on the "next level" rather than Wisconsin. The last three seasons have moved Wisconsin to that next level, and Iowa looking for answers on where its program is headed.
Established you say? Iowa's program has truly been established since 1981, when Fry went to his first Rose Bowl. Wisconsin was truly established in 1993. These two schools share a ton of similarities, as it's not easy to recruit skill position guys to these places, but they're known for fantastic line play and physical brands of football.
I'm not trying to tell any how they feel or think. This entire point, which has been blown up into far more conversation than I anticipated, was that Bielema was a winner, and at the end of the day, that's the thing the majority of college football fans care about.
: 
