The Success Behind the Cloud of Dust

MADISON, Wis. — Barry Alvarez, so much like his no-frills football team, sneaks up on you.

There is no wizardry in evidence, the only offense offered is of a decidedly indelicate kind, and there are no high-profile matchups with any of the glamorous national-title wannabes.

There is only Alvarez, who unabashedly embodies, and maintains, the stark sturdiness of his Big Ten co-champion Wisconsin Badgers.

Nothing is supposed to catch your eye in Wisconsin, except the gathering of victories.

Up in his office, tucked high amid the Camp Randall Stadium complex, Alvarez wore red and grinned casually earlier this month as preparations for Wisconsin’s Rose Bowl appearance against UCLA began in earnest.

Let’s see, his visitor wondered, with Iowa’s Hayden Fry recently ending his 20-year coaching tenure, and with Alvarez coming to the end of his ninth season with the Badgers . . .

“That means I’m No. 2,” Alvarez said swiftly, acknowledging his new place on the Big Ten longevity list, behind Ohio State’s John Cooper.

No. 2, in a conference that once boasted forever coaches Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes. No. 2, and about to bring Wisconsin to its second Rose Bowl (and fifth bowl appearance) in six seasons.

Nine years for some coaches in some cities can seem like forever. For Barry Alvarez in Madison, nine years seems like a blink.

“I’ve been No. 3 for a while,” Alvarez said after his interviewer paused to let the information soak in. “I guess this is a pretty volatile profession.”

Not in Madison. Alvarez, who turns 52 on Wednesday, took over this sad-sack situation in 1990, dragged it to a Rose Bowl victory after the 1993 season, and is back again this year, becoming only the seventh Big Ten coach to earn two Rose Bowl berths in a six-year span.

Alvarez started at Wisconsin the same season Paul Hackett started--at Pittsburgh. And the same season Michigan hired Gary Moeller. And two years before Northwestern hired Gary Barnett.

And despite the brief brush fires and mini-flareups of controversy scattered through his years, Alvarez has continued fielding blue-collar football teams and punching out victories.

This year, without Ohio State on the schedule, the Ron Dayne-led Badgers once again played opportunist. Wisconsin is tied atop the Big Ten with Ohio State and Michigan, which trounced Wisconsin on Nov. 7 but lost to the Buckeyes two weeks later.

Because Michigan went to the Rose Bowl last season (and because Ohio State, which also only had one Big Ten loss, went two years ago), Wisconsin is back in Pasadena, with an 10-1 record.

The Badgers, whose nonconference schedule included woeful Nevada Las Vegas, did not beat a ranked opponent until it beat struggling Penn State on Nov. 21.

Not exactly eye-catching.

And here’s how he sneaks up on you: Alvarez is the only active Big Ten coach who has taken his team to multiple Rose Bowls.

Joe Paterno at Penn State has only made the Rose Bowl once since Penn State joined the Big Ten. In his fourth year at Michigan, Lloyd Carr has a national championship but only one Rose Bowl. Cooper has a national-title contender every season, but only one Ohio State Rose Bowl appearance in 11 years.

“Well, Cooper’s been to two--but that’s because he went [when he coached] with Arizona State,” Alvarez explained. “Lloyd’s been to one.”

Kevin Cosgrove, Alvarez’s defensive coordinator, makes the point directly.

“In the ‘90s, Ohio State’s been there one time--and we’ve been there twice,” Cosgrove said. “That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

Security in Wisconsin

Alvarez is hardly unappreciated in Wisconsin--he earns about $600,000 a season and is about to get another raise as the Badger brass moves to keep the NFL head hunters away from his office.

But this second run to the Rose Bowl seems to have pushed Alvarez over a threshold.

“You see his confidence,” Cosgrove said. “He’s always had confidence. It’s nice to have a leader who has confidence. You don’t want to follow somebody who kind of walks with his head down.

“Barry’s always going to walk with his chest out and his head up. I think you look at him, there’s a lot to be said about that.”

Alvarez is secure in Wisconsin, if he wants to stay forever. He is satisfied that his way is the right way. He can move on to the NFL, if the right job opens.

And having proved that the first time wasn’t a fluke (remember Northwestern in 1995?), Alvarez can admit that all those rising complaints after recent mid-tier bowl berths really did bother him a little.

“Our people don’t understand anything but the Rose Bowl,” Alvarez said. “Maybe one of my biggest mistakes, the first bowl we went to was the Rose Bowl. Four of our five bowl games have been Jan. 1 bowl games, and we’ve had people kind of look down their noses at some of the other ones and they’re great ones.”

After a 1-10 start to his tenure in 1990, Wisconsin went 5-6 the next two seasons, before the 10-1-1 Rose Bowl surge in 1993. In 1994, the Badgers went 8-3-1 and went to the Hall of Fame Bowl. Then in 1995, with the talent thinned, Wisconsin stumbled to 4-5-2; the next two seasons, Alvarez restocked the roster around Dayne and produced back-to-back 8-5 seasons and Copper Bowl and Outback Bowl berths, respectively.

Alvarez, 59-42-4 during his Madison stay, already is the school’s second winningest coach (behind only Phil King, who coached at the turn of the century).

“They only went to two or three [Rose Bowls] before I got here . . . so that’s a highlight of some people’s lives and there haven’t been many,” Alvarez said. “I mean . . . they’ve been through a lot.

“So all of a sudden we go back in ’93 and then the next year we go to Tampa [for the Hall of Fame Bowl] and it’s kind of downer. . . . They haven’t been to enough of them and really sat back and taken a look and said, ‘You know what? In the last 11 years, how many times do you think Ohio State’s been to the Rose Bowl? One!’

“Now, we tied Ohio State in ’93 and they had more No. 1 draft picks on that team than we had in the history of the school.”

From where Wisconsin was when Alvarez came over from his job as Lou Holtz’s defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, the idea of any Badger fan being frustrated with a four-year break between trips to Pasadena was, well, frustrating.

The Badgers had not made a major bowl appearance since the 1963 Rose Bowl--a team that was led by Pat Richter, now the athletic director.

Toss in this year’s on-campus debate about his salary, the furor over his handling of quarterback Mike Samuel’s recent alcohol-related arrest and Dayne’s involvement in a fight with a teammate, and Alvarez just shrugs.

This year, campus protesters debated the school’s contract with Reebok, which pays Alvarez far more than any other Wisconsin coach.

“They were protesting over our shoe deal,” Alvarez said. “I saw that and all I could think of is when I first got here, I was trying to figure how to get people to sell us shoes.”

That’s the route, Alvarez says, you want to travel: From scrambling for shoes to two Rose Bowls.

“Well, it means we have become consistent,” Alvarez said. “And I think we [gained] credibility nationally. It shows that you know we’ve done things the right way and are running a good program. Just running a good, solid program. And one that people should be proud of.”

‘A Coach’s Dream’

Yes, Alvarez says it would be fun to have Ohio State’s level of talent, to be Florida and fling the football around from one sprinter to another, all day long. To be UCLA and score 35 points a game.

But there aren’t many world-class sprinters playing high school football in Wisconsin, Alvarez notes.

And even if he could get superior athletes to play in Madison, you sense that this longtime defensive coach would not wish for a whole lot more than Ron Dayne at running back, a mistake-free quarterback and a defense built to stuff opponent offenses.

Leave the trapeze act to everybody else. Alvarez’s Badgers will always play close to the vest--and let the other team blow itself up.

“We’ve been the least penalized team in the league,” Alvarez said. “The kids have been disciplined, we’ve been physical.

“We lead the nation in defense against the score, maybe third in the nation versus the rush. We don’t turn the ball over. Our running backs have not fumbled the ball all year. . . . We lead the nation in turnover margin. all those are the reasons why we’ve won.”

Does that mean, he was asked, that Wisconsin wasn’t really a very good team this year--just an incredibly efficient one?

“Really, that’s the best football team a coach can have,” Alvarez said. “I told the staff, this is the best coaching job I’ve been around. We’ve gotten the maximum out of our kids. There isn’t a coach in America who wouldn’t win by doing the things I said.

“But people want fluff. They want the ball thrown around. And we like to do that, but we’re just not very good at it. So we don’t do it.

“We haven’t run one exotic all year. We might’ve run a reverse. UCLA, they do it all the time.”

No fluff. Opportunistic. No frills. Successful.

This is a team that reflects Alvarez’s football soul more precisely than even the 1993 Rose Bowl team.

The 1993 team had an overpowering offense, led by quarterback Darrell Bevell and tailbacks Brent Moss and Terrell Fletcher; but it struggled on defense.

This year’s team, other than Dayne, has far less room for error, as evidenced by the 27-10 shellacking at hands of Michigan, but far more sense of accomplishment.

Wisconsin destroyed Iowa, 31-0; beat up Minnesota, 26-7; and totally manhandled Penn State, 27-3.

“To me, it’s a coach’s dream,” Alvarez said. “My offensive coordinator [Brad Childress] went back and looked at my first player policy book here [in 1990]. He said here’s the things you said that year, this is how we’re going to win:

“Run the football. Stop the run. Don’t turn it over. Good kicking game. Just all the things that we did this year.”

ROSE BOWL

Wisconsin (10-1) vs. UCLA (10-1)

Friday

1:30 p.m., Channel 7