Wisconsin fired coach Paul Chryst on Sunday after a 2-3 start to his eighth season leading the college football program he once played for in the city where he grew up.
The surprising move came a day a 34-10 home loss to Illinois, which is off to a 4-1 start in its second season under former Badgers coach Bret Bielema.
“This is certainly not a decision that’s taken lightly,” athletic director Chris McIntosh said at a news conference. “It’s not a game-by-game decision. This is a decision that’s based on where we’re at as a program.”
Chryst was 67-26 as coach of the Badgers after being hired away from Pittsburgh, but the program has been backsliding. Chryst reached double digits in wins in four of his first five years at the helm in Madison while winning three Big Ten West Division titles. The Badgers have gone 15-10 since.
“It’s a tough time to make a transition,” McIntosh said, “but I felt it was the right time, and that’s what led me to it.”
Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard, who was an All-American at Wisconsin, was named interim coach. The 39-year-old former NFL defensive back has been part of Chryst’s staff for seven seasons and is considered one of the top assistant coaches in the country.
McIntosh said he would do a full coaching search “when the time is right.”
Leonhard said it was an emotional day for him. Chryst gave him his start in coaching with no previous experience.
“This place means a ton to myself,” said Leonhard, who played 10 seasons in the NFL. “We want more, we want better, and that’s my goal is to try to help get us in that direction.”
Wisconsin (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) plays at Northwestern (1-4, 1-1) on Saturday.
Chryst, a 56-year-old Madison native, has four years left on his contract. He was set to make $5.25 million this season.
McIntosh declined to provide specifics of Chryst’s buyout.
“What I can tell you today is that the number that we agreed to is significantly less than the number that has been reported, or even the number that would have been due per the terms of his contract,” McIntosh said.
The in-season coaching move was the fifth already in the Football Bowl Subdivision this season, but none of the changes have been as unexpected as Wisconsin’s.
The program has been built on stability for more than three decades since Barry Alvarez turned it around in the 1990s.
Chryst, who played quarterback for the Badgers in the late 1980s, was an assistant and offensive coordinator under Alvarez and Bielema.
The offense, built on a powerful running game and efficient passing, has often looked stale this season and the past two, struggling against better competition. Wisconsin managed only 2 rushing yards against Illinois, the program’s lowest total since 2015.
“The expectations of our program at Wisconsin are to win championships, and I felt that it was time, it was the right time to make a change to pursue those,” said McIntosh, a former offensive lineman at Wisconsin who replaced Alvarez as AD last year.
After Wisconsin lost to Illinois at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday for the first time in 20 years, Chryst said he was undeterred and looked forward to getting a chance to fix the problems.
“Do you want to be better? Absolutely. And you just want to focus on the things that you can do to help move the needle, help our players and assistant coaches,” he said. “So I didn’t think it’s going to be easy, and yet I believe in this group and I like this group. I appreciate where they’re coming from and how they go about it. I look forward to each day I get to be with them.
“We get to be together again, and we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and continue to go to work.”
Dorrell done at Colorado
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado fired football coach Karl Dorrell after an 0-5 start in which the Buffaloes have been blown out by more than 20 points in each game.
The school announced the decision the day after a 43-20 loss at Arizona. Colorado has started 0-5 in only three other seasons (1980, 1984 and 2006).
“I want everybody to know that I have a ton of respect for Coach Dorrell and the way he led our football program with integrity,” Colorado AD Rick George said. “He helped us navigate the challenges of COVID-19 and did so with a lot of class. He made our young men better off the field, both in the classroom and in the community. He led our program to the highest GPA in our history, and his team was involved in a lot of different community activities. Karl’s a good man, I have a ton of respect for him, and I wish him nothing (but the) best in his future endeavors.
“However, the on-the-field performance fell well short of our expectations. I know that starts with me. I hired Karl, and it didn’t work out the way any of us wanted it to. There’s no excuses, and I own my part in where we are today.”
The exits of Dorrell at Colorado and Chryst at Wisconsin followed three others this season: Scott Frost at Nebraska (Sept. 12), Herm Edwards at Arizona State (Sept. 19) and Geoff Collins at Georgia Tech (Sept. 27).
Dorrell, 58, was brought in as a replacement when Mel Tucker bolted for Michigan State out of the blue in February 2020.
The hiring of Dorrell was met with surprise because he had been out of college coaching for a while. He was an assistant with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins at the time, but he had been UCLA’s head coach for four seasons (2003-07).
Dorrell, who had built a house in the Boulder area, agreed to a five-year, $18 million contract that ran through 2024. The buyout, which will come out of the athletic department’s budget, is approximately $8.7 million but could be reduced pending his next job.
Although the Buffaloes have had just two winning seasons since 2006 — including 4-2 during a pandemic-shortened 2020 season — George said he trusts Colorado can return to prominence.
“We will do what is needed to get a winning football team back on this field,” George said. “… This place can be and will be a football powerhouse. We have the facilities. We have the location. We have the programs. We have everything that we need to be successful on the football field.”
George also issued a call for local businesses to step up and make the program more competitive when it comes to NIL opportunities for players.
A national search for a coach is expected to start soon.
Colorado waited to announce the news until after Dorrell had a chance to inform his staff and players in a meeting. Defensive coordinator Chris Wilson was also let go.
Offensive coordinator Mike Sanford will serve as interim coach, defensive line coach Gerald Chatman will serve as the team’s defensive coordinator, and passing game coordinator/tight ends coach Clay Patterson takes over as offensive coordinator.
The Buffaloes, 0-2 in Pac-12 play, are idle this week before hosting California. They have seven games left, and Sanford said the goal is to get an eighth game, meaning a bowl berth.
“We have not been eliminated from any postseason to this point, and it all starts with having a fantastic bye week,” Sanford said. “… These players haven’t quit. They have shown nothing but fight. This is a fresh start.”
Dorrell didn’t have much of an offseason program due to coronavirus restrictions his inaugural 2020 season, but he led the Buffaloes to a 4-0 start before they lost to Utah in what turned out to be their regular-season finale and got blown out by Texas in the Alamo Bowl. Dorrell was named Pac-12 coach of the year, but it was downhill from there.
Colorado went 4-8 last season, and several key starters left through the transfer portal. This season, Colorado has rotated through three quarterbacks while trying to ignite an offense that ranks among the nation’s worst. The Buffaloes and rival Colorado State, which has a new coach in Jay Norvell, are the only two FBS teams without a win this season.
The loss to Arizona became the final blow for Dorrell, whose team has been outscored by a 216-67 margin. The Wildcats were predicted to finish 11th in the Pac-12 preseason media poll, with Colorado last. The Buffaloes’ defense surrendered 673 total yards Saturday, the most since allowing 616 to Arizona in 2015.