Wisconsin
Barry Alvarez admitted that losing in his first season at Wisconsin hit him hard, but he thought it was important publicly
to project a "don't flinch" mentality.
graduate, and Wisconsin, having come to Madison as an
administrator to work closely with Alvarez in 1990.
"It all begins with that and in both Madison and Iowa
City that didn't happen overnight."
Alvarez built wall slowly
Alvarez did start slowly. After the 1-10 first year, his
teams improved to 5-6 in Years 2 and 3. But, just as Purdue fans have heard from Hazell, it was all about laying the
foundation.
"We had a promotion called 'Whole new animal' in the
first year," recalled Pat Richter, who served as Wisconsin's athletics director from 1989-2004 and hired Alvarez.
"In the first year, some said the 'Animal hasn't changed
much.' But from my perspective, it had changed.
"We never really wavered on it, even though the record
didn't show it."
On the scoreboard, the Badgers were more competitive in 1990 than the Boilermakers in 2013, only suffering
three losses by more than 20 points, compared to the Purdue's eight. But the result was the same: one victory.
Just like Hazell will have to do at Purdue, Alvarez righted the ship by bringing in talent that suited his philosophy
of a desire to run the ball.
"When Barry got to Wisconsin he said he would wall off
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the state of Wisconsin in recruiting," Richter
said. "He was able to do that pretty well early
on. We got our upper bodies (linemen) from
in-state, but our legs (skill players) from other places."
Alvarez had a presence to him and wasn't
afraid to aim for the stars in recruiting. And,
he didn't take no for an answer.
"I remember early on going to St. Louis to
recruit Terrell Fletcher, and everybody wanted Terrell Fletcher," Malchow said of Fletcher,
who was third on the school's all-time rushing list by the time he exhausted his eligibility. "... Basically (Barry) said, 'Terrell, you
are coming to Wisconsin.' He had the type of
ability as a recruiter."
And despite a program that was 6-27 the
three years before Alvarez took the reins at
UW and the slow start under his tenure, Fletcher came to
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