Paul Chryst reportedly in the mix for college head-coach opening
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One of the potential replacements for Oregon State football coach Trent Bray is a familiar name for Wisconsin Badgers fans.
Paul Chryst, whose 2022 firing became a notable flashpoint in the downturn of the Badgers program, "has become popular among one industry source" for the job, according to Pete Nakos of On3.
Bray was fired this season after the Beavers started 0-7 in his second year.
Chryst was formerly Oregon State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for two brief stints, 1997-98 and 2003-04. He coached tight ends at UW in 2002, and he became Wisconsin's offensive coordinator from 2005 to 2011, then left to become head coach at Pittsburgh from 2012 to 2014.
When Gary Andersen abruptly left the Wisconsin program for — strange coincidence alert — Oregon State, Chryst was hired as UW's head coach in 2015.
Wisconsin athletics director Chris McIntosh fired Chryst after five games in 2022. Chryst went 67-26 during his time as head coach at UW — with three Big Ten title-game appearances and a 6-1 bowl record — but hasn't been a head coach since.
He last worked in college football at Texas in 2023 as an analyst.
Chryst, the son of former UW-Platteville football coach George Chryst, attended Platteville High School and played quarterback for the Badgers from 1986 through 1988.
Wisconsin, of course, elevated defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard as Chryst's interim replacement, then brought in Luke Fickell by the end of the season.
UW has gone a miserable 14-19 in the past two-plus seasons with Fickell at the helm, missing a bowl game last year for the first time in 23 seasons and on track to miss a bowl game this year, too.
Bray's firing has created one of numerous head-coaching openings across college football, including spots like LSU, Penn State, Florida, UCLA, Oklahoma State, Arkansas and Virginia Tech.
Oregon State has gone 2-0 under interim head coach Robb Akey, though that includes a win over a non-major program, Lafayette. The Beavers are playing an independent schedule after the de facto dissolution of the Pac-12 before the 2024 season, but the conference will be reborn in 2026 with Oregon State, Washington State and six new schools, largely from the Mountain West.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Paul Chryst reportedly in the mix for college head-coach opening
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