Why the Badgers hired Eric Mateos as their latest OL coach

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The Wisconsin Badgers have long been a school revered for developing offensive line talent, sending many players to the NFL to be star players.

But, over the last few years, they’ve seen quite a bit of inconsistency there, both from a players and a coaches perspective. Wisconsin has seen offensive line coach changes quite often over the past few years, and they made another this offseason, replacing AJ Blazek with former Arkansas Razorbacks offensive line coach Eric Mateos.

In the final year of the Paul Chryst era, the Badgers had Bob Bostad as their offensive line coach. That moved to Jack Bicknell Jr. in Year 1 of the Luke Fickell era. He was replaced by Blazek after one season, who was now replaced by Mateos after two years.

Mateos has a strong pedigree as an offensive line coach, having been an offensive line coach at multiple stops over the past decade. That includes a couple of stints with offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, which made the move to Madison a sensible one.

“He and I go back to him being my GA first at LSU and then my line coach at two other places along the way,” Grimes said about Mateos. “And so there are a lot of things that we do that he and I sort of came up with together. Or, maybe late nights deciding how we’re going to block a certain front. And so all that time that we’ve put together along the way for multiple years at 3 different stops, game planning different defenses, I think it just makes us more efficient with what we’re doing on offense.

“And, you know, he sees the game the same way that I do. He’s a very intelligent guy, really creative thinker. And so there’s a good balance between him and me. I think, sometimes he might suggest something, and I go, ‘wow, I never thought about doing it that way.’ And sometimes I might say something, and he says, ‘yeah, but what about this look?’ And I go, ‘yeah, that’s a problem.‘ And, you know, he’s just— he’s a tremendous teacher. I think he does a great job finding a way to get the information across to every player in the room. And that’s the job of a teacher, being able to be relatable enough that you can find a way to get that information across to a way that that guy can actually take it and then apply it. And I think you’re seeing improvement from our line.”

Mateos’s offense at Arkansas in 2025 was one of the best rushing attacks in the country, so the Badgers will hope that translates to Wisconsin, which hasn’t had their regular rushing offense over the past few years as they’ve experimented with new offenses.

But the familiarity with Grimes and the offense was key for the Mateos hire, and the Badgers will hope that their new coach can transform Wisconsin’s new-look offensive line.

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