Wait so Chris Ballard and Michael Finley are on the committee to find our next AD. That is interesting. Ballard knows football talent when he sees it, built those Colts rosteers. Finley knows what Wisconsin basketball meant back in the 90s when we were just starting to matter. But here is what I keep coming back to. None of that matters one bit if the next guy in charge does not understand how you build a football program in this state the right way.
I sat through the 1980s watching us get pushed around by Michigan and Ohio State every single year. Then Barry Alvarez walked in and changed everything. He did not do it with NIL deals and transfer portal shopping sprees. He did it by going into every small town in Wisconsin, finding the farm kids who wanted to hit somebody, and teaching them how to win. That is how you build something that lasts. Not by throwing money at a five-star from California who is going to leave the second a bigger bag shows up.
This committee needs to find somebody who gets that. Who understands that Camp Randall is special because of the people in the stands, not the dollars in the collective. Who remembers the 1994 Rose Bowl and what it meant to see those kids who had been in the program for four years finally get their moment. You cannot manufacture that chemistry in one offseason of portal shopping. Oregon is trying and good for them, but that is not who we are.
Give me an AD who will hire coaches who recruit Wisconsin high schools first. Who will walk into a living room in Menomonie or Waukesha or Green Bay and sell the kid on being a Badger for life. That is how you win here. That is how we always did it. The portal is a tool, sure. But it cannot be the foundation.