Gets me about this AD search committee with Ballard and Finley? It reminds me of the 1994 Rose Bowl team and how we built that program the right way. No shortcuts. No portal band-aids. Just good old fashioned recruiting, player development, and loyalty. Three years. THREE YEARS we have been wandering in the wilderness since Alvarez stepped away and we still cannot find somebody who understands what made Wisconsin football special.
I see Indiana winning a national title in 2025 and I think about the 1999 team that went 10-2 and played in the Rose Bowl. We had something real back then. Guys who stayed four years and graduated. Now we have to compete with programs bringing in 43 transfers like Colorado or 50 like Oklahoma State. That is not college football. That is free agency with a helmet.
Ballard knows what winning looks like in the NFL and Finley understands championship culture from his NBA days. I hope they find somebody who remembers what it felt like to punch Michigan in the mouth at Camp Randall or watch us run the ball 50 times against Iowa in a November blizzard. We do not need flash. We need substance. The kind of substance that built this program from the ground up.