Former Vikings coach Brad Childress eyes Wisconsin Badgers job

Brad Childress(AP file photo)

Former Vikings coach Brad Childress is intrigued by the head coaching vacancy at Wisconsin and is a potential candidate for the position, sources told CBS Sports.

Childress, now serving as the Cleveland Browns' offensive coordinator, served on the staff of current Wisconsin athletics director Barry Alvarez -- who is heading the search for a new Badgers coach -- for eight seasons (1991-98), including the final five as offensive coordinator.

Childress was most noted in Madison for his work with Ron Dayne, who won the 1999 Heisman Trophy and amassed the majority of his all-time FBS-best 6,397 yards while working in Childress' offense. Childress was criticized at times in Madison for that most common of fan complaints -- not

Darrell Bevell (Photo by Getty Images)

throwing the football more. An ESPN profile of Childress from 2010 quoted Alvarez as calling his former underling Childress a "good communicator."

Also speculated to be among the potential candidates at Wisconsin is current Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who was a starting quarterback at Wisconsin under Alvarez (with Childress as his position coach) in 1993 and 1994. Bevell went on to work for Childress as offensive coordinator with the Vikings from 2006-10.

The list of potential candidates to replace Bret Bielema includes Al Golden of Miami, Paul Rhoads of Iowa State, Chris Petersen of Boise State and Willie Taggart of Western Kentucky, sources close to the program told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"I will start

with head coaches," Alvarez said Thursday, Dec. 6, at his news conference during which he announced he would coach the team in the Rose Bowl against Stanford. "I'm not going to say that I absolutely would not hire an assistant coach, but I will start my process of interviewing and contacting coaches with head coaches."

Alvarez added the hire does not need to have ties to the state or the program.

Tom Dienhart, analyst for the Big Ten Network, is familiar with the history of the UW program.

"I still think overall, in the grand context of the Big Ten in 2012, it is one of the better jobs in the conference," he said. "But I don't know in the long run if it is a top-four job or not. Penn State is going to go through some issues, but everybody knows there is a big four in the Big Ten.

"And we all know who the big four are: Michigan, Ohio State, Nebraska and Penn State.

"But Wisconsin is right there nipping at the heels of the big four, and I guess you give Bielema credit for keeping them there and at least sustaining what Barry Alvarez was able to build."

Alvarez coached 16 seasons at UW before becoming the full-time AD in 2006. Bielema left one game shy of completing his seventh season, in part because of his desire to win a national title.

Dienhart wonders if Bielema's successor might get a similar itch unless Alvarez hires a coach who views Wisconsin as a destination job.

"Wisconsin is not Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Texas or USC," he said. "It's not a place where you can consistently -- I should say ever-- compete for a national championship.

"It seems like there is a ceiling you can bump your head on as a coach. I can see where Wisconsin could be in the same position in another seven years with another coach if he has a nice run of success."

Source: http://www.twincities.com/vikings/ci_22149383/former-vikings-coach-brad-childress-eyes-wisconsin-badgers?source=rss_viewed

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