Alvarez: Badgers’ message to FAU — ‘We’ll take care of you’
September 13, 2017 | Football, General News, Varsity Magazine
For UW, helping a visiting team during Hurricane Irma was not even a question
UW Director of Athletics
MADISON, Wis. — I got word at about mid-week that Florida Atlantic was looking to see if we could move or cancel Saturday's game because of understandable concerns with Hurricane Irma.
I told Chris McIntosh, our deputy athletic director, "Let's get a hold of their AD (Patrick Chun) and let them know if they got stuck here, we'd do whatever was necessary to accommodate them."
Some different contingencies were brought up and considered after games involving other Florida schools were canceled or postponed. But those options just weren't going to work out.
Instead, we said, "Come up and play the game at 11 a.m. on Saturday and if you can't get back, stay here. It may be the safest thing anyhow. We'll take care of you."
It wasn't finalized until Thursday. We were still worried whether they'd get out of Florida on Friday. I understand they may have been one of the last flights to leave before the airport closed.
Because they took a bigger plane out of Florida than they would have normally for the travel party, the coaches were able to bring their wives and children with them to Madison.
We connected all of our people with all of their people: our strength coaches with their strength coaches, our equipment people with their equipment people, our video people with their video people.
Our coaches' wives even hosted a tailgate for their coaches' wives.
Now that Irma has passed, we have to thank @BadgerFootball for their hospitality. Your department and fans are some of the best. Thank You.
— FAU Football (@FAU_Football) September 11, 2017
After Saturday's game, their administrators were kind of playing it by ear — taking everything day by day — until they could determine when they could get back to Florida.
We had a lot of people step up to help them. Their players lifted in our weight room on Sunday and practiced in the stadium on Monday and Tuesday. So, they've tried to make the best out of the situation.
Cindy and I were watching the Weather Channel and getting updates on the hurricane when they showed one of their reporters out in the elements waiting for the eye of the storm to pass.
He was standing just blocks from our condo in Naples. We haven't heard yet about damage.
Saturday night, I had Monte Kiffin and his wife over. Monte has been in the coaching business for a long time and his son Lane, now Florida Atlantic's head coach, obviously grew up around the game.
When I got done playing at Nebraska, Monte was a full-time assistant and coaching the freshman team for Bob Devaney. I was one of his graduate assistants along with Jim Walden.
Later, Monte got me my first head coaching job at Lexington High School in Nebraska. That was his hometown and his brother-in-law was very active in the community.
Monte Kiffin is a great coach. He still has the same energy today. That's the way he has always coached. He's really a stickler on fundamentals; he's all about teaching.
I had talked to him about Jimmy Leonhard and how he was really a good teacher even though he's just now beginning his second year as a coach since retiring as a player.
Monte wanted to meet him. Being in the pros for so long, he appreciates guys who want to teach instead of guys who are always looking for their next job. He respects good teachers.
After the game, Monte said, "Tell Jimmy, he did a good job with the secondary." They have some talented receivers and he was impressed with how we locked up on them and played man.
That team was well coached. They did a good job of stripping the ball when our young guy, Jonathan Taylor, was trying to get more yardage.
Until he lost the ball at the end, I thought that was probably his best run.
I love his speed and power. They had three unblocked players on the edge and he comes out and lowers his shoulder on one and runs through the others. That play was impressive.
Ronnie (Dayne) ran through people like that. I don't know if Jonathan's as fast as Michael Bennett. But he's a combination of a number of our tailbacks. That's saying a lot, because we've had some great ones.
