BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — When eighth-ranked Wisconsin hosts Kent State in a non-league game Saturday at 11 a.m. at Camp Randall Stadium, it will isolate a curious trend.
The Golden Flashes of the Mid-American Conference are one of 11 Football Bowl Subdivision programs with head coaches who either attended or worked at Wisconsin.
Not only that, the 11 represent five different eras in Madison from the 1980s, '90s, 2000s and '10s.
Second-year Kent State coach Sean Lewis — he's the youngest head coach in FBS at age 33 — is a 2007 graduate of Wisconsin who was recruited as a quarterback to the Badgers in '04 by Barry Alvarez, currently the director of athletics at UW.
Also part of the Alvarez timeline (1990 to 2005) is former graduate assistant Lance Leipold at Buffalo (1991 to '93), former assistant coach Jay Norvell at Nevada ('92 to '94) and former player Melvin Tucker at Colorado ('90 to '94).
The Don Morton era (1987 to '89) included Wyoming coach Craig Bohl ('87 to '88) and Illinois coach Lovie Smith ('87) as assistants.
The Bret Bielema era (2006 to '12) included NC State coach Dave Doeren ('06 to '10) and Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock ('11 to '13) as assistants.
Gary Andersen, who coached the Badgers in 2013 to '14 before stepping down, is now the coach at Utah State.
The Paul Chryst era includes California coach Justin Wilcox (2016) as an assistant.
This is the first-ever meeting between Kent State (2-2 overall) and the Badgers (4-0).
Here are five more things to know:
One Way to Look At It
So far, junior tailback Jonathan Taylor has scored 40 touchdowns in his 31-game Wisconsin career and 26 have come from at least 10 yards out. His average scoring play covers 26.4 yards. Two-time All-America tailback Montee Ball owns the program record with 83 career touchdowns from 2009 to '12. Of those, 28 came from at least 10 yards out. The average scoring play for the 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist and '12 Doak Walker Award winner was 11.4 yards.
Leaving His Mark … Twice
Taylor not only has an opportunity to rush for 100 yards vs. every Big Ten Conference opponent — he needs Michigan State and Ohio State — he can also score at least one touchdown against every school in the 14-team league. He's missing Michigan State (Oct. 12), Illinois (Oct. 19), Ohio State (Oct. 26) and Iowa (Nov. 9).
Going Broke
Wisconsin has recorded double-digit passes defended in its last two outings — 12 vs. Michigan (two interceptions, 10 pass breakups) and 12 vs. Northwestern (one INT, 11 PBUs) — marking the first time that's happened in consecutive games since the Badgers stifled Purdue (16) and Illinois (10) in 1998.
The Long Climb
Paul Chryst now has 46 wins as coach of the Badgers, tying him for fifth on the program's all-time list with Dave McClain, who recruited Chryst out of Platteville High School back in 1984. Chryst reached 46 wins in his 58th game. It took McClain 90 games to get that far before his untimely death in 1986. Of the modern-era coaches situated ahead of Chryst on the list — Alvarez with 119, Bielema with 68 and Milt Bruhn with 52 — Alvarez got to 46 wins in 87 games, Milt Bruhn in 78 and Bielema in 61.
Something Special
Senior kicker Zach Hintze has been a force on special teams. He's averaging 64.7 yards per kickoff and forced touchbacks on 22 of 29 kickoffs through four games. Amazingly, one of those touchbacks officially covered 80 yards after the Badgers took a penalty that forced them to kick from their own 20-yard line vs. Northwestern (the kick went 86 yards on the fly). Kent State has one of the top kick returners in the nation in senior defensive back Jamal Parker, who's averaging 26.9 yards per return.
