Alvarez relishes Rose Bowl return
Seven years after Barry Alvarez left the Wisconsin sideline, he’s getting one more shot at the Rose Bowl.
The longtime Badgers coach said he can’t provide any master game plan to beat No. 8 Stanford (11-2) in Wisconsin’s third straight trip to Pasadena.
Instead, Alvarez’s players said he offers perspective, inspiration and even a little swagger while he bridges Wisconsin’s one-game gap between Bret Bielema and Gary Andersen.
The Badgers (8-5) hope it’s enough to knock off the favored Cardinal.
Alvarez built Wisconsin’s long-mediocre program into a consistent winner, exactly what Stanford coach David Shaw is accomplishing in the Bay Area after his predecessor Jim Harbaugh went to the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
The Cardinal won the Pac-12 title to advance to their third straight BCS bowl, a once-unthinkable feat. Stanford hasn’t won the Rose Bowl since 1972.
