Andersen says he left Wis. because of admissions standards

Admissions standards were probably the reason Gary Andersen left his head coaching job at Wisconsin last month, according to a report from CBS Sports.

“It’s been well documented there were some kids I couldn’t get in school,” Andersen said in the CBS Sports article. “That was highly frustrating to me. I lost some guys, and I told them I wasn’t going to lose them.”

“That’s not Wisconsin’s fault,” Andersen said. “That’s Wisconsin’s deal. I want to surround myself with those kids I can get in school.”

Andersen spent most of his career in the west until Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez announced Andersen as the replacement to outgoing head coach Bret Bielema.

In two seasons at Wisconsin, Andersen won 19 games, but he left the team the week after Wisconsin lost to Ohio State 59-0 in the 2014 Big Ten Championship game.

“We haven’t changed. You’re not going to change our admission policy here,” Alvarez told CBS Sports. “We have a high graduation rate. You get a meaningful degree. It’s not a piece of paper that means you stayed eligible for four years.”

Andersen would not talk about individual examples of his frustration with CBS Sports.

“I don’t expect anybody to understand it,” Andersen told CBS Sports. “I don’t expect one person to look at me and say, ‘I get it.’ But I get it.”