Bielema to Penn State?

Last week both Dave Heller and Jim Polzin commented in their blogs on a story from Sporting News' Matt Hayes. Both guys bring up the flaws I saw in Hayes' theory -- it's hard to see Bielema leaving for another Big Ten program (except maybe Iowa), and even after two very good seasons he's still something of an unproven commodity as a head coach.

Not wanting to rehash what those other guys wrote, let me throw this out there: is the Penn State clearly a better job than Wisconsin right now?

On the "Obviously it is, come on" side of the ledger: history, tradition, fan base, and most importantly, better local recruiting talent.

On the "Maybe it's not" side: following a legend (sorry, but JoePa dwarfs Barry here), higher expectations (could also be seen as a good thing), increased competition for Pennsylvania/New Jersey recruits (from Ohio State, Rutgers, Pitt).

Personally, I'd lean on the side of Penn State is a better job than Wisconsin, even right now and after Paterno retires. But it's not by as wide a margin as it once was.

Read some of the comments following Hayes' column, fans of other teams give Bielema much praise.

Badger coaching tree, part 2

Thanks to ajs for commenting on these guys who should definitely be mentioned as prominent parts of the Badger coaching tree. I feel like I was trying too hard to look for long-ago guys and missed these more recent ones.

-Dan McCarney, Barry's old defensive coordinator, had a fairly successful stint as the head at Iowa State. Mac's now the assistant head coach/defensive line coach at South Florida, which we all know had a Cinderella season of sorts.

-John Palermo, now Miami's defensive line coach. It's cool to read his bio and see all the All-Americans he produced while at Wisconsin.

UPDATE - Polzin comment: Just to clarify, Palermo left Miami after the 2006 season and spent last season as the defensive coordinator at Tennessee Tech under Watson Brown (Mack's brother). Palermo has since announced his retirement.

-Ron Lee, our secondary coach for a couple years, moved on to coach cornerbacks at Michigan in 2006, now coaching Minnesota's defensive backs.

-Bernie Wyatt - ajs says he took another job at Iowa after leaving UW in 1996, but I haven't been able to find any evidence of that, and we all know that Google is infallible. Jimmy, you worked with him on your All-Alvarez team, right? What did he do after UW?

UPDATE - Polzin comment: I believe Wyatt was a ``consultant'' at Iowa.

-Todd Orlando, who played linebacker at UW and was a member of the '93 Rose Bowl team, is the defensive coordinator at Connecticut, which had a great season. Dave Heller's JS blog says Orlando is a candidate to be Pittsburgh's new defensive coordinator.

Anyone else?

UPDATE - I somehow forgot Kevin Cosgrove, also shown the door at Nebraska along with Bill Callahan. Doesn't look like he's found a new job yet. Interesting tidbit I found with a story that mentions the new Huskers staff: they had eight de-commits following Cally's departure. Shows you the value of getting your new coach in place at the right time.