ESPN insider spells out the reason behind Paul Chryst's firing at Wisconsin, lists potential replacements

When it was reported Sunday that Wisconsin had parted ways with head football coach Paul Chryst, it seemed to come out of nowhere. Chryst had been successful by most measures, going 67-26 during his time in Madison and making a bowl game every year.

But as ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg explained Tuesday on College Football Live, things had been slowly but surely trending in the wrong direction over the past few seasons.

“Athletic director Chris McIntosh, his job is to look at where the program is and where it’s headed in the future,” Rittenberg explained. “He saw a program that had gone 15-10 since making its last Big Ten championship in 2019. He saw a program that wasn’t making enough progress offensively at the quarterback position. He saw a program that was losing games that they typically don’t lose at Wisconsin.

“That’s why you get rid of a coach who had won 72% of his games, had won multiple New Year’s Six Bowls and gotten to the Big Ten Championship game three times. A very difficult decision, but looking forward it was hard to make the case Wisconsin was on a good trajectory.”

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The Badgers have just a 2-7 record against ranked opponents over the past three seasons. They were also off to a lackluster 2-3 start this season that saw them lose to every Power 5 opponent they played. The offense struggled mightily, ranking 10th in the Big Ten overall and 12th in passing yards per game.

Now, the search to find Paul Chryst’s replacement at Wisconsin is in full swing. Like many, Rittenberg believes interim head coach Jim Leonhard to be the frontrunner for the position, but also named three other candidates to watch out for.

“Jim Leonhard is not your typical interim coach,” Rittenberg said. “He was always looked at as the potential successor to Paul Chryst. He’s turned down a number of jobs, including the Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator role, to stay at his alma mater. So Wisconsin has set him up to possibly get this job, but they have to show improvement in their final seven games under his leadership. He talked about how difficult the emotional state of the team is right now.

“If it’s not Leonhard, look to Lance Leipold from Kansas. 5-0 for the first time since 2009. He’s a Wisconsin native who won a bunch of national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater and even coached at the University of Wisconsin early in his career. Then also a couple of former Badger defensive coordinators in Power 5 roles right now. Dave Aranda at Baylor and Dave Doeren at NC State. If they want previous head coaching experience, those two guys could certainly get some calls from Chris McIntosh later this week.”

Wisconsin will play its first game under the direction of Leonhard at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday against Northwestern.