MADISON, Wis. (AP) 鈥� New Wisconsin athletic director , who spent the last eight years at Texas, believes his new and old schools have much in common.
Both are well-regarded research universities in state capitals that belong to major conferences and have relatively similar enrollments.
He also pointed out one difference.
鈥淭here鈥檚 swag at Texas, right?鈥� Eichorst said Tuesday during his introductory news conference. 鈥淭here鈥檚 30 million people in Texas. We鈥檝e got swag, too, but we have a little humility with that deal. We need to get our shoulders up. We need to feel good about what it is that we鈥檙e doing.鈥�
Wisconsin could gain more of that Texas swagger if its football program gets back to winning the way it did the last time Eichorst was employed in Madison. Eichorst, who most recently worked as a deputy athletic director at Texas, received a five-year deal worth $1.6 million annually, with provisions for increases and incentives. He was hired 2陆 months after left to become the Big Ten鈥檚 deputy commissioner for strategy.
Eichorst worked at Wisconsin from 2006-11 when Barry Alvarez was AD and Bret Bielema was leading the football program. He followed that up with stints as an athletic director at Miami (2011-12) and Nebraska (2012-17) before Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte hired him in 2018.
He returns to Wisconsin with the Badgers coming off back-to-back losing seasons in football, a notable fall for a program that had 22 straight winning seasons from 2002-23. Wisconsin coach has gone 17-21 after posting a 53-10 record with one in his last five years at Cincinnati.
Eichorst hasn鈥檛 worked with Fickell before but said he鈥檚 encouraged by their initial conversations.
鈥淥bviously he鈥檚 won every place he鈥檚 been,鈥� Eichorst said. 鈥淢y expectation is more of me than him, meaning I need to pour into him, learn more about his program, how he has things set up, how his athletes are taken care of, how we鈥檙e supporting that endeavor. And then we can figure out, as we move along, what that might look like.鈥�
Football struggles led to Eichorst鈥檚 downfall the last time he was an athletic director.
He fired Nebraska coach Bo Pelini in 2014 and hired , who had gone 93-80 in 14 seasons at Oregon State. shortly after Nebraska suffered an early-season in 2017. at the end of that season after going 19-19 in three years.
When Eichorst鈥檚 hiring was announced last week, he spoke about how much he had grown from that Nebraska stint. Wisconsin interim chancellor Eric Wilcots led the search and has emphasized Eichorst鈥檚 accomplishments at Texas, which has won the all-sports standings five times in the last six years.
Texas ranked anywhere from fifth to ninth in the Directors鈥� Cup standings in the five years before Wilcots鈥� arrival. Texas鈥� football team went a combined 23-27 from 2014-17 but has made two College Football Playoff appearances in the last three years.
鈥淓verybody looks at the end result of what we did at Texas,鈥� Eichorst said. 鈥淲hen we got there in 2018, we weren鈥檛 very good in a lot of areas. And that didn鈥檛 change overnight.鈥�
Eichorst said one thing that has caught his attention about Wisconsin is the overall quality of its head coaches.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to be as good as your coaches,鈥� Eichorst said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 it. If you have an elite group of coaches who are working together and uniting and galvanizing and learning from one another and taking it out to their individual programs, I think you can start to build something special. I go back to Texas. We built a room of really elite head coaches and put them at the top of everything we did to help guide us.鈥�
Eichorst said this job is particularly important to him because of his Wisconsin roots. He was born in Lone Rock, about 45 miles northwest of the Madison campus.
He treasured his previous stint at Wisconsin and says he believes this school 鈥渞epresents everything that is great about higher education and college athletics.鈥�
鈥淣obody will work harder for Wisconsin athletics,鈥� Eichorst said. 鈥淚 love this state, and I love everything that it represents. The passion is there. You can see it. I don鈥檛 have to make it up. I鈥檝e lived it. It鈥檚 in my heart.鈥�
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