Lucas: Years later, Chryst gets chance to lead Badgers in Holiday Bowl
December 06, 2015 | Football, Mike Lucas
Wisconsin head coach returns to familiar site in San Diego for matchup with USC
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. -- Fifteen years ago, there was a brief point in time when Paul Chryst thought that he might wind up coaching at Southern Cal.
After the school fired head coach Paul Hackett in late November of 2000, it started interviewing potential successors. Mike Riley, a former USC assistant, was on the short list.
At the time, Riley was completing his second season as the head coach of the San Diego Chargers. Riley's tight ends coach was Chryst, who had been with him at Oregon State.
"I know they were talking to him," Chryst remembered, "and I thought I might be going to USC (with Riley), but Mike ended up staying one more year."
The Trojans ended up hiring Pete Carroll.
A year later, Riley and his staff got fired in San Diego.
"We loved living there -- we loved our time there," Chryst said of his three years on the Chargers staff. "I was around some really good coaches and really good players.
"It was a big part of my growth (as a coach). We just didn't win enough games."
That same year, 2000, Chryst went to a Texas practice in advance of the Longhorns facing Oregon in the Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium, the Chargers' home turf.
"I always thought that would be a pretty cool bowl to be at," he thought to himself.
A lot of things have happened between then and now, but Chryst got a belated wish Sunday when it was officially announced that the Badgers would take on USC in the 2015 Holiday Bowl.
"Finding out that we're playing USC will be a big deal for our kids," he said. "I know that I'm excited to be playing a big-time opponent in a big-time bowl."
Chryst has some not-so-fond memories of playing USC while coaching at Oregon State.
"But, in '04, we had a chance to beat them in the fog," he lamented.
Reggie Bush, though, returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown and the No. 1-ranked Trojans were able to escape with a 28-20 victory in Corvallis.
Chryst can attest to the fact that the talent pool has always been deep at USC (sanctions or no). So can UW wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore, who held the same title with the Trojans in 2011.
"Following from afar, I have a ton of respect for what they've done this year," Chryst said. "I know enough about them to know it's going to be a heckuva challenge.
"I've appreciated what our team has done to get us this opportunity. And now you want to play your best football. They've been on both ends of it," he said of UW's seniors. "They know what last year felt like (an upset win over Auburn in the Outback Bowl). And they know what it felt like before that (four straight bowl losses).
"There can be some momentum from a good performance and playing well and all of that. But it's about finishing out the year the right way. That's what you hope to do."
The last time that Wisconsin and USC met in a bowl game, it was historic -- matching the No. 1-ranked Trojans versus the No. 2-ranked Badgers for the national championship in the 1963 Rose Bowl.
Behind the passing combination of Ron Vander Kelen to Pat Richter, the gritty Badgers nearly overcame a 28-point deficit with a furious fourth quarter rally that fell short in a memorable 42-37 loss.
Richter, now 74, still runs into people who bring up that game.
"People will say, 'Didn't you catch …'"
Yes, he did, he caught 11 passes for 163 yards.
"Or, they will say, 'Wasn't that Vander Kelen … "
On top of his game?
Yes, he was; he completed 33 passes (17 of 21 in the fourth quarter) for 406 yards.
"But you hear it less and less because people are getting older and older," said Richter, the former UW athletic director. "A smaller and smaller population remembers."
Richter has some family commitments so he won't be able to travel to the Holiday Bowl. He's still rehabbing after having knee replacement surgery in August.
"I'm three out of four now," he reported. He has had both knees and one hip replaced. For the record, he also has had back surgery.
"As you get older," he conceded, "it gets a little tougher from the recovery standpoint."
Richter is looking forward to watching the Badgers play the Trojans, even if it's not in the Rose Bowl. But there is one thing that he could do without, the USC mascot.
"That horse (Travelor) running around the track," he said, "I don't want to see that again."
For information on tickets, travel and all things Holiday Bowl, visit UWBowlCentral.com.
