UW Badgers Wisconsin Coach -- Alvarez Isn't Excited About Playing Huskies

There might be a time and a place for everything, but Saturday at Husky Stadium will be neither for the University of Wisconsin football coach, Barry Alvarez.

"I'm still looking for the guy who scheduled this game," Alvarez said in Madison, where he is preparing his Badgers for their season-opener against Washington.

"I'm not real crazy about going there. I don't think it's very wise to have a game like this to open your season, particularly in our situation."

The situation for the young Badgers is that they appear to be no match for the Huskies; that a game against an opponent of lesser stature would do more for Alvarez's rebuilding effort than one against Washington.

The Huskies, who are ranked second nationally in The Associated Press poll and will be playing their home opener, are 33-point favorites.

"We're not in a position where I think we can go out and compete with a Washington," Alvarez said.

The two teams were scheduled to play again in 1994, but the game was canceled to give Wisconsin an opening to play Penn State, which joins the Big Ten next year. Washington will play at Miami instead.

Alvarez was hired by Wisconsin after the 1989 season to resurrect the Badger program, which was left in chaos by Don Morton. Morton went 6-27 in three years as head coach. Alvarez's first team went 1-10; his second team last season went 5-6.

"If there weren't problems, I wouldn't have been hired," said Alvarez, who was an assistant coach at Notre Dame before the Badger opportunity opened.

Problems?

"I found there weren't many skill-position players on the team," Alvarez said. "I found a lot of players who really weren't crazy about football. When we took the job, we had one running back on scholarship."

Since then, Alvarez and his assistants showed they can recruit quality players, including James Darby, an offensive lineman from Streamwood, Ill., who signed a letter of intent with Wisconsin last February after visiting Washington.

"Fortunately, we've had a couple of good recruiting classes back-to-back so we're going to be able to hold out a majority of our freshman class," Alvavrez said.

Darby, expected to redshirt this season, will not make the trip to Seattle.

The Badgers' strong suit last year was defense. They held opponents to an average of 317 yards per game. But the offense, with one senior starter, averaged only 241 yards per game, 103rd out of 106 NCAA Division I-A teams.

Exit Russ Jacques as offensive coordinator and enter Brad Childress, who moved up from coach of the running backs. Wisconsin fans expect Childress to emphasize a running game.

Terrell Fletcher, a 185-pound sophomore tailback, and George Montgomery, a 210-pound junior fullback, are expected to be Wisconsin's lead runners Saturday. Fletcher led the Badgers in rushing last season with 446 yards on 109 carries (4.1 average). Montgomery was next with 230 yards on 64 trips (3.6 average).

The new quarterback is Jay Macias, a letterman sophomore from Montebello, Calif.

Washington and Wisconsin are playing for the first time since 1968, when the Huskies beat the Badgers 21-17.