MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin football coach Gary Andersen wasted little time in finding a replacement for the Badgers' vacant tight ends and special teams coaching position. On Tuesday, he announced the hiring of Jeff Genyk, who spent the past three seasons as an assistant at California.
Genyk will replace Jay Boulware, who left after seven weeks with the program for Oklahoma on Friday. Although Andersen voiced his displeasure this week with Boulware's unexpected and abrupt departure, Andersen ironically stole away Genyk from Nevada, which hired him less than two months ago to serve as a running backs coach and special teams coordinator.
"He's been a tight ends coach and special teams coordinator at the BCS level, as well as having head coach experience, so that made him a very attractive candidate," Andersen said in a news release. "I'm extremely pleased we were able to get a tremendous coach like Jeff, especially given the timing of this transition."
Before coming to California, Genyk served as head coach at Eastern Michigan from 2004-08. He led the Eagles to their best conference finish in seven years in 2004 with a third-place showing the Mid-American Conference.
Genyk has experience coaching in the Big Ten. He spent 12 seasons at Northwestern (1994-2003) and coached the special teams unit in his final five seasons with the team.
During a news conference on Monday to preview Wisconsin's spring football practices, Andersen stressed the importance of finding an assistant coach before camp began on Saturday.
"I don't like the situation that we're in at all," Andersen said. "But we'll get a coach in here that is excited about Wisconsin football and wants to be here in the worst way, and he'll do a tremendous job. We'll rebound very quickly. But it's a little taxing on some young men. It's taxing on myself because I feel like I did a poor job. I'll point that finger right at myself. We'll make it right for them and very, very soon."
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