Paul Chryst’s father kept it simple.
Have fun and play the game, he would tell his football-mad sons before they suited up.
So what advice would his late father have dispensed right before Chryst takes the field Saturday night against Alabama in his first game as Wisconsin’s head coach?
Have fun and coach the game, Chryst figured, which he said includes “respecting the game and playing it the right way.”
And then Chryst, in a private moment this week at Camp Randall Stadium, added: “He’d probably be worried if I was asking him for advice right before the game. He’d say, ‘We’re in trouble!’ “
George Chryst was a high school coach in Madison when Paul, the second-youngest of five children, was born. George became an assistant at Wisconsin in 1972 under John Jardine, and the family lived six blocks from the stadium.
Asked for his earliest football memories, the 49-year-old Chryst replied, “When my dad was an assistant here.”
In 1979, George became head coach at Wisconsin-Platteville and is credited with persuading the Bears to move their training camp there in 1984.
He died in his sleep in 1992 from anaphylactic shock brought on, it is believed, by a combination of oily foods. He was 55.
Chryst said he thinks about his father nearly every day, especially now that he is coaching at their alma mater. He wishes his father could have been there Sunday to help grandson Danny move into freshman housing at Wisconsin.
“That’s the neat thing about being back here,” Chryst said. “Even when I’m on the road recruiting, his name comes up quite a bit.”
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What Chryst doesn’t want is his name to come up much once the Badgers and Crimson Tide square off at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“It’s not about me,” Chryst said repeatedly. “This is a big game. And it’s probably happening because of what both programs have done in previous years.”
Chryst is patient, warm to visitors, understated and prefers to deflect attention from himself. He’s basically the opposite of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, the other new Big Ten coach roaming the sideline for his alma mater.
Asked a general question about his new coach, stud tailback Corey Clement went straight to football.
“Coach Chryst has a philosophy of run first, pass second,” he said. “I love that, of course.”
Chryst served as Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator before his three-year stint as head coach at Pittsburgh, where he went 19-19.
Quarterback Joel Stave said there’s little difference between Chryst the quarterbacks coach (2006-11) and Chryst the head coach.
“In our meetings he’ll go through routes and reads just like before,” Stave said. “That’s what he enjoys about coaching — teaching and going through the plays.”
Athletic director Barry Alvarez called Chryst “a football purist” and said he believes Chryst learned to handle the public-relations aspects of the job at Pitt.
“I’ve been very impressed with how he has reached out to our alumni,” Alvarez said in the spring, “and done all those things he did not have to do as an assistant.”
Wisconsin heads into Saturday’s game with three new starters on its offensive line, a result of injuries in fall camp that Clement called “kind of scary.”
Scarier because Alabama’s front seven is rated among the nation’s top two (with Ohio State) by analyst Phil Steele.
Asked if he’s disappointed to be making his debut without all of his bullets, Chryst said he was frustrated for his injured players: “You see the look on their faces.”
And asked if he had consulted Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, his former boss at Wisconsin, for tips on beating an SEC West foe, Chryst gave an answer that perfectly encapsulates his personality.
“I’d rather spend time watching the tape,” he said, “than being on the phone.”
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