Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez has a deep respect for Rutgers football coach Chris Ash.

(Mary Langenfeld | USA Today Sports)

PISCATAWAY -- For a four-season period from 1986 to '90, Wisconsin won a total of nine football games. Enter Barry Alvarez, the now-College Football Hall of Fame coach who had the Badgers on the cusp of bowl-eligibility in Year 2 and in the Rose Bowl in Year 4.

"We were in bad shape at Wisconsin,'' Alvarez said. "The facilities were terrible. The state coaches had lost confidence.''

Fielding questions from a select group of media Friday evening prior to serving as the keynote speaker at the Rutgers Football Coaches Clinic, Alvarez understood the parallels being drawn between the Wisconsin program he turned into a perennial Big Ten contender and the one new Scarlet Knights coach Chris Ash inherits following a 4-8 campaign marred by off-field turmoil.

"He's probably a little further along than we were when I got there,'' said Alvarez, who has spent the past decade as Wisconsin Athletics Director after compiling a 117-74-4 record in 16 seasons as the Badgers head football coach. "We really had to start from scratch. When you are an assistant coach like I was and you go to a Division I school in a big conference like Chris did, you have to take bad jobs and make them good. He's been trained very well. He's been under some very good coaches. He knows the plan and how to get it done.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.