Bobby April III replaced Tim Tibesar as outside linebackers coach in 2018, when UW also hired Jon Budmayr to work with quarterbacks as new NCAA legislation allowed a 10th assistant.

Those moves are all that have been made since Chryst assembled his inaugural UW staff in 2015, but this is the first time since no changes have taken place in any offseason.

Rudolph, Settle, Haering, Inoke Breckterfield (defensive line), Ted Gilmore (wide receivers) and Mickey Turner (tight ends) remain from Chryst’s original corps of assistants.

Twelve of 14 Big Ten Conference teams have at least one new voice on the 11-person coaching staff this season. UW and Michigan State are the exceptions, and the Spartans shuffled roles for seven assistants since last year.

“Every program strives to have continuity,” Gilmore said. “Whether it’s one guy, two guys, three guys, when you don’t have those changes, then you can focus on what you need to get better as opposed to someone learning what you do.”

Comfort and communication emerge from time working together, said Budmayr, who played at UW and was a graduate assistant for Chryst at Pittsburgh.

“You spend so much time working and you trust the person that is working on the same side of the ball as you, on the opposite side of ball as you, Chris with the special teams,” Budmayr said. “You trust that the plan that they’re working to put in and to create is as good of a plan as we can have. And then you bring it all together and you bounce ideas off of each other. Some things stick, some things you throw out. But there’s the stuff that does stick, and it’s all of our job to make it come to life.”

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.