Badger Coaching Carousel -- Two More Candidates

I wrote about potential candidates to replace Bret Bielema earlier this week. There's a good list of potential candidates at this website as well, including a few that would be amusing if nothing else -- how about Jim Tressel? If nothing else, that would take the Wisconsin/Ohio State rivalry into the stratosphere. I doubt that will happen, of course.

Here's what we know at this point:

• Butch Jones apparently is out of the mix, as he's reportedly taken the job at Colorado.
• Purdue hired Darrell Hazell, the coach at Kent State, for its open position.
• Barry Alvarez is going to coach the Badgers in the Rose Bowl.

There are at least two potential candidates that have surfaced in the last day or so. Both are intriguing for different reasons. Here they are:

Up and comer

Willie Taggart. Currently the coach at Western Kentucky. He's been successful and has a background with the Harbaugh family, which is currently a hot brand in the coaching biz. Apparently has talked to UW officials. He's young and ambitious -- at 36, he'd be the youngest coach in the Big Ten. He's an intriguing possibility.

Proven winner

Chris Petersen. The highly successful coach at Boise State is reportedly a candidate as well. He's gone 83-8 at Boise and has take the Broncos to national prominence. At this point, though, you have to wonder what more he can accomplish there. Boise State is supposed to join the Big East, which is as geographically offensive as the blue turf at Boise is aesthetically. Petersen is a hell of a game day coach and has been able to find all manner of overachievers to play for him, which is the sort of player you're going to get at Wisconsin. It would make a lot of sense for Petersen to leave now, but will he? And if he's thinking about leaving, would it make more sense to go to another place with more resources, i.e., Tennessee? This would be a good hire if Alvarez could come up with the right package.

We'll keep watching this matter.