Badger fan here. Season ticket holder for about 30 years now. Read this post and thought I would respond.
Anderson was basically hired when BB left because Barry was impressed with his team (Utah St) when they almost beat us earlier that year. He came in saying how he was going to keep everything the same - emphasis on the run, big offensive line, physical play on both sides of the ball. Recruit kids from Wisconsin and coach em up.
As he ran the program for two years, it became very clear to everyone he was not doing what he said he would, and he was not a match for our program.
1.) High school coaches around the state hated him. He never gave them the time of day and didn't recruit many Wisconsin kids.
2.) He wanted to change the program to more of a Baylor like offensive run and shoot. That didn't fit us. Alumni disliked him.
3.) He wanted to rebuild the program by recruiting JUCO transfers and other kids that couldn't get admitted to the school. We lost a ton of recruits who committed to us and then were denied admission due to grades. University administrators did not like him.
4.) He was not a very good coach in developing talent or managing games. The reason we won under him was leftover players from previous coaching staff.
An example of what I mean. If you watched the UW-Michigan game, you saw Michigan's DL dominate our offensive line. Our starters at the beginning of the year were three redshirt sophomores, redshirt freshman, and new transfer (junior eligibility). When Anderson got here, we were Offensive Lineman University. Beginning of last year the cupboard was bare and we had to start over (couple injuries hurt us too). It will be another 1 - 2 years until we are back where we were.
The only good thing he did here was hire Aranda - who is one hell of a coach. Had he not left he would have been fired the next year. It was not micro-managing or staff pay level, it was performance.
