Barry Alvarez's reaction to Wisconsin hiring Shawn Eichorst speaks volumes

The Wisconsin Badgers have recently replaced departed athletic director Chris McIntosh and hired Shawn Eichorst as the new head of athletics. McIntosh was the heir apparent for Barry Alvarez (The best athletic director in Wisconsin history), but didn't quite live up to the gold standard. Now, Wisconsin turns to another person who was in the Alvarez tree, Eichorst.

Eichorst was a deputy athletic director for Alvarez back when Alvarez held the reins. Eichorst took a few twists on his way back to Wisconsin, but he arrived, and Alvarez is thrilled. Barry joined ESPN Milwaukee and shared his genuine thoughts about the hire. "I don't know where you could've found a better person for that position."

Barry Alvarez gives a glowing endorsement for Wisconsin new athletic director Shawn Eichorst

Related: Shawn Eichorst channels Barry Alvarez to send needed Wisconsin message to the fanbase

Alvarez digs into the twists of Eichorst's time through the athletic circles. He loves the experience with Wisconsin and Texas. But also thinks his time at Nebraska, "even though it didn't work out," was valuable experience. He needed this exact experience to grow and become a better athletic director. And this seems to be the big point.

There are really two sides to the Eichorst hire. There are the glass-half-full people who are pointing to his time at Texas and showcasing how he knows how to deal with the modern world of college athletics. How he fundraised money, helped create new systems, walked fully into a pay-for-play system with student athletes, and how Eichorst helped transition the Longhorns from the Big 12 to the SEC. All that is valuable and exactly what Wisconsin needs. Everything Eichorst was doing at Texas is exactly what Wisconsin hasn't been great at under McIntosh.

The glass-half-empty people are pointing to his failure at Nebraska. How he wrecked a football program and how he was eventually fired. This group of pessimistic people is pointing out how the last time he was in an athletic director role, it failed. And they are not wrong. That tenure is hard to read about, even if Eichorst has explained he learned from it and made mistakes.

Alvarez seems to be part of the glass-half-full Wisconsin fans. He loves the hire of Eichorst and thinks the Texas and Wisconsin experience is the perfect fit for where Badger athletics are right now, in this season. Alvarez also doesn't shy away from sharing about how Eichorst failed at Nebraska, but instead of seeing it as only a negative, he sees it as positive. A growth opportunity, and Eichorst learned the necessary lessons.

Regardless, it's good for Wisconsin fans to hear that Alvarez trusts Eichorst. While Barry wasn't involved in the process, he still gave his stamp at the end. Sure, it didn't work out with McIntosh, who also had the Alvarez stamp; there's nobody who understands the role of Wisconsin AD quite like Alvarez, and that matters.

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