Chris Dokish is reporting that Joe Rudolph will be joining Paul Chryst’s football staff.

That makes Bostad, Huxtable and Rudolph on the new staff and Wisconsin feels quite raided.

Rudolph is considered an excellent recruiter. Considering Chryst and Bostad do not have reputations for such skills, this is a big deal.

Rudolph’s position on the staff is not yet known. He coached the Tight Ends at Wisconsin, but had just been promoted to O-line coach.

Once more to the BBVA Compass Bowl. Once more the run up to the game has been largely ignored by the fans in favor of basketball (not in a good way this time) and the future head coaching situation. Unlike last year, the coach who will be running things next year is in place on the eve of the bowl.

In the best of times, the BBVA Bowl is largely an ignored and at best a curiosity. A very minor bowl that is on a Saturday afternoon after the BCS Bowls, but before the BCS Championship game. Even worse, competing with the start of the NFL playoffs.

Well I may not have written much this week about the actual game, but the liveblog will be running. Apathy Bowl, part 2.

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It’s officially bad. More of the same.

Coach Jamie Dixon shook up the line-up and the rotations for this game. John Johnson got the start over Cameron Wright and Talib Zanna over Dante Taylor. After a poor minute to start the game, Pitt seemed to find its footing and began to look like they were figuring things out.

John Johnson looked good running things more. Nailed an early 3. Dished well. Even drew two offensive fouls in the first five minutes.

Zanna was cleaning up inside on the offensive glass, and even handling inside passes.

J.J. Moore was aggressive but not reckless. He attacked the basket rather than settling for jumpers.

Taylor showed some fire coming off the bench in limited minutes.

Heck, even Isiah Epps looked competent for a few minutes.

Lamar Patterson and Ashton Gibbs were the only ones struggling in the first half. Patterson was taking mostly good shots, but they were rimming out. Gibbs just continued what we have all seen from him since Tray Woodall went down. Not getting space. Confidence shaken and just putting up some questionable shots.

Pitt was attacking constantly. Getting through the press better and drawing the fouls.

It even seemed the defense was looking better. They held the Blue Demons to only 35.6%. Even the turnovers didn’t seem that bad, since DePaul had just as many.

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