Jeff Genyk Named Wisconsin's New Tight Ends and Special Teams Coach

Gary Andersen moved quickly to fill the vacant role for a tight ends and special teams coach, hiring Jeff Genyk away from the same role at Cal, the Wisconsin athletic department announced Tuesday night. Well, Genyk is coming from Nevada, technically. He was hired by the Wolfpack after he was forced to leave Cal along with head coach Jeff Tedford following the 2012 season, and may have had to pull a Jay Boulware-esque move to find his way to Madison. Whatever the grimy details, he has a very intriguing resume.

Genyk's special teams units were largely hit or miss. While it's debatable how much credit you can give to any coach for kicker success, Cal did have two separate First Team All Pac-12 kicker the last two seasons, not to mention a 2011 First Team punter in Brian Anger who went on to become a third round draft pick. Keenan Allen was also one of the nation's best punt returners last season, averaging 14.1 yards per return (Jared Abbrederis averaged 6.5 yards).

Cal was less sturdy in special teams coverage, however. The punt coverage unit ranked 83rd in the nation giving up 9.63 yards per return. That's pretty blech, but not nearly as blech as the 26.85 yards per kickoff return given up, ranking 122nd out of 124 FBS teams. They ranked 34th in 2011, however, so again, the standard caveats about the impact of special teams coaches apply.

Genyk's time at Cal did overlap with offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig's two years in Berkeley, so there is a good chance that their familiarity helped facilitate the move to Madison. Genyk also has Midwest ties, having worked as an assistant coach for multiple position groups at Northwestern from 1994-2003 before taking over as the head coach at Eastern Michigan from 2004-2008. He served as the recruiting coordinator for the Wildcats for his final five years with the team, so presumably he has recruiting chops.

All in all, it sounds like Wisconsin got a pretty good catch as far TE/ST coaches go.