After a month’s worth of assistant attrition, Bret Bielema is continuing the process of rebuilding his Wisconsin coaching staff.
In a press release, UW confirmed previous reports by announcing the hiring of Mike Markuson as the Badgers’ offensive line coach. Markuson comes to Wisconsin after spending the past 14 seasons in the SEC.
“Mike brings experience of having success at the highest levels of college football,” Bielema said in a statement. “The production of his offensive line units and the offenses he has been associated with is very impressive. He has coached a number of players who have earned national honors and gone on to the NFL. Being from Minnesota, he brings the Midwest values that we’re looking for and he’s very excited about the opportunity to be the offensive line coach at the University of Wisconsin.”
Markuson had spent the past four seasons at Ole Miss as Houston Nutt‘s line coach as well as a running-game coordinator and co-offensive coordinator at various points. Prior to that, he was an assistant at Arkansas from 1998-2007.
“I’m very thankful to two people, Coach Bielema and Coach Alvarez,” Markuson said. “I go back with Coach Alvarez to 1989 when I was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame and when I was interested in the job, I had Coach (Houston) Nutt call him and that really got the ball rolling.
“Coach Bielema has taken the reigns from Coach Alvarez and really continued the tradition of success at Wisconsin and I’m just so excited to be a part of it. It’s great to be able to get back home, I’m a Minnesota guy, and my family and I are thrilled to be back in the Midwest and in the Big Ten.”
Markuson will replace Bob Bostad, who was one of a handful of UW assistants hired by Paul Chryst after the former Badgers offensive coordinator accepted the head-coaching job at Pittsburgh.
(Photo credit: UW Athletics)