Wisconsin Football Coaches Are Barred From A Prominent High School Over A Beef With the Coach

We’ll start with the best part of this, which is the quote from St. Xavier (Ohio) High School coach Steve Specht, who has gotten all kinds of sideways with the Wisconsin coaching staff.

From Land of 10:

"“I haven’t spoken to any of those coaches,” Specht said recently. “That’s why Chase’s commitment is so strange. Coach and I had a little falling out when he was the head coach at Pitt. Let’s just say some things happened with an old player of mine. He and I still have not spoken. I have not spoken to anyone from Wisconsin. Currently, they are not allowed into St. Xavier High School until Coach Chryst calls me and helps make this right. “I don’t have anything against the university. I’ve sent kids to play there. But Coach Chryst and I, he needs to make some things right with me. And he’s never done that because of something that happened at Pitt.”"

You’re wondering about Chase and his commitment. This is for good reason, because the Chase in this case is St. Xavier quarterback Chase Wolf, who the Badgers managed to sign despite not being allowed to visit Wolf’s high school.

Now, the back story.

This all started in 2011, when another of Specht’s players, who Land of 10 identified as offensive lineman Brandyn Cook, committed to play for Pitt. At the time, Pitt’s coach was Todd Graham, but he soon left, and his replacement was Paul Chryst, who is now at Wisconsin.

Well, Graham and Chryst run different offenses, and Chryst told Cook he was too small to play in the system Pitt would be running, and should go someplace else, which he did, landing at Miami (Ohio).

"Chryst also said he apologized to Specht for the situation involving Cook “right away” when he arrived at Pittsburgh and once more at a later date. “We want to try to do it the right way,” Chryst said. “And we wanted to do it the right way for that kid when we first went to Pitt and knew it wasn’t a fit. And then you’re like, ‘OK, then it is what it is.’”"

This is not necessarily a huge problem for Wisconsin, but it would be good to patch it up. St. Xavier is one of the best high school football programs in the country, turning out FBS players on a regular basis. That includes one of the top prospects in the 2020 class, Paris Johnson, who has 35 scholarship offers.

Just not from Wisconsin.

"“I have nothing against Wisconsin. The university is fantastic. The football program speaks for itself. I just have differences with Paul Chryst. And I would love for him to call me and talk to me about my differences, but he refuses to do that.”"