MADISON - A touch after 6:00 P.M. on Sunday evening, Wisconsin announced the firing of Paul Chryst. Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard will step into his place as interim head coach.

“After a heartfelt and authentic conversation with Coach Chryst about what is in the long-term best interest of this football program, I have concluded that now is the time for a change in leadership,” athletic director Chris McIntosh said in a statement. “I also have confidence in Jim Leonhard to guide the program for the remainder of the season. There is still a lot of season left to play and I know Jim will do a great job while the program is under his leadership.”

While it still comes as a shocking move for the program, there are definitive moments in the past few years that have altered perceptions about Chryst and led to his eventual firing. Below, BadgerBlitz.com takes a look at the key occurrences that got Wisconsin’s 27th football coach fired.

When evaluating Chryst, we need to start from the ground up. In 2018, a few years into his tenure, Wisconsin reeled in the 40th ranked recruiting class in the nation. Respectable, but not exactly competitive in the Big Ten. Then, Wisconsin started to get hot on the recruiting trail. They strung together classes ranked 27th, 28th and 14th in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. The 2021 class, which featured Nolan Rucci, Braelon Allen, Hunter Wohler, and Riley Mahlman, was the highest ranked in program history.

What happened afterwards can be seen as a failure on multiple levels. For starters, the Badgers let much of their recruiting mojo sizzle out. In 2022, immediately following Wisconsin’s historic class, the Badgers were back to 46th in the country, good for a lowly 12th in the Big Ten. Rutgers, Illinois, and Maryland, among others, finished ahead of Wisconsin. Time hasn’t quite run out on the 2023 class, but it currently sits at 55th nationally. Between 2022 and 2023, Wisconsin has lured two blue chip recruits to Madison. In 2021 alone, they had nine. How, after reaching a new peak in recruiting, did the Badgers veer in the wrong direction so quickly?

What’s more, what does Wisconsin have to show for their impressive recruiting run that culminated in 2021? This is the second season on campus for recruits from that class. These past two seasons, to this point, have been major disappointments. By recruiting pedigree alone, this could be the most talented team Wisconsin has ever assembled. As the quality of players Wisconsin has improves, it’s reasonable to expect their on-field results to do the same. Chryst hasn’t been able to make that the case.