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Wisconsin football assistant coach profiles: offensive line coach Bob Bostad

An overview of Wisconsin assistant coach Bob Bostad, who has one of the most impressive resumes on the entire Badgers coaching staff.

Matt Belz

In this story:

The Wisconsin Badgers football coaching staff underwent an uncharacteristically high amount of change since the team beat Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 30.

With several new coaches on the staff, and multiple retained coaches shifting responsibilities, All Badgers will spend the next week providing an overview of each position coach on head coach Paul Chryst's coaching staff.

Previously covered position coaches:

Next up, we profile Wisconsin offensive line coach Bob Bostad, who brings a wealth of experience to the position group. 

Wisconsin offensive line coach Bob Bostad speaking with his position group during spring practice.  :: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

Name: Bob Bostad

Role: Offensive line coach/offensive run game coordinator

Hometown: Pardeeville, Wisconsin

Alma mater: University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point

Years at Wisconsin: Bob Bostad is entering his sixth season with the Badgers under Paul Chryst, though he was an offensive assistant at Wisconsin from 2006 to 2011 too. Next year will be his twelfth season in Madison between the two stints.

Previous coaching experience: Bostad is one of the most experienced coaches on the staff. While he has overseen multiple positions over the course of his career, the bulk of his work has come along the offensive line. In total, Bostad has 24 years of experience coaching the o-line at the college and NFL levels, with 33 years of coaching experience in all.

Bostad began coaching UW-Stevens Point as an offensive line coach in 1990. He then went on to work as a graduate assistant at Minnesota for a couple of years before bouncing between Cal State Northridge, San Jose State, and New Mexico as a full-time offensive line coach.

Bostad's big break came in 2006 when he joined Bret Bielema at Wisconsin to mentor the tight ends. After two years on staff, Bostad transitioned over to coach the offensive line, a role he held from 2008 to 2011. During that four-year span, Wisconsin's o-line play was phenomenal, and as a result, Bostad was hired away by the NFL. He would go on to coach in the league from 2012 to 2015, spending two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and two seasons with the Tennessee Titans.

After a coaching change in Tennessee, Bostad spent one season coaching the tight ends at Northern Illinois, before returning to coach the inside linebackers at Wisconsin in 2017.

Bostad transitioned back to the offensive line this off-season, taking over for Joe Rudolph, who left for Virginia Tech after the 2021 season. 

Playing career: Bostad was a linebacker at UW-Stevens Point, playing from 1986 to 1989. He started all four years and was an All-Conference selection each season. 

As a recruiter: Bostad has a knack for identifying and developing talent, regardless of the position group, but his resume along the offensive line is incredibly impressive. Throughout his time with the Badgers alone, he has coached 11 first-team All-Americans and had a hand in recruiting essentially all of them.

Bostad takes a direct, but personable, approach to his recruiting efforts, which tends to resonate with the offensive linemen he targets. He oversees offensive line recruiting at a national level for the Badgers and takes a regional approach to recruiting the states of Minnesota and Indiana.

Bostad is one of Wisconsin's top recruiters, helping reload the inside linebacker room the past few seasons, and his offensive lines from 2008 to 2011 at Wisconsin were some of the best in program history.

Some of the notable players he was the primary recruiter for include:

  • Josh Oglesby (five-star OL)
  • Joe Tippmann (four-star OL)
  • Kaden Johnson (four-star OLB)
  • Jordan Kahout (four-star DL)
  • Jack Sanborn (four-star ILB)
  • Beau Allen (three-star DL)
  • Leo Chenal (three-star ILB)
  • Peter Konz (three-star OL)
  • Jordan Turner (three-star ILB)
  • Kevin Zietler (three-star OL)
  • Travis Frederick (three-star OL)

Coaching trends: Bob Bostad has hit the ground running since reassuming the role of offensive line coach at Wisconsin. A hard-nosed and fiery coach, he increased the pace and workload for his position group in the spring. For each penalty, Bostad had the line run after each spring practice, and the offensive line rarely took breaks between circuits. The o-line cycled through quickly and efficiently during individual drills.

Additionally, Bostad did away with rotating players and cross-training different positions in the spring, which were both staples of Joe Rudolph's approach. Instead, Bostad worked with each player to identify the best role for them, and he left players at the position all spring to allow for quicker learning and more reps at one spot.

Based on the production of his offensive lines back with Bret Bielema as head coach and Paul Chryst as offensive coordinator, I have little doubt that Bostad's methods will bring about improvement in 2022. The Badgers still have some question marks, specifically at right tackle, but given the talent level of the group, and the old-school approach with which Bostad coaches, the Wisconsin offensive line is in great hands.

Bostad was a key part of back-to-back Big Ten Championship teams during his first stint with Wisconsin and helped produce some of the best rushing attacks in Big Ten history. The hope is that he will have a similar impact beginning this season. 

Four miscellaneous facts:

  • His father, also named Bob Bostad, was a long-time high school coach in the state of Wisconsin and is a member of the UW-Stevens Point Hall of Fame and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
  • Bob Bostad has coached 14 NFL Draft picks with the Badgers, including three first-round draft picks on the offensive line.
  • Drafted tight ends Owen Daniels, Garrett Graham, and Travis Beckum all played for Bostad from 2006 to 2007.
  • At one point, three of Bostad's former offensive linemen were the highest-paid players in the NFL at their position. Rick Wagner at right tackle, Travis Frederick at the center, and Kevin Zeitler at guard. 

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Matt Belz
MATT BELZ

Title: Publisher, Beat Writer for AllBadgers.com, a Sports Illustrated Channel Hello, my name is Matt Belz, and I am the site manager at All Badgers. I previously wrote for multiple years at Buckeyes 5th Quarter and have been the leading publisher here since March of 2022.  When I am not covering the Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball teams, I enjoy being outside and spending time with family and friends.  You can follow everything I write about on several different platforms. First and foremost on our site...AllBadgers.com You can follow me personally on Twitter at @savedbythebelz or check out our Facebook page at Wisconsin FanNation on Sports Illustrated.

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