'Worse than a high school locker room': Barry Alvarez hated playing at Northwestern

Wisconsin is a 7-point favorite at Northwestern this week.

Oct 12, 2013; Madison, WI, USA; Northwestern Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald talks with Wisconsin Badgers athletic coordinator Barry Alvarez prior to the game at Camp Randall Stadium. Wisconsin won 35-6. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Wisconsin is a 7-point favorite to go on the road and beat Northwestern on Saturday, but former Badgers head coach and athletics director Barry Alvarez warns that playing the Wildcats on their turf can be a challenging experience.

It might be even more difficult since Northwestern demolished its longtime home, Ryan Field, and is playing at a temporary stadium located on the shore of Lake Michigan in Evanston. We don't know what the locker rooms are like at the temporary stadium, but they probably can't be worse than what Alvarez remembers at Ryan Field.

"It was bad enough when they thought it was good," Alvarez said Monday on ESPN Madison's The Great Dane Huddle. "That was a tough place to play. The locker room's worse than a high school locker room. I hated to go down there. It was a downer. It was a bummer. And they're always a good team and they're well coached and you're going into like your old high school locker room. It's like a step back. We didn't play well down there."

Wisconsin (4-2) is coming off two wins over Purdue and Rutgers in which they outscored their Big Ten foes 94-13. Northwestern (3-3) won the turnover battle 4-0 and wound up crushing Maryland 37-10 on Saturday, doing so despite being dominated in virtually every other facet of the game.

Alvarez loved how Wisconsin played in the blowout win at Rutgers.

"That was as complete a game as we've had around here in a long time," Alvarez said. "Complete victory, all phases of the game played especially well. Hard to do."

Are the Badgers back?

"I don't think after one game you say they're back. You have to see consistency. Come back this week and let's do the same thing this week at Northwestern, which has been a tough place for us to play as long as I've been there," Alvarez said.