Larkin grad Rose Bowl-bound with Badgers
Coaching in bowl games is really nothing new to Elgin native Dave Huxtable.
Coaching in the Rose Bowl, though? Now that's something new.
Now in his 29th year as a college football coach, the 1975 graduate of Larkin High School will be on the sidelines Monday coaching a bowl team in the Granddaddy of them all.
And all it took was leaving the balmy climate of Orlando, Fla., for Madison, Wis.
Huxtable is in his first year as the linebackers coach at Wisconsin, which will take its No. 9 ranking to Pasadena Monday to take on No. 6 Oregon.
A year ago, Huxtable was the defensive coordinator at Central Florida, helping the Knights beat Georgia in the Liberty Bowl. He was at UCF for seven years, the last three as defensive coordinator for head coach George O'Leary, whom Huxtable worked for at Georgia Tech from 1992-97.
But when the opportunity came to coach closer to home and with a Top 10 program, Huxtable jumped at the offer from the Badgers.
“I'd been in Florida seven years and both my kids were gone and out of the house,” said Huxtable, referring to his daughter (Shea) and son (Jake). “I loved it in Florida and UCF was good to me. Coach O'Leary and I had a good run together.
“I just felt I had the need, and I got the itch, to do something else.”
It didn't take long after being offered the linebackers job by Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema for Huxtable and his wife, Vicky, to make the decision to move north.
“I had been away from family for a long long time,” said Huxtable, whose mother, Anna, lives in Huntley, with a brother (Greg) in Huntley, another brother (Jeff) in St. Charles and a sister (Lee Ann) living near Madison.
“And what a great program. Big Ten champs. Rose Bowl. A Top Ten team. I was excited for the change and the opportunity,” Huxtable added.
The Badgers' linebacking corps has taken to their new coach as well. Wisconsin has the second best scoring defense in the Big Ten. The pass defense, third in the nation, was No. 1 in the Big Ten. Junior Mike Taylor and sophomore Chris Borland were the top two tacklers in the Big Ten this season, with Taylor's 10.5 stops per game ranking No. 13 in the country.
“I'm really blessed to have some good players,” Huxtable said. “They're not only good players but they have a passion for the game and they know the hard work that has to go into it.”
Leaving a coordinator's job wasn't easy for Huxtable, who was recently named national linebackers coach of the year by footballscoop.com. He has gone from calling the shots on defense back to a positional coach. But he has coached linebackers his entire career, which made the transition easier.
“It was hard for me to give up the coordinator's position,” said Huxtable, a 1979 Eastern Illinois graduate who also has coached at Iowa State, Western Kentucky, Oklahoma State, North Carolina and East Carolina in his career.
“I was very close to those defensive players down there, and that was really neat. But I know the opportunity will come again to be a coordinator and I want that opportunity. I wouldn't have left my situation in Florida for just anything, but the University of Wisconsin is a special place.”
With only one senior linebacker on Wisconsin's roster, Huxtable has high hopes for for the future of his unit.
“I've got a whole group of young guys I'm really excited about,” said Huxtable, who has coached two first-round NFL draft choices in his career, Robert Jones (East Carolina, Dallas 1991) and Keith Brooking (Georgia Tech, Atlanta 1997).
Despite growing up in Elgin, where he played football for the legendary Ray Haley at Larkin, Huxtable admits he misses the Florida weather.
“Oh yeah,” he laughed, “I definitely miss the weather. I still wear my shorts on days nobody else does, and I get teased a lot for it.”
Fortunately for Huxtable, he should be quite comfortable in his shorts on the Rose Bowl sidelines come Monday.
Editor's note: Dave Huxtable is a cousin of our writer, John Radtke.