Now that Paul Chryst is the 2015–16 Badger football coach, the sports media has divined his competition for the job.

Bucky’s 5th Quarter has a few actually capable choices:

Most Surprising: Bronco Mendenhall, Head Coach, BYU

One of the more prominent applications came from Mendenhall, the current head coach at BYU. The Cougars have performed well during his 10 years in Provo, including five double-digit win campaigns. More recently, results have been less impressive, with three consecutive 8-5 seasons as an independent team (BYU left the Mountain West after the 2010 season). Earlier Monday, his team suffered a 55-48 double-overtime, post-game-brawl-inducing loss to Memphis in the Miami Beach Bowl. Mendenhall exhibited some head-scratching clock management down the stretch, burning two of BYU’s three timeouts to ice Memphis on the tying extra point attempt — with 45 seconds left in regulation.

Why would he apply for the Wisconsin job? It’s an unexpected name, but Mendenhall did get a taste of Badger football when BYU visited Camp Randall in 2013. He is also close friends with Gary Andersen. The pair know each other from their junior college playing days, and Andersen credits Mendenhall for giving him his break into coaching when the latter hired him as a defensive line coach at Northern Arizona.

Most Promising: Dave Aranda, Defensive Coordinator, Wisconsin

Aranda’s application is an encouraging sign for those hoping he will remain at Wisconsin for some time. His resume considers the 2014 season as “in progress,” but nicely sums up what he brought to the program in his first season:

Installed the 3–4 defense and guided the Badgers to a top-20 ranked defense in all four major defensive statistical categories: scoring defense (6th), total defense (7th), rushing defense (5th), and passing defense (17th). Held 5 of 13 opponents without a touchdown and seven teams to 10 points or fewer. Ranked fourth nationally in opponent third-down percentage (30.7 percent) and second in forcing three-and-outs (44.2 percent of opponent’s drives).

Another interesting find from his application: Aranda did not play football at the collegiate level, but was an all-conference offensive guard at Redlands High School (Calif.).

Most Innovative: Scott Preston, Quarterbacks Coach, Belhaven University

Working under Hal Mumme, “architect of the Air Raid offense,” Preston coached a Belhaven attack that finished second in the NAIA in passing yards. Imagine what he could accomplish with these principles at Wisconsin — the Badgers’ talented running backs would be the perfect decoys to open up the field for a devastating aerial assault. …

Most Thorough: Trevor Rubly, former Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator, Bacone College

Rubly submitted 46 pages of material.

Not on this list is Greg Schiano, formerly of Rutgers and then a disastrous two seasons at Tampa Bay. Sports Illustrated reports that Schiano has spent his year off (paid for by the Buccaneers) learning from better coaches how to be a better coach.

It is interesting that Alvarez said he was looking for a head coach to be the head coach, not an assistant, such as, well, Notre Dame defensive coordinator Barry Alvarez in 1989. (Or, for that matter, Mike Holmgren when the Packers hired him in 1992. Or, for that matter, Mike Sherman, when the Packers hired him in 2000. Or, for that matter, Mike McCarthy, when the Packers hired him in 2006.) Mendenhall would have been another Badger coach known by his first name (to go with Barry and Bo, and for that matter Mike, as in Leckrone), but Alvarez would have been rightly wary of someone not from the Midwest gazing his eyes back to the direction of his birth when opportunity arose.

Leaving aside the question of whether an NAIA assistant (from a team that was 2–9 this season) is qualified to be a Big Ten head coach, hiring Preston (who has his own website, www.TDsbyair.com) as an assistant might be fun to see someone try to adapt the pass-heavy (to say the least) Air Raid to a team that lacks a quarterback and Big Ten-capable receivers. The Don Mor(t)on experience (six wins in three seasons using the Veer from Victory offense), however, should make it obvious that you don’t win with systems or schemes, you win with players. (Alvarez recently compared the players he inherited from Mor(t)on as having NCAA Division II-level talent, which might be an understatement.)

Those could be considered the serious candidates. That doesn’t mean they were the only candidates:

Most Accomplished: Greg Miller, “Unemployed and I live with my parents,” Racine, Wis.

A UW-Madison alumnus, Miller boasts a sterling resume that includes coaching “back to back Division I National Champions on the Playstation in 1996 and 1997.” Wisconsin likely did not interview him because of the risk of him jumping to the NFL (or the latest edition of Madden).

Most Passionate: Justin Dodge, “superb yeller,” Mequon, Wis.

A Wisconsin native and the only applicant to employ a hashtag in his qualifications, Dodge seems prepared for the more mundane aspects of coaching. As a State Department intern in Moldova, he “followed lots and lots of rules, which translates well to following all those NCAA regulations” and “regularly listened to the media talk at me as I pretended to care.” Hiring Dodge might have also opened up a pipeline into the fertile recruiting grounds of the former Soviet Republic, which apparently has an American football league. …

Most Succinct: Drew Hamm, Bucky’s Fifth Quarter

B5Q’s own Drew Hamm, by contrast, presented a clear and inspiring vision for the program in one sweet sentence:

The Associated Press adds:

“Jarrad Dann, who listed his current job title as “The Man, The Myth, The Legend,” said in his application he was qualified to lead a Big Ten college football team because he is “ridiculously good” at the NCAA football game for Xbox 360.”

Fox Sports adds:

… Arturo Bonomie of Madison cited years of coaching kindergarten and first-graders in YMCA football made him a strong candidate.

Alvarez said he did not see all of the submissions — senior associate athletic director Bruce Van De Velde handled the applications. But Van De Velde did show him a few of the more humorous entries.

“He thought those were unique, to say the least,” Alvarez said. “I’ve got to tell you, I get those letters all the time. Everybody wants to work in the athletic department whether they have any experience in it or not. Everybody thinks that you just go to games and go to bowl games and celebrate wins and that’s our athletic department. So everybody thinks they can do it.” …

Alvarez noted Chryst actually submitted two applications because the first was hand-written.

Has Alvarez seen many hand-written cover letters?

“You’d be surprised what I get,” he said. “And some of the topics.”

Uniforms, perhaps? Not that Chryst (nor Bielema) has shown much interest in football uniforms (Pitt’s current dark blue/metallic gold look goes back to Chryst’s prepredecessor, Dave Wannstedt, as opposed to Pitt’s old dark blue and mustard look), but if he is interested in updating the Badgers’ look without doing dumb things like adding unneeded black or gray, then read this.