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Wisconsin’s head football coach, Gary Andersen, announced the hiring of Jeff Genyk Tuesday.
Genyk, after spending the last three seasons at California as an assistant, will coach tight ends and special teams for the Badgers, filling the position left by Jay Boulware, who left for Oklahoma last week.
“We are very excited to have Jeff, his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Jake and McKenna, become a part of the Badger family,” Andersen said in a statement. “He’s been a tight ends coach and special teams coordinator at the BCS level, as well as having head coach experience, so that made him a very attractive candidate. I’m extremely pleased we were able to get a tremendous coach like Jeff, especially given the timing of this transition.”
Genyk comes to Wisconsin after a brief stint at Nevada where he was the special teams coordinator and running backs coach. Genyk’s time at Cal as special teams and tight ends coach is full of impressive achievements.
In 2012, Genyk’s punt return team ranked third in the Pac-12 and 22nd in the nation with an average return of 11.37 yards. Cal kicker, Vincenzo D’Amato, and Cal punter, Bryan Anger, were both back-to-back first team all-Pac 12 selections.
In addition to his first team nomination, Anger was selected in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft, which was the highest selection for a punter since 1995.
Before coaching at Cal, Genyk was the head coach at Eastern Michigan from 2004 to 2008. In his first year as coach, he led the Eagles to third place in the West Division of the MAC — their best conference finish in seven years.
As was the case at Cal, the play of his special teams was among the best in the nation; his 2006 team ranked third nationally in punt return yardage defense (3.1 YPR) and 15th in the nation (5.7 YPR) the following season.
Under his watch, three players at Eastern Michigan (LB Daniel Holtzclaw, DE Jason Jones, PK Andrew Wellock) earned All-American recognition. Genyk also coached OT T.J. Lang, a fourth-round selection of the Green Bay Packers in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Genyk began his coaching career as an assistant at Grand Rapids Community College in his home state of Michigan, where he worked with quarterbacks and tight ends from 1990 to 1992. After Grand Rapids, Genyk spent 12 seasons at Northwestern (1994-2003), and was in charge of special teams during each of his final five seasons in Evanston, Ill.
Genyk was an all-state quarterback at Milan High School before moving on to Bowling Green State, where he played quarterback and punter.
The Badgers ranked sixth in the B1G and 71st in the nation in punt returns (8.2 YPR) last season.
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