Why the Badgers hired Eric Mateos as their latest OL coach

Nov 8, 2025; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell during the game against the Washington Huskies at Camp Randall Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images The Wisconsin Badgers have long been a school revered for developing offensive line talent, sending many players to the NFL to be star players. But, over the last few years, they’ve seen quite a bit of inconsistency there, both from a players and a coaches perspective.

Wisconsin has seen offensive line coach changes quite often over the past few years, and they made another this offseason, replacing AJ Blazek with former Arkansas Razorbacks offensive line coach Eric Mateos. In the final year of the Paul Chryst era, the Badgers had Bob Bostad as their offensive line coach. That moved to Jack Bicknell Jr.

in Year 1 of the Luke Fickell era. He was replaced by Blazek after one season, who was now replaced by Mateos after two years. Mateos has a strong pedigree as an offensive line coach, having been an offensive line coach at multiple stops over the past decade.

That includes a couple of stints with offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes, which made the move to Madison a sensible one. “He and I go back to him being my GA first at LSU and then my line coach at two other places along the way,” Grimes said about Mateos. “And so there are a lot of things that we do that he and I sort of came up with together.