New coach Dave McClain came to Wisconsin with a terrific resume. A quarterback and safety at Bowling Green State, he coached in the Ohio high school ranks before returning to BGS as a GA, then was an assistant under Tom Harp at Cornell, under Bo Schembechler at Miami, at Kansas with Pepper Rodgers, and at Ohio State under Woody Hayes. As Ball State’s head coach he had compiled a solid 26-7 record. He was tough yet well-liked by his players at every stop. McClain also came to Wisconsin with a new helmet design, adding three-quarter-inch scarlet flanking stripes to the white shell, and making the white “W” logo within the red oval on each side, more of a block letter style. He improved the tally to 5-4-2 with the Badgers beating the teams they were supposed to and losing to the better conference teams. QB Mike Kalasmiki put up 1319 passing yards and the O-line featured a bona fide star in T Ray Snell. Ira Matthews again raised the excitement level with his kickoff returns and then took his talent to the Raiders from 1979 through '81 as a RB and return man. 1979’s slip to 4-7 could be chalked-up to a tough non-conference schedule but the offense was a bit inconsistent with frosh RB Chunky Davis teaming with All Big Ten FB Dave Mohapp who gained 603 yards. They still had All Conference and All American OT Ray Snell to run behind before Snell departed for the Bucs as their first-round pick, playing there for four years and then another year and change with the Steelers before finishing with a two game series with the Lions in '85. DE Dave Ahrens sparked the defense which finished ninth in the Big Ten though frosh NG Tim Krumrie who was a high school LB and had never before played as a down lineman, and DT Mark Shumate played like veterans. In 1980 Coach McClain had his second consecutive 4-7 year, and this time the offense forgot to show up. At the bottom of conference stats in passing, total offense, scoring, and a paltry 138 points scored with but 87.2 yards passing per game! RB Davis, a '79 starter, was out of school and '79 All Conference FB Dave Mohapp never recovered well from an off-season back operation, putting a damper on the rushing attack. The defense was stout, especially against the rush. NG Krumrie made 105 tackles and was Conference heavyweight wrestling champion and All Big Ten for his football play. LB Dave Ahrens was All Big Ten and moved onto a ten year NFL career with a number of teams. DT Mark Shumate had a solid season. Starting ’81 with a record of 3-0 within the conference and upsetting Michigan should have paved the way for a spectacular season. The 7-5 year wasn’t the great one it might have been, but it did serve to break an eighteen-year bowl drought and the Badgers were invited to the Garden State Bowl where they were nipped 28-21 by Tennessee. The offense behind soph QB Jess Cole and RB John Williams was second in the conference and the defense was ranked as high. Consensus All American NT Krumrie was the leader with linemate Shumate.

1982 was another 7-5 season, culminated with a 14-3 victory over Kansas State in the Independence Bowl and Head Coach McClain had the Badgers rolling. QB Randy Wright led the Big Ten in passing with 2109 yards behind a great offensive line that featured tackles Jeff Dellenbach and Kevin Belcher. WR Al Toon was an obvious talent. The big guns on the defense were DT Mark Shumate who played briefly with the Jets, All American Tim Krumire and DB David Greenwood. Greenwood starred in the USFL with Michigan and the merged Michigan and Oakland franchise before moving to the NFL for three seasons. Krumrie set long standing school records for career tackles with 444 and solo stops with 276, had a tremendous career for the Bengals and has since earned a reputation as a tough, expert defensive line coach in the NFL. LB Jim Melka led the squad with 118 tackles. The 7-4 season in ‘83 was highlighted by QB Wright throwing to triple-jump champion WR Toon. Toon’s 252 yards in receptions vs. Purdue was the national high for the season and he set school records by pulling in forty-five catches for 861 yards. Wright graduated to a five year career with the Packers, RB Gary Ellerson’s 777 yards paced the squad and he added eleven TD’s as Wisconsin placed fifth in scoring nationally with 32.6 points per game. Wisconsin closed the ’84 season with a 4-0-1 mark and was considered one of the best teams in the country. Only a slow start forced a 7-4-1 record that included a 20-19 loss to Kentucky in the Hall Of Fame Classic. The final four wins came with leading rusher Larry Emery on the bench but with tackles Jeff Dellenbach whose fourteen year pro career was spent primarily with the Dolphins and finished with the championship teams of the Packers, and Kevin Belcher, a future Raider and Bronco to run behind, all the backs looked good. RB Ellerson had a few seasons with the Packers and Lions while center Dan Turk who had transferred in from Drake, became a pillar for the Raiders in a long NFL career. The big gun was WR Toon who was the Jets first draft pick and played spectacularly from 1985 through ’92 until his career was cut short by concussion injury. Two other first round picks were DT Darryl Sims and CB Richard Johnson who headed an excellent secondary. Sims went to the Steelers and Johnson to the Oilers where he played well through 1992. LB’s Jim Melka and Rick Graf stood out. Graf was part of a very talented group that McClain had assembled and he later played for the Dolphins and two other teams in the NFL. As the Badgers went past the suspension helmet era, they had mixed fortunes. Tragically, on April 28, 1986, McClain suffered a fatal cardiac arrest while using the sauna in the Wisconsin athletic facility. Extremely popular with his peers and players, the university’s newly constructed athletic facility was named in his honor as was the Big Ten Coach Of The Year Award. Assistant Jim Hilles could not keep the staff or talented squad focused and closed with a 3-9 record before being replaced by Don Morton. Three years later, AD Pat Richter brought in Barry Alvarez from Notre Dame and Wisconsin was once again, a consistent Rose Bowl contender.