BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — As a young coach, Joe Rudolph derived inspiration from another man's anguish, Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who wrote about life in an Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.
Not standard reading for someone in Rudolph's profession.
But shortly after joining the Wisconsin staff the first time — as an assistant under Bret Bielema in 2008 — Rudolph picked up Frankl's book, "Man's Search for Meaning" and couldn't put it down.
Frankl's critically-acclaimed memoir was originally published in 1946 and sold over 10 million copies before his death in 1997. "It's a really deep, tough book to get through," Rudolph conceded.
The book review came up in response to a question about his literary tastes.
Noting that he used to rummage through old psychology books, he said, "I really like reading. You can adapt certain mindsets that can help you as a coach … things you can share with the guys."
The 45-year-old Rudolph is now in his second tour of duty as an UW assistant and closing out his third season as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach under Paul Chryst.
Although he's more comfortable and adept at breaking down a 3-technique as opposed to delving into existential analysis, Rudolph has an appreciation for some of Frankl's theories.
"Between stimulus and response," Rudolph paraphrased, "lies the freedom to choose."
This is another side, a more pensive side to Rudolph, a member of Barry Alvarez's first recruiting class and a starting left guard on the 1993 Big Ten championship team that won the Rose Bowl.
"He was really tenacious as a player," Alvarez said of the Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, native. "He was into it, smart and analytic in his thinking, and athletic for a guard. He actually came here as a linebacker."
During the '93 season, Rudolph was the "pulling" guard on an offensive line that featured tackles Mike Verstegen and Joe Panos, center Cory Raymer and right guard Steve Stark.
"We probably ran 100 powers, at least that many, and we ran all but one with Rudy pulling," Alvarez said. "He would finish stuff. If he could get an extra shot on somebody, he'd take it."
During a player survey that appeared in the 1994 Wisconsin media guide, Rudolph's answers shed some light on his personality and future goals as a senior captain and zoology major.
When I played football as a kid, I pretended I was … "Lynn Swann."
I never told anyone that … "I took piano lessons."
People wouldn't believe me if I told them … "I enjoy reading Shakespeare."
Craziest ambition … "Owning an Italian restaurant."
In 20 years, I would like to be … "A successful doctor."
Pre-med was a serious consideration. But the NFL became a reality. After a short stint in Philadelphia, Rudolph appeared in six games, with one start, for the San Francisco 49ers in 1997.
"I got to play a little bit, right?" he said. "And then I got sick — really pretty darn sick."
Rudolph had a negative reaction to an anti-inflammatory that he took for a sore shoulder.
"It just ruined my stomach," he said. "It wrecked me and my whole digestive tract. It created something that I may have had some disposition towards. It was hard to get over the hump."
Within a couple of months, Rudolph's weight dropped from a little over 300 pounds to 240.
"I was now in the world of medications," he said. "I'm taking 20 pills a day and thinking, 'What am I doing?' I saw one doctor and he tells me that he can take my intestines out. It was a tough time."
And it would only get tougher on Rudolph, who returned to Pennsylvania. He kept losing weight, dropping down to 215, a growing cause for concern. He just didn't feel good, period.
"My dad passed away during that time," he recounted. "And my mom had been sick and we found out she had breast cancer that was pretty advanced."
During this low point, he read a book that would change his life. The author was Elaine Gottschall who wrote, "Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet."
Gottschall outlined the benefits of a Specific Carbohydrate Diet for people who were dealing with such things as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis and celiac disease.
"I don't know if it's for everyone," Rudolph said. "But it made sense in my brain and it helped me. You take things out of your diet that allows your digestive tract to heal up a little bit.
"White sugar, white flour is pretty much what you tried to eliminate. I adopted the diet and since 1997, I've been doing it. I haven't eaten bread or a cookie or anything like that.
"It took me three years to feel good again. After that, I've never been sick again. And I've been on the diet since. Oh, I've cheated. Ice cream night. But I'm smart enough to get right back on it."
While changing his eating habits back then, Rudolph underwent some other personal changes.
"During that time, I got to be with my mom and take care of her," he said. "I got to coach high school ball at Belle Vernon and I went back and got my master's degree."
Belle Vernon is less than an hour from Pittsburgh where Rudolph completed work on his master's in business administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
"Going to business school was as much about needing a challenge as it was finding a direction," he said. "And when I finished I realized the impact that Wisconsin had on me.
"When things were the hardest, I leaned back on just working hard and doing what I could control to be the best me. It was taking care of family, doing the diet and coaching kids.
"It wasn't easy, but you realized if you put in the hard work every day consistently, there will be that shining light at the end. I realized if I coached I could share that and help guys experience that."
Rudolph started calling around to find a graduate assistant job. He got a call back and an offer from Ohio State's Jim Tressel, whose defensive coordinator was Mel Tucker.
Rudolph and Tucker were teammates at Wisconsin. Tucker put in a good word for Rudolph, who worked two years as a GA and a third year as a strength coordinator for the Buckeyes.
"I learned a ton," Rudolph said of his apprenticeship with Tressel. "Mostly, I learned how to get out of my comfort zone at times and work with other positions. It was good for me."
Tressel certainly didn't have any complaints. "Jim told me that he was one of the best coaches that he has had," Alvarez said. "He couldn't say enough good things about him."
Rudolph went from Columbus to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he was reunited with his former UW offensive line coach, Bill Callahan, who was entering his fourth season as the Cornhuskers head coach.
Callahan was already on the hot seat when Rudolph arrived in late February. Rudolph's wife Dawn gave birth to their first child in early May. And he was out of a job in late November after Callahan was fired.
It was a stressful period, but Rudolph learned more about himself as a coach, including how to block out things that were not within his control. There was a lot of self-growth, he confided.
"Coach Alvy (Alvarez) helped me when the time was right to come back here," said Rudolph, who was grateful for one door opening after another had been shut. "I don't take it for granted."
Bielema hired Rudolph to coach tight ends. Thus, he worked closely with the offensive coordinator, Chryst. Rudolph later accompanied Chryst to Pitt and then back again to Madison.
"Paul and I have worked together for a long time," Rudolph acknowledged, "and we play off each other really well and I think that's the key."
Scanning the O-line meeting room, he added, "To do it in a place where you sat in the chairs (as a player) is truly unique and to do it for a guy like Paul at this place is pretty special."
Nobody is better suited to measure Rudolph's growth as a person and coach than Alvarez, who was raised in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, not far from Rudolph's stomping grounds in Charleroi and Belle Vernon.
"When he was with the 49ers, I had Rudy talk to the team and I was shocked," Alvarez said. "I thought he was reading my notes and regurgitating all the stuff I had said when I first came in here.
"He remembered everything that we had built the foundation on when we started the program. He lives by and he preaches it to his guys now. He understands Wisconsin.
"Rudy has been able to adjust his coaching to his talent and develop kids."
This season, the Badgers have had three offensive linemen earn All-America recognition: tackles Michael Deiter and David Edwards and guard Beau Benzschawel.
"It's always reflective," Rudolph said of postseason honors. "We talk all the time when we're in this (meeting) room. There's not many guys whose pictures are on the walls that were part of 6-6 teams.
"It doesn't just happen. If you win nine or 10 games, more guys are all-conference. If you win 11 or 12 games, more guys get recognized for All-American. It's team oriented."
The Badgers recently lost a member of their coaching team when graduate assistant Al Johnson took the head coaching job at East Central University, a Division II program in Ada, Oklahoma.
"That's awesome, I'm pumped for him," Rudolph said of Johnson, a former UW offensive lineman. "I'm most pumped because he's pumped. He's excited and he'll do an outstanding job."
That begged the obvious "Rudy" question, "Do you want to be a head coach?"
"Yeah, possibly, when the time is right," Rudolph said. "I've come to appreciate fits. I've seen really good people in a not-so-good fit and it doesn't matter that they're really good at what they do.
"Finding a fit that you really can be you and do it the right way is probably the key. If I find that situation, it would be exciting. When it's right, it's right. And you can't press the time when it's right."
Rudolph's undivided attention, right now, is on Miami and the Orange Bowl.
"I've loved the way these guys have competed and worked and what they've been able to accomplish," he said of an O-line that came into the season with some unknowns and question marks.
"You go back and watch things from last year to this year and, boy, you see an incredible difference. And now I want them to be better in this game than they've played to this point."
Can a team change — moreover, can players change — between the last game and the bowl?
"You've got to be the same coach," Rudolph said. "You have to demand the same, you have to coach the same. You have to be as detailed or even more detailed. You have to help them keep growing.
"If guys think that they're still getting better then they're going to keep working with that mindset. So, you just keep challenging them and keep helping them and keep showing them ways to get better."
Because somewhere in that space, between stimulus and response, lies happiness.
Even if he never owned that Italian restaurant.
