Jack Del Rio is resigning as senior advisor for the Wisconsin football program. The former NFL coach was arrested early Friday on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated after a crash in Madison, Wisconsin.
“He’s going to move forward, resign and move on,” Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell told reporters at his press conference on Monday. “But it’s a difficult situation. Decisions that we all need to be able to take full responsibility for. So that’s what Jack will do, and we will continue to move forward.”
Before Fickell announced Del Rio’s resignation, school administrators released a statement saying they were aware of the incident and took such matters very seriously.
Del Rio, 61, was arrested about 12:35 a.m. Friday after crashing his vehicle into a street sign, also breaking a fence and stopping in a yard, Madison police said. Witnesses pointed officers who arrived at the scene to Del Rio, who had exited the vehicle and was walking away from the crash.
Officers said Del Rio “showed signs of impairment” and admitted to driving the crashed vehicle in the incident report. No injuries were reported at the scene. He was arrested at the scene for the first OWI and ultimately released.
“We still have a few weeks left in the season, there are still a lot of things we have to continue to fight for and no one wants to take that away from us, whether it’s me or Jack or anyone else within our football program,” Fickell added to. “We’ll go from there.”
Del Rio was hired by Fickell in late August to work on the Badgers’ offense and defense, in addition to helping with personnel and serving as a sounding board for the head coach. It was Del Rio’s first job in college football after nearly 40 years in the NFL as a player and coach.
Last season, Del Rio was fired as the Washington Commanders’ defensive coordinator after Week 12. At the time he was fired, the Commanders’ defense ranked No. 32 in the NFL.
He coached for seven NFL teams, including stints with the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Commanders as defensive coordinator, and as head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars and then-Oakland Raiders. Prior to his coaching career, Del Rio played 11 seasons in the NFL as a linebacker, most notably with the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings, after being drafted in the third round out of USC in 1985.
Wisconsin is 5-4 overall and fourth in the Big Ten at 3-3. After a bye last week, the Badgers host No. 1 Oregon in Madison on Saturday.
