Former University of Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Rudolph has experienced most of the coaching extremes in his short career.

Rudolph was a graduate assistant at Ohio State when it played for the national championship in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl and spent last season coaching tight ends at Nebraska under Bill Callahan, his former position coach with the Badgers.

In December, Rudolph was on the road recruiting for the Cornhuskers when he got word that Callahan and the rest of the staff had been fired.

A little more than a month later, Rudolph was hired Thursday at his former school by Badgers coach Bret Bielema to coach tight ends.

"It feels great to come back," Rudolph said. "I think any time when you're in a profession that you work this many hours and you put this effort in, I think to do it in a place you have such strong ties and you feel like you're really invested in, it's an incredible situation to be a part of."

Rudolph, a former first-team All-Big Ten Conference guard, was a starter on the 1993 team that won the school's first Rose Bowl title.

He was a captain as a senior in 1994.

"I've heard about Joe Rudolph ever since I came to Wisconsin," Bielema said in a statement. "It's great to have another former Badger player join our staff. Joe has a reputation for being a great coach on and off the field and I'm very excited he's coming back to Madison."

Rudolph, a native of Belle Vernon, Pa., started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant at his alma mater while earning a master's degree in business administration in 2004 in Pittsburgh.

He said his experience playing under former Badgers coach Barry Alvarez was a big influence in becoming a coach.

"Just having played for coach Alvarez and the coaches I had (at UW), you really got a feeling when I was there, of all the things I learned and took with me, ways you became better, take that motto and put it into your life," he said.

Melvin Tucker, a former UW teammate who was the defensive backs coach at Ohio State at the time, helped Randolph land a graduate assistant job with the Buckeyes, where he worked with the offensive line, in 2004-05.

Rudolph was Ohio State's strength and conditioning coach in 2006, before leaving for Nebraska. Rudolph was not sure which area he would recruit for the Badgers, but has experience in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

"Selling Wisconsin is something I feel I'd be excellent at, because it's coming from truth," he said. "It's coming from experience and it's coming from my beliefs."