Friday at Aloha Stadium really will be Barry Alvarez's last regular-season game on the sidelines as the University of Wisconsin's head football coach. Honest to Bucky Badger.

Sure, we know, a departure was the hot rumor the last time he was here. Back around Thanksgiving in 2000, when the Badgers were teeing it up against Hawai'i, word had Alvarez all but Southern California-bound to replace Paul Hackett.

Somebody else you might have heard of recently, Pete Carroll, eventually ended up with the USC job. Seems to have done well with it, too.

What the 58-year-old Alvarez might have accomplished at USC we'll never know, of course. But as he prepares to take up the athletic director's job full time after the bowl game, what Alvarez has done in 16 seasons at Wisconsin has been Ripley's remarkable on its own level.

Spending the entirety of a head coaching career at one school in this day and age is noteworthy itself. Especially at a program you've reclaimed from the dumpster and spruced up to Top 25 consistency. If you're good enough long enough, another school, or the NFL, usually gets you. If you're not, the alumni invariably do.

"I never thought of how long I'd be, my goal was to go to a place that was down, build it up and sustain it," Alvarez said. "I've had some opportunities to leave, some that were very flattering and some that were very tempting, but when you put it all together it was worth staying right here."

At Wisconsin, that rare combination of performance (116-73-4) and fidelity makes you the biggest thing since the snowmobile. Go to a Rose Bowl for the first time in 31 years, then keep going back, winning three of them, and they name an ice cream flavor ("Berry Alvarez" of course) after you.

Bring back the fans from an average of 29,776 to more than 80,000, helping turn around a debt-ridden program while playing a role in a $109 million facelift of the stadium and it gets you what has been one of only two dual titles of football coach-athletic director among 117 Division I-A teams.

And, the chance to schedule your send-off in Hawai'i. "I always thought Hawai'i was a special place and have enjoyed coming here," Alvarez said. "At this particular time of the year it gets dark early (in the midwest) and I love the sun. To get to be part of that and have my last regular-season game (here) will feel special."

The end of Alvarez's regular-season coaching career might have figured to come in Hawai'i one way or the other. It is just later than sooner.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.