Colton Joseph is embracing the pressure that comes with leading Wisconsin football
Colton Joseph knows Wisconsin is asking plenty from its new QB1. The Old Dominion transfer is embracing the opportunity and pressure.
The University of Wisconsin football program didn’t bring Colton Joseph in to simply stabilize the quarterback position. The Badgers staff is betting on him to change what their offense is capable of becoming.
After Wisconsin finished 135th nationally in total offense and scored just 12.8 points per game last season, Joseph arrives with the kind of proven production the Badgers have desperately lacked at quarterback.
The Old Dominion transfer earned Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year honors as a redshirt sophomore after throwing for 2,624 yards, rushing for another 1,007 and accounting for 34 total touchdowns.
Joseph averaged 302.6 total yards per game, eighth-most nationally, while ranking second in the country at 15.2 yards per completion and 12th at 6.4 yards per carry. He was also one of only two quarterbacks nationally to eclipse 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in 2025.
Now he’s being handed the keys to Jeff Grimes’ offense, along with the responsibility of helping lead the younger quarterbacks behind him in Kenny Guiton’s room.
Joseph understands what comes with that.
“I feel like there’s always pressure,” Joseph said. “There’s a privilege to that. If there’s not much pressure on you, then that’s kind of a thing where there’s not much expected. So I think I like to embrace the pressure.”
That’s probably the right mindset considering what Wisconsin is asking him to do.
The Badgers feel good about the long-term potential of true freshman Ryan Hopkins and Louisville transfer Deuce Adams, but Joseph is the player who will determine what this offense is capable of in 2026.
His ability to create outside structure is a major reason why.
“Just being able to escape and find ways to create plays and to get out there, I think it definitely helps me and helps keep play callers confident in me that we can make something happen out of nothing,” Joseph said.
Wisconsin hasn’t consistently had that luxury during the Fickell era. Tanner Mordecai gave the Badgers some mobility, but Tyler Van Dyke, Braedyn Locke and Billy Edwards weren’t threats with their legs.
But Joseph’s transition from the Sun Belt to the Big Ten involves more than trying to bring his Old Dominion production to Madison. Grimes’ system asks considerably more of him before the snap, including protection checks and responsibilities Joseph acknowledged are “a lot different” from what the California native previously handled.
That’s why spring practice became so important.
Joseph admitted that adapting to a new football program while trying to establish himself as a leader was initially challenging. By the end of spring practice, however, things began slowing down.
“Once I kind of got comfortable with the offense, comfortable with all the guys out there, and trying to lead them, and them leading me when I was down, I think just the comfortability with that, and really studying the plays, and kind of dialing into what I need to do every day to be really good, I think it just helped a lot in that area,” Joseph said.
The physical preparation has changed, too.
Joseph, who is listed at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, said he added roughly 10 to 15 pounds this offseason and developed his own routine centered around flexibility and strengthening vulnerable areas of his body. That’s particularly important for a quarterback who rushed 158 times last season and whose legs will remain an important part of Wisconsin’s offense.
Grimes referred to Joseph as “the total package” and a “workhorse,” noting he’s never seen the moment or workload become too much for him.
Joseph sees that approach more simply.
“I just push my all every time,” Joseph said. “You’re never guaranteed to wake up tomorrow. So I think just doing your best every day and always working to be the best person you can be, whether it’s on the field, off the field, working out, learning the playbook. I just take that approach to life where I’m going to go a hundred percent in everything I do.”
Wisconsin’s coaching staff has spent a lot of the offseason explaining why this offense should be different. The roster is deeper. The offensive line has been rebuilt. The running back room has more options, and Grimes believes the receiving corps has much more size and athleticism.
But eventually, most of those conversations lead back to Joseph.
He came to Wisconsin because Joseph saw what he called “the biggest opportunity for me to come out and show what I can do.”
The opportunity is certainly there. So is the pressure. Wisconsin appears comfortable putting both in Joseph’s hands.
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