After true freshman quarterback Ryan Hopkins led the Badgers to a commanding 31-10 win over Rutgers in Week 10, completing 75% of his passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns, some revisionist history has started circulating among Badgers fans.
Many among the more chronically online portion of the fanbase have wondered aloud why it took this long for Wisconsin football to turn to Hopkins, especially as starter Colton Joseph repeatedly failed to orchestrate a functional, healthy passing game.
Some Badgers fans even took it a step further, questioning why the media misled them — intentionally or otherwise — as to who the better quarterback to operate Wisconsin’s offense would be.
The latter is an especially hilarious notion. Every member of the media that attended an offseason practice (myself included) came away impressed with Hopkins arm, maturity, and leadership for an early-enrollee true freshman. The reports were glowing. But I can’t recall a single beat writer or media personality who openly campaigned for Hopkins to be the Week 1 starter, and that was the case for two main reasons:
For one, while Hopkins looked good against Wisconsin’s second-team defense, he didn’t look significantly better than Joseph did against the Badgers’ ones.
What’s more, Wisconsin was already locked into starting Joseph this season for a litany of reasons.
This is a make-or-break year for head coach Luke Fickell and his regime. After two straight offseasons in which they landed a B-list transfer portal quarterback (Tyler Van Dyke, Billy Edwards Jr.) only for both of them to immediately get hurt, the Badgers needed a big-name portal quarterback — and they finally had the funding to go get one.
No, Joseph wasn’t in the same tier as a Sam Leavitt or a Darian Mensah in terms of portal options. But he was still considered an elite portal prospect and a sought-after quarterback, and Wisconsin’s staff made a significant financial investment in its future QB1.
