Braedyn Locke auditioning to become Wisconsin's QB of the future
Braedyn Locke begins his season-long job interview against USC.
For the second year in a row under Luke Fickell, the Wisconsin Badgers football program finds itself navigating a midseason quarterback shakeup.
An injury — this time to Tyler Van Dyke — has once again thrust Braedyn Locke into the starting role, forcing the Badgers to make adjustments.
The path forward now runs through Locke for the foreseeable future, shifting the entire outlook for Wisconsin’s season. Locke has been forced into tough spots before, just as he was when stepping in for an injured Tanner Mordecai last season. That said, the Texas native is only a redshirt sophomore with just three career starts under his belt, with the only other meaningful action coming via spot duty against Iowa and Alabama.
Against Alabama, Locke completed 13 of 26 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown—passable yet uninspiring numbers given the situation, but far from enough to make anyone forget about the loss of Van Dyke. Either way, the Badgers have no choice but to play the hand they've been dealt.
“Bye weeks are what they are. It's an opportunity for a of couple things: to kind of self-scout yourself a little bit, get back to the basics of some of the things that you got to do moving forward and recognizing what you got to be able to do," Fickell said. "For us, it was another opportunity for Braedyn Locke to get a lot more reps now that we're in the situation where Tyler is done for the year. So, in some ways, it came at a good point for that."