Wisconsin football expected to make a change at quarterback vs. Washington
Coming out of the bye week, Wisconsin is expected to turn back to quarterback Danny O’Neil when No. 24 Washington visits Camp Randall.
Coming out of the bye week, all signs point to another quarterback change in Madison. Wisconsin football (2-6, 0-5 Big Ten) is expected to hand the reins back to sophomore Danny O’Neil when No. 24 Washington visits Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. At the same time, true freshman Carter Smith has begun working his way into the mix and could be a part of the game plan.
The staff has been giving O’Neil the bulk of the first-team reps in practice. It’s been his first real run with the starters since the Big Ten opener against Maryland. For a player who began the year as the clear No. 2 and then found himself standing on the sideline for a month, it feels like a long-overdue return to the lineup. Before being benched, O’Neil showed flashes of what Wisconsin’s offense could look like when it’s functioning.
There’s been plenty of outside noise questioning why a change at quarterback hasn’t already been made, but Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell has been consistent in his message.
“We are gonna need Danny down the stretch, and we need Danny to stick with us, and stay with us and see how this all rolls,” Fickell told reporters after Wisconsin’s 21–7 road loss to Oregon.
Across five appearances this season, he’s completed 61-of-88 passes for 635 yards, good for a 69.3% completion rate and 7.2 yards per attempt, with five touchdowns and five interceptions. O’Neil showed poise early, leading Wisconsin to wins over Miami (OH) in relief and Middle Tennessee State. Against the Blue Raiders, the San Diego State transfer completed 23-of-27 passes for 283 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception.
However, things unraveled against Alabama and Maryland. There were stretches where O’Neil bailed from the pocket too quickly instead of letting plays develop, but it’s hard to blame him entirely. The offensive line hasn’t provided much stability, and that kind of constant pressure can erode a young player’s confidence fast. Finding that balance between trusting his protection while staying composed in the pocket is the next step in O’Neil’s development as the Badgers look for some consistency.
As for Carter Smith, the plan appears to be bringing him along slowly. The former four-star prospect out of Fort Myers (Fla.) and early enrollee spent much of the season buried on the scout team until Billy Edwards Jr.’s knee injury opened the door for more opportunities.
Since then, Smith has progressed from third-team reps to consistent second-team work, even earning occasional first-team snaps during the bye week as the staff prepares him for what’s ahead. There’s a legitimate chance Smith will see extended snaps before the season ends, if only to give the coaching staff a live look at what he could become. Long-term, this program needs to determine whether he can be a viable piece of the quarterback room.
“Carter Smith is in the mix, so to speak,” Fickell said. “After the bye week, we got him out there and got some more opportunities for him. That is one of those things we will just have to see. During the bye week, you get some chances to rep some young guys in particular. He was one of them.
“I don’t think you just throw him out there to see what you have. But you need to prepare him, and put him in a situation where if you need him, you’ve got to roll. And, if you need him, you will find out a lot more about what you have for the future and moving forward. Otherwise, you are going to spend a lot of time figuring out what you have for the future, based on the maturity of how he handles things. But, it is not far-fetched to think that if not this week, there is gonna be a role in the near future.”
Coach Fickell has been cautious when discussing Edwards’ lingering knee injury — the same one that was aggravated during the Maryland game when Wisconsin opted to start him despite him clearly not being at full strength. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but we’ve likely seen the last of Edwards this season. At this stage, there’s little incentive for him to return to the field, and he’s expected to pursue a medical redshirt.
“I don’t know, to be honest with you, there are a lot of variables in those things,” Fickell said. “I don’t know where the NCAA is on a lot of those things. I think it’s going to be more and more difficult in some of those situations. But again, if Billy can go, I have every means to say, let’s play him. It’s really going to come down to what he can and can’t do. Am I hopeful that we see Billy play the last four games of the season? Yes.”
With Edwards sidelined indefinitely and Smith still developing, Wisconsin’s options under center have narrowed considerably. That leaves the Badgers coaching staff looking for some form of stability and a spark to help carry them through the final stretch of the season.
The decision to turn back to O’Neil feels less like a gamble and more like a necessity. Wisconsin’s offense has bottomed out during Hunter Simmons’ four-game stretch as the starter. The Badgers went 0-4 over that span, scoring just two offensive touchdowns, averaging 4.25 points per game.
For the season, Simmons has completed 46-of-92 passes for 469 yards at 5.1 yards per attempt, with two touchdowns and five interceptions. During his four starts, he threw for fewer than 90 yards in three of them. None of that falls solely on Simmons. He’s been playing behind a poor offensive line, operating in a system that’s done him no favors, and asked to fix a situation Simmons probably never should have been put in to begin with.
Now, O’Neil gets another shot. Fickell said after the loss to Oregon that the team would “need him down the stretch,” and that moment has officially arrived. At this point, Wisconsin’s offense doesn’t need to be flashy or reinvent itself — it just needs to be functional. If the Badgers can use these final few games to regain some rhythm offensively and get extended looks at both O’Neil and Smith, they’ll head into the offseason with something they’ve lacked all year: a hint of clarity at quarterback.
Whether that clarity leads them to double down on the current room or, once again, explore the transfer portal, this time with the added resources and investment promised by Athletic Director Chris McIntosh, remains to be seen. For now, there are still games to be played.
Wisconsin returns to the field Saturday at 3:30 p.m. CT against No. 24 Washington (6-2) at Camp Randall Stadium, with coverage on the Big Ten Network, where Luke Fickell will look to pick up his first win at Wisconsin against an AP top-25 opponent after starting 0–10 in such matchups.
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