The Wisconsin Badgers are expected to start quarterback Hunter Simmons against the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, marking his third straight start for the team.
Simmons had started against the Michigan
Wolverines, where Wisconsin lost 24-10, and the Iowa Hawkeyes, where the Badgers lost 37-0.
Against Michigan, Simmons threw for 177 yards and an interception, while completing 62.8 percent of his passes and averaging 6.1 yards per pass attempt. In that game, Wisconsin had a run-heavy approach on early downs, not really opening up the playbook until they were down multiple scores.
But, against Iowa, Simmons really struggled, completing just 8 of 21 passes for 82 yards, while turning the ball over three times. Each of the turnovers was a back-breaker for the Badgers in the first half, taking the life out of the team and the stadium. Iowa scored 17 of its first 20 points off turnovers.
It got to a point where head coach Luke Fickell acknowledged they should’ve likely made a change at quarterback during the game.
“We were reeling on both sides,” head coach Luke Fickell said about Simmons after the game. So, it wasn’t something I went in at halftime and said, what’s the opportunity, what are the chances here? Where we were at and what we needed to be able to do, we still felt like there were some things there, and he gave us the best chance.
“I’m not saying, after the first three picks in the first quarter, that he didn’t maybe settle down a little bit, but we were just never able to find anything down the field to create any energy or any momentum or establish any drive. And so you’re probably right. I mean, it’s something that we got to take a good hard look at. No disrespect to Hunter, but probably was an opportunity, or some situation where we should have went the other direction.”
Well, Wisconsin was eerie about its quarterback situation all week long, as Fickell acknowledged Simmons and sophomore Danny O’Neil would battle for the job this weekend. Then, the Badgers didn’t make a quarterback available during player media availability on Tuesday for the first time in a long time.
Now, the Badgers are choosing to go in the same direction with Simmons, rather than make the change back to O’Neil, who was benched for the former after struggling against the Alabama Crimson Tide and Maryland Terrapins.
O’Neil and Simmons are two completely different quarterbacks. O’Neil looks to make more plays himself, which leads him to holding on to the ball too long and not playing with timing, which is crucial in the offense.
Simmons, on the other hand, is much more of a pocket passer and seems to have the stronger arm, but did not look good whatsoever last weekend against Iowa.
That’s not a good sign for O’Neil, who transferred to Wisconsin as the apparent heir to Billy Edwards. Right now, it doesn’t seem there’s any confidence he can still be a starting quarterback at the program.
