The Wisconsin Badgers are heading into Week 2 with a quarterback change, as sophomore Danny O’Neil will make his first start for the Badgers after starter Billy Edwards Jr. suffered a knee injury during the team’s Week 1 win over Miami (OH).
O’Neil, a transfer from San Diego State, played in relief of Edwards last week, throwing for 120 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in the win.
With Edwards out for the week, O’Neil will step into the starting role, while senior transfer Hunter Simmons
will assume the backup responsibilities this week.
Heading into Week 1, the Badgers gave Edwards a large share of the practice reps, given that they were installing a new offense with a new quarterback. That made sense, but of course led to some shakiness when O’Neil was initially placed into the game.
What will Wisconsin’s plan be this week for its quarterbacks?
“I don’t know,” Fickell acknowledged on Monday. “We’ll obviously probably recognize that [quarterback split from last week] and maybe not be 85 percent [of the reps for the starter]. And I don’t know if it really was 85%, I just know that the nature of it is that [Billy Edwards] was in there a bit more than Danny was last week. We still got to see. Early in the week, I think it will kind of lend to how they take control of the things that they’re doing, whether it’s Danny or even Hunter.
“But by nature, I think that our one quarterback is going to get 70-75 percent of the snaps going into a week, just by nature. Everybody’s new, and you’ve got to kind of roll with the guy that’s going to be in there, and then make sure that the key is that the next guy has got to be really mature in what they’re doing. If they only get 30% of the snaps, they’ve got to be in tune to every single thing. The good fortune for us is, Hunter is a guy that has played football, and he’s an older guy, so if he only gets 30-some percent of the snaps, I think he’s going to be in a really good place.”
Of course, with the different nature of their quarterbacks, Wisconsin may also implement a few new things that suit O’Neil more than they did for Edwards, so the offense could look a little different this week. But, offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes will look to make it easier on the sophomore as he steps into his first start with the Badgers.
Wisconsin is preparing to face Middle Tennessee State at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, with kickoff slated for 3:00 p.m.
