The Wisconsin Badgers are finally making a change at quarterback, as Ryan Hopkins will get his first career start against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and looks to have the green light for Wisconsin’s final four games of the season.
The Badgers, sitting at 5-3, have really struggled to throw the ball with starter Colton Joseph, who has completed under 56 percent of his passes this season, and has gone for fewer than 100 passing yards in three straight outings.
The roughest one came last weekend against
the Iowa Hawkeyes, as Joseph completed just 5 of 14 passes before being benched for Hopkins for the fourth quarter. Coming out of that game, Hopkins remains the starter, which a majority of fans looked for in our weekly Reacts poll.
Wisconsin now faces Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, and Minnesota in its final four games, so it should get an accurate look at Hopkins before making a key quarterback decision for the 2027 season.
Was this the right time to make the quarterback change?
Just a week ago, we saw reports that Wisconsin was negotiating with Colton Joseph for the 2027 season. But now, that feels unlikely, and it comes down to a rough transfer portal evaluation.
Joseph just never improved the way the Badgers wanted him to, as accuracy and footwork issues were prevalent from the offseason and have carried throughout the year. He was a major work in progress coming into the season with his passing inconsistencies at Old Dominion, but his rushing ability was expected to provide a quality floor in the Big Ten.
Still, Wisconsin’s offense has struggled a good amount, and moving to Hopkins feels like a much-needed move here at the end of the season. With jobs at stake, Wisconsin needs to see if Hopkins can be its guy next season or whether it’ll need to evaluate outside the program for its starter next year.
At the very least, Hopkins looked confident as a passer last week, while dealing with some rookie mistakes. If he can build on that, Wisconsin has a chance to finish this season strong. It all starts on Saturday, when the Badgers take on Rutgers as 19.5-point favorites, according to FanDuel.
But it’s another missed quarterback evaluation for the Badgers, and one that should create a lot of questions on process in the offseason.
