It was not the smoothest of press conferences for Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell, but he did a great job of protecting arguably his most important player the rest of the way at the podium. While Billy Edwards Jr. has not played since injuring his knee right before halftime of the Badgers' Week 1 home opener vs. Miami (OH), their Big Ten opener will be against his former team in Maryland.
Edwards left College Park for Madison to play in Jeff Grimes' offense, as well as help bring the Badgers back to respectability. His successor for the Terrapins is a promising freshman by the name of Malik Washington. With Mike Locksley's job security very much up for debate as well, he seems to be totally comfortable rolling the dice with this incredible local high school product out of the DMV.
Fickell knows Edwards' backup in Danny O'Neil can win this game, but he had to answer this question.
Luke Fickell tries to keep Billy Edwards Jr.'s availability close to the vest
Fickell started off saying "it's an emotional thing" when a player gets to go up against his former team.
"I think that anytime guys play their former team it's an emotional thing. I've had it several times all the way back from five years ago. So it was always something that I said, 'Okay, look. We're not going to over look this. We're going to make sure we communicate to talk about this. It's not going to go away either.'"
He then mentioned Edwards' maturity as a reason he has faith in the guy whenever he can play again.
"So yes, Billy's mature. Yes, obviously he's an older guy and has been through a lot of things, but it's not something that we would (let) go unnoticed or say, 'Hey, let's let the elephant in the room be in the elephant in the room, and let's not talk about it.'"
Finally, Fickell interestingly said that Edwards' injury is actually the perfect distraction for him here.
"But there is a lot of other things on his plate which maybe is even a little bit better for him. So he's not distracted from maybe people talking about that, as opposed to just saying, 'Hey am I going to be good enough? Am I going to be ready?' So there's a lot things to be had."
Here is everything Fickell had to say during Monday's weekly press conference ahead of Maryland.
The dichotomy here of potentially starting Edwards before he is fully healthy is undeniably intriguing.
Should Luke Fickell start Billy Edwards Jr. against his former team?
If Edwards is close to fully healthy, then he should be the Week 4 starter for the Badgers vs. Maryland. For as respectable as O'Neil has looked at times, Edwards' ability to throw the ball downfield with conviction may be the Badgers' best chance at keeping pace with Locksley's high-octane offense for the Terrapins. O'Neil methodically working his way down the field may result in yet another slow start.
That being said, if he is not able to move around very much behind the line of scrimmage because of his knee injury in practice, then Fickell may be left with no choice but to start O'Neil. This is because O'Neil has enough talent in him to potentially win Wisconsin's Big Ten opener at home over Maryland. He may not be able to beat another team on their schedule, which is why Edwards may start later on.
The whole thing about Edwards' injury is rushing him back prematurely just because his former team is on the schedule could blow up in the Badgers' face in catastrophic fashion. This team needs to win four conference games to go bowling to help Fickell keep his job. If O'Neil can get the first one vs. Maryland out of the way, then maybe Edwards' experience in Big Ten play gets them the other three.
The longer Fickell waits to make a decision, the more likely it will be O'Neil for at least one more week.