Wisconsin Badgers Land SMU Transfer QB Tanner Mordecai

Madison, Wis. – Wisconsin Badgers head coach Luke Fickell and his staff are adding another signal caller to its quarterback room in 2023 – and this one’s a doozy.

It was initially reported by Adam Rittenberg, senior college football writer for ESPN, and later confirmed that Wisconsin is adding SMU’s star QB, Tanner Mordecai, from the transfer portal. The Texas native is a sixth-year senior with one year of eligibility remaining.

A former four-star recruit from Texas, Mordecai began his career at Oklahoma, where he spent three seasons under Lincoln Riley. During that time, he sat behind Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts, and eventually top-ranked high-school QB Spencer Rattler before transferring to SMU, where he’s played the past two seasons.

Once joining the Mustangs, the 6-foot-3, 214-pound dual-threat QB posted video game numbers in their spread offense. In two seasons starting at SMU, Mordecai threw for 7,152 yards, 72 touchdowns, 22 interceptions, and had a 66.4% completion percentage.

He also added 302 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, giving UW a proven dual-threat option at QB with speed the Badgers haven’t seen at the position in a long time.

Mordecai, a national semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award in each of the past two seasons, announced his commitment to UW on Twitter.

What Mordecai’s addition means for the Wisconsin Badgers

I’ll keep this one short and sweet; Tanner Mordecai is the Wisconsin Badgers unquestioned QB1 entering 2023.

He joins a quarterback room that returns sixth-year senior Chase Wolf, redshirt freshman Myles Burkett, redshirt freshman Nick Evers, and incoming freshman Cole LaCrue.

Given his pedigree, experience in a similar offense, and success on the field, Mordecai gives UW a talented option capable of running Phil Longo’s air raid offense and elevating the passing attack in 2023.

Luke Fickell has completely rebuilt the Badgers QB room in a matter of weeks. UW now has a proven starter (Mordecai) and multiple young, high-upside dual-threat options behind him to groom for the future. The cream, as they say, will rise to the top.

It’s hard not to be optimistic about the future of the QB room.

Contact/Follow us @BadgerOfHonorFS on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, opinion, and analysis. You can also follow Dillon Graff on Twitter @DillonGraff.