If left to his own devices, Luke Fickell will almost always make a poor decision when evaluating the talent of his Wisconsin Badgers football team. He has not recruited anywhere up to the level of his predecessors. It has shown up big time on the field of play of late. Furthermore, his players are not getting better under his watch. In fact, Wisconsin football has become something worth tuning out.
That being said, there may be a rare opportunity for redemption on Saturday night. The rival Iowa Hawkeyes come to town for what will be a rather winnable rivalry game for the Badgers. This team has dropped three games in a row and has yet to beat a Power Four opponent this season. This might be Wisconsin's best last shot at doing it. Unfortunately, the quarterback situation may ruin that entirely...
On3's Pete Nakos seems to believe Wisconsin "starter" Billy Edwards Jr. is unlikely to go. He is still pretty banged up from getting hurt for a second time this season during the ill-fated Maryland game. Last week saw the Badgers give Danny O'Neil all the first-team reps in the lead-up to the Michigan game, only to have third-stringer Hunter Simmons get the start. He was not much better than O'Neil.
So with Edwards probably out, get ready for Simmons to likely take on Mark Gronowski in primetime!
Wisconsin's upset bid of Iowa may have taking a hit in the QB department
The good news for Wisconsin is this will almost certainly be a low-scoring game vs. Iowa. This is what happens when anyone decides to play a full four quarters with a Kirk Ferentz-led Hawkeyes team. Frankly, the lower the score, the better it is for Wisconsin to conceivably pull off the upset bid. That being said, the disparity between Gronowski starting for Iowa and Simmons for Wisconsin is so vast!
We are talking about Iowa's high-profile transfer pickup out of South Dakota State, going up against the third of three transfer quarterbacks Fickell was somehow able to convince that Wisconsin was a great place to waste a season of eligibility playing at. At his best, Simmons could do a better job of being a game-manager than O'Neil. At worst, he may be a walking stiff playing against Iowa's defense.
In the end, Fickell's decision-making processes in the hours leading up to the game when it comes to the quarterback position are what will inevitably get him fired. When that day comes, we still have no earthly idea. Frankly, people have started to become apathetic about this team because the man gets to operate with no consequences for a job not well done. Surely, he is going to make the wrong move.
While Edwards may give this team the best shot at a win, he might just sit out and wait until next year.