Luke Fickell's reply to a seemingly innocent question is so puzzling that it's taken multiple articles to flesh out. The question was basically, why did you keep playing quarterback Hunter Simmons even though he was clearly struggling? His first response was mostly in the defense of the decision to play Hunter Simmons during the course of the game. The second was a weirdly confusing statement about second-stringer, Danny O'Neil.
Confirm that the way he worded this isn't weirdly confusing and maybe even ominous about O'Neil's decisions going forward (here's just the isolated part about Danny):
"It might be one of those ones where you kind of go back and kick yourself to say, 'I think there's some opportunities there for Danny.' We are going to need Danny down the stretch. We need Danny to stick with us and stay with us and see how this thing rolls."Luke Fickell
Does Wisconsin only have one quarterback that's willing to play this season?
Related: The Ballad of Hunter Simmons and the Wisconsin Badgers finally finding the end zone
Why does he say that he needs Danny to stick with the Badgers and stay with the Badgers? Does that give a window into what O'Neil is thinking about when it comes to his future? There are already rumors that Billy Edwards Jr. has decided to sit out and fully recover instead of playing through injury this season, then transferring and playing somewhere else next year.
Those are unsubstantiated, but it's based on a comment Fickell said after the Iowa game, where Fickell describes talking to him with six minutes left trying to figure out if he could play or was close to being ready, "I was trying to pick his brain a little to see where he's at and you know, I don't really know." Maybe Billy is being smart and waiting for next year.
Is the same true for Danny O'Neil? Is he not wanting to play, or is he indicating that he doesn't want to be here? Unlike Billy, he's already burned his redshirt this season. He's played in five games. Sitting out does him no favors.
The way Luke Fickell worded that response it's almost as if Wisconsin only has one quarterback even willing to play, Hunter Simmons. We know that 4-star quarterback Carter Smith is redshirting this year and that's why Fickell hasn't turn to him. Or at least that's the rumor, he also may not be ready.
The Badgers can't afford to have Hunter Simmons play the rest of this season, either throw Smith into the fire or find a way to get Danny O'Neil rolling again, for Simmons has been worse than bad in the last few games and has shown why he was a backup at Southern Illinois last season.