Are you paying close attention? Over the last few weeks, the Wisconsin Badgers have started to look like the Wisconsin Badgers again with backup quarterback Danny O'Neil filling in for an injured Billy Edwards Jr. While head coach Luke Fickell said the Badgers need to protect Edwards from himself, he was quick to praise O'Neil for how good he looked in last Saturday's blowout over Middle Tennessee.
On the afternoon, O'Neil completed 23-of-27 passes for 283 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He averaged an impressive 10.5 yards per attempt, picking up an additional 11 yards on three carries on the ground. For a quarterback and a team that did not look overly competent in the first half vs. the Blue Raiders, O'Neil still finished with a completion percentage over 85 on the day.
Clearly, his accuracy is another trait he possesses that Fickell loves, outside of his overall confidence.
Luke Fickell praises Danny O'Neil's accuracy in lead-up to Alabama game
During his weekly press conference Monday, Fickell made it a point to expound on O'Neil's good day.
"I think Danny did a a really good job. I think we only had a few incompletions. Those in particular might have been things that were rushed and were open for him. All in all, what we asked him to do, I think he did a really good job and was happy after evaluating the game film, watching and seeing the decisions he made. Where he threw the football, how he threw the football."
He did mention the boneheaded play resulting in a pick before halftime, but Fickell was so impressed.
"With exception, like I said to a few decisions on, they weren't bad. Obviously, the play right before half that ended up getting intercepted, but I think the only other ones that come up is maybe some of the bubble throws out there that you would probably not want to throw. Other than that, he actually played a pretty clean game for us. So that's exciting moving forward."
Here is everything Fickell had to say at the podium during his press conference ahead of Week 3.
This might be premature, but is Edwards about to get Wally Pipp-ed here by O'Neil with Wisconsin?
Danny O'Neil continues to give off the positive vibes of Baker Mayfield
It is not just being undersized and slightly cocky, but there are other tangible traits that O'Neil possesses that are in line with what makes Baker Mayfield so special. They may get a little too overconfident at times and overstate their athleticism within the context of a game. However, they both appear to be tremendous foxhole guys, ones whose teammates are thrilled to go into battle.
Simply put, if O'Neil plays well vs. the Alabama Crimson Tide on Saturday, it might be next to impossible to re-insert Edwards into the starting lineup. Win or loss, as long as O'Neil can go toe-for-toe with Crimson Tide quarterback Ty Simpson, this now might be his job to lose. It does sound crazy, but the team has responded to O'Neil under center in a way that seems increasingly hard to overlook.
It has happened before across football at multiple levels. A more polished or promising starter goes down and he loses his job to injury. It happened in the NFL to Trent Green in St. Louis and Drew Bledsoe in Foxborough. Jacob Eason was every bit the five-star in Athens before Jake Fromm took his job. There are other instances of this across football, but those three immediately come to mind.
Right now, Fickell seems fairly confident in having O'Neil serve as the starter vs. Alabama on Saturday.