The Wisconsin Badgers football team has gone through a rough stretch in recent years that nobody, including head coach Luke Fickell, is ignorant to. Obviously, many factors play into a team seeing the level of drop-off that Wisconsin has had, but one of, if not the most prevalent, has been the fact that they can't keep quarterbacks healthy.
Since Fickell first took the reins, seemingly every quarterback he has brought in has fallen to the injury bug, a problem that no amount of offseason preparation can account for. As a result, the Badgers had to get creative with how they went about rounding out the position, which is typically not something you hear about a quarterback room, but nonetheless was clearly necessary given what has transpired.
A huge part of doing so was, of course, the acquisition of Old Dominion transfer Colton Joseph, who the coaching staff seems to have the utmost confidence in.
“I love where Colton Joseph is,” Fickell said. “Colton Joseph, from the time he started spring football to the time he ended spring football, has grown more than anyone else in our program. I hope he would say the same thing.”
So step one is down: finding the right guy. Wisconsin has been no stranger in the Fickell era to going out and grabbing a quarterback in the portal, bringing in guys like Tyler Van Dyke and Tanner Mordecai, who, although they didn't have the most fruitful Wisconsin tenures, were once highly sought-after.
With that said, the hype around Joseph is arguably higher than that of any quarterback in the past handful of years, as his dual-threat ability adds an aspect to this offense that hasn't been prevalent in years. Rarely can you go out and find a quarterback who ran for more than 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns. It's even more rare when that same player also threw for more than 20 touchdowns.
On their very first play of the season, Indiana allowed a 75-yard rushing touchdown to Old Dominion’s quarterback, Colton Joseph.
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) January 5, 2026
Fast-forward 4 months, Old Dominion ended up being a 10-win team and Joseph just transferred to Wisconsin where he’ll be in the same conference as IU… pic.twitter.com/1PEOIfYTZs
But, as mentioned earlier, the Badgers have been on the football gods' bad side when it comes to quarterback health in recent years, meaning acquiring proper insulation was a must this offseason. Luckily for Wisconsin fans, the recruiting staff did just that, gathering a variety of talents who could provide value if needed, something Fickell expanded on in a recent interview.
“I think that quarterback room might be one of the biggest differences in our whole entire program,” Fickell said. “There’s competitiveness in that room, there’s the future in that room.”
"I think that quarterback room might be one of the biggest differences in our whole entire program."
— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) July 28, 2026
Luke Fickell on the addition of transfer QB Colton Joseph and what's ahead for @BadgerFootball 👇 pic.twitter.com/G3wlX3RiBK
Not only are the Badgers accounting for their current situation, they are also planning for the future, bringing in young arms who can push one another to develop. At the end of the day, Wisconsin’s success next year will still largely be predicated on the performance and health of Joseph, as, after all, he was brought in to be the head of the snake.
However, for the first time in a while, Badger fans won't have to worry too much about the team utterly collapsing if he goes down. Guys like true freshman Ryan Hopkins, Louisville transfer Deuce Adams and returning sophomore Carter Smith have each made plays in camp and proven capable of holding down the position if needed.
Not every team in the country can say that its projected third-string quarterback has meaningful game experience under his belt. Wisconsin can, and that's a luxury that should not be taken for granted.
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