Luke Fickell's Tyler Van Dyke update makes the Carter Smith news even bigger
In the third game of the season, heartbreak arrived for Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers. That's because quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who looked strong in the first two games of the year, went down in Game 3 against Alabama and tore his ACL.
In the blink of an eye, his promising season was over. Van Dyke has been on the comeback trail ever since, working around the clock to try and get his knee back to 100 percent. The question remains, though: will he be back next year for the Badgers?
That's totally up in the air. According to The Athletic's Jesse Temple, Fickell said that Van Dyke is thinking about returning to Madison for one more season, but it remains unknown how his surgically repaired knee is going to heal. Based on what Fickell said via Temple, it seems like there's a long road ahead for Van Dyke before he makes a decision. Obviously, this isn't what Wisconsin fans were hoping to see:
Luke Fickell on QB Tyler Van Dyke's future: "His mindset is he thinks he would like to have another year but he still doesn’t know how well he’s going to heal, how fast he’s going to heal. He’s obviously feeling better and he’s moving around. But there’s still a long way to go."
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) November 25, 2024
Wisconsin QB Tyler Van Dyke is unsure if he'll be back next season or not
With Van Dyke's future unknown, it leaves a lot of questions on the table for the Badgers, which is not a good thing. Braedyn Locke has taken over as QB1, but he has proven he's not the answer long term for this team. While Locke has looked solid at times, the turnovers have been back-breaking.
Fickell already fired Phil Longo and he'll now be on the lookout for a new offensive coordinator to take over. Whoever gets the job as OC is going to have to focus on getting Wisconsin back to where it used to be on that side of the ball. Fans are calling for tough, hard-nosed football to be displayed on offense. Trying to throw the pigskin all over the field isn't going to work.
However, the good news is that 4-star quarterback Carter Smith just committed to the program, so things are looking promising for the QBs room. At the same time, this team is 5-6 right now and on the verge of having its 22-year bowl streak end. In 2025, there will be no excuses for Fickell and he surely hopes Van Dyke will be healthy and in town. No one knows just yet if that will be the case.
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