The Wisconsin Badgers had a historically terrible day on Saturday against rival Iowa Hawkeyes. The offense was absolutely inactive. They didn't show up to play, weren't ready, and didn't compete throughout the entirety of the game. 3-string quarterback Hunter Simmons got the start against Iowa and put up one of the most miserable quarterback performances for a Wisconsin Badger ever.
One stat in particular reveals this clearly, as Simmons had a QBR of 0.8. He didn't even get a single point for his performance. Ian Kenyon puts this in perspective when he says that if you took 20 snaps as a quarterback and threw every single ball snapped to you in the dirt, you'd have a 0.0 QBR. Simmons somehow only had a 0.8. Yikes.
Wisconsin quarterback Hunter Simmons had a QBR of 0.8 last week.
— Ian Kenyon (@ikenyonFB) October 14, 2025
Lining up every play and throwing the ball into the dirt 20 times in a row would yield a 0.0 QBR as a point of reference.
Hunter Simmons put together a miserable day as a quarterback for Wisconsin
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If you are unfamiliar with QBR, it is different than a passer rating (which for Simmons was 51.8). The QBR (brought to you by ESPN) measures all the ways the quarterback can affect the game. It includes things like rushing, turnovers, penalties, and even if stats were accumulated in garbage time. The main goal is to ask how efficient and effective a quarterback was during the game.
For Simmons, the answer is easy, not at all. His 8/21 for 82 yards with two interceptions is tough enough to stomach, but add in ESPN's QBR, and it's so much worse. He was terrible in every aspect of the game.
What does this mean? It means Simmons is also not the answer at quarterback. Starter Billy Edwards Jr. is hurt, Danny O'Neil struggled and was benched, and now Simmons may be even worse. There may be a larger question that needs to be asked: "Is this actually a coaching problem? These quarterbacks don't ever seem ready to play in these games." However, for now, let's just hover around the fact that Simmons showed why he was a backup at Southern Illinois.