Since Luke Fickell took over as head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers football program, the team has been snakebitten by quarterback bad luck. It is not Fickell’s fault that he has seen Week 1 starters Tanner Mordecai, Tyler Van Dyke, and Billy Edwards all succumb to long-term injuries, with Van Dyke missing all of the 2024 season.
Coming into a make-or-break 2026 season for Luke Fickell, quarterback play must improve this fall. The Badgers suffered through a miserable 4-8 season, with poor quarterback performance being a major factor. This college basketball offseason, the Badgers had to add a quarterback in the transfer portal and succeeded with adding Old Dominion star Colton Joseph. In addition, the Badgers added Louisville backup Deuce Adams as well.
So, how do the Badgers look at the quarterback position heading into Fickell’s fourth season in Madison?
Joseph is the Badgers' projected starter, but Hopkins has impressed this spring
At Old Dominion, Joseph was an offensive machine at quarterback. The sophomore quarterback from California threw for 2,624 passing yards and rushed for 1, 007 yards on his way to earning Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year. Joseph comes to Madison as the star transfer portal pickup for the Badgers, but he’s had to overcome early-season jitters, being the expected star at a new school.
From Wisconsin Badgers quarterback coach Kenny Guiton:
“You can kind of see it in this play, where it was a little more nerves than him just playing football. And so about practice three or four somewhere in there, where you just kind of felt like, okay, he’s hitting his stride. And then I thought later on in spring, once we got to the last two weeks or so, it was just like now he’s playing football.”
With Joseph all-but-solidifying the starting quarterback job, the battle for the backup spot is still up in the air between transfer Deuce Adams and true freshman Ryan Hopkins. Momentum seems to be building for the freshman, who has impressed Joseph early on in practice with making the right reads at the line of scrimmage and throwing accurate passes.
Wisconsin opens its 2026 season at Lambeau Field on Sunday, September 6th, against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Joseph expects to be the starting quarterback come fall, but look for Hopkins to earn some reps this upcoming season.
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