The Wisconsin Badgers quarterback room has endured a ton of turnover this offseason, as the team brought in transfers Colton Joseph and Deuce Adams, as well as true freshman Ryan Hopkins, to improve a room that largely struggled in 2025.
Of the room last year, Billy Edwards, who only played in two games, and Hunter Simmons are no longer here. 2025 four-star Carter Smith, who ended the season as Wisconsin’s starter, has been the team’s No. 4 quarterback this offseason, with all three newcomers leapfrogging him after solid springs.
The other quarterback in the room, Danny O’Neil, has been out for the entire offseason as he recovers from a season-ending injury that he suffered midway through last season. O’Neil, a sophomore in 2025, transferred in from San Diego State and was thought of as a potential quarterback for the future, but he struggled in his few outings, particularly with sacks, before his injury.
O’Neil was not expected to be a part of the quarterback conversation this season as he recovers from injury, but the junior did return to the practice field in a limited capacity last week, making his first appearance.
“Today or yesterday, yesterday might’ve been the first day where he was cleared to be able to do scout work and legitimately be able to take off and run,” head coach Luke Fickell said about O’Neil last week. “We’ve kind of held him out. They said he could do 7-on-7.
“We came into camp, and I just kind of was like, hey, if he’s not able to take off and do all the things in a live setting-ish, we just got to hold him out. Because the greatest thing about Danny is, you got to hold him back from himself. And so the last 2 days, he’s been able [to] be put in those situations. There’s not as many reps out there for everybody. And so, he’s, he understands that he’s going to have to use a lot of the mental reps and prepare himself in different ways for when those opportunities come.”
How is O’Neil handling the situation around him?
“He is as mature as there is, and his ability to handle all the different adversities, his ability to come back out here and want to compete at it and not be [down], you know, I’m gonna say he say he’s ready, but in some ways us holding him to make sure that we don’t put him in a situation that he’s not quite ready for,” Fickell said. “But his ability to be a part of this team and to be a part of the brotherhood and, you know, take a role right now where he’s at and take it really serious. I mean, I got the utmost respect for him.”
O’Neil will still have two more seasons of college eligibility after this year, and he should be a helper on the sidelines with his understanding of the playbook as he continues to recover from his injury.