2023 Wisconsin Badgers Positional Review: Quarterbacks

Wisconsin dropped a hard-fought bowl game against No. 13 LSU to close out its 2023 campaign and the debut season of head coach Luke Fickell. Soon, winter conditioning will get underway, shortly followed by spring practice.

Over the next two weeks, BadgerBlitz.com will examine the 2023 Badgers position by position. Today, we'll start with the quarterbacks, a unit that underwent plenty of turmoil in offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Phil Longo's first season in Madison.

Wisconsin entered the year with sky-high expectations for the passing game, and for several valid reasons. The Badgers had brought in a bevy of talented receivers by way of the transfer portal as well as three blue-chip quarterbacks, including Tanner Mordecai who had spent the past two seasons eviscerating secondaries at SMU. That coupled with a new offensive coordinator who recently engineered some of the top offenses in the nation at North Carolina while producing some top NFL Prospects meant that the Badgers' passing game would be deadly immediately, right?

Not so fast. For a litany of reasons, Wisconsin's offense and particularly its passing game failed to live up to expectations time and time again this season. In a cruel twist of fate, it wasn't until the bowl game, with the season essentially over, that the Badgers finally found their groove throwing the ball.

In his last collegiate game, Mordecai knew he had just one more shot to impress NFL talent evaluators after a disappointing season marred by injury and losses. His performance reflected that — the gunslinger put it all on the line and played his best game in the Cardinal and White.

Even in the loss, Mordecai was dazzling. He made accurate, on-time throws to every level of the field throughout the entire game, and the result was his highest passing total (378 yards, three touchdowns) since he tossed for a whopping nine touchdowns and 379 yards as an SMU Mustang against Houston a season ago. Over the middle, outside the numbers, deep, short, you name it — Mordecai was on top of his game in Tampa.

In a game that, at the time, still seemed likely to go a long way in determining the Big Ten West champion, Wisconsin's passing game fell flat against the rival Hawkeyes.

As usual, Iowa boasted a phenomenal defense in 2023, checking in at 5th nationally in passing defense in terms of yards-per-game allowed when all was said and done. Still, Wisconsin's quarterbacks had their most brutal game of the season, and in this case it was a joint effort.

Mordecai started 12-of-20 passing for 106 yards before breaking his throwing hand late in the first half. That left redshirt freshman Braedyn Locke as the next man up at signal-caller, and he didn't fare much better. Locke completed 15-of-30 passes for 122 yards and an interception. For most of the afternoon, the game was largely in reach due to Iowa's historically putrid offense. But Wisconsin's choppiest passing performance of the year would ultimately doom its chances to win.

The Iowa game is an excellent microcosm of what went wrong for Badgers' quarterbacks in 2023. Underperforming? Check. Injuries? Check. An inexperienced quarterback getting thrown into the fire? Check. Not enough help from the rest of the offensive skill players? Check. Quite simply, it was an ugly year for quarterbacks in Madison, and the Iowa game was both the low point and a perfect representation of why.

This is an easy one: who will play quarterback for the Badgers in 2024? As with a season ago, there's lots of options, but conventional wisdom says it will be the experienced transfer.

That would be former Miami Hurricanes quarterback Tyler Van Dyke. The three-year starter in Coral Gables sought a new home after a second consecutive rather disappointing season with Miami. The past two years combined, he threw for 4,538 yards, 29 touchdowns and 17 interceptions while completing 64.7 percent of his passes. Those numbers are respectable, except that in 2021 alone, his first year as a starter, he threw for 2,931 yards, 25 touchdowns and six interceptions. Longo appears to be banking on the notion that he can return Van Dyke to his 2021 form.

With Van Dyke in his last year of eligibility and his extensive starting experience, he should be the odds-on favorite to win the job in Madison. Nevertheless, by no means is he locked in.

Fickell has stated many times that he never promises a starting spot in the transfer portal. He stressed that there are expectations for more experienced players to win said starting roles, but nothing will be handed out. While that may sound like coach-speak lip service, several players thought to be behind Van Dyke in the pecking order could feasibly push the veteran for snaps.

Locke had a bumpy first season, but he displayed a lot of promising qualities. Chief among them an ability to take care of the football while remaining highly poised in high-leverage situations. Think back to the Illinois game, when he authored an improbable comeback win on the road. Locke has the arm to make just about every throw, and he's a high-IQ quarterback. Where he needs to improve? Primarily, his efficiency, as he completed just 50 percent of his throws in 2023.

Nick Evers is another player that could realistically push Van Dyke if he's taken strides in the quarterback classroom. Evers has all of the physical talent in the word in terms of arm strength and athletic ability, but he struggled to grasp Longo's offense last spring which led to him taking minimal reps and checking in as the fourth-string quarterback. It was an alarming surprise when we barely saw Evers in spring ball last year, but it could be a pleasant one this spring if Evers finally begins taking substantial reps in practice. If Evers can learn the playbook, he likely has the highest potential of any quarterback in Longo's room at the moment.

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