With Wisconsin's fall camp set to start in late July, BadgerBlitz.com will be running through the burning questions that the Badgers will be looking to answer at each position group before they open their season on Sept. 1 against Utah State.

As usual, quarterbacks are up first.

It was an eventful 2016 season for Wisconsin's quarterbacks, to say the least. The pre-season position battle went right down to the wire, with senior Bart Houston edging out redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook for the starting job. That arrangement lasted for just two-and-a-half games, though, before head coach Paul Chryst gave Hornibrook the reins to try and give UW's offense a spark. Hornibrook had some great moments (particularly against Michigan State) and some bad ones (like the next week against Michigan) before Chryst made another change, deciding to rotate Houston into games after Hornibrook started to give defenses more looks to prepare for and open up Wisconsin's playbook.

It was unorthodox, but it worked. Hornibrook and Houston combined to complete 62.5 percent of their passes with six touchdowns and just two interceptions over Wisconsin's final six regular season games, before Hornibrook missed the Big Ten Championship Game with a head injury and played sparingly against Western Michigan in the Cotton Bowl.

Now that Houston is gone, the Badgers will go back to using a single signal-caller after Hornibrook was named the team's starter in spring camp - and hope that in 2017 he can be the full-time starter they need.

The Badgers have a lot of returning pieces that they can count on in 2017 - but how far the team goes will hinge in part on how Hornibrook performs in his second season as a starter. He was inconsistent at times, but finished the year with a 125.8 passer rating - which was in the middle of the pack for a Big Ten quarterback, and certainly not bad for a freshman. There's definitely talent there, too - he has a knack for the deep ball, and his first start against Michigan State showcased some great pocket presence and feel for the position.

The challenge for Hornibrook will be to take the confidence he showed in spring camp and translate that in to games this year. He had a great spring camp, and if the Badgers can find a legitimate deep threat at wide receiver they could add an extra dimension to their offense. But even a mid-sized step forward would be a big help for UW - the more threatening Wisconsin's passing game can be, the more pressure they'll take off of their running game. The Badgers could still have a successful season if Hornibrook looks a lot like what we saw last year, but he'll need to continue to develop if we're going to see what Wisconsin's ceiling for 2017 actually is.

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John Veldhuis covers Wisconsin football, basketball and recruiting for BadgerBlitz.com on the Rivals.com network. Follow him on Twitter at @JohnVeldhuis.