As Luke Fickell's third act in Madison draws closer, BadgerBlitz.com will break down Wisconsin's roster position-by-position ahead of spring camp, which is slated to take place from March 13 to April 24.

BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Thus, our position previews start Saturday with the quarterbacks, a position group that once again figures to be led by an experienced transfer.

The Badgers completely gutted their quarterback room this offseason in accordance with their decision to cut ties with former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Phil Longo. Every gunslinger once affiliated with Longo is now gone, and with a new position coach in Kenny Guiton as well, this room is essentially unrecognizable from what it was a season ago.

Wisconsin signed Billy Edwards Jr. (Maryland) and Danny O'Neil (San Diego State) out of the transfer portal. Both were starters last fall, but Edwards (a redshirt senior) is much more experienced than the former Aztec. Those two figure to be the top two options at signal-caller, and Edwards has the inside track to the starting job with his superior experience and production.

Edwards is a pro-style quarterback with good size at 6-foot-3, 222 pounds. On tape, he has a plus arm and his veteran presence is evident with his pocket escapability and decision-making. In his first season as a starter in College Park, he tossed for 2,881 yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions on 65 percent completion. He also ran for five scores.

O'Neil is a little slighter at a listed 6-feet, 195 pounds. He won the starting job in San Diego as a true freshman and tossed for 2,181 yards, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions while completing 63.3 percent of his passes. He tacked on a single rushing score as well. O'Neil didn't throw an interception until Week 7 and shows nice touch and placement on deep balls on film.

Both transfer quarterbacks are similar in that their respective teams had dismal seasons (Maryland went 4-8 while the Aztecs finished 3-9) but they put together solid individual efforts. Both have the mobility that new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes covets, and both display a propensity for the deep ball, another critical part of the coordinator's scheme.

The Badgers also signed true freshman Carter Smith, plucking him out of the state of Florida. He was a highly-coveted dual threat quarterback in the 2025 class, and he'll likely be the third-stringer behind the two transfers, much like Mabrey Mettauer was a season ago.

Also on the roster is walk-on Milos Spasojevic. He doesn't figure to take many, if any, reps this spring.

As both the play-caller and quarterbacks coach, Longo had free rein over the offense and how he divided up reps was often a big talking point. In his first offseason with the program, transfer Tanner Mordecai took every single first-team rep while another heralded transfer, Nick Evers, hardly saw the field due to his "knowledge equals reps" policy.

In year two, he made a considerable change and allowed Tyler Van Dyke and Braedyn Locke to essentially split the first-team reps, facilitating what appeared to be a true quarterback competition.

Again, Edwards' resume speaks for itself; he's easily the most qualified quarterback on Wisconsin's roster. But O'Neil told BadgerBlitz.com that he was told it would be an open competition. What's more, last season Fickell placed a greater emphasis on competition up and down the roster, leading to more split reps across the board.

It'll be fascinating to see how Grimes, Guiton and Fickell put their heads together and come up with a quarterback rep distribution plan. At this point, I'd expect Edwards to take the first series of camp and for him to remain the de-facto starter all spring.

We recently highlighted O'Neil as one of 10 intriguing players to watch this spring, and we'll double down here. There's a litany of question marks surrounding the young signal-caller as camp inches closer:

How does his game translate to the Big Ten? Does his deep ball accuracy pop immediately like it does on film? How many reps does he get? How does he use his mobility? How many designed runs, if any, are called for him? With his smaller stature at 6-feet tall, does he have the same struggles Locke did with passes batted at the line of scrimmage?

While Edwards couples size with a quality arm, O'Neil's moxie is what stands out the most. It's how he won the starting gig as a freshman, and how he threw his first 127 collegiate passes without throwing a pick. How far will that get him in Madison?

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