All Badgers

Wisconsin Badgers predicted to miss out on top transfer portal QBs and stick with freshman

Wisconsin Badgers fans are hoping for a fancy new transfer portal quarterback this holiday season, but landing a new starting QB is easier on paper than it is in reality.
Lorin Cox|
Nov 29, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Wisconsin Badgers quarterback Carter Smith (5) warms up before the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium.
Nov 29, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Wisconsin Badgers quarterback Carter Smith (5) warms up before the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Huntington Bank Stadium. | Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

In this story:

Wisconsin Badgers

Wisconsin Badgers fans are hoping for a fancy new transfer portal quarterback this holiday season, but landing a new starting QB is easier on paper than it is in reality.

Luke Fickell has to be able to attract a top passer to Madison, and college football writer Manny Navarro at The Athletic thinks that will be a tough sell.

He predicted every team's starting quarterback for 2026, and he sees the Badgers sticking with redshirt freshman Carter Smith next fall.

Wisconsin: Carter Smith, R-Fr.

Smith started the last three games of the season for the Badgers, who went 4-8 in Year 3 under Luke Fickell. It makes sense that Wisconsin would want an experienced transfer on the roster. But does anyone worth a damn really want to go to Madison right now?
Manny Navarro, The Athletic

Sign Up For the Wisconsin Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Wisconsin Badgers Newsletter

Navarro sees all of the favorite transfer portal options landing elsewhere. He has Old Dominion QB Colton Joseph going to Florida State and Notre Dame's Kenny Minchey going to Virginia, among others.

In Smith's four games this season for Wisconsin, he completed just 26-of-46 pass attempts for a 56.5 percent completion percentage. He totaled 201 yards for less than five yards per pass attempt, wtih two touchdowns and one interception.

Of course, Smith was never supposed to see the field this season as a true freshman, but injuries and inconsistency under center forced Fickell to give him a look.

He appeared in only four games, so he was able to maintain his redshirt status while earning the late-season experience.

Related: This is how much it will cost Wisconsin Badgers to land top QBs in transfer portal

It's reasonable to expect that a full offseason of expanded practice opportunities for Smith should produce some noticable improvement.

But Fickell will be under a lot of pressure to succeed right away in 2026 to save his job, and he's not going to want to entrust a redshirt freshman with his job security.

The Badgers are likely going to do whatever it takes to land a more experienced quarterback in the transfer portal, even if that means out-bidding other programs for a passer than might not justify such a high price tag.

Not landing any of them would be a disaster winter for Fickell and Wisconsin.

More Wisconsin Badgers News:

Published | Modified
Lorin Cox
LORIN COX

Lorin Cox is the managing editor of Wisconsin Badgers on SI. He has been covering Badgers sports since 2014, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin. He previously wrote for the Wisconsin State Journal, NBC Sports Chicago and USA Today Sports Media Group, and he is a former analyst for Pro Football Focus.

Home/Football