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Luke Fickell make massive Billy Edwards Jr announcement for Maryland game

Wisconsin football has been without its starting quarterback since Week 1
Kedrick Stumbris|
Injured Wisconsin quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. (9) is shown during the fourth quarter of the game Saturday, September 6, 2025 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Middle Tennessee 42-10.
Injured Wisconsin quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. (9) is shown during the fourth quarter of the game Saturday, September 6, 2025 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin beat Middle Tennessee 42-10. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Wisconsin Badgers

When starting quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. fell to the turf with an apparent non-contact injury in the Wisconsin Badgers' season-opener, Wisconsin football fans may have felt a familiar sinking feeling.

In the first two seasons of the head coach Luke Fickell era, the Badgers have been marred with quarterback injuries. Between Tanner Mordecai breaking his hand in 2023, Tyler Van Dyke tearing his ACL in 2024, and Edwards' lower-body injury, Wisconsin has not had its preferred starter in the majority of its games the past three seasons.

With a notoriously difficult schedule, getting attempt number three at a one-year transfer QB right is of tremendous importance for Fickell. During his tenure, UW is 9-3 when his preferred QB1 starts and finishes a game. When a backup has been asked to play, the Badgers are merely 6-11.

As Wisconsin prepared to open Big Ten play against Edwards' former team, Fickell made an encouraging announcement about his starter.

Luke Fickell: "Billy will go" against Maryland Terrapins

Wisconsin listed Edwards as questionable on its availability report released approximately two hours prior to kick-off. In a pre-game interview, Fickell indicated things were trending in the right direction graduate student QB.

"Billy will go, and we'll see how comfortable and everything he is," Fickell said. "But we got a plan both ways. But we're cautiously optimistic, just gotta get it rolling."

The transfer QB's return against the Maryland Terrapins, his former team, would mark his first game appearance since suffering a lower-body injury in Week 1. In that debut performance in a Wisconsin football uniform, Edwards attempted 13 passes, completing six for 68 yards.

If the Badgers have to go to the plan without Edwards, sophomore quarterback Danny O'Neil figures to get his third consecutive start for UW. O'Neil has completed 46 passes on 63 attempts, along with five touchdowns and four interceptions for the Badgers. In Week 2, O'Neil set a program record with 283 passing yards – the most ever by a quarterback making their first start for Wisconsin.

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Kedrick Stumbris
KEDRICK STUMBRIS

Kedrick Stumbris has covered the Wisconsin Badgers since 2022 with a focus on the Badgers football, men's basketball, and women's hockey programs. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science.

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