Billy Edwards, Danny O’Neil injury updates: Luke Fickell updates health of Wisconsin QBs

It was a very difficult weekend for the Wisconsin Badgers and head coach Luke Fickell. Multiple quarterback injuries ended up being key in their 27-10 loss to Maryland in a game that was never particularly close.

Wisconsin went into the game ready to welcome Billy Edwards, the team’s initial starter, back from injury. The hope was that he would spark the offense. Then, he and backup quarterback Danny O’Neil would both go down with injuries and the offense never got out of first gear.

After the game, Luke Fickell addressed those injuries. He’d share both what the game plan was going into the game and what happened that forced Wisconsin to try and pivot amid their struggles.

“We had a good plan — we thought we had a really good plan,” Luke Fickell said. “In the things he could do, and he could do well, and what he felt comfortable with. The plan was to use Danny in some other situations, but to have them both ready in the preparation.”

Billy Edwards came to Wisconsin as a transfer from Maryland and earned the starting job during the offseason. However, a knee injury in Week 1 has kept him out, replaced by Danny O’Neil. The hope was that he’d spark the struggling offense, but that wasn’t the case. Against Maryland, he completed just 1 out of 3 passes for 45 yards before again going down with an injury. It appeared to be a re-aggravation of his previous knee issue.

“Billy took a lot of the snaps this week. Really felt pretty comfortable in the things we were going to ask him to do,” Fickell said. “But I don’t know that he had been put in a situation where he had been hit and where he had to go probably full go. And that was the thing that worried you a little bit. It was unfortunate. I thought that he maybe just stepped a little bit wrong, and he’s just got to shake it off because we saw that throughout the week, but he wasn’t able to come back. That was difficult on a lot of us.”

Danny O’Neil would complete 14 of 22 passes for 120 yards and an interception. However, he also took a beating and came out with an apparent lower-body injury. He wouldn’t return, leaving Wisconsin on its third-string quarterback, though that may have been more related to the situation based on Fickell’s postgame comments.

“No. I don’t know. I mean, I know that he took a few shots in there,” Fickell said. “And I think maybe the last one he was just a little bit rattled. I didn’t get a full update on it, I just know that it wasn’t a point and time where we wanted to put him back in there.”

Hunter Simmons would come in as Wisconsin’s third quarterback and played well. He would complete 7 of 9 passes for 70 yards and a touchdown. Tyrell Henry also appeared in the game at quarterback. Presumably, if Fickell is forced to turn to a third-string quarterback, it will be Simmons.

Wisconsin needs to find some answers quickly too. Three times this season, the Badgers’ offense has failed to break 20 points, and now Luke Fickell has started to hear fans chanting for him to be fired. On top of that, it’s a brutal schedule ahead with a bye week to get healthy before a road trip to play Michigan in The Big House.