Billy Edwards Jr. injury update: Luke Fickell updates Wisconsin's current plan at QB

Billy Edwards Jr. has attempted just 16 total passes through the first six weeks of the 2025 college football season while dealing with a lingering sprained knee injury suffered in the second-quarter of Wisconsin‘s season opener against Miami of Ohio. In fact, the Badgers senior quarterback has missed 18 of his team’s 20 quarters of play across Wisconsin’s first five games of the year.

And as the Badgers (2-3, 0-2 B10), losers of three straight following last Saturday’s 24-10 road loss at Michigan, ready to take on Iowa (3-1, 1-1 B10) this upcoming Saturday (7 pm ET, FS1), embattled Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell clarified his quarterback situation with Edwards still ailing.

Fickell’s response came following a question about whether redshirt senior Hunter Simmons has done enough to start if Edwards is still MIA after replacing ineffective Danny O’Neil as the Badgers’ QB1 against the Wolverines.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s what I would say. There will be a plan, both ways. I think Danny only had three snaps in the game. But Hunter has done a good job, he’ll continue to get more opportunities,” Fickell said during Monday’s press conference. “Danny will have some opportunities as well, and we’ll have to see how that goes. But I did. Even after watching (film), I think … he played with poise, he did the things we asked him to do. He took care of the football for the most part. So I think we can definitely build on that and build with him in different ways.”

Making his first start with the Badgers last Saturday, Simmons completed 18-of-29 passes for 177 yards and one interception against Michigan. He also completed 7-of-9 passeas for 70 yards and a touchdown after entering in relief of O’Neil in a 27-10 loss to Maryland two weeks ago.

Luke Fickell shares how Iowa’s uncertainty at quarterback impacts his planning

Wisconsin is eager to snap its three-game losing streak Saturday against an Iowa squad that’s dealing with its own uncertainty at quarterback. Prolific FCS transfer QB Mark Gronowski led the Hawkeyes through the first five weeks of the season, but suffered a knee injury in Iowa‘s 20-15 loss to No. 15 Indiana two weeks ago. With his status in the air, Fickell addressed how Iowa‘s quarterback uncertainty is impacting their planning this week.

“It doesn’t,” Fickell said. “Obviously a quarterback change is dynamic with some things. What does somebody else do that he doesn’t do? So obviously it makes little preparation things but you don’t know. Things that you can’t control and don’t know, it’s hard to say you’ll prepare differently.

“There’s gonna be some adjustments that have to be made probably as you get into the game. If somebody else is in there and they’re more of a dynamic runner, we gotta make sure we have some adjustments for things that we need to be able to do.”

Gronowski has completed 64.2% of his passes for 636 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions across five starts this season. If he is unable to go against the Badgers, Auburn transfer quarterback Hank Brown would get the start.

Brown relieved Gronowski following his injury last Saturday and completed just five of 13 passes for 48 yards. He also tossed one interception.

— On3’s Daniel Hager contributed to this report.