Billy Edwards Jr. picked as Wisconsin's player to watch in 2025

The Wisconsin Badgers are looking for a way to bounce back from missing a bowl last season and find a way to succeed under Luke Fickell, the same way he thrived at Cincinnati. To do that, the Badgers went on the prowl for a quarterback, landing on transfer Billy Edwards Jr.

Edwards is going to be a key to Wisconsin’s success next season. Certainly, one analyst who believes in him is David Pollack. On the show See Ball Get Ball, Pollack would even single him out as the key player to Wisconsin’s success next season.

“I got Billy Edwards Jr,” David Pollack said. “I got transfer QB because if you watched Wisconsin, first of all, if you watched last year, it was very ungood. It was not fun.”

Fickell’s first full season at Wisconsin was in 2023. That season, he had Tanner Mordecai and Braedyn Locke sharing time to mixed results. That offseason, Fickell would bring in Tyler Van Dyke as a transfer quarterback, but he was injured early in 2024, forcing Locke back into action. Since then, Locke and Van Dyke both transferred out and, in their place, Fickell brought in Edwards.

“I think when you’ve watched Luke Fickell’s reign so far,” Pollack said. “They haven’t had a quarterback — they’ve been under a 60 completion percentage. Under. That’s not crazy nowadays. That used to be a really, really high number. Billy Edwards Jr. He was over 65 percent at Maryland. Can he come in and give them some balance? They want to run the football. They’ve got a new OC. It’s a change of times for Wisconsin. Can they get this thing rocking and rolling? But it’s gotta start with the QB position.”

Edwards played his high school football at Lake Braddock in Virginia. There, he was a three-star recruit from the Class of 2021. He was the 1,497th-ranked prospect overall in that recruiting cycle and the 99th-ranked quarterback. Initially, he’d begin his career at Wake Forest, but only spent one season there before transferring to Maryland.

In three seasons with Maryland, Edwards played in 26 games, but the majority of his production came from the 11 games he appeared in during the 2024 season. In those 11 games, he completed 65 percent of his passes for 2,881 yards and 15 touchdowns to nine interceptions. That was 6.9 yards per attempt and 10.6 yards per completion. He also rushed for 148 yards and five touchdowns.

Edwards is going to need to hit the ground running at Wisconsin. The Badgers open on August 28th against Miami (OH). Later, Big Ten play begins on September 20th against Maryland, Edwards’ old team.