Wisconsin locks in Colton Joseph at quarterback
The Old Dominion transfer has taken over as QB1 through fall camp, with Danny O'Neil still working back from the leg injury that ended his 2025 season, as the Badgers open at Lambeau Field against Notre Dame.
Wisconsin finally has its quarterback answer
Quarterback play has been the one thing Luke Fickell hasn't fixed in Madison, and this camp the Badgers are betting they finally have. Colton Joseph, who transferred in from Old Dominion after a Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year season, threw for 2,624 yards and 21 touchdowns and ran for another 1,007 yards and 13 scores in 2025, and he's come out of fall camp entrenched as QB1, according to badgerofhonor.com. Quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton says the early jitters were gone by the third or fourth practice of spring ball, when "he's hitting his stride."
Behind him, Danny O'Neil is still working his way back. Covers' injury table lists O'Neil as Questionable with a lower-body injury reported August 11, and it hasn't been determined whether he'll be active against Notre Dame on September 6 — a hedge, not a ruling out. O'Neil was Wisconsin's No. 2 quarterback last season and made three starts before the leg injury that ended his year, and buckys5thquarter.com reported he returned to practice in a limited fashion midway through this camp.
The backup job behind Joseph is still very much open. Louisville transfer Deuce Adams and true freshman Ryan Hopkins have been splitting second-team reps down the middle all camp, per si.com, with Hopkins drawing praise for making the right reads at the line and throwing an accurate ball. Nobody has separated yet, which means it's a battle Wisconsin will keep sorting out into the season.
How last season ended
Wisconsin closed out last season the way too much of it went: seven points and a loss, 17-7 at Minnesota on November 29 in the finale. It came at the end of a stretch that swung both ways — a 21-7 loss at Oregon, a 13-10 escape at home over Washington, a 31-7 loss at Indiana and a 27-10 home win over Illinois, before that trip to Minneapolis closed the book.
The Washington game is the one that still shapes this roster. That's the day O'Neil went down with the leg injury, per ESPN, ending his 2025 season and handing Fickell the exact quarterback puzzle he spent the winter trying to solve. Nine months later, Joseph is the answer Wisconsin landed on, and O'Neil is the insurance policy still working his way back onto the field.
The opener is at Lambeau, and the history there isn't kind
Wisconsin opens its season on September 6 at Notre Dame, a Shamrock Series game staged at Lambeau Field in Green Bay rather than either campus. It's just the third college football game Lambeau has ever hosted, and Wisconsin was part of the last one — a 2016 meeting with LSU there. Notre Dame is unbeaten in this series, 12-0 all-time, and the two haven't met since a 41-13 Irish win at Soldier Field back in 2021.
The line opened at Notre Dame -20.5, with the total set at 47.5 — a low-scoring read for a game that kicks off Sunday, September 6 at 6:30 PM. Wisconsin is an underdog walking into a building it's actually played in before, against a program it hasn't beaten in over a decade, and Joseph's first start in a Badgers uniform is going to come against about as tough a stage as September offers.