Luke Fickell looking for QBs to avoid ‘catastrophic’ mistakes in battle

The Wisconsin Badgers and head coach Luke Fickell have a battle brewing in the spring over who will be the starting quarterback in 2024. So far, redshirt senior quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who transferred into the program this offseason from Miami, looks to have the advantage over Mississippi State transfer redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke.

Fickle has been keeping a close eye on the competition all spring as he looks to name a starter move toward the start of the season. However, the Wisconsin head coach is in no rush as he is attempting to avoid a catastrophic mistake in this battle. With that on his mind, Fickell recently spoke on the starting quarterback battle and answered the question of whether or not he’s seen any improvement from the two individuals battling for the position.

“Yeah, I have. I mean, the catastrophic things is what you’re trying to avoid. And that’s throwing those balls or putting the ball on the ground,” said Fickell. “The management of the things day-to-day becomes the most difficult because, in spring, you’re adding and adding and adding. But they’ve handled it, and Tyler, obviously, this is all new. For him to be where he’s at right now, I think we’re in a really good place. He’s in a really good place.

“The great thing about it is Braedyn’s not making it easy on him. Because he does understand, he does know the offense extremely well, he’s playing really consistent, and he’s making some plays. And so, the best thing for us is to have a legitimate competitive battle. Some would say it’s better if you can name a starter with whatever position, in particular the quarterback. But I think it’s much better if you can continue to have a competitive battle because you’re gonna find out what you got. — Like last year, probably gonna need them both.”

According to Fickell, he is attempting to avoid naming a starting quarterback too early thus preventing the battle itself from playing out to its completion. In his eyes that could hurt the development of one or both quarterbacks. And that could be catastrophic for Wisconsin as the Badgers and Fickell looked to avoid the struggles are consistent quarterback play that they felt in 2023.