What's happening in WI QB room?

jonnyganas

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They went from having no QBs to having every QB.

Evers and Mordecai transfer in
4* recruit from Texas in the 2022 class
Myles Burkett is a promising Freshman QB
Chase Wolf saw this crowded room and said, "Great, I will come back for a 6th season"

Depth is good, but something tells me that some will exit after spring ball.
 

They have greatly improved the talent at that position and will be much stronger at QB next season.
 


I wonder if they let Evers know they were looking to add another QB.
 



They went from having no QBs to having every QB.

Evers and Mordecai transfer in
4* recruit from Texas in the 2022 class
Myles Burkett is a promising Freshman QB
Chase Wolf saw this crowded room and said, "Great, I will come back for a 6th season"

Depth is good, but something tells me that some will exit after spring ball.
Evers has never played a snap. Mordecai is a middle of the road QB that will keep them on par next year (his stats are very middle of the road in a hyper pass friendly offense, buoyed by a 9 TD, 0 pick game vs Houston, who was one of the worst pass defenses in all of football). Chase Wolf would have no offers to play elsewhere so I'm sure he's giving it a shot for next year given he's already there and it's his last year. At least one of the lower class guys will transfer out within the next 1-2 years. There's not a "Wilson" type guy in the group who's taking them to the next level immediately
 

Agree they are largely unproven but WI, Iowa, and Illinois have all brought in heavy talent at a major position of weakness. They aren’t just trying to wish on development from players at a Petras level.

Also Mordecai does have numbers at a lower division. We keep talking up receivers and DBs we’re pulling from the same or lower level than Mordecai.

Again agree it’s all unproven but the odds of them getting quality play is better with these transfers in.

Also Purdue brought in Card and QB has been a position or relative strength for them.

B1G West QBs will be a lot better next year.
Evers has never played a snap. Mordecai is a middle of the road QB that will keep them on par next year (his stats are very middle of the road in a hyper pass friendly offense, buoyed by a 9 TD, 0 pick game vs Houston, who was one of the worst pass defenses in all of football). Chase Wolf would have no offers to play elsewhere so I'm sure he's giving it a shot for next year given he's already there and it's his last year. At least one of the lower class guys will transfer out within the next 1-2 years. There's not a "Wilson" type guy in the group who's taking them to the next level immediately
 

Agree they are largely unproven but WI, Iowa, and Illinois have all brought in heavy talent at a major position of weakness. They aren’t just trying to wish on development from players at a Petras level.

Also Mordecai does have numbers at a lower division. We keep talking up receivers and DBs we’re pulling from the same or lower level than Mordecai.

Again agree it’s all unproven but the odds of them getting quality play is better with these transfers in.

Also Purdue brought in Card and QB has been a position or relative strength for them.

B1G West QBs will be a lot better next year.
I do agree somewhat with the take above regarding the teams. Iowa's upgrade should definitely help. McNamara is a decent QB but will be interesting to see how he does with a massive dropoff in talent around him. Illinois had a solid QB in Devito who did exactly what they wanted him to do (hyper-efficient, don't turn it over) so don't know if they'll be upgrading vs what we saw last year (if you want to argue he's better than what would've come back, sure that's fine). Oconnell was probably the best in the west this year.

As far as the comparison of position players vs QBs stepping up a level, whole different ball game.

Will overall be interesting to see, but again I don't think there's a "take you over the top" kind of guy in the list who's transferring in thus far.
 

I wouldn’t trade our QB room for any of our rivals who have brought in these transfers. We are well positioned for the next few years. Not sold on our guy for this class but time will tell.
 



There may not be proven talent for Wisconsin, but they are stacking the odds in their favor with signing multiple guys with potential. All we can do is speculate because no one knows how their offense will mesh. A lot of new pieces added in hopes they all mesh.
 

Are all of the new Wisconsin QBs 'dual-threat' types?

I heard or read somewhere that that's what Fickell likes.
 

Are all of the new Wisconsin QBs 'dual-threat' types?

I heard or read somewhere that that's what Fickell likes.
Mordecai isn't the most fleet of foot. Ran for 100 yards this year though obviously he loses yards for sacks. 2 plus running games vs Navy and Houston. Definitely not a Ridder type. Evers definitely a dual threat guy. Burkett was evaluated as a pro style passer but rushed for 1000 yards in HS.
 

Mordecai isn't the most fleet of foot. Ran for 100 yards this year though obviously he loses yards for sacks. 2 plus running games vs Navy and Houston. Definitely not a Ridder type. Evers definitely a dual threat guy. Burkett was evaluated as a pro style passer but rushed for 1000 yards in HS.

Thanks for the reply. Much obliged... I was too lazy to look it up myself. :cool:
 



They went from having no QBs to having every QB.

Evers and Mordecai transfer in
4* recruit from Texas in the 2022 2024 class
Myles Burkett is a promising Freshman QB
Chase Wolf saw this crowded room and said, "Great, I will come back for a 6th season"

Depth is good, but something tells me that some will exit after spring ball.
I haven't looked at their recruiting in years, so went looking, and it appears they have a top 300 QB commit from the 2024 class - is that what you meant? Can't find any other highly rated QB's from their past number of years.

The interesting thing I noticed when perusing their recruiting history (and future) is that there has been a dearth of high end RB recruits. Over the course of 5 years (2023 and earlier), their RB recruits are ranked: 136 (Berger, who has since transferred), 227 (Allen, who was recruited as LB), 553, 571, 668. So other than Allen, it's 3 kids ranked at 553 and lower. Maybe some of the "athletes" were recruited as RB, don't know. Considering this is WI, I found that fascinating. Obviously, with the caveat that the transfer portal can change that in a hurry.

Everybody seems to be saying that Fickell will air it out more (I looked it up when the news was fresh, but I believe his splits at Cincy were like 60/40 run/pass). The UNC OC I believe was closer to 50/50 run/pass split. So I think it's obvious they'll be passing more and relying on the running game less. If nothing else, it'll be a different looking WI team than we've seen for the past 30 years.

I can't say I'm going to get too worked up over their QB recruits yet. Mordecai has one year of eligibility left. Although he is likely an upgrade over Mertz. Between Burkett (who was not a big-time recruit, ranked at 760 overall, which at this point is all we have to go on) and Evers, it's likely the loser of that battle in 2024 will look elsewhere, as that is the world we live in now. The 2024 kid, who knows - a lot can happen between now and then. I think their QB play will likely be improved moving forward, but it's likely (based on comments above about RB recruiting and style of play) that their RB play will decline once Allen is gone. Can they get enough dynamic WR/athletes to complement a better passing game? Looking at the past 4 years at WR, their top WR commit from each year are ranked 376 (Markus Allen, who has transferred), 582 (Dike), 736, 765. So again, not ready to proclaim their offense as going to be rivaling the conference's best just yet.
 
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As long as Evers is willing to take a backseat for a year I guess bringing in 2 transfers makes sense. Pretty sure Mordecai only has one year left so he would not be coming in to ride the bench.

Glad we have managed to stay out of the transfer QB carousel to this point. It can work out for teams but there is a lot of risk in relying on a transfer QB. Northwestern is a prime example of a team where the transfer route at QB has not worked out well for them at all.
 

Mordecai isn't the most fleet of foot. Ran for 100 yards this year though obviously he loses yards for sacks. 2 plus running games vs Navy and Houston. Definitely not a Ridder type. Evers definitely a dual threat guy. Burkett was evaluated as a pro style passer but rushed for 1000 yards in HS.
Sacks go against the team not the QBs stats.I believe.
 


In college the sacks count against the qb rushing yards.
So Morgan was somehow positive on rushing yards despite the sacks? And with kneel downs, sacks and actual scrambles/rushes ended with 34 attempts? Seems not correct to me.
 




So Morgan was somehow positive on rushing yards despite the sacks? And with kneel downs, sacks and actual scrambles/rushes ended with 34 attempts? Seems not correct to me.
They changed kneels to now be team runs so those don’t count. The sacks do
 

There are too many variables to do more than surmise how the new WI QBs are going to perform on the field next year but it is certain that the WI QB room has been given a significant upgrade.
Fickell is the anti-Chryst.
 

Mordecai isn't the most fleet of foot.

This seems to argue otherwise unless by most you mean the fastest. He's not the fastest but he runs well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Exhibit A of <a href="https://twitter.com/SMUFB?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@SMUFB</a> QB Tanner Mordecai’s speed. 4.1 PAI score, excellent overall athleticism for position.<br><br>11.04/100m (91% D1 QB)<br>42.65/4x100 relay (85% D1 QB)<br><br>Watch List player for both <a href="https://twitter.com/ShrineBowl?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@ShrineBowl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CGSAllStar?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@CGSAllStar</a> <br><br> <a href="https://t.co/ZrZMAkFBJv">pic.twitter.com/ZrZMAkFBJv</a></p>&mdash; Tracking Football (@TrckFootball) <a href="">October 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

There are too many variables to do more than surmise how the new WI QBs are going to perform on the field next year but it is certain that the WI QB room has been given a significant upgrade.
Fickell is the anti-Chryst.
How could it not. Mertz was terrible, maybe one of the worst we've seen over there for quite some time. He flat out gave games away for them. I'm sure their fanbase couldn't be happier.
Me, I am sad. Just like I am sad Nebraska fired Frost. Fleck owes a quarter of his salary to those 2 guys more than anyone that's breathing.
 

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This seems to argue otherwise unless by most you mean the fastest. He's not the fastest but he runs well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Exhibit A of <a href="https://twitter.com/SMUFB?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@SMUFB</a> QB Tanner Mordecai’s speed. 4.1 PAI score, excellent overall athleticism for position.<br><br>11.04/100m (91% D1 QB)<br>42.65/4x100 relay (85% D1 QB)<br><br>Watch List player for both <a href="https://twitter.com/ShrineBowl?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@ShrineBowl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CGSAllStar?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@CGSAllStar</a> <br><br> <a href="https://t.co/ZrZMAkFBJv">pic.twitter.com/ZrZMAkFBJv</a></p>&mdash; Tracking Football (@TrckFootball) <a href="">October 15, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I’ve watched enough smu games to feel comfortable with my call where a Twitter video of him breaking one run against navy doesn’t change the watching him try scramble for first downs numerous times and not have the legs to get there:

Random 100m stats from some random year at a different weight, body type and unpadded, ditto

That said, he’s an upgrade at starter for next year, but I don’t think he’s going to take them over the top based in his skill set alone
 


Not all numbers are equal across conferences or offenses. You look at that like he is playing big ten defenses. He may not even start for wisco.
You don’t think he will throw for 379 and 9 touchdowns against Iowa like he did against Houston?

Literally if you take away that game he is Graham Mertz statistically

Like a 20-10 guy
 




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