BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. – Phil Longo was late for the opening kickoff. By the time that Longo, then the University of Mississippi offensive coordinator, parked and got into the stadium, his recruiting target – a quarterback from Midway High School in Waco, Texas – was already in the midst of moving the chains.

"I missed half of the opening drive," he said. "As I'm walking up the track to get on the sideline, he's throwing a dart down the middle of the field to a running back for about a 60-yard touchdown. So that was my first live exposure to Tanner. And it has been positive ever since. He's just so talented."

Tanner would be Tanner Mordecai, who wound up at Oklahoma. Ole Miss and Longo landed Matt Corral during that 2018 recruiting cycle. All these years later, the paths of the highly-touted recruit and Texan (Mordecai) and the veteran recruiter and QB coach (Longo) have intersected at Wisconsin.

"Coach Longo is the main reason I'm here, he's legit," said Mordecai, a sixth-year senior who spent three seasons at Oklahoma and two at SMU before arriving in Madison to compete for the QB job in Longo's Air Raid offense as one of the transfers in Luke Fickell's first recruiting class with the Badgers.

"I'm really excited to be able to play for him (Longo). He's one of the top offensive minds in all of football. Wisconsin is really lucky to have him and I'm lucky to play for him this year … I almost committed to him at Ole Miss. I've known him for a while. This was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

Near the end of SMU's 2022 season – during which he threw for 3,524 yards and 33 touchdowns – Mordecai was preparing to focus on the NFL draft. "I was completely going," he said. "That was my plan to go into the draft. But I kind of reflected on some things and I ended up here."

Longo was one draw. Fickell was another. Both impacted his decision to become a Badger.

"Coach Fick is very intense and extremely competitive," said the 23-year-old Mordecai. "You've seen what he did at Cincinnati. He competed at the highest level and went to the (College Football) Playoff. He knows how to win ballgames. That's what we feed off. I'm excited to play for him, too."

Through the early spring practices, Mordecai's play has put him in the driver's seat of Longo's offense. "He's kind of separated himself right now," Longo said, "so he takes all the one reps. That's primarily for continuity with the other guys who have earned the right to be with the ones."

Another Texan (Rockwell, Tx.), redshirt freshman Braedyn Locke, a Mississippi State transfer, has been getting the majority of backup reps. "Braedyn has probably been the lead guy on the second reps," Longo said. "We've been trying to mix and match, 2 through 5, in some different scenarios.

"I don't know if there's a huge talent disparity between the next four."

What has allowed Mordecai to move ahead of the other quarterbacks? "The experience," Longo said without hesitation. "There's veteran in him – in everything that he does. Our guys are all working to throw the screen and there's an obstacle and we kind of lose what we're trying to do …"

Resulting in a lack of execution. Completing his point, he went on, "Whereas Tanner will just pull it back and throw to the next window because he has been there and done that. He's the best guy in there (the QB room) mentally. Braedyn is special mentally and the other guys are doing a good job.

"But that's why these two (Mordecai and Locke) are repping the most … because they have the greatest understanding of what we're doing."

Offensively, where are the Badgers – as a whole – in the implementation of the system?

"We are probably further ahead than we were at Ole Miss and we're further ahead than we were at North Carolina," said Longo, who had been coordinating the offense for Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown the last four seasons in Chapel Hill. Why has the UW install gone so well this spring?

"One, this is a very bright locker room," Longo replied. "Two, when we took over at North Carolina (in 2019), it was a very negative culture there in terms of they had won five games in two years combined (5-18). So, there wasn't a lot of winning. There wasn't a lot of confidence.

"That's not the issue here. They were super excited for the change on offense here, they were super excited about Fick being here and that's no disrespect to anyone who was here before.

"But it just is what it is. We're here and we've been embraced.

"The first day we got to start talkin' ball, we started off a lot farther down the line …"

… than maybe at North Carolina, where a true frosh QB, Sam Howell, was starting in 2019.

"That's the difference," Longo said of the experience that Mordecai brings to the UW room.

Falling in line with what his OC was saying, Mordecai confirmed, "The culture on this team is awesome. The guys are willing to do anything they're told to do. A lot of times with a new staff, a new offense, they're not fully buying in and kind of questioning what's going on.

"But they're just so hungry to win and bring back a winning tradition here. That's really special."

Mordecai fully understands his role with the Badgers. Or what's being asked of him. "It's very important for me to be a leader of this team," he stressed. "As a sixth-year senior, it's very important for me to assert myself. I think the guys around me would say that I've done a pretty good job."

Reflecting on his early Oklahoma background as an understudy to Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts, he added, "I've seen how different guys do their business and how they go about things – I've seen how people compete and how they go about preparing and getting ready for the next week.

"I've been able to pull from different areas just being in college for five seasons.

"And hopefully I can apply everything here."

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Mordecai didn't start during his three Oklahoma seasons, the first of which he redshirted behind Murray, the 2018 Heisman winner. He saw action in six games in 2019, the same year that Hurts was the Heisman runner-up. During it all, he observed and absorbed from his mentors, Murray and Hurts.

"Kyler is uber-competitive – he competes just as hard or harder than anybody – winning is a premium for him and that's something that is just in you," Mordecai said. "I think I have the same type of competitiveness. I'm a fiery dude and that's all I care about … winning.

"Jalen was a lot different than Kyler, he was just a different personality. But he prepared really well. He's a competitor … he leaves it out there and he plays really hard. I'm just trying to pull bits and pieces from everybody that I can."

That includes his former Oklahoma head coach Lincoln Riley, now running the show at USC.

After Mordecai entered the transfer portal, Riley made a phone call for him. He called his brother, Garrett Riley who was the offensive coordinator for Sonny Dykes at SMU. "The transition to his brother, Garrett, was awesome," Mordecai said. "We really clicked and had a lot of fun together."

In 2021, Mordecai started all 12 games for the Mustangs and completed 68 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,628 yards and a school-record 39 touchdowns. Dykes summarily moved on to TCU and Riley to Clemson and they were replaced by Rhett Lashlee and Casey Woods, respectively.

During his two SMU seasons, Mordecai threw for 7,152 yards – highlighted by 13 games of 300 or more yards – and 72 TDS, another school record. His signature moment was last November 5 when he passed for nine touchdowns (seven in the first half), and ran for a 10^th, in a 77-63 win over Houston.

"It was crazy, awesome," Mordecai recalled. "Just ballin' with the boys. Nothing else like it."

In putting up such eye-opening stats at SMU, what number stands out the most for Mordecai?

"Does being voted as a captain – two times – count? That's easily number one," he admitted. "I had only been on campus for seven months before I was named captain my first year. That was the biggest accomplishment I've had as a college athlete … that I was named captain by my teammates.

"It meant a lot that my peers – the people my age that I didn't know for that long – voted me to lead them. It goes to show that they respected how I worked. I came in (that first year) with my head down and I went to work. I was all about ball and all about learning and they recognized that early."

There were many things to be proud of last year. Not the least of which was his pain tolerance.

"I played with three broken ribs," Mordecai said. "I broke two in week three and played with them all year and I broke another one – on the other side (of his body) – in week 10 or 11. If you can play, you play. That has always been my M.O. And that's definitely how my dad raised me.

"You signed up to play and you're going to play.

"There's a difference between being hurt and being injured."

Since transferring to Wisconsin, Mordecai wanted to get a better feel for Longo's offensive tendencies, so he has been breaking down tape of two North Carolina quarterbacks – Howell, now starting in the NFL with Washington; and Drake Maye, a Heisman contender in 2023 with the Tar Heels.

"I've probably watched 100 hours of both of them," said Mordecai. Speaking of his own QB teammates, Mordecai singled out the current vibe in the position room. "Really good dudes. Positive atmosphere. We laugh and joke and have a good time together.

"But everything is about competition. If you're out here, you're competing."

Of course, it all starts upfront at the UW with the O-line. "I love those guys," Mordecai said. "There's a lot of camaraderie between them. They're a tight group. Wisconsin has always been successful up front. They're not going to let down that tradition. I'm really excited to play behind them."

As a newcomer, Mordecai, has been grateful for the way that he has been received by his teammates on both sides of the ball. "Everyone here has been welcomed with open arms," he said, "and I think the other transfer guys would say the same."

Fickell knows what he's getting. In each of the past two seasons, Mordecai has competed against Fickell-coached Cincy teams. Two years ago, SMU got thumped by the Bearcats, who went on to the College Football Playoff. Last year, he was knocked out of the game (a 29-27 loss) with a concussion.

This spring, he's earning Fickell's and Longo's trust as Wisconsin's quarterback.

"Having the starting experience at SMU for two years and doing the things I was doing on offense down there definitely helps me coming into a new offense," said the 6-2, 215-pound Mordecai. "Being at two different places and seeing two different cultures helps me blend in pretty quickly here.

"Getting to know the guys at a deeper level is a little bit easier since I've gone through it."

Having gone through one transition as a collegian – from Oklahoma to SMU – Mordecai is well equipped for his on-going transition, even more so because of the experience collected from the previous stops. There is a constant. "I'm still the same guy," he stressed. "My roots are still the same."

So is his perspective on playing such a high-profile position, QB1. "I've been my own person forever," he said. "I don't buy into what people write about me or what people think about me. All I care about is the opinion of my teammates and my coaches. That's something I've always stuck to."

He doesn't have any regrets about his journey, either. "I've met my best friends in the whole world at both places I've been at and I wouldn't change that for anything," he said. "In my mind, I'm still the same competitive guy who wants to compete all the time and play and execute at a high level."

While he may feel his age at times – "I do feel old … college goes by too fast" – he has been steadfast in adjusting and adapting to his new Badger surroundings. Does he feel pressure? "Not at all," he said. So, what are his expectations here? "To win," he said resolutely. "To win a lot of games."