The Wisconsin football team has deployed three different starting quarterbacks since the season began five games and six weeks ago. Senior Hunter Simmons, who joined the Badgers during the spring portal window from Southern Illionis, started at Michigan last week – his first start as a Badger and just the fourth of his career. As Wisconsin looks to build continuity on offense, the Badgers will draw from spurts of success found in Ann Arbor. The Badgers started the game with a 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, their first opening touchdown drive of the season.
It takes a leap back into Badger history to find a similar situation for UW's use of multiple starting signal-callers.
In 1956, the Badgers had a first-year coach in Milt Bruhn, a schedule that featured four top-10 opponents and only 13 returning lettermen. A glaring need was at quarterback, where there was no obvious replacement for departed starters Jim Miller and Jim Haluska.
The Wisconsin media guide listed six quarterbacks on its preseason roster, which helps explain how four made their first career starts during a season that saw the Badgers finish 1-5-3 overall, 0-4-3 in the Big Ten Conference.
Richard Simonsen, a sophomore from Madison, started the season opener, a 41-0 romp over Marquette, but after one-score losses to No. 10 Southern California and Iowa, Ron Carlson took over vs. No. 17 Purdue. But the sophomore, listed as a halfback, was 0-for-3 throwing the ball with two interceptions and, despite a 6-6 tie, gave way a week later to freshman Gil Blackmun vs. No. 9 Ohio State. He played through consecutive shutout losses to the Buckeyes (21-0) and No. 4 Michigan State (33-0) and another to Northwestern (17-7) before Sid Williams, a freshman converted end, got his shot to start in ties vs. Illinois (13-13) and No. 7 Minnesota (13-13).
Now, 69 years later, the Badgers have seen an injury to senior grad student Billy Edwards Jr. give way to sophomore Danny O’Neil who then gave way to senior Hunter Simmons.
Simmons could make his second straight start Saturday at 6 p.m. when the Badgers (2-3, 0-2) host Iowa (3-2, 1-1) in a Big Ten rivalry game at Camp Randall Stadium.
UW has used five starting quarterbacks since the start of the 2024 season. Central Florida is the lone FBS school to use six in that span.
Here are five more things to know:
