Wisconsin QB Danny O’Neil carted off field after getting injured in upset of No. 24 Washington

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ 13-10 upset of No. 24 Washington on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. O’Neil had a towel over his head as he was carted into the locker room.

Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with a lower-body injury. Badgers coach Luke Fickell didn’t have an update on O’Neil’s condition after the game.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State. Fickell said O’Neil had “kind of tweaked” something earlier this week and wasn’t at 100% for this game but was healthy enough to play.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday. Smith went just 3 for 12 for 8 yards passing, but he also rushed for 47 yards on 15 carries and scored Wisconsin’s lone touchdown on a 2-yard run.

“We all know he wasn’t perfect, and we all know that there are some things that you’re maybe a little bit more limited to (with Smith), but he brought you some fire,” Fickell said. “He brought you some spark. He brought you some hope. And most importantly for me, he took care of the football.”

Wisconsin had four players combine for just 48 yards passing. Half of those 48 yards came from punter Sean West, who threw a 24-yard completion on a fake.

O’Neil threw two incompletions before his injury. Hunter Simmons, who had started each of Wisconsin’s last four games before Saturday, played the Badgers’ final series of the first half and went 2 of 3 for 16 yards. Simmons threw the Badgers’ first completion of the day in the last minute of the second quarter.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin all season, and throughout coach Luke Fickell’s three-year tenure.

Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

Fickell said O’Neil, Smith and Simmons all got reps in the two weeks since Wisconsin’s last game, a 21-7 loss at No. 6 Oregon.

“Danny took most of the reps the last two weeks,” Fickell said. “We had just started giving Carter reps last week during the bye week. We just said, ’Hey, we’re going to have to give him an opportunity,’ because we don’t know what it’s going to look like and we’ve had guys that are dinged up. We’re just trying to figure out, as you grow, what do you kind of focus yourself around and build offensively.

“For a bunch of these weeks we’ve been maybe hoping and expecting to get Billy back, and so you kept kind of pushing the offense in that direction. I don’t know that that’s the case, so we kind of tried to shift and say how do we build this thing and continue to move forward based on what we’ve got.”

Tanner Mordecai missed 3 1/2 games with a broken hand in 2023. Miami transfer Tyler Van Dyke tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the third game of the 2024 season.

Wisconsin’s intended season-opening starting quarterback has been available for the entirety of only 11 of the 34 games the Badgers have played since the beginning of the 2023 season. The last time Fickell had his season-opening starting quarterback healthy for a full game was in a 27-13 victory over South Dakota on Sept. 7, 2024.

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