Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. knew he couldn’t possibly have time after entering the transfer portal to visit all seven schools that most interested him. That meant he needed to establish a hierarchy given the small window available to decide where he would play his final season of college football.
It didn’t take long after discussions with Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell and new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes for the Badgers to rise to the top of his list. Edwards went into the portal Thursday, Dec. 12, arrived in Madison for an official visit that Friday night and returned home Sunday. Edwards, a native of Springfield, Va., made the roughly two-hour drive to visit the University of Virginia on Monday and then committed to the Badgers. He never visited Michigan, Louisville, Indiana, Kentucky or Missouri, which were on his list from the roughly 20 schools that reached out to him.
“I was able to sleep on it and be away from Wisconsin for a whole day after the visit and I didn’t really want to wait any longer, so I pulled the trigger,” Edwards said. “I’m ready to get this thing rolling.”
Edwards arrives as the veteran quarterback Wisconsin was seeking through the portal. He started 11 games for Maryland last season and completed 65 percent of his passes for 2,881 yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He finished third in the Big Ten in passing yards per game while playing behind an offensive line and running game that struggled.
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Edwards spoke to The Athletic about why he chose Wisconsin, what stood out about the offense Grimes wants to run, what he expects of himself and more. Here is the conversation (lightly edited for length and clarity):
You had several options after entering the portal. Why did you pick Wisconsin?
I’ve been in college four years. I’ve had numerous different roles. It was more so just looking for the best fit for me for my last season of eligibility. I think why I ended up settling on Wisconsin was, I think one, coach Fickell and coach Grimes, I hit it off with them pretty well right from the jump.
I gained a lot of trust in them in the short amount of time with our initial conversations. I trusted the vision that they have for not only the program but myself and where I will fit into that over the next 12 months. And also really just the pieces around me. Kind of trying to put myself in the best situation possible, the best environment possible.
You look at what Wisconsin has been known for and their history and tradition of great offensive line play, great running play, ability to run the ball and everything else great stems from that, that was kind of the biggest attraction. Obviously, in the past two seasons, they had a different offensive coordinator, they got away from what their bread and butter per se is.
They hired coach Grimes, whose work speaks for that. He has a plan to get back to that and to build everything on the offensive side of the ball around that. That makes it really attractive for a quarterback to go in there and be in a system like that.
For me, it’d be doing a lot of different things I haven’t done throughout my first four seasons. That was the biggest thing to me is to put myself in an environment that is good for me but will also continue to push, develop, force me to grow over my last 12 months so that I can continue to take steps every day in the right direction. And ultimately if I’m getting better, then the team, the offense, will be put in a better situation every day as I improve.
What brought Billy Edwards Jr. to Wisconsin? 👐@Billy_Edwards4 x #OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/eOrQwIqngj
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) December 19, 2024
You said you had to trust the vision the coaches have for you. What is that vision?
When you talk to coach Fickell, our conversations with each other were big about leadership and the intangibles that I’ll bring to the table in terms of being kind of a nitty-gritty guy, a tough kid, tough player, a great teammate, the ability to lead a team, a locker room, offense, defense, everything in between. The vision for him is to continue to push and grow me as a leader.
Obviously, the quarterback position, you’re kind of thrust into that position naturally. But I’ve always prided myself on being a leader, trying to be a vocal guy. Sometimes I’m vocal, sometimes I lead by example. You’ve got to be able to read the temperature of the room. But that was the big vision for him. He’s like, ‘I’m going to push you and force you to become a better leader. Whether it’s through good or bad in your time here, we’ll be together, we’ll get together and we’ll set up a plan on how we can develop you to become the best leader you can be and ultimately that’s going to help our football team succeed tremendously.’
And then coach Grimes’ vision is just obviously the system. When you look at his past three stops, watching tape with him and when you do your research, you get a little bit of everything. When he had Zach Wilson, a more air raid type of guy that liked pushing the ball downfield, they were able to do that with BYU.
And then Kansas and Baylor, he was able to get under center and play-action, run the ball, nakeds off of it, kind of all that combined. I think his vision for me was just fitting into that, kind of being the puzzle piece for that. And also he’s new, so knowing that he’s going to run what we’re good at. So if he feels best with us getting in four open and throwing the ball 50 times a game, then that’s what we’ll do. If he feels best with us getting in 12 personnel and having a run game, a naked game, play-action game, then that’s what he’ll do.
I’m obviously more familiar in the RPO, the air raid-type world with my history in college football and my experience. But I’m just excited for his vision and me to get in that system, some of it being outside of my comfort zone. I haven’t run it as much or at all throughout my college career. But knowing I can handle it and he’s going to put me in that system and develop me and continue to push me in areas of my game that I need to improve on in all aspects to continue to get better. But really for me to be the driver, have the keys to the Ferrari in that offense and get us in and out of the right plays, take shots when it’s there and hit them and all that good stuff.
Those were the two different conversations between coach Fickell and coach Grimes in terms of coach Fickell is a defensive guy and this was his plan of development for me for my last 12 months of college football. And then coach Grimes, his plan on the offensive side of the ball, how he sees I can get better, how he sees I can plug into that system and continue to develop myself as a quarterback. And obviously if I’m making strides in the right direction, then I’ll be able to put the offensive side of the ball in a pretty good position come Saturdays.
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What did the visit entail? What is the pitch like for a presumed starting quarterback?
They had done a good job of asking me ahead of time what was important. Obviously, I don’t need the photo shoot and the whole facilities tour. Just kind of the general layout. I’d say the majority of it was meetings. I probably had a three, three-and-a-half-hour meeting with coach Grimes at one point, just sitting there watching tape. We were pretty much late to dinner. So the recruiting department wasn’t happy with us. But we were just sitting there watching ball, talking. I was picking his brain, he was picking mine, just trying to get a feel for each other and what his system brings to the table and what I can bring to the table as a fifth-year quarterback.
And then with coach Fickell, we had probably a total of about two hours of meetings, an hour-and-a-half. Continuing to figure out what was important for me in the decision, what more I needed to see, what I had seen already, if I had any questions about it. Obviously, just getting to meet the whole staff. I’m a big people person. I went back up there last Tuesday and Wednesday to get familiar and comfortable with all the people around there.
They have a heck of a staff, both coaching, recruiting, support staff. Getting to meet all them has been great and knowing that college football is hard. Myself as a player but also those people spend a lot of hard hours at the office and they do a lot of hard jobs, very tedious jobs for us players to have a chance to be successful on Saturday. So just continuing to kick-start a relationship with those people, too, was important to me knowing that I’m going to be around the facility probably as much as the coaches, if not more, it was important to me.
I played in Madison in 2022. So it was important just for me to be there for a whole day to get to see it at least, to have an idea of kind of what the layout of it was, which obviously isn’t as important for a fifth-year guy. But just the meetings and getting a feel for what their vision was for me. I was able to do a lot of research before I got there and go into the visit and confirm some things for me and made me feel good about the decision I eventually made.
For Wisconsin fans who aren’t as familiar with you, what do you do well as a quarterback that you’re bringing here on the field?
The thing I’ve tried to pride myself on throughout my career is being the smartest player on the field. Knowing my job to the best of my ability so I can help every other player on the offensive side of the ball. I’ll know what all 11 players are doing at any time during a play. I think I’ve always tried to be tough, regardless of whatever situation I was in, whether that’s standing there taking a hit. I’ve never been afraid to run the ball. My first two years at Maryland, I was primarily used to go in there and run the ball in short yardage, goal line.
The action I got when I was a younger player, I wasn’t afraid to go in there and get a few extra yards. And I think IQ, toughness and I think just the ability to be poised. Playing quarterback is as hard mentally as it is physically. I pride myself on taking it one play at a time, not getting too high, not getting too low, being a leader out there on the field for those guys. Kind of being the keys to the Ferrari, per se, the engine for us that gets the thing rolling.
I do a lot of work but I don’t do all the dirty work. I’ve got a lot of good guys around me that my job is to put them in the best situations possible and know that they’ll probably make me look a little bit more special than I am. So I’d say just a great overall football player, a great teammate, try to do whatever it takes for the team to win.
I’ve had games in my career where I’ve got to throw the ball 60-plus times, 55 times and win a game and times where I threw the ball 18 times. So really just a great teammate and I’m going to go out there every Saturday and put it all on the line to help us win no matter what the fashion of that is. And I’m excited to be a Badger. I think getting into a new environment. I’ve gotten to know a handful of the guys already. So I’m just excited to go out there and give it my all every Saturday and see what we got.
What are your expectations for yourself knowing you’ve got one more year and knowing where Wisconsin has been the first two seasons under coach Fickell?
The biggest thing for me individually is just to continue to get better. I’ve been in college four years. I’ve been in various roles, had some good, had some bad, been great moments I can learn from, been some losses I can learn from and experiences like that. I think the biggest thing for me is I’m coming there with a chip on my shoulder knowing that I’m going to be in a new environment.
I’ve got one year left to do as best as possible obviously for myself but more importantly for Wisconsin in terms of however that’s got to get done, I’m all for it. My goal individually is to continue to get better knowing that, God willing, I have 12 guaranteed college football games left and I want to go out there and continue to improve every day. It’s going to start January 6 as soon as we get up there and we get things rolling. Making steps in the right direction individually, as a group, as a quarterback room, as an offense. And then obviously all that stuff leads to tremendous team success.
I still put a lot of pressure on myself throughout my career individually. I feel like that will remain the same in terms of I want to get better every day. I feel like there’s a lot of stuff in my game that I can continue to improve on, and there are levels to my game that I feel like I haven’t really reached yet. So that’s the biggest goal for me is to continue to get better, put myself in the best situation possible knowing that with the level of talent I’ll have around me and what I bring to the table, if I continue to get better and continue to improve, I’ll put Wisconsin’s offense in a pretty good situation from me handling my job and doing what I can do.
(Photo: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images)
