Wisconsin Football Coach Discusses Progress of QB Tyler Van Dyke

When Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin football coaching staff brought in Tyler Van Dyke from the transfer portal, it felt pretty clear that the Miami standout would be the Badgers starting quarterback in 2024. 

The 6-foot-4 signal caller came to Madison with 28 starts under his belt, with 54 touchdowns and north of 7,000 career passing yards, making him by far and away the most experienced option on the roster.  

However, spring practice revealed that the Wisconsin football team is having a legit quarterback competition between Van Dyke and redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke for the QB1 spot.

When spring practice got underway, gauging the leader of the Wisconsin Badgers quarterback competition between Van Dyke and Locke proved to be challenging, given the even distribution of reps with the first team.

Neither had seized control of the job by delivering standout performances consistently, prompting coach Luke Fickell to stress the need for Van Dyke to “come out of his shell” as a leader. 

“I want to see him kind of continue to come out of his shell,” Fickell told reporters. “But he’s in a battle as well. So I think that for him learning the offense and repping and working with a guy that’s been in the offense that knows it like the back of his hand in Braedyn, I think that puts a little bit more pressure on him.“

However, signs of improvement and overall understanding of the offense materialized for Van Dyke in the latter half of spring. Despite Wisconsin football coaches not naming a starter, Van Dyke reportedly improved and looked far more comfortable in Phil Longo’s spread offense, a sentiment that Fickell echoed when talking to the media after the final practice. 

“No. 1 thing is consistency,” Fickell remarked on Van Dyke’s progress. “I think the unique thing we’re starting to see with him is the ability to let him play a little bit more and even run a little bit. Because he is a big, physical kid. And if you really look back into his first year at Miami, he ran a lot more. And he made some plays, he did some things with his feet. Just by nature, that gets you into the flow of the game. 

“We did that a little bit more in the second half of spring. And I think all that kind of works together with the comfort level of what he’s doing.”

While Van Dyke isn’t the runner that Tanner Mordecai proved to be for Wisconsin football last season, he’s also not a statue. During his career at Miami, Van Dyke was able to improve his pressure-to-sack percentage from an alarming 28% as a redshirt freshman to 15.6% the next year and a career-best 11.9% this past season, per Pro Football Focus. 

For reference, Mordecai and Locke finished with pressure-to-sack rates of 16.2% and 18.4% for Wisconsin football this past season, respectively. 

These numbers suggest he’s mobile enough to navigate the pocket and elude pressure to keep plays alive, which is all this offense needs. 

Van Dyke also got the ball out of his hand in an average of 2.64 seconds, which is quicker than Mordecai (3.06) and Locke (2.74) last season. That, paired with his ability to navigate the pocket, could make the offensive line room’s life easier if everything comes together. 

While anything is possible for the Wisconsin football team once fall camp rolls around, it’s encouraging to hear that things started to click for Van Dyke toward the end of spring practice. The Connecticut native has more arm talent than anyone currently on the Badgers roster and presents the highest-upside option to lead this passing attack in 2024. 

The Badgers quarterback competition is far from over, and it’s encouraging that Locke has made it tough on Van Dyke, but it’s evident the transfer has started to put his best foot forward to win the job. 

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