Carter Smith

You don't, you know, your backup gets hurt.

You're on your f- I think we were on our fourth string guy coming off of, who actually I was a huge fan of, Carter Smith, coming off of the, uh, practice squad.

So [laughs] we're coming from there.

Our defense last year was really good, but they played too much.

I think Hopkins is better than, you know, Daniel Neal last year for sure.

And I think Deuce Adams is better than Carter Smith or Hunter Simmons last year.

So, yes, the quarterback room to me is still better.

I don't think that's in question.

One thing I'll say about this is this actually hit me while we were midway through this game and it really pissed me off.

I legitimately – there was a point in the game where I was like, we're effectively running the Carter Smith offense with him for a portion of the third quarter where I'm like, you're having him run the football on QB Reeds or QB Power, and I'm watching you not even consider throwing the football.

And this is really pissing me off that this is what we're doing to try and help him grow.

Yeah.

If you didn't see improvement, Just in the passing game, that's all I'm asking you to look at right now.

If you tell me you did not see improvement in the Wisconsin passing attack from last year, led by Hunter Simmons, for crying out loud, and Danny O'Neal, Carter Smith, whatever you want, you are lying to yourself.

So that was my biggest positive, and I think it gives me a lot of optimism moving forward that they're going to be able to put up some passing numbers on other teams.

Five different Badgers players caught three passes or more tonight.

But if the worst comes to worst, I do think this offense can still function at 90 to 95% capacity versus last year where you couldn't do anything the same.

This is not an abstract conversation because You have two guys who started a fair share of the games last year in Danny O'Neill and Carter Smith.

There were four and five.

Yeah, there are four and five.

Tyree Tucker, the lone JMU guy who, you know, who's still kind of that leftover.

But outside of that, right, Carter Smith.

Isaiah Jones, Bray Lynch, Drew Evans, Amari Farrell, Jamari Sharp, right? The list goes on and on of players, Charlie Becker, right, who have been in this program for a couple of years, who have been vital parts of the success for a couple of years, not guys who have just been kind of on the end of the bench.

These have been notable players who have, you know, two years for the most part of starting experience, right? And outside of Charlie Becker, most of these guys have – played at least 30-some games in college football before.

Yeah, I mean, I think depth is still, I don't want to say an issue per se, but it's definitely a question mark, right? I mean, I don't think you can look at this offensive line as a whole and feel the exact same way that you felt about the offensive line last year.

Now, the starting group, I think you feel better about.

And that's, again, kind of crazy to think about considering you had, again, the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year in Carter Smith.

Obviously, he returns.

The offense paid it off.

Carter Smith running in from two yards away.

That tied the game.

And later in the third quarter, Nathaniel Vakos kicked a field goal.

And so, yeah, it's a cool competitive room to where those guys all understand where they stand and what they have to do in order to reach the next steps.

And then, obviously, what we have to do to reach the next steps as a room.

Yeah, I certainly don't want to ignore Carter Smith and Danny O'Neill.

Danny, when he got hurt in the Washington game on a long run, at the end of a long run.

Oh, sorry, I cut out there for a second.

I think the fact that Carter Smith isn't really even in the conversation for, like, the quarterback room is something that bodes well for the team because he seems like a great kid, tough work, you know, work ethic, whatever.

Guy couldn't throw the football.

I mean, we need some guys that can sling the rock at least a little bit.

So it's like, because I mean, God, Braden Locke, Hunter Simmons, these guys.

they weren't fun to watch they weren't fun to

watch no dude it was brutal and your point is really good Wisconsin a guy that won games for them last year Carter Smith is probably their fifth string quarterback this year

see that's my big hope for this team we had a guy who couldn't really throw the ball we could still win games against some good teams Washington wasn't bad Illinois wasn't bad um you know we kept it close in Minnesota they're a competitive team you know they're I think if we have a guy that can just competently throw the football, if we can at least have – and the big question for me is, what are we replacing on that defensive line? Because the defensive line last season, two guys played well.

I'll just ask the question.

How many teams have a guy like Daniel Neal's probably fourth and Carter Smith's fifth? How many teams have a fifth string quarterback that won two games last year in the Big Ten? The quarterback depth is night and day, and I don't think that's arguable.

So that's where I'm best at right now.

So I want to ask you guys this question because I've been feeling this kind of since fall camp.