MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Van Dyke sustained a torn ACL in his right knee and will miss the remainder of the season, two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Athletic.
Van Dyke suffered the injury during Wisconsin’s first series against Alabama on Saturday, when he scrambled out of the pocket on a third-and-7 at midfield and was tackled along the right sideline. He was carted off the field and watched the second half of Wisconsin’s 42-10 defeat on crutches.
The loss of Van Dyke, who has 31 career starts, is significant for the Badgers. Wisconsin added Van Dyke through the transfer portal during the offseason after he left Miami, where he started for parts of three seasons.
Van Dyke, the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2021, earned the starting job this preseason at Wisconsin over quarterback Braedyn Locke because of his big arm and better mobility to execute in the read-option game. He opened the Alabama game with completions on all five of his passing attempts and completed 43 of 68 passes for 421 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions this season.
“It is a gut punch,” Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell said after the Alabama game. “But that’s when you find out what the rest of the crew is made of. We’re going to find out.”
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Van Dyke will have one year of eligibility remaining. He initially redshirted during the 2020 season when he appeared in two games. But that season can be used as the extra year the NCAA granted players amid the pandemic, with his 2024 campaign serving as a medical redshirt year.
Van Dyke has battled injuries in all three seasons since his breakout redshirt freshman performance. He suffered a third-degree AC joint sprain in his right shoulder during the 2022 season and missed three games. Last season, Van Dyke sustained a Morel-Lavallee lesion in his right knee during a game against North Carolina.
Wisconsin will now turn to backup quarterback Braedyn Locke, who replaced Van Dyke against Alabama and completed 13 of 26 passes for 125 yards with one touchdown. Locke earned playing time in a similar role last season after starter Tanner Mordecai broke his right hand late in the first half against Iowa. Locke replaced Mordecai for the remainder of that game and then started the next three contests — a fourth-quarter comeback win against Illinois followed by losses to Ohio State and Indiana — before Mordecai returned.
“I obviously learned a lot last year, just dealing with that scenario already before,” Locke said. “I think just the experience helps even though it was only 3 1/2 games, I think that it helps you as a player. … I’ve learned how to prepare as a starter in the last two years being here. I feel confident in my preparation and I feel confident in the locker room and I believe in the guys in there.”
Locke began his career at Mississippi State when he redshirted and then transferred to Wisconsin after the 2022 season. He has completed 89 of 178 career passes (50 percent) for 902 yards with six touchdowns and one interception. Locke isn’t a mobile quarterback and has struggled with both accuracy and batted passes at the line of scrimmage — nine since last season, according to Pro Football Focus. But Fickell suggested Wisconsin might be able to play at a faster tempo with Locke because of his knowledge of offensive coordinator Phil Longo’s system.
“He knows the offense like the back of his hand,” Fickell said. “He can make some adjustments and checks out there even before we could make a signal for it. So he is a student of the game. I just think that there’s some other things that are a little bit different. He made some pretty darn good pull reads and throws in some tight windows and some traffic. … We’re going to have to be smart, but we’re going to have to figure out the things that we’ve got to be able to adjust and adapt to.”
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Braedyn Locke has ‘to be prepared and ready to start’ as Wisconsin’s backup QB
Wisconsin has three available scholarship quarterbacks for the rest of this season, and Locke is the only one with any college playing experience. True freshman Mabrey Mettauer elevates into the backup role, while redshirt freshman Cole LaCrue will be the third-stringer.
Wisconsin (2-1) is idle this week before beginning Big Ten play at No. 11 USC.
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(Photo: Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
