David Hookstead
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Marshall Howe’s time with the Wisconsin Badgers didn’t last long.
The QB announced Monday that he put his name in the transfer portal last week, despite the fact he had a very solid spring.
While the redshirt freshman wasn’t in contention to start for the Badgers this season, he did outperform highly-touted Oklahoma transfer Nick Evers to beat him on the depth chart behind starter Tanner Mordecai and QB2 Braedyn Locke.
However, Howe doesn’t seem interested in hanging around for year two to see if he can earn a scholarship in Madison.
The walk-on turned unexpected contributor in the QB room told fans he believes it’s in his “personal best interest” to go elsewhere.
Wisconsin QB Marshall Howe leaves the Badgers.
Going into spring ball, Wisconsin fans (and likely coaches as well) expected the depth chart to shake out as follows:
- QB1: Tanner Mordecai
- QB2: Nick Evers
- Everyone else is an afterthought.
Instead, that’s not what happened. The depth chart got a huge shock and looks like this after spring ball:
- QB1: Tanner Mordecai
- QB2: Braedyn Locke
- QB3: Marshall Howe
- QB4: Nick Evers
With Tanner Mordecai having just one season of college football left, the starting role in 2024 will be wide open. Howe, a walk-on, stunned people in the spring by jumping over Nick Evers and getting a surprising number of reps.
It looked like the 2024 battle would be between Howe, Locke and Evers. That’s more than a year away, and anything could happen.
This is an unexpected development.
However, with Marshall Howe out the door, it will now be Nick Evers vs. Braedyn Locke once Mordecai exhausts his eligibility.
There’s only two reasonable explanations. The coaches told him Nick Evers would eventually get ahead of him on the depth chart (unlikely), or the former recruit from Connecticut got a look at how he stacked up and realized he could play sooner elsewhere.
Now, with Marshall Howe out the door, Nick Evers is QB3. It’s a long way from where he thought he’d be when he arrived in Madison, but welcome to college football. Things often don’t go as planned.
As for Howe, I’m sure he’ll land somewhere. All the buzz and excitement from spring will definitely have G5 teams at a minimum interested. From here, it’s QB1 Tanner Mordecai, QB2 Braedyn Locke and QB3 Nick Evers. May the best man play down the stretch.
