It sounds like Luke Fickell has made up his mind about Wisconsin's starting QB

There will be an open competition, but the expectation is that Tyler Van Dyke will win the job.

Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Van Dyke throws a pass as coach Luke Fickell watches during spring practice at the McClain Center in Madison, Wisconsin on Tuesday April 2, 2024. / Mark Stewart / Milwaukee Journal

Is there going to be a quarterback competition when the Wisconsin Badgers return to the football field later this summer? Yes, but maybe not as much as one might think.

"There will be. There was an open competition in spring," Badgers head coach Luke Fickell told Jim Rome this week when asked about quarterbacks Tyler Van Dyke and Braedyn Locke. "We'll do the same thing going into fall camp, but there's an expectation that Tyler is continuing to grow and rise and has an opportunity to hopefully kind of win it on the field. That's not saying that Braedyn didn't do a really good job last year even in his opportunities. It's still going to be a really competitive situation."

It sounds like Fickell has already made up his mind, which isn't surprising since Van Dyke transferred to Wisconsin from Miami for his final season of college football. Van Dyke probably doesn't make that move unless he knows he's the starter, right?

Locke, who started three games as a true freshman after Tanner Mordecai was injured last October, completed exactly 50% of his passes and threw for 777 yards with five touchdowns and one interception while playing against Iowa, Ohio State, Illinois and Indiana.

Related: Ranking 2024 Big Ten starting quarterbacks

Van Dyke struggled last season with a career-high 12 interceptions and 19 touchdowns for the Miami Hurricanes, but he has 53 touchdowns compared to 23 interceptions in three years as a starting quarterback.

Van Dyke and the Badgers will get their first big test in Week 3 when they host Alabama.

"Obviously, it's daunting sometimes when you keep talking or you hear about it," Fickell said of the Sept. 14 showdown with the Crimson Tide. "It gives you an opportunity to figure out and measure where you are. I don't know that we could put it in a better spot, to be honest with you, in game three, at home, in an early 11 o'clock kickoff. It's going to be one of those opportunities and we'll find out where we are, and you need that."