Notre Dame is expected to open up the 2026 season with a very manageable schedule, some would even call it quite easy. Not so fast! Does does some danger lurk in September during a time when Marcus Freeman has shown he’s the most vulnerable as head coach of the Irish? Today, we’ll take a look at the quarterback situations at Wisconsin, Rice, and Michigan State.

BOLD denotes returning starter

Game #1 Wisconsin

Colton Joseph, Redshirt Junior
Deuce Adams, Redshirt Sophomore
Ryan Hopkins, Freshman
Carter Smith, Redshirt Freshman
Danny O’Neil, Junior

Luke Fickell finished up 53-10 in his last 5 years at Cincinnati and was clear in the top group of a future power program head coach. Three years into his time at Wisconsin, he barely hung on to his job this off-season with 21 losses leading the Badgers so far. And the offense that was sputtering in his first 2 seasons, cratered to 99th in FEI last year. Former BYU/Baylor/Kansas offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes didn’t make things better last year and the quarterback position has been a hot mess under Fickell.

Billy Edwards started the 2025 season after coming over from Maryland, hurt his knee in the opener, and was basically a non-factor until transferring to North Carolina this off-season.

San Diego State transfer Danny O’Neil saw plenty of action in 2025 but injured his Achilles in November. They added graduate transfer Hunter Simmons from Southern Illinois and he ended up leading the team in pass attempts with some very horrific efficiency.

With nearly 40 transfers coming in ahead of 2026, Wisconsin is trying to turn the page. Again.

Wisconsin is handing the keys to Joseph. 

Carter Smith saw enough action to save his redshirt last year, but was reportedly struggling in the spring to keep up in the quarterback competition.

Louisville transfer Deuce Adams doesn’t have much experience and had been sharing backup reps with true freshman Ryan Hopkins out of Mater Dei in California.

Old Dominion transfer Colton Joseph is the clear no. 1 quarterback after winning the Sun Belt Player of the Year in 2025 and actually provides some optimism for the future. A quick glance at his passing numbers doesn’t unveil anything too impressive (59.8% accuracy, 4,251 yards, 32 TD, 15 INT) but he’s an extremely athletic and dangerous runner with 1,654 rushing yards at 6.1 YPC and 24 scores in 21 games with the Monarchs.

VERDICT: Notre Dame will have to take Joseph’s running ability seriously and it’s a good thing they have all off-season to gameplan for him. He’s quick and has a sudden burst to escape the pocket on read plays as seen on two long touchdown runs against Indiana last year. His baseline is probably 50-60 rushing yards so expect at least some aggravation in Wisconsin picking up a few more first downs. Can Joseph develop more as a passer? Maybe and if the Badgers can get some weapons around him this is a team ripe to turn things around offensively from their recent struggles.

Game #2 Rice

Jacurri Brown, 5th Year Senior
Gael Ochoa, Redshirt Sophomore
Lucas Scheerhorn, Redshirt Sophomore
Patrick Crayton, Redshirt Freshman
Ayden Wilhelm, Freshman

Rice hired Scott Abell ahead of 2025 after long stints at D-III Washington & Lee and then FCS Davidson. They somehow beat UConn last year but offensively were quite poor, ranked as the 11th worst in the country by FEI.

Chase Jenkins led the quarterback room in 2025 but transferred to Kansas. Backup Drew Devillier also left for Florida Atlantic. Three new quarterbacks are on the roster for 2026 with true freshman Ayden Wilhelm bringing up the rear.

Brown is the new starter.

Both Lucas Scheerhorn and Patrick Crayton saw the field a little bit but look to be pushed down the depth chart after UNLV’s Gael Ochoa (great name) and UCF’s Jacurri Brown transferred into the program.

Reporting is sparse as this is Rice but Abell did name Brown as the starter coming out of spring. Ochoa has virtually no experience while Brown (who spent time at Miami in addition to UCF) has 148 career pass attempts with an impressive 821 rushing yards. I’d expect a second straight game to open the season against a dual-threat quarterback.

VERDICT: Jacurri Brown could be a sneaky good transfer for Rice to get them more competitive in the American Conference. Being able to improve so much offensively in game two (they were pretty awful against any team with a pulse in 2025) is too much to ask.

Game #3 Michigan State

Alessio Milivojevic, Redshirt Sophomore
Cam Fancher, 6th Year Senior
Leo Hannan, Redshirt Freshman
Kayd Coffman, Freshman

The Jonathan Smith era is over in East Lansing after just 2 seasons and a combined 15 losses. He brought quarterback Aidan Chiles with him over from Oregon State and that experiment was a major failure. Chiles was benched after an overtime loss against Minnesota on November 1st and ended up transferring again to Northwestern this off-season.

MSU now welcomes former Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald after his 3-year absence from college football.

The Spartans did bring in Cam Fancher who won a 6th year of eligibility for 2026. He started his career at Marshall (where he was a backup during the Herd’s upset over Notre Dame), spent one year at FAU, and won the UCF job last year before broken ribs shut him down for the bulk of the season.

The Spartans have their starter.

In the coaching transition, MSU was able to hold on to rising redshirt freshman Leo Hannan and incoming true freshman Kayd Coffman to add depth. Coming out of spring, Fitzgerald ended up naming Alessio Milivojevic the starter.

Milivojevic threw one pass as a true freshman in 2024, an interception, for a cool -200 passer rating. After the Chiles benching, Milivojevic took over and ended up doing modestly well, including 4 touchdown passes in their regular season finale against Maryland. He’s already gained the trust of Fitzgerald and should face Notre Dame this fall.

VERDICT: Fitzgerald admitted he made the decision to turn to Milivojevic pretty quickly since becoming head coach of the Spartans. They’ll have two MAC opponents to open the season before facing the Irish so we’ll see if there’s a step forward from 2025. Milivojevic seems like he could be a competent Big Ten quarterback, although weapons in the passing game could be a real weakness in 2026.