Luke Fickell noncommittal on a pair of Badger starters ahead of Maryland’s Big Ten opener vs. Wisconsin

Ahmed Ghafir
Sep 15
3 min read

Maryland football is set to kick off conference play this weekend as they prepare for their first road trip of the season, but who the Terps face remains uncertain heading into the week.

That includes QB Billy Edwards Jr., who has remained sidelined since suffering a knee injury in the week one win. Initial reports pointed to the week three matchup at Alabama as a potential return date, and though Edwards warmed up in Tuscaloosa, it was backup QB Danny O’Neil who took snaps under center for his second consecutive start. But the major injuries didn’t end there after starting center Jake Renfro went down with an apparent leg injury, though he returned to the game to close out the 38-14 loss. Renfro, who was inactive in week two, will look to make his second consecutive start to anchor the Badgers’ line. Renfro, a former All-AAC selection, entered the season as one of three linemen who started all 12 games in 2024 and 36 games during his time at both Wisconsin and Cincinnati to serve as the key piece to anchor the trenches for the Badgers.

Head coach Luke Fickell was non-committal on both veterans while previewing the matchup in his lone appearance with local media ahead of kickoff.

“I don’t know [on] either of them. It’s a Monday which is a good thing,” Fickell said. “Both of them are going to have an opportunity to play this week. I don’t know how far along we are. Jake [Renfro] finished the game last week, but again, got an ankle now that I think last week it was the knee.”

“And then Billy is just going to be day-to-day. I think he warmed up Saturday [at Alabama] and has continued to do things for us. it’s just, we’ve said it for a while, at some point in time we’re going to have to save Billy from Billy but we also got to make some decisions as we move along during this week. Right now, we wouldn’t know.”

Whether Edwards ultimately returns to play on Saturday, at a minimum, he’ll see familiar faces across the opposing sideline. Saturday also marks the first of three conference games featuring former players on Maryland’s 2025 schedule with Indiana (Roman Hemby, Kellan Wyatt) and Michigan (Jaishawn Barham) both heading to College Park in November. Still, it’s a storyline that, like Maryland, the Badgers are trying to minimize ahead of kickoff.

“I think that any time guys play their former team, it’s an emotional thing, it’s a difficult thing,” Fickell said of Edwards potentially facing Maryland. “I’ve done it, have had it several times all the way back from five years ago. It was always something that I said ‘okay, look, we’re not going to overlook this.’ We’re going to make sure we communicate to talk about this, but it’s not going to go away either. Yes, Billy’s mature, yes he’s an older guy that has been through a lot of things but it’s not something that we would go unnoticed or say hey let the elephant in the room be the elephant in the room and let’s not talk about it. But there’s a lot of other things on his plate which maybe is even a little bit more better for him so he’s distracted from maybe people talking about that.”

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