The future of Wisconsin football may depend on a true freshman quarterback who came in as Wisconsin’s prized recruit from the 2025 recruiting class. Former 4-star quarterback Carter Smith, out of Fort Myers, Florida, has the attention of Badger fans everywhere as he may be the heir apparent to fifth-year senior Billy Edwards Jr. However, quarterbacks coach Kenny Guiton said he came to Wisconsin with the wrong mentality.
Smith came assuming he was going to spend the year red-shirtting, and Guiton didn’t like that. He called him out for his lack of urgency, basically telling him, if you’re the future, you need to prove it now. You can’t just coast or bide your time; now is your time.
Kenny Guiton is looking for urgency from his true freshman quarterback
It didn’t seem to click right away for Smith as he was adjusting to college life and being a backup for the first time in years. Then, Guiton said something clicked for him in fall camp. He started to show what made him a 4-star recruit and a future leader.
Nice and simple urgency. I think when he came in, he had a feeling as if, ‘Okay, I’m coming in with a fifth-year guy that they brought in, and I see some backups that are pretty good, I’m just going to be a guy that redshirts.’ I thought he was looking at it the wrong way, and I can say that because I’ve had those conversations with him. In the last two weeks… something clicked. We sat down and we had a heart-to-heart. I think he realized that, ‘If I want to show that I’m the future of this program, we need to see it now.’Kenny Guiton, QB Coach
For Guiton, it’s not even the game decisions and quarterback instincts. He doesn’t worry about that with Smith; the tools are all there. It’s the mindset that he wants to see in Smith. He wants him to have urgency and act like a leader now. Not sit behind Edwards, Danny O’Neil, and Hunter Simmons and just wait, but to begin pushing them and forcing them to look over their shoulder and expect Smith to pass them up.
Especially for Danny O’Neil, who is only a sophomore this season and could easily be the starter next year if Smith doesn’t push him out of the way and prove he’s the future of Wisconsin football…