MADISON, Wis. -- The long and winding tale of Wisconsin quarterback Joel Stave continues to move in a positive direction, and this week, he heard more good news. For the first time this season, Stave will enter a game as the team's backup quarterback, Badgers coach Gary Andersen said following Thursday's practice.
"If there's an opportunity to get Joel in the game in the right setting, that could be a possibility," Andersen said. "He's continued to progress and handled some more team activities in a solid way this week."
Stave spent the week rotating in with the second-team offense alongside quarterback Bart Houston, and the coaching staff opted to move Stave into the No. 2 role with Houston at the No. 3 spot. Freshman DJ Gillins, who had served as the emergency third-stringer, has dropped back down to the scout team but will still travel with the team, Andersen said.
Stave had been dealing with a well-documented mental block that hindered his ability to complete basic throws since losing out on the starting job to Tanner McEvoy in mid-August. During pregame warmups before the season opener against LSU, his passes landed well off-target, and Andersen later acknowledged that Houston would have been the team's backup if the need arose, though it had not been publicly announced at the time.
"You watched LSU and that was kind of a (expletive) show, excuse my language here," Stave told reporters Tuesday. "From then to now, it's night and day."
For a stretch in early September, Stave could not even participate in team drills. But he gradually regained his feel for the football and cited pregame warmups of the Bowling Green game on Sept. 20 as the day in which he was finally cured.
"He's been throwing the ball like the old Joel out there," Andersen said. "I think it's important to remember that he's working. He's doing a great job and he's a good quarterback. We're excited to have him back and be part of the program. Not that he wasn't ever part of the program, but to be able to be part of the program on game day is good for us.
"He's excited. He has a good look in his eye. Like every other position or any other person, he'll never be perfect, even though we may all want him to be perfect. But he's excited to have an opportunity."
Stave, who met with reporters following Tuesday's practice for the first time in four weeks, indicated he would be ready to play if coaches called on him this week against Northwestern. Stave, a two-year starter, has appeared in 21 career games with 19 starts.
"If things start to go bad or Tanner gets hurt, through this whole thing I've prepared mentally like I always would," Stave said Tuesday. "I've watched film, taken notes and done what I need to do to feel like I have a good enough feel for the defense. So just continue to do that. If my number is called, then I'll be ready to go."
Andersen noted he never set a timeframe on when Stave would return because it was entirely up to Stave when he felt well enough to rejoin team drills. The general term used to describe what Stave endured is the yips, though Andersen said he wasn't sure if he would classify the problem as such.
"I just hoped for the best," Andersen said. "I had no idea. I didn't even know the word that everybody used to describe what's going on. I don't even know if that's accurate. Is that a professional opinion? Or is that just somebody saying that's what it is? I don't know. I didn't even know what it was.
"My mindset was to be able to help him in any way that I could. Hopefully it could pass fairly quickly, which in relative terms, I guess it probably has kind of passed fairly quickly. It was important for us to have a chance to be able to support him, and I think the kids have done a good job with that."
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