Wisconsin burning a QB’s redshirt for the Pinstripe Bowl might be smart

Jack Coan will burn his redshirt to start for Alex Hornibrook in the Pinstripe Bowl against Miami.

Wisconsin will start true sophomore Jack Coan in the Pinstripe Bowl against Miami on Dec. 27. On Thursday, Paul Chryst announced Coan would get the nod over redshirt junior Alex Hornibrook, who has been dealing with concussion symptoms for much of the season:

The thing is: this means Coan will burn his redshirt for 2018. He’s already played in four games this season, the max a player can play under a new NCAA rule without losing a year of eligibility. His best game came on Nov. 17, in which he led his team to a 47-44 overtime win at Purdue. He threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns.

Burning an eligibility year for the Pinstripe Bowl might seem weird at first. But it doesn’t appear Coan is reluctant about it.

Chryst said Thursday the plan was to give Coan meaningful reps throughout the season.

“Jack’s awesome,” Chryst said when asked about Coan’s mindset ahead of the start, 247Sports reported. “He’s excited, and we didn’t go into this season saying, ‘We want to redshirt you.’ We went into the season saying, ‘We want your snaps to be meaningful’ and all that.”

Coan’s father seems excited about the news, too:

What makes Coan’s start interesting is how it may affect the Badgers’ quarterback situation in 2019.

Hornibrook has a year left of eligibility left, and if he returns to Madison next season, Coan will likely be the backup. But the Badgers also have an elite recruit about to step on campus, in four-star Graham Mertz. The four-star out of Mission (Kan.) is the highest-rated QB signee in Badgers’ history and one of the best prospects in the class of 2019.

Depending on what Hornibrook decides to do, Coan has a chance to get an early jump in next season’s starting quarterback race. But if Hornibrook does come back and Mertz wins the No. 2 spot or looks like he could take it soon, Coan could just transfer in 2019. It could even happen if Hornibrook doesn’t return. Any outcome like that would make redshirting this season pointless, because a player doesn’t get to use a redshirt while sitting out after transferring if he already used one at his last program (except in special circumstances).

So there’s a chance Coan is either getting valuable snaps ahead of playing more in 2019 or using a redshirt that wouldn’t help him anyway. Even if not, a lot of players aren’t always looking for ways to stay in college an extra year.