College football fans can point to the obvious similarities: O'Brien left a school from the Atlantic Coast Conference and will be able to play right away in 2012, because he will graduate in mid-May. Wilson came to UW last summer from North Carolina State and led UW to the Rose Bowl in his only season.
"Obviously, our paths are kind of similar, coming from the ACC to Wisconsin," O'Brien said in a teleconference. "But it's a new year, a new season, 2012 has yet to be written. ... So I don't compare myself to him at all.
The quarterback situation in Madison has been odd in recent years, mostly because the players that Bret Bielema has recruited to play the position keep getting hurt. Because of the NCAA rule that allows players who have graduated from their first university, but have eligibility remaining, to transfer immediately to a new school, UW has been able to solve the problem twice.
While it has to rankle the other schools in the Big Ten that the Badgers have been able to make this work twice, it may not happen again for a long time. And if the early reports on Phillip Nelson are correct, the Gophers will prefer their quarterback of the future to whatever mercenary wears the big W on the helmet.
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