QB Danny O'Brien Reportedly Leaves Wisconsin Football Program

Quarterbck Danny O'Brien is transferring for the second time in his college career.

According to Fox Sports and the Wisconsin State Journal, O'Brien has announced that he will not be part of the Wisconsin football program this season . This is the second time O'Brien has left a program, having departed Maryland after the 2011 season.

The hype surrounding O'Brien was quite overwhelming when he arrived at Wisconsin, fresh off the outstanding season transfer QB Russell Wilson had for the Badgers in 2011.

Asked to meet unfairly high expectations, O'Brien struggled last year, completing only 60.5 percent of his passes for 523 yards and three touchdowns. He then lost his starting job to quarterback Joel Stave and then Curt Phillips once Stave went down with an injury.

This move shouldn't come as a surprise, considering Phillips and Stave are the front-runners for this year's starting position. O'Brien was likely going to spend much of this season riding the bench, as Stave and Phillips saw the majority of the reps during the spring game, while O'Brien saw limited action, including an 0-for-3 day throwing the ball.

Still, this may not be the last you see of O'Brien, who still has a year of eligibility remaining. With transfer possibilities likely to pop up soon, O'Brien's high school coach, Todd Willert, told foxsportswisconsin.com not to rule anything out just yet.

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He's a great kid. He'll find something. I really don't know what his plans are right now. If it's to keep pursuing football, obviously he still has one year of eligibility left. I'm sure if it's to pursue football, he'll be very successful in that. Whatever he does, he'll be successful in. He's just that kind of kid. But in this day and age of college sports, nothing surprises me anymore. Four different head coaches in four years is pretty crazy.

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Reliable quarterbacks are hard to come by, and O'Brien could at least provide a team with an experienced option. He's played college football for three seasons and has thrown more than 600 passes..

However, if this is the end of his career, O'Brien will finish with 4,609 passing yards, 32 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions and a 57.2 completion percentage.

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