Wisconsin’s quarterback room has one less player in it.

Chase Wolf, who originally planned to return for a sixth year, is no longer enrolled at the school and is not with the team.

The Athletic’s Jesse Temple was the first to report the news.

Quarterback Chase Wolf will not return to Wisconsin in 2023, The Athletic has learned. More on the story here: https://t.co/uzxQ66cz69

— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) February 7, 2023

Wolf told reporters after the Guaranteed Rate Bowl at the end of December that he had gotten into a graduate program at Wisconsin and figured he’d take advantage of his COVID year to play one more season. The Athletic reported that when he made that decision, coach Luke Fickell and offensive coordinator Phil Longo told him, that while they would be adding a number of quarterbacks from the transfer portal, he would be able to compete for the starting quarterback job in the spring. But just days before players were set to return for winter workouts, Wolf was informed that there would be no competition and the job would be transfer Tanner Mordecai’s.

Wolf spent much of his career as a backup to former starter Graham Mertz. He saw action in 13 games and didn’t make his first start until the bowl game against Oklahoma State. He threw for 116 yards with one touchdown and one interception in the win, and finished his time in Madison with more interceptions (5) than touchdowns (3).

The move leaves Wisconsin with five scholarship quarterbacks, though just one — redshirt freshman Myles Burkett — remains from last year’s team. In addition to Mordecai, the others are redshirt freshmen transfers Nick Evers (Oklahoma) and Braedyn Locke (Mississippi State), and 2023 recruit Cole LaCrue.

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Skyler Bell was recently a guest on The Zone’s Kenney & Heilprin and was asked about Mordecai, Evers and Locke.

“They all can sling it,” Bell said. “I’m getting close with those guys. Tanner is is a little older, he’s a vet, he kind of knows the offense. Nick is young, but he’s got a cannon on him and he’s confident. And then Braedyn, he can make all the throws and everything about Braedyn is just on-point. So all those guys can ball. I can’t wait till spring ball.”

Mordecai comes to Wisconsin after spending the last two years at SMU where he threw for 7,152 yards, 72 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. He also showed some ability to escape the pocket and make plays with his feet, running for 302 yards and four scores.

That ability to move, which is shared by most of the quarterback room, is a change from a lot of the guys that have led Wisconsin’s offenses in the last decade.

“It’s huge,” Bell said of having a passer with some mobility. “Because when you have a guy back there who can make something happen when nothing is happening, that’s big. If he’s rolling out the pocket left, and he’s still looking downfield and he tells me go deep, and he can make that throw, that’s a big play that wasn’t supposed to be a big play. That’s six points that we probably wouldn’t have had if he couldn’t extend the play. So I think things like that are just going to really help us. Not that quarterbacks in the past couldn’t extend plays, but when you have a guy whose ability is to extend plays, it’s really big and it’s hard on defenses.”