As Jon Budmayr scrambled to avoid a sack in the first game of his senior season, he was hit hard, suffering a broken collarbone as his shoulder slammed into the ground.

Fortunately for Budmayr, he had already committed to play football for the Wisconsin Badgers.

After the injury, he was forced to sit out the rest of the season, a difficult thing to do after he and his team entered the season with high expectations.

Not one to complain, Budmayr’s faith kept him going through the long season.

“It’s helped me get through a lot,” Budmayr said of his faith. “As I’ve grown up I’ve been able to develop it more and more.”

Since then, the quarterback and Marian Central Catholic High graduate — who has drawn comparisons to Missouri’s Chase Daniel — has not taken a snap under center in a game. Nonetheless, Budmayr was at the center of attention Feb. 4 following UW head coach Bret Bielema’s press conference.

Budmayr graduated early from Marian to take advantage of an opportunity to enroll for the spring semester. The 6-foot quarterback is from Woodstock, Ill., a relatively small city best known for being the primary filming location for “Groundhog Day.”

As the signal caller for Marian, Budmayr led his team to the Class 5A state championship, a game the Hurricanes lost to defending champion Sacred Heart-Griffin of Springfield, Ill.

The following year, though not nearly as successful from a team standpoint, Budmayr threw for over 2,000 yards including 15 touchdowns and just five interceptions.

Budmayr, who is ranked No. 16 at quarterback by Scouts Inc. was faced with a difficult decision as a junior in trying to choose between storied powerhouses such as Notre Dame and Nebraska or several Big Ten programs, including Wisconsin and Illinois.

In the end, he had narrowed it down to two schools: Wisconsin and Notre Dame.

As difficult a decision as it was for Budmayr, he remained calm throughout, an attribute of Jon’s that has really impressed Bielema, showing him that the young quarterback can handle a fair amount of pressure.

So how did Budmayr figure out where to go? Naturally, as a member of the Roman Catholic faith, he asked his priest.

Despite the fact that Notre Dame is a private Roman Catholic university, the priest did not suggest that it was necessarily the better choice. Rather, he suggested Jon let his faith guide him in the right direction.

“It was really my faith that led me here,” Budmayr said of Wisconsin. “I prayed about the decision a lot. The priest at our local parish gave me some great advice and just told me to sleep on it as if I had decided I was going here.

“I did that a couple nights and I felt so good about it and I said, ‘this has got to be the place,'”

Although football is near the top of Budmayr’s priority list, as it likely is for all 21 members of the UW class, thanks to his parents, it will always take a backseat to his faith and family.

“It’s the biggest priority; it comes first and foremost,” Budmayr said of his faith. “Really, it’s just very important to me, and I have to thank my mom and dad for that for instilling that in me at a young age.”

Budmayr’s faith-based decision had to do with a lot more than just where he would fit best on the football field. With his faith being such a high priority, Budmayr wanted to go somewhere he felt he could practice and enrich his faith throughout his college years.

Although the liberal reputation of Madison and the University of Wisconsin in particular are not exactly ideal for a member of the Catholic faith, Budmayr believes the setting will provide perhaps even more opportunity than would Notre Dame.

“That was a question I was asked a lot … that ability to enhance my faith coming here,” Budmayr said. “I think it’s a definite opportunity because there’s so many organizations you can be a part of, and at the same time you don’t have to be part of an organization to enhance that faith.

“There’s different things that you can do as an individual that you can do to help that, and I saw those opportunities present here.”

Although Budmayr won’t see “Touchdown Jesus,” the Golden Dome or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart when he takes the field next fall, he’ll know one thing: his faith has guided him to play for Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium.